Dean shivered in his sleep. His brow furrowing as he gripped the sheets tightly. In his dreams he saw flashes of faces that seemed to be people he knew. At first he couldn't see them, and then Dean was in darkness and Bobby was standing ahead of him. The old man's figure flickered slightly like a bad signal on a TV. His face was pasty and his eyes were surrounded by dark and sleepless marks.

"Dean..." Bobby spoke from between his teeth. "You... You did this to me."

Dean reached out to him but Bobby's head suddenly shot back, flames pouring out of his eyes and mouth and as he burned away he wasn't Bobby anymore, it Mary Winchester burning.

She looked at him, a glowing tear rolling down her cheek."Why, Dean?" she whispered. "Why didn't you save me."

Dean swallowed, he felt the weight of the darkness and the guilt crushing him. "I tried."

Suddenly Mary flickered and it was Jo standing in the blaze. Her skin was black and burned, she grinned maniacally. "Tried? You didn't try Dean Winchester. You let it happen." Jo rolled her head back in an inhuman fashion and when her face came back around again it was John Winchester. He shook his head slowly. "I'm disappointed, Dean."

Dean gritted his teeth, his eyes stung and his throat so tight he couldn't breath.

"I told you to take care of Sam and what are you doing? Playing house with some angel." John scoffed. "A man. You're not my son."

"Dad..." Dean started to walk towards him. "I didn't ask for this. I-" The darkness dropped like a thick curtain to reveal a grave yard. Dean frowned, turning around. Sam was standing by a twisted branch covered in thorns with a blooming red rose on the end. He was wearing a white suit and smiling softly at Dean.

"I know you won't say yes to Michael. And I know you won't kill Sam. Whatever you do, you will always end up here." He looked at the rose. Studying the crimson petals as if they were the most beautiful things he'd ever seen. "No matter what choices you make, whatever details you alter, we will always end up..." He turned his attention back to Dean. "Here."

Dean felt a hot tear rolls down his cheek as he remembered that he had seen this before when Zachariah had sent him to the future to see where his path would lead if he continued to reject Michael.

Lucifer smiled. "I win. So I win."

Dean knew he didn't and he found himself smiling. "You're wrong."

The angel gave him a look that made Dean think he knew something he didn't. "See you in five years, Dean."

"Dean!"

He jumped awake, grabbed the wrist of the hand on his shoulder and reached for the knife under his pillow that wasn't there.

"Dean! It's me, it's Cas. You're safe. It's okay!" Cas turned on the bedside light with his free hand. His blue eyes blood shot and wide. He had been sleeping as well as Dean had been. The constant nightmares he had made him shout and move loudly, sometimes even throw things across the room. They were usually dreams about the things he'd done while the Mark of Cain was branded into his arm, but the last dream had been different. The end... it had felt real. Dean broke down. His body rocks with sobs, he let go of Cas and turned away from him. He lay on his side and curled up as he buried his face in the pillow. Cas watched him, his chest hurting at the sight. It must have been a bad one. He half wondered what he'd seen but he wasn't going to ask him. He got onto the bed next to him and lay beside him. He didn't touch him, he just turned off the light and stared at the ceiling as he waited for Dean to calm down. He was used to this by now. Sometimes Dean would sleep through the night, other times he'd wake up screaming or crying. If he woke up, he'd either go back to sleep after a couple of hours, or he'd get up and go to the barn to the side of the house where he was starting to build a car and he'd stay there until he had to go to work and fix other people's cars. At the beginning, Castiel had tried to comfort him but Dean always pushed him away. With his words and sometimes physically. It never hurt and he didn't mean it to, he just wanted to be left alone.

After about twenty minutes, Dean had calmed down enough to turn over. He took slowly and long breaths. Castiel didn't look at him or move, he waited for him to take the first step.

"I think something is wrong with me..." He said quietly.

"You've been through a lot, Dean. If it didn't effect you, you wouldn't be human..." Castiel turned on his side towards him, reaching out and rubbing Dean's thumb gently with his index finger. After a moment, Dean turned his hand and held it out flat, Castiel took it and intertwined their fingers. "Did you see your mother again?"

"And Bobby... and Jo... and Dad... and... Sam." He closed his eyes, sighing heavily as he rubbed his face. "It wasn't Sam, really. It was Lucifer."

Castiel frowned and held his hand slightly tighter. "Lucifer?"

"You remember I told you about when Zach the dick sent me to the future?"

"A future, Dean. A future that's not going to happen while Lucifer is in the pit."

"I know, Cas, I know." Dean muttered.

Castiel stared at him seriously. "You have nothing to be afraid of."

"I'm not scared." He said defiantly and tried to let go of his hand, but he held on unyieldingly. He looked at him. "Cas... what if he got out?"

"He's not going to." When he saw that didn't comfort him, he added. "We'd be there to stop him... together."

Dean smiled slightly, he lifted their hands and placed a kiss on the back of Cas'. "Together."

They lay like that for some time, not saying a word.

"Well... If you're feeling better I'm going to go back to bed." Cas nodded and started to get up.

Dean kept a hold of his hand. "Cas, we've been together for a while now, we live together and my stupid nightmares keep you in here most the night anyway. If... if you wanted to stay you can." He swallowed, feeling his cheeks redden slightly. Cas clearly didn't get what he meant as he just frowned at him. "We can share a bed, Cas."

"Oh." Cas smiled slightly then rather awkwardly lay back down.
The silence was palpable and Dean puffed his cheeks. "Well this is more awkward than I thought it would be."

Dean arrived an hour late to work at Jake's Mechanics. He'd finally fallen asleep again and consequently he slept through his alarm and didn't get up until Castiel did. He'd quickly showered, thrown on some clothes and was now tugging on his jumpsuit as he grabbed a random tool from the side and pretended to have been there the entire time.

"Dean." Jake was suddenly right behind him.

Dean jumped and turned around as he forced a smile. "Hey, boss."

"Can I talk to you in my office?" He folded his arms, his expression was unreadable.

"Yeah... course." Dean's pulse started to rise.

Jake headed towards his office and with a glance around the shop, Dean followed. He hadn't questioned where Dean had been a few months ago when he'd missed a couple of days off work, but he guessed he'd noticed and that meant he'd chosen not to ask. There was something about Jake that both soothed and unnerved Dean. It was like the old man just understood Dean completely, as well as trusted him.
Jake shut the door after him and then asked him to sit. Dean sat, he scratched his right arm absentmindedly.
Jake's office was tiny. There was just enough room for a desk, a filing cabinet and two chairs and even then it was cramped as hell. There was a picture on his desk of a wife and daughter he never spoke of and Dean had never met. From the amount of hair on Jake's head he assumed the photo had been taken some time ago. Jake squeezed around the desk, sucking him some of his impressive waist line and dropping into the seat. Dean figured he might as well start with explaining himself, the grovelling could wait.

"I'm really sorry, Jake. I slept through my alarm and I got here as soon as I could. I promise it won't happen-"

"Dean, you've worked here for about a year now. You're usually here before me. I don't care that you were late, I just care about you."

"Huh?" He raised an eyebrow.

"You look like hell, son." Jake leant on the desk. His warm brown eyes full of concern and from his tone Dean couldn't help but be reminded of Bobby which sent bolts of grief through him like pins and needles.

"Look, I'm not accusing or judging you, but... is it drugs?" Jake looked like the words didn't make sense in his mouth.

Dean couldn't help laughing slightly. Of all the things he'd done in his life, drugs had never been one of them. Well, almost never. There was that one time when he'd snuck into a college party and ended up in a hot boxed room. The rest of the night seemed to be only flashing lights and the drone of bad music with a heavy bass line.

"No, I'm not on drugs..."

"Oh. Well good. It's just your eyes are usually bloodshot and you're kinda thin looking at the moment... then there's the arm thing."

Dean frowned and then looked down at his arms. He was scratching where the Mark of Cain used to be. He folded his arms to stop himself. "I just haven't been sleeping well, lately."

"How's things with Cas?" Jake and he had met when Castiel had picked Dean up from work one day. Dean didn't know what they'd spoken about but when he came over, Jake was laughing hysterically and Cas was looking at Dean like he was worried his boss had gone mad.

"We're fine." Dean smiled slightly.

"Well you have seemed happier since he's been around." Jake leaned back in his chair. He relaxed now he knew his employee was okay, other than having a touch of insomnia. "You got a bath?"

"What?"

"Try having a bath before going to bed. Put on some classical music, have a beer and just soak for a bit."

Dean gave him a dispassionate look. "Classical?"

"Alright, classic rock then. Just give it a go."
Dean sighed and said he would before heading back out and getting to work.

Castiel tapped his fingers on the kitchen table, looking at the phone in front of him. He sipped his coffee slowly, his eyes still locked on the little machine. It suddenly started ringing and he practically threw his hot drink away and grabbed it.

"Sam." He said without looking at the caller ID.

"Uh... yeah. Hello to you too, Cas." Sam laughed slightly. "You called? Like... forty times."

"I'm worried about Dean."

"When are you not?" Sam leaned back in his chair in his apartment. He closed the law book he had been studying from and rubbed his face. "What's he done this time?"

"Nothing bad... he just isn't sleeping." Castiel sounded so upset about it, it made Sam smile slightly. It was nice to hear so much love in the voice of someone who was with his brother. "It's not dissimilar to what happened to Hadraniel..."

Sam frowned slightly and pulled his laptop closer. He balanced the phone on his shoulder and held it there with the side of his face as he typed 'Hadraniel' into Google. "Enlighten me, Cas?"

"Oh. He used to be a warrior leading an army of angels to war against a group of knights of hell... well the battle didn't go very well and he saw a lot of angels die. He was never the same after that." Castiel paused as he drank the rest of the coffee in his cup. "He used to shake a lot, and sometimes he just start screaming and throwing fire around if anyone mentioned war or knights of hell around him."

Sam frowned at 'throwing fire around' and then continued to read the Wikipedia page.

"Well anyway... He was assigned to be a gatekeeper instead. He was fine until a soul kept staring at him and he freaked out again. Michael had to calm him down." Castiel put his mug by the sink and eyed the piles of dirty dishes.

"Sounds like PTSD." Sam muttered, still reading the page.

"What's that?" Cas frowned slightly.

"Post traumatic stress disorder..." Sam trailed off as he realised how much sense that made. He silently cursed Crowley and the mark all over again. "He needs to see someone... a professional."

Castiel nodded slightly. "I agree completely, Sam. But who could he talk to that would actually understand... other than another hunter or Cain?"

Sam sighed again, then looked at the calendar. His bar exam was a week away. He looked back to the books and swore under his breath. "Okay, I'm coming over. I'll be there by tomorrow."
"Good idea. He'll be happy to see you." He hung up and then looked around the empty house as he thought to himself.

Sam ran his fingers through his hair and then got up. He grabbed a bag from his room and collected up some clothes and a the most important law books he had and then hit the road.