When the door opened, she smiled. "Hi Bobby, long time no see."

Bobby Singer gaped at the short brunette and gave her a long, incredulous look. "Where the hell have you been? You know I spent the better part of a year trying to track you down?"

She winced a little, her expression apologetic. "Can I come in?"

He moved to accommodate her request but paused halfway through. "Which one are you? Lush? Or Elsie?"

"I'm really sorry for disappearing and not telling you where I was." There was no mistaking the genuine shame in her tone.

"Elsie then. Alright, hurry up and get in here." He sidestepped into the house and shut the door after her when she followed him. "You know what to do." He nodded over towards a stack of books that had a silver blade sitting on top of it.

Elsie picked the weapon up carefully and turned it over in her delicate fingers. "This one is new, where'd you get it? I like it better than the old one."

"It was a gift I guess." Bobby smiled and ruffled her hair fondly even as another voice came from the doorway.

"So she's not a shifter, but you aren't going to test her for anything else?" Two young men were standing between the entryway and the living room, both looking wary. The shorter one crossed his arms and frowned. "You give us the whole rundown and she gets away with just the silver?" He reached for the flask of holy water sitting on the nearby shelf.

Her eyes widened and Bobby threw his arm out, "No need for that Dean, she's okay, she's got a variation of the tattoo you and Sam have." He motioned for Elsie to show them and she lifted her shirt enough so they could see the ink sitting just between and underneath her breasts.

The boys were distracted momentarily by her figure, but the taller one— Sam— recovered quicker. "That's not the same symbol as ours though. That keeps you from getting possessed?"

Elsie bit her lip, eyes flickering to the holy water in Dean's hand then back to Sam's face. "More or less."

"It keeps me from havin to make sure she's not a demon every time she comes over." Bobby remarked, staring Dean down until he put the holy water back on the bookshelf.

Elsie dropped her shirt and it settled around her hips as she glanced between the three men.

There were a few moments of incredibly awkward silence before Dean took a step forward. "So, would anyone care to explain why Sam and I haven't ever even heard of you before now?" He pointed his finger at the girl and then looked from her to Bobby. "Who is she?"

Before Bobby could say anything Elsie chirped, "He saved my life." She gulped when three heads turned in unison to look at her, but kept talking. "I mean, Bobby did. He saved me. And I didn't have anywhere to stay… so he let me stay here."

Sam looked confused. "Wait, I heard him say you've been missing for a year. How long have you two known each other?"

This time Bobby replied, reaching to massage the back of his neck as he spoke. "Ah well… I suppose it's been seven years now."

"And you never once even mentioned her to us?" Shock froze Dean's features for a split second before his face broke into a scowl.

"She's a very private person, she asked me not to let anyone know she—"

"—existed?" Dean interrupted, his voice tight. "Come on Bobby, we're family."

Now Sam joined in as well "—and who is this Lush person? I mean how were you even able to hide two people in your house whenever we came over during those three years?"

"Uhm, I can—" Elsie raised her hand, but her timid voice was lost almost instantly in the argument.

"Although, are they twins? Because you had to ask for clarification and I can almost forgive you having a few secrets if they're twins." Dean had burnt out on his anger and was working more towards checking out the only girl in the room.

"Seriously Dean?" Sam growled at his older brother, "I mean really?"

Dean frowned, obviously feeling properly chastised.

"She isn't a secret! Look she asked me not to say nothin' about her unless I had to, I never lied to you boys about anything."

An ear-piercing whistle quieted the room instantly. Elsie crossed her arms and gave all three a stern look, bellied by the fact she was more than a few inches shorter than any of them. "It's not polite to talk about someone in the third person when they're standing less than three feet away."

Bobby and Sam had the decency to look chagrined. Dean just looked frustrated again. "Look, I'm sorry, but this is between us and Bobby and if you don't like it, you can leave." He motioned towards the door—

—And got cuffed on the ear by a fed up old man. "Listen up you idjits, I taught you boys better than this. I may not have told you two about her when I should have but she's as much a part of my family as you are and you better start treating her with a little more respect."

Elsie put a hand on his arm. "It's okay Bobby. I can go to my room and give you all some privacy. I know it's probably a lot to take in."

"It's just the way you left it." He nodded towards the stairs.

She kissed him on the cheek and smiled at the boys before making her way out of the room.

Bobby ran a hand across his beard and sighed, walking back into the kitchen where they'd been researching a case before the knock on the door that had interrupted everything. "You boys want another beer?" He asked, opening the fridge.

"We're not done talking about this Bobby." Dean crossed his arms, but still accepted the chilled bottle his mentor offered him.

"I know." Bobby sat back down in the seat he'd vacated to get the door and cracked open his beer. The other bottle he slid across the table in Sam's direction. "Look, I really am sorry I didn't tell you boys about her. Now I mean that." He gave Dean a look that made him close his mouth as he was about to interrupt again. "It did sort of kill me to not say anything."

"Why don't you start from the beginning?" Sam prodded as he sat down at the table and closed his laptop.

Bobby shrugged. "Ain't much to tell. Some demons chased her straight through the junkyard and I saw her hiding out back and helped her gank the sons-a-bitches. She told me there was a whole lot of monsters trying to track her down, and since this place is warded to high heaven I let her stay the night. Then she made me breakfast as a thank you and I let her stay another night because, well, she's a damn good cook. And then she just sorta never left."

He took a large swig of his beer and in the second of silence Dean piped up, "So you just let her stay, just like that. Didn't it ever bother you that she was being hunted by monsters? I mean hell Bobby what if they'd come all at once and we weren't here to help you get rid of them? And when did you get to be such a softy anyway?"

"Shaddup." Bobby snorted. "You boys are gone a lot and it was nice having some pleasant company. I figured if the things chasing her ever did come around we'd just call you up. Although," He looked a bit ashamed now, "I did intend to have you know about her long before that woulda happened. I was actually gonna introduce you all, but by the time you showed up she'd disappeared."

Dean's eyes squinted in suspicion. "Was that the weekend you called us up, convinced us it was an emergency, and then just stuttered and said you'd missed us and wanted to have a family dinner when we got here?"

"What do you mean, disappeared?" Sam asked at the same time, looking wary. "And where does this Lush person come into all this anyway?"

Bobby glanced between the both of them and took another drink of his beer before deciding to only answer one of the questions. "Sometimes she'd head out and wouldn't come back all night. Never really explained where she'd gone off to, but by that time I liked her so well I didn't much care. Made me worry a lot. But she'd always call or leave a message if she wasn't going to be home that night." He paused as if thinking back and getting worried all over again just at the prospect of what he was about to say. "Then the day before you were supposed to get here she did the same thing. Except she didn't call. I figured she'd be back the next morning like always, in time to meet you… but she didn't come home for over a week."

"And when she did come back?"

"She didn't tell me what she was up to and I didn't pry much." Bobby shrugged. "But after that she started leaving more regularly and I didn't figure it was as important to introduce her to you if she was always gonna be gone anyway."

Dean leaned back against the kitchen counter, his jaw clenching as he processed all of this information. Finally he came to a conclusion. A conclusion that they weren't getting the whole story. "You still haven't told us who Lush is."

"Lush isn't important. She's got nothing to do with Elsie." Bobby spat the name out like it was a bad taste in his mouth.

"Well she's obviously got something to do with it or else you would—"

"Not tonight." Bobby held up his hand to stop Sam mid-speech. "Let's put a pin in this for now. I'm going to go check on Elsie and head to bed. You two keep working if you want, but no more talking unless it's about that now, y'hear?" He emptied his bottle with a few long gulps and then stood and made his way to the staircase, turning before he was out of sight and nodding at them, "Just try to keep an open mind."

Then he was gone, and the brothers were left in the dim kitchen to wonder all by themselves.