About a week later, Dean got an early textmessage from Gabriel.

Received at 6.03 am Gabe:
Morning chucklehead,
Convince babybro to hitch a ride with you.
You NEED to pick him up today.
And don't wait in the parkinglot.
Get inside and enjoy the show.
Gabe.

Puzzled, Dean pocketed his phone and went down for breakfast.
As they ate, he broke the subject to Cas.
"Angel... you know what I'd like to do?"
Cas looked up at him and raised his eyebrows.
"Now? We will be late for work, Dean." came the dry reply.

Trying not to smirk, Dean put his sandwich down.
"No. As much as I would like to do that too, I meant I would like to drive you to work."
Cas blanched and dropped his last bit of bread.
"Dean... you know what happened last week. Should we risk it?"
Quirking up on corner of his mouth sarcastically, Dean scoffed.
"Angel, we were housemates before boyfriends. Who knows that changed? I'm sure someone set her straight by now."
Cas bit his lip in doubt.
"Awe, please angel... it's a step in letting go for me. I wanna see if I can go there without breaking out in flop sweat."

At that, Cas gave in.
"But no kissing! Im not sure we should risk that."
Dean sighed and patted Cas' hand.
"Ok. I'll stay full on platonic. Just not yet, ok?" he asked with a teasing quirk of his eyebrows.
Cas shook his dark head and kissed Dean.
Dean cupped the back of that soft hair and kept his angel in place for a bit.

When he pulled back, his fingers skimmed Cas' ear.
"Whoa... you gotta take those out, bud... Marley will go ape..."
Cas reached to his ear and chuckled.
"It's just the skull stud, a plain ring with a bat pendant and that silver fang... she'll be great." He quipped.
Dean chuckled and took up his sandwich again.
"Sure thing, Cas. I can't bail you out, hotstuff. I got a Volvo waiting for me."
Cas grinned as he pulled out the earrings.
"Ooh, hot date! Should I get jealous?"
Throwing his head back, Dean laughed out loud.

Before they got into Baby, Dean fixed Cas' tie.
"I don't know how you get it backwards every time, angel. It's creepy."
Cas deadpanned.
"No it is not. I have a gift. My ties will not succomb to straightness."
Dean doubled over, laughing so hard, his sides ached.
"Oh Cas... ohohoh. You... you're amahahazihing. God, I lohohove you."
Once he recovered, he pecked that smug smile of his lover and got in the car.

Dropping Cas off went without a hitch.
Dean, still under the guise of 'moving on', walked in with him, waved 'hi' to Marley and stopped in the reception area.
"I'll fix the Mark today, Cas. Promise. Just... might be tonight. Not sure what Bobby has lined up."
Cas frowned slightly, caught on and cleared his throat.
"That will be just fine, Dean. Thank you. For dropping me off too. I really appreciate it."
Dean struggled to not pat his butt, or kiss him, but pretenses had to be upheld.
"No problem. See ya tonight, bud!"
Castiël smiled and waved his hand, before walking away.

Marley glared at Dean, but he didn't mind. She was just a friend of Lisa's and she would gossip anyway.
"Hey, Dean-o! Whatcha doing here?"
Dean turned around, smiling widely.
"Hiya Gabriel. Cas' Mark 5 didn't start, so I dropped him off."
Gabriel tilted his head.
"That's nice of you. How you settling in at your new home?" Gabe's eyes were twinkling.
"Ok. Really. Your brother is nice, even if rarely there. Never had an easier housemate. Thanks for letting me know he needed a roommate."
Not a lie there, and Gabe smirked.
"Told ya, bucko. So, how was the band? I know you guys went to see them."

Dean knew it was all a show for Marley, and he milked it.
"Oh they were great! Ash and Roy, and Walt and Viktor were in it! I still know those guys from highschool! I got a little drunk though. Cas had to drive us home. I couldn't see straight."
Gabriel chuckled, the double entendre getting him.
"I bet you couldn't. Been a long time since you drank that much?"
Dean whistled low, winking at Gabe.
"Couple of years, yeah. But I gotta go, pal. Hot date with a Volvo."
Laughing, Gabe waved him off.
"Go... you picking Cassie up too?"
"Yup! Might be after hours until I can get a look at her, so..."
With a wink and a surreptious thumbs up, Gabe turned to leave.
"See ya!"

Dean was still chuckling as he drove to the salvage.
Somehow he wasn't surprised to hear his phone bing.

Received at 8.52 Gabe:
Great job, Dean-o!
Cassie is working, and I'm keeping an eye on him.
Did the Mark really stall, or...
Oh, if you're cooking, get extra's! Me and Sammy are coming over.
That means more pie, numbnuts.
Gabe

Chuckling, he answered, pocketed his phone and started on the Volvo's fanbelt.

That night, his heart thumping like a wardrum, Dean stepped through the doors of Nomed.
He raised a hand in greeting for Marley, then sat down to wait for Cas.
He tapped out two messages, each reading the same line.

'I'm here. Waiting in reception. Dean'

He got two replies, almost instantly.

One from Cas, simply stating a 'Thank you, I will be down shortly.' And one from Gabriel, which was more mysterious.
'K buddy. Hang on to your leather jacket! Excrement is about to hit the circulating air rotation device. Count down from one hundred.'

Silly enough, Dean did start counting backwards.
At fifty, he saw Crowley, a pretentious little guy, dressed slickly and with oily ways, leave his office.
A scowl marred the usually schooled features, and his walk was one of a pissed off man.
"Wanna listen in? I got a line open..." someone whispered in Dean's ear.
Gabriel, of course.
Dean took the offered earpod.

When he put it in, he could hear fingers on a keyboard and a door closing.
Then Lisa's voice, surprised.
"Mr. Crowley. What can I do for you?"
Dean widened his eyes, flashing a look at Gabe, who was gloating.
"Please, don't do anything for me, ms. Braeden. I could catch something." a raspy voice with a British accent drawled.
"Excuse me, sir? What?"
Lisa seemed baffled at the nasty tone.

"I received word, well actually footage, of you. In our office, afterhours. Care to explain?"
Lisa stuttered, then started over.
"I... am not sure what you mean, sir."
An impatient noise and the sound of someone sitting down.
"I'm sure you do. Let me just say one thing, ms. Braeden. This isn't Wallstreet, this is Nomed. We have a little something called 'integrity'. You, on the other hand, don't. We all heard about your boyfriend and how unfair it was of him to take off, whilst you are with child. But if he knows even a tenth of what I know now, he has every right to skedaddle like that. Actually, I applaud him. Good for him to get out before he raises another man's brood."

Dean gaped at his friend, who looked smug and triumphant.
Gabe mouthed at him. 'There's more.'
Dean swallowed hard and listened.
"See, miss, I don't care that you play hopscotch with beds. I really don't. But... you did it with employees of this firm, and worse, clients. I'm not sure Mrs. Devine will appreciate you banging Michael. If we lose the Devines, we lose a major source of income. And the same goes for the Delacroixes, the Campbells and the Miltons. So, long story short my dear, you.. are fired."

Lisa's shriek of "What?!" pierced Dean's eardrums and echoed through the hallways of Nomed. Several heads poked out of office doors to see what was going on.
"You can't do this!" Lisa continued shrieking.
Gabriel plucked the earpod out of Dean's ear and whispered: "Cassie would kill me if I let her burst your drums. Besides... Showtime!"
Up the first landing a door slammed, reopened to show Crowley walking through very swiftly and grabbing Lisa by the wrist.

"You'll see that I can, and will, miss. There is this little clause in every employee's contract. It states that 'any action that will cause the firm damage of income, will have serious repercussions. Depending on the severity of said action this runs from pay cuts to getting layed off.' I think we will all agree that sleeping with clients, married clients, is one of the things that will get your perky little ass fired. So, please leave this establishment in an orderly fashion, or I will have security escort you out."

Lisa's little indignant squawks and cringes were enormously satisfying for Dean, who tried not to smirk.
Finally, she pulled herself free and ran to the elevator.
Crowley turned around and somehow caught sight of Dean.
He smirked, inclined his head and said: "Hello Gabriel, Dean. I hadn't seen you there. I'm sorry you had to see that. Hell, I'm sorry anybody had to see that. But we cannot have such practices in our company. Have a good day anyway."
He turned to leave for his office, when several things happened.

The elevator dinged and Lisa stormed out.
The other elevator dinged too and Cas came out of that, as he just left his office to go home.
Lisa came to a full stop, eyes blazing.
"You did this, didn't you? You did this because I said I would tell everyone you're gay!" she shrieked at him.
Several gasps sounded, and Crowley turned back.
"Ms. Braeden! I would advice you to shut your venemous little trap. In this company, we don't give a rat's ass about sexual preferences. I am gay, mr. Asmodeus used to be ms. Asmodeus, Hannah is Asexual and we. don't. care. The fact that you tried to blackmail Castiël, for whatever reason, is just more proof that you do not fit in with us. Just get your homophobic little ass out of here. Now!"

Gabriel gaped openly at Crowley, then slowly started clapping.
Except for Marley, and a very stunned Dean, everyone who was listening followed suit.
Soon applause was rolling through the hallway for a very flustered Crowley.
Lisa turned to storm out, saw Dean and flushed beetred.
"What are you doing here?" she snapped.
"Picking up my roommate. His car broke down." Dean answered, trying to stay casual.
"Yeah, right! You're all such assholes!" Lisa yelled and stalked past him.