Joining the Land of the Living

AN: Enjoy, tell me what you think in a review!

Dean called Ashley while Sam drove down to San Jose. "How you doing, Ash?" he asked, putting the phone on speaker.

"Uh, better" she admitted sheepishly "but still going through half-empty nest syndrome over here."

"I know, Little One" Sam responded "but we got a lead. He'll be back soon."

Ashley fell silent and let the tears roll down her cheeks. She knew her brothers would catch up to this son of a bitch soon, but until then she couldn't help but feel guilty for Ben getting put in danger already. It was after all on his first formal hunt, second case. With this track record the boy wouldn't live to see his 20th birthday.

"Ash, don't you feel like you did this," Dean ordered, knowing that was exactly what the silence from his sister meant. "Go play with Justin. He misses his mom, we'll call with news."

"Alright, thanks guys" she quickly hanging up the phone to keep the tears she was about to shed to herself. She didn't want Sam and Dean to hear her break down because she had to be strong in their eyes, but she had to let out her emotions before going to face Justin. He was playing in his room with his cars and Legos currently with Castiel watching over him. I gotta go tell Justin I'm okay Ashley thought to herself as she wiped the moisture off her cheeks and quickly blew her red nose before dabbing some skin toned foundation on top of the red.

"Assie!" Justin yelled excitedly once he heard the footsteps stopping outside his bedroom door and probably smelled the lotion she always used.

"Hey Tiger" Ashley smiled "can I play too?"

"Can we go watch a movie instead?" Justin asked as if nothing was ever wrong or misplaced in the house.

"Sure, what do you want to watch?" Ashley asked as she scooped the small boy up to start heading down the stairs with him balancing on her hip. Jeeze, it's a good thing I work out, or I would not be able to hold this kid up anymore Ashley thought to herself as she carefully made her way down the stairs.

"The Incredibles!" he hollered and caused Ashley to smile a smile she had locked deep down ever since she had found that motel room empty.

"Heck yes! I love that movie" Ashley laughed as she started to tickle Justin's stomach with a free hand.

"No Mama! Stop" he laughed and squirmed "that tickles!"

"Does it? I didn't know that" she joked as she stopped tormenting Justin and put the DVD into the TV and pressed play. Ashley snuggled down onto the couch and felt Justin curl up in the bend of her legs with a blanket pulled up to his chin. This is how a family should be she thought to herself as the opening scene lit up the screen.


Ashley was brought out of a deep sleep by her cell ringing on the night stand next to her. She and Justin had stayed up well past his bed time watching Pixar movies and didn't get into bed until about 11:00. "Yeah?" she croaked into the phone still mostly asleep and without opening an eye.

"A-ash?" a voice said on the other end.

"Mm-yeah? What's it?" she replied to whoever was on the other end, slipping further into unconsciousness with each passing second.

"She's not awake, you tell her" a muffled version of that voice said on the other end.

"Tell what?" she muttered out, unable to get coherent sentences out.

"Ash, hey! Get up" Sam barked into the phone in an attempt to wake Ashley up completely.

"Yeah Sammy, I'm up" she mumbled again, rolling onto her back in an attempt to feel more awake.

"No, sit up Ash" Sam urged into the phone one more time, with a slight chuckle hidden underneath his words.

"Alright, jeeze Sammy! What the hell is so fricken important you gotta yell through the phone?" she spat back.

"It's me" the first voice said again.

"My God, Ben! You okay?" she replied, shocked to actually hear his voice and mentally kicking herself for not snapping back to reality when he first called her.

"Yeah" he chuckled "how tired are you?"

"Very, but doesn't matter. I can really sleep now" she sighed, relieved "how long until you get home?"

"Five hours" Sam responded around a yawn "go back to sleep. We'll wake you when we get in."

"Stay safe" she whispered feeling tired again since the initial excitement had worn off.


Dean crept into the shared room around 6 in the morning to check on Ashley before letting Ben in. She looked so happy finally, even in her sleep. Seeing no sign of a bad dream, Dean waved Ben in as he sat down next to his sleeping sister. "Hey, Killer" Dean whispered. "hey, time to get up."

Ashley groaned into the pillow and moved her hand in a shoo-ing motion. Ben smiled at Dean's shocked face and took over the waking.

"Mom, come on. Get up" Ben said with a smile.

"Ben? Thank God you're home!" she sighed without opening an eye, but rolling from her side to her back in an attempt to wake up some more. "You sure you're okay?" she asked sweetly with a small smile on her face.

"Yup" both he and Dean said at the same time.

"Good, now rest" she said finally opening up her eyes. "And I heard what you called me. You can call me whatever the hell you want." Ben smiled and gave Ashley a hug before ducking back into the hall and towards his bedroom.

"You tell me everything in the morning" she told Dean as she put her head down on his shoulder once he had gotten comfortable in the bed.

"Sure Killer" he whispered as he felt Ashley relax next to him and sleep soundly for the first time in a long time.


Ashley woke up to find she had more room on the bed than usual. Ashley wasn't sure how long ago Dean had gotten up, but when she rolled over to look at the clock she saw it read 10:00am. "Shit" she breathed out "hope someone fed poor Justin" she said to herself.

"Yeah, we can function without you ya know" Dean chuckled from the bathroom.

The response scared her, but she was happy to hear someone else had their head on straight. "So, what happened?" she asked once her heart rate had slowed down a little bit from the shock of getting a response.

"Well, the place in SanFran was emptied out when we got there. But they left behind a half-burned map with the next stop on it."

"That sounds like a trap" Ashley thought out loud while Dean continued to get ready for the day and tell the story.

"It was. Ben was tired up next to a dead demon. Crowley beat the crap outta him, trying to find you."

Ashley just sat there on the bed with Dean staring at her from across the room. "Dammit! Crowley's avoided death like four times now, and somehow he managed to get out of Hell?! The fuck are we going to do with him, De?"