Dean POV
They had parked the car away from the house and Dean felt a bit better once Baby came into view. He'd had her stolen too many times, even if only temporarily. Sam had repeatedly told him to just install a security system but that would be like setting up a casino in the Sistine Chapel. You didn't mess with perfection.
"Oh wow. I remember this! When you came to the Rez! It was your dad's car, right?"
Dean felt pride that Baby had left a lasting impression. "Yeah. She's been through a lot and been rebuilt more times than I can count, but it's the same car."
Gwen nodded with approval. "Very cool." Her brow furrowed. "Castiel doesn't zap you around?"
Dean shuddered. "He has and I don't like it."
"Dean has a sensitive digestive system and has trouble being regular after I teleport him." Castiel said, opening the back driver's side door for Gwen.
Both Gwen and Sam snorted as Dean stopped short and yelled. "CASS! What did I tell you about telling people about bodily functions? Come on man!"
Gwen at least made the effort of covering her mouth with her hand as the angel shrugged. "You refuse to take the medication they advertise on the television because it could cause erectile disfunction. You are creating your own problem and you need to be aware of that."
Sam was flat out giggling like a child as he got into the front passenger seat. "Yeah Dean. The first step is being aware there's a problem."
Dean only growled, throwing himself into the driver's seat and turning on the car, it's engine loud but just short of being illegal. He barely waited for the doors to be shut before he threw the car into reverse. "Just for that Sammy, dinner is on you. Hey Gwen, you like lobster?"
Dean sat down on one of the hotel beds and took a deep breath as Cass took his own seat on the bed opposite. The motel wasn't the greatest, they usually weren't and he could hear both the shower in Gwen's room next door and their own with Sam having won the rock paper scissors on the first shower. Bitch. Just for that he was going to get enough food to put himself into a coma for three weeks. That's what he got.
"Cass, we gotta talk." Before any vengeance could be wrought, he needed to have a chat with their resident angel who still didn't quite understand when to keep his mouth shut about certain things as his declaration about Dean's bowels had shown.
"I understand you being upset about not knowing about Gwen." The angel began but stopped when Dean held up his hand.
"No, it's not that. I'll get right to it. Cass, the only reason the Darkness escaped and why her people and her mother died was because of me. Because of the Mark and what was done to remove it. We were warned more than once and it happened anyway. It's my fault."
"Dean, no. There was no way you could have known what the Mark would do, no matter what Cain said. It managed to corrupt an archangel and you fought against it longer than most would. You told us to stop trying to cure you and we didn't listen. The Darkness being released is as much my fault or Sam's or Rowena's or Crowley's. You cannot blame yourself."
Dean sighed, weaving his fingers together and looking at the shag carpet under his feet. "Cass you should know me by now, blaming myself is what I do. I practically wrote the book on it."
"And you shouldn't. There's a reason you were and still are the Righteous Man. I wish you could see it and have faith in yourself and what you do."
Dean looked up and felt immense affection for the angel, one of the very few that was, as the woman next door put it, worth his wings. After everything Dean had put him through and he was still his strongest defender next to Sammy. "Well, you have faith in me, that's something."
Castiel nodded.
"Anyways, I think we need to just not tell Gwen about that stuff just yet. About how the Darkness was released and her...connection to me." He paused, thinking of the pull the ancient being had had on him. "She wouldn't understand. Not yet." He didn't know just how long Gwen would be around and he didn't want to taint that time or make things awkward by giving her every detail about what had happened in the previous year.
"I won't lie to her, Dean."
"I'm not asking you to lie to her, Cass. Just don't volunteer information about the whole thing. It's better if she doesn't know just yet."
The angel let a breath out of his nose, obviously not liking the idea. "Alright. I understand. I agree that she would not react well to the information. Not many would."
Dean nodded. "Exactly my point."
Sam POV
"Hey Gwen. Mind if I join you?" Sam had gotten out of the motel bathroom to give Dean a chance at the shower when he noticed the Lakota woman walking out into the field behind it with her head down. He couldn't blame her for being thrown by the whole thing with Amara. He would have felt the same if Dean had ended up going through with his mission or if somehow Azazel was just let go for what he'd done. He was curious to learn more about her without Dean adding his constant commentary. Castiel was making himself useful by warding and securing both rooms just in case the dead warlocks had friends.
"Oh hi Sam." She looked up at him with pained eyes. "Please, sit."
He sat down in the grass, finding it soothing to just sit there. "Beer?" He held up one of the two he'd grabbed before heading out into the field.
"What? Oh, I don't drink. Thanks though."
"After everything you've been through and you don't drink?"
She chuckled. "It doesn't help in the long run. Plus, my people haven't exactly had the best of luck when it comes to the fire water, you know?"
"Can you try telling Dean that? Guy is practically a walking distillery."
"It's how he deals. I vaguely remember your dad drinking."
Sam nodded, putting both bottles down on the ground. "Yeah. Depended on how the case went as to how much. Bobby was a bit better at controlling it."
"Bobby was a stubborn old coot. A wise one too. I miss talking to him." She sighed. "You boys were with him when it happened?"
Sam nodded, remembering the panic of the rush to the hospital, thinking how it just wasn't right that Bobby would be taken down by a bullet of all things. The joy of him waking up and that final "idgit" and then he was just gone. Of course that hadn't been the last of him and Sam had been glad to have that brief conversation with him from his version of Heaven. "Yeah we were. He came back as a spirit, because he was that stubborn but he's in heaven now. Cass checks in on him from time to time. He's at peace now, finally."
She smiled a little. "That's good. He saved so many lives in his years as a hunter. He deserves heaven."
He swallowed, his heart always aching at the loss of the man who'd all but helped raise them. Had been more of a father than his real father it felt like sometimes. "Yeah. He was the best, he really was."
They sat quietly for long minutes, listening to both the crickets and the sound of the cars passing on the roadway before he spoke again. "I'm going to admit, it's weird, to see Cass so...affectionate with someone else. He tends to be a bit awkward, I mean, with people other than me or Dean. And even then, it's a bit robotic."
She smiled, pulling up her legs and wrapping her arms around them and resting her head on her knees. Her black hair was loose and disappeared into the grass it was so long. As long as his hair was, he couldn't imagine having that much. "Really? I don't see that. You guys have a nickname for him and he's pretty much known for being your protector."
"Our protector?"
She smiled bigger. "As much shit as you guys have been through, you don't even know how much you've been protected from because of Castiel. That's how Bria knew that what the other angels were saying about him wasn't true. Any angel who fights that hard for two humans so determined to get themselves killed, is a good angel, worthy of grace. That's what she said. She had a great amount of respect for him. So did Ruth and Jeremiah. I think he inspired them."
"He's a really good guy, for an angel. We've managed to meet a few that didn't try to kill us or well made up for trying to kill us like Bathazar and Gabriel."
She smirked. "The Trickster? Yeah, he tried to hide who he was but I saw right through it when he showed up at the Rez a couple years ago. He was trying to pose as our version of the trickster, known as Coyote."
"Yeah. We had a few run ins with him but when it came down to it, he stood up, helped give us what we needed to stop everything. The apocalypse I mean." His mind flashed with running out of that motel with the goddess Kali, of the light that lit up the rearview as they peeled out of the parking lot, telling them what had happened.
"I've encountered that myself over the years. Just when you think you can't trust or rely on someone, they surprise you at the zero hour." She paused. "Speaking of, I've heard quite a bit about you boys from Crowley."
Sam stiffened. "Wait, you know Crowley?" How much smaller was their world going to get?
She nodded. "Yeah. I know he's a bit of a pompous ass but he's a decent sort, depending on the day. When he was struggling to detox from his addiction to human blood so he could keep his control of Hell, he went looking for my grandmother's magic to help him. I guess her legend as a healer was even known in hell. She'd already passed though. My mom and I managed to help him a bit, after we saved his sorry ass from a good sized group of demons sent by Abaddon to kill him. The Rez is completely off limits to any demons thanks to him with very special warding he created. But don't tell anyone, it'd ruin his already tattered reputation."
Sam shook his head. Wonders never ceased. Crowley actually going out of his way to protect humans who had gone out of their way to protect him and not double crossing them? "Do I even want to know what kind of things he said about me and Dean?"
"Nothing that horrible, honestly. I think he admires you both, not that he'd ever admit it. Kept referring to you as Moose and it wasn't until I saw you today that I realized why." She laughed a little. "I think he enjoys the actual challenge you present him. The way you fight for people you never knew and would never see again and how you dish his bullshit right back to him. In the end, I think he's just lonely, really. The demons in hell are just a bunch of mindless drones or just vicious animals it seems like. He made a point of calling to have me reinforce the wards around the Rez last summer. Something about a knight of hell he was tagging around with. That it'd be better if he didn't come our way."
"Oh." Sam tried not to think about the summer that Dean had been a demon and besties with the King of Hell, to quote the demon. Or the fact that he knew Crowley was lonely because of the way he was still angry about Rowena abandoning him 300 years ago. Now to try and explain how Crowley had been warning her because of Dean. This was a bit awkward. "That was Dean actually."
"What? White boy, you be trippin'."
Sam laughed, realizing Gwen had a better sense of humor than most hunters he'd ever met. "I'm serious. To destroy Abaddon, he took on the Mark of Cain. She could only be killed with the First Blade which doesn't count for shit without the Mark. He killed her and nearly killed Metatron but then Metatron killed him. And because of the Mark, he became a demon. He's much better now."
After staring at him in shock for a long minute, she snorted. "Wow. And I thought my life was exciting."
He leaned back, resting on his elbows. He decided not to mention that it was removing the Mark that led to Amara being released. She probably wouldn't react well to that. He had a feeling Dean and Cass would agree. "You had an actual guardian angel and you are bonded with one now. That's not boring." He looked up into the twilight sky. "Seriously though, I think Dean's a little jealous. Cass has always kind of been our angel, you know?"
Gwen nodded. "Understandable. They don't have a thing, do they?"
Sam fought back the urge to sigh. If it wasn't people thinking Dean and Cass were a couple, they were mistaking the two brothers as a couple. "No, no. Cass is like another brother to us. I mean, he's a Winchester in my eyes and I know Dean has told him more than once that he's family. He's had a couple...lady friends I guess you could call them." Cass had had just about the same luck as he and Dean had. A sort of reformed demon who sacrificed herself for him and then a reaper who tortured and tried to kill him. Definitely a Winchester.
"Good. I'm glad. Not that the other thing would have been horrible or anything. Castiel needs a good family. His is fucked up."
"Amen to that, pun intended." He grinned. "So what was it like having Cass as a guardian angel?"
She shrugged. "I didn't really think of him like an angel when I was a kid. It was more like having a secret dad that the other kids couldn't see. The closest I had to a dad anyway. My dad died when I was a toddler. A werewolf got him. I don't even remember him. But Castiel was always there for me, either teaching me or just listening. Sometimes in explaining things to him, I figured them out for myself. He was always patient with me and comforted me."
"Cass as a dad. Huh." Somehow, he liked the idea. Cass had always been much more protective of humanity than other angels, maybe that was part of it. "I guess that makes sense since he knew you from I'm guessing babyhood. Is that what he meant by before you were you? Is that why you call him old man?"
"You do realize he's essentially billions of years old, right? He was there when we were crawling out of the oceans. He was there for the Tower of Babylon and all that. Old man fits." She shook her head. "The way I understand it, people like me, our souls are guided by an angel to our destined families or mothers or whatever. He knew me when I was just a little tiny cloud of light." She looked away. "At least that's how my mother's soul looked when..."
Sam took a chance and reached out, putting his hand on her arm like Cass had done back at the house. "Don't focus on why you saw her soul, but maybe on the chance of seeing what she truly was deep down."
She turned her head and looked at him with a sad but bemused look. "Are you going to quote Yoda to me, Sam Winchester?"
"Luminous beings are we, not this crude matter." He did in his best Yoda voice, which wasn't very good.
She laughed right outloud and he couldn't help but grin. "That was awful."
"Yeah I know. It's in the effort. And it's true though. What we are, deep down is more than just this. That's something that...I think that's what bugs a lot of angels. Like Lucifer. He was so jealous of us, like we were taking Chuck, his dad, away from him. He was so angry, so offended by the very idea of it."
She nodded, her eyes becoming serious. "I can't imagine what you went through, dealing with him."
Sam shrugged. "I kind of understand him in a way I guess. Don't get me wrong, he's evil but I think a lot of that had to do with his issues with Chuck, you know, god. He tried to help in the big fight against Amara. Cass is convinced he wasn't destroyed, that he's out there somewhere. He volunteered his vessel so I wouldn't have to. So I wouldn't be exposed to that again."
"That sounds like him." She took a deep breath. "Want to go back inside? See what kind of awful food we can order and pig out on? Maybe I can dissuade Dean from going for the lobster."
"Sounds good to me." He stood up and reached down to help her stand, grabbing the two unopened beers with his other hand as she led the way back through the field. "So being bonded with an angel, did that change basic stuff like eating? Cass was human for a time and now he can't taste food like he did."
She shook her head. "No, not really. I mean, I tend to need to eat more when I tap into the Bria part of me but I don't think it changed me much. I don't really know, it's not exactly something that happens on a regular basis. I have a feeling I'll live much longer and with better health than most. That is unless I get ganked or something."
"At least you have an express ticket to heaven. Maybe you'd get to be an angel."
She smirked, hopping the ditch between the motel and the field. "I heard they are hiring. Had a bit of a downsizing when the economy in heaven tanked."
He laughed and simply stepped over the ditch, one of the perks of being tall. "Downsizing, that's an interesting way to put it."
