A.N. I hope you enjoy this chapter, I had a lot of fun writing it! Please, please, pretty please review, I want to know what you guys think! As always, thank you for all the likes and follows!

CHAPTER 6

"Cas?" whispered Dean as his eyes laid on the new comer.

"Hello Dean." Answered the Angel.

"C-Cas!" exclaimed Dean once more as he got up to hug his best friend. He squeezed him so tight just to make sure he was really there. He let go after a moment and asked "Where the hell have you been?"

Cas didn't answer. He wished he had a good answer, but he didn't.

"I prayed to you, Cas, every day!" Continued Dean.

"I know..." simply answered Castiel. "I heard you."

Dean felt his heart skip a beat. "Then why didn't you come? You could've at least, I-I don't know, called? I thought you were dead!" He said with a voice full of anger and sadness.

There were so many emotions and feelings rushing through his body at that moment, but he was mostly hurt. He couldn't understand how he could've been alive this whole time without giving them any kind of sign. Cas was supposed to be their friend, and friends are supposed to be there for each other, especially when one prays to the other day and night. But Cas left them, he left him, and Dean felt so betrayed. He looked at Cas, waiting for an answer, for an apology or any sort of excuse for why he didn't try to contact them.

"I'm sorry..." was all Cas could say. He didn't have a good excuse, he should've been there for the Winchesters, but he wasn't. And now Sam was gone, and he somehow blamed himself for it.

Dean looked at him for a moment, hoping there was more to it than a simple I'm sorry, but nothing else came out of his friend's mouth. "Sam's gone" he said, hoping for a reaction. "They took him."

"I know." Simply answered Castiel.

Dean raised his eyebrows in surprise. "And you didn't do anything to stop that from happening?" he asked abruptly.

"I-um..." started Cas.

"Look, just get out of here man." Dean said turning his back on the Angel. "'Cause I don't know about you, but I'd actually like to save Sam in the morning, and I need to get some sleep, so if you –" Dean stopped talking as he turned around and saw that Cas was no longer there. "Son of a bitch" he said to himself in a sigh. He turned off the light and fell quickly asleep on the couch where he'd spent the night before.

After a couple hours of well deserved sleep that was way more than a Winchester ever needed, Dean was up and running. It was about 5 in the morning when Dean got out on the front porch of Maggie's house, to find some people gathered around Rick, listening to somewhat of a speech. Dean rolled his eyes and decided to not even stop and headed for his car instead, which didn't go un-noticed.

"Where'd you think you're going?" shouted Rick.

"To save my brother" Dean shouted back. "Dickhead" he added under his breath, rolling his eyes again.

"No you're not. You're coming with us." Declared Rick as he had caught up with the hunter

"Look, sorry I don't have time for you little Braveheart moment, but you're not stopping me." Dean answered as he kept walking, not minding the Sheriff.

Rick grabbed Dean by the arm and looked him dead in the eye as he spoke in a serious and determined tone. "It wasn't a question. You're coming with us, period. I'm not losing any more of my men because a stubborn and stupid man like you doesn't go according to plan. You have no idea who we're about to deal with, no idea. You're coming with us and you shut your damn mouth and you let me do the talking. And then, if we're lucky, Negan will let all of us walk out of there in one piece. Understood?"

Dean felt his heart pumping hard in his chest as he was furious. But he wasn't stupid, Rick was right, he was being stubborn and that's what got them into this mess in the first place. He might not like not being in charge, but Rick seemed to know what he was doing, and he might be the only chance he got to get back his brother alive. So after a moment, Dean simply answered "Yes sir."

Rick kept the eye contact for a few second to make sure Dean really understood before turning his back on the hunter and shouted to the little group. "Alright, listen up! We've all been here before, but somehow we end up here again. We need to unite and fight to keep our people safe. We can't keep living in fear that Negan's gonna take more of our people. I really hope this is the last time we have to do this, but I can't promise anything. All I can promise is that I will try to fight and keep all of you safe 'till my last breath. But for now, we need to gather our forces to save Daryl, and Sam! We go according to plan, and we will all be back here alive! We are the ones who win! We are the ones who live!"

Dean nodded a few times as he sighed while the people cheered and shouted. He looked over his shoulder to see Maggie coming his direction.

"Hey" he said, somehow content to see her.

"Hey" she said back before looking down at the ground. There was an awkward silence for a few seconds, neither of them knowing what to say. Maggie sighed before she spoke again. "Just.. Be careful, okay?"

Dean gave her a shy and meaningful smile and said "Always."

He turned around without saying goodbye and caught up with the rest of the group. They all gathered every weapon they had, got into the cars and drove off into the sunrise.

They'd been driving for a while, having spent most of the ride in complete silence, when they arrived at what seemed like an old factory, with lots of broken windows and a big staircase. Dean looked around, unconsciously looking for his brother, but mostly examining the place. On his right were fences that kept the walkers out, and he noticed a few actual human beings amongst them, somewhat trying to defend themselves against the dead. Dean felt chills running down his back. Was this how Sam was treated in this place? He closed his eyes firmly, trying to manage his anger and pain. The only thing that kept him going was the thought of Sam being alive, even if that's what alive meant. If he was alive, that meant he could be saved, and that's all that was on Dean's mind.

The cars engines stopped one after the other as armed people gathered around them. One of them loaded his gun and aimed at Rick.

"What do you want?" the man shouted.

"We're here to see Negan!" answered Rick in his loud and imposing voice.

The man frowned and smiled at the same time. It was an evil smile, like they'd all been waiting for this moment, like they knew what was coming and they were amused. A few chattered were heard amongst the people but soon stopped as a man started to walk out. Dean frowned as he cautiously watched him approach. From afar, all Dean could see was the man's black jacket and his red scarf. He had a beard and as he got closer Dean managed to notice what seemed like a baseball bat.

"Well, well, well, what do we have here?" the man said, "It's my favorite Sheriff! And you brought friends! How thoughtful!"

He had an amusing and sarcastic tone as he swung his baseball bat happily in front of him.

"Negan, we need to talk!" shouted Rick to the man, who Dean learned was in fact Negan.

Negan smiled as he kept approaching. He had the same sarcastic smile as the others did before he arrived, but his looked different somehow. He had that look Dean had seen too many times before, but he couldn't remember where. Dean frowned as he watched Negan stepping closer to where his group was standing. Then it hit him. Like a tone of brick. He felt his heart pumping hard in his chest as his eyes grew wide.

"Dad?" Dean whispered under his breath.

Negan looked over at the crowd before landing his eyes on Dean. "You've got to be shitting me? Winchester?" he shouted amusingly as his eyebrows raised in surprise.

Dean felt his knees get weak as his heart was trying to jump right out of his chest. All eyes turned to the hunter, trying to understand the situation. Dean kept looking at Negan, trying as hard as he could not to break.

Negan laughed one of his sarcastic and amused laughs and said "This is just terrific! Is it my lucky day? First I get little Sammy, and now I get big bro Winchester as well? Man!" He kept smiling and looked Dean in the eyes "I gotta tell you though, it's a bummer Mary isn't here. Mmh, how I would kill to get a piece of that blondie's ass!"

Dean felt fire running through his chest as anger filled his body. He was so confused and frustrated and all of this was happening so fast, but one thing was clear amongst all this confusion: he wanted to kill him. He didn't quite have a plan yet, but no matter who this man was, whether it was his dad or that Negan douche, he wanted him dead. Dead felt an urge of energy and anger making him take a quick step forward, ready to attack, but what somehow held back as someone grabbed him by the arm. Dean quickly turned around to see Cas holding him firmly. His eyes grew wide as he breathed heavily in pure confusion. Everybody else were as confused as the hunter, trying to get where that trench coat guy came from. A few of the saviors let go of Rick's group to aim at the Angel instead.

"It's not your dad anymore, Dean" said Cas in his low and deep voice, looking at him straight in the eyes.

Negan's jaw dropped. "No way! Whole Team Free Will is here! Man, I had a feeling when I got up this morning that today was gonna be a great day, but this? I mean, is it my birthday?"

Everyone was pretty confused and tried to keep a straight face as much as possible. Even some of the saviors looked at the other group with question marks in their eyes, looking for some sort of answer to all of this.

"What the Hell is this?" Rick asked Dean, but kept looking at Castiel.

Dean stayed quiet, breathing heavily. He was trying to control himself, holding back all the rage inside of his body. Plus, he was as confused about all this as Rick was and couldn't possibly give him a good explanation.

After a few seconds that went by so fast in all this confusion, Rick shook himself up and laid his eyes back on Negan. "Negan!" he shouted, "we're here to get Daryl and Sam back! We don't have much to give in exchange, but we were hoping you-"

Negan cut him short with one of his heavy and mean laugh. "Rick, I gotta tell you, you got a lot of nerves coming here, un-invited, stepping on my propriety, aiming your weapons at my man and expecting me to give you anything!" he smiled and shook his head a few times. "But let me tell you. I feel pretty generous today, and we can make a deal."

Rick's eyes grew wide as hope filled his body for the first time in a long time.

Negan kept on smiling. "I'll give you back Daryl," he took a short pause, "if you give me Dean Winchester."

Rick's face quickly changed as he rapidly answered "No, no way- "

"Okay" Dean shouted, looking at the ground. All eyes turned to him in surprise while Negan smirked.

Rick and Cas both tried to convince him not to do such a stupid thing, mumbling rapidly un coherent sentences full of no's and don'ts, but Dean, as stubborn as he was, already made up his mind. "Look, I got them into this mess, I need to get them out. I need to do this." Dean said.

Cas and Rick shook their heads.

"Dean…" whispered Cas.

Dean gave him a meaningful look. "Cas, I need to do this…" he said once more in the same tone as Cas.

"Alright then, it's settled! I give you one pathetic and worthless asshole for another, I think it's a fair deal!" shouted Negan with a smile before whispering something in the hear of one of his men, who nodded and disappeared in the darkness of the building's entrance.

A few moments later, Daryl appeared in the doorway, hands and feet tied together with a rope. He was being pushed by the man Negan had sent and was squinting, as he hadn't seen the Sun's light for a while. The man pushed him once more, which made him trip and fall down the stairs as the Saviors laughed out loud. Daryl quickly managed to get back up on his own with the little dignity that was left and he stopped next to Negan, looking down at the ground.

"Come on now Deanny boy, don't be shy! I don't bite!" Negan said with a smirk. He looked down at his precious baseball bat and started swinging it back and forth. "Although Lucille might," he continued, "she's quite the naughty type."

Dean sighed deeply. He took one last look at Cas before walking up the stairs. Negan gave Daryl a little push to indicate that he could start walking as well. The two man crossed path as one went down the stairs and the other climbed them. They gave each other a meaningful look full of empathy. Once Dean had joined Negan and Daryl was back with his respective group, Negan put his arm around the hunter's shoulder and shook him a little. "There, was it so hard?" he asked, looking at Dean with his sarcastic smile. "Now, Rick, how about you get you and your dumb friend's ass out of my propriety before I start shooting at everybody, uh? How's that sound?" He said to Rick, smiling even more widely.

"We'll be back." Simply answered Rick.

"Yeah, I wouldn't be that stupid if I were you, but then again, you are pretty damn stupid!"

Rick was burning up with rage, but knew there was nothing left to do at the moment. Even if he didn't grow fond of Dean, nor Sam, they were still part of his group somehow, and Rick wasn't one to leave his men behind. They needed to get back to Alexandria and work on a plan. It wouldn't do any good if they'd just start fighting at that moment.

Rick gave a hand signal to his group to get back into the cars and to get back home. Dean watched as the cars drove away, with Negan's arm still holding on to him, and his Angel nowhere to be found.