All right. So it's a little later than I thought it would be, but here's chapter 2. I got caught up in Real Life today.
The two hunters sat across from the angel, three cups of cooling coffee on the table between them. "Explain," Dean demanded. "Now."
Castiel ran a hand through his hair- front to back, then back to front- pushing it up before smoothing it out. It looked like he might have recently gotten it cut. It looked different, anyway.
The angel glanced over his shoulder, toward the door that led to his freedom, before directing his gaze back to the brothers. He sighed, defeated, and slumped back in the seat that Sam had previously occupied. "I fell."
"What?" Sam asked.
"You've gotta be kidding me," Dean muttered.
"I assumed you knew," Cas said.
"We haven't seen anything but demons in the past two months," the older hunter said. "How would we know?"
"That's bad."
"Ya think?"
"No, I mean… someone should have been sent. Unless our forces have become so depleted…"
Sam leaned forward. "You think Hell's winning?"
"I don't know," Castiel shrugged. "I'm in the same boat as you two. Heaven typically frowns upon the fallen."
"So why'd you do it?" Dean asked, ignoring the scathing glare that Sam sent his way and the sharp connection of his brother's foot with his shin under the table.
Castiel stared at him for a moment, and it was almost like nothing had changed. Like they were back in that painted-up barn, the angel blood-stained and shot, leveling that wide-eyed gaze at him and asking questions that hit him where it hurt, cut him deep, without even realizing it. "Why do you think?"
Dean clenched his jaw and gazed out the window, up at the cloudless sky. Yeah, as far as he was concerned, they were right back in that freakin' barn. And he still didn't deserve to be saved. "So," he said, maybe a little too loud, "the angels shut us out, and the demons are still planning the Apocalypse. That's great."
"We're right back where we started," Sam mused. "Yeah, great." He looked around the diner to find more than just the grumpy old man staring at them. The place was filling up fast, and they couldn't risk being overheard. "We should leave."
Dean nodded and threw down a wad of cash for the food and coffee. "Yeah. Gettin' claustrophobic. But you've got a point. Hell's winning and we're up a creek."
"Maybe not," Cas said, standing up and following the brothers as they exited the diner. "I've been watching for signs and omens, trying to track the few Seals I knew about. There haven't been any major surges in activity recently. If nothing else, the battle has come to a stalemate."
The older hunter shook his head and slid in behind the wheel of his car. Sam got in beside him. They both looked out at the angel. "Get in," Dean said.
"I don't want to burden you," Castiel began.
"Oh, buddy," Dean smirked, "you moved past 'burden' the day we met. Besides, we need to talk."
With a glance over his shoulder, the angel climbed into the backseat of the Impala and Dean pulled away from the diner.
"Ok," Sam said, wasting no time in getting straight to the point. "Tell us everything."
"Everything?" Cas asked, brow furrowing in confusion.
Sammy nodded. "Where've you been, how've you been tracking demonic signs-"
"And what the Hell did you think you were gonna do once some big-time demon reared it's ugly head?" Dean supplied. "Because, no offence, dude, but you kinda got your ass handed to you when you had angel mojo on your side, and now?"
Castiel narrowed his eyes, in annoyance rather than confusion this time, and sighed. "That was just the one time. If I had a nickel for every time I'd saved you… or did you forget the whole Hell-thing?"
Dean raised an eyebrow and glanced into the rearview mirror. "Wow. How hard did you hit your head when you fell?"
The former angel turned his attention back to Sam. "I fell nearly two months ago. A month and two weeks, actually." He glanced over at the back of Dean's head again. "For personal reasons." Back to Sam. "My first thought was to come and find you two, but I didn't want to be a burden."
"So, where'd you go?" Sam asked.
"I went to a shelter."
"Dude." Dean spun in his seat, nearly driving them off the road before Sam could grab the wheel. "No way. You totally should have found us."
"I thought I've been a burden since the day we met, Dean?"
"And I thought you would have learned not to pay attention to anything I say. Ever."
Cas shook his head. "It was fine, really. A roof over my head and three meals a day. Besides, I could observe, learn the basics."
"Still," Dean muttered, finally turning his eyes back to the road. "We coulda helped with that."
"It didn't take that long. Besides, I found a more permanent residence within a week. There's a priest I knew from before. He'd been helped, and had given his life in service in return. He was a hunter. A friend of Jim Murphy's, I believe." He shook his head again. "Anyway, Daniel took me in and agreed to show me the ropes, teach me to hunt without Divine Intervention."
"But if you fell," Sam said slowly, wondering just how much of a personal subject this was, "why would you want to keep fighting? Why not just do what Anna did?"
"Yeah," Dean agreed, glancing over his shoulder- only briefly this time. "How come you're still wearing Tax Accountant?"
Castiel dropped his eyes, his face reddening. He scrubbed a hand over the back on his neck before cording the fingers through his hair. "The man- Thomas- has been dead for a while now. He was given his reward. And I… I was selfish, I guess. I wanted to remember what I was, I wanted to remember everything. I wanted both worlds." He looked back up at them, chewing on his lower lip, the action so human that both brothers barely suppressed twin gasps. "I justify it by saying that I wanted to fight. To keep fighting. That was only a small part."
"All right," Dean shrugged. "So you got yourself stuck inside some middle-management type. That's cool. He know how to handle a gun?"
"He didn't," Castiel grinned. "But I do."
-.-
Dean leaned up against the outer wall of the motel he and Sam were calling home for a few days, his hands shoved in his pockets, eyes staring out over the parking lot without truly seeing anything. He sighed as the door opened and Castiel appeared, standing beside him and mirroring his relaxed stance in a way that the hunter once thought to be impossible.
"So, Sam got you all caught up?" Dean asked.
"Yeah." He sighed. "I heard you two talking. Back in the diner."
"Oh?"
Castiel nodded. "I'm sorry. I thought… it was selfish."
"No. You know what's selfish? Thinking that Jesus love you. Thinking that people need you and want you and that maybe when they say that you deserve something, they're right. It's thinking, for even just a second, that maybe you were wrong all along."
"No. It's seemingly disappearing off the face of the earth without a trace only to pop up in a diner two months later with a shitty explanation about where you've been and what you've been doing and why."
"Dude. Did you just say shitty?"
Cas shrugged. "Learned it from you. That, and drinking." He smiled.
"And, uh, where'd you pick up the whole readable emotions on the face thing?"
"From you. Everything, actually, stemmed from you, somehow." He followed Dean's gaze, looking out at the few cars in the lot. "I fell because of you."
The hunter flinched. "Yeah, I figured that out."
Castiel leveled that deep blue gaze at him again, confused. "What do you mean?"
"Look, we're not gonna force you to stay here, or anything. We just wanted to know what was going on, and when I saw you in the diner…"
"You misunderstood-"
"No, I've got it. You didn't want to put up with me, so you gave up Heaven, shirked your duties, and viola. No more Dean Winchester. And, hey, that's cool. Sometimes I wanna dump my handsome ass, too."
"Dean-"
"But to lie about it? Right to my face? I mean, I know you're not in my head anymore, Cas, but you've gotta know me well enough by now to realize that I can figure this stuff out."
The angel sighed. "No, Dean. I fell because you made me realize that there was more to life- to eternity- than blindly following orders. You showed me things I'd never thought about before. Things like love and kindness. Things that I'd been told- by Uriel, mind you- didn't exist among humans. And I couldn't have that before."
"Yeah?" Dean asked, still not convinced. "Then why'd you try to run at the diner?"
"I told you. I'm not used to being a burden on people, especially those I care for. And you're right. I do know you, and I knew that you'd want to avoid this conversation if at all possible. You forced my hand."
Dean grinned. "You really fell for freedom and love? Dude, that's pathetic."
"What should I have fallen for?"
"Pie."
"Pie?"
"Or coffee. Maybe sex. But I'd definitely fall for pie."
Castiel smiled, the sorrowful mood completely dissipated. "I wouldn't expect anything more from you, Dean."
"Hey. Just because I wouldn't be willing to give up Heavenly bliss or whatever for a few sissy concepts doesn't mean I'm a complete degenerate."
"So you believe me?" Because he needed to hear it, needed to know that he hadn't done some great irrevocable damage by committing his first selfish act.
"Well, I doubt you would have picked up on lying so quick." A smirk. "Guess I have to believe you, then, don't I, Castiel?" He glanced down at the shorter man. "Hey, you got a name? I mean, like, a normal one? From this millennium?"
Castiel raised an eyebrow and glared at him, but the annoyed expression quickly melted from his face. "Actually, I've been going by Cas."
Dean shook his head. "Man, that's pathetic. Come on. We should head in." He walked into the motel room, Castiel following closely behind in companionable silence, and stopped in his tracks. "The Hell? Two months of silence and all of a sudden we've got angels coming outta our-"
Cas cut him off by grabbing his arm and tugging him roughly back toward the door. Uriel turned his attention from Sam, who was standing by the television, and glared. "Well, if it isn't the other mud monkeys. How I abhor the plural."
"What do you want?" Castiel asked, passing Dean and entering the room to stare the angel down.
"To send a warning," Uriel said. "The final Seal is about to be broken."
"Final? There were still-"
"That was nearly two months ago. Much has changed." The angel's face contorted into a sneer. "You were not the only one to run with his tail between his legs." He looked over Castiel's head to Dean. "Someone would have been sent to tell you, but things have escalated lately and we were overwhelmed and understaffed." Back to Cas. "By no fault of our own, of course."
"What do we have to do?" Sam asked.
"You will do nothing," Uriel said, voice soft and forceful in the small room.
"How do you expect us to help?" Castiel questioned.
"This job is for Dean alone."
The hunter shook his head. "I'm not doing anything without Team Totally-Fucking-Awesome backing me up. Sorry, pal."
"This is not a matter that concerns them."
"End of the world."
"You don't understand."
"What is it?" Cas asked, breaking up the dialogue. "The final Seal?"
Uriel sighed. "The Seal of Judas."
"Judas?" Dean stepped forward to join his brother beside the television.
"He-"
"I know who he was. What I want to know is what he has to do with these two."
"The Seal of Judas," Castiel explained from his spot by the door, "is also known as the Final Betrayal. What Uriel doesn't realize, however, is that if I were the Seal, it would have broken months ago."
The angel glared at him for a moment before turning to Sam. "The boy, then."
"What are we trying to prevent?" Dean demanded.
"A betrayal," Uriel said. "Of epic proportions. One trusted and loved turning to darkness. The sin of Judas. That will release the Beast."
Three sets of eyes turned to Sam, who squirmed under the attention, squaring his shoulders and jutting out his jaw. "It's not me." When he turned back to the angel, Uriel was gone. He looked to his companions. "It's not me."
Dean nodded. "I know. What did I tell you about angels, man. Dicks." He sighed, glancing over at Castiel. "So if it's not either of you two, then who is it, and how do we find him?"
The former angel shrugged. "I don't know." He practically collapsed onto the bed nearest the door, staring up at the ceiling. "It could be anyone, really. Most likely, though, it's someone with a lot of power. Someone claiming to be good. Someone people trust."
The brothers sat on the other bed, gazing at the wall. "Well, that narrows it down," Sam scoffed, "what with a new president taking office and all. Let's not forget all the good folks in the military. World leaders. Hell, might as well extend it to school teachers, parents, anyone who can do damage."
"This was so much easier when we were going after specific demons," Dean muttered.
Castiel sat up suddenly, eyes wide. "Sam, where's Ruby?"
