This is the 21st story in my series. It picks up directly where 'The Ballad of Hot Shot and L' ended.

Disclaimer: I don't own anything of the Supernatural world. I am just playing in their sandbox.

"Seriously?" Lou asks with a little anger as she drives too fast down the back roads on their way to Rufus' cabin. She looks to Sam quickly and he peers back blankly with her out-of-nowhere comment. "Are we that scary? The two of us?"

"What do you mean?" Sam wonders, not on her train of thought after having been silent for a good twenty minutes, reading through articles on his phone as Lou drove.

After Castiel woke up, they found out that the kid that showed up to steal the tablet was a prophet, and the other angels angrily hunted them down all too quickly, the entire group needed to flee for good. They packed what they could from the house Lou and Lizzy had rented while Lizzy was pretending to be a nurse and ditched, knowing the angels or demons would find them after their cover at the institution was blown. Or the institution itself would find them once Castiel disappeared and Lizzy never returned to work. Either way, it was time to move on.

"The kid couldn't have jumped into Dean's shit box faster," Lou explains, clearly offended as she drives her own stolen car of the week.

"Who? Kevin?" Sam asks her, trying to get on her same page.

"Yeah, Kevin. He was horrified at the idea of being in a car with us. I mean, it's not like we were gonna kill him or anything."

"How would he know that?" Sam half-laughs at this. "He knows nothing about us."

"He knows nothing about them either," Lou points out.

Sam shifts a little in his seat, turning to her for a second with a small smirk as he prepares to spell it out for her. "If you were a confused high school kid that just five minutes before found out there was a supernatural side to life, who would you rather go with? The six and a half foot guy that chased you down with the five foot woman that clotheslined him? Or the family of three, one being a harmless infant and another being zoned out completely to the point of being useless because of some blood sigil?"

Lou grits her teeth for a second.

"Obvious choice, right?" Sam smirks.

"Yeah, I get it," she grumbles back.

Sam huffs a solid laugh. "Were you really all that offended?"

"No… maybe," Lou shakes her head. "I don't know. I just don't like being known as some bully."

He stares at her for a beat. "Lou, you are a bully," Sam spills to her. She snaps a dirty, intimidating look at him. "And that face right there isn't helping your cause. That alone would make me steer clear of you."

"Jackass."

"Bully."

"Hey, speaking of zoned out Lizzy, what the fuck was that about?" Lou finally asks about what she saw happen to her sister. "I mean, I assume this wasn't the first time it's happened since Dean never freaked the fuck out about it…."

"We've been there once or twice before," Sam nods.

"But it still freaked me out. Lizard went bye-bye."

"It's her angel DNA… if DNA is what angels actually have," Sam tells her. "It makes her react to the sigil like that."

"To the sigil Dean drew in his own blood, you mean?" Lou asks.

"Yeah. It's like a weapon. You draw it in blood on a wall or just a surface of some kind. When you slap a hand down on it all angels are blown out of the area for a while."

"Helpful trick," Lou recognizes.

"It has been so far," Sam agrees with her. "But since Lizzy has a good amount of angel lineage in her it, like, half works on her. She physically stays since she's a human while she leaves… her mind or whatever just flies off."

"So… her soul leaves her body?"

"Don't think so. I've had my soul disappear. I was still functioning. I was an asshole but I was functioning."

"It's just her mind then?"

"Something like that."

"Where does it go?" Lou wonders aloud.

Sam wrinkles his forehead, looking out the windshield as he really thinks about it. "Huh. You know, we have no idea."

"Oh, yeah. This seems safe," Lou rolls her eyes. "At least Sammy seemed ok."

"It didn't affect him?" Sam wants to know, curious now.

"Not too much. He was quiet, calm… but he was still present. He looked right at Dean when Dean talked to him, he just didn't really respond. And he was still moving."

"Good to know," Sam relieves, not wanting to have messed with the young boy. "But you weren't affected at all? I mean, you have some of what Lizzy has in the way of angel juice from your dad."

"No, I was fine," Lou shakes her head. "Maybe a little woozy the second the sigil went off or whatever, but nothing too bad."

Sam nods and accepts her answer for what it is. As long as she's fine he can shelf this one for another time.

They drive in silence for a moment until Lou blows out a hard breath and looks at Sam. "What have you two gotten into lately?"

"Nothing good," Sam tells her right off. "And we didn't expect to get into all this either… if it helps."

"It doesn't," Lou simply answers. "Prophets, the Word of God… angels and the Leviathan still out there… Giant, I know Lizzy is the worrier of the two of us but this isn't good."

"I know that…."

"I'm scared for you," Lou tells him in a rare honest and very open moment. When she looks to him quickly he can see the fear in her expression. Her blue eyes appear nervous and truly concerned for him. "I get more scared every single day you're out there and I'm not with you."

He can't help but smile at that.

"Weird reaction to that…." Lou responds.

"Sorry," Sam laughs a little, something he's found he does a lot when only around her. Whether it be with awkwardness or happiness, he actually laughs when she's near. "Sorry, I just… it's nice when you're honest."

Looking straight ahead at the road again, Lou shakes her head a little. "I'm allowed to be scared, Sam. You don't need to make it some mushy, girly thing…."

"Oh, come on. That's not what I was doing," he tells her. "It's weird though, you know? Having someone be worried about me like that. Someone not my brother. I'm not exactly used to it."

"Well, I'm not exactly used to worrying about too many people either… so there's that, I guess."

"I hear you," Sam nods. He then watches her for a moment, her hands gripping the wheel too tightly as she gets too wrapped around the danger he finds himself in every day. It's still a little shocking to him that this girl that was relentlessly trying to get into his pants when they first met has become the one thing in his life that can make him happy he's alive at all. Their evolution was a long one, awkward and made very difficult by their surrounding circumstances, but they've gotten themselves here. And here's pretty damn good. "Hey."

Lou looks back to the side, locking eyes with him.

"I missed you."

She smiles involuntarily at that before looking back out the windshield. It's so easy for him. A couple words and she's a typical girl with a crush and he's the only guy that's ever been able to reduce her to that. "Fuck you for being able to do that."

"Do what?" he grins back, already knowing.

"You know what," she says to him.

Sam smirks proudly.

"And I missed you too, you jackass," Lou says, glancing at him with a cocked eyebrow.

Sam just smiles back and they sit in silence for a bit as they drive, the haul still a long one.

"We better get some time alone before life yanks you away again," Lou pops in there. "Prophets or not, I will get some ass before you leave."

"And there's my kind, polite girlfriend," Sam jokes easily and laughs at her.

"Girlfriend!? Did you really just say that?" Lou disbelieves.

"Yeah, why?" Sam innocently asks.

"I don't know… sounds weird." She squirms a little with the weird-to-her label.

"Sounds accurate to me," he shrugs it away.

"Shut up," Lou says way too lightly, tightening her grip. "And I wasn't kidding. I will fuck you before we separate again."

"You never kid about sex," Sam answers back seriously. "And we'll figure it out. Won't be easy since we have a broken angel and a teen-prophet on our to-do list… oh, and the Leviathan." He huff with stress. "We have a lot to deal with right now."

Lou sighs. "Stuck babysitting all the time. No chances to kick some ass. No chances to get some ass…."

"Aw, poor Louise…."

"Don't call me that!" she gets mad at him, knowing he did it on purpose. She hates her full name. It's a grandma name.

"Look, you've been safe," Sam spells it all out. "And… I need you safe. I already told you we'd try and figure out how to get you on the road again. I promise. But you gotta focus here, on the now."

"Well, right now I got a perky assed, mountain of a man that I would love to climb and get some of this stress out with," she glances at him with another very slick look. "That's what I'm focused on."

Sam quietly laughs. "Perky ass, huh?"

"The perkiest," she huffs a laugh back.

Sam grins and nods to himself. "You know, you're not the first girl to tell me that."

"Oh no?"

"Nope," he smiles sadly. "A psychic I once knew. Gave me the same compliment."

"Must be true," Lou's eyes widen a touch.

"Must be…" Sam trails off, thoughts of Pamela on his mind. Yet another person they've lost.

"Lemme guess, she's dead?" Lou asks after a few moments of silence. She can tell whatever happened with the psychic wasn't good.

Sam looks at her with a little surprise. "Uh… yeah. We lost her… couple years back."

Lou nods and stays quiet. Sam's always effected so deeply by the losses he's surrounded with. Every time it takes a little more of him.

"Well, at least she got to check out some fine real estate before she was gone, huh?" Lou jokes lightly, not looking to diminish her loss but to lighten the mood.

Sam smiles softly. "You two would have loved each other."

"Yeah?" Lou smiles.

"Oh yeah. You woulda really liked her."

Lou smiles wider.

Sam pulls his phone out to do a little more research, trying to get the bare bones of what the tablet is or might be. He's never heard of the word of God in actual, tangible form before.

"Back to research?" Lou asks when she can just feel him diving back into reading as his phone lights up next to her.

"Yeah."

"Friggin' nerd," Lou says to him and reaches for the radio, turning up the Rival Sons album Lizzy burned for her a while back when she returned to Earth.

Sam just watches her for a minute, her thumbs drumming on the steering wheel as she drives too fast down the highway with rock blasting over the speakers of their stolen car. It feels too familiar.

It feels a lot like home.

Turning back around in the passenger seat after checking behind her, Lizzy sighs loudly. "Poor kid must be wiped."

When Dean checks the rearview mirror he sees both Kevin and Sammy sleeping it off on opposite ends of the backseat. The long day, the commotion, the emotional toll of it all… he somewhat wishes he was sleeping right along with them.

"Which one?" Dean jokes just a little.

Lizzy smirks slightly. "The big one."

"Yeah, well, he did just find out he's a prophet," Dean reminds her. "That'll knock a guy back on his heels."

"Yeah…" Lizzy responds, turning back around to look out the windshield as they travel away from the mess they left behind. "God, the shit life he's in for now."

"And he never asked for it," Dean mentions. "He seemed freaked to hell and back over all this. He had no idea what he was stepping in."

"None. And how could he?" Lizzy agrees with her husband. "Dean, we gotta protect him."

"Damn straight."

"Especially since no one else will. Definitely not the angels."

"No friggin' way."

"But…"

"And there's always a 'but'," Dean complains a bit, glancing at her with an aggravated smile.

"How do we do that?" Lizzy has to wonder. "How the hell are we going to stay together as a family, protect a prophet, and keep our son safe from everything?"

Dean takes one very deep breath, pausing to think. His mind is a blank on the subject. "Beats the hell right outta me."

"Super reassuring," Lizzy sighs. Dean gives her a look. "Hey, not a knock on you. I have no idea how to do this either."

"So… we got nothing for a next move?"

"Basically, yeah."

"And we're screwed?"

She lowers her sights and repeats, "Basically, yeah."

Dean huffs a small, sarcastic laugh. "Did we actually just agree on something for the first time in… forever?"

She fully grins back with that. "Well, would you look at that?"

She pulls his hand into hers and can't stop grinning at the idea that they're on the same page for the first time in a very long time.

"Oh, God," they hear Kevin's voice groggily say as he sits up in the backseat.

Lizzy lets go of Dean's hand and turns around to look at Kevin. "What is it?"

"Nothing," he answers at first, back slumped. "Nothing. Just... my life... my future... my girlfriend... my mom's car…."

Lizzy's phone rings in her pocket. She pulls it out while talking to Kevin. "Kevin, hon, I know it's a lot. I do. But just hang in there with us…." She then presses her phone to her ear and answers the unknown number. "Hello?"

Dean's face wrinkles when she exhales with relief.

"Cassie. Thank god, are you alright?" She listens moment. "Yes. It's really me…. Prove it? How?"

"Cass? Where?" Dean asks when it takes too long to find out what he's saying on the phone to her. "Where is he?"

"Shh!" Lizzy holds up an index finger to get her to wait. "No, not you Cass. Where are you?" She rolls her eyes. "No. No, Cass. I want you to talk to me. The shushing wasn't for you."

"And it's rude," Dean mumbles to himself and she smacks his arm.

"Perth?!" Lizzy asks suddenly.

"Perth? As in Australia?" Dean wonders.

"Dogs, huh?" she smiles with his wacked out new ways she's still not used to. Lizzy looks at Dean. "He says he's surrounded by unhappy dogs."

Dean makes a face to show how confused he also is.

"Oh! Ok, Cass, you're just at a dog track," Lizzy finally pieces it together when he tells her more. "Yeah, I bet they are…. They're unhappy because the rabbit's fake…. Listen, we're on highway 94, north of St. Cloud, Minnesota, just passing mile marker 79…."

When Kevin shrieks in the backseat they both know Castiel has found them.

"Hey, Cass," Lizzy smiles over her shoulder as she checks on Sammy. The scream from Kevin could have been enough to stir the baby. He does move a little in his sleep, a small hand rubbing his closed eyes, and she hopes for the best.

Castiel notices also, turning to the side from his place in the center of the long backseat to check on the baby. "You're startled."

Sammy responds with a whine and a threat to become louder.

"He's uncomfortable," Castiel says, looking at Lizzy. "I think he's waking before he's supposed to."

"That happens," Lizzy sighs and looks at Dean. "Can you pull over? I'll switch with Cass so I can deal with him…."

"That's not necessary," Castiel says to her and touches the little boy's forehead, making him slip right back into a quiet sleep.

"He is just sleeping, right?" Dean has to make sure as he catches Castiel's eyes in the rearview. He trusts the angel, of course, but a parent can never be too careful.

"Yes. And deeply, might I add," Castiel explains as if he did nothing at all. He then turns to his other side to see Kevin there.

"You're one of the angels?" Kevin questions him, his mind still a jumbled mess with all that's happened in just one day.

Castiel just stares at him, thinking of how to answer. However, his mind focuses in on Kevin's nose. He's been noticing many different things lately, things he normally wouldn't. A human nose, always in the center of every human face, has captured his fascination. It's a perfect structure for all its functions and is unique to each face. He reaches out and presses his index finger to Kevin's nose. "Boop." He quickly then turns to Lizzy. "Elizabeth, are you hurt?"

She smiles warmly at him for his concern. "I'm good, Cass. So is Sammy."

"Cass, what happened back there?" Dean questions, always ready to get down to business when there is some. "Who were those guys?"

"They're from the Garrison… my old Garrison," Castiel explains with slight excitement. "Looks like Hester's taken over. We were assigned to watch the Earth. Often, it was boring. The wars were very boring and the sex… you know, the repetition. Anyway, I was, uh... I was their captain. Isn't that strange?"

"Why are they angry with us now?" Lizzy wonders, her eyes moving between a sleeping baby, a frightened prophet, and a broken angel. So much to worry about at the same time but she keeps her exterior calm for them all.

Once more, Castiel's newly inquisitive mind races in a new direction. "You know, those racing dogs were absolutely miserable. They can only think in ovals."

"Cass, don't make me pull this car over! Why are angels after us?"

Lizzy snaps her focus on her husband and gives him a warning for his impatience. "Dean…."

"Are you angry!?" Castiel asks quickly, back stiffened. "Why are you angry!?"

Lizzy gives Dean a knowing look, telling him to relax a little.

"No, I… I'm..." Dean sighs. "Please, can we just stay on target?"

"I really think that your anger will be the thing that just may bring you down one day, Dean," Castiel explains kindly, looking to be nothing more than helpful. "It's worrisome for me, as your good friend, to always see the stressful way you live your life. Meditation could do you some real good…."

"I don't do yoga pants, Cass," Dean tells him lightly despite squeezing his eyes shut and rubbing them with one hand.

"Either way, there is no reason for anger," Castiel continues. "Hester and my old garrison are only following protocol. If the Word of God is revealed, a keeper of the Word will awaken…." Castiel turns to Kevin and once more presses his index finger to his nose playfully a few times. "Like this hot potato right here."

Kevin bats his hand away from his face. "Please, stop that."

Castiel does. "Anyway, Garrison code dictates you take the keeper to the desert to learn the Word away from men."

"What kind of sense does that make?" Dean wonders aloud. "He has to tell us so that we can use it."

Castiel can just shrug at that. "That's God and his shiny red apples."

"I can't live in the desert," Kevin denies the idea. "I… I'm applying to Princeton!"

Lizzy just sends him a sad smile. "Okay. Well, Cass, you know what? Screw the Garrison. We need the tablet to kill Dick. That's priority here. The Leviathan are gonna end us all if we don't."

"If you want the Word, you'll have to avoid Hester and her soldiers," the angel lets her know.

"But you're in our corner, right, Cass?" Dean asks him. "You'll help us?"

Castiel looks at Sammy for a second and grins. "No, I don't fight anymore." He locks eyes with Dean in the rearview mirror. "I watch the bees."

Lizzy laughs lightly, enjoying the idea of Castiel no longer fighting for some reason. "Well, don't watch any bees too far away from us, ok? Now that you're awake I want to know where you are, make sure you're alright."

Castiel's face softens to something purely mushy as he stares at her. "Elizabeth, it's my job to watch over you. You don't need to worry about me."

"I will anyways."

"Well, you need to worry more about the little Second Coming next to me," Castiel reminds her. "I'm old. I can handle myself. Samuel is small, weak… and needs your concern much more than I do. Priorities."

Lizzy can't help but fully laugh as she turns back around in her seat, watching the road. "My family is priority," she tells him, turning back around to face out the windshield with a slight grin. "Every single member of it."

Castiel looks away from her and smiles a bit himself. He's back in. He's part of their family. He's never been happier to be a part of anything in his very long life. "Isn't that curious…."

This was a short chapter but it had to be done for the flow. Hope you can hang on to that for now!