A/N: Vivi here! Sorry I missed a week. Haven't had much time to write lately. That's why this chapter is so short. I'll try to have more next time!

Also, watch out for the POV shift.

Previously on Enter the World:

Sam rolled his eyes and couldn't help but grin. Once the light was off, he moved a little closer to the woman he loved and fell asleep with his lips just brushing the back of her head.

"No…"

"We gotta get up, Ali. It's not safe to stay here for longer than we have to."

"No…"

"Please? Dean's already up. He's gonna leave without us."

Sam couldn't help but smile at the halfhearted grumbling from the crazy mess of hair in front of him. He knew she was awake and in much better spirits than yesterday, but whenever he tried to pull his arm away from her side she caught it and held it in place. "You can sleep more in the car, if you want."

He took the quieter grumbles as permission and withdrew his arm. "You'll want to get dressed, though."

"No…"

Ali did sleep in the car, but not in Sam's lap. She was nestled between the brothers on the tiny two-seater bench and passed out against Sam's shoulder, holding his hand in hers on her lap.

"Since when are you two so lovey-dovey?" Dean asked quietly as they passed a 'Welcome to Utah' sign.

"Since yesterday, I guess. She's usually not so physical about it around other people." Sam glanced down at Ali, sleeping peacefully like she hadn't slept in days.

"Maybe she's marking you. Like you're her mate."

"Dude. We're not animals."

Dean grinned at his own joke. "But you are her mate. She's bearing your young and everything." Dean glanced at Sam to catch the indignant sigh and face palm, which only served to widen his smile. "Hey, how do you think she'll handle the move?"

"She'll be fine. She knows why we can't go home for a while." He reached over and tucked some rogue hairs back behind her ear. The corners of her lips pulled up just a little, just for a second at the touch and she sighed in her sleep.

"You think she'll get used to living with everyone in the same house?"

"She'll have to."

"We're picking up your car? In Utah?" I asked quietly as we pulled up to an impound lot for the city of Orem, Utah. Apparently Dean did some calling around and found out his Baby had been towed to this very lot a few days ago, after Cas flew us back to the bunker from Orem City General hospital.

Cas… I was too ready to see the angel; I thought he had been killed when I was taken. Imagine my shock and relief when the guys told me that he was alive. Not really okay, but alive. They wouldn't tell me much more.

It took a long time for me to stop crying after that.

"Yes we are." Dean said, as if that as the perfect defense for his actions.

"Isn't the window…?" I watched him walk away toward the front office. Surely the passenger window was still busted out from when Sam had to get into the car and come save Dean and I on the other side of the city. While Sam and I were drugged and flying higher than kites on a windy day.

"Yup."

Sure enough, the Impala was there and once she was freed, Sam and I followed Dean to the motel we had stayed at just last week when we were hunting the siren.

"Pop the trunk, Sammy." Dean said when we pulled into the parking space next to the Impala. Sam did and I watched, truly befuddled, as Dean and Sam pulled a literal car window from the trunk of the little red two seater.

I sat on the hood of the red car and watched as the brothers set to work fixing the window. After a few minutes, Dean noticed my obvious confusion.

"Got it the morning I went on that drunken rampage." Dean said from behind the door. He was hard at work removing the inside panel while Sam painstakingly removed the duct tape and garbage bag that the impound lot put in place to protect the interior of the car.

"When you yelled at Sam and left?" I asked softly, trying to make my voice sound like I didn't have a stopped up nose. The thing hadn't been clear for days. I wasn't getting sick; I was pretty sure all the saltwater running through there would keep that from happening, even if it did plug my nose.

"Yeah. That one. I was honestly just going to get the window when I saw a liquor store and… yeah. Scrap yard not far from the bunker had it and I didn't know when I'd get another chance to pick one up." Dean refused to look at me. "Didn't make a lot of good decisions that day."

"No you did not." I shivered as memories of empty bottles and garbage bags and vomit and fevers and blankets and soup filled my head. "I'll get the stuff we left."

"Here." Dean popped open the Impala's glove box and tossed me a key. I figured it was for the motel room we so hastily abandoned after the last case.

I was right. I set to work rounding up the things we left the week before. No part of me ever expected to see those things again. I figured we wouldn't be able to make it back to Orem from the bunker before the nights we paid for ran out and the manager took our stuff and sold it… Or called the police. Most of our arsenal was in the closet; with the window on the Impala busted out, we decided against leaving all the weapons in the trunk.

"Hello, beautiful." I smiled as I found my handgun. Pink on the top and matte black everywhere else. A gift from Dean, after I finished my training. Quickly, I stuffed all the gear into a duffel and hauled it out to the Impala, setting it carefully in the trunk. I did the same with Dean's bag of stuff, Sam's bag of stuff, and my own bag of stuff. I did, however, leave that fugly blue sequin club dress behind. No good memories for any of us involved that thing. And I was pretty sure those stains were never going to come out anyway.

"Got it all?" Sam asked when I closed the motel door and went back to sit on the red car's hood.

"Yeah."

"Good."

"Just finished putting the last screw in place." Dean grinned as he rolled his new window up into place and pressed his nose to it, making a face at me.

I couldn't help but laugh; he crossed his eyes and scrunched his nose and stuck his tongue out and it was the funnies thing I had seen in months. And that was the deepest, most satisfying laugh I'd had in a long time. It was well and truly a belly laugh.

I wasn't sure if it was Dean's funny face or my laugh, but Sam cracked up too.

Without losing his grin, Dean went around to the driver's side of his Baby. "Let's head to the farm. We got a long day ahead of us."

"Where is this place?" I asked after an hour on the road. Sam and I were following Dean in the red car, speeding down the highway. Occasionally, we'd see the oldest Winchester get really into a song and start singing, pulling drum solos on the wheel, the seat, the roof, maybe throwing in an air guitar now and then. It was our source of entertainment for the time being.

"Central Nebraska."

"Why Nebraska?"

"That's where they lived before their bar was burned down by demons."

"So they've always lived there?"

"Ever since we've known them. Dad knew Bill back in the day but… just don't bring Dad or Bill up around them, okay?"

"Why?"

"Dad made a mistake and got Bill killed on a hunt. It's still kind of an open wound."

"Oh."

"They're good people, don't get me wrong, but both of them are a little hot-headed. Best to tread lightly until you get to know 'em."

"Note taken."

We went another hour in silence, Sam driving with some kind of mix radio station playing quietly in the background and me dozing or staring out the window.

"What happened with Tristram?"

I whipped my head around at the name, adrenaline flooding my body as I blinked some sleepiness out of my eyes. "Huh?"

"What happened while you were with Tristram? You wouldn't say anything when we got you back and you were acting kinda weird." Sam glanced over at me with worried eyes before looking back to the road. His hand found mine on the seat between us. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah. I'm okay now. It certainly wasn't the worst thing that ever happened to me." I took a deep breath and shrugged. "Uh… want the condensed version?"

"I want whatever version you'll give me."

"Right. So…" I took a moment to gather my thoughts. When I finally spoke, my voice was small and hesitant, reflecting how I felt about retelling my tale. "Tristram took me outside the grocery store and freed the vessels. He shoved me into an SUV that had one of his demons in the driver's seat. He held me against the seat with that… demon mind power thing so I wouldn't struggle. From the time he took me until he pulled me out at the shopping center, I didn't leave the car for more than two minutes at a time. The driver would stop to get gas and Tristram would sometimes let me use the bathroom." I realized my eyes were closed and I shivered, feeling my face get hot and the first inklings of traumatized tears prick into being. Sam squeezed my hand and brought me back to the present. With a deep breath, I continued. "I don't think he remembers what it's like to be human. He was all gung-ho to preserve life back at the store and he did release all those people… didn't kill a single person while I was with him… but he starved me. The only time I got anything to drink was when we stopped and he let me use the bathroom. I begged for food but after a few hours of that he forced me to stop talking and held me still with his power. I about lost my mind."

"Ali, why didn't you tell us right away?" Sam exclaimed, looking at me. I wouldn't meet his eyes. "We wouldn't have driven so long before we got something to eat."

"I couldn't…"

"You couldn't talk? Didn't he free you as soon as he left?"

"I could talk. I couldn't… I couldn't believe it was finally over. It was like being possessed but with nothing… extra in my head. I just couldn't move. And then- then he dragged me out of the car and shook me so hard I got dizzy and I saw you and Dean and I just couldn't believe it was over." Full fledged tears blurred my vision and stopped up my nose. "I just needed a while to ground myself."

"Ali…" Sam looked distraught, lost. "I'm so sorry we let this happen. We should've known-"

"You didn't let it happen. No one let it happen. It just happened, Sam. And you did exactly what I needed you to do when you..." I sent him a sad smile and pulled my arm across my face to get rid of the worthless tears. "I needed you to ground me to the present and you did that in the car. I needed you to remind me that eating was important and you did that at the motel. I wasn't even hungry at that point. I was so beyond hungry that the thought of food made me nauseous." A nervous laugh left me and I sniffed my nose. "I needed you to remind me that I was important and not just a thing to be traded and used. You… you did that in the shower."

"I didn't cross a line, did I?" Sam asked, mirroring my nervous tone.

"You did, but it was a good line. We, uh… we should do that again sometime. Sometime soon. I want to participate a little more next time."

"Oh." Blood rushed to Sam's cheeks.

"But the most important thing you did for me was just hold me all night long. Because I was strung out and exhausted and nothing made sense anymore and I was afraid. But you were there. You didn't leave me, and you talked to me like I meant something to you, and you were so close to me, and you held my belly, and I finally felt safe again. You let me rest, Sam. I needed that." I squeezed his hand and turned to look out my window again. "You did everything right."

"I don't feel that way." Sam frowned. "We lost Francesca. We had to trade her to get you back. Don't get me wrong, I'd do it a thousand times over if I had to. I just hate that she'll be out in the world again. She could hurt you, Ali."

She's back. I closed my eyes and swallowed hard. There wasn't even a way for me to be angry with Sam; I knew exactly why he did what he did and I would have done the same thing for him. Still… Why didn't they just kill her when they had the chance? It would have been easier for us both to die than to have her after me for the rest of my life. "Yes she could. And she probably will."

"I'm sorry, Ali. Dean and I are prepared to do whatever is necessary to protect you and put an end to that demon once and for all. We're in it for the long haul, remember? This is our fault and we have to deal with the consequences." Sam squeezed my hand. "All you have to do is stay safe."

"It isn't your fault she's after me."

"It's our fault she's loose again."

"It's also your fault that I'm loose again."

"Ali, those aren't the same-"

"If you don't stop with the whiny-guilty-hero thing, I'm gonna barf. We're together again, we're relatively safe, and with any luck the demons don't know where we are or where we're going. Can't we just… I don't know. Be content for a while? All this conflict is wearing me out."

Sam sighed. "We don't really have any other choice. Cas is down, Dean and I are still sick, we have no idea what Tristram even wants to do now that he's free, and we have no way of retaliating against him while he has his followers on call. We need time to come up with a plan."

"That's why we're going to the farm?"

"Got it in one."

A/N: Leave me words. See you soon!