A/N: Thank you to everyone who put this story on alert or took the time to leave a review! Feedback is good for the ego! :P So long as there is interest I'll try to keep updating!

A/N: The next scene was, IMHO, very pivotal in the episode, All Hell Breaks Loose, Pt. 2. Due to the amount of detail that I felt was important to retain, I took the liberty of pulling pieces of dialog directly from the episode itself (although the speaker may have changed) so that I wouldn't screw up the information that needed to be relayed. No copyright infringement was intended and I hope that Kripke and crew believe the saying that "imitation is the highest form of flattery". Enjoy!

A/N: Oh yeah….still only wishful thinking, don't own anything but Tessa.

Tessa walked into the dining room to find her father and Ellen sitting across from each other at the table. In front of each of them was a shot glass. In the center of the table was a bottle of whiskey. Ellen looked shook up while Bobby listened intently to her story.

"And that's all there is to tell. Pretzels… I can't believe my life or death balanced on pretzels." Ellen said shaking her head.

Bobby looked up as she came into the room. "I saw your car out front. Good to see you made it home in one piece. Have you talked to the boys?" He stood up to give her a quick hug and kiss.

"Briefly, Sam's sleeping and Dean should be down shortly. It looks as if I came home just in time. Can someone fill me in on the details? What's this about life and death?" She grabbed another shot glass and sat down at the table.

"The Roadhouse. It's gone. Burned to the ground." Ellen sounded as if she was still trying to accept that piece of reality herself.

"Burned down? By who? When? Was anyone hurt?" Tess forgot all about the shot of whiskey she had just poured which now sat in front of her on the table.

"Demons. Burned it to the ground. It was a trap. A lot of good hunters were lost in there. Ash…" Ellen's voice broke and she poured herself another shot.

Tessa could feel the tears burning in her eyes. Ash was dead. How could that be? Then a terrible thought hit her, "Ellen… Jo? She's not…She wasn't…" She couldn't bring herself to say the words.

"No, thank God! I never thought I would be happy to see my daughter out on a hunt but today… well, let's just say I'm starting to think differently about it. She's in Nebraska looking into a haunting."

Dean stopped dead in his tracks as he entered the room and saw the party sitting at the table. "Ellen?" Dean's surprised voice meant that he had known about the Roadhouse. She couldn't really blame him for not telling her but at the same time she wondered what else he had held back. She watched as he looked to Bobby, who nodded, before going to Ellen and grabbing her in a bear hug.

"We didn't think anyone made it out. How? Did anyone else make it?" The hope that was forming in his eyes was dashed as Ellen shook her head and sat slowly back down. "Damn it. I'm sorry to hear it Ellen. He took the remaining empty chair and reached across the table grabbing Tessa's forgotten shot and downing it in one smooth movement.

"I hear Sam had a rough time of it. He going to be ok?" Ellen's look of concern seemed genuine so he assumed that Bobby had kept his promise and hadn't given her the full story.

"Emm. Yeah. He'll be good." He could feel Bobby's eyes on him as he replied. "Something is up though. That yellow eyed bastard was testing him, and he wasn't the only one. Bobby says there have been a good number of omens out in Wyoming. Something big is going down and we need to figure out what it is." He couldn't remember ever being so happy to change the subject.

"Wyoming? Hold on a second." Ellen reached into her pocket and pulled out what appeared to be a folded up map. "Ash called. Told me to look in the safe…then the phone cut out. By the time I got back the flames were sky high. I did manage to get this out of the safe though." Ellen spread the map on the table. "Ash was working on this before he… I remember seeing him making these marks here." She indicated the black x's that Ash had obviously marked onto the map.

Tess listened quietly. The tension between Dean and her father was palpable. They were going to have to talk this out sooner or later. She knew how her father felt about the boys. They had been through too many close calls together. He didn't like to let on but, since John died, he had felt a great deal of responsibility for their well being. Now, not only had something happened to Sam, but Dean had done the unthinkable. It had to be eating at Bobby; she knew he would have rather traded his own soul then to see Dean make that deal.

She realized that her thoughts had drifted when her father sat back down in his chair with one of his many research books. "Each of these x's is an abandoned Frontier Church. All mid-nineteenth century and all of them built by Samuel Colt." Bobby looked from the text to the map.

"Seriously. Samuel Colt? The demon killing, gun making Samuel Colt?" Tess couldn't keep the surprise out of her voice.

"Yep, and there's more." Bobby went back to reading the text. Tessa looked across the table and saw that Dean was as anxious about this news as she was. "It says here that he built railway lines connecting church to church that just happen to lay out," he picked up a pen and leaned over the map, filling in the lines for each railway, "like this."

He stood back and they all took in the symbol that was now clearly drawn on the map. Dean was the first to find his voice. "Tell me that's not what I think it is."

"It's a Devil's Trap…a hundred square foot Devil's Trap…" Tessa couldn't seem to tear her eyes away from the drawing.

"That's brilliant. Iron lines. Demons can't cross." Dean was shaking his head in amazement.

Ellen looked to Bobby, "I've never heard of anything that massive."

"No one has," he replied, shaking his head.

Tessa examined the map more closely. "And after all these years none of the lines are broken? I mean it still works?" She was surprised to hear Dean's confident reply, "Definitely."

"Think about it. All those omens that Bobby found. I mean the demons must be circling and they can't get in." His logic made sense.

"Yeah, well they're trying." Bobby grumbled.

Tessa pushed the map back to the center of the table. "But why? What's inside?"

Dean examined the map more closely. "There's nothing except an old cowboy cemetery right in the middle."

They had been to more cemeteries then she cared to try to count. One was no different really then the next. "What's so important about a cemetery? What's Colt trying to protect?" She wasn't sure she actually wanted to know what a Devil's Trap of that size could be protecting.

Dean suddenly sat back heavily in his chair, "Well…unless…"

They all turned to him impatient to know what he was thinking. "Unless what?" Bobby asked anxiously.

Dean lifted his head and locked eyes with Bobby. "What if Colt wasn't trying to keep the demons out? What if he was trying to keep something in?"

Tessa felt a chill run down her spine as Ellen echoed her feelings, "Now that's a comforting thought."

Dean broke his eye contact with Bobby to turn to Ellen. "Yeah, you think?" He sighed and reached for the bottle of whiskey.

Tess thought that a Devil's Trap that size had to be impenetrable. Colt was a genius after all. He wouldn't have left a chance that it could be breached. She looked to her father for confirmation. "Could they do it Bobby? Could they get inside?"

She was relieved to see him shake his head as he replied, "This thing's so powerful you'd practically need an A Bomb to destroy it. No way a full blood demon gets across."

They all startled just a bit as Sam walked into the room, "No. But I know who could."