A/N: Okay. This chapter gave me fits. I couldn't decide what I wanted to do with it exactly, and I wrote out four different endings before landing on this one. I want to note some things here. First of all, the mystery of what happened to Lily is somewhat solved, but there are still some questions left unanswered. Real mysteries rarely have all the questions they raised answered, and those of you who read me regularly know that I like having a dose of reality like that in my stories. Second, one of my favorite sayings is that the truth is stranger than fiction. Things are rarely straightforward. Remember that as you read this chapter. Third, John and Ellie do figure out what is making Lily hang around the school, and they do start the process of helping her cross over, but I don't actually show that part. I thought showing them having the conversation they needed to have was more important.

This is the next to the last chapter. There's one more coming, hopefully by the end of this week.

Ellie was an idiot.

What was she thinking, volunteering to face a murderer?

Sam had tried to talk her out of it the night before. He'd kept her up until two o'clock that morning, running through various reasons as to why she shouldn't do it. Dad was there. She'd already done good by going to the school and finding the ghost in the first place. She could ask Dad to take care of it, and there was no risk that he'd lose any respect for her. Hell, Sam argued, he'd probably admire her more if she did walk away.

But, as said before, Ellie was an idiot.

She had to do this. She had to prove to John that she could make it as a hunter. Though it wasn't what she wanted to do with her life, being a part of the family, feeling included and valued by all of them, was much more important to her. So despite her own wishes, Ellie would excel at hunting to make her father happy in the hopes that he would keep her with him.

John had insisted on coming to visit Principal Adams with Ellie. Ellie had only protested a little. In truth, there was no way she'd do this without her father, but the process for getting him to allow her to come was delicate. She had to start by asking to go see the principal solo. John, of course, said no, and that the only thing she would be doing the next day was going to class and keeping an eye out for Lily. With Bobby and Dean's help, she'd negotiated her current position. Go to principal Adams with her father, and try to get to the bottom of all of this.

The whole trip over to school, Ellie's mind had been consumed with thoughts of Lily. She could tell the girl was lonely. Ellie certainly understood that feeling, and she wondered if that was what made Lily connect with her. Ellie's thoughts also drifted to her mother. Was her mother like Lily? Did she know what was going on when she died? Had she been thinking of what she was going through? Had her last thoughts been of Ellie and Sam and Dean?

Did her mother miss her?

John stopped the car and Ellie prepared to exit, all thoughts of her mother being forcibly shaken from her head. She had to focus.

"Ellie, wait."

Ellie's hand was on the doorknob, her heart throbbing in anticipation. Was John changing his mind?

"I just wanted to make sure you were really up to this." John said. "It's okay if not."

"I'm fine, Daddy."

"You know, I know I'm really hard on you." John said. "I know it's hard…"

Ellie gripped the doorhandle tighter, not daring to speak.

"But I'm proud of you."

Ellie turned to look at John with her mouth partially open in shock. It hurt John a little how surprised she seemed to be at his declaration. But she also seemed to be happy with it, so John continued.

"I'm proud of you. And no matter what happens between us, I want you to know that. I am always proud of you."

"Let's go inside." Ellie said quickly. "We're late."

John was confused. He didn't know what he'd been expecting to what he'd shared with Ellie, but it had definitely been more than the reaction he did get. Before he could think on it too much more, Ellie was waving at him to come on. Though John wanted a better relationship with Ellie, he made up his mind then to give it up. He'd made two attempts so far and they'd blown up in his face. He climbed out of the car and walked up to Ellie.

Ellie was confused. For her father to just declare any kind of affection for her was virtually unheard of. He would return any affection she gave him with no trouble. A hug or a kiss or an 'I love you' from Ellie never went without being reciprocated from her father, but for him to do it with no prompting was something that Ellie just didn't know how to deal with. Ellie could tell, as they walked into Principal Adams' office, that she'd hurt her father, and she made up her mind to talk to him after the hunt was over. Principal Adams took his seat and Ellie felt her stomach flutter in anxiety.

"How can I help you guys?"

John opened his mouth to say something, then got another idea. He turned to Ellie and pointed to principal Adams. You're on. Ellie allowed herself to be shocked for a half second, then nodded.

"We found out who the ghost is."

Principal Adams' eyes went wide. "Really?"

"Yes, sir."

"Okay. I'll bite. Who is it?"

"Her name is Lily Jamison."

At the name, Ellie took note of the principal's reaction. All the color drained from his face. Ellie expected him to look panicked, worried that maybe he'd been caught, but all she saw shock and pain. Ellie looked to her father, who seemed to have not expected the principal's reaction either.

"Are you sure?"

"Yes, sir." Ellie said. "Do you know her?"

"I do." Principal Adams said. He reached into his desk and pulled everything out of one drawer. He pulled out a photo and stared at it a moment, before showing it to Ellie. "Is this who you saw?"

"Yes. You mean you haven't seen her yourself?" Ellie asked.

"No. I just had so many students tell me that they were seeing her I knew it couldn't be a hoax." Principal Adams explained. He stared at the photo a moment longer before asking, "Why wouldn't I have seen her?"

"She's probably afraid of you." John said, speaking for the first time since allowing Ellie to take over.

"Afraid of me?" Principal Adams said incredulously. "Why would she be afraid?"

"She shared her last memory with Ellie. The memory of her murder." John said.

"What are you accusing me of?"

"It was you." Ellie said. "She got in a fight with someone she said was her father."

Another look of recognition passed through Principal Adams' face. "Oh my God."

"Care to explain?" John asked.

"Ellie. The man Lily showed you. Did he look exactly like me?"

"Yes. He did."

"Let me show you something." Principal Adams pulled a photograph from the corner of his desk. It was a picture of two baby boys. Two identical baby boys. "This is me and my brother when we were about six months old."

"You have a twin?" Ellie asked.

"Had a twin." Principal Adams explained. He cleared his throat and put the photo back where it had been. "I suppose I should start from the beginning."

"That would be nice." John said.

Ellie could tell that John was skeptical of Principal Adams' story, but she couldn't explain why she believed him.

"My brother and I had a good life for the first few years. But our mom and dad died on our first birthday. Our paternal grandparents took us in, but they had a hard time taking care of two babies. So they struck a deal with our maternal grandparents."

"A deal? What kind of deal?" John asked.

"My paternal grandparents would take care of me, my maternal grandparents would raise my brother. Things went okay for a couple years, but eventually my maternal grandparents moved away. We eventually all lost touch."

"Was their name Jamison?" Ellie asked.

"Yes. They changed my brother's last name for some reason to our mother's maiden name. So, I grew up as Robert Adams, my brother grew up as Jacob Jamison." Principal Adams sighed at the memory of his brother. "When I turned eighteen, I got in touch with Jacob. He had knocked up a girl from his high school and had an almost two-year-old baby girl."

"Lily?"

"Lily." Principal Adams confirmed. "Anyway, Jacob was struggling pretty bad, so I invited him to move in with me. Lily started getting pretty confused at how much alike her father and I looked, and eventually the two of us got pretty close."

"What happened?"

"For a few years, the four of us all lived together. Lily was a great kid. She was beautiful and smart. She even earned a scholarship to a boarding school, but wouldn't go because she didn't want to leave home. Jacob…saw this as an opportunity."

"What kind of opportunity?" Ellie asked.

"He'd never really wanted to be a dad. He seemed to play the part convincingly enough, but sometimes I'd catch him looking at Lily with…something I didn't like. A look I couldn't stomach. But I thought I was just seeing things." Principal Adams seemed to be piecing parts of the story together as they all talked. "She went missing about a week after the scholarship offer. You don't think…?"

Before anyone could say anything else, there was someone else in the room with them. Lily was there, her big, worried eyes set on Principal Adams, who was finally crying his first tears.

"Lily?"

"You're not Daddy?" Lily asked.

"No, baby. Is that why you never came to see me?"

"I came all the time." Lily said. "But I didn't know if I could trust you…" She noticed the baby photo that Principal Adams had pulled out to show to Ellie and John. "Uncle Robbie?"

"Yeah, baby. It's me."

"Where's Daddy?" Lily asked. "I didn't come because you look so much like him. I couldn't tell for sure…"

"I don't know, Lily. Your dad disappeared not long after you did." Principal Adams explained. He took a long, deep, shuddery breath. He closed his eyes a moment, preparing himself to ask the question he didn't want to know the answer to. "Did your Daddy hurt you? Is that why you never came back?"

"We got in a fight." Lily said. "He told me I had to go to that school and I told him I wasn't going. He picked up something and he hit me with it."

"Lily, this is really, really important. Do you know where your Daddy hid you after he hurt you?"

Lily's tears were breaking even John's heart, who was crying silent tears of his own. He couldn't help but put Ellie in Lily's place. She had only died a year younger than Ellie was now. But, as before, he couldn't do anything about those thoughts right now, and he shoved them way down deep. Better to deal with it later.

"He burned me." Lily said. When I woke back up, he had me in the woods and he was pouring something on me. He took out a match and…"

"Okay. Okay, sweetie. It's okay."

"Why am I here?" Lily asked. She turned and took her first look at John. "I don't want to be here."

"We'll figure it out." John promised. "We'll help you. Is there anything of yours inside the school?"

"The paintings!" Ellie exclaimed. She looked at Principal Adams and asked, "All the paintings in the hallway are signed with the initials LJ."

"They were Lily's." Principal Adams explained. "She painted in her free time. This year is the twentieth anniversary of her disappearance. I decided that they didn't need to be buried up in my attic anymore collecting dust, so I put one in each hallway."

"That'll do it." John said. "Look, Ellie and I will gather the paintings and bring them in the office. You two spend that time together."

"Doing what?" Lily asked.

"Saying goodbye." Ellie answered. "Not a lot of people get the chance to really say goodbye the right way. You should take advantage of it."

When Ellie and John were out of the office, Principal Adams turned back to Lily. "I'm so sorry, baby girl."

"For what?" Lily asked.

"That I didn't look hard enough for you."

"Did Daddy look for me?" Lily asked.

"No. He lied to us about what happened to you. We knew he was lying, and we tried to find you. But we couldn't, and then your Daddy left too. We didn't know what to do after that."

Lily smiled. "You really loved me, didn't you?"

"I still do. I miss you every single day, kiddo."

"Uncle Robbie? Where's Mommy?"

Principal Adams swallowed. "Your mommy met another man after you and your daddy disappeared. They got married and moved away. Last I heard, she had a little boy."

"I have a brother?" Lily smiled.

"You sure do."

"Could you try to find Mommy? Tell her I'm okay and that I love her?"

"Yes. I will do that."

"And I love you too, uncle Robbie. Thank you for always being real nice to me, even when Daddy wasn't."

Principal Adams tentatively reached out for Lily's hand. Lily offered it to him, and he kissed her palm. "You don't ever have to thank me for that, baby girl. Can I give you a hug?"

Out in the hallway, John collected the twelfth and last pictures. He and Ellie had received some strange looks from the staff and students for removing the paintings, but each did their job and ignored them. When Ellie and John were back in front of the principal's office, Ellie grabbed John's hand before he could open the door.

"Daddy. Wait. I want to say something first."

"We don't have much time." John gently scolded.

"I know. This'll just take a second." Ellie promised. She then surprised John by setting her paintings down and wrapping her arms around his waist. "Thank you for what you said this morning. I was just surprised, that's why I didn't say anything at first. I'm sorry."

John smiled. "It's okay. You're welcome. I meant every word."

Ellie looked up without releasing herself from John's waist. "Daddy, please don't leave me here. When you leave, take me with you. I belong with you and Deanie and Sammy."

John patted her cheek and kissed her forehead as he set his own paintings down on the floor next to Ellie's. "Couldn't have said that better myself. You better believe you're coming with us. And I'll never do something this colossally stupid again."

"Can I ask you one more question?"

"You may ask it after we send Lily home." John said. "We need to do this now."

Ellie grinned. "Yes, sir."

"Come on. Let's do this."