Author's Notes: Nothing much to say today except thank you for your continuing support! I know reading this can't be fun because writing it is killing me. This chapter especially. It hurt me a lot inside although I'm sure the rest of you are tougher than I am. Regardless, enjoy the chapter and please review!

"Greg, there's nothing here." Sam said for the hundredth time. They had been trekking through the same stretch of woods where Lestrade had thought he left Clara for hours. Rose hadn't said anything but she was personally beginning to fear that Lestrade's partner was not here because she had passed on. However, there was no sign of a body so far.

"I told you, call me Lestrade." He insisted, moving towards a tree that looked semi-familiar. He inspected its base and found, to his delight, that there was a small footprint. The size was so small that the only person who's foot would have fit was Clara's.

With a grin, he turned to tell the other two of what he had found. However, his vision went sharply dark. His entire head felt hot and his knees buckled. He felt his eyes roll up and his face hit dirt. Then Greg Lestrade lived no more.

"Cyberman!" Rose shouted, pushing the gigantic Sam Winchester behind her. Her gun grew hot as it poured one massive charge into the metal body. It shook as its organic parts were consumed by the massive heat wave. It fell, pointlessly empty, to the ground beside the electrocuted body of the Detective Inspector.

Sam rushed over to feel for the pulse in Greg's neck that he knew wouldn't be there. As his gentle fingers fell sadly from the corpse, Sam shook his head to Rose. She hung her head, disappointment in her failure to act faster was consuming her insides. She pressed a hand to her mouth in an effort to keep tears from spilling forth. She knew that his death was her fault. If she only could have moved a moment faster...

Then a warm shell came around her. A large thumb drew itself across her cheek, wiping away the tears that had gotten past her emotional barricade. She found her head nestled in a soft plaid shirt and her hands gripping the coat tightly as though fearful that the warmth would leave her. A hand rubbed itself in soothing circles on her back while a canon fired.

Sam had seen the distress Rose was in as she looked at the body of the man who had been so excited to tell them something a moment ago. She had lowered her head but Sam knew that look anywhere. Guilt. He had seen it in the mirror more times then he cared to count. He knew it wasn't her fault. The robot thing had come from behind the tree so fast that they didn't have time to react. Rose's quick instincts had saved the two of them but there had been no way to save Lestrade.

He went to comfort her. She held him tight to keep him from going anywhere although he had no intention of leaving. His watchful eye searched the woods for more robots as he held her. "It isn't your fault." He told her, moving a strand of hair behind her ear.

"I should have saved him." Rose denied his comfort, her hands were fists now as they held his shirt, her knuckles white with her own fury at herself.

"You can't save everyone." Sam put a hand on her face, forcing her to look up into his eyes. It was at this point that Rose met the real Sam Winchester. She saw past the puppy dog eyes and floppy hair to the man inside. He was broken. Perhaps he hadn't been whole in a long time. He had the look of a man who couldn't save everyone and it was haunting him. Rose had seen this look so many times when she had looked into the Doctor's eyes.

Rose reached up and wrapped her arms around Sam's neck before resuming her nuzzling into his chest. Sam held a hand to the back of Rose's head. He didn't know she had seen him for who he was. He didn't know that she wasn't crying for her own failure anymore. He didn't know that she was crying because he was hurting inside but he kept it all bottled up.

And so the pair of them held each other, feeling the other's pain but not knowing the other did. They held each other for the longest time, hurting but saying absolutely nothing. Birds whistled around them but they didn't hear it. A bubble of pain hid them from the world.


"Just keep digging." Amy's face was covered in sweat. She straightened up, her back sore from the heavy labor. Her hands had blistered from the shovel and her clothes were covered in dirt. She irritably swatted a lock of ginger hair from her face.

"I've been working here for twenty minutes, don't you dare tell me to hurry once more Dean Winchester." Dean grinned at the girl's Scottish fire as he watched her struggling over the grave site. She had been much more of a trooper then anyone else would have been in her situation. Dean knew she was tired but they only had so much time until the cops showed up, he knew. They were both only running on a couple hours of sleep, so irritated remarks had flown a few times.

Clunk. Amy's shovel had hit wood. She let a look of relief slip on her face before bashing the strong wood in with her shovel. It punctured through quickly. Her hand shot up to her nose as the smell of a decaying human body hit her.

"Oh, that is repulsive." She accused as though it were Dean's fault. She jumped up out of the deep hole she had dug.

"Salt and burn the bones." Dean reminded her, anxious that the cops would show up in the midst of this grisly scene. Amy dug around in the bag she had brought for the large canister of salt. A whisper of movement made Amy go rigid. "What is it?" Dean saw her posture but he couldn't see behind her.

Amy turned around slowly, the salt clenched in her hand. A ragged girl stood behind her, slashes covering her cheeks. "Dean?" Fear tinted Amy's voice. She knew that this was the ghost she had come to put down but she hadn't expected to see it. Dean had told her that any ghost that could posses a woman to chop up her own husband with a chainsaw was incredibly powerful.

"Amy? Are you alright?" Dean asked, he saw the back of the little girl and knew Amy was staring down the ghost, trying to figure out what to do. "Use the salt!" He yelled at her. Amy fumbled with the top as the little girl screamed and began to rush at her. Amy screamed as she whipped the salt across the image of the girl. She vanished and Amy rushed to the grave.

Amy dumped most of the salt into the grave and tried to light the lighter. She clicked it several times but the flame didn't come. The girl popped up again across the grave and with another startled click, the flame sprang to life. The little girl reached her hand out, screaming, while Amy dropped the fire onto the bones of the girl.

The image disappeared in a flash of fire and Amy buried her face in her hands, frightened of what she had seen. When hands grabbed her hands she screamed and lashed out, her nails ripping flesh. She backed up instinctively. However, she saw that what she had scratched was not an enemy, but her guide to ghost slaying Dean Winchester. His face had a small amount of blood on it from where she had torn straight through his skin but he seemed to not even notice. His hands were up in a calming gesture.

"Dean." Amy whimpered in relief. Her fire from a few minutes ago had gone out with the fright of the entire situation.

"Hey Princess." His insides unclenched. He had feared that once the ghost showed up that he would lose his Scottish princess.

"So touching." A sassy English accent drew the pair's attention. Crowley stood before them again, wearing a little smirk. "So, you passed my first test. Good for you. I have high hopes for you two. I think you may be the ones to win this thing. But I can't show favoritism so I'm going to have to throw everything I have at you."

"Why don't you go bother someone else?" Dean growled at the demon. His anger at the injustice of this entire game was growing hotter. He could have punched Crowley in the jaw right then if it would have affected the demon at all. His hand was going for the angel blade stashed in the back of him before it leaped into Crowley's hand.

"Now now Dean. Play nice." He turned his attentions to the filthy ginger. "And well done to you, what did he call you? Princess? Fitting. I like it." Amy made a move towards him, ready to tear him apart but Dean restrained her with an arm. "If you really want me to go bother someone else, I suppose I could pay your little Sammy a visit."

Dean grabbed the demon by his meat suit and lifted him off the ground. "If you dare hurt my brother I will cut you to ribbons and feed you to your own hell hound. Understand?" Amy gulped. This was a side of Dean she had never wanted to see. The look of a murderer was in his eyes and she felt more afraid of him then the ghost of even the demon.

"I'll take that as an invitation to keep on playing demon games with the two of you then." Crowley grinned into the face of the man who wanted to kill him most before saying "See you later." and vanishing. The angel blade crunched dead leaves as it fell the the ground.

"Come back here, coward!" Dean screamed to the sky. Amy scooped up the angel blade quickly, fearful of what Dean might do if he got his hands on it. She backed away from him, knife held toward him as he turned to look at her.

"What are you doing?" He asked her, his anger dying down into confusion as he looked at her.

"You're an angry killer. I'm protecting myself." Amy defended herself. Dean's eyes softened. He knew what he must look like to her. He wasn't even splattered in blood as was his usual.

"Amy, I'm sorry." He apologized. She looked him up and down, as though trying to guess whether he was about to take the knife by force.

"You got me out of that other world, so I'm trusting you now." She explained, slowly but hesitantly giving him the knife back. The Doctor didn't approve of weapons anyways so neither did she. Dean's eyes were sad now and Amy was confused. What was with this sudden change of emotion?

"Night's setting in here." He told her, looking up at the sky. Amy looked up and to her puzzlement saw he was right.

"But it was almost morning where I was."

"Let's get some sleep." Dean had a tone of asking in his voice, determined to right his wrong in losing his temper. Amy nodded and moved past him, keeping her distance. Dean sighed. What had he done?