Chapter 1 - Gone Hunting

The geological center of the United States lies in the state of Kansas in a town called Lebanon. It just so happens that some very important people live there, though they are mostly unknown to the population. Two couples live in discreet anonymity inside a large bunker type dwelling, affectionately known as 'the Bat Cave' by its inhabitants. The two brothers, often referred to as 'the boys' by those who know and love them, had quietly saved the world on several occasions, while the said world had gone on about it's business unaware of it's impending doom, or that it's people had been saved from it.

In addition to saving their own world, the boys had recently been called upon to save yet another world, a totally different kind of world. They managed to do so, but not without a few painful consequences.

Two weeks had passed since Sam and Dean Winchester had come back home from their harrowing experience that had lasted over a month on their end, to their loving soul mates, Katie and Maggie Rosetti. It had been a wonderful two weeks, overall, with plenty of loving, along with some tears and laughter, and a lot of self-reflection. They had had to leave the girls they loved, the two sisters who had turned out to be their soul mates, chosen by the head Angel of Love himself, and brought to them from a parallel world through a portal that resided in the back seat of Dean's Impala.

The boys' recent experience had told them like nothing else ever had that life could be snuffed out in the blink of an eye, that one had to latch on to what was good in life before it was too late. Or maybe other experiences had told them that in the past, but they just didn't have anyone in their lives then to make the realization matter all that much. But this new found realization had led to each of them proposing to their own mate within two days of their return, and of course, both girls had said yes.

But as wonderful as the homecoming had been, there were some not so happy moments. Moments that came about when Dean had to confess to Maggie that he had turned into a demon on the other world, and while in that form he had cheated on her. And moments that came about when the boys found out what the girls had been up to in their absence. The knowledge of their escapades had made the boys furious, but it was an anger born of fear, stemming from the very soul searching that had led them to propose soon after they got back themselves. The fear that life was too short, and could be taken away without warning.

True, they had to concede that the girls had done especially well, and secretly they were both very proud of them. The girls had been smart, and careful, and if truth be told what they had done and how they had done it, had kind of blown them away. Nevertheless, they had been out there dealing with demons, and the very thought of that drove icy fear into their hearts.

It will be completely understandable then, to hear of the reaction they had when, two weeks after arriving home, after all the antics had been dissected and talked about until there was nothing left, after all of them had settled down and were just happy that they were all still in the land of the living, the girls dropped yet another bombshell on them.

It happened at breakfast. The boys were finally feeling fairly mellow after going through their own harrowing experiences, and then coming home to find out the shenanigans that had been going on while they were gone. Yes, fairly mellow. So it seemed completely out of the blue when Katie said, rather matter-of-factly, "Maggie and I are going to be hunters, and we want you to teach us."

"What?" said Dean softly, while Sam just stared in complete shock. "I don't think I heard that right."

"Sure you did," said Maggie. "You just don't want to acknowledge it. "she said, reaching for the milk. "We always thought we wanted to be hunters, and after what we did, and very well, I might add, we are sure of it. We are going to be hunters."

"Over my dead body!" Dean exclaimed. "There is no freaking way you two are ever going to be hunters. You've had your one and only hunt."

"Sam?" Katie said, looking at Sam, "What do you have to say about this?" she asked.

Sam looked a bit nervous and glanced at his brother. "I don't like it Katie, I kind of agree with Dean," he said. "It's too dangerous. If you were out there with us, we'd be too worried about you and we'd screw up and get one of us killed. Or worse, one of you."

"Fine, then, we won't hunt together. Maggie and I will be our own team. I mean we do have our own car after all." Maggie was referring to the '71 Barracuda they had bought while the boys were away, though it was currently in parts in the garage awaiting a new hemi engine and a few other parts to be delivered.

"No!" said Dean. "You will not. It's just not gonna happen," he said emphatically. "Forget about it!"

Maggie glared at him icily and said, "And just what do you think we should do while you two are out getting into god knows what kind of trouble? Are we just supposed to sit here and knit sweaters?. Maybe you'd rather we just bake and stock the freezer with pies!"

"That's a good idea," said Dean.

"Look," said Katie. "I know this isn't something you've even contemplated before, so we understand it might be hard for you to accept at first. But we can talk about it and come to some kind of arrangement you can live with."

"The only arrangement I can live with," said Dean, "is one where you two are not out hunting."

Katie's jaw dropped in surprise, and she made an 'I can't believe this' noise. "What? You aren't even willing to discuss it?"

"Nope," said Dean, who was going right on eating his breakfast. "No point in discussing it. Not gonna happen."

"Dean," said Sam, seeing something in the girls' faces that he was sure Dean was missing. "It wouldn't hurt to discuss it some."

Dean looked at Sam in total surprise. "Are you out of your freaking mind?" he asked. "Do you really want your future wife out there fighting monsters?"

"No, I don't," said Sam. "But I also know how they feel about being told what they can and can't do. I'm the one that got that lecture, remember, and I haven't forgotten it. So I think we really ought to discuss it."

"You discuss it then," Dean said, getting up and putting his dishes in the sink. "I'm not discussing it, and I'm not changing my mind. It's just not gonna happen," he said, as he stalked out of the kitchen.

After Dean left the kitchen, Katie said, "Sam, you need to help him understand something. We love you guys with every fiber of our being. But we are grown adults, capable of making our own decisions. And if he is going to be like this about it, then he's not going to like the results. If you won't teach us, we will find someone who will, or we will learn on the job. But we're doing this."

"Katie, please don't." Sam said pleadingly. " Please reconsider this idea."

"Sammy, sweetheart, I love you. But Maggie and I, we've talked this over for hours, and our minds are made up. I know I sound as much like Dean does, making a flat out statement and I'm sorry. But we want this. We want your blessing and your help, we do. But with it or without it, we are doing this."

Sam sighed, sat back in his chair and shook his head.

"I hate saying this," he said. "But it sounds like you're not willing to reconsider, even if we were to discuss it. All you want is time to talk us into it. And I can't, my heart won't let me, I just can't say that this is all right with me, it isn't. So if you do this, then you do it knowingly against my wishes. I'm sorry," he said, sadly, and he too, got up and walked away.

A few hours later Katie and Maggie went to the study where they found the boys pretending to be looking up something. They sat down and waited until the boys got tired of pretending they weren't there, and looked up at them.

"Look, guys, we get it, we do," said Katie. "But try to look at it from our point of view. We are sorry that what we feel we are inside is something you don't want us to be, or do. But that something is part of what makes us your soul mates, it's part of who we are, don't you see that?"

"No," said Dean. "Yes... I don't know.

"We also have skills that you don't have that we can bring to the table. You know what we did. We were great. We ran that con perfectly." Maggie said, with excitement.

Dean looked down at the table, pissed. Finally he looked up and said, loudly, "Yes, you ran a great con. But it was against a demon for god's sake. You could have been killed. You got lucky."

"We did NOT just get lucky," Katie argued, also raising her voice. "We were careful, it was carefully planned and well thought out, we had backup, we even had a plan B. So please, whatever else you think, don't devalue what we did and call it luck! That's just insulting!"

"You're right, okay, I'm sorry," Dean said in a more reasonable tone. "I do happen to think you did well. I'm actually proud of you. But don't you understand how scared we are, how scared for you we would have been if we'd known at the time what you were doing?"

"Of course we do," Katie answered. "Soon, you two are going to get back out on the road, now that we don't have to stay locked up in here. How do you think we will feel then? We'd rather be with you, knowing what's going on, and helping, rather than being stuck back here just waiting."

"I get that," said Dean. "Look, You can be a great help, back here. You're a researcher aren't you? Ever since we lost Keven, it's been damn hard. We need someone here to do background stuff like he used to do."

"And that's fine," said Katie. "We don't mind that. We just don't want that to be all we do." She took a deep breath and said, "Listen. What we did while you were gone, it made us feel alive. Don't forget, we aren't strangers to fighting. We've been in knife fights, gun fights, hand to hand fights. We've run from cops, we've pulled cons. We've been thieves."

"And what we did with that demon," she continued, "well it made us remember that sometimes that life made us feel good. There was something exhilarating about it. I know how bad that sounds, but I'm sure you two feel it when you hunt too. Please don't deny us that."

"Dean," Maggie cut in. "Let me ask you something."

Dean turned to her and raised his eyebrows, waiting.

"Would you guys give up hunting if we asked you to?"

That set them aback a little and they did some of their silent communications. "Baby, that would be asking us not to be who we are. Hunting is all we know. What would we do if we didn't hunt? We don't have it in us to know something bad is out there, and just sit here and not do anything."

Maggie stared at him significantly. "Don't you see, that's exactly what you are asking us to do. Don't you see we feel the same way, and we have the skills to do something about it."

Dean sighed and shook his head. "It's not the same. I don't see it. And even if I do, I can't… I just can't bring myself to agree to this. Please try to understand."

"You won't even give it some time? Consider it for a while?"

"I can't. I'm not changing my mind on this one."

Katie then turned to Sam. "You haven't said a word this whole time. Whose side are you on?

"Katie," he said. "It's not a matter of taking sides. It's a matter of how I feel. And no matter how Dean feels, I'm not happy about putting you two in harm's way. I'm sure there are things you can help us with. It's not always a fight. But you don't have to be hunters to do things to help."

"Soooo, you're saying it's the concept of us being hunters that's the problem here?" she asked. "It's okay for us to be researchers, or helpers, or sit in the back seaters, while you go off and do the actual hunting part? Does that about wrap it up?"

Sam and Dean did their unspoken communications again, and then they started nodding. "Yeah," said Dean, "that about sums up how we feel."

"I see," said Katie, evenly. She looked from one to the other. "Do you consider us your equals, in this relationship?"

"Of course we do." they both said.

"And you don't see that what you just both agreed is the way you feel about this argument we're having, is that we," pointing back and forth between herself and Maggie, "are somehow less equal than you two are?"

Both boys frowned and shrugged and shook their heads. "No," Sam said. "It doesn't mean that at all." And Dean agreed.

"Okay then," said Katie, looking at Maggie for overt agreement. "We'll just have to see how it all turns out." As they turned to leave the room, Katie looked back and said, "Oh, and thanks for at least discussing it. I think we all know where we stand now."

"So what do you think?" Dean asked Sam after the girls had left.

Sam grimaced. "I don't know. I just hope they get over it soon."

"You think they will?" Dean asked.

"Probably. Maybe. Hopefully. I mean how long can they keep it up? I think they exhausted all their arguments," Sam said, but he wasn't all that sure he was telling the truth, even to himself.

"The problem," said Dean, shaking his head, "is that I get it. I get everything they're saying man, I do. It's just every time I think of them out there actually confronting the kinds of things we do, something turns my stomach into knots."

"I hear that," Sam agreed. "But Dean, if they really decided to go do something, like maybe when we're gone, we can't stop 'em. We can't tie 'em down ya know? Maybe , and I'm just sayin' maybe, we ought to give in a little."

"God!" said Dean. "I don't even wanna think about that. Let's just give it a day or two. Maybe they'll back off. If not, well then, I guess we'll see." He shook his head again and said, "Let's just watch the games today, maybe get our minds off of this for a bit."

"Yeah it is almost game time. Guess we missed lunch."

"I'll go grab some beers and something to eat. I'll meet you in the viewing room."

When Dean got to the kitchen, Katie and Maggie were just finishing up some lunch. He went to the fridge and got out some beers and the makings for sandwiches. He looked over at the girls and asked, "So how you guys doing, you okay?"

"Yeah, we're fine," said Maggie.

"Yep, Just fine," said Katie.

"Ahhh, guess you guys are mad, huh? Since you didn't call us for lunch."

"You don't need us," said Maggie smiling. "You're perfectly capable of making your own lunches."

"Huh," said Dean. "Yep, you're mad."

He made two sandwiches in silence and put everything away again. He noted that the dishes he used at breakfast were still in the sink, while everything else had been cleaned up. He walked toward the door, turned back, and made his 'okay if that's how you want it' face and left.

"See the girls?" asked Sam, when Dean joined him in the viewing room.

"Yeah, I did. They are... 'fine,'" he said, emphasizing the word. "I think we're being punished. They ate lunch without us, said we didn't need them, we could get our own lunch."

"Ah," said Sam.

When dinner time came and went with still no sign of the girls, who usually would be with them at a time like this, Sam got up and said "I'm gonna go check on the girls."

Dean got up too and followed right behind him. They weren't in the study or the kitchen. They weren't in the workout room or the park or the restaurant. They went through the bunker calling their names. They weren't in any of the libraries either. When they weren't in the bedrooms they shared with the boys, they stopped and looked at each other. "Oh no," said Sam.

"Christ," said Dean, and they turned to go to the room the girls had shared when they first got there.

Sam tapped on the door. "Who is it?" one of them said.

"Come on Katie, don't do this. You know who it is."

"I used to think I knew who you were. Now I'm not so sure."

Both boys sighed and closed their eyes in frustration.

"Maggie?" Dean yelled. "Don't you think this is just a little bit childish?"

"No," came the answer.

"Okay, fine, have it your way," yelled Dean. "When you're ready to grow up again, you know where to find me," he added, and stalked away.

"Katie," said Sam, "It's me. Can we talk please?"

There was a long pause, then, "I'm sorry Sam, maybe tomorrow."

Sam thumped his head against the wall and sighed. Then he went to his room to sleep in an empty bed.

In the morning the boys met up in the kitchen. "Any sign of the girls yet?" Sam asked.

"Nope," Dean answered. "But I haven't been here that long."

"I'll go see if they'll talk to us yet," he said. Then he turned back to face Dean. "Dude, I gotta tell ya, I don't feel good about this. I don't like sleeping in an empty bed. Maybe this is one we shouldn't try to win."

Dean sighed, leaning his hands on the counter and lowering his head. "Yeah maybe you're right. I don't like it, but goddamn it I don't like things this way either."

Sam nodded. "I'll go tell them we'll talk some more," and headed off to their room. In a few minutes he came back in a panic. "Dean, they aren't there."

"Are you sure?"

"Sure I'm sure. When they didn't answer, I opened the door and looked. They aren't there."

"God I hate this," Dean said quietly. "Okay maybe they just went home to talk to their mother," he said, taking a bite of his toast. "Isn't that what girls do?"

"Yeah, maybe," Sam said. For some unknown reason, that made him open the door to the garage as though he could see some trace of them having used the portal. "Uh, Dean? I don't think they went home to see their mom."

"Why not?" Dean asked with his mouth full.

"Because when they do that, the Impala usually stays in the garage."

"What!" shouted Dean, jumping up from his chair and joining Sam at the door? "Son-of-a-bitch!" he yelled. "They took my goddamn car!" He kept pacing around and rubbing his face and his hair and mumbling about how he couldn't believe they would take his Baby. But then it hit him, "Maggie!" he said in a panic. "Maggie's gone!"

"Yes she is," said Sam unhappily. "Along with Katie." He glared at Dean. "Why couldn't you have just given an inch Dean? Now they're both gone to god knows where."

"Oh, so this is all my fault now?" Dean challenged him. "You had nothing to do with it, is that what you're saying?"

"I'm saying that I tried to tell you to discuss it, because you know they don't do what people tell them. And that includes us."

"Yeah well I heard you telling them you agreed with me, that you didn't want them to be hunters either. So don't you put this all on me."

Sam tried to calm down. "Look, Dean!" he said. "The more time we spend arguing, the more time we're giving them to get away."

Dean took in a long breath and let it out slowly. "Okay You're right," he said. "You're right. We need to approach this like a job. Find out where they went off to."

"Maybe they left something in the room," Sam said. "I didn't really look for anything like that."

They all but ran to the girls' room. At first there didn't seem to be any notes or anything. Then Sam spied a post card leaning up against one of the night stand lamps. He went over and picked it up. "Dean," he said, holding the card out for Dean to read. The card was a scenic view of Kansas City. All it said was, "Gone Hunting. Wish you were here." and then in smaller writing at the bottom was added," Don't take this card as a clue. You'd be wasting your time."

Dean sat down on the bed in disbelief. "Oh dear god, what have we done?" he asked himself softly.

Dear readers,

This story is a sequel to "Warping to Destiny." If you haven't read that one yet, you may want to start there. As usual, I would enjoy some feedback about the chapter, what you liked or didn't like. I am also in the process of writing a non-fanfiction book, and your feedback on this one can help me continue to improve my writing. Thank you for reading.

SamGirl27 aka Kat