AN: This is the first fanfiction I've written in years and my first ever Supernatural fic, so bear with me if it sucks at first. This was originally going to be a Supernatural and True Blood / Sookie Stackhouse novels crossover but I changed my mind as it mostly revolves around Supernatural and its characters but I've left in references to Merlotte's Bar and the town of Bon Temps because that's where I picture Laura living and working at the beginning of the story.

This chapter is set in season one, sometime between 'Shadow' and 'Hell House'.

~Chapter 1~

Of All the Gin Joints in All of Louisiana...

Laura Singer collected the empty glasses and pitcher a pack of rednecks had just left at their table. She was glad to see the back of them. The fattest of them had tried to grab her ass and they didn't even tip well. She left the tray of glasses behind the bar and turned around to go take more orders. They were pretty busy for lunch hour which was unusual but a good sign – business hadn't been too good at Merlotte's recently, just like almost ever other business in the country. That was when she spotted them, sitting in the new girl, Macy's section. Macy headed over to take their order but Laura grabbed her by the shoulder. "Hey Macy, you mind if I take that table?"

"No way, they're hot!" Macy giggled, her high ponytail bouncing.

"Oh no, it's not like that, they're family friends of mine and I haven't seen them in years. Please?"

"Sure," Macy caved, not caring enough to put up a fight and probably just glad to have one less table to cover.

Laura walked over to the table as if they were just two random guys. "Welcome to Merlotte's, what can I getcha?"

Sam looked up from his menu and smiled when he saw her face. "No way!"

Then Dean looked up, taking a little longer to react. "Laura?" he said weakly after a pause.

"What the hell are you guys doing here?" she laughed.

"We just finished up a hunt outside of town, we were just gonna grab some lunch before we moved on," Sam explained.

"You're hunting again?" Laura started to ask before she heard the cook call her from the kitchen. "Sorry guys, we're really busy today. What'll you have?"

Sam ordered a grilled chicken salad and Dean finally opened his mouth to order a cheeseburger and a beer.

When Laura returned with their food she said quickly, "I'd love to catch up with the two of you tonight if you think you could stick around? I know another bar, just outside of town that we could go to."

"That'd be great," Dean said immediately, taking out a pen to scribble his cell number on a napkin. He handed it to Laura. "Call me when your shift is over."

Laura couldn't help but smile a little as she tucked the napkin into her pocket and went back to work. She was excited to catch up with the Winchester boys. She had practically grown up with them at her uncle Bobby's house and they were her best friends back when she was still hunting. She wondered why Sam was hunting again, the last she heard he was doing very well at Stanford and seemed to be getting pretty serious with his girlfriend there.

When Laura got home that evening she called Dean straight away.

"Yeah?" he answered, his voice deep and rough.

"Hey, it's Laura. Does it suit you if we meet up in about an hour?"

"Should do." She heard him move the phone from his ear to check with Sam. He came back to their call and asked, "is it okay if it's just me and you? Sammy's not feeling up to it tonight."

"Aw that sucks, I really wanted to catch up with him, it's been so long," she said, genuinely disappointed. "But yeah, that's fine." She gave him the name and address of the bar and said goodbye. She hung up feeling a little excited that she would be alone with Dean but she didn't let herself get carried away. Sure they used to have something but that was a million years ago, and he seemed to be the least enthusiastic of the pair about seeing Laura again earlier on. She took a quick shower before she threw on her favorite jeans and a black Led Zeppelin t-shirt and put on a little makeup.

When she arrived at the bar she had chosen Dean was already sitting up at the counter. He flashed her that grin that always hit her right below her bellybutton and was infamous for dropping the panties of slutty diner waitresses all over the country. Ugh, that smile. Laura had noticed how much Sam had changed physically earlier on. He was no longer the scrawny little nerd she had grown up with and was now a full grown (maybe even over-grown) man. Dean hadn't changed as much in the last five or six years since she had seen him but she noticed his arms and chest had definitely filled out a bit and he was maybe a little taller too. Laura headed over to him and couldn't help but think about some of the things they had done when they were last together... She felt herself blush and reminded herself that they were grown ups now. None of that would ever happen again. "Hey," she smiled.

He nodded in acknowledgment.

"Wanna get a table?" she asked. They moved over to a table at the back of the bar and sat opposite each other.

"What are you drinking?" he asked.

"Beer, I don't care what kind."

Dean left for a few minutes and returned with a pitcher for them to share. "So, what are you doing here?" he asked as he sat back down.

"I quit hunting."

"Seriously? I thought you were gonna start working alone after you graduated."

"Yeah that was the plan.. But I didn't want to hunt. I wanted a normal life. Work, get married, have a couple kids, die in my bed when I'm 80 years old." She shrugged. "I didn't think I was cut out for the life."

"Wanted? Do you still want a normal life?"

"I dunno, since I've moved here I feel like I don't fit in. Don't get me wrong, I love it here and I've made some great friends, I'm just not sure if I belong here." Dean nodded as he sipped his beer. "Speaking of trying to live normal, why's Sam hunting again?"

Dean took a minute to think before answering her. "Our dad's missing. Sam left college to help me find him."

"He just left? Really?" That was weird. Sam had confided in Laura before he left for Stanford. She knew how much it meant to him to get out of the life and to live a normal one. The most important decision of his life was to go to college and now he was just leaving?

"Well there's more to it. His girlfriend was killed."

Laura waited for more information but Dean didn't elaborate so she didn't ask. "Well, how have you been?" she smiled, trying to lighten the mood a bit. So much for a joyful reunion.

"Okay. Same as always I guess except for my dad going MIA."

Awesome. Didn't look like he was ready to change the topic. "Yeah that's rough, I wouldn't worry too much about it Dean, John's a great hunter and he can sure as hell take care of himself. He's probably just wrapped up in some case he thinks is too dangerous for you to get involved in."

"That's exactly why I should be worried! If he thinks a job is too dangerous for me to get involved in, he obviously needs some help with it." Dean drained his glass and refilled it. "So why move to some no name little town in Louisiana?"

Finally, a more comfortable topic. "I grew up in a small town in Louisiana until... I moved in with Bobby. Not this one in particular obviously. I guess I just didn't know where else to go. I'm not a city person." She skipped over the painful details that Dean was familiar with anyway. Laura's father was killed in a motorcycle accident when she was eight years old. Her mother became depressed and turned to cheap liquor for comfort. Less than a year later she hit Laura while in a drunken rage but that was both the first and last time she would hurt her daughter. Luckily her 4th grade teacher Ms Holloway had noticed the bruise on Laura's cheek and called social services.

She spent about a month in foster care until they managed to track down her estranged uncle whom her father hadn't even known existed, and she was sent to live with him. It was a tough year and she still missed her dad but she considered herself lucky – most hunters had much more traumatizing histories. Laura almost felt guilty for being so sensitive about hers.

"Would you like to start hunting again?" Dean asked her.

"Maybe. I feel like I'm gonna go crazy sometimes, stuck in this town, waiting tables for a living." She laughed and shook her head. "Then again, I don't think I could put up with your life either – living between your car and crappy motel rooms, eating bad diner food every day. Not to mention the broken bones, DIY sutures and the high death rate. And I always hated having to dig up graves. It's gross. And exhausting."

"Oh and waiting on rednecks in a local bar is so much more glamorous," he laughed. He looked at the empty pitcher and back up at Laura, raising an eyebrow. "Wanna do some shots?"

"I'm good, I have to be up early tomorrow anyway, I should probably call it a night..."

"Do you wanna go get some food or something?"

"No really, I'm beat, I should go home." Laura got up to leave but hesitated. She took out a pen from her purse and grabbed Dean's hand. "Here's my number, call me if you guys need any help looking for your dad." She gave him one last smile and walked out.

Laura woke up around ten o'clock the next morning, she had lied to Dean about needing to be up early. She got out of bed and went about her normal routine but something felt different... Wrong. She couldn't shake the feeling that something bad was going to happen. She brought in the newspaper from her porch and sat down with her morning cup of coffee and a bowl of dry cereal. She started to read through the newspaper and realized she was looking out for anything that seemed suspicious. Anything that would be a possible hunt. Oh crap. That's what the feeling was – 'hunter's itch', as she used to call it. The feeling that you were facing a definite hunt or that you were about to find one. She now had a few options to consider. She could ignore the feeling and get on with her everyday life until she eventually went mad and treated everyone with suspicion, believing anyone could be some form of supernatural creature. She could find a local job and pray that working just one last case would scratch the itch. Most recklessly, but most effectively, she could break all her ties to Bon Temps, quit her job at Merlotte's and start hunting again full time. This was the type of decision that took time and a lot of thinking to make.

Instead of thinking, she found herself calling Dean. "Laura?" he answered quickly.

"Have you guys left town yet?"

"We were just about to."

"Where's your next job?"

"East Texas, haunted house, standard vengeful spirit."

"Can I come?"

"What?" Dean voice went up a semitone in surprise.

"I have this sudden urge to hunt again after seeing you two, that's not too far from here so I just thought I could help out and maybe get this urge out of my system."

There was a long, heavy silence at his end of the line. Then there was some arguing between him and Sam (it sounded like Dean was the one arguing against her joining them). "Okay," he sighed. "It'd be fun to work with you one last time." He sure didn't sound all that enthusiastic, but Laura jumped at the opportunity.

"Give me the name of your motel and I'll be there as soon as I can."

"No wait, you'll need to ride with us so we'll come pick you up. What's your address?"

She gave him directions to her house and ran upstairs to pack. She called her boss who was usually generous when people asked to take time off, and luckily he owed Laura a favor from a few months back. He let her take two weeks off as long as she promised to work extra hours when she got back. Laura was way too excited about this considering how much she had gone through to ensure she would never have to hunt again. When she hear the loud roar of the engine of Dean's beautiful Impala outside she ran downstairs with a ridiculous grin on her face. Hopefully this one hunt would scratch her itch. Hopefully she would have a terrible time, and free of the rose tinted glasses of nostalgia, she would never want to hunt again. Hopefully. But probably not.

AN: I hope this chapter doesn't seemed too rushed, I just can't wait to really get into the story! I know Laura's background is really rushed through here but I'll come back to it in more detail, especially about how she never knew Bobby before she was sent to live with him, and about actually living with him and growing up with the Winchesters as well.

Please review if you liked this chapter or have any suggestions or constructive criticism. I'm feeling a bit unsure of myself 'cause I haven't written fiction in a while, so please give me your opinions! I need a bit of critique and (hopefully) reassurance :)

Thanks for reading! x