Okay, no more waiting! Here's what happens ;)
Chapter Seven
"Sam, get me out of here, dammit," Meg snarled, yanking at her bonds as Sam looked like he was about to go to Cas first. No way was she going to sit there while they did all the rescuing.
The younger Winchester turned back to her and quickly cut her ropes, before scuffing apart the demon trap.
Meg yanked the ropes off of her. "Castiel's hurt, we need to get him down," she said urgently before staggering to her feet and hurrying over to Cas, who was hanging limply in the chains, breathing heavily.
"Hey Clarence, you're gonna be alright," she whispered, glancing down at the blade the Levi had stuck in him. "Hurry!"
"I'm working on it!" Dean snapped, searching the Levis' bodies for the key, and Meg's hand hovered warily over the blade sticking from Cas' leg. It was really there, it had really happened. Just when she thought they were saved…
"Got it. Sammy, unlock him," Dean said as he found the key, tossing it to Sam. He joined Meg and they both took hold of Cas in preparation for the manacles to be unlocked.
Sam quickly unlocked the chains and Cas slumped limply into Dean's arms. Dean and Meg lowered him to the ground, careful of the blade still stuck in him, and Meg instantly knelt beside the wounded angel, her hand on his cheek.
"Castiel, hey, open your eyes, dammit," she hissed at him before she looked up at Dean again, thrusting her hand out. "Give me your belt."
"What? Why?" Dean demanded.
Meg had already moved to look at the wound in Cas' thigh, tearing his pant leg around it to better see. She felt sick as she saw black veins already spreading from the wound. "They stuck him with Levi goo. It's poison to angels."
"What?" Sam demanded, coming to kneel by Meg as Dean wordlessly yanked his belt off and handed it to the demon. She tied it off above the wound and Cas gasped and stirred, his eyes fluttering.
"Cas?" Dean asked tentatively, bending over the angel.
"Dean? Sam?" Cas looked between them, bewildered. "Wh-what are you doing here?"
Sam swallowed hard and rested a huge hand on the angel's shoulder. "Meg called, we came to get you."
Cas looked like he wanted to sit up. "Meg?" he called.
"Right here, Clarence," Meg told him gently, leaning forward so he could see her past Sam's giant frame and smiled. "Now hold tight, I'm gonna get this out of you." Dean and Sam pressed the angel back against the ground as she swiftly pulled the angel blade out of his thigh.
Cas screamed and stiffened in their grip. Meg carefully wiped the blade off on one fallen Levi's clothing before she tucked it into the back of her belt.
"What do we do?" Sam asked quietly. "I mean, what can we…" He shook his head, eyes pained as he motioned to Cas' wound.
"Nothing here," Dean said decisively and stood. "There's an old camp ground not far from here, I saw it on the way in. There's got to be a hunting cabin we can hole up in. It's about twenty minutes down the highway." Meg caught what he didn't say; would Cas last that long? She looked down at the angel who was now shivering uncontrollably and nodded.
"It'll have to do. What are we waiting for then?"
Sam and Dean lifted Cas between them and Meg hurried ahead of them to the car—this week's model a sad old Camry—opening the back and scooting to the far side, guiding Cas down to rest in her lap as they slid him in as carefully as possible. Dean popped the trunk and threw their weapons in before retrieving a blanket that he handed to Meg.
"Thanks," she said only a little grudgingly as she tucked the blanket around Castiel. She was worried about how much he was shivering, knowing it was likely the poison already working itself through his system.
Dean and Sam climbed in up front and soon they were speeding off down the road at breakneck pace. Meg felt Cas' hand tangle in her jacket as he looked up at her.
"Meg, I'm sorry," he whispered. "Are you okay?"
"Hush," she told him. "Of course I'm fine. Now shut up and relax."
"I—I can try to heal you," he held up a hand but she grasped it and pushed it back down.
"No way. Your grace is wobbly, remember? I'm not gonna risk you blowing us all up." It wasn't the nicest way to put it, but she knew that would at least keep Cas from trying to heal her and losing what little strength he had left to fight the poison attacking his body and grace. He still looked a little helpless and distressed, so she smoothed his hair back off his forehead, hating how clammy his skin felt and Cas eventually closed his eyes in exhaustion, shuddering against her.
They drove for a while in silence, before Dean glanced in the rearview mirror. "Hey, probably should loosen that tourniquet for a few minutes."
Meg bit her lip, but knew it was important to restore circulation a bit even if it meant more of the poison would get into Cas' system. She pushed the blanket away from his leg and loosened the belt. Cas whimpered and curled in on himself.
"It hurts," he whispered.
"You'll be okay," she told him, probably to reassure herself as much as Cas.
She caught Sam and Dean sharing a look she couldn't quite read. But they weren't her concern right now. Cas was. She should have gotten him out of there after the demons showed up, should have know more supernatural assholes would follow because that was the way it always was.
Dean pulled off the highway onto a lonely forest road and they drove for another five minutes at least before pulling up at a dilapidated old cabin. Meg raised an eyebrow.
"Nice place," she drawled. "Is this where you take all the girls you rescue?"
"Beggars can't be choosers," Dean said. "I'm just glad there's a semi-sound structure here." He got out to open the trunk of the car, rooting through stuff. He came to Meg's door and handed her a lockpick and a camp lantern. "Go inside and get some lights on. If there's no electricity, there's more lanterns in the trunk. Find a place to put Cas."
She nodded and slipped out from under Cas' head, but halted as his hand tightened in her jacket, surprisingly strong for his condition.
"Meg?" he asked worriedly, his eyes glassy with pain and fever.
"Don't worry, Clarence, I'm not going anywhere," she told him fondly, patting his cheek and getting out of the car.
The cabin looked like it hadn't been used in years. And unfortunately, there wasn't electricity, but several oil lanterns were lying around and she lit them all and hurried to check for someplace to put Cas.
Luckily, there were a couple cots in a side room and she grabbed most of the lanterns and put them in there so they could see what they were doing.
The Winchesters came in then. Sam had Cas draped over his shoulders and Dean had several duffle bags.
"Here," Meg called.
Sam settled Cas as gently as possible onto the cot and Dean threw down the bags before he started to rifle through the cabin, turning on several more of their lanterns.
"Dean, what are you looking for?" Sam asked.
"Something we can use to get the poison out of him," the elder brother replied tersely as he slammed cupboards.
"Hold on," Sam said, and snagged one of the bags they had brought, rummaging through it.
Meg knelt beside Cas' cot. He looked even more sickly in the dim light of the camp lanterns. Sweat was beading on his brow and she smoothed his hair back again, hoping to offer even a modicum of comfort. His eyes fluttered open and his hand reached out for her. Meg took it with only a slight hesitation, not really caring what the Winchesters thought. It would probably teach them a lesson, seeing that Castiel trusted her more than he did them at the moment.
"Meg, stay with me," he whispered.
"I told you I'm not going anywhere," she told him.
"I don't want the bad dreams to come tonight," he breathed.
Meg looked up and saw Sam staring at Cas with something very akin to guilt and maybe a little understanding in his eyes. She squeezed Cas' hand tighter and leaned over to whisper in his ear, "I'll make sure they stay away. Just close your eyes and try to sleep, okay?"
"Got it!" Sam cried suddenly, holding up a small box as Dean hurried to see what he had found. "Snake bite kit—think that'll work?"
Dean shrugged. "It's all we got, it'll have to."
"Hurry up then," Meg urged them, shifting to sit at Cas' head so they could work. "The poison's already spread more than is healthy."
Dean swallowed hard and crouched next to Cas' injured leg. He ripped apart the fabric of his pants around the wound so he could see what he was doing and his eyes betrayed his worry.
"Son of a bitch," he breathed, then turned to Sam who had joined him. "Okay, let me see that. Go get me some towels or cloths—whatever you can find that's somewhat clean."
Sam nodded and went to find something they could use. Dean opened the kit, and pulled out a small sterile razor, and the venom extractor.
"Cas, buddy, this might hurt," he warned before using the razor to cut open the wound further to ease the poison's passage.
Cas tensed, but Meg calmed him by squeezing his hand as she watched Dean fix the suction pump over the wound and press the plunger to start the process off. Cas flinched and whimpered.
Sam hurried back in with a bowl of water and rags, crouching beside his brother again. "Is it working?" he asked anxiously.
"Looks like it," Dean said with some relief. They could see black goo pooling in the clear bit on the pump. "Give me a rag."
Sam handed him one of the cloths and Dean released the suction, pressing the rag to Cas' skin to sop up the poisonous ichor. He then repeated the process, drawing even more of the stuff from Cas' body.
Sam wet one of the cloths and handed it to Meg who used it to wipe Cas' forehead and neck. He seemed pretty out of it at the moment, which was probably a good thing.
After three more rounds with the suction pump, and what seemed like an eternity later, Sam leaned over for a closer look at the wound. "It looks a little better," he said. "Most of the blackness in the veins is gone."
"Yeah, I think it's actually working," Dean admitted, repeating the process several more times until nothing came out. He finally set the extractor to one side and loosened the tourniquet, taking a fresh cloth from the bowl and cleaning up the site of the wound.
"I guess now all we can do is wait," he said. "Leave it open, don't want to trap anything inside. I'm—I'm gonna go grab some more stuff out of the car."
And with that, Dean stood and left the cabin, leaving Sam and Meg to tend to Cas. Sam looked after his brother with a small sigh, before he turned back to Meg.
"Can you help me clean up the rest of his wounds?" he asked.
Meg nodded and they finished taping gauze over the lacerations Evan had carved over Castiel's body, before tucking a blanket around the angel who was completely asleep, or unconscious now. Meg finally breathed a sigh of relief.
"So, uh," Sam started, shrugging awkwardly. "How's he been? You know…" he motioned to his head.
"Well, let's just say that while he does remember who he is, at least, he's not exactly the Cas we all know and love," Meg told him honestly.
Sam frowned. "What is that supposed to mean?"
"He's kind of…different," Meg shrugged. "Likes to play board games and talk to bees, oh, and he's not fighting anymore. He's also a lot more touchy-feely."
"So he's…crazy," Sam offered.
"Kinda. Though it's to be expected. You weren't exactly Mr. bill of health when Cas transferred your issues to his own noggin."
"Well, at least he's not cowering in a corner and screaming," Sam replied quietly.
"No, he got over that pretty quickly. He's a lot less angsty." She cocked her head to one side. "Oh, but then there's also the part that he obviously felt like you abandoned him."
Sam jaw tightened. "For the record, that was not my idea." He looked over at Cas, a sad expression on his face. "But we couldn't have kept him with us on the road either. We would have just put him in danger."
"Well, he wasn't exactly safe in the asylum either," Meg quipped.
Sam looked down at the first aid kit, and then back up at Meg, gesturing to her shoulder, clearing his throat. "Um, I should probably take a look at that. You're kind of bleeding."
"I heal fast," Meg protested but couldn't deny her body ached, both from the car crash and the torture from the halos and the Levis. "But I guess you can play Florence Nightingale if it makes you feel better about yourself. I've had a rough day."
Sam chuckled and offered her the other cot in the room, which she sat on as he cleaned and bandaged her wounds. She kept glancing over at Cas, making sure he was still breathing. She didn't want to admit how scared she had been when the Levi had stuck him with that blade. She couldn't remember the last time she had been that scared, even for her own life.
Dean returned just as Sam was finishing cleaning up the first aid kit, holding nothing but a half drunk bottle of whisky.
"You gonna share that?" Meg asked, raising an eyebrow.
He narrowed his eyes at her for a moment then reluctantly handed her the bottle. Meg took a long pull and then another before handing it back, not for the first time wishing it would actually have some effect on her.
"So," Meg said. "How'd you find us so fast?"
"Tracked the GPS on your phone," Sam shrugged. "Wasn't sure you'd have it on you, but I guess we were lucky."
"Yeah, head chomper thought he was being clever," Meg told him.
Dean snorted and drank some of the whisky himself, pulling a chair over and dropping into it heavily, running a hand over his face. Sam looked up at him knowingly.
"Dean, why don't you get some sleep? Meg and I can keep a look out," Sam offered.
"No way, kiddo, you still need to play catch up. You know I'm not gonna sleep," Dean grunted.
Sam huffed, but didn't argue. He looked as exhausted as Meg felt. She wished sleep would make her feel less tired. She watched as Sam unrolled a sleeping bag on the far side of the room and rested his head on one of the packs. Soon his deep, even breaths could be heard through the room.
Meg snatched the bottle away from Dean again and drank before giving him a sideways glance. "Thanks, by the way, for getting there as soon as you did."
"Lucky we weren't too far away," Dean said and accepted the whisky as she handed it back to him. "So…Cas is off his rocker?" He shrugged as Meg raised an eyebrow. "Thin walls."
Meg nodded. "Yeah, looks like that's what happens when angels take on human crazy."
Dean watched the angel stir in his sleep, his eyes pained. "He's not, you know, seeing Lucifer, is he?"
Meg shrugged. "He did at first, I think sometimes he still has nightmares, but for the most part it just seems like his brain is scrambled eggs. It's kind of like looking after a full-grown, angelic kindergartener."
Dean snorted, then was quiet for a long time before he asked, "Does he…does he really think we just abandoned him?"
Meg almost wanted to tell Dean off for the pain he had caused Cas, but even a demon could recognize the sincerity in the elder Winchester's face, and his own pain at having hurt a friend. "Well, like I said, he sees things like a five-year-old. But sometimes, in his deeper moments, he thinks he deserved to be left. He feels like he betrayed you and Sam and he believes he's being punished for it."
"Son of a bitch," Dean muttered, rubbing a hand over his face. "I never…I mean, I was pissed by what he did to Sam, I was, and keeping his deal with Crowley a secret, but I didn't want this." He shook his head. "He can be so damn stubborn sometimes."
Meg decided to keep the pot-kettle comment to herself. "Did you ever think that maybe he never asked for your help because every time he tried in the past you turned him down?" Meg asked, offhand.
Dean glared at her. "How would you know?"
"I don't have to know the details to read people, Dean. I know you and your brother well enough to know that you mostly care about each other, and anyone else better learn to fend for themselves."
"That's not…" he stopped and sighed, looking over at Sam before taking another long pull of whisky.
"Exactly," Meg smiled slightly.
Cas suddenly jerked on the cot and cried out, eyes fluttering open. "Meg? Where are you?" He flailed under his blankets and Meg hurried over to kneel at his side, Dean right on her heels.
"Castiel, I'm right here," she told him gently, reaching for his hand and grabbing a clean cloth from the bowl of water to wipe the sweat off his forehead.
He calmed slightly at her arrival, blinking up at her. "Meg? You were gone." His voice carried a slight accusation. "You said you would stay with me."
"I was only a few feet away," she assured him, finding his comment kinda endearing despite the situation.
He shifted uncomfortably, and his skin was hot to the touch, the fever still burning through him, though hopefully that meant he was fighting off whatever was left of the poison. "Would you stay with me now?"
She smiled. "Of course, Castiel. But only if you promise to sleep."
He nodded, and seemed to relax, closing his eyes again and falling into a fitful sleep.
Dean came up behind Meg, and set a chair down for her to sit in, a look cross between annoyance and amusement in his face.
"Looks like you have a new boyfriend," Dean told her.
"Shut up," Meg said, but smiled despite herself.
"He trusts you," the hunter admitted, is voice holding a little confusion and maybe some indignation.
"I was there when he needed me," she replied, and didn't miss the pang of regret that flickered across Dean's face.
He cleared his throat. "Why did you offer to stay, anyway? No offense, but it's not like we've had the best relationship in the past."
Meg shifted slightly, debating on whether to tell Dean the truth and then deciding there was no point in not doing so. "At first I was really just looking for protection. But, well, Cas wasn't exactly up to that all the time. And then…I don't know. He seemed to actually want me around; it's kind of a nice feeling. Demons get lonely too, you know."
Dean nodded. "I never said they didn't."
She looked down at Cas' bruised face. "I guess he just kind of gave me new purpose." She glared up at Dean then. "But don't go spreading that to any other demons."
He held up his hands. "Your secret is safe with me." He looked like he was going to walk off but then he turned around. "Hey. I'm uh, really glad he had you to look out for him."
Meg smiled. "No problem."
She turned her attention back to Cas and tucked his blanket tighter around him, then looked down at her hand still enfolded in his. If only she could be certain this would never change.
Hey, look! It's not a cliffhanger this time :P