A/N 1: Please see all the A/Ns in Ch 1

A/N 2: this story contains an OFC who may take the story over. If she hasn't already. (I don't know if she counts as Mary Sue since she is nothing like me.)

A/N 3: My sister is going through a horrendous time, so this story may turn into a paean to Big Sisters. I'm just saying. Thank you for your patience.

I put on my shoes, made sure I had my card key back into the room and gave Sam one last look before I hiked down our foyer and out the door to talk to Eleanor.

I'm pretty sure Eleanor's door was closer to our door than Sam's bed was.

So, I knocked and in a second or two the door opened and Eleanor appeared. She had a cell phone at her ear and she smiled at me and motioned me to come in.

"It's Dean." She said to whoever was on the phone. Then she said to me, "Rena says 'hi'."

Rena, her big sister. We'd never met, but I'd heard so much about her, it was like I knew her.

"Hi, Rena." I answered back and Eleanor repeated it into the phone.

"Dean says 'hi'. We're going to dinner. Yeah. Dinner. Yeah. No, it's – " She pulled her phone away from her ear to look at it, but I guess it didn't tell her anything. "It is? I did? When?" Then back to me again. "I crossed a time zone." She said to me like it was the most ridiculous thing she'd ever heard. "Okay, so maybe we aren't going to dinner just yet. I don't know. Okay. Yeah, I will. It might be – well, I don't know what time it might be. Nine or ten, your time. Maybe later. You sure? Okay. Bye."

She punched off the phone and flipped it closed and shoved it into the front pocket of her jeans.

"Apparently it's not dinnertime in this part of the world." She said, sounding a little embarrassed.

If Sam had been awake and at my elbow, I would've told Eleanor what every hunter knows – dinnertime is decided by your stomach, not your watch. But Sammy wasn't awake, so who was I to contradict Big Sister?

"Well, Sam's catching forty right at the moment, so I was here to ask for an extension anyway. Oh, which by the way – thank you again for the room. It's the first bed in I don't know how long that Sammy actually fits on."

"He is a tall drink of water, isn't he?" She asked. Another movie quote.

"Y'like 'Tombstone', do you?" I asked her back.

"Honestly – I can't tell you how long I've been waiting to threaten to turn someone's head into a canoe." She grinned and then asked, "Is Sam all right? He seems quiet."

Eleanor, sweetheart, could I tell you a story.

"He went through some monster insomnia a few weeks ago." I kept it short and simple. "I think he's still catching up."

She gave me a look then that I couldn't read.

"Is he bipolar?" She asked me. And she asked me like she expected the answer to be 'yes'.

"No." I told her, but too fast. It sounded like a 'yes'. So I calmed it down. "No. Why would you think that?" Since it sounded like a reach to me.

"My oldest sister is bipolar. Before she was diagnosed, she was awake for four days straight."

"Rena?"

"No, Frances. She's the oldest. She was diagnosed just over twenty years ago."

"Is she okay?" I asked. I mean – I didn't know her, but I still cared.

"Oh, she's fine. She's a university professor. Her meds keep it completely controlled. But the not sleeping – that made me wonder about Sam." Then she shook her head and turned away. "I'm sorry. I know it's none of my business. I just worry about you two."

As I watched, she opened her purse, pulled a Rosary out of it, and hung it over her lamp.

Uhhh - ?

"Are you a hunter?" I asked her. And I knew the answer was immediately 'no' by the entirely confused looked she gave me.

"A hunter?"

She sounded like I'd suggested she shoot Bambi and Bambi's mother right here in her hotel room. I had to switch gears so fast I nearly gave myself a concussion.

"Yeah, a ghost hunter, you know, like your books." I pointed to the Rosary. I'd never made it all the way through one of her books, but Sam – fanboy that he was – had told me a lot (a LOT) of the details, and the heroines carrying Rosaries was one of the details.

"Oh – that. I don't really believe in ghosts but I do believe in evil. I like to feel protected, and carrying around five pounds of blessed salt is a little cumbersome."

"It doesn't have to be blessed." I answered without thinking. Eleanor shot me a look, one eyebrow raised.

"It isn't the blessing that makes it cumbersome." She pointed out.

"Uh, well, no, it isn't. That's true."

She smiled then like she'd won an argument. Which, maybe she had.

"So – your room is OK?" She asked. She pushed her purse and suitcase aside and sat on her bed. "Because really – if you need anything, if you want anything, room service, souvenirs, if you go to a restaurant or bar here, you just need to sign it to your room and it'll be taken care of."

"No, Eleanor. I can't let you do that. That's too much." I leaned back against the room-long dresser and folded my arms. "We appreciate the room, we really do. You're very generous -."

"No, I'm very selfish. I like you and Sam. I like spending time with you. So, I'm not above bribing you to come visit me."

She smiled when she said that, but she wasn't hiding the truth of what she was saying from me.

"Being on the road, alone, can be lonely." I agreed.

She 'pfft' and rolled her eyes in agreement.

"I don't mind the driving from place to place so much. I can think, I can write, while I drive. But having to talk to people I don't know - I mean, it's not like I got into writing because I'm perky and outgoing. I don't do well when I'm on my own at these things and Rena's only been able to come with me on the road a couple of times. So, like I said, if I have the chance to visit with you two for a day or three, I'm not above bribery."

She smiled again, and I still felt her loneliness.

"You and Rena sound close."

"As close as you and Sam, I'm guessing. From everything he's told me about you. Every. Single. Thing. I know I'd be as lost without her as Sam would be without you."

There was a sharp knock on her door right then, sparing me from having to respond to her oblique praise of me. Instead of going to open the door, though, Eleanor only called loudly, "C'mon in," which I didn't think was really such a good idea. I'd have Sam talk to her about it.

Anyway, the door opened and what's his name, her assistant-slash-errand boy from before, came into the room and down the long foyer.

"Miss Potevin? Can you come down to the Magnolia Room? Jane needs to discuss your meet and greet with you."

Eleanor sighed, deep and facetious.

"Uggghh…yes, Gilbert." She pushed to her feet and grabbed her purse. "Dean – you and Sam meet me at the Irish Pub in two hours? It has to be dinnertime by then, doesn't it?"

"We'll be there."

I followed her out of the room and waited until she shut her door and double-checked that it was locked.

"You'll be all right?" I asked her.

"Oh, yeah. I have my map!" She pulled it from a pocket and flapped it. "I'll see you both in a while."

She was gone then, down the landing strip hallway with Gilbert trying to keep up with her again. She might be old, but she was spry.

I let myself back into our room, where Sam was still out of it on his bed.

"Eleanor – I know exactly what you mean." I said.

To be continued.