Author's Notes: This chapter has been a long time in the coming, I know. But I started classes, started rehearsal for Night of the Living Dead, and started debate league—life got a little crazy and I was very unhappy with this chapter for a long time, so I didn't have a chance to update. Hopefully now that things have settles down a little, I'll be able get back to more regular updates. Thank you again for being awesome and sticking with this story.

"So. A kid," Dean said awkwardly. "I've been there. I mean, turns out he wasn't actually mine, but… You know."

It takes Dresden a minute, but he realizes that Dean is actually being genuine. "Oh. Well. What happened?" Dresden's brain is half-dead, and he's in no mood to listen to any Winchester family tragedies, but it maybe it would distract him long enough to let his mind digest the news.

Dean stared at the wall behind the wizard. "I'm a hunter. Hunting isn't a family man's job. Terrible for long term relationships and great for mentally scarring kids, but the best damned life insurance investments around." He laughed bleakly.

"Sam and I grew up hunting. Wasn't much of a childhood. We never spent more than two months in one place and half the time we were alone. When Sam thought there was a monster his closet Dad just handed him a gun and told him to kill it. Really a family man. I didn't want that for Ben and Lisa."

For a second, Dresden felt sorry for the hunters who so rudely destroyed his office, held him hostage, redecorated his apartment in devil's traps, and had their pet angel paint his walls in blood. But then he remembered the part where they did all of that, and the pity was gone, just like that.

"I'm going to get a drink," Dresden said slowly. He didn't want to leave these nutcases on their own, if not for their own sake then at least to keep any on them, but he kind of wanted to be alone. With his luck, they'd do something stupid and get caught, let Dresden's name slip, and involve him in yet another problem he didn't have time for.

Besides, his car was still parked in the remains of his office building, and Dresden wasn't exactly eager to walk there. After holding him hostage, the Winchester owed him at least a ride to the bar.

"You have a Foo dog?"

It was only the third time Dresden had ever heard Castiel speak, and it was certainly the first time the wizard had ever seen the angel look…well, excited. He was staring at the oversized dog like it was sacred or something.

"Yeah. Name's Mouse." The wizard watched as the angel approached Mouse, who sat perfectly still in a corner of the room.

Castiel and Mouse stared each other down for a minute, before Mouse barked twice loudly and started wagging his tail enthusiastically, jumping up to give the angel big sloppy, wet dog kisses. Castiel endured appropriately, talking to the dog in Enochian and accepting the responding barks as if they were answers.

"He would enjoy more meat in his diet and he prefers to be scratched around the ears," Castiel explained, petting Mouse like the dog belonged to him.

Sam, Dean and Dresden exchanged WTF? looks. "You, uh, speak Dog, Cass?" Dean finally asked, breaking the awkward silence.

Castiel did his typical head-tilt, intense squinting-like-I-can-see-your-soul expression. "He is something like a little brother, a lower class of seraph, an angelic counterpart to Hellhounds. He understands Enochian."

"Oh." Dresden stared at his dog, shaking his head. "So you can talk to angels, but you couldn't stop peeing on my rug?"

"He finds your reactions to his urinating around the apartment amusing," Castiel said. It was the first time either Sam or Dean had seen the angel actually express some form of contentment, scratching the oversized dog behind the ears and almost…smiling. It was almost unnerving to watch.

"Drinks are on us. I'm driving." Dean started heading for the door, bored of watching Castiel chat with Lassie the Angel-Dog.

Dresden followed the eldest hunter, shaking his head. "Sounds good." He'd known Mouse wasn't exactly the ordinary dog but…an angel scion?

Not that he was shocked.

Hell, after what Susan has told him—if it was true—he didn't think he'd ever really feel shocked again.

Dresden would safely have bet his life savings that nothing would surprise him for a good long time, not after everything that had happened today. Secret kids? Monster hunters? Freaking angels? His office exploding? Talking to his dog?

The bottle of scotch Dresden had managed to consume probably played a part in the wizard's newfound lack of fucks to give, but then again, it might have been the rage he could feel building in the edges of his mind, or his growing frustration with these damned hunters. Probably the scotch, though.

Yeah. It was going to take a hell of lot to get more than a "Seriously?" out of him.

So, understandably, when Karrin Murphy strode into McAnally's pub, walked over to Castiel, and bitch-slapped an angel of the Lord, Dresden was unimpressed.

"Do you know how hard I am going to kick your ass?" screeched Murphy, not quite yelling, but certainly loud enough to attract the attention of the bar's few other patrons. The pure, unadulterated fury in her voice was enough to even Dresden cringe a little.

Castiel just stared at Murphy with that distant intensity, like a scientist studying a particularly odd animal. The slap had left a red handprint across his face, but he looked like he cared less than even Dresden.

Murphy shifted ever so slightly, taking a better fighting stance.

In retrospect, Dresden should have stepped in right then, but he honestly didn't care, and even if he had, he wasn't really about to come between all five-foot-and-some-change of a pissed-off Murphy and a freaking angel of the Lord. He'd seen Murphy fight before, and there was a reason the tiny blonde had risen through the ranks of Chicago's finest.

Dean couldn't decide if Tiny Blonde Chick was stupid or ignorant. Her courage (or, if you looked at it like Dean did, stupidity) would have been inspiring had he not guessed that she didn't know Castiel was an angel.

"You just left Amelia and Claire, you son of a bitch! And you've got nothing to say for yourself?" Murphy was all but shouting now, hands clenched tightly.

Castiel just tilted his head a little further. "I am not Jimmy," he said, speaking at last.

And that was when Murphy decided to punch an angel in the face.

It was a good punch, Dean mused to himself. Well-aimed, with a surprising amount of force coming from such a petite woman. A great punch, actually.

On a human, it would have definitely knocked a few teeth loose and left a nice bruise.

But Castiel wasn't a human.

His head turned with the force of the impact, but he was completely unharmed, and he didn't even look annoyed.

The crunching sound that came with the impact was Murphy's knuckles. Her eyes went wide as she realized what had happened, the pain in her fist shooting up her arm.

"You…You are not my brother-in-law," mumbled Murphy.

Dean and Sam exchanged glances, like they were telepathically having a conversation or something. Dresden giggled at the thought.

"My name is Castiel."

"So you're one of Dresden's buddies, just using Jimmy's body?" A little of the anger had crept back into Murphy's voice, but she wasn't about to try to punch the angel again.

"I am an angel of the Lord," Castiel said simply, still squinting at her. "I am 'buddies' with no one."

Dresden clapped his hands, grinning like the raging drunken idiot he felt like. He just kind of wanted everyone to go away, but now Murphy was pissed off and Sam and Dean still were supposed to be trying to help him with this case and why, why could nothing ever be simple in Dresden's life?

"Hey, Murphy, these are m'new friends, Sam and Dean and Castiel. They're gonna help me kick the asses of a bunch of vampires."