Today had to be the best day of Dean Winchester's life. Or so he thought as he leered at the pretty red-haired angel that had been pointed out to him as Anna Milton. She had pale skin, wide green eyes, and gorgeous copper wings that swept arcs of brilliant color behind her back. He could just imagine running his hands down the pinions, burying his fingers in the downy-

"Dean!" Jo hissed, giving him a hard jab in the ribs to emphasize her point. "Pay attention." He rolled his eyes but turned his eyes back to the stage. Usually Jo was a sassy smart-ass who didn't take shit from anybody, but shove her in uniform and she turned into some human incarnation of the training manual, complete with bolded and highlighted threats of disciplinary action. It made sense considering her mother was South's deputy commissioner. Ellen was a terrifying presence in general.

Rufus was up on the stage giving the same speech he gave every year about the alliance between hunter and guardian, the responsibility charge and angel had to each other, the history of their pact to fight against the demonic hordes. In his head, he'd long replaced the old geezer's face with a sock puppet and his voice with the squawking adult blather from Charlie Brown.

He didn't tune back in until Bobby took his place by the podium, assignment list laid out in front of him. There were six graduates this year. Last year there'd only been five angels assigned to South but a new angel just got transferred from Central, Balthazar something. Ash was first, partnered with Rachel, the severe blond. She wasn't the worst of the bunch but she sure as hell wasn't the best either. From what they'd heard she was a hardass, stickler for the rules. It'll be an interesting partnering as Ash had a penchant for breaking every rule he came across.

They both walked to the center of the room where a table had been laid out with scalpels and bandages. The plastic had been carved out to fit what essentially looked like a toilet bowl into a center. A biological materials disposal bag dangled from the bottom.

Two days ago they'd all gotten standard blood panels to make sure no one was going to give their angel some horrifying human disease, not that it would do much, and vice versa, so it was with as little trepidation as possible that Ash and Rachel cut small slits along the pads of their thumbs and pressed the cuts together. There was a brief flash of light and it was over.

Dean scratched at the scar on his shoulder as he waited for the other four graduates to go through their own little ceremonial blood-bonding. It was a nervous habit he'd had since he was kid. They told him he got the smattering of spots when their house burned down when he was four, but he didn't remember much of the night before his father had bundled him and Sammy into the back of an ambulance that took them to the hospital where he found out his mother wouldn't be with them anymore.

The sick bastard that burned down their house was part of the reason he'd joined the force in the first place.

"Dean Winchester and Anna Milton."

Dean took a deep breath and walked past the five empty seats to his left. Having a last name that began with a "W" could be both a blessing and a curse. On the one hand he got to sit at the back of the classrooms in high school. On the other he had to wait for fucking ever whenever there was a ceremony or graduation or whatever.

Bobby shook his hand, smiling broadly at him as he walked onto the stage.

"I'm proud of you, boy," the gruff old man barked out, giving him a hearty slap on the back as well. Bobby had become somewhat of a surrogate father after John had died on the job a couple years back. That was the other reason he'd joined the force.

Anna was looking at him thoughtfully, small smile on her face that brightened her features as he moved to the table. He shot her a cheeky grin that hopefully covered up his sweaty palms and shaky nerves. The cut stung a little and he watched in satisfaction as a line of blood welled up from his thumb.

He stretched his hand out over the table, mirroring Anna and he braced himself as their thumbs touched. Her hand was warm, though they only touched in the one place. The air around their hands grew steadily hotter and he waited for the flash of light that would soon follow.

Except it didn't.

Dean frowned at his thumb as Anna pulled away, puzzled look wrinkling her brow.

"Uh," was his succinct observation. They hadn't ever covered this. The bonding always worked. It was simple. It was absolute. There shouldn't be any complications. Except there he was, Dean Winchester, Complication, standing at the center of the stage looking like an idiot because apparently even infallible angel bonds didn't want him.

Everyone was whispering now. Anna looked just as confused as he felt, but she offered him a small smile and picked up her scalpel again. Understanding immediately, Dean cut a large gash at the base of his palm so that the blood dribbled down his wrist. This time there was no tentative touch. They jammed their hands together and waited.

"Fuck," Dean spat out when nothing happened for another ten seconds. The cut was starting to throb, stinging with the invasion of foreign blood. He pulled his hand away and grabbed one of the gauze pads, pressing it angrily to his palm. Why did shit like this always happen to him?

When he looked up again, Rachel was herding Anna off the stage while Bobby and Rufus were conferring in hushed tones.

"Dean," someone called him from behind. It was Ellen, beckoning him to the exit.

"We'll figure this out," Bobby told him as he passed.

"Yea, of course," Dean shrugged, feigning nonchalance. "Otherwise I'd have to get a desk monkey job with you, wouldn't I?"

"Get out of here, idjit," Bobby huffed before turning back to Rufus who had pulled his laptop out from inside the podium.

Dean hopped down the two steps and left the conference room, following Ellen back to her office.

"Alright Winchester. Knew the first time your daddy brought you to the station you were gonna be trouble. Didn't know it would be this much, though."

"Sorry for the inconvenience, Ellen," he joked, but apparently he hadn't been able to hide his hurt as well as he'd thought.

"Dean," she sighed as she sat down behind her blocky steel desk. "This isn't your fault. You know that right?"

Dean shrugged and didn't look at her, instead fiddling with the ring puzzles lining her desk. "Never said it was. I'm in no rush to take credit for someone else's fuck-up. You got any idea what this is?"

Ellen sighed. "No clue. Never heard of this happening before. Usually its just slice, slice, touch and you get yourself a soul-grace bonding. Might be something up with Anna. She's got six charges already, might be she's overloaded."

"Yea, maybe," Dean said. Except he knew it was utter bullshit. Rachel had thirty-seven charges. Some guy over at central had forty-two. Anna wasn't the most powerful angel but she should have been able to handle twenty charges easily. But Ellen was trying to cheer him up, so he let her, especially when she started griping about how Jo and Inias were going to give her the biggest headache she'd had since Jo had started teething. Which led into a story about how Jo had bitten the first boy to ever have a crush on her. That one brought an actual laugh out of Dean's throat.

So when Bobby and Rufus showed up, his mood had room to fall again.

"We talked to Michael," Rufus said.

Dean swallowed. Michael was the big boss, head of the angel side of the FBI's Hunter Angel Squad. He only got involved when things were really good and could be used for positive publicity or when things were really fucked up and had to be handled carefully. Dean got one guess as to which it was.

"He told us there's really only two possibilities for a failed bonding. The first is that Dean is a demon," Bobby said.

"I'm not a demon!" Dean snarled defensively.

Bobby rolled his eyes.

"Calm your tits, boy," Rufus commanded. The training officer called everyone boy, even the girls.

"We know that, you idjit. If you were a demon the angels would have burned you out as soon as they laid eyes on your scrawny ass."

"Oh," Dean mumbled, settling back down. "So what's the other possibility?"

Bobby fixed him with a hard look. "You're already bonded to another angel."

"You bonded to some angel in your off-time?" Ellen demanded.

"What? Of course not! There's got to be another reason, Bobby. Michael sure about this?"

"Positive."

"You sure about this, Dean? Maybe you did it accidentally?" Ellen was offering him an out.

"Well I think I'd have noticed if I'd gotten myself a special feathery friend on the side somewhere. I swear, Ellen. I ain't got myself a bond."

Rufus, Bobby, and Ellen each fixed him with their own special look of disbelief. For Rufus it was an angry glare, like he was about to rip your ears off with his mind. For Bobby it was a squinty scowl, like you were five and had just lied about knocking over the lamp. For Ellen it was a single raised eyebrow, and fuck if that single eyebrow wasn't scarier than the glare and the scowl put together.

Finally, Ellen spoke up. "We'll see about that."