"So I might have a lead on a case." Sam said brightly over breakfast the next morning.
"Oh yeah? What?" Dean asked him curiously.
"Three people dead in the last two weeks, a few towns over."
"What makes you think it's our kind of thing?"
"I uh, I had a call. Someone said we might wanna check it out."
"A call? From who?" Sam didn't answer him. "Ruby? It was Ruby wasn't it?"
"Yeah, it was Ruby. But that doesn't mean that we shouldn't check it out."
"Right, because as far as you're concerned the hell bitch is practically family. You know something major must've happened while I was downstairs because I come back and you're BFF with a demon?" Dean was starting to get angry now.
"I told you, she helped me to go after Lilith."
"Well, thanks for the thumbnail Sam, real vivid. You want to fill in a little detail?"
"What do you actually want to know Dean? Huh?"
"I want to know why you trust her so much!" He almost yelled.
Sam sighed and looked between him and Kate. "I told you."
"You gotta do better than that. Hey, and I'm not trying to pick a fight here. I mean, I really want to understand. But I need to know more. I mean, I deserve to know more."
Sam sighed. "She saved my life. Her and this other demon, they broke into the motel room I was staying at.. They took the knife but she stabbed the other demon instead of me. She ditched the body and took an empty one.. Then she told me she'd help to me get Lilith, that she'd teach me everything she knew."
"So? What'd she teach you?"
"She taught me to pull the demons from people. Then she-" Sam stopped.
"She what?"
"She was understanding. Comforting. At the time, she seemed to have all the answers.."
Dean looked at Kate who shrugged. "Sammy, what did you do?"
"She kissed me. And then we.. Ya know..We-"
"Sam." Dean cut him off flatly.
"Yeah?"
"Stop right there. Please."
"Hey, I told you I was coming clean."
"Yeah, but now I feel dirty. Okay well, brain-stabbing imagery aside... So far, all you've told us about is a manipulative bitch who, uh, screwed you, played mind games with you, and did everything in the book to get you to go bad."
"Yeah, well, there's more to it than that."
"Just... skip the nudity, please?"
"Pretty soon after... that, um... I put together some signs... Omens."
"Saying what?"
"Lilith was in town. And I wanted to strike her first. We argued about it, she said I wasn't ready. She was right of course, I went in, nearly got myself killed. But Ruby came back for me. Whatever you have to say, she saved me. More than that, she got through to me. What she said to me... It's what either of you would've said. If it wasn't for her, I wouldn't be here."
They were interrupted by the sound of fluttering wings. They all turned to see Castiel and another angel, Uriel, standing in their motel room. Dean stood up and walked towards Castiel. "What do you want this time?" He asked flatly.
"You are needed." Uriel told him.
"Needed? Well here's the deal, I'm kind of sick of being needed by you guys."
"Mind your tone with me."
"No, you mind your damn tone with us." Dean snapped. "You know what, we're kind of busy here so if you wouldn't mind giving us some time and taking a break from pushing us around like chess pieces for five freaking minutes?!" Dean yelled, now clearly angry.
"We raised you out of hell for our purposes."
"Yeah, and what were those again? What exactly did you want from me?!"
"Start with gratitude."
"Oh." Dean rolled his eyes sarcastically.
"Dean, we know this is difficult to understand-" Castiel began calmly.
"And we, don't care. Now seven angels have been murdered, all of them from our garrison. The last one was killed tonight." Uriel stated.
"Demons? How are they doing it?"
"We don't know."
"I'm sorry, but what do you want us to do about this? I mean, a demon with the juice to ice angels is way out of our league, right?" Sam asked him.
"We can handle the demons, thank you very much."
"Once we find out who it is." Castiel added.
"So you need our help hunting a demon?" Dean frowned.
"Not quite. We have Alistair."
"Great, he should be able to name your trigger man."
"But he wont talk. Alistair's will is very strong. We've arrived at an impasse."
"Yeah well, he's like a black belt in torture. I mean, you guys are out of your league."
Uriel smiled. "That's why we've come to his student. You happen to be the most qualified interrogator we've got."
Dean looked down as realisation covered his face. "Dean, you're our best hope." Castiel said quietly.
He turned away, refusing to look at either of the angels. Sam glanced at Kate who sighed and stood up, walking towards Uriel and glaring him straight in the face. "You know what, I've had enough of this. It's not happening." She warned.
"Step aside girl."
She stood her ground. "No. You've pushed him around and strung him along for weeks now. But you can't ask him to do this. It's too far this time."
Castiel gave her a sympathetic look and opened his mouth to say something, but Uriel simply pushed her aside. "Who said anything about asking?"
She turned around to see that both of the angels had vanished from the room, along with Dean, leaving just her and Sam. "Damn it." Sam yelled in frustration.
"What the hell are we supposed to do now?" Kate asked him.
"I know how to find him." He said, making his way to the door.
"What? Where are you going?"
"I'll be back soon okay? Just, stay here."
"You're going to find her aren't you? Ruby."
"She'll be able to help Kate."
She shook her head at him and turned away. "Go then."
"Look, Kate-"
"Sam. I said go." She was upset, he could tell. And she was angry but he'd have to sort it out with her later. Dean was the important issue right now. He walked out of the door and went to meet Ruby.
Kate sat in the motel room alone for the next three hours, at a complete loss of what to do. She didn't once let go of her phone, praying to god that one of her brothers would call. "This is the last time I do this I swear." She muttered to herself as she stood up and looked towards the ceiling.
This time she didn't shout. "Alright.. Castiel please, I'm begging you here.. Please, just bring him back." Once again, nothing happened. She dropped down on the couch heavily and put her head in her hands, closing her eyes and letting out a calming breath. She opened her eyes to see Castiel standing in front of her. She stood up and looked him dead in the face. "Where is he?"
"Calm down, I'll take you to him." She closed her eyes as he placed a hand to her forehead, when she opened them they were in a hospital.
She looked around, the concern rapidly increasing in her chest. "What are we doing here?"
Castiel stayed silent as he turned away from her and walked down the hallway, stopping in front of an open door. She looked inside to see Dean lying in the bed, beaten up and breathing through a tube, with Sam sitting beside him. She turned to Castiel and shoved him hard in the chest. "What the hell did you let them do?" She yelled at him.
Sam, hearing what was going on outside, stood up and walked out of the room. "Get in there and heal him. Miracle, now." He demanded, rounding on Castiel.
"I can't." Castiel replied quietly.
"You and Uriel put him in there-"
"No."
"Because you can't keep a simple devil's trap together."
"I don't know how that happened. That trap.. it shouldn't have broken, I'm sorry."
"This whole thing was pointless, you understand that? The demons aren't doing the hits. Something else is killing your soldiers."
"Perhaps Alistair was lying."
"No, he wasn't." Sam marched back into Dean's room and slammed the door closed behind himself.
"You should watch your brother Kate. His powers are strong."
"Wait, what? He's using them again?"
"He killed Alistair."
Kate turned to face him, a look of disbelief on her face. "What happened?"
"Dean went in, the trap broke.. I don't know how. Then Sam showed up, he got the answers from Alistair."
"With his powers?"
"I'm afraid so."
"He's been with Ruby right? That's how he found you? I'm gonna murder the bitch I swear." She said coldly, turning and walking away from him. She'd gotten half way down the hallway before Castiel grabbed her arm.
"You should stay with your brother Kate." She sighed and looked into his eyes. They were filled with sympathy and understanding for her. She nodded at him and walked back towards the room, entering and sitting down opposite Sam.
"You need to tell me what you're doing Sam."
"What?"
"Whatever it is that's going with you Sam, tell me. Please." Sam shook his head, not knowing what to say. "Sam, it can't be that bad. Whatever it is, I can't promise it but maybe I'll understand. I can't unless you tell me."
He looked down as his phone rang in his pocket. "Look I-"
"Don't bother Sam." She cut him off. "You wanna bail again, fine. I'm not gonna stop you."
Sam sighed. "Look Kate, I had no choice.. I needed to find Dean."
"Save it Sam." She said blankly. "I don't wanna hear it." He opened his mouth to argue with her but closed it again, deciding against it. They sat in silence for a few minutes until it was broken by Sam's phone ringing again. He pulled it from his pocket and looked down at it. "I take it you're leaving?" She asked coldly.
"I-"
"Just get out Sam." She didn't shout at him, or sound angry like he'd expected her to. Her voice was tired, as though she didn't care or that she was disappointed with him, somehow that made him feel even worse. He put his hand on the door handle and hesitated, he didn't want to be in a fight with his sister but he knew that he had to leave. "What are you waiting for Sam?"
"Kate, please."
She stood up and looked at him properly. "He's your brother Sam. Look at the state of him. You realise that you're walking out on him for a demon right?" Her voice sounded a mix between being hurt and being pissed.
He knew that she didn't mean to upset him, or maybe she did. No, of course she didn't, she was just upset about Dean. Or the fact that he'd just walked out and left her in the motel room alone. Then, maybe she knew that he was still using his powers. But how could she? Unless Castiel had told her.. The argument in his head went on until he arrived back at the motel room where Ruby was waiting for him.
Dean woke up a few hours later to see his sister sitting beside his bed, twisting her phone around in her hands. "Hey." He croaked out, apparently snapping her out of her thoughts.
She looked up at him and gave him a small smile, something he noticed she seemed to struggle with. "Hey, you okay?"
"Yeah, I'm good." His eyes scanned the room. "Where's Sam?"
She looked down at her lap for a second before she answered. "He uh.. Went back to the motel for a while."
"Oh." He could tell that she was lying, or that she wasn't telling him everything. Something had gone down there while he'd been out but he didn't press it. The two of them sat in silence for most of the day, neither noticing when Castiel fluttered into the empty seat beside Dean's bed.
"Are you alright?" He asked Dean.
"No thanks to you." He muttered.
"You need to be more careful."
"You need to learn how to manage a damn devil's trap." Castiel said nothing. "Is it true? Did I break the first seal? Did I start all this?" Kate looked up at him in shock, her eyes wide.
"Yes. When we discovered Lilith's plan for you, we laid siege to hell and we fought our way to get to you before you-"
"Jump started the apocalypse." Dean cut in flatly.
"And we were too late."
"Why didn't you just leave me there?"
"It's not blame that falls on you Dean. It's fate. The righteous man who begins it, is the only one who can finish it. You have to stop it."
"Stop what? Lucifer? The apocalypse? What does that even mean?"
"I don't know."
"Bull."
"I don't. Dean, they don't tell me much. I know our fate rests with you."
"Well, then you guys are screwed. I can't do it Cas. It's too big. Alistair was right, I'm not all here. I'm not strong enough. I guess I'm not the man either of our dads wanted me to be. Find someone else. It's not me." He turned his head to the side and let a tear roll down his cheek.
"Cas, I need to talk to you. Outside." Kate said to him flatly. He looked up at her with a confused frown on his face. He nodded and followed her from the room, pulling the door closed behind himself. Dean strained his ears to listen to them. He heard someone being pushed against the wall of his room before his sister shouting. "What the hell did you do?"
"Kate, what are you-"
"I told you. I told you that he couldn't do it and you sent him in there anyway. Look at what you guys did to him, he could have been killed!" She shouted, tears building up in her eyes.
"Kate, if you would just calm down-"
"No, I won't just calm down. You almost got Dean killed back there with your stupid plan, and then you wait until he's lying beaten up in a hospital bed to drop the fact that he has to stop the world from freaking ending?!"
"We're asking too much, I understand-"
"That's another thing." She cut him off again. "You keep saying that you understand. About Dean and Sam.. But then you go and drop Sam into a situation that has him using his powers again."
"Your brother was already using his powers Kate."
She took a step back from him. "What?" She thought about it for a minute before putting a hand on her forehead and turning away from him, letting a tear roll down her cheek.
"Deep down you know it yourself." Castiel sighed and placed a hand on her shoulder, pulling her around to look at him. "He's only getting stronger. I'm sorry Kate, but you and Dean need to stop him. Before he goes any further." She looked down but didn't answer him. When she looked up, it was to an empty hallway.
She walked back into Dean's room silently, crossing the room and lying down on the bed beside him. She buried her head into his shoulder, not speaking or moving at all but he felt her tears against his shoulder. Kate knew that he'd heard everything said between her and Castiel but still said nothing to him, just cried. Cried for Dean, the brother that literally had the weight of the world rested on his shoulders. And cried for Sam, the brother that she knew she was quickly losing in a pack of lies and deceit.
Dean held onto her tightly and kissed the top of her head. He knew how terrified she was about losing Sam because he felt the same way. It was something he knew they would have to take care of soon. There was no way that what he was going could possibly end well..