Disclaimer: Supernatural and its characters are not my intellectual property.

Author's Note: Thanks for reading this far! I hope you keep enjoying this story.

Sam felt his head roll to the side. His mouth was full of blood, and his face felt swollen and bruised. Pain was the only thing he felt after Grendel's punishment.

"Where is the angel?" Esther asked, again. Sam had lost track of time. One eye was swollen shut so that he could barely even see. Breathing was difficult, and his head constantly rang like a telephone.

"Go...to hell," he croaked, bracing himself for the next barrage. He felt like he was on the other end of the tortures he had put countless demons through, only he couldn't be hurt by holy water or threatened with exorcism.

Esther gave the nod to Grendel. Hard blows landed everywhere: his ribs, his face, his stomach. It was a simplistic torture, but absolutely brutal. Sam let the pain come, like a bulldozer running him over again and again. It didn't matter what they did to him. He wasn't going to crack. He'd been through hell before, literally. There was no pain greater than the Cage.

Esther's voice was tired. "We've been at this all night, Sam. And we'll keep at it until we get answers. Tell us where the angel is."

"You don't have to ask him." A gruff voice echoed through the darkness of the warehouse. Sam turned his head feebly toward Castiel's voice. Where was he?

Grendel stopped punching Sam and took a step back, scanning the darkness. Sam shifted his bound hands toward the boxcutter in his pocket while his captors were distracted. Esther called out, "Come out where we can see you."

Castiel responded: "You dare challenge me? It was by my hand that the Righteous Man was lifted up from the depths of hell. It was by my hand that hundreds were slain in heaven. I am the angel Castiel. I was formed at the beginning of Time out of light and shadow. You were born from the womb of a Babylonian whore. You are nothing compared to me, Esther."

"Some rhetoric, for someone who won't even come out from the darkness." Esther's voice seemed more annoyed now than anything. Sam tilted his leg up to let the boxcutter fall out of his pocket and into his hands. He began sawing at his ropes.

Grendel strode toward the darker recesses of the warehouse, farther away from Esther. At that moment, a man jumped through the window behind Esther, putting a knife to her throat. Dean growled, "Move and you die."

Sam sliced through the ropes and stood up too fast. Stars passed over his vision for a few seconds. He stumbled forward, and when he regained his sight, he saw Grendel barreling out of the darkness toward him. Castiel slid out from the shadows, holding his angel blade in his hand. "Back off," he warned, "or your mother dies."

Grendel didn't speak, but receded. Castiel turned to Sam and extended a hand, healing him. All the pain went away in one blissful second, making Sam whole again. The angel staggered back. "There. You're healed. Let's get out of here."

They walked out of the door, with Dean holding the First Blade to Esther's neck. They got out into the orange light of the parking lot just as light began to glow on the horizon to the east. Castiel bound Esther with an Enochian spell and Dean threw her in the trunk of the Impala. Sam turned but didn't see Grendel anywhere.

Dean handed the blade to Castiel, noticeably rubbing his arm. The angel deposited the weapon within the folds of his coat. "We need to leave now," he said. "We got what we came for."

"Dean, are you all right?" Sam asked, looking pointedly at the Mark. His brother nodded and rolled up his sleeve.

"I'm fine, Sam." But in fact he wasn't. Sam could see him trembling. "Let's just go." Typical Dean evasiveness. Sam got into the passenger seat, with Castiel in the back and Dean in the driver's seat. As they pulled out of the parking lot, Dean was the first to speak. "Damn it, Sammy. I told you this was a bad idea. Now we've got frickin' Cain's daughter in the trunk and a hulking brute out to get us. Not to mention you put yourself at risk. If Cas hadn't woken up and followed you, we never would have found you."

"Listen," Sam said, "it doesn't matter. We have a lead on the solution to the Mark. The problem could be gone sooner than we ever thought."

Castiel was notably silent as Dean drove back into town. Sam wondered if the angel had hesitated before calling on Dean for help. And most of all, he wondered why the angel had needed help at all. Dean had been forced to use the Blade because Castiel had not been strong enough to rescue Sam on his own. And when he had healed him, as much as Sam appreciated the pain being gone, he couldn't help but notice that the action had an adverse effect on Castiel's health.

Sam turned to the back. "How are you doing, Cas?"

"Hmm?" Castiel looked up. "Oh. I'm fine."

Sam sighed and looked ahead again. Dean and Castiel were both annoyingly stubborn about their personal problems. Neither of them would open up. Sam felt like he was going to explode. I just want to help you guys, he thought. That's all.