Notes: Oh man...when I started editing this chapter I saw the first sentence and was like...how the hell did I write this and not notice! May I quote from my first draft...ahem, "Dean was still pounding on Dick when the minion approached from behind'. Thank you. That is my fail of the day.

leahelisabeth: squee! So happy you like :D

ship. me: Oh noes! I hope things are looking up now :( Here's another chapter just for you! *huggles!*

Disclaimer: After that first sentence I'm not sure I even deserve to own this...

CHAPTER 14

Dean was still in revenge mode, solely focused on delivering blows to the downed man, no, monster in front of him. It was because of his rapt attention and hatred that he didn't notice when a grunt had appeared in the room and came up behind him.

He only took notice of the rest of the world when he felt big hands grab him from behind, jerking Dean back from Dick who was finally able to crawl to his feet as Dean grappled with the minion.

Dean could feel as the grunt tried to twist his fingers around his throat, trying to cut off his air flow again, only the Captain would have nothing of that. He had died enough times at the hands of these bastards, and he wasn't about to let them rob him of another precious minute of life that he could spend with his family.

With a loud roar, Dean threw all of his weight back, forcing both Dean and the grunt to fall backwards out of a glass window that he hadn't seen before. The sound of shattering glass deafened him for a moment, the sharp bits covering him and adding even more cuts and nicks that he didn't even feel at this point. Together they fell in a heap on the floor beneath them, the glass digging into their backs and shoulders.

The fall had given Dean the opportunity to roll away from his aggressor, but only momentarily. He only had a chance to scan his new environment. What he saw was enough to make him pause for a moment.

He was on a catwalk overlooking a giant room of what was probably some kind of factory. There were at least twenty large clear tanks all around the room that were probably a third the size if the Impala each. But it was what was in each tank that drew his attention. He would know that golden liquid anywhere.

The poison from the train.

Flashes of memories of sick children who were going to be murdered, of all those innocent lives lost because of a careless job by Dean, of a soldier frothing at the mouth and dying within seconds... they all distracted Dean just long enough that his aggressor was able to lash a length of cord around Dean's neck and start strangling him again, much to the Captain's displeasure.

"Jeez…haven't you killed me enough for one day?" Dean garbled, but the grunt just pulled tighter. Seemed like nothing was going to go easy for him today.

Call it brother's intuition, call it a gut feeling, call it a crazy random happenstance, but Sam somehow knew at that very moment that he had to get to Dean now. He turned his gaze to where Bobby, Balthazar, Meg and Gabriel were huddled and gave them the signal and they all braced themselves knowing that the time had come.

From each of their belts they pulled off a grenade, leaving each of them with one last one each and waited for Sam's second signal to release.

Sam glanced once more down the hallway, watching as the next horde of apes started forward, clumping as they squeezed to fit into the narrow corridor, and then Sam dropped his hand for the sign.

Five grenades flew through the air and the shockwave that followed almost sent the crew to the floor. Suddenly the mass of bodies that were coming towards them were gone, and the crew made it for that last 30 yards, coming up to the door that both Gabriel and Sam recognized with an odd mix of disgust, horror, and relief.

Raising one of his long muscular legs, Sam kicked in the door without a moment's pause to reveal the rack before them…but Dean was no longer strapped to it. In fact, the room was empty.

The four men and Meg rushed in and headed first to the broken window, dreading what they might find on the other side, but instead of seeing a puddle of Dean thousands of feet below, they saw Dean not twenty feet away wrestling with a grunt that was choking him.

Sam started to climb through the shattered window, "Dean!" but he was held back when Bobby grabbed his arm.

"Hold up, boy. This is something the Captain has to do for himself," he said seriously.

Dean heard them and gurgled out from behind the length of rope, desperately, and a little ticked off, "No! No, it's not!"

Bobby balked, "Oh," and the four men pulled out their weapons, all shooting as one and sending the grunt falling back from the impact, his body thrown over the edge of the balcony and ultimately tumbling to his demise.

Finally released from his attacker's grip, Dean gulped in air greedily, like the air itself tasted like apple pie, his face even showing some of the bliss if that were the case. And then he was surrounded on both sides by his crew.

Immedietely he searched out Sam, smiling as he saw the blatant relief on his face, and smiling even wider when he saw little to no evidence of the earlier torture that had been inflicted on him. All he could see were some new injuries, but nothing life threatening.

Sam would have said a million things right then, like how happy he was to see his brother alive, but right now he was too overwhelmed with joy that he could only laugh in pure relief as his eyes clouded with unshed tears.

Luckily Bobby and the others were there or the two brothers would have been frozen in their happy reunion and wouldn't realize that they were still in an ongoing battle, and they still had to get back to the rest of their crew.

So Gabriel grabbed Sam and hauled him from Dean's side, and Bobby grabbed Dean and gently helped the Captain up, then they were all led forward by Balthazar and Meg who kept the way back to the ship clear.

Even as bullets ripped through the air, and with chances of impending doom around each corner, and even with blood still leaking from all over his body, Dean still couldn't stop smiling as he was practically dragged back to his baby.

But as he was stepping through the broken window he caught sight of the tanks behind him in the reflection of the glass. He turned to his crew, "Wait. We need to do something first. How much time will it take to set up a remote explosion?"

Since that last grenade that Cas so kindly returned to the sender, the doorway to the trash bay had remained empty and silent. Chuck and Anna were still at their posts, never letting their eyes stray even though they were incredibly tempted.

Their gazes kept being drawn to where Castiel had settled himself on the ramp of the shuttle, not covered in any way and in plain sight. He looked a great deal calmer than he had since they had first discovered that Dean and Sam were taken. He was even responding to them now in complete and semi-coherent sentences whenever they called over to him.

It was like the closer they had gotten to Dean, the more sane Cas became.

For the tenth time that minute, Chuck glanced over at Cas who was just watching the doorway like a puppy waiting for his master to arrive home, "Uh, Cas? You, uh, have any news?" He asked timidly, like Cas was tuned in to universe radio.

He looked over for a moment and nodded, "The pieces are almost assembled. Found the last one under the table."

Chuck was about to respond, but then they heard footsteps closing in fast and he brought up his gun again.

At the first sign of shadow approaching, Chuck tensed his finger over the trigger and was mere nanoseconds away from pulling tight when he caught sight of a familiar face.

A sweaty and panting Balthazar dashed into the room, his eyes scanning the area until they fell upon Cas who had already stood up to go over and greet his brother.

"Jeez, Balthazar! I could have shot you! Cas, why didn't you warn me that I was about to shoot your brother!" Chuck gasped in horror.

Castiel turned to Chuck and gripped his shoulder sadly, "There was no need. Your gun is empty."

Of course Chuck checked to see that this was indeed true, but he didn't have time to really ponder it because just then the rest of the crew poured into the bay.

The first thing that Dean did once he entered was scan his crew up and down for injury, but when his eyes fell on Cas, he couldn't take his eyes off of him. All the pain and darkness seemed to disappear in a flash and all there was, was Cas in front of him.

And Cas seemed to feel the exact same. The both swept towards each other, never breaking eye contact and wrapped their arms around each other, and in that moment, Dean had hope again. His perfect life could continue. Feeling a warm and whole Cas, not his fantasy version, so solid in his arms was like being handed back his soul. His whole body tingled.

However, the moment could only last so long before Balthazar pried Cas away, muttering something about saving the reunion sex for when they got off the damned station, and it was only Sam's tugging on his sleeve that got Dean to release his death grip on Cas' arm.

But he didn't let go completely, instead he transferred his grip to Cas' hand and led him up the ramp, the rest of the crew following in a somewhat rushed movement.

The flight back the rest of the crew might have been looking over their shoulders, still terrified that they would be pursued, but not Cas and Dean. They were simply content, and if the rest of the crew stopped to think about it like Dean did, they would be comforted to know that Cas would give a warning if they were being followed.

The only thing that would bother Dean their ride home was that he had no idea what had happened to Dick once they had escaped. He could only pray that he learned his lesson, or died in the melee, and that they would never see his face again.

He pulled Cas closer to his side, not caring that his blood was starting to stain the coat. Cas would always fix it somehow.

Dean turned to Gabriel and gave short nod to him, and the pilot pulled out a crude looking device that looked as if it had been assembled in mere minutes, he pressed the button on the remote firmly.

Behind them, the station started to shake as its interior exploded from the inside.

Woooo! Dean's back and it only took 14 chapters! One more to go, and since I got no responses positive or negative towards more "steamy" scenes, I added a "steamy" in a few places for future chappies. Not like 'power a friggin' train' steamy, but more of a 'fog up your glasses' steamy. I'll wait till I hear back from you guys before I go turning your rooms into friggin saunas. ;)