Dean walked into the small cafe, wondering what was going on with Sam and his persistent need to be alone lately. The smell of freshly brewing coffee was certainly welcoming enough. He got in line and glanced through the menu, ordering a plain black coffee when the background noise slowly caught up to him with one familiar name. Katherine Calloway. He handed the change off to the cashier, turning to look back at the small tv where they had a picture of her posted up and a police number flashing along the bottom of it.

Dean watched the repeated information pass by, an old photo of Kitty with the caption requesting the public's health in any information regarding her suspicious death. There were no suspects or anything. Apparently she had been beaten up pretty badly and someone had thrown her into the trunk of a car before driving out and ditching her body. The car was found a few days later, clean of fingerprints and reported stolen two weeks before then. It was hard enough to stay standing as the news feed finished it's broadcast. Kat was… dead?

Had Sam known? Did it matter at this point? No, no it didn't.

Within a few steps Dean was at the nearest computer, typing out Katherine Calloway and finding where she had been buried. Kentucky. A weak smile tugged at his lips; she was buried in the shadow of a church. Literally. She was probably rolling in her grave.

What the hell had happened? Kat worked with hauntings, not possessions. She never got into enough trouble in a bar and could handle herself just fine. The only way someone could've got the jump on her was if they caught her off guard or were just that much stronger than her. But even in that case, she was smart enough to try and run for her life especially if the situation looked that grim. She was stubborn, but even she knew when she was outmatched and to back off. There were so many things they had been taught together. Dean had died, sure, but that wasn't from someone actually killing him. Or beating him to death. Although with Alistair it had been close...

"Police have just gotten a report in confirming that the motel manager at Shake n' Shimmy remembers seeing the young woman come in sometime in August asking after a customer and that there was something of a commotion going on. When the manager, Ms. Kealy, went to investigate the noise she could only find a ruffled bed and an abandoned room. Police are going through security footage now. Please, if anyone has any information on the death of Miss Calloway call this number..."

Reeling in shock Dean grabbed his coat and walked back out to his baby, turning the key he sped out of the parking lot and down the highway towards Kentucky. The Apocalypse and their damn angels could wait five fucking hours. He needed to know. Sam had to have known. There was no way that Janine or Bobby or even Ellen wouldn't have called him to tell him.

Did he think that Dean needed protection or something? Goddammit. Kat, what the hell happened? The use of a car negated it being anything other than demons or some stupid humans. She was beaten to death. What if… no. He refused to let his mind wander to that particular possibility. Just because he was rotting in hell and torturing other bastards… No. He pressed down a little harder on the gas, eyes staring down the highway. He was going to get answers that Sam had probably never even bothered to get.

Had Bobby and the others just assumed Sam would have told him or were they all supportive of that decision? He might not have always been Kat's biggest fan, but she was still his best friend and a little more than that. Kat was supposed to have been living up here, having a blast as usual and screwing around with some guys in the back of a bar. She was supposed to see Janine once more, to shove every piece of garbage that she was carrying with her right down the hag's mouth. Janine was supposed to smarten up and accept Kat as the amazing individual she was, and not some shadow of a star pupil. Kat was a damn good hunter, always had been but for some reason it was just never quite good enough for Janine Calloway.

Kitty was supposed to be alive long enough to say "I love you, and I'm sorry."

Whataya Want From Me?

Alyssa sat curled up in the chair for the whole night, wearing one of Sam's shirts and unable to sleep. She could hear his deep, even breathing and knew that he was soundly asleep. Unlike him, she could not put her fears aside quite so easily. What was going on with him in the first place? she mused. The soft flutter of wings, the barest of shadows flickering across the dark room illuminated by just a crack of moonlight alerted her to his presence but she still jumped when she saw him standing in front of her. She glanced back over her shoulder to see if Sam had woken up, knowing how hunters were sensitive to the slightest changes in their atmosphere.

"He won't wake up," Castiel told her soothingly. "You don't have to worry."

"What's wrong with him?" she pressed, turning towards him. "Sam isn't… Sam's never been like this before."

"He is sick, tainted, by a demon."

"W-what do you mean? He's not possessed…"

"There are other ways in which someone can be affected. You should not worry about how he is sick. Just know that he is, and be there for him."

"What am I supposed to do, follow him across the country?"

"Yes."

Alyssa blinked in surprise. "I don't have a possible way to follow him at the moment."

"Make sure he takes you with him."

"And if he won't?" she countered. "I'm only his friend -I'm not someone invaluable to him, like Dean or Jess."

"Dean will be glad to have you along as well, for Sam's benefit."

"What aren't you telling me?"

"Nothing you need to worry about. Now, sleep. It will be a busy year for you."

"What do you-?" Alyssa didn't have time to finish her question before Castiel had crossed the distance between them, placing his fingers on her forehead.

When Alyssa woke up in the morning, it was to the sound of the door slowly easing shut behind one Sam Winchester. Sleepily, and without thinking she called his name, watching the door bleary-eyed. It slowly opened and Sam stepped back in, his duffle slung over his shoulder and looking like he was about to leave for a war mission. That hardness was back in his gaze as he looked at her.

"I want to go with you," she pressed, sitting up slowly.

"No, it's too dangerous for you," Sam countered.

"Too dangerous?" she repeated numbly. "Too dangerous -Sam where the hell is there no danger?! The seals are breaking right -we're all in great danger no matter where we are." Especially if… she didn't want to finish that thought.

"Yes. But it's more dangerous with us, with me," he tried to soothe her.

"I don't care."

"Well I do."

"I want to go with you."

"You can't," a frown crossed his features. "Alyssa it's way too dangerous, you don't even know how to defend yourself or anything. You'd just slow us down."

"I learned!" she argued vehemently. "Ellen and Jo both taught me -"

"Oh Jo, teaching you? That's just great. One rookie teaching another," he scoffed.

"You doubt that Ellen could teach either of us something?"

"Ellen's more of a scary mom that a monster hunter. I don't think she could have taught you anything practical."

"At least give me a chance Sam," she pleaded. "I can't know about this whole fiasco and do nothing. It's not like you can't use the help, and it's a little much to have the whole fate of the world resting on your shoulders alone."

"Why does it matter so much? You never cared about any of this before."

"I learned it all as life skills, but that doesn't mean I didn't care. I may not be hunter material, but I do have experience and training behind me Sam. I can still help. Isn't that what this is all about at the end of the day anyways?"

"This is a bit bigger than all of this. No, Alyssa. You can't help. Dean… Dean can't even handle what's going on! It's bad enough I have to carry him, but I'm not going to be carrying your deadweight around either."

Alyssa stared in shock, pulling back closer to her chair. Was she supposed to save Sam from his self or from his stupidity?

"Dean… went to Hell. He came back different. He can't do this, Aly. I'm the only one who can do this and this? This is just too big to let it all go."

Numbly, she watched as he walked out of the motel room and left her behind. She was still sitting on the chair, wearing his shirt while her clothes were hanging in the bathroom to dry. Had losing Dean really changed Sam this much? How could she even save him when he didn't know and didn't care about who he was? Or who he had been.

She had just finished changing into her clothes, folding Sam's shirt up and setting it on the bed when the motel door opened again and Sam wandered in, looking quite confused. He glanced at her, and then to his shirt before sitting down on the arm chair she had previously been sitting on.

"Dean's… not answering his phone."

"You don't have the car?"

"I stole one, dropped it off five miles from here. Dean was supposed to be here by now -he, uh, had to go back and see his doctor for something."

"Doctor?"

"He got his ass kicked by a demon." Sam frowned. "We agreed to meet here, there's pissed off ghost in the city by the sounds of things."

"Maybe he got some bad news?"

Sam sat bolt upright. "Oh shit," he breathed out. "He knows."

"Knows…?"

Sam grabbed the remote, turning the volume on the television up. Alyssa recognized the picture of the woman there, a younger version of the Kat that she had met over the summer. The police were asking for information regarding her death considering that they had just gotten a big tip from a motel owner in Kentucky who said that he had seen her that morning going to see a friend but the owner was a little sketchy on the details and the police didn't offer much clarity.

"It's the only explanation for why he's not here, unless Cas whisked him away somewhere but I doubt that's it. He's trying to find answers…"

"Are there any?"

Sam shook his head, staring forlornly at the tv. "I have no idea… He's gonna be pissed."

"Tell him the truth," she urged. "It can't do any harm can it?"

Sam sighed, shaking his head. "That's not the point."

"Well go see him, you know where she was, er put to rest right? Would he go there or is he going to go looking to find what happened to her?"

"He'll be on the hunt for answers…"

They hammered out a plan on what to do, what they were going to do and with great reluctance, Sam agreed to let Alyssa come along this once. Inside she was ecstatic. There were only going to be a few problems on the way, such as her missing car and the lack of clothing she currently didn't own. Because what she had owned was nice and safe in her car which was several states out of the way.

Sam went out and stole another car, an indistinct black Honda or something and she carried their stuff out and got in and off they drove towards Kentucky. She turned the radio on when the silence between them started to weight heavily on the mood, and almost regretted it when heavy metal started playing. It took her a couple of tries before she settled on a modern station that wasn't overly pretentious in how it pretended that everyone liked the music.

It was late in the evening when they pulled into the small Kentucky city, close to where Kat's body had been found and near to where she was buried. Sam drove around, checking out the motels in the area, looking for the Impala. Alyssa felt the tension in the car hike several levels when they had driven all over the town and seen no sign of the Impala. What did it mean? Had Dean not come here? Sam checked for his brother's GPS once more, but there was nothing conclusive since it seemed he had removed the battery from his phones. And as irrational as it was, Dean had done it with every one of his phones.

It was obvious that he didn't want to be found. Sam resigned parked in the nearest motel parking lot, it's blue sign flickering and on the verge of dying. They went inside the building and Alyssa was actually surprised by the warm and clean interior. She had been expecting more peeling wallpaper and water stains. Instead there was none of that and it was a pleasant change from the other motels she was familiar with. Sam checked them in under his alias of Hetfield and the clerk welcomed Mr. and Mrs. Hetfield with a great big smile and sent them down to their two-bed room. Sam went back out to the car to grab their belongings and the clerk called Alyssa over to tell her a few creative things that Alyssa was sure she could have done without hearing.

When Sam came back in, Alyssa had the keys in her hand and was pretty sure her face had turned six shades of red in the last minute and a half. She was pretty sure that she had never had another woman sit her down and tell in great detail just how lucky she was to have such a handsome man and some of the special offers that the motel offered. Alyssa was reconsidering her initial appraisement of the place. Blue Heaven certainly had some interesting variables placed in rooms. And Alyssa would keep in mind that avoiding the honeymoon suite was in the best interest for herself. She couldn't imagine what it would be like to stand up there and listen to all of that, knowing that Sam was hers. Here? Here they were friends pretending to be more.

She let them into their room, also neat and tidy and trimmed in a pleasant blue. Alyssa sat down on the nearest bed, curling up. She watched as Sam deposited his bag on his bed, sitting down beside it as well. He glanced at her, and there was almost a spark of the old Sam there, vulnerable and sweet and tender... and then it was gone and he was moving around and rearranging his bag before heading off for a shower and Alyssa was left alone.

How different would it be, if they were here as a couple? She sighed softly.

Dean was holed up in the traditional old fashioned inn, now more of a remodeled bed and breakfast as he sorted through police files, desperate to find some clue that would tell him who had done this to Kat. He had left the Impala parked safely within the garage of the building, to help keep some distance between him and Sam. He needed to figure this out, and then he would decide what part Sam had to play in this whole thing. But right now, he didn't want a lot to do with his brother. Sam was safe and fine and if there was any immediate danger Cas wouldn't be wasting time in collecting them all.

Interestingly there was no record of her autopsy if one had even been performed, at least not that he could find. He skimmed through the papers quickly finding nothing but a note from the coroner, Margaret Hyra, stating that the results had been inconclusive but that it appeared blunt force trauma was the cause of death. Dean skimmed through the motel manager's statement, frowning as he read her recalled story of Kat explaining about her cheating husband and wanting the father to step up to the plate of looking after her baby. The manager remembered that because she had been in a situation similar to Kat when she was younger, so she had agreed to help and was now regretting it.

They were looking for her husband, who had used the name John Sambora. But there was no one with that name out there, no records, nothing. Dean sat back, frowning at what had to be an alias and one which was pretty similar to some of the stuff they used. The guy was obviously a Bon Jovi fan to use that kind of a name, although god only knew why. Bon Jovi was just not that great as far as Dean was concerned.

He tapped his foot, taking a good long drink from his whiskey. Now would have been a good time to have Sam here. There had to be something that Dean was missing here. No autopsy records, no pictures... not that he was sure he even wanted to see those pictures. What the hell happened? Kitty had been in Kentucky, a more populated town at the Shake n' Shimmy motel and several hours later she was found just a little out of this town and taken to the hospital. They had tried to revive her but had been unsuccessful. Her name was down as Jane Doe and that was the end of the trail, just about. There were no clues or hints or anything about her.

Nothing to suggest that something supernatural was at play either, and that was a little disconcerting. According to the autopsy report done by Hyra, it seemed that there was validity to Kitty's claim that she was pregnant. Four months pregnant actually. But that wasn't possible. Dean had been with her all of May just about, unless after he died she jumped Sam's bones -he shuddered at that, no way that happened -or she'd grabbed the next guy she met. He flicked to the end of the report, pulling out the autopsy pictures he had skimmed over. Inside, was a woman with long reddish hair and a delicate face not too different from Kat, but there was something about her features that seemed... wrong.

On her exposed shoulder, there was a butterfly tattoo. Katherine hated butterflies and the usual girly crap, especially the color pink. Her favorite color was red, had always been. She wouldn't be caught dead with something like that permanently inked onto her body. Even drunk, no one could talk Kat into doing something like that. If anyone could have, Dean would have stood the best chance. And still drunk, he'd taken a right hook to the face that he wasn't going to forget about anytime soon. This... this couldn't be Kat. There was no way.