I had a super huge case of writer's block, but I finally have gotten back into the swing of things. I hope I was at least somewhat accurate with the Winchesters' personalities.

The door closed loudly behind the brothers, cutting Sam off mid sentence. Sam started talking as soon as the echo faded,

"Dean, maybe she's just scared," Dean shook his head as he put the feathers in his pocket. He'd picked them up after she flew off.

"No, Sam, she's falling over herself to accept our help," Sam gave him one of his bitchfaces and Dean sighed. "She wasn't scared. She was terrified. She was scared in the forest, when two men came up on her and she had a broken wing. She was vulnerable in the car, when she was trapped with nowhere to go. Now? She's healed, and sure, she's in a new place, but you didn't see how she reacted to me there.

When Cas healed her wing, she was mistrustful, she speaks only when spoken to, she flinches at any sudden movement, not to mention the trembling if one of us even hints at reaching out to her she starts to tremble. The way she put her wings up to shield herself, it's like she's never felt a gentle touch in her life!" Sam stared at his brother, wide eyed through the rant, his own brain processing the information. There was a pause before Sam spoke,

"You think she's been abused," Sam's voice was flat, emotionless as his eyes grew hard and anger coursed through his body. He stopped in the hallway and took a second to work through his anger. Dean kept walking quickly down the hall before Sam, not realizing his little brother had stopped. Though Sam's rage was subtle, his eyes the only indication of his anger, Dean's rage was more pronounced,

"Yes, Sam, I think she's been abused. When I started her earlier she was shaking like a leaf. She used her wing to shield herself. She expected me to beat her for coming down to eat, Sam!" There was a tell-tale determined glint in Dean's green eyes.

"What are you going to do?"

"I'm going to show her that not everyone is a bastard," with that, Dean stalked off. Sam sighed, running a hand down his face. He hoped Dean wouldn't go back down to the garage for a while. He shook himself out as he headed toward the library. He needed to know what Barretta was. He perused the library shelves, looking for books on creatures that might be similar to what Barretta was.

He went over Barretta's appearance in his mind. She had eagle-like wings at least twice the length of her body (he saw a book on gargoyles and dismissed it, she's not stone) and her body was more flexible than a human's, as evidenced by her cat-like twisting when she woke up in the car (he passed up the Gorgon books). Barretta's facial features had very feline qualities to them and her pupils changed from slit to round just like a cat's as well (he shook his head as he passed the Harpy books).

Her hissing was very avian in nature, as were the clicking sounds she made in the back of her throat (she seemed to be subconsciously clicking at Dean when he gave her the bottle in the car. His eyes caught sight of a book spine with the word Sphinxes). She was a weird mix of human and- why didn't he see it before! It was right in front of his face- she's got to be some kind of Sphinx. He grabbed all the books with Sphinxes in them and set the pile down on a table, sitting in a chair already opening one of the books to read.

He didn't know how long he'd been reading at the table, but all the books proved that she was some kind of Sphinx. From what Sam had seen, Barretta had all of the classic Sphinx behaviour and even features. The only problem is that she looked nothing like any of the illustrations on the pages. They were all of Sphinxes with lion bodies, eagle wings, and only a human face. Sam jumped when a cup of coffee was placed infringe of him and Dean sat across the table from him. Sam nodded his thanks and went back to reading, even as Dean pulled another book off the top of the pile,

"So you think she's a Sphinx?" Sam gazed up at his brother when he spoke.

"Well, yea. But get this, all of the Harpy illustrations and descriptions I've found are of the classic Egyptian Sphinxes. They're part-"

"Cat, bird and have the face of a human. I know what Sphinx is, Sammy boy," Sam pulled a bitchface and Dean smirked back. Dean only cut Sam off to annoy him like the big brother he was. Sam sighed,

"Yea, I'm sure you do, Dean. She doesn't have the body of a cat and only some of her features are cat-like."

"Like her claws, eyes, and whatever hissing thing she does? I know you heard that when she warned Cas off. Her being a Sphinx would also explain how she twisted in the car when she was in those ropes."

"But we don't know for sure. I've seen nothing in these books that looks or describes any Sphinxes lime her," Sam ran a hand through his hair in frustration. Dean looked thoughtful for a moment then reached over and pulled the open book in front of Sam toward himself, flipping through a few pages before settling on a couple. Sam watched as his brother kept flipping though those few pages before looking back up at Sam,

"What if Barretta's only part Sphinx?" Sam stared at his brother before a grin lit up his face and he grabbed one of the books and rifled through a few pages,

"Holy shit! Thanks, Dean! You're a genius!" Dean smiled as he got up, taking both coffee cups and patting Sam's shoulder as he went by,

"I try. Maybe if you got your head out of those dusty books every once and a while you'd see that. Come on, little brother, go get some sleep. We need your big brain sharp to find Abbadon. We'll worry about Barretta in the morning."

Sam smiled and cleaned up the books he was reading before trailing after his brother to bed.