A/n: Thank you to everyone who has been reading and reviewing. I love hearing feedback from everyone. And don't forget to check out Laura's fic Marked Man.

Chapter 14

...when he's angry.

Beware the wrath of a patient adversary.

John C. Calhoun, 7th Vice President of the United States

Dean waited until the light faded before he opened his eyes again. What had once been a crowd of monsters was now nothing but ash. He glanced over at Sam and saw that he was at least in one piece. The skinwalkers were dead. Cas had gone all badass angel on them, and Dean was suddenly wondering why they even bothered to do a full hunt at all when the angel could eliminate them all in a big flash of light. The hunter had to marvel at his friend's new true form that it was capable of burning a person's eyes and then the whole body from the inside out.

"Nice job, Cas," Dean shouted out to the vacant factory. "Now, just let us down and we'll kick the top bitch's ass." Dean's eyes scoured the empty building for any sign of a trench coat, but he couldn't find anything but the odd piles of ash scattered around. "Cas?!" he yelled out.

Bastard had better not have left him there. His son was in danger and Cas was leaving him strung up like a pig in a butcher shop? No, that wasn't going to fly at all.

"Cas! You son of a bitch! You let me down! Now!"

#

Louise continued to move toward the back of the room. No matter how often or emphatically Bobby instructed her to stay where she was, she kept inching back with each sound of the skinwalker's impact on the door or window. She was damned near hysterical, and nothing the hunter said seemed to calm her.

"I heard what Bright Eyes did to George Masters. That thing will be ripping through that door any time now."

At those words, the creature made a leap at the window that was high enough to give Bobby an eyeful of something that definitely shouldn't have been there if this was the good Dr. Roth. He wheeled on the woman who was now practically at the bathroom door.

"Funny thing about that skinwalker outside: it seems to be a dude."

Louise heaved a sigh and gave Bobby a smug little smirk. "There are some things Dr. Roth doesn't like to talk about," she said with a tone wry enough that even Bobby would be impressed, in a different situation. Like the woman not being the evil gang leader of a bunch of mutt monsters.

She then lunged for Emma's rifle, and Bobby could only manage a single shot before she positioned herself in front of the cheap laminate door leading to the bathroom. Bobby couldn't risk shooting at her now, not with Johnny and Emma on the other side of the door.

"What can I say? My boy doesn't listen to his mother nearly as well as he should. I told him to keep things on the down-low, so to speak."

She had Emma's gun in her hands. "You killed my lover, Bobby Singer. You, Sam and the bitch in there." She said the last bit loud enough that Emma could certainly hear it. "You could have had so much power Emma. We'd have made you one of us. Strong like us. No more pathetic weakness. No more looking over your shoulder, no more fear."

Bobby distinctly heard the words "Screw you" come from the bathroom.

"Atta girl," he said as he kept his gun trained on Louise. She, in turn, had the rifle trained on him.

"You made a serious mistake, letting Dean bring his little brat on a hunt. You can't shoot me here, but I can shoot you!" She pulled the trigger and Bobby wasn't nearly quick enough to avoid all of the buckshot before it hit his outer thigh and knee. He cried out and collapsed onto the other knee. It was only by sheer strength of will that he kept his gun pointed at the vet assistant.

"I've got Johnny and me in the tub," Emma yelled from within the bathroom. "Shoot the bitch!" Bobby really liked this girl. And considering what he now knew about Louise, he was very jealous of the boys for being in her general age bracket, or at least looking like they were.

Bobby was once again lining up his shot as Louise slammed into the bathroom door and instantly knocked it open. Emma let out a scream, probably the first purely terrified one that he'd heard from her since they met. Still, the only noise he heard was that single shout. She didn't go into the hysterics that Louise had tried to mimic just a few minutes before. He fired another round, trying to hit the skinwalker before she made it fully inside the bathroom. He nicked her leg, causing her to stagger backwards just as the sheer curtains let in an incredibly bright white light.

"What was that?"

"That was the cavalry arriving." Bobby fired the gun as Louise tried to run into the bathroom. It was too late. For her, at least.

#

Only once before had Emma been sure she was going to die. It had been years before, preceded by a door-her bedroom door at that time-slamming open and a dark figure standing in the doorway. She thought today she might die, too, but this time, the door swung open to a crazed monster woman. But then even the creature grew scared. Eyes went wide with fear, her expression was even wilder than before. Emma noted some differences from last time, the biggest that the menacing figure that appeared on the other side of the door now was her savior.

Cas-no, he was definitely Castiel at this moment-practically radiated power and fury. He looked the very embodiment of vengeful wrath. She should have been scared of him. Should have curled more tightly around Johnny's small body to protect them both from whatever the boy's other father had become.

But she couldn't.

All she could do was stare and quietly cheer him on. She watched the previously quiet and awkward man grab hold of Louise's face the way an NBA player might grab a basketball with one hand. He slammed her against the nearest wall and barked out to Emma. "Close your eyes and cover Johnny's."

The moment she did, Emma could see bright light filtering through her eyelids. Only once she was sure it had faded did she open them again.

Castiel was standing over her, still radiating power, but offering her a simple, all-too-human-looking hand. "Are you injured?" he asked as he helped her to her feet and gathered Johnny almost tenderly into his arms.

"I don't know about her, but I've had better days," Bobby's voice cried from the room outside.

Emma watched the rage slowly dissipate the longer Cas held the baby. He watched her closely, all the while rubbing a calming hand to Johnny's back. "What are you?" she finally managed to ask. It was strange to think he wasn't human, with the way he was now cradling the child to his chest and how the baby let out a sigh of contentment.

"I'm an angel of the Lord," he replied simply. His startlingly blue eyes met hers and seemed to look right through her. "And I am so very sorry."

Something caught in Emma's throat at those words. She didn't doubt as she looked at him, at this odd man who wasn't a man. She could tell that he knew. He knew and he was apologizing. For what? That it happened? That he or one of his brethren hadn't stopped it?

Before the angel or the hunters could leave town, she knew she would have a very long talk with Castiel, whether he liked it or not, but for now, she felt like all the energy was draining from her body as the adrenaline faded.

"You know, I could use a little help before I lose all of my blood," Bobby called again. Emma couldn't imagine being so snarky to an angel, not after having seen the amount of power that he possessed. Castiel didn't seem to think anything of it.

On shaky legs, Emma followed Cas out of the bathroom and into the main part of the hotel room. He had yet to relinquish his hold on Johnny, and the baby certainly didn't seem to mind.

The angel placed two fingers to Bobby's forehead, and almost the instant he made contact, the hunter's body repaired itself, his clothes mended, and the blood disappeared from his jeans and the floor.

Bobby took note of this and glanced around at Cas's handiwork. "Bit more than the angel of Thursday these days?"

"I did say that my grace was stronger than it had once been," Cas explained. "I haven't had the opportunity to discover by how much. It seemed unwise to test it."

"Yeah. I could see that, given your family." He and the angel shared a knowing look, and Emma couldn't help but feel left out of the loop. But considering what the loop probably entailed, she was fine with that.

Bobby stood and made his way over to her. "How are you doing?"

"That's a really silly question," she chided.

"Yeah. I'd be in shock, too. Was with my first experience with the supernatural." He got very quiet for a moment and a flash of something sad crossed his face before it disappeared again. "But you handled yourself very well. And you took damned good care of Johnny."

"It's the least I could do," she said.

#

Sam was behind the wheel of the Impala, surprisingly, at Dean's insistence. His brother had been determined that he would be running back to the hotel after they had gotten loose from the ropes that had strung them up. Or, rather, Dean had gotten free then cut Sam down. How his older brother had managed it, Sam didn't know. It was fairly obvious Dean had dislocated his shoulder in prying himself loose, not to mention that Sam's longer arms and taller frame had been fully extended.

Adrenaline apparently not only allowed Dean to push through pain and get spurts of strength; it made him proficient with a knife that could only barely reach its target.

Sam had to wonder which of them would reach the hotel first. Though Dean had the more direct route, the younger hunter had a car. The older brother was also injured, and while it was only his shoulder-which he swore there wasn't time to fix before he ran off-the run would jostle the dislocation and cause more pain as he moved.

When he pulled the Impala into the hotel parking lot alongside Bobby's van, it was fairly obvious to Sam that the door had just been kicked in. He climbed out of the car and surveyed the damage. There was a pile of dust outside similar to the multiple heaps inside the factory. Sam could see his older brother was already standing just inside the doorway, gesturing at Cas with his good hand while he held the left arm close to his body.

Sam mentally added a new item to the list of super powers Dean received thanks to adrenaline: apparently, it turned him into the Flash. Sam certainly couldn't come up with a better explanation for how his brother had managed to arrive at the hotel so much sooner than Sam had with a car and no injuries.

The moment the Impala's door creaked open, Sam heard his brother's angry growl. He was succeeding in keeping his voice to a reasonable level, but only for the very same reason he was so angry. They had already discovered that Johnny didn't like the sound of raised voices, and that seemed to be the only thing keeping Dean from losing it all together.

"You left us there!" Dean said with a quick snap of his right arm in Cas' direction. He adjusted his positioning for his left, and Sam wished once again that his brother had allowed him to pop the shoulder back into place. Then again, if the stubborn bastard was going to insist he suffer like an idiot, who was his brother to argue?

"It seemed more pressing at the time that I get to Johnny as quickly as possible." There was something in Cas' tone that told the younger Winchester that there would be no forthcoming apologies from the angel.

"And you didn't think that maybe, just maybe," Dean said as Sam came into the room and stood at his side, "Johnny's father might have liked to have been here to keep him safe? All you had to do was pop the two, well, three of us here."

Cas was holding Johnny and gently patting the baby's back, which made the familiar tilt of the head seem all the more out of place, given the damage that had been done to what was once had been a hotel room. "You have repeatedly expressed distaste for my method of travel. I was capable of handling the situation."

"First," Dean said as Sam slowly moved beyond his volatile brother to the woman at the back of the room who was wearing an expression one might expect on someone who was encountering a unicorn giving birth. "First, I can cope with a little constipation for the kid's sake. Second, I don't care if you're capable of fixing this on your own. I'm not going to just sit by and let you handle everything for however long you're here on earth."

Sam stood at Emma's side and placed what he hopped was a reassuring hand on her shoulder. "How are you?"

"Surprisingly enough, not so bad. Little shaken." Big, brown eyes looked up at Sam. "He's an angel." Sam tried not to laugh at the mixture of awe and confusion in her voice. He merely nodded in response as Dean and Cas continued their bickering.

"You are injured," Cas said before handing Johnny to Sam. The new uncle still wasn't the most comfortable holding the baby, but his nephew seemed happy enough to be with him.

The angel took a few steps toward Dean, who quickly backed away from the outstretched hand and extended fingers. "Woah. Stop it. It's hard to stay righteously angry at you when you heal me up."

"Dean," Cas said with an exasperated sigh. "Your left shoulder is dislocated, and you are in pain. Stop arguing." Before Dean could move away a second time, the angel's fingers made contact with his forehead, and almost instantly, the persistent look of pain faded from Dean's features.

"Son of a bitch," Dean muttered as he pushed by the angel to approach Sam, Emma and Johnny. "You OK?" he asked the blonde, who simply nodded in response. He held his hands out toward Sam, who realized that was his way of asking for his son to be passed over to him. The younger brother quickly complied and didn't even bother to fight the smile that spread across his face as he watched Dean quickly check Johnny for injuries before pulling the baby into a tight bear hug. Sam almost felt sorry for the poor kid. He had been neglected for so long and now was going to face Dean's infamously smothering way of demonstrating love. It would be like living in the desert and then suddenly faced with the rainforest.

"Emma had him the whole time," Bobby said. "Kept him safe while I tried to deal with Louise. Turns out she was the pack alpha."

The new father looked incredibly relieved and turned his attention to the woman at Sam's left. "Thank you," he told her with an overwhelming amount of gratitude in his voice. Johnny seemed oblivious to the reason why, but he reveled in the attention he was receiving and rubbed his cheek against the worn olive green shirt. Dean's own cheek pressed itself to the top of Johnny's head. It reminded Sam of the way his brother wold hug him when he was younger and Dean was just grateful he'd survived one disaster or another.

"I'm fine, by the way," Bobby muttered from the corner of the room.

"I saw that," Dean said. "It's why I didn't ask."

Sam couldn't help but grin as Emma leaned over and spoke softly. "Did your brother just call an angel a 'son of a bitch?'"