Hi guys, sorry about the long wait for this chapter but I've updated and edited all the previous chapters so now they're a little bit longer and there is a new chapter 15, as well as a new story that's a continuation of chapter 9, if you want to go back and re-read it.

Hope you enjoy.

James sat up in his bed, glaring at his hands. His mangled, damaged hands. Or, he assumed they were mangled, they were coated in bandages. He carefully tried to flex them, hissing at the sharp pain it caused.

"James," Jess warned. "It's only been a few days. You need to wait for them to heal. The doctor's said it would get better soon," she reminded him.

"And if it doesn't?" James asked, not expecting an answer. He huffed loudly. "When can I leave here?" He whined, aware that he sounded like a child.

Jess rolled her eyes and leaned back into the chair, preparing to stay for some time. She carefully wrapped her arms around her tender abdomen. Her stomach was padded by bandages, but Jess didn't want to risk it. She could remember all too well the feeling of her own blood pouring from her stomach and not being able to do anything to stop it. Words like 'blood loss' and 'shock' took on new meanings now that she had experienced them.

"They won't let you leave until they're sure that there is no danger to your lungs, or of your hands getting infected," she explained to James.

"But I feel fine!" James whined. "Why can't I just go home? I'll call if my hands start to feel funny." He had a hint of a smile on his face that soon dropped when he thought of home.

Jess frowned too. She sighed. "The police filled a bag with our stuff but… most of it is gone."

James nodded. "They told me." His face had fallen. James, Jess knew, was still coming to terms with the destruction of their home. James, like most hunters, had lived his life on the road. He had never had a home before. Jess remembered how long it had taken before Sam started calling their apartment home. It had taken even longer for him to unpack his things. It had caused endless arguments at the start of their relationship. Jess had been worried that Sam hadn't unpacked because he was just waiting to leave her.

Luckily, her friend, Becky, had convinced her to give Sam time, that it wasn't about her, it was just who he was. Sam had needed time to adapt to having a home. James, too. Now, it was like all of that had been for nothing.

"How is your stomach?" James asked, pulling her out of her thoughts.

Jess's stomach muscles twitched painfully at their mention, but she was relatively pain free. "It's fine," she assured James. "There was no internal damage or anything. I think it was just blood loss that was the problem."

James nodded. "And Sam?"

"He's recovering well. The police have already been in to interrogate him," she added bitterly.

James almost smiled. "Oh? Did they think he started the fire? And then stabbed himself?" He asked sarcastically. "They thought that I might've been stupid enough to start a fire and then burn my hands. And give myself internal bleeding and a concussion."

Jessica smiled. "Not everyone knows as much about fire as you James. Maybe they thought that it was possible?" She joked.

"Do you know what happened to Jack?" James wondered. "You haven't mentioned him, and I haven't seen him."

It was amazing, Jess mused, that a hunter who fearlessly faced down a demon now sounded so tiny. Silently, she shook her head. "Sam says that the other spirits took him. Apparently, they're going to take care of him, but I don't know." She shrugged. "We haven't heard anything."

"So, do you think it's more than your bathtub filled with ice could solve?"

Jess laughed. At the time, that had been their only option and they hadn't taken any time to think about the situation. They had only worried about Jack, but being able to look back had allowed them to think on how strange that idea had been. Still, it had kept him alive, so Jess didn't have any regrets. Even if their water bill had been insane.

~ An Unlikely Friendship ~

Sam was still sleeping when Dean returned to his room. He was glad. He meant what he said to Sam, he didn't care about whatever psychic stuff was going on with him. He just wanted his brother to be alright. But, this was some strange stuff.

"My freak little brother just got a whole lot freakier," Dean muttered.

Even though Sam couldn't hear him, he still felt bad for that. Sam wasn't a freak. Dean had decked people for saying things like that to his baby brother. He just wasn't sure what he was supposed to do.

Part of him wanted to call his dad. Sam was his son. This was important new information about the Demon. The fires in the nurseries were connected. John would want to know.

But a bigger part of him, the part that had instructed him to 'protect Sammy' since he was four years old, didn't want John anywhere near this. His dad couldn't always be trusted to be a good dad. And, when the Demon was involved, all paternal instincts seemed to fly out the window. Dean couldn't risk his baby brother. Not yet. Once he figured this out, he could tell his dad. He would just have to deal with the consequences later.

But that still left him with the massive question; how did they figure this out? As far as he knew, this was the first time that the Demon had acted since he killed their mom. And, apparently, set fire to nurseries.

Dean had way too many questions and no answers.

"Hey," Becky said softly, creeping into the room with her brother trailing behind her.

Dean sat up. "Hi. Becky?"

"Yeah, and Zach," Becky reintroduced. "We wanted to come in and visit. We've been watching the apartment."

Zach nodded. "The police have completely sealed it off now. There's no way anyone can get to it. We poked around to see if there was anything left, but if there was it was well hidden."

Becky sighed. "Sam's old roommate Brady insisted on coming so we couldn't do a deeper search."

Dean nodded slowly. "What did you think you were looking for?"

Becky beamed. "Oh, you know, Sulfur, any sigils and runes drawn in blood, just the usual sort of thing."

Zach smirked. "Stanford must have the biggest concentration of hunters' kids attending."

Dean blinked. This was somehow more mind-blowing than finding out that his little brother was best friends with Jack Frost. "Alright," he said, slowly.

"Sam doesn't know," Becky said, quickly. "Our parents died when we were teenagers and we were sent off to live with our aunt and uncle. We haven't done this sort of thing in years. We've never actually gone out hunting, we just know all about it."

Dean shook his head. "Okay. So, there was nothing weird in the apartment? Nothing that happened in the last few days?" Besides the weird psychic dreams, which Dean would not mention to anyone unless he was sure that they wouldn't put Sammy in danger. And it didn't matter what they said, he had no idea if these people actually were Sam's friends.

Both Warren siblings shook their heads. "No. Nothing that we know about anyway," Becky said.

"Maybe you should talk to Brady?" Zach suggested. "Him and Sam have drifted apart since they used to be roommates, but they were both going for the same interviews. They helped each other out. Sam might have mentioned something."

Dean doubted it, but, then again, he wasn't sure how well he knew his little brother anymore after four years. All these new people seemed to know intimate details of Sam's life that Dean had no idea about.

Before Dean could say anything, a frazzled looking nurse stuck her head in the room. "Mr Winchester?"

Dean stood up. "Yeah?"

The nurse glanced outside of the room and back in again. "Have you seen Jessica Moore and James? They're not in their rooms. James isn't supposed to be moving around yet."

"What?" Sam spluttered.

Dean glanced down at his brother, who was now struggling to sit up and talk to the nurse. He slipped a hand under Sam's back and supported him. "Don't worry, Sammy. I'm sure they're just gone for a walk."

But one look at the nurse's face let Dean know that that wasn't the case. Jess knew better than that. James wasn't able for that. If they weren't in James' room then that meant only one thing.

Jessica and James were missing.

~An Unlikely Friendship~

Jess turned James' bandaged hands over in her grip, fussing over every little wrinkle and hissing in sympathy at every little flinch James made.

"I'll get you some gloves," she offered.

James chuckled and yanked back his hands. "I think I'd prefer some oven mitts. Considering that apparently I'm an arsonist."

Jess smiled. "I'm sure they'll be fine once the bandages come off," she reassured. "And all your scans look good. You'll be out of here in no time."

James leaned back on his pillows with a huff. "No time, yeah right. You know they won't ever let me get up to go the bathroom on my own yet?"

Jessica cast a shrew look at James' hands. "Can you go to the bathroom on your own?"

James flushed bright red. "Not important."

"Hey guys!" Brady greeted, entering the room with a bright smile. "I've been looking for you two. You weren't where you were supposed to be."

Jessica frowned. "Where were we supposed to be?" She wondered.

Brady grinned and his eyes turned black. "Dead."