Chapter Twenty-Nine
Emancipation

Sam, Dean, and Castiel stayed in two single-bed rooms that night. The younger Winchester explained that they were the only rooms available.

Dean didn't question it, being too tired from teaching Castiel how to behave as a human lookout for them, and the angel didn't want to question it. Too often he watched the brothers sleep in motel rooms, invisible and unsleeping. Now he didn't have to pace, or to watch, he could be with Dean without having to explain anything to Sam.

Indeed, Sam didn't even ask Cas where he wanted to stay before he grabbed his bag and disappeared into his own room.

Cas carried Dean's bag, giving the hunter time to clean up from the road trip. He had insisted Cas change into sleepwear at night, so he put on the bright red pajama bottoms that Dean selected at the store. They were adorned with black Scotty dogs.

Dean came out of the bathroom in a t-shirt and pajama bottoms and stopped short at the sight of Cas in nothing more than a pair of rolled up, Scotty-dog pants.

Cas looked down at his clothing, wondering if he had put it on incorrectly.

"What is it?" he asked.

A smirk crept up Dean's cheeks. For a moment he said nothing, but then, "You look really good."

"Is that a bad thing?" Cas asked, tilting his head slightly.

This tightened Dean's expression even more. As he moved closer, he lowered his voice, "It's a great thing, Cas."

The angel initiated a kiss, which quickly and pleasantly began to blossom into more.

"Stop," Castiel said, stepping back.

"Stop?"

"If I – if we explode light bulbs here..."

"...the angels will spot you," Dean finished miserably.

"I'm sorry."

Dean turned to his bag and pulled out a large piece of plastic, which turned out to be a giant stencil of an angel-blocking sigil.

"Give me a minute, I'll cover us up," Dean explained.

"That won't work," Castiel said. "If there are disturbances, the angels will see them, and if they can't see into this room, they'll – "

"I get it," Dean interrupted, resigning himself.

He packed the sigil-stencil away before crawling into bed.

Cas climbed into bed. He didn't need to sleep, but it was nice, pleasant even, to lie next to Dean as he slept. Dean put his head on the angel's chest.

"This sucks," Dean grumbled.

Embarrassment was the worst feeling for Cas. It was like his insides were given their own free will, and they decided to twist up and move around unnecessarily.

"I can stand if you prefer," Cas suggested.

"No, no," Dean replied. "Not you. Not this. I mean... this."

"I don't understand. Do you want me to go?"

Dean replied, "Stay."

It sounded like he had more to say, but he didn't elaborate. Instead, he took one of Castiel's hands and curled up. He didn't let go until he fell asleep.

His angel watched over him.


The meeting was at the Rolling Diner, a little fifties-style place on the main street of a small town in Kansas. Dean and Sam both dressed in semi-professional clothes under the guise of traveling salesmen while the angel adored casual attire.

As agreed, Cas went in first, about an hour before the meet. He settled into a table and ordered coffee and toast.

The social workers arrived about fifty minutes later, and Cas texted the Winchesters to inform them that nothing appeared amiss. Not yet anyway.

Sam and Dean waited to join them until the last minute, arriving right on time. They shook hands and made quick introductions before sitting at the table.

"I'm Sam Smith, and this is my brother Dean."

"Daniel Coopers."

"Dakota Gage, but, please, call me Dodge. Nice to meet you."

"I gotta ask," Dean said as he sat down. "I know that they're applying to be emancipated or whatever, but – "

"How does this work?" Daniel finished the question.

"Yes," Sam agreed.

"There're a number of factors at play, and a background check and interviews are important, especially with people like teachers and family friends," Dodge explained.

"Well, Krissy's a great kid. A lot of leadership potential," Sam said. "So how can we help?"

Daniel said, "We have a few questions."

Thus ensued an incredibly awkward yet well-traversed conversation about Krissy, Josephine, and Aiden. Cas listened intently, and while he hadn't mastered human conversation, he sensed it was going well.

Then Castiel had a peculiar feeling. Had he been better versed in these matters, he'd've said his hair stood on end. Something was very wrong and that feeling haunted him until Sam and Dean said goodbye to Dodge and Daniel.

Sam went to the bathroom, and, with no subtlety, Daniel followed him. Dodge and Dean, meanwhile, both departed to their respective cars.

With the same hard-to-define feeling nagging him, Cas went to check on Sam. It was an excellent choice on the angel's part.

As Cas entered, Sam flew across the bathroom, crashing headlong into the wall.

He looked up at Cas and sputtered, "Shifter! Silver!"

Too late. Daniel tackled Cas to the floor, tapping into some kind of super-strength and nearly breaking his arm. The fight between the two of them was vicious. Cas wailed on the shifter, who sloughed large parts of its skin. The angel found it difficult to maintain control of the increasingly slippery situation.

Sam pulled himself up, ready to help, but Cas gave up on being human and grabbed the shifter's head. The creature's eyes burned out, and its body collapsed to the floor.

POP! The old man from the parking lot appeared.

"Castiel! And here I thought you'd be a bit more careful since yesterday," the angel shouted. "Glad you weren't!"

Tamandriel reminded Sam of Zachariah. He disliked everything about him.

Rushing forward, Tamandriel grabbed Cas and crashed them both into bathroom mirrors, shaking the entire diner. Then he put Castiel in a vicious rear chokehold and knocked out his knee, gaining access to the Cas's angel blade.

Sam smashed his elbow into Tamandriel's face and knocked his fist into the angel's inner arm in a tackle, forcing him drop the weapon. Cas used a quick leg lift to the groin to free himself of the chokehold. Sam grabbed the blade's hilt and heaved it diagonally through the assailant's stomach.

A brilliant light shined leaving burnt wings across the room.

"Unbelievable," Cas spat as if it were a curse.

Taking one hand, the angel pushed Sam out of the way, healing him and cleaning up his clothes.

"I'll move the bodies elsewhere and return to the bunker. Please tell Dean I'm sorry."

POP!

Cas and the bodies were gone, leaving the bathroom in ruins. It dawned on Sam that more angels could be on the way, so he left as quickly as he could without drawing attention.


To say the ride home was uncomfortable would be putting it mildly. Dean kept grimacing, yet he bit back his usual 'I told you so.' That was what Sam found most disturbing.

"So, you aren't going to say it?" Sam tempted.

"Say what? That this sucks? Fine, I'll say it. This sucks."

"No, I mean," Sam said, unsure how to approach the topic. "Let's talk about the angel in the room here."

"The what?"

"Instead of elephant, the angel," said Sam. "Don't get me wrong, I'm glad he was there to help, he saved my ass, but we could've run, you know?"

"That's why I wanted to put him on Angel Lock-down," Dean replied. "I know that's not gonna work. Wouldn't work on you'r'me. We can't expect it to work on him."

Sam waited just in case his brother decided it was time to man up and admit the obvious.

When that didn't happen, he said, "This isn't just about teaching him to fight and shoot and run. We have to make him a hunter. I'm talking a full-on human-style hunter. The only way we can do that is if you find a way to rein him in."

Dean laughed. "Sam, the guy's a freaking angel of the lord, how do you expect me to rein his ass in?"

Throwing all pretense to the wind, Sam said, "He's your boyfriend, Dean, that's how!"

The screech of wheels filled the billowing silence. Dean stopped the Impala in the middle of the road.

"That's not... we're... Sam..." Dean stumbled, his voice oddly quiet given the situation. He didn't continued. He just closed his eyes and shook his head.

"You, what, didn't expect me to notice? Dean, you haven't hit on or slept with a woman in almost a year. Even when you're flirting it's like when you were with Lisa, it's all for show."

A full minute passed in silence. Dean opened his eyes and stared ahead, like his wheels were cranking but he wasn't getting anywhere.

"Then you and Castiel disappear for a 'day off' somewhere and won't tell me where. Come on Dean, I see the way you two look at each other. They way you are around each other, or have been for... forever, it feels like. I just don't understand why you didn't tell me."

Dean put the car in park and leaned back in his seat. He stared at the roof of the car.

"Did you think I'd be, what, upset? That'd I'd care he was a guy? Or an angel?"

"I don't know," Dean replied. Then he started speaking at lightning speed. "Because it's... we've both been... We met when he yanked my ass outa hell, Sam. Then the seals, the apocalypse, that Eve bitch, the freaking Leviathans, and... getting stuck in Purgatory, then Naomi – "

"I get it," Sam interrupted. "It hasn't been easy."

"No, Sam, it's been impossible, and it still is."

"But you're together now?" Sam asked.

"We haven't talked about it," Dean finished lamely. "What does it matter?"

"Well, first of all, it matters because you're my brother," Sam snapped. "And second of all, because he is an angel, and we can't make him do anything. Not as humans. But as his boyfriend, you can – "

"Don't say it like that," Dean interrupted.

"Okay, you prefer, what, lover?"

"What? No! Hell, no!" Dean replied. "Seriously, Sam, no."

"What then?"

"Cas," Dean said. "Can't we just call him Cas?"

"Right," Sam replied. "Are we going to sit here all night?"

Dean shifted the car back in gear and drove off. It was several minutes before he said, "Partner."

"Come again?" he asked.

"Partner," repeated Dean.

Sam went over their last conversation to put the word into context. Then he asked, "Instead of boyfriend?"

"Yeah."

"I guess I figured you'd find that a little too, you know," Sam searched for the right word but finally just blurted, "...gay."

"It's better than lover," Dean said. "A freaking thousand times better."