A/N – So the last chapter left a little to be desired *cackles* I know, that was incredibly mean of me to tease you all like that, but rest assured there is a full blown lemon coming up very soon. I'm trying to stay on schedule as much as I can. Sometimes life gets in the way.

My eternal love to Team Bean - Spn-Lost-Twi and MissJanuary. And to all of the readers who took a chance on this unlikely duo.

Kripke and Meyer on it all. But I still got my feels.

Chapter Song: Under the Gun by The Killers

Chapter 11

Because heaven sends and heaven takes. Crashing cars in his brain. Keep him tied up to a dream. And only she can set him free.

Dean bit the inside of his cheek where Bella had kissed him. It was an attempt to replace the burn of her lips with stinging pain, something that would keep him from scooping her up in his arms and take her into the empty apartment and make love to her the way she deserved.

While he tried to compose himself, Bella piped up to break the awkward silence. "This is my boyfriend Dean and his buddy Sam." Boyfriend fell too easily off her lips. Bella's cheeks flushed and she lowered her head, allowing her hair to fall in front of her face to hide the redness. The word stirred a reaction in Dean too. His heart beat a little faster, the thrumming loud and steady in his ears.

The landlord eyed the supposed couple carefully. "Quite a gal you've got here."

Figuring he'd end the tension in true Dean fashion, he raised his hand and gave Bella a firm slap on the ass. Bella's head snapped up, eyes wide.

Smirking, Dean said, "Oh yeah, she's a pistol."

Bella turned around and looked at Dean. Her face had turned from shocked to serious; she was back in business mode. "So did you already check out the apartment? The one for rent?"

Dean narrowed his eyes at her. The fact that she just brought up the case in front of the landlord showed how green she really was. "Yeah. Yes. Loved it. Heh..." he smiled "...great flow."

The landlord furrowed his brows, eyeing the keys in his hand. "How'd you get in?"

"It was open." Pressing his shoulders back, standing taller, he waited for the landlord to say something.

When the landlord continued to look at Dean with suspicion, Bella cut in. "Now, Jim, um, when did the last tenant move out?"

Jim turned to face Bella, scratching his head. "Oh, about a month ago. Cut and run, too. Stuck me for the rent."

Smiling brightly, Bella walked back over to Dean's side. "Well, her loss, our gain." Bella squeezed onto his arm and stared at him adoringly. "'Cause if Dean-o loves it, it's good enough for me."

Dean shrugged out of her hold, causing her to step away, and gave the landlord a tight smile. "Oh, sweetie!" With Bella standing slightly in front of him, Dean extended his arm and gave her another whack on her butt. Might as well play it up, he thought. Not that he didn't enjoy the feel of her tight, firm ass on his hand.

Bella looked over her shoulder and scowled at Dean before reaching in her pocket and pulling out a wad of cash. "We'll take it!"

~o~

Surprisingly enough, it was a really nice apartment. Whoever lived there before had simple, modern taste. The walls were a rich, slate gray offset with white trim. The kitchen was open with an island/bar combo in a deep mahogany. A matching dining room table sat across from the bar, flanked by bookshelves on each wall. No one addressed the elephant in the room: one bedroom with a small bed and an even smaller leather sofa in the living room.

Sam sat down at the table and unpacked his computer and some of their weapons. He busied himself by breaking down one of the guns and cleaning the barrel. Bella threw her bag down on the table and started to go through her own things. Dean stood across from her, his hands shoved in his pockets, staring at her.

"You wanna tell me why you're really here?"

Bella looked up briefly. "It's a case, isn't it?" She went back to taking out a set of blueprints from her large messenger bag and some police reports she had printed out.

Dean cleared his throat, stalking over to the table, the swiftness of his movement causing the tails of his burgundy button down shirt to sway with the motion.

"Yeah, but not for you." He swiped at the blueprints and Bella grabbed his forearm and dug her nails into the flesh.

Hissing, Dean yanked his arm away and glared at her.

She smiled. "My case, my research."

Bella sat down in the chair and spread the blueprints across the table. She took out a red marker from her bag and bit off the cap, holding it in her teeth while she started to mark up the prints.

Spitting the cap across the table, purposely hitting Dean in the chest, she started, "So this place was built in 1924. It was originally a warehouse, converted into apartments a few months ago."

Dean raised an eyebrow, slightly impressed with how much she already knew. She was good, he'd give her that. He still planned to make sure she would be as far away from the supernatural as she could get before the Hellhounds came after him, but if she was going to keep doing this after he was gone, she had a lot to learn.

"Yeah? And what was here before that?" His voice was slightly condescending, but he needed to stress the importance of getting all of the details. Bella needed to have her bases covered so she wouldn't be caught off guard if he wasn't there to protect her.

Narrowing her eyes, she huffed. "Nothing. Just a field."

Sam picked up on the tension and looked up from the gun he was cleaning. "So, most likely scenario, someone died bloody in the building, and now he's back and raising hell."

Bella shook her head. "No, I don't think so. I already checked and in the past eighty-two years, zero violent deaths." She shrugged. "Unless you count a janitor who slipped on a wet floor."

Dean still stood across from her, his imposing figure making her slightly uncomfortable. "Would you please sit down?" she asked.

He pulled out a chair, the legs scraping across the floor, and sat down. Pursing his lips, he asked, "So have you checked police reports, county death records … "

Bella rolled her eyes and slapped down more papers in front of him. "Obituaries, mortuary reports, and seven other sources. I know what I'm doing."

"I think the jury's still out on that one, sweetheart." Dean's lips twisted into a smirk.

"You know, you'd be pretty surprised at how easy it is to get your hands on that kind of stuff when you're really a cop, not just pretending to be one." Bella smiled proudly.

Dean leaned over the table and grabbed the print-outs. "Just because you get insider information, doesn't mean you know a thing about hunting. I could hunt circles around you any day."

Bella raised one eyebrow. "Is that a challenge?"

"Okay!" Sam interrupted. "So it's something else then. Maybe some kind of cursed object that brought a spirit with it."

"We'll have to scan the whole building," Bella added. "Everywhere we can get to anyway."

"Right. So you and me will take the top two floors. Sammy, you take the basement and the first floor."

Glaring, Bella said, "We'd be faster if we split up."

Dean chuckled. "Oh, this isn't negotiable."

~o~

Bella and Dean walked down a dimly lit hallway with matching EMF readers in their hands.

"Where'd you get that thing anyway?" Dean asked.

"Oh this old thing?" Bella smirked. "My friend Tom told me how to make over the phone. He said I could make one out of an old Walkman."

They continued on their opposite sides, waiting for the EMF readers to sound. Dean came over to Bella and followed her closely.

"You gonna buy me dinner?" Bella asked without looking back and kept walking.

Dean stopped short, looking confused. "What are you talking about?"

Bella turned around and sighed. "If you're going to ride me this close, it's only decent you buy me dinner."

Giving Bella a tight smile, Dean said, "Oh that's hilarious." He stepped closer to her and the closer he got, the stronger the urge to just touch her was. Leaning over, he brought his lips to her ears. "I don't know if you've noticed, but you're kind of the spirit's type."

Shivering, Bella managed to pull away. "Exactly."

"No. Absolutely not."

"Sorry, Dean. You don't really have a say."

"You're not using yourself as bait, Bella."

"Try and stop me," Bella said before turning away and continuing down the hall.

Dean reached out and grabbed Bella's arm. "Bella, you've got options. No one in their right mind chooses this life. My dad started me in this when I was so young …" Dean sighed. "I wish I could do something else."

Bella shook her head. "No you don't. You love this job. You need this …"

Dean pulled her closer, his eyes searching her face. The anger fueling him was slowly fading as his heart longed to tell the truth … to her. "Do you know how easy it was for me to make that deal? I want out, Bella. I can't do this anymore. But you … you've got so much going for you, sweetheart. Good things, things that you don't want to throw away because when you get too deep, they might be hard to find later on."

"I think Billy Joel said it best. Only the good die young …"

"Yeah, but when I die, I'm on the highway to Hell." He gave her a watery smile and she let out a snort at his pathetic attempt at a joke. His voice turned serious. "You're too good for this crap, Bella. Don't let this life drag you down."

Bella looked up, her eyes filled with tears she wouldn't let fall. "You could have gotten out, Dean. Sam did for a little while. Why'd you stay?"

There were so many things he wanted to say. Because it was all he knew. Because it's the only thing he's good at. So she wouldn't have to. All those answers died on his tongue. There was no point in guilting her to stay when he had so little time left. He knew how Bella was. If she knew how broken he was, she'd stick around and put him back together regardless of her own safety.

In a gruff voice he answered, "I'm a little twisted."

Bella pushed her forehead against his and whispered, "You don't think I'm a little twisted too?"

They'd been standing over a heating grate while they had this little heart to heart. They might have even kissed too if it hadn't been for the dark shadow of a hand creeping up and wrapping around Bella's ankle. She shrieked and gasped.

"What?"

She placed a hand over her heart trying to slow it down. "I … I … don't know."

Dean looked around, his nose sniffing the air. "You smell that?"

"Gas leak?"

Shaking his head, Dean looked around again. "No, something else. I just can't put my finger on it."

Bella bent down and knelt over the grate with her EMF reader as it crackled and purred.

With a genuine smile on his face, Dean said, "Mazel Tov. You just found your first spirit."

Bella looked up, blew the hair out of her eyes, revealing a proud smile. Dean's heart stuttered in his chest. God, she really was beautiful. "Whatever it is, it's inside the vent."

Dean crouched down next to her, shining his flashlight into the grate. "Here." He handed her the flashlight and reached into his back pocket, pulling out a knife to use as a screwdriver.

Carefully, Dean unscrewed the screws and pulled the grate off. He leaned over and took a closer look into the dark abyss. "There's something in there …" He handed Bella the grate and extended his arm into the dark hole. He felt around for a bit, concentrating hard, his tongue coming out and resting on his lower lip. "Got it!" He slowly pulled out his hand, revealing a clump of brown hair.

Bella tried not to gag. Dean made a disgusted face and said, "Looks like someone's been keeping souvenirs."

~o~

She was more shaken than she wanted to admit. Creepy hairball aside, when that "spirit hand" actually reached up and grabbed her by the ankle, she wasn't prepared for her body's reaction. Her heart rate increased to a dangerous pace and then just halted in her chest, almost like someone was literally gripping it in their hand and squeezing the life out of it. Her spine went so ridged she feared the bones would just snap. Then the anxiety came which wasn't like anything she had ever felt. After that night in the woods, Bella really wasn't scared of anything. Well, besides being alone with her own thoughts. But that was why she always stayed so busy. The fear that possessed her body at that moment, the loneliness and desperation, was crippling.

Despite what she knew, that vampires existed and nightmares were real, she refused to believe that a spirit caused her to feel that way. The moment she and Dean almost shared in the hallway, that was what she had wanted in the hotel room back in Buffalo—truth. They could hate themselves as much as they wanted, but not each other. Never each other.

Bella could feel herself falling, her walls not just crumbling but decimated—dust. Her fate was sealed the day John and Charlie met. Call it destiny, call it victim of circumstance, but she and Dean were tied together. It wasn't the thrill of the hunt or some lame legacy. It was Dean. When all of it was over, she'd be left with nothing, and she was terrified. She could build her walls up again, but if what Dean said was true, there was no bringing him back from Hell.

She wanted to scrub it all away, go back to the way things were when she didn't even know who Dean Winchester was. Even if that was the easier, safer bet, Bella knew that could never be. Her heart wouldn't allow it.

While Dean filled Sam in on what had happened in the hallway, Bella was busy showering. Steam had completely filled the small space by the time Bella shut off the water. A few final drops of

water hit the tub floor and echoed through the bathroom. As she stepped out of the shower, she was met with complete silence, and she welcomed it. She had expected Dean and Sam to be hovering close by, but maybe they knew she needed a few minutes to compose herself.

When Sam asked Bella to retell what had happened, her perfectly placed facade had almost cracked. They were used to seeing her in control with a bit of edge. Even Dean and his constant digs didn't get to her. But whatever that was in the hallway, whether it be the connection between her and Dean or the spirit, had effectively spooked her.

Tugging the towel around her, Bella released a long breath as she looked at her reflection in the mirror. She could run away, leave all of it behind. It made the most sense; she could go back to hiding behind her cases and staying busy. But was that what she really wanted? Edward broke something inside of her, forced her to live half-alive. Sure, she was tough and driven; and when she put the bad guys away, she got a pat on the back. But at the end of the day, that false sense of power was short lived when she went home to an empty house every night.

Staring at her face, she noticed the difference a week had made. Her cheeks had color, her eyes bright and full of life. The laugh lines at the corners of her mouth were more apparent, a testament to how sad and dull her life had been before. She could even see the worry lines between her eyebrows smoothing out. It wasn't that she didn't have anything to worry about. In fact, it looked like her plate was the fullest it had ever been, but knowing there was someone else by her side, someone that she had a connection with, lifted an invisible weight from her shoulders. Bella couldn't deny it any longer.

Her life began the minute Dean Winchester walked in.

E/N – Well things seem to be progressing nicely, despite either of them actually sharing how they feel for one another. We had some of that push and pull they do so well. What did you guys think about the hallway scene?