AN: I thought I'd try something a little different here and attempt an AU. I've never done this before, so please have patience with me. AU's require a completely different approach than Canon-verse and I'm not sure I'm good enough, but I want to at least try. I'm mostly a meta writer so this is a huge challenge for me and I'm a little scared. I mixed things up a little bit by playing with the typical ways Dean and Cas are generally portrayed in most AU's I've read. I hope you're okay with it.

Even though this isn't canon-verse, the story still centers around the paranormal, just in a different way. I don't read or watch anything that isn't in the horror, sci-fi, or paranormal genre, so attempting to write something normal would be impossible for me, but I hope you like the story I'm gonna tell.

(Friendly reminder that there is no current Cas/OC or Dean/OC in this story, so don't panic at the way the beginning sounds. Take a quick look at my profile if you get concerned.) There is a large focus on Cas' past relationship which is necessary to the plot. However there will be nothing sexually explicit, nor will any sexual aspects of that relationship even be discussed.

Rated M for future chapters, but that may be pretty far off. The only immediate warnings are for attitude and maybe a bad word or two, description of violence, and of course M/M flirting.

As usual, I don't own any of the Supernatural characters, I'm just borrowing them for a little while.

Chapter 1

"Really, Lieutenant? Why do you always call me to deal with these people?" Castiel pulled himself up from his sofa, placed a bookmark in the book he was reading and carefully placed his reading glasses down on the table. "Where are they?"

He wrote the name of the location down with a huff and ran his fingers through his dark hair. "You have to be kidding me. I thought I'd finally gotten that place taken off all the lists."

"Obviously you forgot a few or there wouldn't be a couple of morons wandering around out there. Mr. Wallace is pissed." Lt. Rachel Darrinport reported through the phone.

"I'm sure he is." He dropped the pen on the table and shook his head. "I'll meet you out there." He started to hit the end button, but put the phone back to his ear. "Oh, and Rachel, tell your officers to grow a set already."

Rachel laughed into the other end of the line. "Not everyone agrees with your findings professor, including me. Some weird shit goes on out there."

"Yeah, well I'd tell you to grow a set too, but I'm a gentleman, so I'll remain silent. But you people need to issue me an honorary badge or something with all the times I have to get up in the middle of the night for this nonsense."

"Don't lie; you know you're looking forward to seeing me in my uniform." He could almost picture her smirk through the phone.

"Your flirtation is duly noted, but I'm not that easy." He hesitated a moment. "But you owe me dinner, and possibly a movie."

"I think I can handle that. See ya in 30, professor."

Cas ended the call and changed into a pair of old jeans and a flannel shirt. He had to dig his old hiking boots out from under a pile of goods to be donated to the local Salvation Army. Waterproof boots were not really required of him any longer. It had been months since he'd packed all this stuff away, he simply hadn't had the heart to take them down to the donation center yet.

He moved a dusty old blanket out of the way and looked at his old equipment case and frowned. It seemed like a lifetime ago that he decided he'd never open that case again. He'd quit, given it up, moved on to more acceptable pursuits. If he were honest, he'd have to admit that he missed it a little. He thought about going back once or twice, but it didn't take him long to remember that there'd been a damn good reason that he'd quit in the first place.

Cas and Rachel stood in the doorway of what remained of an old barn watching two men creep around, their backs to them, completely unaware of being watched. Cas almost laughed as the taller of the two banged his head on a beam that had partially collapsed. After all the years of neglect, Cas found it astonishing that any part of the structure remained standing at all.

Finally Rachel got her fill of watching the two stumble around and decided to make her presence known. "Okay, put your hands up and turn around slowly." The two men jumped in surprise, but did as they were told and turned around, very slowly, hands raised in the air.

Cas stood quietly beside Rachel, trying unsuccessfully to keep a straight face in light of how these two very large, grown men nearly jumped a full foot in the air at the sound of her voice.

"You're both under arrest for trespassing. You have the right to remain…"

"Sure sweetheart, we know the drill. We weren't trespassing, just got lost, that's all." The shorter one of the two flashed a Hollywood smile at the petite, blond haired officer.

Apparently the smile worked because Rachel lowered the gun, her eyes darted to the electronic gadget tucked into the taller one's breast pocket. She elbowed Cas and grinned. "Yeah, lost is a good word for it, buddy." She holstered her weapon. "I'm Lt. Darrinport of the Sanscrit Police Department." She nodded towards Cas. "This is Dr. Novak, he's a professor at the local university."

The shorter one took a step closer to Cas, green eyes shining in the harsh beam of Rachel's flashlight. "So why does Mayberry PD bring teachers along to arrest trespassers?"

Cas rolled his eyes at the apparent obnoxious idiot. The guy was obviously a full grown adult with the mentality of a college freshman. "Because unfortunately, I seem to be the one they call when the actual officers' time would be wasted by chasing wanna-be Ghostbusters off private property."

The green-eyed man took another step closer to Cas, narrowing his eyes a bit, trying to appear threatening, although Cas got the impression the guy was really just trying to be amusing, or at least amusing to himself. He looked the professor up and down in a mildly suggestive manner before taking a step back and smiling. "You don't look much like a professor, professor. Never saw one in flannel before."

Cas watched the taller guy take a deep breath and cover his eyes with his hand, apparently used to the cocky one's antics. "I am sorry if you find it an offence to my profession, that I chose not to wear a suit and tie to retrieve a couple of dumbasses from the muddy ruins of an old barn."

"Jeez, touchy. It was just an observation, relax." He looked over at the taller man and whispered, a little too loudly, "dick".

The taller man shook his head and ran his fingers through his shoulder length hair to get the stands out of his face, then extended a hand to Cas. I'm Sam Winchester; he's my brother, Dean. I'm sorry you had to come out here this time of night, I know there are classes tomorrow."

Suddenly Lt. Darrinport's radio blared to life. After a few moments of back and forth with the dispatcher, she turned to the three men. "I really hate to do this, but I'm gonna have to take you both in." She pulled out a pair of handcuffs and held it up. "I don't want to use these, but if either of you gives me any trouble, I will. The owner of this property has made it very clear that he has no tolerance for trespassers and there are signs saying so, clearly posted." She pointed to two very visible 'no trespassing' signs along the remains of what once was a barn door. "So again, you have the right to remain silent, anything you say can…"

"Wait Rachel." Cas suddenly caught a glimpse of the shiny silver gun Dean had tucked into his waistband. "Mr. Wallace has given me permission to bring my students here any time I want. He'll be okay as long as I'm here. I'll babysit long enough to make sure they vacate the premises while you take care of your 10- whatever."

"It's a domestic disturbance." Dean offered with a frown. "Some guy's probably beating the shit out of his wife while you two waste your time harassing us."

Cas took a step forward and nodded. "Yes, you're right. That's the point. If you had simply picked up the phone and called the police station to let them know your plans, they would have told you that this location is off limits and referred you to me for a list of places that are legal to investigate. By being inconsiderate to the local authorities, you have taken them from their actual purpose, which is protecting people, not dealing with the likes of you." Cas was now so close to Dean that he could feel the man's breath on his skin.

Rachel stepped up, put a hand on Cas' shoulder and pulled him back. She looked at Dean and shook her head. "For your information, Mr. Winchester, It's Mrs. Tomlinson that has the temper issue and it's her husband that ends up with the bruises. But congrats on your code knowledge. You might wanna work on your sexist assumptions, though."

She turned back to Cas. "You sure you wanna stay with these two. I don't like leaving you alone with them." She glanced back at the two. "And I'd really like to lock the short one up for the night. Ronald and Joe are already en-route. They can handle it without me."

"Hey, I'm not short." He glanced at his brother. "Damn it Sammy, at least slouch a little."

Cas ignored him and put his hand on Rachel's back, turning her toward the patrol car. "I'm a big boy, Rae. I think I can handle these two. When Winnie gets like that, you know it take a female officer to calm her down. I'll be fine. Go."

She opened the car door and got in. "Fine, but dinner, my place Saturday. Seven o'clock. Don't be late." She closed the door, started the car and stuck her head out the window. "I'll even throw in dessert if you promise to wear that suit and tie you claim to own."

Cas smiled and waved. "Go Rachel. I'll see you Saturday." He turned back to the two men as Rachel drove off, lights flashing.

"So, the hot professor's banging the lady Sheriff." Dean grinned, proud of his ingenious deduction.

"She is not a Sheriff and no, I'm not 'banging' her." He narrowed his eyes at Dean. "Did you just call me hot?"

Dean's eyes widened, the smug expression gone from his face. "What? No, of course not."

Sam laughed. "Yeah Dean, I think you did."

"Well, it was just one of those Freudian slip things then."

"Do you even know what that means?" Sam shot him a mocking grin.

"Shut up Sam."

Cas shook his head at the back and forth banter. He pointedly ignored Dean and addressed Sam. "So, what are you two doing here?"

"It's just what it looks like. We heard the stories and thought it'd be an interesting place to investigate. We used to work with a small group in Kansas. We'd heard the lore and decided to check it out."

Cas rolled his eyes. "If you had bothered to check the sources, you would have discovered that the stories are fabricated, as is the case with most legends. It originated as a campfire tale to scare small children."

Dean huffed and looked at Cas. "Come on. What do you teach anyway, Cynicism 101?"

"I teach several classes, actually. Modern folklore and Mythology, Bible as Literature, and plain old English lit for the more mundane students. I also teach a continuing Ed class on paranormal theory."

Dean shrugged. "Well, you know what they say: Those that can, do. Those that can't…"

"Dean, stop it." Sam turned to Cas. "He's not really an ass; he just plays one on TV." He smiled, apparently having had enough of his brother's mouth.

"His sarcasm only masks his own self-inflicted inferiority complex." Cas smiled at Sam who nodded in agreement.

Dean shot them both dirty looks. "No way. You don't get to gang up on me." He turned to Sam, scowling fiercely. "You don't even know this guy. You gonna side with him over your own brother?"

Sam nodded and looked from Cas to Dean. "Yup, think I am."

Cas interrupted before another round of sibling squabbling wasted any more time, this time addressing Dean. "I'll make you a deal; stop pretending you're an ass and maybe we can all learn something tonight."

Dean shrugged. "You willing to stick around and investigate with us? Because I could probably teach you a few things too, professor." He wiggled his eyebrows in a playful manner.

Cas grinned and took another step forward, enjoying the discomfort the closeness seemed to cause the other man. "I highly doubt it." He took a step back, but continued to look Dean in the eyes as though a challenge had been set to see who'd blink first. "You don't seem to have the right equipment."

"Alright, that's enough." Sam pulled his brother back and gave him a disapproving glance.

Cas turned to Sam, his voice quieter than it had been a moment ago. "You don't have the right equipment to do a proper investigation. You also lack discipline and have no understanding of basic procedures."

Dean seemed to finally find his voice again. "Hey, we know procedure."

Cas fought the urge to step back into Dean's personal space again, if only for Sam's benefit. "Then why is it that you are carrying a bottle of holy water and salt?" He pointed to the small backpack that was laying, open on the ground. "And why do you have a gun? Do you plan on shooting a ghost? Or is it loaded with silver bullets in case you happen across a werewolf?" He took a step back and shook his head. "What I see here are two guys that have watched entirely too much television."

Dean felt the need to defend himself and his little brother. Too much television, hell in his mind, he didn't get to watch enough television. "It's basic protection stuff and we got it from books, not television."

Cas questioned him. "Why would you want to keep something away if you are trying to capture evidence of its existence? That thought process seems counterproductive to me."

Sam shrugged and looked at Dean. It was funny to actually see someone not back down from Dean for a change and his brother's reaction was priceless. "The guy's got a point."

"Yeah, I guess. But…"

"And put away that flashlight. Even ten year olds know not to use white light on an investigation." He pulled a filtered light from his pocket and handed it to Sam. "How long were you two members of this 'group' and how many of your investigations included drinking liquor from a silver flask?" He waved to the flask Dean was pulling from his lips.

Dean quickly put the flask back into his jacket pocket and huffed.

When Cas was convinced Dean had gotten the message, he continued. "What I will do is tell you the real story behind this property."

He led them to a picnic table that he used when he brings students out.

"In 1936 this property belonged to Jeff Wiggons. He had two daughters and a son. His wife died during child birth, leaving him to raise three children alone in an economically depressed era. Things were hard. Mr. Wiggons sent his son to live with his sister's family and on November, 26th of that year, he shot his two daughters and set the place on fire, burning to death himself. His sister found the note with his plans in his son's belongings, but it was too late."

"The owner of this property is that man's son. He legally changed his name to Wallace to avoid the notoriety. He is now a 77 year old man who does not want his family's tragedy to be spread across the internet and used for thrills by adrenalin junkies hoping to catch a ghost."

"So no witch coven, no mass murder. The internet says there were satanic rituals here and the land is cursed." Sam questioned.

"No, none of that is true. Just an old man's personal loss and tragedy. A real story with real victims. It's not someplace to be trampled on like a playground."

Sam nodded. "I get that, I do. But are there ghosts here? Surly that incident alone had to leave some type of psychical trace."

Cas smiled. "I guess that depends on your point of view. If you want to see a ghost, you will. If you don't, then you won't"

Dean finally spoke up, his words seemingly sincere for the first time that night. "So I take it you're not a believer."

"It's not really that black and white." The corner of his lips raised a little as if he were trying not to smile at Dean. "We can't disprove the existence of ghosts. It's not scientifically possible. But until I see irrefutable evidence, I tend to err on the side of caution instead of foolishly accepting fairy tales as reality."

AN: Thank for reading. I hope you liked the first chapter. I'll try to update each Friday. Please let me know what you think so far.