"Sulfur." Sam ran his fingers in some powder on the floor near the dead bodies, "The demons beat us here. Whatever the deal is with this Anna girl-"
"Yeah, they want her. They're not screwing around. Alright, so, I'm 'Girl, Interrupted.'" Dean picked up some addressed envelopes, "And I know the score of the apocalypse, just busted out of the nut-box… Possibly using superpowers, by the way. Where do I go?"
"Hey…" Sam picked up one of the family photographs he was looking at and turned to Angel, "You got those sketches from Anna's notebook?"
"Yeah."
"Let me see 'em." When she handed it over he picked out a drawing of a stained-glass window, "Check this out."
Angel raised a brow, "She was drawing the window of her church."
"Over and over. If you were religious, scared, and had demons on your ass, where would you go to feel safe?"
"Well, Sammy. I'd sure as shit go to my church if I didn't know any better." She started out, "Lets go."
At the local church…
With the Impala parked out front the Winchesters swept through the building with their guns drawn. As they entered the attic Sam earned their attention and pointed the nose of his gun towards someone hiding behind a stained glass wall.
"Anna?" They put away their guns as they got closer to her, "We're not gonna hurt you. We're here to help. My name is Sam. This is my brother, Dean, and my sister Angel."
"Sam?" Anna slowly came out from her hiding spot, looking bewildered, "Sam? Not Sam Winchester?"
"Um…" Sam looked a little taken aback but nodded, "Yeah."
Anna turned to Dean, "And you're really Dean?"
"Well, yeah." He looked to his siblings cockily, who both rolled their eyes, then smirked back at the girl, "I'm really Dean."
"Then that makes you…" Her breath caught as she turned to study Angel in awe, eyes wide, "The Angel Winchester… It's really you."
Angel shifted a little, uncomfortable at the complete awe she seemed to be under, "I- i guess so…"
"Oh, my god. The angels talk about you. You were in Hell, but Castiel pulled you out, and some of them think you and Dean can help save us." She looked to Sam next, her eyes still wide, "And some of them don't like you at all." He frowned, "They talk about you all the time lately. I feel like I know you."
"So…" Dean's eyes narrowed, "You talk to angels?"
"Oh, no." She shook her head madly, laughing a little, "No, no way. Um, they probably don't even know I exist. I just kind of… overhear them."
Sam frowned, "You overhear them?"
"Yeah, they talk, and sometimes I just… hear them in my head."
Angel studied her, "You hear them right now?"
"Not right this second, but a lot. And I can't shut them out, there are so many of them."
Dean scoffed, "They locked you up with a case of the crazies when really you were just… tuning in to angel radio?"
"Yes! Thank you!"
"Anna, when did the voices start?" Sam asked, "Do you remember?"
"I can tell you exactly." Her eyes met Angels, "September 18th."
Shock resonated on Angel's face, "The day Cas pulled me out of Hell…"
"First words I heard, clear as a bell." Anna gazed at her still with so much admiration it had Angel frowning, "'Angel Winchester is saved.'"
"Right…" Angel swallowed thickly as she turned to her brothers, "What do you guys think?"
Dean shook his head, "It's above my pay grade."
Sam scoffed, "Mine too."
"Yeah." Angel took a breath looking the girl over, "But, uh, one thing came out of this. At least now we know why the demons want you so bad."
"They get a hold of you, they can hear everything the other side's cooking." Dean nodded, "You're 1-900-Heaven."
Dean chuckled, making her laugh as well before she shuffled closer to them.
"Hey, um… do you know- are my parents okay? I- I didn't go home. I was afraid."
"You got the girl? Ruby rushed into the attic, surprising all of them, "Good, let's go."
Anna screamed in terror as she backed away, "Her face!"
"It's okay." Sam put his hand out to calm her down, "She's here to help."
"Yeah." Dean scoffed, "Don't be so sure."
Angel glared at Ruby, "What?"
"We have to hurry."
"Why?"
"Because a demon's coming, big-timer. We can fight later, Angel."
"Well, that's pretty convenient." Dean growled, "Showing up right when we find the girl with some bigwig on your tail?"
"You want her that bad, Ruby?" Angel planted her feet, spread apart ready for a fight, "Come get her."
"I didn't bring him here. You did."
"What?"
"He followed you from the girl's house. We've got to go now."
Sam frowned at a statue of a nun when it started bleeding from the eyes, "Guys."
Angel studied the statue with wide eyes, a strange feeling coming over her, "What the hell…"
"It's too late." Fear crossed Ruby's face, "He's here."
"Okay." Sam hurriedly took Anna by the arm to cross the room and hide her in a closet, "Stay in there. Don't move."
Angel walked closer to the statue as the eerie feeling built up. Something was familiar but she couldn't place it. Something very, very bad.
As Sam came back over to them with his flask of holy water Ruby intervened, "No, Sam, you got to pull him right away."
"Whoa." Dean intervened, "Hold on a sec."
Angel swung around to face her, "He's not doing that."
"Now's not the time to bellyache about Sam going darkside. He does his thing, he exorcises that demon, or we die."
With a pained look aimed at his siblings, Sam put the flask away just as the demon broke the door down. He grinned evilly at the small group once he stepped inside, running his hand over the dusty stairs as he walked up them. Wiping his hands of the grime in disgust he didn't stop his advance when Sam raised his hand to exorcise him. Instead of it working however, the demon just laughed and straightened his tie as his eyes flashed white.
"That tickles. You don't have the juice to take me on, Sam."
With a wave of his hand he promptly threw Sam down the stairs. Dean immediately attacked him with the knife, engaging in a fight. A fight that the demon won fairly quickly.
"Dean Winchester. Heard alot about you." He tossed Dean aside as well before happily advancing on Angel, "It was a pleasure, really."
Angel twisted her leg out and landed a strong kick that barely phased him. Rearing back she tried to punch him but the demon caught her and flung her into the glass pane. He laughed loudly before crossing the room and kicking her so hard that her head whipped back and her vision blurred. He quickly sent another kick to her ribs without missing a beat.
"Hello again, Angel." Anna screamed in the background as Ruby pulled her from the closet, but the demon was too entranced with tormenting the blonde hunter to pay any mind, "Come on, Kitten." He sneered as he sent another kick to her face, his use of her father's childhood nickname of her had the confusion she felt get replaced by terror, "Don't you recognize me?" He grabbed her up and punched her again making her whimper in pain, "Oh, I forgot. I'm wearing a pediatrician. But we were so close…" That evil smile spread across his face again as he punched her over and over, "In Hell."
Her bloodied eyes met his before she spit blood in his face, "Alastair."
Alastair chuckled as fire blazed in his eyes. From behind, Sam rushed the demon making him drop Angel to the ground. He turned in time to get stabbed in the chest with the knife. It glowed, the pain from it making him grunt, but it didn't kill him. He held Sam and the knife in place, grunting as the knife sizzled.
"You're gonna have to try a whole lot harder than that, son."
He tossed Sam aside before groaning and trying to pull the thing from his chest. Dean grabbed Angel and helped her off the ground just before Sam joined them, They looked at the large stained-glass window showing the sky. As Alastair pulled out the knife, all three of them jumped through the window to safety.
Back at their motel…
Angel sat beside Sam with her bloodied face now patched up as best it could be with their supplies. She was concentrating on sewing the cut in Sam's arm as Dean impatiently paced in front of them.
He glared as he stopped in front of them, "Are you two almost done?"
Angel barely spared him a glance, "Goin' as fast as I can, D."
"Good, 'cause you know I got a dislocated shoulder over here."
He picked up the whiskey bottle they had on the table and started gulping it down. Angel shook her head but Sam looked up from watching her.
"I'll pop it back when she's finished."
After cutting the excess string, the blonde turned and motioned at the bottle in Dean's hands, "Gimme that." Once he handed it over, she quickly poured the whiskey over Sam's wound grimacing slightly as he groaned in pain, "Sorry, Sammy. Here." She passed him the bottle, "Drink up."
"So." Dean watched Sam grimace and sighed, "You lost the magic knife, huh?"
"Yeah, saving your asses." He took a steadying breath from the pain and turned to Angel who had walked to the bathroom mirror to survey her damages more closely, "Who the hell was that demon?"
"No one good." She flinched, but not from the pain, from flashes of Alastair in the Pit with her, "Trust me."
Dean scoffed, "We got to find Anna."
"Ruby's got her. I'm sure she's okay. Alright, come on." Sam stood and got into place with Dean, "On three. One…"
Without another word Sam forced Dean's shoulder back into place, earning a loud yelp from Dean. Angel grimaced at the sound as Dean groaned and tried to walk it off.
"You sure about Ruby?" Dean asked after a few deep breaths, "'Cause I think it's just as likely she used us to find radio girl and then brought that demon in to kill us."
"No." Sam shook his head, "She took Anna to keep her safe."
"Right, Sam." Angel grimaced as she sat on the bed, "Then why hasn't she contacted us yet? Hm? She took that girl and bolted."
"She hasn't told us where she's at because that demon is probably watching us right now, waiting to follow us right back to Anna again. That's why he let us go."
Dean scoffed, "You call this letting us go?"
"Yeah, I do. Look, killing us would've been no problem to that thing. That's why, for now, we just gotta lay low and wait for Ruby to contact us."
"How's that even gonna happen? How is she gonna contact us?" Angel scoffed, "God Sam! Why the hell do you trust her so much?"
"I told you."
"You got to do better than that."
"Lets not fight, aright?" Exacerbation filled Dean's voice as his eyes moved to Sam, "Obviously we both just want to understand… but we need to know more, man. I mean, I think we deserve to know more."
"Because…" Sam looked away as pain filled his eyes, "She saved my life."
Six months earlier…
A drunk Sam stumbled into his motel room where he was immediately attacked by a man and a woman. Two demons. The man pinned his arms back as the woman beat the crap out of him. She quickly pulled the demon knife from his waist.
"Thanks for keeping this warm for me, Sam."
Sam grunted as she yanked his head back, "Ruby."
"It's nice to be back. Where I was, even for Hell, it was nasty. I guess I really pissed Lilith off. Imagine my relief when she gave me one last chance to take it topside. And all I had to do was find you and kill you."
"Fine." Sam jerked out of the man's grip so he could tower over her, "Go ahead! Do it."
She stared at him for a beat before turning and stabbing the other demon instead of Sam.
"Grab your keys. We got to go." Sam stared at her dumbfoundedly so she raised her voice, "Now!"