"Someone is gunning for Lilith?" Sam asked almost musingly.

The news was sudden and probably welcome, but he hadn't had time to let it sink in at all. His mind wanted to run through scenarios that he didn't have enough knowledge to justify. They needed more information before he could start feeling optimistic so he pushed the overly-hopeful hypotheticals from his head and tried to give the discussion his full attention.

"Not just 'gunning' and probably not just 'someone,'" Ruby clarified. "Displaying demons like that is huge. I don't even know if anybody has tried it since Den and Phen. When I said 'declared war' I meant it pretty literally. There are definitely gonna be more bodies showing up."

"What do you mean 'not just someone?'" Bobby asked.

"These types of things are only ever led by an archdemon. There's enough of a power difference between an archdemon and even the most powerful lesser demons that it'd be basically suicide to throw down the gauntlet if you weren't an arch. A handful of demons aren't going to pull this without a strong backer."

"So how do we know who to send the thank-you card to?" Dean plopped into an armchair and looked around the room for any suggestions.

"Shola seemed pretty pissed at Lilith," Bobby offered. "You think the Crossroads would try something like this?"

"I don't know." Ruby chewed her lip thoughtfully. "The Crossroads has been anti-Lilith since I was downstairs last time, but this seems a little too direct for them... I wouldn't be surprised if Lilith's team scores a few hits in the next day or two. Then we can see whose sigil gets carved."

"This seems—" Sam started, but couldn't finish.

He clutched his head, tipping forward in his chair, and collapsing over the desk full of books. A few cries of pain escaped him as he writhed, knocking several books to the ground. Ruby tried to put a hand on his shoulder to help keep him stable and offer reassurance, but she stood farther away from him than she would have liked in order to protect the baby from an accidental elbow.

The vision only lasted a few seconds and by the time Bobby and Dean had gotten to him it was over. Sam sunk backward into the chair, still holding his head. His eyes were watery and took in the room with a little difficulty. He groaned, then shut his eyes as he leaned his head back far enough that he would've been staring at the ceiling.

"It was them." Sam spoke in a loud, fatigued whisper. "They killed some more. Maybe three or four? It was hard to tell."

"Any idea where they were?" Dean asked at what he hoped was a quiet enough volume to not hurt his brother. "Maybe we could still catch them if they're in town."

Ruby stepped a little closer to check on Sam, who was trying to hide a grimace of pain under his hands. She reached into his pocket for the aspirin bottle that seemed to have taken up a permanent residence there in the last two weeks. She looked at him for a second trying to gauge how many to give him and settled on just one. He wouldn't be playing fine for Dean or Bobby if he really needed two or three. She returned the bottle to his pocket, then placed the pill into his fingers. He accepted the medicine, popping it in his mouth wordlessly.

"Do we even want to catch them? I mean, they're killing Lilith's demons. I'm kinda liking your idea of a thank-you card," Ruby countered.

Dean's posture straightened with determination and he spoke a little louder. "That was when we didn't have a chance at catching them, but if we have some idea of where these demons are we should go after them. I know this group is going against Lilith, but they're also killing humans."

"First of all, let's be clear: 'we—'" Ruby pointed at Sam and herself, "—aren't going to go sticking our necks out on extracurriculars because of the whole baby-that's-gonna-show-up-in-a-week-or-two thing."

Sam tilted his head and slid his hands down so that he could watch the impending argument. He didn't jump in. He was too tired, pained, and disoriented to start breaking them up…. And honestly he was hoping that Ruby would spare him having to refuse another hunt with his brother. In all fairness, Dean had only opened his mouth to argue, but closed it after a second thought. It looked like he was attempting to smother his expectations that Sam would actually voluntarily going into harm's way again.

"Secondly," Ruby continued while crossing her arms in front of her chest, "even if you found enough hunters to take them, I still don't think it's the right answer. I mean there's a pretty big chance the meatsuits are gonna die whether the demon is killed or is left to ride them into the ground. At least this way there's some good that might come out of it."

"And the ones that could've lived, we're just—I'm just supposed to let them get killed and strung up? How fucked up is that?" Dean was shaking his head in disagreement and frustration. "Killing is one thing, this whole sending-a-message thing…."

She gave a little shrug. "It's a message we want them to send. Lilith's underlings should think twice before putting a target on themselves in her name."

"You said that she's head of the zealots? Are they really going to be fazed by the chance of dying in the line of duty?" Sam asked, finally rejoining the conversation. His soft tone made it clear that he was asking a serious question instead of taking Dean's side.

"Sam, remember the demons in Houston? She's got members of other castes helping her and they didn't seem 100% committed. Maybe some of them will bolt?" Ruby suggested hopefully.

"I don't know. There's something about it all..." Sam sat up more in his chair and rubbed his temples. "I've got a bad feeling about this."

"Fuck, I hate when you say that."

The phone range in the kitchen, calling Bobby away to impersonate some middle-ranking officer at some regional office of some federal agency. Dean followed him into the kitchen to see what the call was about. He wanted to continue the conversation about how to deal with the demons, but he had a personal interest in the wellbeing of the hunters within Bobby's network and wanted to know what was happening.

The free wall in the kitchen had been covered with a map of the continental United States and Bobby pushed a yellow thumbtack fully into Lincoln, Nebraska. Yellow meant that a hunter was investigating in the area. The fully-recessed status of the tack meant that there was something ominous about the situation and one of them should call to check in on the hunter within 24 hours. Bobby jotted down the time, location, and hunter's name into the log they kept near the phones, then smiled reassuringly to Dean while finishing up the call.

"Ellen was working a cover in Lincoln. Case sounds like multiple missing persons," Bobby explained to Dean.

"Is Jo with her?" Dean asked with added interest.

"Probably, but I think she's still a little young to pull off being a Fed. She's just—"

Furniture squeaked on the wooden floor, then there was sound of books falling to the ground and Sam crying out in the study. Bobby and Dean ran in to find Sam on the floor behind the desk he had been sitting at holding his head. The heavy desk had been knocked back an impressive three feet and all the books that had survived the first vision had been finally knocked to the ground too. Ruby was kneeling next to Sam's head, holding his shoulders. She didn't bother looking up when they entered; she was busy talking to Sam.

"Come on. You gotta try to stay in control. Don't let it overpower you. Just breathe." Her voice was soothing and confident, like she had experience talking Sam down. That thought made Dean's stomach sink a little.

"Is he alright? What happened?" Bobby asked.

"Vision," Sam whispered without bothering to open his eyes. "More demons. More killings."

"This is bad," Ruby said as she turned to look up at Bobby and Dean. "He hasn't had visions this close together that were this strong before."

"All the more reason to go after those demons." Dean knelt down to check on Sam up-close. "If them killing each other is messing up Sam like this, we should find them and kill them. I don't care if they're fighting Lilith's goons. This can't keep going on."

"They were different, the demons. It was another group." Sam rolled from his side onto his back, then slowly opened his eyes.

"What?"

"There are more of them than the group from the house."

"Where were they?" Dean asked.

"I don't know." Sam started to shake his head slowly, then thought better of it.

Ruby frowned at a thought, then said, "This could be past the point of just finding some demons and killing them. If word has gotten out about this feud, then I don't think we're gonna be able to do much to stop it."

"So what? Sam keeps getting beat up by these visions?" Dean was getting louder and visibly agitated at his inability to improve the situation. "This is the third one related to this crap in less than a day."

"Sam, you're gonna need to try to block these visions out or something. You can't just let them hit you full-force." Ruby's tone was soft, but she was talking to him like he was some sort of underperforming student.

"Give him a break," Dean told her, growing more defensive of his little brother.

"She's right," Sam muttered between his fingers that he had brought up to cover his face.

Dean wanted to stop Sam from giving himself too hard of a time. "It's not like you can control this stuff. Your visions just happen."

"It doesn't matter. I have to figure this out." His fingers raked through his hair, which he pulled down to cover his face. After using his hair to shield his eyes, his arms fell slowly to the floor. He was moving with an almost intoxicated level of exhaustion. "This can't keep getting worse…. We can't stop the demons…. I need to get better at controlling my p—visions."

"First, you need to get some rest, if you can. You look like shit," Dean said as he looked from Ruby to Bobby, who both conceded the point. "At least in a bed you won't fall down."

"He could still fall out of bed," Bobby corrected.

"Just strap him to the bed. He can sleep through that," Ruby suggested, earning an awkward moment of silence from Bobby and Dean.

"It wasn't for sex," Sam mumbled through his face full of hair.

It took a little doing, but Bobby and Dean managed to get Sam to an upstairs bedroom. Once he was in bed, they strapped him down with three leather belts latched end-to-end across his chest. They didn't bother restraining him further since the goal was only to stop him from rolling out of the bed, not preventing his escape. Ruby volunteered to stay with him for the first stretch while he slept, assuring them that she would yell if there was an emergency.

With Sam settled, Bobby and Dean went back downstairs to catch up on some of the network business. They'd been slacking during the chaotic last few days and needed to get updates from several hunters in the field. More importantly though, they wanted to inform the network of the pending demon-on-demon spats, and needed to come up with a good story for where this information came from that wouldn't expose Sam. With the North Carolina hunters still potentially looking for him, they had to be cautious. The two hunters descended the staircase arguing about what kinds of explanations were believable.

Ruby pulled a chair up next to Sam's bed, positioning it to allow her a view of his face. Watching him sleep while tied to a bed reminded her of their first few weeks working together after Dean's death. She had strapped him down after his suicide attempt. At the time she had been torn between pitying him and being frustrated by the situation. Their current predicament felt very similar, but in their time together since the suicide attempt, she had learned that her faith in Sam was well-placed and that made her a little less worried. He had never tried to control his visions before, but if he could control his other powers maybe there was a chance…. Granted, he was almost completely inept with his telekinesis.

After an hour, Sam shifted slightly and looked over at her. He smiled weakly, then said, "I know I should be used to it by now, but it's weird when you watch me sleep."

"It's not as weird as when you watch me sleep," she countered.

"That's just because you shouldn't sleep."

"I'm not wrong." She reached over onto the nightstand to grab a glass of water. "You thirsty?"

He felt a little silly being waited on, but he accepted the water without complaint. They had taken turns sewing each other up and it was just his turn to be the one laid up in bed again. When he was done drinking, she took back the water glass, returning it to the small table.

"Sam, I know you're worn out, but we need to figure out how you're going to practice controlling your visions." She entered mentor mode. "They're coming faster than ever. If they stay this rough…. You need to see if you can block them out or something…. I'm worried about you."

"It's not just the visions. Lately, I feel like all my powers have been cranked up. I can sense demons after they've left." He hadn't had a chance to tell Ruby about that new discovery. She nodded thoughtfully, trying to add that piece to the picture she was forming in her mind of what his current powers encompassed. "And the whole thing with hitting Dean." He looked away from her in his shame. "I'm honestly more scared of hurting someone else than being hurt myself."

She put her hand on his forearm, then squeezed it in soft reassurance. He was scared and felt guilty about everything that was going on. It was in his nature to take on way more guilt and emotional responsibility than he deserved. She didn't want to make him feel worse by pointing out that he had telekinetically thrown Bobby's heavy desk back several feet during his last vision. Deep down she knew it was probably a bad decision, but Sam knew well enough that he had to get his powers better under control.

"Well, I don't want that either," she agreed in an attempt to lighten the mood a bit. "That's why we're going to figure this out. It's quiet right now—"

"Aside from my splitting-headache-inducing visions."

"Ok, that's true. I meant that we're not running for our lives. That's why now's the time to get a little more control of yourself."

"The visions and the telekinesis hasn't really been something I can control, at least not well. I did sort of feel okay with the telekinesis last night, but that was a fluke." He was caught between doubting himself and trying to build his own confidence.

"Maybe you're finally getting better at it?" Ruby offered, trying to emphasize the more optimistic outlook.

"I don't know. Maybe. It's hard to think about focusing on that with my head killing me from these visions." He seemed strangely resistant all of a sudden, but she continued to press the issue.

"All the more reason to try reining in your powers."

"I don't know about doing that here." He didn't met her eyes and his expression was almost embarrassed.

"You're worried about Bobby and Dean finding out about your other powers, aren't you?"

She realized that she'd hit the nail on the head when he didn't respond for a long while. He knew that he would have to continue training, but he had realized that training one of his powers could quickly reveal the existence of his other ones. The two of them could easily fall into the old mentor-student dynamic again and appear very experienced with that in a way that wouldn't be easily justified. Maybe they could excuse it with her teaching Sam some witchcraft, but it was still dangerous from his perspective.

He finally admitted, "Things are almost good between me and Dean…."

"You think that having other powers is really gonna be the straw that breaks the camel's back?" she asked. "After all the shit that they've been willing to swallow so far—"

"Fine. I'll tell them." Sam took a deep breath and looked around the spare bedroom to try to avoid thinking about the impending confession to Bobby and Dean.

He had stayed in that bedroom countless times as a kid. Nothing in the room had changed, largely due to Bobby's general disregard for maintaining his house after the death of his wife. The upstairs was barely used except for sleeping so it had an even more cluttered and neglected appearance than the first floor. But to Sam it felt cozy and comforting. He looked back at her.

"It has been quiet—like, no-demons-at-the-door quiet," Sam commented.

"Yeah," Ruby agreed. "After the run around last night, I was expecting the alarms to trip within a few hours of getting here. But hey, I guess Lilith's demons that we dodged have their hands full right now."

"I was thinking... if we don't have any demons coming through, if they're really busy messing each other up, it might be a good idea to stay here until the kid's born. It'd be less strain on you and we would have some help. Hell, right now I don't think I'm in much shape to be driving."

"You need to come clean about the powers first," she said while crossing her arms in front of her chest. "You have to be able to work on them without feeling like you need to hide it. And you're right, I wouldn't trust you driving or doing a lot of other things until you get a better handle on these visions. The way you were knocked down last time… I don't think I'd trust you with the kid."

"Yeah…. That makes sense." Sam looked slightly hurt, but nodded in agreement. He knew it would be dangerous for him to hold the baby if he was having visions so strong that he was collapsing. The thought was a stark realization of just how bad things had gotten, but it also made his conviction grow. He was committed to being there for the baby, so he would find a way to make this work.

"So what am I supposed to do?" he sighed, not really expecting Ruby to have all the answers. "I'm supposed to keep the visions out, but I don't know about them until they're already happening. And what, I'm supposed to just block it all out? Aren't we trying to have me look for the other demon's sigil?"

"The second sigil is less important than keeping you in one piece," she reminded him. "As for the blocking it out, how have you dealt with visions in the past?"

"I didn't really try to block them. It was more like I got used to them and they stopped hurting. This is worse though; the visions are stronger."

"Yeah, but you're stronger too." Sam gave her a sidelong glance, but didn't argue. "Are you fighting these visions when you should really be letting them roll off you?"

"Maybe." He had to think about that one a bit. "I guess I am expecting them to hurt, so it makes sense that I'd be extra sensitive to the pain."

"You know how I say that I like that you're a sensitive guy... I didn't mean this sensitive."

He smiled fleetingly at her joke. "Thanks."

"When you have a vision, can you feel it coming on? Like even if it's only a split second warning?"

"Yeah, actually." His eyebrows rose like he hadn't considered that fact before. "There's a flash of light and the real world gets a bit saturated. Then I see and feel the vision. Back when I had them more under control, I could see the real world at the same time and it didn't really hurt. It was more like replaying a bad memory."

"So when you see the next flash, you should try to just let it happen and stay calm. Try to remember that you're stronger than you used to be and let it roll off of you like a bad memory." She had no idea if it would work, but it was the best idea they had so far. "Do you think you can try that?"

"What choice do I have?"

"Don't be such a fucking fatalist." She lightly shoved him. "It's counterproductive. Try to have a little faith in yourself. You'll get the hang of this again. You're just starting out in a higher league; it's understandable that it'll be hard at first. You're gonna be fine."

"Thanks." He smiled up at Ruby, who squeezed his hand. "How long do you think I'll need to wait before I get to practice?"

A half hour later Sam had another vision. He saw the flash and instinctually braced himself for pain. The dull colors of the room started growing in intensity. He tried to breathe, to stay calm, but it was a challenge. Ruby saw his body tense and grabbed his arm.

"You're fine," she told him. "Just see what it is and let it roll off you."

His face contorted like he was struggling not to react to something. She hoped it was just a gruesome image and not pain. The water glass on the nightstand shook slightly, jerking a couple millimeters one way, then the other. She watched the glass and decided to try something else to sooth and distract Sam. She quickly moved to sit next to him on the bed. With one hand she held his hand to her belly and used her other hand to stroke his cheek.

"You're fine. Just relax. It'll be over in a second. Just let it go." The water glass stopped shaking as his tension eased. He opened his eyes and looked at her with a worn expression, but he smiled slightly.

"I think that was a little better," he whispered.

"You look a little less death-like. Did it hurt?"

"Yeah, but mostly at the beginning." Sam rolled his face so that her hand cupped his jaw, then exhaled slowly. "Definitely need to work on this, but it's a start."

Ruby dragged her thumb across his stubble, then somewhat regretfully removed her hand. He watched in confusion as she started undoing the belt that held him to the bed. She tossed the belts to the floor, then climbed into bed with him. He scooted back to give her space, then wrapped an arm around her.

"I think you need to relax more than you need to worry about fall out of the bed." She dragged the pillow towards her a few inches. "Also, if I'm gonna stay with you through this, I might as well be comfortable."

Over the next ten hours they laid in bed, mostly resting but occasionally being awoken by one of Sam's visions. Ruby would feel him tense next to her, then she would stroke his arm and talk him through it. After the third vision like that, Sam held her to him gently and kissed the back of her neck. The vision hadn't caused nearly as much pain as he'd been experiencing over the last week and he was even able to to split his focus somewhat between the vision and the real world. He fell asleep quickly, face buried in her dark, soft hair.

While Sam was asleep, Dean peeked into the room to see how things were going. Ruby saw him and raised a finger to her lips. He nodded in understanding, then pointed at Sam and shrugged. She gave Dean a thumbs up, which made him smile in relief. He exited, closing the door quietly behind him.

After a few hours, Sam woke up. He tried to get out of bed without jostling the mattress too much on the chance that Ruby was still sleeping, but she wasn't. She turned to look at him as he stood next to the bed rubbing his neck and head.

"I had another vision while I was sleeping."

"You look pretty chipper. Did it hurt?" she asked, sitting up on the edge of the bed.

"A little. Not bad, maybe like a little headache, like when you get dehydrated." Ruby couldn't relate to his metaphor, but didn't bother trying to get a better explanation. "That's only part of why I'm 'chipper' though."

"Oh?" she invited, causing Sam to grin excitedly in a way that made her feel a million times better.

"I saw the other sigil. Time to find out who this other big bad is."