DPOV

Sam, Liz and I hurried down the porch stairs, seeing Brian hurry around the house and towards us.

"Hey. You okay?" he asked us.

Ignoring his question, I got to the more pressing issue. "Where is everybody?"

"Hiding."

"All right, go get them. Go. Go get them," I told him. Once he was gone, I turned back to Liz and Sam. "So, it's not a ghost."

"So, it's just a girl?" Sam shrugged.

I shook my head. "It's not just a girl. It's psycho Nell. I'm telling you, man. Humans."

"Who cares what she is? I wanna know who she is and why she's here." Liz had a good point.

"I don't know." I shrugged. "Maybe it's the daughter, Rebecca. Maybe she didn't hang herself."

"Dude, no." Sam didn't look convinced. "She'd have to be like fifty years old by now."

"Well, I don't know," I sighed. It not like we had a lot to work on right now. "What'd you find in the attic?"

"Some old junk. I found Rebecca's diary. That's about it."

"I wish you'd found a howitzer." Anything to get rid of the psycho and keep us safe would be good. "Listen, we got to get this family safe. I mean, it's just a human, so they can make a run for it. We just got to hold her off."

Just then, Susan Brian and Kate came around the corner. "We're okay," Susan assured us.

"Danny! Ted!" Brian called out. "We got to go!"

A moment later, Ted jogged around from the other side of the house. "I'm good!"

"Danny!" Susan yelled. "Come on!"

"Danny, buddy, we got to go!" Brian added.

Ted turned to me. "Told you it was some crazy bitch."

I fought the urge to roll my eyes. "Yes, you did."

Sam stepped up to Brian and Susan. "Head to town. We'll take it from here, okay?"

"Danny, come on, baby! We're leaving!" Susan was still calling out to her son.

"Danny, we got to go!"

But when neither Brian's or Susan's calls were answered, she turned to her husband with fear in her eyes. "Brian, where- where is he?"

"Danny!"

"Danny!"

When he figured Danny wasn't coming, Brian knew the rest of his family still had to be taken care of, so he grabbed his wife. "Suse, Suse, Suse." He shook her until she looked at him. "We will find Danny, I promise you."

She shook her head, voice shaking. "No."

"No. Take Kate and go now. Now, while you still have a chance."

"Not without Danny."

"We will find him," he assured her.

Kate shook her head. "I am not going out there with mum alone."

She had a god point, the two of them alone might not last that long... "She's right. Until we find your son, the safest place for you right now is in the shed." I gestured to the small shed a few feet from the house.

Kate turned to me. "I am not going in there either."

"Yes, you are." I wasn't leaving it up for discussion. "It is the best defense. The windows are boarded up. It's got one door. It's our best shot right now. Trust me."

Agreeing with me, Brian nodded as he grabbed his wife's attention again. "Suse. Kate. Go." when they didn't move, he repeated himself, a little firmer. "Go."

Once both Susan and Kate were gone, the rest of us huddled up.

Sam gestured to Brian. "All right, you and me will take the outside." Then he nodded to Liz, Ted and I. "You three take the house. Let's go."

EPOV

Back in the living room, both Dean and I moved to the door the girl had come out of while Ted grabbed a knife from one of the boxes in the dining room. Opening the door, I crouched down at feel the floor while Dean checked the walls.

"What are you doing?" Ted asked.

"She's human. She had to come from somewhere," Dean explained right before he found a loose board big enough for a person to fit through.

As we pulled the board away, we were hit with a rotting and stale stench. Dean and I didn't react, but Ted pulled away, making a noise of disgust.

"You smell that?"

"Every day," Dean mumbled. Turning to Ted he gestured for the knife, which Ted gave him. Using his torch to light the way, he crawled into the space. "Come on." Putting both objects in one hand, he offered me the other to help me through.

I took his free hand while Ted held the board out of my way. Moving further into the space, Dean and I stood, and shuffled down a little more so Ted could get in. It was a tight fit and dark, and in an instant, the hairs on the back of my neck stood up.

"You feel that?" I swear, it was like I could feel eyes on me, watching our every move.

Dean looked down at me. "What?"

Shaking my head, I dismissed the feeling as just being paranoid. "Never mind."

Once Ted was in, we started to move further down the space. It wasn't long before we came to a corner, and around that corner was a hole.

As Dean looked down the hole, thinking, Ted spoke up, "You're not going down there."

"Well, do you want to?"

Ted didn't say anything, but that told us everything. He wasn't going down, and I really wasn't surprised. Didn't blame him either. But as Dean started to crouch, I knew I couldn't leave him to go on his own.

"I'm going, too."

Dean looked up at me. I could see he was unsure of that idea. "Liz..."

"I'm not asking, Dean. I'm telling.

Sighing, knowing there was no point in arguing, Dean started to lower himself down into the hole. "Please nobody grab my leg. Please nobody grab my leg." The moment he was down he looked around for a moment before looking up at me. "Okay. Just… take it easy."

Nodding, I crouched down and eased my legs in, letting Dean grab my waist and help me down. The whole time, I knew I should be concentrating on the job and the danger, but I couldn't stop thinking about his hands on me. It was like my body was hyperaware of everything around me. The eyes watching us before, now Dean touching me...

Once my feet were on solid ground, I dusted myself and gave him a small smile. "Thanks."

"No problem." He gave a short nod back and turned, only to jump when he nearly walked into a rat's corpse that hang mere inches from his face. "Son of a-" Turning away from the rat, he paused again, light shining on another corpse. "Dog. It's what's for dinner."

Buster the dog had been torn to shreds. Poor guy...

"Danny?" Dean called, trying to keep his voice low.

"Find anything?" Ted asked from above.

"Yeah, her kitchen," Dean mumbled. "Watch where you're going, okay? There's crap everywhere," he warned me as we started to move having to stay hunched so as not to hit our heads.

As we looked around, I noticed some artwork drawn on the walls, in blood. It was a picture of two stick figures holding hands, a boy and a girl.

"She's just a kid." The words left my mouth before I realised I was even thinking them.

Dean turned to me. "Liz, she's-"

Before he could finish, he was cut off by the sound of a scream, and then a thump.

Hurrying back to the hole, we reached to two seconds before Ted fell forward, half of him hanging out of the hole, blood dripping from the fatal wound in his neck.

Dean grabbed me and pushed me back as he used his other hand to cover the torch's light. The two of us pressed into the wall as much as possible, trying to stay hidden. Trying not to make a noise or move a muscle.

SPOV

Brian and I were in the shad with Susan and Kate, who were sitting in the corner, waiting. Brian was pacing. We'd been waiting for Dean, Ted and Lizzie to come back for some time now. They'd been gone a lot longer than Brian and I had been out looking for Danny.

"Look," Brian stepped up to me, "why are we just standing here? Let's go in. Let's check the house."

"We have to wait for them to get back, okay?"

There was a knock on the door then, followed by Dean's voice. "Sam, it's us."

Moving to the door, I gestured to the heavy desk we'd put in front of it. "Help me out."

Brian came over to help, pulling the desk out of the way so we could open the door. Once we did, Dean and Lizzie stepped in, alone...

Susan hurried over to them in an instant. "Did you get Danny?"

Dean shook his head, clearly feeling guilty. "No."

"No?" Looking around, Susan then noticed what I already had. "Well, where's Ted?"

"He's outside."

Frowning at Dean's response, Susan didn't stop with the questions. "Well, why doesn't he come inside?"

Dean and Lizzie shared pained looks as my brother answered, "Because I had to carry him out. I'm sorry."

"You're... what does that mean? What does that mean, you're sorry?"

Brian looked between Lizzie and Dean. "Are you saying that he's dead?"

Susan shook her head. "No. No, he's not saying that he's dead. You're not saying that, are you?"

All of a sudden, Lizzie turned and walked out.

Dean watched her go, no one stopping her as he explained what happened. "We were in the walls and she attacked." Susan's hand came up to cover her mouth as she moved to cry against Brian's shoulder as he wrapped an arm around her. "And I couldn't get to him in time."

"Uncle Ted is dead?"

Shaking his head, looking so guilty, Dean turned for the door. "I shouldn't have left him alone." Before he left, he turned back to Brian. "I'm very sorry."

EPOV

Dean was standing a few feet away from where I sat outside the shed, watching the perimeter. Everyone else was inside. Sam was reading the diary he found with Brian tried to calm Susan who was in shock.

"Hi..."

I looked up from where I sat on the grass outside the shed, seeing Kate coming out to stand next to me. "Hey..."

"Can I join you?" she asked, gesturing to the spot next to me.

I moved over a bit as an answer.

Once she sat down, the two of us were silent for a moment or two. Looking out at the house in front of us. Seeing it at night like this, and under these circumstances, it really made the place seem ten times worse than it was. Underneath all the bad, there was plenty of potential.

If it wasn't for the fact hunters don't really settle down, I would probably find this house nice enough to live in. A bit big. But still nice.

"What's it like?" Kate asked suddenly. "What's your job like?"

"What? Hunting?" I shrugged. "Like any job, sometimes it's good, sometimes it's bad."

"So, what you do, it's called hunting?"

"Yeah. We hunt monsters and stuff. Save people."

"People like us?"

"Well, yeah... but normally the monsters aren't people," I noted.

I wasn't sure if Dean, Sam, or even Bobby realised this, but I had never killed a human being. Ever. I mean, I've killed witches, and people who turn into things, and people possessed by demons, but I hadn't killed someone that hadn't been touched by the supernatural.

"How did you become a... a hunter?"

"Dad was killed. Mum was killed. Sister was killed," I answered, a little more harshly than I wanted.

Kate rested her chin on her knees that were bent to her chest. "I lost my brother last year. My older brother, Andy." I could hear the sadness in her voice, the loss. "Does it get better?"

I turned to her then, and for the briefest moment, I saw my younger self in her. Hurting. Lost. Confused. Scared. The world was a bigger and lonelier place now. She'll never see things the way she had before. Everything had changed, and she didn't know what to do.

"It'll get better. But it'll never be the same."

DPOV

I walked up to Brian as he stood in front of the house. "Andy your son?" I asked, having overheard Liz and Kate talking about the family's loss.

He turned to me briefly before looking to the house again. "Oldest. He got himself killed in a car accident last year."

"I'm sorry."

"It nearly tore Suse and I apart. Still could, I imagine. That's why we moved here. Fresh air, fresh start. Not even my line. Marriage counselor. 'Course, she might be right. After all, what could possibly go wrong in the country?" He shook his head.

"I'm getting your son back," I assured him. "If it's the last godforsaken thing I do."

"Why do you care so much?"

"Dean." We looked over to see Sam and Liz headed towards us, my brother holding up book. "We gotta talk."

...

Back in the dining room, I looked around to make sure we were alone before turning to Sam and Liz. "What is that?" I gestured to the book.

"Rebecca's diary," Sam explained. "I just finished reading it."

"And?" I pressed, wanting him to get to the point.

"That girl back there? Pretty sure she was Rebecca's daughter."

I frowned. That didn't make any sense... "Rebecca had a kid?"

Sam nodded. "It's all she talks about. Being pregnant, being ashamed of being pregnant."

"Jeez, rent Juno and get over it," I mumbled. "Wait, why kill herself after the baby?"

"Maybe because her dad called her a dirty little whore and said he was gonna lock the baby up," Sam noted.

"Why would he say that?" When Sam said nothing but just gave me a pointed look, the answer came to me. "Oh, gross."

"Yeah." Sam nodded.

"So, the daddy was the baby-daddy too?"

Liz's face turned up in disgusted. "How could someone do that to their own child?"

Sam shook his head, just as grossed out. "Dude was a monster."

"Wow, a story ripped from an Austrian headline," I sighed. "Humans, man." sometimes they could be worse than the monsters we hunted. "So, she's been locked up her whole life?"

"You saw her eyes. Has she ever seen light? She's barely human," Sam noted.

"Okay, so, what, then, she's been caged up like an animal and she busts out and ganks dear old Dad? Slash Granddad?" I asked, trying to figure out the story so we could figure out what to do next.

"I guess." Sam shrugged.

That made things a little clearer. After a life like that, no wonder she killed her father. "Well, can't say I blame her."

"I'm sure her life was hell, Dean. It doesn't mean she gets a free pass for murder."

"Like you know what hell's like."

"I didn't..."

No, he didn't know what Hell was like. But I did. I knew the torture and pain of it all. I knew the agony and misery it pulls out of you. The never-ending nightmare you can't wake up from. I'd felt all of it, and I'd inflicted some of the pain too. I knew what it was like, he didn't, so to assume...

"Forget it." Shaking my head, I turned away.

Looking from Sam and me, Liz sighed. "So where is this girl and how do we find her? She's gotta have Danny somewhere."

A thought occurred to me then. "Kid's gotta eat, right?"

"What?" both Sam and Liz asked, confused.

"He kept her hidden, locked up, but he had to feed her, didn't he?"

Sam shrugged. "I guess."

"I think I know where."

SPOV

In the kitchen, Dean, Liz, Brian and I stood around the dumbwaiter. Dean used a fireplace poker to break the drywall to make a hole that would lead down under the house. His theory was that the girl lived under the kitchen, and would be keeping Danny down there too. With no other real options, we were working with his hunch.

"Could've kept her hidden here for years," I noted. "Kept her fed, nobody would ever know."

Once Dean broke through the drywall, Brian flinched back from the rotting stench coming from the hole in the wall.

I moved to lean in, shinning the light into the shaft. "Danny! Danny!"

"Watch out, I'm going down," Dean told me. It wasn't a question, and there was no way to stop him.

"No," Brian argued. "That's my son."

But like I said, there was no way to stop Dean. "I know it is, but I said that I would get him. I will. Let me."

After a moment, Brian gave him a short nod of approval. Turning to the shaft, Dean pulled himself in and got himself into a position where he could use the sides to climb down.

Before he did, Lizzie stepped up to him. "Don't do anything stupid. You need help, you yell. Okay?"

"Okay," he assured her.

Once he started climbing down, I leaned into the gap to check on him. The moment his feet touched the ground, I pulled out to look at Brian. "Hey, you got curtains? We need rope."

Without a word, he turned to get what we needed.

Lizzie stepped up to join me then, the two of us squeezing together to look down the shaft to see Dean disappearing, out of sight.

DPOV

As I moved around, I found some of my weapons lying on the ground, scattered all over the place. Picking a gun up, I check to it. "Bitch is a klepto." Moving further in, I picked up another gun and checked it too. "Come on." They were both good. Now armed, I felt a little safer to call out. "Danny. Danny."

The sound of Danny trying to yell or scream, caught my attention.

"Danny?" Following the noise, I ended up finding a small gap in a wall.

Shinning my light through, I saw Danny bound and gagged, sitting in the dirt. Using my knife, I reached through to cut the ropes around his feet and wrists, setting him free so he could crawl through the hole to me.

"Your dad's upstairs," I told him as we started for the shaft again. "Come on. Watch your head, watch your head."

"Hurry, he's coming back."

I paused. "He?"

"Her brother."

Suddenly a yell came out of nowhere before I was tackled to the floor.

EPOV

Looking into the shaft, I saw Danny come into view. Turning, without a word, I grabbed the makeshift rope Brian and Sam had made out of curtains, and dropped it down the hole. "Danny! Grab on!"

He did as I said, tying the rope around him and gripping onto it tightly. "Okay!"

Once he was ready, I yelled to the others. "Pull!"

Working together, Sam, Brian and I pulled Danny up carefully. I was closest to the gap, grabbing him the moment I could as I helped him out and onto his feet.

Now safe, he ran to his dad, who held him protectively. "Come on. You okay? It's okay."

"Get him out of here," Sam told them. "You gotta go."

I didn't watch to see what they were doing, the moment Danny was out I'd already started to climb into the hole and down the shaft, heading for the basement.

"Lizzie? What are you doing?" Sam moved to try and stop me.

"Dean needs help," was all I said before I moved away from his grasp and started down the shaft.

As I landed on the ground, I listened to the sound of a fight and struggles. Following the noises, I found Dean under a guy who looked just as bad as the girl. It didn't take genius to figure out he must be her brother.

But I didn't care who he was. He was on top of Dean, attacking him. Dean was in danger. He couldn't see, and I wasn't sure if he even had a weapon to protect himself with. Then to top it off, the boy pulled out a knife, lifting it above his head to bring it down on Dean.

"No!"

Lifting my hand, I threw the boy up and away from Dean, not really thinking about what I was doing. As the same time, Dean sat up and aimed the gun he had, pointing it towards the boy before shooting him in the chest three times.

As the body slummed to the ground, blood oozing from the wounds, I hurried over to Dean, falling to my knees beside him. I checked him over worriedly, making sure he was okay, that he wasn't hurt. My wide eyes took every inch of him, panicked and concerned.

"Liz." He rested his hand on mine, stopping me. "I'm okay."

Slowly, I looked up, meeting his gaze. Then I was throwing my arms around him in a tight and desperately relieved hug.

It took a moment, but after a pause I felt him relax as his own arms wrapped around me, returning the hug.

DPOV

Turns out, while the brother had been attacking me, the girl had gone after Susan and Kate. But Brian had dealt with her... and by dealt with, I mean he'd killed her.

It was morning now, and time to get out of there. I was just finishing fixing Baby while Sam and Liz put all the guns and our supplies back in the trunk. As soon as I finished they came over to stand with me, the three of us turning to see Susan and Brian headed our way.

I gave them a nod. "Thanks for the head start."

Brian looked to each of us. "Why doesn't it surprise me you three don't like the police?"

Sam chuckled lightly. "It's sort of a mutual-appreciation thing, really."

Reaching forward, Brian offered me his hand, which I took. "Well, thank you."

Susan nodded. "Thank you."

"You okay?" I asked her.

She looked to her husband before shaking her head. "No, we're the opposite of okay, but we're together," she answered honestly as she slipped her hand into Brian's. "Thanks."

...

Parked under an overpass, Sam, Liz and I got out of Baby and moved to the hood as Sam passed around some burgers. Leaning against Baby, I unwrapped my food and gave it a smell before wrapping it back up and setting it down next to me.

"You okay?" Sam asked me as Liz paused, halfway through a bite.

"You know, I felt for those sons of bitches back there. Lifelong torture turns you into something like that."

"You were in hell, Dean," Sam started. "Look, maybe you did what you did there, but you're not them. They were barely human."

I nodded. "Yeah, you're right. I wasn't like them. I was worse. They were animals, Sam, defending territory. Me? I did it for the sheer pleasure."

Liz swallowed her food, her eyes wide. "Dean..."

"I enjoyed it. They took me off the rack, and I tortured souls, and I liked it." I looked away from them as I went on. "All those years, all that pain. Finally getting to deal some out yourself. I didn't care who they put in front of me. Because that pain I felt, it just slipped away. No matter how many people I save, I can't change that. I can't fill this hole. Not ever."

Bamby