"Eliana? Are you there?" Again Castiel's deep voice, stronger now, tugged at my heart. I lowered my face closer to his, "Yes, Castiel. I've always been here." A huge smile of disbelief blossomed across my face as my tears transformed into ones of utter joy. His blue eyes kept closing under the strain, but with the sound of my voice they flew open again to fix a tired gaze on my teary one. A flicker of a smile fluttered across his mouth as he recognised me and I thought my heart would explode with relief. He truly was alive. Slowly, he raised himself up and attempted a sitting position.

"Hey, hey, you nearly died in there, lie down again Cas," I said, worry etched into my words. I didn't want him straining himself too much just yet. He just shook his head carefully and finally reached an upright position, calmly waving away my attempts to reach out and help him. I knelt close to him, ready to offer any support he needed, and examined him closely for any signs that he'd been basically dead. Strangely, all I saw was intense fatigue.

He wearily looked at my face again and his head cocked into that all too familiar confused expression – and with that I lapsed into a fresh flood of tears. I thought I'd never see that frustrating expression ever again!

"Why are you crying, Eliana?" Castiel asked me as he reached out a hand to trace a finger down my cheek, following a fresh tear trail. Carefully, as if handling something extremely precious, he brought the damp finger to his face and examined it with a frown. I chuckled, "I thought you were dead! The fire... I tried to reach you... you weren't moving... then you go and damn well wake up!" I threw him a sulky look, but my heart wasn't in it. My heart was too busy excessively thumping and attempting to self-combust inside me.

Castiel raised the frown to me instead, "I do not remember what happened..." He trailed off, deep in thought. "Your father was there and I was in the ring of fire...then nothing. It is intensely frustrating when periods of time are missing."

"You don't remember? My-I mean the demon like, blew up the fire and you got all swallowed up! I plunged in there after you but by the time I reached you, you were completely out. Like I said, for all I knew you were dead." I answered him slowly.

His face transformed into an expression of faint shock as he examined me, "You went into the inferno after me?" He asked, his normally strong voice a strange whisper.

"Of course I did, Cas!" I exclaimed, disbelieving that he would even question that fact. However the shock remained as he shook his head and asked, completely sincerely, "But why?"

"Because..." Because I love you. No Eliana, one step at a time. The guy nearly died. He doesn't want professions of love from crazy girls on top of that. "Because it's what friends do for each other, y'know? Save each other no matter the risk?" I gave him a reassuring smile.

He sat there silently for a quick moment, seeming to absorb this information. Then he lowered his gaze to the floor and said, in his usual matter-of-fact-style, "You see, Eliana, I have never had someone freely and willing risk their very life for me before. So I have no previous experience to gain understanding from. I realise... friendship... must be the reason, but I did not realise anyone could experience friendship that strongly towards myself."

I just stared. Then did something completely against Castiel's understanding and threw myself at him to crush him in a bear hug. He needed to feel some serious human compassion right now. I felt his body stiffen, but then he placed both of his palms carefully on my back. I buried my face into his shoulder as I'm sure I heard him whisper, "Thank-you".

"You're welcome." I pulled myself back and asked, "But, how did you survive the flames?"

Castiel replied with a small shake of his head and a frown. This was not much of an answer. Then he reached towards my right arm and held my wrist gently. With a gasp I realised my lower arm had angry red burns all over it from reaching into the fire, and my left arm was identically scarred. Somehow, whether it was the shock or the adrenaline, I was only just beginning to feel a slight sting from them. Castiel narrowed his eyes as if working out a puzzle, then raised his other hand and placed it palm down over my right arm. Closing his eyes he remained like that, I watched his serene face with fascination and worry. After only a few seconds he wearily opened his eyes and looked at me, a faint smile on his face once more. "My powers are slowly returning, Eliana. Look," and I did indeed look back at my arm. It was completely healed. "Give me a few minutes and I shall also heal the other arm," he said, "I just need time to regain some strength."

For the first time, Castiel then looked around at the rest of the room, breaking that feeling that we were in our own bubble away from all the other pain. His gaze took in Dean, helping Sam with a head wound and dislocated shoulder that needed patching up, then moved to rest on my mother crying over my father's body. I shut my eyes; I could not face that yet. Everything was my fault and yet...surely I had no choice?

"Eliana?" Castiel's voice was soft. I opened my eyes to look at him, a silent plea for him to understand hidden within.

"I had no choice Cas, I thought he'd just killed you, I didn't know what to do, he was a demon dammit!" I sadly hung my head, "Just this once, please understand."

"Of course I understand. I am disappointed in myself. I have failed you."

Surprised, I lifted my head to look at him. He met my questioning gaze earnestly, "I was trying to prevent this, Eliana" he stated, "and I have failed. I am sorry."

I shook my head vehemently, "I don't understand Cas! How on earth could you have stopped me, you were practically dead!"

"I understand sweetheart, let me explain." I lifted my head and was surprised to see my mum standing next to me. She slowly knelt on the floor beside us. Her face was pale and her eyes seemed almost blank as she reached out to take my hand in hers. "You see, this is why I left Eliana, all of those years ago. I had a vision...it was this, all of this - you, the demon, me. Then you were killing your own father...I could not let it happen. So I decided to leave and try to find a way to stop it from happening... or at least discover more about demons and ways to exorcise them. My searches did not prove very educational, but at least if I was not with you then I knew that the vision could not come true. As I saw myself, in the vision, I knew those terrible events could not occur without me present. But then Castiel found me and told me all that had happened with you and that the demon had still found you, well it certainly threw me. We decided to handle it ourselves. Castiel allowed himself to be captured, and we hoped we could deal with the demon ourselves without getting you involved Eliana. We both realised that if you were here then the inevitable would happen and you would have to kill your father, as predicted. Of course we did not count on your own visions finding Castiel's whereabouts, or the fact that you loved him enough to find and rescue him." She smiled softly whilst I just blushed, trying to get my head around this story.

"I am sorry, Eliana. I thought that you would not bother to find me, that I was not worthy of it. Even when I told you not to, you still came and found me." I raised my gaze to Castiel and tears threatened again. "Of course you are worthy Castiel! Of course." I smiled at him then flew across the small gap between us to hug him again. I kissed his cheek, wet from my tears, and for the first time since I had known him he did not resist my affection in any way, not even slightly.

After a short time we all stood up, me giving Castiel support to help him. Dean slowly made his way over to us, a weary Sam leaning against him. We'd been through a lot. In time I would grieve for my father and come to terms with the events, but right now was not the time. I could not let it all flood in just yet.

Sam smiled at me as Dean clapped a friendly hand on my shoulder and they both headed out of the room to start the clean up. My mother went back to my father's body, and to give her space I started to follow Sam and Dean outside. To my surprise, Castiel took my hand in his as I began to move. I looked up at him, but he was looking determinedly ahead, his back perfectly straight, head up. With a soft chuckle from me, we walked away, hand in hand.

And that, my friends, is end of my first ever fic! Comments? Reviews? Anything will be greatly appreciated as it will help me decide whether to continue writing fics and/ or how to improve! I'm thinking about possibly doing a sequel to this, would that interest anyone...?

Anyways... again I apologize SO much for this being unbelievably late! I've had a lot of stuff going on this summer and I have just not been able to get my head into writing until now :'( I hope any readers will forgive me! (:

So if you have any opinions on my first fic, PLEASE let me know! I greatly appreciate any feedback and I love knowing what you guys think ;D And its been so much fun writing for you!