Friday December 5th
(6 weeks into Castiel's treatment)
Dean wakes up to Castiel in his bed again, ice-cold feet and all. Everything else is warm, though, and when Dean opens his eyes he sees that Cas not only brought his comforter with him, but two crocheted blankets.
Dean tries to extricate himself without waking him, because if Cas had a rough night he wants him to catch up on some sleep, but when he wiggles out of the octopus hold he's trapped in, Castiel raises his head and blinks up at him blearily.
He seems surprised by his location. "Oh. Hello."
"You know, if you have a nightmare, you could wake me up." Cas usually makes enough noise that it alerts Dean, but this is the second morning he's woken up with him in his bed.
"Didn't wanna bother you," Cas explains, dropping his head to Dean's chest. He looks relaxed, but Dean can feel the tension in Castiel's body.
"I keep telling you, Cas, it doesn't bother me. If it did, I would have let Missouri move you. I hate the thought of you dealing with this alone. I want to help you, so I need you to tell me when you need it." Dean really wants him to open up to him more, to tell him what he dreams about that leaves him so shaken. He wants to stop feeling so useless.
Cas sighs when Dean starts running fingers through his hair, and some of the tension slowly leaves his body. After a few minutes he is fully relaxed and asleep, and Dean gently slides out from under him and goes to take a shower.
After DBT group, where they go over emotional regulation, Dean stops Sam once the room is empty.
"I'm sorta with Cas," he says with no preamble.
The bitchface he gets is unexpected and uncalled for. "Really, Dean? You're not here to hook up."
"First of all, I never actually agreed to that. Second, it's not like that. It's more than just a hookup. We haven't even had sex yet." That was maybe TMI, but he wants Sam to understand what's going on.
His brother doesn't look any less annoyed with him.
"What?"
Sam looks around and then lowers his head down from the stratosphere and closer to Dean's. "I heard he's still using heroin."
Dean backs up instead of giving into the urge of physically shoving Sam away. "Believe everything you hear?"
"Well, Ava said—"
Dean cuts him off. "Ava? The woman who hides her engagement ring so she can sleep around?"
"But—"
"And even if he is, what," he pokes Sam's chest, "all drug addicts are bad?" It's a personal jab, Dean knows, but he feels a protective need to defend Cas.
"I didn't say that. I just want you to be careful, that's all."
Dean is glaring so hard he thinks he might bore holes right through his brother's skull. At least that would teach him to stop being such a goddamn drama queen.
"Don't worry, Sammy, we're being real careful. We don't even share needles."
Sam groans and runs his fingers through his hair. "This isn't funny, Dean."
"And I'm not laughing. I don't know why I thought I could talk to you about this." Dean turns to leave but Sam grabs his arm.
"Wait."
Dean shrugs him off and doesn't bother looking at the apologetic puppy eyes his brother is most likely giving him.
"Don't you have gossip to catch up on?" He leaves before he gets a response.
By the time everyone gathers in the rec room for the first Lord of the Rings movie both Dean and Sam are past their argument. Sam doesn't treat Cas any differently and even chooses him to be on his team when they play Taboo after wrap-up group. And they're fucking drift compatible, completely destroying Dean and Andy.
The best part is that all night, Meg and Ava were back in whatever dark holes they inhabit and away from Cas.
Saturday December 6th
Dean makes it his personal goal in cooking class to sexually frustrate Castiel as much as possible within the limits of what is publicly acceptable. He pushes those limits, a lot, judging by the exasperated looks and the "Will you two just get a room already?" from Ellen.
The thing is, Dean didn't even start the whole thing. It was all Cas, who out of the blue grabbed Dean's hand and, as obscenely as possible, sucked cupcake batter off of two of his fingers. He's been driving Dean up the walls ever since the morning of their fight, so it's only fair that Castiel gets a taste of his own medicine.
It's not much, considering their location, but for now Dean is doing what he can. He's pressing up against Cas' back while he's stirring batter, hands on his hipbones just under the hem of his shirt. When no one's watching he's pressing kisses all over his neck and on that spot behind Castiel's ear that Dean recently discovered is very sensitive. Cas drops the whisk several times and there is a faint blush staining his cheeks, and Dean is having a great time getting him all flustered like this.
Castiel's cupcakes turn out terribly, and Dean pretends to have no idea why.
When Castiel sees Anna he hugs her tight, then pecks a quick kiss on her rounded belly. She looks beautiful like this, and now he knows what people mean when they say that pregnant women have a glow to them.
"It's a boy," she tells him with a bright smile on her face as they sit down at a booth. "I hope you've discharged by the time he comes, I need someone whose hand I can break through the labor pains."
"You know I'll be by your side if I can." He highly doubts he'll be out of here by then, though. Drug use aside, he doesn't feel like he's made much progress. Missouri tells him that he has, though, but he still has a long way to go. He is still plagued by so many nightmares and he can't do anything more than kiss Dean. It doesn't help that he's being blackmailed into returning to the hellhole he calls home. At least he will have a brand new baby to look forward to, even if that child has to grow up in that terrible place.
Anna's expression quickly falls from proud to grave. "Listen, Castiel, I need to talk to you about something."
"Anything, sister."
She starts tapping her fingers on the table, a gesture Castiel recognizes as a nervous habit of hers. "Were you telling the truth? About Zachariah?"
Just hearing that name causes his stomach to twist with anxiety and his breathing to quicken. "Of course. I wouldn't lie about something like that."
"I didn't think you would. It's just... This is very difficult to tell you."
Castiel feels his stomach go from knotting to plummeting to the floor at the thought of what he thinks she's about to tell him.
"Oh my God, please don't tell me... not you, too."
Anna's face flushes and she looks down at the table top, flicking away a crumb. "It's his child."
"God damn it." Castiel slams his fist down on the table, rattling it and causing his sister to jump.
She laughs quietly. "You startled the baby."
Castiel tries to get his anger under control, not wanting to cause a scene and bring over Charlie. "I'm sorry. I just thought that I couldn't hate the asshole any more than I already did. But I've never felt this level of rage before." Anna may be the older sibling, but Castiel has always been protective of her. He feels like throwing things, breaking things, breaking Zachariah until they dental records to identify the body. "This is so much worse than anything he's ever done to me. And now you're pregnant and—"
Anna raises and hand out to stop him. "This child is not a curse. He's the only good thing to come out of what he's done to me."
"Does anyone else know?"
"Just you, me, and Zachariah. Please let it stay that way."
"Of course. I'll always be here to support you, I hope you know that."
"Yes, I do. Thank you, Castiel."
The rest of the visit is sombre. They try to make small talk, and it's not necessarily awkward, but a heavy weight settled in between them after Anna's confession. Castiel hugs her for longer than he normally does when it's time for her to leave.
After getting checked in with the nurse he heads back to his room, needing to stop feeling as quickly as possible.
Cas barely talks after visiting hours, and when Dean asks what's wrong he says that it's nothing, voice dull. He doesn't eat any popcorn and is completely silent while they watch the second Lord of the Rings movie, even though he was talking Dean's ear off with his commentary during the first one, which would have driven Dean crazy if it were anyone else but Cas.
When the movie's over he gets his meds and goes straight to bed without a single word to Dean.