In the weeks that followed the trio only seemed to become closer than ever. They were healing together. Allie felt like a weight had been lifted off of her shoulders. She was connected to the Winchesters in ways she had never experienced before and it was nice, it was comforting.

Sam had a premonition... The tales of the truth had become more frequent. Visions of the future, of deaths. They were worrisome.

They drove off to a small town located in Oregon in an effort to save someone seen in Sam's premonition, or perhaps at least know what the fuck was going on. When they got to the quiet town they passed a pole that had "CROATOAN" etched into it. The air buzzed with an unsettling feeling of distortion. Though people walked the streets and cars passed the township held a subconscious foreboding crackle. They took out their phones but none of their cells had a signal. The nearby phone booth had no service. Things only seemed to get worse when they visited a home only to find a father and son beating the mother. After taking her to the quaint local doctor's office Dean left to find help; only to find out the road was cut off by aggressive townspeople upon his return to the office they found that the rage appeared to be caused by some sort of virus and unfortunately the Doctor didn’t recognize it or have any idea of a potential cure to reverse the belligerent violence that infected the petite municipality.

"I hate being crammed in here like sardines." She scratched her head and loaded her shotgun. "If I get infected do you think I'll make a hot zombie?" Her tone dripped with sarcasm.

Dean chuckled at her attempt to lighten the mood, but his eyes were focused on the door as he leaned against the wall. "You're already a hot something" he murmured under his breath before turning towards Sam who was flipping through an old medical textbook they had found.

"Any luck?" He asked quietly, glancing back over his shoulder at Allie with a small smile.

He was cut off by the doctor coming out and noting that the infected had sulfur in their blood. It was a virus that thrived through blood-to-blood contact.

Sam shook his head, closing the book with a frustrated sigh. "Not yet," he replied, rubbing at his tired eyes before turning to face Dean and Allie. His gaze lingered on her for just a moment longer than usual, taking in every curve of her tight black tank top that hugged against her slender frame. He cleared his throat awkwardly, trying to focus on their situation instead of how damn attractive she looked trapped in this claustrophobic room with them. Now that she had slowly started opening up to him he only found her more interesting and that was a problem.

"We need to find a way out of here without getting infected ourselves," he said, racking his brain for any solutions, glancing between them both hopefully. Dean and Allie exchanged a look that spoke volumes; they were just as stuck as him in this godforsaken town with no idea how to get out alive. The silence stretched tense until there was a loud thud from outside, followed by screams echoing through the quiet streets.

Dean's eyes narrowed in concern as he reached for his gun, glancing at Sam and Allie before nodding towards the door. "Stay here," he ordered rigidly, moving silently towards the sound of the commotion outside. He peeked around a corner cautiously, heart racing when he saw several infected townspeople surrounding the medical office. Dean silently retreated back inside. "Leaving isn't an option."

Suddenly there was a loud noise and a man pounded on the door to be let in. The other survivors opened it for him but the trio realized that it was the man from Sam's premonition.

The man that Dean had shot.

"Wait! He could be infected!"

Sam’s heart raced as he heard Dean's words, his mind tumbling with possible solutions. "We need to test him," he said urgently, looking over at the doctor and giving a nod.

But the doctor shook her head. "We can test but with Beverly... the sulfur didn't show up for hours. Not until she was about to turn." She sighed. "There's no way for us to tell if he's infected."

Dean cursed under his breath, glancing between the doctor and Sam before turning back towards Allie. "Alls," he said softly, reaching out a hand to her. "We don't have much of a choice." She wouldn’t approve and he knew that but protection was paramount. If the newcomer turned all of them could be fucked. He hesitated for only a moment before taking his hand and brushing lightly over her shoulder as they all stepped cautiously towards the man, Tyler. Tyler took on an expression of fear and anxiety. "Tie him up."

It all happened so fast. One minute Dean was trying to reassure her, the next all of the men were tying up Tyler. Dean and Sam started fighting. Dean wanted to kill Tyler to avoid him turning since they were unsure of his infection status, Sam didn't agree with killing someone that could potentially be innocent. "Dean... you aren't that guy. You aren't going to kill someone who could be innocent. Right?" She paused and looked into his eyes. She knew it wasn't convincing him.

"Right?" She croaked but he disappeared into the room to do it anyway. The silence dragged on throughout the office. Their prison for the night against the aggression that loomed just past the medical building’s doors. Allie met eyes with Sam, both apprehensive.

Dean's eyes flickered with guilt as he heard Allie's plea, but the weight of responsibility on his shoulders was heavy. He couldn't risk them all dying because they didn't want to make a difficult decision.

He took a deep breath and nodded reluctantly before stepping back into the room where Tyler lay bound and gagged. The man's eyes were wide with fear, begging for mercy in a silent language only too familiar to Dean.

He raised his gun, aiming it at the man's chest. But just as he was about to pull the trigger, something inside him shifted. He couldn't do it. What would she think of him after?

The gunshot never went off. After some time Dean exited the room. When he did Allie and Sam were creating homemade bombs in an attempt to make it past the contaminated people outside.

"We need a distraction," he said, grabbing one of the bottles to begin helping them make the bombs. Sam's heart leaped in relief when Dean came back out alive and without a potentially innocent man's blood on his hands, but the guilt and anxiety were palpable off of him. He knew what it had taken for his brother to step away from pulling that trigger. "We got one," he said, handing over a bomb.

"Allie, you take this end." He instructed her before grabbing another bottle himself. They worked in unison, their movements practiced after years of hunting together. The sound of the other survivors talking around them fell like white noise.

She obliged and worked diligently. They were quiet for a while but eventually, her head fell to rest on Dean's shoulder. He was normally one to shoot first and ask questions later. That wasn't the case today and she thanked God for that. Being a hunter was not the same thing as being a killer. Her eyes flickered over to Sam and she smiled reassuringly. With each passing day, they were becoming a better team, a better unit. Only mere months ago Dean would not have taken her negotiation into consideration.

Dean's arm wrapped around her shoulders in a comforting squeeze, his muscular arm pressing against hers as they worked side by side. He couldn't help but notice how close she was to him and the scent of her perfume filled his senses, making it hard for him to focus on anything else besides just how damn attractive he found Allie right now. It was a familiar feeling recently. The attraction was changing. Allie had a mind of her own and didn’t just do whatever people wanted of her and over time he had come to respect that; even if it meant she could be stubborn as hell and they fought sometimes.

He tried not to think about what could have happened if he had pulled that trigger and if he had explained himself to Sam and especially Allie afterward. He couldn't bear the thought of losing her to over the thought process that had been engrained in him since childhood.

Sam couldn't help but notice the way Dean was leaning into Allie, his arm around her shoulder. He felt a twinge of jealousy rise up inside him before he pushed it down. They were just working together, that's all this was. That’s all it ever was. He glanced over at them and saw how well they worked together, their movements synchronized. It made him feel... something he didn't want to acknowledge. But he shoved those thoughts away. "Almost done"

Sam stood up to get something from the supply room. The nurse was there. He had interacted with her a bit, not much. She closed the door and said something about waiting to get close to him before she promptly rushed him, forcing him to the ground and cutting his chest open with a knife. She drew her own blood and mixed them together with a snide grin. He heard Dean's gun go off and her body fell to the ground but it was too late. He was infected.

Dean's world came crashing down around him as he heard Sam's cry of pain, his head snapping up just in time to see the nurse fall lifelessly to the ground. His eyes widened in horror when he saw the blood stain spreading on his brother's chest, a sick feeling settling heavily in his gut. "Sam!" He yelled out, rushing over and cradling his younger sibling against him to pull him up off of the ground. The other survivors came in and started shouting about needing to shoot Sam which put Dean on the defensive. "No one's shooting my brother!" He yelled. They went back and forth before Dean told them to take the car and get out of town with the bombs.

If Sam was infected... they would stay together. No matter what. "Allie, leave with them." It would take hours until Sam turned and the virus took hold but Dean would stay until the very end. This was his family. Nothing else mattered but being there for Sammy.

Sam's eyes widened in shock as he stared at Dean, his heart pounding wildly against his chest as he realized what Dean meant. "No," He gasped out. "You need to go with them!" He yelled though he knew Dean wouldn't listen to his protests. "Dean... it's over for me. You can still go on." He tried to plead but the look in Dean's eyes... Sam knew it was futile. Dean never listened in these situations.

Dean shook his head firmly, refusing to entertain the idea. "Like hell, I'm leaving you," he growled out, glaring at Sam as if daring him to argue more about it. He couldn't lose both of them in one day; he simply wouldn't allow it. "I'm staying." His voice was resolute and determined, even though inside he was a mess of fear and panic. They had faced down demons and monsters before but never each other. Never someone they cared so deeply for. "Allie, do as I said and go with the other survivors." His tone was firm. One he used often when she was still in training.

Her eyes flickered to the four survivors waiting in the doorway and back to the Winchesters. "No." She couldn't bring them with her so she wasn't leaving. They were her family through and through; this moment proved it. Normally she wasn't so defiant when Dean used that tone with her but this time was different. Ride or die. Allie had made a promise to John before he died and she intended to keep it, in whatever way she needed to.

Sam's eyes softened at Allie's defiance and smiled, though it soon went away. "Alls... you deserve a normal life." he managed to whisper out. He couldn't help but think about all they had been through together - the good times and the bad. The countless lives they saved, the demons they slayed both emotionally and physically, the monsters they hunted but Allie deserved better. She could be a mom, a wife, a nurse...

Dean's heart twisted at the thought of losing her, but he couldn't bring himself to admit it. "Allie..." He started, his voice cracking slightly before clearing it. "You heard him. You go." He tried to push her gently towards the doorway where their survivors were waiting anxiously for them to leave. "Go, Allie!"

"No! I'm not fucking leaving!" She finally yelled and shoved the door closed. She turned around and rested her forehead against the cool glass of the fogged window and locked it. The click filled the silence in the room. "I'm here. I'm always here." She breathed a shaky breath and turned to face them while the survivors left. "You're not the gruesome twosome anymore," Allie noted and smiled. "You have a third wheel now." She joked.

Sam's heart swelled at her words, a warmth spreading through his chest. Allie was really staying with them. He couldn't help but smile back softly as he walked over to her and placed a hand on the small of her back, guiding her away from the door. "Thank you," he whispered in her ear before pulling back slightly, unsure how she would take such closeness after everything that had happened earlier. He knew she was still on the road to accepting any sort of intimacy. If he fought on staying she’d only dig her heels further into the ground. "You know we wouldn't have made it this far without you."

Dean's eyes softened. He couldn't deny how much having Allie around lightened up their lives, and made things just... better somehow. She was like sunshine after months of endless rain. "You sure about this?" he asked cautiously, not wanting to push her away but also needing to make sure she understood what they were getting into. "Allie... we're not making it outta this one."

Allie's eyes flickered to Dean, her heart skipping a beat at his words. She knew the risks but she also knew that they needed her as much as she needed them. "I know." Her voice cracked slightly and she took a deep breath before straightening her shoulders. "We face monsters every day, right? This is just another one we haven't faced yet." She tried for lightness in her tone but it came out more shaky than intended.

She turned around and grabbed Sam's hand tightly before pulling Dean over to them, wrapping both of them in her arms in a tight embrace. "Together. Always."

Dean's heart swelled at her words, a lump forming in his throat. He couldn't help but return the embrace, wrapping an arm around each of them and holding on tightly during their last moments together. "Always," he whispered back, feeling tears sting the corners of his eyes. They had been through so much already - losing John, fighting demons, facing off against monsters they never thought possible... But somehow Allie made everything seem just a little bit brighter, a little more bearable.

Sam's heart ached at the thought of Allie’s devotion, but he couldn't bring himself to voice his fear. Instead, he held onto her tightly, burying his face in her hair and taking a deep breath. The scent of vanilla filled his nostrils as they stood there together, their bodies pressed against each other under Dean's protective arm. He could feel the tremor running through her body, mirroring his own nervousness about what was to come.

That night Sam never turned; hours passed without any change. He wasn't violent or angry. Eventually, the survivors came back and noted that all of the infected townspeople had disappeared, just like what was described in Roanoke. She checked Sam's blood but it had no traces of sulfur. For whatever reason Sam had been immune to infection. When they re-entered the street— they were able to leave the town.

But there was something that lingered. Sam's premonitions were becoming more intense. They were finding more people that the yellow-eyed demon had infected. The fact was— they were all worried. Yellow Eyes was planning something bad, that was for sure.

The next hunts were filled with unspoken questions. Every day was becoming harder and harder. Bad shit was happening to them at every turn. Sam met a woman, Madison, she was a werewolf.

He had to shoot her. After sleeping with her. The first girl he had really done anything with since Jessica.

And yet they carried on. Just like always.