Thank you so much SamGirlDeanCurious for beta'ing and VegasGranny and Ncsupnatfan for pre-reading.

Chapter Ten

Dean and Nick were eating pizza at the table in the war room when the door creaked open and slammed above them. It was just the two of them as Jack had said he wasn't hungry and wanted to watch some TV instead of hanging with them—something he'd been doing a lot of recently—and Mary was on a case in California with Bobby.

Dean looked up over the banister and saw Castiel peering down at them.

"Hey, Cas," he said. "You okay?"

"Yes, I'm fine."

The tone alone contradicted the words, and as Dean got a closer look at his friend, as he walked down the stairs, his face showed just how far from fine the angel was.

"Did you get to Heaven?" Nick asked.

Dean shot him an annoyed look. Castiel obviously wasn't doing great, and he could do without Nick's impatience and lack of manners. Though it wasn't exactly unexpected in the situation, Nick was stressed to the hilt about Lucifer and Michael, it was still not helpful.

"Oh yes," Castiel said. "I got to Heaven."

"And?" Nick pressed.

Castiel touched a hand to his throat and said, "Lucifer got there first."

Dean sucked in a breath. "Lucifer was in Heaven!"

His mind raced through possibilities. If Lucifer went there with violence in mind, they were screwed. There were barely enough angels left to keep Heaven ticking over as it was. If he killed even one, it could be enough to send it all crashing down. And there were billions of innocent souls up there that Lucifer could screw with. People they loved among them. If Lucifer decided to go after John or Bobby to hurt them…

"What happened?" he asked urgently.

Castiel pulled out a chair and slumped into it, his elbows resting on the table. His face was dark and somehow more vulnerable than usual. Dean had seen Castiel hurting many times, both physically and emotionally, but he'd not seen him like this in a long time; not since the last day of the apocalypse when Nick had given consent and Lucifer took control.

"Castiel!" Nick snapped. "What was he doing there?"

Castiel drew a heaving breath and said, "Lucifer saved Heaven."

Dean's eyebrow shot up with disbelief. "He did what?"

"He saved heaven," Castiel said again. "There was a spell that I think Naomi had found. At first, he entered Heaven and stopped me following, and then they came for me. The throne room was prepared for a ritual, and Lucifer was…" He touched his throat again. "The spell needed grace to work, and he was going to take mine."

"Going to?" Nick asked cautiously. "But he didn't, right? You're still an angel?"

"I am," Castiel said, his eyes sad, as if he knew Nick's question was based from a strategic standpoint instead of concern for his friend.

Dean knew Nick cared about Castiel, he was their family, but Nick was also a damn good soldier. He saw things in terms of strategy, advantages and disadvantages. They were facing a big fight right now, and they needed an angel on their side to win it. That was what Nick was seeing. When the fight was over, he'd go back to concerning himself with the emotional aspect of it.

"He took Naomi's grace instead," Castiel went on. "But it was only at the last second. He was locked on me, and something changed his mind. I have no idea what it was."

Nick waved away his words. "He was never locked on you, Cas. It's just more of the act. He wanted you to see him as merciful."

Castiel looked at Nick, something strange in his expression, and then he said, "Perhaps, but he is different now."

"He's really not," Nick stated.

"He saved Heaven and freed the souls in the Veil," Castiel said. "Dumah told me when Naomi and I were brought back to earth. The spell opened Heaven and created a path for the souls' power to sustain their own personal heavens. It will not fail now as it's serving itself. The veil is only occupied by those that were vengeful or refused to move on. The chaos is over. Heaven is open and strong again."

Nick considered his words a moment, his eyes dark, and then shook his head and said, "No. He's trying to lull us into a false sense of security. We can't trust him."

"No one's trusting him, Nicky, but he did just do us all a solid saving Heaven and opening the gates," Dean pointed out. "So far—letting Jody live and doing this for Heaven and the Veil—his whole plan is working out for us. If he could take out Michael too to persuade us he's good, I might even buy him a beer."

Nick's face reddened with anger, and Dean held up his hands.

"Kidding. But it is working for us, you can't deny that. And if he goes after Michael, it means we've only got one archangel to take down. I'd call that a good day."

Nick nodded slowly. "Yeah, I guess. I don't mind who ends Michael, but Lucifer is ours. If we can't kill him, and I wish we could, we can send him back to the Cage. He can rot in there."

"It might be a little hard for him to kill Michael," Castiel said. "Lucifer is not at full power at the moment. I don't understand how or why, but I sensed it when he attacked me. He's still stronger than me, but not as strong as before, and definitely not as strong as he should be with Jack's grace in him. That's why the injuries looked so bad on the video; though why he needed to stitch himself up, I don't know. He should have had enough grace to heal himself over only a little time. Something happened to him."

"Something like Michael?" Dean asked.

"No. Dumah said he has no vessel yet, and there is no way Lucifer is working with him. In fact…"

"What?" Dean asked.

Castiel looked between the two of them, his expression wary as it settled on Nick as if anticipating an explosion. "He doesn't want us going after Michael at all. He said that we should protect Nick to stop him from being used as a reason for you to deal with Michael. He seemed genuinely concerned that you would give yourself to him as a vessel, Dean."

Nick's eyes darkened, and Dean waited for his explosion, sure it was coming, and then he shook his head and said, "It's just the act."

"You've said that a lot, but it doesn't tally with what I saw," Castiel said. "He could have easily taken my grace today. He could have killed me; he wanted to, I saw. He didn't do either. I think he wanted me to be here to help you."

"That's bullshit!" Nick slapped the tabletop. "He's screwing with you. He doesn't care about Dean or me or anyone else. He is working a plan, and it's fooling you already. You've got to stop, Cas. He's making you weak, which means we're weak. You cannot trust anything he does or says. He's not one of us."

Castiel ducked his head, and Dean saw a shadow of something that looked like guilt on his face before he concealed it.

He'd seen guilt on Castiel before many times, and it made him uneasy now. There was something he was hiding, and they needed to know what it was. Judging from the look on Nick's face, Castiel wasn't going to be sharing it with them if he was there to hear it.

Dean drained the dregs of his beer and said, "Grab some more beers, Nicky. I don't know about you, but after his latest Lucifer update, I need one."

Nick nodded and got to his feet without question, showing Dean he needed the drink, too. Perhaps he also needed some space to work through his anger. He had a temper, but he was usually pretty good at taking the time to deal with it when it reared.

When Nick had disappeared along the hall to the kitchen, Dean stared at Castiel until he looked up, and then said, "What aren't you telling us, Cas? Did Lucifer do something else."

Castiel's eyes became sad, and he nodded. "Yes, he said something that you need to know, but…"

"But?"

Castiel bowed his head. "I have done something terrible, Dean."

Dean drew a slow breath. It wasn't like Castiel had never screwed up before, they'd lived with the consequences of it, but they really didn't need more to deal with than they already had. But they needed to know, Dean did at least, even if Castiel couldn't say it in front of Nick.

He formed his features into neutrality and said, "What did you do?"

Castiel closed his eyes as he started to speak, only opening them and looking up when he came to the end to see Dean's reaction. "When you had the Mark of Cain, Nick and I contacted Bobby in Heaven so that he could help me to gain access to reach Metatron. It involved Bobby breaking out of his own heaven and disturbing other souls. Angels were hurt in the melee that followed. After it ended, Bobby was punished for his actions. They put him in jail."

Dean's jaw clenched. "Bobby was in jail because you dragged him into my problems?"

Dean had known Nick had reached Bobby, it came out in a drunken night of confession shortly after the Mark had been removed, but Dean hadn't considered it ending with Bobby being punished for it. That had been years ago. Had Bobby been in jail all that time because of him?

"We were desperate," Castiel said defensively. "You were slipping away from us, and—"

Dean held up a hand. "I know what I was, and I get why you did it. But I'm guessing you knew what happened to Bobby, yet you didn't mention it once. Did Nick know?"

Castiel shook his head jerkily, and his eyes darted to the hall Nick would return down soon. "No, I never told anyone. I did try to have him freed, but they wouldn't do it, and the times I returned after it was to plead for help for us and the things we were facing. I had nothing to bargain with. I couldn't tell you and Nick. It would only have hurt you."

"And yet you're telling us now, well, me, so what's changed?"

"I have to now. Lucifer said something. Bobby is free, Dumah said Lucifer insisted on it. He was apparently very angry when he found out what happened."

Dean raised an eyebrow. "Lucifer was angry that Bobby was in jail? That makes no sense."

"No, and it wasn't for my benefit, I don't think. I wouldn't have known if not for Dumah. But after, when he summoned me to Heaven to take my grace, he was furious with me for what I did, knowing and not telling you. Except, he framed it as if I should have told him. And he said…"

"What?" Dean growled. "What did he say, Cas?"

"He said Bobby was his family. It makes no sense, I know."

"No, it doesn't," Dean agreed. "He killed Bobby."

"I remember, but he truly seemed to care for him."

Dean rubbed his hand over his face and took a breath. He needed to think and get it sorted before Nick got back. There were things that he couldn't know.

"Okay, you're going to keep this to yourself," he said. "You don't tell Nick about Lucifer apparently thinking he's got some claim on Bobby. It'll screw him up and put him on alert even more than he already is. He hates Lucifer, he's scared of him."

"What about what happened to Bobby?" Castiel asked.

"You definitely don't tell him about that."

"Shouldn't he know?"

Dean stared him in the eye. "There's a reason you didn't tell me this until he was gone, Cas, and that's because you know what he'll do to you if he finds out."

Castiel's face creased into sadness. "Do you really think he'll kill me?"

Dean was shocked Castiel would draw that conclusion. Nick would be pissed, and Dean wouldn't put it past him to attack Castiel for hiding what he had known from them. Nick had loved Bobby and had never really gotten over what happened to him. Neither had Dean. It was worse now that they had the alternate version of Bobby running around—same face, same voice, different man. It hurt. But Nick would never really hurt him.

"He won't kill you," Dean said, and Castiel looked reassured until he went on, "but he'll never forgive you for it. We need to be a team for this fight, and if Nick knew about Bobby, about you leaving him there, it would destroy that."

"I understand. I won't tell him. But, Dean, they didn't hurt Bobby. I would never have left him there if I thought he was suffering."

Dean spoke through his teeth, anger rising, "He was in jail for years, Cas!"

"I am sorry," Castiel said dolefully.

Dean sighed and then forced himself to smile as he heard footsteps approaching along the hall. "Hey, Nicky," he said when he appeared and set the six-pack down on the table, "did you get lost on the way?"

"No," Nick said, pulling out a beer and twisting off the cap. "Mom called, so I told her the news. She's going to fill Bobby in on the Heaven thing."

"Good," Dean said, taking a beer from the pack and opening it. "She say anything else?"

"No, not really. I told her to call us if they run into any trouble with the case. I don't think they will, though. They're working on it, and it looks like a simple vengeful spirit."

Dean noticed that Castiel was staring at Nick with wariness, and he nudged him under the table with his foot and said, "Yeah, a spirit's no problem. I was thinking maybe we should head out again, too, find a case."

Nick frowned. "You want to hunt?"

"Yeah. We're just kicking our heels here until Ketch comes through for us on the magic eggs. We might as well use the time to fix other problems. There's plenty of fuglys out there that we can vent some of the tension on."

"Yeah," Nick said thoughtfully. "I'll get on the laptop in the morning, search something up for us. What about Jack, though? Are we taking him with us?"

"Nah, he can stay here with Cas. He's the best person to help Jack deal with all this." He looked at Castiel. "You've lived the powered down life before. You know what he's going through."

Castiel nodded. "Of course. I will help him."

Nick took a swig of his beer and said, "Sure. Okay."

Dean was pleased that Nick was on board as he had a feeling Castiel's sense of self-preservation was wavering a little. He probably wanted to unload his guilt by telling Nick the truth, but Dean couldn't risk that happening. They needed to be a team.

And, selfishly, Dean didn't want to see Nick losing it and going after his best friend.

So… How's it going for you with Nick now? He was pretty angry in this one, but I found that made him more relatable to me. How about you?

Until next time…

Clowns or Midgets xxx