Dean was standing in the dungeon of the bunker, right inside of the demon trap, inspecting it closely to make sure there were no breaks. This was something that he was taking very seriously. If he missed anything it could mean death for him or for Sam, and at this point in his life death was not an acceptable activity for either brother.
Finally Dean looked up from the devil's trap when he heard Sam coming down the stairs and into the room. The younger of the Winchester's was carrying a bowl and mixing together the ingredients inside, "Are you about ready?" he asked.
Dean sighed and nodded, running a hand through his hair, "Yeah, I guess. I'm just gonna call Axe really quick."
Sam eyed at his brother, "You've called her three times in the last hour. Dean, it's okay to admit you miss her. Hell, this is the longest you've ever been away from her since she was born."
"And? It might literally be the last time I get to talk to her. And you're right, being away from her and not knowing if she's okay is killing me, Sammy. Not knowing if I'm gonna be around much longer to keep her safe is torture."
Sam just looked down and nodded, feeling a little guilty.
"Just let me call her and don't give me shit about it, okay?"
"Okay, sorry," Sam muttered, setting the bowl of demon summoning ingredients on the table inside of the devils trap, "I wasn't giving you shit," he sighed and shook his head, "Never mind."
Dean stepped out of the room and dialed his daughter's number before putting the phone up to his ear, it rang once before she answered.
"Hey Dad," she said cheerily. And though her voice was cheerful it still hit Dean every time she called him Dad instead of Daddy.
"Hey baby girl. How's it going up in Alaska?"
"Cold," she stated plainly.
Dean half smiled, "I know. But hey, you're starting that new school tomorrow. Are you excited?"
"I guess," she sighed, "I wish I was going back to my old school."
"I know. I wish you were too. Hopefully soon."
"When Dad?" she asked, "When do I even get to see you again?"
Dean took a deep breath, "I don't know kiddo."
"Come on Dad, if you're never coming back then just tell me now. Don't make me sit around waiting for you."
He exhaled, "Axel, I'm gonna do everything I can to get back to you as soon as I can."
"No you won't," she barked, "You hate me. That's why you dropped me off with a stranger."
"I don't hate you, baby. Don't ever say that," he pinched the bridge of his nose between his thumb and index finger, "Axe, I told you. She's your-"
"Yeah, she's my mother. But she's still a stranger. I don't know her, and it's obvious that she doesn't even want me here. Dad, I want to be with you."
"I want you to be with me too."
"Then why did you abandon me?!" she screeched, "Why am I not with you right now?"
"I'm sorry baby," he sighed softly, "I wish I could make you understand."
"Is it because of what happened with the vampire?" she asked, "It's okay. I'm okay."
"Axel, stop. Like I've said a hundred times, I don't want to fight with you. I don't have too much time to talk right now. I've gotta take care of some things. But as soon as it's safe," he took a deep breath, "As soon as it's safe I'm coming for you."
"Daddy," she let out a sigh, this is how all of their phone chats had gone since he had left. She would nail him for leaving her, then he would say he didn't want to fight, and then the two would get emotional, "I really miss you," being apart was the hardest thing Axel had ever faced and was topping the list for Dean too.
He was silent for several moments, willing himself not to cry, "I miss you too, baby. As soon as it's safe I'll tell you everything. I promise."
"Okay," her voice cracked, causing a pang of guilt to ripple through Dean.
"Just promise me something too, okay?"
"Anything," Axel agreed.
"Don't be too hard on Kristen. She's an amazing person. A little psycho sometimes, but I love her and I know you will too if you give her a chance."
"Well," Axel paused, "She is my mom isn't she? I might as well."
"I love you kid. More than anything in this world."
"I love you too. Can I call you tomorrow after school or will you be too busy?"
"I'd be pissed if you didn't call me," he teased, "Now I've gotta go. I can't wait to hear all about your new school tomorrow."
Then the phone call ended and Dean took a couple of minutes to compose himself before he slipped his phone back into his pocket and headed back into the room with Sam.
"How's she doing?" Sam asked.
"She's doing her best, but she's frustrated and pissed off."
Sam frowned, "Still?"
"Yeah," Dean nodded, "Can't say I blame her," he scratched his head, "Tell you what though, I damn sure better live through this. There's no way in hell that I'm dying while she and I have unresolved issues. I know what that was like when Dad did that to us, and I'm not letting that happen to her."
Sam chuckled softly.
"What's so funny?" Dean demanded.
"Nothing," Sam shook his head, "It's just," he paused, forming the words in his head, "Before Axel you would have been the first in line to die for a cause. Now, well now you're not. It's refreshing."
"I'm a dad now, Sammy," he looked at his brother, "You won't understand unless you have kids. I'd die for that little girl. And you can damn sure bet that I'm gonna stick around as long as I can to take care of her. But, above all else I've gotta tell her the truth. I have to be the one to do it. If I die and someone else tells her she'll have all of these questions that I won't be there to answer," he looked at his brother, "You get what I'm saying?"
Sam nodded, "Yeah."
"I just… I don't want to die while she's mad at me. I don't want her to have to live with that regret."
The long haired Winchester smiled a little, "You're a good daddy, Dean."
Dean sighed, "I don't know about that," he said, walking over to the bowl with the demon summoning ingredients, "Ready?" he asked, picking up the knife.
"As I'll ever be, I guess," Sam leaned up against the wall and shrugged his shoulders, "Not really sure what to expect."
"Neither am I," Dean agreed, "haven't seen that sister of ours in twelve years. I wonder if she'll have that five bucks she still owes me," he joked, picking up the knife and slicing open his hand, and letting his blood drip into the bowl. Sam walked over and wrapped a bandana around his brother's injured hand while Dean said the incantation and then he dropped a lit match into it, causing it to go up in flame.
Nothing happened.
Sam frowned, "Maybe we did it wrong. Your Latin is a little rusty."
"Shut up, my Latin is perfect," Dean snapped and then turned on his heel, "We probably just don't know the right spell to summon the damn queen of hell."
"It always worked for Crowley and he's the king," Sam argued, "I mean, it was just a couple little tweaks and-" And then the bunker began to shake. So violently in fact that Dean fell to the ground and Sam had to grip a shelf to keep from doing the same.
"I don't think we did it wrong!" Dean yelled over the shaking noise, but as suddenly as it had started it had stopped.
Both Dean and Sam turned to look at the devils trap, or more specifically who was inside of it. A tall, slender woman stood with her back to the men. Her long, blonde hair cascaded down her back and hung just above her bottom.
Sam and Dean traded almost scared looked, but neither said anything.
Very slowly the woman turned around, her arms folded intently over her ample bosom. The dark purple, sequin dress she was wearing hugged her perfectly curved body tightly and ended just above her kneecaps. Her long, smooth legs led down to a matching pair of high heels, where the heel was so sharply spiked that Dean was sure she could easily kill someone with it. Though, that was probably the point.
Her hands dropped from her chest to rest on her hips in a disapproving fashion, but she still hadn't opened her eyes. It was Imogen though, there was no doubt about that in either Winchester's mind. She looked the same, except strikingly more intensely beautiful.
"Wow," Dean stated confidently, clearing his throat, "Crowley kept your meat suit. Kinda surprising, I have to admit," though it didn't show in his voice Dean felt like throwing up and he could feel himself sweating.
"What can I say," her voice was as smooth as silk, "Human me had a nice body," she let her hands run over the curves of her hips on either side, "He didn't see any point in letting it go to waste. My king even fixed the stretch marks and saggy tits that come along with birthing two babies," and then finally she opened her eyes to look at her brothers.
Sam and Dean were both blown away, and both visibly flinched. The eyes, which the men had expected to be jet black, like most demons, were not. Instead they were a sparkly, shimmering gold color, something neither Sam nor Dean had ever seen before at all, much less on a demon.
"Cool right?" Imogen smirked, blinking and letting her eyes flick back to a more human color so that her brother's would be distracted, "I'm a one of a kind. Got 'em when I became the queen."
"Ah," Dean breathed, "Okay then," he was absolutely doing his best to keep his cool.
"Gotta say, Em, we had no idea you were in hell or we would have come a hell of a lot sooner," Sam explained, as if reasoning with his demonic sister was going to make up for whatever she had experienced downstairs.
"Oh Sammy boy," Imogen walked to the edge of the devils trap and stopped, knowing that she wasn't going to be able to get out of it, "Of course you didn't know. Do you really think Crowley would have made a deal with me if he thought you two would get in the way?"
"What happened to you?" Dean barked, "Making deals with Crowley? Something terrible must have happened for you to stoop that low, especially when you had a baby."
"How is the little cross breed?" Imogen asked, smiling and taking a seat in the chair that the brothers had provided. She crossed her legs and clasped her hands over her knee, "Crowley said he was going to keep an eye on her, but as fate would have it something is keeping her hidden."
Dean looked to Sam for help. They had agreed they wouldn't talk about Axel until their sister was cured, but damn it was hard.
"What?" the smile didn't fade from the demon's face, "You kill her too?" a small chuckle escaped her, "Can't say I'm surprised, Dean. You never were very good at keeping your family members alive," she motioned to herself, "Just look at me," she paused, "And Dad, and Sam, and Hell, Ellen and Jo for that matter."
Dean was trembling with rage. If that demon had been anyone except his sister he wouldn't have hesitated to break its jaw.
"Oh yeah and my mother. She's one that you actually killed willingly. Probably just for the hell of it," she smiled and looked to Sam, "Am I right?"
"You should probably stop talking," Dean said softly but sternly, "You don't want to add to the list of things you're going to be apologizing for later."
"Please," she shook her head, "I'm not going to apologize for anything," and then she looked at Sam, "You didn't think I forgot about you, did you bro? You suck at keeping things alive too. If it wasn't for your stupid drunk ass your nephew would still be alive and I damn sure never would have become a demon," she paused to drink in the horrified expression on his face, "Thank you for that, by the way," her smiled never wavered.
Dean turned to his brother, "That's not our sister talking," he nudged him, "You remember doing this for me, right?" he asked, "Well, now we gotta do it for her."
"Where's that angel?" Imogen asked, "You didn't ask him to join the chain gang?"
"Don't worry about him," Sam shook his head and looked to Dean, "Let's get this started. It's not going to be a walk in the park."
"No shit," Dean groaned, picking up one of the syringes and slowly approaching the devils trap, but not yet entering.
"You really think that's going to work on me?" Imogen questioned, getting to her feet defensively.
"Probably," Dean said with a nod, "Worked on me, didn't it?"
"Yeah, but you were just a punk ass demon. I'm literally the queen of hell."
"First off, I was a Knight of Hell. And it would have worked on Crowley, the literal king of Hell, if we hadn't given up," Dean explained, "Doubt your more resistant to the cure than he was."
Her eyes flicked back to gold, "You come anywhere near me with that poison and I will rip your testicles out through your throat and feed them to Sammy."
Now Dean smirked a little, she was afraid and that was a good thing, "Now that I've got to see," he took a step inside of the devils trap and Imogen lunged at him, "Now Sammy!" he yelled.
Sam pulled on a rope that had been hanging from the ceiling, causing several gallons of holy water to fall on Imogen and Dean. She fell to the ground, smoking, screaming, and writhing in pain only to have Dean jump on her. He had planned to cuff her into the chair, but she was stronger that he had anticipated and he knew that wasn't going to work.
"Sammy, stick her!" he yelled, struggling to keep her still and as soon as the holy water stopped burning she would overpower him.
Imogen's eyes were still glowing gold and she screamed when Sam jammed the needle in her neck and pushed the plunger, filling her with the purified blood, "You bastard!" she hissed, her golden eyes boring in to his green ones, as she roughly pushed him off of her. Quickly Dean was pulling him out of the trap and into safety.
"No actually," Dean began, wiping water from his eyes and pushing his damp hair out of his face, as he got to his feet, "My parents were married before I was born. Yours, on the other hand, weren't. So technically that makes you the bastard," the he turned to Sam, "Think you can handle her for a few minutes? I wanna get out of these wet clothes."
Sam nodded, "Yeah, no problem."
Oh but there would be a problem.