A/N Hey guys! I thought it was pretty ridiculous that I had 70 pages written but only 23 posted. School starts Monday and I have no idea how hard these classes will be plus I'm moving out of state, but I feel like I've got enough saved up in case I can't write for a few weeks. Hope y'all enjoy this chapter! Things pick up next chapter. Promise. Please review! It makes me happy :) Thank you to those who have already done so: DeadlyThorn1997, Morgan Elizabeth Jacobs, Myrina1896, chinaluv, Bennett, Allea (Your's made me laugh. I had forgotten that was in there.) Without further ado, the story...


"But he's innocent!" Dean protested.

"Dean, admit it. Even without Zara's confirmation the Cas is on the wrong path, we have plenty of evidence proving it."

"Why don't we talk to Bobby about it? I got a call while I was out and he said he had a demon that might have a lead on Crowley. We can ask the demon about Cas too. Does that sound alright?" Dean was not about to give this up.

"Fine. Bobby isn't that far away. We can leave now."

They all packed up and were out of the little town Zara had called home within an hour. Zara couldn't find it in herself to feel sad about leaving. That town had been the home to her tormentor. It held nothing for her now and she was on a much different path now. The only regret she had was leaving her brother in the in the little park cemetery next to the big oak.


Chapter 4

They got to Bobby's in a matter of hours and Zara smiled when she saw the sign for Singer Salvage Yard. She couldn't believe she could actually see the place in person. It was like Sam and Dean's home since they only ever stayed in motels other than here. Everything was exactly the same down to the junk cars and the lazy dog. The house itself was a bit rundown but she could tell it was well loved and well used. They all hopped out of the Impala and dashed to the house to get out of the freezing cold. They walked right in and found Bobby drinking a beer in the kitchen. The rest of the house was just like the outside. Messy and haphazard in places but there was a definite organization that may have been unrecognizable to a stranger but complete order to the resident.

"It's good to see you boys. The demon is-" He noticed Zara as she stepped from behind Sam's large frame and said gruffly, "Who's this?"

"Bobby, this is Zara. We just met her." Sam introduced. Zara cringed. That was probably not the best way to get Bobby to trust her.

"You're picking up strays at a time like this? What does she know? Is she a hunter? Can we trust her? We don't have time for this!" Bobby ranted.

Zara knew she'd have to fix this soon before Bobby tossed her into the street. "Bobby, I agree we don't have the time for this right now." Bobby nodded, glad to hear someone was being rational. "You're on the edge of something big and I will try not to get in the way. The whole story on how I got here is too long. Suffice it to say, the boys have already tested me and obviously trust me enough to take me here."

Bobby nodded- satisfied after the boys confirmed her statement. He offered all of them a beer and then motioned them into the living room where the demon was being kept. There was a large, intricate drawing that Zara recognized to be a devils trap painted on the ceiling. Underneath, in the middle of the room was a man chained to a chair. He has scruffy red hair and a leering, self confident look about him that many demons seemed to have. His eyes flashed black for a second when he saw them walk into the room.

"Ah, I see you brought Tweedle Dumb and Tweedle Dumber with you now. And who is this?" He nodded at Zara. "She doesn't belong in this world. I can tell." Zara rolled here eyes. She couldn't believe demons actually talked like this.

"Where's Crowley?" Dean growled.

"Newsflash buckos, the King is dead." The demon stated boredly.

Bobby stood in front of him. "We know Crowley is alive. Now, you're gonna tell us where he is and we're gonna have a nice little chat with your boss."

"Bite me." the demon spat with as much malice as he could muster.

"Fine." Bobby punched him square in the jaw. He clearly had some pent up anger. "We can do this the hard way."

The sound of flesh hitting flesh threw Zara back into memories she didn't want to think about. Visions of herself cowering in a corner as Sean loomed over her played over and over in her mind. Smack. Smack. Smack. She could hear it in her memories and in real time. "Where is he?" Bobby asked just as Sean had when he thought she was cheating on him. Smack. "Where is he?" Zara's head ached and her old bruises throbbed just as if she had just been beaten herself. "Where is he?" She couldn't take it. She had to get out of there.

Zara found that she had backed all the way back into the kitchen in an unconscious effort to get away from the horrible sound. Sam looked back at her and recognized the fear in her eyes. He nudged Dean and gave his brother a look that seemed to carry a whole conversation in a moment. Dean glanced over at her and his eyes widened- recognizing what she was going through. He walked over to her.

"You okay Zara?" he asked concerned.

"Y-yeah…" Smack. She cringed involuntarily. "Yeah. I'm fine. I just… can I go upstairs? I'm kinda tired." She knew it wasn't convincing at all and he didn't believe a word she said but was grateful he just nodded.

"Sure. I'll take you to the guest room." Dean smiled easily and led her upstairs. It boggled her mind that he could be so calm and collected when there was a man being tortured in the other room. She guessed that after all that time that Dean spent in Hell, those sorts of things didn't faze him anymore. He was calloused to it- the exact opposite to how she felt. "Do you need anything else?" Dean asked, breaking her out of her reverie. "I was going to go out and grab us some food."

"Uh, no thanks Dean. I'll be fine." She sat down on the bed with a sigh. She closed her eyes- trying to block out the memories. It didn't help. When she opened her eyes, Dean was still at the door giving her a questioning glance.

"Can I ask you something?" Dean hesitated. It seemed like he didn't mean to actually say that out loud. "You don't have to answer if you don't want to." He quickly amended.

"Sure." Zara took a deep breath. She had a good feeling what he was going to say.

"You say you watched our lives to forget your abuse, yet there's so much violence. How could something like that really help you?"

"It's different when it's on TV; you know it's not real. But, the show, it's more than violence. It isn't just about two boys fighting monsters. It's about the journey, your relationship, how much you go through and still can be so close. Granted there are times when you absolutely hate each other but in the end you will always stay loyal to your family and that's what's so alluring about the show. You would die for each other without a second thought. People wish they had relationships that meant that much in their own lives. They crave it. For the little time that they watch the show, they can feel like they could have a relationship like that. It's the kind of relationship that I once had with my brother." She whispered the last part.

Dean looked a bit taken aback. He didn't quite know what to say. He didn't know that the life he lived every day could make such a difference in someone else's life. "You had a brother?" Out of all that, it was the only thing he could think of to comment on.

"Yeah." Zara pulled her knees up and rested her chin on them. "I don't want to talk about it."

Dean knew when he pushed a nerve. "Fine. Uh, thanks for telling me that. I didn't know…" he trailed off.

Zara saved him. "That the boob tube could have such meaning?" she asked sarcastically. "That's because all you ever watch is Dr. Sexy."

"It's a good show!" Dean said defensively. "And I watch other things… sometimes. Maybe the show just doesn't show everything."

Zara laughed. "Oh I'm sure there's plenty I haven't seen. I probably should be glad I didn't." She waggled her eyebrows.

Dean's face reddened. "Probably. Gosh, it's weird just thinking what you might have seen. It was just the last five years right? You didn't see my weird middle school stage?"

Zara grinned. "With flashbacks." Dean groaned. "I promise it wasn't nearly as bad as you think."

"Well, before I find out that you witnessed my first kiss-"

"-Sorry but… yeah." She laughed

"No no no. Just don't tell me!" Dean groaned backing out of the door. "You sure you don't want anything from Biggerson's?"

"I'm fine, Dean. Thanks for everything." Zara smiled. He left and she lay back on her bed still grinning. Sadly, Zara's good mood could only last so long with an interrogation going on downstairs. Moving around helped block out the sounds she could still hear filtering up the stairs so she explored the room. It had a little bed in the middle with an end table and a lamp. The rest of the room was filled with bookshelves containing books that looked centuries old and mostly unused according to the dust collecting around them. There were also haphazard piles of even more books on the floor in random places. Zara just knew that a rare book collector would think they had died and gone to heaven but she didn't really care. She knew each book contained the information needed to kill one monster or another and she didn't really want to read anything like that right now. Were there any novels here? It didn't look like it and Zara didn't really want to go exploring. Who knows what could be in the rest of the house.

Zara looked at the stack of books near her. They appeared to be the newest ones in the room, though they were still old. On the top there was what looked to be a journal. She looked inside and was happily surprised to see that it was empty. She had always enjoyed journaling when she was younger but, when she got older, she just couldn't find the time. She scrounged around for a pen for a few minutes before finding one under them bed. She happily sat back down on the bed with her back to the wall and her legs crossed in front of her.

Now, what to write? Zara couldn't really see the point in writing what was happening at the moment. She knew and that was enough for her. She wanted to write something more useful- like a hunter's journal. Finally, she had an idea. She was already having a hard time remembering what happened in the Supernatural universe and in what order. It might help her if she could write everything down. She could remember so she could order her thoughts, that way, She wouldn't forget to tell the Winchesters anything important. She started writing with episode one…