"Can you feel it.

You feel it in your bones

That something else can matter

Just as much as breathing.."

James Vincent McMorrow - Lost Angles


She woke.

A few blinks after, her vision began to clear, and her surroundings had become obvious.

She had somehow made it back home, in her bedroom.

I did it..

She smirked up at the ceiling, reminding herself to say thanks to Castiel next time she saw him.

...Wait a minute.

At the thought of him, her eyes squinted in realization.

She remembered. She remembered everything, the crash, the hospital with Dean, ...him.

The smirk spread into a full blown grin, and she made note to thank him the next time he appeared to her.

Contently, she welcomed the comfort of her warm bed sheets, relaxing into the plush mattress beneath her.

"Had me worried for a bit kid." His voice rang out into the room, resonating softly off the walls capturing all of her attention. She turned her head to the side to find none other than Bobby there by her bedside, sitting in a chair he'd most likely brought up from the kitchen. She smirked, but it faded once she read the exhaustion in his eyes. It looked as though he hadn't shaved in days-his hair overgrown and out of its usual shape.

"...hey.." She croaked, doing her best to shift her body up so that she could rest against the bedhead.

"Take it easy, you were out for quite a while."

"How long is a while?" She asked, wincing at how weak she felt do to the minimal use of her muscles.

"Just about a day." He answered, causing her brows to furrow and her forehead to crease.

"What?"Her heart dropped.

Dean..

"Listen kid." Bobby started, but she was already throwing the covers off of her.

"What happened? Where are the boys-where's Dean?!-"

"Aurora." She paused, sitting at the edge of her bed and looking deeply into her fathers gaze for the answers, but received a familiar look instead, one she hated to see.

One she knew too well.

She took a breath, trying her best to control the emotions riding her chest, fighting to be seen. It was moments like this, the ones she had no control over that really challenged her resilience.

All of the people in her life were important to her, she loved them all deeply. Anyone missing from her life would take a piece of her with them, and judging by the look in her fathers eyes

She knew someone had gone.

"Who is it?"

Please don't let it be him. Please.

"...Where's Dean." She couldn't even look him in the eye. Instead she blinked hers for a moments time and stared straight ahead with a glossy look.

"He's out back with Sammy."

Which means...

"It's John."

The tears silently spilled over, and without another word she carried herself to the door.

"Aurora-"

"I have to go check on them." She raced down the steps, her feet pounding the ground as she went as quickly as she could without tripping, and burst out the back screen door and looked up, finding the large cloud smoke blending with the air in the dark night sky, and followed it, the tears continuing to fall as she moved through a light jog.

"No..." She whispered as she caught sight of the boys standing stalk still just in front of a funeral pyre- John's. The only light coming from what she assumed was the wrapped, burning corpse of who used to be him.

"Noo, noo, noooo." She began to bawl, her breath leaving her as she fought to catch it while resting her hands on her knees for support.

At the sound of her cries, Dean used what felt like all of his energy to lift his gaze up from his father's burning body to and place it onto her figure. The tears dribbled over his eyes uncontrollably, as they did hers.

Sam tensed, settling his watery vision on his best friend who he couldn't help but feel slightly relieved to see alive and awake again. It was the first good thing to come from the past couple of days.

"Rore.." He called out to her, earning her attention. She sniffed and forced herself into a straightened position, running a trembling hand through her bed ridden waves before she slowly made her way to the spot between the two boys who stood strong with their hands in their pockets, holding on desperately to the sanity they had left.

Her head shook in disbelief as the dullness settled in her chest.

"...H-how?.." Her voice broke, not understanding any of it. She prayed so hard that this was some twisted and cruel reality that she'd been tossed into after dying.

"He just-..." Sam couldn't even finish his sentence, and no one forced him to.

"Aurora is it?.."

She could suddenly hear his voice in her head.

"I'm John Winchester, those two you met earlier, those are my boys Sam and Dean.."

A sob wracked her chest as she was unable to keep it in any longer.

"Give Dean a minute, he's a grouch.."

Absently, she reached out to him, for a hand, and as much as he wanted to fight her touch, he couldn't. Instead he clung to it for dear life, and squeezed her hand tightly as the tears continued to fall.

"They're gonna be spending a few days here with you and Bobby...do you mind?.."

"...I don't mind...I'll look after them for you." She cried. talking through her grief as if he could hear her. Dean had, and sure enough, the certainty in her words had brought forth a comfort to his soul, one he wasn't sure he was still able to feel now that a large part of him was gone. He knew by the way he was feeling just how much more important Aurora would become to him. She had no idea the kind of weight her words held for him. He was sure she'd keep her word.

He needed her to, because he wasn't sure if he'd be able to do any more of it without her.

"Behave yourselves..."

"We'll behave. Promise." She vowed, looking into the fire with determination.

She could feel Sam fidgeting, while Dean stood as still as stone staring into the flames silently.

"Before he...before, did he say anything to you? About anything?" Asked the youngest Winchester, gaining Aurora's attention. She wondered if John had said anything about anything-specifically her, knowing that he knew things that she didn't.

"No. Nothing." Dean answered, and it was the emotion in his voice, the dull, empty and cold tone that scared her more than anything in that moment.

She paid him a glance, turning her neck up to look at him, and saw that it was obvious..

He'd need her now more than ever.