"How's he doin'?" Dean asked as Sam as he stepped out of a spare bedroom in the Bat Cave.

"He's sleeping," Sam shrugged.

"He's what?" Dean asked, slamming down one of the books he was unpacking.

"Sleeping," Sam repeated with a sigh.

"I don't understand," Dean said almost angrily, holding his head in his hands, "How could he be asleep? He's a goddamn angel!"

Sam shrugged and started helping Dean unpack, although Dean wasn't doing much of that anymore. He was too submerged in his mind then, too deep in the memory of what had happened mere hours ago to do something as trivial as unpack now.
How had that bitch taken away Cas's angel juice?


"It's gonna be alright, Cas, buddy," Dean reassured as he and Sam carried the bleeding Cas over to the hood of the Impala.

"What's wrong with me?" Cas choked out, his voice even raspier than usual due to the fast punch to the throat "Heather" had inflicted.

"I don't know, Cas, I don't know," Dean quickly responded, getting more and more frantic by the second. Dean looked up at Sam and said, "We need to get out after her. You look after Cas in the backseat. I'll drive."

Sam nodded quickly in agreement, pulling Cas's arm around his shoulder as he hulled him into the backseat, Dean taking the driver's seat. Soon, they were speeding out of the parking garage.
However, after a long and pointless pursuit, Sam informed the impassioned Dean that Cas was in bad shape and in need of the supplies back at the stronghold.
Finally, Dean relented and started the drive back to Lebanon, KS.


Dean walked into the room where Cas lay, knocking lightly on the door he had already opened. Cas had been sleeping when Dean knocked, but awoke immediately to the noise.

"Hey," Dean breathed, "How you feeling, Cas?"

"I'm feeling," Cas replied, his voice still obviously sore and also groggy from the sudden upheaval from his rest.

Dean sighed and pulled up a chair next to Cas's bedside. Cas refused to look at Dean, and thus a long, awkward silence ensued.

"I'm embarrassed," Cas finally croaked out.

"Ah, don't be. We all get our asses handed to us at one point or another," Dean teased.

Cas turned and looked at Dean straight in the eyes; serious.

"I'm supposed to protect you, Dean," Cas stated, obviously in more than physical pain.

Dean looked away and said, "It's ok, Cas."

"I'm tired, Dean," Cas replied after an even longer pause.

"I know..." Dean mumbled, burying his head in his hands, "I'm tired of everything, too..."

"No, I mean I am physically exhausted, Dean," Cas restated.

Dean looked up at the angel and realized that it was just like 3 years ago when Cas had called him from the hospital.
Cas was simply...human.

Dean gave him a sad smile and a pat on the shoulder as he stood up and gingerly mumbled, "Get some rest, Cas."


Dean stumbled out of the spare room, now feeling his own fatigue settle back in.

Sam sat at the desk, reading, when Dean came out. He looked up from his books and asked, "Well?"

Dean shrugged, "Like we thought: human."

"You think it'll last?"

"Who knows, man. I'm just surprised we came out of that alive!" Dean exclaimed.

"Yeah..." Sam trailed off, "About that..."

Dean looked up at Sam as he opened up a beer, "What?"

"Well," Sam started, leaning in, "don't you think that's a little strange?"

"What is? That we got out of there alive? Sam, c'mon! We survived and pervented the apocalypse, I think we can handle one little girl!" Dean chuckled.

"No, but she could have killed us!" Sam pursued, "I mean, did you see her strength? She took on that werewolf in hand-to-hand combat and won. She even took down an angel! No, make that ten! So why not us? Hm? In fact, why us at all?"

"So lemme get this straight," Dean replied quickly, getting a little aggravated, "You're saying she's protecting us? From what? Why now? I'm sorry, Sammy, but I'm not going to be sending out thank you gift baskets any time soon to some bitch who broke our angel!"

Sam took a deep breath before replying, "I'm not saying we thank her, Dean. But she did save us. Twice. And that's at least a little to go on."

Dean sighed and nodded, "Yeah, yeah, I get it..."

Sam handed Dean a book, "Now, let's get to work."

"Woah, woah, man," Dean grimaced, pushing the book away after a long gulp of his beer, "We just got back from a two-in-one hunt. Can't we make like Cas and sleep?"

"Cas watches over us when we sleep, Dean. I think it's about time we return the favor," Sam finished, taking his cup of coffee and toasting it towards Dean before submerging himself back into the book.

Dean gave another losing sigh, half-heartedly tilted the beer bottle back towards his brother, and opened the heavy book. His tired and weak eyes strained for the letters.
Damn, he was getting too old for this.