Author's Note: OH MY GOD A NEW CHAPTER! Thank you all so much for being patient and waiting for us to get this chapter out. These last few months have been insane and we're incredibly sorry we didn't post for a couple months. We are going to try our best to stick with our schedule but we are unfortunately going to be a little unpredictable with which Wednesdays those will be. We're gearing up to move soon and there's a lot going on with that. Again, we will try our best but we apologize in advance if we go radio silent for a month or again for waiting and enjoy! As usual if there are any comments, questions, or concerns feel free to contact us.

-A&J

Chapter 21

"To the End"

When I started to open my eyes again I winced at the bright light that was glaring down on me. Apollo just couldn't let today be gloomy, could he? Was a little cloud cover and maybe some rain too much to ask? Using what little energy I felt I had I forced my arm to move over my eyes. My head was pulsing still and I could feel bile rising in my throat, and the fact that I was moving was so not helping me. That, mixed with the familiar stench of man stink, it was a miracle that I wasn't already puking. With a groan I rolled onto my side and stared down at the floor and tried to remember when I even fell asleep.

"Hey! She's awake!" My dad shouted excitedly and my hands flew up to my head in an attempt to stop the sudden increase of pulsing. As if there was some way that I could block out his loud and obnoxious voice after he already started yelling.

"What the hell! Do you really have to shout? There is such a thing as inside voices you know!" I complained.

"Oh, and hungover." Uncle Puppy chimed in from the front seat. It did not help my already increasingly sour mood when I could clearly hear the pure amusement in his voice. Apparently my pain and suffering was funny to these two chuckle-heads. So I resisted the urge to roll my eyes and give him a very unkind hand gesture, because somehow I felt like it was only going to make my head explode even more.

"For all that is good in this world will the two of you please shut up?" I growled out.

"Ok, sorry, sorry." Dad chuckled as I could feel the car come to a stop. A sigh a breath of relief escaped my lips. Then, I remembered why I was in the state in the first place.

"This is all your fault…" I muttered.

"Our fault?" My uncle asked, but it didn't sound concerned at all. If anything he sounded even more amused about my condition, the jerk.

"You were the one who let me drink that stuff." I huffed a little and tried to sort out my thoughts. I knew I drank a little but everything was coming back in pieces, and I could get the fuzzy image of the two of them sitting outside talking. What were they talking about again? Was it something gloomy because it felt like it should have been raining in my memory, you know, to set the scene.

"I don't think you were resisting that much, and in fact you seemed more than thrilled to have some eggnog." My dad laughed. "I know the perfect cure though for what you're going through." He said and I lifted my head a little to look at him.

"Please tell me you're not about to say something stupid." I said half heartedly while my mind scrambled to remember whatever it was that upset me before.

"A big greasy burger. One with extra bacon and tomato." My dad said and I grimaced at the very thought of it and momentarily forgot about whatever it was I was trying to conjure up in my head.

"I thought I said not to tell me something stupid." I said and my dad scoffed.

"Hey. A hamburger is not stupid and you have got to trust me on what I say tastes the best after a night of drinking." He sounded proud at that last part, as if there was some pride in his statement. I just rolled my eyes and then closed them when it made the ache worse.

"Agree to disagree. Greasy sounds like a wonderful way to throw up everything that is not in my stomach." I said and heard him scoff again. I mentally rolled my eyes again at his childish antics. Honestly, I was supposed to be the child here and yet here was my dad practically pouting because I said that greasy food was both unhealthy and gross.

"Alright Princess," my dad started and I tilted my head and forced my eyes back open to look at the back of his seat. "Since you don't want to go into this diner and eat good hangover food what do you suggest?" He asked.

"Salad." My uncle and I said at the same time and I almost laughed.

"Bunch of rabbits, I swear, the lot of you." My dad grumbled and I heard the car doors open as he got out with my uncle.

"More like people who make healthy life decisions." I quipped while he was shutting (sounded more like slamming to me) his car door. Somewhere in the back of my mind the image of my dad sitting on the concrete outside on the balcony of the hotel room started to come back. I tried to focus and zone in on the little fuzzy memories that were playing in my head but it all felt like it was just a repeat of the same information. They were outside, and dad was upset about something… I couldn't hear any voices or conversations in my memory but I could feel it. There was anger and there was guilt, and even without remembering what it was about I knew it was there.

I contemplated just laying in the car longer, and maybe just not going in all together. I couldn't shake the feeling that something was very wrong and I could still feel it floating in the air all around me. In my gut I felt uneasy and upset, but I just couldn't place where the feeling came from and part of me was afraid that if I kept digging I was going to find out that I regretted doing so. Even though it was my memory it still felt too private, and it was like I was intruding, even for me. Yet there was an opposite and bigger side of me that just insisted that I had to know.

I wasn't ready to go into the diner and eat whatever gods-awful food my dad was planning on putting in front of me. I was too close to scratching at the little wall in my mind, and if I went in there I was just going to get distracted by whatever nonsense my dad was going to be ranting on about. I didn't get to dwell on it for long though because before I knew it the door near my head was swinging open. Had I not have decent reflexes- even when I'm hungover- I would have definitely hit my head somewhere and I would not be a fun time.

"Must you be so barbaric?" I asked my dad as he reached into his car and grabbed my arms to force me from the backseat. I swatted at his hands while I sat up in the seat and glanced at myself in the rearview mirror. "Yeah, that's gonna be a no from me." I said looking at the wild puffs of hair that were everywhere and the fact that my eyes were a little puffy. "I'm gonna need a minute, or sixty."

"Camilla." My dad sighed and I put my hand up to silence him before he could argue. Now, maybe he could roll out of bed and walk into a diner and feel nothing but that was not me. The fact that I was placed in the car with bed-head was already a sin in and of itself.

"Nope. You and Uncle Puppy can go inside and get a table. I need to do some major work here." I stated and he rolled his eyes at me.

"You're twelve Camilla. Run a brush through your hair and you can brush your teeth after breakfast." Dad argued anyways.

"Now that would be a disgrace to my mother and my cabin." I retorted, "I'm serious. I need a few minutes to pull myself together into the cute and adorable girl that you know because this whole Frankenstein's daughter thing just isn't working for me." I said and I swear my uncle sighed in sync with my dad, which was rather impressive to say the least. Regardless I flicked my wrist once again to wave them off.

"Fine. You have ten minutes before I come back out here to drag you from the car." My dad warned and I placed a hand over my heart in mock injury.

"I am flattered by your belief that I can work miracles like that, but I'm gonna need at least thirty minutes." I said.

"Ten." My dad said again and I sighed.

"Dad, perfection is not something that can be rushed. It must be nurtured. Would you tell a rose to bloom faster?" I said. "However I hear your argument so I will decrease my time to twenty-seven minutes."

"This is not a debate. So you either get ten minutes or you get to come out here now." My dad warned.

"Like I said a miracle requires some time and maybe a little bit of praying for my mother's guidance on how to exterminate this rats nest that has taken up residence on my head." I said and my dad blinked.

"Now you have five minutes. Do you want to turn it into zero?" My dad asked and I groaned.

"Fine. I'll be inside the diner in ten short minutes." I relented and my dad smiled while tapping the roof of his car.

"That's my girl. See you in a few, Princess." My dad said while he walked inside with my uncle.

"I'll take a strawberry lemonade!" I called after them and rolled my eyes again and was pleased to know that it hurts less to do this time. Eye rolling was my signature tween move and without it I just simply would not be complete. Pulling my duffel off of the floor and searching through it I found my brush, and a cardigan that I could put over my tank top and shorts. After a gruelling and solid fifteen minutes of wrestling with my hair, I managed to turn the rats nest into something that resembled a messy bun. Next was I careful to pull on the cardigan without causing another splitting headache. I then attempted to fix my eyeliner to make me look less like a sad raccoon, (somewhat successful). I considered pushing my luck further and change my outfit into something that seemed less lazy, but I had a feeling my dad was about two seconds from coming out here to find me since I was a little late on the "promised" time.

So with a slight sigh and a final straightening out of my cardigan I got out of my dad's car and locked the door. Then I triple checked that the door was actually locked because if it wasn't and someone stole my dad's car, he would kill me. With the final tug on the handle I walked over to the diner and nudged the door open with my shoulder. My dad was sitting across from my uncle in a booth and they were talking in what looked like suspicious whispers even from all the way over here. Something about the view of the two of them sitting there and talking with serious looks on their faces stirred something in my memory.

She has every right to know what is happening to you! You can't hide it, and keeping her in the dark is not the same as protecting her. It is only going to make it sting a lot more.

My uncle's voice was ringing in my ears and the phrase just kept repeating in my head. He thought I had the right to know something… That something was happening to my dad and my uncle thought that I had a right to know about it. So why wouldn't they just tell me… I barely acknowledged my uncle looking up and making eye contact with me from across the diner. I felt completely rooted to where I was standing near the hostess station.

"Is it just one for you sweetheart?" I heard the young woman at the station say and I turned and looked at her for a moment.

"I… Um no. My dad and my uncle… They're already here." I mumbled but I didn't sound all that confident.

"Camilla!" My dad shouted while he was turned around in his seat to wave me over to him. He was smiling at me but I felt like a wave just crashed over me. I felt cold and my arms broke out into goosebumps, and I guess it was showing on my face too because I saw his smile fading away.

I can't tell her Sam. I just… I can't look at her and tell her that this is the last Christmas that we're going to have together.

My dad's voice was echoing in my head and I felt my panic resurface. I turned on my heel and threw the door back open and quickly made it out of the diner. I immediately headed towards the street and just walked across without even stopping to make sure there weren't cars. I heard some tires screech loudly but nothing hit me and I didn't even look up. My gaze stayed glued to the ground as I felt my face heating up and tears were prinkling my eyes.

"Camilla!" I heard my dad shout out but I didn't turn around and instead continued across the street. "Camilla what the hell are you doing?!" I heard his boots hitting against the concrete and I gritted my teeth and felt anger starting to take over. What was I doing? What was HE doing keeping secrets?! I didn't get a chance to retort or to shout back before I felt him grabbing ahold of my arm and yanking me back towards him. When I looked up my dad was a mixture of worry and anger. "You could have gotten hit! Are you out of your mind?!"

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry! I just- I couldnt-" I tried to scramble somewhat of a sentence together that made sense. I was extremely unsuccessful.

"You couldn't what Camilla? What's wrong? Tell me" He pushed and I looked into his eyes and I couldn't help but shout.

"Why is this going to be the last Christmas we'll ever spend?!" I snapped at him and felt his grip loosen on my arm and his face was contorted into a shocked expression. With a hard tug I pulled myself completely from his hand. "Didn't think I'd ever catch on? That I wouldn't ever hear the whispering between you and my uncle? Gods! I'm not stupid!"

"Camilla." My dad tried to talk, but all I could hear was the beginning of what was about to be an excuse. That I was too young to have this talk with him. That he couldn't just bring me on the road. That somehow this was for me, and that I was going to be better off just staying with Bobby. All the excuses that I've heard plenty of other times and I really didn't want to hear again.

"I don't want to hear it." I spat out while turning on my heel and going into an alley. Hopefully this one would lead to a different area and I could go stalk around the park or something until I felt like talking. However, luck really wasn't my strong suit despite my perfect charisma, and this alley was a dead end brick wall. How is that even useful in any city design?

"You weren't ever supposed to hear any of that." My dad was speaking fast and I could sort of hear what sounded like an anxiousness in his voice. As if he was nervous about having this talk, and was banking on the thought that I would never over hear him and his plans to leave me. I couldn't bring myself to turn around and look at him, despite how badly I wanted to shout in his face. Somehow I knew that if I did I was going to break down, and I wasn't going to give him that when he was clearly planning on abandoning me in the near future.

"Yeah. I get the feeling that I'm not supposed to hear a lot of things." I huffed and crossed my arms while keeping my eyes trained on the wall. "So what was the plan? We were going to spend Christmas together and then you were going to just pawn me off on Grandpa Bobby while you and Uncle Sam just disappeared?" I asked.

"Baby Girl… I… I don't want to abandon you, and that is not and has never been my intention." My dad said and I heard a second pair of boots come into the alley.

"Hey, are you guys okay?" I heard my Uncle ask with concern laced in his voice but he was met with silence from the both of us. After a few beats of silence I heard him speak up again."She knows… Doesn't she?" I heard him ask, but I knew it wasn't directed at me. He was asking my dad, and after a moment I figured that my dad must have been giving him silent cues. I resisted the urge to turn around and look at the both of them, so I stubbornly faced forward and continued to stare at the bricks and willed them to open up. Guess telekinesis wasn't a gift of mine because they didn't budge.

"So after the adoption was final you were both just going to walk out of my life? Like I never even existed? Was this last Christmas supposed to be out of pity?" I asked and I couldn't keep the venom from seeping into my voice.

"I was never planning on just walking out on you Camilla. I wish I knew about you sooner because then maybe we could have spent more time together." My dad said and I heard footsteps coming closer to me. "Baby Girl, you have got to believe me when I say that hurting you was never my intention. I didn't… I didn't want to break your heart, and I didn't want you to find out like this. I just wanted to protect you." My dad said and I felt him engulf me in his arms.

"I don't understand." My voice cracked. "How is leaving me going to protect me? How is any of this going to protect me? All I'm going to feel is more alone, because everyone I've ever cared for has walked out of my life."

"Cami." My uncle's voice came from the side and from the corners of my eyes I saw him kneel down next to me. I looked at him because somehow I felt like it was better than looking at my dad. "We are not going to give up without a fight. Trust me."

"What are you even talking about?" I sniffled. "You're leaving. It's your choice to leave me. There's no fight to give."

"Sammy isn't going to go anywhere Baby Girl." My dad let go and tried to get me to turn around while he reassured me, but I wasn't having any of it. I rolled my shoulders and when he turned me around I refused to look at him. Instead I stared down at my shoes and held my hands in fists down at my sides. "I made him swear it Cake Pop."

"So you're just going to leave me? Why can't we come with you?" I quickly asked. Maybe I could convince him to stay, or that I could at least go with him. He's not going to just get to walk away from me like so many other people have, and if he thought he was going to be able to just leave me in the care of his brother or friends then he needed a reality check, because he was not getting his way that easily.

"It's not that simple." My dad said, but I shook my head.

"Yes it is." I cried. "When you break it down. It is always that simple."

"Camilla..." Uncle Puppy started. "Dean isn't leaving us to go somewhere… He's dying." He croaked out. I could feel my stomach drop to my feet like a ton of bricks. My inner dam was shattering and a whirlwind of emotions flooded my brain. My fists weakened until my hands uncurled from that position and hung at my sides. I couldn't have heard that right.

"What… what do you mean you're dying?" My gaze shifted, and finally rested on my dad, and my heart broke. He looked down at his feet and he wore a sad look on his face. "It's not true… Tell me it's not true…" I begged, pacing towards the sad husk that was now my dad, as his hands dropped and held my mine.

"I have till May." My dad said solemnly.

"No." I argued. "No. I know a lot of people, and awesome healers. If it's cancer or something then maybe you can be healed. I mean there has to be a way. Uncle Puppy said that you were going to fight right? Well you can fight against an illness, and maybe it won't be pretty but that doesn't mean that we're going to give up right? I mean I know I'm not going to give up, and like I said, I know healers at camp and they're awesome. Sons and daughters of Apollo himself so there has to be something that they can do about this." I rambled.

"Baby girl… I'm not dying because I'm sick... This isn't something that can be healed or cured by someone, even if they're a demi-god like you." My dad sounded so sure and I shook my head.

"No there has to be a way out. I mean come on, there's always a way out of everything." I argued.

"If we try to find a way out then your Uncle Sam will die instead." Dad said flatly. I felt all of the color drain from my face.

"Who or what did you deal with?" I asked sharply.

"It's a long and complicated story Cake Pop." Dad replied.

"It was my fault." Uncle Sam chimed in. "I was careless and I turned my back on someone else fighting for their life. It was him or me and he made his choice. He got a good stab in my back and… I died." He admitted. I slowly blinked and looked at Dad, expecting him to finish the story.

"There are these demons that appear at crossroads when you summon them. Usually the deal is whatever the summoner desires that the demon grants. In return, it collects your soul and takes you to hell after ten years. The demon I dealt with wasn't as kind. Sammy and I were kind of in the middle of a sort of war with demons so when I summoned one and asked for her to bring back Sam and she could get me in ten years, she laughed. She gave me one year. That's it. So when May gets here… and my time is up..."

"You're going to get dragged into Hell…" I finished for him, connecting the dots. I couldn't be angry anymore. I didn't have the energy and I still had a pounding headache from last night. The major crying and sudden running didn't help. "When were you going to tell me?" I asked.

"Soon-ish." He replied, but I knew better. Thing is, that no one could ever really lie to me. When I was a kid I thought it was a superpower, but right now it felt like a curses. I guess it registered on my face that I thought what he said was a bunch of BS because he started to talk again. "I don't know… There's never a right time for these things. I was thinking I was going to tell you after New Years once everything settled down a little…"

"So this all happened before you even knew about me?" I asked.

"Yes. I hate that I'm not going to be able to spend as much time with you as I want Cake Pop. But we'll make the most of the dumb family stuff before I have to go. Forgive me? Please?" He asked. I gave him a hug and hugged him tight. I was afraid to let go. Five months… I have him for five months… I have that long to figure something out. "Like I said, Sammy is going to stay with you. You'll have Bobby too."

"But they aren't you…" I began to sob and buried my face into his chest. I let everything out, and didn't even care that my eyes have returned to the state of "raccoon-ish". "I just started getting comfortable with you… I love you and Uncle Sammy. I finally found my family. I found you. I stayed with you, and you want me in your family. I finally got to you and got to know you and spend time with you and now it's all going to end in just six months… It's not fair…" I sobbed. Of course right after I unite with my dad, it gets torn apart. Just like every other family attempt, but this hurt the most.

I must have done something to upset Lady Hestia because I swear she put a curse on me.

Author's Note: Thanks again for reading!

WaylandCorp 4 - Glad we can help cheer you up! And yea that was pretty tough to write at the time. In regards to Bela, she just kind of went off in her own little adventure, ruining other peoples lives. She'll pop up again later on in the story.

Ylnadiir - J thinks that too, but A thinks she'll get taller than that, so we'll see.

Trey Alexandee - we haven't decided yet. It'd be fun but very challenging to include Camilla in it but we aren't afraid of a challenge.

AACM25 - very good point, we hadn't considered that. Also, very cool. A probably did know that but I (J) definitely didn't, so thanks :-)

Jerry - Castiel will show when scheduled to show in season 4. Gotta get through the Dean dying thing first.

Joann18joker - We will try and update more frequently!

Question: Do you think Camilla is more of a Cat person or a Dog person?

Trivia: Dean sold his soul in May, and met Camilla in late November/Early December. Meaning when he dies in May next year he comes out of hell in September. (he will get to see her thirteenth birthday before he dies)