AN: Hello Readers! I apologize for the long delay between chapters, grad school has been getting really intense. Also, I apologize because not much interesting happens in this chapter, but it was necessary to get to the next part of the story. Don't lose faith in me :] As always, this is unbetaed and only Nicole belongs to me, you guys are welcome to take the Atwaters... they suck.

Please review 3

"Dean!" Nicole came running back into the bar and skidded to a halt next to the boys table.

Dean briefly diverted his attention from the girl standing at his side and glanced at Nicole. "Yes?"

"I think someone was trying to break into your car," Nicole breathed, her adrenaline running high.

"This better be some kind of joke," Dean's face was suddenly stern.

"It's not and I swear it was the Atwaters. I think I saw their camero tearing out of the parking lot when I went out."

"Son of a bitch." Without so much as a word to the girl he had been talking to, Dean stood from the table and made his way outside with Sam and Nicole hot on his heels.

Nicole and Sam stood tensely off to the side while Dean obsessed over his car, looking for any sort of damage.

"Can you tell if they got in?" Nicole asked hesitantly. Whatever the Atwaters wanted with Dean's car, it couldn't be good.

Dean sighed, "No, but with any sort of skilled hunter you wouldn't be able to. We don't leave evidence."

"Hey, get out of the way. I have an idea." Nicole motioned for Dean to step back from the car. She took the keys from his hand and opened the driver's door. She'd never tried this type of thing before, but she reckoned that she might be able to use her powerful sense of smell to tell if any of then had been in car. She was so used to the smell of Sam and Dean that anything out of the ordinary would surely stand out. Crawling into Dean's seat, Nicole shut the door, closed her eyes and took a deep breath.

Dean was staring at her bewildered through the window. He looked at Sam who simply shrugged in response.

"Nikki, what are you doing?" He called through the window, but she just put up a finger to silence him and kept her eyes shut.

After a few more seconds, Nicole rolled the window down and shook her head. "One of them was definitely in here. I can smell him."

"You can?" Sam asked, peaking past her into the car.

"Smells nothing like you guys," Nicole shrugged and exited the car.

After going through the interior and taking inventory of all the weapons in the trunk, Dean proclaimed that nothing was missing, which confused the three of them even more.

"What did they want then?" Sam paced around the car, running a hand through his hair.

"Maybe Nicole interrupted them before they got what they wanted?" Dean suggested, and Sam let out a derisive snort.

"When is it ever that easy?" He asked, "And what could we have in the car that they couldn't get from some where else?"

No one had an answer.

With no other leads, the trio decided it was best for them to retreat to their motel room for the rest of the night.

Remembering why she had originally come out to the car, Nicole cracked open a bottle from the cooler drained it in a few gulps, surprised by how hungry she was. When they pulled into the motel parking lot, Nicole grabbed her bag with a sigh.

"You guys do realize you aren't broke any more right? We've made a few thousand dollars off pawning things this month. We could actually stay in a hotel once in a while." Nicole griped, noticing a suspicious stain on the carpet of the room.

"I'm sorry, Princess. Is this not up to your lofty standards?" Dean threw his bag down onto the bed closest to the door as usual.

Nicole pursed her lips at his attitude, but let it slide tonight because his baby had been broken into and it was obviously stressing him out.

Throwing up her hands, Nicole shrugged, "I'm just saying dude. It might be nice once and a while."

Before Dean could retort, Nicole retreated into the bathroom to get the first shower. While the hot water ran over her, Nicole's mind drifted back to Dean… as it usually did.

Today would be the first time that they slept together where they were staying in a room with only two beds. Nicole didn't want to sleep in close proximity to Dean, but the only worse than that would be to admit defeat and sleep with Sam or on the couch. The idea of letting Dean know he got to her was worse that the thought of sleeping tensely next to him all night. Resigning herself to several uncomfortable nights next to Dean until the awkwardness faded, Nicole toweled off and slipped into her sleep shorts and a tee-shirt

Several hours later, Nicole gasped awake in the quiet of the night with her stomach churning and her throat on fire. She'd had another dream about draining Sam and Dean, but what horrified her more than the dream was how massively hungry she was after dreaming about killing her two best friends other than Allison.

Slowing her breathing, Nicole glanced at Dean and was thankful to see that he was still sleeping. Slipping out of bed, Nicole silently made her way to the mini fridge and pulled out her stash of blood. Settling herself on the love seat, Nicole knew she wouldn't be able to sleep for the rest of the night, not with the imaginary taste of Sam and Dean's blood still in her mouth. She couldn't climb back into bed next to Dean and risk another nightmare… or be next to Dean while she was so hungry.

Before she knew it, Nicole had finished the last two bottle she had and sighed realizing that she would need to make Sam and Dean do a blood run first thing in the morning. Though she hadn't meant to, but Nicole ended up dozing off again curled up on the love seat and that was where Sam and Dean found her the next morning, next to two empty bottles of blood.

"Nicole", Sam whispered, gently shaking her awake. She jerked up and blinked a few times trying to get Sam into focus. He and Dean gave each other loaded looks.

"Anything you want to tell us?" He asked.

"We're out of blood," she replied, confused, her voice rough with sleep.

"You normally drink two bottles in a day, not two in one sitting," Sam pointed out.

Nicole stretched her arms above her head and rolled the kinks out of her neck. "Like Dean never binges on cheeseburgers and fries every once in a while," She scoffed, hoping they couldn't see through her deflection. In reality, she awoke so hungry after her dream that she had to chug both bottles just to make the burning in her throat go away, but she didn't want to worry the brothers or have them think she was losing control of herself.

"You know, since it's daylight we cant exactly score you some more from an animal hospital or something until nightfall right?" Dean said, cocking an eyebrow at her.

Nicole mentally cursed, but just smiled at Dean and said "I know, don't worry".

Since they had wrapped up their case the night before, Nicole and the brothers found another case a few hours south and hit the road. They were heading towards Huntsville Arkansas where some demon omens had popped up within the last week. There weren't any other mysterious deaths or anything, just the omens, which meant the brothers needed to figure out what the hell a demon was doing hanging out in a small town in Arkansas if it didn't involve chaos and destruction.

For most of the ride, Nicole had her headphones on blasting music to drown out her thoughts. She kept her eyes glued on the scenery flying past her window so she didn't spend too much time thinking about how hungry she was and how she could hear the blood being pumped through Sam and Dean's bodies. When they first got in the car, Nicole had made the mistake of glancing at Sam's neck where she hadn't been able to tear her eyes away from his pulse point. She refused to look at either of them until they were out of the enclosed space of the Impala.

As she stared out the window with her noise-cancelling headphones on, Nicole was unaware of the brothers talking a few feet away from her.

"So, anything you want to tell me about that last night at Bobby's?" Sam asked his brother.

Dean looked away from the road to give his brother a disapproving look. "Why do I get the feeling you already know?"

"Because I do. It helps to have an in with Nicole's best friend."

Dean rolled his eyes. "There's nothing to talk about," he replied, his grip tight on the steering wheel.

"Nothing? Really?" Sam smirked at him, "Not a single thing?"

"No."

"Come on, Dean. You vanished for the whole morning after. It can't be nothing."

"Don't you already know everything?" Dean snapped, "You act like we don't see you texting and sneaking outside to call Allison all the time."

Now it was Sam's turn to roll his eyes. "Don't make this about me, Dean. I just want to know your side of it. Try and figure out why you both are being so stubborn."

As Dean remained silent, Sam sighed and decided to move the conversation along himself. "Allison says that Nicole is being a complete idiot, which apparently Nicole does a lot."

Dean grunted in acknowledgement.

"And that she does have feelings for you even though she's pushing you away. Allison says that's kind of her thing, pushing people away, especially those that have the power to hurt her," Sam continued.

"Maybe Nicole is doing the right thing," Dean countered.

"I don't see how denying the both of you a chance to be happy is the right thing."

Dean glanced at Nicole in the rear view mirror and let out a heavy sigh. "We talked about this before, Sammy. She goes back to med school, we continue hunting. She lives a normal life with a guy her own age that has more to offer her." Dean looked back again to make sure Nicole was still staring out the window engrossed in her music before glancing sideways at Sam.

"Have you ever thought that she might know what she's getting into better than any other girl you've dated and doesn't care what we do for a living?" Sam leveled his brother with a hard stare.

"Why do you always make me think about these things, Sammy? I hate you."

"No you don't!"

It was after dark by the time the trio arrived at their destination. It was clear to Dean that something was going on with Nicole between the nightmares and barely speaking to anyone so he decided to take her earlier suggestion to heart and actually book a hotel to take a break from the string of motels. It was by no means 5 star, but it had clean sheets and a Jacuzzi bath tub, which he thought might distract Nicole from her nightmares, but she had an unexpected response.

Upon walking into the room, Nicole immediately spied the sofa and ran over to is. "Is this a pull out couch? I am totally sleeping here!" She said before dumbing her bag on the floor and flopping down on it.

Sam watched his brother freeze in the doorway for a split second before throwing his bad on the bed by the door with more force than necessary and turning to leave again. "I'm going on a blood run," he said, stomping back out the door leaving Nicole and Sam alone.

Nicole breathed a sigh of relief knowing that soon she would have the blood she so desperately needed and that tonight she wouldn't have to sleep next ton Dean and risk waking up hungry after a nightmare right next to him.

"What the hell is wrong with you two?" Sam asked before shaking his head and retreating into the bathroom. Nicole felt bad shutting both brothers out, but the alternative was even worse, admitting to them that she was having a harder and harder time controlling her bloodlust and was having dreams nearly every night about murdering them both.

AN: I hope I still have some readers after that terribly dull chapter, dont worry it will get better! Please review!