Dean was sitting by Kate's bed when the results of the scan came back.
John took over talking to the doctor.
Once the doctor was out of the room Dean looked up. "How bad is it?"
"Concussion and a skull fracture. They are going to put her shoulder back in its socket and reset her arm." John said.
Dean felt a flash of anger toward Natasha. "How does a kid get away with nearly killing another kid?"
John shook his head. "She won't. I am going to have a police officer come down here."
Dean rubbed Kate's good arm. "She's been through worse."
"She will be okay, Dean." John said. He turned around. "Taylor, I'm going to take you home."
Taylor didn't necessarily want to leave but followed John anyway.
Kate recognized Karen from photos that Bobby had. She had spent hours sketching the woman's face for a gift. However, she wasn't sure why she was viewing her in that way. "Karen?"
Karen turned. "Katelyn."
Kate licked her lips. "Why are you in my vision? Why were all those visions random lines that lead to this?"
John returned to the hospital. The police officer was waiting for him.
Dean was glad Kate was unconscious when the doctor put her arm back in place. He chose gray for her cast, knowing that the bright colors that the nurse offered would be deemed impracticable to Kate. Once he got a better look at her head, he felt a little better. The doctor said her unconscious state was from minor swelling and pain medication.
John spoke to the police officer and got a report started. He still wanted to talk to Natasha's parents but his main focus was Kate.
Kate knew that the Karen in front of her was not truly Bobby's wife. She was a manifestation. Karen gave her so much information that she wished she could write it down. She just needed to wake up and speak to Castiel.
Dean felt Kate start to stir and spoke softly to her. "Hey, are you with us?"
Kate opened her eyes and looked around. John and Dean were both in the room. She started to sit up but her head was swimming.
Dean told her to relax. "Do you remember what happened?"
"Yeah." Kate said. The light hurt her eyes and she felt fuzzy.
"I talked to the police." John said.
Kate frowned. She didn't want to cause more of a stir.
"How are you feeling?" John asked.
"It hurts." Kate said, trying to move her arm.
"You have a cast on so don't try too hard to move that arm." Dean said.
"Nooo, not a cast." Kate said. "What if it heals?"
"Then we can fix the cast so that you can take it off when you are home." Dean said.
John pushed the call button to tell the nurse that Kate was awake.
The nurse assessed Kate and offered more medication for the pain.
Kate was going to say no but her arm really did hurt.
John left to get food for everyone and to call Bobby with an update.
Dean stayed with Kate and talked to her about the vision she had.
"I can't think of words." Kate said.
Dean touched Kate's face. "I think the meds kicked in."
Kate giggled. She felt great. Her arm didn't hurt.
John returned to Kate giggling and asked if she was okay.
"They gave her the good meds." Dean said.
John smirked and handed Dean his burger. "You have a shiner."
Kate tried to touch her face but her arms were weak.
"You hit your head hard enough that you'll probably wind up with two black eyes." John said.
Kate groaned. "Will they go back blue again?"
John chuckled. "How much of that stuff did they give her?"
Dean shrugged.
Kate was cleared to eat a little bit and snacked on some fries. "I want to go home."
"The doctor will be back to check on you." John said.
Shift change brought a new nursing crew and an even longer wait time for the doctor.
Kate's eyes got wide when the nurse walked in. She was still loopy from the medication and her cheeks turned pink.
Dean turned his head.
"Hi there, my name is Alex." The nurse introduced himself.
Kate just smiled.
"I heard you had quite the tumble." Alex said.
Kate nodded.
Alex checked her vitals and excused himself from the room.
Dean nudged Kate. "What is wrong with you?"
Kate blushed. "He's pretty."
Dean scoffed. "Who? The nurse?"
Kate grinned. "Really pretty. His eyes."
John hid a smirk.
"Kate, you are not in your right mind." Dean said.
Kate giggled. "I take back what I said about not dating."
Dean shifted. "No. You can't do that. You know what, you just need to take a nap."
John couldn't help but find amusement in how ruffled Dean was. "She's a kid, Dean. It's just a crush."
Dean shot him a glare. "You are not helping."
### ###
Taylor was reluctant to go to school the next day. He didn't want to deal with the drama and the hospital hadn't released Kate yet.
Nate caught up to Taylor. "I've got your back."
The school was surprisingly quiet between classes. It was almost somber. It made Taylor uneasy.
Ellie stopped Taylor in the hallway. "How is she?"
"She is okay. She fractured her skull so the hospital kept her overnight." Taylor said.
Ellie felt really bad for Kate. "What about her arm?"
"Dislocated shoulder and broken ulna." Taylor said.
Ellie thought her friend was pretty awesome. "I broke my arm one time and cried. Kate is awesome."
"Adrenaline does that." Taylor said. He answered questions throughout the day and the whole school was behind Kate. A few rumors had spread that didn't concern him too much. A few kids thought that Kate broke both arms. Another said that she stomped Natasha's throat. The whole truth would iron itself out but he felt better that Kate was seen in a positive light. She was a normal sixth grader one day and the most badass kid in school the next.
Kate was still a little loopy from the medications but she wasn't as dizzy.
Alex knocked on the door and walked in. "There is my favorite patient. You are bright-eyed today."
Dean scoffed.
"It looks like you are going to break out of here soon. My shift is almost over so I came in here to do another set of vitals." Alex said.
Kate smiled.
Alex did the usual vitals and then checked Kate's eyes. "Follow my finger here and here." He patted her leg. "That's my girl."
Kate blushed. She still thought he was pretty but she couldn't talk.
Dean was at the edge of the room with his arms crossed. "Did you see that?"
John rubbed his face. "The nurse taking vitals?"
"No, the grown man flirting with her." Dean said.
John chuckled. "Dean, he wasn't flirting. She is out of it and instead of crushing her dreams, he was nice."
Dean huffed.
Kate giggled. "Dean, don't get upset."
"You are not 'his girl'. Don't look at me like that. I will lock you in a tower until you are 30." Dean said.
Kate held her good arm out for a hug. "Don't be upset. I know he is too old for me."
Dean rubbed her back. "I don't care if the guy is your age. I will end him."
John shook his head. He had no doubt that Dean was going to blow a gasket when she did get her first boyfriend.
Taylor sprinted up the driveway as soon as the bus dropped him off. He saw John's truck and hurried inside the house. "Kate?"
Kate was on the couch, resting. "Hi."
"You look so much better." Taylor said.
"Thanks." Kate said.
Taylor winced at the deep bruising on her face. "Why isn't that healing?"
"I think because of the concussion," Kate said.
"Everyone at school said to tell you to get better soon." Taylor said.
Kate yawned. "What did they say?"
"Oh, you know, the normal stuff. There are some wild theories but overall they are just worried about you." Taylor said.
John put a hand on Taylor's shoulder. "Let me know if any of that talk goes the wrong way." He gave Kate another dose of her meds and moved her pillow. "Lay down. Your head is bobbling."
"I can go to my bed." Kate said.
"Not yet. We need to keep an eye on you since you hit your head." John said.
Kate was glad all of the damage was on one side of her body. She curled up with her injured arm held to her chest.
John covered her with a blanket. "Taylor, you can help me clean some weapons."
Dean was upstairs going through his duffle. John had made him take a break from watching over Kate. It annoyed him but he probably did need a break. He looked up at the remaining drawings on his wall. Kate had taken three of them down. He couldn't imagine how they would layer up and create the image of a person. He got that much from her explanation of the vision but he wasn't sure how much of what she said was real. He made a mental note that Kate was a lightweight with that type of pain medication.
Kate was surprised to see Cas in her dream. "Cas?"
"You prayed." Castiel said.
"Right. I had this vision and some of the stuff seems like something you may know something about." Kate said.
"You are injured." Cas said.
"Yeah, I'm okay though." Kate said. She tried to explain to Castiel what she had witnessed but it was too difficult. She decided to just show him.
Castiel walked around Karen's figure. "You are viewing the anatomical structure of this person."
Kate furrowed her brows. "What?"
Castiel sighed. "Everything is made of atoms. Some things are very dense and others are like vapor."
Kate understood that much.
"Water can go through phases that allow it to be solid, liquid or gas." Cas said. "You are viewing her in the gas form."
"Why though?" Kate asked.
"My vessel has this capability. This is what allows me to 'zap around' and remain in one piece." Castiel said.
"Why is she lines though?" Kate asked.
It was clear to Castiel but Kate didn't have the knowledge he did. "You are seeing time."
Kate felt her head start to ache. "So is she atoms or time?"
"I'm unsure what you are asking." Cas said.
Kate groaned. "Okay, why am I seeing Bobby's dead wife?"
Castiel studied the figure. "She spoke to you."
"Yes." Kate said.
Castiel looked beyond Kate. "Angel radio is busy. I will return."
Dean dropped his weapons on the table. He dropped the cap to a shell and turned around to pick it up. "Where the hell did that go?"
Millie trotted into the kitchen and swiped the cap from underneath the refrigerator.
Dean slowly picked the cap up off the floor. "You saw that, didn't you?"
Taylor tilted his head. "What?"
"I asked where the cap went and Millie ran straight for it." Dean said.
Taylor smiled. "She likes plastic. She goes nuts for the tops of milk jugs."
Dean narrowed his eyes at the kitten. "No, she has done that before with other things."
"Yeah, when you drop things, they go after it." Taylor said.
Dean broke eye contact with Millie and went to check on Kate. She looked peaceful. He smirked. "Millie, it is your turn for guard duty."
Millie hopped on the couch and curled up next to Kate.
Dean threw his hands up. He went back to the kitchen. "Taylor, she speaks English."
Taylor laughed. "I don't think she speaks."
"No, you know what I mean." Dean said.
John walked through the back door. "I want all of those stripped."
Taylor pointed to two of the guns. "Those two are done." He smirked. "Dean is too busy talking to the cat."
"I wasn't talking to the cat. She.. she.. never mind." Dean said.
Kate woke up an hour later, hungry and tired of rest. She sat up slowly before heading to the kitchen.
"Hey, you aren't supposed to be up." Dean said.
Kate groaned. "I'm okay."
Dean sat her down in a chair. "You will rest."
"Dean, I can walk." Kate whined.
John cleared his throat. "Maybe you can but you are going to rest. We just got you out of the hospital."
"I'm a lot better. My healing abilities are kicking in." Kate said.
John could see by the movement of her eyes that she was still woozy. "If you want to get up and walk around, you have to have someone with you."
"I'm not a baby." Kate said.
"Looks like your good streak is coming to an end." Dean said.
Kate frowned. "I'm grumpy because I'm hungry."
John smirked and nodded. "After you eat you can rest."
Taylor gave her a small smile of solidarity. "How does pasta sound?"
"That sounds awesome. Oh," Kate got up to grab the rest of the papers from Dean's room.
John cleared his throat.
Kate slowly sat back down. She slumped in her chair. "Remember that I do have a head injury."
"I can keep score and deal with it once your head heals." John said.
Kate sighed. "You know when I asked you to come home, I thought we could do all the cutesy father-daughter type stuff and everything would be good."
John cracked a smile. "Now, what kind of a father would I be if I let you crack the other side of your head open."
"You let Dean hunt with a head injury." Kate said.
John raised an eyebrow. "When did I do that?"
Kate grinned and batted her eyelashes at Dean. "Oh, never mind, he was born like that."
Dean poked her side and drew a line on the pad of paper on Bobby's fridge.
"Wait what is that?"
"Strike one, kid." Dean said.
Taylor was trying not to laugh but he didn't suppress it well.
Dean lightly smacked the back of his head. "Strike one for you too."
"I didn't say anything." Taylor said.
"You laughed." Dean said.
John chuckled and sat down. "Maybe you are feeling better. You are still going to rest."
Kate rested her good elbow on the table. "What is the word on Natasha?"
"There isn't much word." John said. "She isn't going to get away with this but she is a minor. The process is a bit more complicated."
"Word around school is you broke both arms and still beat the crap out of her." Taylor said.
Kate smiled. "I had one good arm."
"You had a dislocated shoulder, broken arm, and fractured skull." Dean said.
"Did you threaten to kill her?" John asked.
Kate blushed. "I may have told her I'd end her if she touched me again."
"Understandable." Dean said.
Bobby got several phone calls from various hunters with possible sitings of the creatures that older Kate had called "Freaks." Word had gotten around and most hunters knew to steer clear of them. Bobby shared some of the precautions they had learned but overall, the creatures were impossible to get rid of. At least one hunter had spotted one and then gone radio silent the next day. When he took a break to get some dinner, he walked into Dean sitting at the table holding his head.
"You lost me, kid." Dean said.
Kate sighed. "Okay, do you understand the difference between two dimensions and three dimensions?"
Dean nodded.
"Humans can see those two dimensions. The fourth one is like time. So, in my vision, Cas said I was seeing time." Kate said.
"How do you see time?" Dean asked.
"Ugh, just take my word for it. I don't know how else to explain it." Kate said.
Bobby raised an eyebrow. "What is going on in here?"
"I'm trying to explain a vision to Dean." Kate said.
Dean pinched the bridge of his nose. "Sounds like a bad acid trip."
"How would you know what a bad acid trip is like?" Kate asked.
Dean's eyes grew wide. "I don't. I have just heard stories."
John smirked but didn't comment.
### ###
The next day, Taylor went to school but Kate didn't. She was on the mend but even if she healed, she needed to act like she was still hurt. She was still hurt but the skull fracture was healing.
Caleb stopped by with Ian to give April a break.
Kate got in the floor with Ian and played with him.
"Is Andy still giving her problems?" John asked.
"Not since Saturday." Caleb said.
The men talked around the table while Kate played with Ian.
Bobby laid out a fresh map and marked off areas that the 'freaks' had been spotted. "The radius is getting bigger."
"Are they reproducing or just spreading out?" Caleb asked.
Bobby scoffed. "How would I know the answer to that?"
Caleb shrugged. "When you go back to see the one you have caged, I want to go."
"I don't think that would be a good idea." John said.
"I need to put it behind me. Besides, figuring out how to kill it would be therapeutic." Caleb replied.
"Light stuns them. Fire kills them." Dean said.
"It didn't kill the one that Cas got." Caleb said. "Not many hunters are going to be able to trap them and light them up."
Kate held Ian's hand and walked him to the kitchen.
Dean looked at her. "Why do you have that smirk on your face?" It was Kate's infamous mischief-making smirk.
Kate shrugged. "No idea what you mean." She nudged Ian and let go of his hand.
Ian looked between Caleb and Bobby for a moment before going over to Bobby to be picked up.
Kate gave him a thumbs up and nodded.
Ian pulled on Bobby's shirt and said, "Boppa up."
Bobby raised his eyebrows. "What was that?"
"Up." Ian said.
Bobby picked him up and patted his back.
"Boppa." Ian repeated.
Caleb snorted. "What did you do?"
Kate shrugged. "Oh, I thought it would be fun to teach him to call Bobby, papa because grandpa would be too complicated."
Bobby shot her a look. "I'm no grandpa."
Ian smiled. "Boppa."
Kate grinned. "No, you are what he said because I may have said Bobby papa too many times and he came out with Boppa."
Dean smiled. "I don't know, Bobby, I think it suits you."
Bobby grumbled and resituated the ever present ball cap on his head. "You are lucky you're cute."
Ian just smiled at him and turned to sit on his lap.
Bobby threw a ball of paper at Kate. "You are lucky you are injured."
"Oh come on, I saw your face when he said it the first time." Kate said with a giggle.
Bobby shook his head. "Idjit."
### ###
By the end of the week, Kate's arm was fully healed. The cast was cut off strategically so that she would be able to put it back on for school. The lack of a wound on her head could be covered by her hair and the abrasions on her body were easily concealed by long sleeves. "If I say I still hurt, can I skip school Monday?"
Dean smiled. "No. We don't want truancy officers after us."
"There is video evidence of me flying down the stairs. I don't think they'd consider me truant."
"If you are at school, you aren't here causing trouble." Dean said.
"So I can just go cause trouble at school." Kate said with a smirk.
"I still owe you for that joke about me having a head injury." Dean said and poked her side.
John put a hand on Dean's shoulder. "I'd consider that a freebie."
Dean rolled his eyes jokingly. "Go ahead and spoil her and then you can deal with her when she gets obnoxious."
Kate stuck her tongue out at Dean and put her arms around John's middle.
John had spent most of the week with Dean and had some one-on-one time with Taylor. Kate's injury prevented her from doing much. "If you get your stuff, you can go to the lab with me."
Kate let go of him and sprinted up the stairs as fast as she could.
"You aren't fully healed yet!" Dean yelled after her.
Kate ran back down the stairs with her backpack. "I'm healed enough."
John drove over to the lab so that Marty could assist in some concoctions that might have an effect on the creature in the cage.
Kate had a few ideas and was glad John was there to okay them. She was still on her good streak and didn't want that to come crashing down. "Can I go when you go?"
"No." John said.
"Can I ask why?" Kate asked.
"It is loud and dangerous." John said.
Kate pursed her lips and reminded herself that arguing never helped. She shrugged and looked at Marty. "When you ran the simulations, which one of these had the quickest reaction?"
Marty pointed to a vial that was marked with a 'C'.
Kate looked in the logbook for the components of that specific vial. She frowned. "Quick reaction but it dissipates quickly."
John read over Kate's shoulder. "So that would be a stun reaction."
"Or a beesting," Kate said. "We wouldn't know without live testing." She chewed on her pencil.
Marty tapped her hand. "Lab rule, don't put things in your mouth."
Kate blushed. "Thank you. You did these with catalysts right?"
"Some of them. I have been working on all of this since the last time you all were here."
Kate ran her finger down the list of experiments. She furrowed her brows. "Sometimes, things happen and it has meaning. When Taylor had the Enochian show up on his skin, it was Aphrim trying to communicate with us. I've had visions that turned out to be meaningful. When Taylor zapped himself, I developed the electrical rash as well. Going out on a limb here but what happens if we shock the things?"
"That is a stretch but I can try it." John said.
"It means something. I know that much." Kate said. "I wonder if he can hold electricity."
John raised an eyebrow.
"Static electricity stays around and you can carry it with you and shock someone. Couldn't he do that with pure electricity?"
"That is not something we can test." John said. He looked at Kate. "That is not something you two are going to test, Katelyn."
Kate's cheeks turned slightly pink. "Noted."
"Caleb, Dean, and I are going to use some of this stuff and see what the creature reacts to." John said.
"Taylor and I would be more helpful if it got out." Kate said.
John just looked at her.
"But it won't get out so we don't need to be there." Kate said with a sheepish grin.
John thought that Kate and Sam were cut from the same cloth. Sam would argue over everything without stopping to think about why he was arguing. Kate was trying to appease him but she was defiant by nature. "If we are able to kill it, I will allow you to view the brain, safely, with Marty's assistance." He got identical looks of glee from both Marty and Kate.
"You will bring it here?" Marty asked.
"I don't know where else we would take it." John said. "These things are new and even if we kill it, I wouldn't want to keep the body intact in case it didn't stay dead."
Marty had been given more information and kept his mouth shut about the supernatural.
Kate gave Marty a grin and shifted from foot to foot. "I'm going to write down my predictions."
John smirked and shook his head. Kate might just out geek Sam one day.
Kate added another sheet to the logbook and labeled it 'theories'. "The brain stem was important in curing Mary. That leads me to believe that the majority of the damage occurs in the brain. I wonder if it just eats away at the matter or if it changes the structure. If it turned their brain to mush, they wouldn't be effective hunters."
Marty was on the same train of thought as Kate.
John stepped back and let them talk over the logbook.
Kate gasped. "Oh! You will know what I'm talking about. So, I had this vision and I could see time."
Marty was fascinated and understood the references that Kate was making to a fourth dimension and time not being linear. "That is remarkable. Can you see time now?"
"No, only during that vision." Kate said. "My visions are stronger when I'm not fully... with it."
John told Castiel where they were and waited for him to show up.
Kate brightened. "Cas!"
Cas tilted his head and let her hug him. "I have spoken to you frequently."
"That was in a dream. I can't hug you in a dream."
Castiel awkwardly patted Kate's head. He had seen someone do it to a dog and he thought it would be appreciated.
"We are going to begin trials to figure out what makes the creature tick." John said.
"I can assist." Cas said.
"We will need a ride there." John said.
Cas just nodded. His head was elsewhere.
"Angel radio again?" Kate asked.
"Yes." Castiel said.
"Can I hear?" Kate asked.
Castiel touched her head for a moment and removed his hand when she started to show signs of pain.
"Holy crap, couldn't they take turns talking?" Kate said.
"There is no need." Cas said.
John cleared his throat. "Are you going to be able to get us there?"
"Yes, of course." Castiel said.
Kate had a lot on her mind with her vision and talking with Castiel. They were on the verge of figuring something out and she was impatient.
Castiel pulled a paper from his pocket and handed it to Kate. It was old and brittle.
"What is that?" John asked.
"It may help me make sense of my visions." Kate said.
John looked at the page. "How?"
"I have been upfront and honest about my visions. There are just things that I don't have words for. I can give you examples of what time looks like but you wouldn't truly understand unless you saw it. It is like describing the color green to a blind person." Kate said. "Castiel spoke with me about it and has been searching for answers. There is something big out there."
John sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose.
"I am just trying to make sense of it. I will not do anything without speaking to you or Dean." Kate said.
John raised an eyebrow.
"I am on a really good streak. If I break it, it is going to be an eye roll or attitude. I'm not diving back into the hot water by doing something behind your back." Kate said.
John chuckled. "I'll take your word for it."
Kate could not possibly explain what she was seeing. It excited her and terrified her at the same time. "I could really go for some lunch."
John smiled. "Diner it is then." He was itching to get back to hunting but he had purposefully taken a week off. It was getting easier to be around the kids without feeling awkward. It helped that Kate attached to just about anyone.
Marty was left to work on the serums and Castiel told John to pray when they wanted to go to the facility.
Kate sat down in the booth across from John. She chewed on her nails and made small talk.
"What are you anxious about?" John asked.
"Creatures are taking over several states, the world could end at any time and I have an English assignment I haven't even started." Kate said.
"What are you hyperfocused on?" John asked.
"The dumb visions. If I was an all-knowing being sending visions to someone, I wouldn't make them a coded mess." Kate said.
"Slow down." John said. "You have time to figure it out."
Kate bit her lip. "What if I am on a time crunch?"
"Just talk and I will stop you if I am lost." John said.
"February 27th is a full moon but it is also the closest that the moon will be this year." Kate said.
John held up his hand. "Full moon makes me think spellwork and spellwork typically ends with you in a whole lot of trouble."
Kate grumbled. "I'm speaking freely here. It is already February 10th. Keep that in the back of your mind. I have had visions of a stream for a while now. Recently, I have seen these glowing orbs in the stream. They seem to be memories. When I had the vision with all of the lines, I initially felt like I was spinning on a carnival ride and trying to draw the scenery at the same time."
John nodded and bit into a fry.
"Then, one thing led to another and I pieced together a figure from all of those lines. Castiel said I was viewing her atoms and time." She waved her hand. "Neither of those matters right now. He said something about teleporting and states of matter. Nevermind. Anyway, the figure was Karen, Bobby's dead wife."
John stopped her. "Why her?"
"I haven't figured that out yet." Kate said. "She had some stuff to say and after talking to Castiel, I think that it was just a manifestation of Karen and not actually Karen."
John slowly sipped his drink.
"Think hologram," Kate said. "Or think of a costume. That one is easier. I'm seeing Karen but it isn't actually Karen."
John could see why Kate was lost in her head. He was lost.
"So, vision Karen had some stuff to say. I don't know how to explain any of it. Castiel knows a lot more about this stuff than I do. There are certain places that exist outside of time and space. I think the stream is one of those places. So you could be asleep for two minutes and there, it would feel different. Our theory is that my older self was actually Karen but in order to not create a paradox, she was cloaked."
John blinked. "You tried to explain this to Dean?"
Kate sighed. "It didn't go well."
John chuckled. "Continue."
"My older self can time travel. We have established that. If she was at the stream and stepped through a door of some sort, she could pass through time without anything happening." Kate said. "Yet, if I saw her it would change things."
"You are aware that you are eleven, right?" John asked.
Kate grinned, "I'm almost 12."
"So this stream is a bubble where no time passes?" John asked.
"I think so. I have seen my mom in visions too and that makes sense. I don't know why I am seeing Karen though." Kate said. "I know a bit about her and she was a great person but I don't have ties to her."
"That is odd." John said.
"The paper that Cas gave me talks about a spell that isn't a spell." Kate said.
John narrowed his eyes.
"Hear me out." She put the paper on the table. "This is super old. There are portions that are faded. I am still working out what it says but I think this right here is how we learned to time travel."
John rubbed his face. "You do not need to time travel."
"Right now I don't but one day I do or I wouldn't be popping back in time to save you guys." Kate said.
"It is already done or you wouldn't be able to do it." John said.
Kate shook her head. "No, because the stream is outside of time." She took a bite of her burger and washed it down with sprite. "The paper outlines things that we'd need to do the... spell... that would allow us access to the stream."
"You already have access to it." John said.
"I have had visions of it. There is a vail between me and that stream." Kate said. "If we were to do what this paper says, we'd need things that are seemingly impossible to get."
"Those big spells come at a hefty price." John said.
Kate pointed to certain words. "Blood of an archangel. If Gabriel isn't keen on showing up, Taylor and I both have, technically, archangel blood."
John didn't like where that was headed.
"Castiel is searching for the other pages to this. It sounds like only a drop is needed. I know my history with giving up my blood but this could be done with a few drops or a vial of my blood and Taylor's blood." Kate said. "So if that all goes well, that is the easy part."
John was caught between being amazed by Kate and being worried that her exceptional mind was going to get her into that hot water that she swore she wasn't going to jump into.
"The next thing is a soul that has been touched by hell. That is me again." Kate said.
John swallowed another bite of food. "You haven't been touched by hell."
Kate raised an eyebrow. "Hellhounds tore up my leg. I spent time in vision hell when I was in a coma. Azazel's blood still runs through my veins. Short of selling my soul, I think I'm as touched as you can get."
John sighed.
"So, that is two things down. It is like this was made for me." Kate said. She caught John's eye and grimaced. "With those two things out of the way, one must gain entrance to heaven. We have an angel for that. The super tricky part is a very very specific type of soul that must be pulled from heaven. The combination of those things would create a gap in the vail that is just big enough for Taylor and me to tiptoe in and out of."
"You got all of this from a vision?" John asked.
"Kind of." Kate said.
John nodded. "I'm not saying you can do this but what kind of soul is needed."
Kate sighed heavily. "The soul must be pure. Heaven has quite the selection of pure souls but not all are truly pure. The soul must belong to someone who died at the hands of the one that loved them most."
"So it has to be someone that was murdered?" John asked.
"Yes, not by someone they necessarily loved, but someone that loved them. That sounds easy enough but it can't be someone that their spouse went nuts and killed them. It has to be a mercy killing situation. At least, that is how I understand it. The soul is marked in a way that others aren't. Even more complicated is that the soul must have been touched by pure evil. Purity is a big thing I guess. So, let's say that we find this one-of-a-kind soul. We then have to gain consent from this person. They would need to want to do this. If some couple, 2000 years ago were out and something attacked them and one had to put the other out of their misery, the one who died isn't going to want to be back on earth because the other spouse died so long ago."
John didn't see how any of that was possible.
"There are a few other stipulations but I asked Cas to find details about where this soul would go after leaving heaven. It sounds like they'd return to their body, or a copy of their body and be allowed to live a natural life until they got old."
"Kate, I don't see how any of that is going to be remotely possible." John said.
Kate gave him a small smile. "Let's say that we get confirmation that the soul gets to live on earth. There are no side effects and the spell is safe."
"No spell is safe." John said.
"Well, this isn't really a spell. It is a series of events."
John snorted.
"Just pretend," Kate said, incredulously. "If the spell is possible, and problem free, we would be able to open up the stream so that older me and older Taylor can do what they are doing now."
"Okay, go on." John said.
Kate took a deep breath. Today, I have done a whole lot of thinking. I read over this paper and I think I know who to bring back."
John sat back in the booth. "Who?"
"She was pure but touched by pure evil when a demon possessed her. The person who loved her most was forced to kill her because the demon inside her would have killed him." Kate said. She waited for John to catch up. "This person's spouse is still living. We'd just need to talk to her and explain what was going on. Then, it would be her choice to come back or stay in heaven."
John rested his elbows on the table. "Bobby's wife."
Kate nodded. "I think we can bring Karen back."