Broken heart syndrome
It was audible as he drifted away. Dean's eyes watered, but he was succumbing to sleep. His knees were molten steel beneath him. Smooth giving way like butter, hot from the pain of running so long. Cas noticed it just as he passed out, landing on Sam's shoulders.
"You want them broken, right? They will be. If I go back, go to the Well of Oath_become the lock and key of Hell. Well, they won't live well with that, now will they? But see, it makes the playing field fair. The other archangels can't be drafted to use as weapons against your power surge. And you can't magic force my brother to become Michael's meat puppet in your war with Castiel…" Sam was frantically chattering as he fought in an angel's grip.
"SAM!" Dean kicked his way free of six angels but was met with the sword of a seventh. Raphael stared at Sam, mortified, yes, even he.
"You would do that for them? Go back...Knowing what they've got a mind to do to you?" Raphael shook his head. Sam growled.
"Look, are we gonna do this or not? Come on, you know that I'm right. If Lucifer gets out...He will stomp you like a midnight cigarette. You want to be the king, you have to move other pieces off the board. Make this a fair fight, Raphael! Castiel and his army are your brothers_you owe them that!" Sam tossed his hair out of his eyes. Dean noticed Castiel sob into his palm a few feet away. He also noticed in a stream of consciousness that Sam's knees were knocking. He was scared out of his mind by what he was doing.
Raphael smiled.
"This...Why this...Is poetry. Alright, Sam, I will give you your pathetic request. I won't need the armies of Hell at my command anyway with Castiel so withered by the loss of you." Raphael nodded to the angels.
"Take him there and bind him to the covenant expediently." Raphael turned to Dean. Dean was having a heart-attack now. A full-blown widowmaker. He reached out his hand and groaned for Sam, but it came out in a choking sound.
Sam looked at Dean one last time. His face was ghost white. Then, he was being grabbed up, despite Castiel's pleading and protesting and fighting against the guards.
"Take care of him, Cas! Don't let him do anything stupid!" Sam shrieked as he was dragged back to Hell.
Dean woke back up screaming, clinging to his chest. Cas was holding him around the shoulders.
"Shh, you're alright. That's done with. We made it down here, didn't we?" Cas was healing Dean. Dean could feel grace in his veins.
"What's...What's wrong with him?" Sam sobbed leaning against a tree in horror.
"He...Well, uhh...He has frequent nightmares of...of the deal you made. He...The first time he had a heart attack. A fatal one that I healed only just in time. He still has them. It's like...Like his spirit can't take what happened to you." Cas pressed Dean to his chest from behind. Dean curled in on himself and wept like a little child.
There was a long pause of smothering horror. Cas had pressed his palm over Dean's mouth to suppress his sobbing and possibly keep the Shadeem from hearing him.
"Guys, I'm so_"Sam flinched when Dean pushed Cas off and snapped_
"If you apologize, so help me…"Dean looked up, wiping his tears off with his sleeve. He saw the fearful expression on Sam's face and beckoned him.
"Come here, Sammy. For God's sakes." Dean held his hands open like a child asking for their mother. Sam went into Dean and Cas' arms. They all fell back against a tree. Dean had been asleep for 3 hours. He was still almost too exhausted to go on. They were hiding deep in the forest on the edge of Leviathan country trying to wait the Shadeem and Raphael's spies out.
"We have to go. They probably heard you when you woke up." Cas wrapped his wings around both of the brothers and looked up at the starless skies of Purgatory at night. Dean bowed his face to Sam's hair and braided it in his fingers.
"He's right. If you...If you're too beat to move, man, we're gonna have to carry you." Sam's voice was broken from all the smoke he'd inhaled in the well. Dean only just now noticed it and it jarred him awake.
"No, no, that's not right. I can handle it." Dean clenched his teeth.
"What happened to us, guys?" He laughed. The others looked down for a moment before Cas gasped.
"We went to war." He stood up and eased them to their feet. In total silence, they spirited away through shadows as a Shadeem howled in its language.
