(1) The Devil's Hybrid (D. Winchester)

Chapter Nineteen

Dean is driving. Sam is beside him and Anna, Erika and Ruby are at the back seat. Dean looks in the rear-view mirror and laughs.

"What?" Erika asks.

"Nothing. It's just an angel, a demon and whatever the hell you are riding in the back seat. It's like the setup to a bad joke... or a Penthouse Forum letter"

"Dude... Reality... Porn" Sam points out.

"You call this reality?" Dean asks back.

.....................

Sam, Dean and Anna look up at the huge oak tree.

"It's beautiful" Dean states.

"It's where the grace touched down. I can feel it" Anna tells them.

"You ready to do this?" Sam asks.

"Not really"

"Anna, what are we even looking for?" Anna puts a hand on the tree trunk.

"It doesn't matter. It's not here. Not any more. Someone took it"

.....................

Dean touches Erika's arm as they sit in the barn, Ruby and Sam stood with them, Anna sits to the side.

"We still got the hex bags. I say we head back to the panic room" Dean tells them.

"All right for you" Erika grumbles.

"What, forever?" Ruby asks.

"I'm just thinking out loud!" Dean snaps.

"Oh, you call that thinking?"

"Hey! Hey, hey, hey. Stop it" Sam tells them.

"Anna's grace is gone. You understand? She can't angel up. She can't protect us. We can't fight Heaven and Hell. One side maybe, but not both. Not at once"

"Um... guys? The angels are talking again" Anna tells them.

"What are they saying?" 

"It's weird... Like a recording... a loop. It says, 'Dean Winchester gives us Anna by midnight, or...'"

"Or what?" Dean asks.

""...or we hurl him back to damnation.""

"Anna.. Do you know of any weapon that works on an angel?" Sam asks.

"To what? To kill them?" Anna asks. Sam nods. "Nothing we could get to... Not right now"

"Okay, wait, wait. I say we call Bobby. We get him back from hedonism" Dean adds.

"Dean, what's he gonna tell us that we don't already know?" Sam asks back.

"I don't know, but we got to think of something!"

.......................

Dean is studying a book over the impala.

"Hey. Holding up okay?" he asks Anna as she approaches.

"Trying"

"Yeah"

"A little scared, I guess. So, um... Dean... I just wanted to thank you"

"For what?"

"Everything. You guys -- you didn't have to help me..."

"Hey, let's can the "thanks for trying" speech, you know? Participation trophies suck ass"

"I don't know. Maybe I don't deserve to be saved"

"Don't talk like that"

"I disobeyed. Lucifer disobeyed. It's our murder one, and I knew it. Maybe I got to pay"