Few minutes later at the bar.

Ellen hands Dean a small towel filled with ice. Dean groans as he shifted in his seat. Emma got him pretty good.

"Here you go."

"Thanks. You called our dad said you could help. Help with what?" Dean asks, putting the ice on his sore nose.

"Well, the demon, of course. I heard he was closing in on it." Ellen says, leaning against the bar counter.

"What was there an article in the Demon Hunters Quarterly that I missed? I mean, who, who are you? How do you know about all this?" Dean asks, shocked that Ellen knows about the demon.

"Hey, I just run a salon. But hunters have been known to pass through now and again. Including your dad a long time ago. John was a like a family once."

"Oh yeah? How come he never mentioned you before?" Dean asks, putting the towel down.

"You'd have to ask him that." Ellen says, looking at Dean.

"So why exactly do we need your help?"

"Hey, don't do me any favors. Look, if you don't want my help, fine. Don't let the door smack your ass on the way out. But John wouldn't have sent you if…" Ellen stops, realizing.

"He didn't send you."

Dean looks down, then back to Sam.

"He's all right, isn't he?"

"No. No, he isn't. It was the demon, we think. It, um, it just got home before he got it, I guess." Sam says, sadly.

"I'm so sorry." Ellen says, feeling like shit.

"It's okay. We're all right." Dean says, nodding.

"Really? I know how close you and your dad were."

"Really, lady, I'm fine." Dean says, getting annoyed with Ellen.

"So look, if you can help, we could use all the help we can get." Sam says to Ellen.

"Well, we can't. But Ash will."

"Who's Ash?" Sam asks.

"Ash!" Ellen calls out and the man passed out on the bar jerks awake and sits up, flailing.

"What? It closin' time?" Ash says, half asleep.

"That's Ash?" Sam says, surprised.

"Mm-hmm. He's a genius." Jo says, walking behind the bar.


Meanwhile…

A brown folder is slapped down on the bar; Sam and Ash are sitting. Dean stood behind them. Jo is on the other side of the bar pouring glasses of water.

"You've gotta be kidding me, this guy's no genius. He's a Lynyrd Skynyrd roadie." Dean says, staring at Ash.

"I like you." Ash says, looking at Dean.

"Thanks."

"Just give him a chance." Jo says, putting down a pitcher of water.

Dean sat down and opens the folder.

"All right. This stuff's about a year's worth of our dad's work, so uh, let's see what you make of it."

Ash pulls out the papers and starts rifling through them. He shakes his head.

"Come on. This crap ain't real. There ain't nobody can track a demon like this."

"Our dad could." Sam replies.

"There are non-parametric, statistical overviews, prospects and correlations, I mean…damn! They're signs. Omens. Uh, if you can track 'em, you can track this demon. You know, like crop failures, electrical storms… You ever been struck by lightning? It ain't fun."

"Can you track it or not?" Sam replies, trying to get Ash get to the point.

"Yeah, with this, I think so. But it's gonna take time, uh, give me…fifty one hours."

He gets up to leave.

"Hey, man?" Dean says as Ash gets up.

"Yeah."

"I, uh, I dig the haircut." Dean says, pointing at his head.

"All business up front, party in the back." Ash says, rubs back his hair.

As he leaves, Jo walks by, flirting a little with Dean. He checks her out tiredly, and then gets up to follow her. Sam sees something behind the bar.

"Hey, Ellen, what is that?"

"It's a police scanner. We keep tabs on things, we…"

"No, no, no, no, the, um, the folder."

"Uh, I was gonna give this to a friend of mine. But take a look, if you want." Ellen says to Sam.

Ellen takes a folder from the wall and places it in front of Sam. It has some newspaper clippings attached to the front, and on the front, in red marker:

COUPLE MURDERED

CHILD LEFT ALIVE

MEDFORD, WISC.


At the window, Dean sits down by Jo.

"How did your mom get into this stuff, anyway?" Dean asks.

"From my dad. He was a hunter. He passed away." Jo replies.

"I'm sorry."

"It was a long time ago. I was just a kid. Sorry to hear about your dad."

"Yeah. So, I guess I've got fifty-one hours to waste. Maybe tonight we should, uh…" Dean looks up at her. "No, you know what? Never mind."

"What?" Jo says, frowning at him.

"Nothing, just, uh, wrong place, wrong time."

"You know, I thought you were gonna toss me some cheap pickup line." Jo says, smiling.

Dean chuckles, embarrassed. "Most hunters come through that door think they can get in my pants with some…pizza, a six-pack, and side one of Zeppelin IV." Jo explains to Dean.

"Well….what a bunch of scumbag." Dean says; surprised about what Jo goes through.

"Not you." Jo says, flirting with Dean.

"I guess not." Dean says and Sam calls out. "Dean, come here, check this out."

"Yeah." Dean says, walking over to the bar.

"A few murders, not far from here, that Ellen caught wind of. Looks to me like there might be a hunt." Sam explains, showing him the newspaper.

"Yeah, So?"

"So, I told her we'd check it out." Sam says and Dean looks at him. "Let's go." They were about to leave when Emma came back.


Emma comes back, striding in. She passes the boys and got behind the bar. She puts on the apron and went back to the kitchen.

Ellen glances at the boys. Sam decides to go talk to Emma.

Sam arrives in the kitchen to see Emma chopping up some onions.

"Emma?" Sam says gently and he sees her tensed up, stopping for a minute. Emma sighs heavily then turns around to face Sam.

"Hi Sam," Emma says then smiles gently.

Sam smiles back.

"I'm sorry for leaving..." Emma whispers as they hugged.

"Its okay, Emma." Sam whispers, his cheek on her head. "You had to leave. I think you needed a break away from Dean." Sam says, stepping back after they hugged.

Emma nodded and crosses her arms. "Yeah."

"Look, we're leaving now. We have a new case and we're going to check it out so we might be gone for a couple of days."

Emma nodded again, not saying anything.

Sam sighs heavily. "I hate this, Emma. I hate that you and Dean are angry at each other now."

"Well, whose fault is that?" Emma says bitterly and turns her head away. She was trying to fight her tears back and Sam noticed. He touched a nerve.

"Emma, my brother is an asshole and I know what he did was awful but also I know he feels terrible about it. He wouldn't talk to us for a couple of days after you left. He felt tremulously guilty about the fight."

Emma sighs heavily and wiped her tears away. "I know. I feel terrible about the fight too. He's right. I'm a coward because I ran away. I didn't want to deal with it. I wanted to move on and not have to think about it every day but I still do, Sam. So, I admit it. I'm a coward. I didn't know how to deal with my family, my best friend, and John being gone. The only way that I could with it was sleep. I never slept so much in my life. I... I have worked so much since I've arrived here and it kept me from having to sit and think about everything. I thought I was feeling better and I thought that I was never going to see you guys again until today and the memories, the pain and the anger came back," Emma wipes her tears away again.

"It hurts me to hear that you never wanted to see us again." Sam whispers with a sad look.

Emma shook her head. "Oh god, Sam, of course I do want to see you and Bobby again. You're like a brother that I never had. Bobby is like an uncle to me. Now, Dean? I'm still hurt..." Emma looks down sadly.

"Emma? I just want to say that..."

Emma looks back at Sam. "That you did an awesome job, kicking Dean's ass!" Sam started to laugh and Emma cracked a smile.

"Yeah... that felt good." Emma giggles as Sam gives her a high-five.

"Okay, I'm going now but I'll see you later."

Emma giggles and nodded. Emma walks out with Sam and she glances at Dean quietly.

"Dean, let's go!" Sam says, walking out of the door.

Dean stood there, glancing at Emma sadly. Then his face toughens up and Dean walks out.


What did you think of Emma's talk with Sam? Do you think she'll forgive Dean? If you want to find out more, leave a review. ;)