Sorry for the delay on this chapter. I had it pretty much completely written and apparently forgot to hit save :/ Every writer's worst nightmare. Thankfully I can remember most of what went on, so version two is hopefully better than the one that was lost! Enjoy!

Also, I read on the supernatural wiki page that Dean's birthday is in January, and we're in early August or so, based on Twilight canon, so it doesn't quite add up, but that's what AU is for, right? I can alter the canon and the universe to fit my needs.

Chapter 9

Bella PoV

In the morning, I wake before Dean for once and slip out of bed without waking him. Today is his birthday and even though most of it will be on the road, I can still make it a bit special for him. I shower and dress quickly and head downstairs.

Bobby is already awake and sipping a cup of coffee. I ask if he'd mind if I made pancakes and bacon for everyone. "Remi, any time you want to cook in my house, please just do. Your food is amazing."

I smile and nod my thanks before setting in and finding the ingredients for pancakes and getting the bacon sizzling on the stove. I figure it won't be long before the scent is wafting towards the bedrooms and the brothers will come bounding in here, begging for a slice before it's even done cooking.

"Bella?" I hear Dean call out moments later. He sounds slightly panicked, like he doesn't know where I am and that fact worries him. "Remi?!" he calls even louder.

"In the kitchen," I call back. "Making breakfast." Seconds later, he's in the kitchen, wrapping his arms around me from behind. His body is trembling. His head rests on my shoulder, I can feel the tension pouring out of his body. "Well, good morning. You okay?"

"Yep," he replies, popping the "p." He smiles at me and kisses my cheek. "Pancakes?" I nod. "Yay, my favorite!"

"Good, go shower and pack, we're leaving as soon as breakfast is over." He salutes me and heads back upstairs. Okay, so he was in a panic but now he's cool as a cucumber again. Like Sammy said, Dean's 180 is a coping mechanism. I'll have to ask him what his freak out was about later. Sammy then appears having come in the front door. He's covered in sweat, so I know he's been out running. I tell him when breakfast will be and he excuses himself to go shower. Hopefully he'll still have hot water once Dean is done.

Soon we're all seated around the small table in Bobby's kitchen enjoying the meal. Like last night, it's like a regular family meal. Bobby the ever vigilant father figure, Dean and Sam the two protective boys and me, the adopted little sister of Sam and the girlfriend of Dean. While I was cooking, Dean had finished showering and packed our stuff into the impala. Sammy threw his duffel in the trunk and we were ready to go.

Bobby elects to stay behind as he needs to man the phone-lines. Rufus and some guy named Garth are both on hunts and may need his assistance. On the wall in his kitchen was a mess of phones, each one labeled differently. FBI, US Marshall, CIA, and a bunch of others. He said sometimes the local authorities question a hunter's presence in their area and call their "superior" to verify their clearance.

We pile into the car, Sammy in the punch in the coordinates that Henry gave us and we're off. It's about a six hour drive, which I'm sure we'll shave down a bit due to Dean's speeding habits. While we're on our way, Dean's phone rings. He looks at the number and indicates it's probably for me, since it's a Washington state area code. "You have area codes memorized?" I tease as I take the phone from Dean's hand.

I press the green button. "Hello?"

"Bells!" I hear Jacob's voice call out. Oh crap, I completely forgot to call him. Hopefully Charlie told him I was alright, though it'd been a few days since I called him, too. "Charlie gave me this number, saying you'd called him from it once. Where the hell are you?"

"Far away," I reply evasively. I don't want to risk his thoughts slipping and Edward hearing where I am. "I can't tell you. You know why. But I'm safe and I'm happy."

"You're with those two hunter guys, aren't you?" He asks. I don't know whether or not I should answer that question. Then again, Edward knows I left with them, so he probably assumes that anyway.

I decide to answer in the affirmative. "I am. They're teaching me how to be a hunter."

"Wow," Jake says, whistling. "Whodathunkit? Little Bella Swan, who trips over her own feet gonna hunt the monsters that lurk in the night." I can hear him snickering.

I roll my eyes. "I'll have you know that I haven't tripped, fallen, or hurt myself even once ever since I made the decision to leave Edward."

"Really? So you see he was literally bad for your health. I'm so glad you wizened up and left his sparkly ass." I fully agree with him. "Listen Bells, I wanted to tell you something." I wait for him to continue. "I imprinted."

"What?! Really Jake?! That's great, right?"

"Um yea, it is. She's awesome. Her name is Avery and she's from Oregon. She and her folks were vacationing in Seattle and wanted to see La Push Beach. I took one look at her and bam, I was a goner."

I smile. "I'm so happy for you, Jake. That's awesome. Look, I don't know if or when I'll ever be in Forks again. As long as the Cullens are there, I doubt I'll return, but I would love to see you and meet her some time."

"Sure, sure," he replies. "I haven't seen the leeches since you left. I think they're staying holed up in their mansion, deciding what to do. I dunno. We don't exactly make a habit of going close to them y'know. Charlie said no one's seen them in town either. Not even to buy groceries, which of course he thinks is odd."

"Yeah, I understand, Jake. Listen, you've got this number. You can use it to get a hold of me until I get my own. This is Dean's phone. We're um… kind of on a case right now, so I may not be available a lot, but I'll try and keep in contact best I can. Will you say hi to Charlie when you see him?"

"sure will. Love you Bells…. Um, like a sister now, by the way."

I laugh. "It's about time. Love you too, Jake. Take care of big red for me." He chuckles his agreement and I end the call.

"Sounds like your wolfy-pal met a girl," Sam says from the back seat.

"Yeah, they have a thing called imprinting. Once they meet that one special person, they're it for them. It was described to be as though it's not gravity holding you to the earth anymore, but that other person. Like they're two halves of one whole. Deeper than soul-mates, I guess. Jake had always hoped it'd be me, since he had a crush on me since we were little, but once he saw me after he phased the first time, he knew I wasn't 'the one.' He even thought he might imprint on me once Edward no longer had his hold over me, but still no dice. I'm glad he found her, though. Or rather, she found him in a way."

Dean is silent throughout this whole exchange, and I can't figure out why. I also have yet to ask him about his freak out from this morning, but I doubt he wants to have a heart-to-heart with Sammy in the car.

Finally we arrive at what looks like a factory of some sort. Not far away is a power plant, and I'm sure everyone thinks this is just another building that's part of the plant, so over the years no one has been the wiser. Dean locates the entrance and we notice all kinds of symbols all around the metal door. Warding away damn near everything that's not human. Witches, demons, angels, and some stuff I haven't learned about yet.

Inside we find we're on a metal landing of sorts. It's completely dark, so Dean fishes out a flashlight from his duffel. We slowly head down the stairs and stand in a room that seems to be a main room with tables, lamps, and chairs. I grab my own flashlight and point it around the room. On the wall by the bottom of the staircase is what looks like a fuse box. "Hey, check this out," I say, walking towards it. Carefully, I open the box and see two huge switches. "Shall I?"

"Be careful," Dean warns. I fight rolling my eyes because I know he's right. Touching it as little as possible, I throw the first switch, feeling like Dr. Frankenstein. It sparks a little, but within seconds lights begin to flicker on in the main area we're standing in. The ventilation system kicks in, and we can feel the fresh air being pumped in, replacing the half-a-century old stale air. We look around seeing the tables covered in a fine sheen of dust. Not very much dust considering how long this place has been dormant. One on of the smaller tables lies an abandoned place setting. "Whoever was here left in a hurry," Dean says, holding up the coffee mug. Gone is the coffee and in it's place a black rim at the bottom of the cup covered in dust.

I throw the second switch then and more lights come on, showing us there's a secondary room and a hallway that leads to more. In the second room is basically a library. Shelves upon shelves of books and tomes. Rows of wooden filing cabinets. The shelves reach the ceiling, which has to be thirty feet. For a brief moment, I feel like Belle in Beauty and the Beast. I can't wait to get my hands on these books.

We turn out our flashlights, having no more use of them and take a look around. Dean has a shit-eating grin on his face. "Guys, I think we just found the batcave!"

I can't help but laugh with him, he's so full of joy. This is a hell of a birthday gift, and he doesn't even know I know it's his birthday. Hell, even Sammy hasn't acknowledged it. "Let's see what else there is," I say, grabbing Dean's hand.

We explore the bunker and find a hallway full of bedrooms, enough to house at least 10 people, and each have their own room. "I call this room for me and Remi!" Dean declares, pointing at a room.

I cross my arms over my chest in mock annoyance. "And what if I want my own room? Don't I get a say?" He whirls around and stares at me. Oh god, he thinks I'm serious. "I'm kidding Dean. Of course I want to share a room. But we should make sure we're getting the best room though, right?"

"Well, uh," he replies, rubbing the back of his neck. Much like Edward with pinching the bridge of his nose, this is Dean's 'tell.' What he does when he's nervous or upset. "This room is closest to the exit. Shorter evac time, if necessary." Oh he picked this room not for the size or quality of it but for safety reasons.

"Safety Dean to the rescue!" I state. "It's fine. I truly don't care which room we have. It could be a broom closet and I'd still be happy." He smiles that panty-dropping smile before grabbing my hand again and leading me on the rest of our exploration. We find two huge gym-style shower rooms/bathrooms, and a huge kitchen. I check and make sure the fridge is functional and notice there's also a walk-in freezer. Both are cooling now that the power's been turned on. Thankfully there isn't any 50 year old produce sitting in the crisper, or rotten meat in the freezer. Looks like the Men of Letters primarily ate canned, pre-packaged, or frozen foods. I'll have to throw all that out, since it's long been thawed and practically petrified, but at least it doesn't stink to high heaven. "Oh, Dean, this is magical. It won't take long for the fridge and freezer to cool and we can stock the kitchen with anything and everything we want."

"On that note, should we make a supply run?" Dean asks. "We can get some groceries, and other stuff like towels and bedding and all that."

"Yes, and a mattress," I reply. "I'm sorry Dean, but I'm not sleeping on a 50 plus year old mattress that whoever last slept on is dead. Nope. Not me. Not gonna happen."

He simply smirks and nods at me. We tell Sammy that we're gonna make a run for supplies and he can hold down the fort. "Pick a bedroom, Sammy," Dean says. "We get to have our own rooms. Finally!"

I can tell this is already beginning to feel like home for all of us. Bobby's place is great, but it's not home. More like a convenient stop-over. We can make this place our own, put our own signature on it. And considering all three of us are descendants of men and women of letters, we're all legacies and have more than enough right to be here.

In the grocery store, I start to grab everything I see and toss it in the cart. Well not everything, but for once I don't have to worry about the size of my kitchen not being able to hold all the stuff I want. And I have enough money to buy all the groceries I want. It's kind of an amazing revelation. Dean tosses in some stuff here and there, winking at me when he does so. Finally we get to the liquor area and I make a beeline for the hard stuff. I toss in bottles of brandy, vodka, gin, rum, tequila and whiskey along with a bunch of mixers. Dean looks at me as if I've lost my mind.

"I don't know if you noticed, but there's a very nice liquor hutch in the bat cave," I say. "I'd like to stock it with some of this stuff. I'm sure some of the stuff that's in it is still good, but it won't all be."

Finally we're done and checking out of the market. Six hundred dollars worth of groceries. I go to get some cash out of my purse, but dean puts down his credit card before I can. He had explained to me before that we're not actually stealing from the people who's card's the names are in. Most credit cards these days have fraud protection built in and the credit card company simply writes off the un-authorized charges and closes the account. Dean said they have to get new cards every couple weeks, but there's no shortage of them available to us. I decide that screwing over the credit card companies isn't so bad, so I don't complain when the guys try to put something on a card.

Our next stop is a department store where we're going to buy new mattresses, some needed furniture, bedding, and a few other items. While dean is off trying out all of the mattresses, I head off to find him some suitable birthday gifts. I find a nice leather bound flask and a gun cleaning kit that comes in a cedar case. To my luck, there's an engraving service right in the store and they offer to take care of my gifts right on the spot.

It doesn't take long and I pay for the purchases right there at the counter so Dean will be none the wiser. Thankfully, both gifts fit in my purse and I keep track of the receipt in case I get stopped on the way out. I find dean still in the mattress section. He keeps alternating between standing next to it and pushing down on the mattress with his hands, then sitting on it, and then laying down. Then he does it all over again. "Is this the one?" I ask when I see the stupid grin on his face when he lays down.

"I think so," he answers dreamily. "It's memory foam. It remembers me." I can't help but laugh, he's so adorable. I'm sure he's so used to crappy motel beds that having a nice one is like Christmas for him. I'm tempted to say 'happy birthday' but I don't want to give away that I'm in the know. Especially considering the fact that he's yet to bring it up. Either he's not aware of the date, or he isn't all that into celebrating… kinda like I used to be.

He's already picked out the bedding for all ten rooms, and we head to the bath section together. "I like these fluffy towels. How about you?" he takes a towel in his hand and rubs it down my face. It is soft and fluffy, like he said. I nod my agreement and he throws a few of them in the cart. "The gal said we can use one of their trucks to bring the mattresses and furniture home. Gave me the keys and everything." He dangles them in front of me.

"Wow, that was mighty trusting of them," I say.

He shrugs. "Yeah, well, that's small town courtesy for ya. I told her my new wife and I are moving into a our new house here in town, but don't have a car big enough to haul all that stuff but that we can't afford the delivery service either, and the gal ate it up." We stop off in the pharmacy area to get some new toiletries and such then off to the check out. While I'm paying the bill with another fake credit card, a few workers show up and help us haul the mattresses and everything out to the truck. Dean tosses me the keys to the impala and I about die of shock.

I thought for sure I was going to have to figure out how to drive that huge truck before Dean would let me behind the wheel of his baby. "Even think about scratching her and you and I are done," he warns me. While he's smiling as he says the words, I can't help but wonder how much truth is behind them. I know he loves his car something fierce.

Back at the bunker, Dean enlists Sammy's help to get in the furniture. Meanwhile I set about getting all the groceries in and organize the kitchen. On my way in the entrance, I see a wooden door-like think. Opening it, I realize it's a dumbwaiter. The men of letters may have been slaughtered half a century ago, but at least they were smart. All of my groceries fit in the dumbwaiter and I push the button to send it down to where the kitchen is. It opens up just outside the kitchen, which could not be more perfect. I may need to keep this a secret from Dean, or he'll be riding that thing until he breaks it.

Once all the groceries are put away, Sam joins me in the kitchen. "Dean is busy 'nesting' as he called it and organizing your room. I think now would be a good time to start on that cake?" I agree and we get the ingredients out. I had cleaned out the oven and tested it earlier, so I know it works just fine. Setting the temperature, I begin explaining the mechanics of baking to my new big brother.

I can hear Dean's footsteps coming down the hall and quickly we hide everything in the walk-in freezer. "Hey guys," Dean says, seeing us walk out together. "What are you doing in there?" I notice Sammy grabbed a box on his way out. Smart man.

"I'm short," I answer, pointing at the box. Dean chuckles and leaves as quickly as he came. Before we can go back in the freezer to retrieve the cake stuff, Dean pops back in.

"Bella, do you mind if I organize your clothes and stuff, too? I mean while I'm at it, I might as well, right?"

I smile. "No I don't mind. Knock yourself out." He walks further into the kitchen and I fear he's going to step into the freezer. Instead, he wraps his arms around me and plants a slobbery kiss on my lips. Gross. "Ick, get off me and back to work you caveman!" I wipe my mouth off with my sleeve and smack him away. He chuckles before bounding back down the hall towards our room. "That'll occupy him for a while, I'd think," I say to Sammy as we bring everything back out from the freezer.

Sammy takes on the vanilla cake batter, while I tackle the chocolate. We're making a marble cake with chocolate frosting that's infused with brandy. I explain each step as we do it and soon we're pouring the batter into cake pans, marbling it as we go. Into the oven it goes and I go off in search of Dean to find out what kind of a mess he's made.

To my surprise, our room is done and looks fantastic. The mattress is laid and the new bedding has been applied. I check under the comforter and see the way he's put the sheets on. Same way my dad does… military corners. On the dresser he's placed a photo of a young blonde woman with her arms wrapped around a little boy. His mom. I feel my heart tighten, knowing she probably died not long after that photo was taken, based on his age. I wonder if she would have liked me.

"Dean?" I call out, realizing he's not even in the room.

"Down here, Bell," he replies from another bedroom. On my way down, I see he's made the beds in all the rooms.

"Expecting guests?" I tease.

"Nah, but I figure if we wanna offer up a safe haven for hunters, we can. I mean it's not like we don't have the space, right?" I nod in agreement.

"Where'd you learn to make beds like this? Your dad?" He stops and turns to me, clearly confused by my question. "I mean, you're doing military corners with the sheets. My mom has always been a just-throw-the-blanket-over-the-messy-sheets person, so my dad taught me how to do it properly. He learned from his dad who was in the service."

"Yeah, my dad did teach me. Something we have in common, I guess," he says. "How's it going in the kitchen?"

"Fine," I answer. "Got everything put away. Working on some grub right now. I'll let you know when it's ready." He pats his belly in anticipation and kisses my cheek before getting back to work. In the kitchen, I whip up some hamburgers on the flat top and toast the buns. It helps cover the smell of the baking cake, especially when I toss some bacon on the grill.

Soon, the cake is ready and Sammy helps me puts both pans in the freezer. When he asks why, I explain. "I learned the hard way via my mother to never ice a cake when it's fresh out of the oven. All you'll have is a messy pile of cake crumbs mixed with frosting. You have to chill the cake a bit first or the frosting will never spread. My mother never seemed to remember that rule, and every birthday cake was a mess until I started making them myself." He nods thoughtfully and gets out the ingredients to make a small salad for just he and I to share with our burgers. "He'll want cheese, right?" I ask.

"Of course I want cheese," Dean comments as he pops in. "I thought I smelled bacon."

"Yeah, I told you I can make a bacon cheeseburger with the best of 'em," I answer, flipping the patties, offering him a wink. "Now out," I add. "Go help Sammy set the table or something." He mock salutes me and leaves the room.

Dean PoV

Bella is up to something, but I can't put my finger on it. Any one else probably wouldn't be able to tell she's been fibbing to me all day, but I'm attuned to that. I figure whatever it is will be revealed soon, but who knows. She was all secretive with her purse when we were leaving the department store, and she's been keeping me out of the kitchen all day. Not that I've had much reason to be in there, but still.

Sammy hasn't given anything away though, so I don't think he's in on whatever she's planning. Or if he is, he's gotten much better at hiding stuff from me. Which is both a good and a bad thing I suppose. I decide to leave well enough alone and don't let it bother my mind. Whatever it is, I'm sure Bella won't hurt me.

I was surprised that Bella said she didn't care what kind of mattress or bedding I got for our room. "Whatever you like, Dean. I'm not picky." I think every movie and TV show I've seen in the history of ever has always had the home and especially the bedroom designed or picked out by the woman. We've got gray sheets and dark blue bedding on our bed and I hope she doesn't mind. But then again, Bella does seem to be pretty different from the norm. Maybe I should give her the benefit of the doubt. She's been pretty unlike any other woman I've ever been with, why should this be any different?

"Dean! Dinner!" she calls out. The echoing qualities of the bunker make it easy to hear each other without having to yell too loud, which is nice because this place is fucking huge! It's like a mansion underground. And I know we haven't explored all the nooks and crannies just yet.

I head out towards the main room and see Sammy seated at the table with a napkin tucked into the collar of his shirt. He gives me a shit-eating grin. "What's going on, Sammy?" I ask. He just sits there smiling like an idiot.

Bella appears, somehow holding three plates, each with a burger and fries. Plus two of the plates have a salad on them. Under her arm, she's clutching a bottle of dressing. "What kind of a brother are you, Sam? You couldn't help her carry all this out?" I rush to help her and relieve her of two of the plates and the dressing.

"It's no problem," she says, defending him. "I told him I had it. Probably something I should work on. I'm too used to being independent in that way."

"Well, these look great, Bells. A guy could get used to this." She simply smiles in response. We dig into our meals and before long all our plates are clean. "Is there dessert?" I ask.

"As a matter of fact yes, but don't start expecting it for every meal. I can't have you getting fat," she teases, winking at me. Sammy goes with her this time and when I get up to help, she shoves me back into my chair and orders me to stay. No argument here.

A couple minutes later, the lights go out and before I can jump up and figure out what the hell happened, Sammy's singing a very off key rendition of "happy birthday to ya" by Stevie Wonder. He walks into the room holding a huge birthday cake with more candles on it than I care to count.

"The cake was my idea, but I didn't know how to make one, so Bella taught me. I know pie is your thing, but dude… birthday cake! Also, it has brandy in it."

My ears perk up. "Brandy? It's adult cake? Dude!" I quickly blow out all but one candle winking at Bella. Then cutting into the cake, I serve myself a huge piece and then cut some for each of them. One bite and I've got a new favorite dessert.

"There's only about two shots worth of brandy in the whole cake, but hey, it's not too bad, right?"

"It's amazing, Bells. Thanks, And thanks to you Sammy. I didn't realize you remembered my birthday. Hell, I didn't even realize it was today."

Bella laughs. "That thought crossed my mind. But Sammy mentioned it the other day, so we decided to have a little party for you. I um… I got you a little something, too." She picks up a package from one of the chairs and hands it to me. Inside are two tissue-wrapped gifts. I tear into them like a kid on Christmas morning. One of them is a nice cedar box that has a new gun cleaning kit. The top has had my initials woodburned into it. "This is great, Bella. Thanks!" She smiles and gestures to the other gift. It's a brand new, very nice flask wrapped in leather. On the front, she's had my initials burned into the leather. And on the back is a message. 'They say love isn't at the bottom of a bottle, but nothing about the bottom of a flask. So I say, enjoy as much or as little as you want." This had to have cost her a fortune, and it's so perfect I could propose right here and now. I hold it in my hand and realize it's not empty.

"Johnny Walker Black," she explains. "The rest of the bottle is over there in the decanter." I look and see she's also stocked the liquor cabinet. Sammy must have plugged the mini fridge we bought in next to it, so we'll have ice and cold beer just a few steps away. Nice.

"Guys, this is the best birthday ever," I say honestly. As a kid, we never really got to celebrate birthdays after mom died. I always tried to do something for Sammy, but my birthday went by the way-side more often than not. Dad was too busy hunting to worry and Sammy was too little to understand. Once he got grown, he'd buy me a beer or something like that, but that's it.

We sit around the table and chat a bit more. Mostly about what this place means for us. It's a veritable cornucopia of cool hunter shit. There are knives, swords, and all kinds of weapons hung on the walls, and then of course the books. We haven't even delved into them, but I'm sure it's about every book we could ever need to reference when battling the supernatural.

After cleaning up from dinner and my mini birthday party, we all hit the sack, ready to start taking on cases again. Bella needs to warm up on something small before we take on Abaddon. Sam has chosen a room and thanks me for the better mattress and bedding. I nod at him before heading into my room with Bella. She's getting undressed, and is down to her bra and panties. Dear god she's sex on legs and doesn't even know it. I pull one of my shirts out of a drawer and hand it to her. She smirks at me before pulling it over her head.

We climb into bed and simply hold each other before falling into a peaceful sleep on this fuck-awesome mattress. The asshole part of me wants to ask for Birthday sex, but the nice-guy part of me knows that Bella just might give in, and I don't want her to think she has to out of obligation or anything like that. "Bella, when's your birthday?" I ask.

"Not too far away, actually," she answers. "September 13th." I decide that our first time should be on her birthday. If she's ready before then, we'll talk, but I'm going to plan on that night being the night. I want it to be special for her. "When's Sammy's?" she asks, pulling me out of my thoughts.

"May 2nd," I answer. "So we have a while to plan a big bash for him." She laughs.

"Back to the grind tomorrow, right? How do we go about looking for a case if we're not gonna tackle Abaddon yet?"

"Usually we scan newspaper articles for weird or strange deaths or missing persons under odd circumstances. Various supernatural omens are clues, too. Demons tend to cause cattle deaths and crazy weather patterns. Stuff like that. We'll jump on the internet tomorrow and see what we can find. We may have to find a library or a coffee shop to get a wi-fi signal, but that shouldn't be too tough. We can talk more in the morning."

She takes that as my cue that conversation is over. Pressing her lips to mine, she whispers goodnight and snuggles into my chest to sleep. I don't want this blissful happiness to come to an end. This bunker is like we're in our own little safety bubble, and in a way we are with all the warding symbols. Ain't nothin' getting' in here. But she's gotta start somewhere, and we've had enough of a vacation.

A/N: I hope you enjoyed it! Next chapter will be the group finding a case for Bella to wet her feet in, and we'll bring back a familiar/favorite Supernatural character. I'll send a teaser to any reviewer that can guess who it'll be. (Hint, not a dude)