The first thing Dean did upon arriving back at the bunker was take a shower. The second thing he did was sleep. When he woke up several hours later, his stomach reminded him how hungry he was.
"We're out of food," Dean announced to his younger brother, who was sitting at their kitchen table, drinking a cup of coffee.
"We were gone for a week, Dean," Sam said pointedly. "Any food we had here we took with us and ate on the way to California."
"Hmm," Dean huffed, mildly annoyed at the lack of food. "You should go shopping for more food."
"Why me?" Sam complained. "I always do the grocery shopping."
Dean shrugged, "As the older brother, it's my duty to tell you what to do."
Sam sighed loudly in exasperation and pinched the bridge of his nose. "Fine, but next time it's your turn."
Dean grinned, happy to not have to be bothered with getting groceries. Then he said, "Hey, where's Cas? I didn't see him in his room or in the library."
"Oh, he said he was going into town to meet up with a friend," Sam answered, sipping his coffee.
Dean raised an eyebrow, "A friend? Who?"
"I dunno," Sam shrugged. "I'm sure he'll be back soon."
Dean didn't quite like the sound of that, but it wasn't exactly his right to stop Cas from meeting up with old friends. Though, what friends did he even have left at this point? Clearly someone Sam and Dean didn't know about.
Sam left to get the requested grocery order while Dean started looking up angel lore. If Cas was in danger of some kind of ambush, they could use all the help they could get in the way of angel warding. Of course this would be a little complicated since Cas himself was an angel, but specific sigils worked on specific celestial beings, so the wardings shouldn't affect him. At least, in theory.
After about an hour of research, Dean's phone started ringing. The caller ID displayed Cas's name.
"Hey," Dean said into the device. "Everything okay?"
"Um... not so much," Cas replied, sounding a bit out of breath. "I think... I think someone... drugged me."
"What?" Dean exclaimed. "Is that even possible? Where are you?"
"There was a fight... three angels... I had to run away," Cas explained. "I'm in an alleyway right now."
"Can't you zap back here?" Dean asked.
"No. Everything is spinning... I feel sick... Dean, I need help. Now. I don't know if the angels are gonna come back."
"Okay, um, okay. I'm on my way right now," Dean responded, standing up from his chair and already sprinting out of the bunker. "Do you know what buildings are nearby?" he asked.
"A bar... I think. And some apartment buildings. I'm just off of Main Street, I'm pretty sure," Cas answered, his breathing still sounding labored. "I don't know what they gave me... But I feel like... I feel really sick, Dean. I think I'm gonna... pass out."
"No, no, no. Just hold on. I'll be there soon, Cas," Dean said, trying to keep the panic out of his voice as he started Baby's engine. "Stay on the line, okay? Stay awake."
"I'm... trying," Cas breathed shakily. "I—" the angel started, the rest of his sentence being cut off by a loud clattering noise.
"Cas?" Dean said, pressing his foot a bit further down on the gas pedal. "Cas, are you there?"
But there was no response.
"Dammit," Dean swore under his breath.
He awkwardly dialed Sam's number while navigating the small town traffic. It was dusk outside, so visibility was getting worse by the minute.
"Dean?" Sam picked up on the second ring.
"Where are you right now?"
"At the grocery store?" Sam replied, sounding confused. "Why?"
"Is there a bar somewhere near you?" Dean asked, not bothering to answer his brother's question.
"Um, I think so, yeah. There's one just down the block from here."
"Get your ass over there now," Dean said, not taking the time to explain the situation. "There should be an alley next to it. See if Cas is there."
"What? Why would he be in an alley?"
"He thinks he got drugged. He just called me. I'm on my way now," Dean responded hurriedly. "Angels are after him."
"Shit. Okay. Yeah, I'm leaving the store right now," Sam said before hanging up.
Dean found the alleyway about five minutes later. Sam was already there, crouched down next to Cas, who was slumped on the pavement and not moving.
"Cas!" the older Winchester exclaimed, approaching the angel.
Cas did not look good. His face was stained with half-dried blood and his coat also had splotches of blood on it. His angel blade was resting discarded on the ground next to him along with his cell phone.
"He's not dead," Sam said, giving Dean a worried look. "But I think he's unconscious. How is that even possible, Dean? Why aren't these injuries healing themselves?"
"He said he thought he got drugged," Dean answered, crouching down next to Sam and checking Cas's pulse. "It must be screwing with his angel powers."
His heart appeared to be beating at a slow but steady pace, much to Dean's relief. His lack of consciousness was concerning, though.
"Cas," Dean said, taking the angel's hand in his. "Cas, can you hear me?"
The angel didn't move, though. Blood trickled from his nose down to his chin, the dark liquid looking eerie in the twilight hour.
"We should get him back to the bunker," Sam said, standing back up. "It's not safe for us to stay out here, especially if angels are looking for him."
Dean struggled to pick up Cas's limp body.
Damn, he thought to himself, angels must have dense bones.
Sam took his car (a black Camaro that was usually stored in the bunker's garage) while Dean laid Cas out in the back seat of his Impala. He figured the drug, whatever it was, would wear out of the angel's system eventually, but in the meantime the safest place for him would be the bunker.
Cas blinked open his eyes and found himself back in the bunker on his bed. Everything felt sore and the room around him was still spinning. He abruptly felt the urge to throw up. An additional glance at his surroundings showed his bedroom door cracked open slightly and he could hear low voices drifting from somewhere else in the bunker.
"Dean... Sam..." he croaked out, far too quiet for either of them to hear. "Ugh..." he trailed off, feeling another wave of nausea. "Guys..." he tried again after a moment of pushing the bile back down his throat. "Guys!" he shouted hoarsely.
There was a rush of footsteps and then the door swung open fully, revealing the worried faces of Cas's best friends—well, best friend and boyfriend, technically.
"Cas!" Dean said, immediately rushing to his side. "What happened? Are you okay?"
The angel shook his head, "Still... sick. I think I'm gonna... throw up."
Before either Dean or Sam could say anything more, Cas leaned over the side of the bed opposite Dean and emptied the contents of his stomach on the floor. Dean gave Sam instructions to get some towels and a bucket in case Cas threw up again, which was a very big possibility.
"It's okay, Cas," Dean said, sitting down on the bed next to the angel, a safe distance away from the puke. "I'm here; it's okay."
He rubbed soothing circles on Cas's back while the angel held his head in his hands and shook slightly. Cas felt sicker than he'd ever remembered being in the past. It felt like his body was trying to kill him from the inside out, though the reality was probably that his body was trying to purge itself of whatever he'd ingested that made him sick in the first place.
"I think..." he started, "I think they tried to poison me with something."
"Angels can be poisoned?" Dean asked, surprised.
"Apparently, yes."
Sam came back with the towels and cleaned up the mess of dark liquid on the floor. The substance looked like a mixture of blackish colored bile and something watery. Cas hadn't eaten anything in quite a while, up until his bar visit, so surely the liquid he was throwing up was the one drink he had earlier in the night.
"Here," Dean said, handing Cas a bucket that Sam had given him.
The angel set the object on his lap in case he felt any more nausea, then attempted to tell Sam and Dean exactly what had happened.
"I must've been set up," he began, looking over at Dean. "I got a text from an old friend and they wanted to meet up for drinks. I was a little suspicious, but I certainly wasn't expecting to be drugged."
"You mentioned that three angels were after you," Dean said, his gaze a little intense. "Did you recognize them?"
Cas shook his head, then immediately regretted that decision when the room started to tilt on its axis. He braced his hands on the bucket still in his lap and tried to take some calming breaths before answering Dean's question.
"No," he responded. "They were... very strong, though. And whatever was slipped to me weakened my abilities. I got one of them with my blade but it only nicked their arm. The other two started hitting me... which, now that I'm thinking about it, was a bit odd. I don't know why they didn't just kill me when they had the chance."
"How'd you get away?" Dean questioned, still giving Cas that intense look of his.
"Well, I used my angel blade. The one I got on the arm ran off, so when I lunged at the other two when I had the opportunity, they also ran off. It was all very strange. It's like they didn't want me dead at all."
"And yet they tried to beat you up," Dean reminded him. "Do you think this was Heaven's way of giving you a warning?"
"I'm not sure," the angel answered honestly. "I think... I think they were after something. As they were punching me, they started asking questions. I was too sick at that point to really process what was going on, though. I just knew I had to get away."
"Maybe they're working with the group of angels that are trying to recruit you," Sam suggested, leaning against the door frame after having just got back from disposing of the soiled towels. "If they were recently created by Jack, that could explain why they were so afraid of your angel blade."
Cas considered this. "If they were new angels, they wouldn't have known how to make some poison to try and neutralize me... which I guess proves that they were working for someone else with more knowledge."
"Someone who wanted something from you," Dean added. "I just... I don't understand one thing," he continued, frowning down at his hands briefly. "When you got to the bar, your friend must've shown up, right? Why else would you have gotten the drink?"
"I was actually waiting for them to get there," Cas admitted. "I just decided to order a drink in the meantime. Lo and behold, the bartender was one of the angels that attacked me."
"Wait," Sam said, now confused. "Didn't you notice that they were an angel?"
"They must have used some kind of cloaking spell or something. I'd already taken a sip of the drink when the bartender lunged at me," Cas explained.
"How are you feeling now?" Dean asked after a couple beats of silence.
"Still dizzy and a bit nauseous," Cas answered, sighing tiredly. "I think I need to rest for a while longer."
"Okay," Dean said, standing up. "If you need anything, we'll be right outside the door. Just holler."
The angel managed a small smile, "Thank you. And thanks for helping me back in the alley. It was stupid for me to even go."
"It's okay," Dean said gently, giving Cas a sympathetic look. "It's not your fault, Cas."
Sam nodded in agreement. "We don't blame you. We're just glad you're okay."
Cas watched as Sam stepped back out into the hallway with Dean following behind him. After a moment's pause, the angel said, "Wait. Um, Dean, do you mind, um, staying with me? If that's okay with you, I mean."
The human turned back around and smiled kindly at him. "Of course, Cas. I don't mind at all."
Cas set the puke bucket down on the ground beside his bed while Dean went to the closet to get an extra pillow. The angel shrugged off his bloody trench-coat and plopped it on a chair near the bed, then took off his shoes—well, the shoes he'd borrowed from Dean, since his own had gotten waterlogged back at the beach—and set them down gently next to the bed-frame.
He still wasn't really used to undressing in front of Dean, so he felt a bit awkward while taking his suit jacket off and replacing his undershirt with a gray t-shirt from a dresser opposite the bed.
"Do you just keep extra clothing around for guys?" Cas joked as Dean set his pillow down on the bed next to Cas's.
"They're actually for you, specifically," Dean answered, sitting down on the end of the bed, facing Cas. "I, uh, got them for you quite a while ago. Before we had that big falling out and you left... when I didn't stop you from leaving. Before all that shit with Jack happened. I just thought you might've wanted something more casual to wear in the bunker, I guess. But, um... Well, I guess you must've never checked the drawers," he chuckled, sounding a little nervous, then rubbed the back of his neck. "Anyways, there's like a week's worth of clothing in there. It's not much, but I figured angels don't need as many clothing changes as humans, so..." he trailed off and shrugged.
"That was very thoughtful of you, Dean," Cas replied sincerely.
He felt a surge of affection for the human. The human that still didn't seem to understand how much Cas truly loved him.
Dean cleared his throat and gave a twitch of a smile, probably not knowing how to respond to that compliment, Cas thought to himself.
"Do you want me to get my laptop? We can watch a movie or something?" Dean asked a beat later as Cas was sorting through a drawer to find a pair of pants to wear.
"Sure," the angel said. "I'd like that."
As Dean walked out of the room to get his laptop, Cas found a comfortable-looking pair of sweatpants. He swapped his current trousers, slightly dirty from the angel fight and kind of scratchy in material, for the soft fabric of the black sweatpants. He tossed his dirty pants, along with his undershirt and suit jacket, on the side chair with his trench coat. Then he hopped into bed and actually pulled the thin covers up around himself.
The poison was working its way out of his system, but he was still feeling the effects of it. Movements too sudden resulted in the room tilting or spinning; looking down too sharply brought the waves of nausea back. Also, Cas felt tired. Just plain tired.
And he hadn't felt tired since he escaped the Empty. His angel mojo upgrade seemingly boosted his already endless energy. He could relax, sure. Especially if that relaxing involved wrapping his arms around Dean and enjoying the human's company. But now he felt tired enough to actually sleep. His energy must've been really depleted by that drug.
"What d'ya wanna watch?" Dean asked upon returning with his computer. "I was thinking about a Western, personally. But we can watch something else if you wanna."
The human plopped himself down in bed next to Cas with his back against the wall so that he was sitting upright. Meanwhile, the angel was starting to slouch a bit, too tired to keep his head up all the way.
"I don't mind," Cas answered, yawning. "I gotta warn you, though. I might fall asleep."
"That's all right," Dean said gently, not even making a joke or teasing complaint. "Like you said, Cas, you need your rest."
The angel nodded and watched as Dean turned his laptop on and bring up his Netflix account. Cas wanted to stay awake and enjoy this time with Dean, but he couldn't keep his eyes open. As he desperately tried to not fall asleep during the movie, he ended up resting his head on the human's shoulder. Dean didn't say anything, but he did lean over and kiss the top of Cas's head.
The angel felt another surge of warmth for him and managed to curl his not-entirely-corporeal wings around the human as if to say, "I love you, too."
Cas fell asleep drooling on Dean's shoulder.
