The next morning, Cas watched as Dean woke up, still having been unable to sleep. As expected, Dean didn't remember anything that had taken place the night previous. He looked at Castiel confusedly, then at his surroundings, then back at Castiel.
"You came in here last night because of a bad dream." Castiel explained to him calmly. Dean nodded, understanding what he had done. "You didn't seem fully awake." He added on.
"Sorry." Dean said timidly. His green eyes didn't leave Castiel's since there was really no other place for him to look.
"It's fine. I don't mind." Castiel assured with a soft smile. They were drawn out of their conversation by the sound of Sammy fussing and then the sound of Gabriel shushing him. Gabriel walked to Castiel's room to find both Dean and Cas there and he grinned.
"You guys want to go watch some cartoons?" Gabriel asked. When Castiel turned to look at him, he found that the archangel looked a lot more mussed than he had during the night. Despite having claimed to be going to sleep, he didn't look to have slept very much at all. He did not question it though, opting to get out of bed to allow Dean up. Dean nodded at Gabriel about wanting to watch cartoons and the three of them made their way into the living room. Gabriel disappeared into the kitchen, leaving them to watch while he cooked breakfast. To his dismay, Castiel followed him to the kitchen, having told Dean that he merely wished to speak to Gabriel. Castiel entered the kitchen and took a seat at the table, resting his head in his hands.
"Are you alright, Gabriel?" Castiel asked. He tried sounding casual, but it came out sounding just as worried as he felt.
"Yeah, just tired." Gabriel replied shortly. He focused on cooking and tried not to give away how he was actually feeling.
"You are cooking today." Castiel noted. Gabriel winced.
"I cook every day." Gabriel replied as casually as he could. "Who do you think puts food on the table?" He then added, trying to rile Castiel up and distract him.
"You know that is not what I mean." Castiel said firmly. Gabriel frowned, Castiel didn't take the bait.
"Of course not…" Gabriel sighed. "What do you want from me, Cas?" He asked, turning and placing his hands on his hips.
"The wound isn't healing, is it?" Castiel finally asked. He looked pointedly at Gabriel's side. "I can still feel the grace leaking out, despite the skin having closed." He said accusingly.
"It is healing, just… Not that fast." Gabriel defended, placing a hand protectively over the wound in his side. Castiel frowned and rested his head on his arms, a little frown wrinkling the space between his eyebrows.
"Because you keep expending grace to keep us safe." Castiel said after some thought. He sounded regretful. "It is my mission Gabriel. You should not feel obligated to help me."
"Shouldn't feel obligated?!" Gabriel repeated. "Cas, without me, you would be on lock down in Heaven and the Winchesters would have their memories wiped." He said angrily. "Your 'mission' would go uncompleted and the apocalypse would happen." He said. Castiel looked down at the table. "Besides, I'm in it for the long run now, aren't I?" He said, trying to alleviate Castiel's guilt. "There isn't any way I'm getting off the hook now, so I might as well help you."
"Still, you are straining yourself." Castiel said sadly. "You could die, Gabriel. I would be responsible." He said mournfully.
"If I die, I'm going to be the one responsible for it, Cas." Gabriel said angrily. "Besides, I'm not going to die."
"Of course…" Castiel conceded. The kitchen lapsed into silence then, only the sounds from the T.V and Gabriel cooking permeating the room. Castiel fell asleep then, head cradled in his arms. He dreamed of Heaven, and his brothers and then Gabriel, but not with him. Gabriel was with someone else, but smiling none-the-less.
Castiel woke with a start when a plate was set in front of him. He looked up to see Gabriel looking down at him. "Maybe tonight you actually try to sleep instead of letting my friends into the house, yeah?" He asked. John and Bobby came in then, enticed by the smells. Gabriel had set plates down for everyone and he waved to John and Bobby. "One of you needs to grab Sammy and tell Dean to get in here too." He said. At their confused looks he motioned to the table. "It's breakfast time." John nodded sleepily and made his way back into the living room, gathering Sammy into his arms and grabbing Dean's hand. Breakfast went by without very many issues. It seemed no one, but Castiel was disturbed by Loki's visit the previous night, which was reassuring, because Gabriel had no desire to explain his relation to Loki to any of the adults at the table.
Breakfast went by without relative incident. The looks Castiel kept casting towards Gabriel did not go unnoticed, but everyone knew better than to say anything. Eventually, the meal ended and Gabriel promptly disappeared, along with all the dishes. The door to his room was firmly locked and the Winchesters were once again left to their own devices. Dean planted himself with Sammy in front of the T.V. to watch the remainder of the cartoons that played for children in the morning, but lost interest when the news came on. Bobby went down to the basement with Castiel, who helped him pick out books he might understand. It appeared that not all of the books were written in Enochian, some were actually written in Japanese, German, Chinese, some forms of really old English and some old tomes bound in decaying leather in the farthest reaches of the basement were in what Bobby assumed to be some form of Old Norse. He wasn't sure though, it wasn't any dialect he'd ever come across.
When Castiel and Bobby disappeared into Gabriel's secret library, John decided he wanted to go for a walk, since Dean was entertaining Sammy. He went to the door and tried to open it, only to find it completely stuck; no amount of pushing or pulling would make it yield.
"Going outside right now is a bad idea." Gabriel's voice told him from behind, making him jump about a foot in the air. "There are angels outside. You can't see them though." He said. "Luckily, as long as you stay inside, they can't see you." He said, flicking the blinds of the shades up and peering out.
"Do they know we're here?" John asked, there was a hint of fright in his voice. Gabriel smirked.
"They think they do, but they won't find any proof." Gabriel said, flicking the blinds back down before sitting on the couch. "They'll leave when they can't find anything. Then we'll leave." He said firmly.
John came over and sat beside Gabriel, who had an uncharacteristically somber frown on his face. "Are you okay? You're acting strange." He asked in concern.
Gabriel's expression almost violently changed to one of neutrality, complete with a shake of the head. "Yeah." He said. He didn't particularly sound okay.
"Can I do anything?" John asked. He didn't particularly like Gabriel, but he was their ally, so…
Gabriel stood up with a huff. "Nope. Just keep your kids safe." He said. He disappeared again, and John could distantly hear the lock to his door click.
John remained on the couch for an hour or so after that, watching the news that had just come on. The anchor on the television had a hint of a European accent to his voice, so John assumed that wherever they were, it wasn't America. After the news ended, finishing with a vague story about some strange occurrence in a church in Amsterdam, John stood and looked out the window, mimicking Gabriel's method as he peeked through the shades. It had begun snowing, small white puffs piling onto the ground. He couldn't see the Impala from the window, so he assumed Gabriel had hidden it or made it invisible or whatever it was he did with large objects he didn't want found. He could also see strange disturbances in the air, amongst the falling snowflakes. Some would start falling at a slightly different angle when they reached a certain point, as if bending around an object. Maybe those were the angels Gabriel was talking about. He flicked the shades shut and turned to find Dean standing behind him.
He kneeled down to Dean's level and smiled at him. "Hey bud." He greeted. "What's up?"
Dean looked down at his feet bashfully, then back up at John. He fiddled with his hands for a moment before speaking. "Do you want to come draw with me and Cas?" He asked, he held up one of his hands to reveal a blue crayon. "Cas is a good drawer." He said, bargaining.
John thought about it for a moment, then finally. "Sure, yeah." He said absently. Dean grinned wide and toothy. He noticed Dean was missing one of his canine teeth. When did he lose it? He didn't have time to ask, as Dean grabbed his hand and led him to his bedroom where Castiel was sprawled on the floor with a large piece of paper working at one end meticulously with a red crayon. He looked up when they approached and smiled warmly at Dean.
"Daddy's going to draw with us." Dean said happily. He sat down at the other side of the paper and began scribbling with his blue crayon. Castiel nodded and went back to his side of the paper, replacing his red crayon for a yellow one.
"So… What are you drawing?" John asked, setting to work on drawing little geometric shapes.
"I'm drawing Cas!" Dean said proudly, showing John a little blue blocky figure with messy hair and wings. "I'm gonna draw you next. Just wait." He explained, before getting back to work on his portrait's blue feet.
Cas looked down with a blush. "Cas?" John asked, calling the angel's attention back to him.
"I-I'm drawing Dean." He said bashfully. "Though Dean says it does not look like him." He said. He leaned back from the drawing to show John. What John saw was certainly very pretty, but looked nothing like a human. It was basically a mass of spirals in various earthy tones except for very short streaks of mixed red and yellow.
"That's very pretty, Castiel." John said lamely. He wasn't sure if that was actually how Castiel saw everyone or if he was just really into abstract art. Either way, it was a bit disconcerting.
"Thank you." Castiel said, before getting back to work. He replaced the yellow crayon with a blue one and began sketching out what looked like feathers before switching to the yellow again. John turned his attention back to his drawings. He had a horribly drawn cube drawn in green, and he grabbed a red crayon to add a roof to it.
Eventually Bobby wandered into the room holding Sammy, and sat on the bed and watched them a while before heading out into the living room, muttering something about going stir crazy. Soon lunch rolled around and Gabriel appeared in the kitchen to cook and then serve the meal. Lunch was a lot less tense than breakfast, as Gabriel seemed to be in a bit better of a mood, though he still seemed rather melancholy. He disappeared soon after the meal, leaving the Winchesters alone again. The afternoon went very much like the morning, only instead of drawing, Dean had taken to pulling every book out of his bookshelf and attempting to read the titles. Castiel soon joined him and together they were working their way through some odd foreign fairy tales John had never heard of. After that, Dean fell asleep leaned up against Castiel, so Castiel asked John to fetch him his book from the living room, albeit with hesitance. John quickly brought the encyclopedia sized book with a gold engraved cover to Castiel.
"What's it about?" John asked, as he handed him the book.
Castiel looked hesitant to tell him for a moment and then whispered. "Another world." John raised an eyebrow, wanting to know more, but Castiel wouldn't elaborate. It was rather frustrating. Not wanting to wake Dean by questioning Castiel more, John made his way out of the room and to Gabriel's game room. It looked like an arcade and had many full sized games in it. He wondered aimless until settling in front of a machine that was black and yellow to fiddle with it. The game started up without a coin and he began shooting little polygonal figures on the screen. He had no idea how long he'd been playing before someone poked both his sides and shouted 'boo!' directly into his ear. He jumped harshly and whirled on the person, only to find Gabriel there.
"We can leave tomorrow evening. I've managed to draw the angels somewhere else." Gabriel reported proudly.
"Good, Bobby's going nuts being stuck inside all day." John said in return. Gabriel snorted.
"He's just butt hurt because I won't teach him Enochian." Gabriel said.
"Why not?" John asked, genuinely curious.
"Them's the rules." Gabriel remarked carelessly. He spun, overly theatrical towards the door to the room.
"So what? That just happens to be the one rule you follow?" John asked cheekily. Gabriel's figure tensed.
"There's a reason for that rule." Gabriel said darkly before exiting the room. John could hear him animatedly greeting Sammy and the baby's shrill and delighted giggles.
At dinner Gabriel told everyone what the plan was for the next day. Bobby had echoed John's earlier sentiments, and then commented about how he'll miss the book collection. Dean seemed a little sad to be leaving, and Castiel was indifferent, choosing to focus on cheering Dean up.
The night passed uneventfully, Castiel slept in Dean's bed. Sammy slept all night and there were no more visitors to the little home. Though Castiel, in the moments that he was awake during the night, could hear Gabriel wondering around the house restlessly.
The next day was spent packing anything Gabriel had given them that they found useful. Castiel returned his substantial pile of books back where he'd found them, and a quick peak into Dean's bag would reveal that he was hording all the paper his desk held along with all the crayons. Apparently Dean liked drawing, who knew?
TBC...
(This was a bit of a transition chapter, but I hope you liked it anyway.)