DISCLAIMER: Supernatural is not mine. Not much belongs to me.

THANK YOU to my wonderful reviewers. You made my day so much better that I decided to post another chapter. Your comments are welcome!

"Is he okay?" Sam asked quickly.

"I think so," she answered. "I went in to take a shower and when I came out, he was there, lying on my couch. He looked really cold and really pale. And this is why I thought you might have an explanation."

"This may sound stupid, but where are you?"

"I'm in Karstown," she said. "Where did you think I was?"

"It's a perfectly natural question," he responded. "See, we were at Kars Crossing . . ."

"Say no more," she interrupted. "My friends have been out there many times to check out the local haunt. Just come get your brother and we'll call it good."

"I can't come to you," Sam said. "Dean has the keys to the car."

There was a pause on the phone. "I take it you're still at the bridge, then?" Krista asked.

"Yeah," Sam answered, looking around. "Unless I just disappeared like my brother did."

"I'll come get you," she said, ignoring his last remark. "Is it okay to leave your brother on the couch?"

"I have no idea," Sam said. "Do people generally stay in one place after something like this, or do they repeatedly disappear and show up somewhere else?"

"They generally just sleep for a few hours after something like this, but around here, anything is possible. The real problem is me trying to haul him to my car."

"You had better leave him there, then," Sam said quickly. "In fact, bring his keys down and I'll drive his car up to your place so I can pick him up."

"Sounds good," Krista answered, fishing the keys out of Dean's pocket. "I'll be there in five."

- - - - - - - - - - -

Sam found himself slightly jealous of his sleeping brother as he stepped through the door and found Dean on the couch, curled into a ball, looking very peaceful. Strangely enough, his clothes weren't wet. He was shivering, but Krista had covered him up with a blanket and turned the heat up in her house. And it was true that he was a little pale, but he looked little the worse for wear. And yet this would be yet another night during which Sam would get no sleep.

"There he is," Krista said, pointing at the older Winchester even though it was pretty obvious Sam had seen him already.

"Thanks," Sam said, walking quickly toward his brother. "I'll get him out of your hair."

"Where are you two going to go?" she asked, watching Sam unceremoniously throw Dean over his shoulder and grumble under the weight.

"A hotel, I think," Sam said. "I'm not leaving this place until I've been back there."

Krista rolled her eyes. "You're going back? After what it did?"

"It?" Sam repeated. Krista said nothing. "Look," he went on, "We don't know what it did.We don't know what's out there. Apparently, nobody does. And I'm not leaving until I find out." He turned to go.

"Wait," Krista interrupted. "You can stay here if you're sure you're not going."

Sam looked back. "I'm not sure how appropriate that is." He said this, knowing if Dean were in his position, he never would have hesitated to take a beautiful young woman up on the offer to stay at her house. Unfortunately, Dean was mysteriously unconscious at the moment.

"The nearest hotel is in Baldridge, thirty minutes away."

Sam sighed in frustration, pondering this new information.

"And I have a guest room," Krista added.

Taking a deep breath, Sam finally said, "Show me where the bed is so I can get him on it . . . He may be a little guy, but he's sure heavy."

"Little?" Krista asked with a grin. "He's definitely not little."

Sam shrugged, mirroring her grin. "Depends on your point of view, I guess."

The younger Winchester followed his new hostess down a hall and into a room on the left, where the only furniture was a bed and a dresser. There wasn't even a rug.

"It's a little sparse, but it's much cheaper and closer than a hotel," Krista said as Sam carefully put Dean down on the bed, taking his brother's shoes off and then covering him up. "You can sleep on the couch, if you want," she added.

Sam smiled. "Thanks, but I'd prefer to stay here with him. If he wakes up in the middle of the night, he'll want to know what happened."

"But you don't know what happened to him," the girl pointed out.

Sam looked back at Dean. "No, but I can make better guesses than he can at this point."

"You won't sleep on the floor, will you? It would be really cold."

"I won't sleep," Sam said. "I'll probably just sit all night."

"You won't sleep at all?"

He shook his head. "I wouldn't have no matter where we were. Besides, if you hadn't noticed, the night is almost gone, anyway." He indicated the window, where dawn was beginning to creep through. Krista opened her mouth to say something, then shut it and walked out. to the hall

"I'm going to lie down for a while," she said as she closed the door behind her.

Sam smiled as he watched her leave. Then, he sat down on the bed next to his brother to keep watch and to think about all of the things that could possibly be causing the trouble at Kars Crossing.

Two hours later, Dean groaned in his sleep and his eyes fluttered open. Sam jumped off the bed to avoid the very appearance of a "chick flick moment", so Dean only found his brother standing next to him, leaning over with concern when he finally woke up.

"How are you feeling?" Sam asked quietly.

"That depends on what I was doing and how I got here," Dean mumbled back. "I have a headache and I think I'm going to throw up . . . if I have a hangover, at least tell me I had fun."

Sam grinned. "If you have a hangover, it isn't from drinking."

Dean blinked a few times, still trying to focus. "What happened?"

"What do you remember?"

Closing his eyes, the older Winchester tried to recall the events of the previous night. "Let's see . . . we pulled off on the freeway to get gas," he said slowly, as if pulling the words from the far recesses of his memory. Suddenly, his eyes popped open. "My baby!"

Sam rolled his eyes. "Your precious car is fine, Dean. What else do you remember?"

Dean sighed and pushed himself up on his elbows. "Nothing."

"Nothing?"

"Nothing. Nada. Zip. Zilch. Nil. I remember paying for gas and then I remember waking up right here." He looked at Sam's frustrated gaze. "Mind telling me what happened?"

"Dean, I don't know what happened."

"What? How can you not know what happened? Did you wake up here, too?"

"No. When we stopped at the gas station, we decided to check out a local haunt. There's this bridge that has somestrange rumors attached to it. Anyway, we went there and you disappeared."

"I disappeared?"

"Yeah, youdisappeared. I searched for you for hours before you turned up here, and Krista called me on your cell phone to tell me you had suddenly appeared on her couch."

Dean sat straight up. "I what?"

"You appeared on this random couch almost four hours after we went to the bridge. This girl came out of the shower and found you unconscious on her couch. She got your cell phone out of your pocket and started dialing the contacts until someone told her to call Sam. I was still out at the Cross, trying to find you in pouring rain."

"Whoa," came the surprised reply.

"Yeah, Dean. Four hours. And you have no memory of any of that time. And I can't explain what happened to you."

"I don't remember even going to this bridge, let alone what might have happened while we were there. What did you hear?"

"That's the thing, Dean. I didn't hear anything. This massive fog screen rolls in and then you were gone. There was no yell, no grunt, not even breathing. And I couldn't see more than an inch in front of my face. I searched for you forfour hours before Krista called to say she'd found you."

"Four hours?" Dean repeated a little nervously. "Four hours of my life that no one can account for?"

"Four whole hours," Sam affirmed. "And I don't know how to piece it back together unless you can remember something that happened."

"I just don't, Sam. I remember getting gas and that's it."

"Are you sure that's ALL you remember?"

Dean closed his eyes one more time, trying to concentrate. "Yeah. I'm sure."

A minute of silence passed as each brother pondered this. Finally, Dean asked, "So what is it?"

Sam looked over, incredulous. "Are you serious? I'm still soaking wet, I've been wandering out in freezing, pouring rain looking for you for hours, I haven't slept, I haven't eaten, I definitely haven't had time to research this, and you think I've got it all figured out?"

Dean blinked, then smiled. "Well, you're the one with the college education. Don't you have it at least narrowed down?"

Rolling his eyes, Sam replied, "Well, I guess I'm pretty sure it's a poltergeist. Krista told me the rumor is that a man murdered his family on that bridge two hundred ago. He's probably haunting the place out of guilt or something."

"So what we really need to do is banish his spirit, then?"

"I hope so, because if it's more complicated than that, we're in trouble."

"Why?"

Sam folded his arms. "Krista told me that someone had already tried salting and burning the old man's remains. We're down to our last option."

Sam brought clothes in from the car to change into, finally willing to leave his brother once assuring himself that Dean was fine. Other than a headache and slight dizziness and nausea when he got up, Dean felt no effects at all from what happened. He whisked himself out of bed and put his shoes on. By the time he was done, Sam was already dressed, dry, and feeling much better. Krista offered to feed them breakfast, but Sam insisted that she had already done enough to help them.

"What are you going to do now?" she asked.

"We're going to try to figure out how to stop the haunting," Sam answered simply.

"You're not going back there, are you?"

"Yeah," Dean said. "Why?"

"Well, the first time, people generally disappear and wind up somewhere else. But the second time they're there . . ." she trailed off.

Sam raised an eyebrow. "The second time . . ." he prompted.

"The second time, they die."