Title: Astronomy for Beginners
Fandom: Smallville/Supernatural
Pairing: Chloe/Dean
Rating: T
Spoilers: Up to Bride in Smallville and before Death Takes A Holiday in Supernatural.
Summary: Chloe has a part to play in the Winchesters war but will she figure out what it is in time and when she does, will she be able to do it.
Disclaimer: Don't own really want.

Authors Note: In my Smallville universe Chloe became Watchtower before the whole Divorce thing, which never happened because Doomsday interuptted the wedding before the vows were taken. Supernatural goes Cannon until I get to it, then it's free game.

Castiel was having an epiphany. Or what he assumed an epiphany was like anyway, he'd never had one before. There wasn't much call for epiphanies when you were an angel of the Lord. They were generally reserved for those with free will, the humans. His epiphany was rather simple actually, it was just one thought that penetrated his brain, grabbed on tight and wouldn't let go. He was dying.

He'd never really thought about Death. Death always seemed like an abstract notion to him. The humans that littered the earth had such a short lifespan compared to his that he saw Death all the time but he never understood the finality of it until now. For him, when he watched a human die it didn't signify the end of their existence. Death was simply the end of their existence on earth, they continued on in one form or another in either Heaven or Hell depending on what they did in their life.

Humans had phases of existence, pre-life, life, then after-life. Angels were different they simply existed, then they ceased to exist. But the time in between arrival and departure was measured on the abstract scale of the infinite and not in the more linear one of decades. Castiel never imagined that he'd live to see the day he died. Here he was though, lying in the middle of the woods, in what looked like upstate New York, going through the physical act of dying, it was strange and slightly tingly. A twig snapped off to his left and he managed to turn his head in that direction in time to see a barefoot woman make her way into the clearing.

"I can't believe I'm barefoot in the middle of Lake Placid." She said annoyed pulling twigs out of her hair. He was right, it was upstate New York. It was strange but even in the midst of dying that small victory made him want to laugh, so he did. It came out as more of a gurgle, what with the gaping hole in his throat and the woman turned to him. "Holy shit." She ran over and dropped to the ground next to him. "You're here." She did a quick inventory for hidden damage as her eyes stayed glued to his throat. "You're actually here." She ran her fingers through her hair and tears ran down her face as she laughed. "I'm not crazy." She said to him and her mouth curved up into such a relieved smile that he couldn't help but smile back at her.

"Oh yeah, you're dying." She frowned and wiped her hands on her pants. "Don't worry." She brushed the hair off his forehead. "I've done this before. You're going to be ok." Her tone was soft and the light pressure of her hand on his forehead felt oddly reassuring. Maybe she was a doctor, she thought she could save him. He wanted to tell her not to bother, he wanted to tell her that there was nothing medicine could do for him but he couldn't speak so he just stared up into her eyes. He barely noticed when her other hand covered the wound on his throat. It wasn't until he saw the white light that he realized something was going on.

"You're going to be ok." She said, more tears falling from her eyes. But he knew, somehow knew that they were happy tears. "I'm going to..." She collapsed slightly, her face becoming paler. "When you get better, something's going to happen to me. I'd appreciate it if you didn't call an ambulance, or take me to a hospital, ok. They'll bury me and I don't like it when they bury me." She grunted in pain. "This is different." She said suddenly, gritting her teeth in confusion. "But it's ok, it's ok." She kept whispering over and over and at some point Castiel realized that her tears of joy had turned into tears of pain. "Just leave me here ok." She was whispering now. "Just leave my body here and I'll be fine."

The blonde woman screamed out in pain as a white light enveloped both her and Castiel and suddenly he wasn't dying anymore, he wasn't dead either, he was simply better. He sat up abruptly and brought both hands to his throat, there was no blood, there was no wound. He heard a gurgle beside him and looked down to see the blonde woman lying unmoving, her eyes staring straight up at the night sky. He looked down at her confused, astonished, and grateful without knowing why, feeling emotions that were strange and unfamiliar to him. "What did you just do?" He asked her as she smiled and brought her hand up to his face, cupping his cheek. Acting on an instinct that he couldn't explain, Castiel covered her hands with his, his gaze moving down to her throat where blood was pouring out of a wound that she didn't have a minute ago but he did.

Chloe stared up into the sky, the stars were different in New York, it seemed wrong like they were out of place, but she was the one who was out of place. She shouldn't be here, there was no logical reason for her to be here and yet here she was, lying in the middle of the woods in upstate New York dying rather slowly. Still of all the places she'd died before, this one was the most peaceful. Her lips curve up in a smile and she decided to just sit back and enjoy the night sky and the cool breeze.

Something suddenly occurred to her and she tried to laugh though with the hole in her throat, it came out as more of a gurgle. The voices had finally stopped. Her head was quiet for the first time in months and all she had to do was die. A face suddenly obscured her great view of the night sky and she almost frowned until she realized it was him. Castiel, the man she'd come here, against all odds to save. He'd been right where she knew he was going to be, right when she knew he was going to be there.

The fact that he was there, that she'd been right let her know she wasn't crazy and that was worth a few hours of death, though the pain she could have lived without. She'd never felt a pain like that before. Sure she felt pain when healing someone, it came with the territory. But this wasn't like that, it felt like her insides were being pulled out through the gash in her throat. "What did you just do?" Castiel asked her and she smiled. Unable to answer and brought her hand up to his cheek and he laid his hand over hers. Then his gaze moved down slightly to the wound in her neck. She wanted to tell him that it was ok, that she would be ok but that was out of the question so she simply ran her thumb across his cheek a few times before she felt her eyes close.

Castiel watched the girl die right in front of his eyes. One minute she was sitting over him, smiling and crying as he died. The next she was lying next to him dying and he was perfectly fine. Yet even as she was dying she was smiling up at him and he couldn't help but just stare as her thumb lightly brushed against his cheek, getting slower and slower until it stopped. Her arm went limp and fell from his cheek, Castiel grabbed it, holding it where it was. It didn't make any sense, none of this made any sense, this woman, this girl really showed up out of nowhere right when he was dying and didn't seem surprised that he was there, more relieved, like she'd been expecting him.

If that wasn't enough somehow, beyond all earthly and heavenly comprehension, she'd healed him. This girl from nowhere had brought him back from the brink of death, and brought him back without a scratch. That act would have been extraordinary had he simply been a human, but he wasn't a human, he was an angel and she shouldn't be able to do that. He grabbed the girl's body and stood in one smooth move turning on his heal and suddenly he was gone and the forest was empty.

Sam finished washing his hands and then bent down to splash some water in his face. When he stood back up and looked in the mirror he almost jumped three feet in the air. "Castiel?" Sam turned and Dean looked up from his spot on the bed, slowly put his book down and stood up. Castiel had returned to their motel room, his shirt covered in blood but that's not what was capturing Dean and Sam's attention. No the bloody unconscious blonde he was holding in his arms deserved that honor.

"Cas, buddy, what's going on?" Dean walked over to him slowly.

"Help her." Castiel laid the girl on Dean's bed and stepped back, looking at Dean expectantly.

"Help her?" Dean asked. "What happened to her?"

"Just help her." Castiel said.

Sam moved closer and Castiel turned on him quickly. "I'm just going to check her out ok." Sam held up his hands to placate the Angel. "Ok?"

Castiel nodded and Sam stepped over to the bed, placing his fingers on her neck. He looked over at Dean and closed his eyes, shaking his head. "We can't help her Cas." Dean said quietly.

"You have to." Castiel said.

"She's dead." Sam stood up straighter.

"She's not."

"Yes she is." Sam said. "There's blood, her blood, all over the place. She's got no pulse, a gaping wound in her neck and she's cold. I'm sorry."

"She's not dead, not yet." Castiel said.

"How do you know that?" Dean asked and then shook his head. "Nevermind."

"Her body is dead." Castiel explained. "But not her soul." He brushed the hair out of her face without even realizing he was doing it. "So fix her."

"Fix her?" Dean shook his head. "She's not broken. It's not like we can just bring her body back to life." Dean scoffed and looked over at Sam who had a strange look on his face. "Can we?"

"Maybe." Sam bit his lip.

"Maybe?" Dean laughed. "You need to be sure about this because we've got a dead girl in our motel room and that never ends well."

"Bobby might know what to do." Sam said.

"So your plan is for us to take a dead girl and an Angel to Bobby so he can shove her lingering soul back in her body?" Dean was trying to point out how ridiculous the situation was.

"Pretty much." Sam nodded.

"Ok then." Dean shrugged.

Sam smiled. "Do you know who she is? Her name?" He asked Castiel who shook his head. Sam moved back toward the bed and Castiel jumped again, this strange instinct he had to protect the girl slightly annoying to him. "I'm going to check her for ID." Castiel stepped away and Sam patted down her pockets coming away with car keys but no ID.

"Anything?" Dean shoved the last of his clothes in a bag.

"These." Sam tossed the keys to Dean.

"These are for a 1965 Mustang Fastback." Dean said.

"How do you know that?" Sam asked him.

"How do you not know that?" Dean smiled. "My point is this." He opened the curtains. "That pulled up about thirty minutes before Cas got here the first time." Sam looked out at the black Mustang sitting in the lot two spaces away from the Impala.

"You know when it pulled in?" Sam asked him. "You haven't looked outside all day."

"You never forget the sound of perfectly tuned engine." Dean smiled and Sam rolled his eyes.

"I'm gonna go see if she checked into a room." Sam walked out.

When he was gone Dean turned to the Angel. "Cas, I need you to level with me about this girl. Who is she?"

"I don't know." He answered truthfully.

"Well, what happened to her?" Dean looked over at the wound on the throat. "You show up, say we're in danger then disappear. You show up like twenty minutes later holding a dead girl. What happened?"

"She saved my life." Castiel said to him.

Dean frowned and looked over at the girl with slightly more respect and even more questions. "She didn't check in. The clerk said she just parked her car here and went off into the woods." Sam walked back in and grabbed his bag. "You ready?"

"Yeah." Dean tossed the keys to his Impala at Sam who grabbed them confused. "You drive my car. I want to see how this baby rides." He held up the girls keys and Sam glared. "Well we can't just leave her car here."

"Ok, but whose going to drive with the dead body in the backseat?" Sam asked. "Rock Paper Scissors?"

"I've got her." Castiel said. "I'll meet you there." He leaned over the bed, grabbed the girl and picked her up, two seconds later they were both gone.

Dean pulled into Bobby's yard, Sam right on his tail. He turned off the car and jumped out. "Oh man, you've got to drive this thing." Dean smiled. "It's like floating down a marshmallow highway."

Sam glared at him. "Did you find anything in it?" Dean looked confused. "A wallet, purse, anything?"

"This was on the seat in the front." Dean handed Sam a computer and pulled something out of his back pocket. "The car's insured and registered to a Nelly Bly so no help there."

"Why?" Sam grabbed the computer.

"It's a fake name. Nelly Bly, the woman who revolutionized the field of investigative reporting." Dean said as if that was obvious. Sam just stared at his brother who was smiling his patented Dean Winchester goofy grin. "I know right? I'm just full of bullshit knowledge today."

"How do you know that?" Sam shook his head walking to Bobby's door.

"Dated a reporter once." Dean smiled. "Well I say dated but really you know." Sam just shook his head and then saw Castiel in front of him. Dean took one last look at the Angel of the Lord holding a dead blonde and smiled. "Oh this is going to be fun to explain." He knocked on the door.

Bobby was pacing. He'd been pacing for the past thirty minutes. Sam and Dean watched him for the first five assuming that it wouldn't last very long but they'd soon moved onto other things. Dean was eating a sandwich he'd made while Sam was trying to get into the girls computer. "This is strange even for our lives."

"I know." Dean pointed to his sandwich. "This is really good ham." He took another bite.

"You showed up on my doorstep with an Angel carrying a dead girl, how can you eat at a time like this?" Bobby asked.

"She's not really dead." Dean swallowed. "And I skipped lunch."

"How is she not really dead?" Bobby sat down.

"Her soul is still in there." Sam said. "And according to Cas that means that she's not really dead yet and we can bring her back."

"Like a spirit?" Bobby frowned.

"No, spirits and souls are two different things." Castiel said. "Spirits are echo's, souls are a person's essence."

"Ok, but why are we putting her essence back in her body?" Bobby asked this directly to the Angel.

"Because she saved my life." Castiel said.

"That's sweet and everything." Dean pointed out. "But you would have just healed yourself so it's no big deal."

"No." Castiel shook his head. "She didn't just heal my mortal body, she healed me." He stood up. "I was attacked." Castiel told them. "They set a trap for me, making me think that you were in trouble to get me to New York. Only when I got here I was overwhelmed by Fallen."

"Fallen?" Sam raised his eyebrows.

"Angels who have turned, switch sides." Castiel explained. "They tried to kill me, they stabbed me and left me for dead. I was on the ground and I was dying and she came out of nowhere. She told me that everything was going to be ok, she put her hand on my throat, there was a bright white light and I was alive and she was dead."

"She healed you?" Sam leaned back. "She healed an Angel?"

"Yes." Castiel nodded. "And that is impossible."

"Fine." Bobby groaned. "Sam go grab me those red books on the top shelf in the back room and then get to work on the computer. Dean make a pot of coffee. You…" He looked at Castiel. "Just stand there looking menacing, I think that's a good look for you."

Dean closed another book and rubbed his eyes. "I think I read that one yesterday. Any luck on the computer yet?'

"I've tried everything." Sam sighed in frustration. "I can't even get to the welcome screen much less into any files."

"A computer that you can't crack?" Dean scoffed.

"I've been working on this thing since we got here." Sam protested. "I know it's on but it's just a black screen. There's no where to type, nothing to click on. It's just black."

"This is ridiculous." Bobby said got up and walked to the kitchen. "I can't believe I'm sitting here doing this. It's been a week." Bobby pointed out to him. "For seven days I've had a freaking dead girl on my couch and I don't care if she's not really dead, her body is dead and that's just creepy."

"So what?" Dean asked. "You want us to just get rid of her."

"She's dead Dean. We should do what we do with any other dead body. Bury her." Bobby said. "It's a lot more respectful than this."

"In case you hadn't noticed she comes with her very own Angelic bodyguard over there." Sam pointed out. "You'd never get within two feet."

"You can't bury her." Castiel said from behind them.

"Why?" Sam asked. "Cause, I gotta agree with Bobby on this one. She's dead man."

"She asked me not to." Castiel said and they all froze at that.

"She asked you not to bury her?" Dean tilted his head. "What do you mean?"

"She asked me not to take her to the hospital. She said that they would bury her and she didn't like it when they buried her." Castiel explained.

"You mean…" Dean paused. "You mean, almost like she knew this was going to happen? Like maybe it's happened before?"

"I suppose." Castiel said.

"Well that would have been good information to have a week ago." Bobby screamed.

Dean, Sam, Bobby, and Castiel all started screaming at each other and no one noticed the wound closing on the girl's body.

Chloe had never felt so much pain before in her life. She never imagined that one single person could feel this much pain. It was indescribable and unrelenting and she was sure that if she had to endure it for much longer it would drive her mad. This had never happened before. There was always some pain before death. To heal someone she had to take on their injury and that always brought pain. But in death she found solace, the pain stopped as her body healed itself and she barely even realized she'd been dead. This, this pain had started when she touched his throat and never let up, even after her death, if anything, it had gotten worse.

The night sky was still brightly shining above her even though she knew it wasn't really there, that she wasn't really there, she wasn't really anywhere. She never fully understood where she went when she died. As the pain course through her she looked up and saw Sagittarius more clearly than she'd ever seen it before, even in the quiet light free fields of Smallville. She couldn't help but notice the irony of it all.

Sagittarius represented the Centaur Chiron, who was shot by Hercules. The arrow though dipped in poison was not enough to kill the immortal but enough to keep him in agony forever. Unable to get a release, even in death, he offered to take the place of Prometheus. As punishment for giving fire to man, the god sentence Prometheus to be chained to a rock, have his liver devoured each day and grow back each night, forever. She had never been able to relate to that story more than she could at this moment. Another wave of something so completely excruciating tore through her body and she just couldn't take it anymore, opening her mouth, and forced all the pain out in a scream.

Dean, Sam, and Bobby cowered and covered their ears as the scream erupted from the girl. The first thought that Dean had was astonishment that such a big sound could come from such a small girl. The second thought that Dean had was that if the girl was screaming, then the girl was alive. Dean made his way over to the bed and the girl sat up quickly. "Hi, could you possibly stop screaming?" Dean asked and she stopped. He was pretty sure that had more to do with the fact that she was out of breath than the fact that he asked.

Chloe stared around confused, breathing deeply and Dean reached out to her. She jumped up and backed away off the couch. "No, hi, just calm down." Dean smiled. "Everything's ok."

"What the fuck?" She breathed out confused, turned to the door and ran out.

"Well that went well." Sam sighed as he and Dean went after her.

Chloe looked around confused. Before she died she was in upstate New York, in the woods just outside of the motel where her car had been parked. Now she had no idea where she was, there were cars everywhere and she was still freaking barefoot. She needed to get it together, she needed to take stock and figure out where she was and what was going on. She slid in between a broken down Chevy and a beat up mini van and crouched down low taking deep breaths. Her shirt was covered in blood and she sighed. She needed to get out of here, she needed to get to a phone, she needed some coffee.

"Hey." Dean was suddenly beside her but before she could run away he reached out and grabbed her wrist. "Look, I realize that you're probably freaking out right now, waking up in a strange place surrounded by strange people but think how we feel. You were dead and then you were alive so I think it's safe to say that we're both pretty freaked out and if we all just calm down for a second maybe we can figure all this out."

Chloe nodded and then lowered herself to sit on the ground. "Ok."

"If I let go of your wrist, promise you won't run?" Dean asked.

"Promise." She smiled letting her head rest against the door to the mini van.

"Good." Dean let go of her wrist and sat down on the ground next to her, resting.

"You're not strangers." Chloe finally broke the silence.

"What?" Dean asked.

"You said I woke up surrounded by strangers but you're not strangers. I know you." She admitted to him. "I mean I don't know the guy with the beard but I know you."

"I'm not sure I understand…"

"Are you ok?" A very familiar voice said Chloe scrambled to her feet.

"Castiel." Her smile was huge and genuine and Dean couldn't help but notice the way it completely changed her. She reached out tentatively and brought her hand to his throat, rubbing the spot where his wound had been.

"Are you ok?" He asked again grabbing her wrist.

"I'm fine, I'm just, really glad you guys are real." She smiled then laughed.

"Can we go inside now?" Dean asked. "And maybe have some explanations."

"Sure." Chloe nodded. "Uh, do you know where my car is?" She looked around. "I'd like to shower, change my clothes."

"I can try and find you something to change into." Dean said. "But your car's right around the corner."

"I've got clothes in my car." Chloe smiled at him.

"There's nothing in your car." Dean said. "Trust me I searched all through that thing."

Chloe smiled and held out her hand and Dean dropped her keys in it. She walked over to the car, climbed in and opened the glove compartment, reaching all the way to the back, shoving the manual out of the way and pushed a button that Dean hadn't noticed before. Suddenly the back seat popped up. Chloe climbed out of the front, into the back, lifted up the seat and Dean saw a duffel bag. "You searched the whole thing?"

"Shut up." Dean rolled his eyes at her as they walked inside.

"Still no shoes." Chloe said walking barefoot into the living room as she towel dried her hair. "Sorry if I took a while, I just felt really gross." She draped the towel over her shoulders and frowned. "How long was I…you know?"

"Dead?" Dean asked.

"Yeah." Chloe nodded.

"Eight days." Sam told her.

"Eight…" Chloe stared at Sam unbelieving. "Eight days? As in a week?"

"Yeah." Sam nodded.

"Wow." She sounded worried.

"So then you have done this before?" Dean asked her.

"Far more often than I'd like." Chloe smiled at him. "I've never gone more than a day before and I've been dead a week? Wow."

"Yeah." Sam sat down. "You want to explain to us, how exactly that happened."

"I would love to, really but here's the thing. I haven't gone a week without coffee since I was like 14, and if you want me to make any sense at all…"

"I'll start a fresh pot." Bobby smiled at her.

"You're an Angel." Chloe flashed her brightest smile and him and Dean felt a small annoyance that Bobby and Castiel had both gotten her 100 watt smile already and he hadn't. Bobby came back a few minutes later holding a cup of fresh coffee and watching her take the first sip was entertaining. She wrapped her hands around the mug and it was almost as if her whole body wrapped around the small cup. She inhaled the steam and savored every smell before finally taking a small tentative sip and then taking a real one.

Chloe looked up and smiled sheepishly to see everyone staring at her. "It's really good."

"You seriously needed a fix because Bobby makes the worst coffee in the world." Sam laughed.

She went and flashed Sam that 100 watt smile and Dean got really annoyed. "Hell motor oil would taste like ambrosia to me at the moment." Sam smiled back at her and she put the cup down. "So, let's start at the beginning. I'm from a small town in Kansas." Chloe said and Dean raised his eyebrows.

"Really?" He smiled. "So are we."

"Where abouts?" Chloe asked curiously.

"Lawrence." Dean said.

"I know Lawrence, it's about an hour outside of Metropolis, I drive through Lawrence almost every day." Chloe said and Dean nodded. "I grew up in Smallville."

"Meteor capital of the world." Dean smiled. "I've read of that place, it's pretty weird."

"Weird doesn't even cover it." Chloe said. "When the meteor shower hit the town it was devastated. The whole place was basically demolished and there's still meteor rocks scattered all over. Only these aren't like the meteor rocks you see at a museum or anything, these are different. They change people."

"Change people how?" Bobby asked.

"Well a lot of different things. I've seen it make people invisible, able to walk through walls, control bees, electricity, glass. People who can teleport, astral project, start fires with their minds. You name it I've seen it, hell I've had my share of powers." Chloe shrugged. "One time I had the ability to make people tell the truth, then of course there's the whole healing, dying, coming back to life thing."

"You got this power from a meteor rock?" Bobby frowned.

"Actually the healing power I inherited from my mother but she got hers from a meteor rock." Chloe explained.

"So you're like a mutant?" Dean asked. "Like an X-men?"

"A really lame X-men but yeah, I guess so." Chloe laughed and Dean thought that might even be better than her smile.

"And is that how you found us?" Dean asked. "You said you knew who we were. Is that from some meteor ability?"

"I thought so at first." Chloe shook her head. "But apparently it's not."

"So how do you know us?" Dean asked. "How did you know Castiel was going to be in those woods?"

"Ok, you travel across the country fighting demons and ghosts and this guys an Angel of the Lord so I'm hoping if anyone can listen to this story with an open mind it'll be you guys." Chloe said.

"Trust me there's nothing you can say that we would find unbelievable." Sam laughed.

"Fine." Chloe took a deep breath. "It wasn't just rocks and space junk that came down in that meteor shower. Other things, like alien things fell to earth. One of those things was called the Interactive Brain Construct or Brainiac. He was an organic alien computer that infected me, possessed me, screwed with my brain and I didn't even know he was in there."

"An organic alien computer?" Dean frowned. Chloe just nodded. "Ok, I'm going to go with it."

"There's also this beast." Chloe said. "We're not exactly sure what it is but we know that Brainiac wanted to use this Beast to destroy the human race."

"Still with you." Dean assured her.

"So about six months ago, I was getting married." Chloe said. "I was in the dress, I had the flowers and the cake and the regular pre wedding jitters. The bridesmaids had just gone down the aisle when the lights went out. There was the most horrifying sound and the beast pulled an Owen Wilson."

At Sam's confused look Dean smirked. "Wedding Crashers." Sam nodded in understanding.

"It killed a few guests, injured a bunch of people, put the groom in the hospital and kidnapped me." Chloe seemed to shrink into herself as she told the story. "It uh, it activated Brainiac who took over and went about his plan to enslave the human race, using my body, in my wedding dress."

"I bet that was a sight to see." Sam smiled at her.

"I was told it was equal parts terrifying and surreal." Chloe smirked. "I, well Brainiac, killed a lot of people before some friends, who specialize in the weird things that happen in Smallville managed to get it out of me." She was silent for a long time and then shook her head. "They didn't start until after Brainiac left. He must have done something, screwed up the way my brain worked."

"What didn't start?" Dean asked her.

"The voices." Chloe explained.