"Wait," Hermione said, staring at Dean and Bobby. "You were pulled from Hell by an angel?"

Dean nodded as he bit into the burger he brought back with him. "Yep. Castiel he said his name was."

"Why? Not that I'm not grateful that he did, but why would an angel go into hell and pull you out?" Sam asked, passing Hermione her salad.

Dean shrugged. "No clue. He said he was ordered to, or something like that. I have a higher purpose. Some bullshit like that," he said through his mouthful of burger.

"Wow," Hermione said. "I can now add angels to the list of things that really exist."

"Yep," Bobby said. "You would think after all the shit I've seen I wouldn't be so in awe of an angel."

"Well," Hermione said. "It is an angel."

"But can we trust him?" Dean asked, crumpling the paper of his burger and tossing it in the general direction of the garbage.

"Dean," Sam said, "He's an angel."

"He blinded Pamela," Dean said. "That's one strike against the angel."

"I don't think we should write him off," Hermione said. "What if he can help us against Lilith?"

"She's right," Sam agreed. "We can't just rely on these powers I have. We could use some back up."

"Fine," Dean said. "We don't gank the angel. But we can be leery of him. Deal?"

"Deal," Sam agreed.

"Now, explain to me more about what these powers are?" Dean asked, perched on the edge of the bed.

SUPERPOTTER

Sam shut the trunk of the car after putting the last of the bags in the car. They had just wrapped up a job wiping out some vampires. He had to admit it was nice having Hermione back them up. At first Dean was very leery about her going into jobs with very little hand to hand experience, and no gun, but once he saw her flick her wand and cause a werewolf mid-lunge fall flat to the ground, he quickly changed his tune. In fact, he often found them laughing together. It made him happy that the two people he was closest to were getting along.

The only frustrating thing was they were no closer to Lilith. Castiel had told them she was breaking the seals to Hell in order to free Lucifer from his cage. But the problem was they couldn't get ahead of her, and they had no idea what any of these seals were. All they could do was follow leads and hope that they would eventually catch up and eliminate her.

He turned around to return to the motel room, which the three of them were sharing, which made having any alone time with Hermione almost impossible. That was probably more frustrating than not being able to capture Lilith. Dean was always there. It was growing increasingly more difficult to be intimate with Hermione. They could occasionally find a spare half hour here or there, but when you're in the buds of a new relationship, it was just not enough.

He took a step back to the room to tell Hermione and Dean it was time to go, but stopped short when someone appeared in front of him. Zachariah was standing there, with a grim look on his face.

"Hello, Sam," he said.

"Zachariah," Sam said.

"We need to talk."

"Well, let's go in and you can talk to all of us."

"No, I just want to talk to you."

Sam frowned. "What about?"

"The seals, Sam. They're opening faster than a kid opening presents on Christmas morning."

"We're trying, but we don't have any leads to go on. If you guys could give us some hints about where they are, we can go and stop them."

"We'll work on that. I'll send Castiel when we know more," Zachariah said.

"Sounds good," Sam said, moving to go around Zachariah.

"She's getting really close to your brother, have you noticed?"

"What?" Sam said, stopping.

"Your witch. I've been watching the two of them together. They're getting pretty close."

Sam turned back to face Zachariah, scoffing. "Well, I would hope so. We spend all our time together. I want my brother and the woman I love to get along, be close."

"Do you ever wonder if they're fucking?" Zachariah asked, cocking his head to the side.

"No," Sam answered immediately.

"Really? I would," Zachariah said. "I mean, they're the same age. They both have dark pasts. They seem to be getting pretty comfortable with each other. You leave them alone quite often, to pick up food, load the car," Zachariah turned and pointed at the window to the motel room, where the curtains were still drawn. "How do you know they're not taking advantage of the time they have alone right now to get in a quickie?"

Sam frowned. "Because they wouldn't do that. I trust them. And Hermione loves me, not my brother."

Zachariah shrugged. "Alright. You're a better man than I would ever make. Find those seals, Sam. Stop them from opening. Stop Lilith, by any means possible."

"We will. We've been practicing. I've gotten stronger," Sam said, relieved to have the subject change.

"Are you sure that what you and the witch are doing is enough?" Zachariah asked. "That you'll be strong enough when the time comes?"

"Yes," Sam answered, this time with a little hesitation.

"Well, good for you. Just remember. You need to be top of your game. And you need to destroy Lilith by any means necessary."

Before Sam could respond, Zachariah was gone, leaving Sam standing alone in the parking lot. He shook his head and headed to the room to tell Hermione and Dean it was time to go. All the while, these new doubts were niggling in the back of his mind.

SUPERPOTTER

"A cat?" Dean laughed from his spot behind the wheel of the Impala. Since returning from the dead, he had taken his place behind the wheel, and very rarely did Sam or Hermione drive. Which was fine by Hermione. The few time she had driven, she realized it wasn't really her thing. She was happy to leave the driving to the boys.

"Yes," Hermione said, grinning from the passenger seat. "A cat."

"Like did you have a tail? Whiskers?"

"And fur, yes. I was turned into an actual cat," Hermione confirmed.

Dean laughed. "Oh my god. I bet you made a pretty pussy," he said, looking her way with a smirk on his face.

"Haha," she said, shoving his shoulder with her hand. "You're so original, I've never heard that one before."

Dean laughed again. "Can you still tell where the tail was? Hey, Sammy," he called over his shoulder to where Sam was sitting in the back seat. "When you're fucking can you tell she used to be a cat? Does she groom you? Oh hey, Glinda, can you lick your own-"

"Shut up, Dean," Sam said, from the back of the car, so harsh it caused them to sober up a bit.

Hermione turned to look at Sam, and he was glaring at the two of them, frowning.

"Hey, Sam, it's okay," Hermione said. "He's just taking the piss. I'm not offended."

"Well, I am," Sam bit out. "Our sex life is none of his business."

"Sammy, I was just having a bit of fun. I mean when you find out your friend turned herself into a cat, you can't just let that go. You have to make some jokes, and then you have to make even more jokes."

"It's nothing I haven't heard before, Sam," Hermione said. "Harry and Ron take the piss over this every time we have more than a few drinks. They were there, and they still think it's the most hilarious thing to have ever happened in the history of the world. So, you can relax a bit."

"Oh, so you're taking his side now?" Sam asked, harshly.

Hermione was taken aback by his tone. "I didn't know there were sides. I thought we were just having fun."

"You're okay with him making fun of our sex life?" Sam bit out.

"I didn't say that," Hermione said, frowning. "However, I am going to say I think you're overreacting a bit about a joke."

Sam scoffed. "Yeah. I mean it's not like we have much of a sex life for him to be making fun of, anyway."

Hermione's jaw dropped, "What?"

"Well, I mean since he came back," Sam said, gesturing to Dean, "We haven't exactly had a robust sex life."

"Well, it's a little hard when you two insist on 'saving money' and only getting one room," Hermione retorted. "I've told you I have the money, we can get two rooms."

"And I've said the same thing," Dean added.

Sam laughed, bitterly. "Sure, blame it on me. It's Sammy's fault that he hasn't had sex with his girlfriend for a few weeks."

"Well, it kind of is," Dean said. "I give you two plenty opportunities to be alone. I'm always going to the local bar to try and get my own tail and a few beers. I thought you guys were going at it like bunnies while I was gone."

Hermione turned toward Dean. This was the first she had heard about this. "Wait, that's what you've been doing? Sam leaves shortly after you do, saying the two of you were meeting with the angels about the seals, and I had to stay behind because they didn't like me."

Dean steered the Impala into a parking spot at the motel they were planning to stay at for the night, before throwing it into park, and then turning to face Hermione. "No," he said. "Why would we meet with the angels in secret? Castiel fucking loves you. I don't know if he has a dick, but if he did, pretty sure he would be permanently hard for you. All I hear is how fucking awesome you are, and that we would surely fail in our mission without you. You have been present for all seal meetings we've had."

Hermione unbuckled her seat belt, and turned around in her seat to face Sam, fully. "Where have you been going? You've been acting weird for weeks."

Sam sighed. "It's none of your business," he said, throwing the door to the car open and getting out.

Hermione didn't hesitate before throwing her own car door open, following him out. "What do you mean it's not my business? Sam, I love you, you're my partner. Of course it's my fucking business."

Sam spun around, and glared at her. "You love me? Really? Then why are you fucking my brother?"

"Whoa, man," Dean said, holding his hands up. "We are not fucking."

"I've seen the two of you together. Whispering, laughing," Sam spit out.

"We're friends," Hermione said, her throat closing up. "I thought you would be happy that we were getting along?"

"Dude, I haven't even thought about sleeping with her," Dean said. "In fact, I'm starting to think of her as just part of the family. Like an annoying little sister or something."

"We're the same age, Dean," Hermione said.

"Yeah, whatever, twin sister then. But I've never once considered trying to get with her. She's with you. She loves you."

"Whatever," Sam said, turning around and walking away, pulling his phone out of his pocket, sending a text message.

"Where are you going?" Hermione cried out.

"Out," Sam said, not even turning around. "Don't worry, you have plenty of time if you want to get in a quickie."

Hermione felt her heart breaking as she watched Sam disappear down the dark road.

"C'mon, Glinda," Dean said, taking her by the elbow and moving her with him down the sidewalk. "Let's find out where he's going and why he's been acting like a fucking asshole lately."

Hermione quickly gathered herself, and tried to keep up with Dean as they stayed a short following distance behind Sam. She pulled out her wand and cast a Muffliato around them, just to make sure they weren't heard by her erratic boyfriend. She didn't know what it was, but ever since they had taken out that vampire enclave a couple months ago, he had slowly started acting weird.

A few weeks ago, when Zachariah had put them in that alternate universe where she had been married to Dean, it only made things worse between them. She had assured him that she didn't harbor any kinds of feelings for Dean, that she didn't know why Zachariah had paired them up in the first place, but things had only grown more tense. Dean didn't help it much when they found Chuck and his books. Dean had immediately found the transcript of their summer together, and starting ribbing Sam about everything. So much so that Sam had gotten back to the motel and shaved his beard. She didn't know what was going on with him, but it was starting to hurt.

Sam turned down an alley, and they followed behind, ducking behind a dumpster when he stopped. She felt Dean kneel down behind her. It helped that the brothers were so much taller than her. It allowed them to take up less space, when he could just easily see over the top of her head.

She watched as Sam was approached by a dark haired woman. She couldn't hear what they were saying, but she watched as the woman placed a vial in Sam's hand. He held it up into the light that was mounted on the side of the building, and she could see it was filled with a thick, red, liquid. Blood. Her jaw dropped open as she watched Sam open the vial and down the liquid inside of it. He closed his eyes, and winced, but when he opened them, he looked revitalized. And that's when she started making some connections in her brain. That must have been demon blood. And that means that this woman was Ruby.

She started breathing heavily, as she started putting pieces together. His erratic behavior. The ease in which he was starting to exorcise demons. The anger and mood swings. And then she remembered all those months ago, the deal Ruby wanted to make with Sam for her blood. And she could feel her heart shatter into a million pieces as she watched the man she loved, the one who was supposed to be better than her shitty ex-husband, close the gap between himself and the demon, and kiss her.

She stood up from behind the dumpster, and didn't stop running until she got to the motel, and only then did she let herself fall apart.