Hello, ok, so this story should end at about ten chapters, so only a few more chapters left!

Hannah was asleep in the backseat of the impala, head in Cas's lap, fever still raging. Sergeant had been hastily dropped off before they headed out of town. Dean kept the old school rock quiet so Hannah could get a few precious moments of shut eye. He glanced in the rearview mirror at Cas, as he was unable to see Hannah. Cas looked worn, like a bus had run over him, then backed up a few times. Dean wondered of he would look this worn if it wasn't Hannah doing the trials, probably not. He could see a slight movement in Cas's left arm, Dean figured that he was stroking Hannah's hair, trying to sooth her.

Dean's hand twitched. That's what I would do. Dean cleared his throat and shifted in his seat. Eyes on the road bud.

They drove for a few hours before finding a cheap motel to make camp. They pulled in, parking in front of their room and the brothers started the familiar routine, while Cas sat in the backseat, unsure what to do with the sleeping woman.

"Dean," Cas called from the backseat window, "I'm not sure what to do." He glanced down at Hannah, then back up at Dean. Dean shifted the duffle bag on his shoulder as he glanced back.

"Pick her up and carry her in."

"How?"

Sometimes, most times, it amazed Dean how clueless Cas could be. He walked over to the car, dropped his bag by Cas's door, walked around to the drivers side and opened the door to the backseat. He gently took Hannah's hand and rubbed his thumb across the back of it. She stirred and started to prop herself up on her elbow, barely awake. Slipping his arm around her back, Dean led her up to a sitting position before letting go of her hand, he slipped his free arm under her knees and carefully lifted her out of the car.

"Grab the bag." Dean call across the car to Cas. Hannah shifted slightly in Dean's arms as he walked toward the door. He adjusted his hold, she drew her arms up around his neck and sleepily nudged her face in his shoulder before resting it on his chest and giving a small sigh before slipping into unconsciousness.

Dean felt something inside him do a summersault and something deeper tell him to watch out. He looked up and saw Sam watching him, waiting to see what Dean would do. Dean put up a stone front, clenched his jaw and set Hannah down on one of the beds. Cas walked in carrying both Dean and Hannah's bag. Dean headed toward the bathroom as he mumbled something about a shower.

The hot water streamed out of the shower head that was to short to be comfortable and not nearly enough water pressure, but that's what you get at a cheap motel. Dean simply stood there, letting the water run over him as he argued with himself.

What was that? What are you thinking? This is a job, just a job. She trusts you. She doesn't know me, doesn't know what I've done, doesn't know what my life is like. She handled that demon pretty well. Lucky shot. She strong enough for the trials. Barely, they're catching up with her, can't you see the stain in her eyes? Why do you care?

Dean beat his fist against the shower wall and sighed. Whatever this is, it doesn't matter, she's Cas's girl. End of story.

The last thing that Hannah clearly remembered was laying down in the backseat after dropping off Sergeant, in an attempt to sleep off an headache. Waking up on a bed in a strange room unsettled her slightly. She sat up and looked around the small room. It looked like most cheap motels rooms, old wallpaper and an even older carpet, with a typical hotel floral bedspread on both beds.

Sam sat at the small round table in the corner, buried in his laptop, Dean was asleep on the other bed, while Cas sat at the table with Sam, watching her. He waited for her soft smile of welcome before he walked over and sat on the bed beside her.

"How long have we been here?" She leaned into him, finding comfort in his arms, her head was still throbbing.

"Three hours and forty seven minutes."

"How did I get on the bed?"

"Dean carried you."

Hannah vaguely remembered strong arms, the scent of dirt, smoke, shaving cream, the slight sweetness of berries, and an overwhelming sense of safety and protection. She glanced over at the sleeping man. He was still dressed and looked like he had simply fallen on the bed in complete and utter exhaustion. He slept on top of the covers rather then under them and his feet hung slightly off the bed, as if he didn't have the energy to pull himself all the way up to the pillows and even in his sleep he wasn't at peace. Something in his dream haunted him, showing on his face as he scowled and his eyes darted back and forth under their lids.

"How long has he been asleep?" Hannah asked Cas in hushed tones.

"Three hours and eleven minutes. He took a long shower." Cas looked down and saw the pain still hovering in her eyes. He fever has come down slightly, but he could she her struggling to make her eyes focus. His heart ached for her, she was suffering greatly, suffering because he hadn't started the trials soon enough, this was his fault.

"What is the last trial?" Hannah called to Sam quietly as she stood slowly making her way over to the table. Sam glanced up at her before pulling the worn paper out of his shirt pocket.

"Restore an angel." He looked over at Cas, he was the expert. "How would we do that?" Cas walked over to the pair and stood behind Hannah. He rested his hands on her shoulder before speaking.

"You have to give them their grace back."

Sam looked up at him, he opened his hands, giving Cas a 'go on' look.

"To do that you must retrieve them from heaven."

"So we need to find a way to get Hannah to heaven." Sam bit the side of his lip before grabbing a old leather journal and flipping through it. Cas looked mournfully down at Hannah, she needed to rest, to let her body fight, allow her to gain her strength back.

"You should go back to sleep." He nudged her back. She shook her head, grimacing at the sharp pain.

"What about you and Sam? You two need to rest also."

Even while she could barely see strait, she was trying to watch over him. He kissed the top of her head.

"Dean will wake up soon and let Sam take the bed." Cas tried to pacify her by relaying a common occurrence with the brothers. She seemed to accept that answer for Sam but that didn't address the fact that Cas needed sleep also.

"What about you?" She tried to fight and watch over him, but she was fading fast.

"I'll lie down beside you."

He didn't say he would sleep, but Hannah was to tired and in to much pain to argue any further. She nodded slightly before Cas gently lead her head back to the bed. He laid down next to her, holding her in his arms, trying to protect her from the torment. It didn't take long before she fell into a fitful sleep.

Dean slept longer the Cas expected and Sam soon fell asleep at the table, laptop still on. Cas laid awake, holding Hannah, watching as she fought in her dreams. Despair mixed with his guilt as he watched over the sleeping woman. All through the night Cas fought with himself, struggling against his inner demons, knowing what he needed to do, but wanting to protect Hannah from what had to be done, what had to be finished.

Dean woke up before the sun had even thought about rising. He had slept longer then he had planned. It hadn't been the most restful sleep but it had been better then he had been getting the past year. He glanced over at where Sam slept, head on the table, arms laid out surrounding his head, research spread everywhere. This past year and a half had been rough on the brothers, rougher then most years. Dean felt like then never got a break, there was always something. There lives had never been easy, not by a long shot, but this past year had been a much greater struggle to simply stay alive. When they did have a precious few moment to rest, sleep tried to evade them, horrible nightmares kept them from sleep, kept them from even wanting to try to sleep, making them stay awake until they literally passed out from exhaustion, only to be plagued with fitful sleep.

But tonight, tonight he had slept for six hours, he felt calmer, like a presence had been missing the last 18 months, but was back, allowing the brothers to catch their breath. He glanced over at the sleeping couple, at Hannah. She was starting to look like them, worn out. Their life was affecting her, uprooting her life, causing her to run, after she had already lost so much. He wished he could protect her, shield her from this life, he wanted to - Dean clenched his jaw and turned away, it didn't matter what he wanted to do or what he wanted to help her with, she was Cas's girl, that was the end of it.

Dean glanced around, his eyes settled on Sam. The kid had been through at lot and not just with the recovery of the trials either. He had worked consistently, tirelessly, on trying to find Cas and helping Kevin as much as he could. Even though he still wasn't fully himself, wasn't at a hundred percent, he never complained. He worked along side Dean and fought along side him too, and Dean was proud of him. He wouldn't tell him of course, Dean didn't know how, but seeing how strong Sam was, how hard he had been fighting, made Dean think that maybe had hadn't messed something up. Truth be told, Sam was doing better then Dean was. After watching Sam go through the trials, hearing what Sam would confess during the last one before he would draw his blood, that Sam though he had let his brother down, nearly killed him. Sam was the only thing Dean fought for, and even then, Sam was the one had been keeping Dean going the last year. When Dean would go to a bar, Sam would be there to drive him home and lay out the Advil for the next morning. Sam kept him going, they were fighting for each other now. It had been Sam that convinced, threatened, Dean to come with him to find Cas. And look where that got me, locked in a room with a moody ex-angel and his girl who was suffering because I made her stay home from work.

Dean scrubbed his hands over his face. His thoughts were all mixed up, he felt responsible for the fact that Hannah was going through the trials, therefore it was his job to watch over her, right? Then why was there a feeling that he was playing with fire and why did he have to keep reminding himself that she was Cas's girl? He needed a drink.

Dean grabbed his jacket and the keys before leaving, shutting the door behind him quietly so not to wake anyone up, before heading to the nearest bar.

Hannah opened her eyes slowly, dawn was just peaking over the edge of the earth and a pure, gentle, light had begun to sneak through the thin motel curtains. She could feel the consistent rise and fall of Cas's chest against her back as he slept with his arms wrapped loosely around her. Her head had dulled from a sharp unbearable pain to a aching throb. She slowly convinced her sore body to twist out of Cas's arms and off the bed. The other bed was vacant, Sam was still asleep on the table while Dean was no where in sight. She sighed, not wanting to imagine where he had gone, instead she grabbed a blanket off the empty bed and softly draped it over Sam. She paused as he stirred in his sleep, adjusting the position of his arms on the table, but he soon stilled and she enfolded the him in the remainder of the blanket. Smiling slightly at the sleeping man, she turned to find her bag, and pain killers.

Sam woke up to the sound of pills rattling in their container, he glanced around and saw Hannah looking at him sheepishly.

"Sorry."

He shook his head, implying that she shouldn't worry about it and closed his now dead laptop. She took the pills before she joined him at the table.

"Good morning." She whispered to the still disoriented Sam, who raised his hand in an attempt to waive as he squinted over at her.

"Morning" he moaned out, muscles stiff from the way he had slept, he started to rummage through the papers that were laying about. Hannah watched him for a minute until she realized that he wasn't tidying up, he was starting to go over his notes.

"Sam, let it rest for a few minutes." She knew he had heard her, but he still sifted through the papers. Hannah reached over and set her hand on top of his moving ones, stilling them. "Let it be."

Sam glanced over at her. Deciding that he would let her mother him, he leaned back in his chair as he rubbed his eyes. He looked around that room, then glanced out the window.

"Where's Dean?"

Hannah shrugged, Sam gave a face that expressed his wish not to know, the fact he knew where he probably was and the desire to be wrong. He sighed, more and more recently he had started to feel like he needed to watch over Dean, like he was the older brother rather then the other way around. This past year, the dynamics of their life had changed. After he passed the point of impending death, he noticed the change. Their life had never been easy or without stress, but it seemed that this passed year and a half held more stress then either brother have ever experienced or knew how to handle. So they handled it differently, Sam dove into his studies, helping Kevin anyway he could, while Dean slipped farther and farther down an alcohol drenched slope.

But over the last three days, a sense of calm has slowly started to inch it's was into Sam's understanding. He wasn't sure it was the fact that they finally found Cas and knew he was safe or something else, something to do with Hannah. The woman who sat nearby baffled him and he couldn't help but feel that she was somehow connected to him and Dean.

As he looked over at her, he could tell the little effect that that pain killers would have still hadn't kicked in quite yet.

"How you holding up?"

Hannah chuckled softly, how was she holding up? Her head was throbbing, every muscle in her body was sore, and she ached.

"I'm alive."

Sam smiled at that, he remembered all to well what she was going through, at least it wasn't so bad yet that she couldn't joke with him. She smiled at his response, glad to have broken the moody pondering.

"But really, how are you?" Sam turned serious again, trying to read her face.

"Honestly? Everything hurts, the pain killers do squat, but I feel better knowing I tried to do something about the pain." Again, the cliff notes version, he knew what was really going on, even if no one else did, Sam understood the raging agony of when the trails burned in your arm, or the constant, ever growing pain that you just wanted to stop fighting.

"And on top of everything else we dragged you out of your house and made you hole up in a dingy motel." Sam shook his head remorseful that she couldn't at least suffer in the comfort of her own home.

"I don't mind that." Hannah saw the doubt in his face as he looked over at her. "Really, I don't. I have spent a year and a half learning how to do life again, everything has been new and foreign, the only thing that I ever truly felt comfortable with was Cas, he was the first, the only thing that I understood. But this? Leaving my house and staying in a cheap, run down, grimy motel? I feel like I understand this, I can't explain why, but this, this is familiar, disgusting, but familiar."

This woman would never stop confusing him.

Ok, it's your turn, please, please, please review! Your review to me is what pie is to Dean 3