Chapter One

"All clear?"

"All clear."

Dean ran his fingers through his hair and holstered his gun. The address of this old warehouse was the only lead they had, and for once, it was actually empty. The trouble with powerful demons like Cas is that if they don't want to be found, they won't be. And as adept as the Winchesters were in the field of finding-shit-that-don't-want-to-be-found, Cas knew them well enough by now to know how to get away.

"Dean," Sam said in a forfeited tone. "Maybe we should just give up. I don't think we're going to find him. Besides, even if we did, he wasn't too keen on helping before. How do we know that's changed?"

"We don't. But we need him, Sam. He's the only one we know that actually knows anything about angels and fighting them, and with you runnin' around as Satan-bait and a flock of angels huntin' us down, we need all the backup we can get."

"But he's a demon, Dean! Let's say we find him and get him to help us. What's stopping him from turning around and stabbing us in the back when we need him most? We still don't even know why he helped sneak you out of Hell in the first place, he's probably working with Lucifer's army! We can't trust him."

"Oh, and I suppose now you're the expert on who we can trust?"

Sam clenched his jaw. Dean was still pissed at his brother, at least that much he was sure of.

"No, I'm not. But do you wanna know why? Because I trusted a freakin' demon. And look where that got us!"

"What's with the sudden change of heart, huh? I thought you liked Cas."

"I do. I mean he's alright, as far as demons go, but that doesn't mean we can have faith in him to watch out for someone other than himself."

They stared at each other for a moment. Dean eventually sighed and looked away. Sam was right, however much he wanted to deny it, but part of him still knew that Cas would help them if they could find the guy. As for why Cas pulled him out of hell, he wanted to know just as bad as Sam. Cas had told him some flimsy lie, and Dean hoped to grill him as soon as possible to find out the truth.

Dean thought about the first night he had met the demon on the drive back to the motel to meet up with Sam. Cas had popped out of nowhere, throwing Bobby against a wall and knocking him out before either of them could react. Dean had clipped his shoulder with a salt shot, but it wasn't necessary, he had walked right under the devil's trap on the ceiling.

Cas had introduced himself in a hurry, spouting what seemed then to be nonsense about angels and apocalypses and the Devil. Dean pointed his shotgun at his face and threatened to paint the wall with his brains if he didn't start making sense.

He had held one hand on his bleeding wound and another in the air as a sign of nonviolence.

"My name is Cas." He said more slowly, starting over. "I'm a demon, I helped you out of hell."

"Yeah, see, thing is 'demon' and 'help' don't really belong in the same sentence."

Dean remembered with clarity the look of utter confusion on his face at that.

"But… I just used them in a sentence together? Why do they not belong together? I don't understand."

Dean had stared at this rumpled, bloody, stupidly blue-eyed anomaly with equal parts disbelief, amusement, and wonder.

"Okay." He continued, pretending Cas hadn't said anything. "If you're a demon, why help me out of hell? What could possibly be in it for you? You're obviously strong, you don't need me for anything."

"I like you."

Dean stared at him with the same mixture of emotions as before. His tone was genuine, without a single trace of that sarcasm he had come to associate so strongly with demons.

"You're not a demon."

Cas flashed his black demon eyes long enough for Dean to see.

"Wh-...?" Dean lowered his shotgun and stared in utter confusion at the man, expecting him to break the act. But no, he just stared back with wide, friendly eyes and a welcoming smile despite the painful hole in his shoulder.

"Dean," He said, seeming to just notice the aforementioned injury, "I hate to cut our conversation short, but my shoulder is rather hurt, may I please get out now?"

Dean's confoundment grew with every word out of Cas's mouth. "No, I'm not letting you out, why the hell would I do that?"

"I just raised you from perdition. I understand it is polite for humans to treat their saviors with politeness? Is that correct?'

"Yeah, but guess what, buddy?"

"What?"

"I'm not polite."

He walked over to Bobby and tried shaking him awake, electing the drag him when he failed to, then turned and started walking out of the warehouse, figuring he should grab Sam and regroup.

"Nevermind, I'll take care of it." The rumbling voice called out from behind him. Dean spun around to see one of the lights fall from the ceiling and crash onto floor, taking a piece of the ceiling, and by extension the devil's trap, with it. Cas vanished. Upset he had gotten away but not knowing what else to do, Dean left, wondering what hell he was supposed to do about this strange man.