Disclaimer: I don't own Supernatural.

The Beginning

One thought filled Jane's mind: Her life was over. Everything she had spent her meager 20 years living and knowing and loving was finished. It was as neat and precise as if her past had been cleanly scalpeled away, leaving these two distinct parts—her life before this morning, and her life now. She looked back at that girl who had existed only two hours ago, and saw she was gone forever. College, her apartment, her friends, her job—over.

What would take its place?

"Jane. We have to go," Castiel said.

Jane looked up. She sat on the couch, in her apartment, that piece of her old life. She nodded briskly and bit her lips together so she wouldn't cry. They were leaving, forever probably. It made sense. This part of her life was over.

She went to her bedroom closet and pulled out a duffle bag buried in the back. Without thinking, she pulled out shirts, jeans, socks, from her closet and stuffed them into the bag. She found the shoebox hidden in the bathroom cupboard with her emergency cash, a couple hundred dollars in all. She took a few toiletries and stuffed them in the duffle. What else to take? She looked around her bedroom, brightly painted walls, photographs littering the tables, all her hopes and personality. What did any of it matter now?

She picked up one of the photographs. It was held in one of those tacky frames, the word "Family" printed all over it in cheesy fonts, cheap plastic. The picture was her favorite. It showed her mother, getting older but still pretty, smiling so that she looked beautiful. Her sister was there too, always the pretty one, looking like she was in mid-laugh, eyes not quite connecting with the camera. Jane's nephew, Jacob, only five in that picture. Wearing the dopey dinosaur t-shirt Jane had bought him. He was smiling and had a front tooth missing. Jane was there too, in the middle of them, happy, laughing, loving her family. How she had taken it for granted. They had always been there to take these impromptu photos, not for any special occasion, but just because.

Jane took the picture out of the frame and folded it twice. She put it in the duffle and zipped it up. There was nothing else to take.

"Jane."

He was there again, standing in the doorway. This man with the strange deep eyes that could see through her, that ancientness in his young face. He looked profoundly sorry, in that quiet way of his that made it all the more meaningful.

"He'll come here. You will not be safe by yourself. This is my fault, I know that. I should never have let you become involved. Now he will target you." He stepped into the room. "I could not protect your family, Jane, but I will keep you safe."

Again, Jane knew she could trust him. She made a conscious decision at that moment, that she would not let this destroy her, that she would not let her family's death be in vain. She put her feelings in a box and swore they would be avenged.

She swung the duffle bag onto her back. "Where are we going, Castiel?"

"I know of a place. I have allies here, people who can help us. I was… foolish to fight Eliul on my own. We will regroup and find a way to stop him," he said.

"I thought you said it was dangerous to say his name," Jane replied.

"It doesn't matter anymore. He already knows we're here."

"Eliul." She said the name, feeling how it sounded. "I'm going to make him pay, Castiel. I want to help you. I want to send him back to hell."

"With God's help, we will." He looked Jane in the eyes, and she felt all his age and power in the sad look he gave her, the look that said he was sorry he had failed her. Jane didn't want his pity. She wanted blood.

A/N: Happy Thanksgiving to my American readers. I considered combining these last two chapters because they are so short, but I think they needed to be seperated. I'm making up for it with a nice long chapter tomorrow.