Kat lay in the back of the Impala covered by Dean's leather jacket. She woke up to find the car empty. The boys were sitting on the hood; Sam was examining a map and Dean was on his phone. She closed her eyes and lay back down. The boys got into the car.

"Just got a call from, uh, an old friend. Her father was killed last night, she thinks it might be our kind of thing" Dean sounded nervous and shocked at the same time.

"What?" Sam questioned.

"Yeah. Believe me, she never would've called, never, if she didn't need us" Dean turned to look at Kat; he thought that she was still sleeping.

"By old friend, you mean….?" Sam raised his eyebrow.

"A friend that's not new" Sam chuckled at him. Kat was actually relieved to hear Sam laughing for a change especially after Dean's near death experience.

"Yeah, thanks. So, her name's Cassie, huh?" Dean nodded. "You never mentioned her"

"... Didn't I?" He looked back at Kat again, to check that she was still sleeping.

"No" Sam watched him as he examined Kat and instantly knew she was more than an old friend.

"Yeah, we went out" He lowered his voice.

"You mean you dated someone? For more than one night?" Sam sounded shocked; Kat was the only woman he had been committed to in his entire life.

"Am I speakin' a language you're not getting here?" Sam laughed at him. "Yeah, Dad and I were workin' a job in Athens, Ohio, she was finishing up college, and we went out for a couple weeks"

"And?" Dean shook his head. "Look, it's terrible about her dad, but it kind of sounds like a standard car accident. I'm not seeing how it fits with what we do. Which, by the way, how does she know what we do?" Dean doesn't respond. "You told her. You told her? The secret? Our big family rule number one, we do what we do, and we shut up about it. For a year and a half I do nothing but lie to Jessica, and you go out with this chick in Ohio a couple of times and you tell her everything?" Dean still said nothing. "Dean!"

"Yeah. Looks like it" Kat sat up and stretched, yawning loudly. "Morning sweetheart, sleep well?"

"Yeah ... where are we heading?" She played dumb she wanted more information from Dean.

"Cape Girardeau, Missouri" Dean smiled at her through the rear view mirror.

"What happened to Pennsylvania?" Kat picked up his jacket and put it on.

"Old friend called" Dean avoided eye contact with her for the rest of the journey.

When they arrived at their destination Dean attempted to distract Kat with the task of parking the Impala. She parked near the entrance of the news room where Dean's "old friend" worked. She walked through the entrance hall until she caught sight of Dean.

"Dean" He turned and smiled at the sight of her in his leather jacket.

"Kat, this is Cassie, Cassie Kat" He gestured to her. An awkward silence fell over the room.

"Hey" Kat weakly smiled.

"Hi" Cassie looked taken back by her. Sure Kat was beautiful but it was a natural beauty, her pale skin, ruby red lips, and chocolate hair. Stunning. Out of this world. But what hurt the most was that the smile on Dean's face when he saw her. He never looked at her like that.

"Here's your keys sweetie" She handed them to him. And he would have never let Cassie drive his car.

"Thanks" He put them into his pocket and turned to face Cassie.

Kat, Dean and Sam sat around their motel room. Kat and Dean had been completely avoiding the subject of Cassie since they arrive.

"So her father was seeing things, swore he saw a black truck following him. With no driver. He said it would appear and disappear .In the accident, the truck was dented like it had been slammed into, by something big. There wasn't a scratch on that thing. It had rained hard that night, there was mud everywhere. There was a distinct set of muddy tracks from his car, leading right to the edge. Where he went over. One set of tracks—his" Dean sighed.

"And the first person killed was a friend of hers father's?" Kat wasn't really going to listen to the answer. She just stared out of the window. Cassie had reminded her of Jack.

"His best friend. Clayton Solmes. They owned the car dealership together. Same thing. Dent, no tracks. And the cops said exactly the same he lost control of his car" Dean observed Kat, she was holding onto her pentacle. He always wondered where she came across it but he knew it must be important as she never took it off.

"Any reason why he and his partner might be targets?" Sam stood up.

"No" Dean was still gazing at Kat and Sam could sense that there were issues that needed resolving between them.

Kat was woken up by the sound of her phone ringing; she stretched over to the bed side table.

"Morning sunshine" Dean's voice made her smile.

"Hey, abandoning me already?"

"I noticed that you didn't sleep well last night so I thought I'd leave you in bed a little longer. Have you been taking your iron tablets?"

"Yeah ... thanks for looking out for me but I - just, memories you know? Bad ones"

"Hey if you wanna talk about it when I get back I'll take you out for a late breakfast"

"Thanks Dean but we have a case"

"... Yeah and another guy; Jimmy died last night"

"Damn it, I'm gonna get dressed and I'll meet you at the dinner down the street"

"Riiiight soooo you're telling me that a haunted truck from the sixties is on a killing spree?" Kat rubbed her eyes and yawned.

"Yeah" Sam smiled.

"Well that's new" She returned his smile and took a sip of Dean's drink.

"Story goes that there were a string of deaths in the sixties, all black men. Disappeared in a big black truck" Dean handed her half of his bacon sandwich.

"They never caught the guy who did it" Sam smiled; Kat guessed that he and Jess used to share breakfast judging by the nostalgia in his eyes. Quickly followed by sorrow and regret.

"Guys, you heard of the Flying Dutchman?" Kat wiped her mouth with a napkin and awaited their answers.

"Yeah, a ghost ship infused with the captain's evil spirit. Basically a part of him" Sam leaned in obviously interested in where she was going with this.

"Yeah exactly sweetie, so what if we're dealing with the same thing? You know, a phantom truck that's the extension of some bitch of a ghost, re-enacting past crimes" Kat subconsciously picked at the chipped black paint on her nails.

"The victims have all been black men" Sam snapped her out of her trance.

"It's more than that. They all seem connected to Cassie and her family" Even the mention of her name was enough to make Kat jealous. Sirens blazed past the dinner.

"Alright, well Sammy, why don't you go check it out" Dean gestured to Sam with his head (Get lost) was the general meaning behind the motion.

"Yeah, right I'll ... err, see you guys later" He took the keys from the table and walked out.

"Hey babe you err wanna go for a walk?" Dean threw down the money onto the table as Kat got up. He took that as a yes.

They aimlessly walked around the block until they located an empty bench in the park. Kat sat on the table with her feet resting on the seat. Dean sat in front of her; he looked up into her stormy eyes and frowned.

"What's wrong sweetheart? And don't say nothing cause I know there's something wrong" He took her hands in his. She has always wanted to tell him about her past but the opportunity had never presented itself before. She decided it was time to come clean.

"It's just ... it's Jack, he was my first boyfriend. He died saving me" A tear slid down her face.

"Oh babe I'm so sorry" He wiped it away with his thumb. He never imagined her with another guy; probably because it would make him insanely jealous.

"I guess with you and Cassie it, it just brought back old memories, you know" She slid onto the seat next to him and rested her head on his shoulder.

"Yeah, I guess I should have told you earlier about her" He rubbed her back, soothing her. He then moved to sit facing her, his legs either side of the seat.

"What did you think our periods would synchronise and we'd end up killing each-other?" She giggled and mimicked his movement and rested her forehead against his.

"No it's just ... I, I don't know" He frankly didn't know why he wasn't honest with her from the start.

"Well, she seems ... err ..." Kat couldn't think of a word to sum her up, she could think of many but none of them would be appropriate and would make her seem jealous. As true as it was it was not an attractive quality.

"Yeah she's not exactly my type" He kissed her forehead.

"Well she must have been once" Kat pondered what his type was. Her maybe? Hopefully.

"No she was just ... I was upset, confused. I needed someone and she just drew the short straw" He look guilty he knew that she was just an opportunity that he took advantage of.

"I wouldn't exactly call a guy like you the short straw" She wasn't sure if she should have said that out loud.

"Yeah, a hunter who's never in one place for more than a week with serious family issues. What a catch" Kat frowned at his statement; he clearly didn't think much of himself. Nowhere near as much as Sam and Kat thought of him.

"Well I still love you" She giggled.

"Yeah I know you do, I love you too" He kissed her temple and tucked a stray strand of her hair behind her ear.

"Even though I'm a weirdo?" She looked into his beautiful green eyes.

"Especially because you're a weirdo" They laughed neither of them willing to take the 'I love you' statement as more than a joke between very close friends. Dean's phone broke the laughter and forced him to remove his hands from her body. Kat pulled her Aerosmith hoodie up onto her shoulder and zipped it up. Dean turned to her with a puzzled look on his face.

"What is it sweetie?"

"Guy's been found, every bone crushed. Internal organs turned to pudding. The cops are all stumped, but it's almost like something ran him over"

"The truck?"

"No tracks and the victims white" Dean and Kat shared a mutual sigh.

"He doesn't fit the pattern" Kat stood up.

"And the killing didn't happen up on the road either. It just doesn't fit"

Kat and Dean sat in the newsroom, Kat was on the computer and Dean sat upon the desk next to her. They were laughing and play fighting when Cassie walked in. She handed Dean a coffee. He looked down to Kat who raised her eyebrow at him along with a wicked smile. She didn't drink coffee anyway. She got her caffeine fix from Pepsi.

"What are you doing?" Kat wasn't sure if the question was directed at her but she answered anyway. "Were trying to find some link between those killings back in the sixties and what's going on now" Her tone was formal and cold. Her phone began to ring in her pocket, it was Sam. Dean and Cassie sat in silence as they listened to call. She listened intently to Sam and gave him a pleasant good bye. She looked up at Dean.

"Right sweetie, the courthouse records show that Mr. and Mrs. Mayor bought an abandoned property and the previous owner was the Dorian family, for, like, 150 years" Dean nodded and handed her his cup of coffee, she took it from him and sipped at it. He was shocked she usually turned him down. He smirked he liked the idea that she was jealous of Cassie even though she had no reason to be.

"Didn't you say the Dorian family used to own this paper?" Cassie was too distracted by the scene unfolding between them. She watched as they smiled at one another. Love.

"Along with most everything else around here" Kat answered for her and passed the cup back to him. "This Cyrus Dorian—he vanished in April of '63. The case was investigated but never solved. That's right around the time the string of murders was going on back then" She smiled, she enjoyed puzzles and they had just found the next big piece. "Sam pulled a bunch of paper up on the Dorian place; it must have been in bad shape when the mayor bought it"

"Why is that?" Dean never took his eyes off her and Cassie never took her eyes off of him.

"The first thing he did was bulldoze the place" She put her phone into her pocket and turned to the computer. The sound of her lightening speed typing replaced the silence off the room.

"Bingo! Third of last month. You thinking what I'm thinking sweetie?" She smirked.

"The first killing was the very next day"

"Yahtzee" She winked.

They returned to their motel room and ordered dinner, Kat had a long hot shower and got into bed leaving Dean watching some rubbish late night game show on the small television set that sat in the corner of the dull room. Sam was already asleep his nightmares seemed to have become more scarce. He snored lightly. Kat got into the single bed that her and Dean shared and took her iron supplements from her black duffle bag she swallowed them and lay down in the bed.

"Sweet dreams KitKat" Dean blew her a kiss.

"Night night" She turned on her side and closed her eyes. Her slumber was short lived as Dean's mobile blasted her and Sam into consciousness.

"What is it?" Kat sat up rubbing her eyes, the blankets falling off of her curvaceous figure revealing her lack of clothing. In any other circumstance Dean would have let her skimpy camisole and short, shorts distract him. Well it distracted him a little bit but not as much as it would have done if he had not just received that phone call.

"It's Cassie; she's just had a run in with the truck"

The gang sat in Cassie's living room along with Cassie and her mother. Kat sat next to Dean resting her head on his shoulder; she wanted to go back to the motel and sleep.

"You didn't see who was driving the truck?" Dean questioned. Cassie shook her head.

"Seemed to be no one. Everything was moving so fast. And then it was just gone. Why didn't it kill us?"

"Whoever's controlling the truck wants you afraid first" Kat sat up, stretched and pulled Dean's jacket closer to her body. It was his black one that she loved on him but then again she would love it off of him even more.

"Mrs. Robinson, Cassie said that your husband saw the truck before he died" She ignored Sam's question.

"Mom?"

"Mm?" She responded Cassie looked at her curiously. "Oh, Martin was under a lot of stress. You can't be sure what he was seeing"

"Well, after tonight, I think we can be reasonably sure that he was seeing a truck. What happened tonight—you and Cassie are marked. Okay? And your daughter could die. So, if you know something, now would be a really good time to tell us about it" Kat didn't mean it to sound as harsh as it did but she didn't really care she didn't like Cassie (but not enough to want her dead) and she wanted to go back to sleep.

"Yes. Yes, he said he saw a truck" Kat smiled at her triumph.

"Did he know who it belonged to?" Dean asked.

"He thought he did" Mrs. Robinson sipped her tea.

"Who was that?" Sam smiled. Mrs. Robinson attempted to choke back tears.

"Cyrus. A man named Cyrus" Dean and Kat exchanged looks and she reached into the pocket of his jacket and took out the article from the research they did on computer earlier and showed it to her.

"Is this Cyrus?"

"Cyrus Dorian died more than 40 years ago" Dean and Kat exchanged surprised glances.

"How do you know he died, Mrs. Robinson?" Kat raised her eyebrow; she could tell that she was lying. "The paper said he went missing. How do you know he died?"

"We were all very young. I dated Cyrus a while, but I was also seeing Martin. In secret, of course. Interracial couples didn't go over too well then. When I broke it off with Cyrus, and when he found out about Martin….I don't know, he—he changed. His hatred—his hatred was frightening" Sam leaned over to Kat.

"The string of murders" He whispered to her.

"There were rumours. People of colour disappearing in some kind of a truck. But nothing was ever done" She started to cry. "Martin and I, we were, uh, going to be married in that little church near here. But last minute, we decided to elope, cause we didn't want the attention"

"And Cyrus?" Dean flashed her his gorgeous smile as she began to cry even more.

"The day we set for the wedding was….the day someone set fire to the church. There was a children's choir practicing in there. They all died"

"Did the attacks stop after that?" Sam asked softly.

"No. There was one more. One night, that truck came for Martin. Cyrus beat him something terrible. But Martin, you see, Martin got loose. And he started hitting Cyrus, and he just kept hitting him and hitting him" She sobs and is unable to go on.

"Why didn't he call the cops?" Dean seemed confused she looked at him strangely. Kat and Sam sighed. He knew so much about hunting but so little about everything else.

"This was forty years ago! He called on his friends, Clayton Solmes and Jimmy Anderson, and they put Cyrus' body into the truck and rolled it into the swamp at the edge of this land, and all three of them kept that secret all this years!" She shouted at Dean hysterically.

"And now all three are gone" Kat stated.

"So is Mayor Todd. Now, he said that you, of all people, would know that he is not a racist. Why would he say that?" Sam was the one who encountered the mayor and so he questioned Mrs. Robinson.

"He was a good man. He was a young deputy back then, investigating Cyrus' disappearance. Once he figured out what Martin and the others had done, he….he did nothing. Because he also knew what Cyrus had done" She continued to cry silently. Cassie burst into tears.

"Why didn't you tell me?" She stood up and turned to face her mother.

"I thought I was protecting them. And now there's no one left to protect" She began to sob again.

"Yes, there is" Kat looked over to Cassie and Mrs. Robinson took her daughter's hand.

Kat, Sam and Dean stood outside of the house around the Impala. Kat sat on the hood and the boys stood either side of her.

"My life was so simple. Just school. Exams. Papers on polycentric cultural norms" They all chuckled. Normal wasn't something that they had been familiar with for a very, very long time.

"So, I guess we saved you from a boring existence" Dean nodded towards Kat and they smiled at Sam.

"Yeah, occasionally, I miss boring" They all paused for a second; nostalgia of times gone by where things were simple. But then again to Kat simple was another word for boring.

"Alright, so, this killer truck-" Dean began and Kat laughed.

"I miss conversations that didn't start with "this killer truck"" Dean nodded at her and chuckled.

"Alright, well, this Cyrus guy…."

"Yeah" Kat smiled.

"Evil on a level that infected even his truck. And when he died, the swamp became his tomb. And the spirit was dormant for forty years" Dean and Kat exchanged looks. Sam loved it when they did that, through glances they could exchange their hunting knowledge and reach a conclusion in complete silence. It was amazing how much they knew between them.

"So, what woke it up?" Sam questioned.

"The construction on his house. Or, the destruction?" Sam looked over to Kat. As smart as Dean was when it came to hunting Kat seemed to know more.

"Right. Demolition or remodelling can awaken spirits, make 'em restless. Like that theatre in Illinois" Just as Sam expected she knew a previous case, for someone so young to know this much. It made him ponder what horrors she had witnessed in her twenty-something years. He wasn't sure exactly how old she was but she was pretty sure she was around the same age as Dean. Twenty-six give or take.

"Yeah. And the guy who tears down the family homestead, Harold Todd, is the same guy that kept Cyrus' murder quiet and unsolved"

"Oh double whammy" Kat got off of the hood and stretched. "So, now his spirit is awakened, and out for blood"

"Yeah, I guess. Who knows what ghosts are thinking anyway?"

"You know we're gonna have to dredge that body up from the swamp, right?" Dean smiled falsely and nodded at them both.

"Oh, man" Sam sighed.

"You said it" Dean looked over to Kat.

"Right so why don't you guys go drag the corpse out of the swamp and I'll keep an eye on this place"

"Be careful, call me if you say anything suspicious right?" Dean held her face in his hands delicately, she smiled and nodded.

"I promise I will call but do you mind if I avoid getting ran over first?" Dean pretended to think about her inquiry.

"Err ... yeah but as soon as you jump out of the way I want a phone call" He kissed the tip of her nose.

"Got it: avoid death and call. I think I can handle that" They smiled at one another, Sam cleared his throat and they separated.

"Take care"

"Bye guy's, have fun"

Sam and Dean pulled off; waving to Kat through the windows as they headed towards the swamp.

"Well this must be awkward for you" Sam turned to Dean, he was staring at Kat through the rear-view mirror. "Dean; she'll be fine"

"I know, she'll be fine" He was saying it more to himself than Sam.

"But her and Cassie in the same room I mean that's a risk" Sam was smirking and Dean knew he was enjoying this.

"Cassie was nothing ok?" He shrugged to emphasise his point.

"And Kat is?" Sam raised his eyebrow.

"IS what?" Dean played dumb.

"Something?" He smiled.
"I ... shut up Sam" He hit his brother around the back of the head.

Kat leaned against a very large tree that sat at the bottom of the Robinsons garden. She didn't have perfect twenty-twenty vision but the darkness that was slowly but surely creeping up on her had no effect just yet. She heard the front door open and footsteps approached. Cassie. She knew it, her hearing was as precise.

"Can I help you?" Kat stopped her in her tracks half way up the path.

"I was just coming out here to talk to you" She sounded like she had no idea why.

"Right, well I'm just here to keep an eye on your family, make sure you're safe" Kat avoided eye contact with her and continued to stare at the full moon.

"I appreciate that, I really do ... I know that I wasn't exactly welcoming to you, and I know that was wrong because you came here to help me and my town. It's just it was hard" Her words intrigued Kat.

"Well your forgiven and I'm sorry I can be a little sarcastic at times... and when I say little I mean like really, really sarcastic. Dean's always ..." The look on Cassie's face stopped her in mid sentence. "I'm sorry I didn't mean too-"

"No it's ... it's not you ... it's just ... it's just that seeing him with you it- it's made me realise that he never really loved me" She looked away from Kat.

"Excuse me?" That sentence definitely got Kat's attention.

"The way he looks at you, smiles at you, holds you ... he never looked at me like that. He stares at you like you're the most beautiful thing he has ever seen"

"Yeah well it's ... complicated" Kat sighed.

"How? You love him?" She raised her eyebrow at Kat.

"Yeah" She sighed. "I think so" Jack may have just been a school girl crush mixed with a little infatuation. She's changed since then; completely. She was not the same person who stood helpless while the people she loved died around her.

"Well then, what's stopping you?" She had no idea of the mysterious murders of every woman loved by a Winchester and as the shape-shifter pointed out Dean had serious abandonment issues.

"Many things" They smiled at one another. A smile of sadness at unrequited love.

"You wanna come inside and rest, you've been out here all night" Cassie gestured to her house with her thumb.

"Yes, thank you" They entered the house and Cassie provided her with food and bed.

"Kat, Kitkat come on rise and shine baby" Dean stroked her head. He kissed her forehead and she opened her eyes.

"Hey, what time is it?" She rubbed her eyes and pulled her thick black rimmed glasses out of her bag and placed them on her face. Dean loved it when she had them on; the secretary look.

"Around 10, were leaving" He stood up.

"Leaving? Did you stop the truck?" She got out of the bed and picked up her jacket.

"Yeah of-course, you expect anything less?" He smirked.

"No I didn't" She smiled at him.

"Come on let's get out of here" He put his arm around her and escorted her out of the house.

They stood by the Impala as Cassie came to see them off. She opened her arms and Kat stepped in for a hug. Dean and Sam exchanged shocked glances at the scene unfolding.

"Thank you"

"Don't thank me I was asleep for most of it" They laughed.

"Hey here's my cell phone number if you ever want to talk" Cassie handed Kat a little white card.

"Thanks take care of yourself" They hugged again.

"I will" She turned to Sam and Dean. "Bye guy's thanks" She walked away and Kat turned to face Dean. He was still in shock. She took his sun glasses from his head, removed her glasses and placed them on her face; she put her hand in his pocket and fetched the keys to the Impala and began to make her way to the driver's side. She got in leaving the boys to contemplate Dean's ex and his possible new girlfriend getting along. Aerosmith Blasted from inside the car and Kat's melodic voice sang along to Amazing. Sam smiled.

"She's awesome" He laughed at Dean.

"I know" He smiled; that rare no-smirk smile that Kat cherished as she hardly got to see it. The brothers got in the car; Kat was using the rear-view mirror to put in her contacts. She finished and turned to face them.

"Right boy's, where to?"