Castiel woke up, unaware of what had just happened. He thought he had been knocked out and kidnapped. He felt out of place in the bed. Then he opened his eyes and saw Dean less than three inches from his face.
"YAAAH!" Castiel cried out, startled, flinging his hands about and whacking Dean. All of a sudden, there was this white-hot pain followed by a sickening crack.
Dean, the ever-vigilant hunter, had grabbed the knife from under the pillow and stabbed Castiel's arm with such force that one of the bones had broken.
"Oh, God, Cas, what'd you have to go and do that for?" Dean looked at him in shock, realizing what he had just done to his friend. Dean sprang for the sink and started running cold water. he began rummaging around for the gauze and bandages and also found the brace that Sam had used when he'd broken his arm a few years back.
"Ow," Castiel winced as Dean knotted the last stitch and proceeded to wrap it in gauze. "Thank you, Dean. Really." Dean nodded, however slightly.
"Cas, I'm gonna put this brace on your arm. But first, I need to reset the bone or else the arm will be completely useless."
"It's okay, Dean. I trust you. You won't hurt me."
"I have to." Wishing he didn't, Dean pulled Castiel's arm, letting out a howl of pain. Dean took the chance to put on the brace over the gauze.
"I...I'm sorry I had to put you through this, Dean. You don't need me to burden you. You are worried enough about your brother as it is." Castiel regretted ever considering asking Dean for help.
Dean could read Castiel's face like a book. "Cas, don't you ever," he put a hand on his shoulder, "ever, ever, feel bad about asking me for help." Castiel looked up at Dean and smiled gingerly.
Dean's hand lingered on Castiel's shoulder.
"Come on, Cas, let's get some grub. You need to eat, anyway. I could go for some pie." Dean made for the door. Castiel followed obediently. He had never hungered for anything before, but he did have a strange recollection of a similar feeling. When Jimmy Novak was still alive and aware, Famine's reach had spread, infecting his vessel with hunger so extreme that Castiel could feel it a little bit, through Jimmy. But Jimmy wasn't around anymore. When Castiel woke up in the woods, that sense of hollowness, of emptiness was there. He suddenly realized why.
"Dean, I have to tell you something." Dean's eyes were on the road, but he nodded to indicate Castiel to continue.
"My vessel...Jimmy...He isn't around anymore. When I first woke, I felt a sense of emptiness. I first thought it was my grace, but it was also Jimmy Novak. He used to talk to me, giving me a sort of...conscience, I believe it's called."
"Cas, are you telling me Jimmy left and took your grace with him?"
"No, more like someone or something ripped out my grace, and Jimmy went with it somehow."
At that, Dean pulled into the diner and turned towards him. Just as he did that, he happened to look past him and out the window, to the Gas-N-Sip across the street.
It's the tall man and the two others again.
"Dean?" Castiel inquired politely. Dean's eyes flashed to Castiel and back, but they had gone.
"Nothing, Cas. We'll talk more once we eat."
Once they had ordered lunch (Dean, of course, had a burger, and Castiel chose to order pancakes, eliciting a very strange look from the waitress and a rather amused one from Dean), the two men began to put the pieces together. Castiel finally heard Dean's tale.
"First, Sam was at the library doing research on Carol Anne, this ghost who was haunting a house out in Cuesta Verde, when I was at this joint and this chick comes up to me. So we start talking, right? Then she buys me a drink and ends up dragging me to her place and Sam happens to be there. Naturally, I was like, 'What the hell?' But then she starts talking in this prissy accent and says she needs to borrow Sam for something. I asked what for, and then she gives me this black-eyed stare. Well, then, who else but Crowley shows up and takes Sam off to God knows where and she whammied me against the wall and stabs my leg with a little pigsticker and says 'that was for the rabbit's foot,' and smoked out. That was when I knew Bela had climbed out. But she wasn't human anymore."
Castiel looked at Dean with an expression of mild interest and pity.
"It's not your fault, Dean."
"Lay off the sympathy, Cas, I'm not sorry. She knew what she was getting herself into when she made that deal."
"I meant about Sam."
"Sam. The hell happened to him? When I went back to the car, there was a note in the windshield wiper."
Dean pulled it out of his pocket to show Castiel.
Five miles west of the Omaha city limits. Someone will be able to help you.
"And that was the first house I came to. That house-"
"-You found me in." Castiel finished the sentence for him. He was vaguely aware that Dean's leg was leaning against his own under the table.
"Can I help you with anything?" The waitress was back.
"Some apple pie would be nice, sweetheart." The waitress ignored the blatant flirtation and moved to the next table.
Castiel didn't know what Dean had left out: that Bela had told him she wouldn't have been dead if Dean had let her make off with the rabbit's foot, selling it for goofer dust to keep the hellhounds at bay when they came to collect.
She also warned Dean not to get help from his angel or summon her or Crowley if he wanted to avoid watching Sam learn the juicy flavor of his stomach lining.
He looked up at Castiel, who had begun his second slice of pie. Dean thought to himself, honestly terrified. There were so many questions, and he couldn't begin to know where to look for the answers.