This is my take on the episode 'Meet the New Boss'.

"I'm tired of this," Lizzy says, her voice angry at this point as Dean prepares to once more leave the house on a suicide run to save the world with a plan that once more involves summoning Death and possibly pissing him off to murderous proportions. As the only thing that can kill God, Death is their last hope.

"You're telling me," Dean says, shoving an angel blade into a duffle with ire at Bobby's kitchen table.

"Every time I think it's over and we're free… this fucking shit just finds us again," she grumbles, pushing him away from his task at hand and taking over. "Let me pack," Lizzy offers, slamming items into the bag unceremoniously. "Go spend some time with your son before you go off the chit chat with Death again."

It clicks with him suddenly. She's not mad at Cass or the shitty world.

"You're mad at me," he states simply enough and when she doesn't answer him he knows it's true. "You know I have to go…"

"Do you?" she challenges, looking at him with razor sharp eyes.

"Yes."

"Well, the way I see it, you don't," Lizzy tells him, dropping the shotgun in her hands to look at him. "You have a choice. You could stay home. You could let someone else handle this fucking giant turd of a world for once."

"Who!?" Dean asks, his voice elevating towards her. "Who the fuck do you think I can call right now to go bind Death and kill God!? Huh? You think I want this!?"

Lizzy doesn't say a word. She knows he's doesn't want this and she knows he'd rather not go.

"Sam is a fucking mess, you said it yourself," Dean reminds her. "I can't send an old man and a half broken hunter out on this run. I have to be there."

"I can't do this," Lizzy whispers in a panic and covers her face with her hands, her resolve completely breaking.

Dean pauses with her sudden crumble, not sure what to say or do.

"I don't know how this is gonna work," she cries through her hands. "I thought it would be ok, that I could do this…"

"L? What are you talking about?" Dean asks, stepping closer to her.

"This!" Lizzy shouts with fright as she looks up at him with teary eyes. "You leaving, doing these insane trips where you cheat death every time… until you don't." She has such fear in her tone that it hurts Dean to his core. "I was used to it before. I knew you might not come back… and I could block that thought out. I used to pretend that it could never happen and convinced myself it was all fine so I could live day to day. But Sammy's here now. He's here and he's your son. Every time you leave I can't convince myself that you'll be right back. All I do is run through what could happen and what that would mean for Sammy. He can't grow up without you. He needs you around."

Dean doesn't know what to say at first. He wasn't ready for this.

"L, I…" he starts but realizes he has no idea what he was about to say to her.

"You'll be back… yeah," Lizzy dismissively answers for him as she assumes that's what he was about to say, her tone cold and pissed off as she wipes her eyes. "No one else could ever handle this. Other hunters can't take your place. Whatever. Just, please, go see Sammy before you leave." Lizzy refuses to look at him and starts packing for him once me. "You might regret it if you don't come back."

"I'm doing this for him," Dean reminds her and she doesn't look at him. "I'm doing this for us, so we can live a better life."

She continues to ignore him completely, her anger taking the wheel.

Dean nods and lets it go, walking away as he knows nothing else he could say. He heads for the nursery as his own frustrations elevate a few more notches. How the hell could she put all that on him before leaving? He's just trying to clean up the mess this world is in so that his own family can live safely. How can she not see that?

Walking into the room with the taste of vinegar in his mouth after that conversation, he finds Sammy in his crib, lying on his back and looking up at the ceiling. He kicks his legs like always and when Dean's head peeks over the railing the little boy looks right up at him.

"Hey, Sammy," Dean says quietly with a grin, his fire extinguished immediately when he looks at the child. There's just something about that little boy that can take away everything else in a second. He reaches down and picks him up, pulling him against his chest. "How you doing, buddy?"

Obviously the baby doesn't respond but it doesn't matter. Dean didn't come here looking for two-way conversation. He just wanted to see his little man.

"Well, I got a surprise for you. You're mom's pissed at me," Dean tells him, sitting down in the rocking chair as he speaks. He turns his head and looks at Sammy's face, his features growing sharper by the day. He really does look just like his dad. "But that's no real surprise. She's a little on the emotional side if you haven't figured it out by now. Let's just say that when you start drinking as a teenager you better not let her find out. You won't wanna drink again out of fear even after you turn twenty-one after she's done with you."

Dean sighs and rubs Sammy's back, the boy more than comfortable in his arms at this point.

"So I gotta head out for a bit," Dean starts to explain. "I have some pretty heavy stuff to deal with but I want you to know…" He stops himself in order to convince his own brain that he will indeed return from this trip. "I'm gonna be back. I will. I don't care what it takes. You are all that matters to me now, you and your mom. I wouldn't be going at all if I thought that wasn't true."

Sammy just stays there, listening to Dean's voice as he calmly stays cuddled into his arm. To Dean it has always seemed that, despite the fact that the first few months of a kid's life their main connection is with mom, Sammy always seemed more than relaxed and contented in his hold. The boy will squirm and move like crazy but when Dean has him and talks to him his boy will relax and be happy just being. His pride in that is so huge it kills him.

"Sammy, I've never done anything in my life half as important you. I just want you to have a fair shot. Me and your uncle… we've had a pretty crappy life and I want none of that for you. You're never gonna fire a shotgun and you're never gonna keep a switchblade in your boot. You're gonna play sports and hang out with friends and go to the freakin' prom with the hottest chick in school. You're gonna do all the stuff Sam and I never did and in order for that to happen I gotta go for a little while.

"I'm gonna do some pretty dumb stuff," he keeps talking, shifting Sammy to lay on his back across his forearm, his head resting on the crook of his elbow. "But hey, as you grow up you'll see that I am a wealth of doing dumb stuff… another reason why your mom's always pissed at me." Dean runs his fingertips through Sammy's dark hair that's already thinning out just as the nurses told him it would. Soon he'll be bald as a cue ball. "I got a feeling we're gonna tick her off together a lot when you're old enough. If you're anything like me growing up it'll be all the time."

It's hard to imagine the sweet little boy in his arms being anything like he was but he knows there's a good chance of it. He'll go completely gray and wrinkly by forty-five if Sammy's like he was as a kid and teenager but maybe that's the point. It's karma.

Sammy yawns wide and looks ready to fall asleep, his lids lowering and focus drifting off of him as he talks.

"Well, whether you're a hellion or a saint I'll be there with you," Dean says while standing up and heading for the crib. "I'm not bowing out yet, even if mom's a little worried about that."

Laying Sammy back down in his crib, the baby asleep right as his body hits the mattress, Dean leans on the railing and watches on, knowing time is ticking away. He has to go but leaving their home base has never been tougher to do than it is right this moment. He's never wanted to stay with his family more than right now.

"Be good," Dean says, his index finger running up and down Sammy's cheek a couple times. "And don't cry for another hour. Give your mom time to cool off and you'll be fine."

He then very painfully exits the room, ready to go bind Death and make one of the two most powerful beings on the planet kill the other. No problem.

It's been quiet for too long.

Lizzy may have only known her son for just short of two weeks now but when nearly three hours have gone by without a single peep when it's just the two of them in the house she knows something's up.

Abandoning her research, choosing to go with Sammy's destiny as the topic since if the guys fail there's no stopping Castiel anyways, she heads for the nursery. Rounding the corner into Sammy's room Lizzy stops dead in her tracks when she sees something she would never have expected to find.

"Cass!?" Lizzy calls to the being standing in the middle of the nursery with Sammy tucked into his arms, bouncing him just slightly as she watches him. "What the hell!?"

"It's amazing, isn't it?" Castiel starts to say, watching closely as Sammy looks around the room while he holds him. "That such an important human with such a massive destiny could be so fragile and small."

"Cass, put my son down," Lizzy says with stern caution.

"He would not exist if it were not for my doing," Castiel says with arrogance, continuing to look over the small child with something akin to egotistical pride. "I feel I have every right to hold him."

"You don't."

When Castiel finally looks over to her as she stands in the doorway, her face filled with fright and worry, he doesn't understand.

"You fear me." He wasn't ready to see that from her.

"Can you blame me?" Lizzy questions right away, not seeing how he could expect her not to be afraid.

"I can see how my actions as of late have been… frightening to some. But you have nothing to fear," Castiel tries to assure her.

"Oh, well… nothing unnerving about that," she sarcastically bites, still fearing him completely while taking a few cautious steps forward. Lizzy finally can see the deterioration of Castiel's body as he faces her. The redness of his skin, the boils, and the overall destroyed condition he's in shocks her. "Cass, are you ok?"

"No," he responds, Sammy asleep in his arms. "Your beloved husband just tried to get Death to kill me. I am not ok."

Closing her eyes with the news that her family failed, her heart drops to her feet. He's here to kill her. He has to be. Vengeful seems to be Castiel's new default and an attempt on his life will most certainly set him off.

"Stop being so afraid," Castiel once more tells her, annoyed at her fear. "I'm not here to kill you. I am a righteous God, one that knows who deserves sparing. Elizabeth, you never have to fear me."

"You're reading my mind?" Lizzy asks, knowing it has to be true.

"Yes," he confirms. "I will not kill you. I don't think that even now, even after you've betrayed me so much and had no faith that I could kill Raphael, that I would never end your life. I couldn't if I tried."

Nodding as she takes another few steps forward, Lizzy watches closely to Castiel as he holds the most precious thing her life.

"I would never hurt Samuel either," the angel assures her. "He's your son. You're my child. That makes him my kin. I understand his beauty as a being with so much importance. I just wanted to see him…"

"You don't have that right," Lizzy spills out without thought. "You can't just come in here and force your way into his life. As his parents Dean and I get to choose who he's around. Right now…." She looks over his disastrous state. "You're not well enough to be here. You need help."

"I am God. I need nothing I can't provide for myself," he tells her, looking her hard in the eye as he speaks with boastful confidence.

"It may not look like it now… with all that just happened… but I want you back," Lizzy tries a new, and still honest, angle. "You've always been with me and right now I need you more than I ever did throughout my life… and you are falling apart. And don't lie because I can feel you. I'm linked to you. I felt what it was like to take on all those souls and I know it's too damn much."

She steps forward again, standing next to Castiel as if she didn't fear him at all. Her hand lands on Sammy's head with love and care, reminding Castiel of all he has in his life that is worth getting back on track and giving up the God-powers for.

"We need you," her voice wavers with emotion. "If you don't fix this and get yourself right… we're gonna lose you. Sammy will lose you and he needs your help. We all do. And you know how hard that is for me to say after everything that has happen."

Castiel looks at her with an odd expression, one she can't read.

"And that's what family is," Lizzy sums it up for him. "I told you, Cassie… you're family. You've always been my family. You're the only one left that I've known my whole life. The rest of them are gone. Let me help you now, right now, because you need it whether you think you do or not… and later I'll need you to help him." Lizzy nods at her son. "He's gonna need you more than anyone else. We want to depend on you to keep him safe. Please, Cass. Please listen to me."

God or not, all-powerful or a weakling, Castiel can feel that one. His Elizabeth… how could he have nearly forgotten what they had through the haze of power? He really underestimated her, something he prided himself in previously never doing. And now he wants back in. He wants his family back, the family that includes one very important little boy in need of guidance and protection like no other human ever has.

He opens his mouth to speak but before he can the voices start up again.

Castiel. We're going to tear you apart.

"Cass?" Lizzy asks to him, seeing the change in demeanor. His body wavers and Lizzy immediately scoops Sammy out of Castiel's hold. The angel trips backwards a little and catches himself against the wall. "What is this?"

Lizzy puts Sammy in his crib to keep sleeping before rushing over to the angel.

"No," Castiel says with a hand out to stop her but she keeps coming at him.

"What's going on…?"

The second she touches him she can feel the attack on him from the inside. Her Nephilim connection allows her to experience firsthand the anguish Castiel is going through.

Lizzy groans with sheer pain as she drops to the floor, the connection still running through her. The clawing, the internal anger of every soul he's taken on, he can hear the voices of something that can be described as nothing short of pure evil.

Let us out, Castiel. Let us out!

"Cassie," she pants out in pain from the hardwood below. "You can't live… like this…"

Watching hopelessly Castiel realizes he should never have come here. He should have known she'd be able to feel him and what he's experiencing right now. She always can.

And then Lizzy hears the one thing she never wanted to hear in her life.

Lizard! Tell him to let us go! Lizzy! Please!

Everything starts to fade a bit, the voices and the pain receding as she's no longer connected to Castiel. As it dissipates she looks up at him with an all new anger.

"She's in you!?" Lizzy nearly shouts as she slowly gets to her feet.

Castiel just looks away in shame.

"Are you fucking kidding me!?" she screams in his face, no longer afraid of God himself. Her fury won't let her be frightened any more. "Let her go!"

"Elizabeth…"

"NOW!" Lizzy shouts, fists balled as Sammy starts to cry in his crib with the noise. "You let her go right now, Castiel!"

"You need to understand…." Castiel attempts to explain what his plan had been before power corrupted him.

"CASS!"

"I can't do that," Castiel tried to spell out his plan for her. "But soon…"

"Get out!" she yells at him with anger that cannot be matched by her own ire in the past. "Unless you give her back to me right now you get the fuck out of here and never, never come back!"

Castiel knows she won't listen to anything he has to say, not when Louise Becker is involved, so instead he does the one thing he can think of. He leaves.

When Castiel disappears into thin air instead of give her the one thing she's missed more than anything in her life she just stares at the wall he's been standing against dumbfounded. She heard that voice. It was Lou. It was her sister in there with all the other monster souls Castiel took on. Her Lou is in there.

As Sammy's crying voice finally registers with her she snaps out of the daze and rushes to him.

"Oh, sweetie," Lizzy coos in a calm tone as she reaches into the crib for him. She pulls him into herself and starts pacing the floor as his loud voice bellows into her ear. "It's ok, baby. It's fine. It's ok. Everything's ok." She isn't sure if she's trying to convince her son of that or herself in the moment.

"It's all ok," she starts to cry as she sits into the rocking chair in the room when her legs don't feel like they can support her anymore. "Sammy, it's ok. It's fine." She starts sobbing along with the little boy in her arms. "Everything will be ok…."

When the three hunters return to their home base after failing miserably they trudge into the house with little to no hope left in any of them. The ride was quiet. No one spoke as they all came to terms with Castiel ending the world with his power trip. They're all just too shocked by it all and by walking away alive after Castiel freed Death.

Entering the kitchen with depression dripping off their dragging forms, Dean drops his bag of weapons and looks around the silent house. Lizzy and Sammy are nowhere to be found.

"L?" Dean calls out and walks through the empty study. Nothing. "Lizzy!"

The house remains silent and that completely unnerves him.

"The hell are they?" Dean mutters to himself as he takes the stairs two at a time, rushing into the nursery.

He finds her there, rocking at a steady pace in the old beat up rocking chair with Sammy asleep with his head on her shoulder. Her eyes are fixed on the ground a few feet in front of her.

"Lizzy," Dean calls out to her from the door way and she doesn't even flinch. She just keeps rocking her son at the very same pace. "Lizzy?"

Dean walks slowly into the room, not looking to scare her with whatever this condition is that she's in. He walks to stand in front of her and her focus never changes. Dean knows shock when he sees it.

Crouching to the floor at her feet Dean grabs her hand that had been pressed to Sammy's back and sandwiches it in his. "L."

Finally, Lizzy's eyes lift to look at him but they're so empty and far off that it unnerves him to see it.

"What happened?" Dean questions her, his voice light and unthreatening. Lizzy just looks at him, her expression changing just enough to see the torment inside her. "Talk to me. What happened here?"

Lizzy bows her head as her face wrinkles in pain and sadness. When the first tear drops fall into her lap Dean gets put into action. He reaches out to take Sammy from her and she just holds him tighter.

"No."

"Baby, lemme just take him for now…"

"No." She's not giving her son up to anyone right now.

"Then you have to explain this," Dean says to her, dropping his hands onto her knees as he keeps his focus on her. She stops rocking and looks him in the eye.

"Cass came," she says simply. "He's alive."

"I know. L, we failed…"

"He's falling apart," she says as her voice falters. "Lou's in him." And she falls into sobs immediately.

Dean stays still, the heartbreaking moment making him unable to find words to say to her.

"I found him in here holding Sammy," she explains, pressing her cheek to her son's head as he sleeps. "He wouldn't give him back at first. He's dying from the inside out and something… bad is in him. I felt it like it was in me when I was near him. It's evil, truly evil. Pure evil."

Lizzy drops her free hand onto one of Dean's and grabs so tightly it hurts. Dean squeezes back.

"I could hear her," Lizzy cries harder. "I heard her voice asking… she asked me for help. She called me Lizard and told me to get Castiel to let her go. She's in there… baby, she's in there. He won't let her go…."

"I'm sorry," Dean says in a hushed tone as he leans up on his knees and hugs her. She collapses in devastation and clings to him hard, her free arm around his neck as Sammy is held between them. "L, I'm so sorry."

"Why would he do that to her?" Lizzy cries against his neck, desperate for answer. "Why? How? I don't understand."

"I don't know," Dean says helplessly, holding her tight and feeling like this last failure is the one that will truly end the world. Castiel will take it all down, his family included, and he doesn't know how to change it.

"You want some coffee with that?" Sam asks when he finds Dean alone at the kitchen table, whiskey glass full in his hand and laptop open with some very awkward noises coming from it.

"It's 6:00 p.m. somewhere," Dean answers without looking away from the computer.

"We gotta hit the road," Sam says, knowing time is ticking before Death's second eclipse happens. "I mean, how are we supposed to get Cass to that lab by friggin' 3:59 a.m.?"

"We don't." Dean sucks down some more booze.

"What do you mean we don't?"

"I mean, we can't bring the horse to water and we can't make it drink," Dean grumps. "Why fool ourselves?"

"Dean, look, I know you think that Cass is gone…"

"It's 'cause he is."

"He's not! He's in there somewhere, Dean. I know it."

"No, you don't."

"No, I don't," Sam says honestly despite his sliver of hope within him deep down. "But, look, I was pretty far gone sometimes myself and he never gave up on me."

"Yes he did." Dean takes another gulp.

"No he didn't…"

"Sam, he doesn't give a shit about any of us," Dean lets his brother know. "If he did then he wouldn't have sucked Lou's soul in like the rest of the scum from Purgatory."

Sam's face drops as he registers this one. "What?"

"You didn't already think of this as a serious possibility?" he questions with a knowing look sent Sam's way.

"I didn't think he could actually do it…"

"He did," Dean confirms. "And L's all fucked up about it. Apparently Cass came by and she could feel it all. She heard Lou asking for help."

Sam's eyes widen with the news.

"Exactly," Dean says once he sees that reaction. "He doesn't care about us, man. It's over. We can't make God give up his superpowers, we can't save the world this time… it's over, Sam."

Sam stands there as the idea of Lou's soul being trapped inside Castiel settles into his brain. "The hell is he thinking?"

"He's thinking he's God," Dean grumbles, finishing his first glass and pouring another.

"Is this why you're down here alone?"

"Lizzy's going through… something. Over all this," Dean tells Sam. "She's upstairs with Sammy. Won't put him down, won't talk past explaining Cass' uninvited drive by… she's a mess."

"Great," Sam huffs, hating how his family is giving up all around him.

"Yeah and it turns out that you're about the same open book as you've always been," Dean tacks on, mentioning what Death had said. "I mean, really? I got to find out from Death?"

"What was I supposed to do?"

"How about not lie? How about tell me that you've got crazy crap climbing those walls?"

"Why?" Sam asks, at a total loss. "You can't help. You got a lot of pretty severe crap swinging your way lately, and… and I thought… what? I thought why burst the one good bubble you had left? It's under control."

"What?" Dean questions without believing him. "What, exactly, is under control?"

"My… crap." Sam points to his head.

"What crap?"

"I've got it."

"How?"

"I… talked to Lizzy about it," Sam admits that she knew all along and kept it in confidence for him. "And made her promise not to say anything for a few days."

"Sam…"

"She was just giving me some time to figure out how to tell you," Sam explains. "You are… scary, when something's wrong with me. I needed time to figure out what the hell all this is before saying anything."

"You should have told me…"

"Dean, look, we can debate this all you want once we deal with Cass."

"Yeah, you know how I'm gonna deal?" Dean starts, his tone angry and hopeless. "I'm gonna stuff my pie hole, I'm gonna drink, and I'm gonna watch some Asian cartoon porn and act like the world's about to explode… because it is."

"What about Lizzy?"

Dean closes his eyes with stress and lack of options. "I don't know what to do about her. I tried and she's… I've never seen her this hurt. She needs time, I know that… but I got nothing past that."

Standing there, hands on his hips while at a complete loss, Sam watches as Dean goes right back to watching anime porn on his laptop while Lizzy is upstairs losing it.

For once he's the glue that needs to keep everyone together but he has no idea how to do that.

He tried to talk to Lizzy but not even he could get to her. Dean was right. She needs time. So instead of try fruitlessly anymore he goes a different, completely desperate and pride crushing direction.

Heading out to the Impala, Sam leans against his home on wheels and takes a deep breath.

"Hey, Castiel," he starts his prayer with caution. "Um... maybe this is pointless. Look... I don't know if any part of you even cares anymore, but, um, I still think you're one of us… deep down. I mean, way, way, way off the reservation, but... look, we still have till dawn to stop this. You come to us now and we can end it all and help you. We're willing to help you still. Let us. Please."

Just as he expected he gets no response whatsoever. He waits a good five minute before realizing how right Dean was and heading into the house again. If he's going to be miserable then he's going to love its company.

Walking into the kitchen he stops when he reaches the kitchen table, Dean's face still staring at his Asian cartoon porn as he drinks away the day. Without looking he pours a second, very full glass of whiskey and holds it out to his brother.

"Only if you turn that off," Sam says, pointing to the loud and quite lewd sounds coming from the computer. Dean shuts the laptop and Sam takes a seat.

Together they sit there, ready to watch the world burn, as the each take a sad gulp of booze to soften the blow.

"Sam?" they both hear Castiel's voice say and when they look to the kitchen they see the destroyed angel leaning against the counter, ready to collapse.

"Cass?" Sam returns with, he and Dean both on their feet immediately.

"I heard your call," Castiel tells him, trying to keep it together as much as he can. "I need help."

"We need the right blood," Castiel explains, sitting on the floor of Crowley's hideout with Sam, Dean, and Bobby in tow. "There's a small jar…" he struggles to get the words out. "End of the hall, s… supply closet."

"Got it," Sam nods and disappears from the room, running to grab everything they need.

"Dean?" Castiel calls out to the man helping him as he struggles not to implode.

"What, you need something else?" Dean coldly asks, not at all ready to forgive the angel for all he's done.

"No. I feel regret, about you… about Elizabeth and what I did to Sam."

"Yeah, well," Dean thinks about the condition of his brother and his wife's shocked breakdown as she sits at home with their son. "You should."

"If there was time, if I was strong enough, I'd… I'd fix him now," Castiel confesses. "I just wanted to make amends before I die."

"Okay." Dean could care less at this point.

"Is it working?"

"Does it make you feel better?"

"No," the angel admits. "You?"

"Not a bit," Dean's unforgiving tone responds.

Dean ignores Castiel for a bit as he sets everything up as they wait for Sam. If he focuses in on the tasks at hand he can hold back his immense anger long enough to get through. Once the souls are back to Purgatory then he can beat the lying, deceiving angel to a pulp if he survives.

Castiel starts to fade a bit and Bobby tries to get him back. "Hang in there," he says, snapping a few times, Cass' eyes opening wide. "Just a couple of minutes." He then looks to his watch and then to Dean. "Where's Sam? It's go time."

It's then that he realizes Sam's been gone for a while. "Sam?!" he should to the doorway his brother left down. No response. "Damn it."

He flees the room, running to find Sam wherever he might have gone. Halfway down the hall he finds the jar of blood sitting on the floor alone, no hunter even near it.

"Son of a bitch," Dean mutters, knowing Sam went off the rails with Cage hallucinations. It's the only way he wouldn't be there right now. He scoops up the jar quickly and bolts back to the main room. Purgatory soul return now. Sam finding later.

"Where's Sam?" Bobby asks when Dean returns alone.

"Hell surfing," Dean says quickly as he hands over the jar. "Let's just do this. We'll go after Cuckoo's Nest later."

Moving quickly with time running out, Bobby starts to put the spell together, painting the large sigil on the wall.

"That's good enough," Bobby announces when the messy symbol is done well enough in a rush. "Okay, step right up, Cass."

Bobby and Dean lift Castiel up onto his feet and walk him over to the wall. Once in front of the sigil they let him go and back up. Bobby starts reading the spell.

"Lanua magna purgatorii, clausa est ob nos lumine eius ab oculis nostris retento sed nunc stamus ad limen huius ianuae magnae et demisse fideliter perhonorifice paramus aperire eam."

Castiel stumbles and Dean rushes over, steadying him before backing up again.

"I'm sorry, Dean," Castiel says his final peace over his shoulder. "Tell Elizabeth I'm sorry."

Dean just nods once as Bobby continues.

"Creaturae terrificae quarum ungulae et dentes nunquam tetigerunt carnem eius ad mundum nostrum nunc ianua magna, aperta tandem."

The sigil bursts with light as a portal opens up. The bright light of the souls exiting Castiel's body make the two men shield their eyes, the sheer force making the wind in the room pick up. After minutes a bright flash fills the room and explodes.

Once it's over Dean and Bobby open their eyes to find Castiel unmoving on the floor.

"Cass!?" Dean shouts as he rushes to him, dropping to the floor to check on him.

"He's cold," announces Bobby as he feels the angel's head.

"Is he breathing?"

"No."

"Maybe angels don't need to breathe."

Bobby just breaks the news and doesn't sugar coat it. "He's gone, Dean."

Dean pushes out a breath of disbelief. He got so used to Castiel being there that he never let himself accept mentally that the damn guy could actually die one day, not even after all the mistakes he's made. "Damn it. Cass, you child. Why didn't you listen to me?"

Before their eyes Castiel starts to heal himself. His boils and deteriorating skin clear up and the color comes back to his face. Soon enough his eyes are opening, the bright blue color as bright as ever.

"Cass?!" Dean shouts with shock and surprising relief. "Hey! Hey! Okay. Alright." He helps the angel sit up slowly.

"That was unpleasant," the angel tells them.

"Let's get him up," Dean says to Bobby as the grab his arms and lift him to his feet. "Easy, there."

"I'm alive."

"Looks like," Bobby responds.

"I'm astonished," Castiel says to them. He then takes a moment to humble himself. "Thank you, both of you."

"We were mostly... just trying to save the world," Bobby half-jokes back.

"I'm ashamed," Castiel confesses. "I really overreached."

"You think?" Dean caustically returns, not willing to make light of all that Castiel just did.

"I'm gonna find some way to redeem myself to you," he says specifically to Dean. "I'm just happy I could at least redeem myself with Elizabeth."

"What do you mean?" Dean questions, not seeing what the angel did for his wife that was so worthy of redemption.

"Where is she?" Castiel says, eyes roaming the room.

"L's back at Bobby's house…"

"Not Elizabeth," Castiel clarifies. "Lou. Where is she?"

Dean and Bobby simply stare at the angel with sheer confusion.

"You just sent her unfortunate ass back into Purgatory," Bobby answers.

"No, I didn't," Castiel says, breaking free of the hold Dean and Bobby still had on his arms. "I kept trying to explain to Elizabeth that I had a plan concerning her sister. She just wouldn't listen… guess that's just who she is. Stubborn from the day she was born."

"What plan?" Dean asks with anger as he's failing to understand anything the angel is blabbering about.

Just then they hear some movement in the corner of the room followed by a hushed gasp. All three stare at the overturned metal table blocking their view of whatever made that noise. Someone or something is behind it.

"My plan to return her sister to her," Castiel says, peering at the direction the sound came from. "I am giving Louise back to her."

THE END