"Witches, man, they're so friggin' skeevy."

Well, he amended with a small grimace. Not all witches. Sure, the majority were skeevy as all hell. Most witches used magic for their own profit and gain. Or they helped crazy she-demons like Lilith break the seals that'd allow the last being he or Sam wanted to see freed to roam the Earth in a meat suit: Lucifer.

There was only one witch Dean knew who wasn't like all the rest. A witch who used her magic for the good of others. Who took her power seriously and treated it with the reverence and respect it deserved: Aydan Black.

Aydan helped him when Sam was away at Stanford and Dad busy with other jobs. She even helped him and Dad stop a coven of witches from controlling a section of the French Quarter.

Aydan — without being aware she did anything special — also gave him and Sammy the only happy Christmas the Winchesters ever had. Christmas 1987 was a day he treasured. It was one of the handful of memories he had of Dad where Dad wasn't either drunk, yelling at him for doing something stupid or beat all to hell.

Dad joked a bit that Christmas, helped hang ornaments and decorate the tree Bobby pulled from his basement. He even got into a snowball fight with them. It was the closest to normal their family had been since Mom died. Does Sammy have that memory filed away in his Rolodex? He much doubted it. His brother liked to fixate on the negative stuff that happened in their childhood. He never remembered any of the good stuff that happened. Just Dad always being gone, being obsessed with hunting down the one who killed mom, refusing to let them live normal lives because of his obsession.

Dean had a thought come to him as he moved to the chair next to the couch. I could call Aydan. She'd know what's going on here and help us with putting a stop to it. He discarded the idea as he unwrapped another bite-sized bar of chocolaty goodness and popped it into his mouth. The last thing Aydan needed was him barreling into her life and getting her caught up in this whole angel versus demon thing.

"Dean?"

"Yeah?"

"Did you hear what I said?"

Dean glanced at him, one eyebrow arched. "Sorry, what?"

Sam rolled his eyes. "I said we could call Aydan about this. She knows more about hex bags than either of us."

"We can't bring her into this."

"But Dean..." Sam frowned. "She's..."

"I said no, Sam."

And that was final.

A/N: Hello, all! Hope this finds you well!

This is tagged to 4x7