Author's note: Thanks so much to Larkafree2, Maknatuna, Crazy as a Cheshire Cat, SummerMistedDragon, XxZessxX, QuietCrash, LeeMarieJack and LadyGrelka for last chapter's reviews!

Special thanks to Treeni for beta-reading!

Listen guys, I'm in a rather... dark place right now and I can't promise an update for next week... it all depends on how things will go in the next few days, but I have very little hope that things will get better anytime soon. Motivation and inspiration are non-existent... If you could find it in you to leave me a couple nice words, that would make me smile.

4

"Okay, look, I need your help," Hel explained to her half-brother after the obligatory hugs were done with. Usually, Hel had no problem hugging people she was on good terms with, but she was stressed and needed to discuss an important issue as soon as possible.

"Sure thing, sis," Sleipnir replied in his usual cheerful tone, before he plopped down in one of Hel's armchairs, across from Thor who made himself comfortable on the couch. It was a little unusual for Hel to call Sleipnir and ask for a talk. They generally met each other now and then when one of them -usually Sleipnir- wanted to borrow something, or when they were at the same events. One of those happened often enough that they never went too long without meeting each other for their tastes.

"Good," Hel nodded seriously. She chose to keep standing, which was about the only option she had if she wanted to make herself appear tall in this company. Sleipnir might only be barely over six foot tall, as compared to Thor's 6'6'' frame, but they both towered over Hel when all of them were standing.

"It's about dad," Hel added, giving Sleipnir a stern look when her brother pulled his cell phone from the pocket of his all too colorful Bermuda shorts and started to play around with it. This was a serious matter that demanded their full attention, dammit!

"I'm listening. See? Totally listening," Sleipnir raised his hands defensively and then simultaneously put his phone away and turning his baseball cap, so it for once sat on his head with the shield in front, "This is my serious listening face."

Thor hid his almost laugh behind his palm and cleared his throat discretely to get rid of the amused noise that desperately wanted to escape. This was mostly between Hel and Sleipnir, Thor was only there as a spectator really, so it wasn't his place to get involved and, in a way, take sides. Even if he thought Hel was overreacting a little.

"He found himself a new pet," Hel explained after she had taken a moment to cross eyes with her brother and make sure he understood that she was damn serious about all this. Sometimes Sleipnir needed to be told two or three times before he understood something, especially when it was about serious issues.

It was pretty obvious that Sleipnir had no idea what Hel found troubling about the situation, so she added, "A human."

"You totally lost me," Sleipnir admitted with a slightly helpless shrug. It wasn't that he wasn't trying to take things serious and share his sister's worries, but sometimes she was just too hard to follow. Hopefully, she would explain things in a way that Sleipnir could and would understand.

"Dad is hanging out with a hunter," Hel groaned. To be fair, their father choosing just any human as a pet wouldn't have been too troubling, even if he hadn't done anything alike in centuries, so she couldn't blame Sleipnir for not immediately understanding the gravity of the situation... so far.

"O-kay," Sleipnir commented carefully, before he shrugged and stated, "Still don't get it."

This far Hel's eyes were still golden and her hair the same red as always. As soon as the green eyes and/or black hair came out, Sleipnir knew he had to tread very carefully. He didn't want to get burned... again.

"You don't understand the words I'm saying, or you don't get what the problem is?" Hel asked, clearly trying to keep her cool, but she was close to losing it, if the moment her eyes were a poisonous green before she blinked it away was anything to go by, "'Cause both are equally simple and obvious!"

"Some idiot dragons just raised Eve, but you're worried about dad shacking up with a hunter like it's a big deal," Sleipnir commented, frowning slightly. He obviously didn't understand what Hel thought the big problem was, but maybe explaining to her why he didn't see it would placate her a little. Honestly, Sleipnir couldn't think of a reason for why hanging out with a hunter would be bad for their father. They knew he liked to mess with humans, including hunters, every so often. If any of the pagan gods knew how far they could go, it was Loki! "Long as they're both adults and into..."

"Sometimes I really think you're more horse than man," Hel exclaimed as she threw her arms in the air in exasperation.

Sleipnir tried to keep his mouth shut by pressing his lips together as hard as he could. This was not the moment for jokes. This was not the moment for jokes. This was not the moment... Oh, screw it!

"That's what she said," Sleipnir burst out and since he was screwed already, he also got up and raised his palm in the air toward Thor, "High five!"

Hel stormed out of the room, but not quick enough not to hear the obnoxiously loud sound of two Norse gods high fiving each other. Something had to go up in flames right now!

"What happened here?" Sam asked nobody in particular as he punched the wall of the cell they had thrown him into, "What did I do?"

He had been at this town before, they discovered as much back in that restaurant. Sam and their grandfather apparently worked a case here while Sam was still soulless, that much was clear. Whatever they hunted back then was still around, that was at least very likely since he had received that text message calling him back here.

Unfortunately, Sam only sort of remembered beating the town's sheriff up badly after he came face to face with the man, in front of the police station no less. What little of the memory had returned to him made Sam's skin crawl uncomfortably. They had to knock someone out to make their exit before, that was a part of the hunter life at times as unfortunate as it was, but the way he had beaten the sheriff was just...

"Sure looks like you got yourself arrested," Loki answered Sam's question, though he fully knew it wasn't meant for him to begin with, "Personally, I thought that was obvious enough."

Sam jumped as he was pulled out of his thoughts and back into the present. Loki's entrance might have startled him, but Sam couldn't say he was scared. In a way, he was a little relieved to see the god. There was a pretty solid chance that no monster would get the jump on Sam as long as Loki was around, prison cell or not. There was something else that was a little worrying though.

"No worries, they only see what I want them to see," Loki commented, after he followed Sam's eyes to the camera overlooking the cell. Like Loki could be caught on camera unless he allowed it! Alright, there was the very small chance that he simply wasn't paying attention, but that was clearly not the case here. Either way, a good trickster always payed attention to the details.

"How'd you get in here?" Loki asked with a smirk as he produced a lollipop from his pocket. Unfortunately chances were whatever Sam had done to get himself arrested was nowhere near outraging enough to be very entertaining. However, it had the potential to be interesting.

"I don't really know," Sam replied, sounding pained, "I mean, apparently I beat up the sheriff last time I was here, I just don't..."

Loki blinked a couple of times, before he laughed. The story was better than what he had imagined. He was tempted to make a comment like 'You beat the sheriff, but you didn't beat the deputy?' Chances were Sam wouldn't find that very amusing though. Not that Loki fully understood why he gave a damn.

"A cracked marble sure is inconvenient at times, huh?" Loki asked instead, "You're lucky I can relate, so..."

Sam jumped again, more violently this time, when Loki snapped his fingers and a part of the wall just exploded, leaving a hole more than big enough even for the giant Sam to get to the street. Sam had escaped from prisons and various cells before, but this was just plain weird.

"What? You'd rather have them think you just disappeared into thin air?" Loki asked with a raised eyebrow, before he made shrugged and added, "Running would be good just about now. Didn't break you out for nothing. Shoo!"

It only took a couple of minutes for Hel to calm down enough to return to the room where Sleipnir and Thor were trying their best to look a little remorseful. Only a little, though. Still, that was enough for Hel to decide to give the talk another try. This time she would approach the topic from a different direction and just tell Sleipnir what exactly it was she expected him to do. That should work better.

"Yeah, sis, I think that's as likely as two out of three people around here getting a Brazilian wax job," Sleipnir commented, after he heard what his sister's plan was and how it involved him. Hel had well earned her reputation to be quite the firecracker, but once she went off you generally only had to wait for a couple of minutes until she could take a joke again. It come as part of the territory of growing up as her father's daughter.

Thor was about to tell Sleipnir to speak for himself, but actually two out of three still was a solid guess, even if Sleipnir had probably judged who the third person was all wrong.

"I'm only asking you to keep dad distracted, how hard can that be?" Hel asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Considering how little we have in common..." Sleipnir retorted without missing a beat. He had a lot of respect and love for his father, nobody could say he didn't, but there was a reason why they only met up every once in a while. Their ways didn't cross naturally all that often and when they arranged a meeting it usually meant that one of them had to settle for doing something he usually wouldn't do. At least not that particular moment.

It was a pity too, because they nearly had a few things in common. Sleipnir was fun loving, just like Loki, but their ideal definitions of what was fun weren't fully compatible. Some things were sort of close though.

"Go to a horse race, for Pete's sake!" Hel suggested, clearly getting worked up again much sooner than usually expected from her after she already went off on them once, "Troll the people there by taking part with dad as the jockey, if you must!"

Sleipnir had to admit that his sister's idea came close to something that could actually work, if not for one little detail. She had asked him to keep their father busy for a couple of weeks in the very least. Hel's logic that a lot of things could happen to a hunter in a couple of weeks -not that she planned to do anything to Sam Winchester, she was merely stating facts- was sound. The assumption that Loki might very well not be interested in his new human anymore after not seeing him for a couple of weeks wasn't all that farfetched either.

"That's totally going to work," Thor snorted, before Sleipnir could voice about the same thought.

"What was that?" Hel asked, narrowing her eyes at Thor.

"Nothing, I said nothing," Thor replied with a perfectly innocent smile.

"Excuse me for trying to keep my father safe!" Hel exclaimed frustrated. Everybody was a critic around here, but nobody came up with better ideas! Scratch that, nobody other than her came up with any ideas, period. At this point they didn't even have to be better ideas, but a little involvement from the other people who were supposed to care about Loki would have been nice.

"Hel, it's about time you calmed down a little," Thor stated in a placating, yet firm tone. Hel was going to regret losing her temper soon enough and even if she might not see it that moment, Thor was only trying to keep the things she would have to be sorry for to a minimum.

"Calm down? How could I calm down right now?" Hel hissed, her amber eyes flashing green once more, before she added scathingly, "Of course, you wouldn't understand..."

"I gave up Mjolnir to make this work!" Thor interrupted Hel in a booming voice that was usually reserved for the halls of Asgard, "Don't you dare suggest I'm not fully committed to the cause!"

For a moment Hel wanted to argue that Thor lost that damn hammer all the time anyway. The thing got misplaced or stolen so often it spent more time apart from Thor than with him! Of course, Thor had never given Mjolnir up willingly to make a deal before. Even though he claimed the hammer always found its way back to him eventually, Hel could see that it had been by no means easy for him to part with it. Hel closed her eyes for a moment and took a deep breath before she said, "Sorry."

"Guys, I have no idea what that was all about and I don't think I want to know. I know way too many of your secrets already," Sleipnir interjected, "But I'll try to think of something. Anything. Just not sure I can even get close to the time frame you had in mind."

He could think of a couple of things that would keep Loki busy for a day or a night, if he could convince their father to show up for them that was. Still, it was a chance and maybe, if they planned this well, there could be a couple of activities in a row.

"Anything would help right now," Hel admitted with a forced smile, "Thanks, Sleepy."

"You got it, Hell-o," Sleipnir replied and grinned when an idea hit him, "Maybe I can get him to come to the next beach party. Hey, you could come, too! Sure would make it likelier for dad to show up."

Hel nodded thoughtfully. This might just work and it was a good start. That would be at least one day their father would not spend either with or keeping tabs on Sam Winchester. It also would be one day Hel didn't have to discreetly keep an eye on Loki. It was unlikely to solve their problem -that Sleipnir didn't even fully understand, but lucky didn't want to know too much about- but it was a start for sure.

"Just, almighty God of thunder, bring shorts this time," Sleipnir added on an afterthought.

"You said there was no dress code," Thor declared just a little defensively. It wasn't like he hadn't asked what he was supposed to wear for the occasion! It was Sleipnir who said it really didn't matter!

"There wasn't, but a bunch of the guys got pretty insecure," Sleipnir shrugged casually. Besides, having to go and get some appropriate beach wear for Thor would hopefully keep Hel distracted from her worries for a little while. Nobody should say that Sleipnir wasn't considerate.

"So, you told Dean the truth yet?" Loki asked, twirling yet another lollipop between his fingers. He had chosen not to join Sam in his mad dash from the police station -getting a good work out now and then was something the god really wasn't concerned about- but there were still a couple of things to talk about, so he appeared once more after Sam had reached the abandoned house he was currently occupying with his brother.

"I... I didn't have the chance to!" Sam replied more defensively than he was comfortable with once more, "I tried, but then I got this message and we came here... people are disappearing left and right and I've been here before, but I just can't... I know we've cracked this case before, but it's just..."

That was what bothered Sam the most about his missing memories. It wasn't like he had been in a coma for over a year and was missing that time. Something like that would be bad enough, but at least then he wouldn't come into a situation where people were holding him accountable for something he had done, but couldn't remember. Of course, Dean was adamant that anything Sam had done while he was soulless was not current Sam's fault, but Sam found it hard to share that opinion when he was the one who had to answer to people who very much felt like he had wronged them.

"So? Crack it again," Loki commented seemingly completely untouched by Sam's predicament, "I didn't come here to listen to you whine, or to solve any cases for you."

"Then why did you come here?" Sam asked testily. That he still couldn't make sense of anything Loki did didn't exactly help the whole situation. Life was confusing enough at the moment without having a pagan god mocking him on his shoulder!

"I am your god," Loki answered in a way that made it sound like he was simply stating facts and not answering the question at all.

"And you're playing guardian angel now?" Sam raised an eyebrow. Somehow Loki was good at making Sam feel like he was an ant and Loki was the kid holding the magnifier. Of course, Loki chose to be a pretty benevolent god for pagan standards -as far as Sam could judge that- so far, but he still had that metaphoric magnifier in his back pocket and only had to bring it out.

"No, that means you can ask all the questions you want, but I won't ever give you a clear answer, if you get one at all," Loki clarified with a gleeful grin.

"Look, Dean should be here any..." Sam started his -this far- most successful excuse for getting rid of Loki quickly. It looked like Loki really didn't want to meet Dean, though he didn't seem worried that Sam or anyone else might stake him for good this time. Of course, if Loki was Gabriel he didn't exactly have to worry about any of them having the means to kill him... One of these days Sam would have to get to the bottom of that. Holy oil was a big maybe, but if it didn't work he'd just have a very annoyed pagan god on his hands.

"Using your brother as an excuse will get old fast, Sambo," Loki stated in a warning tone, "You better tell him about this before I do it."

Sam huffed out a humorless chuckle. Consistency wasn't Loki's strong suit apparently. Every time they talked he expected Sam to do something different. The god might as well know that his changing requirements were hard to follow, so Sam asked, "I thought you didn't care...?"

"Oh hey, look at that!" Loki suddenly exclaimed, cutting Sam off mid-question to point out a spider web on the ceiling and then sing-songed, "The itsy-bitsy spider..."

Pictures of a spider-monster assaulted Sam so quickly that he couldn't even express any confusion over Loki's sudden change of topic. Apparently, Sam and Samuel had hunted an Arachne and the current disappearances fit right into the hunting pattern of that monster. Apparently, they hadn't finished the job like they thought they did.

"Thank you," Sam breathed once the images of the past he didn't remember for the most part faded into the background a little. Loki had to have known what he did there, right? What were the chances that he just randomly chose to bring up something that would jog Sam's memory like that?

"I did nothing, but okay. Finally the recognition I deserve!" Loki stated with a smirk, before he gave a mock salute and added, "See you, Jolly Green."

Sam quickly grabbed his phone and wrote a message to Dean saying that he knew what creature they were dealing with. Dean wouldn't be happy to hear about the part where the knowledge came from an uncovered memory, but they could deal with that later. Among other things.