Sam just stood there, staring. His brother was alive. And standing in the door way of their motel.

"Are you going to invite us in, or are we just going to stand out here, attracting all sorts of attention?" Bobby asked.

"Um…" Sam started, glancing behind him at Hermione, who was looking at him confused while wearing just his shirt. "Well…"

"We're coming in," Dean said, pushing his way past Bobby and Sam and into the room.

"Oi!" Hermione exclaimed as Dean made his way into the room, causing him to stop short.

"Well, hello," Dean said, turning his smirking face to Sam. "Who's this?"

Sam let Bobby into the room and shut the door behind them. "This is Hermione, my girlfriend. Hermione, this is my brother, Dean."

"But, I thought…?" Hermione asked.

"Yeah, so did I," Sam said, moving next to her. "What happened? How are you…here?"

Dean shrugged. "I honestly don't know. One minute I was in Hell, and the next I was digging myself out of my own grave. It doesn't make any sense. I went straight to Bobby, and he said I had just missed you guys. At first I didn't think about the plurals he was using, but now it makes sense. We drove here to catch up with you. I needed to see you."

Sam felt his throat constrict, and he swallowed hard, tears beginning to prick his eyes. "It's really you?"

Dean nodded. "It's really me."

Sam closed the gap between the two of them, and wrapped his brother in a tight hug, which was promptly returned, just as tightly. Sam let out a sob that he was holding in. Never in his wildest dreams did he think he would ever be reunited with his brother.

"I'm going to just um…" he heard Hermione say behind him, and a few seconds later he heard the door to the bathroom shutting. She must be going to get dressed.

He pulled back from Dean, noticing that his brother's eyes were just as wet as his. "I'm so happy to see you."

"Yeah, same. I didn't think…" Dean trailed off. "Anyway, Bobby brought me here because you and I need to figure out what brought me back."

"Do you have any ideas?" Sam asked.

Dean shook his head. "No. But the woods surrounding my grave were wiped out, looked like a bomb had gone off. And then when I was in the convenience store nearby, there was a loud screeching sound causing the windows to blow out, and I also discovered this." Dean unbuttoned the top couple buttons of his shirt, pulling it aside to reveal a red hand print on his shoulder.

Sam was confused. He had never heard of anything Dean was describing. "We'll figure it out."

"I know we will," Dean said. Then he switched gears, and smirked, pointing at the bathroom door. "So how long has this been going on?"

Sam smiled. "Um, we met a few weeks after you…" he trailed off, clearing his throat. "But we didn't become more than platonic until about a month or so after that."

"How'd you guys meet?"

Sam and Bobby exchanged a look. How much should they tell him?

"I was in pursuit of two fugitives and I was assigned to work with Bobby. He pawned me off on your brother," Hermione said as she re-entered the room.

"Fugitives? What kind of fugitives?" Dean asked.

Hermione and Sam exchanged a look, and she shrugged. She turned back to Dean and was about to answer him when she cried out and collapsed against herself. She had warned him that this would probably happen at random intervals over the next couple days.

"Freckles," Bobby cried out, rushing to her side, wrapping an arm around her, and helping her ease down onto the bed. "Are you alright? What happened since you left me?"

"Well, we found them, and we captured them, but not before they got a few good shots in as well. But Sam was quick thinking and he has a quick trigger finger. I'll be fine in a couple days, once the aftershocks from the curse wear off."

"Curse?" Dean spoke up. "Are you a hunter, too?"

She shook her head. "No, I'm not a hunter. Well, I guess I am now, but no. And before I tell you what I am, I want you to hand Bobby your gun, because I just don't have the energy right now to defend myself against you."

"Are you a demon?" Dean asked, immediately growing angry.

"No," she said. "Not at all."

"Then what the hell are you?" Dean asked.

"Promise not to shoot her?" Sam said.

"I mean, I guess? I mean you and Bobby seem to trust her, so there is really no reason why I shouldn't trust you as well. So what are you?"

"I'm a witch, and before you jump to conclusions, I have not made a deal with a demon. I am a born witch. We exist, but especially here in the states, we tend to stay to our own world. I was born with my magic, and I use a wand to cast spells. I went to school, and I currently work for the magical government."

Dean just stared at her, his eyes narrowed. "You work for the government?"

Hermione laughed. "Out of all of that, that's what you focus on?"

"Well, Sammy and I are fugitives, and legally I've been dead for a while now, so just making sure what we're up against here."

"I don't work for your government. I work for the magical government, so you don't have to worry. Unless you're secretly a wizard who is breaking secrecy laws, or something like that."

"No, not a wizard," Dean said with a smirk. "Pretty sure I don't want to be a wizard."

"Nah," Sam said. "You definitely want to be a wizard. Wait until you can see some of the stuff she can do. You'll wish you were lucky enough to be able to do what she can. She's really changed the way I hunt."

"Really?" Dean said, turning back to scrutinize Hermione. Sam watched as several emotions flashed through his brother's eyes as he observed his girlfriend.

"Really," Sam said, as he tried to figure out what was going through Dean's mind.

"Sam, can I talk to you outside for a minute?" Dean said, not even waiting for Sam to answer before heading to the door, opening it, and stepping through.

Sam glanced over at Hermione who was sitting on the bed, shrugging at him.

"Go," Bobby said, settling himself next to Hermione. "I'll stay here and keep an eye on Hermione for you. I need to know the whole story about what happened tonight anyways."

Sam nodded, turned and walked out the door. He made it out the door and shut it behind him before Dean started on him.

"So, I die and you get a new partner?"

"What was I supposed to do Dean? You were dead," Sam defended.

"I don't know, but it just seems a little soon. And what's with the depression beard?"

"She likes it," Sam said, with a shrug. "So I kept it. And I'll have you know, I was on Bobby's couch for a long time. A long time. An unhealthy amount of time. I wasn't going to hunt anymore. I wasn't sure what I was going to do. Right after I went to a crossroads to try and make a deal, but no one showed up. I had rough ideas about seeking revenge against Lilith, and I never had a chance to act on them. I was listless. And then Bobby got the call from MACUSA and Hermione showed up on his doorstep needing a hunter to take her around to find some assholes who were on the run from their government and trying to recruit American monsters. So I went with her. She taught me about magic, I taught her about hunting."

"And then you started fucking," Dean supplied.

Sam sighed. "Dude, what's your problem?"

"I don't know, I just thought that after Jess you were done with relationships. And I get back and you're with someone. It's jarring."

"Would you have rather I just spent the rest of my life alone? Is that it?"

"No," Dean said. "No, just…I guess I would have thought it would have taken you longer to meet someone to replace me. That's all."

"Oh my god," Sam said, running his hands through his hair. "You've been here like ten minutes and you're jealous? Of my girlfriend? Because I'm not alone? Am I getting this right?"

"I'm not jealous," Dean said. "I'm not, I'm just…" he trailed off. "Okay, fine. I'm jealous. I expected to come back here and find you hunting, but alone. And then we could just pick up where we left off. First case: who the fuck pulled me out of hell, so we can kill the son of a bitch. Because I'm pretty damn sure it's a demon."

"We can still do that. We'll just have Hermione with us."

"She's going to stick around?" Dean asked.

"Yeah, she just took leave from work so she could keep traveling with me. We're going to reevaluate at the end of her leave, but she's really thinking about quitting her job to stay with me full time," Sam explained.

"Wow," Dean said. "That's serious."

"I love her."

Dean was quiet for a minute. Deep in thought. "Okay."

"Okay?"

"Okay, I'll get to know her, for the trial period and then at the end of her leave, I get to sit down while we reevaluate the situation to make sure I'm okay with us all traveling together. Deal?"

"Okay," Sam said. "You can sit in, but if it's two against one for her staying, then you may not get ultimate say. I'm not going to let you drive her away."

"Fine," Dean said. "I won't drive her away. But I don't have to like her either."

"You don't even know her," Sam said. "How do you know you won't like her?"

"Because she's a witch," Dean stated, matter-of-factly.

Sam shook his head. "Just wait a bit before you make any lasting conclusions, okay? Bobby loves her, too, you know."

Dean shook his head, before opening the door to the room and going inside. Sam took a deep breath before following him. When he got back inside, he saw that Hermione and Bobby were in deep research mode. Hermione was reading one of the books they had grabbed from Bobby's earlier in the summer and Bobby was on the laptop.

"What are you guys doing?" Sam asked.

"Trying to see if we can figure out what pulled Dean out of Hell," Hermione answered, not taking her eyes off the page in front of her. "Dean, are you certain it was a demon?"

"Yeah, I mean, what else could it be? It had to be a demon, who then used me to hitch a ride out of there."

Hermione nodded, "That's what we've concluded as well. But which one is the ultimate question. What do you remember about your time in Hell? Maybe that could help us narrow it down if it's one you had a poor experience with in the past."

Dean shook his head. "I don't remember anything about being down there. I'm sorry."

Hermione looked up from her book, compassion on her face. "Don't be sorry. You've just experienced a major trauma and come back from it. You don't need to be sorry that your mind has blocked all of that out."

Dean held her gaze for a few minutes, and Sam held his breath, waiting to see how Dean would react to this.

"Thanks, Glinda," Dean said, softly with a slight smirk. "I love how you consider me dying and going to Hell only a major trauma. Makes it sound so normal."

"Well, when you've been through everything that I have, the definition of normal seems to shift a bit."

"What have you been through?" Dean asked, moving closer to her, his hands in his jeans pockets.

Hermione glanced toward Sam, and he nodded toward her. She turned back to Dean. "In my world, there was a war in Great Britain. Well, several, actually, but the most recent one occurred when I was in school. I helped fight alongside my friends. So, my definition of normal is pretty skewed."

Dean observed her before nodding his head. "Okay, I'm starting to see what Sam sees in you. I'm going to give you a chance."

Hermione smiled. "Glad to know."