Sam knocked on the door to the room at Bobby's that his sister had been living in, and without waiting for a response he opened the bedroom door.
"Em," he said, seeing her laying her sleeping son down in his bed, "Imogen, I need to talk to you."
Imogen frantically put a finger to her lips before pushing Sam out of the room and closing the door silently behind them, "Sammy!" she whispered loudly as she pulled her brother down the stairs, "If you had woken him up I would have shot you."
"I know, I'm sorry," he stopped her at the foot of the stairs, "I just… Can we talk?"
"Fine," Imogen agreed, "What do you want to talk about?"
Sam grabbed her by the arm and pulled her outside and to a more secluded spot in the salvage yard.
"What's going on?" Imogen asked when they came to a stop, "Why are we hiding?"
"We aren't hiding. You're the one who's been hiding something."
Imogen rested one hand on her hip and the other hung at her side, "What are you talking about?"
Sam took a deep breath before speaking, "I ran into Nick at the store today."
Imogen swallowed hard and felt her palms start to sweat, "Oh?"
Slowly Sam nodded, "Yeah… He had no idea who I was, well until I assaulted him."
"You assaulted him?" Imogen yelled, "What the hell is the matter with you Sam?"
"What's a matter with me?" he repeated, "You told all of us that he ditched you because he didn't want to be a dad."
Imogen sighed, "Well, that may not have been the whole truth."
"What do you mean not the whole truth? That wasn't the truth at all!"
"You're right," Imogen nodded, "I lied to you guys."
"Why though?" Sam asked, "If he was willing to help then why the hell didn't you want to let him?"
"BECAUSE!" the girl yelled, "He already fucking hurt me once. He abandoned me, just like everyone else in life. I'm not going to let it happen again. I'm not going to let my son get hurt by someone who's just going to walk out of his life eventually!"
"How do you know he would do that?" Sam asked sternly, "How do you know he isn't going to stick by you to the end? Because I don't know the guy very well but he doesn't strike me as someone who talks just to talk. I think he meant what he said."
"Yeah, well you don't know him like I know him," she shook her head, "But you're right. He does mean what he says," she admitted hesitantly.
"So then why lie to him?" Sam asked, "He said you told him he wasn't the father, but you told me and Dean and Bobby that he was."
"He is," she sighed, "I just… Sam…"
"No, what is it? Why are you lying to this guy? He loves you, I can tell that he loves you. He's hurt because you lied to him again."
"That's all I do," she said, looking down at her feet, "All I do is hurt people and lie."
"Em, that's not what I'm saying."
"Yeah it is," she looked at him, "Sam you don't get it."
"Well then enlighten me. I would love to understand what the hell is going through your head."
"You sound like Dean," she muttered.
"No, Dean would be high fiving you for kicking Nick to the curb, he would have encouraged it," he sighed, and took a couple of breaths before changing the subject from Dean to Nick, "He knows."
"Who is he and what does he know?" she asked.
"Nick. He knows that he's really the father."
"No he doesn't. Not unless you told him."
Sam shook his head, "He knew even before I said anything. So why did you lie? Em, just tell me why."
"Because," she took a deep breath, "Because I love him, I love him a lot. But you guy are my family, and I couldn't have both. So I chose y'all," she smiled sadly, "I finally got to choose. I could have run away with him, I know how to hide from you. But I chose to stay with you," she looked straight at Sam as she spoke, "And I knew if there was another way you'd want me to choose it. If there was a life outside of hunting you would have wanted me to take it."
Slowly Sam nodded, "You're right. I would have."
Dean stepped out from behind the car he had been crouched behind, "How'd Nick take that?"
Both Imogen and Sam jumped with surprise.
"Dean?" Sam barked, "You were spying on us?"
Dean shook his head, "No… Well yes, but not intentionally. I was out here already when you two showed up."
Imogen sighed, "So you heard everything?"
Dean nodded slowly, "Every last word."
"So what? Do I get a lecture or are you gonna lock me in the panic room and starve me?"
"When the hell have we ever done that?" Sam asked, offended.
Dean pulled his sister to him and wrapped his arms around her, "I love you, sis."
Imogen smiled and gently patted her brother's back, "That's good. I was worried for a minute you might not and I made the wrong choice," she teased.
The oldest Winchester rolled his eyes and pulled out of the hug, "You're an idiot, you know that? You could have had a normal life all that stuff, and you threw it away."
"Yeah, yeah," she rolled her eyes, "Are you complaining?"
Dean shook his head and smiled, "No, definitely not complaining."
Sam sighed, "Nick wants you to call him. He says you haven't been answering your phone, so I covered for you and said you got a new phone number. And now he knows you're in town. I told him I didn't know how long we were sticking around though."
Slowly Imogen nodded, "I guess I should talk to him."
Dean frowned, "Why?" he looked almost panicked, "You don't need him. You've got me and Sammy."
"Well yeah, but I can't have sex with you," Imogen joked as she turned to head back to the house.
Dean visibly shuttered and looked to Sam, "I cannot believe that she just said that to me."
Sam raised and eye at his brother, "Why can't you believe that? You raised her, she's exactly like you."
"Shut up, Sam," Dean said, chuckling a little as he followed his sister back inside of Bobby's house.
"Hey'a Bobby," Dean smiled at the man who was cooking, he opened the fridge to get a beer, "What are you making? It smells fan-freaking-tastic."
Bobby looked at Dean, "Chili," he said, taking the beer from Dean, opening it, and drinking it himself.
"That's my beer," Dean whined.
"This is my house."
Dean rolled his eyes and got himself another beer, "So catch wind of anything lately?"
"Nope," Bobby answered, stirring the pot of chili.
"Ah come on Bobby. I'm going nuts. Anything? Even just a long shot."
"Your sister just had a baby a week ago and you wanna go hunt? How well do you think she's gonna take that?"
"Find anything close? It could be like a day trip."
Bobby sighed and headed into the study, picking up a file off of his desk, "Possible vamp kill a couple towns," he handed Dean the file, "Your sister is gonna kill you."
"Why?" Dean asked, flipping through the file, "This will be easy. I'll leave tomorrow and be back the next day."
"Dean," Bobby warned, "You better talk to her before you do anything."
Dean sighed, "Fine," he groaned, "She can stay here though, right? Her and Ollie?"
"Of course," Bobby nodded, "She's always welcome here… I'm just not sure she's gonna be ready for you to leave. She's having a hard time."
Slowly Dean nodded, "I know… But I'll be gone a day, you can help her if she runs into trouble."
"Winchester, I don't know the first thing about babies."
Dean patted him on the shoulder, "I've got faith in you old man," he walked up the stairs to Imogen's room and quietly opened the door. Imogen was on the bed changing the squirming baby's diaper, "Hey," he smiled, "Can I come in?"
Imogen nodded as she was fastening the diaper on her son, "Sure, Dean."
Dean slowly approached and sat down on the bed, gently rubbing Oliver's head, "You feeling any better?"
"Yes," she told him, "I was just overwhelmed and exhausted. You saved my ass."
"Yeah well," Dean smiled heroically, "That's what I do," he paused briefly, "So, there's something I need to talk to you about," he fidgeted a bit.
"What's up?" Imogen asked, picking up her son and giving him the bottle she had just prepared.
"So uh," he ran a hand through his short hair, "Bobby found us a case. There's a possible vamp nest a few hours from here."
"Oh," Imogen took a breath, "Okay. So how long do you think it will take?"
Dean looked at his sister skeptically, wondering why she wasn't freaking out, "A day or two, maybe."
"Okay," she smiled, "When are we leaving? I need to pack up," she laid Oliver in his bassinet and stood up to grab her bag, "Sam just went to the store so I think we'll have plenty of diapers for two days."
"Hang on," Dean gently grabbed his sister by the arm and pulled her back down on the bed, "Em, you've got a week old baby. You can't go on a hunt."
"Well, I know I can't actually be hunting Dean, I'm not stupid. But I can still tag along."
"Em," he took a deep breath and let it out, "I think you should stay here. It would just be easier for you and Ollie."
Imogen visibly flinched, "Wait, what?"
"You can't come. Not right now."
"Why not?" she asked defensively.
"You know why not."
She shot to her feet, "This is fucking bull shit Dean!" she yelled, "After everything I gave up for you guys and you're kicking me to the curb!"
"Woah," Dean got to his feet, "It's not like that, Em. But Sammy and I can't just stand idly by and watch innocent people get hurt."
The female Winchester shook her head, "You're such a dick, Dean."
Dean raised his eyebrow, "Excuse me?"
"You heard me," she grumbled, "You promised me that you weren't just going to up and leave me. Hell, you promised me you and Sam were takin a break from hunting. How do I even know that you're coming back? This is my broken leg all over again!"
"Imogen," he shook his head, "You couldn't be more wrong. But hey, you have such little faith in me maybe I won't come back at all."
Imogen rolled her eyes, "Just go," she growled, "I don't need you anyways."
Slowly Dean stood up and looked down at Oliver who was snoozing in his crib, "Bye kiddo," he said softly, turning to walk out the door, shutting it quietly behind him.
Imogen threw herself down on her bed and if it hadn't been for the fact that she didn't want to wake up her son she would have screamed into the pillow, so instead she decided to scream internally. About an hour later she heard the familiar sound of the Impala starting so she rushed to the window to see Dean pulling out of Bobby's driveway in the Impala, but Sam wasn't with him.
She checked to make sure Oliver was still sleeping before she made her way down the stairs into the living room where she found Sam kicked back and watching television.
"You didn't go with him?" she asked.
Sam shook his head, "No. I told you that I'm here for you. At least until you get more used to being a mom."
"Sorry I'm such a burden," she muttered.
Sam sighed and stood up, putting a hand on each of his sister's shoulders and looking her in the eye, "You're not a burden, Imogen. Please stop saying that. Look, if I had wanted to go with Dean I would have, but I'd rather be here helping out."
Imogen nodded and tightly hugged her brother, "Thank you," she broke the hug when she heard her son crying upstairs, "I better go see what he wants."
"All right, I'll be down here if you need anything," Sam told her, sitting back down on the couch.
Imogen headed to the stairs, but looked to her brother before heading up, "Thank you, Sammy."
Sam smiled and nodded, "You're welcome, kiddo."
Imogen headed upstairs and picked her son up out of the bassinet, gently rocking him to get him to settle back down. It wasn't long before he was back to sleep. Imogen tried to sleep, but she couldn't. So she pulled out her phone and dialed Nick's number, it rang so many times she thought he wasn't going to answer, but he did.
"Hello?"
"Hey, Nick. It's Imogen."
"Oh hey," his voice was groggy.
"Were you asleep?"
"Yeah, but don't worry about it."
"Look, I just wanted to apologize for my brother. I know you ran into him at the store today."
"Hey, it's understandable I guess. He didn't know the whole story."
Imogen sighed, "Do you wanna come over tomorrow?" she asked, "Do you wanna meet your son?"
There was a short pause, "So he is mine?"
"Yeah, biologically anyways."
"What time can I come?" he asked, "Can I come tonight?"
"No, not tonight. It's nearly midnight and Bobby would have a fit. Just come in the morning when you can."
"Okay Em," he sounded almost excited, "I'll see you first thing in the morning."
"All right Nick," she smiled to herself, "Good night," and she hung up the phone, closed her eyes and fell asleep, waking up periodically though the night when Oliver would cry and need something. Imogen must have been getting more used to the baby, or he was less needy, because it wasn't nearly as hard or draining for her to get up with him several times that night.
