Dean blinked his eyes open groggily and focused his eyes on the alarm clock on the motel's bedside table. It was just after 11:00 am, he had overslept. He pushed himself upright and scanned the room for Penny. She was sitting with Sam at the table of cameras that they had gone through the night before.

"Who's that?" Sam asked her holding the back end of the digital camera to her

"That's Uncle Freddie"

"He's dead?"

Penny nodded "Mommy said he went to heaven"

"And who's that?"

"I don't know" She yawned, "Uncle Sam, is there really a heaven?"

"Yeah" He said dismissively

"How do you know?"

"Because I've been there. Who's this?"

"How did you go to heaven? You didn't die"

"Our deal was, you answer my questions, and I answer yours right?" Sam said irritably

"I don't remember who that is"

"What do you mean you don't remember? This had to be a year ago, tops"

Penny shrugged and Sam put the camera down.

"You didn't die. People can't come back alive"

"Says who?"

"Says the lady"

"She's wrong"

"No" Penny pouted, "The lady says that-"

"I don't care what she said. She's either wrong or a liar" He said casually "Take your pick"

"You're mean" Penny grumbled

"Yeah well I'm not the one who killed your family kid"

"Okay then" Dean said sliding off the bed "Good morning"

Penny jumped out of the chair and threw her arms around him "Good morning!"

"What did I miss?"

"Nothing" Sam shrugged "Went through the last camera but there wasn't anything unusual"

"Daddy, does Uncle Sam have a soul?"

Dean frowned down at her and then back up at Sam "You told her?"

"She wanted to know why I was so mean" Sam smirked

"No honey, Uncle Sam doesn't have a soul right now, but we're going to get it back"

"When?" Sam asked with his arms crossed at his chest.

"What do you mean?"

"When are we going to get it back? We have all this other stuff going on" Sam shrugged

"So?" Dean squinted "We're still going to get your soul back Sam, you need your soul"

"Do I?"

"What?"

"I'm just asking. Do I really need it back? I'm functioning fine, I'm a better hunter…"

"No" Dean said walking through Penny's everlasting leg-hug "You are not functioning fine Sam. You're walking and talking, but you're still not you. You're hardly human. I mean, do you even want your soul back?" But as the words left his mouth it dawned on him for the first time that Sam may not want his soul back. The thought horrified him.

"Of course I want it back"

"Good" Dean said before Sam could continue, but he could tell by his manner that he was having second thoughts about getting it back. This thing walking around on Earth while Sammy, his real brother burned away in hell, was having doubts.

"So what, do we drop all of this and go work for Crowley?" Sam stretched and walked over to the bathroom

"Maybe. I don't know; it is Crowley. We don't even know if he'll hold up his end right?"

"Daddy!" Penny screamed and he spun around just in time to see something black strike him in the head. He saw a bright white light and then blackness.

When he came to; he was bound by the wrists and ankles to a chair, across from him Sam sat in the same position, and next to them were four demons, one of them with their hands on Penny's shoulders.

"What the hell?" Dean growled and yanked at his restraints "Let her go"

"Relax" an annoyingly familiar voice, said coming up beside him "She's not the one I want"

"Evil bitch" He hissed

"Careful with the sweet talk Dean, I wouldn't want things to escalate in front of your little daughter" Meg winked "You didn't tell me you had a kid. It would've saved you a lot of foreplay, I have a thing for single dads"

"I'm going to rip you to shreds"

"Kinky. But as I said, there are virgin eyes in here so if you don't mind, why don't we just skip to the Q & A. Where's your boss?"

"You think we work for somebody?" Sam scoffed

"I happen to know for a fact that you've been juggling Crowley's orphans. Now where is he?"

"Don't know. Don't care" Sam smirked

"But you've been working his beat for months"

"Doesn't mean we get face time"

Meg walked over to Dean, pulled out a knife, and straddled his lap. Penny whimpered from the corner. "Now I'm just as open as the next girl when it comes to performing for an audience, but since there is a minor in the room, how about you tell me where Crowley takes all those little things you snatch up for him? I bet you an all-day sucker that's where his majesty's holed up"

"Let the girl go" Dean snarled

"You're in no position to give me orders Dean. Where is he?" She snapped pressing the knife against his throat "Enough. Please me or I please myself"

Dean gulped hard. Sam laughed.

"Something funny Sam?" Dean asked trying to bite back the panic in his voice

"Yeah. Meg"

Meg swung her head around to look at Sam so hard that her hair slapped Dean's face.

"Sam…" Dean started

"Don't worry. She can't do jack squat. She's totally screwed."

"Sammy"

"Look at her, Dean. She's furious. If she could kill you, she'd have done it by now. She's running"

"Am I?" Meg said through her teeth

"Judging by the level of flop sweat on all of you, yeah. Which means you're running from Crowley. Which makes sense. Crowley would want to hunt down all the Lucifer loyalists now that he's the big man on campus"

"How would you know?"

"It's what I do" He said smugly, "She can't touch us. Or Penny. She needs us to get her to Crowley so she can stick that knife in his neck. It's him or her."

"Well I hope you both lose, but good luck. Now let the girl go"

"You know what you got to do now right?" Sam asked Meg

"By all means, tell me" Meg said sarcastically

"Work with us"

"Whoa, Sam. No" Dean gaped

"We'll hand you Crowley with a bow. On one condition: we come with you and you help us wring a little something out of him before you hack him to bits"

"What is it?" She squinted

"Doesn't matter. Question is, can you get us what we need?"

"Sam, no" Dean repeated

"Dean" Sam said staring directly into his eyes "Trust me"

Dean took a deep breath and sighed. If Sam had a plan to get them out of this, fine. Anything to get these demons away from his trembling daughter"

"It's a deal then" Meg smiled "Hugs and puppies all around"

"You going to untie us?" Dean grumbled

"Please don't act like you don't enjoy it" Meg winked

"We'll drop Penny off at Bobby's" Sam said rubbing the rope burns on his wrists. Penny, who hadn't said a single word since Meg released them, clung tightly to her elephant, curled up on the bed and closed her eyes.

"What are you doing?" Dean asked Sam as he threw an arm around his daughter

"You wanted to get my soul back, Merry Christmas"

"You want to work with a demon? The same demon, who killed Ellen and Jo?"

"I know. But you can't look at his emotionally, Dean. We need her"

"The heck we do" Dean said as calmly as possible so he wouldn't startle Penny "She's going to screw us over so fast-"

"Of course. Which is why we'll screw her first. We're bringing insurance" Sam said and walked out of the room.

Dean stroked Penny's back gently "Penny?"

Penny opened her eyes slowly and yawned "Yes Daddy?"

"Are you okay?"

Penny nodded and smiled lightly. Not the reaction he was expecting, but kids had all kinds of crazy ways of coping with traumatic events. He rubbed her back and returned a weak smile.

"I think we should talk about what happened back there"

"Daddy, does Uncle Sam have a soul?" She asked curiously

"What?"

"Uncle Sam says he's mean because he doesn't have a soul"

"No, Penny, your uncle doesn't have a soul…" Dean furrowed his brow in confusion "You asked me that this morning, remember?"

"No I didn't" Penny giggled, "You were sleeping"

Dean swallowed hard and closed his eyes hoping that somehow, what just happened didn't cause irreparable damage to her already troubled mind.

"Penny, what's the last thing you remember?"

"Uncle Sam was showing me Mommy's camera and he was being mean"

"Nothing else?"

She shook her head "No. Daddy, you dropped something." Penny said pointing down at a small white card shaped piece of paper on the carpet next to the bed. Dean reached down and picked it up, it was smooth and clean, he had never seen it before. Maybe something that one of the demon's had been carrying and dropped by mistake. He turned the card over with his fingers and saw that there was writing on the back.

You're welcome.

Your Humble Servant,

"The Lady"

P.S

How could you be so careless?