You Better Run: Volume II

by Crazywriter226

With the Apocalypse striking upon Sam and Dean's world, the clock is ticking faster for Kate who finally finds out the answers to all of her questions. However, between hard choices and sad losses, the young woman will soon understand that everything comes at a price, and that, sadly, everything ends. Sequel to 'You Better Run: Volume I'. Dean/OC

1. Chapter 1

Sequel to my first fanfiction ever : 'You Better Run: Volume I'

This story takes place during the fifth season of the TV show 'Supernatural' created by Eric Kripke.

This chapter contains elements from the episode 'Sympathy for the Devil' (5x01).

---

The Winchester brothers couldn't find one good explanation to how they found themselves on a plane after almost facing the arrival of the fallen angel that was Lucifer. All they knew was that the Apocalypse was triggered now, and it was their fault. Dean blamed himself for breaking the very first seal and Sam blamed himself for breaking the final seal. Plus, Dean blamed himself for not stopping Sam in time just as much as Sam blamed himself for not listening to his big brother. Needless to say, they felt both extremely guilty and had not one single idea as to how fix their mess, which had also become the biggest mess they had ever made.

After the incident in the plane, Sam and Dean dashed off quickly before the airport's staff started to ask them too many questions about their presence on the flight they weren't supposed to be in. They rented a car in the closest place before immediately heading to Chuck's place. Dean had summarized everything Sam had missed while he was with Ruby. Sam didn't ask much questions as he simply absorbed the few information that his brother was willing to give him.

Aside from that, not a lot of words were exchanged between the two brothers as they were both still not sure what to tell the other. The tension was still very thick between them and even though not saying a word was preventing from thickening this tension more, it wasn't helping in keeping their minds off worrying thoughts. Indeed, they were both drastically worried of the consequences that were to come now that Lucifer was out of his cage. Guilt was eating up Sam in a way that he never thought possible while his brother was filling with other unbearable feelings that he couldn't even explain to himself.

Sam decided to switch on the radio in order to muffle down the heavy silence filling the car. Throwing a glance at his older brother who was driving with what looked like deep concentration, he swallowed and started to change the stations when he realized something.

Every station gave a bad news. From natural disasters to the extension of a serious flu, all the news stations sounded worse than the previous one. Both of the brothers knew what it meant, but none of them dared saying it out loud. It was too hard to say that their actions had become the catalyst that would end the world.

Annoyed by the news that only made him feel even worse, Sam switched off the radio. When silence settled back inside the car, the younger Winchester understood that he couldn't bear it. He had to make it up with his brother, and even if he didn't know how to exactly, he still knew he had to try.

Letting out a long sigh, Sam started, "Dean, look-"

"Don't say anything," Dean stopped him as Sam turned his head to look at him. "It's okay," Dean glanced at him before returning his eyes to the road. "We just gotta keep our heads down and hash this out, alright?"

Sam wasn't expecting this reaction from his older brother and he was sure that Dean was just holding it all back. However, the younger man managed to crack out his reply in a little voice as his green-hazel eyes went back to look at the road, "Yeah, okay."

"Alright, well, first things first—How did we end up on the Soul Plane?" Dean asked making sure to avoid having to listen to Sam's apologies about choosing a demon over him.

"Angels, maybe?" Sam suggested with a light shrug of his broad shoulders, "I mean, you know, beaming us out of harm's way?"

"Well, whatever. It's the least of our worries," Dean sighed, knowing far well it couldn't be angels. Not after what happened with Zachariah earlier in the so-called Green-Room. "We need to find Cas and Kate."

"Is she… Is she okay?" Sam asked, his tone almost shy and uncomfortable as the memory of what he did to her the last time didn't seem to leave him alone.

"The last time I saw her, she was ready to fight against whatever angels were coming down to Chuck's place," Dean replied sounding almost emotionless.

"So, this is true, then? The angels really wanted the Apocalypse to happen?" Sam said, thinking about what Dean told him earlier.

"All true," Dean sighed, his eyes never leaving the road. "According to Cas, they wanted to use her as a substitute."

"A substitute?" Sam asked, his brows furrowing in confusion.

"Don't ask me. We didn't have enough time for him to tell me more," Dean replied, throwing a glance at Sam.

"You think it got something to do with her soul?"

"I dunno… Maybe," Dean just said as Sam glanced at him.

Sam couldn't read the emotion written on his brother's face, but he could say that Dean was deeply worried. Not just about the Apocalypse, but about what happened to the young woman they were supposed to protect.

---

A few hours later.

Saint Paul, Minnesota. At Chuck Shurley's.

Dawn had just appeared and the birds just started singing when Sam and Dean parked their rented car in front of the Prophet's house after hours of driving. They immediately made their way into the house, not bothering to knock. Walking into the quiet living room and the kitchen, the two brothers found the house in a messier state than usual. The kitchen table on which Chuck typed his manuscripts was completely turned over, chairs were thrown on the floor along with a couple of destroyed lamps. A hundred of papers and few books were scattered on the floor, surrounded by shattered pieces of glass. However, what caught Dean's attention the most was the blood splattered here and there. It wasn't too much blood, but still it wasn't too little either, and when his eyes saw a trail of blood, he gulped down.

It was enough blood to be deadly.

Was it Chuck's blood?

Castiel's?

Or maybe Kaitlin's?

Dean didn't want to think about any of that. Clenching his jaw and taking a deep breath through his nostrils, he crouched down and took one of the sharp pieces of glass. He looked at it for a moment when he heard a couple of familiar steps. He looked up at his little brother and stood up.

"You think this is…" Sam trailed off, his hazel eyes fixing at the long trail of blood.

"I don't wanna think anything until I get actual facts," Dean replied with a hard voice before he sunk the piece of glass in his palm.

"What are you doing?" Sam asked, his face scrunching up in a sort of wince as he stared at his brother tracing a rather long and deep cut into his own palm.

"We need to have a way out if they come back," Dean groaned as he pulled the piece of glass out and threw it on the floor before walking to the sliding door separating the living room from the kitchen.

Sam watched his brother as he used his own blood to draw a symbol that the young Winchester slightly recognized, "Isn't it the sigil that was in the warehouse where we were supposed to meet Castiel a while back?"

"Must be," Dean muttered as he finished it and slid the door back into its tiny space. He pulled out a little towel from his pocket and wrapped it around his bleeding hand when they both heard a noise coming from another room.

They looked at each other before agreeing with a simple look to quietly go to the living room. Sam walked to the left towards the staircase when he was suddenly hit on the head with a toilet plunger causing him to stumble back.

"Jeez! Ow!" Sam exclaimed as he brought one hand up to his head and looked at the bearded man standing in front of him.

"Sam," Chuck said, his face covered with a couple of cuts and blood and panic mixed with relief painted in his features at the sight of the Winchesters.

"Yeah!"

"Hey Chuck," Dean said looking at the Prophet.

"You're okay?" Chuck said, approaching them with an expression of bewilderment.

"Well, my head hurts," Sam replied as he pulled his hand away from his head.

"No, but I-I me-mean in my last vision. You went, like, full-on Vader," Chuck sputtered. "Your body's temperature was 150, your heart rate was 200. Your eyes were black!"

"Your eyes were black?" Dean asked from where he was standing right behind Sam.

With a pained and regretful face, Sam turned to look at Dean, "I didn't know."

Dean stared at him for a few seconds, not sure of what to say nor what to do. As big as that new information was, Dean knew it wasn't really the time to comment on it or to reprimand Sam for not listening to him. If he wanted to keep himself together, he had to take one thing at a time.

He shifted his green gaze to Chuck, "Where are Kate and Cas?"

"They're dead," Chuck replied with a little voice full of sorrow just like his face.

Both of the brothers froze at those words. It seemed as though a violent tornado washed over them in the split of a second causing waves of indescribable feelings of remorse and sadness to grip tightly at them.

"Or gone," Chuck quickly added. "Three angels came and then Zachariah came, too. For some reason after some kind of speech, Zachariah didn't do anything to Kate or Cas. He just walked away – or rather, he vanished. And then it was a real battle in here. After Cas got rid of one angel, the archangel smote the crap out of him. And the other angel didn't go soft on Kate, neither," he looked back and forth at Sam and Dean, only to see their faces filled with shock and pain. "I'm sorry."

"You're sure?" Dean asked in a little voice. "Maybe Cas just teleported himself and her into the light or something."

"Oh no, no. He like exploded. Like a water balloon of chunky soup!"

"What about Katie?" Sam asked in almost a whisper.

"She had that, er, that sword that Bobby apparently soaked in something before giving it to her. And, well it helped hurting angels, but it couldn't kill them," he explained. "After a few minutes, the other angel just beat the crap out of her. And then, when Cas exploded, they took her with them."

"So, she could still be alive?" Sam asked, a sudden rise of hope appearing inside of him at the thought of one of their friends still alive.

"After what they've done to her? I don't think so. She fought like a real Amazon, really. But they were too strong. I tried protecting her but they prevented me," he told them, his blue eyes looking down for a moment. "But I guess they wouldn't have taken her with them if she was already dead."

Sam sighed, his hazel gaze dropping at the thought of the innocent woman probably dead now. It hadn't taken him long to become attached to her; she had always been so easy to talk to and so kind with all of them. No doubt, she didn't deserve to die that way. She didn't deserve to die in their universe. They were supposed to send her back home.

"You okay?" He had asked her before they had tried summoning the Opener of the Way.

"No, I'm… I'm scared."

"Hey, you don't have to be scared. We'll be with you the whole time. We're gonna make sure you're sent back to your universe during the right era, and above all else, we're gonna make sure you're sent back there, safe and sound."

Looking up, Sam's gaze fell on Chuck, "You've got a... Uh..."

"Right there?" Chuck asked showing the right side of his head.

"No, um," Sam pointed at the other side.

"Oh," Chuck said as he reached for the other side. His hand immediately found something a bit stuck into his hair. "Oh God… Is that a molar? Do I have a molar in my hair?" Dean looked at him with a blank stare before swallowing and rubbing a hand down his face before turning his face away. "This has been a really stressful day," Chuck half-whined.

"Cas and Kate… You stupid bastards," Dean almost whispered as he shook his head, his eyes glued to the floor.

"Stupid?" Sam asked turning around to look at his older brother. "They've tried to help us."

"Yeah, exactly!" Dean exclaimed looking up at him. "They weren't supposed to do any of that! Hell, we were supposed to protect Kate! Out of all the people who shouldn't have gotten mixed in our job, she's the main one!"

"You think I don't know that?" Sam replied with a frown. Dean stared at him before shaking his head and looking away.

"Oh crap," Chuck let out.

"What?" Dean asked him.

"I can feel them," the prophet replied in a little voice.

"Thought we'd find you here!" Zachariah's voice caused Sam, Dean and Chuck to turn around.

Unlike Sam who was a bit scared at having to confront the celestial creatures, Dean wasn't feeling one ounce of fear. He was entirely angry; a feeling that was painted all over his face and his body.

Standing in the kitchen with two other angels in suits, Zachariah looked at Dean with his usual smug face, "Play time's over, Dean. Time to come with us."

"You just keep your distance, ass-hat," Dean ordered him with his forefinger pointing at him.

"You're upset?"

"Yeah. A little," Dean replied sarcastically. "You sons of bitches jump-started judgment day!"

"Really we let it happen but we didn't start anything," Zachariah told him before he turned his gaze at the taller brother behind. "Right Sammy?" he winked at the young Winchester before shifting his gaze back to Dean. "You had a chance to stop your brother and you couldn't. So let's not quibble about who started what. Let's just say it was all our faults and move on. Because like it or not, it's apocalypse now. And we're back on the same team again."

"Is that so?" Dean asked him with raised eyebrows.

"You want to kill the Devil, we want you to kill the Devil. It's synergy," the angel smirked at him.

"And I'm just supposed to trust you? After what you did to Cas and Kate?"

"What I did to Kate? What, all the tortures? Making her relive the best of your stay in Hell, you mean?" Zachariah asked with a wicked smile.

"That was you," Dean groaned between gritted teeth as he clenched his fists.

"Guilty," Zachariah held his hands up and chuckled.

"You son of a bitch-"

"Oh come on, don't be rude. I was only trying to get her to obey and to stop being so stubborn. All of Heaven understood that it had to be done anyway," Zachariah replied with a wave of his hand. "But what you need to understand, is that more important problems are here now. And this isn't a game, son. Lucifer is powerful in ways that defy description. We need to strike now, hard and fast! Before he finds his vessel."

"His vessel?" Sam asked from where he was standing next to the quiet Chuck. "Lucifer needs a meat-suit?"

"He is an angel," Zachariah replied with a little scoff. "Them's the rules. And when he touches down, we're talking four horsemen, red oceans, fiery skies, the greatest hit. You can stop him, Dean. But you need our help," he told the older Winchester who didn't seem this convinced but was still listening very carefully to every word that left Zachariah's mouth.

Dean's eyes were filled with fury as he stared at the angel. Now that he knew Zachariah had been behind Kate's torment from the very start, there was no way to simmer the hunter down. He didn't even want to know why angels would torture someone who they claimed had to be protected at all costs. All Dean was sure of, it was that he had been greatly manipulated by those winged-douchebags and the only angel he could trust – the blue-eyed angel in a trench coat – was now gone because of them.

"You listen to me, you two-faced douche. After what you did to Kate and Cas and after all the other fucking crap you did, I don't want jack squat from you!" Dean shouted at him.

"You listen to me, boy!" Zachariah shouted louder than Dean, taking one step towards the hunter. "You think you can rebel against us? As Lucifer did?" He scoffed before his eyes dropped to one of Dean's hand. "You're bleeding," he stated with confusion.

"Oh yeah," Dean replied, his lips curled in a corner smirk. "A little insurance policy in case you dicks showed up."

Completely perplex, Zachariah frowned when Dean quickly turned around, pulled the sliding door and slapped his bloody hand on the sigil banishing the angels away in the flash of a white light and a scream of Zachariah's.

"Learned that from my friend Cas, you son of a bitch," Dean said when he saw that the banishing sigil worked. He turned his head towards Sam and Chuck to check if they were alright.

"This sucks ass," Chuck immediately commented when he met Dean's gaze.

"You," Dean said to him in a hard tone as he walked with firm steps towards the Prophet who looked at him with a bit of fear as he hid behind Sam's robust body.

"Don't hurt me!" Chuck yelped causing Dean to roll his eyes while Sam wrinkled his brow trying to get a look at the short man hiding behind him.

"I ain't gonna hurt you," Dean told him, standing in front of his brother that Chuck used as a shield. "I want you to give me every damn thing you wrote about Kate!"

"W-what?" Chuck stuttered as Sam took a large step on the side. Chuck glanced at Sam before returning his blue eyes towards the older hunter. "I-I can't do that. She wouldn't want you to read the visions I got about her. In respect for her, I can't-"

"Chuck," Sam cut him off with a gentle tone. "Dean and I need to know what happened when she met with Zachariah."

"Well, I can tell you about it," Chuck replied, looking back and forth at the two brothers.

"Except we don't have time," Dean told him, his voice harsher than needed. "Those dicks can come back at any moment."

"Well, we-we can rewrite the sigils on the walls and –" Chuck started, gesturing to the walls with his hands.

"No. The copies. Now," Dean strictly ordered. Chuck looked at him for a moment before nodding and quickly walking to his armchair.

"I-I don't have all of them," the prophet said as he crouched down and pulled a stack of pages from under his armchair. "Kate already took a lot the last time you guys were here."

"Give us all you got left," Dean told him, his eyes following the writer while his little brother's eyes were glued on him.

"I got some upstairs," Chuck announced as he dropped the stack of pages he already found, in Sam's arms before striding his way upstairs.

Sam looked down at the stack in his arms before glancing up at his brother to see him biting on his nails. It took Sam aback. This little gesture was something that his brother rarely did. In the past, he had seen Dean doing this about ten times, probably not more and definitely not less. It only happened when Dean was extremely anxious and had absolutely no idea of what could fix the situation they were stuck in. He would bite on his nails and be entirely oblivious about it. Sam knew that it was in those kind of moments that Dean's brain was burning up with the thousands of thoughts and questions rushing everywhere in his mind and mixing up with a tornado of what ifs.

It was right then that Sam realized that believing so much that killing Lilith, would help his brother, was a mistake. It was right then that Sam realized that his last actions, even if they would have had a better outcome, would have never helped his brother. Because no matter what, Dean was always crushed by a burden of responsibility that no one could take off him. And, this had been like that ever since they were just kids.

"Alright, that's all I got," Chuck's voice distracted Sam from his thoughts causing him to shift his gaze away from Dean and to look at the shorter man who walked in the living room with a thinner pile of pages.

"You sure about this?" Dean asked, his two hands now dropped at his sides.

"Yeah, yeah," Chuck replied. "Do you need a bag? I think I got one somewhere."

"Here," Sam said, nodding towards the armchair.

Chuck turned around, walked to the armchair and stopped, "Oh."

"Oh, what?" Dean sighed. "We don't have time for your 'oh', Chuck!"

"It's, um, it's Kate's bag," Chuck said in a little voice as he stared at the bag before taking it with his hand that wasn't holding pages. He glanced up at Sam and Dean, noticing the sadness they were trying so hard not to appear on their facial expressions. "Do-do you want another one, maybe?"

"No," Sam replied before clearing his throat and shaking his head. "Um, we'll take her bag."

"I'll be waiting in the car," Dean muttered, walking out of the house with a slam of the front door.

---

A few hours later.

Sitting at the table of the motel room he and his little brother booked in, Dean was buried in the reading of the pages Chuck wrote about Kate. Every line built sorrow, anger and guilt inside the man. To know that he had failed on protecting a person who had gone through tortures so neither he or someone else would have to, was tearing him apart from the inside.

"You can stop, Dean," Kate said to Dean before a wave of aching pain went through her. She didn't have the right to stop Dean from torturing Alastair and Zachariah was letting her know that by torturing her. Rebelling against the angel by choosing to protect the hunter was something that Kate had to pay.

"I can't do that," the hunter replied, looking away.

"You can, Dean," she insisted, her fingernails digging into her palms as she struggled against the never-ending pain that subsisted in her due to Zachariah's anger towards her.

Dean couldn't help the tears that formed in his eyes as he flipped the pages, not bearing to read this passage anymore.

"I figured you out. You won't do anything if we torture you. You won't do anything if we give you back what you've lost. And I could just erase all of your memory until you finally do what I tell you. But you won't do anything. And you know why? Because you are just like Sam and Dean. You can bear it all, as long as the ones you care about are alright," Zachariah told the young woman whose eyes widened at the sudden realization of what the angel was going to do. Her disobedience towards the angel came from her attachment to the people who took care of her – those people she wanted to take care of because she cared so deeply about them.

The young woman felt completely destroyed as though everything around her collapsed as the angel continued telling her that the people she cared about would be horrifically tortured if she came to disobey him again. Pleading with the angel not to do any of that, she fell back on her last resort. Begging the angel to torture her instead, resorted to being the thing that brought glee in the angel.

Dean tossed the pages on the table and exhaled a long sigh as he stood up and hit the top of the table with his two fists. He couldn't read more. Sure, he didn't read all of the pages, but he had spent quite some time reading now. And, what he read turned out to be already enough for him to not only hate Zachariah much more, but also to feel even guiltier. He was mad at Zachariah for what he had done to the innocent woman and he was mad at himself for not protecting her. He wished he could have acted different, he wished he could have protected her the way she deserved to be protected; the way she protected them.

Throwing a glance at the pages, Dean felt tears roll out of his eyes when the sound of the door unlocking from outside made him turn around. He rubbed one hand down his face to wipe the tears away and he coughed when Sam walked in.

"Hey!" Dean told him after clearing his throat.

"Hey!" Sam replied before closing the door. "Here," he said as he pulled a little bag out of his brownish jacket and tossed at his brother who caught it easily. "Hex bags. No way the angels will find us with those. Demons, either, for that matter."

"Where'd you get it?" Dean asked him as he examined the tiny brown bag in between his calloused fingers.

"I made it."

"How?"

"I... Uh, I learned it from Ruby," Sam stammered, feeling a bit uneasy considering everything that happened with and because of that demon.

Dean stared at him for a few seconds, his eyes scanning his brother's expression before he took a few steps towards his brother, "Speaking of. How you doing? Are you jonesing for another bitch blood or what?"

"It's weird," Sam replied. "Uh, tell you the truth, I'm fine. No shakes, no fever. It's like whoever put me on that plane cleaned me right up."

"Supernatural methadone," Dean nodded at him.

"Yeah, I guess," Sam simply replied. He paused and watched his brother who was looking down at the hex bag he had given him. "Dean-"

"Sam," Dean cut him off as he turned around and walked back to the table. "It's okay. You don't have to say anything."

"Well, that's good," Sam said as he put his hands on his hips. "Because what can I even say? I'm sorry? I screwed up?" Sam's eyes fixated at Dean who grabbed his gun and put it in his pocket, throwing glances at the pages scattered on the table after he had tossed them a few minutes ago. "Doesn't really do it justice, you know? Look, there's nothing I can do or say that will ever make this right-"

"So why do you keep bringing it up?" Dean cut him off in a shout full of frustration.

"Because I know how all of this is affecting you," Sam replied in a little voice, his eyes filled with sorrow. "We lost two of our friends and I know that you're feeling guilty about Katie, but if you think you're the only one-"

"She went through Hell because of me!" Dean shouted, cutting Sam off once again. "Zachariah made her go through Hell because of me. Literally! Because that stupid, stubborn girl thought she had to protect me-"

"Dean-" Sam cut him off.

"No!" Dean didn't let him stop him. "No," he repeated in almost a whisper. He looked right into Sam's puppy dog eyes and sighed. "Look, I-I don't wanna fight about it. I…All I'm saying is, why do we have to put any of this under a microscope? We made a mess. We clean it up. That's it."

Sam stared at him, unsure of what to think of Dean's suggestion. Still, he gave him a simple nod.

"Alright," Dean said as he approached his brother. "So, say this is just any other hunt. You know? What do we do first?"

"We'd, uh, we'd figure out where the thing is," Sam replied in a little voice.

"Alright. So, we just gotta find the… The Devil," Dean told him before looking down at the hex bag still in his hand before throwing it in his brother's hands. "You can keep that, I already got one."

"What? How can you have one?" Sam asked him.

"Kaitlin... She's given me one before… Before I left her at Chuck's with Cas," Dean replied trying to not sound too affected or hurt for that matter. All he wanted to sound like was strong. He had to get a grip at himself. He couldn't break down with the Apocalypse here.

"Do you... Um, do you think she's really dead?" Sam asked, his voice so little that it reminded Dean of a much younger Sam who was afraid to sleep with no light on. Dean looked up at him and immediately spotted all of the remorse and sadness his little brother was feeling right now.

Dean turned around and walked to the table, slipping one hand in his pants pocket, he took out the hex-bag Kate had given him. He looked at it for a moment and sighed as he leaned his hands on the back of one chair.

"I don't know," he sighed before turning his head to look over at Sam. "I don't know, Sammy."

Sam dropped his sad gaze on the floor while Dean returned his own to his hand still holding the hex-bag; the last words she told him echoing in the back of his head.

"Be safe!"

---

A few days later.

It was already past ten at night when Sam and Dean arrived in the location where the older brother was sure Michael's sword was. The two brothers were exhausted and it was only the adrenaline that kept them going now. After those last days full of events, none of them wanted to give up until they had the sword with them.

Indeed, after Chuck had sent one of his fans to tell the brothers about his latest vision, Dean had immediately called for Bobby to help them. The old man got in the Impala and drove straight away from his house to get to the Winchesters as quick as possible. However, when Bobby had come to the motel they were staying in, he had gotten possessed by a demon who then got the information of the location of the archangel's sword out of Dean with facility. As though it hadn't been enough, Bobby had stabbed himself in order to save Dean from the demon possessing the old man.

And, although the two brothers were extremely worried about Bobby who was at the hospital, they knew they had to get their hands to the sword before someone or something else did.

Parked in front of the Castle storage where their father's lockup was, Sam and Dean opened the trunk and put a good number of efficient weapons on them before making their way to their late father's storage room.

Shotguns ready, Sam and Dean opened the door, only to find dead bodies sprawled across the floor. The brothers exchanged a look before they carefully walked in the dark and dusty room, their eyes traveling all around in case something would jump at them.

"I see you told the demons where the sword is," Zachariah's voice suddenly spoke up, breaking the silence of the room. Dean and Sam both spun around to find the angel once again escorted by two other angels.

"Oh thank God. The angels are here," Dean said sarcastically.

"And, to think," Zachariah said ignoring Dean's sarcastic comment as he stepped above one of the corpses on the floor. "They could have grabbed it anytime they wanted," He held one arm up and waved his hand to close the door. "It was right in front of him," he continued, looking back at the older Winchester standing in the room. Dean had a slightly confused expression on the face while Sam frowned.

"What do you mean?" Sam asked.

"We may have planted that particular piece of prophecy inside Chuck's skull, but it happened to be true," the angel answered to him "We did lose the Michael sword. We truly couldn't find it," his lips curled into a smug smile. "Until now. You've just hand-delivered it to us."

"We don't have anything," Dean replied.

"It's you, chucklehead," Zachariah told him. Both of the brothers stayed silent as the angel advanced towards Dean. "You are the Michael sword."

Wide-eyed Sam and Dean stood still, shock preventing them from saying one word as they still tried to grasp at the new information.

"What?" Zachariah asked the quiet Dean. "You thought you could actually kill Lucifer? You simpering wad of insecurity and self-loathing? No. You're just a human, Dean. And not much of one."

"What do you mean, I'm the sword?" Dean asked with a rough and hard voice, ignoring Zachariah's comment.

"You're Michael's weapon. Or rather, his... Receptacle."

"I'm a vessel?"

"You're the vessel," Zachariah replied pointing at him. "Michael's vessel."

"How- Why me?"

"Because you're chosen!" The angel exclaimed. "It's a great honor, Dean."

"Oh yeah. Yeah, life as an angel condom," Dean said in stern sarcasm. "That's real fun. I think I'll pass, thanks."

"Joking," Zachariah said, slightly shaking his head. "Always joking... Well, let me tell you I've had enough of your jokes just like I've had enough of her stubbornness!"

"So, you gonna kill me like you killed her?" Dean asked, knowing far well who Zachariah was referring to.

Zachariah smirked, "No… You don't get it, Dean. You never did. No one got it and I don't think anyone will really get it." Dean frowned as he stared at the angel. "When she came into this universe, your dear Kate was… She was everything we could ever imagine to have in our hands. And I was the first one to see what she could bring us. I was the only one, ready to sacrifice it all for her! But, how tough and stupid and stubborn she was!" Zachariah let out a frustrated sigh. "But, you know what? At the end, all of Heaven knows how right I was… Anyways, this is a very serious situation, Dean, and you need to understand that I don't have any patience left. So… No more jokes."

"Otherwise what?" Dean asked him, his eyes still full of anger.

"Well," the angel replied as he raised one hand up, fingers put like a gun and pointed it at Dean for a moment before shifting to Sam. "Bang."

"Aah!" Sam yelled as he fell on the ground. Dean turned to look at his little brother who was holding at his legs, his face scrunched in pain. "My God!"

"You son of a bitch!" Dean growled at the angel as he looked at him with even more fury.

"Keep mouthing off, I'll break more than his legs," Zachariah told him in a stern voice that sounded a little casual. Dean threw a glance at Sam who was struggling not to scream out of pain. "I am completely and utterly through screwing around. The war has begun. We don't have our general. That's bad. Now, Michael is going to take his vessel and lead the final charge against the adversary. You understand me?"

"How many humans die in the crossfire, huh?" Dean said in reply. "A million? Five, ten?"

"Probably more," Zachariah replied. "If Lucifer goes unchecked, you know how many die? All of them. He'll roast the planet alive."

"There is a reason you're telling me this instead of just nabbing me," Dean told the angel as he stared right into his eyes. "You need my consent. Michael needs my say-so to ride around in my skin."

"Unfortunately yes," Zachariah admitted.

"There's gotta be another way," Dean said shaking his head.

"Well, the only other way I can think of, is not something you would like. And, to be honest, it's more of an insurance card to take out if we lose the battle."

"If you got that card, use it and leave me alone!"

"No, Dean, you don't understand. It's gotta be you. There must be a battle, Michael must defeat the serpent, it is written."

"Yeah maybe," Dean said after glancing at his brother on the floor "But on the other hand… Eat me. The answer's no."

"Okay," Zachariah just said. "How about this? Your friend Bobby, we know he's gravely injured. Say yes and we'll heal him. Say no, he'll never walk again." Sam looked up at Dean to see him having this expression of defeat on his face that he always tried so much not to show.

"No."

"Then how about we heal you from… Stage-four stomach cancer?"

Dean doubled over, coughing as he held on his abdomen with one arm and held one hand against his mouth. When he pulled his hand away from his mouth, he noticed that the raw pain he was feeling in his abdomen had caused him to cough blood.

"And, you're gonna fight, huh?" Kate's soft voice echoed in Dean's head.

The hunter looked up at the angel, his eyes full of determination to fight as he spoke up with sterness.

"No."

"Then how about you say yes and we'll give you your friend back, huh?" Zachariah told him as he snapped his fingers making her appear.

Dressed in a simple sleeveless white dress that reached past her knees, Kate seemed unconscious as the two angels on the back were holding her up by her arms. Her brown hair fell like a curtain over her face, preventing Dean to see her face which only caused Dean to worry.

"What did you do to her?" Dean asked, his green eyes dropping to her bare feet.

"Surprisingly enough, nothing," Zachariah told him. "Now that all of the angels know what we can get out of her thanks to my little experiments I did when I gave her your dear souvenirs, all of the painful memories were taken away from her. And, since she almost stupidly died at the Prophet's house, she was immediately taken to Heaven where she was taken care of. She's all better now; a bit asleep, sure, but she's still all better. So, what do you say?"

"Dean…" Sam said in a weak voice causing Dean to look at him. The simple look that his little brother gave him, told him that he had to save Kate. He couldn't not save her, again.

Dean looked at the limp body of the young woman and remembered what he read in Chuck's manuscripts. How she stood up against Zachariah, no matter what the consequences were. How she kept on fighting for what she believed to be right, no matter what the angel did to her.

"And, you're gonna fight, huh?" Her voice echoed again in his head.

"No," Dean succeeded to say as he looked at the angel again with a hard and strong-willed face. There had to be sacrifices, even if it meant that the people he cared about were to get hurt.

"Alright," Zachariah said and then a sharp scream escaped Kate's lips causing Dean's eyes to go wide. "Oh well, Heaven forbade me to torture her, but giving her back one of your best memories of Hell isn't really torturing her, is it?" The angel turned his head to look at the woman who was twisting around in the grip of the angels. "You know, when I look at her like that, in this pretty white dress, I can't help but think of all the good time I could have given her. Because, trust me, I would have treated her so right, she would have screamed for another reason, if you catch my drift," he winked at Dean who stared at him with full disgust written all over his face. "Alright, alright," the angel said as he snapped his fingers making Kate stop screaming. "Her voice was starting to get in my nerves. She's better when fast asleep. So, you still don't want to say yes, do you? How about we get a little bit more creative huh? Mmh, let's see how Sam does without his lungs?"

Suddenly, Sam started to gasp for breath, Dean turning around to look at him with pain. Dean never thought he would feel as helpless as he was feeling right now.

"Are we having fun yet?" Zachariah said looking back and forth at the two brothers before bending down in front of Dean and grabbing him by the chin. "You're going to say yes, Dean."

"Why don't you just kill us and use your fucking card?!"

"My fucking card? Dean, my fucking card is Kate! Do you really want Kate to fight against Lucifer? Do you really want her to take on your job? Do you want us to use her, because if we do there'll be more damages in this world than if you manned-up and played the role you were given!"

"I'll never say yes and she'll never work for you either, you better just kill us," Dean growled as he set his jaw.

"Kill you?" Zachariah asked as he stood up, roughly letting go of Dean's chin. "Oh no, I'm just getting started."

At this right moment, a bright light flashed in the room causing Zachariah to turn around.

Here stood the trench-coated angel that everybody thought dead. Not only was he back, but he had killed one of the angels holding Kate up with his angel blade. The other angel dropped Kate on the floor and brought his blade up to fight against Castiel. However, Castiel seemed to have no mercy at all compared to the other angel. His kicks and punches were stronger and faster and they had to be; Sam was slowly dying without lungs at the moment. Quickly, Castiel managed to hold the angel on a wall and stabbed him with his blade killing him and creating another flash of bright light in the lockup room.

"How are you..." Zachariah started as he looked at the rebelled angel.

"Alive?" Castiel finished for him. "It's a good question. How did these two end up on that airplane? Another good question. How did Kate remember everything about you and what you did after you took off her memory? And, I'm not talking about what the angels did after you got her at the Prophet's, but before when she was at Bobby Singer's. Because the angels didn't do any of that. I think we both know the answer, don't we?"

"No, that's not possible," Zachariah breathed out.

"It scares you," Castiel told him, his eyes fixing at the angel who used to be his superior. "Well it should. Now put those three back together and go. I won't ask twice," Castiel's voice was stern and threatening.

Zachariah stared at him for a long moment before glancing at Kate, still unconscious on the floor.

"You know what she is, Castiel," Zachariah told him. "You know what that means."

"I know that God wouldn't have agreed with you using her like that," Castiel replied, sternly before Zachariah disappeared.

The second Zachariah was gone, Sam and Dean's physical pain vanished as they sat up. Sam looked over at Kate who didn't move an inch before immediately going over to her.

"Kate?" he called her as he put his large hands on her face. "C'mon, Katie, open your eyes."

Dean stood up, his green eyes glued to the woman as he silently prayed for her to be okay. Castiel shifted his intense blue gaze to the dirty-blond-haired hunter, surprised that he would be praying. It was very out of character for Dean and the angel was very aware of that fact. As a matter of fact, every angels knew that Dean Winchester's faith had decreased over the years after his mother's death. He had rarely prayed for God or angels to help him. Moreover, his prayers were often lacking the full sincerity and need that they were supposed to be filled of. However, at this right moment as Dean kept his eyes glued to the young woman, his silent prayers reflected with perfection the ones that the most faithful man would have.

"Mmh?" Kate mumbled before opening her eyes. Relief washed over the two brothers; Castiel bowing his head with a tiny smile after he noticed the expression on Dean's freckled face. "Sam?" She breathed out as she tried to sit up but didn't succeed as she felt everything spinning around her.

"Take it easy," Sam told her kindly as he put his hands on her arms to help her sit up slowly.

"I'm fine. Just a little bit dizzy," she told him as she put one of her hand against her forehead and squeezed her eyes shut. "God, I feel like I've got the biggest hangover ever."

"You will be fine," Castiel said in his grave voice.

Kate snapped her eyes open and turned her head to look to the angel who had spoken up. Not two seconds later, she moved her eyes to the elder hunter standing a couple of feet away.

"Sam…" She whispered, her brown gaze turned at the young man knelt right next to her, a concerned yet relieved expression on his face. "God… Sam, you're alright?"

"Yeah, yeah. I'm fine," he replied with a little smile before she suddenly threw her arms around his shoulders and gave him a tight hug.

"I thought I'd never see you again," she told him, remembering their last encounter.

"Yeah, so did I," he said as he hugged her back.

Dean stared at Sam and Kate and then nodded with a sigh of relief.

Both the angel and the woman that he thought were gone, were both alive. He knew he should feel even better, but there was still a lot bugging at him. What Zachariah had said about using Kate if he didn't say yes to Michael was scaring him more than he thought possible. It was another information that was going to fill his thoughts and keep him awake at night.

"You three need to be more careful," Castiel said as Sam helped Kate up, and seeing that she was only wearing a simple white dress that was almost see-through, he took his jacket off and put it on her shoulders. She looked up at him and gave him a little soft smile thanking him silently. He gave her a little weak smile not being able to smile properly at her after what he had done to her, the guilt still eating him on the inside.

"Yeah, I'm starting to get that," Dean replied as Kate and Sam were now standing right next to the older hunter and the angel. Kate's eyes were glued to Dean, but the second he looked at her, she moved her gaze to Castiel, remembering how he had defended her from the other angels at Chuck's. "Your frat brothers are bigger dicks than I thought."

"I don't mean the angels," Castiel told him. "The fallen angel is circling his vessel," he said glancing up at Sam. "And once he takes it, those hex-bags won't be enough to protect you," he walked towards the two brothers and put his hands on their chest. They moaned in pain as Kate's eyes went big, wondering what the angel just did to them.

"What the hell was that?!" Dean exclaimed when Castiel put his hands away and turned to the only woman of the group.

"An Enochian sigil," Castiel replied as he held his hand up toward the middle of Kate's chest.

"Wait," she told him as she backed away. "Let me get ready mentally at least," she said closing her eyes. Castiel didn't wait as he rested his hand on her chest and she opened her eyes, yelping at the sudden pain. The angel pulled away. "Thanks for letting me get ready," she sarcastically told him.

"It will hide you from every angel in creation, including Lucifer," Castiel told them, ignoring Kate's comment.

"What? Lucifer?" Kate exclaimed. "He got out? I thought-" She cut herself short when she noticed the look of guilt all over Sam's face. Understanding what it meant, she reached out her arm from under his jacket he had put on her shoulders and she rested it on top of his forearm and gently squeezed. Sam looked up at her face and was surprised to find her give him a smile full of kindness and sympathy. "So, what is it, Castiel?" She asked, turning her head back to the angel while keeping her hand around Sam's strong forearm; something that Dean noticed but kept quiet about. "What did you do to us? Did you just brand us with the sigil?"

"No. I carved it into your ribs," Castiel replied casually. The three humans stared at him with shocked, stunned and confused expressions mixed all together.

"Hey Cas, were you really dead?" Sam asked him, his voice little and hesitant. Kate turned to look at Sam before quickly turning her head to the angel.

"You were dead?" She asked him.

"At Chuck's, after the angel took you down and you lost so much blood that you fell unconscious, I tried to get to you to send you away from here before they got their hands on you again, but the archangel protecting Chuck killed me before I could even touch you," Castiel told her, his blue eyes looking deep into her brown eyes before he looked up at Sam.

"Then how are you back?" Dean asked and Castiel turned his gaze to him. He looked down for a second with a thoughtful look on the face before he disappeared. "He's got great social skills," Dean sighed as Kate slightly moved her head to look at him. When he looked at her, she didn't look away. "You okay?"

She gave him a simple nod, her eyes traveling down to his lips, "You've got blood." Dean glanced up at Sam before wiping his lips where he knew there'd be blood. However, he didn't wipe all of it which caused Kate to approach him, gently letting go of Sam's forearm as her brown eyes glued to the little blood on the corner of his lips. Dean watched her face as she brought one of her hands up and rubbed her soft thumb against the corner of his lips. "Here," she whispered, pulling her hand away before meeting his gaze.

When he opened his lips to say something, she abruptly threw her arms around his neck and pulled him to her so she could give him a tight hug. His eyebrows rose in surprise as he looked over at Sam who gave him half of a smile before looking down. Dean slightly frowned, not thinking he deserved her hug after all the things she's been through because of him.

Kate slowly pulled away, confused and hurt that the older Winchester wouldn't hug her back. Nevertheless, she pushed that thought away and dropped her gaze to the corpses, "Who are those people on the floor?"

"Demons," Sam simply replied, causing her to look up at him.

"Their vessels, you mean?" Kate asked and he nodded. She approached one of the bodies, bent down next to it and started to look for a pulse.

"They're already dead," Dean said, his voice sounding harder than what he wanted.

"Have you even tried to find their pulse?" She asked him, not looking up at him.

"Don't need to. The angels did that and they don't care about humans," he replied as he walked above a few corpses, heading towards the door. "You'd know that better than anyone," he said as he opened the door. "I'm gonna bring something to carry the corpses out so we can burn them."

Kate watched as Dean walked out, wondering why he was acting so weirdly cold to her. She returned her gaze to Sam who looked at her with an expression she couldn't decipher. It seemed as though he was lost and even stuck in a memory of his – an unpleasant memory.

"Sam? You okay?" She asked him, but the young Winchester didn't say anything as his mind was filled with the memory of the nurse he killed a few days ago.

---

A few hours later.

Sam and Dean got rid of the dead bodies by burning them in the closest forest, leaving Kate in the Impala from where she had watched them toss the bodies in a hole before setting them on fire. Truth be told, the woman had watched them getting rid of the bodies without really watching them. Her mind had played and replayed the latest events that happened to her. From the fight at Chuck's to her arrival in Heaven where a group of angels welcomed her as though she had been the most precious thing they had ever seen.

"We are so sorry for the misunderstanding," an angel in the body of a blond woman had told her. "Zachariah thought he was doing right. His only true wish was to insure our Father's plan to succeed."

Kate could still remember the weird but good feeling that washed over her when another brown-haired angel appeared by her side and touched her forehead.

"All of his damages are gone. You won't have to suffer through another set of flashbacks. It never was your burden," the blond-haired angel told her.

"You took them all away?" Kate had asked, only to have the two angels nodding. "Zachariah did this once and it didn't work, so how can you be sure it will work this time?"

"Zachariah never had the power of controlling memories. Being an angel of the high ranks gives him the power to remodel memories, but when someone's mind is too strong or, I would even say tenacious, things get complicated," the angel had explained. "Besides, we believe that God wanted you to have those memories back."

"Can you do it for Dean? Can you erase his memory of Hell?" Kate had asked, turning her face to look at the brown-haired angel.

"I am sorry, but it is not my mission," the angel had replied before vanishing away.

"Our mission is to make sure that Dean Winchester plays his role and he will never do that if he doesn't remember what Hell was like," the blond-haired angel had said making Kate look at her. "He needs to remember how terrible it was, so he can help in stopping Lucifer from bringing Hell upon the world."

"Why Dean?"

"Because he is Michael's sword - his vessel if you'd rather."

"Michael's vessel… Do you mean, the archangel?"

"Yes."

"And, what am I in all of that? Why Zachariah did all of those things to me, 'cause I might not remember them but I know how much they hurt me!" Kate had said with frustration.

"Zachariah needed to make sure that you were trustworthy and also that you would be strong enough to carry some heavy burdens. But most importantly, he wanted to convince you into helping us."

"Helping you? Shouldn't you be the one helping me? I-I'm stuck in this universe and I-"

"I'm sorry, but no angel can help you," the angel had told her. "It's not that we can't send you back to your universe, but as long as Lucifer is out of his cage and the battle between Michael and Lucifer isn't done, we cannot do that. The doors are locked until the battle is done. Plus, the only one who can open them is missing."

"God…"

"Unfortunately, yes," the angel had replied. "And, we need you. You are the weapon that can turn the whole battle to our advantage."

"The weapon?"

"You can be the perfect vessel for Michael if Dean doesn't play his part, just like you can be Lucifer's vessel."

"What?"

"It's not just that," the angel had told her. "Truth be told, we don't want you to interfere in the battle between Michael and Lucifer. What we want is for you to help us. Kate, you have the capacity to hold the greatest secret weapon of Heaven inside of you. It will be safe in you and-"

"What? So, I-I'm just some kind of storage unit on legs that you wanna use to keep your weapon safe?" Kate had cut her off.

"No, by keeping it in you, you can become the weapon. You will become the weapon."

"But, why me? Why me out of all the people?"

"Because you're not from this universe. God made you and all the other people from your universe completely different from the ones in this universe. As a matter of fact, it's more than that: you happen to come from the universe where souls are much more powerful than in any other universe," the angel had explained. "If you want my opinion, I think we are all lucky you came in our universe. But, I also think you are lucky. Not a lot of people can help winning over Lucifer and then spend their eternity in a Heaven with their late father."

"My father… He's not even from this world, so how-" Kate had started before she had found herself standing in a beautiful garden.

"Honey, where the hell have you been? The food's gonna get cold, c'mon!" Her father had told her from where he was sitting at a table with some picnic.

The noise of the car's doors opening brought Kate back to the present moment outside of her deep thoughts. She shook her head and looked up at the two brothers as they sat down on their usual seats upfront.

"It's done?" She asked them, her fingers playing with the hem of Sam's jacket that she was still wearing.

"Yeah," Dean replied simply before starting his car while Kate frowned, turning her head to look out the window. "You okay?" He asked her above the growling of the engine as he looked at her reflection on the rearview mirror.

"Yeah," she said in a thoughtful tone.

"It's gonna take a few hours, if you want we can stop at a motel before going to the hospital," Sam suggested, turning on his seat so he could see the woman sitting behind him.

"No," she shook her head, her eyes going up to meet his. "You said Bobby stabbed himself… Please, let's just make sure he's okay."

---

As Sam had said, the car trip to the hospital where Bobby was staying, had taken quite some time. It was almost three in the morning when Dean parked his Baby in the hospital parking lot, and the two brothers were going to step out of the car when Kate stopped them.

"What's going on?" Dean asked, turning his head to look at her.

"I don't have shoes," she simply said causing the two brothers to look down and catch a glimpse of her, indeed, bare feet.

"I think I got an old pair in the trunk," Sam told her as Dean sighed and got out of the car.

Kate chewed on her bottom lip as she waited for Sam to get back with the shoes. She was still uncertain of what to think about Dean's attitude. He hadn't been talkative at all during the car trip; making sure to just say what she needed to know. Like the fact that her theory about the angels was correct, that the Apocalypse had started and that Zachariah had threatened not to let Bobby walk ever again if he still refused to accept being possessed by an angel. Kate understood that Dean had much more on his shoulders now, but it didn't mean that he had to act so distant with her. Was he still mad at her for not telling him about Sam and the demon blood? Or was he mad at her for her meet-ups with Ruby? Could it be that he was mad at her for something else?

The passenger door on her right shut open, startling the woman out of her questioning.

"Here you go," Sam said handing her a pair of old snickers. "They're, um, pretty big for you, but at least you won't be walking barefoot everywhere."

She slid to the edge of the seat as she looked up at the young Winchester standing next to the passenger door, "Well, I wouldn't have complained if we weren't in the outside," she replied with a little smile as she slipped her feet in the large shoes and tried to tie the shoelaces tightly. "Where's your brother?"

"He's already walking inside," Sam replied with a nod towards the hospital. She glanced up and saw Dean entering the big front door of the hospital building, not even waiting for them.

"I'm done," Kate announced, standing out of the Impala and looking down at her feet in the big shoes as she took a few steps and Sam closed the car's door. "I feel like I'm stealing all of your stuff. Your jacket and now your shoes."

"It's alright," he said in a little voice as he walked past the car. "I owe you more than that," he murmured to himself, but Kate heard him and frowned.

"Sam!" She called him, making him spin around to look at her. "You know I forgave you, right? I mean, in the panic room, y-you weren't really in your normal state, so there wasn't need of forgiving in the first hand."

He watched her face for a few long seconds, as though he was trying to verify the sincerity of her words. He looked away and asked her in almost a whisper, "Don't you resent me?"

Kate's eyebrows furrowed even more, her eyes scanning his sad face and the way his shoulders were dropped. He looked so vulnerable like that and that made Kate's face softened as she slowly approached him, her eyes glued to his face.

"No," she softly told him once she was right in front of him. She reached her hands out of the long sleeves of his jacket she was wearing, and put them on his arms. She gave a gentle squeeze making him look at her. "I will never resent you, Sam. Especially not for something you were totally oblivious about."

"I-I think I knew… Deep inside, I think I knew that what I was doing, it was wrong," he admitted. "Not just what I did to you, but everything else. Listening to Ruby and not to my own brother, killing Lilith…"

"And, it hurts now," she said and he gave a little nod as his eyes met hers. "You already blame yourself too, right? Then, why do you want anyone else to resent you? To blame you? Isn't what you're feeling enough? Aren't you hurting enough?"

"I… I don't think it's enough," he whispered, tears forming in his eyes.

"Well, I think it is," she told him firmly. "I won't tell you to stop blaming yourself, 'cause I know you won't listen to me. At least, not today. So, for now all I want you to understand is that I don't resent you. And I'll never do. Because I know what's really inside of your heart. Bad things happened, but that doesn't make you a bad person, Sam. And that surely doesn't make you a monster."

Sam's teary eyes slightly lightened up at her words and his lips curled into a tiny smile, "Thank you."

"Anytime," she replied, squeezing his arms again before letting go. "Now, help me to walk, I feel like a clown with those shoes on," he gave her his arm so she could lean on while walking. "Sorry, I shouldn't have mentioned clowns, I forgot you're scared of them."

He chuckled before stopping, "Um, what? N-no, I'm not- How did you know I don't like clowns?" He asked, his brows wrinkled in confusion.

"Oh, well," Kate started, realizing she hadn't told them yet that she had read Chuck's books about them. "Lucky guess, I suppose."

---

An hour later.

Bobby Singer's hospital room.

Leaned against the wall by the windows, Sam and Dean stayed quiet as Bobby shouted at the doctor who just announced him the bad news about his legs. For a moment, Kate regretted sitting at the old man's bedside since his shouting pierced her ears and caused her to wince more than once. Tired of being insulted and screamed at by his patient, the doctor left the room.

"Yeah, you better run!" Bobby shouted as the doctor slammed the door behind him. "You believe that yahoo?" He looked over at the two brothers.

"Screw him. You'll be fine," Dean told him, his arms crossed over his chest.

"So, let me ask the one million-dollar question," Sam said making Kate and Bobby look at him while Dean kept his gaze glued to the white floor. "What do we do now?"

"Well… We save as many as we can for as long as we can, I guess," Bobby replied as he looked away.

"It's bad," Kate said, shaking her head. "Whoever wins, Heaven or Hell…"

"We're boned," Bobby finished with a sigh and she nodded. "You said the angels wanted you as a substitute if nothing goes according to their plan, right?" Bobby said, recalling what they talked about before the doctor came in to announce him that he wouldn't be able to use his legs anymore.

"Yeah," Kate nodded, licking her lips before continuing. "But it seems like they still need my consent, too."

"Even if it's for carrying their great weapon or whatever they said?" Sam asked, his brows furrowed.

"Yeah, I think that's the reason why they became milder with me," Kate replied putting a lock of hair behind one ear as Bobby carefully stared at her. "After what happened with, um," she paused, looking up at the two brothers and realizing she hadn't told them yet about what happened with Zachariah.

"With Zachariah," Dean finished taking Kate apart. He lifted his gaze and met hers. "We know about this."

"Oh, um," she glanced at Bobby and noticed that he was surprised too, so it gave away to her that he wasn't the one who told them. She cleared her throat, straightened herself on the chair, "I think that after that, the angels understood that it wasn't the best way for getting me on their side. So, they took every painful memories that Zachariah gave to me and they healed my wounds."

"Which is why you don't have that bump on your forehead anymore," Bobby noted.

"Yeah, that and a few other wounds. And," she paused, pressing her lips together for a moment, her eyes dropping to the sheet covering most of the old man's body. "And, they let me have some time with my father."

"What?" Bobby asked, looking at her with frowned eyebrows.

"He wasn't my father, though. And, I don't think it was, er, the version of my father from this universe. I think they used my memories of him to give me a perfect copy. I had to relive good moments and even had new good moments, but…" she paused, her eyebrows knitted together before she looked up at Bobby and then at the two Winchesters watching her. "They thought it would convince me, but it wasn't my father. Besides, now I know what angels, in order to reach their goals, are capable of."

"You didn't say yes to them? Not once, right?" Bobby asked her.

"Not once," Kate confirmed, her brown eyes looking right into his blue ones.

"Good," Bobby said. "We won't let them use you as a weapon or whatever else they think they can use you for!"

Kate couldn't help the smile that grew on her lips. It was in times like these that she was glad she had landed in his salvage yard and not anywhere else. "So, what now? I mean, if neither Dean nor I work for them, does that mean we let Hell win?"

"Of course, not," Bobby huffed.

"What if we win?" Dean suggested all of sudden, causing everyone else to look at him with surprise but also interest in his idea. "I'm serious. I mean, screw the angels and the demons, and their crap Apocalypse," he walked away from the wall, his green eyes looking at each of them. "Hell, they wanna fight a war? They can find their own planet. This one's ours," he said, noticing Kate slightly tilting her head. "It's yours too, now."

She raised her eyebrows at him before he continued, "So, I say they get the hell off our planet. We take them all on. We kill the Devil. Hell, we kill even Michael if we have to. But we do it in our own damn selves."

"And how are we supposed to do all this, you little genius?" Bobby asked as Dean stopped right in front of his bed.

"I got no idea!" Dean said shrugging. "But, what I do have a GED and a give-them-hell attitude, and I'll figure it out."

Bobby glanced at Kate and then at Sam, before returning his eyes to Dean, "You're nine kinds of crazy, boy."

"It's been said," Dean replied with a shrug as Kate bit on her bottom lip, trying really hard not to give a full smile as she watched the green-eyed hunter. Seeing him so strong-willed in not letting either side win, made her see that she had been fighting for the right thing. "Listen you stay on the mend. We'll see you in a bit," Dean said as he approached the old man to pat him on the shoulder. He took a few steps back and looked down at the young woman. "You're coming with us or you're staying?"

"Huh, I think I'd rather stay, in case Bobby-" she started before the old man cut her off.

"In case Bobby what? Until, Castiel decides to come back and put me back up on my feet I have a gang of nurses to take care of me here. You don't have to stay. Besides, you look like a homeless person in those clothes."

"Always so tactful with your words. But, alright, since you're throwing me out…" She trailed off as she stood up from her seat. She put her hand on top of his and gave a gentle squeeze. "I'll see you later."

"Make sure to be wearing normal clothes next time," he told her.

"I'll try," she chuckled before following Dean to the door. He opened it and they started walking out when they heard Bobby call after Sam. Kate looked up at Dean before sneaking past him to get out when she understood that Bobby wanted to have a private talk with the younger Winchester.

Dean looked at her as he heard Bobby starting to make his apologies to Sam for what he said to him when he was possessed. The older brother frowned before deciding to follow the young woman out.

"Hey," Dean called after her as he walked in the hospital hallway. She spun around and looked at him as she waited for him to catch up with her. Once he was by her side, she restarted walking towards the exit door. They walked in silence, until one of Kate's feet got out of the big shoes she was wearing.

"Damn," she muttered as she looked down to slip her foot right back into the shoe. She was surprised when Dean crouched down and helped her put on the shoe. She felt her cheeks turn red and avoided the eyes of the people passing them by and staring at them. She looked down at the hunter and saw that he re-did the tie of her shoelace, making sure to even tie it around her ankle. "What are you doing?"

"It won't be easy to step out of those shoes like that," he told her as he did the same with the other shoe. She watched him do, her teeth biting on her bottom lip as she felt his calloused fingertips brushing the smooth skin of her ankle.

"Do you think Castiel can heal Bobby?" She found herself ask him without even really knowing why.

"Sure, why not?" Dean asked her, glancing up at her with a frown.

"I dunno," she replied. "Earlier, on the road, you said Zachariah threatened to never let Bobby walk if… If you said no. What if this curse or whatever that is, can only be undone by the angel who cursed it?"

"That'd make sense," he told her as he stood up. His green eyes immediately met her brown ones. "Let's just hope that this time, you're wrong."

"Yeah," she replied softly. "Thanks," she said glancing down at her feet before they restarted walking in silence.

Once they got outside, Kate looked up at Dean and then threw a glance at the building, "What about Sam?"

"He'll be here in a couple of minutes. Bobby had some things to tell him."

"Yeah, I know, but what about him?"

"What about him?" Dean repeated, looking down at her with confusion in his eyes.

"Is he really alright? I mean with his demon blood needs?" She asked, looking up at Dean as she pulled Sam's jacket closer to her body when a violent wind hit them.

"That's what he says," Dean just said as they kept on walking in the parking lot, towards his car.

"You think he's lying?" she asked him in a little voice.

"I don't know what to think," he sighed as he fished his keys out of his pocket.

"Sorry, I'm being too curious," she apologized shaking her head as they were now two steps away from the car. "I know that I'm a real pain sometimes-"

"What? No, no," he told her as he turned and stopped right in front of her, causing her to look up at him with confusion. He took a deep breath, "It's just that… It's been too much lately. And I-I feel like I haven't even had time to swallow everything down. The Apocalypse came right after Sam broke the final seal because he chose a demon over me. I haven't even had to time to accept that yet and I've already got Armageddon thrown at me. And, then there's this whole thing with Zachariah. And, I thought you were-" He stopped and looked at her for a moment.

"You thought I was what?" She whispered, her brown eyes trying to keep the eye contact but his eyes were traveling all over her face.

"I thought you and Cas were dead," he replied, his eyes finally settling into hers.

"Hey," Sam's voice appeared, causing them both to notice how close they were standing before they took a step away from each other. "Bobby and I thought about something. Maybe we could go look after the Colt?"

"Why? What difference would that make?" Dean asked before he walked the few little steps between him and his car. He opened the driver door as Kate quietly walked to the other side of the car, trying to keep a low profile while they talked.

"Well, we could use it on Lucifer," Sam replied as Kate opened the passenger door to get into the backseat. "I mean, you said back there-"

"I just said a bunch of crap for Bobby's benefit," Dean cut his brother off, turning to look at him as Kate froze with her hand on the door-handle. "I mean, I'll fight. I'll fight till the last man, but let's at least be honest. I mean, we don't stand a snowball's chance and you know that. I mean, hell, you of all people know that, Sam!"

"Dean," Kate said, her tone nearly stern and hard, which made him turn to look at her. She didn't like the way he talked so harshly to his little brother. "Is there something bothering you that much?"

"What?" Dean asked her, surprised by the way she was looking at him and talking to him all of sudden.

"I think that what she means is, is there something you wanna say to me?" Sam said causing Dean to look at him thoughtfully before he glanced at Kate and then looked back at his little brother.

He took a deep breath, "I tried, Sammy. I mean I really tried. But I just can't keep pretending that everything's alright. Because it's not. And it's never going to be. You chose a demon over your own brother and look what happened."

"I would give anything," Sam told him, his voice echoing out the pain, sorrow and remorse filling him on the inside. "Anything. To take it all back."

"I know, I know you would," Dean replied. "And, I know how sorry you are, I do. But, man… You were the one that I depended on the most. And, you let me down in ways that I can't even..." Dean licked his lips and looked away as his eyes filled with tears as he struggled with words. "I- I'm just having a hard time forgiving and forgetting here, you know?" Dean said and Sam slowly nodded his head.

"What can I do?" Sam asked in the same little voice that made him look so vulnerable earlier. Kate looked over at him and she could no longer see that tall and strong character anymore. All she could see was a little boy who had done a mistake that he genuinely regretted and who was ready to do anything to make it up.

"Honestly? Nothing," Dean replied and Kate shifted her gaze to the elder brother, with shock. "I just don't... I don't think we can be what we were, you know?" Sam whose head was lightly down nodded at his brother. "I just don't think I can trust you."

"Dean-" She started, only to be cut off by him.

"No," he gestured to her to not say a word by holding a hand up towards her. He shifted his teary eyes to the brunette. "No."

---

Three hours later.

It had been more than a couple of hours since Dean booked the three of them in a motel room not very far away from the hospital where Bobby was staying at. A heavy calm had driven with them from the hospital to the motel, and it caused the three of them to focus on their thoughts which wasn't exactly a very good thing since their thoughts only helped their worry to creep back up inside of them. When Dean parked in the motel parking lot, they had all immediately got out, quiet as mice, as they made their way to the reception where Dean asked for just one room for the three of them.

There wasn't a lot of space in the blue-walled room as it was little and composed of some big furniture. Two queen sized beds, a long table with four chairs, a tiny sofa in one corner, an old TV hung up on another corner and a large wardrobe next to the bathroom's door. The room was a bit dirty, but considering how much the night-in cost, it was rather expected.

The instant they had walked in the room, Dean had dropped his duffle bag on one bed, silently claiming it his for the night before going to the bathroom. Kate had taken the tiny sofa although Sam insisted on her sleeping on the other bed. She didn't have to ask for clothes as Sam pulled out an old t-shirt of his and a pair of jogging and handed them to her. When Dean had walked out of the bathroom, she went in to take a quick shower and change before returning in the room a few minutes later, to find the two brothers already fast asleep.

Looking over at the digital clock hung on one wall, Kate realized that she had spent a good few hours rolling in the tiny sofa with no chance to fall asleep. She sat up with a groan and turned her head towards the two brothers – Sam was mostly covered by his blanket whereas Dean was sleeping on top of the bed. Unlike his little brother who had put on his pajamas, the older Winchester had taken off only his military jacket and slept with all of his clothes on, down to his boots.

She had noticed how exhausted they looked and to see them getting the rest they needed, reassured the young woman. They were always trying to do so much good that they often forgot to take care of themselves and sometimes they even forgot that they were humans and needed to take a break once in a while.

"You need my consent, right? This is why you're being so nice with me," Kate remembered saying to the angel after she had spent hours with the copy of her father in some garden.

"Indeed. But, we know you will make the right choice."

"What makes you say that?"

"We have watched you, Kaitlin. Of course, it had been impossible to watch you after you got suspicious of us and started wearing a hex-bag against us," the angel had told her. "But, we have watched you enough to know how your mind work."

"Really? And, how does it work?"

"Like them. You are ready to sacrifice yourself if it means that the people you care about, the people you love are safe and sound. It is remarkable."

"It is normal," Kate had replied with a scoff. "It's called being human."

"Which is why I find it remarkable," the blond-haired angel had told her with a smile.

"You know, I'll never say yes. So, why do you keep on trying?"

"Because, we have to."

"You know you're tarnishing God's memory by doing this," Kate had told her. "I never was in his big plan and now that He's gone, you want to put me in it."

"We are not besmirching His memory, because He is not dead. He is gone, but He will come back," the angel had replied. "And, when He does, He will see all of our efforts to make sure that what is written is accomplished… Look, we know that you are angry at us for some angels' actions, and we understand your anger. Nevertheless, we can't let that anger blind you."

"It doesn't blind me. Not at all. I know how manipulative you are, and this is the main reason why I'll never say yes!"

"You need some time with your father, to calm down. I will see you later," the angel had said before Kate found herself in the same garden where her father was waiting for her again.

When Sam groaned loudly in his sleep, Kate was pulled out of her thoughts. She looked at the young man who shifted in his sheets and she sighed before putting her face in her hands. She rubbed her hands down her face and swung her legs to the side and stood up. She approached Sam and despite of the low lightning of the room she still noticed the drops of sweat covering his forehead and the fisting of his hands around the sheets. She softly put one hand on top of his forehead and stroked his hair's strands back, before bending down.

"Shh. It's alright, it's just a nightmare," Kate gently whispered to him as she continued caressing his hair back. "It's alright, Sammy. You're alright."

Sam slowly unclenched his fists and his face softened until he was no longer moaning nor groaning in his sleep.

Kate stared at his face for a moment, before taking her hand away and pulling the sheet up so it could cover his t-shirt clad chest. She straightened up and let out a soft sigh before walking to the door. She needed some fresh air in order to clear her mind and fortunately enough, their room's front door gave to an outside hallway just like a balcony. She walked to the edge, sat down with her legs sliding in between bars so she could have them swinging in the air.

The beautiful orange-like color of the unclouded sky gave away that the sunrise happened just a few minutes ago, which suddenly reminded Kate that she never actually saw the sunrise in her universe. She couldn't help but wonder if she would ever see it. The thought saddened her a bit but as she dropped her gaze to the parking lot, she was distracted by a brown-haired man sitting on the Impala's trunk and swinging his legs in the air.

She frowned as she realized he was looking up at her. She couldn't truly make out his face, but she was sure that he was smiling up at her.

"You shouldn't be sitting on that car," she told him, not needing to shout it out since the parking lot was silent.

"Why not?" He asked her in a playful tone.

"I know the man who owns that car," she replied. "And, he wouldn't like that at all."

"If you say so," the man said jumping off the car as Kate watched him carefully. He turned around and looked at the Impala, one hand going in his pocket before spinning back around to look up at her. She was pretty sure that he was smiling as he put what looked like a lollipop in his mouth.

"What are you doing here?" Dean's familiar rough voice startled Kate.

"You scared me," she sighed, looking up at him before returning her eyes to the parking lot and noticing that the man was gone. She frowned as she searched with her eyes, "What the hell?" She muttered to herself.

"What's wrong?" Dean asked her, still standing a foot away from where she was sitting.

"Um, nothing, I…" She closed her eyes and shook her head, realizing that maybe she should have forced herself into sleeping since now she was seeing things. "What are you doing here?" She asked, tilting her head back so she could take a good look at him.

"I asked first," Dean replied.

"What are you, five?" She asked him, rolling her eyes before she turned her head back to the empty parking lot.

She heard him sigh before he sat down next to her, sliding his thicker legs in between the bars with a light groan. She threw a glance at him when he eventually settled in the position she was in. He kept his gaze focused on the horizon and Kate couldn't help but watch his profile for a few seconds. He truly was a beautiful man. Feeling her cheeks warming, she tore her gaze away to stare at the horizon too.

"Thank you," he told her, taking her by surprise as she turned her head to look at him with raised eyebrows.

"What for?"

"Everything," he replied, keeping his green gaze glued at the horizon. "Fighting on our side and helping us," he said before he remembered the way she had reacted towards Sam when she found out that Lucifer was out, the way she took Sam's defense when they left the hospital and the way she calmed him down a few minutes ago when he was having a nightmare. "And, especially for being there for Sammy when I'm not or when I screw up everything with him."

Kate watched him for a moment before her gaze fell to his hands, "Did you really mean what you said to him?"

He turned his head to look at her and when she lifted her gaze, she was slightly surprised to find him already looking at her.

"Yes."

"You say yes," she told him. "But, your eyes, they tell me something else," he scoffed looking away.

"Kate, my own brother betrayed me for a demon and it triggered the fuckin' Apocalypse. Lucifer is walking the Earth because he trusted a demon more than me-"

"So what?" She said, causing him to look at her with his eyebrows shot up on his forehead. "He did a mistake and he knows that, Dean. You know he's feeling terrible about it and you know that if he could, he would take it all back."

"I've been patient with him, Kate. I've given him second chances and I warned him on several times," he replied, his tone a bit hard but Kate knew it was only hiding pain. "He never listened to me. Not once, Kate. He made his own choices." The young woman dropped her gaze to her own hands, she turned them over and looked at her palms.

"Is that a reason to give up on him?" She asked in a little voice.

Dean's eyes traveled from her face to her displayed palms as the memories of her struggling against Zachariah and his tortures had pushed her into clenching her hands so tightly that her nails had cut into the skin of her own palms. She had gone through a lot because of him and of his choices. Whenever he disobeyed Heaven's orders, she had to endure another torture.

"I ain't saying I'm giving up on him," he replied, his eyes going back to look at her soft face. "It's hard, but I'm too worried about him and what will happen to him, and what he will make happen to himself… So, I can't give up on him. Even though, it's hard, I can't."

Kate nodded, not knowing what to say as she reached for the bars and swiftly stood up.

"There's something else," he said causing her to look down at him as he stood up too. Once he was standing in front of her, he looked down at her and swallowed down. "You can't stay with us."

"What?"

"With everything that's happening, it's too dangerous for you to stay around Sam and me."

"What?"

"Listen-" He started when she cut him off.

"No, you listen. What makes you think that staying with you is more dangerous than me being on my own?"

"You won't be on your own," he told her. "I'm gonna call Matt and ask him to pick you up."

"Oh because with him, I'll be totally out of danger, of course."

"It's better than staying with Sam and me!" He replied, half-shouting. "Everything is gonna get more dangerous and messier and even bloodier in our lives, I know that. I can feel it. And, you shouldn't be around any of that."

"Why, because you decided?"

"Because it ain't your life! Hell, it ain't your fucking world! You shouldn't be mixed up with all of this. You should be researching for a way back home and that's all you should be doing," he told her, his voice and his gaze harsh.

"Why?" She asked him and when he opened his mouth, she continued. "No, I want to know why you think, right now, that I shouldn't be here around you. Because, honestly, Dean, after everything that happened with Zachariah, I would have thought that-" She stopped as she realized what it really was about. Dean looked at her, without saying a word, his green eyes piercing her with their intensity. "It's because of what happened with Zachariah, isn't it?"

Dean remained quiet for a short while, before looking away with a sigh. "It was my fault. And, I… I don't think I can keep on looking at you without feeling the guilt tearing me from inside."

"Dean, it wasn't your fault," she gently whispered.

"Yes, it was."

"No, it wasn't, so stop blaming yourself you idiot," she told him as it hurt her to see the pain splashed all over his freckled face. "Don't ever say that again."

"The thing is that, when I look at you, I see all of the things you've been through to protect me. When I look at you, I see you having memories that still haunt me non-stop while you shouldn't know a damn thing about that," he admitted to her, tears slowly forming in his eyes.

"Dean, no," she shook her head. "They're all gone. I don't even remember any of those memories."

"You still had to go through them," he told her looking down as though ashamed to even look at her.

"No," she said putting one hand on his chin to make him look at her. "Please, don't. I am alright, Dean. I really am. So, don't put another burden on your shoulders."

"The thing is," he started as he wrapped his fingers around the wrist of her hand holding his chin. He pulled her hand away, "When I look at you, I hate myself even more because I wasn't able to protect you."

"I never asked for your protection," she murmured as he stepped back, her hand dropping.

"And, I never asked for yours," he said as he advanced towards the door.

"Do you realize how stupid that is?" She asked him as he put his hand on the handle. "The angels want to use me, too. Being around you or not, won't change that. I'll still be in danger."

"At least, they won't punish you because of what I do or choose to do," he replied, his back facing her. "C'mon, Kate. We need to call Matt."

"Why do you keep on calling me Kate?" She asked him in almost a whisper. "I thought you liked Kaitlin better."

He remained quiet as he opened the door and walked in the room.

---

Two days later.

South Dakota, Sioux Falls. At Bobby Singer's.

"It's weird," Kate said as she walked in the calm house.

"What is?"

"Being here without Bobby," she replied, throwing a glance at the dark-haired hunter who closed the front door and approached her. "It's so quiet."

"Won't be in a couple of days. I heard he's getting out in the end of the week," he replied, looking down at her.

"He called you?" She asked him, looking up at him.

"Um, no. Sam Winchester did. And, he asked about you, too. But since you were in the bathroom, I told him you were okay," he replied with a slight shrug.

"When was that?"

"At the dinner this morning," he replied as Kate watched him.

"What did he say else?" She asked, wondering if they had told Matt about the current events aside from the fact that Bobby couldn't walk.

"Nothing," Matt shrugged, before he looked at her with squinted eyes. "Was he supposed to tell me something?"

"Uh? No, no. Um, I'm gonna pack my things," she said gesturing to upstairs before walking up the stairs.

"Don't take all of your stuff, we're only leaving for a few days," he called after her.

"Yeah," she replied in a shout before going inside what had become her bedroom the past few months.

She stopped at the doorway, her eyes travelling around the room as though she hadn't seen it for months. The feeling of comfort that she felt the second Matt had parked his car in front of Bobby's house, emphasised when she looked at the four-wall room in which she had spent quite some time. Her duffle bag laying at the end of her bed caught her eyes as she quickly walked to it. She grabbed it and dropped it on the bed before opening it to find a few items in it. A few hex-bags, a couple of books about universes, a brush, two dirty socks and a t-shirt. She turned the bag over and emptied completely on the bed before walking over the wardrobe. She opened it and grabbed a few clothes and tossed them on the bed. She reached over to the big bag in between the wardrobe's side and the wall and pulled it out.

She stopped in track, crouched down and looked at what was inside of the bag. She had completely forgotten that she had gathered a good number of Chuck's Supernatural volumes in that bag. She glanced at the little table she used as a nightstand and noticed that the bag that was underneath and packaged with the rest of the books wasn't there. She realized that Bobby must have found that missing bag that day she was knocked out by Pamela's weird beverage.

Kate let out a long sigh before returning her gaze to the bag in her grasp. She took one book out and looked at the cover on which a very exaggerated version of Sam and Dean's face were drawn. Almost unconsciously, her fingers traced the cover as her eyes fixed at the drawing of the older brother.

Dean had been the one to send her away two days ago, claiming that she'd be safer with Matt than with him and his brother. Just like her, Sam hadn't thought it was good thinking, but considering the delicate situation with his brother, he hadn't voiced up his opinion too much. Kate understood that Sam couldn't do much at this point and she had shown him that she still appreciated his support. The meeting point with Matt had been at the St Martin hospital where Bobby was staying. And, although Bobby didn't seem very keen with Dean's idea of not letting Kate stay with them, he still agreed that she had to focus on her way back to her universe. Thus, the old man asked Matt to drive Kate to his friend Eleanor Visyak in San Francisco. Nevertheless, Kate was doubtful about the possibility of going back home. Too many factors were against that possibility, not to mention the fact that the blond angel had told her that as long as the battle between Michael and Lucifer didn't happen, she wouldn't be able to go back. However, Kate hadn't told anyone about this yet. She didn't want to add another kind of pressure on everyone.

The kind of pressure she wanted so badly to take off though, was the one that Dean imposed on himself by thinking that he was the reason Zachariah had tortured her. When she thought about it, she knew that it wasn't completely false; nonetheless, she knew that the main reason why Zachariah did all of this to her was to verify that her entire self was powerful enough for using her as a weapon. Therefore, she had no reason to blame Dean for everything she went through. No matter what, she would have gone through those tortures that she had forgotten about, unlike Dean who still had them playing in the back of his head.

"Idiot," she murmured, her eyes glued to the drawing of Dean's.

"What did you say?" Matt's voice suddenly appeared causing her to snap her head to the left and spot him standing there with a beer in one hand.

"Nothing," she mumbled, putting the book back in the bag.

"Need help?"

"No, I'm good," she replied, pushing the bag away before standing up. "I just gotta find my boots and a few other things, and I'll be ready to go."

The grey-eyed hunter in his usual dark clothes watched her as she stood up and made her way to the opposite wall where a few big brown boxes were aligned. He couldn't help it when his eyes studied her from top to bottom. The way she moved seemed a bit different as though she was more careful with each step she took, which was very unlike her. Sure, most of the time, she was a very methodical and meticulous woman, but not all the time and surely not at that extent.

"You look different," he suddenly said as she pulled the pair of boots out and threw them in the duffle bag.

"Different?" She asked with raised eyebrows as she put the boots in the bag and went back to the wardrobe.

"Yeah," he said, following her with his eyes. "As if you're finally at peace... But, in the same time you look extremely worried."

She stopped her fingers in one of the drawers. He was right. She felt at peace now that Zachariah's tortures were completely gone and also knowing that the angels weren't going to do that to her again was also good to know. However, she was worried that they might change their mind and decide to torture her until she breaks down and accepts to do whatever they want. Moreover, the situation with Lucifer being out of his cage terrified her a lot. Putting one hand up on her chest, she reminded herself that Castiel had put a sigil on her ribs and there was no way angels could find her with that. However, she was still worried about what was to come. And, when it wasn't any of that keeping her worried sick, Zachariah's words were quick to echo back in her head.

"You have no idea what the future holds for you. It's magnificent and dreadful," The angel had told her. "You will have to make choices that will tear you apart, you will lose people dear to your heart and you will play the role I want you to play. And it all started in October 1983."

"You're right," she replied, turning around to face him. "Although I've got a burden taken away from me, I'm still worried. Because, there are still lots of things I don't understand, lots of things that I will have to face. And, although I was told that things are just things, I know that those things are gonna be bad."

Matt watched her carefully before approaching her, putting his beer on the wardrobe before resting his hands flat on her shoulders and slightly leaning down so she could in his eyes, "And, you think I'm gonna let you face those things on your own? Huh? I won't let any harm be done to you. Not anymore. I'll protect you."

"I've never asked you to protect me," she whispered, looking away as tears formed in her eyes.

"Yeah, you never did. But, Dean Winchester did," he replied. Her teary brown eyes shifted back to meet his grey ones, wishing right that at this moment she could see green eyes instead.

---

Author's note:

I want to thank each and all of you dear readers for all the support you gave me!

A while ago, I lost all of my files containing the chapters I had worked so hard on and that made me feel so low that I almost really gave up on writing a sequel for this story, which is the main reason why I selfishly asked you to encourage me on the previous story...

And then you guys just blew my mind! I wasn't expecting that many reviews full of support and love on the previous story! I was truly, truly touched and I realized that I couldn't take this story away from you just because I was stupid enough to somehow lose my files. Your little reviews, following, favouring and whatever else you can do to a story on this website, just gave me so much strenght and motivation to re-write my sequel that I'm already writting it at the moment and trying to make it even better than the one I lost.

So yeah, here you go with the first chapter of the sequel. Hopefully you enjoyed it. It was beta-read by the fantastic 'Igotzapped' who told me to keep on writing for you guys and who offered her help for writing interesting upcoming chapters... You'll find out when the time will come ;)

Once again, thank you from the bottom of my heart for being such amazing persons who enjoy my story and make me enjoy writing it :)

Lot of love,

A.