A/N: I made myself cry writing this haha :,D Balthazar would hate me for this. Trigger warnings include: major character death, suicide attempts, morbid situation, and eventual explicit smut. Enjoy!

"Welcome, Miss Novak-Winchester. You're here with your grandfather?"

Red-haired Anna nodded with a smile, stepping through the door with the marine scientist. "Uh, it's Mrs. Milton now. Married," she said, holding up her finger. "Oh… forgive me." "No worries. Before, it was just Novak for me, though. I don't really know why Grandpa goes by Novak-Winchester. He never told me the story behind it."

Chuck nodded, and sat down at a desk. "So, he… claims he knows the man in the picture?"

Anna nodded once again. "He just looked at the TV, and it was like something came over him. He was dead set on visiting you."

She bit her lip. "Listen, I know how it sounds… but I can't say I don't believe him, Mr. Shurley. He was on the Titanic, you know, one of those who survived. His memory is sharp as I've ever seen for someone his age."

Chuck nodded. He was in awe of the fact he was so close to meeting an actual survivor of the fatal event that he had studied for years, one who had lived through it all, and who, even more surprisingly, remembers it all. He wasn't so disrespectful to judge this man's memories as false.

"Is your grandfather here with you?" he asked. Anna nodded, and turned, going out for a moment, and walked back in with him.

"Castiel?" Chuck asked, and the man looked around at all the screens in the room. They were currently monitoring the ground-breaking wreckage they had just discovered of the legendary ship, Titanic. The monitors showed the ghostly remains of buried pieces, floating deep.

He looked back, and sat down. "Hello."

Chuck swallowed, standing up and extending a hand. "It's an honour to meet you… my great grandfather was the Captain of the Titanic, which is why I'm so interested in it... but you... meeting an actual survivor- I mean… dude, wow." Castiel gave a small smile. "There's nothing especially notable about me, though I thank you for your compliment."

"Yeah, only that you survived the sinking of the god damn Titanic!" Chuck's more blunt fellow scientist, Rufus, said. Cas looked down at his hands, and smiled again. "Yes… I was lucky." Then he looked up. "Do you have the picture?" Chuck nodded.

"May I see it?"

Chuck readily handed over the drawing of the man with a necklace, which was slightly blurred and a little faded from seawater, but otherwise, the strokes of the pencil were well preserved. The man stared at it, and his eyes filled a little. Anna put a hand on his back, and Cas traced the thin line of his bottom lip. "I… I never thought I would ever see this again," he said, his voice cracking a little.

Chuck respectfully let his emotions run their course, and finally spoke up. "So… you know who this is?"

Castiel looked up with a smile, a renewed brightness behind his crystal blue eyes.

"Yes. The man in this drawing is me."

There was a shocked silence, and even Anna looked at him.

"Oh, I know this must sound crazy," Castiel said, "I claim the one drawing you find from decades ago is me, of all people. I'm older than I was back then, gentlemen, and far less handsome now than this version of myself, but I do not forget the night that this picture was drawn of me… I remember it very vividly, in fact."

Chuck was stunned. "Wow," he muttered, for lack of a better response, "Cool..." Then he shook himself out of it. "Wh-who drew it, may I ask?" Castiel looked at the picture as if he were looking at a long buried, beloved memory, which, in all truth, he was. His eyes filled a little more, though he still looked happy. "His name was Dean."

"Grandpa," Anna, who was surprised that she had never heard this name before, said, "Are you okay?" Castiel wiped a tear away. "Of course," he said.

He composed himself, taking a breath. "You know… I've been here for a very long time… experienced... many things. And of course, I remember the most remarkable event. The grand story. And we ripped up the ending… the rules... and destiny… leaving nothing but freedom, and choice."

He looked at them. "Let me tell you my story."

Chuck sat back in his chair, wide eyed, Rufus took a seat out of curiosity, and Anna kept her hand on his shoulder as they listened intently.