Dean, Sam, and Alina, decided to call it a day and went back to the motel. After eating and studying more articles, it didn't take too long for the brothers to fall asleep. But Alina felt uncomfortable sleeping in the same bed as Dean. She was scared of having another nightmare. So once she was sure he was asleep, she slowly got up and went to sit on the couch in front of the beds. She sighed at her own fear of sleep. Was she being irrational? It was just a dream after all.

"Alina?"

She almost jumped when she heard Sam's voice. She hadn't noticed that he was now awake, and standing next to his bed. "You okay?" He asked her, surprised to see her on the couch.

She didn't know what to say, because she too was worried about him. She knew how hard it was for him to get a good night of sleep lately, and that he had dreamt a lot about Jessica. She couldn't bother him with her own problems. "I'll be fine. Don't worry." Sam clearly wasn't convinced, so he joined her on the couch and kept looking at her with curious eyes until she agreed to tell the truth. "Okay I'm not fine right now. It's just…I had a little accident with Dean earlier, when he tried to wake me up. And I can't take the risk of hurting him again just because of a stupid dream."

Sam was shocked and sadden to hear that her nightmares were back. "Is it still about Chris?"

She hated to hear his name. It only made the guilt worse. "Yeah. Seeing Mr Carlton this morning, it reminded me of Charlie."

She sadly smiled, then stared back at him with an apologetic look. "I'm sorry. You shouldn't be listening to this. I'm not the only one here with sleeping issues."

"Alina…"

"Sam don't lie to me. You don't have to tell me anything, but at least don't lie."

He shared a sad look with her, then simply nodded in agreement. "You know it's just…what happened to Jessica, and not being able to find dad…"

She took his hand in hers, put her head on his shoulder, just like she used to do when they were kids and one of them needed to be comforted. Right now they both needed each other.

"Sam?"

"Huh?"

"I know it's been months and I haven't been able to tell you a lot about Chris' death. To be honest, there are some things that even Charlie doesn't know."

She paused, but he stayed silent to let her continue without being interrupted.

"I don't think I'm ready yet, but when I decide to tell you everything, will you listen to me?"

He softly put his free arm around her and hold her tight to reassure her. "Of course. Anytime."

She smiled. "Great. And…when you'll be ready, will you talk to me?"

She had always been the one person he never feared to talk to. He couldn't talk about his past as a hunter with Jessica, and couldn't talk about his present as a college student with Dean or John. But Alina could always listen to anything he had to say, and never let him think he was wrong to want a normal life. "I will."

"Thanks." She said before closing her eyes. She felt safe with the Winchesters. The more time she was spending with them, the more she realized just how big was the hole in her life for five years.

Sam was her best friend, and Dean was…he was Dean. Nobody could ever replace them.

The next day, Dean was walking out of the bathroom after taking a long shower, when Alina woke up with a big yawn. "You better not have used all the hot water Winchester."

"You're the sweetest person I know Frenchy, until you decide to wake up."

"Shut up."

The young woman got off the bed and went straight to the cup of coffee on the table with her name written on it. It was Sam's writing. She took a quick sip, and instantly gave Dean a disgusted look. "It's cold."

"So you'll be accustomed when you'll take your shower, that's good."

"Jerk…" She was too tired to not have any coffee at all, so she kept drinking it even if she wished she didn't have to.

"So you changed beds during the night." Dean pointed out.

Only then, Alina realized that she indeed had woken up in Sam's bed. She figured she had fallen asleep on the couch, so Sam had carried her to his bed, not being able to close his eyes from the fear of dreaming about Jessica. She felt bad for her friend.

"So what? Are you jealous Winchester? We've been sleeping in the same bed since I came back, you know you have to share with your brother sometimes."

He smiled and stood right in front of her, not really surprised to see that she was still keeping eye contact with him even though they were so close to each other. Most women would've already looked away in embarrassment, but she always confronted him with a smile.

"Come on Frenchy. You know there are some things I don't wanna share with Sammy."

"Well if I was yours to share, which fortunately I am not, I can guaranty you we wouldn't be sleeping right next to another man anyway. We wouldn't be sleeping at all."

Her smile grew wider as Dean's disappeared. His mouth slowly dropping in realization.

"See? I wasn't kidding about the flirting advices thing."

She mocked him by taping his torso with her free hand, and walked past him pretending to be unfazed by the strong muscles under the shirt she had just touched. She even drank all that was left of her coffee so whatever face she was making, could easily pass as a grimace due to the cold beverage. "So where's Sammy?" She changed the subject and started to take some clothes out of her bag.

Dean cleared his throat and finally turned around. "Looking for clues around the city."

"Why didn't you go with him?"

"I didn't want you to wake up alone in case you had another nightmare."

Alina's hand froze on the shirt she was about to take out of her bag. She frowned and turned around, astounded by his answer. "What?"

Dean simply gave her a questioning look. He didn't seem to understand Alina's reaction, since he had always protected her in every way he could. After witnessing her troubled state the day before, he didn't want her to wake up that scared in an empty room.

But Alina didn't expect him to be so caring. Or at least, she didn't know he could say things like that without cringing at himself for showing human emotions.

"Something wrong?" Dean interrogated the silent girl.

"No…I guess not." She usually didn't like it when people treated her like a fragile little thing, but Dean staying by her side because he was worried about her having a nightmare, was actually adorable.

Alina gently smiled at him. "On dirait que tu n'as pas vraiment besoin de mes conseils pour séduire une femme." (Looks like you don't really need my advices to seduce a woman.)

"What was that?" He asked confused at the French words that came out of her mouth.

"I said : I'll freeze your ass if I have to take a cold shower after that coffee."

And she locked the bathroom door behind her after a last threatening glance. She had always been grateful to be able to talk different languages.

Why had she said something like that in front of him? That was so cheesy.

"That idiot…" She mumbled as she took off her clothes.

After a few minutes, she heard the front door open, and recognized Sam's voice. She couldn't understand what the brothers were talking about, but she hoped that they now had more clues for their investigation. She finished washing all the soap on her body, thinking about Andrea and Lucas. About the way she had felt the day before when talking to the mother with the boys. Why had she felt that way? She didn't even know the woman that much, and wasn't as much as an empath as Sam. So why?

As she was thinking about it, she started to feel uneasy. The same way she could feel danger coming whenever she was in the middle of a hunt. Her hunter's instinct had never failed her, so she immediately shut the water down and looked around her, trying to focus on the silence without paying attention to what the Winchesters were saying in the main room.

But then she realized that the water at her feet hadn't drained, and when she looked down, she just had time to see something coming out of the now brown liquid, and was fast to dodge it before it could grab her and make her slip to the ground. She clearly couldn't fight water, so she quickly got out of the shower and grabbed a towel. As she wrapped it around her, black water started to fill the sink next to her.

So she made sure to hold on tight to her towel to keep it around her, unlocked the door and escaped the room in the blink of an eye to slam the door behind her and block it with her own body. She saw the boys before they saw her, and when they did, Sam immediately looked away while Dean seemed to look even more at her.

"Wow Frenchy, Sam is back you can't surprise me like that when he's here."

"Sorry, I guess from now on I'll take showers fully dressed so I won't have to escape the murderous water in a freaking towel!"

"Wait, what?" The two boys snapped in chorus. Sam took a quick glance at her to make sure she was okay, but Dean walked straight to her, grabbing her head in his hand to look for any sign of injuries.

"Dean I'm freaking naked! Get the hell away from me, pervert!" She slapped his hands and went to her open bag, picking the first clothes she could find. She then stared at Dean, since Sam was already facing the wall. "Dean?"

"What?"

"I'm not going back in there just to get dressed! Turn around!"

"You know it's nothing I haven't already…"

Before he could finish, she violently threw at him the first thing she could grab, which was a bra. "Turn around!"

This time he obeyed and turned his body towards the closed bathroom door. At first he didn't even notice that the bra was still hanging on his shoulder, but when he did, he immediately took it to take a closer look in disbelief. "That's definitely a C cup."

He groaned when Alina's towel hit the back of his head, and threw the bra on the bed.

"Sam tell me you found something." Alina said while buttoning her shirt.

"Yeah, that's what Dean and I were talking about. Will Carlton is dead, he drowned in the sink."

Alina almost tripped when she slipped her second leg into her jeans. "He freaking what?!" So the thing in the shower was the same thing that had killed all this people?

"Did you see what was in the water?" Dean asked in a more serious tone.

"Maybe if we hadn't picked a motel with lights issues…"

"But why attack Alina?" Sam asked his brother. "I thought Bill Carlton was the connection between the victims."

"I sure as heck am not connected to that guy. You guys can look now."

The brothers turned around and found the girl fully dressed with a small gun in her hands.

"What's with the gun?"

"I'm not leaving my favorite jacket with it! Move!"

She got to the door before they could stop her and kicked it open, already aiming her gun at the sink. But as expected, the thing hadn't wait for her to come back. Everything was perfectly dry and clean. At least, as clean as it was before she got attacked. She sighed and put her gun in her belt to take her stuff and get it back to the bedroom. Dean and Sam tried to take a look around but didn't find anything either, so Alina was relieved to be with them, because anyone else would've taken her for a crazy woman.

"Okay so the thing that killed all these people and attacked me, can control all the water that comes from the lake." Alina resumed after hearing everything she had missed while she was in the bathroom.

"Which would explain why it's upping the body count." Dean angrily said. "The lake is draining. It'll be dry in a few months. Whatever this thing is, whatever it wants, it's running out of time."

"And if it can get through the pipes, it can get to anyone, almost anywhere."

"But why me?" Alina was tired of this. This wasn't the first time something tried to kill her, but she still wanted to know why she was the one being targeted. "Dean took a shower before me and he had all his clothes on when he came out."

"That's what's bothering you the most Frenchy?"

"Well most of the time when a guy gets to see me half naked, I get to see him half naked Winchester. It's called being even, but it's not our top priority right now so shut up. What else do you got Sam?"

Sam tried to ignore the little arguments between his brother and his friend, and replied before Dean could add something. "We know this has got something to do with Bill Carlton. It took both of his kids and I've been asking around. Lucas' dad, Chris? Bill Carlton's godson."

"Let's go pay Mr. Carlton a visit." Dean announced with eagerness. He didn't want that thing to hurt Alina again, so they had to hurry and kill it.

They were relieved to see that the ambulance was gone when they arrived at Bill Carlton's house, and Alina was ready to get out of the car and join Sam outside, when Dean stopped her. From the driver's seat, he leaned over just enough so he could close back the passenger's door and keep her from leaving.

"What're you doing Dean?"

"You're not coming with us."

"Excuse me? Huh, yes I am."

"No you're not. We don't know why that thing attacked you so until we find out how to kill it, you're staying away from that lake. Which means, you're staying in the car."

She knew he was right. She did have a gun and a dagger on her, but what was she going to do against water?

She was scared to let the boys handle things alone again, but she also didn't want to see that man now grieving his two children, when their first 'encounter' had been so overwhelming for the young woman.

"Fine." She agreed with a sigh. "But don't make me wait too long 'cause I'll change my mind if I get bored."

"Yeah right…"

She watched the brothers walk away and groaned, annoyed, when they disappeared behind the house to get to the docks. If she'd known…well she wouldn't have stayed at the motel anyway. The Impala was probably the best prison ever. She went trough the cassettes collections, and played "Back In Black" by AC/DC without hesitation. With a smile, she closed her eyes and pretended to play the drums with both her hands, as her dad always used to play air guitar when they listened to the music together. "I've got, nine lives! Cat's eyes! Using every one of them and running wild!"

Since the music ended without the boys being back, she played it again. This time, she heard the driver's door open in the middle of the song, and opened her eyes to see Dean sitting next to her, smiling at the radio.

But Sam decided to ruin the mood when he leaned over from the backseat and stopped the music, getting two furious pair of eyes turning at him. "What the heck Sammy?!" Dean and Alina shouted in chorus without realizing it.

"It's Sam." He corrected, only looking at Dean since he didn't really mind Alina calling him Sammy. "Plus, we need to focus guys. Mr Carlton didn't gave us any useful infos so what do you think?"

Alina wasn't surprised to learn about Bill Carlton's actual mental state. Of course he didn't want to say anything to anyone when his whole family had been taken away from him in such a brutal way.

"I think the poor guy's been through hell. I also think he's not telling us something." Dean answered.

As she was looking at him, Alina spotted the folded paper in the pocket of his jacket. Lucas' drawing. She wondered why he had gave them a picture of a house, until her eyes landed on the one standing in front of them. Bill Carlton's house.

"So now what?" Sam asked.

Alina startled the both of them when she grabbed Dean's jacket and took the picture like it was the most natural thing to do. Before they could say anything, she unfolded the paper and gave it to Dean. The hunter didn't seem to understand, but it only took him a few seconds to also solve the puzzle.

"What is it?" Sam questioned the two smiling hunters.

Dean gave him the drawing. "Maybe Bill's not the only one who knows something."

Convincing Andrea to let them talk to her son again wasn't an easy task, and Alina could understand her fears. They wanted to help but they were only strangers. So she felt more than relieved when they finally got to Lucas' bedroom, where the little boy was sitting on the ground, coloring as usual. The four adults approached the doorway, but only Dean entered the room to crouch down in front of the kid. "Hey, Lucas. You remember me?"

Alina noticed that Lucas had drawn two more pictures of a red bicycle, and wondered if it was connected to their job.

"You know, I, uh, I wanted to thank you for that last drawing. But the thing is, I need your help again."

Lucas kept drawing, so Dean opened the picture of the house and put it down in front of him, trying to get a reaction.

"How did you know to draw this? Did you know something bad was gonna happen? Maybe you could nod yes or no for me."

Nothing. The little boy didn't want to talk, or even look at him. Alina suddenly felt her heartbeats getting faster and was afraid of what this sign usually meant. But why now? Out of nowhere? She wasn't even anxious about this case in particular, so why was she reacting like that suddenly? As if her own emotions weren't in control of her body anymore. She couldn't have a panic attack right now, in front of everyone. What would they think?

"You're scared. It's okay. I understand." Dean was obviously talking to Lucas, but his words echoed in the young woman's mind and reassured her just enough so she could try and control her breath.

"See, when I was your age, I saw something real bad happen to my mom, and I was scared, too. I didn't feel like talking, just like you. But see, my mom…I know she wanted me to be brave. I think about that every day. And I do my best to be brave. And maybe, your dad wants you to be brave too."

After a second or two, Lucas dropped his crayon and looked up at Dean. He then turned to look at Alina in the doorway, who was still trying to calm down. She didn't show her anxiety, and smiled at him. She had told him the day before that she wanted to follow her dad's path, so she too had to look brave even if some times were harder than others. She couldn't be weak if she wanted to stay alive.

The little boy nodded at her, as if he understood what she wasn't telling him, making Andrea and the Winchesters stare at her, confused. And she couldn't give them an answer because she didn't know what was happening either.

Lucas then took a paper on the ground, and handed Dean the picture of a white church, a yellow house, and a boy with a blue baseball cap and a red bicycle, in front of a wooden fence. Dean took the picture with a proud face. "Thanks, Lucas."

LATER

The three hunters were now in the Impala, trying to figure out what was going on with Lucas.

"Andrea said the kid never drew like that till his dad died." Dean said.

"There are cases…going through a traumatic experience could make people more sensitive to premonitions, psychic tendencies."

"Whatever's out there, what if Lucas is tapping into it somehow?"

"That would explain the Shining thing he did on me before giving us the picture." Alina explained, still curious to know why the kid had nodded at her out of nowhere.

"What were you thinking about?" Sam tried to help her find an answer.

"I…" She couldn't talk about the panic attacks. Not now. The Winchesters were already so protective of her, they didn't need to worry more. "I was curious about the multiple drawings of the same red bicycle, and I guess it was important after all."

"Yeah I mean, it's only a matter of time before somebody else drowns, so if you got a better lead, please." Dean went back to the investigation.

"All right, we got another house to find." Sam raised the picture in front of him so Alina could get a better look from the backseat.

"The only problem is there's about a thousand yellow two-stories in this county alone."

"See this church? I bet there's less than a thousand of those around here."

"Oh, College Boy thinks he's so smart."

Alina rolled her eyes at them, even if she did enjoy their siblings rivalry when it was just that, and not another occasion for them to argue about John Winchester.

"You know, um..." Sam started after a short moment. "What you said about Mom..."

The girl in the backseat could easily see Dean's body tensing up at the mention of his mother. He didn't like to talk about personal stuff, especially when it came to their mom. If he had another choice, he wouldn't have talked about it with Lucas either.

"You never told me that before." Sam struggled to finish.

"It's no big deal."

Again with the big voice. Alina admired and hated that voice.

"Oh God, we're not gonna have to hug or anything, are we?"

She smiled at his comment, also wanting to light up the mood in the car. She leaned over the front seats. "I'll hug you if he doesn't want to, Sammy."

"Wow." Dean stopped her immediately. "I didn't know you were an option."

"Too bad I wasn't talking to you."

"Heck no! If he gets a hug, I get a hug too!"

"Okay! So nobody gets a hug! Happy?!"

And they all laughed at the childish argument.

They kept driving until they finally reached a place that looked just like the picture. A white church shaped like the one drawn by Lucas, with a yellow house right next to it and a wooden fence. They easily got invited inside the house by an old woman, and started asking questions. Since the picture showed a kid, the first thing they asked Mrs Sweeney was if a little boy with a blue ball cap and a red bicycle lived here with her.

That's how they found out about Peter Sweeney's disappearance thirty five years ago. Without a sign, one day, he was supposed to ride his bike straight home after school, but never showed up. The poor woman was devastated, claiming that loosing her son was worse than dying. The hunters had noticed some familiar toy soldiers on a table, and the interesting picture of two boys. The first one with the bicycle was Peter, and they only had to read the back of the picture to finally get the perfect connection in their case. Bill Carlton was the second little boy.

"Okay, this little boy Peter Sweeney vanishes, and this is all connected to Bill Carlton somehow." Sam repeated once they got back on the road.

"Yeah, Bill sure as hell seems to be hiding something, huh?"

"And Bill, the people he loves, they're all getting punished."

"So what if Bill did something to Peter?"

"What if Bill killed him?"

"Peter's spirit would be furious. It'd want revenge. It's possible."

"Guys?" Alina interrupted them. "Aren't you forgetting the fact that Peter also attacked me? I'm definitely not related to that Bill Carlton, and we definitely don't know each other, so why the hell did Casper try to kill me?!"

"Alina calm down." Sam turned to the backseat to reassure her, while Dean was giving her worried looks in the rear view mirror. "Maybe he knows we're here to stop him. Spirits always try to scare hunters away."

"He didn't attack you two. And I…"

She didn't know how to explain it to them, but she felt uneasy about it. She hadn't forgot that Peter attacked her the moment she started thinking about Andrea and Lucas. And he didn't seem like he was trying to scare her, it was as if he didn't even know who she was.

But maybe she was just tired. Maybe she was too freaked out because of her memories of Charlie and Chris. Maybe that nightmare did really mess her up.

The car quickly pulled up in front of Bill Carlton's house, and Dean gave Alina an angry look when she got out of the car with them. "Frenchy I told you to stay away from the lake!"

"Like hell I am…"

She walked faster towards the house, not giving Dean the chance to stop her.

"Mr Carlton?" Sam called.

The only response they got was the sudden roar of an engine behind the house. They all exchanged a worried expression and went around the house to find Bill going out on the lake in his boat. They didn't hesitated and ran to the end of the dock, yelling at the man to turn around, to come out of the water. They tried to warn him, but Bill Carlton chose to ignore them. Soon, the water rose up and flipped the boat over, making it and Mr Carlton, vanish.

They had failed once again to save a life. Alina felt defeated. She had told Lucas that her job was to stop the monster before they could hurt anyone else, and yet she had just hopelessly witnessed another death.

Sam let out a frustrated groan and started to walk away. Dean quickly did the same, but Alina couldn't move from her spot. She could feel Lucas' fear taking control of her body again. The poor little boy. How could she let him down like that?

All of a sudden, she felt something grabbing her ankle just like it had try to earlier, and she didn't have time to react because she was already pulled into the lake, only able to scream one word. "Dean!"

The brothers turned around at the same time Alina was being dragged into the lake. Dean's mind instantly shut in panic, but his body moved without a single doubt. He ran as fast as he could, and jumped in the cold water. It only took him a few seconds to spot Alina a little further away, fighting against an invisible force trying to drag her at the bottom of the lake. She knew she was fine as long as she was still breathing, but having to fight back wasn't helping.

Even though she was tired, she couldn't give up. Even if she couldn't save herself, she was convinced Dean would come for her.

And being right had never felt so good. Peter's hand had to let go of her ankle when two strong arms wrapped around Alina's waist and started to pull her away from the spirit.

The two hunters took a deep breath when they finally reached the surface, and even though Alina was now able to crawl out of the water by herself, Dean's hand stayed on her back to guide her and make sure she was safe. Once they both fell to the ground, panting and freezing, Sam was fast to take off his jacket and put it on Alina's shoulders to warm her up as much as he could. "I'll go grab a cover, don't move." And just like that he was gone, leaving his brother in charge of the girl coughing the little amount of water that had succeeded to enter her mouth.

"You okay?" Dean asked her, lifting himself up to put his hand on her shoulder and check up on her.

The moment she felt the small contact, she let her head fall on his chest, exhausted. "Okay…I guess you were right. I should've…I should've stayed in the car…"

She heard him chuckle before pulling her into a tight embrace. She didn't move, letting him hug her almost as if he was the one needing it the most. "So next time you'll do as I say?"

She smiled against his fast heartbeats. "If I did…you wouldn't be able to brag about saving me."

Sam came back with the large bed sheet he had found inside the house and wrapped it around his trembling friend. "What happened? Did you see him?"

Alina shook her head and put half of the cover around Dean who was also completely wet because of her. "I felt his grip on my ankle, but I couldn't see him."

"Okay, let's go back to the car. I'll call the Sheriff."

He saved her! I mean of course he did!

Part 3 is coming soon!