Author's/Underhill's Note: First of all, sorry for the late posting. I've been working a lot on very little sleep and pretty much passing out the minute I get home. Second, thank you again reviewers! Internet hugs! If I leave something out you that you wanted to see (like a scene that happened off screen), let me know, and I can try and add it in next chapter. Third: DISCLAIMERS I DO NOT OWN SUPERNATURAL OR SCENES USED FROM THE SONG REMAINS THE SAME only original content and I love you Mr. Kripke and all dudes and ladies who work for the show and network! Fourth: I'll try and update again in a day or two; I should be able to get some more sleep. So, chapter 12, yaaaay!

Chapter 12:

Feb 5, Pontiac, Illinois

Claire remembers very little of the short time she was the angel Castiel's vessel. She remembers a brightness, and a heat of a star under her skin. She remembers seeing her father's face as he pleads with her/Castiel to spare his daughter's life.

Claire tells her mother she remembers nothing.

It's been two years since her father disappeared in the middle of the night, his departing words only that he wasn't her father. It's been a year since she understood why, when Jimmy reappeared and disappeared again in the space of a few days.

Claire's fourteen now and she knows with a certainty she can't explain that her father's dead. Not his body - - no, Castiel inhabits that - - but her dad? He died months ago. She knows the latter (that Castiel is alive) the same way she knows the angel is falling: Claire was a vessel, is STILL a vessel, and she hears things. Claire Novak is, like Anna Milton was, turned into Radio Angel. Lucky for her, no one's noticed yet.

As the days pass she hears more and more and is getting scared. She tries to keep her nerves to herself but her mother notices, tries to get her to talk, but what can Claire say? She says nothing, tells her mom she's stressed about her first year of high school.

She has no way to protect herself or her mother. She is relying on an angel walking around in Jimmy Novak's body to keep his promise and keep her family safe. She has to believe that Castiel, bitter as she feels about him sometimes, is righteous enough to keep an oath to a dying man.

Feb 5 (1978), Lawrence, Kansas

Claire Novak is the furthest thing from Castiel's mind as he slams into the concrete. Through a haze he sees Sam trying to say something to him - - can't hear him, what…

Finally putting together some semblance of what Sam is saying, he responds, "I'm fine. I'm much better than I expected." Because I expected to be dead, and a little disappointed I'm not.

"Cas?"

The world is getting hazy again…

"CAS!"

Everything goes black.

The room is booked up for five days in case… Sam doesn't want to think what the case may be. He hopes Cas wakes up soon, but isn't counting on it. Cas barely had the juice to get them here, how long is it going to take him to juice up for the trip home? The only consolation he has is that Anna probably landed in the same condition.

At a pay phone he looked up the Winchesters. 485 Robintree. He'll steal a car, drive over there, and…

And he'll figure it out when he gets there. It's times like these he really misses Dean.

Feb 5, 11 PM, in the air somewhere between New York and Arkansas

Another hook in the shoulder, stringing him up. Hands all over him, touching, and they won't stop, won't stop, and God, they can't be, they WOULDN'T - -

The dream slows and stops and the voice is back.

"Dean! I need to talk to you. No, no, no, no, no, don't wake up - - "

Dean snaps awake.

He goes through the regular morning panic - - he's not covered in blood, he's not in a motel room and he's…

Wait. He's not in the loft.

Oh God, he thinks, remembering. He's on an airplane. Bela somehow convinced him to get on an airplane and they're flying to Arkansas. He groans and covers his face with his arm.

"How did you convince me to do this again?" he asks. He tries to steady his breathing.

"Because a Whope priest made a turquoise amulet centuries ago, and it's worth a cool quarter million."

"A what priest?"

Bela makes a face at him. "You didn't read the printout I gave you at all, did you?"

"It's not high school and I'm not doing homework."

She snorts. "Fine. Whope, Lakota goddess of peace. Her chief priest made an amulet and, story is, she imbued it with protective powers. Whether that's TRUE is up for debate, but…"

"It looks pretty?"

"Dean."

"Shows prestige and wealth for party guests to see?"

"Bingo."

Dean straightens. He's awake now and needs to concentrate. "Who's got it?"

"Pawn shop," Bela says, pleased. "The spirits gave me a name, location, and even a price."

"Nice of them. How much do we have to shell out?"

Bela grins. "Fifty dollars."

Dean whistles long and low. A plane ride for a quarter mil profit? "Maybe flying isn't so bad."

The plane lurches; Dean's stomach rolls and his face goes green.

Bela pats him on the shoulder and hands him a puke bag. "There's the spirit!"

Feb 5 (1978), close to midnight, Lawrence, Kansas

Sam does what Dean would do after a day like the one he's had - - pour himself a drink. Sam didn't approve of Dean's alcoholism (though he is no saint in that department himself), but he's really starting to understand it. Everything without Dean is twice as hard.

God, standing in that house with his mother and father, as his mom tells him it's 'too late' was like a knife in the chest.

"This is bigger than us. There are so many more lives at stake - - "

"You don't understand. I can't!" she cries. Her face is full of pain and fear. "It's too late. I'm… I'm pregnant."

Sam freezes. She's pregnant. She's pregnant. He looks down at her stomach and realizes - -

He reaches out tentatively and she flinches but doesn't stop him. He puts his large palm against her belly.

That's Dean in there.

Jesus.

He hasn't told his mother that Dean in the future is dead. Hell, he hadn't told her she'd have two children. He let her assume that he was an only child because who knew how she would react to the idea one of her kids is already dead. She thinks she's carrying Sam right now, but it's DEAN.

Without Dean it was harder to convince Mary that he was her son in the first place. Dean had memories of her, memories he kept as fresh as the day he made them. Sam has nothing, relying on facts and descriptions of what his dad was like. It took a long time to convince her.

He resists the sudden urge to take Mary and Dean and run. It won't solve anything, he tells himself, and he knows it's true. But for a moment he let's himself imagine…

John comes in. "Hey, we got a problem. Those blood things, the sigils? They're gone."

Yeah, Sam really wishes his Dean were here.

He's taking a gulp from the cheap cup when Castiel appears and starts to collapse. Sam grabs him and struggles to hold him up.

"Hey. Hey, hey. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Cas."

Cas slumps.

"I got you." He lowers him to sit on the bed. "Damn, Cas. You made it."

Cas blinks stupidly. "I… I did? I'm very surprised." With that, he passes out.

Sam sighs. Team Free Will? They are so screwed.