Chapter 6

Once I rose above the noise and confusion

Just to get a glimpse beyond this illusion

I was soaring ever higher

But I flew too high

The car was halfway back to Gloria's house and chugging along fairly well in the relative cool of the morning before Cas even let himself wonder if he'd said anything to Dean before bolting away and jumping into the car. Probably not, he surmised, quite impressed with himself with how well he'd handled the morning in general.

Ok, so maybe well wasn't quite the right word, all things considered. He let out a breath and forced himself to relax as he slowed down, foot threatening dangerously to tense up over the accelerator. The radio had been flickering on and off since he'd started up the engine without being told to, and fragments of unfamiliar country and rock songs filtered through the otherwise silent air. It wasn't entirely unpleasant, he thought, or at least it wouldn't be on another morning that hadn't began with him waking up from a drunken stupor on another man's couch. Unable to suppress the groan that escaped him at the thought, Cas pulled into the driveway of the house. One of the decent things about it at least was the privacy - right at the top of a rather intimidating sloped street, Gloria's old house stood proud and almost entirely alone but for one or two houses dotted around the streets on the way up. He turned off the engine and leant his head on the warm surface of the steering wheel in front of him. Yep, this was probably the part he should be cursing himself blasphemously and violently for likely alienating the one person who had shown him anything close to kindness since he'd arrived in this stupid place.

His phone buzzed quietly in his pocket, and Cas reached for it, resolving to throw it straight out of the window if Uriel's name was in the Caller ID again.

Oh.

'Hello Gabriel'

'Hellooo little brother' a voice sung back at him cheerfully, much more animated than anyone had a right to be at such an ungodly hour of the day. 'Didn't wake you, did I?'

Ah. So he that was his reason for calling. 'Don't waste your time Gabe, I'm not hungover in the slightest, no thanks to your advice. And I've been up for a few hours.' He could almost hear the pout on the other side of the line.

'Man, you are inhuman, you know that? Did you at least throw up on the town sheriff, or kick the town cat or something? My dastardly plan of having you run out of town and be forced to come and keep your dear brother company in the big city is foiled!' he replied, barely seeming to stop for breath. Cas ran two fingers over the spot between his eyes that always seemed to ache when confronted with Gabriel's energy.

'No, no, and I'm sorry, but absolutely never. You find more than enough of your own company anyway, from what I've heard'

Gabriel tutted back at him. 'Hey hey, sounding more than a bit like dear old Daddy there Cas. AND,' Cas could hear him puffing up with the importance of somebody who just knew that they were right, 'aren't I right in thinking that you found a little of your own company last night anyhow?'

Cas dropped the phone. Scrambling to retrieve it from beneath the steering column, he held it back against his ear as if it might bite, or suddenly transform into a sophisticated tracking device of some sort. 'What? I… Why on earth would you think that Gabe?' The laughter from the other side of the phone did nothing to calm his heartbeat, shockingly.

'Ah baby brother. You don't really think I'm going to send you off on a bender without keeping some sort of tabs on you, do you? Or do you really think that badly of me?

'I… I don't understand. You tracked me somehow? My phone?'

'God no' Gabe snorted with a disgusted tone, and Cas suddenly remembered a few choice details from his brother's saga of leaving home three years earlier. He'd had to deal with much worse than a few irate phone calls from home every now and then.

'No,' he continued, sounding slightly better, 'there's only one decent joint in that town so I got the number and rang just in case you'd gone in there and drank yourself stupid until you passed out on one of the old drunks or something. I rang, gave them your description and was informed that you had just left a few minutes earlier with a certain someone named Dean.' he finished in the same sing-song voice he'd began with, that left Cas wanting to do nothing more than curl up in bed and never look anyone in eye again.

'Isntwhatyouthink' he muttered childishly into the handset.

'I'm sorry WHAT WAS THAT CAS I DIDN'T QUITE GET THAT LAST-'

'It isn't what you think!' Cas hissed back, incredibly glad that Gloria was such an old hermit that her driveway was completely obscured from view of anyone walking up the road. 'He- I got drunk. On my own. He took me with him to sober me up since I haven't changed the address on my licence yet and nobody knew where I lived, then I apparently passed out on his couch and STOP LAUGHING!"

Gabriel coughed desperately in a pitiful attempt to cover up his sniggering. "Just when I think this situation can't get any better" An insistent beeping suddenly came through over the line "Whoops, that's me kid. Gotta go!"

"Don't call me kid!" Cas muttered back half-heartedly, but the line was already dead. He sighed, and glared at the radio which was still flickering in and out of static, snatches of lyrics floating through the silence.

Lay your weary head to rest, don't you cry no more

"… So yeah. I turned around and he was already jumping in his car." Dean paused for breath, listening closely for any sign of answering from Sam on the other end of the line. "You still there Sammy?"

"Yeah man, I just don't know what to say" Sam laughed, "I'm happy for you I guess?"

Dean snorted, shaking his head. "Happy about what, that I managed to freak out the first new person I've actually talked to in about a year? Yeah, awesome."

"No, seriously dude, it's just nice that you made a friend I guess."

"In what world does someone passing out on your couch and having a domestic over the phone the next morning make them your friend? Actually, don't answer that. I don't want to know what you've done to put that idea in your head."

Sam sniggered back. "Look Dean, just let me be happy for you. Oh, and Bobby called, he wants to know if you're going to visit him any time soon. Before I forget as well, I wanted to run the dates by you again for…" Dean zoned out slightly, and leant back against the cool stone wall of the filling station. Maybe it wasn't the worst idea in the world to try and see how badly he'd freaked out the poor guy. Aside from the general passing out and freaky family crap, he didn't seem so bad, just a bit out of his depth.

Oh man. Dean looked up at the clock on the wall next to him. Could he really close up early twice in one week? Sam started talking about his search for summer accommodation, and a fly buzzed lazily past his ear, disturbing the absolute silence of the empty room.

Yes. Yes he absolutely could.

Lots of phone conversations tonight. I really enjoy writing Gabriel, can you tell? Review please if you feel like it :)