A/N: This is a filler chapter, I'm soo sorry! I'm really not happy with it, honestly, but I needed to have a few things discussed in this chapter out there.

I'm very excited to announce the SEQUEL to Untouchable, titled Unfixable! I have started working on it, and I hope you enjoy it just as much as Untouchable! I will begin posting it on here as soon as I finish this one. Hopefully you'll find that it has a bit more action than Untouchable. This book is quite short, and it basically has set the groundwork for the rest of the series. I'll have more news coming soon, so check my profile periodically, which is where all of the info will be at! xx S.

3 DAYS LATER

Tessa had been basically catatonic for 72 long, never-ending hours.

Shortly after the three had finished cleaning, they moved onto the slightly more challenging task of wiping their prints from every single visible surface in the room. It was a long, grueling process, but nevertheless a key step in lowering suspicions.

The story that Sam finally landed on was a wild animal attack. It was feeble, and no doubt there would still be questions, but it was much better than a gruesome stabbing. It took both Dean and Sam to carry Daniel's mangled body downstairs and outside to the wooded backyard.

They had set up an alibi that placed Tessa in O'Brien, where a security camera outside of the library had caught her going in. Luckily, Sam and Dean had kept their heads low and were too blurry to make out in the grainy footage.

Now, family and friends were pouring in and out of the Lynn household, desperate to share their grief with one another and dote on poor Tessa. She was having none of it, and only spoke once, briefly acknowledging her uncle Karl when he came by. No one had showed up at the house for the day yet, and Dean and Sam were grateful for the silence. They'd been posing as friends of Tessa's whenever her family was around, and keeping up the act was becoming extremely tedious.

Dean was sitting at the end of Tessa's bed, watching as she stared listlessly into space. He was at a loss as for what to do, and so was Sam. Neither brother had ever been especially good at comforting people, especially those that they cared for.

The Winchester brothers, Dean especially, were anxious to hear something, anything, from Tessa. It was beginning to worry them how lifeless she'd become. They had only been aquainted with her for a little over five days, but from what they'd seen of her, she was a tiny force to be reckoned with. The girl who'd thrown a butter knife at Dean the first time they met was almost unrecognizable to the girl sitting in front of him now. He missed the real Tessa, with her fire and witty remarks. He would give anything to see that girl again.

"Tess, please," Dean grabbed one of her cold hands, willing her to make eye contact with him. "Just talk to me. I don't care if it's just to tell me to go to Hell, I need to hear something. Sam and I are really worried, here. I need to know what's going on."

And miraculously, Tessa opened her mouth. Dean only had a second to rejoice before the words began pouring out.

"'What's going on'? My entire family is fucking dead!" Tessa's voice was hoarse after hardly being used in three days. "I have no one left, if you don't count the other family members who only come around when someone's died or there's money involved. I don't know what the hell I'm going to do now!"

Strangely, Tessa wasn't crying. She'd done too much crying in the past few days, and she was done. She couldn't cry anymore, because she was out of tears. Numbness was all that she felt now.

"You have us," this was the last thing that Tessa expected Dean to say. His voice was soft, and for a moment, Tessa thought that she'd imagined it. But when Dean looked up at her with watery eyes, she realized it was real. "You have us, Tess. I sure as hell know that doesn't seem like a lot, but Sammy and I, we can be damn good company some of the time."

Tessa had a strange look on her face, and for a second, Dean was worried that he'd said the wrong thing. But then, she spoke. "I know. You and Sam have been so amazing, but we both know you two aren't going to be sticking around for long. This hunting thing, it's in your blood. I've got a school to go back to. You've got people to save."

Tessa squeezed Dean's hand gently, and although her grip was weak, it made him feel as if she was the one anchoring him, rather then the other way around. The two sat in silence for several moments, Dean looking at Tessa while she stared out of the window.

"This is so fucked up, isn't it?" Tessa suddenly said, and she laughed, but it was humorless. "Our lives are something out of a horror movie."

Dean chose his next words very carefully. "It doesn't have to be that way. If you look at it like that, you'll be dead before next week. Our lives are fucked up, but I sure as hell don't want anything else. You have to look at it like a challenge."

"I don't want a challenge, Dean. I want my normal life, where I had a brother and a father who loved me. Where my biggest worry was my Psychology final. Where the existance of ghosts and demons and whatever the hell is out there wasn't known to me."

Dean, up until this moment, held the slightest hope that Tessa returned some of the confusing things that he felt for her. Obviously, this wasn't the case, and he'd better move on with his life before he made an even bigger fool of himself in front of this girl. Dean Winchester doesn't get "feelings". He flirts, fucks, and then repeats the cycle. He shouldn't have kissed Tessa those times, because she obviously was reacting to the heat of the moment.

"I'll, uh, just leave you. Some of your cousins mentioned coming by the other day," Dean's voice was gruff, and he didn't so much as look back at Tessa as he left the room.

Tessa didn't know what Dean did to make her snap out of her grief-induced haze, but whatever it was, she was grateful for it. It seemed like she was trying desperately to maneuver through fog and back to her life, but no matter how hard she tried, nothing could tear her out of the hellish nightmare.

Until Dean. Dean had tried to speak to her before, but she had been trapped so deeply in her own mind that nothing broke through to her. Maybe she was close to breaking out of the stupor on her own, or maybe Dean just possessed a rare gift, but she was back. Not healed, but functioning enough to carry a conversation and move around.

She was anxious to do something, anything besides sitting in her bed and listen to family that she barely even spoke to talk about what a wonderful man her father was. In truth, they hardly knew anything about him. They sure as hell weren't the people to judge the quality of his character. She couldn't stand being in the same town, let alone the same room, as them for much longer.

So, as soon as the door swung shut behind Dean, Tessa pulled her phone out from beneath her pillow and opened up her email. She began composing a note to the Chancellor, all the while feeling the weight in her stomach lessen with each word she typed.

Maybe she was making the right choice. Just maybe.