After we're both clean and my hair is wrangled into some semblance of order, we head downstairs. Dean sits at the table reading off a laptop and drinking coffee. An empty plate with just a smear of syrup sits beside him.

"You messed up my kitchen but didn't make food for everyone?"

He gives me a withering look, "It's in the oven. I was hungry and you two were still asleep when I got out of the shower."

I roll my eyes, but bend down and kiss his cheek in thanks. Sam brings the food to the table, so I grab us plates and utensils.

Dean looks over the laptop at Sam. "Bobby and Mrs. Yoda are at the library by now. I told them we'd be over as soon as you two were done fu- Ow! Dude that hurt!" Dean rubs at the shin Sam just kicked.

"You did not tell them we were late because of that!?" Sam asks, eyes wide.

"Dean!?" I gasp at the same time.

The pained expression he's faking slides into his trademark smirk. "Of course not! Besides, I'm certain no one has to tell them what you two were up to last night."

He's right of course. I realize that I'm not upset by this fact. Not one scrap of Catholic guilt anywhere in my brain. Huh.

Sam looks at me, I look at him. We both gage how the other feels about this. I'm not just ok with it, I'm pleased. Hell, I'm fucking ecstatic!

Hoping he is too, I put my hand on the table palm up. Please be happy, don't be embarrassed! I beg in my head. While I've known him for less than a week, I feel that Sam's not a prude, he just needs emotional connection with his fucking. And although I've always felt it was stupid to hook up with someone without a couple of dates first, this time it was natural. I didn't think about it, I just went with it.

Sam's smile of wicked pride puts all of Dean's hints of innuendo and naughty grins to shame. He takes my hand and kisses the back of my fingers. There it is. We're together.

Dean makes puking noises before taking his plate to the sink.

I find it right after lunch in a book Mrs. S says is a demonic version of the bible. I read over the sentence twice to be sure.

Sam puts a hand on my arm, "B you're shaking. What's wrong, did you find something more?" I grab his hand and instead of answering, read the passage out loud.

"And as it is written, the first demon shall be the last seal."

Silence blankets the room until Dean speaks up. "Well that's great, but who is the first demon, and how would they be the last seal?"

"Lilith was the first demon." Mrs. S replies. "There are two stories of the creation of humans in Genesis. Most people interpret that as a summary and then a detailed version, but apparently that's one of the stories with some truth to it."

"That's weird. Why would Adam and Lilith break up? Was she a demon and God just didn't know it?"

"No. According to the myth, Lilith ran away so God created Eve from a part of Adam to make them closely bound to each other. Alone in the wilderness, Lilith meets Lucifer. He offers to save her life and she accepts."

I sigh. "He saves her by turning her into the first demon?"

"Correct."

"What a disgusting piece of shit."

"Pretty much."

Bobby jerks upright, sending his chair rolling back to crash into the wall. "Nevermind all of that nonsense! Didn't Bella say the name of the demon that holds your contract is Lilith?"

"Well, yeah, but…" Dean rises to his feet like, well, like Adam standing straight after God's first breath. "If you can name a demon-"

"You can summon it." Sam adds to the wall of plaid surrounding us.

"And you can kill it." The brothers say together.

Fifteen minutes later I stay against the wall while Mrs. S directs the guys in clearing out the storage room to like they've been working together for years. Boxes and books go into the hallway, shelves go against the walls, chairs are stacked in one corner, while the little table joins me against the wall. Dean disappears and I don't even notice until he comes back with two canvas bags bulging at the seams. They open one and start painting a circle on the floor, following the marks Bobby lays down.

I climb up on the table to sit and watch as they add designs to the circle. "What's that one mean?" I ask Dean as he paints one near me.

"I have no idea, I just do what I'm told here, lady." He winks.

"Misdirection." Sam answers. "Lucifer built in weaknesses when he created demons. He wanted them to be murderous, thieving assholes who create havoc, but he wanted to be able to control them completely."

"Dude has a lot of hang-ups." Dean adds.

"That he does." Bobby has a book open. He turns to a new design, checks Dean's work, then shakes his head. "That curl at the bottom left needs to be thicker, but come to a sharper point, like this." He shows the picture and stays with him until he's satisfied.

Sam comes over to check a picture and goes back to the symbol he's working on.

"Are you always this meticulous?"

Bobby smiles at me. "I've never been this careful. When I'm making a permanent trap for protection in a home or elsewhere, I make sure to get it right, but this has to be perfect." He fidgets with the book; clearly he's been dying to discuss this with someone.

"Don't you want it to be perfect every time? I get that Lilith is a badass, but a regular demon will kill you just as dead, right?

"True, but different demons have different levels of power in different ways. Your average demon, caught in a regular trap, can't use their powers, and can't get out of the trap. Higher up the food chain you get demons that can break an average trap, or can't get out of it, but aren't affected by any of the other spells worked into the trap."

"So this time it's got to be just right?"

"Exactly. You see, all the symbols work together." He points to the one near us, "That one is misdirection, that one over there prevents movement, that smaller one makes parts of the other symbols invisible to the demon, so even if she's powerful enough to ignore one a symbol, she won't know which part to damage to get out of the trap. Theoretically, the five outer symbols will hold any demon around, because two of them weaken or take away powers completely, but we want one of the boys to be able to walk into the trap with Lilith to kill her. She's got to not just be trapped, but frozen, and powered down."

"Geez, maybe we ought to do some research on powering Lilith down specifically before we summon her?"

Mrs. S stops with her own book to compare notes with Bobby. "Not necessary, B. I've been developing this trap for fifty years." She motions at Sam who joins them and adds a line to one of the symbols.

"How's that?" He points to his work and looks up at Mrs. S. Even though we're all deadly serious right now, I look over and share a grin with Dean at the sight of my tiny boss being able to look Sam in the eye because he's down on one knee.

We wait a few hours for the paint to dry. I ask if we shouldn't wait overnight, so Sam shows me the instructions on the can that say it only needs an hour to dry. Then the guys walk around inside the circle and rub every symbol to make sure it's solid.

Sam smiles at me. "That's as close to perfect and as solid as we can make it, B. It will hold her."

"I'm sure you're right. All of you checked it, can't do better than that." I try for casual and fail miserably.

Mrs. S pats my arm. "I understand your concern, and your caution is not misplaced, but I have a great deal of experience in creating these traps. Besides, I've warded this building and this room in particular against every supernatural threat in existence. We had to modify the trap to a certain degree in order to summon Lilith at all. She will not be able to get out of this trap unless I let her out, and she will not be able to hurt any of us inside or out of it."

Her voice is firm and confident, and I don't believe a word of it. I don't know why, but I'm just sure I'm about to watch one or both of the guys be gutted. Also, I know that if we don't do this now, the guys will build their own, much weaker trap, and try to kill her then.

I take my place in the back again, sitting on the little table. Although I'm not a praying woman, I'm repeating the Hail Mary in my head while Bobby reads the invocation. He shouts the last sentence and throws a lit match into the bowl of herbs and other things, and it goes up with a blaze of light and a big puff of smoke.

And there's nothing.

We stand around and watch the empty circle for thirty seconds. I jump off the table and go to stand behind Mrs. S.. Between one step and the next, hell between one blink and the next, she's there.

No light show, no crackle of hellfire, no sound. From one second to the next the circle is empty, and then there's an eight-year-old girl looking up at us (even Mrs. S) in utter rage.

She's about three and a half feet tall, white, with blonde hair and blue eyes, pink cheeks, and a little rosebud mouth, and if she could kill with a glance we'd all be dead. I suspect, without the trap, she could kill me with a glance. She's even wearing a pink dress and has a matching ribbon in her hair. The only thing that surprises me now is that she's not carrying a teddy bear.

She sighs, "Winchesters. I should have known. Only you too would think you could survive summoning me."

Dean looks at her, then Mrs. S and Bobby, even Sam, then back to Lilith. "What the hell!? A little girl? Why would you possess a little girl?"

"To trick people, silly. They see this," She gestures at herself, and looks briefly disgusted, "And think I'm an innocent child." Something unspeakable moves under that perfect face, and I clutch at Mrs. S in an attempt to keep from turning tail and running. She grabs my hand with both of hers. Her grip is rock steady, and I let that anchor me.

"It makes it so much more fun when I rip out their hearts and make them watch while I eat it." She giggles and I consider the possibility that sometime last week I went crazy, and all this is a dream I'm having from inside a rubber room. I sort of hope that's true.

She examines each of us the way I look at a row of steaks at a butcher's shop. "So, let me guess, you've all been doing research, and I bet you've come across a story about seals? And no, I'm not talking about ocean-going mammals."

"Correct." Sam says. By the tone of his voice he's chosen anger to mask his fear. It's a good choice, but it's not an option for me at the moment.

"Hi Sam." She grins up at him, "Too bad your brother made that deal for your life. Your soul went right to heaven, didn't it? Betcha that's the last time that's gonna happen." Her eyes flick briefly to me and back to him. "And I'm not just talking about premarital sex."

Before Sam can answer, Dean butts in, "Wow. I was sure you'd be super scary, like, ya know, way worse than any other demon we've had to deal with, but it's the same old song isn't it, Sammy?" He somehow smiles up at his brother as he shakes his head.

"Yeah Dean, exactly the same."

"Meaning what exactly?" Lilith puts her hands on her hips and sticks out her lower lip in a pout.

"You twist our words, vaguely threaten us, accuse us of stupidity, etc., etc. Next you'll bring up something I did to Sam or didn't tell him right away to try to drive a wedge between us. Honestly, it's getting kinda old."

Lilith shrugs, "It's worked so far."

Dean shakes his head, "Not for Azazel."

"Or Ruby either." Sam adds.

I can see Lilith about to make a witty repost, but when Sam says Ruby's name her mouth falls open in shock.

"Oops." Dean nods to Sam, "I don't think she checked her email this morning."

"Bummer." Sam makes a frowny face at Dean, then turns it on Lilith, "Did someone just fuck up your plans?"

"What the hell did you mouth-breathing morons do to her!?" Her face twists in fury and I find it easier to look at her when she looks like an angry toddler. "If you did anything to-"

Sam cuts her off. "I killed her. Dean held her still while I knifed her lying ass." His fingers twitch, and I know he's wishing that we had more than one demon killing knife. I look at Dean, and his fingers are twitching too. Any minute now the banter is going to end, and he's going to pull out that knife, jump across the circle line, and try to shove that knife in her heart. Something tells me that's not going to work, but I don't what that something could be.

Also, I think their emotions have blunted Sam and Dean's well-tuned instincts. Dean is furious and terrified, and Sam is desperate. Whatever insanity Ruby was going to lead Sam into, he was going to follow willingly – even eagerly if it meant getting Dean free. So, in spite of my own desire for a jacket with the arms that tie in the back and a nice safe padded rubber room, I leap in to try to save their lives.

I swallow and lick my lips. "Wait!" Both men and Lilith freeze. From my left, I hear Mrs. S choke off a faint whimper. From my right, Bobby lays a hand against my arm.

Lilith turns her full, unblinking gaze on me, and I focus on her chin, so I won't look directly into her eyes. "Be still, little whore. I will deal with you as soon as I have turned your boyfriend and his brother inside out."

"Yeah, I figured the mayhem was about to start. I wanted to tell you, before the guys gut you, that I'm one of your biggest fans."

I get various reactions to this statement. Sam and Dean, crouched in readiness to rush Lilith, determined looks on their faces, stand straight. Just in case I doubted they were related; they look at me with identical expressions of horrified disgust. Bobby shows more shock than anything else. His hand clutches my arm as if he thinks my delusion is going to cause me to step into the circle. I don't dare turn my head, so I don't see Mrs. S, but I feel her move closer.

Lilith herself looks utterly blank before pulling an eyeroll that would make Dean jealous. "My…fan?"

"Yes. I've read hundreds of books about demons and their acts, and I have to admire the fact that rather than be thrown out of the garden, you just left. I've never discovered why you did that, or how you became a demon, but I love that you sort of, well, embraced being a demon. There are terrified accounts of you in the earliest writings! That means you've always been badass." Her mouth is hanging open in surprise, so I plow on. "Honestly, I thought you were just a story or a metaphor, but to discover that you exist? Wow."

"Um, thanks?" Her confusion gives me a tiny bit of confidence – it takes a bit to confuse a millennia old demon. She's eyeing my bait, looking for the hook. The only thing now is to keep going.

"So I gotta ask, why did you leave the garden? I mean it was paradise right? Was Adam that much of a douchebag?"

She folds her chubby little arms and sticks out her bottom lip to blow a breathe that blows her bangs off her forehead. "No, of course not. It was God I couldn't stand."

"Seriously? The father? The creator of heaven and earth and-"

"He kidnapped me!" She shouts, throwing her arms out to her sides with her hands in fists, and I barely manage to keep from flinching. She's taken the bait though. "I went to sleep beside my mother with my littermates beside me and when I woke up I was…" I watch her actually fight tears, "I was in the garden."

I furrow my brows, "But the bible says God created you, you mean he didn't?"

Lilith sighs through her nose. "He made me into a human by giving me a soul. He didn't create me, my dame and my sire did that." She shakes her head. "We were innocent creatures. We gathered food, hunted for meat, fucked, slept, lived our lives." She tilts her head so I'm suddenly looking her in the eyes. "Then I woke up…thinking. Suddenly there were emotions like love and jealousy, and the father would explain NONE of it!"

She stomps around in a circle exactly the way a little girl would have. "He kept playing with us and telling me, 'All in good time, Lilith, you're not ready. Lilith. Every time I tried to get back to my mother, Michael was there. Michael, who looked at me like I was an insect and barely worthy of notice."

I can't look away now that I'm trapped in her gaze. Shit. Still, a smart fish is still only a fish. "But you did get out? How did you do that? Did Michael let you out?"

"No! As if that fucker ever had an independent thought in his life! If he'd needed to take a shit he wouldn't unless Father said he could!" Her eyes cut to Sam's, and she gives him an evil, knowing smile. "Remind you of anyone, Sam?" Her gaze flicks to Dean before she turns back to me. I grind my teeth and hold on to my sanity with both hands.

"Then one day he showed up." She smiles, looking relieved. "He didn't ignore me or patronize me. He's the one that told me about souls, and how I was now a human."

"He answered your questions with half-truths, like he always does."

"Better than no answers at all!" She shakes her head at me, disappointed. "You say you're my fan and you spend all your time searching for answers. What if you knew nothing, and the one being, who said he loved you, knew all the answers, and wouldn't give you ANY of them!" Lilith seethes.

"Then Lucifer got you out huh?"

"No, I got myself out. Lucifer distracted Michael and I escaped."

"Why do the stories say you wandered lost and alone? Didn't you go back to your people? Didn't you know how to gather food?"

"Oh I could feed myself, that wasn't an issue. And I found my troop too. Time is different in the garden. My mother was many generations dead, my brother and sister too. I wasn't one of them anymore even if they'd accepted me." That lower lip comes out again, but this time, it's not an act.

The picture she paints comes easily to my mind. The first human woman meets a tribe of proto-humans: innocent animals, but still, animals. They're as different from her as she is from me. She took the bait, but she's fighting me. Time to reel her in.

"So you were alone. Was that when Lucifer approached you?"

She nods. "He'd already tempted Eve, corrupted Cain. The father and Michael were hunting him. It was only a matter of time." She locks gazes with me again. "He made me an offer. I'd be immortal and powerful. I could corrupt humanity and watch God suffer, and one day I'd get my ultimate revenge."

"All you had to do was promise to get him out of his cage when the time came. I bet he didn't include exactly how he was going to grant you immortality."

She looks away into the distance for a moment. "No, he didn't. I can't really describe the pain in a way your mind could understand it," She looks back at me and it's all I can do to stay conscious. "But I'll try if you like."

Her irises and pupils fade as though a fog is rising in her eyes, until the color fades to white. She clenches one hand and everything that I am twists in on itself. I fall to my knees as my world turns into pain, and it's only going to be 30 seconds before I beg her to stop.

"That's not where your story ends is it, Lilith?" Mrs. S calls out in a ringing tone I had no idea she was capable of. The pain recedes enough that I realize Sam is holding me cradled in his arms.

"No, of course not. Lucifer twisted my soul into a monstrosity. I became the nightmare from which all other nightmares get their name." She sneers at us all, then looks back at Mrs. S. "You thought you could do what with your pitiful MoL trap? Contain me, kill me? You're all fools."

"Not contain you, convince you." I gasp out.

She laughs, "You? Convince me!? Of what, exactly?"

"Not to break the seals. Not to let Lucifer out of his cage. Not to start the apocalypse."

She shakes her head, white eyes wide, and somehow filled with dark amusement. "That's ludicrous. Why wouldn't I let Lucifer out of his cage? What, to spare your boyfriend and his idiot brother?" She grins at Dean who looks horrified and then furious, and I feel a surge of love for him so strong because of his bravery that I find the strength to keep fighting.

"No, because you don't want to let him out." I sit up, and when I move to stand, Sam supports me. "You spent thousands of years finding your 'righteous man' to break the seal, and thousands of years breeding the perfect vessel for Lucifer, only to die to see it through?"

"He'll bring me back!" She shouts. I get out my net to bring her into the boat.

"You think we're crazy to try to contain you? How crazy must you be to think Lucifer will resurrect you?" I shake my head. "Girlfriend, come on. Even if he could, and that's a big if, why would he? You've been in charge for millions of years. He's not going to want to share power with you."

"We made a deal. He has to bring me back."

"Ok, say he does, then what? The apocalypse? That's God's plan. That's what God wants to happen. I suppose he thinks Heaven will win…and it's Heaven, so he's probably right, but even so, it's the ending HE planned."

"No, that's not right. Lucifer will win, and when he destroys everything that will teach God not to mess with innocents anymore."

"For giving Eve bad advice, and turning you and Cain into Demons, God locked away his favorite son for all time. What do you think he'll do to Lucifer if he wins, kills Michael, and destroys the world? The devil will go back in his cage and anyone that had a hand in helping him will be destroyed. And then, since he's God, he'll just start over. He'll build the world anew, take some other innocent little girl away from her mother to be his new first woman."

"No! Never!" Lilith shrieks.

"Or, you could thwart him and have the ultimate revenge on both of them."

"By doing what exactly?" She's in the boat, but she could still slip away.

"Let Dean out of his deal."

She rolls her head back on her neck and laughs again, "Why the hell would I do that? Having him downstairs is everything I've been looking forward to for centuries."

"Really? For centuries you've been looking forward to doing what God and Lucifer did to you?"

That shocks her so badly her eyes go back to normal, and her mouth falls open. "It's not the same thing at all!"

"Isn't it? You plan on taking him away from his family, causing him enough pain that he'll be willing to shed blood, and by the time Lucifer is out of his cage, giving Sam the power to bring Dean back, they'll both be so changed they won't recognize each other." I hold up the net to slide her into it. "You'll use pain and fear and tricks to destroy two innocent men and instead of revenge on those that tortured you, you'll die, and one will be set free, and the other will see his plans come to fruition."

Lilith paces back and forth, muttering to herself, waving her little arms, and clenching and unclenching her fists. Abruptly she freezes and sits with her knees folded up to her chest. We watch her silently for several minutes until Bobby (I never thought he'd be the impatient one among us) clears his throat.

"Uh, your highness? Lilith?"

Her head whips around and she turns a furious gaze on Bobby, who takes a step back. Then she sends her glare around to the rest of us until she lands on me. She stands, dusts off the back of her dress, tries to see if it's clean, then turns her back to me and looks over her shoulder.

"Do I have smudges?" I feel faint at being asked this question by her.

"Uh, yeah, on your lower left, it's like glittery blue sort of."

She closes her eyes and there's a faint hum in my brain and the mark evaporates.

When she turns back, those eyes pin me. "What do you suggest I do then, girlfriend?"

Thank God Sam is still holding me. "Uh, well, let Dean out of his deal and go back to ruling hell."

"And why would I let him out of his deal? I'll still enjoy torturing him."

"What's to stop some other overly ambitious demon from letting him out just long enough to shed blood and break the seal? Even if it takes years to break the other seals, eventually they'd still get around to you."

"If I let him out of his deal he's just going to keep putting himself and his brother in danger."

"Forbid him to do so. Make it part of the new deal."

"New deal?"

"The one where Dean doesn't die in five months and go to hell, and Sam doesn't drop dead again."

Lilith smirks, "You've been paying attention."

I shrug, "I read a lot."

She looks at Dean. "Would you agree to that Dean-o? No more hunting for the rest of your life. No more for Sam either."

"What if we're attacked?" Sam, ever the lawyer, asks.

"If you're attacked, you may defend yourself, but that means I expect you to stay out of places where the things you hunt live."

"I don't die in five months, don't go to hell, Sam lives a natural life, neither of us hunt anymore. If we're attacked we can defend ourselves, and if Lucifer gets out we're back in the game."

"If Lucifer gets out, I'll be dead. Our deal won't be binding anymore."

"I accept." Dean says. Before any of us can say anything else, he steps into the circle and kneels down in front of her. He looks back at the rest of us, "I'm about to commit a version of child molestation here, do you mind?"