Oh, I can't stop you putting roots in my dreamland

My house of stone, your ivy grows and now I'm covered in you

So yeah, it's a fire

it's a goddamn blaze in the dark

And you started it. You started it

So yeah, it's a war

It's the goddamn fight of my life

And you started it. You started it

Taylor Swift, Ivy

Kaydie tracked Alice to the hospital, but got Brian's text before she could ransack the place in search of her nemesis. She took off, heart pounding, blood burning as she raced to the warehouse in question. There, she found her cousin waiting, shotgun in hand, watching the only way in or out of the building. A line of salt stretched all the way around the building and out of sight. Kaydie was filled with satisfaction as she surveyed the work that had been done in her absence.

"Good job," she commended Brian. She got close enough to hear someone sobbing and shouting inside, curses that she could barely make out from this distance.

"What are you gonna do to her?" Brian asked. He knew who Alice was, knew what she'd done to their family. Her family.

"I'm going to kill the bitch," Kaydie replied, eyes glinting with a wild, savage light. She checked her clip, silver bullets gleaming at her for an instant before she reloaded them.

"You're gonna kill a ghost with silver bullets?" Brian asked dubiously.

"Call it an experiment."

Kaydie reached into her pocket and handed him a bullet to inspect. He examined the spellwork around the base of the round and sucked his teeth.

"I don't know, Kay. It's a stretch. I say we chain her up, work a spell, locate her bones," he proposed. "Nothing like the tried and true traditional methods."

"No," Kaydie said firmly. "I'm not waiting that long. I'm not salting and burning her. I want to watch her die. I want her to look into my eyes when I kill her."

Brian pursed his lips. He understood Kaydie's rage. Greta had been like a mother to all of them. Even so, the darkness he saw blossoming in his cousin's eyes chilled him to the bone and filled him with dread.

"She's armed," Brian reminded Kaydie as she approached the door, preparing to open it. "Be careful. Don't pull your punches trying to turn this into some big moment. Just kill her quick and be done with it."

Kaydie snarled, giving him no indication that she would take his advice.

"Just cover me," she growled.

She stormed into the warehouse, gun at the ready. Inside, she caught sight of Alice feet away, prying open a window, muttering to herself as she frantically tried to escape.

"Smith! There's nowhere to go," Kaydie informed her, advancing on her with a smirk. Alice's fear was was a delicacy she had craved ever since learning of her grandmother's death, learning who had killed her.

"Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit!" Alice cursed. She got the window open and hopped up to balance precariously on the sill.

"The building is surrounded with salt!" Kaydie hissed. "See for yourself!"

Alice ignored her and leaped out of the window without so much as a backward glance. Kaydie was so surprised that she almost choked. She rushed after her target, mind racing as she struggled to reconcile this turn of events with what she knew. Alice didn't get far. One of Kaydie's cousins tackled her and they crashed to the ground together as Smiths raced to his aid.

"What the- How the hell did she get over the salt line?!" Brian demanded, catching up and leveling his shotgun at Alice as Kaydie realized what had happened.

"You didn't trap Alice!" she snapped. "You geniuses nabbed a shifter, but Alice is long gone."

"That's impossible!" Brian argued. "I saw her try to get over the line, I saw it stop her. I shot her, damn it, she-"

"Shut up!"

Kaydie silenced him furiously.

"I need to think. Shut the fuck up!"

She fumed as Danny struggled against the Smiths in vain. Supernaturally strong as he was, there were too many of them for him to take at once, and they pinned him to the blacktop. One of them patted him down, finding every one of Alice's concealed weapons and tossing them into a pile a few feet away. He paid special attention to the antique revolver, admiring its beauty before he put it with the rest.

"We should at least take care of the shifter," Brian pointed out, waiting for Kaydie to say something. She was silent for a long moment, eyes closed in thought. Finally, she nodded and opened her eyes, raising her gun to take aim at Danny.

"Wait!" he shrieked. "Wait, don't shoot me! I can help you! I can help you find her! Don't kill me! Please don't kill me!"

Interest piqued, Kaydie knelt down beside him.

"Where did she go?" she asked.

"Kaydie, you can't-"

"Shut up, Brian," she ordered him. "Come on, kid, tell me."

"Get them off me first," Danny demanded, glancing at the Smiths holding him down. Kaydie nodded, and reluctantly, the Smiths released him.

"Kaydie, you're taking this too far!" Brian yelled. "You can't negotiate with this monster!"

"Strategy, Bri," Kaydie told him. "Shut up and let me work. That's an order. Alice is a worse monster than this one. I'd say it's a fair trade."

Danny scrambled to his feet and Kaydie rose as well.

"So?" she prompted.

"She's gonna go back to the hospital," Danny told her. "Her sister's there. Dean too. She won't leave town without them."

"That's your big tip?" Kaydie scoffed. "I already knew that. A deal's a deal though. Get gone. Fast."

"Kaydie-"

"Brian, not another word!" Kaydie shouted. Meanwhile, Danny turned tail and ran as fast as he could. Kaydie waited until he had a ten second head start, then raised her gun.

"Shitty information gets you a shitty head start," she said. She fired once, bringing Danny down with a single shot to the nape of the neck. She turned to her cousins, fixing Brian with a cold, intense stare.

"I need a word with Brian. Everyone else, go," she ordered. They complied. Brian glanced at the shapeshifter, bleeding out on the concrete, then locked eyes with Kaydie.

"I shouldn't need to tell you of all people how things work," Kaydie said. "Greta's gone. I'm her successor. If you have a problem with that, you can call a meeting when we get home. But until then, you need to fall the fuck in line. Every time you question my orders, you put all our lives at risk. There's no room on the battlefield for doubt. So either go home and do what you need to do, or stop contradicting me. Do I make myself clear?"

Brian caught himself shuddering under the intensity of her scrutiny. The authority with which she spoke, the words she used... she reminded him strongly of Greta.

"Crystal," he said.

"Good."

An hour passed, night fell, and Alice pulled herself together.

"I'm going soft," she groaned as she rose, making her way back to the hospital.

The first thing she did was search for her sister. She found her, laying in the intensive care ward with tubes and wires connecting her to machines that beeped and hummed. Relieved as Alice was to find her alive, she couldn't bring herself to stay by her side. The sight of Allison hurt so badly made her feel like breaking down again, and she couldn't handle the thought of another helpless fit of grief. Once in a lifetime was more than Alice wanted to deal with.

So instead, she went to see Dean. Sam was sleeping, slumped over in his chair with his head on the hospital bed at Dean's feet. Alice approached slowly, carefully keeping her presence hidden from Sam, ignoring the fact that he was there. She sat on the bed next to Dean and took a good look at him. He looked a hell of a lot better than Allison. No machines, no tubes. He could have just been asleep.

"Hey," she said quietly. She didn't know if he could hear her, so she glanced at Sam one more time and forced herself to manifest a little more substantially. The bed settled under her weight and her shadow fell over Dean as she blocked the light.

"Hey Dean," she said again, whispering so she didn't wake Sam. "It's me. I know you probably don't want me here. I couldn't help myself."

She wanted to touch him, raised her hand to stroke his cheek, but stopped herself. She drew her hand back, clearing her throat and shoving the urge aside.

"I don't know if you ever listened to the message I left you," she said, daring to speak a little more loudly. "Just in case you didn't, I'm... I'm sorry. About everything. I know apologizing doesn't fix anything, but..."

She paused, searching for the right words.

"I swear to god I regret making that deal," she told him. He didn't stir, his expression didn't change. He gave no indication that he heard her, but she went on anyway. "I know what you're probably thinking. I'm not sorry I did it, I'm just sorry I got caught, that kind of thing, but... I really wish I could take it back, Dean. I'm not proud of what I did. I'm ashamed as hell, actually. More ashamed than I've ever been of everything in my life. I'm sorry I betrayed your trust. I'm sorry I let you down. I'm sorry I couldn't be better for you. I just... I just wish you could hear me. Even if you never forgive me, I... I hate seeing you like this."

She took his hand, the desire to touch him too strong for her to resist.

"I wish I could help you. I know it wouldn't make up for what I did, but at least... well, it'd be better than nothing, right?"

"Do you genuinely mean that?"

A deep voice from behind Alice made her jump. She whirled around to see a man in a tan overcoat standing at the foot of the bed.

"Who in the hell are you?!" she demanded. She looked him over, realizing she knew him from somewhere, but failing to place him.

"Well I have nothing to do with hell," Castiel bristled. "I mean, I visited once, briefly, but the trip was strictly business."

"Do I know you?" Alice asked, giving up trying to guess his identity.

"My name is Castiel. I am the angel who pulled Dean Winchester from the jaws of perdition. If I recall correctly, you were present at the time."

"Oh yeah. Yeah, I remember you. And you're here now because...?"

"I have been tasked with protecting him."

"Oh yeah?" Alice scoffed. "Well I gotta hand it to you, you're doing... you're doing a great job."

"As flattering as that is, I must, sadly, disagree," Castiel said, her sarcasm going completely over his head. "I have failed my mission, terribly so."

"You can say that again."

"Why would I repeat myself? I spoke clearly the first time," Castiel frowned.

"Oh. Wow. Ok, you're that kind of angel," Alice realized.

"What kind of angel?"

"The humorless kind."

"For your information, my sense of humor is considered to be very highly developed by my peers," Castiel said defensively. "This conversation has strayed far off topic. Answer me simply, Ms. Smith. Do you truly wish to help Dean?"

"Please, Alice is fine," Alice sighed, too weary to be mad at him for calling her by her last name. From the sound of it, he meant well anyway. "And of course I want to help him, I just... I don't see how."

"Dean's awareness has retreated deep into the recesses of his subconscious," Castiel informed her. "He is running from something."

"Hell."

"Perhaps."

"So can't you fix him?" Alice demanded. "Heal him?"

"I tried to bring him back, but he fled when I approached," Castiel explained grimly. "I cannot be certain, but I believe it is because my presence is unfamiliar to him. He may have perceived me as a threat. You, on the other hand, he knows. Your presence would be familiar to him, soothing. There is a chance you might be able to convince him to come back."

"Wow, you obviously don't know who I am," Alice scoffed.

"No, I am well aware of who you are," Castiel rebutted.

"Really? Then you should know Dean and I didn't part on the best of terms," Alice said. "I mean hell, if he runs from you, me showing up in his head might actually drive him away for good."

"Ms-"

Alice glowered at him and he quickly caught on.

"Alice," he corrected himself, "It is highly unlikely that your presence would worsen the situation. There is much to be gained, nothing to be lost. So I ask you; will you at least try to help him? If any of what I just heard you say was true, you will try to help him."

"Ok, just for the record, everything I said was like, super private," Alice said pointedly. "It was rude of you to listen."

"To be fair, I didn't have much choice in the matter."

Alice glanced back at Dean, biting her lip as she considered Castiel's proposal. He was right. If she didn't do this, it would make her a liar. She wasn't; she did care about Dean, she did want to help him. Truth be told, she was terrified to face him. It was one thing to apologize to someone when they couldn't hear you, couldn't react to your words. What if she found Dean, only to have him tell her to go to hell? What if he told her to stick her apology where the sun didn't shine? What would she do if she learned beyond a shadow of a doubt that he despised her, hated her guts? Finally saw her the same way the rest of the world did, as the monster she was?

Castiel could see her hesitancy and searched her exposed soul, desperate to find the right words to convince her to help him.

"Alice, you have always made the wrong choices," he told her.

Alice's eyes swung back around to fix him with a startled look. How could he know that?

"I know you have spent a lifetime disappointing the people who dared to have faith in you. I know you have been damned for it."

"You don't know anything about me!" Alice snapped.

"I know your fear. I know you think it's too late for you to change. That what you are is set in stone. Have courage, Alice. Do this. Help Dean. You are not wrong to be afraid. It is true he thinks he was a fool to trust you, but now you have a chance to prove him wrong, if you can be brave enough to take it. Change happens one good deed at a time, one right turn before another. Let saving Dean be the good deed that marks the beginning of your new life."

"Wow, you- you really... that has got to be the most low-down use of angelic mind-reading powers I ever heard of," Alice scowled. Still, Castiel's speech hit home. She couldn't walk away from this. "I'll do it, but only if you promise to stay the hell out of my damn head."

"You have my word," Castiel vowed seriously.

"I can't believe I'm doing this again," Alice said, facing Dean again. The last time she'd possessed him, it ended in disaster. What if this time turned out to be just as bad or worse?

She took a deep breath, dismissing her fears and apprehension. She had to do this. For her sake as much as Dean's.

She took the plunge, diving into Dean's mind.

Darkness greeted her.

"Hello?"

Her voice echoed back to her. She turned quickly, searching the black, empty space that was the inside of Dean's head. Dread crept over her as she dove deeper, frantically calling out for him, alert for any sign that she was getting close. Was he running from her the same way he'd run from Castiel?

"Alice?"

Dean's voice reached her, stopping her heart and lighting a tiny flame of hope. She blinked and when she opened her eyes, she was surrounded by sudden light. She squinted, struggling to adjust to her new surroundings. She was in a driveway in front of an open garage. Green lawns and cute little houses stretched down the street as far as she could see. It looked like a suburb.

Dean stared at her from inside the garage, frozen as he went through a drawer full of tools.

"Dean?" Alice asked, venturing a little closer.

"Alice, what... what are you doing here?" Dean asked, still too shocked for Alice to tell if he was mad at seeing her.

"I came to find you," Alice explained. "You need to come with me."

"Come with- What? Alice, I haven't seen you in... what, ten years?" Dean asked. "You just show up here out of the blue and that's all you have to say?"

"Ten- What? Dean, what are you talking about, we saw each other not two months ago," Alice reminded him. "We... we had that fight, remember?"

"Uh... no."

"Really?" Alice asked, taken aback by the strange development.

"Alice, I haven't seen you since Loki split us up," Dean said as if it should have been obvious. "1992, remember?"

"Oh. Yeah, I guess, it's just-"

"Dean!"

A voice from inside the house called, interrupting Alice. A woman's voice.

"Yeah, be right there!" Dean called back. "Look, we're just about to sit down to dinner, I mean... I can have Lisa set an extra place."

"Oh. I mean... sure, yeah."

Dean's bizarre behavior was making Alice's head spin. Unsure of what was happening, she played along in a stupor while she fought to reconcile reality with Dean's comatose fantasy.

"Great."

Dean went inside and Alice followed him, navigating the unfamiliar space gingerly, not knowing what to expect. They emerged into a dining room. A boy who looked around ten sat at a table with dark-haired woman. She looked confused when she spotted Alice.

"Dean, who's this?" she asked.

"Lisa, this is Alice, an old hunting buddy of mine," Dean said by way of introduction. "Alice, my wife Lisa, and our son, Ben."

"Your... wife?" Alice demanded, bewildered by the whole scenario. "Son?"

"You didn't tell me you were expecting company," Lisa said, her smile unfaltering in the face of the stranger who waltzed into her home so abruptly.

"Yeah, I wasn't expecting her," Dean admitted with a chuckle. "She just showed up."

"Well, I was hoping to have leftovers, but I guess this works too," Lisa said.

The scene skipped and Alice found herself sitting at the table across from Dean. She frowned at the disorienting shift, struggling to get her bearings and refocus.

"- and that's when she shot me," Dean was saying.

Lisa gasped, holding back an inappropriate laugh.

"No!"

Alice scowled at her. She was a figment of Dean's imagination alright. No real person would have laughed at a story like that. She was only making light of it because, for whatever reason, Dean's hindsight turned their first meeting into something that passed as humorous. Alice supposed she was grateful that he didn't hold it against her, but it was hard to focus on that past her ardent desire to punch his imaginary wife in the face. Who was this Lisa character anyway? Dean's perfect fantasy wife in a setting where he could literally have pictured anyone he wanted.

Alice stopped herself, quelled her frustration, reminding herself that she was the one who hurt him. She had a job to do here. She couldn't get sidetracked by jealousy for some broad who literally only existed in Dean's fantasy world. Probably.

With a sickening jolt, Alice was forced to wonder if Lisa really was imaginary? For the first time, she realized she'd never stopped to consider the possibility that Dean might have moved on. She sure as hell hadn't managed to get over him. Had he started a new relationship already?

Alice could have slapped herself. She wasn't here to get back together with him. She was here to save him. She needed to get the job done and get out.

"Yeah! Hell of a first meeting, I tell you what," Dean went on.

"That's nuts, Dad," the boy giggled.

"Yeah, well, that's Alice for you. She plays rough," Dean chuckled, meeting Alice's eyes from across the table. "Hell of a hunter though. Hey, remember that genie case we worked in... damn, where was it? New Mexico?"

Alice stood abruptly. She couldn't play along with this delusion. She needed to get Dean to wake up.

"Dean, can I have a word with you? In... private?"

Alice frowned, wondering if Dean's imaginary family counted as an audience. Still, better safe than sorry, she decided.

"Excuse us," Dean told them. He followed her into a cozy living room that made Alice feel like throwing up.

"Dean, you have to come with me," she said. "This isn't real. You have to wake up."

"Whoa there, slow your roll," Dean chuckled obliviously. "I'm not going anywhere, Alice. What's this about anyway? You need help on a hunt? 'Cause I'm out of the game, but I can give you some numbers if-"

"Dean, this isn't about a hunt, this is about you!" Alice said, struggling to keep from yelling with frustration. "This whole... fantasy life you've constructed here... it's not real! Don't you see? You're trapped, Dean! You have to snap out of it!"

"Haha, real funny," Dean said dryly, not sounding very amused. "What, did Sam put you up to this?"

"Dean!"

"Seriously, you're way out of line," he went on, tone turning severe. Something in his eyes bugged Alice. She held them, searching their olive green depths, trying to put her finger on what it was...

"I mean you barge into my life, make faces at my wife's cooking-"

"Your wife?!" Alice scoffed. "You mean your fake, made up wife?! Who is this Lisa anyway?! Is she someone you know in real life, or did you just completely fabricate her to screw with me?!"

"Screw with you?!" Dean demanded. "How about you get over yourself, huh?! No one invited you here, Alice! You're the one who came looking for me!"

"Yeah, so I could save your bacon! You're fucking welcome, by the way! Oh wait, that's right, you didn't thank me, you're too busy playing house with Lisa!" Alice made a mocking face when she said the name.

"Ok, it's time for you to leave!" Dean snapped. He grabbed her by the arm and the scene flickered and changed. Alice found herself in the front room, Dean shoving her toward an open door.

"Hey, I'm not-"

"Bye, Alice!" Dean said forcefully, throwing her out and going to close the door. Alice dived back in with a growl of frustration that turned into a high pitched shriek as Dean slammed the door on her foot.

"Alice-"

"Son of a bitch!"

Alice shouldered the door hard, hitting Dean with it as she bulldozed her way back into the house. He cried out and staggered back, clutching a bloody nose as he bumped against a sofa.

"Dean, honey? Everything ok?" Lisa called from the dining room.

"Fine, sweetie," Dean called back a little nasally. "Just a little friendly wrestling. Old times sake, you know."

"You have GOT to be kidding me!" Alice exclaimed in disbelief.

"Maybe take it outside, ok?" Lisa suggested.

"Yeah, sure!"

Dean stormed out into the front yard and Alice chased him. He rounded on her furiously, blood already gone from his face as though he had never been hurt to begin with. Alice supposed it made sense. It was his fantasy, after all.

"Look, you either leave willingly or I'm gonna make you leave!" Dean told her threateningly.

"You seriously..."

Alice trailed off, finally managing to put her finger on the look she saw in his eyes.

"You know this isn't real," she said, hardly able to believe it. "You know this is all in your head, don't you?"

Dean grabbed her shoulders and shook her hard.

"And like I said, I didn't invite you to come in here and screw with my life!" he hissed angrily. "So get lost, damn it!"

"Your life?!" Alice demanded. "This isn't your life, Dean! This isn't you!"

"I'm happy!" Dean insisted, shaking her again. She ripped free of his grasp and stumbled back, looking around with a new perspective as she realized on some level, Dean knew exactly what was happening to him. He was imagining all of this intentionally.

"You're just ok with giving up?" she asked, shock chasing away the anger she felt before. "You... you're fine with staying here forever in this fake life? What about Sam? What about..."

She trailed off, lost for words as she realized she wasn't getting through to him. She sat heavily on the steps of his front porch, reeling as reality hit her harder than Dean ever could.

Dean watched her mood change and he calmed down as well. He took a seat next to her while she surveyed the neighborhood in disbelief.

"So... this is your happy place?" she asked derisively.

"Don't knock it. Everyone needs dreams," Dean said.

"Dreams I get, but this is just... this is your ideal life?" Alice scoffed. "A white picket fence and a ticki-tacki house, nine to five job, coming home every day to some cookie-cutter wife wearing an apron with a 'How was your day, honey'?"

"Good ol' American dream," Dean said with a smile.

"I uh... I never took you for the type," Alice sighed.

"Yeah, well... the lives we end up living never quite match up with the ones we want," Dean said by way of explanation.

"This goes a little beyond not matching up with a hunter's life," Alice scoffed. "This is like, the exact polar opposite of our lives."

"Not your cup of tea?" Dean guessed.

"Hell no. I like my life."

"Bullshit."

"No, seriously," Alice insisted. "Especially now that I don't have to worry about going back to hell. I'm gonna live it up."

"You don't say?"

"Oh yeah. It's gonna be great."

She met his eyes again.

"Dean, come back with me," she begged. "I know why you're here. I get it, I really, really do, but it's over. Lilith's dead. No one's coming for you ever again. You're safe. So just... let all this nonsense go and come back to the real world."

Dean held her eyes for a long moment and she was encouraged to see the conflict hiding behind them.

"How do I know any of that's true?" he asked. "How do I know this isn't just you selling me out to hell to save your own skin, huh? Again?"

Alice opened her mouth, but she didn't know what she could say to prove herself. Her worst fears were coming true right before her eyes. Suddenly, she caught herself missing the trickster's touch, the ability that had made it impossible for her to break a promise. For so long, it had been a pain in her ass, tying her in knots and binding her to oaths she had no hope of ever fulfilling. Now, she would have given anything to have it back.

Dean held her eyes, searched them, tore her apart looking for the truth. Alice felt helpless under his gaze as she struggled to think of something, anything to say.

"Is there anything in the world I could do to make you trust me again?" she finally asked, despite the fact that she was terrified of what the answer might be. Dean thought about it for a minute, then nodded.

"Yeah. Yeah, there is," he said.

"What is it?"

"Tell me why you're here first."

"You're in a coma, Dean. I'm here to try to bring you back," she replied earnestly.

"Why?"

"What do you mean, why?"

"I mean, why bother? Why do you care?"

"That's a stupid question," Alice said, rolling her eyes.

"Is it?"

"You know why I care. I care about you, dummy."

"Did you care about me when you were trying to send me back to hell?"

"Oh, for crying out loud! How long are you gonna hold that against me?" Alice grumbled.

"Are you serious right now?"

"I'm sorry, ok?"

Dean rose, making for the front door as he shook his head.

"My food's getting cold," he said, sounding disappointed. "My family's waiting."

Alice wanted to snap at him about how his 'family' was imaginary, but she realized with a cold, nasty jolt that she was losing him.

"Dean! Wait! Come on, you know why I'm here!" she said desperately, chasing him up the steps and grabbing his arm as he paused with one hand on the door knob.

"No, Alice, I don't," Dean said. He locked eyes with her, challenging her silently. If it's true, say it.

Alice gaped at him wordlessly, heart pounding thunderously as she grappled with her worst fears. What if she said it and it still didn't sway him? What if he didn't care? What if she opened up, let herself be vulnerable in a way she never had before in her life, only for him to reject her anyway?

The thought of saying those words scared Alice more than anything in this life or the next, but she knew that if she didn't speak up now, she would regret it for the rest of her life. The unknowable 'what ifs' would haunt her, the possibility of what might have been would hound her no matter where she went or what she did.

Don't be a wuss, she chided herself.

"I love you."

The words fell from her lips, burning on their way out, hanging heavy in the air between them as she waited for his reaction. Before it came, she found herself talking again, nervous chatter that she couldn't stop from spilling out of her like blood from a fatal wound.

"I know I hurt you, I know I was wrong, I know I can't take it back, I know I fucked up, I know-"

Dean grabbed her and she expected him to start shaking her again. Instead, he pulled her into a kiss that she was too shocked to return until after it was already over.

"Yeah," he said in response to everything she knew. "You're right. You did."

"I'm sorry," she repeated. Slowly, Dean nodded.

"Prove it."

"How?"

"Stay."

"What?"

"Here. With me."

Alice frowned as she realized what he was asking.

"Dean, we can't-"

"We can," he assured her. "You want me to trust you? You want to convince me you're not still working with the demons? This is how you do it. So what do you say?"

"But Dean... none of this is real," Alice protested.

"So what?"

"So, there are people who need us. Real people who are going to be devastated if we stay here. Sam, Allison... we can't just leave them."

Dean's gaze hardened and he clenched his jaw, letting her go and backing away from her.

"I'm not leaving with you," he said firmly. "For all I know, this is just another trick. So if you really meant a word of what you just said, you'll stay here with me. You don't like the white picket fence and the ticki-tacki house? Fine. This can be anything we want it to be. We can be anything we want here."

"But it's not real," Alice stressed.

"I'm real. You're real. From where I'm standing, that's all that matters. So what's it gonna be, Alice?"

Alice gaped at him, realizing that he wasn't going to budge. He was really asking her to choose.

"You're a bastard, Dean Winchester. A stubborn fucking bastard," she scoffed.

"What can I say," he shrugged. "I've got a lot of great qualities."

Alice thought long and hard about what she would do while Dean waited.

"So? I don't have all day," Dean said impatiently.

"Damn right you don't," Alice agreed. "This is really how it's gonna be, huh?"

"Make up your mind."

She scowled at him, realizing that when it came right down to it, she didn't have a choice in the matter. She couldn't leave without him.

"Fine."