Sam was on his laptop going through his e-mails from his Stanford friends and Dean was cleaning the guns, studiously ignoring Sam, something he always did whenever Sam was doing anything even remotely Stanford related.

Both brothers were of course mulling over their last case. The spirit had left not because of their actions but because a man had sacrificed himself to save his grandson. It was unprecedented for them, so each brother was dealing with a sense of guilt.

Dean's phone rang startling both of them. He looked at the display before answering it.

"Hey Bobby, what's up?" It had been four days since they had left his place.

"Hope you're holding on to something!" Bobby was brusque and to the point.

Dean looked up at his brother who moved from the table and came to sit next to him. He put the voice on speaker before speaking, "Go ahead!"

"The DNA results came out positive!"

"What?" both brothers exclaimed in shock.

"Emily is your sister. Half sister if you want to be technical about it."

"Bobby that's impossible. There must have been a mistake. You must have sent them to a piss poor excuse of a laboratory!" Dean spoke loudly.

"I'm not a damn fool yer damn idjit! I used a top notch laboratory and no mistake was made. DNA tests are not 100% accurate but they're never wrong!" Bobby groused.

"In this case they must be."

"Look, I too can't make heads or tails about this but boy, you need to wrap your head around these findings quick so we can figure out what to do next. Sam? What do you think?"

Sam shrugged as if Bobby could see him. "I don't know Bobby, I'm still sorting my thoughts!" he sounded shell shocked.

"Hey Bobby, let's call you back." Dean ended the call abruptly with an angry look which Sam belatedly realised was directed at him.

"What?" he asked, "What did I do?"

"You actually think that kid is our sister?"

"Dean, despite your reservations, DNA tests are never far off the mark!"

"Screw the tests, Sam! This is dad! Saying that kid is our sister, is saying dad lied to a woman, got her pregnant and then left her in the lurch!" Dean had began to pace. Sam knew he did this when he was trying to keep himself from punching something or someone. Sam held himself very still. He didn't want to be the punch bag.

"Well ... if you put it like that…" Sam trailed off. He was at a loss. He heartily believed in science and its achievements, but he believed in his father's integrity as well, if not his parenting.

"Gosh I cant believe you right now, Sam. Do you hate dad so much?"

"Dean! I don't hate dad. How can you say such a thing?" Sam yelled. The accusation stung and the stress of the moment was overcoming his forced calm.

"Well, how can you easily and quickly believe this about him?"

"I'm not believing anything about dad! I'm simply believing the results!" Sam run his hands through his hair to calm himself, and thought hard. An improbable answer came to him, but given the life they led it was not that crazy. "Maybe he wasn't himself then!" he said desperately.

"You mean like he was possessed or something?" Dean gratefully latched onto the explanation.

"Yeah!" It was not what Sam had meant but it was as good an explanation as any. Besides, Dean seemed to like it.

"Well, that would explain it." Dean stopped pacing, glad that his faith in his father had not been shattered even though the alternative 'possessed' reason was not exactly desirable news. Then he remembered something and the pacing began again, "Sam, from that woman's letter, it appears he didn't remember her or the town or anything. Possessed people remember all the things the demon makes them do. From what we've seen, it's like they are there, but not in control. Dad would have remembered being possessed and he would have remembered the woman!"

"Shit!" Sam thought. "So maybe it wasn't a demon?" he half told, half asked his brother.

"Then what?"

"I don't know." Sam shrugged, "There's lots of supernatural things we've not encountered yet. I can always do research."

"Go for it, college boy," Dean said distractedly as he continued pacing.

There was silence for a long time; both brothers lost in their thoughts.

"It wasn't dad, possessed or not! It wasn't him!" Dean said jubilantly.

"We're back to that? Why?" Sam's head was beginning to ache.

"Think about it, Sammy. Dad used to leave us for days, even weeks on end, but he was never gone for months. That letter said she got pregnant a month from meeting this Gale douche and he took off when she was three months along. That means he was in Eros for four months. If dad was Gale, he would have had to be gone for four months or more!"

"Yeah, good point." Sam said tiredly. He was going to let it go then a memory crept to the front of his brain. He began cautiously, "Dean ... uh, remember one of the times we stayed with Pastor Jim? I was four or almost four I think. We were there a long time. I was a kid, so I had no concept of time but it felt longer than usual and I don't remember dad there with us."

Dean thought back carefully. He was eight then, gosh Sam had been just a baby! How could he even remember that? Dean remembered staying in one school long enough to make friends and even go on a camping trip. And he remembered Jim coming for a parent teacher meeting instead of their father.

"Shit!" he thought. Sam was probably right, they were there longer than usual but he couldn't remember how long exactly. He'd been eight, the concept of time hadn't sunk in for him either. "I have to call Jim and ask him about it."

Pastor Jim was happy to hear from them. He was surprised to know that Sam had left Stanford and was with Dean. He asked about their health and their dad. When they got to the reason they had called, he didn't even have to think for long.

"I enjoyed having you boys with me that time. Your dad was gone for nearly five months, he was following a lead in Jesup, Georgia but ..." the pastor spoke.

"What?" Dean interrupted impatiently.

"Well, he went to Jesup but when he woke up, he was in a cave in Virginia. He hitched a couple of rides back to the motel he'd rented in Jesup and found the Impala had been impounded because he had been gone for four months and a couple of days! He got the car back, spent a week in Georgia trying to figure out what had happened, gave it up, drove to Virginia to look for clues, gave that up too and came back here. He never did remember or find out what had happened in those four months. Why? Did you find something?"

"No, just following up a lead. Thanks Jim." Dean hang up. He turned to Sam. "Shit on sticks!"

Sam grimaced. "How long?"

"Five months! And he completely lost four months. Doesn't remember what he did in those months."

Tense shocked silence followed.

"Dean, what now?"

Dean thought. "You have a picture of dad back then, right?"

"Yeah."

"So we're heading to Eros. We'll do some research. Maybe we can figure out what was wearing dad!"

"What about Emily and Bobby?"

"We'll call Bobby back and tell him to hold off telling Emily while we do this. Grab your stuff, we'll make the call in the car."


It had taken hours before Bobby could bring himself to believe the results. With a sigh he had pictured the reactions of the brothers. Dean would be indignant and disbelieving and Sam would be confused, not knowing whether to trust science or his father's character. Then they would hang up on him to discuss the implications of the announcement and the best way to tackle the problem it presented.

When he finally called the boys, they reacted exactly as he'd thought they would. When they hang up on him, he went to the kitchen to get himself some chilli as he waited for the return call. He also knew the return call would not solve anything. They would call him back to ask him to wait on them while they looked for their own answers.

His phone rang, he answered it without looking at the display. "That didn't take as long as I thought it would!"

"What didn't?" It was Pastor Jim.

"Hey Jim, sorry, I thought it was someone else."

"The Winchester boys by any chance?"

"Yeah, how did you know?"

"I just got a call from them. It was not weird by the real standards of the word in the Winchester universe, but it left me wondering whether everything is fine. They tend to turn to you with their issues, so I figured you'd be the best person to call."

"Well, they're looking for John, who seems to have dropped off the face of the earth. There's something they're trying to wrap their heads around, heck I'm trying to wrap my head around."

"Anything I need to concern myself with?"

"No. At least not yet. If need arises, we'll loop you in."

The Pastor was not the type to insist on having details. He trusted the people he interacted with, to inform him when it was pertinent. "Fair enough," he said, "have a good one, Singer."

Sam called Bobby a little more than an hour later. They were already on the road to Eros, and like Bobby had guessed, they told him not to tell Emily anything.

"Damn idjits!" he groused.