A/N: I really meant to get this out sooner, but the universe had other plans (I have recently gained a debilitatingly strong celebrity crush and had to consume every piece of media they are in)

Also, this is  SEVEN THOUSAND words because I love y'all that much :)

~

Sam's voice filtered through Abby's restless dreams, not loud enough and familiar enough to not fully wake her up. She was sleeping on the far side of the bed next to the one Sam had been sleeping in, with Dean in between them, sleeping like a bear as always.

"We've been looking for you everywhere," Sam said, fast and tense. He's on the phone, Abby noted, her mind not fully able to put the pieces together of who Sam was talking to in her drowsy state. "We didn't know where you were, if you were okay."

Dean stirred, grunting as he woke up, and Abby was too gently pulled from her half-asleep state. She felt Dean's hand rubbing against the top of her head where her long hair was surely a mess as she pushed her head into her pillow, just wanting to go back to sleep.

"Well, we're fine. Dad, where are you?" Dad. Dad was who Sam was talking to. That made sense. Dads call their kids. So why was Sam talking so fast and why was Dean sitting up so fast, looking at Sam like that?

"What? Why not?" Sam sounded upset.

"Is that Dad?" Dean asked, sounding a bit like a little kid.

After a pause where Abby pushed herself up with a lot of effort, so she was sitting criss-cross on the bed facing Sam, Sam said, seemingly in response to something Dad was saying, "You're after it, aren't you? The thing that killed Mom."

Abby rubbed her face with her hands, just wanting to go back to bed, but she knew she should stay awake. If she went back to bed, then she might miss something important, and she hated having to play catch up because she was too busy sleeping while Sam and Dean were having important adult conversations.

"A demon?" Sam sounded strange, full of emotion, but Abby didn't know what emotion and that made her uncomfortable. "You know for sure?"

"A demon? What's he saying?" Dean demanded, his voice lower than normal like it always was when he had just woken up.

Dean grabbed a shirt from his duffel bag on his side of the bed and pulled it over his head. Sam's eyes had become shiny, like Abby's did when she was about to cry, at what John was saying now.

Sam swallowed, hard, then said into the phone, "You know where it is?"

A pause.

"Let us help."

A pause.

"Why not?"

"Give me the phone." Dean reached his hand out, motioning for Sam to hand it over.

Sam ignored Dean, and after a moment demanded "Names? What names, Dad? Talk to me, tell me what's going on." From her place sitting on the bed, Abby could only see Dean's back and he was half-blocking her view of Sam, so she scooted forward until she was sitting next to Dean.

Dean's hand was still outstretched, silently asking Sam to hand the phone over as Sam said "No. Alright? No way."

"Give me the phone." Dean's fast and harsh demand made Abby cross her arms over her torso, hugging herself. She hated when Sam and Dean argued and really hated it when it was about Dad. Sam looked angry, really, really angry at whatever Dad was telling him to do.

Dean finally grabbed the phone right out of Sam's hand. "Dad, it's me. Where are you?"

Dean got a look on his face and Abby looked up at him with wide eyes as Dean said "Yes, sir." and swallowed hard.

"Uhh... yeah, I got a pen." He grabbed a pen and notepad from the motel bedside table. "What are the names?"

As Dean wrote down the names, Sam looked at Abby with a strange look on his face. He was still angry, Abby could tell, but he wasn't angry at her, she didn't think. Abby looked back at Sam, brown eyes staring into brown eyes, as Dean followed the orders that Sam wouldn't.

~

(MKI: The scene above happens in Episode 11 (Scarecrow) and the rest of this chapter happens during Episode 12 (Faith))

Usually, Abby would have been left behind while Sam and Dean did the really dangerous part of hunting. But this time, there wasn't enough time to drop Abby off before they had to have a "showdown" (as Dean would say), so Abby was ordered to stick close to Sam and Dean, and stay safe. As they walked through the dingy hallways of the run-down house, Abby eyed the gun-like weapons Sam and Dean were holding. "twenty thousand volts" Dean had said they carried just minutes before. Abby wasn't completely sure how strong that was, but she knew it was a shit ton of electricity.

Abby tip-toed behind her brothers as they reached the cabinet doors, feeling like her heart was about to beat out of her chest. Each step made a quiet splash sound, and Abby could feel her purple sneakers getting wet with water.

"On three," Dean whispered before counting down, and on three, he opened the cabinet doors roughly, shining his light in two kids' faces. Not the monster, they half screamed at the bright light and intrusion.

"Is it still here?" Sam whisper-asked. The kids nodded and, at Dean's orders, grabbed each other's hands as he directed them silently up the stairs which would lead out of the basement. The slight splashes of the children going to the stairs faded as they started up the shabby wooden steps. 

Abby walked in front of them, holding the little girl's hand and pushing down her own fear so she could help the other kids. Abby had just reached the doorway when she heard Sam yell and fall. She whipped her head around just in time to see Sam fall, pushed or pulled by something she couldn't see in the dark. Sam was still on the stairs, regaining his bearings when Dean yelled, "Abs, Sam, get them out of here!" unfreezing her muscles.

Before following Abby and the children out, Sam yelled "Take this," and tossed Dean the gun-like super-taser he had been carrying. Abby held on tightly to the girl's hand, as she ran through the house as fast as she could, hearing Sam and the little boy's footsteps behind them.

She bolted out of the front door, her heart beating fast and hair coming undone from the braid Dean had put in it earlier.

"Stay here," Sam said, and Abby nodded although she knew he couldn't see her, having already started to head back towards Dean. As Sam's back receded into the house, Abby felt a horrible feeling come over her. Something was terribly, awfully wrong, and she didn't know what. It was just fear, Abby reasoned, and swallowed it down.

"Are you guys okay," Abby asked, turning to the disheveled and dirty girl and boy. They nodded, and she forced a smile, trying to make them feel better.

Her smile dropped and her head whipped around back towards the house when she heard Sam shout Dean's name, barely loud enough for her to hear him from the outside of the walls. For a second, Abby swore her heart stopped.

~

The metallic taste of blood flooded her mouth as Abby chewed on the inside of her cheek. She felt like she was going to throw up, and her hands wouldn't stop shaking as she stood next to Sam in a hospital in some stupid, stupid town. Unable to see over the counter and listen to Sam's conversation with the nurse about their insurance, or lack of it, Abby looked around at the hospital. 

She hadn't been in many, since Dad didn't believe in injuries that couldn't be walked off. The ride to the hospital had been a blur, with Sam speeding the whole way after he carried an unconscious Dean out of the house. Dean had gotten electrocuted, Sam had said to the doctors when they got to the ER. Abby was pretty sure it was bad, really bad, based on how fast the doctors took Dean away and how worried Sam looked.

The cops had said they wanted to talk to them, probably about the missing kids and why they were in the house in the first place. They were now standing off to the side as Sam gave a fake insurance card to the nurse. Abby followed right behind Sam as he walked over to the cops.

"Look, uh, we can finish this up later." One of them said, referring to the questions they had been asking Sam earlier.

"No, no, it's okay." Abby didn't know how Sam was so calm when she felt like she was going to throw up, or scream, or maybe both. Her hands wouldn't stop shaking and she was scared. Dean wasn't here, because he was hurt, and she just needed him to tell her it was going to be okay, that he was fine.

"We were just taking a shortcut through the neighborhood, and our windows were rolled down. We heard some screaming when we drove past the house, and we stopped, ran in."

"And you found the kids in the basement." The same policeman from before spoke again. The other one was writing in his notebook, fast, and wouldn't look Abby in the eye.

"Well, thank god you did." The policeman bought the story, Abby could tell. That's good, she tried to tell herself. That means no one will be investigating us.

When the doctor who had taken Dean away earlier appeared from behind a door, Sam promptly excused himself from the police's questions and rushed over, with Abby following behind like a puppy.

"Hey, Doc, is he-"

"He's resting."

"And?"

The doctor glanced down at Abby before continuing. "The electrocution triggered a heart attack- pretty massive, I'm afraid." As Abby felt her heart sink she looked down at her shoes, now mostly dry. "His heart- it's damaged."

"How damaged?" Sam asked. Abby could feel the panic rising in her throat.

"We've done all we can. We can try and keep him comfortable at this point, but I'd give him a couple of weeks at most, maybe a month."

Abby couldn't look up at Sam as he pleaded "No, no, there's... got to be something you can do, some kind of treatment."

"We can't work miracles." The tears which had welled in Abby's eyes were starting to slide down her cheeks. "I really am sorry." Sorry isn't going to help Dean.

Sam grabbed Abby's hand and started walking, fast. He was taking shaky deep breaths, and even though Abby still didn't look up from her shoes, she knew he was about to cry. He led them through hallways, and then stopped, suddenly. Abby didn't know what he was doing, so she looked up at him, only to find Sam looking back down at her.

Suddenly, with jolty movements, Sam knelt down in front of Abby, pulling her off to the side so they weren't in the way of anyone. Kneeling down, Sam was eye-to-eye with Abby. He took shaky breaths which steadied a bit as the moments passed. He rested his hands on each of her upper arms, rubbing up and down slowly, slightly rumpling the heavy sweatshirt Abby had on over her long sleeve, her winter coat having been forgotten in the car.

"Abs, uh... you know what all of that meant?" Sam asked. 

Abby nodded. She did. 

"Okay, okay," Sam said. He looked at Abby, and Abby could feel the tears rolling down her cheeks, not fast, but steadily. Sam began to move, and Abby thought he was going to stand up but instead, he moved towards her. Instinctively, Abby wrapped her arms tightly around his neck and buried her face in the crook of his neck as Sam's arms wrapped around her small torso, his hands rubbing up and down her back.

Abby's mind played a loop of thoughts. She was stuck, like a hamster in a wheel, unable to get out, just speed up.

Dean is dying.

Dean is dying.

Dean is dying.

Dean is dying.

Dean is dying.

~

While they walked to the hospital room Dean was in, Sam held onto Abby's hand. Abby pretended the only reason she didn't let go was because she would have gotten lost, but as soon as they stepped inside the room, she held on even tighter. Her cheeks were dry, her tears had stopped flowing minutes ago.

"You ever actually watch daytime TV? It's terrible." While Sam and Abby approached Dean's hospital bed, Abby got a glimpse of Dean and quickly averted her eyes down to her purple Converse. Dean looked sick, he looked like he was dying. Which, Abby supposed, was fitting, but still the thought of it made Abby want to die too.

"I talked to your doctor," Sam said softly.

"That fabric softener teddy bear- Ooh. I want to hunt that little bitch down." In other circumstances, Sam would have told Dean to watch his language around Abby lest it influence her to have the mouth Dean had.

"Dean."

"Yeah?" Dean switched off the TV and looked at his brother and sister. "Alright well, looks like you're gonna leave town without me."

"What are you talking about? I'm not gonna leave you here." Abby kept her eyes on her shoes.

"Hey, you better take care of that car." Abby swallowed hard and tried to keep tears from welling up in her eyes. She wasn't going to cry again. "I swear I'll haunt your ass." Dean's joke fell flat on the sorrowful pair.

"I don't think that's funny."

"Oh, come on, it's a little funny." Abby bit her lip as she felt the tears in her eyes get dangerously close to flowing over. "Hey Abs, wasn't that funny?" Abby just shifted closer to Sam, who was looking away and breathing hard.

"Abs, come on..." Abby held onto Sam's hand tighter and, if she moved any closer to him, she would be hiding behind him. She still wouldn't, couldn't, meet Dean's eyes.

"Look, Sammy, what can I say, man? It's a dangerous gig. I drew the short straw. That's it, end of story."

"Don't talk like that, alright? We still have options."

"What options? You got burial or cremation." Sam's hand squeezed Abby's hand, hard, at Dean's words.

"I know it's not easy, but... I'm gonna die. And you can't stop it."

"Watch me."

Abby stared at her shoes as Dean and Sam stared at each other.

"C'mon," Sam said to Abby, moving towards the door. Abby, without really looking up, pulled away from Sam and rushed towards Dean, where she stood on her tippy toes next to the bed and threw her arms around his neck.

"Awh, baby, c'mon," Dean said softly, putting his hands on her back and rubbing it as best as he could with the tubes attached to his hands. Abby's tears wet the crook of Dean's neck where her face was buried, and her body shook with her silent cries.

"You can't die." She said, practically whispering.

"I know, I know baby." Dean, ever so gently, pushed her back, into where Sam was now standing behind her. "I don't really have a choice, now do I?" He chuckled a bit, putting a hand on Abby's cheek to wipe the tears off. Abby sniffled and weakly nodded. 

Dean looked up at Sam and nodded, signaling Sam to gently push Abby away from Dean and out the door, then through the hospital's winding hallways, into the elevator, and out to the car. 

Sam paused at the car, swallowing hard. Then, as if steeling himself, he got in the driver's seat and turned on the car. Abby followed suit, sitting in the back seat with her chin resting on her knees as she watched the hospital fade from sight.

(MKI: This all happens (except for the phone call flashback) in FIVE MINUTES of the episode)

The car ride back to the motel was silent and when Sam turned the car off, the siblings silently went into the room. Once inside, Sam started getting out books, pulling up websites, trying to find something to help. Abby knelt down next to Dean's duffel bag and rifled through until she found what she was looking for; one of Dean's flannels.

Abigail ignored Sam's sad eyes on her as she sat down in the corner, between one of the beds and the wall, and carefully laid Dean's worn flannel over her legs before grabbing her book from where she had left it on the bed that afternoon. Despite Abby's best efforts, the world did not fade away as she hoped it would, and she was left staring at the same page for hours, her mind playing the same thing on a loop.

Dean is dying.

Dean is dying.

Dean is dying.

Dean is dying.

~

Three days passed. Sam researched, and Abby sat in the corner, hiding under Dean's flannel. Dean had called and told them not to visit. Abby fell asleep in the corner, every night, and every morning she woke up on the bed with no memory of Sam moving her there. Her dreams were filled with nightmares of Dean dying, the imminent funeral, of Sam deciding he wanted to go back to college and leaving Abby alone. Of Dad coming back, and when he told Abby she needed to stop crying like a baby, Dean not being there to tell him to shut up.

In the past 72ish hours, Abby's braid had become messy, it barely being held together. She couldn't quite braid all of her hair, she always missed pieces and ended up with a crooked braid. Abby couldn't ask Sam for help, he was too busy researching. He probably would have if she asked though, but instead, Abby just left the messy braid in. Dean had done it the morning of the day they had gone into that stupid, stupid house.

Abby played with the end of her braid, trying to make it look less disheveled in vain as she listened in as Sam called their father. He didn't pick up. He's going to call them back though, right? That's a Dad's job, or at least that's what Sam said a Dad's job is: to take care of their kids.

Abby's thought spiral was paused for a moment by the knock on the door. She straigtened up and scooted over to get a view of the door from her place behind the bed, her eyes just barely sticking out over the bed from her position. Sam glanced at her before cautiously going to open the door.

When she saw the person behind the door, Abby's eyes widened as she saw the familiar shape of her eldest brother, Sam asked what the hell Dean was doing there and Abby stayed half-hidden behind the bed as she watched Dean come inside the room. He looked like shit, and sounded like it too when he said "I checked myself out."

"Are you crazy?" The answer to Sam's question is probably yes, Abby thought.

"I'm not gonna die in a hospital where the nurses aren't even hot."

"You know, this whole 'I laugh in the face of death' thing- it's crap. I can see right through it. So can Abs." Sam half glanced, half nodded at Abby.

"Yeah, whatever, dude. Have you even slept? You look worse than me." Dean didn't look at Abby.

"I've been scouring the internet for the past three days." Sam helped Dean to sit down in a chair at the table Sam's research was spread across, because Dean couldn't walk on his own, Abby realized.

"Been calling every contact in Dad's journal."

"For what?" Maybe the twenty thousand volts damaged Dean's brain cells along with his heart, Abby thought to herself.

"For a way to help you. One of Dad's friends, Joshua, he called me back, told me about a guy in Nebraska- a specialist." Abby had heard the phone call Sam was talking about, and while Sam had told her to start packing their stuff after he hung up, she hadn't even moved. It seemed too good to be true, and she wasn't about to start believing in miracles.

"You're not gonna let me die in peace, are ya?" Dean's voice was lower than normal, more grumbly, and his eyes had dark circles under them. Really, he just looked like shit.

"I'm not gonna let you die, period. We're going."

And that was that. Somehow, Dean didn't argue. He just sat in the same chair and tried to feebly help pack up everything while Sam moved around. Abby packed up her stuff too, pushing Dean's flannel into his backpack. She wasn't sure if he saw that she had it, since she steadfastly avoided his eyes.

~

The mood in the car was already gloomy, and the rain outside certainly didn't help. Abby usually loved rain, she loved jumping in puddles, even if it made Dad upset when she got her jeans all muddy, and she loved the ambient noise it provided. She knew Dean was really out of it because he didn't even complain about the mud getting all over Baby as they pulled up into the fairground. He did, however, manage to complain about Sam bringing him to see "some guy who heals people out of a tent" named Roy Le Grange as the trio headed into said tent.

"Maybe it's time to have a little faith, Dean." Abby rolled her eyes at Sam's remark. If Dean had seen, he probably would have told her to quit it, but Abby was on the other side of Sam from him and all of Dean's limited energy was going toward walking without assistance and arguing with Sam.

Abby half-listened in on Sam and Dean's argument as they trudged through the muddy parking lot. The rain was sticking her million fly-away hairs to the sides of her face, no matter how many times she tried to brush them off. The mud was sticking to the sides of the yellow rain boots she was wearing, which Sam had dug out of the trunk for her. It was cold, too, and despite her long sleeve, sweatshirt, and coat Abby was still shivering.

Once they had gotten into the tent, after a mind-numbingly boring and awkward conversation with a blonde woman named Layla, Sam forced his two sibling to sit up front. Or more specifically, he forced Dean to sit up front against his wishes and Abby followed silently. She sat in between Sam and Dean, with Dean on the aisle and Sam to her right. In the row in front of them was Layla and her mother, then the stage Roy was now standing. He was older than Abby expected, and, judging by his glasses obscuring his eyes, blind.

As the man started to drone on about his wife and the news or whatever, Abby was very aware of where Dean was next to her. She wasn't sure what about Dean going to die made her not want to be around him, but Abby shifted as close to Sam as she could without it being obvious. Sam was too worried about what else was happening on the stage to notice anything, but Dean did. Abby could tell, from the way she saw him press his lips together and swallow hard in her peripheral vision.

"God rewards the good, and He punishes the corrupt." The murmurs of agreement from the crowd at Roy's words unnerved Abby. "It is The Lord who does the healing here, friends, The Lord who guides me in choosing who to heal by helping me see into people's hearts." A chorus of amens from the audience.

"Or into their wallets," Dean said, not loud, but not quiet either, to Sam over Abby's head.

"You think so, young man?" This guy has crazy good hearing for an old blind guy.

"Sorry."

"No, no, don't be. Just watch what you say around a blind man. We got real sharp ears." Something about the guy made Abby uncomfortable. Maybe it was that he was too at ease, he was too casual for someone who was able to play with life and death, or so he claimed.

And suddenly the man was having Dean come up on stage, and at Sam's insistence, he actually went.

"I didn't pick you, Dean. The Lord did." This guy was weird.

Abby watched with dubious but wide eyes as Roy lifted his hands and held on to Dean's shoulder, then rested his hand against Dean's head so his palm was pressed against the side of Dean's temple. He left it there, muttering something Abby couldn't hear, as Dean began to look ill, worse, falling to his knees. Abby looked at Sam, wishing he would do something, but he just watched with faithful eyes.

Then Dean collapsed, falling the short distance to the floor of the stage. While the others in the audience praised ominous hallelujahs, Sam and Abby rushed to their older brother. Dean opened his eyes, and as Sam supported his head, and his wide eyes focused on something behind her. But when Abby turned to look, there was nothing there, just the 'specialist' and by the time she turned back the look was gone from Dean's face.

~

Abby was really starting to hate hospitals. The two she had been in in the past week was more than the past nine years of her life. Sam couldn't sit still, practically bouncing around the examination room, while Abby sat in a stiff plastic chair and avoided eye contact with Dean. That night Abby hadn't slept at all, instead she just lay there and watched Dean. He seemed better since Roy 'healed' him and this appointment was to confirm that hypothesis.

A nurse entered, drawing the siblings' attention. "Well according to all your tests, there's nothing wrong with your heart. No sign there ever was." The rest of her words were left unheard by Abby as her mind raced. The hamster wheel she had been running on had just evaporated, no longer relevant, and now she had no idea what to do. The only thing she could do was stare, blankly, at Dean's shocked face and Sam's happy one.

"Well, just yesterday, a young guy like you - 27, athletic- out of no where, heart attack," the nurse said, and even without context Abby found the coincidence strange.

"Thanks, Doc." Even Dean's voice sounded better, less deathbed-y.

Abby could tell by Dean's tone of voice when he said "That's odd," after the doctor had left the room that he thought the guy dying was definitely not a coincidence. Abby agreed with Sam; they should just be grateful Dean was okay and get out of town and not look back. Now was really not the time for investigating.

"When I was healed, I just- I felt... wrong. I felt cold, and for a second, I saw someone- this old man. I'm telling you, Sam, it was a spirit." Abby put the pieces together as Dean pulled his jacket on.

"But if there was something there, Dean, I think I would have seen it too. I mean, I've been seeing an awful lot of things lately." Abby started to bite the inside of her cheek at the mention of Sam's 'premonitions' as he called them. They made her nervous, she wasn't a fan of the idea of her big brother having powers that weren't exactly fully human.

"Oh, excuse me, psychic wonder. You're just gonna need a little faith on this one. Sam I've been hunting long enough to trust a feeling like this." Reluctantly, Sam agreed to Dean's plan; Sam would check out the 'heart attack guy' and Dean was going to visit the Reverand with Abby. Dean having Abby go with him was not lost on her, and not on Sam either, based on the look he gave Abby before she followed Dean out.

Sam stayed behind in the hospital to talk to some people about the man who had had a sudden heart attack, so it was just Dean and Abby who left the hospital, side by side.

"Hey, Abby, hold on." Abby stopped before opening the door of Baby, turning to face Dean, where he was crouched down to be eye-to-eye with her. She looked down at her shoes, and bit the inside of her cheek, shifting her weight from foot to foot as she waited for Dean to speak.

"What's going on with you, kid? You won't look me in the eye and you haven't said a word since I got all electrocuted." Dean gently pushed Abby's chin up until she couldn't look away from his peircing eyes.

"Sorry," Abby mumbled.

"You don't have anything to be sorry for, I just need to know what's going on."

"You were gonna leave me."

"Oh, baby, I'm sorry." Abby sniffled and her upper lip began to wobble, but she was not going to cry in some stupid hospital parking lot. "C'mon." Dean gently wrapped his arms around her shaking back, and Abby slowly rested her head on his shoulder.

A minute passed before either sibling spoke, both just holding onto the other. "I stole your flannel," Abby finally said, quietly because her mouth was right near Dean's ear so she knew she didn't need to speak loudly for him to hear.

Dean half chuckled. "You can keep it if you want, I got plenty of others."

"Just for safekeeping," Abby said.

"Yeah, safekeeping."

~

While Roy had been telling Dean the story of his miraculous beating of cancer, Dean noticed that Abby kept pushing her hair out of her face. The braid she had in was dishevelled, and Dean made a mental note to re-braid her hair. Why she hadn't asked Sam to do it, Dean wasn't sure, but a lot of Abby's motivations were mysteries to Dean. While, according to Roy, Dean was a "young man with an important purpose" and an unfinished job to do, one of Dean's main purposes at the moment was taking care of his baby sister.

When the two siblings left the house, Dean had Abby go to the car while he talked to Layla, who had been outside. In the car, Abby got into her normal seat and watched Dean from afar. She felt a bit lighter, well a lot lighter, now that Dean's imminent death was no longer hanging over her. 

Dean was important in a way Sam wasn't. Sam was a good big brother, Abby knew that, and Dean was too. But when Abby woke up from a nightmare, it was Dean she went to, not Sam. When Abby needed her hair braided, she only went to Sam if Dean wasn't available. Dean was the one who bought her whatever book she wanted and gave her his jacket whenever she got cold without her saying a word.

When Dean got into the car after the conversation with Layla and her mother, he was quieter than before. He covered it well, turning on music and humming along to it while Abby read in the back seat, but Abby could still tell something was up.

When they got back to the hotel room, Sam was already there. Abby sat at a seat at the table Sam was sitting at, leaving another open for Dean to sit, which he took after asking what Sam had found.

Sam's answer of "I'm sorry," was concerning, for obvious reasons, and prompted looks requesting elaboration from his siblings.

"Sorry about what?" Dean asked.

"Marshall Hall... died at 4:17."

"Holy shit," Abby said under her breath.

"The exact time I was healed."

"Yeah. So I put together a list of everyone Roy has healed- six people over the past year- and I cross-checked them with the local obits. Every time someone was healed, someone else died, and each time the victim died of the same symptom Le Grange was healing at the time."

"Someone's healed of cancer, someone else dies of cancer?"

"Somehow Le Grange is trading one life for another."

"Wait, wait, wait- so... Marshall Hall died to save me." Dean was pissed, Abby could tell. She knew her brother was thinking he was responsible for an innocent man's death, and even though it was an illogical line of thinking, and quite stupid in Abby's opinion, it was still one Dean clearly was following.

"Dean... the guy probably would've died anyway and someone else would've been healed." Sam was right.

"You never should have brought me here." Dean's tone was definitive and harsh.

"Dean, I was just trying to save your life."

"Sam, some guy is dead now because of me."

"I didn't know." Sam's soft tone contrasted sharply with Dean's harsh one as they reached Abby's ears. "The thing I don't understand is how is Roy doing it? How is he trading a life for a life?" Sam continued.

"He's not doing it. Something else is doing it for him."

"What do you mean?"

"The old man I saw on stage. I didn't want to believe it, but deep down I knew it." Abby leaned forward at Dean's words. Maybe this what what he was looking at right after he woke up, healed.

"You knew what? What are you talking about?" Sam asked.

"There's only one thing that can give and take life like that." Dean paused. "We're dealing with a  reaper." 

As Dean explained to Sam how it was possible for there to be more than one reaper in the world, Abby dug in her backpack for her notebook. She hadn't written a letter to Haley in ages, she felt like, and Dean and Sam's conversation was now boring enough she could half-listen and still get all the information she needed. 

While Dean and Sam put together Roy was controlling the reaper with a cross and black magic, Abby cleared a space on the table covered in research for her own notebook. By the time Sam and Dean had finished their argument about what to do (Dean thought they should kill Roy but Sam was adamant that was immoral) Abby had barely started her letter, though.

"All right, so we go look through the tent for how to break the spell," Dean said. "Abby, you wanna come with or stay here?" 

Abby looked up at her brother, now leaning against the kitchen sink. "Come with."

~

Abby went with Sam once they got to the tent, trying to find a spell book sounded more interesting than stalling Roy with Dean. Most nine-year-olds would have been nervous breaking into someone's house, especially someone who had a reaper under their control, but Abby didn't feel nervous at all as she stepped into Roy Le Grange's home. It was one of the things about herself she was most proud of; her competence at hunting and investigating. As Abby wandered around Roy's house, she thought about how proud Dad was going to be when he got back. She had improved lots in the past five months, and she couldn't wait to show her Dad.

"Abs, c'mon," Sam said, keeping his voice low. Motioning to the small book in his hand and jerking his head out the window, Abby knew he had found what they were looking for.

Abby had to walk faster than she would've liked to keep up with Sam as he called Dean. "Roy's choosing victims he sees as immoral, and I think I know who's next on his list. Remember that protester?" The man handing pamphlets about how corrupt Roy's church was flashed through Abby's mind. 

"Yeah, yeah, I'll find him. But you can't let Roy heal anyone, alright?" Sam responded to Dean's words, inaudible to Abby.

"Stay close," Sam said to Abby, so as they walked through the parking lot, looking for the protestor, Abby stuck right on Sam's heels. The protestor, however, was nowhere to be found. That is until his terrified screams reached Abby and Sam's ears. Running as fast as she could to keep up with him, Abby still lagged behind Sam and reached the pleading man moments after Sam.

"It's right there!" He screamed, terrified of something, someone Abby and Sam couldn't see.

"All right, c'mon" Sam grasped the man's upper arm and rushed him away from the invisible threat, holding onto Abby's hand tightly. Theoretically, the reaper shouldn't pose any threat to Abby but that wasn't a chance Sam was willing to take with his baby sister.

When the reaper was no longer in the protestor's sight, he seemed to calm down. He was still looking around with terrified eyes, but there was less screaming, which Abby appreciated. Abby's theory that Dean had successfully stopped Roy was confirmed when he called Sam and told him so.

But then, Abby watched in horror as the protestor whispered words of terror as he fell to his knees, pleading to something neither her nor Sam could see. As the man fell to the ground, struggling to breathe, Sam talked fast to Dean on the phone to figure out who was controlling the reaper, since it clearly wasn't Roy, and Abby could do nothing as Sam's arm across her shoulders held her in front of him securely.

Dean must have found the person responsible, because slowly the man started to breathe normally again, and by the time Sam helped him up, the color had returned to his face and he was thanking God. What he had to do with it, Abby wasn't sure.

Abby waited in the car as Dean was escorted out of the car by two police officers, and then let go. Then she watched as he talked to Layla, the woman with the brain tumor. Abby felt some sympathy for her, but she was still glad it was Dean Roy who had healed the day before, not her.

When they got back to the motel room, Abby went to sit near the head of the bed opposite the one Sam was sitting on when Dean said "Hey, c'mere," motioning for Abby to sit on the edge of the bed closest to where Sam was sitting. Dean grabbed a hairbrush from Abby's duffel bag and sat behind Abby on the bed. 

As Dean explained how it was Roy's wife who was controlling the reaper and Sam explained the extent to which she must have gone to control the reaper, Dean undid Abby's braid that was only half still in her hair and brushed it out, careful not to pull too hard. Abby sat still as her brothers decided they needed to stop Roy's wife tonight. Dean was better than Sam at braiding her hair, not that she'd ever admit it. She supposed it was from all the practice he'd had while Sam was away at college. 

When Sam had left, her hair had been shorter, just a few inches past her shoulders. Abby couldn't count the number of times Dad had told her she needed to get her hair cut, that her long hair was a distraction for hunting and took too much time to brush. But Dean never seemed to mind when she asked him to braid her hair, or when she needed help getting out a knot. In fact, though Dean would never admit it, Abby was pretty sure he liked it.

~

Abby was in her regular spot in the back of Baby as Dean pulled up to Roy's house.

"That's Layla's car. She's already here." Sam said.

"Yeah." Dean was upset, Abby could tell. He felt guilty, and both his siblings knew it.

"Dean-" Sam started.

"You know if Roy would've picked Layla instead of me, she'd be healed right now." Layla had an inoperable brain tumor, Dean had told Abby earlier. She was going to die, and her only chance was to be 'healed' by Roy, a chance Sam and Dean were about to take away.

"Dean, don't," Sam said.

"And if she's not healed tonight, she's gonna die in a couple of months."

"What's happening to her is horrible. But what are you gonna do- let somebody else die to save her?" Sam was right, Abby knew it, and deep down Dean knew it, even if he wouldn't accept it. "You said it yourself Dean- you can't play God." There was a moment of silence.

"You're staying in the car," Dean said, turning around to look at Abby and changing the subject.

"But, Dean-" She protested before being cut off.

"No way. You've done enough today. Besides, it's already eleven. Get some sleep, don't let anyone in the car." He got out of the car and Sam followed suit, giving a sympathetic look to Abby.

Abby tried to stay up as a protest, but unfortunately, her nine-year-old willpower was not as strong as the weight of sleep. It had been an emotional roller coaster of a week, and no matter how mature Abby seemed or how good of a hunter she was, she was still young enough that eleven was past her bedtime. So, when Sam and Dean got back in the car, Abby was sound asleep.

"She sleeps like you, Dean," Sam said, quietly.

"Huh?"

"You almost died after being chased all over by police officers and I got locked in a basement, and she's still sleeping like the dead."

"Eh, kid needed the sleep."

"She was worried sick about you, y'know."

"I know," Dean said solemnly.

"I don't think you do. When you were in the hospital,l she sat in that corner for three entire days straight, Dean. Just sat there. Pretended to read, but never turned a page. Practically slept in your flannel too."

Dean just looked at Sam as he continued. "I know you think Layla should have been saved instead of you, because she's all good and holy or whatever, but Layla isn't raising a kid."

"I'm not raising Abby-" Dean began to protest.

"Dean," Sam cut him off.  "You make sure she sleeps and eats. You've taught her to hunt. I mean, you braid her hair without her even asking. She looks up to you, she needs you in a way she doesn't need me. You can pretend like you're just being a brother but you're not, and you know it." Sam paused. He had been thinking all those things for a while, since he left college. "If you had died, Dean, Abby would have been destroyed, lost, and I don't know if I could've helped her." Sam watched his older brother's face as Dean turned looked at their sleeping sister. She really did sleep like him, Dean thought, as she didn't even stir at Sam's quiet rant.

"I got it, alright. Still sucks Layla has to die, though." Dean said, then pressed play on Baby's dashboard, adjusting the volume to be low enough that it wouldn't disturb his baby sister.

~

This chapter is possibly the longest, but also we're hitting a record with THREE hugs in a single chapter?? AND Dean doing Abby's hair? Oh yeah, we're so back (I was feeling mushy when I was writing this, what can I say).