:(occ: i've just noticed that my character lauren has some resemblance to the character of lauren from the movie "the reaping", which was just shown here on pay-tv. honestly, i have not seen that movie when i started to write the story! sorry!)

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"Sam?" Lucy looked at him. "Sam!"

He must have been dreaming for a second, he thought. He did not remember entering the kitchen and moving towards the table in the middle of the room. But now he was there and Lucy was right in front of him.

"Sam? Can you help me?"

Sam shook his head as if to lose the numbness, then he smiled apologetically.

"I can't reach up there…" Lucy said and pointed at the high cupboard behind her. Sam nodded and moved over, then he let Lucy step past and point out the casserole she needed. He didn't dare to ask what she needed it for because he knew that he had scared her again with his weird behaviour just now.

When he handed her the casserole, he avoided eye-contact with her and Lucy stepped away as quickly as she had approached him to take it from his hands. Then she walked over to the fridge, nearly disappeared in it and rummaged around in the depths of the coldness until she appeared again with her arm full with food. Sam made out something that came close to a lamb chop, a net of green beans and a handful of red chillies. He reached out to lend her a helping hand but she walked right past him without noticing the offer. Sam tilted his head and kept standing right he was.

"Do you know the story where the woman kills her husband with a lamb chop and then eats it together with the policeman who comes to investigate? What a brilliant way of killing someone, eh?" Lucy said, barely hiding the irony in her voice.

Sam looked at her. "Yeah, I read that in school but I rather think it's bizarre…not brilliant. Do you learn such things at uni?"

Lucy shot him a reproachful glance. "No!" She paused for a moment. "It was the last story Lauren read in school…when she still went to school." The way Lucy sighed showed that she had meant to say that it had been the last story Lauren had read in school when they had still let her go to school. To some extent, he could understand that some parents didn't like the idea of a possessed and possibly dangerous child to attend school with their own children. But those parents and teachers only knew half of the story, if so much at all.

Lucy kept herself busy with preparing dinner, putting the meat into the oven, cutting and cooking the beans, frying the potatoes, everything without saying a single word. Sam felt a bit out of place and so he turned around and left the kitchen to sit in front of the living room window again. He sat down and let his head fall into his hands. He didn't know – and he didn't care – how long he remained in this position.

The knock on the door startled them all. Sam was the first to jump up and over to check who was there. It was Dean.

"Hmmm…smelling good!" was all he said when he stepped in. He took off his jacket and carelessly threw it down on the floor as he walked into the kitchen. Lucy stood in a defence position, a knife ready in her hand.

"Wow, no offence but you're not going to throw that, are you?"

He could almost see the tension falling away from her but the hand with the knife dropped only slowly.

"Ok, I've got good news and bad news!" he stated, walked past Lucy and the knife and opened the fridge to take out a can of soda.

"What?" Sam watched him carefully. "Bad news first!" he demanded.

Dean frowned. "Everybody knows that we're involved here. Even in the next town. Rumours spread fast."

Sam frowned as well. "And the good news?" Sam turned at the sound of Lucy turning away as if she had already heard enough. She went back into the kitchen and busied herself wit

"I got a new windshield!" Dean smiled broadly.

Sam groaned and fought down the urge to slap his brother. "That's the good news?"

"Yeah!" Dean still grinned. Then he pulled out of his pocket a small piece of paper. "And I got this!"

Sam stepped closer and snatched the paper from his brother's hand. From what he could tell, it was a piece of a police record on something that had to do with Lucy and Lauren. There were no names, but the address was clearly visible.

"Where did you get that from?" Sam asked quietly.

"It kind of fell out a police man's pocket…"

"Really…"

"Yes…I just grabbed it before it hit the ground…and left…I didn't even have the time to get something to eat." He sniffed the air. "Hmmm…that smells delicious. When can we eat?"

Both brothers turned at the clinking sound when Lucy dropped the spoon she had used to sample the sauce.

"You must have spent hours slaving over the stove…" Dean said approvingly with his mouth full of chilli-honey-lamb. Now they were all sitting around the table, keeping themselves busy with eating. None of them had said a word so far. Sam and Lucy avoided to look at each other with Lauren sitting between them. Dean watched them curiously while munching.

Lucy looked at him. "Well, it wasn't much work, honestly. Marinade it, put it into the oven, wait 4 to 5 hours, pull it out, cut it, serve it…that's it. Oh, and don't forget the potatoes…" Her voice had an edge to it Sam didn't like.

"And that's it?"

"Yeah, that's it…"

Dean raised both eyebrows. "That's it? Really?"

"Yeah!" Now Lucy didn't smile anymore.

Dean forked another piece of meat into his mouth and avoided eye contact with Lucy. Sometimes – that he knew – it was better to shut up. Of course, he knew how much work it must have been. He remembered his mother's thanksgiving cooking and how long it had taken her to prepare everything all by herself. He had been just a 4 year old boy then but he was sure that the cooking habits had not changed so much nowadays.

Except for the chewing noises, it was quiet in the house, almost peaceful. After a while, Dan noticed that even Lucy seemed to relax a little.

Suddenly, this peace was shattered by a stone smashing through a window. Sam caught Lauren when she jerked back in horror at the sound, her face a white twisted mask of fear. She clang to him as if she was drowning and Sam held her with all his might. Her tiny shivering form inside his embrace brought tears to his eyes and probably for the first time he realized how much both Lauren and Lucy had suffered.

Lucy still sat on her chair, one hand with a fork carrying a potato wedge hanging in midair between the plate and her mouth. She had stopped breathing at the sound of the window breaking and did not move at all.

Dean had pushed back his chair and run over to the broken living room window. He carefully scanned the surroundings but nobody was there.

"Fucking Casper Milquetoast!" he shouted to no one in particular but he felt a bit better afterwards.

Now another sound startled them. Lucy had finally dropped the fork onto the plate. She now sat there with her hands in her lap and Sam saw a tear form in the corner of her eyes. He gently put down Lauren, then he stepped closer to Lucy. Ever so softly, he put one hand onto her shoulder. Lucy shivered under his touch and raised one hand to put it on his. They remained like that for a moment or two, then suddenly Lucy jumped up and fell into his arms where he held her close. He buried his face in the warm curve of her neck as she pressed herself against him. The shivering got stronger and when Sam pushed Lucy away a little to look into her eyes, he saw that she was fighting the tears. And once their gazes locked, Lucy felt that she was losing that fight.