Sam flipped through news articles from Westminster, New Jersey, his brows furrowing more with every similar case. "You called Cas, right?"

"For the thousandth time, yes," Dean replied tiredly, not taking his eyes off the road. "He says he'll meet us there."

"Did you tell him why?

"Of course."

"Because this really looks like-"

"I know, Sammy. I'm driving as fast as I can."

"Okay." Sam was quiet for a moment. "Are you sure we should be doing this?"

Dean glanced over at him. "You're kidding, right? You were the one who insisted we drop everything and drive over to check."

Sam looked out the passenger window and refused to meet Dean's eye. "I know. It's just-" He paused.

"Just what, Sam?"

Sam's face flushed red. "It's Tuesday."

Dean exploded with laughter. "Alright then, I'll be extra careful."

Cas was standing by the post office when they pulled up, and looked as though he'd stood there since Dean's call, which may have been the case. Cas climbed into the car and pointed to a side street up ahead. "Turn in there."

Dean did as he said. "Well, hello to you, too."

The sarcasm was lost on Cas who replied, "Hello, Dean."

Sam just barely suppressed a snicker. "Right, so, what are we looking for up here, Cas?"

"You remember mentioning the lawyer who was eaten by a shark? And the identity thief who met his twin? And the animal rights activist who was mauled by an bear?"

"Yeah, irony overload. I remember. Cut to the case." Dean rolled his eyes.

Cas nodded solemnly. "This sounds like-"

Dean let out a long breath. "I know what it sounds like, Cas. That's why we called you in the first place. Why are we driving this way?"

Cas's next words made Dean slam on the brakes. "I found him."

Sam and Dean whipped around to stare at Cas.

"What?!"

"Where?"

Cas shrunk back, startled by the boys' outburst. He pointed to an old, run down building that looked ready to collapse at any moment. "That one."

Dean looked between Cas and the building, trying to determine if the angel has suddenly decided to try human jokes. After a while, he decided this was the least likely thing to happen in this century. "So, does he live in there, or what?"

As it turned out, Cas never needed to answer, as at that moment a blue SUV pulled in front of the building. A short blond man got out of the driver's seat and began dragging groceries inside. The trunk was stuffed with food, enough to feed a football team for weeks.

Sam leaned forward, as though he were a trick of the light that might only be seen from a certain angle. "No way."

Dean leaned back in the seat with a slightly awed expression. "He's really here."

"And not alone," Cas added, already halfway out of the car.

"Hey, hold up!" Dean grabbed Cas's wrist and pulled him back in. "Let's wait a bit, see what happens. We can't just go bursting in there."

Cas reluctantly sat back down and watched the door intently. What felt like hours later, but couldn't have been more than five minutes, the man appeared again, accompanied by a dozen children. They had the car completely unloaded in a few minutes, then disappeared in the building like they were never there.

Without any further discussion, the three got out of the car and headed towards the building. As they approached the door, it opened and the man came out, tossing a set of keys in the air. He stopped in his tracks when he saw them. "Hey, fellows, imagine seeing you here!" he exclaimed, running long fingers through his hair. His eyes flickered back to the door of the derelict building.

"What are you doing here, Gabriel?" Cas asked, a scowl disrupting his normally calm features.

Gabriel held up the car keys. "Oh, just parking my car. You really shouldn't leave them out in the street, someone might hit it."

Dean whirled around to look at the Impala. Sam turned him back around and smiled in a way that looked more like a grimace. "Good one. Last we heard, you were dead."

Gabriel looked genuinely offended. "I'm the trickster. Did you really think I wouldn't have a trick? And by the way, you're welcome. I mean, I did save you from getting your butts kicked and I told you about the rings. The way I see it, I stopped the apocalypse."

"Explain the accidents around here." Cas was evidently tired of all the small talk.

"Like you said, they're accidents." Gabriel dismissed the accusation with a wave of his hand. "Are we done?"

"What's in here?" Dean asked, heading towards the door again.

"Hey! Don't touch that!" Gabriel called out, but Dean had already opened the door. Sam and Cas followed him in, despite Gabriel's protests.

Once inside, the building's illusion fell away to reveal a townhouse, with no broken windows or precariously balanced chunks of brick. The interior was cozy, and decorated as though a grandma had discovered the world of fiction and made it a lifestyle. Medieval armor replicas hung side by side with knitted proverbs, and the ancient and formal dining table was adorned with a Hermione bobble head.

Charlie sat on a rocking chair surrounded by about twenty children ranging from toddlers to eighteen year olds. One girl lazily extended and retracted werewolf claws, while another with pointed ears kept his eyes fixed on Charlie, completely enthralled by the story. She balanced a normal- looking baby on her lap and craned her neck to read the copy of The Goblet of Fire she held in her hands.

"...Dumbledore asked calmly." She closed the book, keeping her thumb there to mark her place and addressed the children. "Now, I want you all to remember the word 'calmly.' We will have an in-depth discussion on the meaning of calm when we watch the movie." Having finished talking to the children, she gave the room a cursory glance to make sure none of her charges were making trouble and noticed the Winchesters and Cas.

The book tumbled from from her hands into a little boy's lap. He had to use both hands to lift it up to her, black eyes imploring her to continue. Charlie accepted the book but didn't open it. She looked pleadingly at an older girl who stood and took the baby. Charlie got up and began to carefully pick her way out of the minefield of children. "So, we're gonna stop here, but we'll read some more at bedtime, okay guys? Right now, it's game time, ask Trevor if you need help turning them on. Amanda, Dungeons and Dragons is on top of the refrigerator. No Cards Against Humanity until I'm back, okay?"

The kids got up and scurried off to various places where they had stashed games, freeing a path for Charlie to walk. She hurried over to the hunters, the panic she'd thus far hidden seeping into her face. "Guys, I swear this isn't what it looks like-"

Dean cut her off. "You sure, Charlie? 'Cause it seems like this is a foster home for monsters."

"We don't use the M word here," Gabriel responded angrily. "All the kids here are hybrids. Their parents were different species. Being a hybrid is genetic, but being a monster is a choice. These kids are far kinder than most humans I've met."

"Whoa, okay, slow down a bit." Sam waved his hands in the air to stop the current conversation. "Charlie, aren't you supposed to be in Oz?"

Charlie shrugged. "Oh, well, you know, we won, Dorothy established a benevolent dictatorship, declared herself queen, and, sort of, got married. To a scarecrow. I was pretty offended. And I missed here. And LARPing. So, I'm back!"

"And babysitting mons- hybrids," Dean corrected the mistake before Gabriel could carry out what his suddenly extra vicious glare promised. "Was your rebound, huh?"

"Pretty much! And, you know, the kids need me. Before I got here it was no bedtimes and candy morning, noon, and night." Charlie laughed and bumped Gabriel playfully. His serious expression seemed to scare her a bit because she coughed nervously and straightened up. "Um, so, basically we have everything under control, and there's no reason at all for you to be here." Charlie stopped and studied the boys as if she might find a clue in their unchanging expressions. "Uh, why are you here, again?"

"Can we talk somewhere else?" Gabriel interjected.

"Yeah, there's a coffee shop on the main street. Trevor, you're in charge!" Charlie called over her shoulder, pushing Sam outside and pulling Dean.

"Alright, so who wants to start explaining Monster High back there?" Dean asked. Charlie shrunk from his harsh gaze, half hiding behind her hair.

Gabriel sighed in frustration. "They're not monsters. They're hybrids. There's a difference." He leaned closer, a dangerous light flickering in his eyes. "They're harmless. Because they're only half vampire, or angel, or arachne, or whatever, the other half cancels out any natural homicidal tendencies. If you hunt them, you are the monsters, and I will treat you as such."

Sam silently begged his brother to not respond to that. "We completely understand. We're not going to do anything, we just want to know what's going on here. Can you help us?"

"We're here about the accidents," Cas cut in. "They appear to be your preferred method of attack."

Charlie's green eyes went wide, and she put her hand to her head as though she should have realized this much earlier. "That's what happened to the lawyer! I mean, I kind of wondered when he never showed back up, oh my god, that was you!" She stared at him slack-jawed.

Gabriel reached over and pushed her mouth closed. "The animal rights activist went to the lawyer to take them away from us. She thought we'd kidnapped them or weren't giving them a good enough place to live, probably some compassion overspill from all the rescue cats she adopted or something, but then he started looking into it and found out they aren't quite normal. I couldn't let them tell... well, you."

Dean ground his teeth. Sam put a hand in front of him to keep him from leaping across the table to strangle Gabriel. "We're professionals, Dean," he muttered. He turned back to Gabriel. "And the identity thief?"

"Oh, that was just for fun. But it was really hilarious."

Cas looked genuinely offended. "But why wouldn't you tell us? If not about the kids, then at least that you're not dead."

Gabriel pinched the bridge of his nose. "How do I put this nicely? You're hunters. You hunt things, even your own kids, if what the Amazons said was true. And it's much easier to look after a ton of kids without you three popping in for help every other day. I told you how to stop the apocalypse, the way I see it, I've done more than my fair share."

This time no restraint from Sam could keep Dean from losing it. "Yeah, that definitely makes up for everything. We'd thought everyone that had ever worked with us was dead. I mean, really, I'd have at least expected you to call, Charlie." Dean took a deep breath, trying and failing to not be angry at the redheaded girl who looked ready to crawl under the table. "So, you're working with the Amazons now? That's not making this look more suspicious at all." He continued to glare at Gabriel from across the table.

With an eye roll, Gabriel unwrapped a chocolate bar. "Yes, they have this very useful spell. Makes the baby come really fast, a hour tops. Then I wipe the mom's memories and take her back to wherever she came from. No one knows about it, so no one tries to look for them. Hybrids aren't accepted by any species, every group considers them abominations. So I take care of them."

"Me too," Charlie protested. She attempted to break off a piece of chocolate but Gabriel snatched it away and took a bite out of the bar. "That's not how you eat it," Charlie pouted.

"But they can control any abilities they have?" Cas asked. "They're all half human, right?"

Gabriel took a large, very slow bite of the chocolate. "They can all definitely control any abilities they may or may not have."

Sam leaned in closer. "Because they're all half human, right?"

Another slow bite of chocolate. "Yeah. You know, except for the vampire-werewolf, the dragon-fairy, and the reaper-angel."

Team Free Will looked as though they'd each had every bit of air driven from their lungs.

"What?" Dean forced out.

"Well, you see, there was this really tragic Romeo and Juliet story in Tokyo. The vampires ran the east side, the werewolves ran the west side-"

"The reaper-angel," Sam interrupted. "Tell us about that one."

Gabriel put the chocolate up to his mouth, but Charlie pulled it out of his hand. "They need to know," she said seriously.

Gabriel sighed. "I know. Of course they do. So, you remember April, right? Well, once upon a time, she tricked an angel into getting in bed with her, and then died the next morning because she tried to kill the angel. And had a kid. With the aforementioned angel. Who happens to be Cas. You know, this coffee could really use-"

"I have a kid." Cas seemed to stare through Gabriel, struggling to process the fact. "The pizzaman failed to mention this was a possibility."

Charlie answered before Gabriel could. "Okay, I don't know who the pizzaman is, but yes, her name's Spring. She has an accelerated growth rate, so she's about five, even though technically she's two. She's very smart for her age, lovely girl. She reads at a pretty advanced level, she already finished the Hobbit and started the Fellowship. Other than the wings, she can pass for human. She mostly wears a long coat to school-"

"Wings?" Dean asked.

"Uh, yeah, I guess something went wrong? I don't know, there's never been a reaper-angel before." Charlie turned sharply to look at Gabriel. "Has there?"

"Not that I know of. But don't worry, Trevor doesn't have wings."

Sam held up a hand to stop him. "Hold on. Who's Trevor?"

Gabriel grimaced. "Um, a nephilim. The only one, actually. He's Anna's son. He looks fourteen, same growth rate as Spring. And they think they're half siblings, we kind of told Spring her last name's Winchester."

"What?" There was no mistaking the edge in Dean's voice. An angel blade appeared in his hand and Sam quickly reached over to wrestle it away.

Gabriel shifted in his seat. "Would now be a good time to remind you that we're in a public space? With people. And cameras."

"Now would be a good time to tell us if there's anything else we need to know about," Dean growled. Sam put a hand on Dean's shoulder and pushed him back into the seat. Apparently Dean had needed the reminder.

Sam turned a pointed look to Gabriel. "Anything at all? Because I know I've been with a few not human girls..."

Gabriel grimaced slightly. "Well, I may have forgotten to mention Amanda."

Sam sighed. "Let me guess, somehow you found Ruby-"

"Madison." Gabriel corrected sharply.

Sam blinked a few times. "The werewolf?"

Gabriel rolled his eyes. "No, the founding father. Obviously I meant the werewolf. I'm surprised you remembered. Now, someone needs to make sure Cas isn't completely catatonic, and I'll introduce you."

Charlie was greeted by utter chaos the second she entered the townhouse. Toys were strew across the floor, books had been toppled from their shelves, and everywhere children were in the middle of an all out brawl. "Hey! Hey, stop that!" Charlie yelled, but no one heard her over the noise.

A boy with long, sharp claws- a half Kitsune- lunged at a girl with pointed ears and a set of black bat-like wings extended behind her back. The dragon- fairy hurtled into the air, leaving the half Kitsune to crash into a suit of armor behind her.

A normal looking boy with ginger hair and bright green eyes was trying in vain to separate two girls from a cat fight. One clawed at the other's face, and the other flashed Velata fangs at her and shoved her into the dining room table.

Two boys with vampire fangs slashed at each other, one with werewolf claws and the other with wraith spikes- half Jefferson Starship. Above them, a small girl sat cross legged on a cabinet reading.

The other children ran about in disarray. Some sat on the counter, cookie crumbs across their faces, and others watched the fights in a mixture of horror and fascination.

Gabriel pushed past Charlie. "Hey!" The clamor died down slowly. The children eating cookies quickly hid the evidence, but the fighters took a while to settle down. "Can I not leave you alone for ten minutes?"

Quiet murmurs of apology rose from the red faced children. The half Velata pointed angrily at the half werewolf girl. "She started it!"

The werewolf snarled at her. "Did not!" The boy grabbed her around the waist to keep her from charging the Velata.

"Quiet!" This time all noise stopped immediately as the children turned their attention to Gabriel. He turned a stern gaze to the boy. "Trevor, we left you in charge. What happened?"

Dean's eyes widened. "That's Trevor?" he asked Charlie.

She nodded and pointed to the girl he was restraining. "Yep. And that's Amanda."

Trevor released the half werewolf. "I don't know, I was trying to fix the DVD player when I heard yelling. I turned around and Brenda and Amanda were trying to rip each other's eyes out. Then stuff, um, escalated."

At this the girls both protested loudly. The sound of a book slamming shut brought them to a halt, and a look of fear spread across their faces. With a rustle of feathers the small girl on the cabinet leapt down, spreading a set of fluffy black wings out behind her.

Charlie nodded towards the girl. "I probably don't have to tell you, but that's Spring."

She straightened up, her posture serious and businesslike. "It doesn't matter who started the fight, it matters that it's over. Everyone clean up quickly, we have guests." Despite her small size the other children went about cleaning as she'd directed and within moments the townhouse was in much better order, though the kids had seemed at a loss for how to correct the suit of armor and had simply left it on the floor.

When they were done cleaning, Gabriel sent the children to their rooms except the three Winchester kids. Team Free Will sat awkwardly on one of the mismatched couches surrounding the TV. Spring returned to her perch on the cabinet, and Charlie sat in the rocking chair. Gabriel stood leaning against the wall. Trevor and Amanda tried to fit themselves into the same couch as the boys. When that failed, Trevor moved to the floor directly below Spring and Amanda sat on the edge of the couch, practically falling on Dean.

"So, are we in trouble?" she asked Gabriel. She pulled her legs up to sit cross legged and nearly fell off the edge.

"Only if you break your head open. Now, you may need a minute for this, but I'd like you to meet-"

"Our dads," Spring finished, pulling her book from out of nowhere. "What else is new?"

The adults turned towards her, stunned. "How did you..." Sam trailed off.

Amanda giggled. "Spring just knows stuff like that. She gave us the heads up last week." She titled her head to the side a bit before looking back up at the younger girl. "So, which one is Sam?"

"Tall with long hair," Spring called down disinterestedly. She flipped open her book. "Trev, Dean's the one Amanda's leaning on."

Trevor didn't move, but he looked Dean over carefully from afar. "So, these are the Winchesters, huh?"

"And Castiel," Spring replied hazily, only half listening. "We've heard a lot about you over angel radio."

"It's just Cas." Cas spoke so softly his voice was almost lost.

Spring flicked her eyes up from the book. "Huh?"

"Castiel is a bit formal. It's just Cas."

Spring looked back down at her book. "Oh. Okay, then."

Amanda craned her head so she could better give Spring an overtly shocked and hurt stare. "'Okay, then?' Come on, Spring, this is our family! Aren't you even a bit excited?"

"You're my family. You, and Trevor, and Aunt Charlie, and Uncle Gabe. Sometimes Harry and sometimes Gandalf and on occasion the other kids here. But I don't know these people. How can they be family?" Spring didn't even bother to look up from her book this time.

"Well, how do you know?" Amanda retorted. "Maybe hunting with them will be as fun as reading!"

"That's very unlikely," Spring scoffed.

Dean held up his hands. "Whoa, wait, we never said anything about you coming anywhere-"

"So we're just supposed to go back to school tomorrow and pretend we didn't just pass up the coolest adventure ever?" Trevor looked at him incredulously. "Fighting bad guys and protecting good guys and meeting princesses and seeing far away places-"

"And I think Charlie's been reading you a bit too much fiction," Sam cut him off. "It isn't really like that. Hunting is a dangerous job. It's no job for kids at any rate."

Charlie gasped. "Sam! There is no such thing as too much fiction!"

Sam flushed red. "Sorry, you know I didn't mean it like- OW!" An airborne book hit him squarely in the temple. He reached up and rubbed where a large knot was quickly forming. "I said sorry, what was that for?"

Spring rocked back and forth on the cabinet crying. "I am not asking for them to gain ultimate power or to be the ruler or even to defeat the bad guys! All I am asking is that they live to the end of the first freaking book! I do not feel like that is asking a lot!" She broke down in tears, mumbling incoherently to herself.

Charlie picked the book up and straightened out a few bent pages. "Did you get to the part with the Balrog?"

"Maybe!" Spring howled.

Charlie nodded sagely. "Hot cocoa and sleep will make you feel better. Come on down now, it's almost bedtime."

Spring flipped herself forward over the edge of the cabinet, not bothering to extend her wings and landed directly in Trevor's arms in a very practiced move. She scrambled to her feet and ran over to Charlie. With surprising strength, the small girl pushed the rocking chair forward until Charlie had to get up or risk being tossed on the floor.

Charlie laughed, straightening up and handing Spring the book. "Okay, okay, I'm coming. Amanda, Trevor, it's getting late. You two have school tomorrow."

Amanda looked up at her with pleading eyes. "Five more minutes?"

"Take it up with Gabriel, sweetie. I'm sure it's fine." Charlie winked at the boys. "Later," she said, then scooped up Spring and left the room.

Amanda turned her puppy dog eyes to her caretaker. "Pretty please can we stay up? They just got here!"

Gabriel smiled gently at her. "Charlie's right, you have school tomorrow. Are you both done with your homework?"

Amanda frowned, her brow furrowing in a way that made her disgust seem almost cute. "You have to ask? I finished it while the teacher was passing it out to the class."

Dean nudged Sam, a large grin spreading across his face. Sam shot him a dark look before smiling at Amanda and giving her a thumbs up. She returned the gesture, her face lighting up like a Christmas tree.

Gabriel smiled and offered her a high five, which she enthusiastically accepted. "Trevor, did you get yours done?"

Trevor's scowl was fiercer than Amanda's. "I'm going to be a hunter, I don't need to know what an Oxford comma does."

Sam poked Dean with an equally evil grin. Dean gave him a glare that typically accompanied the phrase 'shut up.'

Gabriel sighed tiredly, as thought this wasn't the first time the idea had been brought up. "No. We're going to get you into college. Amanda, go help him finish."

Amanda tried using her puppy dog eyes again. "But-"

"Now."

With a pout the young girl dragged Trevor off in the same direction Charlie had gone. Just before she disappeared from view, she turned back. "Promise you won't leave?"

Sam nodded, though his smile seemed quite forced. "We'll try, okay? We can come visit after school tomorrow."

Satisfied with this answer, Amanda grinned and scampered off, Trevor in tow. Gabriel sighed and sat heavily in the rocking chair facing Team Free Will. He pinched the bridge of his nose and shook his head slightly. "You know you can't stay."

"Of course not." Sam stood to leave.

Cas looked up at him, startled into speaking. "No! I can't just leave knowing I've left Spring here! Not after seeing what being without a father did to Claire."

Gabriel shook his head viciously. "No. Spring is not Claire Novak. She's much tougher, and probably wouldn't want you around anyways. She was right, we're their family. The kids are in school, living relatively normal lives. Heck, Trevor has a little girlfriend! They don't need the extra drama, and I don't need hunters around poking into everything. I've been tracking a djinn case in Kentucky, been going on about a month. Be gone by morning." He stood up and gestured to the door. "In fact, head out now. Yes, they'll be disappointed, but they'll get over it and move on."

Cas opened his mouth to protest, but Dean cut him off. "He's right, Cas, hunting's nothing we need kids around for, and I'm not about to put them through something like I did with Ben and Lisa." He got up, the Impala's keys already dangling from his fingers. "Before we go, which one's yours?"

Gabriel's brow furrowed in confusion. "What?"

Dean looked at him frustratedly. "Don't tell me you're doing all this because you want to. One of them's your kid."

Gabriel's face slipped into a stone cold, emotionless expression that chilled the hunters to the bone. "Her name was Jane. She was a waitress in California, and I really think you need to leave now."

The black car raced down the road so fast Sam had to squint to read the sign. "Have we reached Kentucky yet?" Cas asked from the backseat, sounding about as bored as a celestial being could.

"Still West Virginia. Sorry, Cas." Sam pointed to a brightly lit town further down the road. "Dean, stop up there, we're getting low on gas."

Dean pulled into the nearest neon crested station, happily noting the falling gas price. As Sam was reaching for the handle to get out, Cas let off a rather undignified screech.

A small bunch of green sparks fizzed in the seat next to him. Cas didn't bother opening the door, but teleported out of the car with a swish of wings. The sparks gradually condensed into the form of a cross legged girl deeply absorbed in her book. She stretched her black wings out behind her contentedly.

A second swish of wings announced the arrival of a teenage boy. He rubbed his eyes, the bright lights of the gas station blinding him for a moment. "Wow, I thought you guys would drive all night," he said, popping open the trunk without further introduction.

Amanda hurriedly crawled out, her skin covered in small red welts. "Ohmygosh, you have so much silver in there!" She ran claws up and down her arms, trying to itch them. Trevor grabbed her hands before she broke through her skin.

Team Free Will gaped at them, all suddenly at a loss for words. "What- How?" Dean stuttered.

Trevor flashed him a toothy grin. "I helped Amanda get in the trunk when Gabriel thought we were studying and teleported to her when she stopped moving."

Spring flicked her eyes up from the book, then, deciding there was nothing much to look at, returned her gaze to the pages. "I rode in the backseat the whole time, just on the other side of the veil so you couldn't see me."

Amanda leaned against Trevor, smiling proudly. "My plan. Pretty clever, right?" She reached down to her leg to scratch again. "Well, it would have been if I'd remembered that hunters keep buttloads of silver around. Ow."

"Get in the car," Dean growled, yanking open the backseat.

Amanda clapped excitedly. "Yes! Djinn hunt, right? I've been reading up, I'll have to sit out of the fighting because you need silver to hurt them, but I think I can narrow down their probable hiding places-"

"No." Sam stated flatly. "You are not going on a djinn hunt, or a vampire hunt, or anything else. You're going home, and you're going to school, and you're going to be normal. Get in."

Trevor and Amanda both grumbled, but obliged. Sam quickly filled up the tank and got back in the Impala. "Hey, where's Spring?"

Amanda didn't bother to look next to her. "Ghostland. She says it's quieter." She reached over to open the door and pulled Cas in next to her.

He hesitated to sit, and looked around as though Spring might have just hidden beneath the seat. "But where-"

"Don't worry about it." Amanda patted him on the head. "But if you feel a cold spot, try not to scream."

The sun had been up for a few hours when the Impala pulled up in front of the dilapidated brownstone. Amanda was passed out, her head resting on Cas's shoulder. Trevor drifted in and out of sleep, waking whenever they went over a bump too fast. Sam shifted uncomfortably in the front seat, the car's heater apparently not sufficient to drive away ghostly chills.

The Impala slowed to a stop, but not so gently as to let the two children in the back stay asleep. Amanda jerked awake, startled from a dream and took a moment to remember what had happened. Tyler simply opened eyes and got out, apparently not as lost as his cousin. Spring materialized outside the car, and reached for the edge of Tyler's shirt with the hand not engaged in holding open her book, allowing him to lead her inside.

Amanda darted ahead of the group, throwing open the door so forcefully that it hit the wall and swung back into her and outwards again. She gasped, either from pain or from shock no one could tell. The brownstone was as abandoned and decrepit on the inside as it had always appeared from the outside. Amanda took several steps backwards to make sure it was the right building, then turned towards Tyler to confirm that they saw the same thing. Her mouth hung open as wide as her eyes, but she failed to find words that could express the shock of not finding her home when she came back.

Tyler peered through the doorway before turning back to the adults still standing by the car. "It isn't here," he called back questioningly, as if they might have an explanation.

"They must have moved after we left," Sam reasoned.

"I'll call Charlie. Cas, tell the kids to get back in the car." Dean dug his phone out of his pocket and cringed when he saw how many missed calls he had from Charlie. He dialed her number and tentatively held the phone to his ear.

She picked up on the second ring. "Where are you?" Charlie demanded. "Do you have the kids?"

Dean held the phone away from his ear, surprised by usually quiet Charlie shouting loud enough to wake the dead. "Yeah, Winchesters 2.0 hitched a ride in the Impala. We're back at your hideout, where are you?"

"Okay, okay, they're with you." Charlie sounded like she was breathing for the first time that night. "Yeah, okay, we- we ditched that one. Gabriel said if you could find us other hunters would too. So, um, yeah, we moved."

Dean closed his eyes for a moment, before responding, forced patience straining his voice. "Got that Charlie. Where?"

She hesitated a moment, and when she spoke her voice faltered. "Um, I'm not- I mean I shouldn't- we just moved!" Her tone grew higher in desperation.

"Right. Because your daycare is so top secret even the kid's parents can't know where it is. Let me talk to Gabriel."

Charlie floundered for a moment, still unused to Dean being so harsh with her. "He- he's out."

"Where?"

"He's tracking down a possible half vampire."

"Where?"

"Arkansas! Little Rock. He's staying on the south side of the city, that's pretty much all he told me. He should be there a couple days. Don't murder things, we're still checking stuff-"

Dean hung up and slipped the phone back in his pocket. "Okay, we're going to Arkansas." He arched an eyebrow when he saw what had happened while his back was turned. "Um, Cas, what are you doing?"

Amanda and Trevor were fighting Cas to take off his trench coat, certain that a pair of wings were hidden underneath. Amanda was dangling off his arm while Trevor had a death grip on the collar. Sam was incapacitated by muffled laughter and Spring ignored them all, perched on the roof of the Impala to get more light from the lone streetlight illuminating the scene.

"Dean! Help!" Cas squeaked, waving his arms as if to shoo away bugs. It seemed to have no effect on the children.

"Hey, knock it off! Get in the car, we're taking you back to Gabriel now," Dean barked.

The pair reluctantly gave up their battle and slunk back to Impala in defeat. Once all three had been coaxed inside and Spring puffed out of the visible realm, Trevor leaned forward and tapped Dean on the shoulder.

"Hey, dad." When he was sure he had Dean's attention, Trevor gave him a cocky grin and said, "Kentucky's on the way to Arkansas."