Notes: Okay, if you've been waiting, or at least curious as to what happens next, then here it is. An update quicker than usual, and this chapter is going back to the original idea and where this story was always headed. Maybe it's predictable or typical, and maybe you saw it coming. It was mostly written back in the day as the first four chapters were, but now just needed some tie in pieces to what has happened in the previous chapters that were all new. Couldn't ignore the soul mate issue, or the destiny, or what was said to Manda back in chapter 5. So here we are... plot back to where we should be after a slight detour upon returning to finishing up this story so many years later. Also posted over on ao3 with the swearing that was edited out for here. Hope you like it.

Six weeks after leaving Bobby's place, Manda was getting ready to leave the motel room she was currently calling home that week to begin another day of doing interviews and investigating for the new case she was on. After a night of thorough research there were now a few more names on her list and leads to check out. It was bound to be a long day, and she hoped this job would go easier than the last one that had taken more than a month to finish. Two days in, and she wasn't sure she was going to catch a break here. Something had clearly been using this town as its playground for awhile, and it didn't sound like it was over.

Looking over articles and a map she had taped up on the wall as she tossed on the blazer that went with her best professional suit and slipped her fake credentials in the inner pocket, a wave of nausea hit at a rate that couldn't be ignored.

Barely making it in time to throw up, Manda threw herself on her knees in front of the toilet.

Knew those tacos last night were a bad idea, she thought with her head hung over the porcelain bowl as she heaved.

Wiping her mouth with the back of her hand when she was done, she suddenly got tense, sitting straight up, realizing last night's tacos were not the likely culprit for her stomach's sudden desire to purge. No, no, no… crap!

Mentally working things out quickly and then using her fingers to add it up out of disbelief, what little colour was left drained from Manda's face and her eyes widen with worry.

That monthly female occurrence was late. Actually it was far too late for her liking and late enough now to be a concern.

Hurrying up off the floor, Manda rushed back out to where she'd left her laptop on the bed. She quickly opened up the calendar and scanned backwards. The date stared at her mockingly, because looking back just revealed her period was now about a month overdue.

It wasn't like she hadn't somewhat noticed she was late, but worrying about it just hadn't worked itself in to the equation. So she had chalked it up to the stress of being on the road, knowing that travelling and what came with hunting sometimes wreaked havoc on her cycle. It had happened a few times before, and with the last job she'd taken on it wouldn't have been a surprise if it had again.

The lead she had from leaving Bobby's house had turned out to be one of the worst cases she'd ever been on. She'd spent one week investigating and devising a plan before losing another four to being stuck in cursed book of short horror stories. The book was writing itself fatter with even more twisted or warped tales for each new person it had sucked in. Manda had gone in to rescue whoever was still alive inside it by somehow getting herself through each story to break the curse. It had felt like month, but had only been those few weeks of hellish tales. In the end she'd still saved about five people, and had made sure the book was destroyed.

So the possibility was there, because not having quite been in this reality for those weeks might have messed up her cycle. But Manda also knew that wasn't the likely truth in this matter. Before heading to that job she knew exactly who she'd slept with, and while she was always careful, not just on her end either, no matter how careful she could be, no matter how slim the chances were, pregnancy was still a possibility. Birth control wasn't foolproof, she knew that, but she just couldn't believe that somehow over a month ago two types had failed her.

Crap! Not this, not now… please, just let it be the damn tacos!

Feeling incredibly queasy again, she ran back to the bathroom and leaned over the toilet again, filled with fear as she dealt with more of what she now suspected was actually morning sickness.

The job was going to have to wait. The morning was suddenly filled with the need to confirm what she desperately hoped wasn't true, but already knew deep down it was – she was pregnant with Dean's child.

[ - ]

Manda sat on the edge of the motel room's bathtub an hour later and looked at her watch.
Two more minutes and you'll know what you already know – you're pregnant.

Leaning forward to rest her elbows on her knees, she put her head in her hands. Closing her eyes tightly, she was thinking and feeling the subtle changes in her body she'd neglected to until now.

Looking back at her watch then, the two minutes had passed, and she knew that even though she didn't want to know, she had to.

Reaching over to the counter, she grabbed the first of three home pregnancy test sticks she'd used.

You were brought back for a reason alright, and now you definitely passed a test, Chambers, Manda thought, remembering what the woman outside the grocery store had said to her weeks ago as she looked at the small digital screen's readout.

And the results say you're positively screwed. She glared at the word "Pregnant" with an estimated "5 – 7 weeks" under it.

Reaching for the next test, she saw the pink plus sign in the center of the small square and felt her stomach curl into knots.

The third, she didn't even need to look at to know what the result would be, but she did only to find two pink plus signs this time.

With a heavy sigh, Manda knew there was no way to pretend this wasn't real. A pinch wouldn't wake her and a smack in the face wouldn't bring her to. She was, without a shadow of a doubt, pregnant.

She closed her eyes, desperately willing herself not to lose it right then.

Not that there had been, but there was no doubt in her mind over who had helped her land in this situation. Dean was, without any doubt at all, the father. To be as far along as the estimated readout meant it wasn't the guy she'd had a one night stand with only three nights ago, and it wasn't the one a month and a half before the two nights she'd spent with Dean at Bobby's.

There's not an afterschool special for this one. There's an Apocalypse going on, I'm pregnant… oh, and my baby daddy is supposed to be center stage when the final curtain draws. Awesome.

"Nice going, Winchester. World's going to hell and you managed to knock me up," she uttered, fending off the tears as she tossed both of the tests into the garbage can. But the tears came anyway.

This was the last thing she wanted now, and it would undoubtedly be the same for Dean. But what either of them didn't want wouldn't change the fact that she was still pregnant at this moment. Nor would it change the fact that she knew the child inside her would most likely be her demise if and when certain players in Armageddon found out about it.

And it had to be the end of the world, because while Manda knew enough reasons why she couldn't have this baby, a part of her longed to no matter how ridiculous it might be to do so.

It was the goddamn Apocalypse out there – and besides her life – was there anything left she had to lose at this point? She had no living family left. It wasn't like her and Dean were exactly together either, and he was smack dab in middle of all the Apocalypse stuff anyway with one of two outcomes – life or death. She was just hunting on her own as she had been for years, and with how everything was going for most hunters, she had been bound to wind up dead sooner or later. Hell, wasn't she already living on some sort of borrowed time if God had probably brought her back?

Though, all of that didn't change that this child was still family. One half of the man she would always love, and one half her own flesh and blood. That was the type of family she never thought she'd get to have again. Sure there was the family she chose, and while she'd still lay her life on the line for them, it just wasn't the same thing when she'd once had an actual family. Loving parents, grandparents, an uncle and aunt had all been there for a little more than half her life. So while maybe this child was half Winchester, the other half was still a Chambers. It left no doubts on how this could be her chance to have another go at what she'd lost and had also cost herself years ago - family. Only this time around she'd be the parent and not the child.

Manda thought about all of it then, and knew for certain that this had to be destiny at work. Had to be why that prophet claimed God had apparently brought her back the night she should have died. Had to do with why she and Dean were apparently soul mates. Because given the timing, it had to be a cruel twist of fate for this to happen now. It couldn't just be a coincidence, not with how she was looking at it and everything she knew.

There was the way she had already planned on stopping by Bobby's when Dean had called late the night before wanting her to come out there. That magical night down in that demon proof panic room, and Manda guessed that's when it had happened because the next night had been just as good but not quite the same.

She could remember the way her and Dean had just forgotten everything that weighed them down for awhile. Was there really a better place for two hunters to conceive a child? She doubted it. There'd been something at work that night. Something she should have realized at the time was fate. The stage had been set, and they had played their parts without even knowing it.

Bobby's panic room had been a safe haven; a place where there'd been nothing but them hiding away from a world they knew was falling apart outside. During those hours they'd spent down there lost with each other, unknowingly creating the life that now resided in her, should have been a giant tip-off that it was too good to be true. Strings had to be attached to that kind of stolen night in the midst of a war. And the next day she'd that woman had said those weird things to her, and that in turn had led to the soul mate revelation from a prophet, as well as being told she had her own destiny that was half why she'd been brought back months before.

Manda hesitated for a moment, feeling so many conflicted emotions, and then placed a hand over her abdomen.

This is what you brought me back for? How can you let this happen now? You're already asking the world of Dean… but this? This will wreck him. You can't make me do this to him. I won't… She stared up, silently conversing to the man supposedly once upstairs and now nowhere to be found according to the angels, wondering how he could do this to Dean, never mind her.

And what of the boy or girl already growing inside her? They didn't deserve the kind of life that came with being the kid of two hunters like her and Dean, because deep down Manda knew what would happen. As it was in her family, it was in his. A Chambers and a Winchester would likely only have one kind of child together – an extremely doomed hunter.

So if this was her fate, Manda didn't want it like this, and she wasn't sure she had to take it.

The last line of that woman's riddle about it being her choice and choosing one and still losing one was on her mind now. Was this the choice she had to make? If she chose Dean did that mean she'd lose her child? Or if she chose her child, she'd lose Dean? Or was it that choosing family meant losing hunting or vice versa? Or was it choosing herself and losing her life? Because if she chose to have her child would she actually survive long enough to see that through?

Whatever that choice was to make just wasn't all that clear. Manda didn't know what she was going to do, what choice to make.

All she knew that she could do right now was the job. That's what she'd been about to do this morning before figuring out she was pregnant.

Cleaning herself up a little and pulling herself together again, she went to grab her keys and then headed out the door. There was still a case to work and when it was done then she could figure things out. But Manda just wasn't sure she could have a child who just by conception alone probably already had the worst timing in the world. Even if this was part of that other life, the one she had always wanted someday, and had even dreamed about having with Dean a few times, she just didn't actually want it. Not this way, not like this.

However, Manda should have known that her choice would become crystal clear when later that day fate once again tugged on a string or bound another tie. One side that wanted the war hunters were now fighting had spotted her by pure chance since she was hidden from both.

Two days later she staggered in to hospital emergency room in rough shape. Battered, bloody, displaying signs of a serious concussion and barely able to stay on her feet, a lone nurse that was walking out as Manda walked in was able to hear her panicked words before she passed out on the floor, "Pl-please… I-I'm pregnant."

[ - ]

Close to two months since he'd last seen her, Dean figured it was about time to check in with Manda and see if maybe they could meet up again like he'd suggested. Sam had run out to grab them some food a few minutes earlier, and for the moment there wasn't much to do, so while he had a little time alone, it crossed his mind to call her.

He hadn't heard from her in weeks, not since a few days after they had left Bobby's now that he was thinking about it. It didn't overly concern him, but it seemed a little odd that she hadn't bothered to reach out at all. There were no calls, no texts, no emails, nothing at all. While it wasn't that unusual, it just didn't seem right with how things were going or if she had learned anything else about what had been said to her and the supposed destiny or the reason she was still alive for. But he knew he hadn't exactly reached out lately to find out anything either.

Dean had thought about her some nights and mornings over the last month, wondered where she was and what kind of job she was working, how she was, but just hadn't had it in him to call her. He didn't want to put her in more danger by staying in more regular contact and not talking to her made it a little easier not to worry more than he did already about her being alone out there.

Picking up his phone from the nightstand beside the motel bed he was sitting on, it was now time to do what he'd put off for the last two weeks now. Two weeks of wishing Manda would remember he'd wanted to meet up around now and call, not wanting to be the one to give in first.

Giving in now aren't you, genius? Dean chided himself mentally as he hit her number in his phone and let it dial. There was a brief pause and then a short ring followed by an automated voice telling him the number he was trying to reach was no longer in service.

Not in service? Since frigging when? He looked at the screen with disbelief, wondering for a split second if he'd hit someone else's name, but found he had in fact called Manda. His mind just couldn't believe it, didn't want to, so he punched in her number this time and called her again.

When the same recording spoke in his ear, an uneasy feeling kicked in. He hadn't expected this, and he knew it had to mean something was wrong if her number was disconnected. He wanted to believe she'd probably just gotten a new one, but she would have let him know if that was the case.

Dean didn't hesitate then, just tried another number of hers. More than one number and cell phone was common for most hunters, and Manda had three that he knew of. The second number he'd committed to memory was her hiding out number. It was the one to use if she was laying low for whatever reason. When it gave him the same not in service recording her usual number had, his unease turned in to genuine worry. With one left to go, the third was the absolute emergency only number meant for hiding out for an undetermined length of time. He called it, hoping like hell she would pick up this one, but it too had the not in service message. The worry was gone now and was replaced with a sense of dread.

She can't be… she's not… there's no way Manda's dead. Or is there? No, no, no way. I would've known somehow or heard something. Bobby would've called if she was… that's it, call Bobby!

Quickly dialling the man who was now the closest thing he had to a father, Dean tapped his fingers on his knee. A thousand things were running through his mind as to what might have happened to Manda, the biggest one being that Zachariah had somehow found her. The feeling now in the pit of his stomach wasn't one he welcomed.

"Whaddya want, Dean?" Bobby answered with a bit of gruff tone after a few rings.

"Hello to you, too," Dean replied, picking up on the annoyance right away. That was just too bad, he had his own. "Did I interrupt happy hour?"

Bobby sighed to himself. "Why hello there, idjit," he uttered with fake enthusiasm. "How can I help you?"

Dean couldn't hold back a grin. That was the Bobby he knew and loved. "Been moonlighting for a sex-line, Bobby?"

"Yeah, it's a better paying side business. Enough chit-chat. What's goin' on?"

It's only Bobby… he knows about us, and he probably knows where she is since he's keeping tabs on all of us. "You got a… do you… the numbers I have for Manda are toast. You got a line for her I don't know about?" he asked with a bit of an awkward tone. There was no need to beat around the bush but it still made him feel weird to be asking.

"Maybe that girl finally got some sense. Dumped your ass for good, soul mate or not," Bobby teased as he thought about it. He hadn't heard from Manda in awhile now himself. Not since somewhere around the time he'd last seen her at his house, and yet she was supposed to be calling him once in awhile to let him she was okay these days. "We'll see what's what. I'll call you back," he muttered, hanging up to not give Dean any time to retort.

Hearing a click in his ear then, Dean wondered if there was some truth in what the older hunter had said. She wouldn't owe him much of an explanation if that was the case, but Manda wouldn't do that to him this way. She wouldn't have just disappeared on him like this. He knew that much and doubted she had ditched him for good. She still loved him, had said it herself, and he knew she always would. She'd even said she couldn't lose him for good. So this didn't make sense.

It was only about two minutes later when his phone rang again. He picked it up knowing who it was, glad for how fast Bobby had been. "Well, Bobby?"

Bobby was cursing under his breath as Dean answered his call knowing the older Winchester wasn't going to take this news lightly. "Same lines you got, Dean. All disconnected."

Crap! I'm not the only one she ditched then. Something's wrong. Something's happened to her. "When's the last time you heard from her?"

Bobby was quiet for a moment as he thought about when he'd last spoken to her. "About a week after you two played house here. Manda checked in like I asked. Didn't mention anything unusual at the time either. Now when did you last hear from her?" The concern came through in the older hunter's voice then as he asked.

That was about around the last time he'd heard from her himself. But hearing she also hadn't contacted Bobby in about as long made his worry grow even stronger. His gut said whatever had happened was bad, and he couldn't help but wonder if it had to do with him. "About the same time you did," Dean answered, rubbing a hand over his face. "It isn't like Manda to be completely radio silent. Not with me. You?"

Bobby noted the worry in the older Winchester's voice. Dean loved that girl, so what little worry he was letting leak through was probably just a fraction of what he was actually feeling. "No, but your girl's gone off the radar a few times over the years. And I haven't heard anything about her from any other hunters… so there's that."

There was that. Bobby definitely would have heard something from another hunter. Unless no one knew anything, because it dawned on him then that she could still be dead somewhere out there and hadn't been found yet. "Off the radar like this?"

Hesitating briefly, Bobby wasn't sure if he should tell Dean what he knew. There was only one time Manda had gone off it like this – after she'd lost her parents and she'd given up hunting for a year. So maybe Dean was right to be worried. Something had to be wrong for her to disappear like this. "Once or twice that I know of. Are you worried this is something else? Like maybe that unknown destiny of hers that prophet mentioned and she didn't want any of us to worry about? Or what that woman said to her when you kids were here?"

Dean knew Bobby had him there. "No… not really… could be… I don't know. If she is just hiding out somewhere, that one number's for a time like this, so why would she shut down that one, too?" Manda knows I can't lose her for good either, how I feel, and we're supposed to be freaking soul mates, so why wouldn't she let me know she'd be hiding out for awhile? He silently asked himself and not the older hunter then.

"No lines, no tracks. You know how it is. Don't wanna be found by anyone then you kill all your tracks," Bobby uttered a truth Dean had to know.

"Yeah," he sighed deeply. "That better be all this is."

"Try Church, see if she knows anything. Before you came along, that was who Manda talked to most. If not… you let me know. Either way, we'll find her, Dean. You're not the only one that cares what happens to that girl. And I promised her folks I'd keep an eye on her if anything happened to them, so…" Bobby was serious now, because that was the truth of it. That was why he'd already decided he would be making some calls himself soon.

"Okay, Bobby. I'll get back to you. Thanks." He ended the call then, realizing he should have tried calling Manda's closet friend and sometimes hunting partner before calling Bobby.

Looking through his phone then, he found he didn't even have Church's number. Sam would still have it, though. They had geeked out together, hooked up a few times even. So once Sam was back, he would get his brother to call her and find out if she knew anything. If she didn't, he wasn't sure what he was going to do.

Sitting there while he waited for Sam, trying to determine the best way to figure out where Manda was, Dean wasn't sure he would be able to track her. Tracking another hunter was always more difficult than tracking the average Joe or even a monster. Most hunters knew how to cover their tracks well, they didn't have many or any ties, but still it wasn't too hard to pick up a trail with a bit of legwork once you figured out a few key things.

But a hunter who hadn't been in touch with anyone for weeks was a bigger problem. Throw in the fact that Dean knew her family had taught her how to disappear well, and that she had money he and Sam didn't have to do it properly, he wasn't sure he could find her.

He thought about starting with her trust fund since it had to have some sort of trail to it, but he knew it was a series of dead-ends once he started. It was set up that way. Manda could access her money from anywhere and using a series of names, half of which he didn't know since she'd never told him all her alias. And nothing actually had her family's name on it, not the real one anyway. Not the house that was hers, nothing she owned or owed, not even the damned trust fund was in the Chambers name. All that was actually in their name were the headstones in a cemetery near their family home. The set up worked well enough because he knew if law enforcement of any kind or anyone else tried to dig they just hit a wall when trying to pin her down. She had explained it all once when he once asked how she managed to fly under the radar when there was her house and money involved. Complicated had been her initial answer, but complicated hadn't even begun to describe the numerous run-arounds one would get if they started digging, or how they would never be able to find out who was exactly behind it all when everything went so far before it lead to things deemed untraceable. Whoever managed the trust wasn't likely to cough up any info either. If he pulled the right card, all they might be able to do was confirm whether she was dead or alive because if any of her aliases turned up dead there was some system in place that flagged it back to them.

Dean knew he was good, but was he good enough to be able to pick up a trace of one hunter who might be able to hide better than he and Sam could?

Sam's return to their room pulled him from his thoughts then. "Sammy, you need to call Church."

"Why?" Sam asked. He put the bags of food down on the table, and gave his brother an odd glance.

"Because you need a date," Dean teased, giving Sam a hard look. "And because I don't have her number."

"Hilarious. But what's wrong, Dean?" Sam saw through his brother then. Something was going on. "Why do you want me to call Church?"

Silent for a few seconds, he wasn't sure how to say it other than just to say it. "It's Manda…" Dean paused, giving him a knowing look because Sam knew how he felt and about the connection they had. "Her phone is disconnected, I haven't heard from her in about two months, neither has Bobby. Something must have happened. She's M.I.A., Sammy."

Sam's expression said he was surprised. That was not at all what he'd expected to hear from his brother. But he could see Dean's worry, had heard it in his voice as he said the words. "I'll call Church. But if she doesn't know where Manda is, what then, Dean?"

Dean shrugged. "We're only a few hundred miles out from her place… we wrap this job up and it's time to stop in there like she said we could."

Nodding, Sam knew that made sense. Maybe she was just there, or had left something there. He knew Manda wouldn't have disappeared on his brother without a warning unless she was no longer alive. That's what you're worried about, Dean. Not that Manda's missing, but that she's dead. And you'll go off the deep end if that's the case. "All right, let me see what Church knows," he said, pulling his phone out of his pocket.

Dean waited while Sam made the call. As he listened to his brother's half of the conversation and saw the look on his face, he didn't need to be told what it meant. Church obviously hadn't heard from Manda in awhile either. Something was definitely very wrong.

Damn it, Chambers! Where the hell are you, and how the hell am I gonna track you down when even Cass can't do it since he marked you at Bobby's that day. And if you're not dead, Manda, then just what kind of freakin' trouble are you in now, and why didn't you come to me for help?

Notes: Was this too predictable? Did it fall flat plot wise? Are you curious about what happened to Manda? Is she alive, dead, or missing... or what? Will Dean be able ease his worry, to find out where she is, or at least what might have happened to her? Was this too much or too little? Your reviews/comments would be helpful if you're reading.
I'm not entirely sure when the next update will be. I'm stuck between using an old idea that was written mostly as an outline and a new idea for the next chapter. So it'll be up when it's up.
As always, thanks for reading! Hope you enjoyed it.