i want to say thank you all again for the wonderful reviews. i am so glad you like it. sorry it took a little longer to update but i wanted to get the next chapter of 'by the wayside' out first. i hope everyone is still enjoying the mystery. let me know :)

D: this is all just for fun.

SOMETHING LOST

Chapter 7

Sam stood stock still, his mind racing with the latest piece of their very twisted puzzle. This was obviously 'K' that much he was sure of, and his brother knew her, trusted her, and, if Sam didn't know any better, missed her. But who the hell was she? Sam couldn't remember for the life of him. Yes, he knew the house, and yes, he had often dreamt about it, wished that it had been real, but he had never remembered it having inhabitants, never remembered it with any life in it. But here, standing before him, concealed in a dark and dusty basement was its owner, a person that Sam was sure he should have known. Although, it didn't help that she was still covered in an over sized jacket and welder's mask, her features virtually nonexistent beneath her work attire.

"Well, I don't know about admiration, but you'll always have my sympathy." Dean smiled, though he had yet to approach the figure, choosing instead to wander through one of the work stations, surveying the equipment as he eyed the girl. Sam found his brother's behavior strange to say the least, almost as though he were afraid of something, as if one step closer would make the woman before them vanish, fall into the air like a mirage.

"After all my hard work, not even a cookie?"

"Well, maybe a cookie."

"I'll take a rain check, Winchester. I'm glad you're ok." The mystery girl answered, her back still to both boys as she finished up whatever she had been working on. "You know." She began after a few minutes her voice strangely muffled behind the heavy mask. "You didn't have to come hunt me down."

"Of course we did, Aniken."

"Sorry." She said sheepishly, pulling the heavy mask and hat from her head. Sam found himself even more taken back then he had been at the sound of the woman's voice. Truthfully, he had never really formulated an idea about who 'K' could be, his mind had been in far too many other places, the events of the previous week still gnawing at his heart.

He had thought that maybe 'K' was the man who had rented the motel room, or perhaps the woman that had been with him, but those thoughts all flew out the window the minute the real 'K' turned around. She was young and very pretty with dark red hair in a long ponytail, and not what the younger Winchester had been expecting at all. This was, after all, the person that had saved his brother, the person who had tracked down the older man, and rescued him from something so horrible that it was still plaguing his dreams. This was the person that had done what Sam himself could not. He had expected to find someone like his father; big, gruff, and strong, a hunter. But instead, he found a young woman, not even out of her twenties.

"Sam?" She asked in slight amazement, her voice sounding much younger and lighter now that she was free of the helmet. "My god you got tall."

"Yeah." Dean broke in, still keeping his distance, his body holding back while his mind struggled to pull forward. He had been waiting for this moment for so long, thought so much about the person before him, wished so much to speak to her just once more, laugh with her even if it was just over the phone. But it had been so many years, and there had been so many miles put between them that he didn't even think he would look into those piercing blue eyes again. And, now that he was here, he was afraid he may be dreaming. "I always knew I fed him too much."

"He wasn't really the eater, Mr. Garbage Can. As I remember you ate two buckets of mud on a dare."

"Ew, Dean, you what?"

"He double dared me, Sammy. No true man can step down from that."

"I don't think I have ever seen someone throw up so much in my life." K laughed as she moved closer to the two, Dean stepping away slightly. "Though, I have to say, you managed to sit all through dinner before hand. Your dad said you had to eat all the stew before you could be excused. Oh man, I think that was one of the best dinners ever."

"You're evil."

"Hey, I had to be able to keep up with the competition. and besides you had it coming."

"Yeah well, he was never the wiser."

"I still don't think knows about it."

Sam stood silently watching the exchange. He had no doubt what his brother had done, it just seemed like something Dean might do. Hell, Sam was sure that if he dared him right now he would probably repeat it, and he couldn't help but smile at the thought. Dean was laughing, a true, honest laugh, something Sam had not heard for a very long time. He could see his brother relaxing, warming to his old friend, the years that lay between them all but melting away in those few short minutes.

She was a good person, a fun person, that much Sam knew, he could just feel it. He searched his mind over and over again, taking in the woman before him, as he tried desperately to find a memory to match her.

"You're quiet over there, Sam." She began, her laughter dying down, blue eyes turned on him. She was a good height, though still nearly a foot shorter then himself, with the brightest set of eyes he had ever seen and a smile the was genuinely heart warming. And, though she looked fairly young, he figured she must be at least as old as his brother. But she was still a mystery to him, still a blank piece of paper. He could see her, but he didn't feel anything, didn't suddenly fall back into a warm memory, though every part of him wanted to. This was someone who had truly impacted his older brother's life, so much so that her memory never seemed to have faded, and Sam found himself wanting to know her, needing to remember her.

"He doesn't remember you." Dean cut in before Sam had to chance to answer, to even pretend that the girl before him meant something to him. He wanted to smack Dean for being so cruel about it. She obviously knew him, remembered him from when he was young, her smile never wavering as she looked at the brothers. She was something good, and he forgot her. And suddenly Dean's angry words came flying back to him.

'You're so quick to justify your own point of view, so determined to make your own choices seem like the right ones. Our lives weren't that bad, Sammy, we had good memories. But no, the only things you care about are the bad times, the mistakes, anything that makes your decision to run away seemed justified. Hell, you even forgot me for a few years, too. So don't sit there and say you're sorry when there's something here that I want, something I might be able to find. I've given up everything for this family, every choice I ever had was made for me. Why are you pretending you don't remember? So you can feel better about ignoring it all, feel better about leaving everything behind?"

Dean was right, he had pushed away everything good in his life, filled his mind with so many bad memories that he had all but erased the good. Someone had been there, something had been right, fun, refreshing, and he destroyed it, left it behind. And he had forced his brother too as well.

"Sorry." He mumbled feebly, looking away from her face. There was really nothing else he could say.

"It's ok, I seem to have that effect on people." She smiled after a moment, though the hurt was still evident in her eyes. She had obviously missed them just as much as Dean had missed her. "I'm Kerri."

A heavy silence fell between the three like sheets of ice, the large house shifting and moaning around them as they stood frozen in time. So much time had passed between them, so many choices made, different roads taken between then and now. They were all different, that much was for sure, the resulting fall out of childhood friends. A sudden and harsh reminder of what could have been and what had actually happened.

"Well, that killed the moment." Dean offered into the overbearing air, his voice louder then intended in the stuffy basement.

"Dean, you blurted out that I forgot her."

"And now the air is clean."

"Whatever, dude. Kerri, I really am sorry. I've been trying so hard to remember, but it's like hitting a brick wall."

"It's ok, Sam. I mean, how old were you the last time I saw you, twelve?"

"But I remember your house. Why not you?"

"You would." Dean mumbled from the corner, the older man still staying a good ten feet away from Kerri.

"Huh?"

"Sam, you loved this house. Every time we got within a few miles of it you would start jumping up and down in the car."

"Really?"

"Would I lie?"

"Yes."

"He's not lying. You used to bolt out of that car, I swear, I don't think I'd ever seen a kid run so fast in my life."

"Yup, straight out of the car, up the stairs, and into the library. You were a geek even then."

"Shut up." Sam smiled, punching his brother in the arm as they followed Kerri up the back steps and into the house, the interior just as memorable as the exterior had been. Though Sam couldn't help but notice how closed off and small it seemed, heavy doors blocking off the front of the house from the back.

He could remember the layout like he had drawn it himself, the large house having been divided into two sections. Most of the building had been a massive addition, taken on when the original owner 'hit it big.' The entire third floor and the front halves of the second and ground level had been added on in such a way that it nearly cut off the back half of the house completely. Sam could only assume that it had been made that way to keep servant quarters in the back while the family could move through the rest of the house freely.

He could remember all the different staircases and halls, all the different ways to move about the house without being seen or heard. He had decided once as a child that the house must have been built for hide and seek, the rooms set up so perfectly that Dean could never find him, no matter how hard he tried.

But now, now it was different. The front of the house was completely closed off, the doors looking as though they hadn't been open in years. Kerri had obviously been living in the back quarters, the rest of the house all but forgotten by the lone girl, and Sam couldn't help but wonder why she lived in such a big house all alone. But then, Sam thought, his faded memories growing stronger, she shouldn't be alone. Something was missing, something was lost. He could tell just by looking at her, her eyes showing a depth and understanding that he had never before witnessed. Something was different, something was wrong, and Sam could feel it deep down in his bones.