Sinew limbs cast a moving shadow across Dean Winchester's face. He leaned against the driver's side of his Chevy Impala and watched Castiel with oft-hidden empathy. "I get it you know." Dean looked down at his hands, locked together. "Deadbeat dads are kinda my specialty." Castiel held his head, groaning in pain from what Dean suspected was the mother of all hangovers. The hunter reached into the car and pulled out a half bottle of Tylenol. He rolled it in his hand for a moment, smiling grimly. It was another testament of his broken soul.

"Heads up." Dean said, tossing the bottle towards the angel.
Castiel caught it and tried to read the inscription, but his human eyes were not up to the task. "How many should I take?"
Dean smiled, a real one this time, and shook his head in dark amusement. "You? Probably all of them." Castiel considered it, not yet having the energy to de-cap the contents. Silence settled over them again as each became lost in thoughts of regret and the past. Dean wondered how much different it was for Castiel. After all, the angel had been alive for a very long time. That was a lot of years to consider when betrayal stabbed at the heart. "There is one thing you might not have considered, Cas." Dean said finally, biting his lip as he tried to figure out how to voice what he felt inside. "Your ...father... - he didn't leave you."
Castiel looked up then with an angry frown, ready to fight, but when he met Dean's earnest gaze he waited. "Joshua said that god was here, on Earth, and that he had given up." Dean smirked humorlessly. "If he had really given up, why didn't he leave? Why did he come here of all places? If he really thought that we humans are a lost cause then why did he come here?"
Castiel tried to grasp the alien concept through the pounding in his head. "But...Does that mean Joshua lied?" A faint, almost gasping flame of hope sprang into the angel's eyes.
Dean shrugged. "Hell if I know, Cas, but it is something to consider. Why would god want anything to do with a planet about to be erased from the universe? It is a lot of questions, I know, but maybe the answers will prove that he didn't leave you - any of us." He shrugged again, pushing away from the car to make his way to their hotel room. "Just something to think about." Castiel was quiet, head down, staring at the Tylenol until Dean was almost at the door. "Thank you." "You're welcome." The soft answer was spoken even as the hunter disappeared inside.

Castiel let his blue eyes focus on the stars above in the dark sky. He knew those planets and stars, galaxies and black holes. Some of them he had even watched be created. Dean's words stuck with him as he pondered the possibilities. That flame grew brighter and suddenly the night did not seem so cold.
THE END