Ellie was not surprised at her father's stance as she returned back to the motel. She'd gone through this scenario enough times, she could probably do both sides of the dialogue without trying too hard. Before she even entered the room, she knew her uncle would be sitting down at the little desk the room provided, paperwork and research covering it around his laptop. Her father would be standing up, either with his hands on his hips or running down his face, facing her uncle while Sam told him it would be fine.

It wasn't that she ever ran off and was gone for days at a time; she never completely disappeared. She just needed space from the two men and she knew her father would never voluntarily let her just go do things. So on her way back from the library, she stopped at a few historical structures, taking in the city's architecture.

Although she never got lost and it was on the way back to the motel, she had been gone an hour or two more than originally planned.

So pushing open the door revealed exactly what she'd thought; her father standing up, hands on his hips, facing Sam who was surrounded by research at the little desk.

"Hey. So I found a bunch of-" She started.

"Where the hell have you been?" Dean roared.

Usually she could at least get out a piece of information to make them pause the tirade. Not today.

She pursed her lips together, watching him. He was more upset today than normal and she wasn't really sure where that stemmed from. "Out doing research, like I told you I was going to." She said, handing the notebook to Sam who would plug everything into his computer.

"For four hours?" Dean asked sharply.

"That's not weird. I've been gone for longer." Ellie spoke, glancing at her uncle like he could give some indication as to what was going on.

"And I've been madder." Dean said, although she wasn't sure that was true. She could almost see foam forming in the corners of his mouth.

"How about we skip this song and dance this time around, alright?" Ellie asked, making her dad's face fall blank.

"Excuse me?" He asked with a dangerous calm.

"Look, I get it. You're pissed off that I went and did my own thing, didn't call, didn't write, no bat signal in the sky to check in. I get it. But I found a lot of stuff at the library, so can we just talk about that?" Ellie asked.

"No we can't! You just go missing for hours and you don't answer your cellphone, which funny enough, is exactly the purpose of a cellphone! I don't even know why you have the damn thing!" He roared.

"Fine, here." She told him, pulling it out of her pocket and handing it to him. "Look, we did this last week in Ogallala, and the week before in New Haven and the week before in Birmingham. Can we skip this week?"

"Obviously we can't if I've told you this many times and you still don't understand it." His words said harshly as he took the phone from her.

Sam ducked his head and Ellie could tell he had felt the words much the same way she had; straight to the chest. She worked her jaw, telling herself to choose her next words carefully.

"I know today is mom's death date. I get it. I might be dumb, but I'm not stupid. So could you figure out why you're really pissed off and maybe go kill something evil before it ends up being me?" Ellie spat. Dean recoiled from her words, the look on his face contorting and disfiguring his once handsome features.

She turned to Uncle Sam, who seemed to be trying to force his massive figure to melt with the cheap wallpaper so none of the words from either of them got turned on him. "Read up on that book of shadows. It's the source of their power." She told him quietly, knowing he didn't deserve to be around either of them right now. She moved to the door, closing it behind her.

Sighing, Ellie looked out at the near empty parking lot. She moved down a door to her room, opened the door and closed it again, making it sound like she'd gone inside. She sure as hell wasn't going to sit in her room like a good little girl and wait for daddy to start yelling again.

She moved across the parking lot, heading for the main road. She wanted to see more of the Victorian style houses. Besides, dad and Uncle Sam wouldn't be looking for her in the residential district. So she bought a map at the gas station that had some local trivia on it and she wandered farther away from the motel. She'd walk for a while before she'd stand in one place and just take in the way the buildings were put together. She was happy to see most of them were maintained pretty well; very few of them looking worn down.

Ellie didn't like to stand outside a person's home too long; it tended to draw unwanted attention to herself. So she meandered down the road, coming to stop in front of an old Victorian style home. The map said it was one of the oldest homes in the district and she was surprised, considering the good condition it was in. And there were vehicles in the driveway and in front of the house, so she knew it was occupied.

So when the front door opened, she started to panic, looking down at the map as she quickly moved out from in front of the house.

"Ellie?"

She froze, hearing her name from the stranger's mouth. She had a second of internal debate before turning around.


"Are you serious?" Chris roared, looking up at his mother.

"Don't you take that tone of voice with me or you won't have a voice to take a tone with." Piper warned him.

He quickly closed his mouth, remembering the last time his mother had taken his voice from him and it hadn't been a pleasant experience at all. "I have to replace it?"

"You broke it, you buy it. Unless you can spell cast your way out of this, since that's how you got here in the first place." His mother told him pointedly.

"But I'm not start enough to make spells!" Chris protested. "And it's not like the book of shadows has an index for fixing broken iBoxes."

"Well you best figure it out. And absolutely no money casting spells. Period. You either work for it at the restaurant or you fix it with a spell." Piper told him.

Wyatt shook his head at his brother, turning to move back towards the front of the house.

"And you can't ask your sister for help." Piper said as Melinda came around the corner into the kitchen.

"But she's the best spell caster out of the three of us." Chris complained.

Wyatt sighed, moving to look out the front window. He didn't really care about the iBox as much as it was the principal of the thing. He paused, pulling back the lace curtain as he saw a girl standing on the sidewalk in front of his house, looking down at a map. When she looked back up, she wasn't looking at the window. If he'd had to guess, she was looking at the top of the house. And then he'd remembered the girl at the library who had a bunch of witch books next to a book about architecture.

"I don't believe it." He commented, moving towards the door.

"Wyatt? What's wrong?" His mother asked, moving towards him through the dining room.

"Ellie?" He asked, pulling open the front door.

She definitely looked spooked as she ducked her head into the map, moving down the sidewalk, but she paused as her name was said. He could tell she was fighting with herself as she turned back towards the house.

"Wyatt?" She asked and he smiled at the way she said his name.

"Are you stalking me? Because that would be pretty cool." He told her, moving to stand on the top of the walkway.

"Uh, what? No. I mean, maybe secretly observing without hope of interaction." She shrugged, slowly moving back towards him. She cracked an unsteady smile and he wondered if maybe she didn't do it very often. "No, really, I wasn't. I just… I was just kind of…" She sighed a little, ducking her head before looking back up at him.

"The house, right? Oldest in the district." Wyatt spoke. "I uh… saw the architecture book at the library."

She nodded, still at the bottom of the walkway. "Yeah. I just needed out of that stupid motel. Thought I'd take in the sights."

"Wyatt? Are you going to make the girl stand at the bottom of the driveway or are you going to invite her inside?" His mom asked from behind him.

"You wanna come in?" Wyatt asked, like he'd just thought of it.

"What? No. I couldn't intrude. I'm really sorry for bothering you." Ellie said, giving a little wave before starting to move away.

Something sounded and suddenly everything froze. He turned to his mother, biting his lip. "You wanna tell me what's going on?"

He nodded, ducking his head. "I met her at the library, she's from out of town. She travels with her dad for his work and she really likes architecture."

"She's pretty." His mom said with a nod.

"She is very pretty." Wyatt nodded in agreement.

"So why are you letting her walk away?" His mom asked with a gentle smile.

Wyatt bit his lip and nodded, turning around as his mom unfroze the scene. "Hey Ellie." He said, taking the steps two at a time as he descended them.

She turned around, looking unsure as he came to stop in front of her. "Ya know, the molding and the crownwork is all original. Restored, but original. Kinda hard to see all that from the sidewalk." Wyatt reasoned.

Ellie looked nervous. "I'm really… I'm not trying to intrude. I should probably get back."

"You came all the way our here for your dad's work and you can't even take time to do what you want to do?" Wyatt asked her.

Ellie paused, watching him carefully. Her eyes fell over his shoulder on the old house and his mother still at the doorway.

"Are you hungry? I just made paninis." His mom smiled.

"Are you gonna tell me what that is so I don't look stupid asking her?" Ellie whispered.

Wyatt laughed. "It's a French grilled cheese. C'mon." He said, gesturing for her to follow. He took a few steps, but she uneasily followed him up the walkway to the front door.

"I'm Piper, Wyatt's mom." She said with a smile.

"Ellie." She said quietly, looking unsure still.

"Do you go to school around here?" Piper asked and Wyatt nodded his thanks behind Ellie's back since his mom wasn't supposed to know she wasn't from around here.

"Uh, no. My dad travels for work, so I'm homeschooled." Ellie nodded, stepping into the foyer. She paused, looking at the walls and the little details Wyatt had always taken for granted.

"Do you like it? Being homeschooled?" Piper asked her.

Ellie shrugged, looking over at his mom. "It's alright. The traveling is kind of cool."

Piper nodded. "C'mon. We'll have dinner and then I'll give you a tour." She smiled.

"You don't have to parade me around your house. Just being inside is nice enough." Ellie told Piper, looking over at Wyatt.

Wyatt led Ellie through the dining room and into the kitchen. "Ellie, this is my little brother, Chris."

"Hey." Chris nodded, perched on the counter top on the other side of the kitchen.

"Christopher." Piper said warningly and Chris made a face at Wyatt and Ellie as he slid off the counter, moving to the breakfast nook.

"So Ellie, do you have any siblings?" Piper asked, going to work at the stove.

"Uh, no. It's just me and my dad and uncle." She said.

"Does your uncle work with your dad?" Piper asked.

"Yeah. We don't have any other family, so we stay pretty close together." Ellie told her, looking around the room.

Wyatt thought it was interesting to see her take in the house. He'd never met anybody who was so fascinated with a pile of bricks and boards.

"What does your dad and uncle do for work?" Piper asked.

"They're collectors. They find old trinkets and resell them. Coins, artifacts, guns, knives. Pretty much anything old with a history." Ellie explained.

"Well that's certainly interesting." Piper said and Wyatt smiled. His mother obviously hadn't expected something like that.

"Chris, would you go get your sister? Dinner is almost ready." Piper spoke up.

Chris looked up from his phone, saluting his mother as he stood and made his way out of the kitchen.

"Do you have any more brothers or sisters?" Ellie quietly asked Wyatt.

He smiled, shaking his head. "Just Chris and Melinda."

"They're both younger?" Ellie asked.

Wyatt nodded.

"That must be nice." Ellie nodded, looking around the kitchen again.

Chris returned with their sister and Melinda kind of paused with a smile on her face. "Hi, I'm Melinda."

"Ellie." She said with a smile.

"You're really pretty. Are you friends with Wyatt?" She asked.

Ellie blushed a little, ducking her head and nodding. "I guess so, yeah."

"He's kind of stupid sometimes, but he's a good person." Melinda nodded.

Ellie smiled and Wyatt shook his head. "I think most people can be that way though."

Melinda nodded. "Thanks for dinner, mom." She said Piper set a platter of sandwiches on the table and passed out plates.

"Of course, honey." She said, kissing Melinda's cheek. "You all worked hard today. Thank you."

"Where do you work?" Ellie asked, glancing from Piper to Wyatt.

"Mom owns a restaurant in town called Halliwell's. We all work there after school and on the weekends." Wyatt explained.

"Oh cool. That must be fun." Ellie said before biting into her sandwich.

"How is it?" Piper asked, watching Ellie carefully.

"This is really yummy. Thank you for feeding me." Ellie expressed, taking another bite.

"Oh it's no trouble. We usually have twelve or fifteen people around anyways." Piper said with a smile.

The front door opened and closed and Ellie looked alert, watching the opening of the kitchen that led into the dining room.

"Piper? Kids?" A man's voice called.

"In the kitchen." Piper called back with a smile, moving to meet the man in the dining room.

"Hey honey." The tall man said with a smile as he leaned in to kiss Piper.

"We have company. Wyatt made a new friend." Piper said, turning to move back into the kitchen, the man following him. "Ellie, this is my husband, Leo."

"A pleasure, sir." Ellie said, wiping her hands before standing and extending her hand to the older man.

Leo smiled a little bit, watching her as he shook her hand. "Firm shake." He commented and Wyatt watched their interaction carefully.

"My dad always told me nobody respects a person who can't shake hands." Ellie said, ducking her head like she was uncomfortable under the scrutiny.

Wyatt glanced at his mother, trying to silently ask what was going on.

"Was he military?" Leo asked, watching Ellie still.

"Uh, no. No, but my grandpa was. He was a Marine in the 108th." Ellie told him.

"You must get it from your dad, then." Leo said. Piper nudged him and Ellie looked a little confused. "Sorry. Uh, I was in the Army, a long time ago. You can always tell the kids who've got strict military parents." Leo said, gesturing loosely. "I was one too."

Ellie nodded. "I think my dad always felt like he served even though he didn't. It sounds stupid, but when you hear him talk, it makes a lot of sense." Ellie said, shrugging like she wasn't sure what to do.

"I didn't mean to interrupt your dinner. Please, sit." Leo said with a warm smile.

Wyatt glanced back at his mom who gave him a quick raise of the eyebrows before moving to the stove to make a sandwich for her husband.

"You okay?" Wyatt asked, looking over at Ellie.

"Uh, yeah." She said with a firm nod and a smile he could tell was fake. He watched her for a moment, noticing his dad glance back at her. "I um… it's stupid. It's just weird… being around a family this big." She said, giving a quiet chuckle.

"You don't have any brothers or sisters?" Melinda asked Ellie.

Ellie shook her head. "It's just me and my dad and uncle."

"What happened to your mom?" Chris asked around a mouthful of sandwich.

"She uh…" Ellie pushed a lock of hair behind her ear, his hands fidgeting a little. "She died." She said, glancing at Wyatt. He'd gathered as much from their previous encounter, but said nothing else.

"How?" Melinda asked.

Wyatt could see a streak of pain cross Ellie face for only a moment before it disappeared. Ellie opened her mouth when Piper beat her to the punch. "Melinda, that's not exactly something you ask people, sweetie. It's very difficult to lose a parent that young." Piper said, moving to gently squeeze Melinda's shoulder.

Ellie got the impression that Piper was talking from personal experience, not just in general.

"Oh. I'm sorry." Melinda apologized, looking back at her food.

"How about that tour?" Wyatt asked, rubbing his hands together as he stood, gathering his and Ellie's plates and taking them to the sink.

"Tour?" Leo asked Piper quietly.

"Ellie likes architecture and wanted the see the inside of the house." Piper quietly explained.

"No, it's fine. I should probably be getting back. My dad's gonna freak." Ellie said, standing and moving to the doorway of the kitchen.

"C'mon. One run through of the place. You don't have to stay for a couple hours. Just a few minutes." Wyatt told her.

"I mean… if it's okay." Ellie said, looking between Wyatt, and Piper and Leo.

"It's just fine, honey." Piper said with a smile.

"Where first?" Wyatt asked with a smile.

"Okay, this is a stupid question and it's really none of my business." Ellie said, taking a breath and glancing around the group. "But have you guys found the secret compartment in the stairs?"

Leo and Piper turned to look at Ellie before Wyatt turned to look at his mom. If anybody knew anything about the house, it was definitely Piper. "Secret… compartment?"

Ellie nodded, her whole body perking up with excitement. "Houses like these were used as speakeasies in the 20's during prohibition. To make sure they never had a bunch of liquor out at one time, a lot of people made secret compartments that could hold six or seven bottles of booze. I've never actually seen one, but this is the oldest house in the district."

Wyatt grinned, looking from Ellie to his parents. "How cool is that?"

Leo grinned. "Oh, that's cool."

"Okay, but don't go tearing up my staircase!" Piper said firmly, looking Leo, Wyatt and Ellie all in the eye so they understood the statement.

"I'll get the tools out of the truck." Leo said with a smile, heading for the front of the house.

"So where should this compartment be?" Wyatt asked, leading the way out of the kitchen to the staircase.

Ellie stood watching it for a moment like she was analyzing every dimple in the wood and every flaw in the floor. She moved up to the landing in the middle of the staircase, tossing the rug aside. Leo returned with a tool bag, standing below the two on the stairs. "Screwdriver?" Ellie asked, looking over her shoulder.

Leo dug for a flathead screwdriver before handing it to her. She turned it so it was facing up, the blunt end of the handle resting on the wood. She knocked around for a minute until there was a dull thud.

She knocked again, again hearing the dull thud before looking at Wyatt and Leo. "Did you hear that?"

Wyatt grinned back at his dad. Leo nodded like he couldn't believe it. "She's smart." He told Wyatt, who nodded back.

"Now, if the books are right…" She trailed off a little, knocking a little harder at the corners of the board. "We shouldn't have to rip this apart and Piper won't kill us." She said, looking back at the two boys.

"If we could avoid that." Wyatt told her with a smile.

"No kidding." Leo spoke, glancing over his shoulder.

Ellie knocked harder once more on the corner of the board before it rattled loose. She grinned, using the screwdriver to unwedge the board.

"It was never screwed down." Leo said, inspecting the board.

"No, it was cut to the perfect length. It should've just popped out. But the wood's swelled around the sides over time." Ellie told him, pointing to the four sides of the board.

Leo nodded like he hadn't noticed that before.

"What's in there?" Wyatt asked, leaning closer to her to try to see into the cavity.

Ellie smiled, reaching down into the hole to produce a dark bottle with a cork in the top, covered in spider webs. "A Chateau Roubaix, vintage 1911. Looks full too." She said, reading the label before handing it to Wyatt who in turn handed it to Leo. "And a…" She paused, eyes widening at the label. "Oh my god. This is a bottle of Jim Beam, 1918. The first year they started production."

"What? No way. That's gotta be worth bank." Wyatt said, examining the bottle.

"Did you find anything?" Piper asked, coming around the corner.

"Weren't you looking for this last week?" Leo asked, handing the bottle of wine to Piper.

"A Chateau Roubiax? From 1911? This was under our stairs?" Piper asked sounding shocked.

"How much does that go for?" Wyatt asked, looking at her.

Piper's eyes widened in surprise before squinting a little in concentration. "I found one on eBay for over a thousand dollars."

"How about a bottle of Jim Beam from the first year of production?" Leo asked with a smug smirk as he handed her the bottle of whiskey.

Piper carefully set the bottle of wine down. "I don't even know. There isn't any more in existence." She said. "A bottle from 1925 went for eight hundred dollars at an auction a few months ago. I'm sure this is worth more."

"It seems Wyatt's new friend has a knack." Leo told his wife.

"Sure as hell looked like guess work from here." Wyatt told Ellie pointedly.

Ellie smiled, shaking her head. "It's not guess work if you know what you're doing." She told him, giving him much the same look.

"You're a guesser." Wyatt told her.

She shook her head, handing him another bottle of wine. "I'm a knower. I don't have a bone in my body for guess work." She said, pulling out another bottle of whiskey.

"She knew well enough there would be a compartment there. I'd call it knowing." Piper chipped in.

"She likes you." Wyatt mock whispered, leaning closer to Ellie.

"Only because I found her a thousand dollar bottle of wine." Ellie murmured back to him.

"No, I'm pretty sure it's because you're smarter than me." Wyatt said with a nod.

"Well there's no questioning that." Leo spoke, giving a nudge to Wyatt to tell him he was joking.

Ellie shook her head, pulling out one more bottle to hand to Wyatt who handed it to Leo. She took the board and wedged it in as well as she could. Leo handed her the hammer to pound it back in flat before she stood, moving the rug to cover the landing.

"Alright, I really need to get out of here now." She said, looking down at the other three people occupying the stairs.

"But you didn't see the rest of the house." Wyatt protested.

"Well, maybe you can show it to me tomorrow. I'm sure my dad's about ready to chew my ass for the next week and a half." She spoke.

"You get a lot of ass chewings?" Leo asked carefully.

Ellie smiled at him. "He's not abusive, Mr. Halliwell. He just doesn't know what to do with somebody who's got the same strong will he does."

Leo nodded, ducking his head a little. "I didn't mean to-"

"No, please." Ellie waved it off. "I appreciate the concern." She smiled at him. "He was overprotective before my mom died. After she went, he got kind of paranoid, thinking the same thing might happen to me. And I believe anything's possible, so hey, it could happen. I could get hit by a bus crossing the street on my way home, or die in my sleep. I'm just trying to do the best with today, because that's as far as I've been promised."

Leo and Piper nodded, watching her a little bit. "Thank you for saving me a thousand dollars." Piper said, gesturing to the collection of wine bottles at the base of the stairs.

"My pleasure." Ellie said, moving down the stairs.

"You want me to drive you home?" Wyatt asked her, hands in his pockets.

Ellie shook her head. "No, I think I'm fine. I've taken up enough of your time this evening." She smiled, looking at each of them.

"It's really no trouble." Wyatt told her.

"It's getting dark. You shouldn't be out walking by yourself." Leo commented and Piper nodded.

"It's really kind of you guys to be worrying about me, but I'm scarier than anything that could pop out of the dark." Ellie smirked and Wyatt wanted to know exactly what she was talking about. She was five or six inches shorter than he was, and although she had a muscular build, she didn't exactly look like she could fend off a two hundred pound man on her own.

"At least give me a hug before you leave." Piper said, moving to hold her arms out.

Ellie looked unsure, but gave the woman a hug anyway. Wyatt watched her and could only wonder if she'd been given a hug in the last year or two, judging by her reaction. She looked uncomfortable, unsure of what to do, but relieved when it ended.

"You can come back anytime you want." Leo told her firmly.

"I appreciate the offer." She said with a nod before looking at Wyatt. "Thanks for finding me in the library. Best stroke of luck I've had yet." She said with a smile before quickly turning and moving for the front door.

"I'm not gonna lie, I think she's weird." Chris said, moving to come around the corner.

"There's something… off about her." Leo said, glancing over at the rest of the group.

"No, yeah. She's… weird." Chris said, like he didn't know how to put it into words.

"What did she mean, she's scarier than anything out in the dark?" Piper asked, curiously glancing around.

Wyatt moved to the front room, pulling the curtain back to watch her descend the driveway. She started to head back down the road when she stopped, a black car screeching to a stop. A man got out of the driver's side of the car and ran towards her. Wyatt tensed and could feel his mother's presence over his shoulder.

Another man got out of the passenger side of the car while the first man threw his arms around Ellie. Wyatt watched as she hugged him back, seeming to relish the contact. When the man pulled back, Wyatt couldn't hear the words, but could see his lips moving faster and his arms work animatedly.

Ellie shifted her weight, moving her hands a little before throwing a thumb back to the house.

The shorter of the two, the one who'd hugged her, looked up at the house to see Wyatt and Piper, who both waved, not sure what to do. Ellie talked some more before gesturing to the house and Wyatt could only imagine her telling him about the stash compartment in the stairs.

He looked a little pissed off, running his hand over his face before pointing at her while he talked. She nodded, hanging her head a little before looking back up at him. He nodded, taking her by the shoulder and pulling her close to his side as the three of them walked back to the car.

"What a piece of junk car." Chris murmured.

"I bet if you told her dad that, he'd be steaming at the ears." Leo commented.

"She's definitely hiding something." Wyatt said with a nod.