"Well, Sammy, it's that time of night."
Sam looked at his brother with a frown and looked in the direction Dean was looking, where a pretty blonde was smiling in their direction. He rolled his eyes and looked back at the older Winchester. "Really?"
"Do me a favor and give me a couple hours, okay?"
"Dean! Why don't you go to her place?"
"She's got a roommate - her dad." He slapped his brother on the back. "Thanks, Sammy!" Dean wiggled his eyebrows, shot back the last of his beer before moving off to approach the woman in question.
Sam sighed.
After a couple of minutes, a low, female voice spoke from his left elbow. "Looks like your wingman deserted you."
Sam turned to see the prettiest blue eyes he'd seen in a while: almond shaped, the color of deep ocean water with thick dark lashes framing them. Her nose was straight and slightly turned up at the end, giving her an almost pixie look. Her full lips were parted in a small smile that didn't really show her teeth.
His eyebrows rose and he swallowed, suddenly nervous - once again making him wish he was more like Dean when it came to confidence with strange women. "Ah, yeah. Though, to be honest, I'm usually his wingman."
Her finely shaped eyebrows came together slightly as she tilted her head, her smile waivering slightly. "Really? I must be confused about the role of a wingman then."
Sam chuckled. "Actually, I don't know that I was ever clear on that, myself."
Her smile widened, showing straight white teeth with a slight gap between the front two. She quickly dipped her head and took a sip of her drink, her dark hair falling down to obscure it more.
Sam looked at the chair vacated by Dean. "Would you like to sit down?"
She nodded. "I was hoping you'd ask. My feet are killing me."
He looked down at her feet to see they were encased in high heels, which also gave him the opportunity to check out her legs, which were long and shapely, with great calves. He looked at her face again. "Why do women wear things like that?"
She grinned. "I'm only, really, five and a half feet tall. These give me an extra four inches in height. And they make my calves look great."
He chuckled at her voicing his thoughts. "Please, sit." Then a thought occurred to him. "I'm Sam, by the way." He offered his hand to her.
She took his hand in her smaller, soft hand and applied firm pressure in response. "Penny."
He smiled. "Nice to meet you."
Suddenly, his waitress was at their table. "Y'all okay? Need anything?"
Sam looked at Penny. "Can I get you another drink?"
She smiled at him. "Honey Bourbon on the rocks."
He looked impressed. "I'll have another beer." When the waitress moved away, Sam questioned. "Honey bourbon?"
She smiled and nodded. "Kentucky bourbon that has been infused with honey. It has a lower alcohol content than your standard whiskey and it's, to me, less harsh. I drink it on the rocks so that I can drink longer. You know, maintain a buzz without getting sloppy drunk."
Sam looked interested. "Maybe I'll try it."
Penny smiled widely, dipping her head as she did so. "Every guy I've ever known who's tried it calls it a 'chick's drink'."
Sam grinned. "Nothing wrong with 'chick's drinks'. There's some delicious drinks under that category."
She tilted her head and regarded him with slightly narrowed eyes. "Are you mocking me, sir?"
Sam was earnest as he shook his head. "Not at all! Long Island Ice Teas are delicious and can kick your ass."
Penny laughed behind her hand. "They put me right to sleep!"
"See?"
Their waitress returned with their drinks.
Penny offered him a sip from her glass before she drank it.
"That's actually delicious," Sam commented, handing it back to her.
She nodded. "If you like honey, which I do."
"A fan of sweets?" Sam asked.
Penny nodded, sipping her drink. "But I'm a real sucker for salty sweet."
"Like salted caramel?"
She rolled her eyes and pressed her lips together with a groan he barely heard over the sound of the music playing. "My absolute favorite!"
He grinned. "You know, I saw a place not far from here that had a sign for salted caramel fudge."
Penny nodded. "Is it three blocks over? Night Owl Goodies?"
He nodded. "Yeah," he chuckled. "The word 'goodies' caught my attention."
She smiled into her beverage and nodded. "They open at 4 pm and close at 9 am. They specialize in satisfying late night munchies. I go there at least once a week before or after work. And, sometimes, late at night, too."
He leaned forward. "You want to get out of here? I could go for something sweet."
She looked at him, as if to evaluate his intentions, then she nodded. "Sure. Let me go tell my friend."
"If you want to invite her along…"
Penny's smile broadened, dipping her head. "Now I really know you're on the up and up. Nah, she's here with her guy." She used her thumb to indicate to herself. "Third wheel, ya know?"
Sam smiled a closed-mouth smile and nodded. As she walked away, he signalled the waitress to settle up - paying for her last drink as well as his own, and all of Dean's.
Penny approached their table with a tall leggy blonde. Sam's eyebrows rose.
"Sam, this is my friend Michelle. She wanted to meet you."
Michelle looked him up and down. "Oh, my lord! You are a tall drink of water!" She smiled winningly. "Good job, Penny!"
Penny rolled her eyes. "Thanks, Mish."
Sam's eyebrows rose.
Michelle moved close to Sam. "You take care of my girl, you hear?"
Sam smiled, then looked at Penny, who mouthed. "Sorry."
"I will absolutely watch out for her. I'll have her home before she turns into a pumpkin."
Michelle grinned up at him. "I hope so. And then I hope you stay for breakfast," she nudged his arm.
"Michelle!" Penny's eyes were wide as her jaw dropped. "Wow!"
Sam couldn't help but laugh at that, but he didn't respond.
Michelle hugged her friend. "Have fun, you kids. And call me when you get home." Then she whispered something in Penny's ear, which made Penny laugh and nod, emphatically.
"I will." She nodded. "Be kind to Brett."
Michelle rolled her eyes and sighed deeply. "Damn, now I have to change my plans!"
Penny shook her head and pushed her friend back into the direction of her table.
Sam looked down at her. "Are you ready to go?"
She smiled up at him. "Sure."
As Sam followed her out of the bar, he took the time to fully appreciate the woman in front of him. Her beautiful calves disappeared into black, form-fitting skirt that showed off the roundness of her rear and hips, her waist was slim enough to qualify as an hourglass. Her dark hair was long and thick as it swung against the pale blue in her blouse, which made him think of the color of her eyes. Once she walked through the doors, she turned to look at him.
He frowned down at her. "Are you going to be okay walking?"
She smiled. "Sure. Just remember my legs aren't as long as yours and I'm on stilts."
"I have no problem with a leisurely walk," he smiled. "Which way?"
She indicated the direction and they began to walk. The night air was cool and clear, but not cold. He rubbed his hands against his jeans and walked next to her, suddenly nervous again.
"It's so nice to be able to hear myself think," she smiled at him.
"Yeah. I didn't realize how loud it was in there."
"So, where are you from, Sam?"
"Ah, Lawrence, Kansas, originally, but I've travelled a lot, so I guess the road is my home now."
She nodded. "Sounds exciting."
"It can be." He looked out to the distance. "But sometimes it would be nice to have a real home."
Penny shrugged. "What you're calling a 'real home' isn't always a good thing, believe me."
He nodded, "I've seen some examples. What about you?"
Penny looked thoughtful. "I'm from a small town in Indiana, but moved here several years ago."
"And the bad home? Here or there?"
She took a deep breath and smiled. "Oh, well, you know how it is when you want something and your parents want something else. It's tough being a teenager when you know so much more than your parents, you know?"
Sam looked down with a chuckle. "Yeah. Yeah, I do." He looked at her. "What was it your parents wanted you to do?"
"Family Business. My dad owned a hardware store and felt I had a great head for the business. I wanted nothing to do with that. I was going to be a country music singer!"
Sam's eyebrows rose. "Really? And what did you end up becoming?"
"I'm a freelance writer for a travel magazine."
"So you travel a lot also."
She smiled. "Some. But I have a regular article about exploring your own backyard, so I go to small towns throughout the Midwest and look for things to make a 'stay-cation' just as enjoyable as traveling long distances for a vacation."
He looked impressed.
"This is it," she said, looking up at him.
They walked into the small, but busy shop with a bakery set up inside with different cookies, cupcakes, fudges in lines of the cases. Sam didn't usually indulge his natural sweet tooth, but there was no way he was going to not get something when surrounded by these sights and smells!
"Do you see something you're interested in?" Penny asked.
He smiled at her with eyebrows raised. "Oh, yeah. I think the struggle comes down to picking."
She smiled widely and dipped her head, moving her hand to her top lip.
Sam's smile wavered as he wondered why she always tried to hide her smile, but before he could ask, they stepped to the counter.
She quickly ordered a salted caramel cookie and then looked at him. He ordered a piece of cranberry-orange fudge and Penny ordered two bottles of water, then pulled out the cash to pay and Sam frowned.
She looked at him with reproach. "You paid for my drink."
He smiled and nodded. "Do you want to sit outside?"
She nodded. She handed him one of the bottles as they sat down. "I'm sorry," she frowned. "I should have asked. They have soda…"
Sam shook his head. "Water's good."
Penny relaxed again.
As she unwrapped her cookie and he unwrapped his piece of fudge, she frowned. "So you never told me what you do."
"I'm actually between jobs right now," Sam watched her face as he explained. "So my brother and I are on a road trip."
Her eyebrows did a kind of a dance as she finished the piece of cookie she'd broken off. "So you travel a lot with work and when you don't work, you travel?"
He swallowed his bite of fudge, smiled and looked at the table, seeming embarrassed. "Yeah. It sounds ridiculous, doesn't it?"
Penny tilted her head and looked at him. She smiled with a closed mouth, crookedly. "No. It really isn't. Believe me I know the difference between travelling for fun and travelling for work."
Sam tried not to let his relief show when he smiled at her.
Under his gaze, her smile widened and she lifted the water bottle to her lips, without taking a sip.
Finishing his fudge, he frowned. "Why do you hide your smile?"
Penny's eyes widened and her smile melted. "What?"
He leaned forward, his eyes serious. "I've noticed several times tonight. Your smile is quite beautiful but every time you seem like you don't want it to be seen."
After swallowing her last bite of cookie, she looked down at her hands. "I have a gap…"
"I know!" He said a bit more emphatically than he meant to. He took a breath and pulled back a little. He looked down, then back at her. "I feel like you think it's some huge thing, but it's not. Your smile is beautiful. Period."
She was smiling with her mouth closed as he finished what he was saying. She licked her lips and looked down at her hands.
"Penny?"
She cleared her throat. "You should do motivational speaking."
Sam's eyebrows rose and he straightened in his chair. "What?"
Penny's smile widened, though she kept her head tilted down. "You're very sweet and you know exactly what to say."
Sam stood, moved to her side of the table and took her hand, pulling her up and close. "Smile at me Penny."
She blushed furiously and looked around at the other tables around them. "Sam!"
He gently tilted her head up and looked her in the eyes. "Smile."
Penny's eyebrows rose and she licked her bottom lip, searching his face.
"Smile," he commanded, softly.
She was hesitant as she parted her lips in a soft smile.
"Wider," he growled.
Finally, she couldn't help herself and smiled broadly. "You are insane."
He smiled back at her. "And you are beautiful. Don't ever hide that."
Reaching up, she put her hand to his cheek. "Thank you."
Sam realized, then, how close they were and that she was almost pressed against him looking up at him. His smile melted as he examined her face. Hers began to melt as well.
When he kissed her, it was soft, sweet and hesitant and he was pleased that she kissed him back.
Applause erupted around them.
They broke apart and looked around. The people who sat around them were applauding them. She dipped her head to his chest and he grinned, embarrassed, and waved to the people around them. Then he took her hand and grabbed her purse, pulling her away from the store and down the street.
When they were out of sight from the store, he stopped and pulled her into a hug as she laughed. He looked down at her, suddenly concerned. "I forgot about your feet!"
She laughed out loud. "So did I!'
"Are you okay?"
"I'm great!"
He shook his hair out of his face. "Wow! I...I'm never that impulsive!"
She laughed. "Me, neither! I almost didn't approach you tonight because it's just not something I do."
He looked down at her and moved a stray hair out of her face. "I'm glad you did," he said, lowly. His eyes searched her face.
Taking his hand, she pushed away from him, smiling. "Come with me. There's a nice place to sit nearby."
What she called a 'nice place to sit' was a lakefront boardwalk with benches installed. They sat together and talked and laughed. Everytime she brought her hand up to hide her smile, he grabbed her hand.
She told him about how she and her father didn't talk the entire time she was a teen, but that they'd gotten to mend that relationship before his passing. He told her about his similar struggles with his father and the guilt that he sometimes still felt, though they had come to terms before John's death.
They talked about life in general and how it doesn't always go the way you think it will and where they would like it to go in the future. Somewhere in the conversation, she looked at her watch.
"Oh, my lord! It's three in the morning!"
His eyebrows rose into his hair. "What? No, it can't be!"
She showed him her watch.
"Your friend has probably called the police!"
She laughed. "She's probably busy. She'll realize in the morning I haven't called, call me and demand details!"
Sam chuckled. "That's what she told you at the end, isn't it?"
She bit her lip, smiling. "Maybe…" At his look, she laughed. "Yes. It is absolutely what she told me!" She leaned forward and put her hand to her chest. "I honestly didn't think there would be anything to tell her, though."
He frowned. "Really? Why?"
"Honestly?"
He nodded.
"Well, you're very good looking and, well, I'm short…" she trailed off and took a deep breath. "When I go out with her, she has a dozen guys to choose from and I go home alone."
His eyebrows rose. "You're kidding!"
She smiled. "No. Not kidding."
"This town is blind!" he was earnest in his incredulity. "I would easily have picked you over her - just based on looks alone!"
Her eyebrows came together. "Really? But Michelle is gorgeous! She looks like a supermodel!"
"And you look like…" he paused and looked over her head, smiling, suddenly feeling nervous again. "Well, you look like a 1940s pin-up model."
Her peal of laughter rang out over the lake. "You mean like the ones painted on World War Two planes?"
Sam smiled down at her. "Yeah! So much better than supermodel."
Her head tilted and she smiled softly up at him. "Thank you, Sam. That was sweet."
"Well, you're welcome." After a quiet moment, he tilted his chin down and lifted his eyebrows to look at her, his hair falling into his face. "So I should probably be getting you home."
She bit her lip and narrowed her eyes. "Maybe to your place?"
He looked chagrined. "I'm pretty sure that's where my brother ended up."
"Oh, yeah! Your wingman is your brother and he left early."
He nodded.
She shook her head. "Damn!"
"There's your place."
She took a deep breath and looked up to the sky. "I really wish I could take you to my place, Sam. But I just can't."
"Why? Is there someone…" His face clouded. "You're married."
Her eyes widened. "Heavens no!" She leaned forward and touched his hand. "Sam, I swear I wouldn't be here with you if I was married!"
He searched her eyes. "Then what? Roommate? You told me your parents passed…"
She frowned. "This is where it gets weird." She looked down at his feet. "Can you run in those?"
He frowned. "What? Why would I run?"
"Because here is where it gets weird." she repeated. "I would not blame you if you ran." She sighed. "It's gonna sound nuts."
Sam scoffed. "I've heard weird. Try me."
Penny took a deep breath. "About four years ago, I was dating a guy that was very possessive and very jealous. I eventually broke it off, but he kept coming around, threatening me, begging me to take him back, you know, the whole stalker thing. I finally got a restraining order and told him he could never come around me again. He said that if he couldn't have me then he would make sure no one else ever could."
Sam nodded, his eyebrows drawn together, angrily. "I've heard of that kind of scum before."
Penny gave a soft smile of gratitude that he seemed to understand, then she took another deep breath. "I didn't hear from him for a few weeks, then Michelle told me that he was dead."
Sam frowned and leaned forward. "What?"
Her eyebrows rose and she nodded with her lips pressed together. "Apparently, the night he told me if he couldn't have me, no one would, he wrapped his car around a tree. Police say that alcohol was involved, but it took a lot of time for me to allow myself to believe it wasn't my fault that he was dead."
Sam reached out and took her hands in his.
She looked at him and nodded. "A few months after that, I had a date and when he brought me home, all the lights around my house blew out. We laughed and said good night and that was that." She took a deep breath. "Some time after that, I brought someone home for dinner. I thought it would be a nice date. About the time we sat down for dinner, things started flying around the dining room. Hot pots of food went flying at his head and he ended up running out - and needless to say, I never from him again."
"Wait," he said. "Are you saying that you're house is haunted by your ex?"
She winced when he said it and looked at him sideways. "Yes?"
Sam smiled. He took her hand. "Show me."
Her eyebrows rose over wide eyes. "What?"
"I mean it. Take me to your place."
She looked incredulously at him. "Really?"
He looked in earnest. "Serious. I might be able to help."
Penny shook her head. "I already had a priest…"
He smiled and shook his head. "Just show me, Penny."
She took a deep breath and shrugged. "Okay, if you say so."
He stood and offered her his hand. She put her hand in his and stood. "Well, I should call a ride...unless you left a car back at the club."
Sam shook his head, with a smile. "You?"
"Came with Mish." She pulled out her phone and used an app to call a ride.
When the car came, he helped her into the backseat. He leaned back in the seat and pulled her close. He could feel how tense she was. "Penny," he whispered into her ear. "Relax. I'm not running. If anything, I might be able to help. Trust me."
She closed her eyes and relaxed against his chest. "If you say so, Sam," she responded.
It didn't take long before they arrived in front of a small house with a wrap-around porch and wooden window shutters. He emerged first and offered his hand to help her out. Still holding her hand, they walked up to the porch. She pulled out the key and unlocked the door. Before opening the door, she turned to look up at him. "Are you sure?" She asked one more time.
He smiled. "Absolutely."
She opened the door and walked in, with Sam following close behind. "Can I get you a drink?"
Sam nodded, looking around her home. It was decorated in rustic style with wood accents and dark metals. He eyed a set of candlesticks on the shelf by the door. "Are those iron?"
She smiled. "Yes."
He nodded. "Good."
She frowned, curious. "Good?"
He smiled as she handed him a drink and invited him to the living room.
"I really can't believe you came here, after finding out about the haunting. What are you going to do?" She asked.
Sam sat next to her and leaned in close. "Tell me, have you told anyone else about this?"
She nodded. "Yes!" She leaned forward. "And all of them ran for the hills!"
He chuckled, sipping the honey whiskey she'd just given him. "Well, I'm not running."
She frowned. "I know and why is that?"
Before he could answer, the lights flickered and the temperature of the room dropped significantly. She looked up in alarm. "Sam?"
He stood, putting his drink down. "Penny," he growled. "Get out of the house."
Penny's eyebrows rose and she nodded and ran for the door. The door locked in front of her and she pushed the lock open again and pulled the door open as Sam ushered her out of the house.
"Do you have a car?" Sam asked as he pulled her off the front porch.
She stopped short, pulling her hand away, and shook her head. "Sam, just go. I appreciate you believing me, but he'll settle down if you go. He's never hurt me, but if I go with you, I don't know if I'll ever be able to come home again!"
Sam put his hands on her upper arms and looked down at her, his eyebrows drawn together in sincere concern. "Penny, do you want to live this way for the rest of your life?"
Her eyes searched his face and grew moist. She swallowed and looked away. "No."
"Then trust me! Do you have a car?"
"Yes. This way." He quickly ushered her to her car. After holding the door for her, he ran to the driver's side and jumped in, hitting his knees on the steering wheel before he slid the seat back. He put the car in reverse, pulled out of the driveway and headed down the road.
"Where are we going?"
Sam looked at Penny. "Now it's now my turn to sound crazy."
She frowned. "Oh-kay…"
"My brother and I hunt things like this."
Her eyebrows rose and she looked askance. "Hunt?"
He turned onto the road where the hotel he and Dean shared was, hoping Dean wasn't still involved with tonight's conquest. He glanced at her and he chuckled at her look of disbelief. "I'm not crazy," he assured her. "And I know what I'm doing."
"Which is what, exactly?"
"Getting you to a safe location. Then Dean and I will go back and take care of your ex."
Penny shook her head. "But how?"
When they pulled into a parking lot, Sam turned to her. "Where is he buried?"
Her eyes rose in disbelief. "What?"
"Your ex? Where is he buried?"
She shook her head. "Ah, the cemetery out on 61."
"What is his name?"
"Joseph Carter. Sam, I'm really confused!"
He emerged from the car and went around to open her door. He guided her to his hotel room and took a deep breath. "Hold on, for a second."
Penny smiled despite herself. "Got it."
Sam went in to find Dean alone, face down, in his bed. "Dean!" He moved closer. "Dean, wake up!"
Dean groaned and turned over. "What time is it?"
"Some time around four."
"In the morning? Are you insane?"
"We have a case," Sam found Dean's jeans and threw it at Dean. "A friend needs our help."
Dean frowned, sitting up. "And your friend can't wait until a decent time in the morning?"
Sam went to the door and opened it, ushering Penny inside.
Dean came around the corner, zipping up his pants. His eyebrows rose when he saw Penny. "Oh, hello."
"Dean, this is Penny. Penny, this is my brother Dean."
Penny nodded. "Dean." She looked up a Sam. "What now?"
Dean frowned. "What are we talking about?"
"Her ex-boyfriend is haunting her house."
Dean's eyebrows rose. "Really?" He smiled at Penny. "Not that I can blame him, but why?"
Sam frowned at Dean. "He was obsessive and abusive and died after telling her if he couldn't have her…"
"No one could," Dean completed the sentence with a nod and an understanding look. "That sucks, Penny. Sorry."
She nodded. "Thanks."
"So I figured Penny could stay here while we go take care of it," Sam suggested.
Dean picked up his bag. "Let's go, Sammy."
"Wait! Sam!" Penny grabbed his arm. "If I'm not there, why would he show himself?"
Sam looked down at her. "We're not going to your house, yet. We're going to the cemetery."
She frowned and tilted her head. "Why?"
"Salt and burn the bones," Dean announced without preamble.
"What?!"
Sam's right dimple showed when he pressed his lips together in a pained look at Dean. He then looked down at Penny. "Trust me. Just wait here, for now. We'll come back here when we finish."
Penny was pacing in the hotel room when Sam and Dean returned, covered in dirt. "What did you do?!"
Dean grinned. "Just what we set out to do."
Sam approached her and put his hands on her shoulders. "Let me get cleaned up and we'll go back to your place. You shouldn't have anymore problems with Joseph."
She looked him up and down, finally looking up to his eyes. "What did he mean, earlier, by salt and burn the bones?"
Dean smiled at Penny. "We dug up his body, threw salt and gasoline on the bones and
set them on fire. Sure fire way to kill a ghost."
Penny tore her eyes away from Sam to look at Dean with a look of incredulity. "WHAT?!"
Sam glared at Dean and moved Penny to the nearest bed and sat her down, kneeling in front of her. "Penny, listen: we deal with ghosts all the time and we're very good at what we do. I know it's a lot to take in, but you should never have to worry about your ex again. Can you trust me for just a little while more?"
She took a deep breath and nodded. "Okay. You go take a shower. Then we'll go back to my place and see if it worked."
Sam smiled, stood and kissed her forehead. "I'll be quick."
He disappeared into the bathroom, leaving Penny alone with Dean.
"So," Dean started. "You spent the night with my brother?"
"Not in the way you're implying. We spent most of the night talking."
Dean frowned and looked at her. "You know what's sad? I completely believe you."
Penny tilted her head and looked at him askance. "Sad?"
Dean looked her up and down with his eyebrows raised. "The way you look? And he spent the night with you talking? Yeah, I would definitely call that sad...no, actually, I would call it tragic!"
Penny smiled, dipping her head. Then she looked back at him. "I appreciate the sentiment, but I had a very nice evening."
Dean's eyebrows rose almost to his hairline. "If you insist."
She shook her head and moved over to the cabinet where the coffee pot sat and began to make coffee.
About the time the coffee was done, Sam emerged from the shower, dressed, and rubbing a towel through his hair. "You okay?" he asked Penny.
She nodded. "You?"
"Much better now that I'm clean," he smiled. "I'll get my shoes on and we'll head over to your place." He dipped his head to catch her eyes. "Okay?"
Penny took a deep breath and nodded.
Once inside her house, he walked around with her, finally settling at the kitchen table as she made a cup of coffee from her single serve coffee maker. When they each had a cup, she sat down and he reached out to take her hand in his. She stared at his hand on hers for a while, then looked up to meet his eyes.
"Are you okay?"
Penny took a deep breath. "I seem to be."
Sam reached out and brushed a piece of hair from her face.
And the skillet flew from where it hung over the stove, aimed for Sam's head. The two of them hit the floor under the table.
"Oh, my god! Sam! Are you okay?!"
"I'm good! You?"
"I thought you said Joseph would be gone!"
"He must be attached to something here in the house!" Sam grabbed her shoulders. "Did he leave anything behind? A memento of some kind?" Something flew across the room over their heads.
She shook her head, clearly terrified. "I….I don't know! I have pictures in the stairway."
Sam pulled his phone out and called Dean. "Dean! It's still here! Yeah, sending you the address!" He hung up and quickly texted the address, then looked at her again. "I've got to get you out of here," he said, gruffly.
Penny took a deep breath. "Explain this to me, Sam," she breathed. "You said exhuming the body would get rid of him, but it didn't. Why?"
He looked around the room toward the door leaving the kitchen, as a tea kettle impacted against it. "When a person dies, if they don't go on, they get stuck. Most of the time, they're connected to this world by their bodies, salt and burn the body, the spirit is released. Sometimes, though, they attach to an object - usually something that meant something to them or to someone they cared about. Then it's a matter of destroying that object."
"What if I am the object?" Penny whispered.
Sam frowned. He shook his head. "I've only seen that once and it was because of a kidney."
"What?"
He shook his head. "Did he give you an organ?"
Penny looked horrified. "No!"
Sam chuckled. "Then I don't think it's you."
"So we have to figure out what he might be attached to…"
"You mentioned pictures?"
She nodded. "In the hall, a couple vacation pictures that I kept because they weren't so much about us, but the place."
"Anything else?"
She shook her head. "I'm trying to think of something! But I gave everything back to him when I broke up with him - Mish's advice...clean break an all…"
He took her hand in his as they remained scrunched under the table and looked directly into her eyes. "Penny, listen to me. I need you to relax. Take a deep breath and think. Is there anything he might have thought of as special? Maybe something he insisted you keep when you broke up?"
Penny focussed on her hands in his and took a deep breath. She closed her eyes as if to look inward. Something else flew across the room and she flinched. Then her eyes opened wide. "I know what it is!"
"Good!" Sam smiled. "What is it?"
"It's a ceramic figurine that I fell in love with in Ireland. I had decided not to get it but he bought it and hid it in my suitcase so that I would find it when I got back home. It was, by far, the nicest thing he ever did in our time together. I kept it after…"
Sam nodded. "Where is it?"
"In the living room, on the mantel."
SAM!
Sam looked toward the sound of his brother's voice from the front of the house. "Dean!" Sam put his arm around Penny as the table above them began to shake. "On the mantel! A figurine!"
"Got it!"
They heard a crash and the room suddenly became calm. After a moment, Penny pulled back to look at Sam. "Is…?"
Dean appeared in the doorway of the kitchen. "Sam?"
"We're here, Dean."
Dean knelt down and offered his hand to Penny. "Come on," he said, softly. "It's over."
Penny took his hand and, with Sam, emerged from where they'd been hiding to see her kitchen was an absolute mess with pots, pans and utensils strewn all around the room, including knives in the wall above the table. "Oh, my…" She breathed, looking up at Sam and Dean. "How do you know he's gone?"
Dean grinned. "I saw him. Disappeared before my eyes when I broke the doll and set it on fire in the fireplace."
Penny nodded. "So that's it?"
"Yeah, you shouldn't have anymore problems," Dean smiled.
Penny sat down shakily.
"Penny?"
She looked at her hands. "It's been four years…"
Sam knelt in front of her. "It's over."
She nodded and reached out to touch his cheek. "Thank you," she breathed. She blinked and looked up at Dean. "Thank you both."
Dean shrugged with a crooked smile. "It's really not...a big deal," his words faded off as he noticed she was looking at his brother again. He cleared his throat. "Wow! Ah, I'm beat. Think I'll go back to the hotel and get some shut eye."
That seemed to bring Penny out of whatever she was thinking. "I would offer you breakfast, but…" she looked around the room.
Dean shook his head. "Don't worry about it."
She walked them to the front door, but at the last minute, she took Sam's hand. "Can I speak to you?"
Dean moved off the porch to his Impala, smiling.
Sam turned to look at Penny. His eyebrows furrowed together as he asked. "Are you okay?"
Penny nodded. "I won't lie and say my nerves aren't shot," she shrugged. "But I didn't want you to go without telling you that I had a really nice time last night."
Sam smiled. "So did I."
She licked her bottom lip. "I just wish it hadn't ended with a haunting."
He chuckled. "Me, too."
Penny focussed on his collarbone. "I can tell you that I'll be imagining a different ending," she flushed.
Sam tilted her head up. "Me, too," he smiled down at her.
"I mean it's been four years," she said, emphatically, not looking at him.
He frowned. "You mean, it's been four years since…"
She swallowed and glanced down.
He smiled over her head and then looked down at her, touching her cheek and tilting her head up. "Smile for me, Penny."
She was hesitant, but she gave him a soft smile.
He shook his head. "Bigger," he commanded.
Her lips parted into a full smile.
Then he dipped his head to kiss her. After kissing her thoroughly, he pulled away.
She was flushed as she took his hand in hers and tilted her head back inside the house with a hopeful look.
He glanced backward...
Dean chuckled and put his car into reverse when he saw Penny pull Sam back into the house and close the door behind them. "Good for you, Sammy."
A/N: This fic was inspired by the lines "Baby, your ghost still haunts me / but I don't want to sleep with him no more" from the song "Every Little Thing" by Carly Pearce