Chapter 69.

Sam watched Dean pacing around the library for some time. "You think Jack will listen to Cas?" said Dean after a while.

"He always has." said Sam, "They have a good relationship."

"About the only one Cas hasn't pushed away." said Dean.

"You still matter to him, maybe more than ever."

"What the Hell does complicated even mean?"

"I told you, everything is complicated for him now. He's just trying to figure things out."

"And suddenly he can't trust us ... can't talk to us."

"For now, no, but he'll get there." Sam felt his phone vibrate and took it out to answer the call. "What do you want, Rowena?" he said.

"It's lovely to hear your voice too, Samuel." she said, "I'm calling you because your brother seemed a tiny bit homicidal yesterday and I'm hoping that you may be slightly more reasonable."

"Everything Dean said, I agree with." said Sam, "We're not happy with what you did or the way you did it."

"I can understand that. You're very protective of our sweet angel and I can see why. I find him quite adorable myself. I feel we need a mature, adult discussion to clear the air."

"I'm listening."

"No, dear, face to face and with your volatile brother in attendance too. I feel you both credit me with far too much responsibility in this matter and I would hate to be seen as the bad guy here, just when the world needs us to work together."

"Where are you?" said Sam.

"Outside." said Rowena, "So if you'd like to open the door and pop the kettle on, we can talk."

"Give me five minutes."

"Oh, he really is angry, isn't he?"

"Rowena's here." said Sam, ending the call.

"I'll get the bullets." said Dean.

"No. You go to the kitchen, warn Cas and Jack, then call Jules. She can't come here while Rowena is here. Cas is a wreck. Jules is not much better. They meet here, with her watching, their relationship becomes an open book to her."

"Right. What do you think she wants?"

"Forgiveness, but also, information. You know Rowena."

"I still think I should grab the bullets, just in case."

"No, you shouldn't. We need Rowena."

"Yes and unfortunately, she knows that. I'm not giving her an easy time about this. What she did ... "

"Yeah, I know. We're on the same side. I'm angry too."

"Fine. As long as that's understood."

As Dean headed out, Sam said, "Make some tea. She wants tea."

"We're taking drinks orders for her now?"

"Be diplomatic, for my sake ... for Cas."

"For Cas, I wanna shoot her in the face."

"Dean ... "

"Yeah, okay. Let me have five seconds of anger."

Sam smiled. "Granted. I'll go let her in. Don't forget about Jules."

"Of course not."

Sam opened the door and Rowena smiled at him. "It's good to see you, Sam, or at least, those parts of you not hidden in the clouds."

"I'm not that tall." he said.

"Is it safe to come in? Is Dean in the mood to listen to reason?"

"He'll listen, but don't provoke him."

"I assure you, I am the least provocative woman on the planet."

"You could start a war in an empty room." said Sam.

"True, but so could your brother. It's one of his most appealing qualities. I trust the angel's grace is now fully restored?"

"Is that why you're here? To find out if you can tap his grace again?"

"I ask out of concern for him." she said.

"Well, his grace is still very low."

"We did use a lot of it. Not my idea. I told him we should do some now and some at a later date, but he felt it couldn't wait."

"Did he say why?" said Sam, wondering whether he might have told her something more than he had said to them.

"He said very little." she said, "He's really not the most forthcoming of conversationalists. Maybe, while he's a little closer to human, we should all try to get more answers from him."

"So you came because you think he's more vulnerable and might give something away?"

"You have a most unattractive, suspicious side to you sometimes. He could hardly be more vulnerable than when we harvested his grace and he was lying in my bed, weak and helpless." She smiled at him. "And before you get any ideas, I didn't take advantage. I stole a single kiss. A very nice kiss, but just the one."

"He didn't mention that."

"No, I don't imagine he did."

Dean came up to them and pointed to Rowena. "You, library, now."

"And the tea?"

"Jack will bring it." he said.

They went to the library. Rowena looked around. "I do like this place. I should get something just like it."

"Cut to the chase." said Dean, "Why are you here?"

"I feel I failed to completely convince you yesterday. A phone call can never take the place of a proper, face to face chat, can it? I don't want there to be bad feeling between us. After all, our aims are the same."

"Really? Because none of mine feature Cas being used as a source of power."

"That's because you don't recognise his value. You never have."

"Or maybe I value him as more than just some kind of battery." said Dean.

"Both of you, stop this." said Sam, "None of this is helping."

"Just throw her out." said Dean.

"Go ahead and try." said Rowena.

"No." said Sam, "Let's resolve this. Let's sit down and talk like grown-ups."

"That's precisely what I want to do," said Rowena, "But your brother ... "

"My brother and I both have good reason to be angry with you." said Sam, taking a seat, "You endangered our friend, who also happens to be our best asset in the fight against Michael."

"What about the nephilim?" she said.

"Things are complicated with Jack for now."

"Since he died?" She sat down.

"Yes. He'll be fine, but for now, he's out of the battle."

"You might want to update me a little." she said.

"No, we don't." said Dean.

"We'll tell you what you need to know, when you need to know it." said Sam.

"Because you don't trust me?"

"That's right." said Dean, finally sitting at the table.

"You're blaming the wrong person. He contacted me. He convinced me. Your angel made all of the decisions. He can be very self-destructive." She waved an arm airily. "We can blame low self-esteem or the love affair that seems to have broken his wee heart." She looked from one to the other, clearly hoping for one of them to offer information or admit they didn't know about that. After a moment, evidently disappointed, she went on, "What we can't blame is the innocent witch who was minding her own business when he came begging for help."

"The innocent witch who took his grace?"

"He was very insistent and if I'd said no, there are plenty of unscrupulous folk in the world of magic who would have jumped at the chance and once he got into their clutches, that would be a disaster for us all."

"Wow. It sounds like we should be thanking you." said Dean, his voice dripping with sarcasm.

"I'd say so." she said, "But you're Winchesters, so you won't. Is that tea going to take much longer?"