Just so you know, aside from indulging my worrying incest-kink, the only thing I knew about this fic was that it would end like this. Though I think there are a few more chapters to go after this. The rest was just spur of the moment stuff, so thanks to everyone who reviewed, this was my first truly graphic story, so it's nice to know there are demented kinky people like me reading this stuff
Also, I have no idea if the ages here are right, but it's set in between series 5 and 6. I happen to think Sam is mostly a shitty brother, though he does have his moments. Anyway -
Dean is 43 – Castiel is 2,480,329
As the millennia of lost memories organise themselves into some semblance of order, Gabriel waits. The illusory figure of a seventeen year old Jimmy Novak remains in place, but the dampened grace of Castiel's true form is released with his memory. The faint outlines of black wings fan upwards from the skinny frame, he looks every one of his two million years, and yet so young.
Castiel finally asks the question Gabriel has been waiting for. Bypassing the obvious 'how are you alive?' in favour of,
"What was the purpose of this?" When Gabriel doesn't respond immediately he elaborates. "This trick, what was its point?"
"It's not a trick" Gabriel intones, seriously. His face is both remorseful and infinitely sad. Unnerving given what Castiel knows of the archangel's prior demeanour. In the wake of Castiel's damning silence Gabriel sighs and continues, "Ok, the fake parents, the fire, the children's home? That was all an illusion. The rest was real" he stresses that word 'real', as though it should mean something. When Castiel still doesn't respond he runs a hand over his face, breaking his steely archangel appearance.
"I was just trying to do something nice, ok? Sort of a 'thanks for helping out with the whole Lucifer-Michael -showdown-on earth-death-a-palooza' type...thing."
"Very thoughtful. Thank you" and if Castiel didn't look so utterly miserable Gabriel would probably have popped him somewhere awful by now.
"I didn't know" he murmurs, still looking intently into Castiel's eyes. "I thought...hell, Sam wasn't a good brother even when he was alive, and now Dean thinks he's stuck in the pit...and you're, ok, as a little bro, better than Raph anyway and it's not like you've gotten on better with your family... I just thought you'd make each other happy."
Castiel snorts bitterly.
"I didn't know you felt that way." Gabriel mutters gently. "Either of you."
"You could have stopped it. You should have stopped us." Castiel insists, pain and a violent kind of shame in his voice.
"I had other things to attend to." Gabriel manages to regain some of his grandeur, "I just set up the scenario, I gave you the memories, let you move out of the home...by the time I saw what was happening, what was going to happen..."
"It was too late" Castiel finishes, brokenly.
"If it helps, you're still a better brother than Sam" Gabriel jokes gently. Castiel doesn't smile.
"Sam didn't lead him into incest."
"It wasn't incest...not technically, besides, you said it didn't matter."
"It didn't matter to them." Castiel shows his first real emotion since he regained his memory, stressing his words sharply. "They..." He breaks off, frustrated by his ineloquence. "They were in love."
"You're still in love." Gabriel points out, stubbornly. Castiel looks at him as if he's just committed the ultimate betrayal.
"Dean won't want me." He says, instead of the expected "No I'm not"
"He's always wanted you." Gabriel says baldly. "Hey, you said it, you don't just need each other, you want to be together, even now it's not necessary."
Castiel says nothing.
"I'm going to give him his memories back, if that's what you want. Then it's really up to you." Gabriel waits.
"Return them to him." Then, as an afterthought. "Please."
"See, you're fitting in better already" Gabriel musters up a half smirk. "I hope you two crazy kids work it out."
A second before Gabriel disappears he detects a whispered, "Thank you brother."
His last thought before he touches a startled Dean Winchester on the forehead is, "You'd better appreciate him, or I'll take him back." Because he meant it – Castiel really is a good brother.
