Sam was suddenly awake. He sat up in bed and looked around. Nothing seemed out of place, except that the bedside lamp was on. Dean was asleep in his bed, maybe he left it on; Sam hadn't. Just as he was about to switch off the lamp and lay back down, a sound of feathers made him jump.

"Sam Winchester."

And Castiel appeared out of the shadows into the room.

"Cas - what - ?" Sam gave a look to the other bed, but Dean hadn't stirred. This was not good.

"You will not be able to rouse your brother."

The tone was conversational, but Sam felt a threat in the words.

"Dean?"

"You will not be able to rouse your brother." Castiel said again. "I am sent with a message for you."

"What kind of message?" Sam had visions of smiting and other heavenly retribution. He pushed himself back against the headboard.

"A message concerning your prayers to Heaven."

Sam didn't think that could be so bad, but then Castiel took a few steps toward him.

"Dean?"

"As I have said, you will not be able to rouse Dean. The message I have been commissioned to deliver is for you alone."

"Yeah, I got it the first time." Sam said. What could the message possibly be that Dean couldn't hear? 'Time's up'?

"Sam - please. I need you to listen." Castiel took another few steps and lifted his hand like he was getting ready to lay some mojo on him, knock him flat on his ass or spirit him off somewhere.

"Dean."

"What?" Dean was awake in a flash, sitting up, knife in his hand.

Castiel was nowhere to be seen.

SPN SPN SPN SPN

Dean turned when he heard Castiel beside him. Sam was back at the motel, Dean was ostensibly out getting breakfast but he stopped at a local park, the kind of place Cas seemed to prefer conversation.

"You stay away from my brother." He said as soon as he saw Castiel.

"I was sent with a message for Sam. He did not allow me time to deliver it."

"You got anything to say to Sam, you say it to the both of us. You got that?"

"I see. Shall we summon him now?"

He sounded serious, but he also lately seemed to be developing a sense of humor. Dean couldn't be sure.

"You give me the message and I'll decide if Sam needs to hear it."

Cas looked thoughtful for a moment.

"I was aware that the two of you have many bonds that join you; I didn't realize the strength of all those bonds connected."

"What're you talking about?"

"Sam should not have been able to rouse you."

"Yeah? Well, add that to the list of things you don't know about us. Since he was six months old I can hear him up a flight of stairs and through two closed doors. You think I'm not gonna hear him three feet away?"

"You should not have been able to hear him three feet away. I was meant to deliver the message to Sam. You were meant to remain unaware."

"No - I'm meant to protect my brother. You threaten him, I'm gonna know about it."

"There is no threat in the message I am to deliver."

"Well must've Sam thought so or he wouldn't have been able to rouse me."

"I did not mean to engender fear in your brother. I was merely attempting to deliver a message."

"So you keep saying. What's the message?"

Castiel bowed his head as though he was thinking - or listening.

"God is not found in the earthquake or the landslide or the hurricane. He is in the still small breeze."

Dean waited for him to elaborate but that was all Castiel said.

"So what does that mean?"

"Your brother will know."

"Do you know?"

Castiel shook his head.

"Any reply would be conjecture on my part. Sam will know."

And Castiel was gone.

Dean got drive-thru breakfast and headed back to the motel. Sam was at the table, working on his laptop.

"All quiet?" Dean asked.

"Yeah. What'd Cas say?"

"What makes you think I was talking to him?"

Sam gave him a 'please' look.

"'Why don't you stay and search out our next job while I go get us some breakfast?' Just conveniently the morning I wake up with Cas in my face?" Sam smiled. "You think I don't know my big brother?"

Dean knew he was caught. He dropped the take out bag on the table and shrugged out of his jacket.

"I told him if he ever has a message for you, he says it to the both of us or not at all."

"And what did he say?"

"Oh you know how he gets that clueless look, like I'm talking Urdu." He unbagged breakfast while Sam put away his computer. "You'd think God never dealt with brothers or something before. He was honestly surprised that I woke up when you called me. What does he think? Of course I'm gonna hear you."

Dean stopped talking when he realized Sam was staring at him.

"What?" He asked as he sat down across the table. Sam only shook his head.

"Did he say what the message was?"

"Yeah. He said God isn't in earthquakes or hurricanes. He said God is in the still small breeze. He said you'd know what that means."

"Means God hears my prayers."

SPN SPN SPN SPN SPN

Sam thought he detected a very slight smile on Castiel when he approached the park bench where Sam was sitting.

"I believe we may be putting ourselves in grave peril by attempting this meeting without the express aegis of your brother."

"Actually..." Sam pointed over his shoulder behind himself where he'd left Dean sitting on the hood of the car about thirty yards behind.

Castiel nodded.

"Dean is very - focused - when it comes to you, isn't he?"

"It's kinda been his main job my whole life, to protect me. It's pure instinct in him."

"Like a mother protecting her child."

"Yeah, I wanna be there when you tell Dean that." Sam said. Castiel looked puzzled.

"Am I to understand then that any message I have for Dean must be delivered in your presence? Just as any message for you must be delivered in his?"

Even though that wasn't what Sam meant, he nodded.

"Yeah, I think that'd be best."

"Yet you wished to speak with me now, away from Dean."

"Yeah. Uh - yeah. I just wanted to thank you for the message you gave Dean to give me."

"So - you understood its significance."

"Yeah. Yeah - I really appreciate it."

"And you could not express your appreciation within Dean's hearing?"

Sam found himself agreeing with Dean - Cas seemed to be developing a sense of humor.

"I just thought since I disrupted your initial attempt to deliver the message, I owed you."

"I understand." Castiel inclined his head and with a breath of feathers he was gone. Sam got up and walked back to Dean.

"Everything OK?" Dean asked.

"Yeah. You know - for now. Who knows what'll happen tomorrow."

Dean shrugged and slid off the car and said, "Bring it on."

"Yeah." Sam smiled, he had to smile at his brother. Yeah, they fought, they argued, they fumed and misunderstood and tried to kill each other on occasion. But underneath it all -

"What?" Dean asked.

"You heard me. You woke up even though you weren't supposed to."

"And you called me, even though it wasn't supposed to work." Dean said. "Cas is just gonna have to get used to working with brothers."

"Yeah." Sam got in the car, next to Dean. Next to his brother.

The End