Mary felt a little uncomfortable helping herself to coffee in the Banes's kitchen but she'd always been an early riser and once she was up, she needed caffeine.

"Morning," Alicia said, coming in through the back door.

"Oh," Mary said, coloring. Alicia was wearing a thin cotton robe and it would seem, very little else.

"Max and I always greet the dawn," she said at her expression. "Sky-clad."

"Don't the neighbors complain?" Mary asked. Then laughed at herself. "Oh yeah, what neighbors?"

"Why do you think we live all the way out here? No nosy neighbors to interfere with our faith." Alicia eyed the coffee and grabbed a mug from the drainer.

"Where's your brother then?" Mary asked.

"He's doing an additional purification ritual. Clearing out this Hyde curse is going to require absolute oneness of body and spirit."

"I see," Mary said, nodding like she understood.

"No, you don't," Alicia said mildly. "It's necessary, that's all you need to know."

"What about you?"

"I'm playing second fiddle," she admitted. "Max is the one with the talent for breaking curses. You and I will just have to entertain ourselves." Alicia winked at Mary and she felt her cheeks heat.

"I'm old enough to be your grandmother," she admonished.

Alicia shrugged, unconcerned. "You don't look it. And anyway, cougars are a thing now." She gave Mary a bold look and Mary waved her off, laughing again. "Or I could teach you how to play Call of Duty," she said slyly. "I think you'd rock."

"All right," Mary agreed. "If I have to cool my heels here, shooting a few pixels can't hurt to keep my hand in."

"Is my sister trying to tempt you?" Max said as she entered.

"Into playing video games with her," Mary told her. Max gave her a look that said he knew quite well Alicia had offered other entertainment as well. But he didn't press the issue, to Mary's relief.

"Well, I'm almost ready," Max told her. "Is Mel up?"

"No," Mary said. "At least, I haven't heard her moving around."

"I'll go get her," Max said. "Are you OK hanging out with Alicia today?"

"I'm standing right here," his sister said haughtily.

"It's fine," Mary assured her. "But I would like to call my sons."

"Sure," Alicia agreed. "Go ahead. Max will need some quiet later, but I'll let you know when."


"Gabriel, wait," Cas said, hurrying after his brother.

Gabriel stopped and turned around to look at him. "What is it?"

"What's going on with you and Sam?" Cas demanded. Gabriel's eyebrows rocketed skywards. "I have eyes, Gabriel."

"It was the card, that's all. Those damn things are hella powerful." His mouth turned down and he kicked at the ground. "What the fuck was Michael thinking?"

"I don't know," Cas said wearily. "The day he threw Lucifer into Hell, I think it broke something inside him. He was never the same after that. Those cards weren't the only overpowered object he created."

Gabriel pushed his hands through his hair with a sigh. "Well, the crisis is over for now. But I think we should come up with somewhere else to store them. I thought they'd be safe here, but it seems I was wrong."

"And they can't be destroyed?"

"Oh, we could probably destroy them," Gabriel confessed. "But something tells me we would regret it."

"I don't understand," Cas said.

"Sentient creatures will fight back against their own destruction," Gabriel said and Cas's eyes flared wide in alarm. "We have no idea exactly how powerful they are yet. This incident was just a tiny taste of their power, and there was no threat to their existence."

"So what should we do," Cas asked. "That card got out of the safe all by itself."

"Can I see the safe?" Gabriel asked. "I might be able to suggest some additional protections." He went rigid suddenly and Cas turned to see Sam coming down the hallway, bare-chested and barefoot, carrying the warded box Dean had provided to contain the Ace of Cups. Dean was hurrying after him, looking more than a little perturbed.

"You wanna see the safe?" Sam asked. Clearly he'd overheard Gabriel's last comments. "It's this way." He strode past and Gabriel cast a puzzled look at Dean before nodding and following him.

Sam took the stairs two at a time and was almost running by the time he reached the basement room where the safe was located. When he moved to open it, Gabriel stopped him with one splayed hand on his chest.

"Wait," he said. Sam looked down at the archangel's hand in outrage but Gabriel ignored him. "Castiel, come here."

"What is it," the seraph asked.

"I can feel some kind of aura around this safe but with my Grace locked down I can't detect the precise shape of it. What can you see?"

"Nothing," Cas said. He closed his eyes. "But I can feel it. It's like the aura on Michael's lance."

"Hell," Gabriel swore. "OK, Castiel, can you inscribe Joshua's restricting sigil on the door here with your Grace?"

"Of course," Cas said, his eyes popping open. His hands flickered in a complex movement Sam couldn't follow. "Oh. That's better."

"Right," Gabriel said. "Now, let's add Raphael's shielding rune and that should do it."

Cas was sweating as he concentrated, which was an unusual sight. "There."

"OK, Sam, open the safe very carefully, and try and sorta stay to one side. Just in case," Gabriel told him. Cas stepped out of Sam's way and he opened the door, wincing as he did so. But nothing happened.

"Do you just want me to put this in there inside this box?" Sam asked.

"I don't think opening that box again would be safe," Gabriel said.

"OK." Sam placed the box on the bottom shelf and then slammed the door shut. The sigils Cas had inscribed on the metal flared briefly into silvery life before fading.

"All right," Dean said. "I need a drink."

"Dude, it's barely past noon," Sam complained.

"It's been a long morning," his brother snarled and stomped off. Cas gave Sam a worried look and then dashed after Dean.

"How are you feeling, Sam?" Gabriel asked gently.

"OK. A bit weirded out," Sam told him. He gave the archangel an uncertain look. "Are you in a hurry to head out?"

"No," Gabriel said slowly. "What did you have in mind?"

"Coffee," Sam said. Gabriel felt his own answering smile. "Cas and Dean are going to fight and I don't wanna be anywhere near them."

"Fight?" Gabriel said curiously as he climbed the stairs behind Sam.

"About drinking," Sam said, sounding weary. "Cas worries Dean's drinking himself into an early grave."

"Isn't he though?" the archangel said pointedly.

"Of course," Sam answered. "But badgering him about it will just make him dig his heels in. I know my brother, Gabriel."

"What will change his mind?"

"I don't know. He cut right back after… uh, well, I haven't told you about his stint as a Knight of Hell yet, have I?" Sam said heavily.

"I already knew about it. It's actually why I came back, in a sense. What I don't know is how you got him back again."

"It's a long story," Sam said. He led Gabriel into the kitchen and opened the coffee machine to see dry, unused coffee in the filter. "Huh. Dean must have started making coffee and got distracted." He pushed the power button but nothing happened. "Or the machine isn't working. Dammit."

"It's OK," Gabriel said.

'"We have soda," Sam said, opening the fridge. He pulled out two cans of Coke and waved one at Gabriel.

"Sure," the archangel said, cupping his hands to catch the can as Sam tossed it to him. He popped the ring pull and took a long draft. Sam watched the movement of his throat and then coughed and looked away. Why was that so fascinating all of a sudden?

"So," Gabriel said, unaware of Sam's sudden inner turmoil. "Did you have something you wanted to discuss or did you just want the pleasure of my company?" He waggled his eyebrows at Sam and the hunter flushed. Gabriel's ability to make him flustered and confused was apparently undimmed by his bound Grace.

"Actually, I did want to ask you about something," Sam said, suddenly struck by inspiration. "When we ran into you in Oberlin, you knew the thing we were tracking wasn't a werewolf. It seemed to be some strange cross between a werewolf and a vampire."

"Ah, yes, the varcolac," Gabriel said.

Sam raised his eyebrows. "So they do have a name."

"Yes. They were always rare though," Gabriel said, his eyes distant with remembrance. "The last one was killed over a thousand years ago."

"Why were they so rare?" Sam asked curiously.

Gabriel gave him a warm smile, clearly enjoying being cast in the role of teacher. "Because, like vampires and werewolves, they rely on converting humans to propagate the species. But unlike vamps and weres, the transformation process is more often fatal than not. You often see that with manufactured species. Only one in four will survive the initial metamorphosis, and only ten percent last more than a year. Since they can't pass on their curse until they reach maturity, which takes about eighteen months, that's a huge attrition rate."

"No species could even hope to maintain its numbers with a reproductive success rate like that," Sam observed.

"Right," Gabriel agreed. "And unlike vamps and weres, they can't blend into human society, which makes hunting for food much more difficult."

"So you said the last one was killed over a thousand years ago," Sam remembered. "Except for the one we killed, that is."

"Well, that's the worrying thing," Gabriel said, looking pensive. "There's no way that thing should have existed. Unless someone's playing games."

"What kind of games?" Sam asked. "When Eve escaped Purgatory, she was making new monsters, she was hybridizing some of the current species. We met some weird things, believe me."

"You keep blurting out these terrifying revelations," Gabriel complained. "How did Eve get out of Purgatory?"

"Dragons," Sam said. "That was not our fault, I swear. Well. OK, maybe partly mine but I didn't know it at the time."

"Tell me you at least dealt with her," Gabriel begged.

"Yeah, she's dead. Or back in Purgatory. It's another long story."

"Let's leave that for another time," Gabriel suggested. "If Eve isn't doing this, then that raises serious questions, Sam."

"Yeah, like how did someone resurrect a long extinct monster?" Sam agreed. "Could this just have been a weird accident? Maybe Max Schmidt got bitten by a werewolf and transformed by a vampire on the same night."

"That's not how it works," Gabriel said. "Such an unlucky fellow would just die."

"Hmm." Sam sipped at his drink and thought hard. "So, you're telling me someone or something deliberately decided to create this uh… varcolac?"

"Yes. Which means they have access to a soulforge. Either they found one or they found the grimoire that tells you how to make one." Gabriel looked so solemn, it made Sam feel a strange tugging sensation in his chest. He got up and opened a cabinet, taking only a second to locate what he was looking for. He grabbed the Snickers bar and tossed it to the archangel, who caught it with a look of surprise.

"Thanks," Gabriel said, a peculiar look on his face.

"You looked kinda down," Sam said by way of explanation. He didn't add that seeing the archangel sad made him ache inside. Because he was damned if he knew why, or what it meant.

Gabriel opened the candy bar and bit off a large chunk before offering it to Sam. Sam laughed at the oddness of the gesture, but took a small bite anyway and chewed happily.


Dean grabbed the bottle of bourbon from the cabinet in the war room and slumped down into a chair. He didn't even bother with a glass, swigging directly from the bottle.

"Dean," Cas said as he entered the room.

"Can it, Cas," he said warningly. "I'm not in the mood."

"I'm not doing this for fun," the angel growled. "I will not watch you drink yourself into the grave like this."

"The door's that way," Dean said, gesturing vaguely.

"Is that all you have to say to me?" the angel demanded.

Dean slammed the bottle down on the table and grabbed Cas by the lapels. He shoved him backwards and snarled in his face. "What else do you want me to say?"

"I don't know," Cas said desperately. "But I'm your friend, and I care about what happens to you."

"Look, the booze might not make me happy," Dean grated. "But just for a while, I'm not as fucking angry and I hate myself just a bit less." A look of consternation flickered across his face and when Cas opened his mouth to speak again he pushed the angel away and walked back to his bottle.

"The anger I understand," Cas said relentlessly. "But why do you hate yourself so much? Ever since we met, I've wondered why."

"Because so much of what's gone wrong in the world is on me," Dean said. "The world has been almost destroyed what, four, five times now? And my name's on every single one."

"That's not true," Cas objected.

"Yeah? Bullshit, Cas. Look, man, I appreciate what you're trying to do. But… you can't fix this. Just leave me alone." Dean took another large mouthful of bourbon and hoped Cas would get the message.

"No," Cas said. He grabbed the bottle out of Dean's hand and held it out of reach. "I mean it, Dean. I'm done with passively letting you destroy yourself."

"Gimme the bottle back, Cas," Dean yelled. "I'm not screwing around here, give it back or I will fucking end you."

"No, you won't," Cas said calmly. "You couldn't kill me when the Mark of Cain was riding you hard and you had an angel blade in your hand. You won't do so now."

"Damn you," Dean said, dashing angry tears from his eyes with an impatient gesture. "Damn you to Hell." He pushed the chair out of the way and stormed out of the room.

"Too late," Cas said softly.


Dean headed straight for the kitchen, where he knew there was at least beer and maybe another bottle of liquor if he was lucky. He rounded the corner to see Gabriel feeding some kind of candy bar to Sam, his brother's face lit with a rare joy. At any other time he might not have reacted the way he did, but his temper was still burning from his argument with Cas and this was just more than his stressed nerves could bear.

"What the fucking Hell is going on in here?" he demanded. Sam jerked back guiltily, his face a riot of emotions. Gabriel was staring at him in horror.

"Dean," Sam said weakly. "I uh…"

"Sam, a word," Dean commanded. He turned on his heel and walked away.

Sam gave Gabriel an apologetic look. "I'm sorry," he offered. "He's just pissed with Cas and he takes it out on everyone else."

"It's fine," Gabriel said, but his voice sounded dismayed. Sam didn't have time to wonder about that now.

"I'll be right back," he promised. He left the kitchen and after a moment's consideration, walked towards the garage. As he'd guessed, Dean was in there, leaning moodily on the hood of the Impala.

"Jesus, Dean," Sam said impatiently.

"Are you sleeping with him?" Dean demanded. Sam stared at him in astonishment and then burst out laughing.

"You're not serious."

"I'm damn serious," his brother insisted. "You think I can't see the way he looks at you?"

"Is it anything like how you look at Cas?" Sam snapped, driven beyond endurance.

"What did you just say to me?" Dean breathed.

"You heard," Sam said defiantly, tilting his chin up. He'd stepped in it but there's no way he could back down now.

Dean didn't bother to grace that with a reply, his fist shot out and caught Sam in the right cheek. Sam staggered back and stared at his brother in shock.

"What the fuck was that for?" he said challengingly. "Because I called you out on your bullshit?"

"What have I told you about your weakness for monsters, Sam?" Dean snarled.

"First of all, Gabriel's not a monster," Sam yelled back. "And secondly, where the Hell did you get this mad idea we were having sex? Dean, that's some epic fucking projection you've got going on there."

"Fuck you," Dean barked. He yanked open the door of the car, and cranked the engine hard.

"Dean," Sam said, but his brother ignored him, shoving the Impala roughly into drive and roaring out of the garage at top speed. Sam winced and then sighed, pushing his hair out of his face.

"That was quite the impressive meltdown," Gabriel said, leaning nonchalantly against the wall.

"I'm sorry you had to hear that," Sam said.

Gabriel's face was curiously, almost angelically blank. "Why?"

"Dean's pretty unpleasant when he's in that mood. Don't take anything he said too seriously." Sam advised. "But I am sorry about the monster thing, that was out of order."

Gabriel shrugged, apparently unconcerned. "I've been called worse."

Sam took a few deep breaths. "I'd better go check on Cas," he said. He felt very tired suddenly, like all his energy had been sucked away.

"I'll come with you," Gabriel offered.

"Thanks," Sam said, giving him a wobbly smile. "I'm warning you, he's likely to be in bad shape. This is the worst it's been in a long time."

"I can handle it," Gabriel assured him.


They found Cas in the library, curled up tightly into a ball in a corner. He was clutching a bottle of bourbon in his hands, which struck Sam as quite odd, since the angel didn't drink.

"Cas?" he said tentatively. "Are you OK?"

The seraph's head came up and Sam took in his red eyes, wet cheeks and pale face with a sharp intake of breath. "I'm sorry, Cas."

"Why are you sorry," Cas said bitterly. "It's not your fault." He blinked once, twice. "You're hurt."

"Dean punched me in the face," Sam said acidly.

Cas gaped at him. "I don't understand."

"It's not important," Sam dismissed. "I let him provoke me, and I said something I shouldn't have said. He got mad and lashed out."

Cas's eyes flicked up to Gabriel and he let out a rapid stream of Enochian that to Sam's ears sounded vaguely accusatory. Certainly the archangel was retorting indignantly.

"Hey," Sam said. "Don't you two start."

"I apologize," Cas said. He rested his head on his knees for a moment. "Where is Dean now?"

"I don't know," Sam admitted. "He got in the car and drove off in a snit. He'll be back when he calms down."

"Come on, bro," Gabriel said, patting Cas on the shoulder. "You can't stay here and mope."

"Why not?" Cas said.

"Because you're not a doormat, OK? When that raging asshole comes back-"

"Gabriel," Sam warned.

"All right, when Dean comes back, you can't let him see you like this. Don't give him so much power to hurt you, Castiel." He offered Cas his hand and the angel took it and allowed Gabriel to haul him to his feet.

"That's easy for you to say," the seraph said.

"Is it?" Gabriel shot back, and then blinked. "Well, it doesn't matter if it is or not, I did say it. Now, why don't we go and get something to eat? I'm starving."

Appreciating this for the well-intentioned lie it was, Cas nodded.


Sam shoved the remains of the pizza into the fridge and looked at his watch. "So, Gabriel," he said, trying to seem casual. "With your Grace the way it is, do you actually need to eat and sleep and the like?"

"No," Gabriel admitted. "I just like eating. And sleeping, when I can, although I've not done so in a long time."

"Why not, if you enjoy it?" Sam asked curiously.

"I like sleeping in beds, not on park benches," the archangel said. "I don't have a roof over my head, remember."

"Well, yeah, that's kinda why I was asking," Sam said. "Look, it's gonna make Dean pissed, but right now I don't care. Do you want to stay here? I can make up a room for you."

"Just for tonight?" Gabriel asked. His hand was shaking and it caught Sam's attention. Was Gabriel upset about something?

"As long as you want," Sam assured him.

"Until Dean throws me out you mean," Gabriel snorted.

"He won't," Sam said confidently.

"I shouldn't," Gabriel said, shaking his head slowly. "Your brother's already in a bad mood. Why risk me making it worse?"

"Because he doesn't get to dictate to me what I do or don't do," Sam snapped.

Gabriel cocked an eyebrow at him. "Are you really that angry that he accused you of screwing me?"

"No," Sam said. "Why would I be? The idea is absurd."

"Is it?" Gabriel said, his eyes bright.

Sam laughed easily. "Of course. Why, were you thinking of trying to convince him otherwise?" He shook his head and laughed harder. "I don't think we could pull a trick like that off. I'm not that good an actor."

Gabriel seemed a little bewildered. "I wasn't…"

"I know," Sam said, sobering. "I'm sorry, I got carried away. I told you, Dean and I used to have these prank wars, and they would escalate like you would not believe."

"Used to?" Gabriel asked. He seemed strangely brittle in that moment, like he'd been when they'd run into him in Oberlin.

"You kinda cured us both of that childishness," Sam admitted. "After Mystery Spot, neither of us really felt like pranking each other anymore."

Gabriel looked away. "I said I was sorry."

"Hey," Sam said. "I didn't say I was still mad. I don't hold a grudge, I swear." His phone buzzed and he saw it was Dean. "Uh oh." He swiped the screen to answer. "Dean?"

"Sammy," Dean said breathlessly. "I… you need to come get me, Sam."

"Where are you," Sam said, sitting up straight. "What happened?"

"A tree happened," Dean gasped. "I'm hurt. Bad."

"OK, OK, where are you?"

"Uh, about five, six miles south of the bunker. I was heading to the lake." He groaned and the phone went dead.

"Shit," Sam swore. "Gabriel, Dean's hurt. Where did Cas go?"

"He left ages ago. Said something about wheels, I didn't understand it," Gabriel told him.

"OK, he's probably in his room," Sam said. "I'll go get him. Wait here."