"Alright, thanks," Sam says into the phone as he walks for the kitchen table where Lizzy, Lou, and Dean are sat. Sammy is passed out in his father's lap, which has become his common nap spot when Dean's around. Sam stands next to Lou and looks at her. "She's fine. Checking out of the hospital tonight."

"The maid?" Lizzy wonders.

"Yeah," Sam nods.

"Well, that's positive," Castiel says as he comes over to Sam with a plated sandwich, handing it over as he once more tries to feed the group. Sam takes it and looks around, seeing that everyone else also has a sandwich in front of them. Only Dean's has one single bite taken. Everyone's appetite has been affected today.

"Alright, so… Dick made more Dicks," Sam comments, putting his plate on the table and sitting down also. "He must've kept a chunk of the original Dick Roman somewhere. Uh, they'd all have to touch it."

"And boom, they can shift into Dick," Lou laments. "I don't know how we get past this. We can't just barge in there and start stabbing all the Dicks."

Out of the corner of his eye, Dean watches Castiel move oddly, his eyes avoiding the group as he heads back to the sink. He starts drying dishes. "Hey, shifty, what's your problem?"

Swallowing hard, Castiel turns around. "Do we need a cat? Doesn't this place feel one species short?"

"We're not getting a cat," Lizzy tells him simply. "Dean's allergic."

"Oh, well I can fix that…"

"You got anything to say on the topic of Dicks?" Dean asks, getting a nagging feeling Castiel is hiding something. "Crowley seemed pretty sure that you could help."

His eyes dart around the room again. "I can't help. You understand? I can't."

"You could try," Dean tells him.

Castiel gets upset. "I destroyed... everything, and I will destroy everything again. When I fight I mess everything up. Can we please just leave it at that?"

"No," Dean denies quickly, standing up and holding Sammy with one forearm as he walks to the angel. "No, we can't."

"Dean..." Sam tries to warn, the angel too broken for an outburst.

"We can't leave it," Dean harshly whispers, not wanting to wake Sammy yet too mad not to speak up. "You let these friggin' things in. So you don't get to make a sandwich. You don't get a damned cat. Nobody cares that you're broken, Cass. Clean up your mess!"

"Ok," Lizzy gets up immediately and walks to Dean. With a hand on his shoulder, she suggests, "Can you go put Sammy down, please?"

"L, this is ridiculous…."

"Trust me?" she asks of him and he shuts his mouth. He stares at her, thinking. He then glances at Castiel with a hard face and heads for the stairs, listening to her. She's become like the Cass Whisperer over the past months so he knows it's best to go with her.

Lizzy sighs and then looks at Cass. He smiles at her and says, "You know... we should play Twister."

"What?" Lizzy asks with confusion.

Castiel disappears without an answer.

"Nice. You scared off the whack job," Lou smirks, shaking her head with how disastrous Castiel has been.

"Don't call him that," Lizzy quietly says, hating that Castiel's still broken and getting the shit end of every stick. "You know, if people around here could manage to be nice and keep their mouth shut I might have gotten out of him what Crowley meant."

"Meaning?"

"Meaning that I've been there for him since he woke up. I know how to get through to him and if you and Dean would let me we might have some answers by now."

"Dude, no one is getting through to that guy," Lou tells her. "I say we get it out of him the old fashioned way, huh?" Lou pulls out her knife from her boot and twirls it once, knowing she's just getting on Lizzy's nerves now.

"I'll kick your ass first," Lizzy fairly warns, seriously meaning it.

"You've been outta the game too long, sis," Lou taunts her. "I'd wipe the floor with you."

"Big words from such a short little shit, Louise."

"Don't call me that, Elizabeth."

With the flapping of wings, Castiel returns in time to interrupt the argument. He appears with a Twister mat set out on the ground and he's spinning for his first turn.

"Oh, Jesus," Lizzy shuts her eyes as she takes a moment to prepare to deal with him.

Lou just laughs and replaces her knife in her boot. Sam is smarter and keeps his laugh silent.

"Cassie, can we play something easier?" Lizzy requests. "I'm a little too tired for twisting up into a pretzel right now."

Castiel sits down on the mat and pauses everything instantly. "You're tired."

"Very."

"Then get some rest, Elizabeth," he suggests. "I can help you sleep."

He stands up and heads towards her, two fingers aimed at her forehead.

"No, no," she quickly tells him and grabs his wrist to stop him. "We don't really have time to rest, Cass. We need to get to work."

Castiel steps back, looking at his shoes. "I'll be here. I can watch Samuel for you while you're gone…."

"Thanks for offering," Lizzy smiles, knowing she could actually trust Castiel with her son these days and how good it feels to think that way. "But I have a question for you."

Castiel holds his hand up, a deck of cards in his hand suddenly. "Uno?"

The frustrations starts to settle in again but she gets an idea. "How about we play like we did in the institute?"

Castiel considers this for some time, unsure.

"Lou and Sam will play too, right?" Lizzy offers, looking to the seated pair at the table with a face that says they better agree to this.

"Ye-yeah," Sam half stutters. "Uh, we'll play."

Lou's eye roll is audible. She's picking up on Sam's ticks these days.

"Okay, let's play," Lizzy grins warmly and sits at the table, pushing a chair out for Castiel next to her. He narrows his eyes but sits anyways. He shuffles the Uno deck and starts to pass out cards to each person. No one speaks, waiting for Lizzy's cue as this is her setup.

Lizzy waits a moment. She holds her cards, organizes them, and even plays a few rounds all while observing Castiel and trying to figure out his head space. "So, Cass…."

"Reverse," he cuts her off and drops a Reverse card. "You need to go again."

"Fine, but you have to answer my question before I go again," she tells him with a cocked eyebrow. "You know how this works."

Sam and Lou watch on with fascination. They knew Lizzy was good at reading people and handling them, but this is interesting.

"Yes. I do," Castiel looks at his cards again. "What is your question?"

"Why are you so fascinated with bees?"

Sam's face drops. He looks at Lou and she's equally confused. This is not what they need to be talking about right now.

Castiel smile genuinely, unprepared for such a lovely question. "Bees are a wonder of this Earth."

"They are important."

"Very much so," Castiel says and watches her drop a card onto the discard pile. "This whole world, every crop and therefore every living being, would perish without the work of the honey bee. It's amazing how one little, seemingly insignificant creature can be the key to it all, isn't it?"

"It's something," Lizzy nods, watch everyone take their turn. She's up again and plays anyways, this one a free-be without question. "You know, I've always thought of hunters as kind of like honey bees."

"Really," Castiel wonders, captured by her idea.

"Oh yeah," she nods happily. "I mean, think about it. We're relentless, we work tirelessly… and, most of the time, the fate of the world relies on us. We save it all the time and hardly anyone even notices. Hell, when people see us coming in our ripped clothing and lack of manners they tend to think of us as a nuisance just like they do a bee in the house."

"Yet without either of you they are doomed to perish." Castiel smiles.

"Exactly," Lizzy smiles back.

"Very interesting take." Castiel's thoughtful face stares at her, forgetting the game for a second despite it being his turn.

And still Lou and Sam watch on quietly, wide eyes witnessing a hell of a display by Lizzy. Her short amount of time working with Castiel one-on-one once he woke up is clearly coming in handy.

"And you know that the honey bees are dying off oddly, right?" Lizzy keeps trying, placing a card into the discard pile.

"Ah, yes. Colony Collapse Syndrome. Science cannot explain it and I have tried to study it but I've been unsuccessful in figuring it out myself. It just… it makes no sense. And it's sad."

"And like you said, this world relies on them, right?"

Castiel narrows his eyes and places his hand face down on the table. "You're going somewhere with this."

"Am I?" she asks innocently.

"I know you, Elizabeth," Castiel rolls his eyes. "You're smart. Very smart. I know this is some thinly veiled way for you to get me to help you kill Dick and you know that I…."

"Don't fight anymore, I know that," Lizzy cuts him off, dropping her cards also. "But, Cass… don't you see how the world will end if we don't help it? We're like the honey bees you love and respect so much. We can't just let the world die. We have to do something."

"And you're a hunter. I am not. I told you, I would stay behind with Samuel while you hunters go after Dick Roman."

"Cass… I don't know if you noticed but… you're a hunter too," Lizzy tells him with certainty.

"I am no hunter…."

"Excuse me, but you are," Lizzy tells him, turning to face him straight on. She grabs his hand and looks right at his eyes, daring him to look away as he tends to when uncomfortable. "What would have happened if you didn't help us with Lucifer and Michael? Or When Dean went to Hell? Huh? Raphael would have taken over the planet and restarted the Apocalypse, taking my whole family from me and killing millions if it wasn't for you."

Sighing with shame for the messy way each of those instances ended, Castiel looks away. Lizzy's having none of it and she grabs the sides of his face and pulls him back to her. He stares back at her with surprise.

"You're one of the best hunters out there," she tells him. "You're more powerful than any of us and you come out smelling like shit at the end of every hunt but you never give up… not even now."

His eyes soften as the guilt shows up all over his expression.

"We need you," Lizzy tells him, hands moving to his shoulders. "You've been there my whole life. Don't ditch out on me now."

He still doesn't answer her. He instead looks away just like she didn't want him to.

"Come on, honey bee," she pokes at him as she sits back in her seat, keeping a more comfortable distance with him. "We need your help. What did Crowley mean when he said you and I were useful in killing Dick?"

Placing his hands palms flat on the table, he experiences guilt like so many times before. And the guilt is aimed at Lizzy like so many times before. And… once more he gives in to her. She needs him. He can't say no to his Elizabeth.

"Dick was… inside me. For some time," Castiel very innocently explains.

Lou stifles a burst of laughter and she does it poorly. Castiel and Lizzy look at her and see her with a hand smashed to her mouth, Sam next to her with his eyes aimed at the table and praying his hair covers his smiling expression as he suppresses laughter. It doesn't.

"I fail to see the humor in that," Castiel takes offence. "It wasn't pleasant at all."

"Funny, I've always enjoyed some dick in me…."

"Lou!" Lizzy shouts at her, fearful that Castiel will clam up with the joke. She turns to him. "Don't listen to her dumb ass."

"Why would she enjoy that?" Castiel asks angrily, not getting the double meaning.

"Dick is also… you know, dick. Like male genitalia," Lizzy explains with an even tone. "Seems to be the lame running joke of this year."

"Ah," Castiel nods slowly when he understands. "When I mention Dick having been in me Lou used it to joke about penis and having sex with a male partner."

"Exactly," Lizzy glances at her sister. "She's like a friggin' child."

Lou proceeds to stick her tongue out just like a child.

"Ok, so, we all know Roman was stuck inside you with all the other souls from Purgatory," Lizzy attempts to get Castiel back on track. She also points threateningly at Lou in warning without breaking eye contact with Castiel, knowing the whole souls and Cass thing is still a sore point for her. "What does that have to do with anything?"

"We spent time together," he explains. "I know them. I know them all very well. And… I can see past their exterior appearance to the monster they are behind their masks."

"So, you're able to spot the real Dick Roman just by looking at him?" Lizzy surmises.

Castiel looks away from her with fear. "Yes."

She smiles. "You're our key to all this, you know that… don't you?"

"I've been mildly aware," Castiel says to the window as he looks out it. He sighs. "I just… I don't want to fight. I don't want to make it all worse."

"It's already worse, Cass," Sam jumps in, his voice calm and friendly as he tries to help. "You couldn't possibly make it worse than it already is if Dick Roman keeps his plan in motion."

"What if I fail again?" Castiel asks him.

"Then… the world is doomed. But it's one-hundred percent doomed if you sit on your ass here anyways. It's worth a shot, isn't it?"

They all hear Sammy start to cry from the upstairs bedroom, his voice making the whiny, and interrupted-sleep kind of cries they all know well.

But what Castiel hears is the reason for everything. That little boy is the hope for the future he holds for humanity. If Samuel can be alive, happy, healthy, and cared for, even as the world has already started to end, then saving his future is the least this one broken angel can do.

Without speaking, Castiel presses two fingers to Lizzy's head. She closes her eyes and doubles over a little, her head cloudy and odd for a moment.

"Ugh," she shakes her head, confused and very disoriented for just a second. She recovers quickly and looks at Castiel. "What the hell was that?"

"You surely have noticed that our connection to one another has been stronger than ever since I woke up at the institution," Castiel says to her with obviousness.

"Uh… I guess," Lizzy nod, going with it. She hadn't really noticed but she'll take his word for it.

"Well, the channel between us is wide open. I took advantage of that and I was able to pass along my knowledge of the Leviathan."

She just looks at him with wide eyes.

"You can see the difference between them just like I can now," he tells her. "You'll be able to see which Dick is the real Dick for yourself. You no longer need me."

Lizzy's face drops with a mix of fear, excitement, determination, and dark, angry bloodlust. "Really?"

Castiel looks away. "Really. I can't go. You go. You're far braver than I am."

Wide eyes land on Sam as Lizzy starts to settle in with the idea that the key to everything might be her. He stares back, shocked hazel eyes on Lizzy as they both come to terms with the change in plan. "Dean's not gonna go for this."

"Fire up your laptop," Lizzy ignores the comment.

"Lizzy… Dean's not gonna go for this," Sam tells her again, thinking she didn't hear him.

She shares a dark look with him. Lizzy knows everything Bobby just told them. Don't go after Dick for revenge, for the scratch of the never ending itch, but she can't help it. She wants Dick's black blood on her hands. He killed her father figure. He killed Sammy's grandfather.

She promised she'd kill him. She's not reneging.

"Laptop," Lizzy restates. "I need to test this out."

"That's him," Lizzy points to the Dick Roman on security camera seven. "I know it's him."

Sam looks at her as he sits next to her, both sharing the laptop screen as he once more pulled up the footage from before. "How?"

"Just do," she answers, her certainty clear. She looks at him with a small, hopeful grin. "He just looks… I don't know. I can't explain it."

"So…" Sam pauses and looks over at Castiel as he looks through the paper bag of produce and unprocessed food he blinked out and retrieved for the group just a moment ago, looking to avoid conflict and conversation about the view he just bestowed upon Lizzy. "He really gave you his perspective?"

"Really," Lizzy nods, grinning. "I can see it all."

Sam nods, brain clearly flying as Lou sits down next to him, joining them both as she hands a glass of whiskey straight to each of them.

"You sure you wanna do this?" Sam checks again, peering over at the stairs unknowingly as Dean and Sammy are just a flight up away. Lizzy sent him to cool off with Sammy and he's luckily not around for this.

"Yes," she answers all too quickly.

"Ok, I know you're pissed still about Bobby… we all are," Sam reminds her.

"What about Sammy?" Lou blurts out, really worried. She's seeing the old, angry Lizzy coming out and overpowering new, motherly Lizzy and her new set of instincts.

Lizzy nods and looks down at her lap. "I know I'm crazy for wanting to go after Dick when I'm a mom."

"We just want Sammy to have a better shot at a better life than Dean and I had," Sam mentions.

Lizzy nods her head, wanting the same. "But I'm our best shot at ending the Leviathan threat."

"We agree," Lou nods.

"So I have to go, there's no way around it," Lizzy says and swallows hard. "And Dean has to stay here with Sammy."

Sam and Lou go completely silent with that idea.

"World War III right?" Lizzy laments, knowing what she's about to start with that plan.

"And four and five!" Lou whispers harshly.

"Are you prepared for this conversation with him?" Sam has to wonder, making sure the gravity of leaving Dean behind and Lizzy risking her life instead isn't lost on her.

"Only if you guys are there," she pleads with them. "Help me convince him that this is the right move."

"Is it!?" Sam asks her, sure it can't be.

She sighs. "I'm the only person that can see the real Dick. I'm the only one that can do this. It's not just us at stake here. So… we risk my life, just mine. I'll be the one going after Dick. I have to or else the world goes down in black goo all because my husband doesn't want me to try and prevent that. I think it's an obvious choice here."

Sam smirks a little, liking how pigheaded Lizzy is. Dean needs a pigheaded, strong woman in his life. She's still just so good for him. "But what about Sammy?"

She looks down at the floor, horrified internally. "He has his dad and he'll have you two. I'd say that's about as good as it can get for a hunting family."

"But Sammy's your boy," Lou reminds.

"And my boy won't grow up with Leviathan using him for food if I have anything to say about it," she rebuts, knowing her duty. "I have to do this. I want him to have a chance at a future. You both know I'm right here."

They're silent.

And Lizzy sits in that silence with her terrified thoughts. She doesn't want to die. She doesn't. Ever since Sammy was born the thought of dying and leaving him has been the worst thing that could happen. But as of right now, if she doesn't end the Leviathan threat, her son is a good as dead and that's the absolute worst thing that could happen.

She knows she has to do this.

"Look, tomorrow is Christmas," Lizzy reminds them, every one of them having completely forgotten the holiday. "Everything will be shut down for the day, even Sucro Corp, so we can't go after Dick until the 26th. I say we shut the hell up about this new plan for the day and enjoy it. We… eat a lot of food and stay here together. As a family. I'll go get everything for dinner tonight before everything closes."

"I'll go with you," Lou nods, knowing how important Christmas is to Lizzy. "And we need to get Sammy more gifts. We had to ditch all of his presents when we ditched our house."

"Right," Lizzy smiles only slightly, the heavy burden felt deep in her gut. "It's his first one. He should have a decent one if we can give it to him."

"Ok, that's fair," Sam nods and agrees. "But… what about Dean?"

"We hold off on telling him any of this." She can tell by the way they stare at her that they hate that idea. "Please?" Her voice gets choked with dread and worry. "We just fixed… us. We're finally good again and I don't know what… I don't know what the day after tomorrow is gonna look like. Just give me one day with my family. One good, happy day. I'll tell him the next morning when we get ready to leave for Sucro Corp."

Lou and Sam look to each other, silently communicating whether or not to go along with this. They can tell easily that the other feels exactly the same. Lizzy deserves this day but Dean deserves the truth. Shit.

"I'm with you," Lou nods finally, choosing to be the first to speak. "You know I'm always on your side."

Lizzy smiles, the expression filled with impending doom despite the need for one more good, happy day, and she then looks to Sam. She can tell by how deep his forehead is wrinkled that he's not happy with her idea.

"I don't like it," Sam admits. "Lying and hiding shit from each other is part of what broke you two apart in the first place…."

"This isn't the same," Lizzy stops him. "I'm not lying to him. I'll tell him after Christmas is over." She swallows hard, reaching across the table to grab onto Sam's hand. "I love him. So much. And I love my son. After everything… don't we deserve one day? One. One day to be with family and smile and… feel normal?"

He already knows he's given in, Lizzy being a true weak spot for both he and his brother since they met her. She's so sincere and honest, always wanting the simplest things in life and never anything more than that.

"On the record, I still don't like it," Sam tells her sternly.

"Thank you," She smiles before taking her hand back, wiping her eyes. "I know it sucks but I really appreciate this."

"Well, you are about to risk your life for the world. It's the least we can do," Lou shrugs.

"I'm terrified," Lizzy admits to her, knowing she can say anything to her sister and not be judged or pitied.

Lou nods. "I would be too. But don't worry about it." She stands up and moves to Lizzy's chair, Lizzy also getting up. Lou pulls her in tightly to a hug. "You'll have Sam and me as backup. We'll make a plan and a backup plan and a backup plan for the backup plan. We'll get this done."

"Thank you," Lizzy closes her eyes and clings to her sister. She's never been this scared but she's never been this ready to take a monster down. Dick and his minions are threatening the world her boy will live in. And Dick killed one of the only people she had left in her life that meant anything to her. For her son, for the world, and for Bobby she's going to get this job done, no matter the consequences.