AN: I was looking through posts after this week's ep, and there was a theory on the CW forums that inspired this.

"Dean? Dean Winchester?" Dean turned at the sound of the high pitched southern drawl, and found Missouri Mosely.

Dean couldn't help but smile. "Yeah, hey there Missouri."

"What are you doing here? I thought you swore you would never come back to Lawrence." She smiled and laughed to herself before she continued, "But you've been back several times since you made that promise." Dean's eyes widened, the shock would always be there despite the fact that he knew she could read every last thought in his head.

"Yeah. I'm here because of Sam and my grandfather. Apparently there is a hunt here."

"And you want to stay as far away from where the hunt is as possible." She said knowingly.

"Yeah." Dean said with a rough voice. Sam and Samuel were headed somewhere in the vicinity of Stull cemetery, and he just couldn't quite force himself to go that way, couldn't force himself to be near where he lost his brother, where the Earth had swallowed him up and spit out the robot that only looked and sounded like his brother.

A wave of emotions hit Missouri, emotions that had more pictures attached then she could ever decipher and put into a logical order. They hit her with such a force that she wavered, she got dizzy, she closed her eyes, and she brought her hand to her forehead. Dean put a hand on her elbow and steadied her. She opened her eyes and saw the calm concern in Dean's, she focused on that, and then all of the dizziness and wavering stopped.

"You okay?"

"I'll be fine boy, but you really need to learn to control what goes through your head."

Immediate guilt. "I'm sorry. I was…"

"Just being you I think."

"Yeah." Dean said with sadness.

"Why don't we go for coffee young man, you can explain all of these pictures that you just threw at me."

"That sounds good."

"And you're paying." Dean gave a genuine smile.

"Yes ma'am."

SNSNSNSNSNSN

"No wonder your mind is such a jumble." Missouri said after Dean told her every last detail that had landed him in his current position. "And that is why you are worried about Sam, because he has no soul."

That was the one thing that Dean hadn't told her. His eyes jumped from his cup to the woman in front of him, he almost couldn't take the concern in her eyes, "Yeah. Now, my brother has no soul. And it's not like he did anything to save the world. Not like he went into the cage with the root of all evil voluntarily or anything. You know. His body can be free up here running around killing innocent things while his soul is in the pit being tortured or trapped on a shelf somewhere in Crowley's lair with a ninja demon monk guarding him." Dean took a sip of his coffee and then gave a bitter laugh. "For all we really know, Sam's soul has been destroyed and there is nothing left of him, and we are running around doing a demon's bidding being his puppets when really there is no hope of Sam becoming a real boy." He rubbed his eyes and sighed.

"Why are you looking so many places for Sam's soul?" Dean looked up.

"What do you mean? I mean, it could be anywhere. Hell is a big place, trust me I know."

Missouri pulled her chair closer to Dean. "Boy turn your chair to face me." He did so and she looked him in the eyes, and put her hands on his cheeks.

"Baby, you are so special. You know that." Dean tried to turn away but her firm hands on his face wouldn't allow it, he turned his eyes down. "Look at me." She demanded. He did so unwillingly. "Now, there is a reason you are so special."

"I'm Michael's vessel?"

"No." She smacked him lightly on the face. "No. That doesn't make you special, that makes you unfortunate." That earned Missouri a smile. "No. You are your brother's keeper."

"Great. So I was put on Earth to keep Sam in line. Bang up job I've done." That earned him another slap.

"You did…"

"If you say 'you did the best you could' I'll just leave. Because if the best I can do is to let my brother die, go to hell, suffer with Lucifer, and now to be a breathing corpse with no soul, then I have every reason to be ashamed of myself."

"You did do the best you could do. And that's why he's right here with you."

"It's only his body. It's not Sam."

"Sam is with you. Your Sam is right here with you."

"I don't understand…what are you talking about. Sam is being held hostage…"

"Not hostage. He's very comfortable where he is. He's like a cat, comfortable and curled up and snuggled up with you. He's right with you Dean. I know it. I can't tell you how. But he's with you. I sense people before I see them, I almost didn't know it was you. I don't understand. But that's what I know. Talk to your angel friend."

Hope overwhelmed Dean in such a flood that Missouri leaned back in her chair. Dean's emotions were so intense that it was hard to sit close to him. "Go, go, talk to your angel friend, he'll know what to do."

Dean did something that he would never have done all of those years ago, he reached across and hugged her tightly. "Thank you."

SNSNSNSNSN

"Cass! Get your feathery ass down here! I need you! I need help! Please!" Dean yelled as he paced the open space of the motel room. A sound of feathers and a whosh of air and Cass, haggard and tired was standing in front of him.

"What?" He asked without preamble.

"I need you to check my soul."

"Dean…"

"Please. I think we may have missed something."

Castiel closed his eyes and sighed. "Dean. It is painful."

"I don't care. Just do it. I can handle it. I've been to hell. I can handle any kind of torture you can dish out." Dean sat down on the bed and pulled his belt out of its loops and put in his mouth and bit down. "Come on Cass." He said through the belt. His eyes urged Castiel to perform the procedure.

"Okay." He decided that it would simply be easier to perform the procedure then to understand the motivation behind the request. Even when he had been closer to human, he hadn't understood Dean Winchester. Castiel decided that it would be best to simply not ask and to simply do, it would probably be quicker, and allow him to get back to Heaven and command his troops.

Castiel rolled his sleeves up and sat leaned over the bed. He braced one hand against the bed and shoved the other into Dean's body, tried to ignore the screams, tried not to feel what Dean was feeling, the bond they shared gave him the unfortunate side effect of feeling the echo what Dean felt, and it was always draining on the angel. Whatever Dean felt, he felt intensely.

This time however, there was something else he felt when he explored Dean's soul. Whatever it was, it started to fight, with all of its might, it didn't like that Castiel was hurting Dean, it was fighting with all of it's metaphysical strength to push Castiel out, to make it quit hurting Dean. And because Cass was so shocked, it succeeded in propelling Cass out of Dean's body and when Dean finally opened his eyes he saw Castiel on the other side of the room looking at him like he was a creature.

"How is that possible?" Castiel asked in a whisper.

"What? Is what possible?" Dean asked panicked.

"Sam…..Sam's soul….Sam's soul is in you."