Disclaimer: I own nothing.

Warning: The word rape does appear, and someone will end up rather beaten up. You have been warned.

Dean had seen the group wound up before, but this was sheer insanity. Matt and Luke were spouting out crude limericks, Val was blushing even as he grinned, and Andy sat watching Matt, shaking his head and laughing. Crowley and Bobby looked like they were flirting with each other, and Dean wasn't going to think too deeply on that.

Strangely Gabriel was quiet, but the sight of Sam being threatened might have quieted him.

Dean shouted over the ruckus to Gabriel in the cage next to him, "What are they doing?"

"Hey if we're going to die let's have some fun!" Matt shouted back, before launching into his seventh sea chantey so far.

"Yeah well, pipe down." Bobby snapped at them. "Idjits."

"Robert luv, you're in a bad mood."

"Luv?" Val looked up and looked disgusted.

"I'm old I'm not dead." Crowley replied to his son.

Val seemed stunned at that response. "I know that. I'm thankful for that."

"Then shut up and flirt with your boy and let me flirt with mine."

Dean gagged, and Bobby glared at him. "That goes for you too."

Val shared a sympathetic look with Dean who shrugged.

There were no guards, but no Sam either and Dean was upset. To come this close to his brother and fail!

Gabriel was looking past Dean, and Dean followed his gaze. Castiel sat in the corner, close to Dean's side, hunched in a ball.

Dean moved over. "Cas?" he reached through the bars to touch Cas, who looked over at him.

"I'm sorry Dean. We came this close."

"Hey, we're not dead yet."

"Damn straight we're not!" Luke called.

"I'm glad you and Val are in separate cells." Gabriel spoke. "Or you might have sex here and now."

"In front of Crowley?" Andy questioned.

Luke was chuckling and Val shrugged. "Hey if we're going to die…"

Crowley glared at him and Val grinned back. Luke winked at him, and Gabriel continued.

"Of course that would mean Luke; you'd finally lose your virginity."

Luke turned a deep scarlet, opened his mouth, looked at Val, his jaw moved, and then he shut up and moved to the back of his cell.

Matt cracked up, not the deep chested laughter Dean had heard but a higher more brittle sound, showing that he was as worried as the rest of them. Andy glanced at Matt, and sighed.

Dean glanced at Gabriel, wondering why Luke had shut up. Gabriel signaled him over.

Dean crossed and Gabriel rose to speak to him.

"Luke can't admit he's a virgin, because Matt would tease him. Hell I'd tease him. He can't deny it, because he is one and Val would start wondering."

Dean understood and chuckled. "Oh."

"Go ahead, laugh." Luke muttered, eyes trained on them.

"It's a little hard to since we're caged like dogs." Dean replied, and Luke shrugged.

"It's not like we could play strip poker."

"I'm not playing poker with Dean! Sam stole my money, he'd take my clothes!"

"Bull shit, no one would steal your clothes." Val informed Matt with a bored look on his face. "You've got nothing the rest of us want to see."

Matt's mouth fell open, and he shook his head. "Well damn. That was…"

Val slowly grinned and nodded to Crowley. "My father taught me."

Footsteps made them all get quiet, and look towards Andy's side of the room, near the door.

Three members of Lucifer's crew walked in and studied them. "Well, which one you want boys?"

"The blond one's rather pretty." Val visibly stiffened, and Luke's jaw tightened.

"You can't have Gabriel, Captain wouldn't like that." The third mused. "This one though." He gestured to Andy. "We could start with him."

A low growl caught Dean' attention, but he was more focused on the fact Andy was scrambling backwards, and the three men were entering Andy's cell. They moved towards Andy, one grabbing him by shirt.

Then one made a grave error. He stood too close to Matt's cage.

"Ow! Shit!"

Matt had hit him between the bars, and let out a loud, well, snarl. He looked almost feral, and the other two turned from Andy, one releasing him.

Matt was trembling and clawed at the one he'd hit, who was rubbing his side. The other two stepped out of Andy's cage, leaving him on the floor. The injured one stalked towards Matt's cell door, as Andy's clanged shut. Matt looked like a caged animal.

"You'll pay for that."

Matt grinned, and slid into a crouch. He'd make them pay for every blow they swung, and smirked a cold cruel smirk that scared Dean a little.

It was a mess. Dean could barely see what was happening, but Matt was laughing, there was the sound of something breaking, a swear word, Andy had gotten to his feet now, as the four men in the cell next to his battled.

One tumbled out, it wasn't Matt, and he looked horrible though. He spat and Dean swore there was a tooth in the wad of blood.

Matt had lost though, his arm twisted behind his back, and he got a savage hit to the gut.

Matt spat, but that was his only response. He was scraped up, but not as bad as Lucifer's crew. Considering he'd taken on three men, it was an impressive feat.

"What is this, a bar brawl? What is going on down here?" a new voice spoke, and a man swaggered in, his accented voice, a version similiar to Val's, filled the room.

"Balthazar." One of the men glared. "We wanted to, take care of some things."

"By pummeling him?" Balthazar looked them over. "Or the losing part?"

The other leered. "You know what I meant. Well, this one didn't like it, and we were showing who ran this ship."

"And that would be you?" Balthazar's voice had become dangerous. "Last I checked you weren't captain. If you'd like to inform me, and Lucifer, otherwise…"

The three all shared a look as Balthazar continued. "Oh, I see."

"Lucifer told us we could."

"Lucifer was likely testing you. Seeing you'd put yourselves and your pleasures before him." Balthazar rolled his eyes. "He'll probably kill you along with them."

The three were silently moving towards the door, although one thought to shut Matt's door.

"Good going Alastair."

"This wasn't my idea." The second one, his voice made Dean shiver. "I just wanted to see them squirm."

Balthazar waited until they were gone to comment. "You got lucky, Alastair, well…" Balthazar shook his head. "He'd do some nasty things to you."

"I got that, thanks though." Matt muttered.

"Worse than your usual beating." Balthazar muttered. "You don't want to know the things he likes to do."

Gabriel was stiffening with every word Balthazar spoke, and Castiel was staring at him.

"Relax Gabriel; Lucifer didn't let him near Sam." Balthazar glanced at Castiel. "It's been awhile."

"It has," Castiel agreed.

Balthazar sighed, and shook his head. "I should tell you, I did miss you two. I should've gone with you."

Gabriel nodded. "I'm sorry you didn't."

"Excuse me, people will notice my absence." Balthazar muttered. "Not Lucifer of course, but-"

"What's he doing to Sam?" Gabriel and Dean demanded at the same time.

"Nothing." Balthazar replied. "Not that I can tell. I think he's trying to get him to say yes, to spare all of you."

"Can we trust him?" Dean asked.

Castiel touched his arm. "Balthazar was our friend Dean."

"Is he now?"

"Yes." Balthazar answered. "More than some members of your crew. Or a member rather."

He glanced at Andy and mouthed something to him. With that done he headed away. "I suppose I'll see you all at sunset."

Once the door shut Matt groaned.

"You're an idiot." Andy snapped.

Matt chuckled. "What, because I wouldn't let them rape you? It was just a beating."

"Just a beating? You heard him!" Andy snapped, "They might've killed you."

Matt rolled over to look at Andy. "Might've killed me, would've raped you. Went with the possibility they wouldn't."

"Matt, I could've survived."

Matt growled. "Better it was me. I can take a beating."

Andy slammed his hand against the cage bars. "Damn it Matt, you have no idea how badly you scared me do you?"

"What?" Matt rolled over, and shoved himself into a sitting position, slowly. He seemed only bruised, but after a fight like that Dean didn't blame him for moving slowly.

"You could've been killed, for me!" Andy snapped at him, "It scared the crap out of me!"

Matt shrugged. "There are worse things to die for than friends."

"So we are friends?"

"What's that supposed to mean?" Matt glanced at him.

Andy raised an eyebrow, "You tell me, you were the one who couldn't stay far enough away from me."

Matt flinched, and Dean would beat not just because he'd moved. "About that night, I was angry, and… That's why I got in that fight."

Andy was silent and Matt sighed. "I'm sorry, okay? I should've told you when you asked."

Andy turned his head. "What was that?"

"I should've told you when you asked." Matt repeatted, looking down.

"The other part."

"I'm sorry Andy."

Andy stared at him, and Luke's jaw fell open. "We really are going to die if Matt's apologizing."

"Go to hell!"

Luke smirked. "You're from there, what's it like?"

Matt turned to look at Luke, slowly grinned, and shook his head. "Why do I put up with you?"

"Because you love me?"

"Right here, Luke."

"Sorry, Val." Luke grinned as Matt looked disgusted.

"No offense Luke but I am not interested." Matt glanced at Crowley. "Not just because Val probably has some inventive way to kill me."

Val grinned and cocked an eyebrow. "Let's not get into that."

"Please." Matt agreed. "We're just friends, right Luke?"

"Definitely."

Andy looked surprised, and slowly nodded.

"Now what did Balthazar want?" Matt asked, and Andy jerked out of his thoughts.

"Oh yeah, he told me to check my…" Andy pulled out a bunch of papers. "Pocket?"

"Balthazar brought you down here." Gabriel remembered. "He put those there."

"Umm…" Andy slowly shook his head. "Gabriel these are for you."

"What do you mean?" Gabriel asked.

Andy cleared his throat. "Dear Gabriel. I swear the worst part about writing these letters is that while I'm writing them is when I miss you, Dean and the others of course, the most. Just to see you one more time would be worth any hell Lucifer cares to put me through right now. Love, Sam."

"I think I just lost all respect for Sam." Matt muttered.

Luke chuckled. "It's not that bad."

"Why, what did you write to Val?"

Val grinned. "Things that you wouldn't understand."

Matt gagged. "Lovely."

Andy was staring at Matt. "You know I was courting once."

Matt stiffened. "Oh."

"Matt, Andy's trying to pass the notes to Gabriel; my arms aren't that long though." Luke was reaching across the cage.

Matt took the notes and gave them to Luke, who stretched his arm, and just managed to give them to Gabriel.

Dean looked around and narrowed his eyes. "Umm… Gabriel?"

"Yes?" Gabriel was reading the notes. "There's one for you, don't worry."

"Not that, thanks though." Dean ran his tongue over his lips. "Where are Ash, Jo and Ellen?"

"Hush." Gabriel glared at him. "Don't worry about them, they're fine." He whispered. "I just don't want this crew knowing they're hiding."

Dean nodded. "Not to sound stupid…"

"Too late."

Dean glared at him. "What about Vetis?"

Crowley groaned. "Shit!"

Everyone looked at him, and he muttered. "Convenient, isn't it, that The Cage is waiting in the perfect spot to ambush us? Like they knew we'd be going that way?"

"And…" Bobby prompted.

Crowley rolled his eyes. "Balthazar said it himself, more loyal than some of this crew."

XXX

Vetis stood in the Captain's Quarters, leaning against the wall next to the doorway. He studied Sam, one finger resting on his pistol, as Lucifer re-entered the room.