A most pleasant of greetings awakens Katherine. Sun shining on her face, the feather-light touch on her skin. It starts at the back of her neck and works down the side, along the top of her shoulder and a sudden curve at the socket. Down the lateral border and to a most sensitive region—her ribs. That's how he knows she's awake. The soft smile that tugs at her lips, the miniature parenthesis at the corner of her mouth. Not a full-fledged dimple. It's a coy thing, usually. But it's cute. It's Katherine.

One of her big blue eyes opens and she stares to her right at Dean, the tip of his middle finger tracing a small, feather-light circle on the last bit of skin before her camisole hit. He, however, is wearing nothing on his torso, just like the night before. And his hair is only half-hedgehog.

"This is a pleasant surprise," Katherine murmurs, cautiously appraising his expression, gauging it. Last night, inviting him to stay with her, was a bit of a risk, but she figured why the hell not? If her smile was magic, her kiss was downright voodoo. Irresistible. 

"Dean Winchester, cuddling?" She hums, her voice weighed with sleep, but still mellifluous. Rich like the purest honey. Deep. Private. She'd happened to close her eyes again just as he leaned in to kiss her, first on her eyelid and again at the corner of her mouth, right over that small indentation. It made her smile. 

He hums, pulling himself closer to her figure, his forehead resting near hers. His eyes are closed. "Hope you don't mind," he murmurs. After a moment of silence, both of his eyes open and stare right into hers. She was simply admiring his eyelashes.

What an insecure little girl he is.

"No," she whispers. "I just...think it's rather funny...the assumption that I would even want to kiss you more than the one time. It's completely presumptuous."

"Shaddup," he mumbles, closing his eyes again. "I'm irresistible."

"Whatever you say," she hums. He falls quiet, and she takes this time to map his features. She was always afraid to before. Afraid she would get caught. But in this moment, it seems it doesn't matter much. They've caught each other staring before.

So she reaches up to his face and delicately traces her fingertips over the days-old stubble on his jaw. Her heart races with anticipation—who knows if she'd get to do this again? Might as well take advantage, just like he is. The pad of her thumb drags across the curve of his chin—

"Kat?"

She freezes, eyes quickly flitting to his—they're still closed. "Hmm."

Dean nudges his chin into her palm, earning a small smile from her. What a needy thing to do. "How was Sophia? I never asked."

"Good," Katherine murmurs. "Just missed me is all. You know how girls get. All clingy."

"Mmm—the worst."

"Right?" She dryly muses. Then he chuckles, a simple push of air from his nose and a tug on the corner of his mouth. She hesitates for a moment, staring at the reach of his light brown lashes. Some of them are stuck together. Almost sectional. She can see his eyes moving behind his pale lavender lids. "Dean?"

"Mmmhmm." It's a low, drawn-out noise from the back of his throat.

Katherine releases a slow breath from her nose. "You don't have...uh..." She rolls her tongue over her teeth. "If you think you're...obligated to stay here...to act like—"

"Shh, shh, shh." He nudges his head up and presses his cheek to hers, smushing her face into the pillow. "You talk too much."

"Well, I'd just like some clarification for now, if that's not too much to ask." Her voice is muffled into the pillow.

"Clarification?"

"Yeah. I mean, if it's not too—" she huffs and wiggles her head out from under his just slightly. Her lips are right at his ear. "If it's not too presumptuous of me—and correct me if I'm wrong—but this is...how couples behave."

"Uh-huh," he says, eyes still closed as he barely nods.

"So..." Her brows raise. "I mean, I know what you say about hunters and hunters, and I get it—really, I do, so...no hard feelings if this is just some one-time...thing."

Dean's brows raise and his pulse quickens ever so slightly. "Well do you want it to be?" After a moment, he pulls his head back from her and stares at her.

Her wide blue eyes, framed with long and messy eyelashes. The leopard spots across her nose. The mussed feathered bangs. "No?" It's soft and weak. Uncertain.

"Good. Now stop overanalyzing and chill out. We hardly ever get to sleep in." He nestles his head into his pillow, closing his eyes once more. Then there's a knock at the door. Dean lets out a heavy sigh. "If it's Sam, I'm not here."

Katherine panics. "What? Why? And what if he comes in?"

Dean sits up and Katherine tries hard to keep her eyes on his face. "Because...it looks like it's eight in the morning...I'm tired...maybe a little hungover...and Sam's questions are going to be a lot more difficult than yours." His brows raise as he rolls his head to look at her.

"Oh. Oh, right." Katherine nods her head to the closet. "In you go." She smirks, watching him walk away, half of his hair smushed flat against his head. "In the closet you go."

"Shaddup."

"Dirty little secret."

"Secrets can be fun," he tells her and shuts the door after him. Katherine smiles, staring at the wall for a moment. Then there's another knock at the door. She glances to it and massages the grin from her cheeks. "And put a sweatshirt on or something," Dean quietly says, opening up the closet door.

"Why?"

"Because you're in a tank top. What if it's a skeeze bag?"

Katherine chuckles, swinging her legs out of bed. "Close the door," she tells Dean, nudging his bag underneath the bed, along with his boots. She checks around the room and opens the door up, grimacing at the bright light. "Oh, shit," she mumbles, holding a hand up to shield her eyes.

Sam chuckles. "Mornin', sunshine."

"Yeah, yeah. Why are you...perky? It's not even eight," she mumbles, looking to the clock above the bathroom door.

"Well normally we're awake by now. But I noticed Dean wasn't in the room so I was just coming to see if he decided I wasn't worthy of his presence and he was with you."

"No," she says. "There's only one bed."

"Well that hasn't stopped anyone before."

"Well, it did when he punched my shoulder in his sleep," she says. "I'm sick of getting hit by unconscious Winchesters. It hurts." She rolls her shoulder. "Hate to feel one when you're awake."

Sam chuckles. "He didn't come back last night?"

Katherine hitches her shoulders and shakes her head. "Naw," she squeaks.

"How late were you guys out?"

"Uh..." She frowns. "Hard to say. There was whiskey involved." Sam snorts.

"Katherine and whiskey. What a sight."

"Ah, it was nothin'," she says, opening up the door. "Only one."

"Yeah, well, I've seen you after a couple of beers. You're a lightweight."

"I am not. I'm Irish, built for endurance." She yawns and stretches, waking her muscles up. "Anyway, Dean ran off in the night with a blonde. She was kinda cute."

"Huh," Sam murmurs, nodding. "Have you gotten an SOS text?"

"No—have you?"

"He doesn't SOS me, he SOS's you."

She nods. "Right. Well, until he SOS's me, I'm going to be enjoying this fine day off. Sleep until noon and maybe tan. Hey, maybe you could join me. Lookin' a little pale."

"Sure thing," he chuckles. "But I think I'm gonna hit up the library."

"Oh, come on," she weakly says. "It's your day off and you wanna research?"

"Sure," he shrugs.

"Is there a book you haven't read yet? I'd be happy to give you my textbooks for free. Student loans and all," she says, rubbing her eye with the back of her hand. "The debt must be crippling."

"Full ride," he reminds her.

"Oh, right, right," she nods. "Anyway. Enjoy your books. If you hurt the car, I can't vouch for you—I value my own hide too much."

"Thanks for looking out for me."

"What? Have you seen my face?" She leans against the doorframe. "It's adorable."

Sam chuckles and shakes his head. "Sweet dreams, I guess."

"If you find anything interesting, you know where to reach me." He waves to her and she winks, shutting her door. She draws the chain and turns the deadbolt for good measure.

"Sheesh," Dean complains, collapsing face-first onto the bed. "You're in a chatty mood today."

"I guess," she murmurs, starting back for her bed. "I'm surprised Sam didn't hear you shower last night." Dean shrugs.

"I don't think you'll be getting an SOS text for a while," Dean tells her, opening one eye as she tucks herself between her blankets. "The blonde is too cute."

Katherine chuckles, pressing her face into her pillow. "So I've heard."

After a few minutes, she slips out of bed and into a tank top and shorts, tugs her sneakers over her socked feet, and heads to her car.

"Whadda ya doin'?" Dean asks her, twisting over to look out of the open door.

"Paying attention to my beloved," she calls back, propping her hood open. "All right," she sighs, rubbing her hands together. "What can I do for you today?"

Within a few minutes, Dean is up and outside with her, leaning against the bumper of her car. He reaches in with a sigh and shoves and twists at her spark plugs. "They're loose," he explains to her. "How old are these things anyway?"

"Eh," she shrugs. "They need to be replaced soon."

By the time Sam arrives—around noon—Dean and Katherine are both working on her car. Dean is at the hood, Katherine is underneath. "Well, well, well," Sam says with a smile. "Aren't you two a match made in Heaven?"

Katherine sharply glares at him. It's what she would've done in any other situation. Dean's eyes flit over his car. He picks a rag up and wipes his hands off, slowly circling the Impala. "Seriously?" Sam asks.

"Just checkin'," Dean tells him. "You have fun at the library?"

"I did, actually," Sam says. "And I even caught a case."

"Oh?" Katherine grunts, pushing herself out from underneath the engine. "Where?"

"Philly. More of those murders like in St. Louis."

Slowly, she nods. "Roger that." The brothers watch as she slides out from underneath her car, hands dirtied from having worked on the engine topside. She moves to the trunk of her car and slides the scooter into the back. "Are you just gonna stand there or are you gonna go get ready?"

"I can be ready in five minutes," Dean retorts. "It's you who takes an hour."

She laughs. "Oh, right. Me." She grabs her rag from the front of the car and lowers her hood. "What is it, a day's drive?"

"About," he says with a nod.

Quick shower—no hair-washing, just body. Leggings and a t-shirt and her utility jacket, since it's a travel day. Hit the road. Stop for gas and problem-solving.

There's major construction along the 35, in Iowa.

"Well what if we got off the 235 and hit the 163, got back onto the highway at 80?" Sam asks, starting over to Katherine. She's sitting up in her window with her map on the top of the car, singing along with Memphis Soul Song. "That way we completely pass Des Moines, save a couple hours of sitting through traffic?"

Katherine shrugs. "I mean, it's an hour longer, but I guess that's somethin'." She glances up as Dean approaches the Impala. His expression is stoic, jaw hard. "Hey," she says, pushing her sunglasses up her nose, and looks back to her map. "Sam and I found a couple routes to get around that construction in Des Moines."

"We're not going to Pennsylvania."

Katherine pushes her map away from her with a huff and sits up straight, turning her attention to Dean. "Why?" She asks. At the same time, Sam lets out an uneasy laugh.

"I just got a call from an old friend," Dean says to them. "Her father was killed last night—she thinks it might be our kind of thing."

Katherine sighs, folds the roadmap up, and tosses it into the passenger seat of the Charger. "Seriously?" Sam asks.

"Yeah," Dean scoffs, sticking the gas pump back into the holster, and does the same for Katherine. "She never—believe me, never—would have called if she didn't need us." He lowers himself into the Impala.

"I guess I can field it to someone else," Katherine mumbles. "Thanks, Dean," she dryly calls. "Real team player."

"C'mon!" Dean shouts, tilting his head out of the window. "You riding with Kat or what?"

"I think your separation anxiety would reach a peak," Katherine taunts and slides into her seat. Sam grins, patting her shoulder, and jogs to the Impala. She picks her radio up and holds down the largest button. Dean glances at the radio as it hisses, and her fruity voice comes in through the newly-installed piece of equipment. "Where is this friend of yours?" Her voice asks. Dean picks the walkie up and presses down on the button.

"Missouri," he answers. "Cape Girardeau."

Katherine frowns and pulls her map out, studying it a bit for a moment before radioing in. "What is that, like eight hours?"

"Yup. You comin' or what, princess?" She looks up and Dean is smirking at her, staring into his side mirror. Katherine holsters her radio and flips him the bird. Dean laughs, hanging his radio up, and peels out of the gas station.

"Goodbye Philly cheesesteaks," Katherine wistfully sighs, pulling out behind the Impala.

As she drives, her mind wanders quite a bit.

She isn't looking for her dad, but the boys aren't looking for theirs either. Not really. More of an inactive search. Besides, how do you track someone who doesn't want to be followed?

She wonders how long she'd stick with the Winchesters. She starts worrying about Sophia again, so she calls her. She's good. The baby's good. Healthy.

"A boy!" Sophia shouted into the phone with a laugh. "I'm having a boy! You're helping me name him, right Auntie Kat?"

Tony didn't take it very well at first. After Sophia told him, he went rogue for a few days before stopping by the apartment and promising to do everything he could. That's all Sophia cared about.

Then Katherine reflects on her best friend's predicament. A night of fun that turned into a lifetime commitment.

Dean's a maniac when he drives, so she has to keep up her speed to stay just behind him. The drive is cut half an hour short and they stop at the motel for the night. Katherine is out like a light on the sofa since the brothers didn't let her sleep in her car. No shower, no teeth-brushing, no food. She's the first up in the morning and makes a breakfast run. By the time she returns, both of the Winchesters are up, and Sam is more bushy-tailed than Dean.

"Morning, Grumpy," she says, handing a coffee cup to him. "Black," she informs him, handing over a few chicken and cheese biscuits.

"You mind staying with us forever?" Sam asks, taking his food from her. Katherine flashes him a smile.

"Where's the payoff for me?"

"We save your cute little ass," Dean gruffly says from the other side of the room.

"Oh, you save my ass," Katherine chuckles, nodding as she unwraps her biscuit. "Right."

"I think I'm still beating you by a couple of ass-savings," Dean sighs.

"Whatever," Katherine grumbles, stuffing a grocery bag into the refrigerator. Sam eyes it cautiously, then he figures she probably brought beer in. Then she reaches into another bag and slides him a gift-wrapped rectangle, a cheeky smile on her face. "Happy birthday Sam."

She watches the way his eyes brighten as she slides the blue-wrapped thing over to him. Then he laughs. "Thanks, Katherine."

Her gaze shifts between the brothers. "Why're you two looking at me like that?"

"We don't do birthday presents," Sam tells her after a moment.

"Well shit," she mutters, sinking into her seat. "That's kind of not fun, right?"

"Yeah, well. It stopped being fun after Dean bought me a goldfish when I was twelve. Then he pet it and killed it."

"Hey!" Dean defends. "You said they could die from it."

"So you did it anyway?" Katherine asks.

Dean shrugs. "I like proving him wrong."

"Well obviously you didn't," Sam chuckles.

"Well that's not gonna die if you touch it," Katherine says, nodding her head to his gift. "And I do solemnly swear to comply to all..." She frowns. "Most Winchester Rules. But only after you open it."

Sam smiles and flips the thing over, tearing at the sturdy paper. Then he flips the book over.

The Hero with a Thousand Faces.

"Oh, man," Sam hums, turning the book over again. Katherine smiles when he does. "How'd you know I was looking for this?"

She shrugs. "I saw you had it up on Google one day. Worked a little magic."

"Thanks, Kat. I love it, really."

She smiles. "Well, I'm glad." She scoops her drink up and sips at it. "By the way, if you're still hungry, there's cake in the fridge." Sam laughs. "Because you can have cake for breakfast." She smiles, sitting up. "So, I went over everything you said about this whole case," she begins, taking a bite of her breakfast once she's done speaking. "Kind of sounds like a standard car accident to me. I have several questions that I definitely radioed in yesterday but no one answered." Her glare isn't lost upon Dean. "First at-bat, who is this chick anyway?"

Sam smirks, leaning back in his seat with crossed arms. "Her name's Cassie."

Katherine nods once. "Next question. How does she know what you two do?"

"He told her."

Katherine's brows shoot up. "Like voluntarily, or did you do something horrible to her and she tortured it from you?"

Sam answers her question. "Voluntarily."

Dean lets out a heavy sigh, rubbing his hand over his face. "Can you two shut up?"

"You know, you're real awful to be around after a long drive," Katherine says, crossing her legs in her seat. "Why don't you ever let Sam here take the wheel?"

"He'd probably castrate himself before he did that," Sam scoffs.

"I would not," Dean corrects. "Shut it and eat."

Katherine turns to Sam with a smirk. Sam shrugs. "You gonna take that lying down, Sam?"

"Sibling abuse is kind of our M.O."

"Bitch."

"Jerk."

Katherine lets out a loud laugh and shakes her head. "I am road-tripping with a bunch of two-year-olds with developed vocabulary." Dean smiles a bit, turning away from the two.

Cassie, she thinks to herself, her smile fading just a bit. She must be the girl Dean was telling her about all those weeks ago—months. It had been five months since her first trip to the bars with Dean. Since she told him about Nick, her attempt at a normal life.

They're on the road within the hour and at a local newspaper HQ.

"Are you comin' or what?" Dean asks, holding the frosted glass door open.

"Yeah, just tryin' to settle my stomach after that turn around the corner," Katherine mutters, walking past him.

Straight ahead is a small group of people having what seems like a casual conversation—except their voices are raised, and one man's tone is appeasing. The second the hunters walked through the door, the young woman involved in the conversation looked right to them.

"Dean," she sighs. She looks relieved, almost.

"Hi, Cassie."

Cassie is a beautiful girl with dark skin, big brown eyes, and shoulder-length curly hair.

The way she looked at Dean isn't lost upon the teenage girl, and there was a strange burn in her chest.

Oh, knock it off, her subconscious scolded her.

She looks away from the both of them, glancing around the office. "This is my brother Sam, that's Katherine Louise."

The girl gives Cassie a two-fingered salute and a smile. "Hiya." Cassie flashes her a warm smile.

"Sorry about your dad," Dean says.

Cassie nods a bit. "Yeah. Me too." She rubs her arm a bit. "Um...thanks for coming so quickly." Yeah—real quick.

"Yeah, sure."

"I have some work to do, but I get off at six. I can...tell you everything then. At my place, I suppose. I can text you the address?"

Sam glances between Cassie and Dean and Katherine. The youngest of them seems to have taken an interest in the atmosphere, glancing around at the bulletins. "Yeah," Dean says, nodding. "Of course. We'll see you later, then."

Cassie smiles a little, treads backward, and turns on the toe of her boot to start back into the office.

"So we have almost ten hours to do whatever?" Katherine asks, casting her gaze up at the sun as the hunters exit the newspaper building. "Sam? It's your birthday, your call."

"Bar!" Dean says. "That's always fun."

Katherine grimaces. "Not for everyone."

Dean sighs. "Sam, no offense, but I don't want to sit in a library with you all day."

Sam shakes his head. "I don't want to sit in a library today."

Katherine smiles, leaning against the back door of the Impala. "Speak, Mighty Tree."

"I dunno," he shrugs.

"Well, what have you done on previous birthdays that you enjoyed? Or what haven't you done on previous birthdays that you would enjoy?" Katherine asks him.

"Maybe we should see if there's a carnival around," Dean jests. Katherine elbows him. "What? Sammy loves clowns."

"Leave him alone," the teenager grumbles.

Sam smiles, jamming his hands into his jacket pockets. "How about the zoo?"

Katherine gasps, eyes twinkling, and Dean groans as he hangs his head. "Yes!"

"The zoo?" Dean asks.

"Yes, the zoo," Sam says.

"But at zoos, there are more ankle-biters than there are animals," Dean protests.

"So what?" Katherine asks, opening up the back door. "It's Sam's birthday, not yours."

Dean frowns. "How come you weren't so enthusiastic on my birthday?"

"Because I didn't know it was your birthday until it was too late," Katherine says, clasping her hands with a smile. "Now come on. It's a Wednesday, so maybe we can beat the crowd. Tickets on me." She claps her hand against the Impala's door.

"Well I guess I know what we're doing next week."

Katherine's expression drops. "I never told you my birthday," she says as Dean slips into the driver's seat. "How did you find out my birthday?"

"I found a picture in your journal," Dean tells her. "It was taken in a hospital on May 8, 1986."

She frowns. "Well that could've been days after my birthday."

"Except it's not because you still have that weird belly clamp."

Katherine sighs. "God, that is such an invasion of privacy."

"Puh-lease. It was practically begging to be read," Dean tells her, shifting the car into gear. "By the way—there isn't any mention of a chupacabra hunt in 1999."

"Because I didn't have a journal when I was thirteen!" Katherine cries. Sam tilts his head back onto the seat.

"You know, sometimes I think it's the two of you who could be siblings," he says.

"Shaddup, Sam," they both say.

Katherine brought out that polaroid again at the zoo. She got Dean to hold a Patagonian Cavy.

Now, she leans against the wooden pillar with a neutral expression, snapping off a bit of the acacia branch, and extends it to the giraffe. She turns her head to the right as she hears the whir of a familiar camera. Dean smiles a bit, plucking the film from the top of the camera, and turns the film away from the light. Katherine turns her attention back to the feeding giraffe. Its big eyes are trained on her as it creeps closer.

"Giraffes always kinda creeped me out," Dean says, leaning against the divider. "That whole thing where they have the same number of bones in their neck as humans? Crazy."

Katherine shrugs. "Ten inches long and about eighty-five pounds a bit," she says, crossing her ankles as she leans up against the pillar. Dean turns his head to her curiously and she shifts her eyes from the giraffe. "What?"

"How do you know all of that?" He asks her.

Katherine shrugs again. "I guess I'm just an encyclopedia on legs." Dean turns to her, staring still, as she breaks off another acacia twig. "Oh, look—the baby's coming over." She moves away from the post and leans over the fence, stretching her arm down with a soft smile. Dean takes a picture in perfect time, just as the baby is stretching up to take that branch from her. "Where's Sam?"

"Still staring at the zebras," Dean tells her. She's silent, just watching those giraffes. "You okay?"

"Yeah. Why wouldn't I be?"

Dean shrugs. "You've been kinda quiet."

"That's the thing about animals—you don't really have to talk to them."

"Kat," he hums. "You've been acting funny all day." She raises a brow. "And I think I know why. C'mon," he sighs, shaking his head. "You can talk to me, you know."

"There isn't anything to talk about."

"Could you stop being stubborn for half a second?" Katherine lets out a heavy sigh, feeding the last of her acacia branch to the baby giraffe.

"Well...maybe I don't want to," she murmurs. "Talk about it, I mean." She reaches over and gingerly pets the nose of the adult giraffe. Trudy, the zookeeper said her name was. "Don't you think Trudy is an awful name for a giraffe?" Dean doesn't answer, and she sighs once more. "I just..." she tugs her lower lip between her teeth. "I saw the way you looked at her."

"Oh, Kat," he sighs. "It was years ago—"

"But still," she protests. "You didn't...hesitate. Like you were already decided before you even talked to Sam or me about it."

"My friend asked for help, Katherine, and I got here as fast as I could. The same way we rushed to St. Louis for Sam. The same way you flew off to New Haven for Sophia." Dean shrugs. "There's nothing different."

"Yeah, except you dated this girl," Katherine mutters. "And you told her the big secret." She purses her lips and lets out a heavy sigh. "Look, it's stupid. Just forget I said anything, all right?" Katherine shakes her head.

"It's not stupid, Katherine—"

"Yeah it is," she tells him, turning her bright blue eyes to his. "It's exactly the kind of stupid teenage drama you were probably looking to avoid. So just forget it. I mean, the other night, or even yesterday morning wasn't anything at all, really. There isn't any reason for me to be...jealous."

"Nothin', huh?" Dean asks her. She doesn't answer. "Katherine, you've got nothing to be upset about."

"But I still am," she says in a quick sentence, stressing a few vowels she normally wouldn't. "Because I'm a teenager and we have a stroke every time something stupid happens. Because I never had someone look at me like you looked at Cassie. Like she looked at you." There's a few moments of silence. "Look, can we just drop it? Sam's coming back and it's getting late. I wanna do the cake for 'em before we head up to Cassie's."

She didn't speak on the drive back to the motel. Then she drove separately from the brothers to Cassie's house.

"My mother's in pretty bad shape," Cassie says. "So I've been staying with her. I wish she wouldn't go off by herself—she's been so nervous and frightened. She was worried about dad."

"Why?" Katherine asks.

Cassie shrugs. "He was scared—seeing things. He swore he saw an awful-looking black truck following him."

"Who was the driver?" Sam asks.

"He didn't talk about a driver—just the truck. He said it would appear and disappear." Cassie hands Katherine a cup of tea and places two others on the end tables by Sam and Dean. "And in the accident, Dad's truck was dented, like it had been slammed into by something big."

"The dent wasn't there before?" Katherine asks, watching the sugar cube dissolve before her.

"He sold cars," Cassie supplies, sitting on the chair across from the sofa. "Always drove a new one. There wasn't a scratch on that thing." Cassie rubs her forehead. "It rained hard that night. There was mud everywhere. There was a distinct set of tracks from dad's car leading...right to the edge. Where he went over. One set of tracks—his."

"And the first person killed was a friend of your father's?" Dean asks.

Cassie nods. "Best friend—Clayton Solmes. They owned a car dealership together. Same thing—dent, no tracks. And the cops said exactly what they said about Dad—he lost control of his car." Cassie obviously doesn't believe it.

"Can you think of any reason why your dad and Clayton might be targets?" Katherine wonders.

"No."

"You think this vanishing truck ran him off the road?" Sam adds.

Cassie chuckles. "When you say it like that...listen, I'm a little skeptical about this ghost stuff or whatever it is you guys are into."

Dean scoffs. "'Skeptical.' If I remember, I think you said I was nuts." He doesn't bother disguising the bitterness in his tone.

Cassie's is much softer. "That was then."

"Mmm."

"I just know that I can't explain what happened up there, so I called you." Katherine quickly occupies herself with the tea in front of her. The front door unlatches and a small woman with short dark strawberry blonde hair and fair skin hurries in. "Mom? Where have you been?"

The woman appraises the three newcomers as she speaks. "I had no idea you invited friends over."

"Mom, this is Dean. A friend of mine from...college...and his brother Sam. That's their friend, Katherine Louise—"

"Katherine's fine," the girl says with a smile.

"Well, I—I won't interrupt you."

She seems a little sketched. "Mrs. Robinson?" Dean asks. "We're sorry for your loss. We'd...like to talk with you for a minute, if you don't mind."

"I'm really not up to that just now." The woman retreats upstairs.

"Maybe we should go," Sam suggests.

Katherine and Sam are the first to bid Cassie goodbye for the evening. "So she called Dean crazy but still saved his number," Katherine murmurs, throwing one leg into her car, pausing to look at Sam. "Think there's anything there?"

The younger Winchester smiles and shrugs. "You're the girl. You tell me."

Katherine chuckles. "I'm not like most girls, Sam Winchester."

He grins. "Damn straight."

The girl laughs. "Ever been called crazy?" She wonders, cocking her head to the side.

He purses his lips and leans against Katherine's car. "A couple of times. Never told anyone the family secret though. What about you?"

Her brow raises. "What part?"

"Ever told anyone?"

"No."

"Been called crazy?"

She grins. "Crazy genius." Sam chuckles, looking up the drive as Dean trots down the stairs of the Robinson home.

"Catch you in a bit," she says. Sam nods, moving for the Impala, and Katherine lowers herself into her car before firing up the engine.

Dean watches the glossy black vehicle move backward as Spirit in the Sky blasts from the radio. "She okay?"

Sam shrugs. "Yeah. Why?"

Dean shakes his head and lowers himself into the Impala. He waits around for a little while at the motel, staring up at the ceiling as he stews in his own juvenile angst. Sam is deep into the book Katherine got him, turning page after page every minute or so. He had to force himself to put it down so he had something during the drive elsewhere.

And Katherine stares up at the ceiling, braiding her hair into one long length.

She knows she shouldn't feel the way she does. It was nothing, what happened the other day. It's not like they haven't been close before, anyway. She should've known. Dean is Dean. Has he even had a serious relationship? Well, serious enough to tell Cassie the big secret. So maybe he doesn't want anything like that again. He doesn't want what Katherine does. And that stings, thinking about it.

"Stupid," she mutters, turning onto her stomach, and lets out a heavy sigh.

She doesn't know why she's upset. Not really. She wasn't upset on the ride down. Maybe because of just how fast Dean dropped everything and ran. Definitely because Katherine witnessed a brief flash of whatever it was they had "years ago." He hasn't looked at her like that.

Nobody has. Not even her fiancé.