A/N: Hey guys, so fair warning, the beginning of this chapter is pretty choppy timeline wise. Other than a lot of lackluster slow romance and simple hunts not much would have been in following chapters if I had written it all out, so I just kind of condensed it. If any of you would like more detailed chapters on what happened during the time I bounced around, I will have no problem writing some shorter additional chapters, which I would post separately, so just let me know. Also, I may be taking a little longer to post chapters in the near future. There's some crazy personal junk going on in my life that is making it hard to focus, but I promise to try my best to get at least one up a week. Anyway, enough of my babble, please enjoy.

It didn't take much for Dean to heal enough to go after the shifter the next day and with the four of them working together, they took the monster out easily. A few days passed before Dean had fully recovered from the wound, but after that things seemed to go back to normal, at least as normal as it got for the Winchesters. Days passed then weeks, hunts came and went, other than that things were pretty slow. Ana and Connor worked for hours each day on her learning everything she could about being a witch and what that meant for her magic. Though he had originally thought it would take a while before Ana could control all of her power, it seemed that the amount she held within her didn't dampen the learning curve at all. If anything it had the opposite effect. Months went by, their relationship developed into something a bit more serious and though they took their time with it all, it was clear that Dean still hadn't completely come to terms with it.

Oddly enough nothing Earth shattering came up as time passed and the family grew closer. Heaven was running smoothly enough according to their angel friends and they hadn't heard much from Hell's end, other than the normal possessions. Ana couldn't believe it when spring rolled around and it was time to apply to colleges, so much of her time had been eaten up by witchcraft and hunting (though the most she did was help with research and train when the brothers were at the bunker) that time passed faster than she thought possible. She sent applications to a handful of schools, each being at most a day's drive from the bunker, and she had received acceptance letters from three. After talking with both Dean and Heather, she decided that the smaller school just on the other side of the Colorado border would be best, that way she was a little closer to the family she had left in Montana while still being close enough to her dad and uncle in Lebanon.

The closer it got to August, the more awkward the relationship between Ana and Connor got. Though they had talked about Connor going back to Louisiana to be with his coven while Ana went to school, the thought of the strange long distance relationship they would have didn't set well with either witch, even if they could easily teleport to one another. They had spent almost a year together, about a month and a half shy of that dating, and both knew that something like this would be a possibility, even if neither wanted to admit it. Connor had not only become her boyfriend, but also her best friend and losing one or both of those things was something Ana wasn't prepared for. Yet it ended up being exactly what happened. In the month leading up to her leaving the bunker Connor spent more and more time in Louisiana, working at the bar owned by his coven mate, William, and falling back into his place in the coven itself. Two days before she was due on campus she sat down with Connor and they talked for hours, seeming to loop back to the same conclusion, the one they were both dreading. He packed all of his things that afternoon and had left just after dinner.

Dean and Sam had both come to help her move into her dorm room. Her roommate, Grace, seemed nice enough and made it just a little awkward with how much she was staring at both of the Winchester men. "Your dad is so hot." Grace had commented as her family left her to drive back to Lebanon and the comment made Ana shutter, that was the only moment she was thankful that Dean hadn't been around while she was younger. Classes started the next day and though Ana was very excited, but by the end of the day all of the excitement was gone. All of her classes were general education classes, the things everyone had to take at least one credit of to be qualified for graduating, but how could she focus on things like basic algebra or public speaking when she knew that the world was full of monsters?

In hopes of keeping to her original dream of being a college graduate, she spent most of her time studying for her classes, even if the subject was something she easily understood. When she wasn't studying for school, she was furthering her knowledge of magic, and in the odd occasions she wasn't doing either, she let Grace convince her to do one thing or another. At first it was campus stuff; pep rallies, football games, a movie night on the soccer field, and free donut night in the school's coffee shop. After five weekends of that Grace found something different for them to do, "Come on, it's just a party. It's in one of the apartments for the upperclassmen and sounds like it's going to be a lot of fun. You have to come!" she told Ana as she got ready to leave their room for said party. Grace was one of those girls that instantly attracted the room's attention once she entered it. Blonde hair, blue eyes, and a winning smile paired with her longs legs that were toned after years of playing volleyball and a genuinely warm personality; people flocked to her. Ana had expected her to fall into the ditsy, blond stereotype when they had first met, but Grace was actually really smart and was trying extremely hard to be friends with Ana, even if the redhead made it a little difficult.

"The last time I got drunk I needed stitches and reverted to being a five year old child in search for love. No thank you." Ana replied, glancing back to her laptop after watching Grace sweep her long hair into a ponytail.

Walking across the room, Grace snatched Ana's laptop from where it sat on her outstretched legs and snapped it closed, "Yeah, you told me about that. Honestly, that conversation was bound to happen between you and your dad anyway. This is really about that Connor guy isn't it?" She gave Ana a look that dared her to try and lie about it, "You've avoided the entire male populace of the school like they all have the plague."

Ana rolled her eyes, "This isn't about Connor." she stood from her desk chair and tried to move past the girl in front of her, but Grace wouldn't let her pass.

"You two called it off, right? The way you made it sound, it seemed like you both decided it was the best call. Plus, he's in a completely different state, I don't think you having a couple of drinks and dancing will harm him any. Now, you're going and if I literally have to drag you, I will." Grace looked at the sweats and tee shirt Ana was in, "So you can either change your clothes and walk with me like a normal human being or I can drag you like that."

The redhead glared at her roommate, who was the closest thing she'd had to a friend, other than Connor and Charlie, since she had left Montana. "Fine! Give me ten minutes." Ana threw her hands in the air in defeat.

-A-

They came to understand that the party wasn't just in one apartment in the three story complex across the campus from their dorm hall, but it was the whole first floor of the building. All of the actual apartments were on the second and third floors, the first one holding what seemed to be a lobby set up. There were large speakers blaring loud music and colored lights flashed all over the place. "This is crazy!" Grace called over the music to Ana as they made their way into the mass of bodies.

Exactly why I didn't want to come, Ana thought to herself. She considered just turning around and going back to their room, but Grace grabbed onto Ana's wrist and pulled her through the crowd. Easily finding four coolers full of beer and what looked to be a makeshift bar next to it, if the bottles and cups lining the table were anything to go by.

"You need to loosen up! Here, drink this!" Grace told her as she grabbed a shot glass full of some pink liquid and pushed it into Ana's hand. Picking up another one for herself, she turned her charming smile on her roommate, "Cheers!"

Ana watched as Grace downed the liquid and then took her own shortly after, Might as well get the full college experience, the thought ran through her head as Grace handed her another shot glass, this one containing something blue.

The girls drank for a little while longer before a song came on that Grace insisted they needed to dance to and they made their way toward the great room, which seemed to be where everyone was dancing at. After the drinks they had Ana was feeling a little more into the party and though she didn't know the song playing, it had a nice beat and she found herself dancing along with Grace. A couple of hours went by like that, the two drinking and dancing, though Ana insisted that she not drink nearly as much as Grace was so that one of them would be sober enough to get them back to their room.

After another round of dancing they made their way outside to get some fresh air. The guy that had been dancing with Grace through the last song followed them out and the three of them struck up an easy conversation with another small group of people standing just outside of the building. Grace's dance partner, Ethan, whispered something into her ear and slowly pulled her away from the group, walking with her just around the corner of the building. Ana continued the conversation with the group but would glance back toward where Grace and Ethan had disappeared frequently, a strange feeling growing her in stomach. It had been a while since she'd had her last vision and though the feeling was something she was normally associate with the power, she chalked it up to the alcohol in her system. That is until the flashes started. What she was seeing was choppy and hard to understand at first, but when they cleared up a little Ana was able to make out the horrific scene. Without another word to the group around her, she turned on her heel and sprinted off in the direction Grace had gone. As she rounded the corner of the building, she caught sight of them. Thankfully they weren't that far down the long wall of the building and she could just make out the two forms pressed up against the building.

"No. Ethan, stop." Grace's words were muttered, but even with being a ways away from the pair Ana could hear them.

Ethan held Grace against the building with his body, "Shhh, it's okay. Just a little fun."

Ana's stomach churned and she picked up her sprint again, glad that Sam had made running a part of her training otherwise she wouldn't have made it to the pair in time without using her powers and the last thing she needed was someone to see her teleport while trying to save her friend. Sliding to a halt, Ana gripped on to Ethan's shoulder and pulled him away from Grace, pushing him back, "She said stop, ass hole." she snapped at the pathetic excuse for a man that stood in front of her.

"But we were just starting to have fun, weren't we Grace?" Ethan's eyes flicked between the girls, "You could have some fun with us too." he offered, reaching a hand out toward Ana.

Making sure to place herself between Ethan and Grace, Ana grabbed onto his wrist and moved quickly, twisting his arm behind him at a painful angle. "You really don't want to do this." she warned him in a low growl before throwing him toward the ground with a thrust. "Come on, Grace, let's go." she hurried over to her friend and wrapped a protective arm around her, ushering her back toward the main entrance of the building.

Behind them Ethan slowly got up from the ground, "You bitch!" he swore loudly as he finally reached his feet, "You're going to pay for that!" he added as he stalked quickly toward them.

Glancing over her shoulder, Ana swore when she saw him heading in their direction, "Grace, I want you to run as fast as you can toward the front of the building and do not stop until there are other people around you. Alright?"

"But, Ana-"

"Go, now!" Ana interrupted her, turning to face the man that was just feet from them. Ethan held a height and weight advantage over her, though she seemed to be a little more sober than he was and she was thankful for that. She gave a look over her shoulder, glad to see that Grace had almost reached the front of the building, but as she turned her attention back to her opponent, he was standing directly in front of her with a wicked smile.

"You just wanted me all to yourself, didn't you?" He questioned, eyes roaming over her body in their own assault.

Ana scoffed, "Yeah, so I could kick your ass without witnesses." she snapped. It was then that Ethan launched himself at her, seeming to be going for a two hand grip around her neck. Quickly pushing his arms away and side stepping, she brought her knee up and connected it with his abdomen. The move seemed to have little effect on him, probably due to the fact that he wasn't feeling much because of how drunk he was, but he stood and swung a fist toward her face. Easily dodging it, Ana lifted her leg again and planted the bottom of her foot into his chest. Apparently even in his drunken state, Ethan was used to fighting, because he proceeded to latch onto her ankle and pull on her leg with enough force to drop her onto her back on the ground.

"Ana!" Grace's voice called into the night. Both Ana and Ethan looked toward the front of the building to see that Grace had pulled a small crowd toward the side of the building, mostly guys, probably in hopes that they would stop Ethan.

Ana took the distraction and swiped both of Ethan's legs out from underneath him before quickly kneeling next to him. She could hear the crowd getting closer, but she wanted to make sure that Ethan understood not to mess with her or Grace again, so she pinned him to the ground. Using her legs to pin down each of his arms, she glared down at him, "If you ever touch another woman like that on this campus, I will hunt you down." she threatened lowly before throwing a punch across his face, not hard enough to knock him unconscious, but he would be disorientated and have a bruise the next day.

"Oh my God, are you okay?" Grace asked in a panic, watching Ana stand as the group circled around her friend and her assailant.

Brushing a hand through her hair, Ana nodded, "Yeah, I'm fine. What about you, are you okay?" she asked, not worried about herself at all. Other than dropping her on her back, Ethan hadn't hit her at all and she had suffered more at the hands of both Sam and Dean than she had in the fight she had just been in.

Grace nodded, tears rimming her eyes, "Thanks to you. How'd you know?"

"I didn't, but you disappeared and I was worried." Ana answered simply, the crowd around them had turned their attention to Ethan as he slowly began to stand up. "Come on, let's get back to our room." she placed her arm around Grace's waist and led her back to their dorm, ready to protect her from Ethan should he follow them.

-A-

"You kicked his ass, right?" Dean's voice carried over the phone that Ana held between her ear and shoulder as she sat typing on her laptop.

Readjusting her position, she grabbed the phone with her hand and moved her laptop from her lap to the desk in front of her, "Yeah, left a pretty nice bruise on the left side of his face too." she answered, rubbing her free hand over her eyes.

"That's my girl." Dean commented and she could hear the grin in his voice.

Sam cleared his throat, they had the phone on speaker like they did almost every time Ana called, "Did you report the guy?" he questioned.

"Grace and I both did. I watched campus security walk him off of the property

earlier today, so hopefully they kicked him out or something. I'm honestly not sure what they do in situations like this." Ana stood up from her chair and walked over to her bed, throwing herself down on it. "I should probably head to class soon, my bio lecture starts in fifteen minutes."

"Alright, well you have fun with that. Don't think too hard." Dean teased.

Sam sighed, "Just take care of yourself, Ana. If you need anything call us." he instructed.

She rolled her eyes, "I'll be fine. Love you both." After ending the call, she stood up and looked around her bedroom. The incident with Ethan had happened on Saturday, it was now Wednesday and she hadn't been to any of her classes that week purely because her mind couldn't stop thinking about that night. It hadn't been all that traumatizing for her, Grace had been the one assaulted, but she knew there were worse things in the world than guys like Ethan and she knew how to stop them. So why was she wasting her time in class? She was a freaking Winchester, hunting was in her blood and adding that on top of being a witch, there was no way she could completely avoid the hunting lifestyle. At first the thought of hunting had scared her, then over the time she spent in the bunker it didn't seem so bad. Yeah, there's was always the chance that you could get hurt or die, but the thought of monsters walking the earth and killing innocent people frightened her more.

-A-

It was two weeks since Ana began to skip classes and she had already been on a couple of nearby hunts. There had been a haunting in a small town just down the highway from campus that had been easy enough to solve. A woman had committed suicide after learning that her husband had been cheating on her with the receptionist at his office building, classic vengeful spirit. The latest case had been another witch and though the woman had been years older than Ana, her magic wasn't very strong. The witch had been hexing people all over the town she was living in and Ana had easily gotten rid of her, not even feeling bad. Borrowers were evil, there was no grey area. Swapping their soul for powers with a demon was the complete opposite of good, but she would have guessed that killing a fellow witch would have been a little more difficult for her to handle.

By the time she got back to campus and into her dorm it was well past midnight. Grace was sleeping and Ana tried to be as quiet as she could coming into the room. The witch had put up quite the fight and Ana was covered in small cuts, dried blood, and she was pretty sure that some of that blood wasn't hers. Grabbing the bag that held her toiletries and a fresh set of clothes, she made her way into the communal showers, thankful that they were always empty this time of night. After starting the water, she stripped out of her clothes and gave her body a once over. None of the cuts were too bad, she wouldn't need to bandage any of them, which she was happy about. Stepping under the warm water, she hissed for a moment as it hit her tender skin, but it became easy to ignore after a while. Drying off and quickly getting dressed, she gathered her things before retreating back to her room. Once her head hit the pillow, Ana fell into a deep sleep, the fight with the witch having taken all of her energy.

-A-

Five hours later Grace's alarm started going off, she got up early during the week to run drills with the rest of the volleyball team. Their first game was just around the corner and the coach was working the girls hard to make sure they would all play their best, or that was how Grace had explained it. Normally the athletic girl did her best to be quiet as she got ready in the morning, but as she glanced over to her roommate's bed she let out a gasp, "Ana, what the hell happened to your arms?" They were covered in what looked to be scratches. Now, Grace wasn't the kind of person to go snooping into other people's business, but she knew that Ana hadn't been coming back to the room until late in the night and had been sleeping through her first three classes, while completely avoiding the rest.

With a groan, Ana rolled over and squinted at her roommate, not wanting to open her eyes any further than needed, "What?" she asked, the question taking a moment to process in her tired brain, "Oh, I uh.. tripped walking back last night and landed in one of the rose bushes." the lie was weak and she knew it, but hopefully Grace either wouldn't notice or would let it slide.

"Rose bushes?" Grace sounded doubtful. Raising an eyebrow at her friend, she sat on the corner of Ana's bed, "What are you doing so late in the night anyway? You're not getting into any trouble, are you?" though they had known each other such a short amount of time, Grace felt the need to worry about the girl that had saved her from being another crazy party statistic about assault.

Ana shook her head, using her hand to cover her eyes from the sunlight that was filtering through the window, "No, no trouble." she assured Grace, giving her a weak smile, "Why don't we talk about this later? I need more sleep and you need to get moving otherwise you're going to be late."

Grace looked at the clock, if she didn't hurry to get ready she would be late and then she would be kept out of their first game. "Fine, but we are going to talk about this." her tone was a little stern, which made Ana smile a little more.

"I promise. Now get out of here so I can sleep." The redhead teased and pulled her blanket up over her head. Ana waited until she heard Grace leave before pulling the blanket away from her face and making herself comfortable again, hoping that she could get a few more hours of sleep before she had to leave the room to avoid the talk with her roommate.

-A-

It was around noon when Ana got up and changed into decent clothes, wearing a jacket to cover her arms so no one else asked about her tiny, but numerous battle wounds. Deciding the best way to avoid Grace would be to actually make an appearance in one of her classes, she grabbed her bag and laptop before setting off for the lecture hall for her psychology class. She made it just before the class started and hurried into a seat, not missing the glances that were shot her way and the shared whispers of people sitting next to each other. Just as the professor was walking in and setting his things up, a guy sitting a few rows in front of her turned to look at her, "Hey, you're the girl that handed Ethan his ass, right?" he asked, the small group of guys sitting around him turned to look at her as well.

Ana rolled her eyes, of course everyone knew now, "Yeah, I am." she answered simply, brushing a hand through her hair before placing her laptop on the small table that swung out from the side of the seat.

"I heard that it took you like five minutes to get him to the ground." One of the other guys commented a little loud, pulling the attention of anyone near them toward their conversation.

"Five minutes?" She questioned, raising an eyebrow as the group gave her a collective nod, "My guess would have been it didn't even take that long, but I wasn't really timing it."

The professor called the room's attention to him as he began a lecture on the ego, id, and superego. The topic itself was something Ana was familiar with because of the psych class she took in high school, but she paid attention and took notes anyway. That is until the topic of her fight began to pass around in whispers through the mass of freshman and sophomores in the class, the gossip new again now that one of the participants was among them. Dr. Henley, the young professor teaching the class, paused mid sentence and looked around the lecture hall, "I wasn't aware the that you all are such experts on this topic, would one of you like to come and teach instead?" he raised his voice to pull attention back to him. "Or would you rather continue to gossip about whatever trivial, high school-esk topic you all are so focused on?" An embarrassed quiet fell over the room. "No, don't stop on my account, I would love to know what all the talk is about. We can analyze it as a class and get to the root of why it's so important." No one spoke up, so Dr. Henley jumped off of the raised platform at the front of the hall and walked up the the stairs on the left side of the hall, "You, sir," he pointed to a guy sitting near the end of one of the front rows, "ten points toward your next test score if you fill me in on the topic of discussion."

Ana recognized the the blond haired guy as one of the guys that had been part of the group Grace had pulled away from the party to help stop Ethan, "We were talking about the fight that happened outside of McKinley Hall a couple of weeks ago."

"Of course you are!" Dr. Henley feigned excitement, "I'm sorry that I haven't heard the news yet, who would like to fill me in?" He looked around the room and took a couple more steps up, "You, there," he pointed toward the guy who had spoken to Ana first out of the group sitting directly in front of her. "Let's hear the story."

The guy shrugged, "I don't know much, I've only heard bits and pieces around school, but she" he gestured behind him to Ana, "was the one in it. Ask her."

Dr. Henley's eyes turned to the redhead who looked like she was going to murder the one that directed the classes attention to her, "Cat fight?" he questioned with a raised eyebrow in Ana's direction.

"Hardly." She answered, closing the screen of her laptop, "I do believe that would call for the fight to be between two girls."

"So your opponent was male?" The doctor asked, seeming intrigued now. Ana nodded and ran a hand through her hair, choosing to avoid answering verbally. "It doesn't seem that much harm was done to you, how did your opponent fair?"

It was then that another student spoke up, a girl with black hair near the front of the room, "I saw Ethan the next day and he had a dark bruise on his face. If she would have hit him any higher it would have been a black eye."

"It would appear that you were the victor, am I correct in assuming that, Miss…?"

"Winchester." She provided her last name for the professor, "And yes, you are correct." her tone was bored, she honestly didn't want to be having a

conversation in a room full of people about how she took down a guy twice her size.

Dr. Henley turned to look at the room, "You heard it folks, Miss Winchester was the victor of the battle. Would anyone like to get any other part of this cleared up or can we return to our lesson?" When no one spoke, he walked back down toward the front of the room and picked up the lecture where he had left off.

The rest of the class went by slowly and Ana was tempted to just get up and walk out, but she didn't want to draw any more attention to herself than she already had. Letting out a sigh of relief as Dr. Henley excused the class, she gathered her things and walked out of the room with a devil may care attitude that her father would have been proud of. Making it back to her dorm room without incident, she left her laptop on her desk, grabbed her car keys and headed back out the door. If this was how college was going to be for her, Ana wasn't sure that she wanted to stick around much longer, but she also didn't want to disappoint her family.

Once in her car, she pulled away from the school and drove aimlessly, letting the loud music blaring through her speakers help clear her mind. The story of her fight would pass soon enough, but what about when it happened again, because it was bound to. College campuses were notorious for sexual assault and if she were to catch it happening again, she wouldn't just sit back and let it happen. There was really no point in staying around, she should just pack her things and start looking for monsters to hunt. If the two cases she had worked solo so far were anything to go by, hunting would be something she was actually pretty good at, but that wasn't surprising when she had a hunter's training as well as control of powerful magic. It was then in the car that she made up her mind, she would take up the family business just as her father and uncle had, she would help rid the world of evil, and she was going to avoid telling both Dean and Sam about it for as long as possible.