Tara was right- it was a long night. Even with the coffee, both Dean and Tara were beginning to feel the effects of sleep deprivation. Tara dozed off at around 1:00 am, and when she woke up half an hour later, Dean insisted that she lay down in the guest room and get a couple of hours of sleep. When she protested, saying that Dean should get some sleep, he simply shrugged it off and said he wasn't tired. Which was a lie, of course, but the kid looked exhausted, and someone needed to watch Sam. So while Tara caught an hour or two of sleep in the other room, Dean talked to his brother.

He talked for hours, and about everything. He talked about when they were kids, about the stuff Sam did even when he was just a baby. He talked about their mom, and how he knew that she would've loved Sam just as much as Dean did. He talked and talked until his voice was sore, all with the hope that Sam would open his eyes. And he didn't get what he was hoping for until early the next morning.

It was about 4:00 am, on the late side of the twilight hours, when Sam stirred. Dean, who had been as immovable from his brother's bedside as a rock, felt his brother shift. He raised his weary eyes to his brother's form, and saw Sam's eyes squint and blink open, adjusting to the dimly lit room.

"Sammy?" Dean asked softly, silently praying that his brother was okay and would answer him.

Sam turned his eyes towards the origin of the voice, and was immediately filled with relief at the sight of his brother.

"Dean?"

That's all it took. Dean pulled his brother into a tight embrace, months' worth of worry and fear dissolving in an instance. Sam leaned into his older brother, and was suddenly filled with a happiness he couldn't describe. He had seen his brother die at the hands of Satan every day in the past six months, but this? This was real, this was safe. Despite everything that both brothers had been through, they were together now and that was all that mattered.

After staying locked together for a minute or two, Sam reluctantly pulled away. As good as the hug felt, there was a lot of work to be done as well.

Dean studied his brother, looking for possible wounds or any signs of pain. "How you feeling, Sammy?"

Sam rubbed the back of his neck, and let out a small chuckle. "I'm surprisingly tired, but other than that, I'm fine."

"How's the shoulder?"

"I don't think it's infected, if that's what you're asking."

"Take off the bandages. I'll have a look at it."

Sam didn't protest. It felt so good to have his brother back and looking after him, just like the old days. God he had missed this.

Each brother was so caught up in the relief of the situation that neither noticed the sixteen-year-old girl standing in the doorway, watching the moment with a sad smile. She turned away and left without making a single sound.

SPNSPNSPNSPNSPNSPN

"How much do you remember?"

Sam's mind instantly jumped to his time in captivity, but he tried to play it off. "You're going to have to be more specific."

"Don't play dumb, Sam. You know what I'm talking about."

The fake smile Sam had been wearing left his face. "I remember more than I want to remember, okay? Let's just leave it at that."

Although Dean wanted to know more, he didn't dare press on. If it pained Sam to remember, then Sam wouldn't have to remember any more than he had to, god damn it. The kid had been through enough already. "No argument here, Sammy."

But there was still one thing Dean had to know. "What do you remember about when you got out."

"Gunshots. A lot of gunshots, and the swinging of angelic blades. It was chaos. Demons and hunters were dying left and right, but this one guy came up to me and cut my ropes. He told me to run." Sam stopped talking, memories of that night resurfacing.

Dean cast his brother a worried expression. "And then what happened, Sam?"

"I ran. I ran fast and hard and until I passed out. And then I came to a couple of hours later, and there was a girl putting a bandage on my arm. She helped me. She brought me here." Sam looked around the room. "Where is she, anyway?"

"She went to the guest room a couple of hours back to catch a nap. She looked pretty exhausted, almost as much as you."

Sam started standing, and Dean rushed to put an arm around Sam's shoulder to steady him. "What do you think you're doing?"

"I'm going to say thanks," Sam said.

"Sam, you don't have to get up."

"Yes, I do. I'm going to have to do it eventually."

Dean let out an exasperated sigh but felt a small smile cross his face. His brother was incredibly stubborn, and it was yet another thing Dean had missed about his brother.

Together they stumbled down the hallway to the guest room where Tara was temporarily staying, only to find the door wide open with the lights on. The bed was neatly made and all of Tara's things were gone.

"Son of a bitch!" Dean exclaimed in frustration. "She made a run for it."

"Why would she do that?" Sam wondered aloud. Then a thought came to his head. "Dean, you did do the drill, right? The holy water, silver blade thing?"

The realization struck Dean like a lightning bolt. "Oh shit! I forgot!"

"How do you forget something like that?"

"It was a long day! I had a lot on my mind! Besides, isn't the bunker supposed to be warded against monsters?"

"Not if she's something new. And if she is a monster…" Sam and Dean shared a look, thinking the same thing.

"Then we just let her in to the most powerful place on earth."

Dean helped Sam over to the bed and took his gun out of his waistband. "Stay here, Sammy." As Sam opened his mouth to protest, Dean glared at him. "I mean it."

As soon as Dean was out the door, Sam was up and walking too. Seeing his brother in the hallway to his left, he turned right. He grabbed a gun from his room before heading towards the library. He heard the sound of footsteps coming from the library and slowed his pace, silent in his approach. He cocked the gun and pointed it in the direction of the footsteps, directly at Tara, who was halfway up the stairs to the door.

"Going somewhere?"

Tara cringed and turned around, facing Sam and the gun with her hands in the air. "I should probably know better than to try to sneak out."

"Why are you trying to sneak out in the first place? Who are you? What are you?" Sam held the gun steady and moved forward, his eyes never leaving his target.

Tara sighed but kept her hands above her head. "Like I told your brother, I'm human."

"Prove it."

Tara reached for the inside of her jacket and pulled out a knife. Sam was ready to shoot when she said, "Woah! Calm down. It's a silver knife. If I were a monster, could I do this?" She drew the knife across her forearm. The knife didn't burn her skin.

Sam kept his gun raised and said, "Christo."

"I'm not a demon, either. I told you, I'm human."

"So if you're actually human, then why are you sneaking out?" Sam lowered his gun slightly but didn't let his guard down.

Tara smiled sheepishly. "I figured it would save the awkwardness of goodbye."

"So you were just going to leave, without any word or anything?"

"You had your brother back, and it wasn't like I was going to see you two again. Besides, I found a hunt, a couple states over. Sounds like a couple of vamps. Nothing I can't handle."

Sam lowered his gun completely. He didn't know why, but for some reason he trusted that this girl was no threat to him or his brother. "Aren't you a little young to be a hunter?"

"If I had a dime for every time I heard that, I wouldn't've had to steal my truck."

Sam cracked a small smile, and the bunker was silent for a moment. Then Tara spoke up again. "This is the kind of awkwardness I was trying to avoid."

"I just wanted to say thanks. You know, for saving my life and all?"

"I didn't really do much. I was basically just your ride here."

Sam shook his head. "No really, I mean it. If you hadn't been there, I don't think I would've made it back here."

"This isn't one of those 'you saved my life, and now I'm forever in your debt' situation, is it?"

"No, nothing like that," Sam said with a smile. Before he could say anything else, Dean burst into the library with his gun raised. Sam motioned for him to put his gun down, and he hesitantly lowered it.

"So…can I go now?" Tara asked, eyeing the gun in Dean's hand. "Preferably without getting shot at."

"Yeah. Just wait a second." Sam grabbed a pad of paper from the library desk, scribbled something down and handed it to Tara. She eyed it suspiciously.

"What's this?"

"It's my cell phone number." At Tara's surprised and rather defensive expression, Sam quickly added, "No, not like that. If you ever need a favor or anything, just call."

Tara seemed to think it over for a second before her face broke in to a grin. "So this is a 'forever in your debt' situation!"

That earned smiles from both of the brothers. Tara raised her hand and did a little goodbye salute. "Catch ya later, Winchesters." And just like that, she was out the door.

As soon as the door was shut, Dean turned to Sam and lightly punched him on his good arm. "Next time I ask you to stay, stay."

"I'm not a dog, Dean. Besides, according to you I never listen, so why start now?"

Dean shook his head and tried to suppress the grin that was inching its way across his face. He turned his attention back to the closed door at the sound of an engine outside. "Do you think she was telling the truth?"

"I did the test. She checked out as human. Besides, as far as I know, she didn't take anything."

"You think she'll actually call?"

Sam shrugged. "Who knows? We've got bigger things to worry about. Lucifer is still out there somewhere."

"Well then," Dean said, a determined glint in his eye, "We've got work to do."

Hey guys! I should probably stop making excuses for why chapters are so late. Let's face it, I'm not good at updating. But even during the school year, I'm going to try and update as often as I can.

Reviews are welcome!