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Kelly paused as she stared at her house from the corner of her street. Something about it looked different, and it took a second for her to realize that she wasn’t actually seeing her house. She was seeing an illusion of her house. Castiel had taught her what to look for – and what it meant. She reached down to stop Jack. “What do you see at the house, Jack?”
“Sam! Sam’s parked out front!” His joy dimmed as he realized that his mother was asking, and therefore this was probably not a visit from his favorite visitors. “I don’t recognize what I’m feeling inside of the house, but Father and Dean are inside and they’re fighting whatever it is. Sam is…”
Kelly smiled as Jack took off running, holding on to the leash to keep Grace from chasing him down the street. She could see Sam, now, and it always melted her heart to watch how easily he caught Jack and picked him up for a giant hug. He walked up to her. “I’m glad you stopped out here. This one’s targeted. They were after you in particular, and if you got too much closer, they’d have been able to sense you.”
“Targeted to me? Not Cas or Jack?” Kelly said, shivering a little. “Why me?”
“Not here.” He crouched, setting Jack down and holding out a hand to Grace. After a cautious sniff, Grace jumped on Sam, licking his face enthusiastically. “You up for a bit longer walkies than usual, girl?”
“Of course she is!” Jack said. “Specifically, if we walk that way, the ice cream man should be there in about ten minutes.”
“And Grace is aware of the ice cream man’s schedule and excited about it?” Sam teased, but he took the leash from Kelly and used his free hand to hold hers. “Let’s go. Dean will call when it’s safe for us to go back.”
Ice cream procured, Sam checked in with Dean. “Still not safe. Park?” Kelly led the way, where they found a nice quiet bench near a creek.
“What’s at the house?” Jack asked. “I know it’s something dangerous, but it isn’t angelic or demonic and I didn’t recognize it.”
“They’re zombies, sort of. They’re under the control of a necromancer. This particular necromancer…” Sam shook his head. “Dean and I took out his wife, a witch who made a deal with a demon and was using her power to torment people she felt had wronged her. We assumed he’d come after us, but instead, he’s after you, Kelly. Dean doesn’t have a partner for him to kill, but I do. You’re in danger because of me.”
“We knew that was a risk, Sam,” Kelly said, reaching out to squeeze Sam’s hand. “And we agreed that I was already in danger because of Cas and Jack, and that them living with me meant that I was also protected better than anything else you could think of.”
“I should be there helping,” Jack said with a frown. “Dad, you know I can help!”
“I know, Jack, but Cas and Dean have this. Some of these zombies might be people you know, and they didn’t want you to have to fight the magically-controlled corpse of anyone you might know who’s died.”
Jack scowled. Then his eyes went wide. “Like Mrs. Orr.” His first-grade teacher had died earlier in the summer, and Kelly had taken Jack to the funeral. She shuddered at the thought of Jack having to see her trying to kill him, or his family. “I understand. Thank you.”
“Cas said to tell you he’ll have the corpses cleared out before he or Dean sends the all-clear signal, and he knows Jack likes helping with the rest of the cleanup. So we just have to wait until we get the all-clear or an SOS.”
Kelly tucked herself under Sam’s arm, enjoying the safety of being close to her giant of a boyfriend, signalling Jack to take Grace and go play. Once they did, she looked up at him. “So, it’s happened. I’m getting targeted because of you. You said last time we talked that you didn’t want to increase the target on me, but as you can see, it doesn’t matter. You should officially move in.”
“I notice you waited until Jack was gone to say anything,” Sam said. “You know he’s the best weapon you have to get me to say yes.”
“Yeah, but that’s not a fair weapon, and I don’t want to go getting his hopes up either. You know I want you to come live with us and that Jack is already calling you Dad. You can see that I take his safety and mine seriously, and I always check for signals before approaching my house.”
Sam tucked her in a little closer. “Dean told me that I’m out of excuses, now that you’ve been targeted. I’m scared to death, but you’re right. He’s right. It feels like time to make this official and for me to move in with you. In fact… I’d like to make things official in other ways, too. I don’t have a ring or anything, and I have no idea what kind of proposal you’d want, but unless you’re wanting it to be a complete surprise…”
Kelly squealed, getting Jack and Grace’s attention. The two came running over. “Mom?”
“Jack, your dad would like to marry me. Is that okay with you?”
“Of course it is!” Jack climbed into Sam’s lap to hug him. “Is there going to be a wedding? Can I be in it? Is Dean going to move in, too? Is he going to be okay with Grace?”
“Dean moving in was always part of the deal,” Kelly confirmed. “We might need to move, to have enough space, but it won’t be somewhere out of town. You’re old enough, have enough control, it might be safe to move to a neighborhood with other kids for you to play with. We’ll look, but would you like that?”
“I would love that!” Jack hugged Kelly, and then slid back down to the ground. “Come on, Grace, let’s go play.”