Disclaimer - I own nothing and no-one. Probably a good idea really, I'd just lose them in my sock draw or something.

I have now had this beta'd, hence the changes to the bits I had previously posted - so have to say thanks to Twinkiecat and Rospberry for looking at this and giving me more input than I deserve so I can actually get my brain working again.

This chapter is firmly in Supernatural turf - then it does change please bare with it.

Pairings - Sam/OFC, John/Ellen, everyone else up for discussion.

"Dude, you okay?" Dean yelled through the door as he heard the taps being switched off. "Sammy?"

Dean took a step back as the lock on the door clicked. He waited nervously for his brother to come out of the bathroom in the latest excuse of a motel they were living in.

Sam swallowed trying to hold down the bile that had risen in his throat as he exited the bathroom. "We've got to go."

Dean nodded. He went back to his bed and started to pack his meagre belongings. "Where?"

"Georgetown." Sam picked up his pants. "Saw an ID badge."

"That's at least twelve hours out, man." Dean pulled his bowie knife out from under the pillow. "Even keeping to the good roads, I'm still gonna be tanking it."

Sam nodded as he headed for the door. He had stopped even half trying to pretend to settle in a room anymore: each night Sam would pack up everything he owed, just in case they had to leave quicker than expected. He told Dean it was so that they were prepared to a fast exit if they had too, if the Feds or another hunter came, but really it had more to do with the visions. The visions had been getting worse and they were still not getting there fast enough.

Either the demon got there first and killed the family, or the fire child the vision had shown him had already turned. It was getting to him, and Sam wondered how long before his brother would have to turn that knife he kept under his pillow on him. Not that he would blame him. But if he wasn't there, what would happen to Dean?

He was starting to have dreams of his brother hunting - not demons, but others, just normal people. But it wasn't just that. He saw Dean taking trophies, taking teeth. Without his family, what exactly would Dean have to live for? They'd lost Mom and Dad, the majority of hunters that they had met now considered Dean as much of a target as Sam, and the Feds had basically screwed up the little chance Dean had of having a normal life. Dean always had said he was a freak, but he was strong wasn't he? Surely he could cope without Sam?

"Look, man, if you think you are going hurl, at least roll down the window," Dean said,as the Impala hurtling down the highway.

"I'm not going to throw up in your car, dude," Sam said, scribbling away in his journal. "How far is it now?"

Dean took a casual look at the milometer. "It's been twenty miles and about fifteen minutes since the last time you asked. I'm sorry, Sam, but if I keep this pace up I'm worried she's going overheat before we hit Baltimore, and then we'll be stuck."

"Right." He continued to write a description of a house of books, of the death of a young woman, a child in the background, a description of the vision that had ended up when he threw up what remained of his lunch in the bathroom of that motel. Sam just couldn't take it anymore; he didn't want to face the idea of getting there too late again. He didn't think he could take another one dying.

By the time they got there, the sun was coming up.

Dean yawned as the car stopped. "Any idea where to go from here?"

"She was screaming 'Molly', and there was a child crying in the background."

"You said you saw an ID, right?"

"Yeah, looked like a Georgetown staff badge of some kind on her desk."

"So she works for the college and has got a kid; Campus Day care?" Dean suggested.

Sam sighed. "If it hasn't…"

"We don't know where else to start looking."

Dean put a hand on his brother's shoulder; Sam had become so dejected it hurt. They were trying, but they hadn't caught a break in a while. Dean was worried that maybe this was the way the demon was trying to push his brother over the edge. Andy had killed his twin to protect his girlfriend; Max had killed his old man and Uncle. Dean wasn't going to mourn any of them, but he was worried if things didn't turn soon, Sam would just give up, and then the bastard would have won.

"Look, man, we'll watch the place and see if you can spot her dropping off the kid, but I'm warning you if I get stuck with a pervert rap as well as everything else they want me for, I am so selling your ass to the highest bidder when we get stuck inside."

Sam gave his brother a little smile; trust Dean to ease the tension with a little gallows humour. "If we get arrested I'm going to be there with you."

"Seriously, if I'm going down for this, I am finding the biggest tattooed mother in the place and setting the two of you up for two cartons of cigarettes and a packet of cherry gum."

"You don't like cherry," Sam said as he folded up the map of the campus.

"That's how pissed I'd be."

Dean insisted that they leave the car and walk to the main day care building. "It'd look bad, two guys waiting in a car," he said, which, of course, Sam had to agree on. But the two of them skulking in the bushes - like that wasn't even worse.

It was a little after seven when Sam saw her. Her blue Taurus pulled up in the parking lot and she proceeded to help the small child out of the back of the car and go inside. She was dressed in an pencil skirt and a white blouse, they seemed to hug her figure in all the right places, while giving off a professional aura: smart, but not too smart. Sam licked his lips - had it really been that long?

"Tell me you're thinking of mommy here?" Dean joked.

"That's her," Sam said, not even bothering to reply to his brother's implication.

"You sure?" Dean said, noting the license plate of the car the woman had come in.

Sam nodded and started to head back to the Impala.

By the time they had gotten the details about who the car was registered to, it was a little after ten. Sam sat at his computer looking up the details of Amelia Watson's life. She was a TA in the Theology building, working on her Master's in late pagan/early Christian rituals of the Roman Empire. She had a three year old daughter, Molly, whose father had been a reserve called up to go to Afghanistan and had won the bronze star posthumously after saving two of his unit outside Kabul. There appeared to be no mention of any fire in her history, her late husband's, or that of anyone else she was connected to.

Maybe she was one of the ones that the demon had gotten early: no need for the push, it had always just been there. Sam hoped not. From what he had read, she was a devoted mom who had done everything right, even when the going got tough. She was trying to better herself - while raising her little girl on her own - after the death of a man who appeared to have been the love of her life.

Amelia walked down the rows of the lecture hall, collecting the last of the leftover handouts that had been left scattered by the freshman class, when Sam entered the room. "Can I help you?"

"I hope so. I was told at the office if I wanted to talk to someone about the proliferation of Isis worship throughout Roman society after Cleopatra that you'd be the person to talk to," he said, giving her his most innocent smile.

She unconsciously pressed the stack of papers in her hands tightly to her chest as she gave the shy young man her undivided attention. "No, I think you need to talk to the classical studies people. I'm into Christian belief systems."

"Oh, sorry, it was just that I was told you were interested in the integration of the religions of colonised provinces into Roman belief structure?" Sam asked, hoping not to be caught out; his knowledge on the subject was limited to the rituals that the early church used for banishing and vanquishing. He'd only been researching the historical and political side of the topic on the internet twenty minutes before.

"Yes, but my knowledge is kinda limited to the period just before the official adoption of Christianity as the single state religion of the Empire."

She took a breath as she pulled to the papers tighter to her, his eyes following the movement though he quickly looked away from her, embarrassed

Amelia bit her lip. Whoever he was, he seemed to be interested in her.

"I'm Sam, Sam Brooks," he said, offering his hand.

"Amelia Watson," she said as she rearranged her papers so she could shake it, Sam took it and smiled. "Yes, I know that."

"Of course," she said as a couple of the handouts fell to the floor.

Sam bent over and picked them up. "Classical studies, where would I find that?"

"If you go out the main door and turn..." She thought for a second, 'what would it hurt?' She would just be making sure he didn't get lost. Making a decision, she looked to Sam. "If you don't mind waiting till I drop these off, I could take you there?"

Sam stuck his hands in his pockets. "If you don't mind."

"Wait right here," she said, picking up her bag and heading out the door.

She found him standing where she had left him when she had come back from the office and as the two of them walked to the door of the block she was guiding Sam to, they talked about a number of things. How, when she had begun her thesis, she had expected to be over this side of the campus; but due to the money, office constraints, and the religious angle of her study, she was in the other building. Sam's interest in how belief influenced people's lives was also a topic. They both seemed hesitant to end the conversation. In the end, Amelia had asked him if he wanted to go for coffee after he was finished up. Sam had hesitated for about three seconds and then said he could meet her at one. She had agreed, saying she hoped he wouldn't mind if she brought her daughter along.

Dean was sitting on a bench watching the various people go by. "You find out anything?" he asked idly as Sam strolled over to him.

"She's alive, for a change," Sam said, but Dean seemed to be more interested in a couple of blondes in miniskirts that had just passed by. "I'm meeting her for coffee."

"What?" Dean's full attention focused on his brother. "You asked her out five minutes after meeting her? Who are you? Where is my brother Sammy?"

"Leave it alone, dude, it's just a cup of coffee, and she's bringing her daughter." Sam began to walk away.

"Well, if she's bringing her kid, it's only fair I get to go."

"What?"

"For one thing, I have to see if there is something up with the woman - she said yes to going out with you."

"She asked me," Sam replied.

"See, something definitely wrong with this woman. Secondly, if her kid gets to go, so should yours."

"You're sick, you know that," Sam said striding ahead.

"What?" Dean asked trudging behind. "You are always making cracks about how I'm so much shorter than you."

Sam couldn't get rid of Dean as he headed toward the coffee shop. Amelia was getting Molly settled with her juice as both brothers sat down.

"Hello," she said happy to see Sam, though she looked a bit taken aback at seeing his companion.

"Amelia, this is my brother Dean, he's picking up his car from the shop this afternoon," Sam said apologetically.

"Nothing much to do until its ready," Dean said. "Thought I'd spend a couple of hours with my little brother. Didn't know he had plans."

Amelia gave both brothers a smile. "Oh, we were just talking about pagan influences, thought we'd continue our discussion. You aren't interrupting anything."

"Mommy, can I have cake?" asked the little girl.

"Sure, honey," Amelia said.

"Why don't I help with that while you two talk?" Dean offered. "What type does she like?"

Molly looked up at her mother. "Can't I go pick out a piece?"

Amelia looked at Dean not too sure of the man; the counter was clear and she was only a couple of feet away. "Molly usually picks out what she wants."

Dean nodded. "Got no problem with that. If she points, I'll get."

The little girl pushed back her chair and started over to the counter smiling. Dean smiled and followed her as Amelia watched. "Molly, be quick okay."

"Yes, Mommy."

"He doesn't bite," Sam said, trying to reassure her.

"That's good," she said shyly, not wanting to sound too much like an overprotective mother. "So, Sam, what got you interested in this field?"

"My parents; my dad really always used to go on how belief can change the way you view the world," he said as Dean came back with cups of coffee for the three of them. Dean and Molly sat at the table beside them with the biggest chocolate cream pies the shop had.

"Really," Amelia said as she watched her daughter smash the large spoonful into her mouth. She was grateful that she would not have to deal with Molly's sugar rush in the afternoon.

"You?" Sam asked, pretending not to be embarrassed that his older brother seemed to have become engaged in a pie eating contest with the little girl.

"College; took history. It just seemed to fit me," she answered.

They seemed to talk forever, about her studies, the socio-political changes in Rome's late history, which symbols and ceremonies had been embraced and others vilified in the change over from the worship of the multitude of Pagan Gods, to the unified early church and how it affected people's lives. Amelia told Sam what had happened to Molly's father, and how she had adjusted to single parenthood, until it hit the time for the little girl to go back to day-care.

Amelia said goodbye to the brothers as Molly gave Dean a big hug and then gave both Dean and Sam a big wet kiss on the cheek leaving imprints of the chocolate that covered her face.

"If she was only fifteen years older, you'd be in heaven," Sam joked as they walked away.

"Hey, pie, coffee, and fine conversation. Who needs anything else?" said Dean, smiling as he rubbed the remnants of Molly's cake off his face. "So, you getting anywhere?"

"No vibe, and as I said, she doesn't fit the pattern."

"So, does that mean you'll be seeing her again?" Dean asked.

"Think it might just be better to keep an eye on her, from a distance."

"Sam, you are allowed to feel, you know."

"She might already be working for him."

"Maybe, but she did seem interested. It's a shame, really, that you don't want to see her again. I wonder how she is going to get into her office?" Dean started to twirl the set of keys he had taken from her bag around his finger.

"You …" Sam made a grab for the keys.

"Now, Sammy boy, there are impressionable young minds around here," Dean replied, holding them out of Sam's reach.

Amelia was sorting through her things, looking for her keys, when she heard Sam jogging down the corridor behind her. "Hoped to find you here," he said. "Didn't catch you at the day-care centre, and I didn't want to leave them there, but you left these at the coffee shop."

Sam held out the set of keys in his hand.

"Thanks," she said. He followed her into the office which was small with a connecting door on one side.

"Oh, that is Professor Ridley's office; he's at a conference at the moment. I'm covering his classes," she said, turning around to put her bag on her desk.

"That must be a lot of work, with your thesis and with Molly." Sam's voice came from barely a few feet away from her.

"Yeah, but I don't mind, it's all about time management really." She turned to face him, her back to the desk.

"You seem to handle everything well." Sam swallowed. 'Handle everything well?' What the hell was he saying? He should go, but his feet wouldn't play ball. Well actually they WERE moving - just in the wrong direction.

"Yeah, well, Chris, my husband, used to say I had to make lists for everything." Amelia felt her breathing become shallower. God, she did not do this, hadn't since her husband had left for oversees - but every fibre of her being was screaming for him to stay.

"I really have to apologise for my brother, hope he didn't get your daughter too hyped up with all that sugar," Sam said, his pupils getting darker.

"She enjoyed having a lunch date like mommy."

"Date?" Sam questioned, smiling.

"Yeah." Had she said the wrong thing? She had only met him hours ago and now there was barely inches separating them.

"I suppose you could say it was a date. Just, we had chaperones." His voice was low and filled with something.

She crushed her mouth to his as she pulled him toward her, but he wasn't putting up much of a fight. He nipped at her jaw, and her hands worked their way under the back of his shirt as he lifted her onto her desk. She felt the taut muscles of his back as his mouth continued to make its way across her skin.

He stopped for a second.

"Don't stop, please," she begged.

"It's just," he started. She had pulled up his tee shirt as her hands began to explore.

Amelia took a breath, "I don't… wouldn't usually do anything like this."

He kissed her, thrusting his tongue into her mouth before pulling back. Her skirt was riding up as one of his hands slowly working its way round her thigh; her breath hitched slightly, anticipating, almost purring.

"It's just," he began again, moaning slightly as her hands began to do something to cause what little blood left in his brain to head south. "Is that door locked?"

It was after five as Sam got back to the motel. His brother was sitting on the bed with a whetstone and one of his knives.

"So, you talk to her?" Dean asked as Sam headed for the bathroom. "Sam?"

Sam said nothing as he disappeared inside and turned on the shower.

Dean peered around the door and smiled. "We're feeling more relaxed, are we?"

Sam threw a towel in his brother's direction.

"Did you get that A+ you were looking for?" Dean asked as he pulled it off his head.

Sam knocked on Amelia's door, hoping that she'd still want to see him after the afternoon's events.

He heard footsteps running toward the door and Molly opened it, dressed in her pyjamas.

He crouched down. "Hello there, Molly. Is your mommy in?"

Molly weighed Sam up through the partly opened door. "You were at the juice place where we had pie."

"Yeah, I was."

"Is Bean with you too?" she asked.

Sam smiled. "No, Dean isn't with me. He had to stay home this time."

"Oh." Molly concentrated for a second. "He ate his way too fast. That gives you a tummy ache."

Sam laughed. "Yeah, it does. I'll tell him not to do it again."

"Good." Molly closed the door as Sam could hear her running back inside to get her mother..

Amelia opened the door all the way. "Four times in one day?"

Sam swallowed. She blushed as realising what she had just said.

"I'm not stalking you, honest. I just want to make sure you were okay. You know - after this afternoon."

She stepped outside closing over the door. "Well, my office took me the rest of the day to clean, but yeah, I'm okay."

"Good." He took a second. "I was wondering if you wanted to grab some coffee again, sometime? No pressure."

She smiled; it was those sweet, loyal, puppy dog eyes. "Yeah, maybe."

He backed down the porch steps. "Great, you've got my number. Just give me a call, okay?"

As Sam walked to the end of the street turning the corner to find the waiting Impala, he opened the car door.

"And?" Dean asked, before Sam even got inside.

"She's okay. Couldn't pick up anything with the EMF outside the house."

Dean began to sprawl out. "You talk to her?"

"Yeah," Sam said as he got into the car.

"Sure you couldn't get inside tonight?"

"No, Dean," Sam said. "But she said she might want to go get coffee."

"That my boy," Dean said, smiling.

"Oh yeah, Molly says you've not to eat your pie too fast again or you'll get tummy ache."

"Sound advice. That girl's going to grow up a bright one."

Amelia sat up; it was getting close to eleven, and she was exhausted.

Pieces of her thesis were all around her. She started to tidy up, putting her laptop into its bag. As she took it upstairs, passing by Molly's bedroom, the lights started to flicker.

She walked into her bedroom there was a man standing at the bottom of her bed.

"Who are you? What do you want?"

He didn't say a word, instead turning towards her. She took a step back as she saw the yellow eyes, her first thought being the safety of her daughter.

She felt herself being flung against the wall unable to move, unable to grasp what was going on. Unable to gain any control, she did the only thing she could, she begged, "Please."

He didn't say anything as her body moved up the wall, as it slide across the ceiling, as the blood dripped from the opening that had formed across her, as she begged for her life, for her child that slept in the room across the hall. A little girl that would be holding a worn teddy bear that had been given to her by the soldier who really didn't want to go overseas and leave his family. A soldier that didn't get a chance to see his little girl grow; a little girl whose mother had just lost the ability to plead any longer.

He didn't even bother to watch as the flames started, not caring about how it engulfed the body of his victim, how it spread across the ceiling and down the walls; his task with her was now done. He had seen it before, many times and with clarity in his mind he had no doubt he would see it again.

Dean stretched trying to get comfortable in the front seat of the Impala, as he and his brother sat outside the house, he heard the little girl scream.

Sam kicked in the door and was up the stairs within seconds. Molly was in the hallway screaming as the flames licked round the doorway of her mother's room.

Sam scooped the little girl up. "Don't look, don't look," he kept repeating to Molly as he held her tightly in his arms as Dean pushed pass him trying to get inside to the blazing room. But, it was too late; Amelia was gone.

As Sam carried the little girl outside, Molly stared vacantly off into space, holding tightly onto her mother's laptop bag and her own scorched teddy bear.

Dean ran out seconds later as smoke and flames engulfed the house.

The fire trucks came and so did the police, the brothers would have already left if it wasn't for the almost catatonic little girl hiding under Dean's jacket in the back of the Impala

"What are they saying?" Dean asked.

"Electrical fire: they can't find bodies. They think they both burned up." Sam turned and looked in the back of the car. "No one saw us."

"What?"

"None of her neighbours have said that they saw us coming out of the house."

Dean shook his head. "You have got to be out of your ever-loving mind."

"Dean, they think she's dead," Sam said with certainty.

"Sammy, you don't know that! You don't know that they don't have a witness."

"Dean, look at her," Sam pleaded. "She saw it; if the Demon isn't coming for her then she is going to spend her life in out and of foster homes. Her mother was all she had."

"You don't know that," Dean said, hoping to make his brother reconsider what he was asking. "She could have family somewhere and if not, she's young, someone will take her."

"Amelia was an only child, so was her husband. That means they'd first stick her in a foster or a group home, Dean, remember them? How often did we have to lie and cheat to stay out of them? She saw it all, you know she did. How is that going to gel with the social workers? They'll stick her on drugs, and then God knows what will happen to her."

"Sammy, I know you just screwed her mother, but that don't make you that kid's daddy! She ain't your responsibility. This ain't like Jess, you weren't in love with the woman. No way is this your fault!"

Sam just looked at his brother as he opened the door.

"Oh, Jesus, I am so fucking screwed," Dean said heading toward the driver's side. "We get caught with her and I am selling your ass for just the gum, you hear?"

"Look, short term we must know someone who can take her."

"Who, smartass?" Dean asked, starting the car up.

"Oh, Jesus, Mary and Joseph, you have got to be kidding me," Ellen said as Sam walked in with the tired little girl holding on to him for all she was worth.

"That's what I said." Dean followed on behind. It was eleven in the morning. Most of the other hunters had either left or hadn't gotten into the Roadhouse yet.

"Please tell me that she doesn't belong to either of you."

"Hell no, ma'am," Dean said firmly, sitting down on one of the stools and scanning the place for anyone who might want to put a cap in his brother.

"So you two thought that seeing how you left this place last time not on the best of terms, you'd bring a kid as a peace offering?" Ellen asked.

"No, we thought you might know someone who could take her," Sam said, placing Molly on one of the benches. He took off his jacket and covered her with it as the little girl finally began to shut her eyes to get some sleep.

"Why? Where's her momma?"

"Dead – demon got her last night, we got in the house too late," Dean said, sighing.

"Her daddy?"

"Dead. She's got no other family. I wasn't leaving her there; she'd be a sitting duck," Sam said quietly, trying not to wake the fitful child. "The authorities think she's dead."

Ellen glowered at Sam. "You better be sure of that, boy, or so help me…"

"We're sure," Dean said, praying that that was true. "They think her and her mother both burned up last night."

"So, who was he after?"

"Amelia, her mother," Sam said, stroking the little girl's hair.

"She one of your special children?" Ellen asked handing them both a bottle of beer.

"No, we don't think so, ma'am. We found her in our… eh'm… usual way. But she was just normal." Dean picked up the laptop bag. "We were wondering if Ash could take a look at this. It has her work on it."

"I'm not asking how you got that," Ellen said, heading toward the back.

"That went well," Sam said, once she was gone.

"I'm still not talking to you," Dean retorted.

Jo pushed open the door, carrying a crate of beer. She'd had gotten back home a few days before. Her mother hadn't said a word about things, had just given her a hug and a list of chores, not that she was complaining. The last two people on earth she had expected to see sitting at the bar were Sam and Dean Winchester.

Dean had kept to his word and called her, not that she'd expected that much from him. He'd just left a message that Sam was okay, hoped she was; said he was sorry for leaving her behind, but it was better that she hadn't gone with him, and that she should call her mother.

She hadn't talked to Sam at all. Wasn't sure he remembered about what he had done to her, not sure if she wanted to know if he did.

She put the crate on the bar. "Hello there. Long time no see."

Dean nodded; he knew this was going to be uncomfortable. "Hey, Jo, you came back."

"Yeah, just a visit though; I'm planning to set off again soon, yourselves?"

"Not sure," Sam said sheepishly. He remembered bits and pieces of the night he'd shot Dean, and he knew Jo had been there, but his brother refused to tell him the whole story.

Molly stirred, suddenly crying out for her mother. Sam rushed over, starting to rock her. "Hey, sweetie pie, it's okay it's okay."

"Who does she belong to?" Jo asked, somewhat surprised to see the display in front of her.

"Long story," Dean said turning back to her. "Hopefully, we're just dropping her off. Thought Ellen would know a family who could take her in."

"And if she doesn't?" asked Jo.

"We can't keep her. This ain't no life for a kid," Dean said resolutely, believing every word, even though in the past couple of hours he'd started to feel protective of the small child who had caused his leather jacket to smell of smoke and become damp through tears. "Especially seeing how she just watched her mother go up in smoke. I just have to convince emo boy over there of that."

"So, apart from that, why are you here?" Jo asked coldly. "You could have just dumped her and left."

Dean stared at her; he knew what she was really talking about. That night when he'd left her to go after Sam. "She's three years old, and she's just lost her mother. She barely knows me and Sam as it is. I'm gonna make sure that she'll get taken of." He ran his palm over his tired face, "I may be a bastard, Jo, but I not that much of a bastard, okay? Anyway, we need to see Ash."

"So that's the real reason you're here?"

He got that she was pissed at him, but he didn't need the spoilt brat act right now. "Think what you want. Jo, I don't have to explain myself to you."

"Look what the cat dragged in," Ash said, his loud voice breaking the tension as he walked into the bar, pulling on his over shirt, "Sam and Dean, how's life been a treating you two?"

"Oh, you know, five star living, hanging out by the pool, non stop chicks," Dean said, sarcastically, ignoring Jo who was still sitting beside him.

"Glad to hear things haven't changed for you," Ash said. "Understand you have something you want me to look at?"

"Yeah, this," Dean said, sliding the bag down the bar to Ash.

Molly's head popped up from Sam's arms, "That's my mommy's. Mommy said not to play wif that. That's stealing. I want my mommy! Where's my mommy?"

Dean swallowed; he'd heard that all night in the car. He slid of the bar stool and crouched down in front of the child on Sam's knee. "Listen, honey, I'm sorry but your mommy can't be with you now. We're gonna find someone who can take care of you, like your mommy did, OK?"

"When's my mommy coming back?" she asked, trying to hold back the tears.

Ellen gestured to Sam who passed the little girl to her.

"Come here sweetheart, my name is Ellen, and you must be tired. Why don't we get you cleaned up, and you can tell me all about your mommy, okay?"

As Ellen walked into the back room with the child, Dean and Sam turned their attention to the hillbilly geek, who was proceeding to examine the laptop.

"Give me five hours and you'll have everything you need, okay?" Ash nodded.

"I'll get a couple of cots made up in the back, you two look as if you could do with some sleep," Jo said, hopping off her stool. She looked at Sam for a second. "Best keep in there till me or my mom say so, alright?"

Sam knew what she was talking about. "Sure."

Sam had the dream again: Dean running in the woods. He looked a little younger than he was now, but it was definitely Dean. Maybe it was just that he seemed a little freer.

The man fell to his knees begging, but his brother's face showed no mercy, the man fell and then Sam watched as his brother pulled the pliers out of his back pocket.

"Sam, you okay?" Dean asked, waking his brother.

"What?" Sam asked as he awoke in a cold sweat.

Dean was concerned; if it wasn't the visions, it was this, and Sam never talked about the other nightmares. "You were yelling."

"Was I?" Sam swallowed the memory of his dream; it was still too vivid.

"Yeah, something about a blue lady?"

"I can't remember," Sam said lying. "What time is it?"

"A little after two, Ash has a couple of more hours work."

"You get any sleep?" Sam asked, knowing fine well that Dean had been existing on less than four hours sleep, fuelled only by caffeine and sugar; Sam felt a stab of guilt, knowing it was due to the visions, and who was on their tail. And there was no way Dean would get any sleep here, not in Hunter Central, and certainly not with Sam keeping him awake with his dreams.

"Right, from what I can see you met one clever lady," Ash said, pouring over the computer. Ellen was holding Molly in her arms; the little girl was wearing an oversized T-shirt, trying hard as she could not to fall asleep. The only way they had been getting the child to do anything in the past couple of hours was if she was with Ellen or if she knew exactly where Sam and Dean were.

"Yeah, sounds about right," Dean said, looking at Sam for a second; no dumb blonde for his brother.

"She may not have known about firewalls and passwords, but this list of rituals and names of deities, well, I don't mind telling you…" Ash sounded truly impressed.

"Ash, get to the point," Ellen said.

"Right, you said she wasn't one of the… you know." Ash turned to Sam.

Sam nodded. "No she wasn't. At least she didn't appear to be."

"Right, it is just these lists, they are … It looks as if she was researching demons, lots of demons."

Sam shook his head. "No, she was doing her thesis on later Roman beliefs, not demons."

"When Christianity took over?" asked Ellen.

"Yeah," Dean said.

Ellen bobbed the little girl who was starting to nod off. "To discourage a lot of local types of worship, the early church demonised a lot of pagan gods, you know. Like dancing with Pan became dancing with the devil."

Sam looked curiously at her. "So, you think that this list of local gods and beings?"

"Holy sh… crap," Dean said, remembering who exactly they had for an audience. "She had his name."

Jo peered at the list. "That's why your demon killed her?"

"Could be," Ellen nodded as she pulled the little girl's thumb out of her mouth. "They say names are power."

"We've just gotta work out which one it is."

"I don't think even Amelia would have known that," Sam said solemnly.

"You boys gonna stay for a few days, just to see what you can work out?" Ellen said, not really asking.

"I don't know, ma'am. Maybe it's best if we just take the information and go," Dean said, not wanting to put Ellen in the crossfire.

Ellen scowled at him. "Look, this little girl, she's messed up right now, she trusts you two and that is about all she trusts. You two brought her here so you're gonna help me fix her, you hear me?"

Both Winchesters looked at each other thinking that it probably wasn't best to argue.

Molly barely left Dean or Sam's side in the next couple of days, and if she wasn't with them, she was following Ellen around silently. She hardly talked to anyone apart from the three of them, and it was generally little things like she was hungry, or her bear had a booboo, and she insisted on calling Dean, Bean, which amused Sam no end. Dean responded by getting her to call his brother Sam-I-Am.

"This is a whole load of sh..."

"Dean," Sam said, barely looking up from the papers, but instead nodding to the small body in the corner of the room who was currently rearranging some of Ellen's pots and pans.

"Bean say a bad word?" asked Sam's small shadow.

Sam nodded. "Almost Molly, almost."

"It's just I have no idea where to start. How's your Amelia got this organised?"

"She wasn't my Amelia," Sam said regretfully. "She's organised this like you would a research project not a 'hunt the demon name game.'"

Dean stretched. "Right, it's just with all these rituals as well…"

"Some of them were important to Roman political life and got integrated into the early church setups," Sam said studiously.

"You know if it wasn't for the way we found this stuff I'd say you were enjoying this, geek boy," Dean said. He scrolled down the list of file names until he came to something interesting and clicked on it: "Summoning / séances – non- deities."

He sat there silently for a few seconds reading the various bits of information the woman had collected.

"Dean, you still with me?" Sam asked after few minutes; a quiet Dean, especially a quiet one after five minutes of belly aching, was not usually a happy Dean. Unless he'd found something important or something to entertain himself with, and Sam didn't think that there was anything on that laptop that could remotely fit in with one of the normal ways his brother found to entertain himself.

"Yeah, I'm still here." Dean smirked at his brother as he closed down the file, turning his attention to the little girl.

"Don't know about you, Molly, but I need some fresh air," he said, picking her up in his arms.

"We all go outside to play?" the little girl asked, somewhat frightened. Ellen had told her she had to go to work, and Sam-I-Am looked busy, like Mommy did after they got back from Day care. She didn't want to go outside and have him go away like Mommy, but she didn't want Bean to go away either.

"Sam," Dean said firmly, seeing the little girl's distress.

"What?"

"We're taking a break, okay? Ten minutes."

Dean sounded like their father for a second. Sam nodded; he didn't mind Dean sounding like John at all right now, especially if it meant that there was less of a chance of his dreams about Dean coming true. No way in hell would John Winchester have ever descended into madness and started to carve people up.

Sam woke up to find Dean was not in the other spare cot. He wandered through Ellen's house, which was only five minutes from the Roadhouse. It was surprising really: they had been there for almost two weeks, and they hadn't set foot in the place apart from that first night. Dean was going stir-crazy lying low like this, especially over the past few days. Sam knew he had been ducking out of the house before everyone was up, and part of him hoped that Dean was just avoiding Jo. He knew that the two of them had fought but Dean wasn't 'fessing up about what. He was always back just after breakfast and always had a little something for Molly.

Molly was trusting Ellen more and more, which was good. Dean had been right about the fact they couldn't look after her. Ellen could, or at least whomever she found to take the child would probably have less of a problem with Ellen dropping by to check on her.

He wandered through the house finally coming into the kitchen; he saw the note on the table.

'Be back soon, hopefully with something to tell you.

If not back by morning DON'T come looking for me!

Please Sammy don't come looking.

Take care of yourself bro' and the car.

Dean.'

Sam's heart jumped straight into his throat, especially when he saw the Impala still covered by a tarp in Ellen's back yard. What could Dean be facing that he didn't want Sam to look for him if he didn't come back? Had he worked it out? Was he planning to take on the thing himself? There were woods nearby. Sam broke out in a cold sweat. Was this it? Had Dean finally broken?

Jo walked in as Sam put on his jacket. "Where the hell do you think you are going?"

"Dean's taken off," Sam said, scrambling for his gun and a hunting knife.

"When?"

"Got no idea. His car's still here. He left a note: told me to take care of it."

"Jesus," Jo said.

"Where are you going?" Molly asked as she rubbed her eyes, she had woken up on hearing Sam leave his room, finally deciding to see what was happening on hearing voices.

"We going to get Dean, okay?" Sam crouched down to look at her.

"He said you were staying here with me," Molly replied.

Jo bent down beside her. "When did you see him, sweetie?"

Molly looked at Sam, she was still a little unsure of Jo. Sure, she didn't mind her when the other three where around, but she still didn't know how to take the woman whose hair was the same color as her mommy's.

"It's OK, you can talk to her," Sam said, smiling reassuringly.

"Bean said he had gotten the cabin ready and if his surprise worked Sam would be happy. If it didn't, I was to take care of Sam, and make sure he didn't cry," Molly said, obviously frightened. "Did I spoil it, his surprise?"

"It's okay, honey. No, you didn't. It is just that my brother is bad at keeping secrets, so I knew he was up to something," Sam said. "You should go back to bed."

Molly shook her head.

Jo straightened the little girl's nightshirt. "Molly, do you know where the cabin is?"

"Bean said it was on the big hill we passed to go to the car store."

"The place on highway; I know it." Jo picked up the jacket hanging by the door.

Sam looked at her. "You are not coming, Jo. Ellen's not back yet and someone's got to take care of her."

"Like hell I am. I've had one Winchester tell me to stay put, I'm not having the other one order me around. Anyway, you owe me, Sam."

He stopped for a second. He'd guessed as much from the little of what he could remember from when he was possessed.

"You can't drive out of here, Sam, and you know it. There are people at that bar who want you dead. They won't take a shot at me. Molly will have to come with us, and she can stay in the car." Jo said firmly, her hand situated on her hip, "We'll leave my mom a message to meet us; hopefully we'll find him and drag his sorry ass back here before that. You know he'll be up to something stupid."

Sam thought for a second. She was right about the hunters, no way he could be certain that someone wouldn't take a shot at him, and that would do Dean no good. But having the kid in the car? He was turning into his father right before his eyes. He would kill Dean for this, better yet he'd let Ellen do it, which was pretty much a certainty when she found out that Dean had been the reason that they had to drag Molly along. Hell, he'd let her do the same to him, and he wouldn't put up a fight .

"Right, but you stay behind me Jo. You see him, you do not go anywhere near him. You wait for me, and if anything happens, you are straight in the car and take her home," Sam said firmly. When he found his brother, he was going to kill him.

Dean lit the candles and started sprinkling the various herbs and roots, following the instructions carefully. He felt like an idiot for doing this, and there was no way he would have told Sam what he had planned. But if it worked, he would let Sam rib him over it for all eternity.

Ash had been right: Amelia had been a very smart lady, catching on to the fact that the many institutions and official religions of Roman had come from all over the Empire. Rome had allowed many of its provinces to keep their local customs and faiths, just to keep the peace. However, as the legions swept through Europe, these local customs had been passed onto other areas, mingled, evolved, taking on new meanings. Rituals in one region had been altered in another, taking on new forms.

When Christianity hit, the Church had been forced to accept that the providences had their own ways of doing things when it came to religion. It had cherry picked the bits and pieces it had liked from all over the Empire, while crushing the parts that they couldn't take, though this had taken time.

He began to read over his notes; he had everything that the ritual had called for, with a couple of exceptions. He'd drawn the key of Solomon on the floor around his summoning (and that had been the real bitch, because being artistically creative was something no-one could accuse him of). He had his gun loaded and ready just in case it went wrong. He wasn't putting Sam through that if he didn't have to.

He took off his shirt and cut into his flesh just enough to get the blood flowing, just like Amelia's notes had described, and he began.

He was more than halfway through before the candles started to flicker and the room started to heat up; almost done when Sam and Jo burst in.

From the back seat of the Impala, Molly heard the yelling and saw the light. Sam had told her to stay in the car no matter what; but the light, it was like the fire she saw the night her mommy had gone away, so she let herself out of the car and ran as fast as her little legs could carry her into the cabin.

"Sam!" the little girl screamed, and she ran full force into the back of Jo's legs causing Jo to take a step forward and knock over one of the bowls that Dean had set up.

"No!" shouted Dean as Sam turned, falling into the circle There was a bright flash, and then it all went dark.