A/N – Songs for this chapter are:

Lithium, by Nirvana

Black Dog, by Led Zeppelin

Simply Irresistible, by Robert Palmer (if you pay no attention to the songs I list at least play this one while reading about the pool game)

October 16, 2006, Harvelle's Roadhouse, Nebraska

Lady had seen Ash hanging around the last time she was at the saloon, but hadn't been introduced. He was tall and thin with a long mullet. She gave him locations of ritual sites and a list of small things that could indicate witchcraft and described what she was looking for. He worked on a laptop with its insides exposed and it appeared to have been taken apart and put back together several times.

"Billy Ray, does looking down my shirt help you work faster?" Lady asked.

Ash didn't bother looking up from her cleavage, "Not really but it does help morale."

Lady stood up straight, "He better be good."

"He is," Sam assured her.

"Eyes on the computer," Dean said to Ash.

Dean and Sam both tensed as Ellen walked in from the back with a case of beer under each arm. Lady smiled warmly, "Hey, Ellen," she said, hopping off the stool. "You need any help?"

Ellen looked up bitterly as she began to shelve the bottles into a cooler under the bar. "You mean since you helped my daughter and best waitress to run off?"

"Yes," Lady said, not seeing any help in even trying to correct Ellen. Technically Lady didn't help Jo run off, she was blackmailed into allowing Jo to run off with her.

Ellen stood up, frowning over Lady's shoulder at the Winchesters and back at her, "You want to do me a favor? Keep those two out of trouble."

Lady smiled, "They will be perfect angels."

Ellen turned her back on her, "Roy and Walt will be here tonight. Anything gets started and I'm holding you responsible."

Lady casually slid a bottle an inch away from the edge of the bar so it wouldn't get knocked over when Ellen turned around. "I'm alive, I don't plan on beating on Roy or repaying the favor to him," Lady said.

Ellen turned and her elbow narrowly missed the beer bottle. Ellen was frowning at her, glaring over her shoulder again at Sam and Dean. "Listen, Lady, I don't buy the cute and innocent crap. Roy and Dean are hot heads, you are a pretty girl, and I run a bar where that combination starts a brawl that leads to collateral damage. And when the two hot heads are both packing firepower along with a few sharp blades it can lead to something pretty messy, get it?"

Lady nodded, again not seeing that an attempt to correct Ellen would help her at all, "Got it."

"Good," Ellen said.

Lady went back to the brothers. "Everything okay?" Sam asked quietly.

"Mmhm," Lady nodded. "Well, no. Should be." Lady frowned a bit as she thought over Ellen's words. Sure, Dean could have a temper. But he was also fairly disciplined, he wasn't stupid enough to get into a bar fight. Especially with Roy over him accidentally shooting her. She was fine, after all.

She tried to remember the hazy conversation she had with him on Bobby's couch, she'd been over-medicating herself and she had woken up vaguely remembering confessing nearly dangerous thoughts. Almost revealing how much she really valued the Winchester's friendship and assistance. She knew they weren't happy with Roy's screw up, after all she was their friend as well. But no, enough time had passed and she was fine. No issues would come out of it.

Lady moved in the stool, suddenly aware at some point her leg had been leaning against Dean's. It had been comfortably warm there. She'd remembered invading his personal space quite often recently, completely without the intention of getting him in the sack. Lady gripped her beer bottle and started scratching at the label. She'd been rather selfish most of her life, rarely thinking about others with the exception of those she'd accidentally grown close to. Her relationships were difficult to maintain at best, but those that were based on some sort of honesty she cherished. It was a very human thing, to want human relationships. And the sort of relationship she had with Dean was the most honest and intimate thing she had ever experienced. This wasn't a revelation, she had felt the connection back in North Dakota when most of her secrets were stripped away. She was completely vulnerable to him, and part of that was terrifying. But much more of it was comforting. She felt safer and stronger when he was with her.

She finished the bitter beer before it got too warm to tolerate and continued picking at the label. She adored the Winchesters, damn John for having to save her life all those years ago. The realization that she had fallen for Dean didn't really matter in the long run. If she didn't finish off her coven eventually her curse would finish her. She perked up a bit as she realized Dean was aware of her tragic fate. Long term plans were for people with day jobs and safe normal lives. People like her and the Winchesters lived day by day. She knew Dean and Sam cared about her as a friend, source of information and a laugh, but any grudges they could have against Roy were so far down their list of troubles that they wouldn't even process it, right?

"Think if I ask for a new beer she'll throw it at my head?" Dean asked, glancing over his shoulder at Ellen.

"Be ready for it," Sam said just as quietly.

"You need another one?" Dean asked Lady.

"Yeah, thanks," she said, watching his rear appreciatively as he walked up to Ellen and leaned against the bar. Since the one with the quicker temper was out of earshot she turned to Sam, "Ellen wanted to warn me Roy and Walt were coming."

Sam cleared his throat and looked at her seriously, then at Dean over his shoulder, "That's not good."

Lady hid her concern. "Why?"

Sam looked at her like she had sprouted green antennae. "Uh, really? You don't...uh, Dean is a pretty loyal guy."

"Yeah, so?"

"Roy shot you," Sam said seriously. "Hell, if we had been there I probably would have knocked him out myself."

"I can see that if he was there when it happened, too, but it's been a week," Lady said.

"Dean isn't necessarily sane lately," Sam said seriously, leaning towards her. "Lady, he's been spinning out of control at times. It was all I could do to get him to take us to South Dakota when we heard instead of here."

"Here you go," Dean said, stepping between Sam and Lady. "What's going on?"

"Sam thinks you are going to clock Roy," Lady said brightly, and Sam glowered at her. "I'm betting a hundred bucks that you won't."

"Roy's here?" Dean asked, turning and looking at the nearly empty bar.

"He will be," Sam said. "And I'm not taking that bet because Dean wouldn't dare get into a fight here. We can't risk anymore dirty looks from Ellen."

"Give her a little lemon juice and I bet she could curse someone with that look," Lady agreed unhelpfully. "Maybe she already can. Either of you guys been incontinent?"

"Lady," Sam shook his head at her, now wasn't a good time for a joke.

Lady smiled, "If anyone deserves to rough the guy up it is me, and since I don't want to no one will. Right?"

"Right," Sam agreed quickly.

Lady looked at Dean expectantly, her smile fading into surprise when he took a slow drink from his beer. She cleared her throat and Dean nodded. She stared at him longer until he finally said with a forced smile, "Right. I'm going to the head."

Sam reached into his pocket and counted off a few bills, "Changed my mind, I'm taking that bet."

Lady grabbed some of her own cash and put it on the table. "Have faith in your brother."

"Oh, I do," Sam chuckled. "I bet you twenty bucks he's in there checking his pockets to make sure he didn't forget any weapons. Probably making sure he has easy access to them, too."

"I'll take that bet," Lady said, easing herself off the stool.

"Where are you going?" Sam asked.

"Checking to see who won," Lady said, limping to the men's room door and going inside. She limped back out a moment later and bitterly handed Sam twenty bucks.

Dean came out of the bathroom, looking confused. "I think you spooked Ash. Lady, what the hell?"

"I'm trying to protect my bet and you are in there making sure you strapped on the sharp knife," Lady said.

"Don't be silly, all my knives are sharp," he said. "Relax, I'm not going to do anything."

"Better not, I'm trying to fund a grand scheme to stop a coven from feeding a pagan goddess for the next few years," Lady said seriously.

Dean looked around the bar and then smiled at her. The past hour they had been bitterly watching Sam and Ash go over information on the computer, both of them bored out of their minds. "Have you ever hustled pool?"

"Never even played pool," Lady said, even though she knew the surprised look he would give her.

"Oh no, that just isn't even right," Dean said. "C'mon, gimpy."

Lady leaned on the pool cue as Dean went over the rules of the game, taking the triangle off the table. "Are you paying attention?" Dean asked as he set the cue ball down on the table.

"Yup," Lady said. "You know, I'm just not really into this sort of thing. Games with balls and sticks is definitely a guy thing."

"This game is an art," Dean said seriously, not even grinning at her innuendo. Dean glanced up as the door to the Roadhouse opened and saw Roy and Walt stepping in. Tension immediately went into his shoulders and he stood up straight as they caught sight of him and Lady.

Lady tapped the floor with the cue stick, "Okay, game is art. School me, master."

Dean shook his head, "Okay, first is the break," he said. "You know you can only hit the cue ball, you use it to hit the other balls on the table. The first shot in the game is the break."

"Why can't I hit one of the other balls?" Lady asked.

"Like soccer players can't use their hands, it's just the rule of the game," Dean said.

"But goalies can use their hands in soccer," Lady said.

"The cue ball is the only ball you hit," Dean said firmly. "Alright, check the tip of the stick. Rub some chalk on the end."

Lady caught the small blue cube and rubbed it on the small end of the pool cue. "And this is for?"

"Keeps the tip from slipping when it hits the ball," Dean said.

Lady smirked, "So this is a case where slippery isn't good?"

"Yeah, just take the shot," Dean said, shrugging out of his leather jacket as she got in position. Lady listened to his instructions on how to set up a shot until he got frustrated enough to stand behind her and adjusted her hold on the cue stick. She took the shot and watched the balls ricochet off of each other when she completed the break. "Not bad, but nothing went in. It's not always easy to get a few in with a break. Now it's my turn."

Lady watched as Dean smugly showed off his skills, knocking one ball after another into a pocket. "Nice," she said, commenting more on the appealing way his arms and torso fit in his t-shirt than how he played the game. She sighed and went to the jukebox, feeding it five dollars and selecting some songs from the touch screen display.

"C'mon, really?" Dean complained as Nirvana's 'Lithium' began playing.

"What?" Lady protested.

Dean rolled his eyes, "You aren't into this at all, are you?"

Lady shook her head as he cleared off the table. "Sorry. I don't get pool, and I occasionally like grunge rock."

"You've lost so many points in just two minutes," Dean muttered as he finished hitting the remaining balls into the pockets.

"Well, you seem to be good at this," Lady said.

"Told you, it's an art," he said as he replaced the cue sticks. He smiled a bit as Led Zeppelin's 'Black Dog' began playing.

Lady grinned at him, "Did I earn any points back?"

"A few," he admitted.

"How many will I lose when the next song comes on country?"

"All of them," he rolled his eyes again.

"You are such a snob," Lady muttered.

"I'm going to check on Sam and Ash, see how much longer."

"Okey dokey," she said happily, watching as he walked away. Her eyes shifted to Roy and Walt that were making their way to her now that Dean was gone.

"Hey, Lady," Roy said. "How you feeling?"

"Still can't wear jeans," she said bitterly, the skirt she wore showed the bandage hiding the healing wound. It was feeling better but it felt better without being hugged by snug jeans. "How's your leg, Walt?"

"Not bad," he said, he was barely limping anymore. "I never got a chance to thank you. If you hadn't been so quick that thing would have ripped me apart."

"No problem," Lady said.

Roy smiled, "So, looking for a game of pool?"

Dean tensed when he looked over his shoulder to see Lady speaking with the two idiots, but he looked at Sam and said, "We about ready to go?"

Sam shook his head, "Ash's search is pulling up a ton of hits. I'm working on narrowing it down, but so far nothing even close to manageable." Sam glanced at Lady and back at the computer, "Everything okay?"

"Don't worry, Sam, I'm not stupid enough to get in a brawl…as much as I am aching for it," Dean muttered.

"Lady doesn't seem to have any hard feelings, you just have to let it go," Sam said helpfully.

"Hey, Dean! Come over and play a game," Roy called across the bar.

"Dean…" Sam wanted to say it wasn't a good idea.

"Sure," Dean called back, putting on a forced smile and walking back to the pool tables.

Roy and Walt looked pleased. "Lady said you might be willing to play pairs," Walt said. "What do you say?"

"Why not?" Dean said, grabbing a stick. He'd seen Roy and Walt play before and they were pretty good. If he couldn't kick Roy's ass literally at least he could do it in a game of pool, and it wasn't like it was for money. Dean frowned as he saw the bills folded on the side of the table and looked at Lady, "You put money on this?"

"Well, you seem to be good at this game, and I watched you pretty closely," she said brightly.

"Lady, you shot once," Dean shook his head. It didn't matter, let her lose her cash and beg him to loan her money to fuel up her ugly car when they got back to Bobby's. "Fine, it's your money." Lady looked away and pressed her lips together. He glared at her as he pulled out his wallet and found it was empty. "You didn't." He stuffed his wallet back and glared. He badly wanted to know when she had managed to rob him but he was too furious to ask.

She looked at him innocently and said quietly, "I thought this was how you made most of your money and if I convinced these guys to help you double it you wouldn't be upset. I guess I was wrong."

"Yeah," he said. "That is over three hundred bucks. Pissed, is more like it. You and…"

"We going to play?" Walt asked.

Dean turned with a forced smile, they had probably watched him teaching Lady the game earlier and knew she was clueless. His best chance was going first and not giving them a chance to take a turn. "Yeah. Why don't we flip a coin to see who goes first? Lady, call the toss." He glared back at her, "and call it so we can go first."

"Tails," Lady called as Roy flipped a coin in the air.

"Tails," Roy nodded. "Lady's first?"

"No, I'll break," Dean said.

Lady grabbed his arm before he went to the table, "I'm sorry, okay? If we lose I'll pay you back."

"Yeah, you will," he said firmly, shrugging away from her grip and moving to take the first shot.

Dean let out a curse when he took the first shot and no balls went in. Walt wasted no time in claiming solids and taking advantage of several easy shots. All went in before he narrowly missed a shot. Dean let out another swear as he saw the cue ball stuck in a tough corner with no stripes nearby.

"Okay, here is what you do," Dean said, leading Lady around the table.

"I thought coaching time was over," Roy laughed.

"You shot her last week, give her a break," Dean said sharply, his mood had gone from pissed to nearly ready to explode. But now instead of being pissed at Roy he was pissed at everyone around the damn table.

"Not my fault she walked into it, man," Roy said.

Lady already had an elbow in Dean's gut, "Let it go. Just tell me what I should aim for, okay?"

"You don't want to hit the purple, one nudge and it is going into that corner pocket," Dean said angrily. "Just aim for the yellow stripe."

"How am I supposed to get it in a hole?" Lady asked anxiously. "It's against the wall over there."

"It's not a hole, it's a pocket," Dean corrected. "And it isn't a wall, it's a bumper. Lady…Just aim for it, it will get the ball in a tougher position for Roy," Dean muttered, but he had played with Roy before and doubted it would slow them down. Once the game was over he was going to punch someone, he just really hoped he wouldn't be angry enough to hit Lady for this but damn it, her and her big mouth.

"Okay," Lady said, easing into position.

"You're holding it wrong," Dean said through his teeth.

"Okay, I'm going to screw up," she said. "This might just be easier for you if you turn around and not watch."

Dean didn't argue, he ran his hand through his hair and pulled it in his fists as he turned around. "God, I hate you so much right now," he snarled, and let out a frustrated breath when her next song came on the jukebox and Robert Palmer's 'Simply Irresistible' began filling the saloon. It was irresistible not to grab her and shake her. Most of this was because of pride, he knew that. He didn't want to lose to Roy and Walt because those two dicks hadn't given her proper backup in Texas. He wanted to throttle Roy for a reason he couldn't quite explain to himself. And after all the trust he had extended to Lady, even helping care for her while she was hopping around on one leg the past few days, she had picked his pocket to steal his cash.

He heard the strike of the stick hitting the ball, the click of it hitting another ball and the thump of a ball hitting a bumper and the thunk of a ball falling into a pocket. He turned, seeing the yellow striped ball was off the table.

"Pardon me, Roy," Lady said as she attempted to strut with her limp around the table. Dean watched as she took another shot. Three more striped balls went into pockets. Lady applied more chalk to the tip of the stick and blew off the access with a short breath before leaning down to take her next shot. "Am I doing okay, Dean?" she asked, wiggling her butt in time with the music in his direction and looking over her shoulder at him. Her pale blue eyes were wicked and amused.

Dean was still getting over his surprise, "Never played before, huh?"

"I'm a fast learner," she said. "Mind giving me some elbow room?"

"Sure thing," he said, swatting her rear and stepping out of the way to watch her sink another ball. His frustration was put to the back of his mind and he let a smile spread across his face. Lady met his smile as she wiggled around the table and called the last shot that finished the game.

As they counted their winnings she said, "Should have let me break, you would have saved yourself the blood pressure spike." She tucked her half of the cash into her bra.

Dean smiled, "You are a pain in the ass."

"I can't believe you fell for it," Lady laughed. "C'mon, Dean. You know I work in a bar sometimes. You have to know I can see my shot before I take it. Man, if you are this easy you should teach me darts next." She cleared her throat, "You see, this game, is really an art, and..."

Lady stopped talking as Dean reached into her bra with two fingers to take out her money. "You aren't getting this much."

"Don't I get a bonus for sinking the eight-ball?" she asked.

"Since I know what you spend your money on, no," he said, tucking the remaining cash back into its place with a smile. "Feed your shoe addiction some other way."

"Don't I get a bonus for hustling you?" she arched an eyebrow. She cleared her throat and said in a sweet voice, "I've never played pool before. Why is the eight ball last?" She batted her eyelashes and grinned wickedly at him.

"How about a spanking?" he offered. "I was ready to strangle you, you know that, right?"

"Throw in a hair pull and it's a deal," she teased and wagged her eyebrows.

"Well, one hell of a game," Roy said. "We'll see you guys around, we're heading out and it looks like we'll be sleeping in the truck the next few nights."

Dean shrugged, "Sorry, man." He wasn't sorry at all, of course. But he was having a hard time finding his anger at that moment.

"Just the risk of getting tangled up with Lady," Roy said with a bit of a nod before he and Walt left.

Lady let herself lean against Dean, "Your brother owes me a hundred bucks."

"Yeah. And you are splitting that with me," Dean said.

"Am not," she said. She frowned but didn't try to stop him as he invaded her bra to pull out her cash and take a few more bills. "Guess I did."

"Hey, guys, come over here," Sam called.

Lady and Dean listened as Ash told them what he found.

"I searched those strange weather patterns on all the previous black moons for the past thirty years. It's been steadily declining but every year some places don't light up again, or new places go active. Thirty years ago there were forty locations, numbers kept declining. Ten years ago there were over twenty, the last one a few years ago only ten."

"Does that mean there are only ten groups of witches left?" Dean asked.

"Doubt it," Lady said. "They all work to stab each other in the back but look at the map, how the locations are spread out." She pointed. "I wonder if they don't group up for this ritual. I mean, a black moon isn't a selfish quest for power like a full or blue moon, it's like Christmas morning, except the presents bleed and make a big mess." She snorted a laugh.

"What?" Ash asked.

"Just thinking in the past ten years since I started this their force has been cut in half," Lady said.

Dean rolled his eyes, "Yeah, you are all bad ass and stuff. How do we know where they are going to be next month?"

Ash shook his head, "I set my baby to search for any sort of pattern, but nothing. We figure out how many rituals they will set up and I might be able to figure out how they want to space them out on a map, but right now one spot is as likely as the next."

"Well I know where my next stop is," Lady said, hopping off her stool.

"North Dakota?" Dean guessed as he put his jacket on, sure Lady wanted to see if Max had any insight.

"Um…sure," she said.

"What? I was wrong?" he asked.

Lady glanced at Sam who was taking an extra minute to thank Ash for his help and let her hand slip over Dean's waist before giving his rear a pinch. "How about you drop the kid off at the arcade or something and we go find somewhere so you can give me that spanking you owe me?"

"Sam, move your ass!" Dean hollered.

They returned to Bobby's the next day, Sam and Bobby were going over Ash's data to see if anything new could be deciphered.

"Not seeing much, but a few reports of a black dog being sighted in Mississippi," Bobby said.

"There is a new moon less than a week away," Sam said.

Lady chewed on her lip, time was being eaten up and soon she'd have less than a month to the black moon. She wanted, very badly, to stop at least one part of the coven from completing whatever they had planned. "Think you two can handle it alone?"

Dean nodded, "We're on it. Get to Max and figure this out."

"Thanks," she said, unable to look up at them. She never thought she'd see the day where she let such an obvious witch-hunt go to anyone without her at least tagging along, but she had to gather her priorities. Sam and Dean could handle what was going on down there and she still wasn't moving the fastest. "Be careful, okay?"

"We got this," Dean assured her.

A/N - Just a quick note, Sam and Dean are now going to handle 'Crossroad Blues' episode, just so you know where we are as far as the timeline in the canon. I'm taking a short break from posting chapters (everyone who has been faithfully reading I thank you and you are welcome for the multiple posts I did today) so I can get a bit farther ahead on some future chapters. I'm afraid I got so excited with all the positive comments and everyone adding the story to their alerts that I just wanted to keep sharing what I have already written and edited that I'm almost out of chapters to post! I just want to get a bit more ahead of myself and give all the new readers a chance to catch up. Until then please take the time to review, critique, share this story with your friends or communities and spread the word for when the story continues!

And yes, I promise it will continue. I have several more chapters ready to be posted, I just want to spread them out so the story stays at the top of the list when others are looking for Supernatural fics to read. If you check my profile you'll see all my stories but this one and another are complete. I do not post and ditch.