Title: Method to My Madness

Summary: Demon Dean has gotten loose in the bunker and now Castiel and Sam have to find him before he can get out.

Author: lovablelucifer (on Tumblr)

Prompt: "Please, point your gun at me if it helps you relax."

Characters: Castiel, Demon!Dean, (a little Destiel and past Destiel implied), Sam

Word Count: 2286

Warnings: a teeny tiny bit of blood, some roughness, nothing too bad


It had happened. He had gotten out. They didn't know how though. He had been tied down really well and had even been in a devil's trap. How could he have escaped?

Sam and Castiel were searching through the bunker, trying to find the demon version of Dean Winchester before he could sneak up and try to kill one of them.

"Cas, I think we should split up." Sam suggested as they walked down the hall. He stopped, holding up the demon blade he had in a tight grip as he looked around for Dean. Cas stopped next to him and looked up.

"Do you think that's a very good idea?" he asked.

"Well, we might be able to find him quicker."

"But Sam, you are unable to use your arm. What if he were to come up behind you? Would you be able to fight him off?"

"Cas, just because my arm is in a sling doesn't mean I can't still fight. Yeah, I'll be at a bit of a disadvantage, but I can still count on you for help, right?" Sam asked. Cas continued to stare up at him, immediately giving him a small nod.

"Yes, you can always count on me." he replied, and at hearing this, Sam nodded in return.

"Okay, I'll go back down this way," Sam started, pointing down the hallway towards the kitchen where they had started their search. "and you continue on down that way. If you find Dean, try to get him into these," Sam held out a pair of handcuffs with engravings in them that he had grabbed from down in their dungeon and handed them to Castiel. "and call out to me. Then we'll try to get him back down to the dungeon and continue the curing." taking it all in, Cas furrowed his eyebrows a bit.

"And what if you find him?" he asked. Sam thought for a moment.

"I have holy water, the demon blade, and know the exorcism. It's bound to weaken him until I'm able to call to you for help. Alright, let's go." Sam replied, and then began to walk back down the hallway before Cas could respond.

"But Sam..." he trailed off, watching as Sam quickly walked down the hallway. He didn't think that it was a good idea for Sam to go off with only holy water, the demon blade, and knowing the exorcism when he was basically one arm short. Dean was a very powerful demon, and yes those things would slow him a bit, but Cas didn't know whether he would be able to get to Sam in time if he were to find Dean first. Castiel was almost sure that Dean would do something that would hurt Sam, the demon that he now was being such a harsh, cruel being.

Cas began to walk down the rest of the hallway, opening doors and checking inside of rooms, making sure that Dean wasn't hiding from them. A few times he thought he saw Dean lurking in the dark corners of a few of the rooms (his heart lurching a bit with hope and fear every time) but it was just a trick of the light. Doubt beginning to fill him, Castiel started to think that maybe Dean had fled. Dean knew every part of this bunker, having lived in it for a while now, so he would know how to get out without them knowing. Also, the fact that he was now a demon helped him even more with that.

His echoing footsteps coming to a halt, Castiel had just begun to reach out to the handle of another door when he heard what sounded like a door slam and then the faint sound of his name being called out.

"Cas!" Sam's voice yelled—though it was a bit hard to hear—and Castiel immediately turned around, running down the hallway towards it. As he ran he could hear the evil, ear piercing laugh that the demon version of Dean had dawned, and it seemed to be coming from Dean's room. He ran to it, his hands flying to the doorknob as soon as he got there, and threw the door open. He was greeted to the sight of Sam, who was on the ground propped up against the foot of Dean's bed, his legs sprawled out and his head limp, blood trickling down from his forehead, down the side of his face, and onto his neck. His chest was rising and falling though, so he was still alive, just knocked out.

Standing there between him and Sam though was Dean, who had a gun pointed at Sam, but was turned to face Castiel, an evil, malicious smirk spread across his face.

"Hey, Cas." Dean spoke in a chillingly cheerful voice. Castiel felt frozen. He couldn't move, couldn't speak. He was shocked by the current situation. True, he had encountered this demon version of Dean before, but he had always been locked up and (for the most part) unable to do much harm. Now he was free though and standing here before Cas, pointing a gun at his own brother and acting as though this were an everyday thing, like he wasn't just about to attempt to murder them. It just seemed so wrong. Dean loved his brother. Dean loved him. How could he be doing this?

"Cat got your tongue?" Dean said, bringing Cas back from his thoughts.

"Dean," it was all he could think of to say. Dean's smirk just seemed to grow wider.

"Oh, what's wrong? Are you scared that I might hurt Sammy?" Dean asked in a mock-baby voice, giving Castiel a small pout. Cas just stood there and stared at him, not knowing how to respond. Dean's smirk returned and he continued speaking. "You know, I don't even have to use a gun. I could just snap his neck with my bare hands, but I like shooting things. It's always been a real fun hobby of mine." Castiel was trying to think of something to say, anything that would get Dean away from Sam before something bad happened.

"Dean... put the gun away." was all he could come up with. Dean seemed a bit taken back by his words, but quickly came back to himself, that smirk still plastered across his face.

"Put the gun away? I mean, I could put the gun away, but didn't you just hear what I said?" he waved the gun, which was a bit unnerving to Cas.

"Dean, we only want to help you."

"Help me? You only want to help me? Well, let me tell you, I don't need your help. I don't want your help. I like who I am. What I am. I love it." Dean responded, and Cas could see that he was starting to get a bit irritated.

"Just let us help you, Dean. We know how to cure you."

"Are you not listening? Again, did you not just hear what I said? I said I love what I am! I don't need a goddamn cure!" Dean yelled, the smirk falling from his face as it was replaced with a hard line. His jaw clenched and his eyebrows furrowed, Deans blinked, and his eyes were now total black. Seeing this sent a pang to Castiel's chest, his throat tightening a bit. He glanced down at the gun Dean was holding, seeing that his grip was considerably tighter, and when he looked back up, Dean's eyes were back to their normal color. The tightening in Castiel's throat lessened. He just had to think of a plan, a way to get Dean to take the gun off of Sam so that he could have a better chance of getting it away from him without getting Sam hurt in the process.

Straightening up a bit, Castiel looked Dean in the eyes.

"Dean, you should just calm down. Take the gun off of your brother. I know how much it would hurt you if you were to do him any harm." he said. Dean's expression hardened and he shifted his weight to lean more towards Cas.

"Calm down? Really, you're telling me to calm down? I'm a goddamn demon, Cas, and you're telling me to calm down?" though he was angry, Dean seemed a bit confused at the approach that Castiel was now making, so Cas decided to continue down this path. As he began to think of something to say next, he heard the gun cock, and his eyes immediately darted to it, seeing that Dean's finger was slowly beginning to put pressure on the trigger. Panic rising inside him, Castiel immediately said the first thing that came to mind.

"Please, point your gun at me if it helps you relax." Dean had been looking down at Sam, but at hearing this, he slowly began to bring his head up to look at Castiel, his finger falling away from the trigger. A wave of relief swept over Cas.

Castiel now brought his gaze to look up at Dean as well, and the two stood there for what seemed like minutes, processing what Cas had just said. Thinking that maybe his words had just connected with the real Dean, a small pang of hope began to swell inside of Cas' chest. He then heard the small thud of Dean's gun connecting with his thigh as he lowered his arm, and the thought that he was able to get Dean to stop pointing the gun at Sam caused the small swell of hope in his chest to begin to grow even more.

As they continued their stare, which seemed to last forever (but was really only about thirty seconds), what happened next all happened so quickly that Castiel was barely able to process what was going on at first. At some point while Castiel and Dean had been staring, Sam had woken up, and processing the momentary window of opportunity, had grabbed his flask of holy water and flung the liquid at Dean. Dean immediately dropped his gun and brought his hands up to grab the now sizzling area on the back of his head and neck, and Sam was standing behind him, the flask of holy water held by the hand in the sling, his other arm stretched out towards Castiel.

"Cas! Give me the cuffs!" Sam yelled. It took him a moment, but Castiel soon realized what was going on and reached into the inner pocket of his coat and grabbed the cuffs, throwing them to Sam, who caught them and quickly placed them on the bed, then leaned forward and grabbed Dean, manhandling him so that he was lying on the bed on his stomach. Sam held him down the best he could and poured some more holy water onto him, turning Dean's attention from trying to escape to grabbing at the pain on his back, but as Sam went to grab the cuffs, Dean bucked back, throwing Sam off of him and onto the floor. Castiel was immediately in motion and ran over to Dean, slamming him back down onto the bed and grabbing the cuffs, quickly pulling Dean's arms back behind him and putting the cuffs on him.

As Castiel stood there, pining Dean down onto the bed, he turned around to look at Sam, who was getting back up.

"Are you okay, Sam?" he asked. Sam nodded.

"Yeah, I'm fine." he answered, and Castiel turned back around to look down at Dean, who was struggling under his hold.

"Oh, Cas, you know I love it when you're rough with me." Dean said, turning around the best he could to face Cas and flash him a cheeky yet wicked smirk. Castiel tried his hardest to keep his blush down. There was no denying that it was a quip that his Dean would've said to him, but it was weird hearing it from this Dean, and he also found it a bit odd how this demon version of Dean could go straight from enraged to flirty in just a few seconds.

Castiel stood up, grabbed the back of Dean's shirt, and pulled him up so that he was standing, his arms bound behind his back. Silently, Sam strode to the door and opened it wider for Cas and Dean, following them out into the hall and closing the door behind him. They then began to make their way back to the dungeon, Dean twisting, turning, and tugging in an attempt to escape every few seconds.

Once they there, Castiel sat Dean down into the chair in the middle of the devil's trap and tied him down, keeping the cuffs on him just in case. Then, just as he stepped out of the devil's trap, Sam nudged his shoulder, pointing down at the trap.

"Look, there's a break in the symbol. It looks like someone came down here and scrapped it with a knife." Sam said. Castiel looked from the break in the symbol back up to Sam, his eyebrows furrowed in confusion.

"But who could it have been?" he asked. The two of them stood there in silence, trying to figure out who could've broken into the bunker to try to set Dean free, when they heard Dean shift in his seat. They both turned their gazes to look at him. He just sat there, flashing them a devilish smirk.

"It was my best friend." he told them, his smirk growing wider. The two turned to look at each other, now knowing full well who it was that had broken into the bunker to set Dean free, a look of hatred filling their faces as they both said his name in unison.

"Crowley."