As always, thank you for the reviews and for reading! In chapter 19, Sam goes on his first demon-pulling and Dean suggests something that Sam never expected...Enjoy!

Sam motioned for Dean to hold on one second as he turned back to the family.

"Just in case something goes wrong, I want you to know that you can protect yourselves. Salt and iron is toxic to demons, find either of those and you have a weapon that will harm the thing possessing your son."

Dean made an impatient huffing noise from behind Sam. The younger Winchester spared one last glance at the family. "But if I were you, I'd hide somewhere. Or better yet, get out of the house."

Sam turned away and followed Dean slowly up the stairs. They stood outside the bedroom door and Dean shot his brother a look.

Are you ready?

Sam just realized the seriousness of what he was about to do. He had to rip this demon out of the body and send it to Hell. This demon would be fighting against him with all it had. Sure, Sam had practiced on Crowley's minions and on Dean, but that was much different.

Sam couldn't fail. He needed to prove he could extract an angry demon if he wanted to save the pregnant woman and her baby in time.

Dean had his back, Sam could do this.

They entered the room quietly, but obviously not quietly enough as the demon's head shot up and it began to rise from the bed.

"Well, well, well. What's this? Sam and….and Dean Winchester? Last I heard you were still rotting in Hell, Dean. How did someone like you….Hell's most wanted, get out of the pit so quickly?" The demon stood and stared them down, not willing to flee just yet.

Dean grinned a feral smile. "I'm just that awesome, you piece of shit."

"I've been told you had quite the mouth on you. So….do tell me how you managed to sneak past the gates of Hell while I rotted there for four hundred years!"

"Let's just say I wasn't only wanted in Hell."

"You were wanted back up here? There's no way Alistair would let you get out human."

Dean laughed, loud and dark. "Oh you moron, I'm not human…" Dean let his eyes flash to black and he smirked when the demon jumped in surprise. "Haven't been in decades…."

"No way…I'd be able to see your true form…," the demon attempted to hide the shock it was feeling, but it was obvious that the creature was extremely uncomfortable knowing that Dean was actually a demon. "So Hell did get to you, huh Winchester? I gotta say, even I thought you'd last longer than that….pathetic…"

Sam could tell the demon was about to flee. He could see its smoke cloud beginning to drift upwards in the boy's body in an attempt to escape. Sam focused and latched on to the violent smoke, it was fairly easy since the demon was already in a panic. Once the demon realized that something was keeping it from escaping, it began to push and fight against Sam's powers.

"Keep a hold on it Sammy, just focus on concentrating." Dean moved from where he had been standing in front of Sam to give his brother easier access to the demon.

"What the hell is this? You're both demons? That's impossible; I would be able to tell."

"Sammy's far from a demon, shithead." Dean ventured closer to the demon while staying out of Sam's way. "And with me getting out of Hell so early, I actually have people alive that I used to know. I was able to find some great protection charms, seems like they're working out well."

"Should have known," the demon spat. "That look in your eyes when you came in here…that wasn't human, far from it." The demon turned to Sam. "And you're all for this? You know that he's one of us; he's no different from any other demon. We all hate you Sam, we all want you dead and so does your brother…"

"You don't know anything!" Sam felt his hold temporarily loosen and he struggled to get the demon at bay. "If Dean wanted me dead, would he really be teaching me how to send his own kind back to Hell, knowing I could do it to him too? Don't you think he would have ended me already?"

The demon laughed, long and hard. "Oh Sam, Sam, Sam….he's playing you, you fool. It's what we all do and he's gonna trick you for his own selfish needs. Want to know how I know that?" The demon grinned evilly. "Because he didn't teach you these powers very well."

In a swift motion the demon broke down Sam's hold and charged right at an unsuspecting Dean. Sam hadn't realized that he'd let the demon's words affect him and get his guard down before it was too late. Dean went down with a thud and the demon raised its fist to punch Dean on the right side of his face. A snapping noise was heard and whatever bone had broken didn't stop Dean from kneeing the demon in the crotch and head-butting it before pushing the possessed boy off of him.

Dean was on his feet with the colt raised before the other demon could struggle to get to its knees.

"You won't use that. You freaks have never liked killing people."

"Did you just forget the pointless rant you told Sam about me? About me being a demon?" Dean didn't lower the colt an inch. "You couldn't be more wrong about me. I would never even attempt to hurt my brother physically or emotionally but I would not hesitate a second in putting a bullet through that boy to end you."

"Then what's stopping you?"

"This is Sammy's job, not mine."

Before Sam could attempt to grab the demon's cloud again, it took off running at incredible speed. Knocking Sam down with an inhumanly strong outstretched arm, it ran towards the bedroom door with Dean right on its heels.

Sam looked up just in time to see a bagful of salt thrown all over the doorway.

The demon screamed and stumbled backwards, clutching its face in pain. The onslaught of salt had poured over Dean as well who had been right behind the possessed boy. Dean was much less noisy as he hissed and buckled in pain, collapsing on the ground.

Sam didn't bother to check who had just managed to save them as he stood up. The demon was clutching at its eyes frantically and Sam reached out, grabbing its soul cloud easily and pulling with all the mental strength he had.

"You've got it Sammy," Dean coughed. "Keep going, you're doing great."

That unexpected compliment from Dean encouraged Sam as he felt a wave of happiness. He was actually going to accomplish this, he could just feel it in his veins….in his mind…

And he was going to do it because it made Dean proud. He wasn't going to let his brother become disappointed.

With a final pull Sam was able to dispel the demon from the host's body. It trashed about angrily in Sam's grasp and Sam could feel something else…there was this urge inside him to pull the demon even further, to send it back to Hell. The power was there within him, he just didn't know how to utilize it yet.

Dean suddenly scrambled to his feet, clutching onto the demon-killing knife. Sam smiled, of course Dean would have found a way to stealthily steal it from Sam's possession. With a final lunge, Dean brought the knife through the demon's smoke cloud, poisoning it.

It sputtered a few times before it seemed to explode in a flash of light. It was amazing the things that knife could do, fatal to a demon in either its cloud form or when riding a host.

Dean fell back to his knees, dropping the knife as the boys also collapsed gracelessly to the floor. Sam crouched by his brother as Billy began to moan and his hands went to clutch at his head in pain. Sam didn't have time to do anything else as Billy's father entered the room, the bag of rock salt still in his hands.

"Sir, thank you so…" Sam didn't get the chance to finish as the father sprayed the bag of salt on the both of them. Sam sputtered and shook his head to clear his hair of the grains while Dean buckled in pain again, his eyes still black from the confrontation with the demon.

The father was staring at the steam rising from Dean's body, his face held pure anger. "There's another one in your brother, take this one out too!"

"Sir, you don't understand….this is my brother. The demon inside is my brother."

"You're saying your brother is actually one of those things?"

"Yes," Sam sighed.

"One of those things that just took over my son and killed people?!"

"Dean isn't like that!" Sam knew it would be hard to explain to the poor man that Dean wasn't the average cruel demon.

"Look dude, I just saved your son's life. You should be kissing my ass right now," Dean growled, saving Sam from any further conversation.

"This is disgusting! I can't let you walk out of here…" The man suddenly paused, his body froze and his mouth could no longer form words.

Dean stood up, shaking the toxic salt off of him. He had one arm outstretched, keeping the man frozen in place.

"You know what I'm about to do?" Dean asked, the man's eyes going wide as he stared into Dean's deep black ones. "I'm going to walk out of this room and let you go. I could kill you in a heartbeat, but I'm not going to because I'm not like that. Now get over there and take care of your son."

Dean walked over to the door, the father still frozen for the time being and Sam walked up to the man.

"Dean went to Hell to save my life. He turned into a demon to keep me safe and gave me a second chance at life. There are bad things out there but just remember that there's people fighting for you and all of humanity as well….even if some of those things might not be human themselves."

Sam went to join Dean in the doorway as Billy began to stir. Dean released his mental hold on the father and the man turned to face Dean. He glared at the demon for a moment, and then glanced over at his son. Looking back and forth between the two, he finally decided to go over to Billy.

"What happened? My head hurts…," the boy mumbled, luckily not seeming to have any recollection of his time possessed.

The father took a quick glance back at the brothers until he turned his full attention back on his son. "It's alright, you're safe now…"

"A fuckin' thank you would've been nice," Dean seethed and then stormed down the hallway. They passed the mother and daughter who both jumped and squealed at the sight of Dean's black eyes.

"Oh, shut up. I'm not the demon that possessed your son. He's awake so get the hell up there already, we just saved his ass."

"You said bad words!" The little girl giggled as the mother scooped her into her arms and took off down the hallway.

Dean glared at them before stomping out the doorway towards the Impala. "It's so nice not to get appreciated at all after you just saved her son's life. No fuckin' respect these people have, I swear."

"Dean, half the people we've saved didn't even know we saved them. They're clueless to what's really out there," Sam reminded his brother and then smiled a bit. "And hey, I thought you didn't care about anything besides me, why do you want a thank you so much, big bad demon?" Sam teased.

"Yeah, well I never realized just how completely ungrateful humanity is until I wasn't part of it." Dean got into the Impala's passenger side. "You drive."

Sam slid into the driver's side. "Hey, I'm grateful for what you did for me, what you're still doing for me. I'm really grateful, Dean."

Dean rolled his eyes. "Yeah, you getter damned well be, everything in my life has always been 'all about Sammy'". Dean said the words in an exasperated tone, but the small smile on his face told a different story.

"I just keep getting into all sorts of trouble, don't I?" Sam smirked.

"You're a freaking magnet for trouble, Sammy."

"I pretty much am. But it's always been about you and me man, those people were just afraid because they realized you were a demon too. They don't know, Dean. The only experience they've had with a demon is the one that just took over their son. I know you don't see it because you're not human anymore but they were just scared, the father was protective…"

"Don't tell me that like I don't know anything about being protective."

Sam laughed. "Hah, you're right with that. And thanks, by the way, for having my back."

There was that new Dean-shrug again. "Whatever, you already know I have your back. But you did a Hell of a job back there, well after your lame first attempt…."

"Dean!"

"What? You let the demon's words get to you. You can't do that, you have to ignore it completely; it's trying to get you mad so you let your guard down. Just tune out everything it's saying." Dean paused briefly for a moment. "Which, by the way, every single thing it said was a lie."

Was Dean seriously worried that Sam had believed the demon's false words about his brother? "Dude, I know that. It just got me angry with it shouting stuff like it knows you just because it's a demon…"

"That's what it's trying to do. It was trying to get you to think it could relate to me more than you could. It's a load of shit. It doesn't know us."

Sam looked over at his brother who was smiling a little. Dean was absolutely right. All the demons and monsters in general always had doubted their relationship and bond, thinking that they could snap it so easily, that it was something either of them could easily toss away.

"Yeah, well screw them all." Sam smiled back and started the Impala, the engine of their one and only home roaring to life.

After a night of relaxing Dean approached Sam with a plan the next day.

"I say you're pretty much ready to yank the demon out of that pregnant lady," Dean told Sam at the diner they were at in-between bites of cheeseburger.

"Don't talk with food in your mouth," Sam groaned as he put down his chicken sandwich. "I failed to pull the demon out on my first try though."

Dean ignored Sam's first comment and continued to chew as he talked, food falling from his mouth. "Yeah, only because you let the demon's words get to you. You won't let that effect you again, right?"

"No, I won't let it happen, I'll ignore the demon just like you said, tune it out."

"Good, then you're all set. I mean, did you see how quickly you pulled it out the second time? That was freaking awesome, it didn't even look like you were having a hard time!"

Sam smiled. "Maybe I'm actually more awesome than you."

Dean swallowed loudly. "Nah, I'm the one that actually killed the thing, remember? But hey, it was nice to have that extra backup waiting on the side, just in case."

"You mean the father? He wanted to kill you remember? He wasn't exactly on our side."

"Exactly, the father wasn't on our side but he was still able to help us. Imagine if we had someone with us that actually wanted to be on our side?"

Sam's eyebrows rose as he came to a conclusion. "You're not seriously thinking of Crowley joining us are you?"

Dean almost choked on his burger. "Hell no!" he coughed. "Do you think Crowley would actually accept that offer? He doesn't want to be in the line of duty by any means and he wouldn't let me tell him what to do like that anyway. I know the boundaries I can't cross with Crowley, and demanding him to help us like that would get my ass yanked back to Hell."

"Then who, Bobby?"

"Bobby doesn't trust me enough yet to be reliable backup. Plus, he's old."

"He's still a great hunter, Dean."

"Yeah, but nowhere as great and powerful as…hmmm…let's say…an angel?"

"You want Castiel to help us on this hunt?" Sam's eyes went wide and his mouth dropped open like a cartoon character. "I thought you hated him?"

"I did, and I still don't really like him. But the guy seemed pretty honest and now that he knows his buddies have been lying to him, he has nothing holding him back. I mean when it comes to fighting and killing, the guy probably has fewer morals than me, he'd probably be kick-ass in a hunt."

Sam was shocked and actually pleased by his brother's acceptance of the angel now. He thought he'd have to fight tooth and nail to get Dean to be friendly with Castiel.

"Well, okay then. That doesn't sound like a bad idea. But how are we going to tell him?"

"He said for you to pray to him. I dunno, just do that."

"How?"

"I don't know! You're the one that was always praying every night, you should know!"

In truth, Sam hadn't prayed since those first few weeks after Dean died, when he realized that no amount of praying would bring Dean back.

"Well what do I say? 'Hey, Castiel, I'm praying for you. Could you come here and meet me and Dean?'"

"That doesn't sound like a prayer! What the hell was that?" Dean scoffed.

"Hello Sam." Both brothers turned around to see the angel suddenly standing next to their table. A waitress to the left of them shrieked and spilled Dean's pie on the ground. "I heard your prayers for me."

Dean was staring at Castiel with wide eyes. "Well, I'll be damned. Your lame-ass prayer actually worked, Sam."

Castiel turned to look at Dean. "Hello Dean. I have to agree that your brother's prayer was rather…insufficient, however it got the point across successfully."

Dean looked shocked that the angel had greeted him. "Well, hi." There was awkward silence for a few moments before Dean continued. "What the hell are you doing just standing there? Sit your ass down."

The angel didn't seem fazed by Dean's harsh language and that probably pleased Sam's brother to no end. Dean had always hated it when anyone gave him issues about his choice of words. Castiel glanced at the spot next to Sam, where Dean's coat was lying and didn't seem to hesitate as he took the empty spot next to Dean.

"What did you wish to inquire me about?"

"We're going after the demon that's trying to create more antichrists," Dean told Castiel.

"Yes, I've been meaning to track that demon down. We must get over there and kill the woman and the unborn child," Castiel agreed.

"What?" Sam shouted.

"See, that's what I was saying too. But Sammy doesn't want that. I figured that Sam could get some practice with this demon and pull it out of its host. The baby and the woman would be saved this way too and the baby wouldn't be born half-demon if the mother wasn't possessed full term."

"That is a possible scenario although this demon seems to be rather difficult."

"That's where you come in, angel boy," Dean grinned at Castiel. "Me and Sammy would feel better with some help since Sam's only pulled one demon out besides me. If you come with us as backup it would make this whole mission go a lot smoother."

Castiel cocked his head to the side as he studied Dean. "You are not lying. Usually demons will twist the truth to serve their own purposes, but you have only be honest to me."

"Yeah, well I see no point in lying, only causes problems. Both me and Sammy have learned from past mistakes that lying doesn't help any, right Sammy?"

"Right," Sam agreed. "We'd really appreciate your help. And the more demons I practice on, the closer I can get to learning how to send them back to Hell."

"I would like to help.," Castiel stated. "Although I am weary of working with a demon, your brother has proved to me that he is different."

"Yeah, I'm pretty damn awesome."

"You say awesome way too much, Dean," Sam groaned while Dean shot his brother a quick black-eyed glare.

The stunned waitress from earlier came back with a new slice of pie for Dean. "I…would your friend like something as well? I'm sorry…I didn't see him come in." The woman avoided Castiel's gaze, it was obvious she was afraid of him after seemingly appeared from nowhere.

"Really, the guy walked in five minutes ago," Dean shrugged as he dug into his pie.

"I…I'm pretty sure he wasn't here then…"

"You must be blind, sweetheart." Dean grinned at the waitress's confused expression. "Don't worry, I won't complain to your manager about your rude behavior if you give this friend of mine a free slice of pie."

"I….okay…I will sir." She blushed as she walked away. How could Dean be rude as hell and still have girls falling all over him?

"I have never tasted pie," Castiel admitted as he looked at Dean.

Dean's mouth fell open. "And you call yourself an angel? Dude, you've never actually been to Heaven until you've tried a slice of homemade pie."

"I don't see how Heaven can be related to pie. I have never come across it in my travels of home."

Dean laughed so hard he spit out some of his pie, Sam laughed just as hard along with his brother.

"Dude, you might not be so bad after all. You're at least a source of amusement."

"You are not as horrible as I assumed as well."

Dean chuckled. "Well good. I might actually like you…Castiel. Although that name has to go. I'm gonna call you Cas, alright? What do you think Sam?"

"I think it fits," Sam smiled.

"Great, so from now on you're Cas, got it, buddy?"

Castiel looked lost. "I was under the assumption I would be known as Cas, not buddy."

The brothers cracked up again. Maybe, with Castiel on their side this could all work out.