It's almost two months after they picked him up in Santa Cruz that Priestly sees his first demon.

It's not what he expects.

Sam bellows incantations in the basement of an ancient church. The Latin bounces of the damp stone walls and echoes over and over. Dean's got his favourite shotgun aimed at the man's head and his eyes are hot and hard.

Priestly's breath catches in his throat as he walks in on the scene.

He had been upstairs, getting the congregation out of the tainted church, blessing each of them with holy water as they passed, making sure nothing tried to slip out from under their noses.

When he leaps down the basement stairs, he's really not prepared for the black-eyed, hissing priest backed up in the corner.

Everyone out? Dean projects into Priestly's head.

The twin nods silently.

"Good," Dean mutters, letting loose a shower of rock salt when the priest tries to move from the corner.

The thing snarls again, craning his neck.

It's then that it sees Priestly for the first time.

The room goes suddenly cold as the demon's eyes widen in what could only be understood as complete and utter shock.

Priestly's insides go icy as the thing's eyes flick between him and Dean, eyes widening impossibly further, before its lips curl back and it shrieks.

It startles Sam just enough that he pauses in his exorcism, and it gives the demon just enough time to scream and lift Dean into the air like he weighs nothing.

Before anyone can blink, the demon tosses Dean's body into the stone wall across the room like a rag doll.

The sound his body makes against the unforgiving stone is sickening and Priestly feels a sudden and terrible pain in his side, as if he has just been kicked in the ribs.

For a moment, it looks as if Sam might go to his brother, but he thinks better of it and continues in the exorcism.

Dean groans from his slumped position as Priestly runs to him, hands instantly falling to his twin's ribs. He already knows they're broken, but he lets his hand ghost over his brother's side just the same.

Dean hisses in pain as Priestly feels for damage. Two ribs are broken. Maybe three.

Despite the little Dean is giving away, Priestly knows he's in massive amounts of pain.

And that make him mad.

Priestly stands and turns back to the fray without a word, but Dean can feel anger and malice rise within the back of his mind.

Sam's nearing the end of the exorcism when Priestly comes up beside him, face twisted in rage and palms open upward.

Sam can feel the energy collecting around his brother.

The last Latin words die on his lips as the bare bulb above his head flickers violently and explodes, casting hot shards off glass around the room.

Sam flinches away, but Priestly barely notices.

The twin's eyes scream bloody murder as he extends an open palmed hand towards the hissing priest.

In an instant the man is in the air, dangling from an invisible hand around his throat. His jet black eyes are wide and panicked, the demon paralyzed with fear and confusion.

He hovers, choking under Priestly's power.

Dean watches on as Sam trembles.

"Finish it, Sammy," Dean moans, feeling weak.

Dean's voice startles Sam from his stupor, and, stumbling only a little, he finishes the exorcism.

The dangling priest screams horrifically and shudders, still dangling in the air by an unseen hand.

Priestly doesn't move as the thing writhes, just keeps his hold on the host body as a plume of black smoke pours from its mouth.

*****

Dean winces as another breath scrapes fresh pain across his sides.

He watches the scene unfold from his crumpled position on the floor, mesmerized by his twin's power, but troubled by the drain he feels in the back of his mind.

When it's finally over and the priest is panting and crying on the floor, praying fervently, Dean watches Priestly sag, and before he can cry out, his twin falls unconscious to the floor.

*****

Priestly awakes to soft, warm breath on his face and the feeling of an old mattress beneath him. There's sunlight flooding the room, and it strikes him with a violent migraine right behind the eyes.

For just a moment, he wonders if he had gone out drinking the night before.

But then the foolish hope is gone as his mind is suddenly flooded with memories of what happened in the tainted church basement.

Priestly shudders as his mind splits down the middle, seeing the events from both his own perspective and Dean's.

The headache intensifies, and it's all Priestly can do to stumble to the bathroom before he empties his stomach in the toilet.

He heaves over and over, even when there is nothing left inside him. He's quaking harder now, on the edge of sobbing, holding his aching head in his hands as he slinks to the floor.

He's not sure how long he stays there, hunched over the ancient porcelain bowl, shaking, before he feels Dean's presence behind him.

Neither boy says a thing at first, when Dean lays a hand on his twin's shoulder, but a sense of comfort and serenity flows from the limb into Priestly's body, and for the first time since he awoke, he feels like he's able to breathe.

When he's able to stop his convulsions, Priestly turns himself around on the floor, leaning against the faded wall as Dean sits opposite him.

Priestly takes in the site of his twin brother.

He's dressed only in jeans and his bare torso is split horizontally by tight white bandages, no doubt keeping his battered ribs in place.

He looks tired. Really tired. But not unhappy. Just drained.

There are bags under his eyes and bruises along his chest and sides. But when he looks across at Priestly, he smiles gently, letting some teeth show in his best attempt at wounded charm.

As the headache retreats, Priestly feels the corners of his mouth turn and he runs a hand through his mangled hair.

"So," Priestly says slowly. "How often can I expect to be bashed around like that. I'll need a bit of warning, cause I'm not exactly built like a tank like you and the giant."

Dean starts to chuckle, but winces quickly. "Don't worry," he responds. "Sammy and I will look out for you, you frail thing, you."

It's then that Priestly's grin falters.

"I am sorry, you know" he murmurs. "I wasn't fast enough. I couldn't stop it in time… and you got hurt," Priestly says, barely a whisper, reaching out and touching the bandages on his twin softly.

They both feel the connection in the touch, and Dean only lets out a shaky breath when Priestly's finger tips graze his bare, purpled skin.

"Hey, you let loose some serious psychic ass-kicking on that demon," Dean breathes, feeling the ache in his sides start to dull. "It all could have gotten a lot worse, but you stepped up for Sammy and I. We owe you."

Priestly shakes his head and scootches closer to his brother. "You don't owe me anything. It's what family does."

A light goes on in Dean's eyes and before Priestly can react, he's being pulled into a tight hug on the dirty bathroom floor.

The hug is probably more than Dean's ribs should be a part of right now, but he doesn't care. He has his brother back and it's all that matters.

Priestly runs a hand over his twin's side and smiles into his neck.

"Hey man," he says. "No chick flick moments."

*****

They've just crossed into Wisconsin on their way to meet a particularly nasty black dog when Dean jerks in the passenger seat and whips out his phone.

Priestly flinches against the wheel of the Impala and tries to resist the urge to look over at whatever Dean's doing.

It's his first time driving and he really doesn't want to do anything that will have him re-relegated to the back seat where Sam is currently sprawled.

"Hi, is this Michael?" Dean says, a grin forming around the words. "Hey, man. It's Dean."

Sam shifts from his slumped position and leans in between the front seats, brow slightly furrowed. His eyes flick for a second to a passing road sign, and it's like a light bulb goes on.

"Turn left on Highway 17," is all he says to Priestly, and the newly purple-haired boy really wishes someone would tell him just what the hell was going on.

Dean's still grinning and chatting to his right, asking the person on the phone how things are going, how the kids are doing and whether or not he's managed to keep someone named Asher out of trouble. It's all very bizarre because Dean seems so pleased to be in the middle of fucking nowhere, talking happily and truthfully instead of lying and brooding.

Priestly wonders if he's accidentally driven into the twilight zone. With the lives they lived, it wouldn't really shock him too much.

Nonetheless, he takes the turn Sam dictated and continues to drive, notices the receding road side miles of some place called Fitchburg, and he feels a tingle in the back of his head… like a memory that isn't his own.

He tries to tap into it while he drives, trying his best to keep the necessary amount of attention on the road, because he knows that if he hurts Dean's car, twin or not, Dean will murder him.

As the miles dwindle down, the foreign memory starts to come more into focus. He can see pieces of images and feel random flits of emotion, but they're erratic and hard to grasp. They're smothered by a sense of anger and guilt, and for a moment, Priestly allows himself to look away from the road long enough to glance at his twin.

Dean's smile is wide and easy, and he's still talking away on the phone like a big girl, and Priestly will have to save that image for a little while because it's just too good.

Houses and stores start to dot the sides of the highway, and Priestly glances back at Sam for direction.

"About ten more minutes down the road," he says cryptically. It's then that Sam glances at Dean, still off in his own world. When Sam's eyes fall back to Priestly, they're smiling. "I think you'll know the place when you see it."

*****

The motel looks about the same as it does in Dean's memory. There's a new paint job, and even a pool now, but it's otherwise the same place it was two years ago.

When Sam and Dean jump out of the car with a purposeful gate, Priestly can't help but feel as if he's intruding on an important part of their past.

Dean must feel something, because he's pauses halfway to the door and turns to give Priestly an inviting, reassuring smile.

Priestly shakes off his trepidation and gets out of the car.

Sam is already chatting jovially with someone at the counter when Priestly walks in. He approaches cautiously at Dean's urging and as he edges around Sam's towering frame, the voices die away.

He's getting kind of sick of that.

He holds the stunned eyes of a pretty blonde teenager behind the counter as he comes to a halt between Sam and Dean.

"Michael," Dean says to the stunned boy. "This is our brother Priestly."

*****

The pool is blissfully cool under the hot summer sun.

Priestly surfaces, and shakes the stray water from his hair. He opens his eyes to find Dean staring at him and smirking.

"What?" Priestly calls, treading water.

Dean continues to grin from the lawn chair he's sprawled in. "Your mascara's running, you big girl."

Priestly flips him off and dives back under, leaving Dean to his beer and his previous conversation.

"That's gonna take some getting used to," Michael murmurs from the chair next to Dean, watching as Priestly restarts his laps.

"Tell me about," Dean mumbles as he brings the sweating bottle to his lips.

The two are silent for a long time, the summer heat pulling at their energy. Dean's eyes have just drifted close when Michael clears his throat.

"You guys are here about the black dog, right?"

Dean jerks out of his reverie, startled, and Priestly's head suddenly pops over the liquid surface again, sensing his brother's sudden anxiety.

"How do you know about that?" Dean chokes, still trying to find his voice.

Michael tries to shrug innocently. It almost works with the familiar smile and chin length, shaggy blonde hair… but Dean knows better.

"Mikey…" he says warningly in his father's tone.

Michael rolls his eyes and huffs with all the exaggerated emotion a fifteen year old can muster.

"What?" he says in a way that betrays the fact that he knows exactly 'what'.

"You haven't been doing anything stupid lately, have you?" Dean's tone suggests the answer had damn well better be no if the kid knew what was good for him.

Michael just rolls his eyes. "No," he says indignantly. "I've just been reading. Research and stuff, you know? I haven't actually gone after anything on my own. I may be blonde, but I'm not a complete moron."

Priestly snickers from the pool and Dean shoots him a glare. "Good," he says to the teen. "Cause, you know, I'd have to kick your ass on principle."

"Ya, right," Michael grins.

Just for that, Dean pushes him into the pool.

*****

The night is hot and humid and Priestly had been tossing and turning for hours.

He's got a bed to himself tonight but it hasn't made sleeping any easier.

He turns again, trying to quiet Dean's noisy dreams in his head, ignoring them as best as he can. Dean makes it difficult, of course, even in his sleep, dreaming of things that would make a porn star blush.

Priestly watches as his twin snuffles and shifts, unconsciously throwing an arm over Sam's side, marveling at the ease in which the two men sleep.

During their waking hours, they're close, but guarded. But here, in their bare bones, Priestly is able to sense all the things that Dean leaves unsaid.

It tugs at him, to feel how much Dean loves Sam. It's an all consuming feeling, like Sam is the only thing tying Dean to the land of the living. Priestly can't help but feel a pang of jealousy over the bond. If he hadn't been taken away… it would have been him and Dean sharing that link.

Priestly shakes his head, clearing his mind. Thoughts like that weren't fair. It wasn't his brothers' fault that things had happened the way they did. There was another hand at work, bent on keeping the three of them apart, and now that they were finally together, it was useless to fret over what was lost.

They had one another again. That was what mattered.

As sleep finally began to creep upon him, drowsiness flowing from the mind of his brother, Priestly vows to bury the past.

But if he ever finds the thing that fractured his family, he is going to make it pay dearly.

Read the next story in the Lost and Found 'Verse Fury and Fitchburg