AN: Hey - I'm back! And very sorry about the little break :S I had assignments due, and now I'm in the middle of exams. Thank you to 1958Sarah for her review pointing out some issues with the layout of this. I've tried to cut back on pov's in the following chapters :) Just remember that within the chapters some of these pov's are days apart. Unbeta'd.

ONE WEEK AND FIVE DAYS

"D'n"

"Oh my god! Sam, you're awake!" Charlie watched Sam fight to open his eyes. "Hang on buddy." A frown crossed her face and she rushed towards the bed, arms outstretched. "Sit back down Sam," she said as sternly as she could manage when he tried weakly to sit up. She mentally high-fived herself for the commanding tone in her voice. "That's my boy!" He slumped back, head hitting the pillow with a dull thump. Aw, crap. "Sam...Sam?" She shook his shoulder in confusion watching his even breaths and fluttering eyes. "Well, I did tell you to back down…" Patting his head gently she wrung out a small towel and dabbed his forehead. "You don't like to do things by half."

After a few minutes and making sure that Sam was completely out of it she stood up walking to the library. "Hey Kev, how's it going?"

Tired eyes met her own.

"That well huh." She clapped her hands. "Guess what? Sam entered the land of living!"

The tell-tale signs of stress lifted a little from the prophet's shoulders. "Have you let Dean know yet?"

Double crap. "Uh...I was just about to do that."

Kevin shook his head looking back down at the tablet. "Sure you were," he mumbled. The spare cell phone was thrown in her direction and curses muttered as she fumbled with the device.

"What if he's doing something important?"

Kevin looked up. "You've read Chuck's books. You already know the answer to that."

And she did.

Punching in the number she rocked on her heals waiting for the call to connect. In her head played the words don't pick up...don't pick up...okay yes, informing Dean Winchester about anything Sam-related was terrifying and come on, like seriously, who could blame her.

"What?"

"Hi! Dean. It's Charlie - how's the angel-hunt going?" There was a heavy expulsion of air on the other end of the line.

She looked up catching Kevin's eye. Kevin was gesturing frantically.

"What?"

"Don't make small talk!" the prophet whispered.

With Kevin distracting her, she made out only a few snippets of conversation from Dean's end:

"...sorry Dean, but I got no sign of your angel."

"Thanks Travis. These guys gonna be alright?"

"Truthfully, I don't really know. We'll manage though..."

"I'm not making small talk! Look I'm going to tell him-"

"Charlie! Fuck! Are you hearing me?"

Damn.

"Charlie! So help me God, if you don't tell me what's going on I'm going to...well, I don't know yet but I'll think of something!"

"Sam woke up! "Thank you Ms Self-Preservation. "Dean?" Slowly, she lowered the phone from her ear and blinked.

Kevin looked at her nervously. "What happened?"

"He hung up on me! Shit, how bad is that - like a scale of 1 to 10?!"

"Depends...what did he say before you mentioned Sam?"

She repeated Dean's words twisting the fingers.

Kevin resumed his work, head bent low over scraps of paper. "You'll live."

_?_?_

"This isn't funny. You have to tell him." Kevin's voice rang out loudly in the quiet hallway. Dean had driven non-stop after checking out another angel lead. Castiel was still MIA. He was tired. And he didn't need Kevin and Charlie fighting right at this moment. He closed in on Kevin's bedroom door fully intending to yank one of them out of the room - he really didn't give a shit about who it was - and sequester them to the opposite side of the bunker. Gods, since when had he become a childcare minder?

As he neared the door he caught a flash of Charlie darting out of her room towards the library briefly giving him a nervous wave before realising that she had been waving for longer than necessary and trying to make a smooth exit.

Of course none of this mattered because, as far as Dean was concerned, only five people should've been in the bunker. Sam, Charlie, Kevin, Crowley and himself. Sam was knocked out, Crowley...if he wasn't in the basement, so help him, whoever let him out would wish they had never been born. Charlie in the library, Kevin in the room.

At Charlie's call, the possibility of Sam walking up had meant that it would be an awesome day. Now? Awesomeness of today - down a shitload of points.

Gun drawn, he shouldered his way into Kevin's bedroom where the prophet was glaring at the closet.

Correction, not at the closet. At the figure leaning casually against the closet. "Balthazar?!"

"Hi Honey, I'm home."

Fucking angels.

"But-you...you died!"

"Yes, that was a very unfortunate incident." And very true. Castiel had plunged the sword into him and that had hurt. A god-awful lot. And he had died-ish. It was difficult to explain. "Short of it. I am technically 'dead'. But you know me, everything I do is for the greater good and all that. Especially because we can't have Mr Prophet here without a protector.

He lowered the gun, holstering it into the back of his jeans. "You arrogant bag of dicks!" The cracking of bone under his knuckles was little consolation.

Balthazar swore, prodding the blossoming bruise on his cheek. "Arrogant, maybe, bag of dicks, I'd like to object. Listen Dean, you think I couldn't see Godstiel from a mile away? Of course I saw it coming. Stopping it was another matter entirely. I've been staying here following the little one because it's all I can do."

"Shove it up you-"

"I know what you did to bring Sam back. And don't you think for a second, that I condone it. Are you mad? Dean, what you did was incredibly stupid." Balthazar moved towards him. "Tell me, what did he want in return? Because, I doubt it was your first born child."

"Anyone would be lucky to have my offspring." Dean replied.

"Dean. What did he want?"

"Nothing that I won't be able to handle."

"Gabe's going to be ecstatic," Balthazar said quietly to himself. Looking at Dean, he crossed his arms. "We'll agree to disagree on that point I'm afraid."

"Fine by me. I got some questions for you and you damn well better answer me."

'I'm an open book."

"Do you still have your powers?"

"To a certain extent. I can teleport, move things with my mind. Unfortunately my time-travel are a little worse for wear, whilst I certainly can't re-sink the Titanic, I could probably prevent the GFC." He cocked an eyebrow. "Though, what you really want to know is, if I can heal. Sorry Dean, I'm not Castiel."

"Who's Kevin's real protector and where the hell was he when the kid lost his fingers?"

"Gabriel-"

"Christ-"

"-who sends his regards by the way, was otherwise occupied."

Head snapping up, Dean could have sworn that Balthazar said-

"That's right Dean, our dear archangel friend is playing hide and seek for a while."

"No! He died. He sent us a friggin' porno explaining how to open the cage. Lucifer killed him..."

"Lucifer killed an image of him. Gabriel was never with you in that motel. And before you ask, he was hanging out with me...there were just so many weapons, surely you don't think that I could carry them all by myself."

"I don't have the energy for this bullshit."

"Fine, let's get down to business. The tablet. Gabriel got bored and creative."

Fucking Gabriel. Dean swallowed thickly. "I don't get it."

"Did you really think that our Father trusted a lowly angel like Metatron to hold the keys to Heaven. Gabe's the messenger. He took Met's words to daddy, daddy hated them and then poor Gabe was locked in his room a millennia trying to write out a new set of rules."

"So I've been translating it right so far?" Kevin finally piped up.

Balthazar smirked at Kevin. "Yeah, don't let the first line put you off, Father was pissed, but the tablet was sound and accepted. After Metatron's version was rejected he disappeared. Though we tease Gabriel, he does have a good head on his shoulder so to say...and he does care, quite an awful lot about you lot here on earth. He didn't want to be responsible for anything that went wrong if someone conducted these trials. He wrote them and demanded that he alone would carry whatever burden that sorry piece of stone would bring. Metatron doesn't know about Gabriel or I. Castiel only has his memories because he came out of the angelic conveyor belt with a couple of extra parts - leftovers from when Father created you lot."

"I'm going to kill him."

"So that about covers it." Ignoring Dean, Balthazar shot Kevin a look." Now I'm heading off. Kevin, I'll be keeping an eye on you, and if I may make a simple request. Ease up on the coffee - I can sense heart palpitations from miles away. You're practically beating out a military tattoo."

"Wait!" Dean yelled, but the space in front of the closet was empty.

Kevin look at him. "Dean…"

"I...I have to see Sam."

With his mind still reeling from Balthazar who was dead-but-not-really-and-wasn't-angel/human/ghost-b ut-possible-all-three-together, and c'mon, if that wasn't enough to fuck with his mind, nothing would be, Dean walked into Sam's rooms.

Charlie moved from the chair next to Sam's bed, smiling nervously. He spared her a glance.

"Hey Sammy? Can you hear me kiddo?" Pale but breathing, Sam made no indication that he'd heard Dean's shaky voice. "Sam? C'mon, let's get some hustle."

From the end of Sam's bed, Charlie rocked on her heels beginning to look distressed. "I swear he woke up and asked for you...well, he was groggy so it sorta sounded like 'ngh' but I'm pretty sure he meant Dean…"

He tuned out her rambling placing a hand on Sam's chest. "Let's go little brother. I need you to wake up for me."

Charlie's voice cracked slightly. "I'm sorry-"

He waved away the apology. "It's okay, your highness. Wait outside." She calmed at the nickname and walked out. Hearing the door close behind him, he turned and faced Sam. "Alright, sorry if this hurts, but I hope you stay sleepy for just a bit longer 'kay?"

Taking in a deep breath he placed his left hand over Sam's heart and concentrated allowing the feel of energy bleeding out through his fingertips and into Sam's body as he had done the night before.

"Just like last night little brother. You'll be right in no time. I think I'm getting the hang of this-" His hand lifted a little, watching as Sam let out a tiny whimper. "Shh...you're doing good Sammy, I'm so proud of you. Strongest kid I know." He let his other hand tangle in Sam's moist hair. The whimpers quieted. "Few minutes more, shh... that's it…"

..

Standing just outside and fighting the desire to run, Charlie let out a gasp.

From beneath the door, bright blue light seeped across the floor.

AN: Thank you for reading. I really appreciate it...I hope you stick with the story :) Any issues/questions just ask - I promise I don't bite :)