Castiel paced the room, wondering how long he was going to have to wait. He had been told that they would be here, in this very room. Finally he stopped as he heard someone unlocking the door, he took a deep breath, waiting expectantly. He had gone over this in his head, what he would say, what he would do, but he couldn't think of anything now. Sam walked into the motel room, and Dean was soon behind him. They dropped their bags on their beds, Cas had to move out of the way as Dean nearly walked into him. He called his name and Dean stopped, looking back over his shoulder, then shaking off whatever feeling he was having and continued on his way.

Sera walked in and suddenly stopped in the door when she saw him. She looked at Sam, who was unpacking a bit, and then at Dean. She assumed neither of them could see him. She looked at Cas. He looked hurt and confused, and she wanted to say something but she didn't know if she should. Sam seemed to notice that she was just standing there and stopped what he was doing.

"Sera?" He said, and successfully got his attention.

"Yeah?"

"You alright?"

She plastered on a smile, "Fine." She walked into the room, closing the door behind her. She set her bag on the table, Castiel walked up to her. "Seraphiel," She glanced over at him, trying not to be too obvious about it as she pretended to open her bag and look for something.

"They can't see me. Why can't they see me?" She wanted to answer him, but didn't want to draw any attention, so she turned and walked out, beckoning Cas to follow her. When they were outside she turned to him. "I don't know. I mean…" She reached out and touched him. "You're solid, at least to me. Are you sure that you're not hiding yourself? Even…I don't know, subconsciously?"

"I am not." He looked down at himself and then at Sera. "Do you think it's just them who can't see me, or is it all humans?"

"We're about to find out," Sera said, moving to the side as a young man walked across the pavement and kept walking…straight through Castiel. After he had walked out of earshot she looked back at Cas. "I guess that answers that question."

"This is most unfortunate."

"I thought when he sent you back it would be…you know…whole. What's all this about?"

"I don't know, but we have to fix it."

"Yeah, and soon."

The door opened and Dean poked his head out. Sera tried to act like she wasn't talking to someone who wasn't there. "You alright?" He asked.

"No!" said Cas, but Sera smiled. "Fine, just needed a little fresh air."

Dean looked suspiciously at her, but then retreated back into the room.

"There's only one thing I could think to do, but it's not safe until after we get this job done, they could be laid up for days."

"Seraphiel, you can't. It could kill them…or start giving them visions, or powers…Sam can't handle that kind of…"
"Trust me; I'm well aware of his addictive nature. Just Dean then. He's strong, he can take it. He'd do anything to see you again, Cas, he won't care how much it hurts."

Castiel looked as if he was warring with himself. Half of him wanted to protest, to protect Dean, but the other half wanted her to do what she had to do to let them see each other. Sera saw this, and then saw him decide. He didn't have to say what it was, she could see it in his face. "That's what I thought. Are you going to stick around or go somewhere until I call you?"

"I might as well stay. I might be able to help."

Sera was sitting at the table at Sam's laptop, searching the news articles. Sam was cleaning the weapons and packing different rounds on her left, Castiel was seated at her right. Dean was on his bed, taking off his boots. He got up and went over to the fridge to get a beer, then came over and pulled the chair on Sera's right out to sit down, out from under Cas. He fell to the floor with a loud thunk that neither of the boys heard, causing Sera to nearly split her sides trying to hold in her laughter, which made Dean stop and look at her.

She got it under control and looked up at him as Cas was getting off the floor. Sera stopped laughing when she saw Castiel's face. He was glaring at her. She cleared her throat and went back to her web search. Dean sat down. "Found anything yet?"

"Nothing unusual, unfortunately."

"Why did you tell us to come here again?"

"I told you, I got a message. Very, very few people know how to send me a message so when I get one I take it seriously."

"Do you know who?"

"Do I need to?"

"It'd be helpful."

"It could have been anyone," said Castiel. "Since they sensed you in even every angel has been singing for you. Any one of them could have gotten through, this could be a trap."

Sera gave an exasperated sigh. "Fine, I'll try to track it."

Castiel was standing behind her now, having paced around the table. She closed her eyes and bowed her head, focusing on the message she had received before. She tried to follow it back to its source. There was a shift in the air and a voice said, "You called?"

Sera's head jerked up and the boys looked away from her to the other side of the room. It was Crowley. "Well, isn't this a pretty picture." He said, looking straight at Castiel. Sera saw that the boys were looking away from her so she tried to signal Crowley not to say anything about Cas because they couldn't see him.

"What are you doing here?" asked Sam.

"Your angel friend just called me. Are we going to war?"

"Not quite yet," Castiel said. Crowley smirked.

"You were the one who told me to come here?"

"I was."

"Why? There doesn't seem to be much going on."

"Well, the things I'm hearing about aren't exactly news-worthy. There's a witch here. She's got one of my men under her thumb and I need you to get him out."

Dean was disbelieving, "You want us to save one of your demons?"

"I'm keeping them out of your way, aren't I? I'm doing it free of charge, too."

"You charged Sera."

"That's because she's an angel. Granting an angel protection is a lot harder."

There was a long, tense silence, the looks on all of their faces conveying mistrust. "If it's just a witch why don't you take care of it yourself?"

"Did you now hear me? She can control demons. Are any of you demons? No."

Castiel leaned down to whisper in Sera's ear. "I don't trust him."

Sera turned to him with a look that said "Seriously?" Because she couldn't believe Cas had the nerve to say that. She knew what Crowley was, but in his dealings with her and Cas he had never lied to them, betrayed them, or withheld anything from them. Cas was the one who kept changing his mind and trying to renegotiate. She looked back at Crowley. "We'll do it."

All three of her companions looked at her and said "What?" simultaneously.

"Look, it's just a witch. We could probably hunt her down and take her out in a day, it's not that big a deal. Crowley's helping us…in his way…and we need to hold up our end."

"Can I just state for the record that I don't like this?" Dean said.

"I second that opinion," Cas said, and she fought the urge to turn around and tell him off.

"No one likes it, but it's the way life is now, deal with it." She looked at Crowley, who had that look on his face again. "It was nice seeing you, Crowley. Don't be a stranger."

He smirked, waved, and vanished. Sera got up and went to the fridge, taking out one of her bottles of root beer. When she turned around they were all staring at her. "What?"

"Don't be a stranger?"

"Nice to see you?"

"I can't believe you're cooperating with him," said Cas.

"All of you just shut up," she said, putting her hands up. The statement got her weird looks from the boys so she tried to amend it. "I mean…uh…both of you. Look, I know how this seems but it's not as bad as you think."

"You sound like Cas did when he was conspiring with that total dick."

Cas looked at Dean, with a rather hurt expression, and while Sera thought he deserved it, those big blue eyes were breaking her heart. "I'm not conspiring with anyone. Honestly, what are we doing right now besides waiting for signs of Leviathans? Are you telling me you're not just itching to do a little good old-fashioned ass kicking?"

"Not if it means rescuing a demon."

"It wouldn't be the first time. You went back to get Meg once when you didn't really have to."

"That was different, we had a common cause."

"And you don't have a common cause with Crowley right now? He wants the Leviathans dead just as much as you do. They think even worse of demons than Lucifer did, and above all else Crowley believes in self-preservation."

Cas sat down in her chair, which meant she couldn't sit back down in her place, so she walked over, picked up the laptop (which looked really weird because she was trying to avoid touching someone that the boys couldn't see), and moved over to Sam's bed. For some reason, she didn't want to seem too intimate with Dean while she knew Cas was watching.

Dean started helping Sam pack rounds and Castiel sat watching them. Sera tried not to look over at them too much as she continued her research.

Sera was in the bathroom, washing the witch's blood off of her hands. They hadn't wanted to kill her, poor, simple thing that she was, but she had given them no choice in the matter. They had made it look like ritualistic suicide, of course. That had been Sera's idea. Now it was time to do what she had planned to do, and she was not looking forward to it.

She walked out into the room. Dean and Sam were packing up and Castiel was sitting on Dean's bed. She looked at him, and they nodded at each other. She lifted her head up at Sam. "Sam, honey, could you do me a favor?"

He stopped what he was doing and got a curious expression on his face. "I need some stuff from the store but I'm just…too shaken up to go…"

"Yeah, of course, whatever you need." She gave a weak smile, and then gave him a list. After he left she went to the fridge and got out the bottle of cheap wine she bought the day before. She blocked Dean's view of what she was doing as she took one of the knives from the table and two of the clear plastic cups from the stack by the sink. She sliced her hand over one of them, bleeding into it.

She clenched her fist and started humming, and the slice healed. She poured wine over it and then filled the other one, then picked them both up. She walked over to Dean with them and handed him the one that had her blood in it. He stopped packing and took it from her. She smiled and took a drink of her own, then he started drinking. He didn't stop.

After he polished it off he looked at her, "What brand is this? It tastes like…I don't know…all floral."

She took the cup from him. "Just something I got from the store down the street. It's hardly more than fruit juice, really." She put the cups inside of each other and then tossed them in the trash. Then she sighed and looked at Dean.

"I'm really, very sorry, Dean."

"For what?" He asked with a grin, and then it faded and he put his hand on his stomach. "For this."

He doubled over in pain and fell onto the bed, then slid off it onto the floor. "What's…happening?"

She crouched down and cradled him in her arms, stroking his hair. "It'll be alright, you just have to let it run its course."

"You don't know that, it could kill him," Castiel said. He was standing over them now. Dean looked up. "Cas? Where…?" but then he groaned in pain again.

"See? It's working, he can hear you."

Sera put her hand on his abdomen and started to sing, and he felt the pain slowly ease. "What the hell did you do to me?"

"I'm sorry Dean…I had to, you had to know."

He looked up and blinked, and slowly a blurry outline became Castiel. The angel bent down, "Dean?"

Dean's breathing became more even, and his eyes got wide and he scrambled up. Sera let him go and backed away. He and Castiel were just…staring at each other. She didn't know whether Dean wanted to punch him or kiss him and it looked like he didn't either. Suddenly, Dean reached forward and grabbed Cas, hugging him to him like he was a teddy bear. Sera smiled and felt like crying, letting out a breath. She watched as Cas slowly put his arms around Dean, hiding his face in Dean's shoulder. Sera slowly backed away, slipping out of the door and closing it behind her, because it felt like the thing to do. She'd keep Sam out as long as she could, those two had a lot to say.