Chapter Six
They spend the rest of the night attempting to watch a film but Dean's lips keep finding Castiel's, not that Castiel minds of course. They don't further from kissing and Castiel can't decide whether that is his or Dean's decision, possibly both of theirs. It's not that Castiel doesn't want to further it at some point into something more but it's their first night of actually being together and kissing is enough for now, tasting Dean, feeling his tongue slide against his lips. Yes, just being there with Dean, being able to reach out and let his lips glide against his is more than enough for Castiel.
Near the end of the film, Dean somehow finds his way on top of Castiel, his head resting against Castiel's chest, Castiel's arms wrapped around him tightly so he won't fall. It doesn't take long before Dean falls asleep, soft snores occasionally escaping his lips. Castiel wonders whether he should move Dean to the bed and leave but Dean looks comfortable where he is, a small content smile on his lips so Castiel decides to keep Dean in his arms. Castiel can't help but watch Dean sleep. It's one of the few times where Dean looks fully at peace, no worries of the apocalypse or of Sam on his mind; he's simply free of all worrying thoughts. Briefly, Castiel wonders whether Dean would be annoyed at Castiel watching him sleep all night, deeming it 'creepy' but Castiel finds he doesn't really care. Holding Dean in his arms just reminds him that yesterday had happened, that they had crossed the line from friendship into something more, not that Castiel knows what that 'something more' is but Castiel doesn't care about human labels. All he cares about is that he is happy and so is Dean as far as he can tell.
His phone breaks the silence, vibrating softly in Castiel's jacket. Castiel rummages around, feeling for his pocket, careful not to wake Dean or accidentally push him off and finds it is present Dean calling him. He can't help feel confused and slightly guilty. He had spent the night kissing Future Dean and present Dean had no idea. Should Castiel feel guilty about that? He doesn't really know. Although, Future Dean seems to be more than okay with kissing him so surely that means he's fine with the prospect of his past self having no idea?
"Cas?" an aggravated Dean asks on the phone.
"Yes?"
"Get here now. We're at the same motel as you left us. Just get here."
Dean hangs up the phone and Castiel sits there for a moment, a feeling of anxiety rising in his body. This doesn't sound good at all.
"Dean," Castiel nudges Dean gently, "Dean, wake up."
Dean wakes up instantly on high alert but relaxes when he sees there is no danger, that it is just Castiel.
"Dean, I have to go," Castiel murmurs regretfully.
Dean leans up, kisses Castiel softly on the lips and says "Okay, I'll be here."
Dean untangles himself from Castiel and gets off the sofa and goes to walk away but turns back, holding onto Castiel's wrist, "Whatever happens, don't feel guilty okay? And try and make past me and Sammy not feel guilty."
Castiel's stomach recoils, "What are you talking about?"
Dean doesn't answer, instead kisses his forehead, "You should go Cas."
Castiel hesitates but nods and flies away to meet present Dean and Sam. Castiel feels his heart drop when he sees Sam sitting there forlornly, Dean pacing the motel room angrily. Something terrible has clearly happened and Castiel almost doesn't want to hear it. What had Future Dean said? Don't feel guilty.
"What's happened?" Castiel tries to sound as calm as possible.
Dean glares at him, like everything is his fault, "Look at the fucking news."
Castiel wordlessly turns on the television. It's already on the news channel, a woman frantically speaking, her words jumbling as she tries to do her job but clearly struggling with it.
Oh no.
"Across the globe, there have been reportedly ten earthquakes, ranging from a magnitude of five to nine. It has not yet been determined how many casualties there are in total but it has been estimated to be in its thousands. It is unsure how-"
Castiel turns off the television, feeling his hands shaking. He can't hear any more, can't think about all of those people dead.
"Lucifer has his vessel," Castiel says flatly.
"You fucking think?" Dean spits out.
This is all their fault. All Castiel's fault. He could have prevented this, he could have stopped this from happening. If he had just not released Sam from the panic room none of this would have happened. He did this.
"What do we do?" Sam whispers.
Castiel forces himself to speak, swallowing heavily, "There is nothing we can do apart from find the colt and hope that that can kill Lucifer."
"Why should we even fucking listen to you? This is all your brothers and sisters fault," Dean walks up to Castiel threateningly, his fists clenching as he does so. Castiel doesn't argue because it is his fault.
"No Dean, it's my fault," Sam murmurs, the pain clearly evident in his voice.
'Try and make past me and Sammy not feel guilty.'
Castiel walks up to Sam, ignoring Dean's threatening stance, placing a hand on his shoulder causing Sam to look up in surprise.
"This is not your fault Sam and neither is it yours Dean," Castiel glances at Dean at this.
"I never said it was my fucking fault did I?" Dean growls.
"Yes but I know you're thinking it," Castiel points out. Dean raises his eyebrows but doesn't say anything, his fists unclenching. Castiel can only assume that is a good thing.
Castiel tries to brush aside his guilt and grief of all the humans that have died due to him and instead focuses on the task at hand, knowing that it will make Sam and Dean think about something else, "Where are we on the demons that have the colt?"
Neither say anything so Castiel says, louder this time, "I said, where are we on the demons that have the colt?"
"Last night there were demonic signs all over Ohio, mainly in Delaware. We were just about to call you and tell you about it but then," Sam gulps, "Then we saw the news."
"Perhaps Lucifer knows that we are on to the demons that have the colt, knows that we are closing in on killing him so he used the earthquakes as an attempt to distract us," Castiel realises.
"So what, you're saying is it is our fault that all those people died?" Dean shouts.
"Dean, you have to calm down, I'm not saying it is for definite, I'm saying it is a possibility. Lucifer may not even know we exist, let alone that we are trying to kill him," Castiel says composedly. It's more difficult now to not reach out and touch him, hold his hand to try and comfort him now that he has passed that barrier with Future Dean.
"So you're saying that we should go to Delaware?" Sam asks.
"Yes, I am certain that we'll be able to find the demons and extract the colt from them."
"Yeah, but how are we going to find them there? They're not exactly going to have signs pointing them out and what if they've already moved on?"
Castiel is about to reply when Dean's phone beeps. Dean sighs before looking down at his phone, his eyebrows instantly furrowing, "I don't fucking believe it."
"What?" Sam cringes, already expecting the worst.
Dean snarls into a grin, "Our very own Superman has just text us giving us the exact co-ordinates to the demons."
Castiel's heart warms, taking a small sense of enjoyment that present Dean is calling his future self Superman, although he doesn't know the context, or who Superman even is, "Isn't that a good thing?"
"You know what? No it fucking isn't. Whoever this person is seems to know exactly what's about to happen right?"
"Right," Castiel says, unsure of where this is going.
"Then why didn't he fucking warn us that thousands of people were going to die?"
Castiel stays silent. Why hadn't Future Dean told him? He'd warned him not to feel guilty but he hadn't told him why. He hadn't mentioned a thing about this, not last night or today. Future Dean had known this was going to happen but hadn't told Castiel a thing. Why hadn't Dean warned him?
Castiel realises, "Even if he had told us we wouldn't have been able to stop it."
"We could have tried," Dean shouts.
"No we couldn't. All of the earthquakes across the country happened within an hour Dean. What would we have done? We couldn't have moved that many people across the world in time to save them. We couldn't have warned them because no-one would have believed us. If D-" Cas recovers quickly, neither of the boys having noticed his slip up, "If the person on the phone would have warned us about it, it would have just meant that we knew in advance that all those people were going to die and not being able to do a thing to stop it."
"He's right Dean," Sam says. Dean closes his eyes and exhales loudly and slowly but eventually nods.
"Okay, so shall we go to the demons?" Castiel asks.
Sam nods, though unsure, "Yeah, but there's going to be a few of them right? I mean, we have one knife against them all."
"No we don't remember, Cas has his blade and I have Zach's," Dean orders, picking up the bag of weapons that he clearly packed the night before, before they had watched the news. Castiel wishes that Future Dean would have warned him so he could have been here for the boys, at least being there as comfort. But would the boys have even wanted that? And if Future Dean would have told him, last night would never have happened. Having two Dean's and caring for them both hurt Castiel's head.
"So we all have a weapon," Sam muses, "Guess it's not going to be too difficult then but we're still going to have to be quick."
"You've still got your wings right?" Dean asks, waiting for Castiel to nod before adding, "So you're quicker than us. You can flit around between the demons, killing them way faster than me or Sam."
"Yes," Castiel nods, "While I am killing the demons, you should try and locate the colt. They will have it in their possession so it will be in the building somewhere."
Dean nods in approval, "That okay Sammy?"
"Yeah, let's go," Sam stands next to Dean, Ruby's blade in his hand, Zachariah's blade in Dean's.
Castiel takes them around the corner from the building, somewhere where the demons won't be able to see them. He supresses a smile when, even now, Sam's face flushes with surprise at being flew to locations. Castiel doubts Sam will ever get used to it.
"Hold on," Castiel tells them, placing a hand up to tell them to hold still and then he focuses on his grace, trying to pull it out to use. His grace pushes against him, squirming away from his grasp and Castiel fights the urge not to shout out in frustration.
"What are we waiting for?" Dean asks dubiously, obviously already in his fighter's frame of mind.
"I was seeing whether I could use my ability to be concealed to the naked eye but it appears that that is one of my powers that I am no longer able to use," Castiel mutters, trying to keep the grief from his voice. Now is not the time to be focusing on Castiel's waning grace.
"Wait, so you used to be able to be invisible?" Sam opens his mouth in surprise.
"Yes, but not anymore."
"Can we focus on the task at hand please?!" Dean shouts at them both.
"Yes, of course, my apologies. There are twenty demons in total. I can feel their presence but I cannot locate where they exactly are in the building."
"Shit," Dean breathes out before saying determinedly "Well, let's just go in, all guns blazing. I mean, Superman wouldn't have sent us here if he thought we were going to get completely murdered right?"
"No," Castiel says reassuringly, he at least knows that Dean survives this and he is most definitely going to ensure that Sam does too. Besides, Future Dean wouldn't have sent them to this location if Sam were to be injured by coming here.
"Okay, fly us in then Cas," Dean smiles faintly at Castiel and Castiel knows that their previous altercation is forgotten.
Castiel nods and flies them to the third floor of the building which is the top floor, in a room where there are no demons.
"Work from here to the bottom floor," Castiel whispers as quietly as possible. Dean and Sam nod, looking around them in case there is any hiding places for the demons to have put the colt. Castiel leaves them, flitting between the rooms of the top floor. It is not until the last room that he finds a demon, relaxed onto a chair, a television screen telling the news of the earthquakes and Castiel is horrified to hear the demon chuckle throatily. Castiel moves quickly and before the demon can shout out, Castiel has his hands around the demon's neck, cutting off his air supply. The demons eyes flash black as he tries to claw his way from Castiel which makes Castiel privately thank his Father for still letting him keep his angelic strength.
"Where's the colt?" Castiel hisses.
The demon just claws some more, his fingernails scraping across Castiel's face.
"You have ten seconds to inform me where the colt is. If not, I will kill you," Castiel warns, already feeling blood seep from the scratches on his face.
"No," the demon manages to gasp out so Castiel pushes the blade into the demon's neck, knowing that it will hurt. He prays for the human who the demon had possessed, hoping they are at peace in Heaven.
He turns to find Sam and Dean standing in the doorway, waiting for Castiel.
"It's not up here dude, all the rooms are empty," Dean whispers, his eyes slightly pained as he looks at Castiel although Castiel is unsure why until he feels the blood fall from his face. The demon had clawed deeply but Castiel knows he will survive from a slight scratch.
Castiel just nods in reply to Dean and gestures them to follow him down the stairs. It is then that they are ambushed by fifteen demons, their eyes black in anger. Castiel surges forward, hoping that Sam and Dean can handle themselves, relying on that fact. He stabs demon after demon efficiently, hearing Sam and Dean fighting with the demons behind him.
It's at this point that he sees the colt, placed indifferently on a table at the far end of the room. Castiel doesn't even have time to think about how truly idiotic these demons are, that they would place something so sacred out in the open like that, as he flits to the colt, placing it in his pocket quickly.
A demon pushes him from behind, Castiel's head hitting the wall forcefully, denting the wall with a crack. Castiel turns swiftly, the demon throwing hard punches his way and Castiel feels his nose break yet again. Castiel swings blindly with his blade and luckily scrapes the demon in the stomach causing him to stagger back screaming. Castiel rushes forward, hitting the demon in the heart this time, the demon dropping to the ground quickly. Two demons are on him instantly, one finding his way behind him, holding his shoulders still as the other demon pushes a knife into his abdomen. A white hot pain bursts through his stomach and he cries out unwillingly, thrashing against the demon. He pulls out of the demons grasp and somehow manages to kill the two demons in his blind rage, his blade drenched in blood. It is only then that he fully feels the effects of his wound, his head swimming as he loses blood fast. He falls to his knees realising he can't fight any more. If a demon were to attack him now, he would fall to the floor and let them.
"A little help Cas!" Dean shouts frantically from the other room.
Castiel snaps his eyes open and forces himself to stand. He ignores the pure sense of utter pain and forces himself to run into the other room, seeing Dean and Sam grappling away demons with their blade and knife, trying to push away any demons from getting too close. Castiel surges forward, killing the demons alongside Sam and Dean, stabbing them with the blade harshly, body after body falling until there are none left standing. Castiel knows it is only his undeterred angelic strength that allows him to do so.
"Son of a bitch," Dean growls and Castiel, his heart thudding worriedly, can hear the pain in Dean's voice, knows that he is injured.
Castiel wraps the trench coat around him to try to conceal the deep wound in his stomach before turning around to face Dean who is holding his shoulder. He strides over, feeling his intestines bleed out but ignoring it because he needs to heal Dean. He will worry about himself later.
"You got the colt?" Dean asks.
"Yes," Castiel manages to say, his breathing heavy. He can only try and make Dean and Sam think it's purely down to fighting, rather than him being injured.
He places a quivering hand over Dean's shoulder, ignoring Dean's wince and heals him.
Nothing happens.
"I- I can't heal you," Castiel gasps, recoiling back.
Dean soothes, "Hey, its okay Cas, just take us back to the motel alright? Sam can fix me up, it's okay."
Castiel flies them to the motel, leaving the colt with them and before Dean and Sam can realise that they've been transported he departs, using his last bout of energy to go where he so needs to be.
Dean.
