This one is less plot focused, but I think still important...

- Sam's POV -

By the time Dean and I raced back to the motel, Cas had already taken Diana there and laid her down on my bed. He stood over her, watching her intently, his brow furrowed.

"Cas!" I shouted. "What the hell? You can't just tell us something like that then disappear!"

Cas silently turned around, touched Dean's forehead, and in another second, Dean stood up straight, the pain fading from his face. He turned around to watch Diana again.

"Cas!" Dean snapped. "What the hell is going on here?"

Cas refused to answer us, but after a moment, touched Diana's forehead gently. At his touch, her entire body tensed and she screamed like he was skinning her alive. At the same moment, Dean and I dove for Cas, pinning him to the ground. Dean moved all of his weight on top of him while I got up to try to help Diana.

"I don't give a damn what the hell you think she is! She is our responsibility and you will not touch her!" Dean shouted down at him.

Sitting on the edge of the bed, I held Diana's face in my hands. Tears were streaming down her cheeks and she thrashed violently, still screaming. I tried calling her name, but I knew she couldn't hear me, so I pulled her to me, pressing her against my chest, and spoke softly into her ear.

"Diana... Diana you need to wake up now... C'mon, Diana, please... You can do this... C'mon, wake up..."

She woke with a jolt, her eyes flying open, staring around the room wildly.

"Where am I? Where's Dean? Where are the kids? What happened? Is everyone okay?"

"Hey, hey, shhh," I held her face again, forcing her to look at me. "Everyone is okay. The wolf is dead, the kids are home, and Dean is safe. You're back at the motel. Everyone is all right."

"Who's Cas?" she choked out, swallowing the rest of her tears. I furrowed my brow momentarily, then pointed to Cas, now sitting in a chair with Dean watching him intently, arms folded, scowl in place.

"That's Castiel, he's an angel."

Diana closed her eyes, letting her head fall against my shoulder for a moment, then sat up again, wiping her cheeks, and looked at Cas. After a moment, she spoke.

"I could hear you. Is that true? Is that what I am?"

Cas nodded. "It's all true."

Diana nodded, biting her lip, then released it again when she met Castiel's gaze squarely. "Am I going to be watched constantly?" Cas nodded. "Why?"

"Because you are a precious creation and must be protected."

"If she's so precious to you, then why did you hurt her?" I demanded, remaining by Diana's side, guarding her as Dean guarded Cas, even though we both knew that he could toss us against the wall like wet paper towels if he wanted to.

Cas turned his gaze on me, looking at me as though he had just realized I was in the room. "I did not hurt her, I removed a block from the wall in her mind."

"Like Sammy's wall?" Dean barked. "Because that wall was not to be touched, Cas! You know that! Are you trying to drive her crazy too?"

Diana glanced up at me, puzzled. I just wrapped my arm around her and gave her arm a gentle squeeze. She accepted it and returned her attention to Castiel, who was now staring off into space, listening to another conversation. He stood abruptly.

"We must leave now."

"Why?" Diana demanded, shrinking into my side a bit. Cas's stare bore down into her, but Diana only sat up straighter and returned the determined gaze.

"Because an arch angel will be coming for you if we don't move." He stepped toward us and offered his hand, palm up, to Diana. She stood, and I immediately jumped up beside her.

"I'm not going with you!" she snapped. "If I'm so precious to you, where were you when my roommates were attacked? Where were you when my parents were in that fire? Where were you when I was on that bridge? Don't pretend like you were going to save me! It was the fact that I had no one to help me that led me to that ledge! I got down by myself! I got through school by myself! And I made the decision to become a hunter by myself! You claim you've been watching me my whole life, yet I have never met you and you left me alone when I was at my darkest! So, no! I refuse to go anywhere with you! And if more angels wanna come play fairy godmother, then I will point them to the door and tell them to shove it up their asses too!"

After a moment of tense silence, Cas spoke. "I can see that you are angry at the moment... I'll go for now, but I will be back." He disappeared.

On the road again, we rode in silence. Dean and I kept glancing in the rearview mirror to watch Diana in the back seat, earphones in, nose buried in a book. I watched the trees fly by in a blur as I wondered what must be going through her head, what Cas told her before we got there, and how much else we don't know about her. Then it struck me that we barely knew anything about her, and she knew little about us.

When we finally stopped for food, Diana muttered that she wasn't hungry, so I told her that she didn't have to eat anything or talk to anyone, but asked her to please come out of the car because Dean was probably going to eat a lot and she would overheat if she remained inside.

"I'm not a child," she snapped when she finally got out. "I don't need to be taken care of." She slammed the door and, before I could explain myself, she turned on her heel walked over to an outdoor table, sat down by herself, and opened her book again.

No one spoke again for the rest of the day. We drove until late evening, then pulled into another motel. Once in the room, I began to unroll a sleeping bag on the floor, as there were only two beds and this motel didn't have a couch like the last one did. As I was untying the straps, I saw Diana's legs approach out of the corner of my eye.

"What are you doing?"

I looked up at her. "I'm unrolling a sleeping bag."

"You're not sleeping on the floor."

I stood, brow furrowed. "Well, I have to sleep somewhere."

She motioned to the two beds behind us. "Pick one."

"You're not sleeping on the floor, either," I told her. She shrugged.

"I wasn't going to." Eyebrows knitted together, I glanced at Dean, confused. He was watching us silently, impassively. Diana's voice brought my attention back to her again. "Look, Sam, sleeping on the floor is terrible for you and you've probably done enough of it in your life time. There are two beds right there that neither I, nor Dean, can take up alone. Pick a bunk buddy, because you're sleeping in a bed."

She turned again and pulled sweat shorts and a tank top out of her back pack, then went to the bathroom to change. I glanced at Dean who gave me a look that said pick-this-bed-and-die, so I dropped my bag at the edge of the bed Diana had claimed.

Dean sighed and when I looked up, he was pulling on his jacket.

"Where are you going?" I asked.

"I don't wanna be here for this," he said as though it were obvious.

"For what?" It dawned on me and I shook my head. "Dean, that's not gonna happen."

"So you say. But let me tell you something, little brother, you have a history of sleeping with freaky chicks, they seem to turn you on." And with that, he left. I sighed, once again feeling misrepresented.

"I hope you know, that wasn't my intention." I turned to see Diana in the bathroom doorway.

"I know."

She nodded, shoved her clothes into her bag, then crawled onto the bed and sat, legs crossed. She chewed her lip and examined her hands while I got ready for bed, lacing and unlacing her fingers. Finally, she spoke.

"Sam, can I talk to you?"

"Yeah, of course," I said, unbuttoning my shirt and discarding it on the floor. I sat down beside her in my jeans and undershirt. "What's up?"

"I wanted to know if I could ask you some questions in return for you asking me some. I wanna be able to get to know you better, and I figure you probably wanna know more about me too."

"Sure, that sound fair."

"Okay." She looked up and met my gaze for the first time, making my breath hitch slightly. "I'll start with something really easy."

I smiled. "Okay."

"What's your full name?"

I felt my smile grow. "Samuel Winchester."

"No middle name?"

I shrugged. "I guess not."

Her lips stretched into a small smile. "Fair enough."

"What's yours?" I asked.

"Diana Rose McKnight."

I raised my eyebrows. "Wow. That's quite the title."

She laughed a little. "Yeah, I know, it's kind of ridiculous. Um, what's your favorite childhood memory?"

I thought back through all the blood, sweat, and tears and found a small slice of happiness in the mess that was my childhood. "Well, when I was around ten or eleven years old, my dad was on the road, hunting something down, and he left Dean and I with Bobby for about a week. And one day, Bobby took us to a park. We were throwing a ball around and wrestling on the grass and playing with a neighborhood dog." I felt myself grin with the memory. "It was really great."

When I came back to reality, Diana was smiling up at me, hugging her legs, resting her chin on her knees.

"What?"

"You have no idea how much of your tension you just released merely thinking about that day," she grinned. "It was nice to see you relax a bit."

I gave her a half smile, then decided to approach a sensitive subject. "Diana, can I ask you probably a hard question?" She nodded. "When you were yelling at Cas... You mentioned a dark time... What happened?"

She drew in a deep breath and exhaled slowly as her eyes clouded over with dark memories and pain. "Well, my parents died in a fire when I was fifteen... And afterwards, I went on a downwards spiral... I didn't have anybody else... I was going to be sent to a foster home, but I ran away... I didn't get very far, though, and they picked me up again... I stayed in that foster home for two years, finished high school... I fell in love with some of the kids there... But they were never adopted... Everyone wanted babies... For years, the fire ate at me... And one day, I decided I was done... I didn't wanna do it anymore... Went to a bridge... Stood on the ledge... I remember thinking how beautiful the city lights looked on the water... And how I didn't get to tell my parents that I loved them... I remember going through that night in my head... I'd been fighting with my mom... Over a stupid party I wanted to go to... So I could see a stupid boy... My dad yelled at me for talking back to her... I ran to my room and started throwing things against the wall... I was so angry... A pillow hit my candle... And the curtains went up in flames..." Her lips and voice began to tremble as tears began to rim her eyes. "And my whole room was on fire... And it spread on the carpet to my pants... And I could feel it on my legs... And I could hear my mother screaming..." Tears started rolling down her cheeks and I reached for her hand. Her eyes came up to meet mine. "And I blacked out... And when I woke up, I was on the pavement... Just some minor burns... And my house was engulfed in flames... Hopeless... And I screamed for my mom... And no one answered... No one ever answered..."

She dissolved into tears and I pulled her into my arms, holding her to my chest. My heart broke for her, knowing she had had such a rough childhood, lived with so much guilt for so long, and now was being hunted down by angels and demons alike over something in her that she didn't even understand.

After a couple of moments, she pulled away again and wiped her cheeks, sniffing. "I, uh... I was gonna jump... But, um... I remembered my dad telling me once... That I was a fighter... That I never gave up... That I could do anything... Including talk myself down from a ledge... So I did... I got down... I walked to the foster home... Promised those kids I would never give up... And then I decided I needed to dedicate my life to helping people... To make up for what I'd done... So I applied for nursing school... Four years later, I was almost done, and you guys found me..." She sniffed, wiped her eyes again and looked up at me with a weak smile.

"Diana... That fire wasn't your fault..."

She nodded slowly. "I know... In my head, I know that... But my heart will always be heavy with that guilt..."

"We can't save everybody." We both looked up, surprised to see Dean standing in the door. I idly wondered why he'd come back, then saw his keys on the table. I could see in his eyes that he was looking at Diana in a new light, and I knew he finally saw the humanity in her and found himself relating to her. "And we can't be responsible for everyone... We can try our damned hardest... But we can't save everyone... And it sucks, I mean it really, really sucks... But all we can do is keep going. And keep trying to save as many as we can. Even though, sometimes... we can't."

Diana offered him her weak smile, then sighed and crawled under the covers. I looked up at Dean, saw the corner of his mouth twitch, then he turned his back when he caught me looking at him, grabbed his keys, and headed out the door.

I kicked off my shoes and slid beneath the blankets beside Diana. She rolled onto her side and smiled tiredly at me and I couldn't help but return it. She reached out and took my hand, stroking my knuckles with her thumb.

"So," she whispered. "Who's your favorite Harry Potter character?"

I smiled and we lay there like that, asking each other simple and heavy questions for a long time, often laughing, occasionally opening some deep wounds, but always feeling a bit better with each question. Her voice became softer and softer and, eventually, she stopped really making sense as she drifted to sleep, still holding my hand. It wasn't long before I was out, too, sleeping peacefully, they way I hadn't in a long time.

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