AN: Wow, I'm terrible at updating. Here's the new chapter. Hope y'all don't hate me too much.


Sunday 8th of September

Mass had ended. Castiel and his family had stepped out of the church and into the turning Autumn air. Every Sunday, a few members of his family went to church and every Sunday his dad wasn't able to attend anymore because of work. So Micheal, being the eldest, took those who were willing go, and that was usually at least ten people. They would now have to walk back, so Cas took this opportunity to remember something that he kept in the pocket of his hoodie.

"I almost forgot," he said as he handed it to Balthazar. It was a letter in an envelope addressed to his brother. "It's a birthday card from cousin Naomi."

Balthazar took the card, which was a day late, and began to open it. Inside was a simple Walmart card which read 'happy 16th!' across the front. Pretty typical of their cousins to forget that Balthazar was seventeen this year.

"Oh look," he said as he opened the card to find something else in it. "A coupon for 'Jan and Betty's Beauty Salon'. It's nice to know they still have a sense of humor."

The card read:

To Balthazar

゚・*+ ゚・:*

h - a - p - p - y

b - i - r - t - h - d - a - y !

*:・゚ +*・゚

From: Aunt Hannah, Naomi, Metatron, Bartholomew, Ezekiel, + Daniel

Each of the names were in their own handwriting and Daniel, who was four, drew a picture of a tractor underneath his name. Cas could probably expect the same on his own birthday considering his little cousin was in love with tractors.

"What did you get from them last year?" asked Balthazar.

"Twenty-five cents." Cas replied. "In pennies." Still, at least it wasn't the worst birthday present any of his siblings got. On his tenth birthday, Uriel received an empty packet of chips. Last year, Hester got a business card for an unreliable travel agency. Castiel always wondered if these gifts had some sort of hidden meaning behind them, but concluded that their aunt just didn't care about her sister's children enough to get them proper gifts.

"They're certainly getting creative though." Balthazar commented. Cas had given him a small alarm clock for his birthday, which wasn't too bad considering he didn't have a job to pay for a better present.

He checked his phone.

New messages: 1

It was from Meg and it read:

¦ hey ;)
¦ cas u there?
¦ helloooo?
¦ whatev i'll try again l8r

¦ Sorry about that, my phone was switched off.

¦ finally! y was it off?

¦ I was in church.

¦ haha i didn't take u 4 the type.
¦ anyway, i've decided 2 join ur little hockey club

¦ You have? That's great news.

¦ yeh, it seems i was missing out on all the fun ;P
¦ how many members do u have now?

¦ 12.

¦ i guess i'll b number 13 then! ;D haha way unlucky
¦ just don't tell winchester that i'm joining. let's make it a surprise.

¦ I'm afraid he'll be pretty annoyed with me if I don't tell him beforehand.

¦ lol, ur no fun
¦ i hear he's pretty chummy with ur sis.
¦ they might even go out.
¦ how do u feel about that?

¦ What do you mean how do I feel about it
¦ *?

¦ (welllll, i suppose there can b 2 answers to that lol)

¦ Were you suggesting that I have conflictions about my sister dating someone? Or because she's dating Dean and somehow I'd feel jealous of her?

¦ take ur pick ;)

¦ You aren't funny.
¦ I have no obligations against them dating.
¦ In fact, I support it.
¦ They would make each other happy.

¦ yea ok, maybe but why does it matter to u?

¦ It doesn't.

¦ u seem pretty sure.
¦ he's ur friend, i get that
¦ but if any1 else were in ur place, they'd b kinda freaked out.

¦ Like I said, it does matter.

¦ is this sum weird matchmaker complex u got or something

¦ Can we not talk about this, please?

¦ soz, i'm just trying 2 figure u out.
¦ jeez

¦ It's okay.

¦ have u ever thought about dating anyone?

¦ It's a nice thought, but no. I'm not really the type.

¦ whatever
¦ look, ill let u get back 2 what u were doing
¦ c u tomorrow

¦ See you.

"Hey! Give that back to me." said Cas when Balthazar snatched his phone from his hands.

"Let me just take a look..." he replied, distancing the phone from Cas's reach.

"I won't let you do that!"

To stop his brother from getting it, Balthazar ran down the block with the phone and Cas ran after him. Cas had exerted too much of his energy by the time he arrived at their street and couldn't find Balthazar anywhere, which unfortunately meant he was reading his texts somewhere. Probably back at the house. Once he caught his breath, Cas hurried inside using the back entrance, ran upstairs into his room and stole his phone back from Balthazar, who was reading it on his bed.

"Well, somebody likes you." he said. Cas just glared at him, still catching his breath.

"Ugh, don't do that again." he ordered. "How would you feel if I started running away with your possessions?"

"I'd like to see you try."

"You know I can."

Cas looked at his phone to find that Balthazar had finished reading his entire conversation with Meg this morning. He shot his brother an expression of pure irritation then switched his phone off and threw it on his bed.

"Honestly, for someone as smart as you are, you are so clueless." Balthazar remarked. Cas's expression shifted to confusion.

"What do you mean?"

"Your little friend has a huge crush on you. Aren't you lucky?" he explained. What? He then realized he was talking about Meg.

"What makes you say that?"

"Well, to be honest, I also went through a few other texts..." he admitted. Cas sighed. "But the signs are all there, my friend. I can see that she's been trying to flirt with you, but you're clearly oblivious to any form of romantic advancement. She even uses the little winky face, don't you think that should tell you something?"

"Well, if she does, it doesn't matter. I don't reciprocate her feelings." stated Cas. As sad as it was, that was the truth. Balthazar sighed, but looked indifferent to what he said.

"Fine with me. I don't have what she described as a 'matchmaker complex'." he said. He noticed Cas's expression of irritation had returned. "Okay, I'll drop it... I'll also not go through your texts again."

"Thank you." said Cas.

"On another topic, don't you think it's time you invited your friends round here?" Balthazar suggested. For some reason, Cas was a little anxious about that idea. What if they don't like my house? Or my family?

"Um, when do you think would be best?" he inquired.

"Go text them and find out."

Okay, good idea. Cas sat on his bed and switched his phone back on. At that point Alfie had entered their room.

"Why were you guys running?" he asked.

"I stole his phone." Balthazar explained.

"Why?"

"Never you mind. Is everyone back yet?"

"Yes. Raphael was outside feeding the dog."

Why do we still even have that creature? Cas asked himself as he began texting Dean.

¦ Hey. Can I ask you something?

It was a few minutes before he replied.

¦ what is it ? i was sleeping

¦ It's twelve o'clock.

¦ don't start. I couldn't sleep much last night.

¦ Sorry.

¦ you were going to ask me something?

¦ Yes. Do you want to come to my house?

¦ hell yeah, what time?

¦ Anytime. I'll invite other people too.

¦ ok, how about tomorrow after school?

¦ That seems agreeable.

¦ great! i'll see you then.

Well that went well, Cas thought. He asked Dean's friends (and Meg) if they were able come over, and in the end, three other people were able to go. Meg's infamous ;) was, as usual, present in her texts, but Cas didn't pay attention to it,, even after hearing Balthazar's accusation that she had a crush on him. I'm sure she does that to everyone she texts to, he concluded.


It was a small funeral. And although his father was talking, he couldn't hear anything he was saying. I don't want to be here. He didn't look at anyone in case they could see him crying, just out of frustration. He didn't need for anyone to twist the knife even further by making him attend.

But now there was a real knife. It was plunged into his back and suddenly, the people around him had disappeared. He trying moving, but he couldn't and everything became dark.

What a horrible dream, Cas thought.


Monday 9th of September

"Who said you could draw in my book?" asked Dean. But Meg ignored him and continued to scribble with her pink pen while stretching her arm across Castiel's desk.

If the three students kept horsing around, they'd get in trouble from their Biology teacher again. Trust Mr. Turret not to allow any fun. Dean looked at the latest addition in his notebook. A collaboration of doodles formed by the intense boredom of Dean Winchester and Castiel Shurley with a little cameo of Meg 'The Demon' Masters. A fucking masterpiece. Defacing the pages of his notes was always fun.

"You ought to hide that." said Cas. Dean understood when their teacher walked past their desk. Thankfully, the notebook was closed at that point.

"Hey, is your house far to walk to?" asked Meg.

"No, it's actually quite close." Cas answered.

"Why? Afraid you'll run out of energy by walking there?" Dean commented.

"Yeah, I suppose that makes sense if I'm dragging your fat ass behind me."

"Really? I wonder how you'll do that with no arms."

"You two, please." Cas interjected. "Can't you just get along for one day?"

"Sorry, Cas, I think the world would stop rotating if that happened." responded Dean. They were quiet for the rest of the period. Occasionally making little drawings in Cas's notebook, to which he ignored.

At the end of a terrible Monday, the new kid's fourth at this school, they made their way to Cas's house, along with Sam and Charlie. Across the bridge and to a left where his street was, Dean and the other four were talking away about the newly assembled hockey team. Without hesitation, Cas said that Meg was thinking of joining. A few comments of approval from everyone else and a long audible groan from Dean, but eventually a "Fine, you can join." The team's first practice would be tomorrow after school with Coach Stuart supervising and, oh yeah... teaching them the actual rules. After some thought, Dean concluded that it probably wasn't a good idea to start a team when nobody knew how to play hockey properly.

"Well, this is it..." said Cas as they stood in the driveway of his house. A white-painted thing, a small lawn in front of it with a few shrubberies and plants here and there. The signs that children lived here was evident by toys scattered on said lawn. Soccer balls and frisbees, dolls and colored baseball gloves.

"It's pretty big!" Sam commented. They went over to the door. He's right, but what did you expect? It couldn't be something small for a family that large.

"It's not really, but thank you." The front door was open. Dean and everyone else stepped into hallway when Cas mentioned something else. "You need to take your shoes off. Sorry."

"No problem." he said.. Once that was over and done with, Cas led them into the kitchen where a small girl was raiding the cupboards by standing on a chair, since she was too small to reach them. As soon as she spotted Cas and the others, the little girl lost her balance in surprise. The chair wobbled and before she could fall to the ground, Dean was their to catch her.

"Whoa, there!" he said as he caught her from under the arms and let her down on her feet. "You wouldn't want a broken arm just for a few cookies, would you?"

"Uhh..." she said, unable to find words for the stranger who had broken her fall.

"Hester, I told you not that. You could get hurt." scolded Cas.

"But I'm alwayths careful!" she replied, angry that the authority figure always thought they knew best.

"You could have seriously injured yourself right now, if Dean wasn't there to catch you." Cas fully opened the top cupboard she was trying to reach and took out a couple of cookies to hand to her. "Snacking between meals isn't good, but you can just this once."

"Thank 'oo."

She took them and ran out of the kitchen so as not to be embarrassed any longer.

"You're quite the big brother, aren't you?" Meg commented.

"Well, it's kind of a responsibility..." answered Cas. I know the feeling, Dean thought. "Anyway, this is the kitchen. If you want something to eat, all you have to do is ask."

"I'm good." said Dean. So was everyone else.

Castiel then led them all up two flights of stairs to his bedroom. Shared, but pretty large. Occupied by both its other inhabitants, Balthazar and another boy Dean didn't recognize with blond hair like Hester. Cas appeared to be a little embarrassed that his room mates were present.

"Um, you all know Balthazar. This is my brother, Alfie." he introduced. The boy looked up from his battered Nintendo DS. Aww, Dean thought. Alfie said hello and continued playing whatever game he had on his console. "Maybe, we should back downstairs since it would get a little crowded in here..." Cas suggested, with a little wave from Balthazar on their departure and without looking up from his phone.

"How long have you lived here, again?" Dean asked as they walked back down the stairs.

"Two months." Cas replied. The were pictures on the wall on the first landing. Children that Dean didn't recognize. Children that he did. The photograph that stood out the most was of Anna and Castiel in a garden, standing next to each other and wielding bubble wands. Anna's not a natural red head. Who knew? In the photo, she was a brunette, not unlike her brother who was much shorter in comparison and not really paying attention to the camera. Anna's gap tooth smile made it picture perfect, Dean thought. How old were they on that day? Seven?

"That's one of my favorites." said a voice behind him that made him jump. It was Anna herself, glancing at her younger image. Dean noticed that everyone else had already gone downstairs while he was looking at the Shurley family photos.

"Yeah, you look really happy." he said. She smiled at his comment.

"Which one is your favorite?" she asked. "Out of all the ones that are pictured here."

There were at least a dozen photographs on the wall. Each of family members, or so Dean assumed. A lot of them included babies, so he couldn't exactly identify who was who, but whoever photographed them did a pretty good job. He pointed to one of a woman holding a newborn baby and a young boy smiling at the new arrival. He recognized no one in the picture but it looked like such a happy scene.

"That's pretty good one, too." said Anna. "That's my mom and she's holding Castiel on the day he was born."

"Wow, she was pretty." Dean commented. He also saw that Cas was a pretty tiny baby when he was born. He pointed to the young boy in the scene.
"And whose that?"

"My brother, Lucifer." she said somewhat hesitantly and Dean picked up on this. What a weird name. But most of them have weird names.

"Eldest?" he guessed.

"Second eldest."

"Ah," Dean decided to move on from the topic of that photo. "You've got a really nice house."

"Thank you." They spent another moment looking at the photographs. "That one to the right is baby me." she pointed out. It was a black and white one of her in a crib. There was one other photo of her that included Castiel: a crafts table where they were given play-dough to model things with. An older brother helped mold Cas's project, but his help was refused as the scene depicted Castiel discomfort and pushing him away from his creation.

He should probably go downstairs and join the others instead of hanging around up here. Anna gave him a short goodbye and made her way upstairs as Dean was walking down. But impulsively, he ran back up the stairs and turned towards the picture of the late Mrs. Shurley and her two sons. After making sure Anna was gone and no one was looking, he unhinged the photo from the wall. If I'm lucky, then there should be a written date of when the picture was taken on the back of the photo... Flipping it to the back of the frame, he unhooked the board and took out the photo to reveal whatever was on there. Yatzee. Dean made sure the photo and it's frame were back on the same position on the wall before going back to the ground floor.

The living room Cas and the others were seated in was a strained and worn place from just a couple months of being used by every family member. A cushion laid astray next to the coffee table and various other items were misplaced on the floor. Segments of the walls had little pen scribbles about two feet from the ground and the DVD pile looked like a bombsite.

"I'm really sorry about the mess," said Cas.

"Don't be, it's... charming." Dean responded. Apparently, those were Charlie's words as well.

The atmosphere became more relaxed the more they talked. Stories were shared and laughs were had until Sam asked if Castiel owned any pets.

"Yes... sort of." he answered.

"Sort of?"

"Do you want me to show you?" Mutual yeses from everyone.

They all got off the couch (and floor) to follow Cas to the enigma/pet, but before that they had to put back on their shoes. All the way to the back yard, which wasn't really a back yard but in fact just the space between his house and the farm Dean estimated was about less than mile away. The Shurley's 'back yard' was on a hill that dipped down to the left where there was a few trees and the visible roof of a shed. Cas led them this way. The air was mild but a little windy and Dean suddenly felt uneasy.

As they treaded carefully down to the bottom, what Dean had half expected was confirmed. The shed wasn't actually a shed, but a kennel. A very a large kennel built for a very large dog, which couldn't be found until Cas gave a dreaded whistle.

"AAH!" Nearly all of five jumped back and Dean fell backwards on the ground. Cas stayed put, but jolted none the less with surprise at the beast's bark. A huge dark thing with menacing eyes and teeth bared in a growl, it stayed behind the tall fence which was the only thing stopping it from inevitably mauling them.

Meg took a liking to it immediately.

"Wow, he's gorgeous! Where did you get it?" she said, approaching a little closer to the hound.

"You've got to be joking, right?" Charlie replied, moving even further away from it. Whether she was referring to Meg interest in the devil dog or Castiel's decision in keeping such an animal was unclear.

"This is your dog?" Sam asked incredulously. His facial expression was ten different kinds of pleas for help.

"His name is Leviathan." said Cas. "Sorry. I probably shouldn't have shown you..."

"Bull. You have a really cool choice in pets." Meg commented. She was up against the fence now, smiling, with the dog jumping and barking wildly at her. "Hey, you gonna sit there all day?"

What? Dean realised that she was talking to him. He also realised that he was still on the ground, not even taking his eye off the monstrosity Meg had taken a liking to. Sam went to help him up, but Dean brushed off his offer and got up by himself, albeit a little shaky.

"My dad brought him from the pound when I was seven. He didn't take well to strangers... or people. So we keep him in here. Feed him regularly." continued Cas. "Oh, and shouldn't touch the gate. It's a little unstable. Sorry, meg."

"Isn't that a little cruel? To keep him caged up in here?" asked Sam.

"It's not my decision, but I'd say it's for the best. Various encounters with it have sent people to the hospital, myself included, so it's not safe to take it on walks. Someone let it loose one time, and we found it eating a sheep it had killed..." he indicated past the kennel where the farm was. Everyone else was silent until:

"Why don't you just... put it down?" Sam asked.

"My dad is sentimental. I don't think he wants to put it down. My brother shot it one time, but it doesn't even realize the bullet is still in it's back."

"Maybe I could adopt him." Meg suggested.

"Yeah, you do seem the type that would." said Sam.

"Don't you live in an apartment...?" Charlie asked.

"Pfft, yeah, but plenty of people who live in apartments own dogs." Meg replied. Charlie was more concerned with the fact Leviathan had a history of badly injuring people and devouring farm animals, but decided nothing she'd say would change Meg's mind.

Well now that Cas had shown them the family 'pet', they decided to head back up to the house. Up to this point Dean hadn't said a word, Nobody seemed to notice except for Cas when he realized Dean wasn't really keeping up with the rest of them, but instead, leaning against one of the trees and taking small glances at Leviathan. Cas asked the other three to wait for him back at the house where they could make themselves some coffee if they wanted. He headed back down to where Dean was and wanted to ask what was wrong. But the words didn't come out, so he stood there for a while before one of them spoke.

"I don't really like dogs." admitted Dean.

"Me neither." said Cas. He picked up a few acorns on a ledge and broke the little round hat-looking things from them, an old habit of his. "Are you afraid of them?"

"What? No." Dean answered. "...Not all of them."

"Everyone's afraid of that one, though. You aren't alone." he said.

"You're not afraid of it."

"Well, I've known the dog for years, but I've got good reason to fear it after what it did to my ankle." he said. Dean was also separating acorns from their tops to pass time. Leviathan was still growling only a few feet away, less now, but still as hostile. The wind could be heard through the trees when neither of them spoke for a while. "I think you're-"

"They said I would find you here." a voice interrupted Cas. It was Anna, standing at the top of the slope. At her arrival, Leviathan started barking madly again and she was startled for a brief moment before continuing. "Castiel, can I talk to you for a minute?"

"Uh, yes. Of course." he said, but he was hesitant in leaving Dean alone with the dog. However, Dean nodded which meant it was okay for Cas to leave him.


She led him uphill a little way from where Dean was standing. It was there that she took her phone out her pocket and in her hand where her brother could see it. Cas suddenly understood what this was about.

"Is there something you want to tell me, Cas?" Anna asked.

"What do you mean?"

She sighed. Why did he think he could just lie to her when it was clear she already knew?

"I know that you sent those texts to Eli." she said. "Can I ask, was this some sort arrangement to give Dean a chance to go out with me? Did you never once consider how I might feel?"

"You're relationship with him was falling apart anyway." Cas defended. She must have heard that Dean liked her from Balthazar, who had looked through his texts. "I thought I might make It less painful for you."

"Bullshit. This was to get you in Dean's good books. You want to make friends, Cas? Well, this isn't how you do it." she shouted. "Maybe you should just leave him and make new friends! Ones that don't manipulate you to get closer to other people."

"Dean isn't manipulating me." he said.

"That's all he's been doing. He doesn't like you for you, he only likes you for me!"

This hurt Cas a little, but he wouldn't this get to him now. "And you like him back?"

"I thought I did, but now I'm not so sure. The point is, you are a complete idiot for thinking that ending a 'falling relationship' was going to turn my attention towards Dean and that he would never leave you as a friend if it worked."

"So it's just as much as his fault as it is mine!" he exclaimed. Anna didn't reply straight away.

"No. The blame shifts to you for not handling the situation properly. You could have told me outright that Dean had a crush on me. Instead, you take things too far and arrange my break up."

"Look, I'm sorry. I only did what I thought was best."

Yeah, best for yourself." she said. Cas didn't reply. "I'm going to talk to Dean and you're coming with me. I want to set things straight with him."

"Fine."

That confrontation had taken a lot of energy out of Cas and he suddenly felt a little empty as he walked down the slope towards Dean who looked more uneasy than ever, and it wasn't because of Anna. Leviathan was kicking up a fuss again.

"Dean, I think we need to have a conversation." said Anna. But that conversation was cut short from the dog's barking and fence rattling. She couldn't speak properly under these conditions. "One moment."

She kicked the fence to intimidate the dog, but it wasn't working. "Shut up!" She was angry and the hound from hell was only making it worse.

"Anna, don't!" warned Cas. But she didn't want to listen to him right now and continued kicking the fence until the gate fell off its rusty hinges.

Shit. Leviathan saw its chance of freedom, and also it's chance of revenge on Anna for provoking him. It immediately leapt on her as soon as it ran over the gate and in that moment, Cas's stomach had dropped and knew that there was nothing he could do now. He was petrified on the spot.

But wait, Anna wasn't entirely in the clutches of the beast just yet. She was screaming as she ungracefully tried to climb the fence with difficulty, but managed to hold on and out of the dog's reach. Cas could hear Dean shout her name, and in doing so, attracting the attention of Leviathan. Cas also realized the next target would be himself and so quickly ran to a climbable tree. Dean followed suit. Once everybody had found safe, if not comfortable, distances from the dog Cas was struck with an idea.

"Dean?" he asked.

"Yeah, Cas?" He replied while still in shock of the recent events. They were both clinging to a branch, praying that it wouldn't snap with both their weight.

"There's a shed a few feet from the kennel. Inside is a gun, the one my brother tried to shoot it with, and it's loaded."

"You want me to kill it?" he said in disbelief.

"Actually, I was going to do that." he explained. "Lure it away from you and Anna if I run."

"No way! You could get yourself killed!"

"Would you care if I did?"

"What sort of question is that? Of course I do! Now let me lure the dog, dumb ass. You're going to stay put."

"No, this is my responsibility."

"THIS ISN'T A FREAKING DEBATE!" Anna shouted over the barking and was still clinging to the top of the chain fence.

Without any warning, Dean jumped down and started running like his limbs depended on it. Because they did.

"Dean!" Cas called after him, but there was no turning back now. Either he made it to shed on time, or Leviathan would have a high school student as his next meal. Sure enough, the black-coated beast made like a shot after Dean.

"Isn't the shed locked?!" Anna asked. Shit shit shit. Maybe it was the adrenaline or something else, but Cas found it in him to drop from the tree and run after Dean. Before he could see him, however, Leviathan had already sprung on Cas.

He was restraining him as best as he could, but he couldn't for much longer. The snapping jaws were inches from his face and the claws were digging into his chest. Cas thought he was going to die, until a very loud and close bang made his blood run cold more than it was already. Leviathan was unharmed, but startled and tumbled off Castiel.

"Fuck!" cursed a frustrated Dean whom Cas could see was holding a rifle. A missed shot? So he made it into the shed after all. The old door had been kicked open. Dean grabbed Cas's hand so that he could stand up and the pair ran as fast as they could to higher ground before the dog could regain focus. Unfortunately, the only safe place was the previous tree they had climbed.

Out of reach, but by no means out of danger, Cas sat and Dean stood in the tree, quickly glanced over to check if Anna was still out of reach too. Instead, she had positioned herself on the other side of the fence while holding the fallen gate up against it to act as a barricade. Trapped like a rat.

"Did you kill it?" she shouted over to them. The answer was soon revealed when the dog was jumping and barking at the boys up the tree.

"You okay?" Dean asked Cas. His shirt was pierced by the dog's claws and traces of blood were found by each entry mark.

"I'm fine." he lied. He felt like crying from the pain, but didn't want to portray any weakness in a moment like this.

"No, you're not. Let me see it." said Dean as he crouched. Since there wasn't much room on the branch and he had his hands full with the gun, it slipped out of his hands and onto the ground where the beast was continuously attempting to maul them. "SON OF A BITCH!"

Nice going, Dean. Cas rolled his eyes with irritation. Leviathan saw the gun dropping as a sign of intimidation and therefore moved on to what he now saw as the easiest prey. "Anna!"

Still barricading the fence with the broken gate, it was easy to see she would never be able to hold off the dog with just that. She was almost crying now at how slim her chances of survival were, with the beast having a go at the only defense she had. It seemed everything was over when her barricade finally failed and the dog had found its next meal. With no gun to stop it, Cas felt completely helpless.

However, Cas had noticed Dean had disappeared from the branch and then saw him picking up the gun off the ground.

"Hey, ugly!" he shouted at it. It didn't make a difference so he ran towards it where it was attacking Anna and shot it in the head without hesitation. This time, it was a clear shot and the dog fell off where Anna was lying. Motionless. Almost certain it wouldn't be mauling anyone now. A moment of silence and then relief followed.

"Anna?" asked Dean. Her injuries were no worse than Cas's and so he picked her up until she could balance on her feet. The way she looked at him now was something completely different to how she looked at him at school. Surprise? More like awe, Cas thought. She held on to Dean's shoulder as they walked outside the kennel fence. Cas didn't feel like moving from the branch he was sitting on, despite the blood on his shirt getting increasingly bigger. He was still processing that the moment had passed and that it was safe to get down.

"Do you need help getting down there?" Dean asked him. Cas didn't even realise he was talking until seconds later.

"Yes." Why did I say that? Maybe I can get down by myself. But he didn't feel like moving at all until Dean took his arm to help him. Cas glanced at Anna and she stared back at him coldly even though she was still very distressed. So I guess things haven't changed then.

"Let's get out of here." said Dean. He walked back to the house with Anna, and this time, it was Cas who stayed behind. As the pair were already up the hill, Cas stood alone at the bottom with his dog's carcass lying five feet away from him and his blood dampened shirt from the stinging claw marks. For the first time, wishing it him who Dean was walking beside and not Anna.

Wow, he thought. I am so stupid...


AN: The next chapter will have the plot gears turning. (hopefully!) On another note, hope those who watched Doctor Who 50th enjoyed it. On yet another note, I've found out how to flip text: ɹɐǝ ɐʎ uᴉ ɹǝdsᴉɥʍ ǝɯɯǝl ɐɯɐɯ ǝlʇʇᴉl ʎɐ

Thank you for the reviews, yo. They are always appreciated. x