Hello fabulous SPN Family! Just wanted to say another huge thank you for all the follows, favorites, and reviews- you guys just make my day. I cannot thank you enough.

Huge special astronomical thanks to Jenmm31- the Sam to my Dean. Girl, still can't do it without you. Guys, if you haven't checked out her stories by now, seriously- go look them up. They're incredible. And she's an amazing person too!

So this is another Case story- I've tried writing a couple cases before, and you all seem to like them, so here's another one! Please let me know what you think! Just like the others, this will be in 3 parts. This is part 1.

Please read, review (because I love hearing from you), and ENJOY!

Big A/N on this story- the background of this case is a true story. The Ludlow Massacre actually happened. I want to pay homage to them by telling their story the way I know how to. If you want to read more about the background, there is a fantastic Wikipedia entry on it. In this story, Natalie is 17. Disclaimer: please see profile page.

Children No Longer Part 1

Natalie carefully pulled into a parking spot. Even though she was a fantastic driver, she couldn't account for the millions of soccer mom vans and station wagons in the lot of the small park, so she took her time. She maneuvered the Impala into a space that was just far enough away from the other parked cars to put her father's mind at ease. She smirked to herself- she didn't even have to look at Dean, who was sitting at one of the park's picnic tables, to know that his eyes were following his Baby, and every move that Natalie made it in. Besides, they weren't going to be staying at this park long- just enough to find their new case and head out of dodge. Natalie was excited- now that she was seventeen, her dad had been reluctantly letting her drive more and more. He still wouldn't let her take her own car, which was currently sitting in Bobby's lot, out on hunting trips, but he was letting her occasionally drive the Impala, for very short distances. She hoped he would actually relent long enough to let her take a driver's shift on this next trip.

She exited the car with the coffee cup tray balanced in her hand. Her eyes darted over towards Dean, working at his laptop, looking for new cases on the internet. Sam was off at the local library across from the park, searching the papers for anything new and job-worthy. Natalie had been sent on her usual errand- getting the morning coffee. She often got too distracted by the other news stories to be able to focus on the weird and suspicious ones, so Sam and Dean unofficially made her their go-fer while they were scouring for their next move. She wasn't exactly thrilled about that, but the fact that they were still taking her on cases after she had recently pulled her "time travel crap" as her father called it, was enough. She wasn't going to push her luck. Well, not far anyways.

She walked up to the picnic bench where Dean was working, and set the tray down. Dean sat up, stretching his back from being hunched over a computer for the last half hour, and rubbed his hands together in anticipation of his morning caffeine jolt. Natalie pulled his cup out of the tray, and handed it over.

"Ah, thank you," he said, and took a long swig of the hot coffee. He smacked his lips appreciatively, and turned to his daughter. "I knew I had you for a reason."

"Why? So you could have your own personal coffee wench?" Natalie said, her smile twisting to the side as was her usual way.

Dean thought for a moment. "Uh…yup," he said matter-of-factly. Natalie snorted and rolled her eyes, which made Dean grin.

"Find anything good?" she asked as she jumped up on top of the table, pulling her own hot chocolate out of the tray. She rested her legs on the picnic bench seat next to her father. Dean didn't answer her question right away; he was just eying her cup. His eyes rolled up to her face, and she knew what he was thinking before it came out of his mouth.

"No, it's not coffee," she said with an exasperated sigh.

"When are you going to get over this aversion to one of God's greatest creations, kiddo?"

"When it doesn't taste like ground up hellhound water that's been filtered through Satan's panties."

Dean did a double take at her graphic description. He looked at his own cup for a moment, then shrugged and took another big sip before answering her earlier question.

"Yeah, I found a couple things. We'll wait to see what Sam's got," he said. His eyes traveled around the park, landing on a rather lovely woman who was walking her dog. His eyes subtly followed her till she walked towards the parking lot. As he turned his head to follow her, he caught a glimpse of Natalie, who was staring at something, rather awestruck, herself. He quickly turned his head to see what had caught her attention, and sure enough. It was one of those things that he had come to HATE. A boy around her age.

He smacked her on the leg. "Knock it off," he said, growling.

The swat woke Natalie from her teenage daydream. "Ow!" she complained, rubbing her calf.

"That didn't hurt."

"Did too."

"Stop being a wuss."

"I wasn't doing anything- what did you hit me for?"

Dean looked at her with a glance that said, isn't it obvious? "You were staring at that boy over there."

"Yeah? So?" she said.

"You know the rules. You are not allowed to get married until you're thirty five, and you're not allowed to start dating until you're thirty six."

"Oh, well, shoot. I guess Random Boy across the park and I are going to have to cancel our elopement then."

"Hilarious."

"Oh, come on. What's the big deal? You were totally checking out that lady walking the dog."

Dean shifted guiltily. He didn't think she had caught that. "I was not," he mumbled.

Natalie's mouth dropped. "How come you're allowed to lie to me, but I'm not allowed to lie to you, huh?" she scoffed.

"Because I'm your father, that's why." Dean took another swallow of coffee with a self satisfied look on his face.

"Come on, Dad, do you honestly think I'm not going to filter any guy I want to date through you first? I mean, if he can stand up to the Dean Winchester gauntlet, then he's definitely the one for me," Natalie said jokingly, but sincerely.

"Well, he better be do right by you, that's all I'm saying. Otherwise, I'll make damn sure that my entire arsenal is locked and loaded the next time he pulls into the driveway," Dean said. Natalie couldn't help but giggle at the mental image of her father sitting on their front porch in a rocking chair, cradling a shot gun, just waiting for whatever poor sap she would be bringing home. Dean's grin widened- he loved making his daughter laugh. Just then, Sam came trotting up to them, a couple newspapers in his hands. Natalie plucked his cup from the carrier and handed it to him.

"Thank, Coffee Wench," he teased, tossing the papers down onto the table and taking the cup from her. Natalie pursed her lips in amusement.

"I got them to put an extra shot of spit in yours. You're welcome," she said sassily. Sam just chuckled, and turned his attention to his brother.

"What did you find?" he asked.

Dean gestured to the laptop. "Couple interesting things- the most likely one is in Trinidad, Colorado. A man was found dead, inside his apartment. All the locks were still on the door, no sign of forced entry, nothing. Just a dead body."

"Why do you think that has anything to us?" Natalie said.

Dean smirked. "Because the guy was burned alive. From the inside."

"Of his apartment?"

"Of his body."

Natalie shook her head, making a disgusted sound. Sam took a deep breath. "Yeah, that sounds like us, all right," he said flatly. "Hey- you said that's the most likely one- what were some of the others?"

"There's a town in Pennsylvania where apparently everyone's left shoe keeps going missing," Dean said without batting an eyelash.

Sam blinked a couple times. "I don't even know how to respond to that." Dean nodded in agreement, then gestured to the papers that Sam had put on the table.

"What about you? Find anything as good as the Left Shoe Thief?" he asked.

Sam pushed aside some of the papers, looking for the one that he had found. "Yeah, not a whole lot- I mean, there is this one case down in Tennessee where a guy swears he's being stalked by a Big Foot."

"Come on Sam, every hunter worth his salt knows that Big Foot doesn't exist," Dean said.

"Yeah, well, this guy claims to have seen something very tall and hairy attacking his car. And then, allegedly, it left a present of a dead squirrel at the guy's front door." Sam said, with barely contained sarcasm in his voice. Dean and Natalie exchanged a sideways glance. "Said Big Foot is in love with him," Sam finished.

Dean's brow furrowed. "Are you sure you're reading newspapers and not the National Enquirer?" he asked. Sam rolled his eyes.

"So what do you think?" he asked Dean. Dean shrugged, and then looked at Natalie.

"I say it's Coffee Wench's choice," he teased.

"Yeah, okay, THAT name can stop at any time," she said, teasing them back. As far as she was concerned, the choice was clear. "I say Colorado, here we come!" She jumped off the table, excited for their new adventure. "Can I drive?" she asked brightly.

Dean looked up from closing his laptop to meet her eyes. She immediately put on her best puppy dog look. Which he promptly disregarded.

"Nope."

*SPN SPN SPN*

The next day, towards late afternoon, they found themselves in the small town of Trinidad. As they were driving through, Natalie took in the sights, commenting from the backseat.

"Wow, would you look at that?" she said, looking to her right. Sam turned his head to look out the window and whistled. A beautiful, large black coal train was sitting stationary on the tracks.

"I wonder if that thing is actually still in operation," Natalie mused aloud.

Sam shook his head, squinting his eyes. "Doesn't look like it," he said. "There's a ton of fence around it- it looks like it's display only."

"Huh," Natalie said. "It looks like one of those old fashioned coal trains. So was this like a mining town or something?"

Sam shrugged. "I don't know."

"Yes, it was," Dean said. Natalie swung her head around in surprise. Her uncle was the one who usually knew boring facts, not her father.

"How do you know?" she asked. Dean pointed to a statue that was on the left side of the road. It was depicting four miners shoveling coal into a hand truck.

"Oh. Okay, yeah, that'll do it," she said. Dean just chuckled.

They found a decent motel, and dropped their stuff off. Wanting to waste no time, Dean and Natalie headed off to the apartment complex where the body had been found. Sam split off to go check out the victim at the morgue. Father and daughter were both outfitted in black suits, ready to take on the persona of the FBI. Natalie was grateful that Sam had insisted that she get something more suited for the female form when it had come time for her to start getting into the field with them. After enduring quite a few grumbled words from her father that what she was wearing was way too grown up for her, with both her and Sam arguing back that it was exactly the point of the suit, they had all mutually settled on an outfit that looked nice and feminine. She loved it- Dean tolerated it. As Dean parked the Impala at the curb near to the apartment building, he pulled the fake IDs out of his jacket pocket. Flipping open the leather covers to make sure he was handing her the right badge, he started going over their plan again.

"Alright- I am..." Dean began, looking at her for the answer.

"Agent Abrams," Natalie replied immediately. Dean nodded and continued.

"And you are?"

Agent Whedon."

"Back story."

"I'm new to the FBI, wunderkind, right out of college, which was Stanford. Third week on the job, paired with the oldest detective on the force," she teased.

"Wanna try that again?" Dean said with a touch of sternness in his voice.

"Fine. Paired with the most skilled, best looking, toughest agent that was ever to be had."

"Knock it off," Dean scolded. "This is serious. You blow your cover, and this whole thing is shot to hell. You need to focus."

"Yes, sir. Sorry," Natalie said petulantly, shifting in her seat. She knew that when it was go time, her dad didn't play around. She mentally berated herself for goofing off, especially when she knew better. Dean nodded once, accepting her apology, and continued.

"I've got point on this- you follow my lead. Remember- you're new to the FBI. You're not going to make a move without getting approval from me, got it?"

"Yes, sir."

"Good. Let's do this."

They climbed out of the car simultaneously. This was not Natalie's first time on the field, but she was still pretty new to it, only really having been able to pass for "out of college" within the last year or so. She took a deep breath, and fell in line behind Dean. Dean stalked towards the house. Natalie watched carefully, noting his fearlessness, his aura of confidence, and the sense of "this ain't my first rodeo" that he gave off. It was all part and parcel of the whole hunter's bag- she had to be able to flawlessly imitate these government officials, otherwise, she'd never get anywhere. There was only so far being a computer whiz could take her. She wanted to know, understand, and master every aspect of the hunting life, and imitating government officials was a big part of it. Her dad was right- she needed to focus. She slipped into her character silently as they walked towards the bevy of cops surrounding the front of the building, deciding she was going to play the scrappy but sweet young rookie. She let that thought drive her body, and she began walking like she was a tough chick who meant business. She kept right behind Dean, looking around for anything that may indicate any other means of entry into the building, and observing the general area.

Dean walked up brusquely to the 3 cops that were talking together on the sidewalk right outside the building. When they took in the tall man in the dark suit, their eyes widened alarmingly. Natalie wondered to herself how often they saw government officials in their neck of the woods, and, judging by their reactions, it wasn't often. They all got more and more nervous the closer Dean got to them. Natalie actually saw the shortest one try to suck in his beer gut. Dean pulled his badge out, and Natalie followed suit.

"FBI," Dean said gruffly as an introduction. "I'm Agent Abrams, this is my partner." He gestured behind him towards Natalie, who nodded once and introduced herself.

"Agent Whedon," she said, trying to sound as no-nonsense as possible. She tucked her own fake badge back into her jacket. "We'd like to take a look around the apartment of the victim who was killed here yesterday."

"Agents," the shortest of the three cops said. "With all due respect, why is the FBI getting involved here?"

"You gotta admit, it is a strange death, Larry," said one cop with very thick glasses. "But, yeah, I didn't think that the FBI was interested in little towns like ours."

"Well, the FBI thinks that there may be more to this than just a single incident," Natalie said.

"That's right," Dean said, backing her up. "Tell me, has anything else strange happened around here recently? Any other strange deaths, weird happenings, that kind of thing?"

Nerd Glasses scratched his head. "Not that I can think of- town's pretty quiet. This kind of thing just...doesn't happen to us," he said, looking completely perplexed.

"Well, that's why we're here," Dean said, nodding at the officers. "We're going to step inside, take a look around." He turned to Natalie. "What apartment was it, Whedon?" he asked.

"5B, Sir," Natalie answered promptly. Dean nodded, keeping the smile off his face, but inwardly, he was one proud papa. She was doing great.

"Let's go," he said. They walked into the building, bypassing another two cops who were exiting. They made their way up to the second floor where the victim's apartment was. They entered the apartment to find another couple of cops. Natalie wondered if the entire Trinidad Police Department was here. Their eyes widened in surprise as the young girl in the very official looking black pant suit walked up to them, flashing a badge.

"Gentlemen," Natalie said, tucking her badge back into the inner pocket of her coat. "We're going to have to ask you to leave the premises while my partner and I take a look around."

The taller, balding cop just stared at Natalie, dumbstruck. "Aren't you a little young to be in the FBI?" he questioned patronizingly.

Natalie snorted nonchalantly. "Yeah, I get that a lot," she said, no nonsense in her voice, offering no further explanation. She patiently waited for the cops to start moving towards the door, but it seemed like they had no intention of moving for a kid.

"With all due respect, Miss," the younger, smarmy looking officer said. "We've already gone over the entire apartment- there's nothing here." He smiled patronizingly at her. Dean and Sam had both told her to expect this- due to her age; it was going to be a while before she could intimidate anyone into doing what she said just because she said it. Natalie took two seconds to offer up a prayer to Castiel to speed that date along. But in the meantime, there were other methods to achieving her goals.

"Then I'm sure it will take us no time at all. We'll be out of your hair before you know it," she said benignly, with a subtle emphasis on the word "we'll". The two cops looked at each other, shrugged, and looked at her partner, who seemed to be watching their entire exchange intently. The bald cop nodded at Dean, smacked Smarmy Cop on the arm, and they walked out of the apartment without another word, closing the door behind them.

When he was sure they were gone, Dean turned to Natalie. "Nice job, kiddo." Natalie suppressed her thrilled smile, and pulled her EMF device out of her pocket. She began scanning the room, looking for spikes on the needle. Dean started searching the tape marked area where the body had been discovered. He leaned down, but there were no scorch marks in the carpet, no ash- nothing to suggest fire or anything close to it. His eyes suddenly zeroed in on a grainy substance close to where the victim's foot had been. He reached over and picked it up, pinching it between his thumb and forefinger. Pulling it closer, he could see that it was black pebble of some kind, with some sort of greasy residue.

"Hey," he called out. "C'mere, check this out." Natalie walked over to him, and as she did, the EMF meter suddenly spiked. They both started in surprise at the sudden noise, but then Dean reached the pebble back towards the meter in Natalie's hand. The second it got closer, the needle jumped again. They met eyes.

"Yahtzee," Dean muttered.

"What is it?" Natalie said, reaching out for the rock. Dean dropped it into her hand.

"I don't know. We'll take it with us and try to identify it back at the hotel."

*SPN SPN SPN*

Sam met them at a diner a couple blocks away from the apartment building for dinner. He had been to the morgue, and, other than finding the victim roasted from the inside out, had found nothing else unusual.

"I did find this, however," he said, dropping a pamphlet on the table. Dean snatched it up. It was for a ghost town not too far from Trinidad. Natalie leaned back in her seat, trying to read over her dad's shoulder.

"Ludlow?" Dean asked. "There's an honest-to-god ghost town here?"

"Ludlow..." Natalie murmured quietly. She knew she had heard that name before, but couldn't place it. "Why does that sound familiar?" she asked, looking at Sam.

"The Ludlow Massacre?" he prompted. She closed her eyes, rolling her head back and nodding. Of course that was why it sounded familiar.

"What was the Ludlow Massacre?" Dean asked, wanting to hear the story rather than read it. Sam turned his gaze to look at his brother.

"Back in the early 1900's, Ludlow was a mining town, employing thousands of immigrant workers. The workers were treated like crap- they were forced to work insane hours, live in these run down shacks. If anybody got hurt or killed, it was written off as "neglectful diligence" on the part of the worker, and they were never compensated in any way."

Dean whistled. "Yikes. I bet their pension plan sucked," Natalie snorted, and gave him her lopsided grin. Sam continued.

"Anyways, the miners formed a Union, and they decided to strike. They were forced out of the shacks, and they lived in tents for over a year, just waiting for the Rockefellers to acknowledge their demands and treat them fairly."

"The Rockefellers?" Dean asked. "How were the Rockefellers involved?"

"They were the ones who owned the mines that the workers were supposed to be working," Natalie said. "John D. Rockefeller Jr. refused to listen to them, and sent in the US militia to break up the union and get the workers back in the mines."

"Only they decided that they were going to use brute force instead of reason and negotiation," Sam said, picking up the rest of the story. "One night, the militia started fires in the tent city, and the fires got out of control, killing dozens of people, mostly children."

"That's horrible," Dean said, shocked. He dealt with a lot of supernatural crap all the time, but the evil that could come just from humanity still astounded him on a daily basis. Especially when it came to kids. Ever since becoming a father, Dean had taken special vengeance on any case where a child was harmed or killed. He couldn't imagine the thought of losing Natalie, and was determined that no parent should have to worry about that, not if he could help it. Natalie and Sam were both nodding at his statement.

"Yeah," Natalie said, sadly. "The kids would climb into pits that were dug into the ground to protect them from the bullets..."

"Bullets?" Dean said sharply. Natalie grimaced.

"One of the ways the militia would try to control the workers was to bring Gatling guns and randomly open fire into the tent city."

"What the hell is wrong with people?"

"Beats me. Anyways, the kids got trapped in one of the pits during the fire, and they were burned to death. That's why it was called the Ludlow Massacre," she said, finishing the story.

Dean pushed back from the table, arching his back to stretch it out. "So. I guess we go check out Ghost Town tomorrow? See if there is some connection to this murder?"

Sam nodded, and tapped the brochure still in Dean's hands. "There is a guided tour in Ludlow on Thursdays- I think that's the best place to start."

"Awesome!" Natalie said, grinning. Both boys turned to look at her. "So we get to play tourist!" She rubbed her hands together delightedly. She loved going on any sort of tour, whether it be a museum or a haunted house. Sam just chuckled at her.

*SPN SPN SPN*

The next day, the three of them drove to the town square, where the bus to take them on the Ghost Town Tour picked up their participants. The three Winchesters climbed onto the bus, which already had about a dozen people on it. Natalie followed Dean, who slid into a window seat about 3 rows from the driver. Natalie scooted in next to him, leaving Sam to sit in the row behind them. They didn't say anything, just checked out the other people who wanted to take the tour. Much to Sam's chagrin, and Dean's delight, one of those people happened to be a large, booming man that looked like a linebacker, and plopped himself down next to Sam. Dean and Natalie simultaneously snorted under their breathes upon seeing the hulking man heave himself into the seat. They silently tapped fists. Anything that caused Sam to be annoyed just made their sun shine a bit brighter.

Linebacker Man started a loud, boisterous conversation that apparently Sam was expected to listen to and appreciate. "So what are you going on this tour for?" the large man asked in a booming voice that matched his physical description.

Sam cleared his throat awkwardly. "Um, well, I just...I read about this town, and all about the history behind it..."

"HA! History buff, huh?" the man blurted out, not giving Sam a chance to finish his sentence. "Don't bother listening to any of the crap that the tour guide is going to say. You stick with me, I'll tell you the REAL history of the place," the man said, the arrogant pride pinging in his voice. Natalie's brow furrowed. She leaned back against her seat, in a move that to anyone else would have been annoyance at the loudness of the man's words, but was actually trying to get closer, just to make sure that she didn't miss anything. Unlikely, due to the fact that the man seemed to want to announce his plan to the entire bus.

"Yeah- all this crap about the poor workers- it's a load of horse manure. My great great grandfather was one of the militia men that was sent to break up the riots."

Sam sat up straighter in his chair, intrigued by the man. "What riots? I thought that the workers were just striking- I never heard about any riots."

The large man gave off a loud, disrespectful laugh. "And you call yourself a history buff boy?" he asked, snorting his derision.

"Well, actually, no, that was what YOU called..."

"These crazy foreigners come in to work, and instead of working, start demanding all this garbage- I mean, they were the ones who chose to come to America in the first place. Did they think that an easy life was going to be handed to them on a silver platter?" He paused for a moment to look at Sam, expecting him to comment. Sam took a breath, even though he had no idea what to say. It was alright though- the man continued on like he had no intention of stopping for Sam at all.

"No! You work, you do the job that you were given, and you keep shut about what's bothering you!" the man hollered. Sam just closed his mouth and nodded politely at the man, who seemed to take that as an invitation to go on.

"Tell you what," he said to Sam. "You stick with me on this tour, and I'll show you the good stuff."

"Like what?" Sam asked.

"Like where they posted the Gatling guns they needed to keep these immigrants in line. I know right where they were," the man said proudly, as if knowing the location of the murder weapons was the greatest fact in the world.

"How do you know that?"

"Like I said, my great great grandfather was one of the militia men." He held out his large, beefy hand to Sam. "Jack Linderfelt, direct descendant of Karl Linderfelt."

Natalie inhaled sharply. Karl Linderfelt was not just ONE of the militia men- he had been the leader of the team, the one who gave the order to start the fires in the tent city. Her anger surged towards this man, even though the only crime this guy had committed was being related to the former riot instigator. And talking way too loud on a bus.

"Ah," Sam said. Natalie could hear in his voice that he knew who Linderfelt was too, and was trying to figure out the next subtle interrogation question. "So, if you don't mind me asking, why are you taking this tour? It seems like you know quite a bit about this area already."

"I do it and tell people what REALLY happened. I like to make sure that people know the way everything really went down," Jack said loudly, looking around the bus to see if there was anyone else who would take him up on his offer of a personally guided tour. Just then, a young man in his early twenties stepped onto the bus. Natalie's attention immediately shifted to the boy- he was rather cute. A shock of light blond hair, and deep set blue eyes accompanied a very striking face. She felt the corners of her mouth pull up, just as she felt her father tense next to her. She didn't care- it was free to window shop, right?

"Good afternoon, everybody!" the young man said in a bright voice. There was a mumbled chorus of "good afternoon"s from the tourists.

"Hi," Natalie said, a coy smile on her face. Dean rolled his eyes, and didn't catch the young man looking at Natalie. The boy's eyes widened at the sight of her for a second, before he went back to his business.

"I'm your tour guide today. My name is Lucas," the young man began. He started into his schpiel about the tour, and the town of Ludlow, as the bus driver pulled away from the curb. Natalie leaned forward, grinning from ear to ear. Dean knocked his leg against hers.

"What?" she hissed at him, not wanting to take her eyes off the very attractive tour guide.

Dean just glared at her.

*SPN SPN SPN*

They had finally arrived at Ludlow, and Lucas was taking the group around the town. Jack had slapped Sam on the back, dragging him off on his own tour. Sam had capitulated, knowing that Jack may actually know something useful about this town. Natalie had been slowly creeping up towards where Lucas was leading. She was being subtle about it- Dean often didn't notice how close she was until she was right behind him. He then would put a finger in the back of the collar of the shirt she was wearing, and drag her back towards him. After the third time, he yanked her back harder than normal, causing her to stumble. He grabbed her so she wouldn't fall.

"Would you get a grip?" he hissed in her ear. She turned to him slowly, with an incredulous look on her face.

"I am just appreciating a thing of beauty," she said with a smarmy look on her face. Dean gave her a warning look that she hadn't gotten since she was a kid. She gulped, the look having the same effect on her now as it had then. She fell in line beside Dean, and she could feel him relax a bit. She really didn't understand why he was getting so uptight- she had watched him put the moves on any number of women over the years. The double standard here was total crap.

Lucas had stopped the group, and turned around. His eyes, to Dean's intense fury, sought Natalie's, and he smiled when he saw her looking at him.

"That's it for the guided part of the tour. Feel free to look around and explore the buildings for the next half hour. Please remember to watch your children, and do not go into any properties that have been roped off with the black and yellow caution tape. I'll be around to answer any questions. Thank you!" The folks on the tour politely applauded him- he really had done an excellent job. He had been able to answer any question without hesitation, and seemed confident in his delivery. Natalie thought that was fantastic. Dean thought he was an arrogant asshole. Dean turned to Natalie now, glad that she no longer had any reason to ogle the boy.

"Alright, you go find Sam, I'm going to try to chat up..." Dean took a breath, and made a conscious effort to pronounce the kid's name instead of the name he was calling him in his head. "...Lucas... to see what else he knows." Natalie nodded, then turned her head. Right as she did that, Lucas looked at her. When they locked eyes, he quickly winked and smiled. She flushed, and turned back to Dean.

"Actually, I think I may have a better time doing that than you, for once," she said. She sauntered away towards the young man. Dean's jaw dropped watching her walk away from him, but Natalie didn't notice.

"Hey, um...Lucas?" she said, approaching him shyly. He turned and flashed his baby blues at her charmingly.

"Hi," he said, in a slightly sultry voice. "What's your name?"

"I'm Natalie," she said, praying that she didn't sound as dorky as she felt. "I was wondering- could you show me some of the other areas around here? Like where the tent city was, and stuff like that?" She knew from watching Dean put the moves on a chick that it wasn't always about having the perfect pick up line. Besides, she was here to work- it was just to her advantage that Lucas seemed to know a lot of information, and seemed to take an interest in her. And she was right.

"Absolutely. I'm glad to know someone was actually paying attention to what I said back there," he said in a joking manner. She giggled in response, and they began to walk away. She turned quickly to look at Dean, flashing him a triumphant See? look. To her surprise, he had the strangest look on his face, as if he was actually frozen, just staring at her. She couldn't tell if he was angry, or proud that she was right, or what. She dismissed it and began walking away with Lucas.

He led her to the area where the tent city had been located, telling her facts the entire way, most of which she already knew. She looked at some of the roped off shacks.

"Looks like they're doing some construction here," Natalie commented, gesturing to the pile of tools that had been left inside one of the restricted areas. "Why are they doing work on an abandoned town?

"They're trying to get this area preserved as a historical landmark," Lucas said. "It's a lot easier to do that kind of thing when there are actual buildings to show. They're being really stupid about the construction, though."

"How's that?"

Lucas pointed to a compressor that had a pneumatic nail gun at the end of the long hose attached to it. "They're using iron nails to reconstruct the buildings. It's so dumb- they'll eventually rust and fall out and then we'll be back to square one," he said, a snort of derision in his voice. They kept walking away from the shacks, making small talk. When they got to the large span of field, Natalie's eyes began scanning for anything that looked like a graveyard.

"I can't believe that someone would kill innocent children without even thinking about it," she said sadly.

Lucas nodded his head. "I know. And that jackass, Linderfeld, 'scuse my language, he comes on the tour every week, talking about how his great great grandfather always gets the blame, but he was just doing his job, blah blah blah. Who's job was it to kill all those people?" Lucas said angrily. Natalie reached out a hand, and placed it on his arm.

"That's gotta suck," she said sympathetically. "Having to deal with someone like that who just doesn't understand what really happened, and who doesn't respect the sanctity of the place." Lucas's eyes traveled down to where her hand was touching his arm, and he seemed to inhale slowly. She quietly withdrew her hand, seeing the effect it was having on him, and pressed her advantage.

"Are the victims buried here?" she said softly.

After taking a moment to clear his brain, Lucas swallowed hard before answering. "No. They were all burned alive, you know? No bodies to bury, nothing but ash."

Natalie gritted her teeth. Maybe it wasn't the victims of Ludlow who had attacked the guy in his apartment- cremation usually kept a spirit from being attached to Earth.

"How many people died here?" she asked.

"It was between 19 to 25," Lucas answered. "From the workers, anyways. The militia lost four men."

Natalie nodded- maybe it was one of the militia men seeking revenge, trying to account for their actions? But why kill more people then? She was still searching to put the puzzle pieces together, when Lucas spoke up again, stopping her from walking, and pointed to an indentation in the ground.

"See that? Right there?" he said. She nodded. "That's the pit where most of the damage was done."

"What do you mean?" she said.

"That's where the greatest loss of life occurred. When the soldiers set fire to the tents, the women and children would crawl into these pits that they dug for themselves. That pit held two women and eleven children. They were all burned to death, right there, in that spot."

"Oh my God," Natalie breathed, her hand flying up to her mouth. She allowed herself a moment of sorrow for the victims before clamping down on that feeling. Dean had always been very strict about not letting your emotions rule your intellect, especially when you were on a case. Just then, a ringing noise sounded in Lucas's pocket. He smiled, pulled out his phone, and turned the alarm off.

"Time's up," he said. "Have to get back on the bus." Natalie nodded, and they began walking towards the bus in silence. Natalie could see her father from a distance, his back to her, just standing still. Before they got too close, Lucas suddenly blurted out, "Hey- can I have your number?"

Natalie did a double take- it was the first time a boy had asked for her number, ever. She really didn't think that Lucas was that into her, but damn, it felt nice. She pulled out her phone.

"Give me yours and I'll text it to you," she said coyly. He blurted his out so fast, she had to ask him to repeat it. She promptly sent him a text with a little smiley face. His face lit up when he heard his phone ping with her message.

"So...um, I'll see you around," he said.

"Yes. On the bus," she said with a perfectly straight face.

"Yeah! Of course," he said, chuckling. He darted off towards the bus, while Natalie, still grinning, made her way over to Dean.

"Hey Dad," she said casually. When he didn't respond, she turned to him. He was resolutely not looking at her, his jaw locked in place.

"You okay?" she said, not really sure what was going on. Instead of speaking, he grabbed her upper arm and led her onto the bus. She was surprised at his sudden angry movements. Sure, she knew he didn't like her talking to boys, but for heaven's sake, she was seventeen, doing what all teenagers do. When they climbed back onto the bus, Dean shoved her in the seat first towards the window, and sat down next to her, still not speaking. Natalie decided just to wait his tantrum out. If he didn't want to talk, that was okay. He'd calm down and get back to business soon enough. She watched as Sam and Jack climbed onto the bus. Sam caught her eyes and rolled his own, explaining the afternoon he had just had with a single look. She shot him a sympathetic smile as they passed her and Dean. The bus ride back was filled with chatter from the other tourists, but Dean still wasn't speaking. Natalie finally pulled out her phone and started looking at the Wikipedia entry on Ludlow, searching for anything that may be relevant to the case.

When they finally pulled back into Trinidad, Dean wasted no time in yanking Natalie back up, and practically shoving her out the bus door, not even waiting for Sam. She turned her head briefly to smile at Lucas, who waved in response. Her feet slowed for a moment.

"Keep walking," Dean growled, the first words he'd said to her since leaving Ludlow. She obediently trotted beside him as he pulled her towards the Impala. He let go of her arm just as she reached her door. He stomped around to his side, pulling his door open. Natalie slid into her seat, waiting to tell him all about the other facts that she had learned while out with Lucas. But before she could even take a breath, Dean slammed the car door and said, "You're off the case."

Natalie blinked twice, completely thrown. What the hell did he just say?