Despite their heart to heart, Jo decided to hit the road the next day. A hunter friend had texted her about a case in Texas that he needed backup on. The news had sparked an argument between Ellen and Jo over breakfast, Ellen arguing that Jo shouldn't jump into another hunt while she was still in stitches, and Jo arguing that her mother was overreacting because she thought Jo was stupid enough to "fall for another Gordon." Kat wasn't sure what that meant, but the accusation had set Ellen off, and there'd been a lot more screaming. After that, Jo had stormed out again.

A few days later, Bobby had called to let her know that the flowers he'd ordered must have reached their destination. He knew this because he had received a very loud phone call from her mother, who had railed up and down about dragging her daughter into such a dangerous situation, stashing her God knows where, and refusing to give any details. He seemed a little miffed that Kat had thought to give her mother Bobby's number in the first place, but Kat defended that she'd done that long before she'd gone into hiding and told her mother explicitly that it was for emergencies only.

"Well she definitely qualifies her 'baby girl' going MIA as an emergency," he'd grunted. "Made that pretty damn clear."

"Sorry, Bobby," Kat sighed, twirling the phone cord around her finger. "I know she was probably furious, but uh…did she say anything like…?"

"Yeah, she still loves you. She knows it wasn't your fault, but she's angling to call me every day for a bulletin on your state of mind."

"Well you can tell her I'm never gonna agree to that. Just tell her you haven't heard from me today and hang up on her."

"I might if I wasn't so worried she'd track me down out here. Seems like the type to pick a state and go door to door until she gets lucky."

"You're not wrong," said Kat with a smile. "But seriously, Bobby. Thank you for doing this."

"Yeah, yeah. Don't ask me to do it again."

Sam and Dean had also called the Roadhouse to check in—not because they had any real information, but because Ellen had them convinced that she'd skin them alive if they went more than a week without calling her again. Kat only heard snippets from the conversation, but it sounded like the boys were somewhere up north, doing something Ellen found incredibly dangerous without any kind of backup.

"What are you, allergic to giving me peace of mind?" she'd snapped into the phone. "Dean Winchester, you pull a stunt like that again and I'll stick my shotgun so far up your ass, you'll be coughing rock salt."

Kat could only imagine what Dean said in response, because Ellen slammed the phone down so hard it was a wonder the handset didn't crack. Then she'd marched to the kitchen, muttering angry to herself about delinquents, and making customers scatter out of her way.

All in all, it had not been a good week for worried mothers.

As far as the Roadhouse went, Kat thought that life was getting a little easier. She still had to put a customer down from time to time, but she was getting better at filling orders and managing how long they would take to prepare. She already knew how to count down the cash box, and prepare deposit envelopes for Ellen. And cleaning was still cleaning, no matter what kind of business you worked at. Though cleaning the Roadhouse bathroom did make Kat long for the days she was only cleaning up after women, and not hunters who were so drunk they forgot how to aim.

She wrinkled her nose as she carried the trash out to the dumpster. She wasn't sure what was worse—the smell of piss or the smell of bleach. This was definitely a contender for worst part of the job.

"Hello, Katherine."

Kat screamed, and launched the garbage bag directly into the man's chest. He looked down at it curiously, and straightened the blue tie that was hanging askew from his neck.

"Fuck," Kat gasped, grabbing at her chest. "You gave me a heart attack."

"Your heart palpitations appear perfectly normal."

Kat glared at him. She wished she'd thrown the garbage harder.

"What the hell are you doing here, Castiel?"

"I needed to speak with you."

"No, I got that. I mean what are you physically doing here? I thought if you needed to contact me you were gonna become the little voice in my head."

She tapped her temple irritably, and Castiel frowned.

"I am still unpracticed in the ways of communicating to humans in my natural form. You've expressed concerns for the safety of the Harvelles' property. I thought appearing in my human form might make you more comfortable."

"No, yeah, I just wasn't…" Kat stopped short, narrowing her eyes at him. "Wait, when did I ever say anything to you about the Harvelles?"

It was something of a giveaway when Castiel—who could barely stop staring at her the last time they'd spoken—quickly averted his eyes to the wood paneling outside the bar.

Kat's jaw dropped in horror.

"Oh my god, have you—have you been eavesdropping on me?"

"I thought my intentions were clear when I told you I would not let any harm befall you."

"Yeah, I thought that meant sticking me in a safe house, not watching me twenty-four-seven! I mean, have you been watching me this whole time? When I sleep? When I go to the bathroom?"

"In moments of vulnerability, you would be especially susceptible to…"

"Fuck, Cas, I was joking!" She let out a screech of frustration and threw up her hands. "That's disgusting! And creepy and just—no!"

Castiel sighed, looking weary. It was the same face he'd worn the last time she went off on him, an expression that read that he did not have the energy or tact to placate her. It was an expression that filled Kat with righteous rage. If he hadn't learned his lesson from last time, that was his own damn problem.

"I apologize, Katherine," he said carefully. "I will attempt to consider your privacy more thoroughly in matters of your security."

"Do you have to call me that?"

He squinted at her, his head cocked to the side.

"Katherine," she elaborated. "Just Kat is fine."

"You shouldn't dislike your given name," said Castiel. He tilted his head back to look at the sky, as if considering it from her point of view. "Katherine—from Latin. It means clear, pure."

"Well I'm not feeling too pure at the moment," she snapped, holding up her bleach-scented hands. "Can I help you with something, or did you just come to fess up about spying on me?"

"I am not spying on…" He cut himself short at Kat's glare and, withering, redirected his sentence. "There is a group of demons just north of here. One of our garrisons was monitoring them, until yesterday they vanished."

"You just lost a whole bunch of demons? What, did everyone blink at the same time?"

"We believe they have resorted to hex bags," he said tersely. "Not unlike the ones your demon associate prepared for you."

Kat's hands clenched into fists. She wanted nothing more to start screaming again, to remind him that Ruby was anything but her associate, and she would sooner send Castiel to smite her than work with her again. But before her fuse ran out, a darker thought occurred to her.

"Wait, do you think they're on their way here?" she asked. "Do they know where I am?"

"No, we believe your position is secure."

"Okay. Then why are you here?"

Castiel regarded her for almost a full minute before he spoke.

"Intelligence suggests that the demons are rallying to break a seal."

"Alright," she said slowly, still not sure where he was going. "Shouldn't you be talking to Dean about this? He's supposed to be your go-to guy for this stuff, right?"

"The Winchesters are currently in Maine. We fear they would not arrive in time to prevent whatever the demons are planning. The angels would…appreciate your assistance."

"I thought I was under holy house arrest," she said coolly.

"No. Holy house arrest, as you say, would have been a secure room of Heaven's choosing. In light of the compromise we have made, I hope you will cooperate to return the favor."

"Favor?"

Her cool was gone now, bubbling rage returning.

"You think it's a favor that you dropped me in the middle of nowhere Nebraska and refuse to let me contact my family? That's what you think of as a compromise?"

"Yes."

Castiel took several steps forward, and Kat found herself rooted to the spot. He stared at her with impossibly blue eyes. She wondered if the human he was possessing also had blue eyes, or if it was something enhanced by his angelic presence. She shivered, though there was no breeze.

"Katherine," he said lowly. "Do you honestly believe me incapable of moving you wherever I see fit? Had I wanted to, I would have removed you from that hotel room instantaneously. Instead, we allowed you the privilege of choice. All we are asking in return is your assistance in protecting this seal."

"If it's so important," she countered, struggling to hold her ground, "why don't you do it yourselves?"

"I told you. The demons' movements are invisible to angel eyes. We don't know where they're going. Only where they were last seen."

Kat was going to make a dry comment about just how good the angels were at their jobs when Castiel smiled. It was small, calculating, almost smug. The whole effect was extremely off-putting, and Kat lost a few seconds trying to compose herself. He spoke before she could.

"I expected that you would be grateful for the opportunity to help. To do good work, get out of the house. We do not know when the opportunity to go on a hunt will present itself again."

He had her there.

Kat's restless arms crossed over her chest, and she fixed him with an unamused glare.

"What do you need me to do?"

Castiel's unsettling smile widened. Victory.

"We lost the demons on the fringes of South Dakota, a town called Ardmore. There were about twenty of them heading north, and they vanished when they crossed the town border. That is where you should start."

She waited expectantly, but he said nothing else.

"That's it?" she asked. "You don't know what seal they're trying to break? What kind of deadline we're working with? That's all you've got?"

"I already explained…"

"That it's everything you know, yeah. Whatever. Bang up job, Cas."

She pushed past him, picking up the garbage bag so she could dispose of it properly in the dumpster.

"I need an answer, Katherine," he said behind her. "Will you take the mission?"

"Yes, I'll take the damn mission, alright? Just get out of my…!"

Her complaint trailed off as she whirled around to face an empty yard. The bastard had evaporated before she even got a chance to properly curse him out.

"Fuck you," she grumbled, slam-dunking the bag into the dumpster. "And now I know you're listening to me. So double fuck you."

Kat hurried back inside to the bar. It was still pretty early, so there were only three or four customers. Everyone was sitting at the bar, and Ellen was mediating some kind of argument about full shotguns versus sawed-offs. She didn't even look up when Kat walked into the room.

Pretending to wipe down a table, Kat moved behind the men and waved to get Ellen's attention. Ellen nodded and held up a finger, turning back to the argument. Kat waved again, and circled the top of her head like a halo. Ellen squinted at her, at a complete loss, and brandishing her finger again. Kat barely contained a huff of frustration. She jumped, angrily forming the sign of the cross and jabbing a finger at the ceiling.

That one did the trick.

"Would you guys excuse me?" Ellen said politely. "I just got something to fix in back. No fighting. You break it, you buy it."

She followed Kat to the back room, and closed the door tightly behind them.

"Angels?" she asked immediately. "What the hell's going on?"

"Sorry, I was just talking to Castiel."

"If you were talking to an angel, why's my bar still standing?"

"No, he came in person. Scared the shit out of me by the dumpster."

"In person?" Ellen raised an eyebrow. "Well that's mighty considerate of him."

"Don't get excited," Kat said snidely. "Consideration and privacy aren't high on the angels' priority list."

"Well what he want?"

"There's a group of demons they were tracking. They think they're trying to break a seal, but they've got a bunch of hex bags that block them from the angels. You got a map?"

Ellen nodded, rummaging through the shelves while Kat cleared a spot on the table. She dropped the book, and Kat quickly flipped through to a map of South Dakota. She scanned the edges of the state, circling the town with a finger.

"Alright, so this is where the angels lost them, and Castiel said they were headed north. They're not sure what seal they're working on, but there's a lot of them. At least twenty, and that's if they haven't picked up more on the way."

"Shit," Ellen sighed, looking over Kat's shoulder. "But why tell us, anyway? Seals ain't your problem."

Kat bit her lip, hesitantly turning to face her.

"Ellen, I know things are busy around here, but I have to go take care of this. Cas said Sam and Dean are too far out, and if I don't wanna end up in one of Heaven's cushy time-out rooms I don't really have a choice. I'm sorry."

"Don't sweat it. I can afford to close down for a couple days."

"Close down?" Kat stared at her. "You were doing fine before I got here. You can manage a few days on your own."

"Oh, and let you waltz off on your own?" Ellen scoffed furiously. "No way in hell, sweetheart. Do I have to remind you that you've a got a damn death sentence on your head? And you wanna go tango with twenty plus demons solo?"

"I'll be with the angels," Kat reasoned. "Or they'll be with me or whatever. They just need me to figure out where they went."

"Yeah, and working with the angels always seems to turn out so well for y'all. The Winchester dumbass is rubbing off on you."

Kat sagged and pinched her nose. She knew that arguments against Ellen never went well. The woman always got her way, or wormed her way far enough into your head that your felt bad about getting yours. But Ellen had given up hunting for a reason. She'd told Jo to butt out for a reason. She was out of the game, and Kat didn't want to be responsible for dragging her back in.

"Ellen, I can't ask you to do this," she said firmly. "We don't know how this is gonna pan out. You've got a business to run. You've got family."

"Gee, sounds like someone else I know." Ellen patted her on the shoulder, and flashed her a quick smile. "Pack a bag, girlie. I'll kick out the riff raff."

An hour later, they were locking up the bar and hitting the road. Ellen had an old pickup truck that hadn't seen a lot of action in the past twenty years. Kat had her reservations—she didn't like the idea of throwing her bag on the open bed, let alone having their weapons back there. If they got pulled over, there was no nifty secret compartment to hide their extremely unregistered guns and occult paraphernalia.

But Ellen was one step ahead of her. There was a large tool bin she'd rigged to the back of the cab, full of wrenches and hammers and whatever else she had on hand. Under the false bottom was her hunting tools—holy water, salt casings, silver knives, and even a bow and arrow. Ellen winked at Kat when she asked, and threw her trusty shotgun on top of the pile.

It wasn't a smooth ride, exactly. Kat longed for the easy ride of her Prius, and her vast collection of CDs. But riding with Ellen was fun. She had the radio on some old blues station, and sang along in a surprisingly beautiful voice.

"What, no hard rock?" Kat had asked, making her laugh.

"Don't get me wrong, I love me some Kansas. But listening to that shit day in and day out is exhausting. I'll take some good old rhythm and blues wherever I can get it."

"Sounds good to me."

Ellen turned up the volume, and they kept on driving.

Ardmore, as it turned out, wasn't much more than a stretch of road and some dirt. There weren't any people in sight, let alone demons. They kept driving north until they pulled into Edgemont around six. There was a tiny steakhouse on the main road, filled with just enough people that they didn't stick out, where they decided to grab some dinner.

"So what do we do now?" Kat asked over her burger. "I mean, how exactly do you track a demon?"

"I been thinking about that," said Ellen. "Normally you'd track 'em through omens—lightning storms, croaking livestock, things like that. But if they're here on serious business, I doubt they're gonna be careless enough to leave a calling card like that behind. Otherwise the angels wouldn't have any trouble finding them again."

"Okay, so…what do we do?"

"Beats me. I figured your angel buddy might've told you something."

"No, I told you," Kat huffed. "All I got was 'Ardmore' and 'good luck.' Not even that. He teleported on my ass."

Ellen pulled a face, but moved past the question.

"Alright, what did you and the boys do in Ohio? How'd you get the demons to come to you?"

"We, uh…" Ruby's face flashed in front of Kat's eyes, and she coughed. "We didn't do anything. The demons were already looking for us, so we just burned the hex bags and let them come."

"Huh. Well that's not an option."

"What about you?" Kat asked. "You ever take down a demon?"

"Plenty of times, but I don't go looking for trouble like that. Sulfur will tell us where they've been, but it's not gonna help us jump ahead. Only other thing I can think of is holy water, and that's just gonna tell us when we've found em."

"So what? We just keep driving north and throw holy water on every person we drive past?"

"Yeah, that ain't gonna go well," Ellen sighed. "There's gotta be something…"

She trailed off, and both women retreated into their heads. Kat ordered a beer. Ellen ordered a beer and then a tumbler of whiskey. They split a piece of pecan pie. They played a game of pool, which Kat lost terribly. They climbed back into the truck, and listened to the radio for another hour or so.

Darkness was falling quickly, but they weren't getting any closer to a plan. Kat wondered if she should call Sam and Dean. Handling seals was their job, after all. Even if they couldn't make it back to help save it, they might be able to point her in the right direction. But even then, the thought was fleeting. She'd barely had the mission a day and she was already trying to call it quits. She didn't want to ask the Winchesters for help, no matter how badly she might need it. Castiel had given her the mission with the confidence that she could help. Since the asshole had been spying on her day in and day out for half a month now, he ought to know her limits. If Heaven thought she could do something to help, she was gonna do her damnest.

"Well, I've got nothing," Ellen sighed. "They could be headed to the Arctic for all we know."

"This is pointless," Kat groaned. "The only way we're gonna be able to find them is if we know where they're going. And we're only gonna know where they're going if we figure out what seal they're trying to break."

"Far as I see it, that brings us back to you."

"Me?" Kat asked, turning to Ellen in surprise. "Why me?"

"You were working with Bobby, weren't you?" she pointed out. "Translating all that nonsense, researching what it meant."

"Well—Well yeah, like a month ago. But I don't have any of that stuff with me. All my research is at my apartment, with my mom, who I'm not allowed to contact under any circumstances."

"You remember any of it?"

"Not much. Bobby must've sent me like three hundred pages of shit to sift through. We weren't even sure they were all seals. It was just stuff."

"Great," Ellen said, nodding tersely. "Well that puts us directly back in the center of goddamn nowhere."

"Sorry. Last month I didn't think I was gonna be in witness protection fighting off two dozen demons. I was a little…" Kat paused, staring at the dashboard. "Wait a second. What did you say?"

"What? That we don't know what's going on?"

"No, no. You—You said the center."

"Geez, I was speaking metaphorically, alright?" Ellen said reproachfully. "I realize we ain't in Kansas. I just meant…"

"No, I know what you meant. Can I borrow your phone?"

"My…?"

"Your phone, Ellen! Gimme your phone!"

"Woah, alright! Hold on!"

Ellen fished her cell phone out of her jacket, and was barely ready to pass it when Kat grabbed it out of her hand. She didn't even need her contacts list anymore. She'd gotten so much practice dialing Bobby's number that she could do it by memory.

"Hey there, sweetheart."

"What?" Kat stopped, turning to Ellen in revulsion. "Actually, I don't wanna know."

Ellen grabbed the phone back and put on the speakerphone, unamused.

"Hey, Bobby. It's Ellen. I'm here with Kat."

"What are you doing callin' on this number? Was expecting the Roadhouse phone."

"We're out of town," said Kat waving a hand. "It doesn't matter. I need you to look…"

"Out of town?" Bobby asked incredulously. "What the hell do you think you're doing more than ten feet outta that bar? You're on lockdown for a reason!"

"Relax, Bobby, I've got a permission slip. Castiel sent me out on an errand."

"That don't mean you go, girl. The angels don't seem all that worried about humans that die on their errands."

"Listen," Kat said, rolling her eyes. "Castiel dragged me kicking and screaming to the Roadhouse to keep me safe. He's not gonna turn me loose if he thinks I'm gonna get whacked two steps out the door. We're in South Dakota. There's a bunch of demons trying to break a seal, travelling north out of Ardmore. I need you to look something up for me."

Bobby grumbled, but Kat could hear the rustling of paper as he moved to comply.

"Thank you."

"Yeah, don't come crying to me when you've got demons up to your ears. What are we looking for?"

"It was one of the last things you sent me," said Kat, taking the phone back from Ellen. "Big book. Something about being in the center of everything?"

"You're gonna need to give me more than that."

"Alright, uh…it was like some kind of illuminated manuscript. Ancient, lots of pictures. Weird shit like knights fighting snails and monks playing trumpets with their asses."

"That doesn't exactly narrow it down, Kat."

She groaned, and wiped her hands over her face. Pressing her palms against her eyes, she tried to visualize the pages of notes he'd sent her.

"Okay, um…you had post-it notes all over it. I guess you didn't want to write on the parchment. It was black pen, and then there was this huge ink mark and you switched to blue."

"Right. I got it, just a second."

Ellen and Kat exchanged confused looks as Bobby put down the phone to go look for the book. He was back a few seconds later. His voice sounded strained from the effort of holding the massive text.

"Got it. Opiza's Revelations. Gimme a second to find the page."

"Hold up," said Ellen, shaking her head. "Butt trumpet doesn't narrow it down, but blue ink does?"

"I hate the stuff," said Bobby defensively. "Don't use it if I can help it. You got a problem with Georgian illustrations, you can take it up with Brother Maynard."

"Bobby," Kat interrupted. "The center?"

"Yeah, I got it. Okay, it says, 'As when the divine is inversed in the center of all things.'"

There was a beat of silence.

"That's it?" Ellen demanded. "Well shit. I thought we were actually getting somewhere."

"Don't give us a lot to go on," granted Bobby. "What's on your mind, kid?"

"It could tell us where they're going, though. The center."

"Center of what?"

"I don't know. I'm guessing here. What's the center of the US?"

"Lebanon," Ellen answered instantly. "I hear that shit from tourists all the time. But that's in the other direction."

"No, no, no," said Bobby, catching on. "Lebanon's center of the continental. Then we snagged Hawaii and Alaska. Hold on."

He was gone for longer this time. Kat and Ellen both waited with baited breath. When he returned, Bobby sounded a lot more confident.

"Belle Fourche, South Dakota—geographic center of the fifty United States. Where are you now?"

"Edgemont," said Ellen.

"Right. Looks like it's about two and a half hours north of you. Just keep heading up 79N."

"North," Kat echoed. "I mean, it's still a long shot, but…"

"Better than anything else I've heard today." Ellen mirrored her smile, and shook her shoulder gently. "I'll be damned. Nice work, sweetie."

"You two headed there now?"

"Guess so," said Kat. "We'll get a hotel for the night, take a look around tomorrow. Keep you updated."

"I'll look into this divine inversion thing. Let you know if I come across anything."

"Thanks, Bobby." Kat ended the call, but held the phone back when Ellen tried to grab for it. "Sweetheart?"

"Don't you dare," she said, and snatched the cellphone back from her.


A/N: Alright, please suspend your disbelief while we jump into some original plot! I thoroughly enjoyed writing this chapter. It does throw into sharp relief just how hard the SPN writers work to make sense of their episodes. But we've got some more Cas and Bobby, two of my favorite characters to write.

I've also begun a Misfits fanfiction on the side, should anyone be interested. I will be publishing it chapter by chapter, rather than on a schedule like this story. Please let me know your thoughts if you check it out!

Thank you all again for your support, and I hope you're enjoying the story!