Her dad always told her, once a hunter always a hunter.

She tried to ignore it, tried to ignore that itch that was under her skin. She was planning to live a normal life and that meant no more hunting. None whatsoever.

Excluding those few times she went out to hunt in secret in that time between Dean being born and becoming pregnant with Sam. She couldn't ignore the signs and so went out for a quick hunt.

But after Sam had been born she couldn't bring herself to even look at the news for a while and after some time those itches started to fade away but never disappeared. She just got better at ignoring it.

But staring down at a table of instruments she felt those same itches come back in full force and she ignored how...right it felt and how when she picked up a pair of syringes how much it was settling in.

"Have to admit, never got the chance to do this with a demon." Mary said, watching Sam pour a silvery liquid over a machete. "Mostly on vampires back in the day."

"It's pretty similar, just instead of dead man's blood." Sam said handing her a flask of holy water and nodding at the syringes. "We use holy water."

"Aww, ain't this cute." the demon sneered at them. "You couldn't get me to talk so you went and got mommy."

The both of them ignored her as Mary carefully started to fill the syringes with holy water. "I recommend using this under the nails." she told him, watching his eyebrows raise. "Those delicate places hurt the most."

Sam hummed as he took one of the syringes from her, pressing down to get rid of some of the air. "I tended to go for the eyes mostly." he told her. "Push the needle in right and it's kinda like a mock lobotomy."

"Nail beds and under the nails for me." Mary said, wriggling her fingers at him. "Never really liked the eye stuff. Although," she mused. "If we're going the lobotomy route the back of the ear angling to the brain."

Sam let out a small laugh at that, shaking his head. "If dad could see you now." he said softly.

"I was a different person before I met him." Mary said, playing with her wedding ring for a moment. "Feels like a lifetime ago."

"Feels like forever that all I was worried about was my tests and dreams." Sam said softly. He sighed, "Let's focus on the demon and then we can drink."

"Deal." Mary said with a nod, the both of them armed with syringes.

The demon was laughing at them, tugging at the silver chains that kept her tied down. "If you couldn't make me talk why do you think that mommy will-" she started to ask with a sneer when Mary reached out and yanked her head down to reveal the back of her neck. Without waiting she inserted the needle into the back of her neck, right into the bones were pressed out into the skin, and pushed down the holy water.

The demon screamed and trashed, trying to break free of Mary's grip but she just tightened it, curling her fingers hard into her hair to keep her in place until the syringe was empty.

Using the hair as leverage Mary yanked her head back to look into her black eyes with a smile.

"Mommy has a lot more ideas after a long time of thinking." she told her. "And I'm more than excited to be able to try them all out."

Sam just stared at her, unsure of what he was feeling at the moment.

"Well," he finally said. "That kinda explains a couple things about me now."

Mary winked at him and held the empty syringe to him. "Just get your questions ready." she told him. "Cause I'm going to get you your answers."

Sam stared at her and then smiled, nodding and handing another syringe.

Dean rubbed at his eyes and glanced up towards the direction his mom and brother had gone, it felt like they were gone for hours in a dungeon, a goddamn dungeon, to apparently torture a demon.

And the weirdest part was just how normal mom and Sam were acting like this was just another day for them in what they were doing. As normal as him going to work on some cars, it's how they were acting.

Bobby had gone to answer a few calls in his kitchen, leaving just the two of them alone. He looked at his dad, who seemed to be completely enveloped in the journal he was reading, eyes slightly narrowed.

"Dad?" Dean called out softly, breaking his dad out of his trance as he looked up at him. John grimaced when he realized the position he had been sitting in for the entire time, straightening up and feeling his back crack as a result of it. "You okay?"

John sighed and rubbed at his eyes, closing the book and leaning back in his seat. "Not really." he admitted. "I always thought I knew everything about Mary, we never really kept secrets from one another. And then after what happened with Sam. I..." he shook his head. "It's not like we didn't think about him, we thought about him all the time and it scared the living crap out of me."

"A part of me wasn't sure what to think, and my mind went everywhere when it came to where Sam was." John continued. "I thought the worst things and sometimes I thought maybe it was better that Sam would be...dead than anything horrible happening to him. But at the same time I wanted to know what happened to him. And now...we know and it's not something I could ever have thought of, not to mention the fact that apparently your mom knew about this kind of a thing and never told me."

He glanced towards the kitchen, a somewhat dark look appearing on his face when he saw Bobby and looked away. "It's just a lot to take in."

John looked world weary and then looked up at Dean, a small smile on his face despite everything. "Anything you're hiding from me that I should know about?"

Dean thought about it for a moment and then smiled back at his dad. "I got a tattoo." he said, tugging his sleeve up to show a small swallow on the top of his arm.

John barked out a laugh at that, reaching out to touch it. "Son, your mom and I both have tattoos." he said, a slight teasing tone to his voice. "Seeing as all four of us have tattoos now, it can kinda be considered a family tradition."

Dean blinked at that. "You guys have tattoos?" he asked, a bit distressed at that, trying to remember if he'd ever seen a hint of them.

"Yep, show you later." John said, smiling and some of the tension leaving him. "Your mom and I decided to get some over the years, we actually had some before you guys were born." His thumb rubbed over the swallow. "Why the bird though?"

Dean shrugged. "I was drunk and when I woke up I was just really happy that it wasn't something worse." he looked at it and then pulled his sleeve back down. "I like it though."

John nodded, smiling. "The first ones a gateway, I got one and then just kept getting them. Same with your mom." he glanced over Deans shoulder and brightened, smiling softly.

Turning around Dean felt his stomach drop at the sight of his mother and brother covered in blood, more so than Sam had been before. Mary had a small satisfied smile on her face and Sam looked slightly intrigued and even a bit proud.

"What are we talking about?" Mary asked, flicking her head to the side to push her hair back without touching it.

"Just a couple of things, we were given reading." John said holding his book up. He stared at the both of them. "How did...how did it go?"

"Good. We got what we needed." Sam said with a nod. "Lets get some lunch and we can talk."

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Dean having a tattoo of a swallow is actually a reference to the original idea of Dean having tattoos when the series started. There is an old picture of Dean having that tattoo in fact.