A/N: Thank you so much for reading! I hope you enjoy this chapter!

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I do not own Supernatural, Sherlock Holmes, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, or any other TV Show, Movie, Song, and/or Book referenced in this tale.

Chapter Warnings: Angst and Violence

Chapter 18

Hearts

"I don't know if we should be going there, Dean." Sam Winchester was uncertain how to face the woman he cared so much about when he knew something that would upend her entire world.

"You heard the woman, Sammy, she needs a distraction." He looked at himself in the rear view mirror. "And I am one hell of a distraction."

"Dean."

"Seriously, Sam. How long are you planning on not seeing your girl?"

"Just until I can figure this out, and then come to her with what we know."

"She misses you man."

Sam furrowed his brow. "Dude, it's Victoria, I'm probably the one pining."

Dean could not handle this part of his brother. The part that couldn't understand someone choosing to want him after everything he had done. Not that he couldn't say the same for himself. But this was getting ridiculous, how often had Dean told him? How often had Victoria herself told Dean her feelings about Sam? Confessed it even?

"After all you two have been through, really? She loves you, Sammy. Plain as day." The word was foreign to him, came out in a jolt, even though he was not admitting love on his own account.

"Dean, just because she told us that when her soul was cloaked doesn't mean…"

Dean put his head in the hand that was propped up on the window. "She's sleeping on Cas, man."

"On him?" Sam furrowed his brow, obviously confused.

"Yeah, like, on him. Cas thinks it's cause she needs comfort and that only started since we left, so… whatever your guilt-ridden ass wants to make out of that." Dean regretted it as soon as it came out. He winced.

Sam sat back in his seat and rubbed his eyes with both hands. He laughed sardonically. "I'm being like Dad, so hell-bent on the revenge that I can't see what I have in front of me. And how I was acting right after Jess. It just burns in me, and I want to kill the bastard's ass right then."

Dean hadn't thought of his dad's letter since the introduction of Loki, now it all came rushing back.

"Yeah, Sammy. Don't be like Dad. Revenge is normal. Well, for us. And we'll get it, I promise, we just gotta enjoy what we can too, ya know?"

There was silence for a few minutes.

"How'd you know that, about Cas?"

"He told me."

"Not on the phone."

"What? Of course he told me on the phone."

"I've been around for every one of your phone conversations, Dean." Sam smirked. "You two are having dream vacations again."

"Shut up Sammy."

Victoria Doyle looked at the two machetes with silver blades laying on her bed. She had asked Cas to get them from the bunker. She wanted to make sure her very human friends were as well-protected as they could be. She also put seven silver bullets beside each of the blades, just in case.

"Hybrids, really?" Dean said as he came through the hotel room door.

"Dean." Cas's response was relief and worry all mixed into one.

"Hey buddy." Dean gave him a quick hug and a pat on the back.

Sam smiled sadly as he entered the room. The smile had become his trademark almost, a smile that tried to hide whatever emotion he was truly feeling and replace it with a false sense of hope that he tried to convey. But all that it really conveyed was the pain. "Hey Tor."

She forgot everything when she saw him. Her anger, her annoyance, her fear. It was just like that day at the safe house, where he forgave her instantly for not telling them about her plans. Except in the reverse. She had so many things she wanted to know from him, so many questions, but she wouldn't ask, wouldn't demand, not from him. Sam Winchester was her weakness. And she knew that one day he would probably be her downfall.

"Sam." She went to him and placed her arms around his neck. He dropped his bag and quickly hugged her back, tension dropping from his body as he held her against him. Everything flooded his mind, what he knew and what she didn't, the probable future they would have to face, the knowledge of where she had been held and the evidence of what she had done.

"I will tell you everything, when I can." He whispered into her hair.

Dean rolled his eyes at the total chick flick moment, but he was smiling. He and Cas sat on the couch.

He looked at the blueprint on the table and whistled. "How'd you get these?"

Tor broke away and sat on the arm of the couch next to the hunter. Sam went to check out the weapons on the bed and reload his gun.

"The development is fairly new, so the contractor delivered them this morning."

Cas squinted. "He kept looking at me."

Victoria ran her tongue around her teeth, sharing a knowing look with Dean.

"Like the Luau, Cas?"

"I do not understand."

Dean nodded and scratched the skin near his nose with his thumb. "So, Sammy and I go in the front door, and you and Cas come in…"

Victoria pointed to the top story window.

Dean furrowed his brow.

She shrugged. "Wings."

"Keep forgetting about that." The tone was sullen, strange, almost rueful? Victoria couldn't place it.

"Dean, gun."

The elder hunter took his 45 out of his waistband and tossed it to Sam.

"The bedrooms are all on the top floor, and chances are, he is in one of those. We will look together, going from the master…" Victoria pointed at each room as she spoke, "To the smallest bedroom. Then the bathrooms and linen closet if he is not in there."

"And what is our cover?"

Victoria handed him a silver cross.

"Again?"

"You know a lot about it."

Dean rolled his eyes. "Fine."

"Castiel will keep an open line with you, and if he hears anything, he will leave me and come to you."

She saw Sam tense, more sensed it, out of the corner of her eye.

She continued, "They are hybrids, which lends itself to the belief that I can smite them."

"And if you can't?"

Victoria looked at the man she felt like she had waited forever to see, when it had really only been a few short days, but they weren't short, not for her: "I'll rip its head off."

Dean gave an 'huh, that should work' look before getting up. "All right, where's the religious get up?"

Cas narrowed his eyes.

Dean texted Tor telling them they were going to be walking up to the house in around five minutes.

"How ya doing Sammy?"

Sam nodded. "Seeing her helped."

Dean patted his brother on the back, "See, I was right. As usual."

Sam rolled his eyes.

They both straightened their priest suits before knocking on the door.

A young woman, around twenty-two answered. "Hello?"

Sam bowed his head. "Hello, we are Fathers Schmidtke and Burgson from the local church. We were hoping to be able to talk with you for a moment about a neighborhood watch the congregation is enacting in order to combat and prevent crime in our area."

The brothers nodded solemnly.

"Uh, sure?" The woman didn't want to do anything to go against the neighborhood, they liked it there.

Sam smiled sweetly. "Do you have a husband, brother, sister, or partner perhaps that would also like to join in on our discussion?"

"Yeah." She called over her shoulder. "Hey, Samson, Goliath, there's some priests to talk to us about the neighborhood."

There were heavy footsteps on the stairs. "They'll be right here. Uh, you wanna sit down?"

"Please." The sweet, sincere smile again. Sam Winchester was really damn good at his job.

The two male hybrids looked at their sister and men sitting on their couch questioningly. "Are these men here for dinner Del?"

If the men were anything but hunters they may have missed the growl in the woman's voice. But because they were hunters they were able to pretend they didn't hear anything.

"We are sorry to intrude, we are here on behalf of Saint Anne's, we are canvassing the neighborhood and discovering potential interest in developing a watch." Sam pushed the glasses he was wearing up on the bridge of his nose and smiled.

Dean kept noticing the males staring at his cross. He also kept an ear open on the upstairs, or a mind as was the case.

The girl looked back at her brothers harshly, "Yeah, for our neighborhood. Sit down."

Castiel opened the upstairs bedroom window angelically, preventing any noise. They stepped onto the carpeted floor silently. Cas had his angel blade by his side, Victoria her Kimber. They began a silent search of the bedroom. They looked to each other and shook their heads when their search had been futile.

The second bedroom proved the same way, absolutely nothing, except some copies of a magazine Dean occasionally bought under the twin bed.

Then they heard it, a cry. This kid was young. Victoria mouthed 'go' to Cas and he disappeared.

She quickly scrambled to the third bedroom to reach the boy before one of the hybrids did.

"Waaah!…"

Sam plastered on that smile once again.

"Do you have a child here?"

When the three turned around to face the brothers after looking up the stairs to follow the noise, they saw the two hunters standing in front of them with machetes.

Samson and Goliath barred their teeth and their eyes went yellow, and slightly morphed into wolfish faces.

Delilah ran up the stairs.

"This is so not like Vampire Diaries."

Dean swung, but Samson ducked, then he took on his four-legged form.

Sam was having the same luck. His swing also missed, but Goliath caught his hand, and blade. He grinned as his strength began to overpower the hunter. Sam took the opportunity of the hybrid's distraction at his presumed victory to grab his gun with his free hand and shoot the hybrid in the chest, making the creature stumble back. The opportunity gave Sam the ability to swing the blade accurately, decapitating the creature.

Its head rolled until it reached the feet of Castiel.

Dean kept missing the wolf with extra sharp teeth by mere centimeters, as the wolf missed biting him in kind. They were so close to killing one another, and yet neither could get the upper hand. "Son of a Bitch, he won't stand frickin' still!"

Cas grabbed the creature by the skin on its back and held it up to Dean. He neatly cut its head off. Cas dropped the body.

"Where's the third one?"

They ran to follow Sam up the stairs.

Victoria saw the baby on the floor. He couldn't have been any more than six months. At least he wouldn't remember this. She scooped him up and held him tight to her, his head resting in the space where her shoulder met the base of her neck.

She could hear the female hybrid behind her in the doorway.

Not my leverage. This is MY HOUSE!

"Put it down!"

Victoria turned around. "Pretty sure you already know my response."

The creature was trying to figure out its plays. She knew if she attacked Victoria in hand to hand, she would risk damaging it, and damaging her leverage.

Damn hunters!

"That's not nice." She was most definitely stalling, trying to avoid shooting a gun so close to the kid's ears, and knowing one of her guys would be there soon to smite and/or behead the thing. She didn't care which.

At the top of the staircase was, another staircase? Sam stopped, knowing this wasn't right.

"Cas?"

The Angel looked around, defeated. "It's a mirage."

"A what?"

"A spell. No matter how many stairs we go up, we will never reach the second floor."

"Friggin' witches!"

"What if we go in the way that you and Victoria came in?"

Castiel closed his eyes, "We are stuck here, Sam."

"Stuck? Oh no, no damn witch is gonna stick me anywhere." Dean started pounding the walls, trying to find some sort of escape.

Sam furrowed his brow, "So, the female wasn't a hybrid, but a tribrid?" He turned to Cas, "Is Victoria susceptible to magic?"

Something was most definitely wrong, those three did not need this much time. Victoria knew this was just her, this hybrid, and the kid. And oh, how the kid complicated matters. She hadn't fought real hand to hand in a while and wouldn't mind an opportunity with this absolute bitch.

She's stalling.

"You're waiting for your men? Oh honey, they're not gonna show. I'm sure they already killed my brothers, I mean, those two were all brawn and no brains. And do I smell Angel?"

Victoria held the child tighter.

"So, here's my thing. I'm kind of a big deal in the monster world. You know why?"

"You're a hybrid?"

She snorted on a laugh. "Okay, so you're kind of clever, but not totally. So, actually no. I mean my brothers were, but I not only inherited my mother's vampirism but also her witchcraft. And my father was a pure-blood of course."

"Of course."

Crap. Crap. Crap.

"So, my colleagues?"

"Oh, they're fine. Just stuck in an infinite stairwell."

"Fun times."

"You know witches can sometimes even get the upper hand on Angels? It's surprisingly easy if they're devoted to humans and follow them around like puppies."

What Angel even does that? So fricking weird.

"Can I have the kid back?"

"You wanted to eat him, so no."

"Correction, super-human eavesdropper, my brother wanted to eat him. I just wanted to keep him until that coroner could cover up my brother's stupid murder. I just want a home. Is that so wrong?"

"It wouldn't be, except I know that's a lie. You have to feed on humans."

"So, what's so different between my feeding and yours?"

"I don't eat things with souls."

"You sure?"

Now, why was she stalling? Of course, the kid. She didn't want to go hand to hand either. But why not use magic? Could she not? Rowena used magic to get the evil out of her, but it wasn't exactly a spell on her, it was half science, half magic. Was she immune to magic?

Well, that answer came with a wail of pain as Victoria dropped to her knees. She could feel the Grace that so often surrounded her heart flow to her stomach. The grace scratched slightly, but was nothing compared to the pain. She saw her nose drip onto the floor. Well, she might as well attempt to make this a full show. She still had both hands on the baby, whose wailing ceased as its pudgy arms encompassed Victoria's neck.

She looked up at the tribrid with her deep purple eyes glowing.

What the hell is that?

"You like seeing my blood? Let's see if we can turn it up for you."

Victoria concentrated deeply as she had never attempted this with any other type of creature besides a demon or Archangel. She looked at the creature in front of her, closed her eyes, and imagined her kneecaps breaking.

"Arrgh!"

The creature fell to the ground, her hands attempting to catch her. She saw Delilah's eyes turn to amber as she was changing into a wolf to speed healing and change from her more breakable human form.

Victoria smirked, some of the blood from her nose dripping into her mouth.

Glowing amber eyes matched violet ones.

Its charge was going to be sudden, Delilah no longer cared for the child, but Victoria did. She was able to roll out of way, causing the thing to crash sudden into the window, not breaking it, but angering the creature. The Grace had soothed her stomach, if not healed it, and Victoria was able to race to the doorway. She closed the door just as the creature slammed against it.

She pulled one of her arms from around the baby to pull out her gun. But she couldn't pull the slide back without both hands.

"Crap!" She quickly put it back in her coat and ran into the master bedroom and shut the door, knowing the tribrid would be escaping quickly.

Sitting on the bed and rocking the baby, she once more closed her eyes and began to concentrate. This time she focused on the heart, hoping like hell it would explode.

She heard a deep howl and went to open the door. Delilah was in the hallway, laying on the floor, but still breathing.

Victoria tried to run downstairs but she couldn't get there. It was blocked by the same magic keeping Sam, Dean, and Cas out.

She ran into the second bedroom and gently put the baby on the floor of the closet, closing all doors behind her as she headed back to the hall.

Victoria put both of her hands on either side of the tribrid's head, which jolted her awake. The creature grabbed Victoria around the middle and switched their positions.

"You are an annoying bitch. Where's the kid?"

Victoria grinned, bloody teeth exposed. "Gone."

"Like hell he is." She started to get up.

Victoria still had a grip on the thing's head and headbutted her. Which really frickin' hurt, she could feel the grace surge to her temples. She was giving that stuff a workout. She could see why Ezekiel thought it would be an advantage, even though it itched.

The stun caused such a shock in the tribrid that Victoria was able to switch their positions once again. She sat on Delilah's stomach and placed a palm on her forehead. With much more concentration than was ever needed before, with more will than she had used for any creature, she willed it to die.

Delilah was a very unwilling participant in this activity. She kept trying to curse Victoria, but her magic was dwindling. There was some additional pain in her stomach, as well as what Victoria surmised was a broken arm, but the grace came to the rescue each time. She finally felt the tribrid's life force leave her, and with a sigh, she sat on the body's side.

She narrowed her eyes at the creature. Victoria dragged the body to a sitting position, grabbed a handful of hair and ear in each hand and twisted as hard as she could.

In her hands she held the bloody head, with sinew attached. "Gross." She threw it into the third bedroom as she went to get the baby.

He reached his arms out to her. "Hi kiddo. You've had a rough go of it huh?"

Once she had the kid nestled into her neck again she turned around to see Sam Winchester, with a look on his face that she couldn't read. He was having those more lately.

"Hey. I got the kid." She smiled broadly, completely forgetting blood was running down her face. He hugged her anyway, being careful of the boy in her arms. He kissed the top of her head.

"Tor, you look like hell."

"Thanks Dean. I was hoping our friendly neighborhood Angel could fix that."

Cas titled his head, "You want me to heal you?"

"Yes. Tribrid's are a… challenge. However, we can now add them to our ever-growing list of creatures titled…"

"What the literal Hell." Dean interjected.

"Yes, that."

Cas healed her with a touch, erasing the blood. "Your grace, is, active."

"Yes, challenge."

"Did you do this?" Dean had walked out of the room and came back with Delilah's head.

Tor nodded.

"Awesome."

Cas and Dean burned the bodies while they were waiting on the Sheriff.

The boy had fallen asleep on Victoria's chest and she and Sam were sitting on the couch. She snuggled into him, causing his arm to drape over her and touch the child. His hand recoiled. She scooted back.

"I'm sorry. I was tired and forgot where we were."

"No, Tor, it's not that. I want to be near you wherever we are."

"And I you."

"And with Jack, it's fine, because he's ours, or yours. I will always, always be here for you, and yours."

"He is ours Sam. As long as you'll have both of us."

Sam's face became pained, sad. "Tor, I, I never want you to leave. Or Jack. Or anyone who is yours."

Victoria was very, very confused. "Like Lizzie?"

"Yeah, like that. Or just anyone that is…" Sam sighed. "I don't know, I'm tired too I guess."

"You took down a hybrid in around thirty seconds according to Dean, so, you deserve to be tired. Movie at the hotel?" She smiled, hoping to see some of her Sam there.

"Definitely. And salad?"

She was thinking cheeseburger, but, "Of course."

Finding a movie everyone could agree on was well, difficult. Victoria remembered one she watched in a film class in college that was titled Yojimbo. It was a Japanese film about a Samurai who came into a corrupt town and cleaned house. Dean liked it because it was based on American Westerns, Sam liked it because it had subtitles and was a classic, Cas liked it because he could show off his language skills, and Victoria liked it because it had a badass lead.

She shifted until she was completely comfortable in Sam's arms, the Grace at complete rest.

Huh. She mentally rolled her eyes at herself. In the fight with the tribrid the grace went to where she was injured. So, the last few days her heart had been hurting. How cliché.

She looked over at Castiel. He knew too but didn't want to tell her. Wanted to let her think it was his grace that soothed it and not his friendship. Sweet angel. He knew her well enough to know which one would hurt her pride the least.

These men were hers. And although all three of them were keeping some catastrophic secret from her, she knew she would fight tooth and nail to save every last one of them.