Chapter Ten

Hope against Hope

The blankets that covered him were scratchy. Sam must have found him and he winced at his brother finding evidence of his binge drinking. It's not like Sam didn't know he drank, a lot, it's the principal of it. And he's the one who was supposed to be looking out for Sammy, not the other way around.

Dean glanced at his watch, surprised to find that it was nearly afternoon. The batcave was cool and all, but it was underground. Without the clocks, they would never know if it was day or night outside. Being hunters though, it wasn't a nine to five job so it really didn't matter. As long as he got his four hours, he's good.

Stretching and popping his back, he stood up and looked around. Figured, Sam put the bottle away somewhere. Dean realized how stupid he must seem hiding the hard stuff all over the place, but it's a habit he picked up from his father, both adoptive and biological. Dean used to hate it when John would drink himself to sleep, not thinking about him or Sammy when he was drunk. Ironic that he does the exact same thing now. "Apple didn't fall far from the tree." he mused glumly.

Walking back to the main area, he saw that no one was around. Heading to the living quarters section, he heard Sam softly snoring and Kevin was…quiet. Dean was about to knock, but he figured Kevin would be ok without him checking up on his activities. The kid has been through enough without him mothering him now, so he'll let him be.

He checked his phone, which had some voicemails. It was from Garth and Charlie, which made him morose. His circle of friends always seemed to get smaller every year. Both of them were awesome though, Garth was weird and Charlie is like a sister. Garths message was just an update on tracking Linda. Said he had a promising lead that he was following up on. Also seems the angel problem was being taken in stride by most people. Charlie's message was just calling in to check on Sam and himself. She also hoped that Cas was alright too. Dean couldn't help but smile. She never meet the angel, and here she was caring about him. She's a sister that's awesome, not like the big one snoring away.

Still, after two days of research, nothing has come up on either helping Sam or getting the angels back upstairs. They have been in binds like this before, and Dean knew that there was only so much research can yield. Usually at this point, some break would come along, but one had yet to materialize. He fleetingly thought about maybe asking Death, but Death wasn't the kind of guy you can just call up. And he really didn't want to die again. So no go on that one.

Wandering into the kitchen, he just grabbed some cereal from the shelf and poured himself a bowl. The kitchen wasn't too big, just enough to serve up to a dozen people. They had to get a microwave, but other than that, everything in here worked great. Dean even found the pots and pans. When they first moved in, he was actually looking forward to cooking. Looking at the pantry though, it was still pretty much bare. Usually they buy only what they needed for a day or two. Life on the road doesn't include long term food storage or cooking.

Figuring it was time to do some grocery shopping and a good chance to get out of here, he went get ready. Once showered and wearing relatively clean clothes, he went to his baby. The sky was a threatening grey when he stepped outside. 'Good thing I got new wiper blades,' he thought was he eased himself in the car. He turned the ignition and the Impala roared down the road.

Cas decided a couple miles back to take a more direct route to the bunker the closer he got. Once he was in Kansas itself, he made for the back roads. The Men of Letters location was not actually in Lebanon, but a bit northwest of it. He was able to see the small grove of trees where the bunker should be, but not the building near it. It was likely the bunker was hidden by a spell or charm. They certainly took many precautions, and there were wards everywhere, both in and outside the bunker. When he was still an angel, there were hidden wards as well, worked into door and even the interior. He was not able to fly in or out, but retained his grace to heal when he was inside.

He wished he had his grace still, but then he wished and hoped for many things. Now all he had was quite literally on him. Walking through the night and morning in itself made him tired. The lack of food or drink though was affecting him more though. He had not had the chance to encounter a convenience store nor restaurant. More than anything else though was his shoes. In the early morning, he just took them off. Looking at the back of his heel, he saw that it was rubbed raw and bleeding. Now in just his dress socks, he continued on, but every sharp rock was rather jarring. All these issues had a cumulative effect of slowing him down to basically a crawl. Still, he estimated that he was no more than a couple of miles away.

That's when he felt the first raindrop. So intent on reaching the bunker that he neglected to notice the weather. Looking up, the skies were an unfriendly and threatening grey. He faltered for a few moments as he remembered his dream. Was it possible it was a premonition?

"No," he said to reassure himself. He was no longer wearing shoes, he was in the dream. He knew he was being irrational though, grasping at any small variance to avert the truth of the dream. However, prophecy was not always exact and he had defied it before. Walking again with a quicker pace, he resolved to get back to Dean, if only to see him briefly, grief or not.

Dean was heading back from Concordia with some fruitful bounty in the back seat. He picked up a great deal of fresh food this go around. Sam always preferred fresh foods, always preaching about the health benefits of them. Usually, he ignored his weight watching brother with a juicy hamburger, but Sam was right. He and Kevin could stand to eat somewhat healthier.

Living with Lisa for that one year taught him a lot about buying food for a household. He got mostly just essentials, like bread, eggs and milk. Soy milk for Kevin because he was lactose intolerant, which he thought was a horrible affliction. Also the beer, always had to have a brew in the fridge. He paid in cash, not wanting to use the credit cards. One downside of the bunker was that it was a fixed location, so they couldn't use the cards often for risk of being caught. So they used their hustling winnings in town and the cards when travelling. Sometimes, just sometimes, he wished he was paid for what they did. But the worlds unfair, so what's he going to do?

The rain was really coming down now, it was only mid-afternoon but he turned on the headlights and set the wipers to their fastest speed. Driving baby always made him feel better, and he was thinking about what to make for dinner when he pulled up the path to the bunker. Letting himself out, he was about to open the back door to get the groceries when he heard something.

He whipped around with his gun drawn out, scanning for anything unusual. The rain somewhat blinded him, but he didn't see anything unusual. The bunker might be protected, but the area around the bunker was basically open game. He strained to hear anything, but all he heard was the platter of rain against the roof of the Impala.

Whereas a normal person would call out to see if anyone was in the area to see if they were alone, a hunter knows better. Now that he was on alert, he would only stand down once he checked the area out. He doesn't want anyone, or anything, snooping around their home. Walking as silently has he could manage in the rain, he headed into the tree line.

Putting his back behind a large tree, he tried to peer around it to see if anything was out there. He didn't see anything, but he had a gut feeling something was out there. He cautiously eased away from cover and made his way uphill. Then he heard a branch break to his left. He quickly went behind a tree closest to the sound and once again leaned over to see what was out there. He just caught a glimpse of something brown heading down the steep hill. Dean went up a bit more to he can have the higher ground and cocked his gun to whatever was now between the trees. All he saw was just a dirty tan overcoat and a mop of wet black hair.

He couldn't believe it, there was only one possibility of who it could be. Lowering his gun he called out, "Cas?" just loud enough to be heard over the rain. It was not possible to hide the slight tremble in his voice about the doubt and hope he had.

Cas turned around to face Dean who was up the hill by a dozen yards or so. Castiel was absolutely drenched; nothing on the poor guy was dry. Everything was sticking to him and he looked like he was shivering. Dean noticed that he wasn't wearing any shoes either. Yet, though obviously miserable, Cas squinted his eyes at him, tilted his head and said those two words he just realized he's been waiting days to hear.

"Hello Dean." Hearing Cas's gravelly deep voice comforted him more than he ever realized.

They stood there looking at each other in the rain for what seemed eternity. Cas made the first move to head up to Dean, who seemed frozen in place. It was so unreal to him, he hoped against hope that Cas would come back. Now he was here, but he seemed so…human. As the former angel was climbing up to him, Cas slipped, falling backwards.

"Cas!" He yelled while he ran toward the tumbling angel. The hill wasn't big but there were some pretty big rocks lying about. He hoped Cas didn't hit any on the way down. The angel landed near the Impala in the mud. He tried to push himself up for a second, but faltered and stayed facing downward. Seeing Cas just lying there in the mud just spurred him faster, he can't get Cas back only to lose him again.

Dean slid onto his knees next to Cas in the mud. He turned him over onto his back and patted his friend down checking for anything broken, then checked his pulse. Cas was wearing his ever present suit and coat. Seeing it so, dirty and torn in some places now, it symbolized how human the angel was now. He was breathing, but it was shallow and he didn't open his eyes. He lifted Cas's head gently to see if he would wake up. "C'mon Cas, wake up," he pleaded. "Don't you die on me again you son of a bitch." His heart was not only pounding from its immediate excretion but out of fear for Cas. Then he felt something warm on his hand, he pulled it back and saw it had blood on it.

He quickly but gently felt around the skull to locate the source. Finding it, he turned Cas toward him to get a better look. Finding it, it was a small gash on his left side, but it didn't look serious. He took a second to calm himself down. Help. He needed help.

"Stay here man, I am going to get help," he told the still unconscious Cas. He took off his jacket and placed it as a pillow to keep him from moving his head. Dean got up and ran to the bunker.

Fumbling with the key, he opened the door and ran down the steps to the main balcony. He saw Sam and Kevin talking in the War Room. Sam saw him first, and seeing that Dean was wet and covered in mud he knew something was up.

"Dean! What happened? You ok?" Sam was already moving up toward the steps but kept an eye on Dean.

He took a deep breath of air he needed, "It's Cas! He's hurt outside." He looked at the other two who were now racing to his side. "I need help." Not waiting for more instruction Sam and Kevin went upstairs followed by Dean.

Together they lifted Cas, who was far too light to Dean thought, to one of the spare rooms, and laid the Cas on the bed who was still out cold. Kevin went to get the med kit and Sam dropped off some towels before heading off to get more blankets. Dean took it upon himself to strip the wet clothes off him. Not a time to be modest, he took off all the cloths and padded Cas dry. He was too cold to be good. He had no idea how long he was in the rain. A least the bleeding had stopped. The others returned and Sam started cleaning the head wound while he and Kevin wrapped Cas in the blankets. After they were done, they all huddled in the hallway adjacent to the room they left Cas in.

"Dean, are you going to be fine?" Sam asked him. He was still somewhat dazed that Cas was back, but worried sick that he was injured. At least he had him back now. "Uh…yeah," he replied. Scratching his head, he looked back into the room. He really should stay with Cas, in case he wakes up.

"He'll be fine Dean, I'm sure." Dean turned his head to face his brother. "You sure about that Sammy? Look at him. He's not healing. He got no more mojo." Returning his gaze back into the room, "he's not an angel anymore." Metatron, that son of a bitch was going to pay for this, he swore to himself.

"We figured that might be the case Dean. He was human before though. And he survived these past few days ok from the looks of it. Once he comes around, he'll fill us in." Sam crossed his arms and looked over at the door. "Let him rest for now. The cut wasn't bad, and I don't think there is a concussion. Just let him sleep. I'll.."

"No," Dean said, cutting off Sam. "I'll stay with him." His tone shut down any argument otherwise. Sam just rolled his eyes and Kevin just shrugged. Dean walked into the room to retrieve Cas's clothes on the floor, and handed them to his brother. "How about you wash these, maybe find him some clothes that fit him ok. Dry clean that coat though. Oh, and there are groceries in the car."

"Dean, could you at least clean yourself up?" Sam was giving him the do this one for me look. "You're tracking mud everywhere." Dean looked to the floor, sure enough, it was caked in mud.

"Sure, fine. Give me a minute. Keep an eye on him." Dean sped over to his room, changed his clothes, washed his hands and face, and came back out in under three minutes. Kevin and Sam were talking quietly in the doorway when he returned. "Back."

"Don't worry yourself out ok?" Sam hugged his brother, his silent way of assuring Dean he's here for him too. "Will do, Sammy," Dean replied. With that he let go of the hug and walked into the room and mostly closed the door.

Sam walked back to get the groceries leaving Kevin alone in the hallway forgotten. "Guess I'll get the mop," he said while rolling his eyes.