Okay, just one more chapter in the plans after this. As always, thanks to everyone following and those of you kind enough to review. Thanks to Brigid Tanner for proofing.

Chapter 33

The knock on the front door was not completely unexpected. As the only uninjured adult here, Bobby jumped up from their impromptu poker game to answer the door. A woman with thick glasses and dark hair burst into the apartment, followed by a girl who could be a clone.

"Where?" she demanded, standing in the middle of the den, a plastic bag dangling from one hand.

"Bathroom," Sam answered, motioning toward the hall. The woman rushed off, the girl close behind. They heard her knock and the bathroom door open. As they sat around the table listening intently, they could make out the sound of talking but nothing specific.

"Any ideas?" Bobby asked, searching their faces for clues. Both boys shook their heads, but he was sure Sam was holding back.

"So," Sam broke the silent tension, "I was thinking about the holidays. How about Thanksgiving here and Christmas at Bobby's?"

Dean's expression was almost comical. "Dude, if you expect me to cook a turkey…"

"They sell pre-cooked dinners, Dean. With all the sides and everything. What do you say, Bobby?" Sam stared at him.

Oh, so that's what the puppy dog look is, Bobby thought. No wonder Dean called it 'deadly.' He shared a look with Dean, who clearly thought this was a done deal. "Sounds good," he said, wondering what the hell was going on in that bathroom.

After what felt like an eternity, during which Sam actually beat both of them in a couple hands of poker, Karen blew into the kitchen.

"She's fine," she said. "I just had to explain a few things."

"What things?" Dean demanded, tapping his cards against the table.

Karen grinned, so it couldn't be that bad. "Your little girl is growing up."

Dean's hand froze. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"She got her first period!" Karen squealed. "And she called me!" The woman actually beamed about it. Had these boys tested her for possession yet? "Oh, Sam, I think this makes up for dinner. We can still take the girls bowling sometime, though. Well, it's late. Amy and I should be going." She looked back over her shoulder. "Amy!"

"In a minute!"

"Now!" Karen marched to the front door. She held it open, waiting impatiently. Amy ran through the apartment, darting out the door. "Bye! Call if you have any questions." She waved, shutting the door behind her.

Stunned, Bobby looked to Dean. How the hell were they supposed to react to that? Dean stared at the closed door for a long moment. Then he laid both hands flat on the table, staring down at the woodgrain between them. With a deep breath, Dean began to methodically beat his forehead against the table.

"Dean, you're going to start bleeding again," Sam put out a long arm to hold Dean back from the table. Sam received one of those nasty glares for his trouble. Directed at anyone else, Bobby was pretty sure a beating would follow it.

Following that venomous glare was Dean digging through his pockets and pulling out his bottle of loopy pills. He poured one out in his palm, then looked long and hard at each of them, like he wasn't sure if he should do this in front of them. Then he poured out two more.

"Here," Dean handed each of them one of those loopy pills, "you put it under your tongue, like this."

"What for?" Bobby asked.

"Gets into your bloodstream faster," Dean explained.

"Good." Bobby watched Sam pop the little pill under his tongue, felt his eyes growing wider at the sight. Okay, both these boys were far more stressed than he figured. Bobby handed the pill back, which Dean put away.

"So, Rae's birthday here, huh?" Bobby asked, trying to draw them back to reality. So they didn't know when that 'woman stuff' started? Neither did he. Honestly, how many guys did, anyway? Thirteen seemed really young for that, but he supposed that was part of the whole puberty package. That sucked.

Dean chuckled. Damn, those pills worked fast. "Haven't even thought about it yet. Sam?"

A goofy grin spread across Sam's face. "Bowling?"

Dean chuckled again. "No more loopy pills for you, dude."

The sound of a throat clearing drew their attention. They all turned to see Rae, looking very embarrassed. "I'm, uh, going to bed now."

"Nah." Dean waved it off. "Come show old Gramps how you can kick my ass in poker." He patted the empty chair next to him.

Her face reddened as she looked away.

"You know," Bobby gathered the cards, shuffling, "the worst beating I ever took in a game, not counting you boys' daddy, was from a woman named Joy Beth. Whew, she could handle those cards." He watched as she took her seat, still not looking up. "Want to deal?" He pushed the deck toward her.

She still did not look up, but she took the cards. With hands that betrayed the fact she had been handling cards at least since she was six, Rae dealt out the next hand. Bobby figured whatever embarrassment or insecurity plaguing her right now would be driven out by a few root beers and Dean letting her beat him at poker. As the evening turned into early morning, Bobby started to doubt the fact Dean was letting her beat him. He figured she actually could read her daddy well enough to know when Dean was bluffing. Considering neither he nor Sam could do that, it was almost frightening.

"Dean?" Sam asked, picking up his new hand, which he had no hope of winning. "Why didn't the werewolf get you? You know, when it had you pinned by the library?"

"Dude," Dean discarded two cards, "the werewolf never had me pinned. That was you."

"Dean." How could Sam put so much demand into one word? "If it wasn't the werewolf, then…"

"Elly," Dean said sharply, raising the bet by five M&Ms. "She's the reason Rae is safe and sound, too."

"How's that, Dean?" Bobby demanded. Was that boy actually claiming that a ghost saved a thirteen year old girl? And here he was, without his holy water beer. Bobby had to start taking his own beer with him when he visited.

Rae met Dean's raise. "All I know is, we were waiting for Uncle Sam and you, then suddenly I was flying through the air. Dad came charging after me, but he was thrown against the wall." She rolled her eyes. "Again. Really, Dad, you need a new occupation."

"Shut up." Dean laid his hand down. Full house. Rae grinned. Four of a kind. "I said, shut up," he repeated, watching her scoop up the M&Ms.

"So, Elly protected the both of you?" Sam leaned forward, head turning between the two. "Seriously?"

Dean cleared his throat, gathering up the cards. "Seriously. Now, are we playing poker or what?"

"Dean?" Bobby reached out, put his hand over the cards dean was trying to shuffle. "Did you find out what's keeping her here?"

Dean looked up, met his eyes. "The kids." He shrugged. "She loves the kids. Won't leave them."

"I like her. Wish my English teacher was more like her. Hard to believe they were best friends." Rae drummed her fingers slowly on the table, eyelids only half open.

"I can believe it." Bobby heard the words come out of his mouth. When the three Winchesters stared at him in disbelief, he shifted uncomfortably. "You gonna deal or wait until my ass falls asleep?"

-----------------

Bobby waited until Rae was sound asleep before slipping out. The sun threatened to rise soon, but somebody needed to go clean the blood up before that poor librarian came in Monday morning. Besides, he figured those boys needed some time to themselves. Things were changing pretty rapidly in their little family, and he figured if Dean was not handling it well then maybe Sam wasn't either. And he wanted a good look at this friendly ghost for himself.

He found the side door to the school unlocked, just like they left it. Bobby hefted his cleaning supplies with one hand and his bag of work supplies in the other. Sam offered to find a janitor's uniform for him, but he figured even if he was caught not many people would doubt his overalls. There were advantages to dressing this way.

Glad he thought to bring along Dean's shotgun as well, Bobby slowly made his way to the library where they found Dean. Yep, there were the blood streaks across the floor, but first things first.

From his pocket, Bobby drew out the summoning spell Sam found. From the bag, he took out the other ingredients he needed, including a few candles. Hello, Elly.

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A knock on the door woke him from a good, solid sleep. Dean dragged his eyelids open, rolling out of bed. Dressed in just a t-shirt and boxers, he answered the door. That was the good thing about being half-awake and living most of your life on the road, not embarrassing easily.

A woman stood just outside, folder in hand. Now what? "Yeah?"

"Mister Cooper? Would you be Dean or Samuel?" she asked, checking her file.

Dean leaned against the doorjamb, running a hand over his face. "Ozzy."

She frowned, eyes scanning her file. "I don't seem to have an Ozzy listed. Is that short for anything?"

"Osborne." Dean glared. It was way too early for this crap. A glance at her watch told him it was nearly nine in the morning. Okay, so it wouldn't feel so damned early if he hadn't been up all night getting the pants beat off him in poker by a thirteen year old girl.

"Oh." Her eyes snapped up to his. "You must be Dean, then. Your file says you can be sarcastic and caustic."

"My file?" He raised one eyebrow at her. "And you are?"

"Rose Brown," she held out a hand, "your new caseworker."

"What happened to Marty?" he asked, ignoring the hand.

"Suspended. We're not supposed to discuss our cases with family or friends. Coworkers are fine, though." The hand was still outstretched.

"You know, my brother keeps telling me you people are supposed to call first, make appointments. Why do you people keep just showing up here?" He lifted a hand, as though he wanted to shake her hand, then made a point of bypassing it to scratch his jaw.

She cleared her throat, dropping her hand. "You mean, you haven't had a single scheduled appointment?" Dean shook his head, glaring. "Well, that will have to go in my report. Mister James' suspension may become permanent."

Dean grimaced. "Oh, don't do that to Marty. He's not so bad."

"No?" Miss Brown had some nice eyes. He could work with that.

"He helped Rae call for help when they were being held. She said he even told her stories and tried to keep her calm." Dean shrugged. "Marty's okay."

"So…the estate won't be suing?" Miss Brown asked.

Dean shrugged again. "Not that I know of."

She smiled. "Well, my supervisor will be happy to hear that. Actually, I'm here about the emergency call last night, but I could come back another time. Perhaps when you're more appropriately dressed?"

Dean grinned. "Now, where's the fun in that?" When she blushed he decided that maybe this was a social worker he could deal with. He motioned for her to come inside. "So, are you people plugged in directly to the cops or what?"

She gave him a little smile. "Something like that. I am a little surprised you aren't all up yet."

Dean yawned, stretching. "Late night. After all that, we didn't exactly feel like going to bed." He winced when his shoulder made itself known. Damn, forgot about that.

"How is Rae? She wasn't harmed, I take it." Miss Brown opened her file again. She moved to sit on the couch until she noticed Bobby sleeping there.

"Kitchen." Dean led her to the table. "Rae's fine."

Miss Brown sighed. "You know, assuming all your claims are indeed true, your daughter should be in some type of therapy. We could arrange an appointment for you."

"She's already seeing someone," Dean replied, feeling a bit ruffled by this woman telling him what his family needed.

"She is?" Miss Brown flipped through her file again. "I don't have any notes on that. The name of her therapist?" Her pen was poised over a page in her file.

"Susan Smith. Nice lady. She seems to be helping." Dean's arms crossed tightly over his chest. "Not that we've been doing a bad job."

Miss Brown's head snapped up. "I never said that, Mister Cooper." Her pen tapped absently on the file. "Part of our job is to assist parents who are out of their depth, who don't understand what their children need. How long has Rae been seeing Doctor Smith? She is an excellent choice, by the way. Very highly recommended."

"Nice to know you approve." He heard his voice come out flat, not exactly what he wanted.

"How long?" she repeated.

"Just two visits so far." An annoying tapping noise filled the kitchen. Dean looked down to find his fingers making the noise. Clenching his hands into fists, Dean moved the offending digits into his lap.

"But there will be more?" Miss Brown pressed. Dean gave a curt nod, staring at her.

"Dean!" Sam hissed. "You didn't?"

Dean looked up. "Didn't what? What the hell are you talking about?" What was wrong with Sam?

Sam glared, throwing sharp looks at Miss Brown. Dean rolled his eyes. Oh. That.

"Miss Brown, this is my brother, Sam. Sam, this is Miss Brown. She's replacing Marty." He gave Sam a smug smile. Bastard deserved it. Like he would really bring a date here. Or go on a freaking date after last night? Well, okay, he might, but not so damned early, that's for sure. Come to think of it, when was the last time he had a date? Damn, Sam had more dates than he did these days. No wonder he was having those frigging panic attacks.

"Oh. Nice to meet you." Sam shook her hand before sitting next to Dean. His brother gave him one of those apologetic looks. Dean ignored it. This had to be worth something later. Sam was a help getting rid of the woman, though. When Sam started fussing over him, saying how he needed to get to bed because of the blood he lost last night, Dean felt like slugging his brother. But then he noticed the affect it had on Miss Brown. Her face dropped and she could not excuse herself fast enough.

"Okay," Dean admitted as Sam closed the door, "not bad." He pointed a finger at his brother. "But don't think this means I'm going right back to bed."

Sam smiled at him. "As long as you take it easy today, I won't say a word."

"But I might." Bobby sat up on the couch. "Took you boys long enough to get rid of that woman. Your daddy could have done it in half the time."

"Maybe so," Dean agreed, "but we're planning to stick around for a while."

"You get the school taken care of?" Sam asked.

"What?" Dean crossed the room in a few quick strides. "You went back there by yourself?" he demanded.

Bobby yawned, stretched and nodded. "Yup. Come on, Dean. I've been doing this since before you were born. Had to see this friendly spirit for myself."

"And?" Sam perched on the arm of the couch. "Is she friendly? Was she really looking out for Dean and Rae?"

"Looks like." Bobby leaned back. "Seems like Elly's pretty attached to Rae because Judy is so worried about her." Bobby shrugged. "She said when Rae panicked about the werewolf going after Dean, she protected Dean to calm Rae down. Then Dean had to convince her to let him go when the werewolf came after you. Something about Sam being Rae's mother?" Bobby stared at Dean, his face disapproving.

Dean shrugged. "Worked, didn't it? Besides, it's not like I was lying." Sam's cheeks went bright pink.

Bobby shook his head, watching Sam. "Don't know what I'm going to do about you two."

Dean grinned at that. "Not much you can do, Gramps."