When I entered my room I was not surprised to find him sitting on the mess that was my bed.

"Hey," I said, dumping my backpack on the floor.

"Hello Dean" he replied cheerfully. "How are you?"

"Fine. Headache."

"I can fix it for you," he said eagerly. "I'm getting much better."

"That's really Okay, Cas."

"No, I can do it," he insisted.

"Dude, do you know how hard it was to explain to my dad why I was bleeding purple?"

"Um."

"I had to tell him someone threw cough medicine on me," I said, annoyed.

"Did he believe you?"

"What was he supposed to think? That a baby angel made me get a purple nosebleed trying to heal my black eye?"

"I did fix your eye."

I glared at him.

"And I'm not a baby, Dean. I'm much, much older than you are."

"I bet not if you count in angel years or whatever," I said, making sure I'd locked the door to my room.

"How old are you?" Castiel asked.

"Thirteen."

The angel thought for a moment.

"I suppose you're right," he conceded. "So what are you up to tonight? Homework?" he asked hopefully.

Cas liked it when I had a lot of homework because it meant I could hole up in my room without anyone asking questions and he could hang around.

"Naw, I gotta go out."

"Where?" he asked, his voice suddenly stern.

"With my dad," I mumbled, not looking at him.

"I don't like it when you go with him. It makes me nervous. He shouldn't take you; you're only thirteen!" He ruffled his feathers, agitated.

Castiel was very protective of me. It was annoying, but I did the same thing to Sammy so I guessed I couldn't really complain.

"He's my dad; I have to listen to him. You've gotta listen to your dad, don't you?"

"Yes, but my Father is God, Dean," Cas pointed out.

I rolled my eyes.

"Whatever."

Suddenly Cas was right in front of me.

"Jesus, Cas! Don't do that!"

"But I did it silently," he said with a note of pride in his voice.

"Yes," I said begrudgingly. "Very good. You're improving. But you're going to give me a heart attack one of these days."

"The point is, if something goes wrong on one of your father's jobs, I can't help you. For one thing, I'm not strong enough; for another, I'm allowed, strictly speaking."

Here we go again.

"I mean, I'm not really supposed to be here, but it's good practice with cloaking and manifesting and such, right?"

"Yeah, you manifest great," I mumbled.

"Look, I know I'm," he sighed, "not exactly your average kid, but I have to learn things just like you."

"Not exactly your average kid?" I repeated incredulously. "Cas, if my dad knew about you, he'd want to hunt you. He'd want to kill you." I knew it sounded cold and melodramatic, but I also knew it was true.

"Dean," said the angel gently. "Your father doesn't have the power to kill me."

"Doesn't mean he wouldn't try," I muttered. "Look, Cas, I gotta get ready for tonight or Dad'll be mad." I quickly started digging in my drawers for a change of clothes – something dark that I could get dirty.

"I wish I could meet your family, Dean, since there's no way for you to meet mine."

"You know that's stupid. You're so not meeting my family. Dad would go postal and Sam might tell Dad. He's a good kid, but he's still just a kid. He doesn't get stuff like this yet."

"You're just a kid," said the angel quietly.

"And so are you," I shot back. "Anyway, they couldn't even see you."

Cas had explained that the reason I could see him and no one else could was that I was special, a part of Heaven's long-term plan or something. A very small part of the back of my brain told me it was because Cas wasn't really and Dad's job had driven me freaking crazy, but I ignored that voice was the most part. When I saw Cas, he looked like a kid – more or less. His face was extremely androgynous and both childlike and ageless. I referred to Cas as a guy in my head, though he had said he didn't really have a gender the way humans do. However, he'd also said it didn't bother him if I thought of him as a boy. His hair was brown and neither long nor short. It was wavy and his face was pale, making his blue eyes stand out. He was really very pretty in an ethereal sort of way, if you were in to that sort of thing, which I wasn't, of course. The only thing that really gave him away to me was his wings. He had these big, gray wings with soft-looking feathers. I very much wanted to touch them, but I'd never asked because it seemed rude and rather personal.

"I could take a vessel," he said.

"A what?" I asked as I pulled out the old pair of dark wash jeans and the long-sleeved black shirt I wore on jobs with Dad and started to change. "Dude, don't watch me," I told Cas, who had returned to his place on my bed.

"My apologies," he said, quickly turning away.

"And don't talk like you're the queen's grandma."

"Sorry?" he tried tentatively.

"That's better," I said. "So what's a vessel?"

"A vessel is a human who allows an angel to use their body to appear to mortals in a corporeal form."

"That's creepy. And you're angel talking again." Angel talking was what I called it when Cas talked like some old-timey gentleman with a stick up his ass.

"It's the way it is. We do get their permission before borrowing their bodies."

"Hm." I wasn't sure how I felt about that. I finished changed and started to get my limited gear together. "You can look now," I told Cas.

It wasn't that I was shy about changing in front of people, it was just that Cas tended to stare, really stare. I guess it was normal since he hadn't really spent time around humans before so it was all new to him. Still, it could be unnerving. His eyes were just so blue.

"Is someone staying with Sam while you're gone tonight?" he asked.

"He'll be Okay."

"He's nine."

"And?" I asked. "It's just for the night."

"That just seems very young."

I sighed, stopping in the middle of shoveling my school stuff out of my bag.

"I know," I said quietly. I worried a lot about Sammy. "I wish Dad wouldn't leave him here alone, but I can't stay with him when Dad asks me to go and I can't very well hire a babysitter even if I did have the money, not when we stumble home covered in blood half the time. I just gotta trust that Dad knows what he's doing keeping the house safe when he's gone."

"I can stay while you're gone, if you like," Cas offered. "I can't do much, but I could tell you if something seemed wrong."

"Would you?" I asked.

"Sure."

"That'd be great. Thanks, Cas." I smiled at him in relief. It was good to know someone would have an eye on the kid while me and Dad were gone.

"Dean?" called my dad's voice from the hall. "You about ready?"

"Yeah, Dad. I'll be there in a second."

"Let me know if anything happens?" I asked Cas in a whisper.

He nodded.

I threw my things into my bag and swung it over my shoulder before unlocking and opening the door. I went into the small kitchen of our newest run-down apartment where my dad was waiting for me with a sandwich, which was very considerate for him. Cas followed, invisible to everyone but me.

I took the sandwich and was about to follow my dad out of the door when Sam appeared at the end of the hall.

"Dean? Dad?" He looked sleepy and confused.

"Hey Sammy," I said, setting my sandwich on the table and crossing to my little brother.

"Where are you going?"

"I'm just going to help Dad. We'll be back later, Okay?"

"Are you gunna be Okay?"

"We'll be fine," I assured him.

"Can't I come?"

"No," said our dad firmly from the door.

"No, you gotta stay here."

"Is it Okay without you?"

I sighed inwardly. It was a wonder we'd managed to preserve this much of his childhood. I'd seen things killed at his age.

"You'll be fine, Sammy." I knelt down to whisper in his ear. "Angels are watching over you," I said too quietly for Dad to hear. The one time Dad had heard me say it, he'd been furious. Mom used to say to me when she put me to bed. I think Dad resented the angels he didn't believe in for not saving her. I didn't resent them. I didn't know what I'd do if I didn't know Cas was keeping an eye on Sam. "Go to bed," I said straightening up. "I'll come say goodnight when I get back."

"Okay." Sam hugged me quickly and went into his room.

Dad gave me an approving look and headed out.

I grabbed my sandwich and followed. Cas caught my eye as I went.

"He'll be fine," he said in a voice only I could hear.

I flashed him a quick smile and left.

We were lucky that night and were back before dawn.

I ducked into the bathroom to wash the blood off my hands before slipping into Sam's room.

"Dean?" came his sleepy voice.

"We're back. We're fine."

"Nothing happened here," he told me groggily.

"Good. Glad we can count on you to watch the home front."

"Mm-hm."

"'Night, Sammy."

"'Night, Dean."

I waited a few moments before I heard his breathing become soft, Sammy snores and then went to my room.

"Nothing happened," reported Cas at once.

"So I hear," I answered quietly so my dad wouldn't hear.

"He went to sleep and pretty much stayed that way."

"He's a good kid."

Cas remembered to look away as I got into my pajamas.

"Are you and your father alright?"

"Fine. Not a hard job, for once." I made a face.

"I have to go, Dean, or I'll get in trouble."

"You'll be back soon?" I didn't like to admit it, but I really liked having Cas around. Talking entirely freely to someone outside the family was totally new to me. Well, talking entirely freely to anyone was pretty new, to be honest.

"I'll do my best." He smiled at me. "Just remember, if I'm away for a long time, it's not anything you did. I just got held up on my end."

"I know, Cas." It seemed like he told me this every time he went back home. It was sorta weird if you asked me.

"I'll see you later then."

I smirked. I was secretly very proud of how much Cas's vocabulary had improved since we'd met two years before.

"See ya, Cas."

There was a flurry of wings and Cas was gone.

I flopped onto my bed, exhausted from the night's work and fell asleep in minutes.