*Hides face in shame* Yeah, so I really don't have a good excuse for the lateness of this chapter. Just total death of my inspiration for it. But a huge, huge thank you to Werewolf Girl 22 who dragged that spark back to me. I promise that this story will be finished. I will not leave you all hanging. It just might take longer than I would like.

So, I'm not even sure if you're all still reading this, but thank you so much. Every review or alert or favorite or just anything completely makes my day. And if you're actually sticking with me, then kudos. Definitely kudos.

And of course, Werewolf Girl 22 is an amazing beta!

The Return of Avi

Shell Game

Dead. Gwen was actually dead. Because Dean shot and killed her. That… I… Words were not my forte at the moment. My eyes shot to Samuel to see how he was taking the news. It didn't surprise me to see his face blank. But that could mean that he was feeling a lot of different things, especially if he's part of the Winchester bloodline.

"I'm sorry," I told him softly, earning a short nod in response. Samuel swallowed thickly, his hand still gripping his gun tightly. Rufus just sat there, the slump of his shoulders clearly broadcasting defeat. Our heads jerked up when we heard Sam's returning footsteps.

"I couldn't find him," he told us. His eyes settled on Gwen, widening slightly. "Is she…?"

"Yep," Rufus said briskly, his knees creaking a little as he rose to his feet. "We need to get this place on lockdown before Dean decides to go rampaging on the local population. I have the locks in my bag. Then we can find him." Samuel nodded once before silently gathering Gwen's body in his arms and laying her down on a nearby table in the next room.

"We're going to find him alive, Samuel," Sam warned when he returned. "Or I'm going to put a bullet in your brain." The man didn't even flinch. I guess getting multiple death threats in a day lessens their impact. Kinda makes sense if I really thought about it…

With locks on the doors, and all the lights possible flipped on, we spilt up into two groups in order to hunt down Dean. Okay, I'm sorry, but that just feels wrong. Like drinking orange juice while eating chocolate wrong. Or the way my skin crawled whenever I was around Mr. Soulless. It screwed with the natural order, and I hated it. At least I got paired up with Sammy, even if a rat made me jump a foot in the air. After about ten minutes though, Sam pulled out his phone and dialed Dean's number. It sounded close, even with the slight echo in the warehouse. We glanced at each other before sprinting after the sound. Rufus and Samuel were close behind, but Sammy and I burst through the doorway first. Dean's eyes were wide and slightly panicked as he whirled his gun around to face us.

"Whoa! Whoa!" Sam told him, holding his hands out wide.

"Dean, calm down," I said. "It's okay."

"No! It is not okay!" he growled, "One minute I'm talking to you, the next I'm waking up to see a freaking herpy crawl out of my ear!" A herpy? What? "What the hell is going on?" he demanded as Rufus and Samuel ran out to meet us.

"You killed Gwen, that's what happened," Samuel snapped. The change that came over Dean was instantaneous.

"I did?" he asked, suddenly a lot more subdued.

"Look, he was monster possessed, or whatever the hell this thing is doing to people." Sam said, slowly lowering his gun. "But he's clean now."

"How do we know that? He could just be pretending!" Samuel growled.

"I'm not!" Dean snapped, and before I could blink, they were both aiming for each other.

"Yeah, let's take it down a notch, shall we?" I asked, stepping in-between them. "Rufus, check for goop."

"What? Why?"

"Easy there, Dean," Rufus told him, cautiously stepping over to the agitated hunter. "Just gotta…" His hand shot out, and twisted inside of Dean's ear. I rolled my eyes at the oldest Winchester's complaints and watched Rufus impatiently. "Yep. We're goo positive here."

"What does that mean?" Dean demanded.

"Your herpy possessed you," Sam told his brother with only a hint of a smile on his face.

"And it still could be," Samuel said.

"Or it could have moved on to someone else," I told him calmly. "Me and Sam haven't seen you guys the whole time, and you haven't seen us. It could be in anyone of us... Aw crap…"

"Yeah," Rufus sighed as he spotted a bag hanging from a nearby hook. He grabbed it before saying. "Alright, everyone give up your weapons. If we're stuck here with it, might as well make it harder for it to kill us." Sammy nodded and readily handed over his gun, and Rufus quickly followed suit. Dean, Samuel and myself had a little bit more trouble though. "You waiting on an engraved invitation?" Rufus prodded, and Dean slowly gave up his gun.

"You first, Gramps," I told the older hunter.

"I don't think so," he sneered, "Put your gun in the bag, and once I don't have to worry about being shot while unarmed we'll talk." I gritted my teeth, thankful when none of the other hunters interfered.

"Fine." I flipped the safety on, and deposited my gun in the bag. Samuel smiled at me before doing the same. I didn't give up the knife strapped to my arm. I didn't let anyone know that I still had it, although Sam shot me a look once everyone else turned their backs. I ignored it, and followed everyone back into the locker room that was quickly turning into our home base for the evening.

The next couple of hours were… awkward to say the least. We had no idea what we were dealing with, so Rufus spent the time trying to get some of his old hunting buddies to talk to him. Sam and Dean spent the time watching/glaring at Samuel. I spilt the time between doing the same and checking in on my family. The house was actually relatively intact, and Hunter had only chewed up one chair so far. Gabriel had showed up and was kinda, sorta keeping an eye on them. It seemed like that was happening more and more often, but I didn't question it. Kacie, Austine, and Raven loved him, and Eli tolerated him better than Cas. If I wasn't mistaken, Eli might even consider Heaven's Candy Man to be a friend soon. But that was for later. Right now, there was something else to deal with.

Eli had kissed me. Like full on fanfare and fireworks kissed me. And he didn't mention it! At all! He just acted like absolutely nothing had happened between us, and we were still at that odd 'Friends but not really because of Eli's feeling and my own screwed up crap' phase in our relationship. Stupid males! They make everything so complicated! But it was still really nice to hear his voice again. We ended with our traditional promise to try our best not die and to make sure that the Winchesters didn't get me killed. Oh, and he told me that I better kill Samuel or he would do it himself. I assured him that it wouldn't be a problem, and that I would probably have to fight Dean for the honor before ending the call. What little sense of home and warmth I had died with it.

With a small sigh, I brought myself back to a reality where the Winchesters and their grandfather had gone on a bathroom break. Strange, but I didn't comment on it. I just plopped myself down on a chair and watched Rufus as he paced back and forth.

"Robbie, stop playing dumb! You know what I'm talking about!" he snapped into his phone, and I could just make out the angry retort that he got in reply. "No, I don't. Why the hell do you think I'm asking you?" I raised an eyebrow and fought off a grin. "What? Are you seriously trying to set me up with your sister? Now? You know what, forget about it, Robbie." I chuckled when the hunter snapped the phone shut with more force than strictly necessary.

"Robbie sounds like a charmer," I remarked.

"That's one word for him," Rufus generously allowed as he took a seat next to me. He glanced almost nervously at the swinging double doors the rest of our party went through before turning his eyes on me. "Since you haven't killed me yet, I'm going to guess that you're not possessed."

"Ditto," I told him, not quite sure where this conversation was going. From his tone, I would have to guess somewhere that Rufus considered to be important.

"When we met back in Colorado, you were just some scared little tag-a-long. And don't deny it; we both know you'd be lying. To be honest, when you slipped on that ring, I thought you were a goner. I have no idea how or why you're still here. Do I want to know? Eh, maybe eventually. But you seem like a nice girl. Smart, quick on your feet… You obviously have some people who love you if that phone conversation was anything to go by. And Sam and Dean act like you're practically family. Believe me when I say that's no picnic. So what I really want to know is: What the hell are you playing at?"

"Nothing," I told him firmly, "Absolutely nothing. I just got lucky when I stumbled into this world." Oh, if only he knew that I was being completely literal. "Rufus, Dean and Sam might as well be my brothers. I would die for them in a second."

"Uh huh." I let out a small sigh, and stood up.

"I'm not a Ruby. I'm more of a Jo than anything else." Rufus opened his mouth to reply, but was cut off by the echoing noise of a gunshot. "Guys!" I shouted, taking off in the same direction without a second thought.

"Sam! Dean!" Rufus called. I quickly pulled out my knife, eyes scanning for any sign of attack. "You kept a knife?" I just shot him a look.

"Avi! Rufus!" Dean called out to us. The sound of his voice led us right to the brothers. "It was Samuel," the elder Winchester told us. "And you kept a knife?"

"Shut up. There was no way the monster was going to give up all his weapons, why should I?" I asked defensively. "I didn't want to get cornered and killed without putting up a fight!"

"You don't need a knife to fight, Avi," Sam reminded me gently, a small smile on his face. I glared at him half-heartedly before replacing my knife in its rightful place. The lights chose that exact moment to go out, plunging our merry band of hunters into darkness.

"I think I would like my gun back now, Rufus," Dean said. No one argued with him.


I just stood there. Numb. My wrists were already beginning to lose feeling under their just tight enough restraints. The rest of my body was oddly cold. It's funny. It didn't expect this reaction at all. I don't think I've had this reaction before. Samuel was dead. I had shot him. And I didn't even have any proof that he had been possessed. He only took a step towards me and I shot him in the head. I had expected to feel… well, everything other than this. Regret and remorse were topping the list. I hated every moment of it.

The four of us, me, the Winchesters, and Rufus, had been hunting down Samuel when I got separated from the group. A wall had divided us, and I got stuck on the lucky side. Of course. But after making plans to go around and meet up with them on the other side, I ran into Samuel almost immediately.

"Whoa there, Avi," he told me calmingly when I instantly leveled my gun at him. "I'm not going to hurt you."

"Yeah, and that's not a lie at all," I growled back at him.

"Look, I realize that in the past we may have had some… differences in opinion, but I am still Sam and Dean's grandfather. I'm still their blood."

"You sold them out to Crowley! Try a different argument, Gramps," I told him, backing up a step when he took one closer to me. "And that's close enough, thanks." Samuel studied me for a long moment before chuckling.

"You have no idea, do you?" he asked, "You still blindly trust him. Oh, if you could only see some of the things that he's done." Later on, I would tell myself that I wasn't even remotely interested in what he was saying. Later on, I would tell myself that Samuel was going to kill me if I didn't shoot first. But right then, in the moment, I couldn't say that with any certainty whatsoever. In the moment, it felt a hell of a lot like murder. Samuel's body fell to the ground the very minute everyone else found us. I didn't turn around to face them, still not trusting Samuel enough to still be there if I turned my head.

"I didn't have a choice," I said quietly. I could feel their gazes drilling into my back. "He… he would have killed me. He was going to kill me."

"I know," Dean told me, "but we have to be sure. Drop your gun and knife." I nodded and gave up my weapons, albeit a bit unwillingly. Dean grabbed them, and the second they were clear, Rufus came behind me and secured my hands.

"He was going to kill me," I repeated. "The thing, the herpy or whatever, it's in him!"

"Did you see it come out?" Rufus asked me. That gave me pause.

"Well… no, not exactly."

"Can't we just cut him open and see if it's still in there?" Sam pointed out, and again, I was so thankful that he had an abnormally large brain and actually knew how to use it. Rufus and Dean looked at each other before nodding.

"Sounds like a plan. Let's get him on a table."

And that is how I found myself sitting back at home base, watching both Samuel's body, and Dean. Rufus and Sam had gone out to the Impala to grab some sort of chainsaw. I think. To be honest, I wasn't completely sure what they were getting. All I knew for sure was that Dean and I were both watching Samuel and each other, and if we saw something crawling out of anybody's ear, we should step on it. I didn't think that would be a problem for either of us.

Besides the chuckles Rufus' instructions had gotten out of us, Dean and I were pretty much silent. It wasn't awkward by any means, but I wouldn't exactly call it friendly either. Come to think of it, we hadn't really had a friendly silence between us in a long time. We've both just been so busy, me with my "domestic" life and him with being out on the road and worrying about his brother. I needed to change that, hopefully soon.

"Well somebody's off in no man's land."

"What?" I asked, my eyes jerking over to meet Dean's green ones. He flashed me a quick smile.

"I must have said your name three times. You alright?"

"Yeah," I told him, although even to my ears, it sounded unconvincing. "It's just… what if…

"Stop it," Dean commanded. "Don't do that to yourself. Not over him. You did the right thing. The four of us had eyes on each other the whole time. It had to be in him."

"It could be in me," I pointed out, and quite rightfully so. Dean just shrugged and sat on the edge of a counter.

"I'm willing to risk it."

"Enough to…" I gestured with my still secured hands. Dean hesitated for a moment.

"Let's just be on the safe side."

"Okay."

We both stood as Rufus and Sam came back in, a ratty looking saw-like device in the older hunter's hands.

"Alright," he said. "Let's get this show on the roll."

I just realized that I started this story over a year ago... Wow.

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