Hello all! Welcome back!

I want to give a HUGE thank you to Jenmm31 for encouraging me to return to Carter and inspiring me along the way. She writes wonderful stories, and I highly recommend you check them out!

I hope you enjoy this chapter!

Ages:

Carter: 20

Dean: 33

Sam: 29

Takes place in season 8

Warnings: blood, cursing

Disclaimer: I do not own Supernatural or its characters

Carter's heart pounded in her throat as the cabin door swung shut behind her. The wooden door slammed into its frame as Carter fought to catch her breath. Late morning sun dripped lazily through the shade of trees, shining off dew gathered on overgrown grass. Birds chattered high in the branches and insects chirped in the undergrowth. Carter took one step away from the abandoned cabin and wiped her blood covered machete on the leaves at her feet. With trembling, adrenaline coursing hands, she stashed her machete in her coat pocket.

Behind Carter, a decrepit cabin melted into the forest dirt. Each glass window was completely boarded up, not allowing an ounce of sunlight in. It was a pure testament to the former squatters. Because inside, three still-warm vampire bodies lay headless in pools of blood. It was a small nest, one who preyed on hikers that passed along the trail not 100 feet from the cabin. Carter had caught wind of the deaths while stopping through town, and determined she could handle them on her own.

The only reason she was on her own was because she hadn't talked to Sam and Dean in weeks. Every single time her brothers were near each other, they bickered nonstop. Sam was mad that Dean came home from Purgatory with a new buddy, and Dean was mad that Sam stopped hunting, and then they both got mad that the other was mad. Around and around they would go, throwing nasty looks and punches. Then they'd turn to Carter and expect her to be on their side, but she refused to choose. She didn't think either one had a good point, and to choose would mean the other would get mad. Eventually, the three decided to each go their own ways. Carter couldn't stand to be around them, and they couldn't stand to be around each other.

Carter caught her breath and quickly looked over her body. She could still feel the adrenaline coursing through her, but other than that she felt fine. Her dark colored jeans and canvas jacket held a good amount of blood, but she knew most of it was from the vampires. Maybe she had a couple small cuts, so maybe some of the blood was hers, but she suspected she was fine. Winchester fine, at least.

Bird chatter swelled in her ears as she took her first steps towards the hiking trail. Under the shade of trees, a chill spilled over Carter's body as she stumbled through bushes and bramble. The only way to the cabin was along a 3 mile long hiking trail, then climbing 100 feet off-trail through overgrowth. Carter wasn't looking forward to it, to say the least. But what other option did she have?

She pushed through until finally she picked up the trail. It was vacant, as far as she could tell. But the trail had a lot of twists and turns, switchbacks up and down the mountain that could hide anyone. It was no wonder the vampires had chosen this as their hunting ground. Carter began to descend the mountain, and with every step she felt her energy leak out of her. She could tell all adrenaline had disappeared and she wanted nothing more than to be back at her car already. She'd give anything to teleport away from there.

Instead, Carter gritted her teeth and pushed on. It wasn't until five minutes into her hike that she noticed it. The blood pool that she had taken note of earlier and determined to not be hers had grown. A deep gash along her thigh, a swipe a vampire must've taken at her, oozed down her pants. With every step she took, she felt the pain return to her that the adrenaline had hidden. And on her shoulder, the small pool of blood she thought for sure was vampire grew as well. She flipped her jacket off and found a bite mark. Not enough to turn her, just enough to break the skin and hurt like hell.

Carter stumbled forward in disbelief. How had she not noticed? A bite like that, and she didn't even know when it happened? She shook her head. No, she thought. This isn't the time. She yanked her sleeve back on and pushed forwards, determining it was best to get the hell out of there before she got worse.

She made it only half a mile before she had to lean on nearly every tree she passed in order to stay upright. She attempted to stop the bleeding on her leg, but all it did was cover her in more blood. Every tree she touched was left with a swipe of blood showing her path along the trail. She limped as long as she could before she was forced to rest on a rock.

As soon as she sat down, she knew she was done for. Her stomach ached with an unknown pain and her hands trembled. The birds she had been hearing turned to ringing, louder and louder as her vision swam. She gripped the rock below her, desperate to stay awake but it was a losing battle. Her vision grew black and her body hit the dirt, unconscious to the touch.

It took only a few minutes for hikers to come upon her unconscious body. Without them, she would have bled out within the hour. They were able to slow the bleeding and called an ambulance, but the EMTs had to hike in to get to her, then hike back out with her. By the time Carter got to the hospital, doctors weren't even sure she would make it. She had lost so much blood from her wounds and had major internal bleeding; they had to put her into a medically induced coma to give her any chance.

But by some miracle, she pulled through. Call it the Winchester will, if you want. Winchesters always knew how to pull through, even if just by the skin of their teeth.

The first few hours in the hospital, no one knew who Carter was. She didn't carry an ID, didn't even have a wallet. The only thing she had was her phone, so the nurse had to put out a call to her emergency contacts, which happened to be Sam and Dean. They rushed to the hospital, breaking all kinds of laws to get there in record times. Sam arrived first, with Dean getting there only an hour later. It was the first time they had seen each other in weeks. Not even Carter, who was the designated go-between for them, had seen them in that time.

It was a regular ol' Winchester gathering: they were pissed at each other and one was almost dead.

It took two days for Carter to wake up. One could say it was the nonstop arguing that woke her, as Sam and Dean were at each other's throats.

"If you hadn't walked away from the life, Carter never would've gone hunting on her own, and she wouldn't be in this mess," Dean spat, his tone rising enough to earn glares from passing nurses.

"Oh you're blaming me? Seriously? And what have you been doing, hanging out with a friggin' vampire? I bet you didn't even know Carter was hunting, did you?"

"Of course I knew!" Dean lied rather unconvincingly. They both knew that if Dean actually knew, he would've stopped her from the start.

"Right, and you just let her go off on her own?" Sam mocked.

"Well at least I didn't ignore her for months for some chick with a dog."

"Are you two still bickering?" Carter asked, her voice a low groan. She had finally conjured up enough strength to open her eyes and glare at the two men in front of her.

At her voice, Sam and Dean whipped their heads in her direction and moved to her side. "Hey," Sam put on a smile, "You're awake. How do you feel?"

"I'd feel a lot better if you two made up already." With a shaky hand, she reached up to rub the sleep out of her eyes. The boys quickly glanced at each other, ashamed to have been caught. At their hesitance, Carter turned to take in the room. It was a single hospital room, with white sheets on the bed, a tv turned to some sloppy romance, and machines galore. A large window to the hall also glared into the room, causing anyone walking by to look in.

"Seriously, how do you feel?" Dean asked, changing the subject back to her.

Carter turned to glare at him. She had been awake not even a minute, and she was already sick of their presence. "I'm fine, Dean." She attempted to pull herself to a sitting position, but the very motion sent pain waves through her abdomen. Falling back, she squeezed her eyes shut to numb the pain and swallowed a curse.

"Like hell you're fine, you damn near got yourself killed!"

"Shut up," she rolled her eyes, not believing a word he said. Was she banged up? Sure. But did she believe she needed to be in the hospital? Hell no.

"Dean's right. Some hikers found you unconscious in the woods, the doctors didn't think you would make it. You've been in a coma for two days."

At his tone, Carter stopped. For the first time since waking up, she took account of how truly crappy she felt. A thick bandage covered the bite mark on her shoulder, restricting the movement of her entire arm. Another thick bandage covered the gash on her leg and it hurt even through the pain meds. Her head felt ten pounds heavier, and like she could fall back asleep the second her eyes closed. And she had the shakes. Her arms and legs felt like they were made of gelatin, like they would wiggle and jiggle until they fell off her body.

She wanted nothing more than to close her eyes and be alone forever.

"What the hell were you hunting, anyway?" Sam asked.

Carter thought for a minute then shrugged her one good shoulder. She had to conjure up an image of the cabin, the blood, the heads, the dead hikers stashed in the corner. The three vampires. "Just a small vamp nest. I heard someone in town say they were killing hikers, so I checked it out."

Dean's eyes flamed. "And what made you think you should hunt them alone? You find something like this, you pick up the damn phone and call me!"

Her eyes narrowed to slits as she stared Dean down. "What, and listen to you complain about Sam the whole time? No thanks, I'd rather take my chances with the vampires." Dean looked to Sam for any support, but Carter interrupted. "Plus, you guys hunt on your own all the time, why is it any different when I do it?"

Dean's face hardened to a death glare. "Are you kidding me?" His voice began to rise with every sentence. "Of course it's different! You're a kid, you're not ready for that yet. Clearly, you could get yourself killed!"

"Oh, and you're so careful all the time? Remind me, how many times have you died? Oh that's right, too many to count!"

"Alright, enough!" Sam hollered. They both turned to look at him, forgetting he was even there. "Dean, take a walk."

Dean was about to protest when Sam gave him a nonnegotiable look. Sighing and muttering about who knows what, he stomped out of the room and down the hall. Without Dean's accusations, Carter was able to focus back on her wounds, which began to ache. She leaned her head back on the pillow and squeezed her eyes shut.

"Look, Dean may have gone about it the wrong way, but he's right. You should've called us to help with the case, it's not safe to do it on your own," Sam's soft but serious tone cut through her.

"Oh come on Sam, not you too," she groaned.

He put his hands up in defense. "You're not a kid anymore, I get that. But you're still young, and hunting is dangerous. It's always good to have backup."

"Whatever," she muttered, having no fight left in her.

After a minute of silence, Carter opened her eyes back up and stared at the ceiling. "Can we just get the hell out of here? You know how I feel about hospitals."

Sam cleared his throat and shifted his feet. "Yeah, let's just wait to see what the doctor says, then we can sneak you out the back."

Carter sighed in response and closed her eyes again, willing her body to fall back to sleep.

The doctor finally rounded on her hours later and determined she was doing well. The bleeding in her abdomen had stopped and her wounds were healing. She wasn't out of the woods though, and he wanted her to stay a couple more days for observation, but the Winchesters had already heard what they wanted to hear. That night, under the guise of poor staffing, they snuck Carter out of the hospital and hit the road. They stopped only briefly to gather the stuff she left in her motel room before heading as far away as possible.

Dean drove through the night, stopping only when absolutely necessary. With Carter sound asleep in the backseat, it left Sam and Dean to sit in silence. The two didn't dare speak, afraid an argument would come out instead. But after awhile, Sam fell asleep as well.

It took a week for Carter to feel well enough to move around. She had been trapped in a motel room with two stinking boys, and she was tired of it. The first two days, she slept nearly the whole time. Waking up for take-out meals and using the bathroom was all she could handle. As the week went on, she felt much stronger and took to walking laps around the room, albeit limping with each step.

Throughout the week, the tension in the room was chewable. No one dared say much in fear of starting a new fight, and Carter was sick of it. She didn't like not being able to talk to her brothers, and it hurt her to see them not talk to each other. After a week, Carter was begging to join Sam on a supplies run. She had proven her stamina was back up, and she desperately needed to see the real world. Not to mention, Dean's soap opera binge was making her ears bleed, especially since he refused to turn anything else on.

Sam took Carter to the local grocery store, where they picked up all the essentials. Since their room didn't have a kitchen, they had to make do with snacks, cereal, and fruit. Carter even found a mini pie, which she knew would come in handy later. On their drive back to the motel, Carter couldn't take it anymore.

Dean wasn't one to spill his feelings to his siblings. He kept that shit locked and guarded at all times; he was much like John that way. But Carter and Sam were different. Growing up, they'd often turn to each other to talk things through, no judgement allowed. It was Sam that Carter turned to when she had questions about her mom, and when he had no answers, he was the one that listened to her frustrations. It was Sam who helped Carter through breakups and heartache. And when he needed it back, Carter was there for him.

That's why it hurt all the more when the two hadn't talked for months. Carter didn't have anyone to turn to and she felt all bottled up inside.

She cleared her throat. "Look, I know things have been crazy since Dean got back, and everything that's been going on. But I feel like we haven't talked about what happened." She glanced over at Sam, who seemed to tighten his grip on the steering wheel.

When Dean got sucked into Purgatory, everything fell apart. One day, Sam was there, trying to figure out what happened to their brother, and the next he was gone. His bed was empty, his clothes missing, and he even took Dean's car. No phone call, no note, nothing. In such a short time, Carter lost both of her brothers and she didn't know what to do. Alongside her online college classes, she dove headfirst into hunting. She grabbed any case she could and didn't look back, no matter what it cost her.

Sam paused for awhile, then answered with a heavy heart, "I should've never left you alone."

She shrugged. "Maybe not, but my getting hurt isn't on your head. And I don't blame you for what you did. I get it, a normal life is really enticing. If I could …" she paused and nervously swallowed, trying to determine how much she could tell Sam about her future plans without really telling him. "If I got the chance to step away from hunting, I would take it." She glanced over at him to gauge his response but he was neutral. Almost like he expected it.

"It's so different from the way we grew up and takes a long time to adapt to, but I think it's worth it." He glanced over at his sister. "For what it's worth, I think you'd really like it. And I'm sorry, too."

Carter smiled. Little did he know that for her, that was worth a lot. It meant that she was on the right path, and hadn't wasted the last few years of her life and thousands of dollars. "Thanks Sam, I appreciate that."

The rest of the ride passed in peace, and before Carter could prepare, they were back home. She knew that the time had come to finally talk to Dean, and she was dreading it. Dean had a bad habit of blowing things out of proportion and getting mad. It was exhausting.

Dean was sitting at the table when they walked in. He had his computer in front of him, and Carter hoped he was just researching for a new case. Carter placed one of the bags on the table and decided now was as good a time as any. She pulled out the container of pie and slid it across the table to him. His eyes lit up and a smile peeked onto his face.

"Peace offering," she said. He stopped as he gripped the pie in his hands and waited to see what the catch was. "Let's make a deal, I won't go on anymore hunts alone, so long as you and Sam finally make up."

Dean rolled his eyes. "Pass. How about you don't go on any more solo hunts, and I don't kill you?"

"Pass," she mocked. "Come on, you both made stupid mistakes this year. Why can't you just hug and forget?"

"Benny wasn't a mistake, he got me out of Purgatory alive; the least I can do is not kill him." Dean shut his laptop and stared pointedly at Sam. "But not looking for me and cozying up with some random chick? I can't forgive that."

"What, and you've been such a saint?" Carter cut in before Sam could get a word in. "Because I seem to remember you did the same exact thing when Sam was in Hell. You trotted off to be with Lisa and left me alone with Bobby. And, be honest, did you really try to get his ass out of there? Now, I'm not defending what Sam did, but damn it can't you give him a little break?"

"No," he spit.

Carter threw her hands up in defeat. "Fine, I give up. If you two can't get along, then I'm out of here." Carter walked away to start packing.

"Woah, wait a minute," Dean protested, the same time Sam threatened, "Dean."

"No," she said as she shoved clothes into her bag, "I'm not going to sit here and watch you two destroy our family. You wanna fight? Fine, go ahead, but I'm not going to be here to watch."

Dean stood up and asserted, "You're not going anywhere."

"You going to make up?" Carter asked and paused, a handful of shirts halfway into her bag. When Dean refused to answer, she continued packing. "Well, guess that settles it then."

"Sam, you going to help me out here?" Dean asked as Carter zipped up her bag and slung it onto her shoulder. She swiveled her head to Sam and waited.

He sighed and turned to Dean. "Look, man, I know in hindsight what I did was wrong, but you have to understand, you were gone. I didn't know if you were in Hell, Heaven, or anywhere else in the world. I didn't even know where to start, or if there even was a place to start. So, I'm sorry I didn't look for you, but, hell, I didn't even know if I could."

Dean didn't answer as he looked back and forth between the two. Finally, he asked, "And Benny?"

Carter hardened her look at Sam, hoping he knew that if he messed this up, she was out. "I'll go along with whatever you think. But the minute he feeds or does anything suspicious, he's dead," Sam relented.

Carter turned her look to Dean, to which he purposefully ignored.

He pursed his lips. "Well, guess I can't argue with that." To get the heat off himself, he changed the subject. "Pizza or Chinese for dinner?"

"Dean," Carter warned. "Don't you have something to say to Sam?"

He sighed and rolled his eyes. "Sorry I gave you such a hard time. I know you wouldn't let me suffer like that on purpose."

"That's sweet, Dean," Carter said sarcastically, "really pulls at the heartstrings." She tossed her bag back onto the bed. "So we all good now? No more fighting?"

"Yeah, we're good," Dean relented, and even though they all knew it was a partial lie, they went along with it. Anything to end the fighting was welcomed, even if only temporary.

The rest of the night was peaceful. Dean ate his pie as he watched tv, and Sam watched him over his computer screen. Every time Dean laughed at the screen, a small smile crept onto Sam's face. They might not have been back to normal, but they were getting there. After the long day, Carter slept undisturbed through it all. Though she wouldn't admit it, the little trip to the store and the fight afterwards wore her out. She was nowhere near back to healthy, but she knew she would get there in time. The best place to heal, after all, was with her family.

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Hopefully I will see you all soon!