"Wake up, Sleeping Beauty," Dean said as the car came to a stop.

Elena stirred, noticing how stiff and pained her body felt. She grimaced as she sat up in her seat, stretching different parts of her to loosen her human body a little. Sam noticed her discomfort.

"It's not exactly fun sleeping in the car, but you get used to it," he said.

Elena nodded as she unbuckled and climbed out of the car. They were surrounded by cars as far as she could see, in various states of disassembly. A man wearing a hat and a smile came over to them.

"Hey boys, good to see you both," he said, greeting Dean and Sam with hugs.

Elena watched as the brothers reacquainted with their friend. She could tell from their laughing and smiling that they were happy to be reunited. She realized that she would never experience that sort of joy from seeing her family again. There were times of course when they would all need their space and take their own journeys, but they all would find their way home to each other eventually. Anguish hit her so suddenly that she gasped a little. It must've been loud enough for them all to hear, because they stopped laughing and talking and looked over at her.

"Sorry, Bobby, I should introduce you. This is our friend Elena. Elena, this is Bobby."

Bobby reached out his hand to her. Elena looked at his hand curiously for a moment before lowering her head and rubbing it against his hand. He pulled his hand back and looked from Dean to Sam, bewildered.

"Your friend on some kind of drug or somethin'?"

Dean made a pained expression.

"Uh, not exactly," he said. "We'd better head inside though."

Bobby nodded, giving Elena an odd look before turning to head back in and gesturing with his arm for them to follow.

"Alright, c'mon then, and you boys can tell me just what in the world is goin' on."

When they walked into the house, Elena immediately felt comfortable. She couldn't quite figure out why, but there was a nice energy in the home. Something about it connected well with her and put her at ease.

"You want some coffee or somethin'?" Bobby asked them.

"Coffee for me would be great. Elena, you probably just want to stick with water for now," Sam said.

Bobby raised an eyebrow but didn't say anything as he walked over to something on the counter. Elena watched him grasp a handle and pour some brown liquid into a handled cup before handing it over to Sam.

"Thanks, Bobby," Sam said, and Bobby nodded.

Dean walked over to a rectangle and pulled on a handle. Elena watched as a door of some sort opened and Dean retrieved a strange-looking bottle. He popped a little metal top off and took a swig.

"Seriously, dude? It's like seven AM," Sam told him, shaking his head.

Dean scoffed.

"You're probably gonna need one of these, too, Bobby," Dean said, and he grabbed another and passed it to the man.

Bobby furrowed his brow.

"One of you better start talkin'," he said. "I ain't gonna stand here all day and wait for you gals to start gabbin'."

Dean looked over at Sam, who shook his head and made a face back at Dean. Dean rolled his eyes and sighed.

"Alright, so our friend Elena here isn't actually a human, despite her appearance. Well, she is a human right now, but only because some big bad did some big naughty and pulled her into our world from another realm where normally she's a unicorn. After this attack on her realm, she actually now happens to be the last unicorn," Dean said, taking a long swig from his bottle as he finished speaking.

Bobby stood there, looking back and forth between Sam and Dean dubiously.

"You two think I'm some kind of idjit or somethin'?" He asked. "Whatever prank you're trying to pull on me ain't gonna fly with that horse crap," he said.

Dean snickered at the choice of words. Sam shook his head.

"We're not pranking you, Bobby, we're serious. I know it sounds crazy but it's true. Cas found her when some guys were about to go all 'Guantanamo Bay' on her and brought her to us."

Bobby scoffed.

"Figures our fine-feathered friend would have a hand in this," he said, shaking his head. "Where is he, then, anyway?"

Dean raised an eyebrow and shrugged.

"No clue. He's trying to find some answers. Apparently no one upstairs knew unicorns even existed except the big man himself, who's still MIA of course."

"Whoever he's looking for has to be some pretty big kahuna to have the energy to pull this off," Sam said. "It sounds like the angels didn't have any knowledge of unicorns existing in this hidden realm. These random men breached the barrier, slaughtered almost all of them, then pulled Elena over to this side and made her a human."

Bobby popped the top off the bottle Dean had handed him earlier and took a long drink.

"Jesus," Bobby said.

"Yes, he was the only other unicorn to be turned into a human!" Elena said excitedly. "But Sam and Dean tell me things didn't end well for him…"

Bobby stared at her, mouth agape.

"You mean to tell me the Son of God was originally a...a unicorn?" Elena nodded, her excitement fading a little.

She had hoped Bobby knew of this sort of thing based on what Sam and Dean said, but she was starting to think that people just liked to talk about Jesus for some reason.

Perhaps it is an homage to his contributions to humanity, though something about the timing of when people say his name is strange.

Bobby looked at the bottle he was holding for a moment before taking another long drink, finishing it off.

"Just when I think this stuff can't get any stranger, you two somehow manage to 'enlighten' me," he said, holding up his hands at the word and shaking his head a little.

"Well, there goes the hope that you might have an idea of who could be behind this sort of thing," Dean said. "Or any way that we could put it right," he continued.

Bobby held up a hand.

"Well, now wait there just a minute. I admit, I don't know nothin' about unicorns, but that don't mean we got nothin'. I have a few books I can look at to see if they mention anything about our four-legged friend over here. As for who might be powerful enough to be behind something like this, well that's a bit more of a challenge. There's a long list of big evils, I wouldn't know where to begin. Let's hope Cas can find the answers on that one."

Elena smiled a little at the mention of Castiel. She glanced out the window of the room they were in and thought about his voice, his head tilting, the way he looked deeply into her, his hair.

"Earth to Elena, yoohoo! Quit thinking about your loverboy."

Elena suddenly realized Dean was standing in front of her, waving his hand back and forth in front of her face.

"I'm sorry, did you say something?" she asked.

Bobby was looking at her in a puzzled way.

"Did you just glow?" he asked, and Elena suddenly felt self-conscious.

Dean shook his head and rolled his eyes.

"Yeah, she tends to do that when she's around Cas. And when she's thinking about him, too," he said.

Elena felt worried as she realized what happened. Bobby was about to speak but she spoke first, looking to Sam and Dean.

"I didn't mean to! Oh no, will the demons be able to track us here?" she asked, feeling concern rising throughout her body.

"What demons?" Bobby asked, looking worried.

"A couple of demons tried to grab Elena as we were leaving a diner. We think they were able to track her energy somehow. Some stuff happened at the motel, and she was glowing a little while she was eating," Dean told him.

"The food tasted very good," Elena explained further.

Bobby looked a little confused again but sighed and shook his head.

"We should be safe from demons here, Elena," Sam assured her. "Bobby's got this place protected in all sorts of ways."

"It's not impenetrable, but I've spent a lot of time puttin' just about every protection on the joint as you could imagine," he told her.

Elena felt relief wash over her. She would have to be more careful from now on. She didn't want to put Sam or Dean in danger, nor Bobby. At least, not any more danger than they were already in just by having her around. Elena felt a pressure in her lower abdomen that was starting to become familiar.

"Is there a bathroom somewhere?" she asked.

"Down the hall and on the left," Bobby told her.

Elena paused at the direction, unsure of what some of the words meant.

"I'll show you," Sam told her.

He led her down the hall and gestured to the room, turning on the light quickly before giving her privacy and returning to Dean and Bobby. Elena focused on what she was doing, but she could still hear their talking from down the hall.

"Just when I think I've seen it all, you boys go and bring me home a unicorn," she heard Bobby say.

"Don't say we never got you anything," Dean replied.

"I hope I can get that poor girl some answers. What's the deal with her and Cas, that glowing thing she did?"

"She's kind of his girlfriend now, I think," Sam said.

"I didn't even think he had a need for that sort of thing, and I didn't even know he'd be the type to prefer a woman, if you know what I mean."

"Yeah, well apparently he does and thanks to a slight explosion in the motel room, we know everything's in working order down there," Dean said.

"What in the—never mind. You boys can keep that story to yourselves."

"It's pretty sweet though, Bobby. I haven't seen Cas look at anyone the way he looks at her," Sam said.

At this point, Elena was standing in the hall outside the bathroom, not wanting to interrupt what they were saying. After hearing Sam and Dean in the car, she was beginning to understand humans might not be as transparent as unicorns in terms of what they thought.

"Well, I'm happy for him, then, of course. I just wonder what will happen to him when she goes back home, if we can get her changed back and all," Bobby said.

"Dean and I were talking about that on the way here while Elena was asleep. Speaking of sleep, I'm feeling pretty exhausted after being up all night. This coffee doesn't seem to be helping much," he said.

"Go get some rest, then," Bobby told him. "This isn't gonna be a quick and easy fix. And it sounds like until Cas gets back, you two are just gonna stick around not doin' much of anything anyway."

"Alright, I'll help you look when I get up," Sam promised, and Elena came back in just as he was leaving.

"I'm gonna get some rest, try not to let Dean harass you too much," Sam warned.

Elena wasn't sure if he was being serious or not until she saw the small smile on his face. She answered back with a smile and a nod.

Dean clapped his hands together.

"Well, I'm starvin'. I'm gonna pick up something to eat in town and bring it back here. You want anything?" he asked her, and Elena nodded excitedly.

"Alright then, I'll be back in a little while, too. Maybe you can fill Bobby in on some of the finer details of your kind to help point him in the right direction."

"Why don't you follow me into the study," Bobby said, and she trailed along behind him. "I've got plenty of questions for ya."

Elena thought about how quickly this day seemed to be passing, especially compared to the previous day after Castiel left. Time seemed to drag on once he was gone, but now that she was at Bobby's house and busy going over what she knew, she could barely keep up. She wasn't even halfway through describing her world and what she knew about the history of her kind before Dean had returned with an assortment of food. Her favorite of what he returned with were the donuts, though she sampled everything she could. She liked how sweet donuts were, and that you could hold a couple fingers together and stack a few on them using the hollow middles. It made it very easy to eat, and Elena was especially happy to have discovered another food that did not require use of other tools to eat.

She spent the rest of the morning and the early afternoon going over details with Bobby. She told him what she remembered about how the men first appeared on her side—the bright flashes that accompanied their arrival—as well as everything she remembered about what she heard from them that night. He took notes on what she said and asked many questions, just as he had told her he would. By the time she was done going over everything with him, she found it was time to eat again.

Sam was awake by then and offered to go on a walk with her to stretch her legs, something she appreciated. Elena worked more on her balance and was finally getting better at it. Walking forward was easy enough to learn, but sideways, backwards, different speeds, and moving while carrying things were all their own learning experience. She let these activities distract her mind from thoughts of when she would be able to return to her true form and the reality that she would have to face at that point. It was easy enough to ignore as she learned about how to be a human from Sam. It wasn't that Dean wasn't willing to help teach her, he just seemed to be more focused on helping get ready to defend against whatever they might come up against. Sam had a more gentle and nurturing way of handling her.

"You remind me of one of my brothers," Elena told him later that night.

"Oh?" he asked. "In what way?"

She smiled.

"He was strong like you, of course. Though I suppose we all were. But despite his strength he was always so kind and gentle. We spent so many years wandering together, but I think of all of my family he was the one I was closest to."

Sam smiled sadly at her.

"I can't imagine how difficult this must be for you. I hope that reminding you of him is a good thing and not just rubbing salt in the wound," he said.

Elena looked at him, confused.

"Oh, it's an expression, it basically means to make a bad situation worse," he explained.

"No, it's nice to be reminded of him," she confirmed.

Sam hesitated, then asked "What was his name?"

Elena looked over at him and returned the sad smile.

"Kehlo."

Elena didn't even realize she was crying at first until her nose started dripping. She sniffled and wiped her face.

"I'm so sorry, Elena," Sam said. "Dean and I have lost so many people along the way, but never everyone at once. I hope we find some way to help you and make things right."

She nodded and then hesitated. Sam remained quiet as she gathered her thoughts, which she appreciated. What her mind was dealing with was confusing, and she was grateful for his patience.

"To be honest, I am starting to question whether I should even return," She told him.

His eyes widened in surprise and worry.

"Why?"

Elena looked over at him and sighed.

"There's no one there for me. Everyone is gone. If I return, I will be all alone, forever. Not to mention that I can't bear to face being in the spot where my family was slaughtered ever again. I don't think my home will ever feel safe again, even if we find out who or what is behind this. How could I ever trust that someone else won't come along and discover me?"

Sam looked at her with understanding, saddened by what she said but acknowledging the reality of it.

"I don't envy your position," he said. "If you decided not to return, would you still want to find whoever was responsible?"

Anger flashed across her face and she felt her heart race.

"Of course. I want whoever did this to suffer and pay for what they have done. Whoever is behind this cannot be allowed to remain free. I probably wouldn't be safe until then, anyway. Especially now that I'm all alone."

Sam turned to face her, putting a hand on her shoulder.

"Hey, you're not alone, even if it feels that way. Dean, Bobby, Cas, and I are all here for you. We will help you find whoever did this and give them what they deserve. You won't have to go through this alone," he insisted.

Elena smiled at him, grateful for the support. She felt a warmth spreading through her body and threw her arms around him, hugging him tightly. Sam hesitated for a moment before returning the hug. Just then, they heard Bobby call out to them.

"Dinner's ready, get it while the gettin's good," he yelled.

Elena enjoyed eating around the table with Sam, Dean, and Bobby. The three men spent the meal retelling funny stories from different hunts they'd been on and whacky encounters. They laughed and teased each other but Elena was starting to be able to tell that it was coming from a place of love, admiration, and respect. Even though Bobby wasn't related to Dean and Sam by blood, he was clearly their family.

Maybe if I decide to stay this way, I'll be able to find family like they have, she thought with a smile.