Chapter Twenty-Three

Demons are Easy

A/N: Warning-the story takes a very dark turn in this chapter. Evy begins behaving drastically different, making Sam wonder what could be wrong with her. Because of this chapter, which I have been considering writing for a while and ultimately decided to go ahead with it, I have changed the rating of this story to T. There is another A/N at the end of this chapter. Please make sure to read it. Thanks guys!

Sam opened Evy's door and flipped on the light. He'd heard her crying as he came down the hall, and she wouldn't answer her door when he knocked. Sam found her still wrapped up, crying hard, pushing some invisible force away in her sleep. Sam grabbed her arms and shook her gently, trying to wake her.

"Come on, baby. Come on, wake up."
Evy kept fighting and crying in her sleep.

"Baby, wake up. Wake up."

"Let me go…." Evy said, still asleep.

Desperate to get her awake, Sam finally yelled. "CRICKET! WAKE UP!"

Evy finally woke up, breathing hard and still crying. Sam tried to hug her, but she pulled away. Sam tried not to show how much that had hurt, but he was scared. Evy still had bad dreams on occasion, but they'd gone down drastically in the years she'd lived with them. It had been a long time since she'd had a nightmare as intense as this one. Sam was a little lost, but waited by her side as she calmed down.

"Breathe, baby. You're safe now."

"I'm okay." Evy said, still having trouble catching her breath.

Sam thought he had heard her wrong. "You're okay? Really?"

Evy nodded, but was still crying. "Yeah. I'm fine."

"Baby, you're not fine. Talk to me. What's going on?" Sam asked.

"It was just a bad dream." Evy said. "I'm going back to sleep."
Sam was lost. Clearly she was not okay. Something was bothering her more than she could handle on her own. But she had always come to Sam when her fears got to be too much. Why was she pushing him away now?

"Baby, please. Talk to me. Is something scaring you? Bothering you?"

"I'm fine." Evy insisted. "I just want to go back to sleep."

"Okay, I guess." Sam said. "Good night, baby. Love you."

Evy smiled, but Sam could see right away it was fake. She was trying to make him leave. "Good night, daddy. Love you too."

Sam leaned over and kissed her forehead. Evy stiffened, but let him do it. Sam left her room, taking one more look at her from the doorway. Evy assured him again she was fine, and Sam went down to his room. He laid down on his bed, but was a long way from sleep. He just couldn't shake the feeling that something was going on with Evy. For the last three weeks, she'd been distant with both Sam and Dean. She wasn't willing to talk like before, but she didn't want to be alone. Perhaps the most obvious difference, she didn't want to be touched. She didn't hug Sam or Dean like before, and when they went to hug her, she would gently push them away or stiffen up. Until tonight, Sam had just put it down to increasing school pressures and being a bit of a moody teenager. Sam remembered that when he had turned sixteen, the only person who'd been allowed to hug him whenever they wanted was Evy.

But the nightmare had convinced him that it was more than just Evy being a moody teenager. Something was wrong. Seriously wrong. He decided to keep Evy out of school the next day to try and coax the answer out of her. He checked the clock and saw it was just a little after midnight. He got up and walked down the hall to Dean's room. He knocked and walked in at Dean's invitation.

"Hey, bud. Can we talk?" Sam asked. "It's about Evy."

"Yeah, sure."

"Do you think something's going on with her?" Sam said.

"Definitely." Dean said.

"What do you think it could be?" Sam asked. "This is so unlike her."

"I don't know." Dean said. "But I'm worried about it. At first, I thought she was just being moody, but even when she's been pissed off at us, it's never lasted this long."
"Yeah. And she had a nightmare tonight. I tried to give her a hug, but she pushed me away."

"She pushed you away?" Dean asked. "Yeah, something's definitely wrong."

"What you think we should do?" Sam asked. "We can't really force her to talk, she might shut down."

"I'm not sure." Dean said.

"I don't have to work tomorrow. I'll keep her home from school, see if some quality time will help her open up." Sam said.

"You want me to stay too?" Dean asked.

Though it was tempting to have backup, Sam decided against it. "Thanks, but no thanks. If you stay too, she'll know something's up."

"She won't know when you make her stay home from school?" Dean asked.

"I'll just tell her it's because of the nightmare." Sam said.

"Good luck with that." Dean said. "Call me and let me know, will you?"

"Sure." Sam suddenly felt more tired than ever before. "Good night."

"Night."

Sam walked back down towards his bedroom, then made a beeline for Evy's room instead. He didn't hear her crying, and opened the door slowly. She was asleep again. Her light was on, and Sam could see she'd been crying again. He wanted to kiss her goodnight like almost every night since she'd been born, but he was afraid it would wake her up. Not only had she been withdrawn and emotional the last three weeks, she'd been defensive too. Something else caught Sam's eye. Squish, who normally slept next to Evy on the bed, was laying on top of Evy's dresser. Sam waved at Squish to come to him. Eager to get off the top of the dresser, Squish ran to Sam and waited for him in the hallway. Sam took one last look at Evy for that night. It tore his heart to shreds that she was so clearly hurting and he could do nothing about it. He whispered from the doorway,
"Talk to me, baby. Please tell me what's hurting you. I love you."

Sam discovered that the problem was worse than he thought. He decided, after a lot of back and forth within himself, to email Evy's principal. Since Evy had turned sixteen, Sam had stopped checking on her schoolwork as much as he had before. She'd always been a straight A student, and had almost no trouble keeping up with her studies herself. But maybe, if something was going on, Mrs. Moreau would have seen something that he'd missed. The message he'd typed was fairly simple.

Mrs. Moreau,

I was wondering if you'd noticed anything off with Evy lately. At home she's been very withdrawn most of the time. It seems like something's bothering her, but I can't get her to talk to me. She doesn't want anyone to get close to her. That's very unusual for her. What really concerns me happened tonight. She had a nightmare, a bad one. She used to have them a lot when she was little, but it was fairly easy to calm her down.

I'm just really worried about her. If you know anything, please let me know.

Thank you,

Sam Winchester

Sam texted Jordan an abbreviated version of the email he'd sent to the principal. He figured that if anything was going on that she wouldn't talk to him about, she'd talk to Jordan. Sam finally got to sleep about two in the morning. When he woke up around eight, there was an answer from Jordan. Yeah she's been acting funny with me too. She'll listen to me when I talk, but I can't get her to talk about herself. I'm worried too. Frustrated, Sam put the phone away. If Evy wasn't talking to Jordan, it made it that much harder to figure out what was going on. Sam made his way to the kitchen and started to make breakfast. Evy came in around nine, looking frantic.

"I overslept. Sorry, I'll start getting ready for school…"

"Baby, stop." Sam said. "I turned off your alarm. I thought we'd both take a day off together."

"Really?" Evy said, surprised. "Why?"

Sam shrugged. "Why not?"

"Oh. Okay." Evy said, sitting down at the table. "What's for breakfast?"
"Remember these?" Sam set the plate on the table.

For the first time in weeks, Evy smiled. "Cinnamon pancakes?"

"Yep. Eat up. They're all for you."

Evy started eating her breakfast, saying nothing else other than thank you to Sam. Sam wanted to ask her, again, what was going on. But he knew it wouldn't do any good. He watched her eat her breakfast, and suddenly it occurred to him why the way she'd been acting bothered him so much. She had withdrawn like this when she was four years old, after she'd been kidnapped by a demon and held for hours. Though the demon hadn't actually hurt her physically, he'd convinced her that her family didn't want her anymore, and left her with a permanent fear of being a burden to them. But she had withdrawn from everyone except Sam. The fact that she wouldn't talk to him either made Sam feel sick to his stomach. What had hurt or scared her so badly that she felt she couldn't talk to him either? Before he had a chance to ask anything else, his phone beeped. Evy's principal had answered the email.

"I'm going to the living room. I'll be back, okay?"

"Okay, daddy." Evy said.

Sam walked towards the living room, being careful to avoid running so as not to tip off Evy that anything was wrong. He sat on the couch and opened the email. His breath caught in his throat as he read the reply from Evy's principal.

Mr. Winchester,

I'm glad you sent your email, because the truth is, I'm worried about Evy too. I didn't want to call you, because I thought at first it was just a phase and would pass in a few days. Evy is one of the best students in the entire school, but her behavior and academics have started slipping drastically. She's fallen asleep in class several times. She's snapped at her teachers and skipped class twice. Most concerning to me, she's not done any homework or been to any basketball practices in three weeks. Her grades have dropped from straight A's to a B- average in the span of those three weeks.

Mr. Winchester, I really think that something is bothering her. Changes this dramatic just don't happen simply due to teenage rebellion. I don't think she's just acting out for the sake of acting out. Please try to find out and get back to me if you can. If you need her, our school guidance counselor is also a licensed child psychiatrist who specializes in treating teenagers. With your permission, I'll speak to her about Evy today and ask her to expect to see Evy soon.

Yours truly,

Cynhia Moreau

Sam didn't think it was possible, but he was even more confused than he'd been before. Not only was Evy acting differently at home, she'd done a complete 180 degree turn at school. He emailed Mrs. Moreau back, explaining that he was keeping Evy out of school for the day and giving her permission to talk to the guidance counselor. He promised to update her if he found anything out, then put the phone down. What could he do now? Evy had been lying to him and Dean for three weeks. She'd been acting as if everything was the same, and she'd been skipping basketball practice. A small, tiny part of him wanted to be angry that she'd lied to him, but his dominant emotion was worry. Sam decided to text Dean and get him to come back.

I need you home ASAP. This problem with Evy is a lot bigger than I thought.

It was a full two minutes before Dean responded. I got one of the guys to switch with me. I can come home now for a few hours but I'll have to come back tonight.

That'll work. Just get home. Sam said. I'll explain when you get here.

An hour later, Dean walked in to find Evy and Sam on the couch watching a movie. Sam put a finger to his mouth and pointed to the tv. Finding Nemo was on it's last few minutes, so Dean sat down and waited. He watched Evy more than the movie. She was sitting on the opposite side of the couch from Sam, as far away from him as she could get while still being in the same room. Sam turned to Dean and mouthed follow my lead. Dean nodded, and when the movie ended, Sam reached over for the remote and turned the tv off. Evy didn't move.

"Baby, we need to talk." Sam said.

Evy turned towards him and waited.

"We know something's going on with you. I don't know what it is, but we need to know. No more games. What's wrong?" Sam asked.

"Nothing." Evy said, a little too automatically.

"Baby, I know that's not true. Between the nightmare last night, and the way you've been acting lately, something's going on." Sam said.

"What do you want me to say?" Evy asked, her voice rising. "Do you want me to make something up? Nothing's wrong!"

Dean started to say something, but Sam cut him off. "Baby, I'll give you one more chance. What's going on?"

"Nothing!" Evy said through gritted teeth. "Why don't you believe me?"

"Then why haven't you been to basketball practice or done any homework for the last three weeks?" Sam asked.

Evy looked defensive for a brief moment before she turned guilty. "How did you find out?"

"So it's true?" Sam asked.

Evy swallowed, prepared for a lecture. "Yeah."

"Kiddo…" Dean said, shocked. "What is going on with you?"

Evy looked down, playing with her fingers and avoiding looking Sam or Dean in the eye. "I quit the team."

"Baby, why?" Sam asked. "I thought you loved basketball."

"I did." Evy said. "I just…I just don't anymore."

"So where have you been going every day for the last three weeks?" Sam asked. "You've not been getting home until five or five thirty."

"The library." Evy said.

"Doing what?" Sam asked. "You haven't been doing your homework."

"Reading." Evy said. "Watching movies."

The familiar headache when he couldn't figure out what to do with Evy was coming back with a fierce vengeance. Sam rubbed his nose to try and fend it off, but it wasn't working. Evy was looking down, biting her bottom lip. She's scared of me, Sam thought. Why? Sam wanted to be firm with her, to ground her for lying to him for so long and for not doing her work, but he decided not to.

"Listen to me, baby." When Evy kept looking down, Sam let himself be a little more firm without being overly strict. "Look at me."

Evy looked up, the fear in her face evident to Dean and Sam both.

"I'm not mad. I'm really not. If you want to stop playing, that's your choice. Okay?"

Evy nodded sadly.

"But homework is not optional. I'm not grounding you, yet, since your grades are still pretty high. But I'm going to call your teachers and make sure your homework is getting turned in. If one teacher tells me you didn't turn in one assignment, you're grounded for the rest of the school year. Understand?"

"I understand. I'm sorry, daddy." Evy said softly.

"All right, baby." Sam said. When she said nothing else, Sam asked her again, "Are you sure you're okay?"

"I'm fine." Evy said. "I'm not feeling real good, though. I'm gonna go take a nap."

"Okay." Sam said. When Evy's bedroom door closed, Sam asked Dean, "Did you buy any of that?"

"Not a word." Dean answered. "What do you think?"

"Dean, I don't know what the hell to think anymore!" Sam said, frustrated. "What could possibly be going on? I just don't get it."

"I don't know." Dean said.

"I told her principal to have her see the school guidance counselor tomorrow. Maybe something will come out then. Until then, I guess we just wait." Sam said.

The waiting was brutal for Sam, especially after Dean went back to work that night. Sam was pleasantly surprised at Evy's bedtime, when she came into the kitchen, where he was making himself some hot chocolate, and grabbed him around the waist.

"I'm sorry, daddy."

Sam was so shocked he didn't think to return her hug immediately. When he did, he asked, "Sorry for what, baby?"

"Not doing my homework. Quitting the team and not talking to you." Evy said, her arms still around Sam's waist. "I was afraid you'd be mad at me."

Sam frowned, running his fingers through Evy's hair. Even though she sixteen, she barely came up to Sam's chest. He thought back to her being three, four, five, and six years old, when she'd come to him and climb in his lap, silently begging him to hold her and comfort her. Sam had never missed those days as much as he did right now.

"I wasn't mad, baby. I'm just worried about you. Are you sure you're okay?" he asked. "You know you can talk to me about anything, right?"

Evy looked up and smiled at Sam. "I know. I do. I love you, daddy."

"I love you too. I love you so much." Sam kissed her forehead and held her a few more seconds. "Goodnight, baby."

"Goodnight, daddy."

When Evy left him, Sam dared to feel a little better. Maybe she had just slipped a little and was getting better. He was still worried, though, and decided to wait until the next day after Evy talked to her guidance counselor to see if things really were turning around. The next day, Sam could barely function at his office. Evy had been a little more open that morning before leaving for school, promising Sam again that things were going to turn around. Around lunchtime that day, Sam was called to Evy's school. The principal would give no reason for the call, just urged Sam to get to the school as soon as possible.

When Sam arrived, he was directed by the secretary to the office of the guidance counselor. Dr. Landry sat behind her desk. Mrs. Moreau stood next to the filing cabinet, arms folded across her chest. Evy was sitting in a chair in front of the desk, and looked as if she'd been crying. The mood in the office immediately put Sam's guard up.

"What's going on?" he asked cautiously, absolutely certain that he didn't want to know. He sat in the second chair next to Evy. "Are you okay?"

Evy said nothing, but Dr. Landry spoke up. "Mr. Winchester, we called you here because Evy finally told us what's been bothering her for the last few weeks."
"What?" Sam asked. He turned to Evy. "Baby, what's going on?"

Evy looked pleadingly at Dr. Landry. "Not again. Please."

Mrs. Moreau spoke this time. "Sweetheart, I know it's hard, but you need to tell your father what you just told us."

"No." Evy said, burying her head in her hands.

"What is going on?" Sam asked.

"Evy, he needs to know." Dr. Landry said. "Do you want me to tell him?"

Evy looked up and nodded reluctantly.

"Will someone please tell me what is going on?" Sam asked again, his curiosity rising to the level of panic now.

"Mr. Winchester, we've called the police. They'll be here in a few minutes. You need to take Evy to the hospital when you leave here today." Dr. Landry said.

"The police? The hospital? Why?" Sam asked. "Is she hurt?"

"She's been assaulted, Mr. Winchester." Dr. Landry said.

"Assaulted? What do you mean?" Sam asked.

Sam had been to hell and back. He'd faced down demons, angels, vampires, werewolves, ghosts, spirits, and a hundred other supernatural creatures that could have killed him at any moment. He'd fought the forces of heaven. He'd feared for his life, Dean's life, and Evy's life at various points along the way. He'd been through his death and Dean's. Even Evy's. And somehow, he'd come through all of it. But none of that could have possibly prepared Sam for what Dr. Landry told him. As Dean had said to him once, "Demons I get. People are crazy." Dr. Landry took a deep breath and broke the news to Sam.

"Mr. Winchester, Evy's been raped."

A/N: This storyline will continue over at least the next two chapters. I will not write graphic details concerning Evy's attack, but if there is a chance that anyone reading this will be too bothered by it, please do not read ahead. I do not want to trigger anyone, but I feel that this is something that happens to both real kids and adults far too often and it's important for them to know that a-it's not your fault and b-there is help. All of this will be dealt with in the upcoming chapters.

Please, if anyone reading this has been sexually assaulted and has not gotten help, reach out. Go to your local police. Go to the hospital. Tell a trusted family member. Whatever you do, tell someone. Don't leave it buried. There are good people out there willing to help. God bless, everyone.