May 21st - May 23rd, 2007

I had pulled myself back from helping Sam search for a way out of the deal. I really didn't know what to do. There was no good outcome to just letting it happen or getting him out of it. Either way, I was going to lose someone I loved, and I really wasn't sure how to deal with that yet.

Sam, on the other hand, had been completely obsessed with getting Dean out of it. He had been making calls to Bobby every time Dean had left him alone for long enough.

As we waited in a diner for Dean to come back with a newspaper, Sam had made a call to Bobby about a new lead he had found.

"What do you mean you don't think it will work, Bobby?" Sam asked, almost frantically. "It's a demon-dispelling ritual."

Knock! Knock!

Dean was standing outside of the window next to our table, holding up a newspaper for us to see. I smiled and waved at him. He did the same and then left to enter the building.

Sam sighed. "Well, maybe we got the translation wrong." (...) "Look, we can't just let Dean fry in hell while we—" (...) "Well, there's got to be something that we—"

As Dean approached the table, Sam quickly changed the subject. "Oh, uh, yeah, no, uh, I— I gotta go. Uh. Okay. Never mind." He hung up.

Dean sat down next to me, looking suspiciously at Sam. "Hey. Who was that?"

"Uh, I was just ordering pizza," Sam said quickly.

Dean looked around. "Dude, you do realize that you're in a restaurant?"

"Yeah. Yeah. Oh, yeah. I... just felt like pizza, ya know?" Sam stuttered.

Dean furrowed his brow. "Okay, Weirdy Mcweirderton." He cleared his throat. "So, I think I got something."

"Yeah?" Sam asked.

Dean set a newspaper on the table. "Cicero, Indiana. Falls on his own power saw."

Sam picked up the paper. "And? What? That's it? One power saw?"

Dean shrugged. "Well... yeah."

"And you think that this is a case?" Sam asked.

"Well, I don't know." Dean shrugged. "Could be."

Sam shook his head. "I don't know, Dean. I— I—"

Dean smirked. "All right, there's something better in Cicero than just a case."

I furrowed my brow, completely confused.

Sam shook his head. "And that is?"

"Lisa Braeden." Dean smiled.

Sam laughed. "Should I even ask?"

"Remember that road trip I took, uh..." Dean thought. "Gosh, about eight years ago now? You two were in Orlando with Dad while he wrapped up that banshee thing."

Sam nodded. "Yeah. Yeah, the five states, five-day..."

Dean laughed. "Yeah. Well, kind of. Although I spent most of my time in Lisa Braeden's loft."

Sam smirked. "So, let me get this straight. You want— You want to drive all the way to Cicero just to hook up with some random chick?"

Dean raised his eyebrows. "She was a yoga teacher. It was the bendiest weekend of my life—"

I put my hand up and shook my head. "Ew. Ew. Stop."

Dean smiled. "Come on. Have a heart, huh? It's my dying wish."

Sam nodded. "Yeah, well, how many dying wishes are you gonna get?"

"As many as I can squeeze out. Come on. Smile! God knows I'm gonna be smiling after twenty-four hours with Gumby girl." Dean laughed.

I frowned in disgust, and Sam laughed.

Dean smiled, looking back on the memories. "Gumby girl." He frowned. "Does that make me Pokey?"

Dean pulled up in front of Cicero Pines Motel, and I hopped out with my bag. Sam got out with his computer bag, but as he was trying to grab his other bag, Dean started pulling away.

"Don't wait up for me." Dean laughed.

"Wait, Dean. Dean, you— Dean!" Sam finally pulled his bag out of the car and slammed the door.

Dean smiled at us and sped away.

I shook my head and sighed. "He's way too excited, it's almost sickening."

Sam laughed and put his arm around me. "Yeah, well it's his 'dying wish.'"

I looked up at Sam. "How many of those are we actually going to let him have?"

Sam turned us toward the building, and we started walking. "Uh, well. Hopefully, he won't need too many more."

"Did you figure out how to stop it?" I asked.

Sam sighed. "Well, I thought I did, but Bobby told me otherwise this morning. I'm getting closer though, I can feel it."

After Sam checked us in, we got settled into our room and then went out to a diner.

I ordered a burger and fries and sat there bored while watching Sam research how to break a demon curse on his laptop.

"Anything good?" I asked in between bites of fry.

"Uh, yeah," Sam said, without looking up.

"Like?" I asked.

"There's a lot. I'm just trying to narrow it down," Sam said, still looking at his screen.

"How's that going?" I asked, eating more fries.

"Uh, fine," Sam said, not looking up.

I sighed. "Well, this is fun and all, but can I have some quarters?"

Sam ignored my question as if he didn't hear me.

"Sam?" I asked.

"Hmm?" he asked, still not looking away from the screen.

I groaned and got up. I picked up his bag off the floor and pulled out his wallet.

"Hey, what are you doing?" Sam asked, finally looking up.

I rolled my eyes. "Oh, now you pay attention?"

He took his wallet. "Well, you can't just take money out of my wallet." He rolled his eyes.

"All right, calm down. I'm sorry." I shrugged. "I just wanted a few quarters."

"For what?" Sam asked.

I sighed. "Well, this is really boring—"

Sam furrowed his brow. "I'm trying to find a way out of this deal. You were so willing to help before, and now it's boring? Why don't you help me anymore?"

I sighed. "Sam... I can't."

He furrowed his brow. "What? Why?"

"Because if I do, then I feel like I'm choosing one of you to live over the other. If I help you put an end to this, then I feel like I'm sentencing you to death. If I don't help, then at least, I know Dean chose this, and he feels good about it." A tear rolled down my cheek.

Sam grabbed my hand and rubbed it with his thumb. "It's all right. It wasn't fair for me to say anything. I'm sorry."

"I just think we should make this last year, the best we can for Dean," I said.

Sam nodded and sighed. "So, what did you need quarters for?"

I wiped the tears away and took a deep breath. "I saw a few arcade machines when we walked in."

Sam smiled. "Ah, okay." He reached into his wallet, pulled out a few quarters, and handed them to me.

"Thanks." I smiled. "Oh, don't get rid of my fries or eat them. I'm saving them for when I come back."

Sam laughed. "All right. I won't touch them. Go have fun."

I went off to play some games, one of which happened to be Ms. Pac-Man. So, I put a quarter in and started playing. After a while, I ran out of quarters, but I stood back proudly, looking at the high scores. All of which were under MRW.

I walked back to our table and smiled. "Guess what?" I sang.

"What?" Sam sang back, but as he looked up from his laptop, I realized he had a strange expression on his face.

"All the high scores are mine." I smiled and sat down.

Sam laughed hesitantly. "Nice."

"What's wrong?" I asked.

"What? What do you mean?" Sam asked.

"I mean, you're acting weird. What's wrong?" I asked again.

Sam cleared his throat. "Oh, nothing. I'm fine." He went back to typing.

I looked down and gasped at my empty plate. "Aw, dude. You ate all of my fries."

Sam looked up quickly. "Oh, yeah. Sorry about that... I, uh... I got hungry."

I shook my head. "I can't believe you would do this to me."

"Uh, yeah. Sorry." He looked back down.

"Sam? I'm joking." I furrowed my brow. "Seriously, is something going on?"

"Everything's fine. I promise." Sam looked up and smiled.

I could tell he was hiding something. "Sam—"

Ring! Ring! Ring!

Sam answered his phone, "Hello." (...) "Really?" (...) "That is weird." (...) "Uh, yeah. She's with me." (...) "All right. We are at a diner down the road from the motel."

Dean picked me up from the diner, while Sam went off to act as an insurance agent.

Dean had found out that someone else in the neighborhood died mysteriously, so Sam went to talk to the man's wife about his death.

Dean and I went to the library to see if we could find out about any other strange occurrences in the town.

As we walked back to the car, Dean stopped suddenly and started walking over to a park bench where a boy a little younger than me sat. He was looking down at the ground sadly.

"Dean?" I asked as I followed him.

Dean sat down on the bench next to the boy, and I joined him.

"Hey, Ben," Dean said.

I furrowed my brow at him, not knowing how he knew this boy.

Ben looked up. "Hey. You were at my party."

Dean nodded. "Yeah. Yeah, I'm Dean. Everything okay? Something wrong?"

Ben had an empty game case in his hands. Dean looked up, and I followed his gaze to a group of boys who were playing with a Gameboy.

"Is that your game they're playing with?" Dean asked.

Ben nodded. "Ryan Humphrey borrowed it, and now he won't give it back."

Dean nodded. "Well, you want me to go—"

"No!" Ben reacted quickly. "Don't go over there! Only bitches send a grown-up."

Dean laughed. "You're not wrong."

Ben shook his head. "And I am not a bitch."

"Is that Humphrey?" Dean nodded up to the boys. "The one that needs to lay off the burgers?"

Ben nodded and smiled.

"Hmm." Dean shrugged. "Maybe you should go over there and teach him a lesson then."

"What do you mean?" Ben asked.

"Kick him where the sun don't shine." Dean chuckled.

"Dean..." I warned.

He looked over at me and shrugged. "What?"

I smirked and shook my head.

Ben thought for a moment and then got up and walked over to the boys.

"Who is that?" I asked.

"Uh, he's Lisa's son," Dean said.

I furrowed my brow and thought for a second, watching as the almost miniature version of Dean stood next to the group of boys. "How old is he?"

Dean cleared his throat. "He, uh, just turned eight." He looked down at me.

"Oh." I thought for a second, wondering if it was a possibility that Ben could be my nephew. "Interesting."

Dean laughed. "Yeah, nice kid."

We looked up at Ben just as he kicked Ryan hard between the legs. Ryan crumpled to the ground, and Ben took his game back. Dean smirked as Ben ran excitedly back to us.

"Thanks. Dude, that was awesome!" Ben yelled and high-fived Dean.

"Benjamin Isaac Braeden!" a beautiful brunette woman shouted as she approached us. "What's gotten into you?"

Ben shrugged. "He stole my game."

She furrowed her brow. "So, you kick him? Since when is—" Her attention switched to Dean. "Did you tell my son to beat up that kid?"

Dean shrugged. "What? Somebody had to teach him how to kick the bully in the nads."

"Who asked you to teach him anything?" Lisa asked angrily.

"Just relax," Dean said.

Lisa grabbed Dean's arm and pulled him away, even though Ben and I could still hear everything. "What are you even still doing here? We had one weekend together a million years ago. You don't know me. And you have no business with my son."

Ben and I looked over at each other awkwardly, and then Lisa stalked over and pulled him away.

Dean put his hands out. "Lisa!"

"Just leave us alone," she snapped back angrily.

Ben pulled out of her grip and quickly ran back to hug Dean.

"Ben!" Lisa yelled.

"Thanks." Ben looked up, smiled, and then ran back to Lisa.

As we watched them walk away, my gaze fell on three kids, who were staring creepily at us. "Uh, that's super creepy."

Dean put his hand on my shoulder. "You said it, sister. Let's get outta here."

When we walked into the motel, Sam was researching on his laptop.

"Something's wrong with the kids in this town," Dean said.

"Yeah. Tell me about it." Sam looked up. "So, what do you know about changelings?"

"Evil monster babies?" Dean asked.

Sam shrugged. "No, not necessarily babies."

"They're kids? Creepy, 'stare at you like you're lunch' kids?" Dean asked.

Sam nodded. "Yeah. There's one at every victim's house."

"Are you a witch, or are you a fairy? Or are you the wife of Michael Cleary?" I recited.

"What?" Sam and Dean asked in unison.

"In Ireland, in the late 1800s. There was a man named Michael Cleary, he believed his wife Bridget had been taken by a changeling. She had been sick for a while, and he believed it was because it wasn't really her. So, long story short... one night, he threatened her with a burning piece of wood... her dress ended up catching fire... and he dumped lamp oil on her. Bridget's body was later found in a shallow grave in the middle of the woods," I explained, "People believed that the only way to kill a changeling and get your loved one back was by burning them." I shrugged. "But Bridget never came back."

Dean raised his eyebrows at me. "How do you know all of this?"

I shrugged. "I read... a lot."

Dean put his hand on my shoulder. "We've got a mini Sammy on our hands."

Sam laughed. "So, changelings can perfectly mimic children. According to lore, they climb in the window, snatch the kid. Ya know, there were marks on the windowsill at one of the kids' houses. Looked to me like blood."

"The changeling grabs a kid, assumes its form, joins the happy fam just for kicks?" Dean asked.

Sam shook his head. "Not quite. Changelings feed on the mom's synovial fluid. The moms have these odd bruises on the back of their necks. Changelings can drain them for a few weeks before mom finally croaks. Seems like anyone who gets between the changeling and it's food source ends up dead."

"And fire's the only way to waste them?" Dean asked.

Sam smirked at me. "Yeah, that's what I found too."

Dean rolled his eyes. "Great. We'll just bust in, drag the kids out, torch them on the front lawn. That'll play great with the neighbors. What about the real ones? What happens to them? I mean, it doesn't sound like it went very well for that Bridget woman."

I shrugged. "Well, everyone in their town thought Michael was crazy, and she wasn't really a changeling. Changelings hide their victims underground or something, and if the changeling gets killed, the person is supposed to be able to return."

Sam nodded. "The real kids might be out there."

"We better start looking," Dean said and then thought for a minute. "So, any kid in the neighborhood is vulnerable?"

Sam nodded. "Yup."

"We gotta make a stop. I want to check on someone," Dean said.

Sam sighed. "Well, Dean, if the real kids are still alive, we don't have time. We—"

"We have to," Dean said quickly.

Dean drove us into a nice neighborhood and pulled up in front of a large cookie-cutter house.

He left Sam and me in the car, but when the front door opened, Lisa stood in the doorway. He spoke to her for a moment, but the door was shut in his face shortly after.

He disappeared around the side of the house and then came back.

Dean quickly ran to the Impala. "They took Ben. He's changed."

"What?! Are you sure?" I asked.

"Yeah, I'm sure. I checked his windowsill," Dean said.

"Blood?" Sam asked.

Dean shook his head. "I don't think it's blood, and I think I know where the kids are."

We drove down the street until we stopped in front of an unfinished house with a pile of dirt in front of it.

When we got out, Sam walked up to the dirt pile and touched it. "Red dirt. That's what was on the window."

Dean nodded and pointed to Sam. "Uh, you take the front." Then he nodded to me. "We'll go around."

Dean and I walked around to the back with flashlights and entered the house.

As we walked through the house, we could hear whimpering and rattling metal from below us. We found a door to the basement and walked down.

When we turned the corner, there were several cages with children in them, one of them contained Ben. He reached his fingers through the cage when he saw us.

Dean ran over and grabbed Ben's hand. "Ben, Ben, it's okay. We're gonna get you out of here, okay?"

We walked around the room, searching for a way to get the kids out when we stumbled upon another cage with a woman inside. She had been beaten and looked like she could pass out at any minute.

Dean smashed the lock off of Ben's cage with the back of his flashlight. He pulled him out and hugged him. Then he continued breaking the locks off of the cages. I followed behind, helping the kids out. Ben led everyone over to a window, but it was boarded up and locked.

Dean looked back at all of us. "Cover your eyes!"

Once our eyes were closed, he smashed the window.

Ben took off his jacket. "Here. Use this."

Dean took it and put it over the broken glass. "All right. All right, Ben. Come on. Come on."

Ben stepped back and put his hand on another boy's shoulder. "Him first."

Sam came running into the room as Dean started helping the kids out of the window. "Hey! There's a mother."

"A mother changeling?" Dean asked.

"Yeah. We got to get these kids out quick," Sam said.

Dean pointed to the cage with the woman in it. "Right there, right there. There's one more. You got to break the lock!"

"I guess that's why the changelings are keeping the kids alive... so the mom can snack on them." Sam broke the lock and helped the woman out. "There. Come on, I gotcha."

The woman screamed as the changeling mother, who looked exactly like her entered the room. The mother walked over and put her hand on Dean's shoulder and sent him flying across the room. Sam ran over to help Dean.

"Maddi, get them out of here!" Dean yelled.

Ben and I looked at each other and nodded. We grabbed a few paint buckets and placed them in front of the window. We helped the other kids climb out of the window. Then it came down to us.

Ben gestured for me to go. "Go ahead, I'll help you."

I shook my head and put my hand on his shoulder. "It's been good, kid. It really has, but you need to get out of here."

"But you won't be able to get out if I leave," Ben said, looking concerned.

I smiled. "I'll be fine. Come on."

Ben nodded, and I helped him out of the window, just in time to see Sam put down the changeling mother with a makeshift flamethrower.

After getting all the kids home safely, we dropped Ben off at his house. Sam and I waited in the car for Dean to get back.

Sam sighed. "Ya know, you did really good back there."

"What?" I laughed.

Sam turned around and smiled. "I'm serious. You're good under pressure."

I shrugged. "I just helped those kids get out. I didn't even do it on my own. It's not a big deal."

Sam sighed. "I've been thinking."

"You guys are going to let me go on hunts with you more without argument?" I asked.

Sam shook his head. "No, the opposite actually. I was thinking about how Dean and I went to school when we were kids, while Dad was out on hunts."

"No," I said.

Sam furrowed his brow. "What? Why—"

I shook my head. "No."

"Maddi, just hear me out?" Sam asked.

I nodded. "I'm listening."

"You're so smart. Think about what you could do if you went to school. You could go to college. You could get out of this life," Sam said.

"Yeah, no." I shook my head. "I'm not doing that."

"Why not?" Sam asked.

"'Cause I'm not like you, Sam. I don't want out of this life. I like helping people. We do it all the time," I said, "I don't want to stop doing that."

"You can help people in a different way," Sam said.

"No, Sam. Do you know how many people would die if we didn't do what we do?" I asked.

Sam sighed. "Well, I just—"

I shook my head. "No, it's not what I want."

Dean got into the Impala.

"And I'm not talking about it anymore," I said.

Sam shrugged and faced forward. "All right."

Dean cleared his throat. "What's going on?"

"Nothing," I said.

"Uh... all right. So, what do you two say about us going to a diner and getting out of this town?" Dean asked as he pulled out of the driveway.

"Sounds great. I'm starving," I said.

"Actually, could you just drop me off at the motel?" Sam asked.

"What? Dude, come on," Dean said.

"I just wanna go pack up and find another case," Sam said.

"We just finished one, come on. Let's just chill for a little bit," Dean said.

"No, really, I'm fine. I'm not even hungry. You guys just go," Sam said.

"Uh, all right." Dean smiled in the rear-view mirror. "I'll just take my favorite baby sister."

I smirked. "I'm your only one."

Dean smacked Sam on the shoulder. "That's not true."

"Ha. Ha. Very funny," Sam said sarcastically.

After dropping Sam off, Dean and I left for the diner.

Dean cleared his throat. "To answer your question. No, he's not my kid."

"What are you talking about?" I asked.

"You're a smart kid. I saw the wheels spinning back in that park," Dean said.

I shrugged. "Well, it was hard not to think that."

"I asked Lisa. She said he's some bad boy biker's kid," Dean said.

"Hmm." I shrugged. "Guess she had a type."