Part Four:

The Winchesters had set up camp in the Summers basement, and only after the 15th day of their visit did Dean finally realize that this was the longest they've spent on a hunt without anything actually going down.

"I'm getting restless, man." He admitted to Sam one morning as they prepared to trudge upstairs for breakfast with the girls. Sam didn't say anything, but instead concentrated on putting his socks on. "Sammy?"

"What?" Sam snapped, shooting Dean a scowl. Dean put his hands up.

"Whoa, dude. Calm down. What's gotten into you? You've been so quiet since last night." When his question was met with more silence, he looked at Sam carefully and said in a low voice, "What happened with you and Buffy?"

"Nothing, okay? This is all nothing. We're dead in the water, Dean. You heard Thea, there's nothing we can do. We've been working at this for weeks now and it's all come down to nothing. It's pointless" The brothers sat, in a silent staring match. Sam broke the silence, "Let's get upstairs." He stood up abruptly and left the basement, taking two stairs at a time. Dean was left to sit alone on his cot, staring at the floor. A ruffling sound from beside him made him jump, and he turned to find Castiel sitting on the cot next to him. Castiel left as soon as Thea did the night before, without a word to either Winchester.

"Cas?"

"I've spoken to the archangels, and they seem to have no idea as to what's going on. There are just angels disappearing everywhere. And we don't know where they've gone. If they're even still alive. It's chaos up there." Castiel spoke in his normal, steady tone. Dean sighed and put his head in his hands. "I think, this is not good, Dean."

"No, no it doesn't look that way does it, Cas?" Dean hung his head, thinking of what Sam had just said to him. Sam had never been the negative one, and was in most cases the reason why Dean didn't look at every situation with a doom and gloom attitude. It was unnerving to him that even Sam was beginning to feel as if the weeks they spent with the Scoobies was all for nothing. As much as he had grown to care for them; his slight crush on Buffy, Dawn's major crush on him; Willow and Sam getting along like two nerds at a nerd convention, and even he and Spike had a rousing conversation on the importance of prog rock as compared to other genres, (Dean trying to convince Spike that Rush was better than The Clash resulted in him being called a tosser and told to go live with those "bloody Canucks" if he loved them so damn much) every corner they've turned so far has been a dead end.

"I have a theory," Cas started, and Dean jerked his head round to look at him, "Thea spoke of balance, and the fact that Hell seems to be losing players on their side as well. Perhaps, it's time we take a look at the other team?" Dean frowned and Castiel tilted his head thoughtfully. "Did I not use the sports analogy correctly?"

"No, no, I just don't understand-"

"Dean, you know I wish no pain or struggle upon you. You know I would do this myself, but an angels presence in Hell…well, let's just say it would not go over well."

"What are you saying? That-that I need to go back to Hell and take a quick poke around and see if any of the furniture is missing?" Dean stood angrily, turning to face Castiel. Castiel looked up at him, his eyes unblinking and somber.

"You need not be alone, Dean. There is someone else in this place who has been exactly where you have."

{]º[}

When Dean and Castiel finally came up the stairs, they were met with the slight smell of smoke and a figure standing in the front hall, wrapped in a rather disgusting looking brown blanket. Sam stood in the doorway to the hall, and avoided Dean's eyes.

"Buffy, did you know Flame Boy was here?" Sam called into the dining room, and as the blanket fell to the ground and there stood Spike, giving him a very rude hand gesture, Sam added, "I stand by my previous statement."

Spike's upper lip curled back for a moment and he swept past Sam and Dean with no other acknowledgement, besides smirking and giving a nod to Castiel. The three followed him into the kitchen, where Buffy and Willow stood, heads bowed and deep in conversation. Dawn sat munching happily on her cereal, and beamed when the group entered the kitchen.

"Hey nibblet." Spike said, avoiding a sunbeam that spread across the island and onto the floor. He butted behind Buffy and Willow and perched himself on the counter in the corner. Buffy frowned at him and looked over to the Winchesters. Her frown softened slightly when she saw Sam (which did not go unnoticed by either Spike or Dean) and Willow broke the silence when she noticed Castiel lingering in the doorway.

"Castiel! What're you doing here? Any news from up there?" she grinned goofily and made an awkward gesture towards the ceiling. Dean kept his eyes to the floor, and Sam took a seat at the island next to Dawn.

"They are at as much of a loss as we are, unfortunately. But I have mentioned to Dean a plan to perhaps gather a bit more information."

Sam looked at his brother, who was still staring at his shoes. He then looked to Castiel, who was staring intently at Buffy.

"Your Angel, the one who is not an angel," he began taking a few steps towards her, "he has reclaimed his soul, yes?" She nodded, and Castiel continued, "He has also been sent to Hell and returned, am I correct?"

A look of realization dawned on both Buffy and Sam's faces, and Sam stood up and took a step towards Dean.

"No, absolutely not. If you're thinking what I think you're thinking, then no." Sam stared at Dean, his voice rising with every word. Dean looked up at him, and then to Castiel.

"You want to send Angel to Hell again?" Willow asked. Castiel nodded, and she looked confused, "What does this have to do with Dean?"

"Well, uh, seems Angel and I have something in common." Dean finally spoke, and Sam shook his head, a pained expression on his face.

"Dean, no. "

"Why not, Sammy?" Dean shot back, feeling so incredibly angry at his brother; for so many reasons, many of which he couldn't quite get a grasp on. "This is it, this is something we can do. So it's not so pointless." He hit the last word hard, staring defiantly at Sam, before turning to leave out the back door.

{]º[}

CRASH

"Xander, I swear to God, if you knocked over another one of my fertility statues I will personally throttle you to death with my tie. I don't care how curious you are as to the depth of detail in their anatomical correctness, I-"

Giles came barging from the back of the Magic Box, only to find Castiel standing next to a broken table, it's contents splayed across the floor of the shop. He looked at Giles, somewhat apologetically, and with a wave of his hand repaired the table and replaced the items. Giles sighed and nodded to him. "Thank you, Castiel."

"I apologize, my aim in teleportation is not usually off." Castiel looked around the store curiously, picking up a small bundle of sage and smelling it. Giles tilted his head slightly, watching him.

"Is there something I can do for you?"

Castiel looked up from the crystal ball he was holding, and nodded slightly.

"I came to ask you more on the Slayer." He replaced the ball and stepped lightly down the few steps into the main store. Giles sat at the table next to the bookshelves and leaned back into his chair.

"What more do you need to know? I've told you about the long lineage of the Slayers power, how if one Slayer dies another is called-"

"Buffy has already died, hasn't she?" Castiel interrupted, and Giles stared at him intently for a while, before removing his glasses and pressing his fingers to his temples.

"Twice, actually."

"So there should be another active Slayer out there?"

"There was, Kendra. She was killed a few years ago. Then another was called, her name is Faith."

"Is? She is alive still?"

"In a prison Los Angeles, yes." Giles replaced his glasses and searched Castiel's face. "How did you know Buffy had died?"

Castiel paused fiddling with a plaster unicorn statue on the shelf and cocked his head. "She was a resident of Heaven for some time. A very special person up there, to be honest. Right with the saints and martyrs. I had always wondered where she had gone. Your witch brought her back to Earth, I gather?"

Giles stared at Castiel in shock. The news of Buffy's whereabouts while she was dead hit him like a transport truck to the chest. He had assumed, as the rest of the group had, that she was stuck in whatever hell dimension she had jumped into to close the portal. Though he was overjoyed that she was back with them (the feeling was almost indescribable, and he remembered in that moment the call from Willow telling him his Slayer was back from the dead, and the hour or so he spent sobbing on the couch over his fifth glass of brandy that evening before booking a flight back to Sunnydale to see her with his own two eyes. He had taken to drinking that and more each night to quell his anxiety and the horrid dreams that often flooded his sleep) the thought of ripping her soul from a place of peace, a place where she was revered and treated with the love and respect she had deserved for her hard work and unending sacrifice; well the thought made him want to turn back to his bottle of brandy and be damned for eternity. He had almost forgotten Castiel was still there until he felt someone standing quite close to his shoulder, breathing softly. He looked up, and Castiel held up the unicorn.

"What is the price of this horned equus?"

{]º[}

Night had fallen and Buffy was out on patrol, Sam at her side. Willow and Xander had taken the other end of town, and Buffy had begun to wonder if she should have asked Spike to cover the spaces between. They had run into three vampires and two other demons during their walk, and it had only been nightfall for a few hours.

"We're pretty much used to just going after one at a time." Same had confessed after having trouble keeping up with Buffy in their last standoff against a particularly nasty demon with sharp, oozing fangs on his arms and a habit of trying to bear hug Sam before Buffy had chopped it's head clear off with her axe. She smiled softly at Sam and shook her head, "It's okay, it's hard to keep up with a Slayer. Super strength means super stamina. And to be honest, I've never had this much action in one night. Before you guys came to town, I didn't get much action at all actually." Her eyes widened as she saw the slightly shocked look on Sam's face when she said that, and cleared her throat. "Action, er, uhm demon action. Not action with demons, just, action, like, kicko-fighto action, you know. Uhm…" she stopped walking and turned to Sam, looking up at him. "About last night, the kiss. I'm sorry if I made you uncomfortable or anything. I don't fancy the idea of scaring off my best new fighters, especially at this time. Not that that's what I wanna keep you around for! I mean, you and Dean have been great with us and I think Dawn would kill me if I was ever the reason Dean went away and-" she looked horrified at herself as she spoke "oh my GOD, someone usually stops me when I babble like this cause I do it a lot and-"

She was cut off by Sam's mouth on hers, and her arms automatically reached up to his neck, standing on her tip-toes to reach him comfortably. His arms snaked around his waist and pulled her in towards him, kissing her harder. They stumbled slightly, Buffy backing up into a large oak tree behind him, and Sam leaning in to kiss her again.

"I don't…usually…" she said between hard, furious kisses he was planting on her mouth and neck, her hands reaching up the front of his shirt and over his chest, "…act like…this…like…" his mouth met hers again and she melted into his body, arms long, muscular arms wrapping around her tiny frame, and picking her up so her legs wrapped around his waist. Sam breathed in that scent again, and marveled at her strength. She felt so small and fragile in his hands, and yet he knew she could probably break his hip with the legs she had wrapped around him. He had never been with someone who could beat him in a fight, someone who didn't need him to protect her, but needed him in a whole different way. This difference, to Sam, was what was driving his heart to pound so hard he felt it would rip out of his chest whenever he saw her.

"I didn't think you were interested," he breathed, his mouth next to her ear, "I thought you'd go for Dean for sure." His stomach gave a slight pang as he spoke his brother's name. He hadn't returned after storming out, though they got a call from Giles later saying Dean had parked his car outside the Magic Box and had sat there for a couple hours, just playing music loudly and, as Giles explained,"banging incessantly on the steering wheel like some sort of primate." After swapping stories with Buffy on the circumstances of Dean and Angel's trips to Hell, Buffy agreed to try and think of another plan. Castiel seemed quite unhappy with this and left the house in the same manner, if not a bit more stoically, as Dean had.

She stopped kissing him and looked at him, eyebrows raised. Sam opened his mouth to speak again, but she pressed a finger to his lips.

"You mean all those stolen glances we've been exchanging these past two weeks gave you no indication that I thought you were a total hottie? Not even the ass grab at lunch yesterday?" He smiled kissed her finger, and she smirked coyly. She traced her finger down his jaw line to his neck, across his collarbone and down the front of his shirt. Her fingers had just wrapped around his belt buckle when a cough came from a few feet away. They stopped mid kiss, and slowly turned both their heads to the side.

"Hey, B. Who's the Jolly Green Giant?"

Faith stood with Castiel, who looked slightly embarrassed. Faith, however smiled a wicked smile and looked Sam up and down. She licked her lips and eyed him devilishly.

"And does he have a brother or somethin' cause…damn!"