AUTHOR'S NOTES: I'm having a smidge of trouble thinking of the best way to blend this story with the RL episode 'Weekend at Bobby's' so I figured I'd post this while I try to figure out the next chapter.

Chapter Summary: Gibbs finds out more about Shannon's crossroads deal while Dean and Stella have a heart-to-heart.

Chapter 6

It had been a long time since 'My Little Pony' posters and hand-drawn pictures covered the walls of Kelly's bedroom.

As Gibbs walked into his daughter's bedroom, he looked at the old well-written-on maps tacked up on the walls next to pictures of murder victims and newspaper articles of supernatural deaths. Piles of old books on creatures and lore were scattered about and looking at one of the open volumes, Gibbs hesitated before picking up the book and reading the open page. After a minute or two he set the book down and went over to Kelly's desk, looking at the papers lying haphazard around the laptop computer. At the bottom of a pile, he found an old copy of the NCIS report on Shannon's death which was covered in Kelly's handwriting.

As Gibbs sat down on Kelly's bed to read the notes, he spotted an old journal poking out from under the papers on the desk. After grabbing the journal and report, Gibbs headed downstairs to the basement and turned on the light before pouring himself a shot of bourbon. After donning his reading glasses, he looked through the report, taking note of what Kelly had written. After a while, he set the report aside and after a moment of hesitation, opened the journal and started looking through it.

After reading only the first two pages, Gibbs gulped down his drink and poured himself another before rereading the pages again. Sighing as he removed his glasses, he rubbed the bridge of his nose. "Oh, Shannon," he muttered as he looked back at the journal. He knew that he shouldn't be reading Kelly's journal—she'd obviously kept it hidden for a reason—but at the same time Gibbs wanted to know everything. He knew the basics from what Kelly reluctantly shared with him but seeing that Shannon's death had been caused by actually making a deal with a demon…

He took a long swig of his bourbon and grabbed his reading glasses again. It was going to be a long night…

xxxxxxxx

Kelly had just pulled into her driveway that night when her cellphone rang. After parking her car, she pulled the phone out and answered, "Kelly."

"Hey, kid, it's Bobby," Bobby Singer replied.

"Hey, Bobby," Kelly said as she got out of the car. Leaning against the side, she asked, "Any luck on Crowley?"

"As a matter of fact," the older hunter replied, happily. "I just happen to know some dirt on the bastard."

Kelly straightened up, her expression eager. "What do you got?"

"Crowley's real name," Bobby replied. "And he had a son."

"Okay, but where is he?" Kelly asked, eagerly. "Bobby… I've been wanting to kill this son of a bitch for 8 years now." Pacing next to her car, she pulled the scrunchie out of her hair as she talked. "What else do we know?"

"Well, looks like he's probably down in a small area of Scotland," Bobby went on. "I've got a plan on how to find exactly where he's planted." After a pause, he added, "I know it's probably a stupid question but when we find him are you sure about…?"

"About killing him?" Kelly asked, leaning against the car. She felt a raw surge of emotion bubble up inside and she said, "The last thing I ever said to my mother was a promise to kill the demon she made that crossroads deal with." Closing her eyes and taking a deep breath, she went on. "I broke a lot of promises to my mom, Bobby. This will not be one of them."

"I figured as much," Bobby replied, understandingly. "I'll call you as soon as I've got a location pinned down."

"Thanks, Bobby," Kelly said before hanging up the phone. Once inside the house, she headed down to the basement where she found her father waiting for her. Looking at the workbench, she saw the old police report and her hunter's journal. When she looked up and met her father's gaze, she saw the deep-rooted pain in his eyes. Pulling up a sawhorse and having a seat, she looked at her father with a mixture of expectation and melancholy. "So… What do you want to know, Dad?"

Gibbs wasn't sure where to begin as he pulled up a seat as well. Looking over at the journal and the police report he finally replied, "Beginning's a good place to start."

"Okay," Kelly said, simply as she tried to think of how to start. "When I was in that coma when I was 8… Mom was desperate for any way to save me. And she made a deal with this demon named Crowley." Kelly licked her lips as she felt tears welling up in her eyes. "She didn't want me to die, Dad. Crowley gave her 10 years before…"

"Before ripping her apart?" Gibbs finished, looking over at the journal. "And what are hellhounds?"

Kelly ran both hands through her hair and said, "Hellhounds are demonic dogs, basically. They tear into a victim and… After the person's dead—if they made a deal—their soul… ends up in Hell."

Gibbs could have sworn his heart had stopped when Kelly said that and he wasn't quite sure how to reply. Shannon—the love of his life, the woman who gave him the daughter sitting before him—had been in Hell. The only thing that had kept him going while Kelly had been dead was the idea that Kelly and Shannon were together once more.

Kelly started to reach for her father's hand but stopped as she realized that there really was nothing she could say to make him feel better. Covering up the gesture, she reached for her journal and opened it to a page near the front of the book. "Before she died, Mom made me promise to find Crowley and kill him. That's why I became a hunter. I've been trying to get a bead on him but he's hard to track." Setting the journal aside for a moment, she said, "Dad, I never wanted you to find out about all this. The basics, sure. But knowing about Mom… This is my fight, Dad. Not yours."

"You should have told me, Kelly," Gibbs said, quietly.

"I know," Kelly said in a choked voice as tears started falling down her cheeks. Sniffling, she said, "I just didn't know how to tell you, Dad. I was afraid that…" She bit her lip and paused before going on. "I was afraid that you'd blame me for Mom's death."

"What?" Gibbs asked in disbelief. "How could you think—?"

"Mom made that deal because of me!" Kelly said, practically shouting. "If it hadn't been for the deal Mom would be alive!"

Gibbs stood and pulled Kelly into a hug. After a moment, he waited until she looked at him before he said, "Kelly, I thought I was going to lose you after the accident. When Shannon died… I would have done the same thing she did."

"Why?" Kelly asked, pulling away a bit. "Dad, you have no idea… about what happened to Mom down there…"

"Kelly, you are the most important thing in the world to me," Gibbs said, making sure Kelly was looking him in the eye as he spoke. "That's why Shannon did what she did. I don't blame you, Kelly."

After a few moments, Kelly threw her arms around Gibbs' neck and felt him hug her tightly as she cried into his shoulder.

Stella was typically an early riser but that morning she found herself dragging as she got up and dressed before heading downstairs for a quick cup of coffee. Thankfully, her uncle, Jonathan, lived above the shop and usually got up around 5 in the morning so at least there would be someone at the shop that morning.

Once she'd arrived at the auto shop, Stella looked over the list of cars in for maintenance or repair and decided to get to the simpler jobs first before getting to work on some of the more involved work.

x

It was nearing 1 in the afternoon when Dean headed into the Monroe Auto Shop to find Stella. As he passed the '66 Mustang she'd been working on when he'd first seen her, he resisted the urge to run a hand across the shining hood. Even if Stella wasn't a hunter anymore, he had the feeling she'd still be a formidable opponent.

Finding Stella leaning over the hood of an old station wagon, Dean waited until he was standing next to her before clearing his throat to announce himself.

Not having heard Dean sneaking up, Stella jumped when Dean cleared his throat, smacking her head against the raised hood of the car. "OW! God damnit!" Turning to Dean, she smacked him hard in the shoulder with her right hand as she rubbed her head with her left. "I swear to God if you or your friend Castiel does that to me one more time…!"

"Cass was here?" Dean asked, surprised. But after a moment, he remembered that the angel did tell him that he'd found about Sam's time in Hell from Stella.

"Yeah," Stella replied, turning back to the car. "And before you start jumping on me about hiding what happened to Sam from you—"

"No, I get it," Dean said, cutting her off. Leaning against the side of the station wagon, he went on. "I've been there."

Stella was still for a moment before she straightened up and looked at Dean. "I know. He talked about it when I was working on the Impala when we first met."

The slightly brooding look on Dean's face gave was to shock and dismay as he said, "You were working on my car?"

Stella couldn't help the laugh that escaped her and she gave Dean a warm smile. "Dean, relax. It was actually kind of funny, what happened." Seeing that Dean wasn't looking at the situation as humorous, she sighed, still smiling. "Sam came in, saying he thought there was something wrong with the car. Thought he heard a rattle. I asked him a bunch of standard questions-you know, location, what kind of rattle, intermittant or constant-and most of his answers consisted of basically 'I don't know'. Then I asked him if he knew what a car rattle sounded like."

Dean couldn't help but smile. Much as he loved Sam and even though he'd tried to teach his younger brother the ins and outs of the Impala's engine, he knew his brother wasn't a gearhead. "So what was it?" he asked, curious.

"Just needed a tune-up," Stella replied with a shrug. "But I also did the oil and fluids while I was working on it."

"What kind of oil?" Dean asked, something popping up in his mind. When he'd first driven the Impala after coming back from Hell he'd noticed that it had run smoother than he'd remembered.

Stella went over to some shelves and pulled a bottle of oil off and tossed it to Dean as she said, "My own blend. And I don't just drain the oil. I make sure to flush the system before I put the new oil in. I think it helps get more of the gunk out."

"Nice," Dean replied, looking at the oil before pulling his wallet out.

"Don't worry about it," Stella said, shaking her head as Dean started to pull out his money. "Consider it… making up for helping my uncle install that iPod jack." As she got back to work, she said, "Can I give you some advice, Dean?"

"Yeah, okay," Dean said with a careless shrug.

"You can have a family and be happy… or you can be a hunter. But really, you can never have both," Stella said, matter-of-factly.

"What are you talking about?" Dean asked, although he already felt like he was starting to find that out the hard way.

After finishing up her work, Stella straightened up again and looked Dean in the eye. "I know you love Sam. And believe me I love my family, too. But being a hunter is not a life. Once you get trapped in it, you're done because it's all you'll ever be."

"Kind of a grim outlook, isn't it?" Dean asked, although he couldn't exactly say that he disagreed.

Stella crossed her arms and leaned against the front of the car as she looked at Dean. "I've been handling weaponry since I was 7. Went on my first hunt when I was 10. For the longest time it was all I ever knew. Career Day at school sucked because I knew what I would end up doing when I grew up. It's not a choice in my family, Dean. My family has been hunters for centuries."

"You got out when your brother died," Dean argued. "That's got to count for something."

But Stella didn't agree. "For the first few weeks, everyone was cool with it. Mom figured I needed to deal with Tommy's death. Dad said I just needed a break to get my head back in the game. Kyle and Jeff said that I should start taking the family business more seriously. That I should use the down time to train more. Everyone figured it was just temporary." Lowering the hood on the station wagon, she finished up the paperwork on the car and printed out an invoice, tagging it with the customer's name before heading down to the next vehicle—a pick-up truck with an alignment problem on the struts.

"So you just walked away," Dean prompted as he followed Stella over to the other car.

"I'd had enough," Stella stated, simply. "I hated what being a hunter made me. No friendships… no relationships. I felt like I was… tied down by my family and… and until Tommy died I couldn't break away from them."

"Yeah," Dean muttered, distantly. "I know the feeling."

Stella nodded, knowing that Dean did truly understand. Once the truck was jacked up so that she could see the underneath clearly, she said, "That's why I'm telling you: Get out now. And once you do, don't let anyone pull you back in."