Dean was able to leave the hospital, in a wheel chair because his legs were still weak, two days after he had called Cas.
Benny had picked him up since Sam had a big case coming up, and Dean convinced him he would be fine with Benny.
Benny wheeled Dean down one of the corridors of the stable house, which he felt like he hadn't been in forever.
It was early, around 5:00am since Benny didn't want to catch rush hour in the stables at 8:00am. All the angels were still asleep, which Dean was thankful for. His insides were filled with excitement to see his angel.
Benny had told Dean the next race was in about two weeks. Dean wasn't sure how he felt about it. Even know it had been two weeks after the first race, still was still concerned for Cas.
Turned out that a $70,000 paycheck was added to Dean's banking account from the win Cas had in the last race. S20,000 of it went to Dean's surgery. Another $30,000 dollars went to this month's fee for Cas stable. Luckily the stable charged the angel's food, water, and grooming bills yearly. So Dean had about $20,000 dollars in cash, which wasn't a bad start. Not bad at all.
Benny called it play money. He told Dean the higher Cas got in the races the higher the prize money would become.
Dean gave Benny $10,000 dollars for his services so far, which Benny gladly accepted saying he was running low.
Benny finally wheeled Dean in front of a bigger stable, obviously not Cas', and remembered Benny mentioning that Cas had shared a stable with Gabriel recently.
Benny opened the door and Dean saw dim lights were installed in the ceiling of the stable. The stable was MUCH bigger then Cas' and made it look nothing more than a cubicle.
Benny turned on a switch in the wooden wall that brightened the lights.
All Dean saw was Gabriel with his massive wings spread out and around himself, like a hen sleeping and not even noticing the lights. .
Dean didn't see Cas though.
"Gabe..." Benny asked walking over to the angel and shaking him a bit.
The archangel shifted and looked up drowsily.
Dean reminded himself Gabriel was nothing like Raphael and he had nothing to be afraid of.
The archangel looked up and saw Dean and gave him a tired smile.
The archangel lifted him left wing and Dean's eyes widened.
Cas' naked body was so small now that the archangel easily covered it all with one of his wings. Cas was curled up in the fetal position cradled to the archangel's chest as if he was a child, his wings looking dull and thin in the light. The angel had easily dropped at least 20 pounds so now his ribs showed.
Dean couldn't see Cas' face from the doorway, since his face was directed toward Gabriel's chest.
"He's very tired." The archangel remarked looking down at the smaller angel.
The archangel got up slowly on his strong legs, Dean noticed he was wearing loose fitting sweat pants, and left Cas' naked body cradled on the warm soft new looking hay. He went past Dean, leaving the stable to roam the corridors.
Benny went over to the wheelchair and picked Dean up gently, and walked over towards the angel. Benny set Dean down beside Cas' so he could touch his angel.
Benny retreated to accompany Gabriel, and give Dean some privacy.
Cas' face looked so peaceful in sleep, and yet so tormented. His eyes had black rings around them like he hadn't slept in days, and his hair looked ruffled.
Dean didn't want to wake him.
Dean looked at the rest of the angel.
The wings looked like they were missing feathers. The angel looked sick, but not deathly so, which Dean was grateful for.
Dean put a cautious hand on Cas' stomach and ran his hand up the protruding rib cage. Dean frowned at how much weight the angel had lost.
Stress and depression would do that to you. There was no way in hell Cas' had been eating properly.
Dean leaned over and kissed Cas on the cheek, running a hand through his hair as he buried his nose into it. Dean closed his eyes, trying to convince himself this wasn't his fault. That it was an accident. But in sad reality this was his fault. It always was.
It wasn't hard to know when Cas woke up.
His body went rigid, and his breathing had turned from calm and even to deep strong breaths.
Dean couldn't help the smile that spread across his lips.
"Morning baby." Dean whispered and chuckled when the angel froze.
"Dean?" Cas voice was quiet. To quiet, almost afraid.
Dean looked up and saw those blue blue eyes leaking tears.
"Hey honey." Dean kissed the tears away, peppering the angel's face gently with kisses.
Cas leaned up cautiously, supporting his upper body with his arms.
"Is this a dream?" The angel asked looking terrified.
Dean smiled and rubbed the angel's cheek.
"Of course not Cas." Dean said a little concerned.
The angel tilted his head and furrowed his eyebrows confused.
"But-you're in a hospital." The angel whispered not meeting Dean's gaze.
"I got out...I wanted to see-" Dean stopped as he saw Cas looking over his shoulder looking terrified.
Dean chanced a glance behind him.
The lonely wheelchair sat in the doorway, Cas knew what it was and now he assumed the worst.
The angel's breathing increased rapidly as his face turned into agony.
"You're-" The angel started, tears spilling over his eyes.
"No! Cas I'm fine! That's just here because my legs are a little weak from not walking for two weeks..." Dean assured.
Cas' teary eyes looked into his, doing that soul searching gaze of his again and then raised his wings above his head and gave them a few flaps stretching them.
Cas' wings spread out and Dean couldn't help but gasp at how thin they looked.
The angel suddenly felt self-conscious under Dean's gaze and wrapped his wings around himself shielding his naked body from Dean's view.
"I'm not pleasing to look at..." It wasn't a question.
"What? Cas you're very pleasing to look at..." Dean said. "It's just you're so thin...and you're missing feathers." Dean said quietly.
Gabriel came in then, without Benny Dean noted, looking tired.
"I told you he was fine didn't I Cassie?" Gabriel asked as he popped a lollipop into his mouth.
Cas looked down not meeting Dean's gaze.
Dean was going to have to work on nursing Cas back to health.
There was no going back, only forward with this.
The next day Dean was walking pretty normally, only a small limp to his step, which with proper exercises the doctors assured him would go away. He and Benny took Cas and Gabriel outside on the track for some fun. Dean and Benny sat on the stands as the angels flew around the track, playfully tossing each other in the air.
"So Raphael was put down?" Dean asked looking at Benny. It was a grim delicate subject but it had to be addressed. He needed to know for sure Cas was safe.
Benny nodded.
"The owner said he became too dangerous to himself and others. The doctors diagnosed him with some kind of disorder...I don't remember what but it was bad..." Benny explained.
"When he attacked you to get to Cas...well let's just say it was the last straw." Benny finished and took a sip of his coffee.
"How's Gabe taking it? I know they were brothers..."
"He mourned normally, but got over it. He had to. Cas needed him." Benny said looking at the angels who were now circling like hawks in the sky.
"You never mentioned who the owner was..." Dean stated suddenly.
Benny looked at Dean looking confused.
"What? You don't know?" Benny asked as his eyebrows furrowed.
Dean just shook his head.
"His name's Crowley." Benny said looking at Dean expectantly.
Dean felt himself go speechless.
"The track director?" Dean asked in shock.
"Yea." Benny said nodding.
"He helped me and Cas with the layout plan on our first race...I had no idea he owned the archangels." Dean looked up at the sky to where Gabriel flew around Cas.
"He's not the affectionate type like you are with hot wings up there." Benny explained.
"He's just in racing for the money." Benny said bitterly.
"But Chuck told him that Gabe and Cas were close, and that Cas was going through a rough patch back then, so he let them share a stall." Benny smiled.
"Gabe's old, though he doesn't look it. Crowley's father bought him when he was a fledgling then passed him down to Crowley when he died. Crowley bought Raphael twenty years back, and raced him instead of Gabriel since he outran Gabriel in speed." Benny took another sip of coffee.
"Gabe's never been the racing type in his family; he's the youngest and laziest." Benny smirked. "He loved Michael though, which is why he is so close to hot wings."
The angels were diving towards the ground now, almost as if to see who was braver and would pull up first.
They ended up coming very close to the ground at glorious speed.
Gabriel pulled up when they were less than 30 feet, but when Cas tried pulling up, the air didn't catch his feathers right.
Dean's heart jumped to his throat when he thought Cas was gonna hit the ground at full speed.
But thankfully Gabriel broke the fall by flying under him and bringing the smaller angel up.
Dean let out a sigh of relief he didn't know he was holding.
Benny just chuckled.
The angels landed a couple of minutes later.
Dean thought there was something very off about the picture.
Gabriel looked happy and energized while Cas looked sweaty and tired.
They walked over to Benny and Dean, Cas was a little slower than Gabe was.
Gabriel looked back and gave a warm smile towards his nephew.
"Hey buddy." Dean said getting up and walking over to Cas with a towel.
"You're tired from that little run huh?" Dean asked as he ran the towel through Cas' sweaty hair and then ran it over his sweaty skin.
Dean didn't like how Cas couldn't catch his fall like that. It made flying a danger hazard, kind of like flying a plane with no parachutes. Dean guessed it was due to the lack of feathers that it became harder to catch the wind.
Cas was defiantly out of shape, he was panting from just playing with Gabriel.
Cas looked out of breath and ready to collapse which concerned Dean.
"Come on Cas walk it off." Dean suggested rubbing the angel's hair.
Dean didn't expect Cas to follow Gabe back to his stable but he did.
Dean pulled Benny aside when he was headed back to his office.
"Benny..."
Benny turned around looking at Dean.
"He was really out of shape...haven't you been training him? The race is in two weeks..." Dean trailed when Benny shook his head.
"I told you I tried to get him out of the stall brother, but he just wouldn't move. He stayed there around a week and a half until he was moved to Gabe's stall." Benny explained.
Benny sighed when Dean just stared blankly at him.
"Angels have an extremely delicate system. They stop eating. Their lose fat and a large proportion of muscle. They stop flying. They start molting, losing the feathers and their wing bones become weak." Benny explained.
"Okay...well what are we gonna do about the ra-"
"I can get him back in shape in a week easy, he'll be underweight but the will be used to flying faster again..."
"Angels are already light because their bones are hollow, which makes them easier to break but more light so they can fly, and angels are already skinny to begin with because trainers try to get them as skinny as possible to go faster, but when Cas lost weight he lost the muscle too. So he's gonna be more likely to get broken bones."
Dean nodded. There was no going around it...only through it.
"Okay, so what are we gonna do about the stall problem?" Dean asked.
"I know." Benny nodded looking back towards Gabriel's stables.
"He got company I guess." Benny said rubbing the back of his neck.
"You were gone and he just rooted himself to Gabe...I guess he was lonely." Benny said sadly looking back at Dean.
"We can't keep him in there, I know for a fact Crowley wouldn't let us keep him there permanently." Dean said concerned.
"I'll fish him out tomorrow, be here early so you can help me." Benny instructed.
"He has a doctor's appointment in the medical wing with Pamela Barnes anyways.."
Dean could only nod.
With that Benny left for his daily routine and Dean had to go for back to the hospital for his medical exam and his weekly leg exercises.