CHAPTER TWELVE

Day 28 continued

'Last To Know'

Dean and Sam ran into the kitchen just in time to see 'Melissa' disappear in a black smoke with a screaming baby 'Dean' in her arms. "No!" Sam yelled, running towards the demon; but she was already gone.

Spotting Andie in a heap on the floor, Dean ran to her. "Andie!" he yelled. He knelt by her limp body and rolled her onto her back. She had a few cuts on her face and her arms from the glass, but she didn't seem to have any massive wounds. "Come on, Morgan, wake up." He brushed her hair out of her face and checked her pulse; she was alive, just unconscious.

Andie's senses came back one at a time. First she felt the sharp pieces of glass cutting into her body as she lay on them, then she tasted the blood in her mouth, next she smelt the aroma of splintered wood mixed with Dean's deodorant and then she heard a sharp ringing in her ears that soon faded and became the sound of dean's voice, coaxing her to wake up. Finally, she opened her eyes. Her vision was blurred at first but Dean's face soon came clearly into view.

"Hey; you okay?" Dean asked concernedly.

"She's a demon." Andie managed to say.

"We know." Dean admitted. "Melissa Tillerman's body's upstairs; she's been there awhile." Dean took Andie's hands and pulled her into a sitting position.

Andie held her hand to a cut on her forehead that was stinging like mad. Then she remembered. "The baby." She looked at Dean and then at Sam; both wore the Sam sorrowful expression. Andie's heart dropped.

"Hey." Dean said slowly, seeing the worry on her face. "We'll find him; don't even worry about it." Dean grasped Andie carefully by the arm and helped her to her feet.

xxx

Dean drove Sam and Andie back to their motel room in silence. Andie sat in the back with her arm rested up on the window; staring out at the horizon. He knew what she was thinking; he was thinking the exact same thing. How did they not know Melissa was a demon? Dean had been so preoccupied with helping Andie with the baby he hadn't even entertained the idea that they were being set up. Turning right into the street ahead of him, Dean glanced in his rearview mirror at Andie and the empty infant car seat caught his eye. For the first time Dean realized he was actually worried about the annoying little kid.

When the three of them arrived back at the motel, Sam quickly changed out of his priest attire and hit the internet looking for information on kidnapping demons. While Andie showed, Dean helped his brother compile a list of possible traits for the demon.

"She was a shape shifter." Dean remembered. "She had Melissa's look down to a tee."

"How long do you think she'd been dead for?" Sam asked.

"I'd say about a week going by the smell." Dean shrugged; trying to push past the disgusting memory.

"Demons want kids for all sorts of reasons." Sam spoke up. "Youth, innocence..."

A thought occurred to Dean. "Power." He said. "What if this isn't just some kid?"

"You mean he's a demon?" Sam asked.

"No; he's not. That's what I'm saying." Dean explained. "What if that baby is something special?"

"What, like a Chosen Child?" Sam asked, shaking his head. He was one of the Chosen Children of his generation; that was the reason for his visions. He'd met a number of other Chosen Children in his time as a hunter, all with different powers. Thinking back to that day and what had happened, Sam once again thought of the deal Dean made with the crossroads demon. Once again, he was reminded of the fact that he wasn't helping his brother, but helping Andie instead.

"Maybe he's gonna be powerful in the future or something?" Dean continued. "Or maybe he's the kid of another Chosen Child? I mean, Melissa Tillerman was dead awhile so everything she told Andie and I about Penny was a lie. For all we know, this is her son."

In the bathroom, Andie was standing in front of the mirror stitching up a cut on her arm. Her mind was on the baby and how the hell she was going to get him back. It's my fault, she told herself. How, after all this time, can I not spot a demon? Finishing up the stitches, Andie washed her hands and looked up at her reflection. She couldn't believe how tired she looked. Even her normally glossy, wavy dark brown hair was looking dull. Her eyes weren't sparkling and her skin seemed washed out. Andie was pale anyway; she didn't tan well, so now she looked almost ghost-like. Pulling her wet hair back tightly back into a ponytail, Andie sighed. She had no idea how she was going to get the baby back and no clue where to begin. Hoping Dean and Sam had better luck, she exited the bathroom.

Sam wasn't in the room when Andie came in. "Where's your brother?" Andie asked Dean who was sitting at the table.

"Getting dinner." Dean answered, scrolling through some internet pages on Sam's laptop. "Pizza good for you?"

"Yeah." Andie said absentmindedly as she sat on Dean's bed. She continued to sit silently while Dean told her all about his idea that the baby was a Chosen One destined for something important in the future; hence why a demon was after him. Andie picked up one of the pillows on the bed and hugged it to her chest.

Dean was halfway through telling Andie his theory that perhaps the baby was some kind of magical warrior when he realized she wasn't really paying attention. She was fiddling with the corner of the pillow in her lap and staring at the floor. Dean had never seen her look so downtrodden. "It's not your fault, you know." Dean told her. He hadn't thought Andie had been listening, but she snapped her head up when he said that.

"Yes it is." Andie told him; realizing how guilty she actually felt. "Dean, I've been doing this since I was born. I know demons. And I didn't even blink when I handed him over to her."

"How could you have known she was a demon?" Dean asked her, leaning forwards in his chair and resting his elbows on his knees. "She seemed legit to me, too."

"You weren't there." She admitted sadly. "You didn't willingly give her that baby."

"You gotta stop beating yourself up, Andie." Dean told her. "How are we gonna help him if you're wallowing?"

Andie looked up at him. He was right. She nodded. "Okay." She agreed. Sliding off the bed, she walked over to the computer. "So what about this demon? What do we know?"

Dean smiled, happy he'd brought her out of her funk, and looked at the computer screen. "Well, she was a shape-shifter of some kind; but I don't know what exactly."

"Easiest way to summon a shape-shifter is to give it what it wants." Andie said, remembering something her mother had told her. "And she already has the baby."

"So we go the hard way." Dean said immediately, refusing to let Andie fall into a pit of culpability.

The door to the motel opened and Sam came in with two pizza boxes in his arms. "I love having a pizza place right next door." He said happily, opening one of the boxes as he walked and breathing in the fantastic smell. "You caught up?" he nodded at Andie, meaning was she in on Dean's magical baby idea.

"Yeah." Andie told him, taking one of the boxes off him and handing it to Dean, who gluttonously put two pieces of pizza on top of each other and ate them before Andie could get through one. She and Dean filled him in on what they'd been discussing.

"Ok, so next best way to summon a shape-shifter?" Sam asked, starting on his second piece of pizza.

"Well, that would be a spell." Andie informed him. "And since none of us have any magical blood it won't be that strong a call; the demon probably won't respond."

"Hm-mm!" Dean mumbled loudly through a mouthful of food. He quickly swallowed. "Not completely true." He nodded at his brother. "Sammy's a chosen one."

"A what now?" Andie asked quizzically.

Sam quickly gave her the rundown. His visions, the other chosen ones, the Yellow Eyed Demon. He omitted the fact that he'd been killed and Dean had signed his life away to save him. Now was not that time for that little chestnut. "So we use me as bait." Sam realized. "If that kid is a chosen one from a future generation; maybe the shape-shifter will want another one?"

"Isn't that incredibly dangerous?" Andie asked.

"Minor detail." Dean waved a dismissive hand at her. "Might be the only way to get that kid back." He didn't want to admit it, but he missed the screaming little bastard.

"Alright then." Sam got to his feet and brushed off his hands. "Let's do this."