Cas sat quietly in the mental patients room, in the distance of the hospital he could hear the shouts and crashes of another patient become rowdy. He glanced around the room, his head in a fog from the medication prescribed for him and smiled at the ceiling.
"What you staring at there Clarence?" Meg asked looking up from her magazine beside his chair. He glanced over at her.
"Nothing, I was just thinking about swans." Castiel said softly plucking a feather out of the small hole in his pillow.
"Swans…" Meg said slowly.
"Yes, did you know that swans mate for life. They life together, raise their young. It's beautiful." Cas whispered. He reached out and touched the tip of her boot that was resting on the side of his bed. He smiled as he poked at it with a strange fascination.
"That just melts my cold bitter heart wing boy." Meg chuckled and went back to reading her celebrity gossip magazine.
"What about unicorns?" Castiel asked.
"Unicorns? Maybe Dean was right your noodle is scrambled more than we thought." Meg laughed shaking her head at him. He smiled and shook his head before resting his hand on her leg smiling.
"No. I'm sure my noodle is fine." Cas insisted nodding a bit.
"Okay, what about unicorns?"
"I don't know, don't you believe in a unicorn?"
"No of course not." Meg scoffed.
"But, Meg, here we are an angel and demon sitting in the same room together but you do not believe in a unicorn?" Castiel asked squinting his deep blue eyes at her with a turn of his head. She pressed her lips together and looked back at him. She no longer seen the once fierce angel who had tossed her across the holy fire, the cold expression he sometimes had inside those wide ice colored eyes of his, or the emotionless way he sometimes talked to people. He sat in front of her innocent and open, like a child kneeling at his parents feet for stories of their past. He wore a smile on his once emotionless face and his eyes were fluid and warm like a summer's day river.
"You believe in unicorns Clarence?" She asked smiling softly.
"No." Cas said shaking his head.
"But you just…"
"I said a unicorn. The idea of something so beautiful and pure it could change a person's life through it's beauty." Cas whispered staring at her. Meg shook her head confused, and her black waves of hair tumbled around her round face. "I do."
"You and I have two totally different ideas of unicorns." Meg snorted flipping the page in her magazine.
"Unicorns are very symbolic Meg. They're not just a fictional beast, they're a symbol that the right person could change someone, unexpectedly. Swans mate for life so why can't angels?" Cas whispered leaning back against the head board.
"Have you talked to Dean-o about this?" Meg teased. Cas looked over at her with his wide eyes.
"I don't know why I would speak to Dean about you." Cas said softly. Meg's fingers slipped off the pages of her magazine and the book fell to the floor in a flutter.
"Cas you can't be serious."
"Serious? About?"
"Me."
"Why not?"
"I'm a demon Clarence, and you… are an angel with his wings. I've fallen a long time ago and nothing's going to change the past or the things I've done." Meg said as Castiel sat up and slid across the bed to sit in front of her. He shook his head thoughtful before taking her rough small hands into his.
"Forgiveness is often spoke of in heaven. Past sins and regrets may be condoned, you have proven your strengths Meg. Haven't you?" Cas whispered starting at the callouses worn on her thumbs from fighting with knifes, scars along her arms from hell hounds, and more.
"I'm a demon, once you're in hell you can't go back." She whispered staring down at the rumpled angel.
"And Dean? What about him? If your theory is accurate." Cast whispered kissing her scars softly.
"I'm… I'm not a Winchester. Nor the vessel for Michael, I helped Lucifer, I started all this. I'm the reason your noodle is broken. I'm not a unicorn Castiel." Meg said breaking away and knocking her chair over. She suddenly began to feel a tightness in her chest and she turned from him.
"Do you feel that?" Castiel asked beside her. She turned to him.
"Feel? I can't feel. I'm a monster Cas." She whispered.
"No. No monster would sit with me and take care of me like you have." Cas whispered putting his hand on her shoulder. She looked at him and miraculously there were tears in her eyes.
"I'm not supposed to feel. I've killed people, I've did things." She whispered reaching up and touching at the tears falling from her eyes.
"You've always been able to feel Meg. Always." Cas whispered smiling small., "And haven't we all? I'm an angel and I've killed people, I've did things no angels have done before. I've near fallen." Cas said softly, eyes wide in a moment of saneness.
"So who's the real monster then?" Meg whispered.
"Who knows." Cas whispered brushing away a tear, "Do you believe now?"
"I do." She said and Cas leaned in and kissed her.
"Good."