Aww all the Emma frustration. :P Sorry it took so long guys. Been camping and whatnot and wanted to put some sneak peeks out for some sequels I've got coming up that would not get out of my head and let me write. I'm back tho!

CHAPTER 12

"Okay so the girl liiiiiives..." Maggie was mumbling to herself as she leaned toward the windshield. "3742... so ... OH! Here! Park here!" Emma slammed down on the breaks hard as Maggie shrieked and pointed toward a long row of empty parking spots on the curb. Emma whirled around in her seat to look behind them, just catching Dean as he threw his hands out and made a face at her. She grinned and stuck her tongue out at him before parking squarely behind an old, grey van.

Emma was busy straightening her pencil skirt and retrieving the fake FBI badge out of her glove box when Dean walked up, glowering at her. "You almost died today." He said moodily.

"Oh shush," Emma said, patting him on the chest lightly. "Your baby is fine. Stop crying."

"Yeah but it could've-"

"But it didn't. C'mon, we've got a kid to talk to."

Dean narrowed his eyes at her, but Emma saw the glint of amusement behind them. "This conversation isn't over."

"Aw honey," Emma said and patted him on the chest, "yes it is."

The doorbell was shriller than Maggie thought it would be, and she jumped a bit as it rang through all of their ears. She watched slyly as Emma's right hand twitched toward the gun in the back of her skirt only momentarily before a woman opened the door and stared at the four of them with wary and apprehensive eyes.

"Can I help you?"

"Yes we -" Emma and Dean both started at the same time, before laughing quietly under their breath as Emma fought her way to the front of the conversation.

"Hi, Mrs. Kingston?" Emma asked gently as she stepped forward toward the door. "My name is Emma. We're from the FBI, and we were wondering if we could talk to your daughter."

"About what?"

"I think you know..."

The woman looked for a moment as if she was going to open the door, but quickly backed up, and shook her head. "I'm sorry, no. She's-she's not here right now. I can answer your questions if you want. I believe I already know the answer to it. This is about the camping trip she took with my ex husband and his wife, right?"

"We would really like to be able to talk to your daughter," Sam cut in with his soft, gentle voice as Emma pulled off her gloves and slipped them into her pocket. Maggie only glanced sideways with her eyes at her friend's subtle movements. The woman pushed open the door, and stepped out onto the porch, causing the four of them to back up a few steps and separate to either side. As Mrs. Kingston stepped forward, Emma's bare hand shot out to catch the door before it swung shut.

I need to get to the park. As soon as they're done, I need to go get Katie. They can't find out that she's insane, they're here to take her away, oh God please don't let them take her away. I'm a good aunt, I swear. I feed her and clothe her and love her even without Mark and I remember when she was a little girl and she wanted to go down the slide over and over again and I just want to do her parents proud and-

Emma took her hand off of the door and flinched, taken aback by the deep turn into hysteria that the woman's thoughts were making. She took her phone out and sent a quick text message to Dean before smiling at the woman. "If you could please talk to my colleagues here. I'm afraid there's been another murder and I need to go." Mrs. Kingston just stared at me as I took Maggie's hand and walked away with her before we made our way into my truck and took off.

"Delta Dawn whats that flower you have on? Could it be a faded rose from days gone by? And did I hear you say he was meetin you here today... to take you to his mansion in the sky?" Emma's voice sung softly as she walked across the parking lot toward the small playground that sat in the middle of a grassy field, not a few miles from the little girl's house. Maggie walked next to her, and listened as her friend hummed that country crap she liked to listen to so much.

Emma did not know if it was because the little girl reminded her so much of herself or not, but the sight of the kid sitting alone in the sandbox made her heart thump painfully and at once she knew that this was Katie. As Maggie watched from under a tree, cigarette lit, Emma made her way to the playground and walked up to sit on the edge of the sandbox.

"Whatcha makin' there?" she asked the little blonde curly haired girl, giving her a little smile. Katie looked up from her little mound of sand and stared at her directly in the face.

"Sandcastle." The kid couldn't have been older than six or seven, and I wondered for a moment who she was there with - there was no way Emma would have let her kid out this young... if she had one. The woman standing by the corner of the playground with her back turned to the swings on the phone told her that that must be who Katie was here with. The little girl kept glancing over at her. Emma reached over and tucked some hair out of her face before adjusting her own pile of sand.

"Mine's a mountain." Katie looked like she was about to giggle, but she turned stoic a moment later.

"Who are you?"

"My name's Emma. I wanted to ask you -"

"To ask me about the ghost I saw. I know. Her name was Annie. She was my friend. And then the big ma -"

"Katie!" Emma looked up in time to see a woman hurrying across the lawn toward her, and she recognized her hair color as the woman that had been on the phone. "I'm so sorry if she's been bothering you. I've told her a million times to stay near me." Emma smiled her own brilliant smile.

"It's okay we were just making sand castles." she replied and stood up to shake the woman's hand. "Emma."

"Chelsea." Chelsea replied. "I got caught up in some drama from school and thought she was right there. I'm so sorry again if she was bothering you."

Emma was taken aback by how young the woman was, when she thought that she had been much much older. "It's really not a problem. I'll just be on my way." Going down on one knee, Emma smiled and reached out her hand to shake Katie's. The girl just looked at her.

"It was Annie," Katie repeated, looking up at Emma in the sand. She knelt closer to her.

"Annie?" Emma repeated again, just to make sure.

"Yeah. That was her name. She told me. I promise I'm not lying." Emma smiled and stood up slowly from the sand, watching as Maggie frowned in their general direction. The teenager was getting into a huff.

"I know you're not. You're sure it was Annie?"

"Yes ma'am." Emma turned to the teenager on the phone before smiling.

"Have a great day."

"I really don't want to be doing this," Dean said as they opened the back of Emma's truck and pulled out the tent and sleeping bags. She cast a reproachful glance behind her, and scowled at him as she swung my backpack onto my back.

"That's nice." Emma told him, and gave him a nasty little smile. He looked taken aback for just a moment before she sighed and ran one hand through her hair, giving him an apologetic look. "Oh come on, Dean." she said, smirking. "It's better than that hotel in Delta. Did you see that place?" He scrunched up his nose, and for once didn't say anything. "Besides," Emma continued, shrugging her shoulders. "It'll be fun!"

"Right." Dean said sarcastically. Sam laughed and pulled the tent from the bed of the truck and slinging the bag over his shoulder as Maggie grabbed her own stuff.

"And I brought burgers to make. Cheese, bacon. All the fixings. Homemade over a fire." This seemed to brighten Dean up quite a bit. With a good natured "hmph" he went to help Sam.

+s+s+

"Sam," Emma whispered urgently, tapping him on the shoulder. "Saaam." Maggie gave a little smirk of laughter from behind her sleeping mask, and rolled over. Emma had already asked her to go with her, but their friendship only held so far, and apparently going outside at 3 in the morning was not within the range of friendship. She watched as Maggie put some headphones in and fell back asleep.

Dean, meanwhile, groaned and rolled over. "Sam, get up so she'll shut up." Emma scowled into the dark.

"Hm?" Sam groaned and he looked over at Emma. "What's wrong?" Emma crossed her arms in the cold and glanced back at Dean before back to the younger brother.

"I have to pee."

Dean let out a bark-like laugh, wheezing in laughter as he sat up, still wrapped in blankets. Sm ran one hand through his hair and smiled. "Then go?"

Emma rolled her eyes. "I can't go out there by myself," she protested. "What if a mountain lion gets me?" Sam sat up, laughing quietly.

"Okay okay." he said, and pulled on his shoes. Let's go." Emma let out a sigh of relief and made her way toward the door, kicking Dean on the way out as she unzipped the tent.

"Hurry up." Sam was saying as Emma pulled her sweatpants back over her hips. She looked over the bush and stuck her tongue out at him, before the two of them hurried back to camp. They found Dean outside of the tent, trying to light a fire. "What are you doing up?"

"Can't get back to sleep. Getting a feeling." Dean muttered back and glanced at his watch. "It's 4:30."

"Wow really? I thought it was a lot earlier than -"

"Sh!" Dean hissed and stood up, holding one hand out toward Emma.

"Help... help me... Momma? Help me please..." heart pounding, Emma turned toward the forest, where a shadow was stumbling through the trees just outside their camp. "Somebody? Is anybody there?"

Quietly, Emma zipped up the door to the tent she was about to walk into, and stepped back to the Winchesters, who were both looking at the small figure coming toward them. None of them said a word. It took a few moments for Emma to realize that this was a little girl. Her image blinked on and off like an old television screen, and she looked wash out white. Her pale, fishlike eyes met Emmas and she felt the urge to shiver travel up her spine. "Help me?" she begged, voice echoing.

"Hello," Emma said, carefully kneeling to her eye level once the girl had come to stand in front of the fire with a little mutter of 'warmth...'. "Who are you? Are you Annie?"

"Help me."

"We're here to help." Emma said earnestly. She could feel Dean's eyes on her back and heard the sounds of steel sliding over fabric as he pulled his gun out of his jacket pocket. "Tell me what happened. What's wrong?"

"ANNIE!"the shout reverberated off the trees, low and gruff, but so loud it made Dean, Sam, and Emma cover their ears.

And she was gone. Emma whirled around to see another spirit crashing his way through the forest. Dean and Sam rushed forward, iron bullets ready. Annie reappeared, crouching behind Emma, shivering in fear. "YOU ARE MINE! MINE!" Emma turned herself around and protectively, on instinct, crouched around the little girl. She was cold and static, not there but somehow more real than Emma had imagined. The girl was shivering, terrified, and Emma closed her eyes, expecting the worst.

Meanwhile, Sam and Dean blew iron bullets at the man crashing through the trees toward the four of them. Every single bullet was deflected, somehow. Dean gave a bellow of rage, and backed up so that he was standing right in front of Emma. The lumbering man was getting closer and right as he held a butcher knife high over Dean's head, and Emma let out a shriek, a gun went off and I toppled onto the ground. The three of them stood, breathing hard and staring at each other before Dean strode to where one of his bullets had landed closeby, feeling it closely. "Yep, iron." there was a long silence as he and Emma stared at each other. "Well this is new."

Emma, Sam, and Dean were outside, frying eggs and bacon as the sun peeked over the horizon. They were all laughing about something that Dean had said when a bedridden Maggie stumbled out of the tent, and yawned.

"What'd I miss?"