Part II
Intruder

Friday evening, Castiel's work followed him home.

Balancing two paper bags full of groceries from the corner stop a couple blocks down the street, Castiel struggled to keep his cell phone propped between shoulder and ear while crouching low enough to pushed the four on the elevator panel. His tongue edged out between his teeth in concentration. The four illuminated to show his success and once the metal doors closed, Castiel returned to his conversation. "I thought you said you wanted to go see a movie."

"I did - but I changed my mind."

Castiel frowned as he tried to check his watch from around the girth of the bags in his arms. "You can't just change plans at the last minute."

"Sure I can! It's called free will and Cas, live a little, would you?"

"You know I don't like clubs..." Damnit, where did he put his keys.

"Caaaass."

He grumbled while juggling both bags in one arm and one uplifted leg, and dug through his pockets to find his keys. He lost his cell phone in the process, grimacing as it tumbled to the hallway carpet. "Charlie–"

"It's just this once!"

"Charlie hold on."

"I'll never, ever, ask you to go again."

"Charlie I dropped my phone," Castiel yelled down at the floor while his fingers finally touched against the keys in his back pocket. "Just hold on a sec."

The rambling continued from the other line, most of which Castiel couldn't understand apart from it sounding like a high pitched whine. He brought the correct key to the lock of his apartment door, only to find it swinging open when he bumped his foot against the bottom rail. His heart instantly leaped into his throat. He knew for certain that he had closed and locked his door earlier that morning. He had worked long enough with police to know that having it open upon returning home was a bad sign.

He also knew that walking inside was something people were warned against doing.

Like a moron worried about his material possessions, Castiel cautiously crept inside his apartment. It was quiet aside from the small voice he could hear coming from his iphone in the hall. The groceries were left on the threshold and armed with little more than the keys fisted in his palm, Castiel flicked on the lights. The sight greeting him sent chills down his spine. His living room had been completely over turned. The couch was thrust against the far window with the cushions sliced through and flung across the room. His lamps laid broken on the carpet. The tv was smashed on the floor.

The worse of the mess came from the bookshelves. It made Castiel sick thinking about how much he had spent finding a good set of wooden book cases (not to mention how awful it had been moving the heavy oak cases up to his fourth floor apartment). The dividing shelves were broken and his books were strewn across the floor. Some had even been torn in half down the spine - who even took the time to do that? It was like someone had let loose a pack of wild dogs in his room. Utter chaos.

A crash from the his bedroom made him freeze.

Panic flooded his system and Castiel couldn't move. His mind was going a hundred miles a second and the majority of the thoughts involved the word Shit. Shitshitshit. A cold sweat dampened his collar and the indecision of what to do was making his hands shake. He had to get out of there - but he was too scared to move less the intruder heard him and came out of the bedroom. He needed to call the police but his phone was all the way out in the hall. The shaking worsened.

He stalled too long, because from the bedroom emerged a figure and as plain as Castiel could see the man - the man could see Castiel. An angry stride was taken to start closing the distance. Castiel's body finally made up its mind. The answer was to flee. Sadly it was a solution arriving too late, because Castiel wasn't fast enough to escape. He soon found himself tackled to the floor, the breathe nearly knocked out of him. His phone was there though. If he could just reach it—

"Where is it?" The man demanded as he seized Castiel's arm that was vainly reaching for the iphone.

Castiel bit down a pained yelp as he felt his arm being twisted behind his back, angling up toward his shoulder blades to make it a sharp, searing hot pain. "I d-don't know."

"Where!?" Another painful twist and this time something cold and metallic touched against the back of his neck. Whether it was a gun, or the flat edge of a knife, Castiel couldn't tell.

"M-money is in the - in the c-coffee jar."

Apparently that wasn't what the man was after, because he added a knee against Castiel's spine. He was repeating his demand but Castiel could scarcely hear him over the pain wracked sound bursting from his lips.

"Hey Castiel," A new voice, and Castiel craned his neck up to see his neighbor, Chuck, appearing in his open door. "I don't normally complain or anything, but you're being really loud and I'm trying to work..." The last few words to leave Chuck's mouth were slow and trailing as he finally bothered to look up to see the two men grappled on the floor. His blue eyes widened, "Sorry... I uh, didn't mean to uh - to interrupt—"

"Call the police!" Castiel managed to hoarsely shout.

Chuck ran for his own apartment and a second later the man pinning Castiel to the floor fled through the open door. Castiel pulled his aching arm to the front of his chest and hugged the limb. The previous shake had moved from his hands to rack his entire body. Castiel curled in on himself, covered his face with both hands and was thankful he didn't automatically burst into tears.

From the threshold Castiel could hear Charlie's voice.

"Cas? Cas!? What is going on!? Cas if you're there I've already sent an alert to the department. Cas? Cas!"

An hour later Castiel sat at his breakfast counter and was cupping a mug of tea Sam had set in front of him. He didn't sip at it, just held the warm mug between his palms and prayed the heat would reduce the remaining trembles. It was more of twitches now, because Castiel had two officers, a lab tech, Sam, and his new partner rooting through his apartment. Castiel had never had more than one person in his apartment at a time. Even then his company was confined to the living room or the kitchen that were usually in perfect order. Now five strangers were poking and prodding through every inch of his private life and Castiel was rattled more by this than the fact he had been assaulted earlier.

Sam was at least sympathetic, because he noticed the flinching Castiel did as the officers manhandled his book collection and excused himself to supervise their work; mainly to stop them from damaging the books any further.

"So did you get a good look at him?"

Castiel's blue eyes lifted to Dean as the man stepped in to fill in Sam's vacated position, "Not - not really."

"Anything at all?"

It was a gentle tone - friendly, and quite a bit different than the way Dean had talked to him at the precinct. Castiel found himself staring at the odd transformation. Maybe, he thought with a frown, Dean didn't recognize him without the lab coat. There didn't seem to be any recognition in Dean's eyes as those green orbs flicked up from the notepad in curious regard. Castiel realized he was staring, again, and quickly spit out the first words to come to mind. "He was big."

Colored touched at Castiel's cheeks as Dean arched a brow at him, "Big as in.. ?"

"Body type," Castiel's gaze dropped and he busied his fingers with the mug between his hands. "He was... bigger than me. Dark hair and... I d-don't really know. He had me pinned face down on the floor..."

"Yeah, I can tell, it looks like you had some rough floor sex."

Castiel's could do little more than stare wide-eyed at a grinning Dean. After a few seconds, of Castiel failing to laugh or do whatever the detective was aiming to accomplish, Dean coughed down toward his chest and focused his attention back on the notepad. "Well seeing as you already gave your best description to the officers, let me ask, you share the apartment with anyone?"

Castiel shook his head.

"What about spare keys, maybe gave one to a girlfriend or...?"

Another shake of head from Castiel.

"What about Charile?"

Castiel's head shot upright, surprised that apparently Dean did remember him from earlier that morning. Once again Castiel felt his face begin to flush with embarrassment, "No. No, Charlie is just a friend."

"She have a boyfriend?"

That question felt like a kick to the gut, and Castiel's shoulders began to slump. He narrowed his eyes on the detective, "Are you trying to ask me if she's available to date?"

"What? No," Dean hands flinched but his expression remained well guarded. "I was asking because if she's got one, he might be jealous of the friendship you have with her."

Oh. Right.

Castiel shook his head while leaning over the counter to hide his face in an upraised hand, "Sorry. I didn't meant to accuse... I'm just a bit shaken still."

"About that..." Dean tapped pen to notepad, earning Castiel's blue eyes peeking through splayed fingers. "You have someplace to go, or maybe someone to come over to keep you company? We'll see about getting a unit posted outside, but I think you'd feel better if you weren't alone tonight."

Castiel debated whether or not he wanted to ask Charlie to stay the night. They were friends, true, but he knew she wouldn't want to come over unless she could bring her laptop. The woman was something of a night owl, especially on weekends, and Castiel just wanted to spend the night alone in his quiet room. It'd feel weird to be laying in bed knowing Charlie was sitting awake on the couch tapping away at a keyboard. She did that often enough when they went somewhere for lunch, and the constant tap tap tap of keys reminded him of rats in the wall; gnawing, gnawing, and Castiel didn't have the tolerance for it.

He toyed with the idea of calling his older brother, Michael, but tossed the idea aside. Him and his brother hadn't parted on good terms after the whole fiasco with Lucifer. It didn't help that the way Castiel had ended up coming out to the family about his sexuality was due to being caught in the basement of his parent's house with his pants around his ankles and his dick in his then boyfriend's mouth. Yeah, that didn't go over well at Thanksgiving Dinner.

Lucifer had teased about just showing how thankful he was..

Castiel's felt his ears burn with the memory. He brought the cooled tea up to his lips while muttering. "I'll be fine by myself."

"Alright," Dean responded unconvinced, "Do you have a gun at least?"

"No, I don't like guns."

Dean scoffed, "You live in the city and don't own a gun for protection?"

"I have pepper spray," Castiel weakly argued.

"Dude, women carry peppery spray," Dean mocked, "and honestly that shit doesn't work as well as it should. It's like pepper spray for bears, all it's going to do is piss it off."

"Well good thing I don't have to worry about bears," Castiel glared, his tone edging toward a graveled growl.

"No, just people who have guns."

Castiel's fingers tightened on the mug, "Detective, I don't believe it is your job to berate the victim of a crime."

"It is when said victim works in a crime unit and knows better."

Green and blue gazes clashed, fighting for dominance and both men too stubborn to give in to the other. Castiel was mildly surprised when Dean finally looked away, sighed, then grumbled out the following words, "Look, just be sure to lock up and Ellen has already said you can take the weekend off."

Dean reached into his breast pocket and laid a contact card on the counter near Castiel, "If anything happens, give me a call. I'll be swinging by tomorrow to bring you into the station so you can give an official report on the break-in and whether or not anything was taken."

Castiel reached for the card, but stopped when Dean noticed the bruising around his wrist. The detective pushed back the cuff of sleeve to better view the damage. "You didn't show the paramedic that."

"It wasn't important," Castiel grumbled while wiggling his wrist back into the sleeve.

Dean gave him an unimpressed look then, before Castiel could even guess what the man might be thinking, he seized Castiel's wrist and gave the appendage a firm squeeze. Castiel's lips parted in soundless show of pain and he quickly pulled his arm from Dean. The next moment he was glaring furiously up at the detective.

"Save the bullshit for someone else," Dean grunted. "Put some ice on that and if it's not better by the time I'm back tomorrow, we're taking a side trip to the hospital for an x-ray."

Castiel continued to glare while ruefully rubbing at his wrist, "Do you normally treat people like this?"

Dean grinned, much to Castiel's chagrin. "I figured Sam could be the good cop and I could be the bad one."

"Unbelievable."

Just like that Castiel was left at the counter, shaking his head as he watched the cocky detective strut away to talk with the officers. Castiel frowned, heavily. Shortly afterward he grabbed his iphone, kicked the lab assistant out of his bedroom and locked everyone out of the bedroom. He sat on the foot of his bed, just staring at the clothes spread across the floor as if it was little more than garbage. He'd once read about how personal break-ins felt to the victim - to have their personal life rooted through, torn and trashed with such disregard. It never seemed like a big deal until he sat there, his place of home violated, and strangers pawing through his belongings.

He honestly felt like crying.

Castiel turned on his phone and scrolled through his contacts. His thumb hovered over Lucifer's name. He probably should have deleted his ex-boyfriend's number months ago, but for one reason or another he didn't. Thinking better of his actions (calling an ex-lover while feeling vulnerable was never a wise decision) Castiel scrolled back up his list to find Charlie's name and hit send.

As soon as the line picked up on the other end, Charlie started in on him. Castiel sighed, hanging his head while rubbing at his temple. "I'm fine, honest, I'm just waiting for everyone to leave so I can clean up the mess... No, you don't need to come over... Really. I'm fine."

He repeated that phrase several times during the conversation. I'm fine.

He wasn't.

Thing To Know:
1.) Castiel's family gets too big if we include all the angels, so in this fic his only sibling is Michael. I was tempted to make it Gabriel, but it's always Gabriel. I wanted more of a chance to explore the character of Michael.
2.) Lucifer is Castiel's ex-boyfriend, because I'm not good at resisting slashing them. He was going to be Jo's detective partner. Wouldn't that have been a hoot? He also wasn't going to be in the fic at all, how horrible.
3.) I change my mind a lot.

A/N: I'm so happy that my story is working and not getting eaten by some bizarre story error that I've posted this chapter the next day! I may have lost reviews/follows because of the error, but wow you guys adding me to favorites and following has been awesome! Thank you so much guys! :D !