THE COUNTRY SIDE INN - MORNING

Seven in the morning. Castiel stared out the window of the motel room, watching snow flurries blanket the highway with powder. Only the scrape of a snowplow cut through the relative silence. Dean had been foggy for a few minutes and was basically half-asleep, sitting the foot of his bed, trying to kick his boots off with as little effort as possible.

"Think he actually wants to?" Dean mumbled.

Castiel turned from the window. "Dean?"

Dean took in a deep breath through his nose and got a yawn out of his system. "The puppet," he said. "Guy didn't ask. I mean, anything's better than bein' a puppet, right? But the guy never asked. No one did."

Castiel walked over to Dean. "You mean, do I think Pinocchio wanted to be human?"

"Yeah."

"No," Castiel said. "That wasn't his wish."

Dean scoffed as best he could, considering he was practically asleep now. "So he doesn't get a wish? That bites."

"No, he does get his wish," Castiel said. "They both do. They're just not the same wish."

"Yeah?" Dean's boots were finally off, so he laid back and smiled a crooked, slack smile. "Good on him. It would kinda screw the ending if he went through all that BS for just more S."

"I agree," Castiel said. "I think I'd like a new movie. Maybe something with elephants. Lately, I find I'm very interested in larger species."

"Not Dumbo," Dean said. "Sam'll holy oil the crap outta you if you bring home a circus movie. Oh, dude, Jungle Book. Baloo is badass. There's no chicks, though. And the part with the barbershop quartet, that's a mind-screw." Dean stared up at the ceiling. "I still don't get it."

"Four barbers in the jungle?" Castiel asked. "Don't tell Sam, but I think I might already have a theory."

"Not that, I meant the other thing. The Pinocchio thing. What he got out of the whole 'real boy' megillah."

"That baffled me, too," Castiel said. He sat on the edge of the bed, hands in his lap, and turned his gaze to the window. "At first, I was confused by his miraculous nature. I wondered what might compel a creature lacking - one can assume - an endocrine system. As a wooden object, he came from trees, but wasn't loyal to them, as he demonstrated by burning wood in his escape from the whale. Then I thought it might've been the angel giving him his objective, as his sentience was a gift from God. But then I noted his frequent disregard for orders, so I was back to square one. There was only one conclusion left to draw. His imperatives appear to have formed, not by his biology or any spiritual alignment, but by a single event. While life-affirming, it is extremely curious."

At this point, Castiel noticed Dean was asleep. He had been since "endocrine system." Both Winchesters seemed to be done for the day, so Castiel went back to the window, watching the storm become a blizzard.