CHAPTER 2

The three men looked at her with varying degrees of horror on their faces. Then Dean cleared his throat and said, "And who do you think we are?"

"You're Dean and Sam and that's Bobby." She looked at each of them in turn. "Chuck gave me the gospels and let me read them; including the unpublished stuff. He also let me in on material that isn't in the books. He told me all three of you would be coming here."

Sam had a worried expression on his face, "What material?"

The woman looked at him and smiled gently, "All of it, Sam." She took a breath, "What he gave me doesn't include how you're here, though. Maybe someday, you can tell me?"

"Why the hell would Chuck do that?" demanded Dean.

She looked at him and smiled. "I don't know why. He just wanted me to know everything." She turned and headed back to her car and the groceries. "Come on over and I'll let you in on a few of the secrets Chuck and I shared." The three hunters shared meaningful glances and Sam and Dean locked gazes, having a short conversation before Sam cocked his head and led the way across the street.

"My name is Lily, by the way," the woman spoke over her shoulder. "I have soda if you are interested, milk or water otherwise. My sons are at just the right age to want to try stuff, so I don't keep anything in the house they shouldn't get into." She scoffed a little to herself, "There's other reasons why there isn't any alcohol…" A little louder she said, "I usually don't have soda either, but today's sale was too good to pass up…."

Lily's boys were still pulling bags out of the car, but they stopped to look at the three men coming toward them; they hurried into the house ahead of the adults. Bobby, Sam and Dean looked in the trunk and saw that there were just a few bags of groceries left. Sam immediately grabbed two more and Dean and Bobby followed suit Dean was a little amused to see that her car was a late model Impala. The men followed the boys into the house and carried the bags into the kitchen.

The kitchen was large, with white and glass cabinets and stainless steel appliances. The remaining sacks of groceries were on an island in the middle of the floor.

"You expecting company?" Dean asked, a slight grin on his face as they saw the amount of groceries that had already been brought inside.

Lily just turned to look at him and laughed, "No, extreme couponing. Most of this stuff will go to the food bank my church runs. Thanks for helping, though."

Dean turned to Sam and asked under his breath, "What's extreme couponing?" Sam just shrugged.

Lily looked at the boys and just said, "Shower." The boys looked at the three men in their house and then to their mother. They looked at each other. Without saying a word, they seemed to have a short conversation, and the taller boy left.

Lily silently waved a hand in the direction of the breakfast nook, inviting the men to sit down. The boy was already getting the cold food out and putting it away. Lily watched him for a moment before turning back around to the men.

"I guess there are three reasons why Chuck told me about you," she sighed, taking a seat. "First, but in no particular order, is we moved here, to this town, from Missouri at the end of December, two years ago."

Something in her eyes gave Dean a clue, "Carthage?" He whispered surprised; he didn't know anyone had survived that.

Lily nodded, tears glistened in her eyes, "My sons and I were among a handful of survivors. The only reason there were any survivors is because we were all out of town when it happened. The boys and I were on vacation; Disney World, if you can believe it." She laughed a little bitterly, "Imagine my surprise when I read that manuscript!"

Dean's expression slipped to terse devastation as he stared at her, incredulous. Sam and Bobby just looked at the floor.

"I'm so sorry," Dean whispered.

She smiled at him. "I know, me too." She reached over and touched his hand, "You lost people there, as well." The tears in her eyes weren't falling. She blinked them back.

Lily took a deep breath. "My boys and I lost absolutely everything there, but we're still standing and counseling has helped. The boys are being home schooled because of some lingering separation anxiety on both our parts and for another…more specific reason."

She turned and smiled at the boy standing at the counter. All of the cold groceries were put away and the bags were folded and in a neat stack. He still hadn't said anything, but there was recognition and surprise in his eyes as he looked at the three strangers. Lily caught his eyes and nodded.

Ever curious, Sam asked, "What's the second reason?"

Lily looked at him and smiled again. "I'm a writer, too. It's how I make my living."

For the first time the boy spoke. "She writes the Chloe and Conner Simon books!"

All three men looked at the boy blankly as he hurriedly left the room. When he returned he had a book in his hand. He smiled as he handed it to Sam. "This is the first one. It's awesome!"

Lily looked embarrassed. "I think your brother is out of the shower. I'm okay, you get going."

The boy moved around the island, paused as if he needed something on a lower shelf, and then he left. Lily turned again to the men. "Can I get you anything? Water or soda?" All three men shook their heads.

Sam was still looking at the book in his hand, "Time travel?"

Lily laughed at that and said, "Yeah, well no one has done anything really with that. The books are for teen and preteen kids. Sort of like the first couple of Potter books were. There are two so far and I'm working on the third. The release date for the second book is next month actually."

Sam handed the book to Bobby, who narrowed his gaze at it, slightly confused.

"Who's Emma J. Hiller?" he asked.

"That's me. It's my pen name. For privacy sake, I use a different name, especially after what happened. Emma was my great-grandmother's name. The J is a nod to J.K. Rowling, a personal hero, and Hiller was my mother's maiden name." She tapped on the book, "You'll notice there's no picture on the back. I wouldn't allow it." She chuckled a little, "Anyway, the first book was about to come out and I had already decided to use a pen name because of personal reasons, when the event back home happened. The editor pushed back the release date to March. I didn't expect the success it has attained."

She took a deep breath and suddenly appeared self-conscious, averting her gaze, blushing, "Sorry, didn't mean to brag."

Dean was smiling at her. "That's all right. What's the third reason?"

Lily laughed and turned around. She held up a finger and said, "Give me a few minutes."

She left the room and they could hear her going up the stairs. A while later, she returned with her boys and said, "Let me introduce you to my sons."

The boys were wearing similar clothes. Both were in khaki cargo shorts with green t-shirts tucked in and what appeared to be a rather large knife on their belts. The t-shirts had the name Camp McNally and the Boy Scout fleur-de-lis on the front. On their feet were heavy socks and well worn hiking boots.

First, she looked at them and smiled and told them to lift up their shirts. She did the same. The men raised their brows at that, but then they saw what she was showing them. On their left flank just at the bottom of their rib cage all three of them had ink. They were identical to the tattoos Sam and Dean had on their chest.