May 7th, 2011 - Battle Creek, Michigan

Amy dropped her bag on the couch as she looked around her new, temporary home. After what had transpired with the Djinn in Cicero, Dean and Lisa thought it was time for a fresh start. So they had found a house to rent a few hours away in Michigan and, after a couple of days of packing, had moved everything in.

Amy stood with Lisa in the dining room, taking things from a box labeled 'kitchen' and setting them on the counter. "Are you sure this is okay?" she asked.

"Of course, it is," Lisa assured her, "Dean's already told me so much about you."

Amy frowned. "What has he told you exactly?"

"He told me you grew up in the foster care system and that he and Sam met you about three years ago." Lisa took a stack of plates from a box, setting them down in front of her. "He also told me you've become a little sister to them since then."

Amy smiled, slightly relieved that Dean hadn't told Lisa everything about her. "Yeah, that's about it, really. Been hunting with Sam and Dean since I met them."

"Why did you start hunting with them anyway?" Lisa asked. "Dean told me you're pretty good at it, but I'm just surprised they'd let you do this."

Amy shrugged. "To be fair, I asked them to teach me. I knew about monsters before I met them, and I didn't want to live with them or Bobby and not contribute anything."

Dean entered from the garage, holding another box labeled 'kitchen.' "Sammy and I were pretty reluctant at first," he added, "but one day, she put some knowledge she did know at the time to use and ended up helping us."

"And the rest, as they say, is history," Amy finished.

Lisa opened another box and looked over at Ben, who sat at the dining room table, looking upset about the move. Then, she walked over and opened a box on the table.

"What's up?"

"Nothing," Ben muttered.

"At least wait until you've checked the place out before you hate it. Open mind, that's all I ask."

Ben sighed. "Yeah, all right." He stood up and walked towards his bike, which was leaning against the hallway wall. "I'll be back."

"Oh, hey," Dean said quickly. "Where's the fire?"

"Just going to check out the block."

Dean seemed to hesitate momentarily as Lisa looked over at him in anticipation. "And let your mom unpack the kitchen by herself? Come on."

Ben sighed and walked back into the kitchen, rolling his eyes toward his mom.

"Maybe we can all go somewhere later?" Amy suggested.

"We'll go for lunch later," Lisa told Ben. "Scope out the neighborhood." She smiled up at Dean, hinting at the answer she wanted. "Right?"

Dean nodded. "Yeah, sounds like a plan." He glanced at Ben's bike, a nervous expression flashing on his face briefly. "Come on, why don't you give me a hand?" He led Ben out of the kitchen as Amy and Lisa watched.

Amy sighed, pulling out another set of plates from the box. "Hate to say it, but it looks like Dean's gone into his overprotective mode."

"I'm sure it'll be okay," Lisa said reassuringly.

Amy hesitated for a moment before responding. "I hope you're right."

Amy spent the next half hour helping Lisa unpack the boxes in the kitchen and living room. Ben had resumed sulking at the dining room table, clearly still unhappy about the move.

"One cheese, one everything?" Amy heard a faint voice down the hall.

"Do you hear that?" she asked.

Ben perked up, the voices gaining his attention.

"There you go," Dean's voice carried down the hall. "Keep the change."

Lisa frowned. Without a word, she turned and headed down the hall, Amy and Ben close behind.

Dean was standing at the front door, holding two large pizza boxes. He turned around, frowning when he saw the group. "What?"

Lisa crossed her arms. "I thought we were going out?"

Dean chuckled nervously. "Oh yeah, I forgot. I'm sorry."

"Sure," Lisa said irritably. "I'll look for plates." She left the room with Ben following shortly after.

Amy approached Dean, grabbed his arm, and pulled him into the next room. "Can I talk to you?"

As soon as they were in the next room, Amy let go of Dean, spinning around to face him. "What the hell is going on with you?" She asked in a harsh whisper.

"I'm just trying to keep them safe, Ames."

"I get that," Amy started, "but this is a little excessive. You can't expect them to stay inside forever. Ben will have to go to school. I'm sure Lisa works somewhere. Dial it down a bit, alright, Dean?" She breathed, calming down to stop herself from yelling at the hunter. "If you want me to go with Ben when he goes out, that's fine. But the over-the-top protectiveness has to stop or, at the very least, calm down a bit."

Dean opened his mouth to say something, but no sound came out. Instead, Amy heard his breath shudder a bit.

"If anything, we should be figuring out how to get Sam's soul back," Amy continued. "Better sooner than when you guys did it in the show."

"Which was when exactly?" Dean finally asked.

"Very late in the season. I think about halfway through."

Dean rubbed a hand down his face. "Okay, okay. So, how did we do it?"

Amy sighed as she tried to remember. "I remember it had something to do with Death, the Horseman, but I don't remember exactly where or how you found him and got him to help."

Dean nodded. "Okay, well, that's a start. What is Sam like without his soul, anyway?"

"Soulless Sam is basically just Sam without a filter," Amy explained. "He says and does the first thing that pops into his head and doesn't think about the consequences."

Dean let out a long sigh. "Okay. So we should probably think of something fast, then. I'll try and get ahold of Cas, see if he might know anything."

"Okay," Amy agreed. "When's the last time you saw or talked to Cas?"

"'Bout a year ago," Dean admitted.

Amy stared at Dean in shock. "You haven't spoken to Cas in a year? Since that day, I'm guessing?"

Dean nodded. "Yeah, since that day."

Amy let out a heavy sigh. "Goddammit. Okay, I know it's probably a long shot, but do you think you could try to get ahold of him one more time? If anyone knows how to find Death, it'd be him. If not, then we'll have to try and come up with a plan B."

"I'll get to praying, but don't get your hopes up."

"Believe me, I won't."

"Guys!" Lisa called from the other room. "You coming? Pizza's getting cold."

Dean jabbed a finger over his shoulder. "Guess we should probably go eat," he said. "You coming?"

Amy smirked, already halfway out the door. "Are you?"

May 8th, 2011

Amy groaned as the light was suddenly turned on in her bedroom. She sat up, glaring at Dean as he stood in the doorway, his hand still on the light switch.

"You better have a damn good reason for waking me up like that at," she cast a quick glance at her alarm clock, "three in the morning."

"Sam just called. Said he needed our help with a hunt he's working."

"Sam called?" Amy repeated, a little disbelievingly. "About a hunt? What is he- I mean, why did- what exactly is he hunting?" she finally managed to ask.

"Wouldn't say, but he did tell me he managed to, and I quote, 'capture the damn thing.'"

Amy wanted to facepalm so bad. "God fucking dammit," she whispered. "So, I'm guessing he's coming here then?"

Dean shook his head. "I kinda wish he was, but no. We gotta go meet up with him down the road a bit."

"Let me guess," Amy said reluctantly as she finally got out of bed, "he told you that you didn't have a choice?"

Dean raised an eyebrow. "Yeah, how'd you know?"

Sliding on her shoes, Amy sighed. "He told me the same thing when I first found out he was back. Back when he told me I had to go with him to the Campbells."

"You're not getting dressed?" Dean asked, nodding to Amy's pajama and shoes getup.

"I'm going back to sleep the moment we get back," Amy said, "or at least trying to cause insomnia's a bitch. I don't wanna waste time finding something to wear for an hour or so. How far away is Sam, anyway?"

"'Bout thirty minutes. You ready?"

"Let's go."

Within minutes, Amy found herself in the passenger seat of Dean's truck. She tried getting more sleep, but the cold, shaking window made it almost impossible.

"So why did you go back with Sam?" Dean asked halfway through their journey.

"I didn't want to at first." Amy admitted, "I even yelled at Sam, told him he didn't have the right to come back into my life and drag me away from the past year of my life."

Dean nodded. "So, what happened?"

"My grandparents. They were the ones who told me I should go. It was right after…." Amy trailed off, realizing she hadn't told Dean about that night.

"Right after what?"

"Okay, so, uh, you remember how my parents were killed by a demon?"

"Right," Dean said, "your mom was a hunter, wasn't she? Like mine and Sam's."

"Exactly," Amy confirmed, "well, the demon that killed them sorta visited my grandparents' place the night Sam returned."

Dean stared at Amy, taking his eyes off the road longer than he should have. "What?" he asked, his voice almost threatening.

"I'm fine!" Amy said quickly. "They're fine. Everyone's still alive. Everyone except that demon that is."

"Wait, you killed it?" Dean asked, his voice sounding both impressed and shocked.

"I did, yeah!" Amy said with a grin. "Really glad I took that demon knife after all."

Dean turned his gaze back to the road, but not before Amy caught a grin on his face. "I'm proud of you, Ames," he praised, "I really am."

"Thanks," Amy said. She pointed ahead. "There's Sam."

Dean groaned as he pulled his truck to a stop. "This better be worth it."

Getting out of the truck, Amy followed Dean to Sam, who was sitting on the hood of his car.

"Where is it?" Dean asked.

Sam nodded towards his car. "Strapped down in the back seat."

Amy went to one side of Sam's car while Dean went to the other. She leaned down and looked through the window, spotting a car seat buckled in and a baby eyeing them innocently from inside.

Taking a deep breath, Amy stood back up. "Sam…" she began, "I'm only going to ask this once because I feel like if I ask more, I will strangle you. Whose baby is this, and why do you have him?"

"Dunno," Sam said with a shrug. "I found it under the bed after I took something down." He smirked as Dean stood up. "Welcome to the party, Guttenberg."

Amy leaned down to get another look at the baby. He couldn't have been more than a few months old, maybe six at least. He looked over at Amy, babbling slightly and reaching a hand toward her.

"What are we gonna do with him?" she asked. "Find his family, or what?"

"Well, we can't just sit here," Dean said. "Sam, why don't you follow us back to Lisa's so Ames and I can grab our stuff. Then we can figure out what to do with this little guy."

Sam shook his head. "There's a park a few miles from here, along the river. I'll meet you guys there. "Without waiting for a response, he got back into his car and drove off.

"Yeah, sure, okay! We'll just meet you there!" Amy called after the disappearing car sarcastically.

"Come on, we'd better hurry," Dean said quickly. "There's no telling how long he'll wait for us."

Amy quickly returned to the truck and let Dean drive them back to Lisa's.

Lisa was sitting in the living room when they returned. "Hey," she said, sounding worried, "where have you guys been? I thought-"

"We're okay," Dean cut her off. "But Ames and I have to go for a bit."

Lisa frowned. "Oh." She sounded hurt. "Is everything okay?"

"Sam needs our help with something," Amy told her.

Lisa nodded again, wrapping her robe tighter around her. "Is it bad?"

Dean shook his head. "Nothing we can't handle."

"I'm gonna head upstairs and grab my bag," Amy said, giving herself an excuse to leave the room. "Be back in a few minutes."

"Don't take too long."

Amy nodded as she headed up the stairs, taking two at a time. She ran into her bedroom and grabbed her bag underneath the window. Grabbing a few more sets of clothes, just in case, she stuffed them in her bag and zipped it up before grabbing the handle and heading back downstairs.

When she got down, Dean was sitting with Lisa at the bottom of the stairs. They had their back to her, and Lisa rested on Dean's shoulder. She had a pistol resting on her lap with the muzzle pointing away from them.

"I'm ready to go," Amy told them.

Dean turned to her and stood up with a nod. "Okay." Pulling Lisa to her feet, he added. "We'll be back, okay? I don't know when, but we will."

Lisa smiled. "You better."

Without another word, Amy followed Dean out the door. They got back in his truck and drove away.

"I swear, of all the things for Sam to do," Amy began ranting a few minutes into their drive. "A baby?"

"Do you know anything about the baby?" Dean asked as he sped down the road. "Like, if he has a family?"

"I-" Amy sighed. "Listen, I gotta be honest with you, Dean. I didn't care for this season that much, so I only watched it once when it aired about five years before I met you.

"Huh." Dean turned into the park. "Well, this should be fun."

"Yeah, sorry," Amy said. "After I finished the season, if I binged the show, I had this one on in the background but didn't really pay attention, except for maybe two or three episodes that I did like. I only know about the soulless Sam plot because it took over about half the season."

Dean sped around the corner and began driving down the dirt road toward the lake. "There's Sam," he pointed out. "We'll talk more about all this later."

Dean stopped his truck next to Sam's car. He hopped out, and Amy followed suit.

"Alright, so what do we know about this thing?" Dean asked as he and Amy grabbed their bags from the bed.

"Well, uh, it was fast and freaked when I cut it with silver."

They began walking to Sam's car. "Alright, so that narrows it down to…." Dean trailed off.

"Pretty much everything we've ever hunted," Amy finished.

"Yeah," Sam chuckled, "Ghoul, zombie, a shifter, or about a dozen other things."

"So, since when did hunting involve babysitting?" Amy asked. She and Dean tossed their bags into the truck next to Sam's. "I mean, this little guy's gotta have a parent or even some living relative out there, right?"

Sam merely shrugged before getting into the driver's seat. After exchanging worried glances, Dean got into the passenger seat, and Amy slid into the back next to the baby.

Dean turned to look at the baby. "Well, feel free to speak up if you know anything," he said jokingly.

The baby smiled at him, and Amy chuckled in amusement. Sam started up his car, and a constant dinging noise was heard.

"Seatbelt," Sam scolded, looking over at Dean.

"What am I, in third grade?" Dean asked. He reluctantly buckled his seatbelt. "A car should drive, not be a little bitch."

The baby began to babble and giggle next to Amy. Sam and Dean turned around just in time for the baby to go silent and fart.

Sam rolled his eyes and turned back to the wheel.

"Yeah, don't take it personal," Dean told the baby. He turned back to Sam. "Well, we need to get some supplies."

"I've got an arsenal in the trunk," Sam said casually.

"For the baby, Sam!" Amy raised her voice in a panicked tone. "Jesus!" The baby started to fuss, so she lowered her voice. "Food, diapers, etcetera."

"Oh, right." Sam drove off without another word.

Sam drove them to a grocery store a few miles from the park.

Amy unbuckled the baby from his car seat. She carefully climbed out of the car, ensuring she didn't accidentally hit the baby's head on the door. "I can carry him inside," she offered. The baby rested his head on her shoulder, and she shifted slightly to get him into a more comfortable position.

"You got it?" Dean asked.

"Yeah, he's good."Amy pulled the hood of the baby's sweater over his head. "Come on, I'm sure this little guy's getting hungry."

They headed inside the store. Dean grabbed a cart with a baby seat in the front, just in case, and they made their way through the baby aisles.

"Alright," Dean began, "I'm pretty sure that there's some kind of paste or jelly you're supposed to put on their butt."

Sam grabbed a small box of butt paste off the top shelf and held it towards Dean, looking confused. "Like uh... like that?"

"Yeah, grab that." Dean grabbed a box of diapers and put it in the cart as well.

"So, how do you know all this?" Sam asked.

Amy grabbed a pack of bottles and tossed them into the cart.

"Lisa has a baby niece, so I've been on a few milk runs." Dean tossed a couple of baby wipes into the cart.

"There's some baby powder right there," Amy pointed to the bottom shelf. We should probably get some formula as well. I'm not sure how old he is, but I don't think he's a year yet." She quickly looked for the product before spotting it on the top shelf. "There." She nodded towards it, not wanting to accidentally drop the baby by trying to grab it.

Dean grabbed the formula and powder and put them in the cart before the baby started fussing.

"Alright, we gotta get moving," Dean said quickly, "we've got the waterworks in, like, T-minus ten."

"Yeah, okay."

Sam walked ahead with the cart while Dean quickly grabbed a few more things off the shelf, nodding to a customer as he ran after Sam.

Amy began hurrying after Dean when an idea came to her. The baby might be unable to talk, but he could still think. She still had her mind-reading abilities, even if she had never used them.

She stopped in the aisle and cradled the baby in her arm. "Alright, little guy," she muttered. "What's wrong?"

Amy's arm began to feel wet, and she suddenly didn't need to be able to read minds to know what the problem was. She hurried after Sam and Dean, finding them at one of the registers and putting items on the checkout belt.

"There you are," Dean said as Amy stepped in front of him. "Where have you been?"

"Figuring out what was wrong," Amy said bluntly. She pointed towards the box of diapers. "We're absolutely getting that, right?"

"Yeah, of course, we are."

"Good. Can you open it up for me real quick? I gotta go change this little guy's diaper."

Dean quickly opened the box of diapers, and Amy grabbed one. She also grabbed a pack of wipes and the powder before handing them to the cashier. "Sorry, could you scan these for me real quick?"

The cashier rolled her eyes but scanned the items and returned them to Amy.

Heading into the restroom, Amy laid the baby on the changing table and set the items next to him. The baby had gone into a full-blown tantrum and was crying loudly for everyone to hear.

Amy cooed at him to distract the baby, Amy cooed at him while changing the diaper. A minute later, she tossed the used one into the trash and picked the baby back up. He was still fussing slightly but had started to calm down, so she rocked him a bit to calm him the rest of the way.

Once the baby had calmed down enough, Amy gathered everything and closed the changing table. "Alright, are you good now?" she asked.

The baby giggled in response.

"Good," Amy said with a light laugh.

She began making her way to the door when one of the stalls opened, and an elderly woman with curly white hair stepped out.

"Oh, he's just adorable," the woman cooed as she washed her hands. "What's his name?"

"Uh, Robert," Amy said, quickly making something up.

The woman walked over to the baby, smiling at him, "Hello, Robert!" She turned back to Amy. "Sounded like you were having some trouble out here. First-time mom?"

"Oh, no, our parents are in line just out there," Amy said nervously. "I should probably get going, though. Don't wanna keep them waiting."

"Oh, just let me see him really quick." The woman began reaching for the baby, and Amy pulled him away, turning away from the woman.

"We should really be going," she repeated firmly.

"Give me the damn baby!" the woman finally snapped. She lunged for the infant, and Amy quickly stepped to the side, turning her body to shield the baby as she used her telekinesis to throw the woman into the sinks before running out.

Amy ran to Sam and Dean as fast as she could while carrying everything. "We gotta go now," she said, quickly tossing the wipes and powder into one of the bags in the cart.

"Where the hell have you been?" Dean asked.

"I just ran into a woman in the restroom. She tried to take the baby," Amy explained frantically, "I think it was a shifter."

A shrill screeching suddenly sounded from the restrooms as the woman ran out, moving at an inhuman speed toward them. Dean stepped in front of Amy and grabbed the woman's arm before tackling her to the ground.

"Help me!" The woman shouted as Dean flipped open his knife.

The store manager jogged over to them from one of the aisles. "Hey!" he shouted.

"He's hurting me!" the shifter cried out.

"Come on," Sam said quickly. He ran out of the store as the store manager pulled Dean off the woman.

"Get off of her!" Amy heard as she followed Sam out of the store, holding the baby close as she ran.

Amy followed Sam out of the store and quickly got into the backseat of the car. She set the baby in his car seat and began buckling him up as Sam drove to the front of the store.

Dean ran out as they approached and slid into the backseat with Amy. "Go! Go! Go! Go! Go! Go!" he said frantically.

Sam hit the gas, speeding out of the parking lot as the shifter and manager ran out of the store.

"The hell does a shifter want with a baby, anyway?" Dean asked once they were back on the road.

Sam shrugged. "You tell me."

"And how the hell did it find us?" Dean turned to Amy. "What happened in there, anyway?"

Amy shrugged as she finished buckling the car seat. "She offered to help with the baby, but when I told her no, she suddenly tried to take him from me. So I threw her into the sinks and ran out to get you guys," she recapped.

"You know, it could have been following me this whole time," Sam suggested. "Since the baby's house."

Dean nodded. "Alright, you know, we got to get off the road. Get the kid here someplace safe. Figure this thing out." The baby began to fuss again, and Dean started rocking him. "Okay, alright, shh, shh. Easy, kid."

They soon reached the Mid-West Motel a few miles down the road. Dean checked them in, and they headed to their room, Amy once again carrying the baby while Dean carried her bag along with his.

Once they got into the room, Amy placed the baby in the middle of one of the beds and grabbed the formula and a bottle to prepare for when they needed it. Sam immediately sat down at the small table and began flipping through papers about the case.

"When did you get so good at taking care of kids?" Dean asked as he played with the baby.

Amy frowned. "Did you forget I grew up in an orphanage from the time I was about his age?" she asked, nodding toward the baby. "Once I turned around thirteen or fourteen, I started helping out with caring for the babies and toddlers. Perks of being the oldest." She added the last part with a hint of sarcasm in her voice.

There was a knock on the door, and Sam opened it to reveal a man with a crib outside.

"You guys the ones that needed a crib?" the man asked.

"Uh, yeah," Sam said. He stepped out of the way. "You can just bring it in here."

The man rolled the crib through the door. "Where do you want it?"

"Up against that wall is fine," Dean said, pointing across from the beds.

Once the crib was placed, the man walked to the doorway and nodded. "You folks need anything else?"

"I think we're good," Amy said with a smile. "Thank you."

Sam gave the man a slight nod before closing the door in his face and going back to the papers.

The baby began to fuss next to Dean again.

"Oh," Dean said, carefully picking the baby up and resting his head on his shoulder. "I think someone's getting tired. Time to hit the hay."

Amy watched as Dean gently walked around with the baby, quietly humming "Smoke on the Water" as he did.

Sam let out a laugh. "Dean, you're just going to make it cranky again."

"Shh, it's working," Dean whispered.

Sure enough, the crying had stopped, and the baby was now fast asleep on Dean's shoulder.

"Okay, if I put you down, you gonna be a man about it?" Dean asked. He set the baby down in the crib, and the baby kept sleeping.

"Huh."

Dean walked back to the bed. "What?"

"You're just, uh, actually, not awful at that."

Dean scoffed as he lay down on the bed. "Dude, I'm barely keeping that thing alive."

"No, no, no, seriously," Sam continued. "You've got a whole Dr. Huxtable vibe coming off of you. Amy too. You two are like… parent material."

"Guess old habits die hard," Amy said as she put the freshly made bottle in the fridge.

"I kind of had to be lately, you know," Dean added. "Sink or swim, right?"

"You mean Ben," Sam noted.

Dean poured himself a beer. "Yeah, I mean Ben. I mean, I know he's not my kid, but I don't know, I'm starting to feel like, yeah, he is." He leaned against the counter, taking a sip of his beer. "Then I think about the way we grew up, I don't know, I kind of feel like I have a chance to do something different with Ben, you know?"

Sam frowned. "You sure about that?"

"Dude…" Amy scolded. She sat on one of the beds and continued listening to their conversation.

"What do you mean?" Dean asked, mirroring Sam's frown.

Sam paused, letting out a sigh, before he continued. "Look, you clearly care about the kid…" he trailed off.

"But?"

"But moving them around?" Sam asked. "Keeping them on lockdown? I mean, you do have them on lockdown, right?"

Dean rolled his eyes and walked toward the bed but stayed silent.

"How is any of that different from how we were raised?" Sam continued.

"So you're saying…." Dean trailed off as he sat down. "I'm not shoving anybody into this life, okay? This is temporary."

Sam chuckled. "Dad always said it was temporary, Dean. He said it for 22 years. Look, I get it. You want to watch out for them. That's great. I'm just asking, how do you do that and not turn into Dad?"

"I can't believe I'm saying this," Amy said as Dean stared at his glass. "But I think Sam's right. I know I told you this before, Dean, but you gotta let Ben and Lisa return to their lives."

Dean stayed silent, and Sam turned his attention back to the papers.

"Crap," Sam said after a moment. "I can't believe I missed this."

"What?"

"This house on Elm," Sam read. "The mother was killed, baby was grabbed, but daddy wasn't living in the house at the time, so he's still alive. What do you say we go and have a chat?"

"I say let's," Dean agreed, standing up."

The baby started to fuss in his crib, and Dean sighed.

"You two go," Amy offered before Dean could speak. "I'll watch the baby."

"You sure?" Sam asked.

"Yeah, I'm sure," Amy assured him. "Just call me if you find anything."

"Okay," Dean said. "Call if you need help with anything or something goes wrong."

"Will do," Amy said, giving a mock salute. "Now get out of here, will you?"

Sam and Dean left the room, and Amy turned her attention to the baby.

"Hey, buddy," she said quietly. "What's wrong?"

Amy knew the baby couldn't answer her. But years of taking care of the younger kids in the orphanage had led her to talk to babies like they were much older than they were.

The baby began to fuss some more, and Amy gently picked him up, cradling him in her arms.

"You know," she said, going to the fridge to grab the bottle, "we really need to come up with a name for you. Can't exactly keep calling you 'the baby.'"

Thinking momentarily, Amy remembered the name she had blurted out when the shapeshifter had asked for his name. "What about Bobby?" she asked the baby. Thinking again, she added, "I think that was your name in the show if I remember correctly. What do you say, Bobby? That a good name for you?"

The baby giggled, flashing as big a smile as he could.

"I'm gonna take that as a yes."

Bobby began to fuss again, smacking his mouth with his hand as he did.

"You getting hungry, buddy?" Amy asked. She grabbed the bottle and sat down on the bed. "You old enough to hold your own bottle yet?"

In response, Bobby wrapped his tiny hands around the bottle. Amy chuckled and sat on the bed, propping the baby up more in her arms. She let Bobby take the bottle and drink as she switched on the TV.

The Orphanage - July 2012

Amy stared up at her ceiling, trying to get some sleep at 3am. The sounds of the world outside her window made it near impossible, however.

'How can anyone sleep with all this noise?' she thought. Her thoughts were interrupted by one of the newer babies crying in the room down the hall.

Figuring she was already up, Amy made her way out of her room and toward the nursery. She opened the door as quietly as possible to find one of the babies rolling around in her crib.

"Hey, Abby," Amy muttered, rubbing her hand over the baby's back. "You okay?"

Abby had been brought to the orphanage a week ago by a police officer after her parents had been caught in a house fire. Since then, she had cried around the same time every night as if she knew what had happened.

Amy carefully picked Abby out of the crib and began comforting her. "It's okay," she whispered. "I got you. You're okay."

"Emily?" A voice asked from the doorway.

Amy glanced up to see Ms. Claudwell standing in the room, her pink, fluffy robe wrapped around her.

"Hey," Amy greeted. "Abby started crying again, so I figured I'd try and help her get back to sleep."

Ms. Claudwell nodded and held out her arms, eyes half-closed from exhaustion. "I'll take her," she offered. "You go back to bed."

Amy frowned. "Okay, couple of things," she said. "First, you are clearly exhausted right now. You're standing there, leaning against the door with your eyes closed, looking like you're gonna collapse any second. No offense, but I don't trust you to hold a baby right now. And second, I'm already used to running on very few hours of sleep on a daily basis since I was a small child because the world is loud, and it's caused me to have severe insomnia. I was already awake when Abby started crying, and I'm already used to being up this late, but you clearly are not. Let me help. You," she paused, pointing out of the room, "turn around and go back to bed. I got this."

"Emily…" Ms. Claudwell trailed off.

Amy shook her head. "I don't wanna hear it," she said, a stern tone in her voice. "Bed. Now."

There was a pause, and Amy thought Ms. Claudwell had fallen asleep standing up. Finally, the older woman nodded sleepily. "Fine," she said, turning around and heading back to her room.

Amy turned her attention back to Abby, who had already fallen back asleep. Moving slowly so she didn't wake her, Amy placed the infant back in her crib and exited the room, quietly closing the door behind her.

Mid-West Motel - 2011

Back in the present, Bobby had finished with his bottle and was now cooing in Amy's arms. She gently set him down in his crib as her phone rang.

Amy cast a quick glance at the caller ID before answering. "Hey, Dean. Find anything?"

"How's the baby?" Dean asked.

"Bobby," Amy corrected.

"Sorry?" Amy could practically see Dean's confused expression over the phone.

"I named him Bobby," Amy explained. "The shapeshifter at the store asked what his name was, and I just said "Robert" off the top of my head. But I think Bobby was his name in the show anyway, so it kinda works." She shook her head. "Anyway, sorry, he's fine. Just ate, and now he's back in his crib. Did you guys find anything?"

"Uh, yeah," Dean said. "Actually, speaking of shape-shifters, turns out the baby's father is one."

Amy paused, processing what she had just heard. "Wait, but the mom is human? So, little Bobby's half-human, half-shapeshifter?"

"Looks like it," Dean confirmed. "Shape-shifter dad posed as the woman's husband coming back from a trip early. We're heading back to you now but has anything strange happened with Bobby yet?"

Before Amy could answer, a splattering noise could be heard from Bobby's crib, followed by loud crying.

"Ames?" Dean asked. "What was that?"

Amy walked over to the crib, staring in shock at the blood and skin splattered against the wall beside it. She rested her phone between her ear and shoulder as she held Bobby up, who now looked like the black baby on the box of diapers.

"Uh, well…" Amy started, "looks like you were right, at least."

There was a pause on the other line before Dean spoke again. "We're ten minutes away," he said before ending the call.

Amy tossed her phone onto the bed, holding the baby at arm's length. "Okay," she said decidedly. "Let's get you cleaned up, yeah? You promise not to shapeshift on me afterward?"

Grabbing a towel from the bathroom, she set it on the bed and lay Bobby down on it. She handed the baby a toy to distract him before gently wiping off the blood and skin.

Baby Bobby continued fussing as Amy cleaned him up. Just as she was finishing, there was a knock at the door.

"Manager!" A male voice called into the room. "Everything okay in there?"

"Yeah, we're good," Amy called back, picking Bobby off the bed. "Thank you!"

"There's been complaints. Mind opening the door, ma'am?"

Something seemed off to Amy, so she shook her head. "No, thanks, we're good."

The doorknob began to rattle, and Amy quickly set little Bobby down in his crib. She grabbed her silver knife and stood next to the door.

The door slowly opened, and a police officer holding a gun crept in. Amy quickly stabbed him in the arm with the knife and shoved him into the wall. The shifter grabbed her, twisting her arm behind her back and pushing her into the wall.

"Get out of the way," the shifter threatened.

"How about, no?" Amy asked before using her powers to push the shifter off of her.

The shifter stumbled a bit as Amy turned back toward him. "That child should be with his father."

"Oh, you adopted him. I get it now!" Amy said in mock realization. She dropped the act before adding. "Still no." She stood between the shifter and the crib, knife at the ready.

"I'm not just talking about me," the shifter continued. "I'm talking about our father."

Amy had a brief moment to frown before the shifter attacked again. She dodged a right hook before slashing him with her knife. She had enough time to see the cut start sizzling before she was thrown into the table Sam had been sitting at earlier.

The shifter began walking toward her with a smirk before a shot rang out from the open door, and the shifter fell to the ground, a new hole in his chest.

Sam stood in the doorway, pistol outstretched and a glare on his face.

Dean poked his head into the room, staring at the shifter's body. "Well, there goes our deposit," he muttered. He turned to Amy. "You okay?"

Amy picked herself up, brushing the wooden pieces off of her shoulder. "Yeah, I'm fine." She picked Bobby up from the crib, who had begun crying from the gunshot. "Oh, also…" she trailed off, holding the baby out for Sam and Dean to see. "This happened while you were gone."

Dean's eyes went wide. He glanced over at the baby on the diaper box before looking back at the similar one in Amy's arms. "Okay, then…" he said, trailing off as he took the baby from Amy. "We should go."

Gathering their belongings, the hunters hurried out to Sam's car. Amy sat in the back with Bobby, trying to get him to sleep in his car seat.

Sam drove down the road. "You know, it's pretty smart, actually," he said. "I mean, shifter poses as a guard for the security company to get near the house. Then it scopes out the fam."

"Yeah, and then daddy takes off, and shifter becomes daddy," Dean added. "A few glasses of wine, shakes momma's trees, and comes back in nine months to collect its prize."

Sam scoffed. "I didn't even know they had babies. I thought they were just freaks of nature, like X-Men style."

"You learn something new every day, huh?" Dean asked. He turned around to look at the now-sleeping baby.

"I've never seen a baby monster before," Sam said after a pause.

"He's not a monster, Sam," Amy spoke. "He's just a baby."

"Not his fault his dad's a shifter," Dean added.

"Right, but it's a shifter, too."

"You can't judge an infant for something their parent or parents did," Amy finished. "And, for the record, you have seen baby monsters before," she corrected. "Remember that werewolf and her husband with the twin babies a couple of years ago?"

"Oh yeah, she's right," Dean confirmed, turning back around. "The Campos's. Still doesn't change the fact that we've got to look after this thing. I mean, what the hell are we going to do with it? We can't actually drop it off at an orphanage. They might get upset when it turns Asian.

Sam paused a moment before answering. "Samuel."

Amy tilted her head in confusion as Dean voiced her thoughts.

"What?"

"Samuel," Sam repeated. "He'll know what to do."

"Are you sure that's a good idea?" Amy asked.

"Bringing it to a bunch of hunters?" Dean added.

"Not just hunters, Dean," Sam corrected. "They're our family."

"They're your family," Amy corrected. "I barely met them a few months ago."

"We don't know them," Dean added.

"I do," Sam said quickly. "Not every hunter is a head case. I mean, Samuel is actually a lot like you."

"I'm a freaking head case," Dean snapped.

"Well, pitch a better idea then."

Dean stayed silent, and Sam nodded.

"Great! Samuel, it is." He picked up his phone and began dialing the hunter's number.

"Awesome," Amy muttered. She glanced at the sleeping baby before resting her head against the window.

"Samuel, hey," Sam spoke. "Listen, we got a bit of a situation here." There was a pause. "Shapeshifter." Sam paused briefly. "Shapeshifter baby," he corrected himself. "Yeah, we gotta get it somewhere safe, so we're bringing it by until we can figure out what to do." Another pause. "Alright, see you in a bit."

Sam hung up the phone and gripped the steering wheel, eyes locked straight ahead.

A couple of hours later, Sam approached a chain-linked fence, slowing to a stop. One of the hunters guarding the gate opened it up for them as another peeked into the windows.

Sam drove into the compound and parked his car down the dirt road. He shut off the engine, and Amy unbuckled Bobby, carefully getting him out of his car seat as she tried not to wake him.

The door to the compound swung open as they approached, and Christian let them in. "Come on, hurry up," he said quickly.

Amy followed Sam and Dean inside, cradling the sleeping baby. Inside, Gwen, Christian, and Mark were fixing up their weapons.

"Where's Samuel?" Sam asked. Christian pointed around a corner, and Sam nodded before disappearing to find the other hunter.

Gwen approached her with a smile on her face. "Well, aren't you just the best disguise a monster ever wore?" She asked as she stroked Bobby's head. Her smile never left as she saw Dean roll his eyes. "I'm kidding, Dean. Relax."

With a scoff, Gwen walked over to stand next to Christian.

Mark approached Amy, standing very close as he stared at the baby in her arms in silence.

"Can I help you?" Amy asked menacingly.

Dean stepped up, standing next to Amy. "You got something to say?" He asked Mark. His question was only met by silence. "No? Alright, well, you stand there and think at me."

"What's our next move?" Sam asked as he entered the room with Samuel.

"I got a couple of ideas," Samuel mused. "Amy, let me see the little guy."

"I got him," Amy said, turning away.

Samuel frowned. "What do you think I'm going to do?"

Dean stepped between Amy and Samuel. "You really don't want me to answer that question."

"Well, I'm curious," Christian spoke from the workbench. "Who exactly do you think we are?"

"Hunters."

Christian looked taken aback. "Funny, here I've been thinking we're family."

"Hey, let's not get worked up," Sam muttered to Dean.

"Yeah, yeah, let's not," Christian repeated.

Sam reached for the baby. "Here, Amy, it's fine," he assured her. "Let me take him. It's okay."

Sam took Bobby from Amy's arms and passed him over to Samuel.

"Hey there," Samuel said as the baby wrapped a finger around his collar. "You're a big fella, aren't ya? Yeah. I haven't held one of these in a long time," he chuckled. "Your mom was the tiniest. She was as bald as a cue ball."

"Alright, so what the hell are we going to do with him?" Dean asked.

"Raise him," Samuel said quickly, not taking his eyes off the baby.

"Raise him?" Dean repeated.

Samuel glanced up at him. "What, you've got another suggestion?"

"But…"

Samuel cut Dean off. "It's dangerous out there for him, Dean."

"And what about in here?" Dean questioned. "What are we gonna - study him? Poke at him?"

"Your mind goes straight to torture, Dean," Christian said. "Don't assume that for everyone."

"What exactly are you trying to say?" Dean asked threateningly, stalking over toward Christian.

"Sorry, I heard about what you majored in down in the Pit."

"What the hell, Christian?" Amy snapped.

"The hell is your problem, man?" Dean asked.

Christian stood up. "You're starting to become a pain in my ass."

Sam stepped forward, pushing Christian back a little. "Christian, take it easy, man. He's my brother."

"We all done bristling up here, or what?" Samuel asked. He turned to Dean. "Nobody's doing anything to him, Dean. When he's old enough, we throw it to him. He wants to volunteer to help out, that's fine."

"Could be great," Mark added.

Dean frowned. "How?"

"Think of the kind of hunter he'll grow up to be."

Dean grinned mockingly before throwing his arms out. "You all are joking, right?" he asked loudly. "I mean, come on! You can't "Angelina Jolie" a shapeshifter. Give me the baby."

Samuel stared at him. "Why can't you give me an inch of trust, Dean?"

"Maybe because you two are suddenly back from the dead, and Amy and I seem to be the only ones who want to know how the hell that happened!"

"You're not the only ones who want to know," Sam muttered, a blank stare on his face.

"Really, Sam?" Amy asked. "Because all you've done since I found out you were back is avoid talking about it. Honestly, you could have fooled me."

Dean scoffed. "There's just a little too much mystery with this family for me to get comfy."

"Then don't!" Samuel snapped. "But don't put it on us. All we're trying to do is invite you in. Christian?" he asked, turning to the hunter.

"Yeah?"

"You and Arlene, still no luck on the baby front?"

"Not yeah, no."

"But you want one?" Samuel asked.

Christian stared at Dean for a moment before chucking. "Yeah, we do," he answered.

"Wait, hold on," Dean said, holding a hand out.

"It's okay, Dean," Samuel assured him. "It's alright." He handed Bobby to Christian. "Congrats. It's a boy, sometimes."

Christian laughed. "The crap I do for this family."

"You're kidding me, right?"

"Go to hell, Dean," Christian muttered, not taking his eyes off the baby.

"Well, you have no business raising anything," Dean argued.

"Why, Dean?" Sam asked. "Because he's a hunter?"

Before Dean could respond, the dogs outside started to bark. Everyone looked at the doors and windows, now on high alert.

Samuel quickly took the baby from Christian. "Check the back door," he instructed. He passed Bobby back to Dean. "Downstairs, panic room. He'll be safe there."

Deann took the baby, pausing for a moment.

"Go," Samuel ordered. "We got it, go! Now!"

Amy followed Sam and Dean downstairs toward the panic room. They hurried inside the iron-coated room and closed the door.

Bobby began crying, and Dean paced around the room with him. Gunshots could be heard ricocheting off the walls above.

"Come on, Bobby," Dean said, patting the baby on his back. "You have got to keep quiet."

More gunshots could be heard, and Amy looked up at the ceiling.

"It does not sound good up there," Dean said.

Sam stepped toward the door, pausing momentarily before turning back to Dean. "Alright, I'm going to go up," he decided. "You two stay with the baby."

Sam walked over to the door, jumping back as the shapeshifter, taking the form of himself, appeared in the window. He pulled out his knife as the shifter ripped the door off its hinges.

"Shit!" Amy exclaimed, backing up as the shifter entered the room.

Sam swung his knife at the shifter, who quickly overpowered him, throwing the hunter out of the room. The shifter turned to Dean smirking as he backed him against the wall. There was a slight shimmer, and before Amy knew it, the shifter had turned into Dean, minus the blood and skin everywhere.

"What the…" Dean trailed off. He quickly handed the baby off to Amy. "You got him?"

Amy nodded. "I got him."

"Give me the baby," the shapeshifter demanded.

Dean scoffed, turning back to the shifter. "No way in hell."

The shapeshifter grabbed Dean by the neck and raised him against the wall.

"Get the hell away from him," Amy ordered. She squinted her eyes, using her powers to throw the shifter into the wall next to Dean.

Dean slid back to the ground, coughing as he caught his breath.

"Dean, you okay?" Amy asked.

Dean gave a weak thumbs up. "Yeah. Thanks."

The shapeshifter stood up, eyes locked on Amy. He stepped forward, and a moment later, Amy was staring herself in the face.

"Okay, that is weird to look at," Amy muttered.

The shifter stepped forward, and Amy took a step back. She tried using her powers again, but…nothing happened.

"What the hell?" she whispered.

The shifter smirked as he got within arms reach of Amy, who was now frantically trying to push the shifter away from her with her mind.

The shifter grabbed Amy by the neck, like it had with Dean, and raised her off the ground. She saw her vision darken before the baby was taken from her arms.

Amy struggled to keep her eyes open, her arms dropping to her side as she lost consciousness. Her eyes drifted shut, and the shifter released his grasp, letting her fall to the ground.

Amy was awoken by a light slap on her cheek.

"Ames," she heard Dean say, "come on, kid, wake up."

Jolting up with a gasp, Amy frantically began looking around. "What happened?" She asked. "Where's the baby?"

"Shifter got him," Dean explained. "I'm sorry, Ames." He helped her sit up. "You okay?"

Amy nodded, rubbing her sore neck. "Yeah, I'll be fine. Where's Sam?"

"Upstairs with the others." Dean stops up, helping Amy to her feet. "Come on."

Amy followed Dean up the stairs. She paused when they came across a workbench with various tools, frowning slightly. A moment later, she made the box of nails hover a couple of inches above the table before slowly lowering it back down.

"What are you doing?" Dean asked as he watched her.

"Testing something," Amy explained. The results just made her even more confused, though. "I don't get it," she said as they continued upstairs. "When the shifter turned into me, I couldn't use my powers on it. I tried, but nothing happened. It was like something was blocking them."

"You think the shapeshifter did something?" Dean asked.

"I don't know." Amy frowned. "I don't think so. I've never heard of a shapeshifter with telekinesis before. And I don't think I want to, either. I just needed to make sure I hadn't lost them again."

"Fair enough." Dean pushed open the door at the top of the stairs, letting Amy enter the room first.

Upstairs, the Campbells and Sam were cleaning up from the attack. An overturned chair lay in the middle of the room next to some rope and a puddle of blood, and various books and other random items had been thrown to the floor.

"Well, I'm pretty sure it's not a myth now," Samuel muttered to Sam as Dean and Amy approached.

"Yeah," Sam agreed.

"What the hell was that thing?" Dean asked.

"We think it may have been an Alpha," Samuel explained.

"A what?" Amy asked.

"An Alpha," Samuel repeated. "Like all monsters come from somewhere, right?"

"And you think that this one was-" Dean paused.

"The king shapeshifter," Samuel finished Dean's thought. "First one who spawned all the others - there's tons of lore about it."

"The first one?" Dean asked.

"That's why it was so strong," Sam explained, "and why nothing we had stopped it."

"You don't think it's why my powers didn't work once it turned into me, do you?" Amy asked.

Samuel shrugged. "No way to really know," he said. "But it is why he could find the baby anywhere. That he could feel it, like there's a connection. That's in the lore, too."

Dean stared in shock for a moment between Sam and Samuel. "What the hell does it want with babies, anyway?" he asked.

"A softball team?" Samuel joked. "I got no clue."

"Great." Dean nodded slowly. "Well then, how do we kill it?"

Samuel scoffed. "I don't know if we can."

"So, that's it?" Amy asked. "What if it comes after us again?"

"Then…" Samuel paused for a moment before continuing, "don't die."

Amy let out a fake laugh. "Gee, thanks."

"Sammy, you ready?" Dean asked.

Sam nodded. "Yeah." He turned to Samuel. "We should get going."

Samuel nodded back. He began walking them to the door. "Don't be a stranger." He turned to Dean, addressing him directly. "We're still your family, you know."

Dean nodded in response before leading Sam and Amy out of the compound. "You know, it's funny," he said.

"What's that?"

"You ran ahead of me to the motel room, but I got there just after you fired that shot. So you had plenty of time to shoot it before I arrived."

"Huh…" Sam trailed off.

"Right before Sam did shoot the shifter, he mentioned something about a father," Amy recalled. "Must have been the alpha he was talking about."

"Did you hear him say that?" Dean asked Sam.

Amy's interest suddenly piqued. She could tell where Dean was going with this. If Sam had heard the shifter say that, he had to have been standing there before shooting it.

Sam merely paused at the driver's door while Dean continued to the other side of the car. "Uh, I don't know. Kind of a hot moment, you know?" He chuckled. "Why?"

"Well, because if you heard him, then you knew the Alpha was out there," Dean explained.

Sam frowned. "Okay."

"And if you knew the Alpha was out there, then you knew he might come after the baby," Dean continued. "In which case, you were using the baby as bait. So was that the plan? To use the baby as bait?"

"Of course not," Sam said a little too quickly. He chuckled nervously. "Dean, I just thought that Samuel's was the safest place. That's all."

"Right, of course."

Sam got in the car, and Amy and Dean exchanged a nervous glance. Amy was sure Sam had only shot the shifter because Dean had caught up with him. She didn't want to think about what would have happened if Dean hadn't been there.

They got in the car after Sam, who started the engine and drove through the wide open gate.

"Want me to drop you guys off at Lisa's?" Sam asked.

"Yeah," Dean said bluntly.

May 9th, 2011

Sam pulled up to Lisa's house early the following day. The moment Amy and Dean were out of the car with their bags, he sped off again.

Amy exchanged a glance with Dean before following him inside.

"That shifter," she began, "he mentioned the father a while before Sam shot him. If Sam did hear it…" she trailed off.

Dean frowned. "You think Sam stood there and watched before shooting it?"

Amy shrugged. "Think about it, Dean. We both know he's soulless right now, and you said that he got to the door before you but didn't shoot until you got there."

Dean groaned. "We need to find Cas," he said.

"Agreed."

Amy followed Dean inside and into the kitchen, where Lisa was washing dishes.

Lisa quickly looked up, smiling, when she saw them enter the room. "Hey!"

"Hey," Dean repeated. "Where's Ben?"

"Bike ride," Lisa said.

Dean looked a little nervous at the response. He turned away from Lisa and stared out the window with a stern expression.

Lisa frowned, tossing down the dish towel. "What," she asked aggressively.

Dean sighed as Amy sat at the kitchen bar. "I don't know what to do here, Lis," he admitted. "I mean, if I knew for sure what the safest place to do was, then I'd do it."

Lisa stayed silent, eyes locked onto Dean's face.

"Stay here and look after you guys…." Dean paused, "...or get as far away as I possibly can. But I don't know."

Lisa's expression softened as she straightened up, nodding slowly at Dean's words.

"And I get what I've been doing lately," Dean continued. "You know, with the yelling and the acting like a -" he rubbed his forehead "- like a prison guard. It's just…that's not me."

The room was silent momentarily before Dean continued, his voice a bit softer.

"You tell yourself you're not gonna be something, you know? You know, my dad was exactly like this, all the time…" he trailed off, shaking his head. "And it's scaring the hell out of me."

"Dean-" Lisa finally spoke. She walked around the counter to stand next to him. "Can I be honest?"

Dean turned to face her.

"Maybe we're safer with you here," Lisa said, "maybe gone. I don't know. The one thing that I do know is that you're not a construction worker."

Dean sighed, turning around to lean his back against the counter.

"You're a hunter," Lisa continued. "And now you know your brother's out there, things are different." She paused. "You don't want to be here, Dean."

"Yes, I do," Dean tried.

Lisa gave him a small smile. "Okay," she said with a nod. "Okay. But you also wanna be out there. I get it." She dropped her smile. "You're white-knuckling it, living like this. Like, what you are is some bad, awful thing. But you're not."

Dean stayed silent as Lisa stepped closer to him.

"But I'm not gonna have this discussion every time you leave," Lisa finished, unable to bring herself to look at Dean. "And this is, this is just gonna keep happening." She took a deep breath before looking up at Dean. "So, I need you to go," she said firmly. "Both of you."

Tears began to roll down Dean's cheek. "I can't just lose you and Ben," he said, voice cracking.

Lisa shook her head. "That's not what I'm saying."

"You're saying hit the road."

"If there's some rule that says this all has to be either - or…." Lisa smirked, "...how about we break it?"

Dean tilted his head in confusion, and Lisa continued.

"Me and Ben will be here, and you just come when you can. Just…" she trailed off, eyeing Dean nervously, "just come in one piece, okay?"

Dean thought for a moment. "You really think we could pull something like that off?"

Lisa shrugged. "It's worth a shot, right?"

Dean finally smiled before leaning forward and kissing Lisa. Finally, he walked out of the kitchen and into the garage.

"You too," Lisa said, turning to Amy. "You're welcome here, anytime."

"You sure?" Amy asked.

Lisa flashed her a smile. "Of course." She pulled the girl into a hug as the roar of the Impala sounded from the garage.

Amy laughed as she heard the familiar sound. "I guess that's my cue," she said. "Thanks for everything, Lisa."

"Anytime."

Amy grabbed her bag and ran into the garage. Dean was already in the driver's seat, rubbing his hands along the steering wheel. She tossed her bag into the back and slid into the passenger seat.

"You ready?" Dean asked.

Amy nodded. "Where to?"

Dean put the car into reverse. "I say we work on finding Cas," he said as he backed out of the garage. "See where we go from there."

Amy leaned back in her seat. "Sounds like a plan." She smiled. "God, I missed this car."