The three of them put Chuck's body on the remains of the map table, grabbed the chairs and sat down. Everyone, especially Jack, who was only adjusting to his new powers, felt deadly tired. Sam smiled, but Dean's face was grim.
"We did it, we killed the son of a bitch, but what difference does it make?" — Dean said in a clinical fashion, emotionlessly. — "Everyone is gone, and Cas… Cas…."
It wasn't a win. Dean was alone, on an empty Earth, and he wasn't going to see the love of his life no matter what he did. Even dying wasn't an option because he'd just go to hell. With God dead they weren't able to change the way the system worked. All his friends were dead, too. He fulfilled his destiny, became the messenger of God's destruction and even participated in it, but it was all in vain, so he felt himself submerging into icy cold water once again.
Fuck it… I'll just freeze into this chair. Maybe this way I will turn to nothing to go to the great Nothing.
Dean hid his face in his hands, but Sam gently took his brother's hands and caught his gaze.
"Dean… Do you understand what happened?" — Sam asked, and the bastard was still smiling. How could he? He lost Eileen, too. They lost everything.
"Who fucking cares, Sam?" — Dean snapped, but his voice was quiet because all of the fight was gone from him. — "He's still dead. Everyone is dead. Eileen is dead! Why are you smiling?"
Sam squeezed his hands gently.
"I'm smiling because we are getting them all back. I am getting Eileen back. You are getting Castiel back." — his smile widened and the look on his face was of pure happiness and freedom.
Dean jumped and grabbed Sam by the collar.
"How? How?!" — he shouted angrily.
"Jack. Jack can bring him back." — Sam answered, still smiling like a fool. — "Don't you understand? When Jack exploded… He became the Empty. Jack is the Empty now."
Dean stepped back, he was out of breath, and another breath was not coming.
"Chuck did us all a favor by not killing them all, but erasing them. You see, Dean? He turned them all into nothing. What is nothing, Dean? It's the Empty!" — Sam explained.
Dean couldn't believe it. In his mind he was still underwater, but Sam's words felt like a light shining through a thick layer of ice. He turned to Jack.
"If you can do it, please…" — his voice broke. He could barely breathe. — "Please… bring him back."
Jack smiled, and his smile looked more human than ever.
"Call him. You need to call him." — he said.
And so, Dean called. Gathering all the strength he had left, he shouted like he wanted heaven and hell to hear him, like a drowning man does one last effort to try and reach the surface of the water.
"Castiel! CASTIEL! CASTIEL!"
And there he was. Standing in front of him. Smiling with tears in his eyes.
Dean couldn't move. He couldn't open his mouth, he just looked in those baby blues as he was looking for all those years. The moment seemed to be fallen out of time, out of space. Everything around him vanished, except those eyes.
"Hello, Dean" — a gravelly voice sounded, and Dean gasped for air.