Chapter Fifteen

THEN

Dean's eyes widened at the angel. "You mean you're grounded?"

Castiel looked up at Dean, nodding slightly. "To put it figuratively…yes. I cannot return to heaven."

NOW

"Okay, how did Alistair manage to clip your wings?" asked Dean.

"The spell he had been reciting was meant to send me to heaven," Castiel explained. "I believe that smiting him in the midst of it interfered and did just the opposite."

"Well, that sucks," said Buffy. "So, he's sticking around?"

"Apparently," Dean said. He slapped a hand onto Castiel's shoulder. "Strap in, buddy. We're gonna have a good time." He gave the angel a wry smile.

The bell on the front door jingled as it opened, and Tara and Dawn came in.

"Okay, what'd we miss?" asked Dawn. Her eyes fell on Giles. "Giles!" She rushed over to the Watcher, giving him a big hug.

"Good to see you, too, Dawn," Giles told her with a smile.

Dawn pulled away from Giles and turned to the others. "So, what'd we miss?"

"Killed some demons, saved a seal, discovered the demons' secret plan from the past four years, Bobby became Dean's Watcher, and we shackled an angel to our side," Xander summed up.

Dean looked over at him. "You love doing that, don't you?"

"I assume we're not talking about a mammal when you say 'seal,'" Giles said.

Bobby nodded his head over towards the front of the lobby. "I'll fill you in." He led the Watcher away from the group to tell him what had been going on.

"So, you own a magic shop?" Dean asked Anya.

"Yep," said Anya. "It used to belong to Giles, but then he went to England."

Dean's gaze swept to a doorway in the back under a loft. "And what's back there?"

A rare, genuine smile spread across Buffy's face. "Oh, you're definitely gonna want to see that." She turned and headed for the room.

Dean shrugged. "Okay, then." He followed Buffy through the doorway, finding a room decked out to be a training room. "Wow."

There were gym mats, a punching bag, a vaulting horse, a wall of weapons and some dummy thing in the corner. It was like a hunter's dream training room.

"Welcome to my sanctum," Buffy said. She walked over to the weapons wall and picked up two padded sparring gloves, slipping them on. "Let's see what you got."

Dean frowned. "What?"

"Come on," Buffy told him, slapping the two mitts together and holding them out. "Let's find out if you're good enough to be my predecessor."

Dean stared at her. "You're serious?"

"What's the matter?" asked Buffy, putting her hands on her hips. "Chicken?"

Dean narrowed his eyes at Buffy. "Oh, you are so on." He took his jacket off, chucking it onto the vaulting horse.

Buffy toed off her shoes and kicked them to the side of the room as Dean did the same, taking his silver ring off and stuffing it in his jeans pocket. Buffy crouched her legs a little to brace herself and raised the padded mitts. Dean stepped forward and readied himself before aiming a punch at one. He kept his strength back, not wanting to hurt Buffy since it was only a training session. He followed his punch up with another punch and a kick.

Buffy smirked at him. "You know, I can handle myself. I think I've proven it more than once. Quit holding back."

Dean smirked back and then shrugged, letting loose with many firm punches, backhands, uppercuts, side kicks, spin kicks, roundhouse kicks and jump kicks. Breathing heavy and building up a slight sweat, Dean landed a heel in one of the gloves and took a step back as he rested.

Buffy lowered her arms to her side, fixing Dean with a daring glance. "Is that the best you got?"

Dean slowly smirked in the face of Buffy's challenging stare.

***********************************************SPN /BTVS********************************************* **********************

"So, what are we waiting for?" asked Ruby. "Let's hit the road and hunt the bitch down."

"We don't even know where Lillith is headed next, Ruby," said Sam. "We should take a step back, look for omens—"

"By the time we find any, she'll be long gone," Ruby countered. She began heading for the front door. "I'm off on the hunt, and if you know what's good for you, you will be, too."

"Not to take sides, but I agree with black-eyes there," Spike spoke up.

"Sam has a point, though," Giles said. "Better to narrow down Lillith's location before rushing in half-cocked."

"Giles and I will get on that," Bobby said. "You all have bigger concerns." He pulled out a newspaper and spread it on the table. "A bank was robbed about noon yesterday."

"And that's our problem, why?" asked Xander.

"Well, apparently, they noticed the money was gone after an attack in the lobby," Giles explained. "An eyewitness described the creature as a 'green and yellow, spiny-headed monster.'"

"An M'Fashnik demon," said Castiel suddenly from across the table.

Giles frowned. "But M'Fashnick demons generally don't act on their own. They perform acts of slaughter and mayhem for the highest bidder, which means someone out there paid him to attack the bank."

"Probably whoever got away with the money," said Willow.

Giles nodded.

"Time for the Slayers?" asked Anya.

Ruby frowned. "Slayers? You mean, plural?"

Sam turned a little more towards her. "Oh, yeah, I didn't call you after we found out. Dean is a Vampire Slayer."

Ruby stared at him for a moment. "Huh…Well, that figures."

A strained shout came from the back room, and they rushed back there to find the two Slayers in the mid-fight.

Dean swung his arm towards Buffy's head, which she expertly ducked. Buffy lifted her left leg as she ducked towards her right, nailing Dean in the ribs with her knee. Dean wrapped his right arm around her leg, pinning it to his side and grabbing her right hip with his left hand. He heaved her up off the ground enough to throw her into the wall.

Buffy hit the brick and landed on the floor in a crouch. As Dean rushed her, Buffy somersaulted to her right, smoothly rolling back up onto her feet. As Buffy got onto her feet, Dean turned and wrapped his arms around her, pinning her arms to her sides. Buffy immediately brought her head back, cracking her skull against his nose. Dean wouldn't relinquish his hold on her, so Buffy brought her heel down on his foot and then drove her elbow back into his nose, practically smashing his bruised nose.

Dean's hold loosened, allowing Buffy to pull free and spin towards him. She raised her leg as she spun, nailing him on the side of the head. Dean's body flipped over and landed on the floor as Buffy planted her foot to his neck. Dean swept Buffy's leg out from under her with his arm and rolled himself over as she landed, pinning her with his knees to her chest and an elbow in her throat.

Buffy shrugged. "Not bad, rookie."

"Not bad?" said Dean. "I kicked your ass."

"Who's to say I let you?" said Buffy, hauling her lets up suddenly behind Dean's back.

Buffy's legs latched around Dean's neck from behind, pulling him off of her and to the floor. Buffy grabbed Dean's legs at the same time and pushed, flipping him over onto his stomach.

Dean stood, rubbing his neck. "Touché."

"Are we interrupting?" said Xander.

Dean and Buffy glanced over at the others in the room.

"Just training," Buffy told him. "Why? We got a monster hunt?"

"We'll tell you on the way," said Bobby, leading everyone towards the front door.

*************************************************S PN/BTVS******************************************* **************************

Dean followed Buffy into her house, leading the others inside as well. He collapsed onto the couch, holding some gauze to a cut at his hairline.

"Ugh, what a stubborn little bastard," Dean grumbled, bringing the gauze down and looking at the blood on it.

"Don't worry," Buffy told him. "Super duper healing abilities come with the slaying gig."

"Alright!" smiled Dean.

"The way you got that demon was awesome!" Xander told Castiel. "I mean, you just put your hand on him, and he lit up! Awesome!"

"I'm glad I could inspire awe for you," Castiel responded.

Xander stared at him. "Right…"

"So…" said Dean, looking up at the angel, "your first ride in a car. What was that like?"

"Um…" said Castiel, seemingly giving it some thought, "slow. Confining."

Dean chuckled, thinking back to those impossibly huge wings he had seen in the Magic Box. "Yeah, I'll bet."

"You've never ridden in a car?" asked Buffy.

Castiel stiffly shook his head. "I have never had the occasion."

"Well, you don't know what you're missing," said Xander.

"Do you ever do anything humans do?" asked Buffy.

Castiel frowned confusedly. "My Father made both humans and angels in His image. We are similar in many ways."

Buffy smiled. "No, I meant, do you eat, watch TV, play video games?"

"No," said Castiel simply.

"Well, we're gonna have to fix that," said Dawn, taking hold of the angel's hand.

Castiel glanced down at Dawn's hand in his before following her towards the kitchen.

Sam gave Dean a half-worried, half-amused look. "This'll end well."

Sam helped Dean stitch his head as the others headed into the kitchen to find Dawn with a carton of ice cream open on the island, a spoon of ice cream held up towards Castiel.

"You can do it, Cas," said Dawn, edging the spoon towards him. "It tastes really good."

Castiel glanced at her before slowly accepting the spoon and bringing it to his mouth. As he swallowed the mouthful of Rocky Road ice cream, the whole room seemed to comically hold its breath for his reaction.

Castiel calmly looked back over at Dawn with a frown. "I appear to have a strange sticky sensation in my mouth."

Dean burst out laughing.

"It's the chocolate," Dawn explained. "It makes people thirsty." She turned and filled a glass with some water, handing it to Castiel.

Castiel accepted the glass and took a drink, setting it back down on the counter.

"Well?" asked Dawn.

"Refreshing," answered Castiel, staring at the glass of water.

Dean smiled. "She meant the ice cream."

Castiel's gaze moved up to Dean. "Pleasant."

"Alright," laughed Xander. "One down, a dozen to go."

A phone began ringing in Dean's jacket, causing him to frown.

That doesn't sound like my ringtone, he thought.

He reached into his pockets, searching for the ringing phone. He finally pulled a cell out of an inside pocket, recognizing it as his father's.

"Is that…" asked Sam.

"Yeah," said Dean, opening the phone and bringing it to his ear. "Hello?"

Sam watched as Dean waited for the person to speak.

"He can't come to the phone," Dean told the caller. "Can I help you?"

Sam's interest piqued. Who would be asking for Dad?

After a moment or so, Dean spoke again. "Well, sorry to be the one to break this to you, pal, but John died more than two years ago…Who is this?"

Sam watched as Dean's jaw dropped a little. That was not good; rarely anything left Dean speechless.

"You know what?" said Dean finally. "I'll bet you me and my co-worker Sam can help you out. Why don't we meet up somewhere? Where are you at?" There was a pause. "Okay, then, Cousin Oliver's at about three tomorrow afternoon. See you then…You bet." He hung up and stared at the phone.

"What is it?" asked Sam, not liking the spooked look on his brother's face.

Dean looked up at him. "Some guy named Adam Milligan."

Sam shook his head a little, not recognizing the name from any contacts they had.

Dean stared long and hard at Sam, an angry glare forming on his face. "He says he's Dad's kid."