POTLATCH, IDAHO

Erica Dellinger's face was aglow with the light emanating from the display of her cell phone. Her thumbs danced across the keyboard as she typed out a text message. Furiously, she snapped the device closed and shook her head. She could not believe that she had trusted that idiot Jacob. Her friend Margaret had tried to warn her that he was a shameless flirt and that he was known for cheating, but did she listen? Of course not. That was why she was here, walking down the sidewalk in the dark after her late shift at the Film Farm. Jacob normally picked her up, but where was he now? At a party with some blonde bimbo. Erica was still wearing her red button down uniform shirt over her thigh length skirt. She hated her job, but at least they let her wear her skirt and her netting stockings and her combat boots. Nibbling on the tips of her nails, which were painted a rainbow of colors, she crossed the street and moved to the other sidewalk, turning down the road. She stuck the ear buds of her iPod into her ears and cranked up her music. Her home was just in sight when the cold shiver tore up her spine and she noticed her breath materializing into a cloud of fog. A gloved hand clamped about her mouth and she barely had time to register what was happening before the knife was plunged deep into her abdomen.

xx

SOIUX FALLS, SOUTH DAKOTA

xx

Moonlight was filtering through the windows as Sam walked through the quiet home. Dean had just been let out of the hospital a few days before, and the group was taking a much needed break from hunting while Dean got his strength back. They had been staying with Bobby, and neither Sam or Dean had seen much of the elder hunter and Oshea, who were both searching for more information on the ritual that Jonah had said would halt the apocalypse. Since Dean had been spending the majority of his time popping Vicodin and sleeping and Oshea and Bobby had been caught up in their research, Sam and Ella had been spending more and more time together and as a result had gotten closer. However, it was not Ella that Sam was hoping to speak to that night as he paced Bobby's home barefoot. One of his hands was in his pocket, and the other was nervously combing through his messy brown hair. "Dean?" He whispered, moving into the bedroom where Dean had been spending the majority of his time. "Dean, are you awake?"

"Yeah. Wide awake," Dean grumbled from underneath the covers. He sighed, sitting up and leaning over to turn on the lamp. He winced a little. The bruises on his face and arm were still barely visible, but hurt like hell. Not to mention the skewer wounds. "Those little demon campers really pissed me off. I can barely move without being in pain," He grumbled, reaching for the medicine bottle that was on the nightstand next to a half empty glass of water. "I feel like House or something, having to pop pills every few hours," He rolled his eyes. "So what are you doing up?"

Sam closed the door behind himself and moved in to sit down on the side of the bed. "Just don't get addicted to them. We can't afford too many more of those meds, you know." He said with a little smile. The smile faded as he looked down and shifted a little uncomfortably. "Well... I just... I have something I need to talk to you about. It's pretty important." He pulled out a small velvet box from the pocket of his pajama pants, staring at it as he spoke.

Dean arched a brow. "Sam. What is that?"

"This... is what I wanted to talk to you about," He said, opening the little box and showing Dean the thin golden band with a small diamond. "I... I want to ask Ella to marry me, Dean."

"You're not serious.." Dean said, glancing back and forth at the ring and then at Sam. He snatched the small box from him and arched a brow. "Where the hell did you get the money for this thing anyway?"

"I'm very serious, Dean. Why wouldn't I be?" Sam said with a slight frown as he let Dean take the ring from him. "Hustling pool mostly." He answered. "I got it at a pawn shop while we were in Laurens, Georgia... you know, before all that stuff with Jael..."

Dean looked the ring over and handed it back to his brother. "Look, I want you to be happy, but with all the stuff that's going on right now do you really think marriage is something you should be worried about?"

"With all that's going on? Dean, when is something not going on?" Sam said as he took back the box with the ring and closed it with a soft snap. "Our job... it doesn't have an end." He stood up with a sigh and stepped to the window. "I used to think that.. if we could just catch the thing that killed mom, then things could be normal. But... things are never going to be normal for us." He looked over his shoulder toward Dean. "It's not some job we can retire from. Dean, I don't want hunting to be the only thing in my life. I want a family... maybe that's selfish, but considering everything that we have done, everyone we've saved, I think I'm entitled to have at least one thing in my life that is for me..."

"So you and Ella are going to get married, have adorable plaid wearing babies... and then what? Gonna drag them around from town to town while we try to hunt monsters and avoid an apocalypse at the same time? Have them grow up and have the same life as us?" He rolled his eyes. "Oh yeah, because we know how that turned out.."

He whirled around to face his brother, his eyes narrowed slightly. "So what I'm just supposed to give up what I want for this job, this life, that I never even wanted in the first place? Haven't I sacrificed

enough, done enough...?" He sighed, running his hand through his hair. "Even now, there are times when I'd like to just stop. But I can't. This job is going to haunt me forever... until I die. Having kids grow up like we did isn't ideal... but... it's the only chance I have, Dean."

"Sam, just think about how we were raised, what we had to go through, what Dad put us through... I don't know about you, but I would never want to do that to a kid," Dean shook his head. "Just... take some more time to think about this, Sam, that's all I'm saying."

Sam shook his head, pushing the ring box back into his pocket and stepping toward the door. "You know, Dean... this time I was actually hoping for one of your 'our lives weren't that bad' speeches... Just a little encouragement, you know? A little hope...? Is that really too much to ask?" With that, he stepped from the room and shut the door behind himself.