"I really don't know where else to look." Sam told Dean, pushing his computer away.
"What? No, there's gotta be something. We keep searching till we find something." Dean grimly responded. They had to find something, they just had to.
"I've searched every text I could think of and so has Bobby. And you have personally threatened every psychically gifted person you could find into helping us. There's nothing left." Sam tried to reason with his older brother. Ever since Castiel had left three days ago, Dean had been in a foul mood, almost unbearable.
"Look harder, dammit. We're not giving up." Dean snapped.
"I'm not talking about giving up." Sam sighed in frustration. "Look man, I wanna help him, too. I just don't know how anymore. And you being a jerk doesn't exactly help."
Dean stared threateningly at his younger brother, daring him to say something else. But Sam was smart enough to remain silent and after a while the menace faded from Dean's look. "I'm sorry, Sam." he said, turning away from his brother. "I'm just so worried…"
Without saying another word Dean grabbed the keys to the Impala and left Sam alone in the room. He couldn't stand the small room any longer, he had to get out.
After driving around aimlessly for hours Dean returned to their room way past midnight. He found his brother asleep with his head on the table in front of his computer. He felt a pang of guilt for his earlier behavior towards Sammy and shook him awake, so he could go to bed and sleep more comfortably.
He himself stayed up for a while longer, sipping a beer and silently praying to Cas, hoping his angel was alright. With this thought in his mind he finally fell asleep as well.
"Hello, Dean. Sam." Castiel suddenly appeared in their room the following day, his clothes dirty, torn and bloodstained from already healed wounds.
"Cas, you're back." Dean exclaimed and pulled the surprised angel in a tight hug, fully aware he just acted like a girl. But he didn't care, he was too relieved that Cas was alright.
"Thank God, you're okay." He breathed, before releasing Castiel again.
The angel fixed his deep blue eyes on Dean's. "God had nothing to do with it." he stated matter-of-factly.
After simply staring at each other for a long moment Dean finally broke the eye-contact and turned around to Sam, who tried his best to ignore what he had just witnessed his brother doing.
"What?" Dean asked, becoming irritated again.
"Nothing, just… Good to see you again, Cas. Did you find out something about this creature?" Sam cleverly evaded his brother's question.
"Yes, I do have some information for you." Castiel answered, much to the brothers' surprise and relief. They hadn't been sure, whether Cas would really tell them anything, since he hadn't been very forthcoming with information lately.
They sat down on one of the beds and waited for him to start talking, while Castiel remained standing, leaning his back against the wall opposite the two young hunters.
"A witch combined her powers with the powers of an angel to create this monster." he finally told them. "It is like nothing anyone has ever seen before. I will need to find out more about it, before I can fight it."
"A witch and an angel, that's just messed up." Dean forcefully said after a short pause. "I hate those bitches. Witches, I mean. Although most of the angels I've met were just dicks with wings." He looked directly at Castiel, when he remembered, that there actually was an angel in the room with them. "Sorry man, present company not included, of course."
"Anything else?" Sam asked the angel, ignoring his brother's short outburst. While Dean had gotten angry, Sam had switched into research mode and was trying to get as many details from Castiel as he could.
"I don't know anything about the angel, but I know a little about the witch. She's supposed to live in Monroe, Iowa. That is all the information I have."
"Do you want us to find the witch?" Dean asked, watching Sam walk over to his computer on the table to already look up the place on the internet.
"Yes." Castiel simply replied.
"And what are you going to do?"
"I will try to find out who the angel is. And if I can't, I'll find the creature and study it, hopefully learning some of its strengths and weaknesses."
"But won't that be dangerous?" Dean asked quietly, feeling the all too familiar worry from the last few days returning.
"It probably will be." Cas answered evenly.
"I…" Dean started and immediately stopped himself. He wanted to say that he didn't want Cas to go, but he knew that wasn't an option. That creature was not going to stop hunting Cas, they had no choice. He glanced over at his brother, but Sam was already completely engrossed in his research and not really listening to the conversation anymore.
Looking down on his feet he finally managed to say "Just be careful, alright?", even though he really wanted to say so much more.
When another pair of feet came into his sight he looked up again. Castiel stood in front of him, very close, once again ignoring his personal space.
"I heard your prayer last night. That's why I came here today." His voice darker than usual, his eyes a deep pool of calming blue. He put a hand on the young hunter's shoulder, comforting him with his touch, his voice, his look. He hated seeing Dean like this, but at the moment there wasn't much he could do.
"I'll come back again when it's safe. I'll always come back to you." He promised, enjoying the relief and the cautious happiness his words caused.
Feeling he had done all he could to reassure the Winchesters, especially Dean, he vanished again, back to where he had left off in his pursuit of information about this strange, angel-hunting beast.
This is not what I had planned the second chapter to be, but it just happened when I started writing it and it felt right. Obviously this is not the final chapter of the story, there is more to come. Enjoy.