Author's Note: Not gonna lie. I'm really excited for this chapter and jump start all the demon drama. Thank you to Deangirl93 and MissECharlotte for being the only ones to review the last chapter! Happy reading!

Meredith could feel the lush, green grass under her bare feet as she walked along in the park with her mother.

"Something big is coming, Mer," her mother said.

"Okay… you've said that before. But what does that mean, Mom?" Meredith asked, frustrated.

"Well, I can't give you all the answers, now can I?" Her mother asked back, wittily.

"Mom," Meredith groaned.

"You're a smart girl, sweetie. You'll figure it out," her mother replied, contently.

"Figure what out?" Meredith asked, but when she looked to her mom, her mother was gone.

And the next thing she knew, she was no longer in the park, but was in her own bed, in her dark bedroom that she shared with her husband. She glanced over at the clock and saw that it was well past 9 am and her husband was gone. Meredith groaned, before dragging herself out of bed, putting on a bathrobe, and heading out to the kitchen where she smelled breakfast already.

She was getting really tired of these dreams. Her mother was always coming to warn her about something – something big – whatever the hell that meant, but she never gave any real answers! How the hell was she supposed to prepare for whatever it was, if she had no idea what it was? Then again, that's what her mom was warning her about. Her mom wanted her to find out what it was so they could prepare. She just wished that her mom wasn't so cryptic and ambiguous about it.

"Morning," Meredith said, going into the kitchen.

"Hey, you look like hell," Dean said.

She glared her husband, and grumbled sarcastically, "Thanks, Dean."

"Wh- I mean, that's- that's not what I meant, honey. You look beautiful, as always. It's just… did you get any sleep last night?" Dean asked.

Meredith paused, thinking it over. Whenever she had these dreams, she always felt like she had stayed up all night the next day. Maybe it was time to talk to Dean about the dreams. Then again, she didn't want to worry him, especially because he was the king of worryland.

"Mhm. Yeah. I uh, I don't know. I didn't sleep well I guess," Meredith said.

"Oh. Well if you want to go back to bed-," Dean started.

Meredith shook her head, "Uh uh. It's John's birthday and we promised him chocolate chip pancakes."

"You sure… you're okay, babe?" Dean asked, concerned, as he examined his wife's face. She looked exhausted and worried about something. He just didn't know what, which made him nervous. Was there something she wasn't telling him?

"Yeah, I'm fine. Just need some good morning coffee, you know?" Meredith asked, trying to mask what she was thinking about.

"Sure," Dean replied, half convinced. He went over to the coffee pot, grabbed a coffee mug, and poured her a cup of coffee. "Here." He handed it to her, and she took it, smiling weakly.

"Thanks," Meredith said, taking a big gulp of the coffee, waking her up.

"How about we start on some breakfast, huh?" she asked, putting on her best happy face.

Upstairs, Flynn and Victoria were already up and about. Since it was a special occasion, Flynn knew he'd be the go-to photographer. And he had already begun.

"Come on," he whispered to Victoria, grinning mischievously at her. She returned the same grin before they tiptoed into John's room, quietly, trying not to wake him up.

"Aw, he looks like an angel sleeping," Flynn teased.

"You're such a doof," Victoria whispered back, rolling her eyes. Flynn bent down, taking a picture of John sleeping, as the flash went off.

"What the hell?" John yelled waking up.

"Happy birthday!" Victoria and Flynn cheered together.

"What the hell, man? Did you just take a picture of me sleeping?" John groaned.

Flynn and Victoria exchanged glances and sniggered, "Blackmail."

John frowned, "Alright, alright. I'm getting up. Hey, do I smell chocolate chip pancakes?"

"Don't we always have them on your birthday?" Victoria asked back.

"Sweet!" John said, hopping out of bed and going to the bathroom to brush his teeth.

While the rest of the family waited for John to come downstairs, they were busy in the kitchen setting up and cooking. Victoria and Flynn were setting the table while Meredith was finishing the pancakes and Dean was making some bacon.

"I'm going to go get the paper," Victoria said, before excusing herself from the room.

"Need help with anything else?" Flynn asked.

"Nope. We're almost done here," Meredith replied.

"Okay," Flynn replied, picking up his camera and going over to the door that led from the kitchen to the backyard. He started taking a few shots before knowing that his parents weren't paying attention. He knew that the best photos of them were always candid. He got a picture of his mother taking the pancake plate over to the table and when returning, accidentally running into Dean. He took another picture of the aftermath of his father kissing his mother on the forehead, the shared glance.

"Bacon, sweet!" John exclaimed, interrupting Flynn's photography.

"Be careful. It's-," Dean started.

He went over to the kitchen, picking it up from the skillet and almost instantly dropping it.

"Hot." Dean completed.

"Right," John said, crossing his arms over his chest. "I knew that."

"Happy birthday, sweetheart. The big 18. Oh God… what am I going to do with you now?" Meredith asked, hugging her son.

"Happy birthday, kiddo," Dean said. "You may now be tried in court, buy cigarettes – which you better not do."

"You can own a pet monkey," Flynn chimed in.

"You can vote!" Meredith suggested.

"You can also buy porn legally," Dean added. Meredith glared at him. "Just kidding. Don't do that…."

"You can also be accused of statutory rape, so remember to think with your upstairs brain and stop listening to… little John all the time," Victoria replied, coming back into the room.

"What? Little? I resent that," John protested. Victoria shrugged carelessly, while Meredith, Dean, and Flynn all just laughed. "I have a girlfriend, Victoria. Geez, chill."

"Alright, how about we all focus on celebrating John's birthday instead of insulting him," Meredith said, rounding up the troops. "I don't know about you guys, but I'm starving. Can we all just sit down to a nice, normal breakfast?"

"Mom, the words 'nice' and 'normal' have never in a million years been paired with the word 'Winchester'," Flynn pointed out.

"I know," Meredith sighed in defeat as the rest of the family laughed at Flynn's little remark.

"Dude, you're eighteen now. You better tell me you've got some wild plans tonight," Jude said, as he talked to his brother on the phone.

"Unless you call dinner with the whole family 'wild', then no," John answered with a chuckle.

"What? Are you becoming boring on me? Dude, if I were there and we weren't taken men, I'd take you out to a bar in an instant," Jude replied.

"Jude, I'm not twenty one yet," John reminded.

"Congratulations, Mr. Scott Young. You are officially twenty one years old today," Jude said, a cheeky mischievous tone in his voice.

"Dude, no way!" John exclaimed.

"Yep, fake ID. This one's fool proof too unlike your last one. It's on its way in the mail and don't let mom and dad find it. You know mom will throw it out and you don't want to know how hard I worked to get you this one," Jude replied.

"Hard drugs?" John asked.

"Yep. You've got to be a coke head to get in with the real fake ID makers," Jude joked back.

"Wow, you're going to make a really great doctor someday," John said sarcastically.

Jude laughed, "Alright, well I've got to go. I'm supposed to meet Anna. I'm going over to her apartment for dinner so you know what that means."

"What? It's my birthday and you're getting some? How is that fair?" John exclaimed.

"I'm the better looking brother," Jude shrugged.

"Shut up," John growled.

"But anyways, I just wanted to say happy birthday, man. You're eighteen now so… don't get too reckless, okay?" Jude asked.

"Yeah, see you. Thanks, man," John said with a chuckle.

"No problem," Jude replied.

"Bye," John said, before hanging up.

After Jude's conversation with his little brother, he put his phone back into his pocket and headed over to Anna's apartment. It wasn't too far from his, so he decided to walk over there. Jude took the stairs, since he was only on the third floor. When he was on the second flight of stairs, he stopped when he heard a noise. It sounded like something was following him. He looked behind him, seeing nothing before continuing to walk down the stairs.

There it was again. That weird echo: not the echo that came from your own footsteps but the echo of someone behind you that wasn't quite matching your stride. Jude stopped again, pausing to turn around and look, but there was no one – or nothing – there. He reached into his pocket, his hand gripping his knife tightly as he opened the door to the stairwell that led to the outside, and headed out, making sure the door had closed before anyone, or anything, could get out of it.

As soon as Jude felt like he was safe again, he heard footsteps. He spotted an alleyway and knew that if something was following him, it'd reveal itself there. He looked before crossing the street and then headed towards the alley, his hands on the pocket knife. As soon as he was close to the ending of the alley, Jude whipped around quickly, before pinning the creature that had been following him all this time, running it straight into the wall.

"You know, I thought you'd be rusty by now, Winchester. You've been playing doctor all this time. Who knew you still had it in you?" the woman said, her eyes flashing black and then back to normal pigmentation.

"What do you want?" Jude growled, pressing the knife into the demon just enough to draw blood. The demon laughed.

"I guess you are rusty on the facts. That thing can't kill me," the demon sneered.

"I asked you a question!" Jude demanded.

The demon laughed a cold, cruel laugh, "What all the demons want. Winchester blood. There's a big battle coming and the first wants Winchester blood. You Winchesters killed the most of us out there, and we want our revenge."

"Yeah, well, it's not going to happen. You sons of bitches are on a suicide mission you know that?" Jude spat.

"Cocky… just like your arrogant, self loathing, selfish father of yours," the demon taunted. That was it was for Jude. He swung a punch at the demon, causing her to recoil, holding her face.

"You really going to hit a lady?" she smirked.

"You're not a lady. You're a monster," he said, strongly.

"Ouch. And I thought we could be friends," she said sarcastically. Her eyes went black again and she lunged at Jude. Jude took the punch but pushed through it and began to block her attacks, shoving her against the opposite wall, right next to the dumpster.

"You like it rough? Me too, baby," she smirked. Jude ignored her comment and out of the corner of his eye, he saw that someone had thrown a set of fireplace tools away, lying next to the dumpster. If only he could get to them so that the demon wouldn't kill him first. The demon pushed Jude away, causing him to fall. "See, you are rusty? I guess this will be easy then." She pulled out her knife as Jude crawled on his stomach, reaching for the fireplace tool set. He prayed that they'd be solid iron.

"I don't think I've ever met a Winchester that chose flight over fight. I bet Daddy and Mommy never taught you that. Guess you're as much as a disappointment as they were to their parents," the demon cackled. Jude grabbed the bag, as the demon grabbed his ankle, causing the tools to spill everywhere.

"Let go of me!" Jude yelled. He jerked his ankle back, and managed to get back on his feet, ready for more combat.

"Jude, Jude, Jude. You really think you can take me?" she smiled, grinning.

"Yeah," Jude said, before pushing the demon towards the iron fireplace tools that were scattered, pushing her to the ground and pinning her there, before assembling an iron box shape with the tools.

"If you wanted to be on top, you should've just said something," she smirked.

"I'm not a man of many words," Jude shot back, before quickly getting up and out of the iron box. The demon laughed, starting to stand up before she realized what Jude had done.

"You little-," the demon started, but Jude interrupted her by beginning the exorcism. Thank God his parents had forced him to memorize it. It was always, 'honey, did you finish your English homework?' 'Make sure to clean up your room and make your bed' 'Jude, have you memorized all of the exorcisms?' Strange combination. Yes, he knew.

"No!" the demon screamed, but Jude continued. As he got to the end, the demon was screaming and was being ripped from the host body.

"Wh-, where am I? Who are you?" the girl asked, panicked.

"Let's get you to the hospital," Jude replied, helping her up.

Her eyes widened as she saw him, "You're bleeding. I did this! I- I said horrible things to you!"

Jude shook his head, "It wasn't you. Now come on."

Jude helped the girl out of the alleyway and hailed a cab to the hospital. On the way, he texted Anna, letting her know he probably wouldn't make it and would stop by later. Boy had this night turned out a lot differently than he expected it to.

"Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday, dear John. Happy birthday to you," all of John's family and friends sang to him.

"Alright, make a wish," Meredith said, cheerfully. John thought about it for a moment before blowing out his candles, causing the whole family to clap and cheer.

"Happy birthday, babe," Renee said in his ear, kissing him on the cheek.

He watched as everyone around, the people that loved him the most, moved about, urging on the birthday celebration. He was so happy in that moment. Everything seemed to be perfect when he heard a scream. From then on, it was like everything was moving in slow motion.

Iz was running from one end of the room to another and his father was yelling. His mother had disappeared into the bedroom on his dad's orders and out of the crowd of Winchesters and Walshes that had all congregated in the living room to celebrate John's birthday, an unfamiliar man emerged.

"You Winchesters make it too easy, sticking together like this. I guess that's what we like about you," the man sneered, his eyes turning black.

Greer froze, realizing her demon killing knife wasn't with her. Cole gave her a questioning look and she shook her head. Apparently he had been thinking of it too.

"John Winchester. It's nice to finally meet. I've been waiting eighteen years," the demon replied.

And before John knew it, the man had Renee in his arms, holding her against him. He pulled out a knife as Ethan yelled and Molly screamed.

"One step and she's dead," the demon swore. He raised the knife to her, and in an instant, the demon collapsed, pushing Renee down before he was dead. John's mother stood above the demon, the bloody knife in her hand. Her and Dean locked eyes and exchanged 'what the hell' glances.

"Renee!" John yelled, rushing to her side. "Oh my God, are you okay?"

"Yeah. It's just, ow! I think… I think my wrist… it hurts," she said, trying to twist it.

"Here, let me see," John said, reaching out to help her.

"Ah!" she whimpered.

"Renee!" her mother yelled out, rushing over to her side, her father following along.

"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry," John said, holding him to her.

Shortly after, Ethan had immediately taken Renee to the hospital to get her wrist checked out. Meredith had come along with them along with Molly and John.

"John, you're not supposed to be here," Renee said, as John came bursting through the exam room doors. She had just had her wrist wrapped up and wasn't supposed to have anyone in there but her parents.

"I'm sorry, Renee," was all John could say. Renee looked into her boyfriend's eyes and saw how broken he was.

"Why are you apologizing?" she asked.

"It's my fault. It's all my fault," John replied, shaking his head. He was hysterical and there was no way he could calm down.

"What're you talking about, John?" Renee exclaimed, her eyes pleading with him to calm down.

"The demon was here for me. Didn't you hear him? I… you'll have to come with me to center or at least learn basics if we're going to keep doing this. If- if this is going to happen more often, you- you're my weakness Renee. They know you're my weakness. They'll go after you because of me. They did. I.. maybe we shouldn't even do this. Maybe, it'll be better for you because on your boyfriend's birthday, demons won't go after you. Renee, I don't know if it's a good idea if we-," John said, pacing back and forth around the room.

"John, would you just stop it!" Renee demanded. John stopped walking and swallowed hard.

"Renee," John started. "I don't know if this is a good idea anymore. I mean, you and I were both afraid I'd break your heart but I may just get you killed instead and I don't- I can't do that to you."

"Why are you doing this?" she pleaded.

"Because I love you!" he exclaimed. "Because- because I love you and because you're going to get hurt because of me."

Renee had never seen John this vulnerable in all of the eighteen years she had known him. She began to tear up.

"I love you too, John. Please, please don't do this," she begged.

"What am I supposed to do?" John asked, his voice breaking.

Renee shook her head, "Just hold me. Because that's all I want right now." John nodded, before going over to her and holding her. He let her cry on his shoulder. He wanted to be there for her; to be strong for her, but at the moment, all he wanted to do was fall apart.

Outside of the exam room, Ethan, Molly, and Meredith stood in the waiting room. They all just sat in silence, not knowing what to say or even wanting to break the silence that had become almost comfortable ever since Renee went in to be looked at.

"I'm going to get some coffee," Molly finally said, breaking the silence.

"Okay," Ethan replied.

"Anyone want any?" Molly asked.

Meredith just shook her head and Ethan mumbled a 'no' before Molly finally left. Once she was out of earshot Meredith finally said something, her eyes glue to the hospital floor.

"Go ahead. Say it. Say what you've wanted to say this whole time," Meredith said coldly.

"I swear to God if another son of a bitch demon comes near my daughter again- Meredith this, this can't happen again. What's going to happen now? What if they go out and something comes after John? We can't be there to protect them. What am I supposed to do about that?" Ethan exclaimed.

"Ethan," Meredith warned, quietly.

"What the hell even went on back there? Everything's been fine – normal – until today. And then all of a sudden a demon attacks the house in the middle of-. He went after her because she's John's girlfriend. You and Dean… you both said you were each others' weakness. Demons and monsters, they went after both of you because they knew it would get to you. I won't put her in harm's way Meredith. I won't," Ethan declared.

"Ethan," Meredith warned again.

"I'm going to tell her. I'm going to go in there right now and tell the both of them-," Ethan started, his fists balling up.

"Ethan!" Meredith barked, causing Ethan to stop talking and just stand there. "Don't."

"What?" Ethan asked.

"Don't. Don't do this to them. You saw what it did to me," Meredith replied.

"Mer, Renee and John aren't you and Dean," Ethan started.

"But they are!" Meredith interrupted. "How can you not see that? They are in so many ways. John is… John's his father's son. He's my son! If you asked him to, he'd do it. He'd do it in a heartbeat. In fact, I'm about 99.99% sure that he's talking to her about it right now. And I know you find that comforting, but John's not going out on the road for god knows how long. Don't tear them apart because of this."

"Then what am I supposed to do? She's my daughter. I need to protect her," Ethan sighed, trying not to lose it right then and there. In that instant, when the demon had her, he couldn't help but beat himself up for not getting into hunting like Meredith had. His mom had been a hunter. Why shouldn't he learn? But he hadn't and had chosen an extremely normal life. And now he was paying for it.

Meredith nodded, "And we'll make sure of it. We'll be prepared now."

"Mer… what-, I don't even-, I just-," Ethan stammered.

"Yeah, me too," Meredith agreed. Ethan chuckled.

"I'm sorry," he said.

Meredith shook her head, "Don't be."

Back at home, Meredith was cleaning up the mess that the demon had made and was picking up the rest of the stuff from John's way too eventful birthday party.

"Mom?" she heard a voice ask. Meredith turned around and saw John standing there, his eyes bloodshot.

"Oh, honey," she gasped, as soon as she saw him.

"I don't know what to do, Mom," he cried, falling into her arms.

"I know. I know…" she trailed off, just holding him.

"It's been a long day," Dean groaned, sprawling out on their bed.

Meredith giggled, "Save some room for me, why don't you?"

"I've got a special spot right here for you," he smirked, wiggling his eyebrows.

Meredith rolled her eyes playfully, laughing, "Just hold me. I think that's all I need after a day like this."

"Okay," Dean obliged as Meredith crawled into bed with him and lay down on herside. Dean rolled over, spooning her, and rested his head on her shoulder.

Meredith closed her eyes, enjoying the protective feeling of her husband's arms wrapped around her. Right here, she felt invincible.

"Dean," she started.

"Mhm?" Dean asked, sleepily.

"There's something I need to tell you," she started.

"Have you resumed your afternoon delight with the mailman?" Dean asked

Meredith giggled, "No. You're going to have to be serious about this, okay?"

"I am serious," Dean protested.

Meredith hesitated before removing her husband's arms from around her and rolling over so that she was face to face with him, "You know the weird dreams I've been having?"

"Yeah," Dean said.

"They've been about my mom. As in, my mom has been coming to me in these dreams and telling me things. Warning me," Meredith said back.

"Babe, why didn't you tell me about this?" Dean asked

Meredith shrugged, "I don't know."

"Well, what've they been saying?" Dean asked, curiously.

Meredith paused before telling him, "They're usually all the same. Last night we were walking together… she told me that something's coming. Something big is coming."