"Cas?" I saw him in here. "Cas?" a little louder.

"Dean, indoor voice." Cas must be spending too much time baby-sitting. He is stacking soup cans in Aisle 2; and sounds genuinely annoyed. It's hard to tell though, since he still has his back to me. "I'm busy."

"Yeah, well, Cas this is an emergency."

"Dean, allow me the dignity of work."

God, some things about Cas don't change, now he's being holier than thou about packing store shelves instead of acting holier than though about being god, God.

Aisle 3. "Cas, this is a real, actual, human emergency." Now the store manager is looking at me. Cas is stacking pickles; the pickles look kinda good. "Cas." I am on the receiving end of a pained look from Cas. "Ok, Steve, this is an emergency."

Cas, sighs at the pickles. "You return here after a month Dean, more than a month since we talked. I'm really busy." He walks off, cart and everything, aisle 4, and begins stamping-sale 10% off—stickerson everything.

"Cas…" At least he glares at me, briefly.

"It's Steve." He is looking intently as his cans.

"Steve. This is about Sammy."

Cas moves onto aisle 5 and changes to marking Ketchup bottles—15% off—with red stickers. "Sammy is your family." He is literally tight lipped. Cas', Steve's boss, has moved out from behind the counter, and is a little closer than I would like.

"Cas, you're.."

Cas doesn't give me time to finish that sentence. He moves over to 6, arranging bags of candy and jerky. I could really use jerky. "Cas, look, I know…"

"No you don't!" Cas turns aisle 7, dusting, dusting, the cans of fruit. How long do they keep those in these places anyway? His manager is too close for comfort. She doesn't look like she's packing.

I jerk my head towards Cas, "Old friends, you know." Waggle my eyebrows, I can be quite charming.

"You should leave." That seems to be all she has to say to me.

Cas doesn't back me up.

I leave.

Only I don't. Cas is family, whether he likes it or not, and family sticks together. I wait around the corner in the Impala. His manager leaves at seven in the evening. I wait till eleven, the neon light turns off, the store lights dim, no Cas. Eleven thirty, no Cas. He is still on the top of the Angel's shit list. I check on him. I leave Baby where she is, no sense in drawing action. It's hard to pick the lock as quickly as I need to in the light of the Gas station. The store is dark. Gun drawn. It looks quite in here; but from where Baby is parked I would have seen Cas' leave down the alley if he did, which means he is still here, which means he is in trouble because he didn't go home. I push the door to the storage room—staff only—open. Cas is asleep on the floor of a storage room in a gas station gas-n-sip store in Rexburg, Idaho.

I find myself biting my lower lip as I let a moment pass. He looks peaceful. "Cas." I crouch down, I touch his shoulder to shake him gently, no point in frightening him. "Cas," I doubt that he can hear me, "Cas, Come home. Don't worry about anything, it's not all about Sammy, just come home." He shifts in his sleep. I look away for a moment, wonder about the best way to wake him, he is small now, but I would struggle to carry him sleeping to the Impala—but it would be some sort of revenge for every time he zapped us places. I shake him again. He stirs and looks up at me with innocent blue eyes. For a man, Angel, man who has destroyed heaven and nearly the earth, who helped undo the future created by God, he looks innocent. "Castiel, come home."

We drive in silence for a couple of hours then, "Dean, why do you want me back?"

It's a long story to start telling Cas in the middle of the night. But I tell Cas the truth, "Family."

He looks though me, he shouldn't still be able to look through me, I thought that was an Angel thing. Driving Baby in the middle of night from Rexburg, Idaho to Lebanon, Kansas, taking a sip from the flask I nearly promised Sammy I had put away forever—not that my promises will mean anything to him—ever again, I try and tell Cas why I did what I did to him, why I threw him out of our home. Forever later I finish with Ezekiel leaving. I wonder how long Cas has been asleep; also I may have left out a few things.

Author's notes: short, I know. Next chapter should be up this weekend.