Disclaimer: Don't own Smallville or Supernatural...or See No Evil.

Sequel to: Hallowed Ground

A year has passed since the events in "Hallowed Ground" so age-wise our main cast are as follows:

Lois Lane - 19 years old

Chloe Sullivan - 15 years old

Dean Winchester -23 years old

-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-

A year had passed since the scarecrow incident in the now completely destroyed and abandoned Hope. A year since Preacher Hathaway had not only proven himself to be their ancestor, but to be an incestuous bastard. A year since they'd been left with the mystery of why Hope had just combusted the way it had. A year since Chloe had started a slow yet sure recuperation from the trauma her psychotic mother had given her when she'd driven a knife deep into her heart, twice. A year since Lois had started MetU and moved into the guest room in Uncle Gabe's home. A year since they'd last seen Dean Winchester.

A year.

So much could happen in that amount of time, it was insane.

The only thing that seemed the same was her dark brown hair and preference for dark colored lipstick.

That, and the fact that Chloe kept getting her into the weirdest situations.

"What in the world made you think this was a good idea?" The brunette wanted to know, staring at the poster in her hand for the hundredth time since finding out that her cousin had signed them up without her knowledge. "Its my first long weekend in months. I do not want to be spending it in some creepy, gross place with strangers...cleaning." With a flick of her wrist she sent the flyer flying away. "If this Luthor guy is as loaded as everyone says, why can't he just hire some professional cleaning crew?"

"Because he wants to provide jobs for the younger people in Smallville, and he knows that he needs to get as much public support as he can because from what I hear from the gossip mill no one really likes him. I really think this is a PR thing because there's no way our group could clean up the whole place in one long weekend...I'm sure after we're gone he'll bring in a professional cleaning crew to do the real gritty work." Chloe pursed her lips, wearing capri shorts and a sleeveless shirt with a high neck, still in the business of hiding the intersecting scars over her heart. "And anyway, I know that the thought of scrubbing someone else's toilet is disgusting, but think about all we could discover about the place! No one's been allowed in the Luthor mansion since the Luthors left it all those years ago, and from what I hear it was filled with incredible stuff. Most of the interesting shindigs in Smallville history were thrown there, and get this, when the big meteor shower hit, they say one of the biggest meteor chunks totaled the place...meaning it had to be reconstructed. Some people say that some of the stones used were pieces of meteor rocks themselves."

Already this was sounding like a horrendous idea. "So you want to be trapped in an isolated mansion which is allegedly built with material which not only has given some of the townspeople super powers, but driven insane as well?"

"We wouldn't be trapped." Chloe unzipped her empty duffel bag before going to her drawers to shuffle through her clothes. "It makes sense that Mr. Luthor would want the place on lockdown. As I said before, there are some incredible stuff there. I wouldn't want some kids stealing my crap either. And its not so isolated...we could walk back to town if push came to shove and someone went batshit crazy." She wasn't making her argument any more convincing with that declaration. "Anyway, I doubt that four days proximation to rocks that might not even there will drive anyone insane." She grabbed a fistful of panties and twisted around to throw them into her duffel bag, returning to her drawer to browse through her bras. "And, most importantly, the pay is disgustingly generous."

"How disgusting are we talking about?" Finally, there was something in this whole deal which was appetizing.

"Remember that little thing you keep wanting to buy and can't because it's too expensive?" Chloe held up a black bra with bright green skulls on it. "It wouldn't be too expensive after the long weekend."

Lois perked at that, grinning. "You know you could have just saved yourself that whole defense by uttering those couple of words."

"I know, but they were valid issues which would have been brought up sooner or later anyway so I figured I should address them as soon as possible." Chloe flashed her a cheeky smile.

"So...how does the Torch factor into all of this?" Lois asked, knowing her cousin too well to believe that Chloe was doing this for the paycheck.

There were toilets involved for crying out loud.

Her fifteen year old cousin flushed guiltily. "A murder might have taken place there and was covered up?"

"Chloe." Lois groaned, palming her face as she threw herself back against her cousin's bed. "The last time we were involved in unsolved murders I was nearly hung on a cross and you were two seconds away from becoming a virgin sacrifice."

"It has no religious overtones, I promise!" The teenager came towards Lois, clutching her bra to her heart. "The family butler was found hanging with his eyes completely gone but they attributed it to some freak heart attack suffered while he was just hanging there popping the eyes out...despite the fact that there were no evidence of popped eyeballs anywhere. It was all hushed up and swept under the rug."

"Why can't you be like other girls your age and be into Justin Bieber?" Lois bewailed.

Rolling her eyes in amusement, Chloe continued her packing, humming "Paint It Black" to herself.

Peeking through her fingers, Lois sighed as she shook her head, darkly amused and intrigued despite her efforts to pretend to the opposite.

Ever since Hope, and the proof that the supernatural existed, she hadn't been surprised to find her cousin throwing herself into the studies of the occult. In fact, she'd joined in. Despite the fact that Dean had assured Lois that demons couldn't conceive children with humans, and so Chloe couldn't be the child of the devil, there were still a lot of questions to be answered.

Her phone beeped, and she reached into her pocket and gazed at the screen. "Have to go, want anything from the Talon?"

"Nah, I'm okay." Chloe gave her a little cunning smile. "You really should give him the time of day you know."

"I don't know what you're talking about." Lois raised an eyebrow as she rose from the bed, heading towards the door.

"Sure! Pretend that the total hottie isn't after you!" Chloe called after her.

Shaking her head as she took the stairs two steps at the time, Lois rolled her eyes in amusement as she hurried out the front door, locking it behind her as she walked towards her mustang. She didn't know why she kept pretending that she wasn't attracted to the handsome Adam Knight, whom she'd met while waiting for Chloe during her therapy sessions with the psychiatrist. Adam had been in a horrible car accident that'd left him with physical and emotional issues of his own, but he had beautiful blue eyes and a smile that made Lois want to blush...but of course she'd never let herself.

She was Lois Lane.

She didn't blush.

Even if he was a "total hottie" who was so after her.

Smiling at that, Lois shook her head as she slid into her car and started the ignition, backing into the street and joining the non-existant traffic. The non-dates for coffee or lunch or sometimes dinner had started a couple of months back now, and Lois both enjoyed the time she spent with Adam and was relieved that he'd never tried pushing the issue. He seemed content spending time with her as a friend, made her laugh, and helped her forget her problems for a couple of hours at least. That was all she needed right now, and was grateful that he happily provided her with the distraction.

Lois had every intention of going to the Talon and enjoying herself to the fullest, really, she did.

But then as she passed Bussey's Bar her headlights flashed over a familiar looking car and it was all she could do from pressing down on her breaks suddenly in the middle of the road.

Turning off into the parking lot, Lois emerged from her car and locked it before heading towards the only bar in Smallville, slipping through the front doors and staring around the small, dim establishment. Hazel eyes narrowed in disappointment as her survey came back negative, and she was about to turn back and scold herself for even thinking that he might be there-when the door to the bathrooms swung open and Dean Winchester stepped out, wiping his damp hands against the sides of his jeans. She ignored the whistle from Burt Thompson, who could be old enough to be her father and not half as fit as the General, instead folding her arms over her chest as she kept her eyes on Dean, wondering when his hunter senses were going to kick in and let him know that he was being watched.

He didn't disappoint, stopping midway towards his table, eyes narrowing slightly before scanning the room and landing on her.

Lois raised an eyebrow and smirked.

A grin came over Dean's features as he motioned with his head towards a table before resuming his trip there.

"Hi Father Morgan." Lois waved at the older man who raised his glass of scotch to her, making her way to the table Dean now sat at, sliding herself into the seat across from his. "Dean Winchester. When I saw that Impala outside I knew no one was cool enough to have one of them and live around here."

He grinned, shaking his head. "Can I get you anything to drink?"

"Sadly everyone in Smallville know I'm not 21 yet, so it'll have to be another night in another town." She replied, leaning forwards with her elbows on the table. "How've you been doing, Dean?"

"Good," he nodded. "Can't really complain. I'm alive. That's more than a lot of others in my line of work."

"I can imagine." Lois snorted, looking up at Zoe Garfield when she came around. "A pepsi please."

Zoe nodded. "Sure thing Lois." She turned to leave before turning back and wiping her hands on her apron. "Do you know if Chloe's doing the Luthor Mansion cleanup?"

"Yeah." Lois nodded. "We both are."

Zoe frowned slightly, wringing her hands. "I don't know if that's just a good idea...you know what they say about that place. That it's haunted."

No, she hadn't known that.

Apparently Chloe hadn't told her the whole story.

"I'm sure it'll be fine." Lois assured the other girl, who nodded reluctantly and left to get her her drink.

"Are you serious?" Dean ran his hand over his face. "Have you two not learnt from Hope?"

"Hey! This is the first I'm hearing about the haunted part of this whole excursion!" Lois defended herself, throwing her hands up. "Chloe obviously knew I wouldn't go and thus wouldn't let her go, if I knew, so she left that part out."

Dean sighed, shaking his head. "So what exactly is this Luthor Mansion cleanup thing?"

"Well, I don't know if you noticed it on your way in, but out in the outskirts of the town is this really old, abandoned castle looking place." Lois leaned back on her seat, grabbing a napkin and twisting it around and around, flicking it against the edge of the table. "The guy who basically owns this town, Lionel Luthor, well his family brought each stone from their castle in Scotland and rebuilt it here. His family haven't been here in a very long time though, but apparently for some reason they're getting an itch to return because they sent around these flyers asking for a local cleanup crew to go this long weekend and clean up the place for them. In Chloe's words, the pay is "disgustingly generous", but the drawbacks are the fact that you're going to be locked in the house for the whole long weekend since Luthor doesn't want his shit stolen. Also, there might be some residue of meteor rocks in the place-you remember what I told you about the meteor rocks?"

Dean nodded, his face severe. "They make people coocoo for cocopuffs...but with abilities."

"Exactly." Lois nodded.

Dean eyed her, shaking his head as he groaned, leaning hard back against his seat and taking a long gulp of his beer. "Where's the sign up sheet?"

"I don't know, Chlo was the one who arranged everything." Lois tilted her head, curious. "You wanna sign up?"

"I'm going to have indigestion if I don't." He grumbled, taking a longer gulp. "Anyway, if it just ends up being nothing, it would have been a weekend in which I scrubbed a few tubs and got paid "disgustingly generously"."

Lois bit down on her bottom lip to try and keep the grin at bay, but was unable to. "Deep down inside you're a big softie, aren't you, Mr. Winchester?"

He scoffed at that, taking another gulp, finishing his bottle and motioning to the waitress for another before turning his attention back to Lois. "So how's the rugrat? You know, other than getting you into potentially dangerous situations."

Lois thanked Zoe when she returned with the pepsi and beer, turning her attention back to Dean. "She's doing good you know. I mean, she still has the nightmares sometimes, and her panic attacks seem to hit every couple of months, but all in all she's doing better. She doesn't flinch away from people when they try touching her anymore, and she's teasing and playful again, and the fact that she's doing her cunning "I wanna get the story for my beloved Torch at all costs" thing is honestly the biggest step forwards yet."

"Torch?" Dean made a face, leaning forwards on the table.

"She's the editor of the school newspaper and has manhandled all the senior students into being her minions. It's beautiful." Lois chuckled, deeply amused with how her tiny little cousin could scare and intimidate big strapping young men into her service.

Dean snorted in amusement. "I remember her saying something about wanting to be a reporter when she graduated."

"Some of her stuff have made it into the Smallville Ledger, we have those articles framed at home." Lois knew that pride was audible in her voice as she grinned. "You'll see them when you come over."

"Come over?" He raised an eyebrow.

"Yeah, you can spend the night at our place. Uncle Gabe is on a business meeting. You can have his room." Lois decided. "I know that Chloe will beat me senseless if she knows I ran into you and didn't manhandle you into coming back home."

Dean shook his head. "Usually when a girl wants me home with her, there isn't much sleeping involved."

Lois smirked, fighting the blush that wanted to climb up her neck. "Behave."

"You obviously don't know me that well." He quipped.

"Well, we'll have enough time to get to know each other better this long weekend." Lois raised an eyebrow, smirk growing.

"To getting disgustingly generously paid." He winked, raising his beer bottle to her pepsi bottle as they toasted to that.

-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-

As Dean followed behind Lois' car in his Impala later that night, he couldn't really explain why he was here. These girls had been unfortunate tag-alongs in a very tricky (and still unsolved) hunt, he should have been able to forget them and move on just like he'd done with every other civilian who'd somehow been unintentionally involved in a hunt. And yet he hadn't been able to do so. He didn't know if it was because the girls had saved him just as much as he'd saved them, or if it was because he could identify with their relationship, or what. Maybe it was the whole talk about the meteors that'd stayed on his mind. He didn't know. All he did know was that every couple of months he'd remember Hope and wonder how the girls were doing.

Finally he'd stopped fighting himself and had taken off while his father was hunting with Pastor Jim, making a beeline towards Smallville.

It seemed somewhat incredible though, that on his first night there he'd run into Lois.

And not only that, he hadn't found her, she'd found him.

A lesser man would have called that something like "Fate" but Dean didn't believe in Fate. He believed in luck. And dammit, his luck seemed to have soared tonight.

Pulling into the driveway of a two-story house, Dean parked behind Lois' beat-up mustang and grabbed his duffel bag out of the back, slipping out of his baby and locking everything behind him.

Lois grinned, pressing her finger to her lips as she took two steps backwards and twirled around, reaching into her pocket and pulling out a set of keys, hurrying up the few steps to the porch and front door. She opened the door with ease and stepped in, motioning for him to follow as she locked the door behind him, calling upstairs. "Hey Chloe! Look who came to say hello!"

"Mr. Knight!" Chloe yelled from somewhere upstairs, the sound of her footsteps padding around a room echoing down below. "I've told you once and I've told you twice, I will not be engaging in a threesome with you and my cousin. That's too kinky for even me."

Dean sent a blushing Lois a questioning look.

"She and our friend Adam Knight have an...unusual...friendship." Lois ran her fingers through her hair. "It works for them though."

"Lois is a possessive brat who doesn't share her non-boyfriends no matter how much I beg," Chloe's laughter was mischievous as she opened some door upstairs, coming towards the stairs. "And anyway, I still have a whole year before I'm legal. So-." The blonde finally came into view, freezing at the top of the stairs as she stared down at him, her grip tightening on the bannister. "Dean?"

Dean had to admit that for a moment he couldn't believe it was the same tiny, pale kid he'd known a year ago.

Chloe didn't seemed to have grown any taller since the last time he'd seen her, but so much more had changed. Her shapelessness had morphed into curves that shouldn't be on a girl her age, her hair was longer than the short floppy hairstyle she'd had before, and while she was still much paler than Lois the dark bags under her eyes had disappeared. She'd always acted older than her age, but now the way she dressed, adorned herself, and held herself…it now made her seem closer to seventeen or eighteen instead of fifteen. Her body and mannerism now seemed as old as her eyes.

It seemed wrong.

"Hey kiddo." It felt weird to refer to her that way now that she looked like this.

"Dean!" Taking the stairs two steps at a time, Chloe threw herself at him and Dean hardly had the time to wrap his arms around her and twirl with the movement, laughing in amusement as he finally let her down. "Dean! Seriously! Dean!"

Shaking his head in amusement, Dean sent a look in Lois' direction, the brunette leaning against the wall and watching them with a tender smile on her face. His hazel gaze then returned to Chloe, taking her in. "You look different."

"It's the fact that I have breasts now." She shocked the hell out of him by candidly announcing this as she pulled away as to give him a view of her chest. "They're not as impressive as Lois' are, I'll give you that, but I'm still growing so I figure I have a year or so to catch up with and surpass her in bounty."

Dean just stared down at the girl, fighting his shock and embarrassment.

Lois was laughing her ass off. "Dean Winchester, meet the real Chloe Sullivan."

"Right." Chloe nodded, smile mischievous. "You only know the silent, traumatized me. So you're probably wondering when I got so loud and handsy, aren'tcha?" She then narrowed her gaze and just threw Dean through another loop when she began to poke his chest. "Have you been working out since the last time we saw each other? Because I always remembered you being fit...but you seem even more toned than last time." She turned to look at Lois, seemingly completely oblivious to the fact that Dean was having a hard time digesting this new her. "Doesn't he look ripped in this shirt?"

Lois' amusement was dark on her face, hardly able to keep from laughing at him. "He doesn't look too bad."

"Hey!" That shocked him out of his little trance, turning to send a mock glare at Lois. "I'll have you know that I'm seriously fit."

"Adam Knight has a six pack." Chloe seemed to be like the devil, egging him on. "Can you compete with that?"

Dean didn't know whether to just stare at her, burst out laughing, or lift up his shirt and prove that, hell yeah, he could could with it!

"Chloe, stop, you're breaking his brain." Lois sniggered as she pushed away from the wall and came towards them, wrapping an arm around her cousin's shoulders, sending Dean a far too amused smile. "And we'll need his brain and brawn for the cleanup crew."

Green eyes widened as she turned towards him. "You're coming too?"

He nodded.

"I'll sign you up." Chloe promised with a wink before flashing him a smile. "You will, of course, spend the night here. Dad's gone on a business trip and his room's up for the taking." She looked up when a horn honked outside, making a face. "That's Pete."

"Where do you think you're going with Pete at this time of the night?" Lois sounded a lot like a mother would as she eyed her.

"I promised to help him paint his parent's garage if he came with us. I didn't know that Dean was here and I figured it would be good to be locked in with at least one guy we knew." Chloe shrugged, slipping out from Lois' hold and edging towards the door. "If you begin to doubt my word and location you can call Mr. and Mrs. Ross and they'll vouch for where I am!" She turned her gaze to Dean and gave a little wave. "See you guys later!" And with that she was out of the door and gone.

Dean watched her go before shaking his head and turning back to face Lois. "Are you sure that's the same girl?"

Lois chuckled, way too amused with this whole situation. "Come on, I'll show you to Uncle Gabe's room."

-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-

TBC