I spun around the yard, whipping my head left and right in a way that caused my short hair to slap against my face. Trees surrounded the perimeter of the yard, and a few colored leaves littered the grass like fallen stars. They crunched when I took a few steps forward to stand where the TARDIS had been when Sam and I had left for our date.

"It's not here," Sam said, staring blankly at me.

"Thank you for that brilliant deduction Captain Obvious." I retorted. Immediately I apologized, "Sorry Sam, I just, get stressed out easily."

"It's fine, Lucy," he responded kindly, his eyes scanning the yard. They fell on the house of the murder, right behind mine. "Hey, umm- do the lights work in that house?"

I glanced behind me and was startled by the blue light that was coming through the gaps between the pine trees from the abandoned house. "No, the electricity is cut off from the house, since no one has lived in it for years. I always have to bring a flash light when I visit there."

"Glowing lights in a house without electricity and a missing TARDIS… coincidence?"

"I think not." I finished for him. Sam smiled down at me, and squeezed my hand for a moment as if he was trying to reassure me.

"Let's get the supplies first, and then go see what all this is about," he gestured vaguely to the glowing lights.

"Good idea." I nodded, squeezing Sam's hand back to keep a lock on my fragile reality.

We ran back to the Impala, feet occasionally crunching leaves, which sounded like grenades in the eerie silence. Sam hastily opened the trunk, pulling out three pistols. He handed one to me, tucked one into the back of his pants, and held the other in his hand. He also grabbed a container of salt and some holy water, which he put into a duffle bag. Slinging the bag over his shoulder Sam locked eyes with me. I glanced down at the gun without saying anything.

"You don't know how to use a gun do you?"

"I know how to use one. I just have never held one." I defended.

"So basically you don't know how to use one?" He was already tucking his other gun into a jacket pocket.

"Basically." I held out the gun, expecting him to take it from me.

"Quick crash course then," he said instead. "Here's the magazine, it contains the bullets." The hunter pulled it out and then swiftly loaded it back into the gun. "The safety has to be off when you're using it." He clicked the safety off for me. "Pull the trigger slowly, otherwise your aim will be skewed." Sam put the safety back on and handed me the gun. I took it from him feeling a combination of power and fear. I resolved that I wouldn't shoot a bullet out of this weapon, unless it became a matter of life or death.

"Is that all I need to know?"

"Not remotely," Sam responded double-checking his gear before looking at me again. "But we don't have time to review everything now, so that will have to do. Come on."

I followed Sam across the yard, trying to avoid fallen leaves- a task easier said than done. Nearly every other step was accompanied by a crunch that echoed in the quietness of the neighborhood. Of course, Sam wasn't doing any better. His big feet seemed to find every leaf in the area. Regardless, we hurried to the line of pine trees that separated my house from the abandoned one. Sam held up his hand in a motion that meant for me to stay still as he peered around the nearest pine tree to look through one of the windows of the house, his hair just barely dangling in front of his eyes.

"They're all standing around the TARDIS. I think the Doctor is inspecting the time hole more closely." Sam whispered his breath tickling my ear.

"No sign of the demon?" I asked. I shifted slightly so I could see both the house and Sam more clearly, rustling the bed of pine needles.

"No sign of the demon." He reaffirmed.

"Let's go then," I started to walk toward the house, but Sam grabbed my shoulder accidently pressing down on the stitches. I yelped causing him instantly let go. A flicker of guilt crossed his face as he took a step back, trying to distance himself from me (possibly in fear of hurting me again). I followed him by taking a step forward. I knew Sam, and I knew that given the choice he'd never really hurt anyone. Especially the season two version of Sam, he was still moderately innocent and filled with hope for the world and his ability to do some good in it. I wasn't going to be the one who made him believe that there was a monster growing inside of him. Especially, since there wasn't, there never was, and there never will be.

"You can't go in there. Dean said it was too dangerous before." He said defensively. Touching my shoulder, must have reminded him of the injuries I had secured last time we had interacted with the demon.

"Right and last time Dean sent us back to the house where the demon did find us. That was when the house was still fairly secure. Now it would be insanely easy for a break-in. Plus it wouldn't be safe for us to inhabit, because of the glass strewn everywhere. Honestly, if we're thinking about the safest place for me to be, it would either be with all of you" I gestured vaguely to the house indicating all of the characters that had popped into my reality. "Or inside the TARDIS," I gestured to the house once more. "Or inside of the Impala driving away from here, but I think neither of us would like that option." At least, I knew I didn't, and I was hoping Sam didn't either.

Sam stood still for a moment thinking his options over. I could almost see the over-protective gears of his churning through what I had said, evaluating every aspect. He finally reached the conclusion that the house was the safest area for me to be in. He nodded his head with a jerk and led me forward with a touch on the back.

It only took a minute for us to reach the backdoor of the house. It looked like Sam was about to barge in through the door, which would probably scare everyone inside, making them point their guns at us. I stuck out my hand in front of Sam, and instead raised my fist to knock on the door five times in the "Shave and a Haircut" routine.

The low murmurs of conversation that we could hear before were silenced at my knocking. I knocked again, and Sam called out "It's us Dean. Don't shoot."

The door opened quickly after that. Dean greeted us with the oh-so-pleasant, "I wouldn't shoot you. At least, not right away."

He ushered us in and quickly closed the door, adjusting all the locks and relaying the salt line. The house looked basically the same as I had found it the morning I discovered the body of Ally Johnson, only the blood had been cleaned up. The old house creaked in welcome as I stepped into the living area where everyone else was gathered. Sherlock and the Doctor were both staring at the fireplace where the time rip was. I wouldn't have been able to see it except for the glowing light. The light traced the outline of the rip, the shape of a jagged circle as if someone had stuck a knife into the time-space continuum and tried to carve out a piece. I had been expecting to see a dark void in the middle of the circle, but it wasn't there. Instead it seemed to be invisible, because where the hole was looked the same as the space behind it, a red brick fireplace blackened with years of use by the previous owners (or at least that's what I had always assumed).

"Why is it glowing?" I asked. "It wasn't glowing earlier."

"I'm not quite sure…" The Doctor answered thoughtfully, pushing his glasses back into place on the bridge of his nose. "Perhaps Mother Nature is mending it up on her own. It happens like that sometimes. The pieces of time that caused the rip can shift back in place and close it."

"The time rip had stretched the house out, and now it's beginning to set back in its more natural state. So by all means, I would say the Doctor is right on track with thinking the rip is knitting it's self closed." Sherlock added.

"What do you mean the housed was stretched out?" Dean asked, turning his head to look around the room probably seeing nothing different.

"Ugh, you all see so little. Just look! Open your eyes! It couldn't possibly be that hard." The detective emphasized this with massive hand gestures.

"Sherlock…" came a warning from the back of the room. Sherlock took one look at John and shut his mouth before insulting anyone else. Instead he looked around the room, reaffirming his earlier conclusion.

"The fireplace" Sherlock pointed his coat whipping around his calves, "is not as rectangular as it was last time we investigated here. It's becoming squarer, which seems to be the natural shape going by the layout of the bricks and the size they're normally constructed. The curtains on the windows are touching the floor now. They were three inches off the ground yesterday. And most interestingly," Sherlock paused for dramatic effect. I could almost hear John roll his eyes at the detective's enjoyment of having us all at the edge of our seats. "The house is creaking. It wasn't creaking earlier, which I had thought strange at the time. A house this old, and unlived it for such a long time? Of course it should creak. So house settling back into shape, time rip appearing to be closing, it all seems to add up."

A collective "oh" breathed around the room, as we all processed the man's deductions. Not that I ever had any doubt, but Sherlock really was a proper genius. It was amazing to see his brain work. In the silence we heard a creak coming from roughly the other side of the house.

"You see?" Sherlock declared. "The house is settling back into place."

Another creaked followed a second later, then a moment passed and one more creak. What was creaking over there? I basically had the house memorized I knew where it liked to creak, and which boards remained in stubborn silence. I mentally scanned the house, the dining room was over that way as well as the front door. Another, softer creak echoed through the house. The basement door was over on that side of the house as well. The stairs to the basement were very noisy. The few times I've ventured to the basement it sounded like a chorus of singing frogs following me down the staircase. Put together with the pauses in between each creak we heard, it had to be the staircase.

"I don't think that's the house, Sherlock." I whispered slowly. "Listen to the pattern of the creaks." Everyone stopped breathing waiting for another creak. There were two more in the next few seconds. "Someone's on the basement stairs." Five pairs of eyes turned to look at me.

"Y' all stay put. We'll go check it out." Dean pulled his gun from the back of his jeans as did Sam. He handed that gun to John and took the other one from out of his jacket pocket.

"Stay inside the salt lines," Sam encouraged everyone, but his eyes were locked directly on mine. I nodded solemnly, and Sam turned away, following Dean to the other side of the house.

"I'll take your gun Lucy, if you don't mind." Sherlock stated holding his hand out. I wordlessly handed over the weapon.

"Thank you." He glanced at John, nodding his head. The two of them split off to opposite sides of the room, one at each entrance.

I looked up at the Doctor, wondering if we should be doing anything.

"Come over here, Lucy. We might as well prepare to make a hasty exit." The Doctor lightly touched my back, leading me over to the TARDIS door. I froze outside the door at the sound of gunfire and the thud of a body.

"That was someone being pushed against the wall. The timing would have been closer between the shots and the body dropping." I heard Sherlock mutter partially to himself, partially to Watson

"It's the demon then?" John answered, raising an eyebrow at Sherlock.

Sherlock nodded gravely and repositioned his gun, scanned the area around the door with a sharp eye. Sam. I thought worriedly, but he was a hunter. He could handle himself, and it wasn't like he was alone… Somehow none of these thoughts pacified my whirring brain as I worried that Sam might get hurt.

"We should really get in the TARDIS," the Doctor prompted. His hand was still on my back, leading me inside the police box.

"No," I breathed out so quietly I could barely hear it. The tension in the room was tangible, unbearably so.

"What?" The Doctor leaned closer to me. His coat brushed against my leg and he was bent over a few inches, so there was no height difference between us.

"No," I said more strongly this time, staring the Doctor in the eye. "We faced a demon earlier. That was the future version, now we're facing the past version. You heard the demon yesterday, it was here to get revenge on me. If I'm not in this fight, if I don't push that demon into that time rip, then the time stream will be changed."

Our eyes stared for a while longer, my green ones like lasers boring into the comfortable brown of the Doctor's eyes. I knew I was right, and I think the Doctor knew it too, but he was racking his brain for there to be another way to do this that involved keeping me out of danger. There wasn't. Finally, the Doctor relented and dropped his gaze, "you're right."

"I know," I responded gravely.

From the other side of the house we could hear some shuffling, but whatever was happening it seemed to be making its way over to us. John and Sherlock shifted their stances, so they were even more straight- backed and ready to join the fight.

"Try to stay out of the fighting at least," the Doctor pleaded. He placed both his hands lightly on my shoulder as to not hurt me, but his face was the only thing in my vision.

"I'll try my best." I responded. It wasn't like I had any type of weapon to aid me in fighting. If it came down to it, if I fought it would have to hand to hand combat. I could handle that, stitches or not. That's what Sam would do, right?

"They're coming!" Sherlock called out. I could hear the fighting getting closer.

"If you have to shoot, don't kill." I instructed Sherlock and Watson. "The demon is still inside Mr. Eddie, and I'd rather not have him dead. Plus bullets won't impede the demon in general. Shoot as a distraction, not a solution."

"Yes ma'am" John responded immediately. My brain, being what it is, immediately wished that we were in Star Trek and I could say "Set your phasers to stun" instead of "don't shoot."

"They're coming around the corner, get ready." Sherlock said steadily, his eyes focused on the hallway. John's shoulder brushed the detective's, as he stood next to him in the door frame. Both guns were trained on the empty hallway. The Doctor and I raced from the target to the opening of the time rip.

Just as we were approaching the rip, it started to quake as if it were made of Jello. The Doctor and I both stopped in our tracks, watching the circle shift. Little by little we could see something taking form until there was a six-foot tall man staring us in the face. He smirked, the right side of his mouth curling into an unpleasant smile.

"Looks like we were just in time for the party," he said threateningly as his eyes turned black.

"Hey John!" I called out in behind us in his direction. "We've got a demon infestation in the time hole!"

"Then close the damn time hole!" He responded immediately. I could hear his gun firing behind us. He must be focused on the main demon, doing damage without killing the vessel.

"There's more coming," The Doctor spoke his eyes widening. Grabbing my wrist, he pulled me a few steps toward the TARDIS doorway. "Quick! Get in!"

"No, I'm not deserting everybody else!" I retorted nearly yelling."I've already explained why."

"We're not deserting anyone. Just trust me." The Time Lord pulled me inside, before I had another chance to respond. He shut the door quickly behind us. "We refilled your water guns with holy water while you and Sam were on your date. Also, hula-hoops!" The Doctor held up a pink hula-hood grinning like a five-year-old child.

"Hula-hoops?" I questioned, picking up the one closest to me. They were the type of hula-hoop you could hear stuff shifting around the hollow inside of the hoop.

"They're filled with salt. It was my idea. Demons shouldn't be able to get out of these circles at least as far as Dean explained. We'll see if they work or not." The Doctor grabbed a squirt gun and a few hula-hoops and gestured for me to do likewise.

We ran out of the TARDIS, already shooting the water. We had only been out of the fight for a minute or two at most, but the time rip was placing demon after demon into the room. Already, in addition to Mr. Eddie, there were nine demons in the room. John and Sherlock were trying to avoid killing any of the demons, but Sam and Dean were now aiming for kill shoots on all of the demon coming through the time rip, even though it didn't impede them much at all.

Giving a war cry, the Doctor and I sprayed all the demons in range. The Time Lord was the first to try out a hula-hoop. He managed to throw it so it landed around one demon. However, the demon just stepped over the hoop as if it was nothing.

"The salt is covered by plastic," I stated to the Doctor, aiming my water gun at another target. "I was wondering if they would affect the results, and apparently it does. Since the demon doesn't fear direct contact with the salt, it doesn't affect them much at all."

"Ahh well, it was worth a try." The Doctor dropped the hula-hoops, and I followed suit.

"You don't happen to have any extra holy water do you?" I asked. My gun was starting to feel light, and the spray was coming out more in spurts instead of one continuous stream.

"No." He responded through clenched teeth. His gun was still working, but he was also being more precise with his shots.

We need to tie this up quickly, I thought. More demons were pooling through the open time rip. The demon in Mr. Eddie must have summoned them to aid him in the fight, or maybe he was planning a take-over in the town. I didn't know, but it didn't matter, because we had to deal with all the demons whatever the original motive was.

My gun finally ran out of water, and I set it down on the ground. I needed to do something. We needed to… EXORISE THE DEMONS! For whatever reason I hadn't thought of that previously, but exorcising the demons was exactly what we had to do. I was just going to blame the lack of intelligent thought on the adrenaline rush… and perhaps the attack demons as well.

The Doctor was only a few inches in front of me, so I leaned over and whispered into his ear, "Cover me, okay?" He looked up at me quickly and nodded. Training his eyes back on the demons coming at us, I turned so we were back to back.

"Exorcizamus te, omnid immundus spiritus, omnis satanica," I was yelling loudly, hoping that a stronger voice would be more effective at exorcizing demons. I didn't know if it was more effective or not, but yelling does draw attention to oneself. "Potestas, omnis incursio infenalis adversarii, "as I could continue any further, there was already a flock of ten demons descending on the Doctor and me.

Little droplets of holy water, sprayed my face as the Doctor shot water at anyone in range. However, I had nothing to fight with and half a dozen demons approaching.

"omnis congregation et secta diabolica" the closest demon was on top of me in a second. His fingers were deformed claws, which stung like hell as the lesser demon clawed at my face. He was screaming from the incantation. I raised my leg in a swift upward kick in defense. The demon paused for a moment, but went almost immediately back to scratching me. Apparently, demons don't have feelings in their genitals, or at least they divert the pain to the vessel, in which case I apologized silently to the vessel.

Switching tactics, I pushed the demon back with a front kick to the solar plexus. I had enough time to slip out of reach of the demon before it regained its balance. "ergo, draco maledicte…" However, the room was filling up quickly with bodies, so evading one demon wasn't enough. Almost instantly there was another demon, which had taken hold of my arms from behind my back. I stepped forward and twisted to the right hoping to disorient the demon enough, so that she'd loosen her grip. She just stepped in time with me, which didn't help me at all. I could flip her over my back, but there was a strong likelihood that I would follow her down. The very last thing I wanted to do was end up on my back surrounded on all sides by demons. I wished for a moment that I had a weapon. Not even a gun, a pair of nun-chucks would be fine. Heck, at this moment, I could make do with a walking stick, but there was nothing in range for me to use as a makeshift staff.

"Ecclesiam tuam securi," I was out of breath. The demons within a small radius of me all started to scream. "tibi facias" I panted for breath. "libertate servire" I felt like my mouth had been stuffed with cotton balls, and one look to the left of me confirmed that the demon possessing Mr. Eddie now had his focus on me. Damn, I had been so close to finishing it.

"That was a valiant effort young one, but you're not going to get very far here." I glanced over my shoulder, wondering if anyone could see what was going on. However, so many demons had already poured through the time rip that I could barely see any of my friends and of what I could see, everyone was surrounded and fighting. But, dear lord, we were out numbered.

"Now, you are by far being the biggest nuisance to my troops, trying to exorcise them. I certainly can't have that, now can I?" The demon paused, adjusting a metal ring on his right finger. My lovable neighbor wasn't married, though, and he never wore rings. "I do think I have a use for you, though, dear. You see I have this pet," he paused for a moment as a terrible screech tore through the rip, "and he's always hungry. He's got a real thing for human flesh. I don't know why. You humans are filthy, disgusting creatures. I wouldn't want you anywhere near my mouth, but monsters have their preferences. And who am I to judge?!" His smirk grew wide as he sensed the monster flying through the rip. I realized then that the ring matched the metal of the feathers on the bird, the demon must be using it to control the bird. I hadn't noticed it during out previous fight, although, I had been a little preoccupied at the time.

"Go on Stymphie, dear, it's feeding time." The demon in Mr. Eddie directed. In one moment, before I could barely react, I saw the bird fly above Mr. Eddie and dive straight at me, the lesser demon that was holding me quickly let go of my arms and jumped out of the way. I was only just able to throw myself to the ground before the monster shish-kabobbed me. The bird had still gotten a little piece, as it had flown past. My right side was searing in pain, and I was losing a lot of blood. There was no time to treat it now. I would deal with it later… if there was a later. I pushed that thought aside. Damn, it was getting hard to focus for some reason. Oh blood loss, right. That could be it.

"This better fucking work," I muttered to myself. Willing my protesting body off the ground, the lesser demons around us weren't reacting to me as they waited for Mr. Eddie to react, I took one staggering step toward the demon then another. I could feel the bird behind me, swiftly approaching. With a prayer to God or any power that would listen, I leaped forward pushing Mr. Eddie. I belly flopped to on the hardwood floor, knocking the wind out of myself. Mr. Eddie staggered back from the force of my push. It wasn't enough to fall over; nevertheless, it was enough to get him off balance. The monster bird that had been heading toward me, plowed into Mr. Eddie instead, lowering its beak just in time to avoid stabbing his master. The force from the bird's flight combined with my push was enough to knock the two of them backward, a few stumbling steps into the time rip.

As soon as the demon and the bird were dead, the glowing outline of the rip started to close in on itself. The hole knitted its edges back together, until it looked like nothing had ever been there at all. A few of the demons that were close to where the hole had been felt around with their hands to no avail. There was no longer a direct connection between the future and the past. I smiled to myself, the worst of this was over.

Of course, I was stupendously wrong. As soon as their commander left, the lesser demons pounced on me at once. I was too exhausted to move. I couldn't remember the exorcism. Everyone else was busy fighting their own foes, and even if they noticed it was be too late for any of them to help. I was going to die. As I resigned myself to this fact (the second time in the past few days), I remembered one thought Sam has shared during our date. "What if they fell through as well, but they didn't land in the center of the storm." He had said this in reference to the secondary characters in all these shows… maybe. Maybe he could be right?

I figured I had nothing to lose as I breathed out a prayer. "Castiel," I could feel the footsteps of the demons vibrating through the floorboards as they raced closer. "I need your help. I'm about to die, there are demons and I can't fight them. Please. Please Cas, please." I closed my eyes, surprised to find tears in them.

I heard the faint whoosh of wings. Half thinking I imagined it, I kept my head on the floor. As soon as I saw bodies start to drop beside me in small flashes of light that could only be Castiel's angel mojo, I lifted up my head enough to see the edge of his trench coat. I moaned at the effort it took to move any body part. Letting my head thump back to the floor, I slowly moved my hand to the side, hoping to stem the flow of blood. I should have considered doing that earlier, but I hadn't been thinking straight. My hand connected with a warm, wetness covering the side of my body. I pressed down, but it hurt worse than when I was shot (it was just a graze, but still it counts). I hissed and let up on the pressure.

Then I felt another hand on top of mine and a warm glow suffusing through me, like the feeling of relief and the smoothness of honey tea healing sore throat. Soon his hands moved to my shoulders then my arm. All of the pain had left my body, and I felt light and healed as if I could go run a marathon instantly.

"I've healed you as best I can, Lucy. Rest now. I'll make certain that no demons threaten you." And with that my eyelids fluttered shut on their own accord. The last image of Cas's clear blue eyes burned on my irises as my mind slipped into the comforting darkness of sleep and recovery.