A/N: Thank you all so much for the follows and favorites! That definitely makes this worthwhile and prompts me to keep going. As always, only Trelaine and her storyline belong to me. I wish I could say that I own Supernatural, but, alas.
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Dean's sleeping body was thrashing about, probably having more nightmares from his recent experiences, so he awoke with a start, visions of blood and red and the echoes of screams still reverberating within the confines of his skull as he rubbed his eyes.
"Hello, Dean," Castiel's voice said from beside him, startling Dean to the point of making him jump. "What were you dreaming about?"
He had just woken up, so why the hell was Castiel sitting next to him, waiting for him to wake up? What could he possibly want this early in the morning?
"What, do you get your freak on by watching other people sleep?" he asked, sitting up and swinging his legs over the edge of the bed. "What do you want?"
"Listen to me." Castiel turned to face him. "You have to stop it."
"Stop what?"
Castiel placed two fingers onto Dean's forehead and he vanished. At that moment, Trelaine zapped into the room.
"No!" she shouted as she watched the area where Dean had just been. "You've already sent him, haven't you?"
Castiel turned to face her. "Was I not supposed to?"
"Dammit, Cas." Trelaine sighed, throwing her hands up in defeat. "I told you this wasn't necessary."
"You were told I would be doing this, Trelaine." He approached her gently. "It's done. Now Dean has to realize he can't, in fact, stop it."
"You don't know that he won't stop it, Cas."
Castiel placed a hand awkwardly onto her shoulder. "He has to be made aware of what we know. This is the only way."
"Really?" She folded her arms across her chest and raised her eyebrows. "Why couldn't you just have talked to him and explained things verbally instead of zapping him back to the past?"
Castiel's expression fell. Clearly he hadn't thought of that possibility. "I hadn't thought of it like that."
"It's too late now. Where is he?" Castiel poofed them both back to the street where he'd sent Dean. Trelaine looked across the street and into the windows of the diner. She could see Dean speaking with John and she shook her head. "Now they've met." She muttered shit under her breath and Castiel winced beside her.
"I'm sorry, Trelaine. You of all people know that I cannot communicate with humans as you can."
Her eyes shifted over to his, her expression reflecting puzzlement. "You can talk to people, Cas. You just choose not to. Trust me, it's easier to talk to people than to force them to live through something they'll never forget."
"Will he have a difficult time forgetting this?"
"When Mary Winchester is involved, Cas, it's not difficult to forget - it's impossible."
Castiel sighed. Trelaine could tell that he honestly hadn't known what he was doing in sending Dean back to this. She reached out, grabbing his forearm gently. "Let me take the lead in this."
Thinking about this for a moment, the angel nodded. He knew that it was better for her to lead Dean through something like this, something so emotional that he would never forget. With both of his parents involved, it was no matter the duty of an angel to protect him - it was the mandate of a savior.
Waiting for Dean to round the corner, Castiel stood behind her, ready to make them disappear. As soon as Dean turned, he practically face-planted right into Trelaine.
"Shit," he muttered, collecting himself at the sight of her. "What is this?"
Trelaine shrugged. "What does it look like?" she countered.
One of his eyebrows lifted. "Is it real?"
Trelaine nodded. "Very."
Dean was apparently okay with that. "Okay, so what? Angels got their hands on some Deloreans? How did I get here?"
"Time is fluid, Dean," Cas jumped in. "It's not easy, but we can bend it on occasion."
"Well, bend it back or tell me what the hell I'm doing here!"
"I told you - you have to stop it."
"Stop what? Huh? What, is there something nasty after my Dad?" A car horn sounded behind him, but when he turned back around, both Cas and Trelaine were gone. "Oh, come on!"
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"Cas, what the hell?" Trelaine exclaimed as they landed in the park. "You said you'd let me take the lead on this! Why did you have to intervene like that?"
"I'm sorry," Cas stated sincerely. "He seemed hostile."
"Hostile is practically his middle name." She ran her fingers back through her waves. "You can't keep doing this to me, Cas. I need to help him - dammit, you know why."
"I just don't think you need to be left alone to handle him all the time. Sometimes I would like to be a part of this, you know."
Trelaine frowned some, recalling the time Cas explained how he had been left out of many missions that the garrison had been assigned to - she really pitied him, which was part of the inspiration for asking for his assistance in retrieving Dean from Hell. She nodded. "I know you would, Cas, I know. I just think that until you observe them some more and get to know them better, it's probably best to leave this to someone who does know them and does know how to handle them, okay? Does that seem fair to you?"
Castiel nodded, his entire demeanor softening. Trelaine moved in, giving him a firm embrace. His hands hesitated to respond, but soon his arms were wrapped tightly around her, hugging her back and burying his face into her shoulder.
Trelaine knew that Castiel had possessed some kind of soft spot for her since the inception of their comraderie, but she hadn't been made aware of the depth of his feelings, if there were, indeed, feelings to be had. She really wasn't sure, and Cas was tight-lipped about the subject.
The rest of the day was spent following Dean around, watching him do this and that - convincing John to purchase the Impala, and everything leading up to Dean's discovery that Azazel had taken over Samuel's body.
"How long will this drag on, Trelaine?" Castiel asked as they waited in the shadows where John was proposing to Mary.
Trelaine's eyes turned to him, demanding an explanation. "How long will what drag on?" she repeated.
"You're hiding the truth from Dean. Why can't you just tell him what's going on?"
She paused, taking a deep breath. "Every time I want to explain things, you zap me somewhere else. I can't keep lying to him, Cas. I can't be shady about all of this forever." She approached him, her eyes boring into his, noticing how blank he seemed to be behind those icy blues. "You knew from the start what was happening. You knew why it had to be me to pull Dean from the depths." A pause came to her voice as her eyes averted his. "You know why I needed your help, why I still need you around."
"Do you need me around anymore? Now that he's here, you don't require protection from me."
"I want you around, Cas. I enjoy your company - you know that. Besides, you've said it yourself: the garrison doesn't want you. If I don't give you purpose, who will?"
"You give me purpose, Trelaine. I'm forever grateful for that." He reached over, about to take her hand when Dean showed up on the scene. His hand retracted as they approached him from behind, Cas placing two fingers onto his forehead and bringing him back to the present.
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Dean gasped deeply, bolting to an upright sitting position from his place on the bed. Trelaine was standing at the foot of the bed with Castiel offset and behind her a few paces.
Dean's eyes reflected the mindful distance he was experiencing, and Trelaine frowned at the sight. "I couldn't stop any of it," he stated, sounding beyond disappointed in himself. "She still made the deal. She still died in the nursery, didn't she?"
"Don't be too hard on yourself," Trelaine comforted gently.
"You couldn't have stopped it," Castiel said with a soft shrug.
Dean's face hardened as he stood from the bed, heading over to the angel. "What?" he asked, a rough tone coating his voice.
"Destiny can't be changed, Dean. All roads lead to the same destination."
"Then why'd you send me back?"
"For the truth," Trelaine explained, forcing Dean to make eye contact with her. "Now you know everything we do."
"What the hell are you talking about?" Trelaine nodded in the direction of Sam's bed, which was unmade, and Dean noticed, turning to give her a look of confusion. "Where's Sam?"
"We know what Azazel did to your brother. What we don't know is why - what his endgame is. He went to great lengths to cover that up."
Dean licked his lips, repeating himself. "Where's Sam?"
"425 Waterman."
He turned on his heels to grab his jacket and the keys to the Impala.
"Your brother is headed down a dangerous road, Dean," Castiel warned, "and we're not sure where it leads. So stop it...or we will."
