Title: Calls Me Home

Summary: A journey through seven seasons of Supernatural through the eyes of two Winchesters and a Singer.

Characters: Dean Winchester, Sam Winchester, Ruby Singer, Bobby Singer, John Winchester, and a whole ton of others.

Disclaimer: Everything you see here belongs to Eric Kripke and Co. The title belongs to the song "Calls Me Home" by Shannon LaBrie.

Author's Note:

Chapter Twenty Five

"I just think it's a stupid idea. There wasn't even a body to bury. It's just a headstone paid for by a uncle of Mom's that we never even met." Dean complained clearly upset.

"It's not even about a body or a casket. It's about her memory. After dad, it just feels like the right thing to do." Sam sighed running his fingers through his hair.

The blonde shot Sam a sympathetic look as she grabbed Dean's arm pulling him aside. "There wasn't a body to bury when Jessica died either and yet she has a headstone too. If it brings Sam comfort to visit your mother's headstone, I don't think that's a bad thing."

"Ruby, you don't understand.."

She scoffed shaking her head at him. "I do understand, Dean. You were four when she died. You dealt with so much crap after it thanks to your dad practically making you raise Sam and turning you into a hunter. Look, you don't have to go if you don't want to. I'll go with him."

"No, no, I'll go with him." He swallowed hard and sighed.

"Thanks, Dean. Uh Ruby, would you go with us too?" The younger Winchester asked almost a bit shyly.

Ruby smiled softly at him touched that he wanted her to go along with them. "I..sure, of course I'll go with you guys if that's what you want."

"Of course we want you to go with us." Dean grasped her hand squeezing it softly as Sam walked away to get ready to leave.

The awkward tension between the brothers was almost palpable as Ruby walked with them into the cemetery. Dean held her hand while they followed Sam over to Mary Winchester's headstone. Sam knelt down in front of the grave unfolding his knife digging a small hole and then pulled out John's dogtags with a sigh.

"I think Dad would have wanted you to have these. I love you mom." He dropped the dogtags into the hole and covered them with the dirt.

Ruby had let go of Dean's hand stepping away to give the brothers some privacy. He shook his head at the scene in front of him and walked away leaving Sam alone with their mother's headstone. The blonde was lost in thought while Dean frowned noticing a dead tree nearby. He walked over knocking on the tree as he examined it. There was a fresh grave not far from the tree that caught his eye. A perfect circle of dead grass surrounded the gravestone. Snapping out of her reverie, Ruby grew curious of what Dean was doing when she noticed him talking to one of the cemetery's groundskeepers. They met back up with Sam a few moments later.

"Angela Mason. Student at the local college. Her funeral was three days ago." Dean spoke up catching their attention.

"And?" Sam looked at him in confusion.

"And you saw her grave. Everything dead around it in a perfect circle. You don't find that weird?"

Ruby furrowed her brows biting her lip slightly. "I mean, it is kind of weird. He's not wrong."

"Maybe the groundskeeper just went a little aggro on the pesticide." The younger Winchester shrugged his shoulders.

"Nah, I talked to him. No pesticide and no chemicals. Nobody can explain it."

"Alright so what are you thinking?" He raised his eyebrow at his brother.

Before Dean could respond, Ruby spoke up. "Unholy ground?"

"Un.." Sam trailed off speechless looking at them both in disbelief.

"If something evil happened there, it could easily poison the ground. Remember the farm outside of Cedar Rapids?"

The blonde shrugged her shoulders. "Could be the sign of a demonic possession or Angela's spirit if it's powerful enough."

"It's just.. stumbling on a hunt, here of all places?" Sam shook his head. "Are you sure this is about a hunt and not something else?"

"What else would it be about?"

"Just forget about it." Sam sighed shaking his head as he moved to get back into the Impala.

Ruby bit her lip again. "Guys..."

"Believe what you want, Sam, but I let you drag my ass out here. Least we can do is check this out." Dean huffed driving them away from the cemetery.

Angela Mason's father worked as a professor at the local school which seemed to be the best place to start. Ruby was still unsure if any of this was a good idea, but even she couldn't deny that it was worth it to make sure that nothing supernaturally evil was going on. They went over their cover story then made their way to Dr. Mason's office.

"Dr. Mason?" Sam spoke up knocking on the open office door.

"Yes?" The older man looked over at the three hunters.

Ruby cleared her throat giving him a sad look. "I'm Ruby. This is Sam and Dean. We.. we were friends with Angela. We just wanted to stop by and give our condolences."

"I appreciate that. Thank you. Please come in."

The three of them entered the office. Ruby and Sam sat down by the professor's desk while Dean looked at his bookshelf.

"She was beautiful." Sam commented softly as the professor showed them a photo album of his late daughter.

"This is an unusual book." Dean spoke up gesturing to a book with a cover that had carvings of Greek letters and a triangular symbol.

"It's ancient Greek. I teach a course." Dr. Mason nodded his head.

Ruby shot Dean a look before her expression softened toward the professor. "It's still such a shock. What happened, if you don't mind me asking?"

"Car accident. Angie was only a mile from home when, uh..." The professor trailed off trying to compose himself.

"That's got to be hard. Losing someone like that. Sometimes it's like they're s..still around. Almost like you can still sense their presence." Dean spoke earning another look from Ruby. "You ever feel anything like that?"

"I do, as a matter of fact. I still phone her and the phone's ringing before I remember that... uh.. family's everything, you know? Angie was the most important thing in my life and now I am just lost without her."

"We're very sorry." Sam sympathized with him.

The three hunters excused themselves and left the office. They went over to the local motel renting a room. Ruby rubbed her temples as the two brothers continued to bicker over whether they had a case or not. She could understand both sides of their argument. It was just getting on her last nerve.

"I think I know what's actually going on here. It's the only reason I went along with you this far. This is about Mom's grave." Sam turned to look at Dean again.

"That has nothing to do with it, Sam." He scoffed.

"You wouldn't step within a hundred feet of it, Dean! Look, maybe you're imagining a hunt where there isn't one so you don't have to think about mom. Or dad." Sam sighed.

Ruby placed her hands on her hips clearly annoyed. "Alright enough. Both of you. Dean is a damn good hunter. It's worth looking into a bit more just to be sure. And Dean, Sam is just worried about you. Now both of you get your heads out of your asses and start acting like the Sam & Dean that I know."

Before either of them could respond, she turned around and walked out of the room. The brothers shared a look then Dean followed her out.

"Hey! Who are you? I'm going to call 911!" A feminine voice shrieked as Dean walked into the apartment with Ruby.

The blonde held her hands up innocently. "It's okay. I'm Angie's cousin, Ruby. Her dad sent me over. I, um, this is my boyfriend Dean. I didn't want to come alone."

"Her dad never said anything about you coming over." The woman looked at them unsure.

"How else would we have gotten in?" Dean pointed out.

"I'm Lindsay. Angela.. we were roommates." She sniffled.

Ruby nodded her head moving to sit down on the couch with her while Dean took a look around. "Everyone's had nothing but great things to say about her."

"Yeah. Angela.. she was great. Really great." Lindsay sobbed into a tissue.

"You two must of have been really close huh?" Dean handed her another tissue.

"We were, but.. it's not just her. It's Matt."

The blonde gave her a confused look. "Matt?"

"Angela's boyfriend. He..He killed himself last night. Cut his own throat. Who does that?" She wiped at her eyes gently.

Dean and Ruby shared a look. "That's terrible."

"He was taking her death pretty hard. I mean, he'd been messed up about it for days. Matt kept saying that he saw her everywhere."

"I mean, I'm sure that was normal with everything he was going through." Dean sighed softly.

"No, he insisted that he saw her. Like an acid trip or something." Lindsay clarified.

Ruby nodded her head and moved to stand up. "You know what? We're just going to get out of your hair. I can always come back another day."

"Alright." Lindsay sniffled.

The two hunters left the apartment. After a little bit of research, they were able to find Matt's address. There wasn't much to find at his apartment other than dead plants and even some dead goldfish. The pair returned to the motel where Sam was sitting on the edge of his bed watching TV. Just as they walked in, they could hear the tv announcer talking about the Skin channel and a movie called Casa Erotica four. Startled by their sudden appearance, Sam quickly turned off the tv and threw down the remote.

Ruby glanced between him and the tv then shrugged her shoulders. "Awkward."

"Where in the hell were you guys?" Sam looked at them curiously.

"Working my imaginary case. You were right. I didn't find much. Except Angela's boyfriend died last night. Slit his own throat. But, you know, that's normal. Uh, let's see, what else? Oh he was seeing Angela everywhere before he died. But you know, I'm sure that's just me transferring my own feelings." Dean filled him in with a scoff.

"Okay I get it. I'm sorry. Maybe there is something going on here." The younger Winchester admitted with a sigh.

"Maybe? Sam, I know how to do my job despite how you may think." Dean shot him an annoyed look.

"We should check out the guy's apartment."

Ruby shook her head at them. "We just came from there. Dead plants just like the cemetery. Hell, dead goldfish too."

"Unholy ground?" Sam suggested.

"Maybe. Still not getting that powerful angry spirit vibe from Angela." Dean picked up a pink book. "I have been reading this though."

Her blue eyes widened at him. "You stole her diary? What the hell, Dean?"

"What? It's the best way to find out what she was really like and who she was closest to. I'll put it back." He assured her.

"So what do we do now?" Sam looked at them.

"We'll go talk to her friends." Dean suggested and they all agreed.

"Look, we know you were really close to Angela and after what happened with her boyfriend Matt, well, the school just wanted to make sure that her friends were alright. Grief can make people do crazy things." Sam spoke to Angela's best friend Neil.

"I'm sorry about what happened to him, I am, but if Matt killed himself then it wasn't because of grief. It was guilt. Angie's death was Matt's fault and he knew it." Neil admitted with a sigh.

"And what makes you say that?" Dean looked at him curiously.

"She really loved that guy. The night of the accident, though, she walked in on him with another girl. It absolutely crushed her. She was really torn up about it. That's why she crashed her car. Uh, listen, I have to get ready for work so thanks for the concern, but seriously, I'll be okay." He stood up to see the brothers out.

The Winchesters shared a look before leaving Neil's house. Ruby was waiting for them by the car having caught up after doing some research of their own. They shared their findings with her and compared notes.

"Well that vengeful spirit theory's starting to make a little more sense. I mean, hell hath no fury..." Dean trailed off looking at them.

"So if Angela got her revenge on Matt, do you think it's over?" Sam raised his brows.

"There's only one way to be sure." Dean shrugged his shoulders at him.

Ruby eyed him curiously. "Oh yeah? What's that?"

"Burn the bones."

The blonde looked at him in shock. "Dean, are you high? She died last week. There's not going to be any bones. There will be an actual corpse in the coffin."

"Since when are you afraid to get dirty? Huh?" He winked at her.

It wasn't until nightfall when the three of them returned to the cemetery. Sam and Dean armed with shovels while Ruby held the flashlight. Part of her was completely against this, but she also knew they couldn't just let a potentially violent spirit continue to wander around either. Dean cleared off the rest of the dirt then stepped aside instructing Sam to open the coffin. Sam and Ruby winced as he cracked open the coffin lifting the lid. All three of them stood there in shock when they saw that the coffin was empty.

"They buried the body four days ago." Dean muttered staring down at the coffin.

"I don't get it. Wait. Ruby, shine the light back there again, please." Sam asked as something caught his eye.

Ruby did as she was asked and looked on curiously. "What do you see, Sam?"

"Something carved into the coffin. Symbols. I'm not sure." He looked them over copying them down on a scrap of paper.

"I've seen these kinds of symbols before." Dean grew angry and started storming back over to the Impala.

Realization struck Ruby and she followed him along with Sam. "Dr. Mason's office. The ancient Greek book."

"Exactly." His jaw tensed in anger.

The blonde sighed grabbing his arm. "Dean, wait. Just stop and listen to me for a second."

"Alright fine." He was still clearly upset, but he wasn't going to take it out on her this time.

Ruby gazed up at him as he turned to look at her. "There were no dead plants in his office. When we talked to him, Angela would have already been out of her grave. You saw him. He was still full of grief. If he.. if he had brought her back, he wouldn't have been so upset. And no, before you say it, I highly doubt he was faking his grief."

"Who else would have put those symbols in the coffin, Ruby?"

"We don't actually know what the symbols mean though." Sam pointed out

The blonde nodded her head at Sam. "He's right. Look, instead of you storming in there possibly getting us all in trouble, why don't you just let me talk to him? You guys can be right outside in case of anything."

"I don't know." Dean sighed shaking his head at her.

Ruby took his hands squeezing them gently. "I almost always follow your lead. I'm just asking you to follow mine for once."

"Ugh. Alright. Fine." He gave in and pressed a kiss to her head.

The blonde huntress stood awkwardly outside of the professor's office the next day. "Dr. Mason, hi."

"You're Angie's friend, right? Come on in." The older man let her into the office.

Ruby walked in and sat down by his desk. "I needed to talk to you. It's about Angela."

"What about her?" He looked at her curiously as he sat at his desk.

She handed the paper over with the symbols from the coffin on it. "You teach Ancient Greek. Tell me, what are these?"

"I'm afraid I don't understand. You said this had to do with Angela?"

The blonde sighed softly at him. "It does. I wasn't just friends with her. I was friends with Matt too. We were going to hold a vigil at his house for them. That's where I found that and I was just curious."

"Neil's my teacher's assistant. I'm surprised you didn't ask him. Well they're part of an ancient Greek divination ritual. Believed to be used for necromancy, according to legends. Rituals like this one were used for communicating with the dead. Even bringing corpses back to life." The professor explained.

Ruby nodded her head. "So maybe he was trying to communicate with her or..."

"Possibly, but you must understand that these are merely legends. If they actually worked, we'd see quite a bit more corpses walking around here." Dr. Mason assured her.

She smiled slightly at him. "You're probably right. People thinking they could have their late loved ones back, but it wouldn't be quite the same. Anyway, uh, thanks for your time, Dr. Mason."

Leaving the office, Ruby took a deep breath and then headed out to the parking lot where the Winchesters were waiting for her. She filled them in on what she found out which only seemed to make Dean madder.

"Alright so she's not here. He probably has her stashed somewhere else."

The boys started bickering again and Ruby huffed. "Stop it! That's enough."

"You're on edge, Dean. You're erratic except for when you're hunting because then you're downright scary. You're tailspinning, man, and you refuse to talk about it. You won't let either of us help you." Sam sighed at his brother.

"I can take care of myself, Sam. Thanks."

"No you can't and you know what? You're the only one who thinks you should have to. You don't have to handle this on your own, Dean. No one can." Sam pleaded with his brother.

"Sam, if you bring up dad's death one more time, I swear..." Dean trailed off.

Ruby bit her lip. "Guys..."

"Dean, it's killing you. We've already lost dad. We've lost mom. I've lost Jessica. Now I'm going to lose you too?" Sam frowned at him.

"Alright, I hear you. Yeah, I'm being an ass and I'm sorry. But right now we've got a freaking zombie running around. We need to figure out a way to kill it." Dean relented sighing as he ran his fingers through his hair.

Ruby couldn't help laughing slightly at the absurdity of the situation. "Man, our lives are weird."

The brothers chuckled and got into the car with her driving off. Back at the motel, they ate while trying to figure out their next move.

"We can't just waste it with a head shot?" Dean raised his eyebrows at them.

"Dude, you've been watching way too many Romero flicks." Sam chuckled at him.

"You're telling me there's no lore on how to smoke 'em?"

Ruby shook her head sighing softly at him. "No. We're telling you that there's just too much lore. Hundreds of different legends on the walking dead, but they all have different methods of killing them. Everything from setting them on fire to feeding their hearts to wild dogs. It's almost impossible to tell what's real and what's myth."

"There's no real common thread between the methods, but a few said silver might work." Sam added with a shrug of his shoulders.

"Well that's a start." Dean nodded his head in agreement.

The blonde bit her lip. "Well yeah, but now how do we find Angela? We could start with whoever brought her back, but we still don't even know who did."

"If it's not her dad, then that guy Neil might be the best bet."

"Neil? How'd you come up with that?" Sam eyed him curiously.

"Her diary. She talks about how he's a great shoulder to cry on. Lots of unrequited Duckie love written all over it." Dean pointed out.

"Yeah, but that doesn't mean he brought her back from the dead."

Her blue eyes widened as it finally clicked in her mind. "It just might. Dr. Mason mentioned that Neil is his TA which means Neil has access to all of the same books."

It was dark when they arrived at Neil's home. Dean picked the lock and they followed him inside. There were wilted plants near one of the windows. A sign that they were headed in the right direction. They followed Dean into the basement where they found an empty cage. Near it was a loose grate that led out to somewhere.

"She went after Matt because he cheated, right?"

"Yeah." Sam nodded his head.

"Well it takes two to, you know, have hardcore sex." Dean pointed out.

Ruby nodded gesturing toward Dean. "He's right. Angela's roommate did seem really broken up over Matt's death. We should head over there just in case."

The Winchesters agreed and the three hunters quickly made their way over to Angela's apartment. A scream caught their attention when they got out of the car. Rushing inside, they found Angela about to stab Lindsay with a pair of scissors. Dean fired off a couple of shots into the zombie's back. Angela convulsed then turned around to face them. Dean shot at her again this time hitting her chest. Angela screamed and ran off jumping out the window. Sam ran to Lindsay to check on her while Dean and Ruby chased after Angela.

"Damn, that dead chick can run." Dean announced returning a few moments later with Ruby.

He left the diary on a shelf. Once they knew that Lindsay was alright, they left to go find Neil. They still didn't know how they were going to ultimately deal with Angela. It was Sam who brought up the idea of nailing Angela to her coffin. It had been mentioned in the lore a few times and was probably where the whole vampire staking lore came from. The only question now was how they were going to get Angela back into the cemetery.

"What are you guys doing here?" Neil looked surprised as they entered his office.

"You know, I've heard of people doing some pretty desperate things to get laid, but you... you take the cake." Dean chuckled slightly.

"Who are you?" He gestured at Ruby as he had only met the Winchesters before.

The blonde smirked at him. "I'm the girl that's going to kick your ass if you don't cooperate, Neil. We know about the ritual and how you brought Angela back."

"I don't know what you're talking about. You're crazy." Neil shook his head in disbelief.

Ruby narrowed her eyes at him. "We're crazy? You're the one who brought a dead girl back to life."

"When someone's gone, they should stay gone. You don't mess with that kind of stuff." Dean added making Ruby swallow hard.

"Angela killed Matt and she just tried to kill Lindsay." Sam admitted to him.

"Look, guys, I don't know what you're talking about."

Getting annoyed, Ruby grabbed him by the collar pulling him up from his chair. "Cut the crap, Neil. Matt's blood is on your hands. Now we can make this right, but you've got to tell us where she is, Neil."

"Alright, alright, she's at my house."

She let him go then noticed several potted plants by the window that were all dead. "You sure about that?"

"Yes." Neil nodded his head looking around nervously oblivious to Dean noticing the closet in the office.

"Listen, it doesn't matter where she is right now. There's only one way to stop her. We've got to perform another ritual over her grave to reverse the one that you did. Going to need some black root, some..some scar weed, some candles... it's very complicated, but it should get the job done. She'll be dead again in a couple of hours. You should probably come with us." Dean raised his voice a bit.

"No, no."

"LIsten to me. Get out of here as soon as you can. Be cool. No sudden movements. Don't make her mad." Dean leaned in whispering to Neil. "Let's go."

Ruby walked out of the office followed by the Winchesters. They gathered supplies then went straight back to the cemetery. The three of them lit candles around the open grave unsure if their plan would work. Hearing a noise, the Winchesters nodded at each other and pulled their guns out. Ruby watched nervously as Sam walked away toward the noise. It was Angela. They couldn't make out what she was saying to Sam. He didn't hesitate to shoot her point Bblank in the forehead though. Her head bent back as she let out a scream. Turning around, Sam made a mad dash back toward the open grave. Angela ran after him and tackled him to the ground hard. She grabbed his head twisting it back. Before Ruby could react, Dean fired off a few shots at Angela. Startled, the dead woman let go of Sam and stood up. Dean continued to shoot at Angela knocking her back each time until she fell back into the open grave landing on her back in her coffin. Dean grabbed the long metal stake running up to the grave. He slid the last few inches toward it on his knees diving into the coffin. Angela tried to plead with him, but to no avail. He plunged the metal straight into her heart. He drove it further in and she gave one last gasp before her body went limp.

"What's dead should stay dead." Dean huffed trying to catch his breath.

Ruby ran over to Sam helping him up. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah. I think she broke my hand." He frowned looking at his hand.

"You're just too fragile. We'll get it looked at later." Dean laughed and got to work burying Angela.

Ruby patted Sam's shoulder and moved to help Dean. When they were done, the three of them started to leave the cemetery. Dean turned back to Mary's grave and paused in thought.

"You want to stay awhile?" Sam offered.

"No." He shook his head and continued toward the Impala.

They put their things away in the trunk and climbed into the car. It was quiet as Dean drove them out of town. They stopped at a gas station to fill up the tank and get some water so Sam could take some pain medication for his hand. Getting back on the road, Dean drove out onto the highway. Ruby was curled up in the backseat with a blanket draped over her. It was daytime when Dean pulled off to the side of the highway at a rest stop. He quietly got out and sat on the car. Sam followed suit as both of them tried to not wake Ruby who was still sound asleep in the car.

"I'm sorry."

"You..for what?" Sam looked over at Dean with a mixed expression of shock and confusion.

"For the way I've been acting. And for dad. He was your dad too and it's my fault that he's gone." Dean sighed.

"That's not true."

"We've both been thinking it. We know he traded the Colt and possibly his life for my full recovery. It doesn't take a genius to figure that much out. I don't know how the whole thing went down exactly, but dad's dead because of me. That much I do know." He frowned at the thought.

"We don't know that. Not for sure." Sam tried to reassure him.

"Sam.." Dean started to cry. "You and Dad...Ruby...You guys are the most important things in my life. I never should have come back. It wasn't natural and now look what's come of it. I was dead and I should have stayed dead. You wanted to know how I was feeling. Well that's it. So tell me, what could you possibly say to make that all right?"

They looked at each other then looked away. Ruby stirred a bit then settled back to sleep. When she finally woke up, the boys had gotten back onto the road and arrived at a hospital. It was a small town one and thankfully the ER wasn't as busy so it didn't take too long for Sam to get seen. He made up a story about how he got injured and the x-rays confirmed his initial thought. Sam had indeed broken his hand. After getting put into a cast, Sam signed out of the hospital. Ruby stretched relieved to see that he was alright despite the broken hand. They stopped at a nearby diner to eat then the three of them checked into the local motel to let Sam relax despite his protests.

Ruby was standing outside the room enjoying some fresh air when Dean approached her. "Hey. Listen, that last hunt, I'm sorry if I was a bit harsh. A girl can only take so much of you and Sam bickering before she snaps."

"It's alright. We get it. I, uh, actually talked it out with Sam while you were sleeping." He admitted sheepishly.

The blonde looked at him in surprise and then grinned softly at him. "I'm proud of you. I know it's not easy for you to talk about how you feel, but I'm glad you were able to talk to Sam."

"Yeah." Dean rubbed at the back of his neck.