Word Count: 5748 words (so looooooooooooooooooong)

Warnings: Some language, near death experiences - you know everyday problems for the average hunter amiright?

AN: This one is so loooooong. On my google docs, it's like thirteen full pages long, yikes! I've been working on this one for at least a week. Anyway, I sincerely hope that you enjoy this one. Thanks so much to the people who have reviewed to my story or have sent me messages of support for all the stories I've written. I really appreciate them. I think I actually started crying at a few of them. I had no idea that people read - much less liked - the stuff I write. So thank you so so so much!

Disclaimer: I don't own Supernatural

The Mistake

She was sitting alone at one of the tables in the library of the Bunker - reading a book that she had started God knows when and had just gotten around to continuing - when she heard a crash. She shot up out of her seat and grabbed the weapon that was closest to her - the damn Samurai sword that Dean had been playing with not too long ago - and slunk around to where the crashing noise was coming from. She turned around the corner and started to swing the sword blindly until she heard a "Hey!"

She looked up and found Sam helping Dean off the floor. The older Winchester looked completely hammered. He was giggling - for crying out loud.

"What the hell happened?" She asked, rushing to the brothers, helping Sam help Dean up to his feet.

"Dean might have had a little too much to drink at the bar tonight." Sam explained. He didn't look nearly as bad as his older brother did, although he did look worn down from his brother's drunken antics.

"The bartender was hot." Dean stated matter-of-factly. A shot a jealousy - green and sticky - pumped through her chest. That was before she reminded herself that he was drunk out of his mind and didn't know what he was talking about.

"That's because she didn't let your glass go empty." Sam returned, looking down at his brother admonishingly.

"My kind of gal." Dean commented, smiling up at him.

"Did he really just say 'gal'?" She found herself asking. She didn't even know that word was in Dean's vocabulary. Sam nodded and rolled his eyes, his infamous bitch face peeking through his expression.

"Sammy, can we go back?" Dean gave his brother the puppy eyes and she almost gave in - even though he wasn't even talking to her.

"No." The younger brother deadpanned. How did he not concede then and there?

"But I didn't get her number." Dean complained. He then looked at her with his puppy eyes. "Please?"

"No, Dean." It took everything she had not to give in to those green eyes of his. "You're going to sleep this off - hopefully." She looked at Sam. "I've got him." He nodded his consent and she put Dean's arm around her shoulder. She and Dean started the difficult trek to his room. Sam just watched the two - Dean stumbling around and her picking him back up again - and thought that if this didn't get them together, then nothing would.

She opened the door to Dean room and practically carried him to his bed. He plopped down onto his sheets. She watched as he struggled to sit up, reaching for his boot laces.

"Jesus Christ, Dean." She said as she made her way to the side of the bed. His usually nimble fingers faltered with the laces and she pushed his hands away. "Let me do it." She untied his boots and pulled them off, placing them at the side of his bed before looking back at him. Her eyes widened and she pulled back a bit when she found his face merely inches away from hers.

"Do you know how hot you look in that shirt?" He asked, his voice husky and his eyes darkening in the room's dim lighting. She blushed ferociously and looked away - anywhere but him, to be honest. "Hotter than that bartender." She could hear the smile in his voice. "But you look hot all the time. Even Sammy agrees." She looked up at him, surprised that Dean would say something like that - and to her of all people.

Did he know how she felt towards him? God, she hoped not. There was no room in their lives for relationships. And besides, he would never feel the same way about her. She wasn't like all the other girls that the older Winchester had set his sights on. And she didn't mean that like she 'wasn't like most girls'. She was just… her. He probably thought of her as a sister, anyways.

So you can imagine her surprise when he pressed his lips to hers. He was kissing her. Jesus Christ, it was happening. And part of her didn't want to stop. But a louder and more insistent part of her told her that she needed to stop here before it could get any farther. She would be taking advantage of him and she would feel the guilt crash onto her like a ton of bricks the next morning if she stayed now.

"Not tonight, Dean." She said after slowly pulling away from him.

"But why?" he asked, confused. He wasn't used to women turning him down like this, even in his drunken state.

She sighed. "Because you're drunk." She said as she got up off his bed and walked to his door. "And I don't wanna have to be the first one to deal with your massive hangover tomorrow morning." She commented, trying to keep it light with a smirk in his direction. She stepped outside and closed his bedroom door before crossing the hallway to her room, opening her own door and crawling under the covers. She fell asleep, thinking about what had spurred Dean to kiss her not too long ago.

She was in the kitchen the next morning, making breakfast for her, Sam, Kevin, and Dean - if he ever brought his ass to the kitchen that day.

"So," Sam said as he dug a plate out of one of the cabinets. "How was last night?"

"Nothing happened, if that's what you're asking." She deadpanned. In her mind, nothing had happened, because nothing could happen between Dean and her. He probably wouldn't even remember what had happened, so why should she dwell on it? She wouldn't be stuck in the past like a damn teenager. Even though his lips were softer than she had imagined and his stubbled skin had felt nice - like, really nice - against hers. And he had even more freckled when she looked closer. All things holy, she would love to count the freckles on his face and then search the rest of his- she shook her head, struggling to get the inappropriate images out of her mind.

Sam looked at her with an odd expression before filling up his plate with eggs and bacon and sitting down with Kevin at the table. She joined the two soon, listening to Kevin basically fanboy over the tablet he was translating.

She barely noticed Dean enter the room until she heard a groan. She looked up and gave the older Winchester a once over, examining the damages from his wild night. His hair was disheveled and he still wore his clothes from the night before. He caught her gaze and his lips parted, as if he wanted to say something to her. But he shut his mouth and stalked over to the stove, where she had left food for him. The group had fallen into a comfortable silence as they ate.

She was cleaning the mess from breakfast when she heard Dean's voice from behind her. She turned around from the sink and noticed that they were alone in the kitchen. Kevin had probably went back to his room to go over the tablet and she didn't know where Sam would be.

"What do you need, Dean?" She asked, turning back to the hot soapy water.

"So, last night- " He began. He sounded nervous.

"Dean, it's okay." She interrupted him, trying to sweep the subject under a rug so that it wouldn't get worse. She had hoped that he would have forgotten the night before.

"Yeah, but," She heard him pause before continuing on, "I'm sorry for kissing you."

She reached up and slid the last plate away in its proper place in the cupboard. Her t-shirt had ridden up, revealing a little bit of her smooth skin to the older Winchester. "You were drunk." She supplied, wishing that it would end with that.

She had no such luck. She should have known that Dean wouldn't have ended with her explanation to his behavior. "It - it was a mistake." He stated, his voice seemed strained for some reason.

A pain shot through her chest and she froze in her place. This was exactly what she had been dreading ever since she realized that she liked him. She turned around to face him after a sharp inhale of breath and replied, "We all make mistakes, Dean." She didn't meet his eyes, though. She just couldn't bring herself to do it.

"I could have taken advantage of you." He said jokingly. She could hear the smile in his voice.

"You take advantage of me?" She laughed. "Winchester, you were the one that was hammered out of his mind last night." She laughed again, leaning against the counter and finally looking up at his face. Sure enough, he was smiling.

"I don't want what happened to make things awkward." He stated, serious again. He still looked anxious, but she didn't comment on it.

"It won't." She reassured him. "It's gonna take a whole hell of a lot more to make things awkward around here."She smiled sincerely at him, placing her hand on his arm.

"Okay then." He nodded and looked down at her hand. She hesitantly let her hand drop back to her side.

"Make sure to stay hydrated, Dean." She advised as she walked out of the kitchen and towards the library, where she was going to spend the day, researching possible theories on a case. Although she knew that she wouldn't get any work done - not with thoughts of the man she left in the kitchen and their conversation running through her mind like an Olympic sprinter.

She was so intune with her own thoughts that she didn't notice Sam standing behind the wall, thinking over what he had just heard - which was complete bullshit from both sides. He walked into the kitchen and found Dean gulping down a glass of water.

"Really?" Sam asked incredulously.

"What?"

"That was utter bullshit just then." The younger brother accused.

"How would you know?" Dean challenged him.

"Because I remember the things you said at the bar last night." Sam pointed at his brother, annoyed with the way he was handling what had happened the night before. "I was there, too, Dean." Sam added before grabbing a water bottle from the refrigerator and walking away to the library, passing a skeptical brother.

It had been a couple weeks since the incident - as she had coined it in her mind - and things had gone back to a somewhat normal state. Neither she nor Dean brought up what had happened and they both seemed content with it. She bounced back quickly from Dean's rejection and was able to keep her emotions in check - in her opinion, at least. Kevin seemed oblivious to the fact that anything happened and she liked it that way.

Sam, on the other hand, acted oddly around her and Dean. She prayed to any god willing to listen that Sam hadn't found out about her crush - that's what she was calling now that Dean told her he didn't feel the same way. He would give Dean pointed looks when he thought that she wasn't paying attention and the younger Winchester had a habit of leaving the two alone - which she did not like at all. Not one bit.

Right now, she was at the local library of a small coastal town in Maine- researching while Sam and Dean were questioning the families of the victims. The case they had been working on baffled them. Someone - or something - was making children disappear at the local beach, only to be found days later dead on the shore. The police had chalked it up to swimming accidents. That is, until the last child - a young boy - went missing during the middle of the night. So, the million dollar question was: What was luring these kids away from the safety of their homes and to the water.

Her phone started to vibrate and she looked at the caller ID: Dean. "You do know that I'm in a library, right?" She could hear the Impala roaring as he drove.

"As if you hadn't done it before." Dean retorted the same time Sam announced, "We just got done talking to the last family." So she must have been on speaker.

"Anything new?" She asked. She glanced up to find the librarian gesturing harshly for her to be silent. She mouth out a silent 'Sorry' and looked back down at the open book she had been skimming through, cell phone still in her hand.

"No. We did get the kid's phone in a ziplock bag, though. I don't know how that'll help us. I'll give it to you later. We didn't get anything else other than the fact all the victims practically learned to swim as soon as they could walk and that the sister of the last kid said she heard music that night."

Wait, that reminded her of something. "Hold on." She said as she readjusted the phone so it was sandwiched between her ear and her raised shoulder. She searched the shelves and leafed through the pages of several books, mumbling about what she needed before she found what she was looking for. There it was. She leaned against the opposite shelf. "We could be hunting a Pied Piper - or just the pipe. It's a story from the Brothers Grimm."

"What makes you sure that this could be it?" Dean asked.

She skimmed for the important parts of the fairy tale. "The story says that a village was overrun with rats and the leaders were willing to pay a stranger one thousand, even fifty thousand, florins to take care of them. He did, but the leaders wouldn't pay him anything over fifty florins when he came back. So, in revenge, he lured all the children of the village during the night and lead them to a cave where they died. One did get away, though, and told the village leaders what had happened."

"But this isn't happening to all the kids here, only a select amount." Sam debated, just wanting to be sure that this was it.

"Then maybe this guy has only been wronged by a few people, not the whole town." Dean rebutted.

"Where are we going to find the cave, though?" Sam asked. "There's nothing like that around here."

"I looked at one of the local maps and found a couple underwater caves not too far from the shore where the kids were found."

"We'll be there in five minutes. Then we'll go get something to eat a get ready for tonight." She heard him sigh before he continued, "Something tells me that little girl is going to be next." And he hung up. She took the book back to her table and started to read more.

Sure enough, five minutes later, Dean and Sam strode up to her, still in the FBI suits. Every woman in that area - even some of the men - watched as the two moved, eyes following them as they left. She couldn't blame them. The Winchesters look good in suits. Especially Dean. God Almighty, the way his clothes fit on him made her want to - no, stop that. She thought, mentally shaking her head from all the images coming and going through her mind. He doesn't like you like that.

She shut her laptop and grabbed the books she wanted, telling Sam exactly where the ones that needed to get put back should go.

She and Dean walked over to check-out the books. She could barely see over the top book in her stack and Dean had to guide her to the check-out desk. She placed them down and when they were set to go, she reached for them again, but Dean was faster and grabbed the stack of books before she could. She smiled at him and he smiled back. Before she could stop herself, she leaned up and quickly pecked his stubbled cheek. She pulled back and started walking to where Sam was at the town map, her face red with the realization of her stupidity. The younger Winchester just smirked knowingly at her and waited for his brother to catch up. She made sure not to look at Dean, scared of what his face might reveal, but she didn't notice that he kept looking over at her, his ears and cheeks still a little pink.

They located the caves and planned out what they were going to do that night. Dean, staying true to his word, gave her the ziplock baggie with the cell phone inside and she stuffed it inside the back pocket of her jeans. She had no idea what she'd do with it, but it must have made the parents feel better to hand it over, she guessed.

Later that night, the three were in the Impala, waiting outside the last kid's house. They had found out that the pipe has the power, not the piper. In the dead of the night, they watched as the little girl opened the front door of her house and walked out into the street. The three got out of the car and followed the girl, keeping their distance.

They followed her to the shore when she disappeared from their sight. "What the hell?" Dean asked.

She looked around and couldn't find the girl anywhere. Out of the corner of her eye she saw a man walking up to them. He was wearing a tie-dyed shirt and held an old fashioned reed pipe in his hand. "Guys," she got their attention, pointing to the stranger, "That's got to be him."

They found the piper, but where was the girl? She looked around and the only place where the little girl - or any of kids - could have gone was… the water.

She slipped off her boots and socks and stripped herself of her jacket and layers, leaving her body to be covered in only a tank top and her jeans

"That the hell do you think you're doing?" Dean asked as he watched her undress herself.

"You take care of the pipe, I'm going to find those kids." He put his hand on her arm and looked at her. "Stay here, Dean." She advised. She heard him call her name before diving off the pier and into the water. She almost gasped from the shock of the cold water, but she knew she'd have to keep as much oxygen in her system if she was going to find the cave. After a few moments of frantically searching, she swam over to what looked like an opening, silently thanking her high school swim coach for pushing her through both season and off season as a teenager. She swam inside and was able to climb out, crawling on the rocky floor as she fought to regain her breathing again.

She looked around the small cave, letting her eyes adjust to the darkened area. "Hello?" She called out to the cave, her voice echoing off the walls. Please let those two be here. She prayed.

"Over here!" She heard a small voice answer. It was nearby - even with the echoing. She crawled over and found two kids: the girl from tonight and a young boy. Now all she has to do is get them out of here.

Dean called out her name as she dived into the water. What the hell was she thinking? They didn't know what was down there and she just dives right in. It was too dangerous for her to go in like that alone.

He was about to jump in after her when Sam yelled for him to come over. He turned around and saw Sam pinning down the guy in the tie-dyed shirt - the one that she had pointed out as their guy, the pied piper.

Before Dean could reach his brother, the parents of the girl came running across the sand towards them.

"Where's my daughter, you son of a bitch." The father asked the piper, his anger barely contained.

"Under the sea." The man replied, smirking up at him. Enraged, the father pounced on the piper, attacking him with a desperate ferocity. The mother started to sob uncontrollably and Dean was unable to do anything to help.

Sam tried to break it up. He started to pull the father away from the piper. "Hey, hey. Stop it!" The younger Winchester yelled at the father, trying again to stop the fighting.

And then Dean heard something from the water. He turned around to find her, somehow swimming back to shore with the two kids clinging to her body. He was so grateful to see her alive and okay. He called out to her and she looked up at him.

Sam and Dean ran out to the kids hastily making their way to shore. She was right behind them. One second she's struggling against the tide to get to him and the next she's gone. Dean turned around, the girl in his arms, and saw the piper playing his pipe at the shore. He let the girl run to her parents like Sam was doing before the older Winchester strode up to the piper, grabbing him by the collar or his shirt and pushing him down into the sand.

"Where the hell did you take her?" Dean asked, fury bubbling through his veins and pumping in his heart.

"Doesn't matter." The piper sneered, smirking up at him. "Your girlfriend's gonna die before you can find her anyways." Dean shoved him even harder into the ground while Sammy broke the pipe in half, making it forever useless.

She gasped as she was pulled down into the water by something. It just kept pulling her down, farther and farther into the unknown. She looked down and saw nothing. What the hell was it?

She was pushed into a cavern type thing and was spat up onto the rough rock flooring. She crawled to the entrance and just barely missed an avalanche of rocks blocking her escape. She crawled backwards and against the opposite wall. What was she going to do now?

She felt something poke into backside. She pulled it out, revealing the phone that Dean had given her, still intact inside it's baggie. She removed it from the bag and dialed the number that she memorized when she had first started working with the Winchesters. She didn't really expect anything to happen, since not only was it a number that he didn't recognize but the fact that she was stuck in a fucking cave played into her reasoning. Caves aren't really known for their cell reception, unless it's below a tower or receptor of some kind.

"Who is this?" She heard him answer. You have absolutely no idea how good it felt to hear his voice in her ear.

She let out a sigh of relief before answering, "Who do you think, Winchester?"

"Where are you?" She could practically hear the concern screaming through his voice.

"In one of the caves."

"She's in one of the caves!" She heard him yell out, probably to Sam. "How the hell did you get in there?" He asked.

"I have no fucking clue, Winchester. I'm caved in. And that tide's coming in."

"Can you get out?" She stood up and started to look. She felt water lapping at her ankles and turned around to find the tide rising again, seeping through the rocks. She moved to the other side of the cavern frantically, searching for another way out. She couldn't find anything - no holes, no weak spots. The water was coming in, and fast.

"Dean, I'm not seeing anything." She answered. "And the water's up to my knees now."

"Then do you know where you are, like which cave you're in." She felt like he was grasping for straws.

"I don't know where exactly. But," she continued, thinking about the phone. "I must be right under a cell tower since the service in here is amazing." She tried to lighten the mood a little bit as she tried to find a way out again. The water was reaching up her body. "Dean,"

"What?" She could hear him walk, grunting as his shoes got caught in the sand.

"It's past my chest now." Her voice suddenly got quiet as the solemnity of her current situation hit her, threatening to drown her. She was stuck in a cavern God knows where with no seeable way out.

"It's going to be okay." But it wasn't. She was going to die in here. Alone. With nothing to remember her by.

"Dean." There was fear in her voice. The water was up to her neck now. She raised her arm up so the phone wouldn't get wet.

"You're going to be okay." He said. "We found it."

"Dean." She had to start treading water now, rising up to the ceiling. She struggled to keep her head above the water. She let a lone tear slip from her eye and down her cheek. She couldn't help the whimper slip through her lips as the water passed over her raised chin.

"I'm gonna get you out of there." He tried to reassure her, but he sounded desperate - like he was on the edge of some kind of emotion. She could hear him grunting and rocks moving through the receiver.

"Dean!" She gasped. The phone slipped out of her hands as she was completely submerged into the dark water. She fought to hold her breath as she desperately searched for a way out. She felt herself feeling light headed. She pounded on the wall until she felt a rock move out of place. She had to get out. She started to claw at where the rock had fallen and soon, others were loosening up and falling away. But she started to see spots in her vision. She felt a break through the wall and something grabbing hold of her wrist, but she lost consciousness before she could register what was happening.

"Dean!" He heard her through the cell phone. Then nothing. Absolutely nothing. Dean felt something fall sickening low inside his chest. He looked at Sam before he attacked the rocky slope with an enhanced vigor. He had to get to her. He promised.

He felt a trickle run down his pant leg and looked down to find water pulsing from the pile of rocks. He started to tear away rocks from the area and the water flowed at a quicker rate. She had to be in there.

He saw Sam removing debris from the corner of his eye, as well. The parents of the two kids were standing behind, wondering what was going on. And the piper - well, Dean had handcuffed him to a small tree before getting her call.

Get her out. Get her out. Get her out. It had become a mantra for Dean as he worked with the rocks pulling them away as quickly as his body would allow.

Then, as if it was an act of God himself, an arm shot out between a few rocks and into the open air. That had to be her. He just hoped that she was still alive.

"Sammy!" He yelled as he began to alternate between pulling at the arm and taking away rocks. The younger Winchester came over and started with the rocks while Dean tried to pull her out. In no time, he was able to free her and drag her with him to the sand.

She wasn't moving. He pressed his fingers to her neck. Dean couldn't find a pulse. God, she better not be dead. He didn't know what he would do if she was gone.

"Come on." He called out to her, his large hands pushing down on her chest. "Come on, sweetheart." Sam was at his side, watching his brother desperately try to revive her. The parents were behind him and the kids were by their side, watching in anticipation for whatever was going to happen next.

He leaned over her body until he mouth was close to her ear. He would have loved to have been leaning over her ear under different circumstances. "Please." His broken voice was barely a whisper. He kissed her forehead before returning to his CPR administrations.

He felt her chest expand on its own under her wet tank top and looked up to her face. Her eyes shot open and she started to cough. Dean turned her onto her side and she continued to take in air, coughing in between gasps. When her breathing was in control, she turned back onto her back and stared up at Dean. He smiled down at her.

"Morning, Sleeping Beauty." Dean quipped as he pushed the wet hair from her face, his hand brushing against her skin. She laughed breathlessly and tilted her face into his palm.

He helped her into a sitting position and eventually got her onto her feet. He couldn't help himself. He reached around her waist and pulled her against him, bringing her into a tight embrace. Her head burrowed itself into his neck and her arms slid to his back where she started to lazily trail her fingers up and down his back. Dean heard her sniffling and realized she was crying, which only made him hold on tighter than before. He didn't want to let go. Not for anything.

But she moved away from him slightly when someone coughed behind the two. "Get your plaid ass over here." She ordered jokingly, chuckling as she grabbed Sam by the hem of his shirt and pulled the younger Winchester to her and Dean, creating one group hug. Both the brothers laughed at the absurdity of what was happening. Only she would be able to get them to do something like this.

Sam gave her the clothes she had taken off. She thanked him and put her flannel shirt over her shoulders. The three pulled away after a while and started to make their way to the Impala, Dean's left arm around her shoulders. She leaned into his side and wrapped her right arm around his waist. They stopped by the family who kept thanking them - her, in particular - for saving their children.

"What should we do with him?" The father asked, pointing to the piper that was still cuffed to the tree.

"Call 911." She simply said, smiling softly at the family.

"You take care of your girl - you hear, young man?" The wife advised, looking pointedly at Dean.

"Oh, I plan to, ma'am." Dean replied, flashing them a one-of-a-kind-Dean-Winchester smile and pulling the wet woman at his side closer to him. She glanced at him from under her eyelashes as they walked away from the family.

The three got to the Impala and Sam got into the passenger seat. She and Dean walked around to the other side and she was about to get in but he stopped, his hand on her wrist. She turned to him and smiled up at him playfully. This was the time to do it. No or never.

"Dean, what are you-" She started, but he cut her off with his lips brushing against hers. She was completely shocked, frozen in place. Her mind shouted at her, Dean's kissing you - voluntarily - and he's not intoxicated. Kiss him back! And she did. She kissed him back, her hands going to his cheeks while his hands placed themselves at her hips, pulling her towards him.

She pulled away and looked up at him with uncertainty, bewildered out of her mind by what had just happened. "I thought kissing me was a mistake."

"It is when I'm hammered out of my mind." He smirked down at her before pulling her in again. Their lips were about to rejoin when the car horn blared, startling them both. Sam was reaching over the passenger's seat, his hand pressed firmly on the middle of the steering wheel where the car horn was located.

"Fine!" He rolled his eyes at his brother and opened the driver's door. She pulled the back door open for herself and was about to slip inside when he kissed her again.

She pulled away from him and laughed. "Go before Sam does something he may regret." She joked before getting into the car.

AN: And that's a wrap! Hope you liked it as much as i liked writing it! Comments, questions, concerns? Shoot me a message via review or PM on my author's page on fanfiction or through the ask box - labeled 'Iris Message' in honor of PJO fandom - on my blog! Thanks again for everyone's continued support from my other stories, it truly mean a lot to me, hons! I also got my first requests sent in by some people, so I will try to work on those for now!

Remember to Smile :)

~Becca