Her cell phone was dead, and the house phone disconnected. A million graphic scenes went through Dean's mind as they approached the house. He was out the door before the car stopped and barely glanced to the car in front of the house. The 'lookout' they'd sent appeared dead against his steering wheel; poisoned. Within seconds he was through the front door.

"Kayla? Kayla!"

He heard a surprised yelp and ran into the kitchen. Castiel was there; he pulled a knife from the body of a djinn laying motionless on the floor. Kayla stood behind him, but here was blood, hers. She's gotten hurt and he wasn't even there.

"Dean." She ran over and threw her arms around him, all the color had left her. "Oh God it was in the house, it got in the house…" Her mind also went to the worst scenarios. If that thing had gotten Alex…

He pulled her against him, his brain working right along side hers. "Where's Alex?"

"In his crib, he's okay." Her voice trembled with the rest of her. She usually didn't react like this to an attack but she couldn't help it. It was too close to home, too close to the baby.

"Are you?" He questioned and pulled her back to look at the blood running down her arm. He already hated himself for not protecting her and sent a little bit of the resentment in Sam's direction for sending a stranger to watch over her. "What the hell happened?"

"She shot the djinn." Castiel explained, pointing out simple facts. "It made him angry." Shooting a djinn would make it disagreeable at most, it certainly wasn't going to kill it.

Kayla threw her hands up in frustration, the fear taking over a bit of her reasoning. "Yeah because God forbid we don't keep a fresh supply of lamb's blood in the house." She tried to sound angry about it, but it came out mostly terrified. She needed to get a grip but it had scared her half to death having that thing in the house. "Where the hell were you? You disappeared, you couldn't call?"

"The lines were dead, trust me I tried."

She looked at him and kissed him firmly, thankful that nothing had happened to him either. It had been in her mind since the shot in the garage and all in all, things could have turned out a hell of a lot worse. She quickly rinsed the blood off her arm in the kitchen sink, patting a towel against the wound for now in the rush of the moment. "I'm going to go check on…" she stopped mid-sentence as she came into the living room and saw Sam standing there near the front door. "Sam."

He half waved, like it was completely normal. He had been listening in amusement to the conversation in the kitchen. "Surprise. You don't have to check on me, I'm okay."

Her mind didn't have time to ask questions, not yet anyway. All she could do was run over and throw her arms around him, hugging the crap out of him. "Oh my God."

He laughed quietly. "Good to see you too."

"I'll check on the baby." Dean smirked and headed up the stairs. Bad trip or not, his had this brother back and that he knew for sure felt good. For everyone.

"I can't believe you're here, for real." She touched his face, then wiped the tears from her eyes and pulled him down by the neck, down to her level so she could kiss him on the forehead. With everything she had been holding back, she felt like she could break into uncontrollable sobs at any moment. "We missed you, would be a devastating understatement. How did you get back?"

"We're still working on that part." He smiled.

"Right, of course. Who cares right now right?" She shook her head and grinned as the excitement took over her, she hugged him again.

He smiled and glanced to the stairs. "Well look at that. It's not a rifle you know."

"Shut up." Dean was carrying Alex down the stairs, he was laid against his shoulder with his head down.

Kayla walked over to him. "Was he awake?" She rubbed his back and he looked at her groggily.

"No," he told her. "But we gotta go. There's more than one of these things."

She grimaced; of course there was more than one. "I happen to have the bags packed already. I prepared, go figure." She took another look at Sam, like he might suddenly disappear again, then jobbed up the stairs. She still couldn't believe it.

"When you tell her how long you've been back, I'd duck." Dean smirked. "She won't be as easy on you." He was kind of counting on her overreaction to that one; someone needed to deck him in the face for not contacting them. He didn't even show up for his nephew being born, not even a freaking phone call. Dick.

"Good God Dean, the kid looks just like you." Sam leaned sideways to look at his face. "Poor thing."

Dean laughed, some of the tension easing off again. "Shut up." He turned the sleepy child towards his brother. "Alex, this is your Uncle Sam, the good one. Not like the government." He laughed at his own joke, finding it funnier than he should have. "Uncle Sam."

Sam rolled his eyes and offered a small smile to the child. "Hey buddy." He said softly.

Alex didn't so much as crack a smile. He usually liked strangers, or was at least tolerant of them. With Sam he just stared at him, like he was waiting.

"What'd I do?"

"I don't know." Dean looked at him. "He's usually friendly. He's probably wondering why the hell you're so freakishly tall." Suddenly he realized they were missing a person and he walked back towards the kitchen. "Where'd Cas go?"

Sam looked around, kind of curious himself. "He must have taken off…I don't even get a hey out of him? Oh wait, I'm not his favorite."

"I'm sure he still loves you." Dean pat his shoulder. "Don't worry, I'm not his favorite anymore either." They both turned to the loud sound of several bags hitting the bottom of the stairs. Babies were a lot harder to pack for than hunters. Very high maintenance. Kayla walked down after the bags.

"So why are these things after us?" Not that they needed a specific reason, but she would like to know.

"We're not positive," Sam told her. "But, judging from the targets, they knew the djinn we tangled with earlier. Maybe they're family."

"I didn't even know djinn had families." She grumbled. Not that it would have made a difference; if that djinn had bawled about a family at home they would have killed him anyway for fucking with Dean. Huh. Apparently they were being shown the same respects. Sucks when there's two sides to a situation; that damn gray area. Kayla shifted the bags into a neat pile and glanced around the room. "Where's Cas?"

Dean tried not to chuckle; of course she hadn't forgotten about Cas, even with Sam standing in front of her. He'd give her slack on that one, the guy had just saved her ass-again. "Already took off. Apparently he was too busy for us, didn't say a word. Trade." He handed her the baby and grabbed the bags. Alex was already squirming to be put down but they didn't have time to argue with the kid.

"Well that was nice of him. Thank you." She looked at Sam and hugged him again with her free arm, inhaling deeply as she buried her face in his shoulder. "You smell good." Really he just smelled like Sam, but at the moment that was good-really good. She tried not to break down again, not now anyway. Time and palce.

"Alright easy there tiger, come on." Dean set a hand on her back, keeping her emotions in check for when they weren't trying to flee a killer. "We're heading over to Bobby's place."

Alex had thankfully slipped back into a peaceful slumber once the car was moving; the Impala always did that to him. Any time they were having trouble getting the little restless spirit to sleep Dean would put him in his car seat and drive around the block until he passed out. By the time they got home he was so deep into his sleep they could move him anywhere. He always slept so soundly; he didn't have any paranoia yet that made him jump at each and every noise like his parents.

Sam had sat up front with Dean but Kayla still talked his ear off the entire ride, mostly running through the same line of questioning Dean had already asked him. As it did with Dean, the questions brought them to the same intersection: the fact that Sam had been out of hell for a year and hadn't called them. Hadn't stopped by, hadn't told anyone to deliver a message. He just let them believe he was still dead, being tortured for eternity in the pit. That left the car quiet for awhile but she couldn't wrap her head around staying angry at him, not when she was so glad to see him alive. Damn him. She'd be angry later, really.