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The Supernatural characters belong to Kripke Enterprises and the CW, not me. No money is being made from this story. It is for entertainment only.

A/N: A tribute to Winter Gray's Fractured Fairy Tales stories.

On the Road Again

Chapter 26

Not Helping

I just didn't understand how something that started out so simple turned into this nightmare. I started the day with a minivan full of relatively well behaved eight year olds. I had offered to take some of my sister's third graders with me on my latest nature walk through the Santa Susana Mountains north of L.A..

The trip was offered as a "Learning Enhancement Adventure" and the parents were paying for my gas and a picnic lunch and a fee for my so called expertise. My sister is proud of me and likes to tell all her friends that I'm an Entomologist. Somehow that made me a personal friend of the fictional character Gil Grissom of CSI.

The reflected glory made the shock of meeting me face to face easier, I guess. I liked bugs and bugs liked me. The bugs didn't care that I had a face only a mother could love. I had long ago accepted the fact that I was never going to turn into a butterfly.

In any event, we had had a great day hiking through the grass and picking up bugs. Everyone had something in their "bug jar" and some of the bugs were even still alive. I knew that little sisters and even little brothers were going to be threatened with the contents of the jars but I hardened my heart and let them all take their prizes home.

And now here we were, stuck on the side of a mountain on an empty narrow road with a smoking engine, a dead cell phone battery and night coming on. I knew one kid with an emergency cell phone had run down her battery crying to her girlfriend about being lost in a stinky old van in the mountains. By the time I convinced her to hang up and call someone useful her phone was a dead as mine.

I was getting ready to hike out and find someplace, anyplace, when a car swept up the hill, headlights blazing and I hoped we were saved. I began to push everyone back in the van when a big guy in a leather jacket got out of the driver's side and glared at me.

"What're you doing up here, lady?" he said then glanced at the still smoking van engine. "Oh, that doesn't look good."

He stuck his head back in his car and I heard him talking to someone. The passenger door opened and a giant got out. Now I thought we were all in deep trouble.

The driver went to the trunk of his car and lifted out what looked like a tool box. The giant walked over to me.

Even in the twilight I could see that he had a kind face. "Hey, hey," he said quietly. "Don't worry. Dean's a grumpy guy but he knows about cars. Would you like him to take a look?"

He smiled and showed some dimples and then put out his hand. "I'm Sam. How did you guys end up stuck up here?"

I explained about the field trip and the dead phones and I felt like I had failed the responsible adult test somehow. Sam was kind and gentle. We watched Dean put up the hood and poke around the guts of the van. Somehow grumpy as he was he attracted the attention of the kids in the van. Fifteen minutes after he started he had them all gathered around and was describing each piece of the mysterious stuff he was pulling off my engine.

Sam and I became engrossed in discussing the insect life found in these mountains and we tuned out the kids and Dean's voice.

Right in the middle of discussing various beetles Sam laid a hand on my arm and cocked his head. We could both now hear Dean's voice.

"….the trail of bread crumbs….eaten by the birds."

"Dean," Sam called out. "What are you doing?"

".. and she opened the oven and tried to push Hansel…"

"Dean!" San said louder. "What are you doing?"

Dean finally answered back. "I'm just telling them a story about getting lost."

I had a chill go down my back and I turned to go gather the children. The little characters scattered like a flock of chickens and ran away.

"Dean!" Sam yelled.

"Well, Sammy, I know she can't help what she looks like. They're just kids, they don't mean it." Dean answered. "They're only trying to be funny."

""Hansel and Gretel and the Witch!" Sammy steamed. "How could you, you jerk?"

Dean turned back to fiddle with something on the engine.

"That was definitely NOT HELPING, Dean!"