SAM AND NATALIA

Both Sam and Natalia both noticed that Cason was acting...strange to say the least. Neither wanted to say anything as neither actually knew Cason as well as Anna did. The fact he felt he could boss them all about, when it was obviously clear that Natalia had everything she needed or had brought to her room the night before. Yet the guy was offering to do their orders and actually buy their food for them, so they were gonna just hope he wasn't going to poison them and just bring them their food.

As he disappeared from the room after bossing them about, they both noticed that Annabeth seemed to also notice how Cason was, and wondered what else must have been gone on between him and Esme to make him act so weird. "Okay, that was weird" Nat simply stated, "Understatement" Sam replied. "Also nice job at ordering as much as possible to make him pay more" Sam then quipped with a smirk, which only made Natalia shrug in the whole 'so what..I don't care' way. "Yeah well, I'm starving and he's offering. If it was a problem he should have asked me for the money so I bought my own." she pointed out.

Sam gave her the 'very valid points' look before walking over to where his bag was and grabbed it, slinging it on the bed and then proceeded to walk around the room to make sure nothing was left behind even though he was certain nothing ever got left out the bag. He still couldn't be too careful and whatever he found laying around that belonged to them, (and the cheeky complentary shower gel bottles and soaps) and shoved themk in his bag, zipping it up and perched on the edge of the bed as he waited for Cason to return with all their breakfast orders, as Annabeth asked about the driving orders. "Well, You can drive with me if you want or Nat, it's up to you." Sam replied to Annabeth.

"I'll be either on my own or Benjamin will be appearing out of nowhere, not got a clue where he went. So there's plenty of room in my car and heated seats" Natalia explained to Annabeth with a smug smile, knowing Sam's car didn't have anything that 'fancy'.

MIKA

Mika didn't mean to strictly gang up on Dean when it came to the whole spellcasting idea, but she knew that in this instance Bobby was right in his reply. She also knew that Dean hated reading, oh she knew that all too well. She still could remember when they were younger, school age and he found her in a book store/cafe and complained that of all places to find her it had to be a bookstore. Sure, he waited for her to finish her drink and she insisted on finishing the chapter she was reading but that didn't stop him grumbling about it. It was highly amusing to her at the time and looking back it still was. Yet it was one of the first times he knew if she couldn't be found or was at home after school, that sotre was the very place she could be found in. She still found it a miracle he ever kept the pride and prejudice book she gave him as a symbol of hope she'd come back to him all those years ago.

She looked up from the page she was reading when he started muttering again about what this Castiel said to him, before he continued with theories about what said job was. The idea of him being needed to kill either Annabeth or Sam put a shiver down her spine as the thought just made her incredibly uncomfortable. She wanted to try and change his mind that that won't happen, but Bobby spoke up first and said it wasn't uncommon in the bible for that kind of sacrifice to be made within the family unit.

She looked at him back as she sensed him looking toward her as they sat on the couch together. "Hey... we don't know for sure that's the case at the moment, it's a worst case scenario that we need to file to the very back of our minds until we get more information or clues about what this so called job is. But yeah...fighting Angels to keep family safe is not something I think any of us thought would be a reality. But we'll figure it out and we won't lose either of them if we can help it." she explained to him, patting his legs in support.

Cason moved his head side to side on his shoulders, mocking her for telling him to stop worrying. His smile never left his face as he did so. He really was concerned for her driving, but he also knew that she wouldn’t shut up if he drove. They might have made strides in the past day, but not that much progress.

Smiling brightly at the waitress, he took the packages of food from her as she reached them out to him, “Thank you, love…keep the change.”

He handed her a hundred dollar bill, and turned back to Esme, “Well, let’s go pass out the food and get going. I’m eager to see how Dean Winchester reacts to all this. It’ll be better than the movies…”

He wrapped an arm around her waist, making sure she had a good grip on her drink, and disappeared, reappearing in Sam’s room again, where he sat the bags down in front of Annabeth.
“Dispersal time. I’m going with Esme. You guys should hurry…”, he quipped, releasing Esme from his other arm.



Annabeth smirked at how everything seemed so calm, considering. Although, Sam and Natalia talking about Cason had her attention. She noticed how weird he was acting, too, and it made her wonder exactly what his angle was…all over again.

She smiled at Natalia’s offer to take her in her car, but shook her head lightly, “I think I’ll stick with Sam. For some reason, he seems to chill me out. With no eyes…you know…riding in a car is weird.”

She gave a small chuckle just as Cason appeared in the room. She could feel him, and Esme as they arrived. She straightened herself on the bed and turned her face toward them as Cason spoke. Her eyebrows furrowed behind her sunglasses and she turned, as if looking at Sam and shrugged her shoulders a bit.

“You’re bossy…”, she muttered to Cason, which caused him to give her an exasperated look, “You’re bossy, and we’ve already figured out the rides. I’m going with Sam…”

Cason nodded, giving Sam a look like ‘what happened to her’ at her confidence.



Dean knew Mika was right about killing them being the worst case scenario. But he also knew the worst case scenario tended to find them, every single time. He put his legs down on the floor, taking his book with him as he quickly strolled into the kitchen.

“I need coffee, and they need to hurry up…”, he muttered to himself, but loud enough for them to hear. Bobby sighed loudly, putting his pencil down and rubbing his eyebrows.

“Dean.”, he started, “They’ll be here when they get here. For now, you need to concentrate. Being scared is one thing, but being reckless is something I ain’t lettin’ you dive into. Get your coffee, and either go work on something in the garage, or come help us find something. Take these notes if you need to and work it out with Mika…on a computer or something.”

As Bobby gave him a small speech, Dean looked down at the coffee pot and swallowed heavily at the thoughts of Castiel’s presence and what he could possibly want. Those thoughts mixed with memories from heaven, and he began blinking heavily, resting a hand on the counter to attempt to not cower on the floor.

“I’ll um…I’ll get on the computer here in a second. I just need a minute.”, he answered Bobby, and poured a cup of coffee.

Esme narrowed her eyes a bit at Cason’s mocking, a small smile still resting on her lips as she did. When the waitress came up with the orders, she smiled warmly and took her drink from her with a thank you as Cason took the others. Holding her drink in both hands, she took a sip as he turned back to her and spoke. “Yeah, better than a movie.” she smirked and laughed a little after swallowing. When he wrapped his arm around her waist, she tried to protest, but all she got out was “Hey” as he teleported them to Sam’s room.

After landing in Sam’s room, she felt lightheaded and slightly sick to her stomach. When he let her go, Esme took a couple of steps back and nodded to Annabeth’s words. “You’re right. He is bossy.” she replied to her. Holding her drink with her right hand, she balled up her left hand at her side. “You couldn’t give me a heads up before doing that?” she asked with a glare, trying not to yell at him. She then walked over to a chair and sat down, rested her left arm on the arm of the chair, then rested her forehead on her hand, waiting for the symptoms to pass.

She took a sip of her drink before closing her eyes and sighing heavily and focusing on keeping her food down. She hoped the feeling would pass quickly and not linger.

MIKA

At Dean's declaration of needing coffee, it reminded her she had her own one that she hadn't even finished yet, so she leaned forward and grabbed her mug off the table and sipped it as she went back to reading, but not without looking at Bobby and giving him the look of 'he's such a child sometimes'. She didn't want to say anything to him but it seemed that Bobby had other ideas, as he did continue to tell him that now was not the time to think of irrational and brash ideas.

If she was honest with herself, she would like Bobby, prefer it if Dean found something a lot more productive to do instead of being in this restless state that he had clearly got himself into. It was always a concern to her when he got like this, and if there was a way of making him being useful and productive, then she'd welcome that idea with open arms. She knew he was suffering a lot more than he was willing to let on, but she also knew Dean was the type of person that if you pushed him too quickly to open up, he'd shut down even more and just push you away further.

So she had to begrudgingly just let him work through whatever it was that was affecting him so much mentally, and just hope that he wouldn't forget to talk to her when he was ready. "I'm getting nothing out of this book, so I'll help him at the computer when he's ready" she told Bobby, whilst also giving him the look in her eyes of 'i'll watch out for him, dont worry'.

SAM AND NATALIA

Natalia wasn't in the slightest bit surprised that Annabeth would want to ride with Sam. Infact she was actually assuming she would, but to be somewhat polite and accomodating, she figured the offer was the right thing to do. "I thought that'd be your answer" she smiled at her, so it would travel into her tone as well. She knew that whatever was said to Annabeth, if they were to make some kind of facial gesture as they spoke, they'd need to do all they could to convey that in their speech to try and make Annabeth not feel so out of the loop.

With Cason just entering the room yet again in a blink of an eye, it took Natalia and Sam a second to process that he was standing there and this time with Esme in tow, who was clearly suffering from such an action. Natalia couldn't help but give the woman a look of sympathy as she knew there was no way she would wanna suffer with. She looked between everyone as they spoke, and had to stifle her laughter when Annabeth and Esme both said that Cason was being bossy, whilst she saw Sam was taking none of Cason's looks toward him.

"She's got a point, you are being pretty bossy this morning." he simply stated, folding his arms in front of his chest. "But thanks for the breakfast for us" he added, knowing he was going to try his hardest not to be solely an asshole to this guy, even if he didn't fully trust him. "But yeah, as for the driving situations it is figured out. Annabeth will be with me, Esme with you and Nat will be in her car, happily alone" he explained, as he then grabbed the bag of their breakfast and found one of the boxes with his own breakfast in, which he took ahold of, then handed Natalia her breakfast and Annabeth her's.

"We'll get a head start on eating our breakfast, then we can head out" he suggested, seeing that Nat was already unwrapping her full english breakfast sandwich and taking a huge bite out of it. 'So much like Dean...' he thought to himself.

Cason released Esme as they landed, his face turning to concern when she seemed to be ill from the teleport. He wasn’t used to taking humans along with him, as he hadn’t done so in a while…well not full blooded humans, that is.

“I’m sorry…”, he muttered as she stepped away from him and sat down. He continued to stare at her, with concern, until Sam spoked up and he rolled his eyes, glaring back at him, “I’m not being bossy. I’m being proactive. We have work to do…”

He ignored the thanks for the food, or even that he was speaking about eating before they left, although it caused a small eye roll. He then turned his attention to Annabeth, pointing a finger at her.

“Can we talk? Bring your food if you want, but I need to talk to you.”, he almost whispered to her, trying to keep his annoyance at a level that was less threatening.

Annabeth raised an eyebrow behind her sunglasses, turning her face to Sam before back to Cason and then gave a small nod. She knew that they needed to talk about everything that had happened, considering how fast their lives had changed in less than two days. They went from a couple that hung out with their friends, and shared an apartment, to strangers.

She stood, holding her sandwich in her hand as she followed him toward the door. Taking a bite of her sandwich, she stepped through the door as he opened it. He then closed it behind her and stepped up close, so she knew where he was.

“Is there anything that I can say, that will make you leave, right now?”, he asked her, as she munched on her sandwich. She shook her head at him and he sighed, “I get it, some weird connection is happening with you and Sam Winchester. But you have to understand that he’s going to get you killed. He gets everyone killed. He already got you killed!”

“He didn’t…”, she muttered, between bites, shaking her head at him. He lightly stomped his foot in frustration, and placed his hands on his hips.

“There are things coming that they don’t understand. They are things you can’t possibly comprehend. Now, I’m not leaving, if you’re not leaving, but I need you…to go.”, he begged her, which caused her to frown visibly.

“I’m not leaving him, Cason. I’m not leaving any of them. If I’m some sort of weapon…or some sort of key to something, I want to be with people who won’t hide from it. They accept me. They don’t lie to me…”, as she spoke to him, his face melted into regret but understanding.

“I’m sorry, I lied to you. I’ll tell you what I know, when you’re ready to hear it.”, he explained softly. He was disappointed when she just simply nodded, standing as if she just wanted to go back into the room. He sighed and reached behind him, opening the door for them to enter, as the others should have been finishing up their meals by then.

Annabeth stepped back over to Sam, reaching a hand out and running it along his shoulder for support as she sat back down beside him, causing Cason to run a hand down his face in frustration.

“Well, if we can head to Sioux Falls, now…that would be great. One of my guys mentioned something, earlier at the diner, about more angels coming down. I don’t know if they are with you, or against you…but I would figure you would want to be with your Bobby Singer, when they come. He seems to be at least competent…”, Cason rambled, before reaching down and picking up Esme’s hand, “Are you okay?”



Dean pushed back against the visions he was having, and brought a shaky hand up to get a drink of coffee. He turned around and slowly stepped back into the living room, grabbing his laptop off one of the tables almost silently. Until Sam arrived, he didn’t really have much to say. He wanted his brother, within arms reach, to be safe.

He stepped back into the kitchen and sat at the table, flipping the laptop open and sitting his coffee cup down on the table top. As he pecked away at the computer, a few things popped up, on church websites. There were people who had seen things, they couldn’t explain. Faith healers popping up in random cities, shooting stars with no sign of rubble after they hit the earth, and the demon omens were few and far between over the entire Earth. The angels were clearly scaring the demons.

Printing a few of the articles to the printer behind Bobby, he clicked over to another tab and began looking at the more brutal books of the bible, and interpretations of those parts. He sighed when he came to Lucifer, staring at a painting, and trying to figure out why it struck him in a strange place in his chest. The painting almost made him nauseated. He remembered Hell. He had never seen Lucifer, only Alastair. It had always been Alastair.

“Printed off a few news stories for you to look at…”, he muttered across the room to Bobby. Bobby barely looked up from his book, turning and grabbing the pages off the printer behind him. As he shuffled through them, he narrowed his eyes.

“Are you insinuating that the demons are running? Why would demons run from angels, if they have always known about each other?”, Bobby asked. Dean shrugged his shoulders, peering at Bobby over the top of the computer.

“Maybe they’ve never met on a plane that they are equals? Or…maybe…angels can kick their asses on earth?”, Dean replied, which caused Bobby’s eyes to widen, “But the angels are most definitely not on our side. So, it seems like we’re screwed in the middle…again…”

As Esme sat at the table, she placed her drink on the table, not being able to drink it with her upset stomach. She listened to the small talk that went on, not making any attempt to say anything herself. She continued to focus on getting her stomach to calm after being suddenly teleported. When Cason and Annabeth walked to the door, she looked up slightly and watched them go out to talk. She dropped her gaze to her feet and continued to wait out her stomach. Her head had already let up, so she was no longer feeling dizzy.

The longer she sat still, the better she felt. She eventually lifted her head from her hand and looked around the room, noticing that Natalia and Sam seemed to be finishing their food. She then heard the door open as Cason and Annabeth came back in, she watched Annabeth make her way over to Sam. She also noticed Cason’s reaction before he rambled. Great, more angels. Just what we need. she thought to herself. When Cason took her hand and spoke to her, she looked at it for a moment, then lifted her eyes to look at him.

“Yeah, I’m fine.” she told him with a sigh. Her stomach was still a little upset, but it was tolerable. She was ready to get out of here and meet up with the others to see what information they had to share. She also needed to go back to the room and get the pile of clothes and boots she left there.

Benjamin
Benjamin walks without being escorted to the table inside the room, seeing the team all together eating their breakfast in this place. "Hey guys, I've got some bad news. I've been far seeing with my magic and I'm sure that someone is tailing us. This force is not Samael or anyone we've ever met before, and I think it's stronger than me."
"Either another witch is spying on us or it's something that I've never ran into before. It isn't demonic or angelic."
"I'm a little worried that it can over take us easily. We have to somehow get ready for it but I'm not sure how." He looked around at the indoor room. "You know for a three star hotel this place is a little fancy, isn't it?"

MIKA

Mika couldn't help but watch Dean's every single action and movement as she was getting incredibly worried about him. He was holding things inside and not letting them out and though she did tell herself she would wait for him for come to her, she still found herself being concerned about his behaviour. It wasn't like he ever had a proper chance to talk about what happened in Hell and for that she almost felt guilty that she couldn't have found a moment to let him open up and process everything properly, even though it wasn't entirely her fault in the slightest. Yet like how he always felt guilt in some way about her actions, she felt it over his.

She waited for him to get the laptop and sit down at the kitchen table before she put her book down, kept ahold of her coffee and stood up where she walked into the kitchen, using the fake excuse of topping up her coffee as her excuse for heading inside. Topping up her coffee mug she then sat down at the table, pulling her chair to next to him instead of opposite. She sipped her drink as she read over the articles that Dean found with him. She didn't say a word but tried to make herself useful as much as possible, helping by pointing out some bits.

But it was when he seemed to withdraw inside his mind again when the painting of Lucifer came up that got her really concerned. "Dean? You okay?" she asked cautiously and softly, not wanting to startle him too much but also wanting to try and get somewhere with what was going on in his head. Yet it didn't seem to do much as he just went on to telling Bobby about what he had printed off for him to look over.

"We'll find a way to get on top... we always do." she told them both, just hoping that this time she continued to be right as she wasn't so sure she even believed it herself. They were now dealing with something they had never dealt with before, something totally out of their control and far more powerful than they ever imagined.

SAM AND NATALIA

Sam didn't like that Cason wanted to talk to Annabeth alone, even though she had clearly spent plenty of time with the demon alone way before they got reunited, and he even realised who she was. Yet it seemed Annabeth was willing to talk to Cason, so he wasn't going to stop her. He continued eating his breakfast as he watched her go outside with Cason, looking between the other girls that were left in the room then back to his food. Natalia really wanted to ask Sam if they thought they could trust Cason, but she had also noticed how Cason seemed rather clingy to Esme and she didn't want to risk anything she discussed with her brother being spoken about to Cason when he went in Esme's car with her.

It didn't take long for him to finish his breakfast, his last bite being made as Annabeth and Cason made their way back inside. Nat was onto her hash brown as the two of them walked back inside. She listened as did Sam to what Cason was telling them about more Angels coming down and they both sighed, as Nat took her last bite and threw her trash in the hotel room's bin. "Guess we should be on our way then" she commented when suddenly Benjamin showed up out of nowhere.

The fact that there seemed to be now yet another thing coming their way didn't surprise Natalia or Sam but it sure did annoy them both. "Great...yet another thing.." Nat gruffed in annoyance. "okay, well, lets get moving to Bobby's. Benjamin if you're coming along, you'll be in my car if that's okay by you but driver picks the music, no if's, but's or protest of any kind of chosen music." she told him.

When everything was agreed upon and everyone was ready, Nat lifted her bag up off the floor and walked to the door. "let's get this show on the road, Sam you lead" she said once more, leaving the room and heading straight to her car where she pulled out her keys, unlocked the car, chucked her bag in the trunk and got inside, waiting for everyone else to be ready before starting the drive back to Souix Falls.

Sam walked with Annabeth to his car and helped her inside in the passenger side as he did before, then got in the driver's side himself. With it decided he would do the lead to Souix Falls, he waited for everyone else to be ready before starting the drive back, making sure both Nat and Esme could follow on easily enough.

Dean barely looked up when Mika sat down beside him. The subjects she would likely ask about were not things he knew if he could talk about, out loud. He sent everything over to Bobby, and after the small conversation, he finally looked over at her, attempting to not portray too much annoyance at her asking if he was okay, earlier.

“I’m fine…”, he muttered, his voice not at all convincing. He placed his face in his hands, rubbing his eyes roughly with his thumb and fingers. He wanted to tell her everything, but even as the visions of Hell and the pain of the racks played over and over in his mind, just as he sat there with her, and every time he closed his eyes, he couldn’t say the words.

“I um…I’m just worried about Sam. You know. All this angel stuff is pretty intense.”, he explained, sighing heavily. He didn’t notice Bobby staring at him from across the room. Bobby pulled out his cellphone, fumbling around with his fingers, as he rarely texted. He shot a text to Mika.



He pressed send and kept his eyes on Mika, waiting for her to receive the message as he took a drink of whiskey and kept peering over the images of Lucifer and hellfire. He had a sinking feeling that Dean remembered everything, in the pit. He couldn’t imagine that even angels would be able to scrub the demons influence from his brain.



Cason reached a hand out to Esme, trying to turn his attention away from the obsession Annabeth seemed to have with being near the younger Winchester. He helped her stand up, steadying her with both hands as he did so, “Let’s go back to the room and get your stuff. I won’t teleport us anywhere, just don’t drive like a maniac.”

He spoke the words with a warm smile, which caused Annabeth to narrow her eyes in confusion. There was no way for them to understand why he was clinging to Esme, almost as if she was a drug, or something. Annabeth reached out for Sam, grabbing her small backpack from the floor as he decided to walk her to the car.

She knew that the best option was to get to Sioux Falls, and meet with this ‘Bobby Singer’. If he could help, she would be safe there. They would all be safe there. As she sat down in the car, she leaned her head back, attempting to prepare herself for riding in a car with no eyes once again. In her head, a voice she didn’t recognize began to speak to her. Trying not to draw Sam’s attention to her noticing the noise, she bit her lip and listened.

Hello, love.
You haven’t met me yet, and I want to introduce myself formally.
Just know that I’m here. You only need to ask. And it’s best that you keep this away from Dean Winchester. I’m not sure he’s ready to see me again, just yet.
I can fix your eyes.
I’m your one ally, you’ll find.
Keep that in mind.

The voice almost spoke in a poem, before stopping completely and leaving her confused. She sighed and turned her face toward Sam as he entered the car, with her. Suddenly, the voice was all she could think about.

Esme’s attention went from Cason to Natalia as she spoke. She could share in her annoyance with the news. She gave a nod in agreement to heading out, then gave a small smile to Natalia’s words to Benjamin. She watched as everyone grabbed their stuff and headed out to the cars. Then she looked to Cason and allowed him to help her up from the chair. Once on her feet, she looked at him as he spoke. “Please don’t.” she told him. “I don’t think my stomach could handle it.” she continued.

She then grabbed her drink and walked to the door, and shook her head lightly and paused at the door. “Driving like a maniac is something I don’t normally do.” she said, turning to look at him. She then turned back around and walked out the door and to the room to grab her things. The thought of her driving like a maniac made her laugh to herself. Did she look like someone that would drive in such a manner? Surely not. She was guilty of driving a bit too fast sometimes. Besides, driving in such a manner would cause the risk of her damaging or totaling the only car she had, and that was something she wasn’t about to risk.

When she reached the room, she turned to the parking lot and looked at her car, happy to see it there. From what she could see, they brought it back in the same condition she had left it in. She then turned back to the room, opened the door, and walked in to grab her things. She walked to the chair in the corner and picked up her, draping them over her arm, then picked up her boots and headed out of the room and to her car. Esme walked to the truck and dropped her boots and draped the clothes on it, then went to the driver's door and opened it and grabbed the keys from the seat, then set her drink in the cupholder.

Esme then went back to the trunk, opened it and threw her clothes and boots in. She walked back to the open driver’s door and got into the car. The first thing she did was look at the rearview mirror to see if her purple crystal wolf was still there. It relieved her to see that it was still hanging there. Putting the key in the ignition, she gave it a turn, and the engine roared to life. “You ready?” she asked Cason.

Cason stayed close to Esme as she stood up and began walking out the door. He smirked at her retort to him, and shrugged his shoulders, “Noted. No teleporting, unless it’s an emergency…And the way you shoot people…and punch people…I have a hard time believing you’re a safe driver.”

He chuckled lightly, following her out the door. He stayed as close to her as he could, without making her uncomfortable. He wanted to make sure that if she was still feeling any effects from him popping them into the room, he could keep her from hurting herself. As she gathered her things in their room, he held his arms out several times with a ‘I’ll get that’ but noticed that she never asked for his help.

Crossing his arms, he let her finish picking up all of her things and then followed her like a shadow out to the car. He smiled a bit at the internal dialogue that skated through his head, thinking about her being super independent, but stuck with a demon guard dog.

As she entered the car, he stepped into the passenger seat, closing the door after he had both his legs in. His brain lit up with a bit of noise as he did so, and he placed a hand on his forehead, rubbing it lightly. Usually that only happened when Annabeth was having one of her visions, or hearing voices. He stared ahead, looking through Sam’s back window as Esme started the car and asked if he was ready. Turning back to her with a bit of a flinch, he nodded, “Yeah. I’m good to go when you are. I just need to make a phone call, on the way…”

He pulled out his phone, and dialed one of his underlings. As the man answered, Cason sighed and spoke, “I need you to help keep an eye on Sam Winchester’s car…yeah the one in the front. Oh is that right? Alastair is topside…great.”

He paused as he thought about what the man had said on the other side. He had asked if they should tell Dean Winchester about Alastair being on earth. He shook his head gently.

“No. Don’t say a word to him, until we figure out what’s going on with the angels. Worst comes to worst, we let the feather dusters have it. Absolute worst case scenario…I believe Anna might can handle it. But, we won’t know until the Angels figure it out.”, he explained, before closing his phone and turning to stare at the car in front of them again, no words spoken. He fully expected for Esme to ask questions, which he would answer the best he could.

Leon Terrence

Leon was irate as usual, and coffee wasn't helping as much as it usually did. He was making no more progress into this investigation then before. The death of his old friend Henrickson had hit him hard, harder then most. Their friendship had truly blossomed when they'd worked together on the Winchester case. Of course Leon had never divulged to him about the fact their father John had murdered his wife.

Henrickson was a pain in the ass for the boys, but he followed protocol to the T. Leon himself was somewhat more of a hypocrite, and he was currently in his home office. Officially he was investigating a missing girls case, a couple teenage girls had turned up missing in the area but he had a different mission that had his focus now. Setting the caffeinated beverage down on the table he took the stairs to his basement where a woman was seen bloodied, beaten & bruised.

"Please let me go, I'm telling you the truth!"

Leon clapped his hands and laughed. "The truth right? Oh what's that again, you hunt monsters? Vampires, werewolves, all the things that go bump in the night right? Huh?" Leon yelled at her and walked up to the restrained woman before punching her in the face drawing blood. Seeing a smear of blood on his fist he licked it then began brutally punching the girl over and over again.

"Please..."The woman begged as she coughed up blood, she was in bad condition. Her name was Rose, and she was a hunter who was going after a vampire who was targetting the teenage girls. Unfortunately for her Leon had been on her trail and not the vamp. Right after she'd injected the undead beast with dead man's blood & cut his head off she'd been caught red handed by Leon. The agent refused to listen to her pleas that she'd taken out a monster or to check his cut off skull for fangs. Instead he'd taken her hostage four days ago, and of course since no more girls were turning up missing he was fully convinced that she not the vampire was the one taking the girls.

"Please nothing, you people are fucking sick. I don't know what this shit is that you've got going on, but it took the life of someone close to me. So i won't stop until all of you motherfuckers are dead, now then I want to ask you again and answer me clearly. What do you know about the two men I'm REALLY looking for, Sam & Dean Winchester. I know you like tend to conversate with each other."

Tears started to form in the woman's eyes as she looked down at the ground beaten & battered. The official story was the Winchester boys were dead, and while she knew otherwise she wasn't going to tell this ruthless agent. They'd helped her on a few cases before and like most hunters they stuck together. "I told you I don't know them, I don't know who your talking about, I told you the truth, had you checked the head of the supposed "Victim" I killed you'd have seen it was a monster!"

"Alright then enough talking ma'am, I'll show you a fucking monster." Leon snarled as he drew a knife and walked over to the woman grabbing her arm and putting the blade to her finger. "Let's begin the real fun, maybe not having opposoble thumbs will jog your memory a bit more eh"

"I'm telling you what happened Sonya, I saw her, I saw Nikki." Josiah exclaimed to his younger sister Sonya. After the ghost hunt that went awry on campus he met up with his sister who was one town over working a case.

"Ok I get everything your saying up until that point how is that possible? Spirits are usually tethered to a location right? Your nowhere near Nikki, hell you still aren't, not to mention despite what happened to her before all that mess with demons she had a good life. You really think she ended up as a vengeful spirit" Sonya remarked to her older brother trying to peer into his head to get some insight for what was really going on inside of it. She was worried about her brother so much since demons had apparently taken their mother.

"Look I admit I've been hitting the bottle a little harder lately, and rolling more trees then I need to but being drunk or stoned hasn't led me to making any mistakes on a case before, and besides I haven't touched either since I've been spooked. I mean we try our hardest in this gig, but sometimes I think maybe it's better to just stick to flipping stuff in this world rather then tangling with the creatures in it." Josiah mused sounding somewhat defeated, and even a bit irate that his sister thought he could possibly be fabricating part of a supernatural encounter due to indulgence in narcotics & liqour.

"Alright i'm sorry Josiah, look your free to stay at my condo as long as you want. I'll focus on keeping the family business running for now too you've been dealing with a-lot, why don't you call around and see if anyone else has noticed anything else weird with ghosts recently." Sonya suggested offering a comrpromise, while she was worried that josiah's growing breaks from sobriety were a cause for concern, it was true she hadn't known him to imagine evidence of supernatural events before.

"Thanks sis I will and I love you." After a short embrace with his sister she left, leaving Josiah on his own in her place.

"I know you don't believe me about Nikki though, but I saw her, something's going on and it ain't right." Josiah summarized as he grabbed the remote & flicked on the television. He went to retrieve some cannabis and rolling papers from his bag, rolling up a joint while looking through his contacts of other hunters thinking of who he'd contact first in his search for further information about his encounter with Nikki.

Esme had closed her door before Cason had answered, then gave a signal to Sam and Natalia to let them know they were ready. She had noticed his flinch before he answered but didn’t say anything about it at that moment, but nodded to him saying he had to make a call on the way. She looked out the front window and placed her hands on the steering wheel and prepared herself for the drive. She was ready to regroup and fill the holes in what information she had. If angels were now part of the game, what else could be in store for them?

She sighed to herself as thoughts went through her mind, she held back a shiver that tried to run down her spine. From the corner of her eye, she saw Cason pull out his phone and made his call. She couldn’t help but focus on what he said, even if she didn’t look his way. The one side of the conversion definitely had her attention, especially the past about not saying anything to someone until they figure out what’s going on with the angels. When Cason ended his call and stared at the car ahead of them, she cut her eyes over at him.

“That sounded like an…… Interesting call.” she said to him. “You mind sharing with the class?” she continued. As she sat there waiting, she couldn’t help but think that he wouldn’t tell her what was just discussed or he would lie about it. But there was still the possibility that he’d tell her but leave things out after everything that had happened between them. She then turned her focus back through the windshield and on the car ahead.

MIKA

When Dean didn't really look at her when they first looked at articles online together, she didn't mind too much but it was when he blantantly lied to her face about being fine that made her raise an eyebrow. 'you bloody liar...if you're fine then I'm the bloody president of the United States' she thought to herself, glancing at Bobby looking over at the both of them before she saw him on his phone as she listened to Dean say it was just a case of being worried about Sam until he got back. Sure, she didn't doubt that some of his worry would be about his brother, but she knew it wasn't the sole truth.

After a few moments, she looked down at her phone and saw the text from Bobby before deleting the message and placing her phone on the table as if she just got a junk text from some phone company or similar. "hey..lets get some air yeah? We both could do with a break, you mostly, come on" she said, ushering her hand toward the back door whilst giving him the look that said 'and I ain't taking no as an answer so move your cute ass'.

Standing up, she kept giving him the look of 'get up' whilst showing a lot of concern for his well being. She knew more than anyone what bottling up one's feelings did to someone and it was never a good thing. It was toxic and destructive and she was not prepared to see Dean go down that road all over again over this. If that always being around to pull him out of his funk every time he slipped off that road then so be it, she'd do it.

SAM AND NATALIA

Natalia once in her car, put her music on quietly just enough to be a background noise, as she grabbed her coffee from her cup holder and sipped it whilst she waited for Esme and Cason to reach Esme's car and get in. She was prepared to have Benjamin in the car, but that didn't mean she was going to be the most talkative person. She would of course, converse with him if he started some conversation but she still wouldn't divulge too much information, depending on what was spoken about.

By the time Esme came out and got in her car with Cason, both Sam and Natalia looked up and noticed, looking for the signal, which they got and that was when Sam started the long drive to Souix Falls, Nat putting her cup in the cup holder and began the drive. Nat tapped a finger on her phone keypad whilst driving behind Sam to get Bobby's number up, which luckily was the first name in her contacts and quick dialled him so she could let the other know that they were all on their way on the road and that they wouldn't be too much longer with any luck.

----------

It took a good while to get to Souix Falls, but after what felt forever on one cup of coffee, their destination was coming into view. "About time" Natalia complained, almost forgetting Benjamin was in her car with her, desperate to stretch her legs and just stop driving for a while.

Sam continued leading the way and when they reached Bobby's he pulled up outside, making sure he left enough room for everyone to park up whilst not completely blocking the road or Bobby's drive way. Killing the engine, he removed the key and looked to Annabeth, "we're here" he stated. "Now here comes the awkward part, trying to get answers for everything and find out what they found out" he commented, pausing before opening his car door and getting out.

Dean sighed, wanting to tell her ‘no’ because he knew she wanted to take him outside to talk. He didn’t want to talk. He wanted to wait for his brother. He wanted to bury his thoughts in work. But he also knew Mika wouldn’t take ‘no’ for an answer. So, he reluctantly stood from the table and started walking, stepping out the back door and onto the lot.

Once he was outside, he waited for her to step out the door and threw his hands up a bit, “What is it? Did Bobby say something? If this is about Hell, I don’t remember anything…and even if I did, I don’t want to talk about it.”

He brought up the subject of Hell without her even saying it, and didn’t even realize he had headed her off. His fear of her finding out what he did while he was in the pit terrified him. She would never look at him again, if she found out. If she found out that he was still thinking about it every single night, she might not trust him to be around her, or anyone. No one should have. Tears started bubbling up in his eyes, unprovoked, only run by his own thoughts as he stared at her with pleading eyes.

“I can’t…”



Cason sighed and adjusted himself as Esme asked about the phone call. He knew she would ask, and he honestly had to trust her at this point, if he was going to stay with her. So, he cleared his throat and looked over at her.

“You can’t say a word to any of the Winchesters about any of this…”, he muttered, rubbing his eyebrow a bit with his eyes closed, “There’s an old…friend of Deans that has found himself on the trail of all of this, like a hound. We’re not exactly on the best of terms, and I’m pretty sure that after Dean was able to pop himself out of Hell, for whatever reason, they probably aren’t besties anymore.”

As he explained, he waved his hand around, trying to get through the bulk of the information as easily as possible, against his better judgement.

“And this ‘friend’ of Dean Winchesters is also interested in Anna. We don’t know why, or to what extent. That’s why I’m keeping my guys back, and Dean Winchester cannot know that he is around. One false move from the over emotional, and this whole thing blows up in our faces…and she could potentially be used as some sort of fucked up weapon, her and Sam…”

He opened his eyes and looked at her, scanning eyes after the information dump. He knew it would be overwhelming, but he wanted her to know that she was safe, even if the others weren’t….for now, at least.

“But don’t worry. I’m sending my dogs to Bobby Singer’s place. They’ll take care of us…”, he finished.

——-

As they arrived in Sioux Falls, he smiled, seeing two of the Hell hounds he had broken free from Crowley following close to the cars. He knew the humans in the group couldn’t see them, but they gave him a breath of fresh air.

As everyone parked, he got out, trying to be covert as he walked over to his favorite girl Hellhound and scratching under her chin. He glanced around, trying to keep his motions small, even as she breathed hot air onto his face, and blew a bit of the hair on the top of his head as she did.

“Good girl. Stay here…but come get me if you see anything. Okay?”, he whispered to her, causing her to paw at his leg. He pulled away from her, and walked over to join the others, shoving his hands in his pockets.



Annabeth stirred from her daydream as Sam pulled onto gravel, and she felt a familiar wave come over her. This place was safe, she could feel it. As they passed cars, she also felt like they were passing beings, turning her head to them. She could see the faint outline of what appeared to be large dogs lining the driveway - around six of them.

She furrowed her eyebrows and watched them as they followed the cars, and then met up with Cason as everyone parked.

“That’s weird…”, she muttered quietly before Sam spoke up. She turned to him with her eyebrows raised and agreed with his words, “You can say that again. They are going to lose their minds at my eyes being missing. Your brother seems a little high strung to see something like this…”

She spoke her mind about Dean, having felt like he was either scared of her, or just wanted to kill her since the moment she met him. She couldn’t imagine what he would say about her surviving such a horrific angel attack. She stepped out of the car as they parked, waiting for Sam to meet her around the side.

As she stepped out, Cason joined them, and she had a million questions, but kept them to herself as the dogs seemed to all be following his orders.

Esme briefly looked over at Cason when he cleared her throat to answer her. She could feel him looking at her but she continued to look forward. She didn’t want to miss it when everyone pulled out. She mentally flinched when Cason told her she couldn’t say a word to the Winchesters. At that moment, she regretted asking what the phone call was about. She hated keeping secrets from others that involved those she cared for and knew. As she listened to what Cason had to say, she unconsciously gripped her steering wheel.

When he finished, she let out a breath she had apparently been holding in. She closed her eyes tight trying to process everything that Cason had just laid on her. This was a massive amount of information to dump on her all at once, and on top of that, he didn’t want her to mention any of it to the Winchesters. How could she possibly keep something like this from them? She just met up with them a day ago and was trying to show that they could trust her and then this gets dropped into her lap.

Nothing good could possibly come out of this. She opened her eyes, feeling his eyes on her, but she couldn’t bring herself to look away from the car ahead of her. Esme sighed heavily, her teeth clenching. She had no words to reply to Cason with. She knew that he wanted her to feel safe, but at that moment, she didn’t care about her safety. She was worried about the safety of the others.
___________________________________

The drive to Sioux Falls was long and quiet. Everything Cason had told her swirled around in her mind the entire trip. She feared for the safety of the others and wondered who this supposed old friend of Dean’s could be. By now she was desperate to get out of the car and have a bit of breathing room. She seriously needed some time to herself for at least a few minutes. When they finally reached Bobby’s, she was probably a little happier than she should have been, but she didn’t let that show on her face.

She pulled in and parked, making sure not to block any paths, in or out. She sat in the car a moment after Cason got out, looking over the place in front of her. It seemed familiar as if she had been here before in the distant past, but for the life of her, she couldn’t remember it. Sighing, she turned off the engine, pulled out the key, and stuck it into her pocket. Opening the door, she got out and closed the door behind her, and leaned against her car. She wasn’t much of a drinker, but she felt like she needed one right about now.

MIKA

To Mika, Dean was almost like an open book who she could read pretty well and in this instance, he definitely was easy to read as she could tell he wanted to try and weasel his way out of going outside with her to actually talk and get some air. Yet she wasn't going to let him weasel out of it, so when he agreed and got up heading outside, she followed him on out wihtout even looking at Bobby.

She sighed when he got instantly defensive, a common trait for him that she was used to but still hoped that this was another time she could break through those walls he put up and got him talking. The fact he brought up Hell without her even bringing it up told her that it was indeed about Hell and he did need to talk about it, even if he thought otherwise. "He's just worried about you and how you're acting at the moment. I gotta say, I'm damn worried about you too." she began telling him standing in front of him but not once did she let her body language come across as remotely offensive or pushy. She kept herself calm and relaxed, but did show her worry for him in her eyes.

"I didn't say anything about Hell, but it seems to me you do need to talk about it as you're keeping something bottled up. Dean..." she began saying, walking closer and placing her hands soothingly on his arms as he looked at her with pleading eyes, "There is nothing you can tell me that will make me think of you any less than I already do. You know despite everything, after everything we've both been through, I still love you. Nothing you tell me will push me away, nor will I share anything you say with anyone else if that's what you wish." she softly spoke to him, wanting to drive home to him she wouldn't go anywhere, not after she's got him back, but she also wanted to leave it entirely onto him to make that decision on what to tell her.

"I can tell something is eating away at you and you've not been able to just stop and process being back. I can only imagine how many messed up feelings and memories must be in that mind of yours. If I was in your shoes, and the roles were reversed I'd wanna talk to you about it. I know that much" she added. "So if you're willing, please, let me in?" she asked.

SAM AND NATALIA

Sam wished he could correct Annabeth on the assumption that he seemed tightly strung when it came to the topic of her missing eyes, but he couldn't entirely deny it. He was a tightly strung bloke who always firmly stood by his opinions and was increidbly hard to change his mind. But he also knew that it was possible to do as well if someone went about it the right way. "I know he does, he's a stubborn fool sometimes but he does mean well, even if it doesn't always come across as that. He can be a top guy when he wants to be" he explained to her, taking her hand, whilst unaware of the hellhounds in the area.

Heading to the front door, he knocked on the door before calling through, "Bobby! It's us!" he shouted through as the others followed on up to the door, then he remembered about the spare key under the rock near the door making a beeline for it, squatting down, grabbing it and as he stood back up, he put the key in the lock and unlocked it, opening it and stepping inside. "Bobby we're back, where are you?" he called through before finding him in the main room at his desk.

"Oh hey, where's Dean and Meeko?" he asked him.

Nat followed on in, looking around them all just feeling like something was off and she couldn't fully put her finger on it. Yet she was glad to be back at Bobby's place as it was a case of familiar surroundings and in a weird way safety, mostly because she knew as well as the boys and Mika did, that if anything did come around in this area, Bobby always had everything they'd ever need to solve their predicament. She still remembered the day when the boys brought her round here for the first time because they Bobby to 'check her out' and make sure that she was indeed telling the truth on who her father was and what she always dreamt.

It was tough convincing the man but when she did, he became the coolest guy to her. She also enjoyed hearing how he knew the boys and how he was related to Mika which made her think the world truly was a small place.

“Mika…”, he whispered, knowing she wouldn’t stop unless he told her what he was thinking. But saying the words out loud was not something he was prepared to do. It was something he hadn’t even admitted to himself, other than in dreams, since he had been back. As she touched him, he flinched, knowing that it would be even harder to lie to her, while she was so close to him. It was her greatest weapon, against him.

“I don’t want you to see me the way I see myself…”, he muttered, still trying to talk himself out of telling her anything. But once the levy was broken, it was broken. He let out a long sigh, as tears stung at his eyes, “Um…I remember everything.”

He waited a few seconds after the admission, feeling a bit of weight lift off his shoulders, just at that tiny statement. Taking another deep breath, he kept going.

“I ended up on a bunch of meat hooks. Every day, they sent someone, or sometimes hellhounds to tear me apart…slowly. And after I was dead…I would regenerate and they would start again. After a while, they realized I wasn’t going to beg them for anything. So, they called a demon named Alastair.”, he explained, gasping and sighing as he tried to fight back a sob, “Alastair would put me up there. Every day, he would flay at me, burn me, stab me, whatever got him off. And every day, he would tell me that I could come down. I could stop all of it, if I would put souls on…”

He scanned her eyes, also scanning the garage in case Bobby was near. Then he blinked away a few tears that fell down his cheeks, “And one day…after a few decades…I did. I ran off those racks. I was proud to be off. But it was instant. He made me do all of it to them…I can still hear their screams. I can still smell the blood, and the burning flesh.”

He took one more deep breath, “And what screws me up, and should make you run a million miles away from me…is I liked it. I was proud of it. And then out of nowhere, I’m in a pine box…like some kind of punishment. I had to claw and dig, and push my way out of the grave.”

He finished the summary of his experience, not going into more detail than he needed to, but instantly felt lighter. He placed both hands over his eyes, running them down his face as he let out a small sob. The sound of cars on gravel shook him from his thoughts as the others pulled up. He simply stared at Mika’s face, scanning her eyes for any kind of reaction.



Cason heard Esme step out of the car, and reached an arm out to her for her to join the rest of the group. He followed Sam inside the house, but stopped right at the door, staring down at his feet.

“You have GOT to be kidding me…”, he groaned, seeing the bright orange devil’s trap on the floor below him. He couldn’t scuff the devil’s trap himself, and he knew that Bobby Singer was a hunter. This wouldn’t be the most pleasant experience ever.

As Bobby realized they were there, he stood from his desk, smiling at Sam. He approached him quickly and threw his arms around him, giving him a tight hug, “It’s good to see you boy! They are out in the yard…talking about some stuff. The usual for them… You’re here in one piece, so that’s a win, right?”

He spoke the words brightly and then glanced to Annabeth, his smile fading a bit as he stared at her. From the side of her glasses, he could lightly make out the burn scars that had healed themselves, where her eyes used to be. He gave a sad smile to her, wanting to apologize but not even knowing where to start.

Cason sighed and cleared his throat with his arms out to the side as he watched everyone reacquaint with their father figure. He, however, was trapped. He couldn’t even introduce himself properly, considering how they last met.

“Um. Can someone help me?”, he asked. Bobby simply narrowed his eyes, refusing to help a demon in his own house. But after realizing that he seemed to be with them, Bobby stepped toward him.

“If you try anything. Anything at all…I’ll pump your ass so full of rock salt, you’ll think I’m trying to attract a prize deer with your innards.”, Bobby threatened, placing a boot on the outside of the devils trap and scraping a piece of it away, releasing Cason.



Annabeth smiled as Sam took her hand, trying to talk her into trusting his brother. She wanted to. Dean hadn’t done anything to her that was dangerous, yet. But she was still a bit worried to be around him, considering how volatile he seemed from her brief time with him.

His hand in hers caused an instant calm, as with all the times before, and she linked fingers with him as they walked into the house. She was surprisingly happy to feel Bobby Singer’s presence in the living room as they stepped through the door. He greeted them, and she could feel his eyes fall on her. She gave a small, but dismissive smile as he looked at her, telling him that no words were needed on her behalf.

However, Cason being trapped in another devils trap made her giggle lightly, a little intimidated that Bobby didn’t think it was funny. She knew Cason wasn’t stupid enough to try anything too horrible while they were all there. Most of them seemed pretty well versed in demons.

“Um. Since we’re all here…are we safer?”, she asked, as Bobby scraped the paint off the floor behind her. He chuckled, stepping back over to his desk, and popped the top on a bottle he found there.

“You’re as safe with us as you’re ever going to be. That might not help your nerves much, but…I promise.”, Bobby explained, seeing a lot of Mika’s childhood in the girl.

Esme pushed herself from her car at the invite to join the group, she followed the group up to the house and inside. She found a place to step off to the side as she watched Bobby come up and greet Sam with a hug, she couldn’t help but smile as she stood there. She then turned when Cason complained and gave a small laugh along with Annabeth, it was rather funny he found himself caught in yet another devil's trap. Since this wasn’t her place, she wasn’t going to do anything.

She turned and looked around the house from where she stood, several things stood out to her. She was sure she had been here before at some point. She tried to think hard to remember when that could have been, but nothing came to her. Esme was pulled from her thoughts at Annabeth’s question and Bobby’s threat to Cason, she smiled at Bobby’s response as he freed Cason from the devil’s trap. She turned away once again, she could feel the warmth and love for family within this house and it calmed her.

Not to mention she felt better that they were all in one place for the moment. She knew she hadn’t been with the group long, but she knew that they all had each other's backs, including her own. Esme crossed her arms across her chest and looked over at Cason, who wasn’t that far from her. “I’d watch your step while we’re here if I were you.” she whispered to him. “I think he just might carry out that threat he gave you.”