A hunt gone wrong. That's all it took. Finally, team free will were back together and were just taking care of normal monster and ghost cases across the country. Cas, Sam and Dean against the world. After everything they'd been through, literally going to hell and back and Dean actually being a demon. They'd seen it all. There was nothing left to scare them or surprise them in this world. Nothing that could hurt them. Nothing but this.
They were in Oregon on a vengeful ghost case, and everything was going fine. Sam was sat on his bed, laptop on his knees, doing research on who the vengeful ghost is. Dean was showering, for longer than usual, because the water was an amazing pressure and sizzling hot, just how Dean liked it. Cas was simply sitting on the edge of Dean's bed looking around the room, waiting for Dean to be done showering or for Sam to find something so he wouldn't be sat there bored all evening. The shower shut off and Dean stepped out of the bathroom, one towel around his waist and another being rubbed on his hair. Cas stood up.
"Hey Sam, found anything?"
"Yeah, so get this. Some chick in 1990 got hit by a car on the street that all of the murders have taken place."
"Anything to do with that that'd make her vengeful?" He threw the towel over the back of a chair on the other side of the room and slipped on some boxers and pants under the towel. Cas looked with anticipation between Sam and Dean.
"Turns out the guy that hit her was her step father, people are skeptical as to whether it was an accident or not. The interesting part is that the people that have been murdered were his sister, his dad and his dog. That sounds like vengeful spirit material to me."
"So we burn her bones?" Cas exclaimed.
"Looks like it, yeah." Sam said, closing his laptop and standing up with his hands on his hips. Dean slipped on a shirt, threw the towel from round his waist over the other chair.
"Then let's go. Come on, Cas." Dean said, tapping Cas on his upper back and leading him out the door to the impala.
When they arrived at the graveyard, there was a light mist that obscured some of the graves. "So where's little miss gut and ditch." Dean said, shining his torch on and examining all of the graves.
"That's a creative nickname, Dean." Cas said.
"Thanks, I guess, Cas." Dean replied, the right corner of his mouth curling into a smile.
"Here she is, Rose Andrews." Sam pointed out, shining his torch on a grave with slightly faded engraving of a rose at the top and a message of 'May her soul be laid to rest'.
" Well, really we're giving her her final wish." Dean said, reading the message. Sam smiled and handed Dean a shovel.
They dug for just over an hour and half before they hit something hard. "I take it that's the coffin?" Cas innocently asked.
"Well unless there's some treasure down here we weren't aware of, I'm gunna say yes" Dean retorted. Sam gave a little chuckle as he and Dean climbed out of the grave. Cas opened the grave from the top. To their surprise, there was no body there. Just the cushioning from inside the grave.
"Are you freakin' kidding me?" Dean exclaimed. "An hour and a half of digging for nothing! Freaking perfect." He tossed his shovel to one side and Sam rubbed his eyes with the back of the hand that was not holding the shovel.
"It's okay, Dean. We will find her bones. They have to be somewhere." Cas reassured him.
There was a cold wind around the graveyard and they all felt chills down their spines.
"Great, the bitch is here!" Dean shouted, pulling three iron crowbars out of his duffel bag thrown next to the grave. He threw one to Sam and one to Cas. They all looked around, brandishing their weapons. "Come and get us!" Dean threatened. There was another cold shiver and Dean's crowbar was pulled from his grasp. It floated before him and Sam and Cas began to run towards him. The crowbar gave Dean a great hit around the head and he thudded into the grave next to him.
"Dean!" Sam and Cas both shouted. The coldness continued and Cas yelled "Sam, close your eyes!" He let out a blinding light and Sam threw his arms over his face to cover his eyes. The graveyard began to grow warmer again. "I do not know what that was, Sam, but it was not a ghost." Cas said. Sam pulled his arms away from his face and said "Ya think?".
Cas jumped into the grave, pulled Dean out and lay him on the ground next to the grave. Sam ran from the other side of the grave and sat opposite Cas at Dean's other side. "Heal him, then." Cas began to move his fingers over to Dean's forehead when the hunter suddenly held out his hand. "No... N-no. I don't- I-" The words seemed to take a lot out of him.
"Dean, it's fine, you'll be fine." Panic began to grow inside of Cas. He couldn't lose his righteous man, not again. Sam sat silent and his brother's side. Dean began to slowly open his eyes, glancing over at Sam then resting his gaze on the angel that knelt on the other side of him, hand behind his head and hand still lingering above his face.
"Please... I-I'm ready. I'm ready to-"
"No, Dean. I won't let you die. You cannot die." Cas said, biting back tears.
"Dean, please. Just let him heal you, please." Sam leaned over his brother and fought back his own tears.
"Sammy... Sammy it's-it-it's okay. You can-can start a family. Like you-you've alw-ays wanted," he held his hand on his little brother's face that lingered above him. "It's okay, little brother. Just-just look after baby when I'm... When I'm gone."
"Dean I-" He stopped and had to stand up and walk away before he burst into tears.
"Dean please, I-"
"No, Cas. I'm ready to go. Just make sure I get into... heaven will ya."
"Of course Dean." Without thinking, he grabbed the hunter's hand that was laid on his chest.
"Cas, I want you- you to know. I want you to know that-that-" his words broke up and his breathing slowed.
"I know, Dean. I-I've always known." Tears streaming down his face, he leant in and kissed Dean on the forehead.
"Wow I'm really not subtle am I?" Dean said, his words weak and frail. Barely escaping his lips.
"Of course not... Just stop talking. I need this... This moment." He sniffed and tried to sop crying. Dean let go of Cas's hand that he was previously grasping tightly and wiped away the wetness under Cas's eye.
"I'll see you in Heaven, right?" Dean asked, hope in his eyes.
"I wouldn't have it otherwise, Dean."
"Sammy?!" Dean tried to shout but his words were lost in the blood coming up to his mouth. Sam ran over and fell to Dean's side. "Dean?"
"I want to say that I'm proud of everything that we've-that we've achieved. I'm proud of you. And proud of Cas. We-we've been through... So much. I'm proud of myself. You're gunna be-you're gunna be fine, Sammy. Get a family. Get another... Jess. Get a dog for- for christ's sake," He smiled and placed his hand on Sam's shoulder and smile that same smile from when he saw him out of the window of the boys home, the same smile from when he got back from hell, that reassuring smile that he knew made Sam feel better. "I love you, little brother." Sam grabbed Dean's hand with both of his, tears streaming down his face and said "I love you too, Dean. Say hi to mom from me." he smiled through the tears and Dean finally turned to Cas.
"You look after him. M-make sure he's alright. I won't have him staying in-in the business."
"I will, Dean." He let the tears roll down his face even though he knew he was going to see him again when he got him up to Heaven.
They sat there huddled together in the graveyard with Dean's breaths getting shorter and his pulse getting fainter. His green eyes fluttered from Sam to Cas until he finally closed them and smiled. He was finally at peace. After all of the fighting and refusing to die, he was finally dead. After falling out with Sam time and time again; after getting betrayed by Cas, but realising he did it all for him, he was finally going to be trouble free. He was finally going to be free of pain.
In heaven, Dean sat at a table in Ellen's bar with a deck of cards in his hands. Cas sat opposite him with a large grin on his face. "So, how do we play this?" Cas asked, excitement in his tone.
"I'll get to that, just let me deal the cards would you?" Dean replied, passing a card over to Cas and one to himself, one to one empty space and one to another.
"I'm glad we could do this, Dean."
"Do what?"
"Spend some time with your family. We've only really spent time in your own heaven. It's nice to be somewhere different."
"You haven't played against them in cards, you'll be crying like a baby by the end of this game, I'm telling ya."
"You know I don't like to be called that, Dean."
"What? A baby? N'aw, come on, man. I'm just playing," Cas stayed silent. "Alright, what if I make it up to you later?"
"What do you mean?" Dean just stopped dealing that cards and smiled at Cas "Oh, oh I know what you mean. I would like that, Dean." He smirked and Dean laughed under his breath. 'How did he manage to get this adorable angel to be with him?' He thought.
Jo Harvelle walked up to the table beer in hand and took a swig before saying "Schooch over, Dean, I'm ready to kick your asses!" she smiled at Dean and then glanced over to Cas, and back at Dean. "You know, I always knew you two would be together. It was all the little glances. The sexual tension was just killing me!"
"Yeah, whatever Jo, just look at your hand and quit teasing." Dean said, nudging the pile of cards in Jo's place closer to her.
"Not teasing. I think it's adorable. It's about time you got yourself and angel, in a manner of speaking." She shuffled her pile of cards and winked at Cas.
"I hope you'll go easy on me, Jo. I'm new to this." Cas smiled at Jo and shuffled his own cards. He messed up his hold on them and they fluttered all over the table. Dean rolled his eyes and began to pick up the cards around them. Jo giggled and continued shuffling her own. Cas looked embarrassed and tried to gather his cards and quickly as possible. Dean placed his hand on top of Cas's and said "Relax, Cas. It's nothing to worry about." He smiled and Cas relaxed a bit.
"Here, lemme help with that, ya idjits." Bobby left his beer bottle of beer on the bar and walked over to the table and helped gather the cards. "Thank you, Mr Singer." Cas said, avoiding eye contact with him. "Come on now, call me Bobby. You've known me long enough to not treat me like your boyfriend's father." He nudged Cas's shoulder and handed him the cards he managed to collect then walked back over to the bar. Ellen was stood next to him with a glass of whiskey and was laughing with Bobby. She glanced over to Dean, Cas and Jo then shouted "You know, your delicate features really were a give away, boy!" she laughed and waited for a reply.
"Yeah, sure, whatever you say, Ellen!" Dean shouted back.
"You do have very delicate features, Dean." Cas said matter of factly.
"It's true." Jo added. Dean looked between them and gave them his 'Shut Up' face.
"Where is she? Unreliable, that's what she is." Dean said jokingly.
"Must be where you get it from." Jo said, elbowing Dean in the arm and smiling. Cas laughed and said "You can be very unreliable. Like when you didn't trust me when I teamed up with Crowley."
"Dude, you were power hungry! And it was Crowley, come on!"
"I did it for you Dean! I did everything for you, and you know that. And anyway, how many times did you team up with Crowley after that?"
"Okay for one of those I was a demon. I clearly was not in my right mind and-" He was interrupted by a voice coming from the entrance to the bar.
"Could you two save your domestics for your own heaven? Jeez, we're here to have a good time, not listen to you two fighting." It was Mary, Dean's mom. She walked in with grace and determination. "Mom!" Dean said, squeezing past Jo and running to hug his mother.
"Dean, you saw me two days ago, what's the fuss about?"
"I know, I just haven't gotten over the fact that I have you. It's amazing" He broke away from the hug and invited her to go and sit down with him, Jo and Cas. She sat next to Cas and gathered her cards. "Is anyone going to get me a beer?" She asked with a cheeky smile on her face, just like Dean's when he made a joke that no one else found funny.
"Sure thing, hun. Catch!" Ellen threw her a bottle of beer and Mary caught it with ease.
"Cheers, Ellen. Right, let's get started."
They played well into the evening and in the end, Mary beat all of them by a long shot and Dean had to keep reassuring Cas that it wasn't anything that he was doing wrong, it was just that Mary had a lot more experience.
Dean's Heaven was a house with a large TV, great water pressure, a refillable fridge with all the foods and drinks he liked, a huge garage with 'heaven baby' in it, and a memory foam, king-sized bed for him and Cas. Everything was great for him. He could see his family again, his friends and he could spend more time with Cas. The only things missing were his dad and Sam. Honestly, if he saw his dad in heaven he'd probably punch him in the face and refuse to see him, so that wasn't really that upsetting. Sam, on the other hand, was a problem.
"I hope Sam's okay."
"He's fine, Dean."
"You've been watching over him, right?"
"Yes, and I always will. Until his last days. Don't worry Dean. He's happy. He has a beautiful wife and a Dalmation."
"What's his name?"
"Sam."
"No, Cas. What's the dog's name?"
"Oh. She is called Annabelle."
"That's cute..."
"Will you be okay Dean?"
"Of course I will. I've got Bobby, Ellen, Jo... Mom. And best of all, I have you."
"And I have you."