I clattered down the stairs with two backpacks in hand, ran into the Bobby's kitchen where the three of them were eating breakfast, and dropped them on the floor. "I'm ready," I announced, plopping into the empty chair and scooping some scrambled eggs onto my plate.

Dean smiled at me. "Took you long enough." He reached for the last of the bacon but Bobby smacked his hand and took it instead.

"So, where are we going?" I asked eagerly. We'd spent the last month getting the homeschooling paperwork straight, obtaining schoolbooks, and buying me better clothes. I'd spent a lot of time doing chores around Bobby's house too, making up the $200 that I had 'borrowed' from him to pay for my bus ticket.

"Maple Springs, New York," Sam said, putting strawberry jam on a piece of toast. "There's a psychotic killer."

Bobby rolled his eyes. "This is the first case you're taking her on? A werewolf case?"

"She's got to start coming with us sometime, Bobby. You already said that you can't take care of her here," Dean said. "This is the first case we've gotten since we made sure her fire was under control and got her set up for homeschooling."

"You just make sure she don't come to harm," Bobby grumbled, getting up and putting his dishes into the sink.

"Speaking of that," Dean said, reaching into his pocket, "I got you a cell phone."

My eyes lit up. My parents had told me that I couldn't have a cell phone until I was in high school. I had a deep pang of guilt and despair at the thought, which I tried to push aside, telling myself that it wasn't my fault, that I didn't do it on purpose, but it didn't really make me feel any better.

Dean handed me the phone. "There's rules that go along with this thing."

"Ok," I said hesitantly, opening it up to look at it. It was a standard clam-shell style cell phone. I started poking the buttons to see what was on the menus and noticed that Sam, Dean, and Bobby's numbers were already programmed in. I started looking for how to customize the ringtones when Dean plucked it out of my hand.

"Hey," I objected, looking up at him.

"Did you hear anything I just said?" he asked me.

"Uh, no," I said, flushing. "Sorry."

"Here are the rules," he said. "You keep the phone on you at all times. If one of us calls you, you answer it. If one of us texts you, you answer it."

"What the hell?" I asked. "It's not an electronic leash."

Dean raised his brows at me. "For you, it is. If you don't call or text back in a reasonable amount of time, we're going to assume you're in trouble and come looking for you, all right?"

"Yeah," I said. The fact that I was basically tethered to the phone galled me, but the reason made me feel a little better. "You know, I'm not helpless."

"No," Sam said. "You're eleven. Answer the phone when we call or text. It's just as likely we'll be asking you for help."

Now that made me feel a lot better. I smiled. "Ok," I said. Dean handed me the phone again.

"Let's go," Dean said. He picked up my two backpacks and carried them out to the car. When we got there, he tossed the one with my schoolbooks in it into the back seat and the other one into the trunk.

I climbed into the back seat, fastened my seat belt and started playing with the phone.

It was fifteen hours to Maple Springs from Bobby's house. Two hours into it, Sam said, "Jessie, I want you to start working on your schoolwork."

I was playing a Legend of Zelda game on a Game Boy that Bobby found in one of the cars that had gotten dumped at his salvage yard. I had the sound turned off so that it wouldn't drive Dean crazy, but I really didn't want to stop playing. "Can it wait a little longer?" I asked without looking up.

Turning around to look at me, Sam said, "No. It's already a month and a half past when everyone else started school and you haven't done a thing yet this year. I gave you the assignments a week ago. It's time to get started." His face brooked no nonsense.

I sighed and turned the Game Boy off, dropping it on the floor behind Sam's seat. I reached into my bag and pulled out one of the textbooks to start working.

Hours later, I'd fallen asleep in the back seat of the car. It was way late at night when I was awoken by Sam and Dean arguing about whether trying to kill the Crossroads Demon would get Dean out of the deal that he had made. Dean told Sam to let it go and Sam relented resentfully.

I now knew way more about what was going on than I had before. Sam and Dean had been remarkably silent about the whole one year to live thing up until now. I suspected that they had thought me asleep and then had just forgotten about me, but now I knew. Now I knew there was a deal with a demon and no matter what either Sam or Dean was going to die. I was going to lose one of them before I'd even been with them a year. That scared me.

Sam was telling Dean about the possible werewolf, at Dean's prompting. They worried that they wouldn't get to it in time. I listened to them talk and realized that pressure was pounding at the back of my head and in my temples.

"Guys," I said, interrupting them. "I need to stop. I need to burn something."

"How bad is it?" Dean asked.

"I'm not itchy yet, but the pressure is bad. I can't really go back to sleep like this or it might get out."

"I thought you had a lock on it," Sam said.

"I do, but it's better to release it when it's like this. Bree said that over time, I'll probably be able to hold it longer and longer, but right now, I should let it go when the pressure gets to be too much."

"All right," Dean said. "I'll find a place." He looked into the rearview mirror. "How long you been awake?"

"Since you guys started yelling at each other. Only a deaf guy could sleep through that," I said. I was quiet for a second. I wanted more than anything else to ask what would happen to me when Dean went to hell, but I thought now might not be the best time.

I stared out the window while Dean drove down the road. The guys lapsed into small talk and I tried to amuse myself by imagining running alongside the car. Then I had a better idea. What if instead of running, we had a trail of flame on the side of the road as we sped past in the car because we were so damn fast. I relaxed, leaned my head against the door and imagined it. It would be so cool. The light poles would light up as the flame touched them, sparking in our passage.

"Jessie, what the hell are you doing?" Sam yelled. I snapped my head up off the door, scared out of the doze I'd fallen into. I stared out the window at the trail of flame that was following, leaving a wash of fire in our path.

"Oh no," I said as Dean pulled over. I hurried out of the car and reached for the fire, pulling it back into me and locking it back up, but there was a fifty foot swath of burnt grass, trees, and light poles behind me. "I'm sorry," I said. "I was imagining that when I fell asleep, and I guess…"

I trailed off as I looked at both of their faces. Dean shook his head, grabbed my arm, and turned me around, landing five or six hard swats on the seat of my jeans. "Ow! Ow! Dean! I'm sorry! I didn't mean to! Please, stop! Ow!"

He turned me back around and let go of my arm, crossing his arms in front of his chest. "You were imagining that when you fell asleep? You need to be way more careful than that, little girl. Lighting fires on the side of the road brings unwanted attention to us, not the mention how dangerous the fire is by itself. You keep that locked up until I tell you that you can let it out. Do you understand me?"

Abashed, I looked at my feet. "I didn't mean to, Dean."

"I don't care. You can't afford those kinds of mistakes. Something like that could get out of control and you could hurt or kill someone."

The word 'else' hung silently in the air. I started crying, but tried to hide it. "I'm sorry, Dean," I said, choking a little.

He sighed and pulled me into a hug. "Jessie, just… be more careful. Come on, let's get moving."

About an hour later, Dean pulled into a park. He drove around until he found a mulch pile. "Will that work?" he asked.

"Yeah, I think so," I said. He pulled up next to it, and he and Sam got fire extinguishers out of the trunk of the Impala.

"All right, go ahead," Dean said. I closed my eyes and opened myself to the flame. I aimed at the mulch pile and pushed the flame out of me towards the mulch pile, maintaining the connection. The mulch pile lit up and I pushed the flame into it, burning it faster and faster until I was drained. The fire still burned inside of me, but the pressure and itching was gone. The mulch pile had burned itself out and went out as soon as I dropped the connection with the flame.

The guys nodded approvingly and put the fire extinguishers back in the trunk. "You ready to get moving?" Dean asked. I nodded, got back in the car, and spent the rest of the trip thinking about my parents.

-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8

"We can't leave her in the motel, Dean."

"Well, we can't take her with us. FBI agents don't take their kids with them when they're questioning people."

"We can take her with us and she can either stay in the car or she can hang out in the hospital, but we can't leave her alone for that long."

They were whispering, but I'd been awake for a while. Dean had gotten us this room in the middle of the night last night, and we'd all crashed before starting the investigation this morning. I sat up in my bed and looked at both of them. "I'm eleven, not two." I said, interrupting them. "And I was alone for a couple of hours every day after school. I can take care of myself while you guys go off and question people."

"I'm sure you can," Sam said, "but we're not going to do that."

"Why?" I asked. "Don't you trust me?"

"No, not really," Dean said.

I felt like I'd been slapped. I fought back tears while I said, "I told you I'm not going to run again!"

Sam sighed. "Not because you ran, because you accidentally set the side of the road on fire last night. What if something like that happens again and we're not here?"

"Didn't you see me handle it last night? I pulled it all back into me, no problem! You don't have to babysit me." My heart was beating hard and my feelings were hurt. I could be trusted. I could!

Dean looked at me skeptically, and then he turned to Sam. "What do you think?"

Sam shrugged. "Why don't we bring her with us? She can hang out in the lobby with her science book." I glared at him. "Don't give me that look," he said. "Most kids go to school five days a week."

I relented. I'd put up with almost anything, as long as they decided they trusted me. "I promise," I said. "I'll be a complete angel."

"I'm sure," Dean scoffed. "Get dressed and let's get going."

We stopped for breakfast, although it was really more like lunch time, and then drove to the hospital that the brother who had survived the attack was staying in. Sam took me to the cafeteria while Dean checked with the front desk for information on the brother. He found a table in the corner that was unoccupied and out of view of the cafeteria workers. I sat down and opened my science book. Sam handed me a five. "In case you need something to drink or eat. I don't know how long we're going to be gone."

I looked up at him. "Thanks, Sam."

"Sure thing, squirt. We'll be back soon. Stay out of trouble."