Notes: Here we are guys! Part seven already! I can't believe we have gotten this far already! As I have said before, I diddled a little bit with this story, so hopefully you guys still enjoy it!

Andaere, its reviews like yours that make me giggle uncontrollably and clap my hands like an excited four year old XD I can't believe you stayed up so late reading all of them, and you have no idea how happy it makes me to hear that someone who hasn't watched firefly still is enjoying this. I truly do enjoy writing this series but I would have lost steam a long time ago if it wasn't for awesome reviewers who leave messages like yours. Thank you so much and I really hope that you like what's to come =)

Disclaimer: Okay, you guys no this song and dance. So let me here you say it! Do I own this?! (pausing, pausing...) Excellente! (Kinda feel like Dora here) btw, the answer was no. And in English the answer would have been, no.

Warnings: This story contains religious themes and undertones throughout the whole story. No offense is meant. It is simply one single view/opinion that someone may have. It doesn't necessarily have to be the authors actual opinion, so if possible I would like to ask for no flames and if you are truly offended then feel free to private message me to share your thoughts and you can skip this story.

CHAPTER 1

"No. No way that's true."

"I'm afraid it is Dean."

"Nope. I'm not buying it."

Sigh

"Dean, I am sorry, but you do."

Dean and Cas were in the dining area sitting on one of the old and worn couches. Dean was turned sideways to face Cas who was doing the same as they talked about many serious things, heads bent forwards at each other, ignoring anyone else in the room. Chuck was at the dining table writing away in his book, whining every time the grease on his hands smudged a word, but he was more relaxed than anyone had seen him before. It was the kind of scene that warmed someone from even the deepest chill, and that is what Sam got to walk in on.

His brother seemed to notice his arrival and immediately accosted his attention, "Hey Sam, do I say "awesome" a lot?"

Sam stared at his brother for a beat, and then glanced to Cas who was shaking his head sadly. Sam smirked and walked into the kitchen to get a cup of coffee, muttering under his breath a placating, "No, no, no," to mess with Dean. It had the desired effect and Dean swirled back to Cas.

"I do not! I have a wonderful and extensive vocabulary! Just ask Chuck! He's a writer!" He said defensively.

Cas smiled sadly, "Do you want me to give you an actual count? It is almost as high as your "sonuvabitch" levels."

Momentarily shocked by the swear coming from the other man's mouth, Dean sputtered and looked to Sam for help, and finding none.

"I…I do not! Sam?...I don't!"

Then Cas laughed. An honest to God laugh that brought a smile to each person's face. Even Chuck looked up from his writings, a goofy grin on his features. With all of the drama and tragedy that the young man had gone through, all of the struggles he had faced and what he was still struggling with, it was a beautiful sound to hear.

Dean swatted at his head fondly, "Shut up."

"Hey now, no beating up on my baby brother." Balthazar had just walked into the room, freshly groomed as always. Dean turned to gauge the man's expression, to see if he was still on edge about him and Cas, but the warm smile and joking tone quelled any worry that Dean had.

"Hello Balthazar." Greeted Cas from his spot on the couch as his big brother came over to join them.

"Hello dear Cassy. I came to tell you all that I may have found us another job." He started. Dean's face lit up in excitement.

"Aweso…I mean, that's good. What is it?"

"Man named Kessler on a mudder planet. He had some goods he wants delivered. And I checked with Gabriel. The planet is only a day away from where we are now."

Back at the table, Chuck stopped writing.

"What's the name of the planet?" Asked Dean.

"Gerat, but the town we're aiming for is a mud plant community by the name of Canton." Stated Balthazar. Dean shrugged at the name. He had never heard of it, and definitely hadn't been there before. Good chance that they would have no enemies. Sounded good to him.

Nobody noticed Chuck as he dropped his pen and tensed up.

"Okay, I think we have a job then. I'll go let Anna know in case she wants to look for a client. Cas, you wanna come with? I bet Anna still has some of that incense you like," Dean asked, nudging the other man with his elbow. Castiel nodded eagerly and they got up from the couch and headed off to Anna's shuttle. Balthazar moved off to talk to Gabriel about the course change and Sam followed him, bringing an extra cup of coffee for the pilot so full of sugar it was almost a solid, just how he liked it.

Chuck was left alone in the room, nervously fingering the pages in front of him.

It was nearly three a.m. by his reckoning when Bobby stumbled out of bed, throat parched to the point of pain. He headed to the kitchen, stubbing his toe several times along the way to get a glass of water, but when he got there he was a little surprised to see Castiel sitting at the table writing in a book.

"I keep forgetting you don't sleep," he muttered as a greeting, shuffling his way to the sink. He still had his eyes squinted almost completely shut do to the harsh lighting in the kitchen. It might have been his imagination, or his eyes finally adjusted, but it seemed like the lights dimmed in the room a bit, as if the ship was accommodating him.

Whatever the young man was doing with that book, he was concentrating on it furiously, scribbling away in the margins. It sparked the preacher's curiosity enough for him to move to the table, sipping at his water along the way.

"What have you got there, son? He asked kindly, leaning over to see what he was working on at this late hour. He had always been curious as to how the young man passed the time.

Cas looked up at him briefly, acknowledging his presence, "I'm fixing your bible." He stated and went back to his editing, red pen poised elegantly in his fingers.

Bobby choked on his latest sip of water, sputtering loudly enough for Cas to look up annoyed at the distraction, "What?!"

Cas sighed exasperated and rolled his eyes, "The bible. It's broken. Contradictions, falsehoods, misinterpretations…it's a disaster waiting to happen." He opened up to one of his previous pages, showing the marked up text to the preacher who went slack-jawed.

"You…that bible was forty years old…" he started weakly.

But Cas ignored him and started to point randomly at some passages, "First off, God is completely indifferent to sexual orientation."

Seeing that he won't get through to Cas at the moment, Bobby deflates and gestures for Cas to continue, rubbing at the start of a headache.

"Second, did you know that if you have injured or cut of genitals that you are not allowed to enter the house of God? If this is so then all circumcisions must be stopped! And also women aren't allowed to even speak within His walls! And then there is the greatest tragedy of all, out of all the domestic animals of that time…the cat was never mentioned," he said sadly and then pointed to a page where he had drawn in a picture of a cat. He sighed heavily, "I had always felt that the bible was one species short. I have studied many philosophers and many cats. The wisdom of cats is infinitely superior."

Bobby was trying to process it all, trying to follow Cas' trail of thought. It hadn't been too long ago that they had discovered that Cas' words usually had a deeper meaning in them, and Bobby was looking for that now, but then again, he doubted if Castiel was truly worried about the universes male population being circumcised.

He watched as Cas pouted as he continued to mark up the book mumbling under his breath, "It's broken. It's all broken. Doesn't make sense. Doesn't feel right."

"Castiel, listen son. It's not about making sense. It's about believing in something and letting that belief be real enough to change your life. It's about faith. You don't fix faith, Cas. It fixes you."

The young man stopped his writing to look up at the preacher, hesitance in his eyes, "We live in a sorry universe. It's engineered to make conflict. I…I don't know if I can have faith in God. I've never met him. Never seen his glow…how do I know that he is worth following if there is so much pain in so many people?"

Bobby chuckled, "There are quite a few people I can think of that follow Him regardless of never meeting Him and feel that he does take away the pain."

Cas looked down at his hands, twirling the red pen in his hand, "I want to have faith Bobby. I really do. I want it to fix me. I want it to change me from what I am…from what they made me. Can it do that?" he asked as if daring to hope.

Bobby looked back at him sadly, "Faith is a powerful thing Cas. Never telling what it can do for you or where it will take you. You just have to believe it's where you want to go."

He watched as Cas tumbled that around in his mind, testing it's validity, tasting the idea on his tongue before accepting it in. Finally he looked back up at Bobby.

"I chose to have faith in Dean. I've already changed because of him. And maybe…in time I'll start to have faith in humanity as a whole. And maybe perhaps…maybe if I get to the right place, then you and I can talk about faith in "the big guy"," he stated firmly.

Bobby raised a bushy eyebrow, "The big guy?"

Cas nodded, "That's what Dean calls Him."

Rolling his eyes the preacher got up from his seat to bring his glass over to the counter to be washed in the morning, "Of course he does. Have you ever heard the saying, Men are cruel, but Man is kind?" Castiel shook his head. "You have faith in whatever you need to, son. Don't think that out of all of us, you're the only one who has doubts about humanity or about themselves. It's only…it's only human. Now I'll let you hold on to that for a bit," he said gesturing to the book on the table. Castiel nodded, but didn't move to continue his mission, instead he leaned back in his chair, staring at the book. And that was how Bobby left him when he walked back to his room all the while muttering under his breath about "crazy kids using his bible as a damn glorified coloring book".

The Next Day

"You headed out, Anna?" asked Dean as she glided into the hold in a lovely flowing gold dress. The whole crew was mingling in the hold, excited to get out of the ship for a change and soak up some sun and air.

"Indeed I am! I've got an appointment with the magistrate's son it seems. Please don't get everyone into too much trouble while I'm gone," she said as she passed by Dean, smirking in a way that only a Companion could get away with. Dean rolled his eyes and went back to checking the chamber in his gun like he did before every job. Cas was standing next to him watching as the crew moved around the hold. Then he waved to Anna as she headed down the ramp, "Goodbye, Anna. I hope your copulation is satisfactory," he intoned formally, earning him a giggle from the Companion as she left. Dean on the other hand sent Cas a startled look.

Chuck had been wandering around the hold, timidly peeking out of the open ramp ever few minutes as if looking for someone to come over the ridge to attack him. Dean had been watching the odd behavior for a while now and finally it go to the point where he couldn't take it anymore.

"Chuck! Who put the ants in your pants?" He shouted, startling the mechanic.

Cas groaned next to him, "Oh, Chuck. I must apologize. It must have been Gabriel. He used to do that to us when we were children. I shall go scold him now," and walked off with another apologetic glance to Chuck, wondering to himself how Gabriel had been able to acquire ants on a spaceship. The Captain and mechanic watched as he glided off.

Dean wasn't distracted by it though, "So Chuck, are you going to tell me what's got you so nervous? If you're hiding something that could endanger the crew, you better spill it now." He warned.

Chuck's shoulders dropped defeated, "Okay, okay. I was living here a few years back because it was a quiet place with cheap rent to work on my first book. I…might not have left on the best of terms…."

Meg and Gabriel had heard Chuck's confession and snorted with laughter.

"Do you really expect us to believe that you have actual live non-imaginary enemies? You? What did you do? Write romance novels?" giggled Meg, unable to control herself at the absurdity of the whole thing.

"No! I just…there is nothing to worry about. If someone recognizes me, they'll only be mad with me…they won't bother the rest of you," he promised to Dean. The Captain nodded, trusting him to be right about this before moving down the ramp, the rest of the crew following dutifully. But Chuck ran back into the ship, seeming to have forgotten something.

Balthazar was the first to comment on what they were all thinking, "This place bloody stinks." He growled like his anger might be enough to scare off the stench.

Sam's face was screwed up in agreement, "It really does wreak, but I'm guessing that's what makes it such a great drop point. No one comes here that doesn't have to."

"I vote we do this job really, really fast," voiced Meg sounding muffled do to her shirt pulled up over her nose.

"All of you stop whining. We can burn some of Anna's fancy scented candles later to cleanse your delicate nostrils, until then…Sam, you're holding down the fort. Gabriel, you need to stay and get Bernoulli on a wave to let him know we'll have his merchandise by the end of the week."

"Whoo! We get the ship to ourselves Sammy!" Cheered Gabriel, but Dean shook his head.

"Ha! No. Cas will be here too. He said he had something he needed to do before he could come play." Cas nodded silently behind Dean.

"Can I stay behind too?" asked Balthazar in a whiny voice.

It was like dealing with children sometimes, thought Dean. Bobby chuckled next to him, as if sensing his thoughts, "Breath deep, boy. I'm a Sheppard. I know the pains of keeping a flock together," he said, soothing Dean's building frustration.

Dean took a breath, just like Bobby suggested before happily smiling over at Balthazar, "Sorry, Balthazar, I've got plans for you."

The middle Novak looked shocked…and then a little suspicious, "Come again?"

Chuck chose that moment to re-appear at the bottom of the ramp again, wearing what looked like every piece of clothing he had ever owned. Dean only raised one eyebrow and didn't comment. The rest of the crew followed suit.

"It is your contact after all. And besides, the management here doesn't like sight-seers, which is why we're posing as buyer. There isn't a single one of us that looks more the part of a rich buyer than you, Mr. V-Neck. I mean, if the fancy fits, buffed nails, definitely a moneyed individual. All rich and silky all over…"

Balthazar cut him off sharply, "All right. Fine. I'll go, just…stop describing me," and he whined piteously as he started off towards the town, brushing roughly up against Gabriel as they left in an odd display of sibling jealousy.

Dean bowed low as he walked by, "You're the boss, boss." He said sarcastically, glad to get a good ribbing in. Lucky for him Balthazar wasn't angry anymore and didn't just decide to shoot him.

They all trudged forward together, leaving Sam, Gabriel and Cas waving behind them as they set off to work. Dean sighed heavily, regretting it right away when the stench hit him again. Gabe was right. The sooner they finished this the better.

Woot woot! Isn't Cas a sweetheart, lowering the lights for Bobby with his mojo . Next chapter should be up tomorrow!