Whoops! Didn't get the chapter out as soon as I had hoped. Well here it is anyway!

All rights belong Supernatural,

Reviews are greatly appreciated as always,

Enjoy!

I was uneasy about the next meeting point we had. Walking through the rusted, old cars gave me chills the way the remains of the Roadhouse never had. It suddenly felt wrong to be bringing these ghosts back to places they had once called there home, especially after they had long since been destroyed. I poked around at an Oldsmobile for a bit until Julius arrived followed by a man who looked like he could be anyone's uncle and could kick anyone's ass.

"Mr. Singer? I'm Lainey, it's nice to meet you." I greeted him cheerfully albeit a little nervously.

"You're the idjit who wants to know what size underwear the boys wear?" He replied gruffly and I felt my face go red.

"What?! No, I never - Julius! What did you say to him?!" I spluttered.

"Nothing! Don't always blame me!" Julius looked far too innocent.

"He's right, I just made that up to see what you'd say. You might as well be asking those sort of questions though. Why in the world are you digging around in their lives? And what makes you think it's acceptable to literally doing up their friends and family to do it?"

"It's for a research project I'm doing." I said defensively.

"Research project? What kind of messed up topic did you pull from a hat? Aren't there wildcats in Africa that need savin'? Go pester them instead." He shook his head at me.

"Look Mr. Singer, I only have a few questions so if you'll please just answer them, I will let you go." I sighed frustratedly and he chuckled.

"I'm just bugging' ya. Ask away, and call me Bobby. None of that 'Mr. Singer' crap." Bobby sat down on the edge of the Oldsmobile and I restarted my voice recorder. I would cut out that embarrassing first part later.

"Well, first things first, how did you first meet Sam and Dean?" I asked.

"Through their dad. He was a hunter as well and used to drop them off at my place whenever he had some big case to deal with. I damn near raised those boys."

"But?"

"What do you mean 'but'? Sure, I had a fallout with their dad and didn't see them for a long time but that didn't change anything. You knew that already didn't you? How do you find this stuff out, what's in that notebook of yours?" He made a move to grab it but I snatched it out of his reach.

"Nothing! I have my sources, we'll leave it at that." I actually had no idea that there had been a fight, I just tried to see if I could get anything more out of him.

"They came to me for help a lot over the years. Those idjits had no idea what they were doing most of the time...Still, I reckon you won't come across a finer pair of men. While some people grow up good, they grew up great. Most people don't get that chance in the situation they were in. Just don't tell them I said that though, Dean's ego doesn't need the extra inflation."

"Don't worry, your secret is safe with me." I said. "Now, someone else I talked to, Bela Talbot, mentioned something about Dean going to Hell?"

"Yep, he did go. And then he got out. When that boy walked through my front door after we thought he was dead and gone, I thought I was seeing a ghost. Of course, he passed all the tests so we had no reason to believe it wasn't him."

"Got out? How does one just 'get out' of Hell?"

"He was pulled out by an angel. Castiel, don't know if you've heard of him."

"Cas-t-iel." I jotted the name on the corner of my page and circled it. " No, I havent. An angel you say?"

"Yup. He's an odd fellow but he means well and has helped the boys out of more than one jam. Doesn't make him any less weird though."

"Aren't we all a little strange in our own way?" I said more to myself than Bobby. "Is there anyone else who knows about Castiel?"

"Pamela I suppose. She was the first one to get in contact with Cas after he pulled Dean out of Hell. Fat lot of good it did for her though, the sight of his true form burned her eyes out." Bobby scratched the back of his head and I hissed low under my breath.

"Ouch, that would hurt. I've asked everyone this, but how did you die?"

"Shot by Dick."

"Pardon?!"

"Dick Roman, you idjit. A leviathan who shot me in the head."

"Oh, sorry. You just phrased that kind of weirdly...Leviathans though? Angels? The plot is really thickening now."

"That's just the start of it, Sunshine. You're just barely scratching the surface on the world of the paranormal."

"So I'm starting to figure out. Anyway, onto the next question -" I scanned the list of what I'd wanted to ask him.

"Now hang on a second, I have some questions for you." Bobby said.

"What do you mean?"

"Research paper my ass! I see how thick your notebook is. An interest this in depth means there's something personal behind your intentions." He crossed his arms and waited for me to answer.

"I'm just curious that's all.."

"No you aren't. Go on, just spit it out."

"Fine!...It started with my coworker being attacked by a poltergeist...Or so I convinced myself.. but it actually started a lot earlier than that. When I was a baby my family moved into this old house on an acreage and right off the bat things weren't right. My mom is a skeptic and so she didn't think anything of it, but my dad is a true believer and always said that he didn't feel welcome in that house. There were no plates flying across the kitchen or ghostly messages written on the bathroom mirror or anything and yet there was a chill to the place that never went away. I didn't sleep in my room for the first three years of my life because my dad saw shadows in the corner of my nursery and was convinced it wasn't safe for me. There were unexplained bruises and scratches on us kids but the scariest part was the voices you could hear if you stayed quiet enough. As if they didn't know you were listening.

I was 6 years old when my older sister Erika died. She was 11. I can still clearly remember that night, she was babysitting me and my younger brother Tom while my parents were out on a date. We were sleeping when it happened. I don't remember hearing anything, not at first, but I was awoken by the sound of my mother screaming. She and my dad had come home and found Erika lying at the bottom of the stairs, completely DOA. It was ruled out as an accident, that she must be slipped and fell, but my dad could never quite believe that. He spent hours pouring over the crime scene photos and researching medical texts and the like, trying to find something to validate his own claims. I can't imagine how hard it mustve been to have to closely examine photos of his own dead daughter. In the end, he found what he was looking for." I explained quietly.

"And what did you think?"

"I didn't think anything. I was a skeptic like my mother. It was an accident, simple as that."

"Bullshit, what did your dad find out?" Bobby rolled his eyes.

"The angle at which her neck broke was all wrong, and it was broken in too many places. He concluded that she hadn't fallen down the stairs, she had been thrown. Something I'm the house didn't like us and that was the last straw. It was one of many last straws, actually. We were out of the house within the month and my parents were separated by the next." I shrugged.

"What about the house?"

"As far as I know it's still empty. I think a few people have moved in since but no one stays long. I swear though, the day we left it felt as though the house itself was happy to see us go. It was just the strangest feeling..."

"And how does this all relate to your interest in Sam and Dean?"

"In a few ways. I can't help but wonder if my sister would be alive if we had had the help from people like them back when we needed it. I also can't understand how they keep moving on after all the death they've experienced. As soon as I started looking more into you guys, the people they loved, I found that a good majority of you were dead. The death of my sister tore my family irreparably apart. I want to know how they can live with themselves after all that hasn't happened."

"They don't just deal in the bad stuff, you know. Those boys are heroes, they've saved so many lives that it out weights those that have been lost. And they have each other, they've always been what the other one needed most."

"I guess..."

"I don't expect you'll understand that, but I don't have the time to sit and explain it anymore. I think it's time your friend here takes me back and you get some sleep. You look dead on your feet and that saying something coming from a ghost!" Bobby said sternly.

"But I still have a lot of questions.."

"And maybe it's best they stay unanswered. You'll find what you're looking for, just as your father did. Give it time and best of luck to you." Bobby got up and walked back over to Julius. He glanced back and saw my look of despair and gave me an encouraging smile. I returned it weakly and shut off my tape recorder as they left. I had wasted the time on my own personal problems. That really wasn't the professional way to conduct an interview but I couldn't change anything. And it had even given me a sense of relief to have finally poured out all the feelings I had bottled up for years. I decided to move onto Pamela next, it was worth it to hear about Castiel through her. Of course, before I could tell Julius that, he came running back over to me all jumpy and excited.

"You won't believe our luck!" He tried to spin me around but I dodged out of his grasp and fell against a truck.

"What?"

"I did it! You owe me so much for this, but I finally got Ellen to agree to talk to you!" He exclaimed breathlessly.

It seemed Pamela would have to wait.