It was eight o'clock in the morning when Dean and Sam finally had found the time to get some breakfast. After that little conversation with the angel, the poor man had fallen asleep almost immediately. And it looked like Castiel wasn't planning on wake up in a couple of minutes again soon. The man was obviously worn to a frazzle. Besides, Sam and Dean knew by now that this was only the beginning. They knew it would have happened, eventually. Cas said so himself. If they cut him off from heaven, the Grace will go with it. Eventually he would loss his powers. It was the price he was willing to pay for his freedom. And the friendship he had between the Winchesters, Castiel ones said, was a good alternative.

So, both Winchesters felt a little sad. Because this guy had lost everything because of them. Even if it was Castiels' own choice to disobey against given orders, in the first place. They both knew they were the whole reason for it. It was a tough task to wriggle out of this. Although the angel of the Lord never stopped believing that they could fight against the fight of all times.

That was why they were so quiet, now. And that was why they would care for the angel. Even when he was close from being human. He was a brother, now.

Castiel was family.

…

In silence Dean read the newspaper, looking for a case, while Sam was busy with searching things on his laptop. After 15 minutes Sam pushed his laptop down, just in time to see his brother stuffing the last of his breakfast inside his mouth. Dean glared up at him with a questioning look.

"Well. I found nothing. No case of what so ever. At least, I haven't found anything that looks like a case for us."

At that, Dean also closed the newspaper and rubbed his stinging eyes.

"Besides the weird part about some hundred-and-one years old lady making a full split during a television show to collect some money for a dog center, yesterday; there is nothing to be found on my side either. This town is too quiet if you ask me."

Sam let out a deep bored sigh and emptied his coffee mug.

Behind them the angel noisily started tossing around onto the mattress and moaned something unintelligible. Both Winchesters looked back at the shivering ball on the rickety bed. At that, Dean snorted.

"Castiel is right, Sammy. We have our hands full, already." Sam gave his brother a oblique look.

"Yeah, you're right."

…

Outside the weather was beautiful. There really wasn't a cloud in the sky and the temperature was pleasantly warm. The window on the side of the bed where the angel was, stood ajar and the gentle breeze occasionally played with the curtains. It was Sam's idea to let some fresh air into the room. Maybe it did the angel some good. Because, he was getting worse. Maybe it was because the man was still wrapped in several layers of clothing with a blanket on top of him, but the man was beginning to sweat. Droplets beaded on his furrowed face while the angel still tossed and turned restless on the mattress. At first the Winchesters didn't spent too much attention on this. Because for them it was almost normal to hear someone moan in his sleep. Each of them had their own nightmares. And once the angel slept, which is quite unusual in the first place, it seemed that he had to go through this as well. Now that the brothers knew what was happening to Castiel, they found it very logic that the man was haunted the demons inside his own head. And let's not forget that this angel had lived for over thousands of years. And he had done things without feeling some emotions, like sadness, fear, angst.

In a short time he had lost everything. But also had gained some of the human emotions, as well. Now that he had made friends with Sam and Dean, he knew what friendship was. It was a very complex thing. Sometimes you must say the truth. But sometimes you must lie as well to protect your friend feelings. He knew that he was a different kind of angel, now. One that was loyal to a human and his brother. And an angel who rebelled against heaven, because of his feelings. For Sam, of course. And Dean. Soon he was becoming a humanlike angel. One with no wings. No Grace. No powers of what so ever. Only an angel with ancient knowledge and no clue of living like a human.

He would be just a friend of the Winchesters. Helping them solve some of the hunts. Like a friend. Like Bobby was. Although Cas was scared of being useless, friendship was a beautiful thing.

Friendship with two brothers that eventually should kill each other against the battle between the two archangels whom actually were his big brothers.

'His family against his friends.' It was just like one of those nightmares. Only this time Cas couldn't just wake up from this and let it all disappear. It was true. This was real. And Cas dreamed of being useless. He saw Sam and Dean killing each other. And he could not stop it. And he saw the burning planet. Fire. Hot messy flames. He could feel it. It burned him. Hot... he felt hot...

...To warm...

...

A/N: Hi guys! Thanks again for reading this. I hope you still like this story. I've read a lot of Human!Cas story's before wich were much better. But i like to do my own little thing. I have the next chapter ready but it will take a while to make the grammar better. as you already know, i'm dutch and this is not my mother language.

Please let me know what you think!

X

Josie