Disclaimer: Supernatural and all its characters belong to The CW and Eric Kripke.

Suggested Songs:

- "American Girl" by Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers

- "Femme Fatale" by Velvet Underground & Nico

Chapter Three: Part One

Although most of the cases Melissa had investigated with invisible attackers turned out to just be the witness blocking out a harsh memory or something of the sort, the well had been pretty dry lately. It was good that there weren't too many strange deaths out there lately. But Melissa was starting to get bored. She had spent a week just driving around, seeing the sights a little. Mostly just big balls of twine and lame local attractions. Though the Lizzie Borden house had actually been pretty fascinating. But it was getting cold, and travelling around in the North East during December was near impossible for a southerner like Melissa. So, when she caught sight of a newspaper article about an invisible assailant while having her morning coffee in a little town on the outskirts of Iowa, she thought it would at least be something interesting to do.

So, by that afternoon, she was almost to the town of Ankeny. It was aggressively suburban from what she had seen so far, with a large church in the center of town. Her first stop was to the frat house, which was about as disgusting as one could imagine. It made Melissa glad that she had never gone to college. She spoke with several of the students, asking them about the grisly death of their peer. The police were describing it tentatively as an animal attack, but the student had been found covered in blood and hanging upside down. Even for a bear, it seemed too methodical to Melissa.

After speaking to quite a few of the brothers from Eastern Iowa University, posing as a journalist from the school's newspaper, she finally figured out who the unnamed witness from the article had been. The fraternity brother, Rich, had just started dating the local reverend's daughter Lori, and they were on a date the night he was killed. (She'd had to endure hearing many of the frat brothers' musings about how hot Lori was, and even deflect a few pickup lines herself. They were nauseating.) She was also able to discover that Rich's funeral was taking place later that day at Lori's father's church.

It took only about twenty minutes of driving around to find an inn. The transforming herself into an FBI agent took longer. Though, admittedly, Melissa did often find it fun to transform herself into someone else, it always took her so damn long. She never wore any makeup on hunts because it was just too impractical. And when she had to wear it to pose as an agent it made her feel suffocated and sticky, and she thought she almost looked plastic with it on. It would hide the spray of light freckles that covered almost her whole face and she just didn't look like herself.

And, she often just threw her stick-straight hair into a ponytail or a french braid when she knew she would be going on a hunt. So, this time, she decided to just leave it down and only put on lipstick and concealer. She had been doing that more lately. Fuck it, she thought, taking one last look in the bathroom mirror, I can make freckles look professional if I want to.

Next, she donned her white button-up with her black suit jacket and pencil skirt. It was her only FBI uniform, and there was a small hole forming in the left elbow of her jacket. She would have to get a new one at some point soon. She sighed thinking about it. She hated clothes shopping, pretty much only ever dressing in jeans and t-shirts, except of course when she had to get in costume. Finally, she put on some black ballet flats. She was never daring enough for heels. She feared she would break a hip. Or her neck. The whole process took about 45 minutes and she guessed the funeral was just about to end as she turned off the light in the cozy room on her way out.

. . .

She caught Lori as she was leaving the church after the service ended. She didn't know what Lori looked like upon arriving, but it was easy to spot her as the young woman hovering nervously around the man dressed in green Reverend's robes. Melissa approached her cautiously, and waited for a little while until the reverend was talking to someone else to catch her alone.

"Excuse me, Lori?" she asked, walking up to the mousy college freshman. "I'm very sorry for your loss."

Lori looked up suspiciously and eyed Melissa, but then muttered a soft, "Thank you."

"Would it be alright if I asked you a few questions?" Melissa said sweetly, grabbing the fake badge from the inside of her jacket. At this point, using her masterful fake ID was very routine. She hadn't been asked any questions about it in months. Lori looked shell-shocked at the small gold badge and the matching ID card with FBI in large letters, and stood gaping for a moment. She glanced to her father, making Melissa nervous, but ultimately seemed to decide against it. He was talking to a loyal parishioner, after all.

"Yeah, that's um...that's okay," she said quietly. Melissa almost didn't hear her, and felt bad for tricking the girl when she looked into her watery brown eyes. Then, she flashed a bright smile and went on with her act.

Through the questioning, Melissa got a pretty good idea of what was going on, and got the feeling that Lori was actually telling the truth. It was a ghost, she had decided. The most interesting part was Lori's description of the minutes before the attack. Particularly, the sound of the spirit scraping metal on metal as there was a long scratch gouged into the side of Rich's car. She was just working out the kinks of Lori's story when she heard someone come up behind her.

"No. Way," she heard in a gruff voice behind her. She looked at Lori apologetically and then turned around. Her face fell from its act but her eyes lit up when she turned to see the Winchesters, dressed in their normal clothes. Today was obviously not an FBI day for them.

Sam's eyes widened in surprise, but Dean only smirked. He sent Melissa a knowing look before brushing past her and towards Lori. Sam followed him once he regained his composure. Melissa turned back in annoyance. She was so close to finishing the interview smoothly.

"Are you Lori?" Sam asked the girl who looked more confused now than when Melissa had introduced herself. She's probably wondering when she got such a big fan club, Melissa thought in exasperation.

"Yeah," Lori answered with a deer-in-headlights expression.

"My name is Sam," he said, "and this is my brother, Dean."

"Hi," Dean said with a casual wave. Melissa, now standing off the the side, rolled her eyes. He was wearing his same brown leather jacket and the protection charm necklace she remembered from their first meeting two months ago. And the same wiseass attitude, it would seem.

"We're new transfers here...to the University," Sam continued.

"I saw you inside," Lori said, gesturing to the church. She seemed a little more at ease talking to people who were posing as her peers as opposed to a Fed. Melissa gave the boys a glare when she heard that they had attended the service. To her it seemed a little disrespectful, but neither of the Winchesters noticed her angry look.

"We don't want to bother you, we just...we heard about what happened," Sam said with sympathy.

"We wanted to say how sorry we were," Dean added. Melissa had to hand it to them, they were about as good at acting their roles as she was. She figured most hunters were; it was a part of the life.

"I kinda know what you're going through. I saw someone...get hurt...once," Sam told Lori slowly. Melissa looked at the ground, not having forgotten the story they told her. "It's something you don't forget."

Lori gave a dejected nod before the Reverend interrupted the conversation. He came over to Lori, putting a protective arm around her hip. Melissa grimaced a little at the shielding gesture.

"Dad, this is Sam and Dean," she introduced them, looking relieved by her father's presence. "They're new students."

The Reverend looked to the boys suspiciously before shooting Melissa a dubious glare. Lori's smile faded as she looked back to Melissa and tried to introduce her.

"And this is Agent Garcia-" Lori began, but Melissa, having had enough of this Reverend already, cut her off. There was something about him that rubbed her the wrong way.

"Sherri Garcia, sir. It's a pleasure," she said confidently, sticking out her hand. She heard Dean snort beside her at her alias, and resisted the urge to look back at him. As always when she was acting as a Fed, she tried her hardest to keep the Southern touch out of her words.

The Reverend took her hand warily. "May I see your badge?" The question was polite at the surface but Melissa could hear the rigidity in his voice. How could his precious little Lori ever be in trouble with the Feds? Melissa had seen stranger things. Much stranger.

"Certainly," she said with a smile, pulling the fraudulent piece of cardstock from her pocket. Sam and Dean watched easily, not for a second worrying about Melissa's fraud skills. Lori, on the other hand, was growing tenser by the minute.

The Reverend seemed satisfied a moment later when he gave a little nod. She put her badge away and noticed Sam and Dean talking to Lori in hushed tones off to the side, no doubt trying to get more insight into what she had seen. Melissa decided to play her part as the Reverend's distraction. So far, he was making it very easy for her.

"And would you mind telling me why you were questioning my daughter without my consent?" the Reverend asked. Melissa's face flushed in anger momentarily, but then she went back to being as professional as she could manage.

"Well, sir, she was the only witness in a very bizarre, gruesome murder. We've seen similar acts in the past, and we're trying to work out whether we've got a serial killer on our hands," she told him, glancing at Lori briefly before she continued. "And frankly sir, your daughter is 18. She chose to speak with me freely when I approached her with my questions. She did not ask for a lawyer, and she answered my questions honestly. Only now am I growing suspicious of her due to your defensiveness."

The Reverend looked offended, but she continued.

"Is there anything else you'd like to ask me, sir?" Melissa honestly didn't know what had gotten into her. She was just not one who dealt with smugness well. Lori seemed like a sweet girl, and Melissa had the sneaking suspicion that the Reverend was keeping Lori from enjoying life the way she should be able to.

"No, Agent Garcia. I think that will be all you'll hear from myself or my daughter," the Reverend said to her, eyes narrowed.

She took the hint and gave him a thin smile before turning to the parking lot. Dean saw her leaving and nudged Sam in the ribs, signaling him to wrap it up. They had all they needed now anyway. Lori and Sam were just pretty much chit-chatting at this point.

Sam looked at Dean in annoyance, having enjoyed talking to someone who wasn't his ass of a big brother for a change, but promptly ended the conversation. Dean had already begun walking across the small parking lot after Melissa when the Reverend came up to Lori again just as Sam was about to leave.

"That was a very inspiring sermon, sir," Sam, ever the crowd pleaser, complimented.

"Thank you very much. It's always nice to find young people who are open to the Lord's message," the Reverend said with a smile. Sam said his goodbye and final sympathetic remarks before seeing the Reverend put his arm back around Lori's waist and whisk her away. Sam furrowed his brows at the passive aggressive gesture but would have to deal with it later. Research first.

. . .

Dean ran up to Melissa from behind, noticing how tense she seemed. He cracked a joke instead of greeting her in a boring, normal people way.

"So, Sherri Garcia, is it?" he said, finally catching up to her. She was almost to the rusty hunk of metal Dean remembered as her car.

She turned to him in mock anger, but on the inside was very relieved to see him. "Oh yeah, yuck it up. And what's your most commonly used alias?"

He looked down at the faded pavement, muttering, "Edward Van Halen."

"Exactly," Melissa said with a triumphant smile.

"At least mine is an actual musician," Dean shot back.

"Right, because jumping around the stage to distract from how sloppy your playing is makes you an actual musician," she said. Melissa was actually a fan of Van Halen, but the argument was just too much fun for her to admit it. Dean was getting ready to respond when Sam walked over from the church.

"Hey Sam," Melissa said brightly. He looked better than the last time she'd seen him, given that none of them had just spent a night in the muggy Colorado woods.

"Hey, Melissa. Good to see you again," he said in his easygoing way.

"Y'know, we have got to start meeting under better circumstances," she said, just realizing at it was second time in a couple months that they had just happened to be working on the same case at the same time. Sam and Dean both chuckled and nodded in agreement.

"Hey, listen," Dean said, not waiting for the uncomfortable silence that he feared was about to ensue. They still didn't know each other all that well. "We're going to the library for research...wanna join?"

. . .

After discussing different elements of Lori's story, it seemed clear to all three of them that they were dealing with a ghost. They had begun searching through the town's arrest records for anyone who fit the pattern or had a motive, while Dean sat across from Melissa trying to look like he was doing work. He hated research. When hunting with John this stage of things was often easier because his father had so many other contacts that could do the work for them. But with just him, Sammy, and Melissa, they'd have to do it all themselves. Don't think about Dad, he scolded himself, breaking his train of thought. These days, all memories of his father were tinted with unhappiness.

So, instead, he looked to Melissa. Normally, he would have made a pass at her by now, but somehow it felt different with her. He didn't want to scare her away. She was a hell of a hunter, from what Dean had seen, and she had hunted with his dad. (You're thinking about Dad again, stupid.) That made him feel even more trusting of her. If his dad had seen something so promising in her that he had taken time to teach her how to hunt, Dean knew she was worth keeping around. And besides, it was as good a time as ever to try the whole 'just friends' thing out.

But, god, did he think she was beautiful. What with her high cheekbones and cleft chin and light blue eyes. The contrast between her porcelain skin and her dark brown hair made her all the more striking. Her smile was big and contagious. It wasn't often he saw a hunter with a smile so genuine. It made him wonder more about her past, but he was, of course, never going to ask.

As he was watching her across the library table, he saw her furrow her brows at the parchment below her. She sighed a little before leaning over to rummage through her purse. She was looking slightly disheveled with her hair falling over her flushed face and the top buttons of her shirt undone, with the sleeves rolled up to her elbows. Dean unconsciously smirked at her frazzled demeanor. She finally cracked a victorious smile as she pulled out some square black glasses. She looked more relaxed after she put them on and continued reading.

He chuckled a little and she looked up with an inquisitive expression.

"Buddy Holly fan, huh?" he asked in amusement.

She shook her head. "Not particularly. But, if I read without 'em for too long it gives me a headache," she told him, gesturing to her glasses, reminiscent of a long dead rock star.

Dean nodded. "Dork," he muttered, hastily returning to the arrest records below him.

By this point, Sam had definitely heard their conversation, but he just rolled his eyes and continued reading. Even after only about an hour of sitting with the two of them at the table, he had discovered why Dean wanted to bring Melissa along in the first place. They were like two peas in a pod. However, he did notice that besides the playful teasing, Dean was keeping his usually aggressive method of flirting very mild. He found it odd, but hadn't had the chance to ask Dean about it. Bigger fish to fry and all that.

Melissa also brought her eyes back to her reading material. "Asshat," she said in a nonchalant voice, still staring at the records. Dean looked back up and caught a small smirk form on her face. He grinned widely, his pen resting on his bottom lip as he did so.