Great, so much for our typical salt and burn. Dad had only let Dean and I go on some pretty simple cases on our own. This one is turning out to be a little more complicated… turns out the body of this man was cremated, something else is keeping him around. Nasty spirit to tell you the truth, he likes to scalp his victims.

"Dammit… what could it be?" My brother Dean asked more to himself then me.

Dean was smart, as smart as dad if you asked me even though he would humbly deny that. He was 10 years older than me and as much of a father as he was a brother. Dad was gone a lot.. hunter's life and all. Dean half-raised me and Sammy since we were little.

Sam would have figured this thing out by now if he was here with Dean. He was always more useful then me when it came to hunts, don't get me wrong I can hold my own and kick some ass but he was so good at figuring out what the hell was going on, I on the other hand focused on how to kill it, and not much else. Too bad he was off being normal boy at college. He left us 4 years ago. I was 11 then and just learning to hunt, I needed him around but I guess I could understand why he'd wanna take off. What I didn't understand is why he stopped loving me. Wouldn't take my phone calls, wouldn't email or text back, never replied to voice mails, nothing. Complete radio silence… do you know what that does to an 11 year old? Now at 15 I'm not so touchy feely on the subject, screw Sam. I had Dean, my rock. While he pissed me off at least once a day he also always had my back and loved me enough to make up for losing a brother.

"Hey Dean, what would someone use to scalp people?"

"I don't know Em, would have to be something mighty sharp, fairly big too"

"You mean like that old blade we found in the evidence box back at the police station?"

"Yeah, actually… that could be exactly what's still got the old man kicking! Nice job kiddo!"

I grinned, I was slowly but surely getting better at doing some research and putting things together when we were on hunts. I was pleased with myself but more pleased that I had beat Dean to the conclusion.

"Dad didn't answer my call earlier have you talked to him at all this week?" Dean asked.

"No, I haven't actually… I figure he's just busy on that hunt he split for. Something about a spirit in Jericho."

"Hmm. Alright, lets head back to the police station and get that evidence box, that way we can get out of this crappy town."

"Oh come on Dean, you're only saying that because that waitress wouldn't give you the time of day." I chuckled to myself while a very offended Dean turned to me in mock horror."

"I think you misread that, It was me that clearly blew her off. You're still too young to really understand how all that works anyways." Dean smiled at me and slightly raised his eyebrows. Dean is convinced I'll be a virgin till I'm 80 and proceeds to scare off any guy that even looks in my direction for more than 30 seconds.

"Dean you do realize that I'm 15 not 5, I know a lot more than you think I do."

He turned to me again this time with a slightly frantic look in his eyes and a voice that showed he was trying to cover it up, "Yeah okay like what?"

I laughed noticing what he was doing, he was baiting me into "the talk" I was not gonna fall for this one.

"Just drive Dean."

We arrived at the police station, I let dean go in alone. I was too young looking to pass for a cop and opted to wait it out in the impala. Not even 5 minutes later dean returned with the box and we headed off to a vacant spot off the road to burn this damn blade.

The deed was done and we were back at the hotel ready to pack up not even a half hour later.

"Hey Em call dad again and tell him we're finished. See if he wants us to come to him or if he has another one for us to do"

"Yeah sure." I dialed the number… 4 rings later his voicemail picked it up. " Hey dad its me, we finished up and need to know where you want us to head next. Call back soon okay. Love you."

"Dean he still isn't answering, don't you think that's a little odd?"

"Nah, I'm sure its like you said earlier. He's a busy guy. I tell you what why don't we hit the road and head towards California anyways. Its more than a days drive out and we can stop at anything that looks interesting on the way.

"Yeah sounds good! Does this mean we might get a day off?" My eyes were big as I looked to Dean with hope radiating off of my face. He laughed at me. He knows I'm always down for a day off. I loved hunting but it was nice when we could just do something normal for a day.

"Maybe. Lets go and see what kinda trouble we can find along the way." Dean grabbed my bag and his and loaded them into the trunk. I went and checked us out, when I was leaving the lobby a bright orange piece of paper caught my eye. It was an advertisement for open mic night at a local bar… cash prize of $500. Part of me wanted to ditch this place but the other part wanted to go, I could sing decent, I was no Cher but I could carry a tune. Besides, its more about your stage presence and working the crowd anyways. That I had picked up from Dean. While he hadn't necessarily taught me to perform he taught me how to hustle, and it seemed to carry over into performing. It was all about the confidence you brought to the table.

"Alright De, lets get the hell out of dodge."

He peeled out and cranked Zepplin's Black Dog. I smiled, he knew it was one of my favorites.

(ONE WEEK LATER)

Dad still wasn't answering his phone, I was starting to get really upset. Dean was too even though he was trying to hide it from me. I stood there and looked at myself in the bathroom mirror. My long wavy brown hair was just under my boobs in the front and half way down my back, time for a trim. But it was the bags under my brown eyes that caught my attention. Its not like I'm obsessed with my looks or anything but I hated looking so… tired. I knew it was not hearing from dad that was making it hard to sleep at night. Dad and I had a good relationship. He was harder on me then he was the boys, but he also was more affectionate. He balanced it out for the most part. I loved my daddy and missed him when he left us to go on hunts. He would go a few days or more without talking but this is going on a few weeks. I had this feeling in the pit of my stomach that something was not right.

Me and Dean had been on the road this whole time, only stopping to sleep, making pointless circles state to state prolonging getting into Cali. Dean was enjoying the variety of women along the way, leaving me in the car to have his fun when he found a girl to fall prey to his charm. I know it may seem weird but at this point I was used to it, It was slightly annoying but still gave me time to myself which I wouldn't get any other way. Usually I spent it singing out loud to myself in the impala. Picking songs I'd like to perform one day. Nothing fancy, just your local dive bar crowds with a lot of drunken tippers. To be fair dean was also stopping at any roadside attraction I asked him too. I had seen the "world's largest" of damn near everything it felt like.

I finally stopped looking at myself and gave up trying to will the bags to go away on their own. I walked out of the bathroom to see Dean packing up our stuff.

"Alright Em, lets head for Cali."

"Did dad finally call back?"

"Umm. No.. he didn't. But hey listen I got us a job so lets hit the road, I wanna be there by tonight"

I didn't question it any further and soon we were back in the impala. I felt myself nodding off to sleep so I laid my head against dean's leg and passed out. Before I knew it he was shaking me awake.

"Hey.. Emily.. wake up.. EM!"

"Hmm.. yeah what?"

"We're here… but don't be mad okay?"

As I sat up and looked around outside I slowly turned to look at Dean who had this guilty look on his face. This was not gonna be good. I could already feel myself getting angry.

"Dean." I said cold and hard.

"Why are we at Stanford."

I glared at him waiting for a response… he held my gaze as if he was trying to assess the situation. I could tell part of him felt guilty but the other part was getting irritated at my attitude.

"Look Em. Dad did call me back… left me a voicemail with some EVP on it. I think he's missing and I think we're gonna need Sam's help on this one."

I stared at him for what felt like minutes before speaking… "So you not only lied to me when I asked if dad called but then you proceeded to trick me into coming to see Sam. What the fuck Dean? I never went with dad on his little check up runs so what makes you think I'd wanna come with you now?!"

"Emily stop. I'm not dealing with your shit tonight. This is happening. Get over it."

I could tell I had pissed him off but I didn't really give a fuck at this point. I was more pissed off at him.

"No. Dean. I'm not getting out of this damn car until we leave."

"Oh yes… you are." His eyes went wide, almost like he was daring me to defy him again. I knew what would happen, he'd drag me out against my will.

"FINE! But I want nothing to do with this!"

"FINE!" He yelled back at me. I angrily yanked at the door handle and swung the door open.

"Hey! Don't take that attitude with baby! She's not taking any of your shit tonight either. " Damn Dean and his obsession with this car. It was a beautiful car, but Dean took things a little too far when it came down to it.

We walked up the steps to an apartment which I'm guessing has to be Sam's. It was a nice place really, but it was dead quiet out here. I stopped and checked my watch… 3 am? "Seriously Dean?! You wanna knock on the door at 3 in the morning?"

"No Emily I'm not that rude. I'm just gonna go in through the window and find myself a beer." He had on a shit eating grin while he spoke those words. I knew what he was really doing. He wanted to rile Sam up.

I followed him inside and stood against the wall waiting to see how long it took… 1..2..3..4. There it was. The loud slam as a body was thrown onto the floor. Whose it was didn't matter to me. I could care less at this point. I just wanted to go back out the window and hide while Dean as preoccupied.

"Whoa, Easy there tiger!" I automatically recognized that to be Dean. But I wasn't the only one.

"Dean? What the hell man?! You scared the crap out of me!" Sam spoke up next… yep. Couldn't forget that voice either. Even though I've tried. My heart kind of jumped at the sound. It'd been 4 years since I heard it in person. Its not the same as a recording on the phone. Yep. That window was looking more and more appetizing to me at this point.

"What the hell are you doing here?"

"Well, I was looking for a beer."

"Uh, the phone? "

"If I'd'a called, would you have picked up? " Dean said the words with a tone that screamed guilt trip. I smiled at that and chuckled to myself. Sam deserves a good guilt trip. A lot of a sudden the lights flip on and theres some hot blonde in a too tight smurfs shirt standing in front of us all.

"Sam?" She asked.

"Jess. Hey. Dean, this is my girlfriend, Jessica."

"And that would be our sister Emily standing in the corner." Dean announced. Geez Dean thanks, I was just fine being hidden. All of a sudden Sam turned to me and we locked eyes. He hadn't even noticed I was there until now. He really was getting rusty. His face went from shocked to smiling. What the hell is he smiling at?

"Em?! I didn't even see you there!" He walked towards me and to my surprise wrapped his arms around me in a hug. I was frozen, not sure what to do. I don't wanna hug him, but I don't wanna make this awkward either. I just wanna leave. I decided to swing one arm up around his neck and let him have this one hug. It would be the last though.

When he let me go he locked eyes again and its like he was staring into my soul. He had this intense expression I couldn't even explain if I tried. All I could do was stare back in silence. It wasn't till Dean spoke and began to hit on Jess that we tore apart from each other's gaze.

"Oh, I love the Smurfs. You know, I gotta tell you. You are completely out of my brother's league."

"Just let me put something on."

"No, no, no, I wouldn't dream of it. Seriously. Anyway, I gotta borrow your boyfriend here, talk about some private family business. "

"No. No, whatever you want to say, you can say it in front of her."

I rolled my eyes, but I could tell Sam really loved this girl. Just the way he stood next to her, the way he looked at her. She was his everything.

"Ok. Um. Dad hasn't been home in a few days."

"So he's working overtime on a Miller Time shift. He'll stumble back in sooner or later."

"Dad's on a hunting trip. And he hasn't been home in a few days."

That's when it happened. Sam's face dropped.

"Jess, excuse us. We have to go outside."

Finally! My chance! I quickly reached for the door and started down the stairs to the impala. Dean wasn't gonna stop me anyways. He was too busy with Sam. I stood there at the impala watching my brothers. Both of them, together. It made some part of me very happy to see that again, I almost wanted to smile, but it made another part of me so angry that it hurt. How can Dean act like the last 4 years never happened.

The faint sound of their arguing pulled me back into reality.

"I was nine years old! He was supposed to say, don't be afraid of the dark." Sam said a little too loud.

"Don't be afraid of the dark? Are you kidding me? Of course you should be afraid of the dark. You know what's out there. "

"Yeah, I know, but still. The way we grew up, after Mom was killed, and Dad's obsession to find the thing that killed her."

This made Dean glance down at me from the stairwell. He tells me all the time I remind him of mom, I couldn't look at him right now. So I turned away pretending not to listen.

"But we still haven't found the damn thing. So we kill everything we can find." Sam carried on.

"We save a lot of people doing it, too."

"You think Mom would have wanted this for us?"

Dean rolled his eyes at sam after hearing that and descended down to the impala with Sam right behind him.

"The weapon training, and melting the silver into bullets? Man, Dean, we were raised like warriors." Sam just wouldn't drop it.

Dean finally turned around and spoke up, "So what are you gonna do? You're just gonna live some normal, apple pie life? Is that it?"

"No. Not normal. Safe." Sam then looked at me but I wouldn't let myself turn and meet his gaze. I was standing by the driver's door and the boys were at the trunk. Sam lowered his voice, did he really think I wouldn't hear him?

"Look at Emily, Dean. Is this what you want for her knowing she could have better?"

"Excuse me?" Dean said a little too calmly. Great. Here it comes. You've never truly seen shit hit the fan till you've watched Winchester shit hit the fan.

"You heard me Dean." Sam was stone faced and not backing down.

"Let me tell you something Sam. No one has Emily's best interests in mind more than me, okay? She kicks ass at the job, she's prepared, and she's brave. She knows the truth and knows how to protect herself, she gets it."

My heart swelled hearing Dean's words. He said them so low I'm sure he thought I didn't hear them, but I did, and If I wasn't trying to still be mad at him for making me be here in the first place then I would have smiled at him. Sam must have taken the hint that he was pushing his luck because he dropped it after that.

"What was he hunting?"

"All right, let's see, where the hell did I put that thing?" Dean fiddled around in the trunk looking for God knows what.

"So when Dad left, why didn't you two go with him?"

"We were working our own gig. Simple salt and burn."

"Dad let you go on a hunting trip by yourself?" Sam looked suspiciously between Dean and I.

"I'm twenty-six, dude. Besides I'm not by myself, I told you Emily here can kick some ass on the job."

"All right, here we go. So Dad was checking out this two-lane blacktop just outside of Jericho, California. About a month ago, this guy. They found his car, but he vanished. Completely MIA."

"Maybe the guy was just kidnapped."

"Yeah. Well, here's another one in April. Another one in December 'oh-four, 'oh-three, 'ninety-eight, 'ninety-two, ten of them over the past twenty years. All men, all the same five-mile stretch of road. It started happening more and more, so Dad went to go dig around. That was about three weeks ago. I hadn't heard from him since, which is bad enough."

Dean suddenly pulled out a tape recorder, this caught my interest and I turned my body to face the back of the impala and took a couple steps forward, but still not looking up from the ground.

"Then I get this voicemail yesterday." The one he lied to me about.

"Dean...something big is starting to happen...I need to try and figure out what's going on. It may... Be very careful, Dean. We're all in danger."

What the hell? Something big? What is that supposed to mean? I had an all new pull in my stomach. Like it was suddenly being twisted into a knot. This can't be good. What if dad is hurt.. or what it.. NO. NO. No I won't let myself even go past that. I can't get myself worked up right now. I quickly noticed my breathing had increased and become more audible. I threw a quick glance to the boys to see if they noticed or not. Dean's eyes caught mine and I knew he saw me panic. I pulled it together and began to walk back towards the front of the impala. Sitting on its hood. Not wanting to listen to anything else but the crickets.

"All right. I'll go. I'll help you find him. But I have to get back first thing Monday. Just wait here."

"What's first thing Monday?"

"I have this...I have an interview."

"What, a job interview? Skip it."

"It's a law school interview, and it's my whole future on a plate."

That was enough to make me tune out again. I rolled my eyes. Sam really has this whole new life. A life without us, without me. I was so busy throwing myself a mini pity party I didn't notice that Dean had come to sit beside me until the weight shifted next to me.

"I saw that you know."

Great. Dean was always overly protective. I have this problem with getting panicked and worked up. He's caught onto the early signs and tries to calm me down before I get too far ahead of myself and can't be calmed back down.

"No you didn't." I spit back harshly. I'm still pissed at him, I don't want him comforting me. I want him to go away.

"Emily. Give it up. I know you better than that. Look at me…" I held my gaze forward refusing to meet his. He sighed and jumped off the hood going to stand directly in front of me.

"Dammit Em. Just look at me." I quickly turned my face and stared at the ground. The next thing I knew his hand was under my chin forcing me to look up again.

He searched my face for some sort of reaction, a sign of panic. All he found was me trying to be tough by acting pissed off at him. I know he sees right through it. But I was still gonna try and bluff him out. I don't cry, and I'll be dammed if I'm gonna start now.

"We're gonna find him kiddo, I know your pissed at me right now, and that's okay. But I need you to trust me anyways. Sam can help us here, we need him Em." I scoffed and pulled out of his grip.

"Lets just go find dad, Dean." Was the only thing I could think to say at this point. I jumped down off the hood and walked to the backdoor of the impala. I knew Sam would try and sit up front and I was not gonna be stuck sitting between them. I hunkered down, pulled my hood over my head, and popped in my ear buds cranking my iPod as loud as possible so that they would get the point I wasn't in a talking mood.

Dean quickly got in the driver seat, it wasn't more than a few minutes later I heard the trunk open, then close. Sam slipped into the passenger seat and turned around as if he wanted to say something to me. He stopped when he heard my music blasting out of the earbuds. He had an almost defeated look on his face when he turned back around.

Grrrreat. This is gonna be loads of fun isn't it?