Title: Under the Influence of Djinn
Chapter: Twenty
Summary: AU: The Djinn siblings created a terrible detailed nightmare for Dean out of revenge, nearly killing him, Lisa, and Ben. With Sam alive, Castiel missing, and Campbell cousins in tow, he tries to pull himself back together.
Rating: T
Disclaimer: Supernatural was created by Eric Kripke. No disrespect in intended with this work of fan fiction.

When no new victims showed up, the group headed out in a caravan going west towards Bobby's house. They still had no idea what the witch's motivation had been or exactly how she'd drained her first victim, but Sam made a note to keep checking the area news for awhile longer.

He was glad they weren't wasting time going to tell Bobby about Jo. Bobby would be pissed if they didn't tell him immediately and it'd be good for them all to have a rest. Sam finished his sandwich and threw away the wrapper. They were briefly stopped at a rest stop on an old highway, the sort of rest area most states were tearing down these days.

Jo was leaning against the railing staring at the pretty view. She was by herself at present.

Sam joined her. "Not hungry?"

"Not really. It felt strange, you know? Working a job after having been out even though all I did was search for hex bags."

"Are you okay?"

"I guess."

"It feel anything but strange?"

"I'm not sure yet. I have to think about it a little more." She licked her lips. "It was good to spend time with Dean. I didn't know just how much I've missed you guys until we met up."

Sliding his hands into his jacket pockets, he turned his back on the view, looking at the rest of the group. Dean was watching Castiel and Daphne, who were feeding each other bits of sandwich and chips. Mark and Christian were going over data, and Gwen…. Hard to tell really with her sunglasses on, but she appeared to be watching Castiel and Daphne as well, her usual blue slushie in hand.

"Dean asked what my plans are."

"What are they?" He shivered a little as a gust of wind hit him.

"Hell, Sam, I have no idea." She turned like he was, leaning against the railing. "Should I leave Castiel here with you guys and head out alone? Seriously. Should I go?"

"Don't go, Jo. You should stay. After the year Dean had, you should stay."

She transferred her gaze over to where Dean sat. "Did he love her? Lisa?"

"I don't know. He never said. I knew he thought about her before the apocalypse. I knew he thought her life was perfect and normal. It's why I made him promise to go to her before we took on Lucifer. She was single and I thought he should try to get out. Have a normal life with the girlfriend and her kid, the house, and a job that wasn't likely to get him killed." He sighed. "I don't know if he loved her. I don't think it was love he felt, not the lasting love anyway, but I don't know. Not something we've discussed." Sam turned and leaned sideways against the railing facing her. "It's over between them. She and Ben have new identities and she's gone. She wanted it that way and I agree with her. It was better for both of them."

"I wondered. He didn't seem heartbroken when he told me about them, just…sad."

"He told you?"

Jo nodded. "The other night."

"You talked about a lot, then."

"We went through over a year of events. He told me all about his life out and grieving for you, then the Djinn, and I told him what I remembered about heaven and what Cas and I have been up to. It was a pretty good give and take conversation on both our parts."

Shifting his attention to Daphne, he asked, "Dean ask about Daphne?"

"Of course. Everyone wants to know about Daphne. Dean, Gwen, you." She stepped from the railing. "What's to tell? The girl is who she says she is. I looked her up in every database I could get myself into and she's definitely Daphne Allen. She likes to travel, comes from money, is addicted to pencil puzzles like sudoku, went all goofy over Castiel in about three seconds, and likes to spend her money on people she likes. She's also too perfect, like she was made to be exactly what Castiel needs in a woman right now, changing with his emotional changes. Hard to explain, really, but as perfect as she is and all, she's been trustworthy."

"They look sweet together."

"Sweet?"

Daphne leaned back and shook the single serving chip bag. Her head tilted a little to the right as if she was listening to something, but Castiel wasn't saying anything. He was drinking his soda.

"Sweet," he confirmed. "She's not an angel, is she?" Sam laughed. "Silly question, I guess. Angels don't really do sweet. They're more inclined towards manipulation and threats."

Daphne frowned.

"She could be one if she's jumping in and out of her vessel all the time. Do they do that? Cas didn't think she is. I did a bunch of tests. She doesn't seem to be any of the things we test for. Maybe she's just a weird, naïve woman who's socially awkward?"

A smile curved Daphne's lips and she reached into the chip bag and pulled out a chip, feeding it to Castiel.

"Or maybe she's something we don't know about yet. Rumor is that Lucifer and Raphael both let a lot of things out to play."

"Could be, I guess. I don't know. She hasn't betrayed us, Sam, and Cas trusts her. I told Dean, Castiel has really good gut instincts and I meant it. If he says we can trust her, we can."

They chatted for a bit longer until everyone was ready to go.

Samandriel hated the waiting. He hated having to sit around hoping for news, yet that's exactly what had been happening. He'd been playing the waiting game and it had gotten old.

Rachel couldn't find Dean Winchester. He'd simply disappeared off the radar, but Samandriel would have heard about it if Dean had died. That news would have echoed throughout heaven, especially with Raphael ruling. He still hadn't forgiven Dean for something Dean and Castiel had done. Samandriel wasn't sure what that thing was and hadn't asked mainly because Raphael was annoyed with a lot of people and angels for various reasons. Those two were simply two of many in a very long list.

He paced the corridor, glancing up every now and then to see if Noelle was approaching. She'd been out of contact for awhile, so her sudden message asking to see him made him hopeful that she'd accomplished something. It'd be nice if one thing went the way they needed it to.

She turned the corner and moved in close, her voice at a whisper. "Nia knows where Castiel is. She's willing to arrange a meeting."

"Are you serious?" Joy filled him. The search for Dean Winchester had not gone well, so it was nice to hear that they'd managed to locate Castiel.

"Yes."

"How did she find him?"

"She didn't tell me. She says you need to be in Sioux Falls at Bobby Singer's house in two days. Go to the pasture that is at the north end of his property. She'll meet you there."

"And he'll be with her?"

She drew back, expression unreadable. "Just show up, okay?"

With a glance left and right, Noelle hurried away and Samandriel went back to the waiting game for two more days. Finally, something was going as planned.

Castiel had made a decision and it had been a difficult one. He'd gone to Dean, Sam, and Jo for advice as soon as they'd reached Bobby's house. Looking at his life, where it was going and where he wanted it to go, keeping Daphne with them was not good for her.

He watched Daphne flipping through a magazine on guns and ammunition and felt the tiniest ache in his chest. It wasn't a terrible ache, yet there nonetheless.

Dean had pressed him into a long discussion about her, making sure every angle was gone over and when they'd finished, he'd had the same conversation with variations in content from Sam and Jo. There was a chance that Daphne would get caught by something bad and Castiel didn't want that to happen to her. He wanted her to stay safe and live a long, full life, and that meant breaking up with her. She wasn't a hunter and didn't know how to protect herself, so this action he was going to take was necessary.

No one had tried to talk him out of it. Dean and Sam had merely exchanged a glance and nodded and Jo had given him a hug, urging him to think about his word choices before he blurted it out to Daphne. Good advice, but now that he'd made a decision, he wanted it over. As much as he liked and loved Daphne, he couldn't keep her in danger. It was a difficult thing to accept, but he knew he had to.

"We're getting pizza. You and Daphne coming?"

He looked up. Dean was pulling on his jacket. "I think -"

"Yes," Jo answered for them. "They're coming with. We all need a good meal together."

He'd intended on asking Daphne to take a walk with him and Jo answering for them annoyed him, no matter how well meaning he knew her to be right then.

Daphne shrugged and got up from the couch. "Sure."

Jo drove them to Bobby's favorite pizza place. They were the last to arrive and Castiel ended up sitting between Mark and Sam, while Daphne was down at the other end between Bobby and Christian. Jo, of course, was next to Dean with Gwen. There was no way to make private conversation with Daphne and he wondered if Jo had arranged it that way to make him have time to think about that conversation he needed to have.

When the server came around, he ordered a beer and paused a moment before giving his pizza order. "I'd like a small with extra sauce, mushrooms, pineapple, and," he lifted his chin slightly, "anchovies."

"Make it a medium," Mark closed his own menu. "I'll split it with you. Unless anyone else wants to have some?"

There were shudders from everyone else at the table. Not many people were a fan of anchovies he'd noticed.

When the server had gone, Castiel eyed Mark with interest. "You like anchovies?"

"Who doesn't?"

"Everyone else at this table."

"I never thought of adding pineapple before, though. Should be tasty."

"Gross," came Gwen's commentary from her place on Dean's other side. "I'll try just about anything, but anchovies are disgusting."

He was surprised when she winked at him before turning to reply to something Jo said, but Gwen seemed to be one of those naturally flirtatious women. It didn't mean anything.

The meal was relaxed and when they returned to the house, it was a natural thing to ask Daphne to take a walk with him. He felt better prepared to discuss the matter with her.

"The stars are so pretty out here," she commented, looking up at the sky. "Thousands of them."

"Yes. They're pretty. Um…. Daphne, we need to talk." He took Daphne's hands in his.

"Yes?" She smiled, turning to face him.

He almost chickened out, as Dean would put it, but pushed forward through that urge. "Daphne, this is difficult to say, so bear with me, please. I've been doing a lot of thinking and…I belong here with my friends. I can't justify dragging you around the country as we work. The risk of you getting hurt is too high and I don't want you getting hurt. I would rather you go home and live to live a long life. You deserve a man who -"

Her smile faded. "Are you breaking up with me?"

"I…yes. I am." He waited, wondering if she was going to start crying. He'd been told women sometimes did at this moment.

Sadness slid into her eyes and she pulled her hands free from his, turning her back to him. "I knew it was coming."

"You did? How?"

"Come on, Castiel. Do you really think I didn't know how much you love these people? I knew you'd choose them. You chose them before. Besides, I know I don't quite fit. It's obvious and has been from the first."

He swallowed hard. "I'm sorry. I never meant to hurt you."

Turning back, she cupped his face with her hands. "Don't be. I'm not hurt. They're worthy. I'm not sad that I got to know you and learn about you. I can't regret that." Moving onto tiptoe, she placed a soft kiss at the corner of his mouth. "Keep my number in your phone. Call if you need anything."

Castiel blinked as she walked away. That had gone surprisingly better than he (and Dean, Sam, and Jo) had thought it would. Why did that worry him?

After Castiel and Daphne had left on their walk, Jo had fully expected Daphne to return upset, but the woman had merely asked Jo to drive her back to the motel. She was calm, cool, and collected. Jo drove her, waiting for the moment when Daphne would start crying and it didn't happen.

Daphne opened her suitcase and began to put her toiletries inside it.

"Daphne?" Jo leaned against the dresser, watching her closely. She was the serious Daphne right now, the one that always seemed slightly off to Jo and different from the young woman she usually was. Her second personality, Jo had come to think of it as.

"Yes, Jo?"

"Are you okay?"

"Yes. No." Sighing, she sat on the edge of the bed. "I hadn't expected to become this attached to him."

Jo frowned. This from the woman who'd gone gaga for Cas in seconds upon him feeling better? "You hadn't?"

"No. He's special."

She resisted the urge to say he was 'special ed'.

"Will you make sure she knows that? Gwen, I mean."

"Wait…. You knew Gwen's had her eye on him?"

"Of course. I'm not dumb, Jo, and she's not particularly subtle. It's inevitable. He'll move to her next I think. Our relationship was…sweet, I think Sam called it."

"Sam said that to you?" He'd said it to Jo on the way to Bobby's, but Jo hadn't thought he'd actually say it to Daphne.

She closed the lid of her suitcase, not answering the question. "Sweetness has it's place, but as a man develops, passion becomes necessary. He needs passion now and I can't give him the level of passion he needs."

"Gwen can?"

"What do you think?" Her tone was dry and mildly amused.

Jo thought Gwen was going to snap him up as fast as she could get him interested.

In a quick movement, she zipped the case. "Castiel…. He's unlike any…anyone I've known." Daphne smiled and, for a second, seemed far older than her years. "He's not 'special ed' either, Jo. He's merely unique. One of a kind, especially now."

"He is."

Jo walked with her to the front desk, where Daphne checked out.

Daphne extended the handle on her case. "I need to go. I'm meeting an old friend from home. I'd hoped to introduce all of you, but that can't happen now."

She'd disappeared before Jo realized that Daphne had never asked for her car keys back. Jo left a message for her and drove back to Bobby's house. Daphne would just have to come there and retrieve it.

The time had come. Samandriel slipped from heaven to the meeting place. A woman was waiting, a suitcase beside her.

"You're Samandriel?"

"Yes. You're Nia?" She had a different air about her than the classes of angels he was used to speaking with and he tried to remember anything he knew about her. The facts were few. All he really knew was that she was one of Gabriel's Garrison and looked very different in her vessel than most angels. There was something weird about it and he studied her, trying to figure it out. It was almost as if she wasn't really there inside her vessel, but that couldn't be.

"I'm Nia."

Samandriel craned his neck to look around her. "Where's Castiel? Noelle said you'd found him."

She crossed her arms. "He can't lead your rebellion, Samandriel, not if you want it soon. He's not ready. He's in a constant state of flux."

"And you know that how?"

"I've evaluated him the past two months. I've been closer than anyone and, in all honesty, it's best he remain with Jo Harvelle and the Winchester brothers. He needs to learn what they have to teach and he needs time to heal from everything Raphael did to him."

"I thought you were bringing him back to us. I thought -"

"My concern is Castiel. I'm committed to helping him, but if you're so concerned about your rebellion, then move forward without him."

"How, exactly, do we do that? He's the reason we're doing this. How do I go back and tell all those angels that we have no leader?"

She sighed and tucked her dark hair behind her ears with slender fingers. "They have a leader at present."

He stared at her in question.

"You. You're the one who's rallied them this time, not Castiel. You can progress in this fight for now without him."

"No, we can't. He's essential."

"Why? Why is he so essential? Why can't you all just let him be? Leave him alone. Why not let him go? Can heaven not survive without him? I think it can. I think it should. I think it and all of the angels there should release him from any obligations. Hasn't he done enough? Must you all drain him dry?" She moved close and he felt a crackling of power in the air around them. "Do you not understand that what Raphael attempted to do to him had consequences?"

"She tried to make him human."

"And in the process, she upset some very delicate matters that are slowly being corrected, but Castiel needs time to finish healing and become what he's meant to be."

"Become what he's meant to be? What does that mean?"

"It means he can't lead you, at least not until the process is completed and maybe not even then."

"When will that be," he demanded, feeling the rise of panic inside him. Raphael was tearing heaven apart and this strange angel wanted him to wait?

"A day. A week. A month. A year. I don't know. Raphael screwed it all up with her interference in his development."

"More angels will die."

"Then they die." Her shrug was unconcerned. "What do I care for heaven? I'm not welcome there. None of us in the Garrison are."

With a jolt, he realized she wasn't in her vessel. His first impression had been the right one. She was merely speaking through her, using her as a channel without actually being in her. "How are you doing that? How are you using this woman like this?" He turned his attention first upward to the sky and then around him, trying to figure out where Nia herself actually was. She had to be close.

Her expression turned sad. "It's a very long story. Maybe some day I'll tell you. Goodbye, Samandriel." She turned away.

"Who are you working for," he blurted out.

Nia looked over her shoulder at him. "Excuse me?"

"Who are you working for?"

"Gabriel's Garrison, but you already know that." She walked away across the field.

Just what sort of interest did Gabriel's Garrison have in Castiel that she'd been observing him? Why did they care if heaven left Castiel alone?

Samandriel returned to heaven, more confused than ever.

The angel Nia didn't often dwell on how she'd gotten where she was or why God sometimes called on her to work. She'd once been a Watcher, a class of angels that had been charged with studying humanity and reporting their findings to Michael. It was supposed to have been an observational position, a way to help all of them feel more at ease with the creation of humanity. She'd never had a vessel of her own or the ability to even take a vessel the traditional way.

She, and the others, had abused their position. They'd seen a chance to teach the humans and advance their knowledge, yet doing so had been against their orders. They weren't supposed to have fraternized with them or taught them spells, yet they had. They'd found a way around not being able to take a vessel. The price for disobedience was the loss of access to heaven for her and death for the rest. The only reason she was alive was because she'd been the leader.

Nia was the last of her class of angel.

While unable to take a vessel, she could use some rare individuals as conduits, to see and hear what they saw and heard, and act through them. The reason for punishment in the first place, but as she'd been released from her heavenly obligation a long time ago, Nia had no problem with utilizing that ability.

Daphne was one of those rare individuals, one of few born in centuries. She'd been a good medium and one Nia had been using for several years now. When she'd seen what was happening in the world, she'd allowed herself to be found by the Garrison. In her natural form, none of them could hurt her. The knives that killed her class had long since been destroyed, though there could still be one in the weapons archives somewhere. Michael may have kept one back in case he'd needed it in the future.

The Garrison had needed her expertise to avoid Raphael's agents and she'd come to an agreement with them. They worked together for the good of the Garrison. Besides, she'd liked Gabriel. He'd always been good to her.

But then Daphne had heard the message for both of them to go to Castiel. It hadn't been only Daphne called. God had wanted both of them there.

Castiel. She'd never heard his name until Lucifer had been raised, then fell, and the Garrison had come to her, telling her everything that had happened. She'd learned about the Winchester brothers and how Castiel had shown the angels that they did have a free will after all. They'd painted Castiel a hero who had done more for heaven than any other angel. They'd spoken of him as warmly as they did Gabriel.

Nia had made use of Daphne to get to know Castiel and what she'd found had astonished her.

Castiel hadn't been made human at all.

If she was reading the evidence correctly, Castiel was developing into a new class of angel. Raphael had mucked up the process by paralyzing Castiel's standard issue and slightly upgraded angelic abilities, but not stopped it or hurt it. It'd continue around the paralysis, making him the perfect sort of angel to actually live most of his time on earth. Once the paralysis lifted, and Nia was sure it would, he'd have a handle on the human part of living and would be very much like what she'd been only improved, perfected. He'd be the best angel to educate the rest of them on humanity.

She hoped she was right and hoped that was why she and Daphne had been sent to him. So she'd recognize the changes and be able to testify to them later.

Returning Daphne to her home in Colorado, she met up with the Garrison and relayed what she'd learned.