I don't own Supernatural. Darn. I do own Asher Michaels and this story, excluding the bits from the show. My friend Shauna owns Amelia Shaw, and I am using her in my story with her permission. This fic is rated for violence, blood, language, drinking, sexual situations and, hopefully, some scary shit. I don't know how good I will be at writing scary stuff since I've never actually tried before. Enjoy the stories.

Monster Hospital, Book Four: Angels.
Chapter One: Best News Ever.

What do you do when the person you may or may not love is taken to Hell long before their time?

How do you stay sane? How do you stay whole? How do you keep from destroying yourself to join them in the fire?

For Asher, the answer was simple: become completely self-absorbed and forget about everything else unless forced to think about someone or something other than yourself.

When she and Amelia weren't hunting or traveling, Asher's attentions were turned completely inward and focused on her relationship to the wolf inside, to the animal part of her. She hardly went out anymore unless she was running as a wolf, and she did all her research from her laptop in the motel room, leaving Amelia to do all the leg work involved on a case. She drank a lot and ate almost non-stop, but she claimed it was just for the wolf. She didn't talk about what she was feeling and she wouldn't even bring up Dean in conversation. Amelia would have been more worried about her sister, but she was glad Asher was spending more time with her wolf; the last thing Amelia wanted was for Asher to turn all self-destructive, and with Dean Winchester in Hell, that was what she had expected. Building a relationship with the animal inside would make Asher stronger and make it easier to be short one Winchester.

Not that they really had the other.

After Dean had been taken to Hell, the girls had spoken to Sam once or twice, helped on one more hunt, but after that, the younger Winchester had kind of disappeared. He didn't return their calls, he didn't return Bobby's calls, and the one time the girls had seen him, he had ignored them. Amelia, who had been having a casual relationship with him, had taken it hard, but she had more resilience in that department than her sister and she had redirected her feelings. The concern Amelia felt for Sam was the same she held for Asher. She was afraid that without Dean, Sam would destroy himself, that he was destroying himself trying to find a way to bring Dean back or to join him. Sam hadn't talked to Bobby either since right after the night they had tried to take down Lilith. Amelia and the older hunter had spent many days trying to track Sam, to find him and help him, but they had come up with nothing, leaving the girls and Bobby short two Winchester brothers, but closer than they had been before.

Asher and Amelia had spent as much time at Bobby's since Dean had gone to Hell as they had out hunting. Bobby's house and garage had become sort of a de-facto base of operations, and since he had become more comfortable with Asher's werewolfitus, he welcomed the company. Bobby had known Austin and he frequently told Asher that she had inherited many of his quirks as he told them stories of their late adoptive father. He taught Asher some things about cars and shared his books and knowledge about the supernatural with Amelia whenever they stayed for more than a night, and the girls looked forward to going to Bobby's.

Currently however, the girls were not at Bobby's, although they were following up on a series of strange mutilations he had read about earlier that week. As had been the procedure of late, he had informed Asher and Amelia and they had set off in search of whatever supernatural baddie was plaguing the area. Asher and Amelia were, at the moment, posing as FBI agents Erickson and Martin and were in a suburban area of Chicago, trying to get information out of the local police and not having much luck. Amelia was doing all the talking, as per usual, and Asher was hanging back, observing the crime scene. When Asher had first started spending more time with her wolf, Amelia had been a little anxious about letting her near the carnage and blood, but when Asher had displayed control enough to use her heightened senses to pick up evidence and showed little to no interest in the blood, she had laid off.

"You said no one saw anything?" Amelia asked the slightly overweight police officer. They were standing inside the front door, which was propped open to ward of the smell of the bodies. The police office was leaning against the door frame and Amelia was doing her very best to look authoritative which was rather difficult at her height.

He shook his head and scratched at the side of his head. "It's the same as all the other mutilation cases, ma'am. You can see the coroner's reports at the medical examiner's office if you want."

"Thank you, I think we'll head over there next." Amelia handed the police officer a card. "Call me if you think of anything else. Unless there are any witnesses?"

Asher, farther inside the house, was only vaguely listening to Amelia's conversation. She was squatting in the kitchen and what remained of the bodies in front of her looked like it had been torn apart by more than one being. There was blood everywhere and a few conspicuous voids in the spatter that suggested there had been people in the kitchen when the murders had taken place and there were probably a few very bloody creatures out there. There were visible teeth and claw marks in the carnage and the hearts were missing—things that once, would have been sure signs of a werewolf. But the smell Asher was getting wasn't wolf. It smelled like… cat. Big cat. Lion, to be exact. Asher remembered the smell from when she and Amelia had decided to go to the zoo once, years ago. She had never encountered a werelion before, but who was she to say they didn't exist?

Her cell buzzed in her pocket and she reached for it without thinking, her eyes still on the victims. "Hey Bobby," she said, looking at the display as she flipped the device open. "Do you have any more information on the mutilations in the other cities?"

"Ash?"

She nearly dropped the phone. She did fall back onto her ass, the air driven from her lungs in surprise. Her thoughts were racing and her heart was beating faster as she tried to piece the situation together, as she tried to make it make sense. "Dean?" she gasped. She couldn't believe it—wouldn't. It wasn't possible. He was in Hell. Dean Winchester was dead. There was no way he was calling. "Put Bobby on the phone," she demanded, hoping the gruff older man was still alive to be put on the phone.

There were some noises like the phone shifting hands, and then Bobby's gruff voice appeared. He answered the unasked question immediately. "Asher, I've run all the tests. He's Dean, one hundred percent human."

"What? But how… how is this possible?" Her voice was still breathy and her vision was starting to swim before her eyes. She forced herself to take a deep breath and to exhale slowly. "How did this happen?" she asked, trying to sound objective even though she knew Bobby wouldn't be fooled. Asher was many things in relation to Dean, but objective was not one of them.

"We don't know yet. Dean and I are here with Sam trying to figure that out—Room 207 at the Astoria Hotel in Pontiac, Illinois."

"We'll be there in a few hours."

"What about those mutilations?"

Asher rolled her eyes; all she wanted to do was get in the truck and drive to Pontiac, to see Dean. "Mutilations look like standard werewolf attacks, except I don't smell wolf, I smell lion. If you're going to ask me to track and hunt this werelion or whatever—don't. Even if I wanted to, I don't think I'll be able to concentrate. I'll likely get myself killed. I'm coming to Pontiac."

Bobby sighed heavily. "Fine." He hung up.

Asher flipped her phone closed and returned it to her pocket, getting to her feet and walking towards the door as fast the stupid high heels she had to wear in her FBI costume would allow her to. She gave Amelia a significant look as she passed, and since the interview was over, Amelia followed her out onto the front lawn, expecting news about the case. If she had had the heightened senses that Asher did, she would have smelled the fear and the panic on Asher and would have known it wasn't about the case. Or would have guessed so anyways.

"What is it?" Amelia asked.

"Dean."

Amelia looked back at the house, her blonde braid flinging over her shoulder; her hair had grown quite long in the past few months. "What? Dean did that?"

"No, you idiot," Asher snapped. "Dean's back from Hell. He just called and Bobby confirmed it. He's back."

"What?" Amelia blinked several times, her gray eyes wide. She ran the fingers back through her bangs. "How is this possible?"

"I don't know; they don't know, but we are going to Pontiac, now."

"What about the case?"

Asher turned on Amelia, fire in her blue eyes. As her gaze narrowed, her eyes lightened until they were that pale, almost white colour that meant the wolf was close to the surface. Amelia knew it was a dangerous look, but she didn't back down. "You can stay here and work on the case, but I'm going to Pontiac, right fucking now. I don't care about these people," she hissed as she stepped closer and jabbed a finger into Amelia's chest. "I care about Dean."

Amelia closed her eyes and sighed heavily, rubbing her hands over her face. "Just let me call another hunter to take over. I'm not leaving these people stranded."

Asher growled low in her throat. "Fine."

"Do you have any information I can give whoever I can get a hold of?"

"Looks like a werewolf attack; smells like Lion," she snapped. "Can you call them in the truck? Please?"

It may have been the please or the desperation in her sister's voice, but Amelia nodded and followed Asher back to where they had parked her large black pickup. Asher climbed behind the wheel and Amelia in the passenger's seat and immediately began calling all the hunters on her contact list, looking for someone who was willing to take over the case for them. Asher heard her drop their names, Austin's name, Bobby's name, and finally the Winchesters' names and finally find someone who was nearby and was willing to come and take a look. Who it was, Asher couldn't have told anyone, but she didn't really care either.

Back at the motel, Asher hurriedly changed out of her suit and heels and into a pair of light blue skinny jeans, a loose, blood red tank top and her favourite high heeled black boots; as long as the heel was attached to a shoe that covered more than her heel and toes, she was fine with heels. She added her thigh holster and slid her favourite sawed off into place and then began packing her things and doing so in no careful order. Amelia made some comment about her dressing up for Dean, but Asher didn't respond, mostly because it was true. Dean didn't care about the scars on her arms; he liked them and Asher liked that she didn't have to hide them, that she could show them off. Sam and Bobby had seen all her scars too and they didn't care either. With her hunter friends—no, they were really more like family now—Asher felt comfortable and didn't have to worry about weird looks or people being afraid of her. So she dressed up and packed her things with a smile tugging at the corners of her lips.

Amelia made Asher let her drive once the truck was packed and they had checked out of the motel. Asher was nearly vibrating she was so excited and Amelia wouldn't let her run to Pontiac, so she settled for sitting in the passenger seat, with her laptop out and on and she wrote. It was something she hadn't done in a while; she had been too focused on hunting, on her wolf and on not missing Dean. She used her excess energy and turned her experience dealing with her wolf into the beginning of a novel, something she hopped she could sell. She had had several short stories based on their hunts published, but nothing bigger. Asher did know someone who was a publisher and hopped he would help her out.

By the time they reached Pontiac and found the motel two hours later, Asher had run down the battery of her laptop and was itching to jump out of the truck cab and find Dean. Her skin was alive with the need to have him hold her; still she wouldn't admit she loved him. Amelia found a parking spot outside the motel and as soon as the vehicle had come to a stop, Asher was out the door and walking across the parking lot as fast as she could without running. Her world had narrowed down to the stair case and the gold numbers on the black doors. It was periphery information that told her the motel was darkly coloured and the halls were dimly lit. It was faint smells that told her there were three different types of cigarettes being smoked and that two people were smoking pot; that someone had a hot plate in their room and someone had a microwave. There was a drunk yelling in one room, and nearly the entire building smelled like sex, but all Asher cared about was that door at the end of the hall that said 207, the door that was standing between her and Dean.

Author's Note.

So this is the book that has the most outside anticipation. Several people were waiting for this one, and one in particular because after the reunion, it focuses more on Amelia than Asher. The book I'm most excited to write comes after two one-shots, and it's about the future episode. That one should be fun to write and hopefully to read.

This book also has the introduction of Castiel to Monster Hospital. He might prove a little difficult to write, since at the beginning he's like… emotionless. He'll be harder to write than Spock. Yikes.

Anyways, please enjoy the beginning of book four!

Next Chapter: Reunions and Answers.