Epilogue

Alice held on for dear life. It felt like her insides were trying to get to the outside. Dean's hand held her ankle to keep her from sliding too much. He sped around corners and into the ambulance bay. He shouted orders as he jumped out and raced around to the other door. There was so much blood. "Help us!"

--

Dean leaned against the glass of the ICU window, staring at his daughter. He knew what would happen. In a day or two, the money would run out. They'd want to take her off ventilation. Then if he insisted on keeping her alive, Shannon and Christopher would come and one of them would call the cops and then he'd be in prison while Alice wasted away in that bed.

--

Dean buried the box and waited. He hated to be away from Alice for any length of time but there was no way he was going to be the reason that she died before her 22nd birthday. Then the demon showed up, smirking and condescending. She was young and beautiful, just like all the other women who had been possessed before her. "Dean, oh Dean. It is so good to see you. What do you have for me today? Bullets? Devil's traps?"

"Me. I brought me."

"You… well… you aren't as young as you used to be but I hear that you're still a good romp in the sack… but this body is… well, not as equipped as its exterior might imply. I'm not sure if I'm a dude or if I'm a hermaphrodite."

"That is so sick…" Dean shook his head and decided that it would all be worth it. "I want to make a deal."

"Hmm… a deal for Dean." She walked in careful circles around him. "A deal… hmm… whatever could you offer me?"

--

Alice woke up alone and choking. Within minutes, the entire floor's staff was in her room and pulling at tubes and taking vitals. Once the panic was over and she was breathing on her own, she saw Dean rush into the room. As soon as the doctors let him, he was sitting by her side and brushing her hair out of her face. "Hey, hey… Alice…"

"Dad, I'm… I was scared. I woke up and you weren't here…" She sniffed and had never in her life wanted to be held so bad.

"Yeah, I'm here now. You're okay."

"Dean… I want to go home."

"I know. I called your mom, she's heading up here."

"No, just… go home with you and Uncle Sam."

"We'll talk about it after you get some rest."

--

Alice leaned against Dean while she struggled to sit up and dismantle the rifle. It took some doing but she did it on her own. Dean instructed her softly on how the pieces were to be cleaned and then helped her put it back together.

--

Alice set down her pen when Sam sat down across from her. "I think I like this library."

"What are you doing here?" Alice shook her head at him.

"I just dropped by for a visit." He shrugged and stared at her. "I uh… I just wanted to talk to you."

"What?" She frowned at him. "I'm not a part of the family. I know that. I just…"

"Who told you that?"

"Well, no one came to the funeral and I…"

"It's not safe for me to go to a funeral like that." Sam tried to placate her. "I'm on the wanted list too and I just barely get by with Sarah. I wanted to ask you what happened."

Alice took a deep breath and fiddled with her pen for a full minute. She looked up at him with water-filled eyes. "It was stupid. I saw it happening from the car on the drive home. He didn't want to stop but I threatened to jump out. So he went to investigate and I was supposed to wait in the car but I heard screaming. I… I went in after him. It was some kind of creature and I got hit and I don't remember a whole lot after that. I've got a bunch of stitches in my stomach and I remember the drive to the hospital but just barely and I don't remember anything until I woke up with tubes everywhere and Dean wasn't there. By the time the doctors had checked me out, he was back and he was… quiet."

"So…"

"So, I was there a few days for observation. He stayed with me the whole time. He snuck the Winchester in so that he could teach me how to clean it. The nurses got mad at him." She smiled to herself. "Then we went to a hotel so that we both could get some rest because he had called my mom and she was gonna pick me up and take me home to recuperate." Then she frowned. "He was being really awesome, you know? Very… un-Dean-like. I almost spiked his coffee with holy water. He was telling me all these stories about your parents. About living with Bobby Singer and getting ammo from Caleb and drinking coffee with Pastor Jim. Just… talking so friggin' much. And asking questions about my life. I'm not saying he never cared before but it was like… having a slumber party with your dad, you know?"

"When did it happen?"

"The morning after my mom got there. The three of us sat down to talk. Dean didn't say much to Mom… Let her yell. Then explained that he was going to have one more night with me and then I could go wherever. I thought it was weird but he was insistent and I just wanted to spend more time with him." She sniffed loudly and tried to cover the sound. "So… he took me out to this lake and we were drinking and having a good time. We watched the sunset. Then he spent the whole night talking until I fell asleep. When I woke up, he was sitting up across from me and his eyes were closed. I thought he had fallen asleep sitting up but when I touched him, he fell over. I tried CPR and everything. He was already gone."

Sam nodded, his chin quivering. "What did Dean tell you about how our dad died?"

"Car wreck?" Alice struggled for the details of that story but that's all she remembered.

"Not exactly." Sam pulled a flask out of his jacket and took a sip before offering it to her. "See, we had been hunting the demon that killed our mom when all kinds of crazy bad shit happened. We had this gun that could kill a demon with one fatal shot. Dead, not to hell, just gone dead. Then we were all injured fighting it when it possessed Dad. We got it out of him and we were on our way to get Dean some help when the semi hit us. Dad got stuck in the car. I got banged up. Dean was… unconscious. By the time we got to the hospital and everyone had been looked at… Dean was in a coma and they said that he might not make it."

Alice felt the pause heavy in her heart. She knew the end of the story but it wasn't making sense. "Uncle Sam?"

"See, Dad wasn't hurt too badly. He had a broken arm and a few cuts. I was banged up but Dean was so much worse off because the Demon had really gone at him the night before. It was a long few days. Dean kept coding and every time, my dad just… kept sinking further and further into himself. I kept begging for him to do something but he just kept sitting there next to Dean and I was so angry." Sam took a huge breath and a sip of his whiskey. "Then Dean woke up. He was fine."

"Just like that?"

"Just like that. Miracle, right?" Sam's smile was not that of a happy man. Alice just nodded. "That's what I thought. We were… getting along, the three of us and then… I went to get Dad some coffee. When I got back he was dead. Just like that."

"What did the doctor's say?"

"They could not explain it." Sam stared at her. "But the gun was gone. The one that could kill a demon. It didn't take me long to figure out that Dad had sold his soul so that Dean would live."

"What?"

"It can happen and it did. John Winchester, the man that Dean has been telling you about for weeks now… he sold his soul and he went to hell so that Dean would live. It really fucked Dean up." Sam let a tear fall down his face. "Dean never saw himself as worthy of love and normal life and all that. He chose hunting because he was fucking nuts. He chose it. He was 16 years old when he decided that he was going to hunt for the rest of his life. He was crazy but I love him because he was my brother and he took care of me my whole life."

"What are you saying?" Alice's eyes were overflowing.

"I want you to know what kind of man Dean was. I want you to know that he loved you beyond everything else in this life." He gripped her hands in his. "I want you to know that you are family and if you ever need anything and I can get it for you, I will. I will be for you what Dean was trying to be. Okay?"

"Uncle Sam… just say it."

"I think Dean sold his soul so that you could live." Her face. Sam would have given anything not to have told her that but he had to. "You didn't kill him. Okay? He made a choice." Sam drew in a deep breath. "Be mad at him for putting this on you but know that he loved you enough to take your place."

"But I wasn't going to hell."

"No."

"Is that why you told me?"

"Yes." Sam admitted. "I can't let him stay in hell. Imagine what happens to cops who end up in the same prison with inmates they put away… Dean's in hell with demons and spirits that he put there." He cleared his throat. "This is my job but he's your father. You want in?"

The END