I'm sorry that it took me a bit longer to update but I finally managed to and the chapter turned out to be longer than expected. Enjoy Dean being awesome :D
"Balthazar!" Castiel calls, then tells the angel where exactly they are and he and Dean look around expectantly, while Sam looks a bit confused and Cindy still seems to be too scared to even scream. They wait for a moment but nothing happens.
"Balthazar, get your feathery ass over here," Dean calls, having caught on to what Cas is thinking.
"Don't make me summon you," Cas warns and at those words there suddenly is a fluttering of wings and Balthazar appears.
"No need to get mean," he pouts. "Do you have any idea what you just interrupted?" Cas obviously doesn't but Dean thinks he knows from the smile that Balthazar has now. He doesn't say anything though because he doesn't want to hear the details.
"Oh, what did she do? Insult your dear car, Dean?" the angel mocks when he sees Ruby's body on the ground.
"She tried to use me to raise Lucifer," Sam tells him deadpan and Balthazar stops joking at once.
"Oh. Well, good job then," he says. "I suppose you need me to take care of the body?"
"Not really, no. Although now that you're here…" Dean answers and with a quick flick of his hand Balthazar makes the body disappear.
"There. Okay, what else do you need me for then?"
"We need you to hide Sam from all angels and demons like you hid us," Cas tells him and Balthazar nods, taking a step closer to Sam before recoiling from him.
"What are you? You smell like demon," he hisses full of disgust.
Sam looks shocked and downcast at Balthazar's words. Cas has never reacted to him like that although he did call him an abomination and warn Dean to stop him. Maybe Cas just was a little more subtle about his disgust with him.
"I've been drinking demon blood," Sam admits quietly. "It made me stronger, gave me certain psychic powers. But I think it also changed me and I'm afraid I'm addicted to it." He can't even look at the other three men any more and averts his eyes. He only looks up again when he feels Balthazar's hand on his chest.
There is a short burning in his ribs and he jerks away and sees Balthazar smiling. Then the angel moves closer again and presses to fingers to Sam's forehead, muttering under his breath. Sam's whole body is tingling for a moment, then Balthazar removes his fingers and goes to stand with Dean and Cas.
"What…what did you just do?" Sam asks trying to sense every small part of his body to figure out what Balthazar did to him.
"I burned some sigils into your ribs, so no angel or demon will be able to find you. I did the same to Dean and Cas. And I also purged your body of the foul blood and cured your addiction. Just don't ever drink that stuff again because I won't help you a second time," Balthazar explains and Sam gives him a grateful smile.
"Thanks. I won't touch it again, I promise," Sam tells him and the promise is as much to Balthazar as it is to himself and also to Cas and his brother.
"Will that be all?" Balthazar asks the three of them, ready to leave again. Cas is about to say yes but Dean stops him with a hand on his arm and Cas gives him a curious look.
"The woman. We need to take care of Cindy. Ruby and Sam were going to kill her and Sam was supposed to drink her blood when she was possessed. But Cas exorcised the demon and she deserves peace now. Can you do the same thing you did to the woman Zachariah took?" Dean asks and Balthazar sighs but goes to the car and offers Cindy a hand to help her out of the trunk.
"Hello, darling. Don't be afraid. I'll send you home now," he tells her gently and for some reason she seems to trust him and keeps a tight grip on his hand. Balthazar quickly touches her forehead and after a short moment Cindy is gone.
"She will wake up in her bed, thinking she stayed home from work with a stomach flu and she won't remember anything that happened here."
"Thanks, Balthazar," Cas tells him.
"Yeah, don't mention it," the angel tells him. "And please don't call again. Now, if you'll excuse me please? I have an orgy to attend and I hope they haven't started without me." He gives them all a smug grin and then, with the soft sound of wings, he is gone.
The three men stand there for a moment before they get into the Mustang to drive back into town to where Dean parked the Impala in the morning. Neither of them feels like walking right now. When they reach the car they quickly hide the Mustang and then leave the town in the Impala, just in case. All of them are tired after this day and it's getting late so they aren't going far, just far enough.
Just over an hour later Sam checks them in at a small motel in the middle of nowhere. Well, there are a few houses and shops and a bar and restaurant around but the town is so small you could walk from one end to the other in about five minutes. Dean and Cas wait for him by the car.
Sam returns with two keys. There's three of them in need of a bed now and he is certainly too big to share a bed. And he doesn't think Dean would want to share, so he rented a second room. He offers one key to Castiel but the fallen angel just looks at him questioningly with big blue eyes.
"You have your own room tonight. None of the rooms here have three beds, I asked," Sam explains and Cas slowly takes the key, holding on to it with his fingertips as if it was something disgusting. He doesn't seem to be happy about the prospect of sleeping alone. In fact he looks downright scared and Sam doesn't know what to do. He didn't mean to hurt or scare Cas. He thought he'd do him a favor actually.
Fortunately Dean notices the look on Cas' face and takes the key from him. No way he can resist those puppy-dog eyes. "Don't worry. We can talk about the sleeping arrangements later. Let's get inside first, okay?"
Castiel nods and relief is immediately visible on his face and in his posture. All three of them go inside and take a seat at the small table. Dean quickly checks himself for any injuries from hitting the car during the fight with Ruby but just as he suspected he only finds a few bruises. Sam is fine, too. After all Balthazar took care of anything that might have been wrong, other than the demon blood. He turns to Cas.
"Cas, are you alright? Any injuries from the fight today?" he asks. He can see a few scratches on Cas' cheek from his fall into the bush but it's nothing serious.
"I don't know. I haven't thought about it," Cas tells him and shrugs out of the trench coat he put on over the jeans and t-shirt Dean got for him somewhere along the way and which he put on this morning. He looks down at himself, running his hands along his sides and winces when he finds a deeper cut. He hadn't noticed it before and the dark fabric of his shirt disguised the blood well.
At his little pain sound Dean is immediately by his side, pushing his hand away from the wound and turning him towards the light with his chair so he can better examine the cut. He carefully pulls the fabric of the t-shirt away from Cas' skin, making him hiss in pain because the blood has already started to dry and the shirt is sticking to his skin and the wound.
"You need to take this off, so I can take a better look," Dean says and pushes the shirt up Cas' chest, while soothingly rubbing his thigh. Cas quickly obeys and takes the shirt off, showing some more bloody cuts and some bruises all over his upper body.
"Dude, that's gotta hurt like hell. You should have said something sooner, then we wouldn't have driven all the way out here," Dean tells him, shocked about the condition Cas is in.
"I didn't feel it before. But now, yes, it does hurt badly," Cas answers, unshed tears shining in his eyes. And Dean thinks that Cas was probably so full of adrenaline, not having any experience with fights as a human, that he might not have felt his injuries until he saw them just now.
"Shh, it's okay. I'll take care of you," Dean tells him and then looks up at the sound of a chair scraping across the floor. Sam has gotten up.
"I think I'll go for a walk, maybe get a drink. I need some time to think, clear my head, you know?" he says, also feeling that his brother might want some privacy.
Dean looks at him for a long moment, then nods. "Okay, but don't get into trouble," he tells him, the meaning being 'don't find any demons and drink their blood'. Sam nods once and then he is out the door and Dean focuses his attention back on Cas.
"Do you hurt anywhere else, too?" he asks, looking over Cas' legs to see if there are traces of blood there anywhere.
"No," Cas tells him and Dean can't see anymore blood anywhere and believes him.
"Okay, I'm gonna have to clean the wounds. That might hurt a little but it's necessary, okay?" Dean tells Cas as he gets up from his crouch next to him to get some medical supplies. But Cas looks at him with so much fear and at the same time so much trust that Dean stops and quickly hugs the fallen angel. "You'll be alright. I'm here with you."
Then he goes to the bathroom to get a washcloth, wet with warm water, to wash away the dried blood. Cas winces a few times but it's not really that bad. The worst part is yet to come. Dean is only grateful that none of the cuts and scratches are deep enough to require stitches. He would hate to put Cas through that ordeal with nothing else but alcohol as an anesthetic. But disinfecting the wounds is bad enough and Cas keeps hissing and trying to move away from Dean. Dean keeps a firm hand on Cas' shoulder, holding him in his seat, while he constantly talks to him in a soothing voice, telling him how great he did today and that the pain will be gone soon.
Then finally he is done and applies some band aids to the bigger cuts and puts away his supplies. He gets his bottle of whiskey and pours a shot for him and Cas and they both drink in silence.
"Thanks, Dean," Cas says when the glasses are empty and then he goes to the bathroom to get ready for the night, just like Dean showed him. When he emerges a few minutes later and crawls into the nearest bed, Dean doesn't have the heart to tell him that Sam intended for him to go into the other room. Well, Sam isn't there, so it's his problem, because Dean isn't going to leave Cas alone tonight.
He quickly goes into the bathroom and showers off the dirt from the day and gets ready for bed himself. When he leaves the bathroom Cas is already asleep, looking peaceful and just like the angel he used to be. Dean stands next to his bed for a moment, just watching him sleep. Then he pulls the blanket up a little higher and softly kisses the top of Cas' head before he goes over to the other bed and falls asleep soon after.
Sam comes back an hour later to find both beds in the room occupied with sleeping bodies. With a quiet sigh he picks up the key to the other room and his things and writes a short note, so Dean won't worry in the morning. He should have known that Dean wouldn't leave Cas alone, not after the way he looked at him when he saw that Cas had gotten hurt.