Alone, driving down an open road, the sun was setting through the golden sky. AC/DC was blaring from the speakers - his failed attempt at hiding the crushing loneliness bearing down on him. Sam was long gone, and he had accepted that. He knew that nothing would or could bring him back, and anyone who thought he would ever return was fooling themselves. Dean knew better.

He blinked back the salty tears forming in his eyes, trying to repaste that 'I'm fine' smile on his worn face.

"Cas," he whispered the word for the first time since that day. "Cas, I need you."

He closed his eyes momentarily as a tear rolled down his face, only to be instantly reminded of his broken angel, etched in fire behind his eyelids. He resigned himself back to the road ahead.

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry for tearing you apart and breaking you."

"You'd be staring at me with your soul-searching eyes right now. The way that makes me feel like I'm being freakin' X-rayed. That's why I always told you to stop. It was like you could see everything, everything hidden behind the face and the voice - my mask, my armour.I hated it - it was terrifying."

"I miss it."

"I miss you, you bastard."

He laughed bitterly, only to have to choke back new tears, "You'd be telling me that it isn't physically possible for me to rip you apart since you have the strength of a celestial being. If you were here now."

"You always gave me hope. Always so naive, yet the bravest and most loyal warrior. I would be long dead if it weren't for you."

"Sometimes I wish I was."

The tears blurred his vision and this time he acknowledged the danger to his baby, the one constant throughout his life. Maybe it represented him - despite everything happening around it, it just kept going.

But everyone knew there would come a time when something would finally snap enough for the whole thing to fall apart, and the engine would choke out its last breath before falling to a stop.

Dean pulled over, trying to collect himself and failing.

Castiel sat stiffly in the back seat, wanting so much - a feeling he barely understood - to tell dean he was there, to tell him he was alright, to tell him everything he never had the chance to say.

He didn't.

He listened, invisible, to dean - the strongest and bravest soul he'd ever seen. The man who would give - who had given - everything up for his loved ones. For him.

He was taken from his thoughts by a choked back sob from the soul-tearing sight of the man in front of him.

"Cas, I think I loved you, you son of a bitch."

At that moment, Castiel felt his heart shatter into a million pieces.

He opened his mouth to answer, to say... What would he say? That he had loved this man since he had pulled him from hell? That he would die, that he would kill, that he would do anything for him?

"Dean."

Dean froze. That one word, in that voice Dean would recognise for the rest of his life. He slowly lifted his head , eyes red from his tears, keeping them down as if waiting for the last second to realise it had finally happened and that he had gone insane.

When at last their eyes met in the rear view mirror, Castiel's heart broke in a way that he didn't even know was still possible.