Chapter 13
Heaven forbid you end up alone...

When Dean pulled up to the house, the very first thing he noticed was the porch light. In the country, you could hear a car tearing down the road from miles away and with the way he was pushing the Impala tonight, Michelle must have heard him coming from the moment he left the old warehouse in town. He pulled to a stop and put the shifter in park, pulling the keys from the ignition in a single swift motion. When he got out of the car and pulled the back door open, Michelle stepped out onto the porch.

"Dean what happened?" She asked, watching as he pulled Castiel from the back seat and helped him make his way towards the old brick home.

"A bad hunt..." Dean vaguely replied as he carefully made his way up the front steps and into the house. "Can you get me some clean towels and your medical kit?" He asked, helping the angel over to the spare bedroom and sitting him down on the bed as they reached it. "You still with me Cas?" He started, keeping the angel's attention just long enough to pull him back to his senses. "Alright, let's see what the son of a bitch did to you..." He continued, carefully removing Castiel's black over coat, blue tie and white shirt. He paused for a moment as he studied the piece of cloth between his hands; what was once a white dress shirt was now a blood stained rag shredded to pieces along the back. He tossed it to the floor as he leaned over the angel sitting on the bed in front of him, searching for the source of the blood that had soaked through his clothes. When his eyes focused on the identical gashes near Castiel's shoulder blades, his heart sank like a stone and he swore under his breath. "Cas, did he cut out your wings?" Dean asked quietly, his words catching in the back of his throat.

There was a moment of silence and the renegade angel hunched over on the bed in front of him turned slightly to catch his eyes. "More or less..." Castiel replied quietly. "I can live without them..."

"That's low." Dean growled, studying the deep gashes carefully. "I swear, even if it ends up being the very last thing I do... I'm going to kill the son of a bitch. I am going to hunt him down and..."

"Dean..." Castiel interrupted, cutting the other man short. "Don't talk like that, not here."

When Michelle walked into the room, both looked over to catch her eyes. She passed Dean a damp cloth and watched as he carefully started cleaning the blood that covered his brother's backside. "You need to get him to the hospital." She started, her eyes focusing on the deep cuts as she set her medical kit down by the bed beside him.

"I can't take him to the Hospital." Dean was quick to reply, pausing for a moment as Castiel slightly pulled away.

"Dean, it doesn't look too serious but he's still going to need stitches." Michelle continued, watching as the older man winced in pain.

"I'll do them myself, the bleeding's stopped now anyway..." He replied, taking his jacket off and tossing it over to the foot of the bed. There was a moment of silence and Dean could have sworn he felt the mood in the room suddenly shift. When he looked back up at Michelle and her eyes met his, he knew his time as a civilian was up.

"What happened to your arm?" She asked, pointing to the clean cut across the underside of his forearm.

"I think it's time you let her know..." Castiel started softly, just as easily picking up on the shift between them. He closed his eyes for a moment as he felt the pain slither down from his shoulder blades, pain was still something he was just starting to get use to.

"Let me know what?" Michelle asked, her voice taking a different tone as she watched Dean turn his attention from her curious eyes back to Castiel's injuries. "Why you can't take him to the Hospital? Dean, what's really going on here?"

Dean let out a sigh as he tried to think of where to start, of what to say and most of all, how to say it. "Castiel isn't human..." He started quietly, watching as she made her way around to the other side of the bed so that she could face him. "He's an angel of the Lord."

"Excuse me?" She replied, her eyes shifting from Dean to the man that was sitting on the bed in front of him, the man he had told her was an older brother. "I thought you said you were half brothers, that you had the same...."

"Father?" Castiel interrupted, silencing the young woman. "I was talking about our father, the Lord."

There was a moment of silence as she shook her head, her eyes drifting away from the pair in front of her. "There's no such thing as angels..." She replied, unable to believe what she had just heard. "My father, my brother, they told me about many things they've seen, but never angels..."

"Michelle..." Dean cut in, looking up to catch her eyes. "I didn't believe either but a few years ago, I made a deal to save my brother Sam and I was dragged to Hell... Castiel pulled me from the pit, that hand print burned into my shoulder is his, he raised me from the dead." Dean paused for a moment as he watched her pass a hand through her hair. "There is such a thing as angels, and this is one of them."

There was another moment of silence as Michelle looked from one man to the other, at a loss of words, she leaned back against the wall behind her. Castiel swallowed hard as he watched her wrap a hand around the silver cross that was hanging around her neck. "Come here..." He said softly, putting his left hand out towards her. She hesitated for a moment but took a step forward to put her hand into his. With his right hand, he reached across his chest and pressed Dean's hand down onto his shoulder, holding it there for a moment as he closed his hand around Michelle's.

In the blink of an eye, a lifetime had played out like a movie inside her head, pulled from Dean by an angel, and passed over to her in a matter of only seconds. Everything from Dean loosing his mother and then his father, to his deal to save Sam and his time spent in Hell. In a heartbeat, he was back in his own skin, pushed around and manipulated by angels while Sam took his own fall with the demons. Their fate was almost too much to bear as she learned of the circumstances behind the night they met at the Hospital and about the night Lucifer walked free. Castiel was wanted and Dean was being hunted, they had made a deal with the Devil and their time was almost up.

Overwhelmed when she learned of the looming Apocalypse, who was responsible for it and that the fate of mankind was resting on one man and his army of renegade angels, she pulled her hand away from Castiel's grip, taking a step back and looking up to catch Dean's eyes. "You lied to me." She started, her voice laced with emotion and doubt. "You said you were done hunting.... the last thing I wanted was to raise a child to this, this life if you call it that."

"Michelle..." Dean started, watching as she wiped away the tears that were threatening to fall. "I didn't lie to you..."

"But you didn't tell me the whole truth either." She curtly replied, shaking her head. "I don't want our daughter to grow up like I did... Worrying about her father and what he's doing while he's out on the road killing these monsters and demons and things... And I certainly don't want her to grow up the way you did either." She paused for a moment as she swallowed hard, having seen Dean's life played out to her in a matter of only seconds had taken her on an emotional roller coaster. "I don't want her to grow up following in your footsteps, thinking it's her responsibility..."

"She's not going to." Dean replied softly, setting the blood soaked towel on the bedside table as he turned to face her.

"How can you be so sure?" Michelle asked, doing her best not to break into tears as her mind started to race. "I saw it in you." She paused for a moment as she swallowed the lump caught in her throat, her eyes focusing on the handle of the large silver dagger tucked into the side of his belt before drifting back up to catch his gaze. "It's in your blood and I'm sure it'll be in hers..."

"It doesn't have to be..." Dean replied, wiping his bloody hands onto his worn jeans. "This is all I know and all I've ever done... You can't compare my life to the one she's going to have growing up. She has a good home, a great mom who loves her to death and a dad who'll do everything he can not to have her turn out like he did... Samantha won't be a hunter."

"But she's still going to grow up worrying about you when you're out on the road..." Michelle was quick to reply. "My brother once told me that a hunter was a hunter till the day he died... if he doesn't get killed first. You won't be here much longer, because no matter what, you're life's out there... not here, you can't lie to yourself forever."

There was a moment of silence and Dean couldn't help but look away. He knew Michelle was right and knew that what she had seen tonight had been a slap in the face. He couldn't blame her for being upset, for being angry with him even, he knew how important it was to her not to have a child raised to the life of a hunter. "This isn't how I wanted you to find out..."

"I want you to go." She said softly, her voice pulling his eyes back to hers. "I need some time to think..."

"Michelle..."

"Please, just go Dean..." She replied quietly, pointing him towards the door. "I'll take care of Cas... Just go."

Dean gave her a nod as he grabbed his jacket and made his way towards the door, pausing as he reached it to take a glance at Castiel. "I'll be back in the morning." He said simply as he stepped out into the hall, careful not to let the tear roll down his cheek until he was out the front door. He let out a heavy sigh as he made his way down the front steps and walked over to the Impala, looking back towards the house before pulling the door open and sliding in behind the wheel. His eyes drifted over to the picture he had wedged between the radio and the dash panel, a family picture that reminded him of what he was living for. He swallowed hard as he shoved the key into the ignition and the engine roared to life; she needed time for all of it to sink in and he needed time to clear his head... His life had finally caught up to him.

She closed her eyes as the sound of the Impala started to grow distant in the night, echoing down the road and fields until it was gone.

"I'm sorry." Castiel started, pulling her back from her scattered fears and thoughts. "I know all this is hard for you to understand, overwhelming perhaps."

She shook her head as she made her way to his side, pausing for a moment before picking up the towel and continuing to clean up the blood. "Everything I thought I knew..." She started, quietly. "I had no idea."

"Most people don't." Castiel replied, wincing as she passed the cloth over the deep cuts. "Even most of the hunters don't know about the angels and their orders, about those of us who have chosen to fall in an attempt to save mankind."

"Tell me, where's God in all of this?" She asked, grabbing her medical kit from the bed at his side.

Castiel watched as she dug around her things, pulling out a bottle of antiseptic, a needle and some thread. "I'm not sure, Michelle." He started, swearing under his breath as she disinfected the wounds. "There are rumors that he is here among you, and that he has been since the beginning..."

"That's not what you think, is it?" She asked, threading the needle and carefully starting to place what would be the first of many stitches.

"I don't know what to think anymore." Castiel quietly admitted. "But what I do know, is that what is going on right now, needs to be stopped." He paused for a moment as he looked over his shoulder to catch her eyes. "Don't be angry with him for not letting you know sooner, he was trying to protect you. You mean the world to Dean, know that he will always love you and do everything he can to keep you and little Samantha safe, no matter what."

Michelle gave him a nod as she continued to carefully stitch close the deep cuts. "I know that." She replied, her voice barely above a whisper. "I knew he was hunter when we met at the hospital... I knew this was his life, it was just foolish of me to think that..."

"It wasn't foolish of you." Castiel cut in, his voice silencing her. "I'm the one who asked for you to take him in, to keep him safe and show him peace, sanctuary." He paused for a moment as he took a deep breath. "Dean's just different. For a while, even I couldn't understand him... everything he does, he does for someone else." Castiel winced in pain as she lightly pulled on the thread to tighten a knot.

"So you think he can really do it?" Michelle asked quietly, pulling a pair of scissors from her kit to cut the thread. "You think Dean can stop all of this?"

"I know that no one else can." Castiel replied calmly, crossing his hands in his lap. "And that Dean will fight till the end trying."