Thanks so much for the reviews and sorry for the delay! Here's the new chapter!


Nightmare 1x14 (Sam's visions lead Sam and Dean to a murderous telekinetic boy whose mother shared the same fate as Mary.)

Dean flipped open his phone again. It was from Bobby, which was strange because he had checked in with him half an hour ago. Sam and Dean were automatically on alert.

"Bobby, what's up?"

"I'm not sure but I've checked the entire house and the scrapyard and I'm not finding the angel. And he was here right before you called me."

"Dammit. You think he teleported?"

"Yeah, that's the only way he'd be able to get very far in his condition. I doubt he stuck the landing, wherever he is. It's on you boys now. I have to head down the police station about another case."

Dean snapped the phone shut. "Cas flew the coop."

Sam shook his head. "We should have seen this coming. Do you think we should look for him?"

Dean couldn't help but imagine the wounded angel on the side of the road somewhere. He shook the image out of his head. "I think he was trying to be alone. I figured he'd leave, I just wished he'd stayed and healed more. Anyway, we got a case."

"What case?" Sam asked.

"The one you had the vision of."

"You think it's real?"

"Hell yeah, now let's stop that sucker," Dean said, pulling off the side of the road and speeding away.


Castiel supported himself against a bench, breathing heavily. It was getting dark wherever he was now. Usually, he knew exactly what town he was in, despite his little experience on Earth. But the fatiguing buzz in his ears was steadily drowning most of his thoughts. His hand tightened. He'd left Bobby's just under a day ago. When he had first landed, he had tumbled into a park somewhere and passed out. When he woke up he realized that he had been left alone and it was now early morning. The only living thing around him was the glint of a raccoon a safe distance away from the holy creature.

He had pulled himself up, supporting the weight of his upper body by pushing off his knees and stumbled only a few yards further to rest under a tree. On waking up again, he had felt more energy but found that he was struggling again upon reaching the park path.


Sam pounded on the closet door with all of his might but it didn't budge. The telepath had moved something in front of the door. The younger hunter's breath hitched in panic as he started to put his full weight against the door, which still did not budge. Sam had had a vision just moments before, worse than he had experienced before.

Ms. Miller was sitting on the bed in the bedroom while Dean was crouched beside her, helping her stop the bleeding on her forehead. Then Max walked into the room and Dean moved between the scared woman and the crazed son. The door closed behind the disturbed boy with a slam and Dean iwas sent crashing into a wall.

"Max!" Ms. Miller calls. Instead of heeding her, he lifted to pistol with a shaking hand.

"Son of a…" Sam's brother says, rising. He takes a hesitant step over to him but stops moving in shock when Max releases the gun in midair and the gun stays, still under his control. The gun cocks and turns to point at Ms. Miller.

It's a quiet voice when Max finally speaks again. "Stay back. This is not about you."

"You wanna kill her you gotta go through me first."

Something sick flashes across Max's eyes. "Okay."

Then the gun fires and blood splatters across the wall. Dean's eyes are empty, punctuated by a bloody hole between them. His body crashes heavily onto the ground. And he just lays there, sprawled out on the ground, lifeless.

Sam yells again, pounding even harder. He hasn't heard the shot yet. But he knows it will come if he doesn't do something. He knows it's coming but he still needs to stop it. "No! NOOOOO!" Please, anyone, please just save my brother, please, the thoughts replay in the back of his head like a sick mantra as he fights against his wooden prison.

Screeeee. The heavy bookcase that had been pushed in front of the doors started to move. Sam froze momentarily before throwing all his energy at the doors which slammed open with enough force that they fractured.

Sam takes an instant to see who moved the bookcase. Leaning against it with a pale face and heavy breathing was Castiel, uneasy on his feet. Sam was already moving when they made eye-contact. It was clear Castiel wanted the same thing Sam did so the hunter charged upstairs, taking three steps at a time.


Castiel wrapped his hand more tightly around the side of the bookshelf, trying to will away the strange floating black spots filling his vision. He had heard Sam call out and teleported to him immediately. Normally, Castiel would have been able to move the bookcase with two fingers but his physical condition was still pitiful. He looked longly up the stairs, knowing he didn't have a chance of climbing them and hoping Sam wasn't depending on any back-up from him.

Castiel closed his eyes and listened the conversation above him. Sam was trying to convince someone to stop what he was doing. He was begging him.

The angel's concentration wavered. When had he accepted the company of humans so completely? A relationship was unnecessary for protection, as shown by guardian angels all the time. But not only had he become close to his charge, Dean but also his brother, Sam. Then when he had been injured, he had been acquainted with the hardened, brash man in the scrapyard, Bobby. Should he avoid these connections? Castiel doubted if he would be able to stay away from the brothers, simply because they got in trouble so often and fought a common enemy. Bobby and other humans however, he could limit. And he could revert to a more professional relationship with Sam and Dean Winchester. He'd—

He heard a gunshot followed by Sam's scream. Instantly, he was focused and scared. Had Dean been killed? Had they failed? He felt his vessel's heart rate increase in fear. It was quiet for almost a minute, in which Castiel made it over to the banister of the staircase. He had been foolish to think he could avoid creating any form of ties with the hunters—they had already been formed, no matter how much he wished they had not.

Then a somber Sam and Dean helped a woman down the stairs. Dean's eyes widened in relief when he saw Cas and let Sam escort her to a chair once they reached the base of the staircase.

"Cas." Dean greeted.

"Hello, Dean." Castiel grimaced inwardly when he voice came out much more hoarse than he had hoped. Dean walked in front of the angel.

"Cas, you alright, man?" Dean reached out of hold his shoulder. "You don't look so hot."

"I feel kind of hot," Castiel admitted quietly.

"I'm grateful for the save, but you shouldn't even be up and walking." The worry filtered out of Dean's voice slowly and was replaced by annoyance. "Why did you leave Bobby's? You can trust him."

Castiel stared at Dean, feeling frustration bubbling up. Why didn't this human understand? That a celestial being wasn't supposed to be cared for by humans. That he was meant to protect them, not befriend them? "I cannot."

"Like hell you can't," Dean said. Sam came up to meet them.

"You made us worry, Cas, you're obviously still in bad shape." Sam pointed out. Castiel released his vice grip on the banister and straightened himself up with some difficulty.

"I am recovering. Thank you for helping me, but I'm recovering. It's not something to be concerned with, Sam."

"All right man, but how about you stick with us for a couple of days? Help us with a case instead of swooping in to save our asses like Walker, Texas Ranger." Dean had found over the past two days that Castiel actually did have a personality, under all those layers of stick-up-his-ass. And he was a valuable ally. If he was off on his own again so soon, well Dean just imagined demon fodder.

"No." He didn't want them to feel as if they had to help him.

"Alright how about you stay with us while we're in the car and you can fly away whenever you like." Sam offered.

That piqued Castiel's interest. He wouldn't admit it but a comfortable place to sit down would be much appreciated.


Fifteen minutes later, Sam, Dean and Cas were driving in the Impala. For the first half hour of the drive, Castiel was very uncomfortable and found the purr of the engine too loud but ten minutes later, he found himself relaxing. It wasn't long after that when the wounded angel's eyes fluttered shut.

Dean adjusted his rear-view mirror so he could see Castiel. "Look Sam, we've got an angel sleeping in the back of our car."

Sam's face scrunched up. "Dean, angels don't sleep." This felt very different from days ago when Castiel was passing out and Sam had to worry what this meant for Castiel's angel powers.


Castiel's eyes slowly opened a few seconds after they hit a bump on the road. In his disoriented state, it took him a couple moments for him to realize where he was. He instinctively pressed his hand against his trench coat where his healing stab wound was. It hurt but not enough to wince. It was healing much to slowly still-he'd been asleep for two hours. The two brothers were speaking quietly to each other, for his benefit, he assumed. They hadn't noticed he'd woken. He looked out the window. The sun was setting behind them. He must have been asleep for three or four hours then. Castiel wondered if the correct behavior was to thank them but didn't do it. Instead, without giving them any warning, he teleported away.

Fifty miles away, on a dimly lit suburban street and stumbled over to a bench, exhausted. He finds that he's not tired in the same way as before. His body burns in his wound and aches everywhere else but his mind is not clouded in a way that demands sleep. Instead, he sits on the bench, patiently restoring his energy throughout the night. He's recovering more slowly than he had expected.


Please review! Next chapter, Cas is back in action!