This time the sight of hell sent a shiver up his spine.

Dean frowned, taking an indulging look around the once familiar torture chamber. He spared a second to appreciate the table. Fully adjustable, you can have them at any angle. It's the little things.

"You're different."

Dean turned, unsurprised to find Amara standing there.

She tilted her head. "More… human."

"Is that good or bad?"

"It is nothing." She said simply. "I am curious though."

"Trouble with a witch." He said simply.

"You are still traveling with the angel."

"And?"

She didn't respond. "What is it about this place that draws you to it?"

Dean frowned, feeling his breath catch in his throat for just a second. "It's familiar."

"You were here for a long time?"

"Longer than on earth." Dean said. "Most consistent home I've ever had…"

"You like it here."

"No." Dean said with a shrug. "Like I said, it's just familiar."

Amara studied him for a moment. "You are fascinating."

"I know." Dean answered. He frowned, looking her over. "You look different too."

"I'm learning."

"That doesn't sound ominous at all."

Amara turned, looking down at a long narrow table against the back wall. She ghosted her fingers over the tools thoughtfully before looking up at him again. "So much suffering."

"Yeah that life's in the rearview for me." Dean said, pointedly ignoring Amara's insistence that he was the one who brought them here.

"Not hell." Amara explained. "On earth. My brother's creations are howling, groping in the night, entirely forsaken. So they turn on eachother. Even a righteous man tears a knife into flesh after thirty years of resolve he never would."

"You're not wrong."

"It is disgusting."

"Plenty of worlds out in the universe. Maybe you go give them a visit and leave ours out of it."

"None of them matter."

He looked at her. "Why's that?"

"Do you know what I miss?" It wasn't her voice.

Dean blinked, the oppressive walls of hell snapping away to a cold landscape amidst the trees. He moved back just slightly, giving him just enough space to look at Cas. He suppressed a shiver but he kept his voice even. "What?"

"Duff's."

"Yeah?"

Dean turned his gaze back to the partially obscured horizon. The sun was just cresting the peaks of newly discovered mountains to their left, casting long shadows over the small clearing they had settled into during the night. The meager fire in front of them had nearly extinguished, the last sticks they managed to pry free in the darkness almost used up.

He shook off the lingering unease from his latest… vision?

Cas hummed a quiet agreement. "I had a very good evening before the accident."

"Sap." Dean ribbed, shoving Cas slightly under crinkling mylar.

"I didn't enjoy this part of it." Cas said, annoyed.

"Except this time you have the benefit of my wit and commentary."

Cas frowned for a moment, considering. "You're not unconscious and we have this blanket. I suppose we are better off at the moment."

"Yeah." Dean groaned. "Except I don't actually think we're about to be found and rescued by anyone." Dean said, slumping back slightly against the tree. "And I don't think either of us is getting our mojo back very soon."

Cas lowered his head in agreement. "And we do not have a roof over our heads."

"And we have no idea where we are." Dean sighed. "Might as well see what we can see." He looked over at Cas. "Ready?"

"No."

"Too bad." Dean shrugged free of the emergency blanket, letting a rush of frigid air settle over them. He closed his eyes, breathing through a fresh sear of electricity through his nerves.

"How are you feeling?"

Dean pulled back his jacket, looking at his shoulder. "It's better… I can move it now without almost passing out. Still got a ways to go." He sighed.

"What is our plan?"

"Step 1: you don't die."

"Step 2?"

"Working on that." Dean said passively. Dean pushed himself up and the rest of the way out of the blanket, pulling his jacket closer to him and giving a shiver. Behind him Cas pulled the mylar back before getting to his feet and following Dean without letting it go.

Dean retraced the way they came, pushing out of the tree line, the ground rapidly giving way to the rocks. He smiled. "Now that's what I'm talkin' about."

"Driftwood." Cas said, sounding relieved. "It'll burn?"

"Yeah, dry it out next to the fire we have left, should do great. Here, help me grab some and take it back with us." He bent down and began handing them back to the angel, taking care with his injured shoulder. He grabbed an armful himself before turning back to their fire.

"How long will this last?"

"There was a lot of it, so that's good." Seemed to be a bend in the river and the fairly large beach was littered with it. "We'll drag some of the bigger pieces back too, see if we can't get some sort of camp going."

"We should head up that hill to see if we can get a sense of where we are."

"Yeah." Dean said, sighing. He shivered again.

"Here." Cas slid out of the foil blanket, walking over and draping it over Dean's shoulders.

"Thanks."

"I expect it back."

"We'll see."

.

Dean wouldn't exactly call it a mountain, but it was steeper than he liked his hills. Climbing up was not a fast process and once they crested the ridge, Dean's heart sank.

The view was beautiful. Swooping hills dotted with dense forests, a river winding through the center, glistening in the morning sun.

And not a scrap of civilization in sight.

"Any chance you recognize it?" Cas said, though he could tell from Dean's expression he did not.

"Not even a little." Dean shook his head. "There could be a town right over the next ridge… Or it could be days before we found anything."

"We could follow the river."

"Same story." Dean studied the horizon. "And I do not like the look of those clouds."

"Snow?"

Dean frowned. "Yeah, maybe." He groaned. "Great. Add that to the list."

"The list is long."

"Always is."

"What do we do?"

"Like I said, use some of the pieces that are too big to use for firewood." Dean turned, slowly starting to make his way down. "We'll try to get some sort of shitty roof over our head."

Cas slid down a particularly steep part of the terrain, stabilizing himself on Dean's good shoulder. "And then we bide our time?"

"Yeah. Either wait until I can skip us out of here or Sam finds us." Dean paused in their clearing, taking a second to throw the driest sticks onto the struggling flames and coaxing the fire back from the brink of death.

Cas followed Dean back to the water's edge, helping to gather some of the larger logs and drag them where they needed to go.

Dean paused on their way back to take a sip from his pocket flask before dumping the rest out and dunking it into the river. He figured it was unlikely whatever was in the water would kill either of them before they became unhuman enough it wasn't a problem. He tossed it on the ground next to his bag when they returned.

"Take a look at that bag, see if I threw my old boot laces in there." Dean said absently as he started mentally mapping out a build plan.

Cas leaned down to rifle through the bag. "These?" Cas asked, pulling out the waxed cords.

"Yeah, we're lucky."

Cas cast him an incredulous glance.

Dean rolled his eyes. "I mean yeah, not very lucky, but-" He shrugged, grimacing at the movement.

"What is first?"

Dean pulled his knife out and picked up a rock Cas hadn't noticed him grab by the river. He sized up a couple trees the right distance apart. He thought for a moment before he placed the knife against the trunk, gently hitting the back of the sturdy blade, grateful that it chipped into the half frozen bark. He continued until there was a slight shelf dug into them. "Help me get this log in place."

Cas lifted one of the large pieces, holding it steady against the new cuts while Dean secured them in place with the laces.

"I'll start here. Why don't you go grab basically any other piece big enough you can find."

Cas bowed his head, retreating through the woodline.

Dean laid two fat pieces on the ground before beginning to lay longer logs across them to make a platform off the ground. The logs were not as straight as he'd have liked, but beggars couldn't be choosers, and their time banging around the rapids had at least rendered them fairly smooth.

Once he was satisfied, he began to lay more timber between the top beam and the ground, creating a low leaning wall, making sure each new log the angel brought him was stable.

When he was finished with the skeleton of a shelter he switched focus, directing Cas to help him pull pine branches off the living trees. These he used to fill in gaps in the back wall and sides before he laid them across the bottom. Not necessarily soft, but when he added every scrap of clothing that wasn't on their body, he could almost pretend it was.

Lastly he used the space blanket to line the back, creating a small warm space as it reflected the heat of the fire. Dean figured they'd probably have to pull that closer to themselves at some point, but for now he was actually surprised at its effectiveness where it was.

"What do you think?"

Cas inspected it critically. "I like it."

"Come help me haul more rocks up here." Dean said, grabbing his now empty duffel bag and bringing it with him.

"Why do we need rocks?"

"Gotta build a wall behind the fire. We want as much warmth as we can coming our way."

Cas sighed, less than thrilled with the prospect of dragging rocks back and forth from the shore.

"We don't need too many." Dean assured him. He hesitated when they got there, looking around.

"What is it?"

"Just remembering my father saying not to use river rocks near a fire because they could explode."

Cas' frown deepened. "And yet we are using them?"

"Bobby used to say he never had a problem using them."

"You trust Bobby over your father?"

Dean stumbled slightly, thrown by the question. "Uh… yeah, I guess I do. About river rocks anyway."

Honestly right now Dean was thinking about how grateful to Bobby he was in this moment in particular. This was some Discovery Channel shit, and he was more than a little proud of what he had built. He wouldn't have had any idea where to even start if Bobby hadn't built a couple forts like it when he was younger.

Those had been for fun but still.

The first few flurries were starting to fall by the time they dragged a reasonable number of rocks back to their campfire. Dean began stacking them immediately.

"Will the snow extinguish the flames?"

Dean sighed. "If we keep it well fed, hopefully not."

"It will get the wood wet." Cas pointed out.

"Throw it all under the shelter. Should keep it dry enough." He looked up at the darkening sky, thick clouds dimming the already shortened day and bringing an early dusk. He hurried his task, making a half circle directing the heat back towards their shelter.

If the snow got too heavy, Dean wondered if they'd consider building a roof over it too. He had no idea if that would work. He worried it would just eventually fall into a bonfire.

At least that would be very warm.

Slowing down the work had welcomed the return of shivering, especially as the light continued to fade from the sky.

As soon as he was done he joined Cas where the angel was settling into their new temporary home. IT was cramped but they could just barely manage to sit up, as long as they were close to the front.

Dean rifled through the modest pile of food he had shoved back into the duffel bag next to them. "I feel like we're supposed to keep the food farther from us." He wasn't willing to heed that advice. He opened the bag of jerky, taking a few pieces out before passing it.

"Mmh." Cas said simply.

"I swear to god, if we get eaten by a bear I'm gonna be so pissed."

"You're gonna be pissed." Cas replied bitterly. "You're gonna live through it."

"Exactly."

Cas rolled his eyes.

They lapsed into silence for a moment, both staring at the flames.

"You know I love you, right?" Dean asked, turning sideways to look at Cas.

"I do." Cas replied.

"Hoped it didn't get lost in all this. In all my…" He gestured vaguely.

"Demonic causticity?"

"My what?" Dean shook his head. "Never mind, probably." He relaxed slightly and closed his eyes. "You know, all things considered, I've been enjoying life post-Cabin." Well, up until this.

Cas gave a small smile. "Me too." He tilted his head back slightly. "For the most part."

Dean laughed. "Hey, I stand by that fight."

Cas rolled his eyes. He deflated though, letting his breath out. "He shot you."

"Yeah, what a dick."

"You hadn't even…" Cas stopped.

"I hadn't what?"

Cas frowned. "It would be one thing if you had… If you already…"

"If I had already done something worse to them? If they were already losing the fight?"

"He was going to shoot you no matter what you did." Cas said softly.

"Yeah, probably."

Cas was quiet for a moment, processing that.

Dean looked up at Cas. "Now you know why I draw the line where I do."

"You are always thinking about that?" Cas asked. Dean was considering what public image they were giving everywhere they went. Cas almost never considered how others might view them.

"Safety third." He shrugged.

"I would never think of it."

"Yeah, well you see a lot growing up on the road." He shook his head. "We'll stick to places a little friendlier for a while, yeah?"

"That seems wise."

"Come on." Dean said, laying down and stretching out to the best of his ability on the platform that was slightly too short for it. He lifted an arm, inviting the angel to rest against him. "We should try to get some rest before we have to feed the fire." He was frankly exhausted after an entire day of building, and the darkness was making it feel far later than it was.

Cas settled down next to him, pressing his back to the hunter, adjusting slightly to try to find a spot between the lumpiest part of the 'bed'. "This isn't so bad."

"Yeah, because I'm a rockstar at building houses."

"Yes." Cas agreed with a small amused smile.

Dean closed his eyes. "We'll see what happens tomorrow." Dean breathed as they melted into one another.

.

Four states down Charlie interrupted the tense silence of computer searches. "I have an idea."

Sam looked up.

"I've been thinking…" Charlie said. "We're thinking Dean teleported out of there, right? Like the spell burnt through the tattoo and he got the hell out of dodge?"

"Yeah."

"But if the spell burnt through his tattoo, why was his phone still okay enough to ping up north?" She leaned back. "I mean Dean's laptop is practically melted into the table. If it was bad enough to tear him up it should have fried in that motel."

Sam frowned, considering. "But then why did the signal cut out?"

"For all we know he just fell on it when he landed."

Sam tried to quell the flicker of hope. But then, it made as much sense as anything else. Add to it a distinct lack of mass murder. "Without a location I wouldn't know where to begin to search."

Charlie blushed slightly. "I might have another idea."

Sam waited for her to continue.

"I dated this girl for a while… She's got connections. Big time juicy government connections. Maybe she can find something the phone company can't. I think she'd do me the favor."

"Worth a shot."

"I'll call her first thing in the morning."