A/N...welcome to my new story. This story is dedicated to BRANCHSUPER, my wonderful reviewer, as a token of appreciation. She was there from the start and gave me one of my first reviews...I am forever grateful. She also chose the theme for this story, so I hope I can honor her in the writings ahead. First chapter not so long, the following ones wil flesh it out a bit more.

This one is set in season 5, roughly after Swap Meet, mainly so I could pop in around a monster of the week kinda story and not have to lean on the main story ark to heavily. Please feel free to leave any feedback as a review!

Present Day

"Aw, this is gonna be too easy" Dean smiled at the young man in front of him. The man smiled back, his eyes black, his mouth a grimace more than a

smile. His pretty companion, a girl of no more than eighteen, long blonde curls and cheerleader outfit, with black, shiny demon eyes.

She growled and ran towards Sam, as Dean did the same thing to the male. He went in hard, fists pounding, and the demon gave as well as he got. Sam

grabbed he girl around the waist and threw her into the wall, but she came back fighting, a roundhouse punch knocking Sam to one knee. He pulled the

Ruby blade from the back of his pants and held it before him. This didn't seem to deter her, she just gave him an evil grin and lunged towards him.

Another kick and the knife went flying, Dean grabbed it and turned to the male he was tussling with.

The female demon threw Sam into the stairwell, and he couldn't stop himself falling to the next landing. He knocked his head hard, and felt consciousness

start to leave him. He blinked hard, trying to keep a grip on the moment, but was too dizzy to lift his head. He let his head drop to one side, a trickle of

blood from a cut lip leaking out onto the step. He breathed trying to still the spinning of the dank stairwell around him.

"Sam!" Called Dean, but he got no answer. The demon he was fighting grabbed him around the neck, pulling him to the ground. He twisted and plunged

Ruby's knife into its eye. The demon bucked and twisted, the crackling and glow signaling the death of the unholy creature inhabiting the body of the

young man.

The other demon that had been fighting Sam turned, her black eyes shining in the half light of the abandoned factory building, her hair twisted into a high

pony tail, her cheerleader outfit stained in blood. "You are going to regret that, hunter" she snarled, and advanced on him. Dean scrambled backward,

pulling the knife from the dead demon as he moved.

The female ran towards him and he threw the knife, his aim deadly accurate as it plunged deep into her chest, a perfect heart shot. She fell back into the

stairwell holding Sam, and died there on the stairs.

"FREEZE" a male voice called out. "Police! Put your hands in the air. Do not move" Several uniformed men ran into the room, guns drawn, all aimed at the

hunter lying prone on the dirty floor.

"Which one do you want? Don't move, or hands in the air?" Dean snarked. The closest cop, carrying a rifle, turned it and hit Dean full on in the face with

the butt. Dean was knocked out cold.

Sam heard what was going on and with a stifled groan rolled onto all fours. He crawled as quietly as he could up the concrete stairs and peered over the

demon into the room he had fallen from.

Sam saw a cop bent over his brother, slapping him to try and bring him back to consciousness. Dean coughed and groaned, and tried to get up. The cop

pushed him back down. "Not so fast, you sick mother fucker"

"What?" Dean groaned, a little disoriented from the blow to the head. Sam pulled the knife from the demon's chest and slowly backed down the stairs.

There was no way he could fight back against at least eight cops, so his best defense was to make a clean escape.

He made it to the foyer, a dirty, rubbish filled room, and he gently pushed the door open a little to peek out. Cops everywhere. He turned, what to do,

what to do? He needed to get out, he couldn't help Dean if he got arrested as well. There was a small window in the stairwell. Very small. He removed

the screws very quickly with the demon knife and pulled the grill off the window, then pulled himself through, tearing his shirt in the tight squeeze.

He was free.

He zipped his jacket up to hide the torn shirt, and checked his head to make sure there was no blood anywhere that he could feel.

Hands in pockets, shoulders hunched, he walked around the front of the building to find a crowd gathering, pushing up at the barriers being hastily

thrown up by the uniforms. He stood with the others, trying to slouch a little, to blend in rather than stand out for his height.

After about an hour the cops led his brother out. Dean had been beaten, one eye blackened and closed, blood staining his face from his nose, and his lips

were split and swollen. Dean was favoring one leg and had his right arm tucked tight into his side, he either had broken or cracked ribs, from experience

Sam knew that posture very well.

The battered hunter looked around at the crowd as he was being frog marched out of the building, and Sam stood to his full height. No onlooker would

recognize any signal that passed between these two, but it was there. Dean knew his little brother was safe, and that Sam would get him out. That

certainty was there for all to see, but none to notice.

"Ah, what happened here?" he asked one of the young officers fixing a wobbly barrier. The young man looked at him, his acne marked face shining up at

Sam, making the hunter feel old. God, this guy can't be out of his teens, he thought.

"Some sick douche lured two college kids here and sliced them up. Murdered them in cold blood. Caught him red handed"

"How'd you catch him?"

The cop smiled. "Responsible citizen phoned through an anonymous tip."

Sam nodded. "Thanks, man"

He walked back to the car. This was some tangled shit they had gotten into. He was gonna have to play it smart to get Dean outta this one.

X

X

X

X

Three Days Earlier

"Pass the ketchup, dude" Dean spoke around a mouthful of burger while Sam picked at his salad, laptop open on the greasy diner table. He has made

sure to open several napkins under it to protect it, and was busy scanning the day's local news.

"Says here another young girl was butchered off the main highway. That makes three"

Dean shrugged. "I dunno, man, is it demons or just some sicko? Coz I'm not seein' a whole lotta omens here"

Sam tapped a few keys. "Starting to get omens, Dean. Electric storms and a couple of reports of cattle mutilations. And besides" he spun the computer

around to show his brother "we might have to interview some of the latest victim's friends. They were dancers"

Dean said nothing, he just kept eating.

"Dean?"

"Yeah, sounds like a job" he bit deep into his burger "Eat up. You're wasting time"

Sam smiled. He knew the dancer spin would reel in his brother no trouble. "Enough of the self satisfieds, okay?" Dean picked up his soda. "The omens

were enough to get me in"

"And the pretty young dancers on this page had nothing to do with it?"

"Nope. Nothing at all" Dean waited a beat, then let his most lecherous smile adorn his face. "Nothin' like a bonus!"

Sam shook his head, laughing quietly. "Well, I'm done. Soon as you're finished we can head out"

X

X

X

X

Night fell like a switch had been flicked, the white lines on the highway shining bright in the Impala's headlights. Sam shifted uncomfortably in the

passenger seat, his legs were cramped and he needed to go to the bathroom. Dean picked up on his discomfort straight away.

"How long till we're there" he asked his tall brother.

Sam held his cell phone up, sat nav app glowing bright. "Ten at the most. Next exit"

"Good. I'm starved. It's been a million years since lunch."

X

Dean pulled into the parking lot of a tiny no tell motel and threw the keys at his brother. "Grab the bags and I'll grab the room".

Sam unfolded himself from the car and stretched, raising his arms high and cracking his neck both sides. He unlocked the trunk, pulled out both duffels

and a weapons bag. Knowing his brother, he would clean the guns while Sam researched. The routine was ingrained in them after many years.

He sat them on the hood after Dean didn't come back after ten minutes. After fifteen, nearly jiggling from leg to leg with is desire to relieve himself he

thought he'd better check on his brother.

The motel office was a dingy little glass portal that looked like it had been added to the building as an afterthought, and Sam could see his brother

leaning over the front desk, chatting to the pretty young clerk. Sam rapped on the door, when Dean turned he gave him a pissy look.

He could hear Dean's voice as he made a comment to the clerk, but not what he was saying. The clerk laughed, twirling her hair around her finger, flirting

so hard it must've hurt.

Sam grabbed the keys from his brother as soon as the door was open, and read his room number while he strode off as fast as he could without running.

"Where's the fire?" Dean called out behind him. He didn't know how, but Sam was sure Dean knew he was bursting and had made him wait just to

torture him. As he fumbled with the keys to get the door open his suspicions where confirmed when he heard Dean chuckle.

"Asshole" he called out and rushed in to find the bathroom, slamming the door in his brother's face out of spite. He heard Dean laugh even harder and

knew it would probably take all night before Dean stopped teasing him.

A/N...hope I got you hooked, a little bit, at least...please review!