They had driven in silence for a while, when Dean looked out the corner of his eye at Sam, who seemed to be sinking deeper and deeper into a mood.

In the end he sighed and said:" What?"
"What do you mean, what?" Sam asked in a low voice.
"What are you brooding over? You got your way, I promised to let you try…"
To Dean's confusion, Sam replied with:
"Can't we just stop the car and get it over with?"
"Get what over with?"
"You know."
"No I don't, what are you going on about?"
Dean was starting to get annoyed.
"I punched you."
"Yeah. Don't do that again."
"Come on Dean, don't pretend you don't know what I'm saying. You know the rule as well as I do. No punching family, no exceptions, no excuses."
"Oh."
A pause hung heavily in the air.
"This was different."
"No it wasn't. So, can we get it out of the way, please. I don't want to wait all the way back to the bunker..."

Dean turned in his seat to look at Sam.

"Are you seriously asking me to spank you for that? And to do it now, when you'd have to sit on the result all the way back? No. "
"You know it's right Dean. I broke the first rule"
"No. This was different. I'm not doing that to you for this."

A voice broke in from the back seat.
"Dean! Watch the road!"

Dean's head snapped round and he managed to pull the heavy car through the sudden bend in the road and to avoid the oncoming blue sedan at the same time by applying a bit of … innovative… driving, which gave Sam's pulse a healthy workout and curiously enough also happened to help Mr. Reikoldt in the blue sedan be a much more interesting dinner partner that same evening.
Mr. Reikoldt had never really managed the concept of idle small-talk. What is one supposed to say? But this time he had a Story. Not only a story, but a story about nearly dying, which segued nicely into a whole conversation about idiots on the road and road safety.
That got them through the first course, and the first awkwardness of a blind date. It might even have been the reason he got a second date…

Back in the car the unknowing cupid who changed lonely Mr. Reikoldt's life turned back to his brother and simply said:
"No."

Before Sam got a chance to reply, the voice from the backseat broke in again. This time not in in the alarmed tone of a guardian angel of road safety, but with that special timbre in his voice that Dean in his mind had labelled "avenging angel."
"Dean, pull over."
"Cas…no."
"Dean."

When the roar of the engine died down, Cas leaned forward between the seats and said quietly:
"Do you trust me?"
Both brothers nodded without hesitation.
"Sam has a point. We did agree to this. I understand your position, Dean. But I think Sam is right. So, I'll do it. "
"Cas. No. It's not…"

But Cas ignored Dean's feeble protest completely.
He just turned to Sam and continued:
"Do you want me to handle this, right here and now?"
Sam paled, but nodded with determination.
"Ok, then. Get out of the car."

Cas opened his door and slid out walking around the car to meet Sam, who was slowly folding himself out of the front seat.
Cas pointed at the hood of the car.
"Bend over."
Sam quickly stripped out of his jacket and shirt, then started to undo his belt.
Cas lifted his eyebrows: " You don't have to strip completely…."
Sam sent him a crooked smile.
"Risk scratching the paint with my belt or buttons or something… while Dean is right there looking on…. No way… "
He slid his jeans down to below the knees and carefully bent over the hood, resting his head on his folded arms.

Cas shook his head, then walked around the car and knocked once on the driver's side window.
"Dean. Come on out."
Dean frowned, but surprisingly, or maybe not so surprisingly, obeyed.
"You too. "
Sam's head jerked up and both brothers stared at Cas.
"Why?" They both asked, at the same time.
"Oh, let's see. Lying. Keeping secrets of life and death magnitude, general sneaking around and planning to abandon your family without telling anyone…"
Dean closed his eyes for a moment, then nodded briskly and followed Sam's lead as regarding the safety of his Baby's exquisite paint job.

When they were both bent over on either side of the car, Cas asked seriously.

"Do you trust me in this? Trust me to give each of you exactly the punishment you deserve? No more. No less."

Both men murmured their agreement and Cas squared his shoulders.
"Very well then. Don't move, I'll be right back."

He marched grimly to the nearest tree, an old hazel, where he promptly broke of a two-foot-long branch about the thickness of a finger and in a swift move stripped the leaves away.
Then he stomped back to the car and swished the branch through the air, making both men flinch at the sound.

Gravelly he demanded:
"Look at each other. Lift your heads and look at each other. You have been through so much together, have overcome such hardships against such incredible odds and how? By standing by each other. Shoulder by shoulder. Back to back. When you lie, and keep secrets from each other, that's when things go to... to… to… shit… so stop that. And stop lashing out at each other. Be the brothers I know you can be.
Look into each other's eyes. You are in this position because of what you did to each other, so look into each other's eyes while you are being punished and remember why this is happening. "

He waited. Waited while the two men found each other's eyes. Found each other. Remembered why they were here. Then he took a step forward and brought the switch down as if he was swinging a baseball-bat going for a home-run; powerful shoulder and arm fully behind the blow, landing it squarely across the lowest part of Sam's backside, making Sam slam into the hood of the Impala, gasping in wordless agony.

Dean stared at his brother as Cas walked around the car, now knowing precisely what he was in for.

This wasn't the first time Cas had handled a family punishment, not even the first time a switch had been involved, but he had never seen the angel use this amount of force behind a spanking blow before. Not with his hand, not with a belt, and this time he was using a damn switch.
Dean felt the blood leave his face, when he heard Cas's steps crunching the gravel right next to him. This was going to be a rough ride.

There was the sound of a thousand angry bees. Then the bees all landed and stung him at the same time. The sheer power of the blow threw him against the hood of the car, hard enough to bruise his hips, while fire ignited across his ass. The world jumped sideways, and he couldn't even breathe, his brain so full of pain that all other functions ceased for a moment.

Cas moved away from Dean, and the brothers found each other's eyes again. Two pairs of eyes dark with pain and worry in faces pale from shock.
Then there was a sound like a gunshot, and they turned to look at Cas standing in front of the Impala with the broken pieces of the switch in his hands.

"Exactly as much as you deserve, no more, no less," he said.

Then he just walked around Sam, opened the door and got into the backseat as if he hadn't just pulled the blanket out from under two men's feet in one fell swoop.

Shakily they got up, got their clothes back in order and looked at each other again.
Dean was the first to move, he walked around to where Sam was standing and pulled him into a hug.
When they pushed away, he said:
"Hey, wonder what Dad would have said if he could see us now, eh?"
Sam just shrugged.

They looked at each other on the side of a dark road, the ghost of a dead man standing between them for a splintering moment, then Dean clapped Sam on the shoulder.
Moments later a car as black as a demon's eyes roared down the road.
Inside it one satisfied angel and two rather uncomfortable men were all once more at peace with each other.