A/N: This is the final chapter. Thanks SO MUCH to all of you who have alerted and fave'd this story and an extra big thank-you to those of you who have reviewed - you've all made this so much fun and I seriously love you for taking the time to read it. It was different writing a whole story from Cas's pov since I usually stick to Sam and Dean but you'll see I changed it up for the epilogue.

Although this is the last chapter, it's not the end of Nia because my next story will be a season 8 fic that was originally intended to be a sequel to Someone to Save You but is now going to be a sequel to this also :-) It will be Sam/Dean centric but Cas will have a big role to play and I have a lot of fun ideas for him and Nia interacting in the real world.

Previously: Cas and Nia finally make love and are teased by Dean in the morning. They reach the door but Gordon Walker is there, teamed up with a souleater, who is the master of all the Shadows. They get penned in and Cas manages to kill all the Shadows while Dean kills Gordon Walker but then Cas tries to take on the souleater, who has a strong mojo. Cas holds the souleater in place and begs Dean to get Nia through the gate. Dean does it, but when he tries to come back down for Cas, the door expands, swallows him up, then disappears, leaving Cas alone in Purgatory. He thinks this must have been God's plan all along, to let him fall in love for the first time and reconnect with Dean then to take them both away from him and let him serve out his eternal penance in Purgatory.

~X~X~X~

CHAPTER 11 – EPILOGUE

Dean felt a bone-deep satisfaction at the slight crunch his blade made as it cut cleanly through Gordon Walker's neck. He saw the head go sailing but couldn't spare the time to watch it land and revel in his victory for Cas was currently yelling at him to get to the door.

"Not without you!" was his immediate reply. Cas was locked in some sort of mojo battle with the thing that was controlling the Shadows, whatever it was, and his friend didn't look good.

Nia was picking herself up from where the monster had tossed her with a flick of its hand and was charging right back at it. Dean didn't try to stop her but instead joined her - maybe the two of them could distract it enough for Cas to get the upper hand.

It didn't work out that way. Both of them were thrown and this time, when Nia moved to try the futile maneuver yet again, Dean stopped her. Cas was now on his knees, begging Dean to get Nia to the door for him. In all their time together, the angel had very seldom asked Dean for anything. Dean had called on his celestial friend for help or favors time and time again and held no illusions he would ever had made it across Purgatory without him. Sure Cas had screwed up royally in the past, but Dean owed him and more than that, he loved him like family. And here he was, pleading for him to get Nia to safety before the door closed. Dean wasn't blind; he had seen the relationship that had developed between Cas and the little, crazy chick that he himself had also grown to love in his own way. If it had been Dean in Cas's shoes, begging Cas to at least take Sam to safety, he knew Cas would do it – he would do it for him.

So he grabbed Nia and dragged her up the hill. Normally he wouldn't have bet on his chances of making it up there in one piece - she was one Hell of a fighter - but she was hurt, lessening her resistance enough for him to muscle her into the shimmering portal. At least she would be safe. That alone would make the entire last year of his life worth every violent, bloody minute.

He spared a thought of regret that he hadn't stashed Benny in Nia's arm instead of his own for now he was risking the vampire's life too... but Cas needed him. Benny would have approved of the choice, of that he was certain.

After Nia disappeared with a fade-to-black scream of "Noooo...!", Dean turned back immediately, scrambling back down the slope and trying to think how he was going to gank this douchebag monster when he didn't even know what it was.

But his help wasn't needed, after all. That stubborn, angelic son of a bitch in the dirty trench coat somehow managed to throw the thing through the air where it practically exploded. Dean was actually grinning by the time he reached the bottom of the slope. Cas was lying on the ground and looked like death warmed over but he was alive, raising a hand and giving Dean a half-hearted wave to prove it. They were home free! He just had to drag Cas's heavy ass up this slope and...

Suddenly the light was expanding, swallowing up the air around him. No! He gave Cas one last panicked glance and felt a rush that sucked the air from his mouth as he shouted the angel's name. It was intensely hot for a few seconds and his body felt like it was strapped to a cannonball but then the light disappeared entirely and he was dropping to his ass on cold, hard ground.

He blinked, looking around to get his bearings. It was night. There were trees, and grass and bushes... was he still in Purgatory?

He looked upwards and saw stars. Beautiful, sparkling, peaceful, jewels of the sky. Purgatory had no stars. He was home. A non-specific memory of sitting silently with Sam, side by side on the hood of the Impala, watching these very stars floated through his mind and he felt a rush of relief. Sam was here. He was going to see Sam again.

"Dean?"

The voice snapped him back to his current situation and he turned his head to see Nia hobbling up to him. Her face was streaked with blood but it was the fear and panic in her eyes that made Dean's heart lurch.

"Where's Cas?" she whispered as she sank down on the dirt next to him. "Where's Cas?"

Dean swallowed and shook his head. Another glance around informed him there was no trace of the door - no light, no vibrations, no intense heat.

"He didn't make it," he rasped. "The door... it closed before he could get to it."

She didn't make a sound for a long few seconds, just staring at him as if trying to make sense of what he had just said and Dean took the time to let his own mind wrap itself around the harsh truth.

Cas was alone. In Purgatory.

"No," she shook her head. "No, he's coming. The door's still here…" she looked about frantically, "…somewhere." She staggered away, looking around as if Cas would suddenly appear from behind a tree or something. "Cas!" she shouted into the surrounding darkness, her voice hoarse. "CAAAS! CAAAS! CAAAS!" Her shouting continued for some time until she finally limped back over to Dean and sank to her knees.

"He didn't make it in the door," she told him, as if he hadn't been the one to inform her of that very thing just moments before.

He shook his head, his throat too constricted with grief and remorse at losing Cas all over again to speak. Cas wasn't just a friend - he was so much more than that. The shit they had been through together… Cas pulling him from Hell, turning his back on his brethren to side with Dean when even Sam hadn't, coming through for Dean time and time again, taking Sam's crazy into his own head, the thousand times he had saved them all in Purgatory, the trust he placed in Dean, way he looked at Dean like the hunter was someone to admire, someone to respect… Sure Cas had screwed up but he was so much more than a friend and Dean had failed him.

Nia suddenly burst out crying, hugging her knees tightly to her chest and dropping her forehead onto them. Dean quickly shelved his own pain and hurt like he always had with Sam and moved to sit next to her, wrapping a comforting arm around her shoulders. He hadn't seen her cry much, and the one time she had after killing Luthor, it had been Cas she had sought out for comfort. He felt woefully inadequate right now.

She finally lifted her head to turn sad, amber eyes on him. "Maybe he was too far away," she said, her tone pleading. "Maybe the door'll open again when he gets to the top of the hill."

Dean wished he believed this would be the case as much as he wanted it to be, but he didn't.

Nia wasn't waiting to let him argue. "It will. He's an angel. If it worked for us, it'll work for him. He's better than us. He's... an angel."

Dean just nodded, trying to swallow past the lump in his throat. Her point did have some merit.

"He's inside a human, too," she continued, her voice growing stronger as she raised her own hopes with her words. "I know he says Jimmy's all gone but he's still in a human body. There's still a human soul in there somewhere." She clutched Dean's hand and gave it a squeeze. "Right?"

If Cas had not died from his fight with the Shadow-monster, he would climb that hill when he got his strength back. If he had passed out and if nothing came along and killed him or ate him while he was out, he would climb the hill when he awoke. If Jimmy's dormant soul still held enough power to summon the door, it might open again for him. If angels could pass through the portal, then Cas could still make it home.

There were a lot of 'ifs' in there, but there was still a chance.

"Yeah," Dean agreed with a nod. "We'll wait for him."

~X~X~X~X~

They waited four days. Four days in the middle of the nowhere with not even so much as a blip of light indicating a door from Purgatory. Dean knew Cas wasn't coming after the first day but Nia refused to give up on the angel somehow making it through and he didn't want to be the one to break her heart and tell her he wasn't coming. She would figure that out soon enough.

Four days of sitting and waiting for an attack that never came. Four days of restless pacing and jumping at every sound – and there were so may sounds here. Birds and bullfrogs and chipmunks and even moose. This forest was teeming with harmless life, unlike the one in Purgatory where every creature they came across wanted them dead. It should have made Dean feel relaxed and safe but he was still on edge. He almost wanted an angry bear to come along and give him something to fight.

It didn't help that every other noise morphed itself into sounding like Sam approaching. As absurd as it seemed, Dean half-expected his brother to show up any second. If anyone was smart enough to figure out there was a Purgatory door and where it came out, it would be his geek brother. Sam had probably been going crazy searching for him this whole year. He hoped the kid hadn't gone and done anything stupid or desperate or worse, shacked-up with another monster chick in his absence. But whatever the case, he never once doubted Sam had been looking for him; that went without saying. Sam had his back. Always.

On the fourth day, he was trying to chop wood with his Purgatory blade for a small fire, a luxury they could risk now that they were back in the land of the living, when Nia came up to him with a despondent expression.

"He's not coming, is he?"

Dean's shoulders slumped and his weapon dropped to his side. "No," he answered truthfully. "I'm sorry."

"We should get Benny back to his body then," she said simply and ten minutes later, they abandoned their camp and started walking. It was two days before they came across a dirt road and they walked along it until a van came by, screeching to halt just in time as Dean stepped into the middle of the road to flag it down. It turned out they were in the Hundred Mile Wilderness in Maine and the driver was a local outfitter on his way to pick-up some hikers who had completed a portion of the Appalachian Trail and shuttle them back to civilization. The guy gave a slightly horrified gasp at Nia's wild and dirty appearance but quickly agreed to give them both a ride to Greenville. They sat quietly in the very back row of the van, avoiding all conversation when the chatty foursome of hikers joined them. Dean could feel the tension in Nia's entire body as she sat next to him, her hand inside her jacket and no doubt curled around the hilt of one of her knives.

Dean easily pick-pocketed over two hundred dollars at the gas station where they were dropped off and distracted the clerk at the Northwoods Outfitters Store while Nia stole them some clean clothes. Feeling a little smug that he hadn't lost his touch, he continued his streak by scoring them a ride to the closest motel with a retired postal worker named Hal.

Nia hadn't said two words to anybody they had met so far but Dean figured that might be a good thing since they were trying to avoid any trouble. He just wanted to get to Clayton, Louisiana - where Benny suspected he was buried in the Lafitte family plot – as soon as he could so he could get his friend's damn itchy, painful soul out of his arm.

After convincing Nia to take the first shower, he stared for a long time at the bed before finally letting himself climb onto the mattress and stretch out. A long, loud groan of pleasure escaped him as the plush softness practically caressed his hardened, deprived body.

Home sweet home, he thought. Yet there was something, a glimpse of something nagging at him just out of his conscious thought – regret, anger, confusion? Whatever it was, it wasn't letting him relax. He was safe, relatively speaking, holed up here in some motel room in Bumfuck, Nowhere. No monsters were hunting him, no demons even even knew he was back, and as far as he could tell, the Leviathan hadn't caused any newsworthy trouble since he had left almost a year ago.

So why was he still on edge? Why was he keeping his ears tuned to any and every noise in the place and why was he keeping one eye glued to the faded, peeling, blue paint of the motel door? Why did every flutter of the curtains cause him to tense up and every dog bark sound like a Gogmagog?

Nia emerged from the bathroom almost an hour later, peering shyly into the room before stepping out from behind the cover of bathroom door. Dean's mouth dropped open and he sat up in shock.

She was wearing the simple khaki hiking pants she had stolen and a plain white t-shirt but her hair was properly combed and her skin looked so clean and smooth. She actually looked her age and was shockingly very pretty and feminine-looking.

"Wow," he grinned, eying her appraisingly. "You look amazing. As in I am having some seriously dirty thoughts about you right now - and that's disturbing coz you're like my little sister."

She blushed but a genuine smile brightened up her face. It was the first one Dean had seen on her since Purgatory and he felt his heart warm a little at the sight. Maybe she would be alright after all. His relief was quickly overshadowed by the realization that Cas would never see her like this, all soft and pretty, but he followed the sad thought up by convincing himself an angel could see through all the Purgatory dirt and grime and that Cas already knew she was beautiful.

It was getting late and after a quick meal of fine-dining snacks the vending machine offered up, they crawled on top of a bed each and turned out the lights, leaving only a small sliver of moonlight in the room. Dean lay awake for a long time thinking, remembering, wondering what he could have done differently that would have ended up with Cas here too. He could picture the angel perfectly, sitting stiffly in the chair by the window as he watched over them, rambling on about different types of moose dung or something equally tedious but strangely comforting.

He could tell Nia was awake also but neither spoke for hours. Logically he knew there was no need for either of them to keep watch but… it just didn't seem right, didn't seem smart. Finally, a few minutes after three o'clock in the morning, he heard Nia whisper his name.

"Dean?"

He lifted his head to see her sitting up on her bed, her eyes imploring.

"Come on then," he said without hesitation, lifting his arm in invitation. She quickly slipped off her bed and onto his to curl up against him, resting her head in the crook of his arm as they had done a hundred nights in Purgatory. He felt a comforting rush of familiarity and managed to relax considerably, though sleep remained just out of his reach.

~X~X~X~X~

They had hitchhiked as far as Connecticut by the next night. Dean was holding off on calling Sam until he had Benny safely back in his body. It had been almost a year; a couple more days of worrying and searching wouldn't kill the kid.

After paying for the motel room, their cash supply was getting low so Dean convinced Nia to come with him to the local bar. As good as she was with a bow and arrow, he figured she would be a natural at pool; all he would have to teach her was the art of the hustle. She had told him point blank she had no intention of going back to see her old family and although he had tried to convince her to at least find a job and live a quiet, normal, honest life somewhere, he figured it would be a good idea to teach her some tricks of the trade as a backup. He had already explained the art of credit card fraud and she had been a surprisingly quick study. Apparently she had education or training in economics or something in her former life; she hadn't offered any explanation and Dean knew better than to ask.

Walking into the bar, which looked like a thousand other bars he had frequented in his life, Dean was hit with an overwhelming sense of familiarity while at the same time everything seemed so strange. Seeing people going about their business, chatting and drinking, made him feel oddly disconnected. Like he didn't belong here. As a hunter, he had mastered the art of blending in but he suddenly felt as if he stood out like a kangaroo in a poppy field.

He could feel Nia practically trembling next to him, her eyes darting around suspiciously and realized she must be feeling the same way – probably worse. Her voice sounded nervous and on edge as she leaned in and whispered to him. "There're too many people in here."

He steered her to the back where there was a pool table in a quiet corner and inserted his quarters, determined not to let himself be rattled by a couple of dozen people minding their own business. Nia stuck close and listened intently as he taught her the basics of the game and scanned the bar patrons for a willing mark to hustle.

The waitress came by and gave him a smile and a not-so-subtle once over before asking for their drink orders and, as tempted as Dean was to see how his game had held up through his sexless stint in Purgatory, he kept the flirting to a minimum and ordered two beers. His first instinct had been a double shot of whisky straight up but he remembered his first month in Purgatory and the serious withdrawal he had experienced. He had never wanted to admit that he had become dependent on alcohol despite Sam's constant words of concern but drying out had been an unpleasant wake-up call. He concluded he had indeed been a full-blown alcoholic, something he wasn't proud of, but Purgatory seemed to have purged him of the affliction because the cravings stopped far more quickly than they should have. He likened it to Sam's demon-blood addiction practically disappearing overnight when they were tossed onto that plane after Lucifer came topside. Maybe moving through unnatural portals did something to your body on a molecular level or some such shit. A perk of Purgatory. Would make a great reality show, he thought with amusement. 'Purgatory Rehab, if the addiction doesn't kill you, the monsters will'.

For now, he would test it out with a single beer but he had made a solemn vow to never get lost in the bottom of a bottle ever again, no matter how bad shit got. That hadn't been fair to Sam.

Again, Nia caught on quickly and by the time a couple of friendly-enough looking locals made their way over to challenge Dean to a game, she played her part.

In hindsight, Dean should have seen it coming. He had noticed the appreciative glances the younger of the two men had been giving Nia. He should have made it clear from the start she was with him and off-limits but he was too busy pretending to be intoxicated as part of the hustle to pay enough attention. He was used to hustling with Sam and he sure as Hell hadn't ever had to pretend to be Sam's boyfriend. He realized his mistake too late when he emerged from a quick trip to the washroom to hear a loud commotion in the back corner of the bar.

Oh crap. He rushed forward through the crowd to find Nia on top of the younger of his pool challengers, one knee jammed in his neck while she struck his face repeatedly with the black number eight ball wrapped in her fist. He dashed forward to stop her but the bouncer got there first and when the man wrapped his big arms around the small girl to lift her off the poor guy beneath her, she went ballistic. She head-butted him backwards and started kicking until his hold on her loosened enough for her to wriggle out. She kicked him in the jewels and immediately leapt up on top of the pool table. She snatched a pool cue, breaking it over her knee to give her two sharp edges and had taken up a fighting stance by the time Dean made it over there. He quickly stepped in front of her before she could use the cue to stab anyone, for he had no doubt that was where this was headed. He raised his hands to stop the angry bouncer and a couple of other patrons from advancing.

"Whoa, whoa, I got this," he said. "She's with me. I'm sorry, we're leaving."

"She's a frigging psycho bitch!" the wounded man's partner yelled angrily, hauling his bleeding friend to his feet.

Dean narrowed his eyes. "She musta had a reason to defend herself," he growled before turning to face Nia. He pried the wooden weapons from her clutches and coaxed her off the table, putting his arm around her defensively as he ushered her through the crowd and out of the bar.

"All I did was touch her shoulder," he heard the young guy say as they headed away.

Outside in the night air, Nia was quiet as they walked back towards their motel. She finally turned towards him and gave him a meek smile. "I'm sorry for ruining your hustle."

"S'alright," Dean assured her. "I'll come back later and raid the cars in the parking lot. We'll be fine."

"He shouldn't've touched me," she defended.

"Yeah, about that Nia…" Dean sighed as he tried to figure out how to explain that she had to be able to differentiate between threatening and non-threatening. "Not everyone here wants to kill us. Actually, none of them do. Not the humans. That guy didn't mean any harm. In fact, he liked you."

"Doesn't mean he gets to touch me."

Dean couldn't argue with that so decided to let the subject drop for now. He wasn't worried about scoring more cash but after tonight, he was extremely worried about Nia readjusting here. Maybe Benny had been right after all when he had pointed out that she would have a hard time letting go of her Purgatory mentality. The violence and 'kill-or-be-killed' attitude had been ingrained in her so deeply she didn't know how to turn it off – or how to fake it.

"You sure you don't wanna come with me and Sam?" He had made the offer before but she had declined it. She did the same again now, shaking her head.

"Benny's been gone fifty years. He can't even use a cell phone. He'll need my help." She stopped walking and gave him a sincere look. "I wish you would stick with us. It could be the three of us. Family, remember?"

Dean knew he couldn't. He couldn't explain to Sam that Dean, who had killed Amy and refused to see monsters for anything but what they were, was now friends with a vampire. He couldn't risk Sam not understanding who Benny really was and something happening between them… Sam was good but Benny had been fighting tooth and nail in Purgatory for over fifty years; he would defend himself and he would win.

They stayed in the safety of the motel room for a few hours before Dean headed back out to see if he could steal some money from parked cars or oblivious drunks exiting the bar at closing time. It wasn't his favorite way to score cash as it sunk below even his extremely low moral bar, but faking credit cards took time so it would take him a couple of weeks to get set back up. He hit the jackpot in a Silverado with shiny rims, finding over three hundred in cash as well as bullets for the .45 he had carried with him all through Purgatory, so he headed back to the motel.

He let himself into the room as quietly as he could, not wanting to wake Nia if she had managed to get to sleep but his stomach lurched when he saw two empty beds. He strode quickly to the bathroom but it was dark and empty. He was about to race back outside, panic threatening to spill over when he glanced over to the closet and frowned. The bi-fold doors were partially open and he peered inside to find her sitting on the floor in the dark corner, her head tipped against the back wall.

Her eyes flew open and she jumped a little when he appeared in the doorframe but he calmed her quickly. "Hey, it's just me," he said in a hushed voice. Instead of coaxing her out he simply stepped inside, nudging her forward until he could fit in behind her. He slid down the wall so his back was resting against it and his knees were bent up on either side of her. She didn't hesitate to settle in so her back was against his chest and she welcomed his arms around her. Neither of them spoke; they just closed their eyes and relaxed.

"This is fucked up," Dean whispered after a while, when he realized that huddled here in the tight quarters of a closet felt more safe and natural than sleeping on the soft mattress he had been longing for the past year.

"No," she whispered back. "Out there… that's fucked up."

Dean didn't answer. He knew what she was saying, understood what she meant, but knew it wasn't supposed to be the case. Damnit, he needed to pull himself together before he went to see Sammy. He didn't want his brother seeing him like this.

"Why'd you push me through the door, Dean?" Nia asked suddenly, her voice small but clear in the closeness of the closet. "I shouldn't be here. I should be back there, with him."

He sighed, saddened at the mention of Cas. "Because he asked me to," he answered honestly, feathering a kiss to the top of her head. "He wanted you to be safe." She didn't answer and within minutes, Dean was pulled into the deepest sleep he had experienced in well over a year.

~X~X~X~X~

They made it to Clayton two days later. Finding the Lafitte family plot wasn't all that difficult and Benny's hunch was right that Renee, one of vampires in his former nest, had followed through on his promise that he would see Benny buried in his family's plot should anything ever happen to him. The grave had been dug off to the side, at the foot of a windmill that looked like it was about to topple over any minute, and was marked with a simple wooden cross engraved with the single word 'Benny'. Benny hadn't spoken much about his vampire life before Purgatory but on the few occasions he had, Renee was the only vampire he spoke of with any measure of fondness.

They waited for dark before digging up his remains. Fortunately, the skull was in the coffin also, nestled in the crook of one of Benny's arms. It was eerie seeing his friend's long-rotted bones in the dirt when he had been walking, talking, flesh and bone just a few days ago. Worried about the validity of the spell but looking forward to getting rid of the itchy pain in his arm, Dean sliced a cut across his skin and recited the words as a glowing substance poured out onto the bones. Nia was squatted at the top of the hole, watching with fascination.

Suddenly there was a deep, smooth voice saying their names behind them and Nia jumped up. "Benny!" she exclaimed, running to the vampire and throwing her arms around him in a tight hug. Dean scrambled out of the hole to see his friend standing there, looking exactly like he had in Purgatory.

"Well that was fast," he growled, resisting the urge to follow Nia's lead and give the guy a welcoming hug.

"No thanks to you." Benny grinned at him over Nia's shoulder. "What the Hell took you so long?"

Dean was working to tie a knot in the rag he had wrapped his arm in to stay the bleeding. "You're welcome," was his sarcastic reply. "Everything working?"

Benny pried himself free of Nia and rolled his shoulders. "Good enough." He glanced around. "Where's Cas?"

Dean didn't really need to answer for Nia's expression surely told the vampire everything he needed to know. "He didn't make it," the hunter said simply. "It's just us."

Benny's face reflected genuine sadness at the news, sadness which morphed to pity as he turned to look at Nia. "Hey Little Bit, I'm so sorry."

"Yeah, he didn't deserve that," Dean agreed. "And he's… he's alone now."

"If it helps, I'll be goin' back there soon enough when I manage to lose my head for the second time," Benny shrugged. "I'll be sure to look him up."

"So I guess this is it," Dean said, not wanting to dwell on the loss and changing the subject.

Benny raised an eyebrow. "You hooked up with that brother of yours yet?"

Dean shook his head. "Wanted to take care of Purgatory business first. I'll go call him now."

Benny nodded and reached out to place a hand on Nia's shoulder. "You still coming with me, Bit?"

She rolled her eyes. "What's an ATM?"

"A what?" was Benny's confused answer.

He was rewarded with a giggle.

"What about the internet?"

"Uhh, that some kind of fishin' net?"

Another giggle. "Yeah, I'm sticking with you."

"I'll be glad for yer company," Benny smiled before turning back to Dean. "So this is goodbye, then."

Dean nodded, suddenly feeling surprisingly sentimental. "Keep your nose clean, Benny. And keep this one," he tilted his head towards Nia, "out of trouble for me, 'kay?"

"Course." Benny stepped forward and shook Dean's hand. "We made it brother," he said quietly before pulling the hunter into a hug. "I can't believe it."

Dean returned the hug with a short laugh. "You and me both."

He barely had time to pull away before Nia's arms were around his waist. "Be careful, Dean," she whispered into his chest. "And let me know if, you know, you find anything."

Dean knew she meant find a way to get Cas out but he already knew that wasn't going to happen. The last gate Cas and Crowley had opened had involved a seriously dangerous spell using the blood of a Purgatory native and a thousand other things Dean would never be able to collect in his lifetime and even if he could, he couldn't take the risk of letting the Leviathan out again. The whole planet had almost been destroyed last time. He couldn't risk that happening again… Cas wouldn't want him to risk that happening again.

He swallowed a lump in his throat as they parted ways and he watched Benny and Nia as they walked side by side in the opposite direction down the moonlit country road until they disappeared over the horizon. Then he took a deep breath and set his mind on getting to a phone so he could call Sam.

~X~X~X~X~

Worried and confused when all of the old phone numbers either went straight to voicemail or had been disconnected, Dean had resorted to sending emails to all of Sam's old email addresses and it was four days before he got a response. By this time he was holed up in Rufus's cabin and Sam had emailed that he would meet him there in a one-sentence reply.

He explained he had been in Purgatory but couldn't shake the hurt that Sam hadn't looked for him. He didn't understand it, couldn't understand it, and had subsequently been very tight-lipped about all that had happened to him in the past year. He told Sam that Cas hadn't made it but didn't bother to go into details.

In fact, Dean didn't mention Benny or Nia at all. Purgatory was an experience that had become a part of him, something both horrible and prolific that he had gone through with his friends while Sam had been here, playing house with this Amelia chick. Sam just wouldn't understand Purgatory. Dean had shared everything with his brother his whole life but Benny and Nia - they were special. They were his.

~X~X~X~X~

~THE END~

A/N: Yaa! Finished! I hope if you've read this far you enjoyed it and didn't think the ending was too depressing. Poor Cas, I know. And I hope I did Dean and Nia's PTSD justice in the glimpse of it we got to see in this chapter.

Like I said, there is going to be a sequel to this that is combined with the sequel to Someone to Save You (though if you haven't read that one, I will write the sequel so things are explained as we go). It will be season 8 but it will be AU since there were parts of that season I want to do differently. Cas WILL still make it back topside though, just not by Naomi. Crowley will definitely be his smarmy bad self and we'll get to see how Benny and Nia have been faring trying to stay out of trouble in Louisiana.

Please take the time to leave a quick review and let me know any of your thoughts on this fic, good or bad. Thanks for reading!