Eight hours later.
Alice woke up and stretched. She sat up quickly, frightened suddenly that she was alone. Relieved she saw Dean was sleeping in a chair, and an enormous lump in the next bed could only have been Sam. Quietly she got up to the bathroom, shut the door, and then she spent several minutes examining her face in the mirror. She was enormously grateful that she hadn't seen what she'd looked like as a vampire, she turned her head left and right and opened her mouth to examine her teeth. All looked as they had done before it all happened.
Although it wasn't one of the world's nicest hotels, it did have the good grace to provide a hospitality pack with a face cloth, toothbrush and toothpaste, which she used extensively. When she opened the door and came out, Dean was awake and looking at her intently.
"How you doing?" he asked gently.
"I'm alright, not a vampire which is a massive plus obviously. But I need to know Dean. What the fuck? Do you do this normally? Saving peoples' lives? Killing monsters? I mean, how do people not realise these things exist?"
For some reason, maybe because her eyes captivated him, maybe because she'd experienced what he had not too long ago, maybe because he was just lonely and sick of the whole thing he did what he never did, and that was tell her everything. About Mary and John, then about their lives growing up, about Sam leaving for college, and why he came back, and about averting the apocalypse and what cost that had been, he left virtually nothing out. Sam lay in bed listening quietly, listening to Dean pour his heart out to this woman, a complete stranger to all intents and purposes, but the story was captivating and now that his soul was back, Sam understood the need to let it out, and so let Dean tell his tale.
Once he'd finished, Alice sat on the bed silently. For a while Dean thought she was just scared, but when she looked up he saw a fierce determination in her eyes.
"Teach me" she said. "I can't go back to England, to a small life, knowing this. I can't return to my life and pretend I wasn't a vampire for a day. And I can't live knowing what I know and not be able to either help myself or others. I need in. I'm strong, I'm fit and I've survived, thanks to you two. I need to help."
"No" Dean retorted sharply, "it's no life. It's awful. It's day after day of thankless crap. Bad motels, bad food, half the time you only manage to save half the people and sometimes none at all. Nobody thanks you, nobody's sad to see you leave. No. You're too beaut… too good for this."
Alice raised an eyebrow and smiled a bit that he'd nearly called her beautiful.
"Teach me" she repeated. "Or if you won't, take me to someone who can." With that she walked over to where Dean sat and crouched in front of him; her eyes, the colour of the winter's sea, meeting his green ones. Quietly she said, "Also, call me insane, but I can't bear the idea of walking out of this room and never seeing you again. It would actually break my heart I think, which is bonkers 'cos I don't know you, and you don't know me, but I can't bear the thought of it Dean. Please."
He stared at her, then his rough hand caressed the side of her face, his eyes softened as he realised that he felt the same. That the idea of her out there alone, with no skills to defend herself against the things she now knew were there, without him, was actually unbearable. "My name's Alice, by the way, since you never asked."
"Fine, Alice. Sammy, I know you're awake. We're taking her to Bobby."
"Yeah, ok." Came the muffled reply, resigned to not really being given a choice.