The next morning, Dean awoke to a clap of thunder. He rolled out of bed, throwing his robe on. It was a little chilly this morning. He'd have to remember to check the thermostat.

On his way to the kitchen, he noticed that Cas was no longer parked on the couch. The blankets had been neatly folded and put away, leaving no evidence that he'd slept there.

"Morning." Sam greeted him with a cup of coffee.

Dean inhaled the familiar scent. "I missed coffee."

Sam chuckled. "Yeah, me too." He leaned against the counter. "How are you doing?"

Dean groaned. "Seriously? It's not even 10 o'clock yet."

"We've gotta talk about this sometime."

"I'm good."

"Really? Cause you were ready to sacrifice yourself to Billie-"

"Let's not even go there. I didn't have to. We're home. That's all that matters."

"Why did you make the deal? Was it really that bad in there?" Sam was persistent.

"Well it sucked, but..."

"You did it for me, didn't you." His brother was staring at him with those guilty puppy-dog eyes.

"Look, I didn't know what they were doing to you! I didn't know if you were okay...and even if they just threw you in a cell, same as me...I didn't know if you were gonna make a deal."

"So you did it first? You did something stupid to make sure I wouldn't? That's not okay." Sam glared, starting to raise his voice.

"Sammy, please." Dean said tiredly. "Can we not do this right now?"

Falling silent, his younger brother reluctantly nodded. "Okay."

"Are you okay? They didn't...do anything to you, did they?" Dean asked.

"I thought we weren't talking about it."

It was Dean's turn to glare. "We're not talking about the deal part. I'm being serious, man. Did they-"

"They didn't do anything to me. Don't worry. We've both had worse. I mostly passed the time by working out."

Dean snorted. "Of course you did."

Sam rolled his eyes. "What did you do? Sleep?"

"Maybe. Hey, have you seen Cas?"

"Yeah, he was here earlier. He's acting kinda weird, maybe you should talk to him."

Dean frowned. "Weird how?"

"Just kind of...jumpy. This morning I found him eating a piece of toast, and he freaked out like I'd caught him watching porn or something. He tried to hide it, and looked all guilty. That's weird. I mean, for starters, angels don't even need to eat."

"Dammit." Dean shook his head. "He didn't tell you, did he?"

"Tell me what...?"

"He's basically human now."

"What?" Sam asked in shock. "What happened?"

Dean explained about the witches, and how Cas's grace was on short supply. "So yeah, he's stuck slumming it with us humans for a while."

"Wow...that sucks."

"Yeah. So where'd he go?"

"He just left. Said he wanted go for a walk."

"In this weather?" Dean pointed out as another clap of thunder shook the bunker.

Sam shrugged. "He's an angel. A little rain isn't gonna kill him."

"Yeah, not normally...but powered down like this? He's gonna catch a cold."

The younger Winchester raised an eyebrow. "Don't you think he'd come back in if it was bothering him?"

"Not if he's got something to prove." Dean mumbled, hurrying to his room to get dressed. "Let's go find that idiot and bring him home."