Notes: Chappie two! Yay! This one is Dean's adventure with the spirit of Christmas Present or as we all know him, Castiel! Wooo!

Disclaimer: Nope nope nope, ain't mine. But again, fingers crossed that I'll get it for Christmas! :D

CHAPTER 2

An hour later the crew had actually finished their chores and had all spread out over the ship. It was getting later in the day and Dean was happy that the holiday wouldn't last much longer. He was strolling through the hallways whistling to himself a happy tune, glad that the chores for the day had mostly been done and all that were left were shifts of keeping an eye on the herd. He continued his whistling, hearing the echo of it come off of the metal walls. He then cursed at himself when he realized that tune was Deck the Halls. What the hell was wrong with him?

He continued a string of curses as he continued towards his room, ready to relax a bit before dinner.

"Hello Dean." The captain almost jumped right out of his soiled shoes at the sound of a voice coming from behind him. The sudden appearance of Cas startled Dean in to yet another string of curses. "Jeez Cas! Put a friggin bell on or something!"

Cas looked confused, "I thought you didn't want to decorate for Christmas?"

Dean rubbed at the bridge of his nose, not having the most patience today, even when it came to Cas. "I don't…Just…make noise when you walk okay?"

"I shall endeavor to try, Dean." Cas said solemnly, and he continued to stand there in front of Dean. He was looking sadly at the walls around him, even reaching out a hand to rub the metal panels in some sort of comforting manner.

Dean scrunched up his face in concern, this was not the normal Cas… or maybe it was, but not his "normal" as of late. "Hey Cas, you sure you're okay? You've been kind of down lately."

"I am fine Dean. I am merely….processing," he responded, sounding desolate.

Huh? Now Dean was becoming really confused, he was usually one of the few on this ship that could moderately understand Cas' moods and odd phrasing, but not today it seemed. Was everyone against him today?

"If you're sure…well, umm, what are you up to anyway?" Dean asked, wondering why Cas was trolling around the hallways like a wayward ghost.

"I was simply following the trail of despair." Sighed Cas, leaning heavily upon the wall like there was some heavy weight he was holding. His behavior was really starting to worry Dean. He had never seen Cas this…down before. It was weird, more weird than his crazy rants or conversations with plants.

"Okay…what trail of despair are you talking about? That trail of cow patties that seems to be spreading over the ship because some stupid crew members don't wipe their feet?" Dean asked, somewhat peeved. Maybe Cas was in as much pain as Dean at seeing the spread of dirt over his beloved ship.

Dean got a sour look from Cas before it melted into one of determination."I'll show you." And Cas started walking down the hall, expecting Dean to follow.

The captain stood there for a moment, wondering what to make of Cas, but he couldn't make anything of it right then, so he shrugged to himself. "Guess it's better than taking care of the damn cows again," and Dean jogged to catch up with the other man.

Cas led them first to the passengers quarters. The place at first seemed completely deserted and Dean was about to change his mind on the whole let's play trail hunting with Cas, but then he heard it. A soft humming coming from Bobby's room. This got his attention, he looked at his friend beside him and raised an eyebrow, silently asking for the next move. Cas jerked his chin in the direction of Bobby's room, and they snuck closer to pear around the corner to get a glimpse into the preacher's quarters.

There he was, bible in hand, humming "Lo How a Rose" softly so himself. He looked lonely, sitting there with his bible. Dean thought back to how he had described his holiday back at the Abbey, the preacher's singing didn't hold the joyous aspect that Bobby had mentioned, but that was probably because the Sheppard was sitting there alone without a choir to join him. It sounded like there were always others around to share the religious aspects and joy of the holiday back at his abbey, even if they weren't family. No wonder Bobby looked lonely.

Then Dean caught sight of the tumbler of whiskey in his other hand. That made the captain's stomach drop. He didn't know if Preachers were able to drink back at the Abbey, but he was pretty sure that Bobby had been drinking a lot more since the Croat incident than he had ever before.

Here the Shepherd was, his first Christmas since his faith was shaken, and he wasn't even allowed to celebrate it the only way he knew how. Dean had vetoed his request for a service, and he had also declined the idea of a feast.

Bobby raised the tumbler to his lips for another sip. Cas chose this moment to pull at Dean's arm, encouraging him to leave now, so Dean nodded and glanced back at the preacher once more before they tip-toed off.

Dean felt poorly about it as he and Cas slunk away. Once they were out of earshot Cas turned to Dean as if to ask what he thought about his no Christmas ruling now, but he didn't actually say anything. His expressive eyes said enough.

The captain wasn't so easily swayed, "I get it. It's been a rough holiday for him, but the old man's got spunk. He'll pull through stronger for it. God doesn't have a place out here in the black, so neither should Christmas. And he's still got all of us if he's felling lonesome." Dean stated firmly.

Cas sighed wearily and trudged on, gesturing for Dean to continue following.

They next moved into the hallway leading to the control room, Cas hugged the wall as they moved up to the room silently, and Dean copied him, even though he felt like an idiot for doing it. It was his gorramn ship after all. Why should he be sneaking around like a stowaway!?

Getting closer Dean could hear Gabriel and Sam's voices.

"So, should we celebrate our own way tonight after everyone else has gone to bed? Including and especially Captain sour-pants?" Came Gabriel's voice.

Sam sounded weary with his response, "I don't think that is going to happen, Gabe. Dean put me on the midnight to five shift for watching the cows. By the time I get done I'll be too tired for anything. Also you have the shift right after me," Sam reminded the pilot, sounding less than happy with the set-up.

Dean could hear Gabriel moan piteously. "Damn. You're right. Guess any sort of Christmas shenanigans are out of the question…." He paused and scoffed before continuing, sounding a little more on edge. " I should be used to this I suppose. I've been on this ship for five years with you guys, but this is the first year the no holiday rule has ever really bothered me." Gabriel said bitterly.

Dean took this moment to move a little closer to the control room, peaking around the corner of the hallway so that he could catch a partial glimpse into the room. He saw Gabriel and Sam seated in the two pilots chairs, half turned towards each other and half turned towards the stars. Sam seemed to be fiddling with some pilot papers, and Gabriel was absently inspecting his nails.

Sam didn't respond for a moment, just started at the papers in his large hands. But when he answered it was in a soft and sympathetic voice and he looked up to meet Gabriel's eyes. "That's because it's different this year. You have your family back and you have been thinking all day about how you used to spend Christmas. Also the whole "life getting turned upside down and you just want some sort of normalcy" thing might be part of why you're feeling it more this year." Sam smirked and tossed a piece of crumpled up paper at Gabriel.

Gabriel picked it right back up and threw it back smiling a little as if he was proud that Sam could do something so childish, "That's true I suppose. It's been twelve years since I last spent a Christmas with Balth and Cassy- doodle." He paused a moment and looked at Sam with a completely honest and open look, "It's also happens to be our first holiday together-together." Gabriel gave Sam a meaningful look.

The realization hit Sam hard. A year ago, Gabe had still been Trickster, the prankster who flirted unashamedly with Sam all the time, but never actually made a real move. It wasn't until Gabriel's identity was revealed that Gabe allowed himself to act upon his feelings and he and Sam were finally able to get closer.

And now they weren't able to really enjoy their first holiday together.

Gabriel seemed to be following his trail of thought and got up from his pilot's chair to move up to Sam.

"So we should take what little we can in what little time we have," he said softly, running his fingers through Sam's hair.

Sam smiled and grabbed hold of Gabe's hand to hold in his own, "Yeah, let's just forget about Dean."

Gabriel smirked, "I usually try to put Dean out of my mind anyway when we do stuff anyway."

He and Gabriel laughed happily and moved closer.

Out in the hallway Dean turned away, not wanting to intrude on their tender moment…and also cause he did not want to see his little brother making out with Gabriel. He and Cas then walked down the hall, Cas steering them to the back of the ship.

Forget about Dean….

Cas had started humming again when they continued on. It didn't seem like his frantic humming that signaled a break-down, but it was more of the happy one that he did around his plant.

It appeared that Cas was taking them to the engine room. He could hear Chuck tinkering around in there, which was no surprise. What was a surprise though was Meg's voice among the clanging.

"If I have to scoop up one more patty tonight, I swear I'm gonna slip it into the Captain's bed." She grouched loudly to be heard over Chucks hammering.

Dean crept forward quickly, eager to see the happenings in the room, Cas not far behind.

Dean saw as Chuck paused and looked up at Meg's last comment, "Are you serious?! If you do that then he'll kill you…and then I'll have to take an extra cow shift to cover you. It's bad enough that he's making me fix the temp gauge today. I'm gonna smell like coolant for a week." He whined.

"Better than smelling like cow crap." She snapped, clearly miserable.

Chuck seemed to consider that, "Yeah, I suppose you're right." He went back to working.

Dean was able to glance in to the room without being seen. He saw Chuck right where he should be, fixing that temp gauge. Meg was surprisingly lounging on the ground near the tool box. It looked like she might have been handing him tools as he worked.

It didn't look like much else was happening, and Dean grew bored quickly. There was a long silence, and Dean turned to leave, but upon turning he was given a hard look from Cas that had him reconsidering and staying a little bit longer. He didn't have to wait long.

Chuck paused again in his adjustments, "Not that I'm not happy with your help and all, but you don't like me, and you always tell me that you hate the engine room…"

Meg gave him a sour face, "Don't get your panties in a bunch ya pansy. I'm just hiding from Dean in here. It'll be my shift with the cows soon and I don't plan on being around for it." She tossed a wrench at him, which he awkwardly caught. Turning back to his work he continued to voice his curiosities, "Oh. I thought you might be lonely or something. You don't talk about you family much, and no one can help but think about family this time of year."

"Oh shut up. I never celebrated Christmas growing up. Not my family's thing. I agree with Dean's anti Christmas attitude, I just don't agree with his anti-fun attitude. Now get the hell back to work." She added harshly, banging a heavy socket wrench on the metal ground for emphasis.

Chuck continued to work, but he didn't shut up. "My family was huge. We had really big celebration every year. I haven't seen them since I left home to start work…"

Meg rolled her eyes, "Did you guys ever play the quiet game at your big events? Maybe we can re-create that game right now!" She said sarcastically. Finally Chuck complied and the sounds of metal on metal filled the room instead.

Cas grabbed at Dean's arm to pull him away.

Down the hall Dean turned triumphantly to Castiel. "Well that wasn't so bad. They always grouch when I give them work. No big surprise there." Dean mentioned to Cas as they moved along. Cas gave him a dark look as a response and led them towards Anna's shuttle.

Balthazar was lounging on one of Anna's fancy couches, a cup of tea in hand.

"I want to thank you again for the use of your soap. No amount of water would wash that stench off of my hands," he told the redheaded companion as she tended to the tea in front of her. It looked like she was conducting a real tea ceremony for her and the middle Novak brother.

She laughed gently, "It's not a problem. This cargo seems to have put everyone out of sorts. Especially Dean. But he's was like this last year on the ship as well. The holidays hold little meaning to him it seems." She moved the tea pot off of the heat source to cool for a bit before the leaves started to wither.

A snort came from Balthazar on the couch, "It has put people out indeed. I hope Dean is happy with all of the work that got done today. But now everyone is off sulking in their own way it seems and doesn't even want to try celebrating anymore."

"Is that what we're doing, sulking?" Anna asked innocently.

He looked to the ceiling as if pondering his answer, "I'll admit to being a little saddened that the first holiday I get to spend with Cassy in five years, and the first Christmas with Gabriel since I found out he is alive has been spent elbows deep in that foul mess."

Anna looked up with sad eyes. She truly felt for the brothers. She truly loved having Castiel around to care for like a mother. She liked having Balthazar around to talk about fashion and trends with. And she even liked Gabriel's pranks and sense of humor. The brothers had dealt with too much, and she prayed for them to find some sort of happiness and serenity among the chaos that was their lives.

But Anna also knew that Dean was hurting in his own way, she just didn't say anything because she wasn't sure that Dean knew that he was hurting.

"Well you don't have to have Dean's permission to be thankful for your family being with you, even if you can't express it in the normal holiday traditions," she mentioned casually, taking a sip of the cooling tea.

Her friend considered this, letting the thoughts run through his head and sorting through his feelings on the subject. "That's true. It's not that a Christmas party will fix all that's wrong or falling apart…It's just….a way to forget all that is wrong or falling apart. Even if it's just for one night." Balthazar sighed out.

Anna couldn't disagree with that. She would have enjoyed celebrating her first Christmas with the new and improved crew of the Impala. She had not yet experienced a family holiday since she grew up in the Companion Guild. Missing out on the holiday wasn't painful like it was for the others aboard the Impala, but she longed for it just as badly. She was at least able to spend some quiet time with one of her friends.

"Yes….It would have been nice." She said quietly.

But Dean had still been able to hear her. He also heard the sad tone to her comment and the regret in Balthazar's wish. He and Cas left soon after and walked slowly away. No real direction. Dean was thinking hard about all that he had just heard, a silent Cas in pace next to him. The captain was so wrapped up in his thoughts that he didn't realize that they had come back to the hold until the smell hit his nose. It brought him back to the present and he sought out his friend.

Turning back to Cas he met a pair of sad blue eyes.

"Cas? Did you want to celebrate the holiday too?" He asked gently.

"I… I was hoping to get some marbles as a gift, so that Meg would cease to insist that I misplaced them. He whispered to Dean, sounding a little lost.

That got a snort out of Dean. "Well, guess we should go get washed up for dinner. It's too late for a party anyway. Maybe next year." And Dean stepped forward to head off to his room, but he didn't notice the cow patty that was under his foot.

He went flying up in the air and crashed down on the ground, hard, hitting his head on the metal floor. The last thing he saw was the fuzzy concerned face of Cas before he blacked out.

Up next, Dean meets the ghost of Christmas future…but I'll leave his identity a surprise XD