Series Title: 31 Nights of Frights, Chapter Three
Part Title: No One Comes Near
Author: Jmaria
Rating: FR-15
Disclaimer: I own nothing, Joss owns the Buffyverse stuff, Kriple owns SPN
Series Summary: Thirty-one experiments in insanity with a Halloween month theme, er, take three.
Part Summary: Chance meetings and odd outcomes.
Words: 660
A/N: I Fought the Law verse. Set end of season one beginning of season two.

31 Nights of Frights, Chapter Three

25. No One Comes Near

Over the years, Kate tried to pull herself out of the bar, letting Ash take over her room in the back and moving into her own house a few miles away. She let Jo crash with her when she got in one of her many fights with her mother, and only ran the bar when Ellen needed to be out of town and away from hunters for a little while. But for the most part she was not part of the hunting aspect. Not anymore.

But there were certain hunters she could never forget from her few cover shifts at the bar. Like John Winchester. He was a good looking man, and if Ellen hadn't told her in advance that he had two grown boys, she'd have never believed it. He'd come looking for Ellen, and realizing she wasn't there, hed proceeded to down more drinks than Ash. She'd given him a hard time about drinking too much, and then he'd turned those sad eyes on her. She lost her mind for a few hours after closing time. She'd wound up pregnant, too.

Of course she'd never told anyone who the father was, and not one of the patrons in the bar that night had ever returned to put two and two together. Jo had thought she was crazy for keeping the baby, and Ellen had worried about her. She'd even tried to get Kate to move back in. Like that was gonna happen. What if John should come back?

A little more than a year later, Kate found herself back behind the bar when Bobby Singer had come in. She'd seen him a few times when he stopped to get info from Ellen or Ash over the years she'd been living with or near the bar.

"Kate," Bobby had nodded.

"Hey, Bobby. You want your usual?" Kate smiled at him.

"I need to talk to Ellen, she around?"

"No, she and Jo are at each others throats at home. I'm covering just until the baby wakes up."

"How old is -"

"Eight months. I got a picture if you wanna see it."

A sad smile crossed his lips, and Kate wondered if he was thinking about the family he could of have if his wife hadn't been killed. She also wondered at how she had come to this in four short years. A doting mother who worked in a Mayberry-esque police station and tended bar on the odd weekend. She wondered if her father would be proud or disappointed. Probably a bit of both. Bobby nodded and Kate dutifully fished out the picture from her back pocket.

"Just took it last week. Isn't she something?" Kate smiled.

"That's little Marianna? God, she got big."

"Yeah, she's gonna be eating me out of house and home soon."

"You got charms, iron and salt around her room?"

"I've got protection charms around the house and hanging from her mobile. I'm not letting anything happen to my girl," Kate said fiercely, taking the picture back from her. "You want a drink while you wait for Ellen to come back?"

"No. I gotta get a move on. Tell her I've got some news about John Winchester and his boys, will ya?"

"Uh - yeah, sure. Will do."

"Take care of that little angel, Katie," Bobby smiled, pushing himself away from the counter.

"Will do, Bobby."

And she did. Which is why she moved away from the bar, transferred to another station and took her charms and baby away from anywhere John Winchester might come through in that rattletrap truck of his that their little girl had been conceived in. Because she knew she'd lose everything - her aunt, her cousin, maybe even her daughter - if he knew they had little Marianna. Because he would do anything to protect his children. And he might decided she wasnt good enough to be Marianna's mother, and that was one thing she just couldn't live with.