Okay, this is the second update, so if you haven't read the previous chapter, please click back one to make sure you're up to speed.

Rating: T Language, Crude Humor


Chapter 8

Out-of-the-Way Diner
Somewhere in Kansas

Nathaniel paused in his eating and put on a vacant expression.

Mandy slightly squinted, curious as his sudden spacing out, and asked for her own concern, "What?"

The angel blinked and met the demon's eyes. "I'm getting a message from Castiel. He wants to meet and help us."

"It could be a trap," she quickly and purposefully stated the obvious.

"Perhaps, but I'm not going to turn down a talk from him. He can meet us here. We're not walking into anything." He remained silent then looked to the waitress and stated with a pleasant tone, "We're meeting some friends, but it might take them a little while."

The waitress smiled, but gently reminded him, "I just hope they get here before closing."

"If not, we won't keep you waiting," he reassured her with a charming smile.

Mandy leaned slightly forward over the table and whispered, "He's bringing friends?"

"Yes."

"That doesn't concern you?"

"No, I'll just call some friends of my own if necessary."

"You'll call some friends? Will those friends remember not to kill me?"

Nathaniel studied her justifiable concern expression and answered, "Yes. Angels are good at taking orders and they'll listen to my orders."

Mandy slightly nodded, still concerned, but since he thought he still needed her, she felt she would be alright for the time being. She took a sip from her drink and decided on focusing on finishing her meal.


About half an hour later, the diner door opened and Castiel was the first one inside, followed by Dean then Sam. Dean noticed the pair of police officers enjoying their late meal a few seats down, half grinning in disgust that they had to have that kind of luck if things turned sour.

Mandy looked over her shoulder when she heard the door opened and froze at the sight of seeing the Winchester brothers before getting out of her seat and taking a step back to stand beside Nathaniel still seated. She leaned slightly down then whispered, "You didn't say he was bringing the Winchesters."

He looked up at her in concern. "He didn't tell me, but it's okay."

She replied in a harsher whisper, "No it's not. They're the Winchesters."

Nathaniel smiled and motioned over for them to approach their booth. "Bro, over here."

Castiel and the brothers turned in the direction of the young man waving them over.

Nathaniel scooted over in his seat and stood up to meet them. "Hello Castiel. I see you brought company?"

The higher order angel smiled almost apologetically and answered, "Yes. I thought they could help with the situation."

The cupid expressed a reluctant look, but for the moment gave his brother the benefit-of-the-doubt.

Dean laughed while eyeing the shorter young man, "So you're Nathaniel?"

"And you're Dean Winchester?"

Dean smirked and sarcastically asked, "Yes I am. What, no hug?"

The cherub knotted his brow and questioned, genuinely surprised by the statement in Dean knowing how they traditionally shook hands. "Do you want me to hug you?"

Dean cut off the possibility when he realized that the cupid was considering it, "Absolutely not."

"Okay," Nathaniel slowly answered keeping his eyes on the hunter for several seconds before looking up at Sam and uttered with a mildly awed tone, "Wow, what did they feed you?"

Sam snorted out and half smirked, not expecting the joke from an angel.

"I guess you avoided all those GMOs…" He glanced to Dean to see the height difference then added, "…or you did take them."

The longer haired laughed while the younger brother pursed his lips and gave a glance away.

Nathaniel nodded his head towards Mandy and introduced her, "This is Mandy."

Mandy cautiously eyed each of them and answered, "Hello."

Dean put on his charming smile and answered with a hintly sarcastic manner, "Hi."

Sam was a little more polite, but still hesitant with all the memories of being fooled by Ruby, "Hello."

Nathaniel retook his seat, but scooted over enough for Mandy to take a seat. She hesitated to take a seat, but a gently grip around her wrist eased the anxiety enough to take the seat next to her.

The three new arrivals took the other side of the booth table though it was a little tight for the three with Dean seating at the end.

Dean charmingly smiled to the demon. She was a little young for him if she as a human, but he could acknowledge she was hot. "You look like you're about to jump out of your skin, though that wouldn't be a bad thing."

Mandy swallowed down at least a bit of her fear and answered, "You're Dean Winchester. We're told to stay clear of you and your brother. I don't want any trouble from either of you."

The older Winchester lazily replied, "Smart girl and if you're really smart, you won't complain when I say whatever deal you made with him, I don't care. You're not getting the hunters."

She didn't like being told that she was being cut out, but she liked to think she was smarter than the average demon and answered, "As long as I get to tell Crowley that you said that, fine."

The hunters and Seraph stared back at her in surprise that she would so readily agree with Dean.

Sam raised an eyebrow and questioned in a mildly sarcastic manner, "Just like that?"

Mandy shook her head. "I told you. We are not to mess with you. The king's orders."

Nathaniel challenged, "No, you don't get to nullify our deal."

Dean slightly squinted and questioned, "Excuse me?"

"No. I need her. She still needs to tell Crowley that Abigail had nothing to do with those other hunters violating his territory. She shouldn't be on a hit-list from the King of Hell because a hunter is making her do things."

Dean raised and reassured, "Look we'll get your sister back, deal with Crowley and not have to give them to him."

The cupid knotted his brow and slightly tilted his head to the side while answering, "I have no reason to trust such a thing from you. After what all my brothers and sisters have done to screw you over all these years, why would you want to do anything for us? You'd be kind of justified to tell us all to go to Hell." He glanced to Mandy and remarked, "Figuratively speaking."

The brothers where slightly stunned by the cupid's acknowledgement of how they were pretty much screwed over by angels over the years.

Castiel spoke up, "Then trust me. We will do everything we can to get her back and we'll deal with Crowley."

Nathaniel studied his brother then glanced to Mandy.

The demon looked back with a worried expression. She wasn't eager to team up with them for good reason, but she really didn't have any leverage left. She shrugged a shoulder to signal her willingness to go along with the plan.

The cherub passed a glance to the demon, checking to see if she was comfortable with the change in their agreement.

Mandy struggled with a smile and nodded her head in resigned acceptance.

Dean confidently smiled and dismissively voiced to Mandy, "So we don't need you?"

Nathaniel pointed out with a half smirk of his own, "But she needs us, so she's not going anywhere."

The hunter countered with what he thought was still a prudent precaution, "Or we could just kill her and save ourselves the trouble?"

Mandy flinched in believing he was about to do such a thing.

Nathaniel smiled, but it wasn't a pleasant, joyful one, but one that held a bit of menace. "You're not going to do that."

"Why not?"

"Because if you do that, I'll mark your heart and that of a dog and you can go screw each other until your dick falls off."

Dean's eyes nearly bulged out of his eyes then several moments later shouted in outrage, "Dude!"

The cops turned to look at them from the shout then turned back to their meal.

Dean gave them a friendly grin and a wave of his hand. "Just a joke that caught me off guard."

Apparently satisfied with the answer, the police turned back to their respective meals.

The hunter looked to the cherub with a furious expression, but Nathaniel answered in a deadpan manner, "What? You have your tricks, I have mine." He looked to Castiel and asked, not wanting to waste anymore time arguing with Dean, "So, you're going to talk to Hannah?"

"Yes, I'll talk to her and explain the situation. The last time we spoke, it was on very good terms."

"What else?"

"What?"

"What else are you planning? You wouldn't have brought them for a simple conversation with her and there is something heavy on their minds, especially the big one."

Dean glanced to his younger brother as Sam cleared his throat. "Sam?"

Sam bashfully grinned then answered, "Cass told us what was going on and we're just concerned about the hunter. Them killing the hellhound and rescuing the soul from Hell is connected and we're kind of experts on the matter."

Nathaniel curiously remarked, "Yeah, flipped the bird as you humans would say to Hell with the hound then saved a person out of there. I'm not sure how your expertise is of any further value in this situation… and you're not being completely honest with me, but we'll go with that for the time being."

Dean turned slightly in his seat and gave his brother a scrutinizing gaze.

Sam continued on, not eager to have the conversation Dean clearly wanted to have, "What they did were part of 'The Trials'."

Mandy slightly tilted her head to the side and asked, "Trials for what?"

Sam glanced at the demon, sharing Dean's doubts with her presence.

Mandy looked at them in disgust and asked, "Do I have to leave so the Super-Friends can have their secret meeting?"

Nathaniel gave a deferential nod to Mandy and answered, "It's okay. You're a part of this." He looked to Sam and finished, "Say what you're going to say or we can just go and deal with this on our own."

Dean finished with a disgusted breath, "The trials are to close the gates of Hell forever."

Mandy went wide eyed and muttered, "What?"

"Yeah you black-eyed demonic bitch. All the gates locked up and you and the rest of those sons-of-bitches are trapped forever."

A shiver went up her spine at imagining being trapped in such a place. As a demon, she had the power to create a pleasant enough place in damnation, but she enjoyed her freedom to walk the Earth.

Nathaniel instantly saw that Dean was telling the truth and looked just as horrified as he thought of a ramification as fast as a supercomputer working out all the ramifications that may have slipped their minds. He hastily pointed out, "We can't let that happen."

Sam continued, not giving Nathaniel a moment to voice his view, "You're right. The hunter going through the trials will kill him."

"As tragic as that would be, I was thinking of the more profound reason."

Dean sarcastically snapped lingering with anger, "Him being dead isn't profound?"

"Her actually, but not to the degree I am thinking about. The Gates of Heaven are closed to human souls and are trapped in the Veil. If the Gates of Hell were locked in the same way…"

He trailed off for the hunters to put the pieces together and their faces changed to look of astonishment as if that had never occurred to them if the gates were closed.

Dean whispered, "Damn."

The cherub remarked, "Yeah, the worst are left out just like the best. So how many trials are left?"

Sam answered, "If she can actually manage to get the soul to Heaven then there will be one more left."

Mandy curiously inquired with a hint of dread, "What's the last trial?"

The Winchesters and Castiel glanced to Mandy, causing the demon to dart her eyes back and forth between the hunters and asked, "What?"

Dean decided to field that question, "To cure a demon."

The demon knotted her brow. "Cure a demon? What's that supposed to mean?"

"A demon would have their humanity restored… they'd get their soul back."

Mandy looked at him as if he was crazy, but after several seconds of studying him realized that he was serious. She nervously swallowed, "You mean a demon would be back to who they were before they were damned?"

"Yeah."

The blue eyed demon glanced to the tabletop and whispered, "Is that possible? To be…" She licked her lips as she let her mind contemplate such a thing.

The hunters looked curiously and fairly shocked by her reaction and spared a glance to each other to make sure they were seeing such a thing. Crowley had been terrified of the prospect of become human again, but she looked pensive and contemplative, perhaps even hopeful that such a thing was possible.

Mandy took a breath and gathered her wits. She brushed some of her hair off her cheek and pointed out, "So we stop her from getting that soul back to Heaven and we can derail this thing?"

Sam cautiously eyed her, wondering what had just gone through her head, and pointed out, "Or we get her to give up the trials. If it really is an innocent person then he or she should get to go to Heaven then we would just stop her from performing the incantation. It's just an act without the spellwork to go with it."

Nathaniel nodded, seeing the hunter's point.

Sam passed glances among the group and suggested in a calm and collected manner, "Okay, Cass and I'll will go to the portal and let them know what is going on. Hopefully, we'll catch them when they arrive and I can explain what's going on and get her to stop. The soul gets to go up and we save her and then we can all walk away."

Nathaniel studied the three, trying to determine their sincerity. He could easily read the hunters, Sam entirely being sincere that he wanted to save the hunter that kidnapped Abigail while Dean wanted to stop the trials. He couldn't read his brother, so he couldn't entirely rule out the possibility of deceit and keeping the brothers out of his plan. He had done it before with the opening Purgatory.

"Okay, I'm going with you. I'm making sure that we get Abigail back, but I'm still not thrilled with that they're just going to get away with kidnapping her."

Castiel looked hesitant to that idea and voice his concern, "Hannah may not appreciate seeing you by your own point."

"I don't care how much she doesn't like me or the choices I've made, so she and the rest of them can kiss my feathery ass."

Sam looked stunned at the response while Dean whistled then questioned, "Whoa, what did she do to get on your bad side?"

The cupid looked to Dean and answered with a cold tone, "In her attempt to round up everyone to go back to Heaven, she tried to include us cupids. We made the obvious point that we're supposed to be stationed on Earth and to leave would be to interfere with Father's plan for us. I still have a mission and I will go back when I'm damn well good and ready."

Dean leaned forward and rested his elbows on the tabletop. He questioned in a hushed tone, recalling his first experience with a cupid, "Are you sure that's God's plan? Those orders came from Michael and after he was put in the cage, someone else was giving the orders. If you're not listening to anyone upstairs, how are you still doing your job? Do you really have a job?"

"It doesn't matter if no one's giving orders. We still have the same mandate: maintaining the bloodlines. We've had to keep track of them and take it over issuing orders."

"And which one of you is doing that? You? Are you in charge? Are you leading another faction? We all saw how that worked out last year."

Castiel darted his eyes between his friend and his brother, concerned that things could escalate between them.

Nathaniel narrowed his gaze on the older hunter brother, sensing that he was trying to lead him into a verbal trap. He cautiously answered, "The senior ones have come together to do the job. We're not a 'faction' that was fighting for control of Heaven. Some of us actually had to act like adults instead of spoiled little children tearing up the house when there wasn't anyone to supervise them."

"And the cupids did that? They're the mature ones?"

The cupid licked his lips as he smirked then answered in a patient yet slightly mocking tone, "Being a lower order of angel doesn't equate to being young or immature. I've been around since the dawn of time. I saw when hydrogen began to coalescing to ignite and give birth of the first stars." He motioned his head towards Castiel and remarked, "I'm actually older than him."

Dean blinked, surprised with the retort and passed a quick glance to Castiel.

The angel struggled with a smile and shrugged a shoulder.

Michael's vessel turned his attention back to Nathaniel and looked to him with a new sense of awe and wonder.

Mandy looked to Nathaniel with a little awe then interrupted, clearly concerned about her own safety, "Okay, now that you've established your pecking order, what about me?"

Castiel readily answered, "We can't take you with us. I can't let you know the location of the portal."

Dean happily suggested with a smartass expression on his face as he got comfortable in his seat, "I could stay with her. We can chill for a bit. We've already established that I don't think Hannah would like to see me either. You're going to have your hands full with cupid here."

Nathaniel was quick to point out, "Hannah's the trigger happy one. The whole point of calling him was to avoid such a thing. Seriously, is this the best material you have? You got to work on your 'smack'."

"My 'smack'?"

"I watch TV. I know how to use the internet, social media, so on and so on. My vessel is going to be a computer engineer and already holds a patent to the next generation of cameras. I particularly enjoy Netflix and Hulu. You humans are quite imaginative."

Dean moved his head back and looked a little flustered with the response. He wasn't expecting an angel so assimilated into human life.

Sam answered with a sideways glance, feeling a little awkward and surprised, "Mandy can stay with Dean and she'll be fine while we go talk with Hannah."

Nathaniel glanced to Mandy, checking one more time if she was okay with the plan.

The demon still looked hesitant at the plan, but bashfully relented, "Fine, as long as he doesn't try to kill me."

Dean wore a near devious smile and commented sarcastically, "I'll behavior, just so long as he behaves."

The cherub narrowed his gaze on Dean and tightened the muscles in his jaw for a moment before commented in a dismissive manner, "If that's some kind of cover to kill her anyway then say it was self-defense, you can forget it. We'll deal with this ourselves."

Nathaniel motioned for Mandy to scoot out of the booth, but Sam held up a hand and hurriedly spoke, "Dean's not going to do that. We're not just going to double cross you."

The cherub eyed the younger hunter for a few moments then questioned, "You'll just kill her when we're done with all of this?"

Sam looked uncomfortable, not wanting to admit that was a possibility that had been considered.

Nathaniel shook his head and spat out in disgust, "You will cut your nose off to spite your face won't you?" He shook his head and muttered in disbelief, "How in the world did you two beat Michael and Lucifer?"

Dean practically growled at the angel, "She's going to screw you over the first chance she gets."

"And you are too, so which one of you has the moral high ground again?"

The hunter was taken aback by the question and the angel pushed on before he could make any kind of retort, "Look, I was already going to give her everything she wanted before you butted in. Your plan actually incentives her to come up with some way to 'screw us over'. How was she going to do that before you came along? Killing me? She'll have angels hunting her down in vengeance and she doesn't strike me as being that stupid unlike you two."

Dean looked like he was about to verbally tear into the cupid, but Castiel cut him off in a gruff voice, "Enough.

We need to deal with this now before they complete another trial or someone else dies."

Nathaniel motioned for Mandy to slip out of the booth, so they could both get up. The handsome cupid bowed down and whispered, "Fine, but remember my warning Dean." He straightened his posture and looked to his fellow angel and stated, "I need to pay the waitress."

"I need to give her a tip too," Mandy hastily stated before falling in step behind him.

Sam tightly smiled and called out to them, "We'll meet you at Cass car."

Nathaniel nodded over his shoulder then turned back to the counter.

At the counter, Nathaniel pulled out his wallet to pull out a few bills to hand the waitress.

Mandy leaned over and whispered to her 'partner', "Are you sure about this?"

Nathaniel smiled to the waitress as he passed her the bills then uttered under his breath, "Nope, do you not want to stay with him?"

The demon hesitated. She didn't want to show fear, but she couldn't help with what she felt with the idea of staying with the infamous hunter. "I don't want to be cut out, but…"

"I gave him a warning."

"Will he listen to it though?"

Nathaniel accepted the change answered under his breath, "I guess it depends how much he'll care to hump a dog."

Mandy snorted a soft laugh, bowing her head slightly and letting her dark locks partly block the sides of her face.

The waitress smiled as she gave them change for their meal. "You two have a lovely evening."

The handsome vessel angel smiled his appreciation and answered, "We will. Thank you."

Mandy glanced over the glass case sitting on the countertop and asked with a motion of her finger, "Can I get some dessert to go?"

The waitress maintained her smile, believing the pair looked cute together, and answered, "Sure sweetie. What would you like?"

Dean called out behind them with raised a finger, "Can I get some pie to go?"

The angel and demon glanced over their respective shoulders to see the hunter's smartass smirk.


As soon as the younger Winchester brother and Castiel were out of the dinner, Sam turned and suggested in a hushed whisper, "This is may be our chance."

Castiel raised a reluctant eyebrow and questioned, "Sam?"

"You know who I'm talking about and do you think I like suggesting it? Dean isn't getting better and Charlie has dropped off the radar. He might be our last shot—our only shot at this point."

Castiel sighed and glanced to the ground. He was bailed out of not having to answer with Nathaniel exiting the dinner and asking, "We ready to go?"


Author's Note: Wow, talk about tension of the group. Let's hope no one randomly kills anyone because they get on one's nerves. Take care, OneHorseShay.