(A/N)-Welcome, victims! I mean friends! This is the 14th chapter of WGB, but look how quickly I'm updating! And to my American lovelies: Happy Thanksgiving! Anyway, this is the chapter we've all been waiting for-Like a Virgin, where Sam gets his soul back. We'll see how this one plays out. Anyway, my reviewers: I wish I could bake a cake make out of rainbows and smiles and we'd all eat it and be happy, because I love you that much…I just have a lot of feelings, okay! You guys know the drill: I own nothing except Lydia, and I think I'm going to keep her for a while, because I've grown attached to her. Julia: Do you have a profile? You can come off anon if you want to! Without further adieu, here is the next chapter!

After Sam's soul had been returned to him, he had collapsed and fallen into a deep sleep. Lydia had only expected him to be asleep for a day, maybe two, but he had been asleep for ten days straight and showed no signs of waking up anytime soon. Bobby and Lydia usually stayed upstairs, going about with their usual business, but Dean spent half of his time down in the panic room with his brother. One day, Lydia went downstairs to go get something, and she heard Dean talking to Sam's sleeping form, and she was nearly choking back tears by the time she had gotten what she needed. She couldn't help but admire their relationship, how close they were. She was still upset with what Sam did and still hated him absolutely, and even though Dean's devotion to him was unhealthy, crazy, and ridiculously co-dependent, she still thought it was one of the most touching things she had ever witnessed.

Her relationship with Cas, however, was much different at this point. She had prayed, begged, and even stood outside and screamed for the angel to make an appearance, but he never did. After about a week, Lydia had finally given up and had just stopped trying altogether. She did her best to focus on the cases that were piling up, not Cas, but it was hard.

"Hey, Lydia," Dean came into the kitchen on the 10th day. "Can I talk to you alone for a second?"

"Um…" Lydia put down the food she was eating and nodded, standing up. "Yeah, sure. What's up?"

Dean coughed uncomfortably and motioned to Bobby in the next room over. "I meant in private."

"This is private."

"No!" Dean insisted. "Like, downstairs private?" Lydia cocked an eyebrow, so Dean just rolled his eyes and took her downstairs. "Come here, you'll see what I'm talking about." When they reached the panic room, Dean opened the door so they could see Sam lying there, helpless and handcuffed to the bed. Lydia nearly recoiled in disgust, but she stood there silently. After a while, Dean asked, "Does he look dangerous to you?"

Lydia wasn't quite sure what was going on, but she nodded and said, "No…"

"Exactly." Dean nodded, then looked back at her. "Listen, Lydia, this wall in Sam's head…It's not stable, okay? It's our best bet, but it's not full-proof."

Lydia shrugged. "Yeah, I know that."

Dean sighed. "So you, me, Bobby…That means we can't tell Sam anything about this past year. I don't know how much he's going to remember, but if he doesn't, we can tell him."

Lydia nodded, understanding what he was getting at. "So you want me to shut up and not talk about what happened to me like a good little girl?"

"That's not what I mean." Dean licked his lips nervously.

"Oh yeah?" Lydia laughed a little bit, mostly from disbelief. "I get that you're trying to protect Sam, but…really?"

"Yeah, really," Dean snapped defensively. "If knowing what he did to you makes that wall come tumbling down, I don't want him to know, period."

Lydia could barely string together a comprehensive sentence. "Wow. That's just…wow. I seriously can't even believe that."

"I'm not saying that you have to hide what happened to you, Lyd," Dean tried switching tactics. "Cause what he did was wrong and you're hurting because of it. I know that, you know that-we all know that. Talk to Bobby about it. Talk to Cas about it. Hell, talk to me about it if you really want to. Just…just not Sam."

"Dean…" Lydia shook her head. "Just because Sam didn't have his soul and wasn't in his right mind, it was still Sam that did it."

"No," Dean protested. "Sammy wouldn't do anything like that. Ever. Period. Point-blank. That wasn't him."

"Yes it was!" argued Lydia. "Maybe not all of him, but whether or not you want to admit it or not, there's still a part of Sam that's capable of that."

Dean shook his head with an air of finality. "I'm not having this argument with you, Lyd. I can't and I won't. But I am begging you; don't tell Sam. I know him better than anybody else, and I know that he wouldn't do anything like that. And if you tell him…" Dean sighed, frustrated. "Even if the wall doesn't come down, it would kill Sam. He feels guilty looking up porn on the Internet! He wouldn't even be able to live with himself!"

"Good!" Lydia shouted. "He shouldn't be able to live with himself!"

"You're not listening to me…" Dean began, but Lydia snapped and cut him off.

"No, Dean, I am listening! And I am so sick of you and your brother and your tortured souls, okay! I am done!"

Dean's face was dark with anger. "Nobody asked you to be here, y'know. If you're just going to act like…"

"That's enough." Castiel's voice stopped both Dean and Lydia right in their tracks; they stopped talking and turned to look at the angel who had seemingly appeared out of nowhere.

Cas looked at both hunters with a grave expression on his face. "Both of you, that's enough. I can assure you, there are much more important things to discuss at the moment." He walked over to the doorway of the panic room and peered in, studying Sam closely. "He still hasn't woken up yet?"

Dean shook his head slowly. "No, not yet…Cas, where have you been? I've been praying to you all week."

"I'm sorry I couldn't come sooner, Dean," Cas' voice sounded genuine, but knowing him so well, Lydia could detect underlying sarcasm and bitterness that most people, not even Dean, could probably detect. "But I've been busy with…"

"Yeah, yeah, I know," Dean dismissed the angel simply. "The war in heaven. I get it. But you couldn't make a little bit of time for me and Sam? It's been days! We're your friends too!"

Cas growled, "I understand that, Dean, but…" Cas, seemingly trying to avoid an argument, simply sighed and looked back at the panic room. "What do you need me to do for him, Dean?"

"Can you, uh, do stick your hand up there like you did before and inspect his soul?" Dean winced. "That sounds weird, but…"

Dean trailed off when Castiel started walking to Sam's bed, and within seconds, he and Lydia watched as Cas felt and searched for Sam's soul. After a while, Cas came out, his sleeves rolled up.

"Well?" Dean asked. "Is he going to wake up?"

Cas sighed. "I am not a human doctor…but probably not." Dean opened his mouth, looking angry, but Cas spoke again. "Dean, I warned you not to put that thing back inside him..."

"Guys!" Lydia snapped when she saw Dean's face go even darker. "Can we please have a civil conversation for once?"

Cas stepped even closer to Dean and said through gritted teeth, "Let me tell you what his soul felt like when I touched it. Like it had been skinned alive, Dean. If you wanted to kill your brother, you should have done it outright." He then took a deep breath and stepped back, looking at Lydia. "Can I have a word with you in private?"

Lydia threw her hands up in exasperation, hoping to relieve some of the tension in the room, and jokingly said, "What, is this private talks with Lydia Day!"

It didn't work. Dean only glared at the angel and snapped, "Oh, sorry, don't let me stop you. I'll just leave you two alone with my comatose brother." He stomped upstairs and slammed the door behind him.

"Well," Cas rubbed his forehead, looking more exhausted and downtrodden then Lydia had ever seen him. "That was…unpleasant."

"I'll agree with you there." Lydia nodded awkwardly. "So the war in Heaven's not going so great, huh?"

Cas sighed. "No, it's not. It's going horribly. Battles are being fought, weapons are being destroyed, and angels are being lost every time I turn around." Cas looked into Lydia's eyes before murmuring, "I never asked for all this. If I had known…I would have never started this in the first place."

He looked so incredibly lost right then, that Lydia rushed forward and threw her arms around his waist, holding him tightly and resting her head against his chest. She felt him hug her back and kiss the top of her forehead, and Lydia took a deep breath in, just happy to be able to hold him, at least for a little while.

"Yeah, I know you didn't." Lydia told him softly.

They stayed like that for a few seconds more before Cas pulled away with a frustrated groan. "I have to return to Heaven now. I can sense my brothers and sisters need me."

"Okay." Lydia did her best to mask her disappointment, but it was fairly obvious anyway.

Castiel covered his lips with hers one last time, then disappeared. Lydia looked at Sam, who was still dead asleep, one last time before sighing and walking back upstairs.

When Lydia walked upstairs, Dean was sitting at Bobby's desk with him, talking quietly. Both men looked up when she entered the room, and Lydia coughed uncomfortably. "Am I interrupting something?"

"Nope," Bobby was unaware of the tension between Dean and Lydia at the moment. "Just going over a case. Plane crash in Portland. The pilot and the plane were found, but not the passenger."

"Okay," Dean nodded thoughtfully. "I'm not changing the channel."

"Dean." All three hunters looked to see Sam awake, standing in the doorway of the living room.

Dean turned to face Sam even more, then slowly stood up. "Sam?" Sam surged towards his brother and threw his arms around him tightly, pressing himself to his brother with an air of desperation Lydia had never seen. Dean hugged him back, and there they stood, connected. It was as if Sam was a completely different person, like he was back to the old Sam that Lydia had met in Iowa. Eventually, the brothers separated and Sam's eyes locked on Bobby. He went over and hugged to the old hunter, who still looked extremely wary; after all, wasn't this the same Sam who had tried to kill him only ten days earlier? Sam pulled away from Bobby too, then looked at Lydia, smiling. Lydia's insides were turning as Sam asked, "Lydia?"

Lydia glanced over at Dean, who was looking at her gravely, then looked back at Sam and smiled nervously. "Hey, Sam."

Sam walked over and hugged Lydia. "God, I haven't seen you in forever! What are you doing here?"

Lydia closed her eyes, her breathing rapid and erratic. Finally, she managed to say in a shaky voice, "I live here now."

"You do?" Sam pulled away, but his hands were still on Lydia's shoulders. He kept glancing at her, Bobby, and Dean wildly, like he couldn't believe it was them. Then, his face paled and he whirled back around to face Bobby. "Wait, I…I felt Lucifer snap your neck."

"Well, Cas…" Bobby began.

"Cas is alive?" Sam could hardly believe it.

"Yeah Cas-Cas is fine," Dean said cautiously. "Sam, are you okay?"

"Actually, um…I'm starving." Sam said sheepishly.

XXX

Later that day, Bobby and Lydia were silently working on one of the cars in Bobby's yard when Dean walked in. "Hey." When neither Lydia nor Bobby answered him, he said, "Sam's doing really great, y'know. Better than I could have hoped."

"Well, I'm glad he's better," Bobby said unenthusiastically as he got out from under the cars he was working on. "But that kid went straight-up Menendez on me not ten days ago?" Bobby pointed to Lydia. "Dean, he raped that poor girl! Is that all just supposed to be erased?"

"It wasn't Sam!" Dean argued. "And anyway, what are we supposed to do? Tell him everything so the wall inside his head breaks completely?"

"That's not what he's trying to say, Dean," Lydia snapped. "He's just saying that Sam did some pretty bad stuff to all of us, and it's just going to take a while, okay?"

Dean rubbed his eyes. "Yeah, whatever." He looked over at Lydia. "So…?"

"So what?" Lydia asked.

"I dunno," Dean shrugged. "What we were talking about earlier…"

Lydia sighed. "I'm not making any promises, Dean, but I'm going to try to…forgive him, I guess?"

"Oh." Dean nodded, surprised. "That's…good. Thanks."

"I'm not doing it for you," Lydia said softly. "And I'm not doing it for Sam. I'm doing it for me."

Silence prevailed in the yard before Dean finally said, "Well, Sam's sleeping, and if we're going on that hunt in Oregon, we should go now."

"I've already got my stuff packed," Lydia grabbed a duffel bag and put it in the trunk of the Impala. "Bobby, is this your stuff already in here?" Bobby nodded. Lydia went to shut it, but Dean stopped her.

"Wait, I need to put my stuff in there too." Dean shoved his bags in the trunk, then slammed it shut. He looked back at Lydia and smiled. "Thanks."

"I already told you, I'm not doing it…"

"Yeah, I know," Dean interrupted her. "But still. Thanks for trying."

Lydia saw that Dean was being genuine, so she nodded back. "Yeah. Sure."

"Well," Dean said loudly. "Let's get going. We can call Sam later."

"Call me from where?" Sam was suddenly standing in the yard, looking at the other three hunters. "Are you guys going on a hunt? I'll go."

"Whoa, whoa," Dean out up his hand. "You just got vertical. Why don't you just rest some more?"

"You know what?" Bobby went over and got his things out of the trunk. "Sam, how about you go on ahead? I promised that idjit Rufus that I'd work the phones from him, and Lydia was going to stay here and help me."

"You sure?" Sam asked.

Lydia nodded. "Oh, yeah, I completely forgot about that. You guys go, we'll stay here. It's not a big deal, really."

Both boys nodded, then got in the car, and drove off. Lydia and Bobby watched them go before Bobby asked, "Did you want to get out of that just as badly as I did?"

"Hell yes!" Lydia snorted. "And thanks for covering for me."

"No problem." Bobby shrugged casually, but the corners of his mouth were twitching upwards. "Like I said, somebody's gotta look after ya." He squeezed Lydia's shoulder, then walked into the house, leaving her alone.