I apologize for how short this update is. I've become less hectically busy lately so I hope to update more frequently!

As they near the shore in their stolen boat, the entire nest of vampirates, along with Andrea, now dead and burned, Lizzy's been getting the very distinct feeling that Benny isn't doing so well with it all. When she looks over to him sitting quietly he makes eye contact with her, the sadness in his hollow eyes is very difficult to see.

"Why'd you do it, Liz?" he asks her out of nowhere, his thoughts spilling from his mouth.

"You know I had to," Lizzy painfully admits, knowing Andrea had to go as there was no changing her ways at this point.

"Not that. I mean… resurrect me." Benny looks down at his hands, some blood still staining them. "You could have drained my soul into any culvert and no one would have been the wiser. But you stuck to our deal. Why?"

"Are you friggin' kidding me?" Lizzy asks with heat, angry he'd even say those words. "We had a deal. And you got me out. I owed you. I… I still do."

"Man…." Benny huffs in disappointment and looks away from her as Lizzy steers them into the dock. Lou hitched the stolen small boat to a dock post and Lizzy won't let her worries go.

"Benny, are you alright?" Lizzy prods as they both stand up and grab their things. She stops him with a hand to his arm. "Hey, I mean it. I know this was a tough blow but… seriously, are you gonna be alright?"

"L!"

Lizzy's eyes immediately close when she hears his voice. "Shit."

The pounding of heavy feet coming closer down the dock ends their conversation right there. Benny gets out of the boat as Dean approaches with his own weapon packed bag and he turns to give Lizzy a hand getting out, then Lou.

"What, did I miss it?" Dean asks her, looking her over for wounds or anything wrong.

"Yeah, you did. We handled it on our own, just like I told you we would," Lizzy comments with a surly attitude. "So you drove out here for nothing."

He doesn't respond to her as the whole time she speaks Dean's eyeing the new guy he's never met before over. "You seem fine," he states coldly to the stranger. "I was told you were in a real jam."

"I was until these two lovely killin' machines came to my rescue. 'Specailly this one," Benny answer with a jovial southern accent as he shoulder bumps Lizzy in a friendly manner, smiling as he knows Lizzy wasn't ready to introduce them. Might as well try for at least a good impression since they have no choice now. "I'm Benny," he holds out a hand to Dean. "Heard a whole lot about you, Dean. Your little boy, too."

Dean puts on a suspicious look as he shakes the guy's hand, feeling instantly how cold and lifeless his skin is despite his walking and talking. He's not human. Dean knows he isn't.

As he turns his eyes to Lizzy and makes contact, his left hand reaches to his hip, opening the holder for his machete out of reflex.

"Dean," Lizzy sharply warns.

Benny catches on and takes his hand back. "I can see you two have a lot to talk about." He picks up his personal things and looks to Lou and Lizzy, realizing how quiet they've been about his involvement in their lives. "You girls helped me out more than I asked for. Thank you. Truly."

Lizzy sighs and steps up to him, giving him a tight, hard hug. "You need anything, you get in a bind… you call me right away."

"I thought you said that was dangerous?" Benny quietly asks, feeling Dean's glare on him.

"Well, cat's out of the bag now. Just call me anytime," Lizzy tries again and backs off, her nervous smile giving away how much trouble she's in just for associating with him now.

"I'll do what I can to leave you and your family be, Liz," Benny tells her and turns to Lou. "My, my, girl. It was good to see you on two legs and alive."

"You too, Benny," she says, her tone actually heartfelt as she hugs him also. "Please take care of yourself. No more being a dumbass."

"But I'm so damn good at it," Benny denies jokingly.

Lou pushes him away. "You know I'll kill you if you're stupid again."

"Like to see you try that, girl," he laughs as she shoves him in the chest. He just laughs some more at her and tips his hat at them. "See you ladies another time."

He walks down the dock and disappears towards his truck, leaving Dean fired up and Lizzy unprepared for the fallout.

"Don't say anything," she points at him warningly.

"Are you fucking kidding me!?" Dean yells at her.

"Not until you hear the whole story. You owe me that much," Lizzy says to him.

"Owe you!? You left! To associate with a vamp!"

She rubs her tired eyes. "Let's just get back to the cabin and have this talk with Sam so I don't have to rehash anything…."

"He's here too," Dean tells her. "He and Sammy. A motel a few blocks down."

She shakes her head at him in disgust. "You're unbelievable."

"I'm the one that's unbelievable in all this!?" Dean disbelieves.

"Fucking right you are. Let's go."

She marches off, Lou following, and Dean' left to lead them in his Impala to their motel for the night all while fuming with pure anger.

"A friggin' vampire!?" Sam asks with wide eyes as he sits at the end of one of the motel beds, shock running through his system with the news. "You're friends with a friggin' vampire? What the hell?"

Lou stares at him with anger for a split second before reminding him, "You fucked a demon for a year while I was gone. You done hurling insults?"

Sam clenches his jaw. "I thought we all learned from my mistakes in the past."

"Yeah, don't trust a fucking demon that's screwing you over six ways from Sunday," Lizzy fires out, still sore about the whole Ruby thing. "Benny isn't Ruby."

"How could you know that? I hadn't seen it coming," Sam challenges, Dean standing by with crossed arms. He hasn't moved or spoken since Lizzy started to spill the truth that her friend that helped get her out of Purgatory is a vampire… one that Lou knew well while she was there too.

"He saved my life. How's that for solid intel?" Lizzy keeps up her heated attitude.

"And Ruby saved mine too!"

"What's with the total lack of trust in Lou and me all of a sudden? You can't just go on our word?" Lizzy asks with upset.

"No!" Dean and Sam both answer simultaneously.

"This is bullshit," Lou paces the room. "You're a couple of fucking hypocrites."

"How so?" Sam asks her, wanting some proof of that.

"I would have thought you shoving your dick in a demon for a year would have been good enough evidence but… how about Amy?" Lou gives a new angle a try.

"You killed Amy because all evil should be killed according to you!" Sam shouts at her. "But Benny gets a hall pass?"

"Hells yeah he does!" Lou gets really mad now.

So does Sam. He stands up from his spot on the end of a bed. "Why!? Why him and not Amy?"

"Because!"

"Because why!?"

"Because he's my…! Shit!" Lou steps back a bit and presses a hand to her mouth, realizing what she almost said. She almost lost control of the truth there.

"He's your what!?" Sam gets really mad, stepping closer to her.

"Sam," Dean calls his brother back from the edge with just his voice alone. Sam snaps his focus to Dean.

"No! I want to know." He turns back to Lou. "He's your what?" Sam keep pushing.

"Sit down, Sam," Lizzy asks gently of him, hoping he'll listen.

"No, I want to know why Benny's so fucking important to you two… more important than Amy was to me."

"Amy was a crush, Sam. And I get that she did something damn big for you, okay?" Lizzy calmly says. "But Benny… we both knew him for a year or more. He's more than some crush."

"She killed her mother for me," Sam spells it out to her. "She saved my life."

"And Benny saved ours countless times, far more than once," Lizzy tells him, words strong without yelling. "We wouldn't be in this room with our family without him. He's a friend, a real one."

"He's still a vampire," Dean mentions in a hushed tone from his spot.

"And you've been a torture master in Hell," Lizzy goes deep and cuts him with her words. His face shows the pain she causes him right away. "And Sam, you've been a soulless, unstoppable dick. We've all been things we don't like, some worse than others. Benny made his mistakes… but he's turned around."

"How so?" Dean asks, still hurting from her words.

"He doesn't drink people, for starters," Lou tells them both. "He's on blood bags and animals. He hasn't killed since Purgatory and even there he was only killing because the place forces you to. Even before he died he'd stopped killing humans."

Sam and Dean say nothing at that.

"He's not violent, not anymore," Lizzy tells them with promise. "He went after the people that wronged him and killed him in the first place. He did it to protect himself. Now… he's safe. And he plans to disappear and live quiet."

"Until he's off the wagon and kills again," Dean challenges her. "No monster stays clean forever."

"Like Amy," Sam says with pure attitude, eyes on Lou.

"He has earned the chance to prove himself," Lizzy assures, Lou nods in agreement.

"And when he kills?" Dean asks her, needing to know she's prepared for the inevitable.

"If he kills… then Lou and I will handle him," Lizzy vows. "We'll put him down. And he knows that."

"Does he?" Dean questions with narrowed eyes. "Because you need to understand… the day will come when he slips up." He steps closer to Lizzy with a strongly set jaw and ridged stance. "And when he does… it could be my machete that's got his blood all over it."

Lizzy's eyes darken. "Your lack of faith in my judgement is starting to really piss me off, Dean."

"Your lack of good judgment on this whole damn thing is worrying me, L," Dean explains simply, no harsh edge in his voice. "I don't like the idea of a vampire out there, knowing you and having your damn cell number. That doesn't sit with me well."

Lizzy stares up at him, having said all she can to explain herself and her husband is still unsure. Untrusting. "Just when I think we're getting better… we're not. You get this way. You can't trust me…."

"And you lied to me," Dean shows her where she also went wrong. "You lied and scared the crap outta me. We don't lie anymore, remember?"

"I never lied," Lizzy fights him. "I told you I was helping a friend you hadn't met before, which I did. And I told you I would explain everything when I got back, which I had fully planned to do but you never let me get there. Where did I lie to you?"

"You lied by omission," Dean feels hurt and it shows.

"What did I omit!?"

"That you were helping a vampire!"

"This is fucking crap," Lizzy tells him, heading for the door. "I'm going to sleep in the other room with Sammy. I'm fucking done with this."

She leaves the room, slamming the door as she goes.

"Awesome," Dean grumbles, never having expected them to get into that level of fight after the solid bunch of days they've had with her return. He looks at Lou. "Who is this fucking guy?"

"He's the reason your wife is here… and don't you forget that." Lou eyes him hard, daring him to start up with her now.

Dean wisely doesn't. He knows better and he's well aware that Sam's not about to drop it that easily anyways. "Fuck this. I'm going for a drive." He grabs his jacket and keys and heads out the door, it once more slamming.

The room goes silent, the sound of the Impala revving to life before disappearing all they can hear for a moment. When Lou sighs heavily, not sure what to do here, she decides to try at least talking to Sam. He tends to be rational when others aren't.

"Giant, I…."

"Don't use that name," Sam denies her right away and plops down on the end of the bed in the room. He shakes his head with loss, trying to wrap his head around everything. "You… killed Amy. She was a friend and now… you want me to trust a vampire. You're asking me to do the same thing I asked you to do. And you didn't listen." He looks at her, the pain of Amy's loss still deep in his heart. "Why should I listen to you? Why does Benny deserve to live and Amy had to die?"

By the time he's done explaining, his voice is sad and quiet. He does still feel that loss… the one that Lou created. She takes a chair from the small table in the room and places it a few feet back from Sam, facing him. Sitting down, Lou looks right at him with very sad eyes.

"I know what I did was wrong," Lou admits to him for the first time since it happened. "I should have trusted you."

"Damn right you should have," Sam responds with an edge.

"And I see that now."

"But why now?" Sam has to ask. "Lou, if anyone should know that some monsters can be redeemed it should be you. You literally were a monster."

"But I wasn't a redeemable one," she nearly laughs. "Do you not remember vamped up me? I sucked. I killed my own nest. I wanted to kill Dean!"

"We all want to kill Dean sometimes," Sam mutters under his breath.

Lou isn't sure if it was meant to be a joke or not and moves on. "My plan was to turn you and Lizzy and Bobby. I wanted to take more humans down with me. And I played God… or Dexter. Any person I deemed unfit to live we drained. I was killing humans. I wasn't a monster that deserved a pass and, at the time… I though Amy didn't either. I didn't think she had a right to judge humans and kill whoever she wisely chose."

"And now?" Sam asks.

"I still believe that," Lou explains. "No monster has the right to kill humans, good guys or bad. But Benny isn't killing."

"He did at some point, right?" Sam knowingly asks.

Lou hangs her head a little. "Yes. Decades ago. He's been in Purgatory for over fifty years. Before he died he had met a woman… a human woman. And he was in love. He changed that day and since then he's never drank a single person. I think fifty-plus years sober isn't something to dismiss."

Sam sits and thinks. He stares at her, sees the sincerity in her and the fact that she really does care about the vampire. "He needs to be checked on."

"I'll keep tabs. And where ever he goes Lizzy and I will scour the news, check for suspicious deaths. Just one and his head rolls." Lou holds her hand out to him, offering to make a deal.

Sam's eyes widen. "You believe in him that much? You'd promise me you'll kill him if you goes off the wagon."

"I believe in him that much," Lou swears, hand still out.

"There's more to this," Sam says to her, absolutely sure of it. "What is he to you?"

She drops her hand and leans back into her chair. "Fine. Truth. While I was dead you had some… women come into your life now and then, right?"

"Well… yeah… but…."

"I had Benny," she tells him with a strong, adamant voice. "He was a friend. He was a best friend. He was even more than that at times because he was… what I needed at the time."

"So, you guys… had a relationship?" Sam tries to comprehend.

"A form of one," she nods. "I told him about you. I told him that, you know… he wasn't you no matter what he could have tried. And he reminded me that I wasn't Andrea, his girl. But we… were a comfort to one another. I needed him. He needed me. And I can't just ignore everything that happened between us now that he's back." She keeps avoiding eye contact after that confession.

"He's your ex then? From Purgatory?" Sam pushes her.

"Don't be a dick," Lou fires out. "I'm being fully honest with you and you throw some jealousy crap at me?"

Sam huffs a long sigh. "I'm sorry. Okay? I am. Just trying to… wrap my head around all this."

"Well, sit with it for a bit then," Lou tells him getting up and walking for her bag. "I'm gonna catch some sleep. I convinced Lizzy to head back to Kansas with us soon. I think she's ready to get back into a real life. We're gonna drive back to the cabin first thing tomorrow."

"Alright," Sam nods, watching her head for the bathroom with his mind spinning.

She's right anyways. He needs time to sit with all that.

Early in the morning, Dean pulls the Impala back into the motel parking lot. A few beers drank, a couple games of pool won, he feels better. A little. Enough.

He may not be sure where his head is quite yet with everything happening but at least he never blew up. He never punched a wall or broke a lamp so hey, maybe Lou's right. Maybe this year was good for him. He's feeling almost like a real adult now. The adult thing to do would probably have been to stay and not leave at all but most adults probably don't lead lives anything like his. He did alright.

Quietly as he can, Dean unlocks the motel doorway he knows Lizzy and Sammy are in and walks in. He closes it slowly, making no noise, and realizes that he stepped on and broke the salt line Lizzy laid. She's still stuck in their old world, assuming everything is out to get them. He fixes it with the toe of his boot, making the line solid again, before turning around and checking the room.

There they are. On the bed farthest from the door Lizzy's curled up around Sammy protectively as they're both fast asleep under the sheets, Sammy's book long forgotten on the comforter.

The moment he sees it he can feel how badly he wishes the fight they had never happened. He just got her back into their lives and they're already fighting. Of course he's concerned and worried about her friend that's also a monster but she's Lizzy. He knows her head is on straight, or mostly straight after Purgatory… so why let it cause such a huge rift between them? They've been here before, letting their opposing ways of seeing situations rip them apart. It turned into a disaster. It broke them.

He's certainly not willing to let that happen again.

Quickly, Dean heads for the bathroom and gets ready to catch some sleep. When done, he undresses down to his boxer briefs and his t-shirt and pulls the covers back on the bed behind Lizzy. He makes no attempt to move slowly and keep from waking her. At this point, after all she's seen, she's probably already awake with the minimal noise he's made since he got back anyways.

She shifts a little over to give him room and Dean sidles right up into her, his front against her back as he pulls an arm around her waist. He settles there for a quiet moment, allowing himself to feel the press of her form to his while spooning up behind her. It reminds him of how badly he really doesn't want to fight with her.

"I shouldn't have left," Dean whispers to her, his mouth by the back of her neck as he speaks. He presses a quick kiss to her skin there in apology.

"It's okay," she promises quietly, turning her head to just peer at him out of the corner of her eye. "You needed to."

"I don't wanna fight with you," Dean admits to her. "I already had so much time with you stolen away…"

"I know," Lizzy nods and smiles sadly. "And I don't want to go back to that mess we were before I left."

"Never," Dean shakes his head a little, remembering how cold they got towards each other. Months apart, barely able to speak on the phone without fighting, the lonely nights, the frustrating words exchanged… it was terrible. He pulls her in tighter. "This Benny guy… he just scares me."

"And I just need you to trust me," Lizzy asks of him, no heat behind her request. "And you should know you can."

"I'm trying," Dean swears to her and she knows that's the best he can do. "And I know I can trust you. I just have a rough time trusting everyone else. Everything else."

"He's an everyone, I swear."

Dean nods and she can feel his head moving on the pillow. "Okay."

She smiles a little, feeling remorse. "I never wanted to lie to you."

"We're past it," Dean tells her, kissing her cheek.

"I didn't, Dean. You need to see that," Lizzy tells him again. "I don't lie to you. You don't lie to me. I know where that goes."

"Nowhere good. We don't lie anymore. That's the deal," Dean lightly tells her, reminding her it's over.

"I love you, Hot Shot," Lizzy tells him with an unsteady voice, turning back to Sammy and cuddling in close to him, squished between her two men.

"I know," Dean says and she can hear the smirk in his tone. He's trying to easy it all up. So very, very Dean of him.

They both fall asleep easily that night right where they are, looking to get past the blip on the radar quickly.