Only the sound of wings alerted Piper that someone else was in Bobby's hospital room.

She twirled, pulling the gun from her waistband and putting herself between Bobby's sleeping form and the place she'd heard the noise. It took a few moments for her to register who was standing in front of her.

She put the gun on the bed and flung herself into the man's arms. "Castiel!"

He caught her, his body unyielding as she squeezed her arms around his neck. "Oh, God, Cass, I thought you were dead!" She leaned back and put her hands on his face. "What happened? How are you alive? Are you okay?"

His hands had come to rest on her hips, more to catch her than to hold her. He was looking at her, surprised. "I'm fine, Piper."

She examined him. "How the hell are you alive, wings? Chuck said you got vaporized!"

He seemed to hesitate, then ignored her question completely. "This is going to hurt."

He placed a hand on her chest, over her heart, and a burning sensation wrapped through her torso. The pain took her breath away, and she just gasped.

He looked… Upset. "I am sorry, Piper. It was needed."

She looked at him, pain fading from her body to leave a gentle ache. "What was that?"

"It will hide you from angels." He stepped back. "We will see one another soon."

"Wait!" She flung herself into his arms again, burying her face into his neck. "I'm glad you're okay, wings," she said softly.

His arms came around her slowly, and then she was being crushed against him. "I, too… I am glad you are well, Piper Finley," he said gruffly.

She smiled into his neck, then pressed a kiss to his cold cheek and stepped back. "All right, Castiel, back to saving the world with you." She thought for a moment, then, "Wait! Can you heal Bobby before you go?"

He looked grieved again. "I am cut off from the powers of heaven. I am unable to heal anyone."

She frowned. "Well, dammit." At his hurt expression, she stepped forward and put a hand on his arm again. "It's okay, Cass. We'll… Figure something else out."

xxxxx

A few minutes later, her phone rang. "Hello?" She said softly, smoothing Bobby's hair lovingly.

"Hey, kitten, how is he?"

Dean's voice sent warmth down her spine, and she couldn't help the smile on her face. "He's the same. He hasn't woken up yet. Hey, Cass visited, did he come to you guys?"

There was silence on the other end that made her narrow her eyes. "Dean?"

"Uh, yeah, he did," he said slowly.

She let the silence draw out for a few moments, then, "So, what are you not telling me?"

He sighed, and it made her smile. "I'll tell you when we get there, Pipes. We're only a couple hours away."

xxxxx

She met them at the door. As soon as he got out of the Impala in the parking lot, she resisted the urge to run to him. Play it cool, Finley, he's only been gone for a few hours.

That was thrown out the window when Dean turned and saw her. He grinned when his eyes hit her and opened his arms. She sprinted to him, jumping a little when she was a few feet away, and hitting him felt more like coming home than anything she'd ever had.

He held her close, burying his face in her hair. "Hi, kitten."

She smiled against his neck, pressing a kiss to the warm skin there. "Hi, handsome."

"Gross," Sam said mildly, walking over and grinning at them. Piper turned to say hi, smiling a little when Dean refused to let her go, just wrapped his arms around her waist like iron bands and kept her against him. "Hi, Sammy."

He chuckled. "Hi, Pipe."

They walked back inside, Dean and Piper walking hand-in-hand. "So, what happened? Did you find the Michael Sword?" she asked softly.

"Well, in a manner of speaking…" Dean evaded.

She rolled her eyes. "Dean, you know I'm going to find out. Just tell me."

Sam raised his eyebrows. "I'm, uh, I'm gonna go check in on Bobby." He walked away, and his willingness to give them some space made Piper extremely suspicious.

She turned to Dean. "Well? Where's the Michael Sword?"

He sighed and ran his other hand through his hair. "We got to Dad's storage unit. Zachariah and a couple of his dicks were with him. They, uh, threatened us."

Piper stepped forward and placed a hand on his face to get him to look at her. "What happened?"

He winced. "They gave me stomach cancer, and broke Sammy's legs and took his lungs."

She winced, too. "Are you guys all right?"

He nodded. "Cass came and kicked some ass, then made Zachariah put us back. Then he, uh, branded us."

She chuckled. "Yeah, he came and branded me, too."

Dean frowned. "Well he was kind of a dick about it, honestly."

It was her turn to frown. "Oh. Well, he was nice to me."

"Everyone's nice to you, Pipes."

She laughed. "Yeah, yeah. What about the Michael Sword? Did you find it?"

He sighed and looked up at the ceiling again. "Uh, we had it. It's me."

She blinked. "What do you mean, it's you?"

"I, uh, I am the Michael sword. I'm the one true vessel of Michael, apparently. Archangels have more go-juice than other angels, so they, uh, need a special meatsuit."

Anxiety clawed at her. She grabbed his arm. "We have to hide you, we have to make sure you're safe!" Anger replaced the panic. "He won't get to you, he'll have to come through me, I'll find a way to-"

His smiling mouth pressed to hers stopped her. She sighed and leaned into him. When they came up for air, he was still smiling. "You're scary, woman."

She nodded. "Damn right."

He pulled her closer to him, wrapping an arm around her. "He needs my permission, Pipes. Angels need consent."

She put lay her ear on his chest, listening to the strong heartbeat. "Well, that's handy."

He pressed a kiss to her head. "Yeah, as long as they don't get hold of you or Sammy, we're good."

She smiled. "If they get hold of me, Dean, they're going to wish they hadn't."

xxxxx

Piper worried quietly about Dean as they made their way back to Bobby's room. After their reunion, he had become taciturn and tense again. He hadn't said anything, but his hand was tight around hers when they got into the room to hear Bobby yelling.

"'Unlikely to walk again?!' Why, you snot-nosed son of a bitch! Wait till I get out of this bed!"

The doctor fled past them as Bobby continued to yell. "I'll use my game leg and kick your friggin' ass! Yeah, you better run!" Bobby looked between them and Sam. "You believe that yahoo?"

"Fuck him," Dean said confidently, shedding his distressed demeanor and leading Piper in by the hand. "You'll be fine."

Sam nodded. "So, let me ask the million-dollar question. What do we do now?"

Bobby shrugged. "Well... We save as many as we can for as long as we can, I guess. It's bad. Whoever wins, heaven or hell, we're boned."

"What if we win?" Dean asked softly. Surprised, Piper looked up at him. He was looking between her, Sam, and Bobby. "I'm serious. I mean, screw the angels and the demons and their shit apocalypse. Hell, they want to fight a war, they can find their own planet. This one's ours, and I say they get the hell off it. We take 'em all on. We kill the devil. Hell, we even kill Michael if we have to. But we do it our own damn selves."

Piper smiled at him as Bobby asked, "And how are we supposed to do all this, genius?"

Dean shrugged. "I got no idea. But what I do have is a GED and a give-'em-hell attitude, and I'll figure it out."

Bobby smiled. "You are nine kinds of crazy, boy."

Another shrug from Dean. "It's been said." He strode forward, pulling Piper with him, to clap Bobby on the shoulder. "Listen, you stay on the mend. We'll see you in a bit."

"Piper," Bobby said. She turned to look at him, smiling lovingly. "Listen, what the demon said-"

She let go of Dean's hand to come over and kissed Bobby's cheek. "I know that wasn't you, Bobby, don't apologize for something that demon did."

He smiled up at her. "Love you, Pi."

She smiled and kissed his cheek again. "Love you, too, Dad."

A rush of affection rose in her as Bobby flushed. She turned back to Dean, another smile stretching her lips when she saw his hand was held out to her. She took it and stood next to him.

They turned toward the door, but Bobby wasn't done with them. "Sam?"

They stopped again, and Dean's hand tightened around Piper's. She squeezed his reassuringly as Bobby spoke.

"I was awake. I know what I said back there. I just want you to know that… That was the demon talking. I ain't cutting you out, boy. Not ever."

Sam exhaled sharply. "Thanks, Bobby."

Bobby nodded, a sardonic look on his face. "You're welcome. I deserve a damn medal for this, but… You're welcome."

Once the way down the hallway, Dean pulled her close to whisper in her ear, "Give me a minute with Sammy when we get outside."

"No," she said simply. When he frowned at her, she continued, "Dean, whatever you're going to say, you're saying it in front of me. If you're not willing to say it in front of me, you shouldn't say it at all."

He frowned harder, but said nothing, just led her down the hallway.

As they walked out to Baby, Sam started speaking. "You know, I was thinking, guys, maybe we could go after the Colt."

Dean scoffed cynically, and Piper felt cold. "Why? What difference would that make?"

Sam frowned. "Well, we could use it on Lucifer. I mean, you just said back there-"

"I just said a bunch of crap for Bobby's benefit."

Piper winced and wrapped her arms around Dean's waist, offering silent support. She didn't know what he was about to say, but misery was as radiating off of him, and it was killing her.

Dean had stopped moving and was staring at Sam. "I mean, I'll fight. I'll fight till the last man, but let's at least be honest. I mean, we don't stand a snowball's chance, and you know that. I mean, hell, you of all people know that." He slung an arm around Piper's shoulder and pulled her close.

Sam looked upset. "Dean, is there something you want to say to me?"

There was a long pause. Piper opened her mouth to tell them they were getting separate rooms when Dean spoke.

"I tried, Sammy. I mean, I really tried. But I just can't keep pretending that everything's all right. Because it's not. And it's never going to be. You chose a demon over your own brother, and look what happened."

Sam's face was etched with pain. "I would give anything, anything, to take it all back."

Dean nodded. "I know you would. And I know how sorry you are. I do. But, man… You were the one that I depended on the most. And you let me down in ways that I can't even… I'm just, I'm having a hard time forgiving and forgetting here. You know?"

"What can I do?"

Dean shook his head. "Honestly? Nothing."

"Dean," Piper said softly. "We're done."

He looked down at her with a frown. "Piper, I-"

"Nope, we're done. We're gonna go to a motel, get a room, and sleep it off. No fighting, no more. Not tonight. We're done."

She stared Dean down when he continued to glare at her. You don't scare me, Winchester.

"Separate rooms," he demanded evenly.

"No," she said back. "We've had quite enough of being apart, thank you."

"Piper-" Sam started.

She turned to point at him. "Nothing out of you, either, younger Winchester." She looked between them. "Give up, gentlemen, there's no argument to be had here."

xxxxx

Dean was irritated all night. He stayed silent when Piper went to book the room, when they went into the room, while they got ready for bed.

He was still mad when they got into bed, listen to Sam and Piper speak easily. How does she just do that? He didn't understand how she could just let it go. Sam had betrayed them. He had hit her! Twice! How was she so calm?

He was mad as they curled into bed together, and he tried to stay stiff when she cuddled up into him. It seemed to have no effect, she still buried her face into his chest and flung her arm around his waist.

He listened to her and Sam's breathing for a long time, until Sam's was slow and rhythmic.

"Okay, you can yell at me now," she whispered, "But be quiet, Sammy's sleeping."

He frowned. "God dammit, Piper, you can't tell me when to be mad at you."

She smiled sadly, and it tugged at his heart. Don't give into her, she's being… difficult. "Dean, come on. Just talk to me."

He rolled his eyes. "I'm not going to take it out on you, Pipes."

Her brow furrowed. "Of course not, like I'd let you take it out on me. But you're mad at me for stopping the argument earlier."

He was silent for a while. "He betrayed us."

She nodded. "Yes."

"He lied to me."

"Yes."

"He… He hit you."

She nodded again. "Yes."

Frustrated, he exhaled sharply. "And you're just gonna let all that go?"

She smiled. "Yes."

"God dammit, Piper, stop saying 'yes.'"

She shrugged. "Look, Dean, I'm just… I'm too worried about the mess we have to clean up to keep being mad at Sam. I understand why you are," she said softly, placing one small hand on his face, "and you should be. But I don't have the energy." She smiled. "So, you be mad at him, but don't expect me to let you be a jerk."

He examined her. "Pipes, what if we can't trust him anymore?"

Her sad smile tugged at his heart again, and this time he gave in to the temptation to wrap his arms around her and pull her tightly to him.

"Then we'll cross that bridge when we get to it, Dean."

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.