::What a giant fuck-fest this is, huh? A legit pandemic. Unbelievable. Well, I'll tell you what; here's some more fanfic, I'll do my best to get going on editing some more so that you have more to read so that you STAY THE FUCK AT HOME and we can be done with this.

Okay, I'm calm. Hope you're all safe. Be careful out there and stop hoarding toilet paper.

love and internetty hugs::

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Chapter 7

Dean

We loaded what we could into Grace's Chevelle, but Serra still looked unhappy. "I'm going to stay," she was telling Grace as I carried the last box from the trunk at the foot of the dead Warrior's bed, "And you guys can come back with the Tank."

"We're not leaving you here alone," Grace answered, rolling her eyes. Her body language was still all off. She stood rigidly and kept looking southeast, like she could see something I couldn't. "I'll stay with you and Dean can bring the Tank back."

I was shaking my head before Grace had even finished her sentence. "Look," I sighed. "No one is staying anywhere. We all came together, and we're all going to leave together." I gestured to my nephew, who was asleep on the back seat of the Chevelle, "We'll go, drop off Lee and get our shit together. Maybe get some sleep." Both Serra and Grace were already shaking their heads. "No one is going to come and get this stuff. There's no hint of anyone else knowing it's here. We got the important stuff, along with most of the Weapons Stone blades. We have the rock. Let's go home and reevaluate."

Grace looked like she could have hit me.

I took a deep breath and decided that it was time to open that can of worms.

"Alright, wife," I sighed. "What's the deal? Over the last forty-five minutes, you are all kinda pissy and there is no rhyme or reason behind it, from what I can tell."

Serra turned to evaluate Grace and crossing her arms, agreed with me.

I could tell that she was pissed when she locked her teeth together, but Grace took a deep breath and sighed heavily. "Okay," she began, "now that I'm listening, I can hear another one."

"Another one?" I asked. "Another one what?"

Serra tilted her head and faced her sister. "Another Stone?" She whipped her head back to me and widened her eyes before staring back at her sister. "How come you can hear them and I can't?"

Squeezing her eyes shut, Grace furrowed her eyebrows. "I don't know," she grunted. "I'm sure there's a reason, but it's out there and it's taking everything I am not to push both of you down and leave you here while I go search for it."

I licked my lips and approached my wife, holding my hands out to her shoulders. "Gracie," I began quietly. "Come on. We can't start pushing our luck now. Let it go."

Grace opened her eyes and stared at me, dangerously at first, but seemed to force herself to relax long enough to nod. "Yeah, I know," she whispered. "Okay."

I glanced at Serra and gestured towards the car. "Come on," I repeated. "Everyone goes home together. We'll get things good tomorrow and come back with Sam."

Finally moving in the right direction, I took the keys from Grace and slid into the driver's seat of her deep, metal-flake purple Chevelle and started it up. She took her place in the passenger seat after Serra squeezed into the back with her sleeping son.

Serra

"Come on already," I whined, bouncing on the toes of my boots as I waited for Grace to finish brushing her teeth after getting home from dropping the kids off at school. "You should have brushed your teeth before getting in the drop-off-line, don't you think?"

Grace rolled her eyes at me and shook her head. "I'm finally back in control, Sere," she muttered after spitting out the toothpaste foam. "I don't know what came over me last night, but I wasn't a fan. I'd rather take my time, get focused, and not let it happen again."

"Uh-huh," I muttered, glancing away from her. From the living room, I could hear the front door open and listened as Dean greeted Jody. "Jody's here," I continued. "Get your ass in gear. I wanna get out there."

"Yeah, whatever," Grace answered as she rinsed her mouth.

Turning away from my annoying sister, I headed for the main room of the big house and was caught by surprise that it wasn't just Jody standing in the middle of the kitchen. Billy was here, too.

"Bill!" I greeted, smiling. "What are you doing here?"

Bill Griffin turned, carrying his coffee mug and tossed me a grin before taking a sip. "I was with Jody anyway," he began, lifting his eyebrows and daring me to say anything about their romance. "Decided to come along for the ride to see those babies of yours again."

"Uh-huh," I repeated, holding in my comments and grin. "Grace hears another Stone, so we're gonna go after that one first, before we go back to the weapons house."

"Another Stone?" Bill repeated, setting down his coffee mug. "Besides the one from the guy that shot her?"

I nodded, leaning on the counter, still grinning about him and Jody finally being a couple. "Yeah, we got the guy's last night, but she got all weird about another one while we were still there."

Bill turned to glance at Dean, who shrugged his shoulders and shook his head, saying, "Don't look at me, man. Weird is just a way of life now. I don't have the energy to question it."

Taking a breath and running his fingers through his near-white beard, Billy sat at the bar stool and tilted his head at me. "I feel like it's important to have this conversation with you while you're contained and focused," he began, staring at me.

"What?" I was confused and watched Billy for any hint of what he was talking about.

Furrowing his eyebrows, he glanced at Dean, then back at me. "Are you legitimately saying that you don't remember coming to me with a rock you couldn't identify when you were about eighteen? Maybe nineteen?"

I kind of felt like my life was flashing before my eyes as I watched Billy sit and stare at me, waiting for me to reply. Dean was silent but stepped to Billy's side of the bar to watch me as I could feel my eyes widen. "It didn't happen, Billy. You're forgetting the part where it didn't happen."

Dean was watching us like a tennis match, "Oh, something happened," he chuckled. "This sounds like another story like El Paso."

"You shut your dirty mouth," I snapped, pointing at my brother-in-law. It was all coming screaming back into my mind. I squeezed my eyes shut, begging silently that Grace stay in the bathroom, so she didn't physically hear what was coming. I remembered. I remembered too well, and it was not something I wanted my sister to find out, even now.

I had made a bet with a Crossroads.

I won, but that would hardly be the point to Grace.

Until Bill brought it up, I had forgotten it had ever happened. We decided it didn't happen, because if Grace ever found out, I would wish I had lost, so because of that, I had repressed the memory so hard, it just didn't exist.

Except that it did.

"She's been quiet longer than I think I have ever seen," Dean commented, patting Bill's shoulder. "Congratulations. This must be good."

"Serra," Bill commented, his voice serious. "That Stone that Grace hears? It's gotta be the one in my vault in Deerhead."

Dean stepped back and held up his hands, his mouth dropping open. He glanced at my husband, who had come in the back door and lifted his eyebrows at me, "You have a Weapons Stone in Deerhead, and we never knew?"

Gesturing to me, Bill lifted his eyebrows and shook his head. "Take it up with the natural disaster, over here," he sighed. "Made me swear that I would never talk about it. Sorry, kiddo," Bill continued as Grace walked out into the living room with her eyes open as wide as I had ever seen them. "Cat's outta the bag."

"You knew about the other Stone?" Grace whispered.

"I didn't know it was that Stone!" I squeaked, taking a step away from my big, angry, Nephilim sister. We were both in our mid-thirties and I was still terrified of angering Grace. I needed to get a grip. "When I won it, I didn't know what it was. I just knew that it was important and probably cursed, so I didn't touch it. I brought it to Bill, made him promise not to tell you, and made it back in time to hunt vampires with you and the Adaka'i boys in Georgia!"

"That was the reason you were late to the hunt in Georgia?" Grace's voice matched mine and I took another step back. "Serendipity Adeline, what did you do?"

Sam, Dean, and Billy were silent as they watched us go toe to toe. I was scared out of my wits of what Grace would do, but I had to press on. We all knew the Weapons Stone was there in Deerhead, now, so there was no point in trying to lie about it anymore.

I exhaled slowly, puffing out my cheeks as I searched for the best, most believable version of the truth I could muster. Already, I knew it was too late; Grace had her eyes closed as she telepathically searched for my memory. Faster than I was ready for, her bright blue eyes flashed open and she glared at me.

"You made a deal with a Crossroads Demon?" she whispered.

I felt like a fish out of water as I opened and closed my mouth silently. Finally, I had no choice but to answer, so I went with the first thing that came to my mind, "It was a bet, not a deal."

"That's what you have to say?" Grace screeched. "I could slap you across the face, Serra! What the fuck were you thinking?"

By now, Sam and Dean were both staring at me, and Billy did everything he could to shrink into the floor and disappear, wanting no part of how angry my sister was. I opened my mouth to take a breath again, but I couldn't make the words come out.

"Oh my god, Serra, say something." Grace slammed her hands down onto the countertop and leaned towards me so that we were almost nose to nose. It took everything I was to stay rooted to the spot and stare back at her.

"I was with Miguel in Georgia and got hungry," I whispered, forcing myself to tell the story to those who hadn't been able to read it from my mind. Even with Grace seeing the memories, I knew they were just flashes, and she would expect a further explanation. "I went out for food at about two in the morning. He…he was there."

"He? He who?" Sam asked, tilting his head. Sam's disappointment was almost harder to see than Grace's fury.

"The demon," I swallowed. "He just showed up.

Dean narrowed his eyes, watching us all interact very carefully. I took a deep breath, finally breaking eye contact with Grace and staring at the countertop in front of me. "His name was Knox and he had heard about what a good shot I was," I licked my lips, forcing my voice to stay loud enough to hear. "He made a bet that he was a better shot than me."

"A bet?" Dean asked, glancing to Sam, then Grace, trying to get clarification. "Not a deal."

Grace clicked her tongue and rolled her eyes, crossing her arms in front of her chest as she glared at me. "Same fucking difference."

"My… 'services' for this…rock," I whispered. "He didn't want my soul, per say, he wanted to use me to do his dirty work here on Earth if he won."

Grace was seething. I could feel the shameful prick of tears in my eyes, remembering how panicked I had been, trying to get back to Georgia ahead of Grace when we hunted the coven of vampires with the Adaka'i brothers, all those years ago. I had pushed it so far from my mind that the memories, up until now, had just been shoved away and walled up. I hadn't thought about it since getting home after the hunt.

"Oh my god, Grace," I whispered, my voice tight, "I know how stupid it was. And if I had known what I know now, I would have never considered it, but I knew I could win."

She didn't answer, but stared right back at me, waiting for me to continue.

"It was a target duel," I breathed. "Five shots. I stacked them." I swallowed, trying to stay composed. "He didn't."

"All for a rock that you didn't understand," Grace answered. "How could you have been so stupid?"

"I was young," I answered, speaking only to my sister. "Dad's death was still fresh and that rock…that Stone called to me, even then. I didn't know what it was, but I knew it had to be mine, no matter the cost."

"The cost?" Grace lifted her eyebrows as a tear dripped down her cheek. "You are worth more than any Stone." She stared up at the ceiling, trying to get her tears to reabsorb. "What would I have done, Serra? What if you had lost?"

I licked my lips and wiped my cheeks, not allowing my tears to fall. "I didn't," I breathed.

"That's not the point," Grace replied. "That has never been the point. You have always taken unnecessary risks." She turned away from me and stared out the window, taking a few deep breaths. The boys both leaned away, letting Grace's words sink in and fester a bit before we continued.

Sam stared at me; his eyebrows knitted together, and Dean just stood, his lips pursed and his hands in his pockets as he stared at me. He knew better than anyone that Grace would not easily move on from this discussion, and there would never be a time in our lives that she wouldn't fear bringing it back up. For the first time, I saw it flash across my brother-in-law's face: pity.

Now, I couldn't decide which was worse; Grace's anger or Dean's pity.

"It was fifteen years ago, Grace," I muttered. "I'm fine. Everything worked out and we landed on top, just like we always do, and now, thanks to my foresight, we are up another Weapons Stone."

Dean shook his head slowly as he let his jade eyes fall to stare at his boots. Sam made a face, almost cringing at what I had just said, and slowly, my sister turned around with her eyebrows in her hair line, ready to light me up.

"Thanks to your foresight," she repeated slowly and enunciating each word very deliberately.

I took a deep, shaky breath and decided to dig in, "Yeah," I nodded. "I went with my gut, which is how I've always lived my life, and it's never once let us down. My job, my one job is to be a Warrior of Heaven. I knew that night, that I would win. I could feel it in my bones."

Grace locked her teeth together, allowing me to continue.

"You spent years telling me to take my doubt and turn it into something useful," I pleaded. "It became my religion, Grace." I pushed my hand into my jeans pocket and pulled out the twenty-year-old bullet slug that our dad had pulled out of Grace's hip, that demon-filled night after her high school graduation. The bullet fragment that taught me never to take another bad shot again. Opening the palm of my hand to show her, I whispered, "This is my rosary and I pray to it every fucking day." I grit my teeth and stared into my sister's bright blue eyes. "Protecting you, and now this family, has been what I live and breathe, and I knew, if I won that night in Georgia, it would confirm that I was on the right path. I survived, won the Stone, and here we are, fifteen years into the hardest fight of our lives, but we're still here."

Grace lowered her gaze to stare at the bullet fragment sitting in the palm of my hand. "I should have learned by now to trust you," Grace answered, still with her eyes on the lead slug in my hand. "I just can't believe that you would have taken a chance like that."

"I did, and I know I shouldn't have, but I'm not sorry."

Nodding slowly, Grace took another breath through her nose. Slowly, she turned to Bill and tilted her head questioningly, "And you knew about this?" she asked, not hiding the irritation from her voice.

Billy narrowed his eyes and approached the bar, matching Grace's tone, "I did know," he nodded, "but I also know that you would have come down on her just as hard back then, which would have done more damage than good, especially with your Daddy still fresh." He took a step towards the counter and bristled his white mustache, "I knew very well what she had, and I did my job keeping it safe, all these years." He looked proud of himself as he continued, "Learned how to make a treasures vault that no cosmic being can get through."

"Where'd you learn that?" I asked, feeling the initial fear and anxiety from telling Grace finally start to fade.

"A friend of mine."

Grace smiled wistfully, "Seems that everyone knew Bobby Singer."