"Where are the others?" Castiel asked as he made his way down the stairs.
"Hell if I know." The hunter shook his head as he hiked it down the stairs past the guy. "Looks like everyone kinda dispersed; fled to the four corners of the place."
Dean set down the small bag of supplies on one of the desks before turning back to Cas. The angel had hesitated at the bottom of the stairs as he took in the room. The bunker was a sight. Books were left open here and there on the desks; some had been more precariously stacked than others. The others had really hit the books hard while Dean had been away. They had a chance to come out on top of all this if they put in the work. And an effort had clearly been made. Dean couldn't do much more than hope that it would be enough. He shrugged and took a look at the angel.
"You look like you've taken a real beating, man. I'd hate to see the other guy." He said after a moment. Castiel was probably lucky to still be standing.
"I was in a car accident." Cas said plainly as he stepped further into the bunker, his bloodied trench coat trailing after him.
"Just get over here, will ya?"
The hunter pulled out a chair and motioned for Cas to sit. As he got settled, Dean leaned back to sit on the edge of the table. He began to rummage through the bag. Cotton balls, gauze, whiskey, bandages. They had the basics at least. Dean explained the situation as best he could as he got to work.
"From what I was told earlier, Kevin's holed up in his room again." He said gruffly as he reached into the bag for the alcohol. "Sam's been busy keeping an eye on Crowley. He hasn't done too much damage since he got here. So everything's in one piece for now. Home sweet home."
He took a shot of the whiskey before reaching down to Cas' injured hand. Castiel seemed apprehensive at the mention of Crowley's name. "He's human? And he's staying here?"
"You sound just like Sam." Dean hesitated for a moment. Maybe bringing the former King of Hell to their secret lair would backfire on them eventually. He couldn't see the future; to be honest when one of them could, it hadn't been a good thing. "But, yeah. I'd rather he was somewhere we could keep an eye on him. And who knows, outside of that sarcastic douche-y exterior, he might be golden."
Cas narrowed his eyes quizzically and Dean explained further. "He might have a change of heart. You know, give us some intel to work with."
Dean folded his hand over the angel's as gently as he could and turned his palm upwards. The injury wasn't one of the worst he'd seen over the years; hell, it was far from it. That didn't mean it was any less painful. As Dean poured a bit of the alcohol over his palm, Cas hissed under his breath. He tried to pull his hand away. It was a knee-jerk reaction but he seemed sorry for it just the same.
"I'm sorry. I-" He went quiet as Dean met his eyes.
"Dude, it's fine." The hunter looked away from him with a shrug. He set the bottle down on the table. "I know you didn't exactly volunteer for this whole humanity gig. But I can't be here all the time to stitch you up. You just need to learn to roll with the punches, alright?"
"I suppose acquiring that skill would be useful." The angel said thoughtfully as he tilted his head to one side.
Cas looked up from his hand to Dean, who rolled his eyes. He could tell that underneath whatever else, the hunter was angry. As far as Cas was concerned he had a right to be. Metatron had, in many ways, 'screwed them over' as Dean would say. Castiel himself was without Grace; he had watched helplessly as his own brothers and sisters fell from the sky. Heaven had been forcefully emptied out. There was no way of knowing the repercussions that would result because of the actions of a single angel. How could something so misguided have happened on his watch?
He bit his lip as the last of the alcohol ran off his palm. Cas reminded himself that even though the actions of one man had done something so evil, the actions of another had done something never before imagined. Sam Winchester had succeeded in closing the Gates of Hell. Though how exactly he had survived the process was still an unknown, everyone seemed to accept it. The general consensus was that Naomi and Metatron had been lying. But something about the way Dean held himself gave Cas the impression that it had been something else entirely. He could tell that Dean still had his soul, but he couldn't be sure that there hadn't been a claim made on it for further down the road. He watched Dean carefully as the guy reached down for some gauze.
"Dean?" He hesitated; if Dean had made a deal to bring Sam back, he wasn't sure that he wanted to know. "Can I make an inquiry?"
"You just did but sure, go ahead and shoot." Dean huffed with a determined smile.
"How is it that Sam survived?"
The question was something that Dean had initially been avoiding. He hadn't wanted to think about all the things that still could go wrong. Hell, he was almost expecting to wake up any moment now to find out that Sam had actually died in the Godforsaken church. He sighed.
"I'm not sure." That was something he didn't say too often. "But after he did it, cured Crowley, he collapsed. I swear to God that his heart stopped. And then he just opened his eyes like nothing happened."
Dean turned Cas' hand in his as he worked a strip of gauze around the guy's knuckles. He shook his head at the thought. He wasn't sure who had saved his brother but as far as Divine Intervention went, God was top of the list. After all, he'd put Cas back in one piece. The angel looked up to him at the mention of his Father. He saw the man's eyes wander.
"You believe that God brought Sam back?" There was something in Cas' voice that sounded a bit skeptical.
The hunter shrugged as he finished wrapping up Cas' hand. He placed the rest of the gauze to one side of the table as he let the angel's hand fall from his. Dean wasn't sure what to think if an angel had lost his faith. His face fell the slightest bit.
"Yeah, but no one would really know if he's back or not, right?" Dean said hopefully. "You haven't heard anything major going down on Angel Radio? Or do you still have that?"
"I do. But the voices are so many, they're like white noise. They're all angry and confused. It's difficult to process." Cas shook his head. "If anyone did know of God's return, the information would likely be lost amongst the other voices."
He inspected the dressing as he thought back to the Fall. The angels had all been unprepared, to say the least. Many of his brothers and sisters had still been in Heaven during the incident. He, and so many humans across the world, had seen hundreds of thousands of them plummet to the ground. They had woken up angry, confused. And while many had been more than outspoken about their fears, so many others had been too afraid to say anything. They were all so far away from home.
One had been clearer to Cas than any of the others; but the voice hadn't belonged to an angel. He hesitated to bring it up to Dean. "There was one voice that stood out."
Dean narrowed his eyes as he looked over to the angel. He didn't know what the guy was waiting for until Dean too heard footsteps. He shifted from his place on the edge of the table and turned to face the hall. The two look over just in time to find Crowley entering the study.
The former demon hesitated as his eyes locked with the angels. He slowed down as he approached. There was only one thing that he didn't understand as he stepped into the study. Castiel was watching him very attentively, more so than usual. And Crowley himself felt something was off about the way the room had quieted upon his arrival.
"Hope I'm not interrupting anything too steamy here, boys." He looked between Castiel and the hunter as he searched for the proper words. "Or sacrilegious for that matter."
Castiel narrowed his eyes just the slightest bit at that. But of the two of them, Dean seemed to take the words to heart. The hunter rolled his eyes as he stood. He took a step forward and was about to challenge Crowley when Cas interrupted his train of thought.
"Your faith…" Castiel didn't know how to pronounce his disbelief. "Is inspiring."
Dean narrowed his eyes as he looked from Crowley to Cas. What, exactly, was he hearing? That Crowley had…faith? In what? Whiskey? "What are you saying, Cas?"
The angel looked back to Dean as Crowley opened his mouth to protest. "His voice was the one that I heard; he was praying."
It seemed improbable, but after everything else that'd happened, it wasn't like it was impossible. That had certainly been a revelation. Dean turned back to the guy but Crowley looked like he was prepared to deny the whole thing. Like it or not, he was changing, and it seemed to be for the better. Dean pushed the issue aside.
"What are you doing out here anyways, man?" He didn't think the guy had simply wandered up to welcome them out of the newfound kindness of his heart. There was always some kind of angle that was being played. "Where's Sam?"
Crowley tilted his head to one side as he went on to defend himself. "I'm not his keeper; and if I recall correctly, you seem to have an entirely different dog at the end of your leash, mate."
Dean narrowed his eyes even further as he stepped forward. He didn't have to take any of what Crowley was dishing out. And he certainly didn't want any of this going down in front of Cas. The former demon sneered at him in an attempt to goad him into a fight; Dean stepped down just as Kevin and Sam entered the room.
Kevin had a backpack on his shoulders and a gym bag in one of his hands. Between the bottled water sticking out of one and the shirt that was hanging out of the other, it was plain to see that Kevin was preparing for an extended trip to God knows where. Sam was on his heels as he exited the hallway.
"You should stay here, Kevin. There's no way for us to know just how bad it's gonna be for you out there." Sam said as he followed the kid into the study. "The bunker is the safest place for you, for anyone."
Kevin rolled his eyes as he turned back to Sam. "I can't just sit here and do nothing."
"You aren't doing nothing, Kev. You're the only one that can translate those damn tablets for us." Dean stepped forward. "And, in case you hadn't noticed, they're the best lead we've got on opening those pearly gates back up."
"I'm burnt out, Dean." He said as honestly as he could; his gaze wandered from the staircase to Castiel and then to Crowley before he focused on Dean once again. "The tablets aren't making any sense. And up until a few days ago, I was out, remember? I was done with all of this supernatural bullshit."
Crowley's eyes widened, he seemed to be almost impressed by the little blighter.
"What about the fallen angels?" Kevin continued on. He was in a bad mood to say the least; the kid was worn out. He was tired of being dragged through the mud by the Winchesters and every other supernatural thing out there. "What are we supposed to do about them in the meantime? They're out there, probably destroying someone else's life, and we aren't going to stop them?"
Dean hadn't expected that Kevin would be so upset. "I never said that-"
He couldn't get a word in edgewise as Kevin continued. "And the Hell Gates? What happened to all the people that the demons were possessing? Sure, some of them probably died; the ones who didn't don't know what the hell to do now. They're probably out of their minds.
"A-And the murders, the rapists, everyone that was meant to go to Hell… What if they can't? Are there going to be poltergeists killing people all over the world because they don't have anywhere to go?" Kevin found that his courage was waning. "The world is probably going to shit all over again. And you're telling me to wait it out like its rain?"
The kid had a point as far as Dean was concerned. There was a lot they didn't know about the world now; a lot that they couldn't even speculate on. And Dean himself had gotten quite tired of coming in after something had happened to sweep up the mess. But there was no way to tell what would be happening out there until it had actually passed them by.
"We aren't doing that. We aren't sitting anything out this time." Dean narrowed his eyes and lowered his voice dangerously. He stepped forward towards Kevin only the slightest bit as he said his next few words. "We'll keep fighting until the trumpets sound, if that's what it takes to get the world back in order. But that doesn't change the fact that we're a team. We need to stick together."
Kevin hesitated; he turned back towards Sam after a second.
"Dean's right on this one, Kevin. Can't you see that?" Sam brought his eyebrows together in confusion. "The angels that fell, they're going to want answers for a lot of things. Whatever happened to me and how I survived, what happened to Heaven; they're probably really confused right now. A prophet is probably going to be one of the first things on their menu."
He didn't want to hear another word on the subject. The boys could all see that he was tired. Kevin turned back to him as he caught sight of Crowley.
"I don't care how safe you say it is, Sam."
He dropped the gym bag into a nearby chair with a huff. Kevin looked from his supplies to Dean and then back to Sam. It wasn't like he hadn't appreciated their support over the past few months. He was pretty sure that he would've given up a long time ago without them, actually. But their insistence that Crowley needed to stick around was his limit.
"I can't stay here as long as he's around." Kevin said doggedly. He turned back to Crowley with fire in his eyes. "What you did to my mother …to me-"
The prophet broke off after a moment. He had built himself up and now he was freezing. Everything that had run through his mind for the past few days was disappearing one word at a time. Crowley looked to the kid expectantly, his eyes widening at the accusations.
"How dare you! I've already tried apologizing, you little termite." He said furiously as he moved forward. Dean was ready to step into action as the former King continued on his tirade. "I can't change the way things happened. What do you want me to tell you? That I would take it all back if I could? That your mother might not be dead?"
The room, as tense as it had been, went quiet. Sam tilted his head to one side as Crowley stopped himself from saying anything further. He opened his mouth and then closed it again without saying a word. Before he could say anything more, Kevin interrupted him.
"What are you saying?" Kevin said darkly.
Dean and Sam looked on as the kid took a step forward towards the former demon. There wasn't much they weren't willing to do for Kevin, but they drew the line at allowing the kid to torture someone. Even if it was Crowley. And even if he clearly deserved it.
Sam set his jaw as he ran though the facts in his head. "You told us that she was dead."
"I'm usually quite consistent in my dishonesties but no, Moose." Crowley said after a moment. "We've all been known to exaggerate from time to time to meet our purposes. That little grain of misinformation was meant to be something of a de-motivational 'bite me' if you will. An absolute heart-breaker."
Kevin felt his breath catch in his throat as Crowley said the next few words.
"Your Linda is alive and kicking if those bloodthirsty little savages of mine didn't get their orders mixed up. Again." The former demon paused. "I'll do everything I can to help you find her again. I know that it isn't much. But I'm trying to make amends here. And I'll keep trying…"
He trailed off as he realized that there wasn't much more he could say to the kid. Crowley was practically kicking himself at the display of weakness. There was almost nothing more he could do in the way of penance. Like Sam had suggested to him earlier, hope was all he seemed to have left. And that wasn't much.
Kevin took another step forwards and did something quite unexpected. As he reached out his arm towards Crowley, the man winced, but then he saw that the gesture was something else entirely. Kevin was willing to shake his hand. Crowley stared over to him in confusion. He understood the gesture, sure, but the sentiment behind it was like a foreign language to him.
"I'll stay." Kevin withdrew his hand after a second; he turned from Crowley to Dean. "But just until we find my mom and straighten this entire thing out."
Dean was surprised at both of them. He had fully expected someone to be bruised and bleeding by this point. The hunter looked from Crowley and Kevin to his brother and then to Cas. A broken angel, a burnt out prophet, the former King of Hell, his little brother and him; they made one a hell of a team. As desperate as things seemed, they might actually have a chance at fixing things now. He turned to Crowley.
"You know, if you're really with us, if you aren't playing some angle right now, me and Sam could teach you a few things about being a hunter." Dean said haltingly.
He wasn't sure that he fully trusted the guy. Hell, he wasn't sure that he ever would be able to. But Dean figured that if you didn't have hope, you didn't have much of anything.
"You're in the same boat as us now, Crowley." He went on to explain. "Once you're in, you're in. There's no going back. In fact, I'm sure there a lot of supernatural things out there that are going to recognize your ugly mug and want a piece of your ass."
Crowley took one look around the room before saying sharply. "What can I say, boys, it's a fine ass."
He caught the slightest hint of a smirk on Sam's face and knew that he might just have a shot at fitting in here. This whole humanity thing might not be so bad after all.