Disclaimer: I don't own Supernatural.

Cruising Down Memory Lane

It was an unseasonably balmy day in late November when Kevin, taking a break from translating the tablets, happened upon Baby in the library. "Hey."

She didn't reply or even look up from John's journal, but he didn't take the cold brushoff personally. She hadn't been acting like herself ever since the job at Queen's Hill orphanage, and it wasn't due to nearly losing the guys in the fire. Halloween had seen a perk in her step and a smile for a spell, but then she'd returned to distancing herself and burying her nose in books for days at a time. Sometimes she didn't speak for nearly that long.

He tried again. "What d'you have there?"

"A book."

Well, sarcasm's better than silence, at least. "About?" She didn't elaborate, but Kevin didn't let that deter him. He just stood there, patiently waiting.

After a few seconds of silence, Baby finally rubbed her eyes and looked up. "Any reason you're still here?"

"Needed a break and a change of scenery." His room resembled a conspiracy theorist's art project, and there was only so much of Metatron's scratchings he was willing to read at a time. "What's your excuse?"

Closing the journal, Baby rolled her head around to stretch her neck. "Before I answer you, I've got to know. Can you keep a secret?"

Kevin knew better than to answer too quickly. Secrets were heavy things, and they had a habit of biting their collective asses down the road. "If you don't want me to tell, I won't," he promised instead. "But whatever it is, you really should tell Sam and Dean and Castiel."

"It's not...bad," she hesitantly assured him. "I've just been noticing some odd things since Queen's Hill. Things that shouldn't be, though given what I am, it shouldn't surprise me as much."

"What you are?" Kevin repeated, frowning. He knew Baby wasn't strictly human, but hearing the way she was describing herself...it was like she was about to reveal something even more startling than being a transfigured Impala. He sat down in a chair near hers.

"Nothing so scary as what you may think." Her eyes dimmed slightly, as if the words made her sad. "I'm just haunting the Impala."

"Wait, you're a ghost?" The prophet couldn't help his jaw dropping in shock. "But how's that possible? You're not, you know, vengeful or crazy."

"Because I was never alive before I died." His shock melted into puzzlement. Baby flipped back a few pages and added, "Read this. It explains better." She held out John's open journal for him to take. Gingerly - Kevin knew how much the leather-bound book meant to Sam and Dean - he started to read the firmly written words:

December 4th, 1985 - Heard about demonic omens over a hospital in Patience, Wyoming. Perfectly healthy infants are being delivered stillborn, ten so far. No cause determined, but there's been a clear pattern. This might be the first sign of Yellow-Eyes in over a year.

December 5th - First day recon went well. Managed to get a job as a night guard. Found that all the infants shared a doctor and two nurses in the birthing room. One of them's got to be the demon.
Mary, it sounds strange, but I think the ghosts of the stillborns haunt the hospital. Twice an hour I hear babies crying in empty rooms, and I walk through half a dozen cold spots on my rounds. Nothing's attacked me, though - is it because they know I'm trying to help them?

"More like we didn't know what had happened to us," she clarified. "It didn't make any sense how people couldn't see us, or hear us. Why we couldn't go home with our mommies like all the other babies."

Kevin gaped at Baby. When she didn't explain further, he took that as a sign to continue reading.

December 9th - According to death certificates, the infants die in the same days following the new moon every month. There's a ritual that curses the ground to continue the cycle for a year, and involves sacrificing infant souls within the womb. Going through twenty years of previous death records support this as a long-standing ritual. Apparently this demon has used this hospital for many years to satisfy his taste for infant flesh. Sicko.
The new moon is Wednesday night. I'll have him by then, Mary.

December 12th - Death toll is up to twelve. I missed my chance yesterday because Dean was too sick to look after Sam by himself. I know you wouldn't want me to leave them alone and scared, Mary.
According to past records, the demon sacrifices souls only two days after the new moon. After Friday, the place is cursed for another year. Unlucky thirteen.
The demon is in the doctor. I'm sure of it. And I'm ready for him now.

December 13th - I couldn't save the last child - born dead at 1:13PM (13:13 - another set of 13's? Coincidence?) but I was able to stop the ritual from cursing the hospital again. At least the demon-induced stillborns can end.
Demon successfully exorcised. Guess bad luck on Friday the 13th applies to demons too. He wasn't one of Yellow-Eyes' crew, just a low-level black-eyed scumbag. Said he got a taste for fresh baby flesh when he was a cook to some demon bitch who liked it.
I could feel the hallways growing warmer as I left, Mary. It's as if there was a warmth on my back, a contentment I've not felt in so long. I can only hope that means the trapped souls here have found peace.

Once he finished, Kevin forced himself to keep a cool head. "You were the last stillborn. The one born dead at 1:13 PM." When she didn't deny this, he continued, "So why not tell Sam and Dean?"

"Because they don't know."

"What d'you mean? Don't know what?"

She swallowed deliberately. "That my first memories as the Impala are not my soul's first memories." At Kevin's frown she quickly explained, "Dean thinks my first memory is from when his dad first bought me in '73, which is my first memory as the Impala. I told Sam once that my first clear memory was when I became Dean's on his sixteenth birthday, which is when I truly woke up. And Cas..." She cleared her throat with a rattle of Legos. "Cas knows the truth about me, but I've never told him about any of my memories."

"Why?"

"He never asked, I never told. As for the boys..." Baby shrugged. "Sam had just turned two. Dean was almost seven, but awfully sick. It's doubtful they even remember the night."

The prophet fell silent, watching her carefully. "So...what are they? Your first memories," he finally asked.

"Well..." Cradling the frozen glass in her hand, she stood up and walked over to the long table in the center of the library. Her free hand touched the wood tabletop as if to reassure herself that she was, in fact, able to do so. "The first thing I can recall is a hospital hallway. It was dark, it was cold, and I was scared. But I wasn't alone." Her eyes unfocused as she clearly relived the memory. "There were several of us. Some were still whole, but most were faint echoes, just scraps of noise and fear floating through the halls, calling for mommy. All we knew was that we were trapped, and we didn't know why."

A long pause followed her words, but Kevin kept silent. She continued speaking after another few seconds. "I was lucky. When the demon was defeated, I had enough mind left to follow the man who saved us. He felt warm and fatherly, and I didn't want to be left alone again. It didn't matter that he couldn't see me; I just wanted to leave." She looked back to Kevin. "John left two sons in a motel room to exorcise a demon. He never knew he'd brought home a daughter."

"So you followed John out of the hospital and...what? Been tagging along ever since?"

"Pretty much, yeah."

"And what's that got to do with your research?" Kevin asked, not quite seeing the connection.

Baby poured a glass of scotch and drank half of it in one gulp. "Something's changed in me. I've been remembering the hospital more and more. And then there's this." Setting down her glass, she lifted her hand and held it over the tumbler of scotch.

Kevin shivered in the sudden cold as he watched snow-white crystals frost the glass and ice over the whiskey inside. He was well aware of the fact that showing him this before the Winchester brothers spoke volumes about the trust Baby was placing in him. "And they never suspected that you're...more than just yourself?"

"Never. I was dormant until that god's spell turned me human. Breaking it shredded my soul and sent me back into a ghost-coma to heal. And I've never exhibited ghostly powers before, not as the Impala or in human form before now." Hopping up on the table, she picked up the frosted glass and used her finger to break the film of ice over the liquor. "I've combed through all the archives. The closest match I can find is a revenant, but I know I'm dead and even they don't have ghost powers."

The prophet stood up to join her at the table. "Maybe it's got something to do with how you turned human."

Baby sighed. "Which means I've still got nothing. I still can't even figure out the spell's origin."

"If only we had someone who could tell..." Kevin shrugged. "But I'm just the God-stone reader. What do I know?"

She gave him a weak smile. "Thanks, Kevin. Talking this out made me feel a lot better."

"But I didn't do anything."

"You listened and didn't judge. You didn't try to calm me down or push for information. You were just...there. You just listened."

He shrugged again, this time modestly. "I'm a pretty good listener."

"Don't tell my Dean or my Sammy. Or my Cas. Not yet."

"I won't," he promised. Impulsively he hugged Baby. "You'll figure this out."

She hugged him back. "Thanks."

Kevin always strikes me as a level-headed kind of kid. I miss him this season, we need more Kevin!

Review please!