A/N: Surprise! It's been about 5 years since I last updated, but I'm back to finish the story out since there was only 2 chapters left. I didn't want to leave you all hanging (if there are any of you left still following this!). It was nice to come back to writing this, almost like coming home. My writing style has completely changed since writing this, but I tried my best to stick to the original style I wrote this fic in. There's one more chapter after this one, so stay tuned!

If you want to follow some of my more recent works, I'm over on Ao3 now at the username kwhyloren! :)

I really hope some of you are still around following this story and that you have as much fun coming back to it as I did. Thank you!

Dean lay on his back on the motel bed, the sheets tangled and halfway hanging off the edge. Mel's head rested on his chest, rising and falling with his breathing. This was one of Dean's favorite parts. After the passionate, and sometimes rough, sex during a hookup, there was always the few hours after where he would just sit in the silence and feel the other human being existing beside him. It was the one moment of peace before the pain came back. The impending stress of another goodbye, and the inevitable fact that, in no time, he'd be back hunting. Lately the hunts were helping release his anger, though, so that hadn't been a problem up until now. Now he was dreading it— because it meant he'd have to say goodbye to Mel and also face the hard truth that his baby brother had demon blood in him.

Mel sensed the change in his heart rate and slowly sat up, giving him a concerned look.

"Are you okay?" she asked.

"Hm?" his green eyes stopped staring at the ceiling and flicked over to meet hers. "Of course I am. That was amazing."

She smiled a little, then let it fade.

"I know, but… you know it's pointless to lie to me, right? I can hear your pulse, and a few moments ago it sounded like a distressed animal."

"And that's supposed to mean...?"

"You're worried or stressed about something."

"Damn. You're good at that."

The room became silent again and Mel sighed. He was hesitant for reasons she didn't know, but she wanted to help. 'I guess the only way to get him to open up is for me to open up first.' she reasoned.

"Alice is like that a lot. Distressed, I mean. But... you know what the kicker is?"

Dean remained silent, listening intently.

"It gets worse when she's around me."

It was true. Mel always paid attention to her sister, even her heartbeats, to try and understand how she was feeling. She hated to admit it, but since she had been bitten and transformed, emotions were different for her. Some things were easier to feel than others.

"She doesn't trust me, not completely. I don't think she has since the day I was turned."

"That has to be rough," he started, not sure what else to say, really. Except maybe, "that doesn't mean she doesn't care, though. Maybe she does trust you and she just worries about you because she can. I mean, I do that with Sammy—"

Damn it, there he was again. Thinking about the last words his dad had said to him and the possibility that he might have to kill Sam if this demon blood thing went any more south.

"That's what's bothering you, isn't it? Something with Sam?"

"It's been bothering me for a while now," Dean ran a hand through his hair and finally sat up, resting his back against the headboard. "My dad died not too long ago, and he told me something about him. It's the reason he has the psychic mojo and all that crap."

Dean had no idea why he was telling her this. It felt good to finally talk about it, though. Hiding it from Sam was painful at the very least.

"He has demon blood in him," he finished.

Mel's eyebrows raised. She had smelled something off about Sam's blood, but hadn't thought anything of it. Sometimes people with low iron or something medical had the same vibe, so it hadn't seemed out of the ordinary at the time, but demon blood? Now that she thought about it, maybe she had detected a hint of sulfur. She remained quiet, not knowing what she should say.

"You can't say anything to him. He doesn't know and I'd like it to stay that way," Dean's voice sounded stern, but faltered still. "I'm just worried… if this goes bad— if he goes bad —that I might have to..."

Mel understood.

"He won't," she said simply. "There's no way. I was only with him for a few minutes and I could tell right away that he's good."

Dean managed a slight smile.

"I know, he's like a friggin' puppy, but I still can't help but worry. I hope you're right, though. He is good, I know that, but demon blood is something I know jack about so I still have no idea what to expect. Anyway, what I was coming around to was that Sam's different like you, and my worrying about him doesn't mean I don't trust him."

"Took you awhile to get to the point, but thanks. Really, thank you."

"Yeah, well this is getting a little mushy for me. I feel like I need to punch a wall to feel manly again."

Mel giggled.

"I'd like to see that."

"I bet you'd like to see me break my hand. It probably amuses you just thinking about it, you sicko," he teased.

"You know me so well."

Alice was in the bathroom, facing the door. She had finished her shower, got dressed, and had been standing there just staring at the door for a couple of minutes, embarrassed to face Sam. At first, she didn't know what to think. She had leaned against the shut door afterward, still processing what had happened when she heard him muttering to himself. It was then she realized that he was probably fifty times more flustered about the situation than her. Then came the other emotions. Sure, she had been attracted to him before, a lot attracted to him to be honest, and it had been hard to hold back, but now… now she was head-over-heels into him. Slowly, she opened the door and walked out.

Sam had still been sitting hunched over on the side of his bed, his head in his hands, when he heard the bathroom door open. He sat up quickly, glancing her way.

"Alice, I'm so sorry. I didn't realize— it was so stupid of me."

"It's okay. It was my fault and um..." she made her way over to her bed, sitting on the edge, facing him. "I kind of made it worse by running away like that."

"No, you had every reason to run—"

"Sam."

He became quiet, looking somewhat like a scolded puppy, eyes watching her with embarrassment and remorse still visible in them.

"It's fine, really. I'm just paranoid. That's why it happened and also I'm..." Alice stopped, looking down at her hands fidgeting in her lap. "...also not used to actually liking anyone like this."

Sam's eyebrows shot up, honestly surprised.

"Oh," he breathed.

"Yeah… so I panicked."

He was silent again, thinking. Then, he finally spoke.

"Why aren't you used to it? I mean… you're fun. And sweet."

Alice smiled sadly.

"Yeah… I get asked out a lot, but I never say yes. Truth is, I'm terrified of relationships."

That made Sam's heart sink.

"...someone hurt you."

It wasn't a question. He could tell just by her defeated posture and sad look that some jerk had broken her heart.

"Yeah. It's stupid though, really. I mean, it was forever ago, before I was a hunter."

"It's not stupid if it still hurts." Sam said, feeling a twinge in his chest. Jessica was suddenly on his mind again, weighing his heart down. He tried to push the feeling away, wanting to focus on Alice's pain, not his own.

The finality and sureness of those words made Alice feel safe. He understood. She didn't say anything else, just sat still, staring down at her now still hands.

Sam sighed and stood up, walking a few steps to sit next to her on the edge of the bed. His hand gently touched her shoulder.

"Do you want to talk about it?"

"Are you sure you want to hear it...?" She asked, wanting more than anything for him to say yes.

"Of course," his thumb moved back and forth comfortingly on her shoulder.

Alice took a deep breath.

"...I was sixteen," she let out a weak laugh, "wow, this already sounds dumb. Anyway, I was young and stupid as hell when this guy Jake asked me out. I had been crushing on him, so of course I said yes and it was like a damn fairy tale. I should have known it would go south, really, but… stupid me."

"What happened...?" Sam's voice was soft.

"We were together for six months which, to me at the time, seemed to be forever. I already thought I was going to marry him and all that… dumbass shit," she exhaled shakily. "He wanted to have sex with me for a while before but I hadn't said yes because I wasn't ready. Then I just gave in one night because I was scared he would leave me if I didn't and... afterward he dumped me anyway. That hurt enough, but then came the part, a year later, that he supposedly changed his ways and was a great guy. I believed him, too, why the hell did I believe him?"

Her voice was starting to get tight with the tears that threatened to spill down her cheeks. Sam's heart ached at the sound.

"We got back together and it was great… I had secretly missed him. It's weird how you can miss someone, even though they've caused you so much pain. Mostly it's just you missing the person you thought they were, I guess," Alice shook her head, realizing she was getting away from the story. "Well obviously it didn't go well and he threw me to the curb again. Ever since I've been distant with people. Especially since becoming a hunter. It's just not worth the emotional effort."

Sam was silent for a long time, reflecting on his own history with relationships. Jess. The sunshine in his life that he had thought he would be with for the rest of his life. Gone, just like that. It had only been a little under a year since her death, and it still hurt bad enough that it was hard to keep going sometimes. The road did get lonely, though, but it had been hard for him to shake off the feeling that he was betraying Jessica by moving on. When Lori had kissed him during the Hookman case, he hadn't known how to feel. When he met Sarah in New York he had felt a spark of something, felt just slightly less burdened with grief. At the end of everything, though, it was fleeting— a short-lived distraction. Romance didn't come easy to him nowadays, and he still didn't know how he should feel about it, but he knew that he liked Alice, and that he had been terrified earlier to lose her. Maybe that was enough.

"I can understand," he finally said, gently squeezing her shoulder. "It's hard to get invested in anyone after something like that. And it's even more difficult with the kind of life we lead."

Alice nodded silently.

"It is," she said. "Normal people are too vulnerable to drag into this life and the hunters— well, they're usually awful. Some of them would easily kill other hunters just to get a good case."

A small smile made Alice's lips twitch up at the sides.

"You and Dean aren't too bad, though."

Sam let out a small huff of a laugh.

"Thanks, I'm glad you feel that way," he said. "Really."

Alice's smile widened, her hand moving to wipe the stray tears from her cheeks.

"Thank you again. For earlier. I wouldn't be alive if weren't for you."

"Of course," he said. "I wasn't just going to let you die."

His hand moved from her shoulder as he wrapped his arm lightly around her.

It was comforting to Alice, having Sam so close to her again like this. The last time she had almost died, and her mind was spinning with so many emotions that she really didn't know how she felt. Now, though, in this quiet motel room, she had time to think, time to feel. She turned her head to look at Sam's face. The dim light of the lamp made his features soft, and she realized how young he looked. They were both young, too young to be carrying the world on their shoulders like this.

Sam met Alice's gaze, getting lost for a moment in how she was looking at him. Something about it made his heart ache dully, but not in a bad way. Longing, he realized. It was a common feeling, but still foreign. He hadn't wanted to sleep with another woman since Jess, at least not until now. After so long of beating himself up, letting himself be lonely— maybe he should just take the plunge. Maybe he should just try. Slowly, he leaned towards her, making sure she had time to pull away if she wanted to.

Alice felt her heart jump into a sprint, but she wasn't scared this time. Her eyes fluttered shut in the moment before their lips met.

The kiss was soft, slow. Sam's hand gently caressed her cheek, a small exhale of relief leaving him. Alice felt it too— her worries dissolved, the previous stress of the hunt gone. All that mattered was this; two lonely hunters finding a moment of peace in an otherwise cruel existence.

Something old and familiar stirred within Sam, and he found himself kissing Alice a little harder, his other hand moving to grip her waist. Alice responded by moving closer to him, pressing against his chest as she returned his kisses. Their closeness, the feeling of Sam's lips against hers, made her realize that she had been starving for something like this for so long. Some kind of connection, affection…

She moved to straddle Sam's waist, one of her hands grasping his shoulder, the other resting on his cheek. His arms wrapped around her waist, holding her tightly against him. They kissed until they were breathless, until Sam moved Alice to lay her down on the mattress and he was on top of her, his hands fumbling with the bottom of her shirt.

Then the pain in Sam's chest returned, and he hesitated, pulling away.

"Is everything okay?" Alice asked, looking worried.

"I… no, it's not," Sam replied, sighing.

He moved to get off of her, sitting against the back of the bed, head in his hands.

"I'm sorry, it's just— I'm still getting over something. I don't think I can handle sex right now."

Alice slowly sat up, hand resting on Sam's shoulder.

"It's okay, I didn't mean to pressure you into anything."

"No, you didn't do anything wrong. I… wanted to kiss you, that part was fine, I'm just…"

He sighed.

"I'm mourning someone."

Alice remembered what Sam had said earlier about being a hunter his whole life. Someone must have been claimed by that lifestyle, someone he had loved deeply. She knew the feeling, but she had never lost someone she had been romantically involved with. That was much more complicated. He needed time.

"Let's get some rest, then. After today, we need it."

She went to move off of the bed to give him his privacy, but Sam's hand lightly grasped her arm.

"Please stay with me," he said. "I don't want to fall asleep alone."

She gave him a small smile.

"Okay."

Her hand reached over to turn the lamp off before she climbed under the covers with him. Sam wrapped his arms around her again, keeping her close to him. He knew the moment would be fleeting, that tomorrow they would have to say goodbye and that he most likely wouldn't see her again. For now, though, he would take comfort in her presence, as she would in his.

For once, neither of them had nightmares.