I was lying on a cot in the garage again. Bree had said I had passed all tests and there was only the one to determine if I could maintain the fire while I was knocked out to go. She had brought a friend of hers, a nurse with coal-black hair and pale blue eyes, to administer the Pentothal that would knock me out. I had an IV in my arm. Bobby was armed with a fire extinguisher in case more fires than Bree could manage popped up after I was out.

"Count backwards from 100," the nurse instructed. I couldn't remember her name.

"99," I said. "98… 97…"

I was surrounded by fire. It sang through me, poured from me. Everything was ablaze, but I wasn't. I was naked and surrounded by smoke, ash, and flame. Heat pounded through me and I reveled in it, felt it, pushed until the haze of pleasure faded. I got out of the bed and ran from the room. "Dean?" I yelled. "Sam?"

I ran down the hallway to a door with the number 261 on it. I pushed through the burning door, the flame never touching me. There were two beds, each with a burning lump in it. I screamed and tried to open myself to the flame, pull it back inside me, but nothing happened. The lump in the bed on the right sat up. Dean turned his burned face to me and grinned. Then Sam's lump rose to its feet and started to come towards me. I screamed again and turned to run. Dean's voice followed behind me, "Hunt you…" and his hand fell onto my shoulder.

I opened my eyes to a quiet garage. The nurse was putting away the medical supplies, and Bree leaned over, beaming at me. "The child has passed!" she said and hugged me.

I felt groggy and weird. I touched the furnace inside me and found it still closed, still locked, but full. "I passed?" I slurred. Bree nodded.

"The child has basic control."

Relief flooded me. I didn't know how worried I was about the outcome, about being able to control the flames, until it was over. I looked around for Bobby, but he wasn't in the garage any longer.

"Where's Bobby?" I asked. Bree looked uneasily at the door. I got to my feet unsteadily, made my way to the door, and opened it.

"… insane? She's eleven, Bobby! You don't knock out eleven-year-olds with Pentothal!" Dean yelled from about fifteen feet away.

"You do if the eleven-year-old is a pyrokenetic and you want to know whether she can control her fire when she's unconscious! Bree knows what she's doing."

Dean ran his hand through his hair and fought to control himself. ""Jesus, Bobby, couldn't you have warned us? I thought something had happened to her again. Scared the crap out of me finding you guys like that."

"Aside from being worried about what's going to happen to her when she's finished learning all this stuff, she's just fine. I'd never let anything happen to that girl while she's under my watch."

"Could she control it?" Sam asked, his back to me.

"She hadn't lost it yet when you two came barreling in there like bellowing elephants. Idjits!"

I cleared my throat. "I passed," I said.

Sam turned and his face broke out into a smile. He took the few steps to reach me and then gently hugged me. When he was done, Dean hugged me, and then Bobby hugged me.

"The child has basic control and can be trusted to maintain her control even while unconscious," Bree intoned.

"Thank you, Bree," I said. "Thank you so much for all of the help!" I hugged her, too.

We walked her and her nurse friend to Bree's car and said good-bye. Sam and Dean had brought a pizza back with them, and Bobby told me to go eat while they went into the library to talk.

Once in the kitchen, I put my back to the wall that was between the kitchen and the library and listened.

"I'll take her to the Sioux Falls Sheriff Department and they'll take care of starting the process of getting her back to her relatives," Bobby said.

"She doesn't have any relatives," Sam said.

"Her parents probably identified someone in their will to care for her, and if they didn't, she'll end up in foster care or with a distant relative."

"We can't let her go into foster care," Dean said. "I've heard horror stories, and Dad took us with him rather than do that to us."

"We were Dad's family, and we can't bring her with us," Sam said. "It's too dangerous. And Dean made that deal..." There was anger in his voice.

I grew more and more miserable as they talked. They were going to dump me back in Knoxville with some unsuspecting people. Sam and Dean weren't going to take me with them because I wasn't family. It was too dangerous, and there was some deal hanging over Dean's head. It seemed hopeless. Then I remembered what Bree had said about influencing my own fate. I took a deep breath and walked into the library.

"Hey," I said, interrupting the three men. "I'm not going back to Knoxville." They looked at me, surprised etched across all of their faces. "You try to send me to Knoxville and I'll run away. I'm not going back there."

"Listen, little girl," Dean started, but I turned my glare on him.

"No, you listen. If you do anything, and I mean anything, but take me with you and let me be a hunter, then I'll run away."

"No," Dean said.

"No," Sam said.

Bobby just shook his head.

"Why not?" I wailed. "I can help you! Your dad took you. You just said so!"

"You don't want this life. You don't know what you're signing up for," Dean said.

"I do," I insisted. "And I can control fire. My life is already not normal."

"You are not going to become a hunter," Sam said. "You need to go live with some normal people, some normal family, and grow up with a normal life.

"You can't tell me how to live my life," I objected. "And I want to go with you. I like you. I want to be with you. I won't be any trouble. I swear!"

Sam leaned down to me. "Jessie, I'm sorry. We like you too, but there are complications. You can't go with us."

I stared at the three of them, at the wall of resistance. "Fine," I said. "Whatever." I had warned them. I turned and left the room.

I ran up to my room and started shoving things into my backpack: clothes, the book Sam had bought me, my hoodie, the nut and bolt that I'd saved from the garage. It didn't take me long. I didn't have that much. Once I was done, I shoved the backpack under my bed and cried.

They didn't want me. My parents were dead and it was my fault, and now the people who had come to find me, who had rescued me from myself and helped me get my abilities under control didn't want me. It was the fire, I knew it. It was too scary, too dangerous, and I was going to be given to strangers, strangers who had no idea of the monster in their midst.

I couldn't let that happen.

I curled up on the bed and tried to plan my escape. I had clothes. I needed food. I needed money. Once I had those things, I could head to Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming and live there indefinitely. Hell, if I got enough money, I'd be able to take a bus there. I remembered seeing money in Bobby's desk.

Dean knocked on my door and then opened it gently when I didn't answer. He came over and sat on my bed. I rolled over so that I didn't have to look at him. "Jessie," Dean said. "Come on, now. You don't get off that easy. Talk to me."

I stared sullenly at the wall, angry and not hiding it. "Come on, tell me what you're thinking."

What the hell, why not? I thought. "You don't want me."

"Jessie, we do want you. We just can't have you," Dean said softly. "You've been with us for a month and you managed to worm your way into our hearts. We don't want to send you back to Knoxville. Don't you understand that this is killing us as much as it is you?"

I sat up and whirled around. "If you want me so much, then why are you getting rid of me? Why are you sending me off to strangers who don't even know what they are getting into? Why won't you keep me with you, let me help, let me learn to help?"

Dean put his hand on my shoulder. "Breathe, little girl. You're starting to glow."

I closed my eyes and cried while I tried to control my breathing. It didn't work so well, but the distraction made it so that I wasn't so angry any longer. After a couple of minutes, I opened my eyes again.

Dean sighed. "I've only got a year to live," he said. "Aside from all of the danger of the life we lead, we can't take you with us only to abandon you when that year is up."

I narrowed my eyes at him. "Why do you get to make that decision? Why don't I get a say? Why can't Sam just take care of me once you're gone? Doesn't he get a say?"

Sam stepped into the room then. "I do get a say, and I think that considering all circumstances, you need to go live with a normal family in a normal life, no matter how much joy you bring to us and how much we want you with us. The important thing is what is best for you, and we are not best for you."

"We get to make the decision because we're adults," Dean said. "We're responsible for your well-being. I promise you, Jessie, you're better off with a normal family."

I glared at them. I could see that they weren't going to give in. They'd decided. Fine, my plan it was. I dropped my face into a pout. "Well, once they've found a place for me, will you at least visit me?" I asked.

The two of them looked genuinely relieved. "Of course," Dean said.

"I wouldn't want it any other way," Sam said.

I waited until everyone was asleep that night and gathered some canned food, a can opener, a wicked-looking knife, and the money that was stored in the very back of Bobby's desk. I didn't sleep well at all. The next morning, I said good-bye to Sam and Dean before they got into the Impala and drove off for their next hunt.

Then it was time for me to go. I tossed my backpack into the cab of Bobby's truck and climbed in after it. He drove me to Sioux Falls. I was quiet the entire way. He pulled up in front of the police station and said, "Look at me."

I looked at him, tears in my eyes. "Listen, girl," he said. "I'd take you as my own if I could. I just can't."

"Ok, Bobby," I said softly, tears falling from my eyes. "You come visit me, ok? Sam and Dean said they would, too, and you guys are my family now, even if you don't want to be."

"I will. Now go in there and talk to the person at the front desk, just like we talked about."

"Bye, Bobby," I said. I slid out of the truck and walked into the police station. There was a reception desk right by the front door. I walked over to it and said, "Hi, is this the bus station?"

The man behind the desk looked startled. "No, this is the police station. The bus station is down on Maple Street."

"Thanks," I said. I looked out the glass front door of the building and saw Bobby's old truck out there. "Hey, can I use your bathroom?"

So, the man led me down the hallway to a ladies' room. When I finished, I went further into the building until I found another exit. Then I headed towards Maple Street.

I walked for an hour. I went inside and asked for a ticket to West Yellowstone, WY. The lady looked me up and down. "How old are you, dear?" she asked.

"Twelve," I said. "I'm going to meet my aunt for a week before I go back to school."

"Where's your mom?"

I looked around. There was an older woman sitting in one of the plastic seats watching the bus counter. I waved at her and she waved back with a slightly confused look on her face. "That's my grandma. She said I could buy my own ticket."

"Ok, dear. It's $183.14." I gulped and handed her ten of my twelve twenties. Oh god, they were going to be so pissed when they figured it out. She took my money and gave me change. Then she handed me my ticket, and I went and sat next to the older lady.

At 12:15, I got on the bus, and I didn't look back.