I feel like a neglectful parent it's been so long since I updated, but now season 5 is amping up, I'm all motivated again!

Playtime

Dean silently chuckled as he hit the capture button on his phone,

another one for the collection he thought to himself, he looked over at his younger brother with the glittery flower clip delicately placed in his hair, he was just too easy to mess with. He had found the hair clip stuck down the back of his seat, it must have been either Gracie's or Amanda's or perhaps it had been there longer, left by one of the many girls he had 'liaised' with in the impala. Dean had to amuse himself some way on these long drives, the others had long since fallen asleep, so he did what any self respecting older brother would do, humiliate his younger brother in his sleep, this photo was up there with his favourites, like the one with the plastic spoon hanging out of his mouth, or the time he drew little stars all over the side of Sam's face with a permanent marker, he'd tried it once when Gracie had fallen asleep in the front seat, but she hadn't spoken to him for two weeks after that and he hadn't had the courage to try again.

The road disappeared under the impala's tyres, Dean glanced down at the map beside him, they still had a few hours left to travel, Sam had found a job for them the next state over, he had to hand it to the boy, it was a damn sight easier finding jobs when you had a geek brother that had a laptop constantly attached to his fingers. It had caught Sam's eye as he trolled the internet for any weird stories. After an hour or so of research they had all the info they needed to hit the road.

The case seemed pretty interesting to Dean, and lord knows they were all keen as hell to get out of town, chances are they would have taken off even if the case had been a total dud. An article from a local town rag had taken their eye, it seemed like all the men in town had a case of the crazies, in a town with only a thousand or so residents in the past month about 30 percent of the adult male population had been arrested for violent crimes, before that, the crime rate had been virtually non existent, it was certainly strange enough to pique their interest. Gracie was going to pose as a state psychologist to get close to the men and see what was was happening with them, Amanda was going to be her assistant, Sam and Dean would play their usual FBI identities so they could gain access to vital information. Dean had originally protested to this arrangement as he didn't like the idea of the girls getting that close to obviously violent men, before he had finished his sentence she had his right arm twisted behind his back and his face rammed up against the wall, yep, she would be just fine, Amanda was also getting better at fighting, Sam had been slowly training her, she already looked leaner, stronger and a whole lot more bad ass than when they had first met, Dean was still a little unsure about the whole situation though, what sort of rational normal person just leaves their life in the blink of an eye to go hunt monsters with people they barely knew, but if that was what Sam wanted then who was he to argue, although it did mean he was spending a whole lot less time with his brother, he and Amanda seemed to spend all their time holed up in their room pouring through old books, Sam had said that he was going through stuff teaching her, but the way he had said it made Dean think perhaps there was some other reason behind the study sessions, he knew his brother as well as he knew himself and could tell when he was hiding something.

The sky was starting to lighten on the horizon, but Dean's passengers showed no sign of waking up, he looked over his shoulder at the girls in the back seat, Gracie's head had been resting on Amanda's shoulder but had slipped and her face was now sitting on Amanda's right breast,

Damn, that shit's pretty hot, Dean thought to himself, he was tempted to pull over and take a photo, but reconsidered when he thought of what his girlfriend might do to him afterward. Sam was the first to stir, he tried to stretch but there just wasn't enough room for his lanky frame in the impala, he looked uncoordinated as he tried to manipulate his limbs in the small space.

"Where are we?" Sam asked,

"About an hour away"

"You should have woke me and let me drive for a bit, got some shut eye"

"We'd never get there if you drove, you drive like an old lady" Dean smirked at his brother, he wondered how long it would be until he noticed the hair clip. Sam pulled out his laptop to brush up on details before they hit town, it wasn't long before civilisation popped up around them, Sam looked up as the impala slowed and Dean pulled into a forlorn looking gas station.

"I am in serious need of caffeine, and it's about time these girls woke up" he stepped hard on the brake and both girls slid forward on the seat with Gracie smacking her head against the back of the front seat,

"Son of a bitch!" she moved back and rubbed her forehead,

"What the hell was that for?" if looks could kill Dean would be a smoldering pile of ash right now, he just laughed,

"Thought it was about time you lovely ladies woke up, how much beauty sleep do you think you need?" he winked at her, she just rolled her eyes at him, she couldn't stay mad at him when he was so darn cute. Sam reached over the seat and tucked a stray piece of hair behind Amanda's ear,

"Morning sleeping beauty" a slight blush rose in her cheeks,

"Morning, we there already?"

"Nearly, with Michael Schumacher here driving we made pretty good time"

"You wish you could drive like me bitch"

"Jerk" they all piled out of the car, everyone in a different stretching pose, Gracie looked at her reflection in the window,

"Ugh, I'm going to the restroom to clean up a bit, Dean can you grab me a hot chocolate and something to eat, but it better not be a cheeseburger or I'll kick your ass, get me a bagel or a croissant or at least something that resembles breakfast food" Amanda turned to follow Gracie,

"I need a quick wash too" she gave Sam a chaste peck on the lips on the way past, "Just grab me whatever, I trust you" Dean walked towards the door and yelled back,

"Okay Amanda, bacon cheeseburger it is" Sam leaned down and touched his forehead to hers,

"I promise I won't get you a cheeseburger" she looked up at him and giggled,

"What?"

"Do you like wearing glittery flower clips in your hair?" she reached up and gently pulled it out of his hair and held it up for him to see,

"DEAN!!"

The girls headed towards the rest rooms, they were surprisingly clean considering the state of the rest of the gas station, they were a damn sight better than some of the ones Gracie had used in the past, that's for sure. They both started unloading their toiletry bags onto the counter and tried to make it look like they hadn't slept the night in a car, Gracie looked over at Amanda while she pulled her hair up into a practical ponytail,

"You all ready for this?"

"Absolutely"

"Because no one would blame you if you were nervous"

"You know, I thought I would be, but Sam has been going through so much stuff with me and I don't know, it just feels like it's what I was born to do or something, like this is supposed to be my life" Gracie raised her eyebrows,

"This shouldn't be anyone's life, these things shouldn't exist, and I still can't believe you chose to be a part of this"

"Why's that?"

"Never have I seen someone choose this life, every hunter I've ever known has either been born into it or gone into it for some sort of revenge, actually I have a confession"

"Yeah"

"I thought you'd run for the hills after that case with Dean, I mean there's only so much crazy a person can take right? and afterwards I thought maybe you'd only stayed because of Sam, but now I see that you're serious about taking this on"

"I am serious about it, like I said I think it must be in my blood, it feels so natural to me"

"I worry about bringing other people into this sort of life, but at the same time I'm hell glad that I've got another female around, all the testosterone was starting to kill me" both girls laughed as they packed away their things,

"Let's go see what those boys have rustled up for breakfast"

Dean and Sam were leaning against the car waiting when the girls came out, brown paper bags strewn all over the bonnet, they threw their bags in the back seat and joined the boys leaning on the hood, Gracie opened up the closest bag,

"So, what's to eat?" she looked inside,

"Cheeseburger and pie?, this had better not be mine Dean Winchester"

"Would I do that to you?"

"Not if you knew what was good for you"

"That ones mine" he looked in another bag, "this one's yours" he held it out to her, she took it apprehensivly and looked inside, a big grin spread across her face as she pulled out a chocolate croissant, she took a big bite and moaned,

"You sure know the way into a girls heart"

"Damn, I was hoping it was a way into your pants, not your heart"

"Oh, yeah, you're a real romantic aren't you?" she tried to sound mad but couldn't stop herself from smiling. Sam pulled Amanda into his side and handed her a bag,

"Here's yours, I got you a muffin, hope that's okay"

"Sounds great" she said as she pulled the baked treat out of the bag, Sam leaned down and kissed the top of her head, Dean made a gagging noise,

"You two are going to make me throw up and waste a perfectly good burger, you're too lovey dovey, it makes me queasy" Amanda looked over at him,

"Just because we're not dysfunctional like you two" she poked her tongue out at him,

"DId you just poke your tongue out at me?" he laughed, "you know, you're growing on me kiddo"

"Good, because I plan on sticking around" Sam leaned in close and whispered in her ear,

"Sounds good to me"

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The four of them sat around the small table in Dean and Gracie's room going over the final details before they headed out to start investigating the new case, Dean couldn't keep his eyes of his girlfriend, she looked downright hot in a knee length charcoal grey pencil skirt and tight fitting white button up shirt that showed just the right amount of cleavage, her hair was twisted up and she had on a dangerous looking pair of black heels, she could almost fit into his favourite naughty librarian fantasy, he was snapped out of his daydream by Sam throwing his fake FBI badge to him, he leaned over as Gracie grabbed her ID,

"Here, let me" he said taking it out of her hands and clipping the tag onto her collar, he let his hand gently brush over her chest,

"Why, Dean, if I didn't know any better I'd think you were just trying to cop a feel" he looked affronted,

"Moi?" Sam cleared his throat,

"You guys finished? can we get this show on the road or what?" Dean looked over at his brother,

"Dude, you seriously need to loosen up a little"

"Whatever. Okay, so the plan is we're going to drop you girls off at the prison to interview the men, look for anything that may suggest possession, or perhaps a hex, see if they did anything different to their normal routine before they went loco" Gracie looked bored,

"Sam, I've done this before you know"

"I know you have, but Amanda hasn't and I'm counting on you to keep her safe and show her the ropes"

"It doesn't sound that hard Sam, I just have to lie my ass off" Dean laughed and put on a dodgy english accent,

"By george I think she's got it"

"You guys can laugh, but this is serious" Gracie frowned at him,

"Sammy, you really know how to bring down a room, you know that? We'll be fine, although I feel naked not carrying a gun or knife or something" Dean smirked, Grace slapped him across the chest,

"Don't even go there sunshine"

"Sorry, but I don't think that a psychologist would be carrying, and especially not into a prison"

"Fair call" Sam continued,

"So after we drop you guys we're going straight over to the police station, hopefully we can get a hold of their files and talk to the sheriff, he can give us a clearer idea of what's been going on" Gracie grabbed her leather satchel, she certainly looked the part she was playing today,

"Sounds like a plan Stan"

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The prison was about half an hour out of town, it was only small and it didn't have the foreboding maximum security feel of some of the prisons they'd visited before, it was a small county and didn't need anything more, most of the hardened criminals were shipped to the state penitentiary, luckily the prisoners that they wanted to speak to were still there, they were due to be transferred in the coming weeks.

Dean pulled the impala onto the verge a short distance from the entrance, both boys turned in their seats to look at the girls, Dean spoke first,

"You girls all good?"

"All good and raring to go" Gracie answered, she'd done this a hundred times before, it was just another day at the office for her, Amanda though, looked pale, Sam's face was full of concern,

"You sure you're ready to do this, if you want to wait back at the motel that's fine" she shook her head,

"No, it's just stage fright, I'll be fine, gotta get the hang of this somehow, I'll be fine" she repeated, it almost sounded like she was trying to convince herself as well as Sam. She took a deep breath and climbed out of the car, Gracie followed suit, Dean leaned out the window,

"Good luck girls" Gracie snorted,

"Luck has nothing to do with it mister, we're professionals" she held her head up in the air.

"Yeah, sure you are, just watch out for the cavity searches okay" she heard his laughter as he pulled away from them, she turned towards Amanda and saw that she had gone white as a ghost,

"You okay?"

"They don't really do cavity searches do they?" Gracie felt for her friend,

"Of course they don't sweetie, don't listen to a word he says, he was just being a dick"

"Okay"

"You ready to do this, I really need your game face on" Amanda took a deep breath and stood up straight,

"Let's do this"

They marched up to the gate, Amanda took note of the authority that Gracie exuded, that was something that she would definitely need to work on herself, she watched as Gracie presented herself at the guards booth without hesitation,

"Hi, I'm Dr. Abigail Young, I'm here to interview some of your inmates" she lifted up her ID for the guard to see, "and this is my assistant Holly Tyler" she gestured towards Amanda who showed her ID, he looked them over for a second or two before answering,

"Okay, wait a second and I'll call the warden down to meet you" he disappeared back into the small building, emerging not long later,

"He's heading straight down, if you'll just head over to the gate there I'll buzz you in"

They waited by the gate for it to open, it only took a moment before the large metal frame started to swing forward, Amanda was surprised by how she could feel the atmosphere change around her the second she was inside the grounds, it was like all the hope had been sucked from the air, it was a feeling of utter despair. The man walking towards them across the gravel yard was definitely now what either of them expected, he was about the same height as Gracie if not shorter and he had his long dirty blonde hair tied back in a ponytail, he wore some beige cargo pants and a plain polo shirt, but the biggest surprise was his choice of footwear, on his feet he wore thongs, he looked more like an ageing stoner than someone in charge of a prison, they met halfway across the yard, he held out his hand, Gracie was the first to grasp it,

"You must be Mr. Varner, I'm Dr. Young and this is my assistant Ms. Tyler"

"Please, no need to be so formal, just call me Steve, I believe you want to talk to some of my guests"

"Um, yes I have an interest in the sudden influx of inmates from the nearby town"

"I don't like to call them inmates here, I think guests sounds nicer, and it helps with their morale, why make their stay any more unpleasant right?"

"I think the whole point of prison is for it to be unpleasant, otherwise we'd be sending criminals to Cabo" the warden laughed like he heard the funniest joke on earth,

"I like you, you're funny" Gracie wasn't amused, she was sure this guy was a few fries short of a happy meal.

"Great, so can I talk to the.....guest then?" he was still chuckling, Gracie was glad that her and Amanda had come here, Dean would have bitch slapped some sense into this guy by now,

"Sure, I've set the private meeting room up for you, but I have to remind you that I have to record your conversations, legal reasons and all that"

"Of course" they had already thought of this situation and Gracie had packed extra blank cassettes in her satchel to swap with the real ones before they left.

Upon entering the building both girls almost recoiled in shock, the walls were covered in outrageous murals, there were rainbows, clouds, small animals, the sort of things you'd expect to see in a playgroup, not a prison, Amanda turned to the warden, she was totally confused, he started one of those annoying chuckles again,

"People are always so surprised when they walk in here, it's really something huh?" Gracie just couldn't believe it,

"Something's right" she muttered under her breath, the warden continued,

"I painted them all myself, I was feeling particularly artistic one day and thought I'd do something to brighten the place up a bit" he looked at her with a big shit eating grin on his face, it took a lot of restraint on her part not to wipe it on his face and tell him to grow the fuck up, instead she smiled sweetly,

"They're lovely, now, we really need to get some work done, the inmates..." he was quick to cut her off,

"Guests"

"Right, guests, well, the guests we'd like to talk to are Michael Sherwood, John Fraser and Matthew Ryan, we'll need them for about fifteen minutes each"

"No problem, I'll go grab Michael first, you girls shouldn't be nervous either, these guys are giant pussy cats, hard to believe that they did what they did really"

"Don't worry about us Mr. Varner, we can handle ourselves just fine" he left the room with his thongs making stupid flip flop sounds, Gracie looked over at Amanda,

"Can you believe that guy? what a douche"

"Well, he certainly wasn't what I was expecting"

They set up their own tape recorder and Amanda laid out her notepad in front of her, she would take notes while Gracie asked the questions, it was a good way for her to watch and learn. The warden returned with the inmate, he had on the usual unflattering orange jumpsuit, he looked rather quiet and unassuming, like a mild mannered accountant, not a violent criminal, Gracie stood up,

"Michael Sherwood? it's nice to meet you, I'm Dr. Young and this is Ms. Tyler, I hope you don't mind having a word to us today" he didn't raise his head to look at her, she had to lean forward to hear him,

"Whatever"

"Okay, so just take a seat here and we'll begin, due to legal reasons I have to remind you that this conversation is being recorded, do you consent to this?"

"Sure" he still hadn't lifted his head, the warden stood in the doorway,

"I'll leave you guys to it then, there will be a guard posted right outside the door, any troubles just yell"

"I think we'll be just fine Mr. Varner"

"No problems"

"So Michael, do you mind if I call you Michael?" he just shrugged,

"Michael, you're in here for assault?" he just nodded,

"You assaulted your local postman?" again he just nodded,

"You admit that you did it?" he finally looked up,

"I must have, I came to and I had blood all over me and Ken was lying in my front yard nearly dead, hard to argue the facts"

"You say you came to, did you black out?"

"I'm not sure, I can't really remember much of that day to be honest, or the last four weeks, it's like I would suddenly wake up and I have no idea what I'd done or how I got to where I was, and the mood swings..." he dropped his head into his hands,

"So you say this started about a month ago? did something happen in your life, some event or drastic change happen around then?"

"No, everything was going great, life was great"

"Before you started noticing the changes did you happen to see any black smoke?"

"Black smoke? are you self prescribing or something?"

"What about enemies, did you have any confrontations with anyone around that time?"

"You're a psychologist right? why do I feel like I'm being interrogated again? shouldn't you be more worried about my mental health?"

"I'm just trying to find what may have caused these black outs, traumatic events can often trigger schizophrenic episodes"

"I'm not insane"

"I never said you were, it could have even been a minuscule change that began all of this, was there any change to your normal routine?"

"No, every day was the same, get up, go to work, lunch at the river cafe, more work, drinks after work at the club" he paused "the only change was that we started going to the new bar in town some nights, the waitresses there were nice to look at instead of old Geeves at the club, I'm pretty sure that checking out some eye candy wouldn't contribute to psychotic episodes"

"You never know. You said you were having mood swings as well?"

"Yeah, I was just feeling so angry all the time, I'd blow up at the slightest thing, I was really tearing into people, I knew I was being a dick but I just couldn't stop myself"

"But all of this has stopped now?"

"Yeah, ever since I got in here"

"I think I have all the information I need, thanks for your time Michael, I'll forward a copy of any findings I might reach" Gracie and Amanda stood and watched Michael shuffle out the door, the warden poked hi head around the door jamb,

"Ready for your next visitor?"

"Sure send him in"

Gracie and Amanda spoke with the other two inmates, Gracie was impressed as Amanda started participating in the interviews, her confidence was picking up, both men had similair stories to Michael, black outs, mood swings, periods of rage and they both had started drinking at the new bar in town, and both made comments on how attractive the wait staff were.

Gracie made sure that she swapped the cassettes over before the warden returned and then endured his overly bubbly conversation as he escorted them out, that was the part of the job she hated, dealing with dicks. Sam and Dean were already waiting outside for them, she could hear the music coming from the impala from fifty metres away, he was listening to AC/DC again, he really needed some new music, she was sick of the same five albums. They walked up to the car and hopped in the back, Dean turned the music down and looked at Gracie,

"So what's their story"

"Well, it could be demon's, they all mention losing periods of time, and uncontrollable rage, but none of them saw anything like black smoke, it could be a hex, but none of them seem to have any enemies or pissed anyone off lately, the only other thing that they all seem to have in common is they all started drinking at the new bar in town, so I reckon that might be the best place to start, how did you guys go with the po po" Dean snickered at Gracie,

"No one says po po anymore Gracie"

"Well, maybe I'll be the one to start it up again" she said glaring at him, Sam spoke up,

"The sheriff didn't have a lot of time to talk to us, but we did get copies of all their files and interview transcripts, I've been going through them while we waited for you, it's interesting that you mention that bar, the majority of these guys mention that they were drinking there right before the shit hit the fan" Dean rubbed his hands together gleefully,

"So, who wants to go to a bar?!"

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This chapter took a week to write, mostly because I let myself get distracted too easily, but rest assured I'm already working on the next, this case will be full of drama, intrugue and a little bit of action :P and I might give you a few answers too :) Since I'm working on this now I might be neglecting my other story for a bit, my poor 'ol brain struggles sometimes lol but I have loads of notes so it'll get there eventually.

Stay tuned for the next chapter, it'll be a little bit Sin City, a little Crossroad Blues and a little Sex and Violence, intrigued you yet?

All that's left for you to do is review!!!! pleeeeeease *begs*