Sam tried not to stomp- he was angry, and he didn't want to alert Aly to the fact that he was leaving her room, or the men that he was on his way into the kitchen.

He walked heavily right up to Dean, who was standing next to the counter, drinking coffee.

"What. The. Hell, Dean!" He ground out. "After both Calvin and I tell you not to push her, you do anyway! Why?"

There was a half-empty mug on the counter and it slid all the way to the end and stopped. Everyone stared at it.

Sam sighed and put his hand to his head. "Sorry, that was me. I lose control a little bit when I'm upset." He closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

"Where is she?" Calvin asked with concern.

"She conked out after I got her calmed down. She falls asleep really fast and sleeps really heavily, thank God." Sam looked over at Calvin as he spoke, then focused his attention back on Dean, who had put his mug on the counter and straightened up in the face of Sam's anger.

"Sam, time is of the essence here- we need to find out what happened to her, so that we can start-"

"How can we find out what happened to her when she barely remembers anything?" Sam said angrily. "Whatever the hell she went through, it was so traumatic that she's- it's like she's got PTSD or something now! And pressuring her to talk about it and remember things is only going to make her worse, not better!"

The cabinet door next to his head opened a couple of inches and then slammed shut.

"Sorry," he muttered, and everyone acted like nothing had happened.

"And ya know, we don't know if her usin' those powers might've, I don't know, done somethin' to her." Bobby piped up.

Dean turned to him. "You mean like brain damage? I refuse to believe that she's brain damaged, for crap's sake!" He glared at Bobby. "How can you even suggest such a thing!"

John had come into the room just then. "Dean, I know you want everything to be back to normal, but you have to realize, it's not going to be. Things are going to be different while she's recovering, and then...I don't even know if it would be good for her if things went back to the way they were before...before all of this happened. It wasn't- the way we lived wasn't very, you know, stable."

Dean exhaled in frustration. "Fine, all of you, gang up on me. You want to tell me how shitty and selfish I'm being? Or I'll give you a better idea- you can call Missouri and tattle on me!" He glared at Sam, and then walked around him and out of the room.

"Idjit," Bobby muttered, shaking his head. "John, just let him go for now. He needs to think things through and come to the realization that he's being a jackass all on his own. Any one of us tellin' him any more is just gonna put his back up even further."

"Mr. Singer, you have a way with words," John said, grinning at him.

"Well, I just call things as I see 'em," Bobby grinned back at John. "And that boy is being a first- class jackass idjit right about now. He'll come 'round."

"How's she doing, Sam?" John asked.

"She's shaky on her feet, and she's still unsure about things." Sam said. He looked at Calvin. "Do you agree with my assessment of her emotional state?"

Calvin shifted, and nodded. "I ain't no psychologist or nothin', but I've seen enough behaviors from people, after goin' though all kinds of hell, and yeah, I agree with ya. We don't know if she was actually kidnapped and held against her will that whole time, but we know that at the end she most certainly was, and she thought she was gonna die, and she was tortured...and those are all criteria for developing it. So we're gonna have to be extra gentle with her."

John sighed. "I understand. It's just hard, I've waited so long, and she's right down the hall, and I can't even go in and hug her." He looked sad.

"Give her a little while longer, Dad, she's coming around. I think she finally trusts that we are really her family, and not possessed or anything, now. She asked for Dean earlier, before things...went sideways." Sam said. "I'd better go check on her."

~ ~ spn ~ ~ spn ~ ~ spn ~ ~

I woke up hearing familiar clicking. I couldn't figure out what it was, and then I opened my eyes. Sam was sitting in the armchair, his lap top on the tray table, focused on the screen and typing away. I didn't think that seeing my brother on his laptop would make me cry, but I felt tears in my eyes and all of a sudden they were sliding down my face.

"Sammy," I said.

"Hmm," he said distractedly, and glanced up at me. Then he noticed I was crying, and stopped what he was doing. "What's up? Why the tears?"

He stood up and walked over to me, and sat on the bed. I sat forward and hugged him, and he put his arms around me.

"Just- this is so- familiar," I said. "You on your laptop and all."

He chuckled. "I know what you mean, it felt like it was back the way it used to be for a second there, for me too."

I let go of him and pulled back. "Is- is Dean mad at me? For not talking?" I asked hesitantly.

"No, Aly, he's not. And you don't worry about that- you're on your schedule, not somone else's. You talk when you're ready."

"But- he said I need to tell you everything so that we can be-"

"Well, Dean's in ultra-hunter mode right now. He feels powerless so he wants to get out there and hunt and feel like he's doing something. He needs to just chill out and relax." Sam said.

"And that's my fault too." I said, looking down at the bed.

"Would you stop that?" Sam asked sternly. "Stop blaming yourself for everything!" He took my chin in his hand and tilted my face up so that I was looking at him.

"From the moment you left, all we've wanted was to find you. Not to yell at you or blame you or punish you, but just to get you out of the clutches of that bastard's hands and get you back and safe. And we've done that now, and that's all that matters." He hugged me again, tightly, and then let me go.

"Okay, Sam," I said.

The door opened, and Calvin walked in with a tray. "Got some lunch for ya," he said. "Bobby made some of his stick- to-your- ribs stew."

"Great," Sam said. "I'm so glad Bobby took over the cooking for a while."

"Dad's been subjecting everyone to his 'one-pan specials'?" I asked with a grin. Dad's unsophisticated taste buds were kind of a joke, he was a meat and potatoes kind of guy to begin with, and then being in the military and having to eat whatever you had on hand didn't help him any. Somehow I had learned to cook well on my own, despite growing up with his cooking.

"Unfortunately, yes," Sam grinned back at me. "and we've got to get you out of this bed as soon as possible, and cooking again, so that we can eat some decent meals."

Sam took a bowl and went back over to the armchair, and Calvin put the tray on the little table and moved it in front of me. There was a bowl of stew and a thick slice of French bread next to it.

"Let me know if ya need anything else, all right?" Calvin asked, and then left the room.

I scooped up a spoonful of stew, and noticed my hand was shaking again as I tried to bring it up to my mouth. The liquid dripped off of the spoon onto the tray, and I made a frustrated noise in my throat.

I tried again, and the same things happened. I got so frustrated that I wanted to throw the spoon across the room, but I didn't. I sighed and closed my eyes for a moment, and then when I opened them, Sam was watching me.

"You want some help?" he asked me. He gestured at me, holding up his spoon.

I looked at him. "Help how? You mean feed me? No, that's- how embarrasssing!"

"Aly, I fed you before," he said gently.

"Yeah, when I was a baby! I'm not a baby any more!" I covered my face with my hand for a moment. "Just leave me alone!" I snapped.

I took a deep breath and put my hand down, then I looked at Sam again. He was still watching me.

"Sorry," I muttered.

"It's okay to accept help, you know," he said quietly. "That's all I'm going to say."

I bent my head over the bowl, and settled for scooping up the chunks of chicken and veggies that were in the stew, and draining the liquid off the spoon before I brought it up to my mouth. I ate several spoonfuls that way and half the piece of bread. I wanted to eat more, but I was full. I sat back and pushed the tray table away.

"Sam," I said suddenly, "I'm sorry I was so awful to you...before. I'm sorry about the home-schooling stuff and I'm sorry I was a bitch to you afterwards. If you want to do home-schooling again, I promise I'll do whatever you want, and I won't be rude or sassy, and I'll do my best and I won't slack off-"

He held his hand up. "Shh, Aly." he said. He put his spoon down and looked at me. "I'm the one who needs to apologize to you. I was- was too hard on you, and I drove you away because of it."

"My brattiness didn't help."I said.

He shook his head. "No, I need for you to listen. I need to explain something to you. That month or so that I went to college, remember? I was really happy, because I was going to have a normal life, but then I got... pulled back into this. Stop-" he looked at me sternly, when I started to say something.

"I'm not blaming you. I know that I'm a hunter and a researcher; Dad trained me to do those things and I'm good at them. When I came back, I was a little frustrated at first. I wanted to be out of the life, but I realized I couldn't be, because you needed me, and as it turns out Dad needed my help too. We know that you don't have skills to be a hunter- and I'm not saying that as an insult, listen-" he said, as I bristled indignantly for a moment-"but you out of all of us have the most chance of getting out and going to college and leading a normal life. I felt like-like you didn't realize this, and you were just blowing school off and being a typical teenager, when you should be taking this really seriously because it was your ticket away from all the hunting and craziness. I wanted that for myself and I transferred it onto you, and when you didn't react the same way I did, I got angry. And I was hurt too, because you're really smart and talented, and I felt like after all the encouragement and all the teaching I've done with you over the years, for you not to recognize that, and just blow off school work was like a slap in the face. I didn't think that you could be acting that way because maybe you felt bad about yourself. I made it all about me, and I'm sorry."

He looked down at the floor for a moment, and when he looked up at me there were tears in his eyes. "I know that what I did and how I treated you really hurt you, and I'm really, really sorry for that. I don't—I don't want it to have ruined our relationship." He had a cautious look in his eyes.

My eyes filled with tears. "Sammy," I said. "I didn't know all of that. I feel bad that you had such a rough time."

He chuckled mirthlessly. "How could you know, when I didn't even know myself? I'm a Winchester, and Winchester men don't talk about feelings. I've only just recently come to realize all of this stuff on my own."

"Well, you didn't ruin our relationship." I said. "If anything, I messed things up, because I kept being obnoxious and pushing your buttons, and I don't even know why I was doing it-" I sniffled so that I didn't start crying. "I'm sorry, Sam! I was hurting, but then I was trying to hurt you, and that was wrong!"

"Aly, I understand why you did what you did." he said patiently. He got up and sat on the edge of the bed, lifting his hand to my face slowly and brushing my hair back from my face.

He looked me in the eyes. "I'm trying to apologize. Let me do that instead of blaming yourself!"

I blinked back tears and took a deep breath. "Okay." I said.

"I spent the whole time worrying that you were- that you hated me and would never want to see me or speak to me again, and then when you started sending me images, it was just-" he sighed. "I was so scared and worried for you, but the fact that you were reaching out to me made me feel good, you know? And then when it stopped, and Missouri and I couldn't figure out why, that was even more worrying."

"Where did my powers go?" I asked. "I'm not even having headaches any more."

He looked at me. "The angel said that they're blocking them. They were blocking them before, so that you couldn't be...used. Do you remember talking to him about it?"

I shook my head.

"Don't think about it too much, it'll come back when it's ready." he told me.

"Okay," I yawned. "I think I'm ready for a nap." I sat back in the bed.

Sam stood up and chuckled. "It's like you're a little kid again, but this time around you don't mind taking naps. Remember how much you used to hate them?" he grinned at me.

"Sortof." I said.

He took my bowl and the tray. "I'm going to take these to the kitchen."

"Come right back," I murmured. I didn't want to be alone, and I wanted to wait until he came back, but I couldn't help it, I fell asleep again.

~ ~ spn ~ ~ spn ~ ~ spn ~ ~

Dean came into the room carrying some brightly colored plastic shopping bags.

"Sammy reminded me that you don't have a lot of clothes, so I went out and got you some stuff," he said gruffly. "Hope that's okay."

He set the bags on the bed next to me. I guessed that this was his way of apologizing for pushing me and upsetting me before.

I looked up at him. "You didn't have to do that-" I said hesitantly.

"Yeah, I did," he said. "I went through what was in your duffle and it's mostly out of season right now, and some of it was looking kinda threadbare. And I remembered you saying... before, that some of your stuff was getting too small."

He glanced at me, and I could see that he was worried.

"Okay," I said. "It's fine," I said, trying to be agreeable.

Dean waited a moment. "Aren't you gonna look at it and check it out, make sure you like it? I've got the reciepts in case you don't like it or it doesn't fit, I can take it back."

"I'm sure it's fine," I said.

Sam came over to the bed and took one of the bags. "Let's look at what he got," he said. He pulled a couple of things out and unfolded them. There were three pairs of yoga pants with drawstring waists, and three matching hoodies, all in bright colors.

"These are pretty," Sam said, looking at me. "Do you like them?"

"Uh, sure, I guess," I said.

"The salewoman told me that, uh, girls your age are still wearing the yoga stuff, and I told her that you've lost weight due to an illness, so she suggested the drawstring." Dean said. "Hope it's okay."

I smiled at him.

Sam pulled stuff out of another bag. Three pairs of jeans and two pretty patterned blouses, and a stack of t-shirts.

"I couldn't resist," Dean said with a grin, and then I understood what he meant. They were all shirts emblazoned with band logos- there were two Beatles shirts- one with the Beatles cartoon image of the Yellow Submarine, and the characters from the movie, and the other one had their logo and said, "All You Need is Love"; there was a Led Zeppelin shirt, a Kansas t-shirt, and an AC/DC shirt.

"Now maybe you'll stop raiding our bureaus for t-shirts," Dean smiled at me. It was a long time joke, since I had loved to wear their big t-shirts to bed ever since I was a little kid.

"But I like wearing your shirts!" I said.

"I know, I'm just teasing you, kiddo," he said, and he reached out to ruffle my hair.

I flinched as his hand came towards me, and then I felt guilty when I saw how upset he looked.

"Uh, sorry," he said. And put his hand down.

"No, I'm sorry," I said.

"You don't have anything to be sorry about," he said gruffly.

"Thanks for the clothes, Dean," I said sincerely, and I held my arms out to him.

He carefully stepped into my embrace and then hugged me tightly. When we let go, he stood up and reached into his coat pocket.

"One more thing," he said. He held out a chocolate bar. "I did check with Calvin, he said it's okay for you to have." he told me with a grin.

Tears came to my eyes. "Just like old times," I said with a little laugh. "Thanks, Dean."

He smiled down at me, and it looked like he had tears in his eyes too. "You're welcome, short stuff," he said.

"You want to try some of this on, and make sure it fits?" Sam asked me.

"Uh, I guess."

Sam stood up, and he and Dean started to walk out of the room.

"Where are you going?" I asked anxiously.

"We'll wait outside while you try the clothes on," Sam said.

"But- I don't care if you're here!" I said desperately. "Don't leave!"

Sam turned back to me. "What's wrong?"

"I don't want- I don't like being alone!" I burst out. "Don't leave!" I repeated.

"I'm not leaving. I'll be right there in the hallway." he said.

Tears came to my eyes. "Sam, no!" I said. I felt like a petulant child. "I don't want you to go!" And wow, now I was whining like a child.

He hesitated. "All right, I'll stay...I'll, uh, turn away while you're changing, okay?"

I exhaled, and wiped my eyes. "Okay. Thanks."

"I'll be back later," Dean said. He was more shy about being around me and anything remotely "girly" nowadays. Dean was uncomfortable talking about bras and make up and all of that. I had never had any issues with Sam helping me get dressed or anything, as he didn't seem to feel the same way that Dean did, and I had felt more at ease with Sam about all of those issues.

Sam grabbed his laptop and sat down on the bench sideways, so that he was facing partway away from me. He put his laptop on his lap and focused on that.

The shirts fit me, they were a little loose, and the yoga pants and hoodies were soft and comfortable. By the time I had tried on the jeans I was tired out from all the moving around. I tossed the pants onto the bed. "All done," I said. "I never realized how tiring it is to get dressed over and over."

He turned to me. "You're still recovering, still getting your strength back." He stood up and came over to the bed, and started to put the clothes back in the bags.

"I'll get these washed tonight so you can wear them tomorrow." he said.

"Thanks," I said.

Calvin came in to check me over. "Lookin' good, as usual." he said. "Are ya able to walk to the bathroom by yourself yet?"

"Not yet." I replied.

"We should start havin' you take short walks up and down the hallway to get your muscles goin'. Someone'll be next to you, it'll be a little exercise, and that'll help."

"Okay." I said.

"I'll bring you dinner in a little bit, are you hungry?"

"No, I want to rest." I said, yawning. "I'm tired now."

"All right, Sam can let me know when you're hungry," he said.

I laid down and closed my eyes again. It seemed like I was a little kid again, and all I did was eat and sleep these days. Hopefully that would change soon.

~ ~ spn ~ ~ spn ~ ~ spn ~ ~

Dean came into the kitchen holding a lap top, and walked over to where Sam and John were sitting at the table, finishing a late dinner while Aly slept. She had still been tired, had eaten a small dinner, and fallen back to sleep for the night.

"I think I found a lead on Meg," he said, setting the computer down.

"You did?" John moved the computer so that both he and Sam could read the screen.

"Brookings isn't too far away from here," Dean looked at John. "We could get on the road tonight." True to form, Dean had not said anything to any of them about the earlier confrontation they had had, and no one had brought any of it up. No one was willing to open that particular can of worms again right now.

"All right, now hold on," Bobby said, walking over to them from where he had been standing at the counter. All three of them turned to look at him. He took his cap off and resettled it on his head.

"Aly needs you here, not out there searchin' for demons,"

"Yeah, but this is a line on that bitch who betrayed her," Dean said.

Bobby sighed angrily and rolled his eyes up to the ceiling, as if to say, 'Heaven help me'. "You Winchester men may be smart, but y'all are the biggest bunch of idjits," he said. "Listen to me. That little girl in that hospital bed needs you here, all of you. She needs some normalcy in her life right now, Dad and brothers home with her, eating dinner together and watchin' a movie with popcorn and doing chores and who knows what all else. What she don't need is the three a' you leavin' her again, high and dry like ya used to, with people who ain't her family. She needs stability right now. The demons are always gonna be out there, hunting can wait for a while."

He looked right at John. "Your little girl needs you, she needs this to help her heal. What were we talkin' about before with Calvin? She's more 'n likely got PTSD and she don't need people runnin' off right now."

Bobby looked then at Sam and Dean. "She needs her dad to be her dad and her brothers to be her brothers. Can y'all let the hunting go for a little bit and just focus on her for a while? 'Cause quite honestly, I think if y'all go off and leave her again, the same kinda thing will be bound to happen, who knows if it'll be in a month or a year or 5 years, but when and if it does, it ain't gonna be pretty, and you'll lose her for good. And really, I can't say as I want to be around for it if it happens."

John looked at Bobby. "Well... I guess you're right." he said slowly.

"Course I'm right, you damn fool," Bobby said with agitation. "You said before that things was gonna change when you got her back, and this is the first step in making that change, ain't it? Admitting that you're a damn fool, and trying to step up and not be such a idjit for your kid."

"You're right, Bobby," Dean said. "You're absolutely right." He sighed and rubbed his hand over his face. "I'm exhausted...and I'm operating on instinct, and my instinct is to go out and find and gank these sons of bitches. They hurt my family, and I want to hurt them right back."

"Well don't ya think if you're exhausted, that's another reason to stay here awhile? An exhausted hunter makes mistakes, the kinds of mistakes that get themselves killed!" Bobby shook his head and muttered, "Idjit."

"So what do we do?" John asked. "Just sit back and let them go on their merry way for now? When God knows what else they're doing?"

Bobby turned on his old friend. "What's more important, John- your only daughter's health and well-being, or ridding the world of a couple more supernatural fuglies? Ya know, it's easy to be out there, stabbin' and shootin' and sending those things into the afterlife. It's a hell of a lot harder to be with people and deal with their emotions and issues. This is your family. She's all you got left of your wife. You need to nut up, Winchester, for your kid, before she decides she can't forgive ya any more and ya lose her for good."

Bobby turned and stalked out of the room, muttering under his breath about "damn fool idjits" and "don't listen to reason".

Sam looked at them both. "He's right...they'll still be out there whether or not we go hunting for them tonight or in a week or a month. And Aly needs to feel protected right now, especially since she just remembered about Meg. If any of us leave, it's going to play right into those feelings of abandonment that she's had."

John sighed and rubbed his forehead. "Sam, do you think she's ready to talk to me yet? Or even, just see me?"

"I'll ask her in the morning," Sam told him. "She had a rough time earlier," he gave Dean a look, "So she may not want to get into any more emotional stuff too deeply right now."

"Even if I could just be with her- sit with her-" John's voice shook.

Sam put his hand on John's shoulder. "I know, Dad. But she's got a lot of unresolved guilt with you that needs to be dealt with before she's going to feel comfortable with doing that."

He stood up and picked up his plate. "I'm going to go check on her and make sure she's still sleeping."

"Man, why is she still sleeping so much?" Dean asked.

"She's still healing," Sam said as he left the room. "And PTSD and stress can cause a need for more sleep."

~ ~ spn ~ ~ spn ~ ~ spn ~ ~

I was wearing one of my new outfits- dark pink yoga pants and hoodie, with the Kansas t-shirt- and I had had a breakfast that included two pieces of bacon. Now I was walking up the hallway with Sam next to me in case my legs got weak.

We walked to the door of the kitchen. Calvin was at the stove and Dad and Uncle Bobby were sitting at the table with mugs in front of them.

"Well hey there," Uncle Bobby said, smiling at me. "How are ya, Shorty?"

Dad looked at me, and his face lit up when I made eye contact with him.

"Hi, Dad," I said softly, and I reached for Sam's hand. "Hi, Uncle Bobby."

"It's okay, Aly," Sam said to me in my head as he took my hand.

"Hi, sweetheart," Dad replied to me, smiling so broadly that his dimples got deep. He shifted like he was going to get up, but then he didn't.

"We're just getting a little exercise," Sam told them. He looked down at me. "How are you feeling?"

"My legs feel a little weak," I said.

"Take it slow back to the room," Calvin said. "May sure you stay hydrated, and rest after."

Sam and I turned around and I stumbled a little. He put his arm around my waist and kept it there as we walked back to my room. I got back onto the bed, and then flopped back. "Wow that tired me out," I said. I sat up, even though I felt weak now.

"You should rest," Sam said.

"I don't want to rest," I said peevishly. "I'm tired of resting all the time!"

"I know, but it's what Calvin told you to do. Doctor's orders, remember?"

I sighed with annoyance. "People are really going to start ordering me around again?" I grumped.

Sam laughed. "What are you talking about, no one is ordering you around! Geez, drama queen much?" he teased me. "Get some rest, and then maybe you can talk to Dad today." He looked at me. "Do you feel up to that?"

"Uhh..." my stomach got twisted up with nerves. "I guess...?"

"All right then, get some rest, and after lunch, we can do that. Okay? And if you're not feeling up to it, it doesn't have to happen."

"Will you be there with me? And Dean too?" I looked up at him.

He smiled at me. "Yes, we'll both be there with you. Now rest."

I laid down again, feeling like I was wide awake, but then the tiredness hit me, and I felt myself falling asleep..