Chapter 21

Rochester Hills, Michigan

2 Days Later

I woke up when a slit of sun streamed through a crack in the curtains and landed across my face. I groaned and tried to turn over but ran into Dean. My heart jumped for a moment and I mentally laughed at myself. I still wasn't completely used to my new relationship (!) with Dean and I was always afraid that I would wake up suddenly only to learn that all of this had been a dream.

But no, Dean and I really did have that huge, public, shouting match in front of that little B&B in Bellville, Ohio. Every time I remember that it really all happened I can't even be totally embarrassed that Rita had seen the second half of our public spectacle and our mad, clumsy dash back up to our room. I just grin and press myself as close to Dean as physically possible and fall easily back to sleep.

I never realized how badly I slept until Dean and I started sleeping together. In bed. I mean, seriously sleeping, nothing sexual.

… not that we don't… in fact we do…

It's only been two days, but seriously - you can do a lot in just two days. Well, come on! Look at what God is supposed to have done in seven days!

Back to the subject at hand, I sleep amazingly better than I did when I slept alone. I hadn't ever noticed how much I wake up in the middle of the night or how often I toss and turn. I'm much more refreshed after a night with Dean.

…I'm done talking about this subject because clearly my mind is elsewhere. Obviously it's not just my sleep that has changed in two days but my mentality as well.

However, this morning I was feeling a bit more pessimistic than usual. I couldn't help but wonder, why me? I really wasn't anything special; in fact I was a downright nutcase! What guy, in their right mind, would fall for and want to be with a girl who grew up in the life I had? Not even a guy who lived one! We all know the real reason Sam left and hasn't ever called is because he's ashamed of us and wants a normal life, not that stupid bullshit about wanting an education. It's Darwinism! It's Survival of the Fittest! No guy has the biological code that could possibly allow them to fall for a female who is incapable of taking care of them or any possible family they might have together.

Thankfully, Dean wrapped his arm around me and stopped my erratic train of thought. Knowing me, it would have continued past the possibility of mutated babies and somewhere on to the path of obesity and the loss of teeth. My mind wanders, okay? I worry about things, just like any other normal person.

"What time is it?" Dean asked groggily. I pressed my nose into his chest and tried not to gag at his morning breath. It was eye-watering and the other day it had nearly been vomit-inducing. I needed to buy mints to stick in his mouth before he wakes up or something.

"I dunno," I said to his chest. I reached around him and blindly groped around for a cell phone. I found mine and handed it to him.

"Almost nine," he muttered, tossing the phone behind me and reaching up to rub his eyes. "Let's get breakfast."

I managed to convince Dean to leave the Impala at the motel so we walked around trying to find a diner. The only times Dean will walk somewhere is to get from his car to a building and vice versa, so when he does walk he normally does it at a very quick pace. Honestly I don't think there's been a time when he chose to walk somewhere unless he knew he was way too hammered to drink. That usually never happens because he is never 'too hammered'.

"I met at a leisurely pace, Dean," I whined, pulling him back by his arm. He stopped for a moment and glanced back at me before he nodded slightly. He slowed down and matched his pace to mine. I reached down for his hand but grasped at air before I noticed his hands were in his pants pockets.

I couldn't do anything about it because my cell phone started ringing in my pocket. I took it out and looked at the caller I.D.

Sam calling

Dean stopped and turned when he noticed that I had stopped walking.

"Who is it?" He asked.

"Sam," I said. I quickly hit the answer button before Dean could say anything and I turned my back to him, walking away a little. "Hello?"

"Rose?" I heard him say.

"You're not drunk again, are you?" I asked, a little bitter.

"So that really happened?" He asked. I could picture him putting his palm to his face. "I had kinda hoped that had all been a dream."

"Nope," I said, popping the p. I turned back to glance at Dean and saw him leaning against a streetlight looking at the ground. "So if you're not drunk, then why are you calling?"

"Well, partly to see if that had been a dream or not, partly to apologize if it hadn't been, and partly to see how you're doing." He said. I knew Sam well enough to pick up the subtle tone of hesitation and a little stretch of the truth.

"Well it's fine, and I'm fine." I told him. "Look, Dean and I were just about to get breakfast,"

"How's Dean?" He asked, cutting me off. I let my head drop back and I glared at the sky since I wasn't able to glare at Sam.

"He's fine." I told him, hoping my annoyance was obvious.

"Right," he said. I could tell he got the picture. "I'll let you get to breakfast. It was good talking to you, Rosie."

I pinched the bridge of my nose and felt someone grab my arm gently. I looked up and saw it was Dean, looking curious and a little worried.

"Yeah," I said to Sam.

"I miss you," I heard him say as I pulled the phone away from my ear and hit the 'end-call' button.

"What'd he want?" He asked. I shrugged and put my phone back in my pocket.

"His finger slipped when he was dialing and had meant to call someone else." I said. Dean rolled his eyes and then held out his hand for me. I glanced from his hand to his face.

"I noticed a diner up the street, let's go check it out." He said, motioning for me to take his hand. I couldn't help but smile and wonder if he knew he was cheering me up or not. I decided not to care and I grabbed his hand and followed him to the diner.

We got inside and noticed that it was fairly busy. One of the waitresses passed by and told us to sit where we'd like. Dean led me to a booth and we waited for our menus.

"I'm Amy, and I'll be your waitress," A girl with pretty hazel eyes and her bottom lip pierced stopped at our booth and set down the menus in front of us. She had a really strong Irish accent. I flipped my menu open and started scanning through the breakfast items. I wasn't quite sure what I felt like. "Can I start you off with anything to drink?"

Dean didn't say anything so I looked up and realized she was talking to me. I smiled apologetically.

"Coffee would be great," I said. She nodded and turned to Dean.

"I'll stick with coffee, too." He said. She nodded again and left to get our coffee. I could smell her shampoo and by the sounds of Dean's nose sniffing, he could too.

"She smelled good," He muttered, looking back down at his menu. I frowned and discreetly smelled a bit of my hair. It didn't really smell like much of anything since I was stuck using the motel travel sized seriously generic shampoo. My hair wasn't ever really soft because they barely ever had conditioner. And if Dean got in the shower before me he usually used all the shampoo and barely left me any. I had a lot more hair than he did and I'm sure that my hair wasn't naturally supposed to be as bristly and straw-like at the ends as it was.

Amy came back and took our orders and then came back again when our orders were ready. I couldn't help but overhear a conversation she was having with one of the other waitresses as they cleaned up a few booths nearby.

"Yay!" Amy cheered to herself. "I get off in 20 minutes."

"I hate you," the other waitress whined. "I don't get off for four hours."

"Are you listening to a word I've been saying?" Dean asked, tuning me back to the conversation we were apparently having. I shook my head.

"Sorry, I was thinking about something and didn't realize you were talking." I said. "What were you saying?"

"Just talking about where we should check out next." He said chewing around his pancakes. We continued eating in silence and I couldn't help but keep an eye on Amy. After a little while she stopped by our table.

"How's everything going here?" She asked.

"Amazing," Dean said. I couldn't help but smile at him. He was always incredibly happy after having a full meal, especially breakfast.

"Is there anything else I can get you?" She asked. Dean and I both shook our heads and she smiled and left. I got a whiff of her shampoo again and I subconsciously pouted. What if Dean realized that my hair was as damaged as it was and it made him not want to be with me anymore? I really needed to do something.

"You okay?" Dean asked, narrowing his eyes at me. "You're unusually quiet."

I lied and shook my head, faking a smile for him.

"I'm totally fine," I said, waving my hand at him. "I was just thinking about a few things I need to get before we drive off."

"Sure," Dean said, shrugging. "Where are we going?"

"Uh," I hesitated. Damn Dean to hell for making me worry about my personal appearance. I was never this self conscious before we started going out, so why am I acting so unhinged now? "It's actually stuff like tampons and health food, I'm sure you don't want to be there when I get that stuff."

I saw Dean hesitate but he quickly put on a fake smile.

"I don't mind," he said, obviously lying. I rolled my eyes and inwardly damned him to hell again, this time for him wanting to be such an amazing boyfriend. Two days ago he would have cowered in fear and thrown holy water on me if I asked him to come with me to buy tampons. I wanted to hate him for forcing himself to come, but I really couldn't.

"No, it's fine. You should spend the time trying to find a lead or something." I told him. He instantly relaxed with relief but seemed to catch himself. I almost rolled my eyes again. He truly thought he was getting out of doing something horrible. He cleared his throat.

"That's a good idea." He said. "I'll drop you off at a grocery store and you can call me when you finish."

I smirked.

"I actually had a different idea," I told him innocently.

I glanced at Dean in the rearview mirror, watching my every turn, as I drove the Impala quickly back towards the diner. If I was right, she should have just been getting out of the diner…

"There you are," I muttered to myself, pulling over to the street next to where our waitress from the diner was walking. I rolled down my window and leaned out. "Amy, right?"

She stopped and looked at me. She turned around to look behind her and I noticed that she had a black rose tattooed on the back of her neck. She turned back to me and pointed at herself in question. I smiled and nodded and waved her over.

"Can I help you?" She asked. I nodded.

"I hope so," I told her. "You were my waiter at the diner just a little while ago," she still looked like she didn't recognize me. "I was there with my boyfriend."

"Oh, right!" She exclaimed, a look of recognition on her face. "So what's up?"

"Well, okay, it's a long story," I told her, reaching into the pocket of my backpack for my wallet. I pulled out a couple bills and held them out to her, "but if you help me out for the next hour or so, I'll tell you the gist of it and I'll give you $40."

She raised an eyebrow as she looked at the money in my hand for a moment.

"You're not some serial killer or anything are you? I mean, this is kind of like the adult version of a puppy in the back of a van. You're not going to lure me in with the promise of money, but them drive me back to some cheap motel where your boyfriend is waiting and skin me alive," I watched her with wide eyes as she continued to ramble on.

"I just need some help," I told her, stopping her from what might have gone on forever. She shrugged and grabbed the forty bucks and walked around the front of the car to the passenger seat, slipping the money in her purse on the way.

I started driving.

"I'm Rose, by the by." I told her. She glanced at me.

"Really?" She asked. I raised an eyebrow and nodded. "Because your credit card said your name was Gwen Holiday."

Shit!

"My middle name is Rosemary," I told her. "Gwen was my mom's name too, so I go by Rose."

"That makes sense," Amy said. "I'm sorry about before, on the street. I tend to ramble on forever when I'm nervous and for some reason I just got that vibe like you had guns in your trunk or something."

I laughed and secretly hoped that she didn't feel like opening the glove compartment.

I pulled into a parking spot in front of the first drug store that I found and grabbed my wallet before getting out of the car. Amy followed behind and looked a little confused. I grabbed a small basket on our way in and followed the signs to where all the hair products and shower stuff was.

"So, basically, I lived with a traveling salesman and his two sons for all of my life and I've never really cared about what shampoo I use. I've always used the motel shampoo and soap, but I just recently got into this relationship and I've never cared more about my shampoo and what I smell like." I exhaled. "It's exhausting."

Amy smiled kindly at me and patted me on the back.

"It happens to every girl, but usually it happens around middle school…" She added, trailing off a little. She snapped back to the matter at hand. "So this is why you needed my help?"

"Well, yeah," I muttered. I could feel my face growing red. I only now just realized how ludicrous it was to pick up a stranger off the street and pay them to help me buy shampoo. What I really need is help putting on a straight jacket and directions to the closest insane asylum.

"It's cool." She said, shrugging again. "I mean, you grew up without any female influence so it's pretty understandable."

I raised an eyebrow. "Really?"

She nodded and turned to the shelves to scan all the different bottles. It was daunting; there were different brands with different smells for different hair styles. What does 'tousled' look like anyway? She grabbed one bottle.

"This one, personally, is my favorite." She popped open the cap and smelled it before she held it under my nose. I inhaled the scent as well. "Citrus fruit infusion."

"That's nice," I said. She closed the cap and put it back on the shelf.

"But I think you want something that'll help all your damaged hair," she said. I looked down at my hair.

"It's damaged?" I asked. She nodded.

"Yeah, you should probably get it cut." I nodded vaguely and she pulled off another bottle.

"Here, smell this one," she said as she opened the cap and put it under my nose. It smelled amazing. "It supposedly smells like wild roses and pomegranate."

"Well," I said after inhaling the smell, "I'm not really sure if that is what it smells like, but it does smell good."

"Almost edible, right?" Amy asked. I nodded and she dropped the bottle in my basket. I grabbed the matching conditioner and we moved down the aisle towards body wash. We started smelling all the different ones and I finally decided on one that smelled like a bouquet of flowers. I purchased the items and we got back into the Impala.

"Thanks so much," I told her earnestly. She waved it off.

"It's no problem." She told me. "It's not like I was doing anything, anyway."

"Where can I take you?" I asked her as I pulled out of the parking lot and back onto the semi busy street. She started directing me towards her flat and I parked on the street.

"You know," she said, pausing after she opened the car door, "If you were thinking about cutting your hair, I'm pretty good with a pair of scissors."

I considered her offer. My hair was getting unbearably long and it got in my way more often than not. I nodded and turned off the engine.

"Hell yeah, why not?" I said. She grinned.

"Good, and how about a shot of tequila while we're at it?" I quickly agreed and followed her into her home.

Two hours and three shots of tequila later, my long, tangled black hair had been washed with my new shampoo and conditioner and was cut short, right above my shoulder blades. It was the perfect length that wouldn't get in my way if it was down and I could still easily tie it back.

"Thank so much, Amy." I told her standing in the doorway or her home. She smiled happily.

"It was no problem. I'll bank it as my good karma for the day." She said. "Plus, the forty bucks didn't hurt either."

I parked in the empty spot in front of or motel and just realized that the sun was starting to go down. The lights in our motel room were on and once or twice I saw Dean's shadow move across the curtains. I grabbed my backpack and the plastic bag with my purchases and made my way to our room. I entered and shut the door behind me before looking up at Dean.

He was standing in the doorway to the bathroom and was staring at me with wide eyes and an open mouth. He stayed like that for a moment before he shook his head and a smirk grew on his face. He walked over to me.

"Tampons?" He asked as he held onto my waist with one hand and ran his other through my hair. I blushed and tried to fight the tiny smile that was trying to make its way onto my lips.

"I might have lied," I told him. He smiled and leaned down to kiss me but stopped, hovering centimeters away from my lips. I heard him inhale and he raised an eyebrow.

"Your hair smells like pie," he said quietly. I frowned and I bit my lip. The bottle lied! I thought frantically. It's supposed to smell like roses and pomegranate!

"Is that okay?" I asked. He pulled away slightly and looked at me like I was crazy.

"Woman, are you seriously asking me if it's okay that your hair smells like pie?" I nodded hesitantly. He sighed and shook his head. "I guess I failed you if you've forgotten that pie is one of my favorite things in the world."

"So," I asked with a little smirk, "It's a good thing?"

"We'll come back to that question after we deal with how turned on the smell makes me," he mumbled. I giggled and ran under his arm and tried to get away from him. He quickly grabbed my arm and pulled me back to him, growling a little. "Where do you think you're going?"

Hershey, Nebraska

August, 2002

Dean and I were driving to meet up with John and we were arguing about whether or not Hersheypark was in Hershey, Pennsylvania or in Hershey, Nebraska. It was totally in Pennsylvania but he didn't believe me.

"You are such a liar, Bennett." He accused. "You just don't want me to get fat."

I rolled my eyes. "Please, that is the last thing I'm worried about."

Dean glanced over at me. "Okay, I'll bite."

"Ooh, kinky. Bite what?" I asked a little confused.

"What are you worried about?" He asked. "And don't say 'nothing' because I know you better than that. You didn't sleep last night."

"How did you know that?" It was true. I didn't sleep the other night, but I thought that I had kept still enough that I didn't wake Dean up.

"I'm just so amazing," he said, grinning. I shook my head with a smile. "Aw, you don't deny it anymore."

"Yes, but I don't agree with it either. Your ego doesn't need to be any bigger than it all ready is." I said. He laughed for a moment before getting serious again.

"But seriously, what were you thinking about last night?" He asked. I sighed and bit my lip.

"We have to tell your dad." I said. He didn't say anything and just stared out at the road in front of him. "It's been almost five months that we've been a couple and we've spent at least two months with him and he doesn't know. Or he does know and he's just not saying anything."

"I know," Dean said. I knew he was wary to tell his dad, but if John found out before we told him I'm sure the consequences would be much greater than if we just told him. "We'll tell him this time, okay?

I nodded and leaned over to kiss his cheek. "I'm sorry that I've been nagging about it."

"Please," he scoffed, "you're not sorry."

I smirked. "True."

John's truck was all ready at the motel when we pulled in next to him and Dean grabbed our duffels as I knocked on the door. He opened it and let us in. John's stuff was all ready on the couch, meaning that he was going to sleep there and let Dean and I have the two beds. Well, he wasn't going to be sleeping there for very long.

Dean dumped our bags on one bed and we both turned to John, ready to tell him.

"I all ready interviewed one of the victim's families but I was thinking we could go to the morgue now to see the body." John said while going through his notes. I looked up at Dean and gave him a look, telling him to say something. He just shrugged and gave me a look back. I cleared my throat and went to sit at the table across from John.

"Dean and I have something to tell you," I said. John looked up between the two of us before he looked at Dean. I turned to Dean who was still standing in the same place. He looked like a deer caught in someone's headlights. Was he really that afraid to tell his dad? Was he ashamed that John would want him to have someone better? I didn't want to admit that it hurt a bit.

"Well?" John asked, waiting. I glared at Dean and sighed before looking back at John and shaking my head.

"Never mind," I got up and grabbed my wallet as I started to feel my eyes burn. "I'm going to get something from the vending machines."

I left the room, closing the door behind me without looking at Dean. I hoped he knew I was angry with him. I couldn't believe he couldn't tell his dad. I stood in front of the two vending machines, one for drinks and one for snacks, and decided what to get. I heard a door open and close but ignored it.

"I'm sorry," I heard. I shook my head.

"Snickers or Peanut M&M's?" I asked. He sighed.

"Look, it's not any of his business anyway," he said, a little aggravated. I turned to glare at him.

"He's your dad! And he's going to sleep on the couch because he thinks we'd rather have our own beds. I don't know about you, but I sleep a lot better in the same bed as you." I snapped. I pulled out an extra dollar and decided that I wanted both a Snickers and M&M's. "Are you ashamed of me?"

"What?" He said it like I was ridiculous. "Of course I'm not ashamed of you. You're the one who should be ashamed of me."

I smirked and had to agree. "That's true."

"Do you really sleep better with me?" Dean asked, smiling a little. He only really smiled around me. Otherwise it was his usual smirk or cocky grin. I loved his smile but I shook my head, it wasn't going to work. John needed to know.

"I'm not letting you off the hook." I told him. He needed to know how serious I was about this. "If you can't tell your dad, then maybe we shouldn't be together."

His smile fell and he glared back at me. "Are you serious?

"I've never been more serious in my life." He quickly turned around and started walking away from me and back towards the motel room. He didn't look back and I took a deep breath as I felt my throat start to constrict. I rubbed my eyes, hoping to keep tears from showing up but that only seemed to make them come faster. Was that it? Was I so easy to walk away from?

I grabbed my candy from the vending machine and started walking slowly back, wiping my eyes and trying to look more presentable. John would notice if I looked like I had been crying.

I noticed something out of the corner of my eye in the parking lot and I turned but didn't see anything. There wasn't anybody except the cars but I could have sworn I had seen something.

The door to our motel opened while I was still looking out at the parking lot but I turned and saw John standing there, staring at me intently. My heart stopped.

"What?" I asked, wiping my face just in case.

"Is it true?" He asked. I looked over his shoulder and saw Dean standing there with an eyebrow raised and his arms crossed. I saw him smile and I smiled back.

"Yes," I said, softly. John smiled and I could really see the resemblance between him and Dean. He held his arms open and I fell into his hug.

"I'm really happy for you two." He said before pulling away. He held onto my shoulders and looked me straight in the eye. "But promise me that you won't let it get in the way of your job."

I nodded, mentally rolling my eyes. "I promise." I said.

John grinned. "Guess that means I get a bed now, huh?"

"So," Dean said as we made our way to the entrance of the morgue, "do we get to stop at Hersheypark?"

John glanced over his shoulder to give him a look. "That's in Pennsylvania, Dean."

When John turned back around I stuck my tongue out at Dean. "Told you so."

"Told you so," he mimicked. John smacked him upside his head and I bit my lip to keep from laughing. He wouldn't hesitate to smack me either.

"Let's try to act mature when we go in there. We want to give them the illusion that we actually are from FBI and not just a bunch of crazies celebrating Halloween early." John snapped. Dean nodded and rubbed the back of his head. He glared at me when John turned back around.

"You totally deserved that," I whispered, straightening my jacket and skirt. I pulled out my fake and Dean put his hand on the small of my back, leading me into the building.

"I'm Agent Ed Platt and these are my associates Agents Don Adams and Barb Feldon," John said to the lady behind the counter, pointing to Dean and me. We all flashed the secretary our fakes and she nodded slowly. "We'd like to see the body of the recent murder."

She picked up her phone and called for someone to come up and get us. We waited for a few moments before a man in his early 30's in a lab coat came out from behind a door. I couldn't help but notice that he was pretty attractive.

"Agents," He motioned for us to follow him and he held the door open for us as we passed through. Dean let me go first and the doctor let go of the door after I passed him and almost closed the door on Dean.

"I'm Doctor Moseley," he held his hand out for me to shake and I smiled gently. Despite his good looks, I was a little freaked out by him. He took my hand and was about to kiss the back of it but Dean came up and wrapped his arm around my waist. He glared at the doctor as he dropped my hand and went to catch up with John who was waiting for us at the end of the hall.

Dean let go of my waist but kept his hand on my back, like before. I smiled softly up at him and he smiled back. I liked when he saved me from creepers. It made me feel safe.

The doctor led us into the morgue and I gagged and covered my mouth when I saw, and smelled, that the body was already lying out on the table. John handed me one of the masks and I nodded in thanks as I covered my face with it.

"I can't really determine the cause of death, but we can rule out suicide." He pointed to several punctures on the corpse. "There are tiny punctures everywhere, all over his body and I've searched through our entire database. I don't have a clue what made those."

"How did you get this job?" Dean asked sarcastically. I rolled my eyes but had to hold back a laugh. This guy didn't really seem like he knew what he was doing, but that was probably because this wasn't a normal death. I looked closely at the puncture on the neck and narrowed my eyes at it. They were very recognizable, tiny bite wounds; I just couldn't place where I'd seen them before.

Dr. Moseley glared at Dean but didn't answer him.

"I ran a test on the punctures and there was a substance that our computers found that had been injected in the body which makes me think the punctures were from a poisonous animal bite. If that's true than this man died from the poison because we found an extremely high amount of it in his bloodstream." I looked up at John to see what he was thinking but I couldn't tell from his face. He was really good at keeping his face blank when he had too.

"Can we get a copy of the tests you ran?" Dean asked. The doctor nodded and grabbed a stack of paper that had all ready been printed and handed them to me. I flipped through it quickly, looking for the blood tests.

"Thank you for your time," John said, nodding. Dean and I followed but Dr. Moseley stopped me. I turned to look at him.

"How long are you in town?" He asked, smiling. "Maybe I can buy you dinner."

"Sorry," Dean said before I could open my mouth. He started to gently push me out of the room. "She's got a boyfriend."

John was all ready outside when we left the building and Dean started undoing his tie. I handed John the papers and showed him the blood tests and I could have sworn I saw something out of the corner of my eye again. I turned but there was nothing there.

"It's familiar," I told them, "they're definitely bite marks, but I can't place them."

John nodded and started to get into his truck. "I'll meet you back at the motel."

He drove off and Dean and I sighed. I looked up at Dean just as my stomach grumbled.

"Hungry?" He asked with a smile. I shrugged but nodded. He led me to the car and opened the passenger door for me. He shut the door behind me and then ran around to the driver's side and got in. "We can get something before we go back."

"Let's just do fast food drive-through," I said and Dean nodded. "I really want a chocolate milkshake."