The first sensation to return to me was touch. Which meant I could feel pain.

Fantastic.

It felt like a million daggers were being driving into my shoulder at once, digging into the bone. I tried to scream, to thrash, but my muscles wouldn't move. I was trapped in my own body.

To distract myself from the pain I began to focus on anything else. The feel of my clothes around my skin, my torso and lower body covered in a blanket. I was in a bed somewhere. The question was, where?

Eventually, the pain began to move aside, pushed to the back burner. I found that while I had been concentrating on hiding from it, my hearing had returned. I could feel my movement returning as well, slowly and nowhere near steadily, but still returning.

I listened to what was around me, analyzing everything. There were birds somewhere- outside a window? There was an occasional creaking, someone shifting weight. Each motion they made caused my heart to beat faster. I had no idea who was there.

I remembered what had happened perfectly, though I was still having trouble digesting it. I had, while fighting off the daggers in my shoulder, analyzed the incident at the school, trying to convince myself that I wasn't insane. I knew I would need physical proof to affirm that.

However, finally, my movement was back. I tried to lift my eyelashes, failed, and tried again. The whole time I tried not to move anything else, least whoever was with me realized I was no longer unconscious. I didn't know what their intentions were.

Finally my lids stayed open, black lashes hovering at the top of my vision. I scanned around me, studying myself and the room I was in as well as I could without moving my head.

I was covered in a blanket up to the waist, rendering visible several bandages that tied my arm to my torso. Just thinking about my shoulder brought the pain to the forefront of my mind, so I began to study the room.

It was a simple motel room, with ugly beige walls and simple beds. Papers and an open computer were sitting on a small table in the corner. To the left of the bed I was on was the door, beside that a window stretched across the remainder of the wall. To my right was a nightstand, shared between the bed I rested on and the bed on its other side.

At the right of the room I heard a toilet flush, then the sound of running water. A minute later the bathroom door began to open, and I quickly shut my eyes. After a moment I heard someone sit at the table, and I chanced opening my eyes.

Before me sat Sam Winchester.

He was busy poring through whatever was on the laptop's screen, oblivious to the fact that I had woken. I was, of course, immensely glad that it was a Winchester and not a demon in the room with me. Then my second thought got rid of that gladness.

Deep down, at the root of the show, Sam, Dean, and Cas were not normal. They hunted things in the night, living neither in one world or the other, but hovering on the edge. It was a dangerous place to spend your life, and put one into a mindset that was becoming more and more obvious as the show went on. Deep down, at their very cores, these three men were at least part psychopaths.

I began to flex first my fingers and toes, moving gradually up my body. I wanted to be able to move, and move quickly, not stumble around like a drunk. As I began to move my torso around the bead creaked, and Sam turned.

I needed to act like I'd just woken up. I let myself flop on the bed, eyes fluttering, what I hoped was a terrified look on my face. Since I was pretty terrified, I was sure that wasn't too hard to pull off.

"Hey," Sam tried for a reassuring smile. "It's ok. I'm Sam. Do you remember what happened?"

I nodded. "Yeah." I hated the way my voice sounded. All raspy and hoarse. Sam grabbed a glass off the table and filled it with tap water, handing it to me cautiously. I drank, taking just a small sip at first, then gulping from the glass like the clear liquid inside was the only thing keeping me alive. I suppose it was.

"Thanks." I set the glass on the bedside table next to me, noticing how my arm was much weaker than I would have liked, and Sam nodded. He sat on the edge of the bed, ready to stand again if I showed signs of discomfort. I didn't object, and he let his large frame settle into a more comfortable position.

"What's your name?" he asked.

I gulped. Should I tell him my real name or not? While I doubted Sam, Dean, or Castiel would seek out my family, the demons they fought certainly would. But for all I knew this was a test, and Sam already knew. I decided honesty was the best policy.

"Lucy." I watched his eyes as I spoke, looking for signs of recognition; something to show that he already knew. "Lucy Greene."

Sam nodded. "I'm Sam Winchester," he said. He held out a hand, and tentatively I took it.

"I know," I said.

"Right." Sam stood and went to the laptop, tapping it softly. "I've been looking up the show you mentioned."

"What did you find?" I was curious, and more than a bit scared. I knew some fans could get a bit… eccentric. Sam however, didn't seem to mind too much. Or else he was good at hiding it.

"The show's spot on, though it's behind on events," he said. He said it simply, like we were discussing the weather and not how his life related into a TV show in a parallel universe.

I nodded. "Well, I figure that's better than it being ahead."

Sam frowned. "How do you figure?"

I shrugged. "If you know what the future is, you try to change it. Humans always do. You'd probably just end up screwing things up."

Sam looked indignant. "Thanks," he said. Sarcastically.

I smiled. "You asked."

I realized that by now I was sitting up in the bed, posture more relaxed than before. I hadn't even realized that I'd moved. Sam seemed to just be realizing this as well.

"How's your shoulder?" he asked. "I have painkillers if you need them."

I nodded. "Yeah, can I have those?" I gladly accepted the bottle, frowning as the child proof cap proved too much for me with only one good arm. With a chuckle Sam took it and twisted the cap off with ease, tossing it on the bed and pouring out a couple of pills for me. I swallowed them, leaning back against the headboard as I did so.

"What happened?" I asked. "I mean, after the exorcism?"

Sam frowned. "What do you remember?"

"I remember one of the demons jumping at Dean, and I tackled it." I paused, my memory had faded slightly here. "After that it's just a bunch of pain, then nothing."

Sam nodded. "You got stabbed in the shoulder, passed out. We didn't want to leave you there like that, so we took you with us. Bandaged you up."

I had so many questions. Where were we? Where were Dean and Castiel? When could I go home? Could I even go home? I decided to go with the first question that had popped into my head.

"Where are we?"

"A motel, a town or two over from yours. We had to get out of there, but we had to find a place to lay low quick. You were bleeding a lot."

I smiled sheepishly. "Sorry."

Sam scoffed, settling back in the desk chair. "Don't be. I've seen worse. You're handling it well too."

"Thanks."

Sam nodded absentmindedly, distracted. I looked around the room.

"Where are Dean and Castiel?" I paused as I said Castiel's name. Should I call him Castiel or Cas? Was Cas an endearing name reserved just for the Winchesters?

"They went to keep an eye on your school. They should be back soon."

I frowned. "Why do they need to watch the school?"

"It's ground zero of- whatever the hell happened. We've gotta make sure nothing else happens there."

I nodded, it made sense. But wouldn't it be a lot easier for them to figure all this out from their own universe? Not that I didn't find it cool beyond belief that they were here, but I doubted they were enjoying themselves.

"Don't you have to go back to your universe?"

Sam nodded. "But first we need to figure out how. Which means figuring out how we got here in the first place. That's a bit complicated."

"Maybe I can help." I leaned forward in the bed. "I'm guessing I'm stuck with you lot for a while, right?"

Sam nodded. "I'm sorry," he said. "It's not safe for you to go back to your family. Not yet. As soon as we have all of this figured out you can go back, but right now there're demons loose, and they've seen you with us. You're their number one target. We'll keep you safe though, I promise."

I nodded. I'd expected some answer of that variety. Still, it felt like a punch to the stomach.

"What about my family?" I asked. "Are they safe?"

Sam sighed. "Hopefully. Most demons don't think to target families; but there's always a chance. Dean and Cas said they'd put some protections around your house while they were in town."

I nodded, picturing Dean and Castiel carving devil's traps into the doorframes of my house. The image, although amusing for some unknown reason, couldn't quite dispel the gnawing, clenching pain I felt at my dilemma. While I was digesting Sam's words the door to the room opened, and Dean and Castiel stepped in.

"Oh good, you're up." Dean dropped a McDonalds bag on the table, pulling out four burgers. "Here you go." He tossed me one, and I grabbed at it with my good hand.

We ate in silence, all four of us. Which I thought was strange, because I was pretty sure angels didn't eat. I decided it wasn't at the top of my list of priorities.

Dean was licking grease and ketchup off his fingers by now. "So," he said. "Who are you?"

"Lucy Greene," I said. Dean nodded, and I caught an almost imperceptible nod from Sam to him.

"Ok Lucy," Dean crumpled up his burger wrapper, tossing it at the trash bin. It bounced off the rim, landing on the floor. He made no move to pick it up. "Here's the deal. Apparently we're in a universe where not only are we characters on a TV show, but people actually watch that TV show. Which means we can't do much without drawing attention to ourselves. We need to know as much about this place as you can give us."

I blinked. "It's not much different from your world," I told him. "Just without all the supernatural stuff."

Dean nodded. "Was there anything weird going on in your school before we came through? Anything strange happening a few days before?"

I shook my head. "Nothing. One minute I was walking down the hall, the next I'm having a wrestling match with a creature I didn't even know existed."

"Demons are very real," Castiel cautioned me. "And very dangerous."

I nodded, not sure whether to gesture to the bruise I was sure was around my neck or to my shoulder first. "I know."

Castiel leaned back slightly. "Sorry."

"S'ok."

"Anyway." Dean looked slightly annoyed. He sighed, apparently deciding to change what he was going to say. "Listen kid-"

"Lucy."

"Right. Lucy. Listen Lucy, here's the thing. We have no idea what we're in to here, and no idea how to get back to our world. For your own safety you have to stay with us until we can get back, but then you can go back to your daily life and forget we ever existed. Until then, you need to help us."

I nodded. I wasn't sure how much help I would be, but I would try. "What do you need?"

"Nothing now." Castiel was shooting Dean a look, one that I was fairly sure amounted to leave her alone. "Right now you need to sleep and gain your strength back."

I nodded. I was feeling tired already. Healing from demon fights sure took a lot of energy. "And tomorrow?"

"We'll see what's going on then." Dean stood, moving to the fridge to grab another beer and settling on the other bed. He glanced over at me.

"Don't worry," he added. "We've got another room. Sam and I'll just hang out here for a bit, then we'll hit the sack."

I nodded, already falling back against the pillows, stifling a yawn.

"Just be quiet about it," I managed. Then I was asleep.