Author's Note

This chapter took a while for me to write, but here it is!

Quick note- the lyrics at the end do not belong to me in any way, shape or form. They're from a song called Wake Me Up When September Ends by Green Day (and if you haven't heard the song, I highly recommend you go check it out).

As always, don't be afraid to leave me a review or let me know what you think of the story so far, and I hope you like this chapter! :)

I had managed to get through about half a bag of jelly beans and put my hair up with a stray pen when we pulled to a stop, and I looked up to see that we had arrived at an auto repair shop. I stuck my head between Sam and Dean, and they both turned to look at me.

"What's going on?"

"Dad and a friend of his opened this garage together a while ago- if we're lucky, the guy will still be here," Sam answered, and I nodded and climbed out of the car. Sam and Dean came to stand behind me a few seconds later as I looked around to see if anyone was there. There were a few people milling around, and I turned to look at the two brothers.

"You ever meet this guy?" I asked, and they shook their heads.

"No, but we've seen pictures," Sam replied before elbowing Dean and pointing to an older, balding man who was wiping down his hands with a rag. "That's him."

We walked up to him, and he looked up from the greasy rag to greet us.

"I would shake your hand, but…" he motioned to the rag, and Dean grinned at him.

"No problem, sir. Can we ask you a couple of questions?" he said, and pulled out one of his badges. The man nodded and motioned for us to follow him.

He lead us past a couple of cars, and I saw Dean sneaking an appreciative look at a few of them before remembering the reason we were there.

"You and John Winchester, you used to own this garage together, right?" he asked, and the man nodded and set his rag down on a nearby machine.

"Yeah, we used to, a long time ago. It must be uh… twenty years since John disappeared." He turned to face us and gave us a suspicious look before folding his arms across his chest and continuing.

"So why the cops interested all of a sudden?"

"We're re-opening some of our unsolved cases, and the Winchester disappearance is one of 'em," Dean responded, and the man relaxed, seemingly accepting his answer.

"Oh, well, what do you wanna know about John?" he questioned, and turned to look under the open hood of a car next to him.

"Whatever you remember- you know, anything that sticks out in your mind," Dean said, and the man poked around for a second before turning his attention back towards the three of us.

"Well… he was a stubborn bastard, I remember that," he chuckled, and I stifled a grin- he was more right than he knew. "And, uh, whatever the game, he hated to lose, you know? It's that whole Marine thing," he continued, and Sam and Dean nodded in understanding. "But he sure loved Mary, and he doted on those two kids."

"But that was before the fire?" Sam interjected, and the man nodded his head sadly.

"Did he ever talk about that night?" I asked, and he turned to look at me, giving me a quick once-over.

"Aren't you a little young to be a cop?"

I resisted the urge to roll my eyes and make a snarky comment- luckily, Dean chimed in before I could say anything.

"First day on the job, sir," he said, and I shot him a grateful look. The man nodded apologetically before remembering my question.

"Not, not at first- I think he was in shock."

"Right. But eventually? What did he say about it?" Sam asked,and the man shook his head and glanced at the floor before responding.

"Oh, he wasn't thinkin' straight. He said, uh… he said something caused that fire and killed Mary."

"Did he ever say what did it?" I asked quietly, and the man looked at me strangely.

"Nothin' did it. It was an accident- an electrical short in the ceiling or walls or somethin'. I begged him to get some help, but…" he trailed off, and Dean looked at him expectantly.

"But what?"

"Oh, he just got worse and worse."

I shot a quick glance at Dean just in time to see him shove down a pained expression, and my heart went out to him. This couldn't have been easy for him to hear, but he stayed stoic.

"How?"

"Oh, he started readin' these strange ol' books, and started goin' to see this palm reader in town," the man said, waving his hand in dismissal. To him, those must have seemed like acts of insanity or grief, but we knew better.

"Palm reader? You have a name?" Dean asked, pulling out a crumpled-up piece of paper. He dug around in another pocket for a pen, but couldn't find one. I sighed and pulled the pen from my hair and tapped him on the shoulder with it, shaking my head until my hair fell down my back. He looked at me, confused as to where the pen had come from, but took it anyway before turning his focus back to the man, who scoffed and shook his head. We thanked him for his time and started to walk back towards the car, and Dean handed me back the pen. I grabbed it from him and stuck it between my teeth so I could wind my hair into a bun at the nape of my neck. I tucked the bun into itself and stuck a pen through the whole thing just as we reached the car, and Dean looked at me in amazement.

"How did you do that?"

"It's called having way too much time on my hands and a large supply of pens," I said, smirking at him as I got into the car. He turned to Sam with a puzzled look on his face, but Sam just shrugged and slid into the passenger seat. Dean shook his head and muttered something about never being able to understand women before getting in the car and starting it.

"What now?" I asked, and Sam turned around to look at me, rolling his eyes when he saw me diving back into the bag of jelly beans.

"Now we find a payphone and search the phonebook for psychics," he said, and Dean nodded in agreement and put the car in reverse, pulling out of the parking lot and driving down the road.

It took us about 10 minutes and about 3 mumbled curse words to find a payphone that we could park by, as Dean refused to let Baby out of his sight. Sam reached the phonebook first and started flipping through it while I opened the backseat door and swung my legs out. Dean leaned on the car next to the open door and reached over it to mess up my hair. I may or may not have called him a douche-canoe and threatened to murder him in his sleep before Sam looked up at us, and we pretended like nothing had happened.

"All right, so there are a few psychics and palm readers in town… There's someone named El Divino, there's uh, the 'Mysterious Mister Fortinsky'... Uh, Missouri Mosely-"

"Wait, say that last one again?" I interrupted, and Dean gave me a strange look. I grabbed John's journal from behind me and opened it to the first page. Sam repeated the name, and Dean leaned over to look at the journal before glancing up at me with a proud smile on his face.

"Nice work, kid."

"What?" Sam asked, not understanding what we were talking about.

"Here, look at this- first page, first sentence," I said, and passed the journal to Sam.

"I went to Missouri and I learned the truth…" he trailed off, and looked up at us in understanding.

"You know, I've always wanted to go to a psychic," I commented, and the two brothers turned to look at me in surprise. "What? All that sensing energy and aura reading stuff- you don't find that the least bit intriguing?"

"You do?" Dean questioned, and I nodded.

"Yep. Always have," I replied, and pulled my legs back into the car and shut the door. I saw the two boys shrug at each other before they got into the car, and Dean turned on the radio before he pulled away from the curb.

We found her house pretty easily, and were about to knock when a man came out with a relieved look on his face, followed closely behind by a curvy black woman.

"Now don't you worry 'bout a thing- your wife is crazy about you," she said in a warm, friendly voice, and the man thanked her before walking down the sidewalk. She invited us in and closed the door behind her, turning to us and sighing.

"Poor bastard- his woman is cold-bangin' the gardener," she said conspiratorially.

"Why didn't you tell him?" Dean asked, and the woman looked at him like he was an idiot.

"People don't come here for the truth- they come for good news," she declared, and the three of us sat in silence for a moment, not sure how to respond to that. She gave us an expectant look and turned to leave the room, calling to us over her shoulder.

"Well? Sam, Dean, Ella- come on already, I ain't got all day!"

We followed her into the other room, trading wide-eyed, confused looks. We ducked under a beaded curtain, and she turned around and smiled warmly at us.

"Well, lemme look at ya," she laughed, and strode up to the two boys, who quickly pulled me behind them. I was about to hiss a few choice words at them when the woman began to speak again.

"Oh, you boys grew up handsome," she commented, and pointed a finger at Dean. "And you were one goofy-lookin' kid, too." At this, Sam chuckled quietly, but immediately stopped when Dean turned to glare at him. She reached out to grab Sam's hand, and he looked down at her in confusion.

"Sam… Oh, honey, I'm so sorry about your girlfriend," she said soothingly, and I could see Sam stiffen. He opened his mouth to say something, but Missouri cut him off, putting her hands on her hips and looking up at the two boys.

"Will you two giants step aside? I think Ella can take care of herself, boys," she said pointedly, and they were so stunned that they immediately did so. Missouri walked towards me and took both of my hands in her own before smiling warmly at me.

"Hey, sweetheart. It's nice to finally meet our wayward daughter."

I froze and looked at her in shock, and I could see Sam and Dean trade worried glances before she reached up and touched my face with a gentle hand.

"Of course I know who you are, baby," she said before lowering her voice so that only I could hear. "And no, you are not insignificant. You are far more precious than you know."

"H-how did you-" I stuttered, but she cut me off by pulling me into a warm hug. I was so stunned at first that I stood like a statue, but I returned the hug and buried my face into her shoulder, and a feeling of love and acceptance washed over me. She pulled away and smiled up at me before turning back to Sam and Dean with a concerned look on her face.

"And your father- he's missing?"

They were silent for a moment, still stunned by what she had said, but Sam managed to snap himself out of it.

"How'd you know all that?" he asked incredulously, and she looked up at him with a knowing look on her face.

"Well, you were thinkin' it just now."

Sam raised his eyebrows at her before shooting a worried look at me- my hands had started to shake, and although I was trying to hide them, I wasn't doing a very good job.

"Well, where is he? Is he okay?" Dean interjected, and she frowned.

"I don't know," she admitted, and I could sense Dean tensing up next to me.

"Don't know? You're supposed to be a psychic, right?" he questioned, his voice getting louder. Missouri just scoffed and waved her hand at him before moving over to a chair by the window.

"Boy, you see me sawin' some bony tramp in half? You think I'm a magician?" she asked, sitting down in the chair. "I may be able to read thoughts and sense energies in a room, but I can't just pull facts out of thin air." With that, she motioned to a couch across from her. "Sit, please."

I saw Sam smirk at Dean and we all sat down, and I somehow ended up nestled between them.

"Boy, you put your foot on my coffee table, I'mma whack you with a spoon!" Missouri suddenly snapped at Dean, and he froze, looking at her in confusion.

"I didn't do anything!" he protested, and Missouri smirked at him knowingly.

"But you were thinkin' about it," she said, and Sam and I both failed miserably at not smiling. Dean just raised his eyebrows at her before leaning forward and resting his elbows on his thighs.

"Okay. So, our dad- when did you first meet him?" Sam asked, and Missouri stopped glaring at Dean to look at him, her face softening.

"He came for a reading, a few days after the fire- I just told him what was really out there in the dark. I guess you could say... I drew back the curtains for him," she answered, and Dean looked up at her, his brows knit across his forehead.

"What about the fire? Do you know about what killed our mom?" he asked, and she paused for a moment before answering.

"A little. Your daddy took me to your house- he was hopin' I could... sense the echoes, the fingerprints of this thing."

"And could you?" Sam asked, and her face fell.

"I don't..." she trailed off, shaking her head sadly.

"What was it?" I asked gently, and she looked down at her lap.

"I don't know. Oh, but it was evil," she said softly, and I shot Dean a worried look.

"So… you think somethin' is back in that house?" she asked, getting up to pace around the room.

"Definitely," Sam answered, and she shook her head again.

"I don't understand..." she trailed off again before sitting back down in her chair, and I looked at her worriedly.

"What don't you understand?" I asked quietly.

"I haven't been back inside, but I've been keepin' an eye on the place, and it's been quiet. No sudden deaths, no freak accidents. Why is it actin' up now?" she mused, and Sam shook his head.

"I don't know. But Dad going missing, and Jessica dying, and now this house, happening all at once? It just feels like something's starting," he said, and Dean sighed and leaned back in his seat.

"Well, that's a comforting thought," he grumbled sarcastically, and I nodded my head in agreement.

"So, what do we do now?" I asked, and Dean looked over at me and sighed before he answered, not sounding pleased in the slightest.

"We go check out that house."

We knocked on the door, and Jenny opened it a few moments later, holding a smiling Richie on her hip.

"Sam, Dean, Ella. What are you doing here?" she asked, sounding quite flustered.

"Hey, Jenny. Um, this is our friend, Missouri," Sam said, and Missouri nodded at Jenny, who managed a weak smile in return.

"If it's not too much trouble, we were hoping to show her the old house- you know, for old time's sake," Dean added, grinning at her.

"You know, this isn't really a good time- I'm kind of busy," she answered hurriedly, and turned to go back into the house.

"Listen, Jenny, it's important-" Dean started, but was quickly silenced when Missouri smacked him on the back of the head. "Ow!"

"Give the poor girl a break- can't you see she's upset?" Missouri chided him, before turning back to Jenny with a warm smile. "Forgive this boy, he means well- he's not the sharpest tool in the shed. Just hear me out," she continued, and Dean looked back at me, stunned. I quickly wiped the smile from my face and shrugged, and Dean shook his head at me.

"What are you talking about?" Jenny demanded, and Dean turned his focus back to her.

"I think you know what I'm talking about," Missouri said pointedly, stepping forward. "You think there's something in this house, something that wants to hurt your family. Am I mistaken?"

"Who are you?" Jenny sputtered, looking at all of us in disbelief.

"We're people who can help, who can stop this thing. But you're gonna have to trust us, just a little," Missouri said soothingly, but Jenny still looked unsure. She paused to think, but eventually nodded her head and ushered us into the house, locking the door behind her. Missouri immediately walked off, and I glanced at Sam and Dean before shrugging and following her. She led all of us up the stairs except for Jenny, who took her son back to the kitchen.

Missouri walked through an open door into a purple-walled room that must have been Sari's, and once we were all in the room, she turned to look at us.

"If there's a dark energy around here, this room should be the center of it," she announced, and I saw Sam look at her, confused.

"Why?"

"This used to be your nursery, Sam. This is where it all happened."

Sam glanced at the ceiling, and I turned to look at Dean, who was pulling out his EMF meter as Missouri started to look around the room. As soon as she heard the hum of the meter, she turned around and looked at Dean skeptically.

"That an EMF?"

Dean nodded proudly, and she scoffed at him.

"Amateur."

Dean's face fell and he glared at her before turning his attention back to the EMF meter, which had started beeping frantically. He nudged Sam, who appeared to be lost in thought, and showed him the meter.

"I don't know if you boys should be disappointed or relieved, but this ain't the thing that took your mom," Missouri declared, and Sam turned to look at her in shock.

"Wait, are you sure?" he asked, and she nodded. "How do you know?"

"It has a different energy, doesn't it?" I guessed, and she turned to look at me and smiled.

"Good guess- but not it, them," she said, opening the closet. "There's more than one spirit in this place."

"What are they doing here?" Dean asked, and she turned back to him, her face somber.

"They're here because of what happened to your family. You see, all those years ago, real evil came to you. It walked this house. That kind of evil leaves wounds- and sometimes, wounds get infected," she explained, and Sam shook his head.

"I don't understand."

"This place is a magnet for paranormal energy. It's attracted a poltergeist, a nasty one. And it won't rest until Jenny and her babies are dead," Missouri said sadly, and I heard Dean curse under his breath

"Wait, you said that there was more than one spirit, right?" I asked.

"There is- I just can't quite make out the second one," Missouri confirmed, and I could see Dean shaking his head, his jaw set in determination.

"Well, one thing's for damn sure- nobody's dyin' in this house ever again," he declared, and I nodded my head in agreement and crossed my arms under my chest.

"How do we stop it?" I asked, and Missouri paused to think before walking out the door. I shot Sam and Dean a puzzled look, and they shrugged and followed her with me trailing behind, looking around the room one last time.

Missouri took us back to her house and spread a bunch of herbs and roots over her dining room table. Dean and I sat down to look at everything while Sam leaned on the chair in front of him, and Missouri continued to rummage around behind us.

"So what is all this stuff, anyway?" Dean asked, and Missouri turned around and held up a bottle triumphantly before putting it on the table.

"Angelica root, Van Van oil, crossroad dirt, and a few other odds and ends," she replied, but Dean still looked confused.

"Yeah? What are we supposed to do with it?" he asked, and Missouri grabbed some squares of fabric from a nearby cabinet and spread them on the table.

"We're gonna put them inside the walls in the north, east, south, and west corners on each floor of the house."

"We'll be punchin' holes in the drywall- Jenny's gonna love that," Dean smirked, and I turned to him and rolled my eyes.

"Something tells me she'll take that over an evil poltergeist who wants to kill her and her children any day," I told him.

"She'll live," Missouri said slyly, and Sam walked around the table to lean on the back of my chair.

"And this'll destroy the spirits?" he asked, and Missouri nodded in response.

"It should purify the house completely. We'll each take a floor- but we work fast. Once the spirits realize what we're up to, things are gonna get bad," she said seriously, and once she had gathered all of the ingredients into bags, she tossed us each two of them. She told us to hold onto those carefully, and once we all promised we would, we drove over to Jenny's house.

After 20 minutes of convincing Jenny to take her kids to a movie and that we would be fine alone, she finally left, and we started to work. Missouri went down to the basement, Dean and I took the first floor, and Sam went to the second floor. Everything seemed to be going fine when I heard a noise behind me and turned to see a knife flying directly at Dean's head.

"Dean, duck!" I yelled, and he quickly dropped to his knees on the floor. The knife hurled itself into a cabinet and stuck there, and I ran over to Dean. Suddenly, he grabbed my hand and pulled me down next to him. He knocked the kitchen table over and put it in front of us, and more knives flew at the table, stabbing themselves into the wood.

"Kid, you alright?" Dean asked frantically, and I nodded.

"Yeah, I'm fine."

Dean jumped to his feet and extended a hand to pull me to mine before we heard a crash upstairs. He sprinted up the stairs while I made sure that the herbs were in place before darting after him. I rushed into the room and saw that Dean was trying to get an electrical cord off of Sam's neck, but it wasn't budging. I looked around quickly and saw the bag of herbs was laying on the floor, and I grabbed it, turning to kick a hole in the wall before shoving the bag inside. A blinding white light filled the room and then quickly disappeared, leaving us all stunned.

Once we were sure the spirit had gone, I ran over to Sam, who was lying weakly on the floor, and helped Dean unravel the cord from around his neck. We then pulled him up into a sitting position, and Dean pulled him onto a bear hug while I took a moment to catch my breath. Noticing that I was just sitting there, Dean reached out and grabbed my shoulder to pull me into the hug. We sat there for a few minutes while Sam caught his breath, and then we helped him to his feet and guided him down the stairs and into the kitchen, where Missouri stood, waiting for us.

"You okay?" I asked her, and she nodded, looking around the kitchen. The contents of the fridge had been spilled onto the ground, and the knives were still stuck in the cabinet and table.

"You sure this is over?" Sam asked, and Missouri looked up from the fallen table to stare at him.

"I'm sure," she declared, giving him an odd look. "Why do you ask?"

"Never mind," he replied, and sighed before continuing. "It's nothin', I guess."

I was about to call bullshit on him when we heard Jenny open the front door and announce that she was home. She came into the kitchen and looked around in shock.

"What happened?"

"Oh my God, we're so sorry! We'll pay for all of this-," I quickly tried to reassure her, but Missouri cut me off with a wave of her hand. I saw Dean shoot me a glare out of the corner of my eye and turned to shrug at him, smiling sheepishly.

"Don't you worry," Missouri said to Jenny, and turned to the two brothers with a sly grin on her face. "The boys are gonna clean up this mess," she announced, and Sam immediately started picking bottles up from the ground while Dean stood there, not moving.

"Well, what are you waiting for, boy? Get the mop!"

I shot Dean an apologetic look and moved to help him, but Missouri shook her head at me before turning her head sharply to glare at Dean's retreating back.

"And don't cuss at me!" she called after him, and I heard him muttering darkly under his breath about not being a maid. Once he had gone, Missouri turned to me and smiled.

"Are you okay, sweetheart?"

"Yeah, I'm fine," I answered, and she nodded in approval.

"Of course you are- you're tough as nails," she said, almost sounding proud of me. Then her smile slipped from her face, and she turned away, trying to hide it, but not quickly enough.

"What?" I asked her, failing to keep my fear from creeping into my voice. She turned to look at Sam pointedly, who had been trying to sneak closer, and he looked at her sheepishly. He mumbled something about helping Dean find the mop and left the room, and then Missouri turned back to look at me with tears in her eyes.

"Missouri?" I prompted, and she snapped out of it and shook her head sadly.

"You've been through a lot, haven't you?" she asked softly, and I looked down at my feet.

"You try to hide what you're thinking, and you're pretty damn good at it, but you can't hide it from me," she continued, and reached out to lift my chin up so she could look me in the eyes.

"You think you don't deserve this life," she said gently, and I nodded, tears pooling in my eyes. "You think you're not supposed to be alive, that your parents never loved you, and that the Winchesters only keep you around because they have to."

I looked at her in surprise, and she shook her head at me and put her hands on my shoulders.

"You're wrong, Ella."

As soon as I heard her say that, I started to sob, and she pulled me into a warm hug. We stood there for what seemed like hours. I heard Sam and Dean sneak back into the kitchen, and one of them started to walk towards us, but Missouri lifted her head. She must have given them the sharpest glare she could, because they slowly backed away. They finished cleaning the kitchen, and I could hear them standing around and whispering loudly at each other, not sure what to do. I finally managed to collect myself and pulled away from her, and she smiled at me before nodding at the two boys and leaving. They watched her leave before turning back to me, almost identical looks of concern on their faces. I managed a small smile before I spoke up.

"Can we go now?"

They quickly nodded, and we walked out to the car. I climbed into the backseat and curled up with my head on my pillow, and Dean was about to start the car before Sam interrupted him.

"Can we stay for a little bit, just to make sure they're okay?"

I heard Dean sigh and saw him glance at me in the rearview mirror before nodding reluctantly.

"Yeah, Sammy. We can stay."

Half an hour later, we were still sitting there, despite Dean's not-so-subtle protests. I had tried to fall asleep, but I was still reeling from what Missouri had said to me. Just as I sat up in defeat, I heard Dean start to talk.

"All right, so tell me again, what are we still doin' here?"

"I don't know. I just… I still have a bad feeling," Sam responded, and I leaned forward so they could hear me better.

"Sam, I'm sure they'll be fine- Missouri knows her stuff," I reassured him, but he would have none of it.

"Yeah, I know. But I just wanna make sure, that's all."

Dean grumbled something about how he could be sleeping in a real bed and slid down in his seat, but just as he closed his eyes, Sam shook him awake.

"Dean. Look!" he yelled, pointing at Jenny's bedroom window. She was looking out and screaming, pounding the glass with her fists. We all rushed out of the car and sprinted towards the house.

"You two grab the kids- I'll get Jenny!" Dean yelled over his shoulder, and we all raced up the stairs. I ran into Richie's room and scooped him up into my arms just as I heard a scream from Sari's room. I held Richie close to my chest and ran to help her, almost smacking into Sam as he carried her out. We ran down the stairs with them, and once we reached the bottom, Sam set Sari down and motioned for me to hand him Richie. I did, and he quickly handed him off to Sari.

"All right, Sari, take your brother outside as fast as you can, and don't look back!" he yelled, and was immediately slammed to the ground by some invisible force. He slid backwards into another room and crashed into a table. Sari screamed and ran outside with Richie, and I sprinted after Sam just as I heard the front door slam shut.

I ran into the kitchen and quickly kneeled down next to Sam, and was about to make sure he was okay when I was thrown back into the cabinets. I screamed, and Sam leapt to his feet and reached out to where I had fallen on the floor, but he was quickly thrown into the fridge. He stood up and ran over to help me up, but as soon as he had pulled me to my feet, we were both pinned against the wall, unable to move. Then the fiery figure walked into the room just as I heard Dean break through the door and scream our names.

"DEAN!" I managed to yell, before my head was slammed back into the wall. I could hear him breaking his way through the door as the figure moved closer, starting to materialize into the shape of a woman. Dean finally found us and aimed his shotgun at the figure, and was about to shoot, but Sam yelled out for him to stop.

"No, don't! DON'T!"

Dean spun around to look at the two of us, and then back to the figure.

"What? Why?!"

"Because I know who it is! I can see her now," Sam said, and the fire suddenly vanished. In its place was a woman with long blonde hair that flowed down her back and over the lacy white nightgown she wore. Dean slowly lowered his shotgun in shock, and I could hear his voice break as he opened his mouth to speak.

"Mom."

"Dean," she said gently, stepping closer to him. She then turned to Sam, who was still pinned against the wall. "Sam."

I looked over at Sam and saw the tears running down his face as he managed a weak smile. Then she turned to me with a confused look on her face.

"Who are you?"

I was too stunned to say anything, but Dean looked over at me and smiled slightly before turning back to his mother.

"This is Ella, Mom. She's saved our asses quite a few times."

Mary turned back to me and smiled warmly.

"Thank you for taking care of my boys."

I nodded slightly at her, and she turned back to the two boys, her smile fading. "I'm so sorry."

"For what?" Sam asked softly, and she looked at him sadly, but said nothing. She walked away from us and looked up at the ceiling, and Dean shot us a panicked look over his shoulder.

"You get out of my house. And let go of my son!" she demanded, and burst into flames again. The flames rushed up her body in a matter of seconds, reaching to the ceiling. Then it disappeared, and the force holding Sam and me against the wall abruptly released us. Sam managed to stay standing, but I wasn't so lucky- I almost fell flat on my face, but Dean reached out and caught me at the last minute.

"Whoa there, kid! You good?" he asked, helping me stand. I managed a weak nod at him, and Sam walked over to us. We stood in stunned silence for a moment before Sam turned to us and sighed.

"Now it's over."

Jenny was so grateful to us that she let us crash in her living room for the night. Dean immediately sprawled out on one of the couches on his stomach, and Sam shook his head at him. I leaned against the doorway and rested my head on the doorframe, and Sam made himself comfortable in an oversized recliner before noticing that I hadn't moved.

"Are you okay?" he asked quietly so he didn't wake up Dean, who was already dead asleep. I shook my head at him, at a loss for words, and wrapped my arms around myself. His face softened and he extended an arm out to me, motioning for me to come sit with him. He tucked me under his arm so that my cheek rested on his chest and put the footrest up so we could lay back. I could feel him kiss the top of my head before he laid his head back and closed his eyes, relaxing into the chair. I laid there for a few moments, lost in thought, until the steady rise and fall of his chest beneath my head lulled me to sleep, and I slipped into the darkness.

I woke up the next morning to find Dean standing over me, his hand gently shaking my shoulder. Sam had already gotten up without me noticing, which wasn't really surprising- I could sleep through almost anything. I looked up at Dean and rubbed my eyes, blinking sleepily up at him.

"Morning, kid. You ready to head out?" he asked, and I nodded. He helped me up from the chair and slung an arm round my shoulders, and we walked out the front door to find Sam sitting on the step. I reached out to mess up his hair as we passed him, and I could hear him grumbling as we walked away. Once we reached the car, Jenny came up to us with a grateful smile on her face and handed us an old trunk full of photos. Dean pulled out a few of them and looked them over before putting them back and closing the lid, putting the trunk in the backseat.

"Thanks for these," he said, and Jenny smiled up at him.

"Don't thank me- they're yours," she said, and reached out to place a hand on his shoulder. He nodded at her, and she turned to me to pull me into a hug, startling me.

"Thank you," she whispered in my ear, and I nodded, returning the hug. She pulled away and walked back towards the house, and Dean and I turned to watch her go. Missouri had joined Sam on the steps of the house, and they talked quietly before Missouri stood up to go. I walked over to him, and he lifted his head to look at me, quickly wiping the tears from his eyes.

"You ready, Sam?" I asked him gently, and he nodded before getting to his feet and walking to the car. We got into the car and drove away in search of our next meal, and I opened the trunk to look at some of the photos. Sam turned around so he could see them too, and we looked through some of them together, him laughing at Dean's haircut and me teasing him about being such a chubby baby. Then we got to a picture of Mary leaning against the tree in front of the house and smiling off into the distance, and Sam's laughter faded.

"Hey, Sam?" I asked tentatively, and he looked back at me.

"Yeah?"

I paused for a moment, not really sure how to put what I wanted to say into words, but Sam smiled at me and nodded before I could say anything.

"She would have loved you, El," he softly replied, and I saw Dean glance at me in the rearview mirror and nod at me with a sad look on his face. Sam gave me a small smile before turning his attention back to the road, and I looked at the two of them before sitting back into my seat. We drove in silence for a while before Dean reached out and turned on the radio. A slow, familiar song came on the radio, and Dean scoffed and reached out to change the station, but I stopped him by reaching out and putting a hand on his shoulder.

"Can we listen to this song?"

He was about to protest, but I saw Sam shoot him a look, and he sighed and reached out to turn up the volume. I sang along softly, and we drove along the road, listening to the lyrics in silence.

Summer has come and passed,

The innocent can never last.

Wake me up

When september ends…

Wake me up

When september ends.