Alex was a light sleeper. Always had been, even when she was a kid, before she was abducted. She was such a light sleeper, in fact, that she could tell when someone was watching her.

She kept her eyes closed and her breathing steady, but under her pillow she was clutching her stiletto knife. She could feel eyes on her, and the presence got closer. Heart racing, she tried to remain calm.

She sat up quickly, knife in hand, eyes darting around the room.

Kevin held his hands up in front of his chest in surrender. "I guess I shouldn't try to surprise you anymore."

Alex blinked, shocked and beyond confused. "Kevin – what're you doing here?" she leaned over, flipping her lamp on, and sat up. She suddenly felt very self-conscious in her too-big t-shirt and oversized flannel pants, and her hair probably looked a mess. She was glad for the dim lighting - it hid the steady blush that was slowly creeping into her cheeks.

"I was thinking about you," the ghost began, hesitating. "And then I was here. Something's going on, Alex. Lately I've felt more . . . I don't know. Powerful. Stronger, some how."

Alex fidgeted nervously. "Powerful . . . like, vengeful?"

Kevin looked hurt. "No – Alex, no, I'd never try to come near you if I thought I was . . ."

Alex softened, realizing she had hurt his feelings. "Kev, I'm sorry. I didn't mean it like that. I just really worry about you – you've been stuck for so long and you've got to be getting impatient or scared or . . ."

Kevin moved to sit on the bed beside her. "Look, I just think it's you."

Alex blinked again. "Me?"

"You know that spirit's are attached to items that mean a lot to them," he continued. "My dad's ring, at first . . . and you. You're really important to me and when you told me about what happened with Lucifer I couldn't stop thinking about you. And then I was here."

Alex's eyes were wet but she bid the tears not to fall. She swallowed the lump in her throat and looked away. "Kevin . . ."

"Alex." Her eyes widened as she felt a cold hand grasp hers, and widened more so when she realized it was Kevin's. His image wasn't flickering.

"You're touching me," Alex whispered, feeling a tear leak down her cheek.

"Yeah," Kevin said, squeezing her hand.

She raised her free hand and laid it on his cheek, which was just as cold as his hands, like ice, but she didn't care. They leaned into each other, her heart racing, his not beating at all. They stared into each others eyes for a long moment before they pressed their lips together.

It was like an extreme static shock, and Alex jerked back, laying a hand over her stinging lips. She looked around – the lightbulb in her lamp had exploded, and her arm hair was standing on end. Kevin was gone.

She looked around shakily. "K-Kev," she called out quietly. "Are you still here?"

She waited a moment in dark silence. Then, her alarm clocked lit up and beeped twice, even though it wasn't set to go off for another three hours. Beep . . . beep.

"Are you okay?" Alex continued.

Beep beep. The clock went off again.

She released a relieved breath. She grinned, face pink in embarrassment. "Guess there was a little too much energy in that, huh?"

Beepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeep.

Alex laughed. "I'm going to get some sleep," she said. "You should go home and get some rest too, and I'll call you later. Okay?"

Two more beeps, and then the clock's light dimmed, and Alex was alone once more.

"So, Sam and Dean went where exactly?"

Jody set the steaming casserole on the table, next to the green beans and the salad ingredients. Donna was finishing setting the table, and Alex was pouring drinks. Claire had just sat down, and Sara was joining her, hands freshly re-bandaged. Her mouth almost watered - every time a home cooked meal was prepared, she felt excited, like a child on their birthday. Jody was an amazing cook, and Sara hoped one day she could learn to be one, too. She wondered if her father knew how to cook - there was still so much she didn't know about him . . .

"It's not important," Jody replied for the eighth time since the boys had left that morning, and her voice brought Sara out of her thoughts.

"I mean it must be pretty important if you won't tell us," Claire pointed out, and Alex and Sara exchanged a small grin.

"Sara, could you go let your brother know that dinner is ready?" Jody asked, and Sara nodded before heading down to the gun range.

"They went to meet with him, didn't they?" Claire pushed once she was sure Sara had left the room. "They went to meet with Lucifer. That's why Crowley went to the desert, to find a Hand?"

"Honey, if I knew anything more than what you know – or think you know – I'd tell you." Jody sat down as Gavin and Sara entered the room, taking their seats. Food was passed around, and conversation was kept light. Or it was, until Jody brought up college.

"I just don't see the point in it," Claire replied, taking a bite of casserole. "Why go to college when I can be hunting?"

Jody choked on her water, coughing. Donna patted her back until Jody was able to regain her composure.

"Hunting is not a career, Claire," she said sharply. "You girls are going to be seniors next year – you need to start thinking about which colleges you want to look at. You're already going to have to work hard to catch up in school – you have no idea what kind of strings I had to pull to get you taken out for a few weeks while we get this all straightened out."

"Gavin's a professional hunter," Claire argued.

"I'm a boat captain, I'm not a hunter," Gavin argued right back. "Problem is there's not an abundance of boats that I know how to captain. So I keep busy. S'pose that after all this is over, I'll have to find some way to make money."

"How about we talk about how you were able to afford that shiny new truck you love so much?" Claire asked smugly.

"How 'bout we don't," Gavin glared at her.

"Gavin should consider school, too," Judy said.

"That'd be fine, if I existed," Gavin continued. "As it is, Gavin MacLeod died centuries ago."

"Claire, Jody's right," Donna added. "You can't spend your life running credit card scams and chasing things that go bump in the night, kiddo."

"Sam and Dean do it," Claire pointed out.

"Sam and Dean have alcoholism and daddy issues," Jody retorted, and everyone mumbled in agreement.

"There's gotta be something you're interested in besides for hunting," Gavin tried to reason with her.

"Why's everyone focusing on me?" Claire grumbled. "Two other teens here. Third degree them. Get Alex."

Everyone glanced at Alex, who looked up, and blinked. "Oh," she said. "Um, I was looking at computer programming, system management, stuff like that."

"South Dakota State has a great program," Jody nodded.

Alex swallowed. "Actually, I was thinking of applying to Princeton."

Jody almost dropped her fork. "Princeton – that's – that's great, Alex! So far away, but . . . well, if anyone can do it, it's you."

"What about you, Sara?" Donna asked.

Sara pushed some hair behind her ear. "I never really thought about it," she admitted. "Kids like me – back home, in the system I mean – we didn't really get to go to university. There are so many options now, I haven't even had time to really sit down and decide what I want to do."

"You can do whatever you want," Jody encouraged. "All of you."

"I just finished binge watching Fuller House on Netflix," Claire said, taking a drink of water. "Can we skip the family feel good fest?"

Jody was about to retort, when the door opened. Everyone could tell something was wrong almost immediately – normally there was banter, or soft arguing, or Dean hollering for alcohol. However, things were quiet as the boys and Crowley entered the room.

"Dad," Sara said brightly, relieved after not seeing him for several days. He let a small smile through as she approached him.

He held out his hands. "Hands," he requested, and Sara held hers out. He checked the bandages, frowning. "You're not healing very fast," he remarked, obviously agitated.

"I'm not a demon, Dad, I can't regrow skin cells overnight," she reminded him.

"Mm." He stroked her hair for a moment before moving to the liquor cabinet, where Dean was already pouring a heavy handed drink.

"Is everything alright?" Jody frowned, looking concerned.

"Well . . ." Sam rubbed the back of his neck. "We're not really sure."

"On one hand, Sara is safe from Lucifer," Dean started.

"Which is all that matters," Crowley cut in.

"And that's why you ran away with your tail tucked," Dean retorted.

"I couldn't let that bitch escape," Crowley defended himself. "Amara would never hurt her favorite little toy, now would she Dean? And Sam – well, frankly, he dies so often that he would've come back. Eventually. Probably. So no, I don't feel guilty for leaving you two."

"Slow down, all of you, and tell me what happened," Jody said. "Girls, go to your rooms."

"Like hell!" Claire said, standing. "What happened? I'm not going anywhere until you tell me what went down!"

Sam and Dean exchanged glances, and then looked at Crowley, who was concentrating on his drink.

"Crowley found a Hand," Dean started, tone somber. "And we thought maybe we could use it to send Lucifer back to the Cage."

"But that didn't happen," Claire stated, trying to remain calm, though her fists were clenched and her lip was quivering. "Because if it did, Cas would be here with you. Right?"

"Lucifer got a hold of the Hand," Sam continued. "But Amara showed up, and he tried to use it on her."

"Did it work?" Alex asked nervously.

"She hardly flinched," Dean said lowly, draining his glass.

"Amara took Lucifer," Sam concluded, and the room was silent.

"But, isn't that . . . good?" Donna asked. "Lucifer is, well, I mean he's Lucifer. Yeah? So with him gone . . ."

"Sara's safe," Crowley agreed.

"Well, it does take a major weight off our shoulders, but . . ." Jody hesitated.

"We have to get him back!" Sara exclaimed, and everyone looked at her.

"Sara," Crowley sighed, wondering how the hell he ended up with a daughter with such a stupidly kind heart.

"We can't leave him with her, Castiel is in there," Sara continued. "He could be hurt!"

Everyone looked up in surprise as Claire's chair scraped back and the girl threw her arms around Sara, who after a stunned moment hugged her back. Claire pulled away, looking around the room in anger and disgust.

"I'm glad you're worth something, Sara," she said, glaring around at everyone before practically running from the room.

"Claire!" Jody called, starting to stand.

"I'll go," Gavin said, already out of his seat and following after her.

"Unfortunately Sara's not far off," Sam sighed. "We're fairly sure Amara took Lucifer and wants to use him to get Gods attention. And that's not going to be fun for Lucifer or Cas."

"Oh my God," Jody said quietly.

"Quite literally, I'm afraid," Crowley sighed. He stood, sitting his glass down. "I'll leave you to it," he told the boys as he stood. "I've got a witch to kill."

"Don't kill her," Dean said, and Crowley gave him his best 'I-wasn't-asking' look.

"Rowena spent time with Amara, she might know something we don't," Sam agreed. "You wanna do something, try and find a way to convince her she needs us. We'll keep an eye out for her, too."

"I'll make no promises should she start something," Crowley replied, heading for the door. Sara followed, glancing at him as they reached the door.

"Who's Rowena?" she asked, frowning.

"No one you need to worry about, darling," Crowley promised, kissing her forehead. "Stay in the bunker. Lucifer may be indisposed at the moment but he's as manipulative as they come. No telling what he might convince Amara to do."

"Be careful," Sara told him, and he squeezed her shoulder before leaving.