AN: This chapter contains flashbacks which are italicised.

Enjoy :)


"Who was she talking about?" Dean asked again, his fingers drumming against the side of his beer bottle. It was the million-dollar question. A question that Bobby knew the answer too. He wasn't supposed to say, but the two men in front of him weren't people who were going to just let it go. When a Winchester wanted something, they found a way to get it.

Bobby sighed. "Did Ali ever tell you what killed her parents?" Sam and Dean shared a look before their eyes fixed on the older hunter.

"She said it was a car crash," Sam remembered, his mind wondering back to the night in the motel room.

"She never told me that," Dean said with a frown, a flash of hurt running through him.

"Did you ever ask?" Sam asked, knowing the question would be rhetorical. He already knew the answer anyway. Bobby shook his head, his eyes glazing over.

"It wasn't a car crash that killed Elliot and Katherine," he said grimly, causing both the Winchesters' eyes to widen.

"What do you mean?" Sam asked carefully. "How'd they die?"

"I'm not the one to tell you, boys," he said, standing up from the kitchen table to put the empty beer bottles in the trash.

"Bobby, you can't just say something like that and-."

"It's not for me to say." His voice was deadly serious. There was a click from the door and Bobby, Dean and Sam turned to see Ali standing just inside the kitchen. From the look on her face and the slightly awkward was she was standing, it was clear she'd heard what they were talking about.

"Hey, kiddo," Bobby said, his eyes lighting up at the sight of the tired looking girl who was back to herself. She smiled weakly at him, rolling her shoulders to try and relax them. She looked a little disorientated, but that was to be expected. Bobby gestured for her to take a seat at the table and she did without much hesitation, grateful to be able to rest her legs.

Ali sat slumped against the table, her elbows on the surface with her hands holding her head up.

"What happened?" she asked as she massaged her temples. She felt dehydrated and hungry, though she doubted she would be able to keep anything she ate down.

"It's uh, kind of a long story," Sam said with a small chuckle, trying to lighten the mood. The mood refused to be lightened. "What do you remember?"

"I remember being hungover," she said with a slight groan. Under different circumstances, Sam was sure Bobby would've shot him and Dean chastising looks. "I remember the case. That guy…"

"Yeah, that was a few days ago now," Dean said in a gruff tone, taking a swig of his beer. Ali looked up at the elder Winchester across the table. Something was off with him.

"Do you remember anything else?" Sam asked. Ali thought for a moment, wracking her brain to try and remember the lost time. She came up with nothing and shook her head.

"No I-I don't remember how we got here," she said slowly, frowning. "And I feel like my insides have been ripped out of me." Her back was killing her, but she didn't mention it. She also didn't notice the exchange of glances that occurred between the two Winchesters. "What the hell happened to me?"

"You got hexed," Sam said. Ali's chest tightened, a long pause following Sam's words. It was Bobby who spoke up next as he shot the two boys warning looks.

"Let's not get into that now," the older hunter said. "You gotta be hungry, Al." She heard him make his way over to the fridge and pull out whatever food was in there and she didn't tell him to stop. She was silenced by the way Dean was looking at her curiously, his eyes narrowed as if he was working something out. Fitting pieces of a puzzle together without knowing what the final product was supposed to look like. She avoided them as much as she could.

"Ali," the elder Winchester started in a low voice. The teen could feel her palms becoming sweaty. "What happened to your parents?"

"Dean!" Bobby warned harshly, slamming the plate of leftovers down on the counter. Sam held a similar expression to Bobby, though he didn't chastise his brother. He wanted to know the truth just as much as Dean did.

"It's gotta be something bad, right?" he asked, his green eyes locked with hers as she glared back at him. "Otherwise you wouldn't've lied to Sam about it." Ali felt instantly guilty. She knew she'd lied to Sam, but she'd only done it because she thought the truth would be so much worse. She didn't want them to know. It would ruin everything.

"I'm sorry I lied about it," she said in a small voice, her apologetic eyes fixed on Sam. He looked confused, but it was nothing compared to the betrayal she could see in Dean's eyes out of the corner of her eye. If betrayal was what he felt now, Ali couldn't begin to imagine how he'd feel after she told him the truth.

"Ali... What's going on?" Sam asked softly. She couldn't believe what was happening. She wanted to run upstairs to her room and never come out.

"I wanted to tell you," she said, her eyes sad and distressed. "I didn't know how."

"Tell us what?" Dean asked, his green eyes piercing into her blue ones. "Tell us what, Ali?" She sighed, fearful of what the next few moments would hold. She looked to Bobby who had a grim expression on his face. He nodded to her supportively. The gesture told her that he thought it was time. Time for her to tell them the truth. She sighed, catching Dean's eye before deciding she needed to fess up. From the expression on the elder Winchester's face, it almost looked like he'd figured it out and was just waiting for her to confirm his suspicions. She couldn't lie again.

"You remember Croatoan?" she asked, waiting for Sam and Dean to nod before she continued. "Oregon wasn't the first time I've seen something like that." She cleared her throat, closing her eyes to try and remember the details she needed to tell them. "Something similar happened back in 1996. It was a demonic virus that made people go crazy and violent. My parents were called to help, but something went wrong. My mom got hurt..."

"Tyler!" Elliot Venator yelled as he carried his wife through the front door of their home a few miles outside of Denver, Colorado. "Tyler! I need some towels, now!" The young teenager scampered down the stairs at the sound of his father's worried voice, his eyes widening when he caught sight of his mother's bloodied body.

"What happened?" he asked as Elliot laid his wife on the kitchen table. "Dad, what-?"

"Towels, Tyler," he instructed, cutting off his son. Tyler nodded in understanding and raced out of the room. Elliot pressed his hands to the worst of his wife's wounds, his fingers becoming drenched in her blood. "Come on, Katie," he mumbled to her, trying to keep focused. "Stay with me."

"Daddy?" Elliot's eyes snapped towards the door where his youngest was standing, her tiny form shaking as she looked up at him.

"Go upstairs, baby," he said, forcing a smile on his lips to try and reassure his daughter. "It's okay."

"I just remember seeing so much blood," Ali said as she remembered the gory scene. "I remember seeing my mom on the table. She was so still. I thought she was dead."

"What happened?" Sam asked, his face anguished as he listened to the frightening story. Ali took a deep breath, trying to prepare herself for telling the rest.

"Like I said, I thought she was dead, and my father told me to leave the room." She swallowed thickly, remembering vividly what happened next. "But she wasn't dead. She was infected..."

Katherine thrashed and lunged at her husband, her eyes deranged as she tried to attack him with a kitchen knife.

"Mom!"

"Stay back, Tyler!" Elliot warned his distressed son as he tried to fight her off. She was still bleeding from her abdomen, but it didn't seem to bother her or be detrimental to her attack. She was animalistic as she swiped the blade in his direction, but Elliot Venator was expertly trained and could disarm her even with her enhanced abilities. Once she'd dropped the knife, he pushed her against the wall, managing to handcuff one of her wrists to the tea towel rail.

He stepped back away from her once she was secure and watched as she still tried to break free.

"What's wrong with her?" Tyler asked his father as he tried to hold back tears and the sight of his own mother trying desperately to get free so she could slaughter all of them.

"She has the virus," Elliot replied grimly.

"What do we do?" the dirty blonde teen asked as his mother managed to snap the handcuffs open and lunge towards them, her wrist raw and bleeding.

"Call him," Elliot instructed his son as he went to restrain his wife again. "He'll help us. He knows more about this demon than I do. He'll know how to save your mom."

"What if he can't help?" Tyler asked fearfully. "What if he doesn't know what to do?"

"Just call him Tyler!" Elliot barked at his son, instantly regretting shouting at him. He never usually lost his temper, but the circumstances were dire and he needed the help of his friend. "Call John Winchester."


"I never realised Dad and your parents were that close," Sam said. "I mean, I remember him talking about your family but..." He trailed off.

"They met whilst tracking down a wendigo in Montana," Ali told them. "I guess John told them about the demon he was hunting."

"Katherine and Elliot were the ones who introduced me to your old man," Bobby said.

"So what happened when he showed up?" Dean asked, a knowing look in his eyes. It wasn't hard to guess. Hunter plus woman infected with killer demon virus didn't equal a happy ending…

Allison could hear the sound of her father arguing with someone from where she stood on the stairs, her small hands gripping the banister. All she wanted was to see her mom, but Elliot had told her to stay upstairs. She bit her lip nervously, her neck straining to try and see her father down the corridor and the man she didn't recognise.Finally, her curiosity got the better of her and she tentatively stepped down onto the hard wood floor, leaving the safely of the carpeted staircase.

As she approached the kitchen door, a shred of fear passed through her. She didn't know where Tyler was, but she wanted him with her. She was never afraid when her brother was around. She spotted the men at the end of the corridor, but they didn't see her.

"My kids need their mother. You of all people should understand that," the girl could hear her father saying as she approached the kitchen door.

"She's already gone," the other man said in a voice she didn't recognise. Already gone? Where had her mother already gone?

She rattled the handle of the door, but found it was locked. Why would it be locked? Wasn't her mother inside? She pressed her ear to the door, trying to see if she could hear anything inside.

"Mommy?" she whispered, before jumping back when something hit the other side of the door. And then she was crying, terrified tears streaming down her face as pieces of wood splintered and she could see her mother's angry face from the hole the knife had made in the door.

She cried, frozen against the wall as Katherine broke through the door like she was part of a horror movie. That's exactly what it felt like. Once she'd broken through enough to get a hand through, she tried to grab at her daughter, her wild eyes animalistic.

"Allison!" Elliot yelled, grabbing his daughter's arm and pulling her away before his wife could hurt her. She was screaming, terrified and confused as her father lifted her up and cradled her against his chest.

"Shhh, it's okay," he hushed his daughter as she pressed her face into his shoulder, her tears dampening his shirt. "Don't cry, baby. Mommy didn't mean it." She was shaking and Elliot wondered if he'd done the right thing in bringing his wife home. He wondered his he'd done the right thing in bringing up his children in the world of hunting.

"Is Mommy a demon?" she asked quietly, the sound of her voice causing Elliot's heart to break.

"No, baby, she's not a demon," he said as he held his daughter close. "She's just sick, and we're gonna make her better."

"Like when Tyler was sick and we got medicine from the doctor?" she asked, looking up at him with her big blue eyes. Elliot couldn't help but tear up. She was so innocent. So untainted by his world until that night when her own mother had tried to kill her.

"No, honey," he said, shaking his head. "But we can still fix her. That's why Uncle John's here. He knows what to do."

"Elliot." The strange man's voice was deep as he spoke, a warning tone to it. Elliot new what he was warning against. He was warning against giving false promises. He was warning against telling his children lies. He watched as the man pulled a pistol from his belt and walked into the kitchen when he'd subdued Katherine on the floor.

"John," he pleaded with the man. "She's my wife." Elliot's eyes were filled with tears, and as he stared at his friend with the weapon in his hand, he could see the regret in his expression for what he was about to do. "She's my wife!" he screamed as he clung to his youngest. John Winchester turned but didn't meet his eyes.

"She's not your wife anymore," he said seriously, his voice even. "I'm sorry." Despite his grief, Elliot knew John was right. He nodded to his fellow hunter, and John nodded back.

Allison held onto her father tightly as she felt him slide down the wall, his body shaking as she heard his sobs. She heard the kitchen door behind her click shut, not yet really understanding why her father was so upset and who the stranger was who'd come into their home so late at night. An eerie silence stretched through the corridor, before a gunshot rattled the house. And then she understood. She understood why her father was crying. Even in her tender age of six years old, Allison knew what the gunshot meant. Her mother was dead.


Ali shifted under the scrutinising gaze of Sam and Dean. She hadn't thought she remembered much of that fateful night, but recalling the information back to the Winchesters made it all come back to the surface. The voices. The images. They were all ingrained in her mind. No matter how hard she tried, they would never go away.

"Woah," Sam breathed as he bit his lip, eyes glancing to Dean and then back to Ali, though he didn't meet her eyes. He couldn't. "So, Dad… he uh…" He scratched the back of his ear nervously. "He was the one who…?" Ali nodded grimly, her nervous gaze shifting over to Dean to try and gage his reaction. His eyes were downcast but he looked up when he sensed that the blonde girl was watching him.

"You better tell us the rest," Dean said emotionlessly. "We all know that isn't the end of the story, right Ali?" There was an edge to his voice that Ali didn't miss. He was angry. Dean didn't like being kept in the dark. Ali knew that.

"After we heard the gunshot, Tyler ran down the stairs," Ali said, her eyes watering as she remembered the look on her brother's face. It was complete brokenness and fury. "He'd been researching ways to try and help my mom, but it was too late."

"Tell us what happened to your dad," Dean requested bluntly, his jaw tight.

"The day before, he'd cut his hand teaching Tyler to throw knives," Ali said, her voice sad. "It wasn't big, and was all bandaged up. But there was so much of my mother's blood everywhere. He said it was fine, but John questioned it immediately…"

"She bled on you," John's voice was even. Elliot was stood over his wife's body. He'd told his distraught teenage son to wait outside the door whilst they discussed what to do with Katherine's body.

"It was just a scratch," he dismissed as he walked over to the kitchen sink to wash his hands.

"Are you sure?" Elliot turned to meet John's hard stare, but he didn't respond to the question. That gave John his answer.


"Tyler, go upstairs," Allison heard her father say from inside the kitchen. She wasn't allowed in. Tyler had made that very clear. She was frightened. She didn't like listening to her brother and father fight. Most of all, she was frightened of the man she didn't recognise.

"No," she heard Tyler say. She gasped. Her brother rarely disobeyed their father.

"Son, take your sister and go upstairs," her father instructed again. She stood on her tip toes to see through the hole in the door her mother had made.

"No, I'm not leaving," she heard Tyler yell again. He had his back to the door so she couldn't see his face. They all seemed so tall. So old. The room was so red. "Why are you letting him do this, Dad?" Tyler yelled, pointing to the mysterious man her father had called John. "Why?!"

"It's the right thing," she heard her father say sadly. Again, the blonde girl didn't understand. She hated how grownups talked about things without really saying what they were talking about. The right thing? What was the right thing?

"No, it's not!" Her legs grew tired and she couldn't stand on her tiptoes any longer. She sat on the floor, her back against the door as she listened. At six-years-old, listening was all she could do.

"Put the gun down, Tyler." That was the man with the low voice. The scary man. And why did Tyler have a gun?

"I won't," Tyler replied defiantly. He'd definitely be grounded. Tyler wasn't allowed to have a loaded gun in the house unless it was an emergency. Was this an emergency? "Tell him to leave, Dad," Tyler was saying. He rarely talked back to his father. Allison wondered why her father wasn't yelling at him for it. "He killed mom! Why aren't you fighting back?" The young girl started to cry. They didn't kill people. Her dad had told her they only fought monsters. People were allies. Monsters were the enemy. Why was everything changing so fast? Why was Tyler yelling and why wasn't her father doing anything to stop him? Why had a stranger killed her mom?

"It has to be this way," she heard her father say.Allison didn'thear the rest of the conversation. The voices overlapped with each other and all spoke loudly at the same time. Something smashed against the wall. She heard a thud as a piece of furniture was turned over. But before she knew what was happening, there was another gunshot, and then all she could hear was her brother yelling.

"I hate you! I hate you!" Allison could hear Tyler saying it over and over again. Screaming it over and over. The young girl wasn't sure at who.

"Tyler..." That was the strange man. His name was John.

"Don't say you're sorry! You're not sorry!" She could hear her brother yelling, his words distorted by his cries.

"Tyler! Listen to me." The man tried again.

"Go to hell!" And then the kitchen door was flung open and Tyler stormed out, heading straight for the front door without looking back. Allison dove out of the way so he wouldn't trample on her. She was afraid. She'd never seen her brother so angry. She wanted her Dad. She wanted to be safe in bed with her father reading her bedtime stories.

She waited with her back pressed against the wall for the other man to come out, but he didn't. She tentatively pushed open the kitchen door and poked her head around. The shock of the scene that met her eyes meant she didn't cry like she had before. She just stared, unblinking at the carnage in the kitchen.

The dark-haired man knelt on the floor beside the two bodies. Even in her young age, Allison knew who they belonged to. It was her mother and father. She was beyond terrified, but was completely frozen still. She wanted to run away from the man who'd killed her parents, but her limbs wouldn't allow it. All she could do was watch him.

She sucked in a breath as the man raised his hand to her mother's face. Was he going to hit her? Tyler had told her scary stories about monsters that ate your eyes after they'd killed you. She wanted to look away. She didn't want to see the scary man mutilate her mother's body. But then the man did something completely unexpected. He trailed the back of his hand over her forehead before brushing a hand over her eyes to shut them. It was something Allison had seen in a movie once before. A grief-stricken man had done it to his wife after she'd died in hospital. She remembered her father telling Tyler off for letting her watch it.

Allison watched the man in her kitchen curiously. He didn't do the same thing to her father. She could see his face. Elliot's eyes were already closed. The man squeezed her mother's hand in his before laying it down by her side gently and standing up. He stopped dead in his tracks when his eyes locked with the blonde six-year-old.

Ali remembered the moment vividly. She remembered it because, apart from her father that night, it was the first time she'd ever seen a grown man cry. He'd wiped the tears away with the back of his hand as soon as he'd seen her, but didn't break eye contact. The curiosity in her eyes was compelling. Ali found the sight of someone shedding a tear for her parents hard to stomach. But she realised then that the man before her wasn't a monster at all. Monster's didn't cry. And that was the moment Ali realised that John Winchester was not a man she had to fear.

Despite the hideousness of the evening's events, Allison hadn't wanted to leave her house that night. John had to carry the crying girl to the Impala as she kicked and screamed. She'd cried for hours as they drove around the streets trying to find her brother, and when they finally found him, he hadn't come quietly either. She'd been asleep when they'd arrived at Bobby's place. Once again, he'd had to carry the sleepy six-year-old to the door whilst her brother followed wordlessly behind.

John had returned to the salvage yard a few days later with a bag of the siblings' belongings. He'd offered to drive Tyler back to the house to pick out some things himself, but Tyler had refused. Ali hadn't been given the option. In the space of one evening, her world had been condensed down into a shared suitcase and a duffle bag. In the span of a few hours, her life was changed forever.


The room was agonisingly silent. Sam sat back in his chair whilst Dean sat forward, his face resting on his fist. Bobby hadn't moved from his position by the counter.

"I suppose that's it then," Dean said, the flatness of his voice juxtaposing the array of emotions barely visible in his guarded eyes. Ali frowned.

"That's it?" she repeated back to him as if trying to understand the phrase he had used. "You're not mad?" She regretted asking instantly.

"Mad?" Dean asked as he stood up, finishing off his beer and slamming the bottle down onto the table. Ali jumped at the sound as it cut through the silence. "You think I'd be mad that you kept something like this from us?" There was an edge of bitter sarcasm to his voice that made Ali wince. "You think I'd be mad that you've been lying to us practically the whole time?!"

"I'm sorry, okay!" she yelled back. "I know I should've told you sooner but it wasn't exactly something I could just slip into conversation." Dean shook his head, a disappointed look on his face.

"You want me to tell what happened while you were hexed?" he asked, raising his brows at her. Ali had never felt so small. So childish. She felt like she was being told off in the principal's office.

"Dean…" Sam warned.

"You tried to kill us," Dean told her. "For revenge." Ali was shaking her head, tears clouding her vision.

"I'm so sorry," she whispered, not able to make her voice any louder. "Dean, I'm so sorry I hurt you."

"Is this why you came and found me and Sam a year ago?" he asked seriously, his eyes filled with nothing but anger and betrayal. Ali couldn't do anything but cry and shake her head in response. "To get revenge for your parent's deaths?"

"No!" she yelled, finally finding her voice as she stood up. "Of course not!"

"Then why?"

"Because I wanted help finding what killed my brother!" she shouted, wiping a hand across her face. "I knew John had tried to get in contact with Tyler. He'd been calling him every day for weeks before he died."

"What?" Dean asked with a furrowed brow. Ali sniffed, trying to compose herself again.

"He kept trying to get in contact, but Tyler didn't want anything to do with him. I knew he was looking for the demon," she admitted. "I thought John might know which one killed Tyler."

"Why was Dad trying to get hold of your brother?" Sam asked. Ali's teary eyes shifted over to where he'd also stood up. His eyes were pained, but he didn't look angry. Just sad.

"I don't know," Ali replied. Dean raised a brow at her. "I think it had something to do with the Colt. Tyler was looking for it. It's all he ever talked about. Your dad wanted it too." The four fell silent once again. Dean's expression held nothing but hurt, as did Ali's. She couldn't breathe. Everything seemed like it was falling apart and she couldn't stop it. It was likely neither of the Winchesters would trust her again.

"I need some air," Dean announced, making his way to the door.

"Dean…" Ali called after him, but he'd already exited the room without looking back. Sam watched the girl wrap her arms around herself, her eyes downcast. He then looked to Bobby know nodded towards the door, indicating that he should go after his brother.

Sam found Dean out in the salvage yard, his hands braced against the hood of an old beaten up truck. He could see the tenseness in his shoulders, his knuckles white as he gripped the rusted metal.

"You alright?" Sam tried as he stood behind his brother several feet away.

"What do you think?" he grumbled, keeping his back turned.

"Look, Dean I get that you're mad at her, but don't make this about Electra," Sam said. "We both know that whatever she did had nothing to do with Ali." Dean sighed, shaking his head as he turned around.

"God sakes, Sam, I'm not mad at Ali," he said in a low voice. Sam frowned in confusion. "I'm mad at Dad!" Sam raised a brow at him, shocked by his confession. "Why'd the bastard have to go and die whilst we're stuck here cleaning up his crap?" The younger Winchester stared incredulously at his brother whilst trying to comprehend why he was acting this way. And then it hit him. Dean wasn't mad at all. Sure, he'd been angry at first, but when that faded away, all that was left was the familiar feeling of responsibility in the pit of his stomach.

"You feel guilty?" Sam asked, his frown softening. He knew he was right. He could see it in Dean's eyes. It was the same look he'd had yesterday. The same look he'd had when their own father had died. It was almost as if the only way he could make sense of a situation was to take full responsibility for it, but something like this was ridiculous. He couldn't carry the weight of his father's guilt as well as his own.

"Don't you?" Dean asked seriously.

"No, Dean," Sam said, trying to make his brother understand. "No. What Dad did was horrible, but he didn't have a choice. Ali knows that."

"Are you kidding?" Dean asked in a raised voice. "You saw the way they were together. She argued with Dad as much as you did. She hated him!"

"No," Sam replied, shaking his head. "Or maybe she did because she felt like she had to, but she doesn't blame him, Dean. I don't think she ever did."

"Of course she does!" the elder Winchester barked. "How couldn't she? He shot both her parents!"

"Because they were infected!" Sam reminded him. "Just like the people in Oregon. If he hadn't, Elliot and Katherine mighta killed both her and Tyler." Dean shook his head.

"No," Dean replied. "Ali said she never saw her father change. He might not have been infected."

"Dad made a call on a hunt, Dean," Sam tried to explain. "He made a call and it was the right one."

"He orphaned two kids!" the elder Winchester snapped back. "How can we face her knowing Dad was the one who killed her parents?" Sam shook his head, realising that he hadn't gotten through to his brother. "How do we make it better?"

"There's nothing to make better, Dean," Sam told him. "We just have to let it go. Like Ali has. And I know it sucks that Dad was the one who pulled the trigger, but maybe he stopped Tyler from having to do it." Dean looked up, catching Sam's serious stare. "Maybe he stopped a kid from baring that guilt. Now are you gonna come back inside?" The two stared at each other for a long time but Sam still didn't see any indication that his brother had changed his opinion on the situation. He shook his head, backing up towards the house. "You know what, don't bother. She'd been through a lot in the past couple of days and if you're gonna act like this, you shouldn't be around her." With that, Sam took off towards the house, leaving Dean in the hopes that his brother might be able to let it go.

Entering the house, Sam went straight for the kitchen where he found Bobby clearing up some dishes. There was no sign of the blonde girl.

"Where's Ali?" he asked, frowning as he stood in the kitchen that felt too empty.

"Sent her to bed," Bobby said, finishing up with the dishes and taking a seat at the table. Sam joined him. "Poor kid's exhausted."

"She okay?" he asked, though he was pretty sure he already knew the answer.

"She was pretty upset," Bobby admitted, sliding a beer across the table towards the younger man. He accepted it gratefully. "How're you doing?" Sam ran a hand through his long hair. Dean had been bugging him to get it cut for as long as he could remember, but he didn't mind it. Ali had told him once that it looked better long.

"Okay," he replied with a sigh. Bobby raised a brow at him. "This is just not how I expected today to go." Bobby nodded, grabbing himself a cold one too. "I get why she didn't tell us but…" He trailed off, leaving the sentence hanging in the heavy air. Bobby released a sigh of his own, leaning his forearms on the table.

"Look, Sam," he began, trying to find the right words to explain. "The fact that John is your father isn't the only reason she didn't tell ya how her parents really died. Only a handful of people know what really happened. We swore we'd keep it that way." Sam frowned.

"Why?"

"Because they're Venators. One of the oldest and most well know family of hunters around," Bobby explained. "You think it would be a good thing if it got out that they had to be put down by another hunter?" Sam shook his head.

"Bobby, I'm not following…"

"Elliot and Katie knew a lot of people," he continued. "They helped a lot of people. You think it would've been good for John if everyone knew he was the one who did it? Sure, Tyler didn't get along with your daddy too great but he sure did him a favour by keeping his mouth shut." Sam looked stunned. It wasn't something he'd ever considered would be an issue, but what Bobby had said did make sense.

"I guess I never realised hunter politics were so complicated," he acknowledged.

"Why'd ya think we're all drinkers?" Bobby asked, taking a sip of his beer. Sam released a breath of laughter. It was the only thing he could do. "You wanna know the reason I think Tyler hated your daddy so much?" Sam's look prompted Bobby to continue. "I think it was because he needed someone to blame for his own father's mistakes." The younger Winchester frowned.

"You think it was Elliot's fault?"

"I think if the man had been able to see past his grief, that night would've gone a whole lot differently." Sam contemplated Bobby's words, imagining the scene in his head. "And for the record, what John did wasn't easy. I remember when he dropped the kids off here," he said, his mind drifting back ten years. "He was real messed up." Sam nodded in understanding.

"They were friends, right?"

"Yeah." Bobby nodded. "But there was something else. When I saw him a Katie together it was like…" He trailed off, unable to find the words to describe it. "I think killing her was one of the hardest things he ever did." Sam frowned, unsure if he wanted to know more.

"You think something was going on between them?" Bobby shook his head.

"No, nothing ever would've happened," he said. Sam was thoughtful for a moment.

"You think he loved her?" Bobby sighed, recalling all the times he'd seen the two together. Bobby had only known John after Mary had died so it was rare to see him smile. But when he'd been with Katherine Venator, he could hardly stop.

"I'm not sure," Bobby admitted, realising he'd probably never know. "But I think she reminded him of everything he'd lost."


A few days passed and whilst Ali tried hard to repair the damage she and Electra had caused to her relationships with both Bobby and the Winchesters, the rift between her and Dean only seemed to widen. In her anger towards the fact that Electra had taken over her body, she'd demanded that Bobby tell her everything that she'd done whilst she hadn't been in control. Although it was hard for her to hear, she was glad when she knew the truth.

It seemed on the surface that Dean had taken Sam's advice and let John's role in Ali's parent's death go, but there was still something off about him. Sam alleged that his brother hadn't, in fact, let it go but was now simply bottling up his feelings to please him. Sam had spent a lot of time with Ali over the days, which the blonde girl suspected was out of pity rather than anything else. Even so, she didn't mind. She liked the company. She'd tried talking to Dean. She'd even tried to get him into a poker game, but Dean had made an excuse every time. Although she hadn't spoken to the elder Winchester much, she could tell he was getting antsy being in the house all day. She suspected it wouldn't be long before another hunt came calling.

It was early afternoon when she bumped into Dean in the hallway. He'd been halfway to the door, a bag slung over his shoulder and a shot gun in his hand.

"Going out?" Ali asked casually.

"Sam found a hunt in Ohio," Dean told her, placing the bag by his feet and turning his head slightly towards her. "Looks like we're gonna be on the road for a few days."

"Cool, I'll get my stuff," she said enthusiastically, turning towards the staircase.

"No," Dean said quickly, causing Ali to turn around. "No, uh, me and Sam have got this one." She stared back at him, suddenly finding it hard to speak. "Look kiddo, don't get me wrong, we like having you around," he said, and although he sounded sincere, Ali thought otherwise. "But me and Sam have some stuff we need to figure out." She didn't blink. She knew if she did the tears would start to form. "Just the two of us." Ali's gaze dropped.

"If this is about John, I-."

"It's not," Dean said quickly. He could hear the hurt in her voice. It only deepened the guilt he already felt. "It's not, I just-I can't let you get hurt again."

"Getting hexed was my fault, Dean," Ali said, trying desperately to change his mind. To get him to understand. "Not yours." She feared it was already too late. "None of this is on you." Dean stared back at her, looking like he was going to say something, but at the last minute, he changed his mind.

"See you around, kiddo," he muttered, his voice quiet as he picked his bag back up.

"Good luck with the case," she murmured. He nodded, sending her a weak smile that didn't even nearly reach his eyes.

He and Sam left shortly after, leaving Ali and Bobby behind them in Sioux Falls. It hadn't been easy, but it was what he'd said he'd do from the beginning. Dean was right. Things couldn't go back to the way they were before. Not after they'd nearly lost Ali to a something as simple as a hex. Sam had also been right. Ali would never give up hunting. But right now, after watching two people she thought of as family drive away, she was devastated.


AN: So Ali's back where she started at Bobby's house :( Won't be able to update for a few weeks, sorry!

Would love it if you could check out the poll on my profile page. I'm almost done with my Teen Wolf story and I'm thinking about starting another over the summer!

Hope you liked this chapter, let me know what you thought! Much love x