A/N: hey hey!! so here's chapter nine! :D again, sorry it took me so long to get another chapter up...well, it seemed like a long time to me anyways...lol...it's weird, I keep thinking I'm gonna lead the story a certain way but I keep adding in completely different things as I write! lol...

I wanna give a shoutout to my awesome beta WinchesterFan...-in the voice of Crush from Finding Nemo- you so totally rock! lol...

anyways...on with the chapter! I hope ya'll like it :D

She finally opened her mouth and said only one word, but it was whispered and had the same inflection of shock that her face did.

"Melissa," she said.

I stood there confused, staring at this woman for what seemed like minutes but what was really only about ten seconds. I felt like I was supposed to know what 'Melissa' meant, but I didn't. I didn't have a clue. Maybe she thought that's what my name was. By the looks of her, she didn't look too well. She could easily just be confused.

In the midst of my inner brainstorm, I felt Sam and Dean, who I actually had forgotten was there for a moment, shift uncomfortably to each side of me. Finally, Dean broke the tension between us all by clearing his throat. Intentionally or unintentionally, I was still very grateful. The woman broke her gaze from me and suddenly looked up at the boys, seeming embarrassed.

"Oh! I'm so sorry. Come in, come in," she said ushering the three of us in. It was weird the way she suddenly snapped from 'creepy staring lady' into 'Martha Stewart: house wife'. She lead us to what I assumed was the living room and motioned us to sit down. "I'm sorry. It's just been a rough…well, you know."

We all took seats, Dean and I on the couch and Sam in a nearby chair. She remained standing toward the open doorway to the living room. "Um, can you excuse me for a moment? I'll be right back. Just make yourselves comfortable." We watched her leave and disappear around the corner.

The boys leaned in and started to talk about the case, but I started taking in my surroundings. I felt a bit uncomfortable with the boys leaning in to talk over me, so I stood up and started walking around the room. Like a typical living room, there was a fireplace with a mantel that included several framed pictures on top it. Being curious, I walked over and looked at the pictures, knowing I would probably not know any of the people in them. Looking at these, I couldn't help but notice the happy memories that came from them, even though I didn't have these particular memories first hand. I remembered family gatherings from my childhood as I looked at a big group of smiling faces in one. I thought back to those horrible professional pictures I had to get dressed in fluffy dresses with bows in my hair as I looked at a smiling toddler with pigtails and an Easter basket. I sadly remembered looking out to the audience at my graduation to see my father sitting there proudly, but not my mom as I stared at three gown wearing happy teens holding diplomas. The last one I looked at seemed to be a much older picture by the weird tan color, though I couldn't seem to tie a memory of my own to it. This one had two girls and a boy standing underneath a tree, shoulder-to-shoulder, smiling at the camera. I leaned in a bit closer to stare at it, noticing that there was something oddly familiar about one of the girls.

Someone clearing their throat brought me out of my thoughts so fast, I jumped.

"Oh!" I said turned around to see the woman, whose name I either don't remember getting or just don't remember at all, was standing there. She had changed clothes and looked a little more composed than when we first saw her at the door.

"I'm sorry," she said smoothing out her shirt. "It's just been crazy the past few days, ya know?" She smiled a sympathetic smile at me and then made her way over to sit down with the boys. I wanted to examine the picture more but I followed suit anyways.

As the woman began to talk and the boys asked questions, I realized that I couldn't keep my mind focused. Maybe it was that I wasn't getting as much sleep lately as I'm use to. I don't really know, but what I did know was that I kept getting this feeling like I was being watched. My eyes were wandering the room but after that feeling, my eyes snapped back to the woman, whose name I heard was Katherine somewhere along the lines, staring at me. I tried concentrating on what the boys were discussing but I couldn't because Katherine's eyes were constantly on me when they weren't on Sam or Dean. It made me so nervous that my palms were all sweaty and it suddenly felt at least twenty degrees hotter in the house. I tried to keep my mind off it by staring back up at the picture that I was so intrigued by earlier. I was so wrapped up in my thoughts that it seemed I was the only one in the room.

"Do you like photography?" Katherine asked, her question directed at me. Once again, I jumped at the sound of someone interrupting my thought process. I looked back at the three of them to realize that I was standing by the mantel again. I didn't even remember standing up and walking over there.

"Oh," I said stunned. "Yeah, I'm uh…a big fan."

Katherine got up from her chair and walked over, looking at the old picture with me. "This is an old one," she said picking up the small frame. "This is my brother James," she said pointing to the only boy in the picture. "This is me," she laughed. "And this," she said pointing at the shortest one of the bunch, "is my sister, Melissa."

"Oh," was all I could manage to say. "So…was that what you meant earlier?" I asked timidly.

She laughed nervously. "Yes. I didn't mean for that to slip out but it's just you remind me so much of her, it's unreal." She looked down at the picture in her hands again.

"What happened to her?" I asked. I knew the way she smiled sadly at the picture; I'd done it a few times in my life too.

"Um…she disappeared when I was twelve. We all thought she was dead but I found out about six years ago that she's still alive and living in Texas. She won't contact any of us or talk to us when we tried calling. I still to this day don't know what went wrong."

"I'm so sorry," I said sympathetically.

She placed the picture back in its place and smiled at me. "Thank you. It's okay now. And don't worry, you remind me of the good Melissa, the one I knew growing up," she said patting me on the shoulder as we sat back down. "I'm sorry. Where were we?" she said, turning back to Dean.

"This boyfriend of yours? How long has he been living here?" Dean asked.

"Oh…he's not my boyfriend. I haven't dated since Randy died," she said sadly.

Randy? Who's Randy? Man, I really should have paid attention, I thought.

"He's just here for support. I haven't really been able to sleep well with the house being so empty. I've known Brett for years, he's a really good buddy and told me he'd stay until I felt comfortable enough to be alone."

Yeah, I thought sarcastically,you think he's a good buddy, but he probably just wants to shack up with you. I bet you wouldn't mind it so much either, I thought, laughing internally.

A few seconds later, I got this horrible, blinding headache. It started just as a numb dull feeling but then increased to where I was seeing black spots. I pinched the bridge of my nose and squeezed my eyes shut.

"Are you okay?" Dean asked, leaning over to my side of the couch.

"Yeah," I said, some of the pain leaking through to my voice. I thought it was over but then I got another sharp pain in my head. Suddenly, my stomach churned and I felt like I was about to be sick. "I think I need some air. I'm gonna step outside," I told Dean as I stood to leave.

I made my way to the door, stumbling as I closed it and stepped out on the porch. Somehow the sun seemed even brighter than it was when we came in, but it was probably just the headache. I walked down the steps carefully and made my way toward the Impala. As soon as I passed by the fence, my headache vanished. It went so quickly that I stood there in complete confusion. I looked around at the road and the Impala in front of me like I was a person that was suddenly just dropped from the sky. I blinked a few times and rubbed at the corners of my eyes to make sure I was okay and turned around to head back into the house. I walked up the stairs, across the porch and as soon as I touched the doorknob, my headache came back with the same horrible intensity as it had before. I smacked my palm to my forehead and made my way toward the Impala again so I could have something to lean against incase I got dizzy. When I reached the Impala, just outside the fence, my headache let up quite a bit but didn't completely disappear like last time. It was much better but I still had a numb throbbing feeling around my temples. I put a hand on the car to steady myself and opened the door to the backseat. I climbed in like a sick person would to a bed and completely laid down. Even though I'm not that tall, I still couldn't completely stretch my legs out so I kicked off my shoes in the floorboard and curled my knees up in a relaxed fetal position. Closing my eyes, I realized that helped my stomach not feel so queasy. I placed a hand over my closed eyes to block out more light and soon enough I fell asleep.

yeah...not quite how I thought I was gonna end this chapter but...oh well...I think I like where my head is goin for this story...and I hope you guys like it too :)

reviews are amazing...I would love it if you left some...well, okay, one...cause it won't let ya leave anymore than one review per chapter...lol...I would love ya forever if ya did :D trust me, I get very excited when I get reviews...lol...

thanks for readin :D

.lizzy.