'So, let me get this straight,' Dean spat as he pushed the Impala to its limits down the highway. 'The brother you tried to convince me I had, whose ass we just had to save back there, is a what, demon blood junkie? How in the hell does that even happen, Cas? And why didn't you tell me before?'

'It's ... complicated,' Castiel tried to deflect the question.

'I can hear you Dean,' Sam spoke up from the backseat, his tone somewhere between exasperation and boredom.

'You're just lucky I'm not ganking your ass right now. Cas, Explain.'

Sam leaned back until he was practically laying on the leather. He could still feel the power of the blood, he could still force Dean to treat him as a person. It was so typical of Dean to shut down emotionally in a crisis. And of course he would defer to Castiel if he couldn't talk to Sam. Did Dean even realise that Sam wasn't surprised by his behaviour? He could tell without looking that Dean was glaring at the road like it was next on Dean's list, occasionally turning his head to give Castiel the same expression. Sam laughed drily to himself. Dean was so predictable.

'Dean, the story starts when you were four. Do you really want me to have to explain how most of your life as you remember it is a lie?' Castiel tried to placate him. Sam's focus shifted onto Castiel. He knew Dean trusted the angel implicitly – Sam didn't even want to guess what had happened to Dean in hell to make him so grateful to Castiel – but there was something off about the whole thing.

Dean's memory wasn't wiped, just tampered with, edited heavily. It took some serious mojo to be able to manage that. Could an angel do that? Could their angel do that? But then, would Castiel have had anything to do with Crowley?

'I want you to explain why the guy in the backseat deserves to live. How many people do you think he's killed, drinking their blood while they're tainted by demons? But you're telling me he's my brother, and I should give a damn. So explain.'

Castiel sighed, and started cataloguing the life Sam knew in his dry, gravelly voice. Sam listened as intently as Dean seemed to be, but Sam was trying to understand what wasn't being said. He had to have missed something. How could Dean not remember Sam, yet remember Lilith? Why was Dean's memory wiped in the first place? It seemed to Sam that someone had expounded a lot of effort to do so. And couldn't Castiel repair Dean's memory? He'd done so much for the brothers so far as it was.

'Cas?' Sam interrupted the explanation of the time they came across a teen boy practising witchcraft, who had somehow switched bodies with Sam. 'Couldn't you just touch Dean and do your angel magic and put his memories back? Surely they're still there.'

Dean took his eyes off the road to look at Cas.

'Blood Junkie makes a good point. If he's meant to be this big deal to me, the memories should be somewhere. You can unlock them, right?'

'Like you'd have the power to take down the wall in my head that Death put up,' Sam agreed. Dean looked at him in the rear view mirror.

'Do I want to know?'

Sam gave him a small smile. It almost, for that moment, felt like normal.

'I was Lucifer's vessel, got taken to Hell. Someone pulled me back out, but without a soul. And you went to talk to Death, and he put a wall in my head to stop me remembering the torments of hell, so I could have my soul back.'

'Well, that's different,' Castiel sounded distant. Sam was almost convinced then, Castiel knew far more than he was letting on. How much, Sam wasn't sure, but now Sam was convinced the angel had lied about how close he could get to Sam's temporary jail.

'But you can try it, surely?' Sam pressed, as Dean mouthed something to himself. He was either repeating what Sam had just said in a state of disbelief, or just mouthing the word 'wow' to himself. Sam had no idea whether Dean had decided to kill him, or interrogate him yet. At least he was giving Sam a chance. Castiel sighed, and seemed to shrink under the obligation.

'I can only try. Dean, please stop the car, I don't want you hurt.'

Sam refrained from rolling his eyes as best he could, but Dean obliged and pulled onto the dirt at the side of the road. Castiel pressed two fingers to Dean's forehead, firmly but carefully, and Dean seemed to light up under Castiel's touch. He blinked his eyes open after a few moments, and turned in his seat to look at Sam carefully.

'Sorry, Sammy.'

Sam smiled, never so grateful to be called that hideous name as just then. And Dean turned back, pulling the car back on the highway and zooming back to Bobby's.

'Cas, you need to refresh Bobby's memory, and then-' before he could speak another word, Castiel disappeared. Dean slapped the steering wheel in impatience, but finished his thought to himself. 'And then we can work out who the hell did this to Sam.'

'We can still do that. Maybe he thought you meant correct Bobby's memory right away?' Sam tried.

'Maybe. You know what I gotta do though, right Sammy?' Dean sounded resigned. Sam nodded, knowing he meant Bobby's shelter, and a few days of hellish detox. 'I'll work it out Sammy. And then I'll gank the asshat.'


Castiel had indeed zapped out to revive Bobby's true memories, and continued to a crossroads not far from the border of Texas and Mexico, far out of the way of Sam and Dean. He wasn't alone at the crossroads for long.

'Very nice performance, Castiel,' Crowley slow-clapped as he appeared a few feet from the angel. Castiel's jaw tightened. 'I'm actually impressed.'

'You wrote two of the sigils incorrectly. I did wonder what the intent would be, to write them on the walls, invisible to humans, but still to draw them wrong. I was exercising caution.'

Crowley cocked his head, smirking.

'I'm pleased to hear you can, Castiel. It'd be great if you could start maybe doing that when it concerns, I don't know, Purgatory?'

Castiel pinched his lips together.

'Consider this a warning, Castiel. I'm the king of Hell for a reason.' Crowley turned to walk away.

'Wait,' Castiel, licked his dry lips, wanting to grab whatever information he could. 'Who wiped Dean's memory? There isn't a demon powerful enough to accomplish that.'

'You're right, there's not. But do you really suppose I'd put all my eggs in your basket?' Crowley said over his shoulder. He turned, and walked back to Castiel. 'Don't worry, I'm not playing one side of Heaven off against the other in your fascinating little war. I want the apocalypse less than you do. I don't want Lucifer trying to recapture the crown. But some of your side, well,' he brushed an imaginary fleck of fluff from Castiel's beige trenchcoat. 'Some of them have realised just what we're doing, Castiel. And some of them aren't afraid to go above and beyond. So understand this little event for the warning it is. If you bail on our deal, Castiel, there are plenty of angels waiting in the wings to help me find Purgatory, and to share in the power of those souls.'

And Crowley disappeared, leaving Castiel alone in Texas, debating whether to go to Heaven and confront his soldiers, or go to Dean and Bobby, and work hard to make sure they couldn't access that last, important memory. If they worked out who had put the spell on them, if they went after Castiel's army, then there was no way he would beat Raphael. He went back, invisible this time, and watched as Dean led Sam into the demon shelter, both of their faces showing the strain of the situation. They seemed to have enough going on, but Castiel couldn't make himself part with them, not yet. He watched as Dean locked the door on Sam, and could feel the apology that Dean wanted to give Sam in the air. Bobby offered Dean a bottle of bourbon, and Dean started drinking it out of the bottle.

Castiel understood that Dean wouldn't want to talk to him just then, and if he did he would just have questions that Castiel couldn't answer. So he made his way to Heaven, leaving Sam to detox and Dean to watch for his brother. Castiel wanted some answers of his own.


Thanks so much for reading everyone! There's really not much left of this one :( sorry. I've been so grateful for all the reviews and story follows. I have another story on here which I'll be increasing once this one is over, I'd really appreciate people reading that one too, although it's a little different to this one. It's called Cassandra Teal, and it's a play on a Destiel fic. I'm also really sorry I haven't updated much, I've been really going to town on my NaNo story, I've managed to break the halfway mark, and it's halfway through the month, so I'm really pleased with how that's going so far. When November's over, I may start concentrating on another idea I've had too ... we'll see ;)