Chapter 10: This Place about to BLOW-O-O-OH!
(Sam's Perspective)
Sam and Charlie exchanged a nervous glance. They were standing outside of the hotel's door. Sam had rarely seen Castiel look so panicked. Something must be seriously wrong. Dean had been acting a little off lately. Maybe he had done or said something a little odd, and Cass was overreacting. He took a deep breath, and swiped the key. Charlie nodded at him with pursed lips, and they stood together as they opened the door. Sam shoved Charlie out of the way as a beer bottle flew towards them.
Dean was standing in the middle of the room, breathing heavily. Castiel was standing behind him towards the back of the room, looking helpless. Sam gave Castiel a questioning look before shaking his head at his brother.
"Dean, what the hell?" he asked.
"Cass left me to go and talk to you guys!" Dean said.
"What the hell are you talking about?" Sam asked.
"He was gone, and when he got back he said he had been with you, discussing the case!" He made the last part sound like something obscene, or disgusting. Sam and Charlie looked at one another with raised eyebrows.
"Dean, what is wrong with you?" Sam asked, approaching his brother the way he had approached stray dogs before.
"Wrong?" Dean laughed, and it was a little hysterical. "Wrong?" he shook his head, his eyes wide. "Oh no, nothing is wrong, Sammy, nothing at all," Dean said sarcastically. "You just acted all supportive of me, only to take Castiel away from me!"
"What the hell are you talking about?" Charlie asked.
"He left!" Dean yelled. "He left to talk to you guys about the stupid case!"
"Dean, I was only gone a few moments. Besides, I thought we agreed that the case is important," Castiel interjected.
"Important?" Dean whipped around towards Cass, yelling. "Cass, what could be more important than us?"
"Um..."
"I thought you cared about me!"
"Dean, I do care about you, I just think you are acting a bit irrationally." Sam moved to sit down at the table, and in an instant, Castiel was shoving him to the ground.
The angel dove faster than Sam could move. They both toppled to the ground. Sam gasped, pushing the wrinkled material of the tan trench coat out of his face, and standing up.
"Cass, what the hell?"
"Don't sit there, Sam!" Castiel said, standing up as well.
"Yeah, I got that." Charlie was pulling what looked like a firecracker out from under the chair. She gasped, realizing that the end was lit, and struggled with the window.
It would not open. Sam hurried to help her tug it up. With their combined strength, they managed to get it to open. Charlie tossed the firecracker outside, and a moment later there was a loud bang from the parking lot. Sam turned to stare at his big brother.
"Dean, that could have blown me up!"
"Well, I was about to get blown, Sammy, and you two C-blockers took Cass away from me!" Dean yelled.
"Dean, we weren't taking Cass away from you. I promise you. We are happy for you." He felt like he was a police officer talking to someone holding people ransom in a bank, or maybe like he was trying to talk someone out of jumping off of a building.
"Yeah!" Charlie said. Her voice was way too high pitched, and she was smiling too wide. "We are super duper triple quadruple happy for you guys!"
"Are you just saying that?" Dean was glaring at them. He was crouched sort of like a wild animal.
"Yes!" Sam and Charlie said at the same time. Dean seemed to relax just a little. He nodded, standing up straight.
"Yeah, well, good," he said. He wrapped an arm around Castiel, who looked a little bit terrified. Sam couldn't blame Cass. Dean seemed to be sort of like a bomb ready to go off at any time. He was more nervous of his brother than he had been of the firecracker they had found.
"That is why we are going to give you two some alone time," Sam said.
"You are?" Castiel asked, his blue eyes were wide, and reminded Sam a bit of a deer in the headlights of a car.
Well, Sam didn't have a choice. It seemed that whatever mojo was being worked on people in the area, it had gotten to Dean. He had to figure out what the hell was going on, and that meant getting away from Dean. The only way that seemed possible was to give his brother the one thing that would distract him: A certain blue eyed angel.
"Come on, Charlie," Sam said. She was still staring at Dean. "Charlie!"
"Yep, see you guys later," she said. "Uh...have fun, I guess." She was still watching them with wide eyes as Sam tugged her by the wrist out of the room. Sam could hear the thumping sound of someone being pressed to a wall as he and Charlie left.
"Dean perhaps, we should talk before-" he could hear Castiel saying nervously. Sam and Charlie exchanged a look as Castiel's voice became muffled before he could finish.
Castiel had not been over-reacting. Dean was out of his mind. Sam and Charlie were going to have to figure something out to get Dean back to normal, or as normal as Dean ever was, and fast. If they were going to use Castiel as a distraction, it was up to the two of them to remain sane. Together they hurried away from the room.