Chapter 2

AN: I do not own Supernatural, obviously or any of these characters

Thanks everyone who read and the people who contacted me personally I hope you like this chapter

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Cas

Dean? Dean was here? How? Questions filled Castiels head. Sam. It must be involved with Sam. Loud conversation filled the corridor, and Cas smiled to himself. He had found Dean. Dean came into his room, panting heavily, green eyes flashing in anger.

"Hello, Dean".

Cas then promptly passed out from exhaustion.

Dean

Cas? Is he here? As Dean raced down the corridors of Intensive Care he ran into… Meg?

"Hiya shortstop." Meg smirked as she waltzed past.

Deans thoughts were racing at a million miles per hour, when he finally managed "But you're… dead."

Meg rolled her eyes. "You know, you're the second person to tell me that today."

"Is Cas in there?"

Meg's expression grew serious. "Dean…"

"What now?" Dean growled. "What did that short little curly-haired fuck do to him?"

"Cas… he fell".

No. Dean stormed past the bitch demon and into the room. Before him lay Cas, his blue eyes faded, the dark bags under his eyes as black as night. Cas looked like Dean felt, he was underfed, beaten, broken.

"Hello Dean."

Dean saw it coming when Cas passed out. After the nurses finished their testing Dean moved to the chair beside his bed. The ex-angel had a small smile on his face, like he had stayed awake this long just to see Dean. With a start, Dean probably realised this was true.

"I'm sorry buddy. I thought you were just ignoring me… I know you couldn't.. hear me."

Deans voice broke on the last two words, as it sunk in just how grave this situation was. Cas was human, and had fallen from Heaven as a human- he had the X-rays to prove it. The nurse had told Dean that Cas had stress fractures all down his spine, a ligament torn in his hand, terrible bruising all over his body, severe malnutrition and dehydration and to top it off, all his ribs were broken. Dean was horrified. All this, over one angel thinking he could do better? Dean didn't really know the full story, but he got the gist of it.

Almost on cue, Cas woke up panting. Sweat poured down his face as he sat up to quickly and yanked the needles out of his arm.

"…Ouch."

"Cas? What's wrong buddy?" Dean felt distressed when he saw the expression on his face. It was sheer terror, mixed with sadness and defeat as Cas took in his surroundings. Dean's heart broke as the terror disappeared from his face, and was replaced by his tears.

"Dean…" Cas's voice broke. "I'm not an angel anymore."

"I know man. I know."

Cas

All Cas saw in his dreams (his first drug-induced dream) was the burning orange lights that fell all over the earth, and he could hear the creaming and the sobbing of the angels when they landed. The dream changed, and he was back in that chair, with Metatron, but this was different. This appeared to be the present moment. Metatron was at Naomi's office desk, twisting a vial full of some poor angel's leftover grace. With a jolt, Cas realized it was his own. Maybe… his time as an angel wasn't yet over. Metatron looked at Cas and grinned, as he threw the vial to the ground and it smashed, but instead of coming back to Cas, it was absorbed into Metatron.

"No!" Cas cried out, as he fell, and just kept falling for days and days, seeing nothing but black and Metatrons evil grin, which is when he woke up, finding himself sitting up with tremendous pain in his ribs, back and hand.

"Cas? What's wrong buddy?"

Cas looked over and saw Dean, with his concerned green eyes reflecting Cas's face, which alarmed him. He looked terrible. Cas went to stretch his wings and get away from this stupidly clean room when he realized, with a terrible twinge in his (now functioning) gut, his wings were gone. He could feel were they were supposed to be, and immediately his eyes filled with tears.

He had to tell Dean, had to warn Dean he was no longer an angel. But he knew. Of course he knew. Meg.

Dean broke his thoughts. "So uh…. How you feelin' big guy?" Cas didn't quite know how to respond to this. He felt like crap.

"I feel like crap, Dean."

A chuckle brought him out of his pain-filled thoughts. Dean's laugh was probably the best thing Cas had seen/heard since becoming human.

"I don't understand."

"Oh, just you. I'm guessing you said exactly what you thought, right?"

Cas frowned. What, was he supposed to lie?

"Did you want me to lie?"

"No, I guess not. It's just nice to have you… still seem like you."

"Even though I have no powers, no wings and I am completely useless?"

Deans nostrils flared, Cas observed with interest. Angry? Hungry? Cas wasn't sure.

"Are you fucking kidding me Cas? You are family. You aren't useless. Not to me, not to… Sam… Not to anyone."

Ah, anger.

"How is Sam..?" Cas was almost afraid to ask.

Dean sighed and ran his hand through his hair. Dean needed to shave, Cas thought. Maybe have a shower. Speaking of showers, Cas was probably going to have to have one every day. He inwardly groaned as Dean started speaking.

"He's fine. Lacerations on his internal organs that needed surgery, but he'll be fine. Heck, he's died I don't know how many times already."

"That's… good."

"Yeah."

Cas was still thinking about showers when Dean spoke again.

"If all the angels are human again… what does that mean for Michael and Lucifer?"

Lucifer. Cas didn't have many fond memories of that particular older brother who haunted his mind during his time in the other sick-people place. Doubt filled his mind. Metatron hadn't actually mentioned Lucifer, but Cas wasn't sure if that meant Lucifer was involved or not. Metatron seemed far too organised for an angel that had been out of the loop for hundreds of years.

Dean, again, snapped Cas out of his thoughts. "Cas? Yo Cas, you with me?"

"Yes Dean, I am with you."

"Great. So I just got a call from Kevin Tran. A massive hole opened up in Stull Cemetery Kansas-"

"The battleground of Michael and Lucifer?"

"…yeah. Anyway, witnesses reported a man who sounds very much like Adam who just walked out. According to one particularly distressed pregnant woman, he had a 'golden glow'.

"Michael. He's free. You'd better hide Sam, Lucifer's out again." Cas grinned at his own angelic, unfunny wit.

Dean snorted. "Real funny Cas, real funny."