Disclaimer: I don't own SPN.
(So sick of Cas running back to the angels all the time when he knows they hate him, so have some BAMF Cas not giving a shit)
Thanks to Shannonisabanana, L. Thestrup, cerridwenjones and suicidalunicorn97 for your reviews :)
'Figures it'd be those freaking dicks,' Dean thinks dazedly from the ground, where he's sprawled a short distance away from Baby. Lifting his spinning head, he makes out the image of a dark-haired man dressed in a smart suit removing Sam from the car – though, much to Dean's smug pride, Sam isn't making it easy for the angel and the celestial dick has to resort to using his mojo to get Sam out. Dean's distracted the next minute by a second angel grabbing him by the shirt and hauling him into an upright position.
"Castiel!" Dick Two calls. "Get out of the car!"
Dick One drags a furiously struggling Sam over. Dean absently wonders why Sam is largely unaffected, whereas he feels like he's going to pass out. Maybe the angels had to 'mojo gas' him more than Sam. Maybe they can tell that Sam's not at full strength and went easy on him. Either way, Dean would absolutely love it if his head would stop spinning for two seconds so that he can at least try to fight back.
He's nearly sick when Dick Two shakes him, making his head spin.
"Castiel!" Dick Two repeats.
'Stay in the car, Cas!' Dean prays. 'Don't let 'em get you!'
To his chagrin, Castiel doesn't listen. He opens the door and slides out of the Impala, his head up high and proud and defiant. Dean wants to smirk at the utter disrespect that Castiel is showing the other angels.
"Esper," Castiel coldly addresses the angel holding Dean. His eyes slide to Dick One. "Ion."
"You can't run, Castiel." Ion's voice is almost sympathetic and if he hadn't been trying to capture and deliver Castiel to be tortured again, Dean might have found him likeable. Well, as likeable as it's possible for a dick angel to be. "Just give the angel tablet up. Surrender and come with us and we'll let the Winchesters go."
Castiel tilts his head.
"Why?" he says. Dean wants to snigger at the look on Ion's face.
"Why? Why should you surrender? I just said that we would spare the Winchesters."
"I know what you said. But why should I believe you? You work for Naomi. At the moment, I am not inclined to trust anybody even remotely associated with her."
The cold fury dripping from Castiel's voice makes Dean shiver and wonder just how much Naomi has fucked with his head, if he's containing so much raw fury and hatred in that dorky little body of his.
"Castiel –"
"I'm only going to say this once. Release Sam and Dean and leave. Or else I won't hesitate to kill you."
Esper snorts loudly.
"'You won't hesitate to kill us'," he repeats mockingly. "Like you didn't hesitate to murder all of our other brothers and sisters in your mad quest for power."
Ion shoots him a look.
"We're trying to help you, Castiel," Ion says almost reasonably. "We want you to be our brother again. We want to forgive you for your sins. We don't want for you to have to keep choosing between us or these humans."
He gives Sam a small shake. Sam scowls and tries to tug away, but Ion's clearly using mojo to hold him in place because he can barely move.
"You mean that you want me to be brainwashed," Castiel says flatly. "You want me to be tortured until I am forced to comply with Naomi's wishes. You want me to be a shell of myself. How can you call yourself my brother and claim to care for me if that is what you desire?"
"Go Cas," Dean mumbles as Ion's face shifts into cool indifference.
"I don't understand, Castiel. I don't understand how you can choose these – these humans over us every single time!"
"Just a hunch, but I'd say it's 'cause we don't torture him and fuck with his head," Dean pipes up. He almost regrets it when Esper's hand moves to his throat and squeezes, making him nearly choke. Almost.
"I won't say it again," Castiel hisses. "Let them go."
"Or what?" Esper challenges. "It's you against us, Castiel. And we have your precious humans."
As if waiting for a cue, Sam slams his elbow back into Ion's gut. While it doesn't hurt the angel, it certainly takes him by surprise and Sam takes advantage of this to wrench himself free and dive out of the way for Castiel, angel blade in one hand and tablet in the other, to bury his blade in Ion's chest. Ion chokes, his eyes glowing bright blue and blood leaking from his mouth, and in the big light show from him croaking, Castiel meets Dean's eyes and tosses his blade over. Dean expertly catches the blade, then turns and rams it through Esper's throat and scrambles back to let his captor burn and die. He's almost disappointed at the lack of a big fight; he's been thirsty for angel blood ever since finding out that Castiel's head has been screwed around with.
Silence falls on them. Dean's once again sprawled on the ground, while Sam is doubled over and panting and Castiel is surveying their surroundings with a look of detached shock.
"Hey, Cas," Dean grins. It's slightly disorienting to watch the angel, who's upside down in Dean's field of view, cross over and crouch over Dean, who just grins wider.
"Hello, Dean," Castiel murmurs. He reaches out, almost as though he's going to touch Dean's face, but at the last minute his hand changes course and he gently pries his blade out of Dean's hand. Dean tries to quash his disappointment.
'This is good,' he reminds himself. If Castiel isn't being overly affectionate then it'll be easier for him to suppress his feelings and keep the angel safe. So why does he feel a pit in his belly at the thought of doing that?
"We should go," Castiel says as he straightens up. "This won't remain unnoticed for long. Naomi will soon send more angels to find me and they won't be so lenient or easily tricked."
"What do we do about them?" Sam gestures to the corpses of Esper and Ion. "We can't just leave them here. If she finds them, she'll know the general location of the bunker."
Castiel looks at the tablet he's holding and then back up at Sam and Dean reluctantly.
"I…can dispose of them," he says slowly. "But taking the tablet will make that more difficult. I would have to make several trips as I wouldn't be able to transport both corpses together…not to mention if I was captured…"
Dean sighs loudly and holds out a hand.
"Hand it over," he says. "I'll hold it 'til you get back."
Castiel narrows his eyes.
"I don't know."
"Dude, you don't trust me?" Dean can't deny that this stings something bad.
"It isn't that I don't trust you. I trust you with my life, Dean. But the tablet…it's telling me that I can't entrust it to anybody else. I have to be the one to protect it."
"And if you get yourself caught 'cause you were too stubborn to trust me and Sam? You really think that hunk of rock'll love you so much then?"
Castiel's mouth twists. A moment later, he grudgingly holds out the tablet and Dean quickly snatches it before the angel can change his mind. Castiel pauses, then blinks several times.
"I will be back momentarily," he says, stooping to grab the bodies of Esper and Ion's vessels. Then he disappears. Sam and Dean only have enough time to exchange raised eyebrows before Castiel's back, looking more like a drowned rat than anything else.
"Uh…" Dean says dumbly. "The hell did you go?"
Castiel's lips twitch and he's suddenly completely dry, though no longer looking windswept like he had been when meeting them outside Ladow's Market. Dean silently mourns the loss of 'Sex Hair Cas'.
"I deposited the bodies at the bottom of the Mariana Trench," Castiel says. "The lowest point on Earth above the crust. I would have liked to take them into space but I had no time."
"You can fly anywhere instantly…and you didn't have time?" Sam says incredulously. Castiel shoots him an annoyed look.
"Flying is not instantaneous. It may seem that way to you but your perception of time is rather limited when compared to an angel's. Now, I can provide you with a full explanation of celestial travel through space and time, or we can get to this bunker and be safe from further attacks."
'When'd he get so snarky?' Dean wonders as they head to Baby. Before he gets in, Dean holds out the tablet to Castiel.
"You want this back?" he says. Castiel reaches out, then shakes his head and withdraws.
"No. The voice telling me to protect it…it's gone. I don't feel that – that distrust towards everybody else anymore. I know that – that you are perfectly capable of protecting it. I don't want anything to do with anything that takes my free will from me – be it Naomi, or the tablet, or anything else. I will hide it when we get to the bunker and then I won't touch it."
The look of exhausted relief on Castiel's face makes Dean want to kiss him. Instead, he clears his throat and opens the back door of the car for Castiel.
"Get in, then," Dean says. "Once we get back to the bunker, we'll find a nice warded box for this thing, then you can shove it down the side of some desk and forget about it."
Castiel actually smiles at that.
"Thank you, Dean. You're always so kind to me."
Dean snorts darkly.
"Always?" he mutters. He wants to launch into a self-loathing speech but then he remembers that there are angels out there looking for Castiel, so he jabs a finger at the car. "Get in before they get here."
Castiel gives him one of those patented 'you're a dumb shit but I like you anyway' looks but complies. Dean resolutely ignores Sam's expression as he slips into the driver's seat and starts the car.
It only takes them five minutes to reach the concrete building that sits above the bunker, though Dean isn't quite sure why it sits there – maybe to make sure that the Men of Letters didn't forget where it was if they ever had a brain fart. He hands Sam the bunker key to unlock the garage – grateful that he doesn't have to keep track of a bunch of keys, because his Winchester luck would definitely kick in at that point – and reverses Baby into the garage once it's open. Sam closes it after them.
"Home, sweet home," Dean says chirpily, hoping that Sam and Cas can't see that most of his cheery demeanour is being put on. "I mean, apart from Baby. Nothing can replace this girl."
He pats the hood fondly. Castiel watches him, a soft look in his eyes.
"I'll go find a warded box," Sam says, tossing the key back to Dean. "You can show Cas around the place. Or talk. Or just do whatever it is you guys do."
Dean doesn't like the smirk on Sam's face. He hands the tablet over with a glare and, with one final smug smile, heads off into the main bunker, leaving Dean and Castiel alone. Dean clears his throat.
"So…welcome to the Batcave," he says brightly, spreading his arms. Castiel doesn't smile but he does come close.
"Thank you for your hospitality. You really are kind, Dean. No matter what self-deprecating thoughts lurk in your mind –"
"Dude, can you not?" Dean interrupts. "I'm not kind. I've used you for years. I kept telling you to trust me, then turned around and didn't do the same with your plan to pop Purgatory, even if it was a shit plan. I didn't give a fuck when you were crazy after healing Sam – I just dumped you with a demon in a mental ward. And I should've figured that something was up with you when you got outta Purgatory. I didn't even think to ask who got you out."
"Dean, stop. You were right not to trust my plan to open Purgatory. It led to the Leviathans being freed, which then led to your year of torment in Purgatory and to me killing Samandriel and almost killing you."
"Not that you wanted to! And I shouldn't've pushed you away like I did. Sure, I could've kept telling you not to do it, but I pretty much turned my back and said 'Fuck you'. After everything you'd done for us."
Dean's got Castiel backed up against Baby now, waving his hands wildly to make his point.
"You don't know that Naomi wouldn't've gotten her claws into you anyway, Cas. And you did the best you could at the time. Does that make it right? No! But your heart was in the right place. So quit blaming yourself!"
Castiel gives him a sad smile.
"I don't know how you can stand to be around me, after everything I've done. I renounced you and Sam and Bobby as my family. I broke the wall in Sam's mind. I caused you a year of anguish in Purgatory by making you search for me."
"You didn't 'make' me do anything. Dammit, Cas, why the hell can't you accept that I freaking care about you?"
"I don't see why you would care, Dean. All I do is break everything."
"So do I! And I do care. So freaking get used to it, buddy."
Castiel looks down.
"You said that you love me, Dean. In the crypt. Your words…they broke through Naomi's brainwashing."
He looks back up, scorching blue eyes meeting Dean's green ones.
"Dean. You have to know that I l –"
"No!" Dean stumbles back, holding up a hand. Castiel falls silent. "Cas, you can't – I can't – I'm not doing this!"
He turns and flees the garage, wishing that he didn't have to see the hurt in Castiel's eyes. It's better this way. They've been through too much crap to function healthily. Dean would rather keep Castiel at arm's length for the rest of his life if it means not risking this close friendship between them.
"What?"
This is probably the most pissed Dean has seen Castiel in a long time. Though to be fair, he'd likely have reacted the same way if he'd been told what he and Sam had just told Castiel.
"Dude, it's the safest place on Earth," he says. "You said yourself that Naomi's still gonna be looking for you. The minute you leave, she's gonna sic her attack angels on you."
"So you expect me to stay here, locked up like a caged bird?"
"You're not a caged bird –"
"I cannot leave. Therefore, I am caged. A large, cosy, protected cage – but still a cage."
"That's not it at all, Cas," Sam interjects, clearly trying to use his amazing, girly powers of reasoning. "We just don't want you to go through that torture again."
"And you think I do?" Castiel says stonily. Though he understands where Castiel is coming from, Dean can't help but feel irritated that the angel's behaving like a whiny little bitch about it.
"We all gotta do shit we don't wanna do, Cas," he barks. "Look, I get it. I wouldn't wanna be locked up either. But until this whole Naomi shit blows over, this is the safest place for you."
"You're our best friend, Cas," Sam says. "We don't wanna lose you to those dicks again."
Castiel glowers down at his untouched plate of steak, vegetables and potatoes. A sliver of resentment bubbles in Dean's stomach. He knows the angel doesn't have to eat but the asshole could at least pretend to indulge his efforts in the kitchen!
"Fine," Castiel mutters. "If I'm to be a prisoner here then I think I'll go and translate some books. I may as well make myself useful. One cell is as good as another, I suppose."
Instead of standing up and walking away like a normal person, Castiel flaps off. Dean hears him somewhere in the bunker a moment later – in the main room slash library, if his volume and direction are any indication. Dean attempts to not scowl at his plate, but it's a close call.
"What's up with Cas?" Sam says, perplexed. "He was sorta fine when we got here. Then you stormed out of the garage and he came out looking all poker-faced."
"Nothing," Dean mutters. "Nothing at all."