~~~~~~~~~Chapter 20~~~~~~~~~

"Noooooooooooooo!" The scratchy scream echoed throughout Bobby's house.

Dean grabbed Sam's shoulders, keeping him from thrashing against the unknown demons his mind was throwing at him. "Sam! Sammy!"

"Dean," he gasped hoarsely, eyes wild darting everywhere at once, his arms clutching at Dean's, holding him like a life line.

"Yeah," he pulled Sam into a tight almost painful hug.

A rush of footsteps clamoured up the stairs and into the doorway. Cas and Gabriel smiled at the scene, letting Bobby passed them to see his boys embracing.

"Sam?"

He looked over Dean's shoulder at the old hunter, "Bobby?"

Bobby wasted no time joining the welcoming embrace between the brothers.

Once they pulled apart, Sam asked, "What happened, how'd I…?"

Dean chuckled, he was too happy to care how it sounded, "Those two featherheads over there," Dean jutted his chin towards the door.

"Cas?" His brow scrunched up, "Gabriel? You're dead."

Shaking his head, "Everyone keeps telling me that," the angel snarked with a smile. "Whatever happened to 'Hi, Gabe, nice to see ya'," he continued on as he returned downstairs, leaving the core of that little family to themselves.

Dean and Bobby laughed at the archangel who was rapidly finding a home with the rest of the misfits under Bobby's roof.
"He was, Daddy Dearest brought him back to help Cas whip Heaven into shape," Dean answered Sam's question.

"But… me?"

Cas came to sit on the bed with Bobby and Dean, "He had been researching it even before I asked for his assistance."

"How? What about Lucifer and Michael, if you sprung me, what about them?" Sam asked nervously, he was all for being busting out of Hell, but not if it meant having to stop Lucifer or Michael again.

"Calm down, Sammy," Dean reassured. "They're still nice and tucked away in Luci's cage."

"How're you feeling boy?" Bobby asked, still shell-shocked. It was one thing to see Sam's body, know he was breathing and his blood was pumping. It was quite another for him to be awake and talking.

"Sore," he chuckled, thinking about everything he must have gone through to get here. "Hungry," he knitted his brow, "when was the last time I ate?"

Dean smiled and looked passed Bobby to Cas, "Okay, what'd ya do to him? He sounds like me," he teased.

Castiel rolled his eyes, but smiled lovingly at his hunter. Seeing Dean so happy and content filled him with even more joy than he ever thought he could feel.

Sam still had a long road before he'd be well again, but he was on the road to recovery, they all were, and that was enough for now.

~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~

With Sam slowly getting better Dean decided it was time to have a chat with their resident Trickster/Archangel. There were too many things Dean needed answers to, and he wanted to hear them from the angel himself.

"There you are," Dean had found the angel out in the junkyard watching some industrious squirrels set up housekeeping in the remains of an old Dodge Dart.

"If it were me, I woulda gone for the Caddy two rows over," nonchalant as ever.

"Good thing you're not a squirrel."

That earned Dean a put upon glance.

Dean ignored him. "Of course that might be more disturbing if you weren't a squirrel," he added thoughtfully.

Snickering, Gabriel asked Dean, "What do you want Winchester?"

Dean leaned against the opposite wall of junkers, "Was wondering how your back was doing?" he asked plainly.

Gabriel tensed, "What do you know about it?"

Dean sighed, "Bobby said Lucifer sliced you up pretty bad."

Gabriel was uncharacteristically silent.

"You didn't have to do that."

Gabriel's honeyed eyes flashed.

"Any of it, I mean."

The archangel huffed out a laugh. "You're an idiot. You know that, don't you?"

Dean was brought up short by the honest annoyance in Gabriel's words.

Thankfully the angel took pity on him. "I did it for Cas. Fool loves you more than you know and I knew you couldn't make him happy if part of you was constantly killing yourself over Sam." He huffed, more annoyed now that he was warming to his topic. "You know, he actually told me you'd be okay without him as long as you had Sam."

Dean's eyes widened so far in horror that in other circumstances Gabriel would have found it funny.

"Yeah, when we were down there, he told me go on without him. He knows you love him, but he thinks you love Sam more."

Dean growled audibly and was gone before Gabriel could say another word. He wasn't done with Gabriel, there was still more he wanted to understand, especially before he openly welcomed the man into his family, but right now he had to have some words with his own angel.
As he stormed into the house, he called as calmly as he could for Cas knowing even in Heaven the angel would hear him.

Within moments and a flutter of air and wings Cas was there.

"You told Gabe that you were expendable," the hunter raged, throwing his full weight into the angel, managing to pin him to the wall out of shock rather than strength. "What the Hell? Haven't you learned anything you featherbrained prick! I love you. I need you. Not even Sammy could fix me if I lost you again. There's only so much I got Cas, and you, Sammy, you're it."

"Dean," Cas was dumbstruck.

"No more dying, not for me, not for Sammy, just don't."

Castiel pulled Dean's arm off of him, then placed his own hands on the hunter's hips and kissed Dean's eyelids softly, "I'm sorry, Dean. I will be more aware of my decisions just as you must."