Kat stumbled, staggering as she looked around her. Laughter, too carefree and yet all too relieved reached her ears as she spotted Alyssa. The younger woman waved, dark circles under her eyes, uncertainty coloring her posture. Kat froze for a moment, overwhelmed with fear for her friend.

"What did you do?" Kat demanded her voice barely more than a croak. "Alyssa, what did you do?"

Alyssa's smile dropped. "I didn't do whatever you're thinking I did. I swear. I just… I found a trail and it led me here. I didn't know how long it would take or anything, but it came from a good source."

"Tell me," Kat growled.

"There's an emergency hatch in-in Purgatory that only the reapers know about. Because Purgatory was never meant to hold humans, it's not like it's Limbo or Hell or Heaven –you get the idea. There was some sort of deal made, I don't know how or when, but just in case any human winds up in Purgatory, when they die, they get spat out here. Body, soul and mind –everything, in one piece. The reapers are supposed to guide you out, they're not allowed to reap. I guess there's been this one stationed there for a millennia. Just to help… ferry humans back here, to home." Alyssa smiled shakily. "You know, I, I didn't know if it was actually going to work."

Kat stepped forward, hugging her. "You're an idiot."

"I'm so sorry," Alyssa whispered, her voice cracking. "Crowley –he, he threatened me. He told me he'd send me back to Hell, he'd let the nightmares start again." She swallowed tightly, pulling back from the hug. "I didn't want to tell you. Any of you. Because it's my responsibility and has been since I jumped into Hell. And none of you can take that from me, okay? No guilt for it. This one is on me."

"Why didn't you tell us?"

"Asking me that doesn't change anything," Alyssa sighed. "I was too scared. Of my memories and what-what happened to me down there. And I screwed up."

Kat pursed her lips, looking at Alyssa. She didn't know how to feel about this. "Did you lead us to Crowley? Was that… a plan?"

"No. I mean. I didn't know it was. It wasn't for me."

Kat sighed heavily. "I want to believe you Aly. But from my end –our end –it looked exactly like that's what you'd done."

Alyssa opened her mouth to say something before closing it and shaking her head. "I can't change your mind and I won't try. What can I do to help you, instead?"

"Where's Dean?"

"I think he's in Purgatory still… I don't know if there's another way out. All I know is that God made a lot of back-up plans for any unlucky humans for some reason. And this is where the ones who die will end up."

Kat worried her lip, looking around the Cliffside scenery. "How long has it been?"

"Six months, give or take," she replied quietly.

"Does Sam have any leads?"

Alyssa winced. "I don't know."

"He's not talking to you, huh?" Kat smiled at that. Not exactly a surprise. "Where's he at?"

"I don't – I don't actually know, Kat," Alyssa admitted, warily.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean… the last time I heard of him, he was shacked up in Arizona with some woman. And he was out of the business. No phones, nothing. No way to get in touch with him. He just… left." Alyssa winced.

Things we Lost in the Fire

They came up with a plan. Kat, very much against what she wanted to do, was going to sit and wait to see if Dean surfaced. If he happened to die, he didn't need to be quite so confused. Thankfully there was a cabin not too far away that Alyssa had been able to rent for a year. Alyssa wasn't even sure when she started relying on what she'd learned from all the years she'd spent with the Winchesters, but having the money came in handy. Alyssa was the one who was going to drive out and find Sam. And he was not in Arizona at all but a little place called Kermit, Texas. Still living with that woman.

Alyssa wasn't sure where she would rather be; waiting for Dean to possibly resurrect and kill her or walking up these steps and ringing the bell. Small mercies, or perhaps spites, because it was Sam who answered the door. The polite smile fell from his features and he shot her an uncomfortable warning.

"Kat's back," Alyssa countered before he could say anything. "She's waiting for Dean."

"He's alive?"

Alyssa nodded. "Even if he dies where he's at, God put escape hatches all over the place for wayward human souls. That's how Kat came back; she died."

"But you don't know when Dean will come back," Sam pointed out, his eyes narrowing. "Or if. It depends on whether he dies?"

"And you guys have a habit of dying pretty frequently so it shouldn't be too long."

Sam stiffened. "Thanks for the news, Alyssa," he replied stiffly. "I don't even know if you're lying this time, you come here, with no proof." He shrugs casually.

"I'm not lying!" she hissed, fishing her phone out of her pocket. She pulled up the picture she had taken shortly before she left Kat on her own. "Here she is!"

Sam exhaled, shaking his head. "I'm happy she's back. But I'm out. And the more you show up here, the likelier something is going to come crawling out. Unless Dean is back… I don't want to know. And if he comes back? I'd better not hear about it from you."

Alyssa flinched.

Sam shut the door on her face.

Demons

"You what."

Sam winced. "I was out, Dean. You were – you were just –gone. I didn't have any way to find you or know if you were going to come back."

"That doesn't mean there weren't people relying on us!" Dean growled, his hand clenched around the cell phone. "I watched her die! And this -?!" He exhaled heavily.

The memory of the voicemail lingers as Sam pulled his laptop out.

"Look, I've been respecting your distance so far. Which, fine. Good luck with that. But there's a big problem, trouble brewing. I can't get ahold of Cas and I don't know where Kat is. She's gone. But there's something bigger than that going on –like, being able to–"

Alyssa's voice cut off suddenly, tapering into a startled scream before the call was ended.

"We have to find them," Dean sighed. "Before they get themselves killed."

"It's Alyssa," Sam offered hesitantly. "I don't know if we can…"

Dean shot him a glare, grabbing the next phone and playing through the messages. It was the phone he predominantly shared with Kat. Many of the messages were intimate, her confessions of missing Dean and assurances that she didn't blame him for when he killed her. And then there were two more messages, shorter than all the others.

"Dean. I know she screwed up and I was wrong last time to trust her so fully. But she's… You can trust her, now."

And:

"Just… if something happens to me, Alyssa can tell you. She knows. I can't… I miss you. And just, if you blame yourself, I will kill you." She sighed heavily. "Talk to Alyssa."

Sam winced. "There's no way I could have known, Dean –"

"Because you left the phones here and shut off," Dean griped. "Come on. Let's see if Bobby has any idea where we can find her."

"As easy as that?"

Dean scoffed. "It's not like I've forgiven her for it, but I trust Kat. Like you should have. And hey, maybe, the two of you or the three of you? Maybe even with Bobby? You could've found a plan to bring me back."

"Alyssa couldn't even find a way and she was talking to Bobby."

Dean stomped out of the cabin and walked back to the Impala. Sam wasn't far behind him.

A night of hard driving and they reached Bobby's place faster than expected. It looked the same as always and Dean was surprised to realize that he was relieved to see it still standing. At least something was the same. It had been a surprise to realize that Alyssa was the only one who had faith to believe that he would come back from Purgatory. Kat too, but that was… different. He hadn't forgiven her for getting all tied up in Crowley's schemes, least of all for what she had done to Sam. But at least she hadn't given up.

While he was waiting for Sam to arrive, he had listened through all of Kat's messages and read her texts. She explained how she had come back after Dean killed her. Dean glanced over at Sam, the way he was sprawled and dead to the world as he snored. The image of her broken and battered body had haunted him every night he was in Purgatory. And only got worse when he left –and thought that he was leaving her behind. Who would have guessed the answer was so simple? Just die and get sent back to earth. Easy for humans; would have been nice if Purgatory had come with a handy little booklet on what to do in Purgatory.

Dean parked the car and got out. Sam was rubbing the sleep from his eyes as Dean walked up to Bobby's and knocked on the door. There was a long pause and some grumbling before the door opened, revealing the old hunter. His hands were stained red, and there were dark circles under his eyes.

"You alright?" Dean asked, automatically reaching for his knife.

"I'm fine," Bobby assured gruffly. "Just doing a little patchwork." He shook his head. "Good to see you made it back."

Dean stepped in, following after him as Sam brought up the rear. "What's going on?" Sam asked.

"I don't know what happened," Bobby answered as he headed down to the basement. "She just showed up out of the blue, half-dead and babbling nonsense."

Bobby opened the door wide and Dean looked in, prepared for the worst. Alyssa was laying on the cot, her clothes filthy and splattered with blood. Her shirt was ripped to expose her stomach wound where Dean could see that Bobby had been stitching up her side. It was rough work but Bobby was better at it than some.

"What was she saying?" Sam asked, his voice thick.

Bobby shook his head reluctantly. "She wouldn't stop screaming out: "They have the sky, they want to close the abyss. Call forth the mighty archangel and take back the sky."

Dean exchanged a worried glance with Sam. "How long's she been out?"

"Two hours, give or take," Bobby answered warily. "Why?"

"She's the only one who knows where Kat is. And apparently the two of them are onto something big. Neither of them would say anything on the phone, though."

Sam walked into the panic room, looking at Alyssa.

Dean glanced at him before turning back to Bobby. "Do you have any idea what the two of them were onto?"

"Can't say I do. I haven't heard from Kat in… at least two months." So around the time that she had left that voicemail for Dean to hear. "And I hadn't heard from Alyssa in closer to five. Kat said she was busy trying to redeem herself but she wouldn't talk about what the girl was doing."

Sam sighed. "It looks like she was busy trying to do whatever she could." Dean glanced over to see that Sam was staring intently at her palm. "She's got some nasty scars here that she didn't have when I saw her last. I wouldn't be surprised if she'd tried making a deal with a demon at some point."

"Didn't know you'd spoken to her long enough for that," Bobby retorted.

Sam winced. "Okay, so, before you went to Purgatory then. She didn't have this kind of scarring. Or these tattoos." He gestured to her arm.

Black ink snaked its way from her wrist up to her elbow, twining into a myriad of different shapes. And something about the ink seemed like it was… moving.

"I'd been about to look those up," Bobby responded. "The ink's not normal, I've seen the shapes change four times already. It looks the way it did when she first stumbled through my door."

Sam nodded and let go of Alyssa, stepping back. "Let's see what we can find out then."

Plot, lots of plot will start unravelling itself next chapter. Sorry for the delays in my postings; I'll try and keep to updating once a month even during school.

I'm living a little more, or a lot more, in my own life now. It kinda feels like I've been stuck unable to write because I've been living in my novels too much. University life and college life haven't done anything for me beyond making me stressed over idiotic assignments and grades. It hasn't done much to change me as a person, in any way that really matters to who I am at my core.

What has been changing as I think I shared before, is many of my friendships. Last year at this time, my boyfriend of four years and I, broke up. Four/five months ago he started dating my best friend; the broke up last month. I've been repairing my friendship with her. And this month I met someone really great and we're going out. Problem is he lives, oh, four hours away.

So yeah, I'm sorry for the slow updates but I have a solid plot worked out. And this, to me anyways, feels rushed and too dialogue heavy. But I can get more into plot and explanations in each subsequent chapter.