AN: Howdy! So, people seem to be happy I am back to writing - which I'm happy about, because I am also happy to be back to writing! So, without any further blabbering from me: here is Chapter Eight! Don't forget to review at the end to tell me what you think. Enjoy! ~ Ella


Chapter Eight

Saturday February 25

Evening


She felt the warm body slam into hers, shielding her and forcing her shocked limbs to run. Castiel's fingers bruised her hips as he forced her forward. She barely noticed everyone else running around them, Sam pulling Lianne's arm to make her move faster, Katie ahead of the group and Dean matching his pace with Sam.

Another shot rang through the air. Sarah didn't even realize she'd screamed until she heard the sound in the air, Castiel pressed closer to her and Sarah kept her tired legs pumping. They had reached the historical cemetery on Barrington Street and Katie sprang across the road. Following her, Sarah was barely aware of the screech of tires and the headlights which flashed in front of her eyes. Far away she could hear sirens and she prayed they were coming to help them. Sarah knew she was in shock; she couldn't feel her body and everything around them seemed too intense and her brain was sluggish. Steps, she was running up steps, but she didn't even try to look up to see where Katie and Dean were leading them. She barely noticed Castiel's grip on her hip slipping and quickly grabbed his clammy hand and kept him close to her. Two more shots rang out through the air.

They were in a building, the Maritime Centre. There wasn't much to it, just a cafeteria on the lower level, a sports store beside them, a photography studio, pharmacy and offices up above. They had stopped running though and Sarah watched as Dean wrestled two golf clubs away from a distraught employee, using it to barricade the front doors of the complex.

Another bullet cracked the glass, but it held together. Bullet proof, Sarah realized, suddenly remembering the article that had been in the Halifax Chronicle Herald. Katie was brilliant.

"Call 911!" Sam yelled at the white, wide-eyed employee.

And they were off running. Down the hall. Down the escalator. Finally stopping in the food court.

"Okay, we need to get out of here," Dean said as they crowded around one the empty tables. Most of the fast-food serving booths had already been closed, their iron gates and shadowed serving areas in direct contrast to the Harvey's and McDonald's whose two staff members were too busy wiping down the counters and gossiping to pay much attention to the red faced, sweaty group of people who had sprinted into the food court. "Katie, is there any more entrances into here?"

"No, just the one we came from," Katie panted. "Um, the bank of elevators is down that hallway, other than that, no."

Sarah felt something sticky against her back. Hot and sticky, she moved away from Cas just enough to put a hand behind her, the angel would probably be grossed out by her sweaty back. She peeled the fabric of her dress away from her skin, trying to cool off. Bringing her hand back in front of her Sarah felt her heart stop at the sight of blood coating her fingers.

"Oh my god," she heard Lianne whisper, which seemed to garner Katie, Sam and Dean's attention.

"Sarah, you're ..." Katie said, her voice more high pitched than normal.

"It's not my blood," Sarah murmured, her gaze looking up at Castiel's profile. He looked odd in only his black suit, tie and white undershirt. More than that though, Castiel was deathly pale and seemed to grip the plastic chair in front of him tightly. Sarah ignored Castiel's hiss of pain, as she peeled back his jacket. A red pool of blood was seeping through his white undershirt.

"Cas?" Dean said, gripping the angel's shoulder his worried eyes taking in the sight of the wound. "Sam, get a first aid kit."

"It is not of import," Castiel tried to command, but his voice was a bit unsteady as pain washed through his body.

"Yes it is," Sarah argued, helping Dean undo the white undershirt, trying to get a better look at the wound, both of them swatting away Castiel's hands as he tried to stop them.

"No," Cas muttered.

"Yes, it is of import because you are of import," Sarah said, now that the shirt was open and Dean was able to inspect it, Sarah grasped Castiel's head and forced him to look at her. Trying to ignore the build up of tears, Sarah spoke firmly, "You mean everything to me, so this priority numero uno, got it?"

"It's not that bad," Dean said, grabbing the first aid kit from Sam, who had run over to the two teenager's that were closing up shop. "Cas man, how the hell did this even happen?"

"Virgil," Cas muttered, grimacing in pain as Dean roughly cleaned the wound, wiping away the excess blood trying to get a unobstructed view of the wound.

"No, your mojo," Dean grunted. "I mean, first an angel assassin is using a gun and now you're shot?"

"This dimension blocks my powers and that of Virgil's. We're just ... humans," Castiel muttered.

"Lianne, call Elaina," Katie was saying. "We need to get her out of the apartment in case that man circles back."

"Right," Lianne said, pulling her cell phone out of her pocket. "Elaina hi ... yeah Cas and I just went for coffee. Hey, listen why don't you meet us? ... paper shhmaper, you only have how many ... ten pages? That's nothing ... please ... well ... it's just Castiel ... he slept with Sarah!"

"What?" Sarah and Katie hissed. Everyone was now staring at Lianne, except for Dean who, after making sure the bullet had gone right threw, was now stitching up the wound.

"Yeah, but then he didn't call her and now he just shows up ... I need you here to help pass judgement ... come on, think of Sarah ... what's more important a stupid paper or your friend? ... that's what I thought ... yeah, we're at Perks down at the wharf ... aw, you love me ... see you in twenty?"

Lianne hung up the phone, and glanced over at everyone's bewildered expression. "What?"

"What the hell was that?" Sarah asked, her voice higher pitched then Sarah had intended.

"We needed Elaina out of the apartment and this got her out," Lianne said matter-of-factly. "Now, Dean, are you done? Because we need to get moving."

"Yeah, it's not great but it should hold," Dean said. He moved away from the angel and let Castiel re-button his shirt. "He'll survive."

"We need to do that spell now," Sam said. "But the stuff is all back at the apartment."

"No," Cas said, shaking his head.

"What do you mean no?" Dean asked his voice harsh.

"The spell, it won't work. Only magic from the other side works," Castiel explained.

"What?" Dean started to pace. "Are you saying we're ... stuck here?"

"No, tomorrow morning, Balthazar is poised to bring us back," Castiel said. "However we must return to the same place to which you crossed for it to work."

"Balthazar? You mean the bastard who sent us here?"Dean barked. "You really think that he'ld be willing to help us?"

"No, he would be willing to help me," Castiel said, his stare strangely defensive. "He has helped me greatly."

"Helped you? Hold it right there ... did you plan to send us here?" Dean demanded.

"It was Balthazar's idea," Castiel replied, refusing to look at Dean. "We needed to distract Raphael to secure the weapons."

"So you just used us for bait?" Dean asked, his eyes flashing dangerously.

"We figured you would have stayed put, and once everything was secure we would retrieve you," Castiel explained defiantly. "Once I learned you had run ... I risked everything to rescue you."

"It's okay Castiel," Sarah said soothingly, running a hand through his hair. "Just ... sit for a minute. Okay? Sam, you should call, book six ticket's to Vancouver and three should be round trips."

"Right," Sam said, glancing uneasily between Dean and Castiel before turning to leave.

"I'll give the first aid kit back to the kids," Dean said shortly. "Katie, we need to think of a way out of here."

Sarah tuned them out and turned back to Castiel to make sure he was comfortable. As she smoothed his jacket, his hand stilled hers. Swallowing slowly, Sarah had to will herself to look up at Cas's deep blue gaze, as intense as ever regardless of his humanity at the moment.

"I forgot how kind you were," Castiel murmured.

"Yeah, well, I'm a sucker for angels," Sarah teased. "How're you feeling?"

"It hurts but it is bearable," Castiel responded seriously. "I am fine."

"I forgot that you did that," Sarah laughed softly.

"Did what?"

"Make everything sound like the most serious diagnosis in the world," Sarah explained. "You could order a sandwich and make it sound like diffusing a bomb."

"I'm ... sorry?"

"No, it's nice. It's you. I missed that," Sarah admitted, smiling softly at Castiel. "I missed you."

"I ... missed you too," Castiel said softly, his gaze dropping down to where his hand laid over her own.

"Right," Sarah said shortly, removing her hand and sitting back a bit.

"Sarah?" Castiel sounded so confused that Sarah felt a bit sorry for him.

"It's nothing Cas, it's just a stupid girl thing," Sarah said, wishing that Castiel would just understand. Of course not, no, Cas just tilted his head and looked adorable. "I've been watching every episode since I've been back. It's the closest I can get to you and ... when I came home. The first episode I saw ... it was called Caged Heat. You were in it. When you burnt Crowley's bones ..."

"What did you see?" Castiel asked his gaze intense and he sat further towards her.

"I saw you make out with Meg," Sarah admitted, grimacing.

"Is that all?" Castiel asked, and if Sarah didn't know better, she would have said he even sounded relieved.

"Is that all? Cas, I loved you. If I had had a choice ... I would have given everything for you. And I get that it was a year later and you moved on, hell, you might not have even felt anything towards me at all, but it still hurts. So, I'm sorry that I am having a girly moment right now. You can go fuck yourself."

Without a backwards look, Sarah twirled and stalked over to Katie and Lianne. She was being irrational and she hated that she knew that, but right now she just needed to get away from the angel.

"How's it going?" Katie asked, before turning to see Sarah. "Oh, that good, huh?"

"Yeah, no, today is just awesome. I mean, who doesn't wish for two friends you never thought you would see again to show up and crash your sister's wedding bringing with them an assassin and your ex-whatever and forcing you to skip out on your sister's wedding and run down the street's with gunfire chasing you only to find out your ex-whatever pretty much doesn't give a shit," Sarah bit out sarcastically. "How much better can it get?"

"Man, I wish my wedding day would be this exciting," Lianne said wistfully.


AN: And there we have it. I'm not sure if I am wrapping up in the next chapter or if there will be two. Sorry, I usually have it a bit more planned out, but I've decided to get back to posting once a day ... and that sometime's affects how much I am able to post. It'll be sad to leave this universe, but I am super excited about a few new ideas of mine! Both are a bit off the wall. One is a straight-out comedy and the other is more well-rounded leaning towards Drama. Maybe I should let people vote? Hmmm ... well, I'll set up a poll on my profile page and anyone who really cares can vote. If you really don't ... well ... I hope you've been enjoying this anyways. Yes, I am rambling and I will stop now. Be talking to you tomorrow - and I'll add a reviewer reponse at the bottom of the next chapter - so please, please, please review! I am not above begging. Much love ~ Ella