Title: When Brothers Bleed

Author: Westrina

Summary: Zachariah's determined that Dean will say yes to Michael, no matter what it takes. But Team Free Will hasn't played its last card yet… A Sam, Dean & Castiel adventure set sometime between 5x17 and 5x18.

Rating: T for violence, basically, and Dean's language. There will not be any slash.

Pairings: I personally ship Destiel but this fic sticks entirely to canon relationships.

Genre: Adventure/Friendship/Drama

Spoilers: Basically anything up to 5x18, but not beyond.

Disclaimer: Supernatural, and everything to do with it, is Kripke's. I'm sure we all know this but I have to put it in anyway just in case.

This is my first Supernatural fic and I really hope you guys like it! I'm trying to focus on the voices of the individual characters so please drop me a review to tell me how I'm doing =]

When Brothers Bleed

'So it's definitely not a demon,' Sam said tiredly, closing his laptop with a click and leaning back in his chair, massaging his temples. 'And we know it's not a werewolf, because all the bodies had their hearts intact.'

Dean managed to tear himself away from 'Busty Asian Beauties' long enough to glance at his brother. 'So what the hell is it? A witch? Crazy man-eating clown? Zombie? Oh, God, please can it not be another damn shifter. Every time we run into those I end up getting arrested for something.'

Sam smirked, but refrained from commenting. 'Well, whatever it is, it's killing people pretty fast. That's two in the last three days, man. And we still don't know if the missing florist is a part of this yet.'

Dean chuckled, but Sam guessed it was more likely to be because of Dean's reading material than what he had just said. 'Dude. You're always reading that crap.'

Dean grinned. 'So speaks the lawyer. I'm telling you man – you went to Standford, I read porn. I bet we can guess who had the better time.'

Sam couldn't help but smile at his brother's apparent light-heartedness. Even though Dean had been very… Well, not exactly forgiving about the whole Lucifer/Ruby/demon blood/starting the apocalypse thing… Well. Sam screwed up pretty bad. Really bad. And he couldn't help thinking, 'everything bad that happens now is because of me'. Everything. So when he saw his brother like this, bright and perky and so… carelessly happy. It felt right. It felt like maybe, just maybe, Sam had managed to screw the entire universe to hell – but not Dean. Maybe Dean would be okay. He was built to survive, he'd make it through all this.

Maybe.

Five seconds later there was an angel in their motel room.

'Dean. Sam.' Castiel's deep tones, usually so calm and professional, were spiked with the worry he was trying to hide. 'We need to leave now.'

Dean chucked his magazine over to one side of the bed, standing up quickly. 'What is it, Cas?'

'There is no time. I'll explain later. Get what you need and let's go.'

So what, he was just going to teleport them to God only knew where? Dean opened his mouth to speak but something in Castiel's face warned him that now was not a good time. 'Okay,' he said hesitantly. 'Fine. Can I go get some stuff from the Impala, or… ?'

Castiel walked over to the window and peered out surreptitiously. 'No. I'm sorry. They're already here. We have to move now.'

Lucky they were always prepared for an attack these days. Dean grabbed the longsuffering green duffel-bag he always kept topped up with demon-killing paraphernalia, tucking his gun into his jeans as Sam picked up his laptop and stuffed it into a beaten-up old rucksack.

'Okay, Cas. We're good to go.'

'Good.' Castiel raised his hands and touched both of the Winchester brothers on the forehead, and they were gone.

-/-

Dean hit the ground with a dull thud, jarring his elbows against the stone and bashing his chin painfully. For a moment the world seemed to slide lazily sideways before his eyes, but as he blinked it snapped back into focus with a blinding intensity.

He sat up too quickly and the world spun again, only to fix on his brother who was lying motionless on the ground a few feet away from him.

'Sam!' He scrambled over to him and shook his shoulders in an attempt to wake him up. 'Goddammit, wake up you bastard.'

Sam coughed and blinked slowly. 'Er, Dean. What're you doing?'

Dean cleared his throat self-consciously and straightened up. 'You okay?'

'Sure. You?' Dean nodded and Sam stood, brushing himself off and examining the dirty alley they now found themselves in. 'Where are we?'

'Beats me. Where's Cas?'

'He's not with you?'

Dean spread his hands in denial. 'Do I look like I've got a nerd angel hidden in my jacket to you?'

Sam snorted. 'Fair enough. Well, maybe he's just around the corner or something. Like when he zapped us back to see Mom and Dad.'

Dean winced internally at the memory of how beaten-up Cas was after that little excursion. He didn't pretend to be an expert or anything, but he knew enough about angels to know that they weren't supposed to go around coughing up blood and passing out. Not if, the first time you met one, you actually stabbed him in the heart with a demon-ganking knife and he didn't even blink.

'Look, man, he's not here,' Sam said when they'd been searching for over an hour and found squat. 'Why don't we just check into a motel or something and wait for him to get in touch?'

Dean didn't want to stop looking. If he was truly honest with himself, which at all costs he tried not to be, he wasn't sure what he would do if he did stop. Being thrown into an unknown city by a desperate angel who wasn't there to explain was not exactly top of his 'to do' list. If they didn't find Cas…

'Fine,' he growled, hating himself. 'Let's go find somewhere dry at least.'