"This is definitely.. not,"

A terrified gasp.

"Not working, Cas."

The slender figure of a young woman, not older than 25, half-rolled, half-slithered across the floor, barely missing the last blow of a fist that was aimed at her. She was winded, every last bit of air driven out of her, and for a second that seemed to stretch out for eternity she lay flat on the ground, motionless. In the brief time it took her to recover enough of her energy to look up, she could see the angel trying to take on all of their three opponents, and clearly failing miserably. She knew he was trying to buy them time, but that was not the way to do it.

It only took another three precious seconds to slide her gaze across the room, taking in their surroundings for the first time since they had entered and had immediately been jumped. The walls were bare, apart from the obvious warding drawn in bright red paint, with no clear sign of an easy escape. Their only hope now was turning back. She gritted her teeth together, cursing under her breath. If it weren't for those wardings, they would be out of here already, if not continuing their way through the abandoned factory as they had planned to. Castiel would have smited these demons in a heartbeat, and she wouldn't be lying on the floor, fighting to stay conscious.

"Run!"

The angel's sharp command finally snapped her out of her thoughts, bringing her back to the harsh reality of the situation they had dragged themselves into.

"I'll hold them off, I'll hold them all off. Just get out of here, I'll be right behind you!" He had two of the demons pinned to the ground and held firmly under his grip, but the third one was already recovering from one of Castiel's blows and was advancing on him just as his last desperate words reached the woman's ears. She forced herself to sit up, her muscles screaming a protest as she tried to put her weight on them. She was unable to comprehend how she managed to struggle to her feet and race with what energy she had left towards the door, which opened easily after she had fired at the lock only several minutes ago.

She skidded to a halt at the end of the hallway, briefly glancing over her shoulder at the half-opened entrance to the room where the fighting was still going on, more vicious than ever. For a moment she wondered if she should summon what little was left of her strength and ignore Castiel's order for her to abandon him and run. Then, as if she could hear his voice ringing clear in her ears for a second time, she spun around and continued running without stopping even to catch her breath, until she was out of the building and reaching for the door of the Impala.


"I'm sorry, come again. Like I'm five. What do you mean 'I ran'?"

"I just turned around and ran, got in the Impala, drove here."

"Just left him to sweep up your mess and drove here?"

"That's what he wanted, Dean. What he asked me to do."

"That's not good enough!"

A pile of books crashed to the floor, and she flinched away. Not from the noise, but from the burning green eyes that met hers when Dean looked up at her once again.

"What was I supposed to do?" she tried again, as if explaining herself would ever good enough for Dean. "Stay and let us both get killed? How is that better?"

"I don't know, maybe you should have considered at least attempting to keep the one person who had a shot at getting us out of this in our team? Or was that too hard for you to think of?"

Dean's voice was sharp, accusing, but this time she met his gaze while managing to stand her ground. "I did what I had to do, and I'm not going to explain myself to you, Dean. I don't have the luxury. Now you can either stay here and whine about the tragedy of your long-lost boyfriend, or you can join me at Bobby's and we can try to work out a plan to fix this."

With a swift motion she grabbed her bag and made two confident strides toward the door, before Dean's body slid in front of her to block her way. "You do that," he said, glaring at her disapprovingly. "I'll drive back to the factory, make sure Cas is still alive until that little plan of yours is ready to go down." He finished with one final glare through narrowed eyes, then swung around, grabbed his coat and marched off the room, pulling the door shut behind him.

She stood gazing at the spot where he had been standing just a few moments ago, her mind quickly skimming through all of the worst-case scenarios that could play out if she didn't stop Dean from this reckless move he was about to make. But she knew she would have no luck trying to convince him otherwise. When Dean said he would do something, he usually did it, and the last person capable of knocking sense through his thick skull would be her.

Exhaling slowly, she picked up her bag again, which she unconsciously had let fall to her feet while the hunter's harsh words had caused her whole body to quiver with guilt, and set off again, out the door, and down the road towards Bobby's place.