A/N: Thank you so much everyone!

To Kyrielslight: thank you so much! :) I have to credit my beta reader for being a great editor, which is seriously indispensable. To Loreley: great questions, some of which will be answered in this chapter and in later chapters (because Sam and Dean are wondering some of the same things!). According to the book series, the elementals were created *after* the garden of Eden to help protect the Earth. The books go into way more detail than I can in an author's note, though. I'll hit the highlights as they become relevant to this crossover, but if you're interested in more, check out the book series ^_^

I'm moving the days I post to Tuesdays and Fridays so stay tuned =)


Aileen hung back a bit, finding herself automatically gravitating towards Castiel, her unofficial protector. An angel. Aileen wouldn't have believed it had she not felt that healing touch for herself, and seen how he'd cleaned up the two men.

On the other hand, why not? After all the other things that she'd come to find were real, why not angels, too? Aileen stole another look at Castiel, only to find that he seemed to be scrutinizing her as well. She pulled back a bit from that piercing gaze and raised her eyebrows.

Castiel tilted his head, not seeming to realize that his intensity might be uncomfortable. "I've never met an elemental before," he explained. "But I've always wanted to."

"Oh." Aileen searched for something to say, but she still wasn't quite over the fact that she was talking to an angel. "Well… this is… what we're like."

Probably another elemental would have kept their cool and not gotten caught, though, she thought with a touch of chagrin. Her eyes slid to the two men in front of her—Sam and Dean. Hunters, whatever that meant. They'd done a total 180 since Castiel had shown up and vouched for her, now more apologetic than psychotic, but Aileen hadn't fully ruled out the possibility that this was just a ridiculously elaborate plot.

They finally reached the large room they had dragged her through when they'd first come in. Aileen had been imagining a hunting lodge feel, with guns everywhere and walls decorated with the heads of things these people killed. Instead, the elemental noted with surprise that it was actually rather cozy, with rows upon rows of bookshelves. Several tables stood in the center of the wide open space, complete with homey, green-shaded lamps.

Huh. Aileen wouldn't have pegged these guys as particularly bookish.

The gruffer man—Dean—stepped further away, already on his phone with the local sheriff. The other guy, Sam, turned to Aileen now and held out a cell of his own.

"Um… here," he muttered, looking away with an almost bashful expression that melted Aileen's annoyance towards them a bit. "Call anyone you need to. I'm going to make some coffee, so… just make yourself at home." Sam paused, half-glanced at her like he wanted to say more, then apparently changed his mind and hurried away.

Aileen looked at the phone in her hand, waiting until Castiel moved off a bit as well before dialing the phone number for her dad's office. It rang twice before he picked up.

"Hello, Seamus Donovan."

"Dad, hey, it's me."

"Aileen? I don't recognize this number." There was a pause, laden with suspicion, before he continued, "Where's your phone now?"

"Um…" Aileen twirled a dark strand of hair, before admitting, "I forgot it at the hotel again. Some, uh… some guys let me borrow one. Dad, I have so much to catch you up on, and you're not gonna believe most of it…"

Leaving out the parts about being mistaken for some kind of monster who was killing everything, and the bit about being kidnapped and knocked out and chained to a chair in a basement, Aileen explained everything else to her dad.

"Angels? You're serious?"

"Yeah," Aileen said with a soft chuckle. "Apparently most of them aren't big fans of ours. But this one seems pretty cool." Given that he'd probably saved her life by showing up when he had.

"I guess it shouldn't come as a surprise," her dad mused, though Aileen still maintained that "surprise" was a perfectly legitimate response to the revelation. "I'd be interested to meet him some day. And what about the lake? You've met up with some… what did you call them? Hunters?"

"Right."

The elemental had been hoping that perhaps her dad would have an idea what that meant, but he'd never heard of them either. She explained everything she had found thus far about the situation with the water, which wasn't as much to go on as she would have hoped. But it wasn't like this was the first time she'd gotten involved in some bizarre mysteries. And with her luck, it wouldn't be the last.

"Alright. Be careful, Aileen."

"I will. Is Colin there?" After all the insanity of the day, Aileen wanted nothing more than to hear the voice of her wonderfully human boyfriend.

"No, sorry. The Coast Guard got called out for an emergency, but he said if you checked in to tell you he loves you."

Aileen felt her throat tighten a bit, missing him all the more, but she nodded. "Okay. Tell him I love him, too."

They exchanged their goodbyes, then hung up. Aileen turned, seeing that Dean had also finished his own phone call. He was standing next to Castiel in the doorway towards another long hall, talking quietly. Though Aileen didn't want to pry, the low rumble carried well in the open room and she was curious.

"That's good news, though, right?" the hunter asked. "If the other angels are telling you when the next meeting is gonna be, it must mean they're already figuring on inviting you. I thought that was what you wanted."

"It is," Castiel murmured. "And of course that part is promising. But it's what they're not saying that bothers me."

"What do you mean?"

The angel sighed. "It means until they call, I'm not welcome to come and go into Heaven as I please. They're masking it with a promise of invitation, but essentially they're locking me out."

Aileen frowned, not sure what all that was about but assuming it had something to do with them saying the other angels weren't very nice. She waited to see how Dean would respond, surprised when his gruff expression softened.

"Sorry, Cas. Look, you're making progress with them, that's gotta count for something, right? I mean, at least they're not trying to hunt you down and kill you now, so take the win, man. Besides, you've still got us. So even when you can't get to Heaven, at least you can come home."

Castiel looked up at Dean, and the relief and gratitude in his expression warmed Aileen's heart even more. She couldn't help smiling a bit herself, though she had no idea what they were talking about.

"Thank you, Dean," he said with a soft sigh. "Then you don't mind if I stay-"

"Cas, we've been over this," Dean cut him off. The hunter clapped a hand to Castiel's shoulder and shook his head. "We want you to stay. You're our brother, remember? The bunker is as much yours as it is ours. Come and go when you want. Just give us a heads up so I can make sure there's PB&J."

Dean flashed a grin that changed his face completely, going from slightly intimidating to adorably playful. The image of him as a towering, fearsome threat began to retreat, replaced by this oddly sweet (albeit still dangerous) man who called an angel his brother and invited him for sandwiches. Aileen decided maybe this wasn't a scheme to force her guard down after all, just by the sight of the smile on Castiel's face.

"Oh, uh… you good, Aileen?" Dean called, apparently seeing that she was no longer on the phone. He cleared his throat, then pointed over his shoulder. "Okay, so I'm just gonna… go see what's taking Sam. Yeah." He disappeared in a rustle of flannel, leaving Aileen with the angel.

Not sure what else to do, shifting from one foot to the next as an awkward silence filled the room, Aileen took a deep breath.

"So," she finally said. "PB&J?"

Castiel looked away, still smiling. "When I was human for a while," he began, "it was my favorite food."

Aileen wasn't sure why that was so adorable, but she grinned and moved closer, arms crossing. "When you were human… for a while?" she repeated, not sure if she'd heard right.

"…It's a long story."

Yeah, she bet it was. Aileen was getting the impression there were a lot of "long stories" with this trio. Like that "Apocalypse incident" that she really didn't want to know about.

"It 'was' your favorite food?" she asked now.

Castiel shrugged. He glanced over his shoulder, lowering his voice. "Everything tastes like molecules, as an angel. It isn't all that pleasant anymore."

With a frown, Aileen tilted her head. "Then…?"

"I never told Dean that part," Castiel explained. "But ever since he heard how much I enjoyed the sandwiches, he's always kept peanut butter and jelly here for me, without fail. Grape. Not jam. I suppose I just don't have the heart to tell him now."

Aileen bit her lip, mouth twitching. "That's actually kinda sweet."

The angel looked down, and if Aileen wasn't mistaken, he was also trying not to smile. "You should know, they really are good men," he assured her. "It's unfortunate your first meeting wasn't under better circumstances."

"I'm sure they're perfectly nice... when they don't think you're a monster."

"If it's any comfort, the first time Dean and I met face to face, he stabbed me in the heart."

Aileen blinked, not sure how that could be considered a comforting thought, but Castiel was smiling as though the memory was a fond one. She shook her head, then turned with a jolt as she spotted movement in her peripheral vision. Sam seemed to realize that she was still a little jumpy, pausing in his approach. He held two steaming mugs of coffee, one of which he held out towards her now like a peace offering.

"So," he started as the elemental accepted the cup and took a ginger sip. "Your dad..."

The unasked, awkward question hung between them. Aileen quirked a brow and assured the hunter, "I told him I was working with a couple of guys who were also on the case." She hesitated, tucking some hair back behind her ear. "No reason to worry him about anything else. I'll check in with him again in a while."

Sam nodded and sipped out of the other coffee. Behind them, Dean reappeared with his own cup and a thoughtful scowl.

"Not to be a downer," he started as Sam gestured to the tables for them to sit at. "But we're back to square one. We don't know who's behind this, and we don't know if any of those vics are still alive. Aileen, you said you knew what was wrong with the water?"

Aileen nodded, cupping her mug and relishing the comforting warmth soothing her nerves. "The salt concentration is too high in these lakes," she explained. "Hence the fish kill."

"The... fish kill?" Dean echoed. The elemental nodded again.

"Right, basically that's what you saw back there at the lake, when so many fish are killed like that. It's not actually an uncommon phenomenon. I mean, usually it's not this massive, though, and it doesn't usually affect people."

"But how?" Sam asked. "You're saying it's natural causes after all?"

"Most of the time." Aileen blew gently on the coffee to cool it down before sipping again. She pulled her legs up to curl beside her on the chair, feeling more at ease as the conversation turned to her element. "Fish kills can be caused by anything from pollutants to temperature to salinity. In this case, it's the salt. Fish are pretty sensitive to that. It's why freshwater fish and saltwater fish are two entirely separate categories. And why you can't have them in the same tank, if you have an aquarium. Even a small change in salinity could cause harm, but in this case..."

She trailed off, frowning. Almost subconsciously, she twirled her finger through the air, out of sight under the edge of the table. The hot liquid in her cup stirred itself obediently.

"Aileen?" Castiel prompted. "What about this case?"

"It's just, it's weird," she explained. "It was WAY too high. I mean, it was like the entire lake had been diluted with sea water."

"Okay, wait." Dean closed his eyes and held up a hand before turning back to the elemental and asking, "How do you know that? They didn't have a lab in town. The sheriff just told me ten minutes ago that they're still waiting to get the analysis back."

Aileen shrugged. "Water is sort of my thing," she reminded him with a slight smile. "I can feel the different characteristics of the water. That's what I was doing when you, uh… found me."

Dean cleared his throat and glanced away with obvious embarrassment, but Sam sat up straighter and shot her an interested look. "So, wait, you can tell how salty the water is just by pulling it up in the air like that?"

Taking another sip of coffee, Aileen nodded. It had been a while since she'd had to explain everything to someone from the very beginning. Ordinarily, she would have never revealed so much to these men, who were still basically strangers, but there was no sense hiding anything at this point. Not when they'd already seen her abilities for themselves. Aileen glanced over at Castiel, wondering if the angels knew everything, or only that the elementals existed.

"It's hard to explain," she went on. "I can't tell you the actual saline level, but I could feel that it just wasn't right. It was too close to what I'm used to—I'm an oceanographer, so seawater is a familiar feel. I could feel the water's molecules saturated with all the salt."

Sam's eyebrows had risen steadily as she talked, and he nodded now with obvious interest. "That's… actually really cool."

Aileen smiled, but Dean leaned back in his chair with a snort as he propped his booted feet on the table. "Yeah, okay, nerd," he muttered into his coffee cup. "Molecules. Science. Hooray."

"That tells us more than we figured out in a full day, Dean."

Spreading his hands in a motion of surrender, the hunter said, "Hey, whatever. So what else can you do? I mean," he added with a roll of his eyes, "we already saw you can fight."

"And fight effectively, I'd say," Castiel added as his eyes flitted to the hunters' freshly healed faces. "Elementals are granted control over their particular element, as well as the ability to communicate with the animals in each domain." He shrugged when the two hunters turned towards him, lips quirking in a slight smile. "The idea being that they are stewards over my Father's creation. To assist the angels in that duty. Obviously, that did not go as planned."

"Well, that sums up our whole lives, right there," Dean grumbled.

"So you can talk to fish?" Sam asked with a light frown.

Aileen bit her lip, considering how to explain. "Yes, and no. Water elementals communicate and command water animals. Not just fish, but things like dolphins, whales, anything living in water. But it's not really 'talking'. I mean, it's not like sea otters know English. But I can show them an image in my mind of what I'm looking for and then watch through their eyes as they show me where it is. If they don't understand, I can feel their confusion. That sort of thing."

Sam nodded. He was taking this extraordinarily well, Aileen thought, but with another half-glance at the angel standing at ease among them, she doubted this was even the strangest thing they had come across. In a way, that made things much easier, to have an audience willing to accept these things without worrying that they were about to go running for the hills.

The hunter leaned forward towards her then, suggesting, "What about the missing people? If they are dead and the bodies just haven't been found yet, could you find them in the lake? Can you just… I don't know, move the water aside or something?"

Castiel snorted. "She's not Moses, Sam. She can't just part the waters like the Red Sea."

"Wait…" Dean looked between Aileen and the angel, brow furrowed as he asked, "Was Moses a…?"

"No, Dean."

Aileen couldn't help but grin at the exchange, but she sobered as she rubbed her forehead with a light sigh. "He's right," she admitted. "You saw me moving a ball of water around, because it's not that heavy and I've had a lot of practice. To push through an entire lake… it would take a whole group of water elementals, all focusing on the same spot. We might bend the laws of physics a little bit, but we're still pretty much bound by them."

"So you're saying you can't move too much water because it's physically too heavy," Sam clarified.

"Right. I can't hold back a tsunami just because I can control water." The elemental turned back to Castiel once again, opening her mouth only hesitantly. "Just out of curiosity," she started before clearing her throat. "But… if you're an angel… I mean, why can't you just find them yourself?"

There was a pause. Aileen hoped the question hadn't been rude, but she knew less about angels than the hunters knew about her, at this point. The three traded a quick look, before Castiel's eyes shifted to the ground with what looked almost like chagrin.

"At one time, I- I could have," he murmured. "Things have changed. I no longer have my former power."

Aileen winced. "I'm sorry if I-"

"No, you have no reason for apology. It is not of import."

Though his words sounded like casual dismissal of the issue, Aileen heard the sense of wistfulness as clear as day. He must still have some power, to be able to heal them all as he had, and she wondered how much he had lost. The elemental imagined, just for a moment, losing her own abilities. She shuddered.

"There are more of you, though, right?" Aileen asked. "I mean, even if they don't like me, maybe-"

"Don't bother," Dean interrupted her, shifting to put his feet back on the ground so that the chair landed on all fours again with a thud. "Getting another angel to help? Not gonna happen."

"They're busy with their own affairs," Castiel explained. "They wouldn't bother searching for two missing humans who are most likely already dead anyway. We don't count on the other angels for assistance. The truth is, Aileen… my kind would likely be a disappointment to you."

Aileen had to admit, it was odd to not only have her belief that there were no angels shaken, but also that what she did believe about them was also wrong. She hated hearing the undertone of shame in his voice, though, and she shook her head at the angel.

"I doubt that. I mean, they can't all be bad. You seem alright."

"That's 'cause he's with us," Dean explained with a smirk, expression softening slightly. "Cas has saved our asses more than once. Trust me, he's the only one of the lot who actually acts like an angel."

"That's generous," Castiel murmured as he dipped his head. The touch of shame had shifted to a touch of pride, though. "At any rate, I doubt very much that the remaining two victims are still alive. This creature, whatever we're facing, has shown no concern for either human or animal life thus far."

"Cas is right," Sam agreed, though his eyes darkened as he admitted it. "I was hoping we could save them, but we might have to face the fact that it's too late for them."

A dismal silence fell over the group, as Aileen looked from one sorrowful face to another. Despite the acute memories of their harsh treatment towards her, she couldn't help but see how truly it pained them to lose even two human lives. There were many, including elementals in their own governing agency, who would consider two lives insignificant in the overall scheme of things. To place such value on an individual life was a mark in these hunters' favor.

Clearing her throat, Aileen spoke up, "All the more reason to stop whatever this is. Maybe if I went back to the lake, I can find some other anomaly that might hint at who's causing the fish kill. And the missing people."

The three turned to look at her, but Aileen only raised her chin in determination. "I still have a job to do," she explained. "And I'm going to see it through. Maybe if we work together…?"

"You shouldn't be out there alone," Dean decided, getting to his feet. "It's too dangerous. I'll go with you."

"In case some crazy people jump me from the woods?" the elemental couldn't help but ask with a wry smile. Dean glared at her, but she could see his mouth twitching as though trying to keep a straight face. At any rate, he was probably right; Aileen had a bad habit of going off to investigate on her own, which was how this entire fiasco had started. Going in with backup was the smarter move.

"I'll stay here and do some research," Sam volunteered with an amused look between the two. "I was only looking at freshwater monsters before. Maybe if I expand the search to include seawater as well…" He gestured vaguely towards the stacks of books. "Maybe something will turn up. Cas, what about you?"

"It appears I'm not going to be busy in Heaven for a while," Cas replied. "Give me the names of the missing two humans, Sam. There are still angels willing to speak to me. I can at least inquire if the souls have been brought to Heaven, though it won't tell us much if they were hell-bound."

Aileen set her empty coffee mug down and unwound her legs so she could stand. Dean was already leading the way towards the staircase, grumbling over his shoulder, "I don't suppose you can do anything about the fish smell in the car?"

"I hope you're not expecting an apology," Aileen retorted without thinking. Castiel and Sam were both grinning, though, as Dean muttered something under his breath about a baby. At least he didn't seem to be truly angry, and the elemental felt herself relax a little bit more.

Surely, with all four of them, this entire matter could be cleared up without anything catastrophic happening.

SPN SPN SPN

The water did nothing to soothe her rage. It boiled and frothed in her wake as she sped from one end of the lake to the other. Her violent gaze tore through the deeps, searching for either the thief or his prize.

There was nothing. This filthy puddle was as empty as the dozens she had already searched in her mad race across the country, shifting from one body of water to the next. He was here, somewhere, and he was going to die.

Heedless of the destruction she left behind, she continued on her wild dash, disappearing from the lake and appearing in the next. She broke through the surface, water streaming like geysers from her wrathful hands. A cry echoed across the water, a pitiful human in a vessel of flimsy fiberglass nearly falling into the water in surprise at her sudden appearance.

With a shriek that rippled the water in torment, she surged forward and dragged the terrified human to the edge of his boat.

"Where is it?" she screamed, pulling him farther and farther over the rail towards the water. Fish began to bob to the surface, sightless eyes gazing into the colorless sky. "Where? What have you done with it?"

"Wh-what?" the human spluttered. His eyes were beginning to bulge, fear and confusion radiating from his measly body. "What… are… you?"

"It's mine! MINE! Where is it, you filth?"

He was clutching her hands, trying to free himself from her savage grip. His clawing fingers dug into her flesh without finding purchase, but no answer was forthcoming. He didn't know, curse him, this wasn't her thief. With another furious wail, she yanked him off his vessel into the water, then dove. Farther, farther, farther down, while bubbles burst from the human's mouth as he tried to scream. He was dead before she reached the bottom, and she continued on her way.

Someone had stolen what was hers.

Someone was going to pay.