A/N - *waves* Long time, no see. Sorry about that. I have been absolutely swamped at work. I probably shouldn't even be taking a break to post this, but I had to ... because today is Dean Winchester's birthday. I couldn't not. Thanks to my Team Bean girls, MissJanuary and Spn-Lost-Twi. Kripke and Meyers own everything, but I got a new puppy so there's that.


In my past, bittersweet, there's no love between the sheets. Taste the blood, broken dreams. Lonely times indeed.

Chapter Song: Shake Me Down by Cage the Elephant

Chapter 13

Dean and Bella found themselves in the hallway again. Bella could feel her chest flush with the memories of their almost kiss a few hours ago. Her mind wandered down the path of what ifs. If Sam hadn't interrupted them when he had, she and Dean might have been tangled in those bed sheets. She had to regulate her breathing to slow the frantic pace of her heart. Just being close to Dean with so much left unsaid was proving to be difficult. Bella finally managed to get a hold of herself, thinking of the girls that needed saving.

They stopped in front of a small crawl space next to the stairwell. "This looks like our best bet," Bella said.

Dean bent down, pried open the door, and shined his flashlight inside. "I'll go first."

Bella shook her head and pushed past him. "We don't know how much space is there. Let me go."

She wedged herself through the small square hole and gripped the edge before jumping down. When she hit concrete floor she looked up. "It's a tunnel. There's room if you can get through the hole."

It was a tight squeeze but Dean managed to fit, and he joined Bella on the ground. She was on the phone with Sam when he came up to her side.

"Okay. Thanks, Sam. Call us after you check the southwest wall." Bella slipped the phone back in her pocket and frowned. "He's almost done with the entire floor and hasn't found jack squat."

Dean illuminated a path along the northwest wall with his flashlight. "Maybe we'll have better luck."

They followed the path and stopped. Dean looked up and then to the side. "Or not … it's too narrow. Can't go any farther."

"Let me see," Bella said, squeezing past him in the close quarters.

Grunting as Bella's ass brushed against his crotch, Dean mumbled, "Shoulda cleaned the pipes."

Bella turned her head over her shoulder. "What?"

Dean cleared his throat. "I said I, uh, wish the pipes were cleaner."

Shaking her head, Bella smiled. "Shut up. I can fit in there." She continued walking down the narrow path.

Lips pressed into a thin line, Dean glared. "You're not going in there by yourself."

Arching an eyebrow in challenge, Bella asked,"You got a better idea?"

"You …"

Pursing her lips and nodding, Bella said, "Uh-huh. That's what I thought." She spun around in the tight space and walked into the darkness, leaving Dean's line of sight.

Dean waited a full minute before he took out his cell phone and called her. "Where are you?" His voice was gruff and impatient.

"North wall." Bella held the phone to her ear as she looked down and saw an air duct vent on the ground. Dean could hear metal clanking as she ascending the rickety stairs. "I'm heading down some type of air duct."

"No," Dean yelled. "No, no, no." He tried not to panic. "Stay up here."

Bella rolled her eyes even though she knew he couldn't see her. "Look, we gotta find this girl, don't we? I'm okay, Dean."

Dean unfolded the blueprints and studied them with his flashlight. "Alright. I'm heading to you." He started to make his way out back the way they came.

Bella found herself in a similar space which led to another lower level. Despite the cold, anxious feeling crawling up her spine, she continued on. The hairs on her neck stood on end as though someone was watching her. She looked over her shoulder one more time before making her way to another set of metal stairs. The black goo on the wall took the wind out of her lungs.

"Oh God." She stifled a cry.

"What is it?" Dean asked, panicked. "Bella? Bella?"

Bella let out a blood-curdling scream and Dean took off running toward the lower level, trying to hear where she was. Straining his neck, he listened through the walls as he continued down the hallway.

"Bella!"

Her cries had died down so Dean took the sledgehammer he was carrying and smashed a hole through the wall. He took another swing to make it bigger and stuck his head inside, eyes frantically searching for her. He spotted her cell phone lying on the floor, still connected to his call, no sign of her anywhere.

~o~

Dean rushed down the hall on his way to find Sam when he smacked right into him.

"Whoa!" Sam stumbled back.

"He's got Bella."

Searching his eyes, Sam asked, "What? How'd that happen?"

"I wasn't with her. She's so damn stubborn sometimes." Dean started pacing, squeezing his hands into fists. "I left her alone. Dammit!"

Sam put a hand on Dean's shoulder. "Hey, hey, look, we'll find her, alright?"

Dean glared at his brother. "Where?"

"Inside the walls."

Letting out a huff, Dean shrugged out of Sam's hold. "We've been in the walls all night. None of the other girls were there and she won't be either."

He didn't wait for his brother's reply as he took off toward the apartment. Sam followed silently behind him. They had been sitting at the dining room table for a few hours scouring over what little information they had.

"We just need to take a minute and think about this," Sam said in a calm voice. "Maybe we got Holmes' M.O. wrong."

"Yeah, well we better friggin' think fast," Dean grumbled.

Sam looked up from his computer screen. "I know what's going through your head, so stop. Don't beat yourself up, Dean. There's nothing you could have done. You even said so yourself. She can be stubborn." He let out a low chuckle. "Even if you tried, I don't think you could've stopped her."

Glaring, Dean seethed. "Tell me you've got something."

"Maybe." Sam shrugged and spun his laptop around to face Dean. "Look at the layout of Holmes' Murder Castle." He gestured to the blueprints he had pulled up on his screen. "There's all the torture chambers inside the walls, right?"

"Right," Dean said gruffly, not really following. All he cared about was finding Bella.

Sam's voice rose slightly with excitement at finding a break. "But there's one we haven't considered yet. The one in the basement."

Dean sighed and rolled his eyes. "This building doesn't have a basement."

"You're right," Sam explained calmly, "it doesn't. But I just noticed this. Beneath the foundation it looks like it's part of an old sewer system that hasn't been used for—"

Dean had already grabbed his jacket and was halfway out the door. "Let's go."

~o~

Bella blinked her eyes open but she was engulfed in darkness. Her back and shoulders pressed against something hard. It felt like she was confined to a small area, kind of like a coffin, and she struggled to maneuver in the small space. Luckily she still had her flashlight clutched to her chest. Shining it all around her, a wooden wall a few inches above her face illuminated. Long scratches were gouged into the wood, remnants of fingernails and blood in the marks. Covering her mouth with her hand, she stifled a whimper. Taking a few deep breaths, she collected herself and shined the light on the other walls surrounding her. To her right was another wood panel with a slit in it. She pressed her face up to the side and looked through, seeing a larger round chamber with similar compartments like the one she was in.

A noise startled her and she froze, waiting, listening.

"Hello?" More rattling. "Is … is anybody there?" a scared female voice answered.

Bella sighed, a wave of relief washing over her. "Your name Teresa?"

She heard an audible gasp followed by a "Yes."

Laughing darkly, Bella said, "This won't make you feel better, but I'm here to rescue you."

"Oh God," Teresa cried. "He's out there. He's gonna kill us."

Swallowing thickly, trying to calm her racing heart and soothe the frightened woman in the cell next her, she said, "No, he won't. We're getting out. My friends are looking for us. They'll find us before …"

The sound of quiet footsteps fell nearby as the spirit of Holmes approached.

"Oh God, it's him. It's him …" Teresa was getting herself worked up and Bella was just getting annoyed.

"Shh," she hissed. "Just be quiet!"

Bella held her breath, letting the room fill with silence. Just when she thought it was safe, a hand shot through the wooden box she was in, leaving splinters in its wake, and gripped her by the back of her head. Bella screamed as the hand pulled and pulled, ripping off a chunk of her hair.

~o~

Sam and Dean were outside of the apartment building with a metal detector, searching the streets of Philadelphia. They followed down a path that took them to an empty alley. The metal detector in Sam's hand started to beep. He took long strides and Dean hurried behind him. It continued to alarm and took them on a trail toward an open field where the detector's shrill beep reached a crescendo.

"Here," Sam said.

Dean dropped his bag and started digging furiously. After some digging the metal of the shovel hit something causing a loud clang. Hunched over, he looked up at Sam and they both dropped to their knees and started digging with their hands unveiling a metal trap door.

Pulling it open with one hand, Dean reached in his bag with the other and tossed Sam a shotgun and took one for himself in addition to a flashlight. He started descending the ladder, Sam following behind.

Bella started to kick the walls of her cell frantically. She had tried for at least an hour to take down one of the walls to no avail. Sighing from exhaustion, she fell back and rested her head against the wood.

Squeezing her eyes shut, she whispered, "Dean, where are you?"

She heard footsteps approaching and perked up for a moment thinking maybe somehow, someway, he heard her pleas. Turning to face the slit, she watched as boots passed along the concrete floor and sighed. Thank God!

Suddenly, a scraggly-bearded mouth appeared at the opening. "You're so pretty. So beautiful."

Bella reared back. "Go to Hell!"

The spirit reached his gangly hand through the opening and started fondling her, his yellow, brittle, jagged nails scraping across her soft skin and grabbing between her legs. She let out a disgusted and horrified groan and tried to turn away. Holmes lived off of fear and it only urged him on. As he continued his ministrations, Bella whipped around, plunging a knife into his hand.

"How do you like that, you creepy-ass sonofabitch!"

The spirit quickly vanished. Bella lay there silently, not breathing, listening for a sign to see if he was really gone. From what she'd learned from Sam and Dean, iron didn't kill spirits; it just hurt like hell.

"Is … is he gone?" Teresa asked, scared.

"I don't kn—"

Holmes grabbed Bella by her arm and twisted it back, a crack echoing off the walls, and pulled her toward him, clamping a hand over her mouth. Bella thrashed around in the box, screaming, trying to break free.

"Shhh," Holmes whispered in her ear. Bella felt his rough beard against her neck, and the stench of his rotten breath caused her stomach to roll. It smelled like a dead animal. Maybe that wasn't his breath, maybe that was the smell of decomposing bodies. Bella swallowed back a cry.

"Hey!" Dean shouted, shooting a rock salt shotgun shell into Holmes' chest. The spirit went flying backwards and disappeared out of sight.

"Bella?"

"I'm here!"

Dean found an iron crowbar leaning against a wall and started to pry open the cell Bella was in. The sound of metal grinding against concrete was harsh to her ears, but caused a wave of relief to wash of her. As he tried to get Bella out, Sam investigated their surroundings. He found another cell that contained gruesome body parts and in the other cell he found Teresa.

"We're gonna get you out of here," he told Teresa. Looking for a way to open Teresa's cell, Dean shouted for him.

"Sam! Here …" Dean tossed him the crowbar and then opened Bella's cell.

He wasn't ready for the look on Bella's face; the scared, tortured, broken girl looking at him like he was her whole world.

Dean gulped and then asked, "You alright?"

Bella forced a smile. "Been better. Let's get the hell out of here before he comes back."

He grimaced. "Actually, I don't think you're leaving here just yet."

Confusion etched Bella's features. "What?"

Dean laughed nervously. "Remember when I said you being bait was a bad plan? Well, now it's kind of the only plan we got." He looked over to Sam who had an armful of frightened Teresa. Sam shrugged, knowing it was their only shot.

A few hours later Bella found herself sitting in the center of the main chamber, her knees pulled into her chest and trembling slightly. She tried to calm her breathing but they came out in low, frightened rasps. Holmes suddenly appeared behind her, leaning into her neck and taking a long inhale of her scent. Bella squeezed her eyes shut, her stomach muscles tightening.

"NOW!" Dean shouted.

Bella dove forward onto the hard concrete floor, hitting with a loud thud, while Sam and Dean start shooting at the corners of the room. Several bags began to spill salt, forming a perfect circle around Holmes, trapping him. Dean dropped his gun and pulled Bella to safety, hugging her tight against him. Holmes started to scream in terror, uttering gibberish. Bella pushed out of Dean's hold and stalked over to Holmes, staring him right in the eye.

"Scream all you want, you dick, but there is no way you're stepping over that salt!"

Dean and Sam stood off to the side and watched Bella slam the grate shut, sealing off the room, before stalking past them without a word.

~o~

The next day Bella and Sam stood over the sewer entrance, looking down, no trace of what had happened and the hell that waited below the surface. Sam turned to Bella and asked, "So this job as glamorous as you thought it would be?"

Bella had been visibly shaken by Holmes, but that wasn't what had her feeling uneasy. She gave Sam a watery smile. "Well, besides the piss-your-pants terror, yeah, sure. That Teresa girl is going to live a life because of us. It's worth it, isn't it?"

Sam sighed knowing it would always be worth it but fearing the cost. Dean was running out of time. He just went and sold his soul without thinking about what would happen, who he'd be leaving behind. Of course Sam was upset and then to top that off with Dean's acceptance, him not even trying to fight it, Sam was downright pissed. He thought he'd give Dean a taste of what he'd been living with—actions without any thought of the consequences. That was why Sam had so coldly offed Casey without any remorse.

Now Bella was in the picture, something neither of them saw coming, and Dean would be leaving her behind too. Sam could see their connection, whether they were going to admit it or not. She was the glimmer of hope he'd been praying for. Maybe with Bella around Dean would fight harder to live and maybe Bella would be able to find a way to keep him alive.

Sam nodded. "Yeah, yeah it is."

Bella paused and looked up at Sam. "Hey, what if someone finds that sewer down there, or a storm washes the salt away?"

Sam pursed his lips. "Both very fine points, which is why we're waiting here."

Raising her eyebrows, she asked, "For what?"

A loud beeping, the sound of a large truck backing up, answered her question. Sam smiled over his shoulder as Dean backed up the cement truck into the open field, stopping just at the sewer entrance.

"For that." Sam started waving his arms at Dean. "Whoa!"

Dean turned off the engine and hopped down, coming around to the back of the truck and helping Sam set up the pourer. He walked over to Bella and smirked.

"You ripped off a cement truck?" she asked with a raised an eyebrow.

"I'll give it back." They watched in silence as the cement poured out, covering the entrance. "Well, that outta keep him down there 'till Hell freezes over."

Instead of smiling, Bella frowned. There it was again … Hell … Dean was going and there wasn't a thing she could do about it.


E/N - Alright, kiddos. Next chapter is THE chapter. Everything comes to a head. You're not going to want to miss it. Reviews are better than licking birthday cake frosting off of Dean. Who am I kidding? They still make me incredibly happy.

xoxo