* I don't own any of this except the character Alice*

"Sammy, listen, I'm not taking no for an answer."

Dean was yelling over Metallica as his brother pouted in the passenger seat. Sam turned down the music trying to level with his older brother

"Dean, it's fine, I can handle it. We've faced worse things."

"Yeah, 'we' have, the two of us. I'm not letting some invisible beasties track you down because of me."

"You would do the same for me. In fact, I'm pretty sure you have!"

"And I'm doing it again," Dean said and, trying to conclude their argument, he turned the music back up.

"Look at yourself, Dean, whatever that thing is, it's spreading." This comment went ignored "Do you even have a photo for the summon?" Sam asked, having to yell again.

Dean smirked and pulled a picture from his pocket, slightly crinkled. It was a photo of the two of them from their father's wallet.

Sam and Dean had been working a case in New Orleans, some new breed of rougarou that a local coven had brewed up. There were only three of them, but the rougarous wiped out the entire coven before Sam and Dean has even gotten there. They took them out, of course, but Dean didn't get out unscathed.

They pulled up to a set of crossroads just outside of town and started digging the hole for the ritual.

"Dean, hey, relax, okay?"

"Please, Sam, that's not even a hole."

"Dean!" He was surprised at how all of this was getting under Sam's skin so he put his hands up in surrender and leaned on the front of Baby, letting his brother set up the ritual.

"Well, that's it, I guess," Sam said, looking over his shoulder at Dean, throwing his arms up.

A minute or two later, they heard light footprints. The crossroads demon. They had dealt with a few in the past, but they never seemed to summon the same one, although this girl looked oddly familiar.

"Poor black kitty," the demon said, "I always hated that part of the ritual." She pouted a little before shrugging her shoulders and smiling at Sam. "Sam Winchester, I was wondering when I'd get to make a deal with you, and Dean," she looked over Sam's shoulder and waved with her fingers, "you don't look too good. Please tell me this is life or death."

"Something like that," Sam said, impatient. He watched as the demon twirled a strand of her dark hair around her finger, trying to avoid looking into her eyes, bright red. She was smug.

"Go on.."

"Dean's been...bitten by something, a rougarou, sorta. The transformation process is slowed down or something and we have to fix it."

"So your soul for your brother's humanity?" she asked, "Let's be honest, he didn't have much to begin with."

Sam looked back to notice his brother glaring and smiling sarcastically.

"Okay, Sam, you know how this goes," the demon said, trailing off seductively.

"Wait, we've never made a deal with you before."

"Me? No, but friends of mine, you know how word travels in hell."

"Then why do you look so familiar?"

The demon smirked and then started laughing boastfully. "Oh, Sam, it's not me that's familiar, it's who I was. You remember, don'tcha? Little Alice Morrison from LA, one of your first cases. You found my parents." Her lighthearted tone darkened at the end, turned bitter.

Dean leaned in to listen closer. He remembered her, not much younger than she looked today. Her parents had disappeared, they had a suicide pact at a motel down the street. Turned out not to be very supernatural, but Dean and Sam stuck around as the case had been sorted out. Alice was always a free spirit, but her parents death had her running from everyone and everything. The last time Dean saw her, she was slamming the door on her baby blue convertible. They were tracking her city by city on the West coast to make sure she was okay, but they stayed far enough away that she couldn't catch on. Sam had slept in later than usual but Dean was up. He saw Alice walk out of the motel room with only her backpack. It seemed she left more and more shit behind every time she left. Usually, she looked completely cool when she was heading out, but that morning she looked broken, like the first day he met her. He had run out before she left and she stiffened up, surprised to see him. He had tried to reason with her to stay but she drove off anyway. He thought about her now and then, but never thought he'd see her again, at least not as a crossroads demon. How does that even happen?

"How do you even become a crossroads demon?" Sam asked.

"I made a deal," Alice said simply. Sam just looked confused. "Look, I was having a hard time. Let's just say I had a meeting with the king of hell himself, told him I didn't want to be stuck down there all the time. He agreed, said I could work this gig. I guess the whole underworld system has gone to hell."

"Sammy!" Dean called for his brother from the car. Sam was reluctant to turn his back on Alice, she might disappear before the deal was made. Sam ignored his brother.

"Maybe we can help," he said. Alice scoffed.

"Oh yeah? How?"

"I don't know, maybe, maybe we can make a different kind of deal."

If it was possible, the red in Alice's eyes dulled a bit. Part of her was beginning to get annoyed with this small talk, but another part, maybe what remained of her human side, was warming up to the idea.

"Now hear me out. Maybe, you fix up Dean and your contract with Crowley can be broken."

"Sam, you don't know how deep this shit is. You're a nice guy, optimistic. This is bigger than you. I wouldn't know the first thing about twisting around demon rules. I asked for this."

"You're a crossroads demon, you make your own deals."

"Listen, if we can hypothetically do this, it will be a lot more complicated than a deal. It'll take an exorcism, probably some kind of veil so Crowley doesn't sniff this out."

"A veil? Could an angel do that?"

"In theory…"

Sam could hear Dean calling his name again.

"Dean, shut up."

The three of them were quiet for a bit, the air buzzed with energy.

"Fine," Alice said.

"What?" Sam and Dean said in unison

"I said fine, let's do it. But I'll tell you this right now, I'm going to fight you all the way," Alice said, not fully understanding how she could shut her demon side out.

Alice pulled Sam into a quick kiss to seal the deal, typical crossroads fashion, hoping this was the last time she would have to kiss someone under these circumstances.

The next couple days, Sam and Dean talked to Castiel about how to hide the human world from hell, unsure if it would actually work. Dean had recovered completely the night they met Alice and, as thankful as he was, this whole plan seemed illogical, even in supernatural terms.

"I mean, if there was a way to cast a veil over our lives, why the hell haven't we been doing it for years?" Dean asked in frustration. They had returned to the bunker.

"That would take more angels than there are in Heaven, Dean. And talk about favoritism. Now I can do this, but it will only last a little while," Castiel explained.

"How little?"

"Three minutes."

"Three minutes?!"

"Maybe a few seconds more. Or less."

"Three minutes, more or less. I don't know about you Sammy, but I've never done an exorcism that took less than 10. We're in for a hell of a ride, thanks a lot."

"Hey," Sam spoke up, "I did this for you and I did this for a friend. You saw her, she looked freaked out, Dean, real freaked."

"I saw a demon, Sam."

"Listen, if things in hell are getting so bad as to have people volunteer to be crossroad demons, maybe this is a chance to infiltrate, I don't know. She said it was bigger."

"I don't know if we need bigger right now," Dean said.

"Sam may be right. I've heard rumors, Crowley is losing a lot of respectability," Cas said.

"The fewer demons the better," Sam said.

Dean groaned loudly, but nodded.

That night, they drove out to a set of crossroads closest to the bunker and set up the ritual.

"Alright, Sammy, who speaks faster, you or me?"

"Well, you can sing Immigrant Song without missing a beat," Sam said, walking next to his brother.

"That's different," Dean said, smiling just a bit, "Fine. I'll do it. Just make sure you tie her up quick. That tree is probably your best bet."

Sam nodded and placed the photo on top of the hole and waited for Alice. After she showed up, Sam would have to restrain her and, when Cas gave the signal he would start dropping the veil. Dean would perform the exorcism.

"Hi boys," Alice said, striding into view. Her gait was as confident as ever, but her voice was quieter. Sam smiled quickly and pulled her against the tree and started tying her arms behind her around the bark.

"Well, Sam, I didn't know you were into this kind of thing. I like it," Alice winked. Even she knew she was trying to lighten the mood and, as a demon, this was a great skill.

Sam didn't say anything and Dean walked up to them, book in hand, though he had performed so many of these that he didn't really need it. He found it difficult to look Alice in the eye. He just nodded at both of them.

Cas clapped twice and, since that was the signal, Dean started on with the exorcism. Sam looked on between Castiel and Alice, both seemed to be in an equal amount of pain. He had his timer set for three minutes and hoped Dean would be fast enough. Alice struggled against her restraints and Sam thought she might actually break through. Rope wouldn't be enough for a crossroads demon, but she didn't start to try prying herself out until the exorcism had started. Her legs, which were not tied, started to bend behind her, curving her back into a C against the tree, her head back and screaming. Dean kept going. In the moonlight, Castiel was filled with a rivaling light. If he looked close enough, Sam could see that his legs and arms were shaking violently, trying to contain the veil. There were three other angels with Cas on different corners of the world, trying to balance out the veil and keep it down for, as Cas predicted, three minutes. Dean kept going, getting louder and quicker with each verse.

With one last scream, the demon was expelled and Alice collapsed. Her head hung and her legs gave out. Her arms, still tied around the tree, were scratched. It was a few seconds until Cas too collapsed as the veil was raised again. Dean closed the book and all was quiet again. He looked around, seeing Alice, Cas, and Sam on their knees, a cautious look in Sam's eyes.

"It that it?" Dean asked.