The story of this fic takes place after episode 5x14, though it doesn't have much to do with it. There are spoilers from season 5 and ep 5x14 in it. Rated for violence and sexual situations in later chapters. And this is slash, so slash-haters better not read it. The pairing is Dean/Castiel – no Dean/Jimmy pairing, even though Jimmy does appear in it, but I don't like the pairing.

The first chapter is more like an "introduction" to the story; the main plot happens in later chapters, so be aware of that.

Disclaimer: Supernatural belongs to Eric Kripke and the CW, not me (unfortunately).

Dean was sitting by the small table in the motel room eating a cheeseburger Sam had bought him from the nearby diner. Sam was sitting across from him at the table, laptop in front of him and eating his healthy sandwich while he shot Dean a glare. Dean didn't pay much attention to his brother's glare, but after a moment he got annoyed. "What?" Dean spat.

"Dude, you're eating like a dog," Sam said, still glaring. "It's gross."

"I'm hungry," Dean said defensively. Sam shook his head and looked back at the screen. "At least I'm not eating a hundred burgers like Cas did," he said after a while. Sam looked up again, lips forming an amused smile.

"Yeah, like that's an excuse," he said. Dean snorted and started eating his second cheeseburger.

"Talking about Cas eating burgers… How are you feeling?" Dean said after a while, shooting Sam a concerned look. Sam looked up and frowned, not understanding. "I mean, you spent three days on detox and just got out last night."

"Oh. I'm fine," Sam said, clearly uncomfortable. "Nothing to worry about." Dean stared at Sam in disbelief before he shrugged and turned his attention back to his cheeseburger. But he was interrupted when his cell phone started ringing. Dean rolled his eyes in annoyance and took out his phone to see who was calling.

"Who is it?" Sam asked. Dean looked at his phone in surprise.

"It's Cas," he said. He picked up the call and said, "Hey, Cas, what's up?" Sam looked at him when Dean's expression turned to shock. "Jimmy? Wha… Err, sure, we'll be there in an hour." He hung up and looked at Sam, who stared at him in confusion. "It was Jimmy. He said Cas is gone. We gotta go now," Dean explained hastily as he grabbed his jacket and went to pack his stuff.

"What happened?" Sam said in a concerned voice as he stood up.

"No idea, but it can't be good," Dean said. He had a bad feeling about this, and he couldn't deny his concern for the angel. Castiel wouldn't just leave his vessel unless something had happened. Dean just hoped that it wasn't the angels that had found him.

When they arrived at the warehouse Jimmy had told them to come to, they found him pacing around outside, looking nervous and lost. He looked up at the brothers in relief when they arrived. Sam and Dean hurried out of the car and ran over to Jimmy.

"Oh thank god, I thought you'd never show up," Jimmy said when they ran over to him.

"What the hell happened?" Dean blurted out.

"I… I don't know, I don't remember," Jimmy said, shrugging helplessly. Dean sighed in frustration.

"Okay, so what do you remember?" Sam asked, looking just as concerned as Dean.

"I'm not sure… I remember having the feeling that Cas was frightened of something, or someone. And then, you know, just another flash of light and he was gone," Jimmy said. He suddenly frowned and looked concerned. "I swear I had the feeling that Cas was scared shitless just before he left me. I think he knew what was happening."

"Cas was scared shitless?" Sam frowned in disbelief. He hadn't thought Cas could be that scared of anything.

"Damnit," Dean cursed, running his hand through his hair in frustration. "And you have no idea who he was fighting or where he went?" he asked Jimmy. Jimmy shook his head and apologized. This couldn't be happening, Dean thought. He was frustrated and angry at the man for not remembering anything, for not being able to help, but he knew it wasn't his fault. Cas had simply blocked out Jimmy while he was riding him, so it wasn't his fault that he couldn't remember.

"Dean, we need to do something, we need to find him," Sam said.

"I know," Dean hissed. He sighed; he hadn't meant to hiss at Sam. "Sorry", he murmured.

"It's okay, I'm worried about him too," Sam said, understanding in his voice. Dean snorted and looked away. Sam turned to look at Jimmy, who had observed them in silence. "You should come with us. I'm afraid you still can't return to your family." Jimmy nodded and sighed, and followed them to the impala.

They were all quiet in the Impala. Jimmy was sitting in the backseat, staring out the window into the darkness. Sam shot concerned looks at him every now and then. Dean had turned on the radio, breaking the awkward silence in the car. It surprised him how worried he was about the angel, even more worried than last time. Because last time he knew that Cas had been sent back home by the other angels, but this time he didn't know who had sent him away – or to where. The thought worried him even more and he absently sped up the car a little more.

"Dude, you're gonna make us all crash," Sam said, as Dean was now driving a lot faster than allowed. Dean shot him a glare and sped down a little, just above the speed limit.

"Happy now?" Dean said. Sam didn't answer; he just stared at Dean like he was trying to figure out what had gotten into him. Again, there was an awkward silence in the car.

Over the next few days, they tried desperately to find out what had happened to Castiel and who had forced him from his vessel. Dean even considered summoning Zachariah to ask him, as they had come up with nothing, but Sam was against it. Bringing Zachariah into this would only cause more trouble. They had even brought Jimmy to a nearby psychic to see if she could make him remember anything, but that had failed too. Obviously he had not been conscious when it had all happened, so even his brain didn't know anything about it. So they were back to where they started again, and two weeks had already passed.

Dean started pacing around in the motel room. Jimmy and Sam were sitting at the table by the window. Jimmy looked absently out the window, and Sam was reading the news paper online, while shooting glances at Dean every now and then. "Dude," Sam said. "Would you stop that? It's stressing me."

"Well, it's stressing me even more that we aren't getting anywhere!" Dean snapped. Sam sighed. But then something on the screen caught his attention.

"Hey, check this out," he said, catching Dean's and Jimmy's attentions. "Apparently a whole town was slaughtered in Nebraska five days ago. All that was left of their bodies was blood and a few limbs."

"Sounds nice, but what does that have to do with Cas?" Dean asked impatiently.

"It doesn't, but we're only one state away so I think we should check it out." Sam looked from Dean to Jimmy, who also seemed to find the idea of doing something else for a change quite appealing.

"Dude, we don't have time for this! We need to—" but Dean was interrupted by Sam.

"Dean, I think we all need to do something else," Sam said. "I think we should at least check it out. Who knows, maybe we'll stumble upon some clues about what happened to Cas." Dean didn't seem much interested, but he eventually gave in to Sam's idea, and they all left for Nebraska.

Jimmy wasn't that silent anymore; he and Sam had had a lot of conversations together, and they seemed to have become friends. Dean had also gotten to know Jimmy a bit better, but he kept thinking of Cas every time he looked at him, so he usually avoided looking at him at all.

They finally arrived in the town, and Dean parked the Impala so they could go out and look around. They split up, Jimmy going with Dean as he wasn't a hunter and shouldn't go alone. It annoyed Dean slightly that he ended up with Jimmy, but he didn't let it show.

They walked around, looking for clues that could tell them what had happened in the town. Jimmy walked beside Dean, who still avoided looking at him. "Christ, this looks like a freakin' massacre," Dean said as they arrived in the centre of town. There was blood and guts all over the street and on the cars.

"Oh god," said Jimmy, feeling suddenly uncomfortable at the sight of all the blood.

"You're not gonna puke, are you?" Dean said with an amused smile.

"No," Jimmy said, hand covering his mouth. "But the smell is awful."

"I bet you'd smell the same if you had been ripped to pieces like that," Dean deadpanned, looking at all the blood and guts. Jimmy shot Dean a glare.

"I was ripped to pieces once," he reminded him. Dean looked at Jimmy. He had almost forgotten that the man had been ripped to pieces by Raphael after Castiel had disobeyed and sent Dean to the convent to stop Sam.

"Sorry, I forgot," Dean said, shifting uncomfortably.

"'s okay," said Jimmy, clearly not happy being reminded what had happened.

"Were you, you know… awake when it happened?" Dean asked, hoping he didn't go too far by asking.

"Not really, Cas never let me stay awake much," Jimmy replied. "But I'm aware of what happened. The thought itself is more than uncomfortable." He bit his lip and looked to the ground. Dean felt sorry for the man.

"Sorry, dude," Dean said, feeling guilty. "Kinda my fault… that you and Cas ended up getting blown to pieces like that."

Jimmy looked at him. "He disobeyed for you, didn't he?" Dean looked at him in surprise, and Jimmy smiled. "I may not remember the things that happened while he was possessing me, but I still remember some of the feelings he felt. Though there weren't many – at least not to begin with. And I know he feels a strong connection to you, Dean. You mean a lot to him."

Dean looked at the man with wide eyes, and then he blushed. "Yeah well, we're pretty good friends…" he said, feeling embarrassed and uncomfortable. Jimmy smirked.

Dean was about to say something more when something caught his attention. There was a huge shadow moving along the wall in the alley next to them. Jimmy noticed it as well, and they ran after it, Dean calling for Sam, hoping his brother would hear him.

They followed the shadow through the alleys, and Sam eventually found them and joined them. The shadow disappeared when they arrived at a warehouse. They sneaked inside and hid behind some boxes as they noticed people standing in the middle of the warehouse. They were talking, and the air smelled like sulphur – demons.

The shadow appeared in the middle of the room and started to manifest itself. It turned into a big, black, ugly-looking creature, which Dean guessed was some kind of demonic monster.

"Oh god," Sam whispered behind the boxes where they sat. "I think that thing is some kind of demonic creature that devours humans to gain strength."

"What? That thing eats humans?" Dean said in disgust.

"I've heard about them before," Sam continued. "They are some of the most feared and powerful creatures in hell. As far as I know, they need to feed on thousands of humans before they reach their full strength." Jimmy looked disgusted as he shifted behind the brothers. He wasn't used to all these supernatural creatures, so meeting a thing like this seriously creeped him out.

"Oh great, at least now we know what happened to the town's people," Dean said, looking at the creature again with a disgusted face. "How do we kill it?" he looked back at Sam. Sam froze and stared back at Dean.

"I… I have no idea," he admitted, shrinking a little. Dean rolled his eyes.

The creature suddenly disappeared, and they were all caught off guard as the demons turned to look in their direction. They had found them. Dean and Sam quickly drew out their weapons, and Jimmy stayed behind the boxes. The demons came running at them, and the battle began.

There were six demons, all of them pretty strong. Dean managed to take out two with the knife, and Sam tried a verbal exorcism on three others, while the last demon attacked Dean from behind and threw him against the pillar in the room. Sam managed to exorcise the three demons, and turned to help Dean, but he was thrown against the boxes instead.

The demon was strong, probably stronger than Alastair was, and he grabbed Dean by his shirt and hurled him to his feet, pushing him against the pillar. "Winchesters," he said, smiling smugly. "I thought you'd come here. Can't hide anything from you guys."

"Oh yeah, then why did you even bother doing whatever you're doing?" Dean spat, having a hard time moving being pressed up against the pillar.

"Well, I guess I have my orders," the demon said simply. Sam tried to launch forward, but the demon waved his hand and he was thrown against the boxes again. Jimmy peeked out from behind the boxes to check on Sam. "Oh, lookie at that; the angel vessel. Should have killed him when I had the chance."

Dean's eyes widened. "You know him?" The demon turned to look at him with a smug face. The realisation hit Dean and he thought he was about to burst from anger. "It was you. You forced Cas out of Jimmy!" he spat. The demon laughed.

"Oh, c'mon, you're not angry at me for that, now, are you?" The demon said. "You should be angrier about where I sent him."

Dean stared at the demon in shock. "Where'd you send him?" He already had the feeling he knew, but he asked anyway. The demon smirked.

"I sent him on a little trip to hell," he said. Sam and Jimmy looked at each other in shock. "A very nasty part of hell, actually. You should have seen the look on his face when he realised where I was gonna send him. It was hilarious," the demon laughed.

"Argh, you sick damn bastard!" Dean shouted, his body trembling from anger and hatred towards the demon pinning him against the pillar.

"Oh my, you sure care about him a lot, don't you, Dean?" the demon teased. Dean managed to place a hard kick between the demon's legs, and demon winced in pain. "You shouldn't have done that," he said, and then the hit Dean so hard he flew backwards and almost hit Sam before hitting the boxes and knocking them over.

Sam stood up and attacked the demon, but before he could cut the demon with the knife, more demons came, and soon they were outnumbered. Sam was captured and held to the ground by two demons, while the others charged at Dean and Jimmy.

But just before the demons could harm Dean or Jimmy, something seemed to appear. A strong light shined through the cracks in the ceiling and there was a piercing sound that made everyone drop to their knees and cover their ears. The demons growled in pain, and Sam crawled towards Dean as the two demons let go of him.

Only Jimmy seemed unaffected by the piercing sound, and he stood up and stared around the room with widened eyes. The demons gave up and fled from their hosts, not being able to stand the piercing sound any longer. As soon as the demons were gone and the hosts dropped lifelessly to the ground, the sound stopped.

"What the fuck…" Dean mumbled, as he stood up. To his relief neither his nor Sam's ears were bleeding, but it still hurt like hell. Dean and Sam exchanged looks before turning to Jimmy. "Jimmy…?" Dean asked, carefully approaching the man who stared wide eyed into the room.

Jimmy finally turned to look at them. "It was Cas," he said.

- tbc -