Lisa was the first to see Balthazar and Sam crash-land in the living room. She quickly ran up to them and helped them both to a chair. ‘Are you okay?’ she asked. ‘Yeah, I’m fine. Sam on the other hand, is not.’ Balthazar tried to sit a bit more straight, but Lisa held him down. ‘You need to rest. I’ll take care of Sam.’ The angel nodded and grabbed a drink. While Lisa searched for Bobby, Ben had woken up.
He felt strange. He tried to move, but was shocked to find out that he couldn’t do anything. He couldn’t move his muscles, nor could he control his breathing. Then he suddenly heard a voice in his head. It was a female voice. ‘Hello, Ben.’ ‘Who are you ?’ ‘My name is Meg. You and I are going to have so much fun together.’
‘Cas, we’re gonna make an agreement. We are never going to do that ever again !’ ‘Yes, I agree.’ Dean and Cas appeared in the living room where Lisa was taking care of Sam. Dean’s veins turned to ice. Again. His little brother had been stabbed and cut everywhere and had blood all over his body. Crowley was going to pay for this. Dean walked to him and asked Lisa: ‘How is he doing?’ ‘I can’t say for sure, but I think he’s going to be okay. From what I’ve heard from you he’s tough.’ ‘OK, thanks Lisa. Any idea where Bobby is?’ ‘Yes. He’s in the kitchen getting some water for Sam.’ Dean walked to the couch and said to Lisa: ‘I can take him over. Get some rest, do something with Ben.’ Lisa understood the hint and went upstairs. Dean first looked at Sam, then at Cas. ‘Thanks, Cas. Without you and Balthazar I don’t know if I could’ve gotten him out of there.’ ‘No problem, Dean. I’m… going to Balthazar. See what we’re gonna do next.’
Dean gave his little brother a good look. Where did he have to start? There were so many. He took a deep breath and started to wash his brother’s wounds. Crowley had messed him up pretty good. An advantage was that Sam was still unconscious. While Dean was patching Sam up, Bobby was making some food, Lisa was still looking for Ben and the two angels were resting. It was a weird experience for both of them to sleep. They never needed to and Balthazar had only once done it before. But apparently they had slept, because a few hours later, an alarm went off. However… Not exactly an alarm. But it did function like it.
The reason the two angels woke up was because Lisa was shouting and running through the house. ‘Ben !! Ben !! Where are you?’ ‘Hey, Lisa. Calm down. Where did you last see him ?’ ‘In my room,’ a voice suddenly said behind them. Dean and Lisa turned around to see Bobby holding an unconscious Ben in his arms. ‘Whoa, Bobby. What happened ?’ ‘Possessed,’ the older hunter answered. He carried him to another room. The Key of Solomon on the ceiling had just gotten a new layer of paint. ‘Dean, what is he going to do with Ben ?’ Lisa asked, worried. ‘Don’t worry,’ Dean assured her. ‘We’re going to exorcise the demon who is in him. He’ll be fine.’ Lisa still wasn’t really sure, but she followed the two hunters. Also Cas and Balthazar followed her to the room.
When the demon woke up, he saw five people standing in front of him. He tried to move, but noticed that he had been tied to a chair. The demon looked up and saw the Key of Solomon. It was a really complicated painting, quite different from a simple Devil’s Trap, but it worked really well. When he turned his eyes on the hunters, they became black. Black as the night. Bobby splashed some holy water on the boy’s face. It was the perfect way to hurt a demon, without the ‘Who are you ?’ Dean asked. ‘Don’t you remember me, Dean? And where is Sam? Tell me, is he still addicted to demon blood?’ ‘Ruby?’ Now everyone was confused. They had killed Ruby on the same night that they’d killed Lilith. ‘No, it’s Meg.’
If it was any other person they would’ve interrogated Meg, but because it was Ben they decided to exorcise her. Black smoke escaped from Ben’s lungs and the boy fell unconscious. ‘Ben! Ben! Hey, wake up.’ Dean walked to Lisa and said: ‘Don’t worry, he’ll wake up.’ Suddenly Cas felt a burning sensation in his stomach and fell to the floor. He grunted in agony. ‘Cas, what is it?’ The others turned around. Dean walked to him, but stopped when he saw blood dripping fast from Cas’ stomach. Balthazar walked up to them and tried to fix it. But when he had fixed the wound, more blood just came back.
Suddenly the angel realised what was going on. He began searching Cas’ clothes. ‘What are you looking for?’ Dean asked. ‘Hex bag.’ Realisation dawned upon him. Crowley. Of course. Finally Balthazar had found the hex bag and destroyed it. Cas slowly felt the bleeding and the burning sensation stop. You could practically hear everyone letting out a sigh of relief. Cas carefully sat up. The bleeding had stopped, but the wound was still there.
After the small incident everyone went their own way. Balthazar went back to his house and so did Lisa and Ben. And it was the last time Dean would see them. He’d asked Cas to wipe Lisa’s en Ben’s memories, because he felt that they couldn’t live in constant danger just because they knew him. Especially after what had happened to Ben. The kid deserved a peaceful and quiet life and he could only have that if he didn’t remember Dean. Not that it didn’t hurt him to let them go. But he knew it was the best choice. After that everyone went to sleep. But before that they painted some demon warding sigils on the walls. It didn’t take long, about ten minutes, and everyone was happy when they could go to sleep.
When Dean woke up he walked up to his little brother and checked if his wounds needed any more nursing. His wounds were doing fine, but Sam was shivering so Dean pulled a blanket over him. His forehead wasn’t hot, so at least he didn’t have a fever. Dean sighed. He and his little brother had been going through so much. He decided that they would take a long break when Sammy’s wounds were healed. Go on a vacation or something. Something relaxing. Or maybe stay at Bobby’s place for a while. They had to stay there anyway, until Sam was feeling better. Dean woke up from his thoughts when he heard a tired voice saying: ‘Hey, Dean.’
‘Heya, Sammy. How are you?’ Dean let out a breath of relief he didn’t even know he had been holding in. ‘A bit better, I guess. Where are we ?’ ‘At Bobby’s house. Ben, Lisa and Balthazar have already gone back to their home, but Cas and Bobby are here.’ ‘Okay, good. How’s Cas ?’ Dean gave him a look. Did he really need to ask this now ? But he said: ‘Cas is fine.’ ‘No, Dean. I mean you and Cas. I know you’re still pissed on him, but don’t we all make mistakes?’ His older brother sighed. ‘Sam, I am not just going to forgive Cas for what he tried to do. He tried to open Purgatory, remember ?’ ‘I thought you already had.’ ‘What ?’ Sam sighed. ‘Just put us all out of our misery and admit it already. I mean it’s obvious you have feelings for him. And you know it.’ Sam sometimes wished he was still in Hell. That he wouldn’t have to witness and to deal with all the drama between his brother and his best friend. He could clearly see that they gave a lot about each other. But it always seemed like they didn’t know that themselves. Neither of them would admit that he was in love and neither of them thought the other was in love with them Dean still thought he failed, because he couldn’t save his family and Cas still thought he was expendable and didn’t really matter. And both of them had the lowest amount of self-esteem anyone could have. Both of them were wrong. They couldn’t have stopped the Apocalypse without Cas, and a lot more and he was their best friend. And Dean was a great hunter and really cared about his family and he had saved Sam more times than he could count. Not to mention all those years he’d taken care of him when Dean himself was just a kid. He just wished that they could see that too.
Cas had been listening to what Sam had been saying from behind the door. He sighed. He really liked them. And yes, he was old friends with Balthazar and some other angels, but this felt different. Maybe because they were humans and not his brothers, but it just did. Especially Dean. He didn’t know what it was: Dean’s smile, his personality, his looks or just all of it. Human emotions were complex. They could feel so much at the same time. Everytime he was with Dean, he felt something in his stomach. He had no idea what it was, but he had a feeling that someone could tell him. The angel wanted nothing more than to be with Dean, but he felt like Dean just saw him as a friend. A very good friend, but nothing more than that. He doubted. He had a feeling that Bobby or Sam could tell him exactly what that feeling in his stomach was, but he was afraid about opening up. Cas wasn’t really used to feeling vulnerable, but right now and every time he was with Dean, he was vulnerable.