Title: The Boys Went Down to Georgia

Author: Razorbackgal0225

Rating: PG-13--A little language, but that's all

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters, cars or situations from Supernatural, but I sure wish I did. Anything you don't recognize is mine.

Author's Note: This is my first time posting a story, so I hope you enjoy. Please review whether you do or you don't. A special thanks to my beta, Sarah, I couldn't do this without her. And thanks to my reviewers, you don't know how happy you've made me!

The Winchesters pulled into the drive of the address Kaitlin had given them that afternoon. Both men were surprised by the size of the house. It was an older home, two-story, with a wrap around porch decorated with flowers and furnishings that definitely resembled the items in Matthews Flowers. Dean saw his plan to flirt with Katie while they were questioning her niece go out the window. Surely someone else lived in the house with her; it was too big for one person. Sam thought the house was very homey and welcoming. He even went so far as to say so.

"You've got to be kidding me?" Dean responded as he frowned at his younger brother. "You like this kind of place?"

Sam returned the frown. "What's wrong with it? It's a nice house. Looks like a good place to grow up."

Dean shook his head. "I think it's creepy. All the flowers and girly stuff all over. Places like this always hide some big nasty secret."

Sam looked at Dean in disbelief before reaching for the door handle. "Dude, you've got some serious issues with normal people." He quickly got out of the car and headed up the sidewalk. Dean caught up with him as they reached the porch.

"Normal people are freaks," Dean muttered under his breath. Sam rolled his eyes and pointed to the open windows on the front of the house. The boys could see the yellow curtains fluttering gently in the breeze and they could also hear a little girl singing wholeheartedly along with a radio. Whatever she was listening to, she was obviously a fan. Sam knocked on the door and the singing abruptly stopped.

The front door opened and revealed an adorable little girl on the other side. Her face lit up in a big smile, revealing a missing tooth. Her brown hair was in pigtails and she had a smattering of freckles across her slightly pug nose. Neither man could help but return her friendly grin.

"Hi, you must be Lilly," Sam said in greeting. The girl nodded, the smile not fading a bit. "I'm Sam," he said, gesturing towards himself. Then he pointed at his brother. "And this is Dean. I think your aunt is expecting us." Another nod was his answer, but the screen door stayed close. Dean's eyebrows rose slightly, and his mouth opened to add something, but he was interrupted.

"Lilly, are you going to let your visitors in or are you going to make them stand outside all night?" Kaitlin came up behind Lilly, placing a hand on her shoulder. "Remember your manners, darlin'." She gently pulled Lilly away from the door so that she could let in the two men.

Lilly turned to face her aunt. "I know Aunt Katie, but Momma told me to never let strangers in the house." She spun back around quickly. "I'm sorry sirs," she apologized.

Before Sam could say anything, Dean squatted down to where he was eye-level with Lilly. "That's alright Lilly, your mom was right. You should never let someone you don't know in your house. You're a very smart girl." He glanced up at Katie and was pleased to see her smiling. He fixed his attention on Lilly again. "Do you think your aunt will let us in now?" he whispered conspiratorially.

Katie watched as Lilly become completely enthralled with Dean as he talked to her. She could already tell that before the night was over, her niece would have a huge crush. "I think we can let them in." She pushed open the screen door, allowing both men to enter her house.

Lilly scooted back against Katie's legs, but she never took her eyes off the guy that had been introduced as Dean. She hadn't heard a word anyone had said since he had bent down to talk to her. She loved it when grown-ups talked to her like she a real person and not a little kid and Mr. Dean had done exactly. To top that off, he reminded her of the prince in Sleeping Beauty, her favorite movie of all time.

"If you'll give us just a few minutes, we're almost done with supper." Katie motioned with her head for Lilly to return to her seat. The girl bounced over to the table and sat back down in front of her plate. Her gaze remained on the two men that had followed her and her aunt into the dining room. The taller one was looking around, taking in the furniture and pictures on the wall. She took a bite a macaroni and cheese and glanced under her bangs at Mr. Dean. When she did, he grinned at her and winked. She tried really hard to not smile with her mouth full, but she couldn't help it.

Katie came back from the kitchen with a refill for Lilly's milk. "Can I get ya'll anything to drink? Tea, Coke?" She waited for a response. Sam was the first.

"Tea would be great," he answered. Katie raised her eyebrows at Dean, who quickly voiced his agreement.

"Okay, give me just a minute. Make yourselves at home." She went back into the kitchen. Dean followed her orders and sat at the table, opposite the still-eating Lilly.

Once she had cleared the door and she knew the men couldn't see her, Katie sighed heavily. She was beginning to doubt the wisdom of her decision to allow the investigators to talk to Lilly. She didn't know these guys from Adam, and she had invited them into her home to question her niece. For all she knew, they were some kind of weirdos looking for children to sell or something dreadful like that. Although she had been born and raised in Commerce, she wasn't completely naïve. People like that did exist.

But, as she pulled two glasses from the cabinet and retrieved the fresh pitcher of tea from the refrigerator, she couldn't help but trust them. Katie had always believed that her gut was the best barometer of people, no matter where she met them. She had known the first time she met her brother-in-law that he was absolutely the right man for her sister. It had only taken her two dates to figure out there was something wrong with the last guy she had been seeing. She had been right then as well; he was much too interested in sleeping with her. These guys, though, did not give her any of those feelings. Sam especially seemed honest, and reminded her of one of her best friends in college. If they were up to something, they were doing a great job hiding it.

The boys had discussed before arriving that it would be best to question aunt and niece separately. Sam had been surprised when Dean had volunteered to talk to Lilly, instead of her pretty aunt. He hadn't argued, since Dean always claimed the girl when they split up. If Lilly had seen anything out of the ordinary, Sam had commented, she would be less likely to admit to it with an adult present. Dean had been offended by this, insisting he was an adult and would be there if he were asking her questions. To this, Sam had only smiled and continued with his train of thought. Now, Sam was pleasantly surprised to see Dean conversing with Lilly while she finished eating.

"Mac and cheese, that's some good stuff," Dean commented to Lilly as he loosened his tie. "Let me guess, it's your favorite, isn't it?"

Lilly nodded in response, swallowing her last bite of food before answering. "Yes sir, it is. Fried okra is my second favorite. And chicken strips."

Mr. Dean smiled at her again. "A girl after my own heart. I'm a big fan of French fries myself. Do you like fries?" Lilly's pigtails bounced as she nodded again.

"You like McDonald's the best, don't ya, Lill?" Katie added as she came in the room, carrying two glasses of tea. She handed one each to the 'investigators.' She noticed that Lilly was finished eating and took her plate. "I prefer the steak fries at Pat's Diner, down the street from our shop. They make the best cheese fries in Georgia."

At her comment, Dean shifted his attention from niece to aunt. "We'll keep that in mind. Do they put chili on them too?"

Lilly's eyes grew wide. Mr. Dean was obviously the smartest man alive, other than her father. "How'd you know that?" she asked.

"The best cheese fries would have to have chili on them," he replied. Sam stood nearby in near shock at how easily Dean was getting along with Lilly. Katie moved to take the supper dishes into the kitchen. As subtly as possible, Dean motioned for Sam to follow Katie into the kitchen.

Lilly watched Mr. Sam go into the other room, after Aunt Katie. She had her chin propped on her hand, trying her best not to stare at the 'prince' that was at her table. Her mom had told her that boys didn't like it when you stared, and she wanted Mr. Dean to like her. She knew he wanted to talk to her about the shelf falling in Granger's, and she was debating on telling him the whole truth. She would have to wait and see how things went. Maybe he would believe her that the something had been wrong with the little boy she had seen.

Dean turned back to Lilly. "So, Lilly, I understand something weird happened to you the other day when you were in the toy store." He rested his forearms on the table and dropped his head a little, so that he was eye level with the girl. "Do you want to tell me about it?" He noticed that Lilly had picked up at least one of her aunt's habits, when she blinked slowly a couple of times before answering.

"I do, but I don't think you'll believe me." Her voice was softer than before and had a sad note to it. "Aunt Katie thinks I was confused."

Dean clenched his jaw slightly. From what he could tell, Katie had her niece's best interests at heart, but sometimes adults completely brushed off children's observations as imagination or flat out lies. Katie might have thought there was no way anything other than bad luck had caused that shelf to fall, but Lilly obviously felt different.

"I tell you what," he began, "you can tell me whatever you want about what happened in the store, and I promise to believe you. No matter how crazy you think it sounds." He saw Lilly glance towards the kitchen where her aunt was. "And I won't tell your aunt anything you don't want me to," he added.

Lilly thought long and hard before she responded. "You promise?"

Dean smiled. "I promise." Then she surprised him.

"Pinky swear." She sat up and held out her hand, pinky finger extended, waiting for him to do that same. Everyone knew that pinky swearing was the most concrete kind of promise you could give. If Mr. Dean pinky swore, then he really wouldn't tell.

Dean frowned slightly, staring at her little hand like it might be infected with the plague. He quickly peeked over his shoulder to ensure Sam was not anywhere around. He prayed to all that was holy that what he was about to do would never seen by anyone, ever. Then, he sighed deeply and hooked his finger around Lilly's. "Pinky swear." When Lilly looked satisfied, he added, "And that's our little secret, alright?" Lilly nodded. "Now, what happened when the shelf fell?"

Since Mr. Dean had agreed to her terms, she knew she could trust him. "Right before the shelf fell, I saw a boy. He was standing at the end of the doll aisle."

"Did you know him?" Dean asked.

Lilly shook her head. "No, I've never seen him before. And, he wasn't," she hesitated for a second. "He wasn't…right."

"What do you mean, he was acting weird, gave you a dirty look?" he prompted. Lilly looked down at the table for a moment and Dean knew immediately that the kid had been a ghost. Even a smart girl like Lilly would have a hard time describing something that she had never encountered before. He guessed it wasn't everyday some spirit kid tried to knock you silly with a metal shelf. "It's okay, Lilly, you can tell me."

When she met his eye, he saw in her expression what he was in every child's face that he had met while on a job. She was scared, she was confused and she desperately wanted someone to believe her and tell her everything was going to be alright. It wasn't fair for a little kid to carry this kind of burden around. She finally said,

"I could see through him."

In the next room, Sam was leaning against the kitchen cabinets next to Katie as she rinsed off dishes before putting them in the dishwasher. He didn't expect to get a lot of information from her, considering she hadn't seen anything out of the ordinary. He decided to take the roundabout approach. "This is a really nice house," he commented.

Katie paused in her work for a moment. "Thanks," she replied, smiling. "It's my parents. Well, it was until they retired to Florida, so I guess it's mine now. They had planned on giving it to Amanda and Alex, but they ended up buying their house before Mom and Dad were ready to move." She shrugged as she finished. "So, it's just me rattling around in here." Sam noticed how easily she offered the explanation, and wondered if this openness was normal for her. She continued loading the dishwasher. As she did, she asked, "Do you really think something happened when that shelf fell?"

Sam waited until she stopped working and faced him completely. "Well, considering there have been three other 'accidents' before Lilly's, and all the kids swear they saw the same boy right before, it's kind of suspicious." He drained the last of his tea and handed her the glass. "What do you think?"

Katie let a huge sigh, blowing her bangs out of her eyes as she did. "I don't remember seeing anyone else in the toy store while we were there. And no one came in after we did, or we would have heard the bell above the door ring. I just can't imagine anyone wanting to hurt these kids. I know for sure that Lilly doesn't have an enemy in the world."

"Is there a back door to the toy store?" Sam asked.

Blink, blink. Sam noted that Katie always blinked twice before answering a question when she wanted to consider her answer. "There is. I never even thought about it, since no one ever uses it. I think the only time its ever opened is when they get deliveries. I know that's the only time our back door is ever open. You think someone could have snuck in and out?"

He nodded in agreement. "It's possible. We'll check it out, see if maybe it was left unlocked by mistake."

She sighed again, this time wearily. "I don't mind tellin' you, I'll be happy when this whole mess is over with. My sister was already threatening to come home early from New York when I told her what happened to Lilly. If she thinks someone did it on purpose, she'll be pouncing on me like a duck on a June bug." Sam couldn't help but laugh at her. "I'm serious!" she added. "It took her forever to leave Lilly with me, since I'm the younger, less mature, obviously not old enough to handle any kind of responsibility sister. Now with all this, I'll be lucky if Lill gets to visit."

Sam was still laughing when he said, "It doesn't matter how old you get, you'll still always be her younger sister, right?" A slight bit of sarcasm colored this statement.

Katie smiled in return. "Spoken like a true little brother. How much younger are you?"

"Four years," he answered. "And sometimes you'd think it was four decades with the way he treats me."

"I graduated with honors from the University of Georgia, but if you asked Amanda, I don't have the sense to come in out of the rain, just because I happen to have been born six years after her," Katie said. "You've gotta love them, don't you?"

Before Sam could reply, Lilly led Dean into the kitchen. "Aunt Katie, Mr. Dean wants to see Belle. Is it alright if I take him outside?"

Katie tried not to giggle at the sight of the grown man tagging along behind her little niece, but it was hard not to. "Sure, sweetie, that's fine. But don't make him go if he doesn't want to."

Dean quickly interrupted. "I've heard a lot about her, I'm looking forward to meeting her." This was said as he was being dragged to the back door. Katie couldn't help but be impressed with how he was treating Lilly. Most guys their age that didn't have kids of their own acted as if Lilly were nothing more than a nuisance.

"Um, who's Belle?" Sam asked from behind her.

"Lilly's pet rabbit. Actually, I'm not so sure you can call her a pet, she's practically part of the family." She walked over to the window looking out over the backyard. Sam followed her and could see Lilly opening a large cage and taking out something large, gray and flop eared. At that moment, he would have traded his favorite gun to be able to hear Dean's reaction to being handed a rabbit. To his credit, Dean accepted the bunny, even petting it on the head. Sam could see that Lilly was talking pretty much continuously the whole time they were standing there, and Dean acted if he was paying attention.

"I'm sure she's talking his ear off," Katie commented. "I should probably go rescue him."

Sam grinned inwardly, thoroughly enjoying the scene outside. "You know, he'll be okay for a few more minutes. If that's alright with you."

"It's fine with me. I don't know that she's ever met a stranger," Katie commented. "Which is way it's so strange that…" Katie's thought trailed off as she continued to watch her niece.

"Why what's so strange?" Sam moved from behind Katie to beside her. "Something to do with the incident in the store?"

Katie turned to face Sam completely, uncertainty written all over her face. "The boy that Lilly said she saw. She said she didn't recognize him. Lilly knows everybody under the age of 16 in this town and 90 of everyone else. It's just weird." She shrugged. "This whole thing has been weird."

"Can you think of anything else that happened in the days before Lilly was attacked? Did she mention seeing anyone she didn't know, did she go someplace unusual, anything at all?" Sam asked.

Katie paused a moment, obviously in thought, before answering. "Not that I can think. And she normally tells me everything." The back door opened as she finished this statement and Lilly entered the kitchen, with Dean in tow. Sam laughed inwardly, Dean looked slightly overwhelmed by the little girl's attention.

"And then the goat tried to eat Kelly's hat, but Mr. Myers got it back for her. She was crying the whole time, but my friend Casey and me thought it was funny," Lilly was finishing a story as they joined Sam and Katie next to the island.

"Sounds like you had a great time at the petting zoo, Lilly. I wish we had gone on field trips like that when I was in school. The most exciting thing we ever got to see was a peanut farm," Dean answered. Lilly was positively beaming from all the attention she was receiving.

Katie whispered to Sam, "She's told that story about going to the petting zoo five times since they went last week. Trust me, if you're around much more, you'll get to hear it, too."

"So," Sam began. He was chuckling slightly, both from Katie's previous comment and what he said seen outside, "How was Belle?" The glance he was sent with the reply was borderline murderous.

"Belle's a very nice bunny. We got along just fine." Dean checked his watch and stated, rather abruptly, "We'd better get out of your hair, I'm sure you have things to do."

Lilly bounced in front of Dean, pigtails flying. "Will you be back, Mr. Dean?" she asked expectantly.

"I'm sure we'll see you again before we leave town, munchkin," Dean gave one of the pigtails a slight tug, and was bestowed a gap-toothed grin. "Remember, if anything else weird happens to you or any of your friends, you call that number I gave you, okay?" Lilly nodded in response.

"Same goes for you, if anything strange happens or you see anyone that you don't recognize, Lilly has my cell phone number," this was directed at Katie, who also nodded. "We'll let you know if we find out anything."

Sam decided one of them had to be polite. He held out his hand to Katie, which she took. "Thank you so much for your time, Katie, we appreciate it."

"Oh, it's no problem, let me know if you need anything else. We definitely want to get whatever happened figured out." Katie commented, smiling to the tall man. She forced herself to not note that Sam's hand engulfed hers. And that both of the men in her house were the first attractive men she had talked to in months. Especially when Dean copied Sam's action, as well as giving that lady-killer smile.

"Bye, Mr. Dean. Bye Mr. Sam," Lilly said as she followed them to the front door.

"Bye Lilly, it was nice to meet you," Sam replied, walking out on the porch.

As Dean walked to the car, he turned back to face the girls standing at in the doorway. "Hey, Lilly," he called back, "watch out for those goats." Lilly dissolved into giggles and Dean smiled to himself as he got into the Impala. He made a point to ignore the look Sam was giving him while he was backing out of the drive. When he couldn't any more, he finally asked, "What?"

"Goats?"

Dean shrugged, "Goats."