A/N: I was planning on updating sooner, but Balthazar just refused to cooperate, and in the end, we had to compromise: I had to give him a whole scene featuring himself, or he wouldn't tell me what he did to Sam. No worries, our favorite cosplayer and his baby brother also feature heavily in this one, so without further ado...

"Wandering in the wilderness, Castiel? Isn't that more the role of the apes?" Balthazar asked, appearing next to his little brother, who was staring aimlessly into empty space. "Where are we, anyway?"

Castiel sighed. "While I neither understand nor appreciate what you would call humorous quips, your predictable nature dictates that, should I open myself up for a sarcastic attack, you could not resist the urge to deliver it." He turned to his dumbfounded brother. "We need to talk, Balthazar."

Balthazar sniffed the air. "Hmm, Kansas, 1849. Good call, little bro. There's no one here!"

"What did you do to Sam?" Castiel asked, ignoring his brother's response. "Dean is worried, and I don't know what to tell him."

Balthazar cocked an eyebrow. "Well, maybe I should just explain it to Tall, Dark, and Handsome myself?" he offered.

"If you insist," Castiel sighed, a little bit too fast.

With a sigh, Balthazar snapped his fingers and the wide expanse of waving grass faded into a very modern scene.

Balthazar leaned back in his seat and folded his hands on top the desk, trying not to laugh at Castiel, who was confused as to why he was suddenly lying on a leather couch on top of a skyscraper in the middle of a metropolitan area.

"So, little bro, what's going on with Dean? Come on, get it off your chest. You'll feel better, I promise!" he prodded.

Castiel sat up and glared at Balthazar, ruffling his feathers so that the older angel got the point. "And that's why you brought me to the top of a building with a view that looks remarkably like the time I didn't learn to fly?" he asked accusingly.

"Castiel," Balthazar tried soothingly, slightly startled. He'd forgotten about that day. It was his first and only time teaching fledglings. Apparently, Gabriel lost faith in him after having to revive Castiel. "I'm sorry, little brother. I wasn't thinking. I really didn't mean to remind you. I can put my office somewhere else, but most angels find it soothing among the clouds."

"You didn't mean to remind me?" Castiel asked, laughing. "You threw me off the Empire State Building before I knew how to fly, Balthazar. I died! An archangel had to revive me, and I still have skid marks on my wings from the pavement! You didn't have to remind me; my black wings do that every day, okay? You failed me that day, and you do not get to swoop in and be the hero now. This is my mess, and I'm going to clean it up myself, so please just get tell me what you did and I'll go take care of everything."

Balthazar sighed. "Are you sure you want to face Lover Boy?" he asked, knowing what reaction it would get him.

Sure enough, Castiel's strong façade suddenly disappeared. His shoulders slumped, his wings wilted and trailed on the floor, and he sat back down on the couch quietly. "Don't call him that," he argued without conviction. "There isn't anything like that going on, okay, Balthazar?"

It was Balthazar's turn to bristle up. "What the actual fuck, Cassie! The hell did he do to you? I swear to Chuck, if he hurt you," Balthazar trailed off, the older brother syndrome temporarily making him forget that he was suggesting that a scrawny human had hurt an all-powerful, angelic warrior.

"He didn't hurt me," Castiel answered immediately, looking affronted. "He would never do that! You don't know anything about him, Brother, which is yet another reason why you should not be involved in this scenario at all!"

"Well, if I hadn't gotten involved, what would you have done?" Balthazar asked, really trying to not be smug.

Castiel sighed. "I was getting to that, but the point is that he was safe in that body so I could work on finding a cure."

"A cure for what?" Balthazar asked.

"I wasn't entirely sure, but I think," Castiel winced, "I think I left his soul in the Pit."

Balthazar froze, and the illusion around them shattered, dumping both of them onto the floor of the warehouse they'd actually been in the whole time. "He was in the Pit?" Balthazar asked, in a low voice, dusting the warehouse grime off his jeans. "For how long?"

"Don't you listen to angel radio?" Castiel asked, giving up on having a clean trench coat in disgust. "Michael and Lucifer's true vessels are Dean and Sam, Sam said yes and overpowered Lucifer, and they jumped into the Pit. Anyway, does it matter?"

"Of course it matters! If his soul is still down there, it can't go back into his body, like, ever! That would kill him! Well! This kind of complicates/uncomplicates things," he admitted.

Castiel frowned. "You have never wanted to interact with the human race before, Balthazar. Even in your illusions, you are careful to place yourself high above them. Why do you care about Sam's soul in the first place? In fact, why are you even here? You've done enough damage, Brother."

"Stop saying that," Balthazar argued. "I'm trying to help our brothers in heaven, okay? I don't appreciate conflict, so I'm holding weekly family counseling sessions. You're welcome to join, but I'd like to have a week or two to prepare them first, okay? And as far as Sam's soul goes, what's not to like? As an adult, he was quite the looker. As a kid, he's adorable as shit, and even you can't deny that, you feelingless freak. Besides, he's Luci's true vessel! That's pretty special, huh? You just don't understand me, little brother. Sure, I don't care for the human race, but every once in a while, there will be a special one who deserves more attention. Now, Dean has your attention, so that leaves Sam for me, although in a very different way, I'd imagine."

"Just stop, Brother. While Dean and I do share a more profound bond, our relationship is strictly platonic and always will be, despite your jabs. There is no reason for you to continue teasing me or prodding for information because there is nothing else. That's it!" Castiel finally exploded.

Ignoring the somewhat ominous sound of crackling grace, Balthazar pushed for more information because this was news to him. "More profound bond, Cassie? When did that happen?"

Castiel sighed. "Honestly, Balthazar, did you even know that you have a way of communicating with our brothers?" he asked. "Dean and I first met when I rescued him from Hell after he started the apocalypse. Sound familiar?"

Balthazar nodded, understanding flooding his face. "So that's where the rest of the black came from?" he asked. "Because, I knew that your wings were not that black because of me, so it makes more sense now! Hell tainted your wings too, huh? Damn, Castiel, have you had any friends who didn't leave a mark on you?"

Castiel matched his gaze evenly. "Actually, that was not the bond I was referring to. I left my own mark on him as well this time. Even if he falls in love with a human and abandons his post, he won't forget who he owes it to, right, Brother?"

Balthazar sighed. "Castiel," he began.

"Save your breath, Brother. There is nothing more to be said on that subject. Tell me about Sam," Castiel demanded.

Balthazar dropped his head. "I enchanted some of my grace to interact with his soul and age him to his correct age, okay?"

Castiel nodded, slightly impressed. "You will have to teach me that spell," he requested bluntly.

"Ah, Cassie, always the curious one. Of course I will, little brother, but we do have a problem. If he does not have a soul for the grace to interact with, then the aging process will not stop at the correct time and he will die."

Castiel nodded. "Yes, he will, but you also said that this somehow makes things less complicated, didn't you? What did you mean by that?"

Balthazar sighed. "Look, Sam's soul is being tortured, and it is undoubtedly too damaged to be returned to him. I only see one other option."

Castiel nodded, eyes wide. "Of course. I understand. But Balthazar," he added as the other seemed to be about to fly away, "be careful with the angels, will you? If you help them too much, they'll start to see you as a leader, and then you'll be in real trouble."

The cocky grin was back in place as Balthazar snapped his fingers and disappeared with a puff of smoke, which then formed the words, "Thanks for the warn, li'l bro."

Castiel shook his head. "He always was so dramatic," he sighed out loud to no one in particular before noticing a strange silence surrounding two of Dean's worst enemies in heaven and hurrying to apprehend them before they did something they'd regret, like hurting his charge.

***SPN***

"Dean! You're home! Do you wanna play Go Fish with me and Uncle Bobby? Please, Dean? Can't we play a game? We haven't played all day!"

Dean walked in the door of the crappy motel room only to be assaulted by his little brother. Glancing at the clock, he sighed in relief. "I'm sorry, Sammy, I had to work today." He grabbed the blond terror and tossed him "high" in the air, turning Sammy's pout into a giggle. "Did you eat dinner?"

Sammy nodded. "Uncle Bobby and me had hot dogs! Why do you have to work?"

Dean groaned. "Sammy, I can't help it, okay? Now, what did you do all day?"

Sammy looked crestfallen, and Dean realized that he'd spoken more harshly than he had intended. "Look, buddy, I'm sorry, okay? I didn't mean to be angry. I know you want me to stay home, and I want to stay home, too. In fact," Dean put his brother on the ground and knelt in front of him so they stayed on the same level, "the reason I was upset was because I missed you all day."

Sammy smiled again. "Really? I missed you all day too!" He threw his slightly chubby arms around Dean's neck and held on tight. "So you aren't ever going away again, are you?" he asked when he finally decided that the hug was over.

Dean wasn't complaining about being hugged this time, though. It was somewhat heartbreaking to flash back to when Sammy was little and Dean was his hero.

"Uh, buddy, you know I have to go to work every day. We talked about it this morning, remember? Uncle Bobby will stay with you though, and you don't have to worry about anything, okay?" He looked at the older hunter, who had been a silent observer up to this point.

"Of course I'll be here," Bobby quickly agreed, and Dean smiled his thanks before returning his attention to Sammy, whose lower lip was now trembling.

Honestly, he'd had to deal with rude, spoiled kids all day, and it had only made him miss Ben and Lisa like crazy. He missed Sam too, but he missed the twenty-six year old version that would have made fun of him until he exploded and let off some steam, not this five year old version that was only adding fuel to the fire.

Dean took a deep, calming breath, reminding himself that Sammy was crying because he loved Dean, and sat back on the floor, pulling Sammy onto his lap. Sammy immediately latched onto the front of Dean's shirt and started sobbing into it.

"But I don't want you to leave me again, Dean! I wanna go with you! Blease don' leabe me, De!" Sammy screamed, his tears beginning to interfere with his speech.

Dean had been planning on just holding Sammy in his lap until the tears stopped and then having a nice, calming conversation until he aged another year, but the last request changed everything. "Sammy!" he said in shock, grabbing his brother's shoulders, and rocking him gently to try to calm him down, at least past this near-hysteria. "Sammy, listen to me, buddy. Hey, hey! Stop this, okay? I'm going to come back, Sam! I'm always going to come back, I promise! Okay? I'm never leaving you for real, okay? I'll only be gone for a couple hours, and Uncle Bobby will be here the whole time. Now you've gotta calm down, okay? I'm right here, and whenever you need me, I'll be right there! I promise! Come on, buddy!"

When Sammy only screamed louder, going rigid in Dean's hold, Dean looked at Bobby helplessly, surprised to see him smirking. "What's funny about this?" Dean asked, barely managing to keep most of his ire out of his voice.

"Well, considerin the fact that you sound more panicked than Sammy at the moment, I can understand why you can't calm him down," Bobby pointed out.

Dean sighed and let go of Sammy's shoulders, wrapping his arms around the tense little body instead, and holding his close. "Hey there," he began again in a lower, soothing tone, "hey, buddy, you're alright. I'm here, Sammy. I'm right here. I'm not going anywhere. I promise you, I'll never really leave you. Okay, bud? Hey, little guy. Yeah, I need you to calm down now or you're going to pass out, okay? We don't want that. Uncle Bobby and I want our little buddy to stay conscious, so can you stop screaming for me, please?"

As Dean spoke, Sammy slowly began to relax into the hold, and eventually the volume of his screams died down until all that could be heard was a hiccough-y whimper as Sammy muffled his face in Dean's shirt again.

Dean still held onto him comfortingly, rubbing his back while answering every whimper with a gentle assurance. Some part of him was wondering if he could have avoided a shit ton of drama by trying this with Cas instead of kissing him.

Eventually, even the whimpers stopped, and Dean looked down at his brother, fully intending to finally reassure him once and for all that he would never leave forever. Instead, he found that Sammy had worn himself out, and he was fast asleep in Dean's lap. His head resting against his big brother, he had handfuls of Dean's shirt in a death grip as if he was afraid Dean would try to slip away while he was sleeping. Dean shook his head with a smile, gently brushing a bit of the slightly damp hair out of his baby brother's face, and looked up at Bobby with a shrug.

"What did I tell ya?" Bobby asked with a smug smirk. "Anyway, if you're staying in front of the door, I'm taking this bed. Watchin a five year old all day will wear you out."

Dean sighed and leaned back against the door, wrapping his arms a little closer around Sammy before allowing himself to drift off as well.

For twenty minutes, the only sound in the room was slow breathing, punctuated by the occasional sniffle.

Then, Balthazar's present kicked back in, and all hell broke loose.

It wasn't the first time Dean had been woken up by a fist to the face, and he barely remembered what was going on in time. Instead of jumping up or punching back, he tightened his hold on Sammy even more, keeping his arms from swinging as much. There wasn't anything to be done about his legs, though, and the screaming was back.

"Cas!" Dean yelled over the sound of this brother, in pain for the umpteenth time.

The angel appeared immediately, for once, and seemed to understand the situation instantly. He took Sam out of Dean's arms and did something mojo-y that either made Sam silent or made Dean deaf. Either way, Dean was grateful that he no longer had to hear his brother in pain. Just watching his face screw up as he emitted what would have been ear-piercing screams was painful enough, and seeing him flail desperately, trying to get away from the pain, was even worse.

Dean tried very hard to stay for Sammy, but there were only so many times a guy could watch his little brother in pain, and Dean found himself running out the door and through the parking lot until he was out of sight of the security cameras. He punched a rotting fence post, feeling a sense of relief as the splinters flew, so he kept punching it, feeling somewhat better.

When the rush of wings alerted him to the presence of an angel, he whirled around to plant a couple good punches on the angel. Obviously, it wouldn't be Cas.

"'Ello, Dean," Balthazar smirked, recoiling slightly as the fist connected with his jaw. "Oh, that's how we're playing, huh?"

Dean growled. "You unbelieveable ASS!" he yelled, throwing all his pent up frustrations into his futile attack on the celestial being. "You're hurting my brother, you dick! Can you hear him from here? He's the one screaming in agony!"

Balthazar just stood there, taking every hit as Dean angrily punched and kicked and elbowed. The more he punched and the more Balthazar didn't even sway, the angrier Dean got, and he spent all his energy on trying to hurt the dick angel until he collapsed, completely exhausted, tears streaming out of his eyes. "Take me back to my brother," he gasped out, totally out of breath.

Balthazar just nodded and touched Dean's forehead. Sam was still screaming and flailing in Cas's arms, but Dean slumped down next to Cas and held out his arms with an effort. Cas nodded and gently placed Sam back in Dean's arms, looking up at Balthazar, who shifted his feet slightly.

"Dean," Balthazar said hesitantly, the first words to break the silence in a long time, "you need to understand. I'm truly sorry for the pain that this is causing your brother. I never meant to hurt him. I thought that the end would justify the means, and everyone would be happy in the end. I don't usually apologize to humans, so Castiel can tell you just how serious I am." He looked at Dean pleadingly.

Dean nodded, too exhausted to do anything else. Sammy's fist slammed into Dean's chest, just like it had ever since Cas had given him back to Dean, but this time, the fist stopped moving. A second later, all of Sammy's limbs had gone limp, and Dean mustered up the strength to pull the mostly six year old completely into his arms again.

Apparently, Cas had lifted the silence spell thingie because once Sammy opened his eyes, Dean could hear him whimpering again.

"Hurts, De," Sammy whimpered.

Cas leaned over both of them and touched his fingers to their foreheads. "I can't stop the pain of the transformation, Dean, but I can ease the after effects. And I can give you your strength back."

Dean nodded, and suddenly a rush of energy flooded through him. He pulled Sammy closer, and the six year old snuggled against his big brother.

"Love you, Dean," he murmured.

"Love you too, buddy," Dean assured him before looking back up at the room's other occupants. "Thank you, Cas. And Balthazar," he didn't have words, so he just nodded again, and the angel returned the nod, a bit of a cocky grin back in place.

"If you ever hurt my little brother again, though," Dean added warningly, only half playing.

Balthazar nodded seriously. "Noted, and ditto," he commented with a nod toward Castiel.

Dean nodded firmly.

"Well, ain't this all hunky-dory and shit," Bobby muttered sarcastically. "How long do we have to do this?"

Dean sighed, glancing down at his once-again sleeping brother. "Well, he's six now, and he was twenty-six before, so three more weeks of this shit."

Bobby nodded and sighed. "I need a drink."

"I think we all do," someone said, and no one disagreed.

For a minute, everything was good. Sammy was asleep on Dean's lap, and the other four were savoring the drinks Bobby never left home without.

Then, Cas had to go save Dean's ass from a potential angel attack, Balthazar had a group counseling session, and Dean had to go to sleep if he was going to wake up in time for work.

In the end, it was just Bobby, drink in hand, watching over his boys and praying to anyone listening that it would all be over soon.

Thanks for reading and reviewing! xox

-Hugs and chocolate!

Hailee