A/N: I read maybe 30 Destiel fics in one sitting, and then this stabbed its way out of me. I'm listening to my angsty Destiel playlist (let me know if you want the list of songs), and I might be high from angst and grief... somehow. I'm fueled with the pure power of anxiety, and I no longer exist on the linear timeline. This story manifested itself through my third eye from the fifth dimension and decided it needs to haunt all of you. I will show up in Eric Kripke's living room tomorrow night and scream this at him while sobbing.

"Jack."

The voice that reached out to him was soft, gentle, and with a stirring within his being, Jack knew who it was. He closed his eyes, releasing her into a dimension where they could just be, where they could talk, and grow, and get to know one another. Perhaps they could love the universe together.

Jack released her into him.

Amara smiled at Jack when she laid eyes upon him.

"Hi, Jack."

He held up a hand, and gave her a goofy smile, the smile of a child. "Hello."

Amara found herself on the verge of tears. Her brother had been defeated, his greatest creation had been saved. Yet Dean was still sad. She could see it, she could feel it. It was her sadness. Dean's pain was Amara's.

"I know you don't want to interfere," Amara said. "But... may I?" Jack just frowned in confusion, so Amara went up to him, and she took his hands in hers. "A few years ago... I-I tried to write my own story, but it wasn't for the good of existence like your own choices have been. It was for revenge... for pain. I tried to write my brother out of his story, and I brought my own wants into it."

"What are you saying?" Jack asked.

"Dean, Jack. When first I was set free, I tethered myself to Dean. I don't think I meant to, and... I don't think I'll truly ever figure out how to undo it. Maybe I don't want to."

Jack's lip curled down in one corner as he thought. Dean flitted through their consciousness: his warmth, his laughter, his humor, his fierce, fierce love.

"He... He betrayed you," Jack reasoned.

"He did."

Jack's eyes were big and sad when he met Amara's. "And you still love him?"

Amara smiled, even as tears formed and blurred her vision. "I don't know anything else. He's human. He has faults, and wants, and needs. And he's good. At the end of all of it, I don't think Dean ever means to hurt. So yes, I-I love him."

"But-"

Amara nodded. A tear escaped.

"Yes. He loves another." There was a ponderous silence as Jack contemplated this. "I know you said you would be hands-free, but if I may do one thing?" Silence. "Jack, please. I hurt this world. I hurt him. Let me make it right, just this once."

The new God gave her an affirming smile, and it was filled with love that she'd never known from her brother. Amara couldn't hold back tears as that look penetrated her, entwined with her. Her brother was human. He was nothing but one of his own creations. He was gone. This new God was for Amara to get to know. Her family. The dual side to her existence. She realized she might be able to love him.

Dean was driving. Driving, driving...

Hell, it felt as if there was nowhere left to go.

They'd done it, hadn't they? Stopped God? Saved the world? Written their own story?

Then why was it so empty?

Dean knew the answer, and all the words bubbled up in him like a raging, boiling scream about to be set loose.

I think I know now... happiness isn't in the having. It's in just being. It's in just saying it.

Those words were met with aching, bleeding silence in his head.

Cas-

You're the most caring man on Earth.

And what had caring gotten Dean?

Not nothing. No, not nothing. Agony couldn't be described as nothing.

You are the most selfless, loving human being I will ever know.

Love is weak. Love is pain.

You know, ever since we met, ever since I pulled you out of Hell - knowing you has changed me.

Knowing me... knowing me... Why would anyone want to know me?

Because you cared.

And it fucking hurt. And now...

Cas, please...

I cared.

Don't do this, man.

I cared about you. I cared about Sam. I cared about Jack. I cared about the whole world because of you.

And I fucking cared about you! I care about you. Cas...

You changed me, Dean.

No.

I love you.

I...

The words Dean didn't know how to say, the words he was unsure were even the right ones, would never leave him. They couldn't. Castiel was gone.

Suddenly, there was a presence beside him, a presence so powerful and all-encompassing, and warm, that he nearly crashed the Impala.

After a few tense seconds, breath held, Dean managed to pull Baby over to the side of the road.

He turned.

Castiel sat beside him, giving him a sad, anxious smile. "Hello, Dean."

Dean collapsed into him, holding onto his coat, pulling at his collar, breathing him in till he was numbed and high and intoxicated.

"Cas."

And all the words he hadn't said came rising up to his mouth, like they would be released in a scream. They built, and built, until they pounded out into three simple words: "I love you."

Dean's mouth found Castiel's, and Castiel's found his.

He didn't care how this was real. He didn't fucking care. He just needed all of it. Every single bit.

Cas, Cas, Cas, Cas, CAS.

Oh fucking, god, it was Cas.

The hardness of his thick body was warm and solid against him, and Dean leaned into it, held him, smelled his musk with a natural hint of cinnamon. He heard him groan, the gravels of his voice shuddering through his spine. And Dean couldn't get enough. He never wanted to let go.

He prayed. And he prayed. Oh, god, he prayed.

Castiel pulled back to smile at him, now content with the world.

"I missed you," Dean said.

And though Dean knew Castiel wouldn't have had the capacity to miss anyone while in the Empty, his heart still stalled for a minute or two when Castiel lied, and said, "I missed you too."

They fell into each other again.

Amara watched, and felt, and knew... Dean was happy. Dean was now with his true love. That was all Amara could wish for. She'd gotten it right this time.

Jack held out his hand to her.

"Are you to ready to go, Auntie?"

Amara took his hand, ready to let him lead her into eternity.

"Just Amara is fine."

"Are you happy?"

"I will be."

Because Dean was.