Castiel was busying around the kitchen, figuring out what he and Sam would eat for lunch. Sam was quickly taken care of, but for himself, it was a difficult task. He was craving pickles, but they were out. They were also out of peanut butter. He poked through everything else and was not interested at all.

He rested his hand on his slowly ballooning stomach. "Can you stop being so picky?" he asked the baby. "I still need to eat."

He didn't get a response. Cheeky pup.

Cas closed the fridge door and went to sit next to Sam, who was eagerly stuffing food in his mouth.

"Slow down," he admonished. "You're going to choke."

"Are you not going to eat Cassie?" Sam asked.

"No, the pup doesn't want anything right now."

"But Dean said that you needed to eat. I'm supposed to make sure that you do so."

"I'll eat later. I promise."

"Pinkie promise," Sam demanded, sticking his finger out.

Cas wrapped his finger around the pup's, giving a little shake, before letting him get back to eating. The two sat in a comfortable silence for a while when the doorbell rang.

Cas got up and walked quickly to the door. He looked through the window and saw his brother's reddish hair standing on the other side. He disengaged the alarm before unlocking the door.

"Aren't you supposed to be a work?" Cas asked as soon as the door opened.

"Well, hello to you too. Would you mind letting me in? It's awfully cold out."

"I suppose," he moved to the side, allowing his brother through.

"Thanks, Dean wanted me to get this for you. Said you'd probably ran out."

Lucifer handed his brother a brown paper bag. Opening it up, Cas pulled out a jar of pickles and peanut butter. "What is with everyone making sure that I eat?"

"The wellbeing of the next generation falls onto your shoulders."

"There are many other omegas in the world. I am sure the next generation will be fine."

"But I don't know those other omegas, do I? I'm just trying to do my part."

"Well, thank you," Cas relented. "Either way, why are you here? You're supposed to be at work."

"I'm the only unmated alpha. We collectively decided that I should leave. Charlie let me borrow a laptop so that I could still work."

"What does it matter that you're unmated?"

Lucifer looked around, making sure they were alone. "Where's Sam?" he asked.

"He's in the kitchen eating lunch."

Lucifer nodded before lowering his voice more. "Benny and Dean finally got dumb and dumber to talk a little while ago. Finally got all the info they needed. To get the murder charges dropped, they gave the address of the place they were supposed to take you. Turns out they were hired to do the crap job they did."

"That does not explain why you are here, though."

"After getting the warrant, we raided the place. It was filled with kidnapped omegas."

"What?" Cas asked dumbly.

"Yeah, we found one of their places and arrested a couple of the players there. Hopefully, this doesn't get out. We tried to keep it quiet."

"Are they okay?" Cas asked.

"As okay as they can be, I suppose. Either way, none were comfortable with me around, being unmated and all, so I left. Any info they get, I'll check it out while they're interviewing everyone involved. It seems to be all hands on deck right now."

"Do you think it'll do any good?"

"Well, Amara was already at the precinct when we showed back up. I choose to believe that we're on the right track."

"Cassie?" came Sam's voice around the corner. "Where did you go?"

"Over here, Sam," Cas responded, trying to go back to his normal tone.

"Luci!" Sam yelled as he turned the corner and ran toward the alpha. "What are you doing here?"

"Well, I decided to visit my favorite pup in the whole world."

"You don't have to go to work?"

"Nope," Lucifer said, grabbing the pup and putting him on his waist. "I tricked the boss into letting me work from home. You won't tell him, right?"

"Nooooooo," Sam giggled before scrambling to get down. "We're eating lunch. Are you going to join us?"

"Don't mind if I do."

The two walked hand in hand to the kitchen. Cas smiled at the strange friendship the two formed before turning back around, locking the door, and resetting the alarm. He carried the treats Lucifer brought with him and headed back. There, Lucifer and Sam were playing a game of food keep away.

"Lucifer, don't take Sam's food. I'll make you some."

"But I want Sam's," Lucifer whined.

"Nooooo. Get your own."

"But sharing is caring, Sam."

"No. My food."

Cas shook his head at the two of them before turning around and making another plate. It only took a couple of minutes the heat up the chicken nuggets that all children seemed obsessed with and dumping a scoop of fruit on the plate.

"There, children. Get your food," Cas said, putting the plate in front of his brother.

"Thanks, Papa," Lucifer jokingly said.

Sam and Lucifer continued talking while Cas sat there munching on the pickles and peanut butter. He was thinking so hard, worried about the omegas that they've discovered earlier that day. Could this possibly be his fault? When Lucifer took him out of their parent's home, he did his best to move on and bury the trauma deep inside of him. Maybe if he had done something, so many others would not have suffered from his silence.

"You know what, Sam, why don't you get your schoolwork or book," Lucifer's voice broke through the haze. "That way, we can do our work together. I don't want to do it by myself."

"Alright. I'll help you. I got a new book. Didn't I, Cassie?"

"Yes, you did," Cas said with a small smile. "I really want to know what you think about it. Why don't you go get it."

Sam pushed himself away from the table and ran up the stairs. After the two adults heard the footsteps fade away, Lucifer turned to his brother.

"Don't blame yourself, Cassie."

"But..."

"But nothing. You did what you had to do to protect yourself. If you want to blame anyone, blame me. I could have said something when I came to take you."

"But you only knew about me."

"And you were a child. No one would expect a child to deal with this. One of your students was almost brought into this as well. Would you be mad that she didn't say anything?"

"No. She shouldn't have to deal with any of this," Cas said, giving his brother a slightly dirty look.

Lucifer looked on with a knowing smile. "If you wouldn't blame her, why are you blaming yourself?"

"But so many people got hurt because of me."

Lucifer grabbed his brother's hand and gave it a squeeze. "You did nothing wrong. If you want to blame anyone, blame our parents for all the bullshit they put you and so many other omegas through.

"Now, all this stress isn't good for the pup. I want the new pup to be as healthy as possible, so please don't worry about it. Do you trust me, Amara, Donna, Dean, Charlie, and Benny to take care of all of this?"

"I do," Cas stiffly answered.

"Then let us handle this. We'll even make it so that you don't have to testify if you don't want to."

"I don't want to, but I want to be there for the trial."

"Are you sure about this, Cassie? We can take care of everything without you being there."

"No," Cas snapped at Lucifer. "I need to know that this is over, once and for all. I need to know."

"I'll do my best," Lucifer said. "Also, pick your head up. You're bumming me out. Also, Gabe wants you to call him. Could he call you himself? Yes, but he says that it's the principle of the thing."

"Of course he does," Cas chuckled before a stricken look spread across his face. "Do you think Micheal knows about all this? He is the only one that does talk to them."

"If he does, I'll kick his ass. I know he's a douche, but not that much of a douche. Anyways, I hear Sam coming back. Let's not worry about it right now. Let's wait until all the information comes in before we get ahead of ourselves.

"Either way, the other guys should probably have something by now," Lucifer said as he looked at his phone. "Seems that they have a couple of identities. Let's see if I can find them."

As soon as Lucifer ended the statement, the two heard Sam's footsteps come back towards them. The two of them wiped the serious expressions off their faces as the pup walked back in.

"I got my book. Cassie, can you read it with me?"

"Of course. Let's make sure Luci starts his work first. You know he'll try to get out of work. He did the same thing in school."

"You know what, I left my stuff in the car; I need to go get it," Lucifer said sneakily before standing up and walking out of the room.

"Can you make sure that he actually comes back?" Cas asked Sam.

The pup gave Cas a determined look, handing his book over, before following the alpha outside of the house. Cas watched the two go outside and Lucifer try to sneak Sam a bag of jelly beans before grabbing the laptop out of the back seat and watched as the two of them joked on their way back.

Maybe he would call Gabriel. The beta always had a way of making him smile again.