The audience of families had begun filing in to find seats, and Dean studied them, looking for anything out of the ordinary. But what counted as unusual? Some families were the definition of relaxed, while others were the polar opposite. This world was so foreign to him, he'd never thought that he'd actually end up at one of these events.

Hell, he'd never thought that he'd actually end up with a kid, let alone two. It wasn't as though the twins had been planned, and he hadn't even known about them until a few days before their birth, but regardless, here they all were. At a children's beauty pageant, with one of his two kids sitting beside him.

"Where's Shiloh?" Milo looked up at his father with a bit of worry on his young face.

"Backstage with Uncle Sammy," Dean assured the boy, pointing to the stage at the front of the room. "He's making her pretty."

"Why?"

Good question. "It's a contest. She has to be the prettiest."

"But she is."

Dean grinned and pulled the boy into his lap. "I know that, but the judges over there," he pointed to the table nearby, "have to think so too."

"Why?"

"Because they pick the winner."

"But they're not pretty!"

Dean looked over at the three people at the table and well, he couldn't argue with that. "It's just how this works."

"It's stupid."

The blonde who took the seat next to him, however, was pretty. "Parent or support?" She asked brightly.

"Uh, parent."

"First pageant?"

He laughed. "That obvious?"

The blonde laughed as well. "I've been coming to these things with my sister and her girls for a while. You get to know The Look, as we call it."

"The look?"

"The 'Oh-God-What-Have-I-Gotten-Myself-Into' look. You have it. I'm Judy, by the way."

"And here I thought I had a great poker face," he replied. "I'm Dean, and this is Milo."

"Shiloh's gon' win cause she's the prettiest!" Milo declared loudly. "We twins!"

Dean ruffled the boy's dark hair. "That's right bud." He looked back to the grinning blonde woman. "Not that your nieces aren't lovely, I'm sure they are, but my kid's got some great genes."

"I'm sure she does, and probably all from her mother. Is she backstage with your daughter?"

"Uh, no. My brother's backstage with her." He didn't really want this conversation. It led to pity, and pity almost always killed flirty moods.

"Mommy's in heaven." Thank you, Milo Winchester.

Judy instantly turned a shade of pink. "Oh, I'm so sorry!"

There it was. The pity. Dean waved his hand. "It… it's alright. It was a while ago now." A year and a half, give or take a week or two, to be more exact. His kids had to grow up without a mother, just as he had. But it wasn't something that he wanted to think about now. He cleared his throat and forced a smile. "So, you've been coming to these for a while? Ever been to this particular pageant before?"

Judy nodded. "Yeah, actually. I was here when that woman was murdered."

Bingo. He pretended to be oblivious. After all, many of the accidents hadn't gotten high profile attention, and they weren't the easiest to find out about unless you were looking for them. "Murdered? Someone was murdered?

She shook her head. "Not if you ask the police, but she had a straightener burn through her neck. But they'll tell you it was an accident."

"How the hell could that be an accident?"

"My thoughts exactly." She looked to see if anyone was listening, and leaned in closer. "Now, some people think it may have been a suicide, but I don't think so. There's been a string of strange accidents around these pageants, if you believe all the rumors."

"Really."

"Yeah, but most people won't talk about it. I don't think they're accidents at all. How can they all be?" She straightened up and cleared her throat, noticing that a few people had turned to look at them. "So, your brother's the one on hair and makeup?"

Dean nodded. "Oh yeah, Sam loves that kind of thing."