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It had taken Benny days to convince Dean to lie down and sleep, so when Benny shook his shoulder with a soft, “Wake up, brother,” Dean was profoundly annoyed. For one thing, he’d been dreaming of Sam. For another, Benny had been right, the sleep had been good for him. He could feel a bunch of minor injuries he’d been ignoring had gotten a lot better. Probably wouldn’t sleep often, but when the injuries started adding up like they had, sleep would be good for him. Not like he couldn’t trust Benny to keep an eye out for him while he slept.
“Brother?” And now Dean sat straight up. That voice shouldn’t be possible. Shouldn’t be here. Sam shouldn’t be in Purgatory to be throwing hostility at Benny.
And yet, there he was, standing with some strange woman and glaring at Benny. At least it wasn’t Meg. “Sammy? The hell are you doing here?”
“Came to get you out of here, Dean.” Sam took two steps forward, closing the distance between them, and hauled Dean up into a hug. “This is Hannah. She’s our ride out.”
“No. Not yet.” Dean pulled back. “I’m not leaving without Cas. He’s here…”
“Not anymore,” Hannah interrupted. “Angels in Purgatory stand out like a beacon, drawing monsters to them. You, we’d have to search for, but I could feel Castiel the second I got here. He’s in Heaven, now, recovering from being here, and he’ll be down to visit you as soon as possible after I bring you two home.”
That was good news, but there was one more problem. Benny clapped a hand to his shoulder. “You got a way out, brother. You take it. Get out of here. I’ll find something else.”
“Or you’ll come with us.” Dean turned to Sam and Hannah, picking up his weapon. “There any reason Benny can’t come with us? I owe him. Without him, I’d probably been killed at least twice, likely more.”
Hannah wrinkled her nose as she looked Benny over. “He’s a vampire. Do you really want to bring a monster back into the world?”
“Yes.” Dean looked straight at Sam. “If I had a way to find her, I’d bring two. Because monsters don’t have to be monsters, they can fight their nature. I shouldn’t have killed Amy, Sam, I’m sorry. Benny’s a good guy, he deserves a chance to live his life straight.”
“Fine, if that’s what it takes to get you to come with us, then come along, Benny.” Hannah held out a hand to Dean, and her other hand to Benny. Sam put a hand on her shoulder.
Next thing Dean knew, he and Sam were at Rufus’s cabin, the one they’d gone to when Bobby’s house burned down. Benny was with them, to Dean’s surprise. “Thought we had to go to Louisiana?”
“If we’d come back my way, you carryin’ me through inside you, we’d’ve had to go get whatever’s left of my body,” Benny said. “Apparently angels can get around that little issue… and for bein’ a vampire, I’m sure lacking any thirst. What’d you do, Hannah?”
“Dean said you wanted to live your life straight. This gives you a better chance. I cured your vampirism.” Hannah smiled at the look on Benny’s face. “Castiel should be along soon, so I should get back to Heaven. If you need me, for anything, just pray.”
Castiel hadn’t made it by the time Dean was back from a supplies run, a job he’d insisted on taking by himself so he could spend some quality time with his baby and figure out what Sam had screwed up while fixing her up. There wasn’t much. As he’d hoped, Sam and Benny had used the time to bond, and both seemed more relaxed with each other. This time, when Sam came to say hello, he didn’t stop with a hug. Dean closed his eyes, letting himself melt into the kiss. “So glad to have you back, Dean. Benny says you told him, so no need to keep up an act, right?”
“Nope. None at all.” God, of everything about Earth, this right here was what he’d missed most. Bacon cheeseburgers, beer, pie, the Impala… those were all great, but nothing beat the feeling of his brother’s arms around him, knowing that they were both safe and loved and had each other’s backs against whatever the world threw at them. It would get better once he had the chance to get Sam into a bedroom and get their clothes off and really get to remind himself that they were back together, but until then, this was enough. “What’s the deal with Hannah? We gotta do anything for her?”
“Nope. She might use it as leverage if she wants something from us at some point in the future, especially with Benny coming up, but what she said was that she was helping me because it meant a chance to get Cas back. She was one of his biggest supporters against Raphael, and she doesn’t like what she’s seen in Heaven’s leadership.”
“Great, so we’re dumping Cas right back into another civil war,” Dean grumbled. “How’d you end up with her? She come looking for you?”
“No.” Sam pulled away, shoving his hands in his pockets. “After Dick exploded on you, I was lost. Crowley took Kevin, dunno what happened to Meg, you and Cas were dead, so I fixed up the Impala. Went to Jody Mills, she helped me work through possibilities of what could have happened to you. Figured the most likely thing was you were in Heaven, and if you were I’d’ve left you there, but couldn’t hurt to check. So I summoned an angel. Hannah’s the one who responded, and she told me you weren’t there. She agreed with me that you shouldn’t be in Hell, so most likely you got sucked into Purgatory with Dick. She agreed to help me get you, since she was going in after Cas now that she had reason to think he was there.”
As deals went, that wasn’t half bad. Dean was still worried about whatever the hell was happening up in Heaven, but unless Cas asked, it wasn’t his and Sam’s problem. “So… I feel like we’ve got work to do, but what is it?”
“Well, Benny’s kinda our responsibility, figure out a way to get him settled into the world now,” Sam pointed out with a smile. “And then Crowley’s got Kevin. We owe him a save, if we can figure out how. Meg, well… she helped us out, but she also got Jo and Ellen killed. I’m okay with not trying to figure out what happened to her.”
Sam’s phone picked that moment to ring. Kevin. He’d managed to escape Crowley, somehow, but he didn’t know where he was. “All right, Kevin, you got any idea which way is north?”
“Yeah, my phone has a compass. I’ve got wifi and location turned off, but the compass should be safe, right? Why?”
“Pick a direction and head that way until you find a major road or a landmark or something you can use to figure out where you are, or, like, a gas station you can duck into to ask for directions to Butte, Montana. Call us back when you’ve got that, and we’ll come get you or tell you how to get here.” Sam looked over to Dean. “Anything to add?”
“Nope.”
“Wait, who’s we?” Kevin asked. “Because I know Crowley has Meg, and no one else made it out…”
“Long story, but Dean’s here, and Cas should be soon. If Cas gets back before we hear from you… did Crowley do anything to ward you personally from angel attention?”
“I don’t thi… whoa!” Kevin’s scream startled everyone.
Sam was just about to try to talk to Kevin when another voice started speaking. “Hello, Sam. Dean, I assume you’re listening too.” Dean closed his eyes in relief at the sound of Castiel’s voice. “Where are you? I have Kevin and I can bring him to you.”
“Rufus’s cabin.” He paused for a count of three, and then started again. “Glad you’re back, Cas, what happened? Why’d it take so long to get down here?”
“Naomi wanted to put me through… reeducation, let’s call it,” Castiel grumbled. “Hannah convinced her that if she tried, she would find herself with a full-scale war of rebellion. I’m supposed to go back for meetings to catch me up on what’s happening up there since my death. There are surprisingly many angels who still want me to step in and lead them, but after last time, I no longer believe myself the right person for the job.”
“So be a kingmaker,” Benny said, and everyone turned to look at him. “Put Hannah, or someone else you trust, in charge.”
“Worth a try,” Dean had to admit. “Gets you in less trouble for coming down here, too, if you’re not busy trying to run Heaven. You can come down for football and beer night, not like when you were running your war.”
“Hmm. I’ll take that under advisement. I should get back and see about talking to Naomi and others and getting thing situated.” Castiel took off, leaving Dean rolling his eyes. Rachel had been a bitch about it, but she wasn’t wrong that they ought to just hang out sometimes. Now that there wasn’t a war or anything, they could actually do it.
In the meantime, they had Kevin and Benny to help out, and it wouldn’t be long before cases started calling out to them. Most importantly, Sammy was safe and right there with him. For now, Dean could finally relax.