Author's Note: So, apparently I haven't quite figured this process out yet, or it was late and I was tired. [Both are probably true.] Thanks to those of you who told me I posted the same chapter twice. I've removed the repeat and here's a (real) new chapter.

Chapter 9

"Do you just want to know what we need to do, or do you want to hear the explanation, too?" Amelia's words broke through the spell the amulet had cast on Sam. It was like having a tiny, purring kitten hanging on his chest.

"Huh?" He let go of the amulet and gave her his attention. "Do I want to know 'the why'? How bad is it going to be?"

She gave him a look that Dean would call his bitch-face. "What do you really know about Purgatory?"

"After all these months of research, probably too much." Sam pointed to his stacks of papers spread out on the table. "There's the Catholic doctrine, Dante's version and the one where the creatures we kill have gone."

"It's confusing, I know. To some extent, all three of those are correct. It is the place where…. I shall call them supernatural beings, permanently go after death. For humans, it's different. When a human dies, their souls can go to Heaven, Hell, or Purgatory. Heaven and Hell are final, either as a reward or punishment." Amelia paused to take a drink of the beer she was still working on since dinner.

"Well, that's not completely true." Sam felt the need to clarify her statement, not really knowing why. It just reminded him how screwed up their lives, and deaths, have been. "Dean and I were both brought back from Heaven and Hell. And our grandfather was brought back from Heaven."

"Yes well, but without heavenly or demonic interference, Heaven and Hell are usually final destinations." Sam just shrugged his shoulders as a way of conceding the point.

"But for some souls the lines are blurred. There are those souls that are given a second chance to find themselves according to Dante, and God's cleansing love according to the Church." She paused to see if Sam wanted to add anything again. He just shrugged his shoulders again.

"The issue here is that Dean, and Castiel, were neither creatures nor dead and therefore not souls. There is no way for them to purify themselves or climb the seven levels to move out of Purgatory. And it's this anomaly, of un-dead beings, being in a place for the dead that's keeping the barriers from resealing themselves."

"How does knowing any of this help us get Dean out of there?" Sam knew she was avoiding telling him something and wanted to know what he had to do to save his brother.

"A key," she pointed to the amulet, "shall open a door for him that seven people have shown their purified love for, via the talisman." Amelia intoned as if from memory.

"Huh? And exactly how do we get seven people show their purified love of Dean?' Sam knew there were probably more than seventy women who had shown Dean their love over the years. The problem was knowing who and where they were.

"It will not be just women Dean has had intercourse with." Amelia had seen the images flash in Sam's mind of a great many young women sharing their bodies with Dean.

It was Sam's turn to use a bitch-face on Amelia. "I'm sorry, you had so many vivid memories of Dean and women I couldn't block the images out." They stared at each other for a few seconds and then both shrugged their shoulders. "I am more eager than ever to meet this brother of yours." Amelia added, with a faint smile and a hint of blush.

Sam wasn't quite sure what she meant by that. Her face had the look that most women had when they met Dean in bars, something between awe like when seeing the Statue of Liberty for the first time and a hungry animal and he was fresh meat. Amelia had seen all of Sam's memories of his brother's sexual partners. She'd also seen the memories of the women Sam had had sex with as well. It was probably just as well that Sam had thought the whisper of lust that slipped into her voice was for Dean. The truth would just complicate the working relationship she was building with Sam.

She cleared her throat and got back on topic. "The love need not be romantic or sexual. Just seven people who know Dean for who and what he truly is, have not been tainted by their experiences and love him for what he's done for them. I'm thinking people he has saved over the years. There must be many more than seven?"

"Yeah. I'm sure I can come up with dozens of names." His mind was already racing, thinking of all the cases they'd worked over the years. His confidence waivered when the faces of those they couldn't save started crossing his mind. Still, there were enough. "Finding them may not be as easy. Some will have moved, changed their names, passed on. And some won't want to remember the things Dean and I did for them." He was already getting out a note pad to jot down names. Amelia got up from the table to let Sam start making his list.

Sam's logical mind tried to remember all the names and places in the order he and Dean had encountered them. He changed his mind quickly. It had been over seven years since he had left Stanford with Dean and there had been so many faces and names. He decided to go backward from their latest cases. There was the son of the shop owner with the cursed objects, but they had told him to disappear. He hadn't been sleeping then because of Lucifer, so he couldn't really remember his name anyway. There was Jenny, the secretary of Don Stark, the witch whose wife had almost killed the young woman, but they had told her to leave town, too. Krissy and Lee Chambers might be a good pair. Even though Lee was going to give up hunting, Sam was sure they would help.

Thinking of the hunter and his daughter made him remember what Amelia had said about keeping an eye on the weakened portal barriers. He made a note to himself to call Garth or Mackey in the morning and see if he could organize some sort of team to watch the various locations.

The psychic, Melanie Goldman, and Dean had kind of hit it off when they were in New York. If anyone knew Dean for 'who and what he truly was', it would be her. She said she travelled a lot, but she owned a house in Lily Dale so she shouldn't be hard to track down. He started a new list of the most likely candidates, with Melanie and the Chambers at the top of the list. He wondered if Cassie Robinson was still living in her home town. Even though Dean hadn't seen her since they left there, he knew she would help. He wished he could put Lisa and Ben on the list. But since Dean had Cas erase their memories of him, they wouldn't remember who, much less what, Dean truly was.

Amelia had lain down while Sam was working. She knew she couldn't help Sam with searching his memories for appropriate people; well, she could but knew Sam needed to do this. She would help him later by choosing those with the purest hearts. It wasn't just that Dean had saved them, they needed to be untainted by the evil to which they had been exposed. She tried to stay out of his thoughts but his mind was screaming, trying to remember. She could already tell there a few people on Sam's list that they would not be able to use.

She debated on telling him how these people would show the pure love the key required. Amelia had deliberately left out that passage when she had recited the incantation. Sam would probably be angry with her for not disclosing the sacrifice they would need to ask of these people. She had also hadn't pointed out the most obvious person for the list, Sam. Who knew Dean better than Sam. And she knew, if they were anything like other hunters she had known, they had saved each other's lives numerous times. Amelia was sure Sam would argue he was tainted, that he had seen and done too many things to be pure enough to help Dean. She would help him see that there was no purer love than the love of a brother willing to sacrifice all to save him and six billion others.

Sam had been wracking his brain, working on the list for hours and it was now after midnight. He needed to get some rest, tomorrow would be another exhausting day for the both of them. Amelia sat up on the edge of her bed. "Sam, you should get some rest."

"Not yet. I think I've got a pretty good list of possibilities, I thought I'd start trying to find them." He had put his pencil down and was reaching for his computer. "Maybe I should try to find Charlie again. Not only would she be a good candidate, she's a genius and can find anybody."

"There is another in Lawrence who can help us find the people on your list." Sam had lots of names, or at least partial names, on the list. Most had a city, some only a state, next to them. He had also listed the type of problem they had taken care of for the person. He looked up from the table with a questioning look. "I saw her in one of your memories."

Sam thought she had seen Frank, or maybe Ash, but the look in her eyes told him to try again. "Missouri? You're talking about Missouri Mosley, the psychic?"

"Yes, that's her. She is the second reason for going to Lawrence. She will be able to sense more of the details on the people you are remembering." Sam knew she Missouri was able to read thoughts and feelings better than anyone he had ever met. What were the chances she'd still be in the same place? He hadn't seen her for over six years.

"She is expecting us in the morning. You need to sleep now." Sam thought he should be stunned, or maybe amazed. There had just been so much to take in. He was used to getting bombarded with the unusual and unexpected. It was part of his job. Half of everything Amelia had said tonight would have put 'civilians' into shock. He hated the thought of leaving a job half done, but he also knew she was right. Meeting with Missouri and starting the long process of locating the people to help save Dean would require him to be sharp.

He closed the laptop, stacked his list on the top of his other papers and turned out the light over the table. He checked and refreshed the salt lines, kicked off his shoes and laid down on his bed. Amelia was right; he was tired despite getting five hours of sleep earlier in the day. He was quickly drifting to sleep when he felt her lay a blanket over him, kiss him on the forehead and then turn out the bedside light. He felt all the tension drain out of his body. Sam heard her slip out her clothes and slide between the sheets. Somehow this time, instead of thinking of her as a naked goddess sleeping in the next bed; he felt like he had just had the best tucking in of his life.

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Author's Note: I have my list of people to help Dean pretty much picked out. But unlike the Word of God tablet, it's not written in stone yet. I would entertain suggestions and why you think they should be chosen.