A/N: I'm interrupting our regularly scheduled programming of Brother Where You Bound to bring you the second half of this two-shot instead. Gabriel will be back Monday with some long-awaited excitement (and maybe a cliffhanger ;p).

Thank you Guest Lychee for your review! Here's all the comfort and feels part.

Part Two

Sometime later, Charlie couldn't say how long, though her legs had grown numb, she heard distant voices shouting.

"Charlie!"

"In—" she started weakly, and stopped to clear her throat. "In here!"

Footsteps pounded down the hall, and then Sam and Dean were charging into the room, angel blades in hand. They both skidded to a stop and gaped at her and Castiel.

"Charlie?" Dean questioned guardedly.

"It's Castiel," she assured them.

Dean exchanged a bewildered look with Sam, whose throat bobbed nervously. "Did he cast Lucifer out?"

"Uh, not exactly. I used the Oz key on them. It separated the two, made an exact copy of Castiel's body with Lucifer in it."

The brothers' brows shot upward, both of their mouths sputtering over words. "Charlie, what—" "Are you insane?"

"I didn't exactly have many options when the Devil was chasing me through the bunker," she retorted, but then forced herself to take a deep breath. "Look, we got Castiel back."

Dean and Sam cast suspicious glances at the unconscious angel. The injuries Castiel had gotten in the fight were sluggishly healing, but he still looked battered and bruised.

"Doesn't that mean this is Good-Cas-Good-Lucifer?" Dean asked.

Charlie gave him a wry look, and even Sam snorted.

"Not sure there is such thing as 'Good-Lucifer,'" the younger Winchester said.

"Okay, fine," Dean conceded. "But Cas ain't exactly perfect. If part of him is still with the Devil, then that's a problem."

"It's a problem we can deal with later," Charlie interrupted. "We've been on the floor here for a few hours; can you please help get him to a proper room?"

That spurred the Winchesters out of their stupor, and Sam hauled Castiel up into a fireman's carry before heading out of the storage room. Dean grabbed Charlie's arm and helped her stand, supporting her as she took a moment to stamp feeling back into her legs.

"Are you okay?" he asked worriedly. "Lucifer didn't hurt you?"

Charlie hesitated. "Um. Castiel healed me." And apparently hurt himself doing it, too.

A muscle in Dean's jaw ticked. Stepping back, he ran a hand down his face. "God, I am so sorry, Charlie. I never meant…I thought you'd be safe here." He turned away. "I never would've asked you to come back if—"

"Hey, I chose to come back." And she didn't regret it. Okay, maybe she'd made things more complicated, and caused a boatload of trouble for Dorothy in Oz, but if she'd managed to save Castiel from being possessed, well, at least it was a win.

Dean shook his head, but finally looked back at her. "Are you all right?"

Charlie nodded slowly. She was still a bit shaken, but yeah, she was all right. "Do you think Castiel is…?" From what she knew about angels, they were neither supposed to take so long to heal, nor spend time completely unconscious.

Dean's eyes hardened. "Dunno, but why don't you come tell us the whole story."

He led the way upstairs where they met up with Sam in one of the dormitory rooms. Castiel had been laid on the bed, and Sam was looking at him intently. Dean excused himself, and came back a minute later with a first aid kit. While he cleaned Cas up, Charlie sat in a chair and told them everything that had happened, including how she'd given up the information about accessing Oz.

"You did the right thing," Dean said sharply.

She shook her head. "But Dorothy…"

"Lucifer's just looking for a weapon to use against Amara," Sam put in. "He might not do anything to Oz."

"He could set himself up as the new wizard," Charlie argued. "Why come back here when he can be king there?"

Dean shook his head. "She's got a point." Though he didn't sound as concerned about it.

Sam's mouth thinned into a contemplative line. "I dunno. Yeah, Lucifer wants to rule, but…it's personal. I've been in his head, and his whole complex centers around what God did with this world and humans." He fell quiet for a moment before saying in a lower voice, "I think he'll be back."

"Awesome," Dean muttered. He flicked a glance at the unconscious angel again, as he'd been doing periodically throughout the discussion. Charlie could tell he was worried, but he was also angry.

"Go easy on him, Dean," she said softly.

He stiffened. "Go easy on him? He said yes to the friggin' Devil!" Dean pivoted and started to pace. "He should know better by now."

"I do," a frail voice spoke up from the bed.

The three of them whirled toward it just as Castiel's eyelids fluttered open to stare at the ceiling. Neither Winchester made a move to approach, so Charlie rolled her eyes and rushed to the side of the bed, easing onto the mattress next to the angel.

"Castiel? Are you okay?"

His gaze didn't shift, and it was a prolonged beat before he answered. "I'm alive."

Charlie frowned at his defeated tone. "Yeah, and you're back with us," she said cheerily.

Castiel finally looked at her. "You came back," he breathed, a ghost of familiar tenderness in his eyes.

"I had to," she replied. "Someone kidnapped my favorite angel."

Haunted pain shadowed Castiel's expression, and he lifted one hand to the side of her face. "I hurt you."

She felt a whisper of grace try to reach out, and quickly reached up to take his hand away before Castiel could weaken himself further—his own bruises hadn't fully healed yet. "You didn't. And you already healed me up, good as new." Charlie squeezed his hand reassuringly.

Castiel looked over at Dean then. "I knew what I was doing," he said, voice more gravelly than usual. "Lucifer is the only one who stands a chance against the Darkness."

Dean crossed his arms. "Did you even think of the consequences?"

"Yes. If Lucifer was unable to defeat the Darkness and she destroyed him instead, nothing would be lost. If he did defeat her, then I had every faith that you and Sam would be able to destroy him."

The tension in the air increased tenfold, and Dean's furious gaze could have sent sparks showering to the floor.

"Is that it?" he said in a low, dangerous voice.

Charlie shifted on the bed nervously. Without the Mark, she didn't really expect Dean to lose it like he had before, but then, he also looked as angry as he had then.

Castiel's gaze flicked to her and Sam, face pinching in anguished remorse. "I know…I nearly destroyed things again. I'd hoped Lucifer would leave you alone. He was pretending to be me, and I thought he would keep it up…Sam, Charlie, I'm so sorry. I never meant for you to get hurt."

"We know, Cas," Sam said quietly.

"How about the consequence of you dying?" Dean snapped. "If Amara killed Lucifer, 'nothing would be lost'? What the hell is wrong with you?" His volume had risen incrementally with each word until he was yelling.

Charlie bit at her bottom lip, unable to hold back a slight wince.

Dean must have noticed, because he let out a long breath, and his next words were softer. "Sorry, kiddo."

She nodded, then glanced back at Castiel, who just looked…sad. Weary.

"I'm not strong enough to help you anymore," the angel said. "But Lucifer is. You…you need him more than you do me. And I…I wanted to be of service. One last time."

"Without caring how Sam and I would feel about it?"

Castiel sighed, gaze returning to the ceiling. "You would get over it."

Charlie stiffened at that, and braced for the inevitable implosion.

"Excuse me?" Dean exploded, storming forward to loom over the prone angel. "You think Sam and me would just 'get over' you dying? As though it meant nothing?"

"It doesn't," Castiel insisted. "I'm no longer any use to you."

"Like that matters!"

"It's always mattered. I have always come when you called, no matter what. Because I…" He gave himself a sharp shake, squeezing his eyes shut in a moment of grief. "I was wrong, Dean. I am and have always been a hammer, a tool. That was my purpose since the day I was created." Castiel turned sad eyes back toward the Winchesters. "But tools eventually rust and break."

Silence fell over the room, a palpable throb of misery pervading the very air.

"Cas," Sam sputtered. "You can't think…"

Dean snorted and shook his head, still fuming. "I thought you were stupid for letting Lucifer in, but this, this really makes you a dumb-ass."

Charlie pushed down her own inner turmoil and surged to her feet. "Alright, that's enough." She jabbed a finger at Dean's chest to push him back a step. "You know what I learned these past several months? We're all broken in some way or another. But when we hold each other up, we find the strength to keep going. And all our broken pieces together can make a beautiful mosaic."

Dean lifted his brows at her.

She shrugged one shoulder. "I got that from therapy."

"Therapy?" Dean repeated.

"Yeah. 'Cause picking myself up after the Stynes…was hard." Charlie swallowed against a lump forming in her throat. "But I did it. My one regret, though, was not letting my family help."

Dean's expression immediately softened, and he reached out a comforting hand. "We would've. You know that, right?"

Charlie nodded, eyes moistening. "I do. But there's another member of this family who needs us right now." She cast a meaningful glance at Sam and Dean before finally looking at Castiel. The angel wasn't even paying attention to them anymore, but was staring morosely at the ceiling. It struck Charlie then how human Castiel was, how much he had changed since the events she'd read about in the Supernatural books.

"I know you hate 'chick-flick moments,' Dean," she said. "But keeping things bottled up doesn't make them go away. It just leaves us to drown alone." She paused. "Even an angel."

She shared an imploring look with both brothers before the three of them glanced at Castiel.

Letting out a heavy breath, Dean ran a hand through his hair, then slowly nudged past Charlie to sit on the edge of the bed. "Cas?"

Castiel's gaze shifted.

Dean opened his mouth, hesitated, and then shook his head. "I don't get it, man. I don't understand how after everything, you don't get that you're family to me and Sam."

"And me," Charlie piped up. She figured they'd graduated from besties by this point.

Castiel just stared at Dean. "'Everything' being the Purgatory souls, Sam's wall, the Angel Tablet, casting the angels out of Heaven—"

"That's all water under the bridge, Cas!" Dean interrupted. "And I'm talking about the three of us stopping the Apocalypse. Team Free Will. And me spending months searching for you in Purgatory because I refused to leave you there, even after your mess with the Leviathans. I'm talking about the three of us going on hunts together, of you giving up your angel army so the three of us could defeat Metatron. Of standing in this very bunker and not fighting back when I beat you to a bloody pulp and almost killed you!"

Dean blanched, and shot a horrified look at Sam and Charlie. Charlie was stunned, certainly, but apparently so was Sam.

Dean reached up to cover his mouth. "Shit."

Castiel's voice came out quiet, "I never blamed you for that, Dean."

The older Winchester let out a long, low exhale. "Yeah, well, I don't blame you for saying yes to Lucifer."

Castiel blinked in surprise.

"You were trying to do the right thing," Dean went on. "What you thought was the right thing. I've been there. Sam's been there."

Sam nodded from behind Dean.

Charlie raised her hand. "Uh, me too. Remember the whole split personalities thing? I thought I needed to do that to win the war in Oz. Boy, did it backfire."

Sam's lips twitched, and even Dean's mouth quirked, but then they both sobered.

"Speaking of which," Sam spoke up. "That key was supposed to split a person like Yin and Yang, and the two halves were linked so that if something happened to one, it happened to the other." He flicked a nervous glance at Charlie and Dean, obviously uncomfortable about dredging up that memory.

Charlie was too busy feeling a surge of guilt to be upset by it, though. Crap, what if she hadn't fully freed Castiel from Lucifer?

Castiel shook his head, and finally pushed himself up into a sitting position. "It apparently works differently on angels. I…I wish I could say that key removed all the pieces that always lead me to do wrong, to do bad. But I'm still me."

"Hey," Charlie interjected. "All those pieces, even the not-so-good ones, are important. They help make us who we are."

"I'm afraid there's not much left of me," Castiel sighed.

"That's not true," she protested vehemently. "I kinda felt that way…after, you know."

Talking about it had gotten easier over time, but that had been among strangers, and for some reason saying these things in front of Sam and Dean made her uncomfortable. She wasn't the only one who'd suffered from that event.

"But it gets better, Castiel. I promise. This—talking—is the first step." She gave him an encouraging smile. Castiel looked skeptical, but that was okay; in the beginning, Charlie hadn't believed she'd get past it, either.

Sam cleared his throat. "So, you're not linked to Lucifer? Even though he's apparently walking around in a carbon copy of your vessel?"

Castiel shook his head again. "No."

"Maybe him being in Oz hampers the connection?" Sam speculated.

"No, there's nothing." Castiel hesitated, a muscle in his cheek ticking. "I would know."

"Oh, well, that's a relief," Charlie beamed, trying to lighten the atmosphere.

Dean, however, narrowed his eyes on the angel. "You're regretting there isn't a connection. Because if there was, you'd have an end game for after Lucifer defeats Amara."

Castiel ducked his gaze.

It took Charlie a moment to figure out what Dean meant, for one of her traumatic memories of shooting poor Clive to flash through her mind, but when it did, she sucked in a sharp gasp.

"You wouldn't," she said to Castiel. Surely after how hard they'd worked to get him back, he wouldn't just turn around and sacrifice himself again? Castiel glanced up briefly, enough for her to see the guilt and shame in his eyes.

"Dammit, Cas," Dean muttered.

"I let him out of the Cage. It's only fitting I fix it."

Dean surged to his feet and away from the bed. "You're doing it again! Not giving a damn how that would affect the rest of us."

Castiel lifted his chin. "You let Sam sacrifice himself."

Dean reeled back as though he'd been struck.

Charlie wrapped her arms around her middle, hugging herself tightly. She'd known this could be painful, dredging up the worst of one's emotions. She had to remember that talking things out was necessary, and just hoped no one would say something in anger they couldn't take back.

"Cas," Sam spoke up. "We had no other option back then. And yeah, I popped Satan's box the first time, so I felt it was my responsibility to set it right. But I'm also the one who went into the Cage this time. You never would've said yes to Lucifer if you and Dean hadn't come after me."

Castiel shook his head adamantly. "You were tricked, Sam; it wasn't your fault."

"It wasn't yours, either." He moved closer and took Dean's place on the edge of the bed. "You've been through a lot recently, maybe more than you let on." Sam gave the angel a knowing look that made Castiel fidget. He lowered his voice. "It was my fault what happened to you with Rowena. What happened to Charlie."

Charlie opened her mouth to argue that, but Sam was already pressing on.

"And it seems that there's always another crisis we have to deal with, so we either shelve whatever crap we've got going on, or completely ignore its existence. And it festers. Until one of us does something stupid. Maybe part of it is for the right reasons, but I'm betting there's a good portion in our history where we do something because we think we deserve the fallout."

Sam tossed a rueful look at Dean, whose jaw had clenched in response. Castiel was avoiding eye contact again, and no one was protesting Sam's assessment. Charlie frowned. Oh yeah, these boys could definitely do with some good therapy. Well, guess she would have to be enough.

"I love you all," she blurted, earning three slightly startled gazes. "So before anyone goes taking on any more ancient curses, or dancing with the devil, or sacrificing themselves to save the world…" She roved her gaze over each one of them pointedly. "Remember that I would do anything for you. You're my family, my home. And if something happened to one of you…I would be devastated."

Charlie walked around to the other side of the bed. "That includes you, Castiel."

He tilted his head up to look her in the eye, as though his gaze could see into her soul. Probably did. His eyes, though, wavered with heartfelt gratitude.

Charlie reached out to touch his shoulder. "I found the strength to come back because of you, Castiel. Because I couldn't stand by and not try to save my friend. You think I could have overcome my fears for anything less?"

"You're stronger than you think, Charlie," Castiel said.

"And you mean more to us than you think," she countered.

"Charlie's right," Sam added, also reaching out to grip the angel's forearm. "And whatever's going on with you, Cas, just…let us help."

Castiel flicked an uncertain glance at Dean, and Charlie shot the older Winchester a pointed look.

Dean cleared his throat before moving closer and taking up a position at the foot of the bed so Castiel was bolstered on all sides. "You're not a tool, Cas. You're family, my family. Like Charlie said, I would do anything for you. So don't…don't leave us."

Castiel turned his head to take in each of them, and though his eyes were still haunted by a deep-seated pain, he nevertheless nodded slowly. "I…I'll try to do better."

Charlie smiled. "You won't have to do it alone. We can start by having daily family meetings where we talk about what's going on, openly and honestly."

Dean's face scrunched up. "Uh, how about not?"

Charlie shook her head. "Nope, it's been decreed. Sometimes, you just gotta take the medicine, Dean."

"I did. We talked, shared our feelings; now we're good."

"Dean," Sam put in, giving his brother a wry look. "It's not gonna be that easy."

Charlie started for the door. "I'm gonna go bedazzle a talking stick."

"A what? Hey, Charlie," Dean called warningly, but she was already bounding down the hall and around the corner. "Charlie!"

She grinned. It was so good to be home.