The Wedding Crashers

Chapter Three

The three of them froze and did literal double takes. They looked at each other, then at her unsmiling face, and then at each other again.

"Did you just say worst?" Dean finally asked her, as if he couldn't quite believe what he'd heard.

"Yes," she answered, standing up straight and crossing her arms over her chest. "I did. I left that place because I couldn't stand those people-I couldn't stand being treated like something they scraped off their shoes just because I happened to be a woman intruding on their little sausage fest. And now, I want to piss them off so bad that I never, ever get another summons home from those sell-out, sexist sons of bitches again."

"I might like weddings ,but I like putting sexist bastards in their place even more," Layla said grinning. "Let's give them hell."

Leah smiled at the boys disbelieving faces, and added, "And if I get to stick it to their smug, self-righteous asshole friends and ruin that spoiled, rich-bitch little brat and her pedo boyfriend's wedding in the process, well, so much the better."

She leaned down on the table and bared her teeth in a feral grin. "I want to crash this party."
-------------------------------
Layla carefully released the curling iron from the little tendril of hair hanging by Leah's left ear, and then stood back to scrutinize the final result with a critical eye. She smiled in pleasure at the image looking back out of the mirror.

"You know having a child of the goddess of beauty as a friend has its advantages ," commented Leah taking in her appearance.

Moving carefully so as not to disturb Leah's flawlessly-smooth French twist, Layla unplugged the iron and reached for the hairspray, shellacking Leah's hair into motionless perfection. Leah was bound and determined that, just as the brat decreed, everything about her appearance would be perfect. She wasn't going to let them get to her. They didn't matter-because today, there would actually be people in her corner.

The boys hadn't been too keen on the idea-not with her first wild plan, anyway (and really, she didn't blame them). Well, Dean had been intrigued with the general idea of crashing a wedding, at the very least. But they were not particularly interested in crashing the wedding of a werewolf.

"No, guys," Leah had been quick to reassure them. "You've seen me: we're not like the ones you've hunted. We don't hurt people. We're not even really werewolves-we're some kind of shape-shifter, is all. We can still think and everything in animal form, and we don't eat human flesh-they won't hurt you."

"Well, maybe they won't hurt us if we just show up, but what if we start screwing around?" Sam had asked pointedly. "We've seen you in action, Leah; you're faster and stronger than most things we've seen before. And that's in your human form-when you wolf out on us, you're even tougher. I don't like the idea of stirring up a whole pack of them."

"I'll be there to look out for you," she said insistently, aware that a whine was creeping into her voice but unable to stop it. "You don't understand, guys-I can't do anything to piss them off. I literally can't. My alpha's got me in a mental headlock and can make me do whatever he says. I need you guys to do it for me."

They didn't look convinced. In retrospect, her attempt to placate them by saying that, "Seriously-they'll all be on their best behavior in front of the vampires," probably wasn't the best way to go.

"Vampires? You want us to walk into a nest of werewolves and vampires?" Dean demanded incredulously.

She backpedaled furiously, but by then it was too late. "No-they're not like those fangs we've hunted before. These are something else. They're not so animalistic-I don't think, anyway-and they're all so pretentious that they'll all be on good behavior too just to show each other up-and I know the brat won't let anyone mess up her wedding by eating somebody-"

She'd stopped then. She'd known that the plan was a bad one, and that they were right. "No," she conceded heavily. "You're right. I just-I really don't want to go back there-'cause I really hate those people. I just wish I could get them-just once-to make up for how they treated me for years...but I can't ask you to do that." She turned away, gripping her elbows. "I can't even ask you to go-you're right about that, too. They're a bunch of douchebags at best, and at worst-well, as I understand it, there will be quite a few vampires there who don't abstain from eating people the way the bride's family does."

She had sighed unhappily, and it had been quiet for a moment before Dean had spoken. "Well-look. If you're really sure that they're gonna be playing nice for the little wedding...we can still go. We'll just think of it as-as monster reconnaissance," he suggested. "I mean, these people-eating things? Those are clearly monsters, and from what you've said, they're like nothing we've seen before, so..." He shrugged. "We'll just go scope things out and take it as a chance to see how to kill 'em."

Leah had only given a humorless laugh. "That's just it-you can't. They're a bunch of arrogant assholes, but some part of it is understandable, at least. The only thing I've ever seen that can kill one of them is either another vampire or a wolf like me." She shook her head. "It'd be walking into a deathtrap-and there's only one of me. I don't think I could defend you both if someone took it into their heads to try something."

She honestly hadn't been trying to throw down a gauntlet-but of course, that's how they took it. "Leah," Sam had said in a deliberately patronizing voice. "We've faced down all the armies of both Hell and Heaven-I think we can handle a few jerkass mutant vampires with delusions of grandeur."

"And anyway-walking into deathtraps is one of our specialties," Dean added cheekily.

"Besides we'll have my charmspeak if things get too bad," said Layla finally talking.

"I don't know, guys," Leah had protested, only later reflecting on the oddity of them so rapidly switching positions in this argument. "If anything happened to you because you came along just to protect my 'delicate sensibilities'-it's just not worth it."

Dean was looking at her with a steady, slightly smug expression by this point; when she was finished, he raised his eyebrows. "Well-okay. So, you say that there is only one of you to look out for three of us. I get that. But what about if we took along a little extra life insurance, you know, someone else who could keep an eye out for us? Say, someone who I'd be willing to bet money could kill one of these things-and maybe even all of 'em at once."

He looked over at Sam, bouncing his brows with a self-satisfied smile, and they turned together back to Leah.

She honestly couldn't believe she'd never thought of it before. She supposed she'd grown so used to hearing both her pack and the vampires themselves talk about how great and invincible they were that some part of her had just started believing it.

Well. Even if they really were that great, between her own adventures and hearing about the ones the Winchesters and Layla had had, she now knew that there was always something greater.

An involuntary smile crawled across Leah's face as she rummaged through her makeup bag. She couldn't wait to see how those sparkling jerkwads fared against an angel.