She wakes to the baby's cries, played over the monitor. Cries is a misnomer; Sammy stopped crying unless frightened nearly a month ago. What is it about the five-month mark? He stopped crying, and started recognizing more people than herself, John, and Dean. He began making different noises for different needs. A smacking of his lips when he's hungry, a smile and a high-pitched coo for Dean, an almost grunt with a weirdly cute frown for a wet diaper are all part of his growing repertoire.
Mary reaches back and pokes the warm bulk of her husband. "John, it's your turn to check on Sam."
John sighs as he usually does when woken to check on the baby – grumpy, resigned, and somehow happy. He comes around the bed to kiss her before heading out the door. She watches his silhouette disappear before sliding back into sleep.
That only lasts a few minutes because she's awoken by John's angry shout coming in stereo from down the hall, and the baby monitor beside her face. Tomorrow she won't remember jumping out of bed and running down the hall. Her memory starts in the doorway. There's someone at Sam's crib, but it's not John.
He turns and she gets the impression on an evil smile and yellow eyes before a sound between a groan and a curse comes from the ceiling. She looks up and finds John hanging there with his belly sliced open. His lips move, but no more sound comes out. Still, she reads the words he can no longer speak – Mary!...Sammy! He mouths before fire explodes behind him.
She dives for the crib. The demon is gone, leaving behind only his laughter so she's able to scoop up her baby and run for the door. Dean is there looking terrified, but bless him, not panicking.
"Here sweetie, take your brother outside, go out and wait for me, fast as you can!" He goes, small and quick.
Behind her a gout of flame erupts out of the room and scorches the wall. She throws herself to the floor, crying out for John, knowing it's far too late. Picking herself up she dashes down the stairs and out the front door. Dean is waiting on the lawn with baby Sam clutched to his chest. Mary grabs them both and runs without stopping to the other side of the street while the house explodes behind them.
It's only when a paramedic lays a blanket over her shoulders that Mary realizes she's cold. The man leads her away from the hood of John's car to sit on the steps at the back of the ambulance. She doesn't resist anything until the other paramedic reaches for Sam. A cop is already there asking questions and she's answering calmly until the woman lays a hand on the baby's blanket.
"Don't you touch him!" Her shout is almost a scream, and the glass wall between her and reality shatters with a boom that only she hears. All her muscles turn to water and sobs envelope her. The paramedic catches the boys, and the cop eases her against the side of the door of the ambulance.
Her cry frightens the baby, and he joins her with a scream of his own. All the events of the evening are snowballing through her mind, but that sound and Dean's terrified face cut through the horror. "I'm sorry boys, I'm sorry." She holds out her arms.
Before any adult can act, Dean climbs back onto her lap, settling against her left arm instead of her right, and shifting Sam to sit opposite as well. Back in his mother's arms, the baby goes quiet again.
"Wow, what a trooper!" The cop says. He pats Dean on the head. "And you've got to be the world's greatest big brother." The boy doesn't answer, just nods, and Mary's nearly swamped with a wave of love for him.
Inside her head, a tornado warning is going off, and she can see a funnel cloud about to touch down in the distance. She doesn't have long before the storm of emotions overtakes her. She's got to get to some kind of shelter or it's going to pick her up and lift her into the sky, leaving the boys without protection. Drawing on the deep well of mother-strength she didn't know she had, she raises her face to the officer and lets the emotion play on her face without feeling it.
"Officer, I need to get the boys somewhere safe and warm. Will you get me some things from the house? They may smell smokey, but I need something more than my nightgown." The cop agrees, and after she directs him where to go and what to get, he goes to the firefighters with her request. Ten minutes later she and Dean are wearing smokey clothes, but they're warm and dry. The baby bag from her car sits in the back seat next to Sam in his car seat.
She tells the cop and the paramedic that she's going to the Ramada, but first she goes to the closest church. Telling Dean to stay in the car, she picks the lock on the side door and goes to the baptismal font. She's in luck, they must be doing baptisms on the weekdays at this church because the font is full. She fills two flasks. After a moments debate, she says a quick prayer of apology and rolls up the alter cloth and puts it in her bag.
Back in the car, she thanks Dean for being such a good boy, holding him tight and kissing his cheek. "We're going to make one more stop at the Piggly Wiggly, and then we'll go get a motel room and sleep safe and warm ok?" He nods.
At the all-night store she decides she can't leave the boys in the car. The sleepy clerk looks at them in surprise. Mary decides to go with the truth. "House burned down. Still gotta feed the kids." The shocked clerk nods. She shops faster than she ever has, and is back at the checkout in 15 minutes. The night manager, a kid younger than herself, is there to check her groceries. He doesn't pay the slightest bit of attention to what she's bought, which is great, because three canisters of salt for a motel stay should raise some eyebrows.
When it's all totaled up, he won't take her money. "Discount for woman with kids who smells like she got out just in time." She looks at the ceiling to stop the tears, and then gives him a whispered thanks.
At the motel on the other side of town, Mary lays down salt lines and draws protection symbols everywhere. When she strips Sam to change his diaper, she finds blood on his blanket, but not one mark on him. She wants to throw the blanket away, but she doesn't. This is her only clue.
Clean and dry, Sam goes right back to sleep. She makes a fort of pillows around him, and then takes Dean to the bathroom with her. They leave the door open so they can hear the baby and Mary runs a hot bath. As safe as she can make them for now, she and Dean strip and climb in. Among the steam and the bubbles, mother and son cry for the husband and father they will never see again.
