Diner
Mary is sitting alone stirring her coffee when her phone rings "Castiel?"
Castiel is now standing in the parking lot facing the building where Sam and Dean had been arrested. "Mary, where are you?"
"I – I, uh...Lawrence, Kansas. Cas, what's wrong?"
"Uh...well, I – I need you to meet me at the bunker" Cas hangs up and sighs, turning from the motel and walking away alone.
**********
Bunker
Mary and Castiel stands at opposite ends of the map table. "You left them"
"No, I...Dean told me to go. The woman—"
"The one you lost?" Mary asks.
"I didn't. I...I thought that she—"
"Stop making excuses" Cas looks down, and Mary sighs heavily "Why...if they need help, why didn't they call me?"
"You were out"
Mary sighs "How did we let this happen, Castiel?"
**********
Bar
A fancy drink with an umbrella, fruit slices and a pitchfork is picked up from a table by Crowley. "Can't help you" he tells Cas, who sits across the table.
"Come on, Crowley. The police took them. You have people in the government. You have spies"
"I do. But whatever's happened to Moose and Squirrel, apparently, it's above their pay grade"
"Do you even care that they're gone?" She asks him.
"No. Do you know how many all-powerful beings have tried to kill them?"
"Roughly, yes"
"As do I. I was bloody one of them. Sam and Dean? They're like herpes. Just when you think they're gone...hello! The boys are back, leaving a trail of bodies in their wake. So wherever they are, whoever has Sam and Dean, well...In the immortal words of Lawrence Tureaud...I pity the fool" Crowley gets up, pats Cas on the shoulder in a strangely reassuring fashion, and leaves Cas glaring after him.
**********
Another Bar
"Thanks for meeting me. I just wanted to say" Mary clears her throat "I'm sorry. I was angry, and...Sam and Dean, that's not your fault"
"No, you were right. I should never have left them. I...have you heard anything?" Cas asks her.
"All my law enforcement contacts are retired, or...dead" She sighs "I'm trying, but...you?"
Castiel shakes her head.
"I keep telling myself they're fine. They've only been gone—"
"Six weeks, two days and ten hours" Castiel tells her.
"We'll find them, Castiel. We will. Until then, we just...we're doing our best"
"Are we? Did you hear about the murders in Lancaster, Missouri?" Castiel asks her.
"No"
"The woman with their throats ripped out, the blood drained?"
"Vampire"
"I saw it on the news and I thought, that's the sort of thing Sam and Dean would investigate. They would roll into town, save the day, kill the monsters. But with them gone...I tried to work the case. I tried" She lets out a bitter little laugh "But...I don't know what I did wrong. I...I asked questions, or the wrong questions, and I just – I never found it. Never found the monster. Never even got close. And three more women died before I left town. Before I ran away"
"So we go back. You and me" Mary offers.
"No. No, I'd only get in your way"
**********
Bunker
Sitting at the library table, Cas listens to a voicemail message from Mary on her phone "Castiel, it's me. I'm just calling to...you don't have to worry about that thing in Missouri. I'm handling it"
Castiel sits there alone, in the dark.
**********
Dean tries to make a phone call, but repeatedly gets Cas' voice mail. Cas' phone is on the bunker library table, but Castiel is not in the room. "This is my voice mail. Make your voice...a mail..."
Dean tries to call Cas again, and gets her voice mail, while Sam rummages through the truck. "Come on, Cas"
Cas' phone rings in the bunker again, and she finally answers "What?"
"Cas"
"Dean?" She asks shocked.
"Hey, honey. Long time"
"What...what happened? Wh – where are you?"
"You wouldn't believe me, and I have no clue. Uh...Okay, looks like we're in Colorado"
"In Rocky Mountain national park. Uh, if we head north we should hit state route 34. Eventually" Sam tells him, pointing ahead.
"Did you get that?" Dean asks Cas.
"Yes"
"All right, meet us there"
"Wait, where?"
"Just drive along the road and you'll see us. And, Cas...we're kinda on the clock here" Dean hangs up.
"Wait, what does that..." Cas sighs.
"You didn't tell her?" Sam asks Dean.
"No"
"They'll track the phone"
"Right" Dean throws the phone into the van and they both run off to the north through the woods.
**********
Parking Lot
Mary pulls up and is joined by Castiel "You got here quickly" Castiel notes.
"Yep. What do you think we're walking into?" Mary asks her.
"I don't know"
"We may want backup"
"Crowley and Rowena?" Cas suggests.
"The king of hell and his mother? The witch?" Mary scoffs "Hope we can do better than that"
"I may have an idea"
"Good. Seat belt on. I drive fast" They race out of the parking lot.
**********
Forest Road
Mary and Cas are parked along a forested road, and have met up with their backup, Mick and Ketch. "This is your idea? The people that almost killed my boys? They're gonna be our backup? Suddenly the demon and his mommy don't look so bad"
"They helped us with Lucifer"
"Lucifer? The Lucifer?" Mick asks.
"Yes"
"Wait, so you're telling me what happened in Indianapolis was you took on the bleeding devil himself?" Mick asks.
"Yes"
"Did you win?" Ketch asks.
"Yes"
Mick and Ketch share a very impressed glance at one another. "Bravo"
"But...Sam and Dean were taken. We think we can get them back, but we need...help" Mary hesitates to ask for help, not looking straight at them.
"So we'll help" Mick says.
"Really? Just like that?"
Mick steps forward "Mrs. Winchester – Mary...I came to this country to do one thing – make friends. But you American hunters, you're...you're a different breed than our sort. You're surly. Suspicious. You don't play well with others"
"Well, that is accurate" Castiel tells Mary. Mary turns her head giving her a look.
"You don't trust people you don't know, even when they come bearing gifts. Now I can't help that, but I can help you. And if word where to get out that we did our part to save Sam and Dean Winchester, well, that's just good business, innit? And who knows? When all this is over, we might even be friends"
"We think Sam and Dean were being held somewhere in the Rocky Mountain national forest" Mary tells them.
"Site 94? It's a government facility, off books. Shadow ops. One of those places that officially doesn't exist" Ketch explains.
"Then how do you know about it?" Mary asks him.
"We gather information. It's our job" Mick tells her.
"They told us to meet them off state route 34" Castiel tells them.
"Well, that's a long stretch of road. Where, exactly?" ketch asks.
"I'm not sure"
"I'll get our techs to put a satellite over the area" Mick offers.
"You can do that?" Mary asks impressed.
"And so much more" they're about to leave, but Ketch holds Cas back for a moment.
"Do you have any idea what sort of trouble we're walking into?"
"No"
"Oh, good. I do like a surprise"
**********
Forest, Night
The underbrush rustles and Dean and Sam come crashing out to meet Cas, who's standing in a clearing waiting for them "Sam, Dean"
"Cas"
"Cas" Sam stumbles past Dean and grabs Cas into a hug. Only then does Sam notice Mary standing a short distance away. "Mom" Sam runs over to hug Mary, while Dean steps up to kiss Cas.
"Hey, sweetheart"
Dean then goes to hug Mary "oh"
**********
They walk the rest of the way through the woods, back to Mary's car. "Mom, how did y'all even find us?" Sam asks.
"They helped" Mary nods to Mick and Ketch standing by the car.
"Hello, lads" Mick greets them.
"They have a thermal imaging satellite that saw you. From space" Castiel explains.
"Well, we don't have one. Just borrowed it for a bit. Friends in all the right places"
"Well, I guess this is where we're supposed to say thank you" Dean says.
"No need. Happy to be of service" Mick shrugs it off.
"Again" Ketch corrects him.
"Okay, then. We should get. The people we left, they'll call for backup any seconds" Sam points from where they came from.
"Uh, you left survivors?" Ketch stands up from where he leaned against the car.
Sam squints and nods at Ketch dubiously. Cas looks at Sam and then Dean.
"They were soldiers, just doing what they were told" Dean explains.
"Still...a bit unprofessional" Ketch and Dean are having a stare off.
"We'll handle it. Let's get" Sam says. Dean glares at Ketch, Cas gives him a dubious look again, and they get in their car. Mick and Ketch exchange a look and a nod.
Mary drives toward a bridge. Inside the car the GPS shows that it's 11:59 pm. Dean, in the back seat with Cas, looks over at her. Mary glances back to smile at Dean. "So wait, you're hunting?" Dean asks Mary.
"A little bit" Mary shakes her head.
"Yeah, I knew you couldn't stay away" Sam smiles amused.
The radio turns on, static crackles, the GPS screen flashes from 11:59 to 12:00, and the car suddenly loses all power and the engine sputters to a halt just as it rolls up to the bridge. "It's time" Sam tells Dean.
In the back seat, Dean casts a guilty look at Cas, and then realization dawns on Cas that Dean knows exactly what is happening, and that it will have devastating consequences. Dean can't look at her, and turns away.
The car continues to roll out onto the bridge and finally stops. The doors open, and everyone gets out. "What's happening?" Mary asks Sam and Dean.
"Yeah, Dean. Sup" Billie the reaper is standing on the bridge in front of the car with her arms crossed. Sam and Dean look resigned. Mary approaches Billie, followed by Cas. "Billie?"
"The reaper?" Cas asks.
"I don't understand" Mary says.
"Mom...that place...there was only one way we were getting out of there, and that wasn't breathing" Dean says. Cas understands everything now and turns her horrified look from Dean to Billie. "So I made a call"
Mary steps up in front of her sons, disbelieving and shocked. "Dean talked with her, and then Billie came to see me, and we made a deal. We'd get to die and come back one more time, but in exchange..." Sam trails off.
"Come midnight, a Winchester goes bye-bye. Like permanently. And that is something I've been looking forward to for a long time" Billie says.
"Why would you—"
"We were already dead. Being locked in that cell with nothing...I've been to hell. This was worse" Dean cuts her off.
"At least this way, one of us gets to keep fighting" Sam says.
"You don't have to do this" Cas tells them.
"Yeah, they do" Billie tells her, "We made a pact, bound in blood. You break that, there's consequences on a cosmic scale. So, who's it gonna be?"
Sam and Dean look at each other, but before either of them can answer, Mary turns around to face Billie, drawing her handgun from her waistband as she turns "Me"
"Mom, mom"
"No. no" Sam and Dean protests. Billie flings Sam and Dean away with her power.
"You said come midnight, a Winchester dies? I'm a Winchester"
"Works for me" Billie tells her.
Mary cocks her gun and raises it toward her head.
"Mom!"
"Don't!"
"I love you" Mary sniffles.
Mary is about to pull the trigger when suddenly an angel blade pierces through Billie's chest from behind, and she falls down dead, revealing Castiel behind her. Everyone looks suitably shocked, including Cas. Mary lowers her gun, and Sam and dean get to their feet.
"Cas, what have you done?" Dean asks her.
"What had to be done. You know this world – this sad, doomed little world – it needs you. It needs every last Winchester it can get, and I will not let you die. I won't let any of you die. And I won't let you sacrifice yourselves. You mean too much to me" Her voice breaks, "To everything. Yeah, you made a deal. You made a stupid deal, and I broke it. You're welcome"