Author's Note: And we've come to the end. I hope you've all enjoyed the story! It was a lot of fun to write and I've kind of fallen a little in love with Allie and Charlie. ;) Thanks for reading!

The bright sunshine beating down on Allie Sullivan's back was making her light T-shirt hot against her skin. Despite the humid seafront breeze swirling around her, Allie shivered. She leaned against the wrought-iron fence, her face pressed between two of the black bars, and stared up at the dilapidated building in front of her. She took a deep breath and held it, an attempt to work up the courage to squeeze through the fence, into the witch's yard, and then into the witch's house.

"The Black Widow's going to get you," a whispered voice hissed in her ear. Unlike the day before, though, Allie was not startled. She rammed her elbow behind her and gave an impish grin when she felt her arm make contact with Charlie's stomach.

Charlie let out a pained groan, and both Sam and Dean burst out laughing. "Watch out for this one, kid," Dean said through a chuckle, ruffling Charlie's dark brown hair. "She's got a few surprises in her."

The boy nodded vigorously, holding his arms over his aching stomach. "I guess so! As if I wasn't beat up enough."

Much to Allie's excitement, Charlie had been released from the hospital that morning, twenty-six hours after having arrived at the emergency room. Mr. Davis had gladly taken an ecstatic Allie along when he went to the hospital to pick up his wife and young son.

Of course two young children with the entire summer stretched out in front of them would not be kept inside for very long. After a quick lunch they had taken off on their bikes despite Charlie's mother's wishes for her son to stay at home and rest. Allie had then called Dean to let him know that both she and Charlie would be there that afternoon to tour the Blackstone house with the Winchesters.

Sam leaned back against the iron fence, looking over the two children. The dark bruises on Charlie's limbs had faded just a little bit and he still looked like he was in pretty rough shape. But looks were deceiving, and Charlie was certainly not acting as if he had almost been beaten to death the day before. "I can't believe your mother let you come back here after yesterday," Sam said to Charlie.

"She doesn't know I'm here," the boy replied with a sly grin. "She thinks I'm at Allie's."

"And my mom thinks I'm at Charlie's!" Allie exclaimed, finally turning her back to the house.

"Whoa, whoa, back up a second." Dean waved his hands and frowned down at the children, narrowing his eyes slightly. "That's the oldest trick in the book and you two are going to get caught sooner rather than later." Allie flicked worried eyes to Charlie.

"Next time?" Dean continued. "Get dropped off at some public place. The library, the mall, wherever, and once your parents have driven away, then go where you want to go. As long as you're back in the same spot when they come back to pick you up, they'll have no reason to believe that you weren't there the whole time."

As Allie and Charlie grinned playfully at each other and raised their eyebrows, Sam smacked his brother's arm, glaring at him. "Do you really think we should be teaching the juveniles how to lie to their parents?"

Dean just shrugged. "If they're going to lie, they need to learn to lie properly."

Sam shook his head in typical kill-joy fashion but Dean caught the tiny smile on his face as he turned away. "Okay," Dean said, turning to the kids. Time to get down to business. He clapped and rubbed his hands together. "Ready to go back into the witch's house?"

The easy smile that had been on Allie's face disappeared in an instant and apprehension clouded her eyes. "Are you sure she's gone?" she asked the brothers as she fixed another wary gaze on the building.

Sam pulled the small silver key out of his pocket and held it up for Allie to see. "Positive," he said, grinning. "Oh, that reminds me. I have something for you, Charlie."

Charlie glanced at Allie excitedly as he watched Sam dig into his other pocket. He fished out two thin metal objects and dropped them both into Charlie's open palm. "For your collection."

Allie stood close behind Charlie, peering over his shoulder as the boy turned the objects over his hands. His eyes lit up when he realized that one of the small metal discs was a Barber dime, one dated even earlier than the one he had taken and ultimately had to return.

The other coin was one he'd never seen before. When he turned the coin over to inspect the reverse, his frown of confusion quickly turned into an amazed smile. "Oh my God," he exclaimed breathlessly, "this is a twenty-cent piece! They only minted these for like, two years or something!" He grinned up at Sam. "Was this one in there with the rest of them?"

"Yep," Sam answered, giving the boy a smile, "buried underneath some tangled necklaces."

"God, you two are geeks." Dean gave an incredulous shake of his head. "You actually bypassed jewelry--real jewelry--to get at two ratty coins?"

"Hey, that twenty-cent piece is probably worth a couple hundred bucks, give or take," Sam argued.

"Yeah, but you're not going to sell it, are you, Charlie."

It wasn't a question. Charlie proved Dean right when he eagerly shook his head no and once again stared down at his coin in amazement. "You kidding? My dad doesn't even have one of these and he has everything."

Dean clucked his tongue in disapproval. "Like I said. Geeks."

Allie, who'd returned to gawking at the Blackstone house and had only been half-listening to the conversation, giggled.

"Oh, like you have room to talk, dork," Charlie teased, giving her shoulder a small shove. "You're the one sitting there afraid of a house that's not even haunted anymore."

"But I'm not afraid," she argued weakly. After taking a moment to steel herself, she squeezed her body between two bars and emerged on the other side of the fence. She shot a smug grin at Charlie which quickly faded into a concerned frown when the boy attempted to scale the fence.

His face contorted in pain and he swiftly jumped down the small distance he'd climbed with a soft whimper. Allie was at the fence in a flash. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah," he replied although Allie could tell he was lying. "I … it hurts when I try to climb the fence, Al. And I can't squeeze through like you can. I can't go in the house with you."

Allie's panicked eyes instantly flicked to Dean. "It's all right," he said to her before quickly scaling the fence and dropping to his feet next to the little girl. "You're not going to have to go in there alone."

The girl gave him a grateful smile and sidled up next to him as the two of them made their way around the house and over to the back steps. "Dean? Can I ask you something?"

A look of panic crossed Dean's face. He was no more a child psychologist than his brother was. But when Allie saw the hesitation in his eyes, she just giggled softly. "It's not a bad question, I promise."

"Then sure, kid. Ask away."

"You and Sam see this kind of stuff all the time, right?"

"Yep."

Allie inhaled deeply through her nose and sat down on the back porch. "How'd you learn how to not be afraid of it?"

Dean ran his hand over his head and sighed as he took a seat on the old wood next to her. This wasn't a bad question? "Do you remember when you learned to ride a bike?"

Allie nodded, her brow wrinkling ever so slightly. What could riding a bike possibly have to do with seeing ghosts?

"Remember how you were afraid of falling and getting hurt?" The little girl nodded again. "But then after you fell the first time, you weren't as afraid to fall again? And then after falling a couple more times, you weren't afraid of it at all?"

"Yeah," she answered, her voice a whisper. Now she understood where Dean was going with this line of questioning.

"It's the same kind of thing with this stuff. The more you do it and the more you see, the more used to it you become. And then you just … aren't scared anymore."

"So the more I go into the witch's house, the less afraid of it I'll become?"

"You got it," Dean said. He looked down at the little girl and smiled. "This is something that you need to do for you, Allie. I can tell you all I want that the Black Widow is gone and that she's never coming back but unless you go into that house and face your fear, you'll never not be afraid."

Allie nodded and, after taking a final moment to prepare herself, she stood and gingerly stepped over the threshold into the old kitchen. Instantly she felt that something was different. The sense of foreboding that she had felt every other time she'd been in the house was nowhere to be found. Instead she felt only amazement and wonder and she was finally able to see just why Charlie liked it so much in the old house. It was like a museum that she could play in!

Dean smiled as he watched Allie walk around the ancient kitchen in awe. A wide grin broke out on her face, her fear already beginning to melt away. Her dark eyes were even twinkling! "See?" he said. "It's not so bad."

"No," Allie said, her voice soft. "No, it's really not."

She and Dean toured the entire ground floor. Occasionally she would let out a tiny gasps of wonder upon seeing figurines she found cute or finding pieces of jewelry she could use to play dress-up. The two of them finally exited out the front door.

Allie locked eyes with Charlie. She gave a squeal of excitement as she ran down the steps, squeezed herself through the fence, and wrapped her best friend in an eager hug. "Whoa!" Charlie exclaimed, stepping backwards to support himself against the force of her embrace.

"Sorry!" she cried, giggling. She let him go and held him at arm's length, her eyes shining. "She's really gone, Charlie! It doesn't even feel the same in there anymore. It's … oh, it's so much lighter now!"

"Good," Charlie said with an emphatic nod. "She doesn't deserve that house anymore."

"No, she doesn't," Sam said, giving the boy a half-smile as he ruffled his hair.

Dean jumped down from the top of the fence and Allie turned to face him, the grin quickly dropping from her expression. "That means you guys have to leave now, doesn't it?"

"Yep," Dean replied, meeting his brother's eyes. "Always more ghosts to bust."

Allie opened her mouth to ask another question but for some reason thought better of it. Dean frowned at her. "What's the matter?"

"Well," she asked uncomfortably, twisting the toe of her shoe against the ground, "what if there's another ghost?"

Dean rested a hand on her shoulder and waited to speak until she looked back up at him. "You have our number."

A tiny smile tugged at the corners of her mouth. "Really? You really mean that?"

"You bet."

After flashing Dean a grin, she blushed, bit her bottom lip, and again dropped her gaze down to her sneakers. "Thank you."

"You're very welcome." After letting the moment hang in the air for a tiny bit longer, Dean slapped his brother's shoulder. "Come on, Sammy. We're running out of daylight."

Sam nodded and followed Dean across the street and back to the Impala. As he climbed in on the passenger side, he glanced over his shoulder at the two children and gave them a goodbye wave. The kids waved back and Sam could have sworn that he saw Allie sniffle.

He furrowed his brow in confusion. Why was the kid so sad? They had saved Charlie and given Allie the freedom to finally enjoy spending time a place that her best friend loved. Then as Sam followed her gaze to his brother, it hit him. "I think someone has a little crush on you," he murmured to Dean, gesturing for him to look at the children through the window.

Dean frowned, not understanding what Sam meant. Allie met his eyes, gave him a small wave, and then unconsciously brushed at her cheek, wiping away a tear. He flashed the girl a smile to allay her sadness and gave her a wave back as he took off down the street.

He watched in the rearview mirror until he turned off of Lancaster Road and the kids disappeared around the corner. When Sam snickered, Dean shot him a sharp glare. "What's your problem?"

"Nothing," Sam said through a chuckle. "I just didn't realize that you were so popular with the fourth-grade set."

Dean pursed his lips and chewed on the inside of his cheek before giving his brother a smack in the arm. But even as he did so, he was smiling.