Dean, Amelia, and Jimmy sat to the left of the burning ring of fire. Perched on an empty cooler, Dean picked at the sandwich that Amelia had made for him. Jimmy watched him test the liverwurst and then swallow hard. You're not alone. Jimmy and Amelia were on the cement floor, both eating their food, although Jimmy was taking his time. Just choke it down. He told himself as he swallowed the thick meat-pasty filling.

Saul was staring at them, his eyes attentive, but his face expressing no emotion. Amelia had greeted him, as Claire, when they had come in. Not just the age difference that five years made, but the movements and expressions, all made this young woman foreign to him. The angel was currently crouched on it's haunches, and it locked eyes with him. "You are frightened of me. I am not a danger to you."

Jimmy stiffened, straightening his posture. "You're holding my daughter hostage. You're a danger to her."

The creature lifted a corner of it's mouth and it's head shaking slowly. "She is not in danger from me."

"Right, you're a real peachy fella from what we've heard—what were you, a cherub or something?" Dean said in a spiteful tone, and Jimmy shot him a glance to see that the man was taunting the creature with his smile. He's trying to provoke it.

The angel blinked at him, and then shook his head again. "I am not a cherub." The blue eyes then turned Jimmy's direction, and it went silent.

"That's what it does, you get maybe three or four minutes of conversation every few hours at most…then it just watches you. Which is why it frightened me when it started praying." Amelia motioned at the angel with her sandwich, and turned to her husband. "He's always said that though. That he's not going to hurt her, or that he's not dangerous. You have to understand that I can't risk him taking off with Claire… I have to keep him trapped…"

"You're not a bad mother because you've been reduced to this, Ames. These are special circumstances. Freaky-weird circumstances." Jimmy wrapped his arm around her and placed a kiss on her forehead. "But we're gonna take care of it, right, Dean?" He looked up to the man who was still seated on the cooler.

"Yeah." Dean responded, his eyes still focused on the creature in front of them. "We got any ideas on how to weaken this thing? I'm thinking a few swipes with an angel blade, maybe—"

"A what? No, you're not cutting this thing out of my daughter!—" Amelia panicked, Jimmy could feel her body tighten under his arm, and she glared ice at Dean.

"There are… other ways to remove angels." Jimmy responded, What was that? His intonation flipped over into Castiel's voice, and he furrowed his brow. He cleared his throat. Castiel? Are you awake?

There was no response, but a vague tingling sensation at the base of his skull. Jimmy glanced up at Dean, who was looking at him in surprise. "Uh… you Cas right now?"

"No… I don't think so." Jimmy replied in Castiel's voice, although now it was his own sentence rhythm.

The Cherubim shifted closer, using it's hands to propel itself forward while still in it's crouch. "Castiel's no longer an Angel, James Novak no longer a Vessel. Neither is at peace." The left side of it's lip curled up and it tilted it's head in an almost owl-like fashion. "Neither will survive long. Both are burning up."

Jimmy felt a flush of warmth under his skin, and then it vanished after only a moment. "Why aren't you afraid of us? We could kill you to get you out of my daughter."

"It's not within your grasp. Not yet." Saul closed his eyes, and placed both hands over them, leaning his head down into his lap.

"Hey!" Jimmy got to his feet and approached the circle of flames. He crouched down next to them, to get as close as possible to the angel. "Saul?" Castiel's growl was still dominant, and Jimmy squinted at the creature through the flames. Cas? Hey, I'm sort of doing a really good voice-impression of you here… maybe you should come and stop me?

Amelia crouched next to him, and placed a hand on his knee. "He's shut down. He won't say anything until he comes out of that. It's not worth the effort. I've tried." He could see the compassion and love in her eyes for the daughter hidden in that strange creature.

I can't see it as Claire. I can't see her in there. It frightened Jimmy… that as Castiel would, he saw the controller, and not the controlled.

Jimmy got to his feet and rubbed his free hand across his hair. He helped Amelia up, and shoved the last mouthful of his particularly unappealing sandwich between his teeth. Chewing it for a moment, he swallowed and looked over at Dean. "We're not hurting her to get the Angel out. We're going to find another way." Amelia still held his hand, and Dean looked distrusting of this situation.

"I get you don't wanna hurt the kid, Cas—"

"Jimmy." He corrected, although he knew he wasn't sounding the part.

"Sure—right. So, I'm thinking we draw a banishing sigil on the wall, and since it's trapped in the holy oil, that'll toss it out'a her, right?" Dean suggested, swallowing his own mouthful of food with obvious distaste. "That's not so hard."

Amelia shook her head, "It'll kill her. I've thought of that. It'll tear her inside out."

"You know about banishing—?" Jimmy began, but was cut off by her slight eye-roll.

"I've had six months to try to figure out how to get Saul out. I had half of these sigils and wards up before you ever called, I have holy oil to keep it trapped. I might not be as experienced as you two… or three… but I'm not completely lost." She reminded, and looked at him pointedly. "I've thought of sigils, of potions, of prayers… nothing I've found will keep her alive in the process."

"Other angels." Cutting through the moment of silence, Dean got to his feet and brushed himself off. Flecks of dirt and sawdust from the floor flew around him, and he raised his brows. "They pulled you—Uh—Cas, I mean. They yanked you-him back to heaven, and left Jimmy empty… and pretty okay."

Jimmy nodded slowly, "If we weakened Saul enough, we could assist Claire in ejecting him… Cas and I could do it. But neither of us have the mojo for that big of a task."

"But how do you weaken an angel that does not harm the host?" Putting one hand on her elbow, she motioned with her other towards the ring of flames. "Everything I've seen is all focused on cutting, or burning…"

With a sigh, Jimmy shrugged, and headed towards the door into the house. Amelia caught his hand, and walked with him. "I don't know what will weaken a Cherubim. I don't know enough about them. But there are some sigils that can weaken an angel's power a little…and then we just need to figure out how to get Cas back to full power." He admitted, even as he heard Dean click the light off, and leave the garage behind them.

"That oil enough to last through the night?" Dean's tone was a little worried, and Jimmy felt Amelia's grip loosen.

"I touch it up every few hours." She yawned, and pulled her phone from her pocket. "It's like having a baby, you never sleep straight to morning." Leading Jimmy now, she began walking towards one of the backrooms that he had not seen yet. "I'll put more on around midnight. It burns a lot longer than you'd think. I stayed up for days to get the schedule perfected. Old hat now." Jimmy could see that she was setting an alarm on her phone as they walked, and he glanced over his shoulder to see Dean settling in on the couch in the living room. That must have been discussed while I was unconscious…

His friend's voice carried after him, "Try to keep it down!"

It took Jimmy a long moment to catch on.

Too long. He felt surprisingly embarrassed by that as he followed his wife. Cas' innocence is creeping into me!

Author's Note: Yep. Not dead. Just been busy. Finally hoping to finish this.