A/N: Thank you all so much for reading this far. I hope you're all enjoying it. A huge thank you also to Raith who's been leaving some epic reviews. I really appreciate that. As always, please let me know what you think! You can find me on tumblr at asirensrage. I post a lot of moodboards, fun facts and more about this fic (and my others). Feel free to chat with me there.

Chapter 44: Building Bridges

"And it's hard to be at a party when I feel like an open wound
It's hard to be anywhere these days when all I want is you
You're a flashback in a film reel on the one screen in my town

And I just wanted you to know
That this is me trying
(And maybe I don't quite know what to say)"
- this is me trying by Taylor Swift

I woke up to the phone ringing. My eyes felt like they were sealed shut. I rubbed them and blearily looked around for the phone. It stopped ringing by the time I got over the confusion of where I was and found it. Even in the dark, the room felt new. I checked to see who had called and called Sam back.

"Hello?"

"Hey," my voice was slightly rough. I still wasn't fully awake. "You called?"

"Michelle, hey."

"What time is it?" I asked, forcing myself to sit up. I leaned back against the headboard.

"It's uh, nine at night. Must be eleven there, shit, I'm sorry. Did I wake you?" He sounded as tired as I felt. "I should let you get back to sleep."

"It's fine," I said. "God, I must have slept for like...more than twelve hours." I mentally tried to calculate it. It was closer to seventeen. I hadn't realized it was possible to sleep that much. "Wow," I muttered. No wonder I felt like I hadn't moved in hours.

"Really?" He sounded surprised.

"Yeah, Hermione gave me this tea this morning. Said it would help me sleep….she thinks we have PTSD," I added without thinking.

"Oh, wow."

"Yeah." I ran a hand through my hair, trying to push it out of my face. He didn't seem to know what to say. Neither did I.

"Well, that's good, right? I mean, that there's a lot of research into it and methods of dealing with it."

"Yeah," I knew that logically. It was just...hard to process. I hadn't been able to give it much thought yet. "Did you call for a reason?" I asked, trying to divert the conversation. "Not that you need a reason," I added quickly.

"You never called," he said. "When you got in."

I frowned at the empty room. "Kelly said she would." I heard him sigh.

"She called Dean, who told me. I...I wanted to hear from you."

"Oh," that hadn't occurred to me. "Sorry, I was just...Giles was here when we got in, gave us a small tour of the changes on the house and then we just instantly started talking and sharing what we found out. I told him about how Crowley wouldn't see the car, so we're looking into how I managed that because I'm pretty sure it was by accident."

"What did you find?"

"Nothing concrete, not yet. I think it's a matter of putting it together. All of their notes were various protections they had found mention of in history and related symbols and possible uses. It sort of started blurring together, if I'm honest. I have to look it over again. Maybe when you're back you can check it out...and I can take a look at the knife you have?"

"The knife?"

"Yeah, it was made at some point. I want to look at the symbols on it, sketch them out and see if there's a way to make another or something."

"...you want to make another demon-killing knife?"

"Well, it was obviously made once before. Who's to say it can't be done again?"

He laughed lightly and sounded a little incredulous. "You're…"

"What?"

"Incredible. Just when I think you can't surprise me…"

I didn't know how to take that. "Is that a bad thing?"

"No," he reassured me quickly. "No, it's just...it's nice. It's the good kind of surprise."

"Okay...so what's up? What happened with Crowley?"

"He, uh….he took Dean."

"What?" I sat up quickly, pushing myself to move off of the bed. If the demon had him, Kelly needed to know.

"They went to get Pestilence or something to help get Pestilence. He said I couldn't come."

I stopped myself. That didn't sound like trouble...yet. "Why?"

"I don't know, he said...he said I wasn't invited because he didn't like me and I keep trying to kill him."

"Well, I can see why he wouldn't want you around, though personally, I'd think that'd be points in your favour. But Dean went?"

"Yeah," he was curt. It was clearly a sore subject and I didn't blame him. I would have preferred Dean had Sam as backup.

"That was a stupid decision." I settled back on the bed. "What do you need Pestilence for anyway?"

"You don't..? You don't know." His tone was odd, like he was a little surprised but also not. "Gabriel said we could open the door to the cage, trap Lucifer back in it."

"How?" Getting rid of Lucifer would solve...most of our problems. At least, it would keep him from my dreams. It had to.

"I…" he paused. "I don't know. We're working on it. We just need the horsemen's rings to open it."

"Do you have any?" I knew they had run into Famine before, but there were Four Horsemen, weren't there?"

"Yeah. War and Famine's. Can we...can we talk about something else? I just, uh, I'd rather think about something else. You said there were changes in the house?"

"Um, yeah. Hermione...expanded it? She made more rooms too so everyone has their own space."

"Hermione?" he asked. "You mentioned her earlier…"

"Yeah, Hermione Granger."

"What?" He sounded surprised.

"Did we not tell you? It's the whole reason we went searching for the vessel. Gabriel showed up with Hermione Granger. He gave us the coordinates to find the house and left...said he was going to save you."

"He did, but Hermione Granger? Really?"

"Yeah!" I grinned. "It's amazing. She seems cool...older than I expected. Must be around our age, maybe older. Feels older," I said. That was understandable though. She had grown up in a war.

"Does she do magic?" he asked. "Nevermind, you just said she expanded the house."

"Yeah, there's space for everyone. The doors are named." I thought about his name and where Kelly had put it with mine. "Kels added Dean's name to her room, and…" I swallowed dryly, suddenly nervous. "She put you with mine, but it's just...you don't have to stay if you don't want to. There's more than enough space we just...we wanted you to know you could."

There was a beat, then two, of silence. "Do you want me with you?" he asked softly.

"Um," my voice was higher than I intended. I tried to clear my throat, ignoring the blush I knew was growing on my face. At least he couldn't see me. "I don't want to presume anything."

"That's not what I asked. Michelle, do you want me with you?"

"Yes," I whispered. "I...I sleep easier with you," I admitted. "You...Sam, you make me feel safe."

He let out a breath of air. "I wish I was there with you."

"When are you coming back?" My voice was soft. It felt like if I spoke too loud, it would break whatever tension was between us at this moment.

"Soon, I hope."

Sam and I talked some more before he had to go. We had broken away from the tension, the precipice of saying more, and ended up talking about Harry Potter. It was weird knowing that one of the characters from the series was in the house, but no odder than knowing that I was talking to one from a show. It didn't feel like it mattered anymore. Both of them were more real now than I would have thought possible.

I left the room once we hung up and went searching for food. The second floor was pretty silent but I heard voices coming from downstairs. I followed the noise into the kitchen. Kelly and Veronica were sitting at the kitchen table.

"You're awake." Kelly smiled at me from where she was sitting. It looked a little forced. "You've been sleeping forever."

"I feel like it. Anything to eat?"

"There are leftovers in the fridge," Veronica said. She smiled and got up. "I should get to bed." She left the room quickly. I headed for the fridge.

"Is she still...scared of me?" I asked as I grabbed the bowl that was wrapped in saran wrap. I peered into it. It was a bunch of vegetables and chicken. I unwrapped it and put it in the microwave.

"She's not scared, she's just...nervous, I guess," Kelly said slowly.

"Of me."

"Of both of us. You missed it but I was the one who punched Logan and told her that I would kick them out if she didn't give me a good reason they should stay."

I laughed slightly, picturing it. Kelly was terrifying when she wanted to be. Few people believed it though because she was short and looked as friendly as you could imagine. "Guess we're two peas in a pod then."

"Isn't that why we're friends?"

I looked at her over my shoulder and smiled. "Well, that's part of it, I guess. Haven't been able to get rid of you yet."

"Shut up," she balled up a napkin that was in front of her and threw it at me. I grinned. The microwave beeped. I grabbed a fork before taking the bowl and sitting across from her. Despite our joking, she looked stressed. Her phone was in her hand. "You alright?"

"I don't know. I'm waiting for Dean to call. He went with Crowley after a lead. Said he'd call me back when they were done. I just…"

"Worried because he went off with a demon."

"Pretty much," she gave a small, half-smile.

"If it's any consolation, I think Sam is just as worried," I said before taking a bite of the food in front of me. It was still a little cold but I was starving and food was food. I had had worse. Kelly looked surprised. I waited until I finished chewing before I answered her unspoken question. "He called me. Woke me up actually…maybe an hour or so ago?"

"And you just came down now?" Her smile grew and shifted into something sly.

"Stop it," I said, my mouth half full. I finished chewing. "We just talked."

"For an hour."

"Maybe more," I admitted. "What time is it?" She checked her phone.

"Quarter after one."

"Two hours," I amended.

"Let me guess, you nerded out over something? Fairy tales again?" she raised her eyebrows at me.

"...Harry Potter actually."

She sighed. "Of course you did."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"It's cute. You found someone who can match you on your weird tangents and random knowledge. But I still maintain you need to take advantage of ALL aspects of having a Winchester in your bed. Trust-" she cut herself off as the back door opened.

Eric walked in. "You're both here. Good." He walked to the kitchen table and dropped a large envelope on it.

"What's this?" Kelly asked.

"Preparation." He leaned back against the counter and watched us. "You were concerned about our...status here. I took care of it."

"How?" I asked, unsure if I really wanted to know the answer. Eric smirked and motioned to the envelope.

"Look for yourselves."

Kelly grabbed the envelope and opened it. She poured out some papers into her hands and started to look through them. I saw her mouth drop open.

"How the hell…? How did you do this?" She handed the papers to me. I looked them over and understood the shock. They were birth certificates and social insurance numbers for Kelly, Jane, Spike and myself.

"Are these real?" I asked.

"As real as anyone else who was born here," he said. "Don't you trust me?"

"No," we both answered. He grinned in response.

I handed Kelly the papers back and turned to Eric. "What's the cost?"

"You work for me."

That didn't sound good. Kelly put the papers down and faced him. "What do you mean?"

"I...procured the bar we last went to. We need a legitimate way to make money and I prefer to have property in any world I live in. We have coexisted for some time now. I want you to act as my eyes and ears in the bar, particularly during the day when I am unavailable."

"You want us to help run the bar?" Kelly asked, looking at him in surprise.

"Precisely."

"Why us?" I couldn't help but ask. "Do you trust us?"

"No, but you fear me, you're useful...and I don't find either of you to be completely repellant." He winked at Kelly. My eyebrows rose. Kelly stared back, unamused.

"I want a contract," I said. Eric looked at me in surprise. "Terms of employment. We can't work for you for nothing because, well, we need to pay bills and eat."

"I'm sure we can come to acceptable terms."

"We don't know anything about running a bar," Kelly said.

"Then you'll learn, won't you?" Eric replied. "Otherwise I would be...disappointed."

I felt myself straighten in my seat. "That sounded like a threat."

"Take it as you will," he nodded towards me. "But you need me."

"And you need us," Kelly said. "We're the only ones who know you and your weaknesses. We're the ones who can ensure where you sleep is safe." I looked at her. So far we didn't have a great track record on that considering Maggie had tried to kill both him and Spike. "Especially considering Michelle has already managed to find a way to hide a car from a demon. You want to thrive in this world? You need us."

"Have you?" Eric looked at me. "The very car outside?"

I nodded. "I'm working on the details," I said, not wanting to fully admit I managed it by accident. "But yeah, the demon was right in front of it and he was blind to it."

"Interesting. Form a list of demands and we'll start the contract." Eric disappeared, racing out of the room.

I looked at Kelly. "That was weird, right?"

"Yeah, definitely weird."

"How much do you think we can get paid?"

We spent part of the night making a list. We didn't really know what demands to make outside of ensuring we got paid and I got free range of protective measures for the place. Kelly wanted to charge Eric rent if we were all going to start working. If we charged everyone rent, we'd be making good money in no time. Outside of the kids though.

She eventually left to get some sleep and I went back to the dining room to pick up where I left off. I had some ideas for weapons, but I needed to see what was currently available to build off of. It also helped that Giles and Hermione took the time that I was sleeping to look over the car. Their notes showed that it was the combination of the sigils I used that created the...cloaking spell, for lack of a better term. I wasn't sure how it could be applied to something on a larger scale. I had a feeling we would need to be able to test it in some capacity to be sure, but I didn't want any demons near any of us. Though I realized, if the devil's traps worked on Spike, did this? I made a note to ask him if he could see the car.

The sun started to rise as I continued reading and Jane arrived, demanding both Kelly and me for training. I left her to wake her up while I got changed. Despite all of Kelly's protests, running felt good. It was familiar and a release I didn't realize I missed when I was sleeping.

Kelly was a little behind when something hard hit me in the shoulder. I stumbled and I heard Kelly swear. I touched the wound where it hurt. It was wet. Nothing was jumping out at us. I looked at my hand, expecting blood only to see...paint?

"Over here!" I looked around until I caught the source of the voice. Five was sitting up on the roof of the house holding what looked like a sniper. "Training today has one rule. Don't get hit." He grinned down at us and disappeared.

"Fuck!" Kelly shouted. "Run!"

[tbc]