the reviews made me feel so much better that i wrote another chappie and posted it a day ahead :D

enjoy! and thanks for the great reviews! (hugs)

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Chapter 23: Croatoan Part 2

The rain died down as Sam pulled the car up on Aspen Way. As he parked the car a few feet from the house it was barely drizzling and sun was beginning to pour out behind the clouds, making small rainbows bounce off the jet black Impala hood. Huh, bipolar weather. It had been cloudy and dark and ten seconds later it was sunny and bright. Reminded me of someone I knew.

"How are we gonna do this?" Sam asked, turning around in the seat to look at us.

I narrowed my eyes out him. "Are you okay?" The sentence blurted out of my mouth before I could stop it.

He smiled at me and I could feel Dean's chest rumble with a small laugh. "Yeah, I'm fine." Sam answered, looking at me rather oddly. Yeah, it was odd. This whole new attitude of his, I wasn't buying it. And if he was seriously okay; we needed to get him to some sort of doctor. "Are you okay?" Sam asked with the same tone I had spilled out. It was a cross between curiosity and worry.

I shook my head, pulling my hair back. I ignored the question and answered the one he had asked before my random outburst. Maybe it was just me. Everything was fine and I was trying to find something wrong. Typical. "I figured we'd just go up there and ask for him."

"You sure it's safe?" Dean asked, glancing out the window and towards the house.

"Well, that doesn't exactly look like a house of evil." I stated, glancing at the blue painted house. Nice big house too; from what I could see anyways. Blue paint, white roof, a nice porch that resembled the Sergeants… didn't feel dangerous. But I guess you could never really tell until you were up close and personal with the people who lived there. Just because the house didn't look threatening didn't mean there wasn't a cult sacrificing to Satan in the basement.

Sam shrugged, running his thumb over his lower lip in thought. And I found myself staring. This whole situation was making me uncomfortable. Dean was stroking the skin on the sides of my waist as he held me and as I watched Sam stoke his lower lip it felt like he was the one touching me. It was kind of like the sensation you get when you watch someone cook something and you can taste it in your mouth. That kind of situation. It made me squirm in Dean's hold and I got out of the car and headed to the trunk.

I popped it open and rummaged through the weapon's compartment, looking for a pistol to put in the waist band of my pants.

"Are you okay?" Dean asked, making me jump and hit my head off the top of the trunk. I groaned, pulling my head out and rubbing it. Dean came closer and cupped my face. "Okay, thanks for answering that for me. What's with jumping all of a sudden?" He asked, concern etching his features as he took my one hand away from my head to look at the bump I had caused.

I hissed as he ran his fingers over the bump. Geez, I had really done a number on myself. I rolled my eyes. Way to go. How come I couldn't do this job for more than a week before I got myself injured? One way or the other I got hurt. Either emotionally or physically it never failed. I felt like I was one of those white boards that had incident reports on them. 'Andy Core has been hunting for days without injury.' I couldn't make it past seven got damn days.

"I'm really tired of getting hurt." I whispered and Dean planted a gentle feather kiss on the bump.

He smiled as he pulled back and ran his thumb over my cheekbone. "That's why I told you to stay in bed. Least there you can't do much damage."

"I'm sure I'd still manage to hit my head off the headboard or bang my elbow against the nightstand." I muttered as Sam got out of the car and joined us at the trunk. My body stiffened as he came closer to me and rifled around in the trunk for his own weapon.

"You're a lost cause baby." Dean said and I rolled my eyes but didn't disagree with him.

Dean reached into the trunk and pulled a gun out and loaded it and handed it to me. "Try not to get yourself shot okay?" He said it jokingly and I smiled as I took it from him, but I wasn't feeling it. I think I only smiled because he gave me one of those 'knee buckling/melt you on the spot' smiles that I could never resist.

As Dean loaded his own gun those flashes replayed themselves in my head, luckily I was remembering them and it didn't come with an explosive headache. I wanted to tell Dean to think first and shoot later but I knew that kind of comment would just upset him. I'd have to trust he'd use his brain and do the right thing.

Dean shut the trunk and I glanced around the area we were in and at the Tanner house. I noticed a telephone pole near by and looked at it oddly, seeing something etched into the wood. I walked up to it and ran my fingers over the lone, capped word. CROATOAN.

"What are you doing?" Dean asked me as they approached me.

Big freaking gongs were sounding in my head. Where did I know that word from? "Um, that disappearing colony…" I felt like I was on Jeopardy or some other damn game show I couldn't stand. Sam and Dean looked at me oddly but tried following my thinking. I waved my hands as I tried grabbing for words. "One of the first English colonies in America, late 1500s?"

"Roanoke?" Sam asked and I nodded, thanking God he paid attention in history class.

"Didn't they disappear without a trace?" Dean asked, looking over at the word as well. I was glad he could repeat me.

I nodded. "The only thing they left behind was a single word carved in a tree; Croatoan. And I mean, there were theories -- Indian raid, disease. But nobody knows what really happened. They were all just gone. I mean, wiped out overnight."

Dean looked over at Sam and then at me. "You don't think that's what's going on here."

I shrugged, worriedly. "Whatever I saw in my head, it sure wasn't good."

"We should get help." Sam said suddenly. "Bobby? Ellen, maybe?"

Dean nodded, taking out his cell. "Yeah, that's a good idea." He looked at the screen for a moment. "I don't have a signal."

Sam and I took out our own, both having the same issues. Maybe it's because there was a lot of trees around. I motioned to a payphone on the other side of the telephone pole and picked it up.

My face scrunched up. "It's dead."

Dean scoffed. "I'll tell you one thing –- if I was gonna massacre a town, that'd be my first step."

O00o0o0o0o

I couldn't help the pit in my stomach and the shakiness of my knees as we walked up the steps and knocked on the door. A few minutes later a young man came to the door and smiled as he opened it. Okay, that pit got bigger. I felt like a black hole was filling the space that my stomach used to be in. This kid was…off. Something about him. The way he stood, the way he smiled, it made me stand on edge. I looked at Sam and Dean as they greeted him and Dean flashed him the U.S Marshall badge, but neither of them seemed to notice anything off. Maybe it was just me. I was feeling a whole lot of weird things lately. Maybe paranoia was just one of them.

"We're looking for Duane Tanner. He lives here, right?" Dean asked and the kid nodded again. I squeezed my hand into a fist at my side, trying to deny the shiver that wanted to run through my body as the kid smiled at me. He was making my blood run cold.

"He's my brother." He answered. The question on the tip of my tongue was, 'is he as creepy as you are?' "But he's not here right now."

"Do you know where he is?" I asked. Ten bucks burning in my left jean pocket said he didn't.

The kid nodded at me and shifted in the doorframe. He leaned casually against the frame and put his hands in his pockets. The action made me skittish. "Yeah, he went on a fishing trip up by Roseland Lake."

"Your parents home?" Sam asked and I could see him reach behind him and shift the gun to a more comfortable position. Maybe he felt something was off too.

Mr. Tanner, I presumed, showed up behind his son as if he'd been waiting near by. Something was not right with these people. I was convinced they were robots. "Jake, who is it?" He asked.

Dean repeated who we were and who we were looking for and Mr. Tanner's eyes drifted to Jake. Jake still remained ever so nonchalant by the door and I took a casual step back from them. The black hole was pulling on my other organs and I was feeling extremely nauseous.

"We just need to ask him a couple routine questions, that's all." Dean finished and Mr. Tanner nodded. I kept expecting his eyes to blink with lights or he'd beep or something. I'm telling you. Robots. I wondered if whoever made him could make me a robot of Matt Damon.

"When's he due back from his trip?" Sam asked and Mr. Tanner replied he wasn't sure. "Well, maybe your wife knows."

"No, I don't know, she's not here right now. She's getting groceries."

I looked at Jake. "Your son said she was."

Jake's eyes fell on me and I felt my whole entire body lurch. "Did I?"

Dean looked back at me and Sam. Good, it wasn't just me. You could tell by the way Dean was looking at us that he thought something was up with these people. "Alright, well, we'll just check in with you later."

The Tanner's nodded, I swear at the same time, and closed the door.

"Okay, I think I know what my whole flashy thing was about." I said slowly as Sam and Dean walked down the stairs. They both watched and waited for me to gimp down the stairs. I sighed, looking at them both. "We're dealing with robots."

Dean smirked but then looked serious. "Yeah, they were really off weren't they?"

I nodded and scoffed. "You think?"

Sam smiled at me, which Dean missed as he turned around. It wasn't a casual smile and that's how I knew Sam wasn't over anything. He was full of it. And this getting along thing was really starting to get to me for some reason. I didn't want Sam to fake it. I wanted him to work on getting over it. All that resulted from faking was blocking emotions out. He wasn't dealing with anything; he was refusing to. This was going to turn out like all the other times he tried to block his feelings out. And Dean wasn't just going to let it go this time. He'd let it go too many times before. If Sam did something stupid this time around, Dean would explode. No doubt about it.

"I think you're off if you think its robots." Sam said to me and I rolled my eyes, walking up to Dean and grabbing his hand from behind him.

Upon feeling my hand grab his Dean squeezed mine tightly and pulled me up to walk along side him. I realized that we weren't going back to the car and that we were going around the house to snoop.

"What are we doing?" Sam asked suddenly and I rolled my eyes again. Like he had never done this before.

"Snooping where we don't belong. I'm thinking we should start making a career out of it." I wisecracked and Dean shushed me as we reached the back yard. We were at a window and as I glanced inside I realized that we were looking into the kitchen.

I almost gasped. So much for Mrs. Tanner being grocery shopping. She was in a chair, bound and gagged. Mr. Tanner was twirling a knife and I saw him hand it to his son. Alright fine, robots were a long way from psychopaths but at least I knew something was wrong with them. At least two weeks of bed resting hadn't destroyed my ability to read people. I glanced at Sam as he hunched down next to me and Dean to look in the window. Well, at least the ability to read other people. Sam…I just didn't get. And I didn't think I ever would. Not entirely anyway.

"Its okay, Mom." Jake soothed, which pulled me out of my thoughts. "It's not gonna hurt."

I saw him cut his own forearm and I grimaced as I saw his blood pool out of him and land on Mrs. Tanner. I knew this town was too good to be true! If it wasn't sacrificing chickens, it was blood rituals. I grabbed my gun; enough was enough. I wasn't going to wait for Sam or Dean on this one. But upon seeing me back up from them and grab my weapon, they grabbed their own. Dean walked ahead of me and slammed his foot into the backdoor. It swung open and connected with the wall, shattering the window.

Mr. Tanner and Jake spun around, a little surprised on being caught. I think they had known we weren't really U.S Marshalls. Well, they were damn sure now. Mr. Tanner wailed himself at us, screaming. Dean didn't think twice and shot him through his chest several times. Sam ran to Mrs. Tanner and tried calming her down. She was a crying and petrified mess.

Jake took one look at me and smiled and to my surprise ran straight through the kitchen window we had been peeking through. He crashed through it and collided harshly with the ground outside. I ran to the window and watched him get up, having clear shot. With everything I had just seen and even with the chilling feelings he had given me before I couldn't bring myself to do it.

My gun was cocked and ready but my fingers wouldn't move to fire. He was just a kid. Finally, it seemed like I had a clear shot forever even though I knew it had only been at least fifteen seconds, he was off into the woods. I definitely couldn't get him now. I would have been able to clip him. Fifteen seconds was more than enough time. I pulled my arms back in the window and un-cocked the gun.

I felt Dean's eyes on me and I shook my head, avoiding them all the way. He knew I had a clear shot and he knew I had been too weak to take it.

It was more than I could bear.

O0o00o0o0o0o

Even though Mrs. Tanner was full of hysterics as we sat her in the Impala, she managed to direct us to the Rivergrove Medical Clinic. I heard Sam try and calm the lady down and comfort her as much as he could as Dean drove there.

I sat there with the window open and looked out the front of the car, eyes refusing; maybe I was scared, to meet or even look in Dean's direction. I could feel anger come off him in waves and it made me wonder if it was a whole bunch of things and not just me and what I had done. Or better yet, what I couldn't do. Maybe he was getting a headache from Mrs. Tanner's wailing or the fact that she was getting blood on the backseat of the Impala. But I knew the root of it had nothing to do with either of those two things. Dean had taken Mr. Tanner out in two seconds flat and I tried to think of differences between what he had done and what I was supposed to do. Mr. Tanner had attacked us, he had a knife, Jake had been a young boy…all these things circling my head and none of them would have been good enough for Dean.

There was something obviously possessing the boy. He had been cutting up his mother for Christ's sake. I knew that. Hell I had thought he had been a robot a half an hour ago. Why couldn't I just do my damn job?

We pulled up next to the Med Clinic and Sam took Mrs. Tanner inside, thank God. She was beginning to hurt my ears. But I guess nothing compared to the slam the door made as Dean shut it and went to the trunk of the car.

I got out and equally shut the door just as loud, hoping to maybe piss him off. Hell, he was already half way there so why not just have the blow out I knew he was gonna have. Couldn't he understand why I couldn't do it? Couldn't he try to at least see what I had been feeling?

"So you didn't take the shot huh?" I guess not. His voice was filled with sarcasm and wasn't close to understanding.

I swallowed and leaned against the trunk of the car as he fiddled with some weapons. He was loading some into a duffel. I took the gun out of the waist band of my jeans and held it for a moment. I wondered if it would have felt any different if I would have shot Jake. Because right now, it felt like it was going to burn a hole in my hand. The metal felt like it was melting my pores on the pads of my fingers.

"I know." I finally said. "I couldn't do it. He was just a kid."

"He was a kid cutting up his mother." Dean spat, shutting the trunk. "And you let him get away." He sounded like my father. "He might hurt someone else Andy! You knew something was off about him. He's possessed or something of that nature. He's not just a kid."

"I know!" I screamed at him. "And I'm sorry! I slipped up, okay? Like you've never done that. He was just a kid, that's all I saw and I hesitated."

He zipped up the duffel and shoved it into my hands. Dean leaned down and pulled Mr. Tanners body out of the trunk of the car. I let out a small gasp as blood began to seep through the blanket Dean had wrapped him in and dripped onto the pavement. He shifted him farther onto his shoulder and shut the trunk.

"It wasn't a kid." He corrected. "It was an 'it'." I'm glad that made him feel more justified for wasting Mr. Tanner.

"It was easy for you." I said quietly. "Mr. Tanner was attacking us."

"I would have shot him." Dean said softy, referring to Jake. His eyes cold and dark as they looked at me.

"I know." I said sadly and walked past him. "That's the problem."

Dean wasn't looking for that line anymore. The line that kept black on the left and white on the right. He was looking to blur it, to try and find a way to step over the line without actually walking towards it. The only thing he didn't know was that once everything was gray he couldn't shift things back. No matter how much white you added, it'd never be pure again. He would never have jet black and cotton white. It would be forever gray and he wouldn't be able to tell what was what anymore.

When I walked into the clinic San was standing by Mrs. Tanner who was getting treated by a doctor. The room they were in had a plaque on the door stating: Dr. Lee. I glanced in at the woman and my heart beat sped up for a moment. The woman had been in my flashes, along with the frail nurse next to them. I felt Dean come up behind me with Mr. Tanner's body. This was so not good.

Dr. Lee saw us standing among the entrance and came out to talk to us. "Is that…?" She motioned to the body.

Dean nodded. "Mr. Tanner."

Dr. Lee's long blonde hair curled at the end and it bounced when she nodded her head. "Was he attacked, too?"

Dean started for a moment, trying to judge if she was serious or skeptical. He was wrapped in a blanket for Christ's sake.

I shook my head. "Uh, no, actually he did the attacking and then he got himself shot." I felt Dean's eyes on me as I answered her and he nodded.

"And who are you?" She asked.

"U.S. Marshall." Dean said. "I'd show you my badge, but, uh…" He gestured to the body and she nodded frantically, motioning to place Mr. Tanner in the room next to the one Mrs. Tanner was in. I liked how people assumed all of us were U.S Marshalls if one of us had a badge to show. Sergeant and the Tanners assumed the same. One badge and magically we were all Marshalls.

Dean nodded in thanks and took the body back into the room to drop off. I shook my head as I made it sound like Dean was delivering a package.

I walked towards the room Sam was in and leaned against the doorframe, watching the nurse clean Mrs. Tanner up. I felt Dean come up behind me and observe the same scene. Dr. Lee walked past both of us and into the room to take over cleaning up Mrs. Tanner's wounds.

Dean was shifting closer and closer to the back of me and suddenly I knew he was so close that if I leaned back an inch I'd be smack up against him. I wanted to lean against him; so badly that my body ached. But I couldn't. He knew I couldn't. He was trying to apologize by touching because it took more courage for him to actually talk to me and admit he was sorry. He drifted his hands down to my own but I moved them away from his touch, moving them to cross my arms in front of my chest.

He shifted awkwardly then, but didn't move away. I could tell by his body language, even though he was behind me, that he was sorry. He was beginning to feel the sympathy and understanding that I had wanted him to feel as we were having that conversation. It was such a man thing to realize things like that ten minutes later and try to touch to make it better.

"Wait, you said Jake helped him? Your son, Jake?" Dr. Lee asked, bandaging up the arm her son had put a gash in. She was sobbing again; her tears leaking into the gauze the doctor was trying to make everything better with.

"I don't believe it." The nurse interrupted.

"Pam." Dr. Lee hushed her gently and returned her attention back to Mrs. Tanner. "Beverly, do you have any idea why they would act this way? Any history of chemical dependency?"

She shook her head no and I found myself backing up out of the room, making sure I didn't knock into Dean at all. "No, of course not. One minute, they were my husband and my son. And the next…they had the devil in them."

"Dean." I whispered and he turned around. I motioned for him to grab Sam and he did. We went closer to the entrance so no one could hear us over talk.

"Guys, all those people were from my flashes. Well, besides Mrs. Tanner."

Dean nodded, seeming to pay no attention to what I just said. "These guys are whacked out of their gourds."

"What do you think? Multiple demons? Mass possession?" Sam asked, noticing something was off between me and Dean. But I mean, a blind person could have noticed. But I'm sure Sam knew because he knew us so well and knew that that shot I didn't take would stir something up.

Dean shrugged, glancing back at the room to make sure no one was near us. "If it is a possession, there could be more. God knows how many. It could be like a friggin' Shriner Convention."

"'Course, that's one way to wipe out a town. You take it from the inside." I said, thinking out loud.

"We didn't see any of the demon smoke with Tanner, or any of the other usual signs." Sam said suddenly.

"What else could it be?" I asked. "Those people had something in them…they couldn't just be normal people one minute and completely psychotic the next. I mean I know people are crazy but stuff like that just doesn't turn on like a light switch."

Dr. Lee came back out and I straightened up to warn the boys to hush the possession talk. "How's the patient?" I asked. Or I guess that could have keyed them in too.

They turned around to see Dr. Lee answer. "Terrible. What the hell happened out there?"

I shrugged. "We don't know."

"Yeah?" She seemed very doubtful. "Well, you just killed my next-door neighbor."

"We didn't have a choice." Dean replied automatically and Sam shifted uncomfortably. But I didn't know whether he did that because he knew I was uncomfortable or because what Dean said really bothered him.

"Maybe so, but we need the county sheriff. I need the coroner."

"Phones are down." Sam said.

"I don't understand what is happening." She was scared and honestly so was I. I wanted nothing more than for Dean to squeeze my hand and to reassure me of things.

"How far is it to the next town?" Dean asked, looking for his car keys.

Dr. Lee shrugged, counting the miles in her head. "It's about forty miles down to Sidewinder."

"All right, I'm gonna go down there and see if I can find some help. My partners will stick around –- keep you guys safe." I noticed on how he said partners and wanted me to stay here. Screw that. While Dr. Lee was asking what she had to be safe from I leaned on my stitched leg, making it buckle ever so slightly.

Dean inched foreword instinctively and caught my arm before I tumbled. I snuck my hand in his pocket and took his keys and smiled a small smile to thank him for stabling me.

"We'll get back to you on that." Dean answered Dr. Lee and let go of me, turning to leave.

I followed Dean to the exit and watched him search for his keys as he got outside. I leaned against the doorframe as he swore.

"Damn it Andy." He turned around to head back in, not realizing I was there. Dean stopped short. "Give me my keys."

"No." I said stubbornly.

"Don't make me move you Andy." He said seriously. He wasn't in the mood. But I knew he'd have to twist my arm to let go of the keys and he was bluffing. He wouldn't hurt me. That much I still knew a hundred percent.

"I'm coming with you." I said walking past him.

He grabbed my arm and circled, facing me in the direction of the building. "No, you're staying here with Sam. Give me the keys."

"You're gonna have to take them from me." I said and shrugged at his angry reaction.

"Why do you always have to be so goddamn—"

"Stubborn?" I asked, interrupting him. I scoffed. Was he serious? "Yeah, I wonder who I picked that up from."

Dean sighed, running a hand over his face. "I was going to say annoying." He said suddenly and I couldn't help a small smile play over my face. "But whatever."

"Yeah, well, I got that from hanging around Sam too often." I informed him and walked past him to get in the driver's seat. He nodded, muttering something about how I learned from him well and got in passenger. "But I learned how to be a jackass from you."

Dean smirked, but he hadn't found what I said to be funny. "Oh, this is going to be a long forty miles."

I started the car and pulled out of the spot.

O0o0o0o0o

Five miles down. Thirty five more to go. I drummed my fingers against the wheel, glancing at Dean every so often. I contemplated on asking him whether he was going to be mad at me forever. But then I remembered I was mad at him too. He couldn't see past one pigheaded moment to realize why I couldn't shoot that kid. I understood he was an 'it' but I still had a bit of humanity left and I was damned to save it.

I pulled up to red light and stopped. Thirty three miles to go.

"You could have ran it." Dean said suddenly and I looked at him.

"Huh?"

"The light. It was yellow when you pulled up. You could have ran it."

Of all the things to say…he said that? "Did you not take the driver's test?" I asked him. "Yellow means slow down." Dean sighed and grunted, regretting saying anything at all as the light turned green. "Green means go." I said, emphasizing my point and Dean rolled his eyes.

Dean put his window down and a strong wind circulated the car. It was getting later and the air was growing cooler. I shivered as I felt goose bumps rise of my arms.

"You cold?" He asked.

I shook my head. "No."

"I could roll the window back up."

"You obviously wanted it down."

"Well that's before I knew it'd make you cold." Maybe Sam wasn't the only Winchester that was bipolar.

"I'm fine." I said finally and Dean sighed, sitting back in his seat.

"Sure…" He reached behind the seat and picked up his leather jacket, putting it over my lap. Okay, didn't really do anything to help for warmth even the though the gesture kind of made my heart warm.

He then closed the window and I sighed. "You could have kept it down."

"It's fine." Twenty miles.

His tone made me hate the word fine. You know what 'fine' stood for? Freaked out, insecure, neurotic and emotional. I was never using the word fine again.

Eighteen miles. "What was the next town called?" I just didn't want to be quiet. I hated the silence. I'd rather banter about nothing.

"I think Dr. Lee said Sidewinder."

"Weird name." I said, thinking out loud again.

"As long as we can get some help there, I don't care if the town's name is Flaggergafinate."

I looked at him oddly. Fourteen miles. "Of all the names…you came up with Flaggergafinate?" I asked. "Can you even spell that?"

Dean smiled a small smile that made me giggle ever so slightly. "I don't even think I can pronounce it the same way again."

Ten miles. Dean drifted his hand over, under the leather jacket and squeezed my thigh. I looked at him and he leaned over, kissing my head. "I'm sorry." He said softly.

I smiled and went to apologize but had to break when we came to road block before the bridge, I'm guessing leading to Sidewinder. This was so not a coincidence. I winced at the jerk the seatbelt gave me and went to look at Dean.

He nodded that he was okay and I glanced out at the people blocking the road with their truck. My heart plummeted when I realized they must have been people of River Grove because Jake Tanner was standing right along with them, smiling at me and loading a gun.

Damn it. I looked at Dean. I was sorry too.

O0o0oo0o

"Sorry. Road's closed." A man said, leaning on the Impala door.

I nodded. "Yeah, I can see that. What's up?" I asked.

"Quarantine." The man answered simply.

"Quarantine?" Dean asked. "What is it?"

"Don't know. Something's going around out there."

Yeah, right. Something alright. And whatever it was…it had him too.

"Uh-huh." I managed to answer, my hand slowly drifting over the gear shift.

"Say, why don't you get out of the car and we'll talk a little."

I chuckled nervously and felt Dean stiffen at the guy smiling at me and looking own my shirt. "Sorry, already have a loving boyfriend."

The man leaned in close and whispered in my ear. "I'd sure appreciate it if you got out of the car, just for a quick minute."

That's all it took for me to shift the car into reverse and step on the gas. The guy hung onto the side door and I jerked the car, turning the wheel. It spun to the right and finally threw him off and I switched gears again, punching the petal.

Bullets began to fly at the car but we were driving to fast for any of them to hit.

I sighed heavily, not taking my foot off the gas. "That's my girl." Dean said proudly and I smiled, reaching over to squeeze his hand.

Damn straight.

O0o0o0o0o

We ran into the Sergeant on our way back to the Clinic. And when I say, 'ran into' I mean I literally almost ran him over. He was standing in the middle of the street, aiming a shot gun at the Impala. After him and Dean had a lovely intelligent conversation about seeing if either one of them was anything like those things we came across at the roadblock, he got in the backseat. He made sure his rifle was as close to him as he could possibly get, I'm guessing he didn't believe me and Dean were as clean as we claimed to be. Whatever. Dean was doing the same thing too. He sat sideways and eyed Sergeant, making sure he didn't make any weird movements.

And after we figured out his neighbor Mr. Rogers, ya I know; I double-checked that one too, came after him with a cleaver I hightailed it back to the Clinic. We needed shelter from these nutcases.

We knocked on the Clinic door and I called out Sam's name once or twice before he finally opened up, letting us all in and locking it again.

"Did you guys get to a phone?" Sam asked and I shook my head.

"Roadblock."

Dean motioned the sergeant to another room. "We need to have a word. Doc's inside."

The sergeant nodded, looking at us hesitantly and took his rifle with him into the other room where I'm guessing the others still were. Boy, if we didn't look suspicious to him before; we did now.

"What's going on out there, guys?"

Dean shook his head, running a hand over his tired eyes. "Man, I don't know. I feel like Chuck Heston in The Omega Man. Sarge was the only sane person I could find." I leaned close to him and rubbed his back absentmindedly and I saw Sam become a bit rigid at the action.

"What are we dealing with, do you know?" I asked him and he looked at me, trying to loosen. Oh, too late Sam, I saw it.

"Yeah. Doc thinks it's a virus."

"Okay, great." Dean took his hands away from his eyes and held my one hand. "What do you think?"

Sam shrugged, looking at the room everyone else was in. "I think she's right. I think the infected are trying to infect others with blood-to-blood contact." He chuckled but it was a more ironic laugh than a something funny laugh. "Oh, but it gets better. The virus leaves traces of sulfur in the blood."

My eyes widened as little. "A demonic virus?" Those demons…what would they come up with next?

"Yeah, more like demonic germ warfare." Sam said, shifting his hands into his pockets.

I thought for a moment. "Well, at least it explains my flashes."

Sam leaned against one of the tables we were near and crossed his arms over his chest. "I've been poring through Dad's journal. I found something about the Roanoke colony."

"And?" I asked. This wasn't something that you should be keeping in suspense.

"Looks like Dad always had a theory about Croatoan. He thought it was a demon's name."

I scoffed. "Of course he did. Because colonies didn't just up and disappear without some demon being the cause of it." I said sarcastically and felt Dean shift. I winced. That probably wasn't the nicest thing for him to hear. I cleared my throat and nodded at Sam, sorry for interrupting.

"Sometimes known as Dever or sometimes Reshef; a demon of plague and pestilence." Sam continued like I never stopped him.

"Well, that's terrific." Dean looked at me. "Why here? Why now?"

I shrugged. "How am I supposed to know? My flashes didn't come with a time stamp."

"Who knows how far this thing can spread." Sam said. He was always such a burst full of optimism. "We've gotta get out of here, we've gotta warn people."

"They've got one!" The Sergeant suddenly screamed, gaining out attention. "In here!"

Look's like optimism was running low anyways.

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