Chapter seven

Disclaimer: I don't own Sam or Dean. I own Becca. There is some language.

A/N: Thanks so much for the reviews.

The next morning I woke up in a foggy haze. Both of my brothers were asleep in the room, Sam in the chair next to me and Dean on the floor. I didn't know what had happened, but I was pretty sure I'd come close to becoming extinct. I brushed my teethed, pulled my hair into a ponytail and made my way to the kitchen.

"Hi there." Missouri said. "You hungry? I can make you some pancakes and maybe some eggs and bacon."

"Oh no thanks." Honestly, pancakes and bacon and eggs sounded great, but I didn't want to be any trouble.

"Becca Winchester, don't you lie to me. Now I know you're hungry. Didn't even have to read your thoughts cuz I can hear that stomach growl from here."

"Well," I said. "I could eat a little something."

I was halfway done with my second pancake when I heard Dean and Sam come down. "Becca? Oh there you are." Dean sighed.

"We woke up and she was gone." Sam explained.

"I was watchin her just like I was supposed to." Missouri calmed them down and went back to cooking.

"Watching me?" I asked.

"Had to make sure the counter spell took." Dean said taking a strip of my bacon while Missouri had her back to us.

"Hey!" I swatted at his hand just long enough for Sam to take my other two pieces. "Sammy!"

"Boys, did your sister offer you any of her food?" Missouri asked.

"How'd she…" Dean began.

"I asked you a question?"

"Well, uh no ma'am she didn't but…"

"If you'd asked I'd make you your own, but don't bully your sister. You hear me?" She asked turning around cutting Sam off.

"Yes ma'am." My brothers said together. Missouri came over and put more bacon on my plate and I stuck my tongue out at my brothers.

"So what happened last night?" I asked.

"You tell us." Dean said.

"Yeah, you were screaming in your sleep and we went to look for you. We found you curled up next to some book in the library, but other then that we're stumped." Sam explained.

"A book?" I asked myself. I remembered the spell book on parallel universes, remembered my dream and put the pieces together. I'd experienced a parallel dimension. One where Mary Winchester hadn't died. One where we, me and my family lived a normal life. A life together. I didn't know what to do with my discovery.

"How's your head? And your sight? Oh and did you see anything while you were out. Visions or anything?" Sam asked.

"I, um…yeah, I'm a little light headed or tired or something. I think I need to go lay down for a little." I excused myself and went back to my room. I sat on the bed and thought. In a little while Sam came in to check on me.

"Sorry Bex," he said. "I didn't mean to bombard you with questions or anything. Especially so soon. How are you feeling?"

"Um… Better." I said. "So what are we doing today. Physics or History?"

"Becca, I'm not gonna make you do school work today."

"No, I want to." I said.

"Listen, I know you don't wanna fight anymore, and yeah I feel bad about last night too. I mean, I can't help thinking that if we didn't fight last night you wouldn't have…"

"Sammy…"

"Bex if you want to, we can throw out the plan or get a new plan or something." He sighed.

"Sam, I really wanna stick with the plan. Honest. I wanna get a diploma and maybe even… I don't know, maybe even go to college and find a boyfriend and get married and hold Maryanne." I said.

"Who's Maryanne?" Sam asked.

"Um… nobody it's just a saying." I lied. "Anyways, I wanna stick to the plan."

We stayed at Missouri's for a little, while Sam and Sean tried to figure out what happened to me. I knew it was wrong, hiding it from them, but I figured Missouri had to know nd she kept it quiet too. We kept our eyes on the paper for anything worth following. We did a few local gigs until Sam found something in Pennsylvania and Dean decided we should go for it.

"Y'all know you're welcome to stay don't you?" Missouri said as we packed up Impala.

"We don't want to wear out that welcome." Dean smiled. He didn't want to let on, but we all knew he was going to miss Missouri just as much as we were.

We heard on the radio about some construction on the way. Dean was hungry and We'd misplaced the map so we stopped at a gas station for a bit. While Sam and I looked at alternate routes, Dean checked his voice mail.

"So we figured out a way to bypass that construction just east of here. We might even make it to Pennsylvania faster than we thought." Sam said.

"Yeah," Dean said. "Problem is where not going to Pennsylvania." Dean explained that a friend of his needed our help. I stayed quiet, but from the look on his face, I could tell who it was. Only one person made my older brother nervous and anxious like that. I was there when Dean met Cassie.

We'd only been in Ohio for two days and I already hated it. The apartment we'd rented was tiny (even compared to our standards). All we did was follow leads and it didn't seem like the case was gonna crack anytime soon. Dean realized I was getting antsy and didn't want me to start bugging Dad. He took me over to the bookstore and let me browse around. It wasn't very often that Dean would indulge me in something that Dad would call a blatant waste of time so I was thrilled.

I'd just read through a book about backpacking in Europe (When Sam left I started picking up these hobbies and fascinations to take my mind off the fact that he was gone. At the time I was all about Europe.), when a girl came up to me. "Are you gonna buy that." I thought I was busted.

"I'm sorry was just reading it I didn't know I had to…"

"Oh its okay." The girl smiled. "I don't work here or anything. I just wanted to know if I could buy it. It's the last copy and I heard I should pick it up before my trip."

"You're actually going to backpack around Europe?" I asked.

She nodded. "My professor is taking some of his students. He does it every year."

I handed her the book. "That's so lucky. I really want to go. My brother promised one day he's gonna take me."

"So you'll be pretty lucky too." She said. "I'm Cassie."

I didn't know if I should give a false name. We were working a case in this town, but not right then and there. " I'm Becca. And it's not likely." I sighed. "I don't honestly think my trips ever gonna happen."

"Becca!" I heard Dean harshly whisper. It still earned him a glare from a worker at the store. "Becca you can't just walk away like that. I told you to come back to check in with me every 10 minutes and we're gonna be late meeting up with Dad." He didn't even notice there was someone talking with me.

"I'm sorry, I lost track and…"

Dean finally realized there was a girl present. "Hi." A pretty girl. "I'm Dean." Trademark smile.

Cassie smiled at me. "The brother?"

"Yup." I could tell Dean was giving me a questioning look, but I chose to keep my eyes on Cassie.

"Listen," She said "Dr. Fines, the teacher I told you about, he's showing the slide show of his trip last year at a hall at my school tomorrow. You should come."

"Really?" I looked up at Dean. "Please, please, please, please, please…"

"Becca you know we can't just…"

"It'll be fun." Cassie said. Dean looked at her then at me. When he looked back at her and she smiled at him, I was positive we were going to the slide show. Dean was already into her.

By the second week of their relationship, they were more than just into each other. It was weird to see Dean, the self-proclaimed stud muffin, to find himself uncertain in front of Cassie. She left my loudmouth brother speechless. Dean never outright lied to Dad about anything important. In fact most of the time he only lied to him to get me or Sam out of trouble. But Dean knew our father. He knew he wouldn't approve of him having a steady girlfriend. It was one thing for Dean to go to a bar, make a few bucks hustling pool or something and then get with some random chick. I mean Dad understood that Dean was human and had needs (my needs however were never to exist let alone be acted upon…talk about a double standard). But when we had to be able to pick up and leave without anyone really knowing we were there in the first place, a steady anything was not a good idea. So Dean didn't really talked about Cassie. He'd say he had to go to a bar, and leave out the fact that he was being accompanied there and to a movie preceding the bar. He'd go do research at the library on her campus. He'd covered for me a million times plus I thought they were cute and Dean was happy, so I didn't rat on him.

But Dad was an experienced hunter and researcher. One night he walked into the apartment we were staying in.

"Dad I found out some stuff about that demon relic you were talking about." Dean said.

"Oh really." Dad said. His voice told me something was wrong. Dean heard it too. "Say Dean, where is it you've been going for all of this information you've been digging up?

"Um… The public library and uh sometimes…" Dean trailed off.

"Sometimes where?"

"Sometimes the local- uh – local college library…"

"And how do you get in there Dean? Dean Aaron Winchester, I asked you a question." Dad said. When he was met with silence again Dad said "I wanna talk to you in the kitchen."

He walked away without even waiting for Dean's low "Yes sir."

It was a small apartment and I heard most of what was said (especially because I was trying to hear it.)

"Does she know what we do?" Dad asked.

"No sir. I haven't told her anything like that."

"I'm so disappointed in you Dean. How could you lie to me?"

"I- I didn't lie I just…" Dean began.

"Cut the crap Dean." Dad said.

"I'm sorry Dad. It's just… I knew you wouldn't approve and I care about her. A lot. I'm in love with her."

"Son," Dad said a bit softer. "I got a call today. A serious hunt. If you really love her and she loves you, what happens now. Are you planning on staying here and leaving your responsibilities behind? Are you willing to let her go and do your job? And if you do, what are you going to say? Are you willing to lie to her? Think about that."

"Dad…"

"I'm not finished young man." Dad said quickly. "More importantly, think about if you're willing to get her hurt. Because in our line of work that may very well happen. She's not like us. She doesn't know how to protect herself and if she stays with you she will need protection. How you protect her from things she doesn't even believe in?" Dad lectured. "There are people out there who need us. Now I'm going to go pack up for this trip. Go do what you have to do. Your sister and I are leaving in an hour and a half with or without you Dean."

I heard footsteps coming toward me and tried to pretend I wasn't listening. When Dad passed me and went into his room, I hurried into the kitchen.

"Dean?" I said.

"I'm guessing you heard all that." He said. "Looks like I'm caught between a rock and a hard place, huh Becca Anne?" He was trying to put on a brave front and I let him. It wouldn't help matters to kick him while he was down.

"Dean…" I sighed.

"I don't know what to do, but I got an hour and a half to figure it out." He got up and put his coat on. My heart sank. I knew he loved her. I knew he would stay with her. He'd leave. Just like Sam did. I tried to act as if I didn't mind that he was leaving. But Dean always could read me pretty well.

"Look at me." He said. "I wont leave you, okay."

"That's what Sammy said and…"

"No." he wiped away some of my tears. "I wont leave you." Dean repeated. He hugged me tight and I sobbed into his shoulder. When I calmed down a bit Dean kissed my forehead and said he had to go talk to Cassie.

I counted each minute he was gone. As time passed, I grew more and more sure that he wasn't coming back. When there were two minutes left and we'd finished packing up the car Dean ran over.

"I'm not late am I?" he asked.

"Right on time son." Dad said. I took the first steady break I'd taken in and hour and relaxed. It wasn't until I looked at Dean's face in the mirror that I was shaken up again. He was distraught. He was angry. He was dejected. I never asked, but I realized that things didn't work out with Cassie and we never spoke about her again. Not till now.

For while Sam tried to wait for Dean to reveal what was going on. But soon his patience wore out. "So by old friend, you mean….?"

"A friend that's not new." Dean said shortly.

Sam laughed. "Thanks." He said "So, her name's Cassie, huh? You never mentioned her.

"Didn't I?" Dean said as casually as he could.

"No." Sam was having fun torturing him.

"Yeah, we went out."

"Dean" I said. Dean shot me a look that said both "Please put me out of this misery!" and "If you say a word, have fun walking."

Sam caught the look and gave Dean one of his own. "You mean he dated someone? For more than one night?" Sam asked me through the rear view mirror.

"Well…" I started to say.

"Am I speakin' a language you're not getting here? Yeah, Dad and I were workin' a job in Athens, Ohio, she was finishing up college, and we went out for a couple weeks." Dean explained.

Sam chuckled at me and I could hardly hold my smile. "And?" He asked. "Look, it's terrible about her dad, but it kind of sounds like a standard car accident. I'm not seeing how it fits with what we do. Which, by the way, how does she know what we do?" That was the first time I'd thought about that. Why did Cassie know to call us. Sam answered my question. "You told her. You told her? The secret? Our big family rule number one, we do what we do, and we shut up about it. For a year and a half I do nothing but lie to Jessica, and you go out with this chick in Ohio a couple of times and you tell her everything?" Dean kept his eyes on the road. "Dean!"

"Yeah. Looks like it." He said quickly Sam shook his head. He was upset and I was in total shock. Dean knew the rules. Usually he was a "rules are meant to be broken" guy. But not with Dad's rules. Dad's rules were orders and orders were meant to be followed without question. I knew Dean had skirted around Dad to date Cassie, but I didn't think he'd flat out go against an order. And he didn't even tell me about it. ME! The one who helped him sneak in. The only other person who even knew about Cassie.

When we got to Cassie's job I really wanted to jump up and give her a hug, but the mood was set. It wasn't the cheerful reunion time.

"Becca…Dean." Cassie sighed walking over to us.

"Hey, Cassie." It was one of the most awkward silences of my life (and I've sat through hour long drives with my dad and hormonal teenage Sam. Neither of them knew what to say so nobody said anything.

The silence was so deafing that I finally had to say something. "Hey Cassie, this is my brother, Sam." They smiled at each other.

"I'm sorry about your dad." Dean managed to say.

"Yeah. Me, too." She said sorrowfully.

We went to Cassie's house. For a half an hour of more uncomfortable quiet. Cassie offered us some tea. I've always believed in life you can either be a coffee person or a tea person. We Winchesters were coffee people. Cassie, she'd always been a tea person. Dean hated tea, but I'd seen him down pots of the stuff when he was with Cassie. It's the little things that show you someone really is in love.

"My mother's in pretty bad shape. I've been staying with her. I wish she would walk by herself, she's been so nervous and frightened. She was worried about Dad."

"Why?" Dean asked

"He was scared. He was seeing things." Cassie explained

"Like what?" I said

"He swore he saw an awful-looking black truck following him."

"A truck? Who was the driver?" Sam asked

Cassie sighed "He didn't talk about a driver. Just the truck. He said it would appear and disappear. And in the accident, Dad's truck was dented. Like it had been slammed into, by something big. "

"Now, you're sure this dent wasn't there before?" Sam asked.

"He sold cars. Always drove a new one. I mean, there wasn't a scratch on that thing. It had rained hard that night, there was mud everywhere. There was a distinct set of muddy tracks from Dad's car, leading right to the edge." I couldn't imagine losing Dad forever. I mean it was bad enough not knowing where he was. But to have him… to have him gone like that. I suddenly thought about my birthparents and Mary Winchester. It's heartbreaking to lose someone and not have any of the answers. Cassie started to cry. "Where he went over…One set of tracks…his.

"And the first person killed was a friend of your father's?" I asked.

"Best friend. Clayton Solmes. They owned the car dealership together. Same thing. Dent, no tracks. And the cops said exactly what they said about my Dad…he lost control of his car.

"Can you think of any reason why your father and his partner might be targets?"

"No." She said.

"And you think this vanishing truck ran him off the road?" Sam said.

Cassie laughed darkly. "Oh, when you say it aloud like that. Listen, I'm a little skeptical about this….ghost stuff, or whatever it is you guys are into.

Now it was Dean's turn to laugh "Skeptical. Yeah, if I remember, I think you said it was nuts."

"That was then."

Me and Sam looked at each other. Cassie's mom came in but gave us no information. She seemed really sketchy about the whole thing.

The next day Sam and Dean went off to look at another one of the mysterious car accidents and I was left to do some research. After an hour of hacking into the police records, I discovered I'd wasted my time, since all of the documented evidence pointed to a normal run of the mill accident. Dean called and asked me to find out some personal info on of Jimmy Anderson, the latest victim. Since my brothers were planning on questioning Jimmy's friends, they needed to at least know something about him. I found his medical records and when Sam and Dean came back we decided they'd run the "insurance company" scam.

"I'll say this for her" Sam said as they got dressed. "She's fearless." Dean just pretended not to hear him. "I bet she kicked your ass a couple times. "

"You have no idea." I said, getting me a stern look from Dean.

"What's interesting is" Sam continues "you guys never really look at each other at the same time."

"That's true." I said. I figured if Sam was allowed to point out the obvious I should too. Besides I always loved it when me and Sam doubled teamed him. I know its mean, but being annoying is in the little brother and sister job description. And no one can say Winchesters don't get the job done. Plus it usually irritated to the point of being honest. "Dean looks at her when she's not looking."

"Cassie checks him out when he looks away."

Dean sighed in a melodramatic way. "It's just an interesting observation." I said. "In a, you know, observationally interesting way." Sam added trying to hold back his smile.

"I think we might have some more pressing issues here." Dean said.

"Hey, if we're hittin' a nerve" Sam said as Dean walked out. "Mission complete." I thought to myself. "There's some homework waiting for you on the desk." Sam pointed. "Later kiddo."

I did my math and History homework before falling asleep. I woke up later to the smell of fries and a cheese burger. Sam handed me the bag. "Yum!" I said "Extra pickles?"

"Extra pickles."

"Where's Dean." I asked.

"He's… He's with Cassie."

I smiled. "Nice. I never could figure out why he'd break up with the only girl he ever loved."

"Actually… he didn't." Sam said.

"What? No way, she broke up with him?" Sam nodded. "I guess he's more like you than I thought."

"What does that mean?"

"Well… when Dean left with us the night Dad found out about Cassie, don't get me wrong I was happy, but I jus figured it was another time that he gave up on something just cuz Dad said so… I can't believe he got dumped." I said shoving the fries in my mouth.

The hotel phone rang the next morning.

"Sammy!" I groaned.

"What?"

"Um, do you not hear that? It's your phone."

"It's closer to you."

"Ugh!" I said as I reached for the phone. I just barely missed the call. "Fuck."

"Language."

I jumped as the phone rang. "Hello. You're kidding. Thanks." I practically fell out of bed and onto Sam's. "Get up!"

"Ughrhuff." Sam said.

"Get up!" I repeated. "Sam come on. Harold Todd's dead."

"Mayor Harold Todd?"

"One and the same."

"But he's not bla…"

"Nope…"

"And there are no tra…"

"Nope."

"I gotta get outta bed."

"Yup." I looked around. "SO I guess Dean stayed over at Cassie's." Sam smiled at me. "I should give him a call."

"Becca!" Sam said.

"Not about that…eww…he should know about the Mayor." I called Dean and he said he'd meet Sam over at the accident site. I went over to the courthouse to try and figure out what was going on with this case. I was beginning to hate paper work. By the time Sam met me there I'd just dug up the records. We got in the car and called Dean on speaker phone.

"Okay," Sam said. "So the courthouse records show that Mr. and Mrs. Mayor bought an abandoned property. The previous owner was the Dorian family, for, like, 150 years.

"Dorian?" Dean asked

"Yeah." I said.

"That's interesting." He said after some time.

"What?"

"This Cyrus Dorian—he vanished in April of '63. The case was investigated but never solved. That's right around the time the string of murders was going on back then."

"Well, Bex pulled a bunch of paper up on the Dorian place. It must have been in bad shape when the mayor bought it."

"Why is that?" Dean asked

"The first thing he did was bulldoze the place."

"You got a date?

I read from the book "The third of last month."

"Mayor Todd bulldozes Dorian family home on the third. The first killing was the very next day." Dean said. Sam and I drove over to Cassie's house to pick up Dean. My brothers thought they should pose as cops to get some information on Dorian. It was hard enough for two dudes in their twenties driving a muscle car and wearing jeans to be believable as cops, but a 17 year old girl? Not gonna happen. So I stayed with Cassie. I acted like I wanted to go, but really I wanted to talk to Cassie alone for a bit.

"So…" I sighed.

"So…"

"How was Europe?"

"It was great…really…really um…great…I thought about sending you some pictures but I didn't know how to find you without…"

"Calling Dean, right. Well thanks anyway."

"Your wel…"

"Are you back with my brother?" I interrupted her.

"Wow. Um, right to the point. You are Dean's sister."

"Well its just cuz… I thought Dean broke up with you, because you know Dad kinda gave him no choice. It never even crossed my mind that you'd dump him. I mean I saw you too. You loved him. So I mean, yeah it looks like you're still in love with him, but… That clearly doesn't mean your with him… I'm long-winded today, huh?"

"No uh. Becca I can't tell you about right now, but back then…your right, back then I'd fallen in love with your brother and I thought- I thought he didn't love me. Becca let me tell you, when you love someone and you even think they don't wanna be with you it hurts more than any pain you can imagine."

I sat down next to Cassie. "Cassie, I didn't mean to upset you…Okay maybe I did, but just a little and mostly just to get you to tell me you loved- love him. See me and Sam do it all the time to Dean. Annoy or aggravate him until he's finally honest with himself. But that doesn't make it right I know, and I'm sorry if I was…"

"You were right." Cassie sighed. "But even so, me and Dean need to figure this out at our own speed. Thank you for trying though."

"No problem." I said. The words barely escaped my lips when the lights started to flicker. "Oh no."

"Its probably just the power." Cassie said walking to the windows and shutting the blinds.

I sighed. "If the lights ever actually flickered for natural reasons, I think I'd die of astonishment." The windows started to open and shut. The papers on Cassie's desk flew everywhere.

Cassie ran to the hallway and saw the truck through the glass of the front door. She grabbed her cell. "Dean! Dean!" she screamed.

I tried to think of something, anything. I thought about a protection incantation my father once used on an old woman's house. I couldn't even hear the words I spoke as the wind blew around me. Suddenly it stopped. Cassie cautiously handed me her phone.

"Becca, what the hell happened. Talk to me!" Dean screamed into the phone

"Oh this is so our kind of job."