The next few weeks were quiet for the four, and while Juniper almost found that relaxing, Danielle and the Winchesters seemed a bit suspicious about it, practically on edge as they searched for new cases anywhere in the country. Until then, it was long drives and a different motel almost every few days as they read over local newspapers and checked from Bobby to see if he found something. Not only that, but also finding more about Juniper and her abilities was now a priority, despite not having any leads on it and also with Juniper still not knowing any more about Yellow Eyes, which only frustrated her more, but didn't press on about it to the others.

However, that began to change as Juniper shot awake from her bed one night in some random motel, gasping and sweating from a nightmare, her head beginning to pound. She hadn't had one in so long that she just about forgot what they did to her afterwards, and now that she was out of her medication, it only made them worse to deal with.

She made an attempt to calm herself down, looking for Danielle, only to find her not in the room. As she tried to not focus on the headache, she got out of bed to grab a piece of paper and pen from somewhere. Even in her frightened state, all she could do was hurry to write down what she saw before it was completely erased from her brain. She was frustrated over the fact that the police station in Baltimore took her journal as evidence for Eric's murder, wishing she had it with her. Finally, in the drawer between the beds, she pulled out a piece of paper and the pen next to it, writing down what she could remember on the floor.

November 17th, 2006

There are men blocking the road, all waiting around with weapons in their hands and two trucks behind them. Dani shoots, an explosion follows. Dean's somewhere else with some other people that I don't recognize. It looks like a medical clinic.

"Nobody's shootin' my brother or my friend under any circumstance!"

Guns go off again.

Juniper's hand began to shake as she finished jotting down the bits and pieces that she saw. Panting, she could already feel her chest getting tight, the hard lump in her throat as she tried her best to not cry or think about what other terrible things were to go wrong in her vision.

Suddenly, she heard the key in the lock as it clicked, in which Danielle came in, a pack of cigarettes in her hand, along with a confused expression on her face.

"Junie?" she spoke up. "What are you doing on the floor?"

Sniffling, Juniper looked up at Danielle and almost opened her mouth to speak, but she quickly closed her eyes as she started to whimper.

"Hey, what's wrong?" Danielle was quick to get down next to Juniper, her eyes turning concerned. "Junie, talk to me."

Juniper, still unable to get the words out, handed Danielle the piece of paper in her lap, watching as she read it over. It was strange knowing that this would be the first time anyone other than Eric or Dr. Ziegler would help Juniper deal with these nightmares, even stranger that it was with people that didn't think she was crazy, especially when Sam had to go through the exact same thing.

"So this is what you saw?" Danielle questioned once she was done looking through what Juniper wrote.

"Yeah," she replied, nodding her head.

"And do you think someone actually got shot?"

"I don't know. I hope not." Juniper ran her fingers through her hair nervously, leaning back on the bed. "Dani, what if it was one of us that got hit?"

"Don't think like that," she said. "We don't know for sure what happened, and for all we know, maybe Sam--"

Before she could finish her sentence, the door flew open, revealing a frantic Dean and Sam standing in the frame.

"You know, knocking would've been polite," Danielle commented. "One of us could have been naked."

"Yes, because being polite is right up your alley, ain't it?" Dean retorted, ignoring the second half of her statement, then looked over at Juniper. "You had a vision, too, didn't you?"

Juniper nodded again, her eyes shifting towards the younger brother. "What about you, Sam?"

"Yeah, same," he responded. "What did you see?"

The girls stood up and led the boys to the table, all sitting down for what appeared to be a late night meeting. Juniper handed the boys the paper with her entry written on it, to which it was nearly a déjà vu moment as she remembered the first day she met the boys.

"So you're sure this is what you saw." Dean stared at Juniper.

She nodded her head. "I'm sure. But it was all in fragments."

"And you didn't see me at all?" Sam asked.

"No," she answered, shaking her head.

Dean looked over at Sam. "This must be the same case," he stated.

"If you want to call it that, sure," Sam said.

"What did you see?" Juniper asked him.

"There was a dark room, some people. And a guy tied to a chair," he explained.

"And I ventilated him?" Dean inquired.

"Yeah, you thought there was something inside him."

"Like what?" Danielle interjected.

"A demon? Was he possessed?" Dean added.

"I don't know," Sam responded, shrugging.

"Well, all your weirdo visions are always tied to the yellow-eyed demon somehow. Was there any black smoke? Did we try to exorcise him?"

"No. Nothing. You just plugged him. That's it."

Dean leaned back in his chair. "Well, I'm sure I had a good reason."

"I sure hope so," Sam muttered.

"What does that mean?" Dean inquired, narrowing his eyes. When Sam didn't say anything, he continued. "I'm not gonna waste an innocent man."

"I never said you would," Sam protested.

"Yeah, we know you, Dean," Danielle intervened. "You're not always reckless."

"Thanks for the support," Dean retorted sarcastically.

"Hey, that's what I'm here for," Danielle replied.

Sam sighed. "Okay, look, we don't know what this is. But whatever it is, that guy I saw in the chair is a part of it. So, let's go find him and see what's what."

Juniper nodded her head in agreement, along with Danielle. Whatever she and Sam saw had to be important, and if it was tied to the yellow-eyed demon, then this was a step in the right direction for everyone.

Dean, however, still annoyed by Sam's implied accusation, huffed a sigh. "Fine. Where are we going?"

*******

The four were all packed and checked out of the motel and headed out in the middle of the night, arriving in River Grove, Oregon some time in the afternoon. Through the cloudy sky and light fog, it seemed to be a quiet town with not much to do. Still, there were quite a few locals as the main part of town looked somewhat busy with small shops open for business. It didn't look like anything out of the ordinary was happening here so far, but only time would tell until Sam and Juniper's visions came true.

Danielle pulled up her car right behind Dean's Impala and in front of the medical clinic that Juniper saw in her vision, shutting the engine off. Before she or Juniper could get out of the car, the boys were out first as they were walking across the street, and Dean motioned them to stay put for a moment, which only made Danielle get annoyed.

"I swear, he can be so aggravating," she commented.

"Aren't all boys like that?" Juniper pointed out.

"Yeah, but this is Dean Winchester we're talking about. He's different."

Juniper giggled. "That's true."

Danielle smiled a bit, then turned to face Juniper. "How are you feeling? You know, after last night."

"I'm fine," she said. She was still a bit on edge about it, and getting no sleep on the way to the town didn't help.

"You know you can talk to me about anything, right?" Danielle shot her a concerned look.

Juniper looked over at Danielle, nodding her head. "Yeah, I know." Of course, she was still trying to get over the incident with the demon in Baltimore and Henderson, but it was becoming easier to look her in the eye without seeing someone else that wasn't her.

"I mean, sure, we're still getting to know each other, but us girls gotta stick together, right?" Danielle raised her eyebrows. "Plus, we literally share motel rooms, so it's almost like we have sleepovers every night."

Juniper chuckled. "Only without the pillow fights and childish games."

"Well, we can at least start adding the snacks and late night gossiping," Danielle said, grinning. "I've seen enough movies to know the basics of what goes on at sleepovers."

The brunette narrowed her eyebrows. "You didn't go to sleepovers growing up?" Juniper couldn't remember the many times she had gone to sleepovers during her childhood, going all the way up to her senior year when she started staying over at Eric's house at times and vice versa (of course, both of their parents didn't know about it).

Danielle shook her head. "That's what happens when you grow up with a paranoid grandma and mom who also happen to be witches." She paused as she pulled out her pack of cigarettes. "As you can tell, Junie, like anyone who grew up knowing about the supernatural, I didn't have a normal childhood like you did."

As Juniper watched Danielle step out of the car and light a cigarette, leaning against the door, she felt bad for her. She should have realized that hunters like her and the Winchesters didn't have the same childhood as she did, missing out on things such as going on family vacations or getting drunk at high school parties. It was all about perspective, something Juniper now knew she needed when it came to her and hunters like Danielle and the Winchesters.

Juniper got out of the car and went around the other side to stand next to Danielle, her back pressed on the door. "I'm sorry," she blurted.

Danielle shot her a confused look. "For what? The sleepover thing? Don't worry about it. I don't think anyone liked me enough to invite me, anyway." She blew some smoke into the air. "If you haven't noticed, I can be kind of a bitch."

"To Dean, maybe."

Danielle smiled at that as she was finishing up her cigarette, throwing the butt on the damp ground and stomping on it, as the boys made their way back across the street.

"Got a lead?" Danielle asked.

"Yeah, the guy in the chair from my vision is Duane Tanner," Sam explained. "According to the man across the street, he's a good guy."

"Yet you saw him tied to a chair," Juniper spoke up. "He must've done something if it came down to that."

"And Dean blowing his brains out," Danielle added.

Dean rolled his eyes. "Come on, let's go find this dude and see what's up."

So the four headed onto the sidewalk and began to make their way to find Duane Tanner. Just as they were passing the medical clinic, Sam bumped into the telephone pole, in which he turned around and stopped to look at it, and it seemed like something inside him clicked.

"Hey," he said to the others, pointing at the carving in the wood.

"Croatoan?" Dean spoke up.

"Yeah," Sam replied, his eyes almost wide. "Roanoke. Lost Colony. Ring a bell?"

"Uh, nope," Dean replied.

"Dean, did you pay any attention to history class?"

Dean reluctantly gave his brother a small nod. "Yeah. The shot heard 'round the world. How bills become laws..."

"That's not school. That's Schoolhouse Rock."

The girls grinned and giggled at this.

Dean merely shrugged in response, ignoring the girls behind him. "Whatever."

Sam continued on, despite his brother's lack of history. "Roanoke was one of the first English colonies in America, the late 1500s."

Suddenly, it was as if Dean was starting to remember. "Oh, yeah, yeah, I do remember that. The only thing they left behind was a single word carved in a tree: Croatoan."

"Weren't there a lot of theories about that?" Juniper inquired.

Sam nodded. "Yeah, Indian raid, disease, but nobody knows what really happened. They were all just gone, wiped out overnight."

Dean couldn't help but scoff. "You don't think that's what's going on here, do you?"

"I mean, whatever June and I saw in our heads, it sure wasn't good," Sam responded, looking back at the word. "But what do you think could do that?"

"Well, I mean, like I said, all your weirdo visions are always tied to the yellow-eyed demon somehow, so..."

"Yeah, but what about Junie's?" Danielle intervened. "We have to assume that hers are also connected with Yellow Eyes, too, right?"

"Maybe," Dean answered, but Juniper could tell there was some doubt in his tone.

"I think we should get help," Sam suggested before Juniper could ask more about her visions and Yellow Eyes.

"We can recruit Bobby and Ellen for sure," Danielle added.

"Who's Ellen?" Juniper asked. "Another hunter?"

Danielle started to get a bit uneasy at Juniper's question, but nodded, anyway. "Yeah, another hunter."

Juniper didn't press on the subject, keeping a mental note to herself to ask Dean or Sam about Ellen later.

When Dean pulled out his cell phone, getting ready to dial the number, he furrowed his eyebrows in confusion. "I don't have a signal."

With concerned faces, the other three grabbed their phones to check, also not having any connection. Juniper wasn't able to check any more of her voicemails or text messages she had over the last few days from her parents and Nancy due to the lack of signal. Even though she wouldn't be able to respond to any of them, it was nice to read their words or hear their voices.

Dean went to check the nearest telephone booth, only to get the same result. "The line's dead," he said. "I'll tell you one thing, if I was gonna massacre a town, that'd be my first step."

"So what do we do now?" Danielle questioned. "Are we gonna go find this Duane guy and see what's up with him?"

"That's the only lead we got," Sam told her.

"Well, we better get a move on," Dean added. "Come on, we'll take my car."

Danielle groaned. "Great," she mumbled sarcastically.

The four piled into the Impala, heading down to Aspen Way, to which it ended up being a decent ride not too far from downtown. They were led to a house at the end of a dirt road, the atmosphere reminding Juniper of a remote cabin in the woods. Juniper was getting an eerie feeling the moment she stepped out of the car, and staring at the house in the middle of the fog wasn't helping.

"Junie and I will stay out here, see if we can find anything," Danielle told the boys as they headed up to the house.

The two began to look around the yard for anything out of the ordinary, only to find it empty. They were getting closer towards the house as Dean and Sam were now talking to a boy at the door. Juniper swore he looked familiar, but she couldn't get a good glimpse of him with the Winchesters in her way. A man showed up beside the teenager not even a minute later, and before they knew it, the father and son were closing the door, with Dean and Sam coming back down the steps.

"Well?" Juniper asked.

"Something ain't right," Dean told her. "Let's check around the house."

So the four circled around the side of the house, crouching down so that no one could see them through the window. What they saw only made their worries get worse at what they were seeing. A terrified woman, presumed to be the mother, was tied to a chair, her mouth gagged with a cloth. Using a kitchen knife, the father cut his son's own arm, letting the blood drip down onto a wound on the mother's shoulder.

"What the hell?" Dean whispered.

"This is bad, guys," Danielle commented.

Dean nodded his head in agreement. "Yeah, tell me about it. Alright, get your guns out," Dean stated. "Dani, Junie, you two stay out here in case someone tries to make a run for it."

With this being the first time Juniper needed to use her gun on a case, along with carrying a weapon on her, she was hoping to not screw up. She was feeling more nervous than ever.

The Winchesters headed back around front, with the girls hiding behind the Impala to get in a good spot to see each angle of the house in order to catch whoever wanted to make an attempt to escape.

"You good, Junie?" Danielle asked beside her.

Juniper nodded. "Yeah, I think so."

"Just follow my lead, okay? It'll be just how we practiced at Bobby's."

Only the targets are now actual people, Juniper thought.

All of a sudden, the sound of yelling came from the house, followed by gunshots, which got the two girls back into focus as they stood up with their own weapons ready in front of them, heading towards the house again. It was when glass shattered from one of the windows on the side they spotted the boy from before falling on the grass, scrambling to get up as Sam was at the broken window, his gun aimed towards the boy. But with his hesitation, the boy managed to get away and retreat into the woods.

"We'll go after him!" Danielle shouted, then shifted her attention towards Juniper. "Come on."

The girls dashed into the woods after the teenager, trying to not let his black hoodie disappear within the trees. Juniper could feel her heart racing and her legs burning as she and Danielle tried to keep up with the boy. While letting him go was an option, he was the only lead they had as to what the hell was going on in this town after what they witnessed through the window with his parents.

"You still see him?" Juniper called out to Danielle in front of her.

"I think..." Danielle began to pant, then slowed down her pace, finally coming to a stop. "He's gone."

Juniper just about ran into a tree as she halted to catch her breath as well. "Should we head back, then?"

Danielle shook her head. "They're probably going back to town now if someone got injured after hearing those gunshots in the house." She let out a sigh. "But the boys know that we'll be fine out here."

"Are you so sure about that?" Juniper asked.

Danielle laughed a little. "We're big girls, Junie. We can handle ourselves."

"Well, maybe you can, but I'm still new at all of this," Juniper stated.

"You're going to need a lot more confidence in yourself if you're gonna make it as a hunter," Danielle pointed out. "We'll work on that."

Juniper only hoped that she could be as fearless as Danielle and the Winchesters when it came to being a good hunter, but something she learned during her college years, there was always room for improvement, and that would only make her better.

The girls continued treading in the woods, moving past branches with leaves that only made their arms and legs itchy. They checked their surroundings every so often to get the reassurance that they were alone, for it was possible that the boy they were chasing after could still be lingering around somewhere, waiting to trap the two. When Juniper thought she heard something, she came to a stop.

"Did you hear that?" she asked.

Danielle couldn't help but let out a chuckle. "There are animals that live out here, Junie. It was probably a squirrel or something."

Feeling a bit at ease by that response, Juniper let it go and kept walking. "So what do you think happened back inside the house?"

Danielle exhaled. "Beats me. But if guns were fired in the house, then someone must've tried to attack Dean or Sam."

"Or maybe someone was after both of them," Juniper added.

"Yeah, maybe. Any kind of monster could've done that."

"So you think this is something you've dealt with before?"

Reluctantly, Danielle responded with, "I don't know."

It was Danielle's uncertainty that had Juniper even more worried with what was going on around here.

After a few more minutes of stepping on leaves and sticks, they came across a small ditch, where they spotted a hill just on the other side.

"Maybe there's a road up there?" Juniper suggested.

"There's only one way to find out," Danielle answered, jumping over the ditch.

Juniper was next, nearly tripping over her feet as she landed. Climbing up the hill was a battle due to the mud beneath them as they slipped every now and then. When they reached the top, they made it to the end of a bridge and onto the main road.

"Well, we better head back towards--"

"Freeze!"

The two spun around to see who the unfamiliar voice was, and they were quick to have their guns ready. It didn't take long for Juniper to notice that what she was seeing in front of her was how she pictured it in her vision.

There are men blocking the road, all waiting around with weapons in their hands and two trucks behind them.

"Dani..." she mumbled. "I saw this in my vision."

"Put your weapons down!" the same man from before yelled.

"How about you put yours down?" Danielle retorted.

Juniper's hands began to shake as she tried to keep a firm grip on her gun. Her breathing was now short, heart pounding and chest getting tight. When she thought the man shouted at them again, it sounded muffled, barely hearing anything else around her as her head became fuzzy. Suddenly, her legs collapsed, falling to the ground and dropping her gun.

That was when she heard the guns go off, then a loud boom to follow. Even though she didn't see it, Juniper knew exactly how it played out. With a ringing in her ears, she felt her eyes get heavy as all she saw was a fire in the distance before darkness consumed her.

*******

Juniper bounced her head up and down as she started to slowly regain consciousness. Her eyes were not as heavy as they were before, but she let out a groan as she lifted her head up all the way and hit it against a rough surface. All she could hear was the sound of crickets now that the ringing in her ears was no longer there.

The next thing she did was try to pull her hands closer to her side, only to struggle when pain hit her wrists and they weren't going as far as she wanted them to. When her eyes were fully open, she realized that she wasn't in the middle of the road with Danielle anymore in the middle of the afternoon, but tied to a tree instead, where the sky was now dark.

"What the hell?" she mumbled, frantically looking around.

"Junie?" Daniele called out across from her. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, you?"

"I'm managing."

Juniper tried to remain calm, but seeing the situation they were in, her anxiety was only going up. "What happened?"

"After you passed out those assholes grabbed us and here we are," she explained.

"What do they want with us?" Juniper asked.

"I don't know," Danielle replied, sounding worried.

"Oh, good, you're finally awake," the teenager from before approached the two, a small smirk on his face. "We haven't officially met. I'm Jake Tanner. You and your boyfriends were looking for my brother, Duane."

"He's not crazy like you, is he?" Danielle retorted.

Jake chuckled. "You really wanna talk about crazy? Have you met your friend here?" He pointed at Juniper. "Do you really think that car just blew up by itself?"

"Mechanical issues happen all the time," Juniper stated, trying to not sound so nervous.

"Not when the majority of us know how to fix up a car," he pointed out. "That wasn't just some mechanical issue."

"So what do you think it was, then?" Juniper inquired.

"You tell me," he replied, raising his eyebrows.

Juniper let out a shaky breath, quickly shaking her head. "I have no idea," she lied.

By the way Jake was still staring at her, it was obvious that he wasn't convinced. "Fine, then. Don't tell me." He turned back towards Danielle, cutting the rope that bound her hands, grabbing her with his one free hand, a knife in the other.

"What are you doing?" Juniper questioned, widening her eyes. "Let her go!"

"Shut it!" he snapped, then turned to Danielle. "Don't worry." He then took the knife to the palm of his hand. "Just relax..."

Before he could get any blood on her, Danielle used one of her legs to knock him to the ground, dashing towards Juniper to untie her. After struggling to get the knots undone, Juniper was free, and they were about to make a run for it.

"Not so fast!" Jake grabbed Juniper by the leg and brought her down to the ground with him.

"Junie!" Danielle screamed, about to take a hold of her hand when another figure intervened and seized her from behind.

Juniper felt a sting of pain as the knife glided against her leg, the blood running down her skin. She tried to pull her leg away, but he held her down, rubbing his bloody palm against her wound.

"Get off me!" Juniper yelled, using all of the strength she had to kick him in the face. Scrambling backwards, she did her best to get away from him, about to turn around to stand up when she heard a gun go off twice and saw Jake falling to the ground, though he looked unharmed.

"Junie!" Danielle helped her up with her free hand, their two guns in the other. "Come on!"

Juniper saw the other man from before lifeless on the ground, and she turned her head to focus on the road in front of them, limping her way out of the woods with Danielle by her side.

"We need to get to the medical clinic," Juniper told Danielle. "That's where Dean and Sam will be."

"Are you sure?" Danielle asked.

Juniper nodded her head. "That's what it looked like in my vision."

So the two managed to get back to the main road, where there was an abandoned truck next to the one that exploded from earlier. Danielle helped Juniper into the passenger's side, where she let out a cry of pain from how bad her injury was. She was still trying to figure out the point of Jake trying to bleed on her.

It didn't take long for Danielle to hot-wire the truck and speed off back into town. With her gun in hand, she slowed down as she got closer to the clinic, keeping an eye out on anyone scooping around.

"Are we almost there?" Juniper asked, adjusting in her seat.

"Yeah, just hang in there," Danielle said. "I think I see it."

When she parked the truck, she did one last check for anyone around, but saw no one. She hurriedly got out and helped Juniper back on her feet, quickly getting her inside the clinic, where the two were relieved to be safe inside somewhere.

"Help!" Danielle called out. "Help, we need a doctor!"

Dean was the first person they saw as he ran out to the lobby to open the door for the girls, looking almost relaxed to see them. "You girls okay?" he asked.

"It's a long story," Danielle told him. "But we survived, as you can tell."

"Who are they?" a young boy, assuming it was Duane Tanner, asked as he entered the lobby, with an older and darker man behind him, both of which Juniper remembered vaguely from her vision.

"Friends of ours," Dean replied. "We can trust them."

"Whoa," an older and darker man came out from behind Dean, pointing at Juniper's leg. "What's with her leg?"

Dean looked down at her wound, his expression more worried than ever. "Juniper, what happened to your leg?"

By the way he said her real name, she knew he was being serious. "That kid, Jake--"

"Wait, you saw my brother?" Duane interjected. "He did this to you?"

"Let her talk," Dean said in a stern tone, then turned back towards her. "Did he bleed on you?"

"What?" Danielle spoke up.

"Juniper, please tell me that he didn't bleed on you," he said, ignoring Danielle. His expression was desperate now.

Juniper hesitated, but with a confused look, she nodded her head. "Yeah, he did."

Defeated, Dean shook his head. "Shit," he muttered. "Dani, did he or anyone else bleed on you, too?"

"No, I don't even have any cuts on me," she replied. "But why does that matter?"

"It matters because that means she and that brother of his are infected," the older man stated.

Infected? Juniper thought.

"What the hell are you guys talking about? If this is some kind of sick joke--"

"Dani, you and Junie go into the exam room so the doctor can get a blood sample," Dean cut her off. "I'll explain everything."

Danielle gave Dean a puzzled look, but went along with what he said, anyway. Sam was sitting on a table with his own wound near his shoulder, barely looking up to see the girls walking in. Juniper started to feel scared as the female doctor inside was checking Danielle for any open wounds, then preparing to draw blood from Juniper's arm. She felt the anxiety come over her again as Danielle came over with gloves on and some medical supplies and started to clean the wound on her leg, the stinging sensation causing Juniper to his in pain.

"Dean, what's going on?" Juniper asked him as he entered the room.

Dean sighed. "It's a virus that people are spreading around."

"What kind of virus?" Danielle stepped in.

It looked as if he didn't want to even tell the two, but he did in a low voice. "A demonic virus."

Juniper thought she was going to pass out again at his response. She realized that Jake and his father were trying to spread it to others, including his own mother. Now, knowing that she was infected and she would eventually become one of them...

"I-I don't understand..." Juniper said as the doctor took her blood.

"Yeah, none of us do," Dean admitted. "Doctor, check my brother's wound again, would you?"

"What does she need to examine him for?" the man with dark skin asked. "You saw what happened?"

"Did the nurse's blood actually enter your wound?" the doctor asked Sam.

"Come on, of course it did!"

"We don't know that for sure," Dean protested.

"We can't take a chance," Duane added. "Right, Mark?"

"Yeah, and now with the girl in here infected, too, that's more of those things that'll only try to kill us," Mark stated. "You know what we have to do."

"Nobody's shootin' my brother or my friend under any circumstance!" Dean raised his voice.

There it was. Juniper was waiting for the guns to go off like before, like the way she had seen it happen.

"You were gonna shoot me!" Duane yelled.

"If you don't shut your pie hole, I still might!" Dean retorted.

"Dean, they're right," Sam finally spoke up. "I'm infected, and June is probably infected, too. Just give me the gun so we can--"

"Sam, no," Dani interjected. "There's no way in hell any of us are gonna let you or Junie do that."

"Exactly, so forget it," Dean added.

"Dean, we're not gonna become one of those things," he said.

"Sam, we've still got some time."

"Time for what?" Mark spoke up again. "Look, I understand he's your brother she's your friend, and I'm sorry." He pulled out a gun from his vest. "But I gotta take care of this."

Juniper gasped at the sight of the gun, moving backwards on the table.

Dean, with a hard expression and a protective stance, stepped in front of Sam and the girls. "I'm gonna say this one time. If you make a move on either one of them, you'll be dead before you hit the ground. You understand me? Do I make myself clear?"

"Dean!" Sam yelled.

"Then what are we supposed to do?!" Mark shouted angrily.

The tension quickly filled the room, and within the silence it gave everyone enough time to think over what they were going to do next. Juniper knew her options were limited, and only hoped Danielle was not met with the same fate as her. She wished things didn't end like this for her, not when there were still so many unanswered questions she had about herself or the fact that she wouldn't have the chance to tell her parents and Nancy goodbye. Then again, maybe it was for the best that they didn't know.

Finally, with sadness and defeat, Dean took out his car keys and threw them towards Mark. "Get the hell out of here," he said. "Take my car. You've got the explosives. There's an arsenal in there. You two go with him." He looked at Duane and then the doctor. "You got enough firepower to handle anything now."

"What about you?" Mark asked him.

When Dean didn't respond, it was then everyone realized what choice he was making.

"Dean, no," Sam said, his voice cracking. "You and Dani go with them. This is your only chance."

"You're not gonna get rid of us that easily," Dean retorted.

"No, he's right, man," Mark stated. "Come with us." When Dean didn't budge, Mark sighed. "Okay, it's your funeral."

"Wait," Danielle said, grabbing her keys as well and tossing them towards Duane. "Take my car, too."

"Dani, don't do this," Juniper pleaded, tears almost in her eyes.

"It's my choice, Junie, and I'm not leaving you or Dumb and Dumber over there behind," she said.

"Go, while you still can," Dean added.

With some hesitance, Mark and Duane were the first to head out, then the doctor was next.

"I'm sorry," she told them as she was about to exit the room. "Thanks for everything, Marshals."

"Oh, actually, we're not really marshals," Dean admitted.

Danielle rolled her eyes. "Oh my God," she whispered.

With a confused look, the doctor left the room. When it was just the four of them, Dean closed the door and locked it, and they were met with silence again.

That was until Dean huffed a sigh. "Just out of curiosity, who's Dumb and who's Dumber?"

"I think you already know that one," Danielle retorted.

"Well, thought I'd ask, anyway," he replied, though Sam and Juniper weren't amused by this. "Wish we had a deck of cards or a foosball table or something," he added with a chuckle.

"Dean, Dani, don't do this," Sam muttered, his voice cracking with watery eyes. "Just get the hell out of here."

"No way," Dean stated.

Sam was slowly becoming frustrated with his brother. "Give us our guns and leave."

Dean stared at him. "For the last time, Sam, no."

That was when Sam was at his last straw. He slammed his hand down on the table, but Dean was not phased by this at all.

"Junie, let's go find some more stuff in the other room for your wound, yeah?" Danielle suggested once she noticed the tension between the two boys was only going to get worse. "Come on, I got you."

So Juniper and Danielle headed out of the room and wobbled to the next exam room over. Juniper had her leg propped up on the table, watching Danielle gather some more supplies to treat her injury.

"Why are you two doing this?" Juniper asked.

"Because we care, that's why," Danielle told her. "And after all you've been through, there's no way we're leaving you here alone." She started bandaging up Juniper's leg.

"When I do become one of those things..." Juniper began to say, but the thought of the virus affecting her body soon only brought more tears to her eyes. "Dani, I don't wanna die."

Danielle, with a sad look on her face, pulled Juniper in for a hug, holding her tight. "It's okay, Junie."

But it wasn't okay. None of this was okay. This was the last place and situation Juniper wanted to be in. So she stayed in Danielle's embrace, realizing this was the last time she was comforted like this was back in Baltimore when she said goodbye to her parents at the diner.

Neither of them knew how long they stayed in their embrace, but it was interrupted all of a sudden by the sound of footsteps coming in the room.

"Sam?" Danielle spoke up.

"The town," he said. "It's empty."

"What?"

"Yeah, everyone's gone. Just up and vanished."

"So what does that mean for us?" Juniper asked.

He sighed. "We just have to wait and see what the doc finds in our blood."

It was then that Juniper felt a small amount of hope inside her, and now all she had to do was wait for the moment of truth in just a short amount of time.

*******

"Well, it's been five hours for the both of you," the doctor said to Sam and Juniper, looking up from her microscope.

"So what's the verdict?" Sam asked.

"Your blood's still clean," she stated. "I don't understand it, but I think you two dodged a bullet."

A wave of relief came over Juniper as she gave him a small smile, to which he did the same.

"But we were exposed," Sam said. "How could we not be infected?"

The doctor shrugged. "I don't know, but you're just not. I mean, when you compare it with the Tanner samples..." She looked back into the microscope for a moment. "What the hell?"

"What?" Sam questioned.

With a confused expression, she turned her head back towards the two "Their blood. There's no trace of the virus. No sulfur. Nothing."

Juniper didn't let any more of the virus linger in her head as she limped her way out of the clinic and out into the daylight with Sam's help. Dean was leaning against the Impala, while Danielle was smoking a cigarette nearby.

"Seriously? Not near Baby," Dean said defensively.

Rolling her eyes, she headed towards her own car, with Juniper following suit. A moment later, as Juniper was getting in the car with the window already rolled down, the doctor walked outside, conversing with Mark and Duane before they got inside the truck and drove down the road.

"Well, we sure had a long night," Danielle said with a chuckle.

Juniper scoffed. "Tell me about it." Pausing, she let out a sigh. "The doctor said Sam and I were clean."

Danielle widened her eyes in surprise. "Wow. No traces of the virus?"

"Nope," Juniper replied, shaking her head. "This was some weird case, huh?"

"The weirdest," Danielle agreed. "And to think we never figured out what the hell was going on in this town."

"Has that ever happened before?" Juniper inquired.

"It's rare, but yeah, it happens to the best of us," she answered, smoking one last puff before stomping what was left of the cigarette onto the pavement. "But this one...I don't know. This one's different. It just seems like there's more to this case with you and Sam somehow still living and breathing like normal after being exposed to whatever virus this was."

That only made Juniper even more defeated over this case as she was anticipating some answers in regards to Yellow Eyes. And when the four drove out of River Grove, it seemed as if they were further from the truth than ever before.

~~~~~~~

A/N: Well, this is long, oops, lol, but you can expect that for this story (sorry, not sorry).

So, what did y'all think of this chapter?

Comment, vote, more to come soon!

-A