Chapter 3:

Witness – Sarah McLachlan
Make me a witness
Take me out
Out of darkness
Out of doubt

Liz blamed Michael, and the Mighty Ducks, but mostly Michael.

The hybrid had been brainwashing her son from the womb with thoughts on the glories of hockey. Checks. Goals. Pucks. Sticks. Sweat. Blood. Testosterone. It might have been the Mighty Ducks that made it look fun but Michael had made it cool. Uncle Michael with his jerseys and hats and skates.

It'd all seemed innocent enough until Nate had started begging her to take him to a rink. A couple of days of enduring the embarrassment of trying to stay upright as her son chased circles around her, had Liz signing him up for a peewee league even though it meant driving forty-five minutes to get him to games and practices.

The coolness of the indoor rink seeped through her ineffective sweater. She'd always been a warm weather kind of girl, even air conditioning was a bit too much for her. Pulling the wool closer around her she flinched as Nate was checked into the wall then rolled her eyes as her companion stood and started cursing at the referee.

“Michael!” the hybrid glowered at her.

“He should've made the call.”

“It's a peewee game. He's fine,” rolling her eyes Liz tugged him back into his seat.

She knew she shouldn't have mentioned that Nate was playing but her son had been so excited about the chance that his uncle might come to a game. Maria would have her hands full whenever she had kids. Her husband still was one.

At least Alex for all his enthusiasm acted more like a mother hen. Only time could tell if that would change once Isabel had the kid. Turning her attention to the game again, she couldn't stop herself from jumping to her feet as Nate was tripped by the other team.

“Oh come on!”

I won't weigh you down
With good intention
Won't make fire out of clay
Or other inventions

Red splashed across the sky, mixing with deep orange and a touch of purple. It looked like the world was on fire. Burning from the inside out, flames licking out, kissing the sky. Her eyes dropped slightly as she was overcome with the ghost of heavy smoke choking her senses. The remnants of a dream too far gone to be clearly remembered, too terrifying to forget entirely.

She'd been having a lot of deja vu recently.

Pushing away the morose thoughts she grabbed the tray with lunch on it and headed outside. Liz only got an hour off, Marta could use even the briefest of breaks. The sitter was an amazing woman who handled Nate like the Cesar Millan handled dogs but even the sturdiest companion liked quiet occasionally.

She was greeted by a rush of hurried Spanish detailing all the things they'd done that morning. He was certainly more enthusiastic than when she picked him up from school. Considering it was a day off and he'd spent it running around, it wasn't all that surprising.

Will we burn in heaven
Like we do down here
Will the change come
While we're waiting

Blinking the sleep from her eyes, Liz shuffled her son towards his room his heavy feet making the process slow. The energizer bunny had nothing on him. After she got him tucked in she'd still have to make some coffee if she had any hope of grading all the paper she had waiting for her on her desk.

At first she thought that the third pair of footsteps was just her imagination, too much thinking too little sleep but when they paused and Nate turned, a wide smile lighting up his face banishing all traces of sleep, she gave up that notion.

A tall dark haired man stood down the hall from them, trench coat and ruffled suit doing nothing to detract from stoic curiosity making up his handsome features. Features that almost seemed to glow, like there was some light just underneath the skin.

Nate ran to him before she could stop him. She knew an imaginary friend was too good to be true.

A protective hand came down to sit on her sons shoulder and the mothers terror she hadn't felt since he was six months threatened to overcome her.

She opened her mouth to scream or demand he leave her house or something, anything but only one word – a name – escaped her lips, “Castiel.”

The man nodded, his eyes not moving from her face.

How had she known that?

Everyone is waiting

“What are you doing here?”

She couldn't understand her reaction. It was irrational, confusing, and disappointing. That man had her son and she was making conversation him. Liz should have been reaching for the nearest object that could be thrown at his head or sprinting for the gun she kept locked in her bedside table.

The man dropped to his knees and whispered something into Nate's ear before standing again, “Go back to your mother Nathanael.”

Nate did as he was told and Liz pushed him behind her. They could make a run for it.

“You have a very special little boy,” what fear remained coursing through her system faded to her consternation. “The time is coming Elizabeth Parker.”

And when we're done
Soul searching
And we carried the weight
And died for a cause

Dean shoved his hands through the dirt trying to keep it out of his mouth. It was hard enough to breathe as it was. Working against the pressure on his chest and the earth coming loose in his hands making it harder to dig his way out, he forced himself closer and closer to the surface.

He was alive. He didn't know how or why but he didn't care. As long as he was out of the pit he didn't care.

Breaking the surface, he took a deep breath of clean air for the first time in forty years.

Is misery
Made beautiful
Right before our eyes
Will mercy be revealed
Or blind us where we stand

Her hands where still shaking when she tucked Nate in.

She'd have to call Bobby and have him come down to put up some more wards. Or maybe they'd just move again. That was always a last resort, Liz didn't want to uproot them but letting random supernatural forces blink into existence in her living room wasn't an option.

Leaning down to kiss her sons forehead she gently brushed his cheek, “What's got you smiling so much?”

“Daddy's coming home.”

Will we burn in heaven
Like we do down here
Will the change come
While we're waiting

“Where's my family Bobby?”

The older man was still staring at Dean like he couldn't believe that he was there. It wasn't every day that someone in hell ended up alive but he was getting tired of it. He wanted to see his family, wanted to know they were safe.

“Sam knows. We'll have to find him first.”

Everyone is waiting

Chapter 4