Thank you MaggieMay17 for beta'ing, Ncsupnatfan and VegasGranny for pre-reading. Thank you all for reading.

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Dean looked up as Nick's phone beeped, watching as he pulled it from his pocket and checked the screen.

"Courtesy text from Rowena," Nick said with a small smile. "She and Mom are just pulling into the garage now, and Mom's on high alert."

"Figures," Dean said. "I played down what happened, but there's only so much downplaying you can do when you're talking about a crazy archangel fight."

Dean had done his best, not telling her about Nick being tortured, but she was still freaking enough to make the two-day drive in one. He figured she'd switched off the driving with Rowena, which was a tell of how stressed she was because Rowena drove like a maniac. The witch said she was the kind of woman that was driven, not one that drove herself, and her skills didn't lie behind the wheel. Having once seen her trying to parallel park, Dean could agree with that.

He was glad she'd been with Mary when Michael had struck, though. He thought the fact of his arrival and what had happened could have been enough to drive Rowena away from them for good if she'd been there. They might need her in the future if they were going to help Sam.

Dean wasn't sure what had happened to Sam's family, who they were even, but a highly-powered witch was probably going to come in handy to track them down and fix things for him. And Dean really wanted to do it. He'd seen the agony in Sam's eyes just before he'd taken off, that desperate sadness, and he could relate to it. Having lost people he loved in the past, too, he knew what it would mean to Sam to get them back.

"What exactly did you tell her?" Nick asked.

Dean shrugged. "I told her he came for me as a vessel again, that it was rough on you, but Sam took him out."

"Not that it was rough on you?" Nick asked.

"That part goes without saying," Dean stated.

Mary knew them, how they worked and what their strengths and weaknesses were. It wouldn't take much thought for her to work out that Michael would have played on their weaknesses. Nick was Dean's weakness.

"Guess so," Nick said dourly.

Nick had been in a strange mood since he'd woken up after Michael knocked him out. Castiel cured his concussion, but when Dean started to tell them what Sam had said about his family, Nick had excused himself and taken off. He'd seemed distracted ever since, as if his mind was working overdrive on something that he wasn't ready to share.

Dean hoped having their mother home would help.

Castiel and Jack were in Sioux Falls. Castiel had wanted to see Claire again, but he'd been wary of overwhelming her before she was ready. No matter what kind of connection had been forged between them, he still wore her father's face, and that was hard on her sometimes. The fact that she was already struggling had made Castiel believe it was better for him to give her some space. Jody had assured him Claire was ready for company, though, and he and Jack had taken off soon after. Dean and Nick were going to see her in a few days.

The door at the end of the library flew open, and Mary ran in. Dean and Nick stood side by side, and she grabbed them both, an arm around each of their necks, and pulled them close.

"Are you okay?" she panted. "What did he do to you?" She released them and then fixed her eyes on Nick. "Did he hurt you?"

"No more than I could handle," Nick said.

"Yeah, Sam stepped in fast," Dean lied.

It had been hours of pain for them both—physical for Nick, and mental for Dean—before Sam had been able to get to them, and it had felt much longer, but she didn't need to know that.

Rowena came in behind Mary at a more sedate pace and dropped her bag down on the first table. "Hello, boys," she said. "I understand you've been having an adventure without us."

Nick rubbed the back of his neck. "Yeah. You could say that."

"You can tell me all about it when I've had a chance to clean up," Rowena said, smoothing the folds of her wrinkled dress. "I feel like I'm carrying every mile of the road on me."

"Sure," Dean said. "Your room is where you left it."

Rowena's nose wrinkled. "Yes, my suite."

She picked up her bag again and sashayed her way out of the room with her heels tapping the floor.

Mary touched Nick's cheek, turning his face to her again. "Cas healed you?"

Nick patted her hand against his cheek and smiled slightly. "Good as new."

She breathed out a sigh that was so deep it was as if she'd been holding it for the whole trip back from Florida. "Thank God."

"Thank Sam," Dean said, sensing Nick's tension even though it didn't make its place on his face. "He's the one that pulled it off."

"Yes," Mary said fervently. "How is he?"

"No idea," Dean said. "I've not spoken to him since he took off. He was in a bad way. I think it will be a while until he'll be able to get back to us. Michael really hurt him. But… Mom, I've never seen anyone fight like him before. He took so much pain to get it done. He damn near tore his own arm off to stop Michael getting the cut in."

"How did that happen?" Mary asked.

"It was amazing!" Dean said excitedly. "Michael had him on the ropes, and he'd been stabbed in the arm, but he—"

"You want a beer, Mom?" Nick cut in.

"Uh, sure." She seemed confused by Nick's reaction, possibly expecting his attitude towards Sam to have changed after what he'd done for them, the way Dean had expected it to. It seemed to have done the opposite.

"How about we go out for a drink?" Dean suggested. "And we need to eat. We can go to O'Connor's; it's burgers and half-price pitchers night."

"That's a great idea," Mary said. "We made the trip here on protein bars and coffee."

"You guys go ahead," Nick said. "I'm not in the mood for company."

"We can stay," Dean offered, disappointed but accepting it.

"No, you go," Nick said. "I'll make something here for me and Rowena."

"I thought you didn't want company," Mary said, sounding a little hurt.

"I won't stay with her, but she's not going to want burgers. I'll make some dinner and then crash." He smiled, though it looked forced. "I could do with some sleep."

Dean saw the need in his eyes and nodded.

Nick probably did need sleep. He was physically healed, but that kind of pain wore down more than your body.

"Okay, man," he said. "Get some sleep. We won't be that late back. Tomorrow we can work out what happens next. Only part of it is over."

A dark look came into Nick's eyes. "Yeah. There's still stuff to do."

Seeing Mary's blank look, Dean said, "We've still got Michael's monsters running around out there, maybe more dangerous now they don't have a leader, and we found the Seal of Solomon on Michael before we burned his bones. If he had that, he might have been working on some other plan we don't know about yet."

"You think he opened a rift?" Mary asked. "Did he bring angels in?"

"We don't know. We've got to find a way to be sure."

"Tomorrow," Nick said firmly.

"Sure," Dean said. "Come on, Mom. I'll give Cas a call so he and Jack can come meet us when they're done in Sioux Falls." He patted Nick's shoulder and then grabbed his jacket from the back of the chair where he'd left it and picked up the Impala keys and tossed them from hand to hand. "Beer and burgers are waiting," he said.

Mary gave Nick a searching look and followed Dean back towards the garage.

Dean felt Nick's eyes on them as he left, his gaze pressing into him, but he didn't look back. He thought this time alone was going to be good for Nick to get through what was going on in that head of his. He always thought too much, overanalyzed, and he handled that better when he could work through it in peace.

And Dean really did want to talk to his mom. He wanted help to deal with Sam's situation, and Nick wasn't the right person to ask for it.

Nick waited long enough to be sure Dean and his mother were gone before going to Rowena's room and knocking on the door.

"Changing," she called.

"Hurry up," Nick barked. "We don't have long."

He heard sounds of movement inside, and then the door cracked open, and Rowena peered out, a satin robe wrapped around her. "Long until what?"

"Just hurry," Nick said. "I'll be in the library."

He strode away, going straight to the cupboard in the library and taking out the candles they kept handy for spells and summonings. He set them on the table and then tapped his hands down on the wood as he waited.

The sound of Rowena's heels reached him before she did, and he noted that she'd changed her dress, but her hair was hanging loose around her face, not in its usual neat coif.

"What's going on, Nicholas?" she asked.

"It's time to deal with Sam."

She looked puzzled. "The Sam that just saved your and your brother's lives and killed Michael?"

Nick crossed his arms over his chest. "Is that going to be a problem?"

"Not in the least. I just thought it might be for you. He did ride to the rescue."

"That doesn't change who he is," Nick said. "He's still a threat. Michael, the one being that could kill him without breaking a sweat, is gone now. If there was a perfect time for Lucifer to give Chuck the slip and drop back in his vessel, it's now."

Rowena smiled slightly. "You really believe that?"

"I do."

He wasn't lying completely. He believed Lucifer would be a threat if he came back, and Sam would be the vessel, but he was also doing this for himself. He didn't want to see that face anymore; he needed the reminder of his pain gone. Dean had joined Cas in the 'Sam Fan Club' and that was even more unbearable for Nick. Dean would never see the threat Sam posed. Sam's time as Lucifer's vessel had surely tainted him. Now Michael was gone, how long would it be before Sam tried to take over the world? The only way Nick would ever again have peace of mind would be if Sam was gone too.

"What about Jack?" Rowena asked. "I thought he was going to be a part of this."

"He's out," Nick said. "I don't trust him to keep it quiet any more, not after Sam killed Michael for us."

She clapped her hands together. "That's fine with me. I was never sure he'd go through with it in the first place. There was a little too much dewy-eyed goodness in the boy. This is going to take strength that I don't think he has." She looked at the candles. "I see you've started. I've got everything else prepared. I had a feeling we'd be doing this in a rush. I'll fetch my bag. We're going to want the ingredients out of sight until he's in position."

"I'll laydown the holy oil," Nick said. "I don't want him getting out when he realizes what we're doing."

"Good idea," Rowena said, turning and rushing out.

Nick fetched an urn of holy oil from the storeroom. He would have liked to use runes, too, but there was no way Sam was going to be stupid enough to step into them. They couldn't summon him here the way they had Lucifer when he was in Cas as he would be too suspicious. He had to be tricked inside.

When the oil was prepared, he took the hyperbolic pulse generator from the drawer and set it down on the table in its box.

Rowena came back with her large bag and set it down on the table. She opened the box and saw the pulse generator, then nodded and tucked it into her bag with the candles and bowl and hooked it over her arm.

"I'll wait out of sight," she said. "You get ready to pray." She started away and then turned back and said, "Make it good, Nicholas. He's going to need a reason to come back if the fight was as bad as I'm imagining."

"He's weakened," Nick acknowledged, "but he'll get back here when he hears what I have to say." Nickhad been the one to take down the sigils that blocked prayer, but had not yet taken down the sigils that prevented angel flight, specifically for this purpose, leaving Sam unable to fly in. Nick wanted to control Sam's arrival.

Rowena smiled cruelly and hid herself out of sight in the hall. Nick tucked the lighter up his sleeve and raised his voice as he said the prayer that would bring Sam to them and end it, protecting the world from Lucifer and saving Nick's peace of mind.

"Sam! You have to come to the bunker. It's Dean, he's hurt, and Castiel and Jack have been banished. Please, you have to heal him! I think he's dying."

He heard a soft laugh from the hall. "That will do it."

"I know," Nick said, forming his face into a mask as he heard the door fly open and Sam's terrified voice shouting, "Dean!"

He almost sounded like he really cared, like Dean was his to love, not Nick's.

He wasn't.

So… Sam is there. Nick has a plan. One more chapter to go, and it's all kicking off.

Until next time…

Clowns or Midgets xxx