Hey guys! Welcome to Chapter 14 aka the chapter before the last chapter. I only have one left to do, not two like I originally planned. This one turned into something else and I wound up taking out a chapter. If I left it in, I think I would've drawn everything out. But don't worry, Tate's coming back for a sequel. I've talked it over with my "creative team" and we're bringing Tate back. Besides, everyone wants to see if her and Dean stay together and what happens next. So I hope you guys enjoy this, its the last really long one, the next one isn't going to be novel length. Keep reading and reviewing.

Chapter 14- Speechless and Frozen

Dean had never ran so fast in his life; he had been walking into the building when Sam called but when he heard his younger brother scream for Tate and his own shouts went unanswered, he stuffed his phone in his pocket and took off. The long hall of the art department went past him in a dark blur, all except Professor Bowen's class; every light was on in there. Nearly tripping over himself, Dean managed to stop without getting hurt and stalked into the class room, an anger that he had never felt before wrapped around him insides. Not only was his little brother in some kind of trouble without there him to protect him, so was Tate. He had lost her once, but that time was to another state and a real job, he'd be damned if he lost her to a pissed off ghost. Before anymore red could flood his vision, he found Bowen sitting behind his desk and reached for him, grabbing him by the collar.

"What the..."

"No! I ask all the questions. Where is she?"

"She who?"

"You know damn well who she is, where's Tate?" Dean nearly roared as he pulled the man from his chair by his shirt and almost flung him through the black board behind him. Hearing Bowen wince, he shoved him harder and waited for an answer. "Where's Tate?"

"Probably dead by now, Tracy probably got to her already."

"Not the answer I was looking for!" Dean pulled him back from the chalk covered piece of slate and slammed him back into it so hard his own shoulders shook. The Professor was seeing stars and the edges of his vision was starting to get dark and hazy. "One more time, where's Tate?"

"In the basement! Please, don't hurt me!"

"Is that where the ghost is?"

"She went down there to find her friend..."

"Sam?"

"Yes! That's the one. Tracy's not that stupid, she must've used Sam as bait to lure Tate down there."

"Why does she need Tate? Answer me!"

"She needs one last soul, a strong one, very strong and unbreakable; Tate's soul."

"Why Tate? Why not you?"

"She needs Tate to get to me! This is my entire fault! I left Tracy there to die, I didn't mean to! I thought she was dead, but obviously she wasn't. Don't you understand; Tracy has become Death itself? Death took away the one person I loved more than life itself and now, it'll take Tate away from you. Tracy is going to take me away from my wife and family, the people who love me most. It's a cycle, a damned circle and with Tate's death, everything goes according to plan; it all falls into motion and the circle is complete." Bowen gasped out; the shadow around his eyes began to grow heavy, but was pulled from the welcoming warm darkness when Dean shook him.

"Stay with me old man! How the hell do I kill this thing?"

"You can only kill Death when it takes its human form; after Tracy consumes Tate's soul."

"Fine, then she'll get a last soul. You're showing me to the basement."

"You're willing to sacrifice the woman you love to kill another?"

"Tate is not going to die." Dean said simply as he nearly threw Bowen out into the hall. The older man landed in a heap on the floor, fear and rage danced in his eyes, fighting one another for dominance, as Dean walked over to him. The look in his eyes was enough to kill, a small amount of fear mixed with animalistic rage and laced between both was a hint of love that Bowen recognized; he'd do anything for Tate.

"Start walking, I don't have time for this." The walk to the door that lead to the basement was more like an all out run; once the door opened, Dean nearly shoved Bowen down the dark flight of stairs and listened for anything that could be considered Sam or Tate's voice. Once on the cement floor of the basement, both men looked either way into the darkness and found nothing awaiting them.

"Which way?" Bowen asked as Dean crouched to the ground besides a small puddle of water dripping from one of the pipes above him. He didn't have any of the supplies with him, Tate did, and with no flashlight, he couldn't see if there were any foot prints heading away from the water. Pulling out his cell phone, he winced as the bright back light from the screen hit his eyes and quickly turned it away from him, toward the water. Seeing the familiar designs from the soles of Tate's combat boots, he smiled a little as he stood back up and hit the professor on the arm.

"This way." He said over his shoulder as he began to walk down the corridor. As he walked closer toward the hum of the air conditioning unit, he swore he could hear Sam but he wasn't entirely sure if it really was his younger brother or his imagination playing tricks on him. With a few more steps he stood in front of the huge metal cube that most likely supplied the whole art building with cold air and found the ropes Tate had cut away from Sam laying on the ground; a few feet over was her cell phone.

"SAM! SAMMY! Where are you?" Even though Dean knew not to yell and give himself away, he knew he had to in order to find the two of them.

"Dean!" And there it was that familiar call that meant he was needed. Turning back quickly to make sure Bowen was still behind him; he ran toward his brother's voice and hoped that everything would be fine. But it wasn't; Sam sat behind Tate's ever quickly growing pale form, he was pulling her and the ghost, well she wasn't much of a ghost now, apart. Tate's limp body fell against Sam's chest, her head rolled to one side and hair masking her face. She was pale, too pale, and much paler than Tracy's other victims. She wasn't just taking her soul; she was taking everything that was Tate. Dean looked back at Bowen; the expression on his face spoke volumes.

"She is not going to die Dean." He said as he stepped past the younger man and toward where Tracy, now fully restored, sat. She pulled away from Tate, sitting back on her feet and licked her lips, as if she had literally eaten Tate's soul. She was still as pretty as Carl remembered, short blonde hair, pale skin and the brightest blue eyes he had ever seen. She might've been fully solid now, with enough souls to make her look real, but she was still lacking what she needed to be human; the one soul she truly came back for, Carl's.

"Tracy, why? Why did you do that to her? She was only trying to help."

"Help? You mean she was trying to help you and her friends to kill me." Sam watched the two as he pulled Tate close, she felt ice cold in his arms and even though he knew Dean would make fun of him later, he felt a couple tears roll down his cheek. They couldn't lose her again, not after everything and now, Sam didn't know what to do. From where he sat he couldn't hear Carl and Tracy speaking, he wasn't really concerned with that at the moment, all he was worried about was Tate and the lost, shadowed look on Dean's face.

"Dean?" He called, hoping to pull his brother from wherever he was. When Dean did snap out of it, he knelt down by Sam and gently pulled her into his lap and buried his face in her neck. Sam had never really seen his older brother break down; sure everyone cries now and then, he just never thought Dean really did cry.

Tate had never felt so warm and safe in all of her life. Everything around her was huge, towering over her more than Sam usually did and was white, spell bindingly bright white. She followed the woman who she recognized from many of her dreams around the huge white...well she didn't know if it was a room or what, but she followed her and had to run to catch up.

"Whoa! Can we slow down for a minute? I mean, I died. I'd like to know what's going on and why, all of a sudden you're here." She said to the woman who turned to face her for the first time since they first spoke. The woman looked only a few years older than her with long blonde hair and wore a plain, yet she made it seem much more elegant, white night gown.

"Tate, relax." She heard the voice again and smiled.

"I knew it was you! It's always been you! You're always showing up in my dreams."

"I've always been in your dreams, always protecting you somehow and helping you protect my boys." The woman said as she touched Tate's hand.

"Do you ever show up in the boys' dreams, Mary?" Tate asked as she stepped closer to the woman she only knew through her dreams, pictures and several stories that took hours of torturing the boys to hear.

"Just John's, not so much the boys anymore; Sam dreams about Jess now and Dean, Dean's always dreamt about you." Mary said smiling as Tate turned five shades of red.

"I don't wanna know anything about those dreams."

"Don't worry. It's against the rules to tell you."

"Good." Tate said, laughing nervously.

"And even if I did, I don't think you'd want to hear everything in great detail." And there was the sixth shade. The two women grew quiet for a moment, it unnerved Tate, everything so was quiet and peaceful here; she wasn't used to it and then a question came to mind.

"Am I really dead? Gone forever, that kinda dead?"

"Do you remember what Carl Bowen said to you? A life for a life?"

"Yeah, but that'll only work when Tracy kills him. It won't work for me."

"What if Carl dies before his and her souls have a chance to be exchanged?"

"So, what are you saying? Switch him for me? When he dies, I get to go back?"

"Exactly." Mary said, clasping Tate's hand in hers. "Tracy will be human for a matter of moments, you'll go back to your body, Carl will come up here and then, the boys can take care of her the way they do everything else that they hunt." Mary smiled at the girl in front of her. She only knew Tate through dreams and letters Serena and Ben used to send to her home, but she had never truly seen the real girl. She was beautiful and Mary knew she was quite a fire cracker; tough and cruel on the outside, always ready to explode and yet there was a part of her that was warm and loving. She was perfect for her sons; to love one the way she loved John and to love the other the way Tate already loved him.

"Can I see what's going on down there?" Tate asked in a quiet voice. With a swish of her hand, Mary parted the clouds that they sat upon and opened up the floor beneath them causing Tate to jump back a good ten feet. "Oh my God, I'm up in the air." She gasped.

"You're fine Tate, come over here and watch." It took her a few minutes, but eventually she kneeled down next to Mary and peered downward. It was like she was right over Dean's shoulder. She watched as he held her body to his, he was so close to her she, even all the way up where she was, could smell everything that made up Dean; soap, sweat, gun metal, the scent of the vinyl from the Impala and just a splash of the cologne he swore he never used.

"He's crying, they both are." She stated; she wanted to force her eyes down there to open, to touch Dean, to say something; anything. But she couldn't.

"They think you're gone Tate."

"But I'm not."

"They don't know that." Mary said as they both listened to what Dean was whispering into her hair. His voice was shuddering and breaking off in tears every now and then.

"Tate please, please come back. Please don't go, I need you here. Who's gonna make sure Sammy doesn't get into some sort of trouble? Like what happened tonight? Getting caught at a bar! Tate please, don't leave me, I can't lose you twice. Okay, the first time I lost you, you moved. But I can't lose you again. I have no idea what I'll do without you. Tate please, I love you."

And there it was, Tate felt tears of her own falling down her face. Sure, she always knew he loved her, but she never once heard him say it and in return, she never said it to him.

"Mary please, send me back there. I can't leave him like that, it's killing me."

"Give it a minute more." She did, she waited. It felt like the longest moment of her life and then she felt it; a tug at something deep inside her. She felt a like a fish on a hook being reeled into a boat. She didn't resist, she figured if she did the tugging would either get stronger or she'd never get back down there. Her eyes went wide as she was yanked back to reality, Mary's smile and the bright white room was the last thing she saw before slamming back into her body. With a gasp and a jolt, her eyes shot open and she lurched into Dean's arms. She took a long gasping breath and let it out in a cough; Sam jumped at the sound and Dean leaned back to see her face.

"De?" She rasped, her fingers finding the nape of his neck and pressing there. She listened to the sounds around her; Dean whispering into her ears, Sam laughing a little at her and then the familiar thud of a body hitting the ground. It was Carl.

"Tate, what happened?" She shook her head at Dean and pulled her gun from her jeans, handing it to Sam. Sam knew what it was loaded with, real bullets not the rock salt ones and looked back at Tate for a minute.

"Just do it Sam, there's not much time left." She begged, holding onto Dean tighter than ever before. She was afraid that if Sam didn't do what she asked him, she'd wind up back with Mary and never be able to come back. The now, well she was what could be called a zombie, advanced toward the three, Tate's grip on Dean's t-shirt was a death grip, she had no plans on leaving him yet. She couldn't leave.

"You must think you are so clever, I take your soul and somehow you come back with another one. Not many can do that Tatum, you're right, you aren't like everyone else, but you'll still die like everyone else." Tracy said as Sam stood between the two women; the gun ready to be fired if she dared to take another step.

"What are you going to do? Get in my way? I am going to kill her even if I have to kill you and your brother."

"I've heard that threat before and you're not getting Tate. She stays with us."

"Because you both love her?" She cackled, her head thrown backwards.

"Yes." Sam said, laying his finger on the trigger.

"You have no idea what kind of creature you're holding in your arms Dean Winchester, no idea."

"Sam, do it! Do it now!" Tate screamed, she was feeling light headed and didn't know how much longer she'd last. He hesitated though, looking between Dean and Tate and Tracy.

"SAM! Are you deaf, do it! You heard Tate!" And he squeezed the trigger before Dean's shouts got any louder and then he squeezed it three more times for good measure. At first, the bullets did nothing to her, but after awhile they began to smoke and ooze a black slimy goop from the entry wounds. Tracy began to twist, turn and flail, as if she was trying to get away from the bullets. Soon, the light headedness vanished and Tate pushed off of Dean's shoulders to look at her handy work.

"What have you done to me!" Tracy wailed, her body beginning to break down into a pile of ashes.

"Well, I figured there was no way in hell we were going to be able to get close enough to slice you into pieces with a silver laced blade, so we melted silver down to liquid form and filled the bullets with it." Tate said beaming.

"NO! NO! My work isn't done! I warned you Winchester! You have no idea wh…." And then with a roar and a blast of light, she exploded. Tate dove back into Dean's shoulder, her eyes clamped shut and waited till the roaring in her ears went away. When it was all over, Sam dropped the gun back into Tate's bag which lay a few feet away from where they all sat and came back over to the two of them, his hand on one of Tate's shoulders.

"Tate, wanna tell us now what happened to you?" Dean asked, brushing her hair away from her face.

"Yeah, you scared the shit outta us Tate, we thought we really lost you." Sam said, leaning down so he could hear what she was going to say. Tate chewed on her bottom lip, the way she always did when she got nervous and looked at them both.

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you." She said, giving Sam a peck on the cheek and then looping her arms around Dean's neck, moving around in his lap so her lips were level with his ear.

"I love you, you know." She said, moving again so she could look him in the eye. "I figured I say it back since you said it to me earlier."

"You heard that?" He asked, his eyes wide.

"I heard everything you said."

"But how?"

"I mean it, you won't believe me if I tell you."

"Oh, I want to know now." Dean said.

"Can I get some sleep first and then I'll tell you both later?" She asked, sticking out her bottom lip and giving Dean the puppy dog eyes. And then she turned to Sammy, puppy dog eyes and lip still going strong.

"Dean, make her stop the face. I can't handle that. Let's go back to the hotel, get some sleep and then she can tell us later."

"Fine, fine. You both win, but you are so telling us."

"I promise Dean, Jesus, I'll tell ya." She said as Sam stood back up to his full height and then offered her a hand up. Once back on her feet, she gave him a hug and smiled.

"Don't ever do that to us again Tate."

"I won't Sammy, I won't." She said in between yawns.

"I'll go find your stuff." He said, walking around the corner and giving the two a moment alone.

"So what do we do about the good Professor?" Dean asked as he snaked an arm around her waist and rested his hand on her hip. Both of them looked down at the body, an image passed through Tate's mind, if she didn't come back, that's how she would've looked. Shivering, Dean's grip got a little tighter and she leaned back into him.

"I have no idea, call my mom?"

"Sounds good. But come here first." Tate smiled and let herself be pulled into him.

"What's up Dean?"

"What's up? I just saw you die and come back, I'm a little shaken; a little is an understatement."

"Sorry Dean."

"Don't be. I know you promised Sam you wouldn't do that again, but seriously, no more stupid shit. I don't think I can do this again."

"I won't, I mean it. I have no plans on going back where I was for a very long time."

"What do you mean? Where were you?"

"I have no idea really, it was warm and white. So, maybe Heaven, I dunno." Dean started to laugh. "Why are you laughing? You don't think I'll go to Heaven? I am a good person." She said, slapping him on the arm.

"All right, I won't laugh, I won't laugh. You are a good person, you put up with me and Sammy."

"Damn right I do."

"So is that the part we wouldn't believe?"

"No, this is. I saw your mom." Dean's face went blank for a minute, Tate didn't know if he was going to scream, cry, smile or just shrug it off. "Dean?"

"I'm okay, I just wasn't ready for that. Did she talk to you?"

"Yeah, she helped me get back here." Dean smiled, that was a good enough answer for him and kissed Tate on the lips.

"Can we leave now Dean? I need a shower and about a day off sleep."

"Go find Sam. And please, be careful." Tate nodded and took off to find Sam. Dean stayed back a minute, looked up to where the sky would be if he could see it and smiled.

"Thanks mom." And then he took off to find the other two.