Flashback

"Ethan! Come out and play already!" The call from outside the window came too early for the eight year old. He'd been comfortable, snug and he felt like he'd just gone to sleep. Sighing he crawled out of the bed, sparing a glance at his four year old brother. Finley was sprawled out in his bed, one arm and one leg hanging off the edge, his mouth wide open as he slumbered soundly. Oh how Ethan wanted to pull a prank...

"Ethan!" Came the little girl's voice again, shaking Ethan out of his reverie. He shook his head as he made his way over to the window, pushing it open a little ways.

"What'd you want? I was sleeping!"

The little girl, a blond with her bangs hanging in her eyes, stood in the yard with her hands on her hips. She looked indignant. How dare he sleep when there was prime play time to be had? "So! Come on and play. We're losing daylight here Thompson!"

He shook his head but closed the window with a smile on his face. He grabbed his sneakers and started from the room, he could already hear his father milling about. Behind him, Finley was starting to stir at last.

Pulling his shoes on, Ethan yelled something to his father that sounded like "gottagoplaybebacklater". To which, James Thompson shook his head and watched as his oldest darted out of the house. It wasn't two minutes before he could hear the familiar sounds of Ethan and his little friend running around.

Oh to be a child again..

Present

He woke with a start, his heart pounding. Palms sweaty. The room was dark and he blinked a couple of times, trying to focus. Where the hell did that come from? He hadn't thought of her in years. In fact the last time he'd seen her, he was 16...Finley was 12. Rubbing a hand over his face, Ethan pushed the covers down his legs and stood from the bed.

Finley was on the other bed in their dingy motel room, sleeping away. He'd always been able to sleep through just about anything. Ethan shook his head as he made his way to the bathroom, least his brother didn't have to witness another one of Ethan's random dreams.

Sometimes they were nice, memories of being a kid and getting to act like one. They'd only stayed in a few places for more than a week, one of them being a small town in Oklahoma. Their dad had a friend, a fellow hunter, who had a family and had an extra bit of land with a small house on it. James had brought them there after a particularly long assignment. He was tired, mentally and physically exhausted. He decided that his kids needed something of a 'normal' existence for a bit. Ethan was eight, Finley was four. They were so young, too young to be seeing the things they had seen already.

Other times the dreams were more like nightmares. Memories flooding back of things they'd seen and pursued. Vampires to werewolves to...anything else. Sometimes they were both kids again and sometimes they were the adults they'd grown into. Sometimes he couldn't save Finley from the creature. And every time he couldn't save their father.

Finley was snoring away as Ethan made his way into the bathroom, a little jealous that his brother could sleep through a damn hurricane and he couldn't even go back to sleep after a dream about some girl he'd kind of grown up with. Shaking his head, he bent over the sink as he turned it on, letting the cold water wash through his fingers. It was frigid against his warm skin but it felt nice at that moment. Staring at himself in the mirror after splashing water on his face, he sighed. "Ethan...you look like shit." He said to his reflection.

Unfortunately his reflection didn't reply but the dark circles under his eyes were a tell-tale sign of his exhaustion. They'd been working non-stop, driving from town to town, fighting off whatever creature they were after. All for the greater good. All to find the evil that had taken so much from them already. Wandering back into the main room of the hotel, Finley was still sound asleep. Ethan smiled to himself some as he crawled back under the covers. His eyes slipped closed before he could even really think about it, although his dreams were invaded by her again.

Flashback

"ETHAN!"

The yell...no, screech really, pierced his ears and every other sense. He pulled back from the hot redhead in front of him and looked back at her. The blond, with the bangs hanging in her face and the bright blue eyes. Oh and the pissed off look on her face. If looks could kill...a sixteen year old Ethan Thompson would be six feet under at that moment. He looked back at the redhead...god she was hot. She was the type of girl who'd most likely been around the block more than a few times. Rumor had it that she'd slept with the entire football team and he wouldn't put it past her. Britney McKay was hot, especially hot for a 16 year old.

For some reason Ethan didn't look the least bit surprised that he'd gotten caught. In fact, he looked sort of happy about it. Proud even. Still, he felt a twinge of guilt that he ignored as he looked at Charlie. She was standing there with her hands on her hips glaring right at him even though she was a good five inches shorter than him and a year younger than him. She was that girl in that Oklahoma town that him and Finley had grown up with.

They were in Oklahoma for a year before they were on the move again but James had brought his boys back so that Ethan could finish high school. Finley was just into junior high but already was wiser beyond his years. Charlie had grown up quite a bit in the time they'd been gone. Now both her and Ethan's hormones were raging and they'd been doing some sort of odd teenage version of "dating". Although Ethan never said it was dating. Dating meant it was serious and well...he was never serious about anything other than hunting. Even at 16 he was inwardly frightened that something would happen to any future relationships. So...he just never had any relationships. Except for Charlie. Kind of.

Britney disappeared down the street, most likely off to find the next football player to hook up with. Leaving him alone with a very pissed off 15 year old girl. Charlie looked like she was in between seething and crying, although no tears had appeared quite yet. He would be screwed if she started crying, he didn't know what to do when a girl cried! "Shay..."

She narrowed her eyes at the nickname only he was allowed to call her. "Ethan Thompson, how could you!"

"Come on Charlie, not like me an' you are gonna go get married or anything."

Her hands dropped to her sides and she looked a little wounded. "Yeah but.. Britney McKay? Come on Ethan."

"What? She's hot!" He said it as if it was an obvious fact. It was obvious but to Charlie she was the enemy. She'd gotten the attention of Ethan Thompson. The boy she'd had a crush on ever since she could remember.

She rolled her eyes at him. "Yes she has boobs the size of California, it's great."

"Like I said, ain't like we're getting married. Plus you're more like my sister than anything. Me and you? We haven't even kissed!"

Oh she was pissed now. And Ethan should've known what was coming next. He'd known Charlie forever! He'd taught her everything she knew. So he definitely should've seen the fist coming straight at him.

And he did once he was lying flat on his back on the sidewalk, his left side of his face throbbing from the punch. "Fuck you Ethan Thompson!" She growled and took off running in the general direction of their houses.

He was in shock. No, he wasn't in shock that she'd hit him because...well, even he could admit he kind of deserved it. No he was in shock because she'd just busted out the word "fuck" when he'd never heard any sort of four letter word come out of her mouth before!

And that was the last time he talked to her.

Present

Finley straightened out the button-up shirt he'd pulled on, glancing at the tv as it played some local news station. He couldn't remember quite where they were at the moment. They'd finished a hunt in northern Ohio and were winding their way back towards the southwest. He just wished they could take a little breather, even though he wouldn't tell that to Ethan. Ethan had been complaining that they needed a break for months now while Finley had been the one pushing assignments on them. He had thought that every job they did got them that much closer to the elders of both species but it wasn't seeming like that anymore.

Ethan came out of the bathroom, wearing jeans and a t-shirt. "So… where we off to today boy wonder?"

Finley rolled his eyes as he shoved his computer into his bag. "Shut up, bitch."

"Jerk."

Ethan smiled as he shoved some of his clothes into his bag before glancing back at his little brother. "Hey...you remember when we lived in Oklahoma?"

Finley was quiet for almost an entire minute and Ethan was beginning to think that he hadn't heard him. "Uh yeah I think so." He finally answered. "We lived next to that one family, they had a daughter?"

"Uh huh."

"Yeah I remember them...why?"

Ethan shrugged as he slung his bag over his shoulder. It was nearing check-out time and he wanted to get on the road already. "I don't know. Just was thinking about them."

His younger brother gave him a strange look but didn't say anything as he finished packing. They had hours on the road ahead of them, which meant there was plenty of time to bug Ethan about why he'd randomly started thinking about a girl he hadn't seen or seemingly thought of in years.

Flashback

He stared out the window, watching as she held a shotgun in her hand. She was shooting at cans lined up on a fence about fifteen feet away. But even from where he stood, Ethan could tell she was still pissed. Part of him couldn't blame her. She had caught him kissing Britney McKay. He'd been about to go outside to talk to her when his dad came bursting in through the front door. "Ethan we're leaving" was all he said and then he was moving again, yelling for Finley to start packing. Ethan was torn, between moving his butt to pack up his stuff and staring at Charlie who'd finished shooting at cans and was not just standing in the middle of the field. He wanted to talk to her. Hell, he even wanted to apologize for being a complete dick to her.

He was about to go out the door, to at least quickly apologize, when 12 year old Finley came stomping down the stairs. He was just at the beginning of the awkward phase every kid goes through, where their arms and legs were too long and too big for their body. Where they were just gawky and couldn't seem to fit in to anything or anywhere. Finley had a pissed off look about his face, dragging a duffle bag behind him. "Ethan we gotta go."

Ethan sighed and with one last glance out at the blonde in the field, he turned and hurried up the stairs.

That was the last time he saw her.