Thanks for all the reviews for the last chapter. Thanks also to Gredelina1 for helping me hammer out the details for this story. Love you hon.

Chapter Six

Sam and Castiel were hiding something, Dean knew that, and he was determined to find out what it was, but when Kevin peered around his mother's shoulder like a five-year-old arriving at a birthday party, he had to laugh.

Mrs. Tran pushed past Castiel and came down the stairs. Not needing to take the slow route, Kevin flickered for a moment and appeared beside Dean.

"Hey, Dean," he said, reaching out a hand and nudging Dean's shoulder.

"Hey, Kev. How've you been?"

"Dead," Kevin said. "You?"

"Dead then demon." Dean shrugged. "You missed a lot."

Kevin nodded soberly. "I heard about that. Sorry, man. And Sam…" He turned to a spot beside Castiel. "I'm really sorry."

If Sam replied, Dean couldn't hear it and no one spoke for him. It sucked that Castiel and Kevin could see and hear him while he, the brother, was in the dark the whole time. The sooner Sam managed to manifest physically, the better.

"How did you know to come?" Castiel asked.

"You closed Hell!" Kevin said enthusiastically. "The veil's going crazy with the news. You wouldn't believe how many people are there because of demons. They're practically buzzing with it all. Justice at last. And when I heard about Sam, I had to see him. I've been trying to track him in the veil, but not many people have seen him."

"See, Sammy," Dean said. "Kevin came all on his own. Didn't need my phone after all."

"He's gone," Castiel said dourly.

Dean cursed. Sam's ability to literally disappear mid-conversation was a pain in the ass. "Sorry about that," he said to Kevin. "Sammy's having a ghostly temper tantrum today."

Kevin perched on the edge of the desk for a moment, but when his mother scowled at him, he slid off and looked abashed. "It makes sense," he said. "He's only a few days in the life, right?"

Dean nodded. "Yeah, it's all pretty new to us all."

Kevin looked impatient. "Yeah, but it's all new for Sam. It's no wonder he's struggling with it."

"Struggling?" Dean said, turning to Castiel. "How is he struggling?"

They were hiding something but Dean had thought it was some crap from his time as a demon. If he found out that Castiel was hiding something important about Sam, he was going to be pissed. Taking care of Sam was his job—that didn't end because Sam was dead—and he needed all the information for that to work.

"Sam is fine," Castiel said serenely. "Kevin is referring to the emotional reaction to Sam's fate. It's hard to be a ghost."

Dean turned to Kevin. "Explain."

"It's like…" Kevin frowned, "being high I guess." He shot his mother a quick glance. "Not that I've ever beenhigh. But things are more intense as a ghost. Nothing you feel is tempered with anything else. You're not tired or hungry or thirsty, you just are. You have an emotion and it kinda fills you. I think that's why so many are going vengeful. They're trapped, which is making them crazy, and they're angry that they're trapped, which is making them act out in freaky ways." He shrugged. "It sucks really."

Stowing the mention of an increase in vengeful spirits for a moment, Dean said, "So Sammy's all 'filled' with emotion."

Kevin nodded. "Yeah, and I guess it really sucks for him, as he wasn't exactly Mr. Emotionally Numb before all this happened.

Dean and Castiel exchanged a dark look. Dean was wondering if it meant Sam had a head-start for going vengeful. He couldn't bear that. He'd lost his brother only to get him back as a ghost. If he lost him to his rage, it would be too much. The one comfort was the fact Sam was aware of the risks. He had said so when they were talking about Metatron. Forewarned was forearmed, as Bobby used to say. He would know he had to keep a lid on it.

It explained Sam's new dedication to humor, too. He had been giving Cas a hard time, which was awesome as far as Dean was concerned, because he was feeling good. A happy mood filled him. The flipside was that a dark mood filled him, too. Dean was going to have to be careful with that. He didn't want his brother suffering, so he would make sure to keep things as light as he could. The problem with that, as Dean knew all too well, was that they had plates full of crap right now, and they couldn't ignore that.

He sighed and raked a hand over his face. This was going to be complicated.

"Are you struggling?" Castiel asked Kevin.

Mrs. Tran scoffed. "Not my son. He is a good boy."

Kevin ducked his head. "I'm okay. It takes a little getting used to, being like this, but once you've got a handle on it, emotions are easier to deal with. Sam'll get there, too."

Dean wished Sam was there for this conversation. He needed to hear this. The discussion of Metatron and his anger towards him made it clear that he was thinking about it, and there if there was one thing Dean knew about his brother, it was the fact he got all emo and thoughtful about things. The risk he might be going down that route had to be working him over.

"So, you said you were going to call," Kevin said. "What's up with that? What do you need?"

"We need you to translate the angel tablet," Castiel said.

Kevin's eyebrows rose but he didn't speak. His mother, on the other hand, had no such compunction. "Are you kidding me? After everything he did, everything he gave, you want more from him?"

Castiel nodded. "Yes." He opened his mouth to say more, perhaps to remind Kevin of the sacred duty of a prophet, but Dean cut him out with a sharp glance.

"Kevin, we don't want this for you, none of us. We want you to be at school, kicking ass in exams and living the good life." He felt a pang of regret that these were things Kevin would never have. "But we can't give you that. The next best thing we can give you is Heaven, and we can't do that till the gates are opened again. We don't have a chance of doing that without you."

"No!" Mrs. Tran said stridently. "He's not doing it. He has given too much already."

"Mom," Kevin said sadly.

"No, Kevin. We're leaving." She swung her purse over her shoulder and made for the stairs. When Kevin failed to join her, she turned and snapped his name.

Kevin shook his head. "Not yet."

"You can't be thinking of doing this!" she said incredulously.

"I'm not thinking of doing anything but seeing my friends right now. We've got stuff to talk about, to catch up on, and I'm not leaving till I've done it."

Dean was pleased that Kevin wasn't bowing under his mother's wishes. Through no fault of her own, she had missed more than a year of Kevin's life, and that time had changed him from an AP student with big dreams to a man with heavy responsibilities on him. He'd risen to the challenge brilliantly, making Dean proud, but the fact remained that he should never have been forced to change in the first place.

Mrs. Tran stomped across the room and sat on the edge of a chair at the table. She pulled her phone out of her purse, tapped the screen a few times and then settled down to read, making it clear that she wasn't a part of them but she wasn't leaving her son to their mercy either.

Kevin cast her a regretful look and then turned back to Dean. "So. What else did I miss?"

After a brief version of 'How I Spent My Summer', which consisted of demons, chasing demons and ended with death—and didn't Dean look all kinds of wrecked when they got to that part—they fell silent.

Kevin could feel the tension in the room and wondered if a chorus of 'You Have a Sacred Duty' was coming from Castiel, but instead the angel glanced around the room as if looking for something.

"No Sammy?" Dean asked, looking around too as if he would be able to see him.

Castiel shook his head. "No Sam."

Kevin could understand Sam's need for a little space. He got the idea that when he arrived they'd been in discussion of whether to call Kevin back into the field and Sam was coming down against. For Kevin to arrive under his own steam had to suck. It didn't help that Dean and Castiel were two of the most intense people Kevin had ever met, including his mother. Sam had to be taking a lot of attention following his death. All in all, Kevin was surprised he wasn't spending more time in the veil.

"I guess we could go looking for him," Dean said doubtfully. "He might be lurking in his room or something."

Kevin smiled. The idea of them all joining a game of hide-and-seek against a ghost was pretty funny. Sam would hear them coming a mile off and disappear again, that was if he wasn't hiding in the veil already. Besides, Sam definitely wasn't lurking in his room. Kevin had spent a month in the bunker as a ghost before he'd been able to manifest for Sam and Dean to see him, and he'd noticed things. Sam's room was anonymous as any chain motel, and he barely spent time in there that wasn't for sleeping. Sam liked the main room of the bunker, with its shelves of books and displayed weaponry. Ousted from there by their presence, he would be looking for somewhere else familiar, and Kevin had an idea of where that would be. Dean wasn't the only person with an unhealthy fixation with the Impala. Sam would often go the car during quiet times. He would pick through the trunk as if searching for something, only to come away empty handed. He wasn't stroking the hood lovingly as Kevin had seen Dean doing, but that didn't mean he wasn't visiting with his four-wheeled home. Kevin had laughed a lot over that at first. The two most badass men he'd ever or would ever see were unusually emotionally attached to a car.

"I'll go find him," he said, flickering out their view before anyone could stop him.

"Dammit," Dean snapped. "Now there's two of them doing it!"

Kevin's mother laughed softly. "That's my boy."

Smiling to himself, Kevin left the room and made his way down to the garage. It did feel good to be able to confound Dean for once. He had spent a long time as The Winchesters' pet prophet, only being told what was necessary for him to do his job. There was a whole lot of history between then that he was oblivious to until recently. Carver Edlund's books were an eye-opener, and Kevin thought he'd only scratched the surface. He'd thought he had it bad as a prophet. Who knew being a Winchester was worse?

Sam was where he'd known he would be, leaning against the hood of the impala, looking moody. He rubbed the back of his neck as Kevin approached, and Kevin knew he was reacting to the presence of another ghost. He was feeling the same prickling on his neck.

"Hey, Kevin," Sam said quietly.

So, it was a full on misery session happening. Kevin could deal with that. It wasn't Sam's fault really. He was stuck in the funk and couldn't pull himself out. Luckily, Kevin was there to help.

He moved to sit beside Sam, perched on the hood of the car, something he would never have dared in life at the risk of Dean seeing him, and nudged Sam's shoulder.

"So, I got the lowdown from the others on what's been going on."

Sam nodded, looking down at the concrete floor of the garage. "Yeah. Things have been kinda insane." He sighed. "I'm sorry you got dragged in again."

"No one dragged me in. I came on my own. Had to see you guys."

"Yeah, come see the great freak show that is Sam Winchester."

Kevin rolled his eyes. "Okay, that's going to get old fast. You're not a freak show, Sam. You're a damn hero."

Sam looked up. "You don't know the half of it."

"Maybe I don't, but what I do know is incredible. Sam, you put Lucifer back in the cage!"

Sam looked confused for a moment and then he groaned. "Damn you, Chuck!"

"Chuck?"

"Carver Edlund," Sam spat. "That's who you've been reading, right?"

Kevin nodded. "Yeah, and they were a real eye-opener. Sam, I thought you and Dean were pretty impressive before, now I know you saved the damn world, more than once, I see just who I was hanging with."

Sam shook his head sadly. "Dean, yeah, he's a damn hero, always has been, but me… There's a lot Chuck left out of the books, but believe me, I'm no hero. I'm the one that doomed the world. Hell, just look at what I did to you. I killed you."

Kevin shoved away from the car and stuck out a hand. Sam's head snapped back as the blow caught him on the jaw.

"What the hell!" Sam asked, all moody and hurt feelings.

"Sam," he said through gritted teeth. "We've talked about this. Get over it! You didn't kill me, that dick-bag angel did, and from what Castiel and Dean told me, he came good in the end, too." And that galled Kevin. It had been easier to hate the angel when he thought he was a straight up bad guy.

"Doesn't make you any more living though, does it?" Sam asked.

Kevin shook his head. "It sucks that I'm dead. I had big plans and they're all crap now, but hey, you closed Hell. I helped. Our lives counted for something. Have you paid attention in the veil? It's like the land of regrets. I'm proud of what I did with my life, and you should be, too. I don't know what Edlund left out of the books, but I'm sure it can't cancel out everything good you did."

Sam looked brooding. "I guess…"

"Damn, Sam, were you this moody as a human, too? 'Cause if you were, I missed it."

Sam smiled, and Kevin was pleased to see his mood flipping. He had a question though that needed answering, and he worried it might drag Sam straight back down.

"Sam, why did you finish the trials?"

Sam's mouth dropped open. "You're kidding, right? Dean was a demon. Someone had to help him."

Kevin shook his head. "No. You could have cured Dean without finishing the trials. You completed the third trial when you spoke the spell. Why'd you do that?"

Sam looked out over the rows of cars, some of them worth more than Kevin's mom's 401k, looking thoughtful. "I had to," he said eventually. "Dean talked me out of it last time, and everything went to Hell from there. So much happened, to you, to me and most especially to Dean." He looked apologetic. "Dean died trying to make things right for what happened. And then he became a demon. I knew I couldn't let him lose anything else because of me, so I finished the trial. I knew this was my chance to make things right. Hell's closed and Dean's saved."

"And you're a ghost."

Sam shrugged. "That's for the best, too. You know what Dean did to save me after the trials last time. You read Chuck's books. He can't let me go. This time, he's got no choice. I've got however long it takes for them to open Heaven to prepare Dean to let me go."

"And if he's still not ready then?" Kevin asked.

Sam shrugged. "Then I guess I stay. Dean's got the amulet, and I don't see him dropping it into Mount Doom anytime soon. As long as he needs me here, I'll stay."

Kevin was more than a little shocked by Sam's statement. He was also awed. He got that Sam and Dean were close, you had to be deaf and blind to miss that, but the fact Sam was willing to stick around as a ghost till Dean was ready to let him go…

Kevin shook his head. He had been a ghost a while now, and though he loved his mother, he was more than ready for Heaven. He couldn't imagine staying longer than he had to for anything, not even her.

He looked into Sam's eyes and saw the resolution there. Sam would stay, possibly losing himself to anger and becoming vengeful, just because his brother needed him to. Someone needed to be looking out for Sam, because he sure as hell wasn't doing it for himself.

Kevin knew what he needed to do for himself as well as Sam. He had to join Team Winchester again and decipher that tablet.

Man, his mom was going to be so pissed.

So… Kevin's on board and Sam is on sticking around for Dean. Bless 'em.

Until next time…

Clowns or Midgets xxx