The kids are Alright

Sam, Faith, and Hope are sitting at a table in a generic Diner, Sam working on his laptop as Hope talks on the Phone.

"What do you mean you don't think it will work, Bobby? It's a demon-dispelling ritual." Hope Pauses, "Well, maybe we got the translation wrong. Look, we can't just let Dean fry in hell while we... there's got to be something." Faith kicks Hope under the table as she see's Dean approaching. "Yeah. No. I gotta go. Okay. Never mind."

Dean sits next to Hope giving her an odd look. "Hey. Who was that?"

She looks at him awkwardly, "I was just ordering pizza."

Dean looks around, "You do realize that you're in a restaurant?"

"Yeah. Yeah. Oh, yeah. I just felt like pizza, you know?" Hope says grinning.

"Okay, Weirdy Mcweirderton. So, I think I got something." Dean says as Hope rolls her eyes. "Cicero, Indiana. Falls on his own power saw."

"And? That, that's it? One power saw?" Faith says.

"Well...yeah."

"And you think that this is a case?" She asks leaning on the table.

"Well, I don't know. Could be." Dean says as Faith raises her eyebrows at him, "Okay, there's something better in Cicero than just a case.

"And that is?"

"Lisa Braeden." Dean says and Hope glares over at him.

"Who the hell is Lisa?" She asks defensively.

"Just some chick I hooked up with years ago, we had a connection." Hope glares at him harder, "I just want to see how see's doing is all. Its my dying wish."

"How many dying wishes are you gonna get?" Faith asked.

"As many as I can."

"Hey Faith…" Hope says as they are walking back to the Impala from a gas station just outside of Cicero, Indiana.

"Yeah…"

"Should I be worried? You know, about Dean and Lisa?"

"Honestly, no. He's going to hell in a year and the guy obviously cares about her. He did have a life before you, just remember that."

"I know, but…I don't know."

"Trust me." Faith says putting her hand on Hope's shoulder, "It'll be fine."

They pull up to a hotel and Dean lets everyone get out of the car, "Don't wait up for me." He calls out the window.

"Hold up Dean…" Hope says leaning in the window, "I don't like…I don't want to sound like the paranoid girlfriend but…"

"Hey don't be worried, I'll take Faith with me, and you know she will line me out." He said brushing her face with his hand.

"Why can't I go with you?" Hope said and Dean grinned at her, "Okay your right, I would probably punch her."

Dean leaned out the window and kissed Hope on the check, "See ya in a few, Faith get in, your comin' with me."

"What?!" She said pulling away from Sam's embrace, "Hell no, it has been I don't even know how long since Sam and I have had time to screw, and frankly if I wait any longer I'm going to get pissy."

Dean grinned at her, "Get in."

She sighed and slouched over to the car and plopped herself down in the drivers seat. Sam came over and rested his arms on the window, "When you get back?" he grinned and kissed her.

She grabbed his jacket collar and really kissed him, "Most definitely."

Outside a nicely kept suburban house, Dean and Faith get out of the car and Dean rings the doorbell. The door opens to reveal Lisa: late twenties, brunette, very fit; she is gorgeous. Dean smiles awkwardly, and Lisa stares at the two in surprise.

"Lisa. How's it going? Wow. So, how long has it been?" Dean asks.

"Eight, going on nine years now."

"Crazy right?"

"What are you doing here?" She asks as she looks Faith up and down.

"Oh, I was just passing through, and I couldn't resist. I remember that you love surprises."

"Akward…" Faith whispers to Dean.

"Yeah. Dean Winchester. Wow. Just...wow. I'm - I'm sorry. You kind of came at a bad time. We're having a party."

"A party? Well, I love parties." He nudges past her and enters the house; she takes a deep breath and Looks at Faith who smiles at her awkwardly, she quickly follows Dean into the house. Lisa sighs and shuts the door behind them. She leads them into the back yard, which is decorated for a kid's birthday party.

"So, uh, who's the party for?" Dean asked.

"Ben. My son."

"Oh. you have a –"

"Yep." She gestures across the yard to a young boy wearing a black jacket and jeans. He is opening presents.

"That's him."

"How old—"

"Eight." Lisa looks up and sees a woman enter the yard, "Oh, Dean, could you excuse me a minute?"

Dean stands there stunned. "Yeah, sure. Don't mind us."

"Ever notice how that kid looks like you…acts like you…likes the same music as you…not to mention he's what eight…and you last saw her almost nine years ago…" Faith says as she studies the boy, he opens present which include an AC/DC tape.

"Shut up…" Dean says.

"Hey I'm just sayin…"

Ben is cutting into the cake as they watch him, Faith walks over to the young boy before Dean can stop her. "What's up?" She asks.

"What's up with you Hotty?" He grins at her.

She laughs, "So, it's your birthday?"

"Guilty."

Dean walks over, "It's a cool party you got here."

"Dude, it's so freakin' sweet. And this moon bounce -it's epic."

Faith crosses her arms amusingly and looks at Dean. Dean is slightly weirded out by the resemblance the boy holds to him. "Yeah. It's pretty awesome."

"You know who else thinks they're awesome? Chicks. It's like hot-chick city out there." Ben eyes Faith, "So, she yours?" Ben asks giving Faith a once over.

Faith laughs and bends over so she is eye level with the boy, "He couldn't handle this." She smiles at him and heads over to get a drink.

"Dude…" Ben says as they both watch her leave, "I hate to seem em go but I love to watch em leave."

Dean looks at Ben, thinks frantically, than darts inside the house after Faith.

"So...how you holding up?" Lisa asks the woman who came in the yard earlier.

"Fine." She says just as there is a knock on the door.

"I'll be right back." Lisa says as she gets up to answer the door. Just then Faith walks in.

Lisa opens up the door to find Hope standing there, "Can I help you?"

"Lisa?"

"Yea…" She says confused.

"I'm Hope, is Dean here?"

"Yeah he's out back with his girlfriend."

Hope gives her an odd look, "Girlfriend?"

"Yeah, tall, fit, blond girl?"

"Right…"

"Well there in the back yard if you want to come in?"

"Thanks."

Lisa leads Hope back to the kitchen where she left her friend, who is now talking with Faith.

"Really?" Faith asks just as Lisa and Hope enter.

"Oh, you know. I just... never mind." She tries to hold back tears.

Faith puts her hand on the woman's shoulder, Sam and Hope were so much better at this…sympathy thing, "What?"

"It's just... I'm worried about Katie. I think there might be something...wrong with her." The woman says.

"Of course there is. The poor girl just lost her dad. She's devastated." Lisa interrupts.

"No. That's not what I'm talking about. There is something really... wrong with her. I'm not sure that Katie is...Katie."

Faith glances up at Hope and the two of them share a look.

"What do you mean?" Lisa asks.

"I'm not sure that's my daughter."

"I know you're grieving, but you can't talk like that. Katie needs you.

"But you don't understand – " The woman begins.

"Seriously. We're gonna get you help. It'll be okay." Lisa says.

Just as Dean is entering the kitchen the woman shakes her head and runs outside to her daughter. Dean watches her leave in confusion. "What was that about?" He asks turning to face the girls, and that's when he notices Hope. Dean clears his throat, "So, I, uh, met Ben. Cool kid. I couldn't help but notice that, uh, he's turning eight. You and me...you know."

Lisa gives him a look, "You're... not trying to ask me if he's yours?"

Hope glares at Dean. Faith notices how awkward things are about to get and tries to bolt for the back yard but Hope grabs her arm. "Don't even think about it." Hope whispers to her.

"No. No, of course not.….He's not, is he?" Dean asks.

"What?" Lisa asks as Dean raises his eyebrow, "No." She says as a matter of factly.

"Soooo, this is awkward…." Faith says. "Um, Lisa your friend seemed a little worked up."

"I know she just lost her husband and her daughter…I don't know its just hard. A lot of bad luck running around the neighborhood I guess."

"What do you mean?" Dean asked her.

Sam is sitting alone in a diner again, again with his laptop open. A young woman sits down across from him, its Ruby, the girl from the seven deadly sin case.

"Hello, Sam."

"You've been following me since Lincoln." Sam says.

"Not much gets by you, huh?" She takes a plate, squirts a mound of ketchup into it, and starts eating his fries. "These are amazing. it's like deep-fried crack. Try some." She offers him a fry and when he looks at it and sighs she shrugs her shoulders and eats it herself.

"That knife you had. You can kill demons with that thing?"

"Sure comes in handy when I have to swoop in and save the damsel in distress." She grins.

"Where did you get it?" Sam asks ignoring her sarcasm.

"Skymall." She grins at him again.

Sam takes in a breath, clearly frustrated with her, "Why are you following me?"

"I'm interested in you." She says eating another fry.

"Why?"

"Because you're tall. And I love a tall man."

He chuckles, "Look I already have a girl alright, and trust me, she's not someone you want to piss off."

"Please, you mean little miss independent….Besides that's not why I'm so into you…then there's the whole antichrist thing."

"What?"

"Generation of psychic kids, yellow-eyed demon rounds you up, celebrity death match ensues. You're the sole survivor." Ruby continues.

"How do you know about that?"

"I'm a good hunter. So, yellow eyes had some pretty big plans for you, Sam."

"Had" being the key word."

"Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. That's right. Ding-dong, the demon's dead. Good job with that. It doesn't change the fact that you're special... in that Anthony Michael Hall E.S.P. visions kind of way."

In a firm voice Sam says, "No. That's stuff's not happening anymore. Not since Yellow-Eyes died."

"Well, I'm thinking you're still a pretty big deal. I mean, after all that business with your mom."

"What about my mom?" Sam says starting to get pissed.

"You know, what happened to her friends….You... don't know. You've got a little bit of catching up to do, my friend. So, why don't you look into your mom's pals, and then give me a call and we'll talk again?" She stands to leave. "And by the way, your little angel your screwin and her perfect little sister, aren't all their cracked up to be." Ruby grins and starts to leave.

"Hey wait a minute….What do you mean."

She smiles at him and keep walking.

"Well, Lisa it was nice to meet you, but we really need to get going." Faith says as she nudges Dean.

"Yeah, we should." Dean says.

"It was nice to meet you guys as well, are you in town for long?" Lisa asks.

"Couple days, maybe we will have lunch sometime." Faith says without thinking.

Lisa smiles "Sure."

The three of them leave the house and before Dean opens up the car door he stops and rests his arms on the hood. "I cant believe you." He says looking at Hope.

"What?"

"You didn't trust me even with your sister here….unbelievable." Dean gets in the Impala and slams the door.

Hope sighs and looks over at Faith, "How am I the bad guy?"

"Well how would you feel if he did the same thing to you?" Faith asks.

"I would have never been in his shoes to being with, even if I cared about some dude from my past. A past is a past for a reason and it needs to stay that way."

"Well I guess we will never know…" Faith says opening the back door.

"What do you mean?" Hope asks.

"Well because you don't have a man from your past you care about, and if you and Dean don't last and you find some other guy, Dean won't be here to come back to."

Hope huffs, "Nice Faith, real nice. As if I didn't feel like a big enough jerk already."

"Just sayin…" Faith says as she gets in the car. Hope sighs and follows suite.

Dean drives back to the hotel and Faith heads for her room, Dean pulls Hope aside before heading in. "Look I'm sorry I got upset with you, its just you don't trust me." Dean says.

"Yes I do….I just….I don't know Dean, I'm afraid you will see how perfect she is and how normal she is and want that more then you want me." Hope says staring at the ground, it killed her to admit such a thing.

Dean grinned, "Is this really what this is about, me leaving you for a normal life? Hope, I do want a normal life, But I want it with you."

She smiled, "I should know that, I do know that, I just get worried I guess."

"I know you do, come on, lets go tell Sammy there's a case here after all."

Dean and Hope walk up the stairs to Sam and Faith's room and open the door without knocking, big mistake. Faith is shirtless with her bra on and straddling Sam who is also shirtless and his pants open. Faith sighs at the noise of them coming in, "Really?! You couldn't give me 5 minutes?!"

"Is that all it takes Sammy?" Dean winked.

Faith hopes off Sam's lap and Hope gives him a once over and grins, Dean notices and throws him a shirt, "Put some clothes on Sasquatch."

"Well I guess you were right, there is a case here." Sam says after they tell him about what Lisa said, people drowning in their hot tubs, falling off ladders, falling on a power saw etc.

"Yeah well, lets get on it then." Dean says.

"First thin in the morning." Faith says as she shoves Dean and Hope out of the room. He turns her attention back to Sam, "Now, where were we?" She grins.

The following morning Sam is dressed in a dark suit and posing as an insurance agent, Faith is wearing a pin striped black skirt suite with black stilettos and posing as his assistant. They are speaking to another young mother.

"So, once again, I'm very sorry to disturb you. We just really want to expedite that life-insurance policy." Sam says.

"Of course. Okay." The mom says, she takes him around back, where a ladder leans against the wall. "This is, um, where he fell."

"I see. Now, how exactly did he – " Sam begins.

"He was just inside changing a light bulb. Must have lost his balance."

"Were you here when this happened?" Faith asked.

"No. I was out. Uh, the only one here was our daughter, Dakota." She gestures inside, where a Creepy Little Girl is looking out at them. Something dark red is smudged on the window.

"Okay. Okay. well, uh, I think that's all I need. I'll get out of your way now." Sam says.

Sam is at his computer, doing research. Faith is on the bed taking a nap and Dean and Hope enter with some burgers.

"Something's wrong with the kids in this town." Dean says

"Yeah. Tell me about it." he is looking at several documents on Changelings. "So, what do you know about changelings?"

"Evil monster babies?" Dean asks.

"No, not necessarily babies." Sam says.

Dean takes a straw and sits on the bed next to Faith, "The kids. Creepy, "stare at you like you're lunch" kids?" He sticks the straw up her nose.

"Yeah. There's one at every victim's house."

Faith snorts and sits up fast knocking the straw out of her nose and seeing a laughing Dean next to her. She punches him in the shoulder hard and he rubs it, "Bitch…" She says to him.

He looks at her trying to think of something witty to say, "…bitch…" He says under his breath as she heads for the bathroom.

"I heard that!" She calls back.

After the burgers have been eaten Sam is seated on the bed doing more research, as Dean, Hope and Faith prepare kerosene torches.

"So, changelings can perfectly mimic children. According to lore, they climb in the window, snatch the kid. There were marks on the windowsill at one of the kid's houses. Looked to me like blood." Sam said.

"The changeling grabs a kid, assumes its form, joins the happy fam just for kicks?" Hope asks.

"Not quite. Changelings feed on the mom: synovial fluid. The moms have these odd bruises on the back of their necks. Changelings can drain them for a few weeks before mom finally croaks." Faith says and Sam looks at her impressed, "What? I read…"

"And then there's dad…" Dean says.

"Yeah. Seems like anyone who gets between the changeling and its food source ends up dead." Sam said.

"And fire's the only way to waste them?" Dean asks holding up his torch, Sam nods, "Great. We'll just bust in, drag the kids out, torch them on the front lawn. That will play great with the neighbors. What about the real ones? What happens to them?"

"They stash them underground somewhere. I don't know why, but if it's true, the real kids might be out there." Sam says.

"So, any kid in the neighborhood is vulnerable?" Dean asks.

"Yup."

"We gotta make a stop. I want to check on someone." Dean said.

"If the real kids are still alive, we don't have time." Sam said.

"We have to." Hope spoke up, "Its Ben."

They pull up to Lisa's house in the impala and Dean walks to the house and rings the doorbell, and Lisa opens the door looking bewildered

"I was thinking... Ben's birthday. I didn't bring him a present."

"That's okay." Lisa says.

"No. No, no, I feel terrible, so, uh..." He hands her a credit card. "Here Take a long weekend - just the two of you - on me."

"What the hell is he doing?" Faith asks looking from the car.

"He's trying to get her and Ben to leave." Hope says.

"What?" Lisa asks.

"I hear Six Flags is great this time of year. Go now. avoid the traffic.

She looks down at the card "Siegfried Houdini." Whose card is this?"

"Mine. Never mind. It'll work. I promise."

"You should leave."

Ben comes down the stairs, "Mommy, what's wrong?"

"Nothing, Ben. It's cool." Dean says.

"Make him go away, mommy." Ben says.

"You heard him. Get out." Lisa says.

"Lisa... I don't think this is a good idea."

"Get out!" She yells and shuts the door in his face.

Dean trots over to Ben's windowsill sighs when he sees the dark red and heads for the car and leans in the window, "They took Ben. He's changed."

"What?! Are you sure?" Hope asks.

"Yeah, I'm sure. I checked his windowsill."

"Blood?" Faith asks.

"I don't think it is blood, and I think I know where the kids are."

There's a large mound of dirt outside the semi-finished home that they pull up to, Sam inspects it. "Red dirt."

"That's what was on the window. You two take the front. We'll go around." Dean says as he and Hope head for the back. In the basement, Dean finds a series of cages, each one containing an abducted child. Looking around he sees Ben; "Ben...Ben...it's okay. I'm gonna get you out of here."

In the back of the house, the Real Estate Woman sees Sam and Faith. "What do you think you're doing? This is private property. I'm calling the police. You heard me! Get out!"

Sam reaches for his bag "Let me get my bag. I'm going. I don't mean to cause any trouble."

Late at night Lisa is cleaning up from the day's chaos. Ben starts acting strangely creepy, standing stiff-armed in the living room.

"Mommy?" Ben stares at his mother.

"Ben..." Lisa starts impatiently

"Play with me." He pleads.

"This isn't funny anymore. I put you to bed three times." Lisa puts her hands on her hips giving Ben the angry mom look.

Ben hugs her around the waist "I don't want to go to bed. I want to be with you, mommy."

"That's sweet,hon. Come on. Let's go. All right, come on."

"I'm hungry" Ben looks up at her.

"Mini pizzas okay? Deluxe is all we've got."

"Okay. "

She turns away towards the refrigerator "That's funny - I thought we were anti-olives this month." She looks down and sees Ben's reflection in the glass table; it has the icky flukeman face. She gasps not knowing what to do.

Back in the basement Hope is hurrying to let the kids out of the cages. "It's ok. Get out here, okay? Come on, girls! Come on!"

Dean clears off a windowsill and prepares to smash the glass. "Everybody back! Everybody back! Cover your eyes!" He breaks the window with a plank of wood, and begins to brush the glass off.

Ben takes off his jacket "Here, use this."

Dean grabs the jacket "All right. All right, Ben. Come on. "

Ben pulls another kid forward "Him First."

Faith runs down the stairs to the basement "Hey! Dean! There's a mother."

"A mother changeling?" Dean looks confused.

"We got to get these kids out quick." Hope looked nervously at all the kids.

"Right there. There's one more. You got to break the lock!" Dean points to the last cage..

"I can see that Dean! Maybe you should worry about your actions a little more" Hope glares at him as she snaps off the lock. He looks at Faith who shrugs her shoulders having no idea what her deal is.

"Guys!" Sam is outside the window, "Let's focus."

"I guess that's why the changelings are keeping the kids alive" Faith looks at the kids "so the mom can snack on them."

Ben looks at his Lisa "What's wrong, mommy?"

"You're not my son." Lisa walks away from Ben

"Yes, I am."

"Where's Ben? "

"I'm Ben. I love you, mommy." Ben walks towards his mom.

Lisa runs out the front door, grabbing her keys along the way. On the front lawn, a line of Creepy Kids has formed, blocking her exit. She runs back inside.

Ben stands in the hallway "They don't want you to leave me, mommy."

"Get them out of here!" Dean shouts

Sam and Hope help the kids up and out of the window. Dean and Hope confront the Changeling Mother. She throws Faith across the room, falling onto a cage. Dean flicks his lighter in the homemade torch. The mother stalks towards Dean, fumbling with the lighter as she gets closer. Faith comes from behind her hitting her in the head. Eventually they burn her to ashes she goes up in flames, Ben, Katie, and all the other changeling kids, also disappear.

They all pull up in front of Lisa's house in the Impala. Ben jumps out of the car running to hug his mom.

"Ben! Ben! Baby, are you okay?" Lisa hugs and kisses Ben as the others get out of the car.

"I'm okay, mom." Ben hugs her tighter.

"Oh, my god. What the hell just happened?"

" I'll explain everything if you want me to, but, trust me, you probably don't. The important thing is that Ben's safe." Dean pats Ben on the head.

"Thank you." Lisa looks at the gang by the car then back at Dean. "Thank you."

"We'll give you guys some time." Faith speaks up looking at both Hope and Sam. Dean smiles and follows Lisa and Ben into the house.

Ben sits at the table, listening to something on his portable CD player as Dean and Lisa talk in the hallway.

"Come on. Changelings?" Lisa is skeptical

"You know how I never mentioned my job? This is my job." Dean shrugs.

"I so didn't want to know that." She looks over at Ben "Do you think he'll be okay?"

"Yeah. I think he'll be fine." Dean looks over at Ben then smacks his hands together. "Okay. Seriously... I mean, you're a hundred percent sure that he is not mine, right?"

Lisa smiles "You're off the hook. I did a blood test when he was a baby. There was this guy - some bar back in a biker joint." She notices the surprised look on his face "What? I had a type. Leather jacket, couple of scars, no mailing address? I was there. Guess I was a little wild back then. Before I became a mom. So yeah. You can relax."

"Good" He says looking at Ben wistfully.

"I... I swear you look disappointed."

"Yeah, I don't know. It's weird, you know your life... I mean, this house and a kid... it's not my life. Never will be. Some stuff happened to me recently, and, uh... anyway, a guy in my situation - you start to think, you know. I'm gonna be gone one day, and what am I leaving behind besides a car? I don't know."

"Ben may not be your kid, but he wouldn't be alive if it wasn't for you. That's a lot if you ask me." Lisa puts her hand on Dean's arm.

"You know, just for the record... you got a great kid. I would have been proud to be his dad."

Lisa leans forwarding kissing Dean. "Look, if, um... if you want to stick around for a while... you're welcome to stay."

Dean pauses thinking of having a normal life "I can't. I got a lot of work to do, and it's not my life."

Hope and Faith dropped Sam off at the hotel while they drove to get food. The car ride was awkward and silent. Faith pulled over the Impala and threw it in park. "Ok what's the deal? Spill."

"Umm..What…what do you mean?"

"So what the hell was up with you earlier?" Faith turns in her seat towards Hope. "You flipped your shit on Dean back at that house."

"He kissed her, I mean of course he did, they have history and who am I to stop them from rekindling their romance after all these years?! It's like a freaking Jane Eyre novel.

"Holy shit Hope! Cut the drama! He loves you and I'm pretty sure you know that. Cut the guy some slack he's going to hell soon!"

"You don't think I don't know that Faith! That's all I think about and the entire time he's fitting in his "last requests" and you and Sam are screwing like rabbits, I'm freaking out!" Hope started crying uncontrollably.

"Hope, everything will be fine." Faith pulled her little sister closer reminding her of the day she had to explain death to her after finding their parents. She was once again that fragile little girl she had to protect. "Dean loves you, if he didn't he would have stayed with that Lisa chick, he wouldn't have thought twice." Faith says.

Hope gently pulls away from her sister, "No, he's here because of the greater good, and because he's not going to leave Sam to fight this war on his own." Hope sighs, "If he could, he would go live with her and have a good normal life."

"Hope…."

"And you know what? I wouldn't blame him one bit."

"Alright, enough! You keep talking like that and acting the way you are your gonna push him right out the damn door!" Faith took in a breath, "I know how hard it is for you to trust people, especially men, but so help me Hope that boy loves you. Let him love you before it's too late."

Hope sighed and hugged her sister, "What if I can't? What if I can't let go of these insecurities?"

"Then I'll just have to kick your ass." Faith grinned, "You're braver than you believe, and stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think."

Hope smiled and looked up at her sister, "Did you seriously just quote Winnie the Pooh?"

"No….I quoted Christopher Robin." She grins.

The next morning Sam is in his hotel room on his cell while the rest are packing up to leave. "Hi. I needed to check some facts with your, uh...with your secretary about a fire that occurred on November 24, 2006 in Lawrence, Kansas. Hardecker was his name. Okay. great. I was just trying to find out the date he died. This is police chief Phil Jones. July 13th. Can you check the records for a Robert Campbell? July 19, 2001. Dead on arrival. What I'm after is cause of death. Heart condition? Wasn't he a cardiac surgeon? Wouldn't he have known about that? I'm looking for information on... on Mrs. Wallace's death. Two deaths. Who was the other? Ed Campbell. Any survivors? No, that's all I needed. Thank you very much." He flops down on the bed, head in his hands. "Oh, my god." He whispers to himself as the realization hits him.

"Hey, you ready?" Faith asks as she bounces in the room

"Yeah, be there in just a second."

"Hey you ok?"

"Yeah, just go a headache is all."

"Alright, see ya in a minute then?" Faith smiles.

"Yeah."

"They're dead. All of them. All of my mom's friends. Her doctor, Her uncle - everyone who ever knew her, systematically wiped off the map one at a time. Someone went through a hell of a lot of trouble Trying to cover their tracks." Sam says as Ruby is pacing back and forth in the room.

"The yellow-eyed demon." Ruby says.

"So, what's your deal? You show up wherever I am. You know all about me. You know all about my mom." Sam says.

"I already told you. I'm –"

"Oh, right, right. Yeah. Just a hunter. Just some hunter who happens to know more about my own family than I do. Just tell me who you are."

Hope runs up the stairs to Sam's hotel room and is just about to open the door when she hears a woman's voice that is clearly not Faith's.

"Sam, it –"

He cuts her off again, "Just...tell me who you are."

"It doesn't matter." She says calm.

Sam shouts in her face, "Just tell me who you are!"

"Fine." She blinks her eyes once and they go demon-black; she blinks again and they become normal. Sam backs up, fumbling in his bag. "Think twice before going for that holy water."

Hope flinches as what she is saying and contemplates opening the door.

Sam Pulls out a flask and holds it out, "Give me one reason I should."

"I'm here to help you, Sam."

"Is this some kind of joke?" Hope says coming through the door looking pissed.

"God's honest truth... or whatever." She says grinning at Hope.

"You're a demon! Sam she's a demon!"

"Don't be such a racist. I'm here because I want to help you. And I can if you trust me."

"Are you kidding me?" Hope says.

"Calm down princess." Ruby says and Hope's face glows red with anger.

"Start talking. All those murders... what was the demon trying to cover up?" Sam asked.

"What demon…Sam?" Hope says.

"Well?" Sam says ignoring Hope.

"I don't know."

"What happened to my mother?"

"I honestly don't know. That's what I'm trying to find out. All I know is that it's about you." Don't you get it, Sam? It's all about you. What happened to your mom, what happened to her friends. They're trying to cover up what he did to you. And I want to help you figure it out."

"The Yellow eyed demon…" Hope whispers.

"Give the girl a prize." Ruby says.

"Why would you want to help me?" Sam crosses his arms across his chest.

"I have my reasons. Not all demons are the same, Sam. Not all of us want the same thing. Me? I want to help you from time to time. That's all. And if you let me, there's something in it for you."

"What could you possibly—"Sam started

Ruby smiled smugly "I could help you save your brother."

Hope and Sam share a look and when they turn to face Ruby she is gone.

"Demons lie Sam." Hope said turning her attention back on Sam.

"Yeah, but they sometimes tell the truth."

"You cant seriously be thinking of trusting her can you?"

"We are running out of options Hope, what would you have me do?" Sam looks at her with pleading eyes.

"This is a bad idea…"

"Don't mention her to Faith or Dean, not yet ok…."

"Even a worse idea…"

"Hope please…."

Hope Studies Sam's face, for being such a big guy he was so soft and gentle. She was pretty she he would help a dying dog. She would have done the same thing if it was her own sister. Sam was defeated and was facing the fact that he will soon be without his protector. She took in a deep breath, "Alright fine, but if I say we are done, then we're done ok?"

Sam picked Hope up and hugged her tight, "Thank you." He whispered.