Two Months Later

Wellington, Ohio

Beth and Jesse looked up from the board game they were playing as Sam started questioning Dean on the TV show he was watching. The two hybrids shared a brief look of amusement as Dean tried to pass it off as channel-surfing and Sam rolled his eyes in good humour before he went off to grab his suit jacket and the case file on the current victim they were investigating.

"Right, we shouldn't be gone long," Dean started raising a finger in mock-warning at Beth and Jesse. "You two keep out of trouble and if anything happens—"

"Shoot first, ask questions later," Beth replied without looking away from the monopoly board. She was completely unaware that the phrase Dean had drilled into her head was the exact same one that their dad had drilled into Dean's head when he's a kid. "We'll be okay, Dean. I won't let anything happen to Jesse."

"Okay, good. We'll see you guys later," her older brother saluted at them and strolled out of the door with Sam hot on his heels.

Beth stood up, heading over to the door to lock it and watched through the window as Dean backed the Impala out of the parking space and waited until the car had disappeared around the corner before she turned around and sat down on the scratchy carpet, gesturing for Jesse to sit across from her.

"So, how have you been getting on with the exercises Cas gave us?" she asked softly, knowing that the kid was having as hard a time as she was with some of the things Castiel had been teaching them.

"I can make things move but I still can't teleport like he can," Jesse said, frustration clear in his voice. Beth gave his hand a reassuring squeeze, understanding flashing across her face.

"I haven't mastered that particular skill yet either," she admitted with a frown. "But I can make the light bulbs explode." Beth was quick to prove her statement as she glared up at the lightbulb and it exploded instantaneously, sending a shower of sparks and broken glass down on them.

"Y'know, kiddo, you could black out an entire town if you put your mind to it," a sudden voice said from behind them and Beth was on her feet seconds later, her long hair flying out as she quickly spun to face the intruder. Jesse scrambled to his feet behind her, making sure to keep the half-angel girl in front of him.

Beth's face screwed up coldly, her eyes darkening in anger when she realized who it was.

"…Gabriel."

Beth kept a secure grip on Jesse's hand, pulling him through yet another alleyway. After Gabriel, or the Trickster as her brothers knew him as, had explained to Beth and Jesse what was going to happen, he'd dropped them in TV-Land just like he'd done with Sam and Dean and then he disappeared, leaving Beth and Jesse no choice but to use what little experience they had with the powers as they found themselves surrounded by demons.

"Jesse, we have to keep going," she urged, knowing full well the boy was out of breathe and completely exhausted.

"My legs hurt," Jesse wheezed as he struggled to keep up with her fast pace. Beth stopped abruptly and crouched in front of him.

"Get on my back, I'll carry you for a while," she offered and waited patiently until he had wrapped his arms around her neck before she stood up and curled her hands around the back of his knees, carrying him piggyback style. "You okay up there?"

"Yeah. Thanks," Jesse replied quietly, unclasping his hands and letting his arms dangle past Beth's shoulders. "If anything comes at us, I'll take care of it."

"Just remember to focus and not waste too much energy." Jesse nodded in understanding. Beth smiled grimly and continued walking, taking care to focus on her surroundings. She didn't want to risk being caught off guard, especially when she had to take care of Jesse and keep him safe. She'd promised Dean she'd look after the kid and she'd be damned if she broke that promise now.

Beth had only stopped for a few seconds to take a much needed break, she had set Jesse down and slumped back against the wall, closing her eyes tightly and taking a deep breath in before exhaling harshly. A sudden gasping sound caught her attention and her eyes snapped open.

"D-Dad?" she whispered, the words catching painfully in her throat.

John Winchester stood in front of her, as tall and proud as she remembered him to be. Only this time, his face was cold, detached even, and he had Jesse in his grasp, a knife pressed to the boy's throat.

"Dad? What are you doing?" she asked fearfully. She looked down and met Jesse's terrified gaze.

"I didn't raise any of my kids to be weak," John said, his face eerily blank. "Not even the ones who were raised outside of the hunting life. But look at you, Bethany. Instead of saving your mom and Adam, you let them die. And now, you've befriended this monster, the same thing your brothers and I have spent our lives hunting. It's time you grew up Beth and stopped being a coward, a disappointment. It's time you learned how to be a real Winchester."

Tears stung Beth's eyes at her dad's harsh words and she bit her lip in an attempt to keep the tears from falling. She forced herself to get it together and raised her head to meet John's dark eyes.

"Screw you," Beth said, and then it was like something inside her broke and all she felt towards her dad was anger, disgust and bitter disappointment. "I wish I had never met you! Every time you left us behind killed my mom! The amount of times she cried over you, over a love you would never give her broke her into thousands of pieces and Adam and I were left to put her back together again!"

Beth charged at her dad, tackling him away from Jesse, who quickly crawled away from the quarrelling father and daughter. The knife John had been holding onto clattered to the floor about 10 feet away from them. Beth quickly interceded her dad when he attempted to go after it. Beth reared her fist back and punched John roughly in the face. John fought back, delivering a punch of his own—the force was enough to send Beth stumbling backwards, where she tripped and scraped her cheek on the way down. "I hate you for the false hope you gave her, she deserved better than you and I wish she'd figured that out before you brought all this supernatural crap down on us. Those ghouls only found out about us because they followed you right to us." Beth pushed herself back to her feet and kicked John in the chest, tapping into her angel strength to send her dad flying away from her.

John grabbed the knife from the ground, jumped back to his feet, swinging out at Beth with it, the blade cut through her skin with ease, leaving a semi-deep cut through her eyebrow and half way up her forehead. Beth grabbed his wrist, snapping it back, causing him to release the weapon with a shout of pain. "It should've been you! You ruined everything and you destroyed my family!"

Beth continued to deliver blow after blow to John's face, unaware that her brothers and Cas had appeared beside Jesse and that Gabriel was watching from afar, completely taken off guard at the sudden turn of events, he'd never expected that she would actually find the courage to tell her dad how she really felt, but he couldn't deny that he was unbelievably proud of her, for doing what he couldn't.

Sam and Dean watched with wide eyes, they too, were floored at Beth's reaction. She'd never opened up to them about how she really felt about their dad, so seeing and hearing it first hand was really eye opening. "And I couldn't give a rat's ass what you think of me, you can call me a disappointment and you can call me a coward, it doesn't matter. I am so done needing your approval." Beth kicked John once more, watching in satisfaction as her dad collided with a wall and hit the ground with a thud, remaining absolutely still. She turned around, her face devoid of any emotion as she raised her eyes to meet Dean's shell-shocked gaze. "I'm leaving, now. You can stay here if you want," was all she said before she pushed past them and headed towards the door.

Beth was getting sick and tired of Gabriel's games. She just wanted it all to end so she could get back to her life and pretend none of it had happened. But apparently that wasn't going to happen, not until they finished 'playing their roles'.

After the scene between her and her dad, Beth had been sent to one place and Sam and Dean had been sent somewhere else, but she had no idea where Castiel and Jesse were. So far, Beth had gone through about ten different channels, one had some crappy soap opera on it about a man and a woman who had defied all the odds that had been thrown at them and had gotten romantically involved with one another—Beth just assumed Gabriel knew about her and Castiel having had sex and he was trying to tease her about it relentlessly. Beth had been forced to play the female lead and a conjured-up Cas had played the male lead.

She was finally reunited with her brothers when she went through a chipped, white door and found herself in what looked like their motel room, only they were in front of a live studio audience. Sam and Dean were by the table, talking amongst themselves while a half-naked woman stood in the bedroom doorway. Beth kicked the door behind her closed, gaining the audiences' attention and they all clapped as they looked down at her, a few wolf whistles could even be heard, which made Beth clench her jaw as she walked over to her brothers.

"I am really, really sorry," Sam started, setting a hand on the black haired woman's shoulder and led her towards the door. "But we have work to do."

"But we did do work," the woman countered, sending a smirk up at Dean. "In depth."

Beth crossed her arms over her chest, fixing Dean with an unamused look as her brother tried to hide the smile spreading across his lips. The audience cheered loudly as Dean returned the dark haired woman's wave before the door shut in her face. Sam exhaled harshly, completely fed up with TV land.

"How long do we have to keep doing this?" Dean muttered to his siblings.

"I don't know," Sam admitted reluctantly.

"Don't look at me, how should I know?" Beth grumbled as they turned to look at her.

"Maybe we're stuck here forever?" Sam offered pitifully, gaining a round of chuckles from the audience. "We might die in here." The audience laughed again.

"How the hell is that funny?" Dean demanded, throwing his hands out as he glared in the direction of the audience. "Pack of damn vultures."

The door flew open suddenly and Castiel and Jesse came tumbling through it. The angel had a cut across the bridge of his nose that was bleeding slowly and Jesse had a few cuts and bruises on his arms and face.

"Cas! What the hell happened?" Beth asked, pulling his trench-coat open to see if he had any other injuries. Castiel grabbed Beth's hands, holding them tightly as he gave her a quick, reassuring look before his attention was drawn to an equally concerned Dean.

"I don't have much time," Cas explained.

"What happened?" Sam interrupted as he took in Cas' dishevelled appearance.

"I got out," the angel replied tightly. "Listen to me, something's not right—this thing is far more powerful than it should be." Beth glanced away, knowing without a doubt that Castiel had no idea that the trickster was actually Gabriel.

"What, the Trickster?" Dean asked.

"If it is a trickster," Castiel pointed out, walking closer to the hunters.

"What do you mean?"

"Cas!" Beth cried out as the angel was roughly thrown backwards against the wall, she scrambled after him and dropped to her knees, curling a hand around his arm. "Are you okay?"

Gabriel appeared seconds later, bursting through the door with a wide, cocky grin playing at his lips as he shouted a loud "Hello!" to the audience, in return, he got a serious of excited cheers and a round of applause.

Beth helped Castiel climb to feet, blinking in surprise as she caught sight of the duct tape that had somehow ended up across Cas' mouth.

"Hiya Castiel," Gabriel greeted cheerfully, staring at his brother with bright eyes. Castiel's eyes widened in disbelief and he looked to the Winchester brothers in panic, but before he could do anything, Gabriel waved a hand at him and both he, Beth and Jesse disappeared from sight.

The angel and the two hybrids stumbled in all directions as they suddenly touched down in a dirty old warehouse. Their clothes were all askew from the many different channels they'd been through and they all seemed to have gained even more cuts and bruises. Beth even had a black eye and a split lip.

Beth glanced around in confusion, her right eye throbbing painfully. She finally turned around and caught sight of her brothers. She immediately ran across the concrete floor and threw herself at Dean, hugging him with all her might.

"Hey, it's okay. I got you," Dean promised her quietly, wrapping his arms tightly around her in return. Gabriel watched the exchange wistfully, remembering a time when Michael would've done the same for him when he was upset or scared. Oh, how he wished he could go back to those days, but he knew it was pointless—his family would never be whole again. "Cas, are you okay?" Dean met Cas' weary gaze in concern, something that surprised Gabriel even more—did these humans genuinely care for his brother? He got his answer as Sam reached out and gripped Cas' shoulder with his large hand, conveying with his hazel eyes that he was glad Castiel was relatively unharmed and back with them.

"Hello, Gabriel," Castiel said lowly, his eyes narrowing as he looked down on his older brother.

"Hey bro," Gabriel returned, snapping out of his thoughts. "How's the search for daddy going? Let me guess, awful." He raised his eyebrows and sent his brother a pointed look, paying little attention to the way Castiel's eyes widened in anger or the way Beth pulled out of Dean's embrace and reached out to link her fingers between Cas' without even thinking about it.

"C'mon, we're leaving," Dean said, gaining everyone's attention. Beth remained holding Castiel's hand as she beckoned Jesse over. The shaggy-haired kid scuffed his feet as he walked over to stand beside Beth. They all turned away from Gabriel, walking slowly in the direction of the exit. Though Beth kept looking back over her shoulder at him. She was furious at the Archangel for what he'd put them all through over the past couple of days but she couldn't deny that she cared about him too—he'd been more of a dad to her and Adam than John had ever been. He'd been there when Beth walked for the first time and when Adam said his first word. He was the one who had kept track of each and every milestone the Milligan-Winchester twins reached. He was the first, real friend Beth ever had, aside from her twin and mom of course. She couldn't just leave him trapped in the holy fire.

"So, you're just gonna leave me here?" Gabriel called out. Beth's brothers ignored him at first, until Dean reached the switch that would turn the sprinklers on.

"No. We're not," Dean explained as he turned back to face the archangel. "We're not gonna do that because we don't screw with people for kicks the way you do. And while we're at it, this isn't about some prize fight between your brothers or some destiny that can't be stopped, this is about you being too afraid to stand up to your family!" Dean's voice rose with his anger until he was shouting at Gabriel.

"Dean, that's enough," Beth warned softly, taking pity on Gabriel. She raised her fist and drove it into the glass, it shattered easily and a wailing sound filled the air before the sprinklers sputtered to life and the holy fire began to die down. Castiel reached out and took her hand, waving his fingers over her bloody, torn up knuckles and healing them instantly.

"Don't say we never did anything for you!" Dean called over his shoulder as he herded his siblings, Cas and Jesse out the door. "All that stuff he was spouting in there, think any of its true?" Dean asked as they all crowded around the Impala.

"I think he believes it," Sam answered with a heavy sigh.

"So, what do we do?"

"I'm all out of suggestions," Beth said, leaning back against the car and resting her head on the room.

"I'll tell you something, right about now, I'm wishing I was back in TV land," Dean admitted.

"Me too," Sam agreed softly.

"I have to disagree, especially after all that crap that I had to go through," Beth input, gaining a nod of agreement from Jesse and Castiel.

"Yeah, about that, we're gonna have a real long talk about that soon," Dean promised, giving Beth a look that suggested she didn't have a choice in the matter. She huffed in frustration but didn't bother arguing with her brother, knowing that it would get her nowhere. The conversation came to an abrupt end and they all climbed into the car, slamming the doors behind them. Dean started the car and they drove off without even looking back.