AUTHOR'S NOTE: Content Warning for feels! Read with a tissue handy, this chapter gets emotional. Thank you to everyone who left reviews-Aly's been through an ordeal but now that the Winchesters are together again she can start to heal! Ponygirlrunner25, I'll be sending you healing vibes for your surgery- I have neck and back issues and I know how painful they can be-good luck! Beta-ed by Edge_of_Clairvoyance.

~ ~ spn ~ ~ spn ~ ~

I felt Dad's hand on my arm. "No, Alyson." He said. "It's not your fault."

On the other side of me, Dean rubbed my shoulder. "It's not."

I heard Sam say, "She thought you were mad at her."

"Alyson," Dad said, "Alyson, can you look at me?"

I raised my head and looked at him through my tears.

"I'm not mad at you, and you're not in trouble. Why do you think that?"

I picked up the pad and wrote, "After I got in trouble before you usually say it's clean slate and all and you didn't say that

You were so mad at me

You just told me to pack up because we were leaving"

Dad closed his eyes for a moment and sighed. Then he opened them and looked at me, his brown eyes flicking back and forth between mine. "I'm sorry." He said sincerely. "I was worried that there were demons tracking us, all I was thinking about was how to get out of there safely and planning ahead, I didn't realize…" He shook his head. "I'm sorry that you thought I was still upset with you. I wasn't, and I'm not. It's clean slate, all right?"

Tears were still tracking down my face. I nodded, relief washing the guilt away.

Dad reached out and cupped my cheek, gently wiping my tears with his thumb. "I'm so sorry you spent the whole time you were-gone-thinking that I was upset with you." His eyes looked sad. "And it's not your fault you were kidnapped." He said. "The demons- they didn't know anything about the Ouija board."

"Really? You're not just saying that?" I wrote.

"Yeah, they told us everything." Dean said. "Man, Dipper was dumb as a box of rocks-all you had to do to get him talking was eat in front of him. Jervis took a little while, but he folded like a cheap suit and spilled it all."

"Jervis made plans to kidnap one of you three, to take revenge for the demon we exorcised a couple of weeks ago." Dad looked over at Sam and then back at me. "But then, Jackson put out a call for help in kidnapping you, Aly, so Jervis volunteered him and Dipper's services. They didn't tell him about their revenge plot. Jackson had talked about waiting to grab you the next time that we went on a hunt and left you alone, so it's good that we took you to Bobby's, otherwise..."

I shuddered as I thought about how scary it would have been if I had been home by myself and they had tried to take me.

Dean spoke up. "Jervis and Dipper had just started watching us and they just happened on us at the Gas-n-Sip-it's coincidence that we left because we were concerned because of the whole incident with the Ouija board. If they hadn't gone there just then, they would've gotten to us at a different time. So you see, it wasn't your fault, kiddo."

"That's why Jackson said you think you could hide her? They were hiding me from him?" I wrote.

Dad nodded. "Jervis and Dipper acted on their own, they decided on a whim to grab you from the gas station, and they didn't tell Jackson."

"Why did Jackson want to kidnap me? He talked about them delivering me and getting all the credit and he told him that HE wouldn't be happy- did they say who they were talking about?"

Dad glanced at Dean and they did the 'talking without words' thing. "Well, he-Jackson-he had plans to take you to-Azazel." Dad said uncomfortably.

"WHAT?"! I said, more tears filling my eyes. Fear welled up in me-a demon wanted to give me to the demon who had killed my mother!

"WHY?" I wrote.

"Uh, well... apparently Jackson was trying to get noticed." Dean said. "He's a low-ranking demon, and he wanted to do something he thought would move him up the ladder."

"But if Jackson said Az" I stopped writing the name, because I wasn't sure if that would cause anything bad to happen. "wouldn't be happy that they hurt me, that means that Az knew about Jackson wanting to TAKE ME

WHY!" I wrote emphatically.

I heard Dean sigh, and Dad and Dean did the 'talking without words' thing again.

"Well, you see, it's-" Dad started, and Dean shook his head slightly.

"Remember what I said, Dad, you can't keep keeping things from her?" He said quietly.

I turned back to Dad and tapped on what I had just written.

Dad looked me in the eyes. "I didn't want to tell you about this yet, but you're already halfway there-Azazel is the one who put out the call to take you. He wants you for some reason."

"Oh God," I said. I felt myself start to tremble.

"Shh, come here." Dad put his arm around my shoulders for a quick hug. "I'm not gonna let that happen, you hear me? We're not going to let anyone take you."

"But how can we stop them?" I wrote.

"We're going to stay here for now." Dad said. "Calvin's place is basically like a fortress, nothing supernatural can get in here."

"What about hunting? What about school?"

Calvin came into the room just then carrying a tray of food. He had burgers and toppings for Dad and Dean.

"We'll figure that out, we've been concentrating on getting you back and making sure you're safe." Dad said. "You being safe and healing from your injuries are the most important things right now."

Calvin walked over to the corner of the living room, where there was a tall cabinet with lots of bottles in it. "Anyone like a drink? I can make a pitcher of martinis."

"Whiskey's fine." Dad said, and Dean raised his hand. "I'll take one too."

Calvin brought over two short glasses of amber colored liquid and handed them out. Dean took a healthy swallow of his and set the glass down, then picked up his plate and began to put toppings on his burger.

Dad took a sip of his whiskey and then looked at me. "You better now? Knowing that it's clean slate with us?"

I nodded. "Even with all the stuff about trust?" I wrote.

Dad smiled. "We can work on that, things are going to be a little different while we're here."

I nodded, and then looked over at Dean. "I don't blame you for anything" I wrote, and showed him.

"Well, thanks, but it doesn't change what happened and that I fucked up." Dean retorted.

Dad looked over at him. "Dean, I did rely on you a lot to look after Sam and Aly when they were younger, but that doesn't mean that you should beat yourself up for things that aren't even your fault."

Dean set his plate down and rubbed his hands on his thighs. "That was my job while you went off and hunted, Dad, watch those two and hold down the fort." He gestured at Sam and me. "And when I didn't do my job, you punished me. And y'know, you had every right to, I mean, a teenager who's supposed to be watching his kid brother and sister, who sneaks out to go tomcatting around or whatever, yeah, they deserve to get their ass beat. You took it seriously, and so did I."

"Yes, I took it seriously, but I didn't mean for you to take it so seriously that you-you beat yourself up after every misbehavior or mistake." Dad said.

"Well, that's just what I do." Dean said bitterly.

Dad spoke in a quiet voice. "I should've realized you'd be more prone to thinking like that with how your mother passed-"

"Don't bring her into this!" Dean snapped viciously. "You let those demons get into your head!" He covered his eyes with his hand, and I could see his chest heaving.

"Dean-"

"Dad. DON'T." Dean said in a loud voice. After a long moment he put his hand down, grabbed his glass, and downed the rest of the whiskey. He held the glass up to Calvin. "Can I get another?"

Calvin walked over and took the glass, refilled it, and brought it back. Dean knocked it back.

Dad looked down at his lap. "My youngest child gets kidnapped, and it turns out that two of my kids are blaming themselves for it...what does that say about me as a dad?" His voice was resigned. He blinked rapidly, and scrubbed his hand over his face. Then he raised his eyes and looked back and forth between Dean and me as he spoke. "This-experience-has made me realize how much I've screwed up as a father, on different levels. If Aly had known more about the supernatural she would have been able to make better judgement calls. If I wasn't so overprotective, she wouldn't feel like she had to lie to me about things. If I hadn't left you in charge so much and made you feel responsible for Sam and Aly, you wouldn't be castigating yourself like this. And all I can say is I'm sorry. I realize that I've messed things up, and I will work on trying to change." Tears were in his eyes now as he turned towards Sam. "I didn't believe you about your vision before, Sam, I thought you were just trying to get your way by being stubborn, but not believing you could have-it could've caused us to not find Aly. I'm sorry, Sammy."

Sam stood up, tears in his eyes too. "Dad-"

Dad stood up and stepped over to them, and they hugged.

"I want to sit down and hear about your-your visions in detail, all right?" Dad said when they let go.

Sam nodded. Dad turned and walked around the coffee table. "Dean, c'mere." He held his hand out to Dean. Dean stood up, and Dad pulled him in for a hug. After a moment, Dean's arms crept around Dad and he put his head on Dad's shoulder. "Thank you for all the work you did, taking care of Sam and Aly throughout the years, helping me, I couldn't have done anything without you." Dad said. "You were always there with me, willing to learn whatever I taught you, and go along with what I wanted, and I'm thankful. And you stayed right by my side during all this, too, and helped get your sister back."

I heard Dean sniffle. Dad patted his back, and they released each other and stepped back. Dean wiped his eyes with his thumb and forefinger. "Enough with the chick flick moments already, sheesh. You might as well bring that bottle over here, Calvin, because I need another refill."

Dean perched on the end of the sofa. Dad sat down and turned to me. "And you-I'm sorry there were so many times I didn't share information with you, and I know it seemed like I was just being a hardass with all the 'because I said so'. But I thought I was protecting you from everything, when you were little you got so scared when you learned about hunting, and I didn't want that fear to get worse. I realize I've been looking at you-at your being a teenager-through my own experiences of being a teen, and, well, I know I'm old-fashioned, and I'm going to try to change that, all right? You-you're so strong and I'm proud of you." He held his arms up and I moved over and hugged him as he put his arms around me. I snuggled into his flannel again, feeling that old, safe feeling I used to get. Maybe things would be better now, maybe something good would come out of me being kidnapped?

"I love you, Dad." I said, and then I huffed with frustration, because of course he couldn't hear me! We let each other go and sat back. I pointed at my throat and wrote, "Did you find anything out about the spell?"

"We brought back the bowl with the herbs, we were hoping Calvin could help out with ID-ing some of what's in there." Dean stood up. "It's in the truck, I'll bring it in."

Dad took his keys out of his pocket and held them up, and Dean took them.

While Dean was gone, Calvin refilled drinks. Sam asked for a whiskey too, and Calvin brought him a glass and gave me a can of Coke.

Dean came back into the room and brought a plastic bag over. He pulled the bowl out of the bag and held it in front of me. "This is the bowl, right?"

I recognized the symbols on the side, and nodded. Then I had a flash of memory- when Jervis lit the match, there was a split second where the flare of light caught on a silver pendant around the witch's neck. It was a symbol- maybe it would help? I waved my hand and wrote, "I remember something! When Jervis lit the match I saw a pendant around the witch's neck

it was silver and the light reflected off it It looked like this" I tried to draw the symbol, a circle with three interlocking arcs that formed triangles. Dad and Dean looked at it.

"Looks Celtic." Dad said. He held the notepad up.

"Looks kinda like a triqueta, it's a type of Celtic knot." Calvin said.

"Let me look it up." Sam picked up his laptop off the table and opened it, then started typing.

Dean handed the bowl to Calvin, who began to look at the symbols on the sides. "Yeah, there's definitely some other Celtic symbols on here. I know there are lots of different types of witchcraft, definitely some that are based in Ireland and Scotland and the like."

Sam turned the laptop and held it up. "So get this, it looks like it is a triqueta. It's also known as a trinity knot." He set his laptop back in his lap and typed some more. "Says here that there's a Celtic branch of witchcraft known as the Trifold Path, they use the knot as their symbol." He looked up at us. "Maybe the witch was a follower of that?"

"Could be. Keep looking, Sam." Dad said.

Seeing the bowl brought back the feelings I'd had-the fear that my voice was gone. I felt tears in my eyes.

"Aly? What is it?" Dean asked.

"What if I never talk again? Or sing?" I wrote.

Dad turned to me. "The spell isn't permanent. Jervis didn't know anything about it, but he did say it was supposed to be temporary."

"He just brought that witch in because he wanted to get into her pants." Dean shook his head. "He thought she'd be impressed that he'd kidnapped someone."

"She wasn't impressed." I wrote. "Jervis tried to put his arm around her and she pushed him away."

Dean huffed. "Jervis had a delusional view of himself, he wanted to be a big man on campus, but he was just a small fish, and he was too stupid and indecisive to get anything done."

"Let me take a look at those symbols on the sides of the bowl, Calvin." Sam said.

"There's a triskelion here, that's the three spirals, and those lines look like Ogham, but I don't know what they mean." Calvin handed the bowl to Sam.

"What's Ogham?" Dean asked, walking over to stand behind Sam so he could watch Sam typing.

"Ogham is an early Irish alphabet that predates the 5th century, it's used in a lot of magickal teachings and spiritual paths." Calvin explained.

"They might give us a clue as to who the witch is." Sam said. "Do you have any paper so I can do a rubbing of the sides?"

"Let me go grab some." Calvin left the room.

Seeing the bowl, remembering seeing the pendant, talking about the kidnapping, seeing Dad and Dean after several days of not knowing if I'd ever see them again-all those feelings turned around and around in my chest. Everything had happened so fast during the kidnapping I hadn't had time to process anything or my feelings about all of it, and now it all threatened to rise up like a tidal wave. I started to shake again as the tears spilled over and began to pour down my face.

"Hopefully the symbols on the bowl will lead me to figure out what path that witch followed." Sam said, holding the bowl up and turning it slowly.

Dean pointed at the bowl. "More spirals-man, the Celtic people sure loved their spirals!"

Dad was focused on Sam and Dean, but then he glanced at me and his expression changed. "Aly? What's wrong?" He turned toward me.

I gestured at the bowl, at my throat, at him. I wrote, "Remembering everything

When it was happening I couldn't think about it

But it's too much it's all coming back"

Dad looked sympathetic. "Yeah, sometimes on a hunt you don't have time to feel the feelings that get brought up and they come up later. I'm sorry, sweetheart. C'mere." He pulled me closer to him and put his arms around me. I slid my arm around his chest and cried into his flannel again. He stroked my hair as I sobbed. "You went through a terrible experience," He said quietly, "It's okay to cry, it's okay to let everything out now, you're safe, nothing's going to happen to you now, I gotcha and it's gonna be okay. We're all here with you now and it's all right."

I could hear Calvin come back into the room and him talking with my brothers, but I stayed there snuggled up in Dad's arms.

"She's feeling overwhelmed." Dad explained. He continued to rub my back and talk quietly to me as my crying petered out. Finally I sat up and he put his arms down. "Better?" He asked, and I nodded.

Dean came over holding out a box of tissues and I took it, saying, "Thank you." I blew my nose and wiped my face. I felt exhausted now.

"Calvin, you mind if I grab a shower?" Dean asked.

"No, go ahead, I'll show you where the bathroom is and where y'all will be staying." Calvin said.

"I'll grab your duffle too, Dad." Dean said. They both left the room.

Dad looked at me. "You should probably think about going to bed soon, it's getting late and I'm sure you're tired."

"Is Sam ready? I've been sharing a room because I don't want to be alone" I wrote.

Dad read it. "Oh. Uh, Sam, are you-"

Sam glanced up from his laptop. "I want to work on this and also help Calvin try and figure out what herbs are in the bowl."

"Can you stay with me?" I wrote, looking at Dad.

Dad read it. "Yeah, I can. Do you want to go to bed now?"

I was feeling pretty tired. I nodded.

Sam looked up. "You should use the wheelchair, Aly."

I huffed. Dad stood up and walked over to get it. Sam talked him through unlocking the wheels and then helping me into it and elevating the cast. I held the notepad and pen in my lap.

By that time Calvin had come into the room. "How's your pain?" He asked.

I pointed at my ankle. "Hurts again."

He nodded. "It'll take at least a couple of days for the pain to lessen. Do you want another pain pill?"

"Yes please." I nodded.

"What are you giving her?" Dad asked.

"Tylenol 3." Calvin said. "I'll be back."

In a couple of minutes he was back with a pill and a glass of water.

I waved at Sam, and he set his laptop down and got up to give me a hug. "Hopefully we'll have some good news in the morning."

Calvin showed Dad which room I was in and grabbed Dad's duffle out of the other room. They arranged the pillows again and then helped me get in bed with my foot propped up.

Dad was rummaging around in his duffle. I wanted him to sit with me and suddenly felt shy about asking. He removed some clothes and set them on the dresser, and then turned.

I beckoned to him and he came over to the bed. "What is it?" He sat down on the bed.

"Could you sit with me?" I wrote, feeling my face heat up.

He read what I wrote. "Of course." He smiled. "I told myself when we finally met up again I was just going to hold you and not let you go for a long time." He moved over next to me and put his arm around me. "You can snuggle up like you used to, if you want."

I turned my torso toward him and put my arm across his chest. He started stroking my hair with his other hand. "You comfortable?"

I nodded into his flannel. He sighed. "I'm so glad...I was so worried when Dean called me, he was frantic. But we found you, and we got you back, and that's what matters." He continued to stroke my hair and rub my head, and I drifted off to sleep.

The bowl was right in my face. The witch blew a huge waft of smoke right into my open mouth as I felt more pain in my arm, and I screamed again. The acrid smoke went into my throat and I started hacking and gasping. All I could hear was her chanting now, loud and fast, and I felt my throat and lungs prickling with heat. I coughed to try and clear my throat, and then the sound stopped. I was shocked- my chest was moving but it was silent!

"What do you have to say for yourself now?" The witch taunted.

I opened my mouth to scream and blood began pouring out, dripping off my chin and onto my lap. I tried to scream but no sound came out-

I woke up screaming silently and flailing around. There was a dim lamp on in the corner of the room.

Dad sat up, and I felt his hand on my arm. "Aly, wake up. Wake up, sweetheart."

I propped myself up on my elbow and he peered at me. "You awake?"

I nodded.

"Were you dreaming about the kidnapping?" He asked.

I nodded again.

"Do you want to talk about it?"

I shook my head, tears coming to my eyes.

"All right, turn on your side." He said, and I did so. He laid down behind me like Sam had, tucking the blankets around us and putting his arm around me. "It's all right, you're safe now, I gotcha." He murmured in my ear. "I'm right here with you, and you're safe, and I gotcha."

I fell asleep listening to his comforting words.

When I woke up, Dean was sitting in the armchair holding a book in his lap. There was a stack of books on the floor next to him. I sat up and stretched.

"Good morning, sleepyhead." He smiled as he stood up. He set the book down and brought the wheelchair over to the bed. "How are you feeling?"

"Not as sore." I said. I reached over to grab the notepad and pen, and wrote, "What are you doing in here?"

"Dad went to take a shower and all, and I said I'd keep an eye on you. I've been looking up stuff on different witchcraft sects in the UK. You hungry? Breakfast was a couple of hours ago but I'm sure there's some pancakes left."

I scooted over to the edge of the bed and he helped me stand, but he put his arms around me before I sat down. "I'm so glad we got you back." He said.

I hugged him back. "Me too."

He let me go and turned me so that I could sit in the chair. "Thanks" I wrote.

"For what?" He asked.

"For everything

For rescuing me

For being my big brother and taking care of me"

He read what I wrote and smiled, rubbing the back of his neck. "Well, it's what anyone would've done."

I shook my head. "Not anyone, I knew people whose brothers didn't do anything with them. You always took care of me and Sam"

His smile widened. "You're welcome, short stuff."

We stopped at the bathroom before he took me to the kitchen. Dad was sitting at the table with a book in front of him and his hand around a mug. He smiled and got up as Dean wheeled me in. "How are you doing?" He asked.

"Feeling better, not as sore" I wrote, and showed him.

He helped me stand up and gave me a hug, then helped me sit in a chair and pushed it up to the table. "I'm glad to hear that. There's some leftover pancakes, do you want me to heat some up for you?"

I nodded, and he went over to the counter. Dean went to get some coffee and brought back a large bowl filled with sliced fruit. "Here ya go."

There was a plate where I was sitting, so I placed some strawberries and melon chunks on my plate and began to eat them.

Dad brought over a plate with pancakes and a bottle of maple syrup. I served myself and began to eat.

Calvin and Sam came into the room. "We think we've managed-oh, you're up. How are you, Aly?" Calvin asked. He was holding a dish.

I tapped the notepad and Dad read what I had written before.

"That's good." Calvin said as he and Sam came over. "As I was saying, we've got a small portion of the burnt herbs that weren't burnt all the way, and this looks like henbane." Calvin frowned. "That's a dangerous herb, it has properties that act on the central nervous system and can cause respiratory or heart issues if it's used improperly."

"From everything I've been reading, the witches who follow the Trifold Path aren't bad-I mean, the main tenet of witchcraft is 'Harm no one and do as you will'." Sam said.

"Yeah, but the witches we always seem to come up against have started dabbling in the evil side of things if not gone dark side." Dean said. "And if that witch was hangin' out with demons then I'd say that she'd already gone completely dark side."

"We can't know for sure unless we were to talk to her." Calvin said.

"Yeah, I'd like to talk to her." Dean cracked his knuckles.

"For now, we can start working on a counter spell." Calvin looked at Sam. "Sam's gonna be looking for information about that."

After I ate, they set me up in the living room with my foot propped up. Dean sat with me and found 'Batman Forever' on TV. We watched it together, Dean cracking jokes the whole time. It made me think of Marc, and I wondered how he was doing, if he was still sick.

The end credits began to roll, and the song "Kiss From a Rose" began to play. Dean always sang along in a very exaggerated way whenever that song came on the radio to make fun of it, but I liked the song.

I could feel vibrations in my throat. Cautiously, I sang along, 'Now that your rose is in bloom, a light hits the gloom on the gray'."

Dean glanced at me and then stared. "Are you-are you singing?"

I sat up in surprise. "Yes! I'm singing!" I said. My voice sounded scratchy. "I can talk!" I gasped. "I CAN TALK!" I yelled happily.

To Be Continued...

AUTHOR'S NOTE: I made up The Trifold Path, but Ogham is a real ancient language and the Celtic knots that are mentioned are real as well.