Chapter 10 – Chris' POV

Kali and I had just gotten back to our room after eating dinner the following night when there was a knock at our door. I went to answer it.

"Here, get her inside," Sam said, and nudged a girl with a green knit sweater pulled up over her eyes into the room. She was tall and slim with blonde highlights – and was whimpering slightly.

I stood back into the bathroom doorway and allowed all three of them (Dean was right behind Sam) into the room. Kali stood up immediately. "What's going on? Is something wrong?"

Sam and Dean both ignored her and began pulling down pictures and glancing around fervently for… Well, even I couldn't figure out what. Kali stood in the middle of the room for a moment before finally walking over and shifting from foot to foot next to me, frowning as Dean and Sam proceeded to tear sheets off our beds and cover up the laptop.

"What are they doing?" she whispered.

"At the moment, they are putting the wonderfully cheap printings shiny-side-down on my bed," I commented bemusedly.

"Chris."

"What?"

"If you don't know, don't answer."

I shrugged and grinned. "Hey, if I knew, I'd tell you."

Kali huffed impatiently. "I just wish they wouldn't barge in here and then totally ignore us. I mean, I know they're paying for it, but it is our room. You know – sort of…"

I shrugged. "Yeah, but –" I started, but Sam began talking to Green Sweater Girl.

"Hey," he said. "Hey, it's okay. You can open up your eyes, Charley. It's all right. Now listen, you're going to stay right here, on this bed, and you're not going to look at glass or anything else that has a reflection…"

"Oh!" My eyes widened. "She's being hunted by Bloody Mary."

"What?" Kali looked at me sharply. "How do you know that?"

"Sam told me yesterday what they were hunting. On the walk," I added, smiling.

Dean apparently heard this because he turned around quickly and shot me a dark look. Oops, I thought, but moved closer to the beds despite his annoyance. My curiosity could easily – and usually did –overcome my fear of Dean when he was angry. Kali edged forward with me.

"All right, Charley," Dean said, sitting on the bed next to Green Sweater Girl. "We need to know what happened."

"We were in the bathroom. Donna said it." Green Sweater – er, Charley – rocked back and forth in an upright fetal position.

"Said what?" Kali hissed in my ear.

"'Bloody Mary,' genius," I hissed back. "Now shuddup, I wanna hear this."

"That's not what we're talking about." That was Dean. He actually sounded concerned. Amazing.

Kali, thankfully, sat quiet as Charley told a truly nauseating tale about her creepy – actually, make that suicidal – ex boyfriend. Tears were coursing down her face by the time she trailed off, "I should've…"

"Would you look at that," I murmured to Kali in an undertone only she could hear. "Two people in the same room who blame themselves for the death of their other half. And the moral of this story is…"

Kali looked at me, nonplussed. "What?"

I glanced at the trio on the bed and figured they weren't paying much attention. "Look at them!" I hissed. "Sam's distraught that he couldn't save his girlfriend and blames himself for her death – Charley's going through the same thing. Situational irony much?"

"Only you would notice that, Chris." She looked at me, huffed her disapproval (which I supposed I deserved since I was making snide comments about other people's personal emotions), and turned back to the scene unfolding in the room – which suddenly featured Sam and Dean getting up off the bed and walking toward the door.

"What, you can't just leave her here with us!" I mouthed, suddenly realizing that this was what they planned to do.

Sam blinked, then gestured for us to go outside.

"Chris, she needs help. The only way she's safe is if she stays in there," he said quietly once we'd closed the door behind us.

"Whatever happened to keeping us out of this?" I turned to Dean. "Besides that, were you ever going to mention this before you dum –uh, left her with us?"

"'No' to the second, and 'this wasn't my idea' to the first," Dean muttered. "And since when were you not dying to be a part of this?"

"I'm not 'dying to' anything, especially not babysit," I rolled my eyes. "We don't even know her. How are we going to introduce ourselves? 'Oh, hi, there. You're being chased by Bloody Mary? We're not. Sucks to be you!'"

"Chris!" Kali put her head in her hand. "Don't worry, Sam. We can handle it. Chris… Just don't say anything." She was obviously annoyed – although I could tell her irritation was directed less at me and more at them. At least, I thought so…

I sighed and backed down. "I know, I know. So… what? We just sit tight and comfort her? For how long?"

"Just a few hours," Sam said.

"Great, now Dean gets to grade me on my performance and if it's not up to par I'm not going anywhere as a hunter," I muttered to Kali.

"You're not going anywhere as a hunter whatever you do," Dean said. Apparently he heard me despite the undertone. That was twice in one evening – the guy had supersonic hearing or something. "But Sam's right. We have less to worry about if Charley's with someone who won't get her killed."

I was pleasantly surprised. Apparently Kali and I had graduated from the Preppy College for Girls and were off to a good start on our Master's degrees in Not Getting People Killed. It seemed we were moving up in Dean's Wonderful World of Useless Opinions. "Hey, speaking of, what happens if you-know-who does show up? I don't suppose we'll be targeted, right?"

"You mean Bloody Mary?" Kali corrected, like she thought she was being smart.

"No, I mean Amelia Earhart. Of course I mean Bloody – you know what? Just don't say it."

"There's no mirrors around, you can say Bloody Ma-"

I clamped my hand over her mouth. "There is a window right behind you," I pointed out quietly. "If you say it and get me killed, I swear I will haunt your ass and there won't be nothing Sam and Dean can do to stop me." I was only half joking. Kali gave me a look and pushed my hand away with some annoyance.

"You won't have to worry about anything. You-know-who only goes after people who have killed someone else –" Sam started.

"Which, thanks to us, you've never done," Dean interrupted, looking at me.

"Yes, thank you, Dean," Kali said pointedly, allowing Sam to continue.

"Or at least blame themselves for doing so," he finished, rolling his eyes at his brother. "So, if you have any deep, dark secrets, now's the time to 'fess up."

"I'm okay," Kali said, looking at me sardonically. "I'm pretty sure neither of us has ever killed anyone."

I smirked at the absurdity of her words. "But seriously, what do we use? The salt? The knives? Both at once?" It occurred to me that in the event of Bloody Mary trying to kill me, I would probably use anything I could get my hands on, useful or otherwise – salt, knives, heavy table lamps…bottles of Coke from the minibar…

"Turn a mirror on her," Kali blurted out as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. Sam and Dean both stared at her, and she shrunk a little. "What?"

"She's already in the mirror," Dean said.

"So turn a mirror on the mirror and see what happens," I suggested. I frowned at Kali thoughtfully. "You know, I sure hope you remembered that from somewhere because if you didn't I'm going to feel really stupid that I didn't think of it before you."

"I don't… think so." Her mouth twisted in a combination of amusement and consternation.

Sam shook it off and grabbed our attention again. "So look, you can't kill with salt or iron. You can just keep her at bay. We're actually going to look for her right now and end her through the original mirror," he looked down toward the car impatiently. We were keeping them from their job.

"You should go," Kali said, nodding in the direction Sam was glancing at.

I couldn't help asking the question, though – "Why not? Why can't we kill with salt or iron?"

"Usually you need to salt and burn the body to get rid of a spirit," he said hurriedly, already walking away, "but since she was cremated we can't really do that. Salt and concentrated iron only hurts them but keeps them away."

"But seriously, don't worry. She travels through mirrors. Your room is safe," Dean called back, following his brother down the stairs.

"That's what they always say in horror movies," Kali pointed out, earning a small smile.

"Just don't do anything stupid and you'll be fine." He shut the car door and they drove off.

"Don't do anything stupid," she mimicked in a high pitched tone and rolled her eyes.

I let out my breath and turned to the door, trying to prepare myself for the unavoidable hours of social awkwardness that were ahead of me. "Right, then. Time for the introductions. Got the key?"

"No, I thought you brought it."

"I couldn't bring it; I was too busy being a hypocrite to Dean." I leaned my head against the door and chuckled wryly to myself. "Look at this. We're already making progress. We're 'establishing trust.'"

"But she's the one opening the door for us."

"Exactly. I feel better about her already." I gritted my teeth and knocked on the door. "Hey, Charley? It's, uh, Chris and Kali. We're friends of Sam and Dean. Er – cousins? Are we cousins?" I whispered to Kali quickly.

"Chris, just let me –"

"I don't remember if we're cousins or not!"

"Get out of the way –"

The door opened. Our furious whispering session ended abruptly. I smiled. "Hi." I stuck out my hand. "I'm Chris. That's Kali. We're friends. Of them –" I pointed down the stairs where Sam and Dean had disappeared. "Um. Let us in?"

It actually went relatively well after that. Charley was nice, if a bit distracted (she was being haunted by an urban legend after all), but the three of us got along for the few hours we knew each other. Kali and I – well, mostly I – tried to get her to sleep, assuring her that when she woke up things would be all better, but for a long time she couldn't. She just sat on the bed and stared at the ceiling. Kali also yawned a lot, since it was way past her bedtime, but she wouldn't go to sleep either. Eventually we all just lapsed into silence, with me drumming my fingers against the chair and trying to remember the lyrics to the last Led Zeppelin song I'd heard in the Impala.

Finally, around 1:30 am, there was another knock on the door. I jumped up to answer it, noticing that Kali only bobbed her head sluggishly awake – there really wasn't any competition. I grinned and turned around to greet the brothers.

My smile vanished the instant I saw them. For a moment, all I could do was stare. "What the hell happened to you?" I asked, honestly concerned. They had blood smeared all over their faces. Some of it had dripped onto their shirts, drying into dark brown spots that looked undeniably menacing. They looked exhausted.

"Don't ask," Dean said, shouldering his way into the room.

"No, no –" I stuttered exasperatedly. "Don't go in there looking like that! She's bad enough without you barging in on her with all that – blood on you. Here," I grabbed his arm and dragged him in front of me into the bathroom. "You too, Sam. Jesus, you look worse than he does." Sam rolled his eyes at me as he passed.

"Are they okay?" Kali was apparently wide awake now and sounded as concerned as I felt. She came over to stand at the bathroom door.

"They're fine," I told her. "Just a little beat up, I guess."

She leaned in to see for herself, and her eyes widened. "Oh my god, did something try to gouge your eyes out or something?" she asked, dead serious.

"Their eyes were clawed out?" Charley asked suddenly, getting up from Kali's bed.

I raised my eyebrows. I was sure Dean loved the attention we females were giving him, but I was uncomfortable with all of us crowding around the doorway. I sat myself back in my chair, away from the bathroom, and propped my feet up on the bed.

"They're fine," I repeated with emphasis. "And I'm assuming whatever happened, you-know-who's out of the picture. They never look that tired unless something major went down."

"They" walked out of the bathroom looking slightly less gruesome but no less worn-out. Kali and Charley scattered into the room and stood on near me. And of course neither of the guys had said a thing about what they did or how they felt. Leave it to the girls to make a huge fuss over them and have them completely ignore it all.

"Come on, Charley," Sam said. "Time to get you home."

"Right now?" Charley asked, surprised.

"Well, we sort of left two cops out cold on the sidewalk." Dean shrugged, caught Sam's look, and corrected himself, "Okay, I left two cops out cold on the sidewalk, so it's probably best if we got out of here ASAP."

"Aw, come on," I whined. "You're not going to tell us anything? You walk in here, blood streaming down your faces – telling us that you beat up two cops – and you expect us to just accept it and not ask any questions?"

"Well, that's what we'd like you to do," Dean snapped. He obviously wasn't in the mood for this.

"Did the mirror idea work?" Kali asked.

Sam caught his brother's eye and shrugged.

"Fine," Dean growled. "Yes, we did use the mirror idea, and it did work. Congratulations. Happy now?"

"Yes, very," I grinned and stood up, determined to rub it in Dean's face that Kali was smarter than he'd thought. Kali apparently had the same reaction.

"Guess us preppy college girls aren't as stupid as we look, huh?" she smiled sweetly. Dean glanced from her to me and back before shaking his head and storming out of the room, presumably to pack his and Sam's stuff and maybe pay the bill.

"Chris. Kali." Sam nodded to us. "Pack up and we'll meet you at the car." He held out his arm and guided Charley out. Kali and I were left standing in the middle of our room shaking our heads in silence.

We drove Charley home within twenty minutes and she let herself in through the back. Before she left, though, Sam had some Words of Wisdom to impart about dealing with the death of a girlfriend or boyfriend. It was unbelievably awkward listening to him spout Dr. Phil, but I figured if it was all in the name of meaningless drama I could bear it. It was more the conversation that the brothers had later that morning (while Kali and I were "sleeping" in the back) that interested me.

"Hey Sam?"

"Yeah?"

"Now that this is all over, I want you to tell me what that secret is."

Sam laughed quietly. "Look. You're my brother, and I'd die for you. But there are some things I need to keep to myself."

And Dean left it at that. I, on the other hand, was dying to find out what "that secret" was.

"I figure if we hit Tucumcari by lunch, then head south – we can be in Bisbee by midnight." Dean paused and watched his brother for a reaction. "Sam wears women's underwear…"

I snorted. We were at a gas station. Kali had her iPod and I figured that since Dean had better music than I did (although I certainly wasn't going to tell him so) I could listen to whatever AC/DC, Blue Oyster Cult, or even Metallica he chose. It was a few weks after we'd left Ohio and I was still in the back seat, going out of my mind with boredom. Maybe I could start trying to convince Dean to get Kali and me our own car... He might actually do it, too, if I brought up the fact that if we did we wouldn't be in the same 18x6 foot box together 24/7.

But that would mean I wouldn't be able to listen to his music anymore. Hm…

"I've been listening, I'm just busy." Sam even sounded distracted. Not like I wasn't…

"Busy doing what?"

"Reading emails." The reason I thought I even had a chance with the Car Idea was because Dean had finally given in to Kali's and my combined efforts to get us cell phones. I now had a Blackberry, same as Sam – although I wasn't quite sure what I needed all its features for, since I only knew three people in this world: Kali, Sam, and Dean.

Damn, that's pathetic, I realized, then let it go.

"Emails from who?" Dean got out of the car. Maybe, if I was quick enough, I could jump up front and drive the car away, leaving Dean just standing there behind us with a gas pump in his hand. That'd be funny…

But I didn't have the keys. And I couldn't drive stick shift anyway, so… Never mind, then. Phooey.

"From my friends at Stanford."

"You're kidding, you still keep in touch with your college buddies?" Stop being a dick, Dean…

Kali nudged me. "Stop listening in," she said quietly. "'S rude."

I noticed she still had her headphones in. Was my eavesdropping really that obvious? Maybe it was the way I was making faces at Dean while he had his back turned…

I stuck my tongue out at her. "You're just as interested as I am," I whispered. "And besides, what am I supposed to do? Cover my ears and pretend I can't hear them? They're right there. And it's not lying," I added to Dean, who was standing outside my window and telling Sam that not telling Stanford that he hunts ghosts and stuff was 'lying.' "It's – omitting certain truths."

"Shut up, Chris," Dean said offhandedly.

I shrugged and went back to Kali, rolling my eyes pointedly. "You're right. Since it annoys Dean so much, I'll stop." Stupid idiot was leaning up against my window so all I could see was his butt. He was doing it on purpose, too. I nodded to it disgustedly. "Look at that."

"What?" Kali glanced up, saw Dean's backside, and gave me a look. "I dare you to tap the window."

"No, that's like tapping his butt. Through glass. Ew."

"Aw, come on Chris, he's asking for it."

"You're asking for it…"

"Then roll it down or something."

"No! Then I'd have his ass in my face, not just next to my ear. That's disgusting. Got any other great ideas, Einstein? I'm dying to hear them." I shuddered at the image of Dean sitting through his car window and into my face – but as soon as I substituted Kali for me, it started looking funny. "Tell you what, let's switch seats and then you can tap Dean's butt and have it as close to your face as you like."

"Ugh, Chris!"

"You two wanna be quiet back there?" Sam asked suddenly. "Something just came up."

"What?" I leaned forward, instantly serious. Finally, something with weight to occupy me.

"It's this girl, Rebecca. I went to school with her and her brother, Zack."

Dean came to the passenger seat window. "She hot?"

Sam shook his head at his brother. "She says Zack's been charged with – murder? He's been arrested for killing his girlfriend. Rebecca says he didn't do it, but… Sounds like the cops have a pretty good case."

"What do you mean, 'pretty good?'" I asked.

"DNA, fingerprints…They even have security camera footage." Sam scrolled up and down on his blackberry in growing agitation.

"Dude, what kind of friends you hang out with?" Dean said incredulously.

"No shit," Kali murmured.

"No, you don't understand. I know Zack – he's no killer." He sounded very confident in that statement.

Dean shrugged. "Well, maybe you know Zack as well as he knows you."

Oh, that didn't sound foreboding at all… I could suddenly see how this episode would play out. Zack would turn out to be guilty and Sam would have to deal with the idea that even the people in his normal life were screwed. Wonderful. Didn't he have enough problems to deal with already?

"They're in St. Louis. We're going." Bad idea, Sam…

Kali and I glanced at each other while Sam and Dean bickered about whether we were going to St. Louis or Bisbee. They obviously cared a lot about what we thought, since the number of times they asked us for our opinion came out to a grand total of – none. I sat back in my seat and propped my feet up on Kali's lap darkly.

"You all right?" she asked.

"Yeah," I drawled. I wasn't really lying. "Just… them being them again." I gestured toward the Winchesters in front. "Completely ignoring us until we say something they don't like, or do something wrong, or need our help sheltering victims…"

She nodded in understanding, then grabbed the seat, startled, as Dean made a high speed U-turn as we left the gas station. "St. Louis it is, then?" she asked.

"Yup," muttered Dean.

Kali puffed out her cheeks. "Good, because I never want to go into another mine again."

"Yeah. I doubt mining towns can be that interesting anyway," I consoled. "St. Louis, though… Doesn't it have some major jazz connections or something? Jazz or blues?"

"I don't know," Kali shrugged.

"Yeah, it does," I mused. "We'll have to check it out. Although I was looking forward to taking the 3:10 to Yuma."

"Actually, that was somewhere else," Dean said. "They started in Bisbee and had to make it to Contention. Since when did you watch old Westerns?"

"I don't. There's a remake in 2007 with Russel Crowe and Christian Bale. It's amazing. You should watch it."

"Remake in 2007," Dean chuckled. "Guess I'll have to wait for that one."

Kali's POV

"That was awesome," Chris said with a satisfied grin as we exited the jazz club. We had just spent the past two hours or so relaxing, drinking a glass of wine and a virgin Bloody Mary (that was Chris – she thought she was being funny), mostly enjoying the rhythm of the band on stage.

It had been a few days since we landed in St. Louis. Sam felt it best that we stay pretty far away from this one, and had us dropped off at a hotel before they stopped by his friend Rebecca's. He said that it was too personal to let random "cousins" get involved, which I agreed with. We actually hadn't seen them all day, or received any calls. But while this wasn't abnormal, we still ended up expecting them. It was a personal potential concern of mine that they might end up dead and we wouldn't hear about it until we read it on the news or something. Dean's "if we die" plan was still quite clear in my head, but that honestly wasn't a worry at the moment. At the moment, I was having fun.

We headed back to the room in high spirits, and I sat on the couch with my head leaned back. Unlike Chris - who was invariably a night owl - I was tired.

"Man, that bouncer made me nervous," Chris chuckled as she plopped down in one of the dining chairs.

"Why?" I asked nonchalantly.

"I thought he was gonna search us."

"And why would that make you nervous, Chris?" I sounded like a monotone councilor.

"Because I had that iron knife stuck in the side of my shoe."

I opened my eyes and turned to her in alarm.

"You brought a knife into a jazz club? Chris, seriously."

"I was just kidding, Kali. You know I wouldn't do that." She snickered some more, and I noticed she was spinning the knife sideways on the table. "Besides, I couldn't keep it up with just the shoe. I'd need boots or something. Swashbuckling boots…" I rolled my eyes. With a lazy sigh of annoyance I turned back around and rested my head again.

"You hungry?" she added, stopping the knife. "For, like, real food, not just the table peanuts they had in the club?"

"Sure."

"All right, I'll be back. Don't fall asleep, you freakish morning person," she joked, and I gave a false laugh, but in good humor.

It couldn't have been more than two minutes later when someone knocked on the door. My brow creased curiously and I looked at the clock on the in-table.

"It's 11:10," I mumbled to myself, getting up, wondering who the hell would be knocking at this time. "She must have forgotten her wallet, or something." I opened the door. "Dean."

Well, this was a bit of a surprise. Usually the brothers didn't come calling on us at this hour unless we had to get out of town, but his calm demeanor and small smirk of greeting implied that he wasn't really in a hurry. Why couldn't he have just called?

"Hey," he replied.

"Where's Sam?" I glanced down the hall inquisitively.

"He's just checking up on Rebecca. Can I come in?"

I paused for a moment, wondering why he even had to ask. Since when did Dean ever have to have my permission to go anywhere? Then again, I wondered why he was here in the first place – not that he wasn't allowed to drop by, of course, but still…

I cocked my head. "You're not gonna drag another damsel in distress in for babysitting, are you?"

He smiled smoothly. "No, but I do need to talk to you."

That sounded ominous – but I honestly couldn't fathom a worthy topic for him to knock on the door this late at night to discuss, so maybe it was Dean being goofy. After all, Sam wasn't there to censor him.

"Sure," I said, stepping aside and closing the door behind him.

"Where's Chris?" he asked, glancing around the room.

"Went for a walk, to get food."

He gave a huff of amusement. "Yeah, I know she hates being cooped up too long."

I had to nod in agreement to that, and an awkward silence followed.

"So?" I finally said, watching him pick up the iron knife on the dining table and put it down again.

"I had to check in and make sure you guys were okay."

This was not as serious as I thought. Maybe it was just Dean joking around. But after a month of hanging around with him, I knew he wasn't this good at deadpan. He didn't have that big ridiculous smirk he usually wore when he was kidding.

"What's up? Are we in danger?" After they pulled that poor Charley girl in for us to look after, the possibility that their job could turn on us had started to occupy my mind. Chris' paranoid rants hadn't helped, either.

"Maybe," he answered, sitting down on the couch. "Am I not allowed to check up on you sometimes?"

"Well, yeah, but… You haven't so much as called us all day, and didn't even speak to us last night."

"Well, I'm here now aren't I?" He looked at me. I hesitated to call it a "leer" exactly, but that's what it felt like.

I rolled my eyes and tried to shrug it off, slipping my hands in my back pockets and pulling them out again – a nervous habit. Except I wasn't quite sure what made me nervous. "Whatever, so what do you think we're in danger from?"

"We're not sure yet, but he's a killer and he keeps slipping through our fingers, so I came to give you a heads up."

"'He?' It's a person?"

"We don't know. Not for sure."

That was a little unsettling, but I trusted them to find whatever it was and keep it away from Chris and me. After all, Dean was so keen to keep us out of the way for our own protection, and if his first impulse was to come back and warn us that there's a killer on the loose who might target us, then I trusted he was keeping us in mind while out hunting… whatever they were hunting. But then - if Sam was out checking on his friend Rebecca and Dean was here checking on me – who was checking on Chris?

"Dean," I said suddenly. "Did you see Chris on your way out?" Wait – why was I asking that? Of course he didn't see Chris. He'd never let her out alone—

"Yeah, I passed her on the stairwell. Told me she was going out for a few minutes."

—Or. Maybe he would. I bit my lip uncertainly. A minute ago he asked where she was, but that could have just been a polite inquiry. Something was definitely up. "Oh," I said finally. "Ok."

Another silence followed, and I was looking down at my hands when I noticed he was staring. I stared back for a moment and my heart skipped, because I could have sworn I saw a white flare in his eyes.

I shook myself. This was absurd. So I was tired and seeing things and Dean was acting a little weird – big deal. The man hunted the stuff of nightmares. He was allowed a few odd moments now and then. "So, how was your day? Was it all right? You look kinda…sweaty…"

His lips curved slightly and he shook his head, and he almost looked sweet. "I'm fine, just a little warm in here. Did a lot of running around today."

That hardly looked like perspiration from a run, and he'd been sitting for a while.

"You sure?"

"I'm fine, Kali."

"Dean-"

"I'm fine!" he shouted maliciously, making me jump, half in surprise and half in fear. I'd never seen him look that angry before. His features softened almost immediately after, realizing how he just acted. God, but he was acting like one of those creepy abusive boyfriends who bought their partners roses and chocolates after every time they beat them. I shivered uncomfortably.

"Sorry." I walked away to the kitchen, or somewhere away from him, but he grabbed my hand.

"No! Wait, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to shout," he pleaded, gently tugging my hand down. "Please don't leave."

He was acting so strange, and I was genuinely concerned for him. Maybe he was sick, but he hardly had that swelled up look of someone who was having a fever, it was just the sweat… and the bipolar mood swing. Cold water would be the best thing.

"I'm not leaving," I said. "I'll open the window. Do you want some water or something?"

"Yeah, go ahead."

He seemed eager to make me comfortable again, which I didn't mind because I had convinced myself he was ill. My eyes were getting heavy again from the drowsiness, so I decided to make some coffee as well. I approached the window while the water heated, then brought the glass of water to him. I noticed he was holding his head and wincing a little.

"You all right?" I asked, and his head shot in my direction like I'd just snapped him out of a reverie.

"Yeah, thanks." He took the glass of water and sipped it before putting it on the coffee table, and I sat down, resting my head on folded fists in his direction expectedly. "What?" he asked, almost defensively.

"You said you needed to talk to me about something, and we have yet to discuss anything important that you knocked on the door at 11: 15 at night to bring up, besides the mention that there's a killer on the loose."

He chuckled and put his elbows on his knees, folding his hands in front of his face.

"Not much gets by you, huh?"

"No," I replied, just to humor him.

He sat there for a minute with a thoughtful smirk, then clapped his hands and looked at me.

"Honestly, I didn't come here to talk about anything."

"Really?" I lifted my head and instead rested my chin in one hand, looking at him with equal humor. I wasn't all that surprised by his answer.

The kettle beeped and I stood up to make my cup of coffee – but didn't let him off the hook, of course.

"So what's your real reason for dropping by?"

He didn't answer but I could picture him smiling to himself because he really hadn't prepared a valid excuse, as he probably didn't expect me to look into it and just accept his company for a little while. At least, that was my assumption. I'd let him hang around for friendly conversation until Sam arrived, or if Chris came back and wanted to kick him out of the room for taking up space. I had to chuckle to myself at the literal image.

The couch made a noise as he stood up, but I didn't pay attention. I was still picturing Chris trying to hold him by the back of the pants and boot him out the doorway.

Suddenly two hands were on my waist, and I froze. His lips moving against my ear, his nose smelling my hair, the warmth of his body lightly pressing against mine – I shuddered. His fingers moved up, grazing the skin under my shirt. His real intentions were now inescapably clear and I had no idea what to do. All the mild flirting between us never had me considering a comeback for something on this level, because it was completely unexpected. He never seemed like he would try anything like this – it had to be a joke.

My chest tightened as one of his hands came up to push my hair aside, and his lips moved down to touch my neck. Then suddenly I was turned around, face to face with barely an inch between us, and feeling an arm snake around me and forcing my body against his. This was no joke.

"What are you doing?" I wavered, still at a loss as to how to handle the situation. All logic was in a haze right now, but my instinct came through instead telling me what the right thing was to do.

"Don't be afraid," he whispered, and before I could question why I should be afraid, he kissed me – which threw me for a loop. His lips moved against mine and he squeezed me closer, but I was completely unresponsive, dumbfounded and yet my head rang clear as a bell: "Stop it now while you can!"

I put my hands on his shoulders and made an urgent noise while pushing back to imply I wanted him to back off. He didn't stop, though, and I pushed harder, more urgently to get him off me. This wasn't Dean. I knew he was honorable on some level, and he would not cross the boundary like this.

Then my cell phone rang in my front pocket. He stopped kissing me and instinctively I reached for the phone, looking for any form of distraction that would give me a chance to obtain my bearings.

"Leave it," he said, taking it out of my hand when I fumbled with it and sliding it down the counter, well out of my reach.

"It might be Chris," I cut in, right as he tried to kiss me again, and he looked very impatient.

"She can wait."

He leaned down again and I turned away.

"Dean, get off me!"

He started to get more aggressive, pinning me against the counter with his body and turning my head with his hands, with me literally squirming beneath him. This was getting way out of hand, and I felt an icy twinge of fear in my chest as the thought of 'rape' began pounding in my mind. He wasn't Dean, he wasn't stopping. I was terrified of the worst.

Then I remembered we were in a motel.

"Help!" I screamed, and instantly his hand clamped down over my mouth, and the look in his eyes was evil. There was no other way to describe it, and he looked fully capable of doing murder.

"I don't want to hurt you, Kali."

It was obviously a threat, and I still didn't know what to do. Pinned between him and the counter, there wasn't much room for escape. He'd overpower me easily if I tried to get away. I thought of the knife on the table, the one Chris had left, but I had to get to it first.

I reached around behind me, desperately searching for something to hit him with. The hot surface of a coffee mug grazed the back of my hand, and I grasped the handle and poured the contents on top of my aggressor. Immediately his body shot back and he gave a shout, and I took the chance and broke the mug on his face. Quickly I ran for the table, reaching for the knife and turning around as he followed me. Suddenly he stopped, barely a foot away, grimacing. I looked down, saw that the blade had gone through his stomach and gasped.

He stumbled backward, leaving me with the bloody knife still in my hand and holding his hand over his wound. He had this look of surprise and helplessness on his face. This look of betrayal.

"Oh, God." I leaned forward a little when he fell to the ground.

"Kali," he gurgled, and I panicked. That look in his eyes, could it really be him? Had I just stabbed Dean? "Help me." His voice was weak, shocked, and I took a step toward him without thinking.

"No." I moved back again and took a deliberate step toward the door. My instinct told me to run, and right now instinct sounded pretty good because I didn't want to take any chances. He was sick with something. Something weird that made him act that way. Some kind of ghost sickness, or he was possessed, or – anything. Whatever it was, I couldn't stick around. I had to find Sam or Chris to help him. Oh fuck… I stabbed him!

Staring at his feeble body on the floor, I stumbled toward the door and, not daring to turn my back, opened it and ran out. I looked over my shoulder constantly to see if he would try to pursue me, but he never did, and I began to feel a little foolish for thinking he would. I just stabbed him in the gut. He wouldn't bother to chase me down. I slowed to a walk, gasping and turning around to stare at my door – a long ways down the hall by now. I neared the steps leading to the first floor, my whole body pumping with adrenaline, and glanced down at the knife still in my hand. I'd never stabbed anyone before. It wasn't a pleasant feeling, that knife going into a human body. How easily it went through flesh.

I just wanted to find Chris, so I turned back to the stairs.

"Ah!" I screamed, flinching back at the man who just came running up behind me from the stairs. It was Dean… somehow. Did he jump out the window and run back up here? It was a reflex. I threw the mug handle I didn't know I was still holding at his head, and bolted down the hall… again. Why I didn't throw the knife instead I'll never know, but I would have missed anyway. I was too startled to aim.

"Whoah!" he gasped. "Kali!"

This time I would lock him out. I ran back into the room, slamming the door quickly and locking it. Then I backed up a little. Soon enough the handle started to jiggle and the door itself began to shake because he was hammering on it.

"Kali!"

It didn't look like he would get through anytime soon, so I went to get the cell phone and call Chris, the police, anybody. The moment I turned around my nose met another nose, and I flinched back and screamed yet again to see Dean… again. He was smirking at me.

"Kali, get outta there! It's a shapeshifter!" Dean's muffled voice shouted from the other side.

A shapeshifter? I didn't need anyone to tell me what that was. It was pretty self-explanatory, and I felt relieved that this wasn't really Dean, and a little frightened that it was something else – possibly the killer that it mentioned earlier, which did not bode well for me. Once again, it seemed, I was the damsel in distress.

But I won't be a helpless one.

I didn't wait. I brought that knife forward, this time deliberately, and stabbed him right in the heart. He flinched a little bit and looked down, and I gave an inward smile of triumph. Then he looked back up at me, smiling, and I stared aghast.

"Weren't you listening to me before, Kali?" He pulled the knife out and gripped it for his own. "Iron only works on spirits." He chuckled, and I looked at the knife. I didn't remember him saying that to me exactly, but now was a wonderful time to know. Shit.

"Dean!" I yelled, maneuvering myself away from the shapeshifter toward the dining table. He followed like a predator, fingering that knife coolly between his fingers. I had really pissed him off, and didn't know any fancy moves to get that knife out of his hand and away from me. "DEAN!" I shouted even louder.

"What?" The banging on the door stopped for a second.

"How do I kill it?"

"Silver! You need silver!"

"Where the fuck am I supposed to get silver?" I screamed back at him, already edging my way toward the kitchen. They typically didn't leave silverware in a motel room, but it was worth a look.

"Sam, there's an emergency box on the stairs with an axe in it, go get it," I heard him say from outside.

"I didn't want to hurt you, Kali," the shapeshifter coaxed, and I decided to forget the kitchen and maybe just jump out the window. There was a fire escape that way, which also meant there was nothing to stop him from following me, but at least I'd have somewhere to run. "I liked you a lot, you're a sweet girl." I started to tremble a little when he grasped the knife more firmly, and looked poised to run at me. "But you've left me no choice."

I bolted for the window, but was tackled to the ground long before I reached it. Now I started to scream as hard as I could, hitting and kicking and scratching, whatever it took to get him off me. He put me on my back and straddled me, fighting for my hands.

"Hold still!" he shouted, grabbing both my wrists and pinning them to my chest. I continued to scream for help, and he took my wrists in one hand and put the other over my mouth. "Ssshh," he hissed, putting his face close to mine and running the knife across my collarbone, making me whimper as he cut through skin.

Then there was a violent cracking on the door, and we both looked over to see the head of an axe appear through the wood. Oh, God, please hurry.

The shapeshifter looked back down at me as if contemplating his next move. That axe would make short work of the door, which made me afraid that he would just kill me quick right now and make a run for it. Instead he leered at me.

"You're lucky I'm an artist." He held the blade up next to my eye to imply his meaning, then removed his hand from my mouth and made for the window, leaving me to roll over on my side coughing from the lack of air with tears in my eyes.

Soon after, the door burst open, and gunshots were fired.

A/N: Hey, so it's Silver-Eyed-Kat with an author's note for once. Yay! So this chapter is quite a bit longer than the others because we immediately decided there was no way to shorten it and make it good at the same time. Also, I can't tell you how many times we have revised/changed this chapter, especially the part with shapeshifter Dean showing up at the motel room. We pretty much changed that scene entirely, then kept changing little things, and changing more, before we were finally happy with it. This is the big turning point in the story, finally, and thanks to those of you who have bared with us this far. We really do love this story, and we're trying to make it as realistic and fun as possible, and we're working hard and brainstorming with our analytical minds to do it. SO… because we love it so much we would REALLY appreciate if you would at least review it, and tell us what you think. Half the fun is getting feedback. We put a lot of thought into the details and it's disappointing when no one reviews to say it's cool or that they appreciate it, so please! Review!

The next chapter is already started and in-progress, so stay tuned! Peace!

And this is Norangutan. All I have to say is that S-E-K totally quoted 10-Inch-Hero up there ("Peace!"), and I fully recommend it to anyone who hasn't seen it – and to those who have, too, since it's an awesome movie and everyone should watch it if only because we get to see Jensen tackle a total asshole and wear cool shirts and joke about really serious things like vegetarianism and … whether Elvis is dead or not … I don't know, Priestly is one of the best characters I've seen in a movie since Pirates of the Caribbean (Jack Sparrow is amazing). So, yeah. Peace!