Chapter 18

The rising sun was blasting its way through the crack in the curtains, right into Sam's eyes. If that wasn't enough of a signal it was time to wake and start another busy day, his stomach grumbled to remind him he hadn't eaten last night. He could feel the warmth of Amelia lying near his back; it was comforting despite the heat and humidity. He rolled over intending to wake her, but found himself looking at a beautiful, and completely naked, young woman. Sam could see she must have thrown the sheet off during the night; it was still partially draped over her lower body.

He just lay there staring at her sleeping form. Sam hadn't really taken the time to study her features before. She wasn't what he'd call classically beautiful; she was short and her face rounded. But her skin was smooth and tawny colored. He let his eyes travel down her torso and abdomen. There was nothing that screamed gorgeous at him, but she was just naturally pretty. He noticed part of a tattoo under her navel peeking out over the top of the sheet. The desire to lift the sheet to see the rest of the tattoo, and her, was making him breathe heavily.

They were both old enough to be consenting adults. Hell, he had just turned 29. Even though she was several years younger than him, it wasn't like she was jail-bait. Well Amelia Stone was younger, the goddess inside… And that was all it took to squelch any thoughts he was having at running his hand down her inviting shape or waking her with a kiss. He was falling for another supernatural being in a human's body. He didn't care if Amelia Stone had volunteered for the gig, having sex with a man she had met four days ago was probably not what she had signed up for.

Sam heard her moan. He wasn't sure if it was a pleasurable sounding moan or his body just interpreted it that way, as he rolled away and off the other side of the bed. Either way, it was too late. No matter what had caused Amelia to moan, his body was already aroused. He quickly headed for the shower to take care of the problem, one way or another.

Amelia's dream of Sam running his hand over her body was cut short and replaced by thoughts of multiplication tables. She opened her eyes, saw Sam's side of the bed empty and that she was mostly uncovered. She noticed the shower was running and heard Sam quietly chanting the decimals of pi to 10 points, over and over again. She could also smell the scent he had left behind on the bed. She sighed, and silently started reciting the elements of the periodic table.

Amelia had dressed by the time she heard the shower turn off. She decided to ease what was sure to be an uncomfortable moment, yelled at Sam through the door that she was getting breakfast and left the room before he had a chance to stop her. Sam heard Amelia say she would get breakfast as he stepped out of the shower. He didn't like the idea of her out there alone, but he had to admit he was glad she wasn't there when he came out. He had to wrap himself in a towel because he had been in such a hurry he hadn't grabbed any clean clothes. He dressed quickly and pulled out his laptop while waiting for her to come back.

He had just found Cassie's Southeast Missourian website when Amelia came in with take-out from a near-by Bob Evans restaurant. Sam completely forgot the anticipated awkward moment the minute he smelled the food. As she started unpacking the food she asked him, "I wanted to try a southern breakfast. Have you ever had grits?"

Sam was getting ready to ask if she was kidding when she handed him an Omelet loaded with fresh vegetables, and a small side of grits. He looked up to see her smiling at him and holding a cup of coffee. "Gotcha." She said, and then added, "They really aren't that bad, you know."

"Tell me that when it's all you've had to eat for three days." Sam remembered the time their dad had left him and Dean in some backwater town in southern Arkansas for 10 days, without enough cash, and all Dean could scrounge up the last couple of days had been grits. They ate quickly and Sam had to agree, they weren't half bad prepared this way. Of course, he was also famished.

As soon as they were done eating, Sam got his new cell phone out and called the paper. He asked for Cassie Robinson and was quickly put on hold. He had been on hold for a couple of minutes and he was afraid she wasn't going to pick up an unknown caller, when she answered, "Cassie Robinson here, how can I help you?'

It suddenly dawned on Sam he didn't really know what to say. "Cassie?" He asked and quickly moved to have Amelia listen in.

"Yes. May I ask who is calling?" They could both hear the beginning irritation in her voice. Amelia nodded her head at Sam in confirmation.

"It's Sam., Sam Winchester, Dean's brother." He said, still unsure how to proceed.

"Uh. Sam. Why are you call…" She paused. "Is Dean okay?"

Her question was the natural reaction. When you don't hear from someone for years and then their brother calls, everybody assumes its bad news. "That's why I called. We,.. I mean I, need your help. Dean's in trouble."

There was no response for what seemed like ages, and then she asked, "Where are you?"

"We're here, in Cape Girardeau. Can I come to your office?"

"We? Is Dean with you?" She asked; concern obvious in her voice now.

"No. But I'm travelling with someone who can help." That was true. The details could wait until they met, if Cassie needed to know who his companion was.

"Of course. Can you find the building?"

Sam had held the phone out so Amelia could keep listening. Their eyes met for a second and he replied, "We can be there in 20 minutes."

"See you then." Cassie said as she hung up her phone.

X

Sam closed his phone, and turned to throw the few things he had unpacked last night back into his duffle. They were back in the van in five minutes. Despite morning traffic, they pulled into the paper's parking lot exactly 20 minutes after talking to Cassie.

Cassie had told the receptionist she was expecting a couple of people and they should be brought straight to her office. Sam noticed the worried look on Cassie's face as soon as they stepped through her door.

"Sam." She said as she held out her hand to shake his.

"Hello Cassie. Thanks for seeing us so quickly." He turned to Amelia. "Cassie, this is Amelia, she's helping me find Dean."

Cassie just stood and looked between them. "Find Dean? He's missing?" She finally managed to get out. She seemed to regain her composure and indicated they should sit.

"Cassie, it's a really long story. I'll tell you everything, if you really want to know." He paused, but when she didn't reply he went on. "Things changed, a lot, for Dean and me since we were here." He paused briefly again before continuing. "This is so much more than a haunted truck. And I need your help." This time he stopped to give her a chance to let it all sink in.

She only hesitated a second before replying. "Anything I can do, I'll do." She glanced at Amelia, a look of recognition slowly coming to her face. Amelia saw immediately that Cassie recognized her from the news reports of the last few weeks as she was crossing the country. She also knew she wasn't going to let her know she could read her thoughts, at least not yet. "Sam? Is this Amelia Stone?" Cassie was looking in Amelia's direction. " The Amelia Stone from Spokane?"

Sam looked to Amelia, saw the almost imperceptible nod of her head and turned back to Cassie. "Yeah. She's a very special …" he hesitated briefly, "friend. She's come a long way to help me get Dean back."

"Back from where Sam?" When he didn't respond, she repeated the question. "Sam, where's Dean?"

He really wished he had thought about how to tell her this. 'Oh well, just say it,' he decided. "Cassie, Dean's in Purgatory."

"Purgatory? As in… as in Dante's Purgatory?" She asked after remembering to breathe again.

"Kind of. But it's more of our kind of thing than a classical novel." Sam knew that wasn't the right thing to say. But how do you tell your brother's ex-girlfriend he had 'been sucked into an alternative reality while killing one of the most powerful men in the country who happened to be a monster; and, oh by the way, he took an angel of the lord with him'. Amelia glared at him. 'I'm not going to say it like that.' For the first time he was really glad she could read his thoughts.

"Cassie." Amelia took Sam's 'non-verbal' communication as permission to use her skill. She used the thoughts and feelings she'd been getting from the woman to help Cassie understand. "Sam tells me you know what he and Dean do?" Cassie nodded at Amelia. "In the years since you knew them, the scope of the things they fight became quite a bit more monumental." She could see Cassie was keeping up with her explanation so far. "You run a newspaper?" Another nod. "You know the world has seen a great many strange occurrences the last few years." Cassie looked at Sam this time, but nodded. "Dean and Sam have been instrumental in saving the planet from destruction, twice, in the last couple of years."

"Wha….?" Was the best she could manage.

"I'm sorry, Cassie, this is very hard, even for someone who knows and has encountered the this reality, that there is much more to the world than what appears in the news." Amelia knew relating it to her profession would help her focus her mind. She had seen her heart was already willing to do anything Sam asked, to help Dean. "Sam will explain it all to you. Or Dean can, after we get him back. But right now there is not time to tell everything. Sam needs assistance finding a few people, people like yourself who they have helped over the years."

Cassie looked back at Sam, took a deep breath, nodded and waited for him to tell her what he needed. "Cassie, can you use the newspaper's search engines to find the current name, location and phone numbers of about a dozen people?" She looked at Sam for a couple more seconds before opening the computer on her desk.

"Show me what you've got so far."