Disclaimer: I don't own anything Supernatural related. Though I wish I owned Sam and Dean.

AN: Thanks for the reviews H.T.Marie, KatieMalfoy19, and Ghostwriter. After watching Nightmare I'm even more driven to write this because Dean was acting strange when Sam was saying that they were lucky to have John as a father all things considered. Dean had a strange look on his face as he some what sarcastically said sure all things considered. Which makes me think that my theory about John being abusive toward Dean might actually be true. Also in Scarecrow when he was on the phone with John he asked where John was and then John said something we didn't hear then Dean straightened up and said yes sir with no emotion at all. Thanks for your suggestions KatieMalfoy19, there are going to be flashbacks for both Sam and Dean one in this chapter and this chapter is dedicated to you. Oh and I decided there isn't going to be any Romance, he is just going to be friend with my made up character. Sorry this took me so long to write this I've been pretty sick and sometimes it's hard to concentrate. So on with the story!

Chapter 2: Something To Believe In

John pulled up into Jack Schneider's driveway and parked the car, then he pulled the keys out of the ignition and glanced over at his son with a sigh. He really didn't want to wake Dean up but he had to. " Dean, buddy wake up! ", John said loudly giving Dean a gentle shove. Dean snapped up quickly, rubbed the sleep out of his eyes and said, " I'm awake, are we in Whitman? " John nodded yes and looked toward the house. Dean looked sleepily out his window, it was a beautiful summer day and they were definitely in the suburbs. The house in front of them was yellow with a white front porch. Dean looked at his father with a smirk and remarked, " At least there's no white picket fence." John looked at his son whose eyebrows were raised willing John to contradict him and he couldn't help but let out a light laugh. " Alright wise guy lets go we have work to do. ", John said with a smile on his face. Dean nodded as they both got out of the car and closed their doors. The sound of the car doors closing was quite loud in the quiet of the early afternoon as they made their way up the porch steps. John knocked on the door and they waited for it to open in silence.

When the door opened it revealed a man who looked to be a couple of years younger than Dean. He had blonde hair and blue eyes, he was about an inch taller than Dean, and he looked pretty strong. John smiled at the man and said, "You must be Jack's son Jonathan, you're the spitting image of your father." Jonathan smiled back shook hands with John and Dean and said, " Yeah people tell me that all the time and call me Johnny. You must be John Winchester and you're his son Dean right? " John and Dean nodded and John said, " Yeah that's us, is your dad around?" Johnny nodded and said, " Yeah come in." As John and Dean walked in Jack came into the room. " Johnny who is at the... John hey you're here, it's good to see you! Wow you're all grown up Dean, the last time I saw you were three years old. You grew up handsome, you look like so much like Mary!" , said Jack who was smiling like a mad man. Dean grinned a huge grin and said, " I remember you, you have two daughter's right? Ahh I think their names were Monica and Samantha and you bought me army men and hot wheels! " Dean laughed softly at the memory. Jack laughed too before saying, " Yeah that's right I have two daughters named Monica and Sam and yes I bought you army men and hot wheels." John smiled too before saying, " So Jack can we see the house you were talking about? Oh and it's good to see you too." Jack nodded, " Yeah the house, lets go. "

He led them out the back door and Johnny came too. They walked over to the street and Jack pointed to the large rundown white house across the street. The paint was chipping away and some of the windows were broken. " It's an old Victorian house and it was turned into apartments a long time ago, way before we moved here and we've been living here for a little over twenty four years. All the people that have ever lived in the apartments have had serious issues. There have been incidents of physical and sexual abuse in that place. I was thinking this might your type of thing because the flickering lights and scratching noises. Also there is a boy that lives over there he said he was in bed and he felt someone get in the bed with him and he looked next to him and there was a ghost, he said it tried to rape him but he got away. There was a man that lived there a while back. Johnny was probably four when he was arrested and convicted of raping our neighbor Jen. He died last year and that is when the problems started happening. I was thinking it might be his spirit or something."

John nodded, " That is a very real possibility. I'll be looking into that. Is there anybody who might know more about what happened in that apartment?", John asked. " No I don't think so, I'm sorry. ", said Jack. " I know somebody.", Johnny said. Everybody turned to him in surprise and John asked, " Where can we find this person? " Johnny shook his head and said, " Whoa hold on a second, I have to call her first and ask her if it's okay, she just got out of the hospital. Another thing is I don't thing you should talk to her she won't respond well to you. It would be better for Dean to talk to her." Dean looked at Johnny with his eyebrows raised and asked , " Why me?" " Number one there is no way in hell that she'll trust your dad enough to tell him. Number two she hasn't told her parents or anyone else the details. Number three you're around her age she would feel more comfortable talking to you. Number four you're the kind of guy she's into. Last but not least number five, you're wearing a Metallica shirt and you drive a 1967 Chevy Impala her dream car!", Johnny said in all seriousness. Dean nodded those were all good points he looked over at John and asked, " Is it okay if I talk to the girl sir?" John nodded and said, " I think that's a good idea son, you go ahead." Dean nodded and said, " Yes sir ".

20 Minutes Later

Dean pulled up into the women's driveway and took the keys out of the Impala's ignition. He opened the car door and headed up the stone steps that lead to the house. The house was nice enough it was light green with cranberry shutters and cream windows. Dean had been thinking about what he was going to say to the women since Johnny had called her and she had said it was alright for Dean to come over and talk to her. He didn't know what to say really so Dean figured he would make it up as he went along. He knocked on the door and a minute later a women about his age with strawberry blond hair, wearing a Metallica t-shirt and jeans opened it. She smiled a real smile one that reached her eyes and said, " Hi so you're Dean Winchester, it's nice to meet you!" Dean grinned widely and sincerely said, " Yeah that's me, you must be LaraAndersonand it's nice to meet you too! "

She waved him into the house and pointed to a comfy couch and they both sat down. Dean looked around the room the walls were maroon and there were nice pictures on the walls. The couch and huge arm chair were light brown with a maroon and green print. Dean smiled at her again and said, " This is a nice place you have here."Larasmiled back at him and said, " Yeah it is, it's my parents house, I'm staying here for the summer. Most of my doctors are here in Massachusetts so that's why I'm here. When school starts up again it's back to California."

Dean nodded and said, " Johnny told me you had a chronic illness and that you just got out of the hospital. Where in California do you go to school? My brother goes to school in California too. What are you studying? "Lara started laughing at him and Dean looked at her with an innocent expression on his face that said what is so funny, what did I do?. He looked so cute and it just made her laugh harder. After a couple of minutes she got control of herself and still smiling she said, " Sorry it's just you talked so fast just then. First you were talking about me being sick , then you were asking what school I go to and telling me your brother goes to school in California too, and then you're asking me what I study all in a span of like thirty seconds."

Dean laughed at himself and ducked his head in embarrassment , " Sorry it's just that I don't really have any friends because I grew up the way I did and I never really get to spend time with anyone my age. My brother Sam was... is my best friend, my only friend really. I raised him so there really wasn't any time for me to make any other friends but now he's at Stanford and he won't talk to me anymore. I just... I don't know what I did wrong, what I did to make him hate me so much. Anyway you just seem nice you know... trust worthy. Johnny is lucky to have a friend like you. I don't usually come across people like you... people who care. I like being around you, you make me believe that there is good in the world it's been hard to believe that there's good stuff out there since Sammy left. I kind of got swept up in it, sorry. Shit, I'm sorry I just unloaded you." He looked at her so brokenly his eyes wide stinging with unshed tears and her heart broke for him.

Lara smiled a sad smile and said sincerely, " It's okay Dean, I understand. You didn't unload on me you just spoke freely and I can see that you don't do that a lot, actually you probably don't do that at all. I know what that's like I don't do it either. Anyway I'm used to people telling me all of their secrets. My mom says that I wear a sign that says tell me all of your secrets, unburden yourself. Dean look at it this way I'm going to be telling you my deep dark secrets so there's nothing wrong with you telling me yours. The answers to your questions are the following. I go to USC and I'm studying film it's a passion of mine. I was going to study law or become a social worker so I could stop what happened to the boys in that apartment from happening to other kids. I decided not to I figured the job might break me. Film became a passion of mine when I got sick, I think it was because most people watch TV when they're sick and that's what I did. I started to love it at some point, I wanted to know how they made the movies and the TV shows. My favorite TV shows got me through being sick they still do actually. So I'm learning how to write scripts, to film things, how to direct, and how to act and I'm loving every minute of it. I only have one semester left and when I'm done I have a job lined up. So there is your answer."

Dean smiled and said, " That's cool I wish I could go to college but I can't I have to be there for my dad and help him hunt down the monsters. What we look for while we hunt the things that go bump in the night is the thing that killed my mother. Oh and speaking of things that go bump in the night we need to talk about the spirit that is in that apartment. What did you see happen in that apartment? " Lara gave a tight lipped smile and said, " The first time I noticed that Dave wasn't a nice guy Nick, his little brother Matt, and I were playing soccer in the yard and he came home early from work. He was cleaning out his truck and he asked Nick and Matt to take something up to their apartment. Nick was quick to say yes but Matt told him no and he just flipped out. He started beating him... "

Flashback

Clang!

A ten year old Dean flinched as heard the bottle break in the other room. Sammy was still eating his grilled cheese sandwich and Dean needed to get him upstairs now. " Sammy go upstairs now.", Dean said firmly. " But Dean I haven't finished my grilled cheese sandwich yet! ", Sammy whined. " Sammy go upstairs now! ", Dean yelled. Sammy started to get all teary eyed and one tear made its way down his little cheek. Dean sighed and wiped the tear on Sammy's cheek away with his thumb. " I'm sorry I yelled Sammy, but I need you to go upstairs in our room and close the door. You can take you're grilled cheese sandwich with you. I'll be up in a minute to help you get ready for bed. I'll tell you a bedtime story and I'll sing whatever song you want to help you sleep but right now I need you to go upstairs. ", Dean said tenderly. He smiled sweetly at his brother and was rewarded when a big grin lit up Sammy's face and he nodded. Dean's smile widened and he playfully ruffled his baby brother's hair and said, " Good boy, go on I'll be up in minute and Sammy don't get in your pajamas you need a bath tonight." " Okay Dean! ", Sammy yelled before grabbing his grilled cheese of the table and running up the stairs.

Dean's smile slid off his face after Sammy left. Dean hesitated before going into the living room to help his father. John was nursing a bottle of vodka while staring at the shattered beer bottle he had thrown at the wall just minutes before. Dean looked at his father and hoped he wasn't in the mood to slap him around tonight. He had enough bad bruises on his stomach and legs from the beating he got last night. " Dad I'm going to pick up the glass okay. ", Dean said quietly so he wouldn't piss his father off. John nodded and Dean went into the kitchen to grab the trash barrel. He came back into the living room trash barrel in tow and started cleaning up. When he was finished he could feel his father's stare on him. He looked up at his father with questioning eyes and John scowled and with a venom that sent chills up Dean's spine said, " Why do you have to look so much like your mother? It makes it so hard to be around you, you don't deserve to look like her, you're not good enough. You never do anything right. "

Dean started backing away from his father and said in a small, timid voice, " I'm sorry that I look like her and I promise I'll do better, I'm sorry sir." John got up and shook his head and yelled, " You always say that but you never do any better!" John was walking towards Dean while taking his belt off. Dean walked backwards until he was pressed against the wall trembling with fear. " Oh god no. Please sir, please don't use the belt I'll do better I promise! Daddy please don't! ", Dean stuttered out frantically, fighting his hardest to keep from crying. When he cried his dad hit harder. John grabbed Dean by the collar of his shirt, turning him around and then using the belt to beat him all over his back, his ass, and the back of his legs. Dean trembled but he didn't let himself cry. When John was finished he yelled, " We're done here go up stairs and take care of your brother!" Dean nodded and said, " Yes sir." He grabbed the trash barrel, put back in the kitchen and then headed upstairs to take care of Sammy.

End of Flashback

" Dean, Dean are you okay? ", Lara asked with concern. Dean nodded and said, " Yeah I'm okay I just had a flashback." Laranodded and smiling knowingly, " I have them all the time they're not pleasant. ", she said. " No they're not, now on with your story. ", Dean said grimacing. So Lara told him about how one day she was eating dinner in Nick's apartment and Dave came home late from work. She told Dean that Dave was drunk and that he came into Nick's room and Nick told him to leave but he didn't. He threw Nick's Sega against the wall in a drunken rage and he pinned Lara against the wall and raped her. When Dave was done raping her he raped Nick and Lara watched. When Dave finished with Nick , Nick told Lara to leave and Lara ran out of there as fast as she could.

Dean told Lara about the flashback that he had, he told her about what happened to his mother, he told her how hard it was to raise Sammy and now not be able to talk to him, he told her about the time he got raped when he was twelve while his dad was hunting a werewolf, and he told her how he has been hustling in bars and on street corners since he was fifteen so Sammy and him could eat decent meals. They had cried for each other and for themselves and when they were done they had wiped each other's tears away. They both got up from the couch and hugged. Dean smiled and asked, " Do you have any paper? " Lara smiled and nodded and she pulled two pieces of paper out of the notebook on the coffee table. She gave Dean one and kept one for herself. She handed Dean a pen and picked up one for herself. They both wrote down their cell numbers and Lara put her address in California on her piece of paper. They each folded their pieces of paper and swapped. " I put my California address on there for you, if you're ever in California checking up on Sam come visit me and tell Sam what your dad did to you. Also talk to your dad about it, I'm going to talk to my family too. ", said Lara. Dean nodded and said, " I'll do all of those things. I'm glad you're going to talk to your family too. I'll come see you before I leave." Liliana nodded and watched as he made his way out the door and down the stone steps. When he finished walking down the stone steps he turned to look at her and gave her a little wave before saying, " Thanks for giving me something to believe in." He got in the Impala and sped off down the road.