Episode 3: Looks Like the Road to Heaven, but Feels Like the Road to Hell

I looked from Cas to Dean and back to Cas, then peered sideways at Sam. Was this some sort of joke?

"Excuse me? An angel/demon hybrid?" I choked out. I shook my head. "Neither of my parent's is a demon, I can guarantee you that. And an angel is highly unlikely."

Dean stared seriously across the table from me. "It doesn't exactly work like that." He stated. "What we, what Garth and Cas, think happened, is that an angel and a demon each hijacked one of your parent's bodies, they got it on, and presto!, insta hybrid."

I pondered this. "So I'm a human/angel/demon hybrid."

Dean and Cas nodded.

"There's only one problem with that theory, guys." Sam interjected. "A demon can hop on in to whoever they want... an angel needs permission. You're saying one of her parent's told an angel they could hitch a ride, and she's never heard about it?"

I stopped him. "Ummmm... I have the answer to that." I frowned. They all looked surprised. "So, my mom always said I was conceived after a Doobie Brothers concert. She didn't get too specific, but I'm pretty sure some hallucinogenic drugs were involved." Dean and Sam looked like their eyes were going to fall out of their heads. "What?"

"A Doobie Brothers concert?" Dean asked. I nodded.

"Dean, focus on the subject at hand." Cas looked at me, a very serious expression on his face. "This explains a lot. If one of your parent's was already hallucinating, it wouldn't take much for an angel to convince them. What we need to know is why."

"Maybe it's some weird tragic love story, and the angel and demon just wanted to bone down." Dean shrugged.

"Dean, Jesus Christ, those are my parents. Ew." Despite being in a slight state of shock, I rolled my eyes at him.

"A little sensitivity would be nice right now, Dean." Sam agreed. "This can't be easy news."

"I don't even know what it means." I began.

"We know you can Cas-Kill demons." Dean said. "Which is pretty awesome if you ask me."

"Technically that's how all angels kill demons, not just me." Cas stated bluntly.

"But... am I evil?" I asked.

"You don't seem evil." Cas replied.

"Thats... ambiguous." I looked around the table. "What do we do now?"

The men all looked at each other. None of them seemed to really know.

"We protect you." Sam finally said, putting a reassuring hand on my knee under the table.

Dean nodded, not seeing his brother's action. "First, we get back to the bunker. While we're on our way, you need to think of anything odd that's ever happened to you. And who could have put all of those symbols in your house."

"Someone besides you knows about what you are and has likely been protecting you for a long while." Cas sighed. "It would be easier if we knew who."

"I'm thirty, guys. Why has nothing come for me yet? Why now?"

"My guess?" Dean queried. I nodded. "Whoever wants you just found out about you. Either the angel or the demon just got rolled. And whoever got them figured out you are useful.

I shuddered. That sounded ominous. We ate the rest of breakfast in relative silence.

Three more hours of driving and we arrived at the bunker. They swore it was the safest place that I could be. In addition to being safe, the inside was massive.

"Home sweet bunker!" Dean said, tossing his knapsack on a couch and going to grab a beer from the refrigerator. "You want one?"

I nodded. "I need about a dozen. Can I take the grand tour later? Is there somewhere I can be alone and collect my thoughts for a while?" I asked as he handed me a cold Pacifico.

"We have spare bedrooms. I'll show you where you can stay." Sam gave me an empathetic look and led me down a hallway. "You can consider this your room for as long as you stay here, Mina." He opened the door to a small room. It had a double bed, a small desk with a chair, and an old dresser. The light fixture was a single hanging bulb. "I'll, uh, get a better light for you next time I'm in town."

"Thank you Sam." I turned to him. "I just need a little space for a while. It's been... a lot to process."

Sam nodded. "I kind of know how you feel." I raised my eyebrow. "Well, the demon blood thing, but also, for a while I had... interesting powers due to a demon we called Yellow Eyes. I'll tell you the whole story later. But... I know what it's like to not know who you are." He wrapped his arms around me, kissed me on the forehead, and left the room.

I put my clothes on top of the dresser- they needed to be washed. I hung my dress and put my heels in the closet. Then I flopped down on the bed. It had no linens on it yet. I was slowly beginning to realize what was happening. I was a freak, okay, I could handle that. But everyone in my apartment complex had been massacred because some demons couldn't get to me. It was indirectly my fault. Who knew how many other people had been harmed while I had been oblivious to my circumstances?

Dean and Sam sat in the library, reading old books. So far they had come up with nothing.

Sam closed a book dejectedly. "It doesn't even seem like there has ever been a hybrid like this before." He got up, stretched, and began to pace. "There wasn't a reason for them to do it, obviously, because she didn't find out until now. If there'd been a purpose, I can't see it having to incubate for thirty years."

Dean agreed. "Just two lonely hearts, looking for some bodies to possess to get some lovin."

"This is hardly the time to joke, Dean. That poor girl's world has been turned upside down." Sam frowned. "Do we even know if her parents are safe? Her brother?"

Dean nodded. "Garth is on his way to shadow her brother in Connecticut. He said he had some French hunters checking on her parents." He paused. "I'm not being callous. This whole situation sucks. It just- it looks like it's all because a couple of horny angels and demons wanted to get it on after a fucking Doobie Brothers concert."

Cas suddenly appeared. They could hear the flapping of wings and he walked in from the next room. "Crowley is after her too."

"Because of course he is." Sam ran a hand down over his face, as if rubbing a beard he didn't have. "We really should have seen that coming."

"We should have. If it smells like a rat, it's usually Crowley." Dean closed his eyes for a minute. "So if Crowley wants her, it's something sinister. Of course we already knew that much. But he also likely knows we have her."

"Uhhhh yeah he definitely does." Sam stammered. He was on his laptop looking something up. "The officer I got the police files from, Officer Brown? He was found dead in his apartment yesterday. Beat to shit and stabbed through the heart."

I wasn't sure the layout of the place, but as I left my room I followed the voices and eventually found a sprawling library. Dean and Sam were seated at the table, and Cas was standing. They fell silent as I entered.

"How are you doing?" Sam asked. He got up to pull out a chair for me. Dean gave him a weird look and I collapsed into the chair.

"Oh, you know. All right I guess." I shrugged. I honestly wanted to cry, but hell if I would in front of them. I'd save that for later. "Do we have any more information?"

Dean nodded. "You might want to sit down."

"Oh my God is it my family? Are they safe?"

"Your family is fine. There are hunters watching over them." Sam told me.

"Crowley is looking for you." Dean said. When I didn't have much of a response, mainly because the name Crowley meant nothing to me, he explained. "Crowley is the King of Hell."

"Jesus Christ. Angels AND the King of Hell?" I threw my hands up in the air. "Why don't we just fucking ask them why they want me? Is there a way to do that?"

The brothers seemed to think this over. "It's not a terrible idea." Dean finally said.

"I doubt he'll tell us anything, but we might uncover something by accident." Sam added.

"How do we get hold of him?" I asked. I was ready to do this.

"Hold your horses, princess. You don't. We can get hold of him." Dean put a hand up at my protests.

"I want to see what this jackass looks like. He's ruining my life." I interjected.

"If he gets his hands on you, you're gone. We may never find you." Dean explained. "Sam and I will go talk to him. Cas will stay here with you." He looked at Cas. Cas nodded. "And Cas will not do any weird angel things while we're gone." Dean's look turned slightly menacing. Cas nodded once again.

"Nothing weird. You have my word." Cas solemnly swore.

"Fine." I said. "I'll be in my room." I flounced off, pissed that I couldn't be included in something that had such a huge impact on my life... but then returned a few seconds later, slightly humbled. "Where are the extra bed linens?"

Sam and Dean had set up everything they needed in this old carport, to call Crowley and trap him long enough to question him. They'd driven over two hours away from their bunker. They didn't want to lead him to Mina. They were pretty sure he had a good idea of where she was anyways, but she was safe in the bunker.

Sam finished with the devil's trap, Dean sliced his own arm and dripped some blood into the bowl of ingredients, and a stout man in a snappy black suit appeared in a puff of black smoke.

"Speak of the Devil. Plural." The man smiled and said in a jaunty British accent. "I was wondering when you boys would call me up for a little chat." He looked around, seemed unsurprised that he was trapped, and looked back at the Winchesters. "You could at least provide me with a chair."

"No dice, Crowley." Dean said, wrapping a bandage around his arm. "What do you want with the girl?"

"That is the million dollar question." Crowley seemed amused. "What do I want with her, what do the angels want with her, what does anyone want with her?" He looked at Sam. "Well, except for you. That one's obvious." He said flippantly.

Sam set his jaw. "We aren't kidding, Crowley. She didn't even know what she was until this morning."

"She's thirty, not four. That means you didn't know about her til recently, either. So what was it, huh? You torture one of her parents? They spill the beans on some fucked up angel/demon Romeo and Juliet action?" Dean was on the edge of the devil's trap, as if taunting Crowley.

"Aw, dear old mom. The demon, I mean. She had a lot to say when she came to me, begging to be let back into hell and into my good graces." Crowley looked directly at Dean. "She was a wild one. Running amok on "God's" green earth for over fifty years." He shrugged. "She wanted back into the family. She provided some leverage."

"She sold out her daughter for a chance to hang out with you?" Sam scoffed. "Why would anyone do that?"

"I happen to be very personable when caught in the right circumstances." Crowley flashed a smile. "But really, gents, it's been fun, but I really must get back. I'm not going to tell you why anyone wants her. But I will get her. I know you have hunters on her family, but frankly, you two are the only hunters I even bother to deal with personally." He looked from one brother to the other. "One of them will slip up, I'll have them captive, and she'll give herself over. It's... that... simple."

"I'm done with this BS." Dean and Sam left the carport, leaving Crowley in the trap. Eventually he'd call another demon and they'd get him out. "That guy is such a prick."

"He's gonna find her family, Dean. He's got eyes on them already. He sends enough demons, he'll have them." Sam sighed as they got back into the Impala. "I know her, she'll give herself up."

"You know her, huh?" Dean started the car for the long drive home and slid inquisitive eyes sideways at his brother. "You two spent two days together without me. You don't know her."

"Well enough." Sam turned to Dean. "She won't put her family in harms way any more than you'd put me in harm's way. If there's a chance, she'll trade herself. And she literally has no idea what she'd be getting herself into."

Dean stared straight ahead at the road. "Fair enough. Then we can't let her know what's going on until we have a solution."

"We'd better find one quick."

Cas and I had had a very awkward night. We'd sat in the kitchen as I'd thrown together some spaghetti for dinner. Dinner had been mostly silent, though he did say that my spaghetti was extraordinarily better than Dean's spaghetti, and slightly better than Sam's. After dinner we'd watched some television, and at about 11 pm I had excused myself to go to bed.

I showered, pulled on my pajamas, and climbed into my bed. I sat up thinking for a long time. Then I cried for every one of my neighbors. Eventually, I drifted off to sleep.

I was awakened sometime in the dead of night by a tapping on my door. It opened, and I recognized Sam's tall, lean body in the doorway. "Mina?" He whispered. "Are you awake?"

"Yeah." I whispered back. "You can come in."

He tiptoed into my room and closed the door gently behind him. He made his way to my bed in the dark. I moved over to make room and turned on my bedside lamp.

He was still fully dressed and they had apparently just gotten back. I could feel the coldness of the night still on his jacket.

"What did you find out?" I asked.

"Nothing much." He said, shaking his head. "Nothing that can't wait until tomorrow." A strange look flashed in his eyes. "I just wanted to check on you. Before I go to bed."

"I'm all right." I lied.

"Really?"

"No. I cried myself to sleep." I admitted. "But I will eventually be fine." He had reached over and pushed a strand of blonde hair out of my face.

"Do you want me to stay in here with you tonight?" He asked. He looked hopeful.

"I wouldn't mind." I smiled slightly. He nodded, left, and returned a few minutes later in pajamas, with a pillow.

"Won't Dean notice?" I asked.

Sam shrugged. "Dean's in the kitchen with Castiel. And his room is down the hall. I doubt he'll notice." He shut off the bedside light. "And I doubt he'd care if he did notice. He'd just tease us both, and I don't think you want to deal with that right now."

I snuggled down into the crook of Sam's shoulder. "This is all just too weird. A lot of people have been killed because of me, Sam. That's a hard thing to process."

He rolled towards me, wrapping me in his arms. "I know the feeling. I know exactly the feeling." He breathed into my ear. "You need to let it go. You can't let it shape you."

I nodded into his chest.

That night, we just slept, my body curled up with my giant man.

"Cas, is there any way to get the angels to protect her family?" Dean asked Castiel. They were in the bunker kitchen.

"I don't think so, Dean. They're probably devising a plan to get to her family and use them as bargaining tools as well." Cas admitted. "Though, in the event of a standoff, the family would be spared some extra time."

"She's gonna split, as soon as she realizes her family is in danger." Dean took a pull from his beer. "I can't blame her. And I'll feel really bad if we have to lock her up somewhere to keep that from happening. But... angels and Crowley want this woman. That means Crowley can do something bad with her. Open a hell gate. Raise a monster. I don't know. Something bad though."

"I wish I could be of more help. I'm getting nothing on the airwaves." Castiel slouched in his chair. "It doesn't seem that the angels want to kill her, but that doesn't mean they won't if it becomes necessary. They most likely want to keep her from Crowley."

"Like I said. Angels are dicks." Dean winked at Cas.

Cas was helping himself to some leftover spaghetti. "Did I tell you, Dean, how much better Mina's spaghetti is than yours?"

"Touche, Cas, touche."