Chapter 53

The intensity of what they were feeling, while sitting together in the car, in their secluded spot, as dusk started to fall, was more than Sam or Amelia could express; either with words or through sex. They just sat there, wrapped in each other's arms. Sam opened his eyes and immediately closed them again because Amelia was glowing so brightly it was blinding. He gave them another minute and then started to loosen his hold on Amelia.

"Amelia? You're pretty bright there; and it's dark enough; someone is going to spot us."

"I know." She said as she started to pull away from Sam.

"Uh…why are you glowing?" He asked as he tried to open his eyes again; just in time to see the glow fade until just Amelia's eyes shone slightly.

"I'm just happy." She said wiping the moisture from her eyes.

"Uh huh." She may be a goddess, and he was only human, but Sam knew evasion when he heard it. "I don't mean to boast, but I thought I had made you pretty happy a few times the last couple of days; and I don't recall any light shows then."

Amelia sniffed as she climbed off his lap and sat back in the driver's seat. "I'm just really happy?" She said as she gave him one of her basic, 'end-of-discussion' glares, before adding, "And if you ever want to make me happy again….."

There was no way Amelia was going to tell him the real reason she had been glowing so intensely, at least not yet. For his part, Sam trusted her, and he figured all women kept their little secrets; and the reason for a goddess to start glowing all of a sudden might fall into that category. They stared at each other for a few seconds; then both realized the emptiness of her threat, and smiled at each other.

"I don't mean to brag again, but let me drive." Sam said as he started to open his door. "You're as slow as a grandma on a Sunday drive."

Amelia opened her mouth to argue, but just shrugged her shoulders and got out of the car. "I'm sure Shirley Muldowney would take offense to your remark." She said as she climbed into the passenger seat.

X

Sam left the beautiful little spot Amelia had found along near the Osage River and was back on the highway within minutes. They made it through Missouri's capital and were approaching Columbia and I-70 in less than an hour. Once they were headed west on the interstate, Sam had Amelia call Missouri to tell her they were running about an hour behind schedule.

As soon as Missouri answered the phone, Amelia could sense the psychic had been about to call them; and that she was not alone. "Missouri? What is it?"

"I should have known you'd call." Amelia put the call on speaker as Missouri was talking, so Sam could hear what she sensed was not going to be good news. "Where are you?" Missouri asked, obviously disturbed.

"We're just west of Columbia. Missouri, what's wrong?" Even Sam could hear the stress in her voice.

"You can't go to Bootback."

"What? Why not?" Sam asked. Sam didn't question Missouri's statement, he just wanted details.

Amelia knew there was a lot more the psychic needed to tell them; but all Missouri said was, "It's not safe. "

"Missouri, we knew there'd be.." Sam started to reply, when another voice interrupted him.

"Sam, we should so not be talking on these phones. Get your ass to Missouri's, and I'll tell you everything." And the connection was broken.

Sam looked back and forth from the phone and road. "It can't be." He said, glancing at Amelia. "That sounded like Charlie."

"No, it was definitely a young woman." Amelia said; then she saw Sam's memories of the computer genius that had helped them against Dick Roman. "Oh. Yes, that's her."

"What the hell is she doing with Missouri?"

"We're too far away for me to get much, from either of them. I could only sense they were both absolutely sure we shouldn't go to the plant in Bootback."

They had been making decent time, staying just above the speed limit; trying to avoid the attention of state troopers now that they were on the interstate. Sam figured they were just under three hours from Lawrence. He couldn't risk getting pulled over; he needed to get to their friends, but getting stopped for speeding would only make it longer. 'Crap, I wish the SUV had a radar detector'.

He felt Amelia's hand on his arm. She smiled as she said, "I've got it." He pushed the Tahoe just a little faster.

X

With Amelia as his radar detector, a thought that cost him a small punch in the arm; Sam flew through both Kansas Cities and was approaching Lawrence in just over two hours. It was precisely One AM when he pulled into the psychic's driveway and parked the car behind her house. Before either Sam or Amelia had closed their doors, they looked up to the backdoor when they heard the sound of a shell being loaded into the firing chamber of a pump-action shotgun.

"Whoa!" Sam said as he held up both hands. "Charlie, it's us!"

The young woman didn't lower the gun; but, at least, eased her finger off the trigger. "Missouri thought it was you. Me personally, I never trust anyone without some borax in my hands." By the time she finished talking, Missouri had joined her on the porch.

"Girl! I told you it was them. And, I don't need some fancy shotgun shells to determine that." Missouri said while pushing Charlie's gun down and away from Sam and Amelia's direction.

An awkward silence hung in the air as new arrivals and Missouri stared at the red-head. Charlie shrugged her shoulders before breaking the silence. "Okay then." She looked at Amelia as she asked, "So, Sam, who's your friend?"

Sam glanced at Amelia before answering, and she gave him a quick nod. As Sam and Amelia finished getting out of the car and headed toward the house, he replied. "Charlie, I'd like you to meet Mother Nature. But, you can call her Amelia."

When Amelia reached where Charlie was standing, she put her hand out to greet the young woman. Charlie stared for a second, then shrugged her shoulders again, took Amelia's hand and said, "Okay then."

It turns out having a psychic and a goddess present when old friends meet was a major time saver; there was no need for borax, silver, salt or holy water tests. That thought got Sam dirty looks from both Amelia and Missouri, but he didn't care.

Sam wanted to learn why they couldn't go to Bootback; but he needed some context for Charlie's out-of-the-blue appearance at Missouri's. Amelia and Missouri wanted to move on to the current problems and both vouched for the eccentric hacker. Feeling suddenly outnumbered by women and left-out as the only one who didn't know what Charlie had been doing for the last year; he insisted on getting some information on her activities since he saw her last.

For her part, Charlie was dying to know more about the 'mysterious Amelia' she had been reading about for over a month. Both parties agreed to share their stories, and everybody came inside and sat down at the kitchen table.

X

Charlie went first. When she had 'disappeared' after helping Dean and Sam find the Leviathan tablet; she hadn't forgotten what she had learned about monsters being real. She had set up a in a new location and had used all her computer skills to track the activities of Richard Roman Enterprises. And after the explosion at the lab and Roman's 'disappearance' she had kept on; tracking the movements of the remaining Leviathans. She'd also tried to keep tabs on the Winchesters.

"I couldn't track anything on Dean; but I monitored all your internet searches and cell phone activity and figured something really bad had happened to Dean."

"You followed everything I was doing; without me even knowing? You can do that?"

"Focus here, Sam. Of course I can."

"Why didn't you let me know?"

"I didn't have anything that would help you. I figured I was safer staying out of sight, and just kept looking for something that might help." Sam couldn't really argue with her reasoning; but still felt a kind of betrayed. All those long days of endless searching would have been just a little easier if he'd known someone was trying to help.

"And then, I started following anything I could about Amelia. I knew it couldn't be a coincidence that she appeared the exact same time as the explosion." She stopped for a second and looked back and forth between Sam and Amelia. "Then I saw your paths had crossed. I knew you must be onto something. So, I kept tabs on the people you contacted; like Sheriff Mills, Cassie Robinson and Missouri."

Charlie had nodded at Missouri at the end of her explanation; the psychic took it as a signal to continue the story. "After you called yesterday, I made some inquiries about Bootback and the plant." Sam's eyebrows had shot up, questioning her definition of inquiries. "What? I have a client that used to work for the water department. You think I've managed to survive all these years by just being psychic?"

Sam held up his hands in mock surrender, to appease the woman. He didn't know if she was so cranky because it was so late or because of the stressful situation.

"And I am not being cranky." Missouri stated, sternly.

Sam had always thought of himself as a pretty quick learner, but wondered to himself why he just couldn't learn to control his thoughts around the psychic and the goddess. And, now, he had a world-class computer hacker following every electronic communication he made.

ooooooooooOOOOOooooooooooooo oooooo

A.N. Just saw the previews for 8-11; looks like I not the only one who wanted to see Charlie again.