A/N: final chapter! Thanks for reading and please remember to leave a review! Anything is welcome whether critiques or praise, doesn't matter. It all helps in the end!

Chapter 4

When they finally made it back to the Impala, Dean told Sam to drive as he laid Cas out on the back seat. He then went to the trunk and dug out two protection amulets before climbing into the back with the injured angel. He placed one charm around his neck and the other around Cas' before he settled onto the floor of the back seat and opened up the med kit that Sam had tossed there earlier.

"Can't believe you let him come along, Sammy," Dean muttered as he started to clean and bind the vicious wound in Cas' shoulder.

"There wasn't a whole lot of letting involved Dean. I was worried if I didn't have him ride he was going to try and wing it again."

"Idiot," Dean muttered as he worked.

They stopped at the same gas station again and were relieved to discover that no one had returned there. They quickly grabbed the bags of ice that Dean had originally gone there for and hurried it back to Bobby's.

Dean made a small pack of ice on the way and placed it against the fevered angel's forehead. There was little reaction to this other than some shifting as Cas tried to turn his head away from the cold.

"Hold still, Cas," Dean said softly as he cradled the angel's head in his lap. "You're practically burning up here." He pulled out a single cube and placed it in Castiel's mouth. Cas tried to push it out with his tongue, but Dean held his mouth closed. It didn't take long at all for the cube to melt away completely in his far too warm mouth and Dean was relieved to see Cas' throat work as he swallowed the small portion of liquid.

But Cas was still out of it when they reached Bobby's. They brought him upstairs and quickly placed him in the ice bath. This got Castiel to open his eyes again as he gasped and tried to squirm out of Dean's grip to escape from the icy water. Dean was rather concerned when he realized that he was barely having to struggle to keep the angel in the water, however. And, though his eyes were open and he seemed aware of the cold, Cas didn't say anything or respond to either of the Winchester's questions.

He was out of it again when they pulled him from the water and wrapped him in a blanket. Deciding keeping him in the panic room may be better, they brought him down there and laid him out on the cot. They worked to once again clean and bandage his wounds and then sat back to wait to see if he would heal on his own this time. That had been nearly four hours ago.

Sam now hovered in the doorway for a while, watching his wearied brother fuss over angel. Cas was clearly experiencing the blood loss now as his skin was nearly the same tone as a corpse. His lips were chapped and white and a near constant tremor was running through his now far too cool body. The fever, at least, seemed to have gone, but that actually worried the brothers even more. Cas had said that it was his grace that had caused the fever before. If the fever was gone now…

Sam shook his head and then turned and climbed the stairs again.

"How those two doing?" Bobby asked when Sam emerged.

Sam sighed and said, "Physically, Dean's fine. He's gonna need to get his protection tattoo again, but whatever Cas did to burn off the seal seemed to also at least cleanse the wound. It looks like it'll heal pretty well now."

"Yeah, that covers a part of my question," Bobby grumbled.

"Cas isn't doing so good," Sam said softly. "I… if his powers don't kick in soon, I'm worried he's not going to make it."

Bobby sucked in air then and muttered, "Balls," under his breath before he said, "Dean's not going to take that very well, you know?"

"Yeah," Sam said sadly. "I know. Can't say that I will either but, yeah, I'm pretty worried about him right now too."

"So, nothing at all on the angelic healing front?" Bobby asked.

Sam shook his head. "The wound in his side had started to heal. It's not as deep as it had been and the bleeding had nearly stopped when he had gotten to Dean. But, what the demon put him through made it worse again and seemed to drain him completely. The wound in his shoulder is showing signs of infection and hasn't completely stopped bleeding yet. As for his wing…" Sam just shrugged.

"Yeah, no telling what a mess that came to after he flew out of here like that," Bobby agreed.

They were silent a while before Sam let out a huff of air before he pushed off of the counter he had been leaning against and walked towards the door. "I'm going to get some air," he announced and quickly disappeared outside.

XXX

"Hey, Cas," Dean started to talk as he checked the angel's shoulder wound again. It was warm to the touch, made even more apparent by the extreme lack of heat coming from the rest of the angel's skin. "You've got to pull out of this, you hear me?"

The angel didn't so much as twitch. Dean sighed as he rang out the cloth from the warm water that he had just dunked it in and continued to try and clean the ugly wound. "You're a figgin angel, Cas. You're not supposed to get this bad." He sighed and leaned back into the chair and stared at Castiel for a while, counting each labored breath that the angel took. Angels shouldn't need to breath, Dean thought. But it was clear this one did. This one was hardly an angel anymore.

"And it's my fault," Dean muttered out loud as he ran a hand over his tired face.

XXX

"Hey… ah… Gabriel," Sam said as he started to pace outside the house. He glanced up at the night sky and the stars that shown above him. It had been a long day.

"Dean, he said you're the one that saved them from Zachariah because of Cas. Well… Cas, he's not doing so good. He… well… a lot happened after you put him here and, he…"

"You know," a voice spoke from over by the house. Sam spun around and saw Gabriel leaning against the railing of the porch. "I think I might be just as bad as Zachariah after all," he finished with a deep frown.

"Gabriel?" Sam asked as he came up the steps to stand before the archangel.

Gabriel sighed and shook his head, "I should have healed him when I dropped him off," he said sadly.

"You could have done that?" Sam asked.

Gabriel laughed and waved a hand in front of Sam. "Hi, I'm Gabriel, archangel of the lord. Healing kind of comes with the territory, Sammy."

Sam shrugged and said, "I didn't know if maybe you couldn't heal another angel or something."

Gabe sighed and leaned against the railing again. "Well, I can. And I should have. But, well I thought that it might do you two good to see the consequences of your actions."

"So you freaking let your brother suffer like that?!" Sam snapped as he waved a hand back towards the house. "He was a mess, Gabriel! You thought it was too far for Zachariah to tear him apart to get to us but it's alright for you to leave him in pieces!?"

"Hey, Sam! I'm trying to apologize here!" Gabriel said as he turned and faced the hunter.

Sam stared, stunned, back at the archangel. "Really?" he asked after a moment.

With a sigh, Gabriel buried his hands in his pockets and slumped over as he said, "Yes. I shouldn't have done that to Castiel. He's only doing what he thinks is right. I had no right to leave him like that to try and influence the two of you boneheads."

"Well," Sam said rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly. "It was pretty bad. But…" he shook his head and pressed on. "… It's worse now. Demons came and grabbed Dean and Cas…"

"Oh, Cassie…" Gabriel groaned. "He didn't…"

Sam lowered his head and nodded. "Yeah, he kind of over did it and got pretty battered in the process. He's not healing anymore, Gabriel," Sam ended softly.

"That self sacrificing idiot," Gabriel spat just before he suddenly disappeared.

Sam gasped and then hurried into the house. He heard the commotion downstairs as soon as he stepped through the door.

"What in the hell?!" Bobby was exclaiming as he came rolling in from the kitchen with a shotgun in his lap.

Sam held up his hands to the hunter and said, "It's ok, Bobby. It's Gabriel. I called him to help Cas and I think he's just startled Dean is all."

"Gabriel!" Bobby exclaimed. "That archangel dick that masquerades as the friggin trickster!?"

"Yeah, look, don't worry, Bobby," Sam said hastily as he heard Dean's voice rise in volume down below. "It'll be alright. I promise," he said and then quickly ducked away and hurried down the steps to the panic room where Gabriel and Dean were in a yelling match.

"You sure as hell took your time coming to heal his ass!" Dean was yelling at Gabriel. "You could have done that from the start and this never would have happened!"

"You could have said yes from the start and my baby brother wouldn't have been tortured to begin with!" Gabriel yelled back.

"Hey! Hey!" Sam called as he rushed into the panic room and stepped between the two. He could feel the tingle of power radiating off of the archangel. If he wasn't careful, he and Dean were going to get smote into the next millennium. "Dean," Sam said, turning to his brother. "Gabe's here to heal him now so how about letting up on him until after Cas is better, alright?"

"Yeah, whatever," Dean huffed as he stepped back and moved to the other side of the room. He leaned against the wall and waved at Gabriel. "Go ahead, do your thing."

Gabriel rolled his eyes and said, "You really have some kind of death wish, don't you?" but he walked passed Sam and knelt beside the still unconscious Castiel anyway.

He reached out and placed his hand on Castiel's forehead for a moment before he sighed and said softly, "Cassie, why do you keep doing this to yourself?" and then he closed his eyes.

His hand glowed a golden light for a moment that shimmered and hovered around his hand and over Castiel's forehead before it seemed to sink into the weakened angel's skin. As soon as the light was gone, Castiel gave a gasp and opened his eyes.

"Cas?" Dean asked as he pushed off from the wall and leaned closer but didn't actually take a step forward.

Cas blinked and looked around. He looked over at Dean and then over at Sam and then finally up at his brother. "Gabriel?" he asked in confusion as he slowly started to sit up.

"Sorry I took so long, bro," Gabe said with a frown.

Cas furrowed his brow at Gabriel as he tilted his head slightly in confusion. "Why are you here at all?" he asked.

"Because he's your brother, Cas," Sam said softly from the doorway.

Cas looked over at Sam and then back at Gabriel.

"Yeah, I should have healed you right away," Gabe said as he stood up. "I still don't approve of what you're doing with these two, but that doesn't mean I should sit back and let you self destruct in the process."

"You could help him, you know?" Dean said as he finally left the side of the room and came over to stand on the other side of Castiel from Gabriel. "We could use a little archangel help here."

Gabriel sighed and said, "I'm not going to interfere anymore than I have to." He looked down at the still confused Cas and said, "I don't want to see any of my family hurt. It makes me sick that the others would do this to you even if you don't agree with them. But I'm not going to choose sides here." He looked up at Dean and said, "I love my family, Dean, misfits and all. I think that you, of all people, would understand that."

Dean huffed and said, "Yeah, I get not wanting to hurt your family. But your brother, Zach… he's a dick. You said it yourself, he went too far. He's certainly no brother of Cas' here so I can hardly understand why you'd keep him on the invite to the reunions. But hey, it's your call. Just remember who it is that is getting his ass handed to him for doing what's right and who among your family is doing that to him."

"Dean," Cas said softly as he stood up in one fluid motion. Suddenly he was wearing his customary outfit again, trench coat and all, and looked as if he was stronger now than he had been in months. "I can stand up for myself," he told the hunter. "If this is Gabriel's decision, then I will not interfere."

He turned and nodded his head to Gabriel. "Thank you again, brother. I am in your debt."

Gabriel laugh lightly and tapped Cas on the shoulder, "What are brothers for?" he said. He winked then and disappeared.

"You've got one messed up family, Cas," Dean said with a shake of his head. "But it's good to see you back on form."

Cas tilted his head to Dean and then nodded, "Yes, it is good to feel…" he held out his hand and flexed it. "Close to normal again."

"He bring your powers back?" Sam asked.

Cas looked at Sam and said, "I am back to my own person strength, though I am still cut from the host so I am still quite limited."

"Well, you're not bleeding out anymore and that's the important part," Dean said with a grin.

Cas looked at him in confusion and said, "It is good that I am healed, but is it not also important that I am able to help you fight?"

"Not as important as it is that you're alive, Cas," Sam said as he came up and clasped Castiel on the shoulder.

The angel looked between the two of them in utter confusion and then said, "I do not understand, but, as I am able to help you again, I will not bother with the rest. Thank you both, but I must continue with my mission."

Before either brother could say anything else, Cas was gone.

"Well, guess his wings are better now too," Dean said with a shake of his head.

Sam stood there and frowned. "You think he doesn't realize that he's more than just a weapon to us?" he asked.

Dean looked at his brother and shrugged, "Gotta know by now. He can't be that dense."

Sam frowned some more as Dean walked out of the panic room and left him standing there pondering. He sighed and shook his head and then turned to follow Dean. "I suppose we can tell him next time," he muttered and then flipped the light in the panic room off before he headed upstairs.

Of course next time he and Dean were dead and Castiel found out that God didn't want to help them. And then Cas was drunk and there was a whore to deal with and then Dean started to fall apart… so those words were left unsaid for far too long.