Chapter 10

Sam woke feeling rested, really rested. He felt like he knew what people meant when they said they woke feeling restored. There hadn't been many times in his life he had slept so perfectly. Even in California with Jess, before the nightmares, he had been constantly stressed about school and grades. He lazily rolled over to find Amelia's bed empty again, but her clothes were still draped across the foot of the bed. That's when he noticed the water running in the shower. He debated getting up and out of the room so she could dress with some privacy. He also thought about pretending he was asleep and waiting to watch her come out of the bathroom.

'No, No, No, that is just so wrong' he thought to himself and sprang off the bed and was putting on his shoes as he heard the water turn off. "I'm going to grab us some breakfast." He yelled at the bathroom door and ran out of the motel room. Amelia stepped out of the bathroom wrapped in a towel, smiling to herself. She could smell the pheromones Sam had left hanging the room. She could also feel her, well Amelia's, body viscerally respond to the hormonal signals Sam had excreted. But now was not the time for either the ancient goddess or the young woman to be thinking that way about the handsome man that had just run out of the room.

Amelia didn't bother to re-launder her clothes when she remembered she hadn't been very active in them yesterday. She dressed and then borrowed Sam's hair brush and smoothed her hair. As she finished she decided that had been a mistake because now her hair would smell so wonderfully like Sam all day. She shook her head to get rid of those thoughts. She was straightening their beds when Sam came back with some fresh fruit and a couple cups of coffee.

"I think you should do the hunting and gathering from now on. I didn't want to get anything that might have Levi additive. You could use your Spidey senses and maybe we could have a doughnut or something." Sam said as he handed her an apple and a coffee.

"I can communicate with arachnids but I don't think they would be able to determine if there are unsafe substances in food." She replied completely straight-faced. She sat the cup of coffee on the table. "I'm sorry. I never acquired a taste for coffee."

Sam smiled at her ignorance of pop culture; wondering if he should explain the Spiderman joke. When he saw a look of enlightenment cross her face, he figured he probably just had because she had read his mind. "You've really got to stop doing that." He said with mock frustration.

"When is Missouri expecting us?" Sam went back to work mode.

"She just knows you are coming today. She will be waiting for you."

Sam noticed she had used the singular in both statements. "She isn't expecting you?"

"She senses you are not alone but doesn't know who I am." Amelia slightly furrowed her brow. "She's actually quite frustrated that she can't sense who I am."

Amelia saw as Sam remembered his first encounter with Missouri, and that he was pretty sure she would not be shy in expressing her frustration when they met. One of Amelia's powers was her ability to hide or shield her true identity from those who could usually see beyond the physical being. It was why the demon at Bobby's had not known who she was. She had considered lowering that shield to allow Missouri to see her true self, but had decided to wait until they met in person.

After Sam ate the last bite of his apple, he noticed Amelia had already packed up all his papers and laptop. He turned to pack up the few personal things he had taken out his duffel. They were on the road heading west to Lawrence in less than 20 minutes.

Amelia sat very quietly debating how and when to tell Sam the rest of the incantation, and what the seven would need to do. She knew it would not be wise to do it while he was driving because she knew he would be upset. But she also doubted she could hide it from the psychic. This Missouri woman would be able to hear the parts she was leaving out when she repeated the words she had told to Sam last night.

She decided she had to tell Sam everything the talisman had told her about opening a door to bring Dean and the angel back. She had told him to talk to her, she needed to the same. "Sam. We need to stop and talk before we get to Missouri's."

Sam had sensed something was troubling Amelia. They were already on the outskirts of Lawrence. He quickly found a spot to get off the road and brought the car to a stop. She was still looking straight ahead when he turned off the ignition and turned to face her. "Is this about whatever you didn't tell me last night?"

Amelia had forgotten that even though Sam was not psychic, he was very practiced at picking up subtle body language. Reading others was a survival skill all hunters developed. "You knew there was more?" She asked.

"I wasn't sure until just now." Sam replied, amazed she had fallen for one of the oldest interrogation techniques in the book.

Amelia didn't detect any anger in his voice. She saw the smug little grin on his face but resisted reading his thoughts. "It's about what the seven chosen ones must do to show their love of Dean." She paused, waiting for him to get angry, or at least ask questions. He just stared and waited for her to continue. "They must share part of themselves as the way to show their purified love. Well, and of course, they must go through a purification ritual."

Sam groaned; decades of hunting had shown him how bad such rituals could be. He wasn't really angry at her for not sharing the details with him last night, for some reason he trusted her judgment to wait. Then it dawned on him. She wouldn't be able to hide this from Missouri, so she had to tell him. Okay, now he was angry. "Let's have it. All of it this time."

Amelia was struggling yet again on how to start. "I'm sorry I wasn't completely forth-coming last night." She hoped she hadn't destroyed the relationship they had been building. "Long story or short?"

"Everything!"

"As I said, there needs to be seven people to show their love for Dean." He nodded but didn't say anything. "Do you know the importance of the number seven throughout history and in mythology?"

"Of course. Seven deadly sins, seventh son of a seventh son, seven wonders of the ancient world, seven days in the week, God resting on the seventh day." Sam paused in his recitation, then continued. " Oh geez, don't tell me Dante was right, there really are seven levels in Purgatory?"

"Well, no, not exactly. But the number seven is almost universally believed to be a symbol of perfection, completeness, ascension and reintegration." She stopped to allow him to ask questions. He twirled his finger to indicate she should continue. "The full instructions for using the talisman as a key are; A key shall open the door for him that seven people have shown their purified love by sharing all seven of life's fluids via the key." This time she stopped to allow Sam to absorb the meaning of what she had said.

But something in what she had said had caused wave after wave of bizarre, violent, graphic images and memories of the horrible things he had seen over his years of hunting to flood his mind. She tried not to look into his thoughts but his mind was screaming at him and her. "No, no, no. Nothing like that!" She reached out to touch his arm as she tried to calm his raging thoughts. "Sam! As much as I want to help you, and Dean; I would never be a part of something like that." It was her turn to be angry. "How can you think I would participate in anything so barbaric?"

He didn't respond because he was hyperventilating by now. Cas may have taken away the madness caused by his memories of the cage, but Sam still had most of those memories. Between his nightmarish memories of hell and hunting, the years of visions and a year of being soulless he was rapidly approaching a full blown panic attack. Amelia knew there were no words she could say to bring him out of the place his mind had gone to; so she grabbed both sides of his face and pulled him into a hard kiss. She just held him there, breathing slowly and deeply, forcing him to breathe through his nose. Eventually, his breathing fell into pattern with hers and she could feel his heart rate slow down.

After three minutes, she could feel him regain control of his thoughts and emotions. Amelia loosened her grip on his face and pulled away from him. Tears were now streaming from his eyes, but the panic and fear were gone. She used her thumbs to wipe at his tears and reached up to kiss his forehead. He laid his head on her shoulder, took a shuddering breath and wrapped his arms around her. She removed her arms from his face and wrapped them as tightly as she could around his huge but trembling shoulders.