Ok, here's chapter six. It will be about a week before the next chapter comes out, maybe a bit longer. This one is much longer and the story really starts to move along and I hope you enjoy it.

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Dean sighed and rubbed his eyes. One night of decent sleep was not nearly enough to make up for weeks of little to no sleep. Exhaustion mixed with seemingly never ending headache over was making his eyes sting. He didn't think he could take another minute riffling through crappy newspapers trying find the location of Lucifer. Well Bobby, Sam and Castiel were trying the locate Lucifer, Dean was trying to find proof of what Crowley had told him.

"This is hopeless, he could be anywhere." Sam grunted, slamming the lid of his laptop down.

Bobby sighed and sunk down in his chair, pushing the open book away from him angrily. Castiel threw the newspaper he was reading across the room with a huff and Dean watched them all sullenly.

"Six months ago he was sacrificing entire towns and now he's just….gone. Not a trace. It doesn't make any sense."

Dean focused on Bobby as his words sunk in. What would make someone who could quite literally anything just fall off the map? Someone who had absolutely nothing to fear?

"He's hiding." Dean muttered quietly, more to himself than anything.

"What?"

"Bobby's right. Six months ago, a week didn't go by where we weren't hearing about something that was practically a neon sign pointing to Lucifer. But it's been weeks and we haven't found a thing."

Sam and Bobby looked at him like he stupid before Sam spoke. "Yes Dean, we've established that."

"Yeah but why? What's changed?."

Sam, Bobby and Castiel continued to look at Dean like he was a rambling idiot. They all just sat blinking at him and Dean waited for them to put the pieces together.

"Michael." he prompted when no one seemed to be getting it.

"Dean can we deal with one pissed off angel at a time?" Sam asked him, rolling his eyes and opening his laptop once more.

"Michael has his vessel, he has Adam. He's ready to fight. Lucifer is powerful but he's not as powerful as his big brother, not yet, not without Sam. He's hiding because if Michael finds him, especially in the state he's in, he will loose and he knows it." Dean explained, wondering why they hadn't realised it before.

"So what do we do? If Lucifer doesn't want to be found we don't have a chance in Hell." Bobby pointed out.

"We look for omens. Lucifer is so powerful, his presence is enough to mess with things. Crop failure, cattle deaths, funky weather. It'll be small, something we've probably skipped over."

"That's actually makes sense." Bobby muttered, riffling through his notes. "There's been some crop failure in Dakota, electrical storms in Virginia."

"Anything else?" Dean asked hopefully.

Bobby shook his head but paused when he glanced a tiny scribbled note in the margin. "Well there is something else buts it's probably nothing. The heat in a one mile block in Detroit has dropped by a few degrees."

"That's it. The devil's in Detroit."

"You sure? The electrical storm sounds more promising."

"No. He's in Detroit."

"How do you know?" Sam asked quietly, confusion flittering across his face.

Dean shrugged and stood up, making his way into the kitchen. "He always said it would happen in Detroit." To hide his eye roll at his own bullshit lie Dean opened the fridge as though his stomach wasn't tied up in knots from guilt. As if he could actually eat. He decided on a beer. It wasn't nearly as strong as what he really wanted but he'd recently come to the conclusion that his drinking was getting a little out of hand.

"Now we just have to find some demons so Sam can consume their blood." Castiel spoke up for Dean was pretty sure the first time in days.

Dean froze and spun around quickly, staring at Castiel with his mouth hanging open. He barely heard Sam's shocked questions and sunk into his own mind. Up until that moment Dean had held out some vague hope that they'd all get through this in one piece more or less, like they always did. Sure they would take some knocks along the way but in the end they always pulled through.

But hearing Castiel explain the need for Sam to drink massive amounts of demon blood in order to make him habitable for Lucifer made Dean fully accept for the first time that whatever happened in the next few hours, there was no coming back. Nothing would ever be the same, nothing would ever go back to the way it used to be. Sam would never come back from this, no matter if they win or loose, Sam would be gone.

"Dean?"

Dean snapped out of his thoughts and pushed down the rising panic threatening to consume him. "Yeah Sam?" he was surprised at the roughness of his voice, as if he hadn't spoken in weeks.

"You know we still have a choice. If you've changed your mind, we'll find another way." Sam promised and Dean realised he mustn't have hidden his thoughts as well as he'd thought.

Dean snorted dryly, there was no humour in it and he hated the sound as soon as he made it. It made him sound bitter, but maybe he was.

"Sam, this is it. If we're going to do something, we have to do it now. It's the eleventh hour and this is the only plan we've got."

"Well that's all well and good but we still have to find some demons. We need blood now, we don't have time to just wander around and hope to stumble on a demon's nest." Bobby pointed out. Every bone in his body was telling him this was a bad idea but he pushed it away because lately he felt like that all the time.

Dean found the feeling in his legs again and walked back into the library, sitting down on the tattered leather chair he'd left earlier. He could feel his phone burning in his pocket. He knew exactly who could lead them to a demon's nest but he really didn't want to bring everyone's focus to his and Crowley's friendship, especially not when he could still feel the demon's sweaty body pressed against his own and the slight discomfort in his ass reminding him exactly what he'd done last night.

It also didn't help that the hickeys Crowley had left were rubbing against his shirt and making it hard for him to concentrate. Unfortunately Dean knew he couldn't let whatever was going on between him and Crowley get in the way of his job and with a sigh he pulled his phone out of his pocket.

"Crowley will be able to tell us where to find a nest of demons." he announced, breaking up Sam and Castiel's conversation.

Sam pulled a face and Dean could already see a argument forming on his tongue.

"Sam he can help."

"I don't trust him." Sam gritted out.

"Neither do I! But I don't distrust him either. Not until he gives me reason to and so far everything he's told us has panned out." Dean pushed.

"Except the Colt." Sam pointed out and Dean had to suppress the urge to punch him. Bringing up that was way out of bounds and Sam was doing it to be intentionally mean.

"We all thought the gun would work. We were all wrong." Dean muttered, doing his best to keep his anger under control. "Look Sam, there's a good chance this is the last day we'll spend together. Can we not spend it arguing over Crowley?"

Sam opened his mouth but snapped it shut when Bobby shot him a dirty look. Sighing he seemed to deflate and he sunk into his chair. "Of course, I'm sorry. We need all the help we can get."

Dean flicked open his phone and scrolled through his contacts before finding Crowley's.

"Oh that's nice. You have his number in your phone." Sam chirped and gave Dean a strained smile. Dean was surprised his eye didn't start twitching with the effort of keeping his opinion to himself.

You wouldn't happen to know the location of any demon nests would you?

Dean was surprised by how quickly Crowley responded, it took him just over thirty seconds.

Not that he was counting.

What's the matter lover? One demon not enough for you?

Jealous?

I don't like to share my toys.

Well isn't it a good thing I'm a person and not a toy.

I wouldn't be so sure about that. I played with you just fine last night.

You were adequate.

I made you scream like a whore. I was extraordinary.

You are so up yourself.

I'd rather be up you. Why do you need to know about demon nests? I hope you aren't going to do anything stupid.

Now does that sound like something I'd do?

Yes.

We're going after the devil and Sammy needs some demonic energy drink.

Riverdale, Detroit. 39 Julimar st. there's a small demon nest.

How small?

4-5 demons. Enough to get the Moose buzzing.

Thank you.

You can thank me by not fucking this up.

Oh come one, you know me.

That positively fills me with confidence.

I have to go. Sam says thank you.

Of course he does. Tell him I hope he chokes.

Will do. Stay out of trouble.

Try not to die.

Dean was quite surprised at Crowley's round about way of telling him to be careful. He got the feeling the demon might actually be a bit sad if he died, a thought which made Dean ridiculously happy considering how small the gesture was.

I'll do my best.

It took a few moments before Dean could tear his eyes away from his phone, it really shouldn't be so easy to joke with Crowley. It shouldn't come so naturally.

"Dean?"

Dean jerked his attention back to the room and saw Sam looking at him with a strange look on his face and Dean realised he was smiling stupidly at his phone. Schooling his face back to neutral he tucked his phone back in his pants.

"There's a nest five in Riverdale, Detroit." Dean answered, trying to deflect Sam's questions before he could ask them.

Bobby stood up and kicked Sam's leg lightly to get his attention. "Come on. We need to head out. This ends tonight.."

Dean stood up with Sam and headed upstairs to get his duffle bag while Sam, Bobby and Castiel packed the car. He kicked off his track suit pants and stuffed them back in his bag before slipping on a pair of worn jeans. He had just done up the button when he heard the soft pad of footfalls outside the room. Zipping the bag he threw it over his shoulder and turned around, expecting to see Sam ready to start bitching again about Crowley. What he didn't expect to see was Bobby leaning against the doorframe.

Bobby crossed his arms over his chest and stared at Dean in a way that gave Dean the uneasy feeling Bobby knew more than he let on. They stared at each other, each waiting for the other to speak first. Dean had a horrible feeling Bobby knew exactly what he had been doing because Bobby always knew but if he was wrong, he wasn't about to bring it up first.

Finally, Bobby sighed and his eyes drifted to where Dean's shirt had slipped down slightly, exposing his collarbone. "You know. Whatever you do in your personal life is your god damn business but if you don't want Sam to know, you're gonna have to hide it better."

Dean's hand flew up and pulled his shirt collar up and hiding the hickeys once more with a curse. His head was somewhere else and it was going to get him in trouble, if it hadn't already.

"I don't….."

"You don't have to tell me about it, just don't lie to me." Bobby cut him off before walking out if the room and leaving Dean standing there by himself.

He shook his head and rubbed a hand over his face. He was starting to resent the fact he was turning into a teenage girl who spent all day thinking about a boy, he couldn't let his personal life interfere with the job and he would deal with Bobby and what he knew later. Right now he had bigger things to worry about.

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Crowley tucked his phone into his suit pocket with a sigh and did his best to ignore the twist of worry in his stomach. He hadn't felt worried for someone other than himself in a long time. He clicked his tongue and picked up the bloodied knife and cleaning it thoroughly, taking his time and enjoying the almost therapeutic action. Lifting the knife he examined it carefully, checking for any remaining spots of blood. The blade caught the reflection of the body laying behind him.

Christine hadn't lasted as long as he thought she would, however she did last long enough for the girl to die. Not that it mattered, he would have killed her anyway but that didn't mean the body wasn't a inconvenience. So not only did he have to dispose of a body he hadn't gotten any reliable information from Christine anyway.

Apparently Lucifer didn't trust demons anymore than the rest of his family did. The only solid piece of information he'd learned was something he already knew, all his safety houses were compromised. Sighed and put the knife down on the table and rubbed his face with a hand.

Things were getting out of hand. Everyday he was being backed further and further into a corner and he was starting to get nervous. He was a planner, always had been, he preferred to pull the strings and never be in the line of fire. He was out of his element, he didn't know what was going on and his soul was in the hands of a group of people who were all borderline alcoholics with a staggering amount of self-hatred and anger towards themselves. Staring down at the body once more before letting loose a high pitched whistle. After a moment he felt a hot puff of air against his thigh.

"Hello sweetheart."

There was a low growl in answer and Crowley responded with a quick rub on the head. He pointed to the girl and clicked his fingers. "Enjoy."

The massive Hell Hound stalked leisurely towards the body of the young girl and tore into the body without hesitation. He was scratching at the small spots of blood on his jacket when the hairs on the back of his neck stood up, signalling the presence of someone else. He closed his eyes and swore silently to himself. He knew he shouldn't have kept Christine alive. Turning around slowly, he schooled his face into a cocky smile.

"To what do I owe the pleasure of you visit?"

Four demons stood in front of him side by side and blocking the only exit. A quick survey told him he couldn't smoke out of his body, something was holding him inside and he was stuck. His only option was to fight his way out and while that wasn't strictly a problem as he could easily overpower these bottom feeding demons it was one more issue he didn't need.

"Crowley."

The largest of the demons muttered and Crowley suppressed an eye roll. Over the years he'd learnt that the weakest demons always chose the biggest meat suits.

"You have me at a disadvantage. You know who I am but I have no idea who you are."

"I'm the one who's going to bring you down and our father will shower me with praise."

Crowley raised a eyebrow and nodded along. "Wow. That all sounds very dramatic. Honestly now, how long did you practise that speech?"

"You're very cocky considering what's about to happen to you."

This time Crowley did roll his eyes, whoever this demon was he had obviously watched too many movies. Being a demon used to mean something, it used to come with respect but it was moron's like the one standing across from him that gave the others a bad name. Honestly, how were people supposed to take you seriously when you spoke like a B-grade movie villain?

"It's not being cocky when you can back it up. I'll rip your heart out." Crowley hissed, he didn't have time for games, he was too exposed here.

"That won't be necessary."

Crowley froze his entire body tensing up at the sound of the smooth voice coming from behind him. The goon squad in front of him looked at the person behind him in lovesick fascination and his Hell Hound was whimpering in the corner. Crowley knew who that voice belong to and for the first time in a very long time, pure fear coursed through his body. He turned around and being sure to keep his mask in place he faced a rather short man in old jeans and a shirt.

"Lucifer."

Lucifer smiled walked towards Crowley slowly and stopping when he was close. "Crowley…right?"

"You've heard of me. I'm flattered." Crowley replied. He was doing his best to appear calm but on the inside he was panicking. He wouldn't be able to talk his way out of this one.

"Don't be so surprised. Your efforts to have me killed have made you quite a big blip on my radar." Lucifer muttered dryly, crossing his arms over his chest and rocking back on the balls of his feet. "What I don't understand is why? For years demons, my children, have been on the bottom rung, pushed aside and forgotten. I'm trying to give a better world a world where you will rule."

"Oh don't give me that 'we are one' bullshit because I'm not buying what you're selling." Crowley snorted, he couldn't believe people actually bought Lucifer's spiel.

"How can you say that? I came back for you. I created you and I will give you the world."

Crowley had to admit, the angel sure knew how to play the game, the right words to say, the sad loom in his eyes. He was a excellent liar and he could understand how so many intelligent demons could fall for his promises and sweet words.

"You are so full of shit. You may have been able to convince the rest of my kind that you're our saviour but I haven't forgotten what you are."

"And what am I Crowley?"

"You're an angel. A twisted and demented angel but still an angel. And you hate us as much as the rest of your kind, if not more."

Lucifer's friendly façade fell and he stared at him stonily, jaw tensing in anger. "Leave." he gestured towards his goon squad who disappeared without a word.

"I see you have them well trained."

"Yes. You'd be surprised how eager they are to please me."

"Not really. Most demons are like Hell Hounds. Vicious and cruel but given a firm hand they do make rather excellent tools." Crowley felt more and more trapped the closer Lucifer became but he refused to let it show. He wouldn't give him the luxury of seeing him scared.

"You're smarter then the others. I'm impressed." Lucifer admitted thoughtfully. "You know, I was going to ask you the nice way. Flatter you, tell you I'll how important you are and that you're my most favourite demon in all the land. But I think I'll make an exception for you."

Crowley's eyes widened and he put a hand to his chest. "Really? Do you mean it? You'll make an exception for little 'ol me? Gosh I feel so special!"

Lucifer chuckled and the sound made Crowley shiver, it was a horrible sound.

"You're funny. I had wondered why Dean and Sam kept you around."

"I always thought it was because of my good looks and charming personality." he shrugged and pushed down the urge to back away when Lucifer moved closer towards him.

Lucifer reached up and straightened Crowley's tie with a smile. "I'm going to enjoy breaking you."

"I'm sure you would. But when you fail, try not to feel too bad. You're not the first."

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Dean watched Sam and Bobby through the rear-view mirror with a growing knot of anxiety swelling in his stomach. He watched as they placed the large containers of blood in the boot and frowning at the thought of the stuff being in his baby. He couldn't believe what he had just done although it made having sex with Crowley seem like child's play in comparison.

Looking down at his hand he grimaced at the drying blood staining his skin. Wiping his hand roughly on his jeans he frowned again when it wouldn't come off and instead opened the glove box where he'd put the wet wipes Crowley had given him and used one to clean his hands. He scrubbed harder than necessary, disgust filling him.

Cursing quietly when he accepted the fact that no amount of scrubbing was going to make him feel any better he threw the wipe away and slouched in his seat, pulling out his phone and checking for any messages. In the past four hours he'd sent Crowley six texts in an attempted to keep him up to date but he hadn't gotten any responses.

He felt Castiel swift forward in his seat and hover over his shoulder, holding onto the head rest for balance. Dean was a bit worried about Castiel, he didn't think he was handling being human very well.

"How you holding up Cas?" Dean asked quietly. He needed to ask before Bobby and Sam got back in the car otherwise Castiel wouldn't answer truthfully.

"I was there at the beginning of mankind, you all had such promise. And yet I watched for millennia as you tore each other apart, you seem determined to drive your own species off a cliff." Castiel muttered in a matter of fact tone that always served to irritate Dean.

"Yeah I agree with you there."

"And yet oddly, I've never had more faith in humanity as I've had these past few months. You gave me my faith back Dean and for that I thank you."

Dean felt awkward at the display of affection, he didn't handle emotions well and the heavy feeling in Castiel's words and voice made him uncomfortable. "Uh….thank Cas. You've….um, kicked me back in line a few times as well."

There was a long silence and something heavy hung in the air before Castiel spoke hesitantly.

"Dean? Are we friends?"

"Yeah Cas…..we're friends."

"Then as your friend I must ask you cease your fraternisation with the demon Crowley."

Dean nearly choked on his saliva, his body shutting down at Castiel's words. He was angry at himself more than anything, in his own twisted way he was proud of his ability to hide his emotions and apparently he wasn't as good as he thought if Castiel, the master of being oblivious could see what was going on.

"You don't know what you're talking about."

"I know I don't know much about being human and I can quite…..naïve about certain things but I'm not stupid. I see the way you look when you think about him and the way you defend him to your brother."

"Are you going to tell Sam?"

There was no reason to deny it. He didn't care if Castiel knew, he didn't even care that Bobby knew, it was his life and he was an adult. However he did care about Sam finding out, especially now. Sam couldn't afford to be distracted and angry when he mind wrestled with Lucifer, they needed him clear headed and that would go right out the window if Sam got wind of him and Crowley.

"As long as it doesn't interfere with our mission, there's no reason Sam has to know." Castiel promised eventually after a moment of silence.

"Thanks Cas."

"Just remember Dean, soon all this will be over one way or another and you will all go back to your original lives, Crowley included." Castiel warned, voicing one of Dean's worse fears.

"I'll deal with that when it happens."

Castiel was about to reply when Bobby and Sam entered the, causing him to loose his chance. The silence in the car was deafening as they all sat a contemplated what they were about to do.

"This is by far the stupidest thing we've ever attempted." Dean sighed and turned on the ignition. "Should be fun."

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There it is, the next chapter is where everything happens so stay tuned. Remember to review and give me some feedback.