Bobby was always happy to see Sam. He was also a little offended that the boy never bothered to visit unless he wanted something, but that was kids for you. In Sam's defense, his brother and father were both the same way. He couldn't help the way he'd been brought up.

"You know Dean's worried about you," Bobby informed him as they made their way to his basement.

"When is Dean not worried about me?" Sam sighed, rolling his eyes.

"Well, if you didn't pull so many damn fool moves, he wouldn't need to worry constantly," Bobby told him. "He's not the only one who worries about you, you know."

"I'm fine."

"Yeah, for now."

"Why do you and Dean both like to pretend that I can't take care of myself?" Sam scoffed while Bobby pulled a bankers box down from a shelf.

"Aw, don't give me that crap," Bobby snapped as he went through the box. "You know damn well that's not what it is. Of course we know you can take care of yourself. It's all the things trying to kill you that keep us up at night. Things you seem to be intent on running towards."

"It's no less than what any other hunter does."

"And yet, far as I can tell, you're the only hunter stupid enough to try and go after the damn queen of hell."

"What can I say, I'm a glutton for punishment."

"Just... tell me you're not doing this craziness alone," Bobby said, coming up with a ziploc bag that held a handful of rounds. Sam took them from Bobby, amused at his storage methods.

"No, I've got a whole crew," Sam said.

"Anyone I know?" Bobby pressed.

"Probably."

"I knew it," Bobby said accusingly. "You're in on this with that Smith girl, aren't you?"

"Both Smith girls, actually."

"Didn't Dean tell you-"

"I know what happened," Sam cut him off.

"Then you oughtta know you can't trust her," Bobby said pointedly as the ascended the stairs.

"I trust that she wants Lilith dead as much as I do," Sam said. "Don't worry, Bobby. I can handle Alice."

"Your brother thought the same thing," Bobby sighed, grabbing a pair of beers from the fridge and offering one to Sam. He paused before taking it, hoping that he wasn't going to get stuck here for too long. Still, he had questions that he hoped Bobby might be able to answer. "Look where that got him."

"Last I checked, Dean's fine," Sam snorted. "He scares easier than he did a few months ago, but aside from that..."

"Go easy on him," Bobby said as they headed out to his front porch. "He's been through a lot."

"So have we all."

"Yeah, well... I know Dean," Bobby sighed. "No matter what you think, your brother doesn't 'scare easy'. If he's holding back, he's got a good reason. You might wanna take a cue from him."

"Not gonna happen. Look, Bobby, speaking of Dean, there's something I wanted to ask you."

"Shoot."

"Well, I guess it's... not really about Dean, so much. Kind of, I guess."

"You gonna spit it out or what?"

"Back when you were holding that shapeshifter for Dean," Sam started. "What was the story there?"

Bobby took a long swig of his beer, considering his answer carefully.

"Did you ask Dean about it?" he finally said.

"Not exactly. We were busy at the time."

"Well, he's the one to ask, Sam. I'm not gonna stand here and gossip with you like two old wives at a book club meeting."

"I'm not trying to gossip, I guess I just... look, Bobby, I know about the baby," Sam finally said, in no mood to dance around the subject. Bobby's expression informed him that he knew as well. "I just wanted to know if... you know. If Dean knows."

"Dean knows."

Sam let out a long sigh, unsure about how to feel about that. He guessed he was relieved that his brother wasn't in the dark about something so important. Still...

"So is he... I don't know, how does he feel about it?" Sam pressed. "I mean, he had you keeping the shapeshifter. What was he-"

"Look, Sam, you have to talk to Dean about it," Bobby growled, putting an end to the conversation. "Frankly, it's none of my business since I lost the shifter. Not sure if it's your business either, to tell you the truth. If Dean wanted to talk to you about it, I'm sure he would have brought it up. Since he didn't, you might want to think twice before you decide to take a swing at that beehive."

"Right," Sam sighed. "Yeah, you're right."

His phone rang and he was quick to answer it.

"Yeah."

"Sam, you got the bullets?" Allison asked.

"Yeah."

"You need to get back here fast."

"What's the rush?" Sam asked.

"Anna's freaking out. Something happened to Dean."

Sam's blood ran cold. Bobby read his expression and frowned.

"Sam? What's wrong?"

"Dean," Sam said, shoving his phone in his pocket and taking off for his car. "I don't know what happened yet."

"Wait, I'm coming!"

"Bobby, there's no time-"

"Boy, you start that car before I get my hat and my gun and I'll make you rue the day you were born!" Bobby shouted, darting back into the house. Sam was impatient, his heart pounding and his mind racing with worry, but he waited for Bobby anyway.

Together, they raced to the site of the small camp the Smith sisters had set up just outside town. By the time they pulled up, the site was completely disassembled and all three girls were waiting in the car. Anna was even paler than usual, clutching her head in the back seat of the Smith's car.

"What's wrong?" Sam asked, jumping out of his car and hurrying over.

"He's calling for help," Anna said, eyes wide as she grimaced and laced her fingers through her hair. "He's- he's so loud! He's so..."

She groaned, doubling over in the back seat.

"She's been like this for fifteen minutes," Allison said. Alice watched keenly from the front seat, expression troubled.

"Who's calling for help?" Sam asked, putting a hand on Anna's shoulder.

"I-I don't know! I just- Ah!"

"Look, kid!" Alice said sharply, grabbing Anna's attention. "You need to give us something to work with here. Can you tell us where he is? Anything?"

"I don't know!" Anna yelled. "He's just- He's saying it over and over again and he's so loud!"

"What's he saying?" Sam asked calmly, shooting Alice a dirty look as he rubbed Anna's back soothingly. "Can you repeat the exact words for me? Anna?"

"The demons... the demons have Winchester," Anna gasped, struggling to speak through the pain Castiel's psychic shouting was causing her. "Lilith has Dean Winchester. Help- Send help."

"He's still the only voice you hear?" Sam asked. Since he'd caught up with Anna, she'd informed him that almost all of the voices had gone away completely. The only one she heard on a regular basis anymore was always asking for guidance, begging for help. Never so urgently that it caused Anna pain though.

"He's distraught," she moaned. "He's failing and he can't stand it. He's afraid too. He's afraid of... oh, god!"

"That does it!" Bobby growled. "Sam, you were right, this has gone on long enough! It's high time someone took care of Lilith once and for all!"

"You're just now getting that?" Alice asked, a nasty edge to her words. Bobby met her eyes for the first time with a scowl.

"Stow it, Smith!" he reprimanded her. "Last I checked, you were in bed with her, so you've got no room to talk!"

"Hey! Cut it out!" Allison yelled, her voice rising above all the rest. Everyone fell quiet except for Anna, still moaning and covering her ears in a vain attempt to muffle the desperate cries for help reverberating through her skull.

"We all need to be on the same page if we're gonna have a shot in hell at pulling this off," she pointed out. "Sam, you said you had a way to find Lilith?"

"It won't be fast enough," Sam realized, dread creeping over him at the thought that they might be too late. "My plan... there's no way we can pull it off fast enough to help Dean."

"If Lilith really has him, it might already be too late, " Bobby said grimly. "He could already be dead for all we know."

"Not a chance," Alice broke in. All eyes flew to her. "Llilith's not after Dean because she wants him dead. Not right away, anyway."

"What the hell does she want with him then?" Sam demanded.

"She wants him back in hell," Alice said darkly. "She's trying to finish what she started."

"Finish what she started? What the hell does that mean?" Sam demanded.

"Finish the prophecy," Allison provided. "When a righteous man sheds blood in hell..."

Bobby frowned deeply when he heard those words. They sounded terribly familiar.

"Wait, are you talking about the prophecy I think you're talking about?" Bobby asked, hoping his hunch was wrong.

"What prophecy?" Sam asked.

"Old school revelations," Bobby told him. "An obscure text from back before the Nicean council got their hands on it and edited it to death. It's a reference to the apocalypse."

"It's less of a prophecy and more of a playbook," Allison said. "A guide to the end of the world for anyone with the means to decipher it and carry out the instructions."

"Point being, this isn't about getting to Lilith before she kills Dean," Alice summed it up. "This is about getting to Lilith before she breaks him."

Her words sent a shudder ripping through Sam. He took a deep breath, steeling himself in the face of his worst nightmare. It was happening all over again. This time, it was more his fault than ever. He'd left Dean alone, gone off on his own chasing revenge. He should never have let Dean out of his sight.

"I can't let them take him again," Sam said, his voice breaking at the thought.

"So get your shit together," Alice told him. He met her eyes. In them, he saw the same swirling storm of emotion that was threatening to overtake him. He also saw the determination he needed to make it through the crisis. "Tell us your plan. And let's go get him back."

Sam took a deep breath, gathering his thoughts and shutting off his emotions. This was the most important job of his life. This time around, he was going to get it right.

"Ok. Let's do it," he said, resolve firm.

Dean felt like an eternity passed beneath the scratchy sack that rendered him blind as demons dragged and tossed him around. His guts were in knots imagining what might await him at his destination, wherever that proved to be. He couldn't help his labored, panicked breathing. A few times, he almost thought he was going to pass out in the sack from a lack of oxygen. Sweat dripped down his face and stung his eyes, the little air left in the burlap sack so moist that he felt like he was drowning.

Finally, the journey came to an abrupt end when Dean was thrown down into a chair.

"Hey! Watch the merchandise!" he snapped, grimacing at the rough landing. There were hands all over him, holding him down while someone removed the cuffs from his hands just long enough to strap his wrists to the chair. Dean struggled pointlessly and got a sucker punch for his trouble.

"Shit!" he cursed, spitting out a mouthful of blood that sprayed against the sack and ended up back on his face with his next sharp intake of breath.

The hands disappeared and Dean heard a chorus of retreating footsteps and a creaky door slamming shut. He was alone with his pain and fear. Lilith could only want him alive for one reason and it wasn't hard for him to guess what it was. She'd sent Alice out first to do her dirty work. Now she was rolling up her sleeves, finally ready to get her hands dirty. Dean steeled his nerves, heart pounding, blood racing, mind screaming as he tried hard not to think about what he knew deep down she wanted from him.

His soul. Another signed contract consigning him to hell for the rest of eternity.

Dean clenched his eyes shut, listening to the ragged sound of his own breathing. It took him forever, but he finally forced it to steady. He forced himself to breathe evenly, forced himself to stop panicking, to stop anticipating the worst.

I won't do it, he promised himself resolutely. I won't sign anything. She can do whatever she wants to me. I'll die before I go back. I'll die before I go back.

Dean repeated the phrase like a mantra, wrapping the words around his heart like armor. They offered little comfort, but Dean didn't need comfort. He just needed the strength to withstand whatever tortures Lilith had in store for him.

The door scraped open, rusty hinges screaming in protest. Dean's heart dropped into his gut, beating against his intestines and making him feel sick. He caught himself breathing more heavily and quickly forced himself to stop.

I'll die before I go back. I'll die before I go back.

Footsteps echoed in the room as someone tread a circle around Dean.

"Well, well, well. Dean Winchester. Long time... No see."

Dean had been expecting a female voice. Last time he'd crossed paths with Lilith, she had been possessing a little girl. The voice he heard now belonged to a man. He didn't recognize it.

"Rude of you to run out on me like that," the man went on. A record started playing. With a fresh wave of dread, Dean realized he recognized the song.

"Like the wallpaper sticks to the wall... Like the seashore clings to the sea..."

"Oh no," Dean groaned, unable to help himself. He only knew one demon who liked to listen to Sinatra while he tortured his victims.

"Like you'll never get rid of your shadow... Frank, you'll never get rid of me."

"Aha! I think he's got it," the demon crowed in celebration.

The bag was ripped from Dean's head along with a hiss of pain as dried blood pulled abruptly from his skin. Dean blinked in the sudden, harsh light, his eyes slowly adjusting. He was in a small, dirty concrete room, sitting under a single surgical lamp. The stench of old blood hit him, almost making him gag with its potency. Before him, a table was covered with an array of tools. They chilled Dean to the bone. He knew every one of them intimately. Favored instruments of torture from the repertoire of none other than hell's very own Picasso.

"Did you miss me as much as I missed you?" Alastair asked Dean with a garish grin that made his blood freeze in his veins.

This was so much worse than anything Dean had previously imagined.

"Who are we looking for?"

Alice and Sam staked out the back entrance of a hospital. Allison and Bobby were watching the front. Sam had intentionally split the sisters up, fighting Allison every step of the way to do so. Finally, Alice had come down on Sam's side, which puzzled him until he got her alone and she explained herself to him.

"Don't get me wrong Sam, you're great company," Alice had assured him. "But truth be told, I'm skipping my daily dose of holy water and that's gonna be easier to do if Allison isn't around. You'll vouch for me, right?"

Sam had agreed, mystified. Now, Alice peered through a pair of binoculars at the hospital staff parking lot.

"A nurse," Sam reminded her. He flipped his phone open and pulled her picture up so he could show Alice.

"And she knows where Lilith is?"

"Not the nurse. The demon possessing her."

"Of course. What's a demon doing playing nurse though?" Alice puzzled, settling back in her seat and giving Sam a turn with the binoculars.

"Trust me, you don't really want to know the answer to that," Sam assured her grimly.

"Whatever you say."

"So, you gonna tell me why your sister's got you drinking holy water?"

"You probably don't want to know the answer," she sassily parroted back his own words.

"No, I really do. Why, you don't want to talk about that either?" Sam pressed.

"Not really."

"Is there anything you do want to talk about?"

"I could stand to hear this plan of yours one more time."

"Get the demon. Make her tell us where Lilith is. Get there and gank the whore."

"Simple. Straightforward. Full of holes, but it's not like I have any better ideas," Alice sighed.

"So, once we rescue Dean..."

"Once you rescue Dean," Alice corrected him. "I call dibs on offing Lilith. You know, since it's my soul on the line and all."

"So what, you're gonna cut and run as soon as the job is done?" Sam asked probingly.

"Hell yeah."

"You're not even gonna stick around long enough for Dean to thank you?" Sam went on.

"Dean? Thank me? I don't know how much he told you, but we're not exactly on speaking terms," Alice grimaced.

"Dean told me everything," Sam informed her.

"Really? 'Cause you seemed awfully surprised by my hitchhiker," Alice said, gesturing to her stomach. Sam pursed his lips, reminded of everything else he wanted to talk to her about.

"About that..."

"Oh for crying out loud."

"Come on, Alice, I'm just curious," he said.

"Not much to be curious about."

"Is it Dean's?"

"I guess."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"It means... look, I couldn't be more uncomfortable with this whole... thing," Alice snapped. "Do me a favor and don't make it any weirder than it has to be."

Sam opened his mouth to speak, but closed it again quickly. They lapsed into a silence that consumed the car for the longest time.

"So what's your plan, you're just gonna... raise them on your own?" Sam finally asked, unable to restrain himself any longer.

"Oh my god. You're a nosy son of a bitch, you know that?" Alice groaned.

"Oh, come on, Alice, drop the act!" Sam snapped. "Look, I know you better than you think I do, ok? I know you care about my brother, more than he thinks you do. More than you want to admit to yourself."

"Sam-"

"So you two have a complicated history. You can get past it if you try. Dean'll forgive you if you tell him you regret what you did."

"Sam-"

"I'm just saying, there's no reason for this kid to suffer just because you two can't get your shit-"

"Sam, oh my god! SHUT THE FUCK UP!" Alice roared, erupting out of her seat like an exploding volcano. She loomed over Sam, hands hovering over his throat, threatening to make contact. Instead of throttling him, she froze in place and stayed that way for a long moment shaking with tension and rage. She finally settled back into her seat, leaving Sam at a loss for words.

"I'm not keeping it," she finally told him, tone flat and level. "Ok? Are you happy now? You made me say it. I don't want this kid, Sam. I don't want any kids. I'm a hunter, not a mother."

Sam waited a moment, giving her space to cool off before he spoke again.

"Those things aren't mutually exclusive you know," he said softly, starting to wish he would have left well enough alone. Bobby and Allison were right. This wasn't his business, but it was too late to stop now.

"I. Don't. Want it," she repeated, speaking slowly in an attempt to get her meaning through his thick skull.

"Ok. So what, you're just gonna... drop it off a the fire station?" Sam asked, getting a headache.

"I don't know, I guess?" Alice said glumly. She had tried hard to avoid thinking that far ahead. Now, Sam was forcing her to consider the logistics of abandoning Dean and Danny's baby and she hated him for it.

"What if Dean wants it?"

Alice fixed him with a hard, intensely judgmental sidelong glance.

"You think Dean wants a baby? A shapeshifter baby? Wow, whatever you're taking, I want some too."

"Well did you ever even bother to ask him?" Sam demanded.

"Tell you what. If we're all still alive when we make it to the end of this shitshow, you ask him if he wants the damn thing," Alice snorted. "Until then, can you please, please shut up about it?"

"Fine."

"Thank god. I tell you what, this is the last time I team up with you for anything," Alice announced snarkily. "I'd almost rather be stuck drinking holy water."

A fruitless, awkward, tense hour passed them by before the suffocating silence was broken by Sam's ringtone. It was Bobby.

"We got her."

Dean was out of breath from screaming. Alastair filled the silence with song as he took his time slowly positioning the pliers under the tip of Dean's nail.

"For nobody else gave me a thrill ... With all your faults, I love you still..."

Alastair watched Dean, waiting while he caught his breath.

"Ready?" he asked.

Dean was out of smart comebacks. He wanted to spit at the demon, but he was out of spit too. They'd been here for hours and Alastair still had yet to make Dean an offer.

"Man, fuck you," he managed half-heartedly.

"Good, good."

Slowly, sure, Alastair dragged the nail out of its bed. Dean's screams echoed in the small concrete room. Finally, it was over and he was left with only the raw ache in the tip of his finger to remind him of what had just happened. The after effects of the torment lingered, vibrating along every nerve in Dean's body like electricity. It wasn't quite relief that Dean felt when he realized he was out of fingernails. He caught himself laughing and tried to make himself stop, but found that he couldn't.

"Something funny?" Alastair laughed, chuckling along with him indulgently.

Dean laughed harder, glancing down at his mangled hands and positively losing his mind. It was funny, he realized with a manic, crazed glee.

"No, it's just..."

He laughed harder and it took a few minutes for him to calm down enough to speak again.

"This isn't hell," he finally managed. He grinned at Alastair with bloody teeth. "I mean, you know that, right"?

"Unfortunately, you're right," Alastair sighed. "They dragged me away from my paradise for this damn crusade. Don't get me wrong... I love the cause. I just never thought they would need me to participate in such a... worldly setting. Do go on though. I must say, I'm dying to be let in on the joke."

"You can't keep this up forever," Dean said with a smile. "In hell, you take all my fingernails, then you do it again and again and again. But up here... Up here you just get one shot at this. You get one chance to get it right, one chance to break me, and after that..."

Dean laughed again but this time, there was no mirth in the sound. It was a dry, dead, grimly victorious laugh.

"After that I die. And it's over. Forever."

"Oh, is that how you think this works?"

It was Alastair's turn to laugh. He captured Dean's eyes, his expression melting Dean's resolve and tying his guts into squirming knots.

"That's how he thinks it works up here," Alastair mused. He raised his hand and Dean flinched, but no blow ever came. Instead, Alastair snapped.

Instantly, the pain disappeared. Dean was far from relieved. He sank deeper into his dread than ever before. Alastair cradled Dean's face in his hands, almost tenderly.

"Tell me something, sonny boy," Alastair said, clicking his teeth as he spoke. "Just what exactly do you think it is that we're doing here?"

Dean didn't dare respond. He waited and let Alastair go on.

"I'll tell you something you should really already know, being a hunter and all," Alastair explained. "There are things that demons are and aren't allowed to do. Rules we are forced to follow. Laws written deep in the very fabric of nature itself. One thing we're not allowed to do? Forcibly compel any human to hand over their soul."

Suddenly, Dean realized what was happening. He knew the name of the game Alastair was playing. Still, the demon went on, just in case his victim hadn't picked up on it yet.

"So you see Dean, I'm not here to make you do anything," he chuckled. "I'm not here to ask you to come back to hell... no, no, no. See, I'm just up here having a little fun to pass the time until Lilith says I can go back to my paradise. Of course, if you wanted to offer me something to cut your time here short..."

Alastair trailed off, raising his eyebrows expectantly and waiting for a response. Under his gaze, Dean went dead. His vision glazed over as he realized just how screwed he really was.

Here, hell... they may as well as have been one and the same.

"Well, I'm bored," Alastair sighed, letting Dean go. His head slumped in despair as Alastair turned his back to him, changing the record and examining his tools.

"What to do, what to do," Alastair thought aloud. "So much torture... so little time."

Frank Sinatra serenaded Dean while he sat, hopeless in his own personal hell.

Sam and Alice met up with Bobby, Allison and Anna at their campsite. As promised, they had the captured nurse bound, gagged and strung up from a tree. Beneath her lay a devils trap and a torn sleeve revealed a binding symbol carved into her shoulder. She wasn't going anywhere.

"Nice work," Sam commended the other team.

"Don't get excited," Bobby told him. "Allison's been mind-trick torturing her for nearly half an hour. She's not gonna crack easy."

"She's not gonna crack at all," Allison called. The hunters turned to see her digging through the trunk of her car. "She's a hell of a lot more scared of Lilith than she is of us. We'll never get her to talk with torture."

"You say that like you've got another idea," Sam said hopefully.

Allison held up bundle of herbs and something that looked suspiciously like a human bone.

"Truth spell," she said with a smirk. "Put it together right and the bitch'd tell us where to find her mother, assuming she had one."

"Are we really stooping to witchcraft so fast?" Bobby asked with a frown.

"We need to use what we've got," Alice said. "Unless either of you have a better idea. I don't think I need to remind you that every minute we waste is time that Dean doesn't have."

Sam set his jaw and hardened his gaze.

"So what are you waiting for?" he asked Allison.

She nodded in grim approval.

"This won't take long."

The hunters waited with bated breath in tense silence while Allison did her witchly work. Alice watched Sam and Bobby, considering the irony of their actions. When it came to Dean, there was nothing they wouldn't do, no line they wouldn't cross to save him. They would compromise every moral, sell out every value they had for his sake. Dean would do the same for either of them; after all, that was what had gotten them all into this mess in the first place.

What made them so much better than her? At the end of the day, what difference was there between the things they did? The rules they broke, the sins they committed with no regard for the consequences?

"I'm done," Allison announced. "She needs to swallow this. I'm gonna need a hand or three."

Dutifully, the hunters took their places, following Allison's orders to a T. They removed the gag from the demon's mouth and she immediately clamped her jaw shut.

"This is gonna be fun," Bobby grumbled sarcastically. He pinched the demon's nose while Sam held her still and Allison waited with the cup ready. Alice watched the time, minutes passing like hours as they waited for the demon to open its mouth.

Ten minutes managed to escape them, yielding no results.

"This isn't going to work!" Sam snapped.

"Well you have any bright ideas about how else to get it in her?" Allison shot back.

"We seriously don't have time for this," Alice scowled.

"Ok, so what-"

"Just hold her still."

Alice stomped over to the car, tearing through the trunk. She came back a few minutes later with an oil funnel.

"What are you-"

"Hold. Her. Still," Alice hissed. "Allison, get ready."

Alice drew her knife and advanced. The demon watched her with narrowed eyes, daring her to act.

"Alice, the host!" Bobby yelled in protest.

"She's already dead," Alice pointed out. "You've been holding her damn nose for what, twelve minutes now? The nurse is done for. You want her to have died for nothing? Or you wanna hold this bitch still and let me work?"

Bobby realized she was right and nodded, expression dark. Alice pressed the knife against the demon's throat, sinking it slowly, deliberately through the skin and flesh of its dead host. The demon's eyes widened and it thrashed desperately as it caught onto what was happening.

"Hold her!"

Alice withdrew the knife and quickly jammed the funnel into the gash, moving it from side to side to lodge it firmly in the nurse's esophagus.

"Allison, now!"

Allison leaned up on her tiptoes and carefully poured the potion into the funnel. Sam and Bobby looked on, shell-shocked and a little traumatized as the last of the thick brown liquid disappeared into the demon. Alice waited a minute, giving the spell time to sink in and take effect. Finally, she pulled the funnel out of the wound and tossed it aside in disgust. Bobby and Sam released the demon and stepped back, both looking disturbed but still fully committed.

"Now," Alice said, addressing the demon. "We've got some questions for you."