Chapter 5

September 27

Outskirts of Wisconsin

...

Dean and I were sitting in a diner looking at a bunch of newspapers for a job to do. Sam had gone to the bathroom and of course our waitress was a total slut.

"Dean," I whined. He glanced at me and saw me picking at my burn. He slapped my hand away. "It hurts."

"Well, it's gonna hurt for a while, woman." He said, going back to the newspapers. I leaned my head on his shoulder.

"It's been a really long time since we've had some time alone," I said, running my finger up and down is arm. "Can we send Sam on a solo investigation for an hour or so?"

Dean chuckled but I could tell he was getting a little sexually frustrated too.

"Maybe we should just tell him," he said. I shrugged.

"I feel bad. I don't want to be all in his face relationship-y when he just lost his girlfriend." I muttered. Dean sighed and nodded.

"Yeah, but I'd be surprised if he didn't already assume that something was up." I saw Sam coming back from the bathroom and I moved away from Dean a little. The waitress came by and bent over the table to clear our dishes, flashing her cleavage to Dean. I rolled my eyes.

"Can I get you anything else?" She asked him. Sam swooped into his seat across from us.

"Just the check," Sam told her briskly. The waitress nodded, a little disappointed, and left.

"What a slut," I said, sipping the ice at the bottom of my drink. Sam laughed.

"You know just because we're always on a hunt it doesn't mean you can't have fun every once in a while," Dean said to Sam, raising his eyebrows in a suggestive manner. Sam scrunched up his nose.

"No thanks," he said. "But you go on ahead. Rose and I can go hang out somewhere if you want to take the waitress to a motel for a little while."

I bristled at the thought of Dean taking the waitress anywhere.

"No," I said. Dean and Sam turned to me. Dean was smirking but Sam just had an eyebrow raised. "She's probably infested with fleas. We don't need Dean to catch anything while we're on a job."

"Right," Sam said, watching me.

"Aw, its okay Rosie. I'm always safe." Dean said. I glared at him and he quickly changed the subject. "Anyway, I think I found us something."

"Oh yeah?" Sam asked.

"Lake Manitoc, Wisconsin; Sophie Carlton, 18, walks into the lake but doesn't walk out. It's the 3rd drowning this year, none of the bodies were found. Her family just had a funeral for her. They buried an empty coffin." Dean said, reading the obituary in the newspaper.

"Wait, they buried an empty coffin? Why would they do that?" Sam asked.

"I don't know," I said, "maybe for some type of closure."

"What closure?" Sam asked. He was getting in one of his moods again. "People don't just disappear, people stop looking for them."

Dean and I glanced at each other.

"There something you want to say?" Dean asked.

"Yeah, our trail for dad is getting colder every day." Sam said.

"What are we supposed to do Sam?" I asked. "We can't exactly put up missing posters for him."

"I don't know," he said.

"Look Sammy, Rose and I have been the ones who have spent the past four years with him. We always checked in, we always made sure we were all right. Most of the time we knew where he was and what he was doing and vice versa. All that time you were off to college, going to pep rallies and taking classes." Dean said. "We're going to find him, but until we do we're gonna kill everything evil that we come across."

"Okay," Sam said, more humble. "Sorry."

Dean put some money down on the table and stood up, looking between Sam and I.

"Something wrong, Rose?" Dean asked when I didn't stand up after him. I shrugged.

"I just didn't think there were pep rallies in college," I told him. He stared at me with the look that clearly told me he thought I was insane talking again.

"Does it matter?" He asked. I bit my lip in thought before scooting my way out of the booth.

"No, I guess not."

...

Later

Lake Manitoc, Wisconsin

The drive to Lake Manitoc was a very long awkward silence. For most of the time I spent sitting in the backseat, missing any physical contact with Dean. I knew it wasn't a good idea that we were lying to Sam about us being together but I felt horrible about bringing it up now. How would that go?

"Oh, hey Sam. We just wanted to let you know that we've been together basically since you left. We're in love and we know that you just lost your girlfriend but we needed you to know. Now we're going to be all couple-y in front of you. I hope you don't mind."

I'm sure he wouldn't freak out and be all 'Oh my holy shotgun shells, I can't believe you'd betray me by doing the nasty, nasty with my brother for all these years when I was away at college' but I didn't think he'd be all 'Oh my heavenly E.M.F. reader, I'm so deliriously happy that you have become a part of my brother spiritually and sexually that I'm going to plan your shotgun wedding right here, right now'.

Yeah, for some reason I highly doubted that the conversation would play out like that, but those are the things that I end up thinking when I'm sitting alone in the backseat for hours on end. I'm sure Sam wouldn't freak out and it's not like Dean and I acted like a normal couple 24/7 anyway. But, I really missed the simple things like holding his hand or sitting so close to each other that you'd think we were conjoined together. Not to mention I really missed the sex. The mind blowing, toe curling, hot, sweaty sex. We hadn't gotten that physical since before we broke into Sam's apartment at Stanford. But I digress…

We parked right by the lake in front of the house that Sophie Carlton's family lived in.

"Who are we gonna be today?" I asked, leaning up on the front seat between the two. Dean pulled the box out of the glove compartment and started sifting through the badges.

"How about Wildlife Service?" Dean asked. He handed me my badge before grabbing his own. Sam still needed his own set.

We got out of the car and I noticed a man sitting at the end of the dock on the lake. He was just staring out at the water and I wondered if that was Sophie's dad. I followed Dean and Sam up to the house and Dean knocked on the door. A boy who seemed a little younger than I was opened the door.

"I'm Agent Ford," Dean said, "these are my partners, Agents Hamill and Agent Bloom."

He motioned to Sam and me respectively.

"We're from the Wildlife Service. Are you Will Carlton?" I said.

"Yeah," he said. I motioned behind me for him to come outside with us.

"You think we can talk to you for a bit. We'd like to ask some questions about your sister's death." I said. He nodded and we walked closer to the lake.

"Can you tell us what happened?" Sam asked. Will nodded and looked out at the lake. I noticed his dad on the dock behind him. He was still staring at the water.

"She was about 100 yards out," he said, "that's where she got dragged down."

"And you're sure she didn't drown?" Dean asked. Will scoffed lightly.

"She was a varsity swimmer. She grew up on that lake. She was just as safe out there as she was in our own bathtub." He said.

"So there was no splashing? No distress?" Sam asked.

"No, that's what I'm telling you." Will said, sounding a little distressed himself.

"Did you happen to see any shadows in the water? Maybe a dark shape breach the surface?" I asked him.

"No?" He stared at me like I was crazy. "Why? What do you think is out there?"

"We'll let you know as soon as we find out," Dean said, turning to leave. Sam and I stayed put.

"What about your father?" Sam asked. "Maybe he saw something."

"Look, if you don't mind, he didn't see anything and he's been through a lot." Will said.

"We understand," I told him. "We'll keep in touch, thank you for your time. I'm sorry for your loss."

Will nodded and went back inside his house. I turned to look back at his father still staring at the water.

I turned and saw Sam and Dean getting back into the car. I sighed and followed. I had a feeling that Will's father knew a little bit more about what was going on.

"Where to now?" I asked.

"We are going to the sheriff's," Dean said pulling away from the house.

...

"I don't get it, why does the Wildlife Service care about an accidental drowning?" The sheriff asked as soon as we arrived at his office.

"Will said he saw something grab his sister and pull her under," Sam said. The two of us took the seats in front of the sheriff's desk and Dean took his usual place behind my chair. He grabbed the back of my chair and I could feel him brushing his finger lightly against my back. It sent warmth through my body. That had been the most intimate contact we'd had in a while.

"Like what?" The sheriff asked. "There are no indigenous carnivores in the lake. It sure as hell wasn't the Loch Ness Monster."

"Well, that's because this isn't Loch Ness," I muttered. Dean poked my back but the sheriff continued talking as if he hadn't heard me.

"We dragged that entire lake multiple times. We even ran a sonar sweep. There is nothing down there." He said.

"That's weird though," Dean said, leaning forward a little. "I mean, that's the 3rd missing body this year."

"I know. This is my town, my people. These are people I care about." The sheriff sighed and leaned back in his chair. "Anyway, all this won't be a problem much longer."

"And why would that be?" I asked.

"Well, the dam of course," he said.

"Of course, the dam." Dean said. Sam and I glanced at each other. "Sprung a leak."

"It's falling apart," He said, glancing between the three of us. "The feds won't give us the grant to repair it so they've opened the spillway. In another six months or so there won't be much of a lake. Not much of a town either. But since you're Federal Wildlife, you knew that all ready."

"Exactly," Dean said with an almost convincing smile.

We all turned when we heard a knock on the door. A girl who looked a few years older than I did was standing in the doorway.

"Sorry, I can come back later," She said. The sheriff stood and ushered her in.

"Agents, this is my daughter." He said. Dean shook her hand.

"It's a pleasure to meet you, I'm Dean." She smiled at him and wouldn't look away. I stood up and cleared my throat.

"I'm Rose and this is Sam," I said, motioning to him. She smiled at us too.

"I'm Andrea Bar." She said, looking back at Dean. "Hi."

"Hi," Dean replied. I bit my tongue and held back from rolling my eyes. This is what happened when you have an extremely attractive boyfriend. It happens, I knew that, but it didn't mean that I liked it. At all.

"They're from the Wildlife Service about the lake," her dad said. A boy came into the room and walked around Andrea. He shyly looked up at us.

"Hey," Dean said, "What's your name?"

The boy walked away without acknowledging him and I almost laughed. Andrea smiled apologetically and followed after him.

"His name is Lucas," the sheriff said.

"Is he okay?" I asked.

"He's been through a lot. We all have." He sighed before changing the subject. "If there's anything else I can do for you, please let me know."

He started to show us out of his office and I saw Andrea and Lucas waiting outside for her dad.

"Well, now that you mentioned it, could you point us in the direction of a reasonably priced hotel?" Dean asked, looking between the sheriff and Andrea.

"There's the Lakefront motel." She said, directing us where it was, basically right down the street.

"Right," Dean said, looking around. "Would you mind showing us?"

Andrea laughed and I narrowed my eyes at him. The place was within walking distance, so why did he need her to show us?

"You want me to walk you two blocks?" She asked. Dean smiled. I figured he wanted to get information out of her.

"If it's not too much trouble." He said. Andrea glanced between Sam and me and Dean before nodding.

"I'm headed that way anyway." She turned and said something to her dad before turning to Lucas. "We'll go to the park later, okay sweetie?"

"So," Dean said, walking quickly past Sam and me to catch up with Andrea. "Cute kid."

"Thanks," Andrea said, walking as fast as she could it seemed. I crossed my arms and tried not to pout, but Dean's behavior wasn't helping how I was feeling at all.

"Kids are the best, huh?" He asked. Andrea didn't answer him but stopped when we were in front of the motel.

"There you are. Like I said, two blocks," She said.

"Thanks," Sam said. She nodded and turned back to Dean.

"Must be hard with your sense of direction, never being able to find your way to a decent pickup line." She started to walk away and I glared at the back of her head. "Enjoy your stay."

"Kids are the best?" Sam asked skeptically. "You don't even like kids."

I felt a little upset when he said that. Dean and I had been together for this long and it didn't seem like we'd ever have more than driving around and hunting ghosts. Would we ever get married? If he didn't like kids did that mean we wouldn't ever have any? Would we be able to have kids if we were always on the road, anyway? It was hard to be away from Dean for any long period of time so I wouldn't be able to stand raising a kid on my own in one place while Dean dropped by when he had the chance.

I felt a horrible wave of depression and I walked ahead of the two into the motel front desk, hearing Dean's exclaim of loving kids. They continued to nag each other before I heard them follow.

I got us a room and turned to see them standing a few feet away from me so I made my way to our room. As soon as I unlocked the door I plopped face down on one of the beds. Sam left to get our bags and I felt Dean sit down next to me.

"Are you okay?" He asked. I sighed and moved my head to the side so I could speak. I kept my eyes closed.

"I don't appreciate all the flirting with girls," I told him.

"What?" He asked. I opened my eyes and glared at him.

"I know Sam doesn't know we're together, but that doesn't mean I'm invisible and you're suddenly allowed to openly flirt with other women."

"I didn't do it on purpose," he said softly. He sighed and ran his hand through my hair. "I'm sorry."

"I miss you," I said. He frowned and leaned down to kiss me. As soon as his lips were about to reach mine, Sam pushed the door open. I shrieked and rolled away from Dean and onto the floor.

"Uh, you okay?" Sam asked, watching me on the floor. I sat up on my arms a bit.

Tears started to form in my eyes and I felt my throat constrict. I couldn't believe the wave of emotions I was going through but I was going to blame it on my time of the month. I seriously needed to consider taking that birth control where you only have three periods a year. Or maybe I could just have my uterus removed since I wasn't ever going to have kids.

I sniffled as an onslaught of tears erupted and fell down my cheeks and I quickly stood and went to lock myself in the bathroom. I turned on the shower so they wouldn't hear me crying but I had done this so much in the past that I knew they knew what was going on.

"So she still does the bathroom thing?" I heard Sam, confirming my thoughts. There was a knock on the door.

"Rosie?" Dean called. I swore to myself. He probably thought I was upset because of him. Well, I guess I was but not really. I wiped my eyes and cleared my throat.

"I'll be out in a second," I called back.

"What's wrong with her?" Sam asked.

"I really don't have a clue." Dean said, still outside the door. He knocked again. "What's going on with you?"

I sighed and reached forward to unlock the door, hoping he'd get the point. A second later he was slipping through the door and locking it behind him. He stepped forward and wrapped his arms around me, kissing the top of my head.

"I'm sorry, Rosie." He said quietly so Sam wouldn't hear us. "I didn't know it was that bad."

"I just miss you so much," I said, crying into his chest. His arms tightened around me.

"I know," He whispered. "Are you sure you don't want to just tell Sam? He won't mind. I promise."

"I'm sure," I told him. He nodded and pulled away just a bit so he could look at me.

"Are you sure that's it?" He asked. "There's nothing else bothering you?"

I didn't want to tell him about the marriage/kids thing yet. Probably not ever. It would just scare him away and he'd bring up everything I already knew. I knew this was the most commitment I'd ever get out of him and it was good enough for me. I mean, I'd like to have all that other stuff but I knew it was too unlikely in our lifestyle. And I knew that Dean was worth everything that I couldn't have. At least I thought he was.

I shook my head and tried to smile for him. I knew the smile wasn't very reassuring but he nodded and wiped my eyes for me. He kissed me gently and rested his hands on my hips. I reached up to wrap my arms around his neck.

We jumped apart when there was a knock on the door.

"Are you guys okay in there?" Sam asked.

"Yeah," Dean said, clearing his throat. He looked down at me. "You ready to go back out?"

I turned towards the mirror and splashed cool water on my face and used my fingers to brush my hair back into a ponytail. I nodded and we went back out to the room. Sam was sitting on his bed looking at his laptop. He looked up at us as we came out and he smiled softly at me.

"You okay?" He asked. I sniffed and nodded, sitting down on the other bed. Dean sat down near me.

"So there were the three drowning victims this year." Sam said.

"Any before that?" Dean asked.

"Yeah, six more spread out over the past 35 years. None of those bodies were ever recovered either. If there's something out there, it's picking up its pace."

"So what, we got a lake monster on a binge?" Dean asked. Sam licked his lips and sat up a bit.

"This whole lake monster thing bugs me." Sam said.

"Why?" I asked.

"Well, Loch Ness, Lake Champlain – there are hundreds of eyewitness accounts. We've got nothing like that here." Sam said. "Whatever is out there, no one's living to talk about it."

Sam handed Dean and me the laptop. I started scrolling down the page Sam had been on.

"Wait," Dean said and I paused. "Bar, Christopher Bar. Where have I heard that name before?"

"That's Andrea's last name," I said, a little bitterly. Dean rubbed my back and Sam didn't notice. I opened a link on the page near Christopher Bar's name.

"It's Andrea's husband," I said. Sam took the laptop back.

"Christopher Bar," he said, "apparently he took Lucas out swimming. Lucas was on a floating wooden platform when Chris drowned. He was out there for two hours before he got rescued."

Sam looked up at us. I felt so horrible for that boy.

"Maybe we have an eyewitness after all." Sam said.

"No wonder that kid was so freaked out. Watching one of your parents die isn't something you just get over." Dean said. This time I rubbed his back. I knew he was thinking about his mom and I couldn't help but think of my mom either. I hadn't watched her die, technically, but I had been with her as she had been possessed by a demon. I had been with her as her soul slowly died inside of her.

...

We went to the park where I remembered Andrea had told Lucas she'd take him. She was sitting on a bench watching while Lucas colored a few yards away. We approached her.

"Can we join you?" Sam asked.

"I'm here with my son," She said, glancing between us.

"Oh," Dean said nonchalantly, "mind if I say hi?"

He walked over to him and sat down with him. I ignored Sam and Andrea's conversation and just watched Dean with Lucas. I couldn't help when my feelings from earlier resurfaced. I watched when Dean started to color with him and I wondered what he was drawing. He gave the picture he drew to Lucas and stood up. He walked back over to us.

"Lucas hasn't said a word, not even to me." Andrea was saying. "Not since his dad's accident."

"Yeah, we heard." Dean said. "Sorry."

"What did the doctors say?" Sam asked.

"They said it's a kind of post-traumatic stress." She said. I nodded and looked back at Lucas. He was looking at the picture that Dean had drawn.

"That can't be easy, for either of you." Sam said.

"We moved in with my dad. He helps out a lot." She said. "It's just, when I think about what Lucas went through, what he saw,"

"Kids are strong," Dean said. "You'd be surprised what they can deal with."

"He used to have such life. He was hard to keep up with, to tell you the truth." Andrea said, watching Lucas before glancing at us. "Now he just sits there, drawing pictures and playing with his army men."

Lucas walked up to us, holding a picture.

"Hey sweetie," Andrea said. Lucas didn't acknowledge her but he handed Dean the picture he had been holding.

"Thanks Lucas," Dean said, surprised. We all were pretty surprised. Whatever Dean had said to him had worked. It made me have a little hope, knowing that he could connect with that kid when no one else could. Dean was good with kids whether he wanted to admit it or not.

Lucas walked back to the table he had been sitting at and started to color again.

"We'll get out of your hair now," I said, standing up. She nodded and waved as we walked back to the Impala.

Dean showed Sam and me the picture. It was a really good drawing, Lucas had talent. The house he had drawn looked really familiar, I just couldn't place where I had seen it.

We drove back to the motel and Sam left for a while to do some more research or whatever it was that Sam did. For all we knew he could have just been sitting somewhere and thinking to himself about the life he'd left behind. I hoped that wasn't the case, but I didn't really know Sam as well as I used to.

I was sitting on the bed reading about all the accidental deaths in the lake.

"If it is a monster, we need to name it," I said to Dean as he sat down next to me.

"Like Nessie?" He asked.

"Lake Manitoc monster," I said to myself, thinking out loud. "How about Manny?"

Dean chuckled. "Manny sounds perfect."

I closed the laptop and set it aside, turning to face Dean. I kissed him lightly on the lips.

"How are you?" He asked.

"I'm doing all right," I said. "Better than before, anyway. I think I'm just starting my period or something."

Dean nodded.

"I love you, but I'm not going to the store to get you your tampons or whatever," He said. I laughed and shook my head.

"That's okay." I told him. I started to play with his hands in mine. "What did you talk to Lucas about?"

"I just let him know that if he wanted to talk about what he saw that I would believe him" He said as he shrugged. I nodded. I knew there was probably more but I didn't want to push him.

"What did you guys talk to Andrea about?" Dean asked, smirking at me a little.

"Truthfully I wasn't really part of their conversation," I said. "My mind was kind of elsewhere."

He sighed and clasped my hands inside his.

"Look, I know you don't want to hurt Sammy but I think not telling him that we're together is hurting you more." I looked down. He was kind of right. "We should tell him. Soon."

I let out a deep breath and looked back up at him, nodding.

"I'm sorry," I said. He stared at me like I was crazy.

"Why?"

"Because of wanting to keep it a secret." Dean chuckled.

"Just stop," he said. "Seriously. I'm not mad or anything. I understand why you didn't want to tell him and I agreed with you. You just seem to be hurting because of it and I miss you a lot too. I care more about how you're feeling than Sam, no offense to him. But he's not my girlfriend, you are. So it's more of my priority to make sure you're happy."

"Are you sure?" I asked. Dean rolled his eyes and held my face so that I was staring straight at him.

"Look at me," he said, "are you looking?"

I nodded.

"I can't remember the last time I've been more sure." I smiled softly and nodded. He kissed my lips. "I'll leave it up to you to tell him, if you want, but we'll tell him soon okay?"

"You are the queen of CFM's, just so you know." I told him with a small grin. He glared at me and started to say something but Sam came through the door. I went over to my bag and grabbed a water bottle as Sam started talking.

"So I think it's safe to say we can rule out Nessie," He said.

"It's Manny," I told him. He stared at me for a moment.

"Right, whatever." Dean laughed. "Anyway, I just drove past the Carlton house. There was an ambulance there. Will Carlton is dead."

"He drowned?" Dean asked.

"Yeah, in the sink." Sam said.

"Seriously?" I asked. Sam nodded.

"What the hell? So you're right, this isn't a creature." Dean said. "We're dealing with something else."

"But what?" Sam asked. I shook my head and reached back into my backpack and took out my journal.

"It's not a mermaid," I said. Sam stared at me to see if I was joking or not. "I'm serious, that shit was insane."

Dean laughed and I smacked his arm.

"Yeah, go ahead and laugh. But the next time you jump into the ocean after a giant fish I'm not jumping in after you to save you." I told him. Dean stopped laughing and looked at me apologetically.

"Maybe it's a water wraith," Dean said. "Or it could possibly be some kind of demon. Anything that controls water."

"You mean water that comes from the same source," I added. Dean nodded.

"The lake," Sam said. We nodded. "It would explain why it's upping the body count. The lake is draining and it'll be dry in a few months."

"Whatever it is or wants, it definitely knows that it's running out of time," I said.

"And it can get through the pipes. It can get to anyone, almost anywhere. This is gonna happen again soon." Dean said.

"And we know something else for sure," Sam said, sitting down on the other bed. "We know this all has something to do with Bill Carlton."

"Yeah, it took his kids." Dean said, nodding his head.

"And I was asking around. Lucas' dad Chris is Bill Carlton's godson." Sam said. We all glanced at each other and stood up.

"Time to talk to daddy dearest," I said, grabbing my backpack.

...

...

I know, I know. I totally suck, but I've had some great reasons for not updating in weeks! It's the usual, schoolwork and such, but also! Harry Potter 7 Part 1! I thought it was amazing, but that's usually my opinion for most Harry Potter related things. Thanksgiving was good too, so if you celebrate the day that the Native American's traded all their food, shelter and supplies with the White Man and all they got in return was infested with small pox and other diseases, I hope you had a great one as well. With lots of pie :)

Anyway, the end of my semester is coming quickly which means I'll have much more time to write and update if I stop watching shows and movies on Hulu and Netflix Instant Watch. Either way, I know I'll update a lot more often than I have been. Please review! I promise to answer as many as I can!

-Erin