Like a startling sign that fate had finally found me

Kat walked into the shop and smelled the incense and smiled faintly. She remembered the strong pungent smell from her childhood. She let the door close behind her. She walked over to the counter where a little man with round glasses and a rumpled blazer and dress pants stood. She smiled at him and he smiled at her. He reminded her of a college professor dressed for class. Not that she knew much about college. She had walked away from a full scholarship to work on the Supernatural set. She knew if she told Sam he'd probably smack her.

"Hello, I'm Kat. My friend Sam called earlier about some books," Kat said saying what Sam had told her to say.

"Ah, yes, Sam. Those books are right over... Here they are!" he exclaimed finding the three books. He grabbed them and placed them on the counter.

"Thank you. How much are they?"

"Well, they are..."

Burton trailed off when the girl pushed up the sleeve of her shirt. He saw the talisman. He had never seen one in person just read about them in books. He had been almost certain that they didn't exist at all; just a myth made up by others. But now there was one just inches away from him. He reached out and grabbed the girl's arm and yanked it closer to his face. He needed to see if it was real or not.

Kat was shocked and surprised when the guy grabbed her arm. She tried not to scream or panic. She needed to keep a cool head in this kind of situation. She tried to pull it away but he held on tight. She suddenly wished she had let Dean come inside with her. Then didn't because she knew Dean would hit the guy first then ask questions later.

"Let go of my arm," she said.

"Where did you get this?" he asked looking at her.

"My father gave it to me when I was ten."

"Before puberty... Do you know what this is?"

"A Chinese coin?" Kat said finally yanking her arm back.

"No, it isn't. It is much more powerful than a mere coin. This is a talisman. It is used for hiding the powers of a natural witch from the witch in question. You.... You are a witch."

Kat looked at him and started laughing. Dean and Sam Winchester showing up from another dimension, she could handle. The thought that she, Katerina McCrae the World Champion Klutz was a witch now that was laughable. She could barely manage to chew gum and walk at the same time but yet she was supposed to possess these great powers. Yeah, the guy was nuts.

"I am not a witch. You are crazy. Now how much for-," Kat started.

"Here, take these books. Please, and read them. I... I know my stuff. I know what that talisman is. No charge for these books."

Katerina saw the way the guy was looking at her. She was a sucker for the sad puppy look. She sighed, "Fine, just wrap everything up."

Kat watched as the man grabbed two more books and placed them in a bag. She looked at her bracelet and told herself that he was crazy. This was just a gift given to her by her father nothing more. She wasn't a witch; there were no such thing as witches, not here anyway.

"Here you go. Please read those books," he said again giving her the puppy look.

"Thanks," Kat gave him money and quickly left the store.

She walked over to the Jeep where Dean sat in the driver's seat waiting for her. She climbed in and placed the books at her feet. She turned and looked at Dean and smiled.

"You okay?" Dean asked seeing something in her eyes. He felt like something was wrong.

"I'm fine. Creepy old dudes, tell me again why they think young women want to marry them and change their diapers?" Kat asked smiling at him hiding her concerns and fears.

"Well, I can't answer that because I'm not a creepy old dude."

"Well... You're old."

"Excuse me?"

Kat was glad she had gotten Dean side tracked. She wanted to read those books for herself and see what was going on before she even mentioned to him that her being a witch was a possibility. She wondered when the moment was she started to think of it as a possibility rather than an outright joke.

***

Sam nodded and smiled as Sandy went on talking. God, he could listen to her talk all night long. He looked up when the waiter brought the check. He suddenly didn't want this night to end. He looked at Sandy when she reached out and placed her hand over his. She gave him a beautiful smile and Sam felt himself softening towards her even more.

"I know that you have a full house right now but... It's been so long since we've been together. Honey, I miss you so much," Sandy said stroking his hand.

"I... I missed you too," Sam said softly.

"How about we go back to your place?"

Sam was seriously considering it. He then stopped and looked at Sandy again. She was looking at him with love in her eyes but it wasn't love for him it was love for who she thought he was; Jared. Sam felt his heart plummet in his chest. He wished that Jared was there cause then he would tell the guy how damn lucky he was to have a beautiful, sweet, smart girl like Sandy to call his. Sam squeezed her hand and gave Sandy a sad smile. He wasn't faking it; he really wished that he could spend the night with Sandy but he knew it wouldn't be fair to Jared or Sandy. He would be lying to her and he didn't want that.

"I wish we could Sandy, baby but it wouldn't be fair to Kat and Jensen. You know making them hear us and all," he said winking at her causing her to laugh.

"You do have a point. I love you, Jared."

"And I love you, Sandy."

Sam got up from the chair and grabbed his wallet. He tossed down some money plus a tip. He walked over to Sandy's chair and pulled it back. She stood up and gave him another smile. He couldn't stop himself. He leaned in and kissed her softly on the lips. He felt her arms come around him and he held her close to him. He pulled away after a few moments and smiled at her.

"Jared, are you alright?" Sandy asked seeing pain in her fiancé's eyes.

"I'm fine. Just tired. Let's get you back before I change my mind," Sam said trying to do a better job of hiding his feelings from her.

"Okay. You can talk to me."

"I know, honey. I... I am so lucky to have you."

"And I am lucky to have you."

Sam led Sandy out of the restaurant. He sighed and thought about Jensen and Jared. These guys had great lives and he envied them so much because of it. Jared had a beautiful girl and a great life; Sam hoped that he knew that and didn't do anything to screw it up.

***

"This is insane!" Jared exclaimed.

"So, you have said," Jensen said never taking his eyes away from the road.

"Then why are we doing it?!"

"Cause we're awesome."

"Jensen, I am trying to be serious."

"Jared, I am trying really hard not to go insane here."

Jared raked a hand though his hair and took calming deep breaths. He had never seen this side of Jensen before. Jensen was usually the one who sat back and thought though every decision before he made them. This time however, his friend had jumped in head first. So now they were on their way to what was supposed to be a simple salt and burn in Idaho. Jared really had no desire to try and be Sam and get into the young hunter's life. Jared had enough doing it on set. Sam's life was fucked up. It really was and Jared just wanted to stay out of it because he knew there were things here that would kill him and enjoy it.

"This is-," Jared started.

"I swear to God if you say insane one more I am going to pull over and beat your ass!" Jensen yelled finally having enough.

"Well it is! What the hell do we think we are doing? We aren't Sam and Dean fucking Winchester! We can't do this! We can't live their lives!"

"We might not have a choice!"

Jensen pulled over to the side of the road. He turned and looked at Jared. He sighed and looked out at the road ahead of them. He had been thinking about it and he knew that they might be stuck here. Kat was a great PA and Sam was really good at research but the chances of the two of them coming together and finding away to fix this... Jensen knew it was a long shot. He was starting to prepare himself for the worst; the fact that Jared and him might be stuck here for the rest of their lives. And considering how Sam and Dean lived those lives, their chances of living past forty were nil.

"Is this about earlier and what you said about Kat?" Jared asked.

"Jared, I hate being here away from the people I love but... We got to face the facts. Bobby and Ruby say that Kat is a witch but Kat doesn't know that she is. And come on, I don't care how much of a walking encyclopaedia of weirdness Sam is there is no way he is ever going to figure out that Kat is a witch let alone how she can help fix this. The only one who does know is Kat's psycho mom and she'd probably kill Kat and take her powers before she helped us... And while I'm talking about this I realize just how fucked it is!"

"I know."

"What would happen is we went back home? No one would believe us. Hell, we don't even know if anyone has noticed that Sam and Dean aren't us."

"You have a point. It still doesn't explain why we are driving to what could possibly be our death."

"I can't sit there and do nothing, Jared. I sat there for a month waiting for something to happen, for us to get back to our lives. When Bobby suggested we go on this hunt, I realized I needed to get out of there. I was sick of waiting for someone else to change my circumstance. Can you understand that?"

Jared sighed. He nodded. He could understand where Jensen was coming from. He had started to feel the same way sitting in Bobby's house staring at the walls.

"I get it, Jen. I wish it didn't and for the record I still think this is-."

"Yeah, yeah I know. Insane."

"Actually this time I was going to use mentally deranged."

"Kat been teaching you new words again?"

"Oh, very funny."

"I thought it was."

Jensen laughed when Jared pouted. He pulled the impala back on the road and stared ahead. He would never admit it to Jared but he was scared out of his mind. He really had no idea how he was going to do this job. He wasn't like Dean, he couldn't be. He sighed. He had a feeling he was in over his head.

***

Kat listened as Dean's breathing evened out. She sighed in relief that he was finally asleep. They had come home from the bookstore and Kat had made sure that he was too distracted to notice the worry in her eyes. After making love in the shower, against the wall and finally in Jensen's bed, Dean was asleep. She slowly pulled her body away from his and grabbed her oversized t-shirt from the floor. She pulled it on and grabbed the two books from the bag.

She walked into the living room and sat on the couch her legs tucked under her. She looked at the cover of the book. The title was in Latin and she couldn't read it. She wondered if the whole thing was in Latin. She opened the book and smiled a little. She loved that musty smell that old books had. It made her feel safe and like she was a little girl again sitting on her father's lap as he read her stories from his mother's journal. She could still hear him speaking to her in Russian the way he would tell the jokes and how his face would light up when she understood them.

She pushed those thoughts away and opened the book. She turned a few pages then stopped. There on the page of contents was a picture of her Chinese coin. She looked at the picture and looked at her bracelet. She sat there just staring at the picture. She didn't know what to think. Could that guy at the store be right? Was she a witch?

She flipped a couple more pages and started to read. She needed to know everything now. She needed to know if her father by giving her the coin had tried to keep the truth from her. And if he did, why? She shook her head. Suddenly the words her mother had yelled at her while coming at her with a knife made sense. I need to kill you, Katerina baby. I need my powers back they'll make the voices stop. I need stronger powers and they'll stop. Kat wondered with a shudder how much of that babble had been her mother's delusions and how much had been the truth.