September 19th, 2008 (Continued)

"I don't think this was what dad had in mind when he gave me this," Dean comments while lying on his back next to Lizzy in her bed and wearing his leather jacket… and only his leather jacket.

"Told ya' I got used to sleeping with it, didn't I?" Lizzy laughs while rolling on top of him. She knows she probably should have held off, let him at least adjust to being back in the real world and all, and if she could have stopped herself, she would have. It was an impossible task. It was Dean after all. They fucked even when Lou was a missing vampire so what chance did hell have of stopping them? Not much of one, apparently. "You look good like this. Should walk around in just that jacket all the time." She smiles and kisses him quickly, hands splayed out on his chest and the rest of her body pressed against his.

"But how would I keep the hordes of women away then?" Dean grins, letting himself get lost in the easy and happy moment. He isn't sure why it is that they had this effect on each other, the ability to ignore the insane shit that is the rest of the world and get lost in the ease of being just them, but right now he basks in it. Dean begins studying her left arm, taking in the familiar artwork covering it. "No new tats, huh?"

"Nah." Lizzy simply responds while watching him scan over her sleeve.

"I thought by now you'd have something for Lou on there. Maybe me even…."

"Lou I haven't been able to find the right way to honor yet. I was thinking about doing her favorite sawed-off on my forearm and have the date she died etched into the wooden handle."

"That would be perfect for her."

"Yeah, but I'm not settled on it just yet. Not totally sure. And as for you, I never considered getting one."

"Ouch!" Dean says, honestly hurt that she wouldn't want to represent him on her arm like she did every other meaningful thing and person.

"No, no! I mean I just never let myself get to that point. I never let myself fully come to terms with it being over, you being gone." Her expressions gives away just how tough it has been for her. "Guess it's a good thing I didn't, huh?"

"Yeah," Dean answers back sadly.

"So are we gonna talk about that lovely new tattoo of your own you're rocking?"

"Oh, you noticed that, huh?" Dean jokingly questions. How could she have missed it?

"How could I have missed it?" Dean rolls his eyes at her once more speaking his mind. "That thing is… big. And nasty."

"Don't know. Just came out of the ground with it." Lizzy pushes the shoulder of his coat aside and studied the handprint, running her fingers lightly over the rough and raised skin before covering it over with her hand exactly.

"Does it hurt?"

"Nah. Just feels like any other scar. Looks like it hurt at the time, now it's just a part of me."

"Yeah, ah," Lizzy adds in. "Speaking of any other scars, what the fuck happened to all of yours? You look like you've never been in a fight in your life. Honestly, it's a turn off. You look like a freakin' pansy."

"Pansy huh?" he questions her and she just wags her eyebrows in return, kissing him once more as an apology for name-calling. "No idea. I'm smooth as a baby's ass. It's like I've never done a damn thing in my life. Like my slate was wiped clean."

"Wiped clean, huh?" Lizzy wonder out loud at his comment.

"Uh-huh," he answers, eyes narrowed as he knows she's hinting at something.

"How clean a slate are we talking here?" Lizzy asks, making a certain implication.

"Uh…" Dean begins with curiosity. "Don't think I'm following."

"Dean, honey, were you a virgin until just now?" she asks with a patronizing tone and huge grin.

"Oh yeah, you know me. Saving my most precious gift," Dean sarcastically jokes but then ponders the question a little more. "You know, it kinda makes sense. I mean, shit, I was healed up in every aspect of the word. I was probably rehymenated." He smiles wide with the ridiculous idea.

"What an undertaking," Lizzy jokes. "I can't believe I just popped you're cherry!" She laughs loudly at the thought. "Well, I'll consider myself proud to be your first… or second first. Or millionth first, really." She winks to him and Dean smirks while giving her a little smack on the ass.

"Damn straight you are," he grins. "You deflowered me, L. Made me a man. You'll always have a special place in my heart for that."

"How 'bout I settle for a special place in your pants instead?" Lizzy asks with a devilish smile while reaching lower and wrapping her fingers around him. Dean jumps a little with the unexpected sensation.

"Whoa," Dean smiles. God damn, this chick was made for him. So quickly ready for more, she's more insatiable than him and how that could even be possible, he has no idea. "You're fucking awesome, you know that?"

"Right back at ya', Hot Shot," Lizzy grins out before capturing his mouth with hers, having all intention of starting everything up once again.

"Lizzy!" They hear the voice shout up from the foyer followed by the closing of the front door.

"Shit," Lizzy quietly mumbles into his ear before sitting up on Dean. "Up here, Bobby. Be out in a second."

"Damned animals," they both hear Bobby grumble while climbing the stairs and moving around in the kitchen, getting their ordered out meal ready.

"Well, I guess my master plan to distract you from the anticipation of waiting for Sam is over for now," Lizzy says while groaning her disappointment and standing up off the bed.

"Thanks for doing what you could though," Dean says to her while getting up himself. Putting on more than his leather jacket would probably be a good idea now that Bobby was back. "So strange. You know, I feel… good."

"So I've been told by most men after they've spent some time alone with me," Lizzy jests while pulling on her panties and reaching for a bra.

"No, I mean, I haven't felt this good in so fucking long," he tells her as he mirrors her actions, pulling on his black boxer briefs.

"Four months I'm guessing," Lizzy wonders while pausing to look at him, her face once again showing her sadness for what he's been through.

"Hell of a lot longer than that," he explains but stops there. She doesn't need to know the details just yet. At this point he's not even sure he wants to share any of it with her at all.

"What do you mean?" Lizzy asks with curiosity.

"Nothing," Dean smiles her way, trying to keep her off of the comment he should never have said. Buckling his belt and reaching for his shirt, he throws it over his head on his way out the door. He pauses to kiss Lizzy on the forehead before closing the door behind him to let her finish getting dressed.

He walks down the hall and past the kitchen on his way to the bathroom when he hears Bobby.

"Enjoyin' that walk o' shame of yours?" Bobby asks while giving him a hard time.

Dean steps through the doorway of the bathroom and turns around to face Bobby. "Considering I never thought I'd have a walk of shame ever again… yeah I am. I'm enjoying the hell outta it," Dean grins before closing the door.

"He's here!" Lizzy yells to Dean and Bobby in the other room. She watches out the kitchen window as the familiar Impala comes to a halt, parking between Bobby's Camaro and Lou's Mustang. "I'm gonna go meet him out there. Talk to him first." She knows if Sam will listen and believe anyone, it'll be her for some reason so she wants to be the one to tell him first, before he just walks into the surprise of a lifetime.

Lizzy pounds her feet quickly down the stairs and flings the front door open. She sprints around the house to the driveway out back, trying to cut Sam off as soon as possible.

"Sam-I-Am!" she shouts as she sees him climb out of the driver's side. Sam's look of concern is planted firmly in place.

"What's going on?" Sam asks with worry as she reaches him and wraps her arms around his middle. "Bobby's here?"

"Hi to you too," she quips before he finally reciprocates the hug. He knows that's what she's fishing for so to move things along he obliges her.

"Hi Lizzy," Sam says impatiently. "Now, tell me what the emergency is."

"Yeah, sure," Lizzy drawls out before taking a seat on the hood of the Impala, patting the space next to her for Sam to sit also. He wrinkles his brow with concern before slowly joining her, not sure he's ready to hear something he needs to sit down for. She reaches over and takes his hand, covering it with both of hers and holding it in her lap. "So, something has happened. Something good, if you ask me. And it's pretty big."

"Ok," Sam answers and waits. And waits. "Spit it out, Lizzy. What is it?"

"It's about Dean. Now I know you had nothing to do with it but…"

Sam looks over to her with eyes wide with the sound of his brother's name. "Fucking tell me what's going on," Sam demands in a louder voice than he intended.

"He's back, Sam. Dean's back."

"What!" Sam questions while taking back his hand and standing up. "What do you mean he's back!"

"I mean he's not in hell. Dean's been pulled out," Lizzy dives right in, needing to get through it as fast as possible or else she knows she'll lose Sam to panic. "We don't know how or why, but he's here, in my apartment and it's actually him…Sam!" Lizzy jumps up as she watches Sam stride quickly to the front door in the panic she wanted to avoid. She begins running to him. "Sam, stop and listen!" She stands in front of him once she catches up and holds her hands out, pleading for him to listen.

Sam stops and stares down at her, fists balled up by his sides and shoulders tense. If it were any other person standing between him and Dean, Sam would have dropped them by now. Lizzy is only lucky because she's Lizzy.

"What did you do!" Sam asks her accusingly.

"Nothing!" Lizzy shouts back, shocked he would think she'd do something so crazy. She never went insane enough try to bring Lou back and she certainly wouldn't do that for Dean either The whole death-isn't-the-end thing the Winchesters were so good with was not appealing to her at all. She was highly against it.

"That's bullshit, Lizzy!" Sam yells at her. "What the fuck did you do!"

"How could you think I would be so stupid, huh!" Lizzy scream at him and shoves him in the chest, pushing him back a few steps. "I didn't even try to bring Lou back! If anyone would be crazy enough to do it, it'd be you!"

"Well, it wasn't!" Sam defensively shouts, his face dark. "I told you I tried but couldn't get anyone to deal with me!"

"Yeah, I know! And that's exactly what I explained to Dean already!" Lizzy yells back before taking a deep breath and composing herself. "Look, we don't know why this happened but it did. Dean's back, he's here."

"Why the fuck would he just be back?" Sam wonders more to himself than to her.

"I don't know, but he's up there waiting for you. Now get your shit together, Sammy-Boy. Relax a second before you go in there."

Sam huffs a few breaths and tries to do just that, but everything in him is on high alert. This isn't right. Why would Dean be back? How is that possible?

"Hey," Lizzy breaks in, her voice quiet and calm as she grabs his hand again. "I'm sorry I pushed you."

"Don't be," Sam says through a clenched jaw, unnerved and itching to run inside but scared to at the same time.

"We're all a bit freaked here, but maybe you need to count your blessings for a second. This could actually be a good thing."

"Doubt it," Sam states while looking up at the house. He starts walking slowly to the front screened in porch, climbing the few steps up and opening the door. Feeling Lizzy close behind him, he finds the courage to keep going, turning the knob on the front door and pushing it open. He steps though the doorway and looks up the staircase in the foyer. At the top he sees his brother standing in the main hallway, waiting for him. Sam inhales sharply at the shock, even though he had fair warning.

"Holy shit," he mutters under his breath.

"Hey ya', Sammy," Dean says quietly, looking down to the bottom floor and trying his best to study and understand the emotions flying across Sam's face. He can only imagine how odd and difficult seeing him again is and if Lizzy and Bobby's reactions are any indication, he needs to let Sam take his time to digest.

Sam feels like his feet are glued to the floor for a moment, the shock of seeing Dean in one piece freezing him in place. He wants to scream, run away, attack all at once but he doesn't do any of those things.

"I know, I look fantastic," Dean jokes at the most inappropriate time, trying to calm both he and Sam's nerves.

After what feels like an eternity of standing there, eyes fixated on his brother, Sam finally regains the ability to move when his brother speaks. Normally he'd attack, knowing this couldn't be his brother, but he trusts Lizzy with his life and if she said it was really him then it was. Plus, only his brother would make a smart ass comment at a time like this. He charges up to the top of the stairs, taking them two and three at a time, and grabs Dean, pulling him into a tight hug. Dean does the same and they stay this way, enjoying the fact they are together again.

Lizzy stands at the bottom of the stairs, quiet and watching. She can't help the smile that spreads across her face with the sight, the beautiful and wonderful sight, of the man she loves more than life itself and the brother she's adopted as her own taking in the actual good fortune they've come across. The past four months were brutal with Sam not being able to have Dean with him. He became cold, distant, and not himself at all. Now she can only pray that things go back, that Sam goes back, to the way he used to be.

"Man, it's good to have you back, Dean," Sam says barely louder than a whisper.

"Damn good to be here," Dean says back while finally pulling away from their hug. He drops his hands on Sam's shoulders and they just stand there. Both grinning like children, Dean once more pulls Sam into him. Normally, the massive chick-flick moment would be way more than Dean's willing to handle, but chick-flick moments are more than ok in certain situations. They both ignore the cheesy, touchy-feely aspect of it and go with the flow. If a guy can come back from hell, he can also hug his brother for longer than usually socially acceptable.

"Nice shiner, by the way," Sam says from his seat on one end of the couch while taking the bottle Dean holds out for him.

"Yeah, thanks," he returns handing Bobby a bottle too and taking a seat in the middle of the couch, placing himself between Lizzy and his brother. He hands Lizzy a beer of her own and nods in her direction. "I have this one to thank for that." Sam looks over to her and smiles, knowing what happened already.

"What?" she asks defensively. "I'm not just gonna let him walk in here! Dude was probably a shifter or something!"

"You did the right thing," Sam tells her, reaching across Dean to clink his beer bottle with Lizzy's, a cheers for her obviously good judgment. Dean just sits between the two buddy-buddy hunters and eyes them with confusion. They seemed closer than he remembers them being. "So we have no idea what pulled you out?" Sam brings the conversation back to the issue at hand.

"Nope," Dean explains. "The running theory had been that you did it."

"Well, I didn't," Sam honestly says, taking a big swig and preparing to defend himself.

"Yeah, I know," Dean returns.

"You believe me?" Sam is bewildered by the ease with which Dean accepts what he tells him. That was way too simple. "Just like that?"

"Should I not?" Dean asks, giving Sam a questioning face.

"No, you should, it's just… I don't… I expected more of a fight from you."

"Nah, L already vouched for you. Said you tried everything, but nothing worked out." Dean reaches out for Lizzy's hand again and smiles at her, letting her know how much he trusts her.

"Ah, ok. Thanks Lizzy," Sam nods in her direction, still surprised by the lack of a fight.

"Anytime," she winks and takes a sip of beer.

"Look," Bobby breaks in from the recliner, his new favorite spot in Lizzy's apartment. "I'm glad everyone's soul remains unsold and all, but this does raise a sticky question."

"If Sam didn't pull me out, what did?"

"Fucking scary question if you ask me," Sam comments.

"You know, I got another scary question for you," Dean says while turning his attention solely onto Sam. "What the hell have you been up to? Disappearing, not calling Bobby?"

"Yeah, sorry again about that, Bobby," Sam says to the old man, getting a shrug of the shoulders in response. Clearly his all too many apologies are now falling on deaf ears with their frequency. "Once I figured out I couldn't save you, um, I started hunting down Lilith. Trying to get some payback."

"All by yourself," Lizzy comments with distain. At least he's being forthright for once. She wasn't sure Sam would be so open and honest with Dean about what he's been up to.

"Who do you think you are, your old man?" Bobby questions. How reckless can this kid get?

"No, sorry," Sam shakes his head. Who he's apologizing to and what for, he isn't sure. Instead he needed a change of subject. It felt a little too focused on him for his comfort level. "How you feeling?" he asks Dean.

"I'm a little hungry."

"When are you not?" Lizzy jabs him with her elbow.

"When are you not, bottomless pit?" he returns with a smirk.

"Touché," Lizzy brushes off.

"Nah," Sam smiles with their joking before going back to the issue at hand, the one he's the most worried about. "I mean, do you feel like yourself. Anything… different?"

"Like demonic?" Dean wonders with sheer annoyance, knowing what Sam is really asking him. "Bobby tested me to high hell, I'm me."

"Just saying, no demon lets a person loose outta the goodness of their hearts."

"I agree," Bobby adds to Sam's comment. "They've gotta have something nasty planned."

"I feel fine," Dean returns, taking another sip of beer and squeezing a little harder onto Lizzy's hand.

"Sweet. A huge-ass pile of questions with no shovel in sight," Lizzy comments.

"I know a psychic not too far from here," Bobby mentions. "Somethin' this big, maybe the other side is talkin'."

"Yeah, it's worth a shot," Dean agrees as Bobby leaves to make a call.

"Hey," Sam says to Dean, placing his beer on the coffee table and reaching into the neck of his shirt. "You probably want this." Sam pulls the chord of Dean's necklace, the one Sam gave him for Christmas when they were just kids, over his head. He unties the knot in the black chord, pulls a silver ring off of it, reties the knot, and hands it over to its rightful owner.

"Thanks," Dean says as he looks it over in his palm.

"Don't mention it," Sam replies while watching Dean put it over his head, the pendent resting once more in its rightful place.

"What's with the promise ring?" Dean asks. "You go born again while I was away or something?"

Sam furrows his brow at the question, pausing before answering.

"I gave it to him," Lizzy says, trying to help Sam out. "It was Louie's. Her mom gave it to her and I told Sam to hang onto it."

"Yeah? That was nice of you," Dean mentions, though he's surprised to see Sam get so sentimental. Guess Lizzy was right; Lou had meant more to Sam than he'd ever let on.

"It was," Sam agrees as he pockets the ring, making a mental note to somehow find a new chord like the one Dean has. He'd gotten so used to wearing it that he misses it already. "Hey, ah, what was it like?" Sam asks Dean.

"What, hell?"

Sam says nothing, letting his face do the talking. Dean looks over to Lizzy, the lines around her eyes growing deeper with the difficult question he's asked.

"I don't know," Dean lies. "Musta blacked it out. I don't remember a damn thing." He feels Lizzy's death grip on his hand but ignores it. She hates that he's lying like this to Sam but this is not something he's willing to share, not yet at least, and she has to let him decide when to do something as big as that.

"Thank God for that," Sam says.

"Yeah," Dean sighs with a huge gulp of beer as he avoids Lizzy's glares.