Disclaimers: Don't own 'em. Just playing in Kripke's sandbox.

Spoilers: Set during the episode "Home"

Just a random one shot originally written for a KazCon challenge but never submitted. Warning: Much sappiness, angst and melodrama ahead. Read at your own risk.

A Mother's Love

There is something in my house. Something evil. Something malicious. Something that wants to hurt the people who live here. Something no one else can see.

I have watched as it caused a man great pain, mangling his hand and arm in a horrific manner.

I have watched as it lured a child into danger, nearly ending his life.

And I have watched as it hurt my boys.

I watched as it tried to kill my firstborn with a set of kitchen knives. I watched as it choked the life from my baby with a lamp cord.

And I have had enough.

It ends tonight.

The woman said it was over, said the evil was gone. She was wrong.

I feel it. Growing angrier, growing stronger. It means to destroy this family. Tonight.

The woman is trapped in the upstairs bedroom. I can feel her fear, taste her panic. I try but cannot break through to help her. I am simply not strong enough.

She pounds on the window pane, screaming for help, her thoughts on her own children elsewhere in the house.

Suddenly the front door flies open and two figures charge in. One races up the stairs to her aid, kicking down the door and guiding her outside to safety. I sense the undercurrent of distress as he waits for his partner to make his way out of the house.

The other searches for the children. He finds the youngest, then comes for the girl. I am there. I see on his face a determination that reminds me of someone I knew long ago… someone I loved long ago. I reach for him but he is afraid. He does not know me.

He runs from the room with the children, sending them outside just as a dark entity snatches him away from them and pulls him back into the house. He is tossed like a rag doll into the kitchen cabinets, slammed against the table and wall by an unseen force, then pinned there, helpless.

I see his brother splintering the front door with an axe, feel the steel of his resolve as he forces his way into the house. He barrels in, shotgun at the ready, sees me there and aims. Directly at me.

"No! I know who it is! I can see her now…"

I feel myself growing stronger in their presence, love tempering the fire that consumes me and allowing my true image to be seen. I see the tremble in Dean's hand, the glimmer in Sam's eye. For this moment in time, we are together. And I am so proud.

I am so proud, but I am also heartsick. I grieve the innocence that was lost the night I died… the normal life my boys will never lead… the fact that evil has touched their lives.

I am so sorry that I wasn't there to see Sam's first steps. I am so sorry I missed Dean learning to ride a bicycle. I have been absent for the milestones, the firsts. I will never see my sons marry. I will never hold a grandchild in my arms. I will never again be able to be there for my boys.

But I am here now.

And so I say the names aloud. The names that John and I chose. The names that held in them our dreams for our children's futures. For our future.

Their faces rock me to my core. The confusion, the shock, the pain laid bare in their eyes.

So I tell them. I'm sorry. And hope it is enough.

I long to pull them to me, to hold them in my arms and stroke their hair. I want so badly to touch them, to whisper words of comfort. Instead, I turn from them. Because in doing so, I save them.

You…get out of my house.

I will myself to fight the thing that threatens my children. It is strong but now so am I. I feel the fire burning, feel the darkness tugging at me. But I fight. I fight with my very soul. I will give myself willingly.

I will sacrifice myself. For them…for my boys.

Thanks for taking time out to read my ramblings!

Freyja