A/N: Guys, stuff's getting real, I thought I'd say it now, give you all a fair warning… **maniacal laughter** Big thanks to BunnyGirl1520 for reviewing! I'm glad you're liking the story and I know you ship it but I would hate for that pesky Winchester curse to get him like it did Jonah… **more maniacal laughter** Totally kidding… or am I? Confession time! Jonah was endgame but he was based off a real person and that very real boy broke up with me because I was an inconvenience so I killed off his character because I'm just that petty. Anyways! Back to the story!

-redwoodoriginal

Chapter 38: Awake

Tchaikovsky's The Nutcracker was ringing in her ears as Morgan was running through the woods. Her feet were bare and covered in mud as her feet pounded into the forest floor. The rain was pouring down from the black sky as it soaked her through to her skin, the loose white nightgown clinging to her small frame. Her hands kept fumbling with the hem to try and keep holding it up to run as fast as she could. Her eyes were bloodshot as her sight was getting clearer as her tears faded away. Morgan couldn't stop running, no matter how much her lungs were screaming for air.

"You can't run forever!" Someone bellowed in a loud threatening voice. Morgan had the fear of god coursing through her veins as she pushed herself to go faster, as fast as her legs could carry her. "I will always find you!" They roared. The song wouldn't leave her head. The chilling notes of the Nutcracker echoing in her ears.

"Don't look back. Don't look back. Don't look back," Morgan kept whispering to herself. She knew that if she looked back, it would distract her from her footing and it would result in her falling into the mud and the person chasing her would catch her. She just kept running, keeping her eyes on the path before her.

"I will find you!" They called after her. Morgan's heart was pounding, but it was filling with hope as she saw a light in front of her, the forest floor no longer illuminated by just the moonlight from above. When she found herself in a clearing in the trees. She came to a stop and turned as a pair of headlights illuminated her. She heard the sound of brakes screeching as the car tried to stop. The grill of the car impacted her right in the pelvis, her whole body cringing at the sound of bones crunching that she couldn't feel. The car hit her so hard that she hit the ground with another bone crunching thud, her head cracking against the pavement. She couldn't hear the rain pouring down on her anymore. Just the notes of the song permeating in her mind. There were muffled voices calling out to her, she was pretty sure it was her name they were calling out, but she couldn't focus. Her whole body was numb. She was so scared that she wasn't numb from shock, but because the injuries were a lot worse than she thought. The people trying to talk to her, trying to help her, got knocked back.

She saw the face of the man collapsed in front of her. It was Sam. His nose bleeding, his cheek scraped, and his eyes closed. Her eyes flitted to his chest to make sure he was still breathing, and he was. Morgan could hear fighting behind her, but it ended with another thud, just like when Sam collapsed before her. She kept trying to scream, to tell them to get up, to tell Sammy to wake up. She just kept trying to scream, and nothing came out. She knew she should be in pain, but Morgan couldn't feel a thing, her whole body in a frozen shock as a set of footsteps approached. They were heavy and out of the corner of her eye, Morgan could see a pair of leather boots. He had caught up to her. A pair of large hands threw her over his shoulder. She just couldn't stop trying to scream but her lips wouldn't move as not a single noise could escape from her throat through her lips.

She jolted awake to the sound of someone screaming. It was her. She was screaming at the top of her lungs and she couldn't stop herself. Someone barged into her bedroom the second she dropped out of the air and hit her mattress. Morgan, like many times before when she had the nightmare about halloween, had been levitating in her sleep again. Tears were streaming down her face as she bit back her screaming and tried to catch her breath, but she just couldn't. Her dad rushed to her side and sat on the bed next to her, holding her and rubbing a gentle hand on her back.

"Hey, hey, hey," he was trying to get her attention, but she couldn't look at him. She was bug-eyes with fear, her hands on the top of her head with her fingers woven into her hair, pulling at the strands as she hyperventilated through the tears. "Morgan, just breath, shhh," her father crooned. She did her best bust she just couldn't stop. She couldn't anchor herself to reality as that pain from her dream lingered. "Morgan, please tell me what's wrong?" her father begged her. Morgan tried to choke back her sobs to get the words out that she desperately needed to get out.

"I-it's ha-happen-ing a-again-n," she choked out, trying so very hard to breath. "Ni-nightma-mare… Nightmare…" she got out. Her father froze. He knew the last time she had nightmares like this, she started getting them more and more frequently leading up to that Halloween night when she was attacked. There was a pause where he didn't know what to say and Morgan used that to catch her breath. She was now only breathing heavily, the tears slowing their pace down her cheeks.

"Morgan-" He tried to talk her down, maybe ask her about her nightmare, but she stopped him with a look in her eyes like her world was crumbling.

"Dad, I need you to listen to me and not say anything until I'm done, can you do that?" she got out rather erratically through her heavy, stressed panting.

"What's going on?" he asked. Her tears had finally stopped, but her eyes were still bloodshot and her tear streaked skin was still red and puffy under her eyes. She kept her mouth shut, waiting till he finally surrendered and nodded that he was going to listen, just like she asked.

"Before everything that happened on halloween…" She took a breath. "For months, I was having dreams, the same dream. It wasn't just nightmares, someone messing with me, dad. It was the same dream, over and over again for months. The closer it got to Halloween, the more and more I was having the dream. I was even seeing it during the day when I zoned out at school. It was prophetic," she expressed flatly. She could see that her father wanted to say something, but he just kept his mouth shut as she had asked. "It was the exact events that happened in that house after I figured out Jonah was a demon all the way up until I got dragged into that room where he died and I almost did too. It was like a warning that I didn't pay attention to until it was too late and I realized I was in that exact same room that the dream started in and now… it's happening again," she finished. Now that she dawned an expectant look on her face, he knew it was time to say something.

"What happens in your dream?" her father asked, almost afraid of what her answer will be. Morgan ran a shaky hand through her sweat drenched hair trying to find the right words. She didn't want to miss anything as she thought about the dream that she had had three times now.

"It's night. I'm running through the pouring rain, barefoot and wearing some sort of long white dress… like a nightgown or something? My eyes are red like I've been crying, but I keep running without a second thought to hurting me feet on the ground below. I'm running from someone… He calls out after me that I can't run forever and he'll always find me. I just keep telling myself to not look back because that's a textbook mistake in horror movies. If you look back you could misstep and trip and get caught and I couldn't do that so I kept going. He roars after me that he'll will find me and I just push myself to run faster. I started to get some hope as I saw some light through the trees in the distance. It was a road so I ran into it, but the light was a car…"

"What happened next?" Dean asked expectantly.

"I get hit by the car, but I can't feel a thing. I don't know if it's shock or I'm paralyzed but they stopped the car and I can hear the people in the car trying to talk to me… trying to help me, but then the man I was running from catches up to me but this time… the dream tonight… I saw something new. I saw who was in the car trying to help me…"

"Who was it? Did they get you?" Dean questioned as she saw the gears turning in his head, trying to analyze every word she said to him.

"It was you and Sam. You hit me with the Impala. You didn't mean to, I came out of nowhere. I think you were on your way to save me? But he stopped you and just threw me over his shoulder like was nothing and walked away. That's where it ended tonight because I think once I realized it was you and Sam, I was scared and was trying to scream for Sam to wake up and I ended up waking myself up with my own screaming but that's not the end of the dream," she explained.

"What's the end of the dream?" He was almost too scared to even want an answer. But she knew she had to give him one anyway.

"You and Sam are calling after me, realizing what he's done but I think you're too hurt to pursue, or you're too hurt for it to be smart to pursue. I don't know but he still gets away with me thrown over his shoulder. It feels like forever in the rain until I could smell sandalwood and hear classical music. It's a large house in the middle of the woods. He takes me upstairs to a room that looks like it's meant for a princess but it's not it's a prison with a large metal security door and bars on the windows. He throws me on the bed and I'm still either frozen in shock or paralyzed because I can't move so I can't even look at him to see his face. The pain begins and I'm just writhing… drowning in it… The man tells me someone will be in shortly to tend to me… But then he tells me that I got off easy getting hit by a car… He says if he had caught me before I got hit he would've beaten me just as badly but it would take so much longer because he likes to ta-take his swe-sweet ti-time…" She was trying to hard to not cry, fearing her future. "But the last thing he says before he leaves… he says he likes to take his sweet time when he doesn't require my presence… I think it's the same person who's been sending demons after me under Crowley's nose." Her mind was reeling as everything kept flashing across it all at once. Her father looked down for a moment, trying to think before looking back up at her.

"You said you ignored the signs that your nightmare was about halloween. Morgan, how exactly did you know it was going to happen on Halloween?" He asked, knitting his eyebrows in a combination of confusion and worry.

"I knew it was about Halloween because I kept seeing myself, like in an out of body experience, and I was wearing my witch costume. Hat and everything..." Morgan deadpanned, the gears turning in her head.

"Do you think you know when it's gonna happen this time?" He asked, and it hit her. That damn song still ringing in her ears like it never left.

"December… Christmas maybe…" the young psychic whispered. Dean's eyebrow unknit themselves before raising.

"How do you know that?" He questioned.

"Because the classical music in the house? Well I didn't see the house this time, but I could hear it ringing in my ears from start to finish and I know exactly what song. Tchaikovsky's The Nutcracker."

Liam was standing at his locker when he saw her walk through the double doors into the school. Her hair was up in a braided high ponytail, the heavy braid swinging behind her slightly as she walked. At first, he was excited to see that freckled face as his heart did little relays in his chest, but then it dropped to his stomach. Despite the golden eyeshadow and her thick cat eyeliner and mascara around her forrest green eyes, there were faint dark circles below her tired eyes. She was wearing a pair of light wash overalls that were fitted around her hips but baggy down her legs with the ankle cuffs rolled slightly, the fit somehow accentuating her small yet shapely frame. Beneath the overalls was a short sleeved, striped crop top so you could just barely see the skin on the sides of her waist between her ribs and her hips. She dragged her feet slightly in her black slip-on vans as she walked to her locker. It was when he saw her drop her head tiredly against the door of her locker that he decided to go over to her.

"Good morning," he greeted her, dawning a hopefully warm smile as she picked her exhausted head off her locker and opened her eyes to meet his. Liam held onto his smile despite her deeply sleep deprived demeanor. Her eyes were heavy and glazed over, so he didn't know what to do or say, afraid he was going to make it worse. Before he could even begin to fathom what to do to try to help her, Morgan just stepped forward and hugged him. She buried her face in his chest with her arms wrapped around his waist. At first, Liam was a little shocked, but that was only for a few seconds before her put his arms around her.

"Are you okay?" He asked but she shushed him, her face still buried against his chest.

"Please don't ask, I just need a hug," she insisted, her voice muffled by his shirt. It was just an army green, short sleeved button down that he wore with a pair of black jeans that were rolled up slightly at the ankles, per usual, so they wouldn't cover his combat boots.

"Okay, that's fine. If you need to talk though, I'm here. Just so you know," Liam reassured her, pulling her slightly tighter in an attempt to make her feel safer like he might've done when she crawled into his bed that night after the party and after the dinner where their dads met.

"Thanks, but I just really needed a hug," she mused with a newfound smile on her freckled face. Liam's heart just went right back to doing relay races in his chest when he saw that damn smile.

"Don't we all, sometimes," he remarked as they walked down the hall together. He put an arm around her and pulled her in for a moment before letting go to make sure it came across that he really did care. The petite teen let out a small, relaxed chuckle as he did so before they went off to their homeroom with Mr. Greenstone. But Liam didn't let it go. He kept an eye on her. Homeroom came and went, and her eyes had dropped back to tired and droopy despite the coffee in her to-go cup that she had brought to school. Latin with Mr. Carver passed them by as she mindlessly drew a full fledged forrest in her notebook during the movie they were watching about the Roman empire. He could've sworn there was a girl in the picture, running from a shadowed man.

Mrs. Seebold was going over the reading assigned for that day, but Morgan didn't raise her hand even once to answer her questions of their interpretations. She was always sharing her thoughts and asking questions in English. He was sure that it was one of her favorite classes, but today Liam watched as she laid her head down upon her desk and went to sleep. He noticed Mrs. Seebold look at his friend sympathetically, letting it slide since she knew that Morgan always did the work without fail. The old woman didn't even wake her as she picked Morgan's book up off her desk for the annotation checks. As always, she got a plus. Liam could see the pages as Mrs. Seebold checked them and his best friend had the margins chock full of tiny handwriting like she couldn't stop asking questions and finding her own answers to them in the highlighted portions. Towards the end of class, he could hear Morgan breathing slightly heavier and a bit faster than normal. It was like faint hyperventilation. Whatever this morning was about must've been plaguing her still. Mere seconds before the bell for the end of class rang, she jolted awake in her desk, looking around like something was happening before she realized she was in the classroom. The bell rang and she just got up and said in a groggy voice, "Let's get going." It was simple as that.

They parted ways while she was in Algebra + Geometry with Mrs. Alcoke and I was in my Algebra 2 + Trigonometry class with Mr. Riff. The classrooms were opposite each other so since he was in the front of his classroom, he could see her in the front of hers. It was hard not to look at her when he was worried about her. Her head leaned on her hand as she did her work. Morgan just looked so emotionally drained and all Liam wanted to do was help her. But he knew that she didn't want to talk, so if she did, she would come to him when she was good and ready. He knew that. So he just kept an eye out and made sure he was there if she needed another hug or anything else.

At lunch, It was the friend group sitting in the grassy patch next to the football field, across from the bleachers since it was a nice day with mild weather. Morgan started eating her lunch, and then quit halfway through, declaring softly in a half-assed mutter that she would just finish the food in their History class since Mr. Greenstone didn't mind them eating in his classes since he ate food during their classes half the time. Instead of eating the other half of her lunch, Morgan put the leftover food in her backpack and shifted, not saying a word and thoroughly catching Liam off guard as she put in her headphones to blast heavy metal music as she leaned over and rested her head on Liam's right thigh and closed her eyes. She was straight up taking a nap right there on his lap with the sunshine warming her skin. He rested his hand on her shoulder, thoughtlessly rubbing his thumb back and forth across it in an attempt to keep her relaxed. He figured he could keep her from possibly dreaming about whatever woke her up in English class considering the bad dreams that she was having that night at his house stopped when she drunkenly snuggled up to him. He had a sort of idea that body contact helped her, and that was exactly what he was going to maintain.

"So are you guys a thing?" Tyler whispered to Liam after having sat down right next to him so they could talk without anyone hearing. Liam blinked in slight shock, his jaw tightening at Tyler's question.

"What? No," Liam whispered back. Tyler just looked at him. "I'm serious, we're just friends," he maintained in his hushed tone. His friend just chuckled at that.

"Dude, you and I both know that's not exactly the case," Tyler pointed out quietly, looking between him and the sleeping girl in his lap. Liam tried to think of something he could say that would convince his friend otherwise, but he couldn't find the right words.

"Let's just say I wouldn't mind if it wasn't the case but it's currently very much the case," Liam rambled. Tyler just smirked, knowing he was right.

"I know you guys got pretty close at that party and you've just been getting closer ever since. I mean, dude. You had dinner with her dad. I think you should just make your move. The two of you have been playing cat and mouse for a little over a month now. Even Madison green lit it. The girl's best friend? Said you had the green light to the best of her knowledge, no matter how much she says you guys are just friends, which by the way, is as often as you say it," Tyler insisted quietly. Liam could see his point, but he was so scared of ruining a friendship where he had made the closest connection with since he moved here. Except the more he thought about it, the more realized that the connection was so close and already so deep because there was something else besides a platonic sense, and that made him even more nervous. "I'll just leave you be to think about it. Let me know if you change your mind about it," Tyler whispered before getting up to go sit back with Madison.

He just looked down at the sleeping girl, her head still in his lap and his thumb still gently rubbing her shoulder in his attempts to keep her calm and soothed while she slept. She looked so peaceful. It was like their friendship. One wrong move and he could mess it all up, something so peaceful. But the right move could make it so much better, like his hand on her shoulder. It was just so much to think about that he barely noticed when it was time to go back to class. Liam just shook her shoulder and when her green eyes drifted open, he told her it was time for them to go to Biology. Morgan simply nodded and stood up. She pulled out her bag of apple slices and started munching on them as they walked back to the school to head inside.

The rest of the day, Morgan had finally worn the smile he hadn't seen since this morning. She was now awake and alert with her normal self shining through as if she hadn't been trudging about all morning. Liam liked to think he helped with that during Lunch. Even if he had only helped with a slight change and her catching up on sleep did the rest, it was enough for him. He just smiled with her, laughed with her, and passed notes with her from biology through history until they parted ways once again for them to go to their separate art classes. They got through gym together, it was just another day in their basketball unit. He was good at basketball, average, but for some weird reason, no one could out-shoot Morgan. She just kept making every single shot. Not even the kids on the school basketball teams could out-shoot her. The petite teen just kept laughing as she whipped around other players and made three pointers without even thinking. It was like a higher power decided she was going to make every shot. But he didn't mind her kicking his ass in Basketball.

Morgan was sitting there on the bench after soccer practice. She was really sweaty but couldn't bring herself to peel off the practice keeper jersey or take off anything else, she just sat there in her equipment, still breathing heavily from the end of practice. They were scrimaging and they would not stop shooting on her. They were balls she couldn't quite catch cause her mind wasn't quite there. It was just deflection after deflection, the ball and the players' runs getting recycled over and over until she finally caught it and the scrimmage had already ended just seconds before she placed her hands around the ball. Her heart had been pounding in her ears as she just stood there, trying to catch her breath. The coaches let them go and Morgan just wandered into the locker room and just sat there, catching her breath and calming herself down. The more stress she had on her body, the more her psychic abilities wanted to compensate, and Morgan knew that couldn't happen, not on the soccer field. She would feel guilty for cheating and she could accidentally hurt someone. Levitating herself a little higher in cheerleading is one thing, but a sudden outburst while she was playing a high contact sport? She could accidentally lash out and injure someone… or worse.

She shook the idea from her head as she finally caught her breath, peeling off her equipment and putting it in her gym locker. Morgan pulled her hair down from the high, braided pony that she had been wearing all day and brushed it out before weaving it into a loose braid over her shoulder. Just something as simple as letting her hair down released the tension on her scalp and unwittingly released the tension she had been holding onto the entire practice. The teenager pulled on a t-shirt and made sure all of her stuff was together in her bag before she slipped on her gym shoes and walked out of the locker room. Before she could get maybe, ten feet from the locker rooms, someone said her name. She turned around and saw Liam coming out of the boys' locker room.

"Hey," she greeted weakly, her energy still spent from practice. She stopped walking, letting her friend catch up to her before they both headed off to the parking lot where their parents were no doubt waiting for them.

"How was soccer?" Liam asked, no doubt noticing her slower movements and tired eyes.

"It was fine, a little rough but the record is still maintained. No one scored on me. At one point they subbed me out for the other Keeper, the one I replaced at the start of the season? They put her in so the other team would have a chance at scoring but that sounds really bad so I'm just gonna shut up now," Morgan rambled, not trying to be mean about the other keeper, especially if she was anywhere within earshot but Morgan looked around and made sure she wasn't.

"You're fine," Liam laughed at her ramblings as they walked together. There was a moment of silence, and Morgan realized she hadn't said anything to him about how he was helping her all day.

"I… uh… wanna say thank you." Liam's eyes shot to her out of confusion. "For the hug this morning, I mean… and letting me sleep on you during lunch," she clarified. Liam gave a nod and a silent 'oh' before giving her a smile.

"Don't worry about it. It's what I'm here for," he told her and Morgan somehow knew he wasn't just saying that to be like the nice friend. He meant it.

"Well, yeah. So, thanks," she finished. Not sure what else to say as her freckled skin flushed. Morgan looked away from him as they walked, trying to hide her awkwardness that was so easily seen from being written all across her face.

"Do you wanna come over on Saturday?" He asked and her head shot up, looking at him with wide eyes before she regained the composure to respond to him like a normal human being.

"Saturday?" Morgan repeated, making sure she heard him right. He smiled, but she could feel the nerves coming off of him in waves. Maybe it was because the only time she's ever been to his house, she drunkenly crawled into his bed and snuggled into him without asking.

"Yeah. W-we could study? O-or… I don't know… play video games or watch movies or so-something?" He was nervous and it was skewed all over his face now, making Morgan more comfortable now that she wasn't the only one becoming an obvious nervous wreck.

"Uh, yeah. That'd be really fun," she responded calmly, finally pulling herself together, no longer needing the fake, confident composure that she dawned to hide her nerves.

"Really?! Uh… I mean… Cool," He smiled. Morgan held back a giggle, one that she didn't know she wanted to let out because she wasn't one to giggle. She wasn't one of those girls. But Liam was turning her into one. They kept walking, both donning smiles that neither really noticed… or at least they pretended not to notice. It was just blissful silence surrounding them as they made their way through the double doors that led to the parking lot where they each saw their parents waiting for them.

Morgan gave Liam a small wave before saying, "See you tomorrow." Liam smiled and waved back.

"See you tomorrow."