Chapter Twenty-Five

"Mr. Hansen?" the nurse asked gently.

Sam lifted his head. He had been about to nod off again, even though the chairs in this waiting area were far too small for him. Sam quickly stood up and grabbed his cup of coffee. "Yes?" he asked the nurse, a heavy, middle-aged woman.

"Ms. Sanders is awake now, and I couldn't find either of your friends, so I figured I should let you know. Would you like to see her?" she asked kindly.

"Yeah," Sam said quickly, and the kindly nurse led him to the room. She assured him that "Ms. Sanders" was doing much better before leaving him alone to talk with her.

"Hey, Sam," the woman lying on the hospital bed said as he shut the door behind him. Sam turned to get a better look at her. Julie Carters looked a lot better than the bloody, beaten woman he had brought into the hospital several hours ago, but she was still pale and weak. There were a few stitches on her face and arms, and she had an IV in her wrist. She looked small and frail in that hospital gown, her blond curls wild around her pale face. Still, she managed to smile at him.

"Hey," Sam said gently, coming to sit in the chair next to her bed. "How are you?"

"I've been better," she admitted. "I've also been a lot worse."

Sam sighed. "Look, Julie, I'm so-"

"Don't start, Sam," she said firmly. "We're not going to talk about what happened, okay? We're going to talk about normal people things like…well, like normal people."

"Got an example?" Sam smirked.

"Like…how did things go with Leah?" Julie asked, blue eyes curious.

"Ah, yes, because stopping a ghost from killing a woman is something normal people do."

"Shut up," Julie muttered, and he knew she would punch his shoulder if she wasn't still weak from what she had endured yesterday at the hands of the Knights of Hell. "I meant with the two of you."

"I don't know what you're talking about…"

"Oh, come on, Sam! I like to think I know you pretty well, and you were almost as into her as she was into you." Sam glanced down, but he was smirking. "So? Did anything happen after you heroically swooped in and saved the girl?"

"Maybe," he said, smirking slightly.

"Look at you!" she laughed. "Sam finally got some action!"

"Finally?" he repeated. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"It means you haven't gotten laid in months," she pointed out.

"Yeah, well, we've been a little busy, and I don't live with someone I can just bang whenever I want, unlike some people."

Neither wanted to admit it, but part of the reason he hadn't been sleeping around was her. Julie knew what it meant if Sam had started sleeping with other women again. He had moved on, and she was glad he had.

"I wish I hadn't," Sam muttered suddenly, surprising Julie.

"Was she really that bad?"

"What? No, she was…" Sam laughed awkwardly. "I just meant…if I hadn't been…distracted, I would have noticed you two were missing way before. Maybe I could have gotten there before you got hurt or Dean…"

"Don't put that on yourself," Julie said sharply. "It's not your fault, Sam. There's probably nothing you could have done, nothing anything of us could have done to change what happened. The point is…we've just got to figure out how to deal with what happened."

There was a brief silence. "How is he?" Julie asked softly.

"I don't know," Sam admitted. "He won't talk to me. He won't talk to anybody, really. He and Cas went somewhere to talk, I suppose, but I don't know where."

"Does he seem…different?" Julie asked carefully, afraid of the answer.

"Not yet." Sam swallowed and looked down at his shoes. "It didn't…he didn't start to change for a while. He fought it before, and I'm sure he will this time. I just…"

"I know," Julie said softly when Sam couldn't finish his thought. She moved her arm, the one without the IV, so she could rest her hand on Sam's knee. "He's gonna be okay. He knew this was coming, and he's been getting ready. And we'll help him. He won't be alone."

Sam nodded a couple times. He took a long sip of coffee and then sighed. "You're right. We'll take care of him." His eyes lifted to meet Julie's. "What about you? Are you going to be alright?"

"What do you mean?" she said carefully.

"I mean about your nightmares."

Julie blinked. "I don't-"

"You've been able to hide them from Dean somehow, but believe me, I've noticed," Sam said knowingly. "And I imagine they'll just get worse after what happened." Julie looked down at the sheets, unable to deny what he was saying. Sam put his hand over Julie's on his leg and said earnestly, "Julie, I remember what that was like. In fact, I was worse than you. I had hallucinations of Lucifer all of the time, and it got to the point where I started going crazy and my body basically started dying on me. But I got through it, with a lot of help, and I want to help you."

"It's really not that bad, Sam," she protested weakly. "I don't want to worry you or Dean any more than I have to."

"You can't hide things from us to try to protect us, Julie."

"That's literally all you guys do!" she pointed out.

"And how well did that work out for us?"

Julie sighed. "Fine. I'll talk about it with you or whatever else you want me to do, but please…don't tell Dean. The last thing he needs is another thing to worry about."

"You should tell him," Sam said gently. "He'll want to know. He would want to help you."

"He's got enough problems," Julie said. "Besides, I'll be okay. I'll get used to it. You two both did."

Sam sighed and shook his head. "You know, Julie…sometimes it scares me how well you fit in with us."

"I know," Julie said softly, rubbing her thumb across the back of Sam's hand. And Sam sat and talked with her for an hour until she was finally able to drift off.

The next time Julie woke up, she was feeling significantly better. A nurse brought her a meal, and Castiel came in and talked to her for a few minutes. He told her that Dean seemed to be holding things together well, and that Dean had given the Blade to Cas for safe-keeping. Sam came in, and the three of them discussed this new issue of Metatron and his rebel angles joining the demons. It seemed that the threat only seemed to be growing.

They all carefully avoided the subject of Dean and the plans the Knights had for him. And as much as Julie wanted to ask about where Dean was and why he wasn't in here with her, she restrained herself. Eventually, a nurse came in and asked Cas and Sam to let her sleep. Julie didn't want to sleep, but pretty soon, she couldn't even keep her eyes open anymore.

When Julie woke up, he was there.

He was sitting in the chair next to her bed, his head in his hands. He looked up when Julie pushed herself into a sitting position, and his green eyes met hers.

"Hey," Julie said carefully after a long moment.

"Jules, I…" Dean didn't know how to finish that sentence. I'm sorry? I should have been able to save you? I should never have let that happen?

"Come here," she ordered, and he moved his chair closer. They had taken Julie off the IV, so she was able to put her arms around Dean and rest her head on his shoulder. Dean gave in and hugged her back, and Julie closed her eyes when his solid arms went around her.

"I'm sorry," Dean said after a long time.

Julie pulled away. "No, you're not."

"Um, I'm pretty sure I'd know if I was sorry."

"You don't have anything to be sorry for. It was not your fault that the Knights found us, or that Metatron is back, or that they tortured me…absolutely none of that is your fault, so don't you try to take the blame."

Dean sighed. "God, you take the fun out of everything."

Julie smirked, and he gave her a small smile. "How are you feeling?" Julie asked him after a while, taking his hand and putting it in her lap. As he spoke, she played absently with his fingers and ended up holding his hand.

"I don't know," Dean sighed. "Not as bad as I expected. But I usually feel pretty good right after I kill someone."

Julie twisted the ring on his finger, focusing on his hand and not the Mark burned into his skin or the darkness the First Blade had put in him again. "Not really someone," she muttered. "Asmodeus was a monster, and he deserved to die."

"Hey, I'm not arguing with you," Dean said. "But…Cas tells me…Beelzebub told you he wanted me to start using the Blade again?"

"Well…" Julie sighed. "He said they've got…plans for you, whatever that means. And they all started with you taking up the First Blade again. Look, I don't know what he meant, and he may have just been messing with me. I don't know. But it doesn't really matter. What matters is, we're all okay. Right?"

"Right." Dean brushed the hair out of Julie's face with his free hand and she closed her eyes. His touch was still so gentle and caring, not rough or violent like she had been fearing. He was still him. "The nurses say you should be able to leave tomorrow. They don't know how you could possibly have healed so quickly. Of course, they don't know about the angel that's been healing you whenever they're not looking."

"I didn't, either," Julie admitted. "I guess that would explain how my leg is miraculously not broken." Dean smirked. "You have the best friends, you know that?" Julie said fondly.

"I'd be dead without them," Dean admitted.

They talked for a while about simple, ordinary things, watching the crappy daytime television playing in Julie's room. Eventually, Dean drifted off in his chair, and Julie turned the television off. She watched him sleep until she too drifted off.

The next day, she was released from the hospital. Sam had gotten her fresh clothes from the Impala, and she got dressed in a navy blue button-down shirt and dark jeans, finally feeling like her old self. Cas had left yesterday to go help his followers regroup and figure out how to deal with Metatron's betrayal, so Sam, Dean, and Julie set out for the bunker, just the three of them. Things would have felt almost normal, if not for the First Blade, wrapped in a cloth again, in the backseat with Julie.

However, they didn't even make it halfway to the bunker before Sam got a call from a fellow hunter. There was a vampire case, and a pretty serious one, in Colorado. There was a nest that had supposedly gone dormant a few years back, and they were killing again. However, the hunter, a guy named Howie Clark was a lone hunter, and there were about ten vampires in the nest. He knew he was in over his head, so he passed the case along to the Winchester's.

The case was only four or five hours out of their way, and Sam and Dean knew they should take it. But there was Julie in the backseat, still not fully recovered from the ordeal with the Knights.

Julie wasn't going to let them ignore a case like this just because of her, and so she insisted they take it. Both Sam and Dean knew better than to try to argue with Julie on something like this, and so the three hunters set out for Colorado for yet another case.

It was a pretty serious case, from the sound of it. This nest of vampires was pretty old and dangerous. They'd been around for at least a century, and several hunters had tried to kill them before, and lost their lives. Every time they killed a hunter, they vanished and didn't resurface for another couple of years, making it difficult for a group of hunters to just go in there and clean them out. However, three completely unrelated humans had gone missing in the past couple of days in a place where this particular nest had resided several years ago, and Howie was pretty certain it was this infamous nest of vamps.

Julie and Sam especially seemed uneasy about this case. If it really was this dangerous nest, they might be biting off a little more than they could chew. But Dean was surprisingly eager to be on another hunt so soon after taking up the First Blade. Julie wasn't sure what to think of that. The Blade would push him to kill more often and more brutally, from what Sam had told her, but as long as he was killing monsters, it shouldn't be too much of a problem.

By the time the hunters rolled into town, it was pretty late. It was already dark out, and they knew better than to try and fight vampires at night, when their vision and senses were heightened. So Dean drove over to a cheap diner, and the three of them stuffed themselves with greasy burgers and over-salted fries, talking and laughing like they hadn't in a while. They hung out at the diner for a couple of hours before finding a motel, on the nicer end of their scale. There were a couple good movies playing on the television, and so Sam, Dean, and Julie settled down on the bed in Dean and Julie's room and watched TV together, letting Dean flip back and forth between movies when one got boring. He practically had them both memorized anyway.

Sam and Julie joked and talked like they hadn't in months, not since he started to develop a crush on her. And Julie had to admit, despite the threat of the Knights always hanging in the air and the dangerous vampires they would soon be fighting and the evil that would soon be taking over the man she loved...she felt good. It was good to hang out with Sam, laughing and teasing Dean and brushing casually against Sam like they used to, and to not have to worry about what thoughts might be going through Sam's head, or to have to focus on controlling her emotions.

She realized she had missed Sam. Not in the same way she had missed Dean, a desperate need to be with him again or she knew she couldn't carry on. But she had missed his smile and his sense of humor and his laugh, rather rare, but warm and genuine.

She had missed this. Just her and her boys, hanging out, making fun of Dean's lack of manners and kissing him until he quit pouting, and Sam being able to laugh about it instead of sitting there watching them jealously. Once it got late and the three of them began to have a hard time keeping their eyes open, Julie hugged Sam for a long moment, and he hugged her back.

"I know I say this a lot, but I am so damn glad you're back," Sam muttered as they pulled away.

Julie smiled at him. Then a mischievous glint came into her eyes. "I missed you too, Sammy."

His eyebrows shot up. "Well, goodnight then, Juliet," he shot back

She shot him an annoyed look, and he shrugged. "Alright, I guess I deserved that," Julie admitted. "'Night, Sam!"

He nodded at her and closed the door connecting their adjoining rooms. Julie sighed and changed from everyday clothes into a camisole and pajama shorts. Dean pulled off his shirt and barely changed from jeans into sweatpants before he was out like a light. Julie smiled fondly at him as she settled into bed next to him. She absently stroked his arm, but caught herself as her fingers brushed dangerously close to the inflamed skin on his forearm.

She could go through a day like that, having fun with Sam and Dean, and she could almost believe it was the good old days again. But things were different now. She had no idea how Dean was actually doing—for all she knew, he could already be halfway down the path that would make him the near-demonic shell of himself Sam and Cas had been forced to leave.

Immediately, Julie pushed those dark thoughts away and tried to sleep. She was still pretty tired, her body still recovering from her ordeal with Asmodeus and Beelzebub. But her mind was not doing a very good job of recovering...

"I've got plans for lover boy, you know," Beelzebub said calmly, wiping her blood off of his knife. "Very big plans. It's really the only reason he's still alive, a dangerous man like him. I'm going to use him."

"You stay away from him," Julie said. She meant to snarl defiantly at the demon, but her voice broke on "away," and Asmodeus smirked.

"Oh, I think we'll do whatever we want to pretty boy, and his brother, once he gets stupid enough to try and save the day," Asmodeus chuckled. "If it's any consolation, I think we'll give your angel buddy to Metatron. I mean, these angels are pretty savage and all, but nobody knows torture like us. Right, sweetheart?"

"Bite me," she spat, and this time she was able to keep her voice steady.

"I've got a better idea," Beelzebub said, and without warning, he drove a burning hot poker into her already broken leg.

Julie screamed, high and tortured. She had been trying so hard to keep from crying out, knowing that her screams would be their own form of torture for Dean out there, but these demons knew what they were doing. Not only were they the masters of torture, but they had kept Julie in hell for ten years...experimenting. They knew exactly what would make her scream or sob, what would hurt her the most, what would get the most pathetic noises out of her…

"Why?" Julie choked out, hoping to distract them for a while so they would give her a couple minutes reprieve before they continued.

"You're going to have to specify, my dear," Beelzebub sighed dramatically.

"Why him? Why us? Why do you have to torture us, why do you have plans for Dean specifically? What did we ever do to you?"

"Besides kill countless demons we tortured and created ourselves, kill our sister, and possess the only thing that could kill one of us?" Asmodeus snapped.

"To be fair, we didn't even like Abbadon," Beelzebub corrected his brother. "But then again, I don't really like anyone. I guess that's the answer, Juliet. I was created by my lord Lucifer to kill, pillage, rape, torture, destroy…the whole shebang. It's my nature, darling. And when I find people who I know will try to stand against me, people who will bend so ridiculously far before they break…well, I have to at least try to see if I can get them to snap."

Julie would shake her head in disgust at him if she weren't so weak. The Knight knelt in front of her and brushed some blood off of her cheek. Julie hated that it was true, but his touch was as familiar as Dean's to her. Maybe even more so.

"Besides…seeing people as sweet and gentle and good as you, my dear…I always find it so entertaining." He smirked. "People who spend their whole lives trying to be good, to be heroes…those are the people who end up making the best demons."

Julie blinked. Beelzebub stood up. "I mean, take me for example! I was an upstanding man. I was courteous, just, hard-working, honest, kind…I had a wife and a daughter I loved so very dearly…" The demon shuddered. "It was quite disgusting. But I thought I was happy. And then my wife and child died of a plague. I was heartbroken, so filled with pain that I was ready for life to end. And then my lord appeared, and he offered to take away all the pain…"

Beelzebub smiled peacefully. "You have no idea, Juliet, how hard and painful and insignificant human life is until you've moved on. Every time I threaten your Dean, or whenever I torture you…that pain you feel? It all goes away. You don't feel guilt or pain or worry…you can be yourself, who you truly are. No pretenses. No false hopes or attempting to do good and failing. You can do whatever you want to whoever you want. I must tell you, darling, it's quite a wonderful feeling."

"You're despicable," Julie snarled. "You try to justify what you do by saying that it makes you feel good?"

"Oh, no," the king of the Knights chuckled. "I don't have to justify what I do. It's great. And I know you'd enjoy it, Juliet. That pain you felt when Daddy died, or when Dean sent you away to 'keep you safe'…it doesn't hurt anymore, love."

Julie would never admit it, but she would love a life where she felt no pain. But she would never, ever become a demon.

"You know who else would make an excellent demon?" Beelzebub smirked. "I'll let you guess. He's another one of those people who tries so hard to be good, always trying to save people and be the hero. But he always seems to fail, doesn't he? He's got so much guilt and so much grief and so much pain that he carries with him all the time. And he's got an evil in him, too, and it's just going to grow. I'd be doing your Dean a kindness if I took away all his pain and let him be who he truly is."

"No," Julie growled. "He'd never become one of you. He's far too good for you to ever do that to him."

Beelzebub laughed. "Juliet, darling, how blind are you? The man's already dangerously dark, with no help from us. And a few years back, he went to hell, too, or hasn't he told you? And he gave in after just thirty years, and that wasn't even to a true master like Lucifer or Asmodeus or me, of course. Sweetheart, I know it hurts, but you have to understand...that man you love…he's halfway to becoming a demon already. And believe me, he'd be happier as one."

"No," Julie whispered. "No, he would never…he would never do that…"

All of the sudden, the demons were cutting into her again, and her blood was flowing, and she was screaming, and she was staring at Dean's handsome face, but then his green eyes flashed black-

"Jules, honey!"

Julie's eyes flew wide open and she found herself staring up at Dean. For a moment, she could swear his eyes really were black, but then he moved closer to her, concerned, and she saw his eyes, their familiar green, in the moonlight.

"Julie, what's wrong?" Dean asked gently, and she realized that her face was wet with tears and she was hopelessly tangled in the bed sheets from thrashing around.

"I just…" She sat up shakily, trying to wipe away the tears.

Dean softened. "C'mere," he sighed, getting out of bed and half-guiding, half-carrying her out of bed. He walked her over to the sink and she washed her face and splashed some water on her neck. She watched the water run over her hands, cool and clear, until she was finally calm again.

Julie turned around and found Dean studying her. "How long?" he sighed.

"What?"

"How long have you been having the nightmares?" he said carefully.

"Dean, I…" Julie stopped. There was no point in lying to him. "Since…since I got back."

Dean sighed again. "I figured."

"How did you know?" she asked slowly.

"Jules, I went to hell too," he said, looking about a hundred years old. "I remember what it was like when I first got back. What it's still like, every once in a while."

Julie decided not to tell Dean that this nightmare hadn't been from hell, but instead a memory from only a few days ago. "How…how do you deal with them?" she asked him softly.

"Whiskey," Dean muttered. "Working a case. Not sleeping." He looked up and met her eyes. "You."

Julie stepped into Dean's waiting embrace and rested her head on his chest. "I'm so-" she started to apologize.

"If you even try to apologize for having nightmares about the ten years of hell you went through to save me, I will lose it," he warned her.

They were both silent for a moment. "I'm sorry," she said firmly, and he sighed.

"Yeah, me too," he muttered after a couple of seconds.

The two of them slipped back into bed, but neither felt much like sleeping. "Talk to me," Julie said.

"About what?" Dean asked, rubbing his thumb across her shoulder.

"Anything," she said. "Something happy, or funny. No more nightmares of hell stuff."

"Okay," Dean shrugged. "I did a case here, once."

"Really?" Julie asked, intrigued.

"Yeah. It was a while ago, and some ghost was haunting that abandoned factory we passed on the way in."

Julie settled in against Dean's chest, absently tracing her fingers along his arm as he spoke. "Well, it technically wasn't abandoned yet. People were still working there, but conditions were so shitty they probably shouldn't have been. Some fifteen-year-old kid got killed in an accident working there, when he technically shouldn't have been allowed to work there at all, and he started haunting the place. Killed a couple of his bosses before I rolled into town and saved the day."

"Look at you," Julie smirked. "Did they shut the place down then, after all those deaths?"

Dean snorted. "No, that place stayed open for six more years before someone finally pointed out all the health codes and laws they were breaking and they got shut down."

"Six years?" she repeated. "But that place looks like it's been out of commission for years!"

"Yeah, it has. That must have been…wow. Summer of '04, I think."

"You're kidding," Julie said. "So you were…what? Twenty-four?"

"Twenty-five, actually," he replied.

"And Sam must have been twenty-one then," she realized. "Bet you gave him quite the night when he finally could legally drink."

"Once it's legal, it takes all the fun out of it," Dean smirked. "And actually… Sammy was at Stanford then. It was just me."

"Oh. Right." Julie squeezed his hand apologetically, wanting to kick herself for bringing up that touchy subject. Even now, fourteen years after the fact, Sam abandoning his older brother for a different life still hurt. And they had been having fun, too…

"Wonder what you were like at twenty-five," Julie smirked, changing the subject. "What do you think? Would I still have liked you?"

"Well, for one thing, you would have been seventeen," Dean pointed out. "You would have still been in high school." He pinched her cheek teasingly. "Damn. You're practically a baby."

"That's not what you were saying a few nights ago," she smirked, and that shut him up. "Anyway, ignoring the age gap. Would I have still fallen for you at twenty-five?"

"No," Dean said without hesitating. "Believe me, you would have hated me. I was a screwed up borderline alcoholic-"

"God knows how I can't stand them-"

"And I was a pig if I do say so myself," he finished. "I wouldn't have fallen for you, because back then…I'm not even sure I knew how to love. Believe me, Jules, I was very much the different girl every night type of guy. You would have hated me."

"But if we had met a few years later, when I went through my rebellious, slutty phase, we would have been great," Julie smirked, trying not to imagine a world where she had fallen for Dean and slept with him and he had been gone in the morning instead of by her side, looking at her with love in his eyes.

"Still wouldn't have fallen in love," Dean pointed out. "But that would have been some damn good sex."

"Can't argue with that." Julie stopped to think for a moment. "I wonder what it would have been like if we had met a lot earlier."

"I think…you would have saved me from a lot of messes," Dean admitted. "You probably still would have died though, going off my track record."

And suddenly it wasn't fun anymore. Julie sighed and stroked the side of Dean's face. "I wouldn't have cared," she whispered. "I would still love you."

"I love you too, kiddo," he smirked, and she shot him a dangerous look.

"Got it. No more kiddo. I thought we were still going off the age gap."

"Well then, I think it's a bit past your bedtime, Gramps."

Dean chuckled and kissed Julie. She kissed him back, a lot more passionately than he was expecting. She held his face in her hands even after she pulled away, as if she was afraid to let him go.

"I love you," she murmured.

Dean pulled her closer to him with one arm, tucking the covers in around her with the other. He stroked her blond curls until Julie slowly relaxed and drifted off into a nightmare-free sleep.

So, maybe she didn't need whiskey, or to always be working a case, or to just refuse to sleep. Julie would be okay. She had him.

The next morning, Dean and Julie showered and got dressed before joining Sam in his room. They entered the room just as he hung up the phone, smiling slightly.

"Who was that?" Dean asked as he grabbed a bagel out of the bag Sam had bought and ate half the thing in one bite.

Sam rolled his eyes at his brother's horrific table manners. "Um…that was Leah. The girl we helped."

"Why was she calling?" Dean asked with him mouth full. "Everything okay back there? You did gank the ghost, right?"

"I—yeah," Sam sighed. "I think she was calling for more…personal reasons."

Dean's eyebrows shot up. Then he chuckled. "Look at Sammy, back in the game! Jules, I owe you ten bucks."

"Already took it," she said coolly, taking a bagel and settling on the end of Sam's bed. "What did Leah want?"

"To make sure we were all alright," Sam shrugged. "I spared her the gory details and just said you two were with me and you were okay."

"So does she know about hunting now, then?" Dean guessed.

"Yeah, and she was pretty chill about it. She didn't seem to have any plans after college, and it's her senior year, so…I think we may have accidentally created another hunter." Sam smirked almost proudly.

"You know, maybe she could hunt with us for a while, if she does become a hunter," Julie said. "Bet you two would have loads of fun."

"Ooh, and could we go on double dates and everything?" Dean said in mock-excitement. They both shot him looks, and he grinned, always able to amuse himself, if no one else. "Sorry. No, she seemed pretty cool. Hot, too. Nice job, Sammy. She could come by anytime she wanted."

"Thanks, guys, but…" Sam sighed. "Right now, we should focus on the Knights. I'm not really interested in bringing her into our lives if it's just going to get her killed. She stays out, she stays safe. Maybe, if we survive all this…maybe then we could visit her again or something. But until then…"

"I get it," Dean said. "I know what it's like, wanting to protect someone you love from all this."

For a moment, there was a beat of silence. "Well, boys, we have a nest of vamps to kill, unless anyone has any objections," Julie said finally, to break the tense silence.

Neither of them did, so the three of them loaded into the Impala. They drove through town, checking out any abandoned buildings or barns where vampires might be likely to settle down. After they had killed a hunter here about thirteen years ago, a couple of his friends had come seeking vengeance, and when they realized the vampires were gone, they burned their old nest. So, if the vampires were even here, they could be anywhere.

It was getting close to noon, and all three of them were miserable and frustrated, when Dean suddenly had a flash of inspiration.

"The factory!" he cried suddenly, slamming on the brakes as they passed it for the third time that morning.

Sam groaned, having smacked his head on the roof of the car. "What about it?"

"It's abandoned, isn't it? We haven't checked there, though."

And so the three hunters parked a safe distance away from the deserted factory and crept up to the back door. Dean made quick work of the cheap padlock on the door, and they crept silently through the dark halls of the factory until they came to a room where the workers had once assembled goods on the conveyor belts. The conveyor belts were still there in the room, but there were still and rusty. There were some other, newer things in the room as well.

Stretched between a few conveyor belts were four or five hammocks. Sleeping bodies were sprawled inside them, and Dean couldn't make out much more than a couple limbs dangling out of the hammocks. Over in the corner of the room, though, there was another body, one that made his stomach lurch. The man was obviously dead, his head half-disconnected from his body. His skin was even paler than a corpse's, and there was so little blood for such a gruesome wound he must have been sucked dry.

"That's one of the missing men," Sam whispered.

"Great," Dean hissed back. "Well, we found the nest. But where are the rest of them? Aren't there supposed to be like-?"

"Get down!" Julie suddenly hissed before shoving both brothers into a maintenance closet. The three of them squeezed inside just as footsteps rounded the corner.

"…Bit risky to come back to a town we've already hit, Morgan," a man's low, gruff voice grumbled.

"It's been thirteen years, Horace," a woman's voice snapped, surprisingly low and cold for a woman. "And honestly, I don't quite care if some idiot hunters find us and try to take us out. I want revenge for Millie and Logan."

"Look, I'm sorry your brother and his mate got caught, Morgan, but they were being stupid," a third voice snapped. He sounded younger than the other too, not much older than a teenager. "You can't kill someone and then leave a witness. It just makes it that much easier to get caught. You'd think we've been around a couple weeks and not centuries."

"You're not even two-hundred, Joe," the woman, Morgan snapped. "So don't talk down about my brother or Millie."

Both men sighed. Julie was so tense she thought she might snap. They had stopped walking and were standing maybe three feet away. If it weren't for the awful stench of this place, they would have detected three beating hearts, three bodies full of blood already.

"But he's got a point," the older man sighed. "That last hunter we killed here…he had a partner, remember? That guy got out, and we learned long ago survivors tend to come back to bite you in the ass."

"He's come up in the system a couple times since then," the young man added. "Carters, Jasper Carters, I think it was." It took everything in Julie not to cry out as she realized what they were talking about. If she so much as gasped, though, they'd be dead. "He's been killing quite a few of our kind the past decade or so."

"Oh, don't tell me you're scared," Morgan smirked. "Joey, we've had this system for a couple centuries, and we've survived long after they're all dead. One vengeful brother is not going to be enough to wipe us out."

The other male vampire, Horace, chuckled, and their voices and footsteps faded away. "Come on," Sam whispered, forcing Dean and Julie out of the closet. The two brother took off, half-dragging Julie back to the car, since she seemed to be in some state of shock. But as they finally reached the Impala and safety, Julie suddenly threw them off and turned to go back.

"Julie, what the hell are you doing?" Sam cried, grabbing her arm. "We're not ready to take on that many vamps, especially ones who know how to survive like those do. They've been around centuries, Julie. We can't just march in there and kill them right now. They'll eat us alive."

"You think I care?" Julie snarled, and both brothers were surprised by the intensity and anger in her voice. "Did you hear them?!"

"Yeah, they mentioned Jasper," Dean shrugged. "So what? They didn't know about you."

"No," Julie said in an oddly choked voice, and she suddenly looked near tears. "Didn't you hear them? That hunter they killed thirteen years ago had a partner who survived, and that was Jasper. 'A vengeful brother'?" she cried, and Sam's stomach dropped out of him as he finally realized what she meant, and what those vampires had been admitting to without even realizing.

"Oh, Julie…" he said weakly, wishing he could help her, but knowing he couldn't.

Julie stared at them with tears in her eyes and said slowly, "Those are the vampires that murdered my father."