"So that is the reason I was left the note saying 'It's supernatural!'?"

Gabriel grinned at Castiel while Mary just rolled her eyes. "He wanted it to be a message that you would recognize as him," she explained when Gabriel obviously wasn't going to answer his little brother.

Castiel nodded. "It was a very unique note to receive."

"HA! I told you Cassie'd know something would be up with that note." Gabriel held up his hand. "Pay up, Mama Winchester."

Mary rolled her eyes but pulled out her wallet. She then dropped five dollars into Gabriel's waiting hand. "He bet me that you would think that something was off with the note that he left you. I disagreed and said that you'd just shrug it off as one of life's stranger things."

"Alright, Dean," Lisa said, sitting her fiancé down in a chair in his hotel room. "Tell me what's up."

Dean looked up at Lisa skeptically. "There's nothing up, Lisa. I'm fine, really."

Lisa rolled her eyes. "Really? Then why have you been preoccupied the entire day?" Dean shrugged, making her sigh. "Listen, Dean. I know that this is a big step for us. It's commitment - and don't think that I don't know about your issues with commitment." She smiled a little, trying to get Dean to do the same.

"It's not the wedding, Lisa." Lisa sat down across from Dean, perching herself on the edge of the chair. "I've just been going through things from the past - from before I met you - and they've been making me think. I mean, if all of that stuff hadn't happened, I would never have met you."

She smiled for real this time, taking one of Dean's hands in her own. "If you're sure that that's all that it is," Lisa said, standing back up. "Tell Sam I say hi when you see him later."

"I will, baby." Lisa nodded, kissing Dean's forehead before leaving him alone to his thoughts.

"She thought it was about your commitment problems?" Sam laughed, making Dean humph in his corner of the bed.

"I don't have commitment problems," Dean said weakly, knowing Sam was about to list examples as soon as the words left his mouth.

Sam didn't even turn to look at his older brother. "Do I have to go through the long list of one-night-stands that you didn't even consider dating, Dean?" Dean winced, having a vague montage of one-night-stands go through his head. "That's what I thought."

"Okay, I'll admit to those. But seriously? Out of all of the problems she has to choose from, she chooses the commitment problems?" Dean sighed, throwing an arm across his forehead. "What did I do to deserve this?"

His little brother laughed again. "Stop being so dramatic, Dean. Besides, look on the bright side. At least you'll see Castiel again."

Dean nodded, his brother's words finally having a comforting effect on him. "Alright, yeah." He glanced over at Sam. "Go home, man. I'll see you in the morning."

Sam grinned, getting up from the bed. "Night, Dean." He pulled his jacket off of the back of a chair, putting it on as he walked out of the door.

The elder Winchester listened to his hotel door click shut as he continued to stare at the ceiling of the room, specks of paint chipping off. "It'll definitely be a night," Dean agreed, knowing that it would be a while before he would get to sleep.

"Did you miss me, Winchester?"

Dean groaned and pulled the comforter over his head, ignoring the fact that Balthazar had picked the lock to his hotel room door in favor of going back to sleep. A muffled retort came from the P.I.'s pillow. Balthazar grinned, settling into a chair after closing the door. "I'm sorry, Dean, what was that?"

"I said, fuck off, Balthazar."

Balthazar sighed, propping his feet up. "I knew you missed me. Though, why I'm back, I'm not entirely sure."

Rolling over to look at Balthazar, Dean sighed. "I don't know either but go away until I'm in a mood to deal with people. Or never. Never's a good option too."

"Shame I can't do that until I've told you some important information. Then I'll go away and leave you to your precious sleep." Faced with a deal like that, Dean found he couldn't refuse. He opened an eye to look at Balthazar. "Aren't you going to make a snappy comment that I look wonderful for a dead man?"

"You look great for a man who's been dead for six years," Dean replied dryly. "What's the information you have to tell me?"

Balthazar rolled his eyes. "It's always work, work, work with you Winchesters. Alright then. The information is that something big is going down today. Don't know where, only that it involves you and Cassie." He raised an eyebrow at Dean. "Got that, Winchester?"

Dean rolled over to face the wall opposite the door. "I got it. Important things going on today, involving me and Cas. Now leave me alone."

The officially dead man grinned, standing. "Alright, that's it. Bye. It was lovely seeing you again, Dean." He closed the door loudly behind him, making Dean groan at the sound.

Events at Castiel's bar were overall unexciting for the majority of the morning as Dean and Castiel decided that that was a suitable time to catch up with one another as to other various important events occurring in their lives. Sam watched them for the longest time before he let one of his observations slip out of his mouth unsupervised.

"God, you two are so in love with each other."

Sam felt two pairs of eyes turn to him. "What the hell, Sammy?" He looked up to see their reactions. Dean looked really confused and Castiel just looked...lost and, in an odd sort of way, hurt. The elder Winchester threw his hands up into the air. "Great, first the Novaks think I'm dating Cas and now my little brother thinks I'm in love with him."

The taller Winchester raised a disbelieving eyebrow. "Dean. That's because you are in love with him." Dean made vague hand gestures to himself, between him and Castiel, and at Sam, causing Sam to roll his eyes. "You met the guy six years ago, knew him for all of at most two months, fell head over heels in love with the guy, looked for him for months after he disappeared, and have all but ended your engagement with Lisa since he came back into your life. No offense, Castiel," Sam rushed to add to the end, turning his attention to the bartender.

Castiel nodded. "None taken, Sam."

When Sam looked back at Dean, his older brother was staring into space, trying to process the information that had just been laid out in front of him. "I'm not sorry for telling you, Dean," Sam said quietly. "This is actually a chance for you to be happy. Don't let it get away from you."

"Dean!"

All three men looked up, searching for the woman who had called out Dean's name. "Lisa?"

Lisa staggered into Castiel's bar, a confused look flitting across her face when she saw the bartender. "Castiel?"

Unfortunately, that led to Dean turning to look at Castiel. "You two know each other?" The bartender, unable to form a coherent answer, nodded. The P.I. pointed a finger at Castiel. "I'm not letting this go." Dean turned back to Lisa. "Lisa, what's wrong?"

"Shot. Pissed at gang members," Lisa added, sparing a moment or two to look at the bartender, trying to figure out how much Castiel had changed since they had last met. "They're here, Castiel. I don't know how but they're here and they're pissed."

"Fuck." Dean watched - or rather, watched a blur - as Castiel shut all of his doors and the blinds on the windows and doors. "Sam, assist me in locking the front and back doors." The bartender glared at Sam when he didn't immediately move. "That was not a request, Samuel Winchester."

Sam wasted no time after that in standing and running towards the back of the bar. "Sorry, Castiel," Lisa said, wincing slightly. "God, I hate getting shot."

"Castiel Novak, you better damn well not be planning on trying to lock me out of your bar when you have various high ranking members of the Novak gang, including your brother Michael Novak, at your doorstep." Mary Winchester came storming into the bar's main area, Gabriel making a less significant entrance slightly behind her.

When Dean looked at the older Novak, Gabriel shrugged. "I was just gonna let her have her thunder."

Sam came rushing back not long after Mary and Gabriel made their entrance, exchanging stunned looks with Dean from his older brother's place beside Lisa. Said woman looked at the new arrivals in utter confusion. "Lisa, this is Sam and Dean's mother Mary Winchester and one of my older brothers Gabriel Novak." Castiel turned to Gabriel. "Tell me neither Balthazar nor Anna is here."

"Sure, not now they aren't, but they undoubtedly will be here later, Cassie." Gabriel held a hand out to Sam. "Gabriel Novak, also known as the Trickster. Nice to meet ya." He clicked his tongue and winked at the taller brunette.

"Gabriel," Castiel said warningly. Gabriel held his other hand up in a gesture of innocence. "Lisa, how close are they?"

Lisa's eyes darted to the front door. "About a block away, maybe a little more last I saw them." She looked up at Dean, a small smile on her face. "You're gonna have my ass for lying to you, aren't you?"

"That you said you were out buying stuff for the wedding? Damn straight I'm gonna be pissed at you for that." Dean looked back up at Mary, his mind still trying to process the fact that his mother was standing in front of him, very not dead. "What the hell is going on here?"

"Language," Mary admonished Dean. Gabriel rolled his eyes.

"Obviously, your mother isn't dead, the Novak gang is after your boyfriend and your fiancé, I'm not dead, and Samsquatch over there looks like he needs a drink." Gabriel looked back at Mary. "Did I miss anything important?"

Mary let out an "eh". "You missed the part where Castiel knew I wasn't dead before my own children knew, or that you even knew before they did." Gabriel nodded, accepting Mary's additions to the list of important information.

Dean looked back down at Lisa, confused. "Why're they after you?"

Lisa raised an eyebrow at her fiancé. "Really? You know why they're after Castiel but you don't know why they're after me?"

The dirty blonde shrugged. "I was there when Cas got on the Novak's hit list. I'm not sure what you did to earn yourself a place on it."

She grinned. "I tried to shoot Michael Novak. Then I got hit in the shoulder by a sniper - he probably saw me when I fired."

"I may have to apologize for that," Castiel said, looking oddly sheepish. "I was being Michael's bodyguard for the day."

Lisa looked up at Castiel. "Y'know, you never actually explained why the Novaks are after you either. I mean, I get that you were a part of the gang at one point, but what made them turn on you?"

Dean cleared his throat. "That's partially my fault. Actually, I'm pretty sure I'm what triggered his acts of treason against the Novaks." He looked at Castiel. "You get to explain it to her."

The dark brunette sighed. "I saved Dean's life, the act of which led to Michael disavowing me as his brother and putting a price on my head as I suddenly began to act of my own free will."

Lisa stared at Castiel for a few moments before she spoke up again. "Okay. That was actually a lot worse than I thought it would be." She looked back at Dean. "I get why you looked for him for so long now."

Suddenly, all of them heard a loud banging on the front door. Everyone in the room reached for their sidearm, which the majority of them weren't wearing, Sam included. Dean rolled his eyes when he saw that Sam was unarmed. "Seriously, Sammy?" His older brother pulled up his pant-leg to pull out his back-up piece before tossing the smaller gun to Sam. "If you break it, you're buying me a new one."

A/N: So, it's only been a week this time, which really isn't that bad, except for the fact that I feel like I have to rush with the next chapter though BUT WHATEVER. I'm doing pretty well, balancing this and work. Fun stuff. Reviews? Critiques? Anything else that I'm not remembering at this moment because it's almost 10:30p (22:30) where I am?

UPDATE 8/7/14: "She's Called Mama Winchester" chapter title changed to "Mama I'm Coming Home" by Ozzy Osbourne.