A/N: This is my favourite chapter. Simply for the interactions between Michelle and Kelly. Thank you all so much for reading. Let me know what you think!

Chapter 38: If you die, I die.

"I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it.
The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear."
- Nelson Mandela

"Are you sure this is it?"

I stared at the decrepit-looking house from my spot at the wheel. We had driven for hours, switching places until we got to a place called Hays. We grabbed a hotel, freshened up before going to find this location that was just outside of the city.

"I think so? These are where the coordinates lead."

"This place looks worse than our house when Jane first brought us to it." I looked at her in concern as she laughed. "You honestly want us to go in there?"

She shrugged. "There's only one way to find out if they're there."

"Can't we just stand outside and shout?"

She looked at me. "And say what? Hey! Come on out, we're from another world too?"

"Fine." I turned off the car. "If I die here, I'm totally haunting your ass this time."

"If you die, I die. You can't haunt me if I'm a ghost too."

"Oh yeah? Watch me." I slammed the door behind me. I stared at the small house. "This place looks super haunted."

"Oh yeah," Kelly said as she got out of the car. She headed for the trunk where we stashed the weapons as we got to the city.

"Dude, ghosts are real here! We didn't bring anything to fight a ghost!" I was trying to calm myself down. It wasn't working. I wanted to get back in the car and take off.

"We'll be fine," she said. She reached in the trunk and pulled out one of the guns. "It's probably vampires if anything."

"That's not better!" I was starting to hyperventilate.

"Mish," she grabbed my arm. "It'll be okay. We'll be in and out. Whatever happens, we can handle it. You can handle it. Whoever is in there needs our help."

I took a deep breath. I could do this. I had to. It didn't feel right to leave someone to the mercy of this world. Especially when I knew there was none.

I grabbed the gun she handed me and tucked it into the back of the waistband of my pants. I held on to the machete with one hand. "We really need to find better ways to hide weapons," I muttered. "Any more of this and I'm going to need a better belt."

"How many weapons do you need?"

"All of them."

Kelly closed the trunk, trying not to laugh at me. "Come on."

I let her lead the way. "How is this place this creepy when it's sunny out?"

"Least it's not nighttime," she said. "Imagine it then."

"Yeah, no, let's not."

The front gate was broken. The house was surrounded by a metal fence that looked like it was rusted. No one had lived here in years.

"Hold on," I called out. The fence looked like it was once one of those old fancy iron fences. I kicked in one of the rusted poles that it was made up of.

"What are you doing?"

"Being thankful I wore jeans," I kicked it again and it finally moved. I wiggled one of the poles out. It was gross to touch. I felt spiderwebs and the rust was rough against my hands. "Want one?" She stared at me like I was crazy. "What if it's really haunted?"

"...Okay, give me a small one."

I kicked at a couple of other poles until one of them loosened. I finally got it out and handed it to Kelly. The two of us looked ridiculous. She had her gun in one hand and the rusted fence pole in the other. I was holding a machete in one hand and my fence pole in another. I felt a little better though. At least we were now mostly prepared for whatever was in that house.

"I regret everything that led me to this moment," I whispered as we entered. "This is the worst thing we've ever done in our lives. And I'm counting the escalator incident."

"No way, the escalator incident was way worse."

"We weren't entering an actual horror movie with the escalator!"

"Shh!" She hissed at me. "You want to call whatever is here?"

"Isn't that the point?" I asked. I hated this whole thing. "We need to get the person and get the hell out."

"No shit, Sherlock."

I glared over at her. "You're not helping."

"I'm not helping? You're the one...what was that?" She looked down the hallway of this stupid house.

"What was what?"

"I thought I saw something. Hello?" she called out.

"Didn't you just get angry at me for that?"

"Shut up." Goosebumps prickled up my arms as it suddenly got cold. Kelly and I looked at each other. A figure flickered down the hall. "Fuck."

"It is haunted!" I nearly screeched. We both ran for the front door. It slammed shut before we got there. "God damn it, Kels, if we survive this I'm going to kill you."

"Get in line!" She snapped. I dropped the machete. If it was a ghost, that wouldn't help. I could pick it up later when we got out of this mess.

"How the hell are we getting out of this?" I adjusted my grip on the pole. It wasn't as large as I was used to from training with Remy and Giles, but it would work. I rotated my wrist back and forth, trying to get a feel for it.

"I don't know. Think we can break a window?" Kelly stepped and put her back against mine.

"We can try."

The ghost appeared in front of me and ran towards us. I screamed, swung the pole down and prayed. The ghost dissipated.

"It works!" I cheered. "Thank god for good ideas!"

"Thank you for your paranoia," Kelly said as she swung at the thing coming for her.

"It's not paranoia if you're right. Duck!" I crouched as something went flying at my head. "This is ridiculous. We need a better plan. Come on. We'll head for the window. You break it, I'll stand guard." My head was starting to hurt. I swung as the ghost reached for me again. It was the figure of some creepy old lady. I suddenly went flying across the room. I crashed into the wall. "Ow." I got up and reached for the pole again. The old lady appeared in front of me. There was the sound of a gun going off and the woman disappeared as Kelly tossed the pole through her. I was lucky to catch it.

"Guns don't work on ghosts!"

"Yeah, but it distracted her enough."

"You could have shot me!" I said as I got back to where she was.

"I could see where I was aiming. Besides, I'm getting good."

I looked over my shoulder curiously. "How?"

"You're not the only one who trains. I've been working on my shooting, mainly with Five. Look out!" I turned and swung the pole into the ghost.

"How good are you?"

"Pretty fucking great now. If we get out of here, I'll show you."

"We damn well better. I'm not dying in this stupid house. God, and have to haunt here forever?"

"Watch out. I'm shooting the window."

I ducked and covered my face. We were close to the glass but I didn't want to back up and give the ghost more advantage to separate us. Kelly went flying. "Kels!"

I turned and swung at the ghost as it came close. "Get up Kels! You're not leaving me to deal with this alone!"

"That hurt," she groaned.

"I know. Come on. We gotta get out of here." I moved closer to her, trying to keep the thing from getting us. "Let's try the back. Maybe there's a back door."

"What if there isn't?" She stood up and I felt her hand on my back for a second.

"We gotta try." The ghost appeared in front of me. It was only thanks to my training that I dropped and rolled out of the reach as she tried to grab me. Kelly swung at it while I moved. "This is the worst. How do hunters do this?" I grabbed Kelly's hand and pulled her down the hall. We passed a dining room before finally finding the kitchen. "Is she gone?"

I felt myself fly into the wall again. I grunted at the hit and rolled to stand up.

"You just had to say something didn't you?" Kelly snapped.

"What the hell is her problem?"

"I don't know! I was never this much of a dick when I was a ghost!" Kelly turned to face the hall. "Hey! Chill out, lady! We're just looking for someone!"

"Oh yeah, yelling at a ghost is going to work," I snarked at her.

"Well, what are you going to do? Punch it?"

"Maybe!"

"You can't punch a ghost!"

"I could if I had iron rings or something. Ah!" Plates started flying off the shelves in the kitchen.

"Shit!" Kelly swore. She ducked under the table.

I tried to block or break them before they hit as they flew at me while I tried to reach her. This was like baseball. Ball hockey was easier. One of them smashed into the side of my head.

"Hey!" I looked over at the new voice. The ghost that was standing in the doorway disappeared. Dean and Sam came running in, shotguns in hand. "What the hell are you two doing?"

"Um," I didn't exactly have an answer that I expected they'd want to hear. "Looking for a vessel?"

"What?" Sam strode forward, looking around before he stood in front of me. He reached up and touched the spot where the plate hit.

I leaned back out of his reach. "Watch it."

"Are you okay?" he asked.

"Yeah. It's fine. I've had worse." I looked over to see Kelly coming out from under the table. "Kels. You good?"

"Yeah. Least you boys are a good distraction. She stopped throwing plates." Kelly brushed herself off as she stood up. "What are you doing here?"

"Saving your asses. Let's go." Dean motioned for her to follow.

"We haven't found them yet."

"Who?"

"We don't know. It's another vessel. They're somewhere in the house." I readjusted my grip on the pole I was holding. "We have to find them."

"The only thing we have to do is get you both out of here," Dean said. "Now come on."

"No," Kelly said. "We're here for a reason. You didn't have to come."

"Didn't-" he whirled on her. "You could've died! Again!"

"Dean," Sam cut in.

"Behind you!" I shouted. Dean whirled and shot the ghost that was creeping up behind him. "Alright, look, we're not leaving until we find whoever is here. You can either help us look, or leave."

"We're not leaving. You two obviously make stupid decisions when you're alone."

"Hey!" I looked at Dean. "I am clearly the smarter one in this, considering she thought it'd be vampires."

"It could have been!" Kelly argued.

"This place is the epitome of a haunted house!"

"Haunted houses have vampires too!"

"What haunted house have you ever been to that has vampires and ghosts?" I pointed at her. "Don't say that stupid one with the corn maze."

"You're just upset because you almost got lost in it."

"I saved your ass in that maze! I could have run for it and left you!" That had somehow been one of the worst and best Halloween we ever did.

"Hey!" Dean shouted, breaking it up. We both looked at him. "Let's go. We'll split up, cover more ground that way."

"That is the worst idea," I said.

"Yeah," Kelly agreed. "Now that's how horror movies start."

"No, horror movies start with the blond saying let's go into the obviously haunted house," I teased. She glared at me but I grinned back.

"Well, now I'm doubly fucked since I'm not a virgin anymore."

I snorted. "Do horror movie rules even apply here?" I wondered if they did or if it was a different universe so they had their own rules. Horror movies were still a thing though. The ghost appeared next to me. I swung before anyone could shoot.

"Keep it up," Kelly said. "And I'll tell Sam about the time you left me to die in a fire." Both of the boys looked at me.

"I did not!" I argued back. "It's not my fault you got caught in the blankets."

"Wait…how did you die?" Sam asked.

"Not by fire!" I snapped. His eyes widened at that. "We were at my sister's, the smoke alarm went off and I ran to make sure my nieces were okay."

"And you left her?"

"She was fine! Besides, there wasn't any fire. The alarm was faulty or something." I rolled my eyes. I forgot how she kept trying to hold that against me. "Come on. The sooner we find this person, the sooner we can leave."

"What the hell are you holding?" Dean asked.

"Part of the fence," I said. Both of the men looked at me. I shrugged. "You saw the house outside. I wasn't going in without something, just in case. The fence looked like it was old wrought iron, so I kicked it until some pieces came off and we took them in." Sam and Dean shared a look. "What? It worked!"

Dean took the lead. Sam took the last spot. Dean shot the ghost as it showed up again.

"What's with this chick?" Dean asked. "Why won't she give it up?" Sam shot again behind me.

"Wait, ghosts aren't usually this annoying?" Kelly asked.

"They're not usually this...persistent. There's usually more time between having to hit them," Sam answered.

"Maybe they sense you Kels, trying to call you back."

"That's not funny."

"We need to split up," Dean stopped and turned to us. "Faster we get this done…"

"Wait, did we not just say that that's how horror movies go?" I asked.

"This isn't a horror movie, Michelle!"

"It feels like it," I muttered. I tried not to make a face back at him.

"Kelly and I will take the basement, Sammy, you and Michelle take upstairs."

"Yeah, because the blond going into the basement always ends well," Kelly snarked. I tried not to laugh.

The door to the basement was under the stairs. I watched Kelly look at me in alarm before she followed Dean. I was grateful not to be going down there. Basements were way creepier than the second floor tended to be.

Sam stayed behind me while I went up the stairs. They creaked under my feet with each step and I silently prayed that the whole thing didn't crumble under us. We reached the top without any incident. The hallway wasn't long, but somehow with the windows blanketed in dust and grime, it was still spooky.

"Well, this is cheery," I muttered. I opened the first door and peered in. "I don't understand how you guys do this all day."

"What do you mean?" Sam asked.

"There's nothing here." I closed the door just in case. "Chasing down ghosts. This sucks."

He gave a small huff, almost of laughter. "Yeah, well, usually it's because people go wandering into places they shouldn't."

"Well, people are stupid." I could feel the look he was giving me without turning around. "I know, but we didn't come for kicks. We have a purpose. Sort of."

Sam went flying suddenly down the hall. The ghost appeared in front of me. I swung the pole through her and then ran after him. "Are you okay?" I offered him a hand up, though I wasn't sure what good it would do. He was more likely to pull me down with him.

"Michelle!"

I turned instantly and managed to twirl the pole up through the ghost. I turned to Sam. "Did you see that?" I made a mental note to thank Remy and Giles. Their training was proving to be exceedingly useful. I was suddenly thrown into a wall.

"Michelle!" A gunshot rang out.

"I'm okay," I said, rolling myself up to a standing position. My head was pounding and my back was starting to hurt, but I wasn't about to say so. I didn't need more ammunition against Kelly and I. Least at our decisions.

I took a deep breath and rolled my shoulders back. I managed to keep a hold of the pole. It felt like a small miracle but I'd take it. "There's two more rooms."

There was a brief moment of peace without the ghost while we checked the next room. It was still empty. We were headed for the last door when we heard Dean shout up the stairs.

"Sam! Michelle! Get down here! We found it!"

I looked at Sam and he motioned for me to go first. I raced for the stairs. The faster we could get out of here, the better. My foot slipped halfway down and I fell back, sliding down the rest of the stairs on my ass. I only managed not to tumble down head first by sheer luck. Kelly was laughing at me when I finally stopped falling. I stood up and brushed myself off, trying not to react.

"Walk much?" Dean asked.

"Nope," I said quickly.

"Are you okay?" Sam ran down the stairs and managed not to fall. My eyes narrowed at the fact that only I managed to fall.

"Yeah." I looked around. "Where's the...person?"

"Dead," Kelly said. I sighed. It was for nothing then.

The ghost seemed to sense that we were trying to leave again. I ducked as something went flying past. "How much stuff does she have?"

Kelly shrugged. "Guess you don't care about breaking shit when you're dead."

"Doesn't she want to look at anything?"

"Seriously?" Dean asked.

"What? She's dead, not blind," Kelly replied. "Maybe she's bored?"

"Dean! Help me!" Sam was trying to open the front door.

"Keep watch," Dean said. Kelly nodded and reloaded the shotgun she was holding.

"Where'd you get that?" I asked. I kept my back to the boys as we looked out for the ghost.

"It's Dean's. No sense in him having it when he's opening a door," she said. I shrugged. She had a point. Kelly shot as the ghost showed up again. "When will this bitch get the point?"

I didn't bother responding, sweeping the pole through the ghost's head.

"Girls!" I looked back at the men. The door was being held open by Sam. "Come on!" Dean pushed me to the door before going to grab Kelly. I stumbled out of the house.

"Oh thank god," I muttered as I collapsed on the ground. I had never been so glad to see grass again.

Now that we were finally out of the house, the brothers seemed to take that as permission to continue where we left off in the kitchen.

"What the hell were you two thinking?" Dean snapped. I looked up to see him glaring at Kelly as Sam finally let the door close. He looked like he had been struggling with it. Considering we couldn't get the front door to budge or the window to break, it was impressive.

"We had to get them! It was us or leaving them to die. We had to try!" Kelly snapped back.

"That was really irresponsible, for both of you," Sam said, looking between us. "You should have called someone."

"Who?" I asked. "You were in trouble, there was no one else. Least, no one we could trust. What were we supposed to do?"

"Call us!"

"I tried!" Kelly's voice cracked. "I kept calling! As soon as Gabriel said he was going to save you, I called! You didn't answer! I thought…"

I looked away as she started to cry. I threw the pole to the side. I didn't need it now.

Sam came over and offered me a hand up. I took it. He pulled me up hard and I went crashing into his chest. His arms wrapped around me tightly.

I hugged Sam back. His presence was grounding and I felt the adrenaline start to fade. I clung to him tightly. Sam didn't say anything and the voices of Dean and Kelly faded as I tried to focus on him. I felt myself start to shake. I was okay. We were okay.

"I lost my machete," I said, my voice weirdly light. It was stupid but all I could think of was the fact that I had dropped it in that house and I wasn't getting it back now. Sam's hand rubbed up and down my back.

"It's okay," he said. "You're okay."

I nodded and after another moment, pulled back. He was right. We had made it out. Even if the boys didn't show up, I had the feeling that Kelly and I would have found a way out. There was no other option.

"Come on, let's get out of here. We'll figure this out when we find a motel." Sam wrapped an arm around my shoulders and started to lead me around the house.

"We already have a room booked," I said. "We can lead the way."

"We'll go together. Kelly can go with Dean."

I nodded. Sam looked back to tell the others as we got to the cars. The Impala was parked behind our car. Sam ushered me to the passenger side and I got in. The sudden silence as I sat in the car and waited for him pressed in around me. My throat tightened and I suddenly felt nauseous. We could have died in there. It had been pure luck that the fence was iron. I leaned forward, trying to calm myself down. It was fine. Everything was fine.

Sam got in and I told him how to get to the hotel.

"You know why that was a stupid idea, right?"

"I didn't want to go in there," I said softly. I leaned my head back against the seat. Tears were starting to well up in my eyes and I couldn't stop them.

"Then why did you?"

"I don't know, because it was the right thing to do? Because if it was me, hell, it has been me, scared and alone in this world. I got rescued. I can't leave someone like me alone when I could try to help, even if I didn't want to. I didn't even want to leave when Gabriel gave us the location." I wiped the tears that had started to fall. Sam reached over and put a hand on my leg, trying to offer some kind of comfort. It felt stupid to cry. We were fine now.

"You got lucky."

"I know." I sighed and tried to swallow the lump in my throat. "I was trying to be careful. I know what this world holds. I'm not going into anything without being prepared."

Sam grabbed my hand and brought it towards him. He kissed the back of it before holding it between us. "You scared the hell out of me. Out of both of us."

"I'm sorry," I said softly. "We didn't mean to."

"I know."

[tbc]