Yup, you guessed it! Supernatural does not belong to me.

.~o()o~.

It was late at night before Samantha was able to fall asleep and it took her nearly as long to figure out what was wrong. She hadn't known that someone wa watching her sleep in the years since Nathan was born, but now that Cas wasn't there, she could feel his absence.

Nathan was sprawled out without a care, deep in slumber, and Samantha envied him greatly for his lack of worry. She was afraid for her friends and her angel and not knowing what was going on was driving her crazy. She couldn't believe she had only met Castiel the day before. It felt already like she had known him for years.

Finally, in the wee hours of the morning, she drifted off into a fitful slumber full of strange dreams and an overwhelming feeling of foreboding.

When she woke again it was to suffocating heat and utter darkness. There was a hard surface underneath her and she knew she was not in the same place she had fallen asleep. She reached out quickly and frantically began searching the room around her, it was only eight by ten feet. Soon the only emotion she knew was panic as she realized she was alone.

.~o()o~.

Castiel was popping in and out of existence in a flurry of agitation. Dean had never seen him move so fast.

"Hey, hey, hey CAS!" Dean finally shouted. "Slow down and lets think about this for a second. There has to be a reasonable explanation and you are too freaked out to figure out what it is. Just calm down."

Cas suddenly stopped in the middle of the room and turned to them all. "You're right," he said, struggling to school his features into their usual implacable calm. "I need to think this through rationally."

"Thank you," Sam said weakly. "You were starting to make me feel dizzy." Leah looked up into his face and saw all colour rapidly draining from his face. She wrapped her arm tighter around him and manoeuvred him over to the closest bed. They both took a seat before Sam continued. "You sure they didn't go for a walk or something? Samantha is pretty independent."

"That is unlikely. I made it impossible for them to leave. Besides, if I was to wake Dean at this time. He would shout something along the lines of, 'its 5:30 in the freaking morning!' From this, I postulate it is an undesirable time to be awake."

"Right," Sam sighed. "So what could have gotten in? You don't think it was a demon, do you?"

"Demons could not get in here. I have wards set up all over, in Enochian, Hebrew and Greek. And even if they could break the protections I set around the cave, the natural defences themselves are formidable. There are salt deposits in the walls and there is an underground river that flows all around this place. I took the liberty of blessing it. If something took them, it was not demonic. It couldn't have been a ghost either."

"What about other angels?" Dean asked.

"Other angels? Why would I need to defend against them?" Castiel looked confused.

"Come on, surely you don't trust every single one of the angels in heaven. Aren't there thousands of you?" Dean asked.

"Millions," Cas interjected.

"Exactly, suppose some of them were given different orders or get their orders from a different source."

"I am their guardian. If anything was to happen concerning them, I would be the first to know."

"Perhaps they felt you were emotionally compromised," Sam spoke from the bed. "You have been watching them for a long time."

"No," Castiel whirled to glare at him angrily. "I refuse to believe any of my brothers would do something so awful."

Sam put his hands up in surrender. "Sorry I asked. So if it can't be them, and it can't be demons, who could it be and why would they want Nathan and Samantha?"

Castiel thought for a moment in silence. "I must confer with my brothers. Find a hotel in town and wait for me there. Get some rest and be vigilant." A second passed and they found themselves standing by the Impala and Cas was gone again.

"Dean! What did you do to the car?" Sam gasped.

Dean struggled to keep back manly tears. "Filthy ghosts. . .breaking my baby's windows. It'll be ok, baby. We'll get that fixed and then I will personally give you a good long bath and a rubdown afterward. I'll take care of you."

The rest of the group broke into exhausted giggles.

"Hey! My girl is sensitive," Dean protested. "Its ok, baby, they just don't understand. He rubbed her hood lovingly.

"I know all you want to do is go make sweet love to your car right now, but some of us feel like we could sleep for a week. Could you hurry it up?" Sam rolled his eyes.

"A tired Sammy is a bitchy Sammy," Dean sighed, winking at Leah. "You sure you still want to put up with him?"

"If the ghosts didn't scare me off, do you really think a little grumpiness will?"

"Good point. Oh, and Sammy, I know you missed me, but we are not sharing a room this time. This guy prefers to do his relaxing other ways," he winked.

Shelby looked at Leah from behind his back and mouthed, "That's what he thinks." Then she yawned loudly. "I don't know, Dean. Sleep sounds awfully good to me. We had better get two beds so you can do your relaxing without waking me up!"

Dean sputtered and protested and whined all the way into town but Shelby was unrelenting. He continued to do so until they were settled in two rooms at the motel.

As soon as they were alone, Dean looked at Shelby mournfully. "You weren't serious, were you? I am too wound up to go to sleep."

Shelby sighed. "Fine, maybe a little bit of light making out. Just let me brush my teeth and comb my hair or something. I'm a mess."

"Fine," Dean pouted sexily, "but the moment you are done, you are jumping in bed and there will be no more stalling."

"Scout's honour!" Shelby saluted and disappeared into the bathroom. She took her time, deciding once she got in there that it was high time for a shower. By the time she came out, wrapped in a towel, Dean was sprawled out on top of the covers, still fully dressed and snoring.

Shelby smiled, rummaged through Dean's bad until she came out with a t-shirt and some boxers and put those on. She dragged off Dean's boots, leather jacket and jeans without him stirring and crawled into bed beside him, he roused long enough to wrap his body around her, cuddling her close before he was fast asleep again. Shelby took minutes to follow him and soon the room was filled with the sound of soft breathing.

.~o()o~.

Can't wait to hear what you think!