Chapter 5

"We needed to get away from there." She said as she slowed down. "I'm sorry you went through that. Are you feeling better now?" Amelia sounded truly remorseful about the pain Sam had felt before passing out.

He could remember most of it now. The dust cloud, Amelia clapping her hands and then the fiery pain in his head. He didn't remember getting to the car. Somehow she had managed to manhandle him back into the car. Speaking of handling him…..

"How did you get me into the car? I must have 12 inches and 70 pounds on you." He asked but quickly decided he had more pressing questions. "What happened back there?"

"Sam, I promised to answer all your questions, but can it wait until we stop? " Amelia asked obviously still struggling to drive the powerful car.

"Yeah. Where are we?" The sun was just rising over the horizon on the driver's side of the car, so Sam knew they were headed south. Shit, if the sun was coming up it meant he'd been out at least a couple of hours.

"I have no idea. But, if you're feeling well enough I'd really like to let you take over the driving."

Sam could see the lights of a 24 hour gas station ahead. 'Pull in there. We'll fill her up and I'll take over."

"Her?" Amelia asked as she started slowing down the Impala, a slightly bemused look on her face.

"The car. She's Dean's Baby." Sam clarified.

As Amelia pulled the car off the road and up to a pump, she laughed lightly. "I look forward to meeting Dean."

The way she said it, that meeting Dean was a certainty; not a maybe, not a goal, not even a hope; but that it WAS going to happen, filled Sam's heart with more hope than he had felt since he had disappeared. He was still savoring that feeling when Amelia turned off the ignition. The quiet broke the spell, and he started to get out of the car. It suddenly occurred to him he still had no idea who or what this woman was.

"Can we get something to eat and drink before we get back on the road?" Amelia asked as Sam headed into the store to pay for gas. She said it so casual, like they were on some kind of road trip together. And after thinking about, he guessed they kind of were.

"Sure. What do you eat?" Sam thought he saw the strangest look cross over her face, almost like she was hurt.

With a small sigh, she said. "Any fresh fruit or vegetables and water would be nice."

"Sure." Sam wasn't sure a middle-of-nowhere place like this would have much in the way of fresh. But he also thought about not having to worry about food additives like he did with all of Dean's food.

Ten minutes later they were back in the car and Sam asked, "Which way?"

"Can you find someplace for me to answer your questions?" Sam nodded his head as Amelia added. "We need to head south. I need to see where Dean killed the Leviathan."

"What!" Sam managed to get out as he turned toward Amelia in complete shock.

"Sam, find us somewhere safe to talk. Are you okay to drive?" Sam let out the breath he hadn't realized he was holding, with a huff. He nodded because he wasn't sure he could think of anything to say without sounding like an idiot and pulled out on to the road, going south.

It took less than five minutes to find a side road that looked like it didn't see much traffic. Sam followed the road until they went around a bend that completely obscured them from the road, and stopped the car. The sun was now fully up and it was already warm in the Midwest morning sun. "It's such a beautiful morning; can we get out and walk?" Amelia asked.

Sam was tired of feeling at a loss and like he was being strung along. "How about we stay here." Sam turned to face the passenger side of the sedan, making it clear he wasn't going anywhere with her.

Amelia sighed but nodded her consent. "Do you want me to start, or do you want to ask questions?"

Sam had so many questions he didn't know where to start. He had never done any tests to make sure she wasn't a demon or leviathan. But he also figured if she was out to hurt him she had had more than enough time to do that by now. There was just something about her that was…. comfortable. Safe. She was like how he had imagined Angels would be like, before he met Uriel and most of the rest of the heavenly host. Shit. When was he going to quit trusting strange, obviously not human women! "Who, or what are you?" He might as well start with the basics.

She could feel the uncertainty in his voice and debated how to answer the question without making him any more afraid of her. "I think the easiest answer would be Mother Nature." Amelia waited for a response. But Sam just sat there staring at her. She waited a few seconds before adding. "I'm not sure that I can explain what I am. I'm not sure I even know the words to describe what I am. Or what I used to be." When Sam still didn't respond, she kept on. "If you'll believe me, I can assure you I'm not a demon or leviathan. And that I was sent to help you get Dean back."

At the mention of his brother's name, Sam's mind started processing the information he'd just heard. "Mother Nature. Huh?" He was back to too many questions, but his eyes fell upon Dean's amulet and remembered the intense, white light it had made last night. "So, you are a god, or do you prefer goddess, then?" He asked while pointing the necklace.

She smiled at his choice of question and admired his ability to ignore the confusion raging in his mind and get right to the point. Glancing down at the talisman, "It's a long story, a very long story. I'm older than all beings that mankind has called God." She paused, when Sam didn't ask for details she continued. "You're a …., I think it's called a Hunter these days, aren't you?"

When Sam slowly nodded his head, a sad smile touched the corners of Amelia's mouth. Sam was a Hunter, although that was a relatively new name for the ancient profession. There had been Hunters since earliest man had encountered the beings that terrorized them. It also explained the pain and suffering, and sacrifice and courage she saw in his past. "Then you must know something of the history and mythology about me?"

"No, not really." He could swear she looked disappointed. "It's never really come up. I mean, we hunt evil. You know, things that hurt and kill humans." He felt like he had hurt her feelings. "You've not been here in a while, at least there have never been any sightings that I've ever heard of, and you said you come to help." Her face brightened slightly. "You're like unicorns, nobody believes in them, either." Her smile disappeared and he could see her eyes start to fill with tears. He couldn't believe he was trying to soothe the hurt feelings of an ancient, obviously powerful, being. "I'm sorry. It's not that no one believes in you. I think Wiccans do. It's just…." He stopped before he said anything that made her start crying.

They sat in an uncomfortable silence. Sam decided to change the subject. "Why do we need to go to Omaha?"

She took a deep breath to regain her composure. "It was where Dean crossed the barrier into Purgatory. Of all the portals that opened that night, it's the one I will most likely be able to reach across and feel his presence."

"You can get him back if you can find him?" Sam was pretty sure she would have just said get him back rather than feel him if she was able to do that, but he had to ask. "Wait, what do you mean other portals?" And he knew the answer before he had finished asking the question. "Portland. Lawrence. Providence. Broward County. Wyoming. All the places that had earthquakes that night were portals opening?"

"I don't know the names, but there were several. I don't think they actually opened, but they may have been damaged. Places were the barriers were weak from previous openings. Have you been to all those places?"

"Yes. Well, no. The one in Rhode Island was before our time and we were too late to stop the dragons from opening a door for Eve, their mother, to leave Purgatory. But Dean and I were at all those other places. But they weren't all openings to Purgatory. Florida was a time-loop set up by an angel. In Wyoming it was a Devil's Gate and Kansas is where I ... I fell into Lucifer's cage."

Now it was Amelia's turn to be dumb-struck. So much had happened in the short number of years this young man had been alive. His whole life had been one long test of strength and character. She could see all his memories now, the suffering he had been put through. And in almost every one of those memories there was another sole as strong and brave as his. It was how he kept going through it all. As sure as she was that this young man was worth her help, he was that sure his brother was worth saving. Suddenly Amelia felt very silly for worrying about nobody remembering her. These boys, mere mortals, had already saved the planet almost as many times in their brief lives as she had in several millennia.

"Do you think anything made it through those other portals?" Sam's question brought Amelia back to the present.

"I doubt it. It's possible but I wasn't brought through a pre-existing portal. When the One sends me back, he doesn't need a weak barrier, he creates a portal for me to reach the planet."

"The One?'

"That's what I call the ….being or presence that created me from the primordial chaos. He or it, or them, I really don't know, is what sends me back." Before Sam started to speak, she added. "No, it's not what you think of as God. It created all the beings that humans have called God, and Death."

Sam thought he should be terrified. He was sitting in the Impala with a being as old, and powerful as God and Death, and had basically told her to do 'sit down and start talking'. But what he was thinking was that she wasn't from Purgatory, and if she wasn't from there maybe she wouldn't be able to get Dean out.

"No, I can't get Dean back by myself. But, I swear, together we will." She half-smiled and shrugged her shoulders, which Sam took as an apology for reading his thoughts. They both smiled at each other like they had shared some secret joke. Then she casually inquired. "What's for breakfast?"

There it was again, the comfortable, easy feeling of a friend asking a simple question. "Maybe we could stretch our legs and eat in the sunshine." Sam opened his door and Amelia did the same. They walked a short ways to a small, grassy rise. She asked him if Dean was anything like him and to tell her about him. After almost choking on his fruit, he laughed harder than he had in months, maybe years. He told her they were very different and there wasn't enough time to even scratch the surface when it came to Dean.

"Well, I guess I'll just have to wait until I get to meet him, then."

They finished eating their small breakfast and headed back to the Impala. Sam turned Dean's car around and headed back to the road. He looked over to Amelia for a last confirmation and turned south towards Omaha.

ooooooooooooooooooOooooooooo oooooooooooooooooOoooooooooo ooooooooooooooooooooOooooooo ooooooooooooooOooooooooooooo oooooooooooooOooooooooooo

Author's Note: I would like to thank those of you have taken time to send encouragements and compliments. I'm grateful for the feedback. I'm having a wonderful time writing the story. The only negative, now I'm as addicted to writing a Supernatural fan fiction as I am to reading them.