"Are you okay, Cas?"

He only shook his head.

"What's going on?"

He turned his head to face Dean, "I have no idea."

Dean leaned forward, hands jerking like they wanted to reach out to touch him, but they settled for leaning on the bed and holding Dean's chin. "You gotta start somewhere, man." Dean's eyes were full of worry and concern and Castiel felt himself staring back.

"Cas," Dean urged, "what's wrong?"

"Claire…" Castiel began, sitting up, Dean following suit and sitting up in his chair, "…she's lost everything because… because of me. All these vessels the-"

Castiel was interrupted by Liz walking in, the smell of French fries wafting in after her. She had little white headphones in her ear and she was softly humming along to a song that was clearly upbeat. When she realized that everyone was watching her walk through the door she paused, and then smiled.

That smile only lasted a moment before she was frowning, "Seriously? My hands are full of food and groceries and you just sit there and stare like I'm going to grow a tail?"

"Boys!" Bobby reprimanded, "help her!"

Dean, Sam, and Ben all jumped up at the same time, all rushing over to pull bags out of Liz's arms. She was smiling at their sudden eagerness. "Thank you." She said, shutting the door with her foot. Once her arms were empty, she turned to Cas, "How are you doing?"

"I think you were right when you said I needed food." He was looking at Ben, who had grabbed the Whataburger bag and had already started taking its contents out. He licked his lips. "I smell those cheeseburgers from here."

Dean laughed, "Let's keep our burger-count below one hundred, huh?"

Castiel felt the corners of his mouth lift. The amusement in Dean's voice was satisfying. "I doubt I will be able to eat that much without my Grace assisting me."

"Well here," Ben said, handing him a sandwich. The familiar foil crinkled in his hand and he felt his stomach move. Then it made a growling sound. Ben laughed, "I guess you were hungry." He looked up at Dean, "I'm gonna go see if Claire wants a sandwich."

"That's a good idea. Take her a coke, too."

Ben lit up and nodded and rushed through the adjoining motel door. Dean shook his head. "We gotta watch it Cas," he said, handing him a fresh bottle of water, "or Ben is gonna end up head over heels for Claire."

Already a bite into his sandwich, Castiel spoke, "You think that they would make a good match?"

"No!" Dean said, popping open his own can, "Just that Ben… well, he likes girls and my experience with teenage girls is …. Very limited."

"I don't understand."

Dean paused, "Don't worry about it. Just thinking out loud."

Castiel took another happy bite of his sandwich.

"Hey, Claire."

Claire looked up, pulling a headphone out of her ear. "Hey, Ben."

"You want a burger?" His voice was so hopeful, she couldn't turn him down.

Together they sat, silently eating. Ben was content, even if there were questions bugging him that he desperately wanted to ask. Like, how did she stay so calm down on that factory floor? What was it like seeing her mother be killed? If she was okay with the two of them becoming allies in this crazy world of adults making decisions for them?

Instead, she broke the silence, "What are they talking about? I can only make out a few things."

"They're just telling Cas the whole story."

Claire lowered her burger to her lap, sighing and trying to hide behind a curtain of hair.

"Are you okay?"

After a moment, she slowly shook her head.

"It's going to be okay, you know. It might not feel like it, but it will. It might seem like everything is as bad as it gets but things are always that way before things get better. And besides. We're with Dean. As long as he's around, we're good. We're safe." Claire didn't move, but Ben was proud of his speech.

"I'm not scared."

"Well, I am."

Claire looked up, "but you've got Dean." She adjusted her foot and nudged his shin. "You're good. You're safe." And then, after a moment, "What's wrong?"

"It's not going to make you feel better."

She smiled, "I doubt anything will for awhile. Besides, us kids have gotta stick together."

"It's just…" he trailed, picking at his coke can's lip, "Yeah, he's protecting us, but who's protecting him?"

She didn't have an answer.

The last thing Dean remembers is walking through a baseball park. The same park that Lisa had said Ben had last been seen in. He remembered Lisa's wide brown eyes, full of tears and despair. 'Nothing about this feels normal, Dean!' she had cried.

The next thing he knew, his wrists were scratching against the sharp metal that he had come to know as handcuffs.

"Wakey, wakey, eggs and bakey!" The voice was annoying, like whoever was saying it was only talking out of the side of her mouth. Dean was groggy and his vision was blurry. He blinked roughly to get rid of the feeling. The thought that he was sleeping hit him and adrenaline rushed through him. He never lay down and planned on sleep.

He tried to pull his hands around to wipe at his eyes, but then he realized that his hands were tied behind his back. He struggled and then blinked furiously again, trying to make the woman talking come into focus.

"Oh sorry, Sweetheart, that's the chloroform. The grunts got it in your eyes by accident on the first try."

"Meg," he whispered.

"Ding ding ding! We have a winner!"

Dean stayed quiet, waiting for his eyes to catch up with his brain.

"Don't you want to know where you are? How you got here?" She lowered her voice to mock him, "What I want with you?"

Dean didn't speak. The blur in front of him that he guessed Meg had stood and moved closer to him.

"Don't worry Schnuckums." She took hold of his chin and got close enough he could feel her breath on his nose. He blinked and the world cleared. He could see she was grinning. "We have plans for your meat suit, even if little Sammy says no to savin' you."

"Bitch," he bit out.

"I love it when you call me such pretty names, Sweet Pea." She stood back up and he heard her sigh, "Too bad my father is otherwise preoccupied. He'll be here as soon as Pestilence's ritual is over. Orders say to wait. It's such a shame, considering our history." Her hands were on her hips. His vision was getting better as he could see they were now underground.

"Go back to Hell."

"Why don't you come with me and you buy me dinner and we can call it a date?"

Dean didn't say another word, sending daggers in the direction he hoped were her eyes.

"We'll play soon, Dean-o, I promise."

She turned, walked up a long stairway and the slammed door echoed around him. Then the echoes of the door's locks followed and Dean began focusing on his eyes again.

"Our side of this whole thing is pretty boring really," Sam mused. "I mean, at least until Lucifer calls."

"Lucifer called you? As in on the phone?"

"…yeah."

"You're getting ahead of yourself, dumbass."

"Well you tell it then!"

"Shut up, and maybe I can!"

"Well be my guest!"

"Fine!"

"Fine!"

"You two ladies done?"

"Shut up, Bobby!"

"Well, you could sit here and argue or you could get on with it!"

"Before Samantha got ahead of herself…"

"Dean!"

"Shut up, Sam! Anyway… down in the factory they pulled me into this other room. Let's just say they stole my phone, tortured me and let's move on."

"You were tortured?"

"There are worse things for me to go through, Liz."

"Like what?"

"…like him being the one to hold the knife."

Everyone was still at Castiel's words. Dean spoke again slowly, "He's right. I never want to start torturing again."

"Again?"

"…yeah."

"Oh."

"Anyway…"

Dean was thrown down next to a curved metal pole in a room with a handful of people. He was handcuffed around the pole, his head still pounding from the echoes of fists and knuckles.

"Dean?" It was Ben.

"Hey Ben," Dean smirked through the pain in his face. "Your mom is looking for you."

He lit up with hope. "That's good!"

"But what do they wan-"

"Hey, Dean." Another voice sounded, interrupting him. He turned over his shoulder to see a small blonde girl tied to a post.

"Claire?"

"Yeah," she said softly. "How's Castiel?"

"Fine, last time I saw him."

Her eyes fell to the ground.

"You know these kids?" A balding man, maybe fifty asked.

Eyeing Ben, who was almost smiling and Claire who looked like the world had already ended, and shrugged. "Yeah, you are?"

"Father Thomas. Are you here to help us?"

Dean pulled at his handcuffs, "That was the plan. I didn't exactly know that demons were involved," he laughed with sarcasm.

"Demons?" The black lady in the corner asked. "You know what they want with us?"

Dean started to shrug, but Claire cut him off, her voice laced with disdain and fear. "We're all vessels, Dean. They've been kidnapping vessels."

"For Angels," the second man said, with disbelief. "Angels are the good guys."

"Not all of them," Claire said, completely monotone.

Dean reshuffled himself so he was sitting more comfortably, "It's true. The Apocalypse is kinda going on. Angels need humans to possess just like demons, but demons can possess anyone. It takes a special person to be a vessel for an Angel." He smiled with fake enthusiasm. "Congratulations! You're a Holy Meat Suit!"

"If you were our rescue party," the woman moaned, lowering her head into her knees, "we are screwed, aren't we?"

"Sam is still out there!" Ben chimed.

"Sam?" Father Thomas asked.

"His brother! The two of them fight evil stuff like this all the time! We're gonna be okay!" Ben's attitude about the whole situation was so great that Dean didn't have the heart to tell him that Sam had no idea where he was or that he was even in trouble.

They were screwed.