Baron's Wood was peaceful under the stream of sunlight that filtered through the leaves. It was at times like these that Sam's heart ached with the loss of his sight, knowing that he would never see his daughter grow up nor see an art collection ever again. But he wouldn't dwell on those thoughts. He'd found his family again and there was honestly nothing better than that.
"You okay son?" asked John as he turned his attention from where Bobby and Dean were showing Leah how to climb trees to his youngest's suddenly sullen face.
"I was just thinking."
"About what?"
"About what Leah must look like now. How you must all look. I haven't seen your faces for six years dad."
John said nothing for a while, choosing instead to reflect on what Sam had said.
"Sam… I won't say I understand because I don't. I don't understand what you are going through, or how you have managed to keep going. I think you get up every morning for that sweet girl," he glanced at Leah "but you still get up. And that makes you a better man, a better father than I was. You lost not only Jessica but also your sight. Yet you hold it all together, still have a steady job and have managed so far to raise that angel the way a father should. And you did this by yourself." John pause, his tongue running over his lips as a nervous gesture. "You found friends that would help you and it is so obvious that they care and respect you. And… and I couldn't have been a prouder father."
He watched as Sam's milky eyes widened in shock at his usually closed off father's admission.
"Dad?"
John smiled at his youngest's shock. He knew that he had never been one to share his feeling but after Mary's death, he became all the more closed off, thinking that showing love like that was a sign of weakness.
"I'm sorry for what I said that night Sammy. I wished for so long that I could take it back and that I could find you. Bobby and Dean both gave me the biggest and longest verbal beating I've ever had. That old dog even threatened to fill me up with so much buckshot that I would sink to the bottom of the pond out back and no one would be the wiser."
Sam chuckled at the image of the two men he called father fighting like that.
"Thanks Dad. I'm sorry as well."
"It's in the past." concluded John. "But I can't help but wonder how you met Jes…"
John was cut off midway when an unseen force suddenly pushed him and the two other hunters up against trees, holding them against the rough bark immobile, their feet dangling uselessly above the ground.
"Dad? Dean? Bobby?"
They all watched as their youngest grabbed his cane and got up, his head whipping from side to side as he tried to hear who was coming.
"Daddy!"
"Leah!" cried Sam, his face contorted in fear for his child. "Leah where are you?"
"Over here Daddy!" screamed the young girl who was still where her uncles had left her in the tree before they had been pushed away.
"Daddy I'm scared." she whimpered as she looked down from the branches.
"It's alright baby. I'm coming." Sam replied, the frustration and panic at not being able to go directly to his daughter evident in his tone. "Keep talking to me baby so that I can find you."
"Well isn't that sweet." came a new voice in the woods, making all the men stiffen. "The father trying to find his poor baby."
"Whose there?" demanded Sam as he turned towards the sound. And out of the shadows came a women with short blond hair and dark red lipstick.
"My name is Meg." she said, her lips quirking into a smirk. "And you must by Sammy Winchester. My Daddy's told me a lot about you."
