You Better Run : Volume I

by Crazywriter226

Kate has never asked for anything in her life, and she surely has never asked to be thrown into a world where things really went bump in the night. She'll have to trust the grumpy Bobby Singer, the troubled Sam Winchester and the annoying Dean Winchester to help her find her way back home, but also to survive in this new world(OC from an AU where the show doesn't exist)Slow Dean/OC

23. Chapter 23

Thank you for keeping on reading my story even though it's been quite some time since my last update. And, like always, thank you to 'Igotzapped' for your beta-reading and your support :)

Chapter inspired by the episode "The Rapture" (4x20) of the TV show.

---

Sioux Falls, South Dakota.

One hour before dawn.

She knew that he was going to be mad.

Furious, even.

But there was absolutely no way that she could have stayed in the too fancy, too neat and almost ICU-level sterilized house that was Doctor Parks' house while Bobby was undoubtedly facing something that was very serious.

Maybe even deadly.

The fact that he had sent Matt away on a hunt so suddenly and the fact that he had asked Kate to stay with Doctor Parks for an indefinite amount of time were both quite big giveaways; especially after all the profound concern that Bobby had shown towards Kate and the recent situation surrounding her.

That was how, after she had slept for about three hours because of half a sleeping pill that Doctor Parks had given her, that Kate found herself sneaking out of the doctor's house and driving to Bobby's. And, strangely enough, even after spending almost half a year at this place, she didn't know the address of the old man. After driving for five minutes, Kate started to fiddle the car GPS until she found Bobby's address in it which caused her to be fairly relieved.

Doctor Parks was still asleep when Kate left her house and the young brunette was hoping that the doctor would find the note she left before calling Bobby. She had explained in a few words that she couldn't stay at her place while Bobby was probably facing something big. And she had asked the green-eyed woman to give her a ring once she found the note, and above all else she had asked her to not warn Bobby before Kate got the chance to reach him first. She was convinced that if she got to see the old man before Doctor Parks called him, she would have the possibility to explain why she didn't obey to him and stayed at Doctor Parks'. He would end up understanding her motives. Probably after kicking her ass. And that was the best case scenario. Kate didn't want to think of the worst.

Suddenly, her cell phone rang in the pocket of the black hoodie that Matt had put on her back after dropping her at the hospital the day before. Her brown eyes still glued to the road ahead of her, she took her right hand off the stirring wheel and slid it in her hoodie pocket and finally pulled the ringing phone out. She glanced down at it just to take in the name flashing on the screen.

Doctor Parks.

Kate raked her upper teeth on her lips, taking a deep breath through her nostrils, and then answered the call as she put the phone against her ear.

"Doc-" She started, only to be cut off abruptly by the sharp and stern voice of the green-eyed woman.

"You better tell me you did not take my car and it had only been stolen, Kate."

"Would you rather like it in the hands of a thief?" Kate asked, her eyebrows frowned in confusion of the doctor's words.

"Kate, I am serious. Where are you right now?"

"On my way to Bobby's. Didn't you find my note?"

"I did. And then, I went to my garage to find my car gone," Doctor Parks told her before she stopped for a couple of seconds. "Wait. Are you driving my car right now?"

"Yeah. Please tell me you didn't call Bobby yet," Kate said quickly.

"You can't drive my car while talking on the phone," Doctor Parks told her ignoring the last thing Kate told her.

"What is it with you and your car? You're worse than Dean," Kate replied, remembering Dean's devoted and insane love for his Chevrolet.

"I have my reasons," Doctor Parks replied and Kate got distracted by the voice of the GPS telling her to turn right. She looked down at the device and then looked up at the road. She abruptly put one foot on the brakes causing the car to squeal which didn't get unheard by the doctor on the other end of the line. "What happened?"

"Just a squirrel. Sorry," Kate breathed out as her brown eyes followed the little brown squirrel that crossed the road. "Don't worry about your car, I'm a good driver," Kate said trying to reassure the doctor as she quickly licked her lips and pressed them together before restarting to drive once the animal was out of the road. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to scare you. And, I-I really just wanted to get to Bobby quicker."

"If he asked you to stay at my place, that's for a legitimate reason, Kate."

"Yeah, I know. But, I can't let him do that," Kate replied, her voice softening into an almost whisper. "I can't let him face whatever is at his house right now. I can't let him face something that might be too dangerous for him too."

"Bobby isn't a green bean in the matter of danger, Kate. He would have asked you to stay with him if he thought that he needed you," Doctor Parks explained to her.

"I'm not saying that he needs me to take care of whatever is happening over there. I'm pretty sure he would never admit needing someone's help. Especially mine," Kate replied as she shook her head. "I-I just wanna make sure he's okay."

"And asking you to stay at my place is his way to make sure you are okay."

"Yeah, but that's different. We don't know if he's okay while we know that I'm okay."

"You are not okay. You came around from coma less than a week ago and your wound is magically half healed-"

"Yeah and that means I'm okay," Kate cut her off.

"Kaitlin," Doctor Parks sighed causing the young woman to frown at the use of her full first name. Not a lot of people called her by her full first name, and depending on who did and the way they did, she could decipher rather easily what emotion was going through that person. Right now, she was pretty sure that Doctor Parks was exasperated by her. "Do you realize that you are putting yourself in mortal danger by going over there? Do you realize that you might not be so lucky this time? You might not be okay?"

It was one sudden scary thought. It reminded her of the way the things had turned out to be a few days ago. So violent, so terrifying, so unexpected. But this time she knew that she had to be on alert and that she had to except anything and everything to happen. She didn't know what to expect but knowing that she had to watch her back was already making her extremely vigilant. All this fear pumping in her veins was giving her not only determination to make sure Bobby was okay, but also a real power to be ready to face whatever was at Bobby's.

"I'm gonna be okay," Kate replied firmly, her eyebrows frowned as she swallowed down her saliva and hardened her grip around the wheel. "And so is Bobby."

---

South Dakota, Sioux Falls. At Bobby Singer's.

Twenty minutes later.

The young brunette parked in front of the old rusty house where she had landed in the first time six months earlier. Biting on her bottom lip, she zipped up Matt's black hoodie that she was wearing above her black tank-top and she climbed out of the car. Her eyes immediately fell on the black classic car parked just a few feet away. The Impala. Since she had been so lost in her thoughts, she hadn't even noticed the boys' car as she drove the Doctor Parks' family car up to the house.

And now Kate was even more worried.

If the Impala was here and Bobby wanted her out of his place for days, it only meant that something bad had happened to one of the brothers. She felt stupid for not calling them when she was trying to fall asleep at Doctor Parks' last night. She felt even more stupid for not trying to get some information about what was happening to Bobby through them. It would have definitely helped her to know what the actual situation was, and she wouldn't be standing here, frozen in shock of wonder of what the inevitably bad news that was inside of Bobby's house could be.

"What the hell are ya doin' here?"

Spinning around in such a way that her brown curls bounced in the air, Kate looked up at the old man standing at his front door and wearing a greenish flannel shirt over a green t-shirt, without forgetting one of his many baseball cap on the top of his head.

"Bobby," she said in a breath.

"I thought I told you to stay at Beth's," he told her as she managed to walk quickly up to him in spite of her high-heeled black boots.

"Oh yeah, you wanted me to stay away from here to keep me safe," she arrived in front of him. "Meanwhile who would have kept you safe, huh?" The old man's features slightly frowned as he took in her words. His blue eyes scanned her face on which sincerity glowed brightly.

And that was when he truly realized it.

He realized how genuinely she cared about him and his safety. He realized how honestly she grew to care about all and each of them. He realized how candidly she always wanted to help them and actually did. She had almost gotten herself killed more than once to help them. Not a week ago, she had stabbed herself to prevent a demon from killing Sam and Dean. This kid was as much of an idjit as those two Winchesters that were in his house right now.

"Alright, listen to me," he sighed as he put one calloused hand on her elbow and dragged her a bit away from the front door. She followed his lead without saying a single word, her brown eyes staring at him as he continued once they were a few feet away from the door. "What's happenin' here, is worse than anythin' you can imagine. And I want ya to understand that the reason I'm letting ya in is 'cause I trust you."

"Is that why Sam and Dean are here? Did you call them to help you?" She asked in a little voice.

"Not really," he shook his head and she frowned in confusion. "Look, Sam is… He's going through a hard time," he started earning a very worried expression from her. "It's the demon blood."

"What?" Escaped her lips without her consent.

"I know you know. And Dean knows that you know. By the way, Dean's pretty mad at ya for not tellin' him. But that's not the problem," he said as she stared at him quietly. "Dean has locked Sam up in the panic room."

"He what?" Kate exclaimed in a whisper, her eyes widened in complete surprise and shock.

"He's tryin' to get him clean from demon blood," Bobby explained to her as she brought one hand up to press it against her forehead. She couldn't believe that Dean would lock up his own brother; especially after all she had read about them in Chuck's books. "Dean told me that Sam jumped on a demon and drank his blood like a freakin' vampire, Kate."

"He what?" She whispered, sliding her hand on her hair before abruptly dropping it at her side. It suddenly seemed worse than what she thought. Sam had obviously lost control, but that still didn't sound right to lock him up like a freaking animal. Or like her when she crashed here and Dean thought she was another creature.

"I don't know what's happenin' to this kid. But… It's scaring me," Bobby admitted in a little voice as Kate's eyes softened.

His whole face looked like one of those Van Gogh's sad paintings that pulled at your sympathy even if you were the less sympathetic person, and at the same time it saddened you so much that it could almost make you depressed. All Kate wanted to do was wrap her arms around the old man and hug his pain away. But she didn't make one single movement as she listened to his every words when he continued talking.

"I asked ya to stay at Beth's, mostly 'cause I didn't want you to see him like that. It ain't a nice show - hell it ain't a show! And… And it may not be safe for you."

"What about Sam? You think it's safe to lock him up in the panic room?"

"Dean's idea," Bobby replied with a light shrug. "Only idea we got actually. There's nothing else we can do for now." Kate bit on her bottom lip as she thoughtfully looked away. "Look, ya better go back to Beth's. Take her car safe and sound back to her, and just stay there, okay? I'll pass by to bring you some of your stuff-"

"What the hell are you talking about?" She cut him off, in yet a soft and firm voice.

"What do ya mean?"

"You think I'm gonna leave you while Sam is… While Sam needs help and support?" She asked him, her eyebrows knit together in confusion. "There's absolutely no way I'm leaving. Not with Sam going through hell, and with Dean and you worrying over him on your own."

---

As Kate and Bobby walked into the living room, the young woman stopped in track as another realization hit her.

She was saddened at how truly worried and stricken Dean was certainly feeling right now. Reading Chuck's 'Supernatural' books had given Kate the chance to know more about the Winchester brothers. All the people surrounding them, the obstacles they had to overcome and above all else the strong bond they shared. There was no doubt that learning Sam was drinking demon blood must have been one of the most painful betrayals Dean had ever encountered. Especially after what their father had said to him. And what the Yellow-eyed demon had said too. So many things had tried to convince Dean that Sam would turn into a monster or that Sam was already a monster, and yet the elder brother had always ignored it all. He had done all he could to prove everybody wrong, but also to prove himself that his brother was far from being a monster. In Chuck's books, there were a few sentences that had given Kate the impression that Dean's undying struggles to protect his little brother from everything, had blinded him from a lot of things, even the most obvious. On the other hand, Kate had been able to read in between the lines and to understand that neither Sam nor Dean were monsters. They just had this tragic and monster-full life forced upon them and their reaction to all of this was the most human she had ever seen or read in any book before.

Kate knew that Sam had never wanted to drink demon blood, he just felt so helpless and thought it was the best thing to do. The young Winchester had told her so when he had found about her meeting Ruby on their back.

"I'm scared, Katie. I'm scared of what it's doing to me… I feel it, the blood and how it's affecting me. It's in me, it's pumping through my veins, and I can feel it at every waking second. And there's nothing I can do about it."

"You can choose to stop, Sam," Kate had told him softly. He had turned his head to her, his desperate eyes meeting her caring ones.

"I can't, Katie, I can't choose. I don't have any other choice."

"There's always a choice, Sam. I know this sounds cliché, but there really is always a choice," she had told him leaning towards him, trying to keep the eye contact.

"No. The only choice I got is doing this so I can kill Lilith and stop the Apocalypse, otherwise I'll have to let Dean to take over, and I-I can't do that."

It was truly sad and touching at the same time, how Sam didn't want his brother to have to face the hard responsibilities that were given to him. But Sam was so desperate to take that burden away from his brother's shoulders that he had lost himself on the road.

"Because Dean isn't himself anymore, Kate. You don't know the man he used to be before Hell," he had told her trying to make her understand. "He's not strong enough anymore to do anything Heaven wants him to. And this is my fault… This is my fault. He went to Hell because of me, he went to Hell to save me 'cause he thought my life was worth more than his. He had to go through years of Hell because of me! The least I can do after everything he's ever done to me, after he went to Hell for me, it's that… It's taking this burden away from him."

She had never doubted that Sam loved his brother just as much as Dean loved him. And the books had shown her how true and deep this love between the two brothers was, but it had also shown her that they depended on each other so much that it made them both stubborn enough to have a mind on their own and to do everything that was possible or even impossible if it meant saving the other. The latest 'Supernatural' books with Sam giving his all to find a way to save his brother from going to Hell and with Dean feeling more and more miserable at the idea of having to leave his little brother on his own while he would be in Hell, had saddened her the most. But it had also taught her a lesson. A very good lesson about family and sacrifices.

Kate frowned when a sudden flash of image crossed her mind. She could see a symbol drawn with blood on a floor and her hands, covered with blood from her fingertips to palms, were surrounding that weird symbol.

And then a voice echoed in her head. Her voice echoed.

"Pamela's dead. Dean and Sam's parents are dead. Bobby's wife is dead. And my father. Is. Dead. So you and your fuckin' motivation can back the hell off."

Regaining her whole consciousness after that weird flash of image, the brunette felt a bit dizzy. She leaned one hand against the doorway frame and closed her eyes for a moment as she heard Bobby's voice talking. She shook her head and looked up to see him looking at her with a weird look.

"You okay, kid?" He asked her and she took a couple of seconds to answer.

"Yeah," she said with a nod of her head. His blue eyes scanned her from top to toe, trying to make sure she wasn't just trying to reassure him. Noticing this, Kate coughed a little and pushed her hand away from the doorway frame as she straightened up. "I'm fine. Just a, er, an acid reflux."

"You got those?" He asked with an arched eyebrow.

"Once in a while," she replied and he squinted his eyes with suspicion. "I think it's the treatments that Doctor Parks gave me."

"Damn, Beth!" He exclaimed as he walked to his desk and grabbed one of his many house phones. "I better call her and tell her you're here in case she thinks you've been kidnapped."

"No, it's okay. She knows I'm here."

"She let ya come? And she didn't even tell me?" Bobby asked, surprised. Kate shook her head as she walked to the middle of the living room, right in front of Bobby's desk.

"No. I left a note telling her not to warn you 'cause I wanted to see you first," Kate replied as Bobby looked at her. "She called me on my phone then, and she basically freaked out for me taking her car without her consent. But then she understood that I wasn't going to drive back to her house, not until I made sure you were okay."

"Mmh," Bobby said in a slightly huffing sound. "She already got how stubborn you are." Kate's lips curled into a tiny and almost shy smile when suddenly Sam's voice echoed through the walls of the old house.

Kate's whole body tensed at the shouting voice. It was full of fear, and it was begging to be let out of the basement's demon proof room. She looked over at the hallway leading to the door that led down to the basement. It suddenly sounded even worse than she had thought.

"God," escaped her lips in a whisper before she turned to Bobby whose blue eyes were glued to the hallway before he looked at her with a look that matched hers. Full of worry. "You didn't tell me he's locked up against his will."

"What did you think I meant when I said Dean and I pretended to show him somethin' in the panic room before slammin' the door closed on him?" He told her.

"But I thought that then he was okay with being locked up in there," Kate replied with frowned eyebrows as another scream of begging from Sam echoed. She closed her eyes tightly as it felt as a knife painfully stabbing into her heart.

"Kate," Bobby said as he approached her and firmly put his hands on her forearms causing her to open her eyes. "If you're here to help like you told me a few minutes ago, then you gotta be here at two hundred percent," he told her as Sam's screams continued in the background. "But, if you can't and if it's too much for ya, I got it. It's okay. You can drive back to Beth."

Swallowing, Kate nodded her head, "I-I'm here at two hundred percent. I won't let you down, and I won't let Sam down."

"Sure?"

"Yeah."

"Alright," Bobby said as he squeezed her forearms before gently slapping his hands away. He walked to his desk with her eyes following him.

"What is she doing here?" Dean's voice suddenly appeared from behind her. She turned around to look at him. He had a hard expression all over his face as if he was doing his best not to let her see any of his emotions. It reminded her of her first days in this universe, he used to look almost like that.

"She's here to help," Bobby replied. Dean scoffed.

"With what? Sam's problem? Because princess, you really didn't have to waste your time we are already taking care of this."

"Locking up your brother isn't going to help him in any way," she said to him as Sam's shouts were still audible in the background.

"Oh 'cause you know better how to help my brother? Is that why you didn't tell me you knew he had this problem?" Dean said and Kate took a little and sharp intake of breath as she looked away. "Or were you so busy meeting your friend Ruby that you didn't have enough time to find me and tell me? How can you even have the balls to stand here when it's your fault too that Sam has this fucking addiction to demon blood!" He shouted at her with an anger that froze Kate on spot.

"Dean!" Bobby shouted loudly at him as he gave the young man a stern look. "There's no one to blame here and even if there was, it ain't gonna help Sam! You better be thankful she's here, son, 'cause she's the only one who can help us get your brother back on track!"

"Why her?" Dean asked, his eyes turning to Bobby as Kate was still looking away with her lips pressed together now.

" 'Cause she's the only person out there that knows about your problems, Sam's problems and my problems and never left nor let us down you idjit! Like it or not, Dean but even after only a few months, she's one of the few people I trust putting my life in their hands!"

"Well, I don't." Dean stated coldly and Kate's brown eyes snapped at him in shock. She thought this trust issue had been solved months ago. She believed he trusted her now. Especially after all the little moments spent together and all the other things they had to face together. "It's not because she helped us with a few cases and became such a good potential little hunter in a short time that it means we can trust her! Sam trusted Ruby and this is where it led him!" Dean shouted as he pointed at the basement door that couldn't really be seen from the living room.

"I don't care what you think, Dean," Kate said in a stern voice that even she didn't know she could have. "I'm not here to prove myself or to make you trust me or anything like that!" She looked right into his green eyes. "I'm here to help Sam and you don't have a word to say about this. As far as I know, I can help whoever I want and you can't stop me. Maybe I should have told you about Sam drinking demon blood, or maybe I did right to keep my mouth shut as Sam asked me to," Dean's eyebrows frowned a bit as he intensively stared at her. "You can be mad at me for all the things I've done and you can shout at me or whatever. But not today. Today it's not about me or you. Today it's about helping Sam, and whether you like it or not I'm here for that. So you better suck it up and accept another person to help your brother, even if it's someone you don't trust."

Dean glanced at Bobby whose facial expression told him that the young woman was right and that he better not talk back. Still, Dean opened his mouth to say something when other and louder screams from Sam echoed. They were pleading and begging screams and they were even more painful to hear as Sam's voice sounded a bit broken from undoubtedly weeping on his own, downstairs.

Kate looked at Dean and saw the hard wall he had put up on his face crashing down as his emotions displayed all over his freckled face. He looked afraid and worried, sad and broken but mostly he looked defeated.

She cursed at herself in her mind for shouting back at him. She knew he was over the edge with the current situation that just piled up on the already too high and heavy pile of responsibilities he had weighing on his shoulders. She knew him by now and she should have expected him to be angered at her for not telling her about Sam's secret with the demon blood. But, somehow she hadn't really thought about it. She had thought that Dean would be too focused on Sam's problem to even think about the fact that she hadn't told him.

Bobby let out a long and heavy sigh as he made his way to the kitchen, leaving Kate to bit on her bottom lip in worry as she slid her hands in the hoodie pockets and nervously squeezed the inside of the clothing. Dean pulled his green military jacket off and carelessly threw it on the couch as Bobby returned with three glasses. He put them down on his desk and sat down on his chair right behind his desk as Dean looked outside through one of the windows.

Bobby was going to pour some of his strong whisky in one glass when he looked up to see Kate shake her head, refusing the drink. He poured the two other glasses as Dean slowly turned around to look at him. Sam's screams were still filling the silence and Kate hated this as much as the two other men in the room. She started chewing on her bottom lip as she tried not to glance at the hallway. She was certain that throwing a glance at that hallway would only increase her need to check on Sam and she was pretty sure that for now Dean wouldn't let her near his brother at all.

Dean took his glass but didn't drink as he listened to his brother's screams making their ways to his ears before reaching his heart and stabbing it roughly and hurtfully. "How long is this gonna go on?" He asked the old hunter as he kept his green eyes glued to the messy wooden desk.

"Here let me look at my demon-detox manual. Oh wait. No one ever wrote one," Bobby replied causing Dean to let out a little sigh as he half-glared the old man. "No tellin' how long it'll take. Hell, or if Sam will even live through it."

Kate noticed the way Dean stared at the old man as those words came out of his mouth. Those words were scaring him and that only caused her to feel even guiltier for shouting at him. She looked away as she went to sit down on the edge of the couch that was the closest to the desk as she tried to remember of all the things she had ever heard about addictions and detox. She was more than sure that locking him up on his own was not a solution but it seemed that Dean and Bobby were sure it could help Sam. Besides, after her little out-burst at Dean that she knew now wasn't fair at all, she didn't dare to speak out loud again. Not just yet.

Suddenly, the ringing of one of Bobby's phones filled the room making both Dean and Kate turn their heads to Bobby as he picked the ringing device up.

"Hello… Suck dirt and die, Rufus. You call me again, I'll kill you," Bobby replied grumpily before hanging up.

"What's up with Rufus?" Dean asked.

"He knows," Bobby just replied and Dean didn't say a word as he raised his glass up to his lips and drank a good long sip of the whisky when the phone rang a second time. Bobby picked it up, "I'm busy, you son of a bitch. This better be important."

---

A few minutes later.

"The news." Bobby stated as he handed Dean some papers. "The news ain't good." Dean looked down at it as Kate stood up and was within a second by his side to look down at the papers too.

"This is what Rufus called about? Key west sees ten species go extinct," Dean said reading the headlines.

"Yep. Plus Alaska," Bobby said as Kate tried to skim through the articles in Dean's hands. Dean glanced down at the brunette, suddenly realizing that she was standing right next to him trying to get a look on the papers he was holding. He decided to hand her half of the papers so she could read on her own. She took them without even looking up at him or saying a word. "Fifteen-man fishing crew all stricken blind, cause unknown," Bobby continued. "New York, teacher goes postal, locks the door, kills exactly sixty-six kids. All this in a single day," Bobby said before saying the one thing that he knew would get them even more worried. "I looked them up. There's no doubt about it. They're all seals. Breaking. Fast." Kate turned around and looked at Bobby as Dean, standing on her right, exhaled a long sigh.

"How many left?" Dean asked as he turned around to face Bobby.

"Who knows? Can't be many. Where the hell are your angel pals?"

"You tell me," Dean answered as he put the paper down on Bobby's desk and started walking towards the kitchen's doorway. Kate added the ones in her hands on the same pile before turning around and looking up at Dean.

"Is Castiel still MIA?"

"No, he got back inside his vessel," Dean replied without even glancing at her. She frowned as a flash of images crossed her mind. The images of the trench-coat angel standing in what looked like one of Bobby's bathrooms, as he seemed to be in a little pain and there were a few symbols drawn on the walls.

"Kate?" Bobby said with concern as he saw her reach for the edge of the table. "You okay?" He asked, causing Dean to turn fully around and to look at her with frowned eyebrows.

"Yeah, I-I'm okay," she replied even though she still felt a bit dizzy. She shook her head and suddenly stopped and frowned.

"I saw him," she whispered all of sudden.

"What? Cas?" Dean asked her as she took her hand off the desk and straightened up as the dizziness was already gone.

"Yeah," she replied as she looked up to meet Bobby's blue gaze. "I think it was before we started settling the summoning here," Kate said with an hesitant voice as she wasn't really sure of the actual circumstances of meeting the angel that day. For some reason that she didn't couldn't point at, her memory was having some troubles working well lately, but she didn't think it was too important to be told. As a matter of fact, she felt as if she really shouldn't mention her memory troubles at all.

"It was too long ago then," Bobby said shaking his head before he turned his gaze to Dean and walked around his desk toward the hunter. "Dean, I was just wondering..."

"What?" Dean asked turning around.

"The apocalypse being nigh and all… Is now really the right time to be having this little domestic drama?"

"What do you mean?" Dean asked him frowning his eyebrows as he stared at the old man who shifted a bit.

"Well, I don't like this any more than you do and I'm sure Kate doesn't either. But Sam can kill demons. He's got a shot at stopping Armageddon."

"So what? Sacrifice Sam's life? His soul for the greater good? Is that what you're saying?" Dean asked as he walked towards the old man who glanced down, a bit ashamed for suggesting this. "Times are bad, so let's use Sam as a nuclear warhead?"

"Look, I know you hate me for suggesting it. I hate me for suggesting it. I love that boy like a son and I know Kate wouldn't be here if she didn't care about him too. But, Dean, all I'm saying is maybe he's here right now instead of on the battlefield because we love him too much"

Dean didn't say a word, he just glanced at the brunette who was staring at him with that softness that was so much typical of her. There was no pity in her eyes, just a desire - a need - to comfort, to help and to take the pain away. He looked away because he knew that if he stared too long into her sparkling brown eyes he would accept her offer of comfort, help and ease of pain. Simply because he's been craving for it all the time ever since he realized she had it in her. It made him feel calm, but above all else, it made him feel safe.

But he didn't deserve any of it. Besides, he wasn't very sure if he could still go after something that a girl who kept Sam's terrible secret away from him, had to offer. So, he just shifted his gaze away and he walked away in silence.

---

A couple of hours later.

Kate was washing her hands in the bathroom of the first floor with Sam's screams still very audible in the background. He had been screaming like this for hours and had almost never stopped. It was hard to hear him being so in pain and having no power to help him through it.

She let out a long sigh as she closed the tap. Without the sound of the water running in the sink, Sam's painful pleads were even more audible and the young woman hated this. She opened the tap and let the water run as forcefully and loudly as possible. She looked at it for a few seconds as it covered almost every sound coming from out of the bathroom, but Sam's pleads came back even louder and the water running as widely as now wasn't helping that much. She closed her eyes and brought her hands up to her face.

Opening her eyes, she looked at her reflection on the mirror above the sink as she slowly rubbed her hands up her face before running them through her hair. She pushed all of her hair in the back of her head before letting her hands rest on top of her hair that was on the back of her neck. She looked at her reflection almost passively. She took in the completely make-up free face she had been displaying lately; even the line of black eye-liner that she used to put on her eyelids had become a foolish and unimportant thing lately – even more today.

She found herself unable to think about anything anymore as the a piercing scream from the young Winchester echoed through all the walls making her shiver with fear and sadness. Biting on her bottom lip, she lowered her gaze to the limpid water running and dropped her hands to her sides as he returned to his shouting pleads. She slowly reached towards the tap and stopped when she remembered the weird flashback of her hands in her blood and that weird symbol drawn on a floor.

She brought her hand up closer to her and turned it around slowly. She looked at it as she brought the other one up and looked at it with the same concentration. She meticulously observed her palms and her eyes went a little round when she noticed a couple of very thin and faded scars in her left hand. Bringing the forefinger of her right hand closer to the pal of her other hand, she traced the two scars with her fingertip and frowned as another flash of images crossed her mind.

"How did you get those?" Dean had asked her in a low whisper when they were in her motel room after the events with Chuck and Lilith.

"I don't know… On-on a hunt with Matt, I think," she had lied, in spite of the sincere concern his eyes were filed with as he looked at her.

"You don't sound really sure," he had noted, his tone still gentle as his calloused thumbs were sliding over her four scars, as if connecting them together.

Kate leaned upon the sink as she got dizzy again. She closed her eyes tightly for a moment before opening them once the dizziness left her. It was weird, almost inexplicable. She hadn't forgotten that night, but strangely enough, she felt as if she didn't remember the way she had felt that night and some other details that were a bit too big to be left forgotten. And now, looking down at her palms, she realized that she had a whole new memory of that night. A much more detailed memory of that night, as the fact that she had lied to Dean when he had asked her about these scars. Why wouldn't she tell him the truth that night? Why did she lie to him?

Looking up at her reflection, she frowned as she started to slightly panic, "Alright, so I had four scars here, but they kinda faded…" She told herself trying to voice up her thoughts in order to calm herself down. "But why," she started before looking down at her hands again. "Why can't I remember how I got them? And why did I lie to Dean about them?"

Kate closed the water tap and let Sam's agonising screams rip through the silence she had created for herself. She turned her brown head to the white wooden door and then looked at her hands as she curled her fingers and slowly clenched her hands into fists. She frowned when she noticed where her nails landed on her skin. Clenching her hands tighter for three seconds, she opened her hands and looked at the marks that appeared from her nails. She looked at them as they faded before moving her brown eyes focused on the two scars in her left palm. All of sudden, she realized that even though a little voice kept on telling her to not focus on her recent memory loss, something really serious was happening and maybe she should tell Bobby.

---

Half an hour later.

As Dean walked out to get some fresh air, Kate looked at the old man intensly for a few good seconds. She wanted to talk to him about what she thought was a memory loss that was certainly due to her stabbing herself into a coma. Nonetheless, seeing the already very anxious expression on his face and hearing Sam's voice still echoing in pleads in the house, Kate thought it was better to listen to that little voice in her mind that kept telling her to not talk about it and to focus on doing some research to help the mall with the Apocalypse problem.

Kate decided to stand up and to go back to the bathroom which caught the old hunter's attention who looked at her as she walked away with a bit of concern. He couldn't help wonder if it wouldn't be better to send her back to Beth, but deep down he knew that stubborn as she was, there was no way she would agree.

A few minutes later, he saw her making her way in the kitchen with two towels hanging on her shoulders. Sitting behind his desk, his blue gaze followed her as she took a big glass bowl out of a cupboard in the kitchen and started filling it with cold water. He saw her walk to the fridge and heard her taking a couple of things out of there. Then, without saying a word or even looking at Bobby, she made her way towards the hallway.

"Where you going with all of that?" Bobby asked Kate who turned around to look at the old man who nodded at the bowl of water in one hand and the little bottle of water in another, and the two towels on her shoulders.

"I'm gonna refresh Sam a little bit. We can't let him down there like this," she told Bobby.

"He's already got some water down there," Bobby told her.

"Yeah, but I also got some snacks in my pocket," she said making a slight movement with her hip. Bobby looked at her for a moment before sighing.

"Be careful and don't let him out," he told her as he stood up and walked around his desk. "While you go downstairs, I'm gonna see where Dean's hiding." She nodded at him as he made his way outside and she walked downstairs.

Each of her steps closer to the panic room made Sam's pleads sound louder and more painful. When she arrived at the end of the staircase, she stayed still for a moment as Sam stopped screaming, but was still pleading with a tired and hurt voice for someone to help him out. She looked at the big iron door and took a deep breath before making her way towards it. She could hear Sam starting to whisper "God, help me" as in a chant and it was breaking all of the already broken pieces of her heart.

Once she arrived right in front of the big iron door, she put down the bowl of water on a plastic chair that was right next to the door and unlocked the door. She pushed the door and took the bowl back in her hand.

"Sam?" She called softly as she walked in. He was sitting on the bed in the middle of the panic room, his hands clung at his hair. "Sam? It's me, Kate. I brought you some things to munch on, so I'm gonna let put them here, okay?" She told him in a little voice as she looked at him with sorrow.

Sam didn't move an inch; he just kept on begging God to help him. The sight was so sad it was excruciating. Kate swallowed down as she turned around and closed the door before walking up to him. She put the bottle of water, and the bowl before closing the door. She turned around and noticed that he was still in the same position as he kept on whispering some prayers. She took the bowl and the bottle and walked up to him. She put the bottle and the bowl on the bed and pulled out the two chocolate snacks that were in one of her hoodie pocket before putting them next to the bottle of water. Slowly, she took a seat next to him on the bed, watching him with care and concern.

"Sam. Hey, you hear me?"

"Katie?" He looked up and she gave him a soft smile when his hazel eyes met her brown ones.

"Yeah, it's me," she whispered softly with a little smile as she took in his terribly pale and hurting face. All of the happiness and sweetness that used to be so settled in his facial features were all gone, leaving a face full of pain. She let her eyes travel all over his face and did her best not to show how much it affected her to see him like that. She brought one hand up on his sweaty forehead and frowned. "God, you're burning up."

"Dean and Bobby let you come here?" He asked her, his voice so little and weak that she wasn't sure he had even spoken until he looked into her eyes.

"Bobby yeah. Dean is outside in the junkyard doing God knows what," she replied as she gently pushed his sticky hair away from his face before she grabbed one of the towel that was resting on her shoulder. She put it in the bowl of cold water, completely wetting it before starting to wring the water out of it as he mumbled.

"Katie..."

"Shhh, it's okay. You're gonna be okay," she whispered to him as she brought the wet towel on his face. She applied a little pressure on his forehead with it before she started to tenderly wash his whole face with it. Her other hand was softly stroking his hair back as he closed his eyes and let her do. She put the towel back in the cold water and then back on his forehead before she slid it on his strong jaw, then the skin of his neck and finally finishing by resting it on the back of his neck. "You're gonna be okay, Sam. I promise."

"I-I don't think so, Katie. I feel like I'm gonna die… I need it so much... It's so hard."

"It is hard now but it will feel easier later," she whispered to him. "You've gotta keep fighting... I have to say I'm not really okay with their plan to keep you locked up here but if someone can go through it, it has to be you, Sam. You're strong, you are so strong. You can do it." she said, as she softly rubbed his cheek and he opened his eyes only to meet her sparkling brown eyes looking into his. She gave him a little smile as she pulled her hand away and turned to put the towel back in the water before she reached for the bottle of fresh water.

"Here, drink this. It will make you feel a little better."

He took the bottle from her hand and looked at it before opening it. He drank a few sips and his face scrunched in a painful expression. He felt his insides turning upside down at the plain taste of water. His tongue, his throat and all of his body wanted something else to drip into his mouth. Something more metallic and redder. Demon blood. He needed demon blood more than anything else and a fresh bottle of water wasn't going to be a good substitute. When Kate turned her upper body around to put the wet towel on his forehead again, his eyes widened. Her beautiful brown eyes weren't brown anymore. All he could see was a pitch black color filling her orbs.

"Sam, you're okay?" she asked him, noticing the expression of panic painted on his face.

"How did you get in here?!" He shouted at her.

"What? Sam I don't understand what you're-" she started to say when he suddenly leapt on her causing her to fall hard on the ground along with the bowl that smashed into pieces of glass on the floor. "Sam-"

"How the hell did you get into her you fucking demon?!" He shouted at her as he hovered her. He glanced at the pieces of glass and saw one particularly big. With one of his strong arm pressuring strongly above her chest, he reached for the sharping piece of glass with his other hand.

"What? Sam, no it's me! It's really me!" She shouted at him. His hazel eyes never looked away from her face as his jaw tightened the instant he managed to grab the piece of glass. "Sam, it's okay. It's me, it's Kate. It's Katie," she told him trying to calm him down. She followed his gaze and frowned as she wondered why his eyes were glued to the spot where her neck met her shoulder.

"You killed her didn't you? You killed Kate and you're wearing her as a meatsuit," Sam said through gritted teeth as he brought up the piece of glass and pressed it on Kate's neck. Kate froze when she felt the cold and sharp object on her neck.

"Sam, please, stop," she whispered as she felt her heartbeats increasing wildly with fear behind her ribcage.

"You killed her, huh? You didn't even let her live… You son of a bitch, you think you can mess with my mind, but I know how you work," Sam said as he slid the cutting piece of glass to her neck and she felt tears forming in her eyes as she started to fear the worst.

"No, Sam it's me, I'm not possessed! Please, you gotta believe me!" She shouted at him trying to push him back as tears left her eyes.

"I'm gonna drink you dry for killing her! I'm gonna make you regret everything!"

"Sam, don't!" She shouted louder as she finally found the strength to push him off of her. She started to stand up so she could run out of the room, but Sam was quick as he grabbed her ankle and violently pulled, causing her to fall right unto her face, her forehead banging on the hard floor with a thump. She grunted as she still tried to get away from him by kicking him with her other leg. Once she succeeded to get out of his grip, she rapidly stumbled up and ran towards the door, screaming as loud as she could, "Dean! Bobby! Help!"

Sam appeared behind her at the speed of light, his large, strong and harsh hands grabbing her from the waist before spinning her around and then slamming her against a wall roughly enough to form future bruises on her back. She moaned in pain at the hard collision, the back of her head banging on the iron wall less hardly, but still.

In one swift movement he grabbed both of her wrists above her head and slammed them on the wall as he held them tightly there. His other hand was holding the piece of glass so tightly that he had slightly cut the inside of his hand. He pushed his massive body against hers to keep her from kicking her legs with so much agitation.

"Sam, please you gotta listen to me! I'm not a demon! It's me, it's Kate! Please, Sam!" She told him in panic, but all she earned from him was an expression of disbelief of her words as his eyes shone with lust. One quick glance to the jugular on her neck, and she knew what kind of lust it was. Blood lust.

He brought the cutting piece of glass up, without saying a word and put it on that spot of skin that he couldn't seem to avert his eyes from. He pressed it lightly at first but as Kate was trying very badly to push him off of her, it destabilized Sam enough to make him cut her a bit lower than where her jugular was. However, it didn't make Sam back away or anything. He was almost hypnotized to the red liquid starting to flow on her creamy white skin. Feeling completely helpless as Sam was holding her pinned against the wall with his giant and muscled body, Kate closed her eyes and screamed so forcefully she was sure she might have ripped one of her vocal cords.

"Dean! Dean! Help! Please! Help!"

She was screaming in both pain and fear, utterly desperate to get someone to come and save her. There was no escape for her and even if she wanted to fight back against Sam, she knew it would be in vain seeing the way he had her trapped against the wall. She kept on screaming when she felt the blade stopping its tracing on her skin and dropping to the floor.

Her screams abruptly stopped when she felt Sam's mouth press on the newly open wound. Her eyes snapped open in both confusion and fear for a moment. And then she realized what he was doing. She realized that he was sucking her blood, his teeth grazing her skin. She was too shocked to even scream again. He was so convinced that she was a demon that he was going to drink all of her blood until there wasn't any drop left in her body.

Suddenly, right when Kate started to believe it was over for her, the iron door swept open with Dean getting in, closely followed by Bobby. They didn't waste any time as they rushed to Sam and strongly pulled him away from Kate who dropped on the floor against the wall.

"She's a demon! It's not Kate!" Sam shouted before he looked at Bobby's eyes then Dean's eyes. "God, you're all demons! How did you do this?! Get off me!" He shouted at them as he tried to push them away. "Get off… Off m-me…" All of sudden the younger Winchester passed out. Kate looked at him as she placed her hand on her bleeding wound and stood up.

"Put him on the bed," Bobby said to Dean before they both dragged the unconscious young man to the bed and laid him down. Dean looked down at his brother with a hard yet broken look. His green eyes glued to the traces of blood still visible at each side of his brother's mouth. "Gosh, Kate you okay?" Bobby said as he rushed over her.

"Yeah, I'm fine," she replied, her brown eyes glued to Sam, a blank expression on her face. Dean looked up at her and noticed the crimson red liquid all over the hand she was holding against the spot where her shoulder and neck met. He rubbed down a hand all over his face and glanced down at his brother before he walked towards the young woman.

"C'mon, let's take care of your wound," he said in an almost absent voice as he walked towards the door and her brown eyes followed him. Bobby looked at her before he brought his hand up and wiped a tear that she didn't even know was rolling down her cheek.

"Come on, kiddo," Bobby told her gently and she gave him a little nod before her eyes glanced at the younger Winchester. The sweet and gentle Sam that she cared so much about. The troubled Sam that all she wanted now was to help more than anything else.

---

The brunette was biting on her lower lip, her hand still flat against the open wound as Bobby sat her down on the couch. She looked up at him as he put his hands on his hips in a very fatherly way before sighing.

"Why the hell did I even let you go down there?"

"Bobby," she started when one of his phones rang making her stop and him sigh. He grabbed the phone on his desk and answered it as he walked out of the living room, passing by Dean who walked in the living room with a neat white towel in one hand and the full first-aid kit in the other.

Quiet, the green-eyed hunter joined her on the couch as he put the first-aid kit on the coffee table and then looked at her which made her look away.

"Show me," he told her, his voice completely emotionless. Frowning a little bit at that peculiar tone, she almost reluctantly put her hand away and stretched as much as possible her neck to the other side in order to give him a better sight of the damage. She was completely still as he leaned his face closer to her neck. Noticing that some of her hair was a bit stuck to the bloody spot, he brought one hand up and carefully pulled her hair away. His calloused fingers were working so slowly and meticulously that Kate thought he was scared to touch her. She brought her hand up to do it instead, but he pushed her hand away gently and continued what he was doing. She dropped her brown gaze and let him do. "Can you unzip your hoodie?"

"What for?" she asked, unintentionally sounding a bit sharp.

"I need to see the extent of the damage, and it's kinda in the way."

"Okay," she softly replied as she unzipped Matt's hoodie and pulled out her arm from the left sleeve only. He looked at the wound and the blood for a second before cleaning it. He couldn't prevent his eyes from wandering lower as he kept on cleaning the wounded and covered in blood area. She was wearing a black tank top that was pretty close to her body which made him notice the curves of her breasts that he hadn't really had the chance to take a good look at before. Knowing far too well that it wasn't either appropriate nor the time to sneak a peek, he shifted his gaze to her back and cleared his throat with a light cough. He noticed a medical pad on her left shoulder blade which caused him to frown.

"What happened to you?"

"What do you mean?"

"The pad on your shoulder blade. What happened?" He said as he kept on cleaning the wound his brother had given her.

"It's one of the tattoos I got. I'm trying to keep it from rubbing on my clothes until it's completely healed."

Dean didn't say anything for a couple of seconds before finally, saying something as if he hadn't heard what she had just said. "I think you're gonna need a couple of stitches. It ain't too deep, but still."

"Great," she said sarcastically as he stood up and grabbed the bottle of whisky that was on Bobby's desk. He put it down on the coffee table and took out of the first-aid kit all of the necessary things to make a good few homemade stitches before sitting back at his spot next to her.

She grabbed the bottle from his hand, unscrewed it swiftly and drank a couple of long sips as he stared at her a bit surprised. He waited for her to finish drinking, and when she did, her whole face scrunched in a grimace due to the strong taste of the whisky she had just gulped down. Even with the current situation he couldn't help the little smile that grew on the corner of his mouth when she did that grimace that was so her.

"Okay, go ahead stitch me up!" She announced as bravely as possible as she put the bottle back down. "But use the appropriate product, please."

"Sorry. But it ain't gonna be enough to clean your wound. Whisky will do a better job," he told her and she turned her head to look at him for a few seconds before she sighed and gave in with a nod.

"Alright, go ahead. Just get it done already," she told him, already wincing at the needle that was gonna get through her skin.

Dean licked his lips before he leaned closer to her, "Take a deep breath," he whispered to her. However Kate's intake of breath was too sharp as she was surprised when his own breath tickled the skin of the back of her neck. Dean didn't notice this as he put his entire concentration to the stitching process. He put the needle through her skin and she winced a bit, her hand immediately finding his thigh to hold it in order to prevent herself from crying. Dean looked down at her hand and then back up to her face; her eyes were tightly shut as she obviously waited for him to keep on going with the needle. He returned his eyes to her hand gripping his thigh and decided to let her do before returning his full attention to her shoulder.

"What tattoo?" He asked all of sudden.

"What?"

"What tattoo is on your shoulder blade? The anti-demon one or the one for your soul?"

"The one for my-my soul," she stammered as she tried not to focus on the painful needle making its way in and out of her skin.

"Where's the other one?"

"Somewhere else - Gosh Dean tell me you're done!" She squeezed his thigh even tighter, but he didn't even flinch at that.

"Not yet," he said as he put the needle through one more time and she winced again. "What bright idea made you think it was smart to go downstairs alone Kaitlin?" He asked in a sigh.

"I thought that it was wrong to leave him all alone. And he needed to eat something and to get some water in him. And I don't regret it," she replied glancing up at him as he finished the stitches.

"You sure? My brother just cut you open and sucked your blood."

"He thought I was a demon, Dean. He thought we were all demons. He's just… He's not feeling well at all, Dean."

"Don't you think I know this?" He sighed as he grabbed a pad to put on the freshly stitched wound.

"Dean, I'm really sorry for what's happening to Sam and for not telling you," she said in a little voice full of sincere remorse. "If I had ever guessed it would turn this way, I wouldn't have kept it to myself… I just- I thought I was doing the right thing by not telling you. I thought Sam had to be the one telling you this," she continued, her eyes glued to the wall as she could still feel Dean's hand on the pad he had just finished putting on her. "But, I swear I'm not gonna rest until I find a way to help him get him through this," she told him as she turned her gaze to look up at him. He shifted his gaze from the pad to look at her face.

"Done," he simply said dropping his hand away. She gave a slight nod of her head as she looked away and slipped her left arm back into her hoodie sleeve. She zipped it up as he never looked away from her.

He was sitting so close to her that he could easily smell her soft scent. It was a mix of vanilla and something that he had never succeeded figuring out. All he knew is that it was very sweet, delicate, pure and above all else very her. This scent was the catalyst to remind him of what he was trying so bad to ignore and that he had actually managed rather well to avoid noticing for the last few hours. That peculiar thing that emitted from her and that made him feel so at ease, so calm and safe, and so comforted.

Suddenly, Sam's voice broke his reverie as he shouted out for help after coming around from his little fainting spell. He begged for them to help him in such a painful and piercing voice that both Kate and Dean gulped down the broken pieces of their hearts that wanted to run away from this sorrowful moment.

Bobby appeared in the hallway, the phone in his hand as he looked at the two of them sitting on the couch in a still very close position while Dean had already finished stitching her up. He didn't say anything as he walked in the middle of the living room, put the phone on his desk and then sighed as he returned in the middle of the room. He stared at Dean until the young man looked up at him and frowned in confusion.

"What?"

"Before this, we were talking if you don't remember," Bobby said and Dean sighed as Kate looked back and forth at the two men wondering what they were talking about before they came to rescue her from Sam. "So, unless I didn't get it well earlier, basically you willingly signed up to be the angels' bitch?" Dean looked at the old man with an almost glare as Kate snapped her head to look at Dean, surprised of what was being said. "I'm sorry, you prefer 'sucker'? After everything you said about them, now you trust them?"

"Come on, give me a little credit, Bobby," Dean said as he stood up and walked toward the beard man "I've never trusted them less. I mean they come on like shady politicians from planet Vulcan."

"Then why in the hell did-" Kate started to ask.

"Because what other option do I have?" He said loudly as he looked at her before looking at Bobby. "It's either trust some angels or let Sammy trust a demon?"

"We see your point," Bobby said nodding.

All of sudden, they realized that Sam's screams had stopped. It was too abrupt and too sudden, especially after all of his cries for help.

"You hear that?" Dean asked, frowning as he turned his head slowly towards the hallway.

"Yeah, that's a little too much nothing," Bobby said and Kate stood up to follow them downstairs before Dean turned to her.

"No, you stay here! That's an order!" He told her with a pointing finger. She stared at him before he just ran to his brother with Bobby.

The young brunette stood there, compelling whether to disobey his order and to follow them downstairs or to stay here as he ordered her to. As she raised her right hand to rest it on the stitched she just got, she decided to follow his order and to stay here. Nevertheless, it didn't mean that she wasn't worried about what was happening to Sam downstairs. And staying here also made her feel guiltier and a bit too much of a coward. But she didn't move at all. She stayed still on the same spot, her teeth biting on her bottom lip as she started to pray for Sam. She could hear him scream now and then and it was only saddening her even more.

She freed her bottom lip and took a deep breath as she felt tears forming in her eyes. It was terrible to feel so helpless and so unable to make the slightest change to help someone you cared about. It was even more terrible to know that she could have prevented this from happening if she had told Dean or Bobby earlier about Sam's secret. Sliding her hand to her chin, she started to rub it and pinch it nervously as she restarted on chewing nervously down on her lip.

How could she have been so stupid to keep quiet on something as big as that? How could she have not tried to reason with Sam? How could she have not looked for a way to help him? How could she have done this to him?

---

It didn't take long for Bobby and Dean to come right back upstairs. Kate stopped biting on her lip but still held her fingers around her chin. She stared at them as Dean walked past her, grabbed the bottle of whisky he had used to clean her wound with earlier. He unscrewed it quickly and drank a very long sip before crushing on the couch. She turned to look at him as he let the bottle on the couch right next to him, and his gaze was lost somewhere. Dean looked so much more defeated than earlier and it was only more heartbreaking to witness. She suddenly wished that the sips of alcohol she had drunk earlier would have brought some effect on her so she could feel braver to face all that was happening. But it hadn't even made her a bit tipsy. Certainly her brain preventing it from happening considering the too serious situation of the moment.

She turned around to look at Bobby who leaned on his desk. He looked up at her and didn't wait for her to ask any question as he explained what had happened in one simple sentence.

"He was being pushed around by an invisible force."

"How is that even possible?" She asked in almost a whisper as she slowly dropped her hand.

"Certainly the demon blood that let some demonic mojo in him or whatever," Bobby said sighing.

The old man glanced at Dean who was now sitting on the edge of the couch, rubbing his hands together as he was staring at the void. Bobby sighed as he walked behind his desk and sat down. A complete silence settled down in the messy living room. It was almost too heavy of a silence until Bobby stood up abruptly and noisily.

He put his hands on the desk and looked back and forth between Kate and Dean before settling his gaze on the young woman. He realized she was certainly right from the start. What they were doing to Sam was without doubt a very bad idea.

He turned his head to Dean, "I'm gonna ask one more time Dean. Are we absolutely sure we're doing the right thing? Maybe Kate is right and we shouldn't be doing this to him."

"Bobby, you saw what was happening to him down there. The demon blood is killing him," Dean said as he stood up and stared at him.

"No, it isn't. We are. Or at least you and I, 'cause apparently Kate is the only one who never agreed with this lockin' Sam up plan at all. Dean, we are killing him."

"What?"

"I'm sorry. I can't bite my tongue any longer," Bobby said and Kate turned her brown gaze to him, pretty surprised with the turn of the events. She would have thought that Bobby would stick by Dean's plan until the end; especially after all that had happened in less than an hour. "We're killing him. Keeping him locked up down there. This cold-turkey thing isn't working. If - if he doesn't get what he needs, soon. Sam is not gonna last much longer."

Kate turned her brown head to the dirty-blonde hunter, and she saw the tears forming in his green eyes. It was heart-aching to see his whole face filled with so much sorrow and defeat but his eyes were the worst. His eyes held so much suffering, sadness and downfall. But, somehow, there was still a glimpse of hope. A very tiny glimpse of hope. And, this was that simple little tiny glimpse of hope that killed Kate the most. She had seen Dean Winchester going through his roller coaster struggles ever since she arrived in this universe and she had read Dean Winchester going through even more and still terrible struggles in his past. But right now, it was the worst she had witnessed Dean Winchester going through and all because of that very tiny glimpse of hope that was almost unnoticeable.

"No," he said in a little broken voice. "I'm not giving him demon blood. I won't do it." He walked two steps towards Bobby, Kate's eyes never leaving him.

"And if he dies?" Bobby asked in almost a whisper.

"Then at least he dies human!" Dean said loudly, his voice broken and tired and so desperate.

"He's still your brother, Dean," Kate whispered gently. He looked at her and then turned around, walking a bit away before he turned again to face them.

"I know he is and this is the reason why I can't give him demon blood. I-I will die for him in a second but I won't let him do this to himself. I can't. I guess I found my line. But I won't let my brother turn into a monster." He looked at Kate and then turned around and walked out through the backdoor that was in the kitchen.

After a couple of seconds, the young brown-head turned her head to Bobby.

"I… I don't-" Bobby said before stopping himself and turning his old and wise blue eyes towards the young woman staring at him quietly. "I'm gonna try find out a spell or something along the lines to help Sam," he told her before he walked to a shelf and started grabbing a few books.

"A spell to take care of his addiction instead of doing it himself? It won't help, Bobby," she told him with a little voice as she followed him with her eyes as he put the books on his desk next to the other stacks of books.

"The best would be to find something that will keep him safe as he fights against his addiction. 'Cause I don't think we can find anything that can take the addiction completely out of his system on its own… How do you even take care of an addiction though, huh? There's nothing, I just I-I don't know what I'm supposed to do," he sighed and then took a very deep breath that shook his body a little bit.

"It's gonna be okay," she told him trying to reassure him.

"The kid is so lost, Kate. He-he fuckin' attacked you. He would have never done that to you-"

"He was hallucinating, Bobby. It's not his fault," Kate said as she approached him. "I… I feel so bad for keeping his secret…"

"You thought you were doing good, kid."

"No," she replied shaking her head as she frowned. "I was just… I was being selfish. I thought if I didn't say a word about him, then he would come tell you by himself and he would never say about me… Me meeting Ruby," she replied, her eyes lowered in shame.

"I know," Bobby said with a slight nod of the head. "Why did you even want to see her?"

"I don't… I' not sure," she replied frowning as she tried to remember the exact reason. It was as if something was preventing her from digging this memory out of where it was deeply buried in her head. "I wanted to learn protections…"

"Protections? What for?" Bobby asked, frowning a bit as he realized something was a bit off about Kate.

"I… I'm not sure," Kate replied as she looked up to meet his eyes. "I just- I knew she could teach me how to make protections against anything."

"What's wrong with you, kid? Why you sound so unsure?" He asked her as his brows wrinkled.

"I don't know," she replied, her eyebrows shooting up on her forehead. "Look, it's not important. We have to focus on Sam right now."

"Yeah, I'm with ya. But there's something serious going on with you right now. Are you havin' like troubles with your memory?"

"Um, kinda," she replied and his blue eyes scanned her face. "I'm not really sure."

"Did you tell Beth?"

"No."

"Why not? Don't you think some memory loss is pretty important after have been out for two days?"

"But she said there was no trauma or anything wrong with me ever since I came around coma. Except from, you know, the wound already half-healed."

"Still. Even though there's nothing wrong on your results, it doesn't mean you're okay. Look at ya. You've obviously forgotten what you wanted to protect yourself from."

"No," she told him shaking her head. "I know it was demons and… Stuff."

"What stuff? Why didn't you come and ask for my help instead, huh?" He asked her and she looked into his eyes for a moment before he squinted his eyes at her. "It's all that you don't remember right?"

"Pretty much, yeah," she replied in a little voice. He didn't look convinced by her answer. "But Bobby, it's really not big deal. It's really little details, so really, it's okay. Besides, we have to focus on Sam now. Otherwise… We might regret it."

He looked at her for a short while before sighing, "Yeah. I'm gonna try to find something. Anythin' that can help us save him." He went to his chair behind his desk and sat down. She looked at him and then turned her head to the window leading to the junkyard as he looked at her, concern filling his eyes.

"I-I'll be right back," she said to him before going to the kitchen. He nodded as he took a book and looked at its cover for a while. Worry was eating him from inside. He was worrying about too much already and now he had to worry about another troubling thing concerning Kate.

---

After taking a fresh beer from the fridge, Kate walked outside. She was immediately met by the rather beating down sun that was up in the clear sky and it made her realize that hours had passed since she got here. And there was still no advancing in helping Sam.

It was an upsetting and sad thought that the brunette decided to wave off completely for now as she squinted her eyes and looked to her right before turning her head to her left. She spotted the dirty-blonde hunter she was looking for. He was just a few feet away, sitting on the hood of one of the many destroyed cars that were piled up all around the house that has been her real refuge those past months. The refuge where she felt comfortable and safe.

Taking a deep breath and mustering all the courage that she could, Kate walked up to Dean. She stopped right in front of the hunter whose head was lowered, looking at his linked hands hanging in between his parted legs. He was so lost in his thoughts that Kate had to wait at least ten seconds before he slowly rose his head and looked up at her.

She handed him the beer and he took it, none of them saying a word.

He looked down at the fresh bottle of beer that was covered with drops of water as she silently watched him. She let her brown eyes travel a little bit and noticed that he had taken his shirt off and had put it on the dusty destroyed car so he could sit on it. He was now only wearing his black t-shirt that hung perfectly on his chest and his biceps. Kate looked away as she took Matt's hoodie off and put it on the car before sitting on it, right next to Dean. She looked down at her feet swinging in the air before her attention was caught by the sound of the beer getting unscrewed by Dean. She looked at him as he brought it to his lips and drank a few good sips of it. He didn't look at her nor did he say a word.

"Bobby's doing some research. He's trying to find some way to help Sam going through all of this," she told him, genuinely wanting to get rid of the silence that was starting to make the tension thicker between the two of them.

Dean stayed quiet for a moment, his green eyes focused on a particular spot of the ground a couple of feet away. Then, he spoke up in a half-casual half-tired voice, "I thought there was no solution for this in books."

"There might be, but we'll never know if we don't do a little bit of research. Besides, I think he needs to put his head into something else right now," she replied before looking up at his profile.

Kate had never really been the kind of person to stop at the physical appearance of another human being. Actually, the physical appearance of a person never really mattered for her. She had always been one to believe that what was inside was way more important and this had been proved more than once in her life. It was one of the things that her father had taught her when she was still very young and other kids would pick at her for being fatter than them.

Her father had told her that the more you get to know someone, the more you get to see their inner beauty, and then comes a time when you get to see their inner beauty reflecting all over their face. Kate had always loved the way her father saw the world and the way he wanted her to see it, but his perception of inner beauty had always been one of the things he possessed that she was the most proud of. However, she had never understood what he meant when he would say that the moment you see the inner beauty of a person, you are the one who become lucky. At least, she had never understood until now.

She wasn't blind; she had noticed almost immediately how good-looking Dean Winchester was. Dean's features were as perfect as a model with his strong jaw, his perfectly drawn nose and his full lips that looked very soft. Freckles were peppered all over his face almost meticulously and his beautifully shaped eyes held one of the rarest and brightest green that she had never seen before.

Nevertheless, it was the few faded little scars painted here and there on his face, and the mesmerizing fullness of hard and sad stories with a little of good and happy stories in his eyes that added so much to his story and his natural beauty.

With time, Kate had discovered the inner beauty of the complex man that was Dean Winchester. It was mostly the stories that he held behind his apple-green eyes that made her understand how good of a man he truly was. But, it was not until this right moment that she understood what her father meant exactly. Looking at Dean's profile, Kate realized that she was very lucky to know someone as good and beautiful as Dean. There was no doubt, she was lucky to have crossed across someone like him.

"Do you think... Do you think Sammy's gonna make it through?" Dean asked pulling her out of her thoughts. He glanced up at her and she looked down at his fingers holding the cold bottle of beer.

"Yeah, eventually I think he will. I mean, it will take some time but Sam's strong and someday he'll get over this," she replied sincerely.

"Some day? Can this someday be today?"

"Honestly? I don't think so," she replied as she lifted her gaze to meet his. "Addictions, whatever the cause is, they never let go this quickly and easily. It takes time and it, um, it tears the person and everyone and um everything around them apart. It can take months and even years," she said softly as she kept on staring his fingers while he never looked away from her face. "Cutting someone from an addiction as suddenly as you did with Sam, it's- it's not good, Dean. It's only gonna make him mad and it's gonna kill him just like Bobby said."

"So what? I have to give him his demon blood and dial down his ration a little bit everyday until it's okay?"

"No, Dean," she replied shaking her head slightly as she looked away. "But locking up your brother like this won't help. The real problem is that he's convinced this demon blood is gonna help him get his revenge on Lilith for killing you. You need to talk to him, you need to make him understand that you don't need him to do that. And you need to show him that you are here for him, that you don't think he's a monster and you don't think he'll ever become one," she told him as she returned her gaze to meet his.

As soon as their gazes met, Dean stirred a little bit and shifted his gaze towards the house.

"It wasn't supposed to be like this... All of that, it wasn't supposed to be this way. I had one mission. One. It was to protect him from all this crap and I-I screwed up. Again." The words were floating out of his mouth slowly and almost weakly.

Kate had never really understood why Dean always found the ease to confess those things to her. Maybe it was because he had realized that she was a good listener or maybe because he knew she never repeated a word that was said to her to another. Or again the fact that she was just so foreign to him and to this world. Maybe it made it easier that she was only new to this whole universe and to know that she'll be gone as soon as she'd found a way to get back home or as soon as she'd be pulled back to her world. All of these things brought together in one single person who besides gave him some kind of calm and comfort, certainly made it all easier for a man like Dean who always dealt with his feelings in one simple way: bury them very, very deep and never ever talk about them again.

"I wish... I wish I could be the one going through all of this. I wish I could be the one suffering instead of him," he confessed, his voice almost shaking as Kate stared at his profile. "He doesn't deserve all of this, you know? He doesn't. I do… After all I did in Hell, I deserve it more than him or anyone else would."

"Don't say that Dean," she told him with a soft frown on her face. "You did and you are still doing your job at protecting him better than anyone else. You're the best big brother anyone could ever wish for. I-It's just that addictions are just really hard to get rid off… But I truly believe that with time and with everyone supporting him, your brother is gonna get through this in no time," she told him before pressing her lips together as she looked down at his thumb tracing circles on the neck of the bottle in his hand.

"Thinking you deserve all the pain in the world because of what happened in Hell is not only a useless thing to say, but it's stupid too," she continued, noticing his thumb as it stilled on the bottle. "They had planned to make you crave, Dean. You told me that you broke the first seal, right? Well, I think that it means you were supposed to give up. Whether it be after a month or after ten years. They would have succeeded, nothing would have changed this. But Dean you've been stronger than a lot of people would have been. You just give yourself too little credit. It's not because it was your destiny to-" she cut herself off as she was hit by a sudden realization. Confused by her abrupt silence, Dean looked up at her. Her face looked as if she was slapped with a great yet complicated thought that she was trying to untie and to figure out.

"What?" He asked her. She blinked and then turned her head to look at him. She wasn't sure of what she had just realized. It seemed to mix with unsure memories of angels but if it was true then it meant a lot. "Kaitlin, what?" He repeated, his eyes scanning her whole face.

"I-" She said, hopping off the hood of the old damaged when she lost her balance as a flow of images flashed before her eyes.

"Hey, you okay?" Dean asked her as she looked at him before looking down at his hands which were around her waist, the cold bottle of beer flat against one of her sides. She hadn't even realized that that he had caught her the instant she had lost her balance.

"Yeah," she simply breathed out.

"You take your med? Your painkiller and whatever else you've got take?" He asked her and she nodded.

"Dean, it's cold," she said after a few seconds, earning a confused look from the hunter. "The bottle…" She trailed off and he looked down to his hands before taking them away.

"Sorry."

"It's okay."

"What was that?" He asked her. "One second you were telling me those comforting words and then you… I don't know." The brunette scanned his freckled face as memories of that new flash of images were still stuck in her mind and made her hesitant to tell him anything.

"That's nothing. I better go help Bobby," she said before turning around.

"Kate, wait," Dean said as he reached out and grabbed her forearm to stop her before she walked away.

Kate looked down at the ground before turning around to look at Dean. It was weird to hear him call her Kate. For months, all that rolled out of his lips when he called her was her full first name. And she liked that. It made her feel as if she was a bit special for Dean; especially knowing how he had told her why he liked saying her full first name.

"I'm sorry, Dean," she almost whispered to him. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you about Sam. And I'm sorry I met Ruby on your back… I was trying to learn as much about protection as possible. Hexbags and some kind of protective sigils."

"Why didn't you ask us? We're here to protect you."

"I don't think you could have."

"The angels did ask us to protect you. I'm pretty sure that means they know we can," he replied, what seemed to be a half-smirk forming on his lips. She gave a weak smile as she looked away for a moment. "What's wrong, Kaitlin?" She looked up at him. The sound of her full first name coming from him, made her feel reassured; it was as if she had her special place back. Moreover, it reassured her that he had heard her apologies and maybe even had accepted them.

"I'm not really sure... But, what I know is that everything will be okay," she replied as she tentatively reached one hand on his large hand that was still holding her forearm. She gently rested it on top of his hand which made Dean glance down at it for a moment. "What happened in Hell is never gonna happen again and you don't have to forget it, Dean. You just have to forgive yourself because it wasn't your fault. It never was your fault. And you don't deserve any other kind of pain, a man like you should never deserve any other pain. But… But this is the way life goes. We get hurt and we hurt people, but we gotta keep moving on and we gotta keep on fighting, because who else is gonna do it for us, huh?" She told him with a softness in her voice that was soothing and full of sincerity. It was gripping Dean at what was bugging him inside and pulling it away before throwing it far away. It felt nice, good and peaceful.

"Sam is gonna be alright," she continued after a couple of seconds. "You just gotta have this little faith in him. I know you don't trust me but just this once please believe my words and trust them." She took her hand away and slightly pulled her arm away trying to make him understand to let go of her now. He loosened his grip but didn't let go.

"I trust you," he said taking her aback by those three little words that escaped his mouth. His eyes were filled with honesty just as much as his voice. She gave a half sigh half little chuckle. "It's just that I-"

"You don't need to say anything else. Those three words were all I ever wanted to hear you say," she told him in a little voice as her lips curled into a tiny gentle smile.

---

Once Kate got inside, she didn't even glance at Bobby as she exclaimed that she was going upstairs to her room. The old man had just the time to say a little yes in response as she dashed off to the stairs.

When she was in the room that became hers over the few months, she quickly made her way to the duffle bag that was on the floor, at the end of the bed. She lifted it up and put it on the bed before swiftly zipping it open. She ruffled through the clothes and took out the two notebooks that she hadn't given Bobby. The ones that had appeared in the wave of images that came to her outside just a moment ago. She looked at them, her brows knitted together as she heard that little voice trying to convince her to do some research and to not focus on those flash of memories. Because that was what they were. Memories. Memories that she had forgotten all the details about and that were struggling to get back to her.

She didn't even have enough time to think about it as another flash of images hit her. A much more violent sequence of images went before her eyes, making her drop the notebooks on the floor before falling hard on her knees.

Some of the images were violent, bloody and terrifying. Others were filled of a fancy room with a weird and uncomfortable sensation. They were not so clear. But in all of them, voices mixed up.

One voice in particular.

"The moment the Winchesters will feel like not wanting to do their job, you will remember yours. The moment the Winchesters will feel like giving up, you will remember what I showed you. And, if - and I hope that's a big if – if you still don't feel very motivated, I've got forty years of Dean Winchester's memories of Hell to show you and make you feel."

"As long as the ones you care about are alright, you will never do anything you're told. Even if it's to save this world from Lucifer himself. So, here is how it's going to happen. The only motivation you'll get from us is this simple knowledge that if you do one thing wrong, someone you care about will suffer. It can be anyone…"

"The last time we talked you were in a deep coma… It was just a few days ago, but you wouldn't remind my little visit, of course. That day I took off all the memories of me from you."

When it was abruptly over, Kate looked down at her hands on the wooden floor. She was breathing heavily and she was shaking a little bit. This weird and sudden flash of images had been more intense than the previous ones. Nonetheless, it had also been more informative too. Because even though she could feel in her guts that some other memories were still lacking, the ones she just had back made her understand what was happening.

Some man in a suit had taken her memories away for some reason that she still had to find out.

She pushed on her hands to stand up when her brown gaze fell on one of the two notebooks that had dropped open. Two pages of sigils that Ruby had taught her a while back, were drawn with some side-notes written too. One peculiar note caught her attention the most.

Sigils to protect oneself from angels.

"From angels?" She whispered to herself in pure puzzlement. She took the notebook and turned one page to see a page full of instructions to make hex bags that can protect from demons and angels. That can prevent demons and angels from knowing where one was and what one was doing.

Kate thought about her encounter with the angel Uriel months ago, and then she frowned as she remembered the sudden thought that had crossed her mind earlier when she was outside with Dean. Standing up, she put the notebook on the bed right next to the duffle bag, leaving the other one on the floor. She started to look inside of her duffle bag for what she thought it was best to gear up with for whatever threat there really was out there. Grabbing three hex bags out of her duffle bag she looked down at them and swallowed as she understood that the threat that was outside could be something way bigger than simple demons.

---

Fifteen minutes later.

"So, what do you think?" Kate asked Bobby as she bit nervously on her bottom lip. His blue eyes were staring right into her brown eyes as he thought deeply at what she had just told him.

She had returned downstairs and almost burst into his living room before stopping right in front of his desk. She had tossed at him one of her hex bags and he had questioned her about it but she had interrupted him by holding her hands open in front of her as if to say that she had something huge to tell him. But she hadn't pronounced a word for at least thirty seconds until Bobby asked her what the hell she was doing. She had started telling explaining what had realization had hit her when she was with Dean outside earlier. She was talking very fast, saying the word hypothetically fifteen or sixteen times as she paced back and forth in the living room with Bobby's gaze following her. And the instant he had put down his glass of scotch and his face had shown a very deep focus on what she was saying, the young woman had slowed down everything. She had started to talk slowly, she had stopped pacing back and forth in the room, and the word hypothetically had gone away from her current vocabulary. With his hand holding the hex bag she had given him, Bobby had listened with great attention to the whole explanation of her crazy sudden realization about the seals and the apocalypse without interrupting her once.

"I think it's crazy," he spilled out. He rubbed one hand on his forehead, stood up and walked around his desk and continued. "But as crazy as it sounds, it still makes sense. We'll have to do some researches to check your theory out but from what we already know, I think it's possible."

"So, what do we do?"

"Hell if I know what we do!" He exclaimed throwing his arms in the air. "What's even that hex bag for?"

"Just keep it," she replied. "I got one too."

Bobby looked at her before sliding the hex bag in the front pocket of his flannel. Then, he made his way up to kitchen and she followed him.

"We could still try to get Castiel here and ask him to check your theory. But there's a 120% chances he ain't gonna tell the truth," he said as he opened the fridge and stared at the few little things that were there. "Especially after what happened last time with Dean," he said as he pulled out all the necessary to make a sandwich.

"What do you mean? What happened last time with Dean?" Kate asked, confused.

"Apparently," Bobby said as he closed the door of the fridge with his heel and put the things that were in his arms on the counter right next to the fridge. "When Castiel got back into his vessel, he said to Dean that he wasn't here to service any of us and that humans ain't who he's workin' for."

Kate frowned as she stared at Bobby opening the plastic bag containing the white bread. She walked to him, and gently pushed him away as she started making him his sandwich. He took a few steps along the counter and then stopped to lean against it, right next to the sink.

"How did you even come up with that theory, huh?" He asked her as she went over the sink and opened the tap of water to wash some lettuce before putting them inside his sandwich.

"I-I don't know," she replied with a light shrug. "I just… I just realized that the angels seemed very eager to get Dean to be the one to stop the Apocalypse. Like if it's his destiny," she said and stopped for a moment as she closed the tap and wrung the water off the lettuce before putting it down on a plate that was nearby. She looked up at Bobby, "And, then I remembered."

"You remembered?" He asked with an arched eyebrow. "What did you remember?"

"Not much… It's more like flashbacks," she told him and was pretty surprised not to hear a little voice telling her not to say more. Maybe the hex bag in her pants pocket was really efficient after all.

"Is that why you gave me that hex bag?" He asked her as he tapped on the front pocket of his shirt where the tiny beige sacking was.

She gave a simple nod and Bobby stared at her for a moment before she looked down at the bread and went back on doing his sandwich.

"Alright," Bobby said, thoughtful. "So, what you remembered made you understand that every angels are for the Apocalypse to strike?"

"No, no," she shook her head. "Not Castiel. I-I don't know but I truly think he's on our side you know? I feel like he truly doesn't want the apocalypse to thunder on us, I feel like he wants to protect the creation of God, you know?" She told him as she handed him the sandwich and started making another one.

"Look Katie," Bobby said as he looked at the sandwich in his hand before looking up at her. "I see your point. But your theory is that the angels are for the Apocalypse just as much as the demons. So good angels or not, I think that if your theory is true then Cas is just like the other winged men upstairs. Especially after what I told you happened." She looked at him as he took a mouthful of the sandwich.

"I guess you're right..." she murmured.

"Never thought you'd be one to feel that way about angels," he said while chewing.

"I-I don't know, I just feel like there's something wrong about this whole Apocalypse thing."

"You think it's linked to what stopped you from going back home a few days ago?" He asked as he swallowed down.

"Probably," she nodded.

"Surely it has to be linked with you not remembering some things," he noted and she looked down as she pressed her lips together and remembered the images that had come before her eyes when she was upstairs.

"The last time we talked you were in a deep coma… It was just a few days ago, but you wouldn't remind my little visit, of course. That day I took off all the memories of me from you."

"Something doesn't want you to remember for a reason," he continued as she looked up at him. "Is there anything in those flashbacks that can help us figure what what's that reason? Maybe something or someone?"

Kate looked at the old man as she remembered other images that had appeared to her earlier.

The only motivation you'll get from us is this simple knowledge that if you do one thing wrong, someone you care about will suffer. It can be anyone…"

"No," Kate replied in almost a whisper.

"You sure about this, kid?" He asked as he squinted his eyes as he wasn't convinced by the way she had replied.

"Yeah," she said right when the backyard door opened and Dean walked in.

"You forgot this outside," the young hunter said to Kate as he showed her the hoodie in one of his hands.

"Oh thanks," she told him before giving a very subtle look at Bobby to tell him not to say a word. Bobby gave a slight nod of the head as Dean walked to the table of the kitchen and put the hoodie on the back of one chair.

"It's Matt's, isn't it?" Dean asked staring at the table before looking up at the woman in a tank top and a pair of jeans that hung her every curves so perfectly that he almost had to force himself to focus on her face or her brown curls in order to avoid his automatic checking out. Bobby walked to one of the other vacant chairs around his kitchen table and sat down as he kept on eating his sandwich in silence.

"What?" Kate said, turning her head to look at Dean.

"The hoodie, it's Matt's?"

"How did you find out?" She asked as she finished making the sandwich and put it on a plate. She walked to the chair right in front of Dean and right next to Bobby and sat down.

"Easy. It's too big for you, it smells bad like him and there was one fake ID on the inside pocket with a picture of him," he explained as she slid the plate toward him. "I'm not hungry," he slid it back towards her.

"I don't care, eat," she ordered as she slid the plate back towards him. He was going to slide it back to her but she gave him a stern look and he sighed as he grabbed the sandwich. He took a big bite and was rather surprised at how good it was, especially for someone who claimed to be very bad at cooking. He gave a nod in agreement over the delicious taste of her cooking. "How did you even dare to do the pockets, Winchester?" She asked with playful tone. Dean simply shrugged earning a shaking of her head.

"Saw how too big it was for ya, wanted to know why," he answered as he chewed. She rose her eyebrows.

"Couldn't you come in here and ask me?" she told him and he shrugged once again.

"Katie's got a pretty damn good theory," Bobby said all of sudden breaking the simple and fairly good mood in the air.

"About?" Dean asked as his green eyes shifted from the old man's face to the young woman's.

"The Apocalypse," she said as he frowned at her waiting for her to develop out loud her thoughts. "What if the angels wanted it to happen just as much as the demons?"

"What? That's crazy shit. They're supposed to be the good guys, Kaitlin," he told her.

"Oh come on, you're the first one to always call them winged douchebags."

"Yeah, it doesn't mean they're pro-Apocalypse," Dean said as he returned his attention to the delicious sandwich in his hands.

"Look, I studied theology back in my universe and I remember that in every monotheist religion the Apocalypse is supposed to happen on Earth and the angels don't fight to stop it. They fight as Earth is burning," she told him. He glanced at Bobby who raised his eyebrows and made a slight movement of the head.

"Is it true?" Dean asked Bobby.

"No, I'm just making everything up to mess up with you because it's the rightest time to do so," Kate said sarcastically rolling her eyes. He rose his eyebrows in a defensive way as he looked at her.

"I'm just asking if it's 200% legit," he told her. "I mean did you even check this out?"

"No, but we're gonna," Bobby spoke up which caused Dean to nod before he took another large bite of his sandwich.

"Did you really take theology classes?" Dean asked after a little moment of silence.

"Not really. I sneaked in some theology or history classes when I was in college," she explained with a wave of her hand.

"You were a student in physics and you still found interest in history?" Bobby asked, surprised as he looked at her. She turned her head to look at him and shrugged with a bright smile.

"There's interest and beauty in every single thing," she told him. "But really, I was going to start studying History and Theology. My father wanted me to study what I loved so yeah, I was going to."

"Going to?" Bobby asked with frowned eyebrows.

"Um, yeah, I was registered but my father passed away before I started classes and then, well I got here," she shrugged with a weak smile as she looked down at the table.

"You're gonna get back home, you know that, huh?" Bobby told her making her look up at him.

"Yeah, I know. I didn't mean that I hated this place or anything," she replied. "It's not too bad here. I mean this place is full of monsters and everything is so much more complicated here. But… But it's not too bad."

"That's because you've been here for just a few months," Dean commented which caused her to turn her head to look at him. She looked at the green-eyed man for a short while.

"Yeah, I suppose. But like I said, there's beauty in everything," she replied before looking down when he looked right into her eyes causing her to feel her cheeks getting a bit warmer.

---

8:52 pm.

Bobby, Dean and Kate had spent hours and hours studying a dozen of books and a bunch of websites. Bobby had focused on finding a way to help Sam get over his addiction, Dean had focused on finding ways to stop the remaining seals from getting broken and Kate had put all of her focus on figuring out if her theory was right.

During the afternoon, Bobby had asked her if she could explain to him how she had found the localizations of the seals she had given him in the past, but Kate had found herself unable to answer. She had not been able to remember and that had made Bobby even more concerned about what was playing with her memory. However, they had still kept this between her and him, both not wanting to get Dean to worry about something else. And when Bobby had asked her why she hadn't given Dean a hex bag, she had told him that if her theory was right, then that meant that the angels were keeping an eye on Dean and if she ever gave him something that prevented them to do so, then it would probably bring a lot of troubles to all of them. Bobby had decided that her explanation made sense, and the fact that Dean had said yes to serve angels had also turned the things a bit more delicate and complicated.

During the day, Dean and Bobby had gone downstairs to check on Sam on several times. After being tossed around by the demonic mojo that was inside of him, the young Winchester had spent the rest of day completely knocked out. It had gotten Dean very worried but Bobby had reassured him that the young man was breathing well and would wake up later or even on the next day. It hadn't helped Dean's worry decreased that much, but studying books had helped keep his mind off a little bit, even though it had tired him a lot.

Dean yawned as he was sitting on the couch with his laptop resting on his lap. He rubbed his eyelids with his hands because of the computer screen light that had been one of the only three lights enlightening the room ever since the sun got down. The other two lights were the lamp on Bobby's desk and the floor lamp that was next to the couch which Kate had switched on before sitting on the floor, her back against the couch. Dean cracked the back of his neck before taking the laptop off his lap and putting it on the coffee table. In the process, he noticed the head of the young woman who was still sitting on the floor, falling backwards on the couch. He looked at her for a moment as she breathed slowly and calmly. It was obvious that she had just fallen asleep and he wondered how she could have in this seemingly uncomfortable position.

Slowly and quietly standing up from the couch, Dean crouched down and took the book and the notebook with a pen on top of it, that were both laying on her lap. He put them on the coffee table and turned his head towards Bobby's desk. He lightly huffed when he noticed that the old man was fast asleep on an opened-book too.

Returning his green gaze down on the brunette, he decided to carry her upstairs to the room that had become hers. If it had been anyone else, he would have woken them up and told them to go to bed, but it was Kaitlin. He wanted her to rest as much as possible, she deserved it. So Dean decided to carry her upstairs instead of telling her to go upstairs.

He slid his arms under her, slowly and gently, doing his best not to wake her up. One arm curling around her waist and the other around her thighs. She groaned in her sleep and stirred a bit causing Dean to freeze his movements. His eyes started to wander all over her face, from the slight bruise that had appeared on her forehead earlier today after Sam had attacked her, to the little beauty mark she had on one cheek. He let his eyes traveling down to the other beauty marks that were on one side of her neck and then he looked up before his eyes decided to go too further down on the woman wearing just a tank top. As his eyes were now back on her face, he couldn't help but think that she looked like a porcelain doll.

He took a deep breath, pushed away his thoughts and stood up with her in his arms. She groaned again and stirred a bit more than earlier so he decided to put her on the couch instead of climbing all the stairs and risking of waking her up. He laid her down gently, making sure that her head landed on one of the two pillows that were there. He then took a blanket that was on the back of the couch and covered her with it from her bare feet to the base of her neck. She moved a little bit causing him to look at her soft face.

He couldn't help but feel bad for the way he had talked to her this morning. She had obviously no idea that not telling him about Sam's demon blood secret would cause this disaster. And when she had known what was going on with Sam she had stuck to help, even after he had attacked her. Thinking about it, Dean realized that the girl had spent months with the same few people, living and working with them but also helping them. Not knowing anyone else here had given her no choice but to entrust her life to them, but that didn't mean that she had to be there with them today. She hadn't been forced to be here today; she had come on her own will and she had stayed on her own will. And this very fact confirmed to Dean that the young woman truly cared about all of them. All that she had done for them were pretty dead giveaways that she cared about them, but today it meant more for the older Winchester brother than he would ever admit.

He rubbed a hand all over his face, reached one arm out to switch off the floor lamp and then he grabbed his laptop and switched off. He grabbed the book she had been studying the past two hours and sat down on the floor right where she was sitting a moment ago. He started to read the page she had been on before falling asleep. However, sleep quickly took over him and he fell fast asleep in a matter of seconds.

His head fell back on the couch like hers a few minutes ago, as long-gone calm dreams started to fill his mind. Dreams of a beautiful brunette with natural red lips who was telling him her wish to sneak to some History classes with him.

---

Author's note:

Again, I am very sorry for making you all wait this long to get an update on my story! I don't have real excuses except that life happened and it's really hard to find free hours in my crazy schedule so I can focus on writing this story… But I hope you can still enjoy my story and I won't give up on updating it as long as you don't give up on reading it!

On another hand I wanna thank you for giving me the best day of my life (Mmh, I think that's an old Dido song…) ! I spent thirty minutes blocked in the subway Friday and I re-read almost all of the reviews and that just turned that horribly starting day into a better one – one of the best really! You guys have made me so happy and confident in myself all day long! So from the bottom of my heart thank you very much for being this awesome!

I would like to thank the people who reviewed on my previous chapters: Erica, Rubyrose and Anber :

And for the two who left me very long reviews here you go:

Jules : Thank you very much for taking on your time to write me this long and very appreciated review! I am truly happy that you enjoyed the 22nd chapter and that you are already in love with Beth Parks haha : And yeah, Zachariah is that manipulative of a bastard :p (Is that even correct grammatically speaking?...). I like the fact that you loved Matt and Kate scenes together. I like creating the bond between the two of them, especially since one of the readers had once suggested me to make Dean quite jealous of Matt… This jealousy is building up pretty slowly though and you will see it at its peak on later chapters so keep an eye out ;) I am so glad that you love the relationship that I created between Bobby and Kate. My beta-reader reads the review too so I think she saw you thanking her and I am grateful that you did because she beta-reads my story in no time and she helps me improve my English by showing me what I misspelled or what could be said in a better way :3 And thank you a thousand times for saying all of the sweet things you've said ! I'm very touched that you think of my story as one of the best (I personally don't think so… That makes me think that I have to put myself back into reading fanfictions instead of reading published book…). Thanks again dear Jules and I hope you're gonna create your account soon ;)

Wolfenergy17 : Did you really just write me this loooong and amazing review or am I seeing things? Really girl, you are too awesome to be real! Thank you for telling all your reactions about all the different parts of the previous chapter, it was really unexpected but I loved it (and still do)! I am so happy that you liked Beth Parks (I was so afraid that you guys wouldn't like her very much..) and I am just too happy to know that you loved my hospital scene :D! The umbrella with the Devil's Trap is the consequence of me seeing a picture of Mark Sheppard (who plays Crowley for those who don't know) holding an umbrella with the Devil's Trap painted in red on the inside (check it out on the internet if you have time) and I've had this idea even before starting writing this story, so I was really happy to finally put it in here! The movie Constantine inspired me for the Hospital scene but it wasn't like that in the movie: in fact, the scene takes place in a building full of demons and the hero Constantine just gets in and turns on the water sprinkler system which happens to be full of holy water. In the movie, holy water has a bigger impact on demons than on Supernatural where we know it only sorta burns them. So I had to add the chanting of the exorcism to make sure that the demons would really be taken care of :p. And everything else (the sorta blessing way spell that Beth Parks made, etc) was just a result of my crazy imagination. About Matt, I really wanted to show this kinda scary dark side of him just to emphasise the fact that the Supernatural world is a rather scary and dark place that changes people, makes them harder. Plus, it gave me the opportunity to write more about him which I always enjoy. The bracelet being trackable is something that's been on my mind since the very first time I've come up with the idea of it so glad you liked this plot twist! As you have noticed in this 23rd chapter, some of Kate's secrets have been revealed but not all of them, but they are going to. Secrets are one of the biggest deal in Supernatural, it creates drama and angst and paradoxically it creates a feeling of trust. Because when one lies to keep a secret in Supernatural, it is mainly to protect or even save the other which shows that one truly cares about the other and would do anything for them. And, I think that once the lie is revealed they all know that it was made with the best attention even though some act very bitchy about it (which can be understandable of course). So yeah, Kate keeping secret about those memories returning to her or about reading Chuck's books is sorta the same than Sam keeping secret his demon blood drinking. But yeah, the secrets are all gonna get revealed soon… Finally, THANK YOU for everything you said ! I think that your review is going to boost my muse and I hope the heart attack was worth it this time. Oh, and thanks for the hug; I love hugs :3

Readers, don't be shy to leave a review of a couple of words or of 600 words like wolfenergy17, it helps me keep on writing this story which means that I inevitably update it quicker ;)

Much love,

A.