I know, I know. I'm not even going to try to make an excuse, because there IS no excuse for how horrible a person I am. I've been thinking on this for weeks, having everything before and after this scene done, or on the way, but putting this off 'cause I didn't know how to write it. You can see in it's length and quality I was still a little...confused when I wrote it. I hope the next few chapters (WARNING: they're a little depressing...obviously) help!

Thanks again for being so patient with me, guys. I'll do better, I swear!

For new readers, please don't be afraid to let know what you think! I love reviews in all shapes and forms. For those of you who have reviewed and I've neglected to get back to...please feel free to hate me.

For everyone-enjoy! The boys are, sadly, not mine. Perhaps it's better that way. =)

PS - Some of you may know I haven't seen the show since the middle of season six, but I'm slowly getting back through 6 and 7 in preparation for season 8. Hope I won't be disappointed!

HEARTS,

CA

Before Cold Oak, or maybe during, Sam had had one final vision. Like the other visions, it was to do with the 'special' kids like himself.

Unlike the other visions, this one featured Lily.

It was the crying that woke him.

It would be years before instinct told him this was bad. Years before he knew crying, any crying, let alone his baby sister's, meant he needed to be up and out of bed fast, because someone was hurt, or in trouble, and if he waited around to do something stupid like sleep, that someone could just as well be him.

But little Sammy didn't know any of that now. Sammy knew other things, important things, like how to tell a Decepticon from an Autobot, and how to count to twenty, and how to trick Dean into giving him green popsicles when it got too hot out.

What he did not know, however, was why the baby was crying, and, more importantly, how to get it to stop.

His baby sister cried a lot and even though Mommy said it was normal, and Daddy said she'd stop soon, and Dean said Sammy had cried more than Lily when he was a baby, it was still happening right now, and it was annoying.

Normally, Sam shared the bedroom with his younger sister and older brother, but Dean was in with Mommy and Daddy, because he finished all his chores for the week and was allowed to watch a movie before bed. He hadn't come back, so Sam guessed he'd fallen asleep in their bed. Which meant he wouldn't be able to put the baby back to sleep. Which meant it was Sam's job.

Sam pouted to himself, stubbornly curling further under his G.I. Joe bed sheets. It might be his job to quiet down the baby before she woke his parents. That didn't mean he had to get out of bed to do it.

"Shhh!" he hissed. "It's bedtime, Lily, that's mean no noise-making. You have to be quiet now!" Lily didn't even try to stop, and Sam could feel himself getting angry. When he got angry with the baby, Mommy always said to stop and count to ten, and then ask Lily nicely to be quiet, without hitting or yelling. But Mommy wasn't here, because if she were, she'd be telling Lily to stop, and not him. Sam frowned, frustrated. "Lily, be quiet!"

The quiet came so fast, even Sam was surprised. His eyes sprang open, and he sat up cautiously, peering through the dark. He'd wanted Lily to be quiet, but he hadn't wanted to scare her.

"Lily?" Nothing. Sam grabbed his pillow from his bed and clutched it to his chest, a feather-stuffed shield against the darkness. Nothing would ever be so useless or so useful ever again. "Lily? You can make noise now, if you want? Li—"

From the other side of the room, where Lily's crib was, came a suddenly flash of light so bright, Sam had to hide his face in the pillow. It was gone as soon as it had come, and when Sam tried to see if the ceiling light had burned out, he only found spots.

But when his vision cleared, there was a man standing over Lily's crib.

Sam was suddenly very glad he had used the bathroom before going to sleep. He hadn't heard Daddy come in, and the door was still closed, but—

"Daddy?"

The man over Lily's cage looked up. Even though there was no light in the room, somehow, the man's eyes glowed yellow, and Sam knew the man wasn't Daddy.

"Lily!" Sam couldn't remember dropping his pillow or running over to Lily's crib. He couldn't even remember thinking about doing it. He just remembered Mommy saying it was his special job to protect his baby sister, and he had to do it even when she was being annoying. And she wasn't. Now she was being very, very quiet. It scared him more than the man with yellow eyes.

The yellow-eyed man took a single step forward and was somehow around Lily's crib and directly in front of Sam all at once. Sam could feel himself shaking, but Lily had gone scary-quiet and Sam had to get to her. He frowned up at the man, and in a shaking voice said, "Y-you go away. You have to leave my baby sister alone! You—"

Several things happened at once. The man reached down and snatched Sammy up, impossibly fast, clutching the kicking boy to his chest. Lily was awake again, screaming, and Sammy was screaming right along with her. There was a man standing over Lily's crib—or was that the man holding Sammy? Pressing a hand to the boy's mouth? Sammy was tasting blood and trying to spit it out, uncertain of whether it was his own or not, and all the time, Lily was in her crib, crying—

And then Mommy was there, and Mommy was screaming, and Sammy and Lily were screaming. The man disappeared, and Mommy was—Mommy was…

Now they were all screaming, all of them, Sammy, Lily, Daddy, Dean, everyone but Mommy. The man was gone, and Mommy was—but Dean and Daddy were there, and everyone was screaming, screaming, screaming.