Several hours passed before the men came back for Dean and Sam. Pulling them out one at a time, the men who held them had the strength of Hercules. Neither brother could break free. They passed the empty table where their weapons had been placed on their way up the stairs. With each break they had been given, another weapon disappeared from the table until they were all gone.
Brought out into the darkness, Sam could see flaming torches providing the only light under the new moon. Everything looked as it had in his vision. Rose was tied in front of them on the round alter. Astonished, he noticed the markings on it – she was lying on a devil's trap with fresh blood quickly staining the familiar markings underneath her. She had been beaten again and her wounds were bleeding freely, having been re-opened. He saw her eyes roll up into her head. She was only semi-conscious. Sam realized he was going to have to do this alone.
As the chanting started, he looked over at Dean. Dean nodded to him. The figure from Sam's vision stepped up to the altar next to Rose and Sam realized it wasn't a man at all, it was Grams.
Holding a silver dagger in her hands she looked over at the brothers and gloated, "This ends tonight. But don't worry. I'll make sure it's as painful as possible." She raised the dagger over her head just as in Sam's dream.
Concentrating as hard as he could, Sam willed her to stop before plunging the dagger down into Rose's stomach. Just before her arms came down, three silver flashes flew at her, catching her in the chest. She staggered back and looked incredulously at her chest and the three Chinese throwing stars in her heart and lungs. Black oozed out of her chest and mouth and the dagger fell from her grasp as she looked over to where Dean was standing, free from his demon-possessed captors. Unbelieving that they had broken free, she screamed an unintelligible curse at them before falling to the ground.
Just as Grams fell, an old blue pickup truck came flying into view and Bobby and two other hunters jumped out, Bobby holding a familiar sword. Both brothers moved swiftly now. Dean had Rose's throwing knife clutched in one hand, her switchblade in the other. The men who had been holding him were standing dumbfounded behind him, their black eyes lost in a sea of confusion. The same was true of the two men who had been holding Sam, but they were regaining their concentration as they looked with surprise at Grams' body on the ground. Dean turned and caught each of the men behind him in the chest with the knives in his hands and they, too, fell. He turned and focused on one of the two men behind Sam as Sam grappled with the other, focusing on him with his mind. Dean stabbed the man nearest him with the switchblade as he tossed the throwing knife to Sam, who quickly eliminated the other.
As the brothers focused on their personal captors, Bobby and his men ran up to join them, one holding a sawed-off shotgun, the other with 2 small pistols - nearly too small for his hands - shooting at the still-stunned men. Three fell instantly. Once the four men that had been holding them were dispatched, Dean joined Bobby in a back-to-back fight with two others. Sam crouched beside the alter, wanting desperately to join the fight but knowing he could help more by focusing on the task at hand – disabling as many of them as he could with his mind. He was still unsure of how long the effects of his mind control could last, especially on the possessed men.
Seeing that Dean and Bobby were holding their own against the two men they fought, Sam turned his attention to the other two hunters. They were good shots, but the bullets they used couldn't be wasted and the possessed men moved quickly. Sam slowed them down so they would make easier targets and one by one they fell without a single bullet going to waste. Sam turned back to Dean and Bobby just in time to see one of the men slash at Bobby with a knife of his own. Sam stopped him, but not in time -- a blood red gash appeared in Bobby's side. Once Sam disabled the man, the sword in Bobby's hands came down, neatly slicing his head off. He spun around Dean and sliced the head off the man Dean fought as well, just as Dean ducked down and stabbed the man in the heart with the switchblade.
A commotion towards the house caused all of the hunters to turn in that direction. The sounds of the gunfire had roused those still in the house - more demon-possessed beings who had somehow been left out of this particular ceremony. Looking around, they saw that all 12 men around the alter had been destroyed, the 13th body being that of Grams' herself.
Bobby and the other two hunters started towards the house when Sam stopped them. "Wait! I can do this." Without consideration for the two unknown hunters knowing his abilities, Sam faced the house and clenched his fists. Setting his jaw hard, he closed his eyes and concentrated. When he opened his eyes again he saw Bobby standing next to him, looking at him in disbelief.
"Well?" Bobby asked. Sam nodded to him and he and the other hunters went slowly, cautiously toward the house as Sam leaned back against the alter, his mind, body and strength spent. Dean ran over to him to help steady him and the two of them waited what seemed an eternity. Dean knew he should go into the house to help Bobby but something in him caused him to stay with Sam and Rose.
Within minutes, Bobby and the two men came back to them, more blood than before covering the sword in Bobby's hands. "There weren't many, but they were all unconscious. They've been taken care of anyhow."
Dean walked slowly over to Grams' lifeless body and took the dagger from the ground beside her. He saw at a glance that the blade had the same familiar etchings as Rose's weapons. Not taking any chances, he used the dagger to cleanly slice Grams' head off, the head rolling several feet from the body on the hill grade. He reached down and pulled the throwing stars out of her chest, wiping them clean on her robes and putting them back in his jacket pocket. "I hope that was painful for you, bitch!" he snarled at her remains.
Seeing that the battle was over, Sam turned to Rose to cut her free from the alter.
"Sam, wait!" Dean said to him. Sam stopped and looked at his brother with a question in his eyes. "There's a reason she's on that." Dean pointed to the devil's trap with the dagger in his hand.
Sam looked down at Rose who looked up at him with deep, dark blue eyes. "Sammy," she pleaded with him in an innocent voice. "Aren't you going to cut me free?"
Sam put his own knife to Rose's throat. "Rose never calls me Sammy!" he growled at the demon. He looked over at Bobby standing next to Dean, the gash in his side staining his shirt, the sword hanging loose in his hand. "Bobby? Did you bring it?"
Bobby reached for a chain around his neck and pulled Rose's ring out from under his shirt, where he'd had it since Dean had given it to him three days before. He yanked the chain off his neck, pulling the ring free and handed it to Dean.
Dean leaned over Rose and took her right hand, still tied to the devil's trap, and placed the ring back on her thumb. The ground underneath them shook along with the metal alter as the demon escaped Rose's body, sinking back down into the ground beneath them, screaming in an anguished cry.
"Rose?" Sam said, taking her head in his hands. Her eyes fluttered and looked at him briefly before closing again. They were sky blue again. Sam looked over at Dean and nodded as they cut her free.
Noticing the wound in Bobby's side, Sam said, "Oh, Bobby, man! I'm sorry!"
"Sorry for what?" Bobby asked him, his chest still heaving with adrenaline. He put his hand to his side and grimaced slightly as he chuckled at the same time. "I've had worse," he said. He looked at Rose laying unconscious on the alter and Dean leaning over her, stroking her hair. "Dean, she needs to get to a hospital."
Dean just reached into his pocket and pulled out the car keys, tossing them to Sam. "No, it's okay, Bobby. I've got her. Sam, get the car."
"What about the bodies?" Sam asked.
Dean looked around at the bloody corpses around them. "The fallout shelter?" he said. "Bobby, could you…" he didn't even have to finish the question as Bobby and the other hunters began dragging the bodies toward the fallout shelter where they'd been held. Sam went after the Impala, 2 1/2 miles down the road and came back quickly, helping them dispose of the bodies. Going to the house to help pull the rest of the bodies from there to dispose of them, he saw with surprise that one of them was that of Rebecca, the plump, chatty woman from the funeral. Sam looked around for her husband, Lloyd, but didn't see him among the lifeless remains of those in the house. He also noticed that Detective Lawrence wasn't among any of the bodies either, eighteen in all, including Grams and the twelve men from the ritual. He went around to the trunk of the Impala and pulled out their salt and lighter fluid, dousing the bodies as Bobby dropped Grams' body and head in last.
Bobby looked at her face before tossing her head into the pile of bodies in the shelter. "So she was behind this whole thing? Who was she anyway, Sam?" he asked.
Sam looked over his shoulder at the silhouette of Dean, outlined in the glow of the torches, standing next to the alter and holding Rose against his shoulder. "Just some old witch, trying to control the demons that escaped from Hell's Gate," he said. Bobby gave him a look that said he knew Sam wasn't telling the whole truth. Sam doused more salt and lighter fluid down over Grams' head and corpse. Lighting a book of matches, he threw that down in and they slammed the metal doors shut and locked them as the flames shot up. "Thanks again, Bobby," he said, shaking Bobby's hand. "We've got it from here. I'm just glad you were nearby when we called."
Bobby just nodded and said, "I was already in Texas hunting another demon. Nasty bastard, too, out in West Texas, not too far from where you sent me to get this sword. Looked like he'd battled hunters before. He was missing three fingers on his right hand."
Sam paused and looked at him out of the corner of his eye. "Did you get him?" he asked.
"I'm still standing here, aren't I?" Bobby answered. He handed the sword back to Sam. "How'd you know where to get this, anyway?"
"It's hers," Sam answered, indicating Rose. He wasn't entirely lying when he said, "Her family passed it on to her."
"So she is a hunter after all," Bobby's words were more of a statement than a question. He looked at Dean, holding Rose, and realized the bond between them was stronger than Dean had let on when he called for help a few days before. The brothers had told him the ring turned out to be a protection talisman similar to the ones he had given them just after Sam had been possessed, which was also partially true. Looking around at the elaborate set-up Grams had planned, he shook his head, "Leave it to you Winchesters to find the one person the demons seem to want as badly as they do you. She must be one helluva hunter flying under the radar like that." He turned and motioned for the other hunters to follow him back to his truck. They each shook hands with Sam and handed him the guns they had used in the fight.
As they did, Sam realized what they had witnessed and quickly willed them to forget the entire night. He knew Bobby must trust them, but he wasn't willing to give them the benefit of the doubt in this situation. "Nice guns, aren't they?" he said to the now confused men who just nodded languidly at him. From the driver's side of the pickup, Bobby realized what was going on and called out to them that it was time to go. They blindly got into the truck and Bobby sped off into the darkness as quickly as he'd come.
Sam took the weapons and walked back over to Dean, who lifted Rose gingerly from the alter. Her eyes fluttered open at him. "Hey there," he said softly to her.
She reached her arm around his neck. "Did we win?" she mumbled before blacking out.
Sam drove back to their motel room in silence with Dean in the backseat, cradling Rose in his lap. The blanket he kept in the car covered her naked body, her head on his chest, and he was softly stroking her hair. Sam looked at him every once in a while in the rearview mirror, but Dean never looked up.
Sam made sure no one was around as he unlocked the motel door and motioned for Dean to get out of the car. Dean carried Rose into the room and straight to the bathroom, leaning down to start the bath water, but not letting go of Rose in his arms. She came to and looked around her, the bright light of the room stinging her eyes. She looked down at the water and whispered in Dean's ear, "Not too hot." She rested her head on his shoulder as he adjusted the water temperature. Her hands and feet were nearly blue and when Dean touched them, they felt like ice in his hands. Sam leaned in the doorway watching them, not knowing what to do.
"Dean," he finally said. "Bobby's right. I think she needs a hospital."
"No, no, no," Dean whispered as he lowered Rose into the lukewarm bathwater. "I've got her, Sam." He reached for the motel washcloth and soap, wishing he had something softer to bathe her with. Half conscious, Rose leaned on his shoulder as he softly washed the blood and grime away from her face, arms and chest. He checked the small circular burns on her arms, realizing she had been burned by a cigar. They weren't as bad as they had first appeared, but she had clearly been tortured. Her hair was caked in blood and he leaned her head back on his arm as he poured water over her head, washing the blood out of her hair and checking to see where the blood could be coming from. Not finding any wounds on her head, it slowly dawned on him that much of the blood covering her was from the dead man in the shelter.
Reading his mind, she looked up at him, "Now you know why I'm a vegetarian," she said with a hoarse laugh. The laugh made her start choking and Dean sat her upright again.
"Shhh, stop that," he said to her in a soft voice. She leaned her head on his shoulder again and he pulled her hair away from her neck, bathing and checking the whelps and open wounds on her back. She drifted in and out of consciousness as he cleaned her wounds, never making a sound, only occasionally flinching at his touch.
Sam never left the doorway, wanting to step in and help, but knowing Dean needed to do this. He watched as Dean leaned Rose back again, her neck resting on his arm, her legs bent at the knees. Dean slowly began cleaning her legs as he had her upper body, carefully checking the burns on her legs that matched the ones on her arms. The water was quickly turning deep murky brown from all the blood and Dean let the stopper out and started fresh water filling the tub. When the water level reached its lowest point, Dean reached out and pushed Rose's thighs apart, putting his hand between her legs.
"Dean, what are you doing?" Sam cried out, starting forward.
"I have to know if she's alright Sammy," Dean answered his brother. He turned his head away from Sam and from Rose, looking at the tile floor. "I know what I did to her. I need to see how badly hurt she is." It slowly dawned on Sam the reason Dean couldn't take Rose to the hospital. A woman brought to the hospital in that condition would surely be given a rape kit. If they took her in, they couldn't stay with her for fear of the hospital calling the police, and the staff would likely take her jewelry off her as hospitals often did. Sam leaned his head back on the doorframe and shut his eyes as Dean continued examining Rose.
Rose awoke in Dean's arms on the bed, bathed and bandaged and wearing one of his t-shirts. The worst of the cuts on her back had been stitched closed, but she could barely feel the pain. Dean hadn't slept, but was lying on the bed with her in his arms, watching her. She looked up at him.
"Hey there," he said to her again, brushing her hair away from her face.
"Did we win?" she repeated her question from the night before.
Dean laughed at her and kissed her on the forehead. "Yes, we won," he said. "Thanks to you," he added. "Now go back to sleep." She reached her arm across his chest and snuggled deeper into him.
"Good," she mumbled. Half conscious, she said to him before falling asleep again, "I know about the deal you made, Dean. I'm going to get you out of it." She was out again before Dean could even respond.