Chapter 3

No Turning Back

No one was home when she arrived. Kylie gave a sigh of relief, people were the last thing she wanted to deal with a this particular moment. Putting thoughts of recent events aside, she shifted her focus to dinner. She had not gotten the chance to go out and get groceries, but it would not be the first time she had prepared a meal with whatever was lying around the house. After raiding the cabinets, Kylie readied the ingredients, praying that it would come out tasting decent. About the time she put her creation in the oven, a knock came from the front door.

Putting down what she was doing Kylie crept around to look out the corner of the window. Taking a deep breath, Kylie opened the door and greeted the two standing on her doorstep.

"So...I guess you should come in, something tells me we have a lot of ground to cover." Kylie said, motioning for them to follow her to the living room. Sam and Dean took a seat on the sofa across from Kylie. "Can I get you some coffee or somethin'?"

"No thanks." Sam declined politely.

"Okay I'll bite. What's up? Considering how you've been acting since we got here I kinda expected you to chew us out again as soon as we set foot on your porch." Dean said.

"I thought that I explained that to you, all your doing now is proving that it was well deserved." Kylie retorted. "Now back to your explanation, or you can leave now. It saves me the time."

Sam exchanged a look with Dean and then got down to buisiness, "You remember that summer, our Dad was on a hunt in the area with Jack and we kinda stayed here and watched you?" Sam said, beginning his explanation.

A younger Kylie ran down the stairs wearing a leather that fitted her much more like a dress.

"You come back here, now," Dean ordered from behind. Kylie didn't listen, running further away, all the while in fits of giggles. She stopped suddenly in front of the basement door, sticking her tongue out a Dean before locking herself in.

"No way. You left it all by itself, it's mine now." Kylie shouted.

Dean gave an angry grunt, about to give up, when Sam came downstairs. "What's going on?"

"Nice hair," Dean commented on Sam's new pigtails.

"She wanted to play." Sam said with a sigh, "What's Ky up to now?"

"She stole my jacket and now she's gone and locked herself in the basement. It's probably not safe down there." Dean said pointing in the direction of the door.

"Should we tell her mom?"

"We told them we'd watch over her and that's what we'll do. Besides Olivia seemed worse today, I don't think she needs anything else to worry about." Dean said. "Kylie you come back out or I'm gonna bust down this door."

"I'd like to see you try." Kylie yelled from behind the door, backing up a safe distance in case he acted on his word.

"Great idea, Dean." Sam said sarcastically at his brothers failure.

Dean just rolled his eyes, "Fine, I'll go see if Olivia knows how to get her out. You stay here. Just make sure she doesn't hurt herself." He said with a sigh before retreating up the stairs to the Master Bedroom.

"Sam? Did he leave?" Kylie asked after a bit, startling Sam.

"Um, yeah, He went to go tell your mom. I think you really made him mad." Sam said.

"Oh...I really didn't mean to." Kylie said guiltily, slowly opening the door, "I was just kidding about it being mine. I was gonna give it back, promise."

"I'm sure he knows that, it just means a lot to him." Sam said, comforting her with a smile. "I'm sure he'll forgive you though. Here, I'll go and tell him that your out, no harm done."

Sam run up to intercept Dean. "Hey Dean she came out." Sam said, entering the room.

Olivia gave a weak laugh as she struggled to get sit up, "I figure she would. I hope she's not giving you too much trouble, She seems to have been unusually mischievous."

"Heh, I guess we're special." Dean said ironically.

"Indeed, you'd be surprised how rare it really is. She usually hides in her room and tends to herself. It may be because you closer to her age." Olivia said, partially lost in thought. "If you don't mind, I do have something to ask of you two? I can't share the whole truth so this will sound strange but Kylie will come to a point in her life will she will be confronted with a great hardship. I don't think she will be prepared to overcome it by herself. As I can't promise that I or her father will be there, It would comfort me knowing that you two may look after her at this time."

Sam and Dean, looked at her not sure how to respond to something like that. It seemed out of the blue and, while their Dad seemed to have been friends with Olivia and Jack for some time, very strange for a near stranger to asked of them.

"Dean you can have your jacket back." Kylie came up yelling, after getting bored by herself downstairs. She stopped in the doorway, confused by the tense atmosphere of the room, "What's the matter?"

"It was all incredibly vague, we thought she was just being concerned," Sam explained, "But seeing how things rarely work out that way, we though it might be best to try and see if there was anything else going on. That's why we were using the methods we did, hoping that we could check things out without alarming you."

"You failed, by the way." Kylie interjected, more as a joke than actual ridicule.

Sam gave a half-smile, "Yeah, I guess we didn't choose the best way of going about it afterall. But it felt kinda obligated to at least try."

"I guess it's okay. I mean I can see where you might be concerned. Who knows she may have been going to tell me about whatever all this is able later." Kylie said staring at the floor, "Um, if you excuse me for a minute I'm gonna go check on dinner. Hopefully it hasn't burnt."

"Sure." Sam said , almost as an afterthought.

After making sure the food had not caught fire, Kylie sat at the table alone. Talking about family was rarely an easy task for Kylie and she had to take deep breaths to prevent her from a breakdown. Being confused out of her mind was not helping her mental state either.

In the meantime, another knock on the door occurred the front door. This time she new it was Lucas. Taking one last therapeutic breath, Kylie trudged back into the living room and opened the door. What she had not expected was the bird droppings that were currently matted into his blond hair.

"Catch a bird in the middle of target practice?" Kylie said not even attempting to hide her giggles.

"It would seem." Lucas said accompanied by defeated sigh.

"You know where the bathroom is." Kylie finally managed to regain control, "Dinner will be done soon." Lucas nodded, retreating to the bathroom. Kylie joined the Winchesters, still enjoying Lucas' misfortune, "Are you guys joining us for dinner?"

"'What about your little date? Wouldn't want to kill the mood." Dean teased.

Kylie gave a short laugh and shrugged, "It's been a long day and I'm pretty sure Lucas will understand. I only made meatball subs anyway. Not exactly the romantic meal I had planned."

"I guess we will then. Can't say I can just turn down food anyway."

Kylie rolled her eyes and returned the kitchen. Retrieving the food from the oven, she sat it down on the counter to cool. She then methodically set the table, making sure that everything was as close to perfect as she could get before calling for them to come in. The Winchesters filed in first, briefly followed by Lucas who was still toweling off his head from is impromptu hair wash.

"I think I managed to get it all out. I dunno what was up with those birds. It's like they did it on purpose." Lucas said.

"Paranoid much?" Kylie teased, preparing a plates of food for the three men, "Here's your dinner, Lucky."

"Thanks Ky. It looks amazing." He said sweetly taking his plate and settling himself at the table.

"It's not much but I guess it'll do, I had better plans but I kinda got sidetracked. I'll have to make up for it next time." Kylie apologized.

"Your ridiculous ," Lucas scoffed, shaking his head, "It's wonderful, really. I was surprised that these guys were still here though. Could of sworn you had a vendetta against them. But I guess it's good for you to have others around. Sometimes I'm afraid that Cassandra and I are the only people you every talk to."

"That's not true," Kylie petitioned meekly. "I talk to other people...Like hunters. I talk to them all the time."

Sam and Dean looked at each other at the mentioning of hunters, and then turned to Kylie. In their experience it was always better to hide the truth when it came to what they did, and they were sure that Kylie's parents had taught her the same.

"I guess that's true. But it's still a little concerning." Lucas said, and then turned to the other two men who had been fairly quiet, "So are you guys hunters too?"

"You could say that," Dean said cautiously, "So what has Kylie told you about what we do exactly?"

"Just that you guys hunt ghosts, like -what's that groups name- the Hellhounds or something like that. I honestly thought she was kidding at first but it all seems to pretty serious."

"You have no idea," Dean said not sure whether to laugh or be completely disgusted by the comparison that Kylie used to fuel her half-lie.

"So Lucas, you almost done," Kylie said, noticing the confused expression on Lucas' face, preventing this conversation from continuing further. "We should really go and get some fresh air, you know, aids digestion. You two can help yourself to whatever's left."

"Um, Sure," Lucas said as Kylie dragged him out of the house and on the porch away, hopefully helping him forget that awkward little conversation that had just taken place.