Chapter 1

A little over 4 months later…

Sarah slowly made her way down the driveway to Bobby's house, holding her left arm over her stomach and dragging her right leg slightly behind her. She was so focused on reaching the house that she didn't notice a familiar car parked over by the garage.

After knocking on the door, she breathed a sigh of relief when she heard footsteps inside the house. She did not have enough energy to break in.

"Thank God, you're home, Bobby…" She said softly as the door opened. Only it wasn't Bobby standing there. She stared in disbelief at the man before her. She managed to whisper, "Dean?", before fainting.

Dean managed to catch her before she fell backwards, off the porch.

"Sarah? Sarah?!" Dean growled trying to rouse her. When she didn't respond, he picked her up and carried her inside. "Help! I need help in here!" he yelled.

Sam and Bobby raced to Dean as he placed Sarah on the couch.

"What happened?" Bobby asked kneeling down next to Sarah and started examining her.

"I don't know. I opened the door and she fainted. She about feel off the porch!" Dean said anxiously.

"You probably surprised her. Up until last week you were dead, remember?" Bobby grunted at him sarcastically.

"Guys. Look at her stomach. She's bleeding!" Sam yelled, running into the kitchen to get a towel.

Bobby gently pulled her shirt up to expose her stomach, which had several knife wounds that were covered in stitches. Some of which had ripped. "What on earth did she get into?" Bobby muttered.

"No clue. I'm gonna do a sweep of the yard. Make sure nothing had been following her." Dean said after examining some cuts on her arms and hands. "Come on Sam."

Sam threw Bobby the first aid kit and followed Dean out. Bobby quickly re-stitched and re-bandaged her wounds as she slowly started to wake up.

"Bobby?... Is it really you?" She asked weakly.

"Yeah, it's me ya idjit. What happened to you?" He asked with a face full of concern.

"Thank God, it's you!", She said relieved before trying to sit up and hug him, but ended up falling back in pain.

"Now just lay back. You're safe now, but I need you to tell me what happened. Where did you get all these wounds?" Bobby asked holding her hand.

"About a month ago, I was jumped by a gang of demons. It was 8 against one. I didn't have a chance. I should be dead… They should have killed me… I wish they had killed me… Instead of…" Sarah whispered, her eyes distant and full of tears.

"Instead of what?" Bobby asked pulling Sarah back from her memories.

"They captured me. Held me prisoner. But a few days ago I overheard them. They were saying how, they wanted to send a gift to someone. Then something about sending pieces anyway. I don't know how, but I knew they were talking about killing me. I used all of the strength I could muster to escape. I almost made it out without too much damage but another demon surprised me. Cut me up really bad, but I caught it off guard and got away. Managed to get to a hospital and got stitched up."

"Oh, I'm sorry sweetie. Thank God you're alive! I should have tried harder to reach you… I should have found you!" Bobby said getting mad at himself.

"Don't Bobby. It's not your fault. I went off by myself. I knew the risks. I knew there might be casualties." She said again getting a distant look in her eyes.

Bobby gave her a look that said he didn't believe her, then said, "Well, how do you feel right now? Do you think I should get you over to a hospital? Make sure that you're okay? You're pretty weak and you fainted."

"I thought I saw someone. I must have been hallucinating." She mumbled putting a hand over her eyes. "I must have lost more blood than I thought."

"What did you see?" Bobby asked.

"Dean." She whispered. Her eyes filling with fresh tears as her head started to spin.

"About that…" Bobby started saying as Sam and Dean walked in the room.

"Sarah? You're awake!" Sam exclaimed kneeling by her. Sarah instantly looked uncomfortable, forcing herself to sit up, moving away from him a little in the process.

"Hey there." Dean said awkwardly.

Sarah just looked up at him with her eyes wide and unblinking. "Wha…? How?..." She said before a look crossed her face and she turned her attention to Sam. "What did you do? What did it cost?"

"It wasn't me." Sam stated sitting on the couch with her. She glared at him and shifted uneasily.

"Then how?" She demanded.

"An angel." Dean said.

"That's not possible. Angel's don't exist."

"Trust me. I reacted the Same way, but they are real and not all that nice." Dean explained.

"And how am I supposed to know it's really you?" Sarah asked narrowing her eyes at Dean and fighting off a wave of dizziness.

"Sarah, we did all the tests. Salt, silver and holy water. It's really Dean." Sam said.

"And I'm just supposed to believe you." She spat at Sam.

"Sarah? What's all this about?" Bobby asked.

Sarah looked at the three men then focused in on Dean, "When Sam was at Stanford and John was on his own hunts, we had a ritual we would do every Tuesday night. What was it?"

Dean looked at her and said with a small smile, "Well taco Tuesdays, of course."

"And what would I always call you on those nights?"

Dean smirked before saying, "You used to call me a gaseous anomaly. Although, I do remember some of those nights where you would put me to shame with your skills in that area."

"The night before you died, you came to see me. What did you find on me?" She asked.

Dean's brows furrowed before another smirk crossed his face. "I found… a… tattoo. It's on your right hip… and it's…" Dean finished with a whistle as Bobby gave him a disapproving glance.

Sarah let out a breath she had been holding and said, "It's really you." Tears finally spilling down her face.

"Hey, it's alright, cakes." Dean said kneeling in front of her and wiping some of her tears away before pulling her into a hug. "It's so good to see you again."

"Oh, Dean." She whispered with a hitch in her voice as more tears fell. Dean pulled back and looked curiously at her since she didn't return his hug. She looked him in the eyes before looking away sadly and pushing him away a little. She slowly made herself stand up. "I, uh, need to lay down." She said trying to walk toward the stairs.

Dean walked over to her just as a wave of dizziness hit her and she started to sway. He quickly picked her up.

"Put me down. I can make it on my own." Sarah demanded.

"You haven't changed have you? Still stubborn." Dean joked as he carried her up the stairs. Sarah stayed quiet as he placed her on one of the beds. "Rest up." Dean said moving to place a kiss on her forehead but she turned her head away. Dean gave her another confused look and then left the room.

Sarah woke up to water being splashed on her face.

"Wha…?" Sarah yelled opening her eyes to see Bobby standing over her with an empty glass.

"Oh, thank God!" Bobby exclaimed letting out the breathe he had been holding.

"What's going on, Bobby? Why the shower?" Sarah asked noticing how dry her mouth was.

"Sorry about that but you've been asleep for three days! I kinda panicked." Bobby said giving her a glass of water.

"Three days? Really?"

"Yeah. How you feeling?"

"Um… besides groggy… okay, I guess… maybe a little hungry… make that a lot hungry." Sarah realized.

"Let me check your stitches then we'll go down and whip you up something." Bobby said moving her shirt up to expose her bandages on her stomach.

After making sure that all of her stitches were intact, he placed some ointment on them then put on fresh bandages.

"Well good news is you seem to be healing properly." Bobby said with a sigh.

"And the bad news?"

"The bad news is that you got these in the first place." Bobby mumbled leaving the room.

Sarah slowly changed her shirt to a dry one and followed Bobby downstairs where he made her a sandwich and got himself a beer.

Sarah tried to stealthily scope out whether the boys were there but Bobby noticed and said, "Sam and Dean left on a job."

She nodded, staying quiet but silently let out a sigh of relief.

"Ok, what's going on?" Bobby asked, studying her.

"What do you mean?" She asked innocently.

"You know what I mean. Why don't you want to be around the boys? I know it's a shock that Dean's back but…"

"I'm just… I'm just still a bit of a mess. I'll be back to normal soon." She lied. Bobby gave her a 'yeah right' look but let the subject drop.

Sarah stayed at Bobby's for a month healing, by the fifth week she had to get back on the road. Sitting around, doing nothing was giving her too much time to think about everything she had lost.