Claire dozes in the back seat of the Winchester's Impala as it zips along a darkened highway, the first traces of dawn just starting to appear. She isn't normally able to fall asleep in cars, but after having one of the longest and worst days of her life, her body apparently decides to make an exception. She only jerks awake when someone slams a car door closed; apparently, they've arrived at their destination.

When Dean said they were going "home", Claire hadn't really thought about what he meant. She certainly didn't have a home. As soon as she turned 18 in a couple months, she was leaving her current residence in the group home and never looking back. She supposed it only made sense then, that he had been referring to his home, not hers.

What she really didn't expect though, was for his home to be underground, in the middle of nowhere, and have an entrance that looked kind of like a sewer tunnel. Still, she follows the others out of the car and waits patiently as Sam opens the large round door with some kind of odd-looking key. When she steps forward, she almost thinks she must still be asleep and dreaming because suddenly she seems to have been transported into a Harry Potter movie.

As she follows the others down an actual wrought iron staircase into an actual library, she gets the feeling that this place would be pretty amazing if she weren't too tired to appreciate it. As it is though, she simply follows blearily as she's led to an empty bedroom and left alone. She barely pauses to take off her boots before she drops like a stone into sleep.

Hours later, Claire awakens in an unfamiliar and somewhat dusty room feeling much less like a zombie than when she went to sleep. The lack of windows doesn't give her any clues about how long she has slept for, but a quick glance at her phone tells her it's mid afternoon of the same day she went to bed. She pokes her head outside the door and sees gratefully that someone has left her duffle bag sitting just outside the room for her. A few minutes later, freshly washed and in clean clothes, she decides to see if she can find anyone else around, or better yet, some food.

She follows the sound of voices to what appears to be a kitchen/dining room. Castiel, Sam, and Dean are all sitting around a large table, the latter two shoveling down a very late breakfast.

"Claire" says Castiel, noticing her first. "I am glad to see you awakened, Dean has made pancakes if you require sustenance."

"Yeah let me grab you some." Dean gets up from the table and pulls open a kitchen cupboard, stretching to reach the plates on the top shelf. He loads one up with pancakes for her and pushes it across the table. Claire can't help but be struck by the domestic scene, unsure whether to be angry or comforted that life is moving on so normally after the death of her mother. After a few moments' inaction, her stomach breaks her reverie, reminding her how hungry she is, and she reaches for the maple syrup.

She listens in as the other three calmly chat like the old friends they are. Sam is saying something about researching Grigori when Claire cuts him off. "So, what now?" she blurts out. All three of them stare at her for a moment.

"What do you mean Claire?" Castiel asks gently, like he's afraid she might try to attack him.

"Am I just supposed to go back to school like nothing happened? Because I don't think I can do that, I can't go back to living in that place with counselors constantly breathing down my neck, having to pretend everything's all great and normal."

Its Sam that answers. "Actually, we had an idea about that. We have this friend, Jody, she's a hunter, but she's also a registered foster parent. Since you're still a few months from eighteen, you can't leave the group home legally without people coming after you, unless someone agrees to foster you."

"I've stayed with foster families before" she says skeptically, "its never worked out."

"Jody's good people" Dean picks up. "She took in a girl we rescued from some vampires last year, and if you stayed with her you would have someone to talk to about those kinds of things."

"So, this is some kind of halfway house for wayward girls?"

"No, not at all, but she can give you a place to crash until you get back on your feet" says Sam.

"I guess I could give it a try, at least until I turn eighteen." It can't be worse than the group home and probably a lot easier to get away from, should it come to that.

"Great. I'll give her a call" says Sam.

Apparently, this Jody person agrees to take on the poor, troubled orphan and by evening there's a plan in place for Claire to take a taxi the next morning out to Sioux Falls, where Jody apparently lives. Sam and Dean had offered to let her stay longer but she hadn't seen the point. She's back in her room playing with her phone out of sheer boredom, when she hears a soft knock at her door.

"Yeah?" she calls out. Dean opens the door a crack and pokes his head in, he too seems to be afraid she might attack.

"Hey, I just wanted to see how you were doing."

"Why? Its not your job to check up on me anymore."

He sighs dramatically and walks all the way in, closing the door behind him. "Claire, your mom just died. You don't have to be alone right now, you have people who care about you."

She sniffles a little, she'd been doing a pretty good job not thinking about it until this jerk brought it up again. "I'm okay. I mean, really I lost her a long time ago, you know? So, I'm okay."

"Sure." He shuffles in place a little and suddenly instead of being some badass hunter or traitorous spy, he's back to the awkward, overly sincere teen she's grown so fond of over the last few months.

"So, it must be pretty weird huh?" she purposefully changes the subject.

"What?"

"Being a teenager again."

"Yeah, it freaking sucks."

"You still owe me the whole story on that one."

"Yeah, I guess I do", he clenches his jaw. "Okay, come one, I've got something to show you."

Curious she follows him out of the room and down the hall. The room they enter is nearly identical to the one they just left, but obviously a lot more lived in. There are weapons hung on the walls and papers on the desk; It's Dean's room she realizes.

Dean walks over to the bed, gets down on his knees and pulls a locked iron box out from under it. She joins him on the floor as he pulls a key out of his pocket and undoes the padlock. There are two items inside; Claire has no idea what either of them are.

Dean pulls the first one out and holds it up for her inspection. It looks like a bit of rag tied with a string and it smells vaguely flowery. "This is a hex bag" Dean starts to explain. "Witches make them to contain spells. This one contains the spell that turned me into a teenager."

"So, if you have this hex bag, can't you undo the spell by destroying it or something?"

"No. Destroying it would make the spell permanent. If I wanted to undo it, all I would have to do is squeeze it." He puts the hex bag back in the box.

Claire is more confused than ever. "If you know how to undo the spell then why don't you?"

"Because of this" he says as he picks up the second item. It looks like some kind of really old bone, covered in teeth, and with a handle attached. "This is the First Blade. A demon called Crowley had it for a while, but we took it back from him, so he can't use it to make a deal with Cain."

"Who? What?"

He sighs. "Let me start over. The First Blade is a weapon, a very powerful weapon that can kill anything."

"Sounds useful."

"Yeah, but it can only be used by someone who has The Mark of Cain, which is essentially a curse that makes you more powerful and makes you able to use the blade, but also turns you into a psycho killing machine or eventually a demon."

"And this relates to you being fifteen how?"

"I had it, The Mark of Cain. The Cain from the Bible, he's still alive and he gave it to me, so I could kill this demon, which I did, but then it started making me go crazy, and wanting to kill people all the time. We tried to find a way to get rid of the mark, but we couldn't, until I had this spell cast on me and then bam, I'm back in my younger body and no more Mark of Cain.

"So, if you undo the spell that turned you into a teenager, you go back to being a kill happy sociopath?"

"Basically yeah."

"Wow. And I thought my life was complicated."

He smiles wryly as he relocks the box and shoves it under his bed.

The next morning, the Winchesters and Castiel stand with her in a parking lot inside the tiny town of Lebanon where they've ordered a cab to pick her up. The cab that's going to take her to this Jody person, and her supposed new home.

"Hey" says Dean. "I've got something for you." He hands her a wrapped package.

"What is this like a going away present or something?"

"Just open it."

She rips off the dollar store wrapping paper to find a copy of Caddyshack on DVD.

"Thanks" she says, "but has anyone ever told you that DVDs are pretty old-fashioned?"

'Shut up."

Underneath the DVD is something considerably more old-fashioned: a worn looking book titled The Enochian Myth.

"You're giving me homework?"

Dean lowers his voice. "Did you honestly think I didn't see you take that angel's sword, Claire? If you're serious about what that means, then you've got to do the homework. But you should know Claire, you've already gotten your revenge, you go down this path, our path, it's not a long life."

"I don't know, you seem pretty old."

"Thanks" he replies sarcastically.

"What about you? What are you going to do now?"

"Me? I don't know. I'll figure something out."

The cab pulls up just then and Sam and Castiel wander closer from where they had been talking.

"Take care of yourself Claire" Sam says as he clapping her on the shoulder.

"Thanks."

"Claire" Castiel starts uncertainly. If you need anything, ever, I just wanted you to know that …" She interrupts him with a hug. They hold each other for a few seconds before she disengages awkwardly and heads for the cab.

Dean opens the car door for her as she approaches. "Goodbye Claire."

"Goodbye Dean." As she slides into the back seat, she gives him a quick kiss on the cheek, surprising herself almost as much as she does him.

"Take care of Cas for me, will you?"

"Um, yeah, sure", he blinks at her.

She gives him one last half smile, as he closes the door for her and the taxi pulls away.