A/N: I had this done weeks ago but I was waiting for someone to get back to me about looking over this chapter. That person never did so I posted anyway. Sorry for the mistakes. I'm still looking for a Beta for this particular story, if anyone is interested. Enjoy!

Chapter 21:

Salvation

Manning, Colorado

"Should I be saying, 'Yes sir' and be all obedient too?"

"I'm your father," John said, "You should always be obedient."

Jenny titled her head, "Are you sure?"

"Nothing in the world is going to change that," he said, looking at his three children. He then proceeded to walk to the table to retrieve something from his bag, "Since we are in this together, I'm going to have to show you everything I know." He tossed a rather large file on the table. It was so large some pieces of paper were slipping out.

"We better get started," Sam said, taking a seat at the table.

A few hours later and a pizza/coffee run, the walls in the motel room were covered with John's research about the demon. Everything he knew from written notes to books he has collected over the years. He didn't leave a stone unturned when it came to the thing that killed his wife twenty-three years ago.

John and Sam sat across from each other at the table while Dean went from leaning on a wall to pacing the room. Jenny sat on the bed watching her older brother pace the room every few minutes.

"Will you stop that?!" she asked, a little irritated, "You're giving me a dizzy spell."

Dean stopped mid-pace, "You could always look somewhere else, princess."

"Stop you two," John ordered, "One more word from either of you, and I'll send you both to time out."

Dean laughs, "He jokes," he said before sitting down beside Jenny on the bed.

"So this is it: Everything I know," John said as he gestured toward a wall, "Look, our whole lives we been searching for this demon. There hasn't been a trace of the damn thing…Until about a year ago."

"When you picked up a trail for the demon," Jenny spoke up.

Their father nodded.

"That's also when you took off," Dean said.

"The demon must have come out of hiding or hibernation," John said.

"Demons' hibernate?"

Ignoring his sister's stupid question, "All right, so what's this trail you found?"

"The trail started in Arizona, New Jersey, and California with houses burned to the ground. It's going after families, just like it went after us," John explained.

"Families with infants?" Sam asked, joining the conversation.

"Yeah, the night of the kid's six-month birthday," John went on.

"I was six months old that night?" Sam asked.

"Exactly six months," John answered.

"So, the demon has a pattern?" Jenny asked as she stood from the bed, looking at her father, "How did you guys fit the pattern? Why baby Sam?"

"I don't know," John said, looking away, "That's the million dollar question."

Jenny noted that he looked away when he answered her, like he was hiding something. She wanted to question him further when her brother began to speak again.

"We might not know why, but we know this demon is going after kids for some reason. The same way it came for me? So mom's death and then Jessica. It's all because of me?" Sam asked.

"Sam…" Jenny said.

"We don't know that," Dean said, joining his sister.

Sam stood up from the table, "Oh really? Because I'd say we're pretty damn sure Dean."

"What is he talking about?" Jenny asked.

Dean began to get frustrated, "For the last time Sam, what happened to them was not your fault."

"Right. It's not my fault but it's my problem," Sam shouted.

"You can't think that way," Jenny said.

"No it's not your problem it's our problem!" Dean shouted back.

"Alright, that's enough," John said.

Everyone took a step back to calm down. Tension in that room was very high.

"Yeah, wouldn't want to get a time out at a time like this," Jenny said, trying to break the tension in the room.

John couldn't help it as he cracks a smile.

"So why's he doing it. What does he want?" Sam asked.

"I wish I had more answers, but I've always been one step behind it…I've never gotten there in time to save anyone," John said, looking very unhappy.

"How do we find the demon before it hits again?" Dean asked.

"There are signs," John said, "It took me a while to see the pattern. Days before the demon appears there are cattle deaths, temperature fluctuations, and electrical storms."

"Were their signs in Lawrence?" Dean asked, softly.

John nodded, "A week before your mom died, and the same thing happened before Jessica died."

"They're starting again, aren't they?" Jenny asked, hugging herself.

John didn't say anything.

"Where?" Sam asked.

"Salvation, Iowa."

XXX

Jenny decided to ride with her father in his black truck while the brothers followed closely behind in the Impala. She sat in silence before John's phone began to ring. In the process of answering it, he accidentally dropped it. The phone fell to the floor by Jenny's feet.

"I got it," she said before picking it up. She glanced at the caller ID, "Son of a bitch," she whispered.

"What?" John asked.

She looked at him, "I have to take this first," she smiled before answering, "Hey, dirty old man."

"Jenny?"

"It's me," she said, looking at her father sideways. He was extending his hand for the phone.

"You're with your father?"

"Yes I am. You don't call, you don't write. You must have been really drunk."

"Jenny, please…I need to speak with him right now."

She noted that he sounded scared. Caleb Martin never gets scared.

She handed the phone to her father, "Yeah?" he answered.

John was silent for a minute as he listened to Caleb. She couldn't help but notice he was getting a little pale.

"Damn it," he said, hanging up, "We need to pull over."

"Why? What's wrong?"

"This is not what we need right now," he said, finding a small patch of road to pull over. The Impala had followed close behind. He stopped the truck before getting out, "God damn it!"

Jenny along with her brother from the other vehicle got out as well.

"What is it?" Dean asked.

John sighed before answering, "I just got a call from Caleb."

Dean glanced at his sister for a split second, "What'd he want?" he said with bile in his voice.

"Jim Murphy is dead," John said.

"Oh," Jenny said, not realizing speaking to Caleb like that might not have the right time. She never met Jim Murphy before, but she had heard a lot about him from Bobby.

"Pastor Jim? How?" Sam asked.

"His throat was slashed. He bled out. Caleb said they found traces of sulfur at Jim's place," John explained.

"A demon," Dean said as his father nodded, "The demon?"

"I don't know," Johns said, "Could be he just got careless, he slipped up. Maybe the demon knows we're getting close."

"What do we do?" Dean asked.

"There are two hospitals and a health center in this county," John said, "We split up, cover more ground. I want records. I want a list of every infant that's going to be six months old in the next week."

"Dad, that could be dozens of kids," Sam spoke up, "How do we know which one's the right one?"

"We check them all. You got any better ideas?"

"No sir," Sam said.

"Jen is with me," John said, "Keep your phones on." He nodded before turning back to get in his truck.

"Dad?" Dean called.

John stopped at the door looking upset, "Yeah. It's Jim. You know, I can't...This ends now. I'm ending it. I don't care what it takes."

Everyone got into their vehicle before turning back to the road and speeding off.

John glanced at his daughter, "What was that about?" She looked confused, "With Caleb on the phone. I didn't know you knew him."

"Very good reason too," she whispered, "About four months after by eighteenth birthday, Dean surprises me by stopping by at Bobby's. Sure, he was four months late but he made an effort to do something special…Before you say anything, I'm over it. That was years ago." John had missed a few birthdays since her mother died. "Dean took me out to eat at the local bar. That's where I met Caleb. They had just finished up a hunting gig in the area and they were out celebrating. Dean left to go to the restroom and Caleb had been drinking a lot. He came back from the restroom with Caleb touching my leg and hitting on me. To say the least, Dean was not pleased. It took me and the bartender to pry him off of Caleb."

John didn't say anything as he watched the road as he drove, "You're lucky you had Dean with you…I would have killed him."

"I'm sure Caleb felt the same way," she said.

Eventually, they drove in silence for the rest of the trip giving Jenny a lot to think about. She knew Caleb didn't mean anything by it. He was drunk and he sure wasn't thinking with his upstairs brain that night. Couple days after the incident, he even called her up to apologize for the way that he acted. He was just being a dirty old man and asked that she wouldn't mention anything to Bobby or her father.

She sat there in the passengers seat watching the horizon become darker and darker until she closed her eyes and let exhaustion take over.

"Chill Dean, he didn't mean anything by it," Jenny said to her brother on the drove back to Bobby's.

"He didn't…He tried to get into the pants of my little sister while I was taking a piss!"

"His one of dad's oldest friends, you didn't have to hit him so hard," she said.

"Like Hell I didn't! And he's no friend of dad's to be treating you like that," he said.

"He was drunk!"

"Jen, I don't want to talk about this anymore. The more I talk about it, the more I want to turn my baby around to beat the shit out of him some more. I'm just going to go back to Bobby's, pass out on the couch, and say good-bye to you in the morning," he said.

"Some late birthday surprise."

"Look, I'm sorry okay," he said, "I should have come out on your birthday four months back but I was busy with dad."

"And I bet he just forgot, right? It's hard to remember your kid's birthday when you've only celebrated it once."

Dean sighed before leaning over to open up the glove compartment, "There's your present."

Jenny looked inside the compartment and saw an old looking book. She grabbed it and held the book in her hands, "Thanks. It looks really old."

"It is," he said, "It's a book of monsters. Dad gave it to me on my birthday when he started to teach me, granted I was twelve at the time. Open up the cover."

She opened the book and found a stack of lottery tickets, "You know, Sam just sent me a 200 dollar gift card. Cash would have been just fine."

"Those are the expensive lottery tickets only rich people can afford. You might just win more than just 200 dollars. Live a little," he said.

She rolled her eyes, "You're so strange sometimes."

…

It was three o'clock in the morning when she started to reach for her cell phone, "Hello?" she asked with a yarn.

"Babe, it's me."

"James," she smiled, "You know what time it is right?"

"I know it's early. I just finished my witch hunt and wanted to hear your voice."

"I miss you," she said, rolling onto her back, "Nights are not the same without you."

"I'm driving back to you now. With minimal stops I can be back by noon."

"Maybe Dean will be gone by then because I really don't feel like explaining my relationship with my training instructor," she said.

"Your brother is there?"

"He came to take me out for my birthday. He got into it with Caleb because he was being handsy with me," she explained.

"Caleb Martin?"

"Yeah," she said.

"That bastard."

She laughed, "Do hunters know every hunter out there?"

"We know others by their reputation."

"Well, you don't need to say anything because I heard it all from Dean…I need some more sleep. I don't want to miss my brother in the morning," she said.

"You also need your beauty sleep because I'm going to tare into you tomorrow during training."

"Training, huh?" she asked, "Is that code for something?"

"You bet your tight little ass it is. I haven't seen you in over a week."

She ran a hand in her messy bed hair, "I don't think I can wait."

She heard him chuckle, "If you want, you can start early. I can talk dirty to you."

"What? No! That's gross," she said.

"Come on, it'll make sometime pass quickly."

"I'm going back to bed you pervert!" she said before hanging up the phone.

She tried really hard to go back to sleep. She tossed and turned for a couple of minutes before caving in and calling him back.

"Jen, we are here."

She sat up and looked outside. It was now morning. They must have driven all night. They were parked outside of Salvation Children's Hospital.

"Here's some coffee," John handed her a cup; "Dean and Sam went to check out the other hospital. We have a lot of work to do."

XXX

Jenny was sitting in a conference room John was able to get a nurse to set up for them. They were currently looking through records. She was writing down a name when she received a text from Sam.

'Went to the hospital and got a list of names. While checking the list, I had a vision…I know which family it is. We got a room at Salvation Motel.'

"Dad, they found the family," she spoke up as she was putting her phone away, "We got to go."

Within seconds of entering the motel room, John was demanding information. He wanted to know how they were able to find the family so quickly.

Sam explained what happened. He explained everything.

"A vision," John said flatly as he sat on the end of a bed, looking up at Sam.

"Yes. I saw the demon burning a woman on the ceiling," Sam said.

"And you think this is going to happen to this woman you met because?" John asked.

"Because these things happen exactly the way I see them," Sam explained.

"It started out as nightmares. Then it started happening while he was awake," Dean spoke up as he was pouring himself another cup of coffee.

"It's like the closer I get to anything to do with the demon the stronger the visions get," Sam said.

"All right. When were you going to tell me about this?" John asked.

"If I'm not mistaken, I think Sam just did," Jenny said.

"Why wasn't I told the moment this started to happen?" John asked.

"We didn't what of it meant," Dean answered.

"All right, something like this starts happening to your brother, you pick up the phone and you call me," John ordered.

Dean slammed is cup of coffee on the counter, "Call you? Are you kidding me?" he strode toward John, "Dad I called you from Lawrence, all right? Sam called you when I was dying. I mean, getting you on the phone, I got a better chance of winning the lottery."

At that moment, Jenny decided that her own coffee cup was more interesting than the conversation her family was having. She didn't want to get into it too.

"You're right," John said as he realized Dean was right, "Although I'm not too crazy about this new tone of yours."

"He learned that from me," Jenny spoke up.

"I noticed," John said, "I'm sorry nonetheless."

"Look guys, visions or no visions, we know the demon is coming tonight. And this family's going to go through the same hell we went through," Sam said.

"No one is ever again," John said.

Sam's phone went off and the entire atmosphere changed because of who was on the phone asking for their father. Jenny never actually met Meg but she knew the woman was trouble. Meg wanted to speak with their father. Turns out she was the one responsible for Jim Murphy's death. Jenny and her brothers waited intensely to hear what she evil woman wanted.

"Caleb is dead. She killed Jim and Caleb to get my attention. She wants the gun," John said, giving the phone back to Sam.

"Oh my God," Jenny whispered, "Dad, I'm sorry."

Dean looked away. Even though he hated Caleb for what he did; he was still a long time friend.

"So you think Meg is a demon?" Sam asked.

"Either that, or she's possessed by one. It doesn't really matter," John said.

"What do we do?" Dean asked.

"I'm going to Lincoln," John answered, "It doesn't look like we have a choice. If I don't go, a lot of people die, our friends die."

"What about here? The demon?" Jenny asked.

"She's right. The demon is coming tonight for Monica and her family. That gun is all we got," Sam said.

"Who said anything about handing it over?" John asked, "I'm not going to give her the real thing. Not many people have actually seen the gun besides us and a few vampires."

"You're going to hand Meg a fake gun and hope she doesn't notice?" Dean asked.

"If I can find an exact match, she shouldn't be able to tell the difference," John said.

"Yeah and what if she decides to do a test run?" Jenny asked.

"I get out before then and hope you guys save this family and kill the demon," John said.

"You want us to finish this without you?" Sam asked.

"Yes," John said, "I want to stop losing people we love. I want you to go to school, I want Dean to have a home, and I want Jenny to live a normal life. She's still young so it's possible for her. I want...I want Mary alive. I just want this to be over."

"It's a trap you know," Jenny said, "Meg wants to get you alone."

"I know it is," John said, "She wants to separate us because it's easy to take us down that way. I promise I'm not going to let that happen."

She smiled weakly, "You shouldn't make promises. Something bad always happens."

"You promise?" Jenny asked as she gazed into her lover's eyes.

James leaned over to kiss her, "I promise, okay? I shouldn't have to because I'll always come back to you. Nothing can keep me away."

…

"Bobby, I found that book you were looking for," Jenny said as she made her way downstairs, "I had it in my room…" She stopped when she saw the look on his face as he met her at the bottom, "What's wrong?"

"It's James, kiddo," Bobby said, softly.

"You're right. I shouldn't," John said, bringing her in for a hug, "All we can do is hope for the best." He let her go and then looked at all three of them, "You finish what I started."

XXX

John went to Lincoln with the fake colt to meet Meg leaving Dean, Sam and Jenny to watch the house. They waited and waited. Nothing happened until they heard static coming from the radio. They charged into the house and were able to get everyone out in time before the house went up in flames. No one was able to get the demon.

Once the family was alright, the Winchester siblings looked back at the burning house and saw the silhouette of the demon in what used to be the nursery. As if it was mocking them.

"It's still in there!" Sam shouted, trying to go back in.

"Sam!" Dean shouted, grabbing his brother to hold him back, "No. It's burning to the ground. It's suicide."

Pushing Dean away, "I don't care."

Jenny stood before Sam in his path and took a hard swing at him, causing him to fall to the ground, "We do!" she shouted, "You're not going back in."

Sam looked up at his sister a little intimidated. Dean helped him up but could help feeling amazed by what she just did.

They turned to look at the nursery again and saw that the silhouette was gone.

XXX

They eventually made it back to the motel room. Their dad never checked in.

"Come on Dad, answer your phone damn it," Dean said frustrated, trying to reach him, "Something is wrong."

"Maybe he is driving through bad cell reception," Jenny guessed.

"If you would have let me go back in there, I could have ended this all," Sam finally spoke.

Jenny stood up, "Do I need to punch you again?" she said as she made her way to get a new bag of ice.

"You would have killed yourself, Sam," Dean reasoned as he watched his sister sit back down on the bed.

"I think you broke my hand," Jenny said as she looked at her badly bruised hand.

"Sammy has always had a hard head," Dean commented.

"You don't know that," Sam said as if he never heard them, "I could have at least tried."

"So what, you're just willing to sacrifice yourself, is that it?"

"Damn right I am," Sam said, "We've been searching for this demon our whole lives. It's the only thing we've ever cared about."

"Well, then you're an idiot," Jenny said.

"It's not worth dying over," Dean said, "If hunting this demon means getting yourself killed then I hope we never find the damn thing."

"That thing killed mom…That thing killed Jess. I didn't even know she was pregnant," Sam said, angrily.

"You said yourself once, that no matter what we do, they're gone, and they're never coming back," Dean said.

Sam goes have his brother and shoves him hard against a wall.

"Don't you say that, not you!" Sam shouted, "Not after all this don't you dare say that."

Jenny tried to separate them but with one good hand she couldn't make Sam let go, "Stop it! This isn't helping anything!"

Sam looks at her with angry and upsetting eyes before letting go of Dean.

"The four of us that's all we have...and it's all I have," Dean said, fixing his shirt, "Sometimes I feel like I'm barely holding it together man."

Sam bent down to pick up the ice bag Jenny dropped, "I'm sorry," he said as he handed it back to her, "He should have called by now. Try him again."

Dean picked up his phone from the table and tried again. He waited a moment, "Where is he?" he asked angrily.

…

It was Meg.

Dean hanged up his phone, "They've got dad."

(To Be Continued)