Tell me "Little Do You Know" isnt the most perfect song for Dearoline right now. You cant. Because it is. XD

>TALL TALES<

-Alayna-

"Yeah, uh, thanks," The guy patted Sam on the back uncomfortably, frowning at the other three. "Thanks for the hug, but, uh, I'm okay. Really," The guy convinced them, backing away slightly. "To tell you the truth, whatever happened to Curtis, he had it coming,"

"Why is that?" Karoline questioned, frowning.

"He's our pledge master," The guy informed them. "Put us through hell this semester, and got off on it. So now he knows how we feel," He didn't seem to be the least bit fazed about what had happened to his frat brother.

"It's okay," Alayna patted a still emotional Sam on the back comfortingly before they headed back to the car and drove to the motel. "This still doesn't make any sense," she muttered as they walked through the door after Sam and Karoline had driven them back.

"Well, hey, at least there's one connection," Dean pointed out in a sarcastically cheery voice.

"Between what?" Sam asked, not seeing it.

"The victims," Dean stated as though it were obvious. "The professor and the frat guy - they're both dicks," He sat in one of the chairs, looking from Sam to the girls.

"That's a connection?" Alayna questioned, not liking how little they knew about what was going on.

"It's the best we've got," Karoline pointed out.

"Where's my laptop?" Alayna glanced at Sam in surprise at his question. He was holding his bag upside down, searching for it, but it wasn't among his things.

"Not sure," Karoline shrugged at the same time Dean responded, "I don't know,"

"A philandering professor gets a dead girl. A pledge master gets hazed," Dean walked them through what they knew, but Sam wasn't paying attention.

"I left it right here," Sam muttered, pointing to the desk.

"You obviously didn't," Dean didn't really care about Sam's missing laptop.

"The punishments are just. They deserve it," Alayna followed Dean's train of thought.

"Okay, hilarious. Where'd you hide it?" Dean and the girls all looked at him in surprise.

"What? You're computer?" Dean questioned, and Sam nodded angrily. "Why would I take your computer?" Sam turned his attention to Karoline and she looked at him appalled at the silent accusation.

"Why do you automatically assume I took it?"

"Because no one else could have except Alayna, and she wouldn't, guys. We keep the door locked. We never let any maids in," Sam threw his arms out to the side in annoyance.

"Then Alayna or Karoline had to have taken it cause it wasn't me," Dean replied with an infuriating smirk.

"Nope." Alayna immeadiatly denied.

"Wasn't me," Sam turned his glare back on Dean.

"Looks like you lost it, Poindexter." He pointed out smartly.

"Dude, you know something? I put up with a lot from you." Sam finally snapped and Dean scoffed. The two girls shared a look not liking where this was going.

"What are you talking about? I'm a joy to be around." Karoline snorted at that, but Dean ignored her.

"Yeah?" Sam challenged. "Your dirty socks in the sink, your food in the fridge."

"What's wrong with my food?" Dean immeadiatly cut in, offense clear on his face.

"It's not food anymore, Dean! It's Darwinism!" Sam snapped.

"I like it."

-Alayna-

"All I ask from you, the one thing, is that you don't mess with my stuff!" Sam snapped and Dean just look at him pointedly. "You know, how would you feel if I screwed with the Impala?"

"It'd be the last thing you ever did." Dean stood with a threatening look.

"Alright," Alayna cut in, putting a hand on Sam's chest to stop him from saying anything else. "Dean, just give him back the lap top. You've had your fun."

"Why do you just automatically assume Dean took it," Karoline stepped in now, her arms crossed in a defensive manner.

"Come on, Kari, are you serious?" Alayna looked at her sister incredulously. "The evidence is pretty damning."

"Maybe Sam-which here, lost it," Karoline shrugged like it was obvious. "Is that so hard to believe?"

"When was the last time you lost your car, or your cigarettes?" Alayna challenged.

Karoline gasped at the thought, "I would never!"

"Same thing." She gestured between Sam and Karoline like that was all the answer she needed.

"Eh, still don't think Dean took it." She dropped into her seat with her arm's crossed and Alayna scoffed.

"Did any of you take his computer?" Bobby asked, his eyes flicking back and forth between them.

"Serves him right, but, no," both girls shook their head to agree with Dean's words.

"Well, I didn't lose it," Sam argued, glancing across the table at Dean and then at Karoline and Alayna before back at Bobby. "Cause I don't lose things,"

"Yeah, cause you're Mr. Perfect," Karoline rolled her eyes as she bit out the snide comment.

"Okay, okay, why don't you just tell me what happened next?" Bobby suggested, and Alayna sighed heavily.

"There was only one other victim," Alayna began.

"Right, now, we didn't see this one ourselves, either," Sam clarified for him. "We kind of put it together from the evidence, but this guy - he was a research scientist. Animal testing,"

"Yeah, you know - a dick, which fits the pattern," Dean noted. "Cops didn't release the cause of death because they had no clue what the cause was,"

"So, we decided to check it out ourselves," Alayna continued the story.

-Alayna-

"Hey," Alayna turned just in time to catch the flashlight Karoline tossed at her. Dean and Sam were already ahead of them, searching the small, silver doors on the wall for the one they were looking for. Dean swung the door open, shining the light inside to find a sheet over some chewed up body parts. Sam let out a disgusted groan, shifting to cover his nose and mouth simultaneously with his sleeved arm.

"Okay," Dean began, turning away from the body in revulsion. "That is just nasty."

"Yeah," Karoline agreed. "Well, it's mutilated. Looks like something ate him,"

"They identify him yet?" Alayna asked, turning to the two boys.

"He was a research scientist at the college," Karoline answered, standing from where she had crouched down by the body and coming over to the other three.

"Guess where his office was," Sam added. "Crawford Hall, same as the professor,"

"That's right where the frat boy had his close encounter," Dean remembered, the pieces starting to take some semblance of a shape.

"Yeah," Something seemed to catch Sam's eye, and he glanced at Alayna, who was standing by the portable light that doctor's kept. "Hey, grab me that thing, would you?" Alayna wheeled it over to him, and he shined it over a specific section of the corpse. "Thanks," He muttered the word distractedly as he looked through the magnifying glass at the raw flesh.

"What do you see?" She asked curiously, narrowing her eyes at the section of leg he was looking at.

"Looks like a..." He trailed off, not one hundred percent sure his eyes weren't deceiving him. "A belly scale?" He told them finally.

"A belly scale? From what?" Karoline questioned, frowning at how crazy this case was.

"Ugh..." Sam squinted at the scale through the magnifying glass in disbelief. "An alligator?" He suggested weakly, making both Dean and the girls glance at him with incredulously.

"An alligator living in the sewer system?" Alayna reiterated what he was telling them.

"What?" Sam defended, pulling away from the light that shined over the remains. "Well, guys, it's a classic urban legend. A kid flushes a baby gator down the toilet, and it grows huge in the tunnels,"

"But, no one ever really found one. They're not real," Dean protested, glancing over at the girls and then Sam.

"And that wouldn't explain any of the other victim's or how they died," Karoline supported Dean. "I mean, Alien abduction isn't real either, how do you explain the frat boy?"

"I don't know, but something chomped on this guy," Sam gestured to the corpse that had barely enough parts to be called a corpse.

"Could this case get any more strange?" Alayna commented, shaking her head. "We need help," She realized, reaching into her pocket for her phone. "I'll call Bobby. Maybe he's run into something like this before."

"Oh, I'm sure he has. Just your typical haunted campus, alien abduction, alligator-in-the-sewer gig. Yeah, it's simple." Dean quipped earning a deflated look from Alayna as she dialed the number.

"So, we went back to the hotel to re group figure out what to do next." Karoline interrupted Sam's story.

-Karoline-

"Alayna Van Allen!" Karoline came storming into the hotel room, slamming the door behind herself catching the other three in the room's attention. "What is this?" Karoline held up a bag of broken cigarette, her hand on her hip.

"Uh... Cigarettes?" She phrased it like a question, not really sure what her sister was getting at.

"Yeah, my cigarettes," Alayna looked back at the boys then at Karoline, waiting for her to explain it further. "How come I found them in your bag, mutilated." She threw the bag onto the bed, over dramatically.

"What were you doing in my bag?" Alayna asked, standing from her seat immeadiatly.

"That is not the point," Karoline rolled her eyes. "The point is you murdered my last pack because I took Dean's side in the whole lap top thingy."

"Are you serious?" Alayna nearly laughed at the accusation, quirking an eyebrow at her sister.

"Do I look like I'm kidding?"

Alayna's eyebrows shot up at her tone and she merely shrugged, "I didn't touch them."

"You're a filthy liar."

"Alright," Dean stepped in with a hand on the blondes shoulder. "Why don't I take you to go get another pack, and you can just calm down." Karoline scowled back at her sister before spinning on her heels and stalking back out of the room.

"Wow..." Alayna muttered dropping back into her seat and pulling the book back into her lap.

"So, I took Karoline to go get a new pack then we went to the campus" Dean interrupted Karoline's story. "The four of us split up, Alayna went with Sam and took one end of the campus while Karoline and I took the other,"

"Did you find anything?" Bobby asked.

"Yeah, I found something. Just not in the sewer," Dean answered him.

-Dean-

"So, no monster Alligator," Dean began as he pushed the sewer grate out of the way with a grunt of effort before he pulled himself out of the hole in the ground then turned to help Karoline out.

"Noticed. I swear this is the craziest hunt I've ever done." She muttered more to herself then to Dean as he pulled the grate back into place before heading over to where he remembered the car was. Sam and Alayna were supposed to meet them back at the motel. Dean stopped short as he turned causing Karoline to quirk an eyebrow, "What's wro-" She cut herself off as she turned the corner herself and saw the Impala. It was exactly where they'd parked it, not a scratch on it. Except for the wheels. The wheels were slashed open, causing the tires to be limp and useless.

"Son of a bitch!" Dean swore loudly, approaching the car slowly to assess the damage. A flash of silver caught his eyes, and he knelt to pick up the small clip of twenties, recognizing the initials S.W. that were engraved into the side. "Sam!" He yelled, though he knew the boy couldn't hear him.

"Dayum, Sammy really doesn't like it when you touch his lap top, huh?" Karoline commented as she knelt down to assess the damage to the tires.

"I didn't take his laptop." Dean snapped and she raised her hands in surrender with a slight laugh.

"Don't worry I believe you." Karoline smirked, straightening up, that's when she noticed something sitting on top of the car. "Uh-oh." Dean snapped his attention to the blonde as she pulled a half empty Monster can from on top of the car.

"Anyway, he got the car towed," Alayna cut in, not wanting Dean to rant about the car any longer than he had. "He showed up at the motel room..."

-Alayna-

Alayna's attention snapped to the door when, for the second time today, someone came storming in. Both her and Sam looked up to see Dean stalk through the door, brooding, Karoline following shortly shooting Sam a warning look. Basically saying 'shit's about to hit the fan'. "You think this is funny?" Dean yelled at his younger brother who gave his a slight half wave.

"It depends," Sam shrugged as he flicked his gaze up to meet Deans, as Dean stopped beside his younger brother, his expression stormy.

"What happened?" Alayna asked, curious now. She shut the book she had been reading and tossed it aside.

"What happened," Dean mocked. "My car!" He finally yelled, his dark expression turning back to his brother. Alayna glanced over at Sam to see if he had any clue as to what Dean was going off about, but she was met with an equally confused expression.

"What about your car?" Sam's eyebrows rose as he waited for a further explanation.

"You can't let the air out of the tires, you idiot. You're gonna bend the rims!" He snapped.

"Seriously, Sammy," Karoline shook her head, taking a seat. "That was just low."

"Whoa, wait. I didn't go near your car." Sam protested and Alayna immeadiatly nodded with him in agreement.

"Dean, he was with me the whole time. I would've seen him do it."

"Unless you helped." He jerked his attention from his brother to glare at Alayna accusingly.

"Excuse you?"

"Don't even try to deny it, I found these," He held up Sam's money clip and the Monster can, causing Alayna's eyes to widen.

"How many times have I told you not to touch my Monster's." Alayna barked, crossing the room quickly and going to snatch the can back, but Dean just jerked it back. "Funny," She sneered, going to take it again, but he jerked it out of her reach again.

"I haven't taken a sip, but I just might. In fact, I think I'll have two." Dean mocked, going over to the fridge to grab another one of her Monster's.

"Touch them, you die." She threatened, but he didn't pay her any mind. He turned and grabbed the four pack and set it on the counter before slamming the fridge closed. "I'm warning you."

"I'm warning you." He mocked, grabbing one of the cans.

"I said don't touch them!" She shrilled, tackling him and taking the two of them to the ground causing both Karoline and Sam's eyes to widen. The two rolled around on the ground wrestling over the can. "Let go!' Alayna nearly hissed, trying to pry Dean's hands off of it.

"No," Dean protested, yanking back with just as much force. Alayna smirked before clamping her teeth onto his hand. "Son of a bitch!" Dean shouted, letting go of the can, to cradle his hand to himself. Alayna sat up in victory, poking her tongue out at him before getting up.

"Okay, I've heard enough," Bobby stopped Alayna from continuing with her story.

"You showed up an hour or so after that," Alayna informed him, cutting her story short.

"I'm surprised at all of you," Bobby admonished them, making them all freeze as they looked up at him. "I really am, Sam, first off, Dean did not steal your computer," Dean smirked in victory at Bobby's words.

"But I-" Bobby cut off Sam's protest, raising a hand in annoyance.

"And Karoline, Alayna didn't 'murder' your cigarettes."

"Ha!" Alayna cried in victory earning a sharp look from the blonde.

"And lastly, Dean, Sam and Alayna did not touch your car," He finished. "If you four had bothered to pull your heads out of your asses, it all would've been pretty clear."

"What would've?" Karoline questioned, shaking her head in complete and utter confusion.

"What you're dealing with," He specified, waiting for the four to understand, but all he got in response were blank stares. "You got a trickster on your hands."

"That's what I thought," Dean snapped, and pointed at Bobby like he'd known the answer all along.

"Yeah, okay," Alayna muttered at the same time Sam snapped, "What?! No, you didn't."

"Well, I got to tell you... you four were the biggest clue," Bobby informed them, and they all shared a look. "These things create chaos and mischief as easy as breathing, and it's got you so turned around and at each other's throats, you can't even think straight."

"The laptop." Sam realized.

"My Cigarettes." Karoline muttered, face palming at her own stupidity.

"The tires."

"It knows you're onto him, and it's been playing you like fiddles." Bobby finished.

"So, what is it? Spirit, demon?" Karoline questioned, looking up at Bobby for answers.

"Well, more like demigods, really," Bobby corrected her. "There's Loki in Scandinavia. There's Anansi in West Africa. Dozens of them. They're immortal, and they can create things out of thin air, things as real as you and me. Make them vanish just as quick."

"You mean like an angry spirit or an alien or an alligator," Dean began to catch on to what had been happening to them lately.

"The victims fit the M.O., too," Bobby continued with his explanation. "Tricksters target the high and the mighty, knock them down a peg, usually with a sense of humor - deadly pranks, things like that,"

"What do these things look like?" Dean asked, glancing up at Bobby.

"Lots of things," He answered with a shrug. "But human, mostly," Dean turned to look at Sam and the girls.

"And what human do we know who's been at ground zero this whole time?" Dean asked them. Karoline and Alayna shared a confused look, in a second it was gone as they realized who was behind this whole thing.

***

Karoline and Alayna had stayed back with Bobby to get what they needed while Dean and Sam went to go check on the janitor, trying to find hard evidence to know for sure it was him. Currently, the girls and Bobby were driving to go pick up Sam and then they'd head back to the campus where Dean was.

"Eh, screw this," Dean got in character, not sure if the trickster was watching him already or if he was waiting for Dean inside. He turned on his flashlight, adjusting the beam to illuminate the stairwell he was heading down. He descended two flights of stairs before he hit the bottom, his flashlight finding a metal gate with lockers on the other side. Dead end. He headed back up the stairs quickly. He pulled out the wooden stake as he rounded a platform and began heading up another flight of stairs. That's when he heard the music start. He frowned, turning slightly as his mind recognized the song.

Can't help falling in love with you.

Turning slowly, he approached the door, caution in his stealthy steps. He tucked the stake back into his jacket before opening the doors to see where the music was coming from. When he stepped inside, he could only stare in shock at what he saw, letting the door swing shut behind him. At the top of the stage was a disco ball and lights that illuminated the scene before him. There was a red bed in the center of the stage with one woman laying in the center of it, wearing nothing but scarlet lingerie. Dean descended the steps and only stopped walking when he'd reached the stage. She let out a small laugh; he loved her laugh. Her nose crinkled when she laughed and her freckled cheeks turned a light pink.

"I've been waiting for you, Dean," She told him in a low seductive voice that made his heart beat faster and his breathing grow uneven. She crawled across the bed towards him, swinging herself around to sit on the edge and regarded him with bright blue eyes that made his hands tremble slightly as his heartbeat picked up.

"Y-Y-You aren't real," He managed to get out through his closing throat.

"That doesn't matter, Dean," She chided him, smiling softly at him. "It'll feel real," He let out a choked laugh, trying and failing to hide how much he wanted her. "Come on... I'll give you a massage," He swallowed hard. This wasn't Karoline. Not his Karoline, anyway.

"You know, I'm a - I'm a sucker for a happy ending, really, I am, but... I-I-I'm gonna have to pass," He choked slightly as he spoke the last line, but, with a massive effort, he got himself under control.

"She's a peace offering," Dean spun as he heard a voice behind him call. "I know what you, your brother, and your girls do. I've been around a while. Run into your kind before," The janitor, who was sitting in the second row, informed him.

"Well, then you know that I... can't let you just keep hurting people," Dean turned away from Karoline, making it easier for him to think. The janitor rolled his eyes, tilting his head back as if he were a teenager and Dean was his father.

"Come on," He whined in annoyance. "Those people got what was coming to them. Hoisted on their own petards," Dean frowned, not understanding what the trickster had said, but not really caring. There was no way he was walking out of here. "But you, Sam, Karoline, and Alayna - I like you. I do. Especially Alayna" He grinned. "So treat yourself. Long as you want. Just long enough for me to move on to the next town,"

"Yeah, I don't think I can let you do that," Dean told him in an almost apologetic voice.

"I don't want to hurt you," The trickster informed him casually as he broke into the candy bar he was unwrapping. "And you know that I can.

"Look, man, I - I got to tell you, I dig your style, all right? I mean," Dean chuckled looking back at the blonde behind him. "I do... and the slow-dancing alien-" He broke off into a chuckle again trying to buy himself some time.

The trickster grinned, "One of my personal favorites. Yeah."

"But, uh, I can't let you go." Dean told him and the Tricksters lips pulled into a pout.

"Too bad. Like I said, I like you. Sam was right. You shouldn't've come alone."

"Well, I'll agree with you there," Dean answered cockily, forcing himself to stay calm. He was going to kill this smug son of a bitch. The trickster frowned as the doors opened and Sam stepped through with the girls following, all three of the hunters holding a large, wooden stake. Through the far door stepped Bobby, clutching an equally large stake in his hands as well.

"That fight you guys had outside - that was a trick?" Dean just shrugged, glancing up at Sam and the girls. He saw Karoline's eyes focused on something over his head and frowned, his eyes darting back to meet the eyes of stripper Karoline. She shot Dean a questioning look to which he shrugged sheepishly. "Hmm, not bad," The trickster praised him, nodding his approval as Dean pulled out a stake from his jacket. "But, you want to see a real trick?" There was a revving noise of a chainsaw, and the girls and Sam whipped around to face the man behind them. He raised the chainsaw up, and they scattered to avoid being sawed in half. Dean charged the trickster, raising the stake to jam through the trickster's heart when a hand caught his wrist.

The fake Karoline twisted and jerked Dean's wrist, forcing him to drop the stake and face her. The trickster clapped his hands together in delight as Karoline grabbed Dean's collar and threw him onto side of the bed with inhuman force. Behind Dean, another Karoline appeared, hauling him up and shoving him back while the trickster ate his candy bar eagerly. Fake Karoline #2 punched Dean across the face, sending him reeling into fake Karoline #1. This time, Dean tried to punch her, but she avoided him and kneed him in the face, causing him to fall at the feet of fake Karoline #2, who yanked him up, throwing him off stage. "Nice toss, ladies!" The trickster cheered as the two Karoline's posed with big smiles. "Or should I say... lady," Karoline glanced up from the where she lay beside the door, just having tackled the chainsaw killer. "Dean, Dean, Dean," The trickster admonished him, clicking his tongue and shaking his head at the man on the floor struggling to get his bearings. "I did not want to have to do this," Karoline struggled up, managing to wrap her fingers around the smooth exterior of the stake. She rose to her feet and tossed it to Dean, whom the trickster was now approaching. Dean caught it deftly before jamming it through the heart of the trickster.

"Me neither," He replied to the man's earlier statement. The chainsaw revved, and Karoline spun around to face the man that was holding it high above her head. Before he could swing the chainsaw at her, he disappeared in a ripple of air. The fake Karoline's gasped and vanished as well, and, eventually, the bed and disco ball dissipated as well.

Dean jerked the stake out of the trickster's heart, and the body fell with a thud in an auditorium chair. "You guys okay?" Dean questioned as the four of them came to his side. He put a hand on the corner of his head, wincing as pain shot through it. Karoline pulled his hand away from his head, so she could properly examine it to see if it was bleeding or not. She had looked up just in time to see Dean hit his head hard on the folding seat.

"We'll, uh, we'll be by the cars." Alayna excused herself, dragging Sam with her as she followed Bobby out of the auditorium.

"So, if you could have one wish, this would be it." She looked around the stage, her hands in her jacket pockets.

"No," She looked over to him at his answer, seeing him already looking at her. "It's pretty awesome, but I like the real thing more."

Karoline sighed deeply, fighting back a smile, "Dean..."

-Karoline-

Karoline clinked her glass with Dean's a small laugh escaping her lips after she'd downed it, she looked up to meet Dean's drunken, green eyes, "We should go help Sam and Alayna."

"Tch, forget about it," Karoline's mouth twitched into a smile at the dopey grin on his lips. "They got it."

"I'm serious." She insisted, a hand on his chest to stop him from getting more drinks.

"So am I." He mocked, earning a soft laugh from the blonde, the sound bringing a small smile to his lips as he gazed down at her. Dean slowly leant forward when she looked up to meet his gaze.

"What're you doing?" Karoline jerked back slightly.

"Uh, nothing, I was just..." He trailed off, groping for an excuse, all the while his face was only a few inches from hers. "Reaching for a drink."

"There're no drinks to reach for." Dean opened his mouth to respond, but when he couldn't think of anything he closed it and shrugged.

"Okay, so maybe I was leaning in to do something different, why does it matter?" Dean looked away uncomfortably.

"Because that can't happen, it'll just ruin everything," Karoline retorted easily and Dean gave a disbelieving scoff. "We'll be all weird, and awkward, and it won't be the same anymore-" Dean cut her off by pressing his lips to hers. It was over before it even began, leaving Karoline to stare at him wide eyed.

"See, it's not that weird." Before Karoline could respond a wet liquid was spilt across her hand.

"Dean..." She started, not knowing what to say to him. "This is exactly what I mean." She decided on, gesturing between the two of them. "It is weird. You've barely even looked at me since the kiss and just..." She shook her head turning away from him.

"Just, what?"

"You're my best friend," She turned back to him, her blue eyes meeting his green ones. "I don't want to ruin that. You and me, we're good like this."

"You're always there for me, Kare," his words made her stop from walking off the stage. "Whenever I need someone to talk to, and I understand if you need time to heal or whatever. I understand if I have to wait for you. And I will. I'll wait and whenever you're ready for me... I'll be ready for you." Karoline's breath hitched, her heart racing a mile a minute as he leant down to press his lips to her cheek. "We should get going." She let out a deep sigh, watching him walk up the stairs to the doors.

"Great," She muttered, kicking at the ground before she slowly followed him out.

"Thanks for everything, Bobby," Alayna was saying when they made there way outside and over to the three.

"Yeah, thanks," Sam added his piece as they hit the stairs in front of the building.

"Hey, save it!" Bobby snapped tightly, efficiently cutting us off. "Let's just get the hell out of dodge before somebody finds that body," Sam, Dean and Bobby went to the doors of the Impala while Karoline and Alayna went over to the Buick parked just behind them. "Look, Dean, um..." The girls looked up to see Dean pause, looking up at Sam, who was paused uncertainly by the passenger's door of the Impala. "I just want to say that I'm, uh...um..." Sam groped for the words as his brother waited.

"Hey," Dean cut him off. "Me too."

"You guys are breaking my heart," Both girls couldn't help the laugh that bubbled in their throat at Bobby's sarcastic quip. "Can we please just leave?"