Winchesters were the reason that angels should never come to earth, what with their careless good looks and can-do attitudes. This one seemed more troubled than usual tonight, and it took the angel far too long to realize that the man in question wasn't even sleeping.

Come to think of it, he hadn't been acting like himself at all lately. Of course, a trip to hell could always do that to you, but the angel figured he'd be over that by now. Maybe that was just his own wishful thinking, though. It was his human, after all. He had a charge to protect the human, and he was not about to let that slip through.

Chuck knows they all screwed up way too much in that joke of an apocalypse, and in the end, his charge failed to do as expected.

Adjusting his stance, the angel made sure he was still invisible as the man started walking around the motel room restlessly. He was tempted to reach out and calm him, but there was something holding him back.

He sighed inaudibly, wishing he could just talk to the man. The Winchesters were always good in times of trouble, and this whole fiasco in heaven was definitely what could be characterized as trouble. Rafael was causing trouble and disturbance, and even the demons were being stranger than usual. He could only assume it had something to do with the new king.

Crowley.

Even the name made his skin crawl, and he could almost feel the corruption seeping into his grace. It was what had to be done, though. Humans had a cliché that talked about the ends justifying the means. He wasn't sure if the Winchesters agreed with that entirely, but from what he'd seen, as long as the end involved their family staying together, they did.

He could only hope that they would see the truth when his betrayal came to light. After all, the end in his case was peace and unity among his brothers.

Noticing that the Winchester in question had dropped into a chair again with a vacant expression, the angel gently reached out two fingers to his forehead, although he remained invisible. When the brother slumped back into unconsciousness, the angel wondered just how far he'd go for this human. The more he stayed, the harder it was to tear himself away, but he had a war in heaven and a Winchester on earth.

Quiet moments were few and far between.

***SPN***

Dean slowly blinked awake as the sunlight streamed into the cheap motel room. He reached for Lisa, but when his hands met empty sheets, the memories began filtering back. He dropped back into the pillow and remembered everything that happened at Disneyland and the phone call with Bobby.

Despite the crushing failures and responsibilities, he forced himself to get out of bed once again. It was surprisingly easy, and he remembered how much harder it used to be when he had to steel himself for a day of faking and pretending to fit in. Today he suddenly didn't have the pressures of being a perfect dad and attentive boyfriend. Besides, today he could work on getting Sammy back. Now fully awake, he climbed out of the bed and began his typical start-of-day procedures.

He was ready to get back on the road in thirty minutes flat, and he was soon speeding down the interstate again.

"Hey, uh, Cas, I know you're busy and all, but just wondering if you- Jesus Christ!" he cut off, glancing to the side to see the angel staring at him attentively from the passenger seat.

"No, Dean, I'm Castiel. Are you feeling alright? Did you get enough sleep last night?" the angel asked in genuine concern, tilting his head.

"I'm fine, Cas. It's an expression here on earth when we're, uh, startled or surprised. So what brings you here?"

If possible, the angel looked even more confused. "Did you not call me?"

Dean shrugged it off, inexplicably flustered. "Yeah, but you know, angelic timetables and all, I can never really be sure if you came for me or if you had some other reason."

"My reasons aside, Dean, I-" the angel was beginning seriously before Dean cut him off.

"That looks like a chick-flick moment face. Cas, what have I said about chick-flick moments in the Impala?"

"You don't want them," he obediently repeated.

Dean rolled his eyes. "Cas, what's the point of free will if you're just going to use it to obey everything you're told anyway?"

"Well, there are several advantages on a purely human level including the various emotional responses that trigger the needs to both be governed and be independent. Celestial beings, however, cannot be constrained by something as trivial as human emotion, although if our vessel is still active, they can sometimes allow their own responses to filter through. For the most part, however, angelic responses function in an entirely different field of reality that is nearly impossible to explain in English. In Enochian, I would be able to explain the relationship between an angel's desire and need to be controlled, after which I could draw out an equation to compare those factors to the varying levels of relative power, which could then be correlated to absolute power if the other factors were all raised to infinite powers."

"Sounds like you can explain it just fine in English," Dean commented, surprising himself by realizing that he had listened to that entire spiel. He must really miss Sammy's mindless rants and useless knowledge, he thought.

"That's an incredibly abridged version, of course," Cas assured him. "Actually, we are told that at one time there were humans who were able to communicate in a simplified form of Enochian, at least in writing."

"What, like prophets?" Dean asked.

"No, because they could not actually read the Enochian and more than one could exist at a time, but the archangels and early humans worked together to formulate a language that worked with both of our unique forms of communication."

"Huh. Is that kind of language still around now?" Dean asked, thinking that it might be helpful to know.

"Yes, as far as I can tell, it is now a requirement to graduate high school," Cas calmly answered.

"Woah, there, Featherbrain," Dean laughed, "if you think I'm actually going to believe that some kind of language developed by celestial beings is actually used by all of America, you've got another thing coming!"

Cas nodded seriously. "I'm serious, Dean. I believe the name you have for it is 'Algebra' but it is really a cross of Enochian and Arabic."

Dean slammed on the brakes and turned to look at Cas. "You've got to be kidding me!" he yelled. "You mean you're the dicks who decided to put letters into math? I can't believe this. I trusted you!"

"Dean, I don't understand. Is something wrong?" Cas asked as Dean got back up to speed, shaking his head.

"Don't worry about it. You weren't around then, right?" Dean asked.

"I wasn't directly involved, but I did witness the encounter," Cas admitted.

Dean sighed. "You know what, man? I'm gonna let this one go, okay?"

Cas looked even more confused. "Dean, I don't understand what I did!"

"Cas, you didn't do anything, okay, buddy? It's just, this is the kind of thing that Sammy would appreciate, so I can't really handle it right now without having him here to geek out, you know?" Mentally high-fiving himself for both diffusing the situation and redirecting the focus, Dean prepared to ask the question he'd wanted to talk about all morning.

"Speaking of Sammy," he started, "any leads in that department? Do you have any idea what to do about his whole condition, or even what his condition really is?" he automatically translated. He knew his angel… The angel… would have that head tilt thing going on, but he couldn't bring himself to look. What if he didn't have any news? He didn't want to have to see that there wasn't any news.

"There may be a way to correct your brother, but I'll have to be close to him to diagnose the issue," Cas explained.

"If you don't know what's wrong," Dean said slowly, "how do you know you can fix it?"

"Because I know things like that, Dean," Cas said, exhausted. "Do you want me to go on ahead and scope out the territory? Maybe I could smite that demon for you too?"

Dean shook his head. "No, Wing Man, unless you're zapping me and Baby with you, you're staying right here. We're going to stick together for this one."

Cas tilted his head again and screwed his eyes shut. Dean realized a moment too late that his angel… the angel… was taking him literally. Again.

A moment later, they were sitting in the parking lot at Tyler's place.

Dean immediately jumped out of the car and began running his hands over it. "I swear, if you put one scratch on her," he warned.

"Dean," the angel interrupted.

"No, don't you 'Dean' me! You just zapped my baby across…a lot of miles, and I'm making sure you didn't hurt her! Just give me a moment, okay?"

"I just thought you might want to know that there is a strong demonic presence in that building there," Cas inserted mildly.

"What?" Dean asked, jerking around and looking into the building. "Where? Is Tyler there?"

Cas concentrated. "There is a human presence in the building. I would have to be closer to be entirely certain, but I am fairly sure that based on the fact that he lives here it would be reasonable to deduce that he is the human involved."

"And this strong demonic presence, are we talking about multiple demons, or do we mean one big, nasty sonuvabitch?"

Cas focused. "There seem to be at least three demons in there right now."

"What are we waiting for?" Dean asked, impatiently. "Come on, Cas!"

"Dean!" the angel grabbed his jacket to hold him back.

"What, Cas, and make it snappy. Tyler's in trouble."

"There are other hunters coming here," Cas said mildly.

Dean nodded. "Good. They can help us gank those things in there, but we can't wait! We don't know what's going on!"

"Alright, Dean, you lead the way then," Cas agreed, grabbing his angel blade.

"What do you have that for? Can't you just smite the sons of bitches?" Dean asked.

Cas rolled his eyes. "Not all at the same time if the human doesn't know to hide his eyes, don't be stupid! Come on!"

Dean faltered for a second and then ran after the angel.

They burst into the apartment, blades ready, and were immediately assaulted by two demons. The hunter and angel were thrown into opposite walls, and the third demon slowly stood up.

Dean dropped his head and groaned, but any further movement was prevented by the pressure keeping him against the wall. "Dammit, Cas, couldn't you have mentioned that one of the demons was the fucking King of Hell?"

Crowley smiled. "Hello, boys!"

Cas winced but remained silent and otherwise immobile.

"What the hell did you do to him?" Dean asked, outraged.

Crowley sighed. "It's nothing permanent, I promise! I figured you'd be stupid enough to bring your angel, so I put up some subtle Enochian wards. He couldn't sense them, but he is practically human now that he's inside these rooms!"

"Alright, you scum bag, what do you want?" Dean ground out. For some reason, the image of a helpless angel wasn't sitting right with him.

"Actually, you can thank my demon, Jackson, for this whole scenario. Unfortunately, he couldn't be here to execute it because he is currently serving a life sentence on the rack. Are you familiar with that, Dean? You are, right? Well, he sends his love and a few choice words that slipped out when he realized I was carrying out his plan with a few changes in the cast. Basically, we capture Peter Pan, and Captain Hook comes swooping in to the rescue. Hmmm, quite the case of literary irony, isn't it?"

"Are you quite done analyzing your handiwork, or would you like to let me go now so I can shred your pompous ass to pieces?"

"As lovely as that thought sounds, I'll have to take a rain check. Regrets!" Crowley returned cheerfully. "In the meantime, I thought you could watch me kill your coworker, your, uh, life partner are they calling it? And finally I'll reclaim your soul and you can join the line of vengeful souls waiting to torture Jackson. It's quite impressive the number of souls he got for me in the time he was working here, you know, and it's quite regrettable that he had to be recalled, but that's the business! He just wasn't personable enough, you know?"

"That probably had something to do with the fact that he was never a person to start with," Dean suggested.

"That very well may be," Crowley agreed. "In fact," he looked like he was warming up for another longwinded speech when he was suddenly sizzling and emitting very unmanly screeches. Dean smirked.

"Bet you didn't see that one coming, your majesty," he taunted, hearing the beginnings of an exorcism before all three demons fled their meat suits and Dean and Cas were released to face their liberators.

Dean took one look and turned around. "Okay, Cas, what's this Enochian symbol going to look like?" he asked.

Cas grabbed his arm. "Don't walk away, Dean. They just saved both of us. I will find the symbol, but you need to do this."

"What are you, Oprah?" Dean asked before turning back to the two hunters he probably owed his life to.

"Dean," the older one nodded.

He nodded back, but his attention was glued to the younger, taller hunter. "Sammy?"

"Dean," came the response.

"Thanks, you guys. If you'd been any later, I'm not sure all three of us would have made it," he admitted.

"Three?" Samuel asked.

"Oh, fuck!" Dean yelled, smacking his head. "Tyler!" he went running through the house until he found the man. Cas had already been there and was assuring Tyler that he would suffer no lasting damage.

"Oh, Dean, I found and voided the symbol," Cas told the hunter. "I can take a look at your brother now." Dean nodded and Cas walked out.

"Uh, what's going on? Dean? Who are these people?" a very white-faced Tyler was asking.

Dean smiled thinly and was about to answer when a yell came from the front room.

"Sammy? Cas?" Dean called out. When neither answered, he started to panic again. "Stay here just a second, okay? I promise I'll explain as soon as everyone's okay!"

He ran out of the room, resigned to the fact that Tyler didn't know what was good for him and was running right behind him.

Sam was sitting in a kitchen chair screaming in agony while Cas was pulling his hand out of Sam's abdomen.

"Oh my god," Tyler muttered from behind Dean.

"Cas? What is it?" Dean asked, ignoring his panicking coworker.

Cas looked about as white as a sheet. "Okay, this is very bad, but I think I can remedy the situation."

"How? What's the situation?"

"It seems that in my hurry to rescue your brother from eternal torture, I somehow left his soul behind. It's still being tortured and would hurt Sam, but I have another solution," the angel assured all the shocked humans.

"Cas, don't you think you're rushing this a bit," Dean offered. "I mean, you just found out, and now you're going to operate? Maybe we should get a second opinion?"

"You want another person? Okay," the flustered angel disappeared with a pop before reappearing with a disgruntled Bobby.

"Here's another person. The situation is simple. Sam has no soul. His own soul is harmful to his body. The only way to fix him is fairly clear." Without another word, the angel touched two fingers to Sam's head and then vanished.

Dean, Bobby, Samuel, and Tyler all blinked very slowly.

"Where the hell is my brother?" Dean yelled, running toward the pile of large clothes and the spot where the angel and hunter had seemed to vanish.

"Oh my god, what is going on! Who are you people? Why are you in my house? Can you not just take a break?" Tyler freaked out.

That's when Sam's coat moved, and everyone froze. Dean reached out tentatively and moved a fold of the jacket before jumping back.

Swamped by the gigantic clothes was an exact copy of his brother at four years old.

"Sammy?" he asked.

"Dean!" the little kid crowed happily.

Dean froze. "So, what? You know who I am? Do you know all of these people?" he asked, pointing around the room.

"Bobby!" the little kid cheered. "Dean, I'm cold!" he quickly complained. "I wanna go home! Can we go home? And get some food? I want pizza!"

Dean had just gotten over the shock enough to scoop his shivering little brother up into his arms when Tyler completely broke.

"WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON? WOULD SOMEBODY PLEASE EXPLAIN IT TO ME? CAN YOU JUST GET OUT OF MY HOUSE WITH ALL OF YOUR FREAKISHNESS?"

Samuel took over calming the actor down, and Bobby stared around helplessly.

"Dean," Sammy said seriously, looking at Tyler, "he needs to use an inside voice!"

Dean suddenly found himself biting back laughter. "Alright, come on, short stuff. Let's get the hell out of dodge. You too, Bobby!"

Bobby shrugged. "I have no idea what you idjits got yourselves into this time, Dean."

Dean sighed. "I know, I know, but I have a four year old little brother right now, so how about pull-ups first, serious talk later?"

Bobby rolled his eyes.

"Good, it's a plan!" Dean nodded. "Catch you later, Samuel? See you at work, Tyler!"

Bobby groaned. "Dean Winchester, when did you get so… domestic?"

Dean shrugged. "Seriously, Bobby, can we talk later?"

"Oh, that's a promise, boy," the gruff hunter assured him.

"Alright then, short stuff," Dean laughed at the kid in his arms.

"That's not funny, Dean!" Sammy pouted.

"Oh, but it really is," Dean answered. "Hey, you'll understand it when you're older," he promised.

Sorry about the crappy ending... I am determined to see this story through come sleep deprivation or mood swings!

Please review!

~Hugs and Chocolate!

Hailee