Chapter Fourteen: Hold My Hand.

An hour later, they were enjoying food in a small diner in town.

The air was cold; so was Reina. She sat down in between the boys, silently eating her soup. Dean had winked at the waitress when she said they weren't serving courses yet, and she giggled and came out with the chicken soup. The boys were digging in their food on either side of her, neither of them talking.

Sam finished first, just as she slurped the last of her soup. "Want more?" She shook her head. He asked Dean and got a no as well. He walked away, to the counter, and Reina sat in silence with Dean at their table as Sam paid, and Dean finished the last of his food.

"Let's go." Sam had returned.

They entered the store one block down. "I'll go get the food. Why don't you and Dean get some, uh, stuff for Reina?" Sam suggested quickly. Dean squinted at his brother suspiciously. "Fine." He said, gruffly handing Sam a basket. "Don't forget the -

"Pie." Reina said softly, but the boys heard it.

"Kid."

"Yeah?" Reina stopped in her tracks.

"Get yourself some clothes. Try 'em on and see." Dean pointed towards the trying rooms.

Reina nodded and moved towards the racks slowly, tracing her hands on the clothes. A few minutes later, Reina had picked out a few T-shirts and pairs of jeans. It felt better to be in fresh clothes.

"Are you done!" She heard Dean call out.

"Yeah." She carried the clothes back. "Is this fine?" She placed the clothes in the basket he was carrying.

Dean nodded, checking the clothes out. "I'll wait here - till you get your, uh, -"

"What, Dean?" Reina looked up at him. "Your lady-products."

Reina felt stunned. Dean had thought of things that she, a girl herself - had forgotten. "Um – I

"Go get it." He nodded towards the store interior. "Be quick."

Reina nodded, feeling her face go red.

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A few minutes later, as the Impala peeled away from the store, Reina sat in the back, window down, letting the breeze whip around her face. She finally felt the food kick in, and drowsiness settled over her. But she felt like she was forgetting something.

"So what did Cas say?" She heard Sam asking.

"He and Crowley managed to find Rowena. And guess what?"

"What?"

"She decayed his vessel and put him at the bottom of the ocean. So that's gotten rid of him for now. Cas is coming back."

"Good." Dean mumbled as he drove.

"He's not going to stay gone," Reina added. "There is a fossilized wing feather on earth somewhere. Some kids find it or have it, and they summon Satan for fun, but Lucifer uses the summoning to get out of the ocean, and uses the feather to heal himself."

"Great. How do we find this fossil-fossilized angel wing now?" Dean groaned, stepping on the gas.

"I don't know, Dean. I'll try to remember the location." Reina leaned back, willing her memory to give her the information they needed.

"Hey, you're giving us enough – we wouldn't have known this otherwise." Sam glared at his brother.

"Hey, Sam? I was wondering if I should get – the – the tattoo." Reina said it quickly under her breath. "What?" Sam turned around, not having heard her.

"I was – thinking, that I should – get the – the tattoo." She pointed to Sam's chest.

"Oh." Sam blinked, "uh –

"Good idea," Dean spoke. Sam and Reina turned towards him. "What? It's a good idea." Dean shrugged, looking away from them. "You need the protection."

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Sam had seen a strange sight earlier today. A rare side of his brother, one he usually never saw. He felt like it was the start of something - he didn't know exactly where this road was going to take them, but he was intrigued. He smiled as he remembered what had happened at the tattoo parlor earlier today when they had taken Reina to get tattooed.

"What tattoo do you want to get?" The man at the counter asked them, lounging in his chair.

"This." Dean peeled away his T-shirt to show the guy the design.

"Oh. Who's getting it? The tall guy?" The man flicked his gaze toward Sam.

"No. It's her –

Sam looked to his right, where Reina should have been standing. Not finding her there, he and Dean both had turned back, to find her frozen at the doorstep.

"What's the matter?" She just looked at him, blankly. She was scared. He was about to go talk to her, but Dean got there first.

"Hey. Snap out of it." Dean clicked his fingers in front of her.

Sam wanted to tell Dean not to be insensitive.

"It'll be fine. Trust me." Dean leaned towards her. "Come on. This was your idea."

Sam noticed his brother getting softer in his tone, But Reina looked frozen in fear. He was about to suggest putting this off when she broke out of her trance.

"Okay." She took a large breath and walked in. He could still see her fingers tremble, but she fisted her hands and reached the counter. "I'm ready."

"Okay!" the guy at the counter lead her towards a booth, having taken a picture of Dean's tattoo. A few moments after she'd been inside, they heard a small shriek from her.

"Damn it," Dean said under his breath and followed her in.

A few moments later, Sam peeked behind the curtain that hid the tattoo booth. He smiled at what he saw, and let the curtain drop.

Sam smiled again, as he remembered what he had seen.

Reina, eyes tightly shut, holding Dean's hand in hers.

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So now that they had brought Bobby up to speed with what Reina had told them about Vince, a.k.a Lucifer's return, Sam and Dean got to tracing the Fossil. Then Bobby pointed out that there were no exorcisms, really, for pulling angels out of hosts. Of course, they could be banished, but they'll still come back and won't lose their host.

Reina told them about the expulsion device that Men of Letters had. "It looked like they developed it quite recently, but still, there is a chance there may be research in the old archives about their theories."

Bobby and Reina were deep in research for a Demon/Angel expulsion technique when Cas finally returned to the bunker.

"Hello, Dean. Hey Sam." Cas dropped down in a chair as Reina came in, carrying a box full of older files on experimentation done by Men of Letters. "Hey, Cas – Castiel's back!"

"Hello," Cas sat up straight, noticing Reina. "Hello, I'm Reina. Thank you for healing me." Reina stood in front of the Angel, speaking shyly.

"You're welcome. Are you feeling better now?" Cas looked intently at her, and Reina couldn't stop staring into his deep blue eyes. She wondered if she'd ever really noticed them in Misha before because there is a difference between seeing a person's eyes on screen versus in person.

"Yeah, yes. I'm okay now. How are you?" Reina asked, and then internally chided herself for making nonsense small talk. "I'm – I'm fine. That's what you're supposed to say, aren't you?" Cas looked around at both the boys who were watching this exchange. "You can tell me if you're not fine, Cas. I mean, Castiel. I'm sorry."

"Oh. Please call me Cas. I prefer it." The corner of his mouth turned up for a moment in a short smile. "Cas. I've known you for a long time, Cas – in a strange way. I – Can we talk, for a bit?" Reina looked anywhere but at Cas, Sam, or Dean.

"Um- okay," Cas looked at the boys, puzzled.

"Let's go. We can talk on the way to the archive room," Reina turned around and quickly began to walk away, leaving Cas no choice but to follow.

"What was that all about?" Sam asked as Cas left the room behind Reina. He saw Dean stare at the door for a long pause before he registered Sam's question. "Huh? I – I don't know."

"Didn't it seem to you that she wanted to talk to Cas in private?"

"So what?"

"So, nothing." Sam shrugged and turned his eyes back to the screen. "Aren't you curious?"

"Nah. I don't care." Dean said, his face clearly saying otherwise.

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