Author's Note: Okay everyone, here's the next few installments. It's been a while since I update but I come bearing longer and hopefully, better chapters. I've broken chapter 8 into 3 parts as there is a lot I want to fit in for this chappie and I haven't written it all out yet. Part 1&2 are up and part 3 I will try to post tonight. If not, then tomorrow. Enjoy:D Oh and Review

Side Note: There was a question asked about whether or not Missouri now knows EVERYTHING about who Leah is. Good question. As I was reading over the chappie it is a bit vague. Missouri is filled in on everything going on and even the whole Sam and Dean being on a television series detail. It's a bit strange but Missouri just kind of accepts it. I can't really be anymore specific than that. I find it hard to believe that she would just take Leah's story without much question, but that's just the way it plays out. The plot to this story is a bit out there so if there is anything that begs asking or something confusing, just ask and I'll be happy to fix the mistake or explain. We will be learning more about Leah's predicament as to how she came to be in Sam and Dean's world, so don't worry it will be explained soon enough.

Disclaimer: Don't own Supernatural.

Crash Course

By: Babyhilts

Chapter 8: Part 1

The Devil came from Kansas, where he went to I can't say
If you really are my brother, then you'd better start to pray
For the sins of those departed and ones about to go
There's a dark cloud just above us - don't tell me 'cause I know
I'm not a humble pilgrim - there's no need to scrape and squeeze
And don't beg for silver paper when I'm trying to sell you cheese

The Devil Came From Kansas :Keith Reid

The work of many fingers tapping rhythmically from down the hall woke me up too soon the next day. I'd found myself sleeping peacefully, sprawled awkwardly across the couch cushions with the pant leg of my sweat pants riding up to my thigh and the baggy shirt pulled up inches below my breasts. I groaned away the constant hitting of Sam's hands on the laptop keys but it was never silenced. A lonely clock hanging on the opposite wall of the room read eight a.m. It wasn't bad, but I preferred to play the lifeless blonde role until at least eleven. Perhaps that was why I was so out of shape. It didn't matter really at that moment. I could tell no one else was up and frankly; I didn't want to be up either. I had half a mind to take the pillow I'd spent most of the night sleeping on and using it to suffocate Sam long enough for him to stop whatever it was he was doing on that damn laptop.

Crisp white sheets, that had so carefully been tucked into the sides of the couch, beneath the cushions, had managed to free themselves during the night and sought their revenge by restraining my body to the loveseat. The sheet was wrapped about an ankle and crisscrossed over my chest, beneath the back of my neck and overlapped my right arm, sinking back into the couch afterwards as if to pull me in with it. Sam's clicking of the keyboard stirred my mind from out of a long needed sleep and I felt the energy and excitement that comes with the prospect of a new day.

With a ten minute struggle against the couch and sheets, I found myself on the floor, brushing off the offending material. The lights were still off in the quiet home in Lawrence, but there was enough light from outside the kitchen windows to point me in the right direction.

Led by the sound of Sam's frantic typing and the few rays of sunlight, I crept through the rooms and found myself back inside the kitchen/ dinning room area. Sam was dressed in flannel pants and a navy blue shirt that looked well used. Shaggy brown wisps hid most of him from view while the laptop sitting on the table hid the rest. The linoleum announced my entrance with a low moan as I weighed my foot down on the floor. Sam's fingers stopped. I smirked and found myself trying to look at him through a thick forest of brown hair. Sam's hand came away from the keyboard and pushed the hair back.

"Hey, did I wake you?"

I nodded, taking the same seat I had the night before, that sat at the opposite end of the table.

"Yeah, actually you did. What are you doing on that thing anyway, typing out your Pulitzer Prize winning novel?"

Sam laughed as he turned the laptop around to face me. A dark, gothic layout covered the screen in vibrant reds and all consuming blacks. Bold lettering moved across the top part of the webpage, echoing the words Gateway to Hell. A series of paragraphs and links followed, all as graphic and spine tingling as the next. There were pictures as I scrolled further into the depths of the site. I soon recognized the images as the cemetery we'd stopped by the night before. The remains of the church, pictures of tombstones knocked over by vandals and storms. The webpage pulled me in and I soon began to understand how serious this was becoming. I had thrown myself headlong into this case that I still knew nothing about. The possible danger had escaped me up until this point but now, with all the images and the stories up in front of me on the screen it was all becoming real. Or as real as could be.

"I don't know why dad sent us here."

I finished scrolling and struggled to tear myself away from the computer. Sam was grumbling about something but I barely heard him.

"What did you say?"

"Dad," he said it with distaste. "I don't understand why he'd tell us to come here."

I still hadn't caught on. "Leah?"

"Sorry, I don't get it."

"Did you read the article on there?"

"I skimmed over a few things. Mostly pictures."

Sam dragged a hand across his face and sighed. He closed the laptop and got out of his chair. For a moment I thought he'd gotten fed up with me or something, I hated when people got like that. When they didn't answer you and just rose to their feet to walk out of the room on you, leaving you to wonder what you did wrong. Sam didn't. I should have known he was different.

He pushed the chair back, letting the legs drag noisily against the floor. I watched him step across the dinning room and into the kitchen, where he let his hands hover over near the coffee machine. He pulled out two mugs from the cupboards above, like he'd been a guest at Missouri's for years. We stayed silent while he went about opening the fridge door and adding milk and sugar to the thick caffeine drink. When he'd finish and handed me one of the mugs, he sighed and leaned against the counter. I waited, knowing what was about to come.

"It's ridiculous. I mean, I don't understand him, you know?"

I shook my head.

"Well, he couldn't have sent us here for this" he gestured towards the closed laptop. "Gateway to hell? Child of Satan? Come on. I may hunt the supernatural but even I don't believe in all that crap."

"Well, maybe there's something else in Stull."

Sam's head shook violently from side to side. Was he having a seizure? I waited. Nope, he was just getting upset.

"There's nothing else. I've checked everything. Besides the coordinates are for the cemetery. He wants us to check out the cemetery. God, you know, you'd think after what the three of us have been through over the past months. After the accident and Dean almost dying! You'd think he'd want to work as a family to track down the thing that killed our mom. Or he'd at least give us a little more to go on than these wild goose chases after a bunch of coordinates."

"Sam…"

"No. He treats us like children. It's not enough that he sends us out on these hunts but it's like a five day mystery just figuring out what were supposed to be looking for. And Stull, Kansas? What does some college prank from the 70's have to do with anything?"

I was dumbstruck. Nothing was going on inside my head, nothing whatsoever. I didn't bother to try to form words, because honestly, I didn't think it would do much good at this point. The only time I'd ever seen Sam upset about John was from the safety of my living room and even then he was behind layers of thick glass; trapped within my television set.

The stairs creaked. Sam's head shot up. I followed the gesture and took in the disheveled form of Dean Winchester. Covered only in a grey t-shirt and tight binding boxer shorts, ala Phantom Traveler and let's just say they accentuated all his good parts. I could feel my blood heating up as he shuffled tiredly across the tiled floor. I had to restrain myself from tackling the strong masculine form the ground. He grunted. Part of his uncovered leg brush against mine and in a matter of seconds the air had left my lungs.

I gave in and took in a glance. Those full lips and tussled hair mingled together with those hazel green eyes that masked away layers of rage, concern, wild recklessness and every emotion that made up Dean Winchester. They were dim at the moment, extinguished through the night by seeping in of fatigue but any moment and they would be alive again. I sat, hands in my lap, wanting to make contact with those eyes and be sucked into it, no matter how immature or foolish I looked. Just one moment to loose myself.

Sam snorted inches from my face. I looked away from Dean to his younger half and felt the heat of embarrassment set in at being caught. It's not as though Dean was trying to look this sexy on purpose. Right?

Another glance. Lazily his hand rubbed against the back of his neck. He leaned forward, stretching stiff muscles while at the same time preparing himself a cup of coffee. He couldn't be doing this on purpose. It was all too natural, of course, Dean did have practice in deception.

"So, what were you two ladies talking about?"

He held up a steaming mug, bringing it slowly to his lips. Sam clutched his closed laptop like a safety raft to his chest. His eyes were still alight with the leftover excitement from the moment before Dean entered the kitchen. Did his brother not even notice this bubbling rage slowly rising to the surface?

"We were talking about Stull."

"Stull, huh?" Dean looked me up and down and then returned to drinking his coffee. I think he'd been trying to ignore my presence in the house. At least until all this confusion was settled with Missouri. "So, Sammy, what did you find out about our little haunted hamlet?"

The fires grew behind the brown iris'.

"Dean, this hunt, I don't think this is where we should be right now."

"Oh, and where do you think we should be" he smirked but he obviously wasn't catching on to what Sam was trying to say.

"The legend of Stull, Dean it's ridiculous. Just some prank from thirty some years ago. Were wasting our time. Dad's wasting our time."

Dean lowered his head. The muscles in his jaw tensed only for a split second before he once again masked it away and relaxed his face. He turned to face Sam, a determined look already set in.

"Were not having this conversation again, are we Sam…"

"Dean we should have gone after dad when he left three months ago."

"No, Sam. Dad knows what's right for now…"

"Does he?"

"Yeah, he does. Jeez, after all we went through together you can't have a little more faith in the man?"

"He doesn't give me any reason to. Dean he was pissed off I didn't shoot him for the greater good. Self sacrificing and all that bullshit. How can you have faith in something so unstable? Now here we are, looking into another one of his Scooby Doo Mysteries? Thanks, but no thanks. I'm finished with stumbling blinding in dad's shadow."

The tension between the brothers had reached its most powerful heights. I wanted to get up and run to find Missouri, but Sam beat me to it. The laptop still held in that death grip, he stomped out of the kitchen and out the front door. Where he went, I wasn't sure.

Dean took a long savoring drink from the blue coffee mug. A distant look washed over him.

"Dean" I ventured nervously. There was a slight tremor in my voice.

"He'll get over it. In a few hours we'll leave for Stull and get this all figure out. Get the job done, nice and neat."

"Dean…"

"I'm going to take a shower."

He tossed the mug recklessly into the sink and disappeared from the kitchen. My heart raced from the onslaught of emotions in the room. They shifted with the humid air. I listened quietly to sound of Dean's leftover coffee draining into the sink. I stayed there, waiting, for what, I wasn't sure of. I just needed to time by myself, with my thoughts to gather together enough strength for this afternoon. For Stull.

At one o'clock I stumbled out of the shower, hair dripping carelessly onto my navy blue shirt. I sported my cheap track pants proudly, while modeling the towel wrapped about my hair turban style. Water still seeped through the material, tracing clear lines along my cheeks. Sam had left an hour earlier to fill up the impala's gas tank and to pick up supplies, whatever that was. The real reason he left was to prolong the hunt and the time he'd have to spend with Dean. I knew that Sam wouldn't bail out on a hunt, not this far into it.

I was shaking the last few drops of water from my hair, bent over with the towel shuffling through my blonde locks when I heard a familiar set of voices down the hall. Not an eavesdropper by trade, I ignore the conversation and continued what I was doing. Until the name Leah arose. That was when I took action. I tossed the towel carelessly onto the bathrooms porcelain counters and tip toed along the hall towards the closed room. I didn't get too close and I didn't have to, the voices were more than loud enough to let me in on what was being said without being a complete degenerate.

"Boy, I'm a tell you again and you listen up this time when I talk. That girl is nothing but good. She has some spunk, but maybe that'll do you some good."

"Then what about the secrets she's been keeping from us? I've seen the way she gets when she's been caught in a lie. She gets that look."

"Dean everyone has secrets. Not all of them are bad. She'll tell you in due time what she hasn't already. You have to understand that Leah, is probably doing this as a way of protecting herself."

"Protecting herself from what?"

"From you. From Sam. There is more about this girl than she lets on, a lot more and right now she is confused and scared and keeping up these secrets is just here way of building up those walls. It's all the girl has at the moment."

"Their not secrets Missouri, their lies. Lies that I refuse to take a chance on. After what happened, I don't want to gamble with the Sam's and mines life. And if she's so scared why not tell me what's going on? We can protect her."

"Not from this" I whispered out loud.

I felt the tears rising to the surface. I brushed them away before they had the chance to fall.

"Leah, will tell you. Until then, you have to have faith in the girl. I've seen who she is and she is of no threat to you or Sam. If she were, we would not be having this conversation."

There was a long drawn out silence at which point I decided would be best if I left my spot in front of the door. Being caught eavesdropping was the last thing I had in mind. I made my way to the bathroom, turned on the light and went about combing out the knots in my hair. About five minutes later the door at the end of the hall opened and I caught a glimpse of him walking past the doorway. I barely paid attention, but I thought that he paused in the doorway for just a quick second before continuing on down the hall.

"You know what they say about nosy girls?"

Missouri was standing in doorway, smiling in my direction. I felt ashamed for being caught. I shook my head and set the brush down alongside the towel.

"I didn't mean to at first, but I had to know. Dean's been so off lately with me. Well, more like all the time. I didn't know what was going to happen after you two talked."

"He's a smart boy Leah. He'll figure out what to do about all this but for now I think he's taken my advice and decided to have a little more faith in you. But you'll have to do the same."

"Missouri…"

"Not right now, but all those secrets, it will do you some good to get them off your chest."

I nodded solemnly. Missouri was right. Heck, she was always right.

"What about my situation?" She had to have some new information for me.

"You just worry about today. I'll have some answers for you hopefully by tonight. It's still a little strange to me, but I'm sure there will be a way of figuring out what happened to you."

"And to get back?"

"I don't know just yet dear" I felt my face drop and Missouri sighed in response. "Keep your hopes high."

But that doubtful part kept wondering how I could manage some amazing feat like this when the world I knew it was turning upside down every second of my day. I didn't express these feelings to Missouri, as she was doing all she could for me. I just sucked it up like a good little girl and braced myself for what was surely to come. I didn't know it at the time, but we were all in for a hell of a reality check.