Dean walked over to the window that was in the elevated section of the room that Castiel stood on. "Good morning, Cas," Dean said on the way over to the window. Castiel nodded and said, "I'm not sure how good of a morning it is."

"It's a figure of speech," Dean said. Dean looked out the window past the fluffy soft curtains. It was a picture of gray with black shadows– storm clouds covered the horizon for miles and lightning was flashing in the distance.

Dean looked back at Castiel. "Lucifer sure is all about the atmosphere, isn't he?"

Castiel broke his stance and walked over to the window with Dean. "This is the apocalypse, just so you know, Dean," he said.

Dean found himself smiling. "Was that a joke I just heard come out of you, Cas?" Dean gave him a light jab on the shoulder. "You'll be fitting in here in no time."

Castiel didn't smile but looked at his just-jabbed shoulder quizzically. "Dean. We need to go soon. But there is the matter of your brother first."

They both looked at Sam. "Yeah. Sam. He's going to go through withdrawls again, isn't he? We don't have time to lock him up or strap him down…"

"I think I can heal him," Castiel said.

"You can?" Dean looked back at Castiel. "Wait a minute Cas, if you could have healed him before – and he didn't have to suffer in that room, why didn't you say or do anything before?" Dean paused, thinking. "Hey, are you the one who let Sam out of his cell Are you?"

Castiel looked down – Dean was starting to think it was the angel's trademark when he wanted to avoid certain conversations.

"Oh no you don't, Cas!" Dean said, stepping in closer to the angel. "It was you, wasn't it, son of a bitch!" But Castiel looked so guilty and forlorn that Dean felt forgiveness immediately. "That was when you were still following orders, right?" Castiel nodded and met Dean's gaze again, locked it with the intensity only Castiel could hold. "Yes, I was following orders, Dean. I am no longer following those orders. I am committed now to you and your cause."

"Are you sure?" Dean asked.

"I don't really have a choice anymore, Dean."

"Yeah, but do you really want to be here? Are you having regrets? I just wanna know if you're going to be jumping ship anytime soon."

Castiel gave Dean a sincere look. "From what I was hearing before this all went down, and from hearing your point of view, I feel this is the wisest course of action. We must change the prophecy." Castiel looked down and said the next sentence with sadness. "I am no longer certain who is in charge anymore, if it's God, Zachariah, or other known or unknown forces. Things have been very unorderly and…it is hard to explain but the whole "atmosphere" of heaven has changed – is quite like this darkened and ominous sky we have outside today, actually."

"How comforting," Dean said. He rolled his eyes. Good grief, even heaven was going to hell? Did they have a chance? Did anyone?

Dean looked back at Sam, who was still sleeping. "Let's take care of him and then we're having a chat in the car. I want to know everything. But for now, I don't want to see him suffer anymore over Ruby's filthy blood, I got enough of that the first time around. More importantly, I am sure Sam did too. If you can heal him Cas," Dean said softly, "Please do."

Castiel walked over to Sam's bedside silently and then a sliver of divine light escaped Castiel's hand as he touched Sam's forehead. "He should be fine now," Castiel said.

Sam woke up and after a quick room service breakfast, they hit the road west towards the mountains. Sam was surprised that he felt so well physically, and they explained to him he was healed and could skip over withdrawls, but Sam's conscious wasn't feeling so well, and Dean and Castiel had no choice but to hear Sam's long, sappy apology over everything that had happened recently. Dean didn't want to admit it, but he was glad for the admission of guilt on Sam's part and that Sam knew that following Ruby was dumb-ass stupid. However, Dean thought, Sam didn't need to live in regret the rest of his life, and the apocalypse was coming, so Dean finally asked Sam to shut up so they could get on to important business.

"First, Castiel," Dean said, looking into the rear-view mirror as he drove, "How on earth did you keep us covered through the night? I wasn't sure I was going to wake up in the morning, honestly."

"Dean." Castiel's voice had that serious tone, that don't-go-there sound to it. "Trust me when I say you are best off not knowing right now. It is your best protection. Just believe that someone is watching out for you, okay?"

"O-kay," Dean said slowly, "But I hate this being in the dark business! First Zachariah, and now you. I was hoping at least with you we'd get some answers!"

"I can tell you details about what has been going down in heaven lately, but not how I am protecting you and myself."

Dean's right hand left the steering wheel for a moment and did a backwards wave. "Okay. Good. Then give us the scoop on heaven, please. I need to know something so I can have a tactic plan. Now is this the stuff you were going to tell me before you got ass-reamed in heaven?"

"I'm not exactly sure what ass-reamed means, Dean," Castiel said, "And I am not sure I want to guess, either."

Sam turned around and looked at Castiel. "Something unpleasant, Cas – well, ur - I guess that depends on your point of view," Sam said with a smirk and the sound of choked laughter. "But coming from Dean, it's just a figure of speech. I think."

"You better shut up Sammy if you know what's good for you," Dean said. "Now cut the crap everybody. This is the apocalypse and I want to know what is happening."

"You started it, Dean, talking about ass-reaming…"

"Well, I'm sorry if I got you all tingly and excited right there over that, but it was really just a figure of speech and you're going to have to take your kinky daydreams out into the future after we get this score settled with Lucifer!"

Dean waited for Castiel to speak, but instead Sam was busting up laughing, and Dean couldn't help but get the giggles himself. "Oh God. Let's just laugh our way out of the apocalypse. Can we have Zachariah insert some dirty jokes into that Bible of his? It might liven things up. Huh, Cas?"

Dean noticed in the rear-view mirror that Castiel actually had a little smile on his face. Despite all the gloom-and-doom of the day, Dean found it was heartwarming to see Castiel getting a sense of humor. Maybe there was some hope for the world.