Castiel looked down at her with the same concerned but determined expression that he had when she first asked him for this favor. It had taken weeks to get him to say yes, and she wasn't backing out now. The symbols on the floor began to glow and she stepped in the middle of the circle. A forceful wind blew around her, almost knocking her to the floor.

"Remember my warning." Castiel's voice boomed out over the noise the wind made as it swirled faster and faster around her. "There's no coming back."

The last thought she had before the mind bending pain hit the middle of her body... Was that there wasn't much to come back to...

…...

Dean glanced down at his phone and sighed. Still no update from Cass. Sam sat across from him staring down at some ancient looking book, a frown marring his already sullen face. Dean shook his head and set his phone down. Just another mundane morning in the bunker.

Or so he thought...

"Uh... Sammy..."

"Mhh."

"The floor is glowing."

"Huh?"

Dean nodded his head towards the floor in the center of the room. Glowing red symbols began to appear in the shape of a circle. Both men stood up just as a gust of wind came up from the floor and swirled around them.

"What is this?" Dean yelled over the rumble.

"No idea." Sam didn't take his eyes off the circle. His vision went fuzzy for a few seconds, then the wind dissipated. Sam bolted forward when a woman appeared in the circle. She was choking and clutching her stomach in pain. Dean hung back, paranoia and suspicion keeping him in place. They had re-warded the bunker with Castiel's help, but having someone suddenly appear out of thin air was still a pretty big red flag.

Sam tried to help her stay standing but when her weight was on him, he found her much heavier than she looked. All he could do was help her sink slowly to the floor. Her choking stopped and she went limp. That was when he realized why she was so heavy. She was pregnant, six or seven months by the size of her swollen belly. He looked up at Dean who had also seen the size of her stomach.

Her eyes opened when Sam looked back down at her. She managed a weak smile at him and tried to touch his face but her arm wouldn't cooperate. Sam pulled a lock of her long brown hair out of her face.

"Da..." Her voice was raspy. "It worked. I made it."

"Who are you?" Sam tried to speak softly but he was too caught off guard to be polite.

"What year?" She tried to move to lift herself up but Sam held her in place. "What year is this?"

"He asked first." Dean stepped forward as he spoke, not even bothering to try and sound as pleasant as his brother. "Who are you?"

"Dani... My name is..." She took a breath. "Danica Richardson." Her eyes fluttered and she swayed. "Please, tell me... Year."

"It's 2016." Dean answered her. "What year was it for you two minutes ago?"

"2039. I know..." She was still out of breath but less disoriented. "That time travel is nothing new to you guys."

"Not really." Dean still sounded impatient. "Now tell us who you are."

"I'm... She looked right into Sam's eyes. "I'm your daughter."

…...

It had been hours since Danica had appeared out of thin air. The boys had put her through every test they could come up with. She told them more things about their past than they could even remember, to prove herself. When they were finally satisfied that she was who she said she was, they calmed down.

She was now seated in one of the big leather chairs in a nook of the main room, feet propped up and a sandwich in her hand. Dean was pacing around the big table where Sam was seated, staring at his daughter... His daughter...

"So Amelia is your mother." She stopped chewing at the sound of Sam's voice.

"Um hum." She swallowed and cleared her throat. "Yes."

"And... And she was sure that I'm..."

"She said she was pregnant before you left. She didn't know until right after she found out that Don was alive. She didn't want to tell you because she wanted you to stay because you wanted to... Not because of me. She said she didn't want you to feel trapped. Don knew the truth. He still wanted to be with her. He was always a good dad to me."

Dean could see that she was forcing herself to be calm. He knew what it was like to be boiling inside and cold as ice on the outside. She was repressing so much he was surprised she could stay so still in the chair.

"When, uh... I mean..."

"You wanna know how I know about you?" She answered Sam's question. He just nodded. She looked away from him and shook her head.

"I was 14. I came home from school one day and found Don in the kitchen... He was... He had been killed. Mom was..." She took a breath. "A demon had possessed her." Her legs curled under her as she spoke. "I don't know why it chose her... Maybe it knew. But..." She still couldn't look at him. "Whatever the case... As soon as it took her, it knew everything about her and you." She clenched her fists together, trying to keep her calm. "It laughed at me... Told me I had no idea who I was..." Sam could see tears form in her eyes. "It tortured me. Told me all about my real father and his big brother... It laughed and laughed."

"How did you get away?" Dean spoke up before she could continue.

"I didn't. It used me as bait to get to you." She finally looked at Sam. "You had... You had to..."

"I get it." Sam felt his heart sink. "I had to end it..."

"I'm not very hungry anymore." She set the last bite of her sandwich on the plate.

"I'm sorry..." Dean spoke up. "I gotta ask... You said Cass helped you time jump with a spell because everyone else was dead and he had his grace ripped out of him... Again..." Dean tried not to roll his eyes. "The one thing you haven't explained is..."

"I think what Dean is trying to ask in his own nice way." Sam's voice had a hint of warning in it. "Is where in all this mess of a war between demons and every freaking thing else, did you get pregnant?"

"There um... Was a man." She hesitated. "He wasn't exactly a friend of you guys but you eventually accepted what was between us. More so after he sacrificed his cover with the demons to save me."

"Cover with demons?" Dean stopped pacing.

"Uhhhh... Yeah..." She braced herself. "He was... Kind of in with them once upon a time." She shifted uncomfortably. "But after his humanity was restored..."

"Whoa!" Dean's hands shot up. "He was a demon! Like actually was a demon?"

"Who had his humanity restored." All the hesitation left her voice. "He was good!" She kicked the stool away from her and moved like she was going to stand.

"Easy." Sam moved towards her.

"No!" Dean was trying not to yell. "A demon... Come on..." He twitched with agitation. "Is this like a thing with our family? Getting hooked up with demons?"

"Hey." Now she did stand up. "You got pretty chummy with him more than a few times, so back off!" She started to feel her calm slipping. "Can we not..." She took a deep breath. "We've had this fight so many times..."

"She's right." Sam's voice soothed her back into the chair. "What's done is done."

"Yeah... Whatever." With that, Dean turned and walked away.

"I'm sorry, Danica... I..."

"You usually just call me Dani." The smile on her face gave Sam a feeling he couldn't quite describe. "And it's ok. I'm ok." Her shoulders went up and down as she sighed. "I really don't mind the yelling." She shrugged. "I just miss being able to talk to you at all. It was almost a year ago that..." She looked away.

"Yeah."

"We went into hiding after you both died. It was then that..." She looked down at her stomach. "Then he died protecting me."

"I hate that you've gone through so much. I wish that..."

"You said it. What's done is done." She just looked at him for a second. "I am glad that I got to know you. I'll always be glad of that."

Sam didn't know what else to say. He took her plate and went into the kitchen.

Danica tried to stay calm as the dull pain that had been thudding inside her head became more excruciating. Her bloodshot eyes fell to the sigil on her wrist. She knew what the tingling sensation coming from the mark meant. It had been so long since she felt the sigil activate. At first, she felt relieved... But then her mind cleared enough to remember where she was... More importantly when she was. She had been hoping that it would take longer for her soul to recharge enough to give the sigil the boost it needed to activate. She wanted to give Sam and Dean time to get used to the fact that she existed before she dropped any more info bombs on them. Her breathing grew more rapid as she tried to stand but her body wouldn't cooperate. There was no putting this off now...

"Dad!" She called out. Sam came running out of the kitchen at the sound of her panic. "Dad..." She was suddenly out of breath. Her chest burned like she had just run a marathon. "There's something... I have to... Tell..."

"What is it?" Sam put his hands on her shoulders.

"He... He's coming... I'm sorry." Tears were rushing down her cheeks. "I'm so sorry. I should have told you"

"Making girls cry now are you, moose?" Sam's hand instinctively went to his belt where he kept his knife as he whipped around and faced Crowley.

"How did you get in here?"

"No idea. Funny thing, that." Crowley cocked his head to get a better look at the woman in the chair. Sam moved in front of her, not taking his eyes off Crowley. "There I was enjoying a miserable day in hell when suddenly I'm pulled off my throne and transported here. Mind telling me why I was summoned?"

"You weren't summoned!"

"How the hell did you get here?" Dean was now standing behind Crowley with his gun raised. He looked towards Sam and Danica. "We warded this place."

"I'm sorry..." Sam twitched when he heard Danica moan. "I'm sorry, Dad. I should've told you..."

"Dad?" Crowley's face pinched up as he spoke. "Which one of you morons adopted a pregnant woman?"

"My fault..." Sam couldn't ignore Danica's pleading voice. "The distress call... My fault." He turned to face her. "The pain... I can't make it stop."

"What is she on about?" Crowley almost took a step towards her but thought the better of it. Dean still had a gun on him.

"What pain, Dani?" Sam crouched in front of her. "What can we do?"

"Will someone tell me what the hell is going on!" Crowley took three steps closer to Sam and saw the young woman's eyes narrow at him.

"Make him leave." Her voice came out hard between the shallow breaths. Sam turned on Crowley and glared.

"You heard her, leave." He commanded.

"Wait, I didn't want to be here in the first bloody place!"

"Hey!" Dean growled. "This is loaded with devils trap bullets. Get out now or get plugged."

"Fine." With a snap of his fingers, Crowley vanished.

Dean lowered his gun and rushed to Danica. Her breathing had become almost normal.

"What was all that talk about a distress signal?" Dean asked what Sam was about to.

"The sigil on my wrist... It's a connection... If I'm in any kind of distress, physical or emotional, it sends a kind of... Message to the baby's father. He wanted to always know if I needed help. I agreed. So he put the sigil on me and now if I feel pain or get scared... The connection calls him to me."

"Like a bat signal?" Dean's head swung back as he spoke.

"That's a... Actually a good... yeah, like a bat signal. It summons the father... And no amount of warding, or hex bags, or spell work can keep him away." She took a few deep breaths.

"Why are you feeling pain?" Sam tried not to sound impatient.

"The spell used to get me here. Cass warned me it would be taxing on my body. I guess what he meant by that was, it would give me headaches that felt like lava was being poured into my skull."

"Wait..." Danica saw realization hit Dean's face. "If this connection summons the father why the hell was Crowley..." Dean's eyes went wide. Both he and Sam's jaws fell open.

"Yeah... I was gonna tell you... I... I just didn't know how." Her hands went protectively to her belly.

"Crowley!" Dean shouted at her. "Freakin Crowley! Are you serious?"

"Dean." Sam stood up and faced his brother.

"No Sammy! No way! Crowley!" Dean sent Danica a disgusted look. "You let him? AHHG!" He threw his hands up.

"Hey, I'm not happy about it either. But..." Sam sucked in a breath. "I don't think yelling is gonna help right now." His attention went back to Danica's pained face.

"Just get it out." Danica's voice became bitter. "I've seen this reaction before. Just go ahead." She pushed herself out of the chair and stood right in front of Dean. "Yell yourself blue." New tears fell down her face. "Go ahead. Tell me how disappointed you are... How disgusted. Tell me how much you can't stand the sight of me. Go ahead." She took a step forward, staring him down. "You will be very happy to know that you don't change a bit. You're still so full of yourself and your own hate that you can't let anyone find even a shred of happiness." Dean opened his mouth to rebuke her but she stopped him. "And for the record, if you had any idea how different he is... How many times he saved me. How many times he saved all of us..." She shook her head. "No use is it? Didn't even make a dent did I?" She angrily wiped away her tears as she walked away from both of them.

…...

For the next few days everyone avoided each other. Danica spent most of her time in the room she had claimed as her own. Sam had to pass it on his way to his room. When he did chance a glance through the doorway, he saw her either sleeping or reading. The headaches had not gotten any better and every time her face scrunched up, Crowley appeared, looking annoyed but curious.

Danica's open fury at his every arrival amused the boys to no end. As soon as he materialized Danica would spit obscenities and scream for him to leave. The last time he showed up, she had thrown a lamp at his head.

Finally, it reached a point where Sam needed answers. He found Danica in the kitchen making herself a late night snack.

"So, um..." He saw her stiffen at the sound of his voice. "How far along are you?"

"Almost eight months." She went back to making her omelet.

"And I die before you got preg-"

"Yes." Her clipped reply made him purse his lips together.

"And Crowley."

"I don't wanna fight." She dropped the whisk she had been using and faced him.

"I'm... I'm not fighting. Just talking."

"Okay. What do you want to know."

"You said he had his humanity restored." She nodded. "Did you mean we cured him? With the blood injections?"

"You told me all about going through the trials to close off hell. When you injected him, you did put humanity back in him. You didn't finish... But that humanity never left. It stayed there and grew. It took a long time but... Eventually he became more and more humane. I mean, still a demon, still powerful but..."

"He started to feel emotions..."

"Yeah." She scoffed before turning back to her meal prep. "He could feel. Oh, he hated it." He could see her shoulders shake while she tried to hold in the laugh. "It started before I met you. You told me it was so slow going that you guys hardly noticed. But then he started helping you more often. When you finally realized what was happening to him, he took off."

"Back to hell?"

"I don't know. He never said. It wasn't until I was 24 that he came back. It was the first time I met him. I had gotten hurt really badly on a hunt and you guys benched me. You didn't exactly trust Crowley by then, but you knew he could keep me safe while you guys went on the road. With all that alone time... Well..."

"I get it," Sam held up his palm. She chuckled at his repulsed expression.

"We had been... Seeing each other in secret for almost a year before I finally came out with it. Oh, that fight was epic. I had to get between you and him several times. And Dean... Man..."

"I can imagine."

"So we took off for a while."

"You left with him?"

"Yeah." She faced Sam again. "I had to show you I wasn't weak. And that I was serious about being with him. We were gone for six months before you finally called me and promised you wouldn't try to kill him again. Dean took a little longer to come around. But then... Things got bad."

"Bad?"

"When we came back, high level demons had gotten wind of Crowley's new alignment. There was a big showdown and Crowley had to pick a side. After that... He was cast out of hell. With no one to keep hell in line, demons started rising and wreaking havoc. Can you imagine all that evil running around unchecked?"

"Wow." Sam muttered.

"It got down to a day to day fight just to get by. With that going on, not liking your daughter's boyfriend became irrelevant. Especially after all the times he saved me."

"What about the angels? Where were they in all this?"

"Hiding up in heaven. And don't bother asking where God went to either, cause I don't know."

"What about Cass?" Dean's voice made them both jump. From the look on his face, Sam guessed he had heard their entire conversation.

"He tried to go up to heaven to get help and they..."

"Yeah?" Dean crossed his arms.

"They ripped out his grace and threw him down. Like... All the way down." By now her omelet was done and she just stared at it. "He showed up here half dead and nearly delirious. Took months for him to fully heal. After that... Fighting the good fight got... Hard." She sniffed. "But we did it."

"So this..." Sam tried not to raise his voice. "This connection thing, it's because of the sigil?" She nodded. "Is there any was to remove it?"

"Short of chopping off my arm, no thanks by the way, no." She began to eat between words. "It wasn't always this strong though."

"What do you mean?" Deana asked.

"Well, before, it would only activate if I was in extreme pain or if I felt really threatened. Now, I stub my toe and he pops up..." Her brow creased. "I guess that because its a demon sigil, and Crowley is more demon in this time than he was in mine, its more sensitive now than when he was more human."

"That actually makes some weird kind of sense." Dean ran his hand through his hair. "So, he can feel when you're in any kind of pain?"

"Yeah... Pain, panic, stress, pretty much any form of not happy. He gets blasted with it."

"And he feels it?" Sam was kind of enjoying this.

"Yeah. But more than that..." They both waited for her to continue. "He's compelled to protect me from it."

"Compelled?" Dean asked. "Like against his will?"

"No... It's the humanity in him. He acts on his feelings rather than repressing them. I'm not really sure how to explain it... But... it's a protection sigil that's bound to our blood. Maybe because I have his child in me... Even with just the small amount of humanity in him, he still wants to protect me."

"Did you want it on you?" Sam sounded suspicious. "Did he force it on you?"

"You can't force a protection sigil on anyone. They have to be willing."

"You really think he loved you?" Dean uncrossed his arms and pushed away from the wall he had been leaning on. "I mean, really?"

"I don't see how he could have done what he did, if he didn't."

"Never figured that guy was capable of loving anyone but himself." Dean's hand swept down his face. "So why all the yelling and throwing things? You two have a fight before you time traveled?"

"That demon is not... That's not him. And I can't... I can't let him in my life again. That's why I'm here." Danica finished the last of her omelet and put her fork down. "Us being together... Crowley leaving hell... It started this whole mess."

"You came back to change it." Sam said it like a statement, not a question. "To keep him from becoming too close to being human again. That's why you're pushing him away."

"If Crowley keeps running things, if things just stay the way they are... There's no uprising. Castiel stays an angel. You guys don't get ripped apart... And the man I love doesn't... You get it, right?"

"And so you change it up and go home?" Dean asked.

"There is no going home. One way ticket..." She set her plate and fork in the sink. "Nothing left there anyways."

"I'm sorry." Sam's brow creased as he spoke.

"Don't be."

…...

Things got a little more relaxed around the bunker over the next week. The three of them figured Crowley had gotten the message not to show up every time Danica felt pain. They hadn't see him since the lamp throwing incident. Sam was getting to know his daughter and found her to be more like Dean than himself. They had the same morbid sense of humor and self assured attitude.

Dean was making an effort to be more civil around her now that he knew that she had come back to prevent all out war. Their conversations tended to be short, but they had both gotten the bitterness out of their systems. They bonded mostly over food and shop talk. Apparently, future Dean had taught her all about cars and it was a passion they had shared.

Dinner was usually a family affair. Once the boys figured out what a good cook Danica was, they didn't mind that she demanded that they all sat together. It was around the end of the day that the headaches usually came.

Danica had already been having a rough day. Cramps, backaches, and swollen feet had been the least of her problems. Dean and Sam had both been trying to make her comfortable but she just found it too overbearing. The headache wasn't nearly as bad as the last few but it was just enough to send Danica to her room. She clicked the light out and curled up on the small bed. A tiny groan let loose from her lips when she heard a man clear his throat.

"Just please let me be. I'm fine." She didn't bother to lift her head to see if it was Sam or Dean standing in her doorway.

"I beg to differ." There was no mistaking that accent.

Danica came out of the bed too quickly. Her body heaved violently and she knew she was going to smack against the floor. She tried to brace herself... But the impact never came.

When her eyes finally opened, she found herself sitting in a very comfortable high backed chair. In front of her was a square table covered by a heavy red table cloth. As her eyes swirled around she realized she was in a fancy restaurant. Her headache still burned in the back of her forehead but the disorientation of being teleported made the pain less significant.

"I thought this would be a nice place to have a little chat." Crowley sat across from her with the usual smirk on his face. "And some decent food might help with those headaches." Danica straightened in her chair and scowled. "Oh, yes..." He folded his hands and set them on the table. "I know all about the little pings that time travel spell left you with. Don't worry, it'll lessen eventually." Her eyebrows narrowed. "Come now love, we'll have to start speaking to each other sooner or later."

"I don't see why you care." Her jaw clenched as she spoke.

"Why wouldn't I care about the well being of the mother of my own child." Danica's eyes bulged.

"How?" She barely spoke above a whisper.

"You think I don't recognize my own handwriting?" His eyes went to the sigil on her wrist. "I spotted that little doodle on your arm the first time I saw you. I couldn't help but wonder why I would put that on any human, let alone a Winchester spawn. And I know that you had to be willing to let me put it on you, otherwise it would just be a useless scribble. It took me a bit to catch on. I had to eavesdrop on the bunker for a while, before everything clicked into place. With that connection we have, I was able to pop in and out unnoticed. Appreciate that, by the way..."

"How much do you know?" She shuddered.

"I know I eventually go all softie and you and I get lovey dovey..." She glared down at his snarky grin. "What I don't know is... If you and I fall so much in love, why have I gotten nothing but hostility from you?"

"You are not the man I fell in love with.." Her voice was strong now. "You are still a demon; a soulless, unfeeling, son of a-"

"Ah." He interrupted her. "So you've met my mother."

"Actually yes. She tried to kill me the first time you introduced us." Crowley's smirk fell.

"She what?" The anger in his voice took her off guard.

"You saved me from her." Her voice shook.

"That bi-" Crowley cut off his reply when he felt how stricken Danica was. The connection filled his chest with a tugging sensation. He still had not become accustomed to being empathetic to her every unpleasant emotion. He sighed. "I really wish we could just have a civil conversation."

"You're the one who raised your voice." She was defensive but he could feel her anxiety drop. "Can I just... I should have never come back." Crowley's chest twisted and he held back a grunt. "All I did was make it all worse." Her hand went to her forehead. Crowley tried to stamp down the protective feeling that came over him.

"Could you please stop doing that?" He spoke through clenched teeth.

"Doing what?" Her voice went hard again.

"Making me... All... Twisted inside."

"Well, I'm sorry that I'm making you feel."

Crowley didn't think she sounded sorry at all.