9. Chapter 9

Disclaimer: Supernatural belongs to Erik Kripke, Warner Brothers and quite possibly others who are not mentioned here. No money will be made from this fan fiction.

Summary: When Dean goes to sell his soul at the crossroads to bring Sam back, someone else steps in to negotiate the deal. Cas did get a sign and it sent him off into the past to change things. AU from The Man Who Would be King and All Hell Breaks Loose.

It's All in the Details

By Colleen

Chapter 9

Cas stood outside a house in Pontiac Illinois and watched the family that lived there go through their morning routine. Although he hadn't spoken yet, he could feel that his vessel, Jimmy, was awake and also watching.

Despite the tests of faith he had put Jimmy through before the man said yes, Castiel hadn't realized until recently that James Novak was his True Vessel. Even after Cas had been smote and brought back twice, had risen to a higher choir, had received the powers of an archangel, had held and used the power of 50,000 souls and had added the power of Heaven's weapons to his own, Jimmy was still intact. He probably wouldn't have survived the purgatory souls, but even Castiel wasn't sure that he himself would have lasted much beyond the future he had seen.

'Why are we here?' Jimmy's voice was quiet, but tinged with anger.

"I am considering doing something foolish." Time was fluid, sometimes you could change it, and sometimes you couldn't. More than that though, how you travelled it wasn't always the same. Castiel suspected that as long as he didn't return to the time he came from and attempt to merge with that self, that he and by extension Jimmy, would continue as a joined entity separate from their selves of this time. The changes they made to time could effect their now selves, but it wouldn't effect them. In this way, they stood not so much outside of the flow of time, but sort of one step to the side of it.

Cas shook his head. This was why time travel was easier to explain with numbers than with words.

Tilting his head, he and Jimmy both watched as a younger (mentally at least) Jimmy Novak exited his home in Pontiac Illinois to head to work. He kissed his wife and daughter goodbye and got into his car.

"I can't change what has happened to you, but I may be able to change what happens to him. In fact, if things work out, we may already have done so." If Dean stayed out of Hell and alive, there shouldn't be a reason for the Castiel of this time to seek a vessel.

Jimmy was quiet for a very long time. 'Yes, please. Amelia, Claire…they wouldn't have to be alone this time.' There was another long pause, but Castiel could feel Jimmy thinking. 'He… I…" The sigh that followed was felt more than heard. 'That me, he may still need some sense knocked into him.'

Cas nodded. "We'll see what we can do once Dean's contract finishes."

Cas walked away from Jimmy's home, moving from there to Bobby's living room in the space of three steps.

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Bobby was packing up his supplies. It had taken him a while, but he'd finally found a ritual that would let them track Lilith. He wasn't sure that now was a good time to go after the super powered bitch, but he suspected that Dean was afraid that he'd end up checking out and leave Sam still in her crosshairs when he did.

Invisible, Castiel watched the hunter for a few minutes. He'd looked around the house, but everything seemed safe, quiet even. While Bobby was busy in the kitchen, he walked over to the desk to see what the man had been researching recently. He sat down in the chair behind it rather suddenly, when he realized that other than the books Bobby would have been using to try to track Lilith, the rest of them were all on one subject.

Bobby was pulling some rather dangerous herbs out of the hidden bottom of a drawer in the kitchen when he heard a sound in the library. Pulling a sawed off shotgun off the inside of one of the cabinets, he carefully moved into the other room. Seeing Cas at his desk and flipping through one of his books made him wish he'd grabbed heavier artillery, like a bazooka.

Or a nuclear warhead.

Cas looked up from what he was reading and Bobby's hands tightened on the gun.

"You truly are an amazing man, Bobby Singer."

Bobby licked lips that had suddenly gone dry. "I was kinda hoping you'd tell me I was barking up the wrong tree."

Cas shook his head. "I would, but even with all the practice I've had, I'm still not very good at lying to a direct question." He put down the book he'd been looking at, the front cover depicting an angel in flight, sword drawn with Heaven lit up behind it.

"So, you're a…"

"Don't."

Bobby swallowed the rest of his words and cleared his throat to try something else. "Why not?"

Castiel cast his eyes upward. "You never know who is listening."

Bobby could have sworn that someone had just spiked an icicle into his spine. "And the who you're worried about would be a bad thing?"

"Very."

"Because?"

Bobby tried to jerk out of the way as the angel was suddenly beside him. Castiel latched onto his arm and by the time the hunter finished his attempt to escape, they were somewhere else.

Bobby stumbled slightly as Cas let go. Looking around, he was surprised to find himself standing in a room that looked like it belonged in a Victorian manor house.

"Where are we?"

"A safe house. It has the protections we need to allow us to have our discussion."

"Okay then. How 'bout you tell me everything."

One look at the expression on Cas' face had Bobby wondering what he'd just let himself in for.

"Two days after Sam died, Dean went to the crossroads and sold his soul to bring his brother back. Originally, I was not there to stop it…"

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Dean looked at his watch for a third time. "Damn it, it's not like Bobby to be late."

As if speaking about it made it happen, Bobby's rattletrap of a car came lumbering down the road just then.

"Finally."

The man got out and Dean immediately snapped to attention. Bobby had his game face on. Something had happened, something bad.

"Well come on boy, don't stand there gawking at me. Give me some help here."

Blinking, Dean moved to help the older man. Maybe he was just imagining that something was wrong?

The man's movements were quick, but jerky.

No, no he wasn't imagining it.

Bobby piled equipment into Dean's arms, but he wouldn't look him in the eye. Gritting his teeth, the younger man dragged the stuff into the old house they were using. He wanted to sit the man down and interrogate him, but he knew Bobby well enough to know that it wouldn't get him anywhere. The older hunter would tell them what was going on when he was good and ready.

Sam looked up as they both came into the room. "Glad you finally made it Bobby. Dean here was going to start climbing the walls."

"Yeah, yeah. Took me a little longer than I expected to get everything together."

Dean frowned at him. "Uh, huh." He was fairly certain that whatever was going on was directly related to why Bobby had been late. Still, he'd let it go, for now. "You sure this will work?"

Bobby started to set out a map and an odd device mounted on a tripod. "Yeah." He said, his mind suddenly somewhere else. "I'm sure."

With a location for Lilith found, the inevitable arguing ensued about who would be damn fool enough to go and try to take her out, added to how Dean should be spending the time trying to get clear of his agreement and how Sam and Bobby should just stay back and let Dean go after Lilith on his own.

Bobby had had quite enough of that from the elder Winchester. Without any warning, he swatted the younger man on the back of his head.

"Ow, what the hell Bobby?"

"What the hell is we're not going to let you sacrifice yourself when you don't have to. I admit... Taking Lilith down now would be a sight better than taking her down later, but that don't mean we have to be morons about it. So we make a plan, we go in together and we make sure that she can't get at Sam or anyone else ever again.

"Bobby, you don't have to do this. This is about us. It isn't your fight."

The older hunter glared at him. "The hell is isn't. Family don't end with blood, boy."

Dean didn't know what to say to that.

"Besides, I nicked your distributor cap while you were bringing this stuff in for me. You ain't going nowhere until I say so."

"Okay, okay. Just, please Bobby, don't get dead."

"I'll do my best."

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Dean and Sam were driving down the road, singing badly to a Bon Jovi song when they were pulled over by a cop for a busted tail light.

Sam thought that his brother had completely lost it when he attacked the officer. That was until Dean stabbed him with Ruby's knife and the guy lit up as the demon in him died.

"How did you know?"

"I just knew. I could see its face. Its real face under that one."

They hid the body and the police car once Bobby made sure that the video equipment hadn't been running.

"I think this is what the 'piercing the veil' part of the contract is." Sam told them as they covered the car with brush. "Like Bela was with Cas and Doc Benton."

"Great."

"Yeah, well. If you can see demons, then it might come in handy."

"Well, I'm glad my doomed soul is good for something."

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The three of them checked out the neighbourhood.

"Demon. Another demon…, oh and look some more demons. Yep, this is going to go well."

Sam nodded. "Looks like Lilith travels with an entourage."

"Yep, freaking diva rock queen of the hell set. Just what we needed."

"Yeah, got to wonder though, why the suburbs?"

"Are you kidding me Sammy? Place gives me the creeps just looking at it."

"You two finished with the witty banter yet." Bobby asked them.

"Yeah, yeah. What's got your panties in a twist anyway? You've been weirded out since before we left."

Bobby waved a hand, indicating the area.

"What, Mr. Rodgers' hell bound neighbourhood ain't enough?"

"I said 'before' we left Bobby."

He shook his head. "Don't know what you're talking about."

Dean glared at him.

Bobby sighed. "If I can explain later, I will."

Dean's expression didn't improve much, but it was obvious that he would let whatever it was lie, for now.

They snuck into a nearby house that was for sale and empty and watched in horror as the young girl in the house next to them killed her grandfather with a twist of her hand. Dean could see the demon in her, along with a demon standing on the street, posing as a postman and another inhabiting a next door neighbour. Both were obviously there to guard the house Lilith was in.

Even though they didn't want to have to kill a child, they knew they would to save everyone else.

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When they realized that the place had underground sprinklers, they managed to talk Bobby into blessing the system while they snuck into the house.

Well, they tried to sneak into the house.

Thankfully, Bobby got the Holy Water sprinkler system going just in time to block the rest of the demon-infested neighbourhood from following them.

As Sam and Dean entered the dwelling, they narrowly missed tripping over a rotting corpse that was lying in the foyer.

"Whoa." Dean looked at his brother. "Think Lilith knows we're here?"

Sam threw a quick glance to the door they had just come in, mentally seeing all of the demons that had to be out there, blocked by the Holy Water.

"Yeah, I'd say that's likely."

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Bobby had gone back to the empty house and was watching the demons watch the house Sam and Dean had entered.

"I am uncertain that going after her now is a good idea."

"Ahh." Bobby turned and glared at Castiel. "Don't do that." He said quietly, but with force.

"Apologies." Cas looked out the window at the demons and frowned. "Did the demons know they were there to start with?"

"Nah, I think the boys weren't as stealthy as they'd hoped to be. Why?"

"The 'hex' bags I gave them should have protected them from being sensed by demons. Actually, it should protect them from angels as well, although I left myself a loophole so that I can still find them."

Bobby frowned. Something about that sounded like it would come back and bite the angel on the butt, only he couldn't quite wrap his mind around why. Putting it aside to think about later, he noticed that Cas still had his eyes on the house across from them and was as close to fidgeting as he'd ever seen him.

"If you're so damned worried, why don't you go over there and help?"

For a moment, he thought Cas was going to deny the concern, and then the angel shook his head and answered. "It would give too much away."

Bobby looked at him like he was missing a few screws. "How? You're supposed to be collecting Dean's soul tonight. It would actually be odder for you to not be there."

Cas blinked and gave Bobby a surprised look. "I had not thought of it that way."

Before Bobby could reply, the angel was gone.

"Idjit."

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They were just entering the living room when Dean turned and slapped his hand over the mouth of a man who'd came out of a cabinet they'd just walked past. He recognized the father and could tell that the man was still human.

"Shhh," he whispered. "We're here to help, okay? I'm going to remove my hand and we're going to talk nice and quiet, okay?"

The man started to nod, and then made a startled squeaking noise. Dean stiffened as he heard the sound of wings from behind him. With his hand still over the guy's mouth, and not looking behind him, Dean talked to the being he knew was there.

"It isn't time yet."

"I know. I'm just protecting my investment." Cas told him.

Sam's hand clenched on the knife, even thought he knew it wouldn't do him any good. And even if it would have, before they'd driven the last five miles here Dean had asked, pleaded almost, for Sam to let it go when the time came. To let him go. Sam had agreed, but it would be a second lie if he said that there had been any truth in it.

The guy Dean was holding onto made a muffled questioning sound and Dean carefully removed his hand.

Sam turned his attention from the trench-coated figure behind his brother, to the house's owner.

"Sir, where's your daughter?'

The guy shook his head. "It's not… It's not her anymore."

"Where is she?"

"Upstairs."

When the guy wouldn't go off and hide in the basement without his wife, Dean knocked him unconscious and picked him up over one shoulder. Sam traded Dean the knife for the Colt, which his brother allowed even though he gave him a look that said he knew why he wanted it. Sam ignored the look and started to scout towards the stairway.

Keeping his eyes on the floor, Dean quickly moved the man to the basement. Wanting to speed things up, Cas found some salt in the kitchen and ran a line of it in front of the door. Dean came up, his eyes still fixed anywhere that Cas wasn't.

"Dean?"

"I don't think it's a good idea for me to look at you right now."

"Why…oh. You are piercing the veil."

"Yeah, turns out demons are a lot funkier looking than I'd thought. Don't think I can handle seeing you too."

Cas nodded, even though Dean couldn't see it. He moved behind Dean, so the hunter could finally look up.

Sam, the idiot, had already gone up the stairs. Dean and Cas quickly followed.

Dean was just in time to stop his brother from killing the little girl. "It's not her." Dean looked at the mother and daughter on the bed. "It's not in the girl anymore. The woman's clean too." He grimaced and shook his hand out. He'd had to grab onto the gun by the hammer to stop Sam from pulling the trigger.

They got the mother and the little girl down into the basement before continuing to search the house.

"Could she have gotten outside, through the Holy Water?" Sam asked.

"Lilith is powerful enough that it would be little more than a nuisance." Cas told them.

"Great."

Dean looked at a clock on a nearby mantle and closed his eyes. "Cas, I know you don't owe me any favours and you have every right to say no, but…once you've…once you've." Crap, he couldn't say it. "After, could you get Sam and Bobby, and the family here someplace safe?"

The sound of a door opening at the back of the house interrupted the angel before he could answer. The three of them moved into the kitchen, searching.

"Sam, Dean?"

All three men turned, surprised.

"Bela?" Sam asked.

The English woman stepped into the room with them and smiled.

"How did you…" Sam started to ask, before his brother grabbed him.

"Sam, that's not Bela. It's Lilith."

They moved for their weapons, but didn't even make it halfway to them before Dean found himself pinned to a table and Sam was similarly secured to a wall.

She attempted the same with Cas, who obviously felt the attack, but didn't appear much affected by it.

Lilith, wearing Bela's meat suit, narrowed her eyes at him.

"So you're the naughty little demon who's been playing in my pool." She tossed more power at him, but it just skated off of the surface of his wards.

"Impressive protections, no wonder I haven't been able to find you."

Cas raised an eyebrow. "I hadn't even realized you were looking."

Lilith snarled, accepting his words as the insult they were intended to be. Her expression changed to a smile as the clocks in the house started to chime midnight.

"Thought I'd bring you some help." Cas looked questioningly at her. "You know, with the killing part of the contract."

Cas frowned. There was no killing part in the contract. It was one of the loopholes. The contract said that it would end in a year, it never said Dean would be killed. The growl that came from behind him froze the angel in place. From where he was stuck to the table, Dean looked up towards the sound.

"Oh, so that's what Hellhounds looks like." He managed to say glibly. If Dean had ever wondered what it would feel like for his blood to freeze in his veins, well, he now knew.

Lilith smiled and stepped to the side. "Sic 'em boys."

Things happened all at once.

Cas haphazardly threw power towards the Winchesters, breaking them free of Lilith's bonds, before calling a blade to his hand. He moved to intercept the hellhounds, but really, even for an angel, taking on more than one of them at a time was near impossible in a physical fight.

The second one got past him. It pulled Dean from the table before he could scramble away and tore into him.

"No!" Sam tensed to leap for his brother when Lilith got in front of him.

"Yes." She said, raising a hand.

What she would have done, he didn't know. He grabbed her by that arm, pulling her flush to him.

"Why Sammy, she never knew you were interested."

"Yeah, that's a pity."

The Colt was an old gun. He was only able to pump two bullets into her before she managed to wrench herself free of him.

Gasping, her body lighting up and tendrils of black smoke escaping from her mouth, she backed away from him, looking around the room.

Dean was torn up, badly. He wouldn't last long. Sam still had the gun trained on her, but looked to be moments away from moving to help his brother, and the upstart little demon was killing the last Hellhound.

She looked at Cas a little closer, her eyes widening even as she coughed up a gout of black smoke. "You, your kind isn't supposed to be here yet."

Bloody blade in hand, Cas looked her over with a confused expression on his face.

"What?"

"Ang…" The rest of the word was lost in the sound of the Colt being fired. The bullet took her in the head. Jerking, she lit up across her body. Wounds started to appear, obviously inflicted when Bela had died. Gaping gashes ran down her frame, something had eaten a hole in her stomach and other parts of her appeared to have been chewed on. Eyes now staring at nothing and mouth open in shock, what was left of Bela Talbot's body dropped to the floor, thankfully dead.

Sam just hoped that included Lilith in the deal.

Dropping the gun, Sam dove for his brother.

"Dean."

"Sorry Sammy," Dean gasped out. "Think this is… definitely… it."

Cas was still stuck in place. She had know what he was, but…how? Shaking his head slightly, he went to vanish his weapon.

And realized that it was an angel-killing blade.

He hadn't thought. Dean was about to be attacked, so when he called for a weapon it had been the one he had the most trust in. Grimacing slightly, he finished vanishing it and moved to the Winchesters.

Dean was looking at him.

"Huh, I'll be damned, she was right." The pain in Dean's voice seemed to smooth itself out.

Sam was attempting to staunch his brother's bleeding, but to little effect.

"Who was right?" He asked, using anything to keep Dean conscious.

"Bela… He really is beautiful." Dean's breath left his body and he was still.

"No." Sam's voice was almost a wail and wrapped his arms around his brother, rocking him slightly as he wept.

Cas went down on one knee next to Dean's body and placed his hand on its ravaged chest.

"No!" Sam grabbed Cas' wrist.

The angel looked at him and waited.

And waited.

Finally, he sighed. "Sam, if you intend to use the last loophole, then now would be a good time to do it."

Sam let go of his wrist. "What loophole?" The contract was over, there was nothing left. Cas, Kaseva… He could, would take Dean's soul and… Sam couldn't finish the thought.

"Sam?"

Sam shook his head. "What's left?" He asked hoarsely. Nothing extended past the year except that if he died, he'd just come back to life one more time. How was that useful? Right now, he'd rather be dead as well.

"You still have a resurrection coming to you." Cas said, telling him what he already knew.

Wait. Sam's eyes widened as he finally got the wording.

"A resurrection. It's mine to use, but it doesn't have to be me that it's used on."

Cas nodded.

"But… but you get Dean's soul."

Cas nodded again. "But I have also vowed to never bring anyone back missing something so essential."

Sam just stared at him, his mouth open in shock.

"Well?"

Sam jerked, his mind snapping into place. "Yes. Bring him back, please."

Cas smiled.

Power blew through the neighbourhood. Walls cracked, paint was stripped from wood and stucco crumbled. Yet, where it found a soul, it healed.

Author's note: Yes, Dean is fine. Oh, and in case you're wondering, while Lilith kept Bela's body around to use, Bela wasn't actually still in it.