So, Susangel asked (begged, pleaded and puppy dog eyed me) for a fic based on the migraines Cas gets in my little (big) 'verse. So, I finally wrote her a few since she asked for a whole series and multi-chaptered thing. I have two and half of a third written.

So I sent them to her and then she bugged, poked and pestered me to post them since apparently it's awesome. So here it is. All this whole little series will be is Cas dealing with migraines in various situations and from different peoples POVs. It takes place in my 'verse at different points in time, I'll try to keep it as stand alone as possible for the people who haven't read it (which I don't think is anyone since the people who read me have apparently read everything I've written. Which is awesome by the way.)

So! Here it is, Cas suffering.

Are you happy now Susangel?


It had been three weeks since the end of the apocalypse that wasn't; they'd spent the last week at Bobby's, Sam having convinced Dean it was the easiest place to help Cas adjust to being human. The other two weeks had been spent raiding thrift stores for clothes for Cas; if he was going to be human, he needed more than the suit and trench coat.

Bobby spent his time with Cas teaching him how to cook, what was acceptable to eat, and what wasn't acceptable. Sam taught Cas how to use the computer and internet; he also took Cas into town with him to the library and other stores to help Cas figure out what it was he liked doing with his free time and what he didn't like.

Dean of course took Cas to bars, claiming the former angel finally needed to get laid to truly enjoy the human experience. Cas, naturally, didn't go for any of it and simply enjoyed spending the time with Dean and learning, the next day that hangovers weren't actually all that fun.

It was on the third week that Gabriel appeared in the living room, Bobby shot him and Sam stabbed him, Dean cursed a blue streak and Cas simply remained seated on the couch, reading his book as if nothing out of the ordinary had just happened.

After repairing the bullet holes and stab wounds Gabriel plopped down on the couch next to Cas, tossed an arm over his shoulders and asked, "How's humanity treating you?"

A page turned, "Fine."

"Good, glad to hear it."

Another page turned.

"What do you want Gabriel?" Dean sat himself down on the other side of Cas and glared at the archangel, then turned to Cas and asked, "Why are you not surprised to see him? Last you knew he was dead."

"I was not the only one brought back."

"Yep, when Cas decided he wanted to come and play in the dirt instead, dear old Dad needed someone to keep order in Heaven, he needed a trustworthy angel and I happened to earn that right when I sacrificed myself for you chumps."

"Great, Trickster is running Heaven." Bobby grumbled from behind his desk, still glaring at Gabriel much like Sam and Dean were. Cas just seemed unconcerned with it all.

"Anyway, I just came to check up on my little bro here. Make sure everything was ticking smoothly in that body of yours."

"I'm fine Gabriel."

"Good! That's good. If you find yourself you know, not fine just call me!" With that, Gabriel vanished, leaving them all to wonder what the hell he had meant.

Exactly a week later they found out what Gabriel had been talking about.

It had started out like any other day, everyone but Cas woke up in the morning, plans for the day already being discussed in the kitchen and the smell of coffee permeating the air. When Cas finally joined them close to noon, he complained about his head hurting a little, so Dean gave him some Advil and that was that.

A couple hours later when Cas complained about the room being too bright, it was Sam that asked if the Advil had helped. Cas shook his head and his eyes squeezed shut, a hand going up to rub at a temple. Sam saw the warning signs, he had suffered with these sort of things before, so he knew, he understood what was about to happen. So he ushered Cas upstairs, pulled the blinds down over the window and tacked up a heavy blanket to block out as much light as possible. He forced Cas to lie down in bed and told him not to move, told him he was going to run into town to get him some stronger medicine that would help him with the pain better than Advil would.

When Sam returned with a bag full of items from the drugstore in town, Dean was in a panic and Bobby was already researching.

"What's wrong?" Sam asked, looking at Dean pacing and then to Bobby who was flipping through his books.

"What's wrong? What's wrong is that Cas is upstairs, clutching his head, moaning and rocking back and forth like he lost his damn mind!"

"He's got a migraine Dean, like I used to get after my visions, remember?"

"Cas doesn't get visions." Sam rolled his eyes at his brother, "Migraines don't just happen because of visions idiot." Sam headed up the stairs to Cas' room, Dean following him.

"You knew this was going to happen?"

"No, but earlier when he had a headache and then light sensitivity and the Advil not helping I kind of pieced it together, it's kind of what I went through." Sam let himself in Cas' room as quietly as possible; Cas was curled up on his bed, heels of his palms pressed against his eyes. Sam immediately felt for him, Cas had yet to experience pain as a human. Sam didn't know how angel's felt pain, but Cas hadn't felt anything like the steady throbbing pain that was currently ripping through his skull.

Sam pulled a bottle of Gatorade from his bag, followed with Excedrin, "Here Cas, take these, they'll help better than the Advil will." Cas unfolded himself a little, blindly accepted the two pills from Sam and swallowed them down with a wince.

"Lay on your stomach Cas, that helps sometimes." Cas nodded and did as Sam instructed, laying on his stomach and pressing his face into his pillow. Sam pulled a hot pack from his bag of goodies, shook it a few times to get it working and laid it across the back of Cas' neck. Sam hadn't been sure if cold or hot would work best for Cas so he'd gotten both. It only took a few moments before Cas was reaching back and pulling the hot pack off his neck with a groaned, "Worse."

"Alright, we'll try the cold one then." Sam cracked it, waited until he felt it chilling in his hands and laid it in the same place the heat pack had been. Dean watched it all with worry in his eyes, looking like he wanted to pace but wasn't sure if the sound would cause Cas greater pain or not. He could remember Sam's pain after his visions, how they had left Sam and mess on the bed, groaning at loud noises and bright lights.

Cas let out a relieved whimper as the cold settled in, he relaxed marginally but the rigid set of his shoulders and the straight set of his spine gave him away.

Gabriel popped into the room, gave Cas' back a worried glance before resting two fingers against his temple, Cas immediately loosened with sleep, "Was hoping he wouldn't have to go through this."

"You knew this would happen?" Dean turned his anger on Gabriel; he wanted to punch the asshole but knew that would only end up breaking his hand and that wasn't really something he wanted to deal with right now.

Gabriel snapped his fingers and the three found themselves downstairs, Gabriel sprawled on the couch while Sam and Dean glared down at him and Bobby cursed their sudden presence.

"I knew yeah, hoped differently though."

"Why would you know about Cas' migraines? It's a human thing bound to happen right?" Gabriel sighed, looked up at Sam and said, "Cas will experience these sort of things for the rest of his life, it's not just a 'human experience' with him."

All three hunters stared at him.

Gabriel sighed and sat up straight, "Cas remembers everything from his time as an angel. Everything, Cas has lived a very, very long time. Was around before humans were even a microbe in the ocean."

"Jesus." Sam knew Cas had been old, but not that old.

"Well, he's got nothing to do with it, but I get what you're really trying to say." Sam rolled his eyes and Gabriel continued on, "Since he's human now, that's a lot of information to store in one little human brain. Human minds aren't built to hold that much, you guys are lucky our little Castiel is stubborn enough not to have gone insane because he very easily could have with all the info in there."

"Why did he chose to remember it all then?"

"Because it's Cas, you think he'd be happy with having certain things in his mind missing? Castiel always wanted to know everything, he was always too curious for his own good."

"And there's nothing you can do to stop this from happening?" Dean paused in the pacing he had started to glare at Gabriel as if it were all his fault.

"I wish there was something I could do, really. But there isn't, unless Cas wants to give up millions of years of memories, which he won't, there isn't a damn thing I can do. They won't happen consistently though, and hopefully not too often so you guys should be okay."

"So…what, he's-"

"Here Dean, let me put this in a visual for you." Gabriel stood in Dean's path and said, "Think of Cas' brain like a library. The shelves are stuffed full; books are piled on the floor around the shelves, on desks and on top of the books that are in the shelves, they're everywhere. Sometimes the books will overflow and topple over and that's when Cas will get a migraine. Okay?"

"Yeah, alright."

"There's not much I can do for him, except send him off to sleep so it'll be up to you guys to handle it." Before anyone could respond, Gabriel was gone and Sam was giving Dean his 'I'm so sorry' look. Dean rolled his eyes and headed back upstairs to Cas' room, probably to sit and mope about how this was his fault that Cas was going through all this since Cas had chosen Dean over Heaven.

Both Bobby and Sam rolled their eyes at Dean's retreating back. Sam went and turned on his laptop to begin researching home remedies for migraines.

When the sun began to set Sam could hear the quiet murmuring of voices upstairs and took it to mean Cas was awake finally. Sam crept up the stairs with a cup of tea in his hand, they'd discovered on Cas' third day of being human that he really couldn't stand coffee and instead preferred tea with a dollop of honey in it.

He let himself into Cas' room, still being quiet in case the migraine still lingered, Dean was leaning back against the headboard, Cas' head in his lap, Dean's fingers gently massaging Cas' temples.

"How are you feeling Cas?"

"Better, the pain is more manageable than earlier. Still hurts though." Sam nodded and sat on the edge of the bed, waiting for Cas to sit himself upright until he handed him his tea. Cas sipped at it, sighed happily and muttered, "Thank you Sam."

"It's not a problem Cas." Cas shrugged, took another sip, "Thank you anyway, especially for earlier, the cold and the pills helped quite a bit."

"We'll figure out what helps and doesn't help so we can work it out for future migraines." Cas nodded, closed his eyes and leaned back against the wall, cup held loosely in his hands. Sam and Dean exchanged looks before Dean asked, "Sure you're going to be okay Cas?"

"I'm fine Dean."

"You're sure-"

"Dean."

"Alright. Just making sure." Cas sighed and said, "You don't have to stay up here with me." Dean and Sam exchanged glances again.

"Sure we do Cas; we take care of our family." Sam said, resting his hand on Cas' knee.

"And you're our family Cas." Dean finished, shooting Cas a grin when the former angel opened his eyes to look at them, giving them both his own shaky smile.