(A/N: Took a break, but I'm back! Currently having too many ideas for a new story, and I'm trying to stay on track with this one. It's a little short, but with a lot of momentum.)
Sam had barely had time to run a load of laundry when he was packing up, getting ready to head out for St. Louis that evening. He had helped Melissa connect to the printer, and she was wrist deep in reviewing paperwork he was sure would be boring even for him. He wasn't sure where Dean and Castiel had gone, but when they showed up again, something was different. He wondered briefly what had been said, but left it alone.
He found Dean in the garage a little later, obviously checking his car for excess legos and army men, but trying to act like everything was fine. Sam opened the trunk to get one last thing he had forgotten, a small, white cardboard box, roughly the size of a deck of cards.
"Is everything okay?"
"Sure." Dean said abruptly, "Making sure she doesn't give us any surprises on the road. No weird noises, or anything?"
Sam shook his head.
"Well, might be about time for the brakes. I'll do that when we get back." Dean said, continuing to eye the car.
Sam nodded, and made his way out of the garage. He went into the library, and put the box on the table next to Melissa. "Leann sent this back with me for you. Forgot it was in the trunk. "
"Oh, thanks." she said, putting her pen down and opening the lid a bit. "There's a spot on their land that has a particularly strong strain of American mistletoe. It's good for invisibility spells, she said she'd bottle it for me."
"Mistletoe turns people invisible?"
"No," Melissa said, chuckling, "It's metaphorical. Like you could walk past someone in a crowd and they wouldn't notice you, not like literally see-through, just good for hiding in plain sight, or not being tracked."
"What are those crystals in the bottom?"
"Quartz. Keeps it charged up." she passed him the bottle. "Take a look."
Sam turned it over in his hands. It resembled an herb infused oil served as a bread dip he'd had in an Italian restaurant once, but with small yellow stones in the bottom. He handed the bottle back to her, and sat down at his laptop.
"What are going to use it for?"
Melissa put the bottle back in the box. "I'll add it to a few other things, and hopefully you guys will get to St Louis unnoticed."
"Shouldn't you save some of it to keep yourself hidden, too?" Sam asked, distractedly, searching the web.
"There's plenty, it doesn't take much. It's more of the intentions anyway."
Sam barely noticed she had spoken, of that Dean had entered the room. "A heart was stolen..."
"What?" Dean asked. Sam looked up, not expecting to hear his brother.
"A heart was stolen. It was en route for an organ transplant for a two year old girl." Sam said, reading from the screen.
Melissa rubbed her forehead, "That's awful. A baby that young, the donor would be a similar age, so not only did one child die, the recipient is likely to die as well, it's not like they have tons of tiny hearts laying around."
Dean leaned over Sam's shoulder to look at the screen. Sam continued, "It was going from Frankfurt, Kentucky, headed to Colombia, Missouri."
"And St Louis is on the way." Dean mumbled. He stood up quickly, heading for the hallway. "Cas?..."
Sam looked over his screen to Melissa. "Maybe you should call and check on your kids?"
Melissa nodded and picked up her phone from the table in front of her, and started for the kitchen.
Sam could vaguely hear Dean speaking to Castiel somewhere off in the many corridors.
"Anything you might be able to do for the little girl who was supposed to get that missing heart?" Dean asked, having explained the situation.
Castiel nodded, "I'll see what I can do."
"Okay. Call when you're done, hopefully we'll be on the road already."
Dean had turned away before he heard the rustle of Castiel's wings, and was already walking back to the library when Sam passed him, headed for his own room. "I'm nearly packed, how soon can we get out of here?"
"Ten minutes?" Dean shrugged, and changed direction for his own room.
Castiel had found the dying child's room easily. She was sleeping, worried family all around her, her skin grayish and dark circles below her eyes. She had maybe a week at most.
Unseen, he went to her bedside. He could feel the marker in her genes causing the deterioration immediately.
He considered for a moment, that he had rebuilt Dean when raising him from Hell, and while that was no small difficulty, this should have been a fairly easy fix. However, being cut off from Heaven, all his power had to come from his grace alone.
If he didn't heal her, he would have more grace available to use in battle. To protect Sam and Dean, to keep Melissa and her children safe. If he healed the child, he'd be running low again, and less use in a fight, and risking the lives of those he cared for.
He wondered if he'd be able to reach the child's soul to use her own power in order to heal her, or if she was too weak, and would perish in the process.
Unheard by the parents, grandparents, and two sisters in the room, he leaned over the little girl, and whispered in her ear. "Rosie, it's time to wake up."
He stood up, placing his hand over her heart, uncertain what he'd be able to do once he'd healed her.
Dean looked at his watch as he paced in the garage. Sam came in, putting his bag into open trunk of the Impala, and seeing Dean's already inside, closed the lid. "Cas isn't back yet?"
"He can meet us on the road." Dean said, moving to open the driver's door.
Melissa hurried in, "Hold on, take this with you."
She handed Sam, who was closer to her, a jar of an odd looking fluid. "Smudge a little of this on the inside of your left wrist every 12 hours.. you know what? Make it every 10. Castiel, too, when he-"
A gust of wind and a loud thump behind him made Dean spin on his heel. "Cas!"
Sam hurried around to the other side of the car, where Castiel was getting up off the floor. Dean was keeping him upright. "Is that baby okay?"
"Rosie Pearson will live." Castiel said roughly.
"What about you?" Sam asked, "What was that, a crash landing? You're in no shape to leave."
"I'll patch him up. He'll probably get back to you before you make it half way across Missouri." Melissa said, taking Dean's place at Castiel's side, shoeing him back to the car. "Just put some of that stuff on before you pull out of here, okay?"
Dean looked at Castiel, still struggling to stay upright, and back to Melissa. "You're sure you got this?"
Sam tapped Dean's jacket sleeve, and headed back to the car, "You know she does, let's go."
Dean reluctantly got in the car, watching Melissa help Castiel through the doorway as he started the engine. He barely noticed Sam shove the jar of weird stuff under his nose. He looked confused for a moment before Sam exasperatedly stuck his own finger into the fluid, and smeared it on Dean's left wrist, closed the jar tightly, and stuck it in the glove box.
Dean shook his head, and put the car in gear, as Sam began setting a timer on his phone as they rolled out of the garage.
As they pulled out onto the gravel road leading away from the bunker, they failed to notice a pair of eyes in the near vicinity. Maggio wasn't sure who had been in the car, but he was at the right vantage point to know who was still in the bunker.
Melissa did her best to get Castiel down the hallway, but all too soon, he was leaning on the wall, and then slipping to the floor. She turned him as he went, getting his back to the wall to keep him as upright as possible.
"Stay awake, you've got to stay awake... Castiel?"
His head bobbed slightly, he was trying. He was fighting to stay fully conscious.
"Okay, we don't have time for this." Melissa said, gritting her teeth. She took a quick look around, nothing to hit her head on but the floor, and hopefully Castiel would be back to rights before that could happen.
Melissa knelt, straddling his lap, his limp hands on the floor by her knees. She took his face into her hands, steadying his head. "Please, please, let this work..."
Castiel's eyes opened for just a moment, but it was fairly clear he didn't see her.
Melissa began sinking into her trance. It was slow, keeping herself upright, holding Castiel's head up, and wondering if grace could even be put into an unconscious angel... and yet, there was something else. Something lurking nearby.
She pushed it out of her mind. Of course there was something, she was being followed by whatever was hunting her children. But it couldn't get into the bunker.
Her emotions calmed, her mind focused, Melissa noticed she began to sway, and stilled herself. She had never had to face this much difficulty before, even the first time Castiel had told her the theory of transferring grace, it had been easier than this.
Finally, the spinning sensations started. Light, mostly colored light, in waves of it, travelling through her, condensing like drops of water in the lid of a boiling pot, filling her throat chakra.
As the grace built, she tried to allow it to seep from her as it always had before.
Subconsciously, her soul reached for Castiel, prodding him, attempting to get his attention, to wake him. It wasn't working.
The dilemma of grace in the wrong type of vessel began to burn within her. She felt choked, gagged, and stabbed all at once.
Melissa pulled Castiel forward, clumsily finding his lips with her throat, and finally the grace found it's own way to him, the pain beginning to subside. Unfortunately, it wasn't leaving her fast enough. The swaying returned, but with nothing to steady herself, she faltered.
Castiel became aware of hands on either side of his face, and warmth flowing very slowly into his mouth. Deep within his own grace, where the new grace was fading into his own, it began to pool, but something was off. Something forced.
He knew that scent, the feel of these hands, but he wasn't able to come around, not entirely. The depths holding him hostage eased slightly, but his energy was still very tapped.
Castiel dreamed for a moment that he was standing on a small boat on a large lake, the waves rocking him back and forth, and suddenly he was awake.
Melissa had collapsed to the side of him, and he had been unable to catch her.
He took a moment to move one of her legs off of his before reaching to gather her up, when just past her hair, he spotted two very well polished shoes.
Castiel frowned, and continued to pick up the unconscious form of his lover.
Finally on his unsteady feet, his arms heavy, Castiel turned away, refusing to be the first to speak.