Told you guys, I got this. I'm pushing to get these last few chapters out, and a special thank you to those who've been with me since the very beginning. Also a moderately less special thank you to those who've just picked this up. Stay classy guys, and as always, give me your love, and enjoy.

Dean finally looked up from where he was seated on the bed and groaned. "Damn it." Crowley had shifted to lean against the doorjamb while he told the hunter everything that he had heard the night before. "Where did he go?"

Crowley thought about it for a moment. "I haven't the foggiest." He shrugged and Dean rolled his eyes. "What I do know though," Crowley said silkily, standing up straight. "Is I've still got Death's location, and Sam and Bobby are off dealing with that pesky virus at the pharmaceutical company. What was it called? Niveus I think?"

Dean jumped to his feet. "What?!"

"They're fine, but we're about two minutes to midnight here. Now, if you're done brooding over the angel, we have a horseman to find and an apocalypse to stop." Dean nodded his head slowly, pushing Castiel out of his thoughts. He had to stop the apocalypse; that was it. Maybe after the apocalypse he could figure out this - whatever - it was. For now though, he couldn't exactly deal with anything if there was no world to deal with it on.

"Alright," He nodded resolutely and cast a final look around at the trashed room, feeling an involuntary pang of regret. "Alright, let's go." Crowley nodded and suddenly they weren't in Sioux Falls anymore.

"Hey, let's stop for pizza."

"Are you kidding?" Dean did a double take at the demon. They were standing on a busy street in Chicago, its citizens running this way and that to avoid the horrible storm that was nearing quickly.

"Heard it was good. Also, he's in there. Ground zero, horseman's stable if you will."

"How do you know?"

"Have you met me? 'Cause I know."

"Alright." Dean turned toward the pizzeria, feeling determined. "Are you coming or…" He turned back to face Crowley, only to look out over an empty street. "..Not." He shook his head and pushed the door open, stepping in and closing it as quietly as possible. There were dead bodies strewn everywhere, lying on the floor, sitting at their tables, businessmen and women with their faces in their plates. Dean treaded lightly, toward the only man sitting upright in the restaurant, the only thing he had was stealth, and he did not want to lose that particular upper hand.

"Join me Dean, the pizza's delicious." Shit. Dean felt extremely nervous as he moved slowly around to the opposite end of the table from the gaunt man he could only assume was Death himself. He glanced up at the window to see the storm outside had worsened; the people in the street were running now. "Sit down." Death ordered, not looking up from his pizza, Dean complied. "Took you long enough to find me. I've been wanting to talk to you."

"I got to say, I have mixed feelings about that." Dean chuckled nervously. "S-so is this the part where," He paused and cleared his throat, trying to reduce the feeling of constriction he felt. ".. where you kill me?" He smiled.

Death looked up then, setting his fork and knife down. "You have an inflated sense of your importance. To a thing like me, a thing like you, well," Death paused and took a sip of his drink. "Think how you'd feel if a bacterium sat at your table and started to get snarky." He set his drink down slowly and locked eyes with Dean who squirmed under the intense gaze. "This is one little planet in one tiny solar system in a galaxy that's barely out of its diapers. I'm old, Dean. Very old. So I invite you to contemplate how insignificant I find you." Dean subconsciously leaned back in his seat, suddenly feeling very insignificant indeed. Death reached forward and grabbed the pizza, placing a slice on the plate in front of Dean. "Eat." He ordered. Dean looked at the pizza and up at Death. Was this it? Was he going to choke to death on a piece of pizza because he thought he had the balls enough to take on Death himself. He looked around again at the businessmen and women in their suits with their fancy jewelry, all suddenly undignified and slumped over with food on their faces. Crap. Death was looking at him expectantly, he had to eat it. Very slowly he grabbed his knife and fork and pulled off a small piece, bringing it into his mouth and chewing. "Good, isn't it?" It was.

"So, then why am I still breathing, sitting here with you?" He swallowed his bite and continued. "Uh...w-what do you want?"

"The leash around my neck off. Lucifer has me bound to him. Some unseemly little spell. He has me where he wants, when he wants. That's why I couldn't go to you. I had to wait for you to catch up. He made me his weapon. Hurricanes, floods, raising the dead. I'm more powerful than you can process, and I'm enslaved to a bratty child with a temper tantrum." Outside a flicker of lightening lit up the little room at the same time a clap of thunder boomed overhead.

"And you think...I can unbind you?

"There's your ridiculous bravado again. Of course you can't." Dean furrowed his brow, perplexed. "But you can help me take the bullets out of Lucifer's gun. I understand you want this." Death gently placed his silverware on his plate and leaned forward, lifting up his right hand to show off the square white ring on his finger.

Dean looked at the ring and back at Death, narrowing his eyes. "Yeah?"

"I'm inclined to give it to you."

"To give it to me?"

"That's what I said."

What the hell? Dean thought to himself. What is he playing at? "But what about Chicago?"

"I suppose it can stay. I like the pizza." Death slipped his ring off and held it between his fingers. "There are conditions."

"Okay. Like?"

"You have to do whatever it takes to put Lucifer in his cell."

"That's the plan."

"No, no plan. Not yet. Your brother. He's the one that can stop Lucifer. The only one."

"But-"

"You knew it would come down to this. He's been talking it over with Bobby, saying yes to Lucifer in order to get him back in the cage."

Dean sputtered. "He- what?"

"Yes, while you've been gallivanting with the angel, he's been productive." Dean reddened and stared at Death slack-jawed.

"You know-"

Death nodded, his expression one of boredom. "Yes, I know. Now, I need a promise. You're going to let your brother jump right into that fiery pit." He offered the ring out across the red checkered tablecloth. "Do I have your word?"

Dean sat there, dumbfounded, unsure what to do. On the one hand, he had to stop the apocalypse and in order to do that he needed the ring, but on the other he didn't know if he could go on without Sammy. Sure, he'd been angry, but that was brotherly stuff, stuff that faded. He wasn't even angry anymore, not really. But this, this was too much. In the end though, Dean knew there was only one thing he could do. "Okay, yeah. Yes." He said finally, holding his hand out.

"That had better be 'yes,' Dean. You know you can't cheat death." Lightening flashed ominously, lighting up Death's face. He dropped the cold steel into Dean's outstretched hand, and it felt like the weight of the world had just been dropped in his lap. "Now, would you like the instruction manual?" Dean retracted his hand and placed the ring in his breast pocket, nodding slowly at Death. Outside the rain stopped, and the skies cleared as the people of Chicago started stepping out of their homes, wondering what was going on with the weather.

Dean stood in the garage outside of Bobby's house, lipping a cold beer and staring at the ground. He felt as though the rug that was his world had just been ripped out from beneath him. He was going to lose Sam. He was going to lose his own brother and he hadn't even known. He'd been too busy with his own selfish thoughts and his own selfish life to even know what Sam had been planning. He looked up as a pair of shoes entered his line of sight.

"Bobby..?!" He said incredulously looking up at the tall body of the hunter. Bobby was standing, and suddenly Dean could fly. Without thinking he stepped forward and pulled Bobby into a hug.

"That's enough boy." Dean relinquished the old hunter and stepped back, grinning. "I'm tired. I was up and down the stairs all night last night just because I could."

"But B-Bobby… How?!" Dean spluttered gesturing wildly toward Bobby's legs. Bobby grimaced and rubbed the back of his neck thoughtfully.

"It was Crowley." He said quietly, so quietly Dean had to lean in to hear him.

"Crowley? But why would he…?"

Bobby shook his head and waved dismissively. "Something about my soul or whatever." He shook his head and looked up at Dean. "I heard you met with Death, how'd that go?"

It was Dean's turn to rub the back of his neck as he stared intently at the dirt at his feet. "What do you think Death does to people who lie to his face?" Bobby regarded Dean uneasily.

"Nothing good… Why?"

"I promised to let Satan ride shotgun while Sam jumped in the pit."

"Oh, that."

"Yeah Bobby, that." Dean bit out, he felt hotness in his eyes and promptly looked away. "Why didn't you tell me man?"

"Don't come at me like that. You've been busy with your own crap lately."

"Bobby…" Dean said, looking back at the weathered hunter. Bobby put his hands up and Dean quieted.

"Look, I'm not saying Sam ain't an ass-full of character defects. But..."

Dean stared at Bobby incredulously. "But what?"

"Back at Niveus? I watched that kid pull one civilian out after another. Must have saved 10 people, never stopped, never slowed down. We're hard on him Dean, we've always been, but in the meantime he's been running into burning buildings since he was, what, 12?"

Dean shrugged and nodded reluctantly. "Pretty much."

"Look, Sam's got a... Darkness in him. I'm not saying he don't. But he's got a hell of a lot of good in him, too."

"I know."

"Then you know Sam will beat the devil...Or die trying. That's the best we could ask for. So I got to ask, Dean. What exactly are you afraid of? Losing? Or losing your brother?"

"Bobby, I-" Dean started to say, but he knew the weathered old hunter was right. Bobby was always right. He looked down at his feet again getting lost in the silence.

"And as far as all that went with Cas, he was just trying to do the right thing, Dean. Everyone knows you can be a stubborn ass sometimes." Dean looked up, wide-eyed. Bobby nodded, seemingly reading his thoughts. "Yeah, I know all about that, he told me." Dean sighed and looked down again, of course Bobby knew. He drank from his beer and sighed.

"Have you seen him?"

"Who, Cas?"

"Yeah." Dean nodded wearily, looking up through his lashes.

"Not since yesterday." He shrugged and narrowed his eyes at Dean, but didn't ask further. Dean nodded slowly and stood up straight from where he was leaning against the work bench in the garage, he pushed past Bobby and made his way up to the house. He looked around himself at the rows and rows of cars in the dirt yard, up at the dingy house with the weathered shutters and chipping paint and he sighed to himself. This time next week everything would be different, and he knew he wasn't okay with it, he wasn't even sure if he could handle it, but he knew he had to live through it. He reached over and pulled the screen door open and stepped inside, immediately finding Sam, who was propped up against the counter in the kitchen.

"Hey." He called, catching Sam's attention. The younger Winchester smiled as Dean came in to lean against the counter with him.

"Hey."

Dean leaned over and pulled a beer out of the fridge, handing it over to Sam who looked over at him quizzically. "I'm in." He said softly, rinsing the fowl tasting words out of his mouth with his drink.

"In with..?"

"The whole 'up with Satan' thing. I'm in."

Realization washed over Sam and he looked at the far wall, taking a drink. "You know, I never thought I'd hear you say that."

"Me either," Dean replied honestly and sighed. "The thing is you're a grown – well, overgrown –" He smiled sadly at the bitch face Sam pulled at his choice of words. "man, and I can't tell you not to do it. I'm not gonna lie to you, it goes against every fiber of my being. My whole life I've looked after you, it's what I do, it's – i-it's who I am." Sam swiveled his head around to look at his brother, and Dean took another large gulp. "But I know, if anyone can do it, it's you." He turned to look Sam right in the eyes. "And if this… Is this what you really want to do?"

"Yeah Dean, it is. I let him out, I've got to put him back in." Sam looked down, pulling at a thread in his shirt.

"Okay," Dean said finally. "That's it then." He said sadly.

"Look Dean, there's something I've got to talk to you about." Sam said after a beat.

"What?"

"You know that, once I go in that box, I'm in there for good. I'm not coming back."

Dean swallowed against his constricting throat. "Yeah, I'm aware."

"You got to promise me something."

"Okay, yeah. Anything."

"Promise me you won't try to bring me back."

"No, no no no no." Dean stepped forward and spun to face Sam, carding a hand through his hair. "No, I did not sign up for that."

"Dean-" Sam said, but Dean cut him off.

"You going down there is going to make my tour look like Graceland! You expect me to just sit around while you go through that?" He shook his head vehemently and threw his hands to the sides, almost losing his grip on his beer. He could feel the familiar prickling sensation of tears behind his lids and damn it when did he turn into such a girl?

"Once I jump in there Dean you can't go poking at it, it's too risky." Sam looked down at his brother softly. Dean deflated.

"Don't ask me to do this man."

"I'm sorry, I have to."

"Then what the hell am I supposed to do?" He begged. He stepped toward the trash can and tossed his half empty bottle in it before finding a chair and sitting down, putting his head in his hands.

"What you're going to do," Sam began gently, coming to kneel by where Dean was sat. "is you're going to get over yourself." Dean looked up, confused by Sam's change of tone. "You're going to tell Cas that you're head over heels for him. You're going to tell him that you can't live without him, okay? Then, you're going to go have nasty gay sex with him in every filthy motel you can find while you're out hunting together. Because we all know it's what you're best at, and I don't want you to go alone." Sam brought his hand up to rest on Dean's shoulder. "Promise me." He finished quietly.

"I-" Dean began, but he couldn't finish. He pulled his stupid brother in for a tight hug, ignoring Sam's undignified 'oomf'. How was he supposed to promise that when he didn't even know where Cas was? He didn't even know if the angel ever wanted to see him again or if he could be forgiven. In the end though, Sam didn't need to know this, and instead of voicing any of his thoughts he nodded vigorously into Sam's shoulder vaguely aware of the hot tears spilling out of his eyes. "I promise Sammy." He said finally into Sam's shirt. "I promise."