Katherine leans against the framework of the study and stares inside. 

Sam is hunched over the desk, holding his phone to his ear and scrawling on a notepad. Dean is in the back yard with Sophia and Julien. Chris and Charlie are at the grocery store. katherine wandered inside from the back yard to get a refreshment, track Sam down.

Lo and behold.

"Yeah, can you check the records for a Robert Campbell?" He asks. Katherine looks at her watch and continues into the office. He only looks up when she sets an open beer in front of him. He presses his lips together, not quite a smile, and takes a long pull. Goes back to playing with his pen. Katherine sits on the edge of the desk and waits, eyes narrowed as she looks over his notepad. 

Names. Occupations. Dates. Medical conditions. 

"July 19, 2001," Sam hums, beginning to write. Then he stops. "Dead on arrival."

Katherine stands up, frowning. Who are all of these people?

"No, that's all I needed," he says. "Thank you very much." He hangs up and tosses his phone onto the desk.

"What the hell is this?" Katherine asks, fingers sifting through his notes. 

"Uh..." He rubs the side of his face and leans back in the chair. "Those are all of the people I could find who had a connection with my mom. Her...Her friends, neighbors...hell, even her doctor. They're all dead." Katherine's eyebrows knit together. "All systematically...wiped off of the map."

"Why? Why are you looking into this?"

Sam hesitates. He drums his fingers. 

She shifts her weight. "Sam."

"When we were fighting the Seven," he begins. "The Sins, I mean. There was this...girl. Lady. She came out of nowhere and saved my ass. She had this knife...she killed a demon with it."

Katherine's blue eyes search his face, brow and mouth set, but he won't look at her. "Killed a demon with a knife?" She quietly asks. 

Sam sighs and swallows. "Yeah. I was at that cafe down the road yesterday and...and she sat right in front of me." Katherine blinks. 

"The girl lady."

"The girl lady."

"The demon-killing knife-weilding girl lady."

Sam's irritation flares in his eyes. "Yes, Katherine," he seethes. Her pulse rises and her hair stands on end. "She sat right in front of me and...and she talked about the anti-christ thing." Katherine grimaces. "She knows I'm one of Yellow Eyes' children."

"Okay, hang on—"

"And she knows I'm the only one left." Sam lifts his eyes to meet hers. He can see the wheels turning behind her fury-filled face. "She told me to look into my mom's friends. And I did." He slaps his palm onto the papers. "All of them dead. All of them...picked off. One by one."

"Someone went through a hell of a lot of trouble trying to cover their tracks," Katherine murmurs. 

"Who, though?" Sam scoffs.

"The Yellow-Eyed demon."

Sam's head snaps towards the open office door. Katherine whirls around, gripping the edge of the desk. 

Another blonde, just shy of her height, stands before Katherine. Her bangs are side-swept, and she's wearing a moderate amount of black eyeliner and mascara. She's dressed in a black shirt, gray jacket, jeans, heeled boots, and chunky necklaces. She looks normal. How the hell did she get in the house? How did she know where Sam was?

"Sam, what the fuck?" Katherine snarls.

He shoots out of the desk chair and takes a few steps forward. "What's your deal?" He asks after a moment. "You show up wherever I am...you know all about me, all about my mom."

"I already told you," the nameless blonde chuckles. "I'm—"

"Oh, right, right, just a hunter," Sam tuts. 

Katherine scoffs. "Just some hunter who knows more about your family than you do?" She asks, and pushes past Sam to stand toe-to-toe with the hunter. Katherine looks down her nose at her. Hard blue eyes scan up and down the woman before her. "I don't give a shit who you are," she says. "Or how you got in my house. But you need to walk out while you can."

The green-eyed blonde flashes Katherine a dangerous, feline grin. She takes a step forward. Katherine grips her by the elbow. 

"Let's talk a walk," she seethes, and shoves her out of the study. 

"Who are you?" Sam demands over Katherine's shoulder. The mystery woman blinks. When she opens her eyes...they're black.

"Sam!" Katherine grips the demon by the throat and shoves her against the wall.

No effort.

The demon slaps a hand over Katherine's. "Think twice before going for that holy water," she snarls.

"Give me one reason why I should!" Sam is rifling through Katherine's backpack on the floor. 

"I'm here to help you," the demon seethes. 

Katherine laughs, Sophia and Julien in the backyard forgotten. Safe, for the moment. Maybe the demon doesn't even know they're here. 

God, if Chris and Charlie walk in—

"God's honest truth," the demon says, boring into Katherine's skull. "Or whatever."

"You're a demon," Sam snarls.

"Don't be such a racist," the blonde sighs, pushing at Katherine's locked out elbow. "Can you get your attack mutt off of me? I'm here because I want to help you."

"Start talking," Katherine snaps. "Those murders? What was the demon trying to cover up?"

"I don't know," the demon chipperly answers.

"What happened to my mother?" Sam asks.

"I honestly don't know."

Katherine grits her teeth. Everything...everything in her body is on high-alert. Her fingers ache, twitch for a bit of rope, some spray paint to lock this bitch down. Her tongue wants to rip out an exorcism. 

But if she knows something about the way Mary died...

"That's what I'm trying to find out," the demon continues, looking at Sam, seemingly content with Katherine's fingers an ounce of pressure away from crushing her trachea. "All I know is, it's about you."

That grip loosens. "What?" The hunters demand.

The demon scoffs. "Don't you get it, you big lug? It's all about you! What happened to your mom, what happened to her friends—they're trying to cover up what he did to you." Katherine risks a glance to Sam. "I want to help you."

"Why?" Katherine demands. 

Green eyes level with hers. "I have my reasons," she purrs. "Not all demons are the same, kitten."

"Don't call me that," she snarls. 

"I just wanna help you from time to time," the demon sings, glancing to Sam. "And if you let me, there's something in it for you, too."

"What could you possibly—"

"I can help you save your brother."

Katherine's hand loosens on the demon's neck. Her pulse slows. Maybe her heart stopped.

Those green eyes, so feline, glitter.

✕

Chris has the grill fired up. Sophia is at the stove, Charlie is out back with Chris. The hunters are convened in the study. Again.

And Dean is trying to keep his voice down.

"I mean, the second you find out this Ruby chick is a demon, you go for the holy water!" He hisses, red-faced, neck all veiny, eyes looking like they may pop out of his skull. "You don't chat!"

Katherine scoffs and rolls her eyes. "No one was chatting, Dean," she mutters. 

Dean turns on her, eyes hard. "Oh yeah? Then why didn't you send her ass back to hell, Doc?"

"Because I told her not to," Sam snaps. "Because she said she might be able to help us!"

"How?" Dean asks. Sam grits his teeth. Katherine's jaw flexes, blue eyes blazing as she looks at Sam. "No, really, Sam—how could she possibly help us?"

"She said she could help you!" Sam explodes. Katherine glances to the door. "She said she might be able to get you out of the crossroads deal."

For a moment, Dean is stunned beyond words. Just a moment. He glances to Katherine. Back to Sam. Something like a smile pulls at his lips.

"What is wrong with you?" He asks. "She's lying! You've gotta know that, don't you?" A moment of silence lapses between the three. Dean rubs at his mouth and starts pacing. "What else did she say?" No one answers. He stops and looks at Sam. "Dude?"

"Nothing," Sam replies. 

Dean looks at Katherine. She rolls her eyes. "No-thing," she reiterates. "We're not idiots, Dean! We're not talking about trusting her, we're talking about using her!" Hard blue eyes swing to Sam. "Though now she knows about this place and I swear I wanna cuff you into the next decade, Winchester, because we have to ward this whole goddamn house!" 

"Katherine's a demon expert and not even she knows anything about what's going on out there," Sam says, turning his attention to Dean. "We don't know where they are, what they're doing...Hell, we don't even know what they want! Now Ruby knows more than we will ever find out on our own."

Dean stares at his brother for a second. "Are you okay?"

Katherine rolls her eyes.

"Yes, I'm fine," Sam snaps. "Why are you always asking me that?"

There's a knock on the office door. The three hunters, chests heaving, turn to it as whoever is on the other side hesitantly opens it up.

Then a cell phone starts to ring. 

"Not mine," Katherine mutters. 

"Me either," Sam says. Charlie is looking at the three hunters pat themselves down. When Dean figures out it isn't coming from him, three pairs of eyes shoot to Katherine's backpack sitting on the office chair. Charlie follows their gaze. 

"Whose phone is in there?" Katherine asks, starting towards it. 

"Dad's," Dean says, a little breathless. She quickens her step towards it. "I keep it charged in case one of his old contacts calls."

Katheirne flips the phone open and answers, not at all pleasant. "Hello." It takes Charlie aback. "I am...Edgar Casey's wife..." She squints her eyes at Dean, who shrugs. Then her eyes bug, and she scrambles for the notepad. "No, no, no, don't call the police. We'll—we'll handle it. Can you just lock it back up for us? Thanks. And I—I don't have the address book on me...can you—perfect, thank you." Charlie watches her lie and take notes. When she's done, she turns to the Winchesters. "Your dad has a container in New York?"

"What?" Dean asks.

"Outside of Buffalo."

"No way."

"Someone just broke into it." She sits on the edge of the desk and drums her manicured fingernails on it. She and Sophia went to the salon earlier today. 

Dean looks at his watch. "How far you think it is from here?"

Katherine does a little mental math. "Yale is fifteen hours from here, Buffalo is around six from Yale...24 hours, with traffic?"

Charlie blinks. "You're...you're going to New York."

Dean presses his lips together. "Sorry, Charlie."

"You guys just got here," he breathes out a little laugh.

"There's a demon war going on out there, Quarterback," Dean hums. "And my old man's lockup just got broken into."

"You think demons did it?" Katherine asks.

Dean shrugs and glances to Sam. "Anything can happen, I guess."

Katherine hated how her visits home always seemed to be a whirlwind. And it always sucked, because she never knew when she'd be coming back.

If.

She's asleep in the back seat of the Impala before long. 

She sits on the other side of a pristine white room, but it's dark. Bleak light filters in through a few narrow floor-to-ceiling frosted glass panels on either side of the room.

The multi-toned blonde ponytail is unmistakeable, the high posture of her shoulders. And when she turns her head, her face is so easily recognized from her profile. The prominence of her cheekbone, the hollow of her cheek, the shadow underneath the sharp jaw and over the long, slender neck. Then her blue eyes turn on Katherine, and it sends ice through her veins. For a split second, she wonders if this is what she looks like when she hunts. Deadly. Cold. 

Powerful.

The woman rises to her full height and turns around in the chair to look at Katherine. She crosses her arms.

"Well aren't you the fairest of them all," Katherine hums. Katherine 2.0 smirks her in silence, ears pulling a bit, and the corner of her mouth turns slightly downward. "This is actually a new one—kind of." She stares at the eyes. "No yellow. How refreshing."

"Listen, smartass," 2.0 says, straightening out a bit. "We need to talk." Katherine raises a brow, and her mirror image starts towards her. When she steps out from the shadows, the eyes are yellow, and suddenly, it isn't her face. Not the one she's used to seeing. This has a twist of arrogance to it, a kind of bravado-type trickery. Very showy. Katherine can be a dick sometimes, sure, and perhaps she was arrogant. But not in this way.

Not like Yellow Eyes.

"That Ruby girl?" Yellow Eyes hums, beginning to circle Katherine. It's slow, like a stalk, but not aggressive. Leisurely. She clicks her tongue and slowly shakes her head. "Bad news."

"Kind of figured that was the rule of thumb for demons."

"You know, Dean's gonna wind up like this," Yellow Eyes hums. "Black-eyed and shredded soul...it brings a tear to my eye." She jams her hands in her jeans pockets, lips pursed as she rocks up onto her toes. "He's going to rot, and what are you doing? Not looking for a way to stop it, that's for damn sure," she scoffs. "You don't even care."

"I can't help him if he doesn't want to help himself," Katherine says through her teeth. "And you know what? It isn't just my decision. If that crossroads demon is telling the truth, Sam's life is on the line, too!"

"You're gonna let Dean go to Hell! What, Katherine Donovan suddenly doesn't have enough will, she isn't stubborn enough to fight for what's hers?" The demon scoffs, the eyes fading from an opaque yellow to a deep pool of azure. "You're about as mindless and obedient as an attack dog."

Katherine lunges, but the mirror of herself disappears before she can blink. Then there's the lightest of shoves on her shoulder, an aggressive tap, and she whirls around to face two eye-level yellow dots and a haunting crooked smile. "You're not still mad about our time together, are you?" Katherine grips the demon's jacket collar and throws her up against the wall. "You are."

"I want you out of my head," she snarls.

Yellow Eyes grins. "No can do, cupcake. There's this little piece of damaged brain somewhere in here," the demon lightly hums, running her fingers through the hair over Katherine's scalp. "Lingering...hooked, like in the mouth of a fish. Forever. We're not breakin' up any time soon."

"What's your game, huh?" Katherine demands. "You don't care about Dean."

"No, you're right. In fact, it would be better for me if you and Sam just went off the rails," she chuckles. "But, believe it or not, I do have some humanity left in me." In an awkward maneuver, Yellow Eyes lays a hand over her heart and pouts her lower lip. "Saying all demons are selfish savages, is...well, quite frankly racist, but perhaps it's true—"

"Shut up!" Katherine snarls. "If you know how to get Dean out of his deal and keep Sam safe, I wanna know about it!"

Yellow Eyes grins. It's the same smirk Katherine would wear, but the eyes make all the difference. There's malice in those cloudy gold eyes. "It seems you've caught me in a charitable mood." Katherine's upper lip twitches, not entirely curling. "It's very simple, really."

"Talk!"

"Fine, fine." Yellow Eyes sighs heavily. "All work and no play makes Kitty—" Katherine draws a knife she didn't know she had and presses it against the demon's throat. Yellow Eyes purses her lips, disgruntled, but doesn't let it show on the rest of her face. "Like I said, it's simple. Trade your soul for Dean's. Ensure his protection with another deal."

Katherine's eyes narrow. "A deal," she deadpans. Yellow Eyes nods. "You want me to sell my soul to you scum—"

"It's not always your way or the highway, sweetheart. What better way to say, "I love you" than to subject your soul to eternal hellfire?" Yellow Eyes lightly shrugs. "It's such a romantic notion, really." Yellow Eyes tilts her head to the side. "You know Lover Boy'd do it for you," she hums. "Oh, but poor Charlie."

Katherine shakes her head. "Is there another way?"

"Nope."

"I want you to be honest—"

"Sweet Cheeks, I'm as honest as a demon's ever been." She flashes another smile, broad and white. 

Katherine tenses. "Where is my family?"

Yellow Eyes clicks her tongue and shakes her head. "That I can't help you with."

The huntress's brow furrows and her eyes narrow. "Why?" She demands.

The demon laughs. "Oh," she sighs. "I thought you were brighter than this, KD, I really did. I'm in your brain." Those yellow eyes melt away again, but they still have the same cold, superficial appearance. And with that, the demon disappears, and Katherine flies up in the back seat of the car.

It's daylight. There's construction along the highway the Impala flies down, the four-lane, two-way blacktop lined with trees. In the front seat, Sam is out like a light, head resting on top of the seat. Katherine's eyes shift to the rearview mirror, where Dean is already intensely gazing at her.

"You okay?" He asks.

Katherine rubs the heels of her palms against her temples. "Have I been out the whole time?" She croaks.

"Uh-huh," Dean hums with a nod, running his tongue over his lower lip, shifting his blue-green eyes back to the road, still holding the same intense worry. "You even missed the changing of the guard. He took the wheel for a couple hours." Then his brow lightens up, and he's back to his usual semi-brooding. "Sammy and I were gettin' worried that maybe you slipped into a coma." Then he frowns. "Why do we say slipped into a coma?"

Katherine shakes her head, as if to clear it, and stares out of the window, the passing greenery.

Make another deal. Duh.

Katherine practically lunges for her backpack. Strange to think she was a college student last year. So much can change in just a day...

She reaches for her pen and her journal, the one Sam got for her birthday last year, and starts to write. Dean glances up every few seconds to track her. Her brow is furrowed, eyes pinned to the page in concentration.

17 June 2007

John Winchester's storage container was just broken into. S & D don't know anything about it. Buffalo, NY. We're checking it out.

She releases a breath through thinly-pursed lips.

Another dream about Yellow Eyes. There's a way to save Dean—make another deal.

She snaps the leather journal shut and jams it into her backpack.