Authors note: Thanks to everyone who has followed and added this bad boy to their favourites. It's truly encouraging. I have diverted quite a bit from the original story lines here, though I guess that's the beauty of fan fics is that you can do that! So don't hate me for it please! and please do comment if you can, it always keeps me motivated and makes me really happy to know that people are enjoying what I'm doing (or equally gives me things to improve on too which is also awesome!).

Thanks for reading.

Chapter 10

Zoe didn't even bother to tell anyone where she was going, she just needed to be away from the church for a while. The entire place felt stifling for her, as if there was an overbearing pressure surrounding her every time she entered. No matter what she did though she couldn't seem to escape the fate she had been assigned. She hadn't explained her brother's and her lives to people in such a long time that bringing it up made her uneasy, it was something she had tried to forget for so long that when someone asked about it she still felt the same pang of apprehension and deep seeded hatred. Without realising it she was running her thumb across the now white scarred words on her arm her eyes nearly vacant as she wandered through the overgrown woodland. She was so busy getting caught in her own thoughts that she didn't even notice when Crowley was standing in front of her until she had walked right into him and ended up sprawled on the ground.

"Not exactly the picture of health are we?" Crowley gave her a smile, the same devilish grin that dredged up a flurry of emotions she couldn't get a good grasp on.

"Shut it Crowley," Zoe hissed, pushing herself up from the floor just as he grabbed her hand and helped her. Zoe felt her breath get caught in the back of her throat as his hand wrapped around hers and held her steady for a moment before dropping back to his side.

"I missed you too darling," he said with a smirk, his brown eyes sparkling with something more than the usual contempt they often held.

"What do you want Crowley?" she wanted with every ounce of her being to sound angry, but instead she just sounded weary and tired.

"Believe it or not, I wanted to make sure you were okay," he stuffed his hands into his pockets and looked the young girl in front of him up and down momentarily, "though clearly that's the one thing you're not."

"Don't you have some sort of a weapon to go and find or something?" Zoe looked sideways at him for a moment before continuing on the way she had been going before.

"Yeah, turns out that isn't going to work out the way I had hoped it would."

"What are you talking about?" Zoe spun to face him angrily, "you don't have a weapon do you? There's nothing that can separate the two of us is there?"

Crowley smiled once more at the girl before him, his eyes practically ablaze in the moon, "not exactly. I thought about it some more, and sadly the Winchester that made the deal is not the Winchester I needed to make that deal."

"What bullshit are you sprouting now?" Zoe sighed, folding her arms over her chest.

"I needed the Squirrel, not the Moose," the demon said with a shrug.

Zoe's eyebrows pulled together as she looked Crowley up and down, "why do you need Dean?"

He shrugged, a mischievous smirk on his face, "he's got the flare that I'm looking for."

"Flare? What the Hell are you talking about?"

"You ask too many questions you know that?"

"What are you trying to do Crowley? What sick, twisted plan do you have for those two brothers?" the ferocity in her voice made the demon pause for a moment, though his face was still stoic, his mind was running like a freight train.

"I want Dean, he's just unhinged enough that he would be the perfect person for the Mark of Cain, then he can go and get all that pent up rage out by killing that pain in the ass Abaddon and I can go back to my little corner of Hell and rule, like I so rightly deserve to," his eyes narrowed as he watched the woman before him mulling over what he had just said.

Sam stood by the back door watching as Dean paced back and forth across the patch of grass near the bottom of the steps. The one thing Sam had always hated was animosity between him and his brother. It had become such a common part of his relationship with their Dad that when John died, Sam had made himself a promise that he wouldn't have the same relationship with Dean. The past few years had been strained, but they had managed to get back on track, especially when they had a single united cause bringing them together and pushing them forwards. They had a common goal that required both of them to stand together like they never had before. His only worry now was that once they had gotten Zoe to DC their relationship would be back where it had once been. He sucked in a deep breath and wandered out onto the back porch.

"Dean," he stopped at the bottom of the steps, his hands in his pockets as he leaned against the railing causally.

"Hey," his older brother stopped pacing and faced him, "everything okay in there?"

"Yeah, I just uh," Sam cleared his throat awkwardly, "I just wanted to make sure you were all good out here."

Dean's eyebrows narrowed momentarily, "yeah, fine."

He had practically raised his baby brother, he knew more about Sam than Sam knew about himself some days and in moments like these it was almost painfully easy to see that something more was going on, "what's really going on Sammy?"

The youngest Winchester sank down onto the bottom step, his eyes down turned to the grass as his brother came to lean against the opposite rail, "talk to me little brother, what's wrong?"

He let out a sigh and ran a hand through his shaggy hair, "I've been thinking about what Cas said earlier, and I don't know Dean, what if we can't save her? What if all of this turns out to be for pretty much nothing, then what? What happens to us after that?"

Dean's green eyes met his brother's worried hazel ones in the dim light, "it won't be for nothing, Sammy, trust me. Everything is going to work out I swear."

There was a certainty and an unwavering determination in his older brother's voice that seemed to settle Sam a little. His mind slowed down just enough so as he could string together a coherent thought, his head falling into his hands as he tried to get a grasp on everything.

"Sam," Dean knelt down in front of his brother, his look intense and unwavering, "I promise you, this will all work out okay."

"How can you be so sure?" Sam's voice was quiet in the open space.

"Because, it's always been okay Sam. As long as we were together, as long as we tackled things together it was always okay. Even with everything we have lost, everything we stand to lose. Sammy this will work out. Just like it always has. I swear, you don't have anything to be worried about."

"I hope you're right Dean. For everyone's sake."

"So you're saying," Zoe had her hands on her hips as she kicked at the dirt, "if I help you convince Dean that this Mark of Cain is the best possibly chance he has at saving me, then Sammy is off the hook and Dean gets to walk away scot free, so long as he kills Abaddon for you?"

Crowley gave her a single nod, his eyes sparkling in the moonlight, "that's right. One Squirrel and one Moose, safely by your side. Like always."

Zoe eyed him for a long moment before raking her hand through her rather matted hair.

"So, sweetheart," Crowley stepped forwards, "do we have a deal?"

Defiant blue eyes met hungry brown ones in the silver moonlight, the whole world standing still in that single second. A silence so loud Zoe was almost certain it would consume her whole.

"Fine," she hissed.

Crowley leaned forwards, a wave of mint, tobacco and alcohol washing over her senses as he stopped inches from her face, "how about a kiss to seal this one?"

She felt one eye twitch slightly as she glared at him, and before she had a chance to do anything he had pressed his lips to hers. A movement so dishearteningly familiar that no matter how hard she tried she couldn't seem to stop herself from kissing him back, her lips sliding against his carefully as he bit down rather hard onto her bottom lip, a good kind of pain surging through her whole body. Just as quickly as he had appeared, he was gone, leaving Zoe standing alone in the woods, the salty taste of blood on her tongue and a weight in her heart so heavy she was sure she would crumble underneath it.