Author's Note: Again, sorry for the delay. You may have noticed I changed the summary, since this is now AU for Season 8.

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Chapter 44

The Fourth of July; a day for freedom and fireworks. Sam still hated the plan Amelia had come up with last night. If he was honest with himself, it was actually a pretty good plan, but it had way too many variables. He may be the bait, but making the plan work rested squarely on Amelia and Mary's shoulders. And that was the part he hated. But, if it worked, Mary would be free of her mother's control and stopping the witch should create plenty of fireworks.

It had started last night when they had called Mary Proctor, after they had found her cell number among Mike's papers. Not only had the girl answered on the first ring, it was like she was expecting someone to call. She'd asked Amelia to meet her as soon as possible. Sam had immediately been concerned it was a trap. But, Amelia had sensed something much different. Mary hadn't known exactly who was calling; but she knew they had come because of Mike, and that they could help stop her mother.

"She's the one with the natural gifts. Her mother has been trying to control her, to use her strength. She knows she has a gift, but I don't think she knows how strong it will become." Amelia explained as they headed to the car to meet with Mary.

"If her mother has this tight control over her, how can she meet us tonight?" Sam asked as he slid behind the wheel. "And will you please tell me where we're going?"

"Well, we got lucky; her mother isn't due back from Chicago until tomorrow." Amelia looked at Sam in the way that told him he wasn't going to like what came next. "And you can't go with me."

"What?"

"Sam, this girl is, or will be, more sensitive than Missouri. She will read your thoughts almost as easily as I can. She wants to stop her mother, not kill her." Flashes of every violent encounter he had ever had with witches crossed Sam's mind. "That's exactly what I'm talking about."

He was going to give her a scowl for so blatantly reading his mind, but knew that ship had sailed. "So, I'll think about bunnies and cute little kitties. There's no way I'm letting you meet this girl without me."

"Even if you could control your thoughts; which by the way, you can't, you still couldn't go." Amelia smiled at him. "She's waiting for me in the women's locker room of her gym."

X

Sam had been about 30 seconds away from storming into the gym and searching for Amelia, when she had walked out the front door with a young woman. They were smiling and laughing; Amelia pointed to the Tahoe where Sam was leaning against the door. The young woman, Sam assumed was Mary, smiled at him as Amelia waved him over to them.

"Sam, this is Mary Proctor." Amelia introduced. "Mary, this is Sam Winchester, the Hunter that helped Mike years ago. The young woman put her hand out to greet Sam. She gasped slightly as he shook her hand.

The women nodded to each other and then Mary went to her car and left. Amelia started for their car.

"Where's she going?"

"Home." Amelia replied as opened the door to the car. "She has a lot to do tonight, before her mother gets back, to put our plan in motion."

"Plan? What plan?"

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Like most cities, Bloomington celebrated Independence Day all day long; with picnics, sports, parades, and fireworks planned for after dark. Amelia had insisted on joining in some of the festivities, despite neither of them getting more than a few minutes of sleep the night before. Sam had spent it researching on his laptop after giving up trying to sleep. Amelia had lay down and pretended to sleep, but Sam hadn't been fooled.

In another lifetime, Sam would have enjoyed all the normal things going on around him; but today he was just killing time until their plan went into action. Well, that's not completely accurate; he was walking around, making sure to be seen. Bait had to be seen for the fish to bite. They had started the day early with Amelia examining the small cave on the north side of town that Mary had said her mother used for many of her rituals. Amelia wouldn't let Sam anywhere near the entrance to the cave, knowing the witch would sense if he'd been there; losing their advantage of surprise. She had neutralized as many of the protections and spells as she could without making it too obvious.

After she finished at the cave, Amelia met Sam in the city. They looked like a couple exploring the city and enjoying the festivities. They hoped no one picked up the fact that the parts of the city they went sight-seeing in also happened to be where the other members of Elizabeth's coven lived. Mary had given Amelia a list of all the witches of the coven. By early afternoon, Amelia had been able to locate and bind all of them from practicing witchcraft. It wasn't that Amelia couldn't have controlled them, but it was just common sense to limit the number of actors on the stage tonight.

In the early evening, when they had joined the crowd at the city sponsored BBQ; Amelia had sensed the witch watching Sam. That had been Mary's part of the laying the trap and why Amelia had needed them to shake hands. Mary was to make sure images of Sam reached her mother. It turned out she probably hadn't needed the thought-filtering spell she had put on Sam; the witch was only able to read her daughter's thoughts. And she hadn't allowed Mary to see her true identity.

It had taken Amelia several minutes to get him to agree to the mind mojo, as he had called it. She understood his reluctance to tamper with his memories; after the nearly lethal insanity caused by his memories of hell. But, it was essential they keep Amelia's true identity hidden from the witch until it was too late for her to escape their plan. Sam had trusted Amelia not to destroy his hard-won sanity. But, he was also concerned because part of working with a partner was knowing their strengths and remembering how they functioned as a team. He had finally agreed when she told him she could remove the spell with a snap of her fingers when the time was right.

Since the witch couldn't read Sam's mind, their plan to lead her to the cave would have to be more obvious. As the BBQ was winding down and people started heading for the park where the fireworks would be, Sam headed the other direction. He didn't have to do anything to make sure the witch saw him; his height made it easy to spot him in crowd. Elizabeth had been watching the hunter so intently; she didn't see her daughter approaching the park until she 'bumped' into Sam.

Even from this distance, she could hear Mary's planted thoughts. If Sam was the bait, Mary was the hook. They acted their scene perfectly. By the time Mary climbed into the car with Sam, her mother was positive Sam was taking a protesting Mary to the cave to destroy the altar. Elizabeth hurried back to her car, made a call to activate the phone tree to notify her coven to urgently come to the cave; and then headed out of town to protect the center of her power. She hoped she could save her daughter, too. She had great plans for the girl's potential abilities.

X

Dusk was well past and the night sky rapidly darkening by the time Elizabeth Proctor approached the entrance to the cave with her altar. The intruders had obviously lit the torches mounted on the walls because light was streaming from the entrance. She sensed some of the protections were missing and attributed it to the hunter who she could hear smashing pieces in the cave. She stepped into the cave to see her daughter sitting on the floor, with her hands tied. The tall man she had been watching all afternoon was getting ready to bring a axe down on her altar. She raised her hand and Sam stopped mid-swing before finding himself on the floor writhing in pain.

Even knowing it was probably coming, Sam never got over the gut-retching feeling of having his body controlled, usually painfully, by an outside force. The pain stopped almost as soon as it started as a loud clap echoed through the chamber. As the pain eased and his vision cleared, Sam could see it was now the witch being held on her own altar by an invisible force. Sam hadn't heard the finger snap but now had all his memories of Amelia back. Amelia stepped over to Mary, touching her face, as she removed her bonds. Sam assumed Amelia had allowed Mary to see her true self, because as Mary smiled up at Amelia, her mother, terror filling her voice, suddenly screamed out, "NOOOO".

"Yes." Amelia said as she turned and took a few steps toward the witch.

"You can't be. You're not real." The witch cried, sweat breaking out on her face as she fought the force holding her in place.

"Really? That's your argument?" She turned away from the witch. "Sam? Are you okay?"

"Yeah." He replied as he got up and dusted himself off.

Amelia turned back to the struggling witch. "I'm not real? A woman with a PhD in Mythology questions the existence of Mother Nature, really?" She sneered at the witch. "They're not coming." She said when she heard the witch wonder where the rest of her coven was. Elizabeth stopped struggling when she realized how easily her mind had just been read.

Sam and Mary had managed to collect themselves and had joined Amelia staring at the witch. "What are you going to do to her?" Mary asked.

"You're part of this?" Elizabeth screamed at her daughter. "You traitorous idiot. You're next; they'll destroy you as soon as they've gotten what they need from you."

"As opposed to you, mom?" Mary said with sadness infusing from her voice. "You killed Mike. And you were going to kill me as soon as you had my power."

"How, how could you know that?" The witch asked, shock in her voice.

"Amelia showed me my future; and your plans." She paused before she added. "And what you did to my father."

Elizabeth just stared back at the three of them. "Okay." Sam said. "I think that's enough family bonding." Muttering under his breath he added. "And they say Dean and I are dysfunctional."

"You're right, Sam." Amelia laid her hand on his arm, removing the last vestiges of the painful spell the witch had used. She turned back to the witch. "You have two choices here Elizabeth. You can allow me to bind you from ever practicing black magic again, and strip your memories of what you have learned…" Amelia paused.

"Or?" The witch replied viciously, already knowing her other choice; having seen it in her daughter's thoughts. She turned to Mary. "You'd let them kill me?"

Mary stood up straight and took a small step nearer her mother. "It's not my choice, it's yours. All I ever wanted was a mother who loved me. I still do. Let her help you get rid of all this," Mary waved her arms around the cave. "Become the mom I always wanted." She pleaded with her mother.

"Go to hell!" The witch screamed at her daughter.

"You first." Sam said as he raised his gun.

"Enough!" Amelia said, leaving no room for further discussion. "I had hoped you would choose the binding on your own, for Mary's sake. But, your right, there was never any choice." Amelia closed her eyes and started chanting quietly to herself. After a couple of minutes, she opened her eyes and Elizabeth felt the force binding her release and that she was completely void of all her power.

Mary took a step towards her mother. "Get away from me you cow. You've helped them destroy my life." Her mother yelled at her.

As Mary turned to run out of the cave, she ran straight into Sam. He instinctively embraced the sobbing girl, trying to offer her some comfort. Sam, preoccupied with the weeping girl, took his eyes off of Elizabeth for a second. The, now former, witch wasn't sure which made her angrier; that she had been bound from using her power, that her daughter had turned against her, or that the hunter saw as her as no threat anymore and was ignoring her.

In a last desperate move, Elizabeth Proctor reached behind her and grabbed the small knife still lying on the altar. Mary gasped, her mother's intentions flooding her mind. Mary grabbed the gun from Sam's hand, pivoted and shot her mother just as she was raising her arm to throw the knife at Sam. Sam quickly turned the girl away from her mother, using his body to shield her in case Elizabeth wasn't done, and took the gun out the girls' hand. He rapidly scanned the cave, looking to see that Amelia was safe. He hadn't seen her move but she had backed several feet away from where she was standing between the girl and her mother.

"It's over Mary." She said stoically. Amelia nodded at Sam to take the girl out of the cave. As he was herding her away, he turned to see Amelia make a tight fist and a small glow come from the bullet hole in the corpse.

As Amelia joined them outside the entrance to the cave, she answered his unspoken question. "I melted your bullet. They'll find her at someday, there can be nothing tying this to you."

Mary looked between Sam and Amelia. "Someday? One of her coven will find as soon as they know she's missing."

Amelia gestured with her head that Sam should move the girl back. As Amelia bent down and picked up a large rock, the first salvo of fireworks could be seen and heard rising over Bloomington. She closed her eyes again, this time taking a deep breath. As she opened her eyes she hurled the rock at the overhang covering the entrance to the cave. The resulting explosion and subsequent cave-in was masked by the next burst of fireworks from the near-by city. Sam covered Mary with his jacket to protect her from the dust and flying debris.

When Sam uncovered the two of them, he found Amelia standing right in front of them, not a speck of dust on her anywhere. She smiled sadly at Mary. "I'm sorry for your loss."

The two young women stared at each other for several seconds. Sam wondered if they were having some psychic conversation until Mary asked. "You knew. You knew all along this is how it would end?"

"There was always hope that you could reach her, get her to turn away from the evil that had consumed her."

Mary looked back at the pile of rocks that had been the entrance to the cave and was now her mother's tomb. "So, now I've found the power my mother had been waiting for; just in time to kill her." She gave Amelia a pleading look. "Can you bind me? Keep me from ever using the power?"

"I could. But, I won't." Mary started to protest. "Yours is a natural gift, and you have a pure heart that will help you do beautiful things."

"Are you sure?" Sam asked. When Amelia gave him one of her glares, he added. "Just checking."

X

They had all driven back into Bloomington, fighting the traffic of the crowd leaving the fireworks. By the time they were standing on the sidewalk in front of Mary house, Sam was sure the two psychics had been 'chatting' most of the trip. He felt a little left out but trusted Amelia to fill him later if he needed to know.

"You're sure you'll be okay?" Sam asked Mary again. "You know what to say to the police?"

"My mother got home from her trip and I haven't seen her since I left for the fireworks." The young woman rolled her eyes at him. "I've got this Sam."

Amelia moved to stand next to Sam, and Mary threw her arms around both in a tight embrace. "Oh!" She said as she pulled back from hugging them, her face blushing deeply red. She looked at Amelia. "I see what you mean." She turned and smiled at Sam, blushing a little deeper before she turned and walked to her front door.

"What was that all about?" Sam asked, not sure if he wanted to know. But from the look on Amelia face, he was sure she wasn't going to tell him.