What if there was no case?

Sam and Dean walked into the hotel room after having talked to the dead girl's father. "So, what do you think is going on?" Dean asked.

"Nothing. You heard her father. Angela was a nice girl who died in a car accident. It's not exactly vengeful spirit material," Sam responded in frustration.

"Well, maybe daddy doesn't know everything about his sweet little angel," Dean said sarcastically.

"Stop, Dean."

"Something turned that into unholy ground."

"There's no reason for it to be unholy. I think I know what's going on here," Sam began, tentatively.

"What?" Dean asked.

"This is about mom's grave. It's the only reason I went along with you this long."

Dean couldn't believe what he was hearing. His stupid brother thought that he was imagining a case where there wasn't one. Like he didn't know how to do his job. He brushed past Sam to the door.

"Where are you going?" Sam asked.

"For a drink. Alone!" Dean emphasized the last word and slammed the door on a gaping Sam.

Dean drove around for two hours and then went into the next bar he saw, ordered a beer and hit on the first girl he saw.

"What's your name?" he asked a pretty blonde.

"Mary," she answered.

Dean scowled and turned to his other side where there an equally pretty brunette was just sitting down.

"Hi, I'm Dean," he said.

"Adrienne," she smiled at him. They shared a few drinks and then she asked him back to her place.

"I'd like that," Dean answered. He was in no mood to go back to his hotel where stupid Sam would be waiting for him looking at him with those 'I want to talk' eyes.

SSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

The next morning, when Dean woke up, Adrienne had left for work, but left him a note, saying he could hang out for as long as he wanted. He took a shower, raided her fridge and then decided to get to work on his "non-existent" case.

He went over to Angela's apartment and picked the lock. He crept inside and turned around to see a girl staring at him in fear. I'm calling 911, she yelled as she ran into a room and shut the door.

"I'm Angela's cousin," Dean improvised.

"You are?" she asked as she came out of the room.

"Yeah, her dad sent me over to pick up her stuff."

"He didn't say you were coming," she pointed out suspiciously.

"How else would I have a key to your place?" Dean asked, reasonably, dangling his car key, hoping she wouldn't know the difference.

"OK," she shrugged. "I've been packing up her stuff. The box is over here," she said leading Dean into the living room.

"You probably got to see a side of Angela the rest of the family didn't," Dean said, beginning his probe into Angela's character. He had to find out what was keeping her here.

"She was great."

"Yeah?" Dean asked.

"Yeah, she was just so…great."

Another few minutes of being told how great Angela was, and Dean was off with her box of stuff. He threw it in the car and glanced through it. He saw a diary sitting on top and he grabbed it. He decided to go to the park to read it. He spent three hours reading Angela's diary and came to the conclusion, that if anything, she was a little too nice. He could not figure out what had turned that ground unholy, but obviously something had.

He checked his watch and decided to see if Adrienne wanted to grab supper with him. He called her cell phone.

"Hello?"

"Hey, Adrienne. It's Dean. Did you want to grab a bite to eat?"

"Sure," she replied, enthusiastically.

"Great, I'll pick you up in fifteen minutes."

"Sounds good."

Dean looked at his cell phone and considered calling Sam, but decided against it. Instead, he went to pick up Adrienne and they went to a little restaurant around the corner from her place.

"So, what do you do?" Dean asked her after they had ordered.

"I'm a secretary."

"That sounds interesting," Dean said.

Adrienne laughed and said, "Well, at least now, I know you're a big liar."

Dean laughed, too. It felt good. He hadn't laughed since his dad had died. That was mostly Sam's fault. Sam was so uptight, it spread to other people.

"So, what do you do?" Adrienne was asking.

"I'm a model," Dean answered.

"Really?" Adrienne asked, not believing him at all. "What would I have seen you in?"

"What I meant was I'm a model citizen."

"You're entertaining, at least," Adrienne said. "Want to come over again tonight?"

"I sure do," Dean said.

The next day, when they woke up, Adrienne said, "I have some errands to run this morning, but we can hang out later this afternoon, if you want."

"That'd be great," Dean replied.

SSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

Dean went over to Matt's house. Matt was Angela's boyfriend. "Hi, my name's Dean. I'm a grief counselor with the college."

"Nice to meet you," Matt said and invited him into his apartment.

"So, were there any problems with you and Angela before she died?" Dean asked.

"No, why would you ask that?"

"Just checking. A lot of times when someone dies and there is unresolved conflict, the survivor feels extremely guilty. Just want to make sure that's not going on."

Matt nodded. "No, we weren't having any problems. As a matter of fact, I was going to ask her to marry me. I just bought the ring last week."

"Really?" Dean said, and thought of Sam. Sam, who was shopping for rings shortly before Jessica died. He shook his head to clear it. Sam didn't want to be a part of this investigation, so he didn't need to be in his head right now anyway.

He left Matt's house with no clearer idea of what was going on. They were a happy couple with no problems as far as he could tell. He went to go meet up with Adrienne.

"So, what did you today?" she asked him.

"Went to see an old friend. His girlfriend just died."

"That's horrible. Is he OK?"

"I think he will be. He's going to go home to visit his parents," Dean said in case Adrienne wanted to visit him or have Dean spend more time with him.

"That's nice," she said.

They decided to order food in that night.

SSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

"So, Dean, today's Sunday, do you do church or anything?" Adrienne asked.

Dean almost laughed, but was worried he might offend her, so he just said, "No."

"Good me either. What do you want to do today?"

"I actually wanted to go to the cemetery and visit my Angela's grave," Dean said.

"Who's Angela?" Adrienne asked.

"She's my friend's girlfriend. The one who died."

"Oh, well, let me come with you."

"Are you sure?" Dean asked.

"Yeah, today is the last day I can spend with you and I want to be with you every minute."

"Why can't you see me after today?" Dean asked, disappointed. He was really starting to like this girl.

"I'll tell you at the end of the day."

Dean shrugged, "OK."

When they got to the cemetery, Dean went straight to Angela's grave. There was grass all around it. "That's weird."

"What?" Adrienne asked.

"Matt told me all the grass around her grave had died, but it seems to be normal looking."

"Maybe his grief was playing tricks on him."

"Maybe," Dean said, but knew that wasn't the case since he had actually seen it himself.

A groundskeeper was going by. "Excuse me?" Dean said and walked away from Adrienne to speak with him.

"I was here the other day and all the grass around that grave was dead and now it's all lush. What happened?"

"We had to dig the grass up there for a couple of days to lay in a sprinkler system, and now we're finished and have put the soil with the grass back down."

Dean felt like a moron. He hadn't even bothered to see if there was a rational explanation for the absence of grass. Sam was right—as usual. Oh well, he would enjoy the rest of the day with Adrienne and then think about possibly apologizing to Sam tonight.

He walked back over to Adrienne. "What do you want to do the rest of the day?"

"Let's take a hike," Adrienne suggested.

Dean hesitated. Hiking was like camping which he hated, but on the other hand, he really needed to work off some of this nervous energy, he'd been having. Plus, it would make Adrienne happy. "OK," he said.

They went to a nearby nature park and started their walk. They talked about everything. Adrienne told Dean about growing up as the youngest of ten. Dean told Adrienne how his mom had died when he was a kid and how he practically raised his little brother. When they returned to the park entrance, the sun was beginning to set.

"Now, I have to give you a letter. Please don't read it until I've left," Adrienne said, looking down at her feet.

"Why?" Dean asked.

"Just please don't." She handed him an envelope and ran over to join a couple who had obviously been waiting for her. Dean had seen them in the parking lot when they returned but hadn't paid much attention.

When the car was out of sight, Dean shrugged his shoulders and opened the envelope.