Sam heard silence and remembered the image of the baby gazelle being stalked. "There is more to it, I really need to talk to her."
"Were you even going to tell us that part of it?" Dean asked.
Kate held her pillow to her chest and squeezed it.
John pulled the phone off of speaker. "Is it urgent?"
"I don't think so. It is complex." Sam said.
"Have Bobby call Caleb. We will call you back in a little bit. These two need motivation to not withhold information." John said.
Sam cringed. 'Run baby gazelle'. "Oh, uh okay."
"Son?" John said.
"Yeah?"
"Are you okay? Are you hurt?" John asked.
"Oh, no, sir." Sam said.
"Good. I'll call you back." He hung up the phone and looked from Taylor to Kate. "Dean, hallway."
Dean followed him. He was too angry to think straight.
"I need you to go check on April and the kids. Make sure Andy truly is okay. Get yourself a drink. Maybe take them to the gym or garage." John said.
Dean looked away from him and swallowed.
"There is still a lot to talk about. We, as a family, need to calmly sit down and discuss it. We can't do that if they keep hiding things." John said.
Dean nodded.
"Dean." John said. "Bring me a drink on your way back."
"Yes, sir." Dean said and rubbed his face. He knocked on April's door. "Hey, can I come in?"
Andy sat up.
"What kind of drink would you want?" Dean asked.
"Oh, I have water." April said.
Dean smiled a little. "Adult drink."
"Oh! Uh, surprise me?" April said.
"Do you want to walk with me?" Dean asked Andy.
"Okay." Andy said. "I'll be back, mama."
April kissed the side of his head and nudged him toward the door.
John was still in the hallway when Dean and Andy walked out.
Andy hid behind Dean.
Dean put his hand on Andy's shoulder. "You don't need to hide."
Andy wasn't at all sure about that.
"We are going to get drinks and then go to the gym." Dean said.
John nodded.
"He isn't mad at you, Andy. You don't need to hide." Dean said.
Andy stepped to the side. "No one is mad?"
"Not at you." Dean said.
John softened a little. "No, you are fine."
Andy sighed dramatically. "Whew."
"We are mad at Kate and Taylor though and things may be a little tense until that is resolved." Dean said.
John stepped into Dean's room for a minute before heading back to Kate's.
"Are you a little mad or big mad?" Andy asked.
"Ah, buddy. I'd say this is a big mad situation." He chuckled. That term was going to stick around.
"I stayed." Andy wanted to be absolutely sure that Dean knew that he did stay.
Dean put ice in two glasses and a shot of amber liquid. "No one even had to remind you about that. You did really good."
Andy sniffed the glasses. He scrunched his nose.
"Don't huff it." Dean said. "Want to carry one?"
Andy carried April's glass, careful not to spill it. "Is this the stuff that makes adults happy?"
Dean snorted. "Sometimes."
"Good, my mom cries a lot now." Andy said.
Dean hid the grimace that crossed his face. He remembered a time when his own mom cried a lot and he had to put her back together. He opened the door. "Everyone good to go down to the gym?"
April gave him an odd look and then realized why he wanted to go all the way down there. She picked Ian up and sipped from her glass. She blinked a few times and blew air through her nose.
"Too much?" Dean asked.
April shook her head. "Just not box wine."
Andy was still spooked so he grabbed Dean's hand. He didn't want to be anywhere near John's room.
Dean wrapped his hand around Andy's. He felt for the kid.
John entered Kate's room.
Kate and Taylor jumped and spun around.
"What were you talking about?" John asked.
Kate saw the paddle in his hand and squeaked. "What all happened."
"Great, so share that with me." John said.
"I uh apologized for getting him into trouble and not telling him everything." Kate said.
John tapped his leg with the paddle. "Is that all?"
Kate shot Taylor a look.
John sighed. "How about a reminder to tell the truth and then we can discuss the rest of this plan you two hatched."
"Well... it isn't over.. Andy still needs to be cured and there are still demons out there." Kate said.
"I'm sure they can wait a few extra minutes." John pointed to the bed.
Taylor stepped toward the door.
"No, find a corner." John said.
Taylor gulped but did as he was told.
"John, be reasonable. There is too much going on." Kate tried.
"We cannot get to the bottom of it if you do not tell us everything we need to know." He pointed to the bed again.
Kate stepped back. "I will."
"After I bust your ass. Get over the foot of the bed." John said.
Kate bounced on her toes. "Please let Taylor go. I take full responsibility for all of this. I didn't tell him everything."
"This is just for the lying part of all of this. We will discuss the rest after." John said. "If you continue arguing with me, you can take the entire paddling without your jeans."
Kate gasped and shook her head. She reluctantly bent over the foot of her bed and hid her face in her arms.
John wasted no time. He landed the first swat and then the second right after it.
Kate dug her toes into the rug and bit her lip.
"When I ask you a question, you will answer it honestly." He swatted her thighs and put his hand on her back. "Do not get up."
Kate drummed her toes. Three swats in and it was already the worst paddling she had gotten. "How many?"
John didn't answer and hit her sit spots with a bit more force. "Yes and no answers."
"Yes, sir." Kate said.
"When we sit down and talk, you are going to tell us everything. You are not going to leave anything out and you are not going to lie." He swatted her two more times.
Kate fought against the hand on her back. She couldn't stop the sobs from spilling out of her. "Yes, sir!"
Taylor covered his ears and gritted his teeth but his heart was being torn to shreds. He figured it was part of the lesson but it was awful.
John tapped her with the paddle. "This is going to double every time you lie to us." He hit her sit spots two more times, harder than all the others.
Kate shot back and rubbed furiously at her backside and thighs. "I'm sorry. I promise. I won't lie."
John put a hand on her shoulder. "Switch with Taylor."
Kate did as she was told and whispered. "I'm sorry."
Taylor gave her a sad smile. "Me too."
John pointed to the bed. "Do I need to go back over what I just told her?"
"No sir," Taylor said. As soon as he was in position the first swat landed. He braced himself.
John did the same thing he did with Kate. Several swats were aimed at the sit spots so their family discussion later would be uncomfortable. He got to eight and paused. "When you were mouthing off and being disrespectful earlier, did you know?"
Taylor pushed his face into Kate's blanket.
John swatted him across the thighs. "We will be discussing that too.'
Taylor groaned and slowly stood up. "I am sorry."
"Put this back in Dean's room. Straighten yourself up and meet me in the library."
"Yes, sir." Taylor said and wiped his face. He very much wanted to not have jeans on at the moment.
John sat down on Kate's bed and cleared his throat.
Kate slowly turned around. She still couldn't stop the tears flowing from her eyes.
"Kate." John said.
"Yes, sir?" Kate asked.
"I am not going to lecture you right now because we are going to have a long talk about everything in a few minutes but I want you to understand one thing." John said. He waited for her to nod her head. "Don't you ever choose my life over yours." He put his hand up to stop her from speaking. "You think Dean would be upset if I died. He probably would. I'm an adult. I've lived my life. I've made my choices. If he lost you or Sam or Taylor, he wouldn't recover."
"You are his dad." Kate said through sniffles.
"Kate, be honest with yourself. You lost your own father. You suffer but you are okay. How would you feel if you lost Dean?"
Kate started crying again and shook her head.
"Don't do that to him." John stood up and put a hand on the back of Kate's head. "Grab whatever you need to explain this cure idea. I'm going to go get Dean."
Kate was hopeful that they'd let her off with just that paddling since the main issue with what she did was hiding it. She flopped onto her bed. She forgot about the 'putting one's self in danger' part of it all. She had a good reason though. She just had to prove it. She'd admit fault to the questionable way she went about things but she wasn't going to apologize for saving people.
Sam called Jess after he got off the phone with John. "Jess? Are you okay?"
"Yeah. I'm okay. I'm so glad you are awake. You scared me."
Sam sighed. "I don't know what happened. I will be getting out of here as soon as possible."
"I can come to you." Jess said.
"No, you can't." Caleb said.
Sam froze. "Who was that?
"Don't worry, Sammy. I'm not trying to steal your woman. I got called in to get rid of some pests." Caleb said.
Sam looked at Bobby.
Bobby put a hand on his shin. "You missed the chaos."
Sam's heart raced. "What.. what did I miss?"
Jess didn't want to hurt him. "After you passed out, I tried to get ahold of your family. Something was happening there so they couldn't answer. Your dad called. He is a real peach by the way."
Sam started pulling wires off of his chest. "What did he say?"
"Oh, nothing much. Then your little brother wanted an update and swapped numbers with me. I came back over to the apartment to get myself a change of clothes and Taylor said you had a bag of stuff that I should bring. The place got attacked but Dean and Taylor walked me through all of that. Then Caleb showed up."
Sam got to his feet and stumbled. "Attacked by what?"
"I know, Sam. I know it was a demon." Jess said, gently.
Sam swore and kicked the bed. He caught his toe on the wheel and hissed.
"It is okay. I did think Dean was fit for a mental hospital for a little while but everything is okay now." Jess said.
Sam hopped around on one foot and tried to put his shirt back on. "It is not okay. You were never supposed to know about any of this. I am so incredibly sorry."
Bobby grabbed Sam's arm. "Stop flopping around before you hurt yourself again."
"I am getting out of here and I am going to Jess." Sam said.
"We don't know how many demons are out there, ya idgit." Bobby scolded him.
"Sam, please calm down. I am okay. The apartment is pretty safe now." Jess said.
Sam pulled the IV from his arm. "Cas, a little help!"
Jess dropped her phone and ran to Sam when he appeared in the hallway. "How?"
Caleb chuckled. "That is Cas Airlines."
Jess buried her face in Sam's chest. She pulled him down to her level and kissed him deeply.
Bobby cleared his throat.
Jess noticed him for the first time. "Who are you?"
"Bobby Singer. I helped raise this Idjit."
Jess smiled a little.
Caleb looked outside again. "What is the plan?"
"Don't look at me." Bobby said.
Sam's phone rang and he quickly answered it. "Dean!."
"Are you still at the hospital?" Dean asked.
"No, Cas brought me and Bobby to the apartment." Sam said.
Dean breathed a sigh of relief.
"What is going on?" Sam asked.
"Hell if I know. There are so many twists that I don't know which way is up." Dean grumbled.
"This all had something to do with Azazel." Bobby said.
Sam glared at him and flicked his eyes toward Jess.
Jess put a hand on her hip. "Don't you look at me like that. I'm not a child. I already know about demons so I'm along for the ride. I don't need you to protect me from having nightmares at night."
Dean cracked a genuine smile. "I like Jess a bit more each day."
"Shut up, Dean." Sam said. "I saw what I saw about Kate but for the most part I'm in the dark."
"Azazel has been taken care of. That part is out of the way." Dean said.
Sam felt his legs weaken. "It is over?"
"Ah, I wouldn't say that. I'm waiting on Thelma and Louise to get their asses in here so they can explain whatever happened between them." Dean said.
Sam looked at Jess. "I know you are an adult and know about demons. This is just going to get heavy and I would prefer you didn't hear all of it."
"I can wipe her memory." Cas said.
Jess spun around. "Don't you dare."
Cas stepped back.
Sam handed the phone to Bobby. "I'll be back." He took Jess's hand and walked to their bedroom. "Whoa, Tally? Cas, can you help up here?"
Cas took Tally to her car and woke her up. He told her that she dropped Sam off and all was okay.
"My family is going through some dark stuff. It is stuff that terrifies me and some of it is personal." Sam said.
"I know but I'm already here." Jess said. She saw the look on Sam's face. "Are you worried I'll get freaked out and run?"
"Yes but also that you will get hurt." Sam said.
"Sam, I had no idea what a demon was until Taylor and Dean told me. Tally brought me over and the house smelled awful. Taylor picked up on the comment and saved me. Me not knowing could have gotten me killed." Jess said.
"It just wasn't supposed to be like this." Sam said.
"It is though and I'm not going anywhere." Jess said.
Sam kissed her. "If you are freaked out, you can leave. I wouldn't blame you."
Jess ran her fingers through his hair and kissed him again. "I survived your brother yelling at me not to open a door to prove a demon was real. It didn't make me want to leave. You're stuck with me."
Caleb knocked on the door. "They are ready."
Sam groaned. He put his arm around Jess and walked with her.
Caleb motioned to Sam's mouth. "You got a little... uh.. yeah right there."
Sam wiped his face and shoved Caleb. "Shut up."
John placed Dean's phone in the middle of the table. "We are going to have to do this conference style."
"I can just bring Sam and Bobby here." Kate said.
"No." John said.
"We aren't going anywhere right now. The neighborhood is slowly turning." Caleb said. He noted two more neighbors had started to act weird.
"The bunker is super safe." Kate said.
"Sit down and stop talking for five seconds." John said.
Kate reluctantly sat down. She hissed but kept her mouth shut.
"How is it looking?" John asked.
Bobby looked outside too. "I can't tell."
Cas looked outside. "Eleven"
Bobby threw his hands up. "Just ask the angel next time."
"Angel?" Jess asked.
Sam gently shook his head. "Later."
Castiel disappeared to do a perimeter search and get a feel of why so many demons were showing up. He returned. "The bunker would be a safe place. The house is being surrounded."
"Well, we are on fall break." Jess said. "We could drive there, right?"
Kate gently tapped Dean's hand and tilted her head.
He joined her at the far end of the table. "What?"
"From what I can piece together, Azazel infected kids with his blood so that they could fulfill a purpose. He wasn't sure which child would work so he did a lot. Tessa is really helpful.
Dean pulled a face. "You mean, the reaper that tried to kill you."
"Reapers don't kill. They just assist you on your journey. Besides, Tessa is a family friend who insinuated the two of you were very very close friends." Kate said.
Dean scoffed. "I would never." He furrowed his brows. He would ask questions about that later. "What is the purpose?"
"When older me talked to Cas, she told him that Andy was going to unlock hell's gates or something like that. The theory is that, when the angels went back and created Taylor and me, the plan to use you as a vessel got complicated because we could just stop you. You grew up around John and would be harder to sway. Andy came along and Azazel supercharged him. He is the son of a single mother who is desperate for a father figure's approval. He would be perfect to manipulate." Kate said.
"I'm following."
"I have most of what I need for a cure for Andy. Even with Azazel dead, the demons could still go with the plan to open hell. It would make sense to go into hyperdrive to prevent that from happening. I think that they are going to try to get to Sam. I think they are going to keep showing up until they get what they need."
"Why Sam if Andy is the one you are curing?" Dean asked.
"Sam is part of the solution." Kate said.
Dean went back over to the table and spoke quietly to John.
John swore. "How much do you have on you as far as weapons go?"
"Not much." Caleb said.
"Dammit." John growled.
"I can't move all of them that far away." Cas said. "It takes a lot of grace."
"Can't you just blast them away?" Bobby asked.
Castiel looked outside. "No."
"If you were to try to, you'd be hurting the humans." Sam said.
Jess glanced outside too. The sky was getting dark.
"Kate, you do not have the control needed to bring them here." John said.
"I brought you and a car." Kate said.
"When it was life or death." John said.
"This feels life or death." Kate countered.
"How do we know that Azazel won't pop back up if you use that type of power?"
"Power?" Jess whispered.
"We don't but then, we'd have five hunters plus me and Taylor to handle it."
"No more handling it." John warned. "You still have to explain yourself."
"I'm being honest here because I'm expected to be. I know in my heart this is what needs to be done and I am not sure I can follow an order not to do it. My visions showed me things and I want to prevent them." Kate said.
John narrowed his eyes.
The walls of the apartment started to creak and shake.
"We have to do something soon." Caleb said.
A man walked to the door and started to bang on it.
Sam put his arms around Jess. "Just let her do it!"
John looked at Kate. "What do you need?"
"To focus." Kate said.
Taylor walked around the table. "A boost?"
"Yeah, that wouldn't hurt." She knelt on the floor and closed her eyes. She envisioned herself tying a bungee cord to her ankle. She made her way across a map of the US and focused on Stanford. She found Sam and pulled him.
Sam nearly slammed into the wall. "Jess!"
Kate pulled Jess too.
Jess screamed and stumbled into Sam's arms. "What just happened? Where am I?"
Sam comforted her. They were in the hallway but he wasn't sure which one.
Dean went in search of them. "Sammy?"
Sam heard Dean's voice. "In here."
Dean found them. "Hey, it worked."
Sam was still holding Jess to him.
Dean raised an eyebrow at Sam. "She is way out of your league."
Jess gave him a scowl that could melt skin.
Dean held his hands up. "My bad."
Kate felt her head start to ache and steadied herself.
"Kate." John said. "Wait."
Kate bit into her lip and pulled Caleb. "Cas, can you get Bobby?"
John pulled her up by her arm. "I told you to wait."
Kate staggered. "It isn't easy to stop once it is in motion."
John helped her over to a chair. "Sit."
Kate whined. "I really don't want to."
John swatted her lightly.
She frowned and sat on her feet in the chair.
"Taylor, keep an eye on her." He walked down the main hallway and stopped at April's cracked door. "Andy?"
Andy gasped and went to shut the door.
John opened it again. "What are you doing?"
"I'm scared."
"Where is your mom?" John asked.
Andy opened the door.
John saw Dean. "Take care of this." He walked away from Andy and greeted Sam.
Jess was instantly intimidated by John.
John held out his hand and introduced himself. He looked around them. "Caleb."
Caleb groaned. "Can we get a room that is padded so the next time this happens I don't hit the damn wall?"
Sam looked back at him. "You made it."
Dean crouched down to Andy's level. "What is up?"
Andy frowned and his lip quivered. "I compelled my mom."
Dean squinted his eyes. "Why?"
"She was crying and Ian fell asleep and she was so sad. I just wanted her to not cry." Andy said.
Dean checked on April. "What did you say to her?"
"To have a happy nap with Ian." Andy answered. He knew Dean was 'big mad' with Kate and Taylor and didn't want him to be any kind of mad with him.
"Alright, we will leave her a note and you can come with me." Dean said.
Andy nodded. He walked with Dean. "Did I do a bad thing?"
"Usually compelling is bad but did you mean for it to hurt her or help her?" Dean asked.
"Help." Andy said.
"I need you to help piece together some of what happened."
Andy nodded. "Okay." He stayed right by Dean. "Who are all these people?"
Dean sat down and put Andy on one of his legs. "That is Sam. He is my brother. That is his girlfriend Jess. Then that one is Caleb. He is kind of like a brother. Bobby is the old guy over there. I guess he is kind of like an uncle."
"I'm not old." Bobby grumbled.
Andy wasn't scared of him the way he was scared of John at first.
Jess looked around the library. "This is what you guys call a house?"
"No. It is a safe house, I guess." Sam said.
Kate approached. "Hi."
Jess smiled at her. "It is nice to meet Kate friggen Winchester in person."
Kate grinned. "You still have that as my contact?"
Sam nodded. "Wouldn't change it."
Castiel scanned the bunker and there was no trace of any kind of demon. Azazel was truly gone.
"Should I make food?" Taylor asked.
"No, you should sit down." John said.
Taylor shared a mournful look with Kate. He closed his eyes and sat down across from Dean.
"I was thinking we could piece together what happened outside of ghost Kate and then when there aren't so many people around, we could figure out that part of it." Dean said.
John nodded.
Taylor folded a piece of paper into a paper football and gently flicked it to Andy.
Andy smiled and flicked it back.
"Caleb, what all do you know?' John asked.
"I was just at my motel when Cas showed up. He dropped me off outside Jess's house and told me to get rid of the demon and save the girl. Then, after I did that, I helped her seal off the house. I started noticing demons outside so we didn't leave." Caleb said.
"Bobby?" John asked.
"I just know what you told me. When I got to Sam, Cas had prevented anything from getting into the room. Sam woke up when I was there."
"What about David?" Taylor blurted out.
"What does he have to do with this?" John asked.
"First, did you try to find him?" Taylor asked.
Bobby thought about it. He vaguely remembered a search that turned up with nothing. "Yes."
"I think something is wrong with him." Taylor said.
"Taylor, we can deal with that later." John said.
John gave Kate a desperate look. "What if he is connected."
"He isn't." John said.
Kate shifted onto her knees. "Forget about David for a minute. Sam, if you said you were having visions about someone doing something, who would you talk to about it?"
"Visions?" Jess asked.
"I'll explain better." Sam said. "Uh, probably Dean."
"Dean, if Sam was worried and had a vision that some guy was going to harm me or someone like Missouri, what would you do?" Kate asked.
"I'd look into it." Dean said.
"So why not look into David?" Kate asked.
John sighed. "They have a history."
Kate shook her head. "I'm not asking your personal reason. I'm asking why, with David, is there a blind spot? You take everything else we say seriously. Sometimes, it may take some convincing but it doesn't require begging."
Dean rubbed his neck. "I don't know."
"The people that are in the visions are important to us but you guys don't remember them. We have told you that much. That alone should be reason for alarm." Kate said.
John opened his journal and leafed through it. "Bobby, what are your thoughts?"
Bobby did have a blind spot. He heard David and was unconcerned. "That does seem odd."
Jess tapped Sam's arm.
"David is Taylor's biological brother." Sam whispered. He wrapped his arm around her and rubbed the base of her skull.
"How could he be connected to Azazel though?" Sam asked.
"Maybe because he shares blood with me." Taylor.
"That is still a stretch." Bobby said.
Kate wrote a list of what they needed to look into. "Tonight, everyone is safe. Then, we can make phone calls and figure out the rest tonight and tomorrow."
"What all did Tessa tell you?" Dean asked.
Kate sighed. She didn't want the conversation back on her talk with Tessa.
Sam sat forward. "What did she mean by burning off your soul? She told me a bit about it but said to talk to you."
Kate licked her lips. "Uh."
Dean patted Andy. "Could you go with Caleb and Jess and get everyone some drinks?"
Andy nodded.
Jess reluctantly left Sam. She had no desire to leave but the conversation seemed personal.
Bobby sat down next to Sam and folded his hands on top of the table.
Kate shifted in her seat. She already couldn't sit comfortably and didn't want to give them a reason to make it worse. "If I die and come back, I just burn off a tiny bit of my soul."
Dean narrowed his eyes. "Just a tiny bit?"
"We agreed that me dying was a bad thing so I'm here now and don't even notice a difference." Kate said.
"You do realize how dangerous that is, right? You are talking like you touched a pot without a potholder." Dean said.
Kate looked at Sam. "What did she tell you?"
"She told me that you would be incredibly dangerous without a soul. She told me that you burned some of it away doing whatever it was you did." Sam said.
"So just didn't want me to make it a habit." Kate said.
"How much got used up?" Dean asked.
Kate shrugged. "I really don't feel different."
"What else happened?" John asked.
"There are still demons out there. We can worry about the details later." Kate said.
John put his hands on the table and looked into Kate's eyes. "We can go for round two if you don't start talking."
Kate shook her head quickly. "Time is finicky. If you go back and change something, it changes other things. Killing Azazel should prevent several other things from happening. Curing Andy will do the same thing. Those two things were really important to me. The spell work is a little intense but I already completed most of it. All we need to do is use what Taylor took from Azazel and synthesize the 'cure' for Andy. That will remove the traces of demon blood from his system and he should just be a normal kid. "
"What does the rest of the spell require?" Dean asked.
Kate bit her lip and looked down at her hands.
"Katelyn." John warned.
"It is a blood spell."
"Didn't I specifically tell you not to mess with spellbooks?" Dean ask.
"You told me not to let you catch me with one." Kate said.
Dean stood up quickly.
Kate slid down in her chair. "Trying to lighten the mood."
"How much blood?" Dean asked.
Kate slid down farther.
"Sit up." Dean demanded.
Kate tucked her knees under her.
"No. Sit up the right way and look at me." Dean said.
Kate groaned. "Can't I just.."
"One."
Kate quickly moved her legs from under her and sat down. "It requires a lot but I can fix Andy. I will probably be able to fix Sam too."
"How much?" John asked.
Kate held her hands out to show the approximate size of bowl she'd need.
"Absolutely not." Dean said.
"Everything is good to go. You can't waste this opportunity." Kate said.
"Where do you plan to get all of that?" Bobby asked.
Kate looked back down at her hands.
"It has to be from the person that cast the spell." Taylor said.
Dean glared at Kate. "That would kill you."
Kate avoided his eyes.
"What part of burning your soul out do you not understand?" Dean asked.
"I mean, it is two teeny pieces and Andy gets to live a normal life." Kate said.
"Where did you even find the spell?" Dean asked.
Kate didn't answer.
"Two." Dean said. He looked at John. "I see your conversation with her about honesty is sticking."
Kate flicked her eyes toward John and flinched. "The book Andy found."
Sam and Bobby were a little out of the loop. "What book?"
"Go get it." John said.
Kate groaned and exited the library carefully so that she remained out of arms reach.
"Dean, you are going to burst an eye if you don't breathe." Sam said.
Dean let out a breath. "Shut up."
Taylor buried his face in his arms and counted to twenty in his head. He pushed into Sam's head and asked to speak to him.
Sam tapped the underside of the table and tilted his head toward a desk. "What is it?"
Taylor looked over at the table and stepped farther away. "This is going to get bad."
"It is already bad." Sam said.
Taylor took a shallow breath and rubbed the back of his head. "She has to do the spell."
"No way. You saw how much blood that would take." Sam said.
Taylor groaned. "No.. she HAS to do the spell."
Sam sat down in the desk chair. "What do you mean?"
"She is bound to it." Taylor said.
"That doesn't make any sense."
"Once you start the spell, you can't stop until it is done. She got the information from a vision but it comes at a high price." Taylor said.
Dean looked over at Sam and Taylor. "Why are you whispering over there?"
Sam held up his finger to ask for a minute. "Can't she just not do the blood part? Sure, a cure is nice but we could get by without it."
"She is not going to want them to know everything. She is scared." Taylor said.
"Did she know she would be bound to it before she started?"
Taylor nodded slowly.
"Did you know?" Sam asked.
"Not until after." Taylor said.
Sam ran his fingers through his hair. "How deep are you in this with her?"
Taylor grimaced.
"Did you know she was risking her life?"
"I found out as she was about to jump and either I helped her or she jumped for nothing." Taylor said.
Sam blew air through his nose. "Okay. Man."
Kate took her time walking back to the library. She was second guessing her decisions. She put the book on the table and stepped away from it.
Bobby looked at the cover. "This is old."
"What did you use?" Dean asked.
Kate chewed her fingers. She screeched when a heavy hand connected with her already sore backside. She rubbed at the sting and frowned at John.
"No more beating around the bush." John said.
Kate flipped through the pages and pointed to one of them.
Bobby read over Dean's shoulder. He looked at Kate for a moment and then back at the book. "That is some dark magic."
"When did you decide to do this?" Dean asked.
"I saw it the day Andy found it." Kate said.
Dean got up and shut the book. He spoke briefly to John and turned back to Kate. "Go to your room."
"What.. what about the demons?" Kate stammered.
Sam touched Dean on the arm and spoke quietly. "She is bound to the spell."
Dean slowly turned his head to look at Kate again. "You are bound?"
Kate shot Taylor a look.
"If.. if she does the spell, can't you replace the blood?" Taylor asked.
Dean processed the question. "That still wouldn't be enough."
"No one else has the right blood type." John said.
"What blood type?" Jess asked.
Sam whirled around. "Oh, hi."
"I'm o negative so if someone needs a blood donation I wouldn't mind helping out." Jess said.
Sam pulled her back into the hallway. "I can't let you do that."
Jess scoffed. "Why not? What is going on?"
Bobby read the spell again and flipped the page over for more details. "The spell takes the sacrifice wither or not it is willing."
Dean bent so he was face to face with Kate. "Did you realize that beforehand?"
Kate bit her lip.
"How does one spell require two sacrifices?" Dean asked.
"It doesn't," Bobby said. "The blood is drained after the person is dead."
Sam and Jess stepped back into the room. He was highly uncomfortable with Jess even knowing about demons, let alone being in the bunker and possibly taking part in a spell.
Castiel appeared and approached Kate. He touched her head for a moment and then stepped back.
"What?" Dean asked.
Castiel studied Kate. He knew how things were supposed to go. He had spoken to Kate's older self.
Kate fidgeted. "What did it change?"
Castiel smoothed his coat. "Five years."
Dean snapped his fingers. "Talk."
"Me finding the cure now changed when we would have originally found it." Kate said.
"You mean that we would have found it five years from now?" Dean asked.
"Yes."
"Define, find it." Dean said.
Castiel touched Dean's head to show him what they were discussing.
Dean clenched his jaw and slowly turned to Kate. "You mean found, as in didn't have to use dark magic to find it."
Kate stepped back a few steps. "but five years sooner."
Dean swallowed. "Why?"
"Tessa was here to reap someone. I chose me... you know... multiple birds with one stone..."