Hi all! I hope you enjoyed how season one wrapped up! Seeing as there's not been much feedback on things, I can only hope that you did and that you keep enjoying this story as we officially move into the second season. I wanted to add in a quick note just to thank you all again for your continued support of Ariella and her story. Can you believe we're already 36 chapters in? Things are starting to going to being hitting more 'exciting' terrain and all I'll say is that I'm just so eager to get things moving along. We've still got a long road ahead of us and, with that said, I'll let you get reading to see where it takes Ari and the boys! Enjoy! Xoxo-NickyLynn

Sam wasn't sure what he was supposed to do anymore. His sanity had been hanging on by a thread since they had all been brought into the hospital after the accident, the only one who had made it out of it fairly unscathed. Where he only ended up with a handful of bumps and bruises and his dad a busted-up arm, Dean and Ariella hadn't seemed to have been granted the same luck. Dean had suffered a serious head injury, leaving him comatose and on a ventilator, and Ariella…well while she was breathing on her own at least, she wasn't doing much better after having been ejected straight through her windshield.

Sam's gaze swept over her slack face, distorted by a great deal of swelling and discoloration that left her hardly recognizable, guts twisting at the thought of her and Dean's eyes never opening again. She had been wheeled straight into the operatory when they had arrived by helicopter, undergoing hours of surgery to reconstruct the half of her face which had taken the brunt of the ejection and left arm which had been left shattered by the impact, leaving her riddled with metal plates, pins, and a whole lot of healing to do. The surgeons had told Sam it had been a sheer miracle she had survived the crash and didn't put much hope in her waking up any time soon. They had even less hope to offer on Dean. They didn't think he would be waking up at all. The two people who mattered most to him were both teetering on the edge of death…and Sam didn't know how to process that terrifying reality.

To make matters worse, all his dad seemed to care about since he had woken up himself was getting his hands on the Colt. Dean and Ariella were on death's doorstep and all he could focus on was the stupid fucking war between them and the demon. Everything felt wrong. Their family was coming undone before Sam's very eyes and it was tearing him apart to be left to bare it alone. He willed Ariella's eyes to open….willed her to wake up so he could actually talk to her….figure out what had gone down in that house before he and the others got there. Whatever the demon had told her had pushed her over the edge. Pushed her to a point of breaking…and it terrified him to think what she had to have learned to push her there.

He wanted to be mad at her for it….for going after the demon on her own and causing all this havoc. As he watched her cling to life, however, the only emotion that was evoked within him was the sheer terror of losing her and Dean. None of it mattered. He would forgive her a thousand times over if she were to just open her eyes.

After sitting at her side for about an hour, using the silence to sort through his spiraling thoughts, Sam felt the first wave of hope wash over him as Ariella began to stir with movement again. He surged forward in his seat after seeing the fingers laid out across her abdomen twitch, watching with bated breath as her eyelids began to flutter open. She slowly pried herself out of the clutches of sleep, bleary eyes struggling to take in her surroundings as she came to.

"Hey." He breathed out in relief as he watched the shift in alertness her features took.

Her eyes fell on him then, confusion swirling in them as she tried shifting through her drug-heavy thoughts. "Sammy?" she asked, his name coming out more like a rasp from having to be intubated so long during surgery. "W-what-?"

"It was an accident." He rushed out in explanation, already knowing how she would react once she realized the gravity of what had transpired. Sam saw the moment her memories crashed back to her. One moment her eyes were flicking back and forth in confusion and the next her face morphed into horror.

"Oh God." She gasped, tears began to build in her already red-rimmed eyes. "I…I hit you guys…" Her pain-filled eyes snapped up to his then, and he could see the guilt building in them.

"Dad said that your eyes were yellow." He tried to say in reassurance. "This wasn't your fault, Ari. It was the demon."

"Where are John and Dean?" she asked then, the monitor displaying her vitals spiking as her heart rate kicked up.

"Ari—" Sam said, already knowing she wouldn't take the news well.

"Sam, please tell me they're okay." She pleaded desperately, sitting upright as panic began taking hold of her.

"Hey, just calm down—" he tried to tell her, reaching forward helplessly as she aggravated her injuries further. "It's going to be okay."

"Sam!" she pressed, looking like she was on the brink of a full-blown panic attack.

Sam dropped his head as he let out a heavy sigh, knowing there would be no keeping her from the truth, as difficult as it was to handle. "Dad's fine other than a few broken bones in his wrist. Dean though…" he said, pausing to lick at his suddenly dry lips. He brought watery eyes back up to her, hating having to watch the crestfallen look that took over her face. "He's in a coma. They…" he said, hands twisting around themselves nervously. "They're not sure he's going to be waking back up again. Hell, it was a miracle you did."

Ariella was ripping off the cables connecting her to all the monitors in the next moment, receiving a series of warning alarms from the machines in response. "Where is he?" she demanded as she clawed at the stickers littered across her chest.

"Ari, stop!" Sam said just as a group of nurses rushed into the room.

"I need to see Dean!" she shouted in near hysterics, batting away the staff who tried intervening. "Get these fucking tubes out of me!"

"Ms. McGillicuddy, you need to calm down! You were in a serious accident and need to rest!" the charge nurse was shouting, not sure how to handle Ariella's sudden outburst.

"I'm not staying in this god damn bed until I see Dean!" Ariella maintained, trying to rip the IV tube out herself.

Having no other choice, the staff reluctantly obliged to her wishes, removing all the tubes and wires so she could move about freely. After getting her clothes back and refusing the wheelchair they had insisted on, Sam helped bring her down the hall to Dean's room, keeping his arm wrapped around her midsection as she hobbled along with him. As soon as they turned past the doorway, a sob escaped her throat. She pulled herself out of Sam's grip to fall against Dean's bed, dropping down to her knees next to his head and the intubation tubes jutting out of it.

"I'm so sorry." She cried into the edge of the mattress, shoulders shaking as she became overrun by tears. "This is all my fault."

"This isn't on you, Ari." Sam offered quietly, finding that his own throat was growing thick from having to watch her break down.

Ariella drew in a loud sniffle before bringing her head back up, reaching with her uninjured hand to cradle the side of Dean's face. She was careful not to move him or the tubes running down into his airways as she swept shaky fingers across his cheek. "I'm sorry, Dean." She wept. "I should have never—"

"None of this is your fault." Sam tried to reassure her again, reaching up to lay a comforting hand on her shoulder.

Ariella was quick to smack it away as she spun around, pushing herself back up onto unsteady legs as she practically glowered at him. "Don't." She shot back, the anger and sadness filling her eyes swirling together like a raging storm. "Don't you dare pity me right now."

Sam was at a loss for words as he watched her stand off against him. He, once again, found himself questioning what he was supposed to do….supposed to say. "What happened in that house?" he chose to ask, voice as hollow and empty as he felt inside. "What did he say to you?"

Ariella's jaw fused shut as she let her eyes fall back onto Dean. The sound of the machine keeping him breathing was the only thing filling the tense silence for a moment before she pulled away from the bed and staggered past Sam, refusing to give him an answer.

"Ariella, wait." he pleaded, reaching out to stop her as she tried to step around him. "I need your help. Dean needs our help. Earlier when I was talking to Dad—"

"Where's the Colt?" she demanded abruptly, cutting him off before he could explain the strange things that had been happening while she had been out; how he thought Dean's spirit was stuck in some sort of limbo around them.

Sam's pulled back in shock, letting out a huff of disbelief. "Are you serious right now? You're barely out of surgery, Dean's stuck in a coma, and you want to dive headfirst back into this fight?" he asked, finding it ironic how similar to John she was being in that moment.

"Where is it?" she asked again, voice vibrating dangerously.

Sam shook his head at her, unable to believe she was being so abrasive with him. It was like she had woken up a complete stranger. "Dad has it." He bit out unhappily. "Had me pull it from the trunk of the Impala before Bobby towed it back to his place." Ariella processed that for a moment before pulling herself out of his hold again. "What's your plan?" he called after her as she moved for the door. "Are you really going to keep this whole solo act up after where it's gotten us?"

Sam instantly regretted the words as soon as they fell from his lips. Ariella went rigid in the doorway, turning to cast him a withering look from over her shoulder before her eyes drifted over to Dean's form again. Without saying anything more on the matter, she pulled her gaze away before disappearing around the wall.

Dean, stuck having to watch the entire thing unfold like Bruce Willis in the Six Sense, marched towards Sam as she left, casting his arm out towards her as she did. "Dude, you're not just going to let her leave, are you?" he asked, knowing Sam couldn't hear him. "She's got that 'I'm-about-to-do-something-stupid-look' written all over her face!"

Sam just let out a long breath, reaching up to scrub at his haggard face before his gaze fell to Dean's frail body. "You gotta wake up, man." he said, sounding downright exhausted by it all. "This family's falling apart without you."

Dean pulled away from a defeated Sam, rushing after Ariella into the hall. He caught sight of a familiar flash of red hair to his right and took off after her in a jog. She had been in the midst of a heated argument with some of the nurses who were trying to usher her back into her room, before telling them off with a few colorful words as she stepped into the elevator behind her. Dean ran the remaining distance, slipping in behind her just before the doors slid closed. It was only him and her in the small, enclosed space, and he wished more than anything he had a corporal form as she sagged against the wall tiredly, breathing labored as she struggled to stay upright.

"What are you doing, Ari?" he asked, yearning to reach across the distance separating them and take her weight from her. "Look at you….you can hardly even keep yourself upright."

Ariella let her head fall back on her shoulders as the elevator jerked with movement, drawing in a shaky breath as tears began slipping from her closed eyes now that she thought she was alone. "Hey…you got stop." Dean said, moving until he stood in front of her, reaching out to caress her cheek in a useless effort to wipe away the wetness. "Just go back up there and talk to Sam….help him figure out a way to get me back in my body and we can all figure this out together." His words nor his touch could reach her, however. "Come on, Baby." He pleaded desperately. "You've got to help me."

Ariella brought her head back down as the elevator slowed, opening her eyes again to stare right into his. The brokenness he saw swirling within them hurt Dean more than any wound ever could. "Just hang on a little while longer, Dean." She whispered as they came to a stop. Dean felt a flash of surprise wash over him, thinking that she could see him, but she swept right past him as soon as the doors pulled open again, quickly snuffing out the brief rise in hope. "I'm going to fix this." She vowed as she stepped off the lift, leaving Dean to watch helplessly as she staggered away.

At the salvage yard, Bobby had been in the midst of unloading the mess that was once Ariella's pride and joy, doing his best to keep his eyes diverted from the patches of dried blood clinging to what had been left of the windshield. When he had first laid eyes on the vehicle after getting the call from Sam, he had nearly collapsed at the sight. The entire front end had been crumped in like an accordion, pushing the engine up into where the driver's seat had once been. He didn't believe anyone would have been able to survive that kind of damage, but Sam had assured him she was alive despite the impossibility of it. She had been thrown through the windshield from the impact and wouldn't be upright anytime soon, but she was alive. For now, at least.

Bobby couldn't bring himself to step foot in the hospital. He didn't think he'd be able to handle seeing her and Dean like that. Instead, he made Sam swear to keep him updated with any changes while he dealt with the ruined vehicles which would have otherwise been impounded. As he was unhooking the chains from the ruined carcass of the Firebird, he heard Rumsfeld let out a string of barks from inside, drawing his attention to the house in concern. He caught sight of a shadow sweeping past one of the back windows and he was moved for the backdoor, grabbing hold of a tire iron as he made his way closer. As he trudged across the yard, he braced himself for whatever had decided to drop by for a visit. Knowing what Ariella and the Winchesters had been trifling with, he readied himself for the worst.

As he peeked around the corner of the sliding glass door, however, the anxiety filling him was quickly replaced by shock. He yanked the door open as a flood of emotions washed over him. "What the hell are you doing here?!" he demanded as he stepped inside, pulling Ariella's wide eyes over to him as she dropped an armful of books down on the dining room table. Bobby found himself internally wincing as he took in the state of her face, riddled with stiches and discoloration. Her skin was unnaturally flushed and sweat beading along her forehead, looking like she was on the verge of passing out, yet here she was moving about his living room in a frenzy like the devil himself was hot on her heels.

"Don't we have some of that dried acacia left?" she said instead, ignoring his question as she shuffled towards the hutch.

"The hell you need acacia for?" he asked, dropping the tire iron on the table as he moved over to where she was digging through the various jars, examining the contents of each. She seemed to find the one she was looking for, because in the next moment she was moving towards the stack of books again, seemingly ignoring Bobby altogether. "Hey—" he snapped, reaching out to latch onto her arm and force her to a stop. Her erratic behavior was worrying him immensely. Add that to the injuries she seemed adamant to ignore, and he was downright scared stiff. His eyes swept over the books she had gathered then and that ball of worry in his gut turned into lead. "Whatever you're planning, you best rethink it, Ella." He warned in a low voice, knowing there was only one thing she could be after in those particular books.

"I'm not asking for your permission." She snapped, yanking herself free of his grasp before hobbling towards the kitchen next.

"Ariella, you listen to me!" Bobby yelled, refusing to let her brush him off as he trailed after her. "You try summoning that bastard, and things are only going to go from bad to worse! This ain't a game!"

Ariella slammed the drawer she had been digging through closed again as she spun around to face him. "You're not my father, Bobby!" she screamed at him, the words cutting into him sharper than the knife now in her hold.

Bobby's teeth clanked together as she stormed past him again, doing his best not to let it show just how deep that blow hit him. "No, I ain't your father." He lamented as he turned to follow her again, watching as she began shoving the items she had gathered into a duffel bag. "But I love you too much to let you do something this stupidly reckless!"

Ariella froze mid action, shoulders rising up and down for a moment before she cast her eyes back towards him. "You don't understand…"

"Then make me understand!" he begged, stepping closer to grab hold of her and turn her around to face him. "You're scaring me, Ella."

Bobby watched as the anger she had been casting toward him crumbled away into a wave of tears. "It was him." she said, voice cracking. "It was always him."

"What are you talking about?" he asked, trying to understand what had her acting so out of character. "That demon? He say something to you?"

"Bobby, he put me in your life." She tried explaining through the flood of tears. "John finding me—it wasn't by chance. He led him right to me…he orchestrated the whole fucking thing. Everything—me…the Winchesters…it's all been part of his plan from the very beginning."

"I don't…" Bobby said, struggling to process what she was telling him. "What do you mean his plan?"

Bobby watched her throat bob up and down as she swallowed past her closing throat and the emotion bubbling out of it before she shook her head in response. "It doesn't matter." she said, pushing out of his hold as she spun back around, resuming her previous task of collecting her items. "I'm done being one of the pieces on his fucked up game board."

"Ella, please." Bobby said, feeling overwhelmed by the chaos unraveling around them, and knowing there was nothing he could do to stop it.

"I'm not going to let Dean die because of me." She told him, voice turning to ice as she pulled the zipper to her bag closed. She turned back towards him as she threw the strap of it over her good shoulder, eyes sweeping over his face as the muscle in her jaw twitched in thought. "I'm sorry." Was all she said before moving for the door again, storming away without saying anything more.

"Ariella!" Bobby shouted after her as she pulled the front door open. "WAIT!" His pleas fell on deaf ears, however, for the door slammed shut in the next moment, leaving him alone to wonder how things had spiraled so far out of control.

Ariella took one of the running vehicles Bobby had been in the process of fixing up, driving herself back out to the abandoned house everything had gone down in the night before. Her fingers tightened around the steering wheel as she passed by the intersection still littered with shards of glass and oil stains, the sight of it only pushing her deeper into the depths of determination as she drove past. Once she was back at the house, she immediately got to work, using the paint which had been left there to copy the patterns printed on the pages of the occult books she had taken across the living room floor. Once she was sure the summoning circle was replicated to perfection, she set up the other herbs and ingredients necessary to complete the spell before dropping down to her knees in front of the bowl of salt. Using the knife she had taken from Bobby's kitchen, she cut deep into her hand, letting the blood pool within her palm as she read off the Latin chant from the book spread open beside her.

She tipped her hand to the side then, watching as the blood drip into the bowl she held it suspended above. Bright sparks sprung to life as her blood hit the salt, simmering away into smoke as she completed the ritual. The hair on the back of her neck stood on end as a breeze swept past her, the energy in the room shifting with it. She slowly rose to her feet again, eyes flicking around as she waited for the inevitable.

"Well, isn't this a surprise." A deep voice spoke from behind her. She spun in alarm, eyes landing on the man standing there and the yellow hue of his eyes. "Didn't think I'd be seeing you again so soon. Summoning me? It's ballsy, I'll give you that."

"I want to make a deal."

Azazel's eyes fell to the knife in her hand, lips pulling back over the crooked teeth he had stolen in a wide smile. "And what do you intend to bargain with?" he asked, quickly taking note of her weaponless state.

"My life." She answered. "My life for Dean's."

His smile stretched wider with the offer. "What a lovely sentiment…sacrificing your life for your little boyfriend. I think I'd cry if I had a heart."

"You heal Dean, and you can do whatever the hell you want with me." She cast out in offer, fully meaning it.

"Well, it's certainly a temping offer." He responded, stepping closer until he was practically looming over her. "But I don't want you…not yet, at least."

"Then what do you want?" she demanded. This deal couldn't fail. This was the only way Dean was going to make it out of this alive. It had to work.

His eyes bore into hers as he hovered over her, delight radiating from the depths of them. He knew she was stuck at his mercy. And it left her feeling absolutely sick. "I want us to pick up where we left off last night." he said after a moment of consideration. "I want to know the lengths you're willing to go to get what you want…what you're willing to sacrifice."

"I'll do whatever the fuck you want if it means saving Dean."

Azazel gave an arch of his eyebrow at that declaration. "A Winchester for a Winchester." He supplied as his counteroffer. "You give me the father and I'll save the son."

Ariella processed that for a moment, eyes piercing into the demon's yellow ones. She contemplated what he was asking of her…and what she would have to sacrifice in order to obtain it. He wasn't just asking her to give him John Winchester…he was asking her to betray all of them. Dean would never be able to forgive her for it. He was asking her to sacrifice everything.

She pictured Dean's slack face then and the rhythmic whooshing of the machines keeping him alive at that very moment. He was going to die if she didn't make the deal. She would end up losing everything anyways. She drew in a breath as she made her decision, knowing there would be no version of this where she walked away the hero.

"It's a deal."