Author's Note: We are so terribly sorry that it has taken us so long to update. Our amazing beta was out of town for a few weeks, but also both pyromaniac (the other author) and myself (gdspgcfan) have recently gotten jobs, and well, needless to say, fulltime school, and many many hours at work, doesn't leave us much free time in which to write. We will try to be more prompt with our next chapter. Please forgive, and we hope this was worth the wait.


Sam wakes up early the next morning; first to the sound of soft spoken words and softer giggles; and second, to the sight of a tired looking Dean sitting at the motel desk holding Isabel close, and mumbling to her as he tips the bottle to her mouth to feed her.

Sam rubs at his eyes as he sits up. "Morning...how long have you two been up?"

Dean looks up at his brother, smiling sleepily. "A while...she was hungry..."

Sam sits up and looks at Dean, assessing his condition. "Did you sleep at all?" he asks, quickly adding; "The truth Dean, not what you want me to hear, but the truth."

Dean looks down at Isabel, taking his time responding. "I…I got a little bit. I think..."

"Look..." Sam says "Why don't you let me take care of her for a few hours...you can grab some sleep, okay?"

Dean looks down at Isabel, considering it. It isn't that he doesn't trust Sam, 'cause he does…but he isn't sure he wants to let Isabel go right now...as much as he likes his sleep he knows that being with her like this is something he needs to do as a dad.

"No, it's okay. I'm fine, really. And we have things to do today anyway, right?" He smiles reassuringly. "I'll be fine Sammy."

Sam looks over, worried about his brother. "I can do them on my own...and she'll be fine...probably sleep the entire time anyway."

"I said I'm fine, Sam." Dean says, smile friendly, but tone and eyes filled with silent warning, and Sam takes the hint.

"I was only offering. Right, so. We need to check some more records, and find out what the hell they did with this girl's body after they executed her. Track down the actual grave so I know where to go later. And apparently, replace the rock salt that I didn't know we were out of." Sam says, still a tad bit suspicious about that last part.

"Well now you know..." Dean looks down at Isabel and takes the empty bottle gently away from her, setting it on the table.

Sam raises an eyebrow but doesn't push it. "Yeah, anyways...if we find out where she was buried then it shouldn't be hard for me to take care of the bones."

Dean can't stop himself from pausing at that. He doesn't want to give away that he has no intention of ever actually letting Sam do this on his own, but he does actually feel a little bad flat out lying to Sam. "Uh, yeah. Yeah, it shouldn't be too hard at all once we know where to be."

Sam nods. "You wanna go grab a shower or anything?"

Dean lays Isabel gently against his chest as he starts to pat her back, burping her. "Maybe in a minute...she should be pretty tired by now, although…" he says, smiling ruefully, "She should have been tired a few hours ago."

Sam grins back. "Well she wouldn't be your daughter if she weren't just as obstinate and difficult as you are." He says. "I can't get you to sleep; you can't get her to sleep. You two make a great pair."

Dean laughs and pats Isabel's back again gently. "What can I say? We do what we want."

"Yeah, I believe that's the problem." Sam says, chuckling quietly.

Dean simply rolls his eyes in response as he stands up and places Isabel back into her crib. "I'm gonna grab that shower real quick, and then we can start in on today's 'to do' list."

Sam nods and looks over at Isabel already letting her heavy eyes fall closed. "I'll keep an eye on her..."

"Okay, if she starts crying just knock on the door and I'll come take care of it..." Dean says, picking up his duffel with his clothes and other necessities in it.

"Dean, I can handle her for a few minutes." Sam says, looking up at his brother.

"I know man, sorry." Dean says shrugging a little "I just...she's my little girl Sam..."

Sam smiles softly. "Yeah man, I know. So hurry it up. We've got better things to do."

Dean laughs a little and shakes his head as he walks into the bathroom and kicks the door closed. He spends just enough time in the shower to get himself washed up, and then he's out and drying off. He trusted Sam with Isabel, really he did. He didn't, however, trust Sam not to end up running off to play the martyr while Dean was otherwise occupied in some way.

Dean finishes drying off and grabs some jeans and an old T-shirt out of his bag. He quickly puts them on and grabs his tooth brush, putting some tooth paste on it and starting to brush his teeth as he opens the bathroom door and tossed the duffle out onto the floor. He flashes a quick look over at Isabel's crib to make sure she's alright before stepping back into the bathroom.

When he's all done with everything, he steps back out and grabs his keys.

"Ready for some library research? We'll start there. Dig through a few records and see if we can't find her final resting spot eh?"

"Sounds good...but do we want to wake her?" Sam motions a hand toward Isabel's crib. "I could go...and just finish the hunt after I find out where she's buried...that way it'd be done before it got too late."

Dean thinks fast. "But I feel like I haven't done anything on this hunt…Look, let me go to the library huh? I can do the research bit too you know. I'm not a total waste of space Sam. Besides, you've been wanting some time with her lately, I can tell. I'll go, and feel like I helped, and you'll get some time with her."

"I don't know, Dean." Sam says, looking up at his brother. "And since when have you ever volunteered to do research?"

"Hey, I'm not saying it's entertaining by any means...I'd rather be there taking care of business after you've researched everything, and all I have to do is kill the bad thing. But I can't do that this time can I? You won't let me. And if you do the research too...then why the hell am I even here? Come on Sammy, I just don't want to be a waste of time here."

Sam sighs, he knows where his brother is coming from. "Alright, fine...you can go do the research but then you have to let me go tonight, no complaints or trying to get out of it at the last minute...I know you were planning on something."

Dean laughs a little. "What the hell could I do to stop you? I'll be here with Isabel because she can't be left alone. And you'll go off and play hero." He shrugs a little; almost sadly. "It's really the only way it can play out Sam." He shrugs his jacket on and goes over to the door, opening it up. "See you in a bit..." he looks down at Isabel and whispers "Bye Izzie..." and then he's out the door, and climbing into the Impala.

Sam hears the Impala start up as he looks over at Isabel. She's still fast asleep, her tiny stomach moving with each intake of breath.

Dean drives away from the motel quickly...before Sam could change his mind. Dean's in control of this hunt again, finally, and he knows he can't go back to the motel until everything is over. He almost hadn't gotten away with it. Sam really was too smart for his own good sometimes. But he was out now. And he really could research...most of the time.

He pulls up in front of the library and parks, getting out and walking into the large building. He'll start here, and if he can't find anything, he'll just go charm someone down at the court offices or something.

Dean walks over to where the computers are lined up against the wall and takes a seat at one of the three.

"Time to get to work, Dean." He mumbles to himself. He pulls up the library catalog, and looks up a few different record logs that should, in all due theory, be able to help him figure out where this chick is buried. He scribbles down the call numbers and goes over to the sections of shelving, searching through for the right logs.

Once he finds what he is looking for, he finds a table near the back of the library and lays out everything on the table. He takes a seat and starts to read over the logbooks. It looks like she had been buried in an old field in the downtown parts of the city; apparently they didn't want to bury a murderer next to the resting places of innocent people.

He grabs a scrap piece of paper, and writes down the address of the field. He then stashes the logs back on the shelf, in the wrong place just in case Sam decides to come check things out himself. Then he catches another library goer's attention, and gets directions to the field.

Once he's back in the Impala, he starts it up, and begins following the guy's directions. His mind is filled with a small internal war over what he's doing...but he needs both Sam and Isabel safe. Isabel was safe with either him or Sam, and Sam was safe at the motel. So really the only option was for Sam to stay at the motel with Isabel while Dean took care of things this time.

He pulls to a stop in an alleyway about a block from the field and gets out, walking to the trunk.

Dean grabs all of his necessities out of the trunk and picks up a gun, putting it in the back of the waistband of his jeans. Just in case. His thoughts run back to Isabel and he has to stop himself, if he doesn't stay focused on the job then it'll just end up hurting everyone when he gets injured...if not worse.

"Don't have time to think like that, Dean." he says out loud, giving himself a mental kick for losing focus and talking to himself. He slams the trunk shut after doing a double check that he had the salt, lighter fluid, and matches.

"Let's just hope this is as simple as Sam said." An easy salt and burn. Hopefully the hardest part would be the digging.

Dean shoves all of the supplies into his duffel and puts it over his shoulder and turns, walking towards the field. He'd left his cell in the car, he hopes he won't end up needing it but he knew Sam would be calling any minute now...he would know by now and he would be pissed about it.

He takes a deep breath, forcing all stray thoughts from his mind once again. He walks for a good bit of time, out toward the middle of the field. This place seemed to be some kind of makeshift cemetery. There are markers here and there; ought to make his job just a little easier. He reads them as he walks past, recognizing a name here or there from news stories about murder trials and what not.

When he finds the grave he's looking for, he sets his bag down beside the grave and pushes the shovel into the ground. He slips his jacket off, setting it on the duffel and grabs the shovel handle again to start digging.

He works as fast as he can. He'd never realized before just how much easier this was when both he and Sam were there to dig. It takes longer than he'd anticipated, and a glance at the sun confirmed that it was beginning to set. He knows he must have at least twenty missed calls from Sam on his cell phone by now, but he knows this is what he needs to do.

Once he has got the last shovel full of dirt out and is looking down at the body of the woman who has been causing all the chaos, he lifts himself out of the grave and grabs the salt, lighter fluid and a pack of matches. He dumps the salt and lighter fluid onto the decaying body and swallows as he lights a few matches, tossing them into the grave and watching as the fire starts to consume year-old bones.

Dean surveys the area around him… it's odd that she hasn't shown up to protect her body… her only link to staying in this world. She wanted revenge so bad she couldn't move on until they were all dead… but why hasn't she tried to stop him from getting rid of her? Something feels a little odd about it all, but he just figures he's over-analyzing everything. He stares into the center of the now dying fire for a few minutes before filling in the grave with freshly-dug soil and heading back toward the car.

As he gets closer, he gets the distinct feeling that someone is watching him… following him… but looking around he can't see anyone. He reaches the Impala and starts loading everything back into the trunk when all of a sudden he's smacked across the back of his head.

"OW! Crap!" he curses, spinning around into a defensive position to confront his attacker.

"That's what you get you bastard!" Sam spits at him, managing to look furious, pissed, worried and relieved all at the same time, while still keeping hold of the obvious authority in this particular situation. "I should hit you again just to make sure it sinks in."

"What the hell!?" Dean says, completely mystified and then freaked out. "Sam, where's Isabel!?" he says in a panic as he sees that Sam isn't holding her. He starts walking around the car, seeing if he'd set her carrier down or something.

"Relax, she's fine." Sam says as he walks over to the edge of the alleyway and picks up her carrier. "She fell asleep, and I didn't want to wake her up when I beat your ass for lying and running off on this hero mentality mission of yours!! How could you do that?"

Dean moves swiftly over to Isabel's carrier, checking for any sign of her being hurt before looking up at Sam. "What the hell is wrong with you!? What if things had gone wrong and I was still dealing with a pissed off spirit! How could you bring her here knowing it might not be safe?"

"How could I leave you here alone not knowing if you were safe?"

"I'm not the one who matters here Sam! She is!"

"You matter to me!"

"She should matter more!"

"I couldn't leave you here, and I couldn't leave her there. I had to make a decision! If you hadn't been such a dumbass in the first place…And if you'd come back to the motel like you were supposed to…Then we wouldn't be having this problem!"

"Sam, this isn't about me! Don't you understand? I did this for you and Isabel...you two needed to be back at the motel, safe! I couldn't let you come...you're as much my responsibility as she is and I am not gonna let anything happen to either of you!" Dean sighs, running a hand through the spikes in his hair as he takes a deep breath "Just get your ass in the car we can talk about it when we get back to the motel."

With that, Dean takes Isabel from Sam, still pissed he'd brought her, and goes over to the Impala. Despite his anger he gently places her carrier into the backseat before climbing into the driver's seat and starting the engine.

Sam grudgingly gets into the car and glares at Dean. "I don't want to wait and talk about it at the motel Dean. You shouldn't have tried to play the hero. What if something had happened? What then? Isabel would be an orphan. An orphan Dean. Like… Like we are now." Sam lowers his eyes, he hadn't really thought about it like that before. But Mary had died years ago over his crib, and John… well, they had watched him die right in front of their eyes.

"She would have had you!" Dean says, trying to keep his voice calm and quiet so he doesn't wake Isabel. "You brought her here...if something had happened...you could have been hurt, I could have been hurt, Sam...She could have been hurt! You know damn well that I wouldn't be able to deal with that if it happened..."

"Well I'm sorry if I can't just sit back and watch you do something STUPID!" Sam whisper-yells.

"Oh so now protecting you is stupid? It's nice to know that you appreciate what I've sacrificed for this family!!" Dean yells as he pulls to a stop in front of the motel and slams the car into park, shutting it off.

Without even giving Sam a chance to respond, he's out of the car and has Isabel in hand again as he walks into their motel room.

Sam sighs and gets out of the car, slamming the door shut behind him and quickly following Dean. "Dean you know that I do but you can't just be so willing to do this stuff for us all the time...you could get killed! Then guess what? We're screwed! I wouldn't know what to do...Isabel would have lost her mom and her dad...Dean you can't do that, not to us and sure as hell not for us"

Dean places Isabel into her crib before turning on Sam. "I do what I think is best for this family. It's my fault Dad's dead Sam. Don't even try and deny it, we both know what happened… I'm not going to have any more lives lost. Not on my watch. I won't lose you too…"

"Dean you're not gonna lose me and that doesn't mean you can keep me locked up in the motel room...I'm twenty-three man!" Sam says, not yelling anymore because he knows how Dean feels about protecting him, especially now.

"Listen to your own words Sam, okay? I'm twenty-seven. You can't keep me in a motel room either. Besides, I'm older, so I'm automatically right." He smiles a little… they were getting to the predictable calm of the argument. Jokes were okay now…

"I'm not trying to lock you away though...I'm trying to make sure you live to see your daughter grow up..." Sam says, looking back at Isabel's sleeping form before turning back to look at Dean. "You have to be there for her."

Dean looks over at her too. "I want her to grow up without any of this. I don't ever want her to have to worry about a demon or vampire or exorcism. Not ever. And if that means getting out there now, and taking a risk or two, I'm gonna do it. If her growing up without them means her growing up without me…" he pauses, swallowing hard. "Then I don't care. Because I will do anything… anything, to give her a better life."

"Dean..." Sam looks at his brother. He'd known the second he had seen Dean with Isabel in his arm that his brother would be completely committed to her. "A better life would be one where she has her father. Someone to tuck her in at night, someone to hold her when she's scared, to read her bedtimes stories...someone to be her dad...that is what she needs more then anything. Dean, she needs you."

"And I just need to know she's safe. And as long as you're around, Sam, she is. Look, everything here's fine, nothing bad happened, everyone's safe now. Let's just move on from this case okay? We'll…we'll figure out a better way to deal with the next job later. Right now I just wanna crash. I never realized digging solo would be so much extra work."

"You can't avoid this forever..." Sam says quietly, watching his brother closely. "We're gonna have to figure this whole thing out one way or another...even if you do put it off for a week or two, it won't go away."

Dean kicks off his shoes as he walks over to his bed, deliberately not meeting Sam's eyes. "I know."

Sam watches his brother for a few more minutes… he knows Dean wants him to forget about all this… to let him continue on with his own plan or whatever else Dean's thinking. He also knows there's no way he's gonna forget this, or let Dean forget it either. With a sigh, he follows suit and steps out of his shoes before crawling into his own bed.

The two men are in bed just long enough to be in a light sleep when Isabel's cries wake them both."I got her..." Dean sitting up, rubbing at his eyes for a second before standing up and walking over to Isabel's crib. "Hey baby girl..." Dean whispers quietly as he gently, picks her up. "Daddy's here."Isabel snuggles into his chest, still letting out a small cry every few seconds as she catches her breath.

Dean holds her close to him as he walks back over to the bed and lays her down in the middle. She starts to cry again as he lays a pillow on one side of her before lying on the other side of her small body and whispering quietly into her ear as he plays with her fingers.Dean watches Isabel with loving eyes as she starts to slowly fall back asleep. He continues watching her until sleep washes over him once again.