Author's Note: Here's the next chapter! Updates should be pretty quick from now on with this story since it's almost done. I knew the last one was quite a cliffhanger. The song used in this chapter is "Superman" by Five for Fighting. PLEASE listen to it while you read this chapter. The song lyrics are all italicized.

"I can't stand to fly. I'm not that naïve. I'm just out to find the better part of me…"

"Jude, slow down! What the hell is going on?!" John demanded.

"Mom," was all Jude could say. Right after his father had taken her out of there, he had forced himself to focus on killing the First. Now that he was dead, the reality was starting to set in. he had no idea if his mom was okay and he was racing off to the nearest hospital in search of his parents.

Jude got his dad's answering machine again, swearing and the throwing the phone down on the car floor, swearing, "Damn it, Dad!"

"Stop, Jude! You're starting to scare me. All you keep saying is that it's about mom but you won't explain it to me. What's going on?" John begged, starting to panic. He could only think of the worst and after their victory that was the last thing he wanted to think about.

"She got hurt, okay?" Jude asked, swallowing hard. He didn't want to say it because he didn't want to face the possibilities of what could happen.

John felt as if all the air had been sucked out of him, "W-what? Is it bad? I mean, is she okay?"

Jude paused, not wanting to say it, "I don't know."

Just then, he heard his phone buzzing and swore under his breath. He reached back to get it, hoping it was his dad but saw that it was only Victoria.

"Jude, look out! Stop!" John screamed, his eyes widened. Jude slammed on the break and the two caught their breath, seeing the big accident on the road. There was a big blue van in the middle of the road, crookedly parked, the driver passed out. And on the side of the road, stood Impala, beat up with broken glass.

"Mom! Dad!" Jude screamed putting the car in park and bolting from it, right over to the Impala on the side of the road. He sprinted to the car, quickly opening the door to the front seat to see find his father leaned up against the steering wheel, cuts on his face.

"Dad, wake up! Dad," Jude said, placing a hand on him. He didn't want to move him in fear of making it worse.

"Jude, call an ambulance," Dean mumbled, hearing his son's voice. He attempted to open his eyes but all he got was a flicker from his eyelids and a blurry vision of his eldest son.

"Mom, Dad! Jude, are they okay?" John asked, chasing after them.

"John, get back to the car and call 911. Now!" Jude ordered.

"Dad-," Jude started.

"No. I'll be fine. Help your mother," Dean managed to get out.

"Yeah, yeah okay," Jude said, running over to the passenger side.

"She's awake. She was awake when we were going to the hospital…" Dean murmured.

"Mom, can you hear me?" Jude asked, trying not to let his feelings get in the way. It took him his all to not lose it right there and then and crumble into a ball. He reminded himself that he had to act as though this were anybody so that he could do what he needed to do. He checked her pulse, taking a deep breath as he found it – there was barely one, but it was something.

Dean groaned and Jude glanced over, noticing the piece of glass digging into his father's side.

"Dad, you're-," Jude started.

"Help her first!" Dean demanded.

Jude nodded slowly.

"I called the ambulance. They said they were only a couple of miles away and that they'd be here in a matter of minutes. What can I do?" John asked, coming over to the car, on the driver's side.

"Okay," Jude said. He didn't want to move his mother either so instead, he leaned over her, checking for breathing. She was breathing but the breaths were short and uneven which only made him even more nervous. He wasn't sure what to do. She wasn't dead so it wasn't like he could perform CPR on her or anything. All they could do was wait.

"Dad, you okay?" John asked.

"Fine," Dean replied.

John's eyes widened in horror as soon as he saw the piece of glass sticking out of his dad's side, "Oh my God, Dad!"

"John, don't," Jude warned.

"What?" Dean asked.

"Nothing, Dad," John replied, exchanging glances with Jude. Jude shot him a look of approval before returning his attention to his mom.

She was really pale and he could tell that she was losing a lot of blood. He pressed the cloth that they had used to get her wrist to stop bleeding but saw the blood was soaking right through. He used a clean edge, pressing it against her cut. He could tell that she was cut elsewhere too as he searched for something else to stop the blood.

Suddenly, they all heard tires screech to a halt on the road and several doors opening.

"Oh my God. Oh my God!" they heard a girls' voice yell.

"I'll go. You stay and make sure they're okay," John said. Jude nodded and John sprinted back onto the road to find Sam, Victoria, and Flynn all getting out of the car.

"What happened?!" Victoria cried, tears forming in her eyes.

"It's okay, an ambulance will be right over," John reassured.

"Mom! Dad!" Flynn called out, starting towards the beat up Impala at the side of the road. Sam was already halfway there, helping Jude.

"Flynn, you can't!" John warned.

At that moment, they finally heard sirens going off and spotted those ambulance lights ablaze. Several people rushed out of the ambulance, equipment and all, and suddenly, everything was moving in slow motion. John stood, frozen, as he watched them remove his parents from the car, speaking quickly as Jude described to them what he saw as he arrived at the scene. A pair of people helped the other driver as well, who was proclaimed dead at the scene. How the hell did this happen?

"I'm more than bird. I'm more than a plane. I'm more than a pretty face beside a train. It's not easy to be me…"

Two days later…

Dean sat at his wife's bedside, holding her hand as he impatiently waited for her to wake up from the surgery. She had had a couple of lacerations, a concussion, and on top of that, a huge amount of blood loss. Now, she was fine, but she hadn't woken up yet. She was paler than normal. Dean's eyes slid up to the blood bag that was securely fastened to one of her veins.

Dean was at loss. He had no idea what he was going to do if she didn't wake up. No, he wouldn't think about that. She would wake up. She had to.

He scrunched his face up, feeling the tightness of the stitches in his forehead, but ignored the pain anyways. Nothing compared to how he was feeling inside.

"Dad," he heard a small voice say, causing him to look up, but not let go of her hand.

"Yeah?" he asked, glancing up at his daughter who stood in the doorway to the hospital room.

"Dad, you need to eat something. I brought you some coffee and toast," Victoria said.

"Thanks, kiddo," Dean said, stoically as he stared emptily out of the hospital room window. But Victoria stood there, glaring at her dad.

"You're not even going to eat, are you?" she accused, crossly.

"Look, don't worry about me-," Dean started.

"Damn it, Dad! We're worried enough about Mom as it is. The least you can do is relieve us of worrying about you too!" she snapped.

"You watch your tone, young lady," Dean warned.

"Whatever," she said, rolling her eyes and storming out of the room. Dean felt bad but they were all on edge. Victoria, however, was still angry as she made her way back to the cafeteria.

"He didn't take it," she said, slamming down the plate of toast and storming away. Flynn got up, following her away out into the hallway.

"Hey, wait up!" he yelled after her.

"What?" she snapped, turning around to face Flynn.

"I know… we just have to think about what he's going through," Flynn said.

"Yeah, and that doesn't mean he has to act like that. We're just trying to help!" Victoria yelled. A couple of nurses in passing shushed her but she only glared daggers at them back.

"I know, I know. It's hard for us but it must be ten times harder for him. It's always been the two of them, you know?" Flynn asked.

Victoria knew he was right but was so upset by what had just happened. She looked up at her twin with tears in her eyes, "What's gonna happen?"

"I don't know," Flynn replied, sadly.

"What's going to happen if-," Victoria started.

"Let's not think about that," Flynn interrupted, pulling his sister into a hug and just letting her cry.

"Hey, we're going to head home. We figured it's about time that we all get some sleep," Jude interrupted. Flynn and Victoria pulled away and Victoria wiped her tears away.

"Okay," she said.

It was yet another hopeless day of waiting for their mother to wake up. She wasn't quite sure how many more she'd be able to take.

"Wish that I could cry. Fall upon my knees. Find a way to lie about a home I'll never see…"

"It may sound absurd, but don't be naïve. Even heroes have the right have the right to bleed…"

"What're you thinkin' about?" Greer asked, looking over at Cole who was deep in thought as he drove to John's house.

"Nothing," Cole replied, smiling weakly.

"You okay?" she asked, kindly.

Cole sighed, "I guess. I mean, no. But they all think she's going to pull through."

Greer nodded slowly, "I really can't imagine… Well, at least it's all over. The First stuff and everything."

Cole nodded in agreement, "Yeah, I'm glad it is too. It's just… none of us imagined that it would end like this. Not that anything's happened yet but, she's in the hospital and- and well, you never know." Greer noticed the tears in his voice and instantly felt guilty.

"I'm sorry. I shouldn't have brought it up," Greer said.

Cole shook his head, "It's fine. Let's talk about something else, though, okay?"

"Sure," Greer answered.

"Are you excited to go live with your mom?" Cole asked.

This was the last thing that Greer expected him to say. But she knew Cole and knew that he was kind. He wasn't thinking about himself when he asked that question.

"What? You can't wait to get me out of here?" Greer teased.

"No, but I can't wait until you get to be with your family. I hope it's all you imagined it to be," Cole answered.

"I can't be making it all up, right? I mean, I spent a good few months with them and things were great. I just, I want to know what it's like. You have this amazing family and, well, you've made be pretty damn curious, Winchester," Greer replied.

Cole nodded, "You know, who'd have ever thought that we'd end up here? I remember that first time meeting you and disliking you, probably because you knew more about my family than I did. Honestly, babe. You scared the hell out of me that day. I had no idea what you were talking about."

Greer chuckled, "I'm sorry! I didn't know how to actually talk to be as a real person so I just kind of went about it in my hunter ways."

"And that act fell apart pretty quickly," Cole teased, playfully.

"Oh, like your good boy act?" Greer shot back.

"What?!" Cole explained.

"Well, we've done a lot of sneaking out together, Winchester. You've spent nights at my apartment on school nights… naked," she smirked.

Cole tried hard not to grin widely at the thought but couldn't resist, "You're such a tease."

"Mhm. And you're just going to have to wait a little longer since we're here," Greer said. Cole chuckled, rolling his eyes playfully. The two got out of the car and were greeted at the door to the Winchester residence by Victoria who let them in and dragged a bag of trash out to the street. She threw it in the trash can and then began to make her way up the driveway, back to her house, until someone caught her eye. Tyler. Oh no…

She kept her head down and started to walk back to her house even faster now, until she heard his voice.

"Victoria!" he called out to her, causing her to stop in her tracks and swear under her breath. She could hear his quick footsteps behind her as she turned around to look at him.

"Hi," she said, uncomfortably.

"Hey," he said back.

The two stood in uncomfortable silence before Tyler spoke up, breaking it. "I heard about your mom. I uh, I'm sorry. I hope… everything is okay."

"Yeah, thanks," she said.

"Well, I uh, I just wanted to see if everything was okay. You know, just… if your family needs anything I'm sure my parents would be happy to help. We'd be… we'd be happy to help," he stammered.

"Thank you," Victoria replied, mentally slapping herself in the face for being so distant with him. This was hard for her, so she could imagine it being ten times harder for him. But he cared enough and she was being an ice queen.

"Well, I'll leave you alone," Tyler started.

"Okay," she said back.

Tyler started to walk away, giving her enough courage to say something, "I'm sorry."

"What?" Tyler asked, turning around.

"I'm sorry that I couldn't and still can't give you an explanation, Tyler. It's just… a bad time for me right now," Victoria nodded.

Tyler nodded slowly, "I think I've just accepted that things will always be complicated with you."

"I know," she nodded. "And I'm sorry for that too."

"It's okay," he replied, giving her a little hope that things might be okay between the two.

"Bye, Tyler," Victoria said.

"Bye," he said back.

"I may be disturbed, but won't you concede. Even heroes have the right to dream. It's not easy to be me…"

"Up, up and away, away from me. It's alright. You can all sleep sound tonight. I'm not crazy or anything…"

John and Renee walked hand in hand down the hospital hallway as he spotted his father and a policeman speaking to each other. They had just come from visiting Renee's dad, Ethan, who hadn't been allowed to help with Meredith at all, since they were close. He had been worried and John was giving him an update. Ethan would be stopping by when his surgery got out.

"I think your dad might actually like me," John started.

"What?! My dad's always liked you," Renee chuckled.

"Yeah, but I think he might actually trust me now," John said.

"Mm, good. He better, because if things go my way, there's no way I'm letting you go anytime soon," Renee said, wrapping her arms around John's neck. He pulled her in, wrapping his arms around her waist.

"You're not sick of me yet?" he asked.

"Yeah, but you're too good a catch to let go," she teased.

He chuckled, kissing her once. The two pulled away to see Dean heading into the hospital chapel. John watched his father with a pained expression on his face, which Renee took notice of.

"Go," Renee said.

"What?" John asked.

"Go talk to your dad. It looks like it'll kill you if you don't," Renee replied.

John smiled at his girlfriend, kissing her again, "Thank you."

"I'll be here," she called after him as he followed his dad in the church chapel.

"Would you like a specific prayer?" the priest asked. There usually wasn't a priest in the chapel, but apparently some stopped by a few hours every day so that those looking for guidance could have someone.

"No, thanks," Dean said, sitting down. "Look, I just want to be alone, okay?!"

"Of course," the man said, going to the front of the church. John hesitantly went over to the his father on the church pew to find his dad staring at something that made his eyes widen.

"Dad, that's not-," John started, his heart racing.

"Your mother's wedding ring. The police officer gave it to me. Said he found it in the crash…" Dean trailed off. John watched as his father turned the ring over and over again in his hands. "You know, that was my last year on earth before I went to hell. Your mom thought I was crazy for asking. Thought maybe I didn't want to spend a year tied down, and honestly, if it were anyone but her, I wouldn't have."

"You loved her a lot…" John trailed off.

"Love. I love her a lot," Dean corrected.

"Right," John coughed, uncomfortably.

"I don't know why she said yes, but she did," Dean said, remembering the night of their engagement fondly. He looked at the ring once more before closing his hand around it. "I better hold on to this."

"What? Why? Dad, you don't think she's going to -," John started.

"I'm proposing to her again, son. When she wakes up. She's gonna wake up," Dean interjected, determined.

John nodded, "Yeah. Yeah she will." He wasn't quite sure why he said it, but it seemed to be what his dad needed to hear at the moment.

Dean shoved the ring in his pocket before getting up, his legs stiff. He stretched them out before leaving the small hospital chapel, leaving John alone.

"You know, I don't really do this praying thing, but I'll give it a shot," he said aloud to himself, grabbing the priest's attention.

John shut his yes, asking for his mother to wake up and to be fine and live a long healthy life. He asked God to watch over his family and to always keep them safe.

He then thought about the beautiful woman waiting for him outside of the chapel. When his dad was talking about their wedding, he couldn't help but think about the talk with Renee about settling down eventually. Like his mom and Dad, he and Renee had been in it together since the beginning, unsurprisingly beginning a relationship when they got to high school. But the truth was, there had always been feelings for each other, even when they never acknowledged them.

He loved Renee. He was the first girl that he had ever said that to, romantically. It shocked, scared, and excited him all at once. He wondered whether that was all he needed. She was all he needed.

"Anything I can do for you?" the priest asked, interrupting John.

"Uh, yeah. Do you by any chance do weddings?" John asked.

The priest nodded once and smiled, "It's an odd request that I've never gotten here before, but yes. I do."

"I'm only a man in a silly red sheet, digging for kryptonite on this one way street…"

"Only a man in a funny red street, looking for special things inside of me…"

Meredith opened her eyes and shut them quickly as soon as the bright light hit her.

"You're awake. Good," she heard a voice say, causing her to open her eyes again. She rubbed them and blinked several times, adjusting them to the room. She was in a bright, white room with nothing in it but a desk and a chair. A figure sat in the chair but was turned so that she couldn't see who it was.

"Hello?" Meredith asked.

The chair swiveled around and Meredith's jaw dropped as she saw her mother. Her heart sank. She knew it was true. "So… I guess this means I'm dead."

Her mom chuckled, "No, no, you're not dead. I just wanted to have a little talk, that's all. While you were still… in between."

"Gotcha," Meredith said back.

"I'm proud of you," her mother smiled.

"Yeah?"

"Yes," she answered. "I'd been dropping in your dreams, giving you tips, but you pulled it off. The First is gone and the world's greatest threat is gone as of now. That is, until the next one arises, but… I'm proud of you. And your boys. They're good boys, sweetheart."

"Thank you," Meredith said.

"Speaking of boys, you sure know how to pick 'em," her mother smiled.

"Dean?" Meredith asked, smiling back.

"Yes. When I heard all the talk about him up here, I have to admit, I was concerned. But he exceeded my expectations," her mother replied.

"He's incredible, Mom. He's everything to me…. Well, him and the family. But we've built a life together and… and I can't imagine how he is right now," Meredith said, her eyes widening. She knew Dean was freaking out.

"I watched as he broke your heart and put it right back together again. Not many can do that," her mom said.

"That's why I've got to go back to him," Meredith said back.

She nodded, smiling again, warmly, "I know. So go. Go home, sweetie. It's not your time yet."

"It's not easy to be me…"