SO SORRY about the delay in posting. Things have been crazy the past few weeks. I think this is the longest I've ever taken to post – over three weeks! Yikes. Again, so sorry. I struggled to get the juices flowing again so this chapter may not be the best, but hopefully I am back on schedule now.

Previously: Nia is growing more trustful of Cas, so much so she comes up to him and holds his hand as he stands on guard watching the camp one night. A Kahn-worm crawls into Dean, taking him over and he does the angel-banishing spell on Cas. It doesn't send Cas away but hurts him badly, weakening him so much he can't help. Benny fights Dean but doesn't want to kill his friend so he holds back. Dean hurts Nia with both words and his boot before Benny manages to knock him out. Then Cas passes out.

Chapter 6 – Blast from the Past

Castiel wasn't familiar with the disorienting feeling one gets when waking up from unconsciousness. In fact, he wasn't even sure he had passed out but the confused state his brain was in and the blank gap in his memory definitely indicated a lapse in consciousness. The last thing he remembered was Dean was crumpling to the ground after Benny struck him on the back of the head. Now, as he strained to bring focus to his blurry vision, he saw Dean tied to a tree stump with belts, including the one from Cas's coat. The hunter's head was twitching as he too fought his way back to consciousness.

Cas forced himself up into a seated position, twisting his throbbing head around in search of the others. He saw Benny over by the rocky outcrop, squatted down in front of Nia who was huddled at the base of the rock that held the bloody banishing symbol. Her scimitar was gripped tightly in one hand while her other arm was folded across her belly. Memories of what had happened were coming back to Cas sporadically and the one of Dean kicking the small girl repeatedly in the stomach flashed to his mind. His hearing was faint and he seemed to have developed an echo within his skull but Benny's words slowly became decipherable.

"Just stay over here, alright?" Benny was practically pleading Nia. "I'm telling you, it wasn't him. I got him trussed up good, okay? He ain't gonna hurt you. Just…" he had his hands spread in front of him in a calming gesture, "…just keep that blade to yourself 'til we get this figured out, hear me?"

It wasn't hard to figure out Benny didn't trust Nia not to kill Dean the moment he turned his back. Cas tried to push himself to his feet but dropped back down to his knees with a grunt. Benny and Nia both turned to look his way at the sound.

"Cas!" Nia gasped, scrambling sideways to skirt past the vampire and reach him.

"Welcome back," Benny drawled, rising to his full height. "Think maybe you can keep an eye on her? Make sure she doesn't try to up our mutual friend's iron content in the unfriendly way?" He gestured towards Dean.

Cas managed a nod and turned his head towards Nia, who was lowering herself to her knees next to him. She winced, pressing a hand to her side as she did so and Cas frowned at the sight of her split lip and bruised face.

"Are you alright?" he asked her, his voice raspy and hoarse.

She nodded. "He's possessed," she said simply. "He tried to kill you."

"I'm not possessed you stupid little human," Dean spat from where he was tugging at his restraints. "I'm new and improved. I'm enlightened."

"It's awake," Benny announced unnecessarily, his tone snide.

"Shut up, vampire."

"Shut-up worm," Benny fired back. "And get out of my friend."

"No. He's mine now."

Benny strode over to Dean, wrapping his fists in the front of his shirt in the first outward display of anger Cas had seen from the vampire. "Get out or I'll make it my lifelong mission to step on every one of your worm friends I can find."

"Actually, it has the form of a slug," Cas corrected, panting as he tried once more to rise to his feet. "While they are both hermaphrodites, a slug has a head similar to a snail where as a worm…"

"I don't give a damn if it's a sea cucumber, Cas," Benny cut him off. "How do we get it out of Dean?"

Cas had managed to stand and, although unsteady, he stumbled forward a few steps towards them. Nia stayed tucked in behind him and silent.

"I don't know," Cas frowned. "These creatures are new. Angels have no knowledge of them in our archives."

"Dean seemed to know somethin' about 'em," Benny pointed out. "It said he called 'em king worms… or con worms… or somethin' of the like."

"Kahn worms," Nia supplied. "He said Kahn worms."

Cas shook his head. "I have never heard of such a thing but Dean he… he tends to give things names of his own. Strange names." He gave Benny a sideways glance. "Like bloodsucker or Fang-face."

Benny just nodded. Dean had called him - and continued to call him - a plethora of race-related nicknames but offense had only been intended or taken during the first couple of weeks, before the hunter's trust had been earned.

"Can you use your angel juice to kill the thing?" the vampire asked, sounding impatient.

"I'm not sure," Cas admitted, still swaying on his feet where he stood. Truth was, he didn't feel any 'angel juice'. His entire body still throbbed and spasms of sharp pain still ran through it frequently but he could feel none of Heaven's power within him.

Benny stepped up to him and half-supported, half-ushered him over to where Dean was bound to the tree stump. "Well, get sure fast and give it a shot, Hot Wings," he grumbled.

Cas sighed once more and sank to his knees in front of his friend.

"Keep your filthy hands off me, angel."

Ignoring the slug's warning, Cas placed a hand on Dean's forehead and tried to draw on his powers. He strained until he was sweating and shaking and his vision blurred. He could now feel traces of his grace's power within him but despite his efforts, nothing substantial. Not enough to even sense the thing controlling Dean, never mind destroy it or draw it out. He slumped back on his heels. "I can't," he panted.

Dean began to laugh. "That spell really did a number on you, huh angel? Crushed your grace like a watermelon. You're completely useless now. How pathetic."

Benny frowned at Cas. "That true?" he demanded. "About your juice?"

Cas was still trying to catch his breath but probably wouldn't have answered even if he had been able to. What if he wasn't able to fix his grace? What if it was too damaged for repair? He would be of no use to his friends like this. He may not deserve to still have his grace after all the wrong he had done but he needed it nonetheless. He needed it to protect Dean and Nia… and Benny.

"Cas?" Nia whispered from behind him when he didn't answer.

"I can't kill it," he admitted finally.

"Can we exorcize it?" Nia asked quietly.

Dean laughed again. "I'm not a demon, you halfwit. There is no way to separate me from Dean. Like I said, he's mine now."

"Like Hell," Benny snapped, turning back to Cas and Nia. "There's gotta be a way."

"I do not know of one," Cas said, feeling defeated.

"We can torture it out," Nia suggested. "Or burn it out."

"That won't work on me," Dean jeered. "But it will cause your friend here unimaginable agony, so go ahead."

"Nobody's torturing or burning nobody," Benny said, eyeing Nia warily.

Cas struggled to think through the painful throbbing in his skull.

Cas?

The angel's blue eyes shot wide open at the voice in his head.

Cas, you hearing me?

Dean was praying. He was awake in there and praying. "Yes," Cas stammered, fixing his gaze on the hunter. Dean's body was still talking, spouting the slug's taunting words to Benny and Nia, clearly enjoying the vampire's worry that Nia would take matters into her own hands and lash out at Dean and practically goading her to do so.

Electricity.

Cas frowned. "I don't understand."

Zap the sucker with electricity. It'll have to crawl out of me or it'll die.

Cas had heard of other monsters that succumbed only to electric shocks, such as Frainens or Rawheads, but electricity didn't generally work on demons or ghosts or angels or other entities that had the ability to physically possess and control a body. In fact, most of them were effective conduits, some even able to generate a current of their own. "Are you sure?"

"Sure of what?" Dean's body narrowed those green eyes at him for a second before an angry look came over his face. "You'll pay for that, Winchester!" His mouth set in a grim line and Dean's next prayer stopped abruptly.

Of course I'm sur… ngh… fuck!

Cas knew without a doubt the slug was now hurting Dean within his own body. He turned to Benny. "Electric shock," he said urgently. "Electric shock will force it out."

The vampire threw his hands in the air. "We don't have any damn light bulbs in Purgatory!" he exclaimed.

"There's those blue glowie eels," Nia offered. "In the water."

"They're only in the deep lakes," Benny countered. "We're days away from any lake." He looked back down at Cas. "Unless your blipping thing's still up and runnin'?"

Cas shook his head, knowing there was no way he could wing anywhere in his condition. He peered back at Dean and was discomforted by the smug, malicious smile on his face. That certainly didn't bode well for his friend trapped inside. Cas lifted his own hand in front of him, staring at it as he curled his fingers up and released them a few times. He felt a spark of grace inside him, not much but enough to cling to, enough to focus on to try and manage a basic rush of current. Surely he could do that much.

He took a few deep breaths before reaching forward. He used one hand to pull down the neck of Dean's t-shirt, exposing bare skin. He splayed the other palm on that skin, just to the right of the hunter's anti-possession tattoo.

Dean laughed again, tauntingly. "Don't waste your time. You'll kill him before I'll give him up."

"Dean doesn't die easily," Cas shot back before throwing everything he had into sending a shock down through his fingers. Dean convulsed and shuddered in his bonds but the slug managed to hold out, cold eyes ablaze with fury. Cas fired another blast at him, this time holding it for longer. "Check his ears," he panted to the two onlookers. "And his mouth. It will come out when the pain becomes too much for it."

"What about if it gets too much for Dean?" Benny asked.

Cas didn't answer, instead concentrating on staying awake and keeping the current flowing. This was the only chance Dean had, he justified, though it tore him to pieces knowing he was causing his friend so much agony.

Dean was soon crying out, hissing and writhing beneath Cas's touch but there was no sign of the slug. Benny was hovering, checking one ear then the next, back and forth back and forth.

"It ain't coming out," he said, his Louisiana drawl thicker than usual in his obvious worry.

"There's more than three holes it can come out of," Nia pointed out as she watched from a distance with what appeared to be fascination. She gave an innocent shrug when Benny frowned at her and she gestured towards Dean's pants. "I'm just saying."

Cas knew he didn't have much power left in him. In fact, if he kept going, he might just deplete his grace entirely, wiping out any chance he had of it healing and ever regaining his full celestial powers. But Dean was the main reason he still needed them so sacrificing him to save them made no sense and simply wasn't an option. He gasped for air as he paused to summon one last rush of current and let slip a silent plea to his Father that the hunter be spared and not die from electric shock at his hands. He hoped this slug creature wouldn't be stubborn enough to die for the sake of killing its human vessel with it.

Dean screamed out loud at the final jolt before abruptly falling silent. His body slumped back against the tree stump and his head lolled forward. Cas's heart sank and he fell backwards onto his ass in the grass, weak and spent. Worry and grief swelled up inside him. Had he just killed Dean?

"There it is!" cried Nia, springing out of her crouched position ten feet behind them and swinging her blade down on the form of an eight inch long black slug which had just dropped to the ground near Dean's slumped head and was headed for the cover of a nearby clump of grass. She hacked it in two and then kept swinging, chopping it again and again until it was in at least sixty pieces. Finally she backed off, looking decidedly satisfied.

Benny gave her a wary look as he bent down to feel for a pulse on Dean. "Remind me again never to piss you off, Little Bit," he chuckled nervously.

"Is he alive?" Cas rasped, too weak to move.

Benny nodded and immediately started to untie Dean. "He's got a pulse," was all he said, not sounding all that reassuring.

"That is good," was all Cas managed before passing out for the second time.

~X~X~X~X~

Cas awoke stiff and weak to find Dean just starting to regain consciousness next to him. Benny had apparently propped them both up against the rock with a water pouch on the ground between them and had left Nia on look-out. She was sitting on top of the rocky outcrop for the eagle's-eye view but grinned and climbed down when Dean's audible groan got her attention. She smiled at Cas as she came to stand ten feet in front of them and promptly informed the pair that Benny had gone for food.

"What the Hell happened?" Dean grumbled, looking completely confused. "And why do I feel like I just got tossed through a woodchipper?"

Nia didn't offer any explanation but remained still, studying them intently from where she stood with her blade in hand. "Is it you?" she asked finally.

"You talking to me?" Dean looked up at her with a puzzled frown. "Is what me?"

"It is him," Cas assured her. "It is Dean."

"What happened to your face?" Dean blurted, his tone concerned. Her cheek was starting to turn a deep purple and her lip was still swollen and split.

Nia simply scowled at him and turned instead to Cas. "Are you still hurt?"

Cas took a deep breath and closed his eyes to assess his internal condition. He could feel a small amount of his celestial powers, a tiny spark deep inside, but nothing more. Hopefully that would be sufficient to act as a pilot light and sustain them until he could replenish them. He opened his eyes again and nodded. "I will require some time to heal but I believe I will be fine," he replied.

She shuffled on her feet, not coming any closer. "Is there something... can I help?"

Cas shook his head. "No," he said wearily. "I just need to regain my strength. I will be fine."

"I'm fine, thanks for asking," Dean mumbled sarcastically.

She ignored him and simply nodded and gestured up to the top of the rocky outcrop. "I'll keep lookout," she said and turned away to climb back up. The stiffness of her movements made it obvious she was in some amount of pain and Cas couldn't help but regret once more that he couldn't heal her.

"Cas?"

"Yes Dean?"

"You gonna fill me in here? Why are we both down for the count and why does Nia look like she just tried to take on Mike Tyson?"

"What is the last thing you remember?"

"Counting fucking sheep."

Cas furrowed his brow and turned his head to the hunter next to him. "Why would you be counting..."

"Going to sleep, Cas," Dean cut him off with a groan. "The last thing I remember was going to sleep."

"Oh. You could have simply said going to sleep." Cas wasn't aware he was pouting until he caught the eyeroll Dean made at him. He sighed and began to recount the encounter with the slug.

Dean remained silent but his shoulders slumped and his head hung lower with every word out of the angel's mouth. It was clear to Cas the hunter was feeling guilty for almost killing him and for hurting Nia.

"It was not you," he pointed out. "You hold no blame."

Dean just let out a deep exhale. "You gonna get your mojo back anytime soon?"

"I don't know. I believe… I believe I will eventually."

"But nothing yet?"

"On the contrary. I feel it building strength within me with every passing minute. It will take some time, weeks perhaps, months even, but I am confident it will replenish and heal itself."

"That's good." He glanced upwards, tilting his body forward to catch a glimpse of Nia before turning back to Cas. "I'm guessing she's back to wanting to kill me?"

"Why do you say that?"

"Look at her face, dude. And you said I kicked her? I know she's not about to show-and-tell but she winces every time she moves. It's gotta be pretty bad."

Cas could see his friend's guilt and knew how prone the hunter was to wallowing in such feelings of self-blame and letting them fester and build up inside until they nearly crippled him on an emotional front. He could not read Dean's mind here in Purgatory, but knew him well enough after all they had been through to see the signs.

"Why don't you simply talk to her?" he suggested. "Nia will forgive you. She is a gentle, pleasant person."

A loud snort escaped Dean. "To you, maybe. Girl's got a major crush on you, dude."

Cas frowned. There was that term again. He was not familiar with that one. "The slug said the same thing. What is a crush?"

"It means she likes you, Cas," Dean snickered. "So what exactly did the slug say to her?"

"That she was pathetic for having a crush on an angel. That she was damaged goods and unworthy of a Celestial being. That she was nothing but an overused, worthless whore," Cas repeated bluntly. "Then you... the slug... started to strangle her."

Dean's smile had completely disappeared. "I said that?" he asked in a choked voice.

"No, the slug said that," Cas clarified but his words didn't seem to comfort Dean. "If it's any consolation, she seems to harbor less hatred towards the vampire now," he pointed out. "He proved that he genuinely considers you a friend and he saved Nia's life… and mine."

"Yeah, Benny's good people," Dean said, nodding distractedly and peering once again up at Nia. "Well, good for a vamp anyway," he added. "Like I keep telling you, he's legit."

"It leads me to wonder how many other of the creatures of Purg..." Cas stopped talking when Dean held a hand up to silence him.

"Uh, hold on to that thought, Cas. I gotta take care of something." The hunter pushed himself stiffly up to his feet and made his way slowly up the sloped side of the rocky outcrop towards Nia.

Unable to stand, Cas remained where he was. He squinted his eyes to lessen the throbbing in his brain as he looked up at the silhouettes of his friends against the bleak, Purgatory sky. Nia was sitting cross-legged and looked particularly tiny when framed next to the tall hunter as he approached her. Castiel's angel senses were dulled but he was still able to hear the conversation if he concentrated.

"I can keep guard by myself," he heard Nia say warily as Dean drew closer.

"I know." Dean held his hands in front of him to show he had no weapons but didn't stop advancing until he was just a few feet away. He lowered himself stiffly so he was sitting in front of her. "Listen, Cas told me what happened. I wanted to say I'm sorry."

"Alright."

"You know I don't actually think any of the things that worm said, right?" he pressed.

"It had control of you. I know that."

"I'm still sorry."

"I chopped it into a hundred pieces. It won't get you again."

Cas heard Dean chuckle. "Yeah, thanks for that." There was a brief silence. "You know," the hunter continued more quietly, "last time one of those things got in me, I killed my own cousin." He sighed and rubbed a hand over his mouth. "I mean, sure me and her had our differences but she didn't deserve that. Neither did you. Nia, I'm sorry that I hurt you."

Cas couldn't hear any conversation for a long minute before Nia spoke in a soft voice. "I did a lot of bad things when I had the demon in me," she said, surprising the angel with the admission, especially since it was being given to Dean and not to him. Nia had never spoken of the year she spent possessed or the year she spent with Luthor. "Terrible things. I killed people. I hurt people. Lots of people. And…" She paused. Dean remained silent, allowing her to gather the courage to keep going. "And I couldn't stop him," she finished finally. "You're lucky you don't remember. I remember everything."

"Nothing you did when you were possessed was your fault," Dean assured her.

She shook her head. "I thought God sent me here to punish me," she practically whispered, making Cas strain to hear her from where he sat eavesdropping on the ground. "For not stopping him. For not fighting hard enough. I thought God gave me to Luthor for being so weak. But then he sent the angel here and now Cas has to save me for his redemption so that means I must be forgiven, right?"

Cas frowned, deeply disturbed by her words. She had completely misinterpreted his intentions in their first days together. She thought he was protecting her solely to earn his own redemption.

He swallowed and pursed his lips. No, she hadn't misinterpreted – that had been the selfish truth at the time and he had thoughtlessly admitted it to her. But it wasn't the truth anymore. He genuinely cared for the tiny, wild, strange girl. She meant far more to him now than a means of atonement for his multitude of sins over the past few years. He found it upsetting she would believe she actually deserved this fate and even worse, that God had done this to her. It was him, Castiel, who had done this to her. Castiel and Crowley, the King of Hell and the farthest thing from God that existed.

"I think that's the most I've ever heard you say. You're not as crazy as you pretend to be, are you?" Dean chuckled softly before growing serious with an audible sigh. "Nia, God didn't send you here. Trust me, the big guy's been AWOL for a long time. And even if he wasn't, he would never punish you for something you had no control over. All the shit you've been through, that's just… it's just bad luck. You didn't deserve any of it but it happened anyway. But we're gonna get you to the door and we're gonna get you home."

"And Cas?"

"He'll get through the door too," Dean replied without missing a beat. "He's inside a human vessel. Besides, he belongs here even less than we do."

Cas leaned his head back against the rock behind him as he listened. He knew Dean had forgiven him. He didn't feel he deserved that forgiveness but he couldn't deny he had wanted it more than anything else since the moment he had first regained his sanity.

"I won't go if he can't," Nia said.

"Neither will I. We're all getting out of here, Nia. The four of us. Together."

Cas furrowed his brow. The loyalty they were both showing him was a complication he would have to deal with at a later date – after he got them safely to this door.

"So are we okay?" Dean asked after a pause. "Me and you? We good?"

"Don't get possessed by any more worms."

"Yeah, I'll try," Dean chuckled. "I hate those things."

"It was gross. It was right up inside you."

Cas heard Dean laugh again. "Hey, did you just smile at me?" he asked Nia, his tone teasing. "You did. You smiled at me."

Cas was glad to see Nia finally relax and warm up to Dean. He had feared the complete opposite would happen after today's events. He needed them to form a bond so that when the pair got back home, Nia wouldn't be alone. So that she would let Dean help her for even with the angel's limited knowledge of human interaction and social normalcy, he could see she was troubled. After a year of having a demon control her body from the inside and a year of having a vampire control her body from the outside, Nia had spent too much time withdrawn into her own mind, twisting and distorting the reasons for her suffering until they made some kind of sense to her. Unfortunately, that corruption of the truth had somehow left an opening that put Cas in the role of her savior. A role he felt unfit to fulfill. A role for which Dean was far better suited.

Dean was resilient. He had made it through Hell and had kept going after losing everything he held dear. And when he got home, Dean would have Sam to lean on. Yes, Cas was confident Dean would persevere and lumber through any emotional issues like he always did. But Nia… Nia may seem tough and savage but Cas saw something else in her underneath those things. He saw vulnerability and frailty and a gentle soul hiding beneath layers of violence and hurt. Nia would need help. And Dean would have to help her because Cas wouldn't be there.

Cas wasn't going home. He may have earned Dean's forgiveness but he hadn't earned his own.

~X~X~X~X~

Travel was slow over the next few days with Nia sore and Cas weak. His celestial powers hadn't returned in any sizable measure yet and he was beginning to worry they would never fully replenish. How was he to protect his friends without them?

On the bright side, with little 'angel mojo', he attracted no Leviathan. In fact, not a single Leviathan attacked for over two months. The foursome worked into a relaxed routine and Nia gradually melted into the group rather than always keeping Cas as a buffer. She even took food Benny handed her and allowed the poor vampire to sleep without keeping one eye open wondering when she was going to launch herself at him with her blade swinging.

Cas still kept guard at nights while the others took turns keeping him company. Nia still slept by his side whenever he was perched nearby and when he wasn't, dug herself into a self-made foxhole or found cover beneath a tree-root or heavy brush. She hunted with her bow almost every evening and always looked pleased when she was able to give Dean a Hakredin for supper. Cas watched her progress within the group's dynamic with amusement and satisfaction. Dean's brotherly teasing and Benny's affable nature seemed to be having a positive effect on her and her lost social graces were slowly returning.

They usually walked in single file, taking turns both leading and bringing up the rear. Benny's frequent whistling stopped getting on Cas's nerves and soon became a sound the group could associate with safety and high spirits. After a few weeks, Nia even began to hum alongside the vampire as they walked.

It was almost two months after the Kahn worm incident when they came across the first monster from Dean's past. Cas was actually surprised it had taken this long for word was spreading quickly through Purgatory that Dean Winchester was here and there was certainly a long list of monsters sent here by a Winchester hand.

Cas was crouched next to Dean and Nia on the banks of a river, washing his hands while the humans filled their water pouches when he heard the clanging of metal in the woods behind them and a chortled grunt of pain.

"Benny!" Dean exclaimed, dropping his pouch and scrambling up the bank with his blade already drawn. Since Cas had not yet regained his power to travel 'angel-style', he followed the hunter on foot. Nia scooped up Dean's dropped pouch and brought up the rear, a few paces behind even before she made a detour to retrieve her bow.

Cas stepped into a clearing alongside Dean to find Benny on the losing side of a machete-fight with another vampire. This guy was a better fighter than most and well-armed for he held a sharp, clean machete in each hand and he easily parried Benny's tired and over-extended swing.

"Gordon Walker!" Dean shouted, his face tightening in obvious anger.

Benny took advantage of his foe's momentary distraction to move quickly out of his reach. "You know this vamp?" he panted, glancing at Dean.

Dean nodded. "Oh yeah. I know him." He moved forward with his multi-bladed 'Purgatory weapon' held offensively out before him. "He's mine."

Benny nodded and immediately stood down. "If you say so, brother." His shirt was sporting some new red stains and a ghastly streak of blood ran down the side of his face.

Gordon stood grinning at Dean, his stance casual and his two blades lowered at his sides. He shook his head in apparent disproval. "Dean Winchester. So the rumors are true." He glanced distastefully at Benny. "I should have known you'd get friendly with the locals. And you call yourself a hunter?"

Dean advanced slowly. "Well here in Purgatory, I'm as much hunted as hunter but trust me, I'm gonna enjoy taking your head."

"Is that any way to treat an old friend?" Gordon raised his machetes and the two started circling one another.

"Friend? You tried to kill my brother you sonofabitch!" Dean lunged forward but Gordon easily avoided the swing. Cas moved to intervene but Benny held a hand out in front of him.

"Only if he needs it," he said quietly.

The two continued their unfriendly conversation as they fought.

"And how is young Sammy anyway?" Gordon spat. "I hate to say 'I told you so', but word is he did exactly what I said he would. He brought Lucifer topside and started the Apocalypse."

"And he took a swan dive into Hell to fix his mistake," Dean defended.

"You should have let me kill him the first time round and you know it."

"My brother's not a monster. You, on the other hand…"

Gordon ducked beneath a hard swing and rammed a shoulder into Dean, knocking the hunter off balance. Dean managed to skitter backwards enough to avoid the vampire's next lunge and quickly sprang back on the offensive.

"I'm still a hunter," Gordon argued, deflecting a flurry of Dean's wild blows. "In fact, I kill more monsters here in Purgatory than I ever did topside."

"Well, you've killed your last," Dean retorted. "So shut up and die already." His fury and hatred for this particular vampire must have been fueling his fighting skills because he charged forward with his blade swinging this way and that and within seconds, had Gordon on his knees in the dirt, both machetes kicked out of his reach.

Dean leveled his blade an inch from the defeated vampire's neck. "Any last requests?" he said, his voice stony and cold. Cas wondered just what had happened between these two and quickly came to the conclusion it was the afore-mentioned attempt on Sam's life that had pushed Dean over the line.

Gordon managed to keep his face cool and even retracted his extra teeth. "You don't want to do this, Dean. In here, I'm no threat to humans am I? And I kill monsters. As many of them as I can find. Here, I'm one of the good guys."

"You were never one of the good guys." Dean drew back to swing but stopped when a loud shriek sounded from behind him.

"No! No!" Nia raced into the clearing, shoving her way past both Cas and Dean to sandwich her body between Gordon and Dean's blade.

Dean reached for her arm to pull her away but she stood her ground, dropping to her knees right in front of Gordon and spreading her arms out protectively. Cas rushed forward also, worried the vampire would use her as a shield and threaten her to secure his survival but her expression stopped him.

"No, Dean, don't kill him!" she pleaded.

"Nia! My little human!" Gordon exclaimed, sounding surprised but definitely pleased. "You're still alive." Surprisingly, he made no move to harm her.

She twisted her head slightly and nodded at him, never taking her eyes off Dean.

"Nia, get out of the way," Dean hissed.

"No," she said stubbornly.

"Nia, get out of the way, now."

"I won't let you kill Walker."

Dean narrowed her eyes at her. "How do you know this guy? You realize he's a vampire, right? I thought you hated all vampires."

"He saved me."

"Him? I doubt it."

Cas stepped forward. "Gordon Walker was the vampire who captured Nia when she first arrived here and was still possessed by the demon," he explained.

Dean frowned as the information sank in. "The one who tried to exorcize you over and over for giggles?"

Nia scowled at him. "He saved me."

"Nia, move away from the vampire and we shall discuss this," Cas told her, still worried about Gordon getting desperate. He wished his angel powers had returned but they were still very faint.

"No," she shook her head, shuffling backwards until she was pressed right up against Gordon. Cas was shocked at her level of devotion to a vampire her who had tortured the demon possessing her for weeks with no thought to the girl stuck inside.

"I think you'd best stay right there, Nia," Gordon said smoothly, grinning over her shoulder at Dean.

"Don't fucking touch her," Dean threatened.

"Don't hurt him," Nia fired back, her tone pleading. "Dean, please."

Cas came to stand right next to Dean. "I don't understand." The angel frowned down at her. "Did you not feel the pain the demon was subjected to when Walker kept exorcizing you?"

He saw a swallow work its way down Nia's throat but she didn't move from her protective stance. Finally she nodded. "I did but he didn't mean to hurt me. He was punishing the demon."

Dean groaned. "It's the fricking Stockholm syndrome."

"When a hostage or prisoner begins to feel an emotional connection to their captor, including both empathy and sympathy," Cas reiterated, nodding. "Yes, that seems likely here."

"No, you don't understand," Nia snapped defiantly. "He saved me. After the demon was gone, he could have killed me but he didn't. He didn't hurt me or feed from me – well, except the two times he was hurt and needed human blood to get better. But he showed me Purgatory."

"I taught her how to survive," Gordon elaborated over her shoulder. "I fed her, gave her shelter, protected her, taught her how to fight, how to survive in this place. I'm the reason she's still alive." He gave Dean a smug smile. "Like I said, in here I'm one of the good guys."

Cas frowned. Benny had regained his humanity, at least from a spiritual and ethical standpoint if not a physical one. Was it so implausible that other vampires were so inclined?

Dean was clearly not convinced. "You didn't care about the innocent when you were human, Gordon. You ain't about to start now. You may have her convinced but your head's still coming off."

"No, Dean!" Nia whimpered, tears now welling up in her lower eyelids. "I won't let you. Please."

Dean shifted uncomfortably and turned his head to Cas. "You wanna weigh in on this?"

Cas sighed. Nia had come so far over the past weeks in trusting her three traveling companions and he didn't want to break that trust. She was as stubborn as Dean and would not give up Walker willingly. If they wanted to kill the vampire, they would have to physically drag her away. She had never asked them for anything since the day Cas agreed to spend the nights with her so she could sleep. "Maybe we should let him go," he shrugged.

Dean's jaw tightened but he looked back down at Nia. "If I don't kill this asshole that means you saved him and you don't owe him anything. You two would be even, got it?"

Nia nodded furiously.

Dean took a step back and lowered his weapon, gesturing for her to get up. She eyed him warily and didn't move.

"As long as he goes peacefully, I won't hurt him," Dean assured her. She got up slowly and turned to look at Gordon, who still had that smug smile on his face. He rose to his feet also, not bothering to give Nia so much as a glance or a thank-you as he kept his eyes trained on Dean.

"You're still weak, Dean," he said bluntly. "Now a little girl's telling you what to do."

"That little girl just saved your ass so I suggest you get the Hell away from here before I change my mind."

"Dean," Nia scolded.

"And if our paths cross again, trust me, you won't walk away," Dean continued.

"I am curious," Cas interjected, looking at Gordon. "Why did you protect Nia for those few months after the demon left her?"

Gordon took a step towards one of his machetes but Benny scooped it off the ground and shook his head. "Uh-unh. These stay with us," Benny drawled.

Gordon's mouth drew into a tight line but he let it go and turned to look at Cas. "I'm a hunter," he explained. "I taught her how to hunt. Two hunters can kill more monsters than one, right? Simple logic."

That made sense to Cas. Gordon hadn't found his humanity; his hatred for monsters had survived through him turning vampire and was clearly eternal because it had followed his twisted soul to his afterlife in Purgatory. He had not cared for Nia – she was but another tool to fuel his need to kill monsters.

Nia clearly didn't see it this way. "We should take him with us," she said suddenly. "To the door."

"What? No!" Dean barked, narrowing his eyes in warning.

"Benny can go in you and Walker can go in me," she argued. "There's room."

"Go where?" Gordon questioned eagerly. "What door?"

Dean spoke sternly. "Nia you say one more word about it and I will chop his head off," he threatened.

"But Dean, I owe him."

"No you don't," Cas cut in. "You never owned him anything. He never had your best interest at heart. He may have taught you a few things but his intentions were never clean. You survived all those months alone on your own merit, Nia, not his."

"You're wrong," she insisted stubbornly.

"Yeah, Deano, you're wrong," Gordon chimed in smugly. "Me and Nia here were partners for a while. I didn't treat her like Luthor did."

"And when Luthor grabbed her from you, exactly what did you do about it?" Dean accused.

Gordon shrugged. "Luthor's nest has over a hundred vamps. Not much I could do."

"Hear that, Nia?" said Dean. "He knew Luthor had you and he left you there."

Tears were now freely falling down Nia's cheeks as she looked back and forth between Gordon, Cas, and Dean. She appeared flustered. "He couldn't…"

Cas tilted his head. "If Luthor captured you now, what do you think we would do?" he challenged, indicating himself, Dean and Benny.

Nia just shrugged her shoulders, wiping the back of her hand across her wet cheek.

"We'd charge in there swinging and we wouldn't stop until we brought you home," Dean answered for her.

Cas nodded. "Dean is correct. I would too."

"So would I," Benny added.

Nia gave them each a long, bewildered look before looking back at Gordon. "I was there for long time. You should have come for me," she accused quietly.

"Not my style, sweetheart."

"You'd better go," she whispered. "I don't want Dean to kill you."

Gordon snorted and looked like he was about to make a smartass remark but thought the better of it. He retreated backwards to the edge of the clearing with his hands in the air before turning and walking briskly away.

Dean let out a sigh that almost sounded like a growl. "That's one son of a bitch who'd better hope I never see him again."

"We should roll," Benny pointed out. "The more distance we put between us and him the better."

Dean agreed and ushered them all out of the clearing. Nia walked in silence next to Cas for hours, her face pensive and troubled. Finally she stopped and looked up at him. "Would you really?" she asked. "Come for me?"

"If Luthor had you? Yes," Cas said sincerely. "And you should know it has nothing to do with me earning my redemption for my past mistakes. I…" He suddenly grew uncomfortable and had no idea why. He used to feel this way when Meg would tease him about his supposed affection for her while she was watching out for him at the psychiatric facility. "I care about you, Nia," he said truthfully. "I enjoy your company and I believe we share a bond and… and I consider you my friend."

She smiled at him and his mind was suddenly overcome with thoughts of how sweet she looked… how pretty she was. His traitorous thoughts inevitably flashed back to the image of her bathing and he cleared his throat sharply. "Uh, we should keep walking."

As he turned to head down the grassy path in order catch up with Dean and Benny, she fell in next to him and slipped her hand in his. "I care about you too," she said simply.

~X~X~X~X~

A/N: Lol, I would never have actually made the worm come out of Dean's ass but I couldn't resist having Nia point out the possibility. After all, in the Episode 'And Then There Were None', when they had Bobby's ears duct-taped to keep the worm from escaping, my mind couldn't help but ask "do they have his butt taped too?" Yes, like Dean, I have the maturity of a twelve year old. Please review :D