Dean trashed in his bed and buried his face in his pillow.

He really didn't want to go to work today, not after he was busted eavesdropping on Castiel's conversation with his brother. A conversation about him.

God, how could he have been so stupid! Castiel wasn't supposed to see him.

This was only going to make things even more awkward at work.

"Dean?" Sam called from the other side of the door. "Dean?" When he got no reply, he entered his brother's bedroom and found him on the bed; face buried in his pillow.

"What is it, Sammy?" Dean groaned and turned his head sideways to look at him.

"Dean, what are you doing? You're supposed to go to work soon." Sam crossed his arms at his chest and glared at him.

"I don't think that's such a good idea…"

"Why not? Are you sick?" Sam asked, his expression becoming worrying.

"Not exactly."

"What happened?"

Dean sighed. "I might kind of have overheard a conversation between Cas and his brother last night… About me."

"You what? Dean, you don't listen to other people's private conversations!" Sam exclaimed.

"I know that," Dean snapped. "It just… It just happened."

"Let me guess… Cas found out you were listening in."

Dean groaned and buried his face in his pillow again. That was enough answer for Sam.

"Dean, you have to face him. You can't hide in here all day, or for the rest of the week for that matter," Sam said.

"God, I know that, Sammy! Just… I don't think I can face him," Dean mumbled.

"Well, you have to. Now get up," Sam said and took the blanket off of Dean who protested heavily.

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When Dean arrived at work, he was already 10 minutes late. He quickly entered his office, only to see that Castiel was already there, working through some files.

"Um, hi," Dean said, awkwardly, and moved over to his desk.

Castiel didn't answer, and Dean could feel that the angel was more tensed than usual. He glared at Dean out of the corner of his eye as he sat down.

Dean noticed some new papers on his desk which weren't there the night before.

"What's this?"

"Mr. Caine asked us to sort some of these papers for him," Castiel replied blankly, and didn't look at Dean as he was sorting his own pile of papers.

"Okay, cool," Dean said with disinterest and began to sort the different papers.

There was silence between them, and Dean did not like it once bit. After a few minutes he put the papers aside and turned to the angel.

"Look, I know I was rude last night, listening in on something I shouldn't have, but can you just stop ignoring me? We gotta talk this through, man," Dean finally said.

Now it was the angel's turn to turn and glare at Dean. "No, you shouldn't have listened in, and there is nothing to talk about," he bit out.

"Damnit, Cas, yes there is!"

Castiel frowned at the nickname. "Why do you call me that?"

"What? 'Cas'? It's a nickname. You know, when…" Dean trailed off. "Never mind, that's not the point. The point is that you have a lot of explaining to do."

"I don't have to explain myself to you," Castiel answered, coldly.

Dean sighed and ran a hand through his short hair. "Look, I get it; you don't like humans, you even fear us," – Castiel flinched at the statement – "but not all of us are bad, you said so yourself last night. So stop treating me like I'm a cockroach or something – I'm just trying to get along with you here."

Castiel bit his lip and looked away. It seemed to be a habit of his.

"I don't…" He trailed off.

"Cas—"

"Don't," the angel interrupted, and Dean stopped himself and looked at him. "It is better if we do not get too close," Castiel mumbled.

"What? Why would that be—"

Dean was interrupted when their superior entered the office in a hurry.

"Dean, Castiel," he said, looking between them. "You guys have been put on an emergency case; something has attacked the east part of the city and injured dozens of people. I want you two to go there and locate the son of a bitch."

"Yes, sir, but what exactly are we hunting?" Dean asked.

"No idea, but it's powerful," their boss said. "Now get moving!"

As soon as he left, Dean and Castiel hurried outside to Dean's car. Castiel hesitated and stared at the black car.

"Dude, what are you waiting for?" Dean asked, tripping impatiently at the driver's door of his Impala.

"I can't…" Castiel muttered, and Dean got the hint.

The wings were in the way.

"Oh, right. Didn't you make your wings like… intangible last night when you took off your coats? Can't you do the same now? We're kind of in a hurry."

Castiel hesitated for a moment before he got into the car, and Dean started driving towards the east part of town.

"Can you please hurry? I can't keep them like this for very long," Castiel said; his whole body tense as he fought to keep his wings in this mode. The wings behind him were going through the seat like they were not even there, and Dean could see that it was difficult for Cas to keep up this magic.

"You just have to hold on for a few more minutes," Dean said, feeling a little sorry for the guy.

It took them another twelve minutes to reach the place where the creature was last spotted. It was in an abandoned warehouse in the outskirts of the town. Dean noticed there were three police cars but no sign of the officers. That didn't seem good.

As soon as they got out of the car, Dean went over to the passenger side, where Castiel was standing outside the car with his hands resting on his knees and panting. His wings were hanging loosely to his sides; feathers touching the dirty ground but the angel didn't seem to care.

"You okay?"

"Yes, give me a few seconds," Castiel groaned.

"Dude, we don't have many seconds – that thing is in there," Dean said, pointing towards the warehouse which looked old and unused. "Can you tell what that thing is?"

Castiel looked over at the place and seemed to concentrate.

"No. It is blocking me out."

Dean mumbled a curse under his breath and went to open the trunk of his car to retrieve weapons. He had no idea what they were fighting so he simply took a gun with silver bullets and some holy water, just in case. When he closed the trunk, Castiel already seemed to have regained his energy again, and they went towards the warehouse without a word.

They were as quiet as possible as they approached the entrance. Dean had his gun ready in case the thing showed up. When they looked inside, Dean noticed that the warehouse wasn't as empty as he had expected – it was filled with shelves with all kinds of crap, but the front was more or less clear.

They went inside, quietly, with Castiel closely behind Dean. The angel wasn't able to sense anything in the warehouse, apart from a presence. But he could not identify what it was; it wouldn't let him.

When they moved in further, Dean caught the sound of something. He motioned for Cas to be quiet and they both listened. Someone was moaning.

Dean moved in the direction of the sound, before he discovered a man in the corner of the warehouse, hidden behind boxes and various equipment. The man was badly injured.

"Hey, you okay, buddy?" Dean asked, and kneeled in front of the man. He saw immediately that the man was a cop, and he was bleeding badly from a wound in his side.

The man groaned in pain. "No. You have to get out of here… that thing is… way too strong."

Castiel approached them and stood behind Dean.

"Can't you heal him?" Dean asked and looked up at his partner.

Castiel looked very reluctant. "Healing costs a lot of energy," he said, staring at the man's wounds. "I don't think I can do this if we have to fight the creature."

"Damnit," Dean cursed.

"Just get out of here," the man said; grabbing Dean's shoulder tightly and his eyes boring into Dean's.

"Did you see that the thing was?" Dean asked.

"It was—"

A loud noise, as several shelves were suddenly knocked over, startled them all and they turned to see what was going on. That was when a figure walked out from between the fallen shelves; the noise from the falling contents on them still echoing through the room, as the figure approached them.

Four huge, white wings spread from the blonde-haired creature's back. His eyes were now boring right into theirs, and Dean noticed how Castiel flinched back at the sight of the creature.

"Holy…" Dean muttered.

This was an archangel.

The archangel snarled and moved fast forward in an attack. Dean didn't even register as Castiel darted forward and met the archangel half-way. The sound of the impact echoed through the warehouse, and the two angels hissed and fought each other.

Dean managed to get the injured cop to stand and led him out of the warehouse. He looked back to see that Castiel was losing the fight; the archangel slammed him into the wall before he even got close enough to injure him.

The archangel pinned Castiel against the wall, while Dean went outside with the injured man. Castiel struggled, but the other angel's grip around his neck was cutting off most of his air. He gasped and tried to get free but to no avail.

"Cas!" Dean shouted when he finally came back and saw him pinned down. The archangel simply waved a hand at him that made him fly across the room. Then he turned his attention back to other angel.

"Tsk, tsk. An angel working with a human? That is rather disgusting," the archangel sneered, and tightened his grip on Castiel's neck. He leaned in closer and sniffed him, assessing him. "You've been tainted by humans. I can smell it on you. In you."

Castiel whimpered. He could only stare back at the stronger angel in fear, as the angel's eyes suddenly fell to Castiel's trembling, white wings which were pressed against the wall.

"Such a pretty angel, too," the archangel murmured. He stroked his free hand along the lesser angel's feathers.

Castiel kicked and hissed at the violation and tried to get away, but the archangel simply grinned at him. Then the archangel grabbed onto the right wing, harshly, making Castiel cry out in pain. He smiled smugly when the lesser angel cried out.

"No, don't!" Castiel screamed, realizing his intentions.

With a loud crack the bone in his right wing broke and Castiel screamed out in pain; bucking and kicking and trying to get away, which only made the archangel laugh and tighten his hand around the broken wing, injuring it further.

When Dean finally managed to get on his feet again, Castiel was screaming and trashing against the wall, and he saw blood oozing from the broken wing. "Damnit," he cursed and ran towards the archangel.

The archangel was too busy staring in satisfaction at the injured angel before him, that he didn't even notice when Dean appeared behind him and plunged an angel-killing sword right through his chest (which he had just gotten from the trunk of his car). The archangel froze and screamed; staring back over his shoulder in shock as white light shined from the wound, and Dean was cast backwards when the angel seemed to explode from the inside.

When Dean came to a few seconds later, the archangel was dead and Cas was screaming out in pain where he now lay on the ground. He rushed over to the angel.

"Cas! Cas, can you hear me?" Dean asked; kneeling by the angel's side, but Castiel was thrashing so much he couldn't get very close.

"Urgh, it hurts! It hurts, it fucking hurts!" Castiel screamed and thrashed, and wouldn't let Dean anywhere near his damaged wing.

"Okay, it's okay, I called for back-up, they're coming soon, and then we'll get you out of here," Dean said, trying to calm the angel down. He was totally different from the way Dean knew him, and he could only imagine how much he hurt.

He looked at wing. It looked bad. It seemed to be broken in several places, and the feathers were turning red from the blood that came from the wound. He could even see some of the bone sticking out from the wing.

Dean winced. He tried to reach out to stop the bleeding in the wing, but Castiel slapped his hand away quickly.

"No! Don't touch me, please!" Castiel begged. Tears were falling from his eyes and his cheeks were soaked.

Dean was about to protest but when he looked at him, he hesitated. He had never seen such fear or emotion in the angel's eyes before, and it kind of scared him. He was begging Dean not to touch him even though he was bleeding so badly.

It didn't take long before the back-up arrived with an ambulance. The paramedics had a lot of trouble getting Castiel into the ambulance, as the angel screamed and lashed out at anyone daring to touch him. They had to drug a little to calm him down and to be able to get him in; carefully avoiding the wings after Dean yelled at them not to touch them.

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When they arrived at the hospital, Castiel was once again putting up a big fight as the doctors tried to treat his injuries. He was thrashing on the table and wouldn't let anyone near him.

"Let go of me!" Castiel cried, trying to hit one of the doctors with his good wing – a blow that could have broken the doctor's bones easily. "Don't touch me! Go away!" he yelled. He hissed aggressively at the next doctor trying to approach him, and eventually the doctors stepped back.

One of the doctors came out to Dean, who was watching from behind the door. The doctor sighed before saying, "He won't let us anywhere near him. We'd drug him again, but we're not sure of the dose required to keep him calm enough so we can operate – we don't deal with angels often here at this hospital."

"Well, he can't keep bleeding forever," Dean said; frustrated. He looked into the room where Cas was still crying and fighting all people off. "Let me in, I'll calm him down," he finally said.

The doctor nodded and led him into the room.

Dean took in the scene: blood and feathers were everywhere, and the restraints used to tie the angel down were almost broken by now. He went over to Castiel and tried to calm him down.

"Cas! Calm down, they're just trying to help," Dean said, approaching his partner slowly. "They have to treat your wounds, Cas…"

Castiel groaned; his back arching from the pain in his wing and he whimpered. He seemed to calm down a little when he saw Dean was there.

"Please… don't let them touch me," Castiel said, almost too quiet to hear, but Dean heard him.

"I know you're not too comfortable with it, but I guarantee you it's only to help. So for God's sakes, Cas, please… let them."

The angel stared up into Dean's eyes; his teary blue eyes searching the green for a moment. Then he looked away and bit his bottom lip, and his eyes closed in surrender.

"Fine," he finally said. Dean sighed in relief. "But then you do it," Castiel added, not meeting Dean's eyes.

Dean looked up in surprise and shock. "What?"

Dean had never actually done surgery before – only stitching up smaller injuries a few times, that was it. Castiel's wing was severely damaged, much more than Dean was used to handling. But it was the only way to operate him without having to take the risk of drugging him, so he gave in.

The doctors guided him through it, but Dean was still nervous.

When he first put his hand on Castiel's wing to steady it, the angel flinched violently before forcing himself to relax under Dean's touch.

Dean took a moment to feel the softness of the feathers under his hand. It was the softest thing he had ever touched. Seeing this wing so broken and damaged stirred something inside Dean he hadn't felt before.

No one should ever damage wings like these.

Castiel was biting his lip during the whole operation. He whimpered and jerked every now and then, and sometimes cried out, but Dean was amazed by how he handled it. It took over an hour to treat the wound and patch it up as well as possible. He felt relieved when it was finally over and everything had gone well.

Castiel refused to meet his eyes after that. He was sent to a room where he would rest for the night before being able to go home the next day. But it would take a week before the wing was healed, the doctors said. Damage done to the wings was long to heal. It was the only body part angels couldn't heal immediately, but still healing faster than a human would.

Dean couldn't shake the feeling off that something had caused Castiel to act the way he had. He had seen other angels being treated by humans before, and the reaction was never that strong. Plus, there was the thing with the odd scar on the left wing that should have healed…

He shouldn't do this, but Dean eventually snatched Castiel's medical files when the doctors weren't around.

He just had to know.

The file contained everything about Castiel's medical history from all hospitals in the States. Dean opened it and sat down on a bench outside the angel's room.

When he first opened it, he noticed that it said: "Angel: Castiel – former property of Bradley Hammond."

Dean frowned. 'Property'?

He turned the page where the list of Castiel's medical history was.

"Marks and bruising, severe burns, flesh wounds, deep cuts, dislocation of both wings, broken bones, infections, severe damage to the muscle tissue on the left wing, repeated sexual abuse and rape…"

Dean stopped reading after that. He was too shocked to keep reading.

The angel's reactions and fear towards humans finally made sense. Dean almost dropped the files when the realization came to him.

Castiel had been a slave.

To be continued…

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Yes, the bond-haired angel is supposed to be Lucifer, if anyone was wondering XD This chapter should answer some of your questions about why Cas is so afraid of humans. A bit more will be revealed later.

Thanks for all your reviews so far, they are very motivating. I hope you enjoyed this chapter, and please review :) Thanks for reading!