11. Hypothermia

There were a lot of things that were difficult about being human but Castiel thought that one of the things he would never get used to was the feeling of being cold. As an angel, he'd felt pain and discomfort more than he would like, but he had never been cold, his grace had always kept him warm in whatever vessel he had been occupying at the time.

Now though, he stood out in the snowy woods, hunting a wendigo with the Winchesters and he was freezing.

Maybe he should have worn more layers, but he had on a long-sleeved shirt and a coat and he'd thought it had been enough—Sam and Dean hadn't really been wearing anything more. But now he wished he had maybe put on some gloves and a hat, and while he was at it, a few more layers. Also, pants that were less likely to get wet from the snow like his jeans were currently, sticking damply to his calves and making him even colder. He could barely feel his feet. Dean had promised him—probably jokingly—that they would get hot chocolate when they were done, and he found himself wanting nothing more than a hot drink to hold between his hands and warm his core.

He brought his hands to his mouth and tried to blow on them. They were so cold he didn't think he could even fight if a monster came his way. The cold, in fact, seemed to be distracting him because he didn't even realize there was something coming before it was almost too late.

A flash of movement blurred between two trees, and Castiel hurriedly reached for his flare gun, trying to get his freezing hands to grip it. The flash of movement came again and this time the wendigo flew toward him.

Castiel aimed with the gun and pulled the trigger, but it missed, the flare shooting off into a snow bank and exploding.

The wendigo didn't like that at all and screamed, making a beeline for Castiel.

The ex-angel ducked under a blow from its sharp claws, but it still caught him enough to throw him backwards. Castiel skidded down an incline, and when he realized what was happening, he dug his heels in, but it was too late.

At the bottom of the incline there was a river, partially covered in ice, but not thick enough to stop him from falling through.

The ice washed over him, taking his breath away, and Castiel got to his feet and scrambled as quickly as he could out of the water.

It didn't do much good though because his clothes were already soaked. The wind bit through Castiel, straight to his bones, and as cold as he had been before, he was now so much colder. How could anyone be this cold?

He tried to climb back up the slope, but tripped and fell into the snow halfway there, his body too cold to move. He let out a whimper, but could do nothing more. He was too cold to think.

Maybe if he just rested his eyes for a few seconds…

XXX

"Cas!" Dean shouted as he and Sam raced toward the spot the angel had been stationed. It was getting colder and now that they had killed the wendigo, he was ready to get out of here.

"Where is he?" Sam demanded as he glanced around, but there was no sign of the ex-angel. Dean began to get worried.

They looked around a little more before he heard Sam gasp. "Dean! Over here."

Dean watched his brother slip cautiously over an incline that led toward a river, and he frowned as he followed him. As he looked over the edge, he was shocked to see a body lying in the snow halfway up.

It was Cas.

"Son of a bitch!" he cried as he hurried down after his brother who was carefully turning Cas onto his back.

"He's soaked," Sam breathed.

Dean reached out and pressed his fingers to Cas' throat. His fingers were so cold it took a while, but he finally felt a slow pulse. Cas looked like death and his skin was cold to the touch, tinged blue.

"We have to get him warm now," Sam said.

They didn't waste any time, they simply slung Cas' arms over their shoulders and dragged him back up the incline and through the woods to where they left the Impala. Once they got there, they laid Cas in the backseat. Dean turned the car on to get the heater going while Sam hurriedly stripped the wet clothes from Cas' body while Dean snatched all the blankets they had from the back, as well as some disposable hand heaters.

He threw all the stuff in the back and helped Sam bundle Cas up.

"He's not shivering," Sam said, a worried line between his brows.

Dean clenched his jaw and simply got into the driver's seat, tearing back to town and their motel room as fast as he could. Sam had Cas' upper body propped against him to share warmth while he brisked his hands over his arms and chest in an attempt to get the blood flowing.

Thankfully, it wasn't too far to the motel, and Cas hadn't even regained responsiveness through the whole car ride. When they got to their room, Dean helped Sam carry Cas inside, blankets and all and deposited him onto one of the beds.

Sam cranked up the heater in the room as far as it would go and it protested, but thankfully started warming the room up.

Dean grabbed all the blankets from the other bed as well and piled all of them onto Cas. He reached out and pressed a hand to the ex-angel's pale cheek.

"He's still freezing," Dean said. "Dammit."

"Let's give him a few more minutes," Sam said softly. "We're out of heat packs, but I'll make a couple hot water bottles."

Dean nodded and sat on the side of the bed, reaching under a couple layers of blankets to continue rubbing Cas' limbs.

"Come on, man," he murmured, wincing as he touched one of Cas' ice-cold hands. "You are not gonna die on me. Not like this."

Sam came back with several makeshift hot water bottles and tucked them around Cas' body before he started helping Dean to restore his blood circulation.

Finally, finally, Cas started to shiver, first small tremors and then full-bodied shudders that had his teeth chattering.

Dean breathed a sigh of relief as he sat back and tucked the blankets more firmly around Cas, right up to his chin. "There you go," he encouraged.

Sam looked relieved as well and they sat there, watching Cas like a hawk, until his eyes finally fluttered open.

"Cas?" Dean asked as he and Sam both leaned forward.

Cas groaned, and blinked, looking around. "What…happened?" he asked through his still chattering teeth.

"You fell in the river, you nearly froze to death," Dean said.

"You scared the crap out of us," Sam added, but more gently as he reached out and squeezed Cas' blanket swaddled shoulder.

"I'm so cold," Cas whimpered, burrowing further into his blankets. "It hurts."

"I know," Dean said, reaching out to rub his chest through the blankets. "But you'll warm up soon enough."

Cas' teeth chattered as he looked up at Dean. "I th-think I'd like that h-hot cocoa now."

Dean grinned and squeezed his arm through the blankets. "As soon as you stop shivering so much, I will go get you hot cocoa. You deserve it."

Cas gave a small smile and burrowed deeper into the blankets as the Winchesters watched over him.