Chrys ran back to the room where the others were, listening closely for Sam's heavy, almost hesitant footsteps behind her. She was worried about him, and she was sure that the hallucinations he'd been experiencing weren't even close to being over, but she pushed through her concern and fear to get to Dean and Bobby. She was going to have to prioritize.

She almost skidded to a stop when she got back to the room they'd left the others in, her wide blue eyes taking in Cass lying on his back on the floor, flanked by Dean and Bobby. Dean was speaking, voice loud and urgent. "Is he breathing?"

Bobby held a hand in front of Cass' face. "No."

"Maybe angels don't need to breathe." The gentle desperation in Dean's voice broke Chrys' heart.

Bobby's, too, apparently. "He's gone, Dean." It was the same tone of voice he'd used to tell Chrys that she could stay with him after the apocalypse that wasn't. We undervalue Bobby sometimes, she thought semi-hysterically.

Dean's head bowed. "Damn it, Cass," he snarled. "You child. Why didn't you listen to me?"

Even as he spoke, the angel's chest heaved, and blue eyes opened to look around wildly. Chrys hurried forward to fall to her knees beside Dean as his hands fluttered over Cass. "Woah, hey! Hey, Cass, okay, all right, you're all right," he was murmuring.

Cass winced. "That was… Unpleasant."

Chrys was already moving. "Come on, let's get you up."

Dean helped her pull the angel to his feet. "Easy, easy."

Cass blinked. "I'm alive."

"Looks like," Bobby said gruffly.

"I'm astonished." Castiel met each of their gazes individually. "Thank you. All of you."

Chrys rolled her eyes. "Just trying to save the world, flyboy, don't get flattered."

Cass hung his head. "I am ashamed. I really… Overreached."

Dean snorted. "Ya think?"

Cass looked up at Dean, his blue eyes burning. "I'm going to find some way to redeem myself to you."

Dean looked away. "All right, well, one thing at a time. Come on, let's get you out of here."

"I mean it, Dean."

"Okay, all right. Let's just get-"

Castiel convulsed, tearing himself away from their combined grasp. Chrys tried to grapple with him, but the angel was backing away. "You need to run! Now!"

"Cass-" she started.

"I can't hold them back!"

Dean was frowning, refusing to back away. He met Chrys' eyes briefly before looking back to Castiel. "Hold who back?"

"They held on inside me." Cass' pained gaze landed on Dean. "Dean, they're so strong." The agony in his voice actually sent a bolt of sympathy through Chrys' chest.

Dean was scowling. "Who?"

"Leviathan!" Cass roared. "I can't fight them. Run!"

Chrys grabbed Dean and started to drag him through the door. "Come on! Let's go! Dean!"

Cass straightened up, and his entire demeanor was different. Chrys' blood was frozen in her veins when he looked her way. "Too late," he said, his voice lilting, taunting.

"... Cass?" Dean asked, timid.

"Cass is… He's gone. Dead." The thing wearing Jimmy Novak grinned a blood-curdling grin. "We run the show now. This is going to be so much fun."

Chrys watched in horror as huge black veins started to spread across Castiel's face and neck. The thing started to pace. As it did, the big veins pulsed in time with his steps. She noticed the thing's smile was fading, and there was black goo dripping from it's hand, and starting to run down it's face from it's hairline.

She smirked. "Oh, how many of you ass-clowns are in there? A hundred? More?" When it turned to look at her, she grinned. "Your vessel is about to explode, isn't it? I wouldn't do anything too crazy if I were you. In fact, I might even consider calling it a day, heading on home."

It seemed to be glaring at her, but Chrys was distracted by the way the goo seemed to be clouding over Cass' right eye, covering the blue in black. "We'll be back. For you."

Chrys watched as it shuffled out the door, kind of at a loss for what to do. She turned to look at the others, but they were all looking at the door, too.

"Well, that's a new one," Bobby said dryly.


"You're still in the cell with me, Sammy," Lucifer crooned in his ear. "You think this is reality? Please. We're bunkmates,buddy." Sam tried desperately to focus on the situation at hand and not the devil's whispers.

"Shit, we have to follow him," Dean said roughly, starting to stride toward the door.

Sam wanted to follow, he really did. He wanted to stand with his brother against everything, and if this really was the loss of Castiel, Dean was going to need someone to be there for him.

Before he could move, however, Lucifer was standing in front of him. Sam flinched, and stared at he was desperately hoping was a hallucination in horror. The way his heart was pounding certainly wasn't imagined, though, and he started to fear that Lucifer wasn't, either.

He had opened his mouth to beg the fallen archangel to leave again when the image dissipated around Chrys, who had stepped in exactly the space Lucifer had occupied. The glow of her eyes told him that she knew what she'd done, and Sam took another moment to be insanely grateful that this woman was in his life.

"Hey, handsome," she said softly, her low voice soothing in its suredness. "We gotta follow Cass, you with me?"

He nodded. "Yeah, yeah, I'm with you." He let her wrap his fingers in her slim ones and lead him out the door, after Dean and Bobby.


Chrys' stomach sank when Cass' head went below the water in the reservoir. Black, glowing swirls exploded from the spot, then spread through the water and slowly disappeared. Cass stayed down.

"Shit," she whispered with feeling.

Bobby nodded. "You said it. Those… Whatever you call 'ems…"

"Leviathan," Sam provided.

Another nod. "Right. If they're in the pipes, they got themselves a highway to anywhere.

Dean leaned down and picked up Castiel's trenchcoat, which had floated to the edge of the reservoir. He stared down at it sadly, making Chrys' heart ache fiercely. Oh, Dean.

"Okay," Dean finally said softly. "So he's gone."

"Rest in peace," Chrys responded, then stopped and frowned. "If that's even in the cards."

Dean shook his head. "Dumb son of a bitch."

Bobby shrugged. "Well, he was friends with us, wasn't he? Can't get much dumber than that. Come on, those things will be coming up for air soon."


Sam woke up to dual voices summoning him.

"Hey," Lucifer said cheerfully. "Wake up, sunshine! Up and at 'em, atom man!"

"Sam," Chrys' soothing voice murmured, her soft hand running through his hair and caressing his cheek. "Sam, baby, I need you to wake up for me."

He started awake, staring around wildly until he landed on Chrys' pretty face. Lucifer sat behind her, but Sam worked to ignore him. He tried to get lost in Chrys' concerned eyes, instead.

"Hey, handsome," she said softly, a smile on her face. "How are you feeling?"

"Like shit," he responded promptly. He took a deep inhale to steady himself, then looked back up at her in surprise. "Did you make breakfast?"

She chuckled and took his hand to wrap it around a warm mug. "I even brought you some in bed. Don't get used to it, I'm not this nice." She gently took his other hand, which he realized with a frown was wrapped in gauze. "Let's check on this, yeah?"

She started unwrapping the bandage as he asked, "What… What the hell is that?"

She didn't even pause in her ministrations. "You fell yesterday, when we were in the warehouse. I stitched you up while you were asleep." She looked up to smile at him. "You were pretty out of it, hot stuff."

Sam digested this for a moment, then nodded. "I must have been." He took a sip of the coffee she'd handed him, unsurprised when it was perfect.

"Mm, mm, mm," Lucifer hummed. "Look at her. She really is perfect for us, isn't she Sammy?"

"So, ooze invasion," Sam said, just a little too loud. "Any leads?"

"We got feelers out," Dean said as he entered the living room. He handed Chrys a new swathe of gauze without her having to ask.

"Whatever they're up to," Bobby was right on Dean's heels as they walked in, "it ain't about going Mothra down Main Street. They'll turn up."

Sam winced when Chrys smeared disinfectant on his hand, and had the presence of mind to be dimly grateful that it wasn't Dean patching him up. Not that Dean had ever done a bad job, but Sam wasn't a big fan of using whiskey as a medical tool.

"Now," his brother said decisively, "On to bigger problems. How are you doing?" Sam opened his mouth, and Dean pointed at him sternly. "And do not say okay."

Sam considered, then shrugged. "I'm not okay."

Lucifer snorted. "Damn right."

"You think?" Dean snapped.

"Hey, go a little easy," Bobby protested.

"There's nothing easy about it! We acted like he had everything under control."

"I'm sorry," Sam said softly. He was. "Look, I just didn't want to crack up, you know?"

"What the hell even happened back there?"

"Sam is hallucinating," Chrys, who had been suspiciously silent, said evenly. "We're working on it."

"Oh, baby, she can work on me," Lucifer purred.

"Hallucinating?" Dean snarled. "What the fuck does that even mean?"

"What does the word 'hallucinating' usually mean to you?" Chrys asked, still even and calm, refusing to rise to the bait.

"I'm… Having a difficult time figuring out what's real." Sam was hesitant to admit it out loud, but Chrys' steady presence helped to ground him.

"If you're tripping Hell's Bells, why would you hide that?"

Sam shook his head. "I wasn't hiding it, Dean. I… I was just not talking about it. I mean, it seemed like we had enough going on as it was. Look, I, I just figured, try to hold onto the safety bar and ride it out, you know? But it's… Getting more specific."

Now Chrys turned to look at him, too, though her eyes were still serene and nonjudgmental. "Specific as in what?"

"He, ah…" Lucifer was looking at him gleefully, which was distracting as.. Well, distracting as hell. "He's telling me that none of this is real. That he let me believe that I got out, and this is all another form of torture."

Sympathy welled in Chrys' eyes, along with what looked suspiciously like tears. "Oh, Sam."

"Well, how the hell are we supposed to argue with that?" Dean groused.

Sam nodded. "I know. It's a problem."

"Well, why would the devil holodeck you a whole new life when he could just… Kick your ass all over the cage?" Bobby asked, trying to be reasonable.

"'Cause, as he puts it," Sam tried not to flinch when Lucifer joined him word for word, "You can't torture someone who has nothing left for you to take away."

Lucifer beamed. "Very good, Sam."

"Hey," Chrys' voice had him turning to look at her. She met his eyes with the same graceful calm she'd had all morning, but there was a spark of fierceness in her now. She cupped his face with her hands. "You remember what we said in that warehouse?"

Sam nodded, clinging to her like a lifeline. "I'm out, I'm here, with you."

She smirked. "Damn right you're with me. Don't listen to that motherfucker, Sam. I already told you, he doesn't get you anymore. You're mine now."


Chrys watched Sam take his gun apart for the fifth time, knowing that putting it back together would be the next step. Her heart felt hollow with worry, and if she'd ever thought she hated Lucifer as much as she could, she knew she hated him more now. When the devil had been fucking with her it had been one thing, but what had Sam ever done to deserve any of this?

Dean came to stand next to her, also staring at Sam. Bobby was already on her other side.

"Well, at least he's not curled up under the sink," Bobby said thoughtfully.

Dean scoffed. "Yeah, no, he's just sitting there, silently field stripping his weapon."

Chrys turned to look at the eldest Winchester as Bobby wandered into the living room to boot up his computer. "And how are you doing?"

"It ain't like he's hexed, you know?" he said softly. "I mean, what if it's the kind of crazy we can't fix?"

"That's not what I asked, Dean." She would not be deterred. "How are you?"

Dean rolled his eyes. "Who cares? Don't you think our mailbox is a little full right now?" At her continued stare, "I'm fine."

"Right," she drawled sarcastically. "And you didn't just lose the best friend you've ever had, your brother's not on a one-way track to whackadoo town, and purgatory's most wanted aren't surfing the sewer lines. Yeah, you're fine."

Dean nodded. "Good."

She glared. "Lie to me again, Winchester, see what I dislocate."

Dean looked at her for a long, long moment. Chrys knew she was taking a risk here. Dean had some sort of doctorate in being a closed-off person. She was kind of worried that, should he actually express an emotion that wasn't anger or horniness, that he'd pop a blood vessel.

But he finally nodded. "I'm like shit, Chrys," he said, soft and rough and raw, "but I can't stop to fix it now. We gotta… We gotta fix everything else first."

She stepped forward and wrapped her arms tight around his neck. "Hey, you ever need to, I'm right here, okay? You're important, too, Dean," she whispered in her ear.

He hugged her back fiercely for a moment, then leaned back and smirked. Chrys marvelled that she could see him building his walls back up. "What, you wanna do couples' yoga?"

"Shut up, ass."


**Feeback gives me the warm fuzzies and keeps me going.