Two long weeks passed and Dean and Cas worked together in vain to hunt down Metatron and Gadreel. They arrived back at the bunker after several days following up a lead that turned out to be complete bust and Dean was feeling frustrated and exhausted in equal measures. On occasion, when he wasn't drunk or angry, Dean felt sorry for Cas who had been enduring his foul mood without so much as a complaint. It was hard to tell with the overly literal, blunt Cas, but Dean thought the angel was being nicer to him as well. Not that he deserved it.

Dean had texted Sam twice since he had stormed off a fortnight ago but hadn't received any reply. After throwing his bag in to his bedroom, Dean sent him one last text. If he didn't reply to this one, Dean wasn't going to bother trying anymore.

*I don't want to have a heart to heart Sam, just tell me if you're alive,* he typed.

Ten minutes passed where Dean stared at his phone like a teenage girl waiting for a call from her date. At last his phone vibrated and a text appeared on the screen.

*Yes.*

That was it. One word in two weeks. Dean threw his phone on to the bed and stormed off to the kitchen. Cas was already sitting in there, staring blankly at the wall.

"What are you doing?" Dean asked, lifting a beer from the fridge and opening it.

"Thinking." Dean stared at him, waiting for the end of the sentence.

"Thinking? I can see that, Cas. What are you thinking about?"

"You."

"Uh… why?"

"You're sad."

"I'm fine," he said, and he almost sounded convincing.

"We should do something fun," Cas said, finally emerging from his thoughtful reverie and looking at Dean with a kind of perky half-smile, as though he was very proud of his idea.

"Like what?"

"We could play a game or watch a movie."

"We have work to do, man," Dean said.

"I know. And I am usually the one who doesn't like down-time, but unlike angels, you have a physiological need for enjoyment and I don't believe you are getting any." Dean smirked.

"I'm getting plenty thanks." Cas stood and walked over to him.

"You are no use as a hunter if you are burned out. You are worried about Sam and Metatron and Gadreel, not to mention Abbadon. The guilt of Kevin's death is still weighing upon you - "

"Are you supposed to be making me feel better?" Dean asked. "'Cause you're not doing a great job right now."

Cas frowned. "I'm sorry. Would you like to play Twister?" Considering he was such a powerful, occasionally murderous, borderline unstoppable celestial being, there was an innocence in Cas's face that Dean couldn't bring himself to say no to.

"Fine," Dean said, and Cas looked pleased. For the first time in weeks, Dean felt a tiny spark of warmth inside him, and he wanted to grab a hold of it. Cas was just leaving the kitchen when Dean called after him. "Hey, once we're done with Twister, what do you say you and me make some popcorn and finally get around to watching It's A Wonderful Life?"

"I would like that," Cas said. "Although I have no requirement for any kind of food, popped or otherwise."

"Yeah, Cas, I know."

Dean discovered very quickly that he was not good at Twister. He wasn't quite as bendy as he'd thought, and it didn't help matters that there was an angel intertwined with him, limbs everywhere. If it was possible, however, Cas was even worse than he was. His trench coat, jacket and tie lay in a pile on the floor after he discarded them in a vain attempt to improve his dismal performance, and he kept slipping as he tried to bend his arm underneath him in a manner that was not physically possible. Dean couldn't remember the last time he had laughed so hard. In fact, he wasn't entirely sure he could remember the last time he had laughed full stop.

"I would be much better at this in my celestial form," Cas mumbled as he slid his leg underneath Dean who was currently bent backwards in a position that he was fairly sure most contortionists would find challenging.

"Yeah, but that would be cheating," Dean said, reaching out to spin the color wheel. "Right hand green, angelface."

"But you are occupying the green spot."

"Then reach further." Cas struggled with such a serious expression on his face that Dean could barely stop himself from laughing.

"Surely there is an easier way to do this."

"You got yourself in to this tangle, get yourself out of it," Dean said. As Cas reached for the green spot, his other arm slid from beneath him and he fell to the ground taking out Dean's right leg as he did so and they both landed heavily on the plastic mat. Dean punched Cas playfully in the arm.

"That was fun," he said, and he wasn't just saying it to spare the angel's feelings. Cas grinned back at him, clearly pleased that he had managed to make Dean happy. As he looked at Cas, Dean was vaguely aware of how different he looked without his trench coat, only wearing pants and his white shirt, sleeves rolled up, top two buttons undone. He looked a little smaller, Dean thought.

Dean put on It's a Wonderful Life and he had barely sat down before he was drifting off to sleep. He leaned back in to the sofa and the last thing he heard before warm, comforting sleep enveloped him was Cas's gravelly voice pointing out everything wrong with the movie.

He opened his eyes a little later to find that the movie was over and his head was resting on Cas's shoulder.

"Sorry, man," he said, straightening up awkwardly.

"You're cell phone emitted a low buzzing sound," he stated. Dean picked up his cell and saw with a mixture of happiness and apprehension that he had a text from Sammy. He opened it, but his face fell when he saw that the message contained only one word.

*Poughkeepsie.*

"Cas, when did I get this message?" Dean asked, jumping to his feet and pulling out two guns from the drawer nearest to him and stuffing them in to his waistband before throwing on his brown leather jacket.

"Thirty three minutes ago," he said. "Why?"

"We need to go," he said, looking around the room frantically. "Right now."

Cas grabbed his coat from the floor and ran after Dean who was already half way to the garage. They jumped in to the car and as soon as the garage door was high enough, they were out of the bunker and down the street.

"Dean, what's going on?" Cas asked, looking at him with confusion and worry.

"Poughkeepsie," Dean said. "It means drop everything and run. Sammy sent me it so something must be coming for us."

"But the bunker is warded against everything," Cas said. "We couldn't have been found."

"Look, man, I don't know what's going on but Sammy wouldn't say that unless it was something really serious."

"So we're just running away?"

"No, we're going to hide the car and find somewhere to stakeout the bunker. If something knows how to find us, I want to find out what it knows and then I want to stab it in the face." Cas didn't say anything else so Dean took his eyes off the road to check if he was still there. Sure enough, the angel was still sitting there, his dark brows creased in his usual serious frown. "You okay?" Cas looked back and him and smiled but then he whipped around to look out the front window.

"Dean look out!"

Dean slammed his foot on to the brake, the back end of the car skidding out with a screech. They spun across the road and Dean desperately tried to keep control of the car. The smell of burning rubber filled the air and he held tight to the steering wheel as the car came to a screaming, shuddering halt. Just a few feet in front of the Impala, a man stood calmly in the centre of the road with his back to them. He hadn't so much as moved. Dean got out of the car.

"Are you out of your freaking mind?" he yelled at the man. And then he recognised the back of that head.

"Crowley," he said.

"Hello boys," Crowley purred, turning around to face them. "Didn't see you there."

Dean slid his hand in to his jacket and wrapped his hand around the demon blade.

"Now, now," Crowley said. "I was hoping we could have a little chat." He glanced to Cas and added, "Alone."

"Not a chance," Cas said.

"I was hoping you'd say that," he said with a little smile. He stepped aside and revealed a sigil carved in to the tree at the side of the road and before Dean or Cas could react, he slapped his bleeding hand against the bark. Cas's yell was cut short as he was consumed in a burst of white light. Crowley had raised his other arm to cover his eyes so Dean seized his opportunity and grabbed him by the collar, throwing him against the front of the car, pressing the demon blade to his throat.

"Where did you send him?" Dean yelled, only just able to see as the blinding white light faded. "Where is he?"

"Relax, sweetheart," Crowley said. "I sent him back to heaven."

"Heaven is closed."

"I know," said Crowley, a devilish gleam in his eye. "So the poor bugger is going to slam face first in to those pearly gates and fall straight back down again. It's hilarious actually. I've been doing it to angels all week. You should see their faces when they land. All confused and broken - " Dean tightened his grip on Crowley's jacket, and pressed the blade harder against Crowley's throat until the smarmy grin slid from his face.

"What do you want Crowley?"

"I have a lead on Abaddon."

"So?"

"So let's go and get her you galloping moron," he said. Dean released Crowley and lowered the blade.

"I'm not helping you with anything else, Crowley. Go screw yourself."

"In your dreams, darling," he said, straightening up and adjusting his black tie. He gave a dramatic sigh. "So I went to all that trouble of luring you out here with that ridiculous code word of yours and you're just going to leave me high and dry?"

"You sent that message?" Dean asked.

"Do keep up."

"How did you get Sam's phone? Where is he?"

"If you help me, I might tell you," he said, taking a handkerchief from his pocket and dabbing at the blood stains on his shirt sleeve.

"If you don't tell me where Sam is right now, so help me I'll- "

"Kill me?" Crowley asked. "Why don't we just give up this little dance we've got going on, hm? You aren't going to kill me and I'm not going to kill you."

"What makes you so sure?" Dean said, clenching the knife in his hand and wondering what would happen if he plunged it straight in to Crowley's skull.

"You need me alive, because trust me, you aren't going to want Abaddon in charge of Hell. Say what you want about me, but I'm efficient and I keep my promises. Hell, you might even say I'm trustworthy," he said, with a shrug. Dean scoffed. "Look," Crowley said, abandoning his vain attempts at pleasantries. "Abaddon will slay every last one of you for no other reason than because that's how she gets her lady-thrills. I, on the other hand, will not kill you or any of your little human friends unless they get in my way, so tell me, boy, whose side are you on?"

"Tell me where my brother is," Dean said, ignoring his question.

"Help me find Abaddon," Crowley countered immediately.

"No."

"Then you have your answer." With a snap of his fingers, Crowley vanished. Dean was suddenly torn between finding Sam, who may or may not actually be in danger, and finding Cas. His chest tightened as he thought of Cas falling from Heaven again. A lot of angels didn't survive the last fall. Crowley's voice appeared suddenly behind him and he whipped around. He had reappeared on the other side of the road, now holding an ornate silver pocket watch.

"If my calculations are correct," he said, pausing to look up at the sky, "your boyfriend should be landing any second now." Dean looked up at the grey and cloudy sky. "Oh there he is," Crowley said. "As punctual as a German train." Dean turned back to Crowley to see where he was looking but he was gone. Dean turned his gaze back to the sky and after a few seconds of frantic searching, he saw a yellow light illuminate the clouds. A burning shape burst through the blanket of grey, like a tiny falling sun, and Dean knew that in the middle of that fireball, hurtling towards the earth, was his angel. The comet hit the ground a few miles away on the other side of the bunker, but the ground where Dean was standing trembled violently with the impact. Dean got back in to the car, palms sweating, heart racing, and sped as fast as he could towards the pillar of smoke rising from amongst the hills.

A/N Please feel free to leave a review if you have a sec, I'd love to know what you guys are thinking. Looks like this is going to turn in to a decent length fic, I've got a lot of plans so stay tuned! CMPerry x