As Sam continued with his solo career, Cas began to take his spot by Dean's side. They were seen at parties and premieres and clubs, laughing together, in each other's space, sharing a cab. Rumors abounded that they'd finally acted on the long-running tension that had been the subject of much speculation. Cas had never had a girlfriend, or boyfriend, while a member of Free Will. There'd been the handsome British cellist, Balthazar Todd, who had been particularly handsy at a concert in which they'd both performed, but no confirmed attachments. A tabloid printed pictures of them at Dean's ranch, blurry long-distance shots of them eating on the deck. Bobby Singer tracked down the photographer and had him charged with trespassing.
All of this only made it the more shocking when Perez Hilton posted a picture of Cas and Crowley standing together at a Grammy afterparty, Crowley's hand on Cas's sleeve, with some puerile blurb about Cas' always-ambiguous sexuality. "I am not currently dating Liam Crowley, nor am I leaving the Singer Music Agency," was his response to a deluge of questions from both media and fans. "As if Cas would get into bed with that douchebag," Dean tweeted. "In either sense."
Two weeks later, audiooffreewill, a longtime fan in L.A., tweeted a picture link of a single sheet of paper. A call sheet from Crossroads Entertainment, reserving studio time for the remastering of archive item #2433, which, as everyone knew from the scant information available from the Zhel days, was the file number of the Lost Album.
Twitter exploded. The music blogs exploded. Free Will message boards went nuclear. The picture of Cas and Crowley was everywhere, and the official press release from Crossroads was vague in the extreme, talking about 'necessary maintenance of archive materials.' audiooffreewill tweeted twice more and then went radio silent. "It's legit, from a Xroads employee, not syng who don't want 'em to lose their job." "Don't know anythng about Cas, all I got is a paper peeps." The riot of speculation went on for two days, and then Crossroads released a second press package. There was a lot of fluff about 'the heritage of this great band' and 'synergy of the moment' but the basic gist was this: the Lost Album was going to be released, with archival photos and other material from that time period.
And Castiel Novak had partnered with Crossroads to produce it.
Fallout was immediate and divisive. The message boards and fansites were polarized between Cas supporters who wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt, and die-hard old-school fans who vilified him for his 'betrayal'. Those in the middle whose focus was, "Can't we just be happy that we are finally getting the album?" were shouted down by both sides.
Worse news followed. Dean and Sam hired a lawyer to try and stop the release of the album. Crowley grinned at the cameras and spouted about how "the boys were getting their fair cut," and "really, given John Winchester's original contract with Zhel, they're lucky they're getting a dime." Cas was seen once at a cafe, looking pale and tired and hunted, and then went into isolation. Dean went radio silent on social media. Sam released a public statement on both his and Dean's behalf, a terse, PR blurb about unfortunate circumstances and hoping they could resolve things amicably.
The court case dragged on for months, while Cas took a beating in the media and refused to give interviews or tell his side of the story. Dean and Sam were suddenly together everywhere, looking grim and torn up, Dean especially. Gabe and Rufus and nearly everyone from Free WIll's past popped up to talk to People or Rolling Stone or even the rags about Cas and Dean, and the band's history. Jo Harvelle and Ash were the exceptions, and the ones that reporters were most eager to nail down. They'dplayed on the Lost Album. But Jo was retired from the business, running a bar in Nebraska with her mom, and profoundly uninterested in raking over the coals of her once-fame. Ash had up and vanished, literally. Damon Zhel had died of liver failure in 2009, John Winchester of course was answering no questions. All the mystery around the Lost Album remained, which only drove people more crazy.
Sam and Dean lost the court case in the end. The Lost Album was released on May 6, 2011. And nearly all our questions were answered.
