Thanks gabyhyatt for the review on the last chapter. I know you wanted to see Castiel, and here he is...

Chapter 11

A flap of wings sounded in the room as a tallish man with a mustard-colored trench coat appeared just behind Leo Wyatt, "Hello, Leo."

His voice was deep. Much deeper than anyone in the room expected. He had a stern look on his face, but that didn't bother Leo. Leo smiled at the angel and thanked him for coming.

"Anything to help," Castiel explained and looked around the group, "This is your family." It wasn't a question.

"Yes, these are Phoebe and Paige."

"It is a pleasure to meet the Charmed Ones," Castiel now smiled, nodding his head at the two older witches, "Leo told me a lot about you when he was an Elder." His focus then moved to Wyatt and Chris, "You must be Wyatt and Chris Halliwell. He gave up his wings for the two of you."

"Hi." Chris waved nervously. Nobody really knew what to do when one of the Elders' bosses was in the room. Should they offer him coffee? Did angels drink coffee?

"This is my daughter, Melinda," Leo introduced his daughter, who offered a small wave, "And her boyfriend..."

"Dean Winchester. I am glad to see that you were spared from perdition," Castiel looked at the older Winchester with a smile, "It would have been a terrible thing. I was ready to raise you with my own hands if something did happen."

"Erm, thanks," Dean said cautiously, "I think."

Leo introduced his nieces and nephew as one, along with Riley and then Sam.

"The abomination," Castiel commented, making Sam frown. Everyone else in the room was taken aback by the comment, looking between Castiel and Sam, "I am sorry. I should not have...I meant to say that what Azazel did means that you are not pure."

Before anything else could be said, Castiel got onto the task at hand. He wanted to know why he had been called down. If it had been anyone else, he would have remained in Heaven, but Leo barely called for anything. In fact, he had not spoken to Leo since he gave up his Elder wings for his family 25 or so years ago. He did want to meet the family that Leo had given up eternity for.

"Leo, you look tired," Castiel started, "You should sit down and tell me why you called for me."

"It's Lilith," Wyatt spoke before his dad had a chance, "She has my daughter..."

"And my daughters..." Hen interrupted but then let Wyatt continue.

"And Hen's daughters. We need to know how to vanquish her right now. We know where she is."

"Lilith?" Castiel questioned with a frown, "The First Demon. She is dangerous. You cannot go up against her."

"She's going to open Lucifer's cage if we don't," Dean informed the angel, wondering why he didn't know this, "All she needs is 22 angels, if she doesn't already have them."

"22 angels...of course! That is the reason for the lockdown," Castiel said and then turned to Leo, "I should not have come. We are on lockdown. 12 angels have gone missing over the last two days. They were ambushed."

"She needs them for her ritual to break the first seal." Dean continued his explanation.

"No, you were the first seal," Castiel looked back at Dean, "And you did not go to Hell, so Lucifer cannot be released."

"He can and he will if we don't stop him. The Elders already confirmed it," Dean warned the angel. He wasn't in the mood for fun and games, here, "Your little friends up there are in trouble. She already has 22 witches and she'll have 22 demons."

"The sacrifice of the 66."

"That's something like what the demon mentioned," Bianca now spoke up, "My daughter is not going to be one of those sacrifices. So, you either tell us how to vanquish this Queen Bitch, or we go in without the knowledge. Do you really want the Halliwells and Winchesters dead? Because we'll all fight to the end."

"She's right." Sam agreed with the Phoenix, waiting for Castiel's next move.

Without warning, Castiel nodded his head and then just disappeared. The flutter of the wings was all that remained to remind them that an angel had been standing before them.

Everyone look at Leo, helplessly. He shook his head at them, "He'll be conversing with the other angels. For now, I'll tell you what I know."

Unfortunately, Leo didn't know that much. He had a rough idea on how to vanquish Lilith, but there was no guarantee that it would work.

"It will take some serious power," Leo looked at his family and the Winchesters. He directed his next sentence to the Winchesters, "Holy water won't do anything to her."

"But she's a demon."

"She's the first demon, boy," Bobby warned Dean, "This is something we ain't been up against before."

"Well, what about the Colt?"

"That could work," Leo nodded, "But there's no guarantee. Same with that knife you carry around with you, Dean. But maybe with a Power of Three spell."

"We don't have the Power of Three anymore, Dad," Melinda pointed out the obvious, "With Mom gone..."

"We could have the Power of Three," Poppy pointed out and then looked at her own mom, "Tell the Elders that me and my sisters..."

"No!" Phoebe shook her head, but knew that it was a losing battle. It was time for her three girls to take over the power of the Charmed Ones.

"Mom, we need to do this," Pru sighed, "I don't want my little sisters involved either, but you know that this has to happen. If something happens to Wyatt's and Hen's girls and we could have done something, I'd never live with myself."

"Me neither." Poppy shook her head.

"Or me." Patience now admitted. As much as she'd never really embraced her wiccan side—favoring her cupid half—she did know that this was a necessity.

"Please, Aunt Phoebe." Wyatt and Hen both looked at their aunt with sorrow and pleading in their eyes.

"I think it's the only option, Phoebs," Paige sighed, "We need the Charmed Ones back and Mel's right. I don't think another half sister is going to pop up anywhere."

Phoebe smiled softly at the comment, remembering when Prue died and they thought the Charmed destiny was over then. It just meant that they were able to find their half-sister Paige.

"Okay," Phoebe nodded, "I'll discuss things with the Elders."

"It'll be the Angel of Destiny you need to talk to." Leo pointed out, and Phoebe nodded before leaving the living room and making her way up to the attic.

"C'mon girls."

Pru, Patience and Poppy—the next Charmed Ones—rushed up the stairs following their mom. The rest turned their attention back to Leo.

"So, a Power of Three spell, the Colt and the knife?" Sam asked, "That doesn't seem like enough. I think we'll need potions."

"C'mon, Mel," Chris pulled his sister into the kitchen, "That's our job."

Melinda and Chris left the room, making their way to the one thing they could do right now. They didn't know what potions they would need, but a good mixture of offensive and defensive ones would be handy.

"Wyatt will get over it once he gets Xandra back." Chris sighed as the two got to work making their potions.

"I know," Mel agreed with her own sigh, "I just...we did the right thing."

"Yes, we did," Chris agreed and watched her with a smile, "I'm proud of you, by the way."

"For what?"

Chris just laughed at her with a shake of the head. He couldn't help but be amazed at how much his little sister had grown and changed over the last six months. He was so scared that she'd end up in a ditch somewhere or killed somewhere in the Underworld. It wasn't something he mentioned much, but Dana knew the fear that he felt every single day after his mother's death. Mel was closing off from her family.

Dean Winchester came back into their lives just at the right time. It was like his Hell deal was all for a reason, and that reason was to save Mel. They both helped each other. And now Mel had turned it all around. She was the business woman Chris knew that she could be, and the witch that the whole family had seen in the past.

Melinda's cheeks went red as her brother told her why he was proud of her. They didn't have the closest relationship, even growing up they were never exactly close. Wyatt and Chris stuck together and she and Pru were just like sisters. The age gap between them all dictated that. By the time Mel reached high school, Wyatt and Chris were both in college. It was difficult to be close to them.

To top it off, Chris was the one that closed himself off most of the time. She'd learn to hide her emotions from him. He was the master at it. But that did mean that he didn't often tell her what he thought about her. The past year and a half had been the hardest, really. He'd shouted at her and tried his best to get her back on track, but she wasn't willing to listen.

"This is getting ridiculous, Mel!" Chris cried at her as he knelt in front of her on the floor in the living room. It was just after her car crash, and her brothers had covered for her about her whereabouts. Chris wanted her to learn the hard way from her mistake, but Wyatt wouldn't have it. He wouldn't see his sister go to jail, not when she was clearly struggling after the death of her mom and boyfriend.

Chris had given in to Wyatt's request to cover for her. Not that Melinda cared. She sat on the couch and just looked into the fire that burned. Chris hoped that the crash and writing off her car would be enough to get her to stop drinking.

By this point she'd given up caring about anything. She was numb inside. It had been six months since her mother's death and eight months since Ben's. Nothing was bringing them back, and she was done caring about the people around her. Why care when they were just going to die anyway? When she was just going to die, anyway.

Melinda stood with a groan. While they covered for her, they were refusing to heal the wounds that she'd caused herself. That was her lesson.

Limping, she made her way to the kitchen and opened the fridge. A lonely beer was there. Her dad would have them in as a way to relax after a long day at the garage. The garage he and Piper had created to give him something to do with his life after giving up his wings for her. It was the garage Mel would often help out at; the place that she wanted to take over when she was older. Instead, she'd been stuck with the crappy club.

Although, the club was good for something. Putting the beer back in the fridge, Mel decided that she was going somewhere else, but Chris was stopping her. He stood in front of her to block her way through the kitchen door.

"You need to stop this, Mel," he pleased with her. Mel looked at the tears forming in his brown eyes and shook her head. No, she wouldn't give into his emotional blackmail, "I can't lose you, too. You nearly did tonight."

"No I didn't," Mel shook her head, "I walked out of that crash. I didn't need your help."

"Your car is on the scrapheap."

"I'll fix her up," Melinda shrugged her shoulders, "Now let me go."

"Where are you gonna go?" Chris asked her, "Back to another bar? You don't need anything else to drink, trust me. I can still smell the whiskey and whatever else you've had on your breath. You need to stop drinking, Melinda."

Melinda just shook her head. She'd had enough of hearing his lecture. Turning on her heels, she walked to the back door, but not before picking up a set of keys that hung on the hooks by the door. She knew exactly whose car she was taking, and didn't really care.

"Mel, don't just walk away from me."

"Don't bother orbing to me. I don't want to talk to you."

"I'm sorry for the bitch that I was back then," Mel sighed as they continued to make their potions. She hadn't realized how much she was hurting everyone at the time. They were all grieving, but she was causing them to put their grief on hold. It was selfish and horrible, "I just...there is no excuse."

"I know," Chris nodded, "I know why you drank and acted out. You'd lost your boyfriend and then mom was killed. I couldn't imagine losing Dana and mom around the same time."

Mel just nodded her head with a soft smile. She didn't need to say anything else, not with Chris.

"Wyatt and Bianca will get over you trying to kill Xandra, too," Chris broke the comfortable silence that had fallen between the two of them while they worked, "They're just worried parents, that's all."

"I know," Mel nodded, "And they have every right to be."

"Wyatt would have done it if it was the other way round. He knows that," Chris laughed, "He told me that."

"Well, at least he trusts Dean, so I still get to see my niece," Mel pointed out, "Well, I will when we get her back."

"And that we will do!" Chris grinned, throwing another ingredient into his pot for his potion. Melinda smirked and follow suit.

"You know something, we need music!" Melinda grinned and then put the radio on. It was some random dance track on the last station that had been on, but the two started dancing around having fun. They decided it was time to put the whole world falling apart around them to the back of their minds while they worked on their potions.

Dean walking in about 20 minutes later to see the two siblings still dancing around the kitchen while they worked on their potions. Both of them had two or three potions that they were working on, but neither were accidently messed up. The older Winchester couldn't help but be impressed at the way the two worked together. He'd never really seen it before.

Melinda turned on the spot and then spotted Dean at the kitchen door with a grin on his face. She suddenly stopped dancing and laughed at herself. Chris stopped dancing and looked in the direction that Mel was looking. He just smiled and gave Dean a small wave before getting back to the potions.

"I didn't peg you for the dance music fan," Dean laughed at his girlfriend, "What happened to the Mel I fell for?"

"She's still here," Mel grinned, "She just needed a bit of a break from all the crap."

"So you put on this crap?"

"It was already on the radio." Mel shrugged her shoulders.

"I happen to like this crap." Chris pointed out, and Dean couldn't help but get a dig in there about there being no accounting for taste.

"How are the potions coming?" Dean asked, now standing behind Mel while she got back to work. He was so close behind her that she could feel his breath on her neck. It was calming and relaxing. Knowing he was so close made her feel safe. She loved that feeling. She loved him.

Her eyes jumped open as she realized that. It wasn't something that she could tell him. He'd run a mile if she told him that.

She quickly got back onto making the potion, ignoring the fact that he was behind her. She needed to focus on her work and focus on saving her niece and second-cousins.

"So, did Dad say anything more about Lilith?"

"Yeah," Dean nodded his head, not even realizing that Mel was having a debate with herself in her head, "We may have a plan to get rid of her. Riley and Sam have shimmered over to recce the place."

"You've just let them go to Indiana?" Mel now turned around to looked at Dean with fear in her eyes, "What if..."

"Don't worry," Dean smiled, "They're shimmering just on the outskirts of the town and will then check to see what the place is like. Sammy isn't stupid. And neither is Riley."

Mel frowned but nodded. Pru wouldn't like to know what her boyfriend was up to. She hated it when he went to the demon bar. Going directly to the place that Lilith was hiding out was a suicide mission to her. Thinking about Pru, she then remembered that they were becoming the Charmed Ones.

"What about Pru, Pay and Poppy?"

"Haven't seen them since they went up to the attic. Paige and your dad went up to check on them. Wyatt, Hen and the twins are working on a plan with Bianca and Bobby."

Suddenly, white and blue lights filled the kitchen. There had been one person missing all night, and that person was arriving now. Dana appeared in the middle of her orbs and looked directly at Chris. Tears were streaming down her face.

"Castiel just came to see me," Dana cried, "I'd never met the angels before, but he said I had a message to give you. I had to give it but then...then..."

"What, Dana?" Chris frowned, his brown eyes full of concern, "What is it?"

"He was taken. He said the seal. It's going to be broken and Lilith nearly had all her angels. She had 21 and then..."

"He was number 22?" Dean now asked.

When Dana nodded her head, Mel and Dean rushed out of the kitchen and into the living room. They had to warn everyone.

A large ring of holy fire formed a circle in the corner of the basement. Lilith couldn't help but look at it. It always looked so beautiful. Most demons couldn't cross the flames, but a small number of them could. She was one of them. It would come in use right now.

One of her demonic minions shimmered in with the final angel. He didn't look like much with his trench coat and loose tie. But it didn't matter. She just needed one last angel, and this one would be perfect. Stepping on the holy fire, she created a small gap. The demon threw the angel into the ring with the other 21 and then stepped away. The circle appeared again.

"This is perfect." She grinned. Now all she needed to do was wait for the full moon.

Uh oh, poor Castiel...he no sooner comes into it and he's in trouble! Please R&R, I'd love to hear what you think.