Despair tag

Sam's heart pounded in his chest as his calls to Dean continued to go to voicemail. "Jack? I can't get ahold of Dean or Cas - we need to go now."

Jack's eyes flashed in panic but he nodded as he followed Sam out of the building. Sam floored it as soon as he started the car and sped all the way back home to the bunker. They rushed through the bunker, trying to find Dean and Cas, and couldn't, which only caused Sam to panic even more. But when Jack took off towards the dungeon, Sam followed him, unsure why but knowing there's where his brother and Cas were. But when they got there, Dean was alone and sobbing.

"Dean?" Sam asked gently, kneeling down next to his brother and checking to see if he was hurt after spotting the bloody handprint on his jacket. Where was Cas?

"Dean, where did Cas go?" Jack questioned, not wanting to hear the answer he already knew.

"Dean?" Sam tried again in hopes his brother would snap out of whatever this was and tell them what had happened.

Dean couldn't hear anything through the ringing in his ears that had become a roar. His heart was pounding so fast he wondered if he was still having a heart attack. "Cas," he sobbed.

"Can you tell me where he went?" Sam wasn't sure he'd be able to get an answer out of his clearly hysterical brother and it scared the shit out of him. He shook his brother in an attempt to snap him out of this and nothing happened or changed. Sam glanced at Jack. "You want to help me get him up?"

Jack nodded. "Of course." He grabbed onto Dean's other arm, and he and Sam got the other man into a standing position.

Dean was so pliant in his arms that Sam's entire body chilled. He and Jack led Dean out of the dungeon and headed towards his room, hoping something would jolt him back to Earth. All the way, Dean couldn't stop crying, his whole body shaking due to the intensity of the sobs. They set Dean down on the bed. "Can you grab me a washcloth, Jack?"

"Sure." Jack turned around and took off towards the bathroom to grab the washcloth for Sam.

Sam bit his lip and stared at his brother. "Did Chuck do this like he did with everybody else, Dean? Please answer me," he pleaded to no avail.

Dean still couldn't hear anything and didn't answer him, which only served to scare Sam even more. He thanked Jack when he returned with the washcloth. "Let me help you," Sam murmured as he used the washcloth to wipe the tears off Dean's face. It didn't last long because more continued to fall but it made him feel like he was doing something. His brother was obviously in shock and he didn't know if he was going to get an answer from him tonight. So he gathered his brother in his arms and pushed them both up towards the pillows so they could sleep.

"Does he need anything else?" Jack pressed.

Sam shook his head. "I'm going to sit here with him. Go to bed," he encouraged.

Jack eyed Dean in concern. "We're just going to wait? We don't even know what happened to Cas yet."

"We'll wait until Dean's ready to tell us," Sam whispered in a desperate attempt to get Dean to stop sobbing, close his eyes, and finally sleep.

Jack wasn't sure he had the patience to wait but he wisely stayed silent and nodded. "Okay," he answered in a small voice. He made his way back to his room and laid down on his bed, unable to shut down his mind.

Sam kept Dean in his arms, whispered soothing things to him, and waited patiently until his brother cried himself to sleep. "Fuck," he murmured. Worried about his brother and terrified about what lay ahead for them, he stayed awake all night.

When Dean came to around three in the morning, it was with a gasp. He didn't even attempt to move or push Sam away from him. Reality crashed into him and he let out another sob. "Sammy?"

Sam nearly broke down out of a sheer sense of relief. "Hey, Dean. Are you okay? You want to tell me what happened? Where's Cas?"

Dean's eyes flashed with pain. "He's gone."

"Was it Chuck? Or Billie?"

Dean's whole body continued to vibrate, his head pounding thanks to the hours of crying. He was dehydrated and definitely needed something to drink but had no desire or energy to move. He swallowed and gasped out another sob. "He made a deal with the Empty, and it came to collect."

"Why then?" Sam couldn't figure out why the Empty had come now, of all times. Was it just to fuck with them more?

Dean choked. "A moment of true happiness. He loved me. Sammy, he loved me."

Sam's brain screeched to a halt, much like he imagined Dean's had in the moment of revelation. "He finally told you?"

Dean blinked. "Knew?"

"Everybody knows, Dean," he shot back in an attempt to make his brother laugh. He wasn't surprised when the attempt at levity failed. "So he finally told you the truth, and that's why the Empty came to collect?" He was missing a lot of clearly important details.

"No." He couldn't get anything else out even though he knew he had to tell Sam everything. But the words wouldn't come and his throat was so dry it was making all of this even harder.

"Jack? Can you grab Dean a water?" Sam yelled.

"Be right back!" Jack called back. He returned in a flash with a bottle of water and unscrewed the cap before handing it over to Dean.

Dean greedily drank the water down and nearly threw it back up because he was sobbing again. "Please don't dehydrate yourself even further," Sam pleaded. He looked at Jack. "Dean says Cas made a deal with the Empty. Do you know anything about that?"

It felt like a bucket of hot water had been poured over Jack and he froze. "Son of a bitch," he murmured, sounding so much like Dean that Sam nearly broke down into hysterical laughter. He explained the deal in detail to the two of them, filling in much needed details for Dean.

Dean tried to stand up, pull himself back together, but failed miserably. "Fuck."

"It's okay. We'll stay right here until you're ready," Sam comforted, rubbing a hand down his brother's back in an effort to soothe him.

"We got work to do," Dean reminded him.

"I know but we'll take a small break, figure out our next step from here. We don't need to do anything right this second." They needed everybody back and to defeat Chuck but they just needed some sleep.

All of them had been dealt a blow but Dean's world had been rocked to its core and he hadn't even had time to process it.

They'd beat Chuck come hell or high water.