"There are rules to luck, not everything is chance. To the wise, luck can be helped by skill." - Balthasan Gracian

• • •

Pulling slowly to a stop, the shade cascaded by the brick building next to them across his face contrasting with the afternnon sunshine hitting the other side made Noah squint his eyes. Seated in the back of the Impala, Delta laid out across his lap, he leaned back to escape the harsh sunlight.

Dean leaned through the window slightly to look at the car parked next to them. He leaned back, turning to his brother and Noah, "Connecticut, last digits are 8-8-0."

Sam nodded, "Yep, that's it."

Dean tsked, "Should've blacked out their plates before they parked in front of a security camera."

• • •

Noah turned the knob as quietly as possible, slowly inching the apartment door open. He shared a look with the boys as he pulled his own pistol out, the Winchesters already brandishing their own.

Dean stepped in first, with Noah and Sam side-by-side, right behind him. Delta followed shortly after her owner. Halfway down the entry hallway, quiet voices made their way to their ears. one sounded like he was bragging about how many times he'd won against the other in poker that day, in a row.

Dean pressed his back against the wall right before the hallway turned into the full apartment. Sam pressed against the one opposite him as Noah stood slightly furhter back than either of them, in the middle of the hallway. Delta's ears perked as she focused on the sound of the men talking.

"Lets go, huh?" One suggested, "Let's get out of here, go have some fun, yeah?"

That's when Dean pounced. Jumping out of his hiding spot, he came clearly into the kitchen, barking out, "Freeze!" As he trained his gun on one of the men.

Sam jumped right behind him, and they both shouted, "Don't move! Nobody move!"

Noah decided to stay in the hallway, keeping the surprise element in case they needed it. He pressed his back where Dean had previously, keeping a close eye out.

The two Winchesters rushed in as the other men raised their hands in the air. Sam kept his gun trained on the one in flannel, Dean kept his own on the man in a vest.

"Alright, give us the box," Dean demanded, "Please tell me that you didn't-"

Sam cut him off, eyes trained on the coffee table, "Oh they did."

Dean turned his head, seeing the black box open, the binding magic on the front of it now halved from the lid being open. "You opened it?!" Dean rushed the man in the vest, grabbing his collar, and pressing him to the wall behind him.

"Are you guys cops?" The man in the vest questioned, "Are you guys cops?!"

"What was in the box?" Dean yelled, his pistol placed point-blank on the man's clavicle, his other forearm keeping the man pinned to the wall. The man motioned with his eyes, making Dean turn hishead to see a lucky rabbits food on a key chain sat next to a glass of whiskey on the coffee table.

"Oh, was that it?" Dean asked, he got into the other mans face, "It was, wasn't it?"

When he turned back to look at it again, he furowed his eyebrows, "What is that thing?"

That gave the man in the vest the opportunity to throw his hand up into Dean's forearm, unpinning himself. Dean's gun was knocked out of his hand and when it hit the ground, it fired. The bullet was sent ricocheting around the room, hitting the radiator, the floor, bouncing off of Sam's pistol, which he dropped, sent back to the mantle and bouncing off of the metal brackets, and back into a lamp, which crashed to the floor with a few sparks.

Dean stared at the broken lamp in confusion, wondering how the hell that had happened. Sam stared at the gun on the floor before looking up and charging the man in flannel, who chrged back at him, pushing off of Sam's chest.

Sam was shoved back, sending him into Dean, who toppled over onto the coffee table, effectively breaking the legs of said table and sending the rabbit's foot flying. "Sorry," Sam apologized which in turn gave the man in flannel time to charge him again, this time taking him to the ground. Noah watched with wide eyes, seeing the boys this far off their game. Something he'd never seen... them be before.

It hit him. That's not a lucky rabbit's foot, it's a cursed rabbit's foot. He couldn't remember the exact terms of the curse but he knew he'd heard about it somewhere before.

The rabbit's foot fell to the floor next to Sam as the man in flannel gave him a right hook to the jaw. Noah cringed, knowing how painful a punch when you're on the floor can be, there's nowhere for the extra momentum to go.

Dean went to reach for his gun but the man in the vest picked it up first, just as Dean stood up, knocking him in the chin. Out of context, the way Dean's eyes rolled back and he keeled over was almost looney-tunes-esque.

The man in flannel had his hands around Sam's throat, cuttong off his airway. Sam noticed the rabbit's foot beside him, reaching for it just as Delta jumped on the man's back, all fifty pounds of german shepherd sending him off of Sam, who gasped out breaths, standing up.

He sat up, "Dean, I got it!" As he stood, keeping an eye on the man with a dog on top of him, he failed to notice the other one with a gun standing right in front of him. Dean hurried to stand up, seeing the man as Noah stepped out of his hiding space, training his own pistol on the man.

"No you don't," The man said, pistol leveled at Sam's heart. He cocked back the hammer. The other man remained pinned by Delta, reaching for a gun at his side, and attempting to sit up. Sam grit his teeth as the man pulled the trigger... but nothing happened. The gun jammed.

The man went to unjam it, panicking and giving Noah a window to fire two shots, one into each of his shoulders. He felt back, bringing the entire couch with him, sending the gun to the floor, and he fell back, knocking his head against the wood flooring, knocking him out.

The man in flannel managed to shove Delta off of him, and a few feet back but as he went to stand up, Delta growled and ran at him faster than Noah had seen her do in a while, lanuching herself off the ground with the force of a cheetah, and landing with her front paws on his collarbones, taking him to the floor with enough force to send the gun in his hand flying and knock him out as well.

The gun came flying Sam's direction and he caught it perfectly, as though it were a reflex, before staring down at the gun in his hand in amazement.

Dean and Noah look between Sam, the gun, and the now knocked out men before turning back, "That's a lucky break," Dean blinked in shock.

That's when his gaze fell to the item in Sam's other hand, "Is that a rabbit's foot?"

Sam held it up, inspecting it, "I think it is."

"Yes, it is," Noah answered, stepping closer to the two brothers, stepping over the wooden destruction that was previously funiture, as Delta ran to sit at his feet, panting up at him. He looked down at her, shaking his head with a chuckle, scratching behind her ear, " You earned a reward for that one."

"Huh," Dean stated, blinking again as Sam continued to inspect the item in his hand. Sam turned back to look at the two older men. And Noah averted his gaze to the floor when he saw the puppy-like look on the youngest Winchester's face.

• • •

Swinging into the front seat of the Impala, Dean sat a brown paper bag into his lap. Sticking a hand into it, he rifled through, picking up the pieces of paper within it. "I can't find anything about it in Dad's journal," Sam stated, flicking through the pages of the book in question, before looking up, seeing Dean holding up like six scratch off lottery tickets.

"Dean, come on," Sam rolled his eyes. "What?" Dean questioned, a big smile on his face, "Hey, that was my gun he was aiming at your head, my gun don't jam, so that was a lucky break, so was the fact that the first one pretty much took himself out and the other didn't get Wonder Dog back there any farther away from him than he did."

Noah opened the back door to the Impala, seating himself. He ripped open the bag of beef jerky in his hand, giving Delta two pieces and rubbing her head before opening his own treat, a small single pack of a chocolate hostess cupcake.

He bit into it before looking up, seeing the two brother's staring at him, "What did I miss?"

They both shook their heads, turning back to one another. Dean handed Sam a ticket, "Here, scratch one."

Sam rolled his eyes, staring at Dean. "Come on Sam, scratch and win," Dean pesuaded. With one final eye roll, Sam took the ticket and the coin Dean handed him, scratching the ticket without even looking at it, and handed it back to Dean.

"Look, Dean, it's gotta be cursed somehow, otherwise Dad wouldn't have locked it up," Sam rationalized. Dean looked at the ticket in his hand before his eyes blew open wide, "Twelve-hundred dollars."

That caught Sam and Noah's attention. "What?" Noah questioned. "You just won twelve hundred dollars," Dean whipped his head to his brother. Sam pursed his lips, blinking in shock.

Dean laughed, throwing his head back before shouting, "Whoo!"

He turned to Sam, "I don't know man, it doesn't seem that cursed to me," he held out another ticket.

• • •

"Oh, man," Dean smiled, placing out the tickets in a row. All of them had been winners. "Now look, Bobby, we didn't know," Sam speaks into the phone. "You touched it? Dammit Sam," Bobby sighed.

"Well, Dad never told us about this thing," Sam stated, holding it up and staring at it. Noah pitched the beat up dollar store tennis ball across the grass area next to the diner, watching Delta chase after it.

"I mean, you knew about his storage place in Black rock?" Sam questioned. "His lockup? Yeah, I knew, Hell, I built those curse boxes for him," Bobby answered.

"Listen, you have got a serious problem," Bobby started. Something caught Sam's eye and he crouched, moving a discarded newspaper out of the way to find a gold plated watch.

"That rabbit's foot ain't no dime-store notion, it's real hoodoo, old world stuff," Sam held the watch up for Dean to see it, who smiled and shook his head, as Bobby continued to explain, "Made by a Baton Rouge conjure woman about a hundred years ago."

"It's a hell of a luck charm," Sam stated. "It's not a luck charm, it's a curse, she made it to kill people, Sam," Bobby clarified, "See, you touch it, you own it, you own it? Sure, you get a run of good luck to beat the devil, but... you lose it, that luck turns, it turns so bad that you're dead inside a week."

"So I won't lose it, Bobby," Sam replied. "Everybody loses it!" Bobby raised his voice.

"Well then how do we break the curse?" Sam inquired. "I don't know if you can," Bobby sighed. Sam placed the rabbit's foot back in his jacket pocket.

"Let me look through my library and make some calls," Bobby said, "Just sit tight." And with that, he hung up.

Sam closed his phone, turning around to face Dean, who quickly counted across his fingers, "Dude, we're up fifteen grand," Dean held up the tickets, still smiling bright as ever.

Sam's lips quirked upwards in the corner, though it didn't meet his eyes.

• • •

The trio swung open the door of the diner, stepping inside, "Don't worry, Bobby'll find a way to break it, until then I say we hit Vegas," Dean assured, "Pull a little 'Rain Man', you can be Rain Man."

"Look, we just lay low until Bobby calls back, okay?" Sam reasoned. Dean nodded, as did Noah. They stepped up to the Host, "Hi, table for two please," Sam requested.

The man smiled from ear-to-ear, "Congratulations!"

"Come again?" Noah raised an eyebrow. "You are the one-millionth guest of the Biggersons Restaurant family!" he exclaimed, handing the three of them a giant foam board, displaying the design of a check on the front, declaring free food for a year. Several other servers croweded behind him as he hit a button, one snapping pctures of them.

A noisemaker sounded, briefly reminding Noah of one of Nikki's birthday parties before Richard passed away. And then fell a ton of sparkly gold and red confeetti streamers as well as red and gold balloons. Dean's smile remained a constant as Sam just looked startled. Noah stood with a confused look on his face, silently wondering why this weird shit always happened to them.

• • •

"Bobby's right," Sam sighed, "This lore goes way back." Dean nodded as he continued to eat his mostly melted ice cream. Noah sat back in the booth, raising his soda to his mouth, slurping through the straw, and placing it back on the table.

"Pure hoodoo," Sam started, closing his laptop, turning his full attention to the two men in the booth across from him, "You can't just cut one off any rabbit, it has to be in a cemetery, under a full moon, on a Friday the 13th."

"Sounds cliche," Noah mumbled. Dean placed the glass dish coated in melted ice cream down on the table, moaning under his breath in only the way that people who love food ever will, "I say from now on we only go to places with Biggerson's."

As he swallowed, his entire face scrunched up, looking like a baby who sucked on a lemon as he put a hand to his forehead. Sam laughed under his breath at his brothers expense, shaking his head.

Not a moment later, a waitress approached with a pot of fresh coffee in hand, "Can I freshen you up?" Dean looked up, as did Sam. Noah didn't know why but his gut told him something was off about her.

"Yeah, yeah, sure," Sam slid his cup closer to her for her to refill it. She tops of the coffee, staring at Sam and then moving her hand back, which causes the coffee to spill. "Oh," Both of them say.

"Let me.." She reached for her hand towel. "Oh, no, no, don't worry about it, that's okay, I got it," Sam assured as she picked up his cup of coffee, leaning over the table, which in turn puts her chest very close to Sam's face, and wiping up the spilled coffee, "It's no trouble, really."

For a moment he tensed up with an uneasy feeling before questioning why, and deciding to play it off. He glanced down with a slight smile, playing it off as being shy, "Okay."

"Sorry about that," She apologized, a flirty smile across her features. "It's alright," he keeps his eyes trained on the table, avoiding looking at her. He grit his teeth gently in his mouth, still not getting why he's all of the sudden uncomfortable with being flirted with.

He lifted his gaze, seeing Dean eyeing her up and decides give her a smile as she steps back from the table, watching her as she walks away to play it cool. Noah scoffs from the other side of the booth, shaking his head, "Straight men," he rolled his eyes before taking another sip fo his soda.

Sam chose to ignore the little voice in the back of his head that questioned that notion.

"Dude," Dean looked at his brother, "If you were ever gonna get lucky."

Noah rolled his eyes again. "Chill out," Sam mumbled at his brother. He turned back to the table in front of him, shaking his head to clear his thoughts. He put his hand on the cup of coffee but as he went to pick it up, it slipped and spilled coffee everywhere. Noah narrowed his eyes.

Sam jumped out of the booth, avoiding the hot liquid from covering his pants but in doing so, he ran into a waiter carrying a large tray of food and drinks, coming up from under the tray and pushing it into the waiter, sending the poor waiter to the floor.

He stared at the man in shock for a moment, "I'm so sorry." Another patron reached out to help the man up from off the groud, helping him avoid the broken dishware.

Sam slowly turned back around and stared at one another in shock for a moment before Dean questioned, "How was that good?"

"It wasn't," Noah slid out of the booth, grabbing Sam's jacket and reaching into the pocket. When he turned it inside out, he turned back to the others with pursed lips, "I'm gonna be fair and say I called that."

Sam began to panic as Dean followed Noah out of the booth, stating a simple, "Son of a bitch." "Yeah, I'd say," Noah shook his head, "Come on."

Noah in the lead with Dean and Sam directly behind him, they hurried out the door of the diner. Scanning the entire parking lot, Noah narrowed his eyes again. They turned and ran towards the employee parking lot but as he stepped off the curb of the sidewalk into the parking lot, Noah heard a thud behind him, followed by a grunt of pain.

He turned around, sighing, "Oh sweet Jesus." He crouched down, helping Sam push himself up off the ground enough to stand up. Dean stared at his brother with a raised eyebrow, "Wow, you suck."

"Alright, come on," Noah helped Sam stand all the way up. Looking down, his jeans had massive rips on the knees, which displayed the blood soaked scrapes on each knee. "So what, now your luck turns bad?" Dean questioned.

"I guess," Sam nodded. Dean furrowed his eyebrows in thought for a moment, before mumbling, "I wonder how bad." Dean marched ahead of them as Sam dusted off his hands, staring after him.

"Come on," Noah motioned, "Guess this means my job is to keep an eye on you."

• • •

Opening the door, Dean casually stepped in with Sam and Naoh right behind him. The man in flannel from before looked up, a picture and a bottle of liquor in hand, "Oh man, what do you guys want?"

"Heard about your friend, it's bad luck," Dean stated ironically. Noah ushered Sam to stand along a wall, where he would hopefully not hurt himself. "Don't move," Noah warned him.

"Piss off," the man told the trio. "We know someone hired you to steal the rabbit's foot, a woman," Dean began.

"Yeah? How do you know that?" He asked them. "Because she just stole it back from us," Dean deadpanned.

The man began laughing. "Listen man," Sam tok a small step forward, "This is-" he was cut off by pulling on the cord of a small CD-player, pulling it off of the shelf just as Noah went to tell him to not move, and in trying to catch the falling electronic, he toppled over and brought the standing lamp with him.

Noah froze, reaching a hand to pinch the bridge of his nose as he sighed, crossing his other arm over his chest. Dean glanced over, not moving, "Sam, you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm good," he faintly called back. Noah shook his head in exasperation before crouching, puling the man to his feet. He pointed his finger into his face, "When I say 'don't move', I mean 'don't move'," turning away from Sam, who now stared at his hands like a scolded child, Noah mumbled, "I swear, I am your parent and you idiots are the children I for some unknown reason, choose to look after."

Dean ignored what was happening behind him, stepping closer to the tipsy man seated in his chair, "I want you to tell us her name."

The man leaned forward, "Screw you."

"It wasn't a freak accident that killed your partner," Dean stated. "What?" this changed the other man's entire demeanor.

"It was the rabbit's foot," Dean explained. The other man scoffed. Noah turned around as he heard Sam rocking on his heels, giving him a look. "You're crazy man," the man shook his head.

"You know I'm not," Dean cocked his head at him, "You saw what happened, what it did, all the flukes, all the luck, when you lose the foot, that luck goes sour," Dean explained further, "That's what killed your friend."

"My brother here is next," Dean motioned to Sam behind him, "And who knows how many more innocent people after that, now if you don't help us stop this thing, then that puts those deaths on your head."

"Now, I can read people, and I get it, you're a thief and a scumbag, and that's fine, but you're not a killer, are you?" Dean reasoned.

The man, now with tear-rimmed eyes, looked down to the floor, shaking his head ever-so-slightly. He looked back to Dean, nodding in agreement.

• • •

Exiting the building, Dean felt his phone vibrating and in short seconds, his ring tone filled the night air. Pulling his phone out and flipping it open as they stepped down the ledge, Sam in the back.

"Hello?" He answered. "Dean, great news, wasn't easy but I found a heavyweight cleansing ritual that should do the trick," Bobby explained. As Sam followed the other two down the small step, he felt something squish. Picking up his foot, he saw pink bubble gum.

"Bobby, that's uh great, except uh.." Dean trailed, "Sam uh... Sam lost the foot."

"He what?!" Bobby shouted. Sam looked at the chewed up bubble gum squished onto his shoe, before gently limping over to a metal grate, probably a water drain, in order to not squish it in any further.

"Bobby, listen, listen, this hot chick stole it from him, I'm serious, in her mid-twenties, and she was sharp, you know? Good enough of a con to play us, and she only gave the guys she hired a name, probably an alias or something," Dean explained.

Hearing the noise of metal scraping, Dean turned around and caught Noah's attention as well. Dean motioned to his brother, who was desperately attempting to scrape the gum off of the sole of his shoe. Noah sighed, walking over to the youngest Winchester.

"Luigi or something," Dean continued. "Lugosi," Noah and Sam corrected in sync.

"Lugosi," Dean backpedaled. "Lugosi? Lugosi... oh crap, it's probably Bela," Bobby realized. That's when Sam chose to slip, and Noah grabbed him before his entire leg could fall through. That however caused his shoe to slip off and fall into the water with a quiet splash.

"Dammit," Noah rolled his eyes and sighed, for what felt like the millionth time today, pulling the Winchester, now pouting like the most adorable puppy Noah had ever seen.

"Bela Lugosi?" Den asked, "That's cute."

"Bela Talbot's her real name," Bobby elaborated, "Crossed paths with her once or twice."

"She knew about the rabbit's foot, is she a hunter?" Dean questioned.

"Pretty friggin' far from a hunter, but she knows her way around the territory, she's been out of the country, last I heard she was in the Middle East someplace," Bobby informed.

"I guess she's back," Dean stated. "Which means seriously bad luck for you," Bobby said. "Great," Dean sarcastically smiled.

"But if it is Bela, at least I might know some folks who know how to find her," Bobby told him. "Thanks, Bobby, again," Dean chuckled under his breath.

"Just look out for your brother, ya' idjit," Bobby ordered him before hanging up.

When Dean closed his flip phone and turned around, he saw the sad looking Sam and exasperated Noah. They both turned to him and when Sam said, "I lost my shoe," in the msot pathetic way imaginable, Noah also said, "He lost his shoe," only this time sounding more like an exhausted parent whose kid drew all over the walls.

Dean looks down, seeing Sam's one foot with only a black sock covering it as Sam flexed his toes. He looked to Noah who just threw his hands up. Dean turned around, rolling his eyes so hard that Noah was surprised he didn't give himself motion sickness, with a sigh before walking back to the car.

Sam just stared back down at his feet again before Noah pushed him to urge him to the car.

• • •