;"Here," Dean said in a gentle voice as he put Kate down on the couch. One of his arms kept holding her feet up, while he reached the other out towards her, "give me a pillow." Kate handed him the nearest pillow and he put it on the coffee table before resting her legs slowly on it. He glanced up at her, "I'll be right back."

He left her in the living room as he walked to one of the two bathrooms there was at Bobby's. He opened the door and walked to the cupboard in the shining white bathroom. He grabbed the first aid-kit and a towel hung next to the shower, and looked around himself. This bathroom used to be a bit gleam and much more untidy. He had noticed the great cleaning that had been done in the house even though he hadn't commented on it. His mind had been too busy with doing his hunter job that he hadn't thought of complimenting Kate on her good job. It must have taken a lot of time to clean and reorganize everything in the house. He hadn't gone upstairs yet, but he was damn sure it was as neat as the first floor. He couldn't help but wonder where she had found the strength to do all of this while she was fairly injured. It was true that today she looked healed from her injuries, but still her cheek had a faint trace of the previous bruise and the cut on her lip had left a still noticeable scar… Just like the one on her throat. The one he had done to her like a real idiot.

Dean rubbed a hand down his face as he sighed before turning around. When he turned around, the hunter's gaze fell to the mirror just above the sink. He stared at the reflection of himself. He made two steps towards it as his gaze never looked away. There was a time he could look in a mirror without any real care of what he'd see. There was a time it was only to spike his hair up a little bit with some gel, to check out if he had anything on his teeth before going to a bar for a hook up, or even to make some funny faces while brushing his teeth next to his little brother trying to make him laugh. However, today, when he looked in the mirror, all he could see was the same kind of monsters he's been hunting his whole life. And he hatedthat.

"Hey Dean!" Sam called out pulling him out of his thoughts. "You've got the first aid-kit?" Sam asked as Dean heard his footsteps coming towards the bathroom. Dean took a deep breath and walked to the door, almost bumping into his little brother. He rose the first aid-kit in his hand showing to his brother that he had the first aid-kit.

"Let's go," Dean told him as he walked down the hallway followed by Sam.

"It's not that bad," Dean heard Ruby say to Kate "There's a lot of blood, but I don't think it touched any nerves. It's mainly superficial." Dean and Sam walked in the living room and Ruby turned to Sam.

"So anyone's going to tell me what happened downstairs?" She asked him while Dean walked to the coffee table and sat on it. He put the towel on his lap and took Kate's feet to rest them on his lap.

"Oh yes, Sam, tell your dear demon friend here what happened downstairs, and let's see how she takes it," Pamela who was sitting next to Kate, sarcastically said. Dean grabbed one of Kate's feet in his hands and tried to examine it.

"Open my duffle bag," Dean said glancing up at Kate who reached for his duffle bag that was on her right. She opened it when he continued "There's a bottle of strong whiskey in there, give it to me."

"Why?" She asked looking at him with a confused frown.

"I need to clean your wounds first. There's too much blood to see if you actually need some stitches," he told her as he looked at her, his face holding almost no emotion at all.

"With whiskey?" She asked him when Anna suddenly spoke up.

"What happened downstairs is that Pamela made me remember what I really am."

"And?" Ruby asked not patient at all.

"Just give me the whiskey, Kaitlin," Dean said holding one of his hands out.

"Uh uh," she said shaking her head. "There's actual antiseptic in that box," she said pointing to the first aid-kit. He frowned and looked at the first aid-kit box before opening it, and finding as a matter of fact an antiseptic bottle. "I made Bobby buy one after Pamela and I got attacked last week."

"Huh," Dean let out as Anna's eyes were glued to Kate for a moment before turning her attention back to Ruby.

"And, well, I am an angel," Anna told Ruby whose eyebrows rose before she took a few steps back. "Don't be afraid, I'm not like the others," Anna said trying to reassure not only Ruby but everyone else in the room.

"I don't find that very reassuring," Ruby said while still trying to back away from the red head as she was standing at the kitchen doorway.

"Neither do I," Pamela added.

"Oh fuck!" Kate exclaimed as Dean started to apply the antiseptic all over her feet.

"Language," Pamela said as she turned her head towards Kate who was biting her lips together very hard. She always had a good pain tolerance, but the antiseptic phase always made her flinch or wince more than anything else. Dean finished pouring the antiseptic and kept on washing her feet with a gentleness that Kate couldn't remember receiving from him. He noticed how very soft her skin was against his calloused fingers, and she noticed that too. Kate glanced at his face to see him wear an expression of deep concentration.

"I'm sorry but I'm kinda lost here," Kate said looking up at Anna, as Dean's hands were calming the aching in her feet down. "The angels are trying to kill you but you're an angel too. I'm sorry but I don't get it... Aren't angels supposed to be the good guys?"

"You must be a woman of faith to think so," the red head told her.

"Yes, I am. So?" Kate said in a bitter tone, feeling judged by the fallen angel. Both Sam and Dean looked at Kate. They had no idea she was a woman of faith as Anna had put it.

"I suggest that I tell you what happened earlier with the angels, later," Ruby told Kate who turned her brown eyes to meet the demon's dark brown ones.

"Ouch!" Kate said as she turned her attention back to Dean as he was pulling a few shattering glass out of her feet. He glanced up at her.

"We're almost done. You won't need any stitches," he told her.

"Lucky me," she said with a bit of sarcasm as she looked up at Sam who gave her a soft smile.

"So...Castiel, Uriel - they're the ones that came for me?" Anna said looking back and forth at the brothers.

"You know them?" Sam asked her.

"We were kind of in the same foxhole," Anna said in reply.

"So, what, were they like your bosses or something? Dean asked in a smirking tone as he never looked away from Kate's feet.

"Try the other way around," Anna said making Dean turn his head to her. She earned a very impressed expression of the two brothers.

"Look at you," Dean said with a little smirk.

"Honestly, I'm still as confused as Kate here," Pamela said pulling Dean's attention back to Kate's feet. He started to put a band-aid on each cuts of one of her feet. "You were their boss and now they want to kill you?"

"Orders are orders. I'm sure I have a death sentence on my head," Anna replied to the psychic.

"Why?" Pamela asked.

"I disobeyed... which, for us, is about the worst thing you can do," Anna replied. "I fell."

"Meaning?" Dean asked as he glanced at her.

"She fell to earth," Pamela started.

"And became human," Kate finished as she never looked away from Anna. Back in her dimension, Kate had taken an interest in some theological classes and had sneaked in some of those classes. One of the lessons was about angels, and the professor had one said that by falling an angel could become a human. He had added jokingly that our entourage, or even ourselves, might be angels without knowing it.

"Wait a minute. I don't understand," Sam said pulling Kate out of her thoughts. "So, angels can just become human?"

"It kind of hurts," Anna replied to Sam while Dean finished putting band aids on one feet and still had the other to wrap with band aid. "Try cutting your kidney out with a butter knife. That kind of hurt. I ripped out my grace."

"Come again?" Dean asked as he turned his head to the red head.

"My grace. It's... energy. Hacked it out and fell. My mother, Amy, couldn't get pregnant. Always called me her little miracle. She had no idea how right she was," Anna explained as Kate's brown eyes stared at her remembering that her mother had troubles getting pregnant too. She frowned as the thought of her mother crossed her mind. She couldn't help but wonder if her mother succeeded to have any other child in this dimension? And did she got divorced from her father? Was she happy here? Suddenly, it hit her. Her father might still be alive in this dimension. He might still be alive.

"So, you just forgot that you were God's little Power Ranger?" Dean asked Anna as Pamela turned her head to Kate before reaching for her hand and squeezing it gently. Kate turned her head at the woman sitting by her side. Pamela gave a little nod of the head to Kate who gave her an almost weak smile. Dean glanced at them as he noticed the exchange.

"The older I got, the longer I was human, yeah," Anna replied as Dean looked down at Kate's foot.

"I don't think you all appreciate how completely screwed we are," Ruby said pulling everyone's attention to her except Dean's, as he was finishing with her foot. Kate took a deep breath and told herself she'd have to wait to have the answers to her questions about her family in this dimension.

"Ruby's right. Heaven wants me dead," Anna nodded.

"And Hell just wants her," Kate said in a little voice as Ruby nodded at her. Suddenly, Kate felt Dean's fingers rub up and down the below parts of her feet.

"Tell me when you feel like there's still a piece of glass in there," Dean told her as he put some more pressure on there and she bit her bottom lip very hard. "Here?" He asked her as he stopped moving his fingers, she shook her head so he kept going. She took a sharp breath in and he stopped. "Here?" She shook her head and he frowned "You're sure?" She nodded frantically as Pamela let out a light chuckle. Dean had touched very sensitive spots of her feet and Pamela understood it quickly.

"I think she's fine, Dean," the psychic said to the hunter who looked up at her before looking at Kate.

"Sure?" He said to Kate who nodded frantically. Dean nodded as he put her legs back down on the pillow and gathered the things on his lap to put them away on the coffee table as he stood up.

"You guys don't get it," Ruby said "Anna is a flesh-and-blood angel that you can question, torture, that bleeds," Ruby said before looking right at the fallen angel. "Sister, you're the Stanley Cup. And sooner or later, Heaven or Hell, they're gonna find you."

"I know. And that's why I'm gonna get it back," she said with a strong determination in her voice.

"What?" Sam asked.

"My grace."

"You can do that?" Dean asked taken aback.

"If I can find it," she nodded.

"So, what, you're just gonna take some divine bong hit, and, shazam, you're Roma Downey?" Dean joked making Ruby roll her eyes and Kate let out a light chuckle.

"Something like that," Anna replied her arms crossed over her chest.

"All right. I like this plan. So, where's this grace of yours?" Dean asked her.

"Lost track. I was falling about 10,000 miles per hour at the time," Anna said.

"Wait, you mean falling, like, literally?" Kate asked surprised.

"Yes."

"Like the way a human eye can see? Like a comet, maybe, or a meteor?" Sam asked.

"Why do you ask?" Anna asked.

;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;

Kate hung up on Bobby after she had reassured him that everything was doing fine at his house. She hadn't told him about the shattering glass or about the fact that the innocent red head was actually a fallen angel. She hadn't wanted to worry him while he was on an important hunt that would lead him to something he told her was very important. The brunette walked down the hallway after she had put on her converse shoes with great care and realized that she could walk normally. She could still feel a faint aching, but it was nothing too bad compared to what she's had last week. As a matter of fact, it was more irritating than aching. She slowed her steps when she heard Sam and Ruby talking in the living room.

"Forget the angels. It's Alastair I'm scared of," the demon said making Kate frown her eyebrows as she tried to listen without getting caught.

"Alastair?" Sam asked.

"You met him in the church. Practically the grand inquisitor downstairs. Picasso with a razor," Ruby told him.

"And?"

"And you should pull him out and throw him back in the pit," Ruby said to him "... if you weren't so out of shape."

"Ruby..."

"No, your abilities - you're getting flabby," Ruby told Sam making Kate completely puzzled. Sam had told her about his sort of psychic power, but he had also told her that in a past tense making her understand it was over.

"Yeah, so how do I tone up?"

"You know how. You know what you got to do."

"No, I'm not doing that anymore," Sam replied. Kate frowned at that wondering what exactly he had to do and that he didn't want to do anymore.

"Sam..."

"I said no," Sam said almost too sharply stopping Ruby from insisting even more.

"Well, then you better pray that Anna gets her groove back, or we're all dead," Ruby told him before Kate heard a few step sounds. She took a few steps back and acted as if she was just coming towards the living room.

"Hey!" She said as Ruby came right front of her, a few feet away from the doorway leading to the living room.

"Hey," Ruby said back as Kate gave her a nervous smile before walking to the living room.

"You shouldn't eavesdrop a demon, they kind of can sense your presence, especially with a soul like yours," Ruby told her making her stop. Kate turned around to look at Ruby.

"I didn't want to," she told her.

"But you couldn't help yourself," Ruby told her nodding her head "I know the feeling." She smirked at Kate.

"So, do you wanna know what happened before we got this fallen angel in this charming place?"

"Yeah... But I also want to know a few other things," Kate told her in a whisper.

"With an impossible soul like yours, your wish is my command," Ruby smirked.

;;;;;;;;;;

Outside, in Bobby' salvage yard, Dean was leaning against a car. He had just come back from driving Pamela home. The psychic had asked him to be the only one driving her home so she could talk with him. The hunter had expected to have a casual little conversation but it was the complete opposite. Not three minutes on the road and she had slapped his arm and called him a stupid heartless boy who acted as an asshole. She had then told him that the way he was acting towards Kate was purely unfair and childish. He had pretended not to know what she was talking about, earning himself another good slap on the arm followed by her warning him that she was a powerful psychic and he'd rather not lie to her. After a short moment of silence, Pamela had asked him in a more gentle way why he was acting this hard to Kate, and he had shrugged. She had told him softly that Kate was a good girl and that her story was true; that he could stop doubting. But he had admitted to her that a part of him was preventing him from doing so.

I'm a hunter, Pamela. I can't just trust her that easily... I want to, I really do... But I can't. She's something supernatural... I hunt supernatural things. I'm not saying I'm gonna hunt her... It's just that I can't give her my entire trust when I'm not sure of what she is.

Pamela had shaken her head saying that he was only trying to find some excuses, and that if he was true to his words, he wouldn't have given that complete trust to Anna either. Dean hadn't said anything at that, knowing very well how right Pamela Barnes was. And then, she had told him that she could feel the real reason of why he wasn't nice to Kate. He had glanced at her as she had abruptly stopped talking after that. Her face had looked thoughtful but also a bit sad. When they had parked in front of her house, he had decided to walk her inside. Once it was done, she had turned to him and told him what she could feel emitting from him.

"You're scared to let her in, Dean. You've tried letting her in but it scared you..."

"Pamela, I ain't scared-"

He had started to protest her true words only to be cut off by the psychic.

"You are, because you feel like you don't deserve this. You think you don't deserve to have anyone taking the pain away from you, and that's exactly what she's done to you when you confessed to her."

"I gotta go back," Dean had said as he had walked towards the door. He hadn't wanted to talk about it.

"It's not fair for her," she had exclaimed stopping him at the front door. "She's a good girl, Dean. You know you can trust her; as a matter of fact, you do trust her. You're just lying so hard to yourself in order to push her as far away as possible from you and your pain, that you've made yourself believe that trust is the real issue between you two," Pamela told him and Dean glanced at her in silence. "It's not fair for both of you."

"I know," he had whispered before leaving.

On the way back to Bobby's, Dean hadn't stopped thinking over and over again about what Pamela had told him. It had been hard to hear the truth said out loud to him, but in the same time it was making him realize that his actions towards the young brunette were really too hard. But, the truth was that he couldn't stop feeling like he didn't deserve anyone to help him, to listen to him or to even take his pain away. After what he had done in Hell, there was no way that he deserved any of that. And there was absolutely no way at all that he deserved a good girl like Kaitlin heal him from Hell.

"Pamela get home okay?" Anna's voice pulled him out of his thoughts. He turned to look at the fallen angel as she gave him a soft smile.

"Yeah," he replied before coughing a little bit and pushed his previous thoughts in the back of his mind. "She said she was sorry. It's just after last time, she, uh... This is just a little too rich for her blood."

"I don't blame her. You guys should do the same," she replied.

"Well, we're not that smart," he told her as he looked at her. "Can I ask you something? What do they want me for? Why did they save me?" He needed to know why they would save him from Hell after all that he had done there, but he also needed to know why they had waited so long to save him.

"I'm sorry. The angels aren't talking about it. They're actually more talking about Kate lately... Wondering why she's here... But, about why you were saved, they are not really talking. And it was after I fell."

"That's another question. Why would you fall? Why would you want to be one of us?" Dean asked her as she glanced behind him, noticing Kate and Ruby walking in between the cars as they talked a bit afar from them.

"You don't mean that," she replied as she looked at him.

"I don't? A bunch of - of miserable bastards... Eating, crapping, confused, afraid," Dean told her.

"I don't know. There's loyalty... forgiveness... love," she replied.

"Pain," Dean countered.

"Chocolate cake."

"Guilt."

"Sex," she said with a little smirk.

"Yeah, you got me there," Dean told her chuckling.

"I mean it. Every emotion, Dean, even the bad ones... It's why I fell. It's why... why I'd give anything not to have to go back. Anything," she said as her eyes looked behind him once again.

"Feelings are overrated, if you ask me," he said and he frowned as he turned around to look at what she was staring at. He took a deep breath as his eyes followed the rather tall brunette walking with the short one.

"It must be hard for her," Anna said as she never looked away from the brunette "To realize that angels aren't as good as she thought."

"Yeah. Sam was hit pretty hard by that too," Dean replied, his gaze glued to Kate until she was out of sight. He turned to look at Anna.

"She's holding onto her faith though," Anna told him as she looked up at him. "For her father. I wish I could be as loyal too… But being an angel is so much harder than being a human, and also so much less worth it."

"How's that possible? You guys are powerful and perfect. You don't doubt yourselves or God or anything."

"Perfect... Like a marble statue. Cold... no choice... only obedience. Dean, do you know how many angels have actually seen God? Seen his face?" She told him.

"All of you?" He asked her.

"Four angels," she replied surprising him. "Four. And I'm not one of them."

"That's it? Well, then how do you even know that there is a God?" Dean asked her.

"We have to take it on faith... Which we're killed if we don't have."

"Huh," Dean only said.

"Kate wouldn't have any trouble, nor your brother. They are willing to have faith in something they're not sure exist or not, because they need to believe they're not alone in this. They need to believe that all they've been through or keep going through is going to be paid off later," Anna explained to Dean whose eyebrows frowned a bit as he wondered what kind of things Kate had been through in her dimension. "I was stationed on earth 2,000 years. Just... watching... silent... invisible... out on the road... sick for home... waiting on orders from an unknowable father I can't begin to understand. So don't tell me that…" Dean couldn't help but laugh a bit at that.

"What is so funny? What?" Anna asked him.

"Nothing. Sorry," he replied shaking his head. "It's just...I can relate."

"Hey," Sam said as he walked to them.

"Did you find something?" Dean asked him.

"I think so," Sam replied.

;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;

Dean couldn't stop glancing at Kate through the rear-view mirror of his car as they were on the road to Union, Kentucky, where Anna's face had supposedly landed. He was driving his Impala with Sam on the seat at his right, and Ruby, Anna and Kate on the backseat. Kate was right behind Sam's seat and Ruby right behind his, as Anna was in the middle. Kate had just woken up from a thirty minutes nap and she was now staring outside through the window on her right. It was late and Sam had told Kate to go back to sleep if she wanted to, because there was still a few hours left before they reached the place they needed to be at. She had just told him that she would try to sleep later. Dean had noticed how Anna's eyes were glued to Kate when she was asleep and he couldn't help but wonder what her soul looked like.

When Kate started to stretch, Dean turned his gaze to the two other passengers on the backseat. He let out a laugh that pulled everyone's attention to him.

"What?" Ruby snapped.

"Nothing," he replied "It's just one human girl, an angel and a demon riding in the backseat. It's like the setup to a bad joke…" Dean said before continuing "or a Penthouse Forum letter." Ruby rolled her eyes while Kate shook her head. The fallen angel though just turned her eyes back to Kate.

"Dude... Reality... Porn," Sam told him making Kate's lips curled in a corner smile.

"You call this reality?" Dean asked and Kate rose her eyebrows as she tilted her head in agreement.

"Good point," she said more to herself than to anyone, they still heard her and Sam couldn't help but smile at that.

;;;;;;;;;;;;;

"Ouch," Kate winced as they walked in a field under the sunlight.

"You're okay?" Sam asked her as she put a foot up and saw the little rock she had stepped on which had put some sharping pressure on the below part of her left foot.

"Yeah, I'm fine," she replied looking up at him.

"It's beautiful," Dean said out loud as Kate, Sam and Ruby walked to him and looked up at what he was staring.

"Beautiful is an understatement" Kate said as she stared at the giant tree and the landscape it gave with its surroundings as the sun light shone on it, giving a sight that could only be from a fairytale.

"Would you believe me if I told you, your soul is even more beautiful, Kate?" Anna told the brunette.

"Not at all," Kate let out in a breath as she kept staring at the tree.

"Well, I do believe that it is," Ruby said as she looked at Kate before looking at the tree.

"It's where the grace touched down. I can feel it," Anna said as she made a few steps forward.

"You ready to do this?" Dean asked her.

"Not really," she replied.

"Anna, what are we even looking for?" Sam asked as Anna put a hand on the tree trunk.

"It doesn't matter. It's not here. Not anymore," Anna replied before looking at them. "Someone took it."

;;;;;;;;;;;;

Night had fallen and with it the cold air that not even the abandoned barn they were in could really soothe. Kate was warming her hands by rubbing them together as she cursed herself for not putting on a warmer coat or at least much warmer tops. She was sitting on an old barrel, her feet not touching the ground while Anna was sitting a few feet from her. Dean and Ruby were a few feet away from her while Sam had gone out to check something out.

"We still got the hex bags. I say we head back to the panic room," Dean suggested.

"What, forever?" Ruby asked him sarcastically.

"I'm just thinking out loud!" He snapped at her.

"Oh, you call that thinking?" Ruby snapped back at him.

"Hey! Hey, hey, hey. Stop it," Sam said as he walked in.

"Anna's grace is gone. You understand? She can't angel up," Ruby said as Kate stared at her and understood how in deep trouble they were "She can't protect us. We can't fight Heaven and Hell. One side maybe, but not both. Not at once," she said to them before glancing at Kate. "You might be the only one to survive; and still I don't think angels will really care if some collateral damages is done to you or not."

"The angels won't dare let you get hurt, Katie," Sam told Kate hoping to reassure the young woman.

"Did they protect you from the creature you told me attacked you last week? No," Ruby said to Kate "I bet all you want, they won't care today either even if they said you're to be protected!"

"Well, then we will protect her!" Sam almost shouted at Ruby which took aback both his brother and the demon.

"Um... guys?" Anna said her head tilted to one side. "The angels are talking again."

"What are they saying?" Kate asked in a little voice as she looked up at her.

"It's weird... Like a recording... a loop," Anna replied "It says, Dean Winchester gives us Anna by midnight, or..." Anna stopped herself which made Kate as confused as the others around her.

"Or what?" Dean asked.

"...or we hurl him back to damnation." Anna told him as she stared deep in his eyes. Kate's eyes immediately got big as she felt her heartbeats increase rapidly. She looked at Dean and knew right away that his heart must have stopped beating the second Anna finished her sentence. Kate felt her heart beat faster and harder against her ribcage as she started to feel very terrified for him. And, she knew he was keeping it to himself to not break down. She wanted to stand up and comfort him but she could feel that right now, he didn't want anyone to touch him.

"Anna... Do you know of any weapon that works on an angel? Sam asked frantically and Kate turned her head to him understanding clearly how he didn't want to let his brother down. As she remembered what Ruby had told her about the two brothers and the deal Dean had done, she knew that Sam would feel more than defeated if this time like the last time, he wouldn't be able to save his brother.

"Yeah, there must be weapons to stop them or maybe some spells?" Kate said as she jumped down from the barrel. She almost winced at the rapid sharp pain that went through her feet, but she didn't.

"Nothing we could get to... Not right now," Anna replied shaking her head.

"Okay, wait, wait. I say we call Bobby. We get him back from hedonism," Dean said and Kate turned her head to look at him. He looked desperate and that was a heartbreaking sight.

"Dean, what's he gonna tell us that we don't already know?" Sam told his brother.

"I don't know, but we gotta think of something!" Dean said almost in a shout as the brother's stared into each other's eyes with fear of what to come.

;;;;;;;;;;;;

A while after, Dean was studying a book over his car, feeling like suffocating when he was in the abandoned barn with the others. Dark memories of Hell wouldn't stop crossing his mind ever since the fallen angel had told him what Heaven was going to do if they wouldn't give her to them. Deep down, he wanted to give her immediately to them because he was frightened by the idea of going back down there. But, that would just prove to him that the monster he was downstairs, was still in him. And he couldn't give out an innocent; he couldn't put more blood on his already very dirty hands. He couldn't do that.

Hearing some noise, Dean turned his head to see Anna walking towards him, her arms crossed over her chest as she looked at him with a soft expression.

"Hey. Holding up okay?" He asked her as he looked at her.

"Trying," she replied.

"Yeah," he replied nodding his head as he looked down at the book. I know the feeling.

"A little scared, I guess," she replied as she stared at him while his gaze was focused on the book. She uncrossed her arms continued. "So, um... Dean... I just wanted to thank you."

"For what?" He asked her.

"Everything," she replied "You guys - you didn't have to help me…"

"Hey," Dean cut her off not wanting to hear any kind of preacher speech whereas the thought of giving her to save his own ass had shamefully crossed his mind earlier. "Let's can the "thanks for trying" speech, you know? Participation trophies suck ass," he tried to joke.

"I don't know. Maybe I don't deserve to be saved," she replied which made him look at her with a frown.

"Don't talk like that," Dean told her.

"I disobeyed. Lucifer disobeyed. It's our murder one, and I knew it. Maybe I got to pay," she told him a she stared into his eyes.

"Yeah, well, we've all done things we got to pay for," Dean told her and she walked closer to him before leaning on his car.

"I got to tell you something. You're not gonna like it," Anna said to him.

"Okay. What?" He asked her confused.

"About a week ago, I heard the angels talking... Not just about Kate and the mysterious reason of her being here…" She started "But about you too... What you did in Hell," she said noticing the sudden change of expression on his face. He swallowed his saliva as he tried to swallow her words. "Dean, I know," she told him as he tried to look away before her hand reached his cup and told him in an even softer voice "It wasn't your fault. You should forgive yourself."

"Anna, I don't w-want to, uh... I don't want to... I can't talk about that," he stuttered as he looked down.

"I know," she replied as she pulled her hand away from his face. "But when you can, you have people that want to help. You are not alone. That's all I'm trying to say," she told him. "If you could see how they're trying so hard to find how to get rid of the angels inside," she said nodding to the barn. "I'm pretty sure they're not doing it just to help me… Sam and Kate… Even, Ruby… They're doing it for you. They are here for you. You are not alone." He looked at her before she leaned up to him. Dean looked at her unsure of what to do as she got closer. Her lips met his as she kissed him.

"What was that for?" He asked her taken aback by her gesture.

"You know... Our last night on earth... All that," she smirked at him

"You're stealing my best line," he smirked back at her before he leaned down to kiss her again.

….

Kate looked up from the book she was reading when she saw Sam had fallen asleep over an open book. One of his hands was holding the wrapping of the chocolate bar she had given him earlier. She stared at him for a few seconds before she stood up. She walked around the table towards him, unwinding the scarf around her neck before gently covering him with it. He was a big guy, so it was hard to cover him completely with it, but Kate did the best she could. She softly took the wrapping away from his hand, hoping not to wake him up. He needed to rest a little bit after all the manic researching they've been doing since Anna told them what the angels were saying in loop.

Kate looked up to see Ruby staring at Sam a few feet away. Ruby looked up at her and then brought up her pointing finger on her lips, ordering her to not to say a word. Kate stared at her puzzled before Ruby started to make her way to the barn's doors. Kate stopped her by calling out her name in a whisper. Ruby turned to look at her with rose eyebrows as she asked her impatiently with her eyes what she wanted. Kate walked quickly to her.

"Where are you going?" She whispered to her.

"The plan. I'm gonna get it started," she replied in a whisper before she turned around and started to walk out.

"What? No, maybe we can find another plan that is less risky than this one," Kate whispered to the demon as she followed her outside. Ruby turned around and looked at Kate with an almost exasperated expression.

"Look," Ruby told her, "this plan is the only one we've got and we don't have time to find another one."

"But we could warn Sam instead of going off while he's asleep," she whispered to Ruby who started walking again. "I mean we haven't even told Dean and Anna about it." Ruby stopped walking as her gaze fell on the Impala not that far away from the barn. The windows were covered with steam making the inside impossible to see from the outside, and the car was slightly rocking. The demon scoffed.

"I think that the two really concerned by this, are too busy screwing to even care listening to our plan," Ruby told her as Kate frowned her eyebrows in pure confusion before she glanced at the Impala. It froze her to the spot. Ruby turned to look at her. "You haven't seen me leaving, okay?" She warned the brunette whose gaze was glued to the rocking car.

"How… dare… he-" Kate started to say through her teeth. Ruby frowned her eyebrows as she glanced at the black car before looking back at Kate. "How dare he have fun while we're going through all that trouble for him!" She exclaimed loudly.

"Kate, shhh," Ruby said before she cupped Kate's chin in her hand and made her look at her. "Get over it. Dean Winchester has never been a very grateful man. You can find way better." Kate looked at her while trying to ignore the now becoming louder and louder sounds coming from the car. "You don't tell anyone that you've seen me leaving, okay? You just keep digging in your books and prepare yourself to what's gonna happen, okay?"

"Okay," Kate replied. Ruby nodded at her as she pulled her hand away from her chin. Ruby walked away and Kate glanced at the car again before returning in the barn where she hoped no sounds from the car would reach her ears.

;;;;;;;;;;;;;;

"Look at that," The tall black angel in a suit said as Dean walked in the barn. "It's so cute when monkeys wear clothes."

"I'm dreaming, aren't I?" Dean said as he looked around and noticed the barn was empty. No Sam, no Ruby, no Kate.

"It's the only way we could chat," Uriel replied. "Since you're hiding like cowards."

"Don't normally see you off leash. Where's your boss?" Dean said back to the angel.

"Castiel? Oh, he, uh... He's not here," he replied as he looked up a moment. "See, he has this weakness. He likes you." Uriel's face hardened as he continued "Time's up, boy. We want the girl."

"Which one?" Dean asked "See, there are two girls we're supposed to protect. One because you asked us and we agreed without asking questions, and another one you dicks seem to hate on so much."

"Funny when you lay all of this that way…" Uriel said pretending to think over Dean's words "You see, I don't think you are that good at protecting the little brunette. Maybe we should take her with us, it will give you more time to fool around with the one you are supposed to give to us."

"I don't think Kaitlin would like to be protected by people like you. But I'll let her know," Dean replied "As for Anna, I wouldn't try that if I were you. See, she got her grace back. Full-blown angel now."

"That would be a neat trick, considering…" Uriel started as he took out a necklace from around his neck and showed it to Dean who stared at it surprised. "I have her grace right here. We can't let Hell get their hooks into her."

"Well, then why don't you just give her back her angel juice?" Dean asked him.

"She committed a serious crime," Uriel simply replied.

"What? Thinking for herself?" Dean countered.

"This is our business, not yours. She's not even human…. Not technically."

"Yeah, well, I guess I just like being a pain in the pooper," Dean replied and Uriel's lips curled into a smile as he stared at the hunter.

"No. There's more," the angel said as he walked towards Dean and laughed as he circled him. "You cut yourself a slice of... angel food cake. Didn't you? Huh? You did."

"What do you care?" Dean replied as he stared with a hard look at the angel. "You're junkless down there, right? Like a Ken doll?"

"Ooh. Well, it's your last chance. Give us the girl, or-"

"Or what? What, you're gonna toss me back in the hole?" Dean told him "You're bluffing."

"Try me," Uriel told him harshly. "This is a whole lot bigger than the plans we got for you, Dean. You can be replaced." Dean nodded his head slowly understanding that the angel could easily send him back to Hell right then. But still, he didn't want to show how scared he really was.

"What the hell? Go ahead and do it," Dean said as he opened his arms, showing the angel that he was going to embrace whatever fate was thrown at him.

"You want to know the truth, Dean?" Uriel told Dean whose gaze was avoiding the angel's. "We really could replace you. With a soul like Kaitlin Anderson's for instance, you can be put aside from every single plan we've got."

"Then why haven't you replaced me yet?" Dean asked him as he looked at the angel.

"You really wouldn't want us to take her instead of you," Uriel told him and Dean stared at him wondering why but never asking it out loud. "If you follow our orders, you can do the job we've given to you without suffering. On the other hand, she would suffer a lot. It would be necessary to remodel her whole being. And, I am not trying to lap up compliments, but some of us, angels, have skills to this kind of restructuration of a being and its soul, that has inspired the best tortures you've faced in Hell," Uriel told him with a little smirk. "Or even given yourself."

"I thought she was to be protected- " Dean started only to be cut off by the angel.

"She is. But she can be used for greater things; things you don't seem to understand!" Uriel shouted before shaking his head. "Still, you're just crazy enough to go, aren't you?"

"What can I say? I don't break easy," Dean replied.

"Oh, yes... you do," Uriel told him. "Because the moment I told you we could replace you with her, you started to rethink of all the possible ways to prevent that. But, I'm sure I can find another weak spot… A better one. Because, Dean, you're really easy to break. You just got to know where to apply the right pressure."

;;;;;;;;;;;;;

"Katie, wake up," Sam whispered as he shook Kate's shoulder gently. It was very early in the morning now and Sam had woken up just a few minutes ago to find himself covered with Kate's scarf as she was sleeping over two books right across him. He shook her shoulder again only to have her moan and move a bit trying to get away from what was disturbing her sleep. "Come on, Katie," he told her louder as he kept shaking her shoulder. She groaned as she opened her eyes and looked up at Sam. "Do you know where Ruby is?" he asked her.

"What? Why? She's not here?" Kate replied as she sat up on her chair while rubbing her eyelids.

"No," he replied. "I woke up half an hour ago to find her gone."

"You should know, she's your Hell buddy," Dean said making Kate turn her head to glance at him as he walked to a barrel and sat down there. Although, she knew he had spent some quality time with the fallen angel last night, his face didn't wear any kind of happiness. He looked worn out as if he had spent a bad night or maybe had a bad dream.

"She'll certainly be back before we know it," Kate said trying not to break her promise to Ruby to not tell on her, and trying to reassure them in the same time.

The brunette looked down at her watch to see that she had slept only two hours before looking up at Sam who was obviously very worried. She stood up and walked to where her back bag was. She pulled a bottle out of it, and used it to wash her face a bit. Sam looked at her and she could feel it, but she only pretended not to know. She drank a long sip of water, almost finishing her bottle, before she put it back in her bag.

"Sure, we can always trust demons just as much as we can trust angels," Dean said more to himself than anyone else. Kate glanced at him but didn't say a word as she walked to Sam who was giving his back to his brother.

"I'm suddenly very up to call Bobby, you know?" She told the taller brother in a little voice as she looked up at him. He looked down at her and she gave him a little smile. "We'll make it. We will save your brother and Anna," she whispered firmly to him as she put a hand on his forearm and squeezed gently. He stared at her, almost studying her.

"You remember when you told me I was kind—too kind? You know, how people that kind are people who went through a lot and don't want anyone else to go through the same hell?" He whispered to her and she slowly nodded remembering that time two weeks ago when they went to a dinner together. "You're very kind too, Katie." He stared into her brown eyes as she stared into his hazel ones that held a glimpse of green.

"Little early for that, isn't it?" Anna said as she walked to the middle of the barn, while Dean was drinking in a flask. Kate turned around as she took advantage of Anna's arrival in this place of the barn to avoid Sam's comment and his eyes that seemed to stare too deep into hers.

"It's two a.m. somewhere," Dean replied in a cold tone that made Anna frown a bit.

"You're okay?" Anna asked him.

"Yeah, of course," Dean lied.

Suddenly, they heard the wind howl very loudly outside before the barn's doors slammed open. Two persons, which one Kate recognized as being Castiel, walked in. She quickly supposed that the tall black man was Uriel. The brown head was taken aback by their entrance and the way they walked. They looked very impressive and as Kate realized Ruby hadn't come back yet, she started to panic. She looked at the black man and was surprised to see that he looked more imposing than Anna whereas she used to be the boss of the both of them. But, she quickly remembered that it wasn't their true forms. It was their vessels. She couldn't help wonder what their true forms looked like.

"Hello, Anna. It's good to see you," Castiel said before he turned his gaze to Kate who felt immediately uncomfortable as he wasn't the only one staring at her.

"Very beautiful specimen," Uriel said as he stared at Kate before he looked directly at Dean. "But we're not here for that, are we?"

"How? How did you find us?" Sam asked as Castiel glanced at Dean before squinting his eyes at the older hunter. Kate frowned her eyebrows as she looked at Dean.

"Dean?" She said realizing what he had done as Sam and Anna stared at him with shocked faces as well.

"I'm sorry," Dean said to Anna as he felt more than guilty for his coward action.

"Why?" Sam asked not understanding how his brother could ever do this.

"Because they gave him a choice," Anna replied to Sam. "They either kill me... or kill you, Sam. I know how their minds work." She turned to Dean and leaned up to kiss his lips. Kate looked away after she caught the painful expression on Dean's face. "You did the best you could. I forgive you," Anna told Dean before turning to the angels and taking a few steps towards them. "Okay. No more tricks. No more running. I'm ready."

"I'm sorry," Castiel said to the red-head.

"No, you're not. Not really. You don't know the feeling," Anna replied.

"Still, we have a history. It's just-"

"Orders are orders. I know-" Anna said before Kate cut her off.

"Wait!" The brunette shouted as she stepped next to Anna. "You can't do this… She hasn't done anything wrong! Don't you think falling and becoming a human has already been a punishment itself?"

"You don't understand," Castiel told her gently as Uriel interrupted her.

"You don't need to understand," he said as he looked at her with a stern gaze.

"It's okay, Kate," Anna said to Kate as she turned her gaze to look at the two angels. "I understand… Just make it quick."

"Don't you touch a hair on that poor girl's head," a man's voice said from behind the hunters. They all turned to see a middle aged man pointing at them as two others men were standing behind him. They were holding a bleeding Ruby. Kate's eyes met Ruby's, and Kate understood quickly that those men were demons. "Oh I see we've got another pretty thing here," the man said making Kate look at him to only find him staring at her with a devious smirk. She understood quickly he was Alastair. Kate felt Dean's hand on her back as he made her walk quickly to the side with his brother and the fallen angel.

"How dare you come in this room you pussing sore?" Uriel said as he walked towards the demon who turned his attention back to the angel making his way towards him. Kate saw Ruby crawling on the ground as she tried to go on the opposite side.

"Name-calling. That hurt my feelings… You sanctimonious, fanatical prick," Alastair replied.

"Turn around and walk away now," Castiel said to the demons.

"Sure," Alastair said "Just give us the girl. We'll make sure she gets punished good and proper," he turned his eyes to Kate and smirked "And what about we take this one too?"

"You know know who we are and what we will do. I won't say it again. Leave now... or we lay you to waste," Castiel told him as he walked towards him.

"Think I'll take my chances," the demon said to Castiel.

Then the angels started to fight against the demons as the others stood aside. Kate was surprised to see how Uriel succeeded to kill one of the demons with his hand, which created some sort of light to go off the demon's eyes and mouth. It didn't seem to work with Castiel who was soon straddled by Alastair who kept hitting him. The demon started to strangle the angel as he chanted a few Latin words. Kate frowned as she understood the words and also understood that it had to be a sort of exorcism. Quickly, Dean grabbed a crawbar and went to Alastair, hitting him hard in the face with it; saving Castiel from being exorcised. The demon stood and shook his head as he stepped towards Dean.

"Dean, Dean, Dean… I am so disappointed," Alastair said to Dean as Sam and Dean stared at the demon with fear. "You had such promise." He held his hand out and started to choke the hunter with some sort of invisible force. Dean started to grant in pain, and Sam soon followed him. Kate turned to look at them before she looked at the demon and did what she thought was the best.

"Exorcizamus te omnis immundus spiritus-" She started before Alastair flipped his hand at her and choked her too.

"Really? And to think that I was planning on being very nice to you," he said as he looked at the brunette as she held the base of her throat. The sensation was terrible. It was like being strangled by a very strong hand almost as strong as the Cleaner's hand, only from the inside. It literally felt like her throat was being crushed and strangled from the inside.

"Omn- Omnis satanica..." Kate tried to keep saying the exorcism spell in spite of what the demon was making her feel. "Potestas omnis incursio infernalis-"

"I don't think so," the demon said as he curled his fingers and she started to suffocate more as she fell on her knees.

"Shut your eyes!" Anna's voice shouted all of sudden. "Shut your eyes! Shut your eyes!" They all did as Anna kept screaming. A blind light appeared in the whole barn as well as a violent wind. All of sudden the pain that was going through Sam, Dean and Kate vanished in the same time than the wind. They all put their arms away from their faces and opened their eyes. Kate coughed as the brothers stood up, Sam helping her up before Dean walked to the middle of the barn. He bent down to take Ruby's knife that the demon had left behind. He looked up at the angels.

"Well, what are you guys waiting for? Go get Anna. Unless, of course, you're scared," Dean told them.

"This isn't over," Uriel said as Castiel put a hand on his shoulder stopping him from doing whatever he was going to in response of Dean's arrogance.

"Oh, it looks over to me, junkless," Dean replied as Uriel turned his gaze to Kate. Sam and Dean looked at him before the two angels vanished in thin air. Kate stared a bit surprised as it was the very first time she ever saw something disappear the way they did. She had seen on TV back in her world, she had read about it in Bobby's books in this world, but still she had never witnessed it.

"What a real perseverance you had with Alastair," Sam said to Kate who looked up at him as they all breathed heavily.

"It's actually called stubbornness," she told him as Ruby walked to them. Sam and Dean chuckled lightly at her answer.

"You okay?" Sam asked the demon.

"Not so much," she replied.

"What took you so long to get here?" Dean told her. She looked up at him.

"Sorry, I'm late with the demon delivery. I was only being tortured," she replied with sarcasm as Kate looked down at the blood on her shirt and grimaced.

"I got to hand it to you, Sammy. Bringing them all together all at once – angels and demons. It was a damn good plan," Dean said.

"It was actually Kate who came up with this idea," Sam replied.

"It was more a joke than a real plan," Kate admitted as Dean looked at her, a bit surprised that she would come with this kind of idea.

"Yeah, well when you got Godzilla and Mothra on your ass, best to get out of their way and let them fight," Sam said as Ruby looked at him with a funny look. Sam looked at Dean. "So, I guess she's some big-time angel now, huh? She must be happy… Wherever she is."

"I doubt it," Dean said thoughtfully.

;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;

Kate's eyes were closed as she was laying on the backseat of the Impala with her scarf covering her eyes from the day light that was preventing her to properly fall asleep. The brothers decided to let her rest as Dean parked to the roadside and they got out to drink a beer. Sam sat on the hood while Dean leaned against the side of the car near him.

"I can't believe we made it out there," Dean said.

"Again," Sam told him as Dean held out his bottle of beer and Sam clinked it with his own. "Maybe we should wake Kate up to celebrate with us?"

"Nah," Dean said as he took a sip of his beer. "She deserves to rest a little bit more." Sam nodded as he looked at his brother. Little did they know that she was actually listening to them while pretending to be asleep, her face and upper body covered by her scarf. "I know you heard him."

"Who?"

"Alastair. What he said… about how I had promise," Dean told his brother, his voice sounding heavy in Kate's ears.

"I heard him," Sam replied.

"You're not curious?" Dean asked him.

"Dean, I'm damn curious. But you're not talking about Hell, and I'm not pushing."

"It wasn't four months, you know," Dean said after a few seconds of silence, and Kate frowned under her scarf.

"What?" Sam asked Dean.

"It was four months up here, but down there… I don't know. Time's different. It was more like forty years," Dean told him. Kate stopped breathing when she heard him say that.

"My God," Sam let out.

"They… They sliced and carved and tore at me in ways that you…Until there was nothing left. And then suddenly… I would be whole again… Like magic…. Just so they could start all over." Kate could hear clearly the pain that Dean was trying to hide behind a hard voice as he confessed to his little brother. "And Alastair… At the end of everyday… Every one… He would come over…" Dean's voice let more of his pain show up. Kate knew he had no strength anymore to hold it all back. "And he would make me an offer. To take me off the rack... If I put souls on... If I started the torturing. And every day, I told him to stick it where the sun shines." Dean was silent for a few seconds as Kate felt the tears forming in her eyes. She couldn't imagine being as strong as Dean, for that long. "For thirty years, I told him. But then I couldn't do it anymore, Sammy. I couldn't." Kate closed her eyes as she could feel the feelings of defeat, shame and pain that Dean was going through. She couldn't help it. She wanted to comfort him because it hurt her to know that someone like him had to go through all of this. "I got off that rack. God help me, I got right off it, and I started ripping them apart. I lost count of how many souls," Dean kept confessing as Kate silently cried on the backseat. Dean was crying too, she could hear it in his voice. "I cut Kaitlin too… I sliced her throat open on the second night after her arrival… It was as if… As if everything I was in Hell had come back suddenly… And I cut her…" Kate wanted to walk out of the car and tell him that he was already forgiven a long time ago, but she knew she couldn't. "The souls down there… The… The things that I did to them…"

"Dean…" Sam said gently. "Dean, look, you held out for thirty years. That's longer than anyone would have," Sam tried to comfort his brother but this wasn't helping, and Kate knew that. Because Dean didn't care how long anyone else would have held out. He didn't care if someone would held out just a day or a century, all that mattered to him was the fact that he did it. He gave up and tortured people the same way he had been tortured. He tortured those souls the same way those monsters had tortured him.

"How I feel…" Dean started to speak after a short moment of silence as Kate heard him cry. "This… Inside me… I wish I couldn't feel anything, Sammy. I wish I couldn't feel a damn thing."

;;;;;;;;;;;;;

When the Winchesters re-took the road in silence, Kate stayed quiet on the backseat as she tried to control herself not to cry. She was relieved that she had put the scarf on her face, this way the brothers wouldn't see the tears that had streamed down her face. It wasn't hard for her to imagine how brokenhearted Sam surely was after his brother's confession. Ruby had told her how hard Sam had taken it when his big brother had gone to Hell and he hadn't been able to prevent it. The fact that he was now completely aware of what his big brother had to go through, had without doubt destroyed him on the inside. She closed her eyes, wondering what they had done to deserve all of this pain, and for the hundredth time she started doubting her faith before falling asleep.

When Kate opened her eyes, she found herself standing in the middle of a room. She frowned as she looked around. She was in a very lit up, fancy room with many paintings on the wall and a few fancy chairs that looked like they cost a lot of money. The place actually looked like one of those magnificent royal rooms she had seen while visiting the palace of Versailles on her first year in France. She walked to one of the painting when suddenly, a voice spoke up.

"Hello, Kate," the brown-haired spun around to face a rather old-man wearing a grey suit and grinning at her. She frowned at him. "How are you? We've got a lot of work to do, but first of all let me introduce myself," he told her as he stepped towards her, one of his hand out for her to shake.

"My name is Zachariah. And you and I are going to be very good friends."

Author's note :

In thank of your incredible support and amazing reviews that keep me motivating and smiling all day, a long chapter that I hope will satisfy you

Love,

A.