Alice woke up as her head bounced a bit off of a car seat. She had been laid in the back of Dean's car and they went over a bump. She let out a groan and Sam turned to look at her, smiling.

"Hey, look who's up!" Dean said, glancing at Alice in his rearview mirror, "And just in time, listen to what's playing!" Pour Some Sugar on Me started playing and Dean tapped his fingers on his steering wheel to the beat.

"How are ya' feeling?" Sam asked.

Alice sat up, a little disoriented. She felt hungover, but she nodded.

"Did it work?" She asked.

"You tell us," Dean said.

"Do either of you have a knife?" Alice asked.

"Uh, yeah. Why?" Sam asked.

"Gimme it," Alice reached out. Sam reluctantly reached into his coat pocket and pulled out a switchblade and gave it to her.

Alice took it and held the blade to her thigh and cut into the skin. She winced as it cut through her and she started to bleed. The scar didn't look much different from the rest of the cuts on her legs, but she could feel this one more.

"Hey, whoa, what are you doing?" Sam asked.

"I had to check," Alice said wincing still, "if it didn't work, I wouldn't have felt that."

"Should've just used holy water," Dean said.

"I wish you would've told me that before," Alice said. There was that attitude Dean and Sam remembered fondly. "Where are we going?"

"Hospital. There's one right-"

"No," Alice said, cutting Sam off, "no way, no."

"Alice, we-"

"How are you going to explain this, huh?" Alice asked.

"We've explained away stranger things," Dean said.

"If you try to to take me to a hospital, I'll bail. I'll run away. Try me."

Sam and Dean exchanged a look and Sam sat straight in his seat. "Fine," he said, "to the bunker then."

When they got there, the boys helped Alice walk into the bunker, both arms around their shoulders. They sat her on the couch.

"You guys live here?" Alice asked.

"Sometimes," Sam said. Dean walked into the kitchen and grabbed everyone a beer.

"I think we deserve these," Dean said. He sat on the coffee table in front of Alice and drank slowly.

Alice nodded as a thank you, then she started laughing to herself.

Sam smiled and looked at Dean before asking, "what's so funny?"

"I don't know. Big bad Winchester brothers live in a house with potpourri and I'm having a beer on their fucking leather couch.

"Hey," Dean said, "Sam got the potpourri. How do you even spell that?"

Sam shook his head. "I'm glad you're feeling better," he said, "but we should really do something about those cuts."

Alice looked down and noticed how roughed up she really was.

"I can get Cas to fix ya up," Dean said, taking another sip.

"Is Cas that angel from tonight?" Alice asked.

Sam nodded a yes.

"Don't call him. I think I should remember what it's like to heal as a human. It's been a while."

"Out of all the ridiculous shit we've done tonight, that may be the stupidest," Dean said.

Sam shrugged in understanding. "I don't know," he said, "makes sense to me."

"Whatever," Dean said, standing up to get another beer.

"Is anyone hungry?" Alice asked.

Dean turned around and said, "always."

That night, Alice wanted to take a shower before she tried to sleep and after eating more Chinese food than she thought possible. She had a hard time standing up completely straight, her legs were still scratched and unsteady, but she was able to hold on to a small railing in the shower. The boys were careful not to get too busy or fall asleep until they made she she was in bed okay.

"I've gotta hand it to ya, Sammy, I didn't think this would work," Dean said as he stood across from Sam in the kitchen.

"I didn't exactly know myself," Sam said with a small laugh, "I didn't think we'd see Alice again, either. Especially not like…"

"I sort of thought we would" Dean said thoughtfully.

"Really?"

"Yeah, I don't know, always had a feeling."

Sam shrugged and decided to go into the library and do some research for their next job.

Dean gathered up the empties and threw them away. He heard the shower turn off and slow footsteps from the bathroom to the guest room Sam had shown Alice earlier. He wasn't completely comfortable with what he and his brother had done that night. Not that he wasn't glad Alice had come out okay and he got to not turn into a rougarou, that was a plus, but it seemed too simple. He had thought about Alice more than he cared to admit when they had left LA. She was beautiful, that was no question, but she had more fight in her than Dean had seen in anyone except, well, his own mother. And she had been so reckless, with her parents gone and all. He was thankful, for once, that his father had honed in his own rebellious spirit when he was young. Maybe he and Alice had more in common than mommy and daddy issues.

He considered turning in for the night when he heard her door close but stopped in front of it and rapped his knuckles on the wood.

"One minute," Alice called from the other side. When she opened the door, she was still adjusting the baseball shirt she had on that Sam had left for her.

"Nice shirt," Dean said with a smirk, "I'm glad Sammy's small enough that his shirts sort of fit ya."

Alice smiled and said, "yeah, you want to come in or something?"

"Do I need a formal invitation?"

"Please, do come in," Alice said laughing, an arm extended to display the room.

Dean walked in and sat on a chair by the bed. "To tell you the truth, I forgot what this room looked like."

"It's not bad," Alice said. She closed the door a little and sat on the bed across from Dean, trying to make herself comfortable. She picked at the edges of one of the many bandages on her legs. "How long until you kick me out of here?

"What?" Dean asked, "No, you can stay as long as you want."

"Don't tempt me, I could take full advantage of that."

Dean smiled as he said, "that doesn't sound like the Alice I remember."

"Yeah, well, I'm sick of running," Alice said avoiding his eyes. "When I wasn't running from you, I was running from my friends and family, and then the police, and Crowley, I just...I'm tired."

"We don't exactly sit still around here, ya know," Dean said.

"No, I know," Alice said and sat quiet for a little. "I never really thanked you guys."

"Don't mention it."

"Not just for this, whatever tonight was, letting me stay here, but for what you did in LA."

"All part of the job, babe."

"You didn't have to follow me as I hopped from motel to motel," she said, looking at Dean.

"Yeah, well, we didn't have any pressing jobs and uh, we were worried."

"Thank you."

Dean nodded. He opened his mouth to say something and then stopped himself.

"What?" Alice asked.

"How did you come to make a deal with Crowley in the first place?"

"It's a long story," Alice said. Realizing he was waiting for her to continue, she went on: "I skipped out of LA, traveled South down to Arizona and Texas, New Orleans, went up East until I got to New York and everything in between. It was nice for a while, lonely, but beautiful, ya know? Taking time, finding odd jobs, being able to pick up and leave whenever I wanted. I saw a lot of great things, but I got into a lot of trouble. Did things that I never really thought I would. I kind of liked the slow burn, ya know? And then one night, I was in this hotel in New York, taking a bath one night after a weird acid trip. I started drinking. I think I must have overdosed. I just remember falling asleep and Crowley was prying my eyelids open, said he wanted to talk. In the meantime, my roommate Marie had gotten me to the hospital. They hooked me up and all that. Crowley said we didn't have a lot of time. Basically, it was either die and stay with him in whatever rung of hell I deserved or become a demon. I had read up on all that shit after you two had come into town. Being a crossroads demon just seemed, I don't know, kind of nice. Meet a lot of people, make their wildest dreams come true, a little payback, so.."

"So you made a deal," Dean said.

"Yeah." She looked ashamed of herself.

"Hey, Alice, it's okay," he put his hand on her knee and she look up at him again. "You know, I was possessed too. Ask Sammy all about it, I was a dick." He made light, but Alice could tell it took a toll on him too.

"You mean, more than normal?"

The two of them laughed for a little and Dean said, "Yeah, well I should let you get some sleep." He stood up and Alice nodded.

"Goodnight Dean."