Fallen and Broken

Max looked up, the sun setting over the trees and a few people walking past her every now and then. She repeated the same process over and over with the cigarette, inhaling and exhaling. After a while she stood up, tossed the cigarette to the ground and smeared it with the heel of her boot. Just before she could even step forward, a loud painful ring cracked in her ears.

"Ahhh son of a b-" Max yelled sitting back down on the bench.

She was hunched over and covering her ears. She pulled her phone out and tried to dial Dean as best as she could. No answer.

"Fuck!"

She then tried dialing Sam. Sam's phone rang. Looking at the caller ID, it was Max. Instead of answering he sent her to voice mail.

"Damn it Sam!" She shoved the phone back into her pocket and got up again walking towards the motel with her hands still over her ears, it was no use. It seemed as if the closer she to the motel the ringing would become more intense. She barely made to the door of the motel room and pounded her fists on it hoping Dean or anyone would open it.

"Dean!" She yelled and pounded more.

Without warning, a powerful force had thrown her back, landing on the hood of the Impala. The windows of the room had shattered into pieces. She was thrown and knocked unconscious. Dean finally opened the door and saw Max splayed on the Impala, blood dripping down her nose and small cuts from the glass that had landed on her.

"Max!" Dean called.
"Fuck Max. Max, hey wake up, please!"

He shook her trying to gain her conscious. Max then opened her eyes to see Dean at her side.

"Max." Dean whispered, smiling that she was awake.
"Dean y-" She closed her eyes again slipping back into darkness.
"Shit." Dean cursed.

He lifted her bridal style and carried her into the room and set her down on the bed.

Max woke realizing that she was in the back of the Impala, Dean in the passenger seat and Bobby driving.

"Shit." Max hissed as she tried sitting up.
"How ya doin' kid?" Bobby asked.
"Never been better."

Max flashed a pretend smile to Bobby threw the rear view mirror then rolled her eyes.

"What happened?" She asked rubbing her forehead.
"I'm not sure but I found you just outside laying unconscious on the Impala." Dean reminded Max. She
remembered the excruciating ring in her ears, being thrown back by some force and then blacking out.

"We thought we lost you, Max." Dean added. She stayed quiet for a couple of minutes.

"Hey where's Sam?" Max said leaning back on the leather seat. Dean shrugged.
"He said he couldn't sleep and went for a bite." Dean replied.
"Oh."

They drove until they reached an abandoned barn off the side of the road.

"Wait, why are we here?" Max asked getting out the car.
"We're going to summon this damn thing." Dean said going to the back of the Impala and opening the trunk.
"You had to bring me along?" Max whined.
"Well we weren't going to leave you alone in the motel." Dean said handing Max a duffle bag.

She grunted and followed them into the barn. Bobby took out bottles of spray paint and handed one to Dean. They sprayed symbols all over the walls and set up some demon traps. Bobby then prepared somethings into a bowl and began reciting a ritual.

"Are you sure you want to do this, Dean?" Max asked.
"Yeah, I'm more than sure."

The three of them waited for a couple of minutes, both Dean and Bobby sitting on a table, and Max sitting against one of the walls flicking her lighter open and close.

"Any day now." Max said.
"Are you sure you did the ritual right?" Dean asked Bobby.

Bobby gave Dean a look and Dean slightly held his hands up as if saying "sorry for asking". As if on queue, the barn began to shake, Max stood up as Dean and Bobby followed.

"Here." Dean said throwing Max a gun.
"Wishful thinking but maybe it's the wind." Dean said.

The light bulbs shattered, causing a shower of sparks in the barn. Max raised her arms protecting her from the sparks and walked up next to Dean and Bobby. The doors from the barn opened slowly revealing a silhouette of a man. He began to walk towards them, not flinching once as the sparks rained down and oddly enough passing through all the traps they had made earlier. The light from the sparks showed what the man looked like. His hair was ruffled, he had on a tan-ish trench coat, a suit under the trench coat, his features were something that caught her eyes. He was rather attractive. Max stepped back sensing a strange vibe from whatever it was, a vibe she hadn't come across yet in all her experience of hunting.

The sound of Dean's shotgun broke her haze and brought her back to reality. She aimed her gun at the man and fired three rounds but none of the shots had stopped him. The man stopped in front of them and looked at Dean.

"Who are you?" Dean asked.
"I'm the one who gripped you tight and raised you from perdition." He spoke.
"Yeah, well, thanks for that." Dean replied.

The man in the trench coat nodded his head, almost to say "you're welcome". Dean then took his blade and stabbed him right below his shoulder his blade. The man looked down at the knife, pulled it out and tossed it over to the side. He looked back up at Dean. Bobby took his chance and just as he was about to strike, the man caught the crowbar in his hand. The man was still holding onto the crowbar and turned around, raising his index and middle finger together up to Bobby's forehead. Bobby collapsed to the ground.

"Bobby!" Max took a step towards Bobby but the the man in the trench coat snapped his attention towards Max. She froze, she couldn't move no matter how hard she tried.

"Fucking son of a bitch!" Then Max began to hear that same ringing noise from earlier.
"Ahh!" She yelled wanting to cover her ears but she couldn't.
"Max!" Dean called for her.

At this point she couldn't hear anything just the painful ringing.

"What are you doing to her? Stop it!" Dean yelled.
"It's me who you want not her!"

Max collapsed, catching herself on her palms, grunting she fell to her side clenching her fists.

"We need to talk Dean. Alone. " The man spoke again.

The man in the trench coat walked over to the table of books Bobby had brought and looked over them. Meanwhile Dean was next to Bobby making sure he was still breathing, then checked over Max. He dragged her against the wall and wiped some of the blood that dripped from her nose.

"Max are you sure okay?"
"Like-I said Dean, Never-been-better." She smiled a little reassuring Dean.

Dean stood up and walked over to the man.

"Who are you?"
"I'm Castiel."
"Yeah I figured that much, I mean what are you?"
"I'm an angle of the Lord."
"There's no such thing."
"That's your problem Dean. You have no faith."

A strike of thunder struck lit the barn up with light. Something had caught Max's eye, quickly turning her attention to Castiel, a pair of wings shadowing behind him. She closed her eyes again then looked back behind Castiel, no wings, just a barn wall with symbols spray painted on them.

Castiel and Dean talked but Max was too tired to listen in, she just wanted to go. . .home. She fell into a deep sleep, dreaming about something pleasant, Hudson. He laid there in the bed with Max sitting on top of his torso. He was smiling and laughing, his hand lightly brushing her thighs as he whispered something she couldn't make out. This wasn't a dream, it was a memory. That day was the day he had proposed to Max. But quickly and abruptly this memory became unrealistic. Three men dressed in black from head to toe had barged in all holding guns in their hands. One of them had grabbed Max by her arm pulling her off of Hudson, Hudson tried to grasp Max but she had already been pulled away from his reach. She kicked and yelled, though everything had fallen silent. . except for what sounded like a faded beeping noise. She saw the one of the men push Hudson to his knees, holding a gun to head. He slowly looked up Max and mouthed "I'm sorry". Max tried to make her way to Hudson but she was held back. Then a shot cracked in the air, the sound so real it made her jolt awake.

"No!" She yelled, Sam had rushed into the room and to Max's side.
"Max, it's okay." He said placing his hand on her leg.
"Oh Sammy." She said wrapping her arms around Sam, tears soaking his shirt.

Sam pulled away wiping her tears from her cheeks.

"What happened?"
"I-I had a nightmare."
"What was it about?"

Max sighed, she didn't want Sam or even Dean to worry about it.

"That I was-burning." She lied.
"Where were you last night?" Max changed the subject.
"Uhh-" He looked around the room.
"I went out for a bite then I walked, I really couldn't sleep last night."

Max simply nodded, not really sure whether to call him out on his horrible lying skills.

"Come on, let's go downstairs so I can clean that cut." He brushed his thumb over the cut that had been made on the side of her forehead. She got up and followed Sam downstairs.

"Hey Bobby." She said.
"Hey Max."

She sat down in one of the chairs in the kitchen.

"Max! You look-"
"Better?" She flashed Dean a smile.
"You could say that." He said taking a seat on the other side of the table.
"So you guys summoned the thing last night didn't you?" Sam asked walking back into the kitchen with the aid kit in his hand. Max looked over Dean.

"Yeah we did." Dean responded bluntly.
"And?"
"And-well this, whatever this was says he's an angle of the lord."
"And you don't believe this-?"
"Castiel." Max helped him.
"Well this Castiel could be lying." Dean said.
"Why would this Castiel guy lie?" Sam asked taking two cotton balls out of the case.
"Why do you think? Demons lie!" Dean said.
"Demons, immune to salt rounds?! And devil's traps and Ruby's knife?"

Sam was about to apply the damp alcohol cotton ball to Max's cut but she stopped him with her hand.

"Ruby? Who's Ruby?" She raised her brow.
"That's a story I'll tell you later." Sam said gently padding the cut on her forehead.
"Dean, I may have been knocked out like most of the time but I did hear Castiel say that you have no faith. He's right-ahh!" Max hissed at burning in her cut.

"Oh so now you're on Castiel's side?!" Dean raised his voice.
"Dean, I don't take sides, I go with the truth."
"I'm trying to come up with a theory here, okay? Work with me." Dean said getting up and walking to the fridge.

"We have a theory here." Sam added.
"Yeah maybe one with a little less fairy dust on it." Dean said giving Max a bag of frozen peas.

Once Sam was done Max placed it against her forehead, closing her eyes at the instant relief.

"Okay look I'm not saying that we know for sure but I'm just saying that I think we-"
"Okay, okay. That's the point, that we don't know for sure. So I'm not going believe that this thing is a freakin' "Angle of the lord" just because it says so." Dean finished.
"You two gonna keep arguing religion? You might wanna come take a look at this." Bobby said from the next room.

Dean, Sam, and Max went into the next room where Bobby sat looking at thick book.

"I got stacks on lure. Biblical, pre-biblical, some of it's in damn cuneiform. It all says that an angel can snatch a soul from the pit." Bobby said showing them a picture of exactly what he last had said. "What else?" Dean asked.
"What else, what?" Bobby asked confused.
"What else can do it?"
"Air-lift your ass out of the hot-pocket? As far as I can tell nothing." Bobby replied.

Max laughed and made her way to the couch and laid down.

"Dean, that should be good news." Max muffed into a pillow.
"How?"

She lift her head and looked at Dean.

"Well for one we don't have to deal with demons. Maybe you were saved by one of the good guys." "Okay say it's true. Say there are angels. Then what? There's a god?"
"At this point, Vegas money is on yeah." Bobby replied.
"I don't know." Dean said walking towards the doorway.
"Of course you don't know, you have no faith." Max said turning to lay on her side and pressed the bags of peas on her forehead.

"Dean, to you this becoming less and less about faith and more about proof." Sam said.
"See I'm not the only one." Max muffled against the pillow, this time not bothering to face them. "Why is it so hard for to just believe for once?"
"But why me? If there is a god out there, why would he give a crap about me? I mean I've saved some people, okay. I figured that made up for the stealing and dissin' chicks but why do I deserve to get saved? I'm just a regular guy."
"Dean may-"
"Sam just stop." Max cut him off.
"If Dean wants to believe that, Okay. Fine. Dean, you may just be a regular guy but apparently you're important to the man upstairs."
"Well I find that creepy." Dean said crossing his arms over his chest.
"Well I don't know what to tell you, I mean maybe he's just trying to help us or maybe he needs your help. I don't know." Max sighed frustrated.
"Fine. What do we know about angels?"

Bobby grabbed a stack of books that was off to the side and put them in front Sam and Dean.

"Start readin'." Bobby said.

Even though Max had her back towards them she could tell by the boys sighing that it was a lot of reading. Max smiled to herself.

"You're gonna get me some pie." Dean pointed at Sam then taking the first book on the stack.