He was doing all he could to ignore the constant nervous tapping of Sam's fingers against the window of the Impala, but it was started to sound like nails on chalkboard. He was sure his brother wasn't even aware he was doing it. There was no point in attempting to turn on music to drown out the sound; he had already tried that. Worried, Sam wasn't in the mood to listen to anything and had shut it off. Even the pouring rain was quieter than that tapping.

"Dude, you need to stop that, now. It's going to be okay."

"You don't know that," he answered a little too fast, his tone flat.

Dean did his best to bite his tongue, not wanting to argue and happy that the tapping had stopped.

"Where do you think the demon is?"

"For the tenth time, Sam, I don't know. We were in that hospital for hours. Who knows how far of a head start it has on us?"

"We had to be in that hospital-"

"I know! I'm not saying that the demon was more important, but that is the way it is. Since we were gone, it got ahead of us. You can't beat yourself up about it. It's happens."

He went back to looking out the window and the tapping ensued.

"Hey, look, it's the hospital," Dean said, not being able to contain his grateful tone. Once they were back in there, Sam would settle down. Just before he shut the engine down, however, he could have sworn he saw the interior lights flicker.

"Did you see that?" he asked, not really sure if it was something to worry about or if it was his mind playing tricks. The two had been awake for nearly thirty six straight hours the it was. "Sam?"

He turned to find the passenger seat empty and the door still open.

"Shit…" he mumbled, reaching over to pull the door shut and then running into the hospital as fast as he could. By the time that he reached the wing they had spent the early morning hours in, he could already hear yelling. By the time he reached Sam, he found him to be towering over a doctor, not allowing him to get a word in.

"Sir, you need to calm down. I told you, she walked out of here of her own free will. We did nothing to her. She was not supposed to even leave without our say, so I can't say I'm very happy about it either," the doctor tried to explain.

"How did she just walk out of here?! Someone had to see her!"

"Hey, Sam, come on, calm down. She's probably fine," Dean said, in a futile attempt to get in between the doctor and his brother. It didn't do much good because Sam pretty much shrugged him off of his arm. Not wanting to put anymore stress on him, he shifted his attention to the doctor.

"Doc, you want to give us a second?"

Used to seeing angry loved ones on a daily basis, the doctor nodded and walked away.

"All right, have you thought to give her a call? She has a phone, you know. It would probably work a hell of a lot better than roughing up a doctor, don't you think?"

He mumbled something barely audible, knowing there was no point in causing a scene in the hospital. His initial fear had kept him from thinking even remotely rationally. Grabbing his phone, he dialed quickly. Dean listened as he walked down the hall, trying to get a sense of privacy. He watched as he redialed, assuming he had picked up the answering machine. That's when he got a connection.

"Where are you? No, we're at the hospital, you weren't supposed to leave. Why? Because you're hospitalized, honey, they don't like when you leave without them checking on you. Well, are you okay? Okay, see you then."

One sided conversations brought on immense curiosity. He didn't even need to ask this time, however.

"She's coming over to the motel."

"What? No, she can't. We have all our shit there, what is she going to say?"

Sam, who was already walking far in front of him, turned back, a look of aggravation on his face.

"Clean it up."

"Oh, no problem. I'll just stay up for another few hours; do you have any idea how tired I am?"

"Yes. I've been awake with you the whole time. So just get yourself another cup of coffee and deal with it."

"What about the demon?" he called, perhaps a bit too loudly, as he began to walk away again.

"Do you see any demons here?"

Shaking his head in disapproval, he followed him back to the parking lot. Normally, he wouldn't have been so passive, but this was a different circumstance. No matter what he would say, his brother wouldn't budge, so it was better just to go along with things.

With a smile, Ruby hung up the small cell phone. Things were becoming easier than she had imagined. She had barely gotten out of the hospital before the cell phone had rang. At first, she was reluctant to answer it and had left it securely hidden in the purse. Curiosity had gotten the best of her the second time around though and she found Sam's name on the phone. She could feel the girl who's body she had invaded stiffen up when she heard Sam's voice. She must have been pretty upset because it wasn't easy to maintain any control of a possessed body. She let her get away with it, seeing it coming. She had resisted the urge to say anything to her, much to Ruby's surprise.

The morning was cold and the sidewalk was covered in ice. The last place she had been was near a desert. Luckily, the girl she now inhabited had blood thick enough to handle the climate. She must have lived in the area long. It had been many years since Ruby had been in a part of the world with a colder atmosphere and found it a bit strange. She couldn't remember the last time she had worn gloves and such a heavy coat.

Part of her was nervous about going to the motel. Although she was strong and hidden beneath the guise of a mortal, she was about to walk into a room with two very well known hunters. In any other situation, she would be doing everything in her power to get as far away from them as she could, especially Sam. She knew what he was capable of and it terrified her more than anything. Any demon who wasn't scared of him was more stupid than anything. Something made her continue down the street though, growing ever closer to them and what could possibly be her own demise.

Dean was sleeping, passed out with his shoes still on lying on top of the motel room bed. He hadn't lasted very long, not that Sam had expected much less. If it wasn't for his own constant worrying and looking out the window whenever he wasn't checking his phone, he would have been asleep too. Instead, he was clutching a near empty cup of coffee in his shaking hand, too tired to even think. He had wanted to clean up the room so too many questions wouldn't be asked, but had only succeeded in kicking the bags of salt under the beds and hiding the guns in the closets. The rest of the room still looked a wreck, unkempt with empty bottles of booze and a couple pizza boxes. It wasn't that the room was a total pit, but it was small enough to make any little mess look much more of a problem than it really was. It was starting to aggravate him, so he did his best not to look back at the room and keep his eyes out the window. It had been a half hour since he had talked to her and he was beginning to become even more anxious than before. That's when he heard a knock on the door and practically dove towards it, dropping his coffee.

When he opened the door for her, she stood eyeing him. He wondered why she was looking at him so strangely when he looked down and saw that the then lukewarm coffee had stained the front of his shirt.

"You okay?" she asked, with a crooked smile, not sure whether it was appropriate to laugh at him or not.

Feeling ridiculous, he nodded.

"Come on in. I have to change."

Ruby stared at the girl's boyfriend who looked completely disheveled. He was a mess, complete with a large stain of coffee on his shirt. It was obvious to her that he hadn't slept, as his eyes were bloodshot with black marks under them. It made her glad she didn't require sleep. She stood in the doorway as he vanished into the bathroom, only to appear seconds later with a different, cleaner, shirt on. He grabbed her hand and pulled her into the room, shutting and locking the door behind her. She felt incredibly uncomfortable being in a room with so many things that could hurt her. Although they had hidden everything, she wasn't naïve enough to think that two hunters of their reputation wouldn't have anything on them.

"So," he said, his voice haggard, "why did you leave the hospital?"

She was still standing up next to the door and he gestured her to sit. Not knowing where else to sit, as he had taken the chair, she sat on the second bed in the room, beside the one where Dean was sleeping. He was beginning to snore.

"I…felt better."

It was a really lame response and she had wanted to come up with something better, but he had really thrown that question at her quick. It was obvious he didn't believe her.

"Right. You were scared and pissed at me the last time I saw you. What happened to that?"

I'm not pissed at you.

Ruby felt the urge to hit the girl in the head, but ignored it.

"I'm not pissed at you," she said, mimicking the words she had heard in her head, "I was just freaked out."

The emotion on his face didn't change, he only appeared worn and exhausted. She didn't think he could be angry at that moment if he tried.

"There is a lot we need to talk about. There's things I haven't told you."

She didn't know what to say to him then. The voice in her head was silent as well, although she couldn't understand why. He peered over her shoulder at his sleeping brother, who wasn't going to wake up for anything.

"That thing that came after you…" he trailed off and looked away then, not sure of how he was going to say his next words without sounding crazy, "…it was a demon."

Ruby was actually very surprised, as it had been her understanding that this girl knew everything about him. She had been telling the truth when they were at the hospital.

"A demon?" she asked, playing as dumb as she could without appearing too suspicious.

"Yes."

He watched her before saying anything else, trying to see what she was thinking through her eyes, but she waited for him to continue.

"Dean and I aren't private investigators. We hunt demons."

She stifled a laugh, hoping it to be believable. Sam appeared to believe it and reached under her feet, pulling out a duffel bag.

"See this?" he asked, grabbing a giant canister of pure salt. Ruby stiffened slightly, nervous. She didn't want to chance him getting her caught by salt of all things.

"It's salt," she muttered, still trying to act like she had no idea what he was doing.

"It's pure salt. Demons can't cross it."

"Why?"

"Because it's pure. It makes a space sacred, which demons aren't huge fans of."

"Okay…"

She watched him dig through the bag even more and he pulled out a bottle of clear liquid that she knew without even thinking what it was. Every part of her was screaming to get out of that room, but she had to remain there. The fear of everything he was pulling out of the bag was beginning to mount.

"Is that holy water?"

"Yeah."

"What are you doing with holy water in your duffel bag?"

He didn't answer her.

"This is insane," she said, hoping she was saying what he thought she would say.

"No, it's true."

"So you guys run around with holy water and salt stopping monsters?"

"Not just holy water and salt, but those things help. All you have to do is sprinkle the slightest bit of this on a demon and it burns them worse than fire."

She could only watch in slow motion horror as he jokingly tossed the slightest bit of the water at her, with a large grin on his face. In his mind, it was probably just a way to break the serious mood by messing with his girlfriend, but the second it hit the girl's skin, she screamed in agony. With her eyes squeezed shut tightly and her teeth clenched together, she tried to deal with the pain, as it didn't last long, but was truly unbearable. Once it passed, she opened her eyes, only to see Sam staring back at her, the smile from his face gone only to be replaced by a stony glare of hatred.

The girl he had fallen in love with so many months ago and had actually been planning on having in his life for the rest of time was staring back at him with black eyes. He could barely stand to look at her, to see that face he loved so much full of so much evil. His mind was a blur of thoughts, questions, and anger. Nothing made sense. That's when she tried to stand up. Before she was able to, he pulled the Colt out of the drawer of the nightstand beside him, cocked it, and pointed it directly at her forehead.

"You sit right back down, now," he growled, not recognizing his own voice.

Out of his peripheral vision, he saw Dean move, woken by the noise.

"Sam, what the hell? Can't the two of you be…holy shit, what are you doing?"

"It's not her," he said quickly, not wanting to explain.

"What do you mean it's not her?" he asked, still half asleep and not thinking at all.

"Get over here."

Recognizing the serious tone in his voice, he quickly was at his side.

"She's a demon."

Dean stared at the girl on the bed, whose eyes had already changed back to their natural color before he had seen her. Rubbing his eyes, he yawned.

"Sam, you need some sleep. Take that gun off her. You're all jumpy."

There was no way that the innocent looking blond that he had known for months now was a demon and he knew how tired and nervous Sam was. He couldn't blame him for seeing things that weren't there, but couldn't have him doing anything he would regret, so he reached for the gun.

"No!" he insisted, tightening his grip on the Colt. "Watch."

The second he pulled the holy water back into her view, the girl jumped back across the bed in fear and tried to run in the direction of the door, only to have Dean bash his fist into her face and knock her to the floor. Taken aback, she made a weak attempt to get to her feet, but he quickly pulled her up by the shoulders and slammed her back into the wall. She struggled to pull out of his grasp, but he had apparently slowed her down. Her eyes were black again, something that stunned them both. It was never easy to see demonic eyes in a person they knew.

"Who are you?" he demanded to know, his voice harsh.

She didn't answer and without question, he reached for the open bottle of holy water that Sam had placed on the table while keeping her pinned to the wall with the other hand.

"You're going to answer me or I'll pour this down your throat, understand?"

There was a look in her eyes that told him there was something he didn't know, something he found particularly unnerving.

"You wouldn't do that," she said with a smirk, sickeningly confident.

"Oh, no?"

"No. Because you wouldn't want to be responsible for burning the insides out of your brother's precious little girlfriend, now would you?"

Before he could even react, he felt Sam's hand pull him away from her. Much to his surprise, he watched him hold the gun less than an inch from the center of her forehead.

"You're going to let her go. Now."

"Really? And why would I do that? Better yet, how are you going to make me?"

"If you don't, I'll put a bullet in your head."

"No, because if you do that, she dies, remember? You can't kill me without killing her at the same time."

As much as he knew it was the truth, part of him wanted so badly to kill the demon that was keeping her hostage within her own body. However, he couldn't help but still see her standing in front of him and not the demon.

"Let her go," he said, the abrasive not diminishing in the slightest.

"I can't do that."

"Yes, you can! Let her go, now!"

His voice was getting louder, more angry with every passing minute. She sneered at him, smug in her decision. Her expression changed drastically suddenly as Dean splashed holy water in her face. She screamed again, clutching her face and falling to her knees. They watched as her whole demeanor seemed to change and her burnt face looked up at Sam, her eyes begging. Layers of skin had been burnt down, more painful than permanent. They could tell looking at them that her face would heal soon and possibly leave some light scarring.

"Help me…" they heard her whisper and for a mortified moment, realized that she had been able to take control of her body again.

"Get this thing out of me, please…"

They could only guess that the pain of the holy water had suppressed the demon momentarily, allowing her to take some control. Knowing it wouldn't be long, Sam crouched down in front of her and grabbed her hands. Her eyes were full of tears of pain and fear and it was killing him that he couldn't save her.

"…help…" she said again, her voice trailing off near the end of the word and before he could say anything, he watched the sadness in her eyes harden again. It was then that he knew there was a good chance he would never really see her again.