It took them a week and a half to get rid of everything.

Piper was still shocked at how much stuff they had accumulated in just a year. She clung to the emotion, because underneath it, there was depression and pain and fear. She didn't want to get rid of their things. She didn't want to move. She wanted to stay where they were, she wanted to accumulate too much stuff, watch too much TV, and...

Instead, she drove a truck with the majority of their belongings to the local thrift store and donated almost their whole life.

When she got back, Dean was sitting on the floor in the middle of the living room. She closed the door behind her and went to sit next to him silently. He lifted his arm and slid it over her shoulders, and she leaned into his warm side. "Doing all right, Winchester?" she asked.

"I don't know," he replied softly, holding her tight against him.

"Yeah, me, too."

xxxxx

Before they called Sam, they went to Sioux Falls.

When Bobby opened the door, Piper had to stem the urge to hit him. She'd never particularly wanted to hit him before, but it wasn't hard to figure out what he'd been hiding from her. For a year.

"Damn it," he said gruffly.

She smiled tightly. "Hi, Bobby." She raised the pet carrier in her hand. "This is Monster. Get used to him, he lives here now."

He frowned as she pushed past him. Dean was silent behind her, carrying their bags.

"What the hell is Monster?" Bobby snapped, shutting the door behind them.

"My cat," she said serenely. "And he lives here now."

"I don't want a fucking cat."

She turned. "Well, I don't want you to have lied to me about Sam being alive for an entire year, but sometimes we have to deal with things we don't want."

Bobby heaved a sigh as Dean chuckled humorlessly behind her. "Look, Pi," the older man said resignedly, "I didn't like it, but I'd do it again."

She raised her eyebrows and crossed her arms. "Would you, now? Why the hell is that?"

"Because you kids got out, Piper!" he insisted. "You walked away from the life. And I was so damn grateful, you got no idea."

"Do you have any clue," Dean snarled from next to her, "what walking away meant for us?"

Bobby nodded. "Yeah. You got jobs and a life and not getting your fool selves killed at age thirty. That's what it meant."

Piper held an arm out to stop her husband from advancing. "Do you have any idea what it did to us? How long it took for us to even reach some semblance of normality?" She took a step forward, and now it was Dean stopping her with a hand fisted in the back of her jacket. "How long Dean drank? How long I cried? How long and hard we searched for how to get Sam out? How long it took for us to finish grieving? How dare you make that decision for us?!"

She was shouting and shaking by the end of it. Dean came forward and wrapped an arm around his shoulders to bring her back against him.

Bobby was frowning. "You told Sam you'd leave it alone."

"Of course we didn't leave it alone," Dean said quietly, dangerously. "You left us to stew for a whole fucking year? You couldn't put us out of our misery?"

"Look, I get it wasn't easy," Bobby said placatingly, "but that's life! And it was as close to happiness as I've ever seen a hunter get. It ain't like I wanted to lie to you kids. But you were out."

Piper smiled sadly. "Well, that didn't last long, did it?"

xxxxx

Dean was helping Piper hang their clothes back up in their old room when his phone rang. He read the display and flipped it open. "Sam."

"I need your help. Now."

Dean frowned and looked at Piper, who was tilting her head and looking at him with an eyebrow cocked. "What's wrong?" he asked into the phone.

"I'm working this job. Bring Piper."

As if I wouldn't.

xxxxx

Piper was apprehensive when they pulled up behind Sam's little sedan. It was so weird that Sam was driving separately. That they had to meet him somewhere.

Dean parked the Impala and took a deep breath. He looked over at her. "Ready for this?"

"What is this, exactly? Did he say what it was about?"

"No," he said as he checked his gun and put it in his waistband. It was not a sight she had missed, and her heart ached. "Let's go, anyway."

She got out on her side and shut the door. She smiled at Sam, who had just gotten out of his own car. "Hi, Sam."

"Hi."

"What's this about? What's the case?" Dean asked testily as she came around to stand next to him in front of Sam.

"Strapped down in the backseat," Sam said vaguely.

Piper frowned, walked up to look into the back window, and her mind went completely and absolutely blank with shock.

"Sam," she said softly, smiling down at the baby in the backseat. "What the fuck?"

"Welcome to the party," he said dryly.

She rolled her eyes and opened the car door, crouched, and unbuckled the baby. She lifted him out of the car and held him, smiling down at him. "Sam, I repeat," she said, still cooing at the baby. "Where the fuck did you get a baby?"

"Probably shouldn't cuss in front of it," Sam said with a chuckle.

Dean came to stand next to her, his face slack. "Sam, where… What… What did you drag us into?"

Sam shrugged and joined them. On instinct, Piper subtly shifted away from him with the baby. She smiled up at him to cover, but stayed closer to Dean. Some fierce part of her didn't want Sam anywhere near the little one in her arms.

"Dunno," Sam was saying. "Whatever it was that took the kid, it was fast and it freaked when I cut it with silver."

Dean nodded and held a finger up to the boy. The baby cooed and grasped it. Piper's heart seized, and she tried hard to keep her mind on the conversation and not the ache in her chest.

"So that narrows it down to…" Dean trailed off.

"Ghouls, shifters, about a dozen other monsters," Piper said firmly. It was just a touch too loud, and Sam gave her a strange look. Dean, however, gave her a knowing one and pressed a kiss to the side of her head before continuing.

"I don't recall seeing babynapping in any of those profiles."

Sam scoffed. "Yeah, exactly. That's why I need you guys." He started back to the car. "Come on, let's go."

Piper frowned. "Sam, where's the diaper bag?"

The tall hunter turned and frowned at her. "What?"

"The bag. Full of diapers. And all the rest of what you need for a baby."

Sam frowned. "What do you need for a baby?"

xxxxx

After the disaster at the supermarket, they got a motel room to regroup. Well, Sam was regrouping. Dean was trying to think about anything but Piper holding that damn kid.

She came out of the bathroom with Bobby John wrapped in a towel in her arms. He could tell that she was hurting, too, by the careful mask she kept on her pretty face. But he'd be damned if he knew how to help her. He was barely keeping it together himself.

Her soft smile told him that she knew what he was thinking. She bounced the baby in her arms and looked between Dean and Sam. "All right, what's the plan, gentlemen?" she asked as she walked Bobby John over to the crib they'd gotten from management and laid him down.

Sam was staring at her in a way that made Dean's hackles rise. Been happening a lot lately. Getting possessive in my old age.

"You're really good at that, Pipe," Sam said, not taking his eyes off of her.

She was smiling down into the crib. "Thank you," she said gently, moving a blanket up to partially cover the baby.

"You guys would probably make pretty good parents."

Dean physically flinched as pain lanced through his heart. He stood and went to Piper, placing a hand on her warm back for comfort. She smiled up at him wanly, then looked back at Sam. "Do we have any idea what to do next?" she asked, pretty blatantly ignoring Sam's comment.

Dean watched his brother look back at the laptop screen in front of him. "Yeah, actually, I missed something the first time. This house on Elm. The mother was killed, baby was grabbed, but daddy wasn't living at the house at the time, so he's alive." He looked back up at them. "What do you guys say we go and have a chat?"

Dean nodded, relieved to have a direction to move in instead of wallowing in pain and regret here. "I say let's."

The baby cooed in his sleep, and all three of them looked over at him. Piper was the first to look away. "I'll stay here, you guys go."

Dean frowned. "You sure, kitten?"

"Well, unless you have a badge for the baby, yes, I'm sure."

xxxxx

Piper lay on her back on her and Dean's bed, thinking about how fitting her situation was. What better way to get back into hunting than to have to take care of a baby two days after you start taking birth control again?

She was shaken from her dark thoughts by a muffled thud and a wet splat, followed by Bobby John starting to wail. Her head snapped up and her eyes widened when she saw clear mucus and what looked like flaps of skin on the wall above the crib. She shot off the bed and was across the room in an instant, horror making her heart stop. When she got there, however, her heart started up again, galloping in her chest.

"What. The. Fuck?" she whispered as she stared down at what was now a black baby crying in his (its?) crib.

Unable to resist Bobby John's distress, she took the towel she'd used before, wiped him off, and wrapped him up in his blanket before taking him into her arms. "Shh, little one," she cooed as she pulled her phone out of her back pocket and dialed her husband's number. "Shh, I've got you, Aunt Piper's got you, little one."

The phone rang a few times before Dean picked up. "Pipes?"

"Dean, I have news."

"Yeah, me, too."

"You first."

"We talked to the father. He checks out, but the baby… We think the baby's dad might actually be the shapeshifter."

"You know, I have a sneaking suspicion that you're correct."

xxxxx

She had the baby mostly calmed down when there was a knock at the door. "Manager! Everything okay in there?"

She narrowed her eyes suspiciously, but her voice was light when she answered. "Oh, we're fine! Thank you!"

"Ma'am, we've had some complaints. Mind opening the door?"

She put the baby back into the crib slowly, then grabbed her knife and stood to the side of the door. "Not a good time, I'm sorry!"

The doorknob rattled, and a few moments later she heard the distinct thunk of the lock disengaging. The door swung open and the shapeshifter, disguised now as a police officer, entered the room.

Piper slashed at the creature with her knife, then grappled with him. She was careful to keep herself between it and the baby as they fought.

"Get out of the way," it snarled.

"Not a chance," she snapped. They had separated, now just staring each other down, chests heaving. Her lip was bloodied, and she felt a bruise starting to form on her ribs. But it also had several deep slashes in its arms and chest, and she had caught it across the cheek, too. Ha.

"The child should be with his father."

She smiled humorlessly. "Well, to be honest, I'm not seeing very much in the way of family resemblance."

"I'm not just talking about me," the thing in front of her said, its voice low and dangerous. "I'm talking about our father."

It lunged for her as soon as the last word was out of its mouth, and adrenaline made everything slow down enough that she could assess her situation. She let it hit her and then rolled back with it, dropping her weight onto the floor. As fast as she could, she got her legs underneath it and kicked, praying that its momentum and her strength would be sufficient.

It was. The creature went flying out the window of the motel room with a tinkling, delicate crash! She jumped to her feet and ran to what used to be glass. The creature was lying on its back, just barely starting to stir.

Heavy footsteps had her looking over to see the Winchester brothers running toward her. "Piper!" Dean shouted, skidding to a stop in front of the window.

She pointed. "Shoot it!"

Dean was still staring at her, his hands tracing her face. "Piper, are you all right?"

A low popping sound had her looking around her husband to Sam, who was standing over the shifter with a gun in his hand. He looked up to see her looking at him, and he nodded. "Got it."

Dean's gentle hand on her chin had her looking back at him. He was frowning. "Are you all right?"

She nodded, troubled for some indefinable reason. "Yeah, yeah, I'm okay. He… It came for the baby. Dean, we have to get him somewhere safe while we figure out what to do."

"Samuel," Sam said as he joined them at the window. "Samuel will know what to do."

xxxxx

Dean had an arm around Piper, who was holding Bobby John, and he was trying hard not to glare at his family.

Gwen came by and smiled at the baby. "Well, aren't you just the best disguise a monster ever wore?"

Piper started a little, and Dean smothered the urge to growl. Gwen rolled her eyes. "I'm kidding, guys, relax."

Sam and Samuel came in, but Dean couldn't find it in him to be relieved. Sam was giving him the willies, Samuel was giving him the willies, and he was finding more and more that the only person he trusted was Piper.

"What's our next move?" Sam was asking.

"I got a couple of ideas," Samuel said. He reached to Piper. "Here, let me see the little guy."

Dean opened his mouth to protest, but Piper kicked him a little. "Be careful," she said softly, "he's a little weepy still from the change."

Samuel took him in his arms and smiled kindly at her, which was more warmth than he'd shown her so far, so Dean did find himself relaxing minutely despite himself. "Will do," Samuel said before turning the baby in his arms and looking at him. "Hey, there. You're a big fella, aren't you? Yeah. I haven't held one of these in a long time." He met Dean's eyes. "Your mom was the tiniest. She was bald as a cue ball."

Dean didn't know what to do with that, so he ignored it. "So what are we going to do with him?"

"Raise him," Samuel said simply.

"Raise him?" Piper asked.

He looked over at her. "You've got another suggestion?"

She shook her head. "No, he'll be safest here with you guys."

Dean frowned. "What about… I mean, what are we gonna do? Study him? Poke at him?"

Piper kicked him again, but Dean ignored her because Christian was frowning, stepping forward. "Your mind goes straight to torture, Dean. Don't assume that for everyone."

Dean saw red, but he was more focused on Piper tensing beside him. "What exactly are you trying to say?" Dean growled.

Christian shrugged, a smug look on his face. "Sorry, I heard about what you majored in down in the pit."

Before Dean spoke, Piper moved. He grabbed for her, but she was fast, and she had punched Christian across the face before Dean could get her. He grabbed her around the waist and hauled her away. He could tell from her stance she wasn't done, and he was proven right by the way she kicked and fought against him. "Let me go!" she hissed. She looked at Christian. "You deserve a hell of a lot more than that, how dare you?"

"Piper, chill, kitten," Dean muttered, keeping his hold on her and stepping away from the other man.

Christian looked at Sam, still holding his face. The blood on his lips made Dean swell with pride a little bit. That's my girl.

"What the fuck, man?" Christian snarled. "What did you bring in here?"

Sam shrugged. "You deserved that."

"All right, everyone chill out," Samuel snapped. Dean kept a tight hold on Piper, who was still struggling against him as Samuel continued. "No one's doing anything to him. When he's old enough, we throw it to him. He wants a volunteer to help out, that's fine."

Mark was smiling. "Could be great."

Dean frowned. "How?"

"Think of the kind of hunter he'll grow up to be."

Dean blinked. "You all are joking, right? I mean, come on! You can't Angelina Jolie a shapeshifter. Give us the baby."

Instead, Samuel turned a baleful stare onto Dean, who stood his ground. "Why can't you give me an inch of trust, Dean?"

"Maybe because you two are suddenly back from the dead, and my wife and I seem to be the only ones who want to know how the hell that happened!"

"Dean," Piper said severely from his arms, before anyone else could respond. "Everyone wants to know what happened, it's not just us."

"Yeah," Sam said evenly.

"Well, there's just a little too much mystery with this family for me to get comfy," Dean snapped.

"Then don't!" Samuel snapped back. "But don't put it on us. All we're trying to do is invite you in. Christian?"

The other man was working his jaw, giving Piper the stinkeye. "Yeah?"

"You and Arlene. Still no luck on the baby front?"

Christian stiffened. "Not yet."

"But you want one?"

Christian sighed. "Yeah, we do."

Piper stiffened. "Wait a goddamn minute-"

"It's okay, Pipe," Sam said soothingly. "It's all right."

Samuel walked over and handed Bobby John to Christian. "Congrats. It's a boy. Sometimes."

Christian chuckled a little and took the baby. "The shit I do for this family."

"Are you kidding me?" Piper snarled. "You have no business raising anything."

"Go to hell, bitch," Christian snarled.

Piper started to struggle against Dean's hold again. Her temper was shot, she was stressed and tired and sad. All Dean wanted to do was take her away and hide her from this. He opened his mouth to suggest just that, that maybe he and his wife were not only not welcome, but didn't want to be there, when dogs started barking outside.

Piper stilled as Samuel spoke. "Someone go check the back door."

Christian handed the baby to Samuel, who turned and gave him back to Piper. "Downstairs," he said urgently, "Panic room. He'll be safe there. Go!"

xxxxx

Later, after the Alpha shifter took the baby, and Samuel and Sam explained what the hell an Alpha really was, they drove back to Bobby's in relative silence. Piper let her head rest on Dean's shoulder as she thought. As much as she didn't want to be back hunting, it was nice being in Baby again.

"How you holdin' up?" he asked gently.

She shrugged. "Tired. My ribs hurt, and so does my face. And I'm…"

She hadn't mentioned her misgivings about Sam to Dean yet. They hadn't really had time, and she was wondering if it was maybe in her head.

"Creeped the hell out by Sam?" he guessed.

When she looked up to nod, she realized why she'd been so disturbed when they had come to kill the shifter after she'd tossed it out the window.

Dean had come immediately to her, checking to make sure she was okay.

Sam had never even asked.

Something's wrong.

xxxxx

Hi, beautiful readers! Here are my notes:
I own only Piper Finley, the original character. I don't own Supernatural or any of the characters. (heartbroken).
Reviews, comments, and kudos give me life and keep me going.
And, as always, thank you for reading, you beautiful, beautiful people.
**You know, I think this is where Piper might start changing things in a big way.