Piper was sitting next to Sam on their motel bed, flipping through a very old book, trying to find information on the hex bag they had found in the dead man's apartment. Sam was on his computer, doing the same.

They sat shoulder to shoulder, and Piper suppressed a smile. She liked research, and she liked it even more with Sam next to her. Since he had found her injury, he had become more protective and careful. It usually made her roll eyes, but it was hard to say no when both Winchesters insisted you stay behind to stay safe, concern and affection in both sets of eyes.

She was trying to sink bank into her work when Dean entered. He was unwrapping a piece of candy as he came and sat near Piper, putting a hand on her leg as he popped it into his mouth.

She wrinkled her nose. "Ew, Dean."

Sam looked grossed out, too. "Really? After that guy choked down all those razor blades?"

Dean grinned and leaned in to kiss Piper, who leaned away with a face. That guy dying on his floor, covered in his own blood, was still too fresh in her mind.

"It's Halloween, kitten," he whined. Piper laughed and leaned forward to peck him on the cheek. "Every day is Halloween for us."

Sam pulled a face and moved to the other bed. "Could you guys not be gross on what used to be my bed?"

Piper scooted to make room for Dean as he sat next to her, leaning against the headboard and putting a big hand on her thigh. Piper tried to suppress a shiver, but the devious look in his eye told her she had failed. "Don't be a downer, Sammy." He said, gaze flicking his brother. He looked back at Piper, squeezing her thigh lightly. "Anything interesting?"

She shook her head, trying not to be ensnared in those eyes and failing. "We're on a witch hunt, but this hex bag is different." She pointed to where Sam had put them, near the end of the bed next to ber. There was a silver coin, what looked like dried herbs, and a small charred object.

Sam leaned over and picked up the dried herbs. "Goldthread, an herb that's been extinct for two hundred years." He put it down and pointed to the silver coin. "That's Celtic, and I don't mean some new age knock-off. It looks like the real deal, like six hundred years old real."

Dean picked up the charred piece and raised it to his face to sniff it. Piper made a face and leaned away from him again. "And, um… That is the charred metacarpal bone of a newborn baby."

Dean looked horrified. "Ugh. Gross." He put it back in the pile and turned to Piper, who was still leaning away.

Sam smiled. "Relax man, it's like, at least a hundred years old."

"Oh, right, like that makes it better? Witches, man, they're so friggin' skeevy." Dean griped. He was still leaning toward Piper, his eyes intent on hers. Even though Sam was three feet away, she felt heat start to coil in her.

She put a hand on his chest, smiling. "Nope, no touching for you, Mr. I Sniff Baby Bones."

She didn't have time to dodge him as he pounced on her. Her mood went from playful to determined when his hand landed on her cracked ribs. Poker face, Finley, she told herself quietly, sticking a smile on her face for him. The pain made her dizzy for a moment.

He still wasn't fooled. "Pipes?" He tugged her back to him gently. She settled in next to him, this smile a little more genuine.

Sam interrupted, for which Piper was grateful. "Dean, it takes a pretty powerful witch to put a bag like this together. More juice than we've ever dealt with, that's for sure. What about you? Find anything on the victim?"

Dean shook his head, taking his concerned eyes off of Piper to look at Sam. "This Luke Wallace? He was so vanilla that he made vanilla seem spicy. I can't find any reason why somebody would want this guy dead."

xxxxx

The three of them were walking back to the motel in the quiet. Piper was chewing over the weird moment Dean had had at the high school in her head. She didn't realize something was wrong until Sam drew his gun.

She pulled hers and followed him in as he shouted, "Who are you?!"

Piper came in behind him and relaxed, but didn't put her gun down. "Sam, it's Castiel."

Sam looked shocked and lowered his gun. Castiel was ignoring Sam to frown at Piper.

"You have been injured, Piper Finley."

She felt Dean come close behind her as her eyes widened. "I'm fine," she said too quickly. Shut up, Angel Boy.

Dean put a hand on her hip and came to stand next to her, looking at the other man in the room. "Him, we don't know."

Sam was still looking at Castiel with wonder. The angel's eyes lingered on Piper for a moment, then he turned to Sam and smiled. "Hello, Sam."

"Oh my God, er, uh, I didn't mean to, sorry. It's an honor, really, I, I've heard a lot about you."

Sam stepped forward and offered his hand to Castiel, who looked confused. Abruptly realizing what he wanted, the angel shook Sam's hand and smiled. "And I, you. Sam Winchester. The boy with the demon blood."

"Hey, rude." Piper snapped, finally lowering her gun.

Castiel looked at her. "It is a fact." Sam looked pained.

Piper glared at Castiel. "It's rude to point out People's major flaws, wings."

"I am not here to be polite. Why do you keep saying 'wings?'"

"It's a form of disrespect, wings."

He frowned. "Why are you hostile to me, Piper Finley? I could heal your ribs."

Dean looked down at her. "What is he talking about?"

The man looking out the window interrupted before she had to answer. "Enough, Castiel, this is ridiculous."

Dean glared at him. "Yeah, okay, chuckles." He turned to Castiel. "Who's your friend?"

Castiel ignored the question. "The raising of Samhain, have you stopped it?"

Dean looked confused. "Why?

"Dean, have you located the witch?"

Dean huffed. "Yes, we've located the witch."

"And is the witch dead?"

Sam shook his head. "No, but-"

"We know who it is." Piper finished, drawing both angels' gazes to her. She didn't want them focusing on Sam.

Castiel looked at her, then walked to the table between the two beds. "Apparently the witch knows who you are too." He pulled out a hex bag and showed it to them. "This was inside the wall of your room. If we hadn't found it, surely one or all of you would be dead. Do you know where the witch is now?"

Piper saw Dean and Sam exchange a look. "We're working on it."

Castiel sighed. "That's unfortunate."

Piper's eyes narrowed. "What do you care?"

"The raising of Samhain is one of the sixty-six seals."

"So this is about your buddy Lucifer." Dean was almost snarling.

"Lucifer is no friend of ours." The other angel was also snarling.

Piper rolled her eyes. "It's just an expression."

Castiel ignored her. "Lucifer cannot rise. The breaking of the seal must be prevented at all costs."

"Okay, great, well now that you're here, why don't you tell us where the witch is, we'll gank her and everybody goes home." Dean snarled, throwing an arm around Piper's shoulders.

The blue-eyed angel glared. "We are not omniscient. This witch is very powerful, she's cloaked even our methods."

Sam was trying to make peace. "Okay, well we already know who she is, so if we work together-"

"Enough of this," the other angel snapped.

Dean turned. "Okay, who are you and why should I care?"

Castiel waved a hand. "This is Uriel, he's what you might call a… Specialist."

Piper examined the other man. "What kind of specialist? What are you going to do?"

Castiel suddenly looked nervous. "You, uh, all of you, you need to leave this town immediately."

"Why?"

"Because we're about to destroy it."

xxxxx

Dean walked behind Sam, who was walking behind Piper, sneaking up on the damn high school teacher. He had the girl tied up, and was running a knife along her neck. Piper raised her gun and fired three times, shooting the teacher in the back. Dean came forward and wrapped an arm around the girl's waist, cutting her down with his other hand.

The girl ripped her gag off and looked up at him. "Thank you, he was gonna kill me! Ugh, that sick son of a bitch. I mean, did you see what he was doing? Did you hear him? How sloppy his incantation was?"

What? Dean drew his gun and pointed at the woman, seeing Piper and Sam do the same.

The witch muttered an incantation and Dean felt pain spread through his stomach. He saw Sam and Piper cry out as he fell to the floor.

Piper had caught the witch's notice apparently, because the standing woman's eyes widened. "Purple hair, surrounded by beautiful men… You're Piper Finley."

Dean was in too much pain to react, but he tried to listen carefully. How does she know Piper?

"You almost caught me in Omaha a few years ago, girlie." The witch purred, approaching Piper. "Had to leave my little… Project."

"Screw… You…" Piper hissed through clenched teeth, still obviously in pain. Dean would have been impressed that she could talk if he had been able to think through the pain in his own stomach. As it was, he could only manage to watch.

"Hmm." The witch leaned forward and examined Piper, eyes lighting up when Piper's shirt rode up a little as she writhed. "What's this?" she pulled the shirt up more, revealing livid bruising across Piper's torso. "Ooh, a present from your hell rockstar boyfriend, I assume?" Her eyes flicked to Dean, then back to Piper.

She placed a hand on the bruise and leaned in. Piper's scream and the thick snapping sound from her chest seared themselves onto Dean's heart.

"Let's see if we can't upgrade from cracked to broken, shall we?"

The witch stood up, seemingly done with tormenting Piper. She turned back to the center of the room. "Now, my brother always was a little dim. He was gonna make me the final sacrifice, his idea, but now, that honor goes to him. Our master's return? The spellwork's a two man job you understand, so for six hundred years I had to deal with that pompous son of a bitch. Planning, preparing, unbearable."

She knelt down by the teacher with a knife and a chalice and started digging into the bullet wounds on his back, catching the blood in the cup. "The whole time I wanted to rip his face off."

She grinned and looked down at Piper, who has gone still. Dean's heart clenched, and he started moving closer to her. He saw Sam do the same.

"And Piper Finley gets him with a gun, ugh, love that."

The witch went back to the altar, still talking. "You know, back in the day, this was the one day you kept your children inside. Well tonight you'll all see what Halloween really is."

She started chanting again. Dean looked back to Piper, whose eyes were closed, but was still breathing. He also watched in confusion as Sam leaned over to the dead man's body, put his hand in the blood, and smeared it onto his own face. He quickly did the same to Piper.

"What the hell?" he whispered.

"Just follow my lead." Sam muttered as he smeared blood on Dean's face, too, then moved away from the body.

The witch finished the incantation, and Dean watched in horror as the ground cracked and black smoke started pouring from it and into the dead man's body. Dean maneuvered himself to be between Piper and the scene before them.

The teacher stood up and looked at the witch. He put a hand on her shoulder, turned her around, and kissed her. She sighed. "My love."

"You've aged."

"This face… I can't fool you."

The demon touched his hand to her face. "Your beauty is beyond time." He pressed his forehead to hers briefly, then violently snapped her neck. "Whore."

He turned from her and sniffed the air. Dean closed his eyes and waited until the door closed before opening them again. The pain in his midsection had disappeared, but Piper was still unconscious. He glared at Sam as he knelt to pick her up. "What the hell was that?"

Sam shrugged. "Halloween lore. People used to wear masks to hide from him, so I gave it a shot."

"You gave it a shot?!"

xxxxx

Hi, everyone! Here's my notes:

I own only Piper Finley, the original character. I don't own Supernatural or the characters. (heartbroken)

Reviews and comments give me the warm fuzzies and keep me going.

If there are any mistakes in continuity, canon, or geography, blame me.