Long chapter alert. This little number is a combination of action and exposition. Fortunately, it's intended to be as much for your benefit as it is for that of the Winchesters'.

He shoved Sam out of the way and twisted away as the angel…and it was an angel, it had to be, nothing else could move that fast…lunged at them.

Sam stumbled a bit, but kept his feet. Dean pulled out Ruby's knife as Aziraphale turned towards Sam, bringing the sword up to chop down. He leapt at the angel, and managed to stab the blade into his chest and jerk it free. Aziraphale jerked and dropped the sword. It landed harmlessly beside Sam just as his little brother steadied himself on his feet, enough to draw back a fist and punch Aziraphale as hard as he could across the face. Aziraphale stumbled, but recovered inhumanly fast. As Dean charged in with the knife again, Aziraphale ducked his strike, spun round, and kicked Dean so hard in the chest that he was knocked backwards and crashed painfully into a bookshelf. Ancient tomes rained down around him as Aziraphale dodged Sam's next blow and grabbed the sword from off the dusty floor.

"Sam!" Dean yelled desperately, surging back to his feet. Sam only had eyes for the sword. Dean could not blame him because the blade was suddenly on fire, burning as cheerfully as a bar of magnesium.

Sam went right. Aziraphale went left. The sword scythed through the air. Sam managed to duck and got away with nothing but a torn jacket. His opponent took a chunk out of the floor on the backswing, and whirled to keep Sam in his sights.

Several things suddenly happened in very quick succession.

As Dean charged forward at the angel and brought the knife around, this time ready to plunge it into the back of his neck and maybe just stop the angel from moving, from stabbing his little brother…a new figure appeared out of nowhere and caught the blade on one arm.

Dean stared wildly into the deep blue eyes of Castiel, before Uriel blinked into existence behind him, grabbed him by the arm, and twisted it behind his back.

The front door banged open and two sets of footsteps hurrying inside. Someone cried out, "Aziraphale, stop!"

As he was held immovably in place by the other angel, Dean saw around Castiel as Aziraphale finished backing Sam into the wall. His brother tried to move away, but it was too late. Aziraphale stabbed out, and his little brother cried out in pain as it dug into his side, as the flames still clinging to the blade burned his blood.

The two who had rushed in from outside skidded into the room. Dean saw Ruby, and another man he did not recognize, dark-haired and wearing sunglasses. The man stared from Castiel, to himself, and finally to where Aziraphale was only just pulling his sword away as Sam collapsed heavily to the ground. The blond angel raised his sword again, and Dean renewed his struggles against Uriel because he knew that these angels all meant to see his brother die. Sunglasses moved towards Aziraphale in a blur, grabbing his sword arm and yanking it away from Sammy.

"Aziraphale!" he cried, as the angel tried to wrench his arm free. "Aziraphale! Would you look who you're killing, you stupid angel?!"

Aziraphale stopped struggling. He seemed to have recognized the voice and, as he tilted his head to look up at the man, his eyes widened in surprise.

"Crowley?" he asked. The sword let out a clatter as it was dropped carelessly on the floor. "Hello. What brings you back here?"

"What brings me back here is you're busy trying to kill the wrong blessed people!" Crowley gestured wildly at Ruby. "That is Ruby. Ruby. Ruby who is a girl and has a girl's name. That…" he pointed at Sam. "…is Sam Winchester, brother of Dean Winchester, for whom I got eviscerated several times and for whom three garrisons took on Alistair."

"…oh."

Aziraphale looked from Crowley…to Sam…to Castiel…to Uriel…and finally to Dean, who couldn't hold himself back any longer and finally snapped at the room at large. "Would you get your mitts off of me?! Sam! Sammy! You still with me?!"

Sam was. The wound couldn't have been as bad as it looked, but it had looked terrible in the first place. He'd managed to get his jacket most of the way off and was trying to apply pressure to the wound. His face was contorted in the all-too-familiar expression of one trying to work around a good deal of pain, but he was conscious and that was important.

"'m fine…" Sam mumbled. "I'm…fine. Gah." He looked up at Aziraphale. "I think you…actually cauterized my side…"

Aziraphale smiled pleasantly down at Sam. "Very sorry about that." He knelt down and took Sam's arm. "I'm afraid there was an error in communication. I thought you were a demon. You certainly looked like one at first glance"

Without warning, he heaved Sam to his feet without regard for Sam's considerable size or for his forcibly cauterized gut wound. Dean felt his muscles stiffen as Sam let out another gasp of pain…but, as Aziraphale left him to take his own weight, his brother was suddenly able to stand on his own two feet. When Sam twisted to look down at his injured side, both brothers saw that the injury had healed over without so much as a scar.

Sam seemed justifiably amazed, and he looked up at Aziraphale with wide eyes. "…thank you."

"The least I could do," said Aziraphale, nodding pleasantly at Sam. "I'm deeply sorry about that, my boy. I'm afraid all three of us were victims of a rather large miscommunication." He cast Crowley a stern look. Crowley only shrugged.

"I passed the news on," he grumbled. "Ruby dropped by. I gave her your address. I called and told you to get ready for visitors."

"And when these two young men knocked at the door a few days later, I logically presumed…"

Crowley smirked. "Logically? Angel, I know you and your lot are a bit dim in that department, but there is no way in anywhere that that…" he gestured at Sam. "…is a Ruby."

"He is a demon."

"He's one of Azazel's, angel!"

"Oh." Aziraphale looked startled, then abashed. "Oh. Dear. I thought they'd all died. No wonder I couldn't get a proper fix on him. I just assumed it was the presence of that boy there." He gestured vaguely at Dean.

Ruby blinked, something seeming to occur to her. She rounded on Crowley. "Wait a sec?! You knew he was gonna fry me?!"

Aziraphale sighed, and looked back at Sam. "Sorry about all of this," he said again. Then the angel blinked, and looked at Castiel and Uriel as if he'd only just remembered their presence. At the sight of Uriel still holding Dean, a frown creased his face. "Uriel, for heaven's sake, let the boy down. He's done nothing wrong except be rather justifiably surprised."

Dean winced as the blood flow suddenly returned to his arms. Straightening up, he shot Uriel the filthiest look he could muster before crossing the room to rejoin Sam.

"You okay?" he asked.

"…yeah." Both Winchesters stared at the formerly bleeding hole in Sam's side, to find that it had healed over flawlessly. "Least he was nice enough to un-stab me, I guess."

"Crawly," said Uriel. He cast a glance at Crowley that silently ranked him slightly lower than pond scum, and Crowley visibly bristled under his gaze. "Aziraphale. I think you owe Castiel and I an explanation. It seems to me that you have been deceiving us, my brother."

"It's Crowley, Uriel," said Aziraphale coolly.

"A serpent may shed its skin a thousand times, and yet it may never rise lower than the dust on the road," Uriel replied.

Castiel held up a hand as Aziraphale's frown deepened. "Uriel. Let him speak." He leveled a cold glance at Aziraphale. "The least we owe him now is to let him account for his actions. The least you owe us, Aziraphale, is an explanation for your crimes."

"Everyone wins, then?" asked Aziraphale, still looking rather displeased at the presence of the two angels. "You let me confess, and I owe you a confession?"

"Somebody's been taking lessons from Downstairs," muttered Crowley.

But as Uriel and Castiel looked steadily more murderous, Aziraphale and Crowley seemed to surrender. Claiming the small table that was one of the few furnishings in the room, the explanations began.

* * *

As far as Heaven was concerned, Aziraphale had been off the radar for months now. His garrison hadn't heard anything from him and most of the angels seemed to be under the impression that Aziraphale had been covering his tracks…the strange thing, to Sam and Dean, was that they didn't seem to care. From what could be seen in Castiel and Uriel's attitude towards the other angel, that was nothing new and nothing unexpected. Aziraphale hadn't said a word to Heaven since what Castiel would only call "the last time." Castiel didn't seem to surprised to hear the rumor that Aziraphale had figured out a way to re-seal the Seals. He seemed even less surprised at the knowledge that he would hide this knowledge from the rest of Heaven. Both angels seemed to regard Aziraphale as they would a wayward and rebellious brother…although, as far as Dean was concerned, he had never seen a frumpier individual in his short life.

Ruby's side of the story (Uriel lost interest in the proceedings about ten seconds after she started speaking and phased out, leaving Castiel to handle things) was that Crowley was one of Hell's most talented field agents. He had walked the world for six thousand years, tempting humans into sin and damnation and paving the way to Hell infinitely better than any good intention. It was only logical that Alistair would put him to work breaking Seals. And it was only logical that Aziraphale would come to stop him. Ruby spoke with more than a little awe in her voice as she described their conflicts across centuries, across millennia. Of course she'd believed Crowley's story. Not believing in him was, to the average demon, like not believing in Elvis. Sam found himself glowering just a little when he heard the admiration in Ruby's voice. There was a history there that was not in the books.

The beliefs of both angels and demons regarding the two beings were dead wrong, however. Over the next hour or so, Crowley and Aziraphale filled in the gaps to two angry angels, one indignant demon, and two eagerly listening Hunters.

The most important bit of information revealed by the two beings came as a shock to everyone in the room – Aziraphale did not know how to close a Seal back up. He had been looking ("…it's just a matter of finding the right book, you see, and I've been looking quite hard…") but had so far been unsuccessful. The rumor had been concocted by Crowley and Aziraphale themselves, shortly before they'd come to America, and had been an integral part of the real plan. Crowley had been wandering alone across the states, visiting demonic haunts he would never have gone near under normal circumstances, and spreading the rumor as far and wide as he could. Most demons who heard the news had come to him, eager for the angel's whereabouts and the chance for the glory that would come with somehow killing him. The knowledge that angels had already been killed only served to bolster them. Crowley had happily told them what they wanted to know. In the last few months, nearly a hundred demons had come to Aziraphale's bookshop, looking to kill the angel of the Eastern Gate before he could tell what he knew to Heaven.

Not a single one had left the bookshop alive.

And, as the tale was told, Dean realized something else. Something that no one said out loud, but that everyone knew by the end. Dean realized that Crowley and Aziraphale were not enemies. In fact, as they watched the two of them sit together, seamlessly switching the role of storyteller back and forth, completely at ease in one another's presence…they realized that the two of them were friends.

Dean, personally, thought they'd come up with a good plan. Neither the angel nor the demon seemed to be entirely comfortable getting into the fight on their own side…especially after the mysterious "last time." However, they both wanted to help save the world. It was a strange sort of compromise. They weren't breaking or defending the Seals, but they were staying out of the way of beings who would kill them given half a chance while inflicting some pretty impressive casualties on the demonic population.

The other supernatural beings in the room, however, didn't seem to share his sentiments. Ruby was pissed off because Crowley had sent her to be fricasseed by Aziraphale. Castiel was pissed off because Aziraphale could sit with Crowley and apparently enjoy his company. And Dean – along with Sam, if he was reading his brother right – had to admit that he was more than a little pissed off because this meant that they'd traveled across several states and blown about a couple hundred bucks of gas along with a helluva lot of hope on nothing.

"It's not as though I haven't been looking," said Aziraphale wretchedly. "I have. I truly have. The only times I'm ever not here nowadays are to hunt down some new book."

"That's nothing new," said Crowley, sounding bored. "But we've covered half the country since coming here and he hasn't found a thing…" He grinned. "And Aziraphale's like a bloodhound when it comes to ink, paper, and mold."

Castiel pushed himself away from the wall and seemed to be preparing to leave. "This was a waste of time. Aziraphale, I should inform Gabriel of your actions. You deserve to be punished after all you've done. You've lied to your brothers and sisters, been tempted to sin by the Serpent…"

Crowley snorted. "Please. The last thing I tempted him to do was skip out on a bar tab." He cast a sidelong glance at Aziraphale. "I don't know how you stand guys like that, angel. He doesn't just have a stick up his ass, he's got a whole tree branch!"

Aziraphale flushed. "Crowley…"

That seemed to be it for Castiel. Still looking rather murderous for an angel, he blinked out of existence, leaving only two demons, one angel, and two humans inhabiting the backroom of the bookshop.

"Now look what you've done," said Aziraphale indignantly. "You've offended him. I like Castiel, Crowley."

Crowley snickered. "I've offended him?" He pushed himself away from the table. "Well, now that the cat's torn up the house plants, I'm in the mood for a drink. Hey, angel. Dinner?"

Aziraphale shook his head. "No thank you, Crowley."

Crowley rolled his eyes. "Oh come on, Aziraphale! For his sake, Castiel is a…"

Aziraphale's eyes narrowed dangerously. "No…thank…you, Crowley."

"And Uriel in particular…"

Aziraphale looked up at the demon, and everyone something inhuman flash through his eyes. Crowley flinched back…

"Fine," he said sullenly. "I suppose I'll see you later." As he walked towards the door, he glanced back at Ruby. "Ruby? There's a place a few blocks away. On me?"

Ruby smiled, but fell into step beside Crowley and allowed him to slip an arm around her shoulders. "I believe its only 'on you' if you pay. Sam, I'll be around. Be sure to call me if anything comes up."

The two demons waved absently over their shoulders as the shop door shut behind them. Dean glanced sideways at his brother.

"Sam," he finally said, after an awkward minute had passed. "If you're not careful your face'll stick that way, and you're already pretty damn funny looking."

Sam sighed. "Right. Sorry." He glanced back at Aziraphale. "Mr. Aziraphale? I think we'll go ahead and leave now. Sorry to bother you."

Leave it to his brother to apologize for getting attacked, but Aziraphale seemed to appreciate the sentiment. He smiled at the two brothers and stood up to shake Sam's hand. "No bother at all. I'm sorry again for what happened, and I'll be sure to let you know if anything comes up."

"We'd appreciate that."

Aziraphale nodded, then glanced over Sam's shoulder at Dean. "And best of luck to you in particular, Dean. Castiel's already told me quite a lot about what you'll be facing. If I thought I could get away with it, I'd throw a few miracles your way, but…" He shrugged apologetically. "Gabriel's been 'on my case' quite a lot lately and I'm trying to keep out of his way."

Dean laughed. "That's fine. If Cas has been telling the truth, we've got God on our side. I think we're covered. C'mon, Sam. Let's see if this town's big enough for a motel."