"You're alive."
"Yes, I am, Dean."
"But you were dead."
"I think we already established that, too."
Sam let his gaze move back and forth between his brother and Castiel, while trying to understand the events of last hour.
First there was Kevin Tran, the young boy who had broken in their room little less than hour ago, frantic and hazed look in his eyes, and tried to steal the stone tabled that they'd stolen from Dick Roman. Now the boy sat slumped over Sam's bed, holding the stone tablet against his chest like a safety planked. Sam could imagine how he felt right now, his normal life gone off the radar and without a clue if it would ever return to what it was.
Then Castiel appeared in the room, alive and in all his glory, to tell them that the stone tablet was one of the holders of the Word of God and that Kevin was actually a prophet, the only one who could read its message. That was right before the angel had got engaged by Dean into their (very repetitive) conversation.
And then there was Crowley (and why was he even there?), who stood leaning against the wall and ate roasted peanuts while watching Dean and Cas, looking all too amused.
"You're alive", Dean repeated, clearly unable to comprehend anything over that spot.
Castiel sighed. "Yes, Dean."
"But I saw you dying!"
"Ohhhh, plot-twist!" Crowley whistled, and Castiel turned to look at him with a pained expression. "Normally in this scene he says, 'But you died!' All this excitement may be too much to my poor heart…"
"You don't have a heart… and I thought that you'd already left", Castiel muttered, seemingly uncomfortable.
"And miss all fun? Yeah, sure; you could try to think this as my payback to you. You know, for BETRAYING me and all…"
Castiel just sighed again. "Do as you wish", he said, before turning back to Dean. "Dean, please, we need to talk about –"
"But you died!" Dean insisted.
"Yes, I did; but we have more important things to discuss at the moment. Dean, once the new prophet has been chosen –"
He didn't get any farther than that before three angels busted in the room. Sam met Crowley's eyes, and the demon simply shrugged before vanishing; clearly this was the part of "fun" he happily skipped over.
"Lucky bastard", Sam muttered.
It seemed that the angels had come to take Kevin in to desert to meditate and translate the the tablet. It took them a some time to explain that they couldn't just simply spirit him away, the boy being minor and all, and that his help was needed to fight the Leviathans. Things would have gone badly for them, had one of the angels not being Castiel's old friend and thus inclined to at least hear them out.
Eventually they got things worked out: angels let Kevin translate the part of the tablet that told them how to get rid of Leviathans, and then took him back to home, where his probably very worried mother waited. Sam made a little prayer for whoever was listening, that the boy could live a happy, normal life and forget these unfortunate events.
He had a little hope that it would happen.
"You want my blood? Mine? … You're serious, aren't you?"
Sam looked at Dean who rolled his eyes; why had they even thought that this would be the easy part?
"Be practical, F- Crowley", Castiel asked. "You said by yourself that you want us to get rid of the Leviathans."
"Well, that was before you started to speak anything about any spells requiring MY BLOOD", Crowley retorted.
Dean snorted. "Well, it doesn't have to be yours; maybe we should just finish you off and see if the next king of Hell on the line is feeling more helpful…"
Crowley scowled at him, and to Sam's surprise, so did Cas.
"Dean, you're not helping", the angel scolded.
"What the- Are you taking his side?!" Dean exclaimed.
Crowley smirked smugly and opened his mouth, probably to bait Dean some more, but Castiel prevented it simply by putting his hand over the demon's mouth. "I'm not – There is no sides, Dean. We all want Leviathans gone; but to do that we need to able to trust each others."
Dean scoffed. "Like that bastard has ever trusted in anyone…"
Castiel's face went somber. "He trusted in me, once… And see where that bought us."
Sam opened his mouth to comment that, but closed it again. He was going to say "It's not your fault"… but that would be technically untrue, since Cas had indeed messed up a big time. "We've all made mistakes", he said instead. "What matters is that we try to make them up somehow."
Meanwhile Crowley had gotten Castiel's hand away from his mouth and glared at them all. "Yes, I don't trust you; but fine, I'll give you a little of my blood… after you've acquired the blood from the Alpha vampire."
Castiel frowned a bit, but nodded, before turning his questioning eyes towards the Winchesters. Sam shot a look at Dean, who seemed to be fuming with anger, and said, "That sounds… fair."
Bone of the Righteous Mortal… Check.
Blood of the Fallen Angel... Check.
Blood of the Alpha Vampire… Check.
Blood of the Ruler of Hell… Check… Maybe.
To the very last moment, Sam was sure that Crowley was double-crossing them. Never before had he hoped as dearly to be proved wrong.
In the end, he stood by himself in the room where his brother and Castiel had vanished into the vortex that – by Crowley's knowledge – had taken them to purgatory with Dick Roman and the other Leviathans. Now Crowley was gone, as was Kevin Tran – the boy had been saved from Leviathans only to be captured by demons.
Sam didn't know if he had enough tears to left to cry.
Apparently, Sam had managed to give Bobby a call at some time during his almost-mental-breakdown, before the next day elder hunter called him back, telling that everything was alright; Dean and Cas were back, Kevin Tran got safely back home – and no, he'd not sold his soul to Crowley, he's not an idiot, you idjit!
And when he then heard Dean's voice from the other side of the line, he could finally cry.
