A/N: A shorter chapter than normal but just a little 'outside the life of hunting' stuff. I hope that you enjoy reading it. I apologise for the length of time it took for me to upload this. Please remember to read, love and review. Happy Reading.

2006 – February

South Dakota – Sioux Falls

Bobby opened the door to a smiling set of Winchester brothers. Dean was grinning whilst Sam offered the man a half smile. "Hey Bobby," Dean said.

The man offered the pair a smile and shifted from the doorway. "Dean, Sam," he narrowed his eyes at Sam. "I thought you were at college?"

Sam's gaze fell away and he nodded. "Yeah, it erm, it didn't work out me."

"Sorry to hear that." The pair of boys traipsed in then and Bobby closed the door. "Where's your Dad anyway Dean? I thought you and he were hunting together?"

Dean gave an awkward single chuckle. "What? A guy can't hunt on his own?" Bobby frowned and Dean sighed. "I don't know where he is alright? He's, somewhere."

The older man pulled a face and turned to the kitchen. He removed the lid from a pan and peered inside. "Hey Charlotte!"

There was a delay before she shouted back, "What?"

"It's bubbling!"

"So stir it!"

Bobby rolled his eyes and did as instructed. He replaced the lid and turned to see Dean and Sam staring at him. "What? She's cooking something."

"She out back?" Dean asked.

"No," Bobby said and he grabbed three beers from the fridge. He handed one to each boy and opened the third for himself. "She's getting ready."

"For what?"

She appeared then with a light thud on the floor. "How's it looking?" she asked Bobby.

"Is it ready yet?"

She chuckled and noticed the Winchesters then. Both of them were staring. "What?"

"Nothing," they both said, badly covering up the fact that they had been staring. She looked down at herself and sighed. "You look-" Sam started.

"Wow," Dean finished.

Again she rolled her eyes and stepped around the pair of them to lift the lid on the pan. "Close your mouths morons." The dress she wore reached to just above her knees in a loose black skirt that reached up to a black band. Above this was the blue and white striped strapless top half of the ensemble. Simple black sneakers finished the look. "Okay," she said. "Give it another couple of minutes and it should be ready." She turned back to the boys. "There should be enough for you two as well."

"Where are you going?" Sam asked.

"A date." Matter of fact.

"With who?" Dean said.

Charlotte only turned with a sigh. "A guy. A student teacher at the local school. He's a nice guy."

Sam asked, "How'd you two meet?"

"Really?" Dean turned to his brother. At the blank stare Dean shook his head with a frown. "Chick." And he moved to the living room with mild disinterest.

"Anyway," Charlotte continued, "erm, he called for a tow and I ended up being the one to fix his car. Bobby was out helping some hunter with a serious case of Vampires."

"Well I'm happy for you."

"Thanks." She grabbed three dishes and started to deal out the food. "I hope you guys like sausage casserole." The first dish was passed to Bobby, the second to Sam and the last one to Dean. He took it with a smirk to his lips and let his eyes roll up and down her body with wriggling brows. "Grow up," she muttered.

"You look nice," he said. Then he winked, took his bowl and left.

She rolled her eyes and moved to the living room. Her jacket had been thrown over the couch and she shook it on. A set of headlights moved across the windows and she turned to face the three guys. "Don't wait up for me. I mean it."

"I won't," Bobby said. She pulled the handle of her bag over her shoulder and opened the door. "Have fun."

"I will," she muttered before she left.

"You know the guy right?" Dean said.

Bobby let his spoon fall into the bowl and looked at the older Winchester. "Alex is sound. He ain't a hunter. He's a teacher. Ain't like he's gonna kill her."

"And you know that for sure?" Sam asked.

Again the older man levelled a gaze with the brothers. "You really think that Charlotte can't protect herself from a twenty something year old who likes to teach maths? If anything I'd worry for him if he did something wrong."

"We're just making sure," Dean said.

"Whatever," the man said before he busied himself with his food once more. Once they'd finished with their food Sam took to reading through some of the lore books, after telling Bobby briefly that law school just wasn't for him. Dean took to checking over his car and making sure everything still worked whilst Bobby worked the phones and worked on towing in a couple of vehicles. He'd even been able to rope Dean into helping fix a couple of vehicles.

By the time eleven started to roll around Bobby bid his good nights and Sam said he would find a motel. Bobby had told him that there was the couch and that there was one spare bed. Sam grabbed the bed before Dean could say anything and left the man alone.

He chose to read the paper, maybe find another job, before he opted for grabbing one of the books Sam had been reading to flick through it.

When Charlotte got back he was fully engrossed in a chapter in a book on the lore of gnomes. He didn't even think they were a thing and this was starting to make him reconsider. The car she'd come back in was thrumming something awful outside and he could hear the faint whisper of voices. "I would love to go out again. I mean it, this was fun Alex."

He chuckled. "I'm glad you had fun. Is there a chance we can catch dinner tomorrow?"

"Erm, yes. I will make it happen. Tell you what, how'd you feel about Chinese?"

"Great."

"Cool."

"See you tomorrow then."

"You bet," and Dean waited for a good three minutes before he heard her voice again. "Bye."

When she did enter it had gone twelve and there was a large dumb ass smile on her face. "What'cha reading?"

"Gnomes," he said. Then he closed the book and retook his beer. "So what'd you guys do?"

"Dinner and a movie at his place."

"You went to this guy's place?"

She rolled her eyes. "He's not a shifter, not a revenant, demon or anything else supernatural. He's genuinely a nice guy who doesn't ask about what I do outside of fixing cars."

"So he has no idea. At all?"

She shook her head and grabbed a beer from the fridge. The lid was off and deposited in the bin before she stretched herself across the couch. "So have you guys just been reading all this time?"

Dean stood up and sat down on the other end of the couch. Her feet shuffled up against the side of his thigh and her skirt shifted just slightly up her thigh. "Sammy was. Bobby roped me into fixing a few cars for him."

"Ah, that explains the smell of grease and metal."

Dean chuckled. "I'll take that as a compliment."

"Uh huh," she said and she sipper her beer. "Hey Dean-"

"Yeah?"

She frowned into her bottle for several seconds before she opened her mouth, closed it, and opened it again. "You ever think that maybe there's somebody out there. Somebody who you could drop this thing, the hunting, for? Ever?"

Now he frowned at her. "Are we, we're not having, you know, a chick flick moment are we?"

She kicked his leg gently. "Fuck you," she muttered with a laugh.

"Oh you already have done." And he winked at her. She kicked him again. "Okay, you think you can have a life with this Alice dude?"

"Alex," she halted her next words, mouth hung open momentarily before she said. "Is that jealousy I hear?"

"What?" he shoved her legs from him and stood him. "No."

She quirked her brow at him. "Alright, joking aside, do you seriously want to be hunting for the rest of your life?"

He shook his head. "I'm not, I'm not doing this."

"Doing what?"

"I don't know! Maybe. I would possibly like the idea of maybe not hunting anymore. What's brought this up anyway?"

She shrugged her shoulders and played with the label of her bottle. "Just curious. I wouldn't know what I'd do. I mean, it'd be nice to not have to worry about dying or you know, risking my life to save other peoples. But at the same time, I'm helping people." She shrugged again. "I don't know."

Dean stared at her for several seconds before he pointed. "Okay, where's the bitch we all know and love?"

"Fuck you," she stood with a laugh and finished off her bottle. She grabbed another. "I'm going to get some shut eye."

"If you need somebody to hold you and fix that urge rising down there…"

"I can deal with it myself. I've been doing it for nine years so I know what I'm doing."

Dean let the words play over inside his head and a smirk started to form. "So you first touched yourself at fourteen?"

"What? Were you whacking away at twelve?"

"And we're back," he muttered with a smirk before he finished his own beer and kicked his shoes off, ready to settle into the couch.