sorry this is like two days late D: school is ruining my life (pouts)

:D enjoy this though!!

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Chapter 33: Nightshifter Part 3

I unbuttoned the stupid top part of the blue jumpsuit so I could breathe. Suddenly, I was having trouble doing that as I heard gunshots go off in the main lobby. Alright, I knew Ronald was a bit, alright maybe a lot unstable, but I didn't seriously think he was going to take matters into his own hands. Although, somehow I kind of understood why he had to do it, he lost his job and tried to back it up with crazy notions of mandroids. He was pushed to this. But if he was killing innocent people then Dean, Sam and I were pushed to stop him. Whatever the cost.

"Shit," I swore following Dean and Sam out in the hallway. Many people were running past us trying to find an exit. I felt like telling them they couldn't go anywhere and just to stay cool. Ronald had chained all the doors from outside. "What are we going to do?"

"And you said we shouldn't bring guns." Dean rolled his eyes as we turned the corner, trying to head to the lobby to stop Ronald.

"Well its not like we could have shot him." I muttered so Dean and Sam didn't hear me. Okay, I hypocrite, I knew that. I just couldn't wash my hands of killing a human okay? Sue me. Although it was easily to be pushed, Sam had said something like that once. Right situations, just enough of a push, everyone is capable of murder. Everyone. I shook my head as Dean tried to get my attention.

"Now is not the time to spacing out here, Andy."

"Sorry, do we have a plan?"

"Eh, not so much of a plan as a conversation." Dean said, turning his head to glance into the lobby before we walked in. "Just let me do the talking."

I smirked and looked at Sam. "Yeah, I don't think he likes you very much, Agent Johnson."

Sam rolled his eyes and we followed Dean into the lobby. Dean pulled on my arm and instructed me to stay close to him and to keep my mouth shut.

"I'm serious." He warned me as we inched our way closer. Ronald hadn't even seen us yet. He was too busy rounding off the bank workers against the counters and to sit. It was like settling down kindergarten children or something. "He's a loose cannon and something tells me he doesn't know how to work that gun very well. One smart comment outta you and I'm gonna shut your mouth myself."

Okay, rude, but I nodded obediently. I knew he was just worried and my mouth was known into getting me hurt and into trouble. So I promised Dean, rather than myself, that I'd keep all smart comments to myself.

Dean took a deep breath and tried to get Ronald's attention. "Hey, buddy? Calm down. Just calm down."

"What?" Ronald turned, jerking the gun. "You?! Get on the floor, now!" He aimed and suddenly all of us were on our knees with our hands out in front of us. I didn't quite understand why our bodies did a defense mechanism like that. Like our hands out right in front of us was going to stop a bullet.

"Just don't shoot anybody, especially us."

I wanted to scoff at that. Yeah, wouldn't that be our luck?

Ronald shifted on his feet and came closer to us with realization in his eyes. Shit. He knew who we were or rather, who we had pretended to be at his house. We shouldn't have gone out all together like this, but isn't there supposed to be strength in numbers? I looked around at all the bank workers and then at Ronald. I guess that doesn't count when the one person against the other twenty has a rifle. But nobody looked dead or hurt which made me look at the ceiling. He shot the ceiling to get attention. Was it wrong that I felt relief from that?

"I knew it." Ronald exclaimed. I glanced at the gun and saw it wasn't cocked. "As soon as you left. You ain't FBI. Who are you? Who you working for, huh? The Men in Black?" I smirked at that one and Dean shoved me with his elbow, hard. "You workin' for the mandroid?!"

Apparently, my mouth wasn't the only one we had to worry about. "We're not working for the mandroid!" Sam yelled. You could tell how fed up he was with this science fiction crap.

I grabbed his forearm out of instinct as Ronald raised his weapon and started yelling. "You, shut up! I ain't talking to you, I don't like you!"

That seemed to calm Sam down and he nodded curtly and cleared his throat. "Fair enough."

Ronald turned and I looked at Sam, giving him the look Dean usually gives me when he wants me to shut up. He nodded again and rolled his eyes, shooing my hand off his forearm.

"Get over there. Frisk them down, make sure they've got no weapons. Go!" Ronald instructed two employees.

Shit a million times over. I glanced at Dean and he sighed as one of the employees started feeling us down, making sure we weren't packing.

"Hey, watch your hands pal." Dean warned as one of the guy's hands checked the area around my chest.

I rolled my eyes and my heart froze as I saw one employee feel down Dean's leg, stopping for a moment. He found the little knife Dean had secured in his sock. The employees stepped away and showed it to Ronald and Sam glared at Dean.

Dean shrugged, looking at us innocently. "I'm not just gonna walk in here naked!"

Made me wonder why an employee wasn't going to help us out any. Why not leave the knife there so we had some sort of a chance? Although, I guess they really didn't know what we were dealing with and if Ronald found that knife on his own they probably thought he'd shoot them.

Ronald took the knife and put it down a mail shoot and I closed my eyes as I heard it clinkering down the fucking shaft. Great, now we had nothing against the shifter.

I sighed and opened my eyes again, glancing at Dean. He shook his head no, knowing I wanted to say something. Screw Dean. Ronald wasn't a murderer. He wouldn't hurt me, even if he was pushed to it. "We know you don't wanna hurt anybody." I spoke up and I felt Dean dig his nails into my leg to get me to stop talking. I winced as Ronald turned to look at me. "But that's exactly what's gonna happen if you keep waving that cannon around."

"If nobody's gonna stop this thing, then I've gotta do it myself!" Ronald screamed. He was scared, you could see it in his eyes.

"Hey, we believe you! That's why we're here!" I yelled and Dean took his hand off my leg as he realized it wouldn't do anything. Oh, he was so going to be mad at me later.

"You don't believe me! Nobody believes me!" Ronald screamed at me, damn near pathetically and I found myself sympathizing for the man again. "How could they?"

I looked around the room, not really sure what to do. I swallowed. "Come here." I motioned him closer and he looked at me like I was crazy. Was he afraid of me? "You're holding the gun, you're calling the shots. I just wanna tell you something."

Ronald slowly approached me and I could tell Dean was itching to get that gun away from him. I put my hand on his arm as Ronald leaned his head down, telling Dean to not do anything stupid. Although, I hadn't listened to him so he probably wouldn't do as I told him. But for now he was sitting still.

"It's the bank manager." I whispered. "We've been monitoring the cameras in the back. We saw his eyes."

Ronald looked like a kid on Christmas Day. Hell, he was just happy he was right. "His laser eyes?"

I shook my head frustratingly. "No, look, we're running out of time, okay? We've gotta find him before he changes into someone else."

"Like I'm gonna listen to you!" Ronald cocked the gun and aimed it at me. "You're a damn liar!" My breath caught in my throat and I squeezed Dean's arm.

"Just hear her out, Ronald. Don't shoot." Dean told him calmly but his body was shaking. "Please."

Ronald seemed extremely agitated and I don't what in the hell made me say what I was about to say. "Take me. Take me with you, take me as a hostage."

"What?!" Dean and Sam both responded angrily at the same time.

I rolled my eyes as Ronald looked at us confusedly. "But we've gotta act fast. Look at me, Ronald." He did so and my eyes softened. "I believe you. You're not crazy. There really is something inside this bank."

Ronald hesitated and the long pause seemed to go on forever with my heart beating loudly in my ears. But then he smiled slightly, glad someone was finally listening to him. "All right." He came towards me and lifted me off the ground by my arm, Dean trying to scramble after me. Sam held him in his place and Ronald turned me around to face Dean and Sam. "Everyone else gets in the vault!"

I shook my head as I looked at Dean and Sam. Both of them were pissed. Honestly, I wasn't actually sure what I was doing. But this shouldn't have been it. I wanted to stay with one of them. I hated to admit I didn't feel safe going after this thing while they were in a vault. Ronald dragged everyone else up and off the floor and Dean collided with me as we made our way to the huge bank vault.

"What the hell did I tell you about keeping your mouth shut?" Dean seethed, gripping my arm tightly as we walked down the halls.

"Don't you know me by now?" I asked him. "I'm very self opinionated."

Dean smirked, but everything that he seemed to do had an edge about it. "Yeah, don't I know it?"

I saw Sam come up beside me, finding us in the large group of people. "What are you thinking?" He asked and then he seemed as angry as Dean. "Were you even thinking at all?"

"Look, guys, I'm sorry okay? But one of us has to stay with Ronald otherwise he's gonna get himself killed."

"And so are you." Dean said and his voice shook with worry. "I'll go instead."

"He doesn't trust you."

"Well you're not going by yourself. Not with that yahoo," He motioned to Ronald. "And not with a shifter out on the loose."

Sam nodded agreeing. "It's too dangerous."

I smirked at them as we got to the vault and one of the employees opened it. "Danger is my middle name boys."

"Funny, I thought it was careless and stupid plan."

I glared at Dean. "I don't have four middle names, Dean."

"Come on, move! Move, move!" Ronald yelled and everyone piled into the vault, including Dean and Sam. I instantly felt skittish as they walked away from me. "Now, you lock it up." Ronald instructed me and I sighed, looking at Dean one more time. Although he wasn't angry when he looked at me. He mouthed, 'be careful', Sam's eyes showing the same words. I nodded and smiled slightly at them as I closed the vault, spinning the lock until it made a successful clicking noise.

I turned to look at a shaky Ronald and cleared my throat. "So Ronald…where'd you get the gun?"

O0o0o00o0o0

"So um, Ronald?" I asked as Ronald pushed the gun into my back to make me walk down the halls.

"Yeah?"

"Look, um, I get this whole need to have control thing but I'm not going not run away or try and hurt you. I understand you gotta gun about I weigh like 135, I'm not gonna try and overpower you or anything."

Ronald let out a long breath through his nose as we turned into the bank manager's office. "I don't even like guns ya know, I just…didn't know how to make people listen."

I turned and gave him a small smile as he took the weapon down. "I understand. I'm Andy by the way." I introduced even though now wasn't the time for formal intros. I wanted him to trust me so I could trust him into not doing anything stupid. "And those two guys with me are Dean and Sam. Check behind the desk."

I motioned for him to do so as I checked the connecting room and took that fucking get up off. I straightened out my jeans and retied one of my Chucks. I felt extremely hot in this black t-shirt. But I'm guessing that was just from being stuck in the get up and my heart nearly exploding when I thought Ronald might shoot me in the lobby. I wished more than anything I had Dean and Sam by my side. What the hell had I been thinking? I was the one who told Dean how scared I was in going against a shapeshifter again. And what do I do? Deliberately separate myself from them when Dean had told me to stay close. Damn. If I got out of this alive Dean was going to kill me.

I heard Ronald yelp and then a thumping noise and I ran back into the main office, dropping the get up. I stopped when I saw Ronald was just on the floor. I rolled my eyes and approached him, grimacing as he shifted away quickly from what he had slipped on. Waves of last time came crashing down in my head. I remembered the sewer and how it smelled like blood and sweat. Not to mention garbage and rotting animals.

"What the hell is that?!" Ronald asked me and even though my stomach hated me for it I kneeled down to get closer to the mess of skin, blood and muscle.

"Oh, great." I muttered sarcastically, putting a fist up to my mouth to reduce the chance of vomiting. "When it changes form, it sheds its own skin. So, now it could be anybody."

"Its robot skin is so life-like." I grimaced as Ronald swirled a finger in the mess.

I stood and shook my head going over to help the idiot to a stand. "Okay, let's get something straight. It's not a mandroid. It's a shapeshifter." I told him. I spoke to him like he was a child and even then he didn't understand.

"Shapeshifter?" He asked and part of me just wished I had let him call it a damn mandroid. I think that would have somehow calmed my nerves. I needed to get back to Dean and Sam.

"It's human, more or less." I shrugged, trying to think of an easy way to explain. I started looking over the desk for anything silver. "It has human drives –- in this case, it's money. But it generates its own skin. It can shape it to match someone else's features."

"What are you doing?" Ronald asked me and I sighed, finally finding something that would help. I picked up the letter opener and examined it for a moment.

"You remember the old werewolf stories?"I asked him, putting the letter opener in the waist band of my jeans. "They pretty much came from these guys. Silver's the only thing I've seen that hurts them. Come on, Ronald. I need to get Sam and Dean out of the vault."

"Now hold on a minute…" Ronald said, trying to pull me back.

I reached the lobby and hesitated, turning around. "Look, Ron, I need them okay. The three of us we can stop this thing but I need them." Hell, I needed them because I was scared too but I wasn't going to mention that to him.

He nodded, seeming to understand and smiled. "The four of us can stop this thing."

I smiled slightly and rolled my eyes as we turned to head to the vault. "Yeah, the four of us." I felt like I was encouraging him to go out and kill these things on a daily basis, which I had a small feeling he was going to start doing once we got out of here.

Suddenly the power shut off and my heart sped up in the darkness. "Damn it. No, no, no…not good." For a moment I thought it was the shifter and then I felt like smacking my forehead. We were in a bank. And the worst thing other than a supernatural being that could look like who ever it wanted? Cops.

"What? What is it?" Ronald asked.

We really needed to get to the vault. The cops weren't gonna put up with Ronald's half assed bank job much longer. Which meant they were gonna come in and the shifter was going to get away. Not to mention I'm sure me and the Winchesters had records for something. My heart plummeted and I felt a sinking feeling. Is this what a heart attack felt like? Dean was wanted for murder, for the other fucking shifter in St. Louis. So not good.

"It's the cops." I said, finally answering Ronald. He probably thought I was ignoring him "It's their way of saying hi." I muttered sarcastically. Fucking cops; always in the way.

"The cops?!" Ronald said alarmed.

I damn near laughed as we walked down to the vault. "Well, you weren't exactly a smooth criminal about this, Ron. I mean, you didn't even secure the security guard."

"Well, I didn't think—"

"God," I said frustratingly. "Obviously. Okay…" I said trying to calm down and open the vault. "They've probably got us surrounded and cut the cameras so we have no idea how to tell who the shifter is." I groaned as I pulled the vault open and looked inside a moment. "It's not looking good, Ron." I informed him even though I wasn't looking at him.

"Oh my God! You saved us! You saved us!" A lively red haired woman employee announced and I kind of glared at her as I saw how close she was to Dean that she was basically sitting on his lap. He looked at me annoyed and I motioned for them to come out.

"Actually, just came for my boyfriend and his brother." Sam and Dean passed me and I looked at everyone sympathetically. "Sorry."

"What are you doing?" She asked me, terrified and I shook my head at her, looking at all the forlorn faces. "It'll all be over soon and everyone will be alright. I promise."

We all followed Ronald into the main lobby and I saw blankets of light covering the floor through the windows. Great. That usually meant snipers. I mean, it was the middle of the night and they were using strobe lights, what else could it have meant?

"You alright?" Dean asked, giving me a once over with his eyes.

We made it to the middle of the room and I nodded, bending foreword to give him a kiss on his cheek. "I'm fine but it shed its skin again." I informed them. "We don't know when. Could be in the halls, could be in the vault."

Sam chuckled dryly and turned to Dean. "Great. You know, Dean, you are wanted by the police." Dean just looked at him grimly. "So, even if we do find this damn thing, how the hell are we gonna get out of here?"

Dean rubbed a hand over his forehead. "I don't know, one problem at a time." He looked at me and grabbed my hand, holding it tightly. "All right, we're gonna do a sweep of the whole place to see if we can find any stragglers. Once we get everyone together, we've gotta play a little game of "Find the Freak"."

I smirked. "How the hell are we going to do that? Twenty question them? Threaten them all with silver letter openers until one of them freaks out?" That reminded me. "Oh," I went over to one of the counters and found two more letter openers. "Here." I dipped my hand back into Deans as he put the letter opener in the same place he had had his little knife before. "Why don't you stay here and uh, make sure Ronald doesn't hurt anybody." I whispered to Sam. "Help him manage the situation."

I barely got the word 'situation' out before Sam cut me off. "Help him manage?" He yelled angrily. "Are you insane?"

I glanced over at Ronald and he looked at us, obviously hearing Sam's little fit. Dean winked and gave him an A. OK with his one hand and I pulled on Sam's shirt.

"Look, I know this isn't going the way we wanted it to—"

"Understatement!"

"Stop cutting me off." I said annoyingly, punching him in the arm. "But if we invite the cops in right now, Ronald gets arrested, we get arrested, the shifter gets away. We'll probably never find it again, okay?"

Sam rolled his eyes glancing over at Ronald and then scoffed, gesturing to the front door. Ronald, the brain trust that he was, was standing in the light pointing out his rifle.

"Ron! Out of the light!" Dean scolded and Ronald moved. Dean shook his head, chuckling a little bit entertainingly.

Sam just looked at us like we were insane. "Seriously?!"

Dean sighed and I thanked God he was agreeing with me. "Yeah, Ron's gameplay was a bad plan. I mean, it was a bit of a crazy plan, but right now, crazy's the only game in town, okay?" Dean squeezed my hand and pulled me towards the stairs. "Come on."

I couldn't help but smirk as Sam looked at Ronald. "Hi, Ronald." He deadpanned.

O0o0o00o0o0o

"So how mad at me are you?" I asked Dean as we made our way down one of the hallways.

He didn't look at me, keeping his eyes peeled for any movement. I gripped the letter opener in my hand, careful not to cut my skin or anything. "What are you talking about?" He asked.

"I mean, I deliberately did what you told me not to do." I shrugged. "I figured you'd be furious."

"I was for a little bit." Dean told me, stopping as we turned another hallway and made contact with a ton of office doors. We'd need to search every one. "Believe me. I think I may have broken Sam's left ear with all the curses being slurred after you left." I winced and maybe thought that was why Sam seemed so agitated. "But honestly, I'm just glad you're okay." He said looking at me, kissing my nose.

I smiled and hugged his side for a moment before we moved to check the rooms. The first three were empty and I hoped we'd find something soon. I hated to think that all this time was being wasted if the shifter was already gone. Not to mention the more time we spent looking for this damn thing the more likely the cops were to break in and arrest us.

"Well, I'm sorry for not being able to keep my mouth shut at least." Dean smirked at that, walking past another room that was empty.

"I should seriously consider carrying around duct tape." Dean quirked and I shoved him slightly.

"I honestly didn't know what I was thinking when I said I'd be a hostage. It just kind of rolled out of my mouth."

"You're crazy." Dean said with a grin, turning the handle of another door. "I'll give you that. But you think just like your father, ya know."

I smiled at him, his statement touching my heart, and give him a quick kiss on his lips before we went into the room to look around. "Thanks."

He chuckled, squeezing my hand before he had to let go. "Oddest compliment I ever gave someone but you're welcome."

As Dean opened the door and looked around I noticed one of the ceiling panels was slightly askew. I turned my head as I looked at it and grabbed Dean's shirt.

"Dean, look."

He raised his head to look at it and grabbed a nearby coat rack. "Stand back." He said as he poked at the panel.

Suddenly the damn thing caved in and a body fell to the floor, along with some drywall and a few other panels near by.

I covered my mouth as I coughed from the dust and looked at the body. It was male, African American and his throat was slashed. The shifter had taken his clothes and the poor guy was left in his boxer shorts.

"Oh God." I grimaced quietly and Dean's eyes widened.

"That fucking shifter is in the bank vault." He said hurrying out of the room. I ran after him to catch up.

We ran as quickly as we could and as we approached the vault, the damn thing was already trying to get out. There was an older man, looking pale and sickly, he was clutching his heart and my first thought was, 'dear God, what else are we going to have to deal with?'. Someone obviously had to take him out of here and get him to a hospital. I glanced over to who was helping the old man keep his balance as the pain in his chest made him double over and saw it was the shifter.

Ronald cocked his gun and pointed it at the old man and the shifter. "Both of you stay where you are!"

I glanced over at Dean who was leaning in close to whisper to Sam about the new information and Sam cleared his throat as we all looked at the vault. The shifter twitched slightly; he knew we knew it was him.

"You know what, Ronald? He's right. We've gotta get this man outside." Sam hoisted an arm under the old man and helped him out of the vault. "Come on, I've got you."

The old man was muttering thanks and breathing heavily and I saw Dean glare at the shifter. "Hey can I uh, talk to you for a moment?"

The shifter smirked. "Yeah, sure man, you're calling the shots."

Not two feet out of the vault he slammed Dean's head into the vault door.

"Dean!" I screamed as the shifter ran past. I was caught between running after the shifter and helping Dean, who seemed to be in a whole lot of pain. "Go! Now! Get the son of a bitch!" He screamed at me, making my decision for me.

I turned to look that Ronald was already gone and went to run after the shifter. I made it to the main lobby and saw Sam was near the front door with the old man, trying to help him out.

"Andy, stop!" Sam yelled and I pit stopped as I saw Ronald stopping in a lighted area with a red sniper dot on his back.

"Ronald, move!" I screamed. Ronald had stopped because he had raised his weapon to shoot the shifter and I could tell he wasn't listening to me. But it was too late even if he had heard me. The bullet pierced the glass of the bank window, shattering the damn thing into a million pieces.

I heard the bullet shoot right through Ronald and hit a counter, burying itself into the drywall. I felt someone come up behind me and grip me around my waist to pull me back and out of the range of fire, even though I wasn't standing in any of the lights.

"No!" I screamed, bucking against Dean's hold on me. I knew it had to be him. He was the only I knew who smelled like cinnamon and would pull me out of harm's way like that. Especially since Sam was across the room it was kind of a no brainer.

Dean pulled me behind a marble counter and sat on the ground, holding me to him as I watched Ronald's body collide with the ground, the gun being jiggled in his hands. I put a hand over my mouth and turned my head into Dean's shoulder. He sighed and I knew he was looking at Ronald's body in shock, probably mirroring Sam's face as well. He ran a hand down my hair and pushed my body tightly against him.

Why hadn't I moved quicker? I could have pulled him out of the way or told him to move. Something, anything would have been better than what had happened. Although, I guess if it wouldn't have been for Sam yelling for me to stop, I would have been right in the line of fire too. I wasn't paying attention so I most likely would have gotten shot, just like Ronald.

I heard someone shift next to us and I knew it was Sam, trying to avoid the windows. I kept my head buried in Dean's shoulder, not wanting to lift it and see Ronald's bleeding body.

"She alright?" Sam asked and Dean shrugged his other shoulder. I felt Sam's hand on my back for a moment and then he took it off to hand Dean something. "Here. Take care of the guard. I'm going after the shifter."

"Andy, baby, I need you to go with Sam, okay?" Dean spoke gently and lifted my head to see my tear tracked face. He removed some with the sleeve of his button down and I nodded, shifting.

I sniffled as Dean passed me over to Sam. Sam helped me crouch, because we couldn't stand. We needed to avoid the windows and search the rooms all over again.

"Hey, be careful. Watch out for her, okay?"

Sam nodded towards Dean. "Yeah, you know I will."

Dean kissed my forehead and made his way to grab the riffle off Ronald. "Sorry, Ron." I muttered, mostly to myself. "You did a real good job tracking this thing, you really did."

Sam squeezed me around my shoulders and we made it to the stairwell entrance. Once inside and after we closed the door we stood up, noticing there wasn't any windows.

I sighed up against the door and closed my eyes for a moment. "I can't believe how quick that happened." Sam nodded and headed down the stairs and I slowly followed him. I shook my head. "Poor Ron."

Sam hesitated and turned around to look at me. "Ron was a good guy." He said and I knew he felt bad for kind of hating him and being annoyed by him all this time. Not that Ronald wasn't plenty annoying for all of this. "Crazy with that riffle of his." I giggled slightly and Sam smiled. "But a good guy."

I nodded and smiled at Sam and he grabbed my hand to move me along. "Come on, let's find this damn shifter."

I followed him down the steps. "Do you think we'll be able to get out without getting arrested?" I asked, slightly kidding yet totally serious.

Sam shrugged, looking around to make sure no one could get the drop on us. "I don't know. Let's worry about killing this damn thing first."

"We also have to worry about the cops coming in. I mean, they shot Ronald and I'm sure they saw Dean close the door back up when he took the guard outside. There's only so much more shit they're gonna put up with before that come in packing."

Whether Sam just wanted to ignore that fact or whether he found something down the stairs and a bit ahead of us I wasn't sure. But he did find more skin and I grimaced seeing the blood and clothes lying about.

"Call Dean."

I nodded and pulled out my cell, waiting as it rang for him to answer. I hoped he was okay, but after the third ring he picked up.

"Yeah, you alright?" He asked me.

I nodded even though he couldn't see me. "Bastard shed his skin again. You know this one's a whole lot faster than the one in St. Louis." I paced watching Sam get close to the goo.

"God, it's like playing the Shell Game. It could be anybody, again!" He sounded extremely frustrated and worried and I sighed, rubbing a hand over my face. "I think most of the employees are out of the vault by now, I rounded a few more up and locked them in there. Although have Sam check the rest of the stairwell and the offices down stairs alright?" He sounded calmer when he said that, obviously both boys were trying to ignore the fact that probably twenty or thirty cop cars and a few helicopters were all outside, gunning for us.

"All right, I'll meet you at the vault. We need to figure out who the hell the shifter is and get this over with." I said, trying to be as calm as everyone else seemed to be.

I guess ignoring the fact that we were so extremely screwed made everything better.

O0o0o0o00o0

I found Dean on the phone near the vault, in a very extremely heated conversation with I'm guessing an FBI agent. Why did he pick up the phone anyways? We weren't negotiating or making demands. God, I just wanted to get this fucking shifter, take a long hot bath and crawl in bed with Dean. How is that too much to ask? I barely asked for anything all my life. Not out loud anyways.

"You don't know crap about my dad." Dean said emotionally and locked eyes on me. Whoever was on the phone with Dean knew about us. I could tell the way Dean's eyes were anxious and scared.

I approached him slowly, putting an arm around his waist. He seemed to squirm but I held him still as an echo of a very angry voice made itself known in Dean's ear again. I couldn't tell what it was saying but it was making Dean extremely upset.

"You've got no right talking about my dad like that. He was a hero."

I squeezed Dean again, leaning in to kiss his shoulder. Suddenly he hung up the phone, trying to take a deep and calming breath through his nose.

"We just tail spinned into screwed." Dean told me, wrapping a thankful arm around my waist. "Guy named Hendrickson knows everything. About you and me and Sammy; about the desecrations and the thefts. He knows about St. Louis and about dad."

Dean looked extremely alarmed and I felt bad that I was kind of glad that everyone was starting to freak out about this now. I had been freaking out since the power went out in knowing the cops were here and the Winchesters were acting like it was a stroll in the park.

I rubbed his back for a moment, trying to be calming but knowing there wasn't much I could do. We were really screwed this time weren't we? We couldn't weasel our way out of arrest or pretend we knew nothing. It wasn't like there were two cops outside that would easily be knocked out with two hits to the skull. We weren't getting out of this one. Not this time.

"We're so very screwed, aren't we?" All the hard work my dad and Dean's dad put foreword felt like it had been washed away in a matter of seconds.

Dean seemed like he wanted to nod but instead leaned down and kissed my hairline, his lips breaching my forehead; warming and calming my entire system. "Think that's the general terminology, yeah."

Sam walked into the room, catching our somber faces. I wasn't sure whether it was easier to ignore them or ask about them. Guess it shouldn't have been a priority, how everyone was feeling, we still had a fucking shifter to catch.

"We've got a bit of a problem outside." Dean informed Sam, but I'm sure Sam knew that already, especially with our faces confirming it.

Sam gestured to the vault. "We've got a problem in here." He said grimly. "The red head…?"

"Sherri?" Dean asked and I looked at him a bit confused, even though the look wasn't intentional. It was more like a habit by now when a switch flipped on in my head. "She had a nametag." Dean replied, off my look. And now I felt embarrassed. Now was so not the time to be thinking of my petty jealousy issues. Dean left a small kiss on my forehead, even though I didn't feel like I necessarily deserved it at the moment, and unlocked the vault and slid it open.

"Sherri?" Dean asked gently. Sam and I walked up behind Dean, kind of like a blockade. We really didn't need to have a repeat performance with what happened with Ronald. The red head, Dean had called her Sherri?, was really a good actress. She was looking at all of us confused and scared. Like a dear caught in the headlights. Although, I don't think any of us were prepared to buy it. Shifters were damn good at pretending. "We're gonna let you go."

"What? Why me?" She asked, gripping onto another female assistant. I gripped the letter opener in my hand.

"Uh, it's a show of good faith to the Feds. Come on." Dean motioned her out, but all she did was grip the older lady assistant and glance at the shining of metal in all of our hands. Wow, shifter was good. I gave it that. I almost felt bad it was making 'Sherri' look so damn terrified. "I'm afraid I'm gonna have to insist." Dean persisted, seeing how she wasn't moving.

After a long pause that made me want to go in there and grab her hair to move her along she finally nodded and made her way towards us, Sam grabbing her arm rather harshly. After pulling her through the lobby and down the stairs, the shifter bucking in Sam's grasp like a rapid dog, we finally got her to the office where Sam had found her corpse. One look at her own corpse in its lingerie caused 'Sherri' to start screaming and thrashing, pushing back against Sam and trying to run out the door.

Dean looked at me and Sam confused. "Is that community theatre, or do you think she's just naturally that good?"

I smirked as Sam raised his weapon. "This is the last time you become anybody, ever." He vowed. Suddenly 'Sherri' collapsed, fainting to the ground.

I hesitated, looking at the corpse and than the shifter. "What the hell?" I passed Sam and knelt next to corpse. Dean knelt next to 'Sherri' pushing her shoulders for a moment to see if she'd wake up.

We were taking too long. The cops would be here any minute and I was finishing this. For Ronald. I looked at the fine slit along the neck. I glanced at Dean, seeing his arms raised to stab 'Sherri' with the letter opener.

"Dean, wait." I said and he paused, arms stretched and ready to plunge. He didn't move them just in case I was wrong. But as I thought about it, I found it less and less likely that the one that needed to be stabbed was the one with the nametag on and a very expensive dress suit. "What's the advantage of this plan?" I asked, looking at Dean and then Sam. Dean's arms slowly lowered at that and he glanced at the two Sherri's. "I mean, fainting now wouldn't help it survive."

Dean stood and looked towards Sam. When Sam nodded Dean gave me the go ahead. I rolled my eyes and took the letter opener I had been holding and held it over the corpse. Suddenly we heard glass break in the lobby and I swore my heart dislodged itself into my throat. Cops were saying, 'time's up'.

I turned back to get the job done, the last job I guess I'd ever really have, when the corpse opened its eyes.

"Shit!"

My warning kind of came too late as the shifter posing as the corpse grabbed my arm, pinning me from stabbing it and grasped my throat. It gripped its fingers tightly around my neck, trying to choke me.

Of course, that was when the real Sherri woke up and gripped Dean, grabbing his legs before he could move towards me to help. I struggled in the shifter's strong hold, coughing violently as my air supply was slowly being cut off. Dean shuffled a screaming Sherri off to Sam instructing him to get her the hell out of there. Sam obeyed, taking her out. As soon as Dean got his hands on me, the shifter kicked me in the chest sending me into Dean. I collided with him and we both ended up on the floor.

I groaned, pushing myself off, holding my aching chest. "Come on, I'm not letting that damn thing run away twice." I held out my hand for him to grab. Dean nodded and gripped my hand as I pulled him up. He winced and grabbed his ribs for a moment; I think I may have felt my elbow dig into a place between his ribs. "I think I saw it go left?"

"Good thing." Dean said as pulled my body to run to the left as flashlights bounced off the wall to the right. "Cause our buddies the feds are the other way."

Somehow a few turns down the hallway and one flight down the stairs we ended up in a basement like room. I'm guessing this was kind of like a boiler room for the bank. I think we knew by now that the shifter wasn't going to hide. It was just going to focus on getting out. The feds were crawling around the building, searching the place head to toe for employees and us. There was no way the shifter was hiding, especially since it didn't have time to shift skins into something that didn't look like Sherri.

"Damn it, if we can't find it…"

"We'll find it." Dean assured me, hushing his voice in case cops or the shifter was near. "We have to. If this is our last job we're not doing it half assed."

I smiled. "Just like your father, Dean Winchester."

I could hear his grin even though the room was somewhat dark. There were lights on the ceiling like there should have been but for some reason there weren't as many and they were incredibly dull. Who buys light bulbs like that? If you have no intention to light a room why use those kind of bulbs at all? I guess I shouldn't have been really thinking about that right now anyways.

Out of nowhere I heard a scuffle behind me and I heard Dean grunt and being thrown backwards. Well, I'm guessing backwards because we were stuck between crawling two heating boilers and he didn't run into me and I was in front of him. I held the letter opener in front of me, trying to protect myself from something I couldn't exactly see at the moment. Another quick kick to the chest shoved me up against the nearest wall, knocking the wind and I swear my lungs right along with it right out of me. I avoided the next blow, the shifter hitting its fist into the wall. I thrashed the knife around under the dull lighting, the blade barely glaring against the light. The shifter avoided every move. I finally managed to grab its arm and the skin of Sherri peeled right off.

I grimaced, feeling it slide like pulling off the wings of an insect. "Okay, that's just gross." I said disgusted as I threw it to the side and the shifter threw a punch at my face.

I moved my head but it managed to graze across my jaw. I threw my own fist at it, the sound of bones cracking as I collided it with its cheekbone. I managed to whirl it around in its dazed state and pushed it against the wall. I slammed its head back, managing to shake loose some cement. Not waiting another minute I plunged the letter opener into its chest. It groaned and looked me in the eyes as it slid down the wall. It was dead before it landed on the ground.

I kneeled down and looked at the Sherri shifter and shook my head. "For Ronald." I said quietly and sighed, feeling my jaw and rubbing a hand over my aching ribs.

I heard footsteps behind me and nearly gasped as I saw it was two feds. I looked at the shifter, the letter opener, my lap, and the feds all at once. Shit. Damnit and any other swear word I could say in three seconds flat. I think that's how long it took for me to have a small heart attack. I finally just rose my hands slightly and looked extremely defeated.

"Nice hit Core, figured you could handle it yourself."

I looked up at the fed to my right. I knew that cocky voice. "Dean?"

"One and only sweetheart."

I looked at the fed next to Dean, guessing it was Sam. He handed me another getup similar to the ones they had one. There were at least four layers to put on and I sighed, getting into the outfit as fast I could.

"Thanks for leaving me alone with that thing while you played dress up Dean." I said sourly, slipping on what looked like a ski mask attached to a turtle neck.

"You're a tough cookie," Dean replied affectionately and I rolled my eyes, putting on the helmet like thing last. I adjusted the boots and followed them out of the basement. "I knew you could take it out. Besides, I was right there. If you needed help I would have jumped in."

"While you were trying to slide on your fed pants?" Sam snickered at that and Dean shoved him foreword. "Thanks, that's reassuring."

O0o0o0o0o0o0

"Okay, so…everyone knows that just because we managed to get out of that," I peeled off the layers of clothes until I was in my t-shirt and jeans. "Doesn't mean we aren't still immensely screwed."

"Thank you captain obvious." Dean muttered, taking off his own getup and plopping down on one of the motel beds.

"What do we do with these? Are we going to keep them?" I asked both of them before I threw out the getup.

Sam shrugged, taking off the helmet and bullet proof vest. "I don't think any of us want to be feds for Halloween, right?" Dean and I shook our heads incessantly. "Plus they probably know we escaped as feds, those guys were only tied up in a storage closet and they're searching every inch of that bank." Sam grabbed all the outfits and helmets, piling them into a big stack in his arms. "Better to just pitch them."

He started heading towards the door and managed to open it slightly and kick it all the way aside with his foot. "Where are you going?" I asked.

"I'm gonna head down the street to those dumpsters I saw on the way here. I'll dump them in there."

I nodded and went to close the door after him. "So what do we do till this thing calms down?" I asked Dean, going closer to him. "I mean, do we lay low for a while or continue with cases and just—"

"Manage not to involve a bank and the FBI next time?" He quirked and I smiled at the wise ass comment.

"Yeah, exactly."

He leaned up to pull me down to lay on his chest. I snuggled in close to him, happy and comforted to have his strong arms wrap around my frame and hold me there. We didn't say anything much after that. Just laid there in the comfort of each others hold, listening to the traffic outside, the ceiling fan and to each others breathing. Dean was leaving soft, loving kisses on top of my head and I smiled, leaning my head in closer to his to kiss his chin and jaw.

"Hey," Dean said tenderly, pushing hair behind my ear. I craned my head to look at him and he sat up, adjusting me on his lap. "You know Sam and I will figure this out right? None of us are going to jail." He was trying to be reassuring. To play the role in comforting me that I wanted him to. But I knew, deep down, if the cops tried hard enough we were all screwed. But I didn't want to say that. Because maybe he was trying to convince himself that he'd be able to keep me and Sam safe by saying that. No matter what. So I nodded and gave him a small smile.

"I know." I put my arms around his neck and gave him a tight hug, which he returned and rubbed his knuckles along my back in small circles.

When I pulled back he had a small smile on his face. "You want to watch a movie and not actually watch it?"

"You mean you want to make out?" I wisecracked as his bobbed his eyebrows up and down for a moment. I pushed my lips against his and savored the taste of strong cinnamon as my tongue collided with his.

"Sounds good." He said with a grin and lifted me aside. "Let me head to the bathroom and we'll get started."

I nodded and watched him get up. "Hey, you know what else sounds good?" He cocked his head back to look at me. "Waffles." Something suddenly covered my head and I saw it was the button down he'd had on. I heard the bathroom door close and I giggled, taking off the shirt and throwing it towards the duffel. "I'm not letting that go until you admit it!"

"Be prepared for losing this battle, sweetheart, I'm admitting anything." I heard Dean say and then the sink turn on.

I rolled my eyes, getting up and going into our duffel to get some pajama's on. I think I'd actually have to wear my own since Dean was running low on clothes…since him and I were both wearing them half the time. I wondered whose turn was it to do laundry this week. It was either mine or Sam's. I pulled out this little mini calendar I kept in Dean and my duffel. It didn't really hold much information so I barely looked at the thing. But it had baby puppies on the pages, which I knew Dean thought were cute whether he'd admit to it or not so I wanted to keep it regardless. I figured there was something I could put in it. I put birthdays and anniversaries and the lunar cycle and things like whose job it was to clear out the Impala for garbage and whose job it was to do the laundry. Stuff like that.

I flipped through the small calendar and as I landed on which week we were on and I scrunched my eyebrows in confusion.

"What?" I asked myself as I sat slowly at the kitchen table.

"Alright," I heard Dean say as he came out of the bathroom. "What movie did you…?" I'm guessing his eyes settled on me in the chair. "Andy?" He walked towards me slowly but I refused to look up at him. I kept staring at the red sharpie marking the entire week above the one we were on. Tears started fogging my vision and as Dean kneeled in front of me some poured over my lashes and gently plopped on the calendar. "Hey, babe, what is it?"

I raised my eyes to meet his confused and worried ones and that caused most of the built up tears to course down my cheeks. "Dean, I think…" I hesitated and looked at the calendar again to make sure.

"What?"

"I think I missed my period." My voice broke and elevated in strange places and Dean just looked at me a moment. A long moment that told me how terrified he was. He lifted himself from the floor and drew me in his arms.

o0o0o0o0

:D

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