A/N: So I decided that I needed to plan out the boys' house, for ease of reference, and built it in Sims 2. Then made sims of the boys and put them in the house. And promptly got distracted… Cas has given birth to Gabriel's child, and Dean's heavily pregnant. Dean's about half-way through the Law Enforcement career, Gabriel's going through Entertainment, and Cas spends his days gardening, sewing and taking care of toddler Chloe. So apologies for the delay.

There are references to gangs in this chapter, but all information is completely fabricated. I don't have experience in an actual gang, and have no knowledge of the gangland territories or names in Los Angeles.

Warnings: Drug references, language, violence.

-WAFD-

Dean arrived home that night earlier than usual. He was still worried about Cas, and it had shown all day. He'd finally been told to go home when he tried to install an alternator backwards. Parking the Impala in the garage, he quickly made his way into the house, only to find that it was empty.

"Cas?" He called, making a hurried search of all the rooms. "Castiel, this isn't funny!"

It took a few minutes before he noticed that Toffee's lead was missing, and he calmed down a little. If he was just taking the dog for a walk, he'd be back soon enough. And while waiting, Dean could make a start on dinner.

It wasn't until Gabriel pulled into the driveway half an hour later that he started to worry again.

"Dean? Castiel?" Gabriel called as he dumped his jacket on the couch. "You here?"

"Hey," Dean glanced over to where Gabriel had thrown his jacket down on the couch, one corner of his mouth quirking up a little. "Looks like Cas took Toffee for a walk."

"Looks like?" Gabriel was quick to pick up on the word choice, and the slight worry that had crept into Dean's voice.

"Neither of them were here when I got home," Dean admitted. "I didn't think… it's been a little while. They don't usually… how long do the walks normally take?"

"Ten minutes when I'm home," Gabriel immediately pulled out his phone. "He's never gone much more than that. Something's gone wrong." He scrolled down to Castiel's listing – 'Little Shit' – and waited while the phone rang.

After a few rings, it went to message bank. Gabriel growled and shoved the phone back in his pocket before starting to pace the kitchen. After a few turns, he faced Dean again.

"Right. You stay here. I'll go to that church, see if Pastor Jim's seen him. Maybe he was feeling some cravings and did the right thing."

"Maybe," Dean didn't sound convinced, but he agreed that it was worth a try. Anything was better than just waiting for Cas to show up.

Gabriel ignored the scepticism – he didn't have time for it right now – and started to leave. He froze, however, when he saw a strange man walking up the driveway with Toffee, and without Cas.

"Uh, hey," the man nodded. "You Dean or Gabriel? Castiel's… in a situation."

-WAFD-

"You're awake. Good."

Castiel grunted and blinked his eyes a few times. He felt… odd. Floaty. Kinda like when he was on some of the really good drugs, but that was bad since he'd promised Gabe and Dean that he was giving them up… He turned to look at the voice and recognised Yuri, the leader of the gang he usually bought his drugs off.

This wasn't good.

Then he realised that he was in a hospital, and the memory of that morning came flooding back.

"I got shot," Cas commented, voice a little raspy. "Why did I get shot?"

"I'll elaborate in a moment. Rusty's gone to fetch your boyfriends, best wait until they're here as well."

"Okay," Cas closed his eyes again. He was tired, and now he recognised what he was on – morphine. A wonderful painkiller, in his opinion.

Yuri, meanwhile, went back to reading his newspaper. He was a strange individual – he cultivated the image of a Russian mobster, and had the accent to match, even though he'd never set foot out of America. He was usually in perfectly tailored suits, and he had plenty of connections which meant that no one wanted to get in his way… if the rumours were to be believed. In actuality, no one knew much about him at all. Which was just how Yuri liked things to be.

"Cas!"

Castiel opened his eyes again, ready to grumble, but was cut off when lips sealed over his. He was about to protest when he recognised the hair getting in his eyes, and saw Dean standing back a little, so instead he kissed Gabriel back, trying to reassure him that he was okay.

"What the hell happened?" That was Dean, who dealt with threats by beating the shit out of them.

"Now that you're all here," Yuri spoke up, "I'll explain. We've been rivals with the Almansor Boys for a while now. Bunch of idiots, but they're well-armed. Haven't wanted to risk civilian casualties by trying to run them off before. However, now that they've opened fire on one of ours…"

"One of yours?" Gabriel stiffened, clearly not impressed. Cas snuck a glance at Dean, who looked similarly unhappy.

"Castiel's been one of our clients for some time now," Yuri commented lightly. "He's never gotten in debt to us, never brought the cops down on us either. Thus, he's ours to protect. And we're well within our rights to retaliate on his behalf."

"Why would they have tried to kill Cas?" Dean spoke up. "What good did it do them?"

"None," Yuri shrugged. "Which is why we're going to be asking questions. Firing on random buyers in someone else's territory… it's not done. It's as good as declaring a turf war." With that, he stood and buttoned his jacket. "If you'll excuse me, I have some executions to oversee."

He left the room then, and Cas hung his head, fiddling with the edge of the blanket. Gabriel and Dean both looked pissed, which never boded well.

To Castiel's surprise, though, they just sighed and moved closer. Dean sat at the foot of the bed, while Gabriel ran his hands down Cas' arms and took his hands.

"Cas?" Gabriel spoke gently. "Look at me. What happened? Why were you with them today?"

"I didn't seek them out, I swear it," Cas looked up, begging Gabriel to believe him with his eyes. "I was just taking Toffee for a walk, something to distract myself. But some of the guys were in the park, and they spoke to me, and I told them I was trying to get clean. I mentioned the AA meetings, and Rusty mentioned Pastor Jim, and then… it's fuzzy. I'm not really sure what happened." He hung his head again, unable to face his lovers. "I swear, I didn't go looking for anything."

"Okay," Gabriel leaned forwards and pressed a kiss to his forehead. "Okay. Where'd you get shot?"

"I… don't know," Cas managed a weak smile. "Only woke up a couple minutes before you walked in. Can't really feel much, they've got me on morphine."

"Let's have a look then," Gabriel let go of his hands and pulled the blankets back. It was only then that Castiel realised that he was completely naked, and wondered where his clothes were. There were several dressings across his abdomen, and both Dean and Gabriel winced. From the look of things, Cas should have been dead, not mildly uncomfortable and on morphine.

Dean looked away, out the window, and gritted his teeth. If he ever got his hands on whoever had tried to take Cas away…

There was gonna be hell to pay.