AN: *eyes the torch-bearing lynch mob, backs away slowly*
*lynch mob inches closer*
*tosses chapter 11 at the mob and runs for her life*
Castiel couldn't remember ever feeling so angry with Dean before, not even that time when he'd tossed the Hunter around in that alley, because Dean wanted to say 'yes' to Michael. If he didn't love the man so much, he'd probably beat him up again. Dean was hurt enough as it was, which was actually the problem. Dean had gone on a hunt with Sam, leaving Bobby to keep an eye on Cas. Gabe had left for Asgard the day before, catching up with his buddy Thor. There was a pack of Skinwalkers making trouble two states over. They'd managed to kill the troublemakers, but not before Dean took a bullet in his back. It wasn't a life-threatening wound, not with an archangel there to heal him, but Gabe wasn't there.
Cas, feeling his pain through their bond, sent a surge of Grace towards Dean's wound. Before it could get halfway there, Dean gripped the Grace, shoved it back through the bond, and blocked up the bond so Cas couldn't try it again. The stubborn assbutt made Sam call Gabriel down to heal him, rather than using Castiel's Grace to do it. That was one of the major points of being bonded to an angel! Cas had told him, that being bonded meant they would protect each other. Just because Cas was pregnant, Dean was treating him like he was made of spun glass! He could handle Dean's mother-hen tendencies, he even thought they were somewhat endearing, but there was a line, and Dean had just crossed it!
He was an angel of the Lord, yet Dean was arrogant enough to refuse Cas his God-given celestial right to protect his bondmate! Dean could have died waiting for Gabriel! Where would that have left them? How would that have helped their Nephil? The stubborn Winchester didn't even think he'd done anything wrong, and obstinately refused to do differently should he find himself in similar circumstances in the future. Well fine! If Dean didn't want to let him be his bondmate, then he wouldn't bother! Cas viciously clamped their bond shut, locking it closed. He was as cut off from Dean's thoughts and emotions now as he had been before they'd bonded.
The bond was still there, it would never go away. It was impossible to break their bond. That didn't mean Cas had to use it though. The angel could feel pressure against the bond, Dean was clearly trying to re-open it from his side. Cas was far too angry to let him though, and coldly reinforced the lock. It hurt him, being cut off from Dean like that. After how close they'd become over the last three months, the separation was like an icy claw ripping at his chest. Cas was hurting himself as much as he was hurting Dean. But that's what humans did when they fought with their loved ones, wasn't it? Maybe Dean would think more carefully the next time he decided to be a bloody hero.
Dean felt like he was in a lake, trapped under a thick sheet of ice. He was drowning, and clawing at the barrier keeping him from his oxygen. His lungs were burning, but he was trapped and helpless. As desperately as he dragged in each breathe, what filled his lungs might as well have been water for all the good it did. The ice was merciless and immovable above him, his fingernails scraped raw and bloody against it. Dean was going to die, painfully slowly, just like this. There was no point in fighting it. He could feel his mind sinking into the biting darkness. His last coherent thought was a desperate plea to God that his death wouldn't hurt his angel's unborn baby.
Sam was in the passenger seat of the Impala when Cas put the bond on lockdown. He watched his big brother swerve to the side of the road, slamming on the brakes. Dean was gripping the steering wheel hard enough to turn his knuckles white, staring straight ahead with panic in his eyes. Sam recognised the look; he knew it meant Dean was inside his own head again. The longer he stayed that way, the faster and shallower his breathing got, until Dean was pale, sweating, and trembling. He was desperately hyperventilating, and shaking his head from side to side in denial of whatever horror he perceived. Nothing Sam tried was helping; Dean was completely oblivious to him.
After a solid seven minutes, Dean passed out from the excess of oxygen. Thankfully that meant his breathing returned to normal, but it still freaked Sam out. What the hell had just happened? Dean never had full-blown panic attacks, which was quite impressive given their line of work. All he really knew was that Dean had been quiet and distracted since Gabriel healed him, which usually meant he was having one of his psychic conversations with Cas. With not a little difficulty, Sam manoeuvred his older brother's limp form into the back seat, and drove them the rest of the way to Bobby's.
Sam roughly shoved the door open, grunting as he shifted Dean's weight on his shoulder. He didn't even flinch when the old wood thudded loudly against the wall. "Castiel, what the hell did you do to Dean?" The angel came in from the kitchen, looking confused and vaguely annoyed. When he caught sight of his Hunter in a fireman's lift over Sam's shoulder, he froze, his eyes widening almost comically, then glazing over as Cas dove inside his mind. The angel panicked for a moment when he opened the bond, only to find no sign of Dean on the other side. After several heart-stopping minutes of frantic searching, he found the Hunter huddling in the innermost depths of his psyche, dazed and confused.
When Cas finally got a reaction from him, Dean's mental voice was a slurred rasp. It sounded as though he'd screamed himself hoarse, until his throat was raw and painful. 'Cas? Is that really you?' The angel was absolutely stunned, and mildly horrified. He had done this to Dean, just by closing their bond for a few hours? Cas felt around Dean's consciousness, trying to understand. It didn't take much effort to figure it out. Wrapped tightly around the unusually dim light of Dean's awareness were memories. They were extremely painful, tormenting memories which the Hunter couldn't seem to shake.
Mary's death, and John's, the year he'd spent with Lisa trying not to think about Sam and Adam being trapped in the Cage with Lucifer and Michael. Bobby's two deaths were among them too, and the months Castiel had lived as Emmanuel, thought to be dead. Everyone who had ever loved Dean, and been taken from him by fate. That was just the outer layer though. Under those were even more insidious thoughts, memories of all the people who Dean had loved, and watched walk away from him. Cas was in a couple of those too. The most prominent one was the angel forcing Dean to leave him behind in Purgatory. Cas shuddered with guilt and shame, he'd never realised just how badly his actions had hurt Dean.
It took some effort, but he nudged the memories aside, and burrowed through them, until he was wrapping his own spark around Dean's. The Hunter's consciousness shuddered and melted against him, reaching out to pull Cas even closer. 'I'm sorry, Cas. I'm so sorry. You can heal me next time. You can do whatever you need to, just please don't lock me out again. Anything but that, please Cas. I'm really sorry.' Cas could feel all of it, Dean's regret over making him so angry, his fear of the bond being locked again, his utter phobia of losing Cas for good. His desperate need for Castiel's love and forgiveness, and even his discomfort and embarrassment from being so needy, washed over the angel in a flurry of waves.
In return, Cas bathed Dean's consciousness in apologies, promises never to lock their bond like that again. He pulled Dean back to the forefront of his mind, and broke away only long enough to urge the Hunter to meet him outside, in the physical world. Dean's eyes flew open, and his body arched up off the couch as he took a deep, gasping breath. It was as though he was surfacing after spending too long underwater. Cas was at his side in an instant, pulling him to his feet and half-dragging him to their room. The angel effortlessly tossed Dean onto the bed, stripping them both with quick, practiced movements until they were both naked.
Dean helped him, hungry for his angel, needing to reaffirm their bond just as much as Cas did. They lost themselves in each other, clutching at their marks possessively as they took turns claiming each other's bodies. Cas took great care to show Dean exactly what the Hunter meant to him. It was rough and animalistic, and absolutely perfect. They chased more orgasms than they could count, flooding their bond with their mutual arousal. Neither of them re-emerged for a solid thirty-six hours, Cas simply summoned food when they needed it. Dean didn't care that it left both of them sore and exhausted. All that mattered to him was the feeling of holding Cas in his arms, and his angel holding him right back.
Their bond gaped wide open, as stretched as their asses, and Dean wouldn't have it any other way. Like the world's softest blanket, Castiel's wings kept them both warm. For the first time, they were joined by Dean's wings. They'd burst from his back with his first orgasm, fluffy and bright silver. He'd been startled at first, but when they'd turned out to be just as sensitive as Castiel's wings were, all he'd had the strength to do was moan his appreciation. Now, their limbs were hopelessly tangled together as they drifted to sleep, Castiel's head on Dean's shoulder, their bodies pressed close from chest to knees.
Gabe decided to throw them all a surprise stag party two nights before their big day. It was considerate of him, really, to give them that twenty-four hour recovery period before they got hitched, so they wouldn't have to stand at the altar looking pale and hung-over. The Winchester brothers were fully aware that the only one of them not about to get hammered was Cas, due to his special circumstances. The rest of them were screwed. Dean just hoped there wouldn't be any strippers, they still scared Cas. There were no strippers, thankfully, but there was almost enough alcohol to float the titanic. Sam eyed the Purple Nurples wearily, but Dean thanked Gabe with a grin and downed four of them in a row.
The archangel kicked their day off with some relaxing horse-riding. The angels enjoyed the company of the horses, and the boys got to pretend they were cowboys and goof around. At Dean's urging, the archangel even snapped them some genuine cowboy outfits. Sam fell off his horse at one point, but Gabe made it up to him while Cas and Dean rode up front. After that was an out-of-season Superbowl game, the best seats in the house, but for once the Winchesters chose not to say anything about their journey through time. Sam knew the most about the sport, having watched many such games in pubs during his time at Stanford.
He explained it to the rest of them, while Dean tried to pretend he wasn't avidly listening. Cas was the only one who understood, that Dean was too embarrassed to admit that John had never taken him to a game, or explained the sport to him before. That might have been why the angel agreed to try a corndog at half-time, with ketchup and mustard no less. To his surprise, he found that they were absolutely delicious. Dean smirked at his reaction, smug and happy, so Cas stole his corndog and ate that too. Dean just snickered. The match was brutal and exciting, with a few fouls and lots of screaming from the referee.
Dean was impressed by the use of tactics, and enjoyed critiquing the tackles. Sam had a favourite team, and exploded out of his seat with half the stadium when they won. With everyone's spirits sky-high after the match, they went on to Clay Pigeon Shooting. Dean kicked everybody else's ass of course, but he had fun teaching Cas how to use different kinds of guns with precision. A sawed-off shotgun would kill anything at close range, but the angel might need slightly more refined skills someday. Sam cleaned up pretty good himself, and Gabe gladly let his Moose teach him the art of shooting. It took a few tries, but when the archangel finally 'nailed a pigeon', nobody was more exuberant than Sam.
The afternoon started to wind down into evening as Gabe whisked them off to a vintage cars expo. The archangel hung back with Sam, who wasn't particularly interested. They whispered in each others' ears, laughed and snorted, lost in each other. Dean was grinning from ear to ear, and positively buzzing with excitement, rushing from car to car and almost crying with happiness. Cas followed after him, amused and not a little jealous. Dean made it up to him by making out with him against the hood of a black Impala '67, their hands resting on each others' marks.
As dusk fell, they headed to Ten-pin Bowling. Gabriel won that one, but Cas came a surprisingly close second. There was good-natured jeering and booing, and a lot more alcohol, and a lot more making out in the otherwise empty establishment. Dean's favourite part of the night was the karaoke; he even got Cas to do a duet with him. The angel had a surprisingly beautiful singing voice, which sadly only made Dean's toneless attempts sound even worse. Cas was too shy to do any solos, so Gabriel did enough of those for the both of them. The archangel was also an excellent singer, and Sam was drunkenly cheering him on like Gabe was his favourite quarterback in the Superbowl.
The next day saw the arrival of the first few guests. Bobby had to greet each of them, confiscate their weapons, and paint henna anti-possession tattoos on the humans, just in case. Garth had been the first to show up, his wife and their young twins in tow. The odd Hunter had already agreed to officiate at the double-wedding, and they'd gone over the guest list with him so he wouldn't get any nasty surprises when the vampires and demons started showing up.
Charlie showed up next, with that fairy from the LARP event on her arm. Right behind those two was Missouri, but she was just stopping by to congratulate the boys. With all of the 'interesting' guests who were on their way, being amongst them all would only give her an epic migraine. Heck, she didn't do too great with crowds on the best of days. She brought with her wedding gifts, three huge baking dishes filled with fantastic-smelling food, hugs, and an abundance of sass.
They'd planned to invite Samandriel, but apparently word had spread quickly in Heaven, and names started flying onto the guest list at an alarming rate. It turns out God had given Balthazar one of those second chances at life he'd been so free with lately. Also, despite how busy she was trying to keep Heaven in some semblance of order, Anna wanted to attend the ceremony in person. Even old Joshua wanted to see how the boys were getting on. The delegation from on high was early as well, and reluctant to give up their angel blades, but they gave them to Bobby. They were much less pleased with the idea of wearing sigil-amulets to suppress their Grace, but Gabriel insisted.
Amy and her son Jacob arrived, and there was a tense moment as Samandriel announced to the household that they weren't human, but Gabriel just quietly said, "Neither are we, Alfie. Play nice with the other guests." Garth looked over Amy suspiciously, but she looked so painfully timid that he decided to trust the Winchesters' judgement of her. Benny arrived without warning, startling Sam when the moose finally realised there was someone behind him. Sam gave him an unimpressed glare, but Benny just walked right past him, over to Dean, and hugged the Hunter in greeting.
"Benny! How've you been? Where've you been holed up lately?" The vampire gave a lazy shrug. "Mostly it's been one long road-trip. Never got to see much of our beautiful country before I died, so I figured I'd do me some adventuring. Elizabeth got married last fall, I watched the ceremony from afar. Did some homework on the guy, and he checks out. He bought the two of them a nice little house just outside New Orleans. Last I heard, they were expecting my first great-great-grandbaby."
Dean gave his old friend a sad look. "I'm sorry about Carencro, Benny. You didn't deserve that." But Benny just chuckled and gave him a pat on his shoulder. "That wasn't your fault Dean, it was Desmond's fault. If it hadn't been Martin it would've been some other hunter, only I probably would've ended up back in Purgatory. The only thing that matters is that Elizabeth is doing okay, and she's never been better. How about you? Seems I've missed a few things since last we spoke." His eyes lingered on the new scar on Dean's face, but the Winchester just grinned and gave Benny the same ambiguous line he'd been giving everyone else. "Pretty strange things can happen to you when you're a Hunter."
Whilst those two were catching up, Krissy arrived with Aiden and Josephine in tow. It was their first summer break since Victor Rogers's death. They made their way over to Jacob, since he was the only other teenager there, although he was a few years younger than them. The Kitsune was a bit tense at first, but in no time at all the four of them were good friends. The four teens helped Bobby set up cots and blow-up mattresses for the overnight guests. Garth's twins, a girl and a boy, took to following them around. The toddlers mimicked them and giggled shyly when anyone caught their eyes.
Linda and Kevin Tran didn't arrive until the next day. Kevin joined the youngsters, and Linda joined Amy Pond. Sam had kept Amy company the day before, but now that the day of the wedding had arrived he was too busy getting everything ready, so poor Amy had been left to stand awkwardly in a corner with the angels taking turns staring at her. Linda spotted the slim stranger instantly, and took pity on the woman. As it turns out, the two single moms had a lot in common, and were soon deep in conversation.
It had been Sam's idea to invite some of the people they'd saved over the years. After what Crowley had done to Tommy Collins, Jenny Klein, and poor Sarah, he thought it might be nice to find out how some of the others were doing. Dean was a bit uncomfortable with the idea, partly because he worried about putting them in any more danger, but eventually he came around. One or two of the people they looked up had died over the years from natural causes. Most of them sent letters to tell the boys how they'd been getting along, but declined the invitation to attend for various reasons. A couple dozen of them sent RSVPs.
Some of them they'd helped mere months ago, like Ellie. Sam killed the hellhound after her to complete his first trial, and she'd been on the run until Crowley's death. With the demon who held her contract dead, it looked like her soul was off the hook. Others, like Andrea and Lucas Barr, the boys hadn't seen in years. They couldn't believe how big Lucas had gotten, he was already in college. Another single mom they'd helped, Susan Thompson, arrived with her daughter Tyler. The white witch Nora Havelock showed up with her son, and Hayley arrived with young Oliver, who no longer suffered from Prometheus' curse.
Many other young women came, Bloody Mary's almost-victim Charlie, The Hookman's target Lori Sorenson, and Emily the pagan god scarecrow's sacrifice. There was Lanie Greenfield, who'd been getting phone calls from a crocotta, Jamie who helped them kill a shapeshifter once, and Sam's friend Lindsey, who he'd protected from other hunters. The fake psychic Melanie Golden came, and the girl Sam had befriended when he was in the psychiatric hospital, Marin.
They weren't all ex-damsels-in-distress though. Matt Pike, the boy who's family had moved into a house on cursed land, was telling Sam all about his recent tenure as a professor of Native American history. Michael, who'd volunteered to be bait for a shtriga once, was all grown up now and studying to be a paediatrician. Mike's first words to Dean and Cas, with a huge grin on his face, had been "So much for 'two queens', huh?"
Evan Hudson showed up, profusely grateful to have his soul saved from the demon-deal he'd made to save his dying wife. Demian and Barnes from the haunted Supernatural Convention were thrilled to pay their respects, cheerfully welcoming Sam and Dean to 'the rainbow club', much to Dean's chagrin. Aaron Bass brought his Golem to the party, which posed a bit of a dilemma. In the end Bobby decided to store the Golem in his panic room for the duration of the ceremony, which Aaron respectfully agreed to. James the witch arrived with Portia, his familiar and lover, on his arm.
Thor showed up fashionably late with the goddess Sif as his plus one, and insisted on some play-wrestling with Gabriel. Bobby came out and chastened the pagan god and the archangel as though they were two schoolboys who'd accidentally tossed a ball through one of his windows. Whilst everyone was distracted by that little spectacle Meg tried to sneak in, only to get stuck in one of Bobby's innumerable hidden devil's traps. Cas found her and freed her before anybody noticed, gave her a big hug, then led her out to the garden. Jodie Miller was the last of the guests to arrive, since she had to take off early from work to attend. She got there just as Bobby was starting to show everyone to their seats.
Gabriel had made Bobby's backyard unrecognisable. It was an Eden of green and white plantlife. Fifty white wooden folding-chairs had been set up in neat rows, separated down the middle by a white cotton runner which Bobby had sewed from cheap bedsheets. The runner lead to a pagoda which Sam and Dean had built together one weekend when they'd gotten bored. They'd gotten the design and instructions off of the internet, but it hadn't collapsed yet, so they were guessing it was sufficiently structurally sound. It had been painted white, and Gabe had made a lovely creeping ivy grow all over it. It sat tucked under a towering Granny Smith apple tree in a supernaturally early full bloom.
Around the base of the pagoda were a number of flowering shrubs in various sizes. There were white camellias, chamomile, chrysanthemums, elderberry, jasmine, Christmas rose, peonies, spiderwort, stephanotis, wild baby's breath, and yarrow. There were even a good few patches of flowering pyxie-moss. The seating arrangements were pretty simple, the civilians on the one side, and everybody else on the other. There was some grumbling from Balthazar about the Prophet of The Lord sitting with monsters, but he shut his mouth after Anna cuffed him over his head.
Just before the wedding started, some unexpected gate-crashers threw a bit of a spanner in the works. The supposedly dead Chuck Hurley showed up with none other than Becky Rosen. There was no time for explanations, but they'd brought gifts, so Bobby didn't throw them out. Hell, by that point he wouldn't have blinked even if Elvis bloody Presley had pitched up. He just seated them with the angels in the last two empty seats, then quickly took his own in the front row so the music could start playing. Gabe had conjured a lovely string quartet, harp included just for shits and giggles.
AN: Stay tuned for the next episode of The Winchester Wedding! ^_^