Chapter 4: Improbability

When Dean woke, he first became aware of something hard pressing, hurting and shaping his ear into an unnatural shape. At further inspection, he found that it was the wide branch that Benny had used for one of the sides of the stretcher. He was half lying on it, but somehow not on Cas. Castiel was nowhere to be felt or seen in his field of vision! Groaning, he unstuck his blood matted sticky side of his head from the wooden stretcher and almost puked. Whether it was because of a possible concussion or the stench of the sea of burnt out bodies of monsters was hard to tell. Dean sat up gingerly, touching the site of his injury. His hand came back matted with blood, but it wasn't much and it didn't seem very viscous, so he declared himself fit to investigate further.

"Ye'lright mate?" Benny's uneasy voice came, sounding far away, but when he turned towards it, Dean found that the vampire was kneeling only a few feet away, leaning over the ashen form of Castiel, if only concealed from sight partially by the monsters lying lifeless on the ground.

"How did you slay them all?" Dean questioned, muddled. His senses were only slowly coming back to full function.

"I didn't," Benny intoned weightily, "your angel however.."

"Cas did this?" Dean looked around, just to reassure himself it was all true. It made sense given how the bodies looked, but how could Castiel have had the strength?

"You need to come here." Benny stated in a grave tone.

"What happened! What did he do!" Dean scrambled to his feet breathlessly, sheer will keeping him from disregarding the throbbing in his head that intensified at his rising. He dropped to his knees next to the other two before the pounding brought him down all the same.

"He yanked the Leviathan out the way that almost had you, ganked another, then starting shining like the sun. When it was over these were all dead," Benny explained, but Dean wasn't listening. Apart from the absence of burned wings on the ground, Castiel wasn't giving any indication that he was alive. Dean agitatedly searched his angel's blood stained face, felt for a pulse, leaned in to listen to his breathing.

"I can hear it sometimes, there is a heartbeat," the vampire assured him.

"I can't feel it," Dean agonized, continuing to check for a thrumming sensation on Cas' throat as well as his wrist.

"It's there," Benny held out an arm to steady Dean's. "That's not the trouble. It's there at the moment, a vampire can hear it, but it's getting less frequent and less strong. Of course I don't know how much an angel's heart needs to beat," he frowned apologetically, "but I think his body finds it harder and harder to make it work, Dean, I'm sorry. That was the last of his strength he's used up. It won't be long now, he said he doesn't feel the pain anymore."

"We need to go, now!" Dean shouted, "bring the stretcher, quick!"

Benny shook his head, "he's been calling for you before you woke up. He's been calling for you a lot."

"It doesn't matter right now," Dean took to try to gather Castiel's frail upper body in his arms, not minding the dark spots in front of his own eyes at the effort,"are you helping me or not?"

"Look, man," Benny physically held out a strong hand to stop him, "I'm not an aficionado of the angel, but it seemed like his dying wish for you to hold him as he went so against all better judgement of not staying loco, I suggest you stay with him. Not that you could even carry that weight with that concussion of yours and the amount of bloodloss."

Dean looked from one to the other, hesitant for a moment. Castiel was deathly still, cold, ashen and comatose. Benny was as sympathetic as the hunter would've never thought he would see the vampire be, gently taking hold of Castiel's hand and placing it into Dean's. "He was trying to grab for you," Benny explained.

The hunter took a deep breath, overwhelmed by emotions. Realistically, his bloodsucker friend was probably right, it was impossible for him to as much as walk at the moment, let alone carry another person. But he wasn't leaving without his angel. "Then you can carry him!" He came up with the solution.

Benny grunted, exasperated. Of course Dean's stubbornness didn't know boundaries. "And who will help you stand on your feet, brother, hm?"

"Take him, I don't need help," the human's voice took on a pleading tone.

"Very well," Benny knit his brow and reached careful hands under the angel, searching for a firm grip. But as soon as he shifted the legs to hook a strong arm under Castiel's knees, the ailing supernatural went rigid, muscles tense and unwilling to uncurl.

"Deean.." The word on Castiel's lips sounded like a whimper and a shudder went through Castiel as he coughed, blood flowing out of his mouth every time he opened it. "Dean.." He tried again, desperate.

"I'm here Cas," the hunter took Castiel's hand into his own gently, minding not to trigger any sudden movements. "Not too long now Cas, hang on."

Blue eyes opened slowly, taking their time to blink away sweat and grime, but Castiel squeezed Dean's fingers back ever so slightly, "Dean. I'd want you to know.." The angel sighed painfully, fighting for enough breath to get the words out, "that I never regret falling fo.." He wheezed, looking like he needed the oxygen that didn't even exist per se in purgatory.

"Easy, easy, Cas!" Dean held onto his friend's hand helplessly as he watched him cough wheezingly, the movement the coughing caused in his body making Castiel's eyes glaze over with agony. "Don't talk, please! We'll carry you and you'll probably pass out. It will all be ok, Cas, you'll see. Let's do this."

Castiel's other hand shot out, away from being curled up against his stomach and grabbed Dean by the lapel of his jacket, "no. No," he squirmed desperately, "hurts."

"I am not leaving here without you Cas," Dean maintained resolutely, "so suffer it, I don't care, we're getting you out of here," he nodded at Benny to encourage him to follow through with what they've talked about. Castiel gave a small gasp at the vampire's contact, but did not, could not show any more resistance. He was too weak. His hand fell limply from holding onto Dean, eyes closing with the hiss of air that left his lungs.

"Is he still..?" Dean clambered to his feet, swaying, but with his focus never shifting from his ailing friend.

"He's back to unconscious, nonetheless alive," Benny assured him, "I suggest we'd better make time till new Leviathan catch up with us," he adjusted his hold on Castiel as if the angel was featherlight, "get my blade. You can put a hand on my shoulder as we walk if we need support."

"Just so you can feel like Superman?" Dean grumbled, refusing the help and using both of their blades as more or less walking sticks to keep himself upright.

Tbc