A/N: Thank you guest Kathy for reviewing again! Here we'll get the answer of where Dean's heart is...

Chapter 7

Charlie ran through the woods as fast as she could without dropping Castiel. The wind whipped around her, tugging at her skirt and tossing her hair across her face so that she could barely see. Castiel seemed to be trying to duck down low in the bottom of the shovel to shield himself from the hurricane like gales. Charlie suddenly had the horrified thought of what would happen if it started raining.

Lightning forked across the sky, and static tingled along her skin. The air was thick with the cloying scent of musky magic.

They finally barreled into a clearing, and Charlie skidded to a stop at the sight of Sam and Dean strung up in thorny vines. The Witch of the Waste was there, too, clasping Sam's unconscious face in a bruising grip.

"Tell me where it is or I'll start peeling flesh off his bones," Amara said to Dean, who was hanging heavily in the vines and panting.

"Hey!" Charlie shouted before she could think better of it.

Amara turned toward her, arching an unimpressed brow. "Well, look at you. Still plucky."

Charlie tensed, and leaned down toward Castiel. "Um, now what?" she whispered.

Castiel stretched himself tall and flared his flames with a whoosh. "Dean!"

Dean's eyes suddenly lit up with azure light, and with a raging roar, he snapped the vines holding him in place.

Amara stared at him in shock.

Castiel's fire surged again, and Dean shot a blue bolt of lightning at the wicked witch. It hit her square in the chest and sent her flying back several feet to hit the ground with a thud. Dean then hurried to Sam and started tearing at the vines with hands wreathed in blue fire.

"Sam? Sammy, come on." Dean held a glowing hand over his brother's face, pushing some of that aura into Sam. Cas radiated the same color.

Sam moaned and his eyelids started to flutter. "D'n?" he slurred. He blinked rapidly, his gaze gradually focusing, and then his eyes widened. "Cas?"

"Just hurry," Castiel called.

Charlie flicked a nervous glance to where Amara was struggling to sit up. She shot Dean a furious glare, but then her gaze shifted to Charlie and Castiel, and her expression slackened.

"So that's it," she breathed. "That's where your heart went."

Amara suddenly lunged at Charlie, who shrieked and stumbled backward, dropping Castiel. He let out a startled yelp as he fell, and then Amara was scooping him up, her fingers squeezing around him. His color abruptly flared white and he screamed.

Dean suddenly screamed too and dropped to his knees. Sam was now free, and grabbed his brother's arms to brace him as Dean curled forward.

Amara cackled. "His heart is finally mine!" she crowed.

She clenched her hands even tighter around Castiel, eliciting another high-pitched scream that echoed in Charlie's ears as Dean cried out too. Lightning split the sky directly above their heads with a thunderous boom that vibrated in Charlie's chest. Dean toppled sideways and went into seizures.

Charlie had no idea what was happening, but then Amara opened her mouth wide and lifted Cas's burning form to her lips…and Charlie knew she had to stop the witch from devouring Castiel.

Desperate and panicking, she reached for the only thing she had on her—the potions. Pulling one from her pocket, Charlie uncapped the stopper and flung the liquid at Amara. It splashed over the witch, immediately drenching her.

And Castiel too.

Charlie gaped in paralyzed horror as not only the broiling power, but the fire too, extinguished with a sizzle and trail of smoke.

Amara shrieked. "You ruined it!" She tossed the now darkened lump on the ground and advanced on Charlie with crackling fury.

Charlie scrambled backward, but tripped and landed on her back.

Amara loomed over her. "You wretched little worm!"

"Charlie!" Sam shouted, but he sounded so far away as black smoke began to ooze forth from Amara's pores.

Charlie frantically looked around for anything to help her, and spotted a broken branch with a pointed tip. She snatched it up just as Amara's smoky form began to swoop down on her, and thrust it upward with all her strength. She felt the resistance as the wood plunged through flesh and muscle, piercing the witch's heart.

The oxygen punched from Amara's mouth with a gasp, and her eyes blew wide. She barely had time to glance down at the branch protruding from her sternum before she was falling over. Charlie gave the branch a rough push so that Amara landed away from her, and then she was scrabbling away from the smoke slithering around the body. The noxious fumes billowed over Amara and churned in place, and when they finally diffused away, nothing but a shriveled old hag remained. Charlie could only stare. She supposed that was what it meant for the outside to match the inside.

"Dean! Dean!" Sam's harried voice jolted her out of her stupor, and Charlie looked over to see him cradling his brother's head in his lap. Dean's eyes were closed.

Sam looked around desperately. "Cas!"

Charlie's heart stuttered, and she scrambled to her feet and over to where the lump of coal was on the ground. There was a faint ring of blue around it, the barest simmer of a dying flame.

"Castiel! Oh god, Castiel, I'm so sorry." She scooped him up, chest constricting at the lack of warmth in the contact.

Tiny eyes peered up at her. "You did…what you…had to," he rasped. His spark sputtered. "Dean…"

Charlie cupped him close and carried him over to Sam. "I'm so sorry, Sam. I didn't know what else to do."

Sam's eyes were pained as he gingerly took Cas from her and cradled the fire demon in his large hands. Charlie waited for Sam to infuse a spark back, the way Dean had done when she'd almost accidentally extinguished Castiel in the bucket.

But nothing was happening.

And Charlie remembered with dawning horror what Castiel had told her that day.

"If I die, Dean dies too."

She looked at Dean, lying as still and pale as death. Oh god, she'd killed them both…

"Sam," Castiel whispered hoarsely. "Give Dean his heart back."

Sam stiffened. "Cas, no, then you'll die."

"Dean's dying. This is…the only way…to save him." Castiel's voice petered out with exhaustion, and his flame sputtered again.

Charlie just stared at them in confusion. Give Dean his heart back? What were they talking about?

Castiel gave a weak flutter. "Listen, Sam…thank you. The time we've spent together, has been the best part of my life." His voice cracked. "I love you." Castiel's gaze flicked to Charlie. "I love all of you." He looked back up at Sam. "Tell Dean that for me."

Sam's eyes were wet as he cradled Castiel in his hands. "You're the best friend we've ever had," he choked out.

Fear gripped Charlie's heart. "What's going on?" she demanded.

Sam's throat bobbed as he held Castiel over Dean's chest. The fire demon faded another degree, so that he was barely visible.

"When we were kids," Sam started, voice thick with emotion. "Dean caught a falling star. Usually they burn out within seconds of hitting the Earth, so in order to save it, Dean bonded with the star, giving over his heart so it could stay alive and fueled by its spark."

Charlie's eyes widened. "Castiel," she breathed.

Sam nodded. "We've been family ever since."

He abruptly thrust his hands against Dean's chest, pushing Cas into it. The faint light flared briefly before what Charlie had mistaken for a lump of coal sank down into Dean's sternum. Then there was a tiny spark a few inches above that, before it winked out with the echo of a whisper.

Tears spilled down Charlie's cheeks. She'd destroyed everything.

Dean's eyes shot open and he bolted upright with a ragged gasp. Sam gripped his arms and held him still.

"Dean!"

"What happened?" He twisted around urgently, pausing when he spotted Amara's body.

"Charlie killed her," Sam said.

Dean's shoulders dropped an inch in relief, and he turned to give her a smile. "Good job, kid."

But Charlie was still crying, and his expression immediately turned concerned, which made her feel worse.

"What's wrong?"

She couldn't even form an answer before he stiffened again.

"Where's Cas?" He started to look around again, but suddenly gasped and clutched his chest. "What the…" His eyes widened, and he shot Sam a panicked, accusatory glare, practically shouting, "Where's Cas?"

Tears were now spilling down Sam's face too. "It was his choice to save you."

Dean started shaking his head. "No, no, no."

"It's all my fault," Charlie blurted. "I brought him out here, and then I threw the potion on him." She broke down into sobs. "I killed him. I'm sorry! I'm so sorry!"

Arms wrapped around her and she suddenly found herself being crushed against a warm body.

"It wasn't your fault," Sam said between his own hitched breaths. "You stopped Amara from taking both Dean's heart and Cas. That would have been much worse."

"But Cas is dead."

Another set of arms enveloped her and Sam, holding them both tight.

"He knew what he was doing," Dean whispered shakily, as though he had to convince himself of that as much as them, and he clung to the two of them as he broke down too.

The three of them sat on the cold hard ground, huddled in a crying mess as they grieved the loss of their friend.

A flicker of light prodded at Charlie's closed eyelids, and she managed to blink them open against the sticky tears. Through blurred vision, she saw another glimmer, and another.

Charlie hastily wiped at her eyes and sucked in a gasp when she realized Dean's tears were falling like starlight into his lap. Holding her breath, she watched the tear drops trickle together like water, coalescing into a single shape.

"Um, guys…" she whispered.

She heard two more sharp inhalations as the liquid reformed into a blue fire silhouetted like a tiny person with flickering wings.

"C-Castiel?" Charlie breathed.

"Cas?" Dean echoed desperately.

Castiel looked up at them, and then down at himself, seemingly confused. "I'm alive…"

"I thought you couldn't live without someone else's spark," Charlie said.

"I can't," he replied. "But…then I felt a spark bringing me back." He looked up at them again, face aglow and wings scintillating with iridescent streaks of indigo and sapphire. He smiled with such radiance that Charlie felt the warmth against her skin. "Your spark of love saved me."

Charlie couldn't believe it, and by the looks on Sam's and Dean's faces, they couldn't either. But they burst into delirious laughter and Sam embraced her and Dean again. Castiel flitted out in a hurry before he could be squashed, but quickly alighted on Dean's shoulder.

Dean shook his head. "Let's go home."

Castiel flickered. "Oh. About that…"

"When I took Castiel out of the castle, the door shut down," Charlie explained.

"The castle is back in the Wastes," he finished.

Dean and Sam exchanged a look, but then shrugged.

"Doesn't matter," Dean said.

"As long as we're all fine and together, nothing else matters," Sam added.

Charlie smiled back. She couldn't agree more.

Charlie put the closed sign in the window of the hat shop and locked up for the evening. She'd made two hats that day and sold five. It was a good day.

She shut off her work light and made her way out the back door into the courtyard with its lush garden. Dean and Castiel had been able to reestablish the door from the castle, so they hadn't lost the shop and garden. Not that Charlie would have minded if they'd had to start over; she was just happy to have them.

She entered the castle and was immediately greeted with the aroma of sizzling meat and spices. Dean was at the counter, stirring a pot of stew and adding more flavor to it. Sam was at the table reading, and Castiel was curled up in a fire ball in the hearth, purring like a cat. He had full range of the castle now, but he liked it there, in the main room with everyone else.

He went hunting with Dean now, and with his help, Dean didn't have to transform into that creature so much anymore, which seemed to make Sam and Castiel happy.

Charlie went to the counter and grabbed a knife and some of the vegetables they'd picked that morning, since Dean never seemed to remember to put enough of those in. As she stood at the sink washing the celery and carrots, she caught a glimpse of her reflection in the window. Bright eyes and smooth cheeks were framed by long wavy tresses. And her white hair was vibrant, like starlight.

She didn't miss the red.

Sam made a jibe at Dean that drew a smile from her lips. Charlie couldn't believe how a vicious curse could have turned into the biggest blessing she never could have hoped for—family and a place to belong.

A/N: Another happy ending. ^_^ Thanks to everyone who read, favorited, and reviewed!