Once Imogen and Castiel were safely concealed behind the bedroom door she was kissing him. Not that she couldn't kiss him in front of Sam, but she wasn't really someone who was comfortable showing love or any sort of affection in front of anyone else. Castiel didn't seem to mind because he was kissing her back. Something was off about this moment, but Imogen chose to ignore it and was just grateful to have him right then and there.
"Do you remember what happened?" Castiel asked as Imogen broke the kiss to breathe.
She nodded, "Bits and pieces. I got stabbed and then I saw you slash some angel's throat and eat his grace. So you're back at full power?"
Castiel shook his head, "No, not quite. But I am an angel again, for the time being anyways."
"So what does that mean? You're gonna be human again?"
"I don't know," he admitted, "Stealing another angels grace isn't exactly something that's been experimented with. I suppose we'll just have to wait and see what happens."
"So what does that mean for you in the mean time?" she questioned.
Castiel sighed softly, "I need to move on. I'm radiating energy now, so I shouldn't stay in one place for too long or it might attract angels."
"You're leaving?"
He nodded, "Yes, and I want you to come with me-"
Imogen let out a breath of relief, "Yeah, of course. Just let me get my stuff together and we can hit the road."
Castiel took her hand, "Let me finish," he met her eye, "I want you to come with me more than anything in the world. But you can't."
"What do you mean I can't?" she narrowed her eyes at him.
"Imogen," he took a deep breath, searching for the best words that wouldn't upset her, "I am a beacon of light. My enemies will do everything in their power to take me down. They've gotten to you once before, and if you stay with me they will get to you again."
She nodded, her lips tightly pressed together, "So this is it for us?" she barked, "You're an angel now so you don't need my help. Everything I did for you, helped you with- that was all in vain?"
"It wasn't in vain," he gently squeezed the hand he was still holding, "Imogen, you showed me how to be a person. You taught me what it was to love and care about you… What you did for me was never in vain."
"Why are you throwing me aside then?" she yelled at him, roughly pulling away.
"I'm not throwing you to the side, I'm trying to protect you."
She shook her head, "No, I can protect myself. I've proven that time and time again. I made it this far with no help."
Castiel shook his head, "You would have died if I hadn't healed you. You would have died and it would have been my fault. You understand that, right?"
"No," she shook her head angrily, "These are bullshit excuses Cas. If you don't want me with you then just say it. But don't pretend like you're doing me any favors or protecting me or whatever the fuck."
The newly made angel had a decision to make. He had been honest with her. He wanted her with him at all times, but that wasn't the best option. She would be much safer, and out of the way of danger, if she stayed away from him and under the watchful eye of one of both of her brothers. He couldn't get through to her with the truth, her feelings were clouding her judgement, so he had to lie.
"It's true," he said with a solemn, "I think you travelling with me would just slow me down and get in the way of progress. I'm sorry, I was trying to spare your feelings."
She shook her head and took a deep breath, "Great. Thanks for the honesty," she ran a hand through her hair, keeping herself calm. She would explode later, "You should probably go."
Castiel nodded, "This is probably not the best time to ask but-"
"Take my car," she said, "You can have it."
"Are you sure?" he asked, "How will you get around?"
Imogen shrugged, "I'll figure it out on my own. I always do."
"I'm sorry," he said softly, "I really am," he paused, "I'll call you, all right? I'll come and see you as often as I can."
"Just go, Cas," she turned away from him, "Don't call me. Don't come and see me. Like you said, I'll just slow you down," she scoffed, "It was stupid of me to think that we were ever a team and that it would be any different."
Castiel didn't say anything as he turned and walked out the door to her bedroom and through the bunker. He would have left but Sam stopped him as he approached the stairs.
"What was all the commotion?" the large man asked.
A small sigh escaped Castiel, "I told her I had to leave and that it would be too dangerous for her to join me."
Sam nodded, "Okay, yeah… She's not the biggest fan of being told she can't do something."
"How do you know that?"
A laugh escaped Sam, "Because Dean and I raised her through her teen years. Being told no just makes her want to do something even more. She's stubborn as hell."
"She gets that from Dean," Castiel added.
"Yeah she does," he took a drink from the beer he was holding.
"You'll watch over her for me, won't you?" the angel questioned, "I don't think she'll tell me if she needs help, but can I count on you?"
"Absolutely," Sam informed, "I'll take care of her."
"Thank you Sam," Castiel stated, climbing the stairs and leaving the bunker.
Sam finished off his beer and tossed it in the trash. He knew that this was more than Imogen just being upset that Castiel was leaving her behind. Whether she would be willing to admit it or not (and Sam knew she wouldn't) this was about the fact that the man she was in love with was walking out and leaving her behind, even if it was in her best interest.
Slowly he approached her door and knocked on it and opened it without waiting for her approval, "Hey Em."
Imogen had been lying face down on the bed, but when Sam walked in she quickly tried to wipe away the tears that were in her eyes, "Oh hey Sam," she faked happiness. She knew Sam would see right through it, but hoped that he would ignore it.
"You hungry or anything?"
She shook her head, "No, just tired."
He scoffed but didn't push it, "Well, I caught wind of a case up in Wisconsin. You interested in tagging along?"
Again she shook her head, "No, sorry Sammy. I just wanna hang out for a couple days, until I know I'm at a-hundred percent. I wouldn't want to slow you down or anything. But you should go," she urged, "Really. Don't worry, I'll be fine."
Slowly Sam nodded, "Okay… I'll probably be gone a few days, so just keep your phone on you and check in with me when you can," he paused, "Please?"
"Yeah of course," she smiled, "Don't worry, I'll be fine. I've been keeping myself alive for years."
"Well," he sighed, "We just got groceries, so you shouldn't have to go shopping. But if you run low there's a spare credit card in the kitchen and a store right around the corner."
"Got it," she nodded, "Go, have fun. Be safe."
He nodded and headed out of her room. He went and packed some things and told Imogen goodbye before he left. She waited a couple of hours to make sure he hadn't turned back before searching around the bunker and finding the items she needed. She stuffed everything in a bag and walked a couple miles from the bunker before setting up the altar and doing the spell to summon the demon.
"Hello Darling," Crowley's voice rang melodically from behind her.
Quickly Imogen flipped around. It's always best to keep your eye on the king of hell when he's got the upper hand, "Crowley."
"You know, summoning demons is so old school. You could have just tweeted me, I would have come running," his hands were stuffed in his coat pockets as he slowly made his way over to her.
"Right," Imogen nodded, "Sorry, I don't have your Twitter handle," she said awkwardly, not sure what else to say.
"Ah, well it's that little at symbol," he did the motion with his finger, "Followed by three sixes, an underscore, and of course my name, Crowley. I was going to just have my handle be Crowley, but apparently there's some stupid town in Texas by the same name that joined Twitter first. I considered blowing it up, but that just seemed like too much work."
"Great, I'll be sure to follow you," she said facetiously.
"You won't be sorry. I tweet out the cutest kitten memes daily."
Imogen shook her head, completely confused as to why they were talking about Twitter, "Okay, enough with the small talk. We've got beef."
"So right you are," he said with a dark smile, "Might I begin this discussion by telling you that I have been upholding my end of the bargain quite brilliantly."
"I know," Imogen nodded.
"You on the other hand," he made a face, "It's seems you made no effort to do the same."
She nodded, "You're right about that too."
"So what, are you here to beg me not to tell your brothers about your dark side?"
"No," she shook her head, "That's not what I'm here to do. I'm here to offer you another deal."
"Uh huh," he nodded slowly, "And you really expect me to deal with you after you fell through on your last one?"
Imogen sighed, "I didn't intend to go back on our deal, Crowley. Would it help ease your mind if I explain what happened?"
"No really, but go ahead anyways."
"Look, it's a long story but I'll make it as short as possible. Castiel and I were on a hunt, the first hunt he ever went on while human. I got hit really hard in the head and didn't even know who I was for months. So there's no way that I could have held up my end of the bargain when I didn't even know it existed until a few weeks ago when I finally got all of my memories back."
"Mhm," he hummed skeptically, "And you expect me to believe that?"
"I've got no reason to lie."
He laughed loudly, "What are you talking about? Of course you have reason to lie. You don't want your brothers to know about all of those innocent people you killed in order to stay one step ahead of them so they could never track you down," he shook his head, "You don't want them to know that we engineered it to where they would think you were dead so they would stop looking for you."
"Okay, first off Crowley. Those people weren't innocent. Every single one of them sold their soul to you and I was just helping you collect when their times were up. Secondly, I never asked you to plant the idea I was dead in their heads. You did that on your own so that you wouldn't have to keep up with them and what they were doing every second of the day, and by the way- they never did stop looking for me. And lastly, I'm not here to ask a favor or to beg you not to tell anyone. I'm not asking for a handout, Crowley. I have something that you want and you have something that I want."
He scoffed, "What could you possibly have that I want?"
"My soul."
"Your soul?" he repeated, "You're joking right?"
"No," she shook her head, "Not a bit. It's yours."
"You're offering me your soul?"
Imogen rolled her eyes, "You keep repeating yourself this conversation is going to take all night."
"You can't honestly think that I'm going to fall for that, can you? I mean, you and your brothers have proved time and time again when you offer up your souls it's just a joke. You Winchesters will find some way to weasel out of the deal."
"Just hear me out, all right?" she asked, "And at the end of it if you don't like my deal you can go and tell Sam and Dean whatever the hell you like."
Crowley nodded, "Fine, I'm listening."
"You can have my soul when I die. You know me, you know I can be of use to you. So you can rip me limb from limb, torment and torture me until there's not even a sliver of good left in me, and then use me for whatever job you see fit. I can be a crossroads demon, a janitor, fucking president of the United States, I don't give a shit."
"Interesting," he scratched his beard, "Your soul could be useful to me."
"Here's the thing though, you can't take me now," she shook her head, "There's not going to be a time limit hanging over my head- no sir. When I die is when I die. If it's in ten minutes or in ten decades, that's when you get my soul. You can't interfere with that."
"That doesn't exactly seem fair, considering how often you Winchesters die and come back."
"No," she shook her head, "There's not going to be any dying and coming back. Like I said, when I die is when I die. End of discussion. In exchange you never tell anyone who cared about me about the vile piece of shit I was, or about the monster I am going to become."
"And how do I know you, your brothers, and that dreamy angel boyfriend of yours aren't going to weasel your way out of this deal?"
"Because," Imogen met his eyes, "As soon as we make this deal you're going to wipe my mind. I'm not going to remember making the deal, or anything about what I've done for you in the past. If I can't remember it, then I can't get out of it, can I?"
Crowley eyed her up and down for a moment, "You're much brighter than either of your brothers. I really could use someone like you down in hell."
Imogen held her hand out for him to shake, "So do we have a deal?"
Crowley took her hand and then pulled her close to him, wrapping a hand around to her back so she couldn't struggle away before crushing his lips onto hers, "Yes we do, Princess."
Imogen pulled away and wiped her mouth, "Gross, dude. Way too much tongue."
A smirk creeped over the king of hell's face, "See you soon," he whispered as he disappeared.