I know, I know, and I am so, so, so terribly sorry! I should not be starting yet another series! God damn me! But oh, well, what can I do? I watch like a little piece of something and go WHAM. There is no stopping me. So I guess we should just enjoy. And remember I do not own anything.

...

"And the sons of Joseph, which were born him in Egypt, were two souls..." (Genesis 46:27)

Memories were a darn sad thing. Dani hated remembering. Breaking and entering had been real easy. The night was very dark and she could be very silent when she tried to. But once inside, the feelings of dread she had been avoiding took over her. Four years since she had last seen him, hadn't been? And how did she miss him. But Dani wouldn't be telling him that. She would only tell him what was necessary to convince him to go with her. She needed him, though she wouldn't be telling him that either.

Oh, but the memories. Dani could relive that night, that horrible night, as if she was still there. She had revisited the memory a hundred times, trying to understand why or how, but nothing came to her. And when she had had enough, she had tried to block the memories, but discovered it to be impossible. She could fight them off during the days, pretend everything was fine, but they would come during the night and there was nothing she could do to stop them.

Her mother, beautiful Mary. They said she looked exactly like her. Maybe that was why Dani hated herself so much.

"Take your brother outside and run as fast as you can! Go, Dani, go!" Dad shouted handing her the bundle of blankets that was Sam. He weighted more than it was expected for such a little baby, but Dani assumed it was because she was so small herself. Yet she ran, descended the stairs as carefully as she could, afraid to drop him, afraid to do something wrong, to be a disappointment. Little did she know that those were all the wrong fears she should be experiencing. Little did she know her mother was inside that house burning on the ceiling because of some yellow eyed demon that would forever haunt Dani's dreams.

She tripped on something that felt on the ground with a soft thud. An umbrella stand. Why in seven hells Sam had a stupid umbrella stand Dani could not figure. But she knew he would've heard the noise and would be coming to investigate. Well, all the better. Now she had no other choice but to face him. There would be no running, no changing her mind.

Dani waited in the dark for him. She heard him coming before she saw him. The floorboards creaked as he moved swiftly ready to strike however it was. Of course he would be prepared for a fight. He was a Winchester after all. Dani tried to move forward as if to greet him when Sam lunged toward her. He moved his arm to hit her head, but Dani had had the same training as he did. She grabbed his arm and twisted pushing him away. Sam came back with a kick she had to dodge. A little too excited about the exchange, Dani hit him in the face. Nothing hard, nothing damaging, just enough to put him in his guard.

Angry, Sam charged toward her like she knew he would, and Dani grabbed his shirt and shoved him down on the floor. He moaned as she pinned him down with her legs and arms. "Easy tiger," she teased knowing it was time to say something. A streak of moonlight washed the room and Dani was able to see the recognition on her brother's face.

"Dani?" Sam exclaimed. Dani chuckled as he breathed heavily. She had missed him indeed.

"You scared the crap out of me," he confessed.

"That's 'cause you're out of practice," she pointed out, cockily. Just to prove her wrong, Sam eased his hand out of her grasp and lunged forward one last time pushing Dani down. Her back hit the ground but she couldn't help but laugh. "Or not. Now, get off me."

Sam stood and pulled Dani with him. He was so much taller than the last time she had seen him. And her boots had very high heels.

"What the hell are you doing here?" Sam asked, not unkindly, as Dani brushed herself off.

"Well, I was looking for a beer," she lied trying to avoid the real reason. She knew this moment wouldn't last, could not last, but she wanted to prolong it.

But Sam would have none of it. "What the hell are you doing here?" he repeated and this time he meant business.

She sighed. "Okay, all right, we gotta talk," she started.

"Uh, the phone?" he offered.

"If I'd have called, would you have picked up?"

Sam didn't answer. He didn't have to. Both of them knew the truth.

"Sam?" a third voice called in the dark. Before any of them could say anything else, the light flickered on and brother and sister turned to find a young woman standing there wearing a pink pajamas short and a gray Smurfs T-shirt that showed her navel. Dani felt her eyebrow going up.

Sam inhaled sharply. "Jess... Hey." He glanced nervously from one girl to the other. "Uh, Dani, this is my girlfriend, Jessica."

Jess smiled. "Your sister?" she asked and Dani found strange the note of eagerness in her voice. She was very pretty, his girlfriend, but of very little interest to Dani.

"Charming," said Dani eyeing the Smurfs T-shirt. That made the girl self conscious.

"Just let me put something on."

"Don't bother," said Dani dismissively. "I hate to ask, but I gotta borrow your boyfriend here, talk about some private family business but, uh, nice meeting you."

"No," said Sam with authority. He walked to her side and both stared at Dani. "Whatever you wanna say, you can say in front of her."

Dani grinned. Of course he would say that. He had no idea. But Dani was absolutely sure he would change his mind once she started. "Okay. Um... dad hasn't been home in a few days," she said trying to get round what really needed to be said.

Sam shrugged. "So he's working over-time on a 'Miller Time' shift; he'll stumble back in sooner or later."

Dani gave her best condescending look. "Dad's on a hunting trip," she tried this time, "and he hasn't been home in a few days." That got his attention all right.

Sam hesitated and Jess or whatever her name was stared at him with knitted eyebrows. He didn't look at her this time. "Jess, excuse us, please," he said. "We have to go outside."

The girl let them go without a word which Sam seemed to be glad for. On the way out, he started his teenage tantrum. "You can't just break in, in the middle of the night, and expect me to hit the road with you."

"You're not hearing me, Sammy," she insisted. "Dad's missing. I need you to help me find him," she admitted.

"You remember the poltergeist in Amherst, or the devil's gates in Clifton? He was missing then, too. He is always missing and he is always fine."

"Not for this long. Are you gonna come with me or not?"

"I'm not," he answered shortly.

That hurt. She had prepared herself for this kind of rejection, but still it hurt. She shifted her weight to her right leg and put her hands inside her leather jacket's pocket. "Why not?"

He looked at her as if she was crazy. "I swore I was done hunting. For good."

Dani grimaced. "Come on! It wasn't easy, but it wasn't that bad."

He didn't like that. "Oh, yeah? When I told dad I was scared of the thing in my closet he gave me a .45."

Dani tried to look cool. "Well, what was he supposed to do?"

"I was nine years old," continued Sam. "He was supposed to say 'Don't be afraid of the dark. I won't let anything hurt you.'"

Dani pffed. "'Don't be afraid of the dark?' Are you kidding me? Of course you should be afraid of the dark! You know what's out there!"

Sam sighed. "Yes, I know. But still – the way we grew up after mom was killed... And dad's obsession to find the thing that killed her... But we still haven't found the damn thing, so we kill everything we can find. This endless journey-"

"We save a lot of people, Sam."

"You think mom would've wanted this for us?"

Dani clutched her fists inside her pockets. She hated whenever her mother was brought into the conversation, especially when she was used against Dani to prove a point. Dani didn't know what she mother would've wanted because a monster had taken her away. And said monster had to pay.

"The weapon training? Melting silver into bullets?" continued Sam. "We were raised like warriors."

"So, what are you gonna do?" she snapped. Sam always took her to the edge. "You just gonna live some normal life? Pretend you don't know what is going on in the world? Pretend you don't care? Is that it?"

"Not normal," he argued, but this time his voice was soft. "Safe."

Dani scoffed. "Is that why you ran away, Sam? To be safe with your girlfriend?"

"I was just going to college," the boy said annoyed. "It was dad who said if I was gonna go, I should stay gone. And that's what I'm doing."

Dani tried to keep her cool. The fighting between Sam and dad had always existed, but with the years it went from bad to worse. They were both so much alike. Dani thought that was the reason they couldn't stop hitting heads.

"Dad's in real trouble, Sam, if he's not dead already. I... I can't do this alone."

It was Sam's time to raise an eyebrow. "Yes, you can."

Dani crossed her arms. Her voice was almost a whisper. "Well, I don't want to."

Sam sighed once more and Dani knew the battle was won. "What was he hunting?"

Smiling, Dani walked all the way to where she had parked the Impala. The car was her baby. She didn't know why, maybe it was the fact that she had been raised surrounded by men, but Dani had always had a thing for cars. Since very young she had begged her dad to teach her how to drive the Impala. It took him a long time to say yes. But after Sam left, he became more affectionate, as if afraid to lose her to. Silly man. There was nothing in this world that could part her from him.

Dani opened the car's trunk where they kept their great amass of weapons. She propped up the lid of the extra compartment and searched past the weapons. "Where the hell did I put that thing?" she muttered to herself.

"When dad left, why didn't you go with him?" asked Sam.

"I was doing my own gig," she answered. "This voodoo thing down in New Orleans."

"Dad let you go on a hunting trip by yourself?" Sam said with disbelief.

Finding what she was looking for, Dani pulled a bunch of papers out of the book she had in hand and turned to face Sam, almost offended. "I'm 26, dude. So, here we go. So dad was checking out this two-lane blacktop outside of Jericho, right? About a month ago, this guy," – she handed Sam a picture of the man –, "they found his car but he'd vanished, completely M.I.A."

"Maybe he was kidnapped," said Sam, always the one for logic.

"Yeah, well, there's another one in April," continued Dani handing him articles to prove her point. "Another one in December, '04, '03, '98, '92. Ten of them over the past twenty years. All men, all same 5-mile stretch of road. It started happening more and more, so dad went to go dig around," she finished. "That was about three weeks ago. I hadn't heard from him since, which is bad enough," she rummaged through the weapons once more and pulled out a tape recorder, "then I get this voicemail yesterday."

She hit play. Through the static, their dad's voice said, 'Dani, something is starting to happen, I think it's serious. I need to try to figure out what's going on.' There was more and more static coming through, drowning out his voice, but his last sentence was clear enough: 'Be very careful, Dani. We're all in danger.'

Dani shut off he recorder and stared at her brother.

"You know there's EVP on that?" Sam stated.

She smiled. "Not bad, Sammy. Kind of like riding a bike, isn't it? I slowed the message down, and ran it through a Gold Wave, took out the hiss, and this is what I got." She played the recording again, but what came through this time was different. Now it was a woman's voice whispering, 'I can never go home.'

"Never go home," Sam repeated. Dani could almost see the thousand possibilities going through his mind. Well, he was the smart one.

"Yes, very dramatic, ain't it?" She threw the recorder back into the trunk and shut it. Then she leaned against it. "Sammy," she started, "in all this time, I haven't bothered you. Never asked you for a thing."

Sam raised a hand to stop her. "No need to beg. I'll go. I'll help you find him. But I have to get back first thing Monday."

"What's first thing Monday?" Dani asked frowning. It was dark, but she thought she saw him blush.

"I have this... I have an interview."

"Like a job interview?" she said. "Skip it."

"It's a law-school interview, and it's my whole future on a plate."

"Law school?" she laughed. She stopped when she saw his expression. All right, if he wanted to play Mr Lawyer that was his problem.

"We got a deal or not?" asked Sam always wanting to have the last word.

"Oh, yeah," said Dani. She knew a thing of two about last words.