Alright... this is the last of me doing the scenes from the episodes. Next chapter, it'll be all me. Every word, every emotion, everything.

Chapter 18

The four sat in John's motel room, John sitting at the table covered by papers and Sam's laptop. He looked at his sons and Summer. Sam stood in front of the built in kitchen counter, staring at his father. Dean stood by the table, looking at the Colt that sat on the tabletop. Summer sat on the bed, glancing at all of them before her eyes landed upon John.

"This is everything I know," John spoke up and pointed to the papers. "Our whole lives we've been searching for this demon, right? Not a trace, just nothing until about a year ago, for the first time, I picked up a trail."

"That's when you took off," Dean said looking away from the gun and looked at his father before he glanced at Sam as he moved away from behind the table, and stood in front of it, standing closer to his dad.

"Yeah, that's right. The demon must have come out of hiding or hibernation," John nodded.

"What's this trail you found?" Dean asked him.

"It starts in Arizona, then New Jersey, California. House burn down to the ground. It's going after families, just like it went after us," John told them.

"Houses with infants?" Sam asked, finally speaking.

"Yeah," John nodded. "The night of the kid's six month birthday."

"I was six months old that night?"

"Exactly six months."

"So, basically, this demon is going after these kids for some reason. Same way it came for me?" Sam asked, and when John didn't reply, he spoke up again. "So, Mom's death, Jessica… it's all cause of me?"

"We don't know that, Sam," Dean looked at him.

"Oh really, cause I'd say we're pretty damn sure, Dean!" Sam said his voice showing a bit of anger.

"For the last time, what happened to them is not your fault."

"Yeah, you're right, it's not my fault, but it's my problem!" Sam said raising his voice a little.

"No, it's not your problem. It's iour/i problem!" Dean raised his voice.

Summer stared at the two, not wanting to say anything. She then turned her attention to John when he spoke up finally.

"Ok," John looked at both of his sons as he stood up. "That's enough," he moved around the table and stood in front of it.

"Why is it doing it? What does it want?" Sam asked looking at John again.

"I wish I had more answers. I do. I have always been one-step behind it. Look, I have never gotten there in time to save..." John stumbled on the sentence, not able to finish it.

"How do we find it before it hits again?" Dean asked.

"There are signs. It took me a while to see the pattern, but in the days before these fires, signs crop up in an area. Cattle deaths, temperature fluctuations, electrical storms, and then I went back and checked, and..."

"These things happened in Lawrence?" Dean asked.

"Week before your Mother died," John then looked at Sam. "And in Palo Alto... before Jessica," he faced Summer this time. "When I found out where you lived, I checked and it also happened in South Dakota before you're mother," he told her. "And these signs, they're starting again."

"Where?" Sam asked.

"Salvation, Iowa."

Salvation, Iowa

Sam, Dean, and Summer sat in the Impala, Dean driving, following John as they drove down the road, entering Salvation. Dean looked through the rearview mirror, glancing at Summer in the backseat, and noticed her looking out the window, her face showing a some sadness. "Hey, are you all right?"

She turned her attention to him, and at first, she didn't reply. "I'm fine."

"You don't look fine."

"What your dad said… that demon killed my mom to get to me," she said, her voice seeming small compared to how it normally would sound.

"Listen," Dean started. "It's not you're fault. I want you and Sam to know this isn't your fault. It's that demon's fault."

"Will you just stop that?" Summer sighed. "Let's face it… this demon killed them to get to us. And since it couldn't get to us, it killed the people we love. It went after your mom because she showed up at the wrong time. It killed Sam's girlfriend because he wasn't there. Then, it goes after my mom because I wasn't there. So, Dean, it's our fault they're dead, and there's nothing you can say to change how we think because we all know it's the truth."

Dean sighed deeply, and he glanced at Sam and he saw him just staring in front of him. He knew he heard what she said. He stared in front of him, and saw John pulling into an area covered by dirt, and he followed, pulling up behind him and climbed out.

"Damn it!" John spoke, as he got out of his truck.

"What is it?" Dean asked.

"Son of a bitch!" John spoke, the anger already in his voice as he slammed a hand down on the back of his truck.

"What is it?" Dean asked again.

"I just got a call from Caleb."

"Is he ok?" Dean asked.

"He's fine. Jim Murphy's dead."

"Pastor Jim?" Sam asked, shocked by this news. "How?"

"Throat was slashed. He bled out. Caleb said they found traces of sulfur at Jim's place."

"A demon?" Dean asked. "The demon?" he asked when his father didn't reply.

"I don't know. Could be he just got… he got careless. He slipped up. Maybe the demon knows we're getting close,"

"What do you want to do?" Dean asked.

"Now we act like every second counts," Jon said. He then told them there's a hospital and a health center, and he wants a list of every infant that is going to be six months in the next week.

"That could be a dozens of kids, how the hell are we gonna know which one's the right one?" Sam asked.

"We'll check them all, that's how."

Sam just stared at him without a word.

"You got a better idea?"

"No, sir."

John then turned to head back to the driver's side and opened the door before stopping, and Dean noticed this when he glanced back at his father before he climbed back in his own car.

"Dad?"

"Yeah…" John faced them again, stepping toward them a bit. "It's Jim. You know, I can't..." he sighed. "This ends now. I'm ending it. I don't care what it takes," he told them before moving back to the front of his truck, and got inside it. The three got back in the Impala, and Dean started the car before he followed John again.

John went to the hospital, Dean pulled up behind him, Sam got out, and he faced them. "I'll call when I need you to pick me up."

Dean nodded. "Alright."

Sam turned and headed toward the entrance while Dean put the car back in drive before he drove away to head to the health center.

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The four were back at the motel in Sam and Dean's room, and silence had taken over after Sam told them he had a vision of a woman who dies in the hands of the demon. John sat on one of the beds, Dean sitting beside him with a cup in his hands. Sam and Summer sat at the table, Sam pressing his hand to his forehead, as if trying to make the pain from the vision to subside.

"A vision?" John asked looking at Sam almost in disbelieve.

"Yes. I saw the demon burning a woman on the ceiling," Sam said not even glancing at his dad while he spoke.

"Alright, and you think it's going to happen to this woman you met because…"

"Because these things happen exactly the way I see them."

"They started as dreams," Dean spoke up as he stood up and headed toward the sink. "And then he started having them while he was awake."

"Yeah, it's like… I don't know, it's like the closer I get to anything involving the demon, the stronger the visions get."

"Alright, when were you gonna tell me about this?" John asked glancing at Dean.

"We didn't know what it meant," Dean said turning to face his dad.

"Something like this start happening to your brother, you pick up the phone and you call me."

Dean set his cup down on the counter and moved toward his dad, a look on his face. "Call you?" he locked eyes with John. "Are you kidding me? Dad, I called you from Lawrence. Sam called you when I was dying. I mean, getting you on the phone… I got a better chance of winning the lottery."

Sam, John, and Summer stared at Dean, neither of them expecting him to talk like that to his own father.

"You're right," John finally said. "I'm not real crazy about this new tone of yours, but you're right. I'm sorry."

"Look, guys, visions or no visions, the fact is that we know the demon is coming tonight, and this family is going to go through the same hell that we went through," Sam said.

"No, they're not. No one is... ever again," John said.

Sam's cell phone rang, so he picked it up, answering it, and they find out Meg is alive, and wants to speak with John. He got on the phone after Meg demanded Sam to put him on, he hears Caleb dying in the background a couple minutes of talking with her. When he got off the phone, he faced them.

Dean and Sam had stood up by this time, keeping their eyes locked on John as he stood by one of the beds, cell phone still in his hand, while Summer continued to sit at the table. John told them what Meg said.

"So, you think Meg is a demon?" Sam asked.

"Either that or she's possessed by one. It doesn't really matter,"

"What do we do?" Summer asked.

"I'm going to Lincoln," John told them.

Dean, Sam, and Summer became surprised by this.

"What?" Dean asked stepping closer to him.

"It doesn't seem like I have a choice. If I don't go, a lot of people die. Our friends die."

"Dad, the demon is coming tonight for Monica and her family. That gun is all we got. You can't just hand it over," Sam said.

"Who said anything about handing it over? Look, besides us and a couple of vampires, no one really has seen the gun. No one knows what it looks like."

"You're just gonna pick up a ringer at a pawn shop?" Dean asked.

"Antique store."

"You're gonna hand Meg a fake gun and hope she doesn't notice?" Dean asked.

"Look, as long as it's close, she shouldn't be able to tell the difference."

"Yeah, but for how long? What happens when she figures it out?" Dean asked, his voice rising a bit.

"I just need to buy a few hours, that's all."

"You mean for us," Sam gestured to himself, Dean and Summer. "You want us to stay here, and kill this demon by ourselves?"

"No, Sam. I want to stop losing people we love," John said getting a little upset. "I want you to go to school. I want Dean to have a home. I want to stop this thing from taking loved ones from more people…" he motioned toward Summer when he said that. He turned away from them, almost in tears." I want Mary alive. I just- I just want this to be over."

"It will be over," Summer spoke up. "This thing will be stopped one way or another. It's better than sitting around letting more people die. Look," she stood up and stepped closer to them. "As much as I don't want John to go alone, he has to. They told him to go alone… if we go with, who knows what will happen. It could make things a lot harder for us. It could possibly end up with all of us dead, and then we'll be screwed. John needs to go, and buy us sometime to take care of this demon."

"You're sounding more like a hunter each day," Dean said looking at her.

"Well, I got reasons to. So, let's stop wasting time and get the show on the road…"

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Dean, Sam, and Summer sat in Sam and Dean's room after they met up with John and gave him a fake Colt.

Dean kept trying to contact John, but he hasn't gotten an answer. Sam sat on one of the beds while Summer sat at the table. "Come on, Dad. Answer your phone, damn it," Dean said taking the phone away from his ear, and stared at it for a moment. "Something's wrong." When he didn't get a reply from Sam, he looked over at him. "You hear me? Something's happened."

"If you had just let me go in there, I could have ended all this," Sam said staring down at the floor, his voice showing the slight anger with what happened.

Summer looked over at Sam, and then at Dean, watching as he stepped toward him.

"Sam, the only thing you would have ended was your life."

"You don't know that," Sam raised his eyes up to him.

"So, what? You're willing to sacrifice yourself, is that it?" Dean asked

Sam stood up, facing Dean. "Yeah. Yeah, you're damn right I am."

"Yeah, well, that's not going to happen, not as long as I'm around," Dean told him as he turned away from him.

"What the hell are you talking about, Dean? We have been searching for this demon our whole lives. It's the only thing we've ever cared about."

Dean moved closer to him before speaking. "Sam, I want to waste it. I do, okay? But it's not worth dying over,"

"What?"

"I mean it. If hunting this demon means you getting yourself killed… then I hope we never find the damn thing."

"That thing killed Jess. That thing killed Mom."

"You said it yourself once… that no matter what we do, they're gone. And they're never coming back."

Sam quickly grabbed Dean by the front of the shirt and pushed him up against a wall, hard, causing Summer to jump to her feet, and stared at them, almost unsure if she should pull them apart.

"Don't you say that! Don't you... not after all this, don't you say that," Sam said, the anger in his voice, and his expression showing it.

"Sam, look..." Dean started, staring him in the eyes. "The four of us, that's all we have. And that's all I have," he said, the two showing a little more emotion, close to tears almost. "Sometimes I feel like I'm barely holding it together, man…" Sam let go of his shirt. "Without you, dad, and Summer…"

Sam patted his shirt before walking away, and turned to face him again a moment later, while Summer let out a sigh of relive knowing a fight won't happen. "Dad… he should have called by now. Try him again."

Dean raised his arm up and looked for John's number, and pressed ok before put the phone to his ear. After a couple rings, someone finally answered, but it wasn't who he expected. His expression turned from half-normal to worry and scared. "Where is he?"

Both Summer and Sam stared at Dean, both their expressions also the same