Disclaimer: Supernatural is owned by the WB as are the Winchesters.

The main bulk of the story will be set sometime after the first season – if all three of the Winchesters survive the wreck!

Sanctuary

23 years ago

"I hate you, Uncle Jim! You have to be dealing yourself great hands and giving me all the crappy cards." Annie informed her uncle in a very dramatic fashion, part of her teenage melodrama.

Jim looked at her sternly. "I don't cheat. How would it look if a man of God cheated?" He raised an eyebrow at her. "Hmmm?"

Both laid their cards down at the sound of pounding on the door. "Who could that be at this time of night?" Jim wondered as he glanced at the clock to see the hands at 10pm. He made sure to look out the window to the side of the door, and rushed to open the door.

"Jim." John Winchester looked as if a battering ram had hit him in the face several times and won. He also looked as if the act of standing straight was painful.

"John. You look horrible." Jim moved aside to let John come into his home. Then he noticed the two small figures in John's shadow. "Dean. Sammy. Come on inside, boys."

John gestured for six-year-old Dean to lead his two-year-old brother inside the door. "I got caught by surprise by that…." Just at that moment John noticed Jim's sixteen-year-old niece standing in the living room with a shocked look on her face. "You've got company?"

Jim wheeled around to look at Annie. He smiled at the girl as he helped his old friend to the couch. "Annie isn't company. She's my niece."

"Joey's girl?" John asked, referring to Jim's older brother.

Jim looked into John's eyes for a moment as a hint that a more detailed explanation would forthcoming before he spoke. "Yes, Joey and Lucy are her parents."

"Were." Both men looked up at the hollow sound of her whispered correction. "They died." Annie stated the obvious as her eyes took on a haunted look and filled with tears.

"My mommy died too." Dean had moved next to Annie and, looking up at her, squeezed her hand in sympathy.

Annie wiped her tears away and knelt down by Dean. "I'm sorry for you. I met her a couple of times when I was younger." Annie smiled. "She fixed my doll."

"That was you?" John asked, wincing as Jim was helping him get his ragged (and now bloodstained) old Army surplus jacket off.

Annie looked up at him, now with a squirming Sammy on her lap. "Yes, sir."

"Ouch. That hurts more than these cuts. Call me John."

Annie smiled up at him. "Okay."

Annie turned her attention to the two little boys who needed her care just as their father was getting both physical and spiritual care from her uncle. "So what's your name?" Annie asked Sammy as she gently tickled him.

Sammy started laughing hysterically. Dean plopped to his knees beside Annie and together they tickled Sammy some more.

"I haven't heard Sammy laugh like that before." John winced as Jim help pull his shirt off and away from the cuts and bruises on his torso.

"John, what did that thing do to you?" Jim was astonished at the beating his life-long friend had received.

"It really objected to that holy water you gave me." John chuckled.

"Sure, blame it all on me." Jim lightly tapped John on the shoulder, a gentle reminder of the harder hit he would have given him if he hadn't been in such bad shape.

"So what was the story behind Joey and Lucy?" John asked, lowering his voice so only Jim could hear now that Annie had both boys climbing all over her.

"I'm pretty sure it was something supernatural that got them, but I'm not sure what it was. Neither is Billy, Jefferson or Caleb. Annie saw whatever it was, but can't remember much of that night." Jim glanced over at his niece. "Or doesn't want to remember. She's been with me ever since."

"She seems like a good girl."

Jim smiled. "She is great with people, very intuitive and almost psychic at times. And she loves kids."

"Does she know anything about what we do?" John asked.

Jim took a deep breath and let it our before he answered. "Like I said, she's almost psychic at times. I think she could feel that thing attack her parents. She found them afterwards." Jim wiped his eyes. "I didn't get there until the next day after the cops called me. By that time, Annie was pumped full of tranquilizers. I guess when the police found her she was just bouncing-off-the-walls hysterical. She still passes out any time she tries to talk about it."

John laid his hand on Jim's. "I am so sorry, man."

Jim nodded and reached for a small jar of ointment and bandages. "Now time to minister to the living."