Several nights later, after they'd stopped again and had settled into a motel even seedier than the last, Dean's phone rang.

"Cas?"

"Dean. Where are you?"

Dean told the angel their location and waited, but Castiel did not appear.

"Are you coming?"

"Not right now. I just wanted to know where you were in case I needed to find you. Get some sleep, Dean. You need it."

"Sure. I'll talk you later then." He hung up.

"Is Cas not coming?" asked Sam.

"No, he just wanted to know where we were. I'm gunna hit the sack."

Dean soon sank into fitful dreams of Hell; dreams were Castiel never came to save him.

But then...

"Dean."

The voice was calling from far, far away, but somehow he could hear it about the screaming of souls he tortured.

"Dean."

No. No, it couldn't be.

The air seemed to shimmer in front of him and there was Castiel, not as he would have been when he saved Dean, but as Dean knew him now, the fire not daring to lick his trench coat.

"Dean. You don't have to stay here. Come with me." He touched Dean's forehead and suddenly they were in a field that, after a minute, Dean recognized as the field he had once parked the Impala in after he and Sam had had a fight. He looked around and sure enough there was his baby, stars reflecting in her polished, black hood.

"I'm dreaming," said Dean slowly.

"Yes," replied Castiel.

"Is that really you, Cas, or just my dream of you?"

"It's me, Dean. I can find you in your dreams, remember?"

"I know." Dean turned and ran his hand over the cool metal of the Impala before sitting on her hood. "Why are you here, Cas?"

Castiel carefully climbed onto the hood and sat as far away from Dean as the limited space available to him would allow.

"I think I may have found a way around this," he said slowly. "But sometimes you talk in your sleep."

"No I don't."

"Yes you do. I've heard you."

"You watch me sleep?" asked Dean, more than a little freaked out.

"It's my job to watch over you, Dean. I don't like you having nightmares."

"Ok fine, but what does-? Oh." He thought for a moment. "Oh. I get it."

"Yes," said Cas tentatively. "But I'm not sure-."

"Then let's try," he said scooting closer to Castiel on the hood of the Impala.

For a moment it seemed Cas was going to hesitate, but when Dean's hand lighted on his cheek, the human could feel the angel melting at his touch. Slowly, Dean guided Castiel's lips to his until they were mere centimeters apart.

"What if you're wrong?" whispered Dean, his lips almost brushing Castiel's.

The angels shivered at the feeling of Dean's breath on his lips.

"Then, to put it your way, I am "fucked.""

"Should we?"

"Yes," replied Castiel in a whisper that was almost a moan.

Their lips met and once again Dean knew paradise.