The bell dinged as the three of them entered the comic book store. Piper smiled, looking around at the colorful store, walking behind Dean and Sam. Her hair was loose around her face, dyed again to a brilliant violet. She was hoping that it and the makeup she'd applied would distract from the bruise on her cheek.

The man behind the counter looked up. "Uh… Can I help you?" He eyed Piper's face, and she sighed. Dean shifted guiltily in front of her.

"Sure hope so." He said easily. "Agents DeYoung and Shaw, and Trainee Gowan. Just need to ask you a few questions."

The three of them flashed their badges as Sam asked. "Notice anything strange in the building, last couple of days?"

The employee eyed them warily. "Like what?"

"Well, some other tenants reported flickering lights." Piper supplied, smiling reassuringly.

"Uh, I don't think so. Why?"

"What about noises?" Sam questioned. "Any skittering in the walls? Kind of like rats?"

The man behind the counter cocked an eyebrow. "And the FBI is investigating a rodent problem?"

Dean frowned. "What about cold spots? Feel any sudden drops in temperature?"

The guy grinned. "I knew it! You guys are LARPing, aren't you?"

It was Piper's turn to frown. "Excuse me?"

"You're fans!"

"Fans of what?"

"What is 'LARPing?'" Dean was outright glaring at the man now.

"Like you don't know. Live-Action Role-Play! And pretty hardcore, too. You even have the girl!"

Dean growled, "I'm sorry, I have no idea what you're talking about." Piper placed a hand on his arm to hold him back.

The man behind the counter watched this with a knowing smile. It made Piper want to hit him. "You're asking questions like the building's haunted. Like those guys from the books. What are they called? Uh... 'Supernatural.' Two guys and a chick, use fake IDs with rock aliases, hunt down ghosts, demons, vampires. What are their names? Uh... Steve and Dirk? Uh, Sal and Dane?"

"Sam and Dean?" Sam said, horrified.

The employee snapped his fingers. "That's it!"

Piper stepped in front of the Winchesters. "You're saying this is a book?"

He nodded and made his way over to a table labeled "Bargain Bin." "Books, it was a series. Didn't sell a lot of copies, though. Kind of had more of an underground cult following. Let's see. Um… Ah. Yeah." He picked up a book and handed it to Piper. "That's the first one, I think."

Piper looked down at the cover of the book. There was a drawing of two men, who looked nothing like Dean or Sam, and one of them had an arm around a rail thin woman with unbelievably billowing dark hair. If that's supposed to be me, heads are going to roll. She flipped it over to read the back aloud. "Along a lonely California highway, a mysterious woman in white lures men to their deaths."

She looked up at the employee. "We're going to need all of the copies of 'Supernatural' that you have, please."

xxxxx

Piper was reading a fan forum on her laptop, sitting across from Sam, who was presumably doing the same thing. Dean was laying on one of the beds in their motel room, flipping through one of the books.

"This is freakin' insane," Dean griped. "How's this guy know all this stuff?"

Sam shrugged. "You got me."

Dean stood. "Everything is in here. I mean everything. From the racist truck to, to me and Piper having sex. I'm full-frontal in here, dude." Piper looked up and winked at Dean as he spoke. "How come we haven't heard of them before?"

"They're pretty obscure. I mean, almost zero circulation. Uh, started in oh five. The publisher put out a couple dozen before going bankrupt. And, uh, the last one,'No Rest For The Wicked,' ends with you going to hell." Sam turned the laptop toward Dean to show the list of books.

"I reiterate. Freaking insane." Dean studied the website. "Check it out. There's actually fans. There's not many of them, but still. Did you read this?"

Piper chuckled. "Yes."

She watched Dean frown. "Although for fans, they sure do complain a lot. Listen to this. Simpatico says 'the demon storyline is trite, clichéd, and overall craptastic.' Yeah, well, screw you, Simpatico. We lived it."

Piper pulled a face. "Well, keep reading, it gets better."

Dean's eyebrows went up. "There are 'Sam girls' and 'Dean girls.'" He waggled his eyebrows at Piper, and she felt a smile stretch her lips. "Wait, what's a 'slash fan?'"

Piper started chuckling at how uncomfortable poor Sam looked. She took pity and answered for him. "As in, 'Sam-slash-Dean,' baby. Together."

Dean raised his wide eyes to look at her incredulously. "Like, together together? Like, you and me together?" She nodded, and Dean looked at Sam. "They do know we're brothers, right? And that I'm with Piper? Like, Biblically with Piper?"

Sam shrugged. "Doesn't seem to matter."

Dean looked back down at the website and made a face. "Ugh, look at how many people want you two together."

Piper winked at Sam. "Yeah, we've got a pretty big following, Sammy."

He wrinkled his nose. "It was like kissing my sister."

Dean snorted. "Sister-in-law, maybe." Piper's eyes widened and her breath caught. As in married? As in Dean and I married?

Before she or Sam could react to that, Dean looked down at Sam. "'Was?' 'Was?' When did the two of you kiss?"

"You were in hell, Dean," Piper said softly, still reeling a little. "We were grieving, and it was a mistake, and it was gross."

Dean grinned and walked over to her side of the table, bending down to kiss her gently. She sighed and leaned into it. "Definitely not gross," she murmured against his mouth.

"Matter of opinion," Sam said with a wince.

Dean pulled away and winked at Piper, who blushed, and then got angry at herself. For God's sake, the man's seen you naked, stop blushing. "Yeah, well," Dean said, looking back at Sam. "We gotta find this Carver Edlund."

"Yeah, that might not be so easy. No tax records, no known address."

Piper frowned. "'Carver Edlund' might be a pen name."

Sam nodded. "But someone's got to know where he is."

Piper stood. "Well, let's go." She leaned down, despite her words, and scrolled down further.

Dean leaned down next to her, hand resting on her hip. "Whatcha lookin' at, Pipes?"

She turned to smile at him. "It's a thread specifically for 'Dean girls.' If I ignore the death threats to me, it's kind of nice."

His brow wrinkled. "Death threats?"

Piper ignored him. "It's nice to see that other people see what I see in you." She looked up at Sam, who had just reentered. "Both of you, really."

"What's that?"

She smiled. "That you're both heroes."

Dean stared at her for a second, and she stared back. They had fought that morning when she had woken up to him hitting her across the face in his sleep. He had wanted her to go home. She had told him to find a new tune.

He brought up a hand to cup her face. She closed her eyes and leaned to it. "Some hero," he scoffed quietly, for her ears only.

She didn't open her eyes. "You're my hero."

xxxxx

"Wow, they really didn't sell well, did they?" Piper asked as they approached Chuck Shurley's house. "This place is… Um, not well taken care of."

Dean snorted. "It's a dump."

They approached the house, Sam and Dean standing in front of Piper. Dean pushed the doorbell.

A few moments later, a small man in a robe answered the door. Piper wrinkled her nose as the stale air hit her. Dean's shoulders were tense, so Piper placed a hand on the small of his back.

"You Chuck Shurley?"

"The Chuck Shurley who wrote the 'Supernatural' books?" Sam clarified.

The man swallowed hard. "Maybe. Why?"

"I'm Dean. This is Sam, and Piper standing behind me. The Dean, Sam, and Piper you've been writing about."

The door slammed shut. Piper scowled as Dean rang the bell again.

Chuck opened the door again, clearly nervous. "Look, uh... I appreciate your enthusiasm. Really, I do. It's, uh, it's always nice to hear from the fans. But, uh, for your own good, I strongly suggest you get a life."

He tried to shut the door again, but Dean slammed a hand against it to keep it open. "See, here's the thing. We have a life. You've been using it to write your books."

"Dean," Piper admonished as he pushed his way into the house. "Don't terrify the man."

Chuck's eyes flicked to her gratefully for a moment. "Now, wait a minute. Now, this isn't funny."

"Damn straight, it's not funny," Dean snarled. Piper placed a hand on his arm and frowned at him when he glared down at her.

Sam was trying to be more reasonable. "Look, we just want to know how you're doing it."

"I'm not doing anything," Chuck exclaimed.

Dean wasn't convinced. "Are you a hunter?"

Chuck's eyebrows hit his hairline. "What? No. I'm a writer."

Dean shook Piper's hand off and advanced on Chuck. "Then how do you know so much about demons?" Chuck backed up until he hit the couch and collapsed into him. "And Tulpas, and changelings?"

"Dean, for God's sake," Piper snapped, coming to stand between him and the author. "Stop it, this isn't helping."

Chuck snapped his fingers. "Is this some kind of 'Misery' thing? Ah, it is, isn't it? It's a 'Misery' thing!"

Piper rolled her eyes and stood her ground when Dean tried to move her out of his way. "No, it's not a 'Misery' thing," he snarled at the author, struggling with Piper. "Believe me, we are not fans!"

"Well, then, what do you want?!"

Sam approached slowly, holding his hands up to show he meant no harm. Thank God someone is keeping calm, Piper thought bitterly.

"I'm Sam. And that's Dean. And that's Piper."

"They're fictional characters," Chuck cried. "I made them up! They're not real!"

Dean put his hands firmly on Piper's shoulders and picked her up, turning to move her. She was terribly tempted to kick him in the nuts, but restrained herself.

"I'll show you real," he snarled, placing Piper down and leaning to grab Chuck by the arm.

"Dean, you're not helping." Piper scolded, following the two of them out of the house.

Dean kept his hold on the smaller man as he opened Baby's trunk. Piper and Sam joined them next to the car as the arsenal was displayed to Chuck.

"Are those real guns?" Chuck sounded terrified.

Dean opened his mouth, but Piper slammed a hand over his mouth to shut him up. "Yes, Chuck," she said gently. "This is all very real."

"Well, I gotta hand it to you guys. You really are my number one fans." He rubbed the back of his neck nervously. "That's, that's awesome. So, I, I think I've got some posters in the house."

Piper's own temper was wearing thin. "Chuck, stop."

"How much do you know?" Sam asked. "Do you know about the angels? Or Lilith breaking the seals?"

Chuck stilled. "Wait a minute. How do you know about that?"

"How do you?" Piper asked, ignoring Dean's attempt to dislodge her hand.

Chuck looked at her. "Because I wrote it?"

Sam's brow wrinkled. "You kept writing?"

"Yeah, even after the publisher went bankrupt, but those books never came out. Okay, wait a minute. This is some kind of joke, right? Did that… Did Phil put you up to this?"

Dean finally got Piper's hand away from his face. He wrapped an arm around her waist. "Well, nice to meet you. I'm Dean Winchester, and this is my brother, Sam, and this is Piper Finley."

Chuck's eyes widened and he paled. "The last names were never in the books. I never told anybody about that. I never even wrote that down."

xxxxx

They had convened back into the house. Dean watched enviously as Chuck knocked back a huge shot of whiskey. He turned around and winced when he saw them. "Oh, you're still there."

Dean nodded. "Yup."

"You're not a hallucination."

"Nope."

Chuck sighed heavily. "Well, there's only one explanation. Obviously I'm a god."

Piper laughed. "You are not a god."

"How else do you explain it? I write things and then they come to life. Yeah, no, I'm definitely a god. A cruel, cruel, capricious god. The things I put you through… The physical beatings alone." He flicked his eyed guiltily to Dean. "I made you hit Piper."

Dean scoffed, guilty and unbelievably irritated. Only Piper's restraining hand on his arm kept him from decking Chuck. "Yeah, we're still in one piece."

"I killed your father. I burned your mother alive. And then you had to go through the whole horrific deal again with Jessica."

Sam sighed. "Chuck…"

"All for what? All for the sake of literary symmetry." He looked at Piper, distraught. Dean glared. "I made you watch your family be eaten by a werewolf. I toyed with your lives, your emotions, for... Entertainment."

Dean was nearing the end of his rope. "You didn't toy with us, Chuck, okay? You didn't create us."

Chuck looked at him mournfully. "Did you really have to live through the bugs?"

"Yeah."

"What about the ghost ship?"

Dean nodded. "Yes, that, too." Piper looked up at him and he looked down, automatically calmed a little by the sight of her wide hazel eyes looking up at him. "Ghost ship?" she mouthed. He shook his head and looked back at Chuck.

"I am so sorry. I mean, horror is one thing, but to be forced to live bad writing... If I would have known it was real, I would have done another pass."

Dean stepped away from Piper. He didn't want to be calm, he wanted to be angry, and she was interfering with that. "Chuck, you're not a god!" he snapped.

"We think you're probably just psychic." Piper said reasonably. Dean glared at her. How could she be reasonable right now?

Chuck was shaking his head. "No. If I were psychic, you think I'd be writing? Writing is hard."

Sam shrugged. "It seems that somehow, you're just... Focused on our lives."

"Yeah, like laser-focused." Dean snapped. He was going to start throwing punches soon. "Are you working on anything right now?"

Chuck paled. "Holy crap."

"What?" Piper asked warily. Ha, who's reasonable now? Dean thought cheerfully.

Chuck moved to pick up a stack of paper on the table. "The, uh, latest book? It's, uh, it's kind of weird."

"'Weird' how?"

"It's very Vonnegut."

Dean stared at Chuck, his mind whirling. "'Slaughterhouse-Five' Vonnegut or 'Cat's Cradle' Vonnegut?"

Sam looked at Dean, insultingly surprised. "What?"

Dean glared at him, and then at Piper when she chuckled. "What?"

Chuck interrupted. "It's, uh, 'Kilgore Trout' Vonnegut. I wrote myself into it. I wrote myself, at my house... Confronted by my characters."

xxxxx

Hi everyone! Here's my notes:

I own only Piper Finley, the original character. I don't own Supernatural or the characters. (heartbroken)

Reviews, comments, and kudos give me the warm fuzzies and keep me going.

If there are any mistakes in continuity, canon, or geography, blame me.

**Thank you to grizzlygizzy for the follow!