Cockatrice Flu
Team Free Will received a tip about a potentially supernatural beast living in an abandoned barn with reports of daredevil kids coming back with limbs missing claiming that they had turned to stone.
"It's a basilisk." Dean said smartly over Sam's news reading.
"No. The kids said it was more like a chicken." Sam stated and looked up to see Cas and Dean's reactions.
Cas didn't miss a beat. "A cockatrice, then."
"Bingo, Cas!" Sam explained.
"A cock-a-poo-what-now?" Dean looked unbelievably.
Sam filled in his less studious brother. "They're a lot like a basilisk, Dean, just they have a chicken front and a reptilian rear. I think they basically have the same powers, right Cas?" Sam bent the screen of his laptop half down. Why search the web when you could go straight to the source of a recently fallen angel, your personal walking encyclopedia. Afterall, it was the angels' main purpose to watch over the creatures of the Earth.
"That's correct. Full, mutual, eye contact can turn you to stone, unless otherwise deflected, for example with a mirror. Their saliva is also highly toxic. However, I'm not certain how these children survived. Perhaps, this beast is not at full strength." Cas informed ending with that cute head tilt.
Team free will traveled via the Impala to an abandoned barn in the middle of nowhere, Texas to defeat what they learn is a newborn cockatrice that had been laid long ago. They wore simple sunglasses to keep them from the effects of the piercing eyes. Sam got attached to the fledgling easily and got too close thinking that maybe it might be friendly but it spits in his face. It burned him like a pepper spray would. Dean dragged the confused and momentarily blinded Sam out of the barn and to safety. He came back to help Cas when the cockatrice charged at Dean, who wasn't paying attention, and Cas lunged at Dean pushing him away. Then the cockatrice dug its claws into Cas' chest through his shirt mounting an attack on his face, pecking wildly. Dean frantically tried to help and finally is able to grab it by the neck, yank it off of Cas and cut its head off with his machete the way a farmer would butcher a chicken for dinner.
"Cas, you still with me, bud?" Dean says staring down at the mythical beast, pleased to exact his revenge for hurting his family. He turns around to see Cas out of breath and finding the blood from the scratches all over his face. "Dude, you look awful. Heal up, and let's go get Sammy taken care of too." Cas doesn't reply past a few wincing noises looking at the blood on his hands.
"I...I can't. Dean, I don't think I can heal these wounds." Cas said with an unusual amount of panic in his voice.
"What do you mean?"
"I don't think it'll work since these wounds are from an ancient mythical creature. It hurts me, Dean." Cas looked up to Dean confused. His friend was now standing in front the angel with a strong supporting hand on his shoulder.
Dean didn't mean to sound uncaring but he blurted out. "What about Sammy?"
"I can try…" Castiel answered unconfidently.
After Cas couldn't heal Sam, Dean went to the car to get some holy water to wash Sam's face. It worked wonders for the red burn marks and Sam's eyes stopped stinging like hell fire. The whites the his eyes were still red however but the worst was part, or so they thought.
The holy water also healed up Castiel's bleeding marks on his face easily enough.
"Well! That settles that!" Dean exclaimed victory and clapped his hands together wiping off dirt that wasn't there. The boys piled into the Impala and traveled back to the bunker.
When they get back to the bunker Dean decided to park the car in the the Men of Letters garage. He off handed mentions something about the car needing a good wash but says he's too hungry at the moment. Dean enjoyed whipping up a dinner of crusty bread covered with thick gravy that coated thin sliced steak with the perfect amount of pepper. Sam went to go take a "decontamination" shower in the meantime. Cas decided to do Dean a favor and stayed behind in the garage to wash the beloved black vehicle. Castiel was half way through covering the sky black shine with luscious velvety bubbles, when Dean came down the hall calling the peruvial dinner bell. Sam was just getting out of the shower and yelled back he'd be there in a minute. Even though he didn't need it, Dean always made food for Cas too. One time he told Cas that 'family eats together' as if it was a rule. So Cas happily obeyed from then on. Dean called out again to Cas from down the hall but Cas couldn't hear over his favorite mixed tape that he was playing from an old boombox that was kept on the mechanic's shelf in the garage. Dean could hear some muffled music so he continued till he found its source. He grinned from ear to ear finding what could possibly be one of the best sights he could have hoped to find.
His secret little crush without his dress jacket and trench coat with his white sleeves rolled up to his elbows and tie tail tucked into a space between buttons lower on his abdomen, washing his precious Impala. Cas didn't notice him and continued lightly singing along with his favorite song while he moved around the suds. Cas came around the front of the car and turned his back to Dean. He liked this view too.
"You've been learning, oh oh baby I been learning. All them good times baby, baby..." and Cas then hummed along to the rest of the chorus only to come back at the reprise stronger voiced "I'm gonna GIVE YOU MY LOVE, AHHH OOOHH!"
Dean couldn't stand to smile at him from the sidelines any longer. He knew if Sammy caught him ogling at the pool boy there would be hell to pay. Dean walked confidently over with a plan in mind.
"I knew you'd like this song!" He called over the music. Cas turned around swiftly startled, with the sponge in his hand and splattered soap straight across Dean's T-shirt.
"I'm sorry!" Cas yelled out. He dropped the sponge in the bucket, skuddled over to the bench, grabbed a dry cloth, removed the mixtape carefully placing it back into his pocket for safe keeping and came back to offer the cloth to Dean to dry off. He apologized again "I'm sorry, Dean. I hope you're not angered. I just wanted to pull my own weight around here and help with the chores. This is something I can do. Is this okay?"
"Okay?" Dean paused and looked at Cas' worried face. "Fuck yeah! This is great! Can I help too? Dinner is getting cold but I can reheat it easily enough. We shouldn't let the soap dry on the paint."
Cas smiled wide but tried to conceal it. "Yes, yes of course!" The two worked well together, quickly completing the work and finished by towel drying. Whenever Dean would start humming more of the tune again "A Whole Lotta Love" by Led Zeppelin while they worked, Cas' ears turned red in embarrassment and Dean revelled in how cute it made him look so he continued on with the teasing till they were done. Especially the part that said " I'm gonna give you my love ahh, ooohh".
"Thanks, buddy." Dean thanked while he tossed the damp towel into the basket. "That was...really nice."
"It was my pleasure, Dean. Anything I can do to help you." Cas stood next to him landing his own damp towel into the appropriate basin. Dean allowed Cas to interrupt his personal space yet again. They stood there together for a moment until Cas' face seemed to contort a little. He moved a hand and placed it over his stomach.
"What is it?" Dean noticed there was something wrong immediately.
"There is an odd sort of feeling in my abdomen." Cas was confused.
"Yeah, I kinda get that around you too, Cas." Dean clapped a hand on Cas' back and smiled. Then he turned away and took a few steps. "It's actually something I've been putting off telling you about. It's just that I don't exactly understand it. You're my best friend, Cas, our brother. I hope you know that. " Dean turned back to see if Cas was following what he was saying only to find him curled down clutching his stomach now with both arms wrapped around him.
"Cas? Geez! What... what's wrong?" Dean put an arm around an unanswering Cas who heaved and grunted in pain as Dean took his arm over his own shoulder and behind his head to help Cas down the hall to the infirmary. On the way, Dean repeatedly reassured the angel that everything would be okay. He managed to get the angel onto a cot in the infirmary easily enough when Cas grabbed Dean by the shirt just before he pulled away.
"SAM." Cas breathed.
"Yeah, he can help. I'll go get him!" Dean turned to leave but Cas gripped onto his shirt tighter.
"Cocatrice…. Poison." Cas managed to get out one word at a time between the waves of pain that pulsed from his stomach. "SAM." He said again urgently.
"Oh, God. Sammy too?" Dean understood now. Cas nodded, shot his head back in pain and let go.
Dean rushed down the hall slipping a little around the corner on his wet soles from washing the car. "Saaahm?!" He yelled. When he got there he busted down the door to find Sam laying in a fetal position next to his dresser having only managed to put on some plaid pajama bottoms after his shower before the shooting pain hit him too. Dean scooped up his moose of a brother and got him to the infirmary too.
"Shit. Shit. Shit. Shit." Dean whispered to himself running his hand back through his hair while he watched the two beings he cared most about in this world writhe in agony and muffle their cries of pain. When something Sam screamed out made him jump.
"DEAN! A BOOK!" Sam yelled. "CURE!"
"Oh, right! I'll find it! Just um, wait here! Okay?"
"Just, GO!" One of the two yelled back. Dean couldn't tell who it was because the words were yelled and he was already running out of the room.
Needless To Say, Dean was not at home in the files of the Men of Letters library. He had never looked for a topic under duress and without Sam to help. About fifteen minutes later of tossing incorrect books on the floor Dean found a file from the Men of Letters with a potential cure for a basilisk poisoning if the person hadn't died outright. It was a tea made from boiling holy water and steeping mistletoe along with a few other ingredients that Dean knew they all had in stock in the infirmary. Dean knew mistletoe was poisonous on its own but figured it couldn't as bad as the poison of a mythical beast. Dean ran back to the infirmary book in hand to go make the tea.
"Guys! I got it! I think...it should work!" But he came into a totally different scene. Sam had passed out but Cas was awake and breathing ever so lightly.
"Sam?" Dean dropped the book on the floor and ran over to his brother's bedside. "Sammy!" He shook his shoulder and caused beads of sweat to fall from his brother's face.
"Dean?" Cas whispered.
"Cas!" Dean spun around to face his angel. Dean reached to touch his brow and brushed back his sweat drenched hair from off his forehead. "Hey, how ya feelin'?" Dean begged him to answer.
Cas sung weakly. "I've been yer-yearning… Away, wayyy down deep inside…"
"Cas." Dean tried to help him focus by placing his hand on his wet cheek and angeled Cas to look up at him.
"Ah honey..." He mumbled. Dean shook his head and squinted his eyes in worry, Cas was delirious and probably had a fever. He was singing lyrics from the song he was just playing in the garage.
"I'll take care of you, buddy. I'll make this better. I'll make you better, promise." Dean said calmly and got up to make the tea.
Once the tea was ready, Dean was able to get Sam to drink it and then had to coax Cas into drinking it too.
"I wanna be your backdoor man..." Cas sang though mumbles while turning away from Dean.
"Cas, Castiel, no. Stop it. This will make it better. Stop singing that song. Just drink!" Dean struggled against the weak wiggling of the angel. Dean tried to recall what his mother used to do to get him to take medicine. So he sang a calming song, he knew Cas would know, to get him to relax and drink the tea. He picked a verse from Stairway to Heaven. He whisper-sang it gruffly and once he started Cas calmed and stared at him with that perplexed look on his face.
"Yes, there are two paths you can go by, but in the long run, there's still time to change the road your on…"
Cas then allowed Dean to administer the tea cure into his mouth. Cas mumbled as he began to fall asleep the remaining part of the verse.
"...and it makes me wonder... Your head is humming and it won't go. In case you don't know the Piper's calling you to join him." Cas drifted off to sleep and Dean smiled.
"When will you tell him, Dean?" Sam spoke clearly. Dean twisted around quickly to see his little brother flushed but sitting up a little on his elbows.
"Sammy! You okay? How you feelin'?" Dean asked excitedly.
"I'm fine now. I knew you would find a cure. But you didn't answer my question."
"What, what are you talkin' about?"
"When are you, Dean Winchester, going to tell Cas that you like him?" Sam had a stern look on his face.
That was when Cas interrupted them, barely audible, and sang another line from the song.
"The Piper's calling you to join him…"
"Shhhh. Shut up Cas, just rest." Dean whispered as he ran his fingers through Cas' thick hair in full view of his brother's grin.