AUTHOR'S NOTE: Hey all! Sorry for the shorter chapter, I had a busy week getting some routine medical tests done and it was back and forth to appointments. Plus, I updated 'Becoming a Winchester' this week as well (but I'm not going to let that get in the way of working on and publishing Aly's fic). I'm tired but I wanted to get something published- hope you enjoy!

~ ~ spn ~ ~ spn ~ ~

I opened my eyes-I was alone in the room. I sat up and leaned over to look at the clock on the bedside table- it read 9:53 AM. I scooted over to the edge of the bed and grabbed the crutches. My muscles complained as I stood up and fitted them under my armpits.

I hobbled slowly to the kitchen, where I could hear voices. Sam and Dean were at the table, Sam's laptop open in front of him and Dean leaning over to look at the screen. They both looked up when I came into the room.

Dean stood up and pulled out a chair. "You okay?" He asked.

"M' tired." I said. "Didn't sleep well and I'm all stiff today."

Dean helped me sit down and took the crutches from me. He leaned over and pulled a white cardboard box toward me. "There's doughnuts in this box, and then pastries in the other one, and some sausages on the stove. You want me to heat some up for you?"

"Yes please." I leaned over and grabbed the other box with the pastries, removing a square apple danish. Dean went over to the counter and I heard the microwave start.

Sam placed a napkin in front of me. "You're looking-well, pretty worn out. I know you've been having a lot of trouble sleeping." He said sympathetically.

"Yeah." I rubbed my eye with my hand and then took a bite of danish. "This is good!"

"Will went out and got them this morning." Sam said.

Dean brought over a plate with three warmed sausage patties and a fork, and then set a mug down in front of me. I looked up at him. "What's this?"

"You look like you could use some coffee." He shrugged.

"Thanks." I took a sip- he had added milk and sugar like I like it.

Dad, Uncle Bobby, and Mr. Sexton came into the kitchen.

"Good morning." Dad came over and leaned down to drop a kiss on top of my head. "How are you feeling?" He put his hand on my back.

"Tired and achy." I said.

"I'm going to suggest that we have a moratorium on Aly talking about the kidnapping today." Sam looked at the others as he spoke. "She's talked about it every day since-since we got her back, and I'm sure she needs a break." He focused on me. "Unless you need to talk about it, then you go ahead."

"There's not much else to say, right after I lost my voice is when the other guy showed up. And then you guys got there right after." I said. I wasn't going to mention my dream at all. "I know you said that I should tell you everything." I said to Dad.

"It's up to you." He said. "I think a break would be a good idea."

"Okay." I took a bite of sausage and then picked up the mug. "Dean gave me some coffee, is that okay?"

"Sure, darlin'." Dad patted my back. When I was younger he had frowned on me drinking coffee, but I hadn't been that interested because he and Dean drank it black, and I didn't like it black.

"Is there anything you'd like to do today?" Sam asked me. "You want to play another game of poker?"

I shrugged, gesturing to my leg. "I can't really do much anyway." I finished the danish. "I guess poker sounds good."

As I finished eating, Dean went to get the cards, and Dad and Uncle Bobby left the room too. Mr. Sexton said he didn't play cards, so he was going to look through Calvin's library. Sam was wiping down the table as everyone came back into the room. Uncle Bobby had a small drawstring bag with coins in it that he opened as Dean took out the cards.

Dad set a small change purse down in front of me. It was made of a blue satiny material that had little flowers embroidered on it. "What's this?" I asked.

"It's my coin stash from the truck, you can have it for your poker money." Dad explained. "I was at an Asian market getting some supplies on a hunt, and the woman gave me this change purse free."

I unzipped it and looked inside- it was a mix of coins. "Do you want me to take the quarters out for laundry?" We always hoarded quarters so that we'd be able to do our laundry on the road.

He smiled at me. "No, I've got my laundry stash of quarters in my duffle."

"Thanks, Dad." I said.

Uncle Bobby shuffled the cards expertly. "I'll deal."

Dean leaned over to me. "Watch and learn, Aly, you'll see how to play and win."

Uncle Bobby looked at Dean, smirking. "You think you're gonna win? That ain't happenin', 'cause we're not playing drunk strip poker."

Sam started to laugh. Dean's face reddened for a moment but then he recovered. "Well at least I won in more ways than one, with that." He winked.

It dawned on me what he was saying. "Eww, Dean!" I made a face. "Nobody wants to hear about your-your conquests!"

Dad laughed. "Well said, Aly."

Uncle Bobby began to deal. He looked over at Dad. "Funny how these young'uns are so confident that they can beat us."

Dad chuckled as he picked up his cards.

"Well, we're not set in our ways like you guys are, we're willing to take risks and win." Sam said.

Uncle Bobby laughed. "You mean take risks and lose! Tried and true is the best strategy for this game."

Everyone was looking at their cards. Sam went first, laying down one card and picking up a new one.

Dad leaned over and looked at my cards. "You've got two cards that can be the foundation of a winning hand, so you can get rid of either two or three cards and see what else you get. What do you want to do?"

"I'll get rid of three." I said. I picked up new cards, but they didn't help my hand any.

Once everyone played their hands, Uncle Bobby called it.

"You ready to have your ass kicked by a Winchester, namely me, old man?" Dean asked him. He laid his cards down. "I got a full house."

Uncle Bobby laid his cards down. "Well, I got a straight flush, so I think my ass ain't the one gettin' kicked." He grinned, reaching for the pile of pennies in the middle of the table.

"I'm just getting started." Dean said confidently. "Once I'm warmed up, you'll be in trouble."

Uncle Bobby shook his head. "Boy, I was playing poker when your daddy was still changing your diapers, there ain't no 'getting warmed up'. You're either a good player or a bad player. And since I just won the first hand…"

"Uh-do you guys always talk like this to each other during a game?" I asked uneasily. I kept waiting for someone to get mad or offended, but it seemed like they were enjoying it.

"Yeah, it's just part of the game." Sam said.

"You gotta talk some smack to psych the other players out." Dean told me.

Uncle Bobby huffed. "Only if you ain't got the skills to play a good hand. A real player knows they don't gotta show off." He looked over at Dad. "You want to show them how real men play?"

Sam laughed at my look of surprise. "Everyone talks like this, even Uncle Bobby and Dad."

"Do all of you have a tell?" I asked.

Dad looked at me, raising his eyebrows. "How do you know about that?"

"Dean told me."

"Well, I'm sure we do, but none of us are gonna admit to anything." Dean said.

I decided to start watching them to see if I could figure out what their tells were. Dad looked at my cards and gave me advice during each game, but I never won. Uncle Bobby and Dad kept their faces pretty stoic, and so did Sam, but I think I figured out Dean's tell-after he looked at his cards, he would press his lips together for a moment so that his dimples showed. When he thought he could win, he'd get a little lopsided smile for just a second. It was so fleeting that it would be easy to miss, but I watched him during a few hands and he did it every time. I kept it to myself, though, because I wasn't sure if you were supposed to talk about people's tells to other players.

I eventually got tired of sitting there and playing and wanted to quit.

Dad glanced at his watch. "It's about time for lunch, anyway."

Everyone began to put their coins away and Dean packed away the cards. Dad went over to the fridge and got out lunch meat and toppings and set them on the counter. "What kind of sandwich would you like, Aly?" He turned to me.

"Um, turkey with lettuce and cheese, and mayo, please." I said.

Dad was bringing over my sandwich when Calvin and Mr. Sexton came into the kitchen.

"I was just gonna get somethin' started for lunch." Calvin said. "I've got some potato chips and dip we can have with the sandwiches." He got out a bag of chips and brought it over to the table.

As I ate, I realized I was tired, so I went to lay down in the bedroom.

I dreamed about Jervis opening the trapdoor and throwing me down into the darkness. When my brothers opened the trapdoor, though, they looked down and called to me, and I couldn't answer- I just laid there, still and unable to speak.

"Looks like she's dead." Sam said.

"Yeah, might as well leave her here, she was worthless anyway. We've gotta hunt those demons." Dean said, and they closed the trapdoor. I was left alone in the darkness, screaming silently.

I woke up with tears streaming down my face. It was just a dream, I told myself, it's not real, it's not how they really feel. I sat up and grabbed some tissues to wipe my tears away, and got ahold of myself. I splashed water on my face in the bathroom and tried to make myself push the dream away.

Sam and Dean were in the living room-Dean watching TV with his feet up on the coffee table and Sam with his laptop open on his lap.

"How are you feeling?" Dean asked me as I hobbled over and sat down next to him.

"M' okay." I said, putting the crutches to the side.

"Aly, look what I found." Sam came over and sat down on the other side of me. "It's a video of your performance at the Fine Arts Festival!"

The title of the video was "Plainview Fine Arts Festival-Lakes Middle School Performance." Sam pressed play and the video started.

"Looks like it was filmed by someone in the front row." Sam said. "They got a great shot of everyone."

"Yeah, Haley told us her mom was in the front row recording." I said.

Onscreen, the choir walked out and stood in a half circle. Ms. Brown walked over to the piano on the side of the stage and played the opening chord, and then walked over to her music stand.

Dean pointed at the screen. "There you are!"

"Shh!" I nudged him with my elbow as the choir began to sing.

Dad came into the room, and Sam beckoned him. "Come here, I found a recording of Aly's choir performing!"

"Really?" Dad came over and stood behind the sofa to watch.

After the first song, Sam said, "I can pick out your voice, you have one of the strongest voices in the choir."

I felt my face get hot. "Thanks."

The choir started to sing "Ave Verum Corpus" by Mozart.

"That's the one you taught the choir to pronounce?" Dean asked.

"No, it was after that one, because some of them pronounced some of the words so badly that I couldn't stand it!" I said. I felt warm as I remembered how Sam had come to see the concert. I looked over at him. "Thanks for coming, Sammy."

"What?" Dean asked, looking back and forth at both of us, and I heard Dad say, "What?" behind me.

"Uh, well-" I started, but Sam interrupted me. "Everyone was just prepping their stuff for the hunt, we'd already been over the strategy a few times, so I figured I'd go see Aly's performance and surprise her."

"That's where you went!" Dean said accusingly.

"Sam, you should have let me know." Dad's voice was a reprimand.

"And would you have let me go?" Sam retorted, turning to look up at him.

"Shh!" I said, pointing to the screen.

Everyone was quiet as we watched the rest of the performance. As the group began to walk off the stage, Dean pointed again. "There's that Marc guy, he had his eyes on you the whole time, Aly."

A wave of regret came over me just then-I'd probably never get to see him again, or Jenny, or any of the friends I had made. Tears came to my eyes.

"That was nice, Alyson, the choir was good." Dad patted my shoulder.

"Uh, thanks." I said, but my voice trembled.

Sam and Dean both looked at me. "What's wrong?" Dean asked.

I gestured at the screen. "I-they were my friends, I didn't get to say goodbye, and I-I'll probably never see them again." A tear spilled out of my eye.

Sam put his hand on my shoulder. "I know." He said sympathetically.

"I'm sorry, Alyson," Dad said, his voice tinged with regret. "That's just part of the hunting life, not getting close to people."

"For you, maybe, but not for me!" I snapped, annoyance replacing the regret.

"Well, if you really do want to become a hunter, that's something you're gonna have to deal with." Dean said. "Not making close friends or putting down roots because you know you're eventually gonna have to leave."

I crossed my arms over my chest. "That sucks."

"I know it does." Sam agreed. "But you don't have to decide on it right away."

"Look, let's not dwell on that right now." Dean said. "You want to watch a movie? I'll watch whatever you pick."

"You will? Even if I pick a chick flick?" I asked.

Dean nodded.

"We all know that Dean secretly loves chick flicks." Sam smirked. "He watches them in secret and cries into his pillow."

I laughed at the idea of that.

Dean made a face at Sam. "You cry into your pillow after you-" He stopped, and then muttered, "Bitch."

"Right back atcha, jerk." Sam grinned.

Dean handed me the remote and I flipped through the channels and found Clueless.

"A high school flick? I'm game." Dean said.

"It's loosely based on Emma by Jane Austen, it's really funny!" I told him. "It has Alicia Silverstone and Brittany Murphy in it."

Dean wiggled his eyebrows. "Now I'm interested!"

Sam shut down his laptop and went to make microwave popcorn, and then sat down to watch the movie with me and Dean. They enjoyed the movies just as much as I did.