"Cas, angel, I'm sorry," he paused, listening for signs of life on the other side of the door. His angel could be halfway across the world. "Cas, can I come in?"

"No." he could practically hear the angry pout on his angel's face.

"Castiel, I didn't mean to. Please let me inside."

The door opened a crack. Only wide enough for Dean to see Cas glaring at him on the other side, and not allowing it to open any wider.

"Did you really think I was mentally ill?"

His freaky angel-gaze was still steely and wrathful, but hurt was etched into the rest of his features.

"No, Cas, I just thought you were stressed out. Seeing things, y'know? Nothing crazy, it's happened to all of us – Bobby, Sammy, me. I was worried about you. You miss your angel family, Cas. It's okay. I thought that was it, I didn't think there was a literal ghost following you around."

His angel was still staring at him, not moving.

"Are you going to let me in?"

"I haven't determined whether I will allow you or not."

"Will you at least come downstairs for dinner then?"

"I do not require to eat, Dean."

"C'mon Bobby made burgers – your favorite, Cas."

"I'm fine."

Castiel shut the door again. Dean sat down, leaning on its frame.

"Okay. You don't have dinner, neither do I."

"Dean, your species needs food in order to survive."

"What I need is for you to come out and talk to me."

"I don't want to discuss my family with you. I doubt you'd be able to understand."

"Oh really? I wouldn't be able to understand a dysfunctional family? My family - we put a whole new meaning to the word dysfunctional. These are just crap reasons to avoid talking to me about what's bothering you."

Cas was stayed silent on the other side of the door. Dean paused, listening to his angel breathe, trying to calm himself down. He was frustrated at Cas's closed off, defensive shit.

"You know what, Cas? You want to know what I think about all this?"

No answer.

"I think that you know more than you're letting on about this whole Anna thing. Because if you thought it was just a ghost, or something like that you would not be this freaked out all the time. So tell me Cas, why is this messing with you so much? Because the only thing I've seen scare you since you got here is your feathery-ass brothers. What is really going on here?"

Dean punctuated his speech with a bang on the door. There was still no response, Dean softened; he'd been too harsh, he was always to rough with Castiel, he never thought he could hurt Cas, but he could and did, frequently.

"Cas, I'm sorry. This can't just be about me getting a boner. Will you please let me into the room?"

The lock clicked open. Dean stood and turned the knob, slowly opening the door, to be sure Cas actually wanted him to come in. No angry shouts. Dean continued into the room, finding his angel having retreated to the bed.

"Angel, what's wrong?" Castiel's eyes were almost spilling over. Dean tried not to panic; he wasn't good with other people crying. He simply gathered his angel into his arms, burying him in a hug.

"I didn't want to believe it; it's remnants of Anna's grace," Cas whispered into Dean's chest.

"Why is that bad?"

"It means she blames me for her death. When an angel is killed, they're grace is shattered, pieces scattered all over the universe. If an angel is murdered, which is really the only way we could die, sometimes enough grace can connect and attach to whomever they see at fault for their death."

"She may blame you, Cas, but you have to know it isn't your fault. Michael killed her when she was after my family – our family."

"I know." His angel sighed. "It still dredges up unpleasant memories."

Dean dragged Castiel closer to him.

"You should go eat with Bobby and your brother."

"You gonna to come?" Cas felt Dean tug on his sleeve. Could he resist when his hunter asked something so small? Castiel allowed his hunter to pull him into standing.

"If you want."

He watched his hunter study his face before reaching his hands up to him, wiping a thumb under each of the angel's eyes to clear away the remaining tears.

"There. All better." His hunter smiled at him, the creases by his eyes deepening.

"We should turn in early after dinner." Cas wanted to make himself clear that he still wanted Dean after his previous outburst. The angel reached behind his hunter and grabbed his ass. Cas still couldn't get used to being able to touch Dean whenever he wanted. Dean jumped a little before he smirked back at the angel.

Bobby was staring at Dean and Castiel. He was trying not to, but those two were all over each other. He was like a father to that boy, and after knowing him for the better part of his life, he finally saw Dean happy.

Sam acted bothered by it, but Bobby could tell that he was excited for his brother. No doubt he had watched Dean bring plenty of girls back to their motel room, and if he was complaining – telling Bobby even – he knew something was different.

Dean was practically in that angel's lap. Every now and then he would catch Dean look up and smile at Cas when the angel wasn't paying attention to him, only for a moment before returning to his meal.

"Dean, I'm going to go to bed now. Would you like to join me?" Castiel waited expectantly for Dean at the edge of the room.

"Yeah, I'll be up in a minute, go ahead upstairs, I'll be there soon."

Cas looked befuddled but walked out of the room anyways. Sam opened another bottle of beer and went back into the living room, Bobby saw the laptop screen light up.

"The boy is practically married to that thing." He shook his head at Sammy's adoration of the computer.

"Yeah," Dean chuckled softly. He cleared his throat and grew serious. "Speaking of, what do you, uh, think about marriage?"

Bobby nearly choked on his beer. "Taking things a bit fast, don't you think?"

"I don't know, Bobby. I've never really felt this way about anyone before."

"I think everyone with eyes can tell that. Hell, a blind man could see you were in love with angel-boy."

"Do you think I should ask him?"

"You've been after that angel of yours a long while."

"Took me long enough to figure it out."

"Dean?"

"Yeah?"

"Go for it."

"You really don't think I'm moving too quick?"

"Hell yeah, I do. But I've been hunting too long to tell you to put something off that you want to do. We're in a dangerous business, I think you've learnt that well enough. As cheesy as this sounds, follow your heart, boy."

"Thanks Bobby."

"Now get your ass up there. Not everybody finds what you idgits have."