After a two day car trip to get Georgia, and then an entire day working on the hunt, the four of them slept in the next morning, exhausted. The remainder of the day was to be spent watching movies and eating Chinese take-out, recouping from the hunt in preparation for yet another two day drive back to Bobby's.
Emerging from the bathroom together, and earning a curiously arched brow from
Charlie for it, Dean waved his phone at Cas. "You mind if I make a phone call?" he asked pointing to the door.
"Would you like privacy?" the other man questioned.
A shrug. "No, I just… if you sit at the table, it should let me be just right on the other side
of the door, so you three can still talk or watch tv."
Cas nodded and Dean ducked out the door.
Charlie looked at Sam and then to Cas, pointing toward the bathroom. "So are you two, like, actually together now and I missed it? Or-?"
Sam snorted, muttering, "They might as well be" under his breath.
Cas shook his head, looking fond and sad in one. "No. That's- it's part of what Dean did to save me when my siblings tore out my grace. His soul is my anchor until mine stabilizes. The first few days we actually had to be in almost constant physical contact, now we have to stay within a few feet of each other until it finishes. We've worked out a system."
"So the bed sharing and the book you were both reading?" He inclined his head and she nodded. "You actually can't be that far away from each other for that long." He shook his head and she whistled. "I thought… I dunno, he was being overprotective or something yesterday, but he was being literal."
Cas shrugged. "It is a temporary inconvenience to keep me alive and on earth."
She looked toward the door. "So I guess he's checking in with Bobby?"
"Probably Lisa," Sam said, hazel eyes focused on the door like he were trying to see or hear beyond it. "At least this time he's not dropping a bombshell."
The red head's expression lit up in recognition. "Oh! Oh! I know that name!" She snapped her fingers repeatedly, eyes flitting back and forth as she searched her memory. She pointed triumphantly at Sam. "Lisa! Yoga instructor Dean had a weekend fling with years ago, then later on went to hook up with after he sold his soul, except she was more settled down a bit, being a single mother and all, and they parted amicably. You ended up saving her and her son from mouth-babies."
The hunter arched a brow. "I see you've found the books Chuck wrote."
She shrugged. "There was a display." She pivoted to regard Cas better, head tilted to the side. "So, he's just, what? Chatting with his ex-booty call from forever ago while basically being married to you?"
Castiel blinked with a start, his face becoming instantly closed off as he glanced out the window, to the form pacing and gesturing on the other side of the thin curtains. The former angel heard him laughing and it caused a pang of something bittersweet in his chest.
"Dean and I are strictly friends," he told Charlie, looking back at her. "Despite the circumstances you have currently found us in, our relationship is entirely platonic friendship. Dean saved my soul, just as I saved his from Hell. He did so by tying his soul to mine, just as I used my grace to repair his once."
Sam sighed and rubbed at his forehead, sounding exhausted when he spoke. "Also, Lisa is not a bootycall-" Charlie arched a disbelieving brow, and Sam nodded, "Okay, maybe originally, but Dean ended up dating her after I died and we stopped the Apocalypse, and they keep in touch now."
"You died?" she said, throwing her hands up and waving them frantically to stop him. "Whoa, back up. I am not that far in the books. You died stopping the Apocalypse? And what was Dean talking about you being possessed by Satan yesterday?"
Sucking in a breath, Sam rubbed a hand over his face and then through his hair. "I… it was part of the plan to stop Lucifer. I had to say 'yes' to being his vessel, then took back control of my body and jumped in the portal Dean opened. I 'died' in the sense that I should have died, or was expected to, to be trapped in the Cage along with Michael and Lucifer. Afterward, Dean went and found Lisa to start a new life."
The girl on the other bed angled her head. "So what happened?" She wiggled her fingers in his direction. "You are clearly not so much with the dead at the moment."
He shook his head. "We're not entirely sure. Dean saw me jump in the Cage. A week later I was dumped comatose on the floor of Bobby's library. God's the only one that could swing something like that. He's intervened before, but we never get the opportunity to question him about it."
"So God brought you back?" she asked, her eyebrows almost meeting her hairline.
Cas shook his head. "There is no other conceivable alternative to consider."
"Then what about Dean and Lisa?" she questioned, hooking her thumb over her shoulder at the man outside.
"Dean was not made aware of Sam's survival until several months later, after he found books published under Chuck's name and called me in order to try and keep what he thought was a prophecy of the future from coming to play," Cas explained.
She looked aghast. "Dudes, why the hell not? He must have been losing his mind." They both dropped their gazes guiltily and Charlie shook her head again, looking even more confused. "And I am still not understanding the whole Dean going find Lisa and them dating. Where's the logic?"
"I begged him to," Sam admitted, "thinking if left on his own he'd get himself killed." His eyes flicked to Cas and then back to Charlie and he waved dismissively. "I sent him to someone that I knew would get him out of the life and would keep him alive."
He didn't say anything about how they'd both been so desperate and scared at the time, so weighed down and tired, that trying to live the apple pie life had been an easy escape from everything trying to pull them into play, from Heaven and Hell's decades of manipulation and scheming. The idea of apple pie suburbia had appealed so much to both of them back then because what other life could be further removed from their own, could possibly be safer? Sam had told Dean to run, to run far and fast, and to not look back.
And Dean had done it, even when they both knew that life wasn't Dean. Hell, it wasn't even Sam, but it was the idea of freedom that made them want it so badly.
Still, clearly confused, Charlie opened her mouth, but was cut off as Dean came back in the room, talking on the phone and snapping his fingers for their attention. Cas straightened in his seat, while Charlie and Sam both immediately changed their expressions so as to not give anything away.
"O-okay, hold on, Becky, let me put you on speaker phone," Dean said as he fiddled with the device and moved to take a seat at the table with Cas. They all eyed the phone curiously. "Go ahead, Becky."
The girl on the other end of the phone sucked in a deep breath. "They need context. Lisa asked you how much longer you'd be a girl, you called me to see if I found anything about Chuck, I said 'no'. You asked if there was any chance that Gabbie was actually Gabriel in disguise-"
"And you said…" Dean prompted, meeting his brother's gaze and pointed significantly to the phone. A smirk curled the corner of Sam's mouth.
"And I said 'no', that she is not, but that Gabriel isn't actually dead, he's MIA per God's instructions. The notes don't say where he is, but that Gabriel knew it would only be a matter of time before he got pulled into the fight with his family and there was a good chance he would end up dead, therefore he went into the past to have a chat with himself in order to have a protégée take over as the new Trickster upon his demise."
"Except…"
"Except," she allowed, "that she isn't just his protégée, she's his daughter. Half archangel, half pagan god, new Trickster, since the role is handed down. No word of who the mother is."
"Which means…"
Sam was sure she rolled her eyes in exasperation then. "Which means you can use a summoning ritual for the Trickster and bring her to you for an update and ask her how much longer you're stuck in that body."
Dean whooped and punched air in triumph, making Sam duck his head in a laugh.
On her end of the phone, Becky rolled her eyes again. "Which you might not want to do, I would point out. She is searching for Chuck, so if she's close to closing in on him and you summon her to your location, she may lose the trail and that's that much longer you are stuck as a woman, and possibly Sam ends up as a girl or something, for having inconvenienced her a second time by yanking her away from her hunt."
"Why didn't you say that a minute ago?" demanded Dean angrily.
"You didn't give me a chance," she snapped back at him.
On the nightstand, Sam's phone beeped and he picked it up, thumbing open the text message and reading it.
"So basically I am no closer to being a guy again than I was before I called."
"Them's the breaks," she said cheerfully, causing him to scowl. "Which, you know, might be for the best while you are still acting to stabilize Castiel's soul. The magic might make it… wonky, and endanger Cas."
His scowl morphed into something far more dangerous. "You knew they were gonna rip out his grace and you didn't-"
"I already told you, Dean," she interjected impatiently. "I cannot tell you the future without risking changing the outcome and putting you in even greater danger. From my end, it was cut and dry: potential bad that turns out okay. Cas wasn't taken away from you and he survived. I wasn't risking that by calling to give you a heads up on the H.B.I.C from upstairs!"
Glaring furiously, Dean snatched up the phone and switched it off speaker, shoving to his feet and slamming the door behind him as he went outside, jabbing his finger angrily at the air as
he snarled into the phone.
All eyes shifted to Cas, who gave them an apologetic smile, rose, and went outside after him. Sam and Charlie watched their obscured forms through the curtains, Dean clearly audible as he told Becky everything her lack of warning had cost the angel, what being human was subjecting him to, making him vulnerable to. His words were abruptly cut off when Cas came up behind him and plucked the phone away, speaking quietly into it a moment before pocketing it and regarding the blond before him.
Dean had his head turned away and wasn't looking at him, arms folded protectively, and shoulders hunched forward. Charlie could hear the low murmur of Castiel's voice, but couldn't make out the words. Still, it was obvious what the conversation was about.
Lips twisted, Charlie turned her head to regard Sam. "I realize they haven't gotten the memo, or are in denial or something, but you realize they're in love with each other right? Not that whole 'we only have platonic friendship' thing?" He looked up from his phone, expression falling as he bit his bottom lip. Charlie blinked. "Right?"
The brunette let his tongue sweep over his lips, gaze flicking to the two people talking outside the room. "I… thought?" He sighed and ran a hand through his hair. "Charlie, you have to understand: they have been friends for more than two years now, at one point I was certain Dean cared about Cas beyond friendship, that it was mutual. I mean, you haven't even seen the intense staring thing they do, but then…" He gestured vaguely, sighing in frustration.
She shook her head. "Then what? What happened?"
"Nothing happened," Sam insisted. "That's just it. Nothing happened, neither one of them acted on it. I don't know if it was because Cas was the first guy Dean felt that way about, or Cas as an angel had never been in love either and didn't recognize it to act on it, but I second-guessed myself. I mean, maybe that's normal given their relationship, Cas saving Dean from Hell and putting him back together, Dean teaching Cas how to think for himself and exercise free will, maybe that's just them, I thought. A friendship unlike any other on earth, born from circumstances unlike any other on earth. It's why I sent him to Lisa, he could have a normal life with her, a safe life."
She frowned, considering this. "But, and no offense, Sam, had you not pushed him on Lisa, he and Cas might would have already figured things out between them and he still would have been okay after losing you. I mean, I get what you were trying to do, I guess, but from what I've read in the books throwing him at Lisa made no sense."
"I wanted him out of this life. I wanted him to have something normal and safe. We both wanted it, and he could have had it. We were running scared at the time, Charlie." He waved a hand. "He and I already had a blow up about it. I was wrong, but I was also desperate, terrified that after I was gone what that would do to Dean. Not to just lose his brother, but under those circumstances." He sighed and looked at the people on the other side of the glass. "Maybe this is their second chance. Maybe everything that's happened and is still happening is what it'll take for them to realize what they feel. To properly name it."
Shaking his head, he said, "When I died, it nearly destroyed Dean, but he made it through, held himself together and changed his life choices for the sake of those who were then dependent on him. He survived, and I don't know if it's in part because of the way we were raised, always knowing that we could lose the other, because of how many times we had lost the other or what, but…" he trailed off, gaze distant. "I don't think he could survive losing Cas, and I think… I think maybe Dean knows it, too, even if he doesn't exactly know why."
His phone beeped in his hand some more, and he opened the first message just as Dean and Cas reentered the room.
Eyes tracking them worriedly as Dean came in and flopped down on the bed, Charlie hedged, "Everything okay?"
"Great," answered Dean, turning on the TV. "Cas is gonna take us all to Disney World where we'll dress up as our favorite characters and go live in Cinderella's castle."
"I said no such thing," stated Cas, brow raised.
Charlie thrust a hand into the air. "I call dibs on Han Solo!"
Dean lifted his head to look at her. "You can't call dibs on Han. One, Disney doesn't own
Star Wars-"
"Yet, but they will. I have people. They tell me things," she said conspiratorially.
Dean rolled his eyes and continued. "Two, if anyone is going as Han Solo, it's me."
She shook her head. "Sorry, Dean. Called dibs. Pick someone else."
"Fine, then I get to be Obi Wan. Our lives could use Jedi mind powers."
"If you're still a girl when we go, we could dress you like Rapunzel and you can chase people around with an iron skillet," she told him. "Very effective against ghosts and people alike."
Dean laughed.
"Uh, hey, not to interrupt this profound, life-altering conversation," interjected Sam, waving a hand as he continued to read through the messages on his phone. He ignored the way Charlie and Dean simultaneously declared him Luke Skywalker. "Sarah just emailed me, and we have a case waiting for us in Indiana. An estate sale with some potentially cursed objects that don't need to fall into civilian hands."
Growling in frustration, Dean shot his brother a look. "Dude! Going to ground. Medical
Leave. Is any of this ringing a bell for you? We are not on active duty right now!"
Nodding, Sam read over the email again. "Which the bad things heard about and are obviously going on vacation because of. Sarah says she'll meet us in Indiana." He thumbed open another message. "Also, Bobby said a couple of hunters came by the house looking for us."
His brother frowned. "…I take it they weren't Team Winchester?"
Sam shook his head, meeting his brother's gaze. "Not even a little. Sheriff had to be called. Apparently they had a pow-wow once Jody got there, though. They still had to call both Sarah and Garth as character witnesses before the hunters believed him."
Groaning, Dean scrubbed his hands over his face. Nodding his agreement, Sam continued, "But get this… we at least know for certain where the rumors are coming from now." His brother straightened with interest. "Meg found out that infected demons started the rumor, and that other demons spread it trying to get us killed."
"Tch. Figures. Demons, man. Forever messing up our lives." He scratched the back of his scalp in irritation, before demanding, "What about Crowley having put us on the 'Do Not Call' list?"
Shrugging, Sam set his phone aside again. "They're on their own, I think. And considering Meg found any of this out makes me think she found the parties responsible or is on their trail. This is at least one less thing we'll have to worry about soon, anyway, what with the mass genocide she and Crowley are committing to get ahead of the spread of the disease."
Snorting, Dean shook his head. "Well, it's about time our luck changed. Why can't we ever have good things happen to us? We don't ever get nice things."
Snapping her fingers, Charlie let out a loud 'oh!' and dug out her phone, playing with it a minute before her gaze fell to Dean. His phone buzzed in Cas' pocket. The angel dug it out and handed it to Dean, who accepted it glancing questioningly at Charlie. She wiggled her eyes brows in response, grinning. He looked at the screen, blinked and chuckled, thumb hitting a few buttons before sliding his phone into his pocket and grinning at her.
"You cannot be trusted to be left unsupervised."
"You three were right there. And you just said you wanted nice things done for you. Voilà."
His eyes sparkled at the joke only they got, of the photo of Cas now saved to his phone. "You are very sneaky. I ought to stick you on a bus back to Bobby's."
She turned up her nose. "See if I do you anymore favors. I'll put myself on a bus once we get to Indiana."
"Do I want to know what you two are up to?" questioned Cas.
Dean grinned at him. "Probably for the best you don't know," he admitted.
Sam gave Charlie a questioning look, brows drawn and head tilted. She winked in response and nudged Dean with a socked foot, gaining his attention.
"So who would Cas dress up as at Disney World?"
The trip to Indiana was much like the one to Georgia in that despite the long car ride, they went to work almost as soon as they got there. Sam and Sarah had already gotten ready for their part of the case and left for the evening, while Dean and Cas were forced to wait for dark to fall to take on their end.
"I'll be really glad to finally have my guy body back," sighed Dean, running a brush through his now dry hair and regarding his reflection in the motel's bathroom mirror contemplatively. "Getting ready will be faster, for one."
Finishing buttoning his navy blue shirt, Cas glanced at him from his position leaning against the door frame, eyes raking over the hunter's form and then to where Dean continued brushing his hair. Dean caught the expression that flitted over the former angel's face before he'd looked away.
"What?" questioned the blond, setting the hairbrush aside and leaning with his hip against the counter. The angel gave a slight shake of his head; Dean arched a brow. "Do you agree with Meg or something? Think this form suits me? Am I the only person who likes me as a guy?"
The other man glared at him. "I said no such thing. Your form doesn't matter, Dean. You're still you, I was just thinking, that's all."
"About what?"
Cas' expression turned thoughtful a moment, then his gaze shifted to Dean. "I'm not sure you would appreciate my saying it." The blond crossed his arms and fixed his friend with a pointed stare, waiting. Rolling his eyes, Cas sighed. "While I will be glad when you are able to get back to the form you prefer, I think I will also miss this form as well." He turned, head angled as he fully regarded Dean. "It is still apart of you, still you, though different. I do agree with Meg that you are lovely in this form." His eyes played over the hunter's face and long hair falling around his shoulders. "What form you take doesn't matter to me, but there are little things about this one I will miss, is all."
Resisting the urge to flush with embarrassment, Dean tried to reverse his thinking, to see things from Cas' perspective, how he would feel were Cas suddenly in a new vessel. He would still be Cas while looking different, but yeah… Dean would miss his current form as well.
Corner of his mouth curling in a smile, the hunter clapped a hand on the other man's shoulder as he stepped past him and into the motel room. "I'd miss you, too, if you suddenly changed faces. I'm kinda use to this one."
He glanced at the clock by the bed. The sun had set a little while ago and Charlie already called to let them know she had made it to Bobby's. Sam and Sarah were probably just getting to the Margaret
Stark gallery for the auction- and to cause one of the pieces to mysteriously disappear before it went up for bid. Sucking in a deep breath, Dean glanced at Cas.
"Well. You ready for our part in the heist?"
The angel inclined his head. "It sounds like we have the easy part."
"We do," agreed Dean, shrugging into his jacket. "They have to dress up and do all the schmoozing and socializing. You and I just have to break into an antique shop and steal a music box." He opened the door, frowning out into the light rain. "Grab that pocket umbrella Sarah forgot. I'm not letting you catch a cold your first couple of weeks as a human. You'll probably think you're dying."
Snorting, Cas rolled his eyes, but did as told, even while arguing, "Dean, I hardly think a common human ailment could possibly make me think I'm dying."
Dean gave him a look over the roof of the car. "Says the man who's never been sick. Oh God, are you even up to date on all your shots and vaccinations?" The angel shook his head and shrugged, making Dean sigh as they got in the car. "I guess that's what we do once we get back to Bobby's. And get you inked. As soon as we get back to Bobby's," he insisted, pointing to the angel and pulling out of the motel parking lot.
As they drove toward the small downtown area, Dean continued to speak, "We'll teach you how to B and E later, you can just be lookout tonight because the store is right there at a corner."
"It's unfortunate we're unable to break in through a back entrance."
"Tell me about it. I just want to finish and then head back home in the morning. Once we do, we are going to ground if I have to lock us all in the panic room."
The man in the passenger seat glanced at him from the corner of his eye. "Isn't that a bit extreme?"
He spared him a flat look. "Cas. We decided to go to ground, what? A week ago? Two? And what happened?" He began counting off on his fingers. "You're siblings showed up and ripped out your grace, then Charlie came to us with a case- even though you and I are on dire medical leave, and now Sarah has called us and needs our help rounding up cursed objects that went into an estate sale and auction."
The corner of Cas' mouth curled into a smile as he inclined his head. "You'd be very bored by now had you been allowed to go to ground like you wanted."
Dean snorted. "Whatever. Bobby would have us working on his neglected To-Do list that's probably five miles long by now." He snorted again, shaking his head in disbelief. "And even with all the research we are doing, and the calls coming in, we still have absolutely nothing to explain why monsters are acting out, the cause of the demon disease, or where the hell the prophets have disappeared to and why."
"I fear we will not like the answer even when we finally have it."
"When do we ever? But at least then we would have something to work toward. All we have now is a map filled with colored pins and notebooks filled with details about each of them."
They parked a couple of blocks away from the antique store at a coffee shop. On the mostly empty streets where all the shops were already closed down, a random parked car would probably draw undue attention.
The off-and-on drizzle of the evening had temporarily stopped again, Cas reluctantly carrying the collapsed umbrella in one hand as they made their way down the damp sidewalks. As they reached the corner store, Dean pointed Cas to a spot to stand, with instructions to lean back against the building and look like he were waiting for someone rather than acting as lookout.
Dean rounded the corner to the front of the store, regarding it a moment. They'd only had time to come by earlier to see where it was, too busy with other things that had to be done first, before they could come back when it was dark and the streets mostly clear.
He let his gaze travel over the place, the collection of pieces and memories that probably all once held meaning and sentimental value to someone, and now were only worth an overpriced sticker based on when they were made and how well they'd been taken care of. The only thing Dean held of any value in the store cluttered with antiques was the deadly piece of inventory that was innocently disguised as small music box.
There would be no getting it tonight, he could tell at first glance. The store front was completely glass, and with so much stuff, they would have to search for it. It would be best to come back during store hours, pretending to be lawyers for the deceased's estate, there to reclaim property that had not been within the seller's rights to get rid of.
Dean let his gaze shift from looking through the glass to looking at it, just as the light drizzle from earlier began to fall again. His reflection stared back and he regarded her. The face staring back at him would be missed, though he'd never admit it. He could see his mother in his face, could see what his sister would have looked like if Mary had had a little girl to be looked after by her two older sons.
He'd never realized how much of his mother was in him until he'd gotten this body, and the reminder of it hurt. Not just the way he looked reminded him of his mother, but it made him realize that for as many years as Dean had tried to emulate his father, had tried to live up to and forever failed to meet his dad's expectations of him, that it was probably because he had too much Mary in him. He was grateful for it in retrospect.
Movement in the reflection behind him caught his eye, the sight of a beat cop making him swear internally. Sighing, he let his folded arms fall to his sides, noting the way the cop's gaze was fixed on him. Without revealing he'd seen the cop, Dean turned and made his way back to Cas, watching the cop move to follow. Well, fuck.
Waiting until he'd cleared the corner, Dean grabbed Cas by the hand and took off running.
"We've been made," he hissed, the angel easily matching stride as they darted down the sidewalk, the cop much louder behind them as he hurried to try and catch up.
Dean darted down an alley, trying to lose the cop before he could actually see they were running from him. The guy was quick, but loud, as opposed to Dean and Cas who were both trained to move silently.
There was a ninja joke in there somewhere waiting to be made that Dean would have to think on later. He led Cas around another corner, their grips tight. They drew closer to the coffee shop as the light mist turned into a soft rain, and Dean's panic started to kick into high gear.
They hadn't actually been trying to break into the store yet, casing it sure, and the cop had only seen Dean, but if they got in the car and took off, that would make the situation worse. Currently, if the cop did catch up with them, they couldn't really be charged with anything, though the cop was more than likely going to take them in and hold them overnight just to be an ass.
Were it just Dean, he wouldn't care about spending the night in a holding cell, but he really didn't want to get Cas arrested during his first weeks of being human either. Also? Fucking rain.
The umbrella.
Dean was struck with sudden inspiration, that on pain of death he would never tell Sam, a plan that would probably cause him to spend weeks unable to look Cas in the eye. Skidding to a halt at the corner of the coffee shop, Dean grabbed the umbrella from Cas' hand, tossing it out to let it extend and blossom as he dragged Castiel back with him until Dean's back was pressed against the bricks at the corner of the building, gaze casting toward the alley where any second the cop would appear. Cas was looking at him in confusion, a half-formed question on his lips, even as Dean reached up and around the back of the angel's neck with his left hand, barely managing a fervent, "I'm really sorry about this, Cas," before he pulled the other man in and kissed him, throwing the arm that held the umbrella around Cas' shoulders so that the opened cover would shield them from sight, and that-hopefully- the cop would run right past them.
That had been the plan, had been what he expected. An awkward, impromptu kiss to keep them from getting arrested and spending a night in a holding cell at best, or having to call Bobby or Sam to bail them out at worst, followed by profuse apologies and possibly even food bribes for forgiveness, while he and Cas avoided eye contact and silently agreed never to speak of the incident again.
He did not expect the fire that ignited in his veins and under his skin that had him pushing up onto his toes, truly clutching at Castiel now, trying to get closer as he crushed their mouths together. Did not expect Cas to react just as strongly, groaning into the kiss, one arm snaking around Dean's waist, holding their bodies flush against each other, his free hand burying itself in the blond's hair
This was nothing like a first kiss, nothing like an impromptu kiss between friends who were only trying to go unnoticed by the cops. The kiss was desperate, like they'd both been starved for it and denied for too long. Dean was lost to anything outside of them, didn't notice when the cop did, in fact, run right by them, or when the umbrella slipped from his grip so he could use both hands to hold onto Cas, oblivious to the light rain hitting them, one hand gripping the fabric at Cas' shoulder, his other hand still in the short, dark hair and not letting go.
Then it came to a shattering end as someone loudly cleared their throat.
The police officer had circled back, and now stood impatiently with his arms folded, panting and wearing an expression that said exactly how much trouble they were in.
Their mouths tore apart and the two of them stared at each other in shock, wide-eyed and slack-jawed, still pressed hard against each other and breathing heavily, unable to compose a thought or try to understand what the hell had just happened.
They still ended up locked in adjacent holding cells. The silence hung heavy in the air between them as they sat on the metal benches, backs pressed against the cinderblock wall, and separated by a metal grate divider.
Dean sat with one leg folded and the other drawn up, arms looped around it. He had his head angled back against the cool wall, gaze focused on the stains on the ceiling, trying very hard to not allow his brain to think. Kiss aside, which they weren't talking about ever if Dean got his way, his belief that he ruined everything he touched was forever gaining supporting evidence. Not only was it Dean's fault that Cas was human, but now he'd been arrested within his first two weeks of his newly mortal status. Nothing says "Welcome to Humanity!" quite like spending the night in a holding cell.
They were just being held, rather than being charged; there was nothing they could be charged with other than loitering, and Dean had explained that they didn't run from the cop, hadn't even realized the officer was giving chase, but that they were simply on a date, obviously, and could they please have their one phone call because Deanna's brother and his girlfriend were expecting them, and would be really worried if they didn't check in!
Sam and Sarah were currently at the antique store finishing the job with help from the married witches Sarah was friends with and worked for.
"I'll miss looking in the mirror and seeing traces of my mother's face," Dean confessed impulsively. Cas turned his head to regard him. The blond gestured vaguely. "I never realized it before, I guess. I don't look exactly like her, but I definitely look more like her than my dad, especially like this." He frowned. "We only have a couple of pictures of her. Dad kept one in his wallet. I have one." His throat constricted, and he had to swallow hard to speak. "Sometimes, I wonder if I would remember what she looked like without them." He was quiet a long moment. "Then all this happened, and one day I saw her out of the corner of my eye. …I turned to look and saw my reflection in the glass of the window."
The former angel regarded him for a long moment, the silence stretching out. Finally, he said, "I fear I would only miss inconsequential things."
Finally, Dean did look at him. "Like what?"
"The smell of your shampoo." The blond blinked with a start, making Cas smile and turn away, leaning his head back. "Like this, your hair is one of my favorite features… I can't precisely say why. So many shades of gold and sunlight, then with the hair products Sam bought you that smell like honey and sunflowers… I'll miss it."
A blush creeping over his face, a snort of laughter escaped Dean as he returned to his previous posture. "The shampoo and conditioner Sam bought to tease me with is what you'll miss?" he chuckled, casting a sideways glance over into the other cell, finding Cas doing the same. "You use the same stuff, Cas."
The other man shrugged and returned his gaze to the ceiling. "It's only something I associate fondly with you. Makes me think of our being stuck on Bobby's sofa, and you showing me how an engine works. It reminds me of doing research and drinking coffee on the porch." Whether he realized it or not, a fond smile crept over the angel's lips as he spoke, recalling all the memories just the scent of Dean's shampoo made him think of. It made Dean's heart throb, and he began to wonder if there wasn't a lot more to what he felt for Cas than just friendship and familial loyalty, or even attraction. It wasn't nearly as scary a thing to be questioning as he'd have once thought it would be.
"I'm sorry I got you arrested."
He heard a huff of laughter and grinned when Cas said, "It's just one more story to add to
the rest."
Dean turned to look at him and they grinned at each other.