Hey guys, apologies for the delay in updating! I hope you're still enjoying the story and thank you again to all who reviewed the last chapter!

It took three days, but as soon as Kerry had been given the all-clear by the hospital, she wasted no time in getting dressed and leaving, desperate to get home to her comfortable bed and a decent shower. She had regained most of her strength but had large bruises across her throat that made her wince every time she looked in a reflective surface and saw them. Dean kept to his promise of never letting her out of his sight to the point that Kerry, though enjoying the attention, soon got to a point where it was too much.

"For heavens sake Dean! I'm having a shower!" she yelled on the third morning as he moved to follow her when she walked to the stairs.

Dean stopped and the look in his eyes made her smile.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to yell. I'm just going for a shower, I don't need you to follow me in there." She soothed.

Dean nodded but still followed her up the stairs and she watched as he moved to sit in the hallway, facing the bathroom door. She bit her cheek to stop herself from exploding but right at that moment she was wishing she had a gun in her hand to get him away from her. Deep down she was glad that he was at least paying her attention, but it was for a reason other than what she would have liked, and she found it wasn't very pleasant.

The next week passed slowly. Five days in, Kerry had finally had enough of her 'shadow' and had finally snapped, shoving a gun in Dean's chest and threatening to shoot him if he so much as glanced her way for the rest of their visit. She was back to full strength and Bobby found her out in the yard training the day the brothers aimed to leave. He watched her hitting the punch bag in front of her and his heart swelled with pride in the knowledge that his baby girl, though she'd been hurt bad before, was one tough cookie; and he found himself pitying anybody that wronged her as he knew she would never stop hunting them down until she'd gotten payback. He watched her for a few more seconds then called her when Dean came out and stood next to him.

"Kerry! I need you here!" he shouted.

Kerry paused as she was about to hit the bag and glanced up. She smiled and waved at the two men before pulling her headphones out and walking up to them, pushing her sweat dampened bangs off her face and greedily grasping and drinking the bottle of water Bobby held out to her. As she drank, she saw Dean holding a bag and raised an eyebrow.

"You guys off again?" she asked.

Dean nodded.

"Yeah. Wanna come along?" he asked.

Kerry almost choked on her drink. Two days ago he'd barely let her go to the toilet without being on guard and now he was offering for her to go on a hunt? Something didn't add up.

"Really. You've been all but mother henning me for almost a week now and suddenly you want me out on a hunt?" she asked, suspicion lacing her voice.

Dean winced at the jab but then smiled.

"Yeah. I can see you're back to full strength so you're coming with us. You are not leaving my sight once though, you hear me?"

Kerry smirked and jogged up to the house to prepare a bag. She saw Sam out of the corner of her eye and immediately could tell that he wasn't happy; but as she didn't know why she chose to shrug it off and head to her room. By the time she had packed and reached the car, Sam and Dean were having yet another argument, and Kerry sighed when she heard Sam say her name.

"Kerry is not well enough yet- she almost DIED Dean!" he yelled.

Kerry stepped up to the younger brother and poked him in the chest.

"I have my dad's blessing and I feel fine, Sam. I'm going, end of. Oh, and I'm calling shotgun."

She moved past him and threw her bag in the trunk before climbing into the passenger seat, giving them a look that clearly told them to hurry up. Sam frowned but slid into the backseat, while a grinning Dean jumped into his own seat. A few hours into the drive, a song came on that Kerry loved and she leaned forward, causing Dean to raise an eyebrow.

"What do you think you're doing?" he asked.

She rolled her eyes and simply turned the volume up further before sliding back in her seat and bobbing her head as ACDC's 'You shook me all night long' started to play.

It took them about twelve hours before they reached the town they were investigating and by the time they arrived, night had fallen. As Dean parked, he glanced at his brother and Kerry and smiled to see that they were both fast asleep.

"Awww, how sweet." he muttered.

Sam cracked one eye open and punched Dean before realising that they had stopped.

"We're here?"

"Nope. We're there."

Sam rolled his eyes and turned to look at Kerry, the same smile appearing on his face that Dean had as he saw how she was curled up against the seat, just like she used to as a child. He waited out in the car with her as Dean went in to register them, and when Dean came back, he moved to the boot to grab their bags. Dean moved to the passenger side of the car and opened the door, but Kerry didn't move. He found it amusing because if it wasn't him, Sam, John or Bobby, Kerry would have sliced his throat by now, but because her subconscious knew it was one of them, she slept straight through, and Dean knew from experience that the only thing that could wake her up now WAS a demon. He smiled and gently slid her out of the car before picking her up bridal style. Her head rolled slightly and instinctively, she rested her head against his chest and sighed deeply as she returned to her sleep.

Sam came back out to take the car and get some food, and Dean carried Kerry up to the room, placing her gently on one of the beds and taking her shoes off, letting her get some more sleep until they needed her input. When Sam came back half an hour later, Dean was sitting on the couch with a blanket pulled over himself, watching TV. Kerry had curled herself up again and was facing away from them, still asleep. He smiled, realising that the fact Dean was on the couch meant his brother was allowing him to have the other bed in the room.

"Hey, dean."

Dean looked up and caught the bottle of beer that Sam threw to him. He nodded his thanks and opened the bottle as Sam made his way over to the side and dumped the bag on it, grabbing his own bottle and having a drink from it. He then joined Dean on the couch and the two sat in companionable silence as they watched the TV. About an hour later, they were still watching a quiz show, and were arguing over one of the answers when Kerry woke.

"The capital of Florida is St Augustine, Dean!"

"I think you'll find it's Orlando, Sam!"

Kerry smiled warmly at the interaction, but couldn't resist jumping in.

"Actually, you're both wrong. The answer is Tallahassee."

They both looked over at Kerry, having not noticed her wake and she slid out of the bed and into the bathroom. While she was gone, they waited for the answer, and sure enough, they were both proven wrong as the answer came back as Tallahassee.

When she came back into the room, both brothers were getting ready for bed. Sam was already topless and about to lie down and when she looked at Dean, he too was shirtless and had just begun to unzip his jeans to pull them off. He glanced at Kerry out of the corner of his eye and winked at her, grinning as she turned away, a slight blush crossing her face. She slid back into bed, her back facing him and found herself slipping into a peaceful sleep that held pleasant dreams of Dean and his semi-nakedness.

The real work started the next day. As Dean strolled off to a bar, Kerry and Sam headed to the local library to do some research on what they were hunting. All they knew so far was that every ten years around the same date, a teenage girl would go missing, never to be seen again. After an hour of looking, Sam gave a triumphant grin and waved Kerry over to him.

"It's a ghost. See here- back in 1887, a young girl was killed and it turned out to be another girl that did it. The girl's mother had no idea who murdered her daughter and after 10 years of getting nowhere, on the anniversary of her daughter's death, she went crazy and killed seven girls, all to find who did it. The local townsfolk knew straight away it was her and they hunted her down and killed her on sight. Local legend says that if you stray too deep into the woods at night, her spirit will kill you, thinking you were the one who murdered her child."

Kerry nodded and patted Sam on the back.

"Awesome. Maybe it's true, only it only happens if you go into the wood on that particular day? In her mind, she still doesn't know who the murderer was, so of course she'll still be trying to find out. What was the date of her daughter's death?" she asked.

Sam ruffled through some papers and handed one sheet over to her. She glanced at the date and rolled her eyes; May 16th. Today was May 15th, and it was the right year for the ghost to strike. Mumbling, she flipped over her phone and called Dean.

"Hey, it's a ghost and the next victim is due to be killed tomorrow."

Dean sucked in a breath.

"Okay, so we need to find where. I need a shower to freshen up and will meet you guys at the library in an hour."

"No need. Sam's going to scope the local area and I'm heading back to the motel now to get some supplies, so I'll see you there."

She disconnected the call and said bye to Sam, thanking her lucky stars that the motel was only a 20 minute walk. Once she finally arrived at their room, she noticed the door was already open, but when she stepped inside, she froze.

Dean was back, but he wasn't alone. Kerry flicked the light on to see a shirtless Dean lying on the bed that she had been sleeping on the night before, his lips glued to those of a brunette. Kerry let out a small cry and before Dean could react, she ran back out of the motel, not caring that the weather had turned and rain was now crashing down on her. All she needed at that time was to escape from the image.

She found herself running blindly, not caring that she had no idea where she was going. Her hair was plastered to her face, her clothes starting to slow her down, but still she kept on running, ignoring the fact that her vision was blurring due to the force of the rain. Suddenly, she slipped down a small ravine and landed heavily onto her left leg, her ankle twisting beneath her. She yelled in pain and clutched at the joint when a noise from near her made her look up. Hoping it was another person to help, she opened her mouth to call out, but then her eyes widened as she realised what it actually was. A woman stood in front of her, but Kerry knew this was no ordinary woman. Her skin was too pale, her eyes too manic, to be human. The woman moved closer and Kerry scrambled to climb back up the ravine, but it was too late. A freezing cold force slammed into her and the last thing she registered as she fell unconscious was the buzzing of the phone in her pocket.