Lucifer looked at the gun in disgust. It was his own fault. He had messed with the gun to make sure that it misfired so that Sam would have to shoot Dean to save him. He just had time to glance at Sam's unconscious form before he felt ice flowing over him.

Crowley was watching from his perch. He poured down the gasoline and lit the match, saying an incantation to make the fire immune to the melting water. When the ice totally melted, Lucifer was left lying on the ground.

"Are we sure he's dead?" Dean asked. It seemed little too easy.

Crowley bent over him to look. "Yeah. The king is dead. Long live the new king. Me." With that he disappeared.

Dean wanted to make sure this king wasn't too long-lived, but he had more important things to take care of. He picked Sam up and marveled at how light he was. He brought him back to the cabin he and Crowley had been working out of. He hoped Crowley stayed away.

SSS

Dean had laid Sam on the bed and was waiting for him to wake up. He was rewarded shortly. Sam scooted back on the bed. "Where's Nick?"

"Sam, Nick wasn't a nice guy." That was putting it mildly.

Sam didn't respond. He had already thought that, but he didn't know about this guy either. And he just realized he had used the word was instead of is. "Did you kill him?

Dean nodded.

"What are you going to me?" Sam asked. He wondered if he was like Bob.

"I'm not going to do anything to you. I would never hurt you, Sammy," Dean promised.

"Don't call me that," Sam snapped. "You said my brother wasn't dead." The nickname reminded him of what he had said back at the warehouse.

Dean sighed. He wasn't sure what to do. Sam wasn't stupid. He could read a calendar and he would figure out something wasn't right sooner or later anyway. "I'm your brother."

"What are you talking about. You're way too old to be Dean."

"What year do you think it is, Sam?"

"1991."

"it's 2012."

"How is that possible?" Sam asked.

"It's a really long story. But basically a spell was cast to make you younger," Dean didn't want to get into the whole devil and vessel thing.

"Why?"

"I don't know," Dean lied.

Sam didn't think he believed this. It was impossible. That meant that Dean really was dead.

"Are you hungry?" Dean asked.

Sam nodded.

"OK. Come on. We'll go get something to eat."

Sam followed Dean outside. Instead of getting in the car, he started running. He remembered that running hadn't worked at the school, but there were more people there. This guy was all alone. He just had to make it to the road. All adults couldn't be like those teachers. Somebody would help him.

Dean took a minute to react. He hadn't been expecting that. He couldn't let Sam run off, though. He was too vulnerable. He ran after him. It was nice being taller for once. He easily overtook Sam and grabbed his arm. He tried not to be rough.

Sam looked up at the man. He knew he would be punished now. He wondered when he would ever learn that he just needed to obey whatever the adults told him to do.

When Dean looked down at Sam, he was filled with sadness. He had expected to see defiance. What he saw was resigned acceptance.

"Come on. Back inside," he said gently.

When they were back inside, Sam meekly went back to sit on the bed. "Are you going to lock me in a closet, or something, all night?"

"Of course not," Dean said, but that did raise a question. He couldn't let Sam run away. If the leviathans found out that Sam was a little kid out on his own, it wouldn't take them very long to get their hands on him. They would either just kill him, or use him to get at Dean. He couldn't allow either to happen.

He went out to the car and got some tools. He installed a lock that he could slide a padlock into on both sides of the door. He could lock Sam in while he was there or out. He couldn't keep him locked up here forever, though. He really didn't know what to do. He threw Sam the granola bars he had found in the car.

Sam was eating the last of them when Meg appeared.

"How did you get here?" Sam asked. He didn't know who she was, other than that she had been there when Nick had saved him or not. But he was curious as to how anybody could just appear out of thin air.

"What are you doing here?" Dean asked, stepping between Meg and Sam.

"I heard you killed my father."

Dean took a step back in Sam's direction. "Sorry," he said sarcastically.

"Don't be. He didn't trust me with the truth. I think maybe Crowley was wrong. Maybe he was planning on getting rid of all demons."

Sam was wondering what on earth she was talking about but kept his mouth shut.

"What are you doing here?" Dean asked.

"The one thing I do know is that Lucifer got the potion to de-age Sam from Atropos."

"Fate?" Dean asked.

"That's right. I bet she could reverse it."

"Why do you care?" Dean asked. He knew that demons never do anything out of the kindness of their hearts.

"The leviathans have declared war on demons. Apparently Crowley did something to tick them off. You two have an amazing ability to hunt way beyond your pay grade. Either way, you'll be too busy hunting them to bother about me. I figure it's worth a shot."

"Fine. But, how do we find Atropos."

"I have a summoning ritual."

"Do it," Dean decided. It went against every grain to trust a demon, but Sam couldn't stay like this.

Meg mixed some herbs and said some Latin words and Atropos appeared.

"Will you fix him?" Dean asked getting straight to the point.