thank you all again for the great reviews. i am doing my best with Kerri, let me know what you think of her so far. there is more to her then meets the eye :) enjoy the mystery.

D: same as before.

SOMETHING LOST

Chapter 8

"Still as grand as you remembered it?" Kerri asked, her eyes following Sam as he made his way into the kitchen. It had been so long, twelve years, but it seemed like they had only just said good bye. It was a sad reminder of what the three of them had really lost, the true price paid to the passage of time. One day had become two, and two became ten, and then, suddenly, instead of counting their absence in months she found herself counting it in years. So much had changed, so many memories either erased or left behind, so many paths left untaken, opportunities left unexplored. It all made the men before her almost unrecognizable. These were not the children they had been, they were something more, though still something less. They were hunters.

"Not quite." Sam answered sheepishly still walking slowly through the large kitchen and dinning room, the air around him thick with dust. If at all possible it seemed like the ghost of the house he once remembered, as though it were just the structure's spirit and nothing more. And he suddenly felt the dream like image of it falter. Nothing in this world is ever the way we see it in our minds, and this was a place that had existed in his mind for so long that it had somehow turned into something more then any reality could be. This was the place he had dreamed of, told Jessica of, longed for. And now, seeing it in person, taking in its failing state, just stole a little bit of its majesty away.

"Yeah well, stuff has a real problem living up to par in Sammy's world." Dean smirked from his seat at the dinning room table, his tired and sore body curling into itself as he wrapped his arms around his chest.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Nothing."

"No, spit it out."

"Dude, you thought this place was imaginary." Dean smiled, as he looked up into Sam's young face. He didn't think this was something he would ever let his baby brother live that down.

"So." Sam snapped loudly as he stared down his brother, sudden embarrassment flooding through him as he heard Kerri's light laughter.

"So, nothing is ever as good as we imagine it."

"Deep." Kerri deadpanned as she too lowered herself into a seat, three mugs of coffee and a plate of cookies occupying the tray in her hands. "I never knew you had it in you, Winchester."

"Oh, I'm a man of many talents." The older Winchester smiled as he helped himself to the snacks. "Sit down, Sam, you're making me nervous."

"Oh, sorry." Sam mumbled sarcastically as he too sat at the table, his eyes darting around the room nervously, the younger man trying to find something to look at besides the girl sitting across from him. In all truth there was a lot on his mind, a lot of questions he wanted answered, but he just wasn't sure he wanted to ask Kerri. After all, she was the one that had stolen his job, saved his brother, picked up the slack where he had failed, and now she was offering him cookies like it didn't matter.

"What's blowing up your skirt?" Dean asked, popping a fourth cookie into his already full mouth.

"Nothing."

"Bull."

"I was just thinking is all, can't a guy do that in peace."

"No, spill."

"It's just, I mean. How did you do it?" He asked finally looking into Kerri's eyes. He knew he looked like a confused preschooler asking someone why the sky was blue, but at that moment he really didn't care. He wanted and needed to know just how she had managed to get to Dean, so then he would be able to respond better the next time. Because, as much as he hated to admit it, as long as they hunted, there would always be a next time.

"There's a recipe on the back of the chocolate chip bag." She answered evenly a smile on her face. Yes, Sam thought, this poor girl had spent far too much time with Dean as a child.

"Not that. How did you find Dean. I couldn't."

"It wasn't me. Honestly, it was just luck."

"What?" Sam froze in his seat, eyes wide. That was definitely not what he was expecting to hear.

"But, Sam said you left a note." Dean asked quickly, his suprise mimicking his brother's perfectly.

"I did, but I didn't find you."

"Then who the hell did?" Dean asked, his voice rising.

"Michael and Annabel Rouse."

"Who the hell are they?"

"Hunters. I knew they were coming through the area and I asked them to check out the murders at the school. We thought it was just Jeremy's ghost, but it didn't add up. They were searching down a new lead when they found you, beat to hell in a cave." Kerri explained, eyes switching between Sam and Dean as she spoke. It was all just a lucky break, an instant in time when everyone's paths crossed just right. Anyone, anywhere else, and Dean would not have been sitting there before her, and at that moment she couldn't have been happier for small miracles.

"What do you mean they were searching something down?" Sam asked, leaning forward in his seat, coffee all but forgotten. Had he missed something? Had he somehow skimped out on the research, erroneously thought it was nothing more then a simple salt and burn? Sam didn't think he could live with himself if that was the case, if it was he who had put his brother's life in danger.

"Well, the murders only started again recently."

"Yeah." Sam interrupted, the need to know that he hadn't missed something glaring outweighing his need to be polite. "After an addition."

"That's what I thought too, but Annabel noticed something more."

"What?"

"All the kids were from the same family. I just thought it was a coincidence, you know. Small school, it didn't seem that odd for extended families all to be in the same area."

"But?"

"Well, Annabel dug a little farther, turns out all the kids who died were directly related to Marshal Wiseman."

"That kid that put him in the locker."

"No one ever proved it and he got off scott free."

"So Jeremy was getting his revenge on the family. Still a salt and burn."

"Yeah, except for one little girl's account. Her brother, Jeffrey Mazer was killed. She said she was going to meet up at his locker when she saw a large gray shadow disappear around the corner ahead of her. She was so terrified she stopped walking, but then when she went to the locker there was no sign of her brother."

"Jeremy should look like Jeremy."

"Exactly."

"And these people, they followed it to a cave?"

"It was an old mine, apparently a large part of it runs under the school."

"What do you think it is?"

"Well, the little girl described it as a tall gray shadow. She said it didn't really have a body, it looked more like long silvery gray hair morphing into a kind of gray black robe, thought it definitely looked like some kind of person."

"So, you think maybe the spirit of a miner or something?"

"No, it wouldn't attack your brother in the cemetery."

"Well, then, what?"

"I'm not sure, I needed to clarify some things with you first."

"Like what?"

"Did you finish burning the bones before or after Dean was taken?"

"After."

"Who through the match in?"

"Uh, I don't really remember. I guess Dean."

"Ok."

"Why?"

"I was leaning a few different ways, but now I think maybe it was a wraith."

"What the hell was a wraith doing there?"

"Well, in most lore they are like guardian angels, it was probably there protecting."

"Excuse me." Dean broke in, his voice breathy as he felt another wave of pain flood through his body, his eyes half closed as he leaned father back into the chair. "But it wasn't really doing a very good job."

"Well." Kerri answered, worried eyes falling on the hunter, taking in every inch of his appearance, her apprehension growing with each passing moment. "It wasn't protecting you. It was protecting Jeremy. It went after anything that hurt him. And, since you lit the match, it saw you as a threat."

"But then why leave him?" Sam asked quietly, he took looking over at his brother, fear and failure evident in his brown eyes.

"It probably thought he would die there, didn't see Michael and Annabel coming."

"And they just happened upon me?"

"Yeah." Kerri answered quietly as she looked down at her hands, waves of emotion crashing into her like tidal waves. She didn't know what she would have done had they not found him, what would have happened if she found out that Dean had died so close to her, that she had done nothing. "They didn't even know who you were, they just called me and said they found some guy in the gave, that you needed medical attention." She continued on in quiet defeat.

"Why not the hospital?" Sam began, still trying to get his reeling mind around everything that had happened, his brother's life had been in more danger then he had ever guessed. "Why you?"

"The weapons. They figured he was probably a hunter, thought I might know who he was. And I have the most medical training of anyone around here. So they brought him to the closest motel and I came to meet them."

"Why did you move him out here?"

"I patched him up as best I could, but then Michael and Annabel needed to move on. They saw the fire in the cemetery and figured someone beat them to the punch, and they didn't see any signs of anything in the cave. They were on their way to a much bigger job when I called them, so they kept going. We all just figured the job here was done. So I brought him closer to home."

"Why all the secrecy?"

"I really wasn't sure it was Dean the first time I saw him, it wasn't till I saw your name in his phone that I was certain. I guess, I don't know. I really wanted to see you both but it's been so long, I didn't know if you wanted to see me. So, I just left the door open."

Sam didn't know what to say, everything about the past few days just seemed too surreal, too out of place. He had lost his brother, found him hours away in a motel room, then had his forgotten past nearly force fed to him by an angry brother and mysterious girl. And his mind just couldn't process any of it. Kerri was strong, that much he could tell, but she also seemed broken, like even a soft breeze would bring her falling to the ground in pieces.

It was the same thing he had seen in Dean as of late, the same lost look, distant stare that he had adopted. It was as though everything in the world, all that was right or wrong, hinged on one moment, one choice, one answer. And Sam found himself wanting to fix them both, wanting to make their vacant looks of loss go away. He wanted to be there for the people that had always been there for him.

A soft whimper broke through the silence like shattering glass, both Sam and Kerri looking over to Dean. The older man was hunched far over in the chair, his forehead resting on the table as he wrapped his arms further around his now shaking body. Sam could hear his breath catching in his throat as he continued to curl up into himself, his strong frame beginning to rock slowly.

"Dean?" Sam asked tentatively, as he slowly made his way towards his brother, the older man not even flinching at the sound of his name. "Dean?"

"It hurts, Sam." Dean's voice was barely audible as he continued to lean against to table, all strength quickly leaving his body. Sam slowly and carefully pulled his brother back into the chair, his shaking hands flying up to cup Dean's face at the sight of him.

Large, deep, bloody gashes covered the side of his face from hairline to chin, while several burns had begun to redden and blister up and down his arms. The injuries were coming from nowhere, blossoming all over his body as Sam and Kerri quickly moved him to a small living room off the back of the kitchen. They laid him as gently as they could across the old sofa, blood seeping a new from his side as his eyes began to flutter wildly, sweat breaking out over his entire body.

"Dean. Dean can you hear me?"

"Sammy?"

"Yeah. Its gonna be ok."

"Has this happened before?" Kerri asked, already pulling back Dean's T-shirt and bandages, new bruises forming while she worked.

"Last night, but he was asleep. He had a dream about the cave and woke up with new bruises." Kerri's eyes never left Dean as she took in all of Sam's information, the bruising already subsiding across the hunter's body as she began to change the bandages.

"It'll be ok, Dean, we'll figure this out. " The young girl spoke clearly as she looked directly into Dean's glazed eyes, her soft demeanor immediately switching to one of calm control. And, for and instant Sam couldn't help but notice, it was the first time she had actually spoken Dean's name.