AUTHOR'S NOTES: While I know this chapter is on the shorter side, I had several awesome ideas and I decided to put them all in this story.

Chapter 7

Dean was startled awake the next morning when someone banged on the roof of the Impala.

Not wanting to take part in the 'who's sleeping where' that had been going on with the Monroes, Dean had opted to simply sleep in his car.

Blinking away sleep, Dean turned to see Kelly Gibbs standing by the rear passenger's side window with a grin on her face.

"Rise and shine!" Kelly said brightly, as she watched Dean sit up and rub the back of his neck.

"I freakin' hate morning people," Dean grumbled as he slowly got out of the car and stretched to ease up the knots formed by sleeping in the Impala all night. When he turned to Kelly he noticed that her hair was in a braid and she wore blue slacks and a green long-sleeved shirt. "Nice outfit."

"Come on, Dean. Get dressed," Kelly said, still a bit too cheerful for Dean this early in the morning. "Got a case."

Dean started to grab his suit from the bag of clothes in the trunk but stopped when he saw Kelly leaning against the Impala staring at him. "Do you mind?"

"No, not at all," Kelly replied, shaking her head. "Go right ahead."

Moving to the other side of the car, Dean felt unusually self-conscious as he changed clothes. Once he'd laced up his shoes, he looked up just as Kelly tossed a badge at him. "What's this?" Dean asked, looking a bit confused.

"Your new ID," Kelly replied, leaning against the car and studying her new partner.

"I've already got FBI IDs," Dean protested, tossing the badge back at her.

Kelly laughed and shook her head. "Dean, you have got a lot to learn." When Dean shot her a look, she sighed. "You go into an NCIS crime scene with FBI identification and I promise you will set off a first-class pissing match and you will not like what happens after." Tossing the badge back at Dean, she got into the Impala's passenger seat and waited until Dean finally got in the car. "This is roomy," she said, appraisingly. Looking in the backseat, she added, "I can imagine you could fit two people back there quite easily."

Dean didn't say anything as he did his seatbelt and started the car. "So where are we going?"

"Langley Park," Kelly replied, putting on her own seatbelt. "Dead Marine found this morning by some joggers." As Dean headed down the road, she filled him in on what she'd been told by her father. "Guy was a bloody mess. Didn't say whether the heart was intact, though."

"Well, it's not a full moon so likely it's not a werewolf," Dean concluded. "Anything else?"

Kelly shrugged. "Dad didn't go too far into details. Oh, and before I forget…" Digging into her bag and pulled out a SIG Sauer P226 DAK handgun and two extra clips. Handing the gun to Dean she said, "Standard NCIS issue. Gun's registered to me."

"So what are you using?" Dean asked, not sure if he liked this. He liked using his own gun. He knew how the sights lines up on it and he knew how it felt in his hand. But on the flipside, he was in Washington, DC and any real fed would probably know by the gun he used whether he was legit or not.

"If I'm playing federal agent I go with the SIG," Kelly replied. "Personally, my favorite is Beretta cx-4 9mm." Looking over at Dean, she asked, "What about you? What's your weapon of choice?"

"Favorite gun is a nickel-plated Colt 1911 A1 .45 caliber semi-automatic," Dean said, thinking of the weapon he had tucked in the waistband of his pants. "Fires great, easy to lock and load, and looks great, too."

"Very nice," Kelly agreed with a smile.

xxxxx

When they got to the crime scene, Kelly grabbed her gear and got out of the car just as Dean opened his badge and looked at the name. "Whoa, whoa," he said, looking disgusted. "Jensen Ackles?" Turning to look at Kelly, he added, "Seriously?"

Kelly rolled her eyes as Dean got out of the car. "Look, Abby Scuito—NCIS's forensic scientist—made the ID and she's the one who picked the name, okay?"

"Do I look like a 'Jenson' to you?" Dean said, still not believing that he was stuck with such a goofy name.

"Actually, you look like a good roll and tumble in the backseat of your car here," Kelly replied with a suggestive wiggle of her eyebrows. When Dean glared at her, she smiled. "Hey, that name was my idea. Abby wanted to go with 'Jared Padalecki'."

"Let's just go," Dean grumbled, following Kelly to where NCIS was stationed around a young man lying on his back by some bushes.

Kelly dropped her gear by a tree and fished out a pair of gloves and tossed a larger pair to Dean. When a couple of the metro cops looked at her, she pulled out her badge and flipped it open. "Special Agent Kelly Gibbs." Pointing to Dean as she flashed the NCIS shield, she added, "My partner, Special Agent Jensen Ackles."

Once he'd done the badge-flashing, Dean pulled on the latex gloves and went over to the body.

"What do we got, Ducky?" Kelly asked, crouching down next to the medical examiner.

"Ahh, Kelly," Ducky said, giving her a quick glance before turning to the body. "Meet Private First Class Kevin Gibson. Poor boy was apparently mauled by something or other." Looking at Kelly and then at Dean who had joined them by the body, Ducky added, quietly, "I presume that's why Jethro called the two of you in on this?"

"Yeah," Kelly replied, distracted by something she saw in the chest cavity. Making sure no one was looking except for Ducky, she pulled out some sort of claw.

"What the hell has a claw like that?" Dean asked, looking at it. It wasn't like any kind of fang or claw he'd ever seen before.

"No way," Kelly said, quietly, as she studied it. Catching the looks from Ducky and Dean she started to reply but stopped when she saw Tony and Ziva coming over. "Later," she whispered before tucking the claw away in her pocket. Standing up, she started looking around the area while Ducky gave Tony and Ziva the preliminaries.

xx

After an hour of searching the surrounding area for EMF, sulfur, hex bags, or anything else out of the ordinary, Dean and Kelly ducked out and headed back to the Impala. Once back on the road, Kelly pulled out the claw they'd found at the crime scene. Dean glanced at the claw while he drove and after a few minutes, asked, "So what is it?"

Kelly shook her head as she held up the claw. "I can tell you what I think it is," she replied. "But it's not good news."

"Okay," Dean said, sounding a bit annoyed. "So what do you think ripped apart that body?"

"There's a monster in Greece that has claws like this," Kelly replied, putting the claw away. "It's called a lamia. Chews the hearts of the victims, chugs the blood."

"And you just happen to know about monsters from Greece?" Dean said, wondering where she'd heard about this thing.

"Oh, something similar popped up about 5 years ago," Kelly said, shrugging. "Bobby sent out a couple of books, hoping they could help identify the thing."

"Okay, so how do we gank it?" Dean wanted to know.

"No clue. Never got that far," Kelly said, shrugging.

"Okay, research time it is," Dean muttered as he headed towards the Monroe Diner.

x

Getting to the resteraunt, Dean and Kelly headed inside and found Sam and Stella sitting together in a booth in a corner of the diner.

"We've got a case?" Sam asked, noticing that Kelly was dressed up a bit nicer than usual and Dean was wearing his suit.

"Body ripped apart," Dean reported. "Kelly thinks it's a lamb—"

"Lamia," Kelly said, sitting down on Sam's side of the booth and looking at the diner menu.

"Never heard of one of those," Stella replied, frowning slightly. "Better call Bobby."

Dean and Sam exchanged looks before looking at Stella and Kelly.

"What?" Stella said, not looking bothered by Kelly sitting with her fiancé. Changing the subject, she said, "Oh, I did some research on my grandfather. Turns out he and a load of other hunters had some sort of gathering or something about 50 years ago."

"Gathering about what?" Dean wanted to know.

"That part's still sketchy," Sam replied as Heather came over.

"What can I get ya'll?" Stella's mother asked, as she came over to the table.

"Chef salad and a chocolate shake," Sam replied.

Stella looked at her mother and shrugged. "Meatloaf sandwich. Extra gravy and a lemonade. Thanks, Mom."

"Bacon cheeseburger with fries and a Mountain Dew, please," Kelly replied, closing the menu and handing it to Heather.

"Fried chicken plate with fries and a black coffee," Dean said, catching the raised eyebrow from Sam.

When Heather had left, Sam turned his attention to his brother. "You okay, Dean?"

"Fine, why?" Dean replied, wondering why Sam was looking at him like he was sick or something.

"Kelly gets a bacon cheeseburger and you're getting chicken?" Sam said, looking bemused. "That doesn't seem off to you?"

"Dude, have you tried the fried chicken here?" Dean said, the mere thought of the crispy chicken skin and juicy, tender meat making his mouth water. "I mean, it's like deep fried crack, man."

"It's all in what Mom calls the 'fry dust' that we coat the chicken pieces in before we fry it," Stella said, knowing what Dean meant. Even after so many years of eating her mother's fried chicken, she never got tired of it.

"Well, whatever it is, it's awesome stuff," Dean said, taking a sip from one of the glasses of water Heather had brought out. Setting his glass down, he added, "So… any idea how we gank this lamia?"