He had been forced from his vessel and his Grace by the Leviathan, reduced to nothing more than a spirit. Castiel was broken, a shadow. Dead? He wasn't sure.
As Dean leaned against Bobby's kitchen sink in the dead of night, Castiel approached him, a silent and undetected ripple of energy in the room.
Grief was etched into Dean's face, tears stood in his eyes, and his gaze was fixed upon something folded on the table. It was Jimmy's trenchcoat, still damp. Castiel felt his mouth fall slightly open.
"Dean," Castiel whispered shakily and cautiously. "Dean, hear me."
Dean made no sign that he had heard the plea, his arms remaining folded against his chest and his gaze unmoving. Castiel came closer, soon taking hold of the hunter's arms. "Please, Dean." He couldn't even feel the arms he clutched, how was it be possible? Was this his punishment? Was his Father doing this to him? Was he in Hell?
"Dean!"
Nothing. Castiel was nothing to Dean anymore. Castiel remembered when he had snuck around, deliberately avoiding Dean's senses. Now he would give anything to have those green eyes melt with his own, anything to have Dean respond in the least, but there was nothing.
"Please, Dean, please..." he ran his hands up Dean's arms and into his hair, tears streaming down his face. He pushed his forehead against Dean's, waiting for him to look at him, to say something, perhaps to call him an infant. But Dean didn't even know he was there, couldn't feel his sincerity. He now felt every part of Dean's face, the soft ridge of the eyebrows, the smoothness of his cheeks, the warm skin of his neck.
"I love you, Dean, I always loved you. Oh, Dean..." This was Hell, it had to be. Nothing could have been worse. "Did you love me? I never knew, and I...DEAN! GOD DAMMIT, ANSWER ME!"
He choked on tears and sobbed openly, clutching at Dean's shirt and trying to get closer, trying to get inside and make him feel the presence of an angel who had needed him more than Heaven.
"I gave you everything! I tried so hard for you, come back to me! Dean!"
Castiel had Raised Dean on orders, then Fallen against orders, and tried so hard to protect his friends and the man he loved, and was this what it had come to?
"DEAN! DEAN!" His cries tore through the empty dimension, tortured and horrified. He desperately pressed his lips hard to Dean's, because he had to feel that. Eventually Castiel fell to his knees, sobbing uncontrollably.
No response. Dean's gaze was fixed upon the trenchcoat on Bobby's table, and he had no idea what was going on around him even as he filled with silent regret that promised not to leave as long as he lived.