"Mr. Winchester?" a cool voice came over the landline.
"Yes, who is this?" he asked gruffly.
"It's the community hospital in Lawrence. Your sister-in-law, Ruth Collins, is asking for you. She's gone into labor."
"Oh. Right, I'll be there as soon as possible." John slammed down the phone, jumped out of bed and got ready.
After that he ran into the bedroom in which his son's were sleeping.
"Dean." He shook his son. "Dean, come on man."
"Dad?" he rubbed his eyes.
"Come on son, get Sammy ready we have to go and see your Auntie Ruth." He told him.
"Sammy son." He whispered and Sam woke up without a second thought.
They all got into John's car and drove at a high speed, to get through the state and back to Lawrence.
"Oh my God!" Ruth screamed through the hospital room. The baby inside her pushing its way into the world. "How much longer have I got?"
"About, a half hour Ms. Collins. Your baby is well on its way." The nurse checked off her clipboard.
John opened the door and came into the hospital room. "How is she?"
"Fine. You are?" The Doctor asked.
"Mr. Winchester. I'm her brother in law, she asked the hospital to call me."
"John!" Ruth screamed at him. "I'm going to fucking kill you! You did this to me! I felt sorry for you and this is what you do to me! I hate you!"
John looked taking aback. "Do you want me to leave? Because I can!" he gestured to the door.
"No!" She cried "I need you here!" she held out her hand to him "I want you here!"
John went to her side and held her hand and kissed her sweaty head.
"Ms. Collins, your baby is well on the way. The babies head is crowning now." The doctor smiled at her.
"Why are you smiling?" she growled at him. "It fucking hurts."
"I know. You refused the medicine and drugs, it's almost over." He nodded at her.
"Are you sure?" she asked him.
"I am. One more big push and your done." He smiled.
Ruth took a deep breath. John clenched her hand and she buried her head in his leather jacket, soothing herself on its smell.
"Arghh!" Ruth's scream cut through him as the baby met the air around it.
She heard the baby cry and let out a cry herself. The nurse wrapped it in a towel loosely and handed it to her. The babies pitch-black hair was sticky and thick with claret, its head covered in blood. But its hands and legs squirmed, as did its legs. Its lungs working as it screamed. Ruth surveyed her baby and looked at with tear filled eyes.
"What is it?" she asked the nurse.
"It's a little girl Ruth. A beautiful little girl." John answered.
"Mary. Mary Ellen." She whispered and beamed as John took the babies hand in his.
When Ruth was sleeping, John brought his sons into the room. He smiled as Dean immediately showed an interest in the new baby. John picked up Sam and showed him his cousin.
"What's her name?" Sam asked him.
"Mary." He smiled "Mary Ellen."
"After mom?" Dean asked and his dad nodded.
"We are going to look after her and Auntie Ruth." He kissed Sam's head.
"Can I hold her dad?" Dean asked.
John nodded and put Sam on the floor. "Sit on the chair son."
Dean did as he was told and John handed him the newborn little girl, cradling her softly in his worn hands. Dean smiled at her as she wriggled in her blankets and kissed her head.
After a while, the baby became bored of Dean and began to cry. John immediately held her in his arms, soothing her cries with his hushing.
Sam and Dean soon fell asleep in the chair and when Mary was asleep in his arms, John put her back in her hospital crib, making sure she was warm and protected from the elements around her.
John slept only a little that night, the baby in her crib, for all she was unplanned she was perfect.
6 Months Later.
John held his little girl in his arms that night, reluctant to let her go, her small hand wrapped around his thumb as he sat her on his knee. She kicked in glee as Dean smiled up at her, mimicking his facial gestures, sticking his tongue out at her.
Mary wasn't talking yet, but everyone was sure she was trying to mutter 'Dean' as she went along.
Ruth came into the room and smiled at the site in front of her.
"Sam, Dean, come on its way past your bedtime." She smiled at them. Sam immediately went and took her hand, letting her take him to bed. "Come on Dean." She urged.
Dean looked at his father who nodded and Dean followed his Aunt up the stairs to the room he shared with Sam.
John smiled as Mary's eyes followed Dean, not wanting him to leave the room.
"Come on miss." He smiled and turned her around so she way lying back in his arms and staring at his face.
She squirmed away in glee, kicking her legs at John. He involuntarily grinned at her. She looked like her aunt and Dean, but she was dark like he and Sammy were.
"How did I get so lucky?" he let a tear go but laughed as she yawned. "Come on, bedtime I think."
He held her close against him as he took her up to her nursery, her head buried in his t-shirt, falling into an easy sleep.
Ruth woke up to hear her daughter crying in her crib in the next room. John had crept into her bed in the middle of the night again, so his boys didn't have to hear him or see him. She knew John only came to her because she reminded him so much of her older sister.
She rubbed her forehead and moaned before stepping onto the floor, placing her feet in bed-socks before making her way across her carpeted landing to her daughter's nursery.
She rubbed her eyes to make sure she wasn't seeing things, she was sure she had let the bedroom door open when she left. She shrugged it off and pushed at it, it seemed locked, but there had never been a lock on the door at all.
She pushed a little harder and it gave way without another thought. She yawned and made her way to her daughter's side. Mary lay cooing in her white blankets, perfect and unblemished as always.
"Hello Mary." She smiled and stroked her cheek. "Are you hungry?" She asked and Mary, as if she understood her mother kicked in glee. "I'll take that as a yes then!" she laughed at her eager daughter.
As Ruth ran her finger over her daughter's mouth, she felt a sticky substance there. Something alien to her perfect child.
She brought her fingers to her nose and sniffed it. "How the hell?"
"Hell is the right word." A voice muttered in the corner of the room. Ruth jumped back in shock, how the hell had he got into the house.
"Don't come any closer, I swear to God I'll scream!" she warned him, her eyes wide in horror. Her hands gripped onto the side of the crib, unwilling to let go. Was this how Mary had spent her last few moments, petrified for her child?
"Scream all you want Ruth, the damage is done. She's my child now!"
"No!" Ruth screamed. "John! John!" she shouted at the door.
Something pulled her back, her body rising from the floor, up the wall. It was as if someone had put hooks in her body and was tearing at her to get her on the ceiling. "John!" She continued to scream. "Oh My God! Mary, please, don't!" she begged the Demon as her daughter lay crying in her crib, desperate for her mother to comfort her or her father to protect her.
Ruth heard the door go, John was trying to get in to his screaming daughter. She heard a trigger of a gun and then the door blew open, shattering across the room.
"Dean, get Mary and go!" he told his eldest son, who scooped his screaming sister up into his arms, took Sam by the hand and ran out of the house.
John shot at the demon, it didn't seem to flinch at all, but eventually it disappeared out of the room. Ruth felt her body drop to the floor her mind fell into unconsciousness.
"Shit no!" John muttered as he checked her throat for a pulse, there was one, but a weak one. He picked her up in his arms and jumped back as the crib in which Mary had slept broke out into flame. If he had been any later to react, his little girl would have gone up in flame, as would have Sammy six years ago had he been to late then.
John took Ruth outside to the opposite side of the street where Dean was waiting with his younger siblings, his face wide eyed with horror. John ran to his car and opened the door. He lay Ruth on the front seat and ushered his children to the back of the car.
John drove to the only place he could think of going right now, Missouri.
He stopped outside the small building that she called both home and work. He got out of the car and knocked profusely on the door.
She appeared two minutes later. "John! Come on in, bring Ruth!" She ordered him and he did as he was told.
Dean held onto Mary, who still cried out for her mother. Missouri helped John put Ruth on the sofa, leaving her to rest. John then took hold of his little girl, soothing her cries with his hushing.
"Dean, Sammy, come on, lets get you to bed. You need your rest." She ushered the two boys to the spare room, where there was a bed waiting for them.
She came back and rubbed her head "He was after Mary this time then." She stated. "That thing John, it won't stop, it targeted Sam and Mary for a reason! You'll have to be careful from now on!"
John nodded and held his daughter closer, her tears stopped a little and she fell asleep in his arms. She was his second chance in life, and he wasn't going to let her go without a fight.