Chapter 4:

A/N: Hope you're starting to enjoy this.

Disclaimer: I still don't own them.

Any doubts Sam or Dean had about the woman's seriousness were eradicated when she primed the shotgun. The barrel of the weapon never wavered from its target, dead center on Sam's chest. Dean pasted a smile on his face and took a step forward. "Whoa! I think there's been a mistake here ma'am. My brother, girlfriend and I are just passing through. You must have us confused with someone else."

The gun swung from Sam's chest to Dean's. "I'm getting old son, not getting stupid. I said I know who you are, and you're not leaving." Her pleasant southwestern drawl was laced with an icy edge. Parker pulled the brim of her cap farther down on her head.

"Maybe if you could just put the gun down we could talk about this," Dean tried another tact. "That way no one will get hurt."

"You're right, no one will, assuming you take yourself a few steps away from me. Hand's not so steady as she was a few years ago. I wouldn't want my nervousness to effect the happy of my trigger finger if you know what I mean? So now, if you please." She shooed him away with the shotgun. Dean fell back with the others.

Celeste was a small woman, with graying auburn hair and a slight hitch in her step. Dark chocolate eyes brimmed with the intelligence and deep lines only age could give. Those wizened eyes narrowed slightly as she scrutinized Parker. "Quinn, is that you?" Her head shot up and she grimaced. "Girl, take that damned hat off so I can see your face," the old woman demanded.

A broad smile swept across Parker's face. She swept the ball cap off her head, and long, dark tresses fell loosely to her shoulders. "Hey Celeste."

"Hey yourself."

"How've you been?"

"Little bad, little good. Hip's starin to go on me."

This time, Sam tried to get a word in. "Excuse me, Celeste? Maybe if we could just explain…."

"Uh uh," the woman wagged her head. "I don't want to hear any cock and bull come outta your mouth son, understand?" She clucked her tongue disapprovingly. "Lord Parker, I can't leave you alone for five minutes without you getting in some sort of trouble. Now bring yourself on over here next to me and start telling me what the devil is goin on? Feel like I've stepped into the Twilight Zone."

Sam grunted a little. "Well, she's not too far off."

Parker's face brightened even further and she practically skipped across the distance between her and the counter. "God Celeste I could kiss you."

Dean shot a dark look over his shoulder at Sam and remarked dryly, "Seems like she makes a habit of that, doesn't she?"

"Well maybe if you started using your upstairs head a little more," Sam returned with fake pleasantness.

"Hey, both my heads are functioning perfectly well. Personally I think you ought use your downstairs brain a little more often." Sam glowered. "Besides, she's just a little conniving…"

Parker smirked. "Well you sure as heck weren't bitchin about it this morning." Dean smiled humorlessly.

Celeste watched the exchange with some interest, but decided to keep her mouth shut and let it pass. There were more pressing matters at hand to discuss. "You want to tell me why the local Troopers have been buzzin' around here for the last week pepperin me and mine with questions about you? They kept asking me if you had any mental instability, like schizophrenia or something. Parker," her voice dropped into a harsh whisper, "they think you killed somebody. And the TV today, your picture is everywhere. You're a fugitive."

"Actually, to be fair," Dean chimed in, "they think she killed two somebodies." Juvenile as it was, Parker had to resist the urge to stick her tongue out at him.

Parker's voice was thick. "They think I killed Angie and her boyfriend and dumped them into the deep in one of the caves." With that, the whole story poured out, from the morning of the disappearance to her escape from Somerset House. She managed to avoid mentioning Sam and Dean's involvement, saying only that they too had interest in Angie's disappearance. She wasn't quite ready to explain men that believed in werewolves and demonic possessions, let alone the fact that they ran said ghost hunting business out of the trunk of their car. "Lord Celeste you gotta believe me."

Something flickered across the old woman's face that made Sam curious, but it was gone as quickly as it had come. "Course I believe you Parker. I've known you and your sister since you were both knee high to a grasshopper. You may have played with fire more often then the good Lord would like when you were younger, but you're no killer. But Parker, you shouldn't be here, the cops are looking everywhere for you."

"I've got to find my sister."

"And who are they? Bounty hunters?"

Parker grunted, "No. That would actually make some twisted version of sense to me. Sam is the tall, good looking one. Dean, is the shorter, older, sulking guy on his left. They're…" Parker paused, racking her brain for some plausible explanation, "wildlife biologists." It sounded dumb, even to her.

"Hear that," Sam whispered leaning in closer to his brother, "I'm the cute one."

"Oh shut up. I am not old."

Meanwhile Parker was attempting to dig herself out of her proverbial wildlife biology hole. "They think some wild animal may have gotten trapped down in the deeps. They want to tag it, do research." Nope, that really didn't make it any better.

"Uh huh," Celeste looked between the girl and the two young men standing in her store. She'd known Parker practically the girl's whole life. Celeste knew she was lying through her teeth about something. She just wasn't sure exactly what. "So does that mean I can take those two outta my crosshairs?"

Muscles in Parker's jaw flexed as she clenched her teeth. Sam looked at her pleadingly, his hands still lifted up near his shoulders. Dean's lips thinned and he rocked his weight back onto his heels, lifting his chin defiantly. Even if Parker split, he and Sam would figure a way around Celeste. He and Sam always figured a way out. Parker didn't know if she believed them. Hell, she didn't know if she believed her own eyes. What she did believe was the feeling in her gut telling her to trust them, and she did admittedly prefer their company to that of a State Trooper, or to Dr. McAllister back at Somerset.

"Yeah," she said finally. "It's okay. They're…friends. They're gonna help find Angie." Celeste lowered the gun, though she still looked uncertain.

"Sorry boys. Never can be too careful."

Sam didn't bother to hide his heavy sigh of relief at the sight of the shotgun being lowered. "Of course, never."

Celeste turned away from them, shuffling slowly back behind the counter to put the gun away. Dean and Sam lowered their hands and moved toward Parker. Dean grinned, "Now was that so painful?"

"Excruciating," she deadpanned. "Just don't make me regret trusting you two," turning on her heel she marched off. She leaned over the glass countertop, "Celeste we need gear, and a lot of it. Cops took everything I had on me, my harness, my headlamp, my pack, and everything else I left in the cave. I need cams and rope," she motioned with her head over her shoulder, "and they need it too. And….I can't pay you, not right away."

Celeste's eyes went from wizened to shrewd. "I'm taking the trash out now," she told them all. "If in the five or so minutes I'm gone some damn teenagers come in and rob me well…. my insurance company is just gonna have to pay up, aren't they?" She winked, took a small bag of trash from the bin and started for the back door. "Good luck finding your sister honey, I get the feeling you're going to need it."

An hour later the trio had returned to their hotel. Both beds in the room were laden with gear, ropes, cams, and all the battery powered lights they could manage to carry. Sam had a map of the area laid out on the table, and the trio poured over it. Parker tapped a section of the map. "The cave we got attacked in is right here. But if I had to guess, that thing is holed up here, in the Deep."

"The Deep?" Sam repeated questioningly.

"Only the meanest, hairiest collection of caves assembled in this part of the Rockies. Only experts climb there, and only rarely at that. It's treacherous. There's a huge maze of tunnels, caverns, underground lakes and rivers and a nasty gorge in one that leads who knows where."

Her eyes took on a dazed, distant look Dean couldn't help but notice. The hair on her arms stood on end and gooseflesh rose with it. "Have you climbed it?"

"Yeah," she nodded tightly, now grinding her teeth on the inside of her cheek. "Once."

"And?" he prodded. This whole hunt was starting feel like it bordered on suicide, and he didn't need any more surprises.

"And nothing," Parker snapped, "I lived to talk about it, which is a lot more than I can say for a lot of people who go in there." Neither Sam nor Dean pushed it any farther.

"How far?" Sam interjected, breaking her from meandering thoughts.

"It's a two day hike from the end of the last logging road, a few hours out from my family's cabin, here. No offense guys, but we need to get up there quicker than that, and your car isn't exactly the off roading type."

Sam and Dean exchanged a knowing look. "Not a problem," they responded in unison.

Half an hour later Dean was crouched beneath the popped hood of a large, heavily modified Jeep Cherokee. The tires were abnormally large, and running boards had been added to either side to accommodate the several inches of lift given by the tires and heavy duty shocks. Mud splattered what might have been a red paint job. Sam was keeping the Jeep's owner, a brawny young man in Carharts, inside Deerville's one eatery, a greasy spoon christened with the name Maude's Diner. Parker kept looking anxiously over her shoulder at the diner's front door. The Jeep had been parked beneath a shady pine, a small blessing at least, but she knew they were taking a huge risk jacking the vehicle in broad daylight.

"Where'd you learn how to do this anyway?" she hissed.

Dean answered without diverting his attention. "Products of a misspent youth."

"Yeah, I had one of those."

"I seriously doubt they were comparable." The engine sputtered once, then turned over. Dean slammed the hood shut, a triumphant look on his face.

Parker regarded him shrewdly. "I think I'm getting that." Dean didn't answer. He just jumped into the front seat, leaned over and pushed her door open as well. Parker drew in a deep breath. At least if she got arrested this time, it would be for a crime she actually helped commit. She jumped in and Dean made a beeline out of the parking lot. Sam was going to meet them halfway up the logging road with the Impala in an hour. They were on their way.

--

The trio reached the Quinn family cabin late in the afternoon. They had stashed the Impala under the cover of the trees and went on with their stolen Four wheeler. The cabin was a small, run down looking log building square in the middle of no where, deep in the pine forest of the mountain. The windows were so dirty nobody could have seen through them, even with their nose pressed to the glass.

Much as Parker wanted to get going on the search for Angie, she knew better than to attempt to traverse the Deep tired. They would stay the night, sleep, and get an early start. Parker cast her pack at the side of the slightly weather beaten couch and plopped down on her back. "Two twin beds in the next room, there's a well out back if you need water."

Instant oatmeal and strong, bitter black coffee served as a quick breakfast the next morning. They set out early, before seven, each shouldering a pack laden with equipment and an assortment of hunting weapons the brothers had amassed over time. They didn't know exactly what they'd be facing, so they were going prepared. They began their stalwart march westward, up a steadying incline and thinning trees. Parker knew the way, so she led.

Sam and Dean were both sweating and gasping when they reached the base of the Deep. Neither one had had time to acclimate to the altitude, which pushed past 9,000 feet. The air was thin, and both Dean and Sam were light headed. From where they stood the ground ceased its gradual incline, giving way to a sheer rock face that extended ever upward. Both Sam and Dean sat heavily on the ground, light headed and a little nauseous. Parker shook the pack off her shoulders and dug through it. She tossed the brothers a bottle of water each, then took one for herself. "Altitude sickness is dangerous. Tell me if you're feeling sick. I can keep going on my own."

"Forget it," Sam wheezed a little, arguing between deep gulps of water.

"Look it's not gonna do anyone any good if one of you drops dead up here. You've just ascended almost 4,000 feet in the last day, and you're not used to it. I wasn't kidding when I said this place was dangerous, even for spelunkers with decades of experience."

"I can almost guarantee that this thing is more dangerous," Dean forced himself to take a long, deep breath. "You're gonna need us to get out of this thing alive. Give us a couple minutes and we'll be fine." Parker wanted to argue more, but in truth she knew she'd feel a lot better with them than without.

Sam ran his arm across his brow. "You said you've climbed here before."

"I have. I wouldn't do it again unless I had to, and now I guess I do."

Sam screwed the cap back on the water. "So what made you do it the first time?"

Parker's eyes glazed again, like they had back at the cabin. "I was looking for someone."

Dean rolled his eyes. "Who?"

Parker's face got hard, stony. She zipped up her pack. "My father. He died up here." Sam and Dean exchanged glances. They weren't strangers to the emotional roller coaster of losing a parent, and especially not knowing exactly what happened. Parker didn't seem inclined to talk about it, and the brothers were disinclined to ask.

Suddenly the wind picked up, bringing with it a sound that made the hairs on the back of Dean's neck stand on end. It was a cry, a high wail the likes he'd never heard before, and it was coming from a deep crag in the rock face. Dean shouldered his pack, his face unreadable. "let's go"