That afternoon, Sam and Dean entered the store Maeve Giese owned. A beautiful older woman, with intense green eyes, and a head of curly black hair cascading down her back was standing by the counter. She looked like she was waiting for them.

As they walked toward her, she smiled, "May I help you?" Her accent was not Midwest American, but neither Sam nor Dean could place it. It almost sounded Irish, but like it was diluted.

Dean and Sam held up their fake Indiana State Trooper badges and Dean answered her, "Sergeants Manners and Gamble, ma'am. We're here to investigate the car accidents out on County Road 30. You are Maeve Giese?"

Immediately the woman lost her smile, "Yes, I am. Those accidents were horrible and tragic." She said with a grimace. "But, how can I help you? I don't know anything about them."

Immediately, Sam was suspicious. "You were connected to one of the victims. She was the daughter of a friend?"

"Yes, Jenna…" Her expression was saddened. "She was the daughter of a… friend who died. Ella wanted me to raise her, but her parents sued for custody and won. I didn't have much contact with her after that. It has always been my greatest regret."

They both knew she was lying. Sam couldn't control his expression and he didn't want to tip his hand just yet and accuse her, so he stepped away from her and allowed Dean to continue the interview.

Dean glanced at his brother and then continued the façade of questioning her. "The name of your store is 'The Wise Woman'. What does that mean?"

She laughed, "Oh, it's a bit of a boast; the people in this town think I'm a white witch, which is also known as a wise woman."

Dean looked at her with surprise on his face, "Are you – a witch?"

She gave him an enigmatic smile, "Yes."

Dean smiled at her, "Sure." Keeping to his pretense, he nodded sarcastically as if he heard that all the time.

Sam's face was frozen in distrust and anger. To hide his reaction, he turned to look around the store she owned. There were crystals and books; incense and herbs – all attractively displayed. He glanced at the label of a dark green bottle behind a locked glass cabinet: Belladonna. He looked at some of the other bottles in the cabinet and saw: Aconite, Be-Still, Foxglove, Hemlock, Periwinkle; all of the labels in the cabinet were of highly poisonous herbs and weeds; many were used in black magick.

He turned around to look at the woman talking to Dean, "All of those herbs are poisonous; do you have a license to sell them?"

She turned around to speak to him; her eyebrows were raised at his tone. "You know your herbs, then? It's not illegal to own or sell most of them. I do not. They are behind a glass case and are for display purposes only." She gestured at the case, "At any rate, if you will look at those jars, you will see that most of them are empty."

Sam looked back around at the bottles in the case. She was right, they did look empty. Angrily, he looked around at the other cases. Other, less dangerous herbs were also for sale. Ceremonial bowls, chalices and knives were displayed along with more prosaic items like candles, incense and crystals. Along one wall were books; Wiccan and pagan rites and rituals, several copies of Cunningham's Encyclopaedia of Magical Herbs and blank books for the budding Wiccan or Pagan to create their own Book of Shadows or Grimoire, if they prefer.

After looking at the entire store and paying some attention to the conversation between Dean and the woman, Sam was able to look at the woman again without showing what he was feeling. "This is a pretty small town for a shop like this. We're not exactly in the Bible Belt, but communities like this are usually Christian in nature."

She smiled at him, "I do a large on-line sale. My website is very popular." She turned to go behind the counter, "However, you would be surprised how many secret Wiccans there are here in this fundamentally Christian town; one or two Pagans, too." She looked at them once more, "Is there anything else, gentlemen?"

Dean answered her, "No, Ma'am. I think we're done." He closed the notepad he'd been pretending to write notes in.

She nodded at them, "Goodbye." She turned away and passed through a doorway into the back room. Sam and Dean left the store.

In the back room, Maeve looked at the two young women waiting there. "They're gone."

The two girls were very beautiful. They both had long wavy black hair and expressive green eyes. Clearly they were sisters and Maeve was their mother. "Who were they?"

Maeve smiled at them, "Hunters. They were flashing fake State Trooper badges, and they were both lying through their teeth. The big one was practically radiating waves of anger and mistrust."

"Hunters!" The girl closest to Maeve stood up from her computer and grabbed Maeve's hand. "Do you know who they were?"

Maeve nodded, "Relax Aisling, my darling. I don't think you'll have too much trouble with them, but they were the Winchester boys. They do pose a danger."

The other girl had been standing by the back door, "Are they as cute as we heard?" She had a dreamy smile on her face.

The first girl scoffed at the other, "Saoirse! Trust you…"

Maeve waved her hand, stopping the argument before it could begin. "Yes, they are both lovely to look at, but something is wrong with them."

"What?"

Maeve shook her head, "I don't know, but the older one… Dean, I think… had the stink of Hell on him."

"He's a demon?"

"No, he's not a demon, but… I don't know. It's faint, but it's there."

Saoirse interjected, "What's wrong with Sam?"

"I don't know… I can't place what it is about him, either."

"Maman, this isn't like you. You can read anyone. You know a demon immediately. What is it about them that has you… bewildered?"

Maeve shook her head, "I have no idea. But I do know this: They're cursed."

The first girl, Aisling, gasped, "How bad?"

"I didn't have a lot of time to read it, but I've never encountered a more ancient and powerful curse in my entire existence."

Aisling was watching her mother, "Are you planning to help them or kill them?"

Maeve squeezed her daughter's hand and smiled, "It depends, I guess, on how dangerous they are to you." She walked out the back door and returned to her home.

When she left, the two girls exchanged a look; they had both caught the distinction she made. They were both worried about their mother and her recent activities.

Sam and Dean left the shop and Sam was looking behind them to make sure they weren't being followed. He turned to his brother, "It's her."

Dean just nodded, "Oh, yeah." They got into the car and drove away.

Back at the hotel, Sam and Dean entered the room and checked it quickly. Sam went to the table and pulled the computer over to him. Dean grabbed a beer and sat down on the bed. While he drank the beer, he glanced over at his brother, "Whatcha' doin?"

Without looking up, Sam responded, "Still trying to see why the sheriff was a target."

"You should be looking into a way to gank the witch."

"I'm not entirely sure we can. There's no way of knowing how long she's been around. She could be hundreds of years old."

"Should I call Bobby?"

Sam nodded, distractedly, "Probably, either him or Lane since she's the one that sent us here."

"Okey doke." Dean pulled out his phone and dialed a number. While it rang, he took another pull on the beer.

"Hello?"

Background noise from Bobby's end made it difficult for Dean to hear him properly, "Bobby? Where are you, man?"

"Michigan."

"Michigan? What're you doing up there?"

"Workin' a case."

"What case?"

In an irritated tone, Bobby replied, "A case a None'ya."

"What the hell's a none'ya?" Dean was confused, but Sam who had been listening to Dean's side of the conversation, just grinned.

"None'ya business, ya idjit."

Dean pulled the phone away from his ear and just looked at it. Then he put it back to his ear. He rubbed his eyes and shook his head, "Okay, gotcha. Listen, you nearly done? Cause we got a witch here and could use some advice."

"Where're you?"

"Piedmont County, Indiana."

"Okay, I can be there tomorrow." Bobby hung up before Dean could thank him.

Dean hit the disconnect button on his phone. He looked at Sam, "None'ya?"

Sam just laughed and went back to his research.

Later on that evening, after they had eaten some dinner, Dean got up and put on his coat. "Come on. I wanna get out of here for a while."

Sam, who had been doing research for hours, agreed.

They got into The Impala and Dean drove to a bar he'd seen earlier. It looked like a good place for drinks, pool and girls – not necessarily in that order. The parking lot was full and Dean decided to park his car further away to hopefully avoid the random idiot driving drunk.

They entered the bar and paused in the door to have a quick look around. Dean was right; there were pool tables to the far right with tables to sit at scattered around. To the left was a small stage where bands could play. On the wall beside them was a juke box for when there was no band; like tonight. There was also an area for dancing. Directly ahead was the bar.

Sam and Dean approached the bar and placed their order with the bartender. They stood at the bar and drank the whiskey the bartender served them. After the second shot, they both started to relax a little. Sam switched to beer at that point, but Dean gestured for a third shot. If he didn't slow down soon, Sam would get the keys out of his brother's pocket. He'd done it before and half the time, Dean didn't even notice.

They both turned around and saw an empty table so they moved over to it and sat down. A bar waitress checked on them and moved away. They sat there for nearly ten minutes without speaking or even looking at each other. The silence between them wasn't uncomfortable because they didn't need or want to talk.

Dean had two more shots of whiskey before he finally switched to beer. As the waitress put the bottles on the table and cleared Sam's empties, two women standing at the bar caught the Winchester's eyes.

"Holy -!" Dean muttered under his breath.

"Dean –"

"What? Those women are smokin'!"

Sam glanced over at them and silently agreed. The two girls were clearly sisters, possibly twins. They had long, wavy black hair and their green eyes were apparent even in the low light of the room. They had beautiful figures and were dressed in clothing that hugged their bodies and showed off their assets to perfection. They looked familiar to Sam, but he was certain he'd never seen them before.

As the boys sat there watching them, two men approached the women, but were clearly rebuffed. Dean smiled; he liked a challenge. He sat there and just watched them. After two more men were turned away, he got up for a try.

"Dean -" Sam tried to get him to come back to the table, but Dean just grinned at his brother and moved over to the bar.

He walked up to the bar and completely ignored the girls. He gestured for another beer and the bartender placed one before him. As he stood there, another man came up to the women to hit on them and he got a chance to listen to them.

The man was clearly drunk and was weaving slightly as he stood there. "That's a nice dress, but it'd look better on the floor next to my bed."

The girl on the right turned around to glance at him. "Leave – before you regret it."

Dean smiled a little and waited to see what would happen next. He never turned to look at the girls, but he watched them in the mirror behind the bar.

The drunk smiled a little, "Oh, don't be like that. You know you two are so fine you make me stutter, wha-wha-what're yer names?"

The second girl looked at him, "Did you look up those lines on Google? My sister told you to leave – or are you too stupid to understand."

Up to that point, the drunk had not shown the slightest bad temper, but her comment made him mad. "You sayin' I'm stupid?"

"I am in fact saying that you. are. very. stupid." The girl's sister grabbed her arm to pull her away, but she snatched her arm away and turned back around to the drunken man. "I am sick of you creeps hitting on us when we politely ask you to leave us alone!"

The drunk who was fairly tall, loomed over her, "Listen girl, no one talks to me like that!"

"Get your stinky breath out of my face!"

The drunk grabbed her arm, partly because he was angry, but mostly because he was loosing his balance.

"Hey! Let me go!"

At that point, Dean decided the drunk had gone too far, "Let go of her." He hadn't turned around yet, and was still sipping from his beer, but his tone was clear.

Sam had been watching from the table and stood up when the man grabbed the girl. He walked casually over to the bar to stand as backup for his brother. He didn't look at the drunk or the girls, either. The bartender was watching the two big men and was secretly glad he wouldn't have to handle the problem. He moved down the bar to get out of the way. The other patrons in the bar were watching, but were waiting to see how things went down before they waded in.

The drunken man turned around to respond to the voice behind him, "You talkin' to me?" He was too drunk to realize he hadn't let go of the girl.

Dean rolled his eyes, "Ah no, really? You're doing your best DeNiro? Seriously?" He smiled mockingly and shook his head, "Idiot." He took a casual drink from the bottle and was still looking straight ahead.

The man finally let go of the girl and grabbed Dean's shoulder to turn him around. He tried to throw a punch, but Dean was expecting something and threw up an arm to block it. He then punched the man in the solar plexus, which effectively ended the fight before it could get started.

The two girls were still standing there, looking at the man on the ground and then in unison, they turned and looked at Dean and at Sam standing behind him. The girl who'd been grabbed was rubbing her arm a little. "Wow. I guess I should say thanks."

Dean smiled his most charming smile, "Don't worry about it." He turned back to the bar and picked up his bottle of beer and took a sip. Sam, who was still standing there, smiled a little. Dean was employing an old tactic; old but effective. Sam turned again to the bar and gestured for another beer for himself.

"I'm Aisling and this is my sister Saoirse. Can we buy you a drink? As a thank you?" The second girl asked him.

As she spoke, two men came over from a table near the pool tables and picked up the man from the floor. They threw cautious glances at Sam and Dean and, without saying anything, took the unconscious drunk outside.

When she asked him if she could buy him a drink, Dean finally turned to give her his full attention. He smiled at her, "I'm Dean." With his thumb, he pointed behind him, "This is my brother, Sam."

Sam looked at the girls and gave a polite, but shy smile and nod.

Saoirse moved around Dean and walked up to Sam. Even with shoes on, she stood no higher than 5'7 inches tall and Sam towered over her. She smiled up at him, "Hi."

AN: I've always loved Irish names, but they can be tricky to pronounce. (Actually, Giese' is German, but sounded cool and I just liked it.) Anyway here's a guide to some of the names and words I used in this story:

Maeve - pronounced 'Mave' (you probably knew that)

Saoirse – pronounced 'sear-sha'

Aisling – pronounced 'ash-ling'

Giese – pronounced 'gee-zee' (Hard 'g' as in 'gorilla')

The girls call their mother 'Maman' which is the French equivalent of 'Mummy' or 'Mommy' and is pronounced 'MA-moh'. The second syllable is rather nasal and the final "n" is silent.

(Thank you and Google)

BTW, those pick-up lines were googled. Coming up with my own would have been a pointless endeavour as I've never tried to pick-up a girl… ;-)