A/N: I'm throwing in the lines, I think I did this for a while before don't know why I stopped but it looks better and hopefully confuses you less I know it helps me see straight. Also, though my uncle is now actively working on my laptop, the desktop has been relocated to my parents room and my brother is holding the cords hostage so when this will get updated for real is beyond me. Huge thanks to Wanderer and Seer who have been so great helping me sort this fic out. It started as a few random scenes in my head and getting them all to tie together and work has been a pain in the ass. 'Specially since I've had no idea what Big Joe was doing until the other night, Teenie's been on the fritz, and Dear Sammy has decided to take the last chapter to go out of character. R&R & enjoy!

Chapter Seven

"So, that's my story." He scratched his scruffy beard and glanced over at her. "Well, that's my life. Don't believe anyone who tells you there's a light at the end of a dark tunnel, hun, ain't no light, no voices of dead loved ones. Hell you don't even get a chorus of angels."
"Maybe you did it wrong," Athena said massaging her right arm. The longer she was with Truck Driver Sicko and his precious Mack truck, the worse she felt. Her head was pounding, her legs were numb, her right arm felt like it was in a vice that just kept getting tighter, and the glimpse of herself she'd get in the mirror from time to time had her worried. She was getting dangerously pale, her lips were almost blue, and she swore she saw blood pulsing out of her nearly severed scalp, but when she reached up her head felt absolutely normal to touch.
"HA HA!" he had a loud bodily laugh. "I like you, almost a shame we're not going to be together very long." He'd admitted to being a spook, even used the term spook, not that she wouldn't have come to the same conclusion when she saw herself. "Dying the wrong way," he chuckled again. "So, kid, you said you were headed for Canada, why?"
"A guy," she answered deciding that the fewer details she gave away the better off she would be. He seemed to think she was a puzzle, and as long as she kept the mysterious bit going she might stand a chance.
"A guy or the guy?" Athena twisted to glare at Big Joe but when his soulful coffee eyes fixed on her she softened.
"We went together for a while, but things got complicated and we were too young to deal so he split." she told half the truth. "But he's in trouble now, and needs me." Big Joe nodded sagely.
"Are you sure he's really in trouble though, sure he's not just trying to get you back?"
"Believe me Will's in troub-What's that?" the head lights caught a dark shape up ahead of them. She looked from the road to her captor's face, he grinned toothily.
"That, my dear, is a person. Get in the back I'm going to pick him up."

"Grab us something edible I'm going to answer the call of nature and then we'll hit the road." Darcy nodded, for once not replying with anything smart ass, leaving Autumn to slip away into the bathroom. Dean had surprised her and stayed on the phone until she pulled into the rest stop and spotted Darcy Valover. They'd be on the road again in ten minutes and she couldn't wait to drop off into dream land.
Dinner was a bag of Lays, couple of Twinkies, and a Coke while they ate on the hood of the Ford Autumn told Darcy everything she knew and together they went over the files Jen had sent with the native on speaker between them. Jen wasn't impressed with having any Valover on the case and like a child directed all her comments to Darcy through Autumn, refusing to acknowledge any reply that didn't come from Autumn's mouth. It took longer than Autumn had planned to get on the road again but she knew as soon as she was back in the car she'd be asleep again and there were things too important to be left unsaid, such as the rules of the car.
"Okay, you pick the radio station, and the speed, I pay for any damages out of slave labor? Anything else, Queen Autumn?" Darcy asked rolling her eyes, hand still held out for the keys. Autumn eyed her a moment before dropping the keys in her hand.
"No, lets just get my sister so I can dump you at the pound. I swear you give John fleas I'll kill you." Darcy let the rottweiler in the backseat dropping into the driver's, Autumn collapsed into the passenger's seat and more to save herself from awkward conversation turned toward the window after buckling up.
"Wow, this is going to be fun." Darcy muttered, easily finding the thought that told her not to press any further than she had to.

Betsy sat on Bud's bed, legs folded pretzel style while she waited on him to return from the shower. It had only been a century since they'd had a sleep over and been allowed to sleep in the same room. His room hadn't changed much since they were twelve, and she hadn't expected to feel so awkward. She'd known Bud since their older brother's started kindergarten, it had never occurred to her to fell awkward in his presence, but she guessed the 'suicidal on the orders of dead older brother' thing helped matters on that road. When Bud finally returned she was leaning back into the wall toying with the black heart necklace she wore. He gave her his lopsided grin and propped himself up against the door frame watching her.
"Didn't know you still wore that old thing."
"Didn't know you stopped wearing yours," she turned the heart over to look at the image of the angel engraved there.
"Yea, that summer you and Scott spent with your uncle out west."
"Okay, that was worst summer break ever but why stop wearing the necklace?" she asked. He held his t-shirt in his hands twisting it every which way, and the scratches he'd inflicted on himself were red and swollen across his bare chest and back, a pretty bit even kissed his forearm.
"Guess, I stopped believing in angels that summer," he shrugged looking all the more helpless.
"You did a good job with the injuries; how'd you do those?" she asked just for the sake of a subject change. It was pretty late, even by the standards of a sixteen year old who prefers the night, and the rest of the house had long sense gone to sleep.
"Ya know that wall in the barn with all the rusty nails sticking out?"
"And the bite?" she asked wincing at the thought of what he'd have to have done to get the marks that deeps and long.
"Even a ghost dog leaves marks," he jested.
"Well the scratches look like they're going to be infected come lay down, you idiot, and I'll go get the stuff to clean them." She bound of the bed and started out the door, but as she passed him he grabbed her arm stopping her.
"Elizabeth, you shouldn't be here," he barely whispered. No one ever called her Elizabeth, well expect her parents when they were about to ground her.
"I'm not going to leave you alone in this, BFF isn't just some random term to me, Buddy-boy." Fear was finally starting to kick in about this whole mess, and she tried to sound teasing and knew she'd failed miserably.
"Me either, that's why I'm warning you. You shouldn't be around me, I'll hurt you."
"Bud," she put her hand over his, "hurt me if you have to, but I'm not leaving you. If it comes down to it I'll knock you out, you can't hurt me if you can't move. Now, get your ass over there in that bed and I'll be right back, 'kay?"

Dean showed Sam what Autumn had pointed out to him the next morning and they'd agreed it was worth a shot, and better to do while everyone was at work or school to avoid that unfortunate call to the cops because an entire field was up in flames. The only problem was Betsy, should they release the spirits to move on and they moved on the girl was likely to kill them before they left town, and they'd have to hang out a bit to make sure J.R. was gone. But there was really little choice, it would have to be done anyway. Trapping spirits in this realm usually led to violent ghosts, in their experience.
So when the kids headed off for school and the adults to work, Sam and Dean loaded up their pack and headed out to the dead circle that had once been a pond. The walk was easy going, and while it took most the morning to salt and drench the circle with lighter fluid and gas, the boys were undisturbed in their work. They put water down outside the dead ring to keep the fire from spreading, and lit up fires every few feet. All the ashy remains of plants that never stood a chance didn't feed the fire for long and they had stolen a couple of bales of straw to keep it going long enough to do its job.

"What the hell are you doing?" a panicked pissed off voice made both brothers spin around. Betsy stood hands on her hips, Bud was hunched over her shoulder not making eye contact with anyone. "I asked a question, are you going to answer or do I need to involve the police? My parents are going to kill me for this," she motioned at the blazing field, "anyway. I might as well make it worth my time."

"Soul Trap," Dean said stepping forward placing himself instinctively between the pissed teen and his brother.

"A what?" Betsy asked, losing steam.

"A soul trap, the natives who sold this land created a soul trap to punish the settlers." Dean continued.

"How do you know that?" she asked disbelieving.

"Is it so hard to believe I researched?" Dean asked teasingly. She eyed him still, but her hand dropped from her hips.

"What does this mean for my ghosts?"

"Those who were meant to pass on will, the others will stay. But J.R. should definitely be gone," Sam explained. She closed her eyes a moment considering her options then nodded.

"What can I do to help?"

"We need a chain saw," Dean told her. "I'll show you which trees we need to drop." He looked over to Bud giving him a once over.

"What will the trees do?" the boy asked suddenly breaking his silence.

"Finish breaking the shape that traps the souls," Sam said as if the kid was stupid.

"You can't!" all three of them stared at Bud.

"Why can't they? J.R. is dangerous., what ever we have to do to keep him from hurting anyone else we do," Betsy ordered. "No ifs ands or buts about it. We stop him or we die!"

"Exactly!" Bud grabbed her wrist spinning Betsy into his chest, producing a pocket knife from no where. "You stop him and we die."

"Wait," Sam held his hands up, his soulful eyes switching straight into their pleading. "You don't want to do this."

"I have to do this," Bud told them. "Whether or not I want to I have to."

"Buddy-boy, just relax. We can talk about this, its okay. Sam and Dean want to help us." Betsy started in, she sounded like they were discussing what to order on their pizza.

"Elizabeth, Elizabeth, Elizabeth." Bud clucked. "You know there's only one way to do this. Only one way to finish this," he paused petting his friend's head. "I kill you and me, then he's done. Everything goes back to normal."

"Autty, I swear if you don't wake up I'm going to shoot you!" Darcy urged mentally nudging her partner. Autumn stirred only enough to glare at the brunet driving. "You're dreams are really starting to get messy."

"Sorry," Autumn sat up rubbing sleep from her eyes. "Where are we?"

"Another hour before we hit the cross roads. You want to tell me why you used the L word if it was going to cause that much trouble?" Darcy had been trying to behave and not play in Autumn's mind while she was asleep but the girl's dreams kept flaring up, when that happened it was impossible not to see and hear the thoughts.

"Stay out of my mind, Valover."

"Don't leave the doors open," Darcy smirked. "So, come on, spill."

"Would he have let me go if I hadn't said it?" Darcy considered this for a moment before answering.

"Yea, of course. You've got the boy whipped. He'd have hated it but he'd have let you go save your sister. That's what the Winchester boys do, they save everyone."

"Uh huh." Autumn rolled her eyes.

"That's a record, we've been together four hours and you're already starting to act like me."

"Bite me!"

"Do I look like a vampire to you?"

"They're very deceiving, look just like everyday folks."

"Daemon, you're dancing around the subject."

"Fine, I said it 'cause it needed said. If he knows that I … he won't need me to cling so close to him all the time." Darcy bit back a laugh.

"Like you don't want him around all the time." Darcy bit back a laugh.

"Like you don't want him around all the time."

"I do, but there are things, like this, that he can't be along for. He's got this abandonment issue that I'm never going to settle," Darcy knew Autumn well enough to know she'd drop off into rant in about two seconds to keep from admitting her own issues and feelings.

"But that's part of what you love about him," she teased.

"Ugh, I knew this was going to be a mistake." Autumn rolled her eyes, again.

"What's the game plan once we get to the crossroads? Or have you not got that far yet?"

"What happens if I kick your butt out to play little hitcher? He seems to like picking them up, and you and Teenie have something in common with the others I don't."

"Care to share?"

"The year you were born, all the victims have been born between 82 and 85. I don't exactly fit in there," Autumn told her reaching for her computer to show, unnecessarily, the information.

"Daemon you didn't let me come out here to be your bait did you?" Autumn didn't meet her eyes when she looked over. "You may not be so bad after all."

A/N:Sorry about how long this took guys, I was a little caught up in... I have no idea. It just took forever. Then halfway through my uncle finished my computer so i had to move everything onto my laptop. But I'm up and running again so YAY! I may have you weigh in on the ending of this fic in the next chapter. I'm debating a little. Much love and REVIEW!