Matt, Dean, and Rayan stood in the living room silently just staring at the door. Alabama overhearing the conversation was obviously not part of the Winchester's master plan to get Matt to tell his daughter what was going on. But then again, what other kind of luck was there than bad when it came to their family.

"Shit," Rayan quietly swore, breaking the heavy silence. She turned to face the two men on the couch quickly. "Well, that didn't go according to plan."

"I thought you were supposed to be keeping her out of the house?" Dean spoke, raising an eyebrow at his daughter skeptically. "Last time I checked, that living room was inside."

"Why don't you try keeping the volatile teenager away from her newly returned father next time!" Rayan snapped at her father in frustration. "Besides, she just kind of slipped off while I was dragging King back from the neighbor's fence. It's not like I meant to lose her."

"Either way, the damage is done," Dean sighed before facing Matt. "Now will you explain everything to the poor kid?"

"I guess I have to," Matt sighed as he ran a hand through his short brown hair. "I didn't want her to find out this way."

"You didn't want her to find out at all," Rayan growled out as she glared at Matt from across the room. "You wanted to ditch her here with us, and let her think that you just abandoned her with some freaking strangers."

"It was a better plan than her finding out the truth," Matt demanded in a tired voice.

"That's such bullshit!" Rayan cried, throwing her hands in the air. "That's bullshit and you know it!"

"That's enough, Rayan!" Dean commanded, effectively silencing his enraged daughter. "You don't speak to anyone like that. I've raised you better."

Rayan just huffed and turned her face away from Dean, no sign of quilt clouding her features. Dean didn't expect as much, really. Rayan was too much like him sometimes, and allowed her emotions to get the better of her.

Matt stood from the couch and started to make his way towards the front door. "I need to go find Alabama," he said softly.

"Oh no," Rayan demanded, putting a hand out in front of her to stop the older man. "The last person she's going to want to see right now is you. So just go sit back down on the couch, chew toy, and I'll go talk to her. She'll listen to me."

"Rayan Elizabeth!" Dean scolded as he look at his daughter in disappointment.

"Save it, Daddy. I won't apologize." With that, Rayan turned on her heel and marched towards the front door, once again leaving two men standing in shock behind her.

Rayan didn't have to go far to find Alabama, because the sound of gunshots was audible as soon as she stepped into the salvage yard. She immediately made a left and walked towards the shooting range Bobby had set up years ago, and caught sight of Alabama unloading another clip into one of the small targets painted on the side of a car.

The youngest Winchester hesitated for a moment, unsure whether it was wise to approach Alabama while she had a loaded gun. Rayan took a deep breath, calming herself, before approaching the southern girl.

"Hey, Alabama," Rayan spoke softly so she wouldn't startle the other girl.

"Go away, Winchester," Alabama growled out before taking several more shots at the car. "I'm ain't in the mood for your lovely company."

Rayan ignored Alabama's demand and instead perched on the hood of a nearby car and wiping a patch of grease on her shorts that had somehow found a home on her hand. She didn't say anything, and instead let Alabama shoot a couple more rounds. Rayan knew the other girl would eventually snap.

"Are you stupid or somethin'?" Alabama demanded as she whirled around to glare at Rayan. "I said get lost."

The first thing Rayan noticed was Alabama's red, puffy eyes. The girl had been crying, which was understandable. She had just found out that her father was going to hell, and she didn't even know that he was going to be gone by the end of the night.

"I thought you might want to talk," Rayan said softly as she stared into Alabama's gray eyes.

"Ain't no way in hell I'm going to talk to you."

"Fine," Rayan said evenly. "I'll talk, and you can listen."

"I don't want to listen to you either," Alabama growled out in annoyance.

"I'm not giving you a choice."

The two teenagers stared at each other for a moment, neither willing to lose the silent battle that they were raging. If Rayan was being honest with herself, she wasn't really even sure why she was so determined to make Alabama listen to her. Maybe it was because the situation between the father and daughter was hitting so close to home that Rayan felt compelled to try and make things…easier for Alabama, she supposed.

"Whatever," Alabama grounded out as she turned back towards the target, raising the gun to take aim. "Talk all you want, but I ain't gonna listen."

"I know what it feels like," Rayan quickly spoke before Alabama could get a shot off. "I know how much it hurts."

"You don't know shit," the other girl snapped out as she turned and stalked towards Rayan's position on the car. "You don't know what I feel like inside right now! You can't understand what this feels like."

"It feels like the whole world is suffocating you," Rayan spoke calmly as she slid off the hood of the car. "It feels like your lungs are collapsing inside your chest. Like there isn't any air left in the world, and you're just fighting and struggling not to drown under the weight of it all. You don't know whether to scream or cry, even though both are probably pretty impossible because you're still a little bit numb to it all."

Alabama stared at Rayan for a few moments, disbelief clouding her features and her eyes shining slightly with unshed tears. "How do you know all that?"

"Because my dad sold his soul right before I turned six years old," Rayan admitted as she continued to hold a stare with Alabama. "And he died a year later. So I know what it feels like to lose a parent to hell."

The next occurrence was so sudden, that Rayan almost jumped. One minute Alabama was standing in front of her with a slight scowl on her face, and the next she was collapsing to the ground, gut-wrenching sobs escaping her. Rayan quickly fell to her own knees and wrapped her arms around the other girl, trying to offer some comfort which was weird in and of itself, because twenty four hours ago neither of the girls could stand the sight of one another.

It took a few minutes for Alabama to calm down, but as soon as her sobs had quieted she was pulling away from Rayan and furiously wiping at her eyes. "But if he sold his soul, how is he here today?"

"Long story short," Rayan explained evenly. "He got pulled out of hell by angels to save the world from the apocalypse that he and my uncle started by mistake. Not one of my families finest moments." Rayan laughed softly at her own joke, but the humor was lost on Alabama. The youngest Winchester quickly cleared her throat awkwardly.

"Did he tell you about the deal before he died?"

"No," Rayan growled out. "Dad didn't tell me a damn thing. Instead, he arranged for an old family friend, Ellen, to stay with me here at the house while he, Uncle Sammy, and Gramps 'went on a small hunt.' That was the night the hell hounds took him."

"Well at least I know my dad ain't the only one too afraid to tell his daughter the truth," Alabama spit out in a venom-laced tone. She turned her head towards the house and yelled at the top of her lungs. "Well the bastard can rot in hell for all I care!"

Rayan winced at the other teen's words, shaking her head at the sorrow hidden beneath the anger. "You don't mean that, Alabama."

"Like hell I don't!" Alabama snapped.

Rayan paused for a moment and contemplated how to begin her next words carefully. "Can I tell you a story?" she asked softly, gaining Alabama's full attention once again. The southern girl nodded her head in approval, leaning back on her heels as she waited for Rayan to begin.

It was raining in South Dakota. Heavy, roof-pounding rain that only a real South Dakota storm could produce. It was one thing that a then almost six-year-old Rayan would always remember about that night.

"Hun, why don't you come on upstairs with me and get ready for bed?" Ellen Harvelle asked as she placed her hands on Rayan's small shoulders. The little girl hadn't left her position by the window for over an hour, waiting for the familiar roar of the Impala to race up the driveway.

"Something's wrong, Aunt Ellen," the small girl whispered as she turned her face up towards the older woman.

"I'm sure everything's fine, hun" Ellen tried to reassure as she steered the little girl from the window towards the stairs. "The boys will be home any time now."

As if on cue, the familiar roar of the Impala's engine could be heard outside over the driving rain, and Rayan was pulling herself out of Ellen's grasp and racing towards the front door as fast as her little legs could carry her.

Rayan was able to wrench the front door open just as Bobby and Sam were climbing out of their respective vehicles, both with devastated looks on their faces. At first, Rayan was smiling, excited to see her family back in one piece.

But something was wrong.

It wasn't Dean climbing out of the driver's seat of the Impala. It was Sam. Her father wasn't anywhere to be seen, and panic started to creep into her young mind. Rayan shot down the front stairs, ignoring Ellen's calls and the driving rain as she raced to the Impala and peered into all the windows, looking for her father.

"Where's Daddy?" Rayan demanded as she turned to face her uncle. Sam didn't answer right away, so Rayan asked again with more desperation. "Where's Daddy?"

It was Bobby who finally answered the small girl, approaching her with hesitation. "I'm sorry, darlin'," he began, but Rayan didn't need to hear anymore. Instead of waiting for Bobby to utter the words that Rayan had already confirmed in her young mind, the little Winchester raced back into the house past the adults and up the stairs into her father's bedroom.

She slid under the bed and reached for the small wooden box Dean kept there full of important papers and small mementos. When Rayan flipped the lid open, she wasn't interested in anything but the silver disc that Dean had stored there. He had instructed his daughter a week ago that if he didn't come home one day, she should watch it.

Rayan wasn't going to wait.

With the disc in hand, the small girl ran back downstairs and into the living room where she demanded that Ellen put the tape in to play. Quietly, the older woman started up the DVD player while Rayan settled herself in front of the TV as close as possible.

Once Ellen backed away and joined Bobby and Sam behind the couch, everyone in the room was surprised to see a picture of Dean appear on the television screen. A strangled sound escaped Sam, but other than that the room remained silent until Dean started to speak.

"Hey, short stuff," his image spoke with the same signature smirk playing across his lips. "I hope you're not watching this, but if you are then I guess I didn't make it home to you. I'm sorry about that. Really sorry. I know I promised I'd never leave."

There was a pause in the video, where Dean looked down and studied his hands for a moment. It was during this pause that Rayan scooted closer to the screen and placed a small hand where her father's cheek was visible.

"There's a lot of things I wanted to share with you," continued Dean. And when he turned his face back towards the camera, there were unshed tears in his eyes. "I wanted to take you to the ocean so you could see the most beautiful sunset. I wanted to teach you how to drive a car. I wanted to see you turn sixteen and graduate from high school."

The tears in Dean's eyes were no longer unshed, and instead were trickling down his face. His voice had grown hoarse as he struggled not to let the emotion escape. "You need to know how sorry I am Rayan. How completely sorry I am that I'm not there anymore. But I also need you to know that I love you, baby. I love you so much. And I need you to always remember that. Stay strong, short stuff. And be good for Bobby and Uncle Sam. I miss you already."

With that, Dean reached up and apparently shut off the camera, because the screen went blank and his face disappeared. Rayan stayed where she was, her hand on the screen, for several more minutes. Bobby, Ellen, and Sam studied the small girl with concern, waiting for her to react to the situation.

Instead, she surprised them all.

"I'm tired," she said softly before standing up and heading toward the stairs, leaving the three adults behind in silence.

"He was gone for four months," Rayan told Alabama as she finished her story. "I don't think I ever cried, not really. I was just really pissed at him. I turned six about a week and a half later, and we didn't even celebrate. Not that Bobby and Ellen didn't try, but because I wouldn't let them. I was content to just hate my dad for leaving me."

"Did you know that he went to hell?" Alabama asked softly as her gray eyes drilled into Rayan's green.

"No. I found out right before he showed back up at the house. Uncle Cas had fluttered into my room and told me not to be afraid, because my dad really was coming home."

"You were lucky you got him back," Alabama remarked bitterly. "I won't be as lucky."

"I was lucky," Rayan agreed as she played her a strand of her dark blonde hair. "And that's why I think you need to go in there and be with your dad, as angry as you are with him."

"No way," Alabama denied as she shook her head back and forth. "I don't want to spend any time with him."

"I know it feels like that now, but you're going to want something to remember him by after he's gone. And believe me when I say that memories are a lot better than a letter or some stupid DVD."

Alabama ducked her head in contemplation, staring at her hands resting in her lap. "Would you stay with him if it were your dad again?" the southern girl asked softly.

"I wouldn't leave his side."

There was a moment of silence, and Rayan waited anxiously for Alabama to say something about the situation. So the youngest Winchester was surprised when Alabama suddenly stood from her kneeling position on the ground and started to dust the dirt and mud off of her knees. Rayan quickly followed suit, never taking her eyes off of Alabama's face.

The other teen took a deep breath before turning to face Rayan head on. "Let's go inside."