A/N: Ahhh, progress! Thank you again for your patience and support. I just looked at the dates on this and I posted the first chapter to this story more than ten years ago. A lot has happened since then, but I'm glad to find my way back and I hope you are too. Thank you for continuing to read and review! Also, a special thank you to wandertogondor for sticking with me all this time and leaving such lovely reviews!

Disclaimer: No, really, I don't own Supernatural, but I do appreciate being able to borrow it on occasion.

Bring It On Home

Sophia tells them everything. The note in the book, the meeting, the strange old man who knew her parents, all of it.

"He said "they're" coming?" Sam asks with a thoughtful frown. At her nod, he sighs and shakes her head. "That seems like not a good thing."

She snorts. "But he said to destroy the entity. So I have no idea how that ties in with "they"."

Sam and Dean exchange a look. "My name is Legion, for we are many…" Sam says.

Sophia sucks in a breath. "Noooo, that can't be…." She trails off. Of course it can. This is what they do. Demons. Ghosts. Monsters.

Sam shrugs. "No idea. He didn't really give us much to go on." Picking at the napkin in front of him, he asks Sophia, "If your parents had been looking into something that big, would they have told you, do you think?"

"I…don't know," she replies slowly. "Maybe? I wasn't really involved in hunting until after they died." She shrugs, brow furrowed as she tries to think back. "I knew the basics and how to protect myself, but they didn't share a lot about that part of their life." Looking back up at them, she continues, "They were researchers, really. Hunter librarians, professors, not out in the field. It wasn't like they were out there actually killing or exorcising or anything like that."

Dean sighs. "Well, we're not going to figure it out sitting here." He glances over at Sophia. "Where did you say this house of yours is?"

She stares at him. "My house?"

"Yeah, your house. Isn't that where the stuff is? Your parent's papers and books and whatever?"

She swallows, eyes darting between the two brothers. "You mean…. you mean you want to see if we can figure out what happened to my parents?"

"Unless you want "they" to make an appearance, I think we should do what the old man said and follow whatever trail they left behind." He looks at her curiously. "Is that a problem? I mean, if you don't want to dig that up again…" Her arms around his neck cuts off the rest of his reply.

She pulls back, a huge smile on her face. "No! I mean, yes!" She shakes her head and flaps a hand at him. "Yes, I want to find out what happened to them. I just…I mean…it's a lot and I didn't think…."

Sam chuckles. "Sophia, are you serious?" He reaches across the table and pats her shoulder. "Of course we want to help. And no, not just because it happens to coincide with some dire prediction from someone who's now dead."

"Sam's right, babe." Dean catches her gaze, expression serious. "I didn't want to push because I didn't know how you'd feel about it, but I've wanted to offer to look at your parent's death since you told me about it."

She's shed far too many tears over the last 24 hours, but more threaten as she looks between the two of them. "Thank you," she whispers. "That means…a lot."

Dean kisses her forehead, then shuffles her off his lap. "Alright then, let's get packed up and get on the road to…" He pauses and looks at Sophia.

"Virginia," she says, "Just outside of Staunton."

Sam stands and stretches, then grabs the remains of breakfast and tosses it in the garbage. "Well, at least we won't have to listen to you complain about the cold down there," he says to Sophia with a grin.

~~SPN~~

"Up here on the left," Sophia says, pointing somewhere in the distance. "Just at that white mailbox."

Dean peers ahead in the gloom. They'd made good time from New York, and it was just starting to get dark. He turns down the gravel drive, eyebrow lifting at the size of the white farmhouse they're pulling up to.

Lights glow from the front porch and through several of the windows on the front. It's hard to see in the fading light, but Dean can just make out bushes and plants on either side of the wide front steps that leads up to a porch that covers the whole front of the house.

From the backseat, Sam whistles. "Wow, this is amazing, Soph."

She turns and grins at him before turning back to the house and directing Dean toward the parking area next to the house. "I'll show you the garage in the morning," she promises, "but we can park here for now."

As soon as the car stops, Sophia is out of the car and hopping up the steps. She pauses at the front door, "Come on, boys, get a move on!"

Dean has to grin at her excitement. "Yeah, yeah, we're coming, keep your shirt on."

Fishing a key out of her pocket, she unlocks and opens the door, stepping into a brightly lit foyer, beckoning the boys in behind her. "Oh, good, Mrs. Bernard was able to get here and get everything opened up." She had called before they left this morning, asking the woman who kept an eye on the house to give it a quick clean and stock the fridge for them.

"The living room is off to the left here," she says, waving a hand in that direction, "and then the kitchen is down the hall. I asked Mrs. Bernard to get us groceries, so we should be all stocked up." Gesturing at the rather grand wood staircase, she continues, "The bedrooms are all upstairs, as well as bathrooms. Guest rooms on the right and master on the left. I'll give you the grand tour in the morning when there's better light."

She finally stops talking and turns to face them, suddenly looking serious and a bit unsure. "So, I, um, I was thinking that…." She stumbles over the words, talking too quickly, as her fingers twist in front of her. "I was thinking that maybe you'd want this to be a home base for us. For if we're not on the road or don't have a case. A place we could stay that's not a cheap motel. I mean, if you wanted, but it's okay if…" The words peter out as she looks at them, half hopeful, half afraid she's presumed too much.

Sam finds his voice first, but it's soft. "A home? For us?"

She nods, still anxious. "Only if you want. You don't have to…" She stops when she finds herself wrapped in another of Sam's monstrous bear hugs. Laughing, she hugs him back. "Okay, well, I guess that's one yes."

Once she's back on her feet, she gestures at the stairs. "You can pick a room if you want. I think you might like the one at the end of the hallway; it has a nice view of the back of the property."

With a quick glance at his brother, Sam takes the stairs two a time. "Back in a few."

Sophia slowly turns back to Dean, unsure again. He hasn't said anything since she made her offer and she's still concerned he might not want to do this. It's not like they haven't been living together on the road, but this is a house. Her house. She has no idea how he might feel about the idea.

"So," she says softly, "what do you think?"

He finally raises his gaze to hers, but she can't quite read what she sees there. He holds his hand out to her and she takes it, trying not to panic.

Raising her hand to his lips, he kisses her knuckles and drags in a shaky breath. "Are you sure?"

She nods without hesitation. "Completely."

"Then…thank you," he says quietly. "It's been…a long time."

He doesn't have to explain any further. She knows that "home" is a luxury they've not had for most of their lives. Not since their mother. She swallows hard. "Welcome home, Dean."

He pulls her into his arms then, lips gentle on hers. After a long moment, he releases her, a smile teasing across his face. "I hear Sam lurking upstairs trying not to interrupt."

She laughs softly, then raises her voice, "Sam, you can come back now." Once he's halfway down the stairs, she says, "So where did you end up?"

The grin on his face melts her heart. "Good call on that room at the end of the hall. The view is gorgeous."

"Glad you liked it." She looks up at Dean and runs her finger down his chest. "I'll show you the master later," she says silkily.

Dean growls and tightens his fingers on her waist. "Sooner than you think, if you keep that up."

She laughs again, lighter now that the Winchesters have agreed to share her home. "Food first," she replies, leading them both toward the kitchen.

~~SPN~~

The next morning, Sophia awakens late. For her, at least. According to the clock, it's only eight, but she'd been exhausted after the drama of the last few days. She stretches slowly, enjoying the feel of real cotton sheets over naked body. She grins. Well, maybe the drama wasn't the only thing that had worn her out…

After pulling on some sweats and a faded t-shirt, she heads downstairs. Hearing noises in the kitchen, she heads in that direction. She finds Dean at the stove, frying bacon and sausages. A dozen eggs sits on the counter next to a loaf of bread.

"I see you found the fridge," she says, yawning and looking around for the coffee pot.

"I can always find the food, sweetheart," he replies, tossing a cocky grin over his shoulder. "Coffee is over there, if that's what you're looking for, and that housekeeper lady of yours got you some creamer."

She raises an eyebrow but snags a mug out of the cabinet and pours a cup of coffee. "Thank you, Suzy Homemaker," she teases, leaning a hip against the counter next to him.

With a snort, he drops a kiss on her forehead before nodding at the bread. "Make yourself useful, woman, and start some toast." Ignoring her when she sticks her tongue out at him, he continues, "Oh, and see if you can get my brother out of bed. We've got work to do."

"I'm up, I'm up," Sam says sleepily as he pushes into the kitchen. "It's barely past eight, Dean, not noon."

Sophia hands Sam a mug, whispering loudly, "He's apparently found his calling as head of the household, sweetie. You've got about ten seconds before he puts you to work setting the table."

Sam snorts and rolls his eyes. "God, give him a fully stocked kitchen and all of a sudden he's Julia Child."

Cracking eggs into another pan, Dean gives them both a look of long suffering. "You two are going to have to take that comedy routine on the road."

Sophia giggles, snagging a piece of bacon and getting her hand slapped in the process. "We'll be here all week, try the fish."

They settle down at the kitchen table and plan out the day.

"I boxed most everything up and put it in the attic eventually. I couldn't sit and look at it every day." She smiles sadly as Dean squeezes her hand. "All the books are still in the library, though." She glances at Sam. "We may never get you out of the library once you see it."

Sam rubs his hands together gleefully. "I can only imagine the sort of collection serious researchers like your parents would have put together over the years. When do we start?"

Sophia laughs as Dean waves a hand at the dishes on the table. "After you clean up the dishes," he says with a smirk. "After all, I cooked."

~~SPN~~

The lone bare bulb in the center of the attic doesn't provide a lot of light, but it's enough to illuminate a lot of boxes.

"Whoa." Sam walks to the middle of room, hands on hips, and stares at the piles and piles of boxes. "Are we going to be able to filter this down at all, Sophia? There's more here than we could go through in months."

She nods and points to the far-right side of the room. "Yeah, that section over there would be what I gathered up related to that time. The rest is stuff they collected over the years, family stuff, all that kind of thing."

They spend the next dusty hour hauling boxes downstairs to the library. As Sophia predicted, once Sam saw the room, the boxes upstairs were forgotten. She'd had to shove him out and back up the stairs with the promise he could spend the rest of the day taking inventory.

Dropping the last box on nearly the last empty piece of floor available, Dean huffs a groan and wipes his hands down over his thighs, leaving dusty marks along the denim. "I need a beer after that." He looks around at the collection of boxes. "And then you're going to have to try to explain where we're going to start with all this."

Sophia sighs and flops down on the loveseat in the front of the large window looking out onto the backyard. Scrubbing her hands over her face, she frowns and closes her eyes, head on the back of the seat. "God, Dean, I don't know."

Dean drops down beside her, his hand resting on her knee. Giving it a gentle squeeze, he says, "It's okay, babe, we'll figure something out."

Sam's voice pipes up from the front of the room and they both look to see his head pop up from behind one of the taller stacks of boxes. "Hey, did you do the labels on these or was that your folks?"

Sophia sits up excitedly. "Yes! I forgot all about that!" She hops up and moves to the desk, digging around in one of the bottom drawers. "I sorted things as best I could, labeled what seemed to go together and then made a list." At Dean's snort of surprise, she turns and sticks her tongue out at him. "Yes, Dean, I know it's a shock that someone might actually be organized about things."

She holds up a notebook triumphantly. "Ah ha! Got it!"

Sam makes his way to her, taking the notebook and flipping through it. "Oh yeah, nice, this is exactly what we need." He gives her an impressed smile before frowning and wandering off with the book, checking the boxes against the pages as he goes.

Dean rolls his eyes, but grins at Sophia. "Are you sure you didn't hook up with the wrong brother?" he teases.

She moves back to the loveseat and pushes her way between his knees. His hands find her hips as she leans down toward him. "Well, now that you mention it…," she murmurs as she looks down at him with a wicked grin.

With a low growl, he slides one hand up and behind her neck, pulling her face down to his. His lips find hers as his other hand tightens possessively on her hip. He kisses her thoroughly, ignoring his brother's throat clearing in the background. When he finally releases her, he gives a satisfied grin at the look on her face. "You were saying?"

Sophia licks her lips and takes a deep breath. Swallowing hard, she mumbles, "Uhhhh, I was saying… ummmm…" She tries to gather her lust scrambled thoughts back to something coherent. "Oh, right, I was saying, no, definitely didn't hook up with the wrong brother."

Sam sighs impatiently behind them. "If you two don't mind, we have a lot of work to do here."

Dean grins up at her. "That's what I thought." Leaning around her, he glares at his brother. "Yeah, yeah, buzzkill, we're on it."

~~SPN~~

"I thought you two were supposed to be competent."

"Well, how were we supposed to know the brothers were going to show up? She was supposed to come alone."

"Those two always turn up. Worse than bad pennies. Did you at least get the artifact?"

"The…uhhhh…artifact?"

"Yes, you fool, the artifact. It wasn't on his body, so he must have given to it to her. You were supposed to get it and kill them both."

"We didn't see…."

"Of all the worthless idiots… If she starts to make the connections, we're all dead."