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A/N- This is part 2 of a 3 part story. If you haven't already, please read the previous chapter, otherwise this ain't gonna make a lick of sense. The background of this case is a true story. Please read A/N in previous chapter. In this story, Natalie is 17. Please see profile for disclaimer.

Children No Longer Part 2

Natalie was completely still- totally shocked by her father's declaration.

"I'm...off the case?" she asked haltingly, as if she couldn't be sure what she just heard. Dean didn't say anything, just continued staring straight forward out of the windshield.

"What do you mean, I'm off the case?" she asked again, this time a little louder.

"Did I stutter? I mean, you're off the case," Dean replied nastily. His tone immediately set off Natalie's defenses. She could literally feel her hackles rising.

"What the hell?" she barked back.

"Watch your mouth," Dean warned.

"You drag me off the bus, throw me into the car, tell me I'm off the case, and expect me to be silent about it?" Natalie said, her volume getting much louder than was safe around an angry Dean Winchester.

"You disobeyed a direct order while in the field."

"What?!"

"I told you to go find Sam. Instead, you completely defied me, went off in your own direction, doing your own thing. You know I'm always the lead on a case, and you still chose not to follow orders. So, yeah, you're off."

"How the hell was that an order?!"

Dean's eyes narrowed dangerously. "Natalie..." he said with a growl.

"This was just a research mission! I was doing research!" she retorted.

"No, you were chasing after that little blonde shit face..."

"NO, I was using him to get information! He obviously was interested in me, so I used that to my advantage!"

"Right. That's exactly what you were doing," Dean spat sarcastically.

Natalie threw up her hands, exasperated. "Yes, that's exactly what I was doing! I know we have a job to do- I was trying to see what else I could get out of Lucas about the massacre. He obviously knows the place like the back of his hand..."

"I can only imagine the places he showed you," Dean grumbled.

"And what's that supposed to mean?" Natalie shot back. Dean twisted in the driver's seat to look at her, schooling his features to be calm.

"It means that while you were supposed to be working, you threw all that aside to go hang out with some asshole that you thought was cute." Dean turned back around, his stoic demeanor planted on his face, masking the anger. "You know better than that. And until you learn to do exactly what I tell you at all times when you're on a job, you're off the case." Dean looked out the window to see if Sam was coming, as if he had no cares in the world at all. After a moment of stunned silence, Natalie said the only thing she could think of.

"That is fucking ridiculous," she said derisively. Dean's calm act instantly fell away.

"Listen up. If I have to tell you to watch your mouth one more time, you're gonna regret it. Got me?" he snarled.

Natalie took a deep breath, willing herself to calm down. "Dad, listen. Lucas was checking me out from the moment he stepped on the bus. So I noticed it. You're the one who's taught me to notice all my surroundings and use them to my advantage."

"Oh, so it's my fault you can't obey orders?"

"I'm not saying that- and I still don't know what orders you're talking about! I was under the impression that we were just there to get as much information as we could. We're not acting out parts right now, we're just people doing research! And I knew that I could get farther with Lucas than either you or Uncle Sam could, because I saw that he was interested in me! I saw my advantage, and I took it! And I learned some pretty useful stuff, too," she said, hoping the last part would intrigue her father enough to let go of whatever issue he was having with this entire stupid argument.

"Doesn't matter."

"Doesn't matter?!"

"Nope. How many times have I told you to stay focused when you're on a job? How many?"

"I was focused! I noticed that Lucas was more likely to give me information than you. It's you who lost focus! You didn't even notice that!"

"Believe me, I noticed. And that's why I told you to go find Sam, so your little teenage soap opera wouldn't interfere with the case."

"It didn't!"

"I'll be the judge of that."

"How? You're clearly not seeing the entire picture here because you can't accept the fact that I picked up on something that you didn't."

Dean turned around and pointed a finger in her face. "No more. You're off the case. End of discussion." Just then, Sam approached the car and opened up the door.

"Hey guys," he said casually, sliding into the passenger's seat, completely oblivious to the thick tension permeating the car. "What's up?"

*SPN SPN SPN*

By the time they got back to the motel, Sam was regretting asking what was up. Natalie had only been too happy to spout her side of the story since Sam had given her the opening, while Dean kept his usual stoic demeanor, simply saying that she wasn't following orders and was no longer allowed on the field. Sam was trying to get the facts of what happened instead of the individual biases that they were both under. To him, it seemed like Natalie was right to try to use her best chance to get information, but Dean was also right, in that she should be doing what he told her to do. They continued round and round, the argument going on way longer than it should have, mostly because the more Dean shut down, the angrier Natalie got, which caused him to shut down even more. By the time they pulled into the parking lot, Natalie didn't even wait for Dean to put the car in park before she threw open the door to the Impala, and practically kicked the motel room door down. Sam heard Dean exhale with a growl, watching her stalk into their room. Sam knew from years of dealing with his brother that Natalie was skating on thin ice, and she'd better be careful. Sam jumped out of the car to try to smooth things over between father and daughter before the three of them were trapped together in a tiny room and the shit really started flying.

When he walked into the room, Natalie had already planted herself firmly in front of the TV, and had turned the volume up so loud that you could barely hear yourself think. Sam walked in quickly before Dean could, and pulled the remote out of her hand. He turned the volume down, but before he could say anything, she whipped around angrily and turned on him as well.

"Okay, so should I consider you taking away the remote a direct order too? You know, since nothing around here seems to make sense anymore."

"That's enough," Dean thundered, coming into the room. Sam sighed- he had hoped to stem off this little tantrum before Dean lost his cool completely, but he was too late. Dean pointed at Natalie again. "Ten laps, around the block, now. And loose the attitude while you're out there." Natalie's mouth opened, but Dean cut her off before she could speak.

"You say one more thing, and I swear I'll make it thirty," he threatened. She turned her head and caught Sam's eye, begging him to take her side. Sam took a deep breath.

"You really do need to go cool off," he said quietly. Without another word, she stood up and snatched her duffle bag, stomping into the bathroom and slamming the door behind her. Sam's gaze slid to Dean, who was standing firmly by the door to the room, and seemed unlikely to ever uncross his arms again- they were so tightly entwined over his chest. Sam slipped over to his own bed and sat down. Dean just stared daggers at the bathroom door. Finally, the door burst open, and Natalie emerged wearing her running clothes. Without a word, she stalked past Dean, making sure she slammed the front door again on her way out. Sam watched as Dean slowly closed his eyes, and took a deep breath. He then stalked over towards the small table in the room, and pulled his laptop towards him. He booted it up, tapping his fingers impatiently on the table as he waited. Sam knew that Dean was just trying to get a hold of himself and probably didn't want to talk right now, but Sam also knew that he would probably not get another opportunity like this to try to get his brother off the ledge.

"Dean," Sam began softly. Dean didn't answer, didn't even look at him. "You know you're blowing this out of proportion."

"Don't start with me, Sam."

"Look, I understand that you're mad that she didn't do what you told her to. But it sounds like she's got a valid point, too."

"I'm not interested in her 'valid point'."

"Clearly. Why are you making this such a big deal?"

Dean's fingers stopped drumming on the table. He turned to Sam with an astounded look. "Are you freaking kidding me? Why am I making this such a big deal? Oh, gee, I don't know. Do you think it's because if she doesn't listen to me on the little shit that we have to do, how the hell do I know she's going to listen to me on the big shit? When we're on a job, and it's a life or death call, and she just up and decides to do whatever she freaking feels like?" Dean turned back to his laptop, which had finally booted up. He began madly typing. "Unbelievable," he muttered mockingly under his breath.

Sam sat up, determined to get to the bottom of this. "Do you honestly think that Natalie doesn't know that? When has she ever not listened to you?"

Dean spun around in his chair. If Sam really wanted to open this can of worms, he was game. Besides, he was dying to take his anger out on something. "Going back in time. Fighting Yellow Eye's brother. Hunting that poltergeist on the farm."

"First off, that last one was when she was fourteen."

"That was only three years ago."

"A lot can change in three years! And if you remember correctly, it was you getting pissed off and not listening to HER that drove her to go do that!"

"Great. So now you think this is all my fault too."

"No, that's not what I'm saying at all-"

"That's exactly what you're saying. You think that just because she gets these crazy ideas into her head, that she somehow knows more than I do, that I should just let her go off skipping to meet whatever it is that's out there, is that it?"

"Dean, you are too close to the situation here."

"She's my kid- how the hell am I not supposed to be close?"

"What I'm saying is that sometimes, she's right."

"And I'm wrong."

"Yes! You don't see things clearly when it comes to her. When we fought Azazel's brother in the past, she followed your directions flawlessly, until she figured out to how kill the demon. Then, and ONLY then, she disobeyed you because she knew how to end the fight when you didn't. And this thing now- this issue that you're having with the boy today- that's just you getting upset that she's interested in guys, now."

"That has nothing to do with this, Sam."

"It has everything to do with this. If Lucas was gay, and checking me out, you would have made me use that to my advantage to get more information out of him. You know you would have!"

"Naw. I would have done it myself. I'm way hotter than you."

Sam rolled his eyes, but plowed on. "You just don't like the fact that she's growing up- that she's eventually going to be dating."

"Of course I don't like it. It makes her lose focus."

"That's not the only reason you don't like it, and deep down, you know it. You're just using it as an excuse to keep her away from the boy." Sam leaned forward, trying to drive his point home. "We need her on this one, Dean."

"You and I have done fine on our own before, we'll be fine now. Like riding a bike, Sammy- it'll come right back to us." Sam opened his mouth to speak, but Dean held up his hand, halting Sam's words. "I'm not budging on this. I'm right, she's wrong. She's not doing it. End of discussion." He went back to typing. Sam heaved a sigh, and sat down on his bed, knowing that anything else he could say would be pointless. After about an hour, Sam knew that Natalie was done running laps- the kid was incredibly fast- but she wasn't back yet. He stood up and walked over to the window, pulling the drapes away. Sure enough, she was sitting at the end of the parking lot, Indian style, in a little grassy section of lawn, with her back to the room. Sam picked up a bottle of water from the cooler that was stashed up against the wall, quietly walked to the door, and opened it. He turned briefly to look at Dean. Dean was still resolutely ignoring him, so he slipped out the door, carefully shutting it behind him.

He made his way towards where his niece was sitting on the sparse lawn. As he approached, she made no sign that she could hear him. He walked right next to her, stopping beside her. He held out the water bottle to her. She finally moved, reaching up her hand to grab it.

"Thanks," she said begrudgingly.

"Do you mind if I sit down?" he asked gently.

"It's a free country." Sam took another deep breath. Dealing with Natalie was like dealing with a miniature female Dean. He mentally steeled himself for round two.

"You okay?" he questioned. She shrugged, but didn't say anything, continuing to stare at the traffic on the road.

"You pissed at me, too?" he said, already knowing the answer. Natalie just twisted her head and looked away from him so he was no longer in her periphery. He bobbed his eyebrows once at her gesture.

"Look, I know you're ticked that I sided with him, but that was only on the running. You were headed for seriously dangerous ground, and you know it. You're lucky you got off with just laps." Natalie sighed angrily, and twisted the cap off the water bottle. She chugged for a second, then wiped her mouth with the back of her hand. Sam smirked to himself- she looked just like Dean after a swig of beer when she did that.

"I know. He just made me so angry that I couldn't even think straight." She turned her head to look at Sam. "Sorry for being a jerk to you."

Sam shrugged and grinned. "You're your father's daughter. You're automatically a jerk," he said in a teasing tone. Despite herself, Natalie had to grin back on that one. She took another swallow of water before speaking again.

"You know I wasn't doing it just because I thought Lucas was cute, right?"

"Yeah, I know that."

"I can't believe that he thinks that I would jeopardize a case just because of a pretty face. I mean, for fuck's sake, who does he think I am- him?"

"Low blow, kid."

"Well, that's why I'm saying it out here where he can't hear me."

"Look, Bug, here's the thing. I know he's gone off the deep end on this one. You saw an opportunity, you took it. I would have done the same thing. But you should have communicated that to him before you just changed the plan midstream."

"We didn't have a plan! We were just getting information!"

"He told you what he wanted you to do- you should have explained to him why you wanted to take an alternate route."

"Gotcha. So we should have stopped, had ourselves a nice Oprah moment where he would have flipped out over me even talking to a guy, wasting my time and my window of opportunity, and then we wouldn't have learned anything else useful or valuable. Good plan."

Sam rolled his eyes- he suddenly realized that between her and Dean's perpetual smart ass comments, his eyes really got a workout. "He doesn't do well with people not listening to him. You of all people know that."

"As 'point' on the job, he should have noticed all the opportunities that we had to learn all about the town and anything that could have been relevant to the job. Just because he didn't notice my advantage is not a reason to take me off a job." She turned her head, looking Sam dead in the eye. "I'm not budging on this one. I'm right, and he's wrong." She took another long draught of water, effectively shutting down the conversation. Sam sighed- the two of them were too much alike for their own good. He offered no more; just sat in silence with her while she finished off her bottle of water. Natalie smashed the plastic container between her hands, enjoying the crunching sound. When she couldn't stall any longer, she sighed and stood up. Sam looked up at her.

"You ready to go back inside?" he asked.

"Nope," she said. "But I don't think there's much of a choice." She waited until he stood up, and then they walked back towards the room. Sam noticed her dragging her feet until she was behind him. He knew it was because she didn't want to look at Dean right now, and if she was behind Sam's back, then that moment would be delayed, if only slightly. He opened the door and walked in, moving to the side so she could enter, and closed the door behind her. Dean was still at the laptop, completely absorbed, pretending not to notice either one of them. Natalie shrugged, and headed into the bathroom. They heard the shower start up. Once the running water blocked any sound coming from the room, Dean spoke to Sam without turning his head.

"She ready to see reason?" he asked gruffly.

"Are you?" Sam retorted. Dean shot him a glare, and resumed looking at the computer, dropping back into silence. After about five minutes of no one saying anything, Dean suddenly spoke up.

"So this ghost town," Dean began, refusing to acknowledge Sam's previous words. "I'm thinking that it's a spirit who attacked and killed Crispy-On-The-Inside."

Sam thought about it, and nodded. "Makes sense. But there were tons of people killed in the massacre- how are we going to narrow down which one it is that's causing all the trouble?"

Dean shook his head. "No idea. I guess we start at the top of the list and work our way through." He twisted the laptop towards Sam. "Found a list of the murdered people- you and I can go into town to the library and look for burial records."

"No point in that," Natalie said, emerging from the bathroom, drying her wet hair with a towel. Both Dean and Sam looked up. She was making a point to look at Sam, and pretending that Dean wasn't in the room.

"Why not?" Sam asked.

"Because no one was buried. They were all burned to death, so essentially, cremated." She cocked her head to the side, and put on a patronizing smile. "That's what Lucas told me when I was getting information from him." Dean licked his front teeth and made an annoyed clicking noise upon hearing her words. She just smiled wider, and flounced back into the bathroom to hang the towel up.

"Oh, and Uncle Sam?" she called out in a sweet voice. Sam braced himself- he knew that tone from her. She was on the warpath. She walked back into the room, putting a little extra bounce in her step.

"Yes?" he said cautiously.

"If Dad decides he would like to speak to me, can you please tell him to direct it to you, and will you then share it with me, because I'm not speaking to him either?" she said, the saccharine dripping from her voice. "Tell him, please," she said, looking expectantly at Sam. His mouth dropped open- surely she was joking. There was no way she was going to be this childish about the whole situation. Before he could say anything, however, Dean spoke up.

"Sam, will you please tell my daughter that until she stops acting like a reckless brat, I will be addressing comments to you as well?" Dean swiveled his head towards Sam, his tone matching Natalie's. Sam looked back and forth between the two of them, who seemed to be staring at him, waiting for him to deliver their individual messages. He couldn't believe what the hell was happening.

"NO!" he finally yelled. "I am not going to be the messenger between the two of you while you're at each other's throats! You two need to talk this out!" Both Dean and Natalie turned away from Sam, perfectly in sync, and shrugged at the same time.

"I'm fine with silence," they both said in tandem, then stopped. Sam watched with detached humor as they both registered that, once again, they were speaking the exact same thing, at the exact same time, then both shook it off and resumed what they considered to be dignified silence.

"Oh, good lord," Sam muttered under his breath. He turned to Natalie. "Dean and I are going to the library in town to see what else we can find out about Ludlow, see if we can figure something out. You stay here and analyze that rock that you two found yesterday at the victim's apartment."

"Will do," Natalie said without hesitation.

"Oh, look who can follow orders now," Dean said under his breath, but definitely loud enough for the both of them to hear. Sam watched as Natalie bit her lip to keep her smart aleck retort in, and he breathed a sigh of relief. Dean stood up, grabbed his car keys from his bed, and put on his jacket, all without looking at Natalie. "Let's go," he barked at Sam. They both moved towards the door. Just as Dean was reaching for the doorknob, he stopped. Without turning around he said, "Password?"

"Slash is a rock god," Natalie replied, no emotion in her voice, also not looking at him. Dean nodded once.

"You know the drill."

"Yes, sir." Still not turning around, Dean walked out, then turned to let Sam pass. He shut the door behind him, and waited until he heard the lock click before heading to the Impala.

*SPN SPN SPN*

About two hours later, around nine o clock, Sam and Dean pulled back into the motel lot. Dean had time to cool off at the library, and was hoping that Natalie had cooled off too. He gave the rhythmic code knock on the motel door, and heard Natalie say, "Password?"

"Slash is a rock god." The lock clicked, and the door swung open. She stepped away almost immediately, but Dean still took it as a good sign that she had at least opened the door instead of just unlocking it. He could see that she had been sitting at the table in the room, all kinds of equipment strewn over it. She resumed her seat, and picked up the small pebble they had found.

"I figured out what the rock is," she said with no preamble. Dean's eyebrows went up, and he turned to Sam.

"Yeah?" Sam said, shrugging off his tan jacket. "What is it?"

Natalie smirked. "To be honest, it's kind of a 'duh'," she said, looking at Sam first, and then looking cautiously at Dean.

"What do you mean, a 'duh'?" Dean asked, no trace of anger or sarcasm in his voice. Natalie felt a tiny part of her brain sag with relief.

"It's coal," she said. Both Sam and Dean started at the declaration.

"Coal?" asked Sam.

"Yup. From the mines."

"Why the hell is coal giving off EMF readings?" Dean asked.

Natalie shrugged. "No real idea, but I have a theory."

"Which is?"

Natalie thumped into the back of her chair. "You're not going to like it." Dean shrugged, and gestured for her to go on. "So you know how a spirit can attach itself to objects around it, even if the body is gone?"

"Yeah."

"So I think that the victims attached themselves to the coal in the camps, and that's how their spirits are lingering."

"Wait, hold on," Sam said, holding his hand up. "They can really only attach themselves to something that they are connected to in life- how could they be connected to coal? They couldn't possibly have been so attached to rocks in life, not enough for a spirit to cling on to."

Natalie nodded. "And that's where this gets sticky. First off though, the mining strike was the reason they lost their lives in the first place. I'd say that's pretty good reason to get attached to an object. But if it was just one victim, I would say that you're right- that there's no possible way that one spirit can attach itself to a chunk of coal. However, there were multiple victims. And..." she said, with a furtive glance at Dean. "Lucas told me about the greatest loss of life during the big fire."

"And that was?" Dean said, struggling to keep his voice cool at the mention of the boy's name.

"One pit that trapped two women, and eleven children," she said, letting the clue dangle in the air. Dean rolled his eyes, the fact instantly hitting his brain.

"Thirteen people," he said flatly.

"Lucky number thirteen," she agreed. "Thirteen has always been a cursed number, and with exactly thirteen people in the group..."

"The strength of their combined spirits latched onto the closest thing they could- the coal."

"Which means we're not dealing with one ghost here."

"We're dealing with thirteen."

All three Winchesters took a moment to absorb the stunning fact. Thirteen ghosts- that was a lot. An awful lot. Suddenly, in the silence, Natalie's phone buzzed, causing them all to jump slightly. She picked it up to look at the text message.

"Oh crap," she said.

"What?" Dean asked.

"It's from Lucas."

"He has your number?" Dean growled, unable to keep the cool in his tone. Natalie gazed impassively at him for a long moment.

"Uh-huh," she said, looking him right in the eye. Dean ground his teeth together.

"What did he say?" he asked, iron in his voice.

Natalie sighed. "There's been another murder."