A/N: Okay, I promised a chapter today and here it is. I'd like to get this finished before 9 tomorrow but I doubt I will. You're reviews are WONDERFUL! I love you all!

Chapter Ten

"John?" shock ran through her veins, he actually answered his phone.

"Red, you kids okay?" the panic in his voice made Autumn nearly wet herself. It came and went so quickly she wasn't even sure it was there to begin with.

"No, John. Athena and Dean are gone. Sammy's out and I'm on my own right now." No tears. She ordered herself, there was no way she'd break down on the phone with him.

"Gone?"

"Athena was kidnapped, and Dean…Dean was lost during the fight." John sighed and she could picture him pinching the bridge of his nose and trying to force himself not to kill her through the phone.

"You and Sammy?"

"Sam's just out cold right now, he'll be fine when he wakes up." she answered.

"What about you, Red?" he pressed.

"I'll be fine when he wakes up." she lied. When Sam woke up she'd sit a little easier but that wasn't even half the battle.

"Tell me, Autumn." John demanded. "Tell me everything you know."

"it's a shape shifter, he has Sage, used her voice to lure us out here, then a note to get us to a bar, where he picked up Athena, after that there was a voice recording, then another note telling us to meet him in the woods if we wanted them back alive. That's when we got in a fight, and I lost Dean." neither of them said anything for a long moment. "I'm so sorry, John."

"Take care of Sammy, I'll be there tomorrow. I was on a case in Georgia. Unless you have to don't move until I get there." he instructed.

Dean sat on guard. The two women were behind him, tucked close to each other, like housecats, sleeping. They both looked like shit. Athena kept coughing up blood, and he lied to himself that it wasn't serious. Sage had explained the beatings she'd taken when Athena had fallen into a fitful slumber. The older woman had spared no detail telling him about how Athena defied their captor at every turn. He wasn't sure if he wanted to knock her senseless for being so stupid or award her for not breaking.

As he sat in utter silence his mind drifted to Autumn and Sam. Had they gotten out of the woods okay? Were they okay at all? The fear in Autumn's eyes was burned into his memory. As soon as Sam was on his feet they'd be here to save the day, but that was a skull shattering blow he'd taken. Dean worried that Autumn wouldn't take his little brother to the hospital if need be. If Sam woke up first he wouldn't let her take him. His baby brother would be dead determined to get them out, screw himself.

Something stirred behind him and Dean peered through the varying shades of black. Sage wrapped her swollen, battered arms around Athena. Athena shifted trying to lay flat, her breathing wasn't quiet right. Not deep enough for sleep. Neither of the two women breathed quiet right but Athena was worse. Shallow, ragged breaths seemed to wrack their whole bodies.

"What am I going to do with you?" he asked into the darkness that surrounded him.

The call to Will was easier. She flat out lied to him. They were all fine, going to stick around until Sage was doing well enough to be left alone. Seeing as she didn't have anyone. They'd be back at the Resort in a few weeks, mean time they'd hit anything within a day's drive. No big deal. John-dog stirred a while later his eyes responded, she iced his head and laid on the bed with him petting him and whispering.

"Dean?" Autumn sat straight up. She hadn't realized she fell asleep.

"He's not here." she told the man on the bed next to hers. She climbed out of bed and over to Sam, pen flashlight in hand. "How you feel?"

"Like my head exploded." she smiled brushing hair from his eyes.

"That happens sometimes. What about the rest of you?" she asked shinning the light in his eyes. He was good to go.

"I'm good. How about you?"

"I'm alive." he touched the bruise on her temple, where the gun had been pressed.

"Where's Dean?" she knew the way he asked that he already knew.

"He's with Athena." Sam forced himself up in bed leaning against the headboard and keeping his eyes clamped shut, so as not to see the world spinning. "I've got the garbage can from the bathroom here if you need to spew."

"How'd you get me out of there?"

"I called Aiden."

"When the world stops spinning we're going back. See if we can't find a trail. Maybe John can sniff it out." he said after a beat of silence, filled only with John's moans of pain.

"Sam" she started but he held up a hand to stop her.

"When I can walk we're leaving Autumn." he said the final word on the topic.

"You're dad's on his way up." Sam took a deep breath and didn't answer her for a moment.

"Okay."

"I just can't play favorites. But if I could you'd be mine." Zack leered. The shape shifter was standing in the door gun held threateningly in his hand. Dean knew if he wanted to he could knock the damn thing away. But Zack moved too fast to stop him unarmed afterwards.

"What do you want?" Dean asked keeping himself between the monster and the women.

"The Winchesters of course." the other man stepped closer to him. "I ran into some trouble with this pretty lady, Kate. Turns out the darling thing is a vamp." Zack chuckled, though admittedly Dean thought he was out of it. "So to get away with my life, or at least my blood. I made a deal: I'll get her the Winchesters in exchange she gives me the colt. Can you imagine what He would give for that gun?"

"What about Autumn and Athena?"

"I can. I've thought about it, what I'll ask for. You know how people ask if you could have any one wish granted what would it be? That's my problem now. What do I want more than anything? Money? No, not money, I'm doing fine on my own. Women? Nah, had one once, they're too fragile. Fame, success, everlasting life? No, none of those. What would you ask for? If you could have anything no strings attached? You're mom back? Maybe Jess, make baby brother happy again? Would it be for yourself or someone else?"

"World peace."

"I like it. Not really up His alley but I like it. I think I'll just go for Wonder Woman or to live in the Play Boy Mansion."

"What about the girls?" Dean asked meaning Sage and the Daemon sisters.

"That's the whole point. All those girls." Zack grinned manically. "But that's not what you're worried about. A demon stole your heart, how very fitting. Don't worry, when I kill them it'll be quick but they'll beg for it for weeks first. That red headed one will be hard to break though won't she? I heard what she went through before hunting. Was moonlighting as a shrink at the time. She told me everything, did you know she actually enjoyed the beatings?" he laughed and it took all of Dean's self control not to lay the creature out right then. "Yea, you see she'd suppress the memories, and she took the abuse sort of like payback for not saving her folks."

"She didn't have any control over that." Dean told him.

"No, she didn't. But she was just a kid, and her whole world went out like a light and she was left all alone in the cold dark with her baby sister. You tell yourself a lot of things to keep moving."

"Leave him alone." Athena barked. Neither of the men knew she was awake until now that she was struggling to her feet. "Get out and leave him the hell alone!"

"Don't worry, Princess, I was just leaving."

"Dean sit." Athena commanded when Zack was gone. Dean looked down at her, she'd given up on actually standing and was just kneeling on the floor. He dropped down to the ground, to keep her from making things worse for herself. "I don't know a lot of things. But I know Autumn, he was lying. You… We can't let him get to us." Dean nodded. "Such a verbal fellow." Athena joked. It amazed him that she could be so close to being beyond repair and still have a sense of humor. "We're in a house in the bad part of town?"

"Yea, in the basement I think."

"Ha! Sage owes me twenty bucks." she punched the air.

"Don't get too excited Lucy." Sage scolded the girl propping herself up. "One of them got put in here before they could do any good so you owe me twenty."

Sam fell back asleep and didn't stir until midday. At which point Autumn was climbing the walls. Her trusty sidekick, John-dog, was up too desperate to climb in the car when she took him out. Sam went for a shower, still trying to clear his head and sent Autumn for lunch. As they ate they planned.

"He could get us going in the right direction, or just get us lost." Autumn said wadding up the wrapper from her sandwich and stuffing it in the cardboard container that had held her fries.

"We'll just have to risk that." Sam countered

"Dad don't want us to make a move."

"They could be dead by then!"

"Don't you think I know that!" Autumn yelled right back. She regretted her move the second she had, Sam flinched away from her, his puppy dog eyes filled with hurt. "Sam," she calmed down. "I'm not… He wants us for something, and I don't want to lose you or be lost. We can't do this alone."

"Autumn, you're stuck with me." his lips smiled at her but his eyes were still hurt.

"I'm going for a walk, I'll be back in a few minutes. I've got my phone." Sam handed her, her gun. She didn't say anything to him, just tucked the firearm in her coat and went out.

Under other circumstances, that she doubted she'd ever see, Athena would have been amused to see Dean out hunted. He didn't tell either of them how he had ended up in here just paced the room. She couldn't blame him. She'd gone through sugar withdraws, and without all junk she was usually eating she didn't bounce as much, but she'd never sat still for long. Unless she was drawing, a slow, grim smile found it's way onto her face. She would never touch another sugary anything, if she could just have a clean sheet of paper and a pencil right now. Her whole body felt like it'd been through a rock tumbler, except her hands. Her hands just ached for work. Stitching up Sage and herself after a session with Zack helped, but it was survival.

Athena shifted and twitched, flinching every time she moved her leg, then cursing the tears that came from the quick jerked motion. Dean and Sage had spoke about it in low tones, that reminded her of a teacher and parent consulting on a child's misbehavior in class. She didn't need to hear what they were saying to know, however. They were trying to decided how long she had for this world. Athena coughed again, and both her friends tensed up. She wiped the flecks of blood on what remained of her skirt and threw them a carefree smile.

"Can we come back next year? I'm having so much fun!"

"Your sarcasm is over powering." Sage shot back. This was how they dealt with the pain. They joked, quick short conversations that didn't reveal anything about what was going on in each other's heads.

"How you doin' Blondie?" Dean asked pausing in front of her.

"Better than you, Tiger." he raised his brow at her. Her eyes had adjusted to the dark so well it was almost like seeing in the day.

"Just be glad she's not singing any more." Sage told him. "You would have thought she was skinning a live cat."

"Oi! I'm not that bad. Besides, Autty's the one with the musical talent." Dean resumed his pacing.

"What does she do?" Sage asked.

"Sing and play piano. At least the teacher said she showed promise with the piano, but she didn't have patience for it. I wanted to play so badly but couldn't will myself to sit still that long." Athena sighed. "My leg is killing me!" she finished with a groan. Dean cast around the room looking for something to entertain her, something to keep her busy and forget the pain. "Alabama, Alaska, Arizona," she knew the states in alphabetical order, it would keep her mind busy for a few minutes if she didn't break in the "Fifty Nifty United States" song.

All fifty states alphabetical, and by date they were instated, a dozen School House Rock songs, and most of Romeo and Juliet later, Sage was considering putting the girl out of their misery. When Athena couldn't remember the lines of Shakespear's work, Dean started quizzing her. How do you kill this, if this happens what do you do, if you're doing this then that attacks before you can do this what do you do? It was almost like a bad game of Dungeon and Dragons. Sage wondered if Dean had ever played, Athena looked like the kind of girl who had shunned the D'n'D players in high school, Dean just lived in a whole nother fantasy world.

"Is this the werewolf still or are you talking about a poltergeist? Because honestly I've never heard of a werewolf going through walls without leaving a mark." Dean was quiet a minute.

"I thought we moved on to the poltergeists." Athena shifted without moving her leg at all, it had been hours since they'd seen Zack and none of them were happy about that.

"Maybe. Oh well. You just do a cleansing and get out." she said answering his question.

"Why are they different from other spirits?" the boy wasn't letting up, but Athena hadn't had time to think about her injuries so Sage didn't intervene. Aside from that she missed the hunter talk.

"Because Daddy Winchester says so." Athena shrugged, clueless. Dean sighed and jumped into an explanation about the differences. Silently, Sage wondered why John didn't spend more time with his kids, it had to be something else to see four people you'd taught so much using what they'd been taught. She remembered a med student who had latched on to her, good kid, and the first time the student saved a code Sage had been so proud of the girl she'd hugged her until her eyes bulged.

"Come on." Autumn glared at Sam. Her dog was at the door begging to go out and Sam had hold of her wrist dragging her closer to the exit.

"Sam, Dad said to stay here. If he gets back and we're not here do you know what he's going to do?"

"Autumn!"

"Sammy, we can't just ignore orders."

"You sound like Dean." Sam chided.

"Orders are orders, Sam. If Dad says to wait we wait." she did everything but sit down to keep him from dragging her into this.

"He's our dad not our drill sergeant. He'll understand." Sam pleaded. Autumn avoided his eyes, they both knew Sam wasn't going with reality on that statement. "Okay either walk on your own or I'll carry you out." he let go of her wrist and she stumbled to catch her balance. Autumn folded her arms across her chest and squared her hips.

"We stay, he'll be here anytime." Sam stepped forward slinging Autumn over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes.

"No, Autty, we go." Sam headed out the door Autumn, hanging limply from his shoulder.

"Umph." Autumn landed hard on her ass when Sam dropped her at the bottom of the stairs. "What the hell! You know I'm just going back up to that room." she looked up to see Sam wasn't moving he was just standing right there in front of her.

"That's how you treat a lady?" John Winchester's gruff voice asked his son.

"She's not a lady." Sam grinned. He and his dad butted heads sure, that didn't mean he wasn't glad for the man's help. Autumn sprang to her feet flinging her arms around the older Winchester.

"Daddy Winchester!" she hugged him tight, Sam saw the discomfort on his father's face when he returned the hug patting the red head's back.

"Easy." he warned pulling Autumn off of him. She looked him over worriedly.

"To the room now, John Winchester. No hunting for you until I get you sewn up." John looked from the girl in front of him to Sam.

"Am I a rag doll?" he asked. Sam shrugged. He agreed with Autumn, his dad looked like hell. He something had put a deep cut under his right eye that he was sure Autumn would be putting a stitch or two in, his sleeves were rolled up to make cuts and scraps visible on them, and the man's clothes weren't any sort of presentable.

"No, you're not a rag doll, Dad, you're a man off a hunt who needs cleaned up." Autumn pointed up the stairs. "Now ass in my room." John got half up the stairs before Autumn gave her elder another order. "And get you're shirt off, I know you're hiding more than that." Sam followed his dad up the stairs to the motel room.

"That girl needs to relax." John shook his head stiffly. Sam turned his back to his dad when he removed his shirt. Autumn joined them after a minute or two with her dog at her feet. "Okay Nurse Autumn where do you want me?"

"Sit on the bed. Sam where's the first aid kit?" Sam retrieved the kit and Autumn set to work. As she went she went over every detail of this hunt from the moment she picked up Sage's call until this very moment. John didn't say a word, listening to the woman. "What do you think, John?"

"You got caught with your pants around your ankles."

"I got that much." Autumn nodded taking a washcloth from Sam. "You're face." she passed it on to John who mopped his face.

"Am I done?" John asked. Autumn was tucking away the scissors, thread, and needle.

"Yea, Dad." she slid the first aid kit back in Dean's pack, letting herself linger just a moment.

"Red, where'd you get the bling?" she spun around confused.

"Werewolf friend of hers had it lodged in him." Sam replied for her.

"Friend?" Autumn shrugged.

"I'll explain later, sir. Get dressed we need to get into the woods before we lose all daylight."

"Sammy, go start the truck, we'll be down in a minute." Sam looked to Autumn who offered a quick smile sending him away. John was rolling up his sleeves again as Sam left, he was watching her.

"Whatever it is I didn't do it and if I did I'm terribly sorry." John eyed her carefully.

"Dean knows better than to trade himself. What are you two up to?" Autumn sucked in a breath. "Don't try sweet talking your way out either." he warned.

"I don't know what we're up to." she said honestly. "It's all been consented to by both involved parties, sir."

"Autumn,"

"If I continue to get in the way, I'll pack up and get out of your lives. Won't look back. I'll just leave."