While Tasha departed to call Fiona, Dr. Brennan pulled up a stool beside Kami's bed.

"Tell me, Kami," he said, "if you can: how did this happen?"

Kami shrugged and held up her hand. "It was Mary's doing," she replied.

Dr. Brennan gestured to her lap. "And your legs?" He asked.

In response, Kami twitched the blanket off to the side and showed the doctor how she could wiggle her toes.

He curbed his astonishment like a true professional and examined the once-damaged legs thoroughly.

"Completely sound," he announced when he finished. "This is truly incredible! Whatever deterioration you had is completely gone!" He smiled. "Shall we test out those muscles of yours? How about a walk to the window?"

Kami nodded vigorously. With assistance on both sides from Tasha on her right and Dr. Brennan on her left, Kami eased her legs over the edge of her bed.

"All right, breathe," said Mary. "You can do this."

Kami eased her weight onto her hips, her knees, and her ankles. Every joint wobbled precariously.

"It's all right, Kami," Dr. Brennan coached. "You've never done this before, so it's no problem if we don't make it to the window today."

The window! Kami glanced over her shoulder. It was just about close enough to reach out and touch, wasn't it? But then again, it was her first time using her eyes. She could be guessing it all wrong. Resolutely, she willed her legs to stop shaking-but then her knees locked and she couldn't move. When she loosened her knees in preparation for taking the next step, she wobbled again. With the two people on either side, though, she did not fall, and this knowledge boosted her confidence. Step by painfully-slow step, Kami just barely made it to the window ledge.

There she clung, eyes drinking in the vibrancy of the colors she never even imagined. The world was so much bigger than her bed, or even her room. A lump formed in Kami's throat, and when she tried to swallow it, her vision blurred with tears. A low moan escaped her throat as she wept brokenly at the new experiences she never knew she had been missing her whole life. In addition to what she could see out the window, Kami also received from Mary some memories of Salt Lake City that she did not understand: fighting a crazed naiad in a fountain here, chasing a demon through that park—Kami was only beginning to realize that Mary's past was not as simple as she had till now assumed.

After a few minutes, Kami heard Dr. Brennan say (as Mary faithfully translated), "All right, I think that is enough excitement for one day; what do you think, Kami?"

The young woman nodded, and Tasha and the doctor practically carried her back to the bed. After nearly a lifetime of immobility, Kami was astonished how much that short jaunt sapped her energy. Even such things as hearing and seeing, which she knew but never really understood why people seemed to take them for granted, proved excessively tiring.

Mary noticed, and Kami felt her gentle touch spelling, "I think I will leave you to rest. You've earned it."

Kami's sight dimmed first, and she closed her eyes to hide the squint. As Dr. Brennan left the room, her hearing began to fade back to silence.

Wait! Kami almost raised her hand above the covers, she was so anxious to halt this process. Will we meet again?

Mary's laugh was as smooth as a burbling stream of water. "Of course we will. This isn't goodbye forever."

Mary's presence withdrew a bit further, leaving Kami's legs numb and unusable.

"This is only goodnight. I'll be back in the morning, Kami."

As Kami relaxed back into her old dark, quiet environment to enjoy reliving the amazing memories, she absently called after Mary, Goodnight.

It wasn't until the instant before sleep that Kami realized she had just heard her own voice.


The Hospice Care Center parking lot was nearly dark and completely still when Fiona arrived. A black Impala pulled in behind her, but she was so wrapped up in thoughts of her sister that she didn't notice.

The message from the hospice nurse didn't make any sense. Kami hearing? Kami seeing? Kami walking, for Pete's sake? Had it been anyone else, Fiona would have written it off as some sick joke; now she wondered if perhaps she had placed too much confidence in Dr. Brennan. She hadn't wanted him to actually go and heal her sister... Had she?

She brushed through the doors. The security guard stopped her in the lobby.

"I'm sorry, ma'am, you can't be here."

Fiona glared at him. "My name is Fiona Waites, I have a sister here whom I was considering having released, but just this morning I got an urgent call from her doctor saying I had to see her right away, and I came as fast as I could!"

While she was making her case with the guard, the two men from the Impala strode up to the reception desk and pulled out badges to show the woman sitting there.

"Hi there," said the shorter one. "We're looking for a Mary Winchester. We were directed here for more information."

The receptionist blundered around her computer. "Um, I'm sorry, but there's no one here by that name—"

"Wait," Fiona called after them, and the guard no longer detained her as she moved toward the men. "Did you say Mary Winchester? As in the interview on Blogger From Beyond?"

The two agents tucked their wallets back in their jackets as they glanced at each other. The tall one asked, "Are you the woman who wrote the article?"

Fiona shook her head, "No, that was a friend of mine but I told her the name... Wait, she told me she made that name up; you mean this Mary Winchester person is real?"

Another glance, and the tall one spoke again. "We're not allowed to confirm or deny the existence of Mary Winchester in whatever form may be claimed of her, but we are authorized to run down any leads in connection with her name. So tell me, Miss..."

"Fiona, I'm Fiona Waites, the sister of the one my friend interviewed for that blog post."

"I thought she claimed to have interviewed Mary Winchester," said the shorter agent.

Fiona shook her head, "That was creative liberties on her part. Actually, she got the idea from when I told her that my sister was claiming to interact with someone named Mary, and the craziest part is that my deaf sister told me she could hear Mary's voice..." She trailed off when the men continued to stare at her dubiously. "I know it sounds crazy, but what I am telling you is true! Here, come with me, I was just going to visit her." She took off down the hall, and the men followed her.

As they went, Fiona couldn't resist asking, "Is my sister going to be in trouble?"

"That remains to be seen," the short agent answered.

They arrived at the room labeled "Waites K."

Fiona turned to the men. "Wait here, I'll go in first and see if it's true."

"What's true?" Asked the taller agent, but Fiona was already inside.

She approached the bed, calling softly, "Kami! Kami?"

The girl didn't even flinch.

In the doorway, Dean Winchester fidgeted.

"Kami? The girl our mom is possessing is named Kami?" He sounded almost offended at the idea.

"We don't even know if she's possessed at all," Sam murmured back. "I mean, look at her."

"I know," said a voice behind them, "strange, isn't it?"

The boys whirled around to find a nurse with a blond ponytail standing behind them. She waved.

"Hi, I'm Laura, the night nurse. You're here to see Mary Winchester?"

Dean frowned and glanced back at the placard.

"Where did you get that name?" asked Sam.

Laura frowned in confusion. "Well, she said so last night; I mean, it says she's deaf-blind, but maybe she was some kind of amnesia patient—"

Just then, Fiona came out of the room in tears.

"I don't understand," she said numbly. "They said she was walking. They said she could hear and see. But look at her! Look!" She pointed to the still body on the bed. Laura put an arm around the young woman's shoulders as she sobbed.

Dean and Sam took the opportunity to slip inside. They didn't bother creeping. If she was deaf, she wouldn't know anyway. Sam stood on one side of the bed, Dean on the other.

"Dean," Sam gasped. "Her eyes are open."

Sure enough, they were, and even in the dim lights of the room they could both see the milky substance clouding her eyes.

Dean felt his heart sinking once more; this was supposed to be their mother, reincarnate? This little thing? He turned away, muttering, "Mary Winchester, my a-"

Before he could finish, a hand gripped his wrist. He turned back around.

The girl was staring at him again, but this time, the film was gone.

She blinked as one just awakening from a deep sleep.

"Dee?" She slurred. "Dee-neh!"

She spoke slow and ungainly, so much that Dean couldn't understand what she was saying. He tried to pull away, but the girl held on. "Dee! Meh!" She pointed to herself, tapping on her head. "Meh, h'rr!"

"Yeah, all right, cute—"

"Dee! Eh meh! Yu mah ainge!" Her expression pleaded with him. "Mah ainge?" She turned to Sam. "Issah?" She smiled and laughed at some joke only she could understand. "Beh Sssah."

Dean sneered in disgust. "This was a waste; come on, Sam, let's go."

"No!" The girl wailed. "No! No! No!" She signed "please" with her hand as she begged them not to leave.

Fiona met them in the hall as they left the room.

"What were you doing in there?" She asked.

Laura raised her hand. "I told them about Mary Winchester."

Fiona looked horrified. "You told them? But it's not true! I am sure Kami made it up. Look, agents, I'm sorry you had to come all this way. I was apparently duped, too. The doctor called me early this morning with some impossible tale that my sister, who has been a deaf-blind cripple for most of her life had been miraculously healed all at once, but—as I am sure you saw-this is simply not true. There is no Mary Winchester here, nor has there ever been. Now I'm going to have to ask you to leave—"

"Dean."

At the clear, short word, Dean turned around.

The girl from the bed stood at the door, panting as if she had just run a marathon. She held out her hand. "Dean."

Fiona went as white as a sheet. "KAMI!" She screeched, and then passed out on the floor. Laura set about reviving her as Kami pushed off from the doorway and shuffle-stumbled into Dean's arms.

"Taayke me owwiith yu," she stammered, taking great effort to enunciate every part of her words. "Please... Son."

Dean watched her eyes, as if he could glimpse Mary's face in them, if she really was there.

Kami tried again. "Mah... Lit-tle... Ain... Gel?"

Dean glanced down. Laura was busy trying to revive Fiona.

He looked back at the girl. Only one person in the world knew that nickname. And she wasn't even really in the world anymore.

"Yeah, okay." He grabbed Laura's jacket off her chair and draped it over Kami's thin shoulders. He shepherded her toward the back door of the hospital. "Let's go."