Sam had positioned himself on the flat roof of the dock house. I knew he would keep his eyes firmly on the ground until go time, but that didn't make me any less nervous as Dean and I sat on a bench at the end of the dock. I was perma-flushed. It was surreal, and a little stupid, in my honest opinion.

"I hope you didn't use Wikipedia on past hunts." I looked at Dean out of the corner of my eye. He'd been doing this for years. I figured he have planned better. We should have just let Sam do the spell work.

"Nah." He was smirking. Of course. But it seemed to me that he was being a little too unapologetic. "Good thing we have a backup plan."

I sighed at Dean's words. I considered taking Kirsti's advice and just telling him my feelings, right there and then. The fact of the matter was, once the truth was in the open, I'd probably still have to leave, if only to spare us both the embarrassment and him the guilt of having to deal with my love sick ass. "Why couldn't we hunt a ghost attracted to scrapbooking?" I muttered to myself.

"Hey, if a little physical contact with me isn't what you go for, we can find someone else-"

"No!" I snapped, flushing as Dean's smile became more pronounced. The asshole just couldn't resist screwing with me. I resisted the urge to push him off the dock. Barely. "I don't particularly like public physical contact with anyone."

"Stage fright?"

"Something like that."

Dean nodded. "Okay. Close your eyes."

I looked quizzically at Dean, exhaling my anxiety, but I did as he said. I felt his hands on my arms. I felt the heat of his touch through the protection of my long sleeved shirt. I shivered.

"Cold?"

I opened my eyes and shook my head.

"Eyes closed." His voice was firm. Something about the command sent a thrill through me, and I quickly obeyed. "Good girl." His voice was a raspy purr near my ear, his lips so close I almost felt them move as his hands became more insistent.

It was all I could do to keep my eyes shut as he gripped my waist, hauling me so close that I could barely move. When his fingers grazed my breast through my shirt I moaned softly, and a growl emanated from his throat. He guided me back on to the bench, trapping my body with his own. I felt heat blooming in my core. Dean pressed against me, and I felt him harden, our clothes becoming a frustration. With my eyes closed, I could pretend it was a dream. It was certainly unreal enough.

As Dean's mouth delved deeper into my own, I forgot everything. The hunt, the danger, the recklessness of the plan all became barely an echo in my mind. I felt Dean's mouth on my neck, punishing the bruises on my skin as his fingers tangled in my hair. The part of me that balked at the inappropriate public physical contact had been commanded into silence by the affect Dean's body had on me. The wanton, womanly person that he was so adept at finding moaned loudly. I arched my back, aching for more contact.

I rebelled against reality, panting for more as Dean lifted my shirt. His teeth nipped at the top of by breasts before teasing my nipples through my bra, and I cried out for him.

The cold evening air assaulted the bare skin of my abdomen as my cries of desire became cries of alarm. My eyes flew open. The water churned around the dock, and Dean was nowhere to be found. I scrambled to pull my shirt down.

"Oli, run!" Sam cocked his shotgun at the other end of the dock.

"Dean!" My eyes searched the water, and I ignored Sam. I knew the ghost of Jacob had to be near, but I refused to leave Dean to his fate. I didn't realize I'd stopped breathing until his head broke through the water 10 yards off the dock. "Dean!" I had dropped my shotgun, ready to dive in after him.

"Damnit! Move your ass, I'm fine!"

I took a deep breath, nodding my assent. I reached down for my shot gun. I couldn't grab it. I wanted to. Very badly, in fact, but a pair of water logged Chuck Taylor's stood in my way. I followed the pale legs up, craning my neck, frozen in shock as my eyes met' Jacob's.

"Whore." His voice was gravely.

"Jacob-" Mine was barely a whisper.

I thought I saw a flash of… something… on his face, but I didn't have time to process it as he cocked back, slapping me across the dock. I landed hard against the bench, gasping for air. He'd knocked the breath out of me, and I Saw stars as he descended on me.

My gun was even farther from my reach. His clawed fingers reached for my throat. I could feel time slow as Jacob moved, standing over me, his legs on either side of mine, trapping me in place. I fought the panic that gripped me.

I had no idea what was happening around me as time finally stopped. Years passed in those few seconds, until a shot gun blasted rocketed time forward, salt shells tearing through the bend and the dock. Jacob's attention shifted from me to search for the source of the assault, and I pulled my knees to my chest, kicking out desperately with all my strength.

I learned a very valuable lesson in that moment as I made contact. I learned that dead or alive, when you kick a guy in the balls, it hurts.

I managed to roll to the side before he landed on me, forgoing my gun as I scrambled up the dock. My one mistake was looking over my shoulder to check on Dean. He had made it to the dock and had our guns. I could taste my relief that he was okay. Jacob was moving up the dock towards me. His movements jerked. My feet caught on themselves and I went ass over applecart, rolling to a stop at the end of the dock. Sam had jumped down from the roof, hoisting me to my feet and leveling his gun on the Dead Dock Boy.

"Bitch." Jacob's eyes were dark with hat and anger. He ignored Sam at first, taking another step towards me, a guttural, evil laugh growing in his throat as he reached for me. I took a step back, trying to get out of the way in case Sam had to fire off a round. Sam pumped the shot fun. Jacob's attention snapped to him. The ghost snarled, knocking the barrel out of the way was Sam pulled the trigger.

"Sam!" Dean and I yelled a warning at the same time, but Jacob had caught Sam off guard, grabbing him by the collar of his shirt and tossing all of Sam's gangly ass in the shallow water by the dock. Dean pumped his shot gun. I shrank away, expecting Jacob to turn his attention to the new threat.

Did I ever mention how often I'm wrong?
I lost track of my place in the world as cold, clammy arms wrapped around my waist, spinning with supernatural speed. I cried out as his grip tightened on my bruised ribs. My first instinct was to lash out, grimacing through the pain. My right arm was free. I turned my body to the left and whipped back, my elbow up at an odd angle to try and catch Jacob in the chin. I made glancing contact, but he just laughed, snatching my wrist and bending my arm up behind me, using the force with which he pressed himself to me to hold it in place. His long fingers snaked around my neck. The pain was immediate, and I thrashed against his hold, but he was immovable.

I was running out of oxygen, and my futile fight was wasting precious air. I could feel the blood pounding in my head as I willed myself to relax. Dean was less than five feet from me, Sam back on the dock Next to him, holding my abandoned gun.

They looked like a pair of drowned rats, and as my vision darkened, yet again, my inner crazy person almost laughed at how absurd they looked. My eyes locked on Dean's. His were wide, unblinking. His jaw was set, and his nostrils flared. He never lowered his gun. I wished I could tell him to shoot. Rock salt would hurt, but I'd live.

"You let her go, you Son of a Bitch!" Dean's voice was far away. I barely heard it over the rushing blood pounding in my ears.

"Jacob!"

I felt Jacob's death hardened body stiffen. His fingers loosened just a fraction, and I let out a strangled cry (pardon my choice of words). "Kirsti, no!"

I world moved on its own again, and I was falling. As the dock rose up to meet me, it seemed I should be doing something, but movement was beyond me as I slumped. I closed my eyes, preparing for impact, but it never came. Strong arms wrapped around my waist. I didn't have the energy to cry out in pain, but Dean was careful as he shifted me back to my feet, his arms around me, keeping me up. In my fog, I vaguely remembered being scared for my friend. I turned in Dean's arms, ready to dive at Kirsti, for all the small amount of good it would do.

"Oh, Jacob," Kirsti's sympathy was sincere, her eyes soft as she stood in front of the ghost of her biological dad. The lights on the dock glowed dimly, casting eerie shadows on the two as they faced each other.

Jacob's sickly complexion seemed to glow, reflecting the minimal light, and magnifying it. They were in profile to us, and I watched in awe as the anger, hate, and pain on his face melted into confusion. Kirsti took a step towards him. His mouth moved as if he were trying to find words that had left him long ago. As awareness dawned on the ghost's face, I saw the echo of the young man from the picture in the paper.

"Stacey?" the word tore from his throat.

"Stacey… my mom…" Kirsti closed the rest of the distance between them, grabbing Jacob's hand as he stared at her, dumbfounded. "She couldn't come back for you Jacob. She loved you a lot. When she lost you, she couldn't take it. They locked her up at St. Luke's. That's where she was when…. Well, I was born there about 8 months after you died."

Jacob's glow brightened as she spoke. He reached out, placing his hand on Kirsti's cheek, softly. "She loved you so much, she wanted to make sure your daughter had a good life. She put me up for adoptions." The final puzzle piece had fallen into place. Jacob looked ethereal, almost angelic. "She wanted to come back for you, Jacob." Kirsti's voice had fallen to a whisper.

"I- I told her to run." As Jacob came back to himself, the relief was written across his face. "He was so angry, I didn't want him to hurt her, or the baby. He held me under the water for so long. Someone came for me, but I didn't want to go with them until I'd seen Stacey one last time. I couldn't leave, and she never came back…" Tears fell from both of their eyes. Through the sadness, Jacob smiled. "You're happy?"

Kirsti nodded, her smile watery as Jacob enveloped her in a hug. The light surrounding them was so bright, I had to close my eyes, and I Could still see the glow. Dean set a warm, calloused hand on my brow, shielding me from the blinding light.

I focused on the warmth of Dean's touch to distract myself from the aching that was coming to the forefront throughout my whole body. We stayed that way for a minute. Or maybe an eternity. It's hard to tell when Dean is touching me. "You did good." Dean's voice moved through me as he whispered in my ear. My eyes fluttered open and I sagged against him in relief. Kirsti stood a few feet in front of us, smiling through her tears, completely alone.