Hi guys, I'm so sorry about the wait for this chapter especially as I've had such an amazing response! Rl sucks an d without boring you if I'd of carried on with this story beforenow bells would have shot dean then turned into a lesbian as all men are arseholes and obviously I couldn't do that to you! Instead I'm took my time and am back with two new chaps for you that I hope you enjoy!

Chapter Eighteen

Hunters Dream

We stayed in the motel for a couple more days, having some down time as Dean called it. We watched a few films, drank in a couple of bars, watched loads of crap telly and ate a bucket load of junk food.

Eventually though Sam found us a job in Illinois, a possible haunting of an old trucking stop where three women were murdered brutally. Colour me shocked.

The building was haunted, but by the murderer rather than the women as we'd originally suspected. Which was a slight problem.

"Sam it's Tucker!" I screamed down the phone to Sam who was digging up the woman's graves with Dean. The evil ghost with bright shining red eyes coming for me. I shot it once in the head, watching as it disappeared but keeping my eyes open for when it came back as it was bound to do.

"What is?" Sam asked down the phone line, and he was the smart one supposedly.

"Two down, six letters, Tucker the cross word clue!" I shouted with an eye roll, walking around the abandoned shelter by myself, my heart pounding with terror, my shotgun weighing heavily on the muscles that were killing me due to being thrown into a wall.

"What?" Sam asked me.

"The ghost you idiot! It's Tucker not the girls!" I said firing off another round as the ghost placed a hand around my neck from behind, not able to help the little squeal that escaped me as I did.

"Oh crap, he's buried the other side of the cemetery! Bells get out of there!" Sam shouted at me, his voice hard and worried at the same time.

"No can do Sammy, he's got me on lock down." I said, the ghost had made escape impossible, supernaturally barring every exit. I'd already checked. It would've been nice if at some point since I'd been with them one of the brothers could've metioned that ghosts could do that.

"How many rounds you got left?" Sam asked me, his voice laboured as though running.

I checked how many I had and groaned, day just got worse and worse. "Five." I said letting the not small amount of panic I felt seep into my voice and echo around the empty space I was trapped within.

"Damn!" I heard a hard voice come from the line but it wasn't clear enough to hear. "Yeah dude, she knows. Right Bells?"

"Know what? Not a psychic Sam!" I bit out a little on the tetchy side.

"To find some iron if you can." Sam told me over the loud beating of my frantic heart.

"Yup got that. Not a lot of that in here though Sammy." I said doing another scout of the small, derelict, dirty building just to make sure.

"Crap." Sam sighed down the line.

"Crap!" I shouted as the ghost made a lunge for me from a blind spot to my right. I dodged and lifted my gun, shooting the ghost to nothing for another few minutes.

"Bells!" Sam shouted.

"I'm here!" I called back, walking backwards to a corner so that I could see anything approaching.

"We're almost there Bella hold him off!"

"Really? I was just gonna give up! Or take a little snooze and hope that I wouldn't be ripped to shreds!" I said sarcastically, my voice loud and shrill.

I saw a movement out of my eye in a dark corner opposite me. I raised my gun and shot once more.

"Ok we're here Bells." Sam said, his breath coming heavily down the line which was now full of static.

"Well hurry the fuck up! I've only got three rounds left then I'm ghost chow!" My terror was starting to get the better of me. Why the hell did I think hunting was a good idea? Why?

The ghost appeared less than a foot from me, his eyes seeming to glow in the darkness that surrounded him. I lifted my gun once more but he caught it and tugged it free of my aching arms before throwing it to the side with a clatter.

The ghost lifted me by my throat, his dirty long nails cutting into the tender skin of my neck. His hands feeling greasy and bile inducing. I dropped my phone as I lifted my hands desperately trying to pry the ghosts from my neck where he was slowly choking me to death, a grin stretching across his malicious and twisted face. I kicked him, but nothing happened, my foot went through him. His grin widened and with a roar he threw me across the room.

I landed hard, black spots appearing in front of my eyes, and a horrible whistling noise screaming through my head as it collided hard with the concrete floor. I thought I felt the sticky flow of blood coming from a gash but everything was a little muffled. Especially my thought process.

Despite everything hurting, not really knowing what was going on and the black fuzziness that was starting to take me over, I knew I had to defend myself. From something. With the gun. I had a gun. I needed to get it. It would stop the... Thing.

I reached out, almost blindly groping for my gun, knowing it was near by but not where. Then I felt a heat on my face, and bright light made me close my eyes. I was pretty sure that meant I was safe, that it was going to be ok now.

~0~

"B! Shit! B! C'mon wake up sweetheart!" A frantic voice seeped through the black, trying to wake me up.

"Bella, Bells! Dean, she's hit her head." Another voice came through the black fog that was holding me under.

"I can see that! We need to get her to a hospital." Soft hands pulled me into a hard chest, jostling me. "Why did we leave the girl on her own to face the ghosts? What were we thinking Sammy? This isn't how we hunt, leave the hundred and twenty pound girl to fight the monsters while we're safe and sound in the bone yard." I tried very hard to wake myself up, to tell the voice it wasn't his fault. Was a danger of the job. I tried fighting the black mud that I was struggling against.

"She's not a just a skinny little girl Dean, she's a hunter. We trained her to do this, it's like asking yourself why you let Ellen lose on a ghost by herself." The second voice said, saying some of what I wanted to. Though I had no idea who Ellen was.

"Cause I wouldn't dare tell her she couldn't do it." The first voice muttered close to my ear.

"Exactly. Would you tell Bells she couldn't do something? Dude last time you told her that she was too weak she almost broke your hand and you were wearing six inch padding!" A chuckle came from the second voice, it sounded almost proud. He sounded almost proud. I knew who he was, I did, I was sure. If I could just fight the inky blackness I'd get it I knew I would.

"Yeah she did. Thought she was gonna try and break my face too." The first voice said also with a chuckle. His voice was like warm velvet, helping to lift the dark, though not completely. The voice, it belonged to someone I loved, I knew that much.

"Dude, you know what she's gonna say if you start blaming yourself don't ya?" The second voice was so compassionate and warm. He was my friend. It was just his name I was struggling with now. It began with an S, I thought but I wasn't sure.

"That I'm an idiot and that's it not our job to look out for her. Yeah. I know. But still..." Dean! That was his name Dean!

My eyelids fluttered open, painful and heavy, my head throbbed and I felt a bit sick. But I knew everything now. I could remember everything.

"Its not your fault." I slurred out, wanting to make sure that was the first thing that I said.

Dean almost dropped me out of shock, which had Sam howling with laughter and me smiling in an absent kind of way. It would be funnier if my head didn't feel like it had been carved open.

"B! Gave us a scare there. You ok?" Dean asked me quietly, about fifty yards from the Impala now, much to Deans relief I was sure, I must have been killing his arms.

"Yeah. But it isn't ya know, your fault." I said not dropping it.

"Tell ya what, we can argue about that all you want, I'll even listen, as soon as we've got you to a hospital. Ok sweetheart?" Dean said with a smile, his eyes never leaving my face.

"K." I said smiling back even though it hurt my head even more. I couldn't help it, it was like looking at the sun and having him smile at you.

"Here Sammy, you drive!" Dean said chucking the keys at Sam and climbing into the back seat, me still tightly in his arms.

~0~

I had a mild concussion and had to have seven stitches at the back of my head that were a million times worse than the injury itself. But I lived to tell the tale and fight another monster, so that was apparently all that mattered.

After a few days of rest it was on to another town and another hunt. This time ghouls.

Ghouls were tricky, and in the end it was down to hand to hand fighting with knives. I'd never felt so powerful in my life, kicking the ass of a huge ghoul. And what's more I didn't get injured for once! Sammy got a dislocated shoulder which Dean put back in place when the job was done, but other than that we came off relatively unscathed. A success.

Again after a couple of days we moved on. Next hunt a werewolf. Which I put down all on my own. With my shiny new gun which I'd brought myself. It gave me a satisfaction I can't even begin to explain.

Another hunt, witches.

Another hunt, demons.

Another werewolf.

More ghosts.

A Wendingo, which was a tricky son of a bitch.

You name it in three months I was sure that we'd hunted it. All the while still looking for my father and trying to see if Lillith was breaking any more seals.

It was a hell of a three months. I'd done things I'd never though that I would, I'd said things that I'd never have said before, ever. I'd killed things with my own hands. I'd learnt first aid while doing it. I'd got rip roaringly drunk. I'd even got stoned once. I'd been arrested twice more. Everything I thought I'd never do I did.

The one thing that I would have thought I'd have done though, I hadn't. Not yet.

Dean and I still hadn't... Made love, I guess. It wasn't that we both didn't want to. Cause oh dear lord did we. No the problem was that just as we were about to we always got interrupted for something more important. I swear, if I didn't know any better than I'd have thought that Sam and Bobby were doing it on purpose.

'Oh they're finally naked, time to ring!'

'Hmmm... That sounds promising, I'll tell them about that lead I found on Charlie!'

It was almost painful now. And damn right annoying. I was one more failed attempt from doing it in public and not giving a shit.

It was one such occasion, just as we were about to... When the phone rang. Again.

"Just ignore it. Please Dean!" I begged, lust and want in my voice, my hands clutching at his amazing body. Wanting more than anything to feel him in me.

"What if it's..." Dean started saying, his breath coming out in pants.

"I don't give a shit if it's Lucifer himself. They'll call back!" I said moving my body so that I was telling him exactly what I wanted.

Dean went to kiss me again, his hand going back to my breast once more as his phone stopped ringing. We were so close...

Then my fucking phone had to ring too.

"I swear to god someone better be dead!" I practically screamed as I reached out from under Dean to get my phone from the bedside table.

"Yeah?" I answered abruptly. My voice letting the irritation I felt flow through it.

"Bella?" The voice asked sounding confused.

"Yeah." I answered again, the familiar gravily rough voice making me want to travel to Souix Falls and beat him. "What's up Bobby?"

"Dean isn't answering his damn phone. You guys ok?" Ok if that was why he'd rang I was going to scream.

"Yeah, we're fine. What's up?" I asked again, not even caring that I was being rude.

"I got a lead on you're daddy Bella." Bobby informed me, taking away some of my anger but not all. Probably just another dead end.

"Shoot." I said, waiting for the information and moving away from Dean slightly.

"A buddy of mine; Rufus, the boys know him, worked a job with him in Michigan, a routine haunting. Asked him real casual like where he was heading next." Bobby said then paused, apparently wanting to keep me in suspense.

"And...?" I asked while rolling my eyes. What was this ten ways to frustrate Bella to death?

"He's going to New Hampshire, apparently they've got a demon infestation. Charlie said they're gathering there, almost as though they waiting for something."

"Waiting for what?" I asked, a sharp thrill of fear travelling up my spine.

"It's one of two things. It's either a seal, or it's Eve. If it's Eve then Charlie's there to stop her, and so are the demons. If it's a seal then the demons are there to break it and Charlie wants to save it. My guess, it's the second one. But maybe Dean should ring Cas, having an angel up the sleeve might be a good idea before you go riding into town half cocked." Bobby said, I silently agreed with him, that would be a better idea.

"When did Rufus hear it?" I wanted time frames.

"Day before yesterday, you're daddy should be there tomorrow tops." Bobby said in his gruff voice.

"If we leave now we can get there before him. Wait him out." I said, half thinking out loud.

"That's why I rang you now ya igit!" Bobby barked, on form as always. "Tell Dean and Sam to give me a ring when you're there."

"Will do, thanks Bobby." I said, feeling actually grateful to him despite how I started the conversation.

"Yeah, yeah. Just don't screw it up!" Bobby growled at me before hanging up. The nice parting shot he always gave us. It was almost a good luck saying now.

I turned to face Dean with a sigh. "Let me guess, we gotta go right now?" Dean said, his voice resigned, his face holding the deep disappointment that I was feeling.

"Yup." I said my face down turned as I climbed off our bed and started to get dressed.

"What this time?" Dean asked me, watching my every move but not getting off the bed himself.

I told him every word of my phone call with Bobby. By the end Dean was getting dressed while I started shoving our clothes into our bags. Sam's too.

"I'll ring the queen of the mood swings." Dean muttered once his stunning body was hidden from my eyes once again.

For the last few weeks Sam's moods had been worse than any females I'd ever met. One minute he was his normal friendly, geeky self, the next it was like he was channelling Charles freaking Manson. When he was in one of his funks Dean and I had taken to warning each other by saying 'here's Jonny!' Neither of us knew what was wrong with him despite our best efforts to find out. He always told us that there was nothing wrong. We both knew it was bull, but other than torture it out of him there was nothing that we could do.

"Dude!... Yeah, we gotta boot... Charlie... New Hampshire... We'll pick ya up... Can't you ever have just gone to a bar? Have that thing called fun? Get a life... Whatever. See you in ten." Dean hung up with a frown at his phone. "Here's Johnny!" Dean warned me, his face tense and stressed, his demeanour almost defeated. Sam's mood swings were taking there tole on Dean, physically and emotionally.

"Where is he?" I asked softly as I zipped up our now packed bags.

"Three guesses." Dean grumbled.

"Library?" I assumed while hoisting my bag onto my shoulder.

"You could be the new Jennifer Love Hewitt. It's uncanny." Dean dead panned.

I just rolled my eyes at him. "Ya ready?"

"I guess." Dean said with another weary sigh before picking up his and Sam's bags. He wasn't exactly a romantic, despite the fact that we'd been... Well whatever we were doing, for three months now. He hadn't lied, there had been no candy, no flowers, no date nights. But he showed a more romantic side to himself in other ways. Like never letting me pick up a tab when we ate together, or always taking the bags rather than let me carry them. He held doors open for me and brought me little treats every now and then. Small tokens like a packet of my favourite chips or a magazine for a long ride. He was sweet in his own way.

Dean and I had a strange relationship, not a conventional one by any means. When we were on a hunt, unless one of us were hurt, it was like we were colleagues and nothing more. But when the hunt was over, or when we were having a little breather, it was like we were inseperable. We rarely held hands, but he had taken mine a couple of times. We hugged, held each, kissed, everything that a normal couple did. We laughed, we joked, we talked for hours on end. Sometimes I thought he was my other half, as though I wasn't complete without him near me. But still we'd never had a talk about us, we'd never defined things and we'd not once said the L word.

We headed out to the car and loaded it up in silence, each lost in our own thoughts as we climbed in to the beautiful black car. I could see why Dean loved it so much, it really was an amazing piece of machinery.

It took us five minutes to get to the tiny town library where Sam had apparently spent his afternoon. I wondered sometimes if Sam said he was going to do research or read and actually hit a bar or two. Though he never came back smelling of alcohol or smoke, it was just the way sometimes he went out in one of his terrible black moods and came back his normal joyful self. Maybe he just really got that much out of reading? And who was I to judge. We were all entitled to our secrets.

Dean honked the horn once as we pulled up outside the small stone building. I climbed into my place in the back seat, knowing the fuss Sam would make while he was in one of his bad moods if he had to sit in the back. Though normally he wouldn't give a damn, and would actually seem happy to see Dean and me so close, happy.

Sam lumbered down the steps a moment or two later. His face creased into a frown, his hands jammed down deep into his jacket pockets. He barely glanced at the car, his head hanging low, his long brown hair flopping into his chocolate brown eyes. His limbs were stiff and held tight. He really was in one of his worse moods. We were in for a fun couple of hours.

"Hey Sam." I said as he climbed into the car. "You have fun?"

"No." Was his short and sharp answer, making me wince inside but hidden by the poker face I wore all the time when we were outside whatever motel room we were calling home for the day.

"What? Slim pickings at the well of nerds?" Dean tried joking, but the rigid set of his shoulders took the fun out of it.

"Not everyone goes out to pick up chicks dude." Sam snapped.

"Yeah they do." Dean replied with a smirk, my insides buried up with repressed jealousy and fury. I knew that Dean was a ladies man, we could hardly go anywhere without some woman trying to pick him up or sliding him there number, and he loved the attention. But he always ripped the number up, and he never responded to the flirting. Well unless he wanted the woman to answer his questions. "And libraries are great places for getting geeky yet hot girls. Banging some hot librarian in the history section!" Deans voice took on real glee for a minute and I couldn't help the small chuckle that escaped me.

"You're confusing porn and real life again D." I smirked at the hunter.

"Yeah, and you've been watching a lot of that lately." Sam muttered his arms crossed in front of his chest. Ouch. That one stung.

"What?" Dean snapped, his own temper flaring now. There wasn't much that could really piss Dean off, but if you insulted the people and things that he loved, that sent him flying off into a rage. Not that he loved me, he didn't, or I didn't think he did, but I was pretty sure that he did care about me. And that was close enough for Dean.

"Just you've been watching a lot. That's all." Sam said, then carried on under his breath. "Cause you sure ain't getting it anywhere else!" Of course in the tiny space that was the Impala, Dean and me heard every syllable.

"Dude, you're my brother, I'd do anything for you. But keep you're damn nose out of my business, that's if you want it to keep that shape ok?" Dean bit out, his eyes and voice hard.

"It is my business when it's happening, or not happening sorry, in my room Dean. Anyway, you want it dropped it's dropped." Sam said back. His voice just as hard.

Deans eyes slid to me in the re-view mirror, assessing how hurt I was from Sam's comments. Still I kept my poker face on though. Pretending that I didn't feel anything the way a good hunter shouldn't feel anything. And I was turning into a damn good hunter. The brothers had told me so themselves.

To say it was a long journey would be an understatement. I'd travelled with the brothers for eight days straight once and that wasn't nearly as long as those three hours seemed to be.

Every mile or two Dean and Sam would make little digs at each other, snide and nasty comments that, apparently, they couldn't keep to themselves. All the while I stayed quiet in the back, seething silently. Where were the days of fun gone? What had happened to the inseparable brothers that I had first met almost five months ago? Cause I sure as hell wanted them back. Sure as hell wanted that Sam back.

Finally we pulled into a fairly cheap hotel on the outskirts of New Hampshire. The kind of place that Charlie had been staying in since he'd left me six months ago. That one was starting to run deep, that cut. Six months and he hadn't tried finding me, tried to make sure that I was ok. Yeah, that hurt a bit.

Sam stormed out of the car and into the hotel. Apparently he wanted to check us in tonight. Dean and I climbed out in a more sedate fashion, both of us silent and worn out. Angry jibes, snide and nasty comments and a tense atmosphere was more exhausting to live in than you would have thought.

Dean carried his bag and mine into the lobby, leaving Sam's bag as a silent 'fuck you brother', that even I caught. Things had to break soon, otherwise it would be out and out war. Then things would really turn ugly.

The lobby was nice and bright but a bit too chintzy for my tastes. The curtains were lace and the wallpaper flowery, the carpets floral and pink. Add some brimstone and horrible torture and you had my own personal hell.

"Hello!" The woman behind the desk chimed in a really friendly voice. Her eyes darting straight to Dean, not even glancing at me. "And how can I help?" She purred in what she obviously thought was a seductive voice. Her eyes travelling across Deans huge muscled body appreciativley. My hand was itching towards my gun slightly as she threw back long blonde hair and batted her eyelids.

"Hi... Daisy." Dean smirked while reading her name tag. "I think my brothers just checked us in? Tall gawky dude with an attitude?"

"Ah... Mr. Handsome?" Really, that was the name on his fake credit card? Wow. That was... Bad. Just bad. "He's just checked in yes. But he only got a single room...?" Daisy trailed off looking a bit confused. Hmmm... Seemed Sam had sent his own silent message.

"Bitch." Dean whispered to me, his shoulders tensing again at the silent but pointed jibe. "Guess we better have our own room then." Dean directed that to Daisy with a heartbreaking smile for her that had my own pulse racing, and it wasn't even directed at me.

"Y..yeah... Sure." Daisy was well and truly stunned by the gorgeous man, not that I blamed her in the slightest, he did it to me on a daily basis and I was almost use to him now. "Is that two queens?" The woman asked, finally glancing at me for the first time, her eyebrows pulling into a hint of a frown.

"What d'ya think sweetheart? Want a bed all to yourself tonight?" Dean asked me with a twinkle in his eyes that had me smiling along with him. "Or are you not fed up with me hogging the covers yet?"

"Tell ya what, get one bed and I'll sleep on you. That way covers won't be a problem, you can keep me warm." I said in a flirty tone that I only ever used when I was trying to piss off the women that regularly tried chatting Dean up with.

"One bed it is then please." Dean told Daisy while wrapping an arm around my shoulders and smiling another grin at her.

Her frown deepened and she became more frosty towards us, but she finally handed over the key to a nice room with one bed right next to Sam's. Oh joy.

A different day, a different home, and a different hunt. I vaguely wondered if this time we'd have trapped Charlie, if we'd have finally tracked him down, as we walked the stairs to our room.

so I hope you all enjoyed this chap, next one will be up in a few minutes. Love always tametiger xx