A/N: Hey guys! Sorry it's been so long - life got pretty hectic over the last few months. The worst part is, I've had this all written up for you guys since October! It took me about ten minutes to finish it today. This is a bit of a long filler chapter, but I hope you all enjoy nonetheless! :)


nine


John gestured around him, to the notes he'd laid out on the small desk in the motel room, to the makeshift case map he'd made on the wall. He'd opened his laptop, pulling up files as well as his journal, which Dean had made a point of giving back to him. "So this is it. This is everything I know."

Paul nodded from where he stood, arms crossed as his eyes glazed over the set up John had made. "Garrett has saved most of our research to his hard drive, he's flying in to Boulder along with Sera in six hours."

"I'll pick them up." Dean spun his keys around on his finger and shot Paul a quick smile.

Effy pushed herself up from the bed and stuck her hands in her pockets. "I'll come with you." Dean smiled down at her and nodded.

Paul bowed his head, his face as stoic as ever as he leant over the desk John sat behind his laptop at. "Anyway, John and I have spent the better part of two decades hunting down this demon with no luck. Nothing, not a trace."

"Until about a year ago." John added. "For the first time I picked up a trail."

Dean thought for a moment. A year ago had been when he'd disappeared, not long after Mesa. "That's when you took off."

"Yeah." John nodded. "That's right. The demon must've come out of hiding or hibernation." From his tone it was obvious that even John didn't know why, fumbling for some kind of explanation as to why after twenty-one years, the demon had chosen to show itself now.

"Alright, so what's this trail you found?" Dean asked, moving to look at the map on the wall.

"Starts in Arizona." John pointed, fingers tracing the circle he'd made in red ink. "Then New Jersey, California. Houses burned down to the ground." He looked back with sad eyes at Sam, who was leant against the chest of drawers by the window. "It's going after families. Just like it went after us."

"And us." Paul gruffly added.

"Families with infants?" Sam asked.

"Yeah. The night of the kid's six month birthday."

"Does that mean…" Effy looked at Sam and pointed between the two of them. "We were six months old?"

"Exactly six months." Paul confirmed as he nodded at his daughter. Sam looked to his father, getting the same confirmation from a sad bow of his head. Effy raised a hand to her mouth as she realised. The demon had come for her. When she was staying at her grandmother's house in Cambridge. Her grandmother had been caught in the fire, and she'd survived.

"So basically this demon is going after these kids for some reason." Sam shook his head and scoffed. "The same way it came for me?" John only nodded at his son.

"So… mom's death." Sam almost spat as his eyes welled up. "Jessica? It's all because of me?"

"We don't know that Sam-" Dean tried to reason

"Oh really? Cause I'd say we're pretty damn sure, Dean." Sam's tone was harsh as he raised his voice.

Dean rolled his eyes and grit his teeth, frustrated that after all this time Sam still shouldered the blame for his mother's death. "For the last time, what happened to them is not your fault."

"Yeah you're right, it's not my fault but it's my problem!"

"No, it's not your problem it's our problem!" Dean snapped at his brother.

Calmly, John stood up from his seat and raised his hands to his sons, urging them to calm down. "Okay, that's enough."

They breathed for a moment, Dean turning his back to his brother as he walked towards the map and rubbed his jaw, Sam leaning back on the chest of drawers, gripping it tightly. Effy didn't know who this Jessica was, but clearly she'd died much the same as the others. She shook her head as she looked between her father and John. "So why is it doing it? What does it want?" She kept her hand at her mouth and crossed her other under her breast.

John sighed and put a hand on her shoulder reassuringly, trying to get her to look up into his eyes. "Look, I wish we had more answers, but we don't." "I've always been one step behind it." He dropped his hand sadly and looked back to the map behind him. "I've never gotten there in time to save…" John trailed off, but they knew what he meant. He'd never saved any of them.

"So how do we find it? Before it hits again?" Dean asked.

"There's signs. Look, it took me awhile to see a pattern but in the days before these fires signs crop up in an area. Cattle deaths, temperature fluctuations, electrical storms. Then I went back and checked and…" John shuffled through notes as Dean came beside him, watching his father.

"These things happened in Lawrence?"

John looked at his son and nodded, averting his eyes back down to the notes he tried to gather together. "A week before your mother died."

"And in Cambridge." Paul added. "Before my mother."

"And in Palo Alto." John's eyes met Sam's. "Before Jessica." Sam's eyes looked glassy as he pursed his lips, looking away from his father. "And these signs, they're starting again."

"Where?" Effy asked quietly. "And why is it just in America? It came for us in England…"

Paul sighed as he looked over at his daughter. "I've looked in to it in England, there were three other fires." He rubbed his jaw and met eyes with John. "We haven't had the time to look into it more in other countries."

"What matters is that it's left a trail here." John turned around and drew a red circle, pinpointing the location on the map. "Salvation, Iowa."

"Alright." Dean nodded. "Well, that's a long ass drive."

Effy bit her cheek. "You three should get going now, we'll wait for Sera and Garrett and join you in the morning." She agreed. It made sense, no point all of them waiting it out, lest they be too late again.

"No, I'm staying with you." Sam stepped forward. Dean sighed before conceding. "Alright."


Tacky pop music played through the dull speakers in the gas station as the attendant nonchalantly flicked through a gossip magazine and blew bubbles with her gum, the loud chewing noise making Effy almost gag. They'd stopped off on the way to the airport, Sam was absolutely busting for the toilet and they still had time to kill before they picked up her siblings. She huffed as she ran her fingers along the magazines absentmindedly, thinking about the last time she'd seen Sera. God, she was pissed. She'd hardly even spoken to Effy in the months since, but that was how Sera worked. She always took her time to cool off.

Dean was slightly hesitant to see Sera too, let alone spend twelve hours in a car with her. They'd had a thing in the past. Well, it was the longest relationship of his life so far, and it'd ended badly. As most 'things' Dean had did. It was easy being around her when their parents were there, she wouldn't dare say anything around her father. But… maybe that'd change with them not around. He managed to find the skittles and picked up a packet as well as m&m's for the road, waving the bags over at Effy to get her attention.

She snapped back to reality and smiled as she walked to the fridge, taking a couple of litres of water out. "Do you think they have bananas?"

Dean scoffed. "Bananas? Really, Eff? All this candy and you want bananas?"

"They're lollies, not candy." She called over her shoulder before moving to the crisps, grabbing Garrett's favourite flavour. "And refined sugar is the downfall of modern society, I'm telling you."

"What, you a hippy now or something?" He smirked as he grabbed a couple packets for himself. "Refined sugar brings everyone together." Effy scrunched her nose and made a face at him as they approached the counter. She spotted a box of sad looking fruit by the counter and smiled, putting the water on the counter with Dean before going back to grab it.

"How much?" She asked, happy that she'd at least found some decent food.

The woman behind the counter looked her up and down as she chewed her gum. Effy saw Dean's eyes trail to the woman's cleavage, and she rolled her eyes at him before looking back. "Five dollars for the box."

Effy smiled and nodded. "Sold."

"You seriously want that whole box?" Dean asked after he managed to peel his eyes away from the attendant's breasts for long enough to string together a sentence.

Effy rubbed her stomach as she pulled a tenner from her back pocket and passed it over the counter. "I'm a growing girl."

"Lard-ass." Dean smirked as Effy put the waters and Garrett's crisps in the box.

"Ironically you're the one paying for lard." She stuck her tongue out at him as he paid for his own items, making her way out of the shop and back to the Impala. Dean followed her out, bags of candy and crisps in either fist.

"So." Effy asked as she came to the boot of the Impala, waiting as Dean unlocked the car. "Who's Jessica?"

Dean looked over at her as he unlocked the car and sighed before popping the boot. He placed his bags over in the front seat before trotting over. "Jessica…" He took the box off of Effy and placed it inside. "She was Sam's girlfriend."

"Was?" Effy asked without really thinking. She bit her tongue as Dean hesitated to respond before closing the boot and leaning against it. Her name was brought up along with her grandmother and Sam and Dean's mother. It didn't take a detective to piece it all together. "She was killed in a fire about a year ago." He swallowed before meeting Effy's eyes. "Same way mom and your grandmother went."

Effy's mouth opened slightly as she thought. She remembered calling Dean when he was in California; he said he was driving Sam home before heading out to Colorado. But then, hours later, he'd texted her saying Sam was going with him. She was shocked enough Sam had joined him on one hunt, let alone that he was picking up hunting again.

"That's why he started hunting again." Effy said in a quiet voice. She felt bad for bringing it up, and was silently thankful she hadn't just out rightly asked Sam about it. "Guy can't catch a break." She ran a hand through her hair as she thought of how cold she'd been with him, how she'd tried to brush off his attempts to talk things out.

"Yeah. Well." Dean pushed himself off the car. "I'm gonna go to the little boy's room before we head out. Take care of my baby." He winked half-heartedly as he threw her the keys before trotting off towards the bathroom. As he left, he walked past Sam, who was now making his way back to the car. Effy's eyes darted back to the car as she went to the boot again, going through the fruit box to pick out something to eat in the next couple of hours.

"How much candy did he get this time?" Sam smiled as he approached Effy. She didn't look up at him as he approached.

"Well, don't blame me if he gets diabetes." She smirked as she grabbed a bunch of spotty-looking bananas. Perfectly ripe.

Sam rolled his eyes, "God, I hate candy. Always leaves me with a sore stomach." He nodded to the box she was reaching out from in the boot. "What have you got there?"

"Oh, just some unloved fruit. I wanted some real food, you know?" She smiled as he reached in to the box, picking up the fruits and inspecting them.

"How much for all of this?" He asked.

She smiled up at him proudly. "Five dollars."

He flashed his pearly whites and nodded, impressed. "Good job. I might have to steal some though, if that's alright."

"Sure." She smiled.

She tried to push the sympathy she had for him at the recent revelation of his dead girlfriend to the back of her mind as she smiled up at him and raised the bunch of bananas she had in her hand. "Banana?"

He smiled and took two. "Thanks, Effy."

His smile was infectious, and he was actually smiling. Sam's smile was a big smile, his eyes crinkling and a slight familiar sparkle shone to them. She hadn't seen him properly smile in years. It made even Effy smile. She wondered how often he'd smiled in the last year. Not enough.

"Hey, Sam?" She felt bolder than she had when Sam had tried to talk to her before. It was ridiculous, really. They hunted monsters for a living and she couldn't talk about her feelings. The guilt of shutting him down tugged at her – she'd felt bad before, but now… knowing that she'd kicked him while he was down didn't sit right with her.

He smiled as he peeled a banana. "What's up?"

Her smile faded as she tried to meet his eyes. "I'm really sorry." She shook her head. "I'm sorry about being so weird." She looked to her feet for a moment before looking back up at him, straining her neck slightly. "It is weird, though. Seeing you, working jobs with you."

Sam's smile faded and they stood in silence. Effy breathed in deeply before attempting to explain herself. "I spent a lot of time being angry at you. Like, a lot of time. The first six weeks of uni I basically locked myself in my room every night and sulked while my friends tried to get me to do something."

His face lit up slightly. "You went to school?"

Effy's eyes snapped back to his. "What?" It took her a quarter of a second to register his words, her brows creasing just as fast. "Yes, shut up I'm trying to say something here." She shook her head, dismissing him before she lost her train of thought and had to attempt this whole sappy speech again.

"I was so angry at you for leaving because I was jealous. I was jealous that you were twenty and you had the whole damn world in the palm of your hands." She looked back to the fruit box, trying to find something to look at that wasn't Sam. The way he looked in to her eyes almost threatened to distract her from her thoughts.

"I mean, I'm a legacy, right? My family, all they've done for generations is save people and hunt things. So… I've never really felt like I had a choice." She swallowed thickly before continuing. "You were my best friend, you were always around when I was pissed off with my family. Hell, Samwise, some of my best memories are with you." She felt a stinging behind her eyes and tried to swallow tears back, standing slightly taller as she finally met his eyes with hers. "I was jealous… and I was pissed off you were leaving me. So… I'm sorry."

"Effy…" Sam sighed.

She held up her hand in protest. "No, that's it, that's all I wanted to say."

"But Eff-"

Effy shook her head. "We aren't going to have a sappy Lifetime movie-"

Sam grabbed her hand. "Oh my God, Effy, just stop." He chuckled as he let her hand go, she slowly lowered it as she watched him carefully. "I let you have your say, you let me have mine."

He still held the peeled banana in one hand, and Effy found it distracting her somewhat. It was just the slightest bit harder trying to take him seriously while he held it. "I'm sorry that I left things like that. I said some really bad things in the heat of the moment that I can't take back. I was too stubborn to try to fix things or admit I was wrong…"

Effy sighed. "So was I."

"Not the point." He interrupted. "I'm sorry for leaving." He smiled again as he tried to pull a memory from the back of his mind. "You remember like five years ago we were planning to run away and finish school, go to college and live normal lives?"

"Yeah. I believe I also almost single-handedly planned the grand heist of the Impala." Effy proudly smirked.

"I don't think dad would've been too impressed."

"Forget John, can you imagine Dean's face?" They looked at each other and burst out laughing.

"Look at us now." Effy said through her laughter.

"Tell me about it." Sam smiled. They stood in silence for a moment before Effy dashed forward and wrapped her arms around his waist, gripping him tightly. He hesitated for a moment, but smiled as the shock left him, lowering his arms and holding her, albeit making sure to keep the banana from touching her.

"I missed you too." She mumbled in to his chest. He recalled then the first thing he'd said to her when they'd seen each other for the first time in two years back in Chicago. How relieved he was just to see her standing there in that old dusty apartment, her of all people.

Dean chuckled as he approached them, hands in his pockets. "Woah, am I interrupting something, or are we all ready to go get Grumpy and Dopey?"

Effy smiled as she let go of Sam and closed the boot of the car. Sam smirked and took a bite of his banana before walking past her to get to the passenger door. "Let's go."


"Look, I'm not saying that it'd be really, really funny if Sera sat in the front with Dean for the entire trip." Effy smirked up at Sam as she passed him her water. "But I'm not saying that it wouldn't be really, really, funny either."

Sam chuckled as he opened the water bottle, going to take a sip. Sera was a firecracker, and there was no doubt she wouldn't hold anything back around Dean. He remembered the break-up, and that'd been one of the most terrifying and hilarious things he'd ever seen in his life. Of course, he'd be stuck in the back with a lot less legroom and Effy and Garrett's bickering, but he did agree. It would be really, really funny.

Dean had the car still running outside; they were too cheap to bother paying for parking, so Sam and Effy volunteered to grab Effy's older siblings and bring them back to the Impala so they could take off as soon as they could.

"So long as you and Garrett aren't at each other's throats, I'm all for it." He smiled as he screwed the cap back on her water and held it, putting his other hand in to his jacket pocket.

"We aren't animals, Samwise." Effy smirked.

A slightly dishevelled woman with blonde hair tied in a messy knot on the top of her head walked through the arrival's door as she rubbed at her eyes, the green of them highlighted by the tired red they'd no doubt become over the journey. She followed a darker-haired man about a head taller, his familiar grey eyes and smirk still plastered on his face just like Sam had remembered him. Though instead of a clean jaw line, now he had stubble that was slowly threatening to become a beard.

Effy almost jumped as she spotted them. "Ooh!" She ran over to them and the man spotted her and ran almost as enthusiastically as she did, the two crashing in a hug. "Tibbers! Did you get shorter?" Garrett smirked as he put his head on his sister's. Garrett was still the same height – only an inch or two shorter than Sam. Though last they'd met, it was Sam who was slightly shorter. The two had copped the 'overgrown' jokes from their families for years.

Sam followed Effy, as Sera followed Garrett, and eventually they all met in the middle. "Samuel." Garrett nodded seriously. Sam would've nodded back, had he not known any better, but just as quickly as Garrett had dulled his smile, a grin flashed back on to his face before he pulled Sam into a bone crushing hug. "Gaz." Sam managed to get out despite the fact his life was being squeezed out of him.

Garrett leant back and ruffled Sam's hair. "You weren't meant to get taller than me, dickhead."

The youngest Bennett child stood beside the two awkwardly as Sera approached, rubbing her hands together. "Hi, Ser-"

Sera interrupted her by drawing her into a hug, shushing her. "Shut up."

Effy smiled before relaxing into the embrace. "It's good to see you, Tibs."

So the last few months she'd spent off hunting by herself in Europe had cooled her off. Effy wasn't going to complain.

"Sam." Sera nodded up to him as she let go of her younger sister. "Your dipshit brother around here somewhere?"

Sam smiled as he leant down to hug her. She was taller than Effy, and from memory taller than their mother, but she still looked tiny in comparison to Garrett. And, he supposed, himself nowadays. "Unfortunately." Sam smirked. Sera scoffed as she hugged him back. "Just my luck." As she pulled away Sam gestured to her bag. "I can-"

"It's fine. Though if you've got coffee I'll take it." She smiled.

Effy leaned forward and smiled sweetly. "Already in the car." She looked up at her brother. "As well as some sour cream and chive crisps."

Garrett leant over and kissed his sister's head. "You, Tibbers, are a saint."

Effy smirked up at him. "I know." She gestured towards the exit, where Dean was waiting in the Impala. "Shall we?"

Sera threw her arm over her younger sister and smiled slightly, as big a genuine smile as you'd ever get from Sera. "You would not believe what I was hunting in Bratislava."

Garrett ran a hand through his hair as he and Sam followed the girls. "How's Eff been, the last few months? We heard you guys got in to some strife in Chicago."

Sam swallowed. He wondered if Garrett knew that he and Dean had almost gotten his youngest sister killed. He nodded and rubbed the back of his neck. "Yeah. She's been good, I think. Stayed at Bobby Singer's for awhile, worked a couple low-key cases with him, I think." He awkwardly chuckled. "I hadn't really heard much 'til she showed up knocking on the car window a couple days ago."

"Yeah, no kidding. Elusive one, my sister." Garrett chuckled to himself. "Both of them, actually."

Sam nodded. "Yeah. " Sam swallowed back the guilt and tried to change the subject. "So, deal is with Salvation-"

"Sam?" Garrett interrupted him. "We've got twelve hours to talk about a small town in Iowa and the demon we've been hunting out entire lives."

Sam forced a smile and nodded. "Yeah. I guess we do."

Effy pointed ahead to the black Chevy Impala that sat yards in front of them. "Our chariot awaits." She mocked a bow. Sera rolled her eyes and pushed her younger sister's shoulder. Effy lost her balance but not her smile, chuckling as she jogged back up to her sister and slung an arm around her shoulder.

"You know what'd be really funny." Garrett smirked at Sam as they followed the two girls. Sam raised his eyebrows at him, waiting for him to continue. "If we sat in the back with Tibs while Sera's up front with Dean." Garrett almost squeaked in delight at his plan. "Imagine if we kept it going the whole trip! Imagine…" He looked too pleased with himself.

Sam laughed. "That's exactly what Effy suggested."

"Great minds think alike." Garrett smirked. He gripped the straps of his bag as they approached the Impala, Sera slowing cautiously as she saw the black muscle car.

Dean was leant against the car, hands stuffed in his pockets. He almost looked like a bloody male model, shoulders hunched ever so slightly. If Effy hadn't have known better, she'd think he had that bad-boy nonchalant charm, the laid-back guise of an impossibly attractive man. But she knew that Dean Winchester, a man that hunted the things that go bump in the night, was shitting himself. For there weren't many monsters that were more frightening than Sera on a bad day.

And there definitely were none that could even compare to Sera being your ex-girlfriend.

"Dean." Sera nodded as she pulled her backpack from her back.

"Sera! It's uh… been awhile."

The oldest Bennett sibling rolled her eyes and pushed her backpack into his arms. "For good reason."

Garrett smirked as he walked up to Dean, clapping an arm on his back in a half-hug as Sera grabbed her duffle. "Deano!"

"Gaz. Is that a grey hair I see?"

Garrett winked at him. "You try flying ten hours with her."

Effy jogged over to her sister, closing the car door as her sister went to open it. "You're in the front. Garrett and Sam agreed you'd probably want the space."

Sera shrugged, opening the front door instead and throwing her duffle on the floor in front of the seat. "Cool."

Effy furrowed her brows as she watched her sister. "….Okay." Garrett and Sam shot her looks as Dean played Tetris with the bags in the boot. I don't know she mouthed to them, rolling her eyes as she moved to sit in the middle.

Everyone filed into the Impala, Sera pulling on an eye mask and lying back as much as she could in her seat.

As Dean started the engine, Deep Purple's 'Smoke on the Water' started blaring. Sera jumped, lifting her eye mask and glaring at him as he fumbled to turn the noise down quickly. He looked in the back quickly and looked between the youngest three. "Uh… sorry, folks."

He turned the music off as he pulled out of the airport.

Garrett smirked at Effy and Sam. "This is gonna be a loooong drive."


.37: Thank you so much! I can't wait to get into the thick of Effy's powers :) I wish I could reveal more, stay tuned!