When they arrived at the garage, they saw Anna attacking John and Dean immediately ran to help.
"Stay down over there," Sam whispered just as Dean was thrown through a glass window, dropping the angel blade on the ground. Sam scrambled away from Milly, leaving her behind a car where she watched Mary grab the angel blade and flip it around in her hand.
She watched in fascination as Mary began holding her own against the angel. Milly felt a sense of admiration watching her fight, having never seen a girl fight like that. Suddenly Anna disappeared and reappeared behind Mary, sending her flying on top of a car windshield. Milly bounced anxiously in her hiding spot before deciding she couldn't sit there and watch any longer. She leaped out from behind the car and threw Anna into a wall, away from Mary. She glared at Milly in shock, before getting to her feet and advancing toward her. The girl prepared for a fight just like she saw Mary do but instead of attacking Milly, Anna was cast away in a bright white light. Milly, and Mary, who was just coming to, looked over in surprise to see Sam with his hand on a banishing sigil he'd drawn.
All of the Winchesters were packed in the impala on their way to a safe house.
"Monsters. Monsters?" John repeated in disbelief, gripping the steering wheel with both hands.
"Yes," Mary replied.
"Monsters are real."
"I'm sorry, I didn't know how—"
"And you fight them? All of you? Even-" He turned in his seat for just a second to look at the nine-year-old sitting in the back between Sam and Dean.
"Yeah," Sam answered just before a pissed-off look of disbelief formed on John's face.
"How long?"
"All my life. John, just try to understand—"
"She didn't exactly have a choice—" Dean interrupted Mary, trying to ease the situation but it just made him angrier.
"Shut up, all of you! Look, not another word, or so help me, I will turn this car around!" John snapped and everyone fell silent for a moment.
"Wow. Awkward family road trip." Dean whispered under his breath to Sam.
"No kidding."
Milly glanced up at them both and then over at Mary and John. Sam and Dean had told her a few brief stories about John in the past weeks but that John didn't seem like the same one she saw in front of her now. They described him as a tough leader, rough around the edges, always having a plan, but this John didn't even know about monsters. And Mary? They never talked about her much and Bobby had mentioned she was killed when they were really young so that made sense. But they all left out the fact that Mary was a hunter too.
It really was the family business.
When they arrived at the warehouse, Mary led the others inside, flipping on a light switch as she passed it.
"Place has been in the family for years." She explained, crouching down and flipping up a carpet, revealing a devil's trap underneath.
"Devil's trap. Pure iron fixtures, of course. Um, there should be salt and holy water in the pantry, knives, guns."
"All that stuff will do is piss it off," Sam told her.
"So, what will kill it? Or slow it down, at least?"
"Not much."
"Great." she scoffed.
"He said not much, not nothing. We packed." Dean said and Sam dropped the duffel bag on the table. John stood back watching everything in bewilderment, including Milly. He watched her like he pitied her and she couldn't figure out why. She hadn't been hurt during the fight.
"If we put this up and she comes close—" Dean explained, showing Mary an angel banishing sigil.
"—we beam her right off the starship."
"This is holy oil. It's kind of like a devil's trap for angels. Come on. I'll show you how it works." Sam continued before he and Mary left into the other room.
"Hey, what's the deal with the thing on the paper?" John asked, walking up to Dean.
"It's a sigil. That means—"
"I don't care what it means. Where does it go?"
"On a wall or a door," Milly responded, leaning forward against the table.
"How big should I make it?"
"John—"
"What? Y'all might have treated me like a fool, but I am not useless. I can draw a—"
He picked up the paper from the table.
"—Whatever it is—a sigil."
"Why don't you go help Sam out? Okay? 'Cause, this has got to be done in...it's got to be done in human blood." Dean told him. However, instead of backing down like Milly expected him to, John picked up the knife, unsheathed it, and sliced his left palm open. Suddenly it wasn't so surprising that this man was the same one from the stories.
"So, how big?"
"I'll show you," Dean said before chuckling.
"What?"
"All of a sudden, you...you really remind me of my dad."
John was working on an angel-banishing sigil in a different room, his mind reeling.
Monsters were real. Monsters were real, and his wife fought them. Her entire family fought them.
He thought about Sam and Dean, and about the girl they had with them. He wondered how she wasn't horrified by it all. He couldn't imagine the level of trauma she must've endured to become that desensitized. It made him sick to his stomach to think about a little kid like her, using weapons, and fighting monsters. What kind of parent could allow that?
What kind of irresponsible bastard lets a child anywhere near monsters?
"That's really good."
John turned around to see Sam walking into the room.
"You come to check on me?"
"Uh...I wanted to say I—I'm sorry about all this. I know it's a lot."
"Look, how long have you known about this...hunting stuff?"
"Pretty much forever. My dad raised me in it."
"You're serious?" he asked in disbelief.
"Well, I mean, for the record, Mary's parents did."
"I don't care. Y-you know, you could've been killed!"
"I, uh...came kind of close."
John shook his head and wrapped a cloth around the hand he'd cut to draw the sigil.
"The number it must've done on your head...Your father was supposed to protect you."
"He was trying. He died trying. Believe me." Sam said, taking a seat on the window sill.
"I used to be mad at him. I mean, I used to hate the guy. But now I get it. He was...just doing the best he could. And he was trying to keep it together in this impossible situation. Truth is, um, my dad died before I got to tell him that I understand why he did what he did. And I forgive him for what it did to us. I do. And I just—I love him. Because now with M-Emilia, I understand how hard it must've been for him."
"Look, I know it's none of my business, but how could you let her near any of this? Especially since you know firsthand what it's like?"
Sam nodded in understanding. It wasn't like he didn't think about it, because he did. But he also couldn't exactly explain who she was.
"We never would have, and we still don't want to, but it's not that simple. Her mom ran out on her when she was just a week old, so we're all she has. And we couldn't stop everything to live a normal life, we're never gonna get that choice. But our father taught us that family is the most important thing, so we're sticking together."
In the other room, Mary was pouring a circle of holy oil and Dean walked in.
"Okay. You said you'd explain everything when we had a minute. We have a minute. Why does an angel want me dead?"
"'cause they're dicks."
"Not good enough. I didn't even know they existed, and now I'm a target?"
"It's complicated," Dean replied, unsure if he was prepared to tell her the truth about who he was.
"Fine." She said, standing up.
"All ears."
"You're just gonna have to trust me, okay?"
"I've been trusting you all day."
"It's kind of hard to believe."
"All right, then. I'm walking out the door-"
"I'm your son."
"What?"
"I'm your son. Sorry. I don't know how else to say it. We're from the year two thousand and ten. An angel zapped us back here. Not the one that attacked you, friendlier."
"You can't expect me to believe that," she told him, tears welling up in her eyes.
"Our names are Dean and Sam Winchester. We're named after your parents. My daughter's name is Emilia Mary. After you. She's your granddaughter. When I would get sick, you would make me tomato-rice soup, because that's what your mom made you. And instead of a lullaby, you would sing "Hey Jude", 'cause that's your favorite Beatles song."
"I...I don't believe it. No." Mary shook her head, her voice breaking with emotion. There was no way he could've known all of that.
"I'm sorry, but it's true."
"I raised my kids to be hunters?"
"No. No, you didn't."
"How could I do that to you?"
"You didn't do it. Because you're dead."
She froze, her eyes going wide.
"What? What happened?"
"Yellow-eyed demon. He killed you, and—John became a hunter to get revenge. He raised us in this life. Listen to me. A demon comes into Sam's nursery exactly six months after he's born. November second, nineteen eighty-three. Remember that date. And whatever you do, do not go in there. You wake up that morning and you take Sam and you run."
"That's not good enough, Dean." Sam interrupted, and Dean and Mary looked over to see him standing in the doorway.
"Wherever she goes, the demon's gonna find her. Find me."
"Well, then what?" Dean asked.
"She can leave Dad. That's what. You got to leave John."
Milly took out an angel blade from the duffel bag and placed it on the table before she noticed John had entered the room.
"How old are you, Emilia?"
"Nine."
John sighed and leaned up against the wall beside her.
"Does any of this ever scare you?"
She looked up at him, studying his features, and realized how much he reminded her of Dean.
"Sometimes, but my Dad and Sam make me feel safe. Besides, we're all scared of something right? Doesn't mean we can just pretend it's not there."
"You're a wise kid." John chuckled and Milly held back a scoff.
"I get that a lot."
"What?" Mary demanded.
"When this is all over, walk away, and never look back," Sam said.
"So we're never born. He's right." Dean agreed, turning to her.
"I—I can't. You're saying that you're my children, that little girl in there is my granddaughter, and now you're saying—"
"You have no other choice. There's a big difference between dying and never being born. And trust me, we're okay with it, I promise you that."
"Okay, well, I'm not."
"Listen, you think you can have that normal life that you want so bad, but you can't. I'm sorry. It's all gonna go rotten. You are gonna die, and your children will be cursed. And then your grandchildren." Sam said, pointing to the room Milly and John were in.
"There—there has to be a way."
"No, this is the way. Leave John."
"I can't.'
"This is bigger than us. There are so many more lives at stake—" Sam tried.
"You don't understand. I can't. It's too late. I'm...I'm pregnant."
Sam and Dean stared at her in surprise, allowing Milly and John to enter the room without hearing anything they'd been saying.
"Um, I think we got a problem. The sigils are gone." She told them, urgency in her voice.
"Gone as in…" Sam replied in confusion.
"I drew one on the back of the door. I turned around. And when I looked back again, it was a smudge." John explained and Dean looked into the other room, noticing a faint smear where a sigil used to be.
"He's right."
"There's no more holy oil," Mary added, noticing the circle she poured disappeared.
Suddenly a loud high-pitched noise erupted: an angel's voice. Sam drew the angel blade just before the sound intensified. Everyone covered their ears as best as they could as the windows and light bulbs shattered, plunging the room into darkness. When the angel shut up, everyone looked around in apprehension. The door flew open with a slam, and a figure sauntered in, clearly an angel.
"Who the hell are you?" Dean demanded.
"I'm Uriel."
"Oh, come on," Dean complained, backing away.
"Go," Sam told the others, but then noticed Anna blocking the exit.
"Here goes nothin'." Dean sighed, before lunging at Uriel while Sam went for Anna. John pulled Mary out of the way and reached for Milly.
"Emilia, get behind us."
She turned to face them while glancing at the two angels and turned back around.
"No, you're going to want to stay behind me."
She picked up the angel blade that had fallen from Sam's grasp and watched Anna approach her. Just as Anna was about to grab her, Milly dodged her arm and sliced her side with the tip of the angel blade. She looked at the angel blade in shock. She hadn't the slightest clue how she did that.
It was like a reflex.
Anna let out a pained growl but grabbed the girl by the neck and threw her against the wall. Milly tried to get to her feet, but the whole room had begun to spin and she couldn't make it stop.
John went for the knife that Milly dropped to protect her, but Anna blocked it and threw John through the wall into the backyard.
"John!" Mary screamed in horror.
Sam went to defend her, but Anna ripped a fixture from the wall and stabbed him through the gut with it.
"Sammy!" Dean shouted, trying to fight Uriel off.
Anna turned to Mary, a regretful look on her face.
"I'm really sorry."
"Anna."
John appeared, his voice deeper, his shoulders straighter.
"Michael." She gasped in fear.
He simply put a hand on her shoulder and she went up in flames, screaming in agony.
"Michael. I didn't know." Uriel said, leaving Dean alone.
"Goodbye, Uriel."
Michael snapped his fingers, causing the angel to disappear.
"What did you do to John?" Mary demanded.
"John is fine."
"Who—what are you?"
"Shh…" He said, and touched her forehead, causing her to fall unconscious. He then turned to Dean.
"Well, I'd say this conversation is long overdue, wouldn't you?"
Dean pointed to a dying Sam in desperation.
"Fix him."
"First...we talk. Then I fix your darling little Sammy."
Milly, who was barely, but still conscious, watched in fear as Michael spoke to Dean. She tried to stay as still and silent as she possibly could, fearing he'd force her unconscious as he did Mary. She didn't want to leave Dean alone with him.
"How'd you get in my dad, anyway?"
"I told him I could save his wife, and he said yes."
"I guess they oversold me being your one and only vessel."
"You're my true vessel but not my only one."
"What is that supposed to mean?"
"It's a bloodline."
"A bloodline?"
"Stretching back to Cain and Abel. It's in your blood, your father's blood, your daughter's blood."
Her heart dropped to her stomach at the thought of being possessed by an angel and watched Dean's eyes flick over to her for a split second.
"Awesome. Six degrees of Heaven Bacon. What do you want with me?"
"You really don't know the answer to that?"
"Well, you know I ain't gonna say yes, so why are you here? What do you want with me?"
"I just want you to understand what you and I have to do."
"Oh, I get it. You got beef with your brother. Well, get some therapy, pal. Don't take it out on my planet!"
"You're wrong. Lucifer defied our father, and he betrayed me. But still...I don't want this any more than you would want to kill Sam. You know, my brother, I practically raised him. I took care of him in a way most people could never understand, and I still love him. But I am going to kill him because it is right and I have to."
"Oh, because God says so?"
"Yes. From the beginning, he knew this was how it was going to end."
"And you're just gonna do whatever God says."
"Yes, because I am a good son."
"Okay, well, trust me, pal. Take it from someone who knows—that is a dead-end street."
"And you think you know better than my father? One unimportant little man. What makes you think you get to choose?"
"Because I got to believe that I can choose what I do with my unimportant little life."
"You're wrong. You know how I know? Think of a million random acts of chance that let John and Mary be born, to meet, to fall in love, to have the two of you. Think of the million random choices that you make, and yet how each and every one of them brings you closer to your destiny. Do you know why that is? Because it's not random. It's not chance. It's a plan that is playing itself out perfectly. Free will's an illusion, Dean. That's why you're going to say yes."
The feeling of dread that Milly felt from his words made her ache ten times worse than from being chucked into that wall. The one thing that made her feel like she could be good was choice. Yet here was the archangel Michael, saying it was all an illusion. He was the one closest to God and he was saying that they didn't have a choice. And although he was speaking to Dean, she couldn't help but feel like every word was meant for her too.
"Oh, buck up. It could be worse. You know, unlike my brothers, I won't leave you a drooling mess when I'm done wearing you."
"Well, what about my dad?"
"Better than new. In fact, I'm gonna do your mom and your dad a favor."
"What?"
"Scrub their minds. They won't remember me or you."
"You can't do that."
"I'm just giving your mother what she wants. She can go back to her husband, her family—"
"She's gonna walk right into that nursery!"
"Obviously. And you always knew that was going to play out one way or another." Michael said, bending down beside Sam. He pressed his fingers to his forehead and he disappeared in a quick white flash. Then he turned to face Milly, who he knew had been listening the whole time. Her heart began to beat harder and faster in her chest the closer he got to her. When he bent down in front of her, a hint of a smile appeared on his face.
"Don't be afraid." He whispered to her, before sending her away just as he did Sam.
It had been several days since Michael sent them back to 2010, and Cas had not yet returned. In their motel room, Milly sat at the table coloring while Sam and Dean poured themselves a drink.
Suddenly Cas appeared in the room and Sam's eyes widened when he noticed him.
"Castiel."
He and Dean rushed to grab hold of Cas, keeping him from falling. Milly jumped up from the table and ran over.
"Cas! You son of a bitch. You made it." Dean told him and Cas looked between them all.
"I...I did? I'm very surprised." He said, before passing out again.
Sam and Dean hauled the angel to the nearest bed and laid him on it. Milly continued to watch him in concern, not used to seeing the angel so vulnerable. She took the blanket from the other bed and laid it over him, hoping it'd make him more comfortable. Dean chuckled softly, handing Sam his drink.
"Well...this is it."
"This is what?" Sam asked, looking at his brother.
"Team Free Will. A baby demigod, One ex-blood junkie, one dropout with six bucks to his name, and Mr. Comatose over there. It's awesome."
"It's not funny."
Dean took a drink and glanced up at Sam.
"I'm not laughing."
"They all say we'll say yes."
"I know. It's getting annoying."
"What if they're right?" Sam wondered quietly.
"They're not."
"I mean, why, why would we, either of us? But...I've been weak before."
"Sam," Dean warned.
"Michael got Dad to say yes."
"That was different. Anna was about to kill Mom."
"And if you could save Mom...what would you say?"