A/N: Ok big, big, apology for the unexpected hiatus. It took me a bit to get back into this story, hopefully I can finish it off and all will be peachy and bless all your hearts for reading and yes. Onwards. Warnings as always for sexual themes and sexual characters – I think Misha alone gives this story its M rating. Dedicated to Kamja because she deserves it, onwards!

xXx

Imagine you're a kid. Young kid, like only just got into preschool, not hit puberty yet, still get confused for a little girl over the phone, kid.

Now imagine someone hands you a baby and tells you that it is your job to protect it.

Imagine you suddenly realise that this is your purpose in life, that in this moment your entire reason for living has just been shoved into your tiny arms with a shouted command to run.

You got that? Now imagine its 20 or so years later, and some guy wants to hurt your purpose in life. He wants to make it his purpose in life to protect that dorky kid that you taught to tie his shoelaces, and how to ask out girls, and how to correctly take a hit of weed without coughing your lungs up.

Now let's pretend that there's a guarantee your stupid, kid brother is going to be safe from other people who want to hurt him if you kill that guy. Just stick a goddamn bullet through his head, something you've done to other people countless times when you were on another side of the world under a hotter sun with a bunch of other guys with matching stunted emotional abilities and matching khaki pants.

Now let's say that the only way to get this guy out in the open (so you can calmly end his pitiful existence), is to let your kid brother, your reason for living, your goddamn purpose in life, stand outside an abandoned warehouse.

Stand there, pretending to text message and casting furtive glances around for this guy's arrival, while you have to crouch next to a chain link fence, gun in one hand, phone in the other.

Your kind-of-gay-partner is hidden as well, with a police issued glock and a dirty trench coat.

The guy your brother is in love with is behind a bush somewhere to your right, with his gun and his plaid and his heavy boots and a smirk that is entirely unnecessary given the situation.

Now how would you feel in that situation?

"Dean?" Bobby's voice came from the tiny speaker in his phone, insistent and somewhat comforting. "I said how are you feeling?"

'Fuck you' isn't an appropriate response.

"Everything's fine." Dean said instead, gruff and annoyed, trying to keep his emotions in check and not pay attention to how damn vulnerable Sam looked. "Can you see anything?"

"I'm looking at the security cameras, I can't really see anything. How about you, Cas?"

"Nothing on my end." Cas muttered, his voice police-trained low. Dean can practically hear the 'over' tacked on to the end of the sentence.

"I've got something," Gabe said, "some sexy six ft four moose of a man is milling about in front of a god damn abandoned warehouse, waiting for a guy who wants to literally kidnap him."

"Not helping," Sam said, his lips barely moving against the tiny microphone that is clipped onto the lapel of his shirt. "I think I can hear someone coming, so how about we all shut the fuck up?" he added pleasantly.

Dean shifted, moving his phone to a pocket and holding the gun with both hands, peering slowly around the corner.

"Sammy, if its Yellow Eyes then I'm not a hundred percent sure he'll just approach you, you might have to say something first." Dean said lowly, wiggling his toes inside his boots against the onslaught of pins and needles in his feet.

Sam nodded briefly, a little shake of his head that was almost imperceptible. He was stopped by the doorway of the warehouse, something incredibly ominous about the gaping black mouth of the frame.

Dean saw movement there a second too late.

Sam had opened his mouth, ready to speak, and a dirty pair of arms had reached from inside the dark doorway and pulled him inside.

Body on autopilot, mind still reeling, Dean had lunged into action. He could see Gabe and Cas as well, surging forwards towards the doorway which slammed shut in front of them, Sam's muffled shout of 'Dean' being drowned out by the heavy metal of the door.

"It's a fortress in there," Cas said. "We have to think this through, we don't know how many people are- Dean!"

Dean wasn't listening, he had taken a run up and bodily slammed into the door with the single-minded force of knowing that Sam was in danger.

"Dean, stop!" Cas shouted, Dean had taken another run up but was stopped by Cas' arms on his biceps, holding him still. "Think about this logically, come on. We need to get inside in one damn piece."

"Guy with a gun!" Bobby's hurried shout came over their phones simultaneously, and all three of them ducked hurriedly. A shot ricocheted above them, pinging off the door loudly and momentarily deafening them.

"Get inside!" Gabriel shouted, standing above Cas and Dean and aiming his gun at the handle of the door, shooting twice and then kicking the door open in a smooth movement. "I'll hold this asshole off."

Dean didn't need to be told twice, he grabbed Cas' arm and shot into the building, eyes taking a moment to adjust to the stacked shelving and all of the fucking metal.

"It's a goddamn labyrinth." Cas whispered beside him

"So we split up, stay in contact." Dean said back, turning to him and catching his cheek in a quick kiss before moving to the right, crouching low and holding his gun in front of him.

It was reminisce of other times he had been on raids, it made his pulse jump and his ears strain. Sam's voice could no longer be heard, and Dean made himself remember that Yellow Eyes wanted Sam to be safe.

There was the sound of a shot gun somewhere behind him, three shots fired and then silence, a shout, and then three more shots.

Dean held his breath, completely still, until Gabe's voice came out of the speaker in his phone.

"There's a fucking bullet in my leg and I think I just killed a guy." He sounded shaken, but the cocky façade was still in place. "Two more out here, Jesus Christ, they're just kids, Dean. He's sending the kids after us with fucking guns."

"Remember they have guns and are trained," Dean hissed. "Go for emancipating shots."

"Aye, aye, Captain." Gabe muttered, and there was the spluttering of more gun fire from behind him. He forced his mind blank and continued walking, finding a door and kicking it open, surveying the emptiness inside for only a moment before continuing on.

Dean hadn't seen anyone yet, and after three more doors and a flight of stairs, he was beginning to feel a little helpless.

"Come on, Sammy." Dean mumbled to himself, kicking open a door and seeing something a little different, this one lead to a hallway with another door at the end.

He immediately walked in, gripping his gun a little tighter.

Inside was the silhouette of a person, holding a gun and looking tense. Dean took in a deep breath, silencing his movement so he could survey the new threat for a moment.

"Dean?" the silhouette of a person turned towards him, the familiar gravelly voice making him sag with relief.

"Cas, you idiot, how did you end up here?" Dean asked him, walking up to him quickly. He shrugged in the low light.

"Just kept following the layout. Have you seen Sam?"

"Not yet. You?"

"I thought I saw some movement," Cas gestured ahead of him, where he had been looking before Dean came in. Together they turned towards it, carefully manoeuvring until they were in front of a heavy door, something that looked like too much for Dean's boots and aching ankles.

"Maybe there's another way around?" Dean muttered

"Maybe not," Cas countered. "Cover your ears."

Dean had that warning and a two second gap before Cas was shooting at the door, kicking it open and then they were both inside.

It was another hallway, and at the end they could see the faint movement of two people struggling with the inert frame of his baby brother.

With a calm precision Dean raised his gun, aiming for the legs and kneecaps, and fired.

The first guy went down with a thud and a shout, the second one suddenly attempting to drag six ft four of immobile muscle by himself.

Cas had taken off at a run, then, and he was almost upon them.

The guy – maybe 25 or so – drew a gun.

Dean swore his heart almost stopped.

"Cas!" He shouted, lunging forward with single-minded determination, something in his head screaming no, no, not Cas, not Cas.

His inner turmoil, however, was needless. Cas simply raised his gun, still running, and shot the assailant in the shoulder, and before Dean could even feel grateful, Cas was next to his little brother, kicking away the guns of the two men and checking Sam for injuries.

"Jesus, Cas." Dean whispered, making his way down the hall.

"Dean, I got something here." Bobby said quietly. "Guy in a van, loading in injured kids."

"Yellow Eyes?"

"Could be. I'll keep an eye on him." Bobby said.

"One of us should go check if it's him." Cas said quietly, looking up at Dean with that serious stare.

"You stay with Sam." Dean said resolutely. "I'll be back."

He took off out of the door and made his way back the way he had come, keeping up a light jog and speaking to Bobby on the way there, working out where the van was.

"Gabe, how's your situation?" Dean asked into the phone

"I'm scoping out the van and bleeding a lot, Winchester." Gabe said, his voice sounding strained.

"Ok, I'm coming to find you." Dean promised.

"This looks like our guy, he's older than the rest and he appears to be giving orders. I'd put my money on him." Gabe said.

"On it." Dean said, making his way to the original entrance and pushing his way out, seeing the juddering movement of injured people amongst the silhouettes of the darkened area.

Dean was unsure of what to do then, because there was the guy – he was sure of it, something in his gut that had helped him on so many occasions telling him that Yellow Eyes was the man standing at the front of the van, and yet his sight lines were messy and his gun was almost out of ammo and he was slowly losing his window of opportunity, and Gabe was bleeding somewhere, and Sam might be injured, and Cas was alone with his little brother, an-

There was an explosion, fire appearing from nowhere at the front of the van, the force of it blowing Dean backwards with unexplainable force, his memories rushing back to the war like a punch to the stomach.

His head was ringing, his ears rendered useless and his eyes swimming with black dots as he scrambled to his knees, taking in the wreckage of the van, the undeniable fact that Yellow Eyes was dead, and then he was running forward and shouting a word that slowly took form.

"Gabe!"

He looked around the bushes, a few of which were on fire, eyes scanning the ground until he spotted the inert frame of his brother's boyfriend, crumpled like a child.

Dean squatted beside him, fingers seeking out a pulse and stomach almost convulsing with happiness when the steady thud beat against his hand.

There was a nasty looking wound on Gabe's forehead, and what looked like a burn on the right side of his body that wasn't too serious as much as it was probably painful.

Gabriel, thankfully, was unconscious.

There were footsteps behind him and he turned to see Bobby, holding their first aid kit and staring with wonder at the still-burning vehicle.

"So I guess Yellow Eyes is dead, then." Bobby summarised.

"Yeah," Dean said, rubbing at his eyes. "But how?"

"I think I might be able to answer a few questions," The voice was female and cocky, belonging to a shorter woman with long, dark hair. She also had a black eye, bruises on her knuckles, and a detonator in her hand.

"My name's Ruby. I'm here to talk to Castiel."

"Ruby, I'm here." His voice was oddly business-like when he exited the building, Sam leaning heavily on him. Dean was impressed he could take the weight. Dean looked around at the headcount, smiling at his finally-conscious little brother, his almost-gay lover, his uncle, his brother's boyfriend, and a stripper with a bomb.

"What the fuck is my life," he muttered.

"Cas, Luke wanted you to know that you were… well, a ruse. He used you, baby, and now Yellow Eyes is dead. Although, you did promise him that you'd kill him… so, I suppose you owe him one." She mused, frowning. "Interesting. Anyway, I have to report back to boss now, so you guys just head on home. I think I hear sirens."

All of their heads simultaneously whipped towards the direction of the police station, Sam taking that moment to notice that Gabriel was unconscious and wounded.

"Gabe!" He had clearly been dosed with something, because his huge frame was uncharacteristically clumsy as he stumbled towards the injured man. He fell beside him, checking his pulse, fingers fluttering urgently over his face, and Dean wondered dimly if that was what he would have looked like if Cas was the one who was hurt.

"We have to get him to a hospital, not the one in town." Cas said quietly, sounding like all the fight had gone out of him.

"Bobby, bring the van around. Siox Falls is only a half hour away, less if we speed." Dean said, his army training forcing all the emotions to the back of his head.

"Let's get the hell out of dodge, guys."

xXx

A/N: Ok I'm sorry for the short chapter, I'm just slowly getting back into this bitch of a story also I'm a little drunk? Good times. Sexy times next chapter, and then probably an epilogue, and then that will probably be it. Thanks to everyone who has been along for the ride, you guys are gr9. xox