Ah, chapter twenty of Crossroads. I have to admit, I feel really accomplished. This story has been so much fun to work on and I hope that it continues to be the same in the future. I really appreciate everyone who has been keeping with it and showing the support with comments, likes, and even just views. Really, you guys are amazing and I appreciate all of you very much.

Chapter 20: Found Family

The knife felt thick in Dean's hand as he dragged it across the bone of Sister Mary Constant. In all his work, he'd never carved up a nun before but he supposed there was a first time for everything. Even he, who'd been committing crimes and breaking more laws than he could count over his entire life couldn't help but feel a little bit of guilt over it. He had to comfort himself with the thought that she would have probably been on board with sacrificing her bones to save the world if they could ask her.

"Pretty Christly, huh?" he joked with a chuckle. He could feel Sam's eyes on him, no doubt worrying at the sight of his older brother tense as a bowstring and cracking bad jokes. "Sammy, knock it off and get to summoning Crowley, okay?"

"Dean, it's been two days and we still haven't heard from her. Don't you think-"

"Just call Crowley," he interrupted.

"You know, he might be able to tell us where she is," Sam offered.

"Yeah, cause I want the freaking leader of Hell to know about her. Besides, he'd probably demand a soul or something out of it. We've got nothing to barter with. Stopping Dick is the most important thing to him right now and we were going to do that anyway," he said. "Besides, it's not like she can get far on her own. No phone, no car and no credit cards on her. How much could she really accomplish?

"I guess you're right. Who knows, maybe Bobby is just having her keep her head down," Sam supplied.

"You really think Bobby wouldn't have had her call on at least a payphone by now?"

Sam didn't answer, looking worried and uncertain. He felt about the same way. At first, he'd been pissed at her, still was actually, but a cold feeling of resentment was also starting to fill him. He couldn't believe for a short time he'd actually thought that he'd finally found someone who hadn't wanted to leave him. Emma had practically begged to stay at times, had never stopped hinting she just wanted to be at his side to fight like her heritage had demanded. No one, no one ever stayed with him before, not really, even if it only had been with the excuse to kill monsters and prove her strength to herself. He thought maybe she…

He'd been wrong though. She'd left just like everyone else did, once she'd figured out that Dean wasn't worth the trouble.

The fact he'd been pushing her away had occurred to him though, and it had cooled his anger a little bit but not completely. Right now he was caught between anger and guilt, both of them rolling around in his gut. Either way she would have been out of his life but it would have been one thing to tell her that she needed to go and yet another for her to take off on her own. The first way it was to keep her safe and happy.

The other way meant he wasn't worth sticking around for. After his whole life, he really should have been used to that.

Idly he watched Sam strike the matches before throwing it into the bowl, flaring up with fire before it died down and revealed Crowley standing there in front of them.

"Hello, boys," he said with a smile, hands tucked in his pockets. "Nice to see you again. I take it since you're calling on me you have the rest of the ingredients to your fancy little nuke to drop on Dick?"

"Everything but your blood," Sam said as he held out his hand. "Hand it over and we'll get the job finished."

"You are the model of efficiency, Moose," he stated as he reached into his coat before the door suddenly opened and Meg burst in.

"You deal with him. I can't anymore," she said before her heeled boots dug into the floor, stopping dead in her tracks as she saw the sight before her of the little gathering.

"Damn it," Dean breathed as the two demon's eyes locked. Meg spun around quickly to make it through the still open door but Crowley was faster, appearing right in front of her in the doorway, blood still in hand as he shook his finger.

"Well, well, well," he breathed as he looked down at her. "What do we have here? Don't bother with trying to get out. I've got eyes all over the place and any of them would love the reward I'd give to the one who could have you brought to me."

"Crowley," Sam said firmly in warning. "You're only here to give us the blood."

"Business yes, but I always leave room for pleasure," he said with a smirk before stiffening as a hand clapped on his shoulder. Slowly he turned around, only to realize it was none other than Castiel behind him. "You?"

"Leave her alone," Castiel warned.

The king put his hands up before walking around Meg, though the other demon was smart enough not to make another move towards the door and it closed shut behind the angel as he walked in.

"This is an embarrassment of riches," Crowley said as he looked around. "Boys, you've been playing a lot of sides to win this one. Very manipulative. I'm impressed."

"Don't say it like that. Makes me feel freaking dirty," Dean grumbled.

"I'm confused though," the demon continued as he glanced over at the angel. "Last time I saw you, you enslaved me. Why aren't you dead?"

"I… I don't know," the angel admitted as he shrugged his shoulders.

"Well, do you want to be? Cause I can help with that?"

"Alright enough," Dean snapped. He wasn't about to deal with a bunch of jackasses measuring up against each other, not right now.

"It's enough when I say-"

"No, I said enough!" Dean yelled at him, getting in his face. To his credit, the demon actually seemed a little surprised at the action, it stalling his speech. "You know I have had enough of this! You guys always want to tear each other apart while Sam and I have to stand on the sidelines as you hash it out, waiting to save the world that all of you keep throwing in danger! This could have all been done ages ago if Death had just taken care of things when we told him too! You wouldn't have been enslaved if you hadn't gone around and decided to go kill Alphas and get Eve on your ass, and what the hell are you even going to do to Castiel, huh?! You might be the King of Hell but I'll lay money that just about any angel could still smoke your ass! So knock it the fuck off!"

Silence stretched on after the outburst and Sam eventually coughed weakly.

"He's been… kind of stressed the last couple of days," he explained with a bit of a shrug.

"I can see that," Crowley noted. "Well, since he's going to suck all the fun out of this. I do still feel like the angel should explain himself though."

"Ah… yes, I suppose I do owe you that," he admitted, bowing his head a bit. "I'm still uh… honing my communication strategy. I haven't even been back to Heaven yet. I keep thinking there are no insects up there, and here we have trillions. They're making honey and silk… and miracles really."

"What… what are you talking about?" the king asked, looking confused.

"Uh, preferring insects to angels I guess," he replied before brightening up and began to dig into his pocket, pulling out a little bag and holding it out to the demon. "Here. I can offer a token if you like. It's honey. I collected it myself."

The utterly confused demon could only look to Dean for an explanation, but it's not like he had one to give. Castiel's ramblings rarely had anything to do with what was actually going on these days. Getting him to focus on the matter at hand was just about pointless.

Honestly, he was kind of curious about what the angel was even doing here and why he'd brought Meg for the ride. Had he noticed Crowley when he'd touched down or had he not even cared?

"You're off your rocker," the demon guessed, to which the angel shrunk back, looking a little hurt. "He's off his rocker, is that it?! Well, karma's a bitch, ain't it?"

"Look, did you come here to get even in your little grudges or did you come here to take down Dick? Pick a battle," Dean demanded.

"Well, I'm vexed. I'd like to do both," he admitted. "Sadly, it doesn't look like the cards are going to play out that way, least for now. Though… I do have to wonder what you're going to do with that little prophet of yours."

"What do you know about the prophet?" Meg sneered out.

"Plenty. Little birdy came down and told me quite a bit. Struck a deal too, a rather nice one if I do say so myself. There were conditions, but nowhere did it say that I couldn't… mmm, shall we say, inquire about him?"

"Who else would even know about him?" Sam asked.

"Ah, afraid I can't tell that part. Well, can, but won't. Customer confidentiality and all that," he stated with a smirk. "Seems to have a lot of interested parties after him. I wanted to know what all the hubbub was about."

"Actually… that's why I came here," Castiel admitted. "I think he's in danger."

"Danger? What do you mean by that?" Dean asked. "I thought the angels were looking after him."

"They weren't saying anything… the garrison. The silence was deafening. Finally, I couldn't take it any longer and I went to the home of the prophet, but besides some damage there was nothing there," he explained. "I could only surmise there was a fight of some kind, with the borax and water all over the floor..."

"Oh, great. So did the creeps get the kid?" Meg asked.

"I don't believe so. There was no sign of any dead angels," Castiel stated. "The entire garrison still seems to be gone though. Hopefully… hopefully only in hiding."

"So what does this have to do with Kevin? Isn't he safe with them?" Sam inquired.

"Possibly, but the Leviathans aren't going to give up. Soon the entire globe will be in their possession and they aren't going to stop searching. They must be hiding him, no doubt in one of the many safe houses set up for such an occasion, though I'm afraid Inias didn't tell me which one they'd plan to use if things went wrong."

"Well, glad to see you all are keeping such a tight lid on things, as usual. You lot were either born under the luckiest star or the most damned one. For the life of me I can't figure out how you keep pulling these things off in the last minute," the King of Hell snickered out. "Shame. Wouldn't have minded meeting the little bugger. Ah well, you win some, you lose some. Now, as for the matter of the whore over there."

He turned to Meg and smiled wickedly, his eyes gleaming with a promise of violence and torture he couldn't wait to get started on.

"I'm going to scoop you up, take you home and smoke you til you're jerky," he informed her. "But not just yet. Cas can have you for now. Hilariously, it seems he'd be upset to lose you, and the boys need Cas to get to Dick. Don't they, Cas?"

"Oh… I… I don't fight anymore," the angel replied softly.

"Come on," he purred. "Given the particulars of your enemy, sadly, you're vital. Cheers."

He tossed the blood to Dean, out of the cabin before the hunter even caught it.

"Cas, what did he mean by that? Why would we need you to take out Dick?" he asked as he rolled the vial of blood around in his fingers, but by the time he looked up both he and Meg were already gone.

As a man who'd lived most of his life running a junkyard, Bobby had what he felt was a practical fondness for cars. They were good tools, reliable and could get you safely out of a pinch fast enough when you really had to run for it. Of course, he really wouldn't mind having one now. A couple of days walking around in Emma's body and he had begun jonesing for wheels of any kind. He'd been careful though, knowing a vehicle reported stolen and then found in the hands of a girl who looked young enough to be a runaway, well it would cause no end of trouble.

Not that he was worried about what a handful of cops could do, but any word about a girl of her description getting picked up spread around and he just knew the boys would pick up the trail and come track him down. He could imagine they would have plenty of interest in stopping him but he wasn't waiting any longer. Dick needed to die and the boys were just going too damn slow. He'd take care of this one, once and for all.

He already had a weapon, and now with news of just where to find Dick, it was time to get to the son of the bitch and take him out. He knew walking all the way there wasn't going to work though. Emma was a tough girl, but her body was starting to give out. Two days on the move without rest would do that. If he drove the rest of the way, she'd be able to sit at least, and it would be over all that much sooner.

Coming to a truck, he tried the door handle but the lock held firm. He'd have to try and jimmy it open. Going around to the back, he searched for anything that could help get it open before seeing a long piece of metal he could use to get the lock undone. However just as he grabbed it he felt a searing force hit him, blinding him for a moment as he heard a female shriek of surprise. He spun around to see Emma sprawled out on the ground, knocked out of him and groaning softly as she clutched her side.

"Son of a bitch! Pure iron. Damn it," he cursed as the teenager slowly sat up. "Alright, my mistake. Come on."

"No!" Emma cried out, scrambling away from him. She winced as she moved, but still backed away from him quickly. "Bobby, don't do this. It's been days, please. I can barely move..."

She stood up, panting hard as she shook her head.

"We have to get back to Father," she pleaded. "He and Uncle must be worried sick about us."

He felt hesitant, seeing the girl struggle to stand. He'd been really pushing her, hadn't even stopped to eat or drink anything for her benefit. What was he doing here? Was he really going to ride her body around until she collapsed?

This was Dean's kid, practically Bobby's granddaughter. He'd watched her grow up inside her first home, a little girl wiggling in the playpen and then a toddler before joining her in riding along with Sam and Dean, slowly growing closer to them as a family. It wasn't just those two that were supposed to look after her. He should be too.

Was he actually willing to do this to her?

"Father can kill Dick Roman. We don't have to go after him," she tried, but the name of his killer only steeled his resolve. She seemed to realize her mistake the second she saw his expression harden. "Wait, no! Bobby, don't!"

She didn't get anything else out as he surged forward and pushed his soul back into the Amazon, wrenching control right back out of her grasp. For a brief moment there was a struggle but the girl was far too weak to fight off his desire for revenge, falling still and silent in her own body.

It didn't matter. Nothing mattered anymore. Nothing more than that monster that killed him. No more taking his time to cover his tracks. He'd just break the damn window and be on his way.

"You got it yet?" Dean asked as he and Sam pulled up to SugroCorp, across the street where the cameras attached to the building wouldn't see them. They were going to need to get in and out fairly quickly. He felt really tense about this, more than he normally was. Castiel had been very tight-lipped about just why they would need his help, coming back to give them sandwiches and proclaim his desire to stay out of the conflict. He'd feel a whole lot better about this if the angel were here but he couldn't feasibly force him.

"Here we go," Sam replied, pushing in a few keys of his laptop and bringing up the security footage inside the building. "Thank you, Charlie, wherever you are."

They got lucky right on the first one, seeing the Leviathan in some kind of meeting room with about a dozen other people. Not ideal. It would be easier if they could catch him alone.

"Well there's Dick," the younger brother said before he flipped to another channel, frowning when he saw him again, sitting at a desk. "What the hell?"

"Is that Dick?" Dean asked.

"Yeah. It has to be," Sam replied before going to another feed. "And… there's another one."

"Son of a bitch," Dean breathed.

They kept cycling through the different cameras, finalizing it down to about three. At least three were as many as they could find. There could be more. Hell, the real one could be somewhere else entirely. How were they even going to be able to tell?

"What's going on here?" Dean asked his brother eventually.

"I don't know. Dick… I mean, he knows the tablet got lost, and Castiel said Leviathans tried to go after Kevin. He has to know we were able to translate it by now. Maybe he's starting to get scared, doing what he can to keep himself safe."

"By setting it up where there's more than one of him. Awesome. This stupid bone has to be used on the leader, doesn't it? Cut off the head and the body will flounder. We end up hitting someone else, who knows if it'll even work, or handle the rest of the Leviathan," Dean groaned.

"Right. For the Word of God, it has been amazing lacking in details," Sam sighed. "I miss Chuck. At least he told us what we needed to know and didn't bother with riddles."

"Yeah. You know… with Kevin and all… I mean, years ago the angels told us there was only one prophet at a time," Dean mused. "You think he..."

"Well, Raphael was the one looking after him. When Cas put her in a blender it left the last archangel who could look after a prophet just dead and gone," Sam pointed out. "Anything could have happened to Chuck after that. Car accident, mugging, or one of the several things he pissed off helping us could have come knocking. It's not like either of us were in the right mind to think to go check on him."

"Yeah. With the angels having him on lockdown throughout the whole build-up to the end of the world, he probably would have appreciated never seeing us again. Well, he was a good enough guy. Maybe he's kicking it up in Heaven with some memory of a couple of nice hookers," Dean guessed. "Best any of us could hope for at this point. Anyway, cycle through the cameras again. Maybe something will pop up."

"Right," Sam said before he paused and then grabbed the binoculars.

"What? You see something?" he asked as he looked through the windshield and tried to see what had caught his brother's attention.

"Emma?" Sam breathed in disbelief.

"What?!" Dean snapped out, finally seeing the truck with his daughter, looking disheveled but determined, climbing out of it. He was already grabbing his seat belt to unbuckle it, frantic to get to her.

"Dean, what are you doing?! Stop!"

"Are you kidding me! She's right there!"

"Dean, think about it! We're here to get Dick Roman and Emma just suddenly shows up on her own? Come on, for all you know that's bait or a Leviathan that found her and is just waiting for us to show up!"

"And what am I supposed to do, risk her walking right into SucroCorp if it is her?" Dean demanded before bursting out of the car and running at her at top speed.

"Damn it, Dean! At least get the borax out of the back seat!" Sam yelled after him, but the older brother wasn't listening, hoofing it at Emma and slamming right into her, knocking her into a van in the backside parking lot, hiding her from the view of the nearby camera. Her knife was in her hand as she glared up at him, pushing him away and causing him to stumble a bit.

"Get out of my way," she hissed.

"What the hell are you doing here?" he demanded of her. "Do you have any idea how worried I've been about you?! You can't just run off whenever you feel like it! After Emily, I thought you were hurt or dead, and you've been just fine this whole time?"

"I said get out of my way!" she yelled at him, taking a swing at him that he dodged out of the way of, her fist denting the van as she hit it and causing it to rock a bit.

Oh, she wanted to play it like that, huh?

"You think I can't take you out if I need to?" he asked her. "You got lucky knocking me out once. I'm not about to let you be so stupid and get yourself killed going after Leviathans or whatever you think you're doing here."

"Good enough chance for me to try," she replied harshly.

She swung again at him with the knife this time as he grabbed her arm, locking it in both of his and twisted her body to slam her against the vehicle.

"Don't struggle. You'll just hurt yourself," he ordered before her head jerked back and slammed right into his nose, causing him to cry out. He shook himself just as she was about to come at him again, grabbing both of her wrists and digging his thumbs into her wrists and causing her to cry out in pain. Sure enough, her fresh tattoo still had to be pretty tender. He wanted to immobilize her without causing any real damage, but she wasn't making it easy.

"Damn it, Emma! This kind of crap is the exact reason why I didn't want you along with this kind of thing! You honestly think you're strong enough for this?" he yelled at her.

Her eyes went wide at that, faltering for a second as her grip on the knife went lax, slipping out of her fingers and falling to the ground with a clatter. For a second she just stared at him, seemingly in shock before she suddenly lunged at him and grabbed him by the neck to pin him against the van.

Air wouldn't come into his lungs, his throat closing up under her grip as she choked him. He tried to gasp out her name, tried to say something as he looked her in the eye, but nothing would come out.

Wait… her eyes… they weren't gold? But she…

"Emma," he rasped out. "What are you..."

"I tried to be nice, boy," she snarled at him, "but you just wouldn't do it fast enough. I'm not waiting any longer."

Realization hit him suddenly as she spoke, choking out as he was gripped harder, grabbing her arms to try and yank them off. He was desperate for air, clawing at her hands.

"B-Bobby?" he gasped.

Emma's eyes flashed gold for a second, looking up at him as horror filled her expression. It only lasted a split second before she yelled, both her and Bobby's voice mixed into it.

"No! Stop it!" she demanded as she yanked her hands away.

An afterimage of Bobby stood there as she suddenly collapsed to the ground before quickly fading away as well, leaving Dean panting hard. He didn't have time to think on what had just happened, just grabbed his daughter and ran for it back to the Plymouth.

"Dean, what happened out there?" Sam asked at the sight of them, Dean hurriedly putting Emma in the back seat, making sure the flask and her knife were both safely tucked away after he did so.

"She was with Bobby," he breathed softly. "Bobby was… he was in her..."

"As in… Wait, he was possessing her?" he asked incredulously. "Why?"

"I don't know, Sam!" he snapped suddenly. "To get Dick Roman maybe?! What's it matter?! She looks like she's barely hanging in there. We have to get her somewhere safe!"

Sam hesitated for a second before shutting the computer and nodded his head as Dean climbed into the front seat and started the car. Peeling away from the corner, he sped down the road until they were a good twenty miles away, tucked away in an alleyway between a couple abandoned warehouses where no one would come looking. There was no way they could get all the way back to the cabin before daybreak, not with the several states between the two locations, and he wanted to take a look at her now.

The brothers opened up the doors on either side to the car to have the room to climb in the back and examine her. Sam pulled out a flashlight and checked her eyes, pulling back her lids.

"No concussion or anything. There's a couple bumps on her head though, and some dried blood in her hair. Any gashes anywhere?" he asked.

"Not that I'm seeing," Dean replied, running his hands over her to see if he could feel any bumps or anything broken. "How's her pulse?"

"Feels kind of weak, but that could just be exhaustion. You said he was possessing her? You're sure?"

"Yeah, Sam. I'm pretty sure I was getting choked out and then Mr. I Can Handle It was flying out of her like Casper," he muttered angrily. "Damn it, I mean Bobby of all people? He was the one who went and kidnapped her? Here I thought she'd just run away, was dragging him along with the flask and… and it was… DAMN IT!"

"Hey, calm down. This isn't going to help. We'll figure it out once we know she's okay, alright?" Sam insisted. "Just try and keep your head together."

"Right," he breathed, slowly nodding his head and trying to keep himself from shouting again.

It didn't take long to see Emma was in no serious danger. She had the typical signs of extended possession that they'd seen before with other victims, but nothing to make either of them think she wouldn't be fine in the end. At worst she was going to need some bed rest for a while and a few good full meals.

"So what now? Back to SugroCorp?" Sam asked.

"Not with her in the car. I want her as far away from this as possible," Dean said. "Ugh, don't want to drive over a thousand miles again just to get her back to the cabin where she'll be safe. I'll call Cas real quick. Maybe he or Meg can zap us back and we can figure out what we're supposed to do now."

"You mean what we should do about Dick or the flask?" Sam asked him, but Dean just slammed the car door shut behind himself and didn't answer.

It only took a short prayer to Castiel and the car and all three Winchesters were back in Montana. At least he had his head together enough to perform minor miracles for them. He really should thank him when he had a chance.

There was still so much to talk to him about, and they were starting to run out of time. Hell, he'd almost walked right into the place to take Dick on, still without saying a word to the angel about the two of them. How much longer could he really afford to put this off?

"I'll get her put in bed," Sam said as he picked up the Amazon and cradled the teen to his chest. "We have any IVs or something we can give her?"

"Like we're ever that well stocked," Dean sighed. "We'll have to make do with water and what little we have left in the cupboards. She's definitely going to need to eat when she wakes up. I'll talk to Cas. See if he can do anything."

He made sure to pull the flask out of her jacket pocket and stick it firmly in his own.
"Hey. You gonna be okay?" his brother asked him.

"Just focus on the kid, will you?"

"Right," Sam said softly before going into the cabin with her.

Dean stayed out for a little while longer, staring down at the flask. His mind was all mixed up. He wanted to chuck it. He wanted to throw it in a fire. He wanted to shake it until Bobby showed up and demand to know what he'd been thinking, putting Emma in that kind of danger and how could he do something like that to family. At the same time he wanted to know that Bobby was okay, that the moment of insanity was gone, and that none of this was really his fault.

He was used to getting stabbed in the back by people close to him, and he was not exactly very good at the whole idea of turning the other cheek. The idea of family was everything to him but when the loyalty didn't go both ways, he could get pissed and bite back. Hell, there had easily been enough times that he and Sam had gone at it, though they always forgave each other in the end. In the heat of his anger though, his rage could get bad enough that he was more than willing to turn his back on the ones who'd hurt him too much.

He'd been willing to kill Castiel after all. Right now he could see himself tearing the flask apart without much difficulty.

On the other hand, losing Cas had nearly killed him, had broken him up in ways he wasn't sure he'd ever really felt before. He would know. Pain was not a foreign concept to him, physical or emotional. He was fairly sure he could write his own journal on that concept alone. One thing he knew for sure though, the pain always numbed and the anger would cool over time.

Right now though, he would really, really like to break something. All he could do was look down at the flask, feel the burning of his throat where he'd been grabbed and choked, and had seen the look of fear in Emma's eyes as she'd almost been forced to… to…

"Son of a bitch!" he yelled as he kicked at the car, slamming his boot into it again and again. It didn't make him feel any better, but he did it anyway because he could, because he wanted to and because it was the only thing that was currently keeping him from pulling out the salt and his lighter right that second.

Mad as he was now, as livid as he was feeling, he knew Bobby was like a father to him and would never hurt a member of the family willingly if he'd been in his right mind. They'd work it all out. For now, all he could do was just scream and get it all out of his system.

"Dean."

Castiel's voice didn't bring the relief he'd like it to, not at the moment, but it cut through the anger enough to get him to stop taking his frustrations out on the car.

"Can you do anything for her?" he asked, hoping that the angel could answer clearly.

"I've been wondering about monkeys. How important is lipstick to you, Dean?"

"Son of a… You know what, fine," he breathed as he turned to look at the angel. "Not even remotely, okay? I don't give a damn about monkeys. You could even say I care about monkeys as much as you seem to care about me these days."

"Dean, I-"

"Do you, Cas? Do you still care about me? Am I even on your radar? As much as you go on about everything else in this world, the insects, cats, the wonder of the atom and nothing else that even remotely matters to anyone else, do I even make the list anymore? Top ten, top million maybe?" he asked him angrily. "Do I?"

"You… you matter to me, Dean."

"Then please… please get in there and try and help her," he begged. "I don't care about her blood. I don't care if she's part divine Greek or even part robot. Please, just do what you can and fix her up so she's not laying in that bed for the next few days."

"Dean… it's… it's your turn," Castiel pressed.

"What's that even mean, man?"

The angel looked him in the eye for a moment before reaching out to take his hand. Confused, he watched the other trace his finger over his palm, the indents of his skin, over his lifeline to where it stopped.

"She shouldn't be alive, you know?" the angel pressed. "Michael would never have bred in your body. Your bloodline would have ended with you, no one else needed once he had you."

"Yeah, well she is alive. And I need to know she'll be alright."

"She only will be if you take your turn," Castiel said, his tone firm.

"My turn at what, Cas? What should I freaking take my turn at?"

The angel frowned before dropping his hands.

"Saving someone," he replied softly.

The words caught him off guard, not making much sense to him. He was already trying to save everyone. What was there even to do? Of course he was going to do that. He'd been ready to take on Dick to keep the whole human race from getting eaten. What more could he be doing? Yeah, Emma would no doubt get killed and eaten too if they couldn't figure this out, but couldn't Cas focus on the more pressing matter at hand here?

One look at the unfocused expression of the angel told him that no, no he couldn't. The hunter just shook his head and went inside, walking into the bedroom where Sam was tucking her in. Just how was he supposed to help her? Castiel could probably fix her right up, even if it took him a while longer. Couldn't he?

"She's going to have to sleep it off I guess," Dean said to his brother. "Guess it's a good thing she's not hurt too bad, at least not physically. Should be okay in a few days."

"Want me to stay with her?" Sam offered.

"No. No, I'll do it. Do me a favor, take the flask. I don't want it near her," he said as he passed it to his brother as he left the room and the older Winchester settled down next to the bed to wait for her to wake up.

It was hours later into the dawn when she finally shifted, groaning softly in her sleep before her eyes opened. For a second she seemed unfocused and confused before she gasped sharply and sat up, looking wildly around.

"Hey, hey. Calm down," he said, shifting over to the bed in a second and taking her by her shoulders. "It's okay, Emma. It's alright. You're back in the cabin. You're safe now."

"Father?" she breathed out. "It's you..."

"Yeah. It's me, Emma," he assured her. "I'm here."

She stared at him for a moment, trembling as her shoulders shook and her head bowed, her red hair falling over her face like a curtain.

"Emma? Emma, what's wrong? Are you in any pain?" he asked.

"… sorry..."

"What?" he asked before she started to sob, covering her face with her hands.

"I'm sorry! I'm so sorry!" she cried out. "It was my fault! I should have known better to think I could have done what you wanted! You gave me one simple order and I couldn't even do that! I failed!"

"Emma, that doesn't matter right-"

"You were right though! I'm not strong enough to do this! I'll never be good enough for you to want me as a member of your family! Why did I ever think I could be?!"

He stilled as she continued to sob, realization dawning on him that she'd heard him last night. Even possessed, she'd been aware enough when Bobby had been in her body, had heard what he'd yelled at her when he'd thought she was running off to try to kill Dick on her own. His words had only been to stress to her she wasn't strong enough to go in by herself without a weapon that could even hurt Dick. The explanation of what he'd meant though died in his throat as the realization of what she thought he'd meant occurred to her, that he didn't see her as worth sticking around for. All this time she'd been trying to prove herself to him, not to feel like she was strong or powerful, but to show him that she was worth some affection.

He yanked her into his lap, hugging her close as she cried. There was no point in trying to shush her, just allowed her to get it all out.

Dean had spent a good chunk of his life worrying about his own worth to John and Sam. He had to be the good son, the good brother, a soldier… all to keep them safe and happy. He'd sold his soul for his brother and probably would have been willing to do it for his dad too. His own self was so tightly wrapped up in the people who needed him and it hurt him every time he thought they would no longer need him.

Only for him to go and allow Emma to get the idea in her head that the only way he'd care about her is if she turned into the same good little soldier he'd been.

"It's okay, Emma," he told her softly, rocking her in his lap as if she were a little girl. A tall sixteen-year-old girl was hardly a lightweight on his legs, but he wouldn't have her be anywhere else right now for the whole world. "I'm not mad at you, okay? I promise you I'm not mad. I'm just happy you're safe."

"But I failed you. You told me to-"

"Watch Emily. I know. Look, it's okay. Mistakes happen," he assured her. "Whatever happened, it's over now."

She sniffled softly, rubbing at her face, red and splotchy from the tears. She wouldn't look up at him, hiding away as best she could despite physically being so close.

"She… she tricked me," she confessed softly. "I thought I could protect her. She asked me to… uh… well… If she wasn't a virgin, she wouldn't get tracked down. I just turned around for a second and she… knocked me out."

"Oh Emma," he sighed before hugging her a bit tighter. "That's… Don't even worry about that, okay? Innocent looking girl using seduction to get you to drop your guard is an easy one to fall for. I've gotten tricked by that plenty of times."

"Really?" she asked him curiously.

"Yeah, really. There was your mom for one," he reminded her.

"Oh… Oh yeah," she said softly. She ran her fingers over her face a couple more times, trying to dry her face as best she could.

"I bet your hungry, huh?" he asked her. "Can you stand up?"

She moved her feet to the floor but the second she tried to push herself up she wobbled and nearly toppled over. He sprung up from the bed to catch her, easing her back to the mattress.

"Stay here," he said gently. "I'll go ahead and get you something. Possessions always take it out of you. Just need some rest and food to get your energy back and then you'll be fine."

She nodded her head solemnly and he crept quietly through the house to get what he needed for her. Sam was sound asleep on the couch, luckily the noise not waking him. The emotional moment would no doubt embarrass her later. The fewer people who knew about it, the better.

Once he had a bottle of water and some fruit collected for her, he came back and set it down so she could begin to eat her fill. It was no disappointment either, watching her tear into it eagerly and gulp the water down. He should have warned her not to eat so fast, but he was too busy thinking.

Deep down he knew if he had to go back and do it again, meeting Lydia in that bar, the smart thing to do would be to walk away. If the woman had found another victim, some other guy to get a kid out of, Dean never would have hesitated. He could imagine some other girl with red-tinted blonde hair with a different face. He would have shot that kid without hesitation. His own though? He wasn't so sure. Even if she had come in and try to kill him, it would never have been easy to put a bullet in her.

Knowing he'd get Emma out of it? No way would he do the smart thing. He'd still follow Lydia back to her house, would still give her Emma, and then take her back and away from that place. She was his daughter.

Why the hell was he pushing her away? To give her a normal life and make her happy? What kind of happiness could she even have while thinking her own dad could hate her over a single stupid mistake?

He couldn't do this.

He couldn't let her go.

"Emma," he said softly, catching her attention. She still looked scared and upset, like a hesitant animal expecting to get hit. "Emma... what you did, it was just a mistake. Everyone makes them, even the best of hunters. You tried to do what you thought was right. That's what matters."

"But I still screwed up," she whispered.

"I don't care. You tried. I'm proud of you," he told her.

Her eyes started to mist up again as she stared at him in clear surprise, and he settled down on the bed next to her, hugging her gently.

"I am proud of you," he reassured her. "No matter what, I want you to know that."

"Father..." she whimpered before she hugged him back, starting to shake as she began to cry again.

He wanted to tell her he'd changed his mind, that she could stay with him if she still wanted to but he held himself back. If the worse happened, if he died on this mission, she'd only take it worse to see what she'd wanted all along ripped away from her. She couldn't miss what she didn't know. If he came back, he would tell her then, during a proper celebration. At best they could finally be the family she'd long for and at worst she'd still have Jody to take care of her and raise her right.

Still, he didn't want her to think he didn't care, so he held her close and didn't let her go until she'd fallen back asleep. Gently he laid her back down in the bed and pulled the covers up over her.

"You were right," he said without even looking up. He knew Castiel was at the doorway, had just kind of felt him approach. "She did need me to save her."

"I'm sorry I wasn't able to help more, Dean."

"You helped plenty," he said as he smiled up at the angel. He walked over to him, amazed at how the pieces were finally falling into place in his head. He hadn't been getting what Emma had been saying to him, and he certainly hadn't gotten what the angel had been trying to tell him either. He really could stand to try to listen better. "I keep pushing people away, despite how much it hurts when it happens to me. It's got to stop. I get it now."

"Dean..."

"It's my turn, Cas," he informed him. "This time I'm going to save you."

End of Chapter 20

Oh god, the feels! I tell you, it's addicting the way this stuff plays out.

I was honestly hoping to end the Leviathan arc on this chapter, but there's still a bit more to cover and it was not going to fit completely in this chapter without making it like twice the length. Bobby still needs to be handled, not to mention getting the Impala, and FINALLY some good old destiel content. Yes, hints will finally be over and we'll get some good old fashion angel and human loving.

Speaking of, I know a lot of you have been very patiently waiting for the other promised couple of sabriel. Chapter 22 is where we'll be starting on that particular train, promise. It's been a very slow burn for the first couple I know, but things will be getting cranked up a notch soon. Thank you all for sticking with it so far all this time, and here's to the next twenty chapters.

What, are you surprised? Oh, this is going to be a very long fic. I sincerely hope that you guys enjoy it.