Dean hates witches... Like really hates witches.
Dean Winchester has fought and killed at least one of everything that goes bump in the night. He's even tussled with thing's that were never supposed to exist for Christ sake.
Sometimes, Dean finds himself sitting up in bed at night and imagines all the records he's probably broken in the hunter world; He's fought and killed gods, the mother of all, Jefferson star ships, leviathan, demons, knights of hell, the horsemen, angels, archangels, hell even the actual Satan wanted to kick him in the jewels. God was probably next. And no other hunter aside from himself, Sam and Bobby had ever had to fight even half of these things.
Lucky Bastards...
But despite every wendigo, werewolf, vamp, ghost, ghoul and any other S.O.B he's ganked, he'll always hold a special hatred in his heart for Goddamn witches. With their freakin hexes and mind whammies. They're annoying as shit to fight and even more annoying to kill.
So of course it's a fucking witches fault that he and his brother were currently dragging an unconscious and extremely heavy angel to the impala.
"Dumb son of a bitch..." Dean wheezed, half carrying, half dragging Cas to his baby while Sam ran ahead to open the door to the back seat.
Once they managed to manhandle Cas into the back and get him situated, sprawled out on his side in the back, they shut the door and took a minute to just breathe.
Sam turned to look at Dean worriedly, and Dean knew what that look meant. Cas wasn't that heavy the last time he passed out...
"You think the curse affected him?"
Dean sighed and leaned back, allowing his head to lightly thunk babys hardtop. "Son of a bitch..."
Suddenly Sam was gone from his side and Dean felt a hand tapping on his shin. He straightened to find his brother kneeling maybe two feet in front of him.
"Dean, check this out."
Dean squatted next to his brother and noticed 3 things at first; Firstly he took note of his tracks as he pulled Cas to the car as well as the trenches where Cas's dress shoes dragged through the dirt. The 3rd thing was where it got a little strange. There was another pair of trenches, but they were much smaller, thinner, and they weren't as consistent.
The other lines were thick and deep, they made a continuous line from the entire trek to the car. The second pair of ditches were about the width of Deans index and middle finger, they stopped and started at random and they were squiggly. Like a child had taken a stick and made little zig zagging lines in the dirt.
"What the hell?"
"I don't know man... What do you think caused it?"
"I'm just as clueless as you. I mean, it was obviously moving around when I was moving Cas."
Sam suddenly made a noise of surprise and when Dean turned to look at him, Sams face was one of awe. "Wait! Think back to when Cas was hit by the spell."
"When they'd finally managed to corner the bitch, Dean's bravado seemed to piss her off more than being captured in the first place.
She shrieked something about Dean putting on an act and needing to be more genuine. So with some babbled Latin and a flash of light, some kind of pinkish fireball was heading right for Dean.
The elder Winchester ducked and prepared for impact of instinct, but when no feeling of any kind of magic came, he cracked an eye open and noticed the familiar trenchcoat of their wayward angel billowing in the wind.
"Cas!"
As if sensing Dean's initial panic, he turned and quirked the corner of his lips in what could be a considered a smirk from the angel. "I'm fine Dean."
He was still glowing, so Dean could assume Cas had indeed shielded him from the spell with his own body.
He then turned to look around and spotted his brother standing over the witches body, he eyes were liquefied.
Dean approached Cas slowly, once he was sure he'd stopped glowing. "You sure you're alright? What'd you go and jump in front of me for?"
Cas furrowed his brow and tilted his head in confusion. "Because that spell was intended to kill you.."
Dean was slightly taken aback by the bluntness of Cas' response. Not that he was surprised by the bluntness of Cas' response, God knows he's had years to get used to that, but was still shocked by how easily Cas would put his life on the line for him. So suddenly and without explanation too... it was still a little jarring.
Dean stood there opening and closing his mouth like a floundering fish before finally managing to gasp "But what if that killed you?"
Cas gave him a bitch-please-I-pulled-your-angst-riddled-ass-from-hell-I-think-I-could-handle-a-little-hex look and opened his mouth to probably say as much, but before he could his legs crumpled beneath him.
Dean darted forward and barely managed to catch him before he hit the ground. But then his own knees buckled under the surprising weight of the angel. "Easy there Mr. Comatose." He wheezed, easing him to the ground.
After getting him settled he called Sam over the help get Cas to the car. Right as Sam came running up to them there was a flash light from the angel and a watery shadow appeared behind his shoulders and seemed to solidify for a few moments before disappearing.
And that's pretty much how they ended up here.
Dean turned to stare incredulously as his brother, who was mirroring his own shock right back at him.
"So you think...?"
They both jumped up immediately and wrenched the impalas door open.
Inside Castiel was lying on his side exactly as they left him. The only difference was the huge wings emerging from his shoulder blades.
They were a silky black with iridescent blues and purples highlighting the longer feathers. The down of the feathers were fluffier and had a soft graying color the closer you moved from the wing tip to the base.
He was still unconscious but his nose was wrinkled in annoyance, as if he was dreaming of something unpleasant. Dean then noticed it was because one of his wings was crumpled and pinned under his shoulder.
"Gimme a hand with him." Dean muttered, moving forward to roll Cas more firmly onto his stomach.
As Dean did that, Sam came up beside him and gingerly pulled Cas' wing from under him, smoothing the feathers and fiddling with it until it was comfortably folded behind his back.
"Well that explains the tracks..." Dean grumbled, rolling Cas back into a more comfortable position.
"And the extra weight." Sam added.
"Do you think it's life threatening? Or it mind whammied him him somehow?" Dean asked, crossing to the impalas driver side.
"I'm not sure.." Sam mused from the passengers seat as the impala roared to life. "I guess we'll have to wait until he wakes up."