Author's Note: This is kind of a long one. We're getting really close; only one or two more chapters to go. Thanks again to everybody who has stuck with me!

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXx xxxxxxxxxxxxx

Chapter 62

By late afternoon Missouri's house was so full of people that Dean and Sam had helped over the last seven years, they were spilling out onto the backyard. Sam was torn between being overwhelmed by the show of support and petrified there was no way he could protect this many people. Actually, there were enough hunters present; he knew they could hold off a demon-leviathan army, if they had too.

Missouri, on the other hand was beyond stressed. Not only was she not prepared for this many people, and Lord help her, she wanted to throttle Cassie. But having this many white people in her house was causing her neighbors to keep calling and asking what was going on. She eventually took her phone off the hook. If one of her regular clients called, they'd just have to try again later.

"Cassie, what the hell were you thinking?" Sam had asked her when he could get her alone out near the garage, shortly after Jenny Cooper and her kids had shown up. "How could you invite all these people here?"

Cassie knew she should have told Sam, and Missouri. She had seen the angry looks from the older woman and she was more scared of her than Sam. "Listen, Sam. I know I should have told you I contacted them. But, I didn't invite them. They insisted on coming to help."

"Cassie, you knew we only needed seven. These people are just going to distract us, or get us and/or them hurt. Hell, I haven't even had a chance to review the ritual with Amelia; I've been so busy saying hello to everybody."

"That's the thing. I think they can help." Cassie replied, pulling Sam into the garage. "I found a reference about the ritual in a text on ancient Sumeria. It dealt with how two of their gods, Apsu and Tiamat, suddenly disappeared." Upon hearing those names, Cassie now had Sam's full attention. "Ea, a wizard, he was considered the Lord of Incantations; anyway, this Ea guy, tried to have himself declared a god. He claimed he, too, was a god because he had banished 'those wicked gods by channeling the strength of his many followers'.

Sam nodded his head. "Amelia told me most of that." He reached up and lifted the amulet out of his shirt. "Cassie, this is Apsu, he's trapped in the amulet. We're going to break his curse as part of the ritual of opening Purgatory for Dean to escape."

Cassie stared at the necklace, dumbstruck. She recognized it; she'd only ever seen Dean take it off twice in all the times they had been together. A small chill went through her, imagining that she and Dean had had an audience every time they had made love. She shook her head to get that image out of her head. Then another thought crossed her mind. "Wait. How does she know so much about this?"

Sam smiled. "You missed something in your research. Didn't you read that the goddess Tiamat was considered a variation of the Earth Mother mythology?" The blank look on her face made him actually chuckle. "Earth Mother, Mother Nature, get it?" When it was clear she still didn't get the connection, he added. "Cassie, Amelia WAS Tiamat."

He could swear he saw an actual light bulb come on over her head. "She…, she…, she was there?" Was all she was able to say at first. But it didn't take her long to recover. "Did she tell you, Ea bragged no one would ever find enough followers to break the curse because the power he got from his many believers had added to his spell?"

"The ritual only calls for 'seven to show their love'." Sam said, starting to think maybe he had been right about something always going wrong when Winchesters were involved.

"She probably didn't know about needing followers. The prick didn't start to boast until after they had both disappeared."

Sam was quiet while his mind raced, thinking about all his goddess had told him. "It's possible. She's been going by what Apsu told her. Maybe neither of them knew."

"Knew what?" Amelia asked as she entered the garage. "I hope I'm not intruding, but I sensed something was wrong."

Cassie jumped at the sound. Sam had known he was giving off worried vibes and that Amelia would probably pick up on them, so he just gestured for her to join them. He also didn't bother repeating the conversation, knowing she would see it in his thoughts.

"What'd ya think? Is there any way Apsu missed something about breaking the curse and opening Purgatory?" Sam asked as he causally draped his arm over her shoulders when she stood close to him. He already felt better about this possible wrinkle, by just having her next to him.

Amelia was staring at the amulet hanging around Sam's neck. "I doubt it." Then she looked at Cassie. "And I don't care what your source said; Ea was a horrible little man; and he was just a man, not a god. He never had more than a dozen followers at his peak. There's no way they could have added enough psychic strength to the curse to make the ritual fail."

"That's good. I wouldn't have let them come out there anyway." Sam said, with finality to his tone. "Cassie, I understand they want to help, but I won't let them be put in harm's way. And Dean would never forgive me if I let any of them get hurt. Send them home."

"Actually…" Amelia started. Sam turned to look at her, disbelieving she thought having civilians present at the ritual was a good idea. "I think maybe they could help with something. Without putting anybody in danger!" She said to Sam when she heard him start to protest in his mind. To Cassie she asked, "Is this everybody that said they would come?"

"What? There are going to be more?" Sam had managed to hold still, but now he was pacing in the limited space in the garage. "Oh God." He turned to Cassie. "Missouri is going to skin you alive; you are so on your own."

X

Sam hadn't given Cassie a chance to answer Amelia's question. And before she could, the goddess was herding the two of them back out to the backyard. Cassie and Sam were startled to find everybody had moved to the small yard; and were now looking expectantly at the three of them. The two new faces among the group partially answered Amelia's question. If she'd counted all the names she'd seen in Cassie's mind, there was still one or two more coming. She hadn't been surprised to see them all waiting in the backyard, she had asked Garth and Charlie to bring them out here.

She knew the ritual, with the donated fluids of the seven and the amulet, would free Dean and his Angel friend. But, she had been charged with another task; she was also to permanently close all the broken seals out of Purgatory. They didn't need these people to break Apsu's curse or free Dean, but she could use their energies to keep the Leviathan, and all the other horrible things that were down there, from ever wreaking havoc again. It would be her parting gift to this wonderful little planet.

"Hello everyone. I'm Amelia, and you all know Sam, of course," Sam nodded his head at the group. "And most of you have been in contact with Cassie." She paused for a second, scanning the thoughts and feelings of the group. She smiled; there wasn't a single one who wasn't ready to do whatever Sam needed them to do.

"You all know you're here to help Sam rescue Dean; but do you all know why?" The confusion she sensed told her, most of them did not know why Dean needed help. They hadn't cared; they had come to repay the men that had selflessly helped them. "Okay, well, I'm going to let Sam tell you why we're here." She stepped back, giving Sam the floor.

Sam looked at her and then at the group of people, some he hadn't seen in almost a decade; then back at Amelia. "What do I tell them?"

She smiled back at him. "Everything."

He looked back out at the faces. How do you start to explain that your brother was sucked into Purgatory, with an Angel by-the-way, while killing the leader of an ancient kind of monster that ate people and then assumed their identity, and that these monsters had escaped from Purgatory because of the afore-mentioned Angel? Sure, they had all had some kind of experience with the supernatural; a Wendigo here, a shifter there, ghosts, zombies or cursed lands. But, even some of the hunters in the group didn't know everything. Hunting was a lot like espionage; you tried to minimize the encounter whenever possible. You sure as hell didn't tell them everything!

"Uh. Okay. Well, Dean is.., is trapped in.., was sucked into…" Amelia saw all his thoughts and how difficult this was going to be on Sam. She stepped back up next to him, and whispered. "May I?" He puffed out a breath of relief as he answered her. "Please."

"Hello again. I think this is a hard for Sam because he's not used to telling people what's really out there." She stopped when Sam nodded at the Cooper kids. "Jody, could you take Sari and Ritchie into the house. Why doesn't everyone else find a place to sit?" The adults settled, some on the ground, as the kids were escorted inside.

"I'm sorry. There just isn't a lot of time to explain everything to all of you." She took a deep breath and dove in head first. "Dean is in Purgatory. It is an actual place. He was trapped there when he and Sam killed a very powerful monster, thereby pretty much saving the world; for the second time in three years." The fear and confusion emanating from the collection of minds became deafening; and she hadn't even gotten to the part about who she really was.

This would have been so much easier five thousand, or even five hundred years ago; then, people just believed what they were told. Modern mankind thought that they were so well informed; but they had a hard time believing something unless they could see it themselves. Mother Nature knew how to get them to understand; it would be a little frightening but she knew they'd get the message.

She debated getting Sam's approval, because he and his fellow hunter's would have to clean up the mess she was going to make. But, that would take almost as long as the explanation; besides, it was easier to ask for forgiveness than permission. That had been a universal truth a lot longer than the 30 years it had been a popular expression in America. 'Sam, do you trust me?' Amelia asked, reaching into his mind.

He looked at her, wondering how she could ask that. The expression on her face sent a chill down his spine, but didn't change his answer. "Of course."

Sam could swear her face lit up with the smile she returned him. That was split-second before it occurred to him, her whole body was glowing; and not just glowing like when she was happy, but shining with rapidly increasing intensity.

X

"What the hell was that?" Missouri yelled as she came out her back door. She noticed Amelia was the only one seemingly able to hear her; that everybody else was staring blankly or blinking unfocused eyes. As she looked around her small backyard, she saw the other faces start to regain awareness.

"I'm sorry, Missouri. It was the fastest way to get them all where I needed them to be." The goddess replied, looking only slightly chagrinned.

"Holy crap!" Sam said while shaking his head. "Is it too late to change my answer about trusting you?"

She smiled as she took his hand, clearing the last of the ringing from his ears. "Yeah, kind of." She let go of his hand and started going up to each person and touching their shoulder. They'd look up, like they were surprised, but recognition came upon seeing her face.

"I'm sorry if that was unpleasant, but it was important you all understand what is going to happen tonight, and why." She said after getting everybody's attention. "If anybody doesn't feel comfortable about participating in this," she paused as she came to stand next to Sam, "we'd understand."

Amelia turned to Sam. "Sam, are you okay with my plan? I swear to you, they will be safe."

"A little warning, Morpheus, next time, before you slip me the red pill; but if we can get Dean back AND close all the exits out of Purgatory at the same time, I'm on board." He reached out and took her hand. She didn't understand the odd reference; but she heard almost everybody else snicker and assumed it had been a joke. That he could joke with her was more reassuring than his actual agreement.

"Well, I can't feed this many people." Missouri announced, still standing on her back porch. "Charlie, why don't you and Jody go and get something for dinner."

Mother Nature knew that was as close as Missouri was going to get, to saying she forgave the goddess for the psychic intrusion she had just made into all their minds. She also saw Missouri had forgiven Cassie for bringing all these people to her home. In fact, the older psychic was now kind of excited to be part of something so important.

And despite the offer, that anybody that didn't want to take part in the rituals tonight, would be free to leave; not a single person left. Sam worried a bit about the Hunters in the group. Amelia, or he guessed Mother Nature was more accurate in this case, had just told them she was a supernatural being. And after their encounter with Tim, Walt and Roy yesterday…. Of course, those three had been after him, not her.

He looked at the small group closely. Nobody, neither seasoned hunter nor, yesterday what he would have called civilian, seemed scared, or even phased, that they were in the presence of an ancient and powerful goddess. Sam did notice; that after she talked to everyone who came up to her, she directed them toward Cassie or the two psychics. Garth took the hunters into the house and took over Missouri's dining room table to pour over maps and review the logistics for the night's activities.

By the time Jody and Charlie got back with the food, Sam and Amelia had managed to slip into the garage unnoticed. "Geez, what a day. Should we review the steps of the ritual while we finally have some time alone together?" Sam asked as he closed the door behind him. "Huh, I don't remember folding down the seats, or leaving the blanket spread out like that." Sam commented when he saw the back of the Tahoe.

Amelia just smiled at him as she climbed into the back of the SUV. "You don't?" She asked mockingly. As he crawled in behind her, she waved her hand, the back door of the car closed and Sam heard the locks of the car snap. "Well, I promise you'll never forget the next few minutes." She whispered as she reached up and took his face in her hands.

"I'm not sure this is such a good idea, there's so much to do and so little time left." He sighed as she was pulling him down to her.

Mother Nature knew this might be the last chance she'd have to be with this man like this. "That's exactly why it's probably my best idea ever!" She lifted her head and kissed him. If he had any further arguments, they disappeared.