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He walked down the alley, his senses on full alert. But then again, his senses always were. No one else was on the streets around him, and he didn't know where he was. Something in him told him to walk down an alley he came across and so he did. But the alley led him nowhere; no doors, not even a fence, just a wall. He turned around and jumped back when he saw a bright figure standing in front of him. He used his hand to shade his eyes from the light, not that it helped at all. "Dean Winchester," it whispered.

"That's what they call me," he replied. "And who the hell are you?"

"Doesn't matter right now."

"I think it does. And can you like dim yourself? I think that I'm going to have a seizure."

The light faded and standing in front of him was a woman, tall with blonde hair. It was only fitting that she was wearing white. "Come and join us, Sam," she said.

Sam entered the alley and stepped around the woman to stand next to his brother. He was confused, and it was obvious that he was scared at what was standing in front of them. "Sam? Is this real?" Dean asked.

"I thought that I was dreaming," Sam said. "The last thing I remember is that we were driving."

"You are dreaming, Sam."

"Sam?" Dean asked, not knowing what was going on.

"Yeah, Dean?" The idea that they were in a dream was hurting his head. He had had enough dream-weaving to last a lifetime after dealing with Jeremy Frost. "What the hell are we doing here?"

"Can we stop saying 'hell', please?" the woman asked.

"Why?" Dean challenged. "What are you, some kind of angel?"

The woman smiled. "Some kind," she said sweetly.

"You're really an angel," Sam said.

She held her arms out and spun in a circle. "In the incandescent flesh, more or less," she said. "You two can relax," she said, noticing the tension the boys carried. "I swear I'm on your side."

The two breathed a temporary sigh of relief. "So, why are you here? And better yet, why are we here?" Sam asked.

"Because of the war that you two are apparently involved in."

"We don't even know what the war is about," Sam said. "All we know is that there is a battle going on between good and evil."

"Like any other war," Dean said impatiently. "So, now I want to know why there's an angel in my dreams. Are you here to help us or to lecture us? Because it seems like you're leaving us here on Earth to do the fighting ourselves."

"Don't take that tone with me, Dean. But I'm here to do both. There is a lot of evil coming after you."

"I know," Dean said like he just received the most useless information in the world. "They're coming after Sam, but I'm going to protect him until the day I die."

She walked over to the older Winchester and put a hand on his cheek. She looked into his eyes, and to both of their surprise, he didn't look away. "This isn't about your brother, Dean," she said.

Silence fell between the three of them. It took Dean a moment to realize what she had just had said. He took her hand and gently removed it from his face. "What are you talking about?" he whispered. He could have been angry, but he wasn't. "If it isn't about Sam, then who is it about?"

"It's about you. This whole war is about you and your soul."

That threw the Winchesters for a loop. Another awkward silence fell between the three, and again Dean was the one to break it. "Well, I guess that the side of good's lost because I've already sold my soul to the highest bidder. My time is almost up."

Dean tried to sound smart and brave, but she could see that he was terrified. "And you think that we're giving up without a fight? The side of good is not going to allow the soul of Dean Winchester to burn in Hell. Especially when he sent a lot of angry spirits and demons there, himself."

"And why would you do that for him?" Sam asked.

Dean should have been offended that his brother didn't think him worthy of help from an angel, but he was curious too. "Yeah. I'm not exactly the pinnacle of good."

"Do you really think that lowly of yourself, Dean?" she scolded.

The words struck a chord with him because he heard something to the same effect when Bobby found out about the deal he struck to save his brother. Dean staggered back in fear. There had been only a few times that Dean had been truly afraid, and at that moment he looked like a child who had just seen a ghost. His eyes were wide and Sam could have sworn that his older brother was shaking. "He doesn't think of himself at all," Sam said.

His brother's voice snapped him out of his fear. "Sam, shut up."

"No, Dean," Sam said adamantly. "You give yourself up for all of these people that you don't even know and for me. And you never want anything for yourself. You traded your soul to bring me back from the dead."

"What can I say," Dean scoffed, "I'm selfish."

"Actually, Dean," the woman said, interrupting the brother's odd display of affection. "That's called selfless."

He looked away from the other two people in the alley not able to keep their gaze. "It doesn't matter what it is. I'm still going to Hell."

"Not if we have anything to say on our side," she said. That caught Dean's attention. He looked at her for a brief moment before he looked away again. "Like we're going to let a Pure Heart go into the depths of Hell and suffer."

"A Pure Heart?" Sam repeated. "What exactly is a Pure Heart?"

"You make me sound like a fairy princess," Dean said.

"You're telling me that Dean is a Pure Heart?" Sam continued, ignoring his brother.

"I've tried to tell your brother this so many times in his dreams. You'll know what a Pure Heart is in time, Sam." She looked up as if she heard something that only she could hear. "I have to go," she whispered. She stood in the front of the two boys and put a hand on their chests. "Help is coming." She looked at the younger Winchester and smiled. "Time for you to wake up, Sam."

LRLRLRLRLRLRLRLR

Dean put his hand on his brother's shoulder and shook him. He had been calling his name for about five minutes already. "Sammy, wake up."

Sam jerked up from his seat like someone and just thrown a bucket of ice water on his face. "What?" he asked, looking around searching for any kind of danger.

Dean slowed the car considerably, not that mattered. They were in the middle of nowhere with no cars anywhere near them. The way that his brother woke up scared him. "Are you all right?" he asked.

The younger Winchester rubbed his eyes to get the haze out of them. He sighed as he brushed his hair with his fingers. "I just had the weirdest dream."

"About?"

"I'm not sure," Sam said. He squinted his eyes as he tried to remember every detail. "But you were in it."

"That's a little weird, Sammy. I don't like that you're dreaming about me."

"Shut up," Sam replied. "No. It's not that. It's just… never mind." The car was quiet. It bothered Sam that not even music was playing in the car. "Dean. What do you know about people with a Pure Heart?"

"A what? Is that a type of charm?"

"No. It's not. It's…" his voice trailed off.

"What?" Dean asked, wondering if his brother just lost his train of thought.

Sam rubbed the bridge of his nose in frustration. "I don't know what it is," he admitted.

"It doesn't even sound real. It sounds like something you'd hear in a Disney movie. Or something religious at least."

Sam forced out a laugh, disgusted at how fake it sounded. "It does, doesn't it?" Sam replied.

"What's going on with you?" Dean asked. Even if he was blind, he would've been able to read his brother. He went into overprotective older brother mode when he recognized the change in Sam's demeanor. Something was really bothering his brother and it upset him to not know what was going on in his head. "Did something happen in your dream?"

Dreams had been a touchy subject since the Jeremy case. Sam looked at his brother who kept his eyes on the road. There was already a lot of awkward tension between them without the dream involved. But the dream built on the fact that Dean had sold his soul for Sam's life. And Sam was wondering if that what he just dreamt was more than just that. "I just can't shake this feeling about the dream."

"You need to talk about it?" Dean asked, like he always would when he thought his brother needed an outlet.

Sam sat there wondering if he should divulge the contents of his dreams to his brother. He didn't want his brother to think that he had finally lost his mind, but something in his gut told him that it was more than a dream. It had to be. "No," he finally replied. He wanted to get all of his facts straight first. "It was probably just a vivid dream."

"And not a premonition." Dean took his eyes off the road for a second to get some sort of confirmation. "You aren't going psychic on me again, are you?"

"No. It wasn't. It felt different from my visions," Sam sighed.

"But it wasn't just a dream," Dean said.

"No," his brother replied tiredly. To him, it felt like a warning or a sign. "Look, I don't want to talk about it right now, because we're just going to be talking in circles and I'm tired, Dean."

"Then go to sleep."

"No," Sam said too quickly for Dean's liking. To Dean, his little brother sounded afraid. And Sam was, but if he were asleep he wouldn't be able to think about what the dream meant. He wanted to find out what it all meant and eventually admit that it was more than just a dream. "It's okay. I'll stay awake." He paused a minute before speaking again. "So what exactly are we looking for on this side of the country?"

Dean reached between the two of them for the bunch of papers scattered on the seat. He looked off the road a few times to look for the specific paper. Sam thought about helping him, but his brother looked like he had it under control. And it wasn't like they were a hazard to anyone on the road. They still had it to themselves. "Here we go," Dean said, holding up a napkin with some writing.

"We are not here because of a woman!" Sam yelled irritated.

"Give me more credit than that," Dean said, offended. "Read what's on it."

"Man… lulu… yong?" Sam read. "Are you joking me?" he scoffed. "What the hell is this? And do we have any information on this?"

Dean waited before he answered his brother. He needed a way to tell his brother without causing any anger to be directed toward him. He settled for, "No."

Sam looked out toward the landscape, knowing that if he looked at his brother at that moment he would probably punch him. "Then why are we here, Dean?" Sam asked, irritated. "We have no information on this, or even if it's real. We could be spending this time looking for some way to save you. We could…"

Dean noticed the volume change and eventual stop of words coming from his brother. Sam could argue and rant for hours and he usually did when it came to talking about saving Dean. But this rant didn't even last five minutes. "Sam?" he asked.

"How hot do you think it is outside right now?" Sam asked, looking at the sun shining outside.

"What?" Dean asked. He was puzzled at his brother's random thought. Dean never did like talking about his deal with the Crossroads Demon and his deal, and it was usually him trying to change the subject. And when he did it, he did it subtly. Or at least he tried. The fact that it was Sam doing the subject change, and so abruptly, startled him. "Why?"

"How hot do you think it is outside?" Sam asked again.

"Like fifties or sixties. Maybe. How the hell am I supposed to know? Now you want to tell me why you need to know?"

Sam leaned and looked out the window. "Because we just sped passed someone who was wearing jeans, a sweatshirt, and had three bags of them. And using a walking stick."

"And I care because."

"Dean, when was the last time that you saw another car pass through here." He waited for an answer and was satisfied when he didn't get one. "Why don't we—"

"No," Dean interrupted before he could finish. "Remember the last time we had to deal with a hitchhiker?"

He remembered. Meg. It didn't need to be said, because it was already understood. It made sense that they were wary of everyone since the Gate opened. No one could be trusted. Not until they passed the tests that the boys laid out for them. "Well, she looks thirsty," Sam said, eyebrows raised.

Dean looked at him and smiled. "Okay." He put the car in reverse and backed up to the person walking down the side of the road. The person was small and looked as if the bags he or she was carrying weighed more than they did. "Not suspicious at all," Dean whispered.

Sam rolled down his window as Dean drove along with the person walking. "Excuse me?" Sam said. The person kept walking, completely ignoring them. "Hello?"

"Screw this," Dean said and he put his hand to the car horn.

Finally, they caught the person's attention. The wanderer pulled down its hood, strands of her dark, auburn hair falling from her ponytail, and revealed that the it was a girl. She took her headphones out of her ear and turned her head toward the passengers. The brothers couldn't see her looking at them because of her sunglasses. "Yeah?" she asked.

"We…" Dean interrupted Sam with an elbow to his side. "I was wondering if you'd like a ride. There doesn't look like there's any place for you to stop for miles. And I don't think that there will be any cars passing through here any time soon." He could do a good deed for today. And he was always one to want to help people.

Dean drove up a couple of feet and pulled in front of her. She got within a few feet of the car and stopped. She waited for the sound of footsteps to approach her before spoke. "As kind as the offer is," she started, "you shouldn't trust people that you see walking the side of an interstate."

Dean and Sam leaned against the trunk of the Impala. "Are you saying that we can't trust you?" Dean asked.

"Dean," Sam warned.

The girl held up her hand to stop the argument between the brothers from happening. "It's all right," she said. "I'm telling him not to trust me and he's doing just that. I can't be mad at him for it."

Dean pulled a flask of Holy Water out of his jacket pocket and uncapped it. "You look a little thirsty," he said, offering it to her. "We can give you something."

She held her hand out to them, but didn't grab the flask. "Can you put it in my hand, please?" The brothers looked at each other unsure of her motives. "I can't see where it is," she said. She pulled down her sunglasses and the two of them gaped at her unfocused eyes.

Dean walked forward and put the flask in her hand. "Here's something for you to drink."

She brought the flask in line with her lips. But didn't take a sip. "If you wanted me to drink Holy Water, all you had to do was ask," she said with a smile on her face.

Dean backed up and was stopped when he hit the car. The brothers looked at each other both sensing the oncoming dread the other was radiating.

Well, the boys are finally in my story. Thanks to everyone who is reading this story. I hope that this chapter was all right. I have a couple more lined up and I also have a story about Bobby lined up somewhere. Thanks again for reading. Please review. Lil-Rock