Disclaimer: I truly wish I did own them. But alas they do not belong to me; I merely borrow them for my own, and hopefully your amusement. The characters of Dean and Sam and the ever present Impala, naturally, belong to the studio. Emily, Chloe, Ben and all the other ones you don't recognise are mine :) please don't sue… I'm poor enough as it is.

Author's note: This story and its sequel 'Winchester Widows' fit into a timeline approximately three years from the end of season two. Kinda AU but not really…. I really hope you like it.

WINCHESTER WIVES

APRIL 12th 2010

"He's not here."

I grinned when she nearly jumped clean out of her skin at the sound of my voice coming from what was, a moment earlier, an empty room. Poor girl wasn't used to the sneak and creep ways of hunters yet.

I flitted past her into the hall and disappeared into the kitchen. It looked like a bomb had gone off in it. As usual. It didn't matter how many times I told Dean not to leave ammo on the bench he never listened. Pig headed bastard. I wondered when he was going to come home. I missed yelling at him.

"I know" Chloe said miserably plopping herself down into one of the wooden dinning chairs, running her fingers along the groves of the turned arms.

I gripped her shoulder, giving it a friendly squeeze.

"It's just a poltergeist." I said turning to make a start at the seemingly endless pile of dishes. It's just me and Ben. How many dishes can be made dirty by one pregnant woman and an 18 month old? A hell of a lot. That's how many.

"You say that like it's no big deal." Chloe complained pushing out the chair and grabbing the tea towel off the hook by the sink and drying the first of the plates.

"My boyfriend. Your husband. They are out there doing God knows what. Probably getting themselves killed and you're standing there like there's nothing to worry about."

"God might not know what they're doing but I do."

"Huh" she said, sliding her backside up the cupboards to sit on the bench. I remember when I could do that. I hate being pregnant. She looked at me so pitifully, just like Ben does when he wants a cookie half an hour before bed. Or when Dean wants to get me into bed when we've only been up for half an hour. Either way I cannot resist that look

Sighing exaggeratingly I walked, Dean may call it waddling but I do not waddle, into the living room and plonked myself in Dean's reclining chair.

I love this chair. Not that I would ever admit that to Dean. It's this hideous shade of green covered with stains that I really don't want to know the cause of. It stands out against the pale gold colour I had him and Sam paint the living and dinning room walls last summer.

The stuffing is coming out of holes in the arms that have been poorly sowed together with what looks suspiciously like yellow ribbon and one of the feet is broken so the entire thing sits on an angle.

I still love this chair. I love it because it smells like him. And when he's off hunting I sit in it and it's almost like having his arms wrapped tightly around me.

That said I'd still like to have it recovered in maroon fabric. But a girl has to pick her battles wisely.

Emily is Dean's polar opposite. The ying to his yang.

No doubt Sam's brother would be able to turn that in to some sort of sexual innuendo and I guess that was why when Sam first introduced me to his brother's wife I was surprised. I don't know what I was expecting? A playboy bunny? A nurse who liked to play doctor?

Nah that wouldn't work, I'd later found out Dean hated hospitals so why would he marry a nurse? All I knew for sure was that Emily was not what I was expecting. For one the girl is insanely tall, I feel like a midget next to her. Yet I suppose Dean's not short and both Sam and he are over 6" tall. It's really sweet the way they can look into each others eyes all the time. I've got to stand on my tippee toes just to reach Sam's chin.

But it's not the physical attributes that make Emily such a weird match for Dean. She's basically quiet, not so much around Dean and Sam because they are her family, but in mixed company she is nervous and withdrawn while Dean is always the life of a party. I don't know the reason Emily is so careful. Yeah that was it. She was careful not to let people get too close. Despite this anyone could see she loved her family. After dinner her and Dean would curl up together on the couch with little Ben in their lap and watch TV. Not even Sam's constant teasing could get Dean to give up that favourite pastime. And now there was a new Winchester on the way. I never believed my mum and grandma when they said pregnant women glow. In my experience pregnant women tend to be needy, swollen and all together miserable. Not Emily though. You should see her and Dean; they're both so excited about this new baby. I don't know the full story but something tells me it wasn't all smooth sailing with Ben. I'll have to ask her about it sometime.

Not now though. Now all I can think about is Sam. He only told me about his 'job' a few weeks ago. Naturally I was a bit weirded out, it's not everyday that your boyfriend tells you he's a ghost buster.

I was nervous. Tonight was the first night he'd gone out hunting with my prior knowledge. We'd spent the day at his apartment, a little place a few streets over from Emily and Dean's, just talking about nothing until Dean had roared around in the Impala to pick him up, narrowly missing the letterbox.

So hear I was, sitting in Emily's living room at just past midnight. Watching the street for a pair of headlights and the familiar rumble of Dean's car to bring Sam home to me.

I knew Chloe was unfamiliar with the various nasties that our men fought on an almost daily basis so I decided to show her something Dean had given me on our wedding day.

With difficulty I stood up, my left hand resting affectionately on my swollen belly and crossed the room to a tall bookshelf. Hidden among various paperbacks, magazines and DVD's was a collection of books not normally found in the living room of a young couple.

I pulled out Leonard Cronsti's Encyclopaedia of Demons circa 1352 and went and sat next to my soon to be sister in-law. She may not know it yet, hell Sam may no know it yet, but they were going to get married some day. Dean and I had a bet they'd be married within a year. However if it looks like he's going to win I may have to tell Sam to move the date forward a few weeks. Dean's insufferable when he wins a bet. And hey, all's fair in love and war right?

Chloe asked why Dean gave me a crusty old book about the citizens of hell as a wedding present. I explained that Dean said that he wanted to share every aspect of his life with me, even the bits he didn't like all that much.

Chloe swooned at the romance and I couldn't help but roll my eyes at her. I really liked Sam's girlfriend but we didn't have much in common. I came from the wrong side of the tracks while Chloe met Sam at Stanford where her Dad lectured on International business. I was tall and lanky, when I wasn't pregnant, the opposite of Chloe's short plump Latino figure. While I knew about every aspect of the Winchester job description from the get go Sam had tried to keep it a secret from Chloe for as long as possible. It wasn't until she accused him of cheating on her that he was forced to tell her what he really did so late at night.

The girl hadn't handled it all that well, she'd at first thought he was just trying to make her drop the subject. Then she thought he was insane. Now Sam isn't the most normal of guys but he is definitely not crazy… at least not most of the time.

Then when he finally convinced her that he wasn't crazy or having an affair she freaked out and wouldn't let him leave their flat. That was why while Dean and Sam were off killing something, hang on can you technically kill something that's already dead?

Anyway I'm off the subject. That was why I was sitting in the living room babysitting my brother in law's girlfriend instead of in bed fast asleep. Or at least in bed trying to fall asleep but secretly waiting until I heard the car pull up before I closed my eyes.

Hey I guess we have something in common after all.

We sat together comfortably on the squishy couch and Emily flicked through the pages until she found the one she wanted.

There was an inscription in Latin which I couldn't read but Em said roughly translated into 'the angry dead' under the inscription was a detailed picture drawn in black ink on the faded yellow parchment of the paper. It showed a ghost.

Emily tut tutted at me when I called it a ghost.

"A ghost can be friendly"

"Like as in Casper"

Em rolled her eyes at me again. Usually I'd be insulted but something told me with Em it was more a sign of affection like when Dean and Sam spent hours insulting and hitting each other only to decide suddenly to go out to the football together.

I've come to the conclusion that this family is just plain bizarre and that my life would be simpler if I just accepted it and moved on.

Emily explained that a poltergeist was usually a spirit that died a violent death and instead of accepting that their life had ended and moving on they remained bound to earth. Unable to participate in life and forced to relive their violent ends the spirits usually went crazy.

"And you know homicidal" Em said with a flourish.

"Wow I feel sooo much better knowing my boyfriend if fighting a lunatic ghost with a tendency to kill people." I said.

Emily laughed "And here I was thinking I was the only one who could be that blatantly sarcastic"

Emily slipped an arm around my shoulder and gave me a hug.

'You should be comforted. If you'd let me finish my lesson I would have told you that poltergeists are relatively easy to kill. Look the boys have this down pat. According to Dean he took out his first poltergeist when he was eight. All they have to do is find out where the ghost's remains are, dig them up and salt and burn them. Then bye bye ghostie."

"Sam, duck!" Dean yelled as he fired the shotgun just inches from his brothers head, Sam hit the ground with a thud and came up spitting dirt from the recently dug grave.

"You couldn't have given me a bit more warning" he yelled at his trigger happy older brother.

"Oh sorry next time I'll just let it push you into a grave. My bad bro"

Sam mumbled under his breath a comeback his dad would have smacked him for.

"I heard that" Dean said his voice filled with something that sounded very much like laughter.

"Bite me"

"No thanks," he said with that cocky grin Sam hated and every woman on the earth seemed to love "Em's the jealous type."

Pulling himself to his feet and brushing grime off his jeans.

"Can we just do this shit so I can go home" he replied, refusing to rise to his brother's bait.

"Hey you're the one who was lying down on the job"

Grimacing at that line Sam asked incredulously "You're still using that joke?"

"It's an oldie but a goodie"

"Dude they were telling that joke when they were building the pyramids. It's not old it's ancient"

"Well you'd know all about that Haley Joel and as much as I love these bantering matches we have its cold and I want to go home to my wife. So crack the coffin already and let's kill this bastard for good. Okay?"

Sam couldn't think of a comeback so he settled for turning his back on his smart ass brother and smashed the roof of the coffin with the spade.

Fishing through the splinters of rotten wood Sam had the feeling that his brother wouldn't be going home any time soon.

"Ah Dean." He called to his brother who was already packing the rest of their stuff into the impala's boot. "We seem to have a problem"

"What you run out of salt? Because I nocked this off the table on the way out" he said tossing Sam a salt shaker in the shape of a baby duck.

Sam raised an eyebrow at his brother "this happy home shit has sent you round the bend. Baby duck salt shakers?"

Dean glared at his little brother "Em's friend gave then to us as a wedding present. She came around the other day for coffee so Em said she had to have them on the table."

Sam just shook his head

"Hey she's six months pregnant. You do not argue with a woman who is six months pregnant. You just smile and nod your head and back away slowly."

Sam grinned "so you're likening talking to your wife to facing off with a werewolf? Oh I can't wait to tell Em that"

"You wouldn't"

Sam grinned again.

"You would"

Dean let out a sigh. "Well Mr 'everyone loves a psychic' what's the big problem if you didn't run out of salt?"

"There's no body"

"WHAT"

"Coffin's empty"

"Crap… I guess you did all that digging for nothing."

Sam's eye's opened wide. "You slimy bastard! You knew this grave was empty and you made me dig it anyway."

Grinning Dean held out his hand to help Sam out of the grave. And then he let go. Sam fell into the empty coffin. Looking up to see his brother laughing his ass off Sam cursed.

"I may be a cold hearted son of a bitch but, as we have the same mother you would be too, wouldn't you brother?" he chuckled and walked back to the car leaving Sam to hall himself out of the grave.

"Yeah well" Sam muttered as he, feeling like a twelve year old, slid into the passenger seat "the Impala's going to get all dirty."

So what did you think? Please review and let me know your opinion, I don't mind if you tell me it's the worst thing you've ever read (I would prefer it if it wasn't though) The next chapter will be up ASAP. It's called "The beginning" and it's about how Dean and Emily first met.