Castiel had finally fallen asleep, and now Bobby was going to get his answers, "What the hell happened to him?"
Dean patently explained the events of the night before; how Balthazar had shown up with Castiel, begged for the brothers to take him, then Dean managing to get a week of play time. Through the entire tale, Sam just sat there, clearly pissed off, and glared evilly at his brother, "Dean hasn't put him down since he got him last night," that damn snitch.
Bobby just rolled his eyes, "okay boys, I'll go clear out the spare room. We'll use it as a temporary nursery. Come on, Dean." Dean just sat on the couch, not moving, with Cas in his arms, "Boy, you gotta put him down eventually. When was the last time you ate something?"
Dean looked down and mumbled, "Lunch..."
At first Bobby thought it wasn't that bad. It was only shortly past dinner time. So if Dean was eating late, it was unusual, but not unheard of. Then Sam had to go shatter any illusions Bobby had of everything being okay by saying, "He means lunch time yesterday."
Bobby stood in the middle of the room for a moment, speechless. If Dean missing a meal was unheard of, then Dean missing four meals was just impossible. Before Dean could deny hunger, his stomach growled, betraying him. Dean sighed, "Okay, maybe I am a little hungry," Bobby raised his eyebrows, "or maybe I'm really hungry. The point is, I'm not putting Cas down where that thing-" he jerked his hand towards his brothers impersonator, "-can get him."
"Dean, what do you think I am going to do, stick him on the oven?" Sam's tone was sarcastic, but the look on his face made it seem like that was a very tempting idea. Dean's eyes flashed and he glared at Bobby, screaming a silent I told you so. Bobby saw that he had two options: humor Dean's insanity, or force the kid to take a break. He chose the later.
It had taken over an hour to convince Dean that Castiel would be just as safe in Bobby's arms as he would be in Dean's. After threatening his surrogate father with acts of unspeakable torture, Dean had went into the kitchen to shove as much food down his throat that he could physically manage. Then he had returned to the living to beg for his angel back, but Bobby wouldn't budge. He had commanded Dean to take a shower and get some sleep. Dean tried to protest, but was thwarted with assurances that Cas would be taken care of, and that Bobby would wake him if the angel got even the smallest bit upset.
Of course that it was during those precious moments of rest that Dean stole that something happened. And something was another angel, this one fully grown. Balthazar had magically appeared in Bobby's sitting room, with nothing but a faint flutter of wings to announce his arrival. Sam took one look at him, then just rolled his eyes. Bobby, on the other hand, visibly jumped, startling Castiel. Cas let out a quiet little wail that an ordinary human being wouldn't hear while they were sleeping. But of course, Dean heard it. When Dean's footsteps were heard upstairs moving at record speed, Bobby gave the uninvited angel a death look.
"I thought you said you'd wake me if he got fussy!"
Any other complaint the older Winchester had was wiped clean from his mind when he saw Balthazar standing in the middle of the room, "Hello boys! I see you talked your brother over here into keeping Cassy," He smiled at Dean.
Dean just ignored the angel and strode across the room to retrieve Castiel from Bobby. At the sight of his friend, Cas let out a high pitched squeal of baby laughter. Dean grabbed the flailing mass of angel and sat down on Bobby's couch, poking and tickling and smiling at Cas while waiting for Balthazar to just get on with it. As far as the brothers knew, Balthazar and Castiel were the only angels in the history of the universe who had emotions, and the current emotion on Balthazar's face was joy. He loved the spotlight, and was a too glad to keep Dean waiting. Dean of course, was not about to give the angel the satisfaction of getting a reaction out of him.
So instead of asking the flamboyant angel why he'd come, Dean just continued playing with Cas. Balthazar stood still, waiting for acknowledgement he would never receive if Dean had anything to say about it. After five minutes, neither of them showed any signs of giving in. Dean was still sitting on the couch with Castiel, and Balthazar stood in the corner, trying his best to be stoic.
Ten minutes into the angel's surprise visit, and one of Bobby's phones rang. Bobby left the almost silent room to answer it.
Three minutes later, Bobby re-enters the room with news of a hunt. A friend of his in North Dakota had found a Vampire nest. It was a pretty decent sized one, too big for one hunter to handle, but not too large for a small group to take care of. Bobby said that he was going, and offered for the boys to come with him. Sam jumped at the opportunity to escape from his mama-bear of a brother, telling Dean that Cas wouldn't be safe and that he should stay put. Dean quickly agreed.
An hour after that, Sam and Bobby had managed to move all of the baby supplies from the Impala into Cas' new room with Dean's supervision; Balthazar followed him around like a silent shadow.
Four minutes later, Sam and Bobby left.
Then, Dean finally lost his patience. He turned to the now fidgeting Balthazar, "Okay, what?"
Balthazar smiled, "I tracked down Raphael."
"And?"
"He told me exactly what he did to Cassy," Dean hated that nickname.
"Are you going to tell me or just stand there, gloating?" Dean hated how long Balthazar was attempting to drag this out.
"Well, he said that he simply reversed the clock on him." At Dean's confused look, he continued. "that means that Cas was tuned into an infant, and lost his memories. Now, it's not some spell or incantation that we can reverse, so we just have to wait until he grows out of it."
Dean was so not enjoying this, "What do you mean, 'grows out of it?'"
Balthazar looked like he wanted to hit Den for being so stupid. But instead, he settled for rolling his eyes and trying to dumb it down for the older Winchester. "Okay, listen. He's a baby. He needs to grow up- again- and return to full strength. Now I'm guessing that since he's living on Earth, Castiel will grow up in human years instead of angelic years. So it will happen considerably faster than the first time around."
Dean tried to sort through the psychotic angel's speech. One thing seemed to stand out, "What do you mean, angel years and human years?"
Balthazar just sighed. "Well, in heaven, Earth time passes really quickly. For example, I don't even know how old I am according to your calender, but in angel years, I'm about-"
"How old is Cas?"
"In human years? A few millennia. In angel years, he's only fifteen."
And that was when Dean really lost it, "Fifteen? Fifteen! What the hell do you mean, he's only FIFTEEN? You let a god-damn TEENAGER command your army?"
For a moment, Balthazar was a little shocked that this human would dare to yell at him. He thought Dean was finished, but realized he was mistaken when Dean shoved Castiel into his super stroller and buckled him in. Cas just stared back and forth between his brother and friend, like he was watching a game of table tennis. Balthazar stood in the middle of the room, watching as Dean stormed around it like a wild animal
"What is wrong with you people? How could you- how could ANYONE let a LITTLE KID GO TO WAR? WHATS WRONG WITH YOU? WHAT IF HE HAD GOTTEN HURT? DON'T YOU GIVE A DAMN-"
Dean had just crossed the line. "Yes I give a damn! He's my little brother for Christ's sake. How dare you? You are just an insignificant little worm, on a planet filled with billions just like you, and you dare tell me, an all-mighty angel of the lord, that I was using poor judgement. You better watch your mouth Dean Winchester, because I DO have the power to drag your insignificant ass to hell. And this time, Castiel isn't able to protect you."
Dean stood, frozen, a foot away from Balthazar's face, his mouth gaping open. He couldn't believe that the angel who always liked to seem in perfect control of every situation had just blown up like that. People expected that type of blind rage from Dean, but never from an angel. It looked like Balthazar really did love his brother.
The two of them stood like that for who knows how long. Eye to eye, trying their best to force as much hatred and loathing into one look as they could. Eventually, Castiel realized that no one was holding him. He whined, and both men snapped their heads towards him and tried to go to his rescue. Dean beat the angel to Cas, of course, but not for Balthazar's lack of trying. Maybe Balthazar and Dean were more alike than either of them thought.
