By the time they pulled up outside the motel Cara was already leaning against the hood of her car, looking seriously impatient. Dean sighed.
"You think we could just turn the car round now and take off before she notices us?" he said.
Sam smirked. "Sounds like a plan to me." he said, knowing as well as Dean did that was not gonna happen.
She looked up at the distinctive sound of the Impala's engine and watched as they pulled up alongside her.
Dean got out first, flashing her a slightly nervous smile. Whether she was just taking pity on him, or had calmed down a little on the drive, Cara gave a half smile in return. Sam got out as well and they both followed Dean into the motel room.
Once inside, all three of them stood there a little awkwardly for a moment. Dean cracked first.
"Ok, this is ridiculous – look Cara, I know this is a lot to take in but I swear to you we are not crazy. You saw what happened in that room and if you think about it, you know there's something not right with all these deaths linked to the competition." he said.
Sam's gaze flicked between Dean and Cara as they both waited for response. She sighed and sat down on the edge of the bed.
"I just.. This is insane. I mean, that stuff can't be real. But you're right, I know what I saw. And I do trust you, although don't let that go to your head." she said dryly.
Dean smirked. "Thanks, I think."
"So I'm assuming you've got questions." said Sam, leaning back against the table that was in front of the window.
Cara snorted. "Gee, what makes you think that?" she said and Sam shook his head. She really was scarily like Dean.
Although he wasn't gonna point that out to either of them right now.
"So?" said Dean, sitting down at the opposite end of the bed to Cara.
She thought about it for a moment, trying to work out what to ask first.
"Are your names really Dean and Sam?" she said finally and Sam nodded.
"Yes, although our surname's not Anderson it's Winchester." he said.
"Alright – and how long have you two been doing this kind of stuff?" Cara asked next.
Sam glanced at Dean, who nodded. "Well, pretty much since we could walk. Our Dad was in the same business and we grew up with it."
Cara raised her eyebrows. "You're kidding me? Okaaay, you guys must have had one interesting childhood."
"You could say that." said Dean a little sadly.
Sam quickly stepped in before Dean could get too immersed in painful memories.
"We've been researching all the deaths here over the last five years and they've all been men, all competitors, and all favourites to win. Now that's one hell of a coincidence, don't you think?" he asked Cara.
She sighed. "Well, when you put it like that. Do you have any idea who this 'spirit' could be?" she said and both Dean and Sam shook their heads.
"That's where we come up against a brick wall. There's no suspicious deaths, weird disappearances, or anything else around the time all this started. Sam's been researching the whole time we've been here and we've got nada. I don't suppose you know something we don't?" said Dean hopefully.
"I'm sure there's a lot I know you don't" said Cara with a smirk and Dean rolled his eyes. She held up her hand to stop him retorting and carried on speaking. "But related to this? Not that I can think of. I mean what usually causes.. this?" she said, unable to think of phrase for what was going on that didn't sound completely insane.
"It's usually the spirit of someone who met a violent death, or who feels they've got unfinished business. Sometimes they're after revenge. It can vary." said Sam.
"Well that's nice and vague. I take it what you guys do isn't really an exact science?" said Cara and Sam glanced at Dean with a grin.
"Not exactly, no." he said.
"We are pretty good at it though." said Dean and Cara shook her head.
"I'm sure you are. And yet so modest."
Sam chuckled at that, ducking to avoid the pillow Dean threw at his head. Cara just rolled her eyes but couldn't help grinning at their antics. There was something extremely entertaining about watching the two Winchester's interact.
Suddenly a thought occurred to her. "Oh my God!" she said and Dean looked at her.
"What?" he said and she glanced from him to Sam with wide eyes.
"I think I may know who it is! The spirit I mean." she said and Sam raised his eyebrows.
"Who?" he said and she swallowed before speaking.
"Well, there was this guy who used to help out. He was here as long as I can remember, which is about 7 years since I first got involved in the competition. He wasn't really employed there or anything, but he liked to help out. Shifting furniture, sweeping up, that sort of thing. He loved dancing and used to watch the people practising for hours. He couldn't dance himself as he'd had an accident as a child and broken his leg – it never reset properly. Anyway, most of the competitors used to be pretty mean to him. They either ignored him or treated him like a servant. He used to try and offer suggestions but they just used to laugh at him. Thing is, he knew what he was talking about. He did it to me once and what he said really made sense. That's how I got talking to him in the first place. We kinda got friendly in the end – I think he was thrilled to have someone actually talk to him and not treat him like something they'd just stepped in." she said sadly.
"And?" said Dean, never the most patient person in the world.
Cara glared briefly at him for the interruption before continuing. "And, he died. It was an accident, at the hall. See he'd stayed late one Friday night, watching the last of the practise sessions. No one was booked into the rooms until Sunday and they think he must have slipped and fallen down the stairs while he was locking up. He didn't die instantly but by the time someone found him, it was too late. The people who own the dance hall covered it up. He wasn't really employed, he helped out for free, and they were worried about getting hit for health & safety or negligence of some kind. The owner was friendly with the guy who runs the local paper so they left out the details of how he'd died and just said it was an accident. There was no mention of the hall or the competition at all. It was so sad – like they were trying to pretend he didn't even exist. I went to the funeral and there was only me and his mother there. None of the other entrants could be bothered to come, even though he'd done so much for them."
Dean glanced at Sam. "Well, it sounds to me like he'd have plenty of reason to be pissed off with the competition. And it also ties in with his habit of pushing people down the stairs. Was he buried here?" he said and Cara nodded.
"Yes, in the local cemetery." she said.
"Could you tell us his name?" said Sam and Cara looked at him with a frown.
"Why?" she said and Dean shifted a little awkwardly.
"Well, there's only one way to put a spirit to rest and that's to salt and burn their bones." he said.
Cara stared at him. "You're kidding me." she said and this time Sam answered.
"I'm afraid not. Look we're always careful to put things back as they were, but we've got no choice. He's killing people Cara, and if we don't do this he's gonna carry on. You saw what he's capable of." he said earnestly.
Cara bit her lip and thought about it for a moment. "Alright." she said reluctantly. "His name was Sean Jenkins. He's buried in the cemetery next to the main church, just on the outskirts of town. His mother moved away a few years after it happened, so I guess at least there's probably no one who would even notice if his grave gets a little disturbed.
"Perfect." said Dean, and both Cara and Sam looked at him aghast.
"What?" he said and Sam rolled his eyes. "Forgive my brother, he doesn't always engage his brain before he speaks." he said to Cara.
"Hey!" said Dean indignantly, but then he thought about what he'd just said and realised how it came across.
"Right. I didn't mean it was perfect for him that no one visited, I just meant at least we won't attract any unwanted attention." he said and Cara shook her head.
"It's ok, I knew what you meant. So when are you going to do it?" she said, not able to bring herself to say exactly what 'it' was.
"We'll have to wait till it gets dark, just to be on the safe side. We'll do it tonight, that way hopefully Sean won't have a chance to go after anyone else. No one's using the hall tonight, are they?" Sam said.
"No, Dean and I were the last to leave." said Cara and Dean nodded.
"Alright then. Listen, thanks for helping us out with the info there, Cara. We'd never have known about Sean's connection to the competition on our own, you've really helped us out." he said.
Cara was mortified to feel herself actually blush slightly at Dean's words and she saw from the slight smirk on his face that he'd noticed.
"Yeah well, you did put in a lot of hard work today so I guess we're even." she said and the smirk turned into a smile that actually made her blush even more. How was it she hadn't noticed until now that Dean was actually pretty damn cute?
Coughing to try and cover up her sudden embarrassment she frowned as a thought occurred to her.
"So once you've taken care of this, you'll be leaving town right?" she said. Dean instantly realised why she was asking and winced, feeling guilty. As much as he'd been against this gig since the beginning, he felt bad about the idea of letting Cara down for the competition.
He realised both Sam and Cara were waiting for him to answer the question.
"Well, ah, usually that's how it works yeah. But I feel kinda bad, leaving you in the lurch. And we did do all that work today." he said.
"So I guess we could stay one more day." said Sam, knowing already that Dean wasn't about to walk away from what he saw as his responsibility.
Dean glanced at Sam and then back at Cara. "Yeah, what he said. We'll stay until after the competition."
Cara's face lit up and before Dean could react she threw her arms round him and hugged him. He sat there slightly stunned, while Sam struggled to keep a straight face at Dean's shocked expression.
Cara pulled back and blushed even harder than she had before. "That's great. I mean, you know, as long as you want to. I don't want to force you into it. But if you do, that's great." she realised she was rambling like an idiot and mentally kicked herself.
Dean just gave a slightly embarrassed smile of his own and shrugged awkwardly. "It's fine. I mean might as well finish what we started right?" he said and Cara nodded enthusiastically.
"Right." she said.
A slightly uncomfortable silence descended and Cara stood abruptly.
"Well I should go. I'm sure you have – things to do. Don't forget we've got the room for a couple of hours tomorrow afternoon, for a final practise. We'll need to sort out your outfit as well." she said and Sam snorted before he could stop himself.
Dean glared at him and Sam tried to turn it into a cough and nearly ended up choking himself. Dean ignored the spluttering and spoke directly to Cara.
"That's fine with me. Just lets be clear on the fact that there is no way I am wearing anything that has ever been near any spandex or lycra in it's entire life. I'm not kidding." he said and Cara rolled her eyes.
"For crying out loud! Fine, we'll make sure it's something nice and manly – that do you?" she said and Dean grinned at her.
"That sounds perfect."
"We can stop by the shop on the way to the hall - lets just hope they've got something left at this short notice. Listen, I'll meet you at the dance hall at 2pm tomorrow ok?" she said.
"Sure. I'll be there." said Dean.
Cara nodded and went over to the door. She stopped and looked back at both of them.
"Good luck for tonight. And you know, be careful." she said. Sam smiled at her.
"We will be." he said and Dean nodded.
Satisfied, Cara left the room and gave a brief wave as she pulled out of the parking lot.
Sam closed the door and turned to look at Dean.
"Well, that could have been worse." he said and Dean shook his head.
"Yeah, at least she's not calling the cops or getting us committed. And we now know who the lucky guy is who's bones we get to barbecue later."
"Dean! That was a person, dude, you could show a little respect you know." said Sam and Dean raised his eyebrows.
"Hey, that 'person' tried to break my neck if you remember. I'm taking this one personally." he said.
"That's a good point. Maybe I should take care of the bones myself, it doesn't exactly take two of us." said Sam, frowning.
"Oh no, not a chance Sammy. I drop the match on this one myself. Although we know you'll be safe at least." said Dean.
"Why's that?" said Sam and Dean smirked.
"Cos he only goes after men."
"Hilarious Dean. You just wait till he's kicking your ass tonight and you want me to save you. I'm just gonna sit there and laugh." said Sam.
"Yeah, whatever." said Dean, both of them knowing there was as much chance of Sam not helping Dean when he was in trouble as there was of the Impala sprouting wings.
As it turned out things went relatively smoothly. Sean did make an appearance as they were digging up his grave, but Dean was able to hold him off while Sam quickly salted and burned the bones. Aside from slightly bruised pride when the spirit threw him into the grave briefly, Dean walked away unscathed, which Sam considered a minor miracle in itself.
Back at the motel Sam flicked through the channels on the tv while Dean showered. He looked up as Dean came out of the bathroom, muttering about still finding dirt in his ears.
"So did you really mean it about the competition?" he said and Dean glanced over at him.
"Yeah I meant it. It'd be pretty mean to just leave Cara in the lurch, this stuff means a lot to her. Besides, it's not like we're ever coming back here so no one will ever know about it. Right Sam?" he said emphatically.
Sam grinned. "So I should take back the 'Team Dean' t-shirts I had made with the picture of ballet shoes on them?" he said innocently.
"You're a riot – just remember I have plenty of embarrassing stories about you memorised, so don't make me start repeating them to everyone we meet." said Dean as he got into bed.
Sam just ignored the threat and turned off the tv. Lying down he reached out and switched off the lamp. It was quiet for a brief moment.
"Night then, Fred Astaire."
"You'd better be sleeping with one eye open, Sammy."
Author's note: So just one chapter to go.. This one was longer than expected but I promise we will get to the dance before the end! I hope everyone is still enjoying it and thanks so much for sticking with it despite it being a bit 'different'. That and the problems this site has been having for over a week now! 'rolls eyes'... :)