A/N: This is a side story for While You Were Sleeping. It takes place between chapter 9 and 10 of that story and explains where Dean's date for New Years came from.

Disclaimer: We do not own Supernatural, NCIS, any of the characters or any other recognizable persons/places. We just borrow them for the sake of entertainment.

Dean sat at the bar, knocking back shots. He had long since lost his tie and undone the top few buttons of his shirt. He didn't really have a problem with suits but he didn't want to wear them too long. The day had been one big craziness after another. He got talked into going to the wedding of Tony DiNozzo and Lila Curtis because Sam thought it would be nice. Then when they got there, Dean found out the real reason was because that the girl Sam was seeing was actually Lila's sister, Nicole. That realization came when Nicole's little two year old daughter, Kenzie, came barreling at them barely a minute after they had arrived at the reception. Add in hunting down the Norse God, Freyja, that was getting a human to make sacrifices and the day was a complete circus of craziness.

Now at the end of the day, Dean was the only one that was on his own. Well, unless you counted Special Agent Gibbs but he seemed to enjoy his alone time. Tony and Lila had their wedding night. Sam and Nicole were probably taking advantage of having the house to themselves since Annie and Gabriel were watching Tony and Lila's son, Nicky, as well as Kenzie. And of course Annie and Gabriel had each other at their place with the kids who, by this time of night, were probably all asleep. Even Castiel, the Archangel with no sense of human idioms, was spending time with former Mossad and current NCIS agent Ziva David, probably teaching her things or bonding over the fact that neither of them understood American slang. To top it all off, it was the day before Christmas. Of course, it was only about one in the morning so it had just started. But the fact remained it was still Christmas Eve.

Dean twisted one of his shot glasses around on the bar top before looking around. There weren't many people in the bar but he was surprised that the majority of the ones that were there were people that had attended the wedding. His surprise died off quickly when he remembered that this bar was part of the reception hall. These were the people that probably didn't have anything else to do, so post wedding drink-a-thon for them.

"Here." The bartender cut into Dean's thought process when he slid a beer in front of the hunter. Dean blinked and raised an eyebrow. The bartender tilted his head toward the end of the bar. "From the woman down there." Dean couldn't help but smirk as he slowly turned his head to look. There was indeed a woman at the end of the bar watching him. She lifted her own drink and nodded when he caught her eye. Taking a moment to contemplate a course of action, he decided to at least go say thanks. Grabbing his beer he walked over to where the woman sat.

"Hi." The woman greeted with a smile.

"Hi." Dean responded, holding out his hand. "Thought I'd come say thanks...introduce myself. I'm Dean Winchester."

"Elizabeth Matthews." The woman stated. Dean looked her over with a slight smile. She was certainly dressed festive in a red velvet dress that tied behind her neck and draped down to her knees. Despite the snow on the ground outside, she was wearing strapped silver shoes. She had dark brown hair that fell over her shoulders in soft curls. "You were at the wedding weren't you? With that guy who little Kenzie went running to."

"Guilty." Dean admitted, grinning. "I'm...sort of...friends of the uh...well, both the bride and groom I guess. You?"

"I work with NCIS every so often, and I've made friends with the groom over the years." Elizabeth spoke with a grin of her own.

"Friends as in friends...or friends as in don't tell the bride?" Dean joked.

"Friends as in friends." Elizabeth laughed. "I think I was one of the few people he actually talked to about Lila. I was really happy for them today. It was about time in my opinion." She shook her head and sipped her drink. "It was the most obvious thing on the planet that he was head over heels in love with her. So how'd you meet them?"

"Through a friend...and...work." Dean decided a bit of honesty wouldn't hurt. "My work's a little complicated but it crossed paths with NCIS a couple of years ago. When the case wrapped up, my friend's daughter made friends with DiNozzo's son."

"Ah, so you were pretty much just crashing the wedding then huh?" Elizabeth guessed, smiling. Dean shrugged and smiled. Elizabeth laughed and clinked her glass with his beer bottle.

They sat and talked for the next hour until it was last call and closing. Dean was a little impressed when they went outside, wrapped in their coats, and Elizabeth seemed fine with her relatively bare feet. She took her phone out of her bag, ready to call a cab, when Dean offered to give her a lift home. The beer she had bought him had been his last alcoholic drink and he was feeling fairly sober. She took the offer and they headed over to the Impala.

"Nice car, 1967 Chevy Impala if I'm not mistaken." Elizabeth stated, touching the hood of the car lightly.

"Lady, you've just become the best girl I know." Dean muttered, loud enough for her to hear. "Of course, don't let Annie or Abby hear that."

"Of course not." Elizabeth laughed. They both paused when they heard a noise and looked around. Stumbling towards them was a man and for a moment, Dean thought it was just a drunk, but then he caught sight of the mouth and many sharp teeth and instantly thought vampire.

"Shit." Both Dean and Elizabeth muttered at the same time. They blinked and looked at each other. "You know? What? Stop that!"

"Just get in the car!" Dean ordered, pulling Elizabeth around the Impala as the vampire seemed to pick up on their presence and lunged into an attack. Dean pushed a struggling Elizabeth into the passenger seat and closed the door just as the vampire rammed into him, taking him down. He frowned and pushed at its throat, keeping its head away from him.

"You're...wasting...my time!" The vampire growled. Dean frowned and turned his head quickly to dodge a fist. The vampire roared in pain when his hand hit the pavement. He jumped back off the hunter and for a moment Dean thought it was going to take off but then he realized the vampire was going for the car.

And Elizabeth.

"Oh no you don't!" Dean yelled, getting to his feet and running at the vampire, tackling it just as it had done to him. Dean and the vampire rolled across the pavement and snow, each trying to get the upper hand. A knife swung out when the vampire was on top and the struggling stopped for a moment before its head fell off and rolled across the snow. Dean made a face and pushed the body off him before looking up to see Elizabeth standing over him.

*spn* ncis* spn* ncis* spn* ncis* spn* ncis* spn* ncis*

"I don't know what it's all about but I've been getting jumped by weird things for about eight years now." Liz explained, moving a kettle on her stove at her apartment. "At first it was just random, on and off things that I just thought were regular people. And then it kept getting more intense the last few years."

"When did you figure out it was...vampires?" Dean asked.

"Not just vampires." Liz replied. "Demons too. And I figured it out when I was fighting one off and used their knife on them. Their eyes and mouth...flashed. It was the strangest thing. So I went looking things up and I started finding records about things that were as strange as that. Took me a while but I found out demons and vampires and...all other sorts of supernatural things existed."

"And they're coming after you." Dean stated.

"I don't think they're coming after me." Liz tried to defend.

"From the sounds of it you're some sort of demon magnet." Dean remarked. He looked Elizabeth over again. She had changed clothes when they had arrived at her apartment while he had cleaned the vampire's blood off as best he could. She stood in front of him now in a pair of light blue pajama pants and a sweater and Dean still couldn't help but think that she was beautiful. He wondered if this was how everyone else felt around their girls then wondered why he was thinking of Liz as his girl. He had just met her, There was no reason he should be thinking that.

"This is insane." Liz muttered. Dean felt sorry for her, having to deal with something like this. He paused then frowned, something suddenly going off in his mind.

"Wait...did you say...eight years?" Dean asked. Liz raised an eyebrow then nodded. "And it's gotten worse the last few?"

"Yeah." Liz replied slowly.

"Shit." Dean muttered.

"What?" Liz questioned.

"Well we...my brother and me...few years ago, we stopped the apocalypse, put Lucifer and Michael in the devil's cage in Hell." Dean explained.

"You put...the Archangel Michael...in Hell?" Liz asked.

"He's a dick." Dean shrugged. Liz wasn't sure whether or not to laugh. "But...there might be some connection with that."

"Really? How?" Liz asked. Dean paused and thought for a moment. Should he call Gabriel? The guy was surely going to be in a house full of kids right now, not to mention fast asleep as well. He'd need some rest before facing the morning with all those children. Dean shook his head and mentally cursed himself. How the hell did Gabriel become his first Angelic option?

"Hang on." He muttered, holding up a finger to Liz. She just tilted her head and watched him walk out of the kitchen. Dean took his cell phone from his pocket. Glad that Castiel still had a phone, even if the whole concept of it still confused the Archangel. Liz was probably already thinking enough weird things about him as it was, didn't need to freak her out more by starting to pray.

"Hello? Hello?" Castiel's voice answered through the phone after Dean punched in the number.

"Cas, it's me." The Winchester greeted.

"Dean? What's wrong?" Castiel asked.

"Why does something have to be wrong?" Dean asked.

"You don't call unless something's wrong." Castiel countered.

"Well...okay...look, I'm with this girl..." Dean started.

"I am not responsible for your...functions." Castiel cut in.

"What? NO! No that's not what I'm getting at!" Dean assured quickly. "Look, Cas, this girl is some sort of supernatural magnet. We were leaving the hotel bar earlier and got jumped by a vampire and she knew everything. Knew what to do, how to take it out, everything! Now we're back at her place and she's just explained that she's been getting massive demon stalking since basically when we put Luci and Mikey away."

"Hmm..." Castiel's only reply was followed by a click. Dean blinked then looked at his phone to see that he had been hung up on. Frowning, he shoved his phone back in his pocket then jumped when Liz screamed slightly. He ran back to the kitchen to see Liz backing away from Castiel who was looking down at where a knife was protruding from his chest.

"Liz, hey, relax." Dean instructed, moving around in front of the woman and grabbing her shoulders gently. "It's alright, he's a good guy."

"A good guy that just pops up out of nowhere right next to you and knows your name?" Liz asked.

"Well...yeah...he's not very good with the personal space issue." Dean agreed. He rubbed her arms lightly, trying to calm her down. "But I swear he's good. He's an Angel."

"Archangel." Castiel corrected, pulling the knife from his chest.

"Whatever." Dean shot back. Liz still looked skeptical about this. "Trust me Liz...he's good." The woman sighed and nodded. Dean smiled slightly and squeezed her arms gently. "Liz, this is Castiel."

"Hi." Liz greeted the Archangel.

"Hello Elizabeth." Castiel returned the greeting, saying the same thing he had when he first appeared right next to the woman. Liz crossed her arms, not liking how he knew her name. "I'm very sorry."

"What for?" Liz asked.

"What I'm about to do." Castiel replied. Dean and Liz looked at each but before either of them could say anything, Castiel had reached forward and tapped Liz's forehead. Her eyes closed and she collapsed into Dean's arms.

"What the hell Cas?" Dean asked.

"I had to." Castiel insisted.

"What? Why?" Dean asked.

"For her own protection." Castiel took the woman from the hunter's arms and brought her to the other room before laying her on the couch.

"Oh yeah, because knocking her out is damn good protection." Dean muttered, following after his friend. "We've been through all this Cas. Now what the hell is going on?"

"She...is a direct descendant of Lucifer." Castiel explained. Dean just stared. "Her whole bloodline has been subject to numerous protections but since the near apocalypse those protections have wavered with other problems keeping everyone busy."

"Why all the protecting?" Dean asked.

"Direct descendant, Dean." Castiel repeated. "She has abilities that have been dormant since birth. If she wasn't protected, Lucifer could have found her and used her during the apocalypse."

"He's locked up now." Dean reminded. "Him and Michael both, remember?"

"Yes I remember." Castiel replied. He looked down at Liz. "But that doesn't mean she can't be used."

"How?" Dean asked, almost afraid of what the answer could be. "She's not a seal, is she?"

"She bypasses a seal, Dean." Castiel pointed out. "She could potentially have, what you would call, an 'all access pass' to either Heaven or Hell."

"Potentially?" Dean was starting to feel several different types of stupid as he kept asking questions.

"It's the same potential as Abigail, Isaac and Levi." Castiel remarked. "They all have the ability to transport between Heaven and Earth. It just takes...fine tuning."

"But Liz can go to Hell too." Dean repeated what his Angelic friend had said earlier. "You just said that."

"Because the first of her line was conceived after Lucifer fell but before he was locked away." Castiel explained. He reached his hand towards Liz's head but Dean snapped his fingers around the Archangel's wrist, glaring. "Dean, I have to reinstate the protections."

"So she can potentially go to Heaven and Hell, so what? There's more to this story." Dean's eyes narrowed as he tried reading Castiel's face. "And you said she bypasses a seal. That means someone just has to kill her to get the cage popped?"

"No." Castiel admitted. "I'm afraid it's...much easier than that." Dean waved his hand impatiently, gesturing for a continuation. "While she doesn't know it at the moment, there is ancient knowledge buried deep in her mind. Ancient spells and incantations which, when combined with the right blood, can open the cage. It's something we believe that will awaken itself when the right time comes."

"That's fantastic to know. Now if you don't mind, it's time we take little missy for a spin." The new voice sent chills running up and down Dean's spine as he and Castiel turned quickly to find out who their visitor was.