Bobby's House

Castiel, Bobby, Dean and Sam were sitting in Bobby's kitchen sipping beers and quietly contemplating each other. Just a few weeks ago, Castiel was sitting at this table downing shots with the Harvelle's, and now they were gone. Dean kept thinking about that last night and how he wished he could go back and redo his pathetic come-on to Jo. She deserved better than that from him. Now, it was too late. He looked over at Cas, and wondered about his relationship with Dr. Olsen. He hoped that nothing would happen to her. He did not want Cas to experience the same type of loss he and Sam had. Still, he thought, this was not the time to concentrate on that. This little pow wow was to figure out what Michael wanted from Dr. Olsen and if she was really the threat that he claimed.

"Well," said Bobby, "if no one is going to say something, then I will."

He looked over at Dean. "Your angel is full of it." He took a swig of beer and continued. "That woman is no more of a danger than I am."

He shook his head. "You should have seen her when she got here; she was scared to death."

"She could have been faking it," said Sam, "believe me, I know from experience how good of a show someone can put on when she wants you to believe something."

"Alison Olsen," snapped Castiel, "is not Ruby."

"How do you know that," retorted Sam, "when was the last time you saw her?"

Castiel paused at that. "It has been a while," he conceded. "But I've been around for 2,000 years." He stared at Sam. "I also know that people don't fundamentally change who they are."

"I agree with Cas on that one," interjected Dean, "a person will always go on the side of good, no matter how bad their circumstances, if they are a good person."

"Circumstances are everything," said Bobby, agreeing with Sam, "even the most dire of circumstances can cause people to do things they would never do otherwise."

"Still," continued Bobby, "I also know people and I know when someone is scared; that woman is scared of something and that something is Michael."

The group went silent again until a knock at the door surprised them, and Bobby wheeled over to answer it. It was Jasmine Risi, Alison Olsen's graduate assistant. Bobby wheeled over with her to introduce her to the group and Dean stared in shock.

"Risi?!" he asked in surprise, "is that you?"

"Actually," she said somewhat offended, "my name is Jasmine, no one calls me Risi." She looked Dean over casually. "Do we know each other?"

"Not yet," said Dean with a smirk, "but we will."

"Excuse me," she snapped, "I'm married." She turned to Bobby. "Where's Alison?"

"Upstairs," he said quietly. Jasmine threw one last glare at Dean before stalking off. Then Cas, Bobby and Sam all looked at Dean with various degrees of amusement and bewilderment.

"Honestly," said Bobby, "with a track record like that . . ."

"I'm surprised you get laid at all," finished Cas.

For a moment, everyone stared at Cas in shock and then Sam, Bobby and Dean burst out laughing. Cas appeared confused to what they were laughing about, but grabbed another beer. Sam quickly calculated that it was Cas's 15th beer in 20 minutes. Sam did wonder why the angel was drinking so much. Maybe, thought Sam, the pressure was getting to Cas too.

"Seriously though," said Sam, "we need to take what Michael says seriously." "Maybe, she has been seduced by Lucifer."

"What is this?" said Dean, "Star Wars?" "She's being seduced by the dark side?" He set his beer bottle down. "Come on, when have the angels, present company excluded, ever done anything to make us trust them?"

At that, everyone went silent. Cas cracked open his 16th beer and looked around at all of them. "Alison is a good person," he began, "but we all know bad things happen to good people all the time." He paused, "like Jo and Ellen."

Again, the room filled with an unbearable silence. Bobby, who had been staring at his beer, finally spoke. "I wonder why."

He looked over at Cas, then Sam and Dean. "Why do bad things happen to good people." He pointed his bottle at Sam and Dean. "You lost your parents." He pointed at Cas. "You were kicked out of heaven." He pointed to himself. "My wife was possessed and I had to kill her." He slammed his bottle on the table. "Why is any of that fair?"

"It's not," said Sam quietly. "On the other hand, I did horrible things when I was with Ruby." He was now staring at his beer bottle. "Things I'll never be forgiven for." He sighed. "What's even worse, I knew they were bad, but I did them anyway." He looked around the table. "She may be a good person, like Jo and Ellen, but we don't know what she is capable of under the right circumstances."

Upstairs, the group was interrupted by a scream, and then a loud thump. Jasmine came running down the stairs and blood was streaming from her forehead.

"She attacked me," she shrieked as Dean approached her, "all I did was try to talk to her." Jasmine looked at Castiel. "I was wrong about her." Then she looked at Sam. "You have to contain her until Michael gets here.

"Where did she go?" asked Sam.

"I have a back stairway down the side of the house," said Bobby, "she probably took that."

Without warning, Cas flashed himself out of the house and Sam followed in pursuit while Dean attended to Jasmine and Bobby went to his home computer. Since his house was located on Singer Salvage, Bobby had an electrified fence around his house that he could turn off and on when he needed to. Punching in some keys, he turned the fence on, then he wheeled around to looked at Jasmine and Dean.

"Let's pray for a miracle," he said.