A huge apology for how long it took with this one. I was hoping that this would only be 4 chapters but it appears that it's going to be a bit longer than that. I've had a lot of work lately and try to add a little bit each day. Thanks to all who have read up to this point and thanks for the reviews. This chapter is not nearly as long as I wanted it and it's quite dialogue heavy but the next will be the start of the hunt. Thanks as always for reading.

For those that read "Young" that chapter is about half way done!

Sam is 11, Dean 15, Kat 18, and Caleb 23 for this chapter!

Once again I don't own the boys or the Brotherhood AU. Also thanks again to Ridley C James and Tidia for the Brotherhood AU and for letting me use it!

Shea

Chapter 3

Running Home

Even though he had yet to hit his teen years, Sam Winchester had decided that he did not want to hunt. He would argue with his father over hunts and how he wanted a normal life. He wanted to be able to go out and play soccer, be in boy scouts, and worry about grades and scoring goals rather than what was lurking in the shadows. There was no doubt that he loved his family, but he wanted more out of life than having to train constantly in hopes that he wouldn't die much before his time. Then of course there was his brother who loved the life that they led and would follow his father without any questions or doubt. This was his big brother, who he looked up to, and knew would protect him from anything. He always felt like the outcast of the family. That's why when he came down with the flu, unlike most his age, he was ecstatic.

The symptoms were of course not fun in the least bit. The runny nose and cough didn't help and of course he had Dean making fun of the way his voice sounded. But then when his dad was told about a hunt, that's when Sam was thankful for the cold. Bobby had called John about a hunt that was 3 days drive away from Jim's farm. John, Bobby, Jim, and Mackland were all going to investigate what was going on. Of course with Sam being sick, John couldn't risk bringing the boys. So instead they were to stay at Jim's with Caleb and Kat.

Caleb normally would have gone on the hunt, but he was recovering from the last hunt that he went on. It was nothing serious but he was a little banged up and Mackland wasted no time in optioning Caleb off to stay behind. That didn't mean that Caleb was happy about having to stay behind but he was really given no choice in the matter. Then Kat was also angry that she wasn't allowed on the hunt. Ever since Jim had found out about her solo hunt at 15, her dad had kept her on a tighter leash. She was told to help Dean watch over Sam and to also help Caleb if he needed anything.

Sam was hoping that it would give him a few days to just relax and be a kid. Oh how wrong he was. The thought of anything being peaceful was ripped from his thoughts from the moment that all the "adults" had left. It seemed that everyone other than Sam was pissed about not being able to go on the hunt. Caleb was angry at Mac because according to Caleb he was completely healed and had hunted in worse shape than he was in at the moment before. Kat was just mad that she was still being treated like a little girl just because she had went on a solo hunt that didn't go as well as expected about three years before hand. Then there was Dean, who was happy that he was with his good friends, the few people he trusted, but was always itching for a hunt and action. He was sick of being protected because to him the only one that needed to be protected anymore was Sam.

Once he knew that his father would force him to stay and be in charge instead of going on the hunt, Caleb began to research hunts around Jim's place. He was well past the age where he was capable of hunting on his own, he was 23 now, and had been hunting on his own for quite some time so he wasn't too worried about what the consequences would be if his father had found out. Although, it helped greatly that the hunt that the "adults" were on was a good distance away. There was a decent hunt a few hours away from the farm in the woods. For some reason these things always liked to be in the woods, never a nice flat area that would be completely open. Nope, they always had to make things difficult.

Sam was in the living room attempting to read a book while Dean was flipping through the channels and harassing him at the same time. Not only was the constant change of the channel annoying Sam, the way in which Dean made sure to comment loudly on any passing image was certainly doing the intended trick in fully annoying Sam. Dean was bored and it showed by the great lengths that he was going to in order to get a rise out of his little brother. Not being able to go on a hunt was one thing, but then having someone sick which made it near impossible to do anything entertaining was a whole new level of boredom. Dean loved his brother, even if he didn't say it often, and he was worried about the kid, but Sammy did seem to be feeling better and was left with the last bit of the cold that he had got. He couldn't understand how nothing could possibly be on TV worth watching and how his little brother could sit there and read a book. Stir crazy was an understatement for what Dean was feeling at the moment.

Kat had gone out for a quick run and when she returned she found Caleb at the kitchen table with papers all over the place. The way most of the hunters that she knew did their research always seemed highly unorganized and near impossible to find any way that they could go back and forth between the papers, but she learned long ago not to bother because somehow they always found a hunt and a way to kill it. Caleb didn't bother to stop his research even when she took a seat and decided to pick up some of the papers to satisfy her curiosity. It wasn't long before she became interested in the hunt.

"So this is about…what…3 hours from here," she questioned looking at Caleb nonchalantly.

"Depending on who's driving," he replied putting the paper in his hand down to look at her.

Kat leaned back in the chair and nodded her head, "So when are we going?"

"Who said anything about "we"," Caleb said with an arched eyebrow.

"Oh come on," Kat whined as she let the chair hit the floor and leaned on the table towards Caleb. "I'm 18, which makes me an adult. That means that I can hunt. Hell I've been hunting and you know that. Dean's old enough to watch Sammy and it's only a few hours away. We can handle this easily in one night."

Caleb sighed, he was really hoping that he could avoid this because he knew Jim would kill him if he took Kat out on a hunt, "I, and I emphasize I, could do this hunt easily. You're not supposed to be hunting remember?"

"So you're afraid of my dad? That's basically your reason to go out on a hunt, by yourself, which may I remind would royally piss your dad off as well," Kat replied smartly. "It's a catch-22, so either you get in trouble with my dad, if we get caught, or you get killed and still in trouble."

"Touché," Caleb grinned knowing full well that he was going to be stuck taking her along. "And for the record, Pastor Jim is one scary SOB when he's pissed. Most of the time it seems to have something to do with you as well. You know we won't be able to get into this without Deuce."

Kat rolled her eyes. Dean was one of the closest friends that she had and she thought of him as a brother, but on hunts he was just stubborn. It was worse than working with John from what she had heard. "He'd have to stay and watch Sammy, remember."

"He'd want to go on the hunt. The Sammy excuse won't work cause he's basically better now anyway. He was only making it seem so much worse because he wanted to stay here," Caleb knew those boys too well sometimes. "If you go, then Deuce is gonna have to go, and of course the runt will come even if he doesn't want to hunt that much because he's big brother is going."

"Then I guess it will have to be that way," Kat reluctantly said. She could handle the boys on a hunt as long as she got to hunt something. The whole banned from hunting thing was really starting to get on her nerves.

"Great. So it's going to be the adventures of babysitting from hell," Caleb knew he really had not other choice in the matter because the hunt meant saving people, but it seemed to be much easier to do when all he had to watch out for was his own gorgeous ass.

"I think you can handle it old man. You've had plenty of practice. They really should create a character just for you in the "Babysitters Club" books," Kat added with a grin and a light in her eyes at the fact that she had talked him into it.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," he responded with a wave of his hand. "Well then if we're all going as one big happy family then we should get the boys in here and explain what it is exactly that we're hunting."

"I'm glad you know," Kat said while looking at the papers. "Because I don't think anyone else could ever figure out your handwriting and ways of linking things." She topped it all off with a perfected eye roll as she attempted to translate his handwriting.

"You're just mad because you're a girl and can't be in the Brotherhood officially," Caleb added using his usual way of getting under Kat's skin. Even though he knew that she didn't really care too much as long as she got to kill things she was happy.

"I'm just jealous cause you get to have a group that hunts and has a decent name," Kat replied to him, "All I have is the sisterhood of the traveling pants."

"Deuce, Sammy, get your asses in here if you want to have something to do," Caleb quickly shouted at the boys to which Dean sprinted into the kitchen with Sam slowly following. "And that sounds so dirty. When did you join it?"

"Dirty and Kat," Dean questioned. "Are there pictures?"

Dean's eyes were scanning Kat in a very suggestive way, which was all in fun, but still ended with him getting a hand smacked on the back of his head. "Ow. What the hell was that for?"

"Those eyes," Kat started pointing to his bright green eyes, "stay away from me. Besides, you're 15 you have a ways to go yet."

"That's what you think," Dean replied suggestively with a smirk and look at Caleb.

"Dean likes to think all the girls want him," Sam said dryly. "He doesn't realize that most of them only want him to introduce them to Caleb."

Dean shot a glare at Sam as Caleb began to laugh and Kat just shook her head.

"So what did you call us in here for, Damien?"

"It seems as though this mess all over the table," Kat gestured to the papers, "is our next hunt. That's if you two are up to it."

"No way. There's no way that we're going on a hunt," Sam said with annoyance evident in his voice. "All of us are here because we're not in good enough shape to go hunting. We'd be killed when we got, if we would make it back that is."

Kat smiled, knowing that Sammy would come through for her, "Well then. That makes it just you and I, Reaves."

"Woah, woah , woah. I don't think so," Dean quickly interrupted. There was no way that he was going to be stuck in the house and left out of a hunt. "We'll go with. It's extra backup. Besides, Sammy, you're practically better already and the fresh air will do you some good. So what are we hunting?"

Caleb couldn't help but smirk at the displeasure obvious on Kat's face. He didn't want to take the boys, or at least Sammy along just to be on the safer side, but if they wanted to kill this thing then it had to be done. "It's an interesting hunt to say the least. At first glance, it would appear that it's a simple black dog. But from the accounts that I've read, it's taller and not quite as animalistic."

"What else is like a black dog but not," Sam questioned. Even if he wasn't into hunting that much, his mind was still filled with countless information that he could use to help keep his family safe.

Caleb shifted in his seat and looked at the three around him, "You guys probably won't believe this, but the best conclusion I came to is that it seems to be some kind of mix of two creatures." He looked up at them to judge their expressions.

"In other words, it's offspring of parents that just happen to be from two different species of evil," Kat asked somewhat skeptically.

"Yeah," Caleb replied to her with a quick bit of a glare to show that he didn't appreciate the skepticism. "Seems to be from a black dog and a wendigo." He looked at all the wide eyes that were now completely trained on him.

"Dude, there's no way that's even possible," Dean stated in utter disbelief. "Wendigos were at once humans, there's no way that they'd screw a black dog."

Kat rolled her eyes at the vocabulary that Dean choose to use, "Very gently put there, Dean. Subtle, very subtle."

"You gotta give Deuce some credit there though. He makes a very good point. But according to this, stranger things have happened or at least as strange of things have happened," Caleb added pointing to some of the books that he had been looking into.

"I personally don't care to know about their sex lives," Kat said as she leaned back in her chair. "The only part this matters is how do we kill it?"

"Wendigos are killed using fire and black dogs are with silver bullets," Sam proudly stated.

"Are you a freakin' encyclopedia or something," Dean asked looking at his littler brother. "Sometimes I wonder how unearth you can have such a cool older brother and be such a little geek boy."

"Shut up, Dean! You're just mad because I actually keep up with my work that helps on the jobs unlike you," Sam replied shooting his brother a death glare.

"If you boys are done over there, I think we have more pressing issues at the moment. So what's the solution Reaves," Kat asked again hoping to get the information needed and avoid the boys getting into the usual brotherly fighting.

Caleb let out a long sigh. What at first seemed like a simple little side hunt had turned into a whole group outing that he knew would age him. "From what these say, silver bullets seem to do the trick. Even though it has some wendigo blood and all that other stuff, the majority of the inheritance seems to come from the black dog part."

"That's good then," Kat said as she stood and started to head for the stairs.

Dean watched her as she crossed the room and began to climb the stairs, "Why is that good? And where are you going? Chickening out of the hunt already?" He snickered at the last part and even harder when he felt one of her over shirts hit him.

Sam was really hoping that Kat would just kick his brother's ass and teach Dean a lesson, "Black dogs aren't the smartest things in the world. Wendigos are near perfect hunters."

Once again Dean just glared at his brother and shook his head, "Sometimes I really do wonder…"

"If you girls are done sitting around and chatting," Caleb said as he went to begin to pack for the hunt, "Then go and get some stuff together so we can head out and try to finish this up tonight."

After about an hour, all of them were ready to go with strictly what they needed for the hunt. It was early fall with a bit of cooler weather having just recently come in. The nights were starting to get cooler and it just so happened that they were leaving not too long after the sun had set. Although it would have been much easier for them to hunt during the day, the creature wouldn't be out till the night so it was easier to head out right away. Besides, there were four of them which was more than enough for one creature.

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