A week had gone by, and nothing had turned up. It was almost time to leave town if Sam wanted any answers their father could provide. He stood before a headstone. Alone. Jessica's name was etched into it. He was dressed for a funeral that'd happened a few days prior. Only he couldn't bring himself to attend the service. There was a bouquet of flowers, sans roses, in his hand.

The plot had had some visitors since the funeral based on the trinkets that were left behind. He left them there out of respect for the people who brought them, even when all but one instinct told him he shouldn't have. That one desire was that she would latch on to one of those items so she could stay with him forever.

Had he known what he knew now, Sam wished he had done more than just dream the future. He wished he hadn't ignored them. Maybe even told her what his family did growing up and invited her to join them in the search for John. But telling her anything about that life went against everything his father had taught them.

He twitched in his sleep. Whatever was happening, Dean didn't like it. He looked over to his younger brother, concerned.

"DD? Is Sammy gonna be okay?"

"I don't know, Shortround. This isn't something you just get over."

"Like Mommy?" Abby asked shyly.

Dean remembered the day Abby had called them to come pick her up from a visit with her mother. It was mere weeks before he picked Sam from college. The visits with her mother were rare and only on her mother's terms. No one could ever find her unless she wanted to be found. The circumstances of her death were very odd, even by a hunter's standards. There was no explaining the shadow burns around her body. None of the lore could tell them what was going on because no one had ever encountered it before.

"Something like that," he answered. He pulled off the road at a gas station and parked. "Roll your window down a little. I'll be right back."

Abby did as he said then leaned out the open space. Dean had just stepped out of the car when he saw her leaning out the window behind him. She was a little further out of the cavity than he would have liked.

"Get back inside, Crazy."

"But, DD." She sat back on her heels.

"You need a bathroom?" Abby nodded. She held her arms out for him. "Alright, come on. We'll take care of inside first. Gotta get some food in you anyway. Remember the rule?" he asked, opening the door for her.

"Milk, cereal," she started listing, and with a touch of sass, added, "small juice."

"Good girl."

"And candy," she said under her breath.

"No."

"A toy?"

"Is it slime?"

"Maybe."

"Then absolutely not."

"Do you know any other answers?" she pouted. Her brother chuckled, rolling his eyes at her response. She was always trying to find a loophole. And she'd only found one that he didn't fight her on. The chocolate syrup.

"Yeah… but you're not getting them. Bathroom is on back wall, and don't forget to wash your hands."

"Damn…" she said lifting a soda bottle from the fridge Dean opened for himself. "Hey!"

"You don't get to use those words," Dean replied, taking the soda she had picked out and put it back in the fridge. "And this… isn't juice."

"That's not fair! You and Sammy get to drink this stuff! Why can't I?"

"We don't respond to sugar the same way you do, Abs. Baby's been through enough with you as a passenger. Now hurry up and go to the bathroom so we can go find Dad."

Dean leaned against the wall just outside the bathroom as the door closed behind Abby. On occasion, it was okay for her to be alone in public restrooms. But this was one of those gas stations that was almost in worse condition than the motel rooms they'd stayed in.

When she was done, he sent her back out to the car after she picked out what she wanted to eat.

"Sammy?" she thought she'd get a response. When he didn't give her one of any kind, Abby placed a hand on his forehead. Her hand lit up in a way it never had before. She pulled away and her hand went back to its normal shade. Seriously… what was happening to her? Did she even want to know? What would her brothers think?

Her other brother came back out with their food and drinks. He put them in through the window before removing the nozzle from the pump. Dean's eyes held confusion when he noticed the way his sister looked at her hands. It was like she was seeing them for the first time.

Abby turned around and leaned out her window again. Dean saw the motion and put his arm across a portion of it as if preparing for the worst.

Because the tank's mouth was near the rear license plate, Dean had to stand between Abby's window and the trunk. Sam was still asleep so the silence gave him the perfect opportunity to ask what'd been going on with her recently.

"Alright, Abs. Tell me."

"What?"

"Do you remember asking me about the fire?"

"You said that dreams can be wrong."

"I said that dreams don't always get the details right… There was a fire… but it wasn't blue. How did you know about it?" At first, he wasn't getting an answer, so he continued. "Me and Dad never told you about this, so who did?" Nothing. "Was it Sammy?"

That got a reaction. Abby looked to the car floor before answering. "I heard you and Daddy talk about it."

That had to be a lie. "Come on." Why else would she have waited so long to give him an answer?

"But I'm not lying, DD."

"Then how did you know?"

"You and Daddy."

"Not po- You were listening through the door before he left for Jericho." Abby nodded shyly. "You were supposed to be asleep."

The pump stopped filling the Impala. Dean told Abby to back up so she wouldn't fall out the window while he returned the nozzle to its home. He opened the driver's door and stepped in. Key in the ignition.

Memories of the night John left for Jericho, California flooded Dean's mind. It wasn't the first time he'd been responsible for a sibling over long periods, it'd just been a while. Sam may have considered himself the screwup little brother, but he was nothing compared to Abby's clumsiness.

Though now that he thought about her past injuries, something wasn't striking right.

It was late at night, hours after Abby was supposed to be asleep. John and Dean were outside the motel room, discussing their next job.

"I need you to watch over your sister for a while. There's something I need to take care of in Jericho," his father said. Dean knew the man well enough not to ask for details he was never going to get. Did he like being left in the dark? No. But their father never did anything without a reason, and he was raised to never question the man.

John willingly gave case files as his reason for going. But there was another reason for the trip. Though Dean didn't question the man for finding another hunt, he did question timing.

"Are you saying that I shouldn't find what killed Mary? Pinned her to the ceiling and burned her alive right in front of Sam?"

"Hey, we're gonna find the damn thing, Dad! I just think that maybe you should spend some time with Abs. Kid just found her mother dead under even more suspicious circumstances than Mom. House fires aren't new. Shadow burns? I don't know of any hunter in the entire world who has seen that and not have a demon involved."

The elder had thought the same as his son at the time of the incident. "Not unless the demon did the killing. Abigail passed all the tests in my arsenal. She's clean."

Dean didn't argue with their father. John was the best hunter he knew.

Father and son continued their discussion, not knowing a little ear was pressed up against the other side of the door.

They drove down the road. Sam was still asleep in the passenger seat. And Abby was looking at her hands, trying to figure out why they glowed when she touched her brother's forehead. There weren't any marks on his body that changed afterward, so she didn't know what happened.

She tried to make it happen again by touching random things. Her own skin, the seat belt, different parts of the car… nothing. She didn't even understand how she was able to make things float, so when this was added to the mix, her mind was blown.

Not much thinking was involved when she poked a finger into Dean's neck. She was still thinking of ways to make her hand glow again.

"What's with the poking, Abs," Dean noted.

"Huh?"

"You're poking people again. Sammy said you were doing that last week."

"Sorry, DD." Abby drew her finger back, away from her brother as she responded. "You're not gonna hold me upside down for doing that…" she looked into the rearview mirror. It was difficult, though not impossible to see an evil smirk cross Dean's lips. She suddenly turned scared like it was no longer a joke. "DD, you're not gonna hold me upside down like Sammy did… are you?"

Dean didn't answer because Sam chose that moment to wake up.

The brothers stood before two different images. Sam with a framed three-dimensional map, and Dean with a game hunter behind a felled bear. Abby seemed to take after Dean in some aspects because she was nowhere to be seen. But one could hear the rustling of plastic or foil wrappers. If there was food nearby, it was almost guaranteed that's where she could be found.

"So, Blackwater Ridge is pretty remote." He was paying particular attention to the area labeled Blackwater Ridge. "It's cut off by these canyons here. Rough terrain, dense forest, abandoned silver and gold mines all over the place."

"Dude," Dean said pointing to the photo he was looking at. "Check out the size of this freaking bear."

He came to stand beside his older brother. "And a dozen or more grizzlies in the area. It's no nature hike, that's for sure…"

"Better find a motel room for Abs tonight. Can't have her out in the forest today. With her luck, she'd break an ankle just looking at the trail."

A voice from behind them said, "You boys aren't planning on going out near Blackwater Ridge by any chance? With a child, no less?"

With a slight chuckle, Sam replied, "Oh, no, Sir. We'd never take a child out there. No, we're environmental study majors from UC Boulder, just working on a paper."

The ranger would have bought the lie, but Dean, having never been a college student, didn't really know what words to use. Unfortunately, that didn't stop him from opening his big mouth and getting made.

"Recycle, man."

The forest ranger who owned the voice called them out on their now obvious lie. Sam sent a quiet glare toward his older brother while the ranger jumped to a conclusion.

"You're friends with that Haley girl, right? Well, I will tell you exactly what we told her. Her brother filled out a backcountry permit saying he wouldn't be back from Blackwater until the twenty-fourth, so it's not exactly a missing person now, is it?" Dean shook his head to agree. "You tell that girl to quit worrying, I'm sure her brother's just fine."

"We will," Dean said. "Well, that Haley girl's quite a pistol, huh? You know what would help is if I could show her a copy of that backcountry permit. You know, so she could see her brother's return date."

While the ranger made a copy for them, Sam went looking for their sister. As suspected, she'd holed herself up in the snack aisle, but none of the things there would have grabbed her interest. She liked beef jerky, but she didn't care for venison, bear, or any other wild game meats.

"Come on. We're leaving soon."

"But I'm hungry."

"This isn't a grocery store, Abs… It's a hunting store."

"Like what you and," Sam covered her mouth, but Abby kept speaking anyway, "BB bo." It was muffled with hand over her mouth. She stuck her tongue out, licking Sam's hand. Abby scowled at her brother as he removed his hand from her mouth, wiping the saliva from his palm and onto his jacket sleeve.

Having come home covered in blood and guts growing up, he couldn't be too disgusted by the action. He looked at her hands to see scabs that weren't there when they entered the little shop. And they had only been there long enough to look at a map of the area.

"How'd you get these?" Sam took her hands in his own. He could only assume she got them from the plastic and foil wrappers.

"Get what?"

Another look and those scabs were gone, with no sign they even existed. He couldn't help but wonder what was going on with this kid. Maybe their dad made a journal for things about Abby. The only problem with that thought was if one existed… where was it?

"How did you?" Only a stutter came out.

Abby had fought them about staying in the car the whole way to Haley's home. She still didn't want to be alone in the car and the brothers didn't understand why.

"Stay in the car, Abs. We'll be right out," Dean ordered.

"It's not safe in the car," she screamed, kicking the seat in front of her. There wasn't a lot she could do with the child locks on. Even if she climbed over the front seat, those doors would have closed by the time she reached them.

"Stop doing that."

"Since when is it not safe in the car?" Sam asked.

"Since the ghost drove it! Twice!"

"Okay…" Dean rubbed a hand over his mouth. "That's the fifth time in a week that you've said it wasn't safe in the car… Where'd you hear it?"

"From Chuck Bartowski," she replied as if they should have known the reference. If Dean didn't, then Sam should have. He had two years off. Plenty of time to keep up with the different TV shows. "Two federal agents get sent to protect a human super-computer called the Intersect." Abby excitedly began describing the first episode.

Sam went through the box of fake ID's while she spoke. Neither brother was listening to her words, just mindlessly giving the appropriate responses.

"And then the CIA and NSA agents are made to work together to keep Chuck safe, that way he doesn't have to leave home and live in an underground bunker for the rest of his life." There was a grin on her face as continued laying out the pilot episode of Chuck's first season until she realized neither one of them was listening to her. "And then a fuzzy, baby blue unicorn ran across the beach, trampling Chuck and Sarah to death."

They froze, making it clear they heard that part. "You hearing this?" Sam scoffed at Dean's rhetorical question. "No wonder the kid has nightmares. She's watching our lives play out as if it's scripted."

"Maybe if you didn't let her watch this stuff, she'd sleep better."

"Or maybe I made it all up because you weren't listening," Abby said with her arms crossed and a stomp to the back of Dean's seat.

"Do that again and I'll unplug the motel's TV when we get there."

Abby's eyes were as wide as Dean's had been when she accidentally slimed the Impala's interior. Maybe not as wide, but it was the only source of entertainment she had left now that her toys were gone and Dean wasn't in the replacing mood any time soon.

Hours later, Sam and Dean were at a bar across the road from their motel. Sam was sitting with his new laptop, viewing camera footage sent by Haley's brother while Dean was across from him, eyeing every attractive woman who walked by.

Dean had an ear bud in one ear, plugged into the laptop. Sam had a window open to a camera in the motel room so they could keep tabs on her.

"So, Blackwater Ridge doesn't get a lot of traffic. Local campers, mostly. But still, this past April, two hikers went missing out there. They were never found," Sam said as he opened John's journal.

"Any before that?"

In response, he received newpaper articles from twenty-three years before, and twenty-three years before that, etc. Only one survivor out of all those attacks in the past hundred years.

The boy claimed it was a grizzly bear because no one would believe a myth came to life and killed his entire family save for himself. He was the only child to be mentioned in the articles as well, which had failed to be noticed by the brothers.

"Here's the clincher. I downloaded that guy Tommy's video to the laptop. Check this out, Sam said as he pulled up a video that Haley had sent him and played through three frames of the video one at a time. A shadow crossed the screen.

"Do it again."

"That's three frames. That's a fraction of a second. Whatever that thing is, it can move."

Dean hit Sam's arm, saying, "Told you something weird was going on… Alright, so we'll get some well-deserved sleep and talk to this guy in the morning."

"You forgot getting food for Abs. "

"And you said you weren't ready to take on that responsibility yet."

"Are y… Are you testing me?"

"We'll never know. Will we?"

The next day had gone down as planned. Sam and Dean picked up a few food items for Abby. The brothers, still posing as park rangers, visited the only survivor, and had even brought their sister to the local playground to burn off some energy.

To Sam, the playground stop was a waste of time because it didn't get them to John any faster. It slowed them down more than a job did.

"We've been here for hours, Dean," Sam complained as they watched Abby climb the ladder to the slide for the millionth time. "Let's get this thing so we can get back to finding Dad."

"Hey, I wanna find Dad, too. But we've got a job to finish… and I don't know about you, but I'd like to sleep without a seven-year-old jumping on my bed like it's a trampoline because she didn't get to burn off some steam."

"She really does that?"

"You have no idea how many times I've woken up to her doing just that only to fall on top of me because I moved."

Sam leafed through the journal again. There wasn't a name or title at the top of the page, but the coded description seemed to fit. "Do you think Dad has a journal for Abs like he does for the things we hunt?"

Dean had to think about it for a moment. Though he wasn't sure why he had to think about it.

"If he does, he didn't tell me… You go push her on the swings. I'm gonna try calling Dad again… see if he picks up this time."

"If he does-"

"I'll switch with you."

Thanks to the park run, Abby was falling asleep very soon after eating. She loved slides and swings, but she especially loved the monkey bars. She only ever used those when she was sure her brother wasn't looking. She didn't want to be stopped. Anything that worked her lungs and muscles made for a tiring evening.

"Bedtime, Squirt. It's after seven," Dean said as he lifted her from a chair at the table and set her on her feet. "PJ's on the bed. Brush your teeth and potty down."

"I'm not tired, DD," Abby tried as she had every night since John left. She hardly ever gave him a hard time about anything. "Can we go back, tomorrow?" she asked, referring to the playground.

Dean shook his head. He and Sam were going into the forest, and Abby was going to spend the day in the room, not getting hurt or into whatever trouble he could only imagine while they were out. At least that was his hope.

He lifted the roll-away bed's sheet and blanket for her to climb in once she was ready for bed. She was out like a light the moment her head hit the pillow.

A chuckle left Sam's lungs as he recalled the nights he'd been the one to put her to bed.

"Ze child, Igor… At last, zhe zleepz," Dean said in his best Transylvanian dialect, which was worse than an American attempting a British or Australian accent for the first time. "Talk about the case… out in the hall… little ears, Man… unbelievable what kind of crazy sounds or words those things can pick up when they're supposed to be in dreamland."

He led the way out the door of the room's interior exit. As they walked down the hall, he said, "What Shaw said doesn't feel right. Spirits and demons don't have to unlock doors. If they want inside, they just go through the walls."

"So it's probably something else. Something corporeal." Sam replied. Based on Dean's expression, Sam knew what was coming. "Shut up… So, what do you think?"

"The claws, the speed that it moves...could be a skinwalker, maybe a black dog. Whatever we're talking about, we're talking about a creature, and it's corporeal. Which means we can kill it."

"Now we're down to the real question. What weapons are we bringing?"

"Uh-uh. The real question… is do we leave before… or after Abby wakes up? If we leave before, we don't have to deal her crying about being left alone."

"And after?"

"You don't wanna know." He opened the door to go outside with Sam following. They walked toward the car.

"Dean, if I'm going to accept the your challenge, it's only reasonable that I know what I'm up against. A lot can change after two years."

"Welp, you got a taste of it this past week. Including today. Still want to accept?" Dean asked as he opened the trunk of the Impala, then the weapon box, and propped it open with a gun. He put guns in a duffel bag.

"Well, which ever way the Abby situation goes, we cannot let that Haley girl go out there."

"Oh yeah? What are we gonna tell her? That she can't go into the woods because of a big scary monster? Her brother's missing, Sam. She's not gonna just sit this out. I know you wouldn't. Now we go with her, we protect her, and we keep our eyes peeled for our fuzzy predator friend." He lifted the duffel bag.

"Finding Dad's not enough? Now we gotta babysit too?" Dean just stared at him in response. "What?"

"What do you think I've been doing for two years, Sam? Taking care of Abby for weeks at a time. Hunting and, as you so delicately put it, babysitting."

The following morning had basically gone as predicted, though Dean still hadn't told Sam what he would have been up against if they didn't leave before Abby woke up. The door was open, and they were ready to walk out. Dean walked into Sam's back.

"Uh, Dean?" Sam didn't bother finishing his puzzling question. He chose to book it out of the room as fast as he could. His eyes were wide in shock, not knowing what to do next.

"What?"

There something about the way Sam had looked out the window before taking off. He turned his head. There was Abby, dancing to one of his cassettes on the Impala's hood. No shoes on her feet, just socks. And Eye of the Tiger was playing through the speakers.

Dean couldn't believe what he was seeing through the window, so he went to check her bed. Pillows and a wig. He went back to the door to see Sam racing down the hall. He took off after his brother trying to get her down, but she wouldn't stop moving.

"Hi, DD," she waved.

"Get off the car, Abs," Sam said before Dean could raise his voice and draw attention from the neighbors. "Abby, come here before you hu-" she slipped, landing on her belly.

"OwWWWW! My leg!"

"And now we have no choice but to bring her with us." Dean said, reaching into the car and turning it off.

"How, Dean? Those aren't going to be smooth hiking trails out there." Sam lifted her from the car roof, carrying her bridal style to the back door.

"Well, if we don't bring her, she'll do this again, or something worse. And the neighbors will report us for neglect."

"Yay!" Abby cheered only to be silenced by the glare Dean sent her. Sam set her on her feet so she could climb in.

"Not yay. Not by a long shot, Abs. Since we have no choice now, but to bring you into the field, Sammy…" he pat his brother's shoulder. "Sam's gonna lay down some ground rules for you to follow."

A man was talking to Hailey and her brother, Ben, while checking a gun. The three of them had full backpacks.

The siblings were arguing with their hired guide, ignoring the Impala that was coming to a stop.

"You got room for three more?" Dean asked walking up to Hailey. Sam opened the back door of the Impala and pulled out the duffel bag. That was expected. The little girl holding his hand wasn't.

"Wait, you want to come with us? With a kid?"

"Who are these guys?" asked Roy, the hired guide.

"Apparently this is all the park service could muster up for the search and rescue… Why are you bringing a child?"

"Believe me. She wouldn't be here if we had any other option."

Sam walked by everyone with Abby in tow. She was walking fine for having lost her balance on the Impala's roof. But it wasn't going to last long. Sam bent down for her to climb on his back.

"You're rangers?" Roy asked in heavy doubt.

"That's right," Dean replied.

"And you're hiking out in biker boots and jeans?"

Dean looked down at his attire, but he didn't have to answer. Abby broke rule number twelve: don't draw more attention to yourself that you already will.

"DD doesn't wear shorts!"

He chuckled as he walked over to his siblings. That reaction only served to displease Roy with their presence even more.

"What, you think this is funny? It's dangerous back country out there. Her brother might be hurt. That child should not be coming along."

"I know how dangerous this could get. We just wanna help her find her brother, that's all… If you get tired of carrying Shortround, I'll take her. She can walk if the ground's level."

Sam merely. He wasn't really going to let her. Did it seem like they babied her? They felt they had to with her history. Both brothers knew the moment Abby's feet hit the ground, she would likely trip over a tree root or fall over a ledge.
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