A/N: On Tumblr unforth-ninawaters is doing a #WritingPromptWednesday. It's fun and you should join! It's been awhile, but I finally have the Mistaken Identity AU prompt done for WPW. Here was the prompt I chose:

In retrospect I have no idea how I got home without realizing that the dog I picked up from the doggy day care *isn't my dog* but they just looked so damn similar and I was tired and I didn't think about it, and now I have to figure out who has my actual dog, and whose dog I have - cause apparently we're both the idiots who didn't put "if lost, please call…" tags on our dog collar

A Dog Named Bumblebee

In hindsight, Dean didn't have the greatest day and he could totally blame it on the bees. Somehow, sometime, a bee came to Dean's house, thought it was a great place to make a home and brought its buddies leading to the infestation in his wall. It was already bad enough that he would have to pay an exterminator to rid his house of the little pests, but then there was the Colonel. The hulking, furry, enthusiastic German Sheppard couldn't be kept inside the house or the backyard while the exterminator was there, so he had to leave early that morning to drop him off at some doggy day care. After a grueling day at work and dealing with the traffic, he just wanted to grab the Colonel and get home to relax.

The doggy day care was due to close soon by the time Dean pulled in. He hurried into the door and was assaulted with the different pitched barks coming from the dogs that were left. The Colonel came running up to the glass door and placed his massive paws against it as he wagged his tail and barked happily at Dean. "Calm down boy. I came here to bust you out." He walked over to the counter and smiled at the woman behind it. "I'm here to pick up the Colonel, my German Sheppard."

The woman smiled and stood up from her chair. "So you're his owner." She disappeared behind, but reappeared at the glass door where she gently shooed the other dogs away so she could ease the Colonel out the door. "He was quite the charmer today."

The Colonel saw Dean and bounded over to him and threw his paws all over Dean. He rubbed between his ears while trying to push him down. "Down. C'mon, we gotta get going." He clipped his leash to his collar and ruffled the fur just beneath it. He managed a short wave to the woman who had led the Colonel to the front before opening the door to leave.

The Colonel headed straight to the Impala, happily waving his tail and sniffing around. "Yeah, yeah. We're almost home free." Dean opened the back and the dog eagerly climbed up inside, sniffing the leather seats.

Dean shut the door, started up the Impala, and peeled out of the parking lot. The drive back to his house was uneventful, except for when the Colonel rested his head next to Dean's on the seat and began licking his face. The Colonel stopped when Dean pushed his head away, but he still kept close to him. As he pulled into his drive the German Sheppard began to bark and paw at the door. "Jesus, calm down. This is why I should never take you anywhere." He turned off the Impala and when he opened the driver's door the Colonel jumped over the bench seats. He shoved Dean to the side and wiggled out the door, leash trailing behind. "Dammit, Colonel, come back here!" The dog barked happily and ran down the sidewalk.

"Shit." Dean took off running down the sidewalk, chasing after the dog as fast as he could. Three houses down the Colonel veered to the right and started heading up his neighbor's driveway. "Colonel, get back here." The dog just cocked its head to the side and gave him an innocent doggy look. He grabbed the dog's leash and the Colonel whimpered, trying to stand his ground in the neighbor's driveway. Dean sighed and stared down at him. "I've had a long day and all I want to do is just go home, crack open a beer, and watch the new episode of Dr. Sexy. Is that so hard to ask for?"

The German Sheppard padded forward and nudged its nose against Dean's hand, sniffing it intently. Dean twisted his wrist around so his fingers could rub over the dog's ears. "Let's just get home." He took a few steps away from the driveway and at first the Colonel was hesitant, but eventually he got the message and followed behind Dean's footsteps.

They made it back to Dean's house without further incident and the moment he unhooked his leash the Colonel started to smell everything in the household. Dean made his way to the fridge to grab a can of beer and snorted. "You were only gone for a day. No need to get all territorial." The Colonel just gave him a sloppy lick to his hand and sniffed his way cupboard to cupboard.

It had gotten late in the evening, so Dean decided to scavenge leftovers for something to eat. He found leftover spaghetti that looked good enough and let it reheat in the microwave while he poured the Colonel some dry dog food in his bowl. He looked down at the bowl and tilted his head, sniffing. Dean raised an eyebrow. "What? You too good for your food now." He leaned over to scratch the Colonel under his collar. "That doggy day care turn you into some frou-frou dog?" His fingers caught the Colonel's tag and Dean froze. Bumblebee.

Bumblebee licked Dean's fingers and wagged his tale. He ran his non-slobbered through his hair. Jesus he took someone else's dog home. He grabbed the tag and flipped it over in search of an address, number, or an owner's name, something so he could return the dog to its rightful owner. No such luck, the back was blank; only Bumblebee's name was on the tag. The collar wasn't even the same. The Colonel had a forest green collar and Bumblebee's was a dark navy. And who named a German Sheppard Bumblebee anyway? The dog nosed his thigh and looked up at him with its sad, doggy eyes. "I'm sorry….Bumblebee?" Bumblebee barked and wagged his tail. Dean lowered himself so he was on his knees as he ran his fingers through the dog's fur. "We'll find your owner…somehow." Bumblebee laid down and rolled over to expose his belly. Dean smiled as he moved to sit down on the floor next to him. "You like that?" Bumblebee grinned up at him with a happy doggy face, content with finally getting what he wanted.

Dean kept petting Bumblebee while he thought of a way to somehow find the owner. The doggy day care wasn't open during the weekends, so he couldn't call them directly, but he could at least e-mail them. They would have to have some information about Bumblebee's owner. After all, he had to leave a phone number in case something happened to the Colonel. He thought it might have been a bit overkill at the time, but now that he knew Bumblebee's owner most likely had the Colonel he was glad for it.

He glanced over at Bumblebee. The dog was pretty well behaved except for when they had first arrived and was extremely friendly. If he had put up any kind of fight at the doggy day care he would have known immediately it wasn't his dog. The Colonel probably hadn't put up a fight when Bumblebee's owner had shown up either; that dog had to say hi to everyone when they went on walks in the neighborhood. He went to scratch Bumblebee's lower belly when…"Looks like you may be a bit more different to the Colonel than I thought."

She barked at him and rolled back over so she could tackle him, trying to lick his face. "That's enough. I don't need a shower." He stood back up, covered in dog hair and slobber, kicking the edge of the forgotten food bowl. "I don't have any other dog food. Are you sure you won't eat this? Your owner would never forgive me if I let you starve to death."

Bumblebee nudged her nose in the dry kibble before scarfing it down. Dean sighed in relieve, knowing that at least the dog would kept fed during her stay here. He fished the dog day care's card out of his pocket and found the email address underneath the building's phone number. He composed a quick email detailing what happened and he sent it, hoping there would be some help soon to get Bumblebee back to her rightful owner. He leaned back in his chair and ran his hands down his face. He felt something nudge his thigh and he looked down to see Bumblebee. "What are we going to do?"

-o-O-o-

They spent the rest of the night watching Dr. Sexy and sitting on the couch together; Dean kept a hand on top of Bumblebee's head to comfort her. Her tail thumped against the couch in enthusiastic agreement. By the time Dean crawled into his bed he had almost forgotten it wasn't his dog and was surprised when Bumblebee tried to jump up and join him. "What are you doing? You can't sleep with me." She gave him a sad look with her eyes. "What your owner does stays at your house; it's not going to happen here." She placed her front paws on the edge and rested her head between them. He groaned and patted the mattress. "Fine, but only tonight. Hopefully we'll find your owner and you'll be with them tomorrow." Bumblebee jumped up and nestled on top of the sheets on Dean's right. He tried to find some way to sleep around the giant German Sheppard and ended up cuddled in with one hand rest over Bumblebee's belly.

-o-O-o-

There was no email from the doggy day care that morning, so Dean took Bumblebee to the park in search of her owner. While Dean didn't have any luck on his end Bumblebee did have fun playing with other dogs and it did make him happy to at least know the dog wasn't suffering from this confusion. They stayed in for the afternoon watching Star Wars on the couch. Bumblebee's owner had to be into cuddling because the dog made it a mission to have every inch of Dean fully coddled in some fashion. After A New Hope he gave up trying to fight the dog's lovable nature and just embraced it. She would be going back to her owner anyway. There was no way he was going to get attached to her.

Sunday was no luck either as he woke up to dog fur in his nose and rain pouring outside his window. No email and the bad weather kept him from doing anything else so he worked on watching back episodes of some Spanish soap opera he stumbled upon one late afternoon when he had been laid up at home sick. Somewhere between around Jorge finding out Yolanda was his daughter and Graciela signing her divorce papers he realized he had fallen for Bumblebee. The Colonel was a great dog, but Bumblebee was the cuddler he never was. She had looked at him with those puppy eyes and now he was convinced he could handle both dogs. It was going to make it so much harder to give her back to her owner. Until then, he made sure to pet her favorite spot: right underneath her collar.

-o-O-o-

Monday morning there was an email apologizing for such a late reply, but to bring Bumblebee by the doggy day care so that they could inform the owner and have them go over there to pick her up. She followed him around all morning and his heart felt a bit heavy as he opened the door. "You wanna go for one last walk?" She licked his hand as he clipped the leash and set off for one more quick around the neighborhood before he put her in the back of the Impala and brought her back to her owner. They only made it three houses down before she started to bark like crazy and head up the driveway leading to the house. "Bumblebee, stop." Dean pulled on the leash, but the dog kept going forward. He followed her up the drive and she walked right up to the door; she pawed and whined at it.

"Bumblebee, we have to go. We can't wake up my neighbors either." He moved to step off the step, but the door opened and a wave of panic settle quick. He hadn't actually meet his neighbor yet since they moved in only three weeks ago and all he had seen of them was a black Prius and a bright yellow Gremlin. He didn't know what they looked like or even if it was a couple or just one person. His neighbor was a tired looking man, hair mussed, flannel pants rumbled, tee shirt limp, and cup of coffee in hand. Bumblebee took one look at the man and immediately tried to jump all over him.

The man backed away, but looked incredulously at her. "Bumblebee?"

The dog barked and ran into the house, disappearing inside. His neighbor looked up at him and he felt a bit awkward. "So, um…it turns out I had your dog…I guess."

His neighbor nodded. "Apparently."

"I emailed the day care, but they didn't get back to me until today and I tried to look for a number or something on the tag, but there wasn't one."

"She's chipped."

"What?"

"She has a chip. A vet or shelter would have been able to scan it and contact me, but I have been meaning to update her tags." He looked at Dean and held his hand out. "Castiel Novak."

Dean shook the other man's hand. "Dean Winchester." The sound of barking grew loud and now two German Shepherds that looked almost nearly identical came bounding to the doorway. The one on the left barked loudly and barreled towards Dean. He started to pet the dog and a quick check of the tag confirmed it was the Colonel. "I missed you old boy." He looked back up at his neighbor. "So what exactly happened?"

Castiel sighed. "My friend was supposed to pick up Bumblebee and then drop her off Saturday when I returned from a day trip for work. She brought me the wrong dog and this entire weekend I've been trying to figure out what to do. Apparently all Charlie remembered was German Sheppard."

Dean shrugged. "No harm, no foul I guess. Bumblebee and I got along pretty well. She makes a good cuddle companion."

Castiel's smile warmed. "She does. And the Colonel was very friendly."

"He's pretty sociable." He looked down at his watch. "Listen, I have to go to work, but do you want to meet up again? I feel like we still have a lot to discuss and I'm sure the dogs wouldn't mind getting to hang out together."

Castiel raised an eyebrow. "And the owners wouldn't mind hanging out?"

Dean grinned. "I certainly wouldn't."

"Then I'll see you sometime, Dean."

"Looking forward to it, Cas."

Dean gave Bumblebee one final pet before guiding the Colonel away from the house. He looked down at the dog. "For getting yourself in trouble you sure did find a good guy to get tangled up in." The Colonel happily barked and wagged his tail as Dean unlocked the house door to let his dog in.