SEASON 1, EPISODE 20

"You," John's voice came out in a low growl, his snarl pointed at Mara. "You're no Elkins."

The tension in the Impala had spiked the moment John Winchester got in. Mara imagined that a portion of the tension had arisen due to the complex relationship, but she knew that most of it was lying in the air between John and herself. She recognized his dark eyes and the tiredness they contained, the tiredness that claimed he was ready to be done with his search for Azazel, and she recognized the blistering fire that lied just behind the exhaustion. It was the same fire he'd passed on to Kat, and it was the same flame she'd seen when she'd first met him. Surely he remembered her from when he'd attempted to trap Azazel and Meg. She'd fled before he could find out she was a reaper, but not before he'd discovered that she was working with the demons he despised so fiercely.

John's hand shot to his hip, his fingers curling around the hilt of a knife that was strapped to his belt. He whipped it out and held it to Mara's neck, his eyes blazing with a fury that made Mara's skin crawl, his aggressive movements causing each of the Winchesters to shout for their dad to stop.

Kat and Dean were the first to try and stop John from slicing a wedge into Mara's throat. Kat slapped her hands against her father's shoulders and pushed against him with every bit of strength she had, and Dean gripped John's wrist, trying to pull it away from Mara's neck without rubbing the blade against it.

"Let go!" John bellowed, shaking off his children's hands and shoving Dean back into the driver's seat. "She's a demon! I had your mother's murderer in a trap, and she was one of the demons that came running to help him!"

All of a sudden, as if John's words were a tranquilizer to his children, all movement in the Impala ceased. Kat's cries for John to put the knife away quieted. Dean's labored breathing, a byproduct of his tussle with John, got caught in his throat. Mara refused to meet his gaze, even as Sam spoke up, asking if what John said was true.

Mara's heart was pounding in her chest, and it was unlike any sensation she'd ever experienced. It wasn't the same sort of pounding that happened whenever her hand accidentally brushed Dean's, or when his buoyant gaze met hers. It was a pounding that rang the bell of death. A pounding that, though it seemed loud to her own ears, gave a quiet warning of what would happen if she didn't say something. If she didn't try to defend herself against John's words.

Her first instinct was to flick his knife away from her. She could do it with almost no effort at all. Telekinesis, one of the many abilities a reaper possessed, was something Mara could do with just one twitch of her pinky finger. Be that as it may, she doubted using her powers would make her situation go away any faster. She'd abandoned Azazel and Meg in their devil's traps because she hadn't wanted John to find out she was a reaper, and her contract with Azazel wasn't something she wanted the Winchester children to learn about, so it didn't seem like the wisest decision to make her identity known. Using telekinesis would be no better broadcasting her true identity to the Winchesters.

"I...I'm not a demon," Mara stammered. "I was possessed, I swear. A demon possessed me."

John held out his hand, a silent request of sorts to his children, and Dean answered by placing a miniature canteen in John's hand. John lowered the knife from Mara's neck long enough to splash the contents of the canteen on Mara's face, and he clipped the blade back to his belt as he huffed, "She's telling the truth. She's no demon."

Mara frantically wiped the drops of water - holy water, undoubtedly - and stared in wonder as the water simply rested on her fingers. She'd always thought holy water was harmful to reapers. Granted, she'd never come into contact with it before, but it had always seemed obvious that the thing that could hurt a demon would be able to hurt her as well. Fortunately for Mara, it appeared her assumptions about the liquid had been wrong.

Of course, the Winchesters already knew she wasn't a demon. They knew that the blood that ran through her veins didn't belong to a human, demon, or monster. It belonged to a reaper, and surprisingly, her blood was a secret the Winchester children were willing to keep. If it hadn't been, they would've told John of her true identity already.

"I told you, she's an Elkins," Dean snapped as he snatched his canteen back from his father's grasp.

"Then why was she with Yellow Eyes?" John asked, throwing a hand up in exasperation.

"A demon possessed her," Kat began. If Mara hadn't been so terrified that the Winchester children might grow suspicious, given the information John had just uttered about her association with Azazel, she would've smiled. Even though Mara's statement about being possessed by a demon had been a complete lie and Kat knew it, she was weaving more false tales to save Mara from John's wrath. Kat leaned forward to make eye contact with John as she added, "The demon was working with Yellow Eyes, and it used her body as a vessel to carry out his work."

Mara nodded. "It left my body when it saw that you had Azazel trapped. As soon as it left, I ran."

"And you expect me to just believe you?" John asked. Though the fire in his eyes had dimmed some, a few chilling flames still flickered.

Mara shrugged. She didn't expect him to believe her, she just desperately wanted him to. So desperately, in fact, that she decided to put on a confident guise in hopes that it would sway his negative opinions of her. "You poured the holy water on me, didn't you?"

John leaned back in his seat. A gust of air passed between his lips as he huffed, his eyes passing over each of his children. Mara didn't know if it part of her wanted to hope or if it was really happening, but it seemed like John Winchester was believing her lies. Or, at least, pretending to. Mara didn't think anyone could lie to John for too long without getting caught.

Yet, a few moments later, Mara could only assume he believed her as he mused, "An Elkins, huh? I didn't know Daniel had any family left."

Mara nodded. "I'm his, uh..."

"His daughter," Dean piped up. "Mara started looking for him as soon as she found out, and that was when the demon possessed her. By the time it left her, it was too late. Daniel was already gone."

John grunted in understanding. His gaze shifted to land on Mara, and she refrained from squirming under his watch. She knew, without even really knowing John, that his behavior was too nonchalant for the situation they were in. So why was he entertaining their conversation? Did he know they were lying, and he was just seeing how long they could maintain the lie? Or did he really believe that Mara was some long-lost daughter of Daniel Elkins?

"It just doesn't seem right," John said, his brow furrowing. "That Daniel would have a daughter and not tell me, I mean."

A nervous chuckle escaped Dean's lips. It was unlike him to act so uneasy. In the months she'd spent watching the Winchesters, Dean had never been nervous about anything. He was always confident and bold, loud and boisterous, like a peacock that knew of its beauty and wanted to exhibit its feathers and boast about it. But now, as he was having to churn up lies on the spot for the sake of a reaper, he seemed to have lost the key to his confidence.

"Yeah, well," Dean began, shooting a look at Sam and Kat that said 'Why aren't you helping?' "Daniel didn't know about her. He ganked the monster that was chasing Mara's mom, and after that...well...you know..."

"Let the girl speak for herself, Dean," John laughed.

Mara winced. She had to speak for herself? Before her contract with the Winchesters, she hadn't lied once in her life. How was she supposed to do it now, when her life was on the line?

Luckily, Mara recognized the tale Dean was telling. In her short time with the Winchesters, she'd seen countless stories like it. The Winchesters would save someone from a monster, the victim would express their gratitude, and one of the boys - usually Dean - would return the favor by spending the night with the woman he saved.

'It shouldn't be too hard,' Mara thought. 'To play along and pretend I'm the result of a similar circumstance.'

John's piercing eyes turned to bore into Mara, his tone camoflauging a layer of harsh suspicion as he said, "He was a good man. It's a shame he left so soon."

"Yeah," Mara answered, her enthusiastic nod turning into a slower, more somber one as Kat's cringing told her enthusiasm wasn't the way to go. Apparently she should've behaved in a more sorrowful manner as a reaction to John's comment. She tried to ignore the confusion that masked John's face as Dean chuckled and noted, in an attempt to mend Mara's mistake, "They didn't know each other that well."

"Yeah, he was basically a ghost."

Dean's eyebrows shot up, and his eyes turned up in amusement. It was only then that she realized a subliminal message lied in her statement: Daniel Elkins was a ghost now, and she'd just accidentally made a joke about it. Sam's shoulders even shook with the laugh he was trying to contain - not at the insensitive joke Mara had made, but at the fact that she'd made it at all. Mara wasn't one to make cruel puns, and the one she'd made was so cruel that Dean himself wouldn't have even dared say it.

John rose an eyebrow and shook his head at his son's suppressed laughter. "Seems like it."

John held his hand out in Mara's direction. Her brow furrowed. Did he mean to slap her? To strike her for being possessed by a demon? She'd thought demon possession was a faultless crime on the victim's part, but perhaps she'd assumed wrongly. When a deep, throaty laugh emanated from John's lips and he said, "You're supposed to shake it," Mara breathed a sigh of relief. So he hadn't meant to strike her - holding his hand out had been a gesture of peace.

She took wrapped her thin fingers around his open hand and shook it, a smile creeping onto her face as John stated, "Welcome to the family, Mara."

Her smile wavered when John looked away. By the time the Winchesters had moved on to conversation about vampires and monsters, her smile had faded completely. She had to admit, it felt good to be welcomed by John, but that didn't excuse the fact that she was being welcomed because of a lie. The only reason John accepted her was because he thought she was an Elkins, a relative of his close friend.

It seemed too cruel to be true that her acceptance wasn't real. It was based on a foundation of sand, its base as unreliable as the false truths it was built on.

Dean turned his key in the ignition and revved the Impala's engine, and with a quick glance in the rearview mirror at Mara, he mouthed, 'Are you okay?' Mara nodded, and Dean smiled. He'd taken her nod as affirmation that she was okay.

She wasn't.