Abigail was in the basement collecting more books when she heard thumps from upstairs and glass breaking. Racing to the living room, she found Balthazar on the floor, groaning, and a newcomer standing over him. On instinct, she chucked the closest thing at hand toward the stranger's head-which so happened to be a bottle. He was unfazed. When he turned, she saw the angel blade in his hand and pieced everything together quickly. Angel. Rafael's angel. Diving sideways, she dodged the blade and rolled to her knees, grabbing Balthazar's fallen blade. The swipe she delivered was not lethal but did slow his attack. The angel hesitated as she stood, poised to fight.

From the kitchen came Dean, who slammed into the angel from behind. They landed in a writhing heap. With a flutter, the angel disappeared. Dean froze, jumped back like the floor was on fire, scanned the room with large eyes. Sam was standing in the doorway, panic just as evident on his face.

"It was only him," she assured them. "Let's clean this up before Bobby gets back and blows a fuse." Turning, she saw the place where Balthazar had previously been to be vacant. She pushed everything that had happened in the last few minutes aside, deciding to worry about it later. Dean and Sam were on edge the rest of the evening. It took Bobby less than the time to cross the room for him to know something was wrong with the boys, too. They were considerably more tense than usual and sat as far from each other as possible. Dean was even distancing himself from Abigail.

"What exactly did Balthazar tell you two?" Bobby prompted.

After hesitation, Sam answered. "He gave us this," Sam pulled a key from his pocket. "Rafael is mad because he can't find Cas so he's sending angels to kill people to draw Cas out," Dean said. The others didn't notice the look Sam gave him.

"Then we need to ward this place. I don't want another drop-in," Abby stood. She pulled her pocket knife out and squeezed the blade, then began drawing on the windows with her blood. Glancing over her shoulder, she saw the brothers staring. "Feel free to jump in." Not taking her up on the offer, they stepped out of earshot to talk. Neither Bobby nor Abigail heard the following conversation. If they had, there would have been too many questions ensuing.

"What is going on?"

"You think I know?"

"Dude, I think we're in the show."

"Of course we are. We're the lead actors."

Jared Padalecki shook his head. "No, I mean this is the real deal."

Jensen Ackles looked around with fresh eyes. "We are going to die." Collecting himself, he came up with a plan. "We know the script. We'll just play our roles until we figure out what is going on." For now, that was as good an idea as any.

"If we're here, do you think the real Sam and Dean are in our world?" Jensen muttered. Jared froze.

"I hope not." They entered the room and tried to act like Sam and Dean. Despite playing them on a show, they couldn't calm themselves enough to completely fool the two people who knew the real hunters the best.

Bobby looked up from his computer. "This key is for a locker at a bus station in Salem, Oregon. We'll head out first thing in the morning."

When Abigail woke up the next morning, Dean was not in the room. She wondered if he had come to bed at all. Descending the stairs, still rubbing sleep from her eyes, she found the brothers almost exactly how she left them. Deep in conversation, voices low and urgent. They turned their attention to her as she entered, cutting off whatever conversation they had been sharing. When she left to pour a cup of coffee, they began whispering again.

Bags packed, the four hunters were on their way to Salem. Sam had insisted on packing a snack bag and bringing along a deck of cards. Bobby had a comment to that, something along the lines of "this isn't a vacation road trip, Sam. Seriously. Dean, are you actually going the speed limit?" Bobby frowned, peering over his shoulder. He wasn't much of a backseat driver but this had his attention.

"It's ghost sickness all over again," Abby teased, then turned to him. "It isn't, right?" Jensen shook his head.

"If you want to get there faster, just say the word," he mumbled.

"Honey, it's sweet that you two want to enjoy this ride, but Cas may be in danger. Let's get there quickly," Abigail said. Dean took her hand in his own, kissed the inner wrist. It seemed to do the trick, for she and Bobby dropped their complaints.

Parking the car at the end of the lot, they stepped inside the bus station to find the locker that held Heaven's most powerful weapons. Bobby found the locker first. The numbers on the key and on the door matched. They all shared a look before pulling the door open apprehensively. It was empty.

"Balls," Bobby sighed. Abigail even went so far as to stick her entire head in.

"Nothing." She kicked a chair. "We came all this way for nothing." They slouched out of the station into the drizzle outside. Jared opened the Impala's trunk and turned, mouth dropping open. Abigail swiveled to be face-to-face with a woman holding an angel blade. Abigail lifted the shotgun in time to deflect a stab. Jared and Jensen stood to the side, shell-shocked and wanting to help but not sure what to do. Jensen made a move forward. He felt responsible to Dean to step in and defend his character's wife. But his fighting experience came from staged, carefully planned choreography. And Bobby was here now with an angel blade, so she was fine.

After taking care of the attacker, the salted hunters faced the others. The actors knew they were in for it.

"Stop it. I don't know what is wrong with you two. Both of you are acting so weird, like this is the first time you've done this. If it's sleep deprivation, go to sleep. If it is something else that we should be concerned about, tell us now. I don't want you watching my back if you can't or won't defend it." Spinning on her heel, Abigail threw the weapons in the trunk. Bobby shook his head at the boys and followed her, muttering about stupid idgits. That was worse, for Bobby to be disappointed in them. This may not be their lives, but Bobby was a mentor and father figure to their characters and they understood his role. Like chastised puppies, they slunk to the car and crawled in the back, Abigail taking the wheel and Bobby shotgun.

After a long drive back to Bobby's house, Abigail sent them straight to bed. "Do not come out until you are normal." When she and Bobby were left alone, Abigail sighed and rubbed her face. "They kill me, Bobby. I'm serious." He patted her shoulder and set two glasses and a bottle of whiskey before her.

"You and me both, sister."

Abigail slept on the couch because she didn't want to see Dean. To be honest, she was offended that he hadn't stepped in and had let her deal with the angel by herself. Of course she was more than capable of doing so. It was just so uncharacteristic of Dean. Any other day, he went out of his way to make sure she was out of harm. He would be the first to walk into a building or go around a corner. If even subconsciously, he would step in front of her, or walk on the outer side of the sidewalk. So him standing on the sidelines made her uncomfortable. She remembered when Sam had lost his soul and watched Dean get attacked by a vampire. Hopefully it wasn't to that extreme.

She shot awake, flying to a sitting position on the couch. Sam, Dean and Cas were standing before her. They appeared to be in the middle of an argument. "You were in on this?" Dean demanded.

"It was Balthazar's plan. I would have done the same," Cas answered calmly without turning around.

"That's not comforting! Tell us what is going on!"

"How can I make you understand?" Cas set his jaw. "If I lose to Rafael, we lose everything."

"We know the stakes. That's about all you've told us!" Dean yelled. Cas paused, looked down.

"I am sorry for everything." Then he was gone.

"What is going on?" she demanded. How did Cas get here? And she thought Dean and Sam were asleep. The boys looked around at her voice.

"Abby," Dean clasped her in a hug. She was taken aback by his ferocity.

"Dean, are you alright?" He pulled back and cupped her face.

"Do you love me?" Her bewildered look answered his question. "How do you feel about hockey?"

"I think it's a stupid sport that men play to have an excuse to wail on each other because they aren't fast enough to play soccer. Why?"

"No reason," Dean grinned at Sam, who was just as relieved. They were back.

The past day, the real Sam and Dean had been struggling to adjust to the new world they had landed in. Dean had turned to the actress who played Abigail (not knowing she was an actress) and had pulled her into a tight hug, earnestly checking if she was okay. She frowned and pushed him away, giving him the "you've been playing Dean for too long, Jensen" speech. Dean almost fainted when a stranger wrapped an arm around her waist, called her Katrina, kissed her for a long moment, then led her away. What was perhaps more confusing was the hockey paraphernalia he wore. Abigail hated hockey. And she treated Dean like he was just another guy.

While the Winchesters tried to act, Misha and Katrina were bored to tears. The first few takes had been funny, but now they were tired. Misha was typing a new post about how the boys had stayed out too late. Katrina was making a call, explaining to her hockey player beau why their lunch plans would have to be rescheduled. Immediately upon hanging up, she dialed another number, this one of a famous wide receiver, to explain to him why they couldn't get drinks this afternoon when she was supposed to finish.

"You were in an alternate reality where we are the stars of a TV show called 'Supernatural'? Where Sam is married to Ruby and I married a sports celebrity but I was also publicly cheating on him with professional athletes and politicians? All while I was stuck here with the actual actors?" She ran a hand through her hair. "That explains so much."

"What did they do?" Sam was curious. She rolled her eyes.

"They were complete morons. Hardly talked to one another. And they were scared of everything. I knew something was off but they said they were just tired." She pursed her lips and gauged Dean's reaction. "Are you jealous?"

Dean swallowed. "No." That meant yes. "I just don't want some creep getting frisky with my wife." She laughed.

"If it makes you feel better, he never kissed me anywhere but on the cheek once. I think it was out of respect for you."