Penultimate chapter everyone! We are nearing the end!
Thanks to everyone who followed, favourited, and reviewed this fic, this is one of my favourite things to do and something I'm constantly thinking about so to be able to share it with people who like it is wonderful. Thank you!
And thanks as always to Rainbow Fruit Loop for betaing :)
Enjoy!
...
"You're going to be all right now." He whispered, exhaustion stealing his strength before he collapsed to the floor.
"Cas!"
Dean was on the ground in a second, grabbing at the angel whose skin had gone pale as a coughing fit hit and would not stop. Dean pulled him up, cradling him against his chest as Cas continued to hack, finally cutting off with a gasp.
"Cas!" Dean didn't know what to do, "Cas, no."
Castiel raised a shaking hand and rested it on Dean's unshaven cheek, rubbing the pad of his thumbover the ginger stubble.
"You're such a hypocrite." he whispered, his voice more hoarse than usual.
!"What are you talking about?" Dean asked, body trembling as he listened to the wheezing of Cas' breath.
"You cannot abide others giving their lives for you and yet you are willing to sacrifice yourself at the drop of a hat."
"Wha—?" Dean protested but Sam cut him off.
"He's kind of right Dean."
"You shut up." Dean ordered curtly, before rounding on the angel in his arms who was fading fast, "And you, don't you dare die on me."
"Like you did to me and Sam?"
"That's different."
"How?"
Dean paused.
"'Cause I'm not worth it." He said softly.
Cas' smile was sad as he answered, "Yes you are Dean Winchester."
In the far back of his mind, in the empty place where Cas used to be, Dean felt...something. A prodding. His first instinct was to fight back against it, he had been resolutely ignoring it ever since Cas had closed it off, but as the angel struggled for breath in his arms, his wings lying limp beneath him, Dean let go of the anger and resentment and opened himself up to it. Instantly, he was flooded with the overwhelmingly familiar presence of the angel in his mind, accompanied by all the love Cas could muster. Which was quite a lot.
He let out a surprised breath and smiled despite himself.
"I missed you." He whispered and the angel in his arms smiled and blinked slowly.
"I missed you too." His voice was soft and weak.
"I love you."
Cas opened his mouth but before he could say anything, his eyes rolled back and his lids closed and Dean shook the angel as he reached around to thread his fingers through his hair.
"Cas? No, no Cas!" The angel didn't respond and the presence in his mind began to grow fainter and fainter. Dean looked upwards, shouting at the roof of the dilapidated warehouse, "You listen to me you sons of bitches! Cas just saved all of you! He gave you your home back! And you're just going to sit back while he dies? Is that it? Come on! Goddamn it! Come on!"
Silence followed Dean's angry tirade and he felt a numbness settle into his bones as Cas continued to lay still and unresponsive in his arms, the connection fading bit by bit.
And then a column of swirling, smokey light lit the room and, as it dissipated, a lone figure stood in the misty aftermath of the heavenly portal.
"You know, taking my dad's name in vain maybe not such a good idea when praying to the angels for help Dean-o."
Dean and Sam blinked up at the familiar angel.
"What?" Dean asked stupidly.
"You're dead." Sam commented, even more stupidly.
Gabriel rolled his eyes.
"Ever the quick wit Sammy boy."
"No but, you died! Lucifer killed—"
"Can you save Cas?" Dean's voice was trembling and his eyes were intense as he stared at the resurrected angel.
Gabriel moved forward and sighed as he knelt down beside his fallen brother.
"Cassie." he said softly, Dean would say almost fondly if he didn't know Gabriel as well as he did. "What have you gone and done now."
He stretched out a hand and Castiel's brow was bathed in blue light as it passed over.
"Well?" Dean asked impatiently.
Gabriel glared.
"Keep your panties on Dean." He ordered, voice hard as he turned back to the fallen angel, resting a hand on his forehead and bending over him, "I'm sorry brother." He whispered. And then his angel blade was in his hand and he brought it quick as a flash across Castiel's throat. The angel's eyes snapped open and he gasped, arching his back in Dean's grasp as a tiny amount of heavenly blue liquid light spilled from the cut and drifted out and into a small bottle that Gabriel had produced from…somewhere. It barely filled even a quarter of the tiny bottle and once it had been stopped, the archangel ran his hand over Castiel's throat as Castiel crumpled back into Dean's arm.
"What the hell did you just do?" Dean asked angrily.
Gabriel glanced up, for once, his honey coloured eyes serious.
"I just saved his life."
And then Castiel let out a cry that had Dean nearly dropping him and the hunter looked down in shock to see Castiel's burnt and disfigured wings light up with holy fire that started at the tips of what feathers were left and blazed down the length of the limbs, burning the wings to ash and disappearing behind his back until nothing was left.
"What the fuck?" Dean breathed as Castiel continued to wail, his body folding in on itself, and Dean pulled him in, wrapping his arms around the devastated man as he looked up at Gabriel.
"I took his grace." The archangel explained, "What was left of it anyway. He's human now."
Dean continued to glare at the angel as he held the now silent but trembling man in his grasp.
Gabriel sighed, a curiously somber expression from the normally mischievous angel.
"It was the only option."
Dean held his gaze, trying desperately to find any sort of indication of falsehood in them. Anything he could use to fuel his anger at having an injured and weeping Cas clinging to him like a child. But there was nothing but sad truth in the archangel's eyes and Dean slumped, nodding his acceptance as he brushed a soft kiss over the once again human angel's hair, closing his eyes and rocking the crying man slightly, whispering soothing gibberish and giving absolutely no fucks that his brother and the trickster were witness to his moment of tenderness.
Once Castiel's sobs had ceased and the shaking subsided, Dean pulled back to see confused blue eyes staring up at him.
"Dean?" his voice was soft, unsure, "What happened?"
Dean swallowed.
"You uh…you died. Or almost died. You looked pretty dead at any rate. Anyway, then Gabriel showed up and—"
"Gabriel?" Cas interrupted, turning his head so he could see his brother from where he lay.
"Hey Cassie." The archangel greeted with a surprising amount of affection.
"You're dead." the formal angel commented.
"Was dead." Gabriel corrected. "Like you can talk."
Cas frowned.
"How?"
Gabriel shrugged.
"Don't know. One minute Luci's stabbing me in the chest, next I'm alive and safely stowed away in a far corner of heaven where I had every intention to stay before the eviction notice kicked me in the ass. Good job by the way." he added, sarcasm dripping from his tone.
"Wait." Dean interjected, "You've been alive this whole time?"
"Look Dean-o," Gabriel started before Dean could continue, "I can't always fly in at the last second and Deus Ex Machina the world out of every blunder it gets itself into. That would be cheating. Besides, you're here aren't you?"
Dean glared but didn't respond, too happy to have Cas alive and breathing in his grasp to argue with the infuriating archangel.
"You took my grace." Castiel spoke up from his prone position.
"Yeah." Gabriel admitted, "The one you stole from, was it Theo?"
Cas sighed and sank back into Dean's arms.
"Look Cassie, it was burning out and ready to take you with it. I did you a favour."
Cas nodded.
"I know. And I thank you."
Gabriel shrugged.
"What are big brothers for." he glanced around and then slapped his thighs and stood. "Anyway, my job here is done. Time to return to the old homestead, my little slice of paradise is waiting for me."
"Gabriel wait." Castiel's low voice halted the angel who had turned to leave. He spun back.
"What?"
"The angels. They are home now, but they are leaderless. They need someone. Someone they can follow. Someone they can believe in. Gabriel you are the last archangel left. Accept your responsibility."
The angel didn't speak, just stood there with pain and uncertainty shining out of his honey coloured eyes making him look, for the first time in Castiel's long, long life, like the child he must have been when his beloved big brother had fallen so spectacularly from grace.
"Please Gabriel."
The archangel sighed, his shoulders slumping. If Castiel had still been able to see his wings, he was sure they too would be sagging under the weight of the task ahead. His gaze averted, studying the floor.
Cas stood with the help of Dean, leaning on the hunter as he fought against a wave of dizziness, and moved forward until he stood next to his brother, placing his hand on his shoulder for comfort as well as balance. Gabriel looked up into Castiel's earnest gaze and sighed, rolling his eyes as his uncharacteristically solemn expression dissolved into his usual wicked grin.
"Very well. But only because you asked," He was silent and his smile slipped somewhat as he brought a hand up to rest on Castiel's shoulder. "I'm sorry."
Cas glanced around at Dean and then back to his brother.
"Don't be." He replied.
Gabriel nodded and patted Cas on the shoulder, looking over at the Winchesters.
"Boys!" He called, hand raised in a gesture of farewell, "Sammy boy, don't let your brother run off and get himself killed anymore. Especially if members of my family are going to run after him and get themselves killed too. And Dean, take good care of my baby bro."
He turned, creating the portal back with a sweeping gesture of his arm. As he stepped into the ever growing column of smokey, liquid light, he turned and, with a wink, he was gone.
The portal closed in a rush of air and the warehouse was left still and silent. Castiel stood staring at the place Gabriel had disappeared from until Dean came up behind him and rested a comforting hand on his shoulder. Cas turned, staring into his eyes and leaned in, wrapping his arms tightly around the hunter.
"Don't you ever do that again you hear?" he whispered.
Dean nodded.
"Right back at you."
He planted a kiss on the angel - former angel's - windswept hair before turning.
Sam had approached, his jaw clenched and his expression unreadable.
"Sammy..." Dean began but trailed off. He didn't really have anything to say.
Sam didn't say anything either, just pulled Dean in for a bone crunching hug. Dean sighed and clapped his brother on the back. Sam pulled away, his expression hard and his eyes distinctly moist and Dean was about to spit out some kind of lighthearted quip that might relieve some of the tension when Sam pulled back and threw a punch clean across the hunter's cheekbone.
"Son of a bitch!" Dean cursed as he stumbled back into Cas from the force of his brother's blow.
Sam was fuming, his breaths coming in short gasps.
"Don't you DARE do ANYTHING like that again!"
He spun on his heels and stalked out of the warehouse leaving Cas to tend to Dean's wound.
"He's got a point you know."
"Shut up."
Cas huffed and cupped Dean's cheeks with both his hands, forcing the hunter's gaze up to meet his.
"Why did you do it? What were you thinking Dean?"
Dean sighed and pulled out of Castiel's grasp.
"I couldn't stand just sitting there, not doing anything." He glanced up, "I'm not built like that Cas. And besides, you probably weren't gonna survive. Whether from Metatron or your own grace killing you and I just...I couldn't..."
He trailed off, his throat closing painfully until Cas took pity on him and pulled him in for a hard kiss. It was a kiss full of want and need and desperation and Dean grabbed at Cas' clothes, wrinkling the tan coat where he held it in tight fists. Cas, for his part, held equally firmly to Dean as he delved his tongue into the hunter's mouth, trying to convey the desire he could feel pooling low in his belly. They broke off gasping, fingers tangling in hair and foreheads resting against each other as they caught their breath. Castiel let his hand run down the hunter's black t-shirt, resting it flat against his chest and feeling the strong, steady pounding of the heart that he was determined would keep beating for a very long time to come.
He looked up and locked eyes with Dean whose left eye was already beginning to swell from Sam's punch and his mouth relaxed into a soft smile.
"I love you." He breathed.
Dean closed his eyes and leaned forward, resting his forehead against Castiel's and revelled in the quiet moment, just happy that they were both still alive.
"I love you too." He whispered, "Now let's go home."
