Author's Note:
You guys have all been so lovely you don't even know. Thank you so much for reading this so far, it's still not over yet (like I had expected) but it shouldn't last more than 2 more chapters at the most. Anyway please review, even if this has long been posted I still get the emails and I read every single one.
Love you guys! Happy Hallowe'en of 2013, here's my treat for you
Castiel sighed softly and nestled in the familiarity of his sheets, his body heavy and his eyes refused to open. He knew the press of the mattress on his back, the smooth warmth of his blankets over his bare chest, and the awkward shift in his pillow every time he angled his head a different way. He was home but it felt like it was missing something.
His brow furrowed briefly before a rough, heated hand touched his chest and drifted down his abdomen, skin sliding on skin in the most delicate way a man's hand could be. Cas relaxed again, that was better. He felt the bed dip and though he couldn't open his eyes just yet he knew the presence that loomed over him.
"Dean," He whispered and smiled when soft lips pressed to his. Castiel opened his mouth and deepened the kiss, he tasted Dean again and it made his mouth water. That was all he wanted, he just wanted to wake up, sleepy and unwilling to move with Dean beside him.
"You gotta wake up, Cas." Dean kissed him again; a free hand pushed through his hair and fingers started to dig. Castiel flinched, it hurt a little but Dean's touches hadn't ever been that soft.
"Not so hard," Cas muttered when Dean did it again.
"That's not me."
Cas' forehead crinkled and he scrunched up his face. That wasn't Dean touching his head? He sniffed a couple times and realized he couldn't smell anything, and if he could it wasn't something he knew. "Dean…" He murmured again, this time he felt all familiarity leave him. "Am I dreaming?"
"Yeah, baby. Sorry."
Castiel opened his eyes slowly; he blinked carefully and took in the immediate surroundings. It was a very dim room, there was a bit of light pouring in from cracks in the walls but that was about it. Cas could hear the soft sounds of crying around him, a shuffle of clothing and other such noises that people generally made. He inhaled gently to make sure his breathing hadn't been disrupted after the punch to his gut, it was fine though a bit sore. He was disappointed, not because he wasn't at home but because Dean wasn't there with him, they weren't kissing and they weren't about to fuck. He was cold and alone, other than the people present. But then, if he had been right earlier, they were all women and he was pretty much alone in that regard.
It was funny, actually. He'd been telling himself just the other day how he'd settle for being kidnapped, as long as he was taken away from that town. Weird how actually experiencing it could change someone's mind.
"Where are we?" Cas asked quietly, he didn't want to spook anyone but it didn't seem to help, there was still the sound of startled voices.
"We're on a train." The first to speak up was someone he recognized, he looked over to see Jo Harvelle tied up close by. "Basically like cargo, the goods from the caravan are in here too."
"A train?" He squinted at her as if she'd just spoken Spanish to him, his voice sounded like he'd swallowed gravel. "How far did we go?"
"Far enough. I think they hijacked it before they hit town, maybe that's how they got to us without anyone knowing anything about it." She leaned her head back against the wall and closed her eyes. Jo had always been one of the tougher girls in town, kind of unpopular because of that but Castiel didn't care one way or the other. Really he liked her tenacity, if anyone had the nerve to go out into the world and do things it was Jo Harvelle, much like her mother. He'd especially loved to share his stories with her and her best friend, Pamela. They really listened when he talked, they could hear how enthralled he was with the ideas of cowboys and their lifestyle, and they didn't make fun of him for it. Yeah, he was the dreamer of the town, he would talk more than anyone else if given the chance but he could always count on Jo and Pamela to listen. The three of them were good friends, they went to school together, grew up together, and though their work didn't often cross paths they would still see one another. Jo and Pamela were the two people that Castiel really ever hung out with.
"They took over a train to get to the trading caravan while it was stopped in a less populated place, easier to take everything and kill the people witnessing it." Speak of the devil; Pamela Barnes was sitting just behind Jo, almost out of sight from his angle on the floor. "How's your head, Cas?"
"It's sore," He muttered with a soft laugh, "Who's all here?"
"All girls from town, other than you." Jo furrowed her brow as she looked down at their blue-eyed friend. "Wondering why you're here, actually."
"I'm pretty." He replied and smiled over at her. They chuckled at him, everyone had been blindfolded but they all heard his conversation before being knocked out the second time. "Are you alright?"
"We're fine, so far." Pamela lifted her hands and moved a hair out of her face, "They're kinda dumb though, tying our arms up in front of us like this."
"No one said they were known for intelligence, Pam." Jo grinned at her, "But yeah, you're right."
Castiel sighed and looked up at the ceiling of the train car, "Can't be that dumb, you guys haven't gotten out of them yet, what do they have to worry about?"
"It's probably because they don't think we're a threat." Bela pointed out from across the car, her legs tucked in close to her chest, as best she could do. She'd always been kinda flexible; Cas figured she could do anything really. "We're a bunch of women, what can we do?" She was mocking, Cas could hear it in her tone but all the same she made a good point; they weren't all that scary. Him included, of course. He was the strange little dreaming bartender, that maybe occasionally threw a punch and tossed people out by their pants, but otherwise totally harmless. Castiel wasn't scary, his name especially wasn't scary and there was no kind of reputation that could hide how goofy he'd been in the past.
No one said anything, Castiel couldn't believe it. That was it, they didn't know why they were in a train but they knew that they wouldn't survive to see another free day. That was how he was going to die, tied down in a train car.
"We're going to die, aren't we?" Jo asked softly and looked around at the other women.
"Yeah." Castiel responded first, no emotion in his tone as he stared at the ceiling. "We probably will." He forced himself up, abdomen doing all the work for him. "But that's why we'll show them."
"Show them what?" Pamela asked with some cynicism in her voice. "How well we die?"
"No, show them what we can do, why they shouldn't brush us off so easily." He had nothing else; at least he could make his last moments an adventure. If he could do something epic before being shot in the face he could die a happy man. He wriggled until he could sit up, his face dead set on what he was saying. "We can be the legend, we can be their nightmares for once, just once. I want them scared. They see frightened little people with no hopes and no dreams left in them. I see so much more than that, I can see how strong you all are, I know it. I want to see an animal in you, show them your ferocity, damn it! They can't do this to us!"
"But they are," Naomi spoke up this time, her face pulled as tight as ever, eyes always cold and calculating, but this time Cas could see her fear. It was there, flickering and fighting with the courage he knew she had. "They're doing this to us and I think if we stay put and quiet they might let us live."
"With what dignity?" Castiel spat, he had no idea he'd had that kind of speech in him, that kind of mentality.
"Not all of us have nothing to live for, Castiel. Some of us have families." Naomi argued, and it was true, some of the women there had homes, husbands, children, and pets to go back to. Castiel had an old building with nothing more than junk, but it might as well have been entirely empty.
His mouth pulled tight and thin as he held eye contact with her, the intensity in his expression didn't leave him. "I understand that and I think that is something worth considering. But let me tell you all something, I know you know me as the dreamer in the tavern, living with my head in the clouds and all that, but I need you to listen to me now. I have heard at least one story about every outlaw worth knowing in this country, every single one; except the Rough Riders. There are no stories only rumours and assumptions, you want to know why?" Castiel looked at all the faces staring back him, some of them were neutral, some were terrified, and a few held the same determination he was displaying. "It's because no one lives."
"But they took us prisoner," One of the younger girls argued, Charlie was her name and another closer person in Cas' life. "That has to count for something, right?"
"We're entertainment until they're tired of us, either we'll be incorporated into their group somehow, which happens less often than being set free, or we'll have our throats cut." Castiel explained quietly, he didn't know where the Riders were exactly. "So our options are to either die quietly and let them do with us as they please or raise a little hell."
"How do you know all this if you've never heard stories?" Jo asked and it was sort of playful but he figured she really meant it.
"I'm going off the assumptions at this point," Cas looked at her before he started to fight with his bindings. "But that doesn't mean it's any less valid, no survivors means no one lives, meaning it doesn't matter how they kill you because you end up not breathing anyway."
"So you want to die faster?" Naomi just wouldn't let it go.
"Yes." Castiel stopped and remained quiet to let that sink in, "We're all dead, there's no chance of escape if we do nothing. If we try something, if we fight our hardest they'll have no choice but to shoot us from a distance. The way I see it my death will either be quicker, less painful, and less degrading, or I'm going to get out of here. I don't see the downside."
The women didn't reply as he struggled, no one moved for several seconds until Charlie started to do the same as Castiel.
"Charlie?" Naomi looked at her in surprise, "What are you doing?"
"Cas is right," Charlie looked up at them matter-of-factly. Cas loved her for that; she was so smart and mostly self-taught. A little naïve like himself but in that innocent kind of way, like life hadn't occurred to her yet. At the same time she knew when it was time to buckle down and get shit done. "If I'm going to die anyway I might as well do it my way."
"Damn straight." Pamela nodded and looked for a way to get the rope off.
Castiel smiled when he saw how many of the ten or so women involved were willing to join him, all willing to help each other out of the confines of their ropes. "Right, let's get this shit off."
Dean and Sam rode side by side this time taking up the middle as Michael covered their backs and Jet tracked the Rough Riders' movement. He was good at it; Dean would definitely admit that if asked. Jet had been a good kid the last time they'd seen one another, but then again life had a way of dragging a person down.
"Any way of knowing how far?" He called ahead and Jet shook his immediately.
"No but we can assume that with all the things they took they're moving a lot slower. My only worry is the train."
The Winchesters exchanged a look, "What train?" Sam asked.
"There are tracks running through this area not too far from here and the trail our nightmare is leaving suggests that's where they're headed." Jet glanced back, his brow furrowed and eyes squinted.
Michael's eyes widened, "The train? I'd heard it hadn't made it to its next scheduled location, do you think they took it over?"
"Makes sense," Sam and Dean held one another's gaze again, they always knew the same information and it didn't matter who really said it. Dean would prefer to do the talking but he was pretty sure that Sam would have his head sooner or later if he tried that each time. "The Rough Riders were rumoured to have a base hundreds of miles from here, Dean and I have looked for it but never found it. Point is to get that much loot from here to there would be a long and risky trip."
"Why not just hit the caravan when it gets closer?" Michael looked between the three outlaws he was working with. It had been a stretch to ask anyone else from the town to help out and really no one was willing. Dean thought it funny that a lawman was stuck with people he assumed to be delinquents at best.
"Because the big traders started on the other side of the country and most of the good stuff would be bought." Dean answered him before Sam had the chance, "Alastair's probably got his eye on something in particular and why not take the whole lot while he was at it? Typical."
It was a long trip, they couldn't run the whole way but they'd definitely closed the gap between the Rough Riders and themselves. Dean and Sam were careful to let Chevy and Impala walk, catch their breath. Jet remained at the head of the group, back straight and head up; he was alert and watched just about everything that moved. Dean had the feeling they were getting close, the sun was setting and the further they moved the more antsy Jet seemed to be.
"Jet," Dean rode up to his friend's side, "What's wrong?"
"You don't feel it?" Jet looked at him, his expression hard to read. Dean's brow creased but he looked ahead the way Jet had been doing, thinking maybe that'd help.
"Not sure what I'm supposed to be feeling." He could hear his heart beating, he could almost smell Castiel's scent somehow still lodged in his nose.
"That rumble… I think they're already on the train." Jet muttered. "C'mon, let's move it."
Dean didn't hesitate; if Cas was there he was on that train and about to be taken very far away from him. 'Not if I have anything to say about it.'
They bolted, sprinting to the next clearing where Dean could see the train; it was maybe a mile away from where they'd emerged but it was slowly taking off.
"Son of a bitch!" He shouted and pushed his baby as hard as he could, he had to get to Castiel.
Fighting the Rough Riders was one thing; it was the darkest part of his past and the worst thing that ever came up in his nightmares. But Dean didn't let nightmares rule his life and he didn't live by the past's demanding hands, and Sam didn't either. They cringed when it came up, they knew it was painful to think of but those moments when they were boys could never define the men they had become.
Castiel was different. Cas was the irregular heartbeat in Dean's ever day life, that part of him that was missing. Castiel represented a different future than his past suggested for him.
And Castiel was getting away.