SSS

Sam looked around him. The last thing he remembered was trying to talk Roy and Walt out of killing him. Now, he was in that same hotel room, but the homicidal brothers and Dean were nowhere to be seen. He got up and went outside. He recognized this place. It was Cold Oak. He was hoping never to see this place again.

"Sam."

"Andy. Where are we?"

"You don't remember. You've been here before," Andy answered.

"Yeah, Cold Oak. But how did we get here?" Sam asked. He knew Andy was dead. He must be dead, too.

"We're in Purgatory. You've been here before, a few times. But, you never seem to remember."

"What do you mean?" Sam asked.

"Just after I got here, Ava showed up, and then you popped up about fifteen minutes later. You said Jake had stabbed you. Man, were you pissed. You were here for a couple of days and then all of a sudden you disappeared. The next day, Jake showed up and said you shot him. That was your first time here. The next time was about a year and a half later. You were only here five minutes or so. Just long enough to say you got hit by lightning."

Sam nodded. "That hurt."

"Yeah, that's what you said. Then a couple of months ago, you said an angel killed you, but again, you were only here a few minutes. What happened this time?"

"Got shot. Dean, too. Has Dean ever been here?"

"No. If he's in Purgatory, he wouldn't be in this section," Andy said.

"Section?" Sam asked.

"Yeah. Purgatory is divided into sections. Monsters go here. There's one section for vampires, one for werewolves, one for wendigos, and so on and so on. This is the one for humans infected with demon blood. You can't go from section to section."

"Then how do you know all this?" Sam asked. He had forgotten how much he liked Andy.

"There's this one dude, who comes by about once a month. He makes the rounds. He's like in charge of the whole place. He'll answer questions when he feels like it," Andy explained.

"What is he?" Sam asked.

"No idea."

SSS

Dean looked around. He was in a bedroom that seemed vaguely familiar, but he couldn't quite place it. He stood up and poked his head out the door. Just a normal hallway. He walked out and heard voices. He saw a staircase and realized the voices were coming from downstairs. He headed towards them.

"Dad? Mom?" Dean asked, when he spotted the two people talking in the kitchen.

"Dean!" they both exulted.

"Where are we?" Dean asked, looking around.

"This is our old house, but we're in Heaven," John said.

"Heaven?" Dean asked. He had always assumed that his deal was still in play and he would go the other way.

"You sound surprised? Did you not know that you had died?" Mary asked.

"No, I knew that," Dean said, remembering Sam getting shot and then getting shot himself. "Just kind of figured I would go the other direction."

"Dean, why would you think that?" John asked.

"I sold my soul to bring Sam back. I died and went to Hell and then angels dragged me out. I assumed that when I died again, I would go to Hell."

John wasn't surprised by Dean's admission of selling his soul. He had always put too much pressure on Dean to look out for Sam and not enough to look out for himself. "I can explain that, then. When you sell your soul, you go to Hell. If you get out, deal's off. That's how I got up here."

"Makes sense, I guess," Dean said and was looking around again.

"Looking for anything specific?" Mary asked, thinking maybe he was hungry. She would love to make her son lunch. She hadn't done that since he was four.

"Yeah, Sam."

"We haven't seen him. When did he die?" John asked.

"Right before I did," Dean answered.

"Well, let's go check upstairs," John suggested.

Before they could act on that suggestion, the TV sprang on. "Cas?" Dean asked, when his angel friend's face appeared on the screen.

"Who's that?" John asked.

"Cas. He's an angel," Dean supplied.

"Please," Cas said. "I don't have much time. This connection is hard to keep up. Zachariah is going to try to send you back. He can't make you leave Heaven unless you agree. He also can't hurt you up there, because Heaven is paradise. And, most importantly, he can't lie."

"So, should I come back?" Dean asked.

"If you don't come back, you can't be Michael's vessel. You wanted to avoid that, right?"

"What about Sam? Where is he?"

"Not in Heaven," Castiel answered as the connection was cut.

Dean was distraught. If Sam wasn't in Heaven, there was only one other place he could be, and Dean knew from first-hand experience, that that was the last thing he wanted for his brother.

SSS

"So, this guy, when will he be coming around next?" Sam asked Andy.

"Actually, any time now," Andy realized. "You've never been here when he's been here before."

"Wouldn't matter if he had been, I wouldn't remember," Sam reminded Andy.

"But he would," Andy pointed out.

"So, where is everybody else? Ava, Jake, Lily, the rest of us 'psychic kids?'" Sam had never really liked that term, but didn't feel like calling them demon-blood infectees either.

"They're around. Another one just got here yesterday, so they're showing her around."

"Another one?" Sam asked. He thought he had been the last one.

"Yeah. There are about 30 of us born around the same time, most of us killed in the whole 'There can be only one' thing, but there were a few who died before that happened."

Sam nodded. That made sense. A person with demon blood could get in a car accident or whatever, as easily as anybody else. "But how are there new ones?"

"They're younger. By about 11 years."

The ground started shaking.

"What's happening?' Sam asked.

"He's coming," Andy yelled over the noise.

SSS

"This is the best sandwich ever," Dean exulted over the lunch his mother had made.

"Everything up here is great. Everything is exactly the way you want it," John said.

"I love it here," Dean said.

The doorbell rang.

"I wonder who that is," Mary said as she got up to answer the door.

"You guys have friends up here?" Dean asked.

"Oh, yeah. Everybody gets along up here. It's great," John said.

"It's an angel to see Dean," Mary said.

"Zachariah," Dean said with as much contempt as he could muster.

"You need to go back so that you can fulfill your destiny," Zachariah said.

"His destiny?" Mary asked.

"He's Michael's vessel. He needs to kill Lucifer," Zachariah said.

"Nice try. Cas told me you can't make me leave."

Zachariah rolled his eyes. Castiel was really beginning to be the bane of his existence.

"He's right, but I'm prepared to make you an offer," Zachariah said.

"What kind of offer?" Dean asked.

Zachariah was trying to think of how to word this. He couldn't lie and he couldn't be obvious that he was trying to omit things. "You don't want Sam in Hell, do you?" Zach asked. He knew the answer to that, and there was no lie involved.

"Are you telling me that if I agree to go back to earth, you'll pull Sam out of Hell?"

"I guarantee you that Sam will always be out of Hell," Zacariah said. He can't promise to pull him out of Hell when he wasn't there to begin with. But, he would always be Purgatory bound, so that was a fair promise.

He knew that he should say no. That this was bigger than them. But he had spent 40 years in Hell. If he could spare Sammy that, he would have to do it. "OK, send me back."

Zachariah smiled. "Come with me."

Dean followed Zachariah and they ended up at the edge of a precipice. Zach pushed him over the edge. Dean fell and fell until he landed back in his body.