My brother, Nate, always told me that everything happens for a reason. It's one of the reasons that I always looked up to him. He always knew what to say and when to say it. My first heartbreak, he was the only one I listened to. I sat in a motel bed, wondering the reason for this. Wondering what the reason was for my dead family. I didn't sleep that night. I knew that if I did sleep, I would see Nate, and Max asking me what Dad would have done if he were in my situation. I would see Harry placing a whoopee cushion under where I sat. Johnny would be huddled around the TV playing Xbox, and Mom cooking breakfast, with the smell of bacon coming from the kitchen.

"Allie, are you still awake?" Dean asked. He lay next to me.

"Uh-huh." I nodded.

"Are you okay?" His hand clasped around mine.

"No." I scooted closer to Dean, and put my head on his shoulder.

"I know. I'm sorry, I keep asking. I don't know you, but I like you, and I'm worried about you. Your whole family is dead, so we're going to take you in. You're welcome." I chuckled.

"I miss my brothers. I mean, I miss my mom too, but I'll never love anyone more than I love Max and Nate. Johnny and Harry are… were… amazing, but I could always count on Max and Nate. Nate is the oldest, Max is the second, and I'm the third. It will be weird not having to guys older than me around." I sighed.

"What are we, French toast?" Dean asked. I shrugged.

"Truth is, you're aren't that much better." I chuckled. The rest of the night, I stared up at the celling, listening to Dean's breathing.

The next morning, I was the first one out of bed, or rather; I was the first one sick of lying in bed. I took Dean's car keys off of the nightstand, and headed outside. I went to the closest diner and bought three pancake meals. Everyone liked pancakes.

When I got back with breakfast, Sam was awake, but Dean wasn't. "Hi," I smiled to him, placing the bags on the table.

"What's that?" He asked, smiling back at me.

"Breakfast, I hope you like pancakes with bacon."

"Yeah, that's great. Dean will be happy. So, do you like Dean? Because when he got home from that bar, he said he really liked a girl he met." Dean liked me? I didn't believe it. Why would a guy like him like a girl like me? The only guys that ever asked me out were creeps, or drunks. Then again, Dean didn't ask me out.

"Yeah, I guess I do. I mean, when I think of my family's death, I'll always picture him, whether or not we end up together in 5 years." I shrugged.

Sam laughed. "Yeah, you're right. Dean and I will always be associated in your family's murder."

"I heard murder." I turned around. Dean stood there shirtless.

"Hey, we were just talking about my family." I smiled at him. He put his hand on my shoulder, and headed to the bag of food.

"Yum pancakes." He took a seat at the table, pulled out the pancakes, and dug in.

"So, what killed my family?" I asked. Dean looked at me with his mouth full of food.

"Well, we don't know yet, but I can find out. I'll do anything to help you find out." Dean's face was serious as he talked. I looked to the side at Sam, who was looking strangely at Dean. When he saw that I was looking at him, he nodded in agreement.

"Normally, I wouldn't think that this is the safest route for you, but I think you've seen the worst you ever could." He smiled, and brushed his hair out of his eyes.

"Thanks, guys. I really appreciate it." I smiled, but I didn't mean it. I meant that I appreciate it, but the smile was an illusion. I took a breath. "So what are we doing in Dallas?" I asked.

"Well, I don't know if you remember, but we hunt monsters, and we have leads here. It's close, so it's the first place we're checking." Dean said.

"What kind of monster is it?" I asked.

"That's what we need to find out. We look through local newspapers, ask people what their side of the story is, and kill what we have to." Sam sighed. He obviously didn't really love what he did. I understood, I mean, watching people die all the time. I'd hate it.

"Can I help figure it out? I'm really good at research." I volunteered.

"You don't have to-" Sam began.

"Yeah, that'd be great." Dean finished.

"Okay." I smiled. Something to do is better than doing nothing. "What are we doing today?" I asked Sam.

"Well, we were going to go and talk to some citizens. We would ask you to come, but we don't have an ID for you."

"An ID?" I asked.

"We lie. We tell people that we're feds." Dean sighed.

"Oh." I checked the time. 9 o'clock. I was exhausted. "You know, while you're doing that, I'm going to take a nap; I didn't get that much sleep last night." I smiled.

"Alright. You want us to bring you back lunch?" Dean questioned.

"Yeah… I'll take a burger." Then, they left in their suits, with fake IDs that they had put in their pockets. I walked to the bed, already half asleep, and allowed myself to doze off.

"Allie… wake up…" A hand was on my arm, shaking me gently. My eyes were heavy as I tried to open them. The shaker was chuckling lightly. When they finally did open, I saw Dean hovering above me. Groaning, I asked what time it is.

"About four. Did you have a good nappy wappy?"

"Ugh… leave me alone!" I exhaled.

"Rise and shine…" He taunted me. I grasped the pillow and smashed it against his head. Laughing, he pulled me up by my hands, but pulled me to hard. I launched upwards, and we were so close that I could feel him exhale as he breathed. We laughed.

"Nice move," I smiled. "Did you guys find anything?" I asked.

"Well yeah, and we already figured out what it was." How did they do it that fast? I gave him the 'and…' look. "It is a changeling."

"Changelings have been talked about as being the replacements for real children who are stolen away by fairies or other creatures and fed on. The changeling looks the same as the original child, but is evil in most cases and may abruptly return to the fairy family when they're older." Sam explained. "We've come across a few. The only way to kill them is to light them on fire." I sighed.

"First we have to find the human child." Dean said. "So when we kill the changeling, we can bring the child back to its house." He stopped talking. "I'm hungry. Be right back." He left with his keys.

I turned toward the bathroom. "You know this isn't him." Sam said. I spun toward him.

"Huh?" I asked.

"The way that he's acting, that's just because he feels sorry for you. Don't get used to it. I mean, he likes you, and I don't think that's going to change, but he can be a real dick sometimes." He scoffed the last sentence.

"Okay, thanks for the heads up." I smiled, and went into the bathroom. When I came out, Dean and Sam were standing there, with their arms crossed. "What?" I asked.

"If you're going to come with us on the road, you have to learn some stuff." Dean said.

"What kind of stuff?" I asked.

"A lot of things, but let's start with guns." Sam sighed. "I don't think it's a good idea, but, it's the truth, you have to learn." I was a little scared now. Why did I have to learn how to shoot a gun? It's not like I'm going to have to.

"Uh… why? Who will I have to shoot?"

"Well, demons and monsters used Sam and I against each other, so my guess is that they'll try to do the same thing with you." Dean assumed.

"Alright, when are we doing this?" I questioned. They gave me a look. I guess that I was learning how to shoot a gun. Now.