Author's Notes: After losing my computer, having it crash, and resorting to the public library, here, at long last, is the much-awaited sixth part. There is about two more chapters of material left, but I've been going back and forth between two versions and I've yet to decide. Also, I changed my mind; there are spoilers for 'Hammer of the Gods'.

"Dresden, I need you. I've got a case," Murphy whispered into her cell phone, staring at the crime scene.

John Wayfield lay dead, sprawled on top the remains of his kitchen table, blood soaking his clothing and pooling around his corpse.

"Murph, I was pretty sure I was never allowed near a crime scene any more. Cas! I could use your help here for a moment! I got a location! Sorry about that. Look, Sam and Dean have some badges, and no one knows them, and I'm a little busy with other things. They're about as good as me," the wizard explained, practically shouting over a low buzzing sound in the background.

"They're wanted criminals, Dresden. Supposedly dead, wanted criminals. I am not letting them anywhere near my crime scene."

"And so am I. I'm tracking vampires, I'm a little busy, Murphy, this is a huge nest of them. I think it might be the Red Court, and… Oh shit. Cas, what time is it?" Dresden paused for a second, some unidentified male voice shouting something Murphy couldn't quite decipher.. "Hell's bells. Look, Sam and Dean and Cas can help, all right? I've gotta go, I'm late."

The line went dead. Murphy hung up her phone, shaking her head as she stared at the body.

"How'd you three get in here?" Murphy was relatively sure that she already knew, but maybe she'd assumed wrong.

Dean flashed her his best cocky smile and pulled an FBI badge from the inner pocket of his suit jacket. "Agents Plant, Page and Odbody."

Murphy gave him a bitchface so perfect Dean momentarily wondered if she and Sam weren't somehow related. "It's A Wonderful Life and classic rock? No one's ever caught you in that one?"

That stung a little, thought Dean, shoving the badge back into his pocket. No girl should've been able to resist him when he had the charm on full-blast like that. Maybe Murphy was gay?

"This was not a bear attack," Castiel said slowly, gazing around the room. "Something manifested the snack cake that slayed this man. It would have to be extremely powerful in order to do so."

Sam, Dean and Murphy all gave Castiel their variations on the bitchface. "Remember the time we went to the police station to find Raphael?" hissed Dean.

Cas nodded, expression serious.

"Well, this is just like that. These people, they think it was a bear, and we're going to let them think it was a bear. Understand, Clarence?"

After a moment of staring at Dean like he was stupid, Castiel turned back to the body. "The…bear…that did this was very powerful. It would have to possess the strength of a pagan god or an angel in order to manifest…a bear in such a manner." He smiled, looking smug for a moment at his (admittedly, quite awful) lying abilities.

"Murph, who are these people?" Stallings wandered over, giving the hunters and angel a look-over.

"I am Agent Odbody. I am employed by the Federal Bureau of Investigations and I am investigating the murder of Henry Wayfield. These are my colleagues, Agents Plant and Page," explained Castiel. He gave the cop one of his intense stares, like he could bore holes into Stallings's soul.

Stallings just nodded, and Sam had to wonder if Castiel had used any of his angelic abilities on the cop. "All right. Murphy, I'll be out getting coffee. You just let me know if you need anything." He smiled dreamily as he walked out of the room.

Yeah, Cas had definitely whammed him with something.

"Fat corporate dick getting killed by a humanoid Twinkie manifested by something with the powers of an angel?" Sam whispered to Dean, looking at the corpse.

Dean shook his head. "Lucifer slaughtered him, dude. There's no way."

The cop who'd been taking photographs of the crime scene laughed. "I'm offended, guys. I manage to hide from the entire Heavenly Host for thousands of years, even had old Mikey convinced I was dead and gone, and you think that my bro could just kill me like that? I'm embarrassed, honestly."

He smiled that shit-eating, self-righteous smirk that Sam and Dean were all too familiar with, and tossed the camera aside.

"So how have you two idiots been handling the world without me?"

Dresden stared at the Queen of Winter, trying his hardest not to come off as desperate as he felt.

"Can you tell me anything?" he asked quietly.

Mab didn't respond, just continued to pet the oversized fae-cat on her lap.

The silence was crushing.

"Everything has a price, Dresden." The voice didn't come from Mab, but rather from the cat, Grimalkin, but it was enough. The wizard wondered idly if Mab had the same problem with her voice as Castiel. "And I am rather tired of using favors."

Dresden nodded. It was better than nothing. "You help me get my daughter back, you can have anything."

"Become my Knight. Become my Knight, and I will offer you assistance and power," Grimalkin said, voice rumbling with the filtering of Mab's voice through its vocal cords.

"You know, I have other options… Uriel, for one, and there's always the Darkhallow…" Dresden was desperate, but not desperate enough to say yes, not yet.

Mab laughed, the sound harsh and broken, her own voice instead of Grimalkin's.

"Uriel is dead, child. Dead at the hands of Anael, because of the brothers Winchester and Castiel. The angel will do you no good." Grimalkin rubbed against Mab's stroking hand even as he spoke.

"Brothers Winchester? You mean, Sam and Dean Winchester? …And Cas? Castiel?" A sinking feeling pooled in the pit of his stomach.

Mab snapped her head upwards, no longer petting the cat in her lap. "You know of their current location?"

And that, Dresden knew, was going to be his bargaining chip.

"I do."

"Reveal to me their location at this time and I will offer you the full aid of my Court in your search for your daughter, in addition to my aid personally." It was no louder than a whisper, but it had come from Mab herself, not Grimalkin, her voice just as rough as her laugh.

Dresden didn't take too long deciding, but he knew he'd have felt guilty if he didn't ask what Mab was going to with them.

"What do you want with them?"

Even the shadowy light of Dresden's subbasement, he could see the cold smile spread across Mab's face.

"They helped kill my favorite angel, Dresden. I want them to pay for their crimes."

In the back of his mind, Dresden could see Sam and Dean, the way they'd joked with each other at the Waffle House, the endless cycle of sarcasm and pretending everything was okay when it was obvious even to Dresden that it wasn't. And Castiel, Castiel was just an angel trying to stop the freaking Apocalypse, pretending that he was fine with the way everything he'd ever known was a lie.

They were just three people who were actually trying to help Dresden. And these days, if Dresden was being honest, people like that were getting harder and harder to come by.

But this was his daughter.

Family always comes first, Dresden thought grimly, nodding. "I'll get you the Winchester brothers and Castiel."

"Don't act so surprised. Did you really think I'd let old Lucy ice me like that? I'm still an archangel. Just because I haven't been home in a while doesn't mean that I've gotten flabby enough to let him kill me that easily."

Gabriel flopped into a chair beside the collapsed table and the corpse, pulling a lollipop from his pocket and unwrapping the candy slowly. "I was wondering how long it'd take you before you guys figured out that there was no haunting and no vampires. Turns out you blockheads are still too stupid for your own good, though, and I had to go and kill Mr. Wayfield here before you got it."

Sam and Dean continued to gape; Castiel continued to give Gabriel his blank look of confusion. Murphy decided to be the bigger one of all of them and make a move.

An archangel. I am standing before an archangel, Murphy thought. She was a born-and-raised Catholic; she went to church faithfully and she read the Bible. And now here was something directly from Scripture, sucking on a lollipop and confessing to murder.

She took a deep breath and made her decision.

"You are under arrest for the murder of Henry Wayfield…" Murphy said it confidently, pulling out her handcuffs. I'm about to arrest an archangel…

The blonde man smirked at her. "Name's Gabriel. Archangel. And Henry Wayfield wasn't murdered. I'm just more creative than my bros when it comes to smiting cold-hearted dicks. Lightning is so clichéd."

"Gabriel. Why have you summoned us here?"asked Castiel, speaking just loud enough that Murphy could barely hear him.

"Because, little bro. I found a new way to take care of Lucy."