Hey everyone! Sorry it's taken so long. I haven't been on the computer in a while. Hope you like the chapter!~ Again, it's kind of episode based, but it does have some originality in it as well. :)

CHAPTER 16

"Agent Tyler, Agent Perry. Meet Frank O'Brien." The three of them stood in the morgue, standing beside the coroner. Running one hand down her face, Emma put her hand on her hip and held a clipboard close to her chest. When Dean turned to smirk at her, she threw him a dirty look, and held her fingers to her eyes, before aiming at his backside. Dean made a face like he was being violated, reaching one hand to cover himself. As the coroner fixed a zipper snag on the body bag, Emma held her clipboard up in front of her. "WATCH YOUR ASS." It said in large letters. Dean only smiled.

"He died of a heart attack, right?" Sam asked, frowning down at the body of the fit man.

The coroner nodded. "Three days ago."

Sam shook his head as Dean continued to tease Emma. She pretended to be writing down notes. "But O'Brien was forty four years old and, according to this, a marathon runner." the coroner shrugged his shoulders.

"Everybody drops dead sooner or later. It's why I got job security." Emma's smile was hidden behind her clipboard as she scribbled a few more sentences. Not notes - threats. Threats that described how she was going to kill Dean in terrible ways from torture to things so much worse. For a moment, as Emma's grin widened, she found that she was drastically enjoying herself. With a blink, Emma was suddenly so disgusted she could have thrown up, and pulled the paper out of her clipboard, before stuffing it into her pocket.

Dean frowned a little bit. "Yeah, but Frank kicked it here. Now, just yesterday, two perfectly healthy men bit it in Maumee. All heart attacks, you don't think that's strange?"

The coroner shrugged. "Sounds like Maumee's problem to me. Why's the FBI give a damn, anyway?"

"We just want to see the results of Frank's autopsy." The coroner frowned a bit, his eyebrows meeting in the middle of his brow.

"What autopsy?"

"The one you're gonna do." Dean turned around and motioned for Emma to come closer. With an evil look in her eye, she did just as he was told. Sam hid his half smile as he watched the two of them. "I know you're a bit wary of dead bodies, honey. But you're gonna have to get through this one. Make sure you get detailed notes, and I want them printed out for me by tomorrow."

"Yes sir." Emma growled through gritted teeth. The coroner watched the exchange before looking to Sam for some kind of an explanation.

"This is Amelia Jones." Sam quickly clarified. "Our secretary." Emma turned to the coroner and gave him a sarcastic smile, before leaning onto her left foot, which was wedged above Dean's. He hissed in pain and moved out of her way. She could have sworn she saw the coroner smile.

"Yeah, Agent," she was teasing Sam a moment later. "Hand him what he needs." she watched as Sam picked up the tool before handing it to the coroner. Emma frowned as Frank's arm was lifted a bit. "Any idea how he got these?" she asked. Dean held out his hands.

"We'll ask the questions. ... Any idea how he got those?" the coroner again looked over and shot an annoyed look at the trio.

"You know what? When you drop dead, you actually tend to drop. Body probably got scraped up when it hit the ground. Huh!"

"What?"

"I-I can't find any blockages in any of the major arteries. Heart looks pretty damn healthy." Emma watched, feeling the heaving in her stomach as she watched him pull the heart out of the body. "Hold that will you?" He asked Dean and Emma grinned. Sam leaned over and nudged her arm, smirking in Dean's direction.

As the three were making their way out of the morgue, Sam wiping the spleen juice off of his face, the coroner reached out his hand and pulled Emma back to stand next to him. "You know you don't have to put up with him, right?" the coroner asked. It took all Emma had not to laugh as she stared off after Dean and Sam.

"Yeah I do." she said to him before patting the man affectionately on the hand and following them out the door.

"No way that was a heart attack." Maggie said as she climbed out of Emma's truck and approached the three. Emma handed her a Snicker's bar, before taking a bite of her own. "I just got back from the Sheriff's station. Al Britton's the guy's name. Weird guy, definitely weird. Kept slathering sanitizer all over his hands and made me take my boots off. Took a lot not to let him see the weapons I carry in there." Emma smirked.

"What did you find out?"

"Frank and the Sheriff were buddies. Gamecocks, apparently." Dean smirked and Maggie gave him a look, earning a shrug from the Winchester. "Apparently they're majestic creatures. Anyways, the cops seemed to be worried about the guy. He got real scared all of a sudden, is what he said. I really don't think this is a heart attack."

"Definitely no way." Sam shook his head. "Three victims, all with those same red scratches. All went from jittery to terrified to dead within 48 hours."

Dean took a gulp out of his soda before offering some to Emma, who took it. "Something scared them to death?" Emma nodded her head in agreement.

"Okay, so what can do that?"

"What can't?" Ghost, ghouls? Vampires?" Sam looked at Maggie, his shoulders bouncing in a shrug.

"OKay so we make a list and start crossing things off. Who's the last person to see Frank O'Brien alive?" Dean asked.

"His neighbor, Mark Hutchins."

"Okay so let's go." Emma said and clapped her hands together. She and Dean took the lead toward the cars. Dean suddenly reached out and grabbed her arm. Emma flinched a bit and gave Dean a look. "What?"

"Hang on, hang on." Maggie and Sam, distracted by something Maggie was showing on her phone, ran into Dean and Emma.

"Ow!"

"What?" Dean turned to Sam, Emma frowning beside him.

"I don't like the looks of those teenagers over there." Sam, Emma, and Maggie glanced around before Maggie inconspicuously pointed toward the Impala. "Let's walk this way." Dean crossed the street quickly, glancing around, and left the other three staring after him. Maggie let out a little laugh.

"Well they do look sketchy..."

+s+s+

"So you seem to be warming up to the boys." Maggie said as she and Emma climbed out of Emma's truck. 'LUCY'S DINER' blinked in the night above them in bright neon cursive.

"I spent a lot of time never talking about how I got into hunting." Emma said, shrugging her shoulders. "And now that Dean knows - which I'm assuming Sam does too, it's been a lot easier to relate to each other. Demons and all. It's just different. He knows what I've done, what I've been beating myself up over for years. He hasn't looked at me any differently. I feel like I know so much about them and now we're on more of an equal playing field. Not to mention they understand I'm not just some bitch."

"Does that mean you and Dean? ..." Emma lifted her eyebrow and shook her head as she grabbed the box off of the counter. "This is for Maggie, right?" Maggie directed her attention to the waitress behind the counter. She nodded and the two of them turned.

"Me and Dean nothing." she replied firmly. Slapping some money onto the counter and giving a little wave, she and Maggie walked out the door. "Just because I'm willing to talk to the Winchesters doesn't mean anything besides just that." Emma and Maggie gave each other a little smile as they climbed into the truck. They both knew this conversation wasn't going to end anytime soon. Emma could only wish.

"Am I haunted? Am I haunted?!" Dean's shriek came from the Impala that was pulling into the motel parking lot. Emma and Maggie waited by the door, holding the food in bags in their hands.

"About damn time," Emma said. "What's going on?" she asked as Dean climbed out of the car and walked directly into the motel room, without even asking about the food. Maggie frowned and followed him. Sam and Emma stood outside the door, both staring perplexed into the room.

"I got burgers and stuff." Emma said, her eyes still on the open motel room door. Sam nodded and took one of the bags from her.

"Thanks," he said gratefully and let out his breath. "Dean just refused to make a turn into oncoming traffic ... when there was none." he said, obviously confused. "I think something might be up with him."

"You don't think it's me is it?" Emma asked. "I know it sounds narcissistic, but I'm just wondering." Sam shook his head.

"If anything, he's glad that you're here. If not becoming slightly protective. He worried about you two the whole way back." Emma lifted an eyebrow.

"...Really?"

"Yeah." Emma looked over and watched as Dean inspected his burger, before carefully smelling the meat. He turned to Maggie and said something about him not feeling like it was real. Emma turned back to Sam and they met eyes.

"Something is definitely up."

Emma decided the next morning that she wasn't going to let Dean out of her sight. Sam was on the phone with Bobby, as Emma sat on the roof of the Impala, and Maggie sat inside the hotel room talking to her on again off again boyfriend. She listened to Dean air drumming, making little noises, to Eye of the Tiger and smiled as Sam walked up. Sam just rolled his eyes before Emma banged on the top of the roof, causing Dean to jump out of his seat.

"Dude look at this." Dean said, holding out his arm to show the scratches. Emma jumped down from the car and took his arm in her hands, leaning in toward it. Dean snatched his arm away.

"I just talked to Bobby." Sam replied.

"And?" Dean took the box of donuts from Sam before smelling them and throwing them into the car. Sam and Emma shared a look, staring at Dean oddly.

"Um, well, you're not gonna like it." Sam stuttered out.

"What?"

"It's ghost sickness." Sam grimaced, as if waiting for the blow.

"Ghost sickness?"

"Yeah."

"God, no." Dean said quietly, as if in shock.

"Yeah."

"I don't even know what that is." Emma smiled before running one gloved hand through her hair, catching tangles on the way.

Sam sighed. "Okay. Some cultures believe that certain spirits can infect the living with a disease, which is why they stopped displaying bodies in houses and started taking them off to funeral homes." Emma turned her head over to the hotel room.

"Be right back. I'm gonna check on Maggie." she said and walked into the hotel room after climbing a set of stairs. She crept past Maggie, who was talking in hushed tones on the phone with who Emma assumed was Luke. She gave Maggie a frown, and brought one thumb up in question. Maggie just nodded and rolled her eyes. When Emma came back outside, the boys were still talking.

"So now what, I have 48 hours before I go insane and my heart stops?" Emma's own heart seemed to stop in her chest, and she swallowed, turning her eyes toward Sam.

"More like 24." Emma cussed.

"Shit."

+s+s+

Emma and Dean were leaned back against the headboard. Emma's head had drifted over, and she was dozing on Dean's shoulder. Sam had asked her to stick to him like glue, and hopefully there was something she could do for the man. Some kind of comfort. She felt Dean's hand in her hair, and although she normally would have swatted it away, she didn't mind it there.

Dean, meanwhile, was reading the book that he had in his lap. He turned his head up to the wall clock that was ticking, entirely too loudly for his taste. He turned his eyes back to the book and started coughing, causing Emma to sit up and look at him. "You okay?" she asked, with one eye open and he just stared at the book, looking more and more freaked out by the moment, before standing up and smashing the clock on the ground. Emma sprung to her feet and watched as Dean got a beer out of the cooler and sat down on the sofa.

A few minutes later had Dean choking over the sink, as a few woodchips flew out of his throat. Maggie stood in front of Sam, and Emma thumped Dean on the back.

"We're ignoring the biggest clue we have!" Maggie exclaimed. Emma looked to glare at her. "You!"

"I don't want to be a clue." Dean snapped, and brushed Emma's hand off of him before walking out the door of the bathroom back to the bed.

"The abrasions, this, the disease, it's trying to tell us something." Sam pressed as he walked forward.

"Tell us what, wood chips?"

Sam smiled. "Exactly."

Emma and Dean stood outside of the lumbermill, the light shining down on them from the sun. Emma pulled off her flannel shirt and left it on the back of her car, stepping forward toward the mill. She expected Dean right on her tail, but when she looked behind her he wasn't.

"I'm not going in there." he said firmly. Emma scoffed, her gun still in her hand and held in front of her.

"Dean I need your help. Sam and Maggie aren't here - they're looking up the history of this place. You gotta come in with me."

"Why couldn't we have waited for them?" Dean whined.

Emma smiled, "And let them have all the fun? You're going in, Dean." Dean pouted and took a swig of whiskey.

"Okay let's do this. It is a little spooky isn't it?" Dean and Emma poked their heads throughout the mill. Emma kept her phone on silent, she didn't want to listen to either Maggie lecture her about going into a scary building with only the infected man, or Sam lecturing her about her going into the scary building with only the infected man. They could call all they wanted. They were still there. Something caught her eye.

"Wait..." She smiled as Dean jumped. "To Frank. Love, Jessie." Dean walked over to stand behind her, casting a nervous glance around. Emma frowned at him before picking up the object. "Frank O'Brien's ring..."

"What the hell was Frank doing here?"

"No idea." They both walked into a room full of lockers. Emma froze and Dean stood right behind her when they heard rustling. With a frown, Emma peeked around her before opening a locker. A cat ran out. Emma's heartbeat seemed to thump a little faster, but her laughs were drowned out by Dean's piercing scream, echoing off the walls. Emma leaned against the desk, holding a finger up, as she finished laughing. "Oh man this was way funnier than I thought it was going to be."

"Shut up, angel."

"Don't call me that."

"Babe."

"Don't call me that either."

"Okay," Dean said, looking down into the locker cautiously. "So we got Frank's ring. Luther Garland's card... and a drawing of Frank's wife." he walked over to get a closer look at it. Reaching up to tear it off, the machines turned to life, causing Dean to jump out of his skin and Emma to hold up her gun. Dean looked around and spotted something in the corner right behind Emma. She turned around immediately raised her gun without a word, shooting the apparition and turning to follow Dean out the door. She looked left and right for him, and finally found him huddled behind the Impala, nursing a bottle of whiskey.

Sam and Maggie walked up, both of them looking amused at Dean on the ground. Sam nudged Emma with his elbow and gave her a 'that could have been dangerous' look. Emma just rolled her eyes.

"Guess we got the right place..."

+s+s+

It was night, and while Sam, Maggie, and Bobby had gone to figure out a way to kill the ghost, she was at the hotel room babysitting Dean. Not because she wanted to, but because Dean wouldn't have anyone there but her. She had his head on her shoulder, and was humming softly, trying to calm his breathing. The man had been having hallucinations about hellhounds, and twice had called her a demon, but she ignored it. Just as long as he stayed calm, maybe there was a way to get out of this.

Of course, nothing ever happened for them the way it was supposed to.

Dean sat up, listening to the dogs barking, that he knew was in his head, but he was terrified of anyways. Emma frowned and looked down at him, eyebrows contracted on her forehead and one hand on his shoulder. She looked up when she saw the cheap door rattle and break, falling to the side and causing the wild man who broke it down to crawl in over the slab of wood.

"Sheriff?" Emma asked, standing up. Dean stood up beside her. She looked down to see the gun in the man's hand. "What are you doing?" She backed up a step, and felt Dean's arm come in front of her. Scared or not, he didn't want her to get shot. Her of all people. The sheriff's eyes were crazed, and he pointed his gun at them, waving it in the air.

"Why are you looking into Luther Garland's death?" he demanded and took a step forward. Dean noticed the blood on the sheriff's arm.

"Hey, hey, you're - you're sick. You're sick. You're sick, all right? Just - just like me, okay? You got to relax." The sheriff stuck an arm out to hit Dean.

"Frank O'Brien was my friend. So he made a mistake. So I didn't bust him. So what? And you're gonna bring me down over that?! No, sir." He pointed his gun at Dean, but Emma pushed the gun out of his hand. Before she knew it the sheriff was lunging at her, pushing her back into the wall. Emma pushed him off of her, kicking him in the stomach, and driving him back toward the door, but not before getting a couple blows to the chin and neck. Those were going to hurt in the morning. Suddenly, the sheriff started hyperventilating and Emma took a step back. It was then she noted that Dean was on the ground. "Get away from me!" the sheriff shrieked.

"You gotta calm down!" Emma shouted, and took a step forward toward him.

"Step back!" the sheriff shouted and grabbed at his chest, before doubling over and lying on the ground. Emma had only a moment to check and see if the sheriff was alive, before kneeling down beside Dean.

"Dean?" she asked urgently. "Dean?!" His breath was coming in short gasps, hyperventilating against the air around him. Emma grabbed his face and turned him to look at her. "Dean look at me. Hey. Breathe. Calm down. Please." Emma looked over at her phone, but couldn't get to it. She found her own breathing speeding up, as she watched Dean freak out about something that was behind her. She grabbed onto him again, and this time brought her lips down on his, which both took him by surprise, and made him pause his breathing. As soon as she pulled away from him, his head dropped to the floor, and his eyes were closed. "Dean... no..." she put her head to his chest, and could only hear the faint heartbeat under her cheek. "Dean?!"

The man on the floor gasped, and his eyes opened wide as he looked up at the ceiling. Emma's phone was ringing.

"Hello?" she asked, crawling over to it.

"It's done. Dean okay?" Emma swallowed, still finding her voice. "You okay?"

"Yeah we're fine. Just get all your asses back here, please?"

"You got it." Emma put down the phone and looked at Dean, who was sitting up. She met his eyes, and he looked around the room, putting one hand on his heart.

"Wow," he said, and stood up. He held out a hand to Emma. "I'm a little bitch." Emma just laughed, and hugged Dean.

"Yeah don't worry about it, Sam's going to give me a ride to the airport." Maggie was saying as she piled her things into the Impala's trunk. Emma was standing beside her, lifting an eyebrow.

"How are you expecting to get all those guns onto an airplane?" she asked. Maggie just smiled.

"I know a guy."

"Of course you do. Well, be safe. And let me know how Luke is doing, okay? Text me."

"Yes mother." Maggie joked and the two of them wrapped their arms around each other for a long time, before Bobby cleared his throat from the passenger's seat.

"You two done yet?" he demanded, and Emma smiled, letting go of her best friend, and helping her into the back. Sam walked up behind Emma and got into the driver's seat.

"We'll get food on the way back. You gonna be okay with him?" Emma just smirked.

"Why wouldn't I be okay with him?" Sam smiled.

"Well I don't want to come back to see the room all trashed or something." Emma just shook her head, waved to Maggie and Bobby, and walked back up the stairs into the hotel room.

+s+s+

Emma was sitting on the bed, flipping through her journal when her eyes turned black, and the shower door opened, and steam poured into the room. Emma turned to look at the man who was standing in the door frame, clad only in a towel. His chiseled chest and stomach and shoulders were glittering with hot water. Emma felt a lump in her throat. "Where's Bobby and Sam?" he asked as Emma stood to her feet. She took a few steps closer.

"They went to drop Mag at the airport, and get food. They'll be back in a couple hours." Dean nodded absently, and watched as she walked across the room toward him. He loved the way her big sweater fell beneath her thighs, and gave her both a feminine innocent look and hugged all her curves. Emma walked forward and put one hand on Dean's chest, before her mouth went to his in a fiery frenzy. Dean did not pay attention to how crazy this was, or how she seemed different, with her hands all over him and her mouth hungry for more.

The towel hit the floor.