Disclaimer: Not mine.

Chapter 18

Lilith was mad, Ruby should have brought Sam to her by now. Why couldn't that stupid girl do anything right? First she'd lost Samuel, then several rituals to break Seals had failed under her command and now she was extremely late in bringing the last of Azazel's chosen to her. She needed a human psychic with demon blood in them and thanks to the demons little game Sam was the only one left. He had to be the one to kill her to release her Father. Dying to free him didn't bother her at all, but everything going wrong the way it was did bother her. She stamped the foot of the child she was possessing and then stormed off to find her 'mother', she needed to play to calm down.

Dean sat on the porch of Harry and Castiel's home, watching the sunset. He hadn't expected to wake up again after hitting the wall, he had felt his spine snap and something in his head and had gone weir before he had passed out. His last blurry sight had been of Sam pinned and bleeding, Ruby standing over him. He shivered and wrapped his arms around his stomach, feeling a little sick. He had thought he had failed Sammy again. If Harry and Castiel hadn't come he'd be dead and who knew what the bitch would have done with Sam.

"What happened, happened Dean. You can't dwell on it." Harry commented as he sat beside him. "It doesn't help and just makes you moody and depressed. Trust me I know." Harry put a hand on his shoulder. "What happened isn't your fault. You walked into a trap, it can happen to anyone. I've walked into my fair share over the years."

"Yeah but you can't die."

"I could back then. Almost did quite a few times." He admitted, he would have been dead many times over if not for luck and two Guardian Angels. "Ruby is dead, totally destroyed, she can't hurt either of you ever again." He assured the hunter.

"Yeah but she must have been working with Lilith all this time. Who knows what she told her about us."

"Probably everything she knew. Lilith can't get to you here and I am tempted to lock you two up here until she's dealt with." Harry chuckled and Dean glared at him.

Dean started awake, eyes wide and breathe coming in panicked gasps. Seconds later Sam was awake and leaning over him, speaking softly and gently stroking his back in an effort to calm him. He looked over as the door opened and Harry peered in, frowning in concern. Sam bit his lip and then looked at him with pleading eyes. Harry moved over to the bed and laid his hand on Dean's forehead, startling Dean who stared at him with wide eyes. "It's alright Dean." He murmured. "No more nightmares." A little bit of magic and Dean was soon deeply asleep. Harry looked at Sam and smiled softly. "He'll sleep the rest of the night. How often does this happen?"

"Three, four nights a week." Sam admitted and Harry sighed.

"That's not good, you both need your sleep but in a way it is good the memories are coming back to him. Supressing them isn't good for his mental health."

"What can we do?"

"For now he needs sleep more than confronting what happened so I can give him a potion that will let him sleep without dreaming at all. He can't take it for long though, it's addictive and humans do need to dream." He explained and Sam nodded. He would do whatever it took to help Dean heal.

Castiel held his 'Master', friend, husband and partner as Harry slept in his arms. Things were taking a toll on him emotionally and he hated seeing him so stressed and worried. While he liked Michael his emotions concerning the rest of his one-time siblings were a lot more negative. They had helped start this mess after all. He slipped silently from the bed and left the house, appearing on the road only to stare in shock at the body before him. He knelt down and gently closed her eyes. "I am sorry Sister." He whispered sadly, taking in the ash outline of massive wings. He was confused as to how she had died though, he could not sense demons anywhere nearby, in fact the only trace he found was that of another angel. But why would angels be killing each other? He was glad her death hadn't woken Harry, this was something he wanted to investigate himself. Because not matter what most of them seemed to think about him now they had been a family for longer than humanity had existed and that was a hard bond to break. Unfortunately the trace of the other angel was too degraded for him to recognise or track very far. Whoever had done this was going to pay, they had stabbed her in the back, giving her no chance to defend herself.

"Hi Cas, can I help you?" Sam asked as the angel appeared.

"How do you work a hunt?"

"What do you mean?"

"How do you track down what is killing people when on a hunt?"

"Depends on what we're hunting, where, things like that. Why? What's going on?" Sam asked in concern and then smiled slightly when Castiel sat beside him.

"I…I do not wish Harry to know, he is stressed enough."

"I won't tell him but you will have to tell eventually." Sam answered and he nodded.

"Someone, I believe an angel, is killing other angels without even giving them a chance to defend themselves. So far I have found three victims, all of whom are from my old Garrison." He admitted and Sam's eyes went wide in shock.

"Oh boy. So you need to either find the killer or figure out who the next target is. That is not going to be easy. Do the victims have anything else in common but your Garrison?"

Castiel paused to think for a bit. "Not that I am aware of however my information is a few years out of date."

"All right, I'll help you however I can."

"Thank you Sam."

TBC…