A/N: Yes, believe it or not I am back with an update. Sorry it's taken so long...again. Summer has been awefully hectic along with this chapter being deleted off the computer so I had to write it in again (thank god I had it written in hand).

Thanks so much to everyone who has reviewed! Your words really mean a lot! They also make me feel very guilty for the slow updates.

Disclaimer: Don't own. Though it would be nice, wouldn't it?

When Sam and Angel first set out, Angel had looked as if he was heading for the sewers, but he was quickly persuaded by Sam to get in the car. Angel mused that it was probably the last time he would not have to ride in the backseat of the Impala if they saved Dean. If; it was that one horrible word that tilted everything. The vampire knew Sam was thinking the same thing and he could smell the fear and anxiety coming from the young man. He had to admit though that Sam was very good at not showing it.

Sam kept quiet as they drove, but then again, Angel had never been one to initiate conversation, so silence was bound to overtake them. Somehow Angel had the vague idea that, had it been Dean here instead of Sam, music would be blaring from the stereo and he would be breaking every speed limit. But this was Sam. Sam who tried to keep calm and collected and only broke the speeding limit slightly.

They had decided to go to the place where the demon had attacked Angel and see if they could pick up its trace from there. Angel would rather have had Sam stay with his brother but he did not want to get into an argument about it so he had let him come; or rather, he had not said anything. Doyle’s vision from those months before when he had first met the Winchesters was still clear in his mind. Doyle had seen them kill him, and that was proof enough for Angel that they were capable of doing just that.

“What are we going to do when we find it?” Sam asked suddenly, making Angel jump slightly.

“Kill it.” Angel suggested, though he knew it came out more as a statement. The truth was he was not quite sure what to do with it if…when they found it.

“You don’t think that would destroy the effects of the antidotes in the glands?” Sam questioned.

“Maybe.” Angel answered. He was not quite sure how to respond to that. He was not exactly a Katlan demon expert. Maybe we should have brought Spike. Did he really just think that? He had to be loosing his mind.

“How’re your shoulders?” Sam asked with a quick glance in Angel’s direction.

How were his shoulders? They hurt…a lot, but he supposed that with not heartbeat the poison was not being pumped around his body, which meant that it wouldn’t kill him…well, re-kill, right?

“Fine.” He answered curtly. No was he was going to tell Sam how he was really feeling. He was a vampire and he could take care of himself.

“Good.” Sam said in a tone not unlike the tone Angel had just used.

Angel looked back out of the window at the early nightlife of Los Angeles. The lights were flashing past too quickly to from any words resulting in them only making him feel slightly dizzy. Wait a minute; since when did he get dizzy?

“Do you…er…do you think he’ll be okay?” Sam’s voice snapped Angel out of his thoughts and he turned to look at the young man in the seat next to him. He noticed Sam’s hands were clutching the steering wheel so tightly that his knuckles were turning white. He was staring straight ahead but his jaw was slowly clenching and unclenching making Angel aware of how worried Sam really was, and he decided he did not want to lie.

“I don’t know.”

Sam nodded and quickly blinked away the tears which were threatening to fall. He didn’t say anything and Angel started to have the uncomfortable feeling that maybe he should have lied. He never was very tactful.

“I’m sure he will be though.” Angel said as he tried to make up for his previous words.

“I hope so.” Sam said rather quickly as he slowed the Impala down and parked it on the sidewalk, near the alley Angel had had the encounter earlier.

This part of the city was a lot quieter, Angel noticed as he stepped out of the black Chevy. He made sure he was loaded with the stakes, the gun and the couple of knives which he had brought from his personal stock.

“Have you got any weapons?” He asked as he looked over at Sam who was busy unlocking the trunk of the car.

“Just a few.” Sam replied as he dug out a few weapons, including a sleek looking gun with a few engravings. Sam looked up to see Angel eyeing the gun. “Samuel Colt made this gun. It’s supposed to be able to kill anything.”

“Don’t go trigger happy on me.” Angel warned as he turned around and headed towards the alleyway.

“You didn’t want me to come, did you?” Sam’s voice carried from behind him just as he heard the trunk being closed.

“No, I didn’t.” Angel answered truthfully as he continued to walk. He could hear Sam coming up behind with long strides, quickly catching him up.

“Why not?” Sam questioned.

“Is this really of great importance right now?” Angel questioned as he stopped to look up at Sam. Yes, he had to look slightly up at Sam which annoyed him to no end.

“Yes.” Sam replied simply. “You think I’m a liability, don’t you?” Sam accused, his tone slightly agitated.

“No.” Angel growled. He knew Sam was upset which was probably partly why he had brought this up, but Angel did not think that this was the time to discuss any of this. “And this is doing nothing to help your brother.”

“Don’t drag Dean into this.” Sam threatened. “You didn’t want me to come with you to find the demon that’s killing my brother and I want to know why.”

“Why?” Angel demanded as he turned and started walking again. He heard Sam hesitate for a moment before following.

“When there are two of us I need to know if you are there to watch –” Sam began, but Angel cut him off with a hard shove into the wall by the sidewalk, pinning the young hunter to it.

“This has nothing to do with that.” Angel stated with a low growl. “Your brother is dying and you want to know why I didn’t want you to come? Fine, I’ll tell you why.” Angel realised his voice was getting dangerously low and was vaguely aware of Sam trying to push him off but he kept going. “I have no idea if we can even save Dean. If we can’t he has not got long left.” Angel hesitated as he noticed that Sam had stilled. He couldn’t say that he had wanted Sam to have a last few moments with his brother; not when he saw the tears glistening in Sam’s eyes. Sam knew this, of course he did. He had only tried to deny it.

Angel let go of him and took a step back. He did not say anything as he continued walking towards the alley. At first he could not hear Sam following but after a little while he heard the youngest Winchester follow not far behind him.

The alley was darker than the street they had just come from, and the smell of death still lingered in the air. He walked as quietly as he could, his vampire senses on full alert. He heard a bin falling over towards the end of the alley and he immediately held out to Sam behind him to tell him to slow down. He did not want two sick Winchester brothers on his hands; one was plenty.

He moved slowly towards the source of the noise keeping a lookout for any sign of movement. He paused for a moment as he saw the overturned bin, its contents littered across the width of the alley. He could hear something rummaging through the heaps of rubbish, but he could see nothing. He took a few cautious steps forwards and kicked a bit of rubbish aside causing loud squeaking noises to erupt from the rubbish.

“Rats.” Sam was right next to him without him even realising. What was wrong with him? Usually he would have sensed Sam coming up from behind him. “They couldn’t have turned the bin over though.”

Angel nodded once before walking over to the bin to look at it a bit closer.

“You’re right.” Angel informed Sam who had followed him over to the bin. “I think it’s playing with us.”

“Great.” Sam huffed as he immediately scanned the darkness for any movement.

Angel moved slowly passed the bin, taking care to make as little noise as possible. He was quite determined to find the demon quickly so all of this could be over and done with. He knew that his meeting with Buffy had affected more than he let on, but he tried to deny the small voice in the back of his head that was whispering him to him that he was going to fail. They had a hunch on what could save Dean but nothing more than that.

He swayed slightly on his feet but held a hand out to the wall to steady him. This feeling was scaring him slightly. He had not thought that the Katlan’s poison would have any effect on him since he was technically already dead.

“Hey dude, are you alright?” Sam asked and Angel quickly blinked away the blurriness that had threatened to form in front of his eyes.

“Yeah, I’m fine.” Angel replied as though it was the most obvious thing in the world.

“Whatever…” Sam said, his voice trailing slightly.

“What?” Angel questioned with a quick look at the young man.

“You’re almost as bad as Dean.” Sam exclaimed, though he kept his voice level. “I mean, since when can’t a vampire stay on his own two feet?”

“It’s not that bad.” Angel defended himself weakly.

“So you are determined to insist that the demon’s poison has absolutely no effect on you?” Sam retaliated with a pointed look at Angel who was starting to feel rather uncomfortable.

“Demon to catch, people to save, gotta go.” Angel said quickly before pushing himself off the wall and continuing to inspect the area.

“Smell anything?” Sam asked as he crouched down and looked closer at the tarmac.

“Yes.” Angel said as this was perfectly true. He could smell the Katlan alright, but that did not mean he could locate it. “I think we’re going this way.” He nodded further down into the darkness of the alley as his vampire-sensitive vision tried to inform him of any possible movement.

Sam got up and quickly, though quietly, followed Angel. The vampire could practically feel the anxiety dripping off the young Winchester but he tried to ignore it as he could also see Sam was trying hard to conceal it.

They both came to an abrupt stop when a shape moved in the shadows. It was clear to anyone that this was something far bigger than a rat and possibly far more deadly.

“It knew we were to come back, didn’t it?” Sam whispered as the shape of the Katlan became clear to them.

Angel did not answer but had the uncomfortable feeling that Sam very well be right because he highly doubted that the demon had taken a liking to the alley and decided to make it its living place.

The Katlan looked up at them as it hobbled towards them on all fours, its eyes reflecting the dull moonlight.

“Did you bring a tranquilizer gun?” Angel asked, keeping his voice low as the Katlan held his gaze.

“No, did you?” Sam replied quietly.

“No.” Angel said. “Do you have one in the car?”

“Might do.” Sam answered.

“Could you be a bit more specific?” Angel hissed as he noticed the demon before him crouching down slightly as though preparing to jump.

“What do you want me to say?” Sam hissed back. “We may have one in the trunk of the car.”

“You don’t know?” Angel growled.

“Fine, then, yes I am absolutely certain we have a tranquilizer in the trunk of the car.” Sam whispered back hectically.

“So, now you are absolutely certain you have a tranquilizer in the trunk of your car?” Angel questioned.

“Would you just shut up?” Sam hissed again and Angel had the impression that the young man was starting to get rather irritated, which was something that never worked well with anxiety.

“Okay, fine. When I say run, we run back to the car as fast as we can, grab the tranquilizer out of the trunk and shoot it.” Angel explained quickly.

“We shoot the trunk?”

“No, we don’t shoot the trunk. The demon; we shoot the demon.”

“What makes you so sure it will follow?” Sam asked.

“Look at it.” Angel said simply as he saw the Katlan’s hind end crouch down a fraction lower. “Run!”

At Angel’s yell both he and Sam spun on their heel and took off at a run back down the alley the sound of the Katlan in hot pursuit only urging them on. As they rounded the corner out of the alley Angel stumbled when a heavy weight landed on his back, but he quickly and effectively rolled over while grabbing on of his knives and stuck the knife where he could: in the arm of the demon. The demon hissed in rage and jumped to the side giving Angel a chance to jump up off the ground and run towards the car where Sam was already fighting with the trunk.

“Would you just open the damn thing?” Angel yelled as the demon pounced on him again sending him crashing into the wall.

“Trying here.” Sam shouted back and Angel just saw him get the trunk open out of the corner of his eye before he was forcefully distracted by the Katlan.

He screamed out in pain as the demon scratched its claws across his chest, biting his neck only a second later giving him no room act. He growled loudly, his game face slipping on, and gave the demon a hard shove sending it rolling across the sidewalk. Angel reached for his gun and fired a round at the creature but the bullets didn’t seem to do more than annoy the creature. He instead pulled out a knife and stake having one in each hand, readying himself for the creature’s next attack.

He did not have to wait long before the Katlan snarled at him and jumped towards him giving Angel a chance to run the blade of the knife across the neck of the demon clearly angering it further.

“I could use a little help over here.” Angel informed Sam as the Katlan once again attempted to push up against the wall, this time digging its claws back into the already present wounds in his shoulders.

“Got it!” Sam exclaimed and it wasn’t more than mere seconds before Angel felt the Katlan grow limb making it possible for him to push it off.

He slid down the wall ending up in a sprawled sitting position, changing back into his human face. If he thought he felt bad before, he needed to seriously reconsider, because if it was bad before then the pain he felt now was close to unbearable.

“Angel? Angel, can you hear me?” Sam’s frantic voice called from somewhere to his right.

“What took you so long?” Angel asked as he looked over at Sam who was crouched on the ground next to him.

“Dean and I have a very bad habit of throwing stuff into the trunk making it rather hard to find anything in a hurry.” Sam explained sounding rather embarrassed.

“It’s okay, I’m fine.” Angel assured him as he used the wall for support to push himself off the ground. He looked at the demon sprawled on the pavement before them. “Let’s get that in the car and get back to the others.”

“Dean is so going to kill me.” Sam muttered as he and Angel got the Katlan thrown into the backseat.

“You’re sure it won’t wake up any time soon, right?” Angel questioned a he seriously did not feel up to another round with the demon.

“Yeah, I’m sure.” Sam answered.

“Good.” Angel mumbled as he limped slightly over to the passenger side and lowered himself gratefully into the seat. Now he was glad they had taken the car.

“Are you sure you’re okay?” Sam asked as he took his seat behind the wheel.

“I’ll be alright.”

And there you have it. That was actually my favourite chapter so far in this fic. Angel and Sam interaction is so fun to write - they just won't shut up...neither of them once they get going.