Katherine trails her fingers over the paper maché diorama of Blackwater Ridge. Sam is at her side, prattling off the geography of the place to a nearby Dean. Obviously, he's not paying much attention.

"Dude, check out the size of this friggin bear."

Katherine's eyes narrow. She isn't sure if Dean just really isn't paying attention or he's trying to get her attention. "—and a dozen plus grizzlies in the area," Katherine adds to Sam's brief history, voice laced with bravado. As she speaks, she turns on her heels to stare at Dean. She crosses her arms. "Told you there were bears."

"You three aren't planning on going out to Blackwater Ridge by any chance?" They all turn to an older man, a park ranger, staring at them with a hand on his hip and a cup of coffee in his other. 

"Oh, no sir," Sam quickly answers. Katherine gives him a look. Dean is exasperated. "We're environmental study majors from UC Boulder, just working on a paper."

"Recycle, man," Dean enthuses, weakly thrusting his fist into the air. Katherine rubs her temple.

"Bull," the ranger says. Sam's courteous smile drops. "You're friends wth that Hailey girl, right?"

"Yes," Dean quickly answers. "Yes we are, Ranger...Wilkinson."

"Well, I will tell you exactly what I told her," the man begins, nearing the hunters. "Her brother filled out a back country permit saying he wouldn't be back from Blackwater until the 24th, so it's not exactly a missing persons, now, is it?" Katherine shakes her head. "Tell that girl to quit worrying." He shakes his head, starting away from the three. "I'm sure her brother's just fine."

"We will," Katherine says with a nod.

"Boy, that Hailey girl's quite a pistol, huh?" Dean remarks. Katherine sighs, turning away from him, and back to the photograph Dean was gazing upon earlier. 

"That is putting it mildly," Ranger Wilkinson pronounces, shaking his head once more.

"Actually, you know what could help is if I could show her a copy of that backcountry permit," Dean continues. "You know, so she can see her brother's return date."

Ranger Wilkinson purses his lips, contemplating. "Aw, what the hell. Follow me."

Katherine hates to give it to Dean. She really hates it. She'd love nothing more if he screwed up so she could be even angrier with him, but he's good. He got a copy of the permit without an ounce of suspicion from Ranger Wilkinson. 

Dean laughs triumphantly, starting down the steps of the lodge. "What, are you cruising for a hookup or something?" Sam questions.

Dean frowns. "What do you mean?"

"The coordinates point to Blackwater Ridge," Sam continues, his volume rising with his frustration. "So what are we waiting for? Let's just go find Dad. I mean, why even talk to this girl?!"

"Maybe we should know what we're walking into," Katherine voices with a light shrug. "And maybe this is what your dad was looking into."

"Since when are you 'shoot first and ask questions later'?" Dean asks his brother. 

"Since now."

"Oh, really?" Dean squeaks, delight transforming his scowl completely. He turns to Katherine with a smug smirk. She scoffs, a noise coming from the back of her throat, as she climbs into the back of the Impala. She sounded almost offended. "What?" He defends.

Katherine leans forward and snatches the paper from Dean and reads it aloud to give the brothers the same details she has. 

Upon reaching Hailey's house, Katherine tucks the permit into her jacket and starts up the porch stairs with Sam and Dean behind her. Before they've even finished climbing, she's knocking on the door. Seconds later, a young woman, perhaps a few inches shorter than Katherine, answers the door. She has shoulder-length curly brown hair and big blue eyes, high cheekbones and a square jaw.

"You must be Hailey Collins," Katherine says, smiling a bit. "I'm Katherine, this is Sam, and that's Dean—we're rangers with the Park Service. Ranger Wilkinson sent us over. We wanted to ask you some questions about your brother Tommy."

"Let me see some I.D." Dean steps forward as Katherine reaches into her jacket and he presses an unfamiliar yellow card up to the screen. Hailey glances between the three hunters before pulling back on the screen door. "Come on in."

"We went over the backcountry permit your brother signed before he headed out," Katherine begins. "If Tommy's not due back for a while, how do you know he's missing?"

"He checks in every day by cell," Hailey answers, moving from the kitchen to the table with a pasta bowl in her hands. A younger boy sits at the table, perhaps Katherine's age, maybe a little younger. "He emails photos, stupid little videos, but we haven't heard anything for three days now." Hailey gestures to the younger brother. "This is Ben."

"Maybe he doesn't get reception in the woods," Katherine suggests with a shrug. Then she wiggles a 'hello' from her fingers at Ben.

Hailey shakes her head, unswayed. "He's got a satellite phone, too."

The girl pushes her lips forward, nodding once in surprise. Even she doesn't have a sat phone. "Could it be he's just having fun and forgot to check in?" Dean suggests.

"He wouldn't do that," the younger brother argues, dropping his fork. Dean looks to him in confusion at the sudden outburst, and Ben turns away. 

"Our parents are gone," Hailey explains. "It's just my two brothers and me. We keep pretty close tabs on each other."

"Can I see the pictures he sent you?" Sam requests. Hailey nods and waves the three forward. She pulls a laptop from the counter top and sets it on the table. She opens it up and launches her email before opening up the most recent. 

"That's Tommy," she says, pointing to a young, dark-haired man. He seems to be having a lot of fun. Definitely embracing nature—No Shave November. Then she launches a video. 

"Hey Hailey. Day six—we're still out near Blackwater Ridge. We're fine, keeping safe, so don't worry, okay? Talk to you tomorrow."

Katherine leans forward a bit, her eyes focused on the left corner of the frame—a tall, dark shadow. It could just be one of his friends behind the tent he's holed up in. But even she can't move that fast. "We'll find your brother," Dean assures Hailey. "We're heading out to Blackwater Ridge first thing."

"Then maybe I'll see you there," Hailey replies, moving away from the computer. The three hunters look to Hailey with raised eyebrows. "Look, I can't just sit around any more, so I hired a guide. I'm heading out in the morning, and I'm gonna find Tommy myself." 

Katherine stares at the video, gnawing on her lower lip. Dean hasn't looked at Katherine, so he hasn't picked up on whatever Sam has: Katherine's found something. "Would you mind forwarding these to me?" She asks, looking up to Hailey. 

"Sure."

✕

"Would you just apologize to her?"

"Apologize for what?" Dean questions. 

Sam sighs. "For accusing her of something she didn't do."

"Lots of people get accused for lots of things they didn't do. It's how the world works. Besides—I'm offering her a beer." He slides one to Sam. "That's an apology."

"No, it isn't," Sam protests, but Dean's already started off. He sighs heavily and follows after Dean. 

Katherine is sitting at a table near a window of the bar, blonde hair tousled over one shoulder. It's evident her brow is pinched in concentration, even with it being hidden underneath the light fringe that conceals her forehead. She gnaws on her lower lip, eyes narrowed a bit as she stares at the screen of Sam's computer. "Whatcha got?" Sam asks, beating Dean to the punch.

"Well, Blackwater doesn't get much traffic," she answers. "Local campers, mostly. This past April, two hikers went missing out there and they were never found." She slides a notepad over to Sam. Her handwriting is neat, curves of the 'y's and 'g's and 'j's long reaching, and the loops of the letters are never complete. 

"What about before that?" Dean inquires, sliding a beer to Katherine. Her eyes flit from the bottle to him and she innocently nudges it back and continues talking. Dean frowns. What college kid refuses a beer?

"In '82, eight people vanished. Authorities said it was a grizzly attack. Before that, in '59, '36...every twenty-three years, just like clockwork." She puts her hand in her chin and Sam sits beside her, gazing at the computer screen. "Now watch this." She waves Dean around. He sighs and rounds to the other side of the table, crouching between the other two. "This is one of the videos Tommy sent to Hailey. I've slowed it to a couple frames." She hits the spacebar a few times, and the brothers watch the obvious movement of a dark mass in the background, behind the tent. It wasn't so slow earlier.

"Do that again," Dean tells her. She scrubs backwards and hits the spacebar a few more times.

"That's three frames," she explains. "A fraction of a second."

"So whatever that thing is, it can move," Sam muses.

Katherine nods. "Ain't no grizzly, that's for damn sure."

"Disappointed?" Dean asks, humor coloring his tone and the smallest of smiles tugging at the corner of his mouth.

"A little," she sighs. "But one more thing." She shuts the laptop and slides it to Sam. "In 1959, one camper survived the supposed grizzly attack—just a kid, barely crawled out of the woods alive."

"You got a name?" Dean asks.

"You insult me. I've got more than a name." She grabs her jacket from the back of the chair and starts for the door, swinging her arm over her head to motion the boys to follow after her. 

She wound up staying in her motel room while the boys questioned Shaw, the survivor of the "bear" attack. She researched anything and everything she could think of that moved like lightning, that could inflict such carnage that it looked like an animal attack. A multitude of things could do that, really. Werewolves...but the cycle is off. Vampires are typically pretty neat, plus they could be damn near extinct if they aren't already, so they're in hiding. Definitely trying to lay low. The last she saw a bloodsucker was a few years back with her father. 

Skinwalker, maybe?

The door to her motel room swings open. Katherine scoops her beretta from the kitchen table and switches the safety off, pulls back on the hammer, and whirls around the corner in under two seconds. "Easy, Hot Rod," Dean says, dropping his bag on the floor. Katherine frowns and flips the safety.

"What are you doing?" She asks. "What did Shaw have to say?"

"Can you put the gun down? You're making me itch."

"Let me take your mind off it," Katherine mutters, shifting the sights of the barrel to Dean's forehead.

"So funny." He rolls his eyes and starts forward; Katherine switches her pistol to safety and sits down at the table, her research spread out before her. A few moments of silence pass, Dean scanning over the printed articles and lore. Katherine shifts anxiously, looking down to her hands. 

"Skinwalker?" Dean asks, his eyes flitting to the teenager.

She shrugs noncommittally, not meeting his gaze. "Dunno," she mumbles. "What did Shaw say?"

"That...the thing was fast. And big. Strong. Left a nasty mark on him, too." Dean gestures to his shoulder. "Looked like claw marks."

"Werewolf," Katherine muses with a nod. "But the phases are off."

"Yeah, that's what I was thinking," he hums. "So we're gonna go with Hailey tomorrow, see if we can find out what this thing is and how to kill it. We can protect Hailey that way, too. And Ben." Katherine nods. "What, no protest?" She glowers at him. Dean sighs, pulling out the chair beside her. He twists it to face her and he sits down, resting his elbows on his knees. "We need to talk."

"Are you breaking up with me?"

"How did you know Sam was in trouble?"

"I'm not talking until you apologize."

Dean lets out a low, heavy sigh, pinching the bridge of his nose. "Fine. I was wrong in accusing you of starting the fire. I knew just by the way it unfolded, what I saw, that you couldn't have done it."

Satisfied, Katherine nods once and sits up a bit. "I guess I woulda thought the same thing if some stranger said my brother was in trouble." Katherine presses her lips together, only registering after a moment that Dean is gaping at her. "What?"

"You gave me so much hell only to forgive me in less than a second, and then you say you understand—!"

She shrugs. "Sure, I understand, but it doesn't mean you still weren't an ass."

"So you're saying you have the tendencies of an ass?"

"I never said I was perfect," she chirps, crossing her arms. "There's not some huge story behind it. I still don't know what it is, but...it's been happening since I was younger. A few years." Katherine shrugs a bit. "It wasn't exactly a voice...aloud...more like something in my head." She leans back a bit, lips pursed. "I was...nine. On a hunt with my dad, my very first. Some werewolf in Tampa. We were in an old warehouse, buncha windows..."

Dad had been thrown across the warehouse, and the werewolf wasn't anywhere in her line of sight. Then, the voice shouted "behind you!" and when she turned, the werewolf was there. 

"That was the first time I killed a monster...and the first time I heard that voice. I knew just by the way it sounded, it wasn't my father who warned me, but the strangest thing is...all of those windows shattered. When I asked if he heard the voice, he had no idea what I was talking about. He just saw the glass shatter." Katherine lets out a quiet sigh. "Honestly, I...wouldn't blame you if you sent me packing...or dropped me off at the nearest institution."

Dean looks over the girl, and after a moment, he lets out a chuckle. "Nah," he says, rising from his chair at the table. "Sam would kill me."

✕

"You're hiking in biker boots and jeans?" 

Katherine saunters past a skeptical Hailey Collins, dressed in a black camisole, olive green shorts, and a pair of sneakers. A lightweight blue utility jacket is tied around her waist, and her blonde hair is pulled into a ponytail, fringe parted down her forehead and swept to the sides. She glances over her shoulder, smirking at Dean as she too awaits a response with a cocked eyebrow. Dean presses his lips together and turns to Hailey. "Well, sweetheart, I don't do shorts," he says, starting after Katherine. The teenager chuckles and follows Sam up the gravel path. 

"Oh, you think this is funny?" Katherine isn't sure to who Hailey's hired help is referring to, so she pauses briefly—he's talking to Dean. She continues forward with Sam. 

"What's The Help's name?" She murmurs to the tallest Winchester.

"Uh...Roy, I think," Sam answers. He glances down to find Katherine's grinning. He chuckles and she shakes her head, continuing into the woods. "You know, I still don't know much about you."

"I guess the same could be said for you," she quietly says to him, glancing over her shoulder as the rest of the party gains on them. A delicate smile tugs at Katherine's lips and she looks back to Sam. "Another time," she assures him. Not even five seconds pass before Roy speaks up.

"If you don't mind," he says, passing Sam and Katherine. "I'll lead."

A slow, almost taunting smile twists Katherine's lips. Then she nods her head to the side, allowing Roy to pass her by. She takes one large step forward and hoists herself over the top of a rock and slides down the slope after the guide.

Sam drops off to the back of the group. Katherine is behind Roy, and Dean behind her, Ben and Hailey between the two Winchesters. They're all looking for the same idea, just some a bit more specified. The hunters are looking for anything unnatural. The other three are looking for the Collins boy. "So Roy," Dean calls from behind Katherine. "You said you did a little hunting."

"Yeah," Roy answers. "More than a little."

"Uh-huh. What kind of furry critters do you hunt?"

"Mostly buck. Sometimes bear." Katherine twists around to smirk and raise her eyebrows at Dean. The eldest Winchester rolls his eyes and she faces forward again. 

"Bambi or Yogi ever hunt you back?" Katherine asks, still smiling as she brushes past Roy. He grips her shoulder, holding her fast in place. Though the Winchesters have mirrored expressions of aggressive hardened jaws and careful eyes, Katherine is still smirking...cocky. She's full of spunk and swagger, so inherent, it's hard to tell if the girl is arrogant or just...well, is there a word for it? 

Her eyebrow slowly raises. 

If Roy is challenging her, it's a clear sign she's answering it. 

Roy bends over and sweeps a stick up before spearing the soft ground beneath their feet, right into the mouth of a steel jaw trap. Katherine's brows shoot up, not like before, and her expression softens a bit. 

"Better watch your step, girl."

All traces of amusement, no matter how feigned, disappears as that word slips from his lips. Now she's grimacing as he turns away from her. Katherine glances to Dean and shrugs a bit. "Bear trap?" She suggests. Her feet carry her sideways for a bit as she waits for a response from Dean. She grins as he rolls his eyes and faces forward. A few minutes of silence pass before Katherine's smile changes, glancing around at the trees, and waits for a moment. Dean gazes at her curiously and she bumps her shoulder against his arm, turning her chin to him. "Hey, Dean?" 

"What?"

Katherine bites on her lip, containing her smile as she reaches into the pocket of her jacket. She's stuffed a bag of the gummy Lifesavers into it, and now she pulls a few from the bag. "Why did the pine tree get into trouble?" She asks, flipping the little rings over. She tucks a pink one into her mouth.

Dean's expression falls flat. "Seriously?"

"Yeah."

He lets out a heavy sigh. "I so regret hunting you down," he mutters. 

"Oh come on. Don't be such a sour puss."

"I'm not sour."

"You so are," Katherine protests.

"Well you've got too much energy."

Katherine lets out a heavy sigh. "You're no fun," she mutters, quickening her pace. She swings her leg over a fallen trunk and continues after Rick. Roy. Whoever. 

Dean lets out a heavy sigh and shakes his head. "Why?" He asks. Katherine doesn't answer. "Kat, tell me."

"I've got a more suiting one," she says. "What do you get when you cross a tabby cat with a lemon tree?"

"An illogical creation that wouldn't make it past mitosis?"

"A sour puss," Katherine deadpans, glancing to Dean with a flat expression. Dean glowers, and at that, she grins.

"You are such a..." Dean shakes his head. "You're so spiteful." She wiggles her eyebrows. "Smug little shit. Are you gonna tell me about the pine tree?"

"No. You're undeserving." Katherine hurries forward, unwilling to lose Roy in the greenery. Dean reaches forward, easily tugging the candy bag from her jacket, and he tucks it into his own. Hailey pulls at Dean's shoulder.

"You didn't pack any provisions. You guys are carrying a duffle bag," she states. "You're not rangers, so what the hell are you?"

Sam lingers behind Hailey, shooting Dean a questioning expression. Dean shakes his head, and Sam continues forward. "Sam and I are brothers," he explains. "And we're looking for our father."

"What about the girl?"

"Kat?" Dean asks, glancing over his shoulder. The blonde girl pats Sam's shoulder and grins, arms wobbling as she climbs over a slope. Sam's hand rests on the small of her back as he assists her, and she grips his hand as she continues to talk. They're not so far that Dean can't hear her voice, but he can't make out the words. Whatever it was she said, it must've been at least somewhat funny—she's grinning and Sam's laughing. Maybe one of her stupid jokes. Curiosity itches at Dean's brain. What's the answer to the joke she told him? "She's a family friend," Dean finally replies, looking back to Hailey. 

"She looks young."

Dean nods. "Our parents were friends. Look, we think our Dad might be here. I just...figured we're in the same boat, you and me."

Hailey frowns. "Well why didn't you just tell me that from the start?"

It's Dean's turn to frown. "I'm telling you now. So...we okay?"

Hailey rocks onto her toes. "Yeah," she murmurs. "Okay."

Dean smiles a bit. "And what do you mean I didn't pack provisions?" He flashes Hailey the bag of LIfesavers he snagged from Katherine. She chuckles, shaking her head as Dean turns on his heel to follow after the group. 

The spunky teenager has swept her kinked hair into a knot at the top of her head. Dark blonde, almost light brown, hair sticks to her neck, some strands coiling into loose curls at the nape. Her hands are situated at the joint of the straps and body of the water pack she wears on her back, the straw between her full pink lips as she gazes around at the trees; Dean notices her hand slipping down into her jacket pocket to locate the Lifesavers Dean stole over fifteen minutes ago. She frowns, brows furrowed, and looks to her side. "Aw," she lightly grumbles, deft hands carefully pawing at her jacket.

"What?" Sam asks, glancing down to her.

"I lost my Lifesavers," she whines, facing forward again. "You think deer can get poisoned by that stuff? All the additives and whatever."

"I dunno."

"I hope not."

Dean takes a handful of gummies before nudging Katherine on the shoulder and holding the bag out to her. Her eyes brighten and she smiles, gratefully accepting the bag from him.

"You little shit," she lightly accuses.

Katherine holds the bag to her chest from there out, arms crossed and the bag situated between her forearms and chest as she gazes around. 

"This is it," Roy calls from the head of the pack. "Blackwater Ridge."

Katherine reaches into her back pocket and pulls her GPS from her shorts. "35, -111," she hums, jamming the blue device back into her pocket. She lets out a heavy sigh, glancing around the trees. And then she stills. "You hear that?" She quietly asks.

Sam nods, and Dean approaches the two, stopping at Katherine's vacant side. "Nothing," Sam murmurs. "Not even crickets."

Katherine exchanges a look with Dean. In a strange form of comic relief, Katherine tosses a Lifesaver into her mouth, her brows shooting up at Dean in an understood communication. Not "what do you want" but "would'ya look at that."

"I'm gonna go take a look around," Roy says.

"You shouldn't go off by yourself," Sam tells him. 

The guide chuckles. "That's sweet," he replies. "Don't worry about me." He wedges himself between Dean and Katherine—he obviously could've gone around—and continues into the darkening forest by himself. Katherine grips the man by the shoulder and shoves her GPS into Roy's hand. He glares at her. "Don't need that."

"You're gonna," she mutters, starting ahead. Roy purposefully walks at a faster pace than she does to get ahead. "Everyone stays together," Katherine orders, crushing her candy bag to her chest as she turns to face the two civs. Then she takes a long step sideways and pivots to face forward, leading the rest of the pack. 

As the late morning drifts into afternoon, Katherine's stomach craves something more than gummies, and she wonders why no one thought to pack sandwiches. Because we're idiots, that's why. Somehow, the water keeps her full for a time. 

"Hailey, over here!"

Katherine whirls around, the straw dropping from her lips as she does so, and she quickly runs after Hailey in the direction of Roy's call. "Oh my God."

Katherine skids to a stop, eyes raking over the bloodied campsite. The tent is shredded, blood-spattered, the ground is disturbed, linens strewn about the forest floor...

"Looks like a grizzly," Roy says. 

"Tommy?" Hailey calls. "Tommy!"

"Shh," Katherine hisses.

"Tommy!"

"Shhhh!" Katherine utters, more harshly this time, as she elbows Hailey. 

"Why?"

"Something might still be out there," Katherine explains, glancing about the woods. 

"Kat," Dean calls. "Sam!"

There isn't anything urgent about Dean's voice, so the teenager shuffles away from Hailey and behind Sam, around a large tree and away from the others.

"The bodies were dragged from the campsite," Dean quietly tells them. Katherine nods in agreement. "But here, the tracks just vanish." He points ahead to a set of lines Katherine hadn't noticed before. "It's weird."

"No skinwalker or black dog," she says, putting her hands on her hips.

"What, then?" Dean asks. Katherine shrugs for an answer. 

"Heeeeelllp!"