Chosen Part 1

Soundtrack:
78 Violet – Hothouse
Lightning Seeds – Don't Ever Change
The Fray – Love Don't Die
Andy Gibb – I Just Want to be Your Everything

Lacey left the institute and opened a portal back to Rufus's cabin. When she stepped out the other side she found the Impala parked in front of the cabin. She frowned, not expecting Sam. She opened the front door and stepped inside.
"Sam? What are you doing here, I…" Lacey stopped, her heart felt like it was beating out of her chest. Sam was leaning against the kitchen island, looking sheepishly down at his feet. Dean stood up from the sofa, Lacey held back a gasp, her hand shakily covering her mouth.
"It's… you're really here…" Lacey said as Dean walked towards her.
"I'm really here." Dean told her, before she rushed into his arms. He pulled her in close, squeezing her tightly. Dean breathed in the scent of her hair, never wanting to let go of her.
"I'm gonna go get some supplies, give you guys some privacy." Sam said as he headed for the door. Lacey barely registered what he said as her brain tried to compute what was happening. At the sound of the door shutting behind Sam, the two broke apart.
"I can't believe you're really here. I missed you so much." Lacey told him. Dean gave her his trademark grin, cupping her chin with his hand so she was looking up at him. Their eyes met and they were lost in the depths of one another for a moment before Dean leant down and kissed her, softly at first but then with a sense of urgency. They stumbled backwards, items of clothing strewn along the way until they reached the bedroom and the door shut behind them.

Lacey was curled up next to Dean. She lay wrapped in the bed sheets, tracing patterns on his chest with her finger tip.
"I still can't quite wrap my head around the fact that you're really here."
"Yeah, it does feel kinda surreal, after all this time." Lacey smiled as she felt the rumble of Dean's voice vibrating through his chest before sitting up.
"Now that we got the fun part out of the way, wanna tell me where you ended up."
"Purgatory." Dean said, turning on his side to look at her, leaning on his elbow.
"Wow. I mean that explains why I couldn't find you."
"You looked for me then." Dean sounded relieved. "At least that makes one of you." Lacey looked away.
"Sam spent about a week going through the lore books with me before he took off. I didn't see him for about ten months after that." Dean raised an eyebrow but let her continue. "I spent most of my time trying to find you, I did research and experiments with opening portals to different places at the institute. Eventually Mr McCoy theorised I was looking in the wrong place for you. And then…" Lacey paused, trying to find the words.
"And then?" Dean asked, studying what he could see of her face, her hair falling in front if it to mask her expression.
"I just missed you so much, I did something… well, Bobby would have called me an Idjit for it, let's put it that way."
"Ok…" Dean waited for her to continue.
"I astral projected myself back into the past, to before we met, so I could see you again." Lacey said, all in one breath. Dean stared at her for a moment, before beginning to chuckle.
"What?" Lacey asked, raising an eyebrow at him.
"I was expecting something much worse than that, the way you were talking." Dean shook his head, before pulling her in close to him. "Seeing as all of time and space haven't been displaced, I'm guessing you cleaned up after."
"Well, you don't remember me pre falling out of the sky, do you?" Lacey teased.
"Nope."
"I think we're good then." Lacey leant in and kissed him again. "So, are you going to tell me about what happened in Purgatory?" Dean sighed but nodded.
"Yeah, it could take a while."

They heard the front door open but Dean kept talking, telling Lacey all about his time in Purgatory. Or everything he could bare to. It was over an hour later before the two emerged into the living room. Dean began to go through a box of Sam's things from the Impala.
"You want some dinner?" Sam asked.
"Pass." Dean responded, putting some earphones in so he could listen to the messages on the phones. Lacey shook her head too.
"Okay." Sam shrugged as he served himself and sat down to eat. Dean listened to the messages on the phone, before taking out the earphones and glaring at Sam.
"What?" Dean put the phone on speaker and played the messages again.
"Sam Winchester, it's Kevin Tran. Crowley had me in this warehouse, and I just escaped. I don't know where I am. And I don't know if he or – or any other demons are still after me. I need your help. Call me back. It's Kevin Tran."
"When was that?" Sam asked, but Dean just hit play on the next message.
"Sam Winchester. It's Kevin Tran. I called you a week ago. Call me, please. I don't know what the hell I'm doing out here, man."
"Okay. I get it. So what, you want to strategize or something?" Sam asked, getting to his feet. Dean ignored him and continued to play the messages.
"Sam, it's Kevin. I'm…Whoo! I'm so good."
"Is he drunk?" Sam asked, frowning.
"Three months since you ditched my ass. Haven't slept for more than four hours a night. It's all good in the hood. Uh, if you're still alive, eat me."
"Eat me." Sam looked a little offended at the repeated sentiment.
"Sam, it's been six months. I can only assume you're dead. If not, don't try and reach me. You won't be able to. I won't be calling this number anymore." Dean turned off the phone and looked stonily back at Sam.
"Dean, I'm so sorry. I completely forgot about Kevin, I was so busy trying to find you…" Lacey trailed off, looking down at her feet, sadly.
"No, no, no. This isn't on you. He may have been all of our responsibility, but it wasn't you not picking up the phone." Dean growled, still glaring at Sam. He tossed the phone at him and sat back, fists clenched in anger. Sam looked ashamed and shocked at the same time.
He began to fiddle with the phone as Lacey reached out and took hold of one of Dean's hands, squeezing it.
"It's ok, we'll figure it out." She told him, quietly.

"All right, listen to this, Kevin's last message. Listen to the back ground." Sam had connected the phone up to his laptop. He turned on the sound and played the message back to them.
"Hear that?"
"What is it?" Dean asked.
"I think he was on a bus. Listen again." Sam played the message again and this time they managed to pick out the announcers words in the background.
"Centreville? Centreville, where?"
"Michigan."
"And why would Kevin be in Centreville, Michigan?" Dean asked, sounding tired.
"Because, his high school girlfriend goes to college there." Sam said, turning his laptop around to show them the social media profile he'd pulled up.
"That's thin." Dean argued.
"It's the best lead we've got." Sam said, getting to his feet.
"We?" Dean raised an eyebrow.
"You were right. He was our responsibility. So let's find him."

They grabbed a few hours sleep before getting ready to head out and search for Kevin. Lacey followed Sam and Dean outside, putting her back pack into the trunk of the Impala.
"Hey." Sam tossed the keys to Dean.
"I suppose this means I'm relegated to the back seat again." Lacey complained, rolling her eyes.
"Oh, I think we can make an exception." Dean smiled at her, opening the front passenger door for her. Lacey smirked at a surprised looking Sam and got in. Dean walked back round the car and got in the drivers seat as Sam climbed in the back. Dean gave the interior a cursory once over.
"Well, no visible signs of douchery, I'll give you that." Dean swung round to look at in the back. "Smell like dog to you?" He asked, frowning and sniffing. Lacey turned round too, trying to hide her smile as her eyes met with Sam's.
"In the car?" Sam pretended to look confused.
"You tell me." Dean stared at him for a moment but Sam just shrugged. "Hmm." Dean turned back around. Lacey made a motion as if she was locking her mouth and throwing away the key. Sam gave her a grateful look before she turned back around.

They drove down the Highway to Michigan until it started to get dark and they pulled into the nearest motel. Lacey went to grab them some snacks while the boys got a room. When she walked in Dean was sitting on one of the beds.
"Here you go." She tossed him a chocolate bar as Sam walked out of the bathroom.
"You ok?" Sam asked at the distant expression on Dean's face.
"Yeah. Yeah, hey what do you say we blow this joint, hit the road?" Lacey raised an eyebrow.
"Now?" Sam looked confused too.
"Yeah, Kevin's not getting any more found." Dean shrugged.
"The kid survived a year without us. He'll be ok for another 12 hours. Besides, when's the last time you slept?"
"Hmm." Dean's expression turned stony.
"What?"
"Nothing. Is that how you rationalised taking a year off? People will be ok?" Dean growled.
"People were ok, Dean. You're ok." Lacey scoffed and turned away from them. She felt Dean reach out and take her hand.
"Wow."
"Look, I did what we promised we'd do. I moved on. I lived my life." Sam tried to explain.
"Yeah, no, I'm getting that."
"Look, it wasn't like I was just oblivious. I mean, I read the paper every day. I saw the weird stories, the kind of stuff we used to chase."
"And you said, what, 'not my problem'?" Dean asked, incredulous.
"Yes. And you know what? The world went on."
"People died, Sam."
"People will always die, Dean. Or maybe another hunter took care of it. I don't know, but the point is, for the first time, I realised that it wasn't only up to me to stop it." Dean stared at him for a moment.
"Hmm. So what was it, hmmm? What could possibly make you stop just like that? A girl? Was there a girl?"
"The girl had nothing to do with it." Sam interjected.
"There was a girl."
"Yeah. There was and then there wasn't. Any more questions?" Sam asked, even though he didn't look like he wanted to answer them.
"Wait." Lacey held up a hand. "So you broke up?"
"Yeah, we did." Sam looked down at his feet, shifting uncomfortably.
"You knew?" Dean asked looking surprised.
"Yeah. About two months ago Sam dragged me along to play happy families." Lacey rolled her eyes. Sam gave her a look.
"What? It's not like you cared that I had to sit there and act like Dean was dead so you could keep up your lies." Lacey scowled at him. Sam sighed and looked back up at the two of them.
"Listen, I know this is gonna sound crazy to you guys. I don't even necessarily need you to understand. But you need to know. I didn't just drop out. I found something. Something I've never had my whole life."
"Yeah, what was her name?"
"Amelia."
"So what, you dropped your peanut butter in her chocolate? How'd it happen?" Lacey snorted at Dean's choice of words.
"I hit a dog." Dean's head snapped up and he pointed an accusing finger at Sam.
"I knew I smelled dog!"
"And I knew you'd throw a bitch fit." Sam countered.
"Hey, the rules are simple, Sam. You don't take a joint from a guy named Don, and there's no dogs in the car!"
"Who's Don?" Lacey asked sounding confused.
"Never mind." Dean shrugged.
"All right, what about you?" Sam challenged.
"What about me?" Dean asked.
"Look at you. You've still got that look. You're shaky. You're on edge. What was it like?" Dean looked over at Lacey who gave him a sympathetic look but didn't say anything. She wasn't going to force Dean to talk about it if he didn't want to.
"You wouldn't believe me if I told you."
"Try me."
"It was bloody. Messy. 31 flavours of bottom dwelling nasties. Hell, most days felt like 360 degrees combat. But there was something about being there. It felt pure." Dean trailed off and Lacey watched him, looking worried. She squeezed his hand reassuringly and he gave her a small smile in return.