Title: Under the Influence of Djinn
Chapter: Twenty-six
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.

Castiel wasn't about to follow orders this time.

At least, that was the vibe Sam was getting from him.

Jo remained sitting on the floor, looking perfectly happy to be there. He sat beside her and leaned up against the nightstand while Dean and Cas began to go round and round over whether or not Cas needed to join the fight again. They both made some very good points.

"You should at least hear what they plan on doing, whether you're participating or not."

Sam agreed with Dean on that one. It was best to know what they planned in order to get out of their way or find some way to stop them, depending on what that plan was.

"I'm not participating, Dean. I have a life here, not there. I have life skills they don't have. Even Gabriel. I can drive a car."

"And you think they might not need your insight?"

"Dean."

"Don't get me wrong, I'm not advocating you going all gung-ho and being right on the front lines, but those skills you have that they don't may come in handy."

"Not likely," he scoffed. "There aren't any cars in heaven. Nor will sleeping and eating help anyone."

"I'm not talking about cars or the other stuff and you know it."

Sam gently nudged Jo with an elbow. "Not joining in the argument?"

She shook her head. "Nope. He'll talk himself into helping Gabriel when he's done being upset."

Casting a glance at Cas, he asked, "You sure about that?" Castiel didn't seem to amenable to aiding Gabriel with anything.

"I am."

"Why? He seems determined not to help."

Jo turned her head to look at him. "Because he's studied Dean and he understands the importance of doing one's duty, especially to family. Even if he doesn't particularly like his blood family." She used air quotes with her fingers on the word 'blood'. "Then there's us to think of. His adopted family. His duty is to help Gabriel make heaven a good place again for everyone and to keep the earth going for us. That means killing Raphael. He understood his duty before and tried to do it, but without Gabriel, it bit him on the ass. He knows what he has to do, Sam. He'll save everything, or die trying, because it's what Dean would do for his family." She shrugged. "Hell, for the world. It's the job."

"Is it what you'd do, Jo? What you did?"

"My dying wasn't for duty. It wasn't for the cause or the job. It was to help two men who meant a lot to me. Still do mean a lot."

"You mean a lot to us."

"Thanks."

Sometimes he'd wondered what life would have been like if Jo and Ellen hadn't died. He'd gotten some pretty good 'what if' scenarios going in his head, but the two had died and it was a fluke that Jo was alive again at all. He was glad she was. She'd given Dean a lot to think about whether she knew it or not. Sam had seen Dean watching her. He didn't think it was a secret that it was only a matter of time now before the two gave in to their attraction for each other.

Sam lowered his voice. "You mean a lot to Dean."

"He means a lot to me."

"I'm glad he has you."

"Well…." She drew her knees up and wrapped her arms around them. "He doesn't have me yet."

"But he will." There was no other place their interactions could go from here.

Jo rested her chin on her knees. "You sound so sure."

"Shouldn't I be? Is there someone else you've got in mind? Or you think he's got in mind?"

She chuckled. "No. There's no one else."

"What are you two waiting for? You waited before, you pretended you had plenty of time, and look what happened?"

"He tried to do the old 'last night on earth' pickup line on me and I died the next day." Jo flicked her gaze to him. "Are you telling me to 'go get him'? I think he's a little preoccupied arguing with Cas right now."

"Yes." He nodded. "That's exactly what I'm saying. Go get him. Chase him down. Tackle him."

"Why Sam, Dean and I haven't even kissed yet this time and here you're suggesting we do the boink-boink?"

"Do the boink-boink," he repeated. It sounded rather like something Dean would say. "Did you just say that with a straight face?"

Her slight smile widened to a grin. "Would you prefer another term for it? I've got tons. I did grow up in the Roadhouse around lots of hunters with foul mouths and creative ways of saying things when my mother protested those foul mouths because I was there."

"I guess it works. Do the boink-boink already."

"Do you win the pool if we get to it this week?"

"That's beside the point." He shook his head. "Nah, I'm kidding on that. I'd lose. I bet it'd be another month."

"Sam!"

He shrugged. "You two haven't even kissed yet this time." Raising a knee, he rested an arm on it. "All kidding aside, there's taking it slow and there's stupidity. Don't be stupid. Pull him in your room and jump him. Gwen can sleep in Castiel's room. She's there at night anyway."

"Pimp."

He couldn't help but laugh a little at that. He sort of sounded like Dean had years earlier. "I'm serious, Jo. If you want Dean, he's right there."

"Oh, I do want him, but I'll do this my way. Trust me, Sam. I know what I'm doing. It won't be long now."

The argument between Dean and Castiel was growing more heated by the second. Their angry words had covered up the conversation Sam and Jo had had. Right when Sam realized the two were going in circles with it, Castiel began making strange expressions. He'd half frown and shift his eyes left and right, sometimes up at the ceiling.

Dean stopped in the middle of a sentence and asked, "What are you doing?"

"I'm doing nothing."

"Nothing? Dude, you look constipated."

Cas scowled and crossed his arms. "I'm tired of arguing."

"Uh-huh. You're admitting I'm right and you need to talk to Gabriel when he comes back?"

"No. You're not right. Gabriel doesn't need me. He's a big archangel. He can fend for himself and has."

"I'm right and you totally know it."

A pained expression once more crossed Castiel's face.

Dean let out a bark of laughter. "You're trying to zap out of here, aren't you? That power hasn't come back in yet, has it?"

"No."

It was unclear which question he was answering, though Sam suspected it was the latter.

"You're trying and you can't. Good. Now, you have to stand there like a normal person and listen to -"

As Dean talked, Castiel stepped to the door, opened it, twitched a brow, and left, slamming the panel behind him.

"Son of a bitch!" Dean followed him.

Jo laughed. "I think I forgot to mention that he does still leave when he's losing an argument only he walks instead of zaps."

"Old habits are hard to break. All the angels zap out, but he was particularly bad about it. Drove us both nuts." He sighed. "How about we find something big, bad, and messy to hunt and kill? They're both going to be spoiling for a knockdown drag out later."

"Definitely," she agreed, getting up off the floor. "Actually, Christian sent me an article we might want to check out."

When Dean returned later, Sam realized that Jo did indeed know what she was doing in regards to Dean…and she'd begun chasing Dean in earnest. He smiled to himself and mentally wished her luck.

Dean caught up with Castiel by the ice and snack machines.

"I'm done arguing," Castiel told him, digging quarters out of his pocket and feeding them into the soda machine. He selected a root beer and kicked the machine when it didn't immediately fall into the slot. After a second, there was a thunk and he reached down for it.

"Do you think I've wanted to go through some of the crap I've had to go through in my life?" He peered at Castiel. "Answer me."

Cas slid the can into his hoodie pocket and avoided looking at Dean.

"I followed orders from dad that made no sense to me. The man told me I might have to kill my brother, that same brother I grew up protecting. How did that make sense? I've had more bad fights with Sam than I can count. Watched him die. Watched the cage swallow him up. I've gone to hell. You should remember that part. I've done jobs where friends died bloody, painful deaths just helping out. I've lived this life when I've wanted to have some damn rest. I've lived through more shit storms than any man has a right to and I ain't even forty yet. Who knows if I'll make it to forty? So you tell me, Cas…. What part of some of my life do you think I wanted to go through?"

"It's not the same, Dean."

"Don't give me that crap. It's exactly the same. I get wanting out of the politics and everything they've stood for. I get wanting to dropkick your calling into the next state. Sam and I…. We get it. Jo gets it. Gwen, Christian, Mark…man, we all get it. We've all been there in one way or another."

"Being one of them isn't a calling. It's an existence. It's not like all of you and hunting."

"Bullshit. Can you look at me and really think hunting isn't an existence? That it isn't in the littlest part of me?"

"You're making a comparison that doesn't work. An angel is a completely different creature."

"The comparison works. You know why? Because no matter what Gabriel promises or what's been done to you, you'll never be out of it. You're an angel. You can call yourself human and ignore those powers that we both know are coming back, but beneath everything, you're an angel. When you woke up in that motel room, powerless and feeling human in every way, you were still an angel. It's what you are, wings cut off, grown back, full powered, super powered or without powers. You're one of them and this fight Gabriel will have is as much yours as it is his. Probably more yours at this point."

"I don't want this." His voice was low and filled with anguish.

Dean shrugged. "I didn't particularly want all the hopes of heaven on my shoulders, but it happened regardless of what I wanted."

"It sucks."

"Understatement. Don't you want Raphael to pay for what she did?"

Castiel turned his head. With his shoulders hunched and the baggy sweatshirt on, he looked strangely like a scared child standing there. "Of course I do. I want her dead, but I fought her already. I failed. I couldn't do it and it got me tortured and my wings cut off."

"How many times have Sam and I failed? Collectively, we don't have enough fingers and toes to count that. We pick ourselves up and we get back out there. We suck it up and we go through everything we do because, in the end, it's worth it to fight that fight." With a jolt, Dean realized that he truly believed that again. He believed in the good of the job. When had that happened? When had he come to full acceptance of it again? "It's the right thing to do. So you tell me, and you really think about this, is joining Gabriel to kill Raphael and stop the destabilization of all creation the right thing to do? If the answer is yes, then you need to be there and give everything you have even to the point of death to take that bitch down."

Castiel stared at him a long moment. The answer was there in his eyes and Dean understood every bit of heartache and pain wrapped up in it. Yes, it was the right thing. Castiel, however, wasn't ready to acknowledge it. He turned on his heel, went into his room, and slammed the door.

This time, Dean let him go.

He returned to the room and began to look at the papers and articles Jo and Sam had out. In slow degrees, his bad mood faded. They went over each one, weighing the pros and cons of each.

"I think this one is good. It's in Ohio." Jo got up and handed him the sheet of paper, then went behind him so she could lean over his shoulder and point out parts of it. Her cheek was beside his, her breasts pressed to his back, and one arm slightly around him, hand gesturing at the page. "It looks like an interesting one. A prostitute was found dead, body drained of blood and not a mark on her. Then last night, a stripper was found dead. Same thing. No blood, no marks. Intriguing, right?"

His pulse elevated when the scent of her perfume reached him and Dean turned his head to take a discreet sniff. "Where'd you find this one?" Her perfume was delicate and he wondered just where she put that perfume. Wrists and neck, definitely, but did she spritz it on her belly? Her legs?

"Christian sent it," Sam answered, flipping the pages of a tabloid. "He was passing through -"

"He and Mark didn't stop?"

"They split up," Jo told him, drawing back to return to her chair, though she did pull it closer. Beneath the table, her knee rested against his. "Something about Mark following a couple of guys while Christian went on with the project. He didn't have time to stop and check it out, so he sent it to us."

"Good call."

"We checking it out?" Sam closed the tabloid and laid it aside. There was a small smile on his lips.

"Sure. I'm guessing Gabriel won't have any trouble finding us since Naomi didn't. Once Cas cools down we can head out."

Leaving that day wasn't in the cards, however. Less than an hour later, there was a tap on the door. It was Gwen. She slid her hands in her front jeans pockets and asked, "Hey, Jo could you come down to Castiel's room?"

Jo looked up from the laptop screen. "Sure. Why?"

Gwen sighed. "He's got a migraine and…." She shrugged.

"He's in a bad mood."

"Very bad. I got him to take the pills, but he won't lie down. Keeps asking me to get you. He says lights hurt, his stomach is upset, and he was whimpering when I left."

Jo got up. "I'll take care of him."

The migraine apparently lasted into the wee hours of the morning, for Jo didn't return that night. Dean, Sam, and Gwen made the necessary plans and they all left for Ohio after breakfast.

It was that week that Jo Harvelle began to woo Dean Winchester completely.

Traditionally, it was supposed to be the other way around and, when she'd been twenty, she'd preferred to be chased. Now, however, she understood that she'd have to do some of that chasing if she was going to have Dean. It was a give and take situation that would hopefully end in a mutually satisfying relationship.

Enough time had passed that her sense of self respect was okay with wherever they'd end up. There was no way they'd be a one-time thing. Not now. Their interactions now felt very different than the ones they'd had before she'd died.

She looked at her reflection.

She'd had a nice long morning shower. Her hair was curled, makeup on, and clothes had been picked to drive Dean to distraction.

"You need to wear something lower cut," came Castiel's voice from where he lounged on Gwen's bed. He'd shown up at the door when she hadn't gone to breakfast, a takeout container in hand. He'd brought her French toast and bacon from the diner down the street, then watched tv while she'd gotten ready for the day.

"If I look down I can see my bra. I think that's pretty low cut."

"Isn't the goal for him to see your breasts, not merely the bra?"

"Maybe I should have bought one of those Victoria's secret push-up things. What time does the mall open on Sunday? I could run out and get one."

"Why are you even wearing a bra," he asked.

"I don't want to seem too slutty by going without."

He snorted. "I wouldn't worry too much about that. Dean'll like you with or without one, but probably better without."

Jo adjusted the top a little lower. "Are you still mad at him?" Reaching for her favorite perfume, she spritzeded it on her wrists.

"For what?"

Jo looked at him in the mirror. "Cas."

He set aside the trashy tabloid he'd been leafing through. "I don't want to talk about it."

"You haven't talked about it for two days. You've avoided working with him. You went out with Sam instead of Dean, deliberately ignoring Dean's suggestion that you go with us."

"It wasn't a suggestion, it was an order, and I wanted to learn from Sam's techniques. Sam can teach me a lot."

"Bull."

"Are you saying Sam has nothing to teach?"

He could certainly be frustrating when he wanted to. "Don't be dense. You were avoiding Dean."

"I still don't want to talk about it."

"Gabriel will be back soon. The new moon is like a week away."

"Don't push me, Jo. And it's nearly two weeks away." His emotional distress in the situation showed in how he frowned, glanced away, then sighed forcefully and sat up. "Are you not the slightest bit concerned that I could be killed if I join Gabriel? Because none of you seem to care about that. All of you are telling me I have to go fight beside Gabriel."

Turning, she started towards him. "Oh, sweetheart." Jo sat beside him on the bed. "We do care. We're concerned and we do love you. It's just… We can tell you what we think is the right thing to do, but, in the end, it's your decision." She touched his cheek. "Do the right thing, whatever it is."

"That's what Dean said."

"He's sort of wise that way."

"I don't want to, you know." He grasped her hand and lowered it to his chest, holding it there in his. "I want to say to hell with it all and go have a good time with Gwen instead."

"I know. Think about this. If you do that, and Gabriel loses, then you won't be able to have any more good times. None of us will. Heaven will disappear, then maybe hell next, and finally earth. Everything."

"Mark says it's my destiny."

"You talked to Mark?" This was news to her. "When?"

"Before breakfast. He called for Gwen and I may have told him everything. He was very easy to talk to."

"Oh. Well -"

"He says it's like I'm on a train and that train is going to the fight. I can run all I want back and forth on that train, but I'm still going to the fight." His fingers tightened around hers. "He seems rather obsessed with trains."

"I think his point is that you know you have to be there. You can kick and scream all you like, but in the end, you'll be there."

"Mmm. He said he'd call Gwen back." Cas released her hand and glanced down at her chest. "I think you've achieved the right amount of cleavage. You can go seduce Dean now, Jo."

"You sure you're okay? Because I can stay -"

"I'm fine. Gwen and Sam will be back soon and we'll continue searching for which creature is killing people. This hunt is taking longer than I'd thought it would."

"Happens sometimes. It might have even moved on to somewhere else." Getting up, she reached for her jacket and drew it on. "Guess I'll see you in a couple hours."

She and Dean were going to walk the area, checking out the time it had taken the last victim to go from her workplace to her home. Sam maintained it wouldn't take twenty minutes, while Dean thought it would, especially with the victim having worn her work shoes home. Dean had wanted Jo to buy and wear a pair of those ridiculously high heeled shoes as part of their walking test.

He was waiting by the Impala, straightening when she walked up. "What, no seven inch heels?"

"Not this time."

She saw his gaze dip down to her neckline, a mischievous gleam in his eyes. "Let's get walking."

"Let's."

As soon as Jo left, Castiel looked at Moira with a sour frown. "What are you doing here?"

"Isn't it obvious? I came to see how you're progressing."

"I've progressed. There, you can leave." He couldn't help the combative tone. Something about Moira's presence irritated him.

She pushed off from the wall, long red hair swinging across her back as she sauntered across the room, studying it. "Don't be like that, Castiel. Don't be a sullen child. I'm not your enemy."

"I've been hearing that lately. From you. From Naomi. Why shouldn't I be like this? You dashed my hopes."

"I hardly dashed them. Don't be so dramatic. They were shredding long before I showed up." She sat on Jo's bed. "Your acquaintance was right, you know. About the train. Although, his example is more an argument for predestination than simple destiny."

"I realize that."

"Of course you do. You were an angel. You understand various theological arguments. Can you accept it? That you were predestined for this coming fight?"

"No. I refuse. I have a free will, therefore -"

"You can run up and down the train kicking and screaming as many times as you like, yet will still be at that fight when it occurs. You can't escape it, Castiel. It will happen and you will be there."

Swinging his legs over the side of the bed, he sat up, gripping the edge of the mattress with his hands. "I may be there, but my free will determines what I do once I'm there."

She licked her lips and leaned forward towards him. "I wouldn't have it any other way."

If he was supposed to be at that fight, that meant his wings would be functional sometime soon. How did he prepare for that? How did he prepare to lose everything he'd gained these months? "I'm going to lose everything I have here. My emotions, my friendships. Everything."

Moira stretched out a hand, fingertips gently touching his face. "Don't fear, my little caterpillar. You'll be a beautiful butterfly very soon."

"I hate you all," he told her.

"I know and it'll pass. In time."

She faded away as the door opened and Gwen called for him to come join her and Sam in Sam and Dean's motel room.