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SAM HAD CALLED Eleanor after a night of too much drinking. His brother was dead and no matter how much he drank or what he distracted himself with didn't make up for the fact that Dean was gone. It had been a week since his older brother was ripped to shreds by hellhounds and he couldn't bring himself to tell his sister what happened. That was until he was two drinks past his limit and wanting to talk to his remaining sibling.

Eleanor didn't answer three a.m. calls from just anybody but when she saw Sam's name flash across her screen, a sense of panic washed over her. The hunter calling her at this early morning couldn't be good. "Hello?" her voice was laced with sleep as she blinked away her exhaustion.

"Hey, it's Sam." His words were slightly slurred and Eleanor had a feeling he might be drunk.

"Yeah, I know, I have caller I.D. It's three in the morning, are you okay?"

"Dean's gone."

"What do you mean Dean's gone? Where'd he go?" Her mind was still fuzzy from sleep. Her brain couldn't connect the dots between the tone of Sam's voice and his words, so she assumed he just hadn't come back from a night with a girl or going out to a bar.

"Hell."

His answer made her do a double take. She was tired and couldn't bear the thought that her brother really was in Hell, so she chose not to believe him. "Sam, you're drunk. He's not in Hell." That's when Sam began to cry. "Sam?"

"He sold his soul for me, El! He's gone. I told him to tell you he was running out of time last time we visited but he didn't want to."

The clouds in Eleanor's mind cleared and she had to face the fact that she really did believe him. If she believed him that meant Dean really was dead. She held in a sob, needing to be there to help Sam. "Alright, where are you?"

"Indiana." Eleanor mentally cursed, Indiana was a long way from her dorm at NYU.

"Alright, you go get some sleep, when you wake up text me your location. I'll be in Indiana by tomorrow night."

After some brief protesting, Eleanor had convinced Sam that she was fine with driving to Indiana and that he needed to get some sleep. She clicked off her phone and tried to fall back to sleep, but grief had other plans. Tears began to stream down her face and she held a hand over her mouth to cover her sobs in order to not wake her roommate.

Dean was gone and not coming back. Eleanor had gotten close with her eldest brother over the past year and a half. He had driven up for her birthday and even let her drive his most prized possession, the impala 67 once. It was for five minutes before he made her switch places with him because he was worried about her crashing, but she was still touched by the gesture. A part of her had known something was off the last time she had seen him. It had felt like the last time she would ever see him. She had chalked it up to her just worrying over her brothers because of the lives they led.

      Dean was gone. She couldn't even sleep easy believing the "he's in a better place" crap people told you at funerals because he wasn't. He had sold his soul and the brothers had told her enough about their demon hunts to know that meant he was definitely in Hell.

She reached over to her bedside table, grabbing the silver lighter Dean had given her for her nineteenth birthday. She ran her fingers over the engraving, her initials, EMC, Eleanor Mae Cassidy. She couldn't believe he was gone. She didn't think she was going to get any more sleep tonight, so she got up to pack her bags, hoping to leave for Indiana as soon as she could.

Sixteen hours and three energy drinks later and Eleanor was standing outside of Sam's motel room in Indiana.

       Taking a deep breath she knocked on the door. It was opened by a very hungover looking Sam Winchester.

      Eleanor wrapped him in a hug, tears forming in the corner of her eyes. "I'm so sorry." The girl barely came up to his shoulders, she was pretty sure Sam was a foot taller than her.

      "Why don't you come in?" Sam pulled away from the hug and opened the door wider so Eleanor could come in. She walked into the room and sat on the corner of one of the queen sized beds.

       "How are you holding up?"

        Sam shrugged. "Not great, I mean, Dean's gone." He said simply.

        "That was probably a bad question, sorry."

         Sam sat down on the edge of his bed and downed an aspirin with some water.

      Eleanor took a deep breath and said the thing she'd been thinking of the entire sixteen hour car ride to Indiana. She didn't know how to approach the subject, so she just spit it out. "I want you to teach me to hunt." Sam looked at her, startled.

       "No way! You have a shot at a normal life, you're in college. Don't give that up!" Don't make me lose another sibling to this job.

       "I want to help people. I don't want people to end up like Dean." Sam shook is head. "If you don't teach me, I'll figure it out on my own. I'm going to be a hunter, with or without you."

       Her stubbornness reminded him of Jo Harvelle. He knew she was serious, she'd do it whether he helped her or not, so he might as well make sure she was safe. "Alright, fine."

･ ❪ ☆ ❫ ･

Pontiac, Illinois, Four months later

ELEANOR MAKES HER way back to the motel room, hoping Sam's latest girl would be gone by the time she got back. She'd made the mistake of coming to talk to him too early before and she never wanted to do it again, and this time she really needed to talk to Sam about the case. She passes the dark haired woman she recognized as Sam's latest girl and internally breathes a sigh of relief.

She knocks on the door, which was opened by Sam, not noticing the two men in the corner of the room. "Kathy gone?" she asks, dropping her bag by the mini fridge and grabbing a soda.

"Kristy, apparently." He looks over at Dean. Dean's eyebrows were furrowed in confusion, trying to figure out why their younger sister was in Illinois with Sam and not at college in New York.

Eleanor stands and turns, opening the soda. Her eyes land on her eldest brother. "Dean?" Her voice was soft, barely daring to hope that it wasn't a dream. The bottle of soda slips out of her hands, crashing to the floor.

"Hey Ellie." He takes a step towards her and she runs and wraps him in a hug.

She was shocked to find he was real. When he doesn't vanish at her touch, she hugs him tighter. Her tears stain his shirt, but he can't find it in him to make her let go. "You're here! How are you here?"

"That's what we're trying to figure out," a male voice sounds from behind the siblings. Eleanor pulls away from Dean and looked at the older man. Dean quickly introduces the two. Eleanor was delighted to meet the man she had heard so many stories about and it appeared her brothers had told Bobby about her as well.

She looks over at Dean again. "I'm assuming because you're standing here with Sam and Bobby that they've already verified that you're not a demon? Or revenant, or shifter." The men nod.

It occurred to Dean that if Sam hadn't sold his soul to get him back, maybe Eleanor did. It seemed to occur to Bobby and Sam at the same time and they all turn to look at Eleanor accusingly.

"What?" She shifts uncomfortably at the weight of the stares.

"Eleanor, did you sell your soul to bring me back?"

"What? No! I'm not stupid, Dean. Yeah, I missed you and of course I wanted you to come back but I wouldn't sell my soul for it."

       "Don't get me wrong, I'm gladdened that Sam and Eleanor's souls remain intact, but it does raise a sticky question," Bobby points out. He looks at Dean like he still couldn't believe he was really back. Based on her limited interaction with John Winchester and just now meeting Bobby Singer, she could tell that he was more of a father to the two Winchesters then John ever was.

     "If they didn't pull me out, then what did?" Dean finishes.

･ ❪ ☆ ❫ ･

THE HUNTERS SAT around Sam's motel room, trying to think of anything that could help them figure out who pulled Dean out of hell. When they hit one too many road blocks, Dean decided it was time to catch up with his siblings.

"So what were you doing around here if you weren't digging me out of my grave?" He asks, turning to Sam.

"Well, once I figured out I couldn't save you, I started hunting down Lilith, trying to get some payback." Sam tells him.

Bobby seemed annoyed by that. "All by yourself. Who do you think you are, your old man?" As Bobby talks, Dean spots something across the room and goes to pick it up.

"Uh, yeah, I'm sorry, Bobby. I should have called. I was pretty messed up," Sam apologizes. Eleanor's eyebrows furrow, she had no idea Sam hadn't talked to anyone but her ( and the few women he had seen ) since Dean had died.

Dean holds up a flowery pink bra. "Oh yeah. I really feel your pain." Eleanor pulls a face.

"Anyways, uh, we were checking these demons out of Tennessee, and out of nowhere they took a hard left, booked up here."

Dean pauses, dropping the bra, suddenly uninterested in teasing Sam. "Wait a minute, we?"

"Sam's been teaching me to hunt." Eleanor finally speaks up with a shrug. Dean looks like he wants to say something but Sam shakes his head and Dean drops the subject.

Instead of yelling at Sam for teaching their younger sister to hunt or trying to lecture Eleanor out of the lifestyle, he turns his attention to the more pressing matters at hand.  There would be time for that later. "So you said the demon's booked up here? When?"

Eleanor lets Sam do the talking, content with just sitting quietly. She figured Sam knew what he was talking about more than she did anyway. She flips the lid of her lighter on and off as Sam told Dean and Bobby about the demons that had shown up the day before, coincidentally the same day Dean came back. Eleanor didn't believe in coincidences anymore, she had a strong feeling the demons being here had everything to do with Dean.

"How you feelin', anyway?" Bobby chimes in, turning to look at Dean.

"I'm a little hungry."

Bobby resists the urge to roll his eyes but fails. "No, I mean, do you feel like yourself? Anything strange, or different?"

Dean heaves a sigh, reading between the lines and understanding what the hunter was getting at. "Or demonic? Bobby, how many times do I have to prove I'm me?"

"Yeah. Well, listen. No demon's letting you loose out of the goodness of their hearts. They've gotta have something nasty planned," Bobby points out.

"Well, I feel fine." Dean was starting to get annoyed by the interrogation.

"Okay, look," Sam interrupts, "we don't know what they're planning. We got a pile of questions and no shovel. We need help."

The room went quiet, trying to think of something. Bobby speaks up. "I know a psychic. She's a few hours from here. Something this big, maybe she's heard the other side talking."

Dean seemed excited by the idea. "Hell yeah, it's worth a shot."

"I'll be right back." Bobby leaves the room, leaving the siblings alone.

       Dean stands, walking towards the door. Sam stops him, walking over to meet him. "Hey, wait. You probably want this back." He reaches into his collar and pulls out a cord, Dean's amulet. He places it in Dean's hand.

       Dean looks down at it, a soft smile on his face. "Thanks." He slips the cord over his head, feeling the familiar comfort of the pendent resting against his chest.

"Hey Dean," Eleanor asks softly, flipping the lid of her lighter closed and coming over to stand by her brothers. "What was it like?"

"What, Hell?" Eleanor nods. "I don't know, I, I must have blacked it out. I don't remember a damn thing."

Sam lets out a long breath. "Well, thank God for that."

"If there even is one," Eleanor mumbles.

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AUTHOR'S NOTE: i've decided to try my hand at writing in the present tense, so if things are a little bit weird in wording and switching between tenses that's probably why, but i do proofread everything about 100 times before i post it so there hopefully won't be a lot of it. ( but if it ever switches back to past tense, that's why but i'll make a note of it ) also this chapter is in two parts because it was getting long and we haven't even met the lovely pamela or castiel yet. please vote or comment if you like the story so far <3