Chloe had been warned about Sam and Dean Winchester. She had been brought up in a family where her father, like his father before him and his before him, had been a hunter. Chloe idolised her father and often begged him to show her what he called 'the tricks of the trade'. So as a present for her 13th birthday, her father created Chloe her own hunting kit, complete with salt and holy water and even, despite her mother's well-intended disapproval, taught her how to shoot. As a result, when her parents were murdered and leaving her an orphan at the age of 14, she was determined that once she was old enough she would head out into the world and track down the evil that had taken her parents away from her.

On the day of her 18th birthday, Chloe had packed a few things in a bag and threw it onto the backseat of the battered old Jeep that had once been her fathers and said goodbye to her Aunt, whom she had been living with for the last 4 years, and headed off to travel the country in search of the supernatural creatures responsible. After 2 days of aimless driving she checked into a motel and called a guy called Jake, who had been her father's best friend and also a hunter. He'd always seemed to support her when she talked about becoming a hunter herself, although she was fairly certain he was just humouring her. This time he didn't seem to willing to help but he told her about a bar, a few hundred miles from the grubby motel room where she sat, and that she might find someone who could help her.

A couple of hours later she arrived at 'Andy's bar', where the main clientele were hunters, and remained for the next 3 years. She tried hunting, but had very little success, so when Andy, the owner of the bar, offered her a waitressing job, she jumped at the chance and began earning some extra cash by doing something she had always excelled at. Research. She found that hunters paid good money to have somebody do the background work for them, so the hours she wasn't working behind the bar, she was in a small office out the back digging up information on anything and everything while the hunters sat in the bar and got slowly inebriated.

When she had first started, Andy, her boss had warned her that Sam and Dean Winchester attract trouble like a moth to the flame and for this reason she should keep her distance, should she ever come into contact with them. However, she had become increasingly aware of the feelings he had for her and she was, therefore, fairly certain that he was exaggerating to scare her away. She was a naturally inquisitive person so Andy's warning had only made her more curious about the Winchester brothers. So she did some research of her own, the Internet didn't give her much but she soon found that they were considered legends in the eyes of other hunters, some more than twice their age, and almost every hunter in the bar had a story to tell that involved the Winchesters. Chloe didn't make it obvious to Andy what she was doing; she just made it look like she was having a casual chat with customers as she worked. She wasn't even sure she believed half of what she heard about them anyway! It just couldn't be possible.

So the night the bar door opened and two devastatingly handsome guys walked in and the whole hunter population of the bar stopped what they were doing to stare at them, Chloe knew it must be the Winchesters. They had stepped inside and quickly scanned the room before heading over to the area of the bar where Chloe had been serving one of the 'house alcoholics'. It was easy to see that they were brothers, both well over 6 feet tall, with brown hair and strikingly vivid green eyes. The kind of guys that you only expect to find in magazines or movies, who live expensive lifestyles and have a couple of girls hanging off each arm, not hunters hanging out in a tiny bar in the middle of nowhere. Despite what she had heard about them she was still struck by how attractive they were, especially the older one. The younger one was the first to speak, pulling her from her thoughts,

"Hi, I'm Sam and this is my brother Dean," Sam said pointing at himself and then to his brother, then asked, "Are you Chloe?"

"Yep, that's me, what can I do for you?" She replied, trying hard not to look at Dean because she knew she was likely to stare or blush, or do something that would make her look like an idiot.

"We could use your help with some research into a case. We've looked everywhere we can think of and keep coming to dead-ends. Any chance you could spare us a couple of hours and see what you can dig up? He asked, smiling at her politely.

"Sure," she replied, "I'll just grab 3 beers and we can go through to the back room." She turned and bent down to the fridge. She whirled back around to face the bar just in time to see Dean straighten up from leaning on the bar, a position he'd obviously just adopted to get a better view of her ass as she bent down. 'Typical guy' she thought to herself as she rolled her eyes, but said aloud,

"Follow me."

Sam explained to Chloe about the creature they had been looking for, a snake-like creature that lives in the pipes and air vents of houses and takes children from their beds at night and they seemed to have taken over a whole town. Sam and Dean hadn't had much luck tracking them down because they couldn't find where the creatures were hiding out even after checking all the usual places, sewers, caves, etc. but were coming up with nothing. So Chloe set to work, trying to dig up anything she could from places Sam and Dean probably didn't even know existed. There was almost no lore on these things at all and even that she could find was heaving disguised under a load of other much heavier stuff. While Chloe worked, Sam sat next to her, reading over her shoulder and probably picking up a few tips for future reference. Meanwhile Dean lounged in a comfy chair in the corner, yawning loudly and making quite a show of the fact that this wasn't his idea of fun.

"Not much into the history of the things you hunt, are ya Dean?" Chloe asked when she got fed up of listening to his theatrics.

"Not really, I'm more action-man than book-man." He replied with a cocky grin. Chloe rolled her eyes at him and Sam muttered something that she didn't quite catch, but she assumed he was used to Dean's aversion to research by now.

Almost an hour, and several beers later, Chloe was satisfied that she had found all she could on the creature, and Sam assured her they now had enough to go on so they headed out to the bar to get another drink. It was after midnight and the rest of the bar was empty because Andy's closed at 12, but Andy didn't bother Chloe if she was working in the back room, because, after all, she was about the only reason hunters came by the bar anymore. Sam and Dean sat at a table while Chloe went behind the bar and grabbed a bottle of tequila and 3 glasses.

"Thanks so much for your help." Sam said, raising his glass to her.

"Yeah, you've been great." Dean added, maybe a little sarcastically, then copied Sam's gesture.

"Yeah sure, it's as close as I get to hunting these days so I might as well do what I can right?" Chloe shrugged. Dean's eyes widened,

"You've hunted?" He asked sounding startled.

"Yeah, a few year ago, before I became part of the furniture here. It didn't last long, nobody took me seriously." Chloe replied downing the contents of her glass and then reaching for the bottle to refill it.

"What made you start hunting?" Sam asked, intrigued, but when Chloe just kept staring down into her glass he back-tracked, "Sorry, that's none of our business. We should probably be going anyway." He started to get up.

"No, it's ok." Chloe said suddenly, her gaze meeting Sam's. She sat quietly for another few seconds, quietly contemplating what she would say.

"Something murdered my parents. A long time ago. I wanted to kill it. Dad taught me how. But I couldn't, so I ended up here." She said slowly, choosing her words carefully.

"I'm sorry," Sam said, sitting back down next to her, smiling kindly at her.

"Don't. Please." Chloe said, shaking her head. She didn't want their pity. "It was a long time ago. I realise now that I was stupid to think I could go out on my own and kill the son of a bitch that took them. I was 18 for god's sake, I was delusional. But I couldn't go back to my Aunt, so I ended up here and have been ever since."

"Life's a bitch." Dean said finally. Chloe looked up at him and laughed.

"Cheers to that." She said, raising her glass to his.

"We really should get going." Sam said, a short time later. He and Dean both got up from their chairs.

"Wow," Chloe said having just seen the time, "I should get home."

"You need a ride?" Dean asked with a look in his eyes that Chloe couldn't quite figure.

"No," she smiled at him, "I've got my car out back and I only live a couple of minutes away. Thanks though." She collected their glasses and the almost empty tequila bottle and set them on the bar before grabbing her keys and heading for the door where Dean was waiting.

"I'll walk you to your car." Dean said looking down at her. Chloe felt herself blush as his eyes lingered on hers; she just nodded because she didn't think she could speak. She fumbled with the keys as the locked the front door, betraying her nerves at suddenly being left along with Dean. She turned and could see Sam standing across the car park, by the most beautiful car she had ever seen.

"Is that a 67 Impala?" She asked Dean, completely amazed.

"Yeah," Dean grinned, "She's my baby. You like her?"

"Wow, yeah. She's beautiful!"

"She was our dad's, he left her to me." Dean looked down at his feet and in the dim light she couldn't decide whether the look in his eyes was guilt or something more so she just started walking around the building towards her car. After a few seconds Dean caught up with her.

"You don't have to walk me to my car you know, I'm a big girl." She said as Dean fell into step beside her.

"I know." He said, "But you know as well as I do what can be hiding in the dark." She nodded. By this time they had reached her car, and after seeing what he drove she was slightly embarrassed to have him see her old Jeep, but he didn't comment.

"Thank you." Chloe said smiling at him gratefully. "Good luck with finding that thing."

"No problem, and thanks." Dean replied. When he didn't walk away as she'd expected he would an awkward silence fell upon them.

"Hopefully I'll see you again soon?" He phrased it as a question, but it sounded more like a statement. He kept his gaze locked onto hers and she struggled to speak.

"Yeah, I hope so." She managed finally. Then, without warning, and without removing his eyes from hers, he stepped forwards and gently touched his lips to hers, his hand cupping the side of her face. This took her completely off-guard and before she could react he was stepping back from her.

"I will see you soon." Dean promised as he turned and walked away leaving Chloe alone by her car completely dazed and staring after the most beautiful man she thought she had ever seen.