She squirmed a little in the kitchen chair, started to draw her legs into the chair, looked across the table at the man sitting in front of her and decided against it, and then in an unconscious movement, drew her knees to her chest and looked at him over them.

"You want something to drink?" She asked. "Water, coffee, tea, hot chocolate…..lemonade?" she asked and unraveled herself from the chair and stood.

"Water would be fine." He said more by way of giving the wound up woman something to do rather than any need for water. She returned from the kitchen and handed him a bottle of water. He said thank you and she nodded and smiled faintly and sat back down in her chair and drew her legs up again.

"I don't know why you want to hear my story. My story is pretty insignificant in the whole grand scheme of things."

He took a sip of the water and shook his head. "No. None of the stories are insignificant. I'm going around the country collecting as many as I can. I just want to be able to paint as accurate of a picture of them as possible."

Her eyes widened. "I didn't meet both of them. Just Dean. I never met his brother Sam. He was at college."

"He told you that?"

"Yeah. He talked to me….just talked….tried to calm me down." She fidgeted. "He talked to me about his brother. Told me about him being in college, and going to be a lawyer. He was real proud of him."

The curly haired man pushed a tape recorder in front of her. "Please. Tell me the story."

She looked at the recorder then back at the man with the earnest blue eyes and nodded. "Okay."

She took a deep breath, "I've never been a pretty girl. Always been plain, invisible pretty much…."

***

The day had been frustrating. Nothing had gone right, a failed paper started the morning, and the evening brought a broken car, and a roommate who had brought home a boy to "play" with for the evening thus effectively kicking her out of their dorm room until play time was over and who knew when that would be. She sought refuge at the university library but that couldn't stay open forever, and her roommate hadn't called to give her the all clear message so, here she was a little after midnight walking down streets that were known to house an element that was anything but savory.

She had just started for the coffee house that was open late and provided internet access for a small fee when she felt something at her back, it wasn't like the feeling she got at school when she knew that there were other students behind her, but felt more threatening. The hair on the back of her neck stood up, because it knew, if her brain didn't, that there was someone or something behind her that intended to do her harm. She tried to pretend that she didn't feel the wrongness, and simply decided to walk a little faster; the coffee shop wasn't much farther.

The faster she walked, the faster he walked, and before she knew what she was doing, she dropped her books and ran as fast as she could, but he could run faster, and he caught her, and drug her into the alleyway beside a bar with music blaring and a convenience store which had closed an hour ago.

***

She cleared her throat and looked at the man in front of her. "You sure you want to hear more? I mean the rest isn't very pretty, and well…" She was trying to say that the story in part hurt to tell, in fact, she hadn't told anyone this whole story before. There had never been anyone to tell all of it to. But when she heard that this man was looking for stories of Dean, Dean who hadn't died in that exploding police station, she e-mailed him without thinking, told him that she had a story, and didn't think, because if she had thought, she would have realized that she would have to share the whole story, and that story not only showcased Dean but it showed how pathetic she had been.

The curly haired reported looked at her with sympathy. He should have stopped, should have told her that he didn't need to hear the story, but he did, he owed it to Dean, to Sam, to future generations to have their entire story published, not just the propaganda pieces that he had been forced to write since 05. So, he gently pressed her to continue. "Please. I would like to hear the story…"

She nodded, licked her lips, and held onto her knees more tightly. Her eyes looked all around the small dining room, and eventually settled on the cup in front of her and she took a deep shaking breath and continued with her story. "He had me pinned to the wall, it was all I could do to keep from falling apart. I was so scared, and before I knew what I was about, he was ripping my shirt open, and when he realized that he wouldn't be able to keep me pinned to the wall and rip my jeans at the same time, especially with my squirming, he switched it up. He threw me down on the ground, and was on top of me before I could get my barring….my jeans didn't last long…"

***

She felt the man's hand squeezed her jaw and he tried to kiss her, but she wouldn't respond and her squirming increased, and despite the fact that he was sitting on her abdomen she kicked and tried to push. And that was when he got mad, that was when a knife appeared out of nowhere, and was placed against her throat, "Stop squirming bitch! I'll cut up that not so pretty face of yours. Then see if any man will ever come near you enough to touch you!" She closed her eyes and stopped squirming. The cold metal bit into her neck as he leaned over and proceeded to kiss her. Once he had his kiss, she heard his zipper go down. It was so loud that it echoed, she had been sure that someone should have heard it, everyone should have heard it, it was so loud, so overwhelming. She knew her jeans were gone, and she knew what was going to happen, and suddenly dying didn't seem so bad, maybe the knife at her throat could be a blessing.

"You scream and I'll kill you." He had muttered as he was positioning himself. Death seemed like a better option than having to live with this her entire life. And just as she was about to scream and effectively end her life, the man on top of her was gone, just like that. She didn't open her eyes but she heard the sounds of someone being beaten. She struggled to open her eyes, and struggled to sit up when all sounds stopped. Except one. A man's heavy breathing.

"Miss?" she heard. It wasn't the same voice that had threatened her. This one was warm and gruff, and somehow that made it sound comforting. She forced her eyes open and there squatted a beautiful man, green eyes full of concern and rage.

"Miss." He tried again. "We need to get you to a hospital." He said. She held herself tightly. She looked around the alleyway; she didn't see the man who had harmed her.

"He was in my English class." She said stupidly.

"Well that's super. Come on. Let me help you up. We need to get you to a hospital." He extended a hand and she refused it.

"I don't have any clothes." She said as she tried to pull her ruined clothes over her bleeding and damaged body. He looked around and she could tell he was thinking.

"Sit up. Let's get my coat on you." She forced herself into a sitting position. He took off his leather coat and put it around her. Once partially covered she stood up and the coat billowed around her small frame. He buttoned it up, and she wrapped her arms around herself hugging the material to her.

"Lemme call your parents so they can come get you and take you to the hospital."

"I don't have parents." She said as they walked out of the alley.

"Husband or boyfriend?" he asked.

"Don't' have that either."

"Siblings." She shook her head.

"Friends?"

"None that would care." He turned his head and licked his lips and then wiped his face.

"I can call 9-1-1."

"No! No ambulance. I don't need people to stare at me." Self consciousness wrapped itself around her. She held onto herself a little tighter. "I don't want people to look at the freak who almost got….r…r.." She stopped talking and put a hand to her mouth and began to cry. Shame filled her and her knees buckled and he grabbed her on the way down and kept her standing on her own two feet. It was the first contact he had made with her and the touch was tentative.

"I can take you." He said softly after a brief hesitation.

***

"Now that I think about it. I realize why he hesitated. He didn't want to make me feel trapped. Or at least that's what I think. I don't know. He just hesitated."

"Well, you were almost…" The curly haired reporter swallowed. There were monsters in the world, and they didn't always have fangs, or special powers. Sometimes they were just men. And those were the worst monsters of all.

She nodded. "And when I think back on it, I was really kinda stupid to get in the car with him. I mean, what in the hell did I know about him? Sure he knocked that son of a bitch off of me, but that didn't mean he didn't want a piece for himself. I didn't think of that then. I just got into the car. He seemed so safe, so concerned. So, nice." She laughed. "Now knowing about him what I know….I can say he almost seemed angelic." She waved the thought away and continued. "He offered me the back seat…."

***

"You want the back seat? More room….you won't…..you know….?" She got inside the back, and drew her knees up to her chest. He got into the driver's seat and turned the beast on.

"You need a blanket? If you do there is one under the passenger's seat. My brother always kept it there. Always said that it was too cold in the car for driving at night. So he would sleep in the seat and cover up with a blanket. It's clean. He washed it right before he left for school. And I don't use it. It's his blanket."

"No. I'm okay. I just want these clothes off of me."

"We're getting there."

They arrived at the emergency room and he opened the back door for her and she stepped out, tried to take a step and tripped, he caught her by the shoulders and looked down, her gym shoes were untied.

"Your shoes are untied." He stated dumbly and knelt down. "I'm going to tuck the laces into your shoes, don't want to tie them and then just have the doctor cut the laces. These are nice shoes." He said just to talk and to keep her comfortable while he tucked the laces into her shoes. "Come on. Let's get inside, so the doctors can help you." She nodded and moved slowly forward when he put a hand on her back urging her forward.

She didn't remember a whole lot after that. She remembered he pushed some nurses to help her and he saw that she was taken back.

"Stay with me." She remembered saying when they put her in the room, took all of her clothes and gave him back his jacket.

"You don't really want me to stay."

"I want someone to stay with me. Please stay." He seemed to think about it, shifted his weight from one foot to the other, and then seemed to resign himself and began looking around for a chair, and once found he pulled it closer to her bed and sat down.

"I don't even know your name." He said lamely.

"Lilly."

"Nice to meet you Lilly. I'm Dean."

***

"The nurses tried to make him leave when they started the whole swabbing, poking and prodding part of the investigation, but I wouldn't let him leave. I made him sit right beside me and talk to me while they were looking, poking and prodding. He told me about his brother Sam, and how he was at school, and how he got a free ride to Stanford. He was so proud, and it seemed that his brother could do no wrong, that he walked on water and could turn stone into gold by the way Dean talked." She laughed a little and took a sip of her drink. "I wished that I could be a part of his family. He loved his family with everything he had. Even his dad who he said wasn't around much, but when he spoke of John…"

"He told you his father's name?" the reporter asked shocked.

"Yeah. Why?"

"It's rare that he felt the need to talk about his family to anyone." She shrugged.

"It might have had something to do with the fact that I had no one. Or maybe he just didn't know what else to talk about. But he talked and talked about his family and about how wonderful they were. He adored his brother. Just simply adored him." She said with a shake of her head and then blushed. "I've said that already. I'm sorry."

"No. It's fine. Go on."

She shrugged. "I found out later he beat that man so severely that he almost died. I had never had anyone ever come to my rescue before, for anything, big or small, and I was in such awe of him. Awe that a complete stranger would save me. I remember thanking him in the hospital right before he left. He just smiled this beautiful smile and said 'that's my job sweetheart.'" She smiled sheepishly. "I've had a crush on him since then. Always wished I had his last name so I could call him, thank him again, something, anything.

Then I saw on the news that he had died." Her voice hitched, she put a hand to her mouth, swallowed and regained her emotions. "They said he was a murderer. That he and his brother killed people. I knew that wasn't right. There was no way in the world that Dean would do that and Sam….I never met him, but the way Dean talked about him." She shook her head. "No. There was no way in the world that he could have done anything either. It crushed me. I…I…I couldn't' imagine my savior dead, and his name being smeared from one end of the country to the other. It was like someone close to me had died, and I only knew him for a few hours."

He nodded. "He has that effect on people."

"You know him?" her eyes lit up.

"Yeah. Saved my ass a couple of times before…you know the whole world saving thing."

"So you know. You know how warm, kind, gentle, and caring he is."

"I guess you could say that."

She fidgeted with her hands for a moment and then looked him dead in his big bright blue eyes. "Dean saved my life. He made me value my own life more just because he thought I was worth saving. That's who Dean Winchester is. To him, everyone, no matter how small, is worth saving. Write that down. Make sure the world knows that he took time to save seemingly worthless people. He didn't just save the world. He saved a small girl in Montana. He saved a girl from being raped, and from fading into nothingness." The front door opened and shut and Lilly's eyes widened and instantly became brighter.

"I'm sorry sweetie, I didn't think you and Mr. Surly would still be working on the interview. I'll just go work on this in the garage." She smiled and stood, ran to her husband and kissed him. He cocked his head to the side and smiled. He didn't understand what was going on, but trusted that he would be let in on the secret later.

Chuck watched Lilly. Dean had saved her in so many ways. Ways that he was sure the brash hunter never knew. And that, was the true Dean Winchester.