With a laugh Kat followed him into his motel room, just as eager for the alone time as Dean was. He shut the door, flicking the lock into place. It wasn't like this was the first time they'd taken off after a hunt, only to rush back to their motel. If there was anything good that could be said about John leaving Dean to hunt on his own and his brother's disappearance to Stanford, it was that they didn't have to be so sneaky and cautious all the time. John wouldn't have approved; Sam probably wouldn't have either for that matter. But none of that mattered right now, as their lips joined again and their tongues soon followed.

Clothes were tossed aside carelessly as they each explored the other's body. It would never get old. She knew just what Dean liked, and she knew what he loved the most and she relished in that feeling until he had her on her back, kissing his way along her body. No man had ever known her like Dean, and she gave a happy mewl as he teased her. Breathy laughter escaped them and they kissed again, hot and hungry for more.

"Kitty," he growled playfully as he looked up at her.

She shot him a flirty smirk, leaning down to kiss him as she brought them together, their low groans filling the motel room. It didn't matter that the walls were paper thin, or that scars mottled their flesh because it was just them. And neither of them cared. It wasn't long before they were crying each other's name in ecstasy as they writhed together

"I love you," Dean moaned breathlessly, seemingly unaware that he had uttered those words because in the next moment he had tensed underneath her.

Chapter Five, Gonna Getcha Good!

Kat got her release in order and left the hospital before long, and she managed to find her way to her car in one piece to grab a change. Jeans and a t-shirt were comfortable enough for her, and practical enough for hunting too. She got in, grabbed her phone and made a call. It wasn't as though the Roadhouse was an uncommon place, and she spent the next several hours driving over and checking into one of the dingier motels long enough to take a shower. It was nice to feel clean again without feeling as though her skin had been rubbed right off in someone's attempt to keep her clean. It was a strange thought to consider, and one that she didn't spend long on.

She idly wondered if Dean ever went to the Roadhouse, but hoped that someone there knew where the Winchesters were bound. Last time she had been hanging around Dean, neither of them had known about the little place. She combed through her hair, working through the knots and tangles with practiced patience. It was getting close to needing another cut, the red strands almost grazing her shoulders. She changed into a fresh pair of jeans, tugging a plain lime-green t-shirt over her head before heading out to her car and driving over to the Roadhouse. It had been awhile since she'd last been there, as she had been occupied with several hauntings in Wisconsin before hearing about the Djinn and making a pit stop there.

It wasn't a fascinating tale to hear, about how Kat found herself involved with hunting. When she was six years old, her father had been killed by the resident ghost and she was next on the list. John Winchester was on his way to investigate and arrived shortly after, under the pretence of being a private investigator. He bustled Katherine off to stay at somewhere safe, which turned out to be with his two sons while John and her mother worked on the job together. At first John was more than irritated, but in the end Janine Calloway saved his life through what was more dumb luck than anything and he reluctantly explained everything to her. However, rather stay behind and move on with her life as she raised her daughter, Janine brought Kat along with her on hunts, much as John did with his two young sons. That was the first meeting, but not the last between the Calloways and Winchesters.

Since there wasn't much else in the world that interested Kat, she kept with hunting. She preferred working on hauntings, the simple salt and burns but it wasn't as though she hadn't run into other cases when she was older and actively working with her mother. Janine was still alive, but Kat was grateful to have escaped her mother's reaches in order to pursue her own life. And with a little more privacy. If someone asked her how her relationship with her mother was, Kat would describe it as being a good one. So long as she was several thousand miles away from the woman, but get them in the same room and all it disintegrated into fights bordering on screaming matches and slamming doors.

"Oh my god," she whispered, slamming her car into park before leaping out and running towards the wreckage. She froze a few feet from the blaze that was still smouldering, the smoke steadily rising towards the air of what had once been the Roadhouse.

Did Jo and Ellen make it out okay? What about Ash? Her hand was trembling as she pulled out her cell and dialled for the fire department. It wasn't long until sirens were filling the air and what was left of the blaze was put out. She gave them one of her less known aliases and told them what she had seen, and was left with too many unanswered questions as the fire truck pulled away. Why had no one reported the fire earlier? Whatever had happened here was no coincidence.

It wasn't even twenty minutes later when she heard the familiar roar of the Impala. She couldn't say what had made her stay, something about trying to remember those who had no doubt not made it out safely. Dean got out with another hunter she didn't recognize, an older man with a trucker's cap and a gray beard and they walked over to the remains of the building. Kat shifted nervously before walking over to them.

"Shit," Dean cursed lowly as he pulled back, knocking some of the charred wood aside.

The older hunter was standing back a ways, his eyes on her warily. She lifted a hand in greeting as she wandered over.

"What the hell are we supposed to do know?" Dean demanded crossly, turning away without even acknowledging her and stomping over to the car.

The older hunter turned away with a slight frown, following Dean. Kat didn't even hesitate in following Dean towards his car. The next thing she knew, Dean had cried out in apparent pain and was clinging to the hood of his car as he clutched his head. The older hunter looked worried too, but Kat reached Dean first, setting an uncertain steadying hand on his shoulder and ignoring the way he rolled his shoulder to try and dislodge it. His knees buckled a bit, but he caught himself on the car, gasping for a moment before raising his head.

"Are you alright?"

Kat noticed the way the older hunter seemed to also be ignoring her presence, but he was at least acknowledging her with eye contact.

"Yeah, I-I'm fine, just… a headache." Dean pulled away abruptly from her, turning to use the car to provide more distance between them. "And you can get out of here."

Kat narrowed her eyes at him. "Whatever you're doing here, Winchester is my business." It was almost a bluff –it was her business because she wanted to have a chance to make things right between them, but she knew nothing about the specifics of why Dean was here. It was probably pretty big, whatever it was.

Dean scoffed and went to say something, but instead doubled over as he clutched at his head with a groan of pain, struggling against something.

"C-could've sworn I saw something," he muttered as he righted himself, rubbing at his head.

"Like… a vision?" the older man was asking, cautiously and Dean fired a glare at him.

"No, nothing like that."

"What'd you see?"

"A-a bell, a big one. With an engraving on it."

The older hunter beat her to the question this time, "An engraving? Like what?"

"A tree, like an oak tree or something, I think."

"Come on, I know where Sam is," the older man was saying as he got into the Impala.

Sam was missing? Kat maintained eye contact with Dean, refusing to break it. "Kat, I don't have time for this right now."

"Sam's in trouble," she murmured with a sigh, stepping back. She didn't want to get in Dean's way if that was what he was worried about. Sam was too important to him.

She watched as the Impala sped away before turning back to her own car. A part of her wanted to race after them, follow them to wherever they were going but she knew better than that. She wouldn't risk throwing their whole case off for her own reasons. She just hoped that if something went wrong, that maybe she could be there for Dean. She got back into her car, pulling out her cell phone and looking at the two latest contacts that had been added before glancing back at what was left of the Roadhouse. She deleted the number before driving off, in the same direction as the Impala with no intention of following the two men although she would have liked to.

It wasn't until much later that she got a phone call. She had pulled over off the road and was nearly sound asleep when her phone went off. She fumbled for a minute, not even looking at the caller ID before she answered with a groggy: "Hello?"

"Kitty?"

"Sam?" She was sitting up, muffling her yawn with her hand.

"Yeah, i-it's me."

"What is it?" So Dean had gotten to Sam in time, saved him and all. She smiled a bit at that.

"I think maybe you should come up and… see Dean."

Kat paused for a long moment. "He doesn't even know you're calling me, or that I have your numbers does he?"

"No, but listen Kat –that's, that's not important. You should really come spend some time with him."

She frowned at that, wondering what Sam was getting at. "I'd love to Sam, if it meant I could actually have a conversation with your brother but as things stand unless I'm locked in a room with him I don't think it's going to happen."

"I could arrange that."

"Sam… I'm not trying to force myself on Dean," she chuckled a bit at the thought and Sam's laughter echoed with hers for a short moment. "I just want to talk to him, and I want him to want to listen."

"Katherine, I swear if you don't come you will regret it." It wasn't said threateningly, but with concern.

"Sam, what's going on?"

"I can't tell you, Kat. Just trust me, okay? We're in Colorado."

"Where?" she questioned, her exhaustion slipping away as she put her seatbelt on and started to drive in the direction Sam had sent her too.

She put her phone on the seat beside her, wondering what could possibly be going on. It was another long drive and she only made stops in order to grab another coffee, afraid that if she stopped for too long that by the time she got there something unspeakable would have happened.

What she didn't expect was for Dean to be waiting for her when she pulled up. He was leaning back against the motel wall, his eyes already on hers as she got out and hurried over to him. He looked exhausted, but despite that there was still the tension in the air between the two of them. It was thick and awkward, forcing silence between them.

He didn't say anything, turning from her and opening the door to go inside the motel room. Kat faltered for a minute, conflicted before following after him as she realized that she was alone with Dean. He shut the door behind her before moving towards the fridge, pulling out a beer.

"Want one?" he asked gruffly and she shook her head, taking a hesitant seat on one of the chairs at the table. Dean sat diagonal to her, popping the lid off the beer and taking a long swallow.

"What's going on?" she asked, afraid to let the silence simmer any longer between the two of them.

Dean looked at her, turning the bottle a little in his hands, the condensation running down the sides of it. There was a frightening emotion in his eyes, one that she couldn't quite place. "What are you doing back here, Kitty?"

She couldn't fight the smile that crossed her features at the use of her nickname. It had been such a long time since anyone had called her that. "I… things haven't been right between us Dean and I just… I would like to make them right."

He scoffed, taking another long drink from his beer. "Yeah, because you can make up for anything right?"

"No," Kat said quietly. "This… this is me trying to make it right. I can't fix what I did Dean, but I was stupid and young and I'm sorry, okay? I never wanted to hurt you."

He barked out a laugh, "It didn't hurt so much, that you didn't say those words," he looked at her then, an intense stare. "What hurt was that you snuck out, left me there thinking that everything was okay, and it was going to be okay. You weren't just some one night stand –I thought I'd made that pretty clear!" He stopped himself suddenly, taking a deep breath. "But when I woke up, you weren't there. No note, no voicemail, no nothing."

Kat dropped her gaze from his. "I know, I screwed up." And she'd been living with that guilt for years now, knowing just how pissed Dean was at her was a little different and a little more painful to realize that he was doing it because his heart was still hurting. "I got… scared," she replied quietly, knowing that it wouldn't change anything.

It wasn't an excuse because she could never excuse what she had done. Dean had been her best friend for years, and for all intents and purposes he was her first boyfriend. He had been there for her through everything, through so much, whenever she needed him. And she was there for him when he needed her, when Sam left to Stanford and John left him. Kat was there for him. Until he said those three little words and she found herself more terrified than she had ever been before, that she couldn't deal with that level of affection. It wouldn't have changed anything. And Dean had been in his right to express himself. But Kat knew, she knew, that the wound she had caused wasn't a small one. And she knew that no words or explanations could make up for that.

"I miss you Dean, I've missed you and I screwed everything up. You have every right to kick me out the door but… I don't want to leave, not this time. I've grown up Dean. I'm not here… looking for, or expecting anything. I just," she frowned down at her hands, "I want to make things okay between us again."

"You really think things can be okay?" he asked dubiously, his dark green eyes on hers as he set his beer aside. There was weariness in his expression, and his eyes were guarded. Time had changed them both, she reminded herself. He wasn't the same person she knew and she certainly wasn't the same person he knew either.

"I hope so," she confessed, looking up at him.

Dean was quiet for a moment, turning away to look at something. "So what exactly were you scared of Kat?"

She frowned a bit at that. "I-I don't know exactly."

"Really?" he got out of his chair, putting some space between them. "You don't know," he mocked. "It's not like I was going to fucking leave you Kitty."

"That's not what I was afraid of," she protested, getting up as well. "Dean, please…"

"No. Tell me what you were afraid of –I need to hear it."

"Well maybe I don't want to tell you that," she bristled. Because she didn't. It was embarrassing and stupid and to this day, she couldn't understand it.

"I think you at least owe me that much!" he growled, glaring at her. "You walked out on me Kitty –you wanna walk right back in? You tell me what the hell scared you off last time. Because I sure as hell never pegged you as a coward, and while I'm being honest, I don't actually believe that you got 'scared off'."

She wasn't exactly sure when she had moved over to Dean, but she was standing in front of him before he had even finished speaking. "I'm not a coward. And you damn well know it, Winchester."

"Really?" he smirked down at her, "You said you were scared Kitty –what of? Losing me –maybe you thought I was just going to haul you around with me and you were scared of losing your independence. So which is it Kat? Huh?"

"It's nothing like that!" she snapped back.

"Well I wasn't the one who said you were scared princess so what's got you so upset?" he goaded, his eyes on her as he took a step closer to her.

Kitty lashed out, her palm slapping onto his chest to keep the distance between them. "You're the one who's making me upset!" It was a weak protest, and she knew that Dean didn't even buy it, but the smirk that lit up his eyes was too infuriating to ignore. "And damn you Dean! I'm not upset –I'm mad!"

"What're you so mad about?"

"Well the fact that you're asking as though you don't care, for one! And because –Dean!" she growled in frustration as he went to turn away from her. "I just want us to be friends!"

"And I just want to know what sent you running last time so I can expect it this time! What were you so afraid of, huh?"

When she didn't answer, he made a disgusted sound, turning as though to truly leave her there. "I was afraid of losing you goddamit!" she shouted, her hands in fists at her sides as she refused to look at him. Out of her peripheral vision, she could see that he had turned to look back towards her but she couldn't make out his expression. "It's stupid and pathetic, yeah," she scoffed, looking away. "I was scared that staying with you would have destroyed us faster than me leaving. I didn't know what to do Dean! And I made a mistake, because I was some stupid idiot."

The next moment, she felt his hands on her arms, turning her back towards him. "What do you mean by that?"

She avoided looking at his eyes, instead staring at his chest. A part of her wondered how much more toned he was than when she had last been with him, and a shudder passed through her involuntarily at the memory of before this mess. "I mean we were never exactly serious. Both of our parents would have murdered us. And I know you were with other women, I didn't stop you from that and you didn't stop me from the other men. That was fine, but…" But if they had ever gotten together, tried to be serious, could they have survived it? At the time, it made sense that if she left she could return, opposed to having Dean break her heart to the point where she couldn't come back.

She was an idiot. She knew it. And her idea, naïve as it was, backfired. Unsurprisingly and rightfully. She'd done more damage. And she had done all of that, without ever knowing how they could have been if they'd been together.

He laughed, but the sound of it was flat and humourless. "That's why you left?"

She nodded silently, afraid to look at him, afraid to see the amusement and frustration and possibly hate behind his eyes. But the last thing she expected was to find his arms wrapping around her.

I want to thank everyone so much for all the reviews you've left me! I really appreciate them. I'm just wondering what you think of Kat so far?