Please note – the information contained in this section is based upon my experience as a real estate legal assistant for in- house counsel in the state of Washington. In no way should the processes/procedures described here be considered legal advice.

Also – my thanks to those of you who have been reading this – to those of you who have reviewed thank you. Before I undertook this story I didn't truly understand what those reviews meant to a writer. Thank you as well to Sami and Rene who have beta'd this for me.

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They were giving her an out, or so they wanted her to believe. Help them now and tomorrow, no matter what they'd let her go. Melanie didn't buy it for a second. But the more she pretended helpfulness the better off she might be in the long run. It was perfectly clear to her now they were both way past crazy. "Something evil…could be a demon…" Sam's explanation rang in her head as she asked them what they wanted to know.

"Okay well we need to know what they'd all have in common like a bank they got a mortgage from or a real estate agent," Sam said.

"You could look at the deeds of trust, once they've been recorded they are sent back to someone. Most of the time it's the lien holder," Melanie answered. "The bank they got the mortgage from," she clarified off of Dean's confused look.

"Okay that's it, you ask the questions little brother, I'm going to get food," Dean said grabbing his jacket and keys he walked out the door. Without missing a beat she watched as Sam followed, locking the deadbolt as soon as the door shut behind Dean.

"What about a real estate agent?" Sam asked, walking back to the table and sitting in front of his laptop.

"Not unless they wanted the Deed sent back to them after recording and I've only ever seen that once. And that was when the property was paid for in cash, no lien," Melanie answered.

"Okay well let's start with the bank, maybe it'll be that easy," Sam said.

"Why a demon?" Melanie asked before she could stop herself. She looked over and caught Sam's eyes. From the second she met him those eyes made her believe everything he said. She had believed for a moment that he was a federal agent, that he wouldn't hurt her and that they'd let her go tomorrow. There was gentleness and truthfulness in his eyes that didn't belong on a psychotic mad man. Even when he held the gun on her it wasn't the gun as much as his eyes that had stopped her from fighting his brother. They had been oddly comforting.

"Why a demon what?" Sam asked her back. Melanie was going to tell him to never mind but found she wanted to know the answer.

"Why is the thing killing these people a demon, why not a ghost?"

"A ghost doesn't fit the pattern," Sam answered, his attention going to the papers in his hands. Melanie was suddenly sorry she asked but she was exhausted and couldn't keep her mouth and brain working in sync.

"The pattern? Ghosts have a pattern?" she asked once again losing the ability to censor herself.

Sam looked from the papers to Melanie. She quickly avoided his gaze refusing to get sucked into those damn brown eyes. She couldn't let herself forget for a second that this was a dangerous, probably delusional man and he was holding her hostage. Her only hope was the note that she'd left for Joe. She had talked to Mrs. Russo the day before about possibly going to see her new niece and spending the weekend with her brother and sister-in-law. Then Will had called to say that his in-laws were going to be there, to come the following weekend and Melanie had visions of doing nothing for a whole weekend. Melanie hadn't updated anyone on her new plans, she hadn't seen the need. The idea that someone would need to know where she was didn't even occur to her until Dean and Sam forced her to go with them. No one would know she was in trouble until Monday morning at earliest.

"Usually," he answered simply taking her from her thoughts.

"How do you know that?" she asked.

"It's kind of what we do. My brother and I."

"Kind of what you do? You kind of hunt for ghosts and demons?"

"It's complicated."

"Apparently," Melanie responded dryly as she stood up. Her body was stiff from being tense for the past several hours. Sam was still flipping through the documents. She walked over to the table and sat in the chair opposite him. "Here, let me have those," she said reaching out to take the pile from him. In for a penny, in for a pound, she thought.

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Sam stole glances at Melanie as they worked in silence. Melanie had taken all of the documents from him and began sorting them into piles. She appeared to be taking the part about finding a similarity seriously. Whether she took seriously what Sam and Dean had told her about finding a demon remained to be seen. Sam knew that it took most people time to wrap their heads around a revelation like that. Add to that the trauma of being kidnapped at gun point by two men and driven to a hotel in the middle of nowhere and it was a wonder she hadn't completely lost it. Yet.

Sam watched her unnoticed as she tried to figure out what pile the current document she was studying belonged in. She looked at once the epitome of someone who was beyond exhausted but was fighting against it as hard as she could. She needed something to eat and a few hours of sleep but Sam doubted she'd accept either. He remembered what that kind of exhaustion felt like. In the days after Jess had died the tediousness of driving in an old car with his estranged brother down forgotten highways nearly made him crazy. He couldn't sleep or eat and had never felt so numb and disconnected. If it hadn't been for Dean, Sam knew he'd be curled up in the fetal position drooling in a corner somewhere. Dean made it easy for him to finally just let go and have the breakdown that had been days in the making.

Melanie wasn't ready or maybe even able to let go. That took trust and she still saw them as a threat. To her, Sam and Dean were the bad guys and it was a position Sam hated to be in. Dean and he were protectors; Melanie should trust them, she should feel safe with them. She looked up at him and he quickly looked back to his laptop. Though the motel claimed to have wireless internet the connection was shaky and he'd had to log back on more than once.

"Okay, well I guess it was that easy," Melanie said breaking the silence. "They all had the same Notary at closing. I recognize the name, she works for an attorney in town. It's funny though, they do more probate law than anything."

"Really?" Sam replied. "So could the houses be part of an estate or something?"

"No, that would be quick claims. These are deeds of trust. They all got a mortgage from somewhere. Two of the deeds went back to Citibank and the others went to three different companies."

"So why would a probate attorney be involved in real estate?" Sam wondered out loud. To him the equation was almost solved. Probate equaled death might equal supernatural occurrences. But they had already determined that it wasn't a ghost. Then again, they'd been wrong before.

Dean's return with food interrupted Sam's thought process. "Did you get anything figured out?" he asked shutting and locking the door behind him.

"Melanie figured out that the home owners all used the same Notary when they closed on their houses, a Karen Gates," Sam replied as he stood up and began clearing the table for the bags that Dean had in his hand.

"So now we just need to figure out who else she notarized real estate documents for," Dean replied as he began to pull various paper wrapped items from the bags.

"I'm a step ahead of you. All Notaries have to keep a log of the people they notarize documents for. In our notary's case she has an online one," Sam responded. "Okay it looks like the last person she notarized real estate documents for was M. Lynch."

Melanie stood up suddenly and walked to the other side of the room.

"Melanie, is that you?" Sam asked but her back was to them. She didn't respond. One hand was on her hip and another was on top of her head. She seemed to be taking deep breaths. "Melanie?" Sam asked. "Mellie?" She turned around so fast she almost lost her balance.

"What?" she asked.

"Did this woman notarize documents at a closing for you?" Sam asked her. She shook her head.

"There is not a demon in my house, Sam," she said very slowly. It was the tone of someone exasperated, of someone who was coming very close to the end of their rope. She was back to being angry. And scared Sam noted. Though she'd said the words there was an undercurrent of uncertainty.

"Mela…" Sam started but she cut him off.

"Stop it," she yelled. Her tone made Dean stop eating and when there was food in front of Dean Winchester that took some doing. "There is not a demon in my house. There are no ghosts, no spirits, no bogey-man." Melanie paused and took in a breath to continue her tirade when Dean interrupted.

"Really?" Dean replied, his voice filled with trademark sarcasm. "Because you don't seem so sure of that." The breath that Melanie took in came out long and shaky, her hands clenching in fists at her sides.

"Don't you think that if these people were being murdered there'd be something in the papers? That someone would have noticed something? What the hell is going to be your explanation when they find me?" she asked matter of factly.

"Well since we're not planning on having anyone find you just yet it's not something I'm overly concerned with," Dean replied. Melanie didn't seem as alarmed by Dean's statement as she should have been. Sam had a feeling he knew why. He stood up and reached into his pocket and fingered the small post it note that Melanie had put on the front counter of her office as they had left. "Joe, call brother, N S or W, - ML" was printed in the scrawled handwriting of a person who was in a hurry and was scared. He pulled out the small piece of paper and looked down at it.

"You're really brave, Melanie," Sam said, "You're really smart too. Not a lot of people could think on their feet like this," he said handing the note off to his brother.

"Dude, what the hell is this?" Dean asked as he read the note. Sam ignored his brother and watched Melanie struggle not to react even as tears fell from her eyes. She knew exactly what Dean was holding in his hands.

"Joe doesn't have a brother, does he?" Sam asked her softly. "It's a code, for the office, if there's trouble and you can't let on, you tell Joe to call his brother. Am I right?" Melanie's answer was a sob, both hands going to her mouth as if to keep the betraying sound in. Sam walked up to her. "I heard you talking to Mrs. Russo yesterday. You talked about going to visit your brother and the new baby. So if you're not home, no one is going to be suspicious so you had to let someone know you were in trouble…" Sam was cut off when Melanie suddenly pushed her way past him and ran toward the small bathroom on the other side of the room. She slammed the door but the unmistakable sound of someone vomiting could be heard from the other side.

"Okay that's just nasty," Dean commented.

"Shut up, jerk," Sam said swiping the note back from Dean and putting it back into his pocket.

"Bitch," Dean replied.