All Bobby could do was stare. The girl in front of him was pretty – not gorgeous, but there was something pleasant about her. Her large green eyes dominated her face. Beneath those eyes she had a small nose, and the kind of mouth that hadn't smiled in a long time. Her mousy brown hair hung down to the middle of her back. She reminded him, in a very roundabout way, of Karen. She had the same frame, but she was all muscle, whereas Karen had been pleasantly plump from years of cooking the best food in the county. The only difference was he had woken up next to Karen every morning for countless days, and he had never seen this girl before in his life.

Sam and Dean looked at Bobby. He was just as confused as they were.

"Look, sweetheart, you must be confused. I'm not your father. You've been possessed—"

"By a demon, I know. That's been my life for the past twenty-six years. But for the first four years, I was your daughter." She insisted.

"I'm sorry, but I've never seen you before in my life." Bobby maintained.

The girl broke away from Gabriel. She walked up to Bobby, "Yes you have. My name is Maeve Angelina Singer, daughter of Bobby and Karen Singer. I was born on March 14th, 1981."

"That's impossible!" Bobby reiterated.

"Karen named me after her favorite author." She raised her voice, talking over Bobby. "You always hated it, so you called me Mae. I was taken by the demons on November 2nd, 1985."

"He's not going to remember you." Gabriel spoke up.

Mae turned back to him. "How do you know?" There was an unsettling desperation in her voice.

"He's under some sort of memory altering spell." Gabriel's voice was calm, reassuring. For some reason he was trying to be gentle with the girl.

"You're an angel, if his memory's broken, fix it!" Dean said.

"It's not that simple." Gabriel rolled his eyes. "If I could just fix it I already would have."

"Look, I'm sorry, but I really don't know this girl. For all I know she could be some demon sent here to trick us." Bobby said.

A misty wetness welled in Mae's eyes. "You remember nothing? Not one thing?"

Bobby shook his head. "Like I said, I've never seen you before in my life."

She turned to Gabriel. Hot, angry tears rolled down her cheeks. "Why did you exorcise me?" She spat at him.

"Well I thought you'd be thankful." Gabriel replied, clearly surprised by this response.

"Thankful? Thankful for what? That you returned me to a world that remembers me for nothing other than the people I killed? The children I tortured? The monstrosities I helped create? Yeah, I guess I should be thankful." The flow of tears dwindled. She bit her lip, trying to keep them from returning.

Bobby felt a wave of compassion for the girl. He still didn't believe she was his daughter, but he knew no one should have to go through something like that. He took a couple steps forward and wrapped his arms around her. "It wasn't you who did those things." His voice was low and comforting. "It was that monster inside of you. You didn't do anything."

"That's the point. I should have done something. I should've—" A single tear leaked out of the corner of her eye, falling on Bobby's arm where the skin peeked out from the sleeve of his shirt.

Bobby pulled back. He looked at Mae, his brow crinkled. "Strawberry with caramel sauce." He said.

"What?" Dean asked.

"Strawberry with caramel sauce. Your mom and I would take you out for ice cream every Sunday after church, and you always got strawberry ice cream with caramel sauce." He brushed a stray strand of hair out of Mae's eyes.

"That's right." Mae said, a slight smile appearing.

"Bobby, what are you talking about?" Sam asked.

"I . . . I'm not sure. I just, have this memory. I have no idea where it came from." Bobby looked at Gabriel. "Why is this happening?"

"Like I said, you're under a spell. I'm not sure which spell. If I knew which one I could help dispel it, but the only way to find that out is to find out more about Mae's disappearance."

Everyone stood in stunned silence. "Perhaps we should head back to Bobby's," Sam suggested. "Then we can figure this spell thing out. And Gabriel can explain just how he got back here."

"Good idea, sasquatch." Gabriel grinned, beginning to sound more and more like his old self.

"Well, you gonna zap us there or are we gonna have to walk?" Dean asked.

"Oh, right." Gabriel walked over and put a hand on the small of Mae's back. He put his other hand on Dean's shoulder, who then put his hand on Sam's shoulder.

Bobby opened his eyes back in his living room. "Beer anyone?" He asked. Sam and Dean nodded. One look at Mae and he said, "I'll get you something a little stronger."

Gabriel helped Mae over to a chair. She was clearly overwhelmed by everything that was going on. Bobby came back with three beers and two tumblers. He handed the beers to Sam, Dean, and Gabriel, then poured two whiskeys. One he kept for himself, the other he handed to Mae.

Sam and Dean plopped down on the couch. Bobby sat in his chair. "You're going to need to grab a chair from the kitchen," he told Gabriel.

The angel gave Bobby a look as if to say, "You humans are so cute." An overstuffed armchair appeared next to Mae's. When he sat down, he sank into the seat.

"So, first things first. Last time we saw you, you were playing doornail in front of Lucifer." Dean said to Gabriel. "Was that some sort of trick?"

"Oh no, I was dead as they come. When Health released those souls from Castiel I was one of the ones who got out."

"You were in Purgatory?" Dean took a swig from his beer.

"Oh yeah. You didn't think it was only things that go bump in the night that go to Purgatory?" Gabriel's tone was playful despite the serious matters at hand.

"If you ask me, angels bump loudest." Bobby drained his whiskey and poured himself another. Mae hadn't touched hers.

An awkward silence descended. No one would say it, but everyone who had dealt with angels was silently agreeing with Bobby.

"So, what happened to you?" Dean directed his question toward Mae.

"Dean," Sam hissed at him. He knew Mae was having problems adjusting to no longer being possessed; he had gone through similar emotions dealing with Lucifer's possession of him. He looked kindly at Mae. "Just take your time. I know it's hard to talk about this kind of thing."

Mae sipped from her tumbler. "I was four when they took me. It was late at night, you and mom were asleep." She looked at Bobby sorrowfully. "I don't blame you." She told him. "It couldn't be helped. Once you were chosen for the experiments, they just took you." She took another sip. "One of the leaders took me. Moloch is his name. He's the only one of the three still alive. After he possessed me, Moloch walked me outside. Azazel was waiting outside the house. He cast some sort of spell, and then we left. They took me to some sort of laboratory. There were children all over, some even younger then me. Some of them had black eyes. At first I didn't know what that meant, but after a few days I realized it meant they were possessed. They put me in a room full of cages. There was a child in every one of them. When they wanted to work on a child, a demon would possess them in order to control them.

"It was . . . terrifying, the first time one came for me. They didn't physically hurt me the first time; they just ran a bunch of tests. But the demon . . . he wouldn't stop. All my memories, all the emotions – everything. He changed them. He would show me a memory, and twist it into something dark, something evil. For a few years I lived a cycle – possession, freedom, possession, freedom. There was no end in sight. And then they decided I was one of the subjects they wanted to permanently alter. Once they decided that I was possessed. That demon was with me through everything – until you exorcised him." She looked at Gabriel. "Thank you," she said quietly. "I shouldn't have snapped. It's not your fault. None of it is." She finished off her whiskey and held the glass out for Bobby to pour her more.

"How did they do it?" Sam asked. "Create the hybrids, I mean."

"No." she shook her head violently. "That I won't tell you. It was brutal. It was painful. And I will never tell a soul"

"It's okay." Gabriel rested his hand comfortingly on her shoulder. "Tell me more about that spell Azazel used. The more detail the better, if we're going to lift the spell off your father."

Deep lines furrowed Mae's brow. "It was a long time ago," she admitted, "And I was so scared." Gabriel smiled encouragingly at her. "There were . . . candles. And herbs and flowers. And he said some words – I think they were Latin?"

"Is there anything else? Anything at all. Did he make any movements? Did they take anything from you or from the house for it?"

Mae closed her eyes, focusing her mind on that night some twenty-six years ago. "They — they took my doll."

"Doll?" Gabriel asked.

"Yes. It was my favorite toy. And the air – it smelled like . . . rosemary."

"Good." Gabriel told her. "Focus on the rosemary scent. Were there any other smells? Any specific colors?"

"There were bells."

"Bells?"

"They might have been horns . . . they were pink. There was another pink flower. And there were purple ones; some with points like stars while others were more round. And there were bright reds. They might have been leaves – no, they were petals too. There were some rounded green leaves." She looked up. "That's all I can remember."

Gabriel got out of his chair. He walked over to Bobby's bookshelf and began staring intently at the titles along the spines of the books. Finally he took one of the shelves. He walked back to his seat as he flipped through the pages. He found what he was looking for, and offered it to Mae. "Is this what the other pink flower looked like?"

There was a glossy photograph of a pink flower sticking out of the water. It was surrounded by lily pads. "I think so." Mae nodded.

"Lotus flower, for those who are forgetful of the past." He flipped through the book again. "Are these the leaves you saw?" Mae nodded again. "Moonwort, for forgetfulness."

Recognition dawned on Bobby's face. "And the red ones are poppies, and the bells are angel's trumpets."

"Oblivion and separation." Gabriel nodded solemnly.

"But what were the purple ones?" Bobby's nose crinkled in thought.

"The ones with points were probably lilac. The others were probably periwinkle."

"Memory and early recollections." Bobby's mouth set itself in a grimace.

"What does all this mean?" Mae looked confused.

"It means you weren't just wiped from your parents' memories – you were wiped off the face of the planet." Gabriel's eyes were full of sorrow. "No one remembers you, because to them you never existed. This kind of spell is usually used by someone who needs to go into hiding. They cast it, they are forgotten, and their family goes on with their lives."

"Well then how are we supposed to undo it?" Dean had finished his beer and was beginning to get restless.

Gabriel rolled his eyes at the hunter and turned to Bobby. "When you remembered that bit about the ice cream, what exactly happened?"

"It just sort of flashed in front of me. It was like when you're looking for a word, and you know you know it, but you can't think of it, and then it finally comes to you." Bobby tried to explain.

Gabriel nodded slowly. "Like a game you used to play as a child that you had forgotten about until now."

"Exactly." Bobby was clearly relieved someone understood him.

"What led up to the memory resurfacing? Did you do anything, smell anything?"

"What's with this obsession with smell?" Sam had finished his beer too.

"Smell is intricately tied to memory." Gabriel was curt with Sam. There was something more at work here than a simple desire to help the Winchesters.

"No, nothing like that." Bobby shrugged. "She was crying on me one minute, and the next I was having this weird memory flash."

"Crying?" The archangel perked up. "Did any of the tears land on you?"

"Probably." Bobby said, "I wasn't really paying attention to that."

A familiar, jovial light flickered in Gabriel's eyes. "I think I know how to fix it." He grinned. Gabriel was taking a moment to gloat.

"Well?" Sam asked.

"I'll need to get some ingredients, and you my dear," he turned on Mae, "Are going to cry."

"What?" She asked

"Your tears are key to the removal of this spell. Remember how I said it is usually used by people who are going into hiding?"

"Yeah."
"Well once they come out of hiding, they have to have some way to remove the spell. Using your own tears guarantees you are the one to lift the spell, not whoever's after you."

"Oh."

"I think if we want to localize the affect we're going to need Bobby's tears too." Gabriel looked at Bobby. The giant of a man was sitting there stone-faced.

"Localize it?" Dean asked.

"Of course. It'd be kind of awkward if all of Bobby's friends and neighbors suddenly remembered he had a daughter who had disappeared for twenty-six years."

"Well, let's get going." Bobby barked. "You get what you need, then we'll start the waterworks."

"Meet you back here in five." Gabriel vanished with a smirk on his face.

Five minutes slowly ticked by. Silence reigned, broken by Dean getting himself another beer. Bobby went through the drawers on his desk and withdrew two small glass vials. One he handed to Mae, the other he kept for himself.

Dean jumped as Gabriel appeared mere inches from him.

"Goddammit don't do that!" he said.

Gabriel's cocksure smirk returned. "Sorry bud." He didn't move. Dean nearly tripped over a pile of books in his haste to create space between himself and the angel. "Missed you too, sweetie pie," Gabriel's grin widened.

Dean was about to start yelling when Mae stood, cutting him off. Deliberately she walked out of the room. Bobby followed her.

"There's a bathroom upstairs you can use." He said to her back.

She glanced over her shoulder. "Thanks. Where are you going to go?"

"I'll just use my bedroom."

"I wonder what happened to my bedroom." Mae began climbing the stairs, Bobby right behind her. He resisted the urge to tell her she didn't have a bedroom.

"I don't know." He simply said. She nodded absent-mindedly. He pointed at a door on their left. "That's the bathroom."

"I know." Mae veered away from him towards the door. "I'll see you in a bit." She mumbled. He nodded tersely.

Mae paused before shutting the door, watching her father enter the door at the end of the hall. She had missed home. And she had returned to find it wasn't home anymore.

Sam had just gotten himself and Dean another round of beers when Mae returned. Her eyes were red and puffy, but the vial she carried was half full of clear liquid. She handed it to Gabriel, then went and to get herself a beer.

Moments later Bobby followed. When Mae came back in the room she had two beers – she handed the second to Bobby.

"Thanks." He said. Neither mentioned the other's obvious signs of crying.

"Well, I think we have everything." Gabriel said. "Shall we?"

"Why not." Bobby shrugged, attempting to appear nonchalant.

Gabriel drew a large pentagram on the floor. He sat them all at one of the points, with himself at the highest. In front of himself he set out a bowl. One by one he dropped dried flowers and herbs into the bowl, then poured the contents of the two vials on the concoction. He began speaking strange words. Dean recognized the words as Latin, but that was all. Sam and Bobby occasionally understood a word or two, but they didn't understand the majority of the spell. Mae didn't understand any of it, but she recognized portions of it – they were the same sounds as the spell Azazel had cast the night she was taken.

When Gabriel reached the end of the spell, it appeared nothing had happened. Dean and Sam stared at each other across the pentagram, unsure of what to do.

Bobby let out a wracking sob. He lunged towards Mae, wrapping his arms around her. "Oh god, Mae. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry." He managed to eek out through the tears.

She returned his hug, silent tears coursing down her cheeks. "It's alright, Dad. It's ok. I'm here now. Everything's going to be fine."

"I let those horrible monsters have you. And I never knew. I never knew. Oh god I should have known. I should have remembered you. It's all my fault. All my fault."

"Shh." Mae whispered. "It's not your fault."

"And then after your mom – Oh god, you don't know about your mom!" Bobby moved his head so he could look at her.

"Yes, I do." Mae admitted.

"But how?" Bobby asked.

"Demons talk. The one that was my main possessor heard, and he . . . he told me."

"I'm so sorry. My Mae. My little Mae. Oh god how could this have happened." Bobby dissolved into tears once more.

Mae hugged him as he cried himself out. Sam and Dean and Gabriel sat in silence, watching the scene unfold. Each of them felt for Bobby and Mae in their own way. As sons, they knew the pain of being separated from their father.

Bobby wiped his eyes. "I'm sorry. I'm a blubbering mess. It's just – When Gabriel cast that spell, it was like the last twenty-six years' worth of sorrow came crashing down on me."

"I know." Mae said. "It hurts. But there's no need for you to keep apologizing. None of this is your fault. And if you keep blaming yourself, all that's going to happen is you are going to feel worse and worse. It's in the past. Let it go."

Bobby nodded. "I need a beer."

Mae smiled, "Sounds like a good idea."

Gabriel snapped his fingers, and five beers appeared in the center of the pentagram. They each grabbed one.

"What's that?" Bobby saw something out of the corner of his eye. It was an old, dusty, leather-bound book sitting on the bottom shelf of his bookcase. Bobby stood and walked over to it, the other four following him. "I can't believe I never noticed this." Bobby bent to pick up the battered old tome. When he blew the dust off, the boys could make out Grimm's Fairy Tales in gold lettering. "In all my years pacing the floors in front of the bookcase, I never looked twice at this. I saw some old, worthless book." He looked up at Mae, tears brimming in his eyes. "The truth is it was the most important book in this house,"

Mae reached out and took the book from him. She gently flipped through the yellowed pages, stopping to read passages here and there. "You changed the endings for me." She smiled sadly at Bobby. "You made them happy. Gave me the Disney version." All vestiges of a smile slipped from her face. "The happy endings were the first things to go."

Sam peered into her face, puzzled.

"After they took me, the demons liked to . . . play with me. One of the first things they did to break me was corrupt all the happy endings – the fairytales, the memories – all gone." Mae explained.

"That must've been awful." Sam rested a hand on her shoulder.

"Yeah. Well, you get used to those kinds of things." Mae walked over to the stairs, climbing them delicately. The others followed her.

A new door had appeared in the hallway. When he thought about it, Dean realized he had seen the door a thousand times, but he had never noticed it. He knew what would be behind it before Mae even touched the doorknob.

The old hinges screeched as the door swung inwards. Beyond was a room coated in twenty-six years of dust and cobwebs. Silently they all walked into the room, their footsteps kicking up puffs of dust from the thick carpet. The motes swirled in the dirty light streaming through the window centered on the far wall, and beneath it, a small bed. There was an indent in the center of the bed where a tiny body had once curled up against the intense cold of the north. Toys and books and clothes were strewn about where their owner had left them.

Mae bent and picked up a dusty old bunny at her feet. She shook the dust off of it as she walked over to the bed, setting it gently on the pillow.

"We're going to need to get you a bigger bed." Bobby said.

Mae started to laugh. It was one of those laughs that begins in your toes and stretches through you, rising up until it bursts forth from your lips. It was beautiful, and so very bittersweet. Bobby knew his daughter hadn't laughed like that since the night before she had vanished. The voices he did when he told her The King, the Mice, and the Cheese always made her laugh.

"We can go into town and pick one up tomorrow morning." Dean suggested. "You can have the couch tonight, I'll go sleep in the car."

"Really?" Gabriel asked. "Did you already forget who's back?"

Dean stared blankly.

"Heeeeeeeeeeeeere's Johnny!" Gabriel snapped his fingers. The room changed before their very eyes. The toy chests and pink clothes vanished. The bed expanded, growing four posts and hangings. A large wardrobe appeared where the bookshelf had been, it's doors open and clothes spilling out. In the far corner a new bookcase appeared. Classic novel and books of poetry lined the shelves next to books on the occult and Latin.

The humans' eyes widened. Mae walked to the foot of the bed and cautiously sat down. "This is – fantastic. Thank you." She smiled at Gabriel.

"You're welcome, sweetheart." Gabriel smiled back.

Bobby cleared his throat. "So what did you do with her old toys and books?"

"They're downstairs in the cupboard. I put them in labeled boxes so you can go through them and keep the ones you want and donate the rest." He never took his eyes off Mae.

"What's going on here?" Sam asked.

"What do you mean?" Gabriel feigned innocence.

"You know exactly what I mean." Sam replied. "It makes no sense for you to appear out of nowhere and exorcise Mae. The three of us are marked by Death so there's no way we drew you to that warehouse. It had to have been Mae. But why her? From what she's said she was one of hundreds of hybrids. So I ask again – why her?"

Gabriel sighed. "It's . . . complicated." He paused. "Which reminds me . . ." He walked over to Mae and placed his hand on the crown of her head. Mae flinched. "There. You've got Enochian sigils on your skeleton. I should be the only one able to find you."

"Okay." Sam growled. "One, you're avoiding the question. Two, why didn't that hurt her?"

"Archangel. Duh." Gabriel said, avoiding eye contact with everyone.

"We're waiting." Bobby's throaty growl echoed Sam's.

Mae looked on, clearly puzzled. She wasn't sure, but it seems the Winchesters and her father had a – shall we say colorful – history with Gabriel.

"It's really, really complicated." Gabriel reiterated. "I mean if I hadn't watched it happen, I wouldn't believe it either."

"If you hadn't watched what happen?" Mae asked.

"If I hadn't watched you be created." Stunned silence descended upon the room.

Mae's temper was mercurial. "You watched me be turned into a hybrid and you did nothing?"

"No, no, no, no, no. I watched you being created in Heaven," Gabriel clarified.

Bobby finally spoke, "But you've been away from Heaven for centuries. How could you have seen my thirty-year-old daughter being created?"

"Millennia, actually. And because she's not thirty years old. Your daughter has been here since days after God created humans."

"What?" Mae was shocked. "I think I would have remembered millennia of existence."

"No you wouldn't. It wasn't you that was created, per se. It was your soul."

"My soul?" Mae asked incredulously.

"Yeah. You know, shiny white thing that makes you distinctly human."

"So I –"

"Have one of the oldest souls in the universe? Yes."

"Wait, one of?" injected Dean.

Gabriel sighed. "One of. There were four souls created – one for each of the archangels. When God first created you little monkeys, he could tell there were some . . . tensions between you and angels. Daddy hoped by attaching human souls to the archangels we would learn from them. Begin to appreciate you humans. Michael has his soul, Raphy has his, Luci had his, and I have mine – you." He looked sheepishly at Mae.

"So you two are like, what, soul mates?" Dean asked.

"No. Not technically. At least, not as you define it. The souls were created to teach us about humans, and in turn we would teach them about angels. I guess you could call us learning buddies." Gabriel shrugged. "You can't call us soul mates because your definition of soul mates has been corrupted. You see soul mates as people who are destined to fall in love. As the original soul mates, we were meant to be inseparable, the best of friends. But our love would never be taken to a physical level. It would be pure." Gabriel laughed at the faces everyone was making. "I told you it was complicated."

Mae's brow furrowed. "If I'm an old soul, why am I here? Shouldn't I have died and gone to Heaven?"

"That's another thing unique to the souls – they are the only four souls in all creation that can elect to be reincarnated. From what I gathered during my time here on earth, after I ran off you asked to be continually reincarnated. You wouldn't remember your time spent in Heaven because no human that dies and comes back does, unless Dad wants them to." A candy bar appeared in Gabriel's hand. He unwrapped it noisily, and took a large bite. "Sorry," he said around the chocolate, "I'm hungry."

"You said there was one soul created for each archangel – is there any way we could use Raphael's soul to get to him?" Sam asked.

"If it's here on earth, yes. But it's probably in Heaven. Let's face it, if you had a choice, you'd be up there too." He took another large bite.

"What about Lucifer's and Michael's? Could we use one of them?" Sam pressed.

He finished off the candy bar. "No and no. Michael's is still in Heaven, and you already killed Lucifer's."

"Wait. What?" Dean asked

"Lilith. The first demon. You killed her. She was Luci's soul, and she was the first soul he corrupted. That made his betrayal even worse – not only did he fight his Father and brothers, but he corrupted the greatest gift his Father ever gave him."

"So does that mean Lilith can be reincarnated?" Bobby sounded concerned.

"Nope. She's gone, baby, gone."

"That's a relief." Mae murmured.

Bobby turned on her. "You knew Lilith?"

"Everyone did." Silence descended once more. Finally, Mae spoke, "Look, I don't know about you guys, but I've had a bit of a day. I think we should all turn in for the night. We can figure out what to do about all this tomorrow."

Sam yawned. "Sounds good to me."

Sam, Dean, and Gabriel filed out. Bobby stayed, staring at his daughter.

"What?" Mae asked gently.

"After your mother died, I thought I was going to be alone for the rest of my life."

Mae rose from the edge of the bed, wrapping her father in a hug. "Never."

Bobby untangled himself from her arms. "It's good to have you back," he said, shutting the door behind him.