"Fine," Alice scowled.

Dean smiled when he heard her answer, but his expression faltered when she went on.

"If you won't come with me willingly, I'm gonna have to drag you out of here kicking and screaming," she said.

"Hey!"

She grabbed him and the bright, sunny front yard of his imagination melted away as they wrestled. Alice didn't expect him to come easily, but he put up more of a fight than she assumed he would be able to. He was a lot stronger than she remembered him being the last time they had fought a mental battle. Their last battle of wills would have seen her victorious had it not been for Bobby Singer tossing salt at her in the middle of the fight. Say what you would about hell, but it was the best place to go if you wanted to emerge with a will of steel. Alice realized with a sinking feeling that Dean's psychic strength matched hers, maybe even exceeded it.

"Come! With! Me!" she snarled, dragging him through the black abyss under which he had buried himself, wrestling him ever closer to the edge.

"NO!"

"YES!"

"NO!"

Dean ripped free from her grasp and dove deep, but Alice followed him, determined not to let him go. Scenes from his life flashed around them as the chase wore on. Alice crashed through motel room doors, through houses that were blurred and fuzzy because Dean couldn't remember them in detail. She pursued him through dark woods and splashed after him through sewers. With a roar, she threw herself at him and tackled him to the ground on the side of a highway. They rolled through memory after memory, both too preoccupied to notice that Dean's constructed world was growing grimmer around them.

"I'm not going back!" Dean shouted, scrambling to get away from Alice. He aimed a kick at her face that she didn't have time to get away from. It hit its mark and she cursed him, fury rising in her.

"I'm trying to help you, asshole! Stop fighting!" she yelled back. She was trying hard not to hit him back, trying hard to focus on why she was really here, but every blow of his that landed pissed her off more and more.

"You can't make me go back!"

"Dean! Son of a bitch!"

"I'll die before I go back to hell!"

His fist smashed into her ribs, her resolve breaking along with her bones. She snarled, anger driving her past reason as she finally stopped pulling punches and returned his assault. They rolled through a nursery that blazed with white hot, searing flames, walls drenched with blood while a baby screamed past the roar of the flames. They crashed through a window and never stopped falling, night sky lighting up around them with the explosion of a jet engine only feet from them.

"Fuck you, Dean!" Alice yelled, hands around his throat while they plummeted toward the ground. "I didn't need to come here and take a beating trying to knock some damn sense into your head!"

Dean choked while she throttled him, rolling just in time for Alice to take the brunt of their landing. She had all the wind and sense knocked clean out of her by the impact. Dean didn't fare much better. He rolled away and rose to take a stumbling step that ended with him falling back to the ground. They both lay still, struggling to breathe in Bobby Singer's scrap yard while they recovered from the fall. Alice rose first, shaking off her 'injuries'.

"This is so stupid!" she snapped. "It's all in my head... actually, no, it's not even in my head. It's all in your head! Damn it all! I'm done Dean, you hear me?!"

She stood over him, just barely resisting the urge to kick him one last time in parting. He stared up at her and she could see him tense, could tell he was waiting for her to attack. More than anything else, she didn't want to give him the satisfaction of being right. Instead of hitting him, she pointed at him, finger shaking with rage.

"You want to stay here in fantasy land with your fake wife and your stupid dream life?! Knock yourself out! I tried, motherfucker! I did the god damned best I could! You want to give up on life?! Boo hoo hoo, it's tough out there! Boo hoo, hell won't stop trying to drag your ass back?! You think you're special?! We've all got problems!"

Dean watched her with a bewildered frown that she disregarded. Now that she had started ranting, she couldn't stop.

"My sister's waiting for me back in the real world on god damned life support! My psycho cousin is out for blood and she doesn't care who she hurts if it means she can gank my endangered ass! Danny is toast! I should be out there right now hunting down a new meat suit instead of wasting my time in your thick, paranoid head trying to yank you out of your fantasy world! But you wouldn't know about any of that, ohh no! Because you're too busy playing house with Lisa to take a minute and ask me how I'm doing! You're too busy eating dinner with your stupid pretend family to care that I finally got hell off my ass! 'Wow, congratulations Alice! Good job! How'd you swing that one?!' Well screw you, Dean! Screw you and the stupid imaginary horse you rode in on! Screw you for good and forever!"

Alice flipped him the most aggressive pair of birds he'd ever seen in his life before she disappeared. He was once again alone in the safety of his subconscious, the echoes of Alice's infuriated rant still pounding in his ear drums.

"Ok, that was... that was kind of weird," he admitted, pulling himself up and dusting himself off. He checked, suspecting a trick or a trap, surprised to find that Alice was actually gone. She had really left. That was the last thing he'd been expecting. If she was really there at hell's behest, she wouldn't have given up until she succeeded or he evicted her by sheer force of will. He knew Alice well enough to know that she didn't give up that easy. And the things she'd said before she went... it threw him for a loop. It definitely wasn't what he expected from someone focused on trying to trade his soul to hell in return for theirs.

"Too weird," he decided. Something wasn't right.

"Dean?"

Lisa's voice beckoned him, calling him back home, calling him to dinner, but he paused. The seeds of doubt had been planted in his heart and now he couldn't shake the feeling that he was making a mistake. He couldn't bring himself to trust Alice, but he also couldn't dismiss the gut instinct that told him something didn't add up about her appearance in his fantasy. What if she was telling the truth?

Alice's departure from Dean's mind was abrupt and violent. She swore and sputtered and flew out of his body like a projectile, aided by his pushing and shoving. Unwittingly, she passed through Sam's sleeping form, just for an instant. Still, it was long enough for Sam to feel like someone had tossed a bucket of icy water over his head.

"Gah!"

He jerked upright with a ragged gasp, shivering in the aftermath of Alice's spirit's passage over him.

"What the hell!" he demanded, whipping around searching for the cause of his discomfort. Against the wall, Alice flickered and materialized, still cursing and struggling to regain her composure. Her fight with Dean had sapped her energy, making it immensely difficult for her to show herself. Still, she appeared long enough for Sam to catch sight of her and jump out of his chair.

"Alice! What are you-"

She interrupted him with a long, creative string of curses. Sam raised his eyebrows, realizing that she was talking about Dean.

"Ok, Alice, dial it back a bit," Sam requested, tone steady in an attempt to calm her. "What happened?"

"Oh, I tried to wake your blockhead brother up!" she spat. "Why I bothered, what a waste of-"

"What?! You- did you see him?" Sam demanded.

"I saw him alright! Moron's dug in there deep," Alice said, flickering as he watched. "Didn't want to hear anything I had to say!"

"What do you-"

"He's your problem now!" Alice snapped, quickly losing form as she made for the door. "I've got too many of my own to deal with. Damn stubborn mule of a..."

Her words faded along with her, leaving Sam reeling in the wake of her sudden appearance and departure. He examined Dean, searching desperately for any sign that his brother was stirring, but Dean was as unresponsive as ever. He sat back down heavily and let his face fall into his hands.

"Dean. Dean, Dean, Dean," he groaned. "Come on, man. You gotta work with us a little. Please?"

Dean's gut feeling drove him to the very edge of the psychological hole he was hiding in. Black nothing stretched between him and his fantasy world, tantalizing vivid behind him. He could still hear Lisa beckoning him, but her calls were faint and he ignored them for now. He reached the edge of the blackness, where it dropped off sharply and clashed with a border of pure, glowing white. Dean stopped short of the light, biting his lip as his stomach dropped thinking of leaving the safe haven he'd created.

"Dean."

A familiar voice reached him. It was muffled, but he would know that voice anywhere.

"Sam?" he asked, looking up.

"Dean, Dean, Dean."

Dean crept a little closer to the light, but dared go no further. Sam's voice was still faint, like he was hearing it through a wall.

"Come on man. You gotta work with us a little. Please?"

"You don't understand, Sammy," Dean replied, shaking his head. "You don't know what it's like. You don't know-"

"I know you're scared, ok? I know that demon hurt you, but... he's dead, man. I killed him. Lilith's dead too. I don't know if Alice told you, or what. I guess... look, I get that you don't trust her. I'm not saying you should, but she wasn't lying this time, ok? Dean, if you can hear me, please... I can't do this without you, man."

"Oh come on, Sammy, that's not fair," Dean groaned.

"... and I know it's not fair, I know it's selfish, I just... I feel so damn guilty, you know?"

"Oh come on!" Dean whined, running his hands through his hair as he listened to his little brother.

"I mean, you told me not to go after Lilith. I don't know if I feel worse because I left you by yourself or because I didn't kill her in time. I just-"

"God damn it!" Dean growled. He couldn't take it anymore. With a grimace, he leaped into the light, steeling himself for the possibility that he was waking to a trap.

His eyes flew open and he spotted Sam with his head in his hands at the side of his bed.

"- 'cause everyone else is-"

"Dude, knock it off!" Dean snapped.

Sam lifted his head so fast he got whiplash to find Dean scowling at him.

"This isn't the school counselor's office, man!" Dean went on crossly. "You need to stow the touchy-feely crap before I throw up all over you!"

"Dean!"

"Don't do it, Sam, don't you-"

Sam completely ignored his protests and grabbed Dean, crushing him in a smothering, vise-like hug that squished all the breath out of him.

"Damn it, Dean, you scared the crap out of me!" Sam scolded him. "God damn, man, I'm glad you're awake!"

"Yeah, well I wasn't gonna lie there listening to that garbage all day," Dean said humorously, returning Sam's embrace with feigned grudging.

"Aw, how touching."

They broke apart, instantly alert. Kaydie stood in the doorway, flanked by two of her cousins.

"Oh, not this again," Dean groaned.

"Smith. What do you want?" Sam demanded, hackles raised. He had a bone to pick with Kaydie after her disregard for Dean back at the hotel.

"Relax, we're not here for either of you," Kaydie assured them. "We just want Alice."

"She's not here," Sam replied without hesitation. He had his issues with Alice, but he wasn't about to hand her over to Kaydie either. As far as he was concerned, Kaydie was an enemy. Alice was complicated, but she had just tried to help Dean and that was good enough for Sam.

"Neither of you have seen her?" Kaydie asked. She shifted her gaze from Sam to Dean, demanding an answer.

"I literally woke up like, three seconds ago," Dean scowled.

"Right."

Kaydie was suspicious, but a steady whine from down the hall caught her attention. Another cousin with an EMF meter.

"You've got my number," she told them shortly. "If you see her, drop me a line."

"Oh, don't worry, we're on our toes waiting to make the call," Dean said with dry sarcasm. Kaydie and her cousins hurried down the hall, leaving the Winchesters alone.

"What the hell does Kaydie want with Alice anyway?" Dean asked Sam.

"I'm not sure, but something makes me doubt she wants to invite her to a friendly family reunion," Sam commented.

"Uh-huh. You know, knowing Alice, Kaydie's probably right to be pissed at her," Dean pointed out.

"Probably," Sam sighed.

"So why do I get the feeling that you wouldn't tip her off if Alice came around?" Dean pressed.

"And get in the middle of that drama? No thanks," Sam scoffed. "Why, would you hand Alice over to her?"

"Well, Alice didn't have any qualms about handing me over to someone way worse than Kaydie Smith," Dean said pointedly. Despite himself, he couldn't help thinking that maybe he wasn't being fair to her. After all, she had come after him, tried to coax him out of his coma.

No, Dean decided, hardening his heart against any compassion for Alice. No matter how hard she tried to help him wake up, it didn't make up for what she'd done. Dean refused to feel any gratitude to her. He refused to forgive her. Taking her back in a fantasy land with no consequences was one thing. In the real world, it was too risky. Alice was too selfish, to unstable, too unpredictable. He refused to let himself trust her.

I love you.

Dean shook the memory off, buried it deep and closed the door leading it it. He refused to love Alice Smith.

"Where are my clothes, man?" he asked, shaking off his feelings and forcing himself out of his own head. "I don't know about you, but I'm not hanging out here."

"Bag," Sam said, nodding to a backpack in the corner. Dean got up and went for it, hospital gown falling open around him as he bent down to open it. Sam looked away with a disgusted groan. "Dude, would it have killed you to give me a heads up?"

"I'm starving. You feel like eating?" Dean asked as he got dressed.

"Uh... yeah, sure. There's, uh... there're some things I needed to talk to you about," Sam remembered, the baby dominating his thoughts now that Dean seemed to have pulled through. "I guess over lunch is as good a time as any."

Alice watched as the hospital was practically invaded by Smiths. She dodged them as they patrolled the hallways with EMF meters.

"These things are useless in here," one woman grumbled. "Ghosts in a hospital? That's like hunting for a kid in a school. Or a fish at an aquarium. Kaydie's losing it, I'm telling you."

Alice let them pass her by, taking one last look at her sister. Allison hadn't moved since the last time Alice saw her.

"Get better, Allison," Alice said softly. "I'll be back."

She left the hospital, knowing she had a lot of work ahead of her. Ultimately, she hoped to find another shifter. That was a sweet setup. In the meantime, she would probably need to borrow a human, lest she risk the Lost Souls Recovery Unit catching her scent.

Another day, another disaster. She would come back from this one as strong as ever.

Six Months Later

It was a big deal at the hospital when Allison finally woke up.

"I gotta say, there were a lot of us here who didn't think you were gonna pull through."

Allison frowned at the nurse who was helping her get dressed, preparing her to check out.

"Uh-huh."

"Weirdest place I ever worked, I tell you what," the nurse sighed. "The family members coming through here on a weekly basis, constantly asking if you were awake yet... you sure you don't want to stick around? I'm telling you, every monday like clockwork."

"I'm good,"Allison assured her, wincing at the pain in her chest as the nurse helped her pull her shirt on.

"Right."

Something about the nurses choice of words was bugging Allison.

"I don't get it," she finally said. "What's so weird about people checking in on their family?"

"Just... the way they do it," the nurse frowned. "It's like... I mean, it's none of my business."

"No, go ahead," Allison urged her.

"I mean... if I didn't know better, I'd say they didn't actually care whether you pulled through or not," the nurse sighed. "They came off as so... professional, I guess. Usually family are more empathetic when they're checking in on someone. I don't mean to judge or anything, but your family... they're just so cold."

"Yeah, well, they're an eccentric bunch," Allison sighed. She thanked the nurse, claimed her few effects and made her way through the halls. Her limbs were stiff and heavy and it took extra effort for her to force them to move after six months spent sedentary. She passed a group of nurses on her way out, stopping to catch her breath just in time to hear their break time gossip.

"Such a shame. I was there when they found her, you know," one nurse was saying. "The mess... never saw anything like it in my life."

"I heard that the adoption agency is backing out," a man put in. "I mean, all the couples in the world begging to adopt a baby, why won't they take this one?"

"Because it's not a baby," another woman said sharply. Her voice carried the slightest touch of an accent that Allison thought sounded scottish. "It's a monster."

Allison's interest was piqued at those words.

"Macy! Don't say that!"

"Why? It's true," Macy snapped. "Everyone here knows it. You're all just too scared to say anything."

"How could you be so cruel?!"

"Cruelty doesn't come into it," Macy said defensively. "I've worked in the NICU for twenty years. That thing in there isn't a baby."

"Sorry, I couldn't help overhearing," Allison butted in, stepping closer. "If it's not a baby, what is it?"

"It's a baby," the first nurse said with a scowl. "Macy, you're talking nonsense."

"Then how do you explain all the changes?" Macy demanded. "I'm telling you, that thing isn't human."

"What makes you say that?" Allison asked.

"When I was a girl, my mum used to tell me stories from way back home," Macy explained, voice dark and heavy with grim warning. "Used them as warnings, making sure me and my brothers knew not to go out after dark. To lock our windows at night, not to talk to strangers. Stories about things that would follow you home if you went out alone... steal your face and take your place, live your life and imprison you in a dark nether world where you would be trapped for all eternity."

"Macy, you sound insane," the other nurse reprimanded her. "I've just about had it with you and your old folk tales."

"You're talking about changelings," Allison said, ignoring the other nurse. "You think the baby is a changeling?"

"This is crazy," the other nurse scoffed, finally walking away. Allison held Macy's eyes. The older nurse stared back, fearless, uncowed.

"Twenty years I've been caring for babies," she told Allison. "In all that time, I've never known a child to shed its skin. Never known one wake up every day with a new face."

Allison's blood ran cold, dread suspicion washing over her as she listened to Macy.

"Can you show me the baby?" Allison asked abruptly.

"This is a hospital, not show and tell," Macy scoffed.

"Hey, you're right about her," Allison said gravely. "The baby you're talking about? She's not human. She's not a changeling, but she's not human either."

Macy considered her for a long moment.

"Why do you believe me so easily?" she asked.

"Because I've seen things I couldn't explain before too," Allison said. "I've seen things no one else would believe, because they weren't there when it happened. Or worse, things that others saw and refused to believe because they were too scared to face the truth."

Macy sighed, a long, heavy exhalation that Allison guessed she had been holding for a very long time.

"It... it feels so good to tell someone else about this without having my sanity called into question," she confessed. "I just... I haven't a clue what to do. This thing... the hospital can't keep it forever. Now that its out of the incubator, they're trying to hand it over to the state or an agency for placement with a family, but..."

"You're scared of what might happen if it gets placed with a family who doesn't know what they're dealing with," Allison guessed, reading Macy's expression.

"I am. I truly, truly am," she said.

"I can help."

"What? How?"

"I know what it is. I know where it belongs. Macy, right? Do you really want to make sure that it never hurts anyone?"

"More than anything," Macy assured her sincerely.

Allison nodded, hatching a plan. It this wasn't Alice's baby, she'd be a monkey's uncle. She couldn't just leave her here alone.

"Can you get her out of the hospital?" Allison asked.

Macy thought about it for a long moment. Finally, she nodded.

That night, Allison waited in the freezing darkness, pulling her jacket around herself more tightly against the biting wind that howled through the city. The hospital lit up the night, while Allison stood in the shadows of the alley across the street. She felt like she was waiting for hours before nurse Macy finally emerged. She approached, carrying a large handbag with her.

"My wallet, medications, makeup, I had to leave all of it in a cabinet," she scowled. She lifted the handbag and held it out to Allison, who unzipped it. Big green eyes stared up at her from inside, stopping her heart.

"She's not crying?" Allison asked with a frown, pulling the baby from the handbag. She was tiny, terribly fragile and Allison handled her like she was made of glass. She was swaddled, but Allison held her inside her jacket anyway, shielding her from the icy cold.

"It never cries," Macy informed her, still refusing to refer to the baby as anything other than 'it'. "Not even a whimper. Not for its entire life, not that I've ever heard. What are you going to do with it?"

Allison considered her response for a long time, before she finally smiled.

"Thank you for your help, nurse," she said, deciding not to answer Macy's question.

She walked away into the storm, taking the child with her, leaving Macy to stare after them until they disappeared into the night.

Allison got into her car and immediately started blasting the heat. She waited until the air warmed before she pulled the child from her jacket.

"My god, you're the smallest thing I've ever seen in my life," she said, her voice transitioning to a croon without her willing it to. She couldn't help herself. The baby blinked at her, eyes enormous and intelligent.

"Wow," Allison went on, examining the baby that she would have bet her life was her niece. "Wow, you're old as hell, huh?"

The baby didn't respond, just kept staring at her.

"How do you look so much like Alice?" Allison demanded, squinting in the darkness. The baby sighed and closed her eyes. Despite herself, Allison got the feeling that the little thing was completely over the situation.

"You're well adjusted, aren't you?" she asked, smiling uncontrollably as she rocked the baby, cradling her tiny form in her arms. Warmth spread through her that had nothing to do with the car heater. "Aren't you, huh? You know everything. I can tell. Yes I can. You know Auntie Allison is gonna take good care of you. Don't you?"

Allison didn't want to put the baby down, but she knew she had to get the hell out of dodge before someone noticed the baby was missing and people came looking for her. With a sigh, she set the baby down on the floor of the passenger side of the car in a nest of blankets and pillows she had prepared.

"Damn, I am seriously under prepared to deal with this," she sighed. "I need a carseat, I need diapers, I need something to feed you... It's ok though. Auntie Allison has it all under control. I promise."

The baby gave no response as Allison drove, more carefully than she ever had in her life.

"Auntie Allison is going to take care of everything. Auntie Allison is gonna find your mommy, ok sweetie pie? Oh, you're so precious. You're such a doll."

Allison kept crooning sweet nothings to the baby while she navigated through the storm, inwardly contemplating her next move.