Author's Note: I got a new job, so I have less access to the Internet. I'm going to try to post at least a chapter a week.

Chapter Nine

"Ms. Barrister!"

"Liz!"

"Ms. Barrister!"

"Elizabeth!"

"Liz!"

"Liz!"

The reporters swarmed around Liz as she left the courthouse. She had removed the contacts she'd been wearing, so she looked more like the Liz that Dean remembered. She seemed unconcerned about the people jostling around her attempting to get a little closer to her. She was too busy watching Dean watch her.

"Liz, why did you wait this long to come forward and exonerate this man?" one reporter asked as he stuck a microphone in her face.

Liz sighed and looked away from Dean. "I only found out about it a few days ago. I had to make arrangements to reenter the country."

"Why did they choose Dean Winchester to blame for your death? Is he the man with whom you were involved when you were arrested for Virginia Downing's murder all those years ago?"

Liz debated whether to answer. "He's my husband," she replied finally. "No more questions."

She pushed her way through the protesting reporters who suddenly had many more questions to ask.

Bobby was waiting on her when she managed to break away from the gang of reporters. He was not happy.

"I told you I had everything under control," he reminded her.

Liz glared at him. "I wasn't going to let Dean rot in prison over this. It just wasn't going to happen. He's suffered enough because of me. This was just too much."

Bobby shook his head in disappointment. "I hope you know what you're doing, Liz. I'd hate to think that the last five years of my life were wasted protecting something that you threw away with one hastily made decision."

"Tom was going to kill Jason's daughter," Liz replied defensively. "I wasn't going to have that on my conscience, too. I just couldn't bear it."

Bobby shrugged. "I hope it's worth it, Liz. One girl for the rest of the world."

Liz cut him to shreds with her glare. "Oh, don't try that with me. If the world's gonna end, it's gonna end. I'm not the catalyst that makes it happen or not."

Bobby refused to back down. "You and I both know that's not true."

Liz took a calming breath. "I'm sorry, Bobby. I didn't know what else to do. I didn't think I could take it if anyone else died because of me."

Bobby's anger was palpable. "Like I said, I hope it's worth it."

Liz rolled her eyes and nodded toward Dean. "Get him out of here," she said and slapped the amulet she had taken back from Tom into his hand. "And start working on how Tom got this."

"I will," Bobby said. "Come straight to my house after you leave here."

Liz nodded. "Of course," she answered. "I'm not really worried about me so much as I am Dean. Tom doesn't want me dead, but he's foaming at the mouth to get at him. I think we'd better look into further fortifying your grounds."

"What did you have in mind?"

Liz hesitated. "A church grim," she replied.

Bobby's eyebrows rose. "Do you know how those are made?"

"It's war, Bobby. Sometimes we have to do things we don't like to."

"You sure you're okay with that?"

"We've both done worse," Liz rebutted.

"It doesn't bother me. I thought it might you," Bobby replied with a shrug.

"Well, it doesn't."

"That's good," he responded. He headed over to a shell-shocked looking Dean and clapped him on the back. "How you doing, son?"

"I thought she was dead, Bobby," Dean said dazedly.

"You were supposed to," Bobby replied bluntly.

"Why would she do that to me? Better yet, why would you? Liz couldn't have done this all by herself, so you must have been helping her. Why?"

Bobby glanced down guiltily. "I had my reasons, and so did she. I can't tell you anything else. Do you want a ride to my house? We could talk about this on the way."

Anger flashed on Dean's face. "I'd rather walk. Sam's here. I'll ride with him."

Bobby nodded. "Fair enough. Come by my house before you head to your apartment. We need to decide what to do about Liz now that she's shown her face." He handed Dean the amulet Liz had given him. "Put this on, would you?"

"I've already got the charm that Jason left me."

"This one's stronger."

Dean took the necklace and sighed unhappily as he fastened it around his neck. His gaze drifted back to Liz. "Is she going to your house?" he asked.

Bobby nodded. "She'll be there."

"It's really her? It's not a glamour or a shape shifter or something?"

"It's really her."

Dean looked lost as he watched her. "Why'd she leave? You're involved in it, so I know you know."

Bobby gave him a sympathetic look. "That's a conversation for the two of you."

"I'm asking you."

"And I'm telling you to ask her."

"Fine," Dean replied angrily and started towards Liz. He stopped after a couple steps. "I'll ask her later."

"She'll understand if you need some time to sort out your head."

Dean glared at Bobby. "I'll see you back at your house," he told him and headed off to find Sam.

XXX

Sam took the long way back to Bobby's house in order to give Dean a little more time to think and gather his wits. Dean was silent as they drove. Sam glanced at him every few minutes but otherwise left him to his thoughts. Sam couldn't help but think that he'd been thrown for a loop, so he could only imagine what Dean must be feeling.

He pulled over to the side of the road a few miles outside of town. "Do you want to talk about it?" he asked Dean.

Dean balked. "There's nothing to talk about, Sam."

"She pretended to be dead, Dean."

"Woah, you're blowing my mind, Sam," Dean replied sarcastically. "I missed that detail in the last five years of her not being here."

Sam pushed back the flash of anger that Dean's response caused. "She probably had a pretty decent reason is all I'm saying."

Dean's face hardened. "I'm sure she did. Unfortunately for her, I could care less what it is."

"Dean," Sam began tiredly, "I know that you are hurting right now, but don't do anything stupid. You love Liz. Remember that. You can be as angry as you need to be but give her a chance to explain herself before you completely write her off."

"She left, Sam," he said, his face twisting in pain. "She left me."

"I know she did, Dean. The good news is that she's alive now and she's here. You have a chance to tell her all the things you've wanted to over the years since she's been gone."

Dean swallowed to wet his suddenly dry throat. "I don't know that I feel the same way anymore. Everything's changed."

"I'm pretty sure that Liz will wait until you figure it out," Sam said.

Dean forced a smile. "It's the least she can do," he agreed.

"The very least," Sam reiterated. He watched Dean for a moment. "Are you ready to head to Bobby's and face her, or do you need me to drive around some more?"

Dean cleared his throat. "I'm fine. Gotta face her some time. Might as well be now."

Dean didn't have to worry. Liz was apparently not invited to the night's proceedings as she wasn't at the meeting Bobby had called.

Bobby didn't seem particularly comfortable speaking in front of a room of more than forty hunters, but he did it anyway.

"Okay, so we got some big news today. I called this meeting so we could clear the air and get on with things. Anyone with any questions, ask them."

A hunter that Dean did not recognize raised his hand first. "Where is Liz Barrister at?" he asked without waiting to be acknowledged.

"She's not coming tonight. I told her I wanted to have a meeting with everyone first so we could talk through any issues anyone has without her here clouding the proceedings."

"What issues?" another hunter chimed in. Dean thought the man's name was Mark. "Liz Barrister pretended to be dead and came out of hiding to help Dean. Why am I supposed to care? She helped Dean, and I'm glad she did. Other than that, it doesn't really affect me."

"That's just it," Bobby disagreed, "now that Liz is back, everything has changed. Barrister Enterprises has been taking a more aggressive approach to their strategy in the past few months. We think Liz is the reason. They were willing to draw global attention to themselves in order to force her out of hiding. That tells us something."

"It tells us that they think Liz is important enough to risk possible exposure," Mark observed. "Something changed a couple months ago. Anyone who's been out there recently knows that. The big bads in the world stepped up their game, and if Liz is at the root of that, then I say we need to do what we can to protect her."

"Here, here," a hunter named Janelle agreed.

Bobby looked around the room. "Are we at a consensus about that?" he asked.

The first hunter to speak stood up. "I want to know what Dean thinks about all of this."

All attention shifted to Dean. He squirmed in his seat then cleared his throat. "I agree with what Mark said," he threw out quickly. "If Liz is under attack, we need to protect her."

"Even after what she did to you?" the hunter asked in a surprised voice.

Dean stared at the man until he looked away. He stood up and met the eyes of anyone who would look at him. "Listen, and listen good. If Liz is in trouble, every last one of you is going to do everything in your power to protect her because that's what we do. Leave me and my personal life out of it."

The hunter who had questioned Dean looked sheepish as he turned to Bobby. "You have a consensus," he said.

Dean rushed to get out of the suddenly too small room. Liz was coming out of the bathroom right as he passed the door, so they almost collided. They stared at one another for a long, awkward moment.

Liz waved tentatively. "Hey."

Dean just stared at her for another moment. "Hey," he replied finally.

She took a step toward him. He stepped back, so Liz stopped. They stood in the hallway staring at one another.

Dean focused on the floor. "So what've you been doing for the last five years?" he asked politely.

Liz considered him cautiously, unsure of how sincere he was being. "I've been doing jobs for Bobby and trying to unite some support in other countries."

"Did you have any luck?" The polite tone was still there.

"You could say that."

"That's good."

Liz had had enough. "I would rather you'd yell at me, Dean."

Dean pinned her with a glare. "You don't always get what you want, Liz," he told her, voice raw with emotion.

Liz hugged herself. "Isn't that obvious?"

"Don't do that, Liz," Dean demanded. "Don't pretend like you weren't the one who went away."

Dean turned away from her and cleared his throat uncomfortably. They stayed there, emotions in turmoil, with Liz watching while Dean pointedly ignored her. Suddenly, Dean put two and two together.

"You were working internationally?" he asked.

Liz's confusion showed on her face. "Yeah…why?"

Dean laughed humorlessly. "You're Cassie Strider."

"No, I'm not."

"You've got to be. No wonder you'd never meet with me."

"I'm not Cassie Strider," Liz insisted. "My cover name was Lindsey Nightingale."

"Lindsey? Sandy's friend Lindsey? I guess she was right, and I had met you after all."

"Yeah," Liz replied. She bit her lip nervously and changed the subject. "I met your trainees. Bobby put you in charge of a bunch of teenage girls, huh? That was smart."

Dean glared at her. "I take my job very seriously, Liz."

Liz's eyes twinkled in amusement as she answered him. "I'll bet you do."

"It's none of your business, Liz," he insisted. "For your information, I am a damn good teacher to those girls."

"One of them said you slept with her."

Dean's mouth fell open. "I've never touched one hair on a one of their heads in anything but a completely professional way."

Liz shrugged. "If you say so."

"I do say so, and I don't like you coming in here trying to make it something that it's not. I know that a lot of the girls have a crush on me, but that's all it is. I don't do anything to encourage it."

"You don't do anything to discourage it, either, I'd bet."

Dean's eyes flashed angrily. "You…you…bitch," he spat out then stomped away.

Liz winced. "Nice one, Liz," she mumbled miserably to herself. She walked dejectedly to her room and flung herself on the bed. After a moment, she sat up and grabbed her phone off the nightstand. She dialed Cassie and waited for her to pick up.

"Hey," she greeted.

"Hey," Cassie returned.

"Are things going okay?"

"Things are swell," Cassie replied jokingly.

"Good. I need you to take Marisa to the place we discussed before and leave her there blindfolded, bound, and gagged. I'll give you two hours to get away before I call Tom and give him the location. Come to Bobby's after you get finished."

"But…" Cassie objected.

"You have your orders," Liz snapped.

"We're really just going to let her go?"

"Yes, that's exactly what we're going to do. Let me know when she's in place."

"Liz, I don't know if I can just turn this chick loose."

"Cassie, if you don't, then don't bother coming to Bobby's. There won't be a place for you here."

"Are you threatening me?" Cassie asked in disbelief.

"I'm giving you your options so that you can make an informed decision."

"Why do we have to let her go, Liz?" Cassie asked. "If you told me that, I might be able to deal better with what I'm about to do."

"You have to turn her loose because I said so, Cass. Don't question me again."

"You don't have to be such a bitch about it."

The echo of Dean's words was like a punch to the gut and caused Liz to suck in a breath. When she spoke again, her voice was much less commanding. "I…You have to turn her loose. I'll explain later."

Cassie softened her tone. "Liz? You okay?"

"Yeah, I'm just a little shaken up. It's been a long day. Let me know when you're done."

"Alright, fine. I'm holding you to that offer of explanation, though."

XXX

Liz found Sam sitting alone in the living room. He was spread out on the couch obviously not asleep but with his eyes closed. "Hey," she said to get his attention.

Sam looked over his shoulder at her. "Hey."

Liz wrung her hands nervously. "Are you mad at me?"

Sam gave her a look. "What do you think?"

"Fair enough," she admitted. She sat in the recliner facing the couch and Sam. "I'm surprised you're still here. I thought you had a girlfriend and that it was pretty serious."

"I do. Lauren had a conference this weekend, so she couldn't make it. She was supposed to call when she got out of her meetings. She must have had something come up 'cause she should have called a while ago."

Liz cocked her head suspiciously. "Wait. Your über-serious girlfriend wouldn't take off work to come to your brother's murder trial?"

"She wanted to," Sam replied defensively. "The conference was planned months and months in advance, and she couldn't miss it. She wanted to be here."

Liz shrugged. "If you say so. All I know about Lauren is how Dean feels about her. I'm starting to see why he feels that way."

Sam clenched his jaw angrily. "Did you want something?" he asked.

"Yes," Liz said. "I thought you might want to talk about what happened in the courtroom today and all that stuff that got brought up yet again."

"Why would I want to do that?"

Liz sighed. "Because it keeps coming up, and I'm tired of it coming between us. We may need to work together in the near future, and I want to be able to do that without all this crap making things weird."

"I want that, too."

"Good. I'm glad. Let's talk about it. Do you want me to start?"

"I will," Sam replied. He paused for a moment to gather his thoughts. "When I came to that day, I thought you were dead. You were lying in front of me and there was so much blood on you. I freaked out and left. I couldn't handle touching you. I told myself that I was going for help, but I ended up wandering around for days. The thought that I had killed yet another girl that I loved was just too much for me to handle. And then I saw you when I went to Bobby's and my heart stopped. I couldn't decide what I felt more: happiness that you were okay or disgust at what I had done."

"You didn't do anything," Liz insisted. "That's what I've been telling myself for the last five years. When I woke up and you were gone, I thought that I had failed and that the demon had taken you. When I saw you walking up that road looking dazedly at me, I was happy. I still am. I forgave you a long time ago for leaving me there. You were scared. It's understandable. The only thing that really bothers me is that I can't forget it. Every time that I flinch when something reminds me of it, I hate myself because it feels like the demon won. I don't want it to win."

"Is that why you pretended to be dead? To escape me?"

She went rigid. "No."

"Then why did you?"

"I can't tell you. All that I'll say is that I left to protect you and Dean."

"And now you've come back to protect Dean. Forgive me, Liz, but that is a bunch of bull."

Liz shrugged. "It's the only answer you're gonna get right now. The specifics of why I left are need-to-know, and you don't need to know."

Sam was clearly not pleased with her response. "So what have you been doing for the last five years? Or is that need-to-know information, too?"

"It actually is need-to-know, but I'll tell you anyway. I've been helping Bobby. He is commander-in-chief of a global organization of hunters whose mission it is to destroy Barrister Enterprises."

"Bobby knew you weren't dead?"

"Yeah. He's the one who helped me fake my death. He agreed with me that it would be better for everyone if I went away. It made sense at the time. It makes less sense now. And by the way, he is very unhappy with me for breaking my cover and coming here. He told me that he had everything under control and that I have unnecessarily wreaked confusion and chaos on your and Dean's lives. I see his point, but I was tired of playing dead, and I wasn't going to let Dean go to jail for something he didn't do when I could stop it."

"You messed up Dean's head when you went away."

"I know. I think it's worse now, though. You know he's sleeping with Jo, right?"

"I'm not talking about him and Jo with you."

"She's married, Sam. It's going to be a problem when it all comes out. That is assuming that her husband doesn't already know. I—"

"I'm not going to talk about Dean's sex life, especially not with you. Yes, she's married. Yes, it makes Dean kind of a bastard for sleeping with his friend's wife. He's my brother, though. I'm on his side. End of story. It's his life; he can do what he wants to. He doesn't owe you anything because you've been dead for the last five years. He actually smiles now and means it. Did you know that? It took years after you went away for that to happen."

"Enough," she said. "I get that I suck. Let's talk about something else."

"I want to talk about this global organization. What does Bobby have to do with it? I know he's gathered some hunters here, but I had no idea it was on such a big scale."

"Ah, yes, that. Well, we figured that it was only a matter of time before Tom made his big move, so we decided to prepare for it. I have spent four of the last five years making arrangements with various hunters around the world for them to be ready to be called on in a moment's notice. We have been pretty successful so far. We have contacts on every continent except Antarctica, and we should have some there before the end of the month. I had an interesting time of it in Egypt, I must say. One of the groups recognized my mark, and we almost had a major incident. Instead, they were greatly intrigued about why I wasn't dead. I spent three days doing nothing but answering questions."

"You and Bobby have done this alone?"

"No. There is a network of us. I've primarily worked with a girl named Cassie. You would like her. She's tough and smart and pretty. She should be here tomorrow or the next day. She's finishing up some business for me."

"What kind of business?"

Liz smiled. "The kind that's none of yours."

"She didn't want to come with you to Dean's trial?"

"No. And anyway, Bobby wouldn't have let her."

"Bobby wouldn't have let her?"

"That didn't stop me, but she wouldn't want to get on his bad side."

"That can be a scary place to be."

"True. I've been there enough over the past five years to know. The only time that he admitted that this was hard for me was when Cassie called him to come out because she was worried about me."

"Worried about you for what?"

"It's not important now. It was forever ago."

"It was something to do with Dean," Bobby said, coming into the room.

"Bobby," Liz acknowledged unhappily.

"Why does that not surprise me?" Sam said.

"Because you know what she'd say to try to get you to feel sorry for her," Dean said, walking into sight.

"So how much have you heard?" Liz asked.

"Enough to know that you need to get a better story if you want me to feel sorry for you."

She looked angry. "Screw you, Dean."

"Don't talk to him that way," Sam said.

"Screw you, too, Sam."

"That's enough," Bobby said, stepping in the middle of the group. "Liz stop. The same goes for you boys, too. Everyone cool it."

"You don't control me," Liz insisted.

Bobby glared at her. "I think that's abundantly clear."

Liz had the decency to look ashamed. "Sam asked why I left. Are we letting them in on everything, or what?"

Bobby clenched his jaw. "You and I'll talk about it in the morning when emotions aren't running quite so high. I'm still in charge here, so I don't want to hear another peep from any of you. Go to bed! That's not a suggestion."

Liz ducked her head. "Yes, sir. I'll find you in the morning."

Bobby nodded tersely. "Good." He turned to Dean and Sam. "You two need to get some rest, too."

XXX

"I don't know who she thinks she is," Dean said as he paced angrily in front of Sam.

Sam shrugged. "I don't know what to tell you.

"You can tell me that she was out of line."

"Alright, she was out of line."

"Of course she was," Dean insisted.

"Is there anything else?" Sam wondered wearily.

Dean looked at Sam in disbelief. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to let my pain interrupt your sitting on your ass. I guess I'll see you in the morning." He walked out of the room in an angry huff.

Sam leaned back into the couch and sighed. Surely, Lauren would be free by now, he thought. He got out his phone and called her. She was just getting back to her hotel room, so he talked to her for a few minutes then let her go. He could feel himself nodding off, so he got up to turn off the lights. Liz came into the room before he made it to the switch.

"Hey," he greeted, stopping in his tracks.

She smiled at him. "Hey," she replied. She walked to within an arm's length of him and looked down bashfully.

"There's something I need to ask you," she said as she batted her eyelashes.

"What's that?" he asked warily.

"Do you want to kiss me?"

Sam's eyes widened. "What!?!" he exclaimed. "No! No, I…" he stopped and shifted awkwardly. "No, you're Dean's wife."

Liz laughed. "So."

"Uh…"

"Sam? Sam? Sam!"

Sam jolted awake. He realized he was still reclining on the couch and had obviously fallen asleep. Liz was standing next to the couch looking at him with a bewildered look on her face.

"You were calling my name," she explained, the quizzical look never leaving her face.

Sam was flabbergasted. "I…uh…nothing. Nothing at all."

"Are you okay?" she asked, concern replacing her confusion.

"I'm fine. I was just having a dream about…"

"Me?" Liz finished, eyes widening. She took a step back.

"No!" Sam protested. "I was absolutely not dreaming about you."

"Right," Liz said, distrust in her eyes. "I'm going back to bed now. Goodnight."

"Goodnight," Sam repeated lamely. He rubbed his face tiredly when he was alone. "What the hell?" he asked himself and got his phone out, dialing Lauren again as he tried to push down the guilt he was feeling.