a/n - The triumphant return of Finnie to FF! This story is already completed - and has been posted in full on AO3, but I felt like posting here too - so it's all going up RIGHT NOW. One thing you need to know going into this story: It's Destiel. But Cas isn't around. Trust me though, it's good. It works. It's Destiel-ey. Woo.

Have fun! Leave reviews! Tell me what you think, because my writing can only get better from here!

One: Goin' Back to the Corner

Dean woke up the next morning and for half a second he didn't remember why the other half of the bed was so cold. Did Cas have an early appointment or something today?

And then it hit him.

He kept his eyes squeezed shut for a minute, trying to will it to not have happened, wishing desperately that when he opened them Cas would be standing in the doorway about to reprimand him for sleeping in.

The reprimand never came, and eventually Dean had to accept that it wasn't coming and open his eyes. The clock on the bedside table read 10:30AM; sunlight was streaming in through the windows. Shit. He was two hours late for work and he hadn't showered or dressed and he didn't exactly live walking distance from the garage. He reached blindly for the phone that should have been on his sidetable while continuing to stare blankly at the ceiling.

Should have been was a key word, there. The lack of a phone was what forced Dean to actually sit up and look around the room. He spotted it, sitting face down on the floor under a dent in the wall. He winced, fairly certain he remembered hearing the screen crack – although to be fair it could have just been the sound of the phone hitting drywall.

He stood up, crossed the room, and picked up the phone. Sure enough, there was a brand new crack across the already damaged screen. On pressing the home button, Dean discovered that he'd missed six phone calls from Sam (two voicemails), two texts from Jess, and one text from Bobby.

Nothing from Cas. Not that he was expecting it, not really.

Dean sighed. Bobby's text first.

Bobby Singer: Sam called, asking about you. Told me what happened. Don't bother coming in today, Jo and I will be fine without you.

Dean wasn't sure whether he was grateful for the day off or not, but he was definitely annoyed with Sam for sticking his nose into things.

You: Thanks, Bobby. I'll be okay for tomorrow.

He checked the messages from Jess next.

Jess Moore: Sam told me what happened. Are you okay?

Jess Moore: Are you ignoring Sam's calls? He's worried about you.

Dean sighed, shaking his head. Leave it to Sam to get his girlfriend involved, too.

You: I'm fine, Jess. And I'm not ignoring Sammy, I fell asleep.

Now, that wasn't quite true, but Jess (and by extension Sam) did not need to know that. He'd fallen asleep to his phone ringing and ringing and ringing.

He braced himself – the voicemails now.

"Dean! You can't just hang up on me like that! You're a wreck, I can tell. And even if I couldn't tell, I would know, because Cas is the best thing that's ever happened to you and –"

Message deleted.

"I called Bobby to see if you'd gone in to work yet and he said you weren't there. I told him about the fight when he said you hadn't even called in. I don't think he's expecting you there. ... Look, Dean, you're gonna have to face this at some point and – just know you can always call me, okay? I'll talk to you later."

Dean did not want to call Sam. And actually, he'd prefer to go to work than sit around here in the empty house all day.

Empty.

On that note, was Cas going to show up sometime this week – today? – looking to gather up his belongings?

Dean shuddered at the thought and promptly collapsed right back into bed.

If I don't have to do anything, I'm not going to try. Not 'till tomorrow.

And if he was lucky, this was all a nightmare anyway. He'd wake up – like always – to Cas holding him tight and whispering "It's okay, Dean. You're safe, I'm here, and I'm not going anywhere."

It took three weeks before Dean was even starting to get back to normal. He'd started going to work again the day after, just like he'd said, but he hadn't been quite himself. He knew the others could tell, but when they approached him about it, he wouldn't acknowledge it.

Three weeks later and he finally felt okay enough to go back to Heaven.

The Heaven Cafe was at the corner of two major streets. It was owned by some guy who was never actually around and run by the manager, a guy named Michael. It was Dean's favourite place to go for breakfast. Or Lunch. And sometimes also dinner (although usually not all in one day). Actually, usually he only stopped in once or twice a week.

He'd met Cas there. Cas was friends with the baker, Gabriel, from college. Dean was friends with Gabriel from sitting at the counter at Heaven and talking to him. One day, he'd walked in and this new guy with dark hair was in his usual spot. So he'd sat down next to the guy, right about to say something about it, but Gabriel had turned his attention to Dean and so had the new guy. It turned out that New Guy had approximately the bluest eyes on the planet.

"This is Dean," Gabriel said. "He's that regular I'm always tellin' you about, with the hot little brother."

"Gabriel, I'm sure Dean does not want to hear about how attractive you consider his younger brother," New Guy replied. To Dean, he said, "My name is Castiel."

Needless to say, he'd kind of been avoiding Heaven since Cas walked out. But now, finally, he thought he might be starting to move on a little bit, and he pushed open the familiar door.

"Hey, Dean-o, where you been?" asked Gabriel, who was (as usual) not in the kitchen baking, but leaning on the counter and talking to a customer. The customer turned around to look at him, too, and with a jolt Dean realised that she was one of Cas's patients, one he'd met before. Her name was Nat, and she'd gone mute after her parents died. Cas had been helping her to find her voice again. Dean wondered idly whether she'd seen him more recently than Dean had or if Cas had really left town like he'd shouted that he would.

"Dean?" Nat said. She didn't talk much, but it was a lot more than not at all. Cas had been so proud.

"I – uh... Cas... hasn't been around lately. And, y'know, it's been a while since I came here on my own. S'a little weird," replied Dean, crossing the room to sit down next to Nat. She frowned and signed something. Dean could usually follow ASL enough to get by, but her hands were flying a little bit too fast for him to keep up. He sighed. "Tali, slow down."

"Yeah, Tosh, don'cha know that Dean here is too dumb to keep up when you talk like that?" added Gabriel.

Nat smirked and Dean glared at Gabriel. She repeated, slower, "Is that why my therapist is changing?" (or, y'know, what roughly comes out to that).

That hit Dean like a physical blow. If Cas was planning to come back, not just to disappear for a few weeks with his family out of town, he'd have just taken a few weeks off work. They wouldn't be setting his patients up with someone else. "Yeah, Tali. That's probably why."

"I'm sorry," Nat signed. She patted him on the shoulder and walked out of Heaven.

"Dean, what happened?" Gabriel asked seriously. "You haven't been here in three weeks, and then you show up alone. Don't think I didn't notice that Cas hasn't been answering anyone's calls. You fucked up, didn't you?"

"Yeah," muttered Dean, "I did. But I'm not gonna tell you about it, and you're not gonna ask about it anymore if you know what's good for you."

"Okay, okay," replied Gabriel. "I'll back off. But if I get one more call from Sam about you..."

Dean groaned. "He's been calling you, too?"

"You could always answer your phone," Gabriel pointed out. "Honestly, you're as bad as Cas."

Dean didn't answer.

After that, Dean went back to hanging around Heaven in his free time.

Actually, he took to haunting the place a lot more than he had before. He figured, not entirely consciously, that if Cas was going to come back to town, this would be his first stop. And if/when that ever happened, Dean wanted to be there.

To apologise, if nothing else.

Weeks turned into months, months into a year. Dean kept working at Bobby's garage, but he spent more and more of his evenings at Heaven rather than the Roadhouse, which was owned by his coworker's mother.

One evening, Michael approached Dean. "Heaven's going on sale, Mr Winchester."

"Wh- really?" asked Dean. "Why?"

Michael shrugged. "The owner doesn't want to keep maintaining it, I think."

"Why are you telling me this?"

"I thought you might be... interested."

And that was why, about a month later, he left Sam the following voicemail.

"Sammy, it's done. And yeah, it might've been kind of impulsive and stupid, but I don't care. I bought the Heaven Cafe. Everything finished today. As of tomorrow I no longer work at Bobby's place, I'm the owner of Heaven. You and Jess should come check it out once I've got the hang of things around here. I'm keeping whatever staff wants to stay, so it shouldn't be that bad. I know you're gonna give me that look for this, but I think it's a good thing. I'm moving forward, Sam. Not moving on, but moving forward, at least. See you around."