Wolfie: I don't own anything related to Supernatural, just all of the changes I make to have dean be a woman. Now please read, review, and I hope you have enjoyed this story so far.

Chapter 8

Half a month, Dean couldn't really believe that it had already been almost half a month since she had come back from Hell as a woman. And in that time she's gone on a hunt for a demon possessed college boy, a family man turned Rugaru, and a shape-shifter obsessed with old monster movies. They weren't any closer to finding Lilith, which didn't really sit well with Dean, but they were on another case again. This time in Rock Ridge, Colorado. So hopefully this will keep her busy enough so she's not worrying about finding Lilith for the time being. Immediately stopping at the morgue where they were introduced to the corpse of Frank O'Brien. Sam and Dean, decked out in their fed suits, were there asking the usual questions. In this case the tall brunette male was asking for clarification on the fact that Frank's cause of death was a heart attack that happened three days ago. Sam didn't exactly find that believable, seeing as the man's file said he was a 44 year old marathon runner. The coroner didn't seem to have any sympathy for the dead as he talked about death so casually, like it was no big deal.

This whole thing smelled fishy to Dean, especially since there were two similar cases to this one down in Maumee that happened yesterday. And she certainly didn't like the coroner's attitude, so she put her authority as a fake FBI agent to good use right then and there. By having the coroner do an impromptu autopsy, with Dean and Sam as his helpers for the whole thing. They dawned surgical gloves, surgery gowns, plastic aprons, the whole shebang as the coroner got right into the autopsy. Asking them questions and just talking in general, asking the two of them to sometimes hold things or hand him things too. All whilst Sam and Dean made some observations and asked questions of their own, ones that the coroner had no answers for. Yet despite all of the protective layers that they had dawned it had done nothing to prevent the brunette hunter from getting spleen juice splattered on his face. Which made Dean feel pretty good about the fact that all she had to do was literally hold Frank's heart in the palm of her hands.

The sheriff's office hadn't been much help either. After being made to wait for what seemed like hours in the lobby by the sheriff finally made an appearance. But only because he had poked his head out of his office to ask his deputy a question when he noticed them. Sure he let them back into his office immediately afterwards, but they had to take off their shoes before they could go in. Which was odd, but not as odd as the sheriff slathering up his hands with an insane amount of hand sanitizer. The first time was after he shook both Sam and Dean's hands, the second time was after he had a coughing fit into his fist. The sheriff did seem to know something when they were asking him questions, but he was very calm and solemn about his answers. However by the time Sam and Dean exited the building and headed towards the Impala they had come to the same conclusion. That what had happened to all three victims was definitely not a heart attack. Especially due to the fact that all three victims had the same red scratch marks on the inner forearms. All whilst they went from jittery to terrified to dead, all within the span of 48 hours.

"Something scare them to death?" Dean asked, wondering what kind of assumption or theory Sam may have.

"Alright, so what can do that?" Sam questioned in response as he let out a sigh.

"What can't?" Dean asked with an airy chuckle as Sam looked at her. "Ghosts, Vampires, Chupacabra? It could be a hundred things." She said since in their line of work there's no right answer till more evidence is found.

"Yeah. So we make a list and start crossing things off." Sam suggested as that seemed like the best option right now.

"Alright, who's the last person to see Frank O'Brien alive?" Dean asked curiously, seeing as they need to start somewhere with getting leads.

"Uh, his neighbor, Mark Hutchins." Sam revealed, seeing as that was the only person who could've seen anything going on with Frank.

"Hang on, hey." Dean suddenly said as she stopped walking.

"What?" Sam asked as he too stopped walking.

"I don't like the looks of those teenagers down there." Dean stated, causing Sam to look at the four boys loitering near the Impala. Two of which were sitting on bikes whilst the other two were standing. "Let's walk this way." She said quickly and walked just as quickly across the street before the tall male could question her.

Sam looked on in confusion as Dean continued to cross the street, this was odd behavior, even for her. In all his life he has never known her to be deterred by a group of teenagers, it just made no sense. As the visited Frank's neighbor they went under the aliases of the last names Tyler and Perry. Mark immediately realized it as being just like two of the members of Aerosmith. Dean would've given him props for knowing his band members, if it weren't for all the damn reptiles around her. Sam was indifferent to all of the reptiles, but between the bearded dragon staring at her and the snake Mark was holding she was on edge. Every noise or movement the reptiles made caused Dean to turn her gaze to them as Mark was asked questions about Frank. Though finally she managed to get enough courage to question if he knew what had scared his neighbor. Mark's answer was sort of helpful, then again he said that everything scared Frank. Including the Wicked Witch of the West from the Wizard of Oz movie that had been on when he was still alive.

The most useful bits of information had been that Frank used to be a bully before he "got better". Though the getting better part had only happened after his wife Jessie had committed suicide. Dean had been ready to leave after hearing that, but Mark had noticed the looks she was giving to the snake he was currently hoping. He had mention that the snake, Donny, wasn't one to worry about so that did quell her nerves a bit. Till he mentioned Marie and how she smelt fear, Sam however was the first one to notice the snake. Upon seeing him look to something next to her Dean looked over as well. The female hunter inhaled sharply as a much larger snake slithering her way up over the back of the couch. Dean soon gave Mark a nervous smile, trying to keep her cool even as Marie began to slither her way onto her. The large snake slithering over her hand and down the length of her leg on her way back down to the floor. Her eyes looked at anything but the snake as a quiet, nervous humming soon escaped her throat.

Then later that night, now back in her normal clothes, Dean sat in the driver's seat of the Impala. A paper was leaned against the steering wheel as she attempted to read what was printed on it. She wasn't getting very far though as she couldn't help but itch at the inner forearm of her left arm. Scathing at it through her coat, it was like there was an itch there that wouldn't go away. Dean however was startled out of attempting to read the paper by the passenger door suddenly opening as she quickly looked over. Relaxing, if only slightly, as Sam slid back inside of the car and shut the door behind himself with a thud. He soon asked if Dean had had any luck at the County Clerk's office, which is where the paper she was trying to read had come from. She really wouldn't call any of it luck though, explaining to Sam what all she had found out as she handed him the paper. It was a news article about Frank's deceased wife Jessie. Dean went on to explain that she had been a manic-depressive that went off her meds in '88 before suddenly vanishing. Soon finishing her story with the fact that Jessie had been found two weeks later, three towns over, having hung herself in her motel room.

"Any chance Frank helped her along to the other side?" Sam asked curiously as he glanced away from the paper towards Dean.

"No, Frank was working a swing shift when she disappeared." Dean revealed, effectively ruling out any possibility of Frank being behind Jessie's suicide. "Airtight alibi." She stated as she turned the car on and started driving. "How was Frank's pad?" Dean soon asked after a while of driving in silence.

"Clean. Searched it top to bottom. No EMF, no hex bags, no sulfur." Sam explained, Frank's house had been suspiciously clean for a case like this.

"So probably no ghosts, no witches, no demons. 3 down and 97 to go." Dean said, they were still no where near close to figuring this out.

"Yeah." Sam uttered as he glanced out the window a moment before looking back at Dean. "...You're going 20." He said once he noticed the speed at which the car was driving at.

"And?" Dean asked, not quite seeing what the problem was.

"That's the speed limit." Sam stated, when has Dean ever obeyed the speed limit?

"What? Safety's a crime now?" Dean asked as she looked at Sam but he said nothing in response.

"Dean, where are you going? That was our hotel." Sam soon said when Dean just kept on driving rather than pull into the hotel parking lot.

"Sam, I'm not gonna make a left-hand turn into oncoming traffic. I'm not suicidal." Dean said and Sam looked at her like she had three heads, the EMF meter going off like crazy from within Sam's coat pocket. "Did I just say that? That was kind of weird." She said with a chuckle as she glanced at the brunette male next to her.

"You hear something?" Sam asked before searching around on his person, slowly pulling out the still going off EMF meter.

"The hell?" Dean uttered as she watched slightly, every time the EMF meter was moved closer to her the arrow went directly to red. "Am I haunted? Am I haunted?!" She asked, her voice going from nervous to panicked in a matter of seconds.

"Dean, Dean calm down." Sam said, trying to get Dean to calm down before she gets them in a car accident.

"Calm down, how can I calm down Sam? I'm haunted for fucks sake!" Dean snapped and she didn't mean to be mean but she was scared, and Sam could see that.

"I know Dean, but we're going to figure this out. I promise." Sam reassured, watching as Dean sat rigged in her seat white-knuckling the steering wheel. "I'll call Bobby in the morning. For now let's just get back to the hotel and get some rest, ok?" He said, going silent as he watched the usually strong hunter next to him take a shaky deep breath.

"Ok..." Dean said after a few deep shuddered breaths, trying to calm herself as they eventually got back to the hotel.

The next morning Sam was on the phone with Bobby as he carried a box of Crispy Cream donuts in his free hand. Dean's condition had increasingly gotten worse over the night whilst they slept. To the point that she didn't trust hotel or diner food and as a result hadn't had anything to eat. Sam knew this wasn't healthy, and neither were donuts, but he thought that maybe if he brought them to her she'd trust them enough to eat. Though just as he was about to enter the hotel he heard music coming from one of the cars. Looking over Sam saw that the music was coming from the Impala, where Dean currently was. Her body lay stretched out across the front seat as she had just started jamming out to the beginning of Eye of the Tiger. Only to be startled into sitting up and turning off the music when Sam loudly slapped the roof of the car to get her attention. In her current condition Dean didn't take too kindly to being startled like that but she kinda understood why Sam did it. The music had probably been too loud for him to get her attention any other way anyways.

"Dude. Look at this." Dean said through her heavy breathing as she climbed out of the Impala, shutting the door behind herself as she showed him her left inner forearm. Where there were now the beginnings of red, angry scratch marks.

"I just talked to Bobby." Sam said, wanting to let Dean know what he had been told.

"And?" Dean asked, going to scratch at her arm only to have Sam hand her the box of donuts.

"Um, well, you're not gonna like it." Sam said as Dean merely sniffed the box of donuts before just throwing them in the front seat of the car.

"What?" Dean asked as Sam glanced between both Dean and the abandoned donuts in a mix of shock and concern but recovered quickly.

"It's ghost sickness." Sam stated, ready and waiting for whatever questions or comments Dean may have.

"Ghost sickness?" Dean asked, wanting to make sure that she had heard Sam correctly.

"Yeah." Sam stated, giving Dean the confirmation that she really hoped she wouldn't get.

"God, no." Dean uttered in dismay as she lightly leaned back against the side of the Impala.

"Yeah." Sam uttered, thinking maybe Dean had caught on to what that meant.

"I don't even know what that is." Dean admitted, proving Sam wrong on his assumption that she had caught on to what ghost sickness was.

"Okay. Some cultures believe that certain spirits can infect the living with a disease. Which is why they stopped displaying bodies in houses and started taking them off to funeral homes." Sam explained as Dean looked confused but was following along nonetheless.

"Okay, get to the good stuff." Dean said with a nod of her head, wanting to get to the part that affected her.

"Symptoms are you get anxious..." Sam started listing off the symptoms, gaining a small yeah from Dean in response. "...And scared, the really scared, then your heart gives out. Sound familiar?" He asked as he finished listing off all the symptoms of ghost sickness.

"Yeah, but, Sam, we haven't seen a ghost in weeks." Dean said since their past hunts this month had had nothing to do with ghosts.

"Well, I doubt you caught it from a ghost. Look, once a spirit infects that first person, ghost sickness can spread just like any sickness. Through a cough, a handshake, whatever. It's like the flu." Sam explained but none of that really made her feel any better about this. "Now, Frank O'Brien was the first to die, which means he was probably the first infected. Patient zero." He said as the gained him a few nods from the female hunter.

"Our very own outbreak monkey." Dean stated as her way of summarizing everything Sam had just told her.

"Right. Get this- Frank was in Maumee over the weekend. Softball tournament... which is where he must have infected the other two victims." Sam explained as he could honestly just imagine Frank in a bar after the tournament, having drinks and food whilst unaware of his illness.

"Were they Gamecocks?" Dean asked, remembering that that was the softball team the Sheriff said him and Frank were on together.

"Cornjerkers." Sam corrected, meaning that Frank had had a friendly night of food and drinks with a rival team.

"So, ghosts infected Frank, he passed it on to the other guys, and I got it from his corpse?" Dean asked, wondering if she had that all right as it was kinda confusing to wrap her head around it all.

"Right." Sam stated, clarifying that she had gotten that all right.

"So now, what, I have 48 hours before I go insane and my heart stops?" Dean asked, wondering if she was lucky and had still had a good chunk of time left.

"More like 24." Sam revealed, since Dean had started acting weird yesterday after they left the morgue.

"Super." Dean stated sarcastically, she was just having no luck now was she?

"Yeah." Sam said as soon Dean had questions that she wanted answers to, now.

"Well, why me? Why not you?" Dean asked, brow furrowed as she frowned. "I mean, you got hit with the spleen juice." She said, he had been way more exposed to Frank than she had been thanks to that.

"Yeah, um, you see, Bobby and I have a theory about that, too. Turns out all three victims shared a certain, uh, personality type." Sam said, trying to break things gently to Dean but she wasn't catching on quite yet. "Frank was a bully. The other two victims- one was a vice principal, the other was a bouncer." He explained, hoping that would give her more of an idea of what he was trying to tell her.

"Okay." Dean said, still not catching on to what he was trying to tell her.

"Basically, they were all dicks." Sam said as that definitely got things through to Dean as her eyebrows were raised in shock.

"So you're saying I'm a dick?" Dean asked, honestly offended that Sam would even suggest such a thing.

"No, no, no. It's not just that. All three victims used fear as a weapon, and now this disease is just returning the favor." Sam explained but this did nothing to help Dean feel better, in fact it just made her feel worse.

"I don't scare people." Dean argued, this sickness had to have made some kind of a mistake.

"Dean, all we do is scare people." Sam pointed out, almost every non-hunter they encounter always walks away traumatized afterwards.

"Okay, well, then, you're a dick, too." Dean shot back, after all they were in this boat together with the whole dick thing.

"Apparently, I'm not." Sam stated, otherwise they both would be affected by the sickness right now.

"Whatever. How do we stop it?" Dean asked, wanting to stop this before she goes insane and dies.

"We gank the ghost that started all this. We do that, the disease should clear up." Sam said, or at least he hoped the disease would clear up if the ghost is put to rest.

"You thinking it was Frank's wife?" Dean asked, Jessie seemed t be the first suspect to consider given what happened to her.

"Who knows why she killed herself, you know?" Sam said as they really had no way of getting answers to that question. "Hey what are you doing waiting out here, anyway?" He asked, thinking it would've been more comfortable in their room rather than the car.

"Our room's on the fourth floor." Dean said after looking around in nervous embarrassment. "It's-it's high." She stated when Sam didn't seem to understand why she had been hesitant to go up there.

"I'll see if I can move us down to the first." Sam said, knowing that this was just the sickness making Dean feel like this and that he can't blame her.

"Thanks." Dean said softly, grateful that Sam was being so patient and cooperative with her.

"Sure." Sam stated before going inside to talk to the hotel manager about switching to the first floor.

As Sam left Dean glanced around to make sure no one was watching before she climbed back into the Impala. Picking up the box of donuts she opened it, looking at the donuts for a moment. Her stomach screamed at her to eat something, but there was a kicked puppy look on her face as she just sat the donuts aside. The anxious fear caused by the sickness made her unable to eat even a simple glazed donut. Later on after Sam had gotten their room switched and their things there Dean was sitting at the table pushed up against the wall alone. Trying and failing to read one of their lore books, only to be distracted by the ticking clock on the wall before her. Dean did try her best though as she looked back at the book, reading everything it had to say about Ghost sickness. Soon she began to cough as she read the part about hallucinations and delirium before a horrible death. Unconsciously her eyes drifted to the pictures depicting victims throwing up blood, their chests bloody and torn open. Though the more she looked the more things in the book seemed to change.

It started simple at first, with just the words "You're dying..." under the largest picture on the page. It only escalated further from there though as the word "Again." appeared a few lines below the first set of words. Followed by the word "Loser." a few more lines below the word again. Dean was unable to tear her eyes away from those pages, even when her vision became blurry, distorted, and shaky. She tried shutting her eyes and rubbing at them but she still saw the question "You gonna cry?" in the top paragraph of the right hand page. The taunting questions came once again in the form of "Is baby gonna cry?" before Dean dropped the book and glanced at the clock again. The ticking coming from it had become agonizingly slow now as the female hunter began to shudder and tremble. Once Sam returned he found the clock as it lay broken in front of the door, its face smashed in. Glancing around his eyes landed on Dean as she sat on the ugly olive green couch, drowning her feelings in a bottle of beer. The book she had been reading laid shut and abandoned on the table as well.

"Everything alright?" Sam asked as he shut the door behind himself.

"Oh, yeah. Just peachy." Dean said with a sarcastic smile as Sam placed the plastic bag he was carrying on the table. "Find anything?" She asked, hoping that he had been more successful than she had been.

"Yeah. Jessie O'Brien's body was cremated, so I'm pretty sure she is not our ghost." Sam explained as he sat down in the chair across from Dean, propping his feet up on the coffee table just like she was. "Hey. Quit picking at that." He said as he nudged her foot with his when he saw she was scratching at her inner forearm again, feeling content when he saw her stop scratching. "How you feeling?" Sam asked, wishing he could do more than just ask Dean how she's feeling.

"Awesome. It's nice to have my head on the chopping block again. I almost forgot what that feels like." Dean admitted, feeling like this was just a big "fuck you" that the world was throwing her way as Sam uttered a small yeah in response. "It's freaking delightful." She stated, letting out a small cough in the process as she went to drink from her beer again.

"We'll keep looking." Sam reassured as soon Dean began coughing again, but this time it was a much harsher cough. "You okay?" He asked as she just kept coughing as she sat up and put her feet on the floor, like she was choking on the very air itself. "Dean." Sam called out, following after Dean as managed to put her beer down before she stumbled up off of the couch and to the hotel room sink, still coughing.

Harsh, wet coughing was the only noise that escaped Dean's throat as she leaned over the sink with Sam at her side watching on in worry. What had dropped out of her mouth and into the sink greatly shocked both hunters as her coughing fit stopped immediately. Now laying in the cheap looking metal sink drenched in bile, spit, and a small amount of blood was a single wood chip. Tentatively Dean reached out and grabbed the wood chip, turning on the water and quickly rinsing it off before turning the water off. As the two of them stared at the wood chip in shock Sam had come to the conclusion that they had been ignoring the biggest clue they had. That clue being Dean herself, but all she could do was look at the wood chip with that kicked puppy look once again. She didn't want to be a clue, she didn't want to be sick either, but sadly she doesn't get what she wants today. Sam however was trying to get Dean to see the bright side of this, the disease was trying to relay a message. A message that would certainly lead them to the ghost behind this disease.

"Tell us what- wood chips?" Dean asked snappily as she held out the chip to Sam, not liking the fact that she had coughed something like that up.

"Exactly." Sam said with a smile and an airy chuckle, seeming to know something that Dean didn't.