A Hero's Worth by Sam and Dean Winchester (with a little help by me)

Castiel ran in circles as his lithe ferret form wove around the motel room. He squeaked and tried to take flight once more. His black wings, now only three inches from wing tip to wing tip, failed to support his brown freckled body.

He huffed and went to inspect his surroundings.

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

Sam bit his lip and looked at the blinking cursor. Dean walked in from the kitchen with a fresh cup of tea and plopped down on the bed. "Well?" Dean asked sipping the hot tea. "What do we have so far?"

"He's a ferret." Sam frowned. "That's were I got stuck."

Dean smiled, "I know a great joke about ferrets! So like, there is these two ferrets in a bar and one's really drunk and he yells at the sober one…"

"Dean." Sam huffed. "Not now. Fan fiction is more important."

Dean nodded. "True. Here, let me see. I've got an idea…"

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

Castiel raised himself on his hind legs and scoured the room. He scurried over to the duffle bag that was thrown on the floor. Jumping inside it he dug past the raunchy magazines, the holy water, the bible, the rabbit's foot, until he found the hex bag.

He squeaked joyously as he grasped it by his teeth and tugged at it until it came out of the duffle bag. Carefully he dragged it to the center of the room.

He gnawed on the string holding it together until it broke apart. The smell of chicken was immediately apparent to his miniaturized senses. But no! He would not be distracted by a tasty bone; he had to figure out where the witch had taken Sam when they had left Dean sorely beaten in the arcade they had all been playing at.

o-o-o-o-o-o-o

Sam took the laptop back. He glanced at the screen then up at Dean. "Really?" Sam rolled his eyes. "Witches are so over done."

Dean crossed his arms. "You're just pissed because a witch kicked your ass."

"What are you talking about!" Sam threw his hands in the air.

"Give me the laptop and you'll see." Dean said wiggling his eyebrows. He sneezed loudly in Sam's face.

"Ew!" Sam groaned. "No! Let me show you what a real villain is."

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

As Castiel opened his mouth to squeak out the counter curse in some sort of ferret-Latin hybrid language a Wendigo kicked down the door. It's gaunt frame towered over the whimpering ferret as it sauntered inside growling.

Castiel frantically flapped his small wings to no avail. He dived under the bed terrified for his small life. Above him the ferocious beast sniffed out its prey. Using its long thin claws it tore apart the motel searching for its next meal.

o-o-o-o-o-o

Dean started laughing so hard he started coughing again, turning bright red in the face. After Sam calmed him down with cherry lozenges he said "That is the most ridiculous thing I've ever read."

Sam huffed. "Please. You were almost Wendigo bait, you know this right."

Dean swallowed his lozenge. "No. It was worse. Now give me the damn computer I'm gonna show you that older does mean better."

o-o-o-o-o-o-o

After satisfying itself with a cheeseburger, the beast hunkered away. Castiel sighed happily and returned back to his ferret toy, the cursed hex bag. After batting it around, he realized that his ferret body was greatly affecting his thoughts.

He fought for impulse control as every urge in his body told him that is was perfectly acceptable to claw at Dean's shirts. Focusing with every ounce of strength he had he conjured what little was left of his angel powers to undo the spell.

With a small pop, he vanished.

o-o-o-o-o-o-o

"It is now sadly apparent why you flunked second grade English." Sam said while shaking his head.

"Ha ha Sam." Dean said dryly as he pressed save.

"Just give it to me," Sam held out his hand, "go get soup while I put an end to this."

Dean glared but did as he was told. Sam leaned forward and began to type.

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

Sam struggled valiantly against his bonds. His captor walked into the room. She brushed her long curly blonde bangs back her forehead so she could stare at him with her icy blue eyes. "We've got you now," she took in a deep breath, "Sam Winchester."

"You'll never hold me down." He said grimily.

"What makes you say that?" She said advancing.

Sam smiled devilishly at her. "Because you want me."

The witch rolled her eyes. "Please… why would I…"

She looked him up and down, admiring every detail of his physique. "Well, I... you're… my name is Giselle."

At that moment, Sam's hard work was rewarded as he undid the triple knot holding his wrists together. He stood up and swept her into his arms. "Giselle," he said looking into her eyes, "you didn't choose this life. I can tell you're not that evil, this spell you're working on wouldn't have worked anyway. Stay with me."

Giselle looked up at him and thought about it briefly. "Is that a gun in your pocket?"

"Well, yes," Sam said frankly, "I did come here to fight evil. But you're not evil."

She kissed him happily.

Dean burst into the room. "I got here in the knick of time and I have a gun!"

Sam pulled apart from Giselle's kiss. "Good job, Dean. Meanwhile my brain, with no help from your brawn, effectively solved this case and eliminated the threat."

He smacked Giselle's ass. "Isn't that right baby?"

The formerly evil witch giggled.

Castiel reappeared into the room and fell into Dean's shoulder. Dean screamed, "Holy crap! There's a ferret on my shoulder! Get it off! Get it off!"

With a flick of his hand Castiel was thrown across the room. He landed with a thud on the opposing wood wall. As he started to fall his wings began to flap faster than a humming bird's, keeping him airborne.

Dean huffed as Castiel flew circles around his head. He squeaked angrily at Dean.

Giselle kissed Sam on the cheek. "I can change him back, you know."

Sam looked at Dean, who was trying to swat away the flying ferret. "Nah. It's fine."

Castiel nipped at Dean's ear.

Sam looked at Giselle. "No really, they're good like that."

She hugged him. "You're my hero."

Sam ran a hand through his thick gorgeous hair and tossed it over his shoulder with a dazzling smile. "And don't you ever forget it."

The End

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

"So, how'd it end?" Dean asked from the kitchen table as he slurped on his alphabet soup.

"You're the hero." Sam said without looking up from the computer screen.

"Good." Dean looked down at his bowl and stirred his spoon until it spelled a-w-e-s-o-m-e in nice edible letters. "That's how they all end."

After a couple clicks, Sam had an account and was uploading the document. "Alright, let's post this."

Dean carefully swallowed the letters w, i, and n. "Don't we need a beta?"

"No! This is perfect! Everything makes sense!" Sam reassured him.

Dean smiled. "Alrighty then!"

o-o-o-o-o-o-o

Archie clicked on the recent stories. He and Castiel were immediately intrigued by A Hero's Worth and started to read it. Archie broke out in a fit of giggles. "You're adorable!" he said in between laughs.

Castiel glared. "I don't think it's amusing at all to be a ferret."

"Are you kidding? They're so small and soft!" Archie cupped his hands together. "They fit in your hands just like so…"

"Well, if it's so easy why don't you do it?" Castiel snapped.

Archie looked up at him with big round eyes. He looked down at his furry red body and squeaked in surprise. "You bastard!" he wanted to say. Instead he squeaked furiously.

Chuck staggered downstairs. "Where's Archie?"

A small red ferret circled around Chuck's feet. Castiel shrugged. Chuck picked up the ferret. "I know a good joke about ferrets." He smiled moving the ferret's arms. "So two ferrets are in a bar. The drunk one says to the sober one…"

"I slept with your mother. I know, already." Castiel waved a dismissive hand and disappeared.

"That's not the punch line." Chuck frowned. Archie bit his nose.

Chuck dropped Archie, who miraculously landed on his feet. He clutched at his nose and frowned. "It's hard being a writer."

The end