Thanks for coming back for more, guys. :)

As a reply to Stardust67's review, DON'T WORRY! This is going to be quite a long fic, I believe. There's going to be a whole lot of romance-y moments in here. Though, I have to admit, I do enjoy their bickering on some level. Lol

He hadn't expected that, for whatever reason. The ghost from before had grabbed him with enough strength to push him away, so why hadn't he expected this being to render him useless, too? If he was at full power, this sort of thing wouldn't be a problem. But he couldn't exactly waste the entire building, could he? Maybe he should have taken her original advice and came alone.

Through the half-conscious daze, he tried to remind himself that she was useful. She had information, transportation, more detailed knowledge, and his back while fighting against something like this. Yet, how he wishes that he should have come alone and just left her in Sioux Falls. It wasn't really riding around in the car, being weighed down with a human partner, or even the snappy little arguments between them. He liked the arguments, really, and that was part of the problem.

In all honesty, he liked her. Which was fine and all, really. Castiel seemed to like Sam and Dean an awful lot before he went nuts. While probably not healthy, he didn't find too many problems with that besides the whole Apocalypse thing. He didn't care for going anywhere beyond just liking her, though. He wasn't completely human, so while connections like that weren't easy to create, they did mean more as time went on. Liking was fine, but he didn't want to actually care. Last time he did that, he was literally back stabbed for it.

The world seemed to slow through his hazy vision as Balthazar pressed a hand against the floor to try and raise himself up again. The high pitched screech of the ghost seemed very low and very far away even as the shriek rose higher and higher around them. He reiterated over his earlier thought process. Perhaps she was more useful than not to have tagging along, because the only thing that he could actually pick out of the world again was her voice.

"Move!"

Reality snapped back into place and he ran left, noticing slightly too late that she had gone right. The following gust from their specter friend left a crater in the wall they had just been thrown against, so doubling back was out of the question, especially as he was sure it was following after him. Terrific. Separated from his little, mortal hero. He idly thought that this was probably going to be another one of those painful experiences as he quickly rounded another a corner through the twisting hallways.

Catherine was running, too, but took the next corner sharply to to lean against the wall and risk a look back. Of course, it was only darkness. And silence. Way too much silence. The hotel wasn't that large, not too mention vacant. She should at least hear Balthazar's feet somewhere, but the silence was quite deafening.

Which meant that the ghost must have followed after her.

She unsheathed the angel sword, armed with both it and the gun as she looked back again. The darkness felt just as enclosing as the silence, but she didn't dare risk the flashlight. It would just use her sight against her.

Catherine turned and attempted to progress further down the hall when she finally did hear a sound. It was a tapping – like scurrying feet. Rats? She watched for where she assumed the sound was coming from, thankful that her eyes were slowly adjusting to the darkness, but still failed to see anything. Yet, the sounds were getting closer. So much so, that she felt herself backing away.

A face – a body clearly appeared out of the darkness with a scream and lunged for her. On reflex, Catherine swept the blade at it inches away from her face, the ghost vanishing in a flash of light before her. Through the panic, she couldn't tell its features or even if it was male or female, but it didn't matter as another lunged for her and she shot it.

Balthazar's head snapped around, nearly on the other side of the building, from hearing the loud gunshot. He was thankful to her once again for breaking the silence, but had to wonder what she was shooting at if the thing was after him. "Catherine!"

The wind whistled next to his ear and he ducked just in time for long claw marks to run deep into the wall behind him rather than his face. He couldn't see it, but Balthazar extended his hand to where the ghost should be and found it. The ghost burned to ashes in a bright light. Yet, he still got to his feet and ran in the general direction of the gunshot. He was beginning to get the feeling that that wasn't the only ghost.

Catherine, meanwhile, was heading to where she had heard his voice, slashing through ghosts as they appeared to try and stop her. They were right behind her, right on her heels, and she knew as well as they did that ghosts didn't need to chase down anything. Well, conventional ghosts didn't. She let off a few more shots, at least trying to clear them away so that they didn't continue to grab her. It was a miracle they hadn't pulled her to the floor already and finished it. Her earlier thought of rats felt very accurate when considering the same amount of congestion.

She passed by another corner and the ghosts fell away from her. In confusion, she turned to look back as she ran, before running into something that darted out of the hallway adjacent to her path. More like someone. In an "oomph" and a tangled whirlwind, Catherine found that her back had been pressed against the floor with Balthazar lying on top of her. Honestly, he was better than a blood lusting ghost.

He looked shocked to say the least, before his eyes darted to the angel blades beside her head, each of them gripping one. "Well, that could have been dangerous," he commented, before hearing the skittering and looking over in that direction.

"Run." Catherine already started trying to wiggle out from underneath him. "Run. Run!"

Taking her word for it, Balthazar got to his feet and pulled Cat up by her arm. He shoved her in front of him and they began running again from the skittering noises. "Next left goes to the stairwell," he helpfully mentioned, risking a glance behind them to see a whole lot of nothing following.

His footing wasn't nearly as sure as before, causing him to guess that the building was doing that shaking trick again. The ghosts didn't want them leaving, especially as they turned down the path he indicated. It was then that they both started hearing something much, much louder than little skitterings against the floor. The walls began to cave in behind their feet, the floor and ceiling ripping away like paper, trying to trap the two of them. Despite the fact he knew that the commotion had to be destroying the sigils in the hallway, it certainly wasn't slowing down the ghosts any.

Catherine made it to the door, but glanced back to Balthazar instead of barreling through it. After all, if the ghosts were this powerful, the stairs wouldn't be a good place to be. However, she was forced to pause as he turned back to the destruction behind them. "Bal!"

She attempted to reach out to him, but Balthazar raised his arm against the torrent of wind and wood splinters trying to catch up to them. There was a beat of a pause as the ghosts rushed toward them that Catherine filled by screaming out his name again. "Balthazar!" He took in a breath and set a fire against the remaining walls that rushed towards the sigils and tornado of spirits.

The entire story erupted in screams, but the ghosts weren't stopping. Just as before, destroying the sigils only weakened them. A bright light began to radiate from him when the floor started to cave beneath both of their feet. Not really thinking on her actions, Catherine dropped her weapons and moved for Balthazar.

The ghosts were too close and the fire was out of his control already, so he grabbed Catherine to pull her against him and purposely fell back as the story finally gave away around them.

It all happened so incredibly fast. Cat just felt the unending falling and closed her eyes as she held him like a lifeline. Again, the light penetrated her closed eyes and she knew they were at least going to survive.

They landed on the floor once again and the first thing she noticed was that Balthazar was out of breath, eyes closed like he was in pain. He was an angel. That was definitely not right. Catherine quickly leaned off of him. "Hey? Bal?"

He opened his eyes again, but looked past her worried face to something above them. She turned to find the ceiling in perfect order as if they hadn't just fall through it... and then she realized they were back on the first floor.

Balthazar cleared his throat and she looked back to him while he put a hand to his forehead. "I might have used a little too much juice that time."

She furrowed her brow in confusion. "You're an angel. You're supposed to have a ton of juice." Catherine got off of him as he moved to sit up, catching his breath.

"Yeah, well. The fall didn't just clip my wings." It took her a second to realize he wasn't talking about the fall they had just gone through. He was a bit reluctant to admit this part, but it kind of had to be said now. "I'm disconnected from Heaven. I'm not... exactly what I used to be."

He looked at her and she just stared back. Honestly, Balthazar wasn't sure which part was giving her so many comprehending problems until she finally spoke. "Did you know before you set that floor on fire?"

Ah. He opened his mouth and blinked back at her, assuming she was referring to that moment when nothing happened and they nearly died. "... I don't see how that has any relevance."

That seemed to make her a tad angry. "We could have died!"

"You were right next to the stairwell!" he argued. "It might not have been a very nice place, but you would have been fine."

"What about you?" she screamed back, not entirely liking where this was going.

He paused for a moment, also not liking where this was going. It wasn't her fault, honestly. He did it. Still, he managed a shrug. "I lived."

Catherine was speechless. Yes, it was a selfless act that could have saved her, but she still really really didn't like it at all and if she could just find the right words, she would start screaming at him properly.

Instead, he put a hand up to try and stop her. "Instead of getting angry about it, perhaps you should thank me."

"Thank you?" she spat out. He could have died right in front of her and he wanted a thank you?

Apparently satisfied with her response, he just nodded. "You're welcome."

Catherine's jaw clenched as she finally shut her mouth and shot him a glare. She was about to say something else, when she noticed something past him.

Considering they were being chased by a ton of ghosts not ten minutes before, Balthazar turned quickly to see what she was looking at. He actually calmed at the sight of flames licking across a few of the ceiling tiles. A bell began going off somewhere in the building as the sprinkler system cut on and he turned back to look at her. "I may have forgotten about the fire bit," he spoke over the alarms, "Again."

She blinked tiredly at the fire, remembering that she hadn't slept in at least a full twenty-four hours. "We should probably go," she said, raising up and spotting both angel swords, her shotgun, and one flashlight on the floor a few feet away from them.

Once he stood up, she had already gotten her two weapons and began walking out of the building. If that was the famous silent treatment, it was annoying. He just grabbed up his sword and her flashlight, pocketing both before following her out and realizing that she had only just stopped right outside of the building. Curious, he stopped beside her, hoping this wasn't going to be a lecture or something.

Catherine stood there for a moment feeling very wet, rushed, and tired. "Do you want to drive?" she finally spat out.

Extremely curious, he raised an eyebrow and turned to face her. "I know you got roughed up by those things, but I didn't realize they switched you out with someone that has less security issues."

She shot him a look before giving the same one to the hotel. It didn't pass him that she was trying to not make eye contact. "I'm tired, soaking wet, a little rushed since the cops and whatever else is speeding over here right now. I mean, this is..." Ugh. She looked around him, knowing that he was smirking his little face off. "Consider this as me... trusting you."

"I knew you could be sweet if you tried, darling," he smirked some more while she rolled her eyes. Recalling that she did say people were hurrying their way at the moment, he took the chance to lean closer and... lightly touch two fingers to her temple. He almost kissed her on the forehead just to annoy her some more, but that would likely end up bothering him more often than not.

Her eyes fluttered closed again and she breathed in a light breath, while he took away what small bit of information he needed and no more. Never before had it been so tempting to skim just a little further across the surface, but he let go of the mental connection for both of their sakes after fixing her up a bit.

She opened her eyes again to find the smirk gone and replaced by an entirely different look. However, by the time she realized that her scrapes were gone and that they were both dry again, he was back to all smiles. "I believe you have the keys, dear."

Definitely another action heavy chapter. I tend to worry a bit more about my action sequences than anything else, but I hope you guys liked it anyway. Next chapter will hopefully be coming about soon. I believe you guys are going to like it, cause we're finally going to discover the rogue angel.

Thanks for reading and don't forget to tell me what you think!

(oh those page breaks... Fixed)