Chapter 4: Family Business Is My Business Too

Sam wastes no time getting back on track with the man who killed him. Jake. Dean wants him to take it easy but Sam doesn't. I'm too numb to speak.

"Guess next time you'll stay out of the shine" Sam clucks at me

"Yeah, it was my fault" Dean smiles lightly, "I should've been watching him"

"Nah" I shrug, "I just need to start looking after myself" I say directly at Dean

"Don't be ridiculous." He says right back at me, "One of us will always be around to watch out for you"

"Until one of you won't" I shoot back granting no mercy

Sam is looking back and forth between us, he won't buy the Dean's drunk excuse for long, he's smarter than that, so I retreat to myself. I'm pissed and hurt by Dean but I won't put him on the spot.

Sam makes us take him to Bobby's house. He's shocked to see Sam too but he doesn't tell on Dean. He takes him outside to talk. When they come back inside a woman is with them, her name is Ellen and she's a friend of the family that I have never met before. She helps us figure out what the demon is up to.

We beat Sam's killer to the graveyard and ambush him when he arrives. He's surprised to see Sam, he tells him that he sliced through his spine and that he should be dead. I see Sam look at Dean and I know he knows the truth now but he focuses back on Jake.

"What are you smiling at you little bitch?" Dean asks Jake

My finger twitches on the trigger of the gun I'm pointing at him. I want to shoot him now and I don't understand why everyone is stalling.

"Hey lady" Jake says to Ellen, "do me a favor, put that gun to your head"

Ellen moves the gun to her head. Her whole body is trembling. I clench my teeth and look over at Dean just waiting for a sign that it's okay to waste this son of a bitch but he's just staring at Jake.

"Let her go" Sam commands him

"Shoot him" Ellen shakes

"You'll be mopping up skull before you get a shot off" Jake warns, "Everyone put your guns down"

"Not on your life, ass-hat" I growl

"Your choice" Jake sneers and everyone reluctantly drops their guns on the ground. I lower mine but don't drop it.

"Okay" He says, "Thank you" and then he makes a run for the door. Dean and Bobby rush to Ellen and move the gun just as it goes off. That's when I raise my gun and fire two shots into Jake's back, then Sam takes over and shoots him again and again until he falls on the floor. He begs for his life but Sam shoots him anyway. I wish I had been the one to finish him off instead.

The last time I see the yellow-eyed-demon again is the last time I see my father. Dean shot the demon square in the heart with Dad's special gun and Dad is released from hell. His spirit looks at me, and he smiles and for a long moment, I feel like he's proud. I smile back. I'm proud of him too. And then he vanishes in a flash of light.

Two weeks later I go on my first hunt without my father. All of the emotions I feel about Sam's death and resurrection and Dean's deal are channeled into this hunt. At least that's what I'm preparing for as I clean the guns and take inventory of bullets in the trunk of the Impala. There are two other hunters here with us; a married couple, friends of Bobby's. I catch myself looking at the woman, Tamara when she leans over or walks by me. There's something so compelling about her despite the fact that she's over twice my age; then I look at her husband Isaac and think that she can do better. Sam asks them questions about their relationship and how they got into hunting, I only half listen because I like Tamara's British accent but I want to make sure I don't make any mistakes with the weapons that Dean is trusting me with so I concentrate on those instead. Dean is flirting with a coroner on the phone. He makes a fake date and a face before he hangs up. I smile at him, he can smooth talk any lady even over the phone. Isaac and Tamara decide that they would rather not hunt with us. I don't care because I didn't want to include them anyway, that is until he accuses us of being the "damn fools who let the Devil's Gate get open in the first place"

"We didn't." I snap at him, "we were the damn fools who tried to stop it, of course you would know that if you were there but-"

"Evan" Bobby nudges me

"Tried to stop it?" Isaac says rounding on me, "from what I understand, it was your gun that opened the gate"

"You mean the gun that was ripped away from us from a demon more powerful than you can imagine?" I press

"I don't know kid, I can imagine a lot"

"How about you get your facts straight before you start pointing fingers"

"Evan!" Sam shot at me, "That's enough"

"You brought war upon all of us" Isaac glares back at me

"Okay, that's quite enough testosterone for now" Tamara says taking a hold of Isaac's sleeve and leading him away

We stare after them for a few moments and Sam turns to me "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine"

"It's just- I've never seen you get so worked up before"

"It's been a rough couple of weeks, Sammy" Dean answers for me

"And there are plenty more where that came from" Bobby says ominously and closes the curtains on the windows.

I'm so excited to be out during the daytime with my brothers on a hunt that I can hardly contain myself. I remind myself to walk and not run to keep up with their long strides and be professional like they are. Sam stands outside of the store where some lady had her head bashed in to a car windshield and Dean goes inside. I follow Dean. He zeros in on a pretty blonde haired girl and smirks.

"Hey Evan, why don't you go see if Sammy needs help with anything?"

"What are you going to do?"

"Uh…talk to a witness"

"Why can't I help you?"

"Because there are some talks I gotta handle all on my own" He's still smirking at the girl

"Are you going to hit on her?" I squint

"What?" He snorts, "No, I'm not gonna… Why don't you go see if Sammy needs help with anything?"

"Dean" I roll my eyes but he's already gone. I turn on my heel and head outside but Sam is coming in.

"Where are you going?"

"To talk to Dean"

"I thought you were checking out the crime scene"

"I just did" Sam nods

"But!" I gape, "that fast? I wanted to help"

"Come on" He says walking past me to Dean. I fold my arms tight against my chest and follow, I know I'm being bratty but I don't care. I want to help. Sam isn't any more pleased about Dean's flirting on the job than I am. Dean jokes about not having much time left and wanting to enjoy it.

"I'm sorry" Sam says

"Apology accepted" Dean grins. What an ass. From now on, I'm sticking with Sam.

We meet up again with Bobby and Dean at night outside of a bar and catch them up on what we've found. A guy who has been seemingly possessed after the night the Devil's Gate opened.

"Those demons that got out of the gate, they're gonna do all kinds of things we haven't seen" Bobby says

"You mean the demons we let out…" Sam corrected bitterly

"You mean the demons Jake let out." I counter

"Guys" Dean interrupts and we see the demon walking into the bar. Bobby tells that we should wait and see what we're dealing with before we go in there but as Tamara and Isaac get out of a car and head it, we see that waiting is no longer an option.

"Damn it!" Bobby shouts

"So let's go get them!" I say eagerly

"Alright. You stay in the car" He says and gets out of the car with Dean and Sam

"No way!" I yell coming after them

"Evan" Dean warns as they grab jugs of holy water from the trunk

"No." I say firmly, "I'm not a little kid anymore. You're not leaving me behind"

Dean pushes a gallon of holy water against my chest and I grab on to it. I can't believe that really worked!

"If you see something coming at you, don't hesitate." He says

"I know!" I beam and we all climb back into the car

"Wait, what are we doing? Why aren't we going inside?"

"We are" Bobby says gunning the engine. "Strap in"

I've killed before. I've shot a werewolf through it's heart with a silver bullet, stabbed a skin-walker to death, and sent a demon straight back to hell on hunts with Dean and my Dad. I didn't love it but it was worth it to have Dad give me a nod or have Dean pat my shoulder but I never experienced something like this before. The moment we smashed a hole through the bar wall, all four of us jumped out of the car and began sloshing holy water in every direction. I watched a man's skin smoke and heard it sizzle under my hand; it was the most invigorating experience of my young life. We made it in time to save Tamara but not Isaac, can't say I'm too bummed about that although I won't admit it out loud. She's been screaming for him like a lunatic since we brought her back to the house. She exorcizes the demon out of the one Dean kidnapped from the bar. Everyone is pretty upset and anxious but I'm excited. I just met one of the seven deadly sins in person, what other kid my age can say that? We're in big trouble and I know it but somehow it just doesn't register for me. Dean says something about sacrificing himself to buy us some time but Sam and Bobby shoot that idea down pretty fast. I don't know why Dean keeps rubbing in the fact that he gave his life away but I hate it. We had a pretty good barricade against the sins for a while until Tamara broke the salt line in front of the door when the possessed body of her dead husband started taunting her. I thought she was stronger than that, but I was wrong and the demons came in after us. When I reflect back on that night now, I realize that the sins split off and went after whomever they related most closely with. Lust went after Dean, Gluttony came after Bobby, Pride, went for Sam and Wrath and Vanity followed Pride. I wonder which of us Envy would have come for. They trapped Sam in a room, three of them against one. I charged in from behind to help, swinging a gallon of water over my head. Fat a lot of good it did, while Vanity doubled over in pain, Pride had me pinned against a wall.

"Did you really think that I was going to be overcome by you of all people? I don't know whether to find you adorable or insulting" He grins and turns his attention back to Sam. I start believing that I would watch my brother die again right in front of my eyes when a blonde woman wielding a knife storms in and starts slicing throats, and even though she saved our lives, there was something about her eyes that made me uneasy. She left as fast and easily as she came leaving Sam and I wondering if we had not just shared some kind of hallucination of the beautiful, strong, feminine creature.

Sam and Dean dig a pit in the morning and lay the corpses down in it side by side.

"Can I do the match?" I ask Dean after we douse them in salt and gasoline

"Knock yourself out" He shrugs and hands me the book. As I drop in the matches and the bodies ignite, I realize that these innocent people who are now dead because they got tangled up in this horrible web of paranormal misadventures are at peace. The two survivors will go through a lifetime of pain and suffering from the aftermath of what happened to them, the ones who are dead now are probably some place better now. My brother won't have the same luck, when he dies he's looking forward to an eternity of torture and pain.

"Evan" Sam calls me back to attention

"Come on, quit daydreaming. It's time to get this show on the road" Dean says. Sam is visibly upset and I know I've missed something between them. I climb into the backseat of the Impala and strap in when I notice that Bobby left without taking me with him.

"Where are we going next?" I ask hanging over the front seat