Dean stirred from his slumber; a loud and persistent sound was driving its way through his sleepy haze. The noise was high-pitched and extremely annoying, aggravating Dean's ears to no end. Thinking it was the alarm clock, Dean rolled over to smack it roughly on the snooze button. Once he had done so, Dean started to roll over to fall back asleep, only to realize that the noise had yet to cease. With a growl of annoyance, Dean sat up and fumbled for the clock, muttering profanities at the device. Blinking open his eyes and clearing away the sleepy haze, Dean looked around the room and found Cas flitting about in the kitchenette, a frantic air about him.

"Shit!" Dean cursed, scrambling out of bed and tossing aside the alarm clock as he did. There was something on the stove that was burning profusely, causing the fire alarm to go off, revealed to be the source of the noise.

Cas turned when he heard Dean's voice; his blue irises were alight with fear and desperation.

"Dean!" Cas said above the shrill noise. "The small creature on the ceiling won't stop screaming! I don't know how to make it stop!"

Dean was in such a panic he didn't even have time to spare Cas his usual incredulous look at his odd way of identifying mundane things. Dean grabbed a near by fire extinguisher and put out the tragedy on the stovetop. He then used a towel to move the pan off the burner and turned off the flame. Finally, he grabbed a broom and hit the alarm in the right spot to shut it off.

Dean sighed and turned to face Cas, annoyance masking the worried undertones in his voice.

"What the hell, Cas? Are you trying to burn the room down? If you didn't like it here you could have just said so!"

Cas winced and leaned against the countertop. He looked dejected and scared, causing a stab of guilt to go through Dean.

"Hey, Cas buddy I'm sorry. You just scared me is all. What were you trying to do?" Dean put aside the broom and walked over to look at the charred contents of the pan that had been burning moments before.

Cas moved to stand next to Dean and gave a half-hearted shrug.

"I was feeling better this morning so I thought maybe I would try and make you some breakfast. But I guess I let the stove get to hot and things started burning and then that creature on the ceiling wouldn't stop screaming."

Dean looked at Cas and chuckled. "Cas that thing isn't an animal. It's a device called a fire alarm. If it detects enough smoke in the air inside the room, it will start going off to alert anyone inside or anyone who can hear it that there's potentially a fire."

"Oh," Cas said, awe evident in his voice as he gazed up at the device. "Should I thank it for alerting us?"

Dean looked over at Cas from where he had started to clean out the charred contents of the pan into the sink.

"No, Cas. You don't have to thank it. It's an inanimate object so it won't answer you."

Cas stared at the alarm for a few more seconds before turning to Dean. He moved to stand at his shoulder and peered down at Dean's hands as they worked away at the mess.

Dean glanced at Cas and smiled. "You want to help me make something that we can actually eat?"

Cas nodded, eager to redeem himself in the breakfast division. "What should I do?"

Dean continued to scrub away at the pan as he answered. "Okay, do you know where the eggs, milk, butter and bread are in the fridge?"

Cas thought for a moment and then nodded. "Should I get them out?"

Dean finished scrubbing the pan and started to rinse out the soap that coated it. "Yeah, and after you do that, also pull out a bowl."

Cas nodded and moved towards the fridge. He ducked inside the fridge and emerged a moment later with the bread, eggs, butter, and milk in his arms. He closed the fridge and deposited the ingredients on the countertop before shifting through the cupboards for a bowl, which he quickly found and placed next to the other things.

Dean, whilst Cas did all this, finished cleaning the pan and pulled out a whisk from a drawer. He looked over the things Cas had gotten out and nodded. Dean grabbed two eggs and quickly broke them and let the yolks fall into the bowl. Next he gestured Cas over and gave him the milk carton.

"Okay, start pouring in the milk until I tell you when," Dean instructed.

Cas opened the carton and began to pour the milk into the bowl. After the contents of the eggs were completely surrounded by milk, Dean told Cas to stop pouring. Cas obeyed and closed the carton before setting it aside. Dean grabbed the whisk off the counter and showed Cas how to stir with it.

"Can you do it just like this? You want to stir it quickly so that it all mixes together but not so quickly that it starts flying everywhere."

Cas watched Dean do this for a moment before nodding. Dean smiled and handed off the bowl and whisk to Cas before going over to the stove. Dean turned on the stovetop and set the pan on a burner. He took some butter and let it slide around the surface as it melted, making a sizzling sound. Dean looked over and saw that Cas was pretty much finished with his task.

"Alright," Dean said, moving over towards Cas. "You can stop mixing now," Dean told Cas as he reached for the loaf of bread.

"How many pieces do you want, Cas?" Dean asked as he pulled out four for himself.

Cas thought for a moment before saying, "The same as you."

Dean nodded and pulled out four more pieces of bread before setting the loaf aside. He then walked over towards the bowl that Cas had been stirring moments before and moved it closer to the stove. He then showed Cas how to quickly dip the slices of bread into the bowl to cover them with the contents before he set three pieces of the now covered bread into the wide pan.

Dean would occasionally move the bread around, causing them to sizzle. After about a minute, Dean flipped the bread so the other side could cook, exposing the golden brown side that had been finished.

"Hey, Cas," Dean said. "Can you pull down two plates from the cabinet over there?"

Cas nodded and headed over to the cabinet. As he was doing so, Dean turned his attention to the pan, pushing the pieces of bread around so they wouldn't burn so easily and stick to the pan. Dean decided that the toast was done so he moved the pan to a different burner so it wouldn't become charred while he waited for the plate.

Suddenly, there was a clatter behind him followed by a thud. Dean whirled around and found Cas crumpled on the floor with a few plates scattered around him.

"Cas!" Dean cried, rushing over to him. Dean carefully helped Cas up into a sitting position. Cas winced and put a hand to his back.

"Cas what happened?" Dean asked fretfully, looking at Cas' back to see if there was any blood coming through the bandages.

Cas shook his head and sighed. "I think I just stretched to far and strained my wounds. I'll be fine in a moment."

Dean still looked anxious as he helped Cas to a chair at the table. Once Cas was settled and Dean was sure he was going to be okay, Dean went back over to the stove to finished breakfast. He grabbed a plate and quickly finished cooking all the toast, sliding the pieces onto the plate when they were done. Before taking the plate over to the table, Dean sprinkled some cinnamon over the bread and grabbed two extra plates.

Dean slid a plate in front of Cas and set the platter with the toast in between the two of them as Dean sat down opposite Cas with his plate. They ate quickly and in total silence. There wasn't much to talk about after all. But they both knew that was a lie. There was so much to talk about, endless conversations that neither wanted to start or would know how to finish; and so they remained quiet.

When they had both eaten their fill, Dean gathered up the dishes, carrying them over to the sink while Cas got the water and soap ready in the sink so they could wash and dry together.

Once all the dishes had been cleaned and put away, Cas started to walk over towards the bed to sleep again. Dean bit his lip and reached out, grasping Cas' wrist in his hand, stopping him. Cas looked over his shoulder at Dean with surprise flitting across his ocean blue irises.

"Dean?" Cas said softly.

Dean smiled and gave Cas a little tug towards the door, grabbing the keys to the Impala as he did so.

"Come on. If I'm stuck with you, you might as well know how to gank a monster and fire a gun."

Cas stared at Dean for a moment, thinking that he was joking around and really just wanted to go and grab an early morning pie from the shop down the way. But there was a different kind of sparkle in Dean's eyes that Cas could see, some kind of excitement that came out of teaching someone something new.

Cas felt a smile creeping onto his face and he nodded, grabbing a coat Dean had leant him from a nearby chair before following Dean out of the motel.


They had driven not far down the road from the motel to a nearby stretch of forest. Dean had propped open the trunk of the Impala and pulled out a large piece of wood with an arrangement of circles drawn on it that formed a makeshift target. He had then dug through the contents of the trunk again and produced a gun. After setting up the target, Dean began to show Cas how to use the gun.

"So you just flip this catch right here and the magazine well will slide out," Dean instructed as he demonstrated with the pistol he held.

"Then you just check the magazine to make sure that it's loaded, slide it back into place, check the slide," Dean readied the gun, looking at Cas as he cocked the gun before handing it over towards Cas.

"And you're good to go."

Cas took the gun with wide eyes and hesitant hands, staring at the small device curiously. He looked up at Dean with those large blue eyes and then glanced at the target.

"Should I shoot?"

Dean stood aside and gave Cas a sweeping gesture towards the target. "Be my guest."

Cas stood facing the target, both hands steadying the gun as he took aim. Cas moved his finger towards the trigger and readied himself to fire the gun. A resounding crack echoed through the trees, a flock of startled birds taking off in a flurry somewhere nearby.

Dean glanced over at the target and found that Cas had struck the edge of the farthest circle with the bullet. Cas looked over at Dean, a tinge of flush covering his cheeks. Dean chuckled and moved towards Cas, laying a hand on his shoulder.

"Hey man it's alright. That's better than most people would do on their first round with a gun. You just have to adjust your stance because I know you can aim."

Dean stood behind Cas and placed his hands on Cas' hips. Dean heard Cas suck in a sharp breath and he twitched away from Dean's touch, glancing over at him.

Dean sighed and gestured for Cas to come back. "Trust me," he said calmly. "I'm readjusting your stance. You wanna live, don't you?"

Cas hesitated a moment before moving back into place. Dean repositioned his hands on Cas' hips and pivoted his body a bit so he was better lined up with the target.

"There," Dean said, still standing near Cas. "Now try firing the gun at the target again."

Cas glanced sidelong at Dean before lifting the gun and taking a careful aim at the target. When Cas' finger met the trigger, there was another resounding crack, and when Dean looked at the target, the bullet mark was almost perfectly in the center.

Looking over at Cas, Dean saw that his eyes were fixed on that one point and they were shining brighter than the stars ever did and Dean thought with satisfaction, maybe Tessa was wrong. Maybe there was hope for Cas.


A/N: Hey guys! I'm not dead! Sorry this took so long to upload! I've been a bit busy with a show and work and then this website wasn't connecting with my internet so I couldn't upload when I wanted to...anyways! Here's the next chapter and I hope you guys enjoy it! R&R please, I love when you do!