Chapter 5

Castiel stared at the empty Devil's Trap, mind whirling with the cryptic information that Crowley had dumped on him, and that meant that it had also been dumped on to Sam and Dean. He genuinely had no clue as to what Crowley had meant by looking into Jimmy's past - he was devout and was willing to let Castiel use him as a vessel, so why did he need to care? The memory of him entering Jimmy was still painful, as a celestial being the size of the Chrysler building being condensed to a human sized celestial being hurt, his grace being manipulated to accommodate a smaller vessel. The memory caused him to shudder and swallow involuntarily, hand rubbing where Metatron had cut his grace from him.

"Cas?" He registered the voice as Dean's, but made no move to acknowledge him. He was still trying to figure out what Crowley had meant.

"Cas." This time he blinked, looking away from the chalk line, and he shook his head to try and clear his thoughts. As it didn't work, he found himself missing the voices of other angels in his head.

"Hmmm?" He finally looked at Dean, who was staring at Castiel intently. Castiel could almost see the brain processing information behind his eyes, false trying to figure out what Crowley had meant about Jimmy. He had seemed a nice enough guy the one time they had met, and Dean had almost felt jealous of him that he had a more stable family than he had. There was also understanding at how family oriented he was as Dean would do anything for Sammy as Jimmy would have done for Claire and Amy.

"Hey, you okay?" Castiel's shudder had not gone unnoticed, even if Dean said nothing about it. Now Castiel was effectively human, there were still some places Dean didn't even want to think about going, and this was one he hoped would be breached in time. He repressed a shudder of his own, and went to stand by the fallen Angel.

"Cas, c'mon. You okay, man? You know Crowley was probably just messing with you about Jimmy?" Castiel just looked at Dean with a sad look behind his eyes, not knowing what Crowley had been on about eating away at him.

"I know that it is possible Crowley was not telling the truth, but..." Castiel paused. "There have been times when his information has been correct."

"You can't expect this to be one of them, Cas... Even if he seems to know what he's on about." The last part was said under Dean's breath, but the look off Castiel told Dean it had been heard. He didn't even know why he was siding with Crowley, it never went very well. He looked around the room for Sam, who was starting to carry ingredients back down to the Impala, so that avenue of help had been abruptly closed on him. Dean grimaced, knowing Sam would have heard their conversation and decided to let Dean dig himself out of this one alone. Again. Dean cleared his throat and looked up from his boots to Castiel's face, which looked stony from his comment.

"Look, Cas - I'm sorry. It's just... Crowley does have a point about this girl looking like you... Or Jimmy... Or whatever. Maybe this once we look into it, and if nothing comes up, we drop it and bury it for good, yeah?" He looked Castiel dead in the eyes, trying to guess what emotion he was feeling. Even though he wasn't an angel, it was still difficult.

"... I believe that may be the best course of action." He answered Dean's question slowly, still slightly annoyed at the earlier comment, but decided to drop it in favour of getting answers.

"Right then. Good. All that emotional crap sucks anyway." He spoke as he turned away from Castiel, noticing Sam stood in the doorway and nodding at him. Sam nodded back, an unspoken conversation occuring between the two of them that Castiel was still yet to understand. Being human had done nothing to help his understanding of them, but he still held firm the hope that he would have his grace back sooner than later. He furrowed his eyebrows, still trying to figure out what about Jimmy's past Crowley had been referring to. He was brought out of it by Dean clapping his hands together, also startling Sam, who was still a little fragile from the trials. Dean flinched.

"Sorry, Sammy." Sam gave him a look. "Anyway... We got more to research. We gotta find out who that bitch is, and see if there's any truth to what Crowley said, but I vote for food first." Sam nodded again, and snorted at Dean's constant need to eat. He turned to look at Castiel, who had suddenly started to look very pale.

"You okay, Cas?" Sam's voice was tinged with worry.

"I am fine, Sam. My head hurts... A little, but I will be fine." He took a step forward and swayed, almost falling over. "That's new..." Sam barely heard the mutter before Castiel slumped, becoming an almost dead weight.

"Woah, careful Cas." No response. "Cas?" Sam lifted his head up to see if he was awake, and it lolled back towards his chest. "Son of a... Dean! Dean!" The pounding of boots back down the corridor could have woken the dead, but Castiel remained still.

"Sam! I heard you shout, what happ..." The colour drained from Dean's face as he dropped to his knees, having Castiel handed over to him. "Cas? Cas?" He slapped his face to try and get a response, but there was nothing. "Shit. We need to get back to the bunker, now." Dean stood, lifting Castiel over his shoulder as he walked down towards the Impala, tossing Sam the keys as he manouvered him into the backseat.

"Just hang in there Cas, you hear me? You hang in there, you son of a bitch." That was the last thing Castiel registered before he blacked out completely.

The smell of sulphur was strong in Morgan's nostirls as she reappeared in the motel room she and Christian were occupying, and her sudden appearance startled Christian, who was staring solemly at a wall. He had read Morgan's note, and could smell the sulphur that had clung to her clothes, but still didn't acknowledge her even though he still had to share the memories of the strange, tall man. She sat down on the same bed, staying a foot away from her brother until she could feel he was ready for her to be closer, and Christian just nodded in understanding. He was glad that Morgan understood emotions the way she did, otherwise he was afraid that he would hurt her. He brought his legs up underneath himself and leaned into Morgan, and she automatically put her arm around his shoulders, rubbing a soothing pattern on his shoulder with her thumb. This allowed a slow trickle of memories from the tall one to pass between the two of them, and Christian received the information that Morgan had learned from Crowley about Castiel and his vessel. Christian's anger flared up when he learnt that Crowley had killed Meg, allowing a strong breeze to blow a window open and for Morgan to abruptly remove her touch. They glared at each other for a moment, waiting for the wind to die down before Morgan began to calm Christian down again with the soothing pattern on his shoulder. The memories began to pass between them again, only Morgan could feel an abnormal amount of worry coming from her brother as she saw the way he had gained the memories. She gained all the memories by replacing her thumb with her palm, drawing it away with a yelp as they all passed over, causing Christian to tumble to the floor.

"What the hell was that?" A small amount of anger crept into Morgan's voice, causing the light bulbs to begin flickering. Christian swallowed, clearly nervous, and did his best to avoid looking at his sister. He knew that unless Morgan got answers, there was the very real possibility of the state losing its power to her anger, and drawing the Winchesters straight to them. Christian thought that it wouldn't be a bad thing, but Morgan heard his thoughts and made the lamp closest to him explode, showering him in glass shards and bits of lampshade.

"What happened, Christian? Why did that hurt?" Her voice was barely above a whisper, but Christian feared the power it held. It was times like these he understood why she chose to allow Castiel's side of her nature to win out - the raw power was definitely worthy of his awe compared to Meg's side. Another bulb exploded over his head, drawing him out of his thoughts and showering him on more glass fragments as he turned to his sister, almost ready to explain why it had hurt her.

"Okay, okay!" The lights stopped flickering but Morgan continued to glower up at her brother. "Just... No more bulb exploding." She huffed in response and sat back down on the bad they had both been sat on not so long ago. Christian took a deep breath, and knew that a barrage of questions would follow the information that he was about to share.

"Okay. It hurt because of what the taller one is. He's one of Azazel's special children, he was supposed to lead all the demons when they were released from the Devil's Gate, and he was Lucifer's pre-ordained vessel. Hell, Lucifer even wore him for a bit and walked on Earth." Morgan let the information sink in as Christian sat on the bed opposite her, facing away from her. He didn't want her gaze on him as the information sunk in, and he didn't want her to blame him for the pain. It was the stupid tall one's fault, whose name Christian still couldn't recall, and it frustrated him. Morgan looked through the memories she had got from Dean, the information Christian had told her matching up with them there were other things intertwined, and Morgan shuddered.

"Shit." Christian turned around, perplexed by his sister's outburst.

"What?"

"We're going after Castiel, but he's protected by the Winchesters. One WAS Lucifer, and the other was supposed to be the Michael Sword! They have bested all the archangels and the king of Hell, they stopped the damn apocalypse! How on Earth are we going to get to one angel?" As Morgan rattled off the events, the memories came to Christian from both perspectives, and he wondered how just two people could be mixed in with it all so much.

"We'll find a way, we always do. Even they aren't perfect, Morgan." She just sighed, shoulders slumped, and Christian could feel the disappointment radiating off her in waves. His shoulders also slumped, and he found himself seeking the solace of the bathroom once more. He watched Morgan lie on the bed and roll on to her side, then disappeared, leaving her wallowing in her sorrow.