Chapter 36

Dean!"

Dean glanced around the upstairs hallway, positive he'd heard his name, but he didn't see anyone around. As he continued toward the steps he heard a light hissing sound so he stopped and waited, determined to find out what it was.

"Psst. Psst, Dean."

He started back down the hall and noticed the bathroom door was partially open. Quietly walking over to it, he reached out and began to push it open all the way. A large hand appeared from behind and gripped his arm, jerking him all the way in to the room.

Sam quickly closed and locked the door behind Dean, thenplaced his ear up against it, listening for any other sounds.

"Damn it, Sam! What the hell are you doing?"

He held his finger up to his lips. "Shhhh! Is she out there?" he whispered. His eyes were large as he moved away from the door, pulling Dean with him over to the small sink.

"Who?" Dean asked, confused by his brother's odd behavior.

"Who do you think?" He waited until he saw the recognition cross Dean's face, which didn't take long. "Well, is she?"

"No, I haven't seen her. But then I've been locked in the office all morning messing around on the computer." He gave a small laugh. "I told Leah I was doing some research. I was researching all right. Found this site on different positions we can try..."

Sam flicked his brother on top of the head. "Do you think I want to hear about your sex life right now? We are locked in a bathroom. Together."

Dean tipped his head to the side, his mouth pulling down slightly at the corners as he considered their situation. "Good point. And why is that?"

"Oh I don't know. Because of AMY maybe?" Sam said it sarcastically, his voice getting abit louder than he'd intended. His next words were much quieter. "She's driving me insane, Dean. Everywhere I turn, bam! I run into her. And the talking. I didn't think it was possible for a person to have so much to say. She doesn't stop. Oh, and when she's not talking, she just stares up at me with those big brown, cow, eyes."

"Cow eyes?" Dean asked.

Sam shrugged, unsure of how else to describe them.

"Dude, I know how you feel. You know what I didn't think was possible? That someone could come up with more insults than me. I tried to tell you yesterday, but, and I might be a little off on your exact words here, I believe you said, 'You're making too much out of this, Dean. She's a kid, how much trouble can she be?'. I'm close right? Oh, and you said you wouldn't help me and that I was freaking you out. Who's freaking out now, huh?"

Grimacing, Sam reluctantly admitted defeat. "Okay, you were right. Is that what you want to hear?"

Dean smiled. "Yeah, that helps."

"Great! Now you help me. What am I gonna do?"

Dean scratched his head and thought about their situation for a minute. "This is ridiculous. It's not like we're scared of her right?"

Sam's eyebrows went up and he made a huge sweeping motion with his arm, gesturing to their hidden location.

Dean decided to push ahead anyway. "Hell, she's just a girl, Sam. One girl. One mean, annoying, bad tempered, evil hearted.."

"Dean!"

"My point is, we can take her. We're hunters. We're skilled at combat and well versed in the use of various weapons."

Sam shook his head. "We're not trying to take her out, Dean! We just want her to go back home or at least chill out some. Let's not get crazy."

Dean placed his hand on Sam's shoulder. "We've locked ourselves in a bathroom. I think we've hit crazy, bro."

There was a light rap on the door and the brothers froze, both fearing it was Amy who had finally tracked them down. Neither was eager to reach for the door, but it was Leah's voice they heard from the other side and they relaxed.

"Dean? Are you in there?"

Relief was short lived, however, when Dean realized he would have to explain why he was in there with Sam. He motioned for his brother to answer it as he stepped back out of the way.

Sam opened the door just enough to pop his face into view. "Hey Leah, it's me. Did you need to get in here? I'm almost done."

Leah was sure she'd heard conversation coming from the room, and she'd definitely recognized Dean's voice. Curiosity had the best of her and she stepped closer to the door, trying to see in. Sam did a good job of blocking her so she decided to bluff.

"Sam, I can see Dean's reflection in the mirror. What's going on?"

It worked. Sam opened the door and pulled Leah inside, locking her in with him and his brother. Leah glanced back and forth between the two guilty looking men trying to figure out just what they were up to. As strange as this situation was, she didn't think any line of questioning would get her an honest answer.

"Well, do I even want to know why you two are in here?"

Dean tried first. "Sammy, um, well he.." He stopped and tried again. "Well, actually I had to, um. Nope. I got nothing." He smacked Sam's arm. "Tell her, Sam."

Sam gritted his teeth as he stared at his brother. Leave it to Dean to put this square on his shoulders. He took a deep breath and faced Leah, hoping she wouldn't be too angry when he told her about Amy.

"It's your sister."

"My sister? You two are in here because of Amy?" She was impressed with getting the truth right off, but then, it was Sam who had answered her. And her sister being the reason behind the madness made perfect sense. It wasn't all that odd for Amy's visit to lead to two grown men hiding out in a bathroom.

He nodded. "Yeah, I'm sorry, but she won't leave me alone. I've been hiding in here for awhile and then I heard Dean in the hallway so I pulled him in. He's been hiding, too, in the office."

Since Dean had decided to dump this on him, Sam couldn't resist trying to get his brother into a little trouble. "Guess he was pretending to do some research while he was hiding. You know Dean, he was probably just surfing for, well, whatever Dean surfs for."

Leah looked at Dean, waiting for a response.

"I was doing research." he said defensively. When she just continued to stare, he gave in. "It was research, sort of. For us. Stuff we can try and use when we... Can we talk about this later? We have to focus on Amy, babe. We gotta get rid of her."

"Dean, I told you we can't get rid of her, not like that." Sam intervened. "Will you lay off the idea of weapons already!"He was totally enjoying the chance to keep the pressure on his brother. Of course, he'd pay for it later, but at the moment it was a hell of alot of fun.

"Weapons?" Leah said loudly.

Both men reached for her and pulled her away from the door. Dean shook his head. "No! No, of course not. Weapons? Sam's kidding." He smacked Sam roughly on the back of the head. "Aren't you Sam?"

A loud knock on the door instantly quieted the small room.

"Leah? Are you okay?" Amy asked as she jiggled the doorknob. "Are you talking to someone? Is someone in there with you? Oh God! It's Dean, right? Gross! Listen, if he's in there I'm sorry to 'bother' you when you're doing whatever, but have you seen Sam? I can't find him."

Sam started shaking his head wildly. Leah felt bad and tried to help. "No, I haven't seen him. Sorry." She lied and immediately felt bad for slighting her sister, even if it was for the greater good of others in the house. This was turning into one big mess.

"Are you sure? I've searched everywhere, every room. Are you alone in there? Is everything okay?" Amy tried the handle again and pushed hard. The door swung open and she saw the three of them standing there, staring at her in surprise. "Okay, weird."

Dean stepped forward. "Yeah, I bet this does look a little weird, but we were having a family meeting." That's it, Dean thought, he was losing his touch. Family meeting?

Amy repeated his thoughts. "Family meeting? In the bathroom? Have you lost it?"

"Yeah, I think so." Dean mumbled.

Sam stepped around his brother. "Yeah! You know Dean. Always joking. See, I have a splinter." He held up his finger. "I hate 'em. And I called Dean in to help me get it out, but he's worthless. So we called Leah in. She was trying to get it out for me."

Amy walked into the small room. "Why was the door closed and locked?" She looked at Leah. "Better fix that, by the way. And why did you tell me you haven't seen Sam?"

Leah pushed past both men and took her sister's arm. "Sam was embarrassed. He didn't want you to think he was a big baby when it comes to a little thing like splinters. Why don't we go downstairs and let them try to get it out?"

She tried to lead Amy away, but the girl resisted. "I'm good at getting out splinters. Let me try."

"No!" Sam, Dean and Leah all said at once.

"That's okay, Amy. Thanks. You know what?" Sam rubbed his finger against the pad of his thumb. "Can't feel it anymore. Leah must have gotten it out. I gotta go now. To the store. I gotta go to the store. Come on, Dean. We're going to the store. We'll be back later."

Dean gave Leah a quick kiss and followed Sam out of the room, leaving Leah to deal with a skeptical Amy.

TBC