Hello to my beautiful SPN Family, and Merry Christmas, Happy Hannukah, or whatever else you're celebrating, HAPPY HAPPY! I know I sound like a broken record, but y'all- the messages, reviews, favorites and follows are a blessing to me. I thank and love each and every one of you from the bottom of my heart. You all mean the world to me, and I will be forever grateful. I try to respond to every review, so if I missed you, I sincerely apologize. Sometimes it takes me a while to respond, but please know that even if I don't do it right away, you've touched my heart. And to all the guests who I can't respond to, I love you all too! To answer a question I got- I try to publish once every 2 weeks. Sometimes more if I can, but that seems to be my average. If you all have anything you'd like to read, please PM me and let me know!

Special thanks, gratitude, and pixie dust to Jenmm31- the Sam to my Dean. Girl, you know what you mean to me. I adore you!

So here you go! Part 3 of Children No Longer! Please read, review, and Enjoy! HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

A/N- this is part 3 of a case story. If you haven't, please go read the two previous chapters, otherwise this ain't gonna make a lick of sense. In this story, Natalie is 17. Please see profile page for disclaimer.

Natalie's lips pursed as she scrolled through Lucas's text. "You're never gonna guess who it was," she said bitterly.

"Jack," Sam said simply. Dean closed his eyes and nodded. Natalie looked at him in shock.

"How in the world did you know that?" she asked, startled.

Sam gestured to Dean. "Remember that he was related to Karl Linderfelt?" Natalie nodded in response. "Well, when we went to the library, we started looking up information on the first victim. Turns out he was related to Karl Linderfelt. It was a distant relation, but it was still there." Sam hung his head for a moment, then looked over at Dean. "Whatever woke up these ghosts, they're starting to move fast. We have to end this, right now, before anyone else dies."

"You said it," Dean said. "So how are we gonna do that? Everybody's already ash- there's nothing to burn."

"And we can't torch the coal that their spirits are attached to..." Sam said, trailing off.

Dean nodded his assent. "All the coal in a mining town? All we'd leave is a grease stain on a map."

"Hang on a second," Sam said, having a sudden thought. He pulled their dad's old journal off the nightstand next to his bed, and began flipping through it, eventually finding the page he was looking for. "Yes," he murmured quietly to himself. "I think that'll work." He continued to read through the page, oblivious to the fact that Dean and Natalie were waiting to hear the plan.

"Care to enlighten us?" Dean finally barked. Sam looked up in surprise.

"Oh- yeah. Yeah. Sorry, got caught up," he said. Dean just rolled his eyes. "It says here that if we consecrate the gravesite, that can keep souls from being trapped on Earth. All we have to do is find the pit where they were burned, and turn it into Holy Ground."

Dean nodded. "Alright then. Let's do it." He walked confidently over to his bed, where the duffle bag full of supernatural supplies was. He began pulling out their iron weapons.

Sam held up his hands. "Hang on a second, Dean. It's not going to be that easy."

Dean didn't look up; he was examining the blade of an iron machete. "Why not?" he causally threw at Sam.

Sam rolled his eyes. "For one thing, we don't know where the pit is. And once we do find it, there's going to be thirteen ghosts on our asses, trying to stop us."

Dean stood up, and looked Sam square in the eye. "Your point?" he said flatly.

Sam sighed, annoyed. "My point is that we need backup," he said, and looked pointedly at Natalie. Dean's eyes slid over to her. She had suddenly gone stock still, just waiting to hear what was going to come out of his mouth.

"Not gonna happen."

Natalie's shoulders slumped in defeat at Dean's words, but Sam wasn't done. He walked over to the other side of Dean's bed so he could look his brother in the face. Dean was once again resolutely ignoring him, digging for the tire iron he knew was in there.

"Dean, come on, man. You know that we need her on this."

"Too bad. She's not getting back into the action until she can learn to follow orders."

"So you want us to walk into an entire hoard of angry spirits and try to send them to the afterlife with only the two of us just because you're being stubborn?"

"We've faced worse before."

"Like what?"

Dean paused for a second. Damn his brain, nothing was coming to mind. "We...just have, alright?!" he finished, trying to make it sound a lot more authoritative than it felt.

"Think about this for a second. One of us is going to have to consecrate the ground, and the other is going to have to fight off thirteen ghosts. Single handedly."

Dean didn't answer, he just stood up taller and stared blankly at Sam. "Fine. You do your holy mumbo jumbo, I'll gank the ghosts."

He heard Natalie gasp sharply at his words, but he didn't acknowledge it. Sam shook his head in disbelief.

"There's no way that's gonna work. The odds are completely against you if you do that," Sam argued.

"Sammy, when are the odds ever not completely against me?" Dean spat back.

Natalie pushed her chair away from the table, and walked straight up to Dean, all anger and bitterness pushed to the side due to the current situation. "Dad, you can't." Dean's eyebrows shot up into his hairline, and he looked at Natalie impassively. She knew him way too well- he was feeling anything but "impassive" at her choice of words. She gulped. "I'm sorry, sir, I mean- you shouldn't. Please. Look- okay, I'll admit it. I should have told you what I was doing when I went off with Lucas. You're right- you told me to do something, and I should have told you why I did what I did. And I'm sorry." She stopped and looked expectantly at her father.

Dean clenched his back teeth, but answered calmly. "Good."

Natalie shifted her weight uncomfortably for a moment. She had half expected him to apologize for going ape shit on her over a boy, but now realized how completely unrealistic that hope was. She inhaled quickly, stifling her emotions, and moved on. "But please don't go into the field shorthanded just because I screwed up. Uncle Sam's right- you need as much back up as you can get on this one. I swear, I'll do everything you tell me to do- I won't move a muscle unless you give me the go. Just...please don't...please don't put yourself in danger like this." Dean opened his mouth, about to retort that what they did all the time was dangerous-this was no different, but Natalie cut him off. "Not like this," Natalie pleaded, all the tension and emotion of the day deflating her. It was as if she read his mind, and was referring to him being in danger because of her actions. If he got hurt, she would feel it was her fault.

Dean looked into her eyes. He saw the briefest flash of pain go through them, and dammit- his heart twisted. He couldn't stand to see her suffering, no matter how mad he was. His eyes once again sought Sam's face. Sam was just looking at him expectantly. Deep down, in that place he very rarely even acknowledged, let alone listened to, he knew they were both right. But the Winchester stubbornness gene was fighting like hell against that feeling. All of the sudden, a terrible image popped into his mind, unbidden. He imagined Sam coming back to the motel room without him, and having to tell Natalie that he was...Dean shook his head to clear the thought. His gaze moved back to his daughter. He regarded her for a long moment.

"Fine. You can consecrate the ground, Sam and I will hold off the spirits," he said, quietly but firmly. He expected her face to light up with joy at his words, but her eyes widened slightly and began darting around the room. Dean was surprised, in spite of everything else. His eyes narrowed, wondering what she was up to. He recognized the gesture from her, but couldn't place what it meant- he hadn't seen her shift guiltily like this in a while.

"Um...well...why can't I fight with you, and Uncle Sam can do the Holy Ground stuff?" she asked in what she thought was a light-hearted voice, but was laced with tension. Sam's face settled into bitch mode, and he crossed his arms, glaring at his niece. Dean looked quickly back and forth between the two of them- something was clearly up, but he had no idea what. He latched onto the closest thing he could find first, trying to get answers.

"You just told me that you were going to do exactly what I told you. You've not been back on the job for five seconds, and you're already second guessing me?" he growled, his blood pressure rising. Natalie quickly held up her hands and began backtracking.

"No! No sir. I just...I just thought that since Uncle Sam is better at Latin than I am, that he could actually get it done quicker, so you wouldn't have to fight the ghosts as long," she finished, trying pathetically to cover her train of logic. Dean just shook his head, annoyed.

"You're smart- you'll do fine on the Latin. Get the book," he ordered. She froze for another second, and then caught Sam's eye. He was continuing to glare at her, one eyebrow raised. They seemed to be having a silent conversation. Finally, Dean couldn't take it anymore.

"Alright! WHAT?" he bellowed, making them both jump. "What is it that you two geniuses aren't telling me?!"

Natalie shoved her hands in her jean pockets, and started looking around the room, anywhere but right at Dean.

Sam finally broke the silence. "You want to tell him, or should I?" he said sternly to his niece. Natalie exhaled quickly- it was obvious she didn't like either alternative.

"Somebody better start talking, right now," Dean thundered, the warning reaching a dangerous level in his tone. Sam turned to Dean, his arms still tightly crossed, his bitch face still firmly planted on.

"Natalie's fallen behind in her Latin studies," he said, almost prissily. Natalie dug her foot into the carpet, her entire body tensing up. Dean suddenly realized where he knew the gesture from- it was from when she was a kid, and got caught watching cartoons and not doing her homework.

"What do you mean, 'fallen behind'?" Dean said in a low tone. "She knows every exorcism that there is by heart."

Sam nodded once, but then pressed his lips together in annoyance. "Yes. By heart. She knows the words." He turned to Natalie. "Tell him what happens when you try to read Latin that you don't know by heart," he commanded, and Dean actually saw Natalie shrink down for a moment. She stammered for a moment, still refusing to look at either one.

"Um..." she began hesitantly.

"Um?" Dean parroted, his face going even redder. She twisted her foot harder into the ground, as if that could lance the boil that was about to erupt.

"Well- I just...I mean..." She seemed to be unable to get past any monosyllabic word. Dean rolled his eyes and put his hands on his hips.

"You mean to tell me that out of all the subjects you could have fallen behind in, you, a HUNTER, are behind in LATIN?" he roared. Natalie shrank into herself even smaller, and gave a half hearted shrug.

"It's really hard..." she mumbled, almost incoherently.

"Unbelievable," Dean growled angrily. He shot Sam a dirty look. "When were you going to tell me this?" he barked at his brother.

Sam threw up his hands in exasperation. "When it came up!" he answered. Dean looked at him, incredulous.

"And you thought a good time for that was when we were desperately needing a Latin incantation?!"

"What can I say? I've been kicking her ass for falling behind, but there's only so much I can do if she doesn't do the work!" Sam yelled back, then fixed Natalie with his glare again. "When's the last time you picked up your Latin book, huh?" he threw at her angrily. Dean stalked over to Sam, yanking their dad's journal out of his hands. He pointed it at his brother and then at his daughter.

"When this is over, if the ghosts don't kill you two, I will," he threatened. He thrust the book back into Sam's chest. "You do the incantation, and get it right the first time, got it?" Sam pursed his lips, but instead of saying anything, he nodded his assent. Dean rounded on Natalie.

"And you," he said. Unable to avoid looking at her father any longer, Natalie reluctantly raised her eyes from the carpet. Her gaze widened in fear as he walked towards her. "If you so much as put one hangnail out of line, I'll lock you in Bobby's panic room for a year. Got it?" he bellowed.

Natalie's face paled, but she answered firmly. "Yes sir," she said, her hands behind her back in military fashion. Dean snorted angrily, and stalked back to their weapons. Natalie quickly followed suit, eager to obey his orders, mostly because she knew that her father's threat wasn't an empty one.

*SPN SPN SPN*

A half hour later, they pulled up to the large dirt field that had once been Ludlow. The lateness of the hour had laid a blanket of mirror blue night over the dusty plain. This place was way creepier in the dark- almost like an old western where instead of getting invaded by a herd of rogue cowboys, there was a chance you'd be meeting your untimely demise at the hands of some other worldly creature. There were no construction crews present right now- it was like they too had vanished mid work. The piles of equipment and tools were still scattered about. Other than that, there were no signs that there had ever been any living presence there. It was slightly chilly tonight. Not enough to need a jacket- just enough to make you feel uncomfortable, like something was breathing on your neck.

The car ride had been a silent one, with Dean still furious at Natalie and now Sam. Both of them knew better than to speak in the presence of Angry Dean, so they had kept their mouths shut. Natalie looked out of the backseat window as her father pulled up and parked alongside one of the run down shacks. She shivered in anticipation- this was her chance to get back into her dad's good graces, and she didn't want to screw it up. She inhaled, pushing her still-hurt and angry feelings to one side, and readied herself for orders.

Dean turned the car off, and twisted in his seat to look at both Sam and Natalie. "Alright, game plan," he said. Natalie sat up straight, and set her gaze firmly on his face to show she was listening intently. Sam just continued thumbing through their dad's journal. He was still ticked at Dean yelling at him for Natalie's Latin fiasco, but Dean didn't appear to care.

"First thing we need to do is locate the pit where the bodies were found."

"Um...I already know where that is," Natalie piped up.

Sam turned in his seat, a quizzical look on his face. "How in the world do you..."

"Let me guess," Dean said loudly over Sam's unfinished question. "Your new boyfriend."

It took every ounce of willpower not to roll her eyes at her father's snarky tone. "Lucas showed me where it was, yes," she confirmed, keeping her voice even. Dean looked away.

"Of course," he muttered angrily. Natalie clenched her teeth together to keep herself from shooting off her mouth, but Sam came to her rescue.

"Seems maybe the kid was doing something right after all, huh?" he said nastily.

Dean pointed a finger in his face. "Piehole. Shut. Now." He turned back to Natalie. "Once we get there, you stay behind me, watch my back. Got it?"

"Yes sir."

"Let's move."

The three Winchesters climbed out of the car. Natalie began walking towards the area where the pit was located, and Dean and Sam fell in behind her. Her eyes were darting all around, searching for any signs of any supernatural beings, but it was simply quiet. The breeze blew up a fine layer of dirt, causing their visions to be blurred for a second by a dust cloud. Her whole body tensed when that happened- a dust cloud was the perfect distraction for an attack, but none came. When the dust settled again, she slightly relaxed, and kept moving forward. She gave a quick look behind her to Dean. He nodded once, letting her know that everything was alright. She turned back around and kept plowing on towards the area that had once been the final resting place of the thirteen. When they got there, she just stopped and stared at the indentation in the ground. Sam and Dean sidled up next to her.

"I thought you said it was a pit," Dean muttered in his low tone. Natalie just shook her head once, unable to take her gaze away.

"They- they just shoveled dirt in on top of the bodies. They created a mass grave, and this is what's left." She continued staring at the indentation in the ground.

"Hey," Dean said gruffly. Natalie took a deep breath, and tore her eyes away from the spot. She looked into her father's face, knowing that she was about to get another lecture on not letting her emotions override her actions. But all Dean said was, "Get your head in the game."

Natalie blinked twice. "Yes, sir," she murmured quietly. She knew he was still pissed, and still not wanting to talk to her if he didn't have to. She refused to admit how much that still stung, and instead, turned that anger inward. She walked behind him as he had previously instructed. She pulled her iron machete out, bringing it up to a guard position, and began scanning her surroundings. Dean pulled out the tire iron, scanning quickly himself. He caught eyes with Sam, and nodded. Sam took a deep breath, and muttered, "Here we go." He began the Latin incantation. About two lines in, a sudden gust of chilly wind came up, scattering the dirt around them. Both Dean and Natalie's eyes swung in the direction the wind was coming from. Sure enough, there they were. They made out four creatures walking their way. Four small creatures. Natalie drew in her breath sharply.

"Dad," she whispered. "They're just the kids." She was right- their ghost shapes had taken on their last looks on Earth- eleven of the spirits had died as children. All four that were suddenly staring at Dean and Natalie were disturbingly small.

"You can't think like that," Dean growled. "They're not kids anymore, Natalie. They want to kill you. Don't let them."

"Yes, sir," she said, steel in her voice. Even though Dean wasn't looking at her, he was still slightly relieved to hear the resolve in her tone. She had her head in the game now, just like he taught her.

"Go time," Dean said tightly. Natalie didn't answer, she just raised her blade higher. Dean began walking towards them, wanting to distract them before they got close to Sam. Natalie kept pace, her eyes darting between the four ghosts and her blind spots. The ghosts didn't move, so Dean just got close enough keep them at bay, not wanting to engage if he didn't have to. Sam kept reading feverishly. By the time he got to the fifth line of the consecration, two more spirits had materialized, taking their numbers to six.

When Sam read the word "Sanctum", all the spirits seemed to recoil as one. Suddenly, they snarled, realizing what was happening. Dean just stared at them all, fire in his eyes.

"Bring it on, Shorty," he taunted. The smallest one leaped at Dean with a feral scream. He dodged to the side, easily bypassing the ghost. The creature landed on the ground, coiled to strike, but didn't move.

"On your right!" Natalie bellowed, pointing to another ghost. Dean whipped around just in time to see another child ghost lunging towards him. This time, he wasn't so lucky at dodging. The ghost wrapped its arms around him, taking him to the ground.

Natalie began charging, but the other four spirits weren't having any of that. As if they were synchronized, they immediately surrounded her, each one taking a corner. Through Dean's struggle with his own nemesis, he watched as they surrounded Natalie. With a strong swing of his iron, the ghost on top of him melted into black wisps. He pulled himself up.

"On my way!" he yelled. Natalie's eyes darted over towards him as he sped towards her. He was so focused on getting to her, that he didn't sense what was behind him.

"On your tail!" she screamed, her eyes still watching her captors with laser precision. Dean spun around to find two more ghosts about to jump him. He roared at them, stabbing one right in the chest with the tire iron, while the other one darted around him, looking for a moment of weakness.

"Don't worry about me, I've got this!" Natalie yelled, praying that he would listen to her for once and focus on keeping himself safe. The ghost that was directly behind her let out a snarl, and she whipped around. It began stalking deliberately towards her. Natalie waited until the ghost was close enough, and swung her machete. The ghost, however, seemed to be expecting that. It dodged, but not fast enough. Natalie nicked it in the shoulder, and it spun away, howling. She hadn't made enough contact to make it disappear, but for five seconds, it was otherwise distracted. The ghost on her right saw its window of opportunity, and with the speed of a freight train, came flying though the air at her. The ghost knocked her backwards, straight to the ground. She looked up, horrified, to see a spirit looking down on her, grinning evilly. It raised its fists together to bring them crashing down on her skull, when she suddenly thrust the blade in her hand upward, slicing the ghost's face in two. It exploded into black mist upon coming in contact with the iron. Natalie barrel rolled to her left, and quickly pulled herself upright. She shot a quick glance over at Dean to see how he was doing.

While she had been distracted by her own attacks, another four ghosts had materialized around her father. She quickly dispatched the two ghosts on either side of her with precision timed lunges; the third one had disappeared into the night after knocking her backwards. She began racing towards Dean, when he suddenly hollered, "Down!" She immediately dropped to the dusty ground, and could feel the chill of the ghost go racing over her head. She jumped back up just in time to see Dean point a finger at her.

"Watch yourself!" he commanded. Natalie's jaw dropped- seriously?! She had just saved his ass twice because he wasn't watching himself, and here he was in the middle of a battle with a hoard of pissed off spirits, STILL yelling at her?! The rage she had desperately been trying to suppress surfaced instantly. Before she could say anything, he yelled again.

"Don't roll your eyes at me!"

"I didn't!"

"Good!" Dean hollered. He spun around, the tire iron an extension of his right arm, and took three ghosts with him. The black swirling mist of their dissipating spirits blinded him for a second, then the fourth ghost attacked. He whipped around, and with a backwards thrust, dispatched the last ghost on his tail. His eyes sought Natalie. She was back at it, battling once again. This time, six of them were attacking. But before Dean could even let his brain finish the thought to go help her, with a warrior's scream, Natalie sliced through four of them like they were butter, and her machete was a red hot knife. The air was littered with lingering smoke, and she turned to see Dean staring at her. The fire in her eyes was unmistakable. He knew that she was focused- more focused than he had seen in a while. She was on her game. Screw that, she was at the TOP of her game.

"See?" she thundered at him, the anger refusing to be stifled any longer. She spun on her heel, and blocked a fist from a ghost with the flat end of her blade. "I'm..." she screamed out as she used the ghost's force against him to slice his head off. "Just..." she yelled as she lunged at the next charging ghost, who darted out of the way just long enough for Natalie to run straight into the enormous pile of construction equipment that the ghost had been blocking from her sight. For one moment, her heart stopped as the machete blade snapped clean in two from the handle. She stared at the remains of her weapon in her hand. "Shit," she growled.

Dean began stalking towards her. "You were saying?!" he hollered. Natalie gritted her teeth in frustration. Her eyes wildly scanned the pile of junk. They landed on a pneumatic nailer that had been carelessly left attached to an air compressor. Natalie remembered what Lucas had said about the cheap construction. Praying that she was right in her hunch, she yanked the nail gun up, held back the safety bar, and pointed it right at Dean. He froze in his tracks, surprised.

"Down!" she hollered. Dean hit the deck just like she had only moments ago. Natalie let loose a barrage of iron nails, right into the face of the ghost that had been directly behind her father. As the ghost exploded upon contact with the iron projectiles, she stared in amazement at the nail gun in her hand. This thing had range- that ghost had been at least 15 to 20 feet away. A wild manic grin crossed her face.

"Bitchin'," she hissed to herself.

Dean got up and spun himself around, looking for their next target. The ghosts were rematerializing- the iron was keeping them at bay, but not for long. He threw a comment over his shoulder towards his daughter. "When did you learn to use a pneumatic nailer?"

"Do you really want me to answer that?" she hollered back, aiming and plugging a ghost that was coming up hard and fast on her left. Dean shrugged for a moment, then smacked a charging ghost with the tire iron like a baseball player going for a home run.

"How..." Dean began, then stopped with a grunt as he blocked two ghosts from charging him by thrusting the bar through both of their chests horizontally. "How did you know those nails were iron?" he yelled.

"Lucas!" she threw back, raising the gun again and plugging three spirits almost effortlessly. She couldn't help herself- she grinned like a bad ass, feeling like Bruce Willis in Die Hard. "Yippee Kay Ay, Mother Fuckers," she whispered with a wild smile. Her manic joy was short lived, however.

"AGAIN?!" Dean yelled. "AGAIN WITH THE BOY?!"

"WHAT IS YOUR DEAL?!" she screamed back, losing all reason, not giving a damn that she was throwing down the gauntlet on Dean Winchester in the middle of a massive supernatural battle. "If you haven't noticed-" she ran forward, dropped to her knees, and fired off a round of nails at a ghost shrieking in from her left. "-his information has been life saving, more than once tonight!"

Sam was nearing the end of the incantation, which was causing all of the spirits to become more and more agitated, and therefore more and more aggressive. Suddenly, all thirteen ghosts materialized, surrounding them. Dean and Natalie immediately flipped, in tandem, back to back, and started shifting right to left to keep their eyes on the supernatural beings. Being surrounded by creatures bent on destroying them didn't stop Dean from getting one more shot in on the "boy" front though.

"So glad that HE'S the one here tonight, saving our asses," he spat sarcastically, venom in his voice. A ghost shot through the air, right at him. He swung the tire iron overhead, dispatching it quickly.

"He'd be less than useless here right now!" Natalie retorted. She yanked the nail gun under her left arm to shoot a ghost charging Dean's right side.

"Yeah, no shit Sherlock!" he snarled, turning quickly to cover Natalie's front, and beheading a ghost who was rushing her while her attention was diverted to her left. He spun back around just in time to thrust his tire iron through a screaming ghost child.

"So what's the big deal?!" she hollered, firing off a round in an arc in front of her, pushing against Dean's back to get him to turn. She struck about every other ghost, but they were still rematerializing insanely quickly.

"The big deal is...you're not supposed to need him like that!" Dean yelled, swinging the iron in a gigantic X, taking out two spirits at once.

"I'm relying on his information! Big difference from needing him!" she spat back.

"You're gonna rely on these guys more and more! That's not their jobs! It's MINE!"

Natalie actually dropped her gun to her slide and spun around to face him at those words. "What?!" she screamed. Dean turned on his heel to face her. Just as he was about to speak, Natalie saw his eyes go wide. He put a hand on top of her head and shoved her to the ground. With a loud roar, he sliced through the attacking ghost that had nearly gotten her in the back. He reached down and yanked her back to her feet by the collar. They flipped back to back again, but Dean was too charged up to let the moment go.

"It's my job! I'm the one you should rely on. And if you think I'm going to let that go without a fight, you've got another thing coming!"

"Who said I wanted you to let go?!" she screamed over her shoulder. For a split second, the impact of her words made Dean stop. Natalie whipped around, and bent around his right side, shooting another barrage of nails off. He, in turn, twisted around her left side, swinging fiercely at the ghost children. Just then, all the spirits seemed to writhe and wail as one, and then, in a mighty rush of wind, all exploded into fiery, black mist. With an in-tandem sigh of relief, both father and daughter realized that Sam must have completed the incantation. Natalie and Dean both stood upright, facing each other, breathing hard. Dean's confused eyes looked deep into her burning ones.

"You are the one who taught me never to rely on anyone- and I don't. I don't rely on anyone. But I still NEED you," Natalie gasped, trying to catch her breath. "And if you think for one moment that I'm ever going to NOT need you, YOU'VE got another thing coming," she finished with a huff.

Dean couldn't move. His worst fear- the fear that he had never told anyone, not even Sam, was that she was going to leave him, and he would never see her again. That terror took a stab of truth in that moment. Natalie needed him. No stupid blonde kid with dimples was going to stop that. As that truth sunk in, for the first time, he saw just how ridiculous he had been, overreacting at her spending time with Lucas. But he shoved that thought down, back into the forbidden zone of his mind that he tried to forget about. He simply closed his eyes for a moment, inhaled deeply, and then looked her right back in the face.

"Alright then. Glad we cleared that up," he said, gruffly. Natalie's mouth dropped open, and she shook her head slowly, an unbelieving grin spreading across her face.

"You're an idiot," she whispered.

"Hey! Watch your-" Dean began, but she suddenly wrapped her arms around his middle, hugging him hard, squeezing the air out of him so he couldn't finish the sentence. Once again realizing how sincere she was in her words, he capitulated briefly, and squeezed her back. Knowing that the time Dean would tolerate a hug was almost up, Natalie released him, and stepped back. He smirked once at her, then his gaze dropped to the nail gun still in her hand.

"Pneumatic nailer, huh?"

She sighed heavily. "Please don't ask me. Not tonight," she begged. He just snorted a laugh. She dropped the gun in the dirt, and they began walking towards Sam, who was jogging to meet them.

*SPN SPN SPN*

The next morning, Natalie was outside, sitting on the hood of the Impala, having once again completed the morning coffee run. Her phone was in her hand, and she was feverishly texting away, interspersed with giggles due to the content of the text conversation. Dean was packing the last bag inside the motel room. He walked outside, his arms loaded with their luggage.

"Off," he growled as he walked past her. With a heavy sigh and an eye roll, Natalie slid off the hood of the car, and walked towards the trunk. She slipped her phone into her pocket, and helped her dad haul their stuff into the trunk. She noticed him pulling out a book from one of the bags, but he didn't say anything. A comfortable silence was settling between the two- whatever demons had been plaguing both of their thoughts over this whole trip had seemed to be exorcised along with the spirits of Ludlow. They were back to normal.

As Dean shut the trunk carefully, Natalie's phone buzzed again in her pocket. He raised one eyebrow, but didn't say anything, even though he knew exactly who she was texting. He saw her smile twist to the side upon reading the message. He counted to ten in his head to keep himself calm, and then mentally patted himself on the back for not immediately rushing to go rip the boy's lungs out.

"So how long are you two going to be continuing this little phone chat?" Dean said in low tones. Natalie looked up at Dean and smiled.

"Don't worry, Dad- it's over. He has to go into work, and since we're not sticking around, I told him we probably wouldn't be talking for a while." She gave Dean his own shit-eating grin back. "You know- let him down easy. Don't want to break the poor boy's heart outright."

Dean couldn't help but chuckle- no matter what else, she was TOTALLY his kid. "Good," he said genially. He held his hand out. "So give me the phone."

Natalie's face registered shock. "What? Why?" she asked innocently.

Dean didn't answer, just crooked his fingers at her, indicating that she should obey, now. She dug her phone out and slapped it into his hand, then shot him a bitch face, expecting an answer. In response, he shoved the book that he had just pulled out of the trunk into her hands. It was her Latin book. Her face immediately switched to annoyed, and she gave him a look that said, seriously? He shrugged nonchalantly, his own grin creeping onto his face.

"It's a long drive home. If you can read a new incantation by the time we get there, you can have the phone back. But you're not getting it back until you can. Got it?"

"Yes, sir," she said despondently. She stalked back towards her car door, yanking it open and plopping herself in the backseat. Dean just chuckled to himself again. He knew they had a long ways to go, but they were going to be alright. She needed him. And he was going to be there for her, whatever it took. If that meant riding her ass about her studies, or covering her back in a supernatural fight to the death, it didn't matter. He was her hero, and he was going to keep it that way.