TRIGGER WARNING FROM THIS CHAPTER ONWARDS - mentions of rape, assault and child abuse.


It took less than eight seconds for Castiel to answer Dean's prayer call.

It took considerably longer for Sam to calm Zoe down after she screamed out loud when Castiel appeared from thin air.

After assuring her that Cas was a friend and was there to help, the angel approached the still visibly afraid girl.

"My name is Castiel. Zoe, I need you to put out your hands." Castiel said in his low, commanding voice.

Tentatively, Zoe extended her trembling hands towards the angel. In a more gentle manner than Dean had ever seen from Cas, the dark haired angel took both of Zoe's hands in one of his and with the other effortlessly snapped the manacles off of her wrists.

The moment she was free Zoe scrambled to her feet...

… and promptly fell back down again with a cry of pain and frustration.

All three men (well two men and an angel) moved towards her with the intention of helping her, but having three tall and physically intimidating men move suddenly towards her sent her scuttling back into the corner. With her back pressed to the wall she stared up at the three of them with wide, frightened and untrusting.

"Woah woah hey, it's alright Zoe" Sam had raised his hands once again and slowly and carefully took three deliberate steps towards Zoe. When she made no move to show that she wanted him to stop approaching her, he took a few more steps until he was an arms length away. Then a thought occurred to him and, making sure not to spook her, he removed his jacket.

"It's cold down here. Here" he held out the jacket towards her "Think you need this more than I do."

After a moment, Zoe crept forwards a few inches and slowly took the jacket. She ran her hands over the material for a moment, before slipping her arms into the sleeves and pulling it on. The jacket dwarfed her small frame, the sleeves hanging well past her hands.

"Better?" Sam asked with a small smile and Zoe nodded. The corner of her mouth twitched, like she wanted to smile but wasn't sure if she should.

"Zoe we're going to leave this place. Do you want to come with us?"

That got a frantic nod and the same cracked and underused voice that had given her name said

"Don't-don't leave me here"

"Okay, okay we wont." Sam promised "Do you think you can walk?" he asked offering his hand for support.

It took a moment but Zoe put one tremulous hand in Sam's and accepted his help to get to her feet. Holding her hand only emphasised to Sam how small the young woman was in comparison to him.

Zoe managed to take a few steps this time before her legs gave out once more. Only this time she didn't fall to the floor. On instinct Sam caught her, one arm around her waist, catching her to him. At once Zoe was pulling to get away from him and Sam dropped the arm from around her waist and said caught the arm that Zoe was hitting at him with. Using his grip on her arms to turn Zoe towards him Sam spoke over her frightened mumbling

"I'm sorry, I just didn't want you to fall! Zoe I swear I'm not gonna hurt you! It's okay!"

At his words, though it took a moment, Zoe slowly started to stop fighting and pulling away from Sam. Still holding her up by her arms, Sam looked over his shoulder at Cas and Dean.

"You two start clearing the house. Anything paranormal take it and destroy it. I got this."

"You sure Sammy?" Dean asked and Sam nodded.

"C'mon Cas" Dean said and at once the angel followed Dean upstairs.

They left and Sam looked down at Zoe.

"Look" he began "You can't walk. So I'm gonna carry you okay?"

Her eyes widened slightly and she gulped.

But to Sam's surprise, she nodded.

Carefully, Sam scooped one arm behind her back and one under her knees, lifting her from the ground. He was surprised once again, when after a moment Zoe tentatively leant her head against his chest.

"Okay then. Okay then let's go."


"Shut your damn mouth!" was the first thing Sam and Zoe heard when the exited the basement, Zoe blinking like she hadn't seen daylight in a long time.

It was Dean's voice and it was followed by the sound of fist hitting face.

Sam walked down the hall towards the door. When they reached the square of floor at the bottom of the stairs before the front door, Zoe curled up and leant even more closely into Sam's chest as they passed her captor who had clearly regained consciousness and was tied up at the bottom of the stairs.

"You takin' that little bitch with you?" Gasrette spat and Dean glared down at him

"What did I just say!?" he threatened but Gasrette just spat on the ground and chuckled darkly

"If you're takin' her, might wanna take the cuffs with you. Only way to hold the little hellcat down when you want some actio-"

But he didn't get the sentence out as Dean viciously cracked him round the head with his gun, knocking him out once more shouting as he did so

"I told you to shut your damn mouth!"

"It's okay" Sam murmured to Zoe "He wont hurt you again"

Before he carried her from the house.

Settling her in the back of the impala, Sam said

"I'll be right back okay? I just gotta talk to my brother and Cas a minute."

Jogging back up the porch steps Sam pulled Castiel to one side while Dean carried on destroying the various dark objects in the house.

"Think you can get in this guys head?"

"Of course"

"There's no way she's his first vic. Guy like that's a predator. Find out what happened to the last one."

Cas closed his eyes for a moment and then a hard and angry look clouded his angelic face.

"She's buried about half a mile into the woods on the back of this property" he said in a low and disgusted voice. Sam's jaw clenched at this news and he asked in a voice of forced calm.

"Is she the only one?"

"No. There are two more buried a quarter mile to the north and east of the last girl."

"Jesus" Sam seethed before thinking for a moment. Then a thought came to him and he said "Before we go, wake him up. Make him go to the cops and confess to everything except Zoe. You can do that right Cas? Please?"

"Consider it done" Cas agreed.


It was another hour before all the dark objects were destroyed and they could finally leave.

Cas was the last one to the car after planting the urge to confess in Gasrette's head. He was surprised to find Sam had left shotgun open for him to sit in and was in fact sat in the backseat with Zoe.

They drove to the motel that Dean and Sam were staying in, stopping at a Walmart on the way where the only reason Dean gave when Sam asked why was

"Wait here, be back in a minute."

He was in fact, ten minutes, and returned with two full bags and a box.

Twenty minutes later they were walking through the motel room door, Zoe in Sam's arms. Dean automatically crashed out on the couch, taking up the whole seat. With no other available seats after Castiel sat in the armchair, Sam put Zoe down on the edge of his bed, his heart breaking a little at the look of fear on her face when he did.

He retrieved the first aid kit from the bathroom and walked back to Zoe. Somehow he knew that she wasn't ready to be healed by Cas just yet, so the first aid kit would have to do until she could handle it.

After a lot of reassurance Zoe let Sam treat the worst of her wounds, sitting stock still as he did so. Every injury he saw, every cut her treated made him want to hit something. No not something. It made him want to hit the man he now felt he had let off way too easily.

When he was done, as he backed up and away from her, something hit Sam in the back. Turning round, he just managed to catch the second bag that Dean threw at him. At Sam's questioning glance Dean just shrugged and said

"For her. Don't know if it's the right size."

Sam understood at once and almost smiled. Dean could pretend to be a cold hearted, bad ass all he wanted, but although he may have been bad ass, he had a soft a heart as anyone. Sam handed the bag to Zoe and then rubbed the back of his neck as he said

"Bathroom's over there, uh, shit do you need me to carry you again?"

Zoe shook her head and after a moment's hesitation she extended her hand towards him. A silent request for help. Sam moved closer and Zoe gripped onto his arm. It was only a few metres to the bathroom, and with every step Zoe's bruised legs trembled, clearly from lack of use. But just being out of that house and away from that basement seemed to be making her stronger and she managed, with Sam's help, to walk to the bathroom on her own two feet.

Ten minutes later, she emerged. The clothes Dean had brought for her were nothing fancy. A pair of black sweatpants that seemed to fit reasonably well and a grey t-shirt that although was a small size, still hung loosely off her thin frame. She was carrying a dark red hoodie in her hands and her feet were bare of shoes but a pair of fluffy green socks with squirrels on them.

"Lookin' a hell of a lot better now Zo-bird" Dean grinned and Zoe ducked her head, letting her raven hair fall in front of her face.

Despite her apparent regaining of some of her strength, Zoe was leaning against the door frame like she was still having trouble holding herself up. Using the wall for support, she made her way apprehensively over towards Sam who was now seated in the chair as Cas sat beside Dean on the couch. Sam got up and helped Zoe into the chair, where she curled her legs up of the floor and underneath her, her arms hugging across her own torso.

"Zoe" Sam sat on the edge of the coffee table "Is there someone we can call or take you to? Your parents or-or boyfriend or anyone?"

Zoe shook her head. And then to everyone's surprise (though Castiel was the only one not to show it) she spoke, her voice still a little scratchy and quiet but much stronger and clearer than it had been at the house.

"I got no one. Never did. E-even before..." she tailed off, her eyes taking on a far away look for a moment. It was Dean who spoke next.

"Zoe how long were you in that piece of shits house?"

Zoe shifted in the chair, bringing her knees up to her chest and wrapping her arms around them.

"Got me when I was seventeen"

The brothers exchanged a look and Sam asked

"How long ago was that?"

Zoe squirmed a little like she didn't want to think about it before asking quietly

"What - um- w-what year is it? What's the date?"

"March 2nd 2019" Dean said and Zoe looked like she might faint.

"Oh" was all she could say for a moment "Three years. I was there for three years."


No one felt that questioning Zoe further was a good idea, especially given the look on her face at the realisation that she had lost three years of her life to a psychotic sadist.

Dean had left, only to return not long later with Chinese takeout, which Zoe wolfed down like she hadn't eaten in quite some time.

Then there came the issue of sleeping arrangements.

While Zoe was in the bathroom, Dean suggested that she take his bed. When Sam had started to protest that he was more than happy to sleep on the couch Dean had said

"She trusts you Sammy. Hell of a lot more than she trusts me at any rate. When she wakes up, my guess is she'd rather have you in the bed next to her than me."

So Zoe took Dean's bed, and after a solemn promise from both brothers and Castiel that no one would to come to her from them or anyone else, she eventually fell asleep. Sam waited for a while to make sure she was truly asleep then headed to the bathroom.

When he came out he frowned upon seeing Castiel sat on the couch looking sickened while Dean was halfway through asking him what was wrong.

"What's going on? Cas you okay?" Sam asked.

"I was just about to ask the same thing. Cas what the hell's the matter with you?" Dean asked, sitting next to his friend.

"Humans" Castiel said after a moment like he was choosing his words carefully "I have discovered, are much easier to read when they're sleeping." Castiel wiped a hand over his face and said, with a glance towards the sleeping Zoe "I can hear her mind. I can see every vile, despicable thing that that man did to her."

There was silence in the room, punctuated only by the soft sounds of Zoe's breathing.

Dean broke it with a voice full of supressed anger and hardness.

"Tell us."

And after a moment, Castiel did.

He told the brothers about the burns, the days without food, every beating, every day that Jeff Gasrette raped her.

Silence.

Such a cold and heavy silence.

.

.

.

.

"I want that guys head on a spike" Dean said with a kind of venom in his voice that Sam had never heard before, but he felt the exact same way.

"I should have killed him" Sam said "forget him spending the rest of his life in prison I want him in hell."

The hotel room was very, very quiet for the whole rest of the night.

Almost the whole night...


Next chapter done :)

Hope this was okay. I'm still working out how to make the boys sound like themselves so you'll have to forgive if anything sounds a little ooc.

Let me know what you think, thoughts, comments, likes, ideas, suggestions, let me have em :)

More soon.

Geronimo xx