Author's Note: Hey guys :D I just wanted to shoot out a quick thank you to all of the viewers who write reviews of encouragement and the motivation you give me to continue writing this story :) It's become a lot more complex and bigger than I ever thought it would be. I especially didn't expect to make it 25 chapters, so you guys can pat yourselves on the back!

Also, please let me know if a playlist would be a good idea to have for this story. I listen to a certain set of songs whenever I'm writing this to get me into the right mood, and of of course there's all of the songs mentioned in this which I do not claim the rights to.

Let me know :3

-XeroSanity

Chapter 25

Moving On

In the morning, Sam woke up, wrapped around Cassie to find that he wasn't in pain.

At all.

I should be, he thought. He'd sprained his arm from falling out of a window the night before, and his face had been bashed in by Amarandos.

But he was okay.

He touched his face and felt that all the cuts had not only healed, it was like they were never there in the first place.

Sam lifted up the comforter to look at Cassandra.

He blushed when he remembered she wasn't wearing any clothes, but his heart got caught in his throat when he saw her.

Her hips, arms and legs were bruised up very badly, and she still had blood on her bottom lip that had scabbed over from healing.

Sam knew that Angels had the ability to heal people almost instantaneously, but could Cassie do it, let alone do it in her sleep?

It was definitely a possibility, but right now Sam didn't have time to ponder about it.

They had to get the hell out of Sanford.

But seeing her like that, bruised and broken, he didn't have the heart to wake her yet. She looked so frail and exhausted. Sam put the duvet comforter back over her and made sure to tuck it in around her so she'd stay warm.

After a quick shower and loading up the last of their belongings in the Impala, Sam grabbed Cassie's backpack and brought it back in so she could change into regular clothes.

He looked down at Cassie again.

In the past week, she'd evoked feelings in him he didn't know he was capable of having anymore.

She gave him hope. He was always so afraid of falling in love because he didn't want the woman he cared about getting hurt.

Or worse.

But it was almost as if being around her was…healing him.

And not just on the outside.

He was finding himself capable of trusting others, and being able to depend on them.

It made him realize that the resentment he felt towards Dean for making him stop when he was about to complete the trials, the anger and betrayal he clung to when Dean tricked him into having Gadreel possess him…

He had to let it all go, and move on.

Because now he had a future to move on to.

He was about to wake Cassie, but then was suddenly struck with an idea.

He went into her desk and grabbed a scrap of paper and wrote on it, putting it on her night stand.

He blew out the candle, which overnight had given the room a comforting, warm vanilla smell, and silently stepped out so she could keep sleeping.

To be safe, he made a production of lining all the windows, cracks and doors in the house with salt so she'd be safe when he was gone.

He had one last errand to do before they went home.

Sam found himself at Brontes jewelry store again, and was once more greeted by Ikaros.

"Hello again," he said, disgruntlement in his tone but not the desire to kill him where he stood.

It's a good starting point. "I need to talk to Sabine."

Ikaros was surprised that Sam knew her name, let alone that he wanted to speak with her. "She's in our main office. I'll let her know you're here."

Ikaros went through the door behind the jewelry counter. There was some muffled talking for a few moments before he peaked his head out and said, "Come in."

Sam nodded, and stooped down to get into the door.

Inside was a Persian-style office which was decorated with a harmonious blend of brightly colored rugs and throw pillows and black modern-looking furniture.

The space was also lit with an ancient-looking iron chandelier, which used light bulbs instead of candles.

"Ah, the human who offed my brother and destroyed my house," Sabine said, but she had a smile on her face. "I owe you my thanks."

"That's good," Sam said, sitting down. "Because I need a favor."

Sabine was dressed in black capris and a light blue tunic, wearing no shoes but silver anklets that wound up her ankles. "What do you want?" she asked.

Sam said very seriously, "I want you to make a necklace."

She raised an eyebrow, her smile full of mischief. "And this necklace is for a special someone?" she asked.

He nodded. "Can you make it look something like this?" He pulled his shirt down so she could see the part of his chest over his heart.

She looked at the tattoo with curiosity, and nodded. "Yes, I can. Demon protection?"

"Yep," Sam said.

"And why would your special someone need that?"

Sam looked at her dead on. "I know it's impossible to keep Cassie a secret forever. The King of Hell already knows about her and the second he figures out that she's an Angel with her wings clipped he's going to do everything in his power to get to her."

"I see," Sabine said. "And the thought of her squirming in pain while getting ink carved into her skin doesn't appeal to you?" She didn't say it with the intention of making him uncomfortable, but the image surfaced in Sam's mine and made him flinch anyway.

"How much longer are you staying in town?" she asked.

Sam shook his head. "Not long. Maybe two hours. Cassie's still sleeping and by the time she wakes up she's gonna want to be as far away from here as possible."

Sabine nodded, biting her lip in thought. "I can have it done in four, if I do it myself. What material do you want it made out of?"

"silver and iron, with salt mixed in, if possible."

"I can do you one better. It'll have salt crystals placed into it to give it that extra sparkle. Make it a bit more feminine. Women love big rocks," she grinned.

"Fine."

"The amount will come to about… $32,000."

Sam raised an eyebrow. "Is that how much you usually charge your clients?"

"Heavens no, it's much more. But it is a custom made piece and the amount of time I have to work on it is so little, not to mention it's a commission from a hunter on such short notice – "

"– Cassie is the one who killed your brother, not me. You can consider this a thank you gift to her. Your brother was a power-hungry psycho who almost killed her. He was willing to kill his own brother, and I'm sure it would've been only a matter of time before he tried to gank you too. She saved your life, and now you're the head of your own Empire."

"There isn't a guarantee that he would've killed me, and she destroyed my house in the process."

"You tell me," Sam said crossing his arms. "You knew your brother better than I did. If given the opportunity under the right circumstances, do you really think he wouldn't have tried?

Sabine fell silent, and then looked down as if she were going through in her mind all the events where he almost killed her or could've.

"She insured your security and safety. The least you can do is return the favor."

She sighed, but then looked up at him. "I'll have it done in five. You don't owe me anything and neither does she, but this makes us even. After you pick up the necklace today, I don't want to see you here ever again."

"You won't," he replied.

Cassie slept for another three hours before finally waking up.

But her heart raced with panic when she didn't feel Sam around her.

She caught herself, finding it surreal that she had grown used to waking up beside him. She rubbed her eyes and looked around.

The room smelled good, like sugar cookies.

She felt the bed sheets against her skin and realized she wasn't wearing any clothes.

She lied there in bed for a moment, just going over in her head all the events of the past few days.

Meeting and disowning her mother all in a span of an hour, restoring her old house, dinner with Amarandos, the ridiculously impractical and overly lavish gown she had to wear –

Her jaw tightened with anger.

Cassie got out of bed, still sore but ignoring it, getting on her bra and underwear before getting dressed in the blue flannel shirt and jeans, then stomped to the bathroom.

Sam had tidied up. The towels he used were hung up to dry, he'd wiped up the floor that had dripped after he stepped out from his shower, and the dress she had worn was in a black garbage bag on the floor.

And her Angel Blade had been placed on the side table.

It was an odd sight to her, to have a stack of toilet paper and a cup of Q-tips next to a menacing weapon like that in her bathroom.

She immediately grabbed it, and took what was left of the blood-stained dress, dragging it down the stairs and sitting down in front of her fire place.

It hadn't been used in years.

Sam wasn't in the bathroom and when Cassie walked through the kitchen to get to the backyard, he wasn't there either.

He probably went to run errands before we hit the road.

And she had something she needed to do too.

She took her blade and slashed it at a giant tree that laid horizontally in her yard. The tree hadn't been there before, so she guessed it must've fallen down after a bad hurricane.

The blade cut through the wood with ease and after a while she had a wholesome looking pile of firewood.

She brought it in through the kitchen, piece by piece and spent another twenty minutes gathering kindling in her yard.

She also went to the front yard gather all of the newspapers that had been thrown to her house but had been left there and never picked up.

She was about to make use of it all.

She glanced across the street and saw the Impala wasn't there.

Loverboy wouldn't have left you behind, would he? A voice from inside her said.

It made Cassie jolt. "Never," she said out loud, not even being daunted by the stupid question.

You have so much faith in him it's disgusting. It's like you guys are Edward and Bella or something.

Cassie scoffed. "Yeah, sure, I'm just like Bella," and then proceeded to throw some of the wood and kindling in the fireplace, and twist some strips of newspaper to set it all ablaze.

Once she got the fire going with Sam's lighter, she immediately and with gusto threw the dress into it.

Cassie's heart beat fast in fear when it made the fire turn purple and blue.

It must've been the potion from the spell. It was all over the dress.

Eventually once the dress had been burnt completely the fire turned back to its normal orange and gold coloring.

It reminded her of when her father would light it during Christmas time, and they'd just spent their Christmas break wearing sweaters and drinking cocoa.

Christmas vacation was like Pioneer week. They woke up early, went to bed late, didn't use much electricity and didn't turn on the heat, only used the fireplace, and the oven was always on, whether Cassie was baking pies with her grandmother or cooking something else for dinner, her home had always been full of the warmth and good smells of home, and labor.

But the good kind of labor that made you proud of your work, whether it had been chopping firewood or something as normal as shoveling the driveway.

She'd been so young then. Now here she was, back home at twenty two years old, a woman in love.

She looked down at the blade in her left hand.

Wait a minute. Left?

She was right-handed.

But her instinct had been to use it with her left.

"You said I was a warrior?"

"The finest in your Garrison. You were called the Dual Wielder. You were the only Angel that used two blades when fighting. Even your brother Castiel, who shares the same energy in his Grace as yours, never achieved a sword skill to that degree."

I wonder…

She put the blade down on the couch and opened her backpack, rummaging through it for Suan Ywe Gou.

Maybe I could use these instead of two angel blades.

She held the Angel blade in her left hand, and Suan Ywe Gou in her right.

She'd never used weapons like these in her life.

You have, Sarah reminded her, you just don't remember.

Cassie took a deep breath. "Maybe it's still in there somewhere."

She closed her eyes and focused.

I am an Angel of the Lord. I was trained by Heaven's best to fight demons.

Cassie had never wanted to kill anything in her life.

But what about when Sam was in danger?

Like last night.

She killed Amarandos.

If I can do that, she told herself, then using two blades shouldn't be too hard.

She practiced moving around with them, slicing the air at an imaginary target and she found that when she did something with her right hand, her left hand responded without her realizing it to match what her right hand was doing.

Holy crap.

She could do this.

She practiced like that for forty minutes but then felt silly, slashing at nothing.

I'll let the boys teach me, she thought, and got a funny image in her head of Castiel being the patient, gentle teacher, while Dean was the hardass and Sam was just focused on not accidentally hurting her so he went too easy on her.

It made her laugh.

She decided to shower since all the work from preparing the fire and practicing made her all sweaty, so she took a quick one and got dressed back into her clothes.

When she stepped out into her room the house was nice and warm from the fire she had lit, and it made her smile.

Even the floor underneath her felt warm from the fireplace underneath.

It was as she was unwrapping her hair from the towel that she saw the note on her night stand.

She picked it up and smiled when she realized it was Sam's handwriting.

Cassie,

I'll be back in a few hours. I'm just taking care of a few things before we head back.

I'll see you soon.

Sam

There was a heart drawn after his name, and it mad her all warm and fuzzy inside.

God I love him.

Jeez, relax, you're fangirling over one note. Keep it together, woman.

But even the sound of Sarah's condescending voice couldn't dampen her mood.

It was actually kind of a good thing that Sam had left her by herself.

Because she needed a moment alone to think of what she was going to do with the house.

She restored it to its natural state, but she couldn't just leave it.

She would've loved to stay, but she had a whole new life waiting for her now.

With Sam.

She looked around her room at everything, from her acoustic guitar that sat in the corner, her white night stand, the bookshelf that had all of her –

And suddenly she knew what she was going to do.

She tensed at the sound of the door opening downstairs, but grinned when she realized it must be Sam.

She slid down the railing like she had when she was younger to come to a stop at the banister, perched on top of it with a big smile and flushed cheeks. "Hey," she said.

Sam laughed. "Hey there," he said back, walking up to her. "I'm glad you're awake." Since she was sitting on the banister, they were the same height and she definitely took advantage of that.

She leaned in and kissed him gently. "I'm ready to go home," she said.

He sighed with relief, taking her in his arms. "Me too."

Cassie looked up at him and admitted, "I just have one thing I need to take care of first."

They pulled up in front of the library.

"I won't be long," she said and kissed him before stepping out of the car.

"I'll be here," he promised.

Cassie looked back at him before running up the steps to the library. She walked through the library's doors and the head librarian made eye contact with her.

Her eyes widened like she was seeing a ghost.

Cassie smiled shyly and waved, heading up the huge open staircase that went to the second floor.

She walked through the rows and rows of books until she got to the very back, where the fire escape was.

Cassie knew that the alarm hadn't worked for years, so she pushed through the door.

This was the tricky part.

She climbed up onto the roof of the fire escape and hoped it wouldn't collapse underneath her.

But after some arm-work she was up on the roof.

The girl was there as she had been the last time Cassie saw her. Sitting in a pretzel on the ground, two huge stacks of books on either side of her, as if they were walls, reading a book.

Cassie stood there for a minute, unsure of how to approach her. She ended up just clearing her throat.

The girl immediately stood up and turned around, book in hand. Once she saw Cassie, she took a few steps backwards, hugging the book to her chest, accidentally bumping into the stacks of books and knocking them over.

Dammit, she thought.

Cassie could see the girl had bags under her eyes, and she was skittish, like she was used to being taken by surprise, and having it end badly. She also had a bruise on her cheekbone that hadn't been there before.

"Hi," Cassie said. "Don't worry, I won't tell anyone you're up here. I just wanted to give you something."

The girl eyed Cassie suspiciously.

"Um…" Cassie coughed, "My name is Cassie. When I was your age I used to read up here, too. It's great that someone else figured out how good of a reading spot this is," she smiled at her, hoping the girl would feel a bit more relaxed if she appeared welcoming."

The girl glanced at where she had been sitting. "How long ago was that?" she asked.

"Ever since I was thirteen, so nine years ago," she admitted.

The girl looked Cassie up and down. "I don't do drugs," she said. "And even If I did, I don't have any money."

Cassie sighed. "I'm not trying to sell you drugs. Here." She held out a small piece of paper.

The girl glanced at the paper, then back at Cassie, and did so for a few moments. "What is it?"

Cassie glanced down at the paper, then back at the girl and raised an eyebrow, as if to say, "Why don't you take it and find out?"

The girl couldn't help but be drawn in by Cassie's mischievous expression and walked up to her slowly, taking the piece of paper.

She unfolded it to see 934 Platt Avenue.

"It's an address," she said.

"Yeah." Cassie put her hands in her pockets nervously. "It's just um…it's my old house. But I can't live there anymore. It's empty, and it'll be empty forever. But…if you ever need a place to go…for any reason, it doesn't matter… you can go there."

The girl looked back up at Cassie. "W-why?" she asked.

Cassie bit her lip nervously, her eyes filled with sadness. "Because I was you once. I know what it's like to need a safe place, and not have one."

The girl looked back down at the paper and to Cassie's amazement the girl's eyes started pooling with tears, and she wiped them roughly away with her arm. "You look beat up," the girl said, sniffling.

Cassie laughed weakly, remembering how she must've looked. "So do you," she said without intending to contain bitterness in her tone.

The girl looked down at the ground, as if ashamed. "Why do you care? You don't even know me," she asked.

Good question.

But Cassie knew the answer now.

She looked up at the girl, and without any humor or uncertainty said, "I am an Angel of the Lord. And…that means it's my job to take care of people, so I want to start."

It was time that Cassie stopped running.

Running from her fears, her problems, her past.

She had to face it all and learn who she was, and most importantly do the best she could to help people.

Because no matter what a person is, Hunter, Angel, Soldier, or even just a regular human…

Their job is to help people.

And save them when they could.

The girl scoffed. "Yeah, okay."

Cassie said, "If you want to get in, climb up the tree that the porch is built around. At the top there's a purple pouch tied to one of the branches. It's the key to get in."

The girl raised an eyebrow. "I have to climb a tree?"

Cassie shrugged. "It shouldn't be too hard. You've mastered how to scale a fire escape."

The girl scrunched her face, like she didn't enjoy losing a debate. "Touché."

Cassie smiled, and without another word climbed back down from where she came.

The girl watched her go back inside the library and then ran over the ledge of the library to see Cassie stepping into a black car, and seeing it drive off and disappear.