Dean had always hated witches. They were violent, self obsessed and generally had the habit of causing quite the mess. That's not even to mention the amount of animal excrement one had to put up with when dealing with this sort of situation. Those particulars were just some of the highlighted reasons Dean had for not wanting to take this case.
Sammy had found the evidence of this particular coven two days ago, just after the two of them finished up with a run of the mill salt and burn over in Delaware. The two brothers now found themselves surrounded by books and case files in a musty motel room just outside Jackson, Illinois. They, well Sam, were attempting to gather as much information on their three prime suspects as possible.

"So get this, all three of these woman have filed for divorce within the last eight months. Do you think they formed some kind of hate club? Dean?" Sam turned around from his laptop to see his 'big' brother precariously stacking a bunch of books one on top of the other on the table in front of him. His tongue sticking out between his teeth and a look of utter concentration plastered across his face.

"Dean!" The pile toppled over loudly as Dean startled at his brothers voice. A couple of the heavier volumes landed on the floor with an excessive thud.

"What?" Dean glanced towards Sam and away from the mess he was gradually creating.

"Dude, you haven't listened to a word I've said."

Dean rolled his eyes. "I get the point Sammy. Witches. Bad. Let's just go gank the bitches instead of being holed up here for another twenty four hours."

"We can't go charging in without a game plan Dean." Sam said stubbornly.

"I have a plan. It's called gank the witches before they know we're coming."

Sam turned back to his computer with a resolute sigh. "Fine go back to building your book tower if you're not going to help. Or hell, even go out and drink. There should be at least one bar still open. Save me from looking at your moping ass."

Dean strongly repressed the urge to stick his tongue out at his younger brother. He wasn't mopping damn it. He was just bored of this stupid case he didn't want to take in the first place. He had been against taking the job before he'd even considered how much research Sammy'd want to do before they actually did anything.

Dean wasn't sure when exactly he'd fallen asleep, it must have been sometime between book tower attempt number three and four, but he was figuring it was at least a couple of hours ago if the crick in his neck was anything to go by. He was drowsy enough to contemplate staying in his current position, head cushioned comfortably on his folded arms on top of the table, before he heard the voices that clearly woke him in the first place.

"Don't tell me you dragged Cas into your boring research scheme Sammy?" Dean dragged his head up, wincing at the pain that shot through his neck, to see Cas studying Sam's notes with a serious (well, more serious than normal) dip to his brow.

"Oh please don't let us interrupt your precious sleep Dean," Sam bit at him "and it's not scheming. It's necessary precaution. We've been burned before."

"Sam is correct Dean," Cas added, as Dean rolled his eyes. "These women seem to have a very clear idea of what they are working with. Sam was right to call me. You may need my help."

"You called him? Since when is the two of us not enough to take down a couple of measly witches?"

"Since I found images of satanic scripture that hasn't been seen in over a hundred years when looking through the crime scene pictures." Sam flipped his laptop around so Dean could see the screen.

"When'd you find those?"

"While you were sleeping!"

Dean thudded back into his chair with a huff, folding his arms across his chest and giving the strong impression of a petulant child.
Sam and Cas went back to looking at the images Sam had pulled up and they both pointedly ignored Dean's mumbled comment of 'nerds'.

After waiting a few minutes of head strong silence Dean checked his watch. Six thirty a.m. He'd slept longer than he thought. There'd have to be at least one diner open at this hour not too far away from the motel.
Dean stretched his arms up above his head waiting for the relieving crack from his bones before grabbing the impala keys off the table.

"I'll go get us some grub." Dean stated to the room at large. "Want anythin' in particular?"

"Na, whatever's fine." Sam waved Dean off impatiently as Cas continued to show him how to decipher one of the more complicated markings caught on camera. Dean tried to ignore the slight pang of guilt he felt that he wasn't helping. Or was it disappointment that Cas wasn't teaching him how to decipher ancient satanic scripture? No it wasn't that. Whatever. Nerds.

-/-

It was easy enough to find a decent looking joint to grab some food. Dean ordered himself a large 'workers breakfast' off the Tuesday's Specials board and got Sammy the most appetizing looking thing on the health menu. To be perfectly honest, it still didn't look remotely appealing. On his way out, hands full of food, he saw an abandoned local newspaper laying atop one of the tables. The front page caught his eye, the headline reading 'Forth Fraud Criminal Found'. Tucking a bag of food under his arm Dean snagged the discarded paper up as well and continued with more haste out to his baby waiting for him in the parking lot.

-/-

"Seen today's local news Sammy," Dean said as he reentered the motel room, arms laden with breakfast. "Forth Fraud Criminal Found, Larry Braddock has been the forth local citizen arrested for excessive fraud," Dean continued to read as he dumped the food on the table. "The seemingly outstanding citizen, who's denying all charges, was arrested late Sunday evening and taken away by police after it was discovered that he was laundering money.' It goes on about the same as the others; missing memories, immediate actions, not a lot of questions asked. It sounds like the same work don't you think?"

"The mind manipulation and circumstances fit for sure." Sam said as he rummaged through the bags looking for his allocated food. "But the pattern not so much. All the targets before were ex-husbands."

"Well maybe they're branching out. They've got the taste for it now. Why stop at husbands why not burn anyone who's ever hurt them."

Sam made an affirmative sound around his mouthful.

"What ya think Cas? These are gals?" Dean turned towards the angel, handing over the paper.

"I think it is unwise for you to consume so much cholesterol this hour of the morning Dean." Cas said with a pinched look to his face as he watched Dean take another overly large bite of his morning burger.

Sam snorted into his juice as Dean shot a death glare in Cas' direction. "What would you know Mr. I don't require sustenance. This meal happens to be delicious." Dean picked up an extra big bit of bacon and shoved it into his mouth for emphasis as he continued, "Now what about the witches?"

"The sooner we act the better. None of them can continue as they are." Cas said gravely, eyes scanning quickly through the article.

"I'll agree with you there buddy. So no more research?"

"No more research." Cas agreed. "I shall meet the two of you near the suspected residence in an hour. Sam knows the plan." With that there was a flutter of wings and an empty space where Cas had been standing.

Dean looked back over to Sam who was still chuckling. "Shut up. So what's this plan?"

"You'll like it, it might involve ganking. If they don't take their chance at survival."

Dean nodded. "Good," He stood up pushing the rest of his meal away from him, "I'm gonna shower."

"What about the rest of your delicious meal?" Sam smirked.

"It's not that great. Just said it to shut Cas up. The two of you have to stop hangin' out so much. Your snark is rubbing off on him."

Sam pulled a face, "You're just jealous all his attention isn't on you."

"Shove off bitch."

"Jerk."

Dean pushed the bathroom door closed behind him, slamming it just a tad harder than he meant to.

-/-

Cas appeared in the back seat of the impala (which was parked inconspicuously three houses up from where they expected the three witches were practicing) exactly sixty minutes later. The neighborhood they were in was the exact picture of modern day living. Tightly compacted houses one after the other, neatly manicured lawns and gardens, no cars in the driveways, no children in the street. The street was a family street for sure; it was just that everyone was either at work or in some form of child supervision. There were only three cars visible and they were easily identifiable as the ones owned by Maggie Bright, Silvia Thompson and Jayde Horn; aka Jackson's latest wannabe wiccans.

Dean had to admit that Sam and Cas' 'plan' didn't exactly scream foolproof. It sounded pretty much like Deans plan, the one where you storm the coop and attack quickly. The main difference; their plan seemed to include more talking.

It was agreed that Cas would enter through the back of the house and the two boys would head straight through the front. They wanted to corner these women quickly and efficiently.
Sam and Dean paused only briefly at the front door, exchanged a nod, and prepared to break the wood down.
Dean doing all he could to ignore the daunting feeling in his stomach that this wasn't such a good idea.

They made it inside the front hallway and halfway through to the living area before the occupants of the house new that something was wrong. The confusion soon digressed into violence.

Dean was the first to go flying. He didn't have time to react before he was hurtling backwards by an invisible force that slammed him into a wall, raining plaster down on him.
Sam reacted on instinct firing a shot at the first thing that moved. The sound of the gunshot was soon followed by a yelp of pain.

Dean scrambled to his feet and reached for his fallen gun as two of the witches advanced on him, hands raised and nonsensical words falling from their mouths. Dean glanced at his brother who had his own problems as two more were raising their hands against him.
Wait! That wasn't right there was only meant to be three of them! It was supposed to be three on three dammit!

Dean rolled out of the way as one of the two gaining on him threw a handful of black powder towards him. The substance made a near miss to his shoulder, the staircase that exploded behind him didn't sound so lucky. Dean fired shots at the two of them but didn't stick around to see if his aim was accurate enough. He had to help Sam. And where the hell was Cas!

Before Dean could get to his brother he was thrown headfirst into the ground and heard, more than saw, Sam being slammed and held against one of the walls. Rolling onto his back Dean managed to get another shot off, this time it was followed by a scream of rage that sent chills down Dean's spine.

A fist connected with his face before he could prevent it, and the weight of a man landed on top of him, pinning him to the ground. Their unaccounted for witch seemed to now be a highly pissed off male.
Dean could hear one of the woman start to chant behind him, his foggy mind vaguely registered the sounds as Latin, the words falling from a panic stricken voice.

Before he could once again attempt to topple the man on top of him off onto the floor, a shriek voice broke through the commotion. "Stop! We have to go! They killed her! Come on! I took care of one of them, now come on!" A forth woman had appeared from the kitchen. So that made five. Great counting there Sammy.

Suddenly, as soon as it had begun, it was over. There was silence. The weight atop of Dean vanished. Sam crashed to his knees from the wall. The room was empty except for the two of them.

"You okay Sammy?!" Dean's breath was ragged, his voice harsh.

"Yeah, m'k. You?"

"Yeah."

"Your last shot hit one of the women, Silvia, looked like it was enough to do more than just damage. That's why they took off."

It was then that the last woman's words hit Dean. 'I took care of one of them.'

"Cas..." Dean barely breathed his name before he was on his feet barreling into the kitchen, "Cas! Castiel!" Dean tore straight towards the back door, Sam close behind him, both shouting a constant stream of Cas' name. Panic took Dean over. What had she done to Cas? How could she harm Cas? God dammit where was he?!

Just inside the back entrance was where they saw it. The pile of empty clothes. The pile of empty Cas clothes. Dean felt something between a yell of anger and a scream of anguish leave his mouth without his permission. He could hardly process Sam's mantra of 'He'll be fine. He's gotta be somewhere. He's an angel. Can't kill an angel with witchcraft,' in the background.

It wasn't until Sam grabbed him firmly by the shoulders and spun him towards the bundle of clothes that Dean noticed Sam had stopped rambling and was trying to gain his attention.
The bundle seemed to be squirming.
Sooner than either Dean or Sam could make a decision to get closer or further away from it a soft looking tuft of messy black hair appeared from underneath the tan trench coat.

Both brothers were frozen as a child's face turned towards them, a pair of eyes blinking owlishly up at them. A pair of hauntingly bright blue eyes.

"Son of a bitch!"

Hey guys, thanks for reading. This is my first Supernatural fic so any feedback would be greatly appreciated :)
(Also posted on AO3)