A/N:Okay, I admit Dean kind of got screwed in the last chapter but I had to show that Autumn and him were... whatever they are. It will prove important before I'm done. We'll finally get to focus more on Sam-man and Athena in this fic though YAY! Soooooo Yea. R&R guys, I love the response. Sarah

Chapter Two

Even though night had fallen hours ago the Resort was illuminated like the middle of the afternoon. Thirty-six rentable cabins stood in rows behind the main building, which housed a bar, the Raining family, the largest library of the Supernatural open 24/7 to the hunting community, and a constant stock of any weapon any hunter could ever need. There was a garage on the premise where at all hours you could find a man tucked under the hood of a car. Jen Raining could be found on the ranges after breakfast until time for dinner. Raining Cloud's Hunter's Resort was summer camp for hunters, many of which called it home.

Sam and Dean Winchester pulled their respective cars to a stop in front of the Daemons' cabin. The girls had offered repeatedly to pay for the house but Jen had refused them and finally signed the building over to the girls just for spite. The dwelling was a one story, two bedroom, one and half bath, with a small island kitchen and large sitting room plushly furnished, but it's most prized feature was the large fire place. On the front door a note had been taped up, Autumn tugged it down and kicked open the door. Someone had already been here, a fire was dying out. They dropped their bags on the floor right inside the door, John, the girls' rottweiler ran straight for the kitchen closet where his chow was stored.

"Sis?" Autumn looked from her beloved pooch to her sister.

"Yea, I'll feed him." Athena was too tired to argue. All day in a car wore you out more than it should be able to. There was something about sitting still doing nothing that just killed a person.

"Who's that from, Autty?" Sam asked stretching. Autumn opened the letter and grinned.

"Girls, and your not so secret travel buddies, I was here for a little while, started you a fire to warm the house up, could see my breath it was so cold when I got here. I'll put the keys back in Jen's desk and crash. You know where to find me. Your Crazy, Marc Lyming." she read.

"He calls himself your crazy?" Dean tossed another log on the fire and it jumped hungrily to life.

"Technically he is." Athena sat John's bowl down and came back into the living room.

"Okay, I'm gonna go shower and hit the sack. I'll see you guys tomorrow?" Autumn yawned and swung her bag to her shoulder.

"Night." the remaining three chimed. Autumn let her eyes linger on Dean a moment longer than the other's before heading into her and her sister's bedroom. The beds were the same standard beds of the resort, twin bunk beds.

"You guys okay?" Sam asked climbing into the top bunk, a while later.

"Dude! Watch the fly!" Dean covered his eyes exaggerating his pain. Sam blushed and quickly covered up. "Please, don't leave me alone with her again."

"Why?" Sam couldn't understand the sudden change, normally his brother couldn't wait to be left alone with a girl.

"I think I agreed to raise Kendra, Kelly, and Kayla." Sam chuckled listening to his brother shift uncomfortably in the bed below him.

"Seriously?" when Dean didn't answer Sam knew he was serious. "I thought we'd covered this, you and kids don't mix."

"I know, but she wants to get custody of the girls, and Billy-Jack can't raise them and his folks… they drove Autumn and Athena into hunting."

"So you agreed to raise them, with Autumn?" Sam asked wondering what else his brother had promised the girl.

"I think so. Not that that would be so bad, would it?" the hesitation in his brother's voice was unnerving. Nothing scared Dean Winchester. In the face of all danger he stood tall and laughed. He could and would do anything, except maybe fly.

"No, the girls liked you." Sam assured him. "Autumn, on the other hand…" he teased.

"Shut up." Dean's pillow smacked the ceiling just by his little brother's head.

"Hey!" the younger Winchester caught the pillow and decided to hold it hostage. "She tell you about the licking?"

"What?"

"Marc, they're tracker or whatever, he licks people. Instead of shaking your hand he'll lick you."

"I'll break his neck." Dean screwed his face up in the dark. "How do they get mixed up with these people?"

"The Rainings." Sam had managed to narrow down all of the Daemon's strange friends down to one common source, the Rainings. Who they'd met through his father, but that was a detail he was willing to over look.

"I don't like them." Dean reasoned.

"If they know a way to kill this demon I love them." Sam replied. The springs of the lower bunk squeaked in protest to Dean's readjusting.

"Don't you think Dad would have found a way if there was one?"

"Athena says Dad and Marc don't get along, probably the licking, and he's the only person who knows where Will is. Will has the books."

"Dad don't get along with a lot of people." Dean reminded his little brother punctuating with a yawn..

"A lot of people aren't Marc." Sam said adding his own yawn. It was just after midnight now, long past time for a little R'n'R.

It didn't take long before Dean's snore filled the room and Sam was tossing and turning in his bed. The bed wasn't uncomfortable, he'd slept in it several nights before as they'd stayed there a month before going after the werewolves. This had been the prime place for Autumn to settle back into the swing of things after being cooked alive trying to save her best friend from the fires of the Demon. Athena and Autumn had suggested coming back here when possible, it was a decent place to call home base. Sam couldn't deny it was nice to know that he had a guaranteed bed, the girls had gone into town their second day here and made copies of the cabin keys and presented them to each Dean and Sam, promising they'd always have a place to stay.

Time ticked on and Sam's mind refused to let him sleep. The minutes built into long drawn out hours which seemed to never end. Finally when he heard someone up adding wood to the fire he rolled off the bunk and tugged on a pair of jeans before going out to see who was up. Autumn sat on the couch the mini TV that sat of the coffee table was on but she was staring into the fire feet tucked under her and a teddy bear wrapped up in her arms. She looked so small and lost he had to wonder, again, what his brother had promised her.

"Hey." he said softly rounding the couch and sitting next to her. She looked up and nodded. "Can't sleep?"

"Yea, I'd just rather be up." she whispered with a touch of sarcasm. "Every time I close my eyes I'm either watching Rafael die, or I'm back in the fire. So I thought I'd come out here so I wouldn't keep Athena up."

"Want to talk about it?" he offered. Autumn repositioned herself to look at him. She stared at him until he wanted to hide.

"I'm not supposed to let this stuff get to me." she finally said. "I've been doing this for six, seven, years. I should bring it home anymore."

"Martha was your friend, that fire was home." he reminded her gently. The house that had burned to the ground had been her parents home, one of the few things they'd left her. "Rafael was a friend too. They're going to stick around a while."

"Did Jess? I mean did you keep reliving it in your dreams?" she was careful not to sound to eager to know. The fact that she didn't know meant Athena didn't tell her sister everything.

"Yea, but I lived it in my dreams before it happened too." she offered a weak smile.

"Your freaky mind thing."

"You know for a writer you're not very good with words." he teased.

"I write children's books, 'freaky mind thing' is cool to them. It allows a lot of room for what your mind powers are. You could be like Xavier and read minds and move stuff around, or you could be a future seer." she shrugged as if this were a matter that didn't deserve much thought. "It could be anything."

"What's that like?" he asked.

"What's what like?"

"Having a normal life right beside our freakdom?" she laughed.

"I used to do book tours. I quit though when I'd been out all night hunting a spirit then showed up at a book signing and kids were asking me about the books. It's so strange, you lead this one life that's a total secret, you get to be like a super hero. Then after your done saving the world you go back home and have to act like nothing happened, you have to create some lie to explain how you broke your arm without saying you were hit by your own car being driven by a ghost. It's a wonder more superheroes didn't unmask themselves." she explained.

"I tried the normal thing, doesn't work." Sam said. She shook her head.

"We aren't normal. Anyone who can hunt isn't normal, they've suffered something in their life that makes them freaks and outcasts. Now they're all destine to live on the outskirts of society killing things that should exist and protecting the very people who shun them." Autumn released her grip on the bear. "Don't try and be something your not." she said with finality sound very much like one of those sitcom mothers.

"Right. What's up with the bear?"

"Oh." she blushed and handed the teddy bear to Sam. "The first Christmas after they got married Dad bought him for Mom. She would put his cologne on the bear, when he'd go on hunting trips. That way it was like he was with her. Then after Athena was born I had to be a big girl. But I hated not having the option of crawling in bed with Mommy and Daddy any more, so they could protect me from the monsters. One night Athena was really fussy and I was terrified so Mom pulled the bear out and gave him to me. Said he'd protect me from everything. Thus we dubbed him Scare Bear. Because he could scare away all the monsters." Sam looked the bear over. He was brown, and large for a stuffed animal, though he'd been loved flat. His eyes had probably once been clear and smooth but now they were scratched and fogged over. You could easily tell his left arm had been sewn back on and he had several series of stitches up his back where someone had made the attempt to re-stuff him.

"Cute." he settled on the only word that could possibly sum up the story and the bear.

"Stupid, but he's home, and when I can't sleep it can be nice to have home with you." that was something he understood and suddenly found himself wishing he'd had a teddy bear or blanket or some memorable childhood safety toy. "So what'd you and Teenie do all day?"
"She told me about Marc." Autumn grinned.

"He's a strange little fellow isn't he?"

"Strange comes with the territory." Sam shrugged before twisting the TV around so he, too, could see it.

"They're on the couch." Athena said tugging on boots and coat. Dean wandered out of his and Sam's room rubbing the sleep out of his eyes.

"Where you headed?" he asked. Athena pushed back a mess of blonde hair and grinned.

"That's for me to know and you to stay here and not find out." she patted her thigh and instantly John was at her side tail wagging and anxious to get outdoors.

"You're in Garfield pajama's, snow boots, Sam's coat, you can't be going far." Athena stuck her tongue out before skipping out the door.

"You'll never know will you?" she teased.

Dean scurried to close the door behind the peppy blonde, she was letting the cold in. He smiled to himself remembering being scolded by his father to close motel doors, that he wasn't heating the outside. Sure enough on the couch curled under a single blanket and propped against each other were Sam and Autumn. He'd heard Sam leave early that morning but hadn't stayed awake for his brother's return. Figuring Sam was only answering the call of nature. Dean stoked the red coals before adding wood to fireplace.

In the kitchen the coffee maker was finishing it's work and the smell was enough to make him weak at the knees. The warm, delicious, brown liquid would make seven o'clock in the morning in the dead of winter seem a little less dreary. With the fire working its way back to life, he went to pour a cup of the precious elixir of life. Roused by the smell Sam and Autumn soon joined him in the kitchen, Autumn dragging along a ridiculous teddy bear, and Sam wrapped up in the blanket.

"Morning." he greeted them bother cheerily.

"If you say so." Autumn groaned searching for a clock.

"Didn't sleep well?" he asked.

"When I slept I slept fine, it was just getting there and staying there." Sam answered his brother. Autumn glared at the clock on the microwave as if it had declared seven should be so cold and early.

"How 'bout you Aut?" she turned her glare to him but it softened considerably.

"I drifted in and out." she yawned. "But, Marc and I will end up going for a long hike before the end of the day. I'll wear out and drop dead in bed tonight."

"It's ten below and you want to go hiking?" Sam was astonished by the very thought.

"A: It's not ten below its twenty-five degrees," Autumn said pointing to thermometer. "B: I spent all of yesterday in a car, and finally C: it's a tradition. We always go for a hike. Rain or shine." Sam shook his head.

"It's your death." he poured himself a cup of Joe before heading back to the living room and balling up on the floor in front of the fire like a dog.

"So, when are you planning on seeking Mr. Marc out?" Dean asked. Autumn got herself a mug of coffee and drowned in in milk.

"After I get dressed, and get a mandatory cup of coffee in me." she took a long drag from her mug and made a face. "Athena did it didn't she?" Dean too took a sip of the liquid and spit it into the sink immediately after.

"What did she do to it?" he asked dumping his cup down the drain.

"I don't know. She can't make coffee or pancakes." Autumn disposed of the offending brew and restarted the coffee maker. "Simple directions stump her. Even in school, cut and paste were worse than Algebra."

"You're joking." he watched her stretch arching her back and reaching for the sky. She smiled when she caught him and he looked away, eyes landing on the discarded teddy. "What's that?"

"A long boring story that usually helps me sleep." she regarded the bear for a moment. "You coming with me to meet Marc?"

"If you want." he snaked an arm around her waist pulling her closer. "I thought about you last night."

"Good thoughts, I hope." she looked up and their eyes lock.

"No, very bad thoughts. You were bad."

"Oh, I see." Autumn moaned. With another look in at his brother to make sure he wasn't watching, suddenly shy, he kissed her. She melted in to him almost instantly. They pulled apart only when the front door opened. "I'm going to go get dressed." she kissed him again, grabbed the bear and headed to her room. "Morning, Sis." she almost giggled passing by.