Chapter 4

"Sam is not in there, his..." Castiel tried to explain to him before Dean butted in stopping him.

"What the hell are you talkin' 'bout, what's goin' on here?" Dean demanded looking to Oree for answers.

"A hospital up north of here called me about Sam. Someone found his body and brought him to the hospital. Lucky for me, he had a card with my name on it and they contacted me. We found him like this. His soul has been taken, how or why, we don't know." she said as her voice quivered and shook. Castiel stood and laid a hand on her shoulder for comfort as she leaned closer to him.

Dean took all this in with a frown wondering when Castiel and Oree became so close. Yeah, they were in Purgatory for three months, something like that would bring two people closer together. He shook his head pushing those thoughts aside and concentrated on his little brother.

He looked him over and didn't see any injuries or marks on what he could see of his body. His eyes were closed and he seemed to be breathing easily. Dean laid a hand on his forehead and felt the coolness of his skin against his warm fingers. He brushed a stray strand of hair back in place before looking up at Oree. Ellie growled deep in her throat being sure her man-child was safe.

"Do you know anything?" he asked Oree as his hunter instincts kicked in and he began gathering any information available. The first step in any hunt would be research. He had to find out what his brother had been checking out and hope they could find what or who did this.

"The only thing I've got are his clothes from the hospital." Oree replied stepping toward Dean. "I don't know what happened between you two and right now I don't care. What I do know is Sam is in big trouble and we need to help him. So are you in or out?"

Dean looked at her in shock she would even ask that question. "He's my brother too, what makes you think I wouldn't want to help? All he had to do was call for backup and I would have come."

Oree looked at him hard before she answered. "Go get a few hours of sleep and we'll get started then. You look like crap and look ready to keel over." she ordered turning away from him to speak quietly to Castiel.

Dean clenched his jaw and growled deep in his throat before spinning around and stalking toward his bedroom. He knew she was right, but it didn't make it any easier to not start searching immediately.

"You were a little hard on him." Castiel noted as he watched Dean stalk away knowing he was concerned for his brother as much as Aurora was. He knew their bond was strong and when one was hurting it effected the other.

"He's lucky I didn't start throwing punches." Oree shot back. "I'm going to try and grab a couple of hours of sleep myself, will you watch over Sam?"

"Of course, I have no need for sleep."

"Thanks, call me if you need anything, and Angel, I'm glad you're here." she said softly before heading to her bedroom.

Castiel watched her leave before returning to his seat beside Sam's bed. He felt the thick tension in the air between the two siblings and wondered if he should mediate, but he didn't think either Winchester would appreciate it. It was so easy to see similarities between the older and younger siblings and why they butted heads. He watched Ellie watch his every move as he settled in the chair again. He could tell the protective streak ran in the family. Ellie was not willing to leave Sam's side or let anyone cause him harm.

After tossing and fidgeting for over thirty minutes, Oree threw back the covers and got up. She wandered to the kitchen for a cup of hot tea hoping that would calm her enough to sleep. She walked to the sink and got a cup out of the strainer. She reached for the gun she had stashed in the kitchen as her senses felt another present.

"Couldn't sleep?" a male voice asked from the shadows at the kitchen table.

"Crap, you scared me." she jumped lowering the gun and sitting it on the counter. "What are you still doing up?"

"Probably the same as you." Dean said leaning into the light. He saw her lay a gun on the counter and smiled to himself, she remembered her training well.

"Tea?" she asked trying to keep her emotions under control and to be civil to him.

"I guess, you're not going to poison me are you?" he half joked. Dean knew his sister was extremely mad at him and he hoped to resolve it quickly. One thing you didn't want was your powerful kid sister being mad at you, so he tried to smooth things between them.

"No, if I did that, I couldn't kick your ass." she stated turning on the pot for hot water. As the water boiled she took out her special blend and scooped three spoonfuls into a tea pot. She still had her back to Dean as she waited for the water to boil. "I have some scones I could heat up if you're hungry."

"And they're what again?" Dean asked watching her move around the kitchen.

"Cross between a biscuit and roll, it's sweet, but not heavy. These are blueberry." she said pulling some out of the bread box and popping them into the microwave for a few seconds. The pot cut off and she poured the water into the tea pot putting the lid on to steep. "If I remember, you take a little milk and honey in your tea."

"Yeah, but I can take it plain too."

Oree sat a plate with scones and two small plates on the table and poured two cups of tea. She added a small amount of milk to each one and a spoonful of honey stirring them; then sitting one cup in front of her brother as she took a seat across from him. Oree slid a scone onto her plate and sat back in her chair.

Dean helped himself to a scone taking a big bite from it. He chewed the bread trying to decide how to break the awkward silence hanging in the air between them. He blew across the liquid and took a cautious sip. As always, her tea was unique in taste and always made him feel better.

"Are we going to talk 'bout this?" Oree finally asked looking across the top of her cup at Dean. She waited for him to reply as she sipped her tea.

"What do you want me to say?" he started clenching his jaw and frowning. "We thought it would be better if we worked apart for a while."

"So you're not going to tell me what the fight was about, that's fine, but why was he blocking me? Why didn't he call me?"

"Maybe he just didn't want to talk about it." Dean offered. "He can be closed mouth, you know that."

"He knows he can tell me anything, I don't judge. He knows I'm a good listener and I'm always here for either of you. It doesn't bother me that you don't want to talk about whatever happened, what hurts was you didn't at least tell me you two split up. I knew something was off, wasn't quiet right, but I didn't press. I thought one of you would talk to me, let me in."

"Look, I feel like shit I wasn't there for him; but I'm here now. And I'm sorry I didn't tell you about it. It was a bad decision and I would never intentionally hurt you, you know that, right. So are we going to be able to get past this?"

"I'm still mad at you for not telling me, but we need to find out what happened and get Sam back." Oree stated sitting her cup down and staring Dean down.

Dean looked away first, knowing she was right. Even if Sam and him had split up, they should have told Oree about it. First things first, they had to figure out what Sam had been working on and find what could of taken his soul.

"I don't understand his condition, last time he was soulless, he was a heartless, calculating bastard, not a lifeless body. It doesn't make sense." he said more to himself than Oree as he thought back to that time.

"Where do you want to begin?" Oree asked drawing his attention back to the present.

"We need to search the area to see if we can find what he was checking out. There's only a few things that are powerful enough to remove a human soul." Dean stated trying to suppress a yawn.

"Come on, we both need a couple of hours of sleep if we're going to be of any use to Sam." Oree told him noticing how tired he looked from the dark circles under his bloodshot eyes, to the drawn, exhausted looked on his face.

"You're right, maybe the tea's helped enough and I can get a few hours. You promise to wake me?"

"Yes, I'll set the alarm and Dean, you know you never have to be afraid of telling me things, I'm always here for either of you. Whether you are together or apart, you both are still my brothers and I love you. I could have kept tabs on both of you, in case there was trouble, you know like what has happened now."

"I'm sorry, neither of us had any intentions of hurting you Sis, we just didn't want you to think any less of us. You know us Winchesters, we are stubborn, hardheaded, jackasses sometimes. Can you forgive me?"

"You know I can't stay mad long, just don't let it happen again. I'll see you in a couple of hours." she told him taking her cup and heading back to bed. No, she couldn't stay mad at them for long, it wasn't in her, but she had to let all these feelings out.

Dean sipped the last of his tea as his mind tried to start the process of sorting through the likely suspects. He sighed as the information scrambled together and knew better than to waste more time on it. He needed sleep if he was going to help his brother. Dean slid his chair back and got up so he could head back to bed. He could already feel the effects of the tea on his body. It felt heavy and his mind was trying to shut down.

Oree listened to Dean make his way to his bedroom before rolling over to go to sleep herself. She was already making lists in her head of what they needed to do when they got up. They were going to find their brother's soul and return it to his body and God help the being or person who did this to him. She didn't take kindly to anyone who hurt her brothers. Someone was going to pay dearly for this.