After about half an hour they were both freed from their cuffs and ready to rummage through the future some more. As much as they wanted to get back, it was kind of fascinating at the same time.
"I'm pretty sure this is your cabin." Kayla told him. "I'm going to dig around, see if I can find anything useful.
"Okay but if you find any porn…"
"It's not yours."
"Right." Dean walked out of the cabin. The place seemed to be set up as somewhat of a wilderness headquarters with tents, jeeps, a satellite…and a whole lot of wilderness. As he stepped off the porch he saw Chuck approaching him.
"Hey Dean, you got a second?"
"Hi Chuck, no, I mean yes. I guess." Chuck seemed more confident now.
"We're pretty good on canned goods for now but we're down to next to nothing on perishables and hygiene supplies. People are not gonna be happy about this. So…what do you think we should do?"
Dean hesitated, hell, he didn't know. "Um, I don't know. Maybe…share?"
"Wait a minute, aren't you supposed to be out on a mission?"
"Absolutely, and I will be…"
"Uh oh."
Dean followed his gaze behind him just in time to narrowly miss a blow to the face by a very pissed off woman. She took another swing and Dean got behind Chuck, since she was clearly not after him. "Easy lady!"
"Reesa." Chuck reminded him.
"Reesa."
"You spent the night in Jane's cabin last night didn't you?"
"I…what?" This was all wrong. He looked to Chuck. "Did I?"
He nodded.
"I thought we had a 'connection'." She supplied air quotes.
"Um, I'm sure that we do but…"
She stormed off.
"Bye Reesa." Chuck called out.
"Screw you."
"Damn." He rubbed his neck and tried to piece it together, wondering if he really should piece it together. He wanted to ask where Kayla was, but he couldn't. Surely Kayla would have gone with him on whatever errand he had to run. Why the hell was he sleeping with the chicks at the camp? "Is Cas still here?"
"Cas?" Chuck laughed. "Yeah, I don't think Cas is going anywhere. He's down at his cabin." He motioned with his hand.
"Thanks."
Dean jogged down the beaten dirt path to the cabin on the end. The doorway had decorative beads hanging from it and he could hear Cas's voice speaking quietly from inside. Thank God.
"These are fragments of total perception. Just one compartment of the dragonfly eye of group mind. Now, the key to this total shared perception is surprisingly physical." Cas saw him in the doorway and looked over with a goofy smile that was out of place on him. "Excuse me, ladies I think I need to confer with our fearless leader a moment. Why don't you go wash up for the orgy?"
Dean's eyes went wide; did Cas just say orgy?
Cas watched the women file by him, smiling to each one. "You're all so beautiful." When they were gone he stood and stretched; Dean took a look at what was now apparently Castiel. He was dressed casually and his hair was a mess, complete with facial hair. He'd kind of let himself go, he looked more like a yoga instructor than an angel. "What are you a hippy?"
"I thought you'd gotten over trying to label me." He turned towards him. "Whoa, strange."
"What?"
"You, are not you, not now you anyway."
Thank you Cas. "No, I mean yes, exactly."
"What year are you from?"
"Two thousand nine."
"Who did this to you? Was it Zachariah?" He was speaking quickly now.
"Yes."
"Interesting." He rubbed his beard as if piecing together some mass conspiracy.
"Yeah, it's fricking fascinating. Now why don't you strap on your angel wings and fly me back to my page on the calendar."
Castiel then giggled. Yes, giggled. "I wish I could, uh, 'strap on my wings' but sorry, no dice."
"What are you, stoned?"
"Generally yeah." He nodded in agreement.
Ah man Cas. "What happened to you?"
He shrugged. "Life." He stated matter-of-factly. Then his eyes lit up a little in anticipation. "Is Kayla with you?"
"Yeah she's checking out the cabin. Cas…" It was then that he saw the glint of silver chain around his neck and Dean pulled the small angel pendant from behind his shirt. Seeing her necklace on him made his heart stop. "She's not here is she?"
The sound of dirt beneath tires caught their attention and Dean stepped outside to see two vehicles returning to the camp. Cas came up beside him.
Future Dean hopped out of the jeep and tossed a beer to one of the men with him, cracking his open in a toast. The other man did the same and as he raised it to his lips, Dean raised his gun to him.
"Hey," Dean yelled to him in warning. "Hey watch out!" What the hell was he doing?
He shot him in the head without hesitation. "Damn it." He muttered as he saw the other men staring in complete wonder at the two Deans. "I'm not gonna lie to you. Me and him, it's a pretty messed up situation we got going but believe me. When you need to know something you will know it. Until then, we all got work to do." The men disbursed without questioning the order.
"Kayla!" Cas called excitedly as she was coming down the steps of the other cabin. He jogged over to greet her and hugged her tightly with a grin. "It's so good to see you, wow."
Kayla laughed and returned the hug. "What the hell happened to you?" The question seemed to be going around a lot today, but it was more favorable than when she asked Dean earlier. Unlike him, Cas was in a great mood.
"Marijuana, mostly." He grinned uncontrollably. "But it's great to see you."
It should have been funnier than it was, but it was more disturbing than anything. He was so happy to see her, like he missed her. Like he hadn't seen her in a long time.
"Okay seriously." Kayla snapped. "Someone tell me what the hell happened to me and why I'm not part of this."
Future Dean wouldn't look at her, in fact, he looked more pissed than before. His nose creased for a split second between his eyes, the way Dean did before he lost his temper. "You." He pointed at Dean. "Inside, now."
Kayla threw her hands up as they went inside. "What the hell."
"Kayla?" Chuck saw her and came towards them.
"Chuck, look, it's Kayla!" Cas grinned, like someone introducing a guest to a party. "She and Dean are here from the year 2009 to prove how bad everything gets when Dean says no to Michael!"
"That's um…that's cool." He said uneasily. "Does she know yet?"
"No, I thought you should tell her. Being the prophet and all." His tone was still upbeat, though he was trying to bring himself down.
"Funny."
Cas motioned them into his cabin. "Come." He led them through the door, where the women were back and waiting for him. "The orgy has been postponed, we're going to need some time ladies, please."
They quietly filed back out of the room.
"The orgy Cas? Really?" It seemed like just the other day Cas was shaking in terror at the idea of sex.
He shrugged. "A lot has changed."
Chuck sat down at the small table and took a deep breath. "So I guess you figured out that you're not here."
"Yeah I caught that. What kind of not here am I?"
"You died." He sighed. "About a year ago."
"Well, awesome." Kayla sat down and tried not to overreact, she waited for further explanation.
"You were with the group in town collecting supplies; food, hygiene, first aid, that kind of thing. There was a group of croats, more than usual for the area but apparently some survivors had wondered into town and they were after them. Um, anyway, by the time you guys got caught up there was only one surviving human and it was a little boy, around seven, maybe eight."
Cas had grown increasingly uncomfortable since Chuck started explaining and finally went back to the doorway. "Excuse me." He left before Chuck was finished.
"You just refused to let that kid die. There were too many of them and he was trapped, there was nothing anyone could do, nothing, but you wouldn't listen. To avoid being dragged off you started the retreat with the rest of them, then took off in the other direction before anyone had even noticed. Dean thought you were behind him."
Kayla just listened, trying to piece everything together. Surely she must have thought there was a way to save him. She wouldn't have gone back if she didn't she could do it.
"The croats were so out of control they weren't even focused on turning you, just fighting you and they messed you up pretty bad with the weapons without even laying a hand on you. Dean got you back here, but we just didn't have the resources. I don't think it would have mattered if we did. And I mean Cas, Cas lost his healing mojo years ago but he still tried to do it, he cried when he couldn't save you and Dean…Dean just lost it."
"Wow." She shook her head, a little in disbelief and she tried not to tear up thinking of her own demise. "That um…that fucking sucks."
"Heh, yeah. But I mean, you know now. So maybe you can keep it from happening." He tried to sound positive but she could sense his underlying wariness. The future was grim and there wasn't much of anything good about it.