Milly and Jesse appeared on an empty street corner and stood there looking at each other in astonishment.
"Woah… it actually worked." He gasped before they burst into laughter.
Milly looked around at their surroundings, wondering where she'd go from there.
"Will you be okay? You know, by yourself?"
She faced him and nodded, not trusting her voice to lie convincingly enough.
"Will you?"
He smiled and nodded.
"I'm used to being on my own. I hope you find what you're looking for Milly."
"You too, Jesse."
With that, he disappeared so suddenly it was like he'd never been there at all.
Milly clutched her jacket closer to her and took a deep breath. It wasn't so cold outside, but her nerves kept sending chills down her arms.
As she walked down the road, the sun was beginning to rise along the horizon. The warm orange glow spread across the sky.
"She just up and left? With the antichrist?" Bobby repeated incredulously over the phone.
"Well, when you say it like that.." Dean muttered, taking a seat at the table in their motel room.
Bobby grumbled a few profanities while digging around his desk for a book. The boys had called him half an hour prior and explained how they lost Milly.
The older hunter was pissed. He knew they could be dimwitted at times, but this was one of those situations where he seriously questioned how they were alive. Bobby had grown very fond of that little girl and now they'd gone and lost her. But despite his frustration with them, he mostly blamed himself. He should've known they weren't ready to take her with them.
"There's a tracking spell that could work, but I really can't be sure since she's part deity."
"But there's a chance it could?" Dean asked.
"A chance."
The brothers spent the next few hours gathering what they required for the spell and met back in the room, placing the objects on the table. Sam spread out the world map across the table and set the box of matches on top. Dean placed Milly's purple backpack on the corner of the table and pulled out the hairbrush, handing it to Sam. He took a strand of her hair and placed it in a bowl with various other ingredients before reading the spell.
"Ignis inueniet perditos et reuelabit quaerenti"
Dean lit a match and dropped it in the bowl and suddenly the map caught fire. It began turning the paper to ash, extinguishing by itself. All that remained unburnt was a single U.S state.
"Tennessee? What the hell is she doing in Tennessee?" Dean wondered out loud.
"Beats me. I don't think she'd care much about the smokies or Graceland." Bobby replied, still on the phone.
The three hunters were silent for a moment before Sam spoke up.
"Dean, call Cas, I know exactly where she is."
Milly looked up at the massive, 42-foot-tall statue of Athena. She couldn't explain how she ended up there, only knowing it was located in Nashville, Tennessee. She knew where she wanted to go, and somehow found her way there purely by instinct.
Milly thought that when she saw the statue with her own eyes, she'd recognize the woman, but it was just another stranger. She didn't understand why she couldn't recognize her own mother.
Thousands of years ago, a temple like this was used to pray to the gods. Milly had hoped it'd be where Athena would hear her, but when she stood in that temple filled with tourists from all over the country, and even the world, she had never felt more alone. Milly left the building and stood outside beside one of the huge Doric columns, looking out across the green lawn at the people surrounded by their friends and their families.
There it was again.
The pain in her stomach she'd gotten when she saw that girl and her parents. This time though, it felt like it was growing. It spread to her chest which seemed to constrict, squeezing the air from her lungs. She suddenly became very aware of how small she was in this world. Like a single star lost in an endless galaxy filled with them.
She sat down on one of the steps, feeling suffocated by her own thoughts. She missed Bobby. She missed Sam and Dean. She even sort of missed Jesse who'd she'd known all of five minutes.
But as she sat on the step, overlooking all those strangers, she knew she was on her own now. She had to be alright with that.
The problem was, she wasn't alright with it. She didn't want to be alone.
"Mom?" She whispered, her little voice getting lost in the breeze.
"If you can hear me… if you're alive…"
Milly rested her chin on her knees as a tear slipped down her cheek. She was utterly terrified. She was supposed to save the universe somehow but she didn't have the slightest clue how to begin. She didn't even have the slightest clue why.
Maybe she was wrong about me.
"Please help me. I don't know what to do." She whimpered, looking up at the vast blue sky.
Cas, Sam, and Dean appeared outside the Parthenon and immediately split up in search of Milly.
Dean scanned the area, his eyes catching every girl around her height. He searched for nearly ten minutes until he noticed a little girl with blonde hair sitting alone on the Parthenon steps. He knew right away it was her.
He stopped a few feet away before taking a deep breath and continuing over. He walked up and sat on the step beside her. She looked up at him in surprise, a faint tear stain could be seen on her cheek.
He felt like someone had punched him in the gut.
"What are you doing here?"
"Looking for you."
"Why?"
Dean wasn't sure how to respond to her question, despite it being seemingly easy in theory.
Milly picked up on his hesitation and looked down at her shoes.
"I don't understand a lot of stuff but I understand enough to know this isn't what you want. And it's okay. I'll be fine." She told him softly, and another imaginary punch socked Dean right in the gut.
"And what do you think you're going to do out here by yourself?"
"I don't know...I'll figure it out."
Dean didn't respond for a few seconds, thinking very carefully about what he said next.
"To be honest, this is the last situation I'd ever imagine being in."
Milly nodded, the ache only growing in her stomach.
"But that doesn't mean I never wanted you," he added.
She turned her head to look up at him and furrowed her eyebrows in confusion.
"I'm not really an apple pie life kinda guy, Milly. I'm not prepared to be a dad. I have no idea what I'm doing. And when I first met you, it was easier to believe you were a trap or something planted to hurt me and Sam. It was easier to keep you at a distance and believe you were something to be afraid of. That way, I wouldn't have to face the fact that maybe… you weren't bad at all." He explained, looking at the huge open lawn as Milly watched him.
"And I think that scares me more than if you were evil."
Milly listened intently, not having a clue where he was going with this.
"Because that means there's a very real and good chance I'll screw this up. So I think tried to avoid accepting this-accepting you... But you know what?" He paused, a lump forming in his throat as he turned to look at the girl. "You are my kid. And no matter how scared I am or unprepared, or whatever, I know I don't want to lose you. Because when you disappeared, I thought I had. And that just happened to scare me a little more."
Milly looked at him with tear-filled eyes and the ache in her stomach completely dissipated.
"I'm sorry for being such a jerk, Milly. Think you might ever be able to forgive me?" He asked, watching her reaction carefully.
When she gave a little nod, he felt a wave of relief, but seconds later she threw her arms around his torso, hugging him.
He froze in surprise but managed to allow his arms to wrap around her.