Author's Note: Hey guys! Sorry that this is not, unfortunately, a new chapter. This was posted earlier today but I found out that chapter 24 was actually missing and that I posted 25 instead. So if you read chapter 24 BEFORE 2/26/17, please go check it out now that it is correct. Sorry for the mix up guys!

Rowena felt her muscles tense as she reviewed the spell in the book, holding Fergus in her lap. The ingredients were easy enough to get, which she took to be a good sign, but the possible outcomes kept replaying in her head. Her son would either walk away cured or fade away into nonexistence. There were too many endings. It was a fine line she would walk, but she was confident in her abilities. What she wasn't confident about were how much she could trust the people around her, and how Fergus would react when he heard what might happen to him should she fail. The very idea put a lump in her throat, but she swallowed it and smiled at the baby in her lap.

Dean stood by her chair and tapped his foot impatiently. "Well?"

She shot him an irritated glare. "The ingredients are simple enough. Nothing I can't get in a pinch. But i'm worried about the end result. There's too many endings."

"There are only two endings."

"Aye. And that's one ending too many."

"What else can we do?" Dean asked. "There isn't another way, is there?"

"You can't do anything. You and your brother and your pet over there cannot help with this. I have to be the one to do this, and I have to do it alone." She said.

"Why?"

Rowena looked him in the eye. "Because I don't trust you not to make a mistake on this one. You two are always saving each other so much that you tend to ignore the rules and do whatever you want instead. I cannot have that kind of carelessness be a part of this ritual. You may like my son, and you may even be friends with him, but you don't love him. Not enough to sacrifice yourselves if it came down to it. He needs me for this to work. Not you."

Her response was blunt and direct, surprising the two men and one angel in the room. However, her words weren't untrue, so there was no way to defend themselves against them. They watched as she stroked her son's head affectionately as she read more about the spell. Until that moment it hadn't really hit any of them that Rowena was actually on their side for this, and doing the right thing. They'd spent so long worrying about what nefarious activity she might get into that they hadn't really considered the idea that she could switch sides without a self-serving motivation. They had seen her sacrifice her life for her son to undo the spell the first time, but the true impact of the action had been lost on them until now. Remembering that powerful moment and coupling it with this one really brought it home that Rowena was trying to change, and was succeeding.

Sam scrambled to find a response to fit the enormity of the realization, but he was left bereft. Dean, however, had a reply at the ready.

"Nice to see your trust issues haven't gone away. It's nice to know some things never change."

"Well when someone chains you up in their moldy basement against your will, you tend to have trouble believing them about anything." She fired back. That shut Dean up quickly.

In his mother's lap, Fergus giggled. Rowena smiled at him before going back to reading about the spell.

"It says that we need to do this under the full moon. When is the next one?"

Sam pulled out his phone to check. "It's in three days."

"Good. That'll give me time to gather the supplies."

Dean eyed her skeptically. "Are you sure you want to do this?"

His question was an echo of the one running rampant through her mind. But the fact that he had the nerve to ask it pissed her off. She shot him the nastiest glare in her arsenal. When she did speak, she spoke very deliberately.

"Dean, let me ask you a question: Do you love your brother?"

"We have a rule around here: no chick flick moments."

"Do you love your brother?" She asked again, disregarding his warning. She needed to make a point.

"That's not even a question."

"Would you die for him?"

"I have died for him. And he's done the same for me."

"Would you do anything for him if he asked you to?"

"Yes. What's your point?"

She looked at the brothers very seriously. "You two are brothers and you would do all of that for each other in a heartbeat. Well Imagine what it's like to be a mother. You carry this child inside of you for nine months. You feel them moving, growing, and living, and then suddenly they're born and it's like you didn't even know what love was until you hold them for the first time." She picked up Fergus for emphasis. "You are the only thing that stands between that child and death. You feed them, bathe them, watch them grow up, and you love them more than anything in the world. You would kill for them, but more than anything you know you would die to save them in a heartbeat. It isn't even a question. I will do whatever it takes to save my son. Even if I have to do it alone. I wasn't there for Fergus the first time around. I swore to myself that someday I was going to prove to him that I have changed. This is the best way to keep my promise."

Dean was stunned into silence, as was Sam. But Castiel, who had been watching quietly from the corner, stepped forward and finally spoke.

"I believe you."

Rowena looked over to him in surprise, but the ghost of a smile hinted at her face.

"Thanks for the support, feathers."

He nodded, a fast, jerky bob.

"Any other questions?" She asked, looking between the two of them. "No? Well then, let's get going. We only have three days to get this right."

With a flash of light, Rowena disappeared, leaving a stunned Sam and Dean in her wake.