Dean appeared in Lisa's living room alone, which evoked disparate and simultaneous emotions in Dean. All of which he pushed down fully intending on ignoring them. Dean's knees gave out and he sank exhausted onto the soft couch, which had seen better days even if Lisa did keep it immaculately clean.
He wiped his hand over his face in exasperation and slowly let out the breath he'd unknowingly been holding since he left Castiel. He felt bad of course for leaving like he did, but he needed time to think, time to process what Castiel had told him. Dean turned on the television and started flipping through channels almost without pause.
Castiel sat alone in the motel room contemplating Dean's reaction to the information on Angelic bonds. Castiel isn't sure why he is so disappointed though because it isn't like he wasn't expecting Dean's knee-jerk reaction. Of course as it turns out deep down he secretly hoped that Dean would understand and accept this more gracefully than he had.
Now all he could do was pray that this didn't push Dean further away from him or damage their friendship in any permanent way. Because really this was all Gabriel's fault, if he hadn't taunted Dean like that, flaunted their relationship in front of him so blatantly then none of this… Castiel sighed aloud; he knew he was deceiving himself.
Dean Winchester's been walking around with Castiel's mark on his shoulder ever since he pulled him from perdition and everyone knows it; it's just that everyone now includes Dean.
Dean still hadn't moved when Lisa came into the living room and started asking questions about where he had been and how long he'd been back. Questions that Dean really didn't want to answer.
"So Angel's…?" Lisa eventually asks, her curiosity getting the best of her.
"Uh yeah… What about them?" Dean replies cautiously, eying her out of the corner of his eye as he pretends to watch some infomercial for Ginsu knives.
"What are they like?" She asks.
"Mostly they're Dicks with wings." Dean tells her tersely.
"What?" Lisa cries out, shocked by his response.
"Yeah they're not all haloes and harps, they're soldiers who blindly follow orders and generally have no sense of humour, well except Gabriel, but that's different. And Cas too I guess, but no one really gets his humour." Dean elaborates sharply at first but his words devolve into a mumble as he stares at the coffee table as if it were a hexed object.
Dean is pissed because he had been trying not to think about Angels ever since Cas sent him home, and now he couldn't stop thinking about them. He wipes his hand down over his face and exhales loudly and slowly gets to his feet. He starts to shuffle a little and his eyes dart about the room aimlessly as he searches his brain for the words he knows he needs to say.
"Listen Lisa, this really isn't fair to you and I gotta tell you, I am really appreciative of all the help you have given me these last few months, but I think it's time I moved on." Dean finally says in one hurried sentence as he spoke he took a step back or two until he finally looks up and waits for her response.
"I understand, and I wish you all the best in life Dean Winchester." Lisa replies, her voice even and carefully controlled, after a few seconds of silence. While it isn't exactly what he'd been expecting, really it was the best outcome he could have hoped for. He let out another long breath and they both tried to smile, failing miserably.
And so Dean spent about half an hour gathering all his meagre belongings and untarping his baby. And with her familiar rumble in his ears he pulled out onto Main Street and headed for the highway once again.
Of course with no real destination he simply drove, and when he was tired he pulled into the next motel he saw and got a single room. He repeated the process for weeks just following the road and letting it lead him where it may. After almost a month he finally opened up a newspaper and started actively looking for a case, a destination, a purpose, something.
Castiel knew he needed to give Dean space and so it wasn't until the next week that he realized how big of a mistake he had made the afternoon Gabriel took them to the pie fair. Castiel appeared in Lisa Braeden's living room and knew instantly that Dean was long gone.
He stayed long enough to question Lisa and after getting her biased opinion on Dean's reasons for leaving Castiel flew straight to the top of Mount Everest. With the Enochian carvings on his ribs even he couldn't find Dean Winchester if he didn't want to be found.
With nothing but time Castiel returned to Heaven and started to work on the chaos that he found upon his return. Having been resurrected by their father gave him certain notoriety and most fell inline behind him, some were still loyal to Raphael however and soon Castiel found himself at war with his older brother.
At first Dean stuck with simple salt and burns, nothing too dangerous since he was hunting solo. He relished being back in the game even if he did miss his brother and although he barely let himself think it for more than a few seconds Castiel too. He missed having them along for the ride, Sam's many bitch faces and Castiel's questioning head tilts.
Immediately after leaving the fair, Sam and Gabriel appeared in the same safe house that they had been calling home since they returned topside. Sam at first tried to tell Gabriel that Dean would come around, but after not hearing anything from neither Dean nor Castiel they had to admit that maybe he might not.
It didn't take Sam long to get restless and so he did what he'd been taught to do: hunt. Having Gabriel along made for much smoother hunting trips and the travel time could not be beat, even if he did miss the Impala and his brother.
This went on for several months until finally Dean took the first step and reached out to his formally tight knit family. As he drove onto Bobby's property he felt his heart clench. Dean parked alongside the house and silently made his way to the door across the aging porch, holding open the rusty screen door, he knocked with a steadier hand than he actually felt capable of.
It didn't take Bobby long to answer, and Dean could hear him grumbling loudly as he approached the door, "What Idijt is it now? It's damn near grand central here, what does a guy need to do to get a little peace and quiet these days?" Bobby muttered under his breath right up until he yanked open the door and even though his eye's widened a little upon seeing Dean, he barked out, "Well are ya just gonna stand there all night letting the warm air out or what?" Dean nodded tightly and stepped into the house and continued on into the living room heading straight for the couch.
Bobby lowered himself into the recliner that faced the couch and settled in to wait for Dean to tell him what he was doing in his living room after nearly eight months of no contact after they parted ways in Stull cemetery.
"So Sam's back." Dean finally blurts out, not yet looking at Bobby, as he was still hoping to avoid seeing his reaction.
"Yeah so I gathered when he and Gabriel flew in looking for something or other in the library a few weeks back." Bobby grouses.
"They're hunting together then?" Dean asks, sitting up straighter all of a sudden. Then internally kicking himself for blurting out his question, of course they would be hunting together they were together after all.
"That's what I gather. They don't stop by often, but then that's not all that different from…" Bobby replies and falters as he sees Dean wince slightly at the comment.
"Well I guess things are getting back to normal for everyone then... You mind if I crash here for a bit? I'm between hunts right now." Dean asks after a minute or two of semi uncomfortable silence.
"You know you're always welcome here son." Bobby tells him in an uncharacteristically gentle tone, which Dean studiously ignores, nodding his goodnight, as he grabs his duffle and starts to trudge up the stairs slowly.
"Idjit," Bobby mutters to himself as he listens to Dean climb the stairs. He debates calling Sam to let him know that Dean had shown up, but he figures that it had been months with no word so it was unlikely that one more night would make much of a difference.
Dean slept better than he had since Stull and awoke with the sun, the birds chirping loudly outside the window he left open just a crack over night. He could smell that Bobby had beaten him into the kitchen already and with a languorous stretch of his tightly wound back muscles he promptly threw on some clothes and headed down to the kitchen.
He found Bobby just about to crack eggs into a pan on the stove, "You want one or two egg-in-a-hole's?" Bobby asks the pan, which had begun to sizzle releasing the smell of melting butter to mix with the heady aroma of coffee already heavy in the crisp early morning air.
"Sounds good, I'll take two if you got them." Dean answers as he pours himself a mug of coffee and takes a seat at the kitchen table. Dean flips through the paper while Bobby gives the eggs more attention than they strictly deserve. The minute the plates hit the table the atmosphere changes drastically and Dean feels compelled to fill the silence.
"So, you think they might drop in anytime soon?" Dean asks in a carefully uninterested tone.
"If you want to see him so bad, why don't you call him, ya idjit!" Bobby declares and stares pointedly at the newspaper that Dean had abandoned when Bobby put the food in front of him. Breakfast was a silent affair afterwards, Dean deep in thought and Bobby giving him time to think things through.
It wasn't until the dishes were done and Bobby was already in his study picking up researching where he left off the night before when Dean finally makes up his mind on the matter.
"So you got a number for him, cause I'm not sure the one I've got is still good." Dean mutters from the doorway.
"He's still got the same number, never did get cut off somehow." Bobby tells him without looking up; he couldn't suppress the smile that came once Dean turned back into the kitchen though.
Dean walked back into the kitchen and sat back down and pulled out his cell and scrolled through his contacts. The minute he hit send he was up and pacing the length of the room though. It rang enough times that he was sure it would go to voice mail, but at the last second a familiar voice came though the line.
"Hey, Dean" Sam answers, as if they had spoken just last night, as if no time at all had passed, as if he hadn't jumped into the cage, as if he hadn't been gone for months only to show up on the tricksters arm. Dean almost hung up, but Sam just keeps talking all the while wondering if his brother really did actually call him finally.
"Dean you there? Dean? Hello?" Sam continues, raising his voice progressively, as if that would somehow help the connection even if that were the problem.
Until Dean finally responds, rolling his eyes at Sam's phone manners, "Yeah, Yeah I'm here Sam." Dean says quietly.
"Dean. It's so good to hear your voice man." Sam tells him earnestly, and Dean can just imaging his brothers floppy hair getting in his eyes, and his bright smile that he can hear plain as day in his younger brothers voice.
"You too Sammy, you too... So I hear from Bobby that you guys have been hunting?" Dean starts with the easy stuff, the safe topic of hunting.
"Uh yeah we have been, ever since well... Since I got back I guess." Sam replies cautiously.
"Me too, well I took some time off an just drifted a little trying to get my head on straight there for a bit." Dean says.
"Yah? Well that's great then, Dean, that's really great." Sam answers somewhat stiffly for the first time during the conversation. After a few beats of silence on both ends of the conversation, Dean clears his throat and asks what he intended to ask in the first place.
"So, uh, you need any help on any of the cases you're working on lately?" He stumbles through awkwardly, while rubbing the back of his neck nervously.
"That would be great Dean, yah sure we could definitely use some help. We just discovered a large nest of Vampires down in Georgia, close to Lake Seminole. So you know we could definitely use the backup on that one." Sam says in a relieved rush, stumbling over the words in his excitement.
"Whoa there Sammy, slow down man I could hardly understand a word of that gibberish." Dean teases his little brother with a giant smile on his face, inwardly glad that no one is around to witness it.
"It's Sam, Dean, and are you in or not because people are dying." Sam retorts with forced snark, having Dean call him Sammy meant, in Dean speak, everything was all good between them.
"Yah well it'll take me a day or two to get down there from Bobby's, but hells yeah count me in." Dean replies and with a smile still plastered across his face, he finally stops pacing and sits back down at the kitchen table and for the first time in months his shoulders aren't up around his ears.
"Well we were kinda wanting to deal with it a little sooner than that. I mean we could just come and get you and have you back before you could even drive there yourself Dean." Sam counters, with almost no hope of Dean agreeing, Sam remembers how much Dean disliked Air Angel.
Dean let the comment hang in the air for long enough that Sam couldn't stand it any longer. "Well I guess a day won't make that much difference, I guess. I mean it's not like…" Sam mutters until Dean interrupts, "Shut it Sammy! If Gabe wants to play chauffeur Angel so that we can get there and back without driving all over the country then I guess I can deal with that." Sam's silence spoke volumes.
"Alright then, we'll be there in an hour then and go straight there. We have already done all the research on this one so you'll get off easy this time Dean." Sam replies his excitement leaking through again. "Okay I'll see you guys in a bit then." Dean answers and hangs up.
Dean wastes almost half an hour coming to grips with their conversation until he realizes that he agreed to fly Air Angel with Gabriel willingly. He spends the remaining time distracting himself outside with his baby getting ready for the hunt, groaning and muttering under his breath about trickster Angels the entire time. He pats her on the trunk as he shuts it after strapping the last machete onto his person, "Sorry girl, but your gonna have to sit this one out." He says when Dean's moment with his baby is rudely interrupted by the sound of feathers.
"Hey" Both brothers say simultaneously while looking around awkwardly. Gabriel of course couldn't help himself, "How's it hanging Dean-O?" He says tauntingly, torn between loyalty to his mate and to his brother. "Ignore him," Sam tells his brother as he hip checks his mate while rolling his eye in exasperation. "You ready to go then?" Sam continues on, wanting to focus on the hunt before they had a chance to devolve into threats and name calling.
"I'm as ready as I'll ever be, but I don't suppose you wanna share that research now, Sammy?" Dean asks his teeth clenched in anger at Gabriel whose mere presence annoyed him to no end. "Oh yah sure Dean, here you go," Sam hands Dean a manila folder as he speaks. Dean flips through the documents his brother hands him skim reading and easily picking out the high points. Even after months of civilian life, hunting is like riding a bicycle for Dean Winchester. "Alright lets do this thing." Dean says and hands the folder back to Sam, who waves it in Gabriel's direction and it promptly disappears into thin air.
Unlike Castiel, during their fight to stop the apocalypse, Gabriel doesn't require physical contact to transport Dean along with Sam and himself. They arrive just outside the Vampire's nest and it's a near thing that Dean keeps his mouth shut and doesn't loose his lunch upon landing in the great state of Georgia. Sam unnecessarily holds up his finger to his lips to which Dean rolls his eyes.
The silent hand gestures and signals come back to the brothers easily and with Gabriel's mind reading and bond with Sam the threesome descend upon the Vampire nest with deadly efficiency. It takes them twenty minutes to decimate a nest of thirty Vampires, which was unheard of in pre-apocalypse times.
They reconvene and with a nod from Gabriel that the nest is no more, he also removes the blood and gore from their persons earning an eyebrow raise from Dean at the unexpected gesture. Sam immediately goes to Gabriel's side and slots underneath his wing while he curls his arm around his mate's smaller vessels back underneath his wings. Dean of course can't see Gabriel's wings, but Sam being a vessel bonded to the Archangel can see and interact with them if Gabriel so chooses. Dean blinks at the sight and when he opens his eyes again they are once again stood next to the Impala in Bobby's yard.
"So…" Sam starts to say awkwardly.
"Yeah, so I guess I'll head in and see what Bobby's up to then." Dean answers stiffly still not sure how to bridge the gap between them now that things have changed so drastically.
"Why don't you go on in with him, Sammy? I'll be right behind you." Gabriel jumps in before either brother could dig a deeper hole for themselves. He makes shooing motions towards both brothers and they eventually give in and meander into the house leaving Gabriel in the yard.
"So how are you?" Gabriel asks aloud the moment the door slammed shut.