Previously: After being prayed to very persistently, Cas agrees to stay with Nia at night so she can sleep in safety. She starts to warm up to him then Dean finds Cas and the angel convinces Nia to join them to travel to the door. Their first meeting doesn't go well when Nia takes a swing at Benny and kicks Dean in the...

Chapter 4 – Working out the Kinks

Castiel had every intention of finding a believable way of separating himself from Dean. He really did.

He would wait a few days, long enough for Nia to become accustomed to Dean and Benny so she would stay with them and let Dean take her back home through this door, then he would leave. That was his plan. But over the next few days, Cas noticed the weary lines on the hunter's face and the defeated look in his eyes had lifted slightly. Whether it was due to his new mission of getting them all home or just the simple matter of having others to fight for, his vigor seemed renewed. He didn't see the near hopelessness he had detected in Dean's nightly prayers.

It was clear that two and a half months of the bloody, violent struggle to keep breathing had taken its toll on his friend. Dean hadn't had much fight left in him when he had reached Purgatory in the first place and his mission to find Cas had been his fuel to keep going this far. He had lost everyone and everything he cared about with the exception of Sam and had barely been hanging on even before he had been rewarded for killing Dick Roman with a free ride to a land full of monsters who wanted to rip the flesh from his bones.

Even as the memory-challenged Emanuel, Cas had been able to see this. Even through his bout of insanity after taking on Sam's affliction, this had been clear. Cas had felt for his friend. He felt sympathy, felt worry, felt guilt. A lot of guilt - for this was all his fault. His stupidity, his ignorance, and his astounding arrogance had brought the Leviathan to the world and fixing Cas's mistake had cost Dean dearly.

And now he didn't want the price on his head to cost Dean his life. He knew he should leave before he led the Leviathan right to Dean – and to Nia – but the Winchesters had always been stubborn and… compelling. Every time Dean would lift an eyebrow and give him that small sideways smile in greeting as he approached, Cas felt his friend's forgiveness sweep through him. In the times they walked side by side, the ease of their past friendship re-emerged and Cas would find himself forgetting about the Leviathan and his multitude of sins for a few brief, blissful moments.

Then there was Nia. Despite the majority of the hours they had spent together having passed in silence, Castiel knew he would miss her company also. She seemed to have formed a peculiar attachment to him in the past three weeks and he could tell she was reluctant to extend Dean and Benny the same courtesy. He felt a genuine affection for her also, one he hadn't expected and one he felt completely unworthy of, but one he found pleasing.

She was quiet and kept her distance during the day as they traveled, walking twenty yards behind the rest of them or off to the side, eyeing Dean and Benny – mostly Benny – with unease and suspicion. On occasion she would move up and walk next to Cas for a while, sticking close to him and keeping his bulk between her and the others.

The first time he felt Leviathan approaching and had to wing out suddenly, he returned to find Dean and Benny scouring the area, their faces expressing both worry and frustration.

"Cas!" Dean cried in relief when he appeared next to the hunter. "She took off!" He threw his hands up in exasperation. "You disappeared then she just freaking bolted. Again!"

Cas knew Dean's annoyance was more worry than anything else. Even though Nia had not yet made any effort to talk to the hunter past their introductory 'you stink', she was human and Dean would do anything to protect her regardless.

"She will come back," Cas assured him. If she didn't, he would go retrieve her but he thought it better to let her return of her own accord.

"She's out there on her own." Dean didn't look appeased.

"Somethin' tells me that little bit can look out for herself," said Benny.

Dean eyed the surrounding trees restlessly before turning back to the angel. Cas nodded in reassurance, agreeing with Benny's observation. Only then did Dean's shoulders relax a little.

"What's with her?" Dean asked, taking advantage of the opportunity to freely discuss their strange traveling companion. "I mean, she's kinda… you know, two cans short of a six-pack. Got the whole Mowgli vibe goin' on."

"She has been through a lot," Cas replied simply.

"About that, exactly how long has she been here?"

"Two years, one month, and twelve days. Then there was the year she was possessed by one of Crowley's demons before that."

Dean's eyes widened in shock. "Are you telling me a ninety pound girl survived two years of this? Alone?"

Cas was about to correct Dean's inaccurate value of Nia's weight but bit his tongue. "Not exactly. From what I can gather, she spent her first six months in Purgatory as the prisoner of a lone vampire then the next year as the prisoner of a large nest of vampires. She only escaped perhaps six or seven months ago."

Dean took a second to absorb the information. "Shit Cas," he breathed. "I've barely survived two months… and I wouldn't have without Benny having my back."

"She is resilient."

"That's an understatement," Benny chimed in, looking genuinely sympathetic.

"So how'd she land herself in Purgatory?" Dean asked.

Cas frowned, remembering how he had suggested to Crowley that they test their gate.

"I sent her here," he said flatly.

He didn't miss the appalled look that crossed Dean's face so he turned and walked quickly away before the hunter could press the issue.

~X~X~X~X~

Nia did return, just as Cas thought she would, right before nightfall. He explained the reason for his sudden departure to her, warning that it would happen again and that she needed to stick with Dean until he returned.

"Yeah, Nia, I'm human just like you," Dean said gently. "I'm not gonna hurt you… or eat you. We're going to find this door and go home together, okay?"

He came to stand as close as a few feet away, just out of her kicking range. Cas noticed his hand hovering a little nervously in front of his groin. "Do you believe me?" Dean pressed.

Nia stared at him for a long time and after glancing to Cas for reassurance, finally nodded. Dean seemed pleased with his progress and gestured to Benny. "He's not gonna hurt you either," he defended.

She narrowed her eyes. "He'll trade you in. Or kill you in your sleep. Drink your blood and..."

"Come on now, little bit," Benny urged calmly. "I ain't like most vampires. I ain't like Luthor."

Dean raised an eyebrow. "Who's Luthor?"

"Luthor's the reason every vamp we come across knows my name and tries to take my head off," Benny explained, addressing Dean. He looked back at Nia. "He ain't no friend of mine, I can promise you that."

She sneered. "Still a vampire."

Cas hadn't decided yet how he felt about Benny. He had seen or heard nothing that would indicate the vampire's motives were not pure. Even if the camaraderie was being faked, it made sense he would do his best to keep Dean alive anyway so he could 'hitch a ride' back topside. But as far as Cas could tell, the friendship between the pair seemed genuine. He wasn't sure he liked the feeling that evoked in him, an unfamiliar and very un-angelic sentiment he believed to be jealousy, so he kept any lingering reservations to himself.

Dean decided they should get moving and as they headed out along the narrow path, Nia tucked in behind Cas. The next time the angel popped out to lead the Leviathan away, he returned to find her still with the others, walking thirty feet behind Dean while Benny led the way.

At nights she remained much closer, curling up on the ground right next to Cas, as had become their routine before joining Dean and Benny. Their first night as a group, Dean assigned Cas the first watch and the angel couldn't help but smile as the hunter stretched out on his back in the shelter of a protruding tree root and closed his eyes.

"What's so funny?" Dean groused, opening one lid to peer at his friend.

"I thought you didn't like it when I watched you sleep."

Dean rolled his eyes. "You're keeping watch, dude. There's a difference. Watching me sleep is still creepy."

"I like it when he watches," Nia defended.

"Hear that, Cas?" the hunter chuckled. Cas noticed the whites of Dean's teeth glinting in the near-darkness and knew he was now being made fun of or teased for something, though he wasn't sure what. "Ain't that sweet."

"It's safe," Nia added more quietly. Dean's smile disappeared and he sighed into the darkness, not saying anything more.

They were all up and moving shortly after dawn, Dean and Nia munching on their fruit as they walked. Cas overheard a few mumbled comments between the two men ahead about being sure to walk upwind from Nia, who was still keeping her clothes dirty and smeared with foul-smelling plants and animal scat in order to mask her human smell. He too found it repugnant but was obviously able to ignore it far easier than Benny and Dean. He considered pointing out to her that with Dean so close by, there was no point in masking her own humanity, but decided not to push.

It was their third night together and they settled near the bank of the creek about fifty miles downstream from where Dean had found Cas. There was about an hour of daylight left before Purgatory's abrupt nightfall would be upon them and Nia had gone off by herself with her bow drawn.

"Dude, shouldn't you have gone with her?" Dean questioned Cas, eyeing the surrounding forest anxiously. "I can get food. She doesn't have to hunt. Not by herself anyway."

"She is quite capable," Cas assured him. He was fairly confident by now that Nia would call him if she ran into anything she couldn't handle.

"I'm not arguing that but…" Dean frowned.

Cas understood it was Dean's nature to be protective so it did not surprise him the hunter had quickly become so where Nia was concerned. The girl was younger, smaller, and female and without Sam around, a prime candidate to fulfill the big brother's need to protect someone. Dean's measure of self-worth had always been based on what he perceived his value to others to be.

Nia returned less than half an hour later, grinning widely as she held a small animal the size of a rabbit to Dean with an outstretched arm. He took it from her with a look of polite disgust and she took a quick step back from him.

"Uhhh, you know we can't light a fire, right?" he said, pointing upwards. "Dragons'll see us."

"Fire?" she questioned, her expression alarmed. "What for?"

"To cook this," he grimaced at the pungent animal dangling from his fist. "Whatever the Hell this is."

"Can't cook in Purgatory."

"No, I know that," Dean said. "That's what I'm saying."

She just stared at him. "Don't cook it."

"I don't plan on cooking it, sweetheart." Dean's exasperation was evident in his voice. "But what am I supposed to do with it?"

"Eat it." She rolled her eyes at him.

"Raw? Are you crazy? I'm not a vampire. Us humans can't eat raw meat."

"Actually, that's a Hakredin," Benny interjected. "Native to Purgatory. Salty but no germs or beasties. It won't hurt ya."

Dean gave him an incredulous look. "I've been eating fruit and those disgusting eel-things for weeks and you're just telling me now that I got more options?"

Benny shrugged, reaching forward and taking the dead animal from Dean. "They taste like dead ass." He pulled out a knife to skin it. "Besides, they move like lightnin'. I ain't never been able to kill one before."

Nia grinned. "I'm fast."

"It helps that your scent is so foul the Hakredin don't smell you coming," Cas pointed out.

Her smile disappeared and her face fell, hurt filling her amber eyes. Dean winced when he noticed it. "Uh, Nia, he didn't mean…"

But she was gone, turning and trotting quickly into the woods behind them.

Dean gave Cas an disbelieving look. "Dude," he chastised. "That was mean."

"It was not intended as such," Cas defended honestly. He had meant it as a compliment. Disguising her scent was smart. The unpleasant smell was a small price to pay for moving almost undetected in a land teeming with predators. Dean would be wise to follow suit but the hunter had refused.

While she was gone, Benny sliced Nia's hunting spoils into thin slivers of meat, handing some to Dean and setting some aside for the girl. Dean was extremely vocal about how much he disliked the taste but Cas watched as the hunter ate every single piece, finishing with a sighed mumble about a man needing his red meat and something indecipherable about cheese.

With only fifteen minutes left until dark, Nia prayed.

"Castiel."

He winged instantly to find her standing on the bank of the creek, a couple of hundred yards from the camp. "Nia."

"Cas," she said slowly, sounding out the name. "Your human calls you Cas."

Cas nodded. "I am to understand it is a term of endearment."

She tilted her head thoughtfully. "Can I call you Cas?"

"I would like that very much." He looked around, not seeing any signs of danger. "Is that why you called me here?"

She shook her head. "I need to go in the river."

He frowned. "That is not wise. There are many dangerous creatures beneath the waters. You will not see them coming."

"Can you keep them away for me?"

The river was wide and fast-flowing at this point but the bank on which they stood followed the curve of a small eddy, a shallow haven of calm water. He nodded. "I can."

With that he promptly waded out to the mouth of the eddy, where the water was just past his knees. He turned around and gave her a questioning look.

"Will this suffice? I can keep the eddy free of harmful things." He was curious what she needed in the water.

She nodded and shrugged out of her bulky jacket, dropping it on the pebbles at her feet to reveal an equally dirty, colorless tank top beneath. She lifted one foot at a time to remove her boots then looked back at him, standing there in her bare feet.

After a long moment during which she never moved, he arched a questioning eyebrow. "It is safe," he assured her. "No creatures nearby."

"C-Can you look away?" she asked hesitantly.

A sudden flush came over him as he realized she wanted to undress to get in the water. "Oh, uh, yes," he stammered, turning quickly, the hem of his trench coat swirling in the current.

He stood stiffly, searching the dark water around them with all of his senses and making an extra effort to remain facing away from her. He could hear small splashes behind him as she did whatever she was doing.

Then he saw it, a barely perceptible outline moving beneath the water, one that would never have been caught by a human eye. It was a small Jormungandr headed right for Nia. They were serpents that had been extinct on earth for tens of thousands of years so it had been a long time since Cas had seen one, but he remembered them vividly. They were vicious and extremely fast , though still no match for the angel.

He flashed over to where it swam, plunged a fist into the water and wrapped his fingers around its narrow neck. He rose up with it in his hand and tore it in two, tossing each piece in opposite directions, so far and so fast Nia would never see nor hear them land. He twirled to flash back to the spot where he had been standing guard, knowing he had moved so quickly she would never even know he had budged.

It was only for a fraction of a heartbeat that his eyes absently drifted her way but that was long enough for an angel to see everything - every detail he wasn't supposed to be seeing. She sat in the shallow water with her legs folded under her, sitting back on her heels... completely naked. Her arms were lifted, fingers threading through her long hair, trying to pull through the multitude of knots. She had a small frame, as he knew despite the baggy clothes she always wore, but he was surprised at how delicate she looked like this, how feminine and curvy and how... positively exquisite. The last rays of Purgatory's sun gleamed off her smooth, wet skin, her hair falling around her shoulders in thick, inky strands.

He flashed back to his spot at the mouth of the eddy, stumbling just a little with the distraction. He heard her gasp and knew she was looking at him but he kept his back turned, pretending he had never moved.

"Still safe?" she questioned, sounding nervous.

He nodded stiffly. "No, er, yes. Yes. No creatures in the water."

She spent another minute or so splashing in the river behind him before he heard her footsteps move up the pebbled beach. He remained as he was until she called his name.

He turned around to find her standing on the beach fully dressed, wearing the same dirty trousers and ripped, foul-smelling jacket as before, but her face was clean and her hair was long and straight, hanging wet down her back. She was barely recognizable. With olive skin and high cheekbones, she looked much more her age than she had with layers of dirt hiding everything but her eyes. She looked gentle, nothing at all like the fierce, dirty thing that had rammed her scimitar through the neck of a Djinn earlier today with a primal shriek.

She was giving him a timid smile. "Better?" she asked hesitantly.

He nodded. "You look quite lovely," he told her, remembering how Emanuel's wife Daphne would always smile when he used that compliment. 'Hot' would have been his second choice since it never failed to get a smiled reaction when Dean used it to flatter a woman, but Cas suspected it wasn't quite as fitting for this situation as 'lovely'.

"We should get back to the others," he suggested. "It is almost dark."

She simply nodded and scooped up her bow and her blade before marching off into the trees towards their camp. Cas fell in behind her, still feeling a flush of uncomfortably-high temperature in his cheeks.

Dean and Benny were on their feet with their weapons in hand when Cas and Nia emerged from the woods into the little clearing they had chosen for a camp. Their shoulders relaxed when recognition hit but Dean's eyes widened when he took in the sight of Nia.

"You're clean!" he exclaimed.

She shrugged, hovering next to Cas. "They smell you, they smell me."

"She had a bath in the river," Cas explained unnecessarily.

Dean was still staring at Nia in disbelief. "Wow, you really are a girl after all." He smirked suddenly, waggling his eyebrows at her. "A hot one, too."

Nia didn't reply and the hunter looked over to Cas with a teasing grin on his face. "Dude, you totally snuck a peak, didn't you? You scoundrel."

"I assure you, I did not," Cas denied quickly. He could feel how tense Nia was, standing so close that she was brushing against his coat, and he wasn't sure if it was Dean's scrutiny making her uncomfortable or the implication that the angel had betrayed her trust. It occurred to him that he badly wanted to keep that intact, that her strange and unexpected trust in him meant a lot whether as part of his quest for redemption or of his personal sentiment.

Dean must have picked up on Nia's nervousness too for the cheeky grin on his face softened to a kind smile. "You look nice, Nia," he said politely. "And thank-you for dinner. It was delicious."

Benny snorted quietly from where he stood fifteen feet away, watching the exchange from a distance as usual. Dean gave him a warning glare but the vampire tactfully didn't divulge what Dean had really said of the meal.

Nia relaxed, going so far as to give Dean a smile before she moved over to sit on the tree stump near the edge of the camp, bringing her knees up to her chest and once again tackling the tangled mess that was her hair.

Darkness was upon them and the group got ready for their nightly shifts. Dean scuffed out a smooth spot in the dirt with his boot while Cas took up his post at the edge of the clearing.

Although Cas needed no sleep, Dean and Benny still took turns on watch just in case the angel had to leave suddenly. Leviathan didn't attack at night but many other creatures did and since Cas could sense them before they picked up on the scent of the two humans, he would often wing out to intercept them at a distance. Nia had offered to take her turn on watch also but Benny wasn't willing to close his eyes with her around. Cas believed that to be a wise precaution.

He watched the vampire now as Benny buried the scraps of the Hakredin that Nia had killed. It occurred to him the girl hadn't eaten yet, This must have occurred to Benny at the same time because the vampire was currently carrying her portion of the shaved meat over to her on a large leaf serving as a plate.

It dawned on Cas too slowly that the friendly gesture was a bad idea. Nia was still pulling and tugging at her hair, distracted as Benny reached out and gently touched her shoulder.

She reacted quickly and violently, jerking away from the vampire's outstretched hand and sweeping her scimitar backwards in a smooth arc. Benny arched back to evade the steel blade and took a few quick steps backwards, raising his hands in the air.

"Calm down, calm down," he said soothingly in his soft, Louisiana drawl. Nia was standing now, weapon braced in front of her. Benny pointed to the meat that had dropped at her feet. "I was just bringing you some food."

"She doesn't like to be touched," Cas explained.

Benny nodded in apparent understanding. "At least not by a vampire, right?" He questioned, increasing the distance between them a little further. "My apologies, Little Bit. It won't happen again."

Cas was grudgingly impressed with the vampire. He certainly knew how to keep calm and his compassion was genuine. He didn't disguise his displeasure at having Cas 'the monster magnet' join the little group, but he was no longer overtly antagonistic towards the angel and he didn't appear to hold a grudge against Nia even though it was clear she would hack his head off given half a chance.

When she just kept glaring at him from her defensive stance, Benny finally shook his head and sighed as he retreated back over towards Dean.

Dean laughed at his friend's predicament. "Baby steps, dude. Baby steps. She'll get there."

~X~X~X~X~

It was late the next afternoon when things took a turn for the worse. The motley group was trudging through a seemingly endless swampy area, everyone but Cas irritable and foul-tempered. The angel knew well enough to keep his musings and observations of the fascinating aspects of the swamp life to himself as recounting these facts only seemed to irritate the humans and the vampire further. Nia remained quiet but walked with a scowl on her face where as Dean griped out loud constantly. Even the ever-cool Benny was snapping and complaining, his usual whistling having stopped some hours earlier.

Cas was just about to warn Nia behind him of a particularly deep mud hole in her path when he felt them - Leviathan had locked on to him. He winged out instantly and spent the next three hours dodging them and fighting them, narrowly escaping on several instances and taking a few hard blows on others. He finally managed to flee far enough and fast enough to shake them off his trail. He hunkered down in a safe place to wait a few hours before returning to Dean and Nia, just to be sure.

Only fifteen minutes passed before he heard the prayer.

"Cas!" It was Nia's voice, full of fear, panic, and pain.

He winged back to his friends immediately, appearing ankle deep in mud amid utter chaos. There were dozens of creatures around, children by their size, all screeching and howling and clambering over each other.

No, not over each other, Cas realized. They were clawing and crowding his friends. "Dean!" he cried, rushing forward to the closest pile of writhing bodies. He grabbed the creature on the top by the back of the neck and tossed it backwards, not bothering to look where he was throwing him. He reached for the next and the next and continued pulling them off the hunter and throwing them. He could hear Dean grunting and gasping somewhere under the mass of bodies and a blade jabbed up through the back of one of them. It rolled sideways to reveal the hunter, dirty and bloody and fighting for his life.

"Cas," Dean choked, still swinging his blade frantically above him, a feat more easily done now with less bodies in the way.

Cas pulled the last few off, noting they were already dead. Probably the reason Dean was still breathing, he surmised. The layer of slain creatures between the hunter and the live ones clawing at him had kept him from being eaten alive before Cas could get to him.

He identified them as changelings. Changelings could take the shapeof any human child, their true form being of similar stature but with hollowed out faces and a circular spiral of pointed teeth in their enlarged mouths. They lived in hives, consisting of the worker changelings and one mother changeling. This must be a huge hive for the swamp was practically vibrating with the hundred shrill voices in the air.

Knowing Dean was hurt but seeing that he was at least out of immediate danger, Cas stood up and looked around sharply. He saw Benny in the distance struggling against another swarm of the half-size, humanoid creatures but ignored the vampire's plight, searching out Nia instead. When she was safe, he would help Benny - Cas he felt no guilt for putting the human first. A scream called his attention upwards and he spun around to see Nia high in a tree, a dozen of the creatures clawing their way up the trunk and branches.

He could hear coughing from the hunter on the ground behind him as he sprinted away towards the tree. He grabbed the first two changelings he came to at the base of the trunk and tossed them aside but looking up he saw that there were fourteen more within the tree's branches. Nia had scrambled to the outer end of a branch that was bending precariously under her weight but the only weapon she held was a small four inch knife and there were several creatures closing in on her.

He could see new blood soaking her shredded jacket and on her face and hands and she was trembling as she tried to cling to the branch and hold her knife before her at the same time.

"Ni-a!"

The name came out in a sputtering cough from Dean, who was stumbling his way towards the tree. "Oh crap! Benny!" Dean choked, clearly noticing his friend's predicament also. "Shit!"

"I will help Nia," Cas offered quickly, allowing Dean to go help his vampire friend. Dean nodded and tightened his grip on his makeshift weapon before staggering over towards the pile of howling creatures who had just managed to pull Benny under.

Cas moved over so he was directly beneath Nia, hurling a few creatures out of his way as he went. "Nia!" He looked up. "Jump. I will catch you."

She peered down at him and he frowned at the terror he saw in her eyes. She whimpered and looked back at the closest creature, lashing out at it with her knife. It launched itself at her, sinking its teeth into her forearm as it knocked them both off the branch. Cas punched the changeling as it passed him on its way to the ground and moved both arms in between it and the falling human. He managed to catch her and absorb the impact of the thirty-foot fall despite her flailing limbs.

She struggled in his arms for a second before her fists wrapped in his coat and she fell still, panting heavily. She twisted in his hold to face him and her eyes locked on his for a moment, still wide with confusion and fear. Finally she collected herself and squirmed her way free, pushing at him until her feet were on the ground and she could step away quickly. She stood panting and swaying and he could tell she was in bad shape but the changelings in the tree started dropping to the ground in pursuit of their escaped prey and he spun to begin killing them.

He was throwing them and smiting them and kicking them to the ground left, right, and center but they just kept coming. Amid the launched attacks, he moved toward where Dean and Benny were standing back to back swinging frantically and sending heads flying in every direction. He yanked Nia in close behind him as he moved, keeping her shielded from three sides so she could fight them one or two at a time as they came at her from behind the pair.

They had killed dozens but there were still so many coming at them. After a long, hard day fighting Leviathan, Cas knew he did not have enough strength to keep them all at bay and his human charges would not last much longer. The changeling bites were not poisonous but the creatures sucked a certain fluid that would weaken the humans and both Dean and Nia were sporting several obvious bites.

He needed to kill the mother. He used his angel senses to search the surrounding swamp and found her hovering a hundred feet away.

"Dean," he alerted, giving the skilled hunter just a second's notice before shoving Nia forward so she was standing next to him.

Dean caught his eye and nodded, stepping forward to bring the girl into the huddle, positioned just slightly behind him. "I got her," he said briskly.

Cas winged out and appeared next to the mother, placing a hand on her forehead and calling on what little power he had left at this point. She screamed and lights exploded behind her hollowed-out cheeks before she fell to the ground, dead.

The swamp instantly fell silent, the shrill buzz of fifty hungry monsters stopping abruptly. Cas flashed back to his friends and watched with them as the changelings started scurrying away in every direction, confused and panicked.

When the last one had disappeared into the surrounding vegetation, Dean let out a loud, pained groan and leaned forward to rest his hands on his knees. All but Cas were panting heavily and all three were covered in mud and blood.

"Everyone alright?" Benny asked.

At the spoken question, it seemed to just dawn on Nia that she was standing right next to the vampire and she quickly scampered a few feet away. She turned back towards them, scowling and narrowing her eyes directly at Dean.

"This is Purgatory! Don't think, just kill!"

~X~X~X~X~

Cas was sharing the first watch-shift with Dean, sitting side by side at the mouth of a cave they had appropriated from a now-deceased Rugaru near dusk. Dean had barely managed to make it to the edge of the swamp without passing out from his numerous bite wounds and was still cleaning and bandaging the worst of them now. His left thigh had been torn and bleeding profusely. Nia had insisted she was fine and could take care of herself then had passed out shortly after crawling into the cave. None of the men thought it a wise idea to check her person for untended bites so they just took her word for it. She hadn't lived this long alone by neglecting wounds that needed cleaning.

Dean let out a long, weary sigh, resting his chin on his knees. "I almost got everyone killed today," he blurted.

Cas lifted a questioning eyebrow.

"It came up to me looking like a little kid. I hesitated. Dumb ass move, I know but..."

"You are compassionate, Dean. That is not a flaw."

"It is here."

Cas didn't argue that valid point.

"Nia kept saying to kill it but it was a little boy and it was crying and I thought, well you already found one human here and..." he shook his head. "It was stupid. It distracted me and then suddenly there was a hundred of them."

"That is what Nia meant when she said 'Don't think, just kill'." Cas observed.

Dean nodded. "You know, at one point, she came at me with that blade of hers swinging and... damn, I wasn't sure if she was coming after me or the changeling. I mean, I gotta admit, she kinda creeps me out sometimes."

Cas frowned. "She is a good person, Dean."

"I get that. But one minute she's this sweet little thing then..." He curled his hands into claws in the air and pantomimed a wild animal attacking. "Raaarr."

"It is hard for her to be sure you will not harm her," Cas defended.

"I know but shit, Cas, I thought I had trust issues."

Benny emerged from the surrounding trees, announcing his arrival as usual with a low whistle. He tossed Dean a yellow piece of fruit. "Here you go, brother. That ought to keep you in the land of the living 'til morning."

"Thanks, man," said Dean, taking a big bite. It occurred to Cas that Benny had not needed asked to search out food for Dean while the hunter had an injured leg; he had volunteered.

"Got this for Nia," the vampire said, taking a seat on the ground next to Dean and handing him a bundle of cloth.

Dean opened it up to reveal a dark jacket, in very good shape and small enough to fit the petite girl quite well. It was thick and warm and had plenty of pockets.

"Got it off one of the stray changelings," Benny shrugged.

Dean grinned and elbowed his friend in jest. "You think this'll get you off her hit list?"

Benny snorted in response. "Not likely."

Dean's mirth didn't last long. Apparently he wasn't done blaming himself yet.

"She almost got killed today," he said, his voice low.

"So did you," Benny pointed out. "So did I; thanks for noticing."

"That's different," Dean shook his head. "She's..."

"A girl?" Benny cut in.

Dean was still frowning. "Not just that. She's so young. I mean, she's barely more than a kid."

Benny snorted again. "For starters, you've been a hell of a lot friendlier with a hell of a lot younger by the stories you tell. Besides, I assure you, any piece if childhood Nia still had got ripped out the moment she got thrown in Purgatory. What she's been through... there ain't no childhood innocence left, brother."

Dean didn't look convinced.

Benny kept talking. "Don't let the sweet smile and the fact that she could fit in your pocket fool you. First time we met her, she'd have slit your throat as soon as look at you if Angel Cakes here hadn't vouched for you." Benny gestured over at Cas, who was still sitting quietly on Dean's other side. "She'll still take any chance she gets to separate my head from my neck," he stated matter-of-factly. "But it ain't her fault. Her time here ain't been easy."

"Ditto on that one," Dean scoffed.

"Not exactly the same kind of easy." Benny paused and gave Dean a curious look. "What do you think went on for the year she was with Luthor?"

Cas glanced at the hunter's face and saw the shock and horror that surfaced when realization took hold.

"They fed from her," Dean breathed, his voice husky and almost pleading for that to be the whole truth.

Benny nodded. "Yeah, yeah they did. But she was the entertainment, Dean. Their sport. Their fun. Vampires find fun in exactly three ways. Killing, feeding, and..." He tactfully didn't finish the sentence. "I actually tried to steal her about a year ago," he admitted. "Figured I'd use her to get through the door. Turns out Luthor was quite attached to his little plaything. I mean, a human in Purgatory's quite the prize. Bragging rights an' all."

"That is the reason you have a price on your head," Cas stated.

Benny nodded. "And the reason every vamp in Purgatory wants the same thing little Nia wants; my ugly-mug on a pigpole."

They were all silent for a few minutes before Dean spoke. "Well, I'm gonna find that portal and get her out of here if it's the last thing I do."

Benny chuckled. "Know what I think? I think the big brother thing's so ingrained in you it's part of your make-up and you just can't help yourself. And I think you're missing that little brother of yours something fierce."

Cas was surprised at how well Benny seemed to know Dean and decided the vampire was indeed legitimate. It was strange for a vampire to have more to them than the violence and the killing and sadistic tendencies, never mind for them to exhibit real human traits such as compassion and sympathy. Watching Dean and Benny together and seeing how understanding Benny was with Nia, however, convinced him the vampire was genuine.

Another quick pang of jealousy passed through him. Cas shared a bond with Dean but things had always been so complicated between them. Outside forces had pitted them on conflicting sides more than once and it had challenged and strained their friendship many times even before the angel had made the biggest of all mistakes and betrayed his loyal friend.

He was determined to do right by Dean this time round. He would not let him down again. And he would not let Nia down.

Yes, Castiel had every intention of finding a believable way of separating himself from Dean. He really did. But Dean and Nia would have been dead today had the angel not been there. Maybe he would stick around a little longer... just to keep them safe.

~X~X~X~X~

A/N: I know there wasn't a lot of action in that chapter while the gang makes their adjustments but I assure you, things heat up next chapter when Cas finds himself feeling Dean's wrath. Please review, I'll love you for it, good or bad.