Author's Note: Thanks to Evenmoor, lljn105, and DaughterOfPoseidon333 for your wonderful reviews. Sorry it took almost a week to get this out but hope you all enjoy it.

Chapter Four: Playing a Different Role

Dean had completely lost track of time while he'd been on the computer, so he was startled when the bedroom door opened and Jess called his name. He spun to face her as she approached him.

"Hey," She said in a gentle voice. "You've been up here for quite a while. Is everything okay?"

"Oh, ah… yeah. Everything's great." And damn if that didn't sound lame.

"Interesting reading materials." Jess commented, looking passed him to the computer screen. The one still displaying his research into the paranormal.

"Yeah, crazy things you can find online, right?" He flashed her one of his most charming smiles, hoping that she'd drop the topic. Because really, why the hell would a high school shop teacher with two kids and a recently deceased wife have any interest in demons and ghosts and crap like that.

But of course she didn't drop it. When had a Winchester's luck ever been that good? "Is there a reason you're looking up…" she leaned closer, reading the screen. "…true accounts of restless spirits."

"Research. For a book I'm writing. Fiction, of course."

"A book? You never mentioned this before."

"It's a work in progress."

"Dean, I know you're having a hard time, but I hope you're not honestly entertaining the idea of ghosts."

"'Course not."

Jess sighed, looking sad. "Dean, don't do this to yourself. I know what you're thinking. When my dad passed away from cancer, my mom spent a fortune on psychics that claimed they could communicate with the dead. But they can't. Dad just wasn't here anymore. He was in heaven, which is where Melissa is now. She's gone, Dean. Please don't go down this road."

"I'm not. Really, I'm just writing a book about two guys that go around the country hunting down ghosts and monsters."

"Can I see it?"

"Uh, it's not ready yet."

"Dean…" Jess's tone was one of warning.

"Look, just drop it, okay. I'm not trying to contact my dead wife, so there's no reason to be concerned."

"Okay, Dean. But you can talk with me or Sam about anything if you need to. And maybe you can even talk to Pastor Scott after church tomorrow."

"Church… right. Look, thanks for your concern, but everything's fine. I'm gonna go check on the kids." With that, Dean closed the computer and left the room.

When he got into the living room, Becca jumped up from where she had been sitting on the floor working on a wooden numbers puzzle and ran to him. "Daddy!"

"Hey." Dean scooped the little girl up off the floor.

"I did the puh-yull all by myself. But the Nick took all the pea-ez back out an I gotta do it all over again!"

"Yeah, well maybe I can help."

"I can do it." The little girl insisted. "But you can watch me." She wiggled out of his arms and dropped back down in front of her toy.

"Sure, sweetheart." He sat down on the floor, only to have his lap immediately filled with a little boy. Nick turned enough to look up at Dean and grin at him mischievously. "So, you've been stealing puzzle pieces, huh little man?"

The boy giggled and nodded his head rather enthusiastically.

"Daddy, when I'm done can we go to the pay-gound?"

Dean looked over at other-Dean's daughter. "You wanna go to the playground?"

"Yeah, you promised."

Dean had no clue what promises his alternate self had made, but he couldn't deny the pleading look the girl was giving him. Damn, this was how Sammy had gotten away with so much while they were growing up. "So I guess we'll just have to go after you finish that puzzle."

"I'm done!" Becca exclaimed, jumping up from the half-finished puzzle and rushing to the front door. Nick followed her and started banging on the door with both hands when Dean didn't get there fast enough. Becca had sat down and was trying to fit her left shoe on her right foot. Dean crouched down to assist her. When both kids had their footwear on, the hunter stood and started looking through the keys hanging on hooks by the door. He had no clue what kind of car other-Dean had or which keys were his.

"What are you looking for?" Jess questioned as she approached him.

"My car keys. I'm taking the kids to the park."

"You're driving to the park?"

"Yeah."

"The park that is less than two blocks away?" Jess asked incredulously.

"Well, obviously I don't need the car for that." Dean said agreeably. Then thinking quickly, he added "But I wanted to take them out to lunch afterwards."

"Yay! I want Buger-Keen!" Becca exclaimed.

"Of course we'll go to Burger King."

The little girl started jumping up and down with excitement, while her brother went back to pounding impatiently on the door.

"Aren't you ordering pizza tonight?"

Dean knew that Jess was only trying to help, but she was really starting to get on his nerves. He was having a hard time keeping up this act and her constant questions weren't helping. "Dude, what are you, the nutrition police? One day of fast food won't hurt 'em. I'll cook nice and healthy tomorrow."

With a sigh, she handed him a set of keys she'd taken off the wall. He snatched them with a mumbled 'thank you', picked up Nick and opened the door. Becca held onto his hand as they stepped out. Dean breathed a sigh of relief as the door closed behind him. He looked down at the keys in his hand, then at the two cars in front of him. One was a red Volkswagen Beetle, the other a black Mustang. Figuring that the was no way that any version of himself would be caught dead in what he considered a chick-car, he walked to the Mustang. He opened the back passenger door and strapped Nick into the gray car-seat, glad that they were pretty simple to figure out. The he helped Becca into her booster seat. After she was buckled in, he got into the driver's seat and started it up. It wasn't his baby, but it would do until he could get home.

…

…Supernatural…Supernatural…Supernatural…Supernatural…Supernatural…

…

Dean snapped out of his fear-induced paralysis and prepared to attack the creature, but it was too late. The thing plowed into him, knocking him back and onto the floor. The wind was knocked from him and before he could react he felt claws digging into his ribs and a set of sharp teeth sinking into his left shoulder.

"Ahhhh!" He screamed in agony. Acting out of pure instinct and self-preservation, he raised his right arm and swung the pipe as hard as he could into the back of the creature's skull. Its cry of pain was as loud as his own had been. Its hands released Dean as it clutched its head in a strangely human gesture. Ignoring the excruciating pain radiating from his shoulder, the young man scrambled backwards, trying to put as much room between himself and the creature as possible.

The creature. His brain was desperately trying to make sense of what was happening. That thing that had attacked him could not possibly exist, but his bleeding wounds were telling him otherwise. And if he wanted to live through this he was gonna have to ignore the disbelief and terror coursing through him and focus on surviving.

Once he'd put a couple feet of distance between them, Dean struggled to his feet. He stepped forward and brought the pipe down once more onto the thing's skull. It made a sickening crunching sound as blood splattered all over. Dean pushed down the feeling of intense nausea and lifted the pipe again. But the creature's clawed hand shot out and grabbed his ankle, a quick pull bringing him once again to the floor.

His vision blacked out for a moment as his head collided with the hard surface. By the time he could once again see straight, the thing was looming over him. He went to defend himself only to realize that he'd dropped the pipe. He was definitely screwed.

"Hey, get away from him!" The creature turned to look across the room at Sam. Dean saw that his younger brother had recovered and was now pointing a gun at the thing. And when the hell had he learned how to use a gun?

The creature crouched down, obviously planning on leaping the distance of the room to attack, but Sam's reflexes were faster. A shot rang out and the thing fell to the ground, a small hole in its forehead oozing blood.

Sensing that the danger was over, Dean closed his eyes and took a deep breath. When he opened them he saw Sam looking down at him with a pathetically concerned look on his face.

"Are you okay?"

"Dude, there is no way in hell that I'm okay." His brother chuckled and helped him sit up. Soft crying sounds drew his attention to the corner where the children were still huddled. Dean struggled to his feet and made his way over to them. Crouching down, he forced a calming smile on his face. "Hey, its okay. The bad monster is dead. Just like in the story books, right? See, my brother is like a superhero and now we are gonna get you someplace safe. And no monster will ever attack you again, okay?"

There were nods and a few 'yeah's and one little boy exclaimed "cool".

"Now, is anyone hurt?"

They all shook their heads or said no except for one little girl that reminded him of his own daughter. "I got a booboo on my knee."

Dean examined a small scrape on her skin. "Hmmm. Looks like it could use a kiss, sweetheart." He kissed it and she giggled.

"Dean, let's go."

"Where are we taking them?" Dean inquired.

"We'll call in an anonymous tip to the police once we're gone."

"We can't leave them." He protested.

"The grawlton is dead. They will be fine for the ten minutes it takes for the cops to arrive."

Dean wanted to ask what the hell a 'grawlton' was but there were more pressing matters. "Look at them, Sam. They're terrified. We can't leave them alone. If they were my kids I would want someone looking out for them until I got them back. What if someone else finds them? This isn't the best neighborhood you know."

"Fine." Sam threw up his hand. "You're right. There's a hospital we passed about five minutes from here. We can drop them there."

Dean scooped the little girl up with his right arm, trying to ignore the awful pain coming from his left shoulder. He always put children first and not even bleeding puncture wounds would change that. Besides, they were headed to a hospital and while Sam seemed to be okay except for a possible mild concussion (because Dean had found him pinned to a wall and figured he'd probably been slammed into it none too gently), he figured they should both get checked out.

But that didn't happen. When Sam pulled the Impala up behind the hospital, he let the kids out of the back of the car and instructed them to go inside. After thanking the brothers, they complied, eager to be inside a safe building where their parents could be contacted. Once they were out of sight, Sam started up the engine and drove off.

"Uh, what are you doing?"

"We need to put some distance between us and this town before questions are asked. We're only a few hours away from Bobby's, so I figure we can go there."

"Sam, in case you didn't notice, I'm bleeding."

"I'll get you fixed up when we get there. You won't bleed to death before then."

"Dude, you're nuts! What the hell is going on? Why did you go in there? What was that thing? When did you get a gun? And why the hell are you so calm about all this?"

"Because I do it all the time."

"You kill those whatever-they-ares all the time?"

"No. That was actually the first grawlton I've ever killed, but killing monsters is kinda in my job description."

"You're a lawyer." Dean reminded him.

"Not exactly."

"What do you mean? Do you realize that thing almost killed us?"

"Well, I told you to wait in the car." Sam responded.

"If I did, it would've eaten you. I saved your ass, dude."

"Yeah, I guess you did. Thanks for that." After a moment Sam sighed. "Look, I'll explain everything to you when we get to Bobby's place."

"You better." Dean wasn't sure if this was a good thing or not. While he certainly wanted some answers, he wasn't sure that he was gonna like them. Then a thought struck him. "That thing, the grawlton, it's not like a vampire or zombie or anything, is it? 'Cause it bit me and I so don't wanna become one of them."

Sam laughed. "Nah, you're safe. They just like to eat people. Kids in particular."

"Dude sure could jump." Dean commented.

"Yeah, it's been theorized that they are the creature that started the whole spring-heel Jack myths."

"Really? Huh." Dean leaned back in the seat and closed his eyes. "I don't suppose you're gonna let me call home yet?"

"Just wait 'til we get to Bobby's."

"Yeah. I figured you'd say that."

Author's Note Part Two: Please review as it makes me very happy!