Author's Note: Here it is! Time to find out what is Anna's dastardly plot (you'll discover it isn't all that dastardly)!
"Hey, Cas." Anna greeted the following morning as Castiel walked down the stairs.
He smiled, "Good morning, Anna." He glanced around, "Where is everyone?"
"Naomi and Michael have already left," Anna answered, "And I think Gabriel went to school really early so he can set up an elaborate prank."
Castiel groaned, "I hope it isn't on our Calculus teacher again. He gave us a ten page assignment after Gabriel's last escapade." Anna smiled, silently noticing how better he seemed lately. He was happier than he once was; a lot less sullen and depressed. She hated how Dean was the cause of this; it only made what she was about to do more difficult.
There were times she let herself wonder if Dean's feelings were pure, if he had changed from that heartless, self-absorbed asshole that had taken advantage of her and then broke her heart and into someone more deserving of Castiel's love. But then she remembered how he'd rolled his eyes when she began crying after he broke up with her, and that snapped all sense back into her. She was devastated when Dean threw her away after he got what he wanted; she wasn't about to let Castiel suffer the same fate...especially with the knowledge that once his heart was shattered by that monster, it might be broken beyond repair.
So when Castiel began walking out the door, she stopped him, "Wait."
He regarded her with curious eyes, tilting his head to the side, "Yes?"
Without a response, she simply wrapped her arms around him and gave him a long, meaningful hug. Cas hesitated before tentatively returning the embrace, and Anna wished she didn't have to do this, wished Castiel had fallen in love with a better person—a person that wasn't Dean Winchester.
Still locked in his arms, Anna stealthily slid her hand into his trench coat pocket and stole his phone. When they pulled apart, Anna slid the device into her own pocket before Castiel could notice, patting his cheek and saying softly, "I'm sorry, Cas. For everything." For everything I've done, and everything I'm going to do.
He gave her a bemused look, "Um, I have to go. I'm supposed to meet Dean at the back of the library before school."
Anna nodded, "Okay, have fun...and don't be tardy either. If he can't get his lazy ass up in time to meet you, just go on to school, okay?"
"He won't be late," Castiel told her, rolling his eyes, "He never is."
Anna sighed, "Yea, yea. Later, Cas."
"Farewell, Anna." Cas told her before he left the house.
Letting out a sigh, she took out his phone and sent a quick text to Dean:
Change of plans. Can we go to the cemetery instead? Please, I need to talk to you.
She only needed to wait a minute before he replied:
K. You alright?
Anna hesitated before typing out:
I'm fine. Just be there.
She sent it, and with only one second of hesitation to confirm if she was doing the right thing, Anna left.
When Dean reached the top of the hill and saw Anna sitting on the bench overlooking the graves, all he could do was immediately think the worst.
"What happened?" Dean demanded as he reached the bench, wide eyes full of questions and concerns, "Is Cas alright?"
"Cas hasn't been alright for awhile, Dean," She replied softly before her eyes flickered down to the open spot next to her, "Have a seat. We need to talk."
"Where's Cas?" He asked, reluctantly sitting down next to her as he stared at her intently.
"He's at the library," Anna answered nonchalantly as she withdrew Castiel's phone from her pocket, "I sent you the text. I think it's time for us to have a chat."
Dean narrowed his eyes in suspicion at her, "About what?"
She smiled slightly, "It's about Cas."
Five minutes after their appointed time, Castiel knew something was wrong. Dean was never late; hell, sometimes he came here even earlier than Cas...which was why he assumed the worst and began worrying. But when he slipped his hand into his pocket to grab his phone to call him, he found it empty.
Confusion and fear shot through his body before a startling realization seeped into his brain.
Castiel gritted his teeth, "Anna."
"Gabe used to take me and Cas here when we were kids," Anna said, nostalgia in her voice as she swept her gaze around the graveyard, "We used to love it. The peace and solitude allowed us to escape the misery and isolation that plagued that damned house."
"You guys don't come here anymore?" Dean prompted, his curiosity of what she had to say outweighing the urge to leave as fast as he could.
"Gabriel finds his escape in alcohol nowadays, and Cas hasn't come here since it happened." Anna said, her voice distant like her mind was here but in an early time, "I come here though. It's the only place I still feel welcomed."
Dean licked his lips, "What do you mean Cas hasn't come here since it happened?"
"I assumed he hasn't told you," Anna said with a small, bitter smile, "Cas doesn't talk about it. Nobody does. According to Naomi and the record, nothing ever happened."
"His suicide attempt?" Dean guessed, watching in confusion as Anna shook her head.
"No," She answered, sadness in her soft voice, "What happened leading up to it."
"Anna..." Castiel said warningly, and Anna threw her hands up in mock surrender, laughing slightly at her baby brother's uncomfortableness.
"I'm just saying, Cas," She said with a grin, "My friend April thinks you're cute. Whatever you do with that piece of information is entirely up to you. But if you want my input..."
He groaned, "I don't, but you're going to give it anyway, aren't you?"
Anna flicked the back of his head, "Aren't you sassy today? You've hanging out with Balthazar too much."
Cas smiled slightly as he shrugged, moving his gaze to stare out into the graveyard, "Perhaps."
Anna rolled her eyes, "Anyway, I think you should give her a chance. I mean, you've already missed your shot with Meg—"
"I was never interested in Meg..." He mumbled.
"Then who are you interested in?" Anna pressed, threading her hand through his and squeezing it as she added softly, "Cas, I just want you to be happy."
"Happiness is a luxury some of us don't have." He replied sharply, causing Anna to frown.
"Cas, don't talk like that—"
"A girl won't make my life better, Anna," He added sourly, disregarding the concerned look on her face, "I'm not interested in...that."
"What do you mean?" She asked, her brow furrowing.
Her brother chewed the inside of his cheek, staring defiantly out at the graveyard and refusing to meet her gaze. He looked so nervous and miserable; this wasn't how Anna hoped this conversation would go.
"Anna," He said almost inaudibly, his voice as soft and light as the breeze that blew in, "...I'm gay." Anna blinked, all of the puzzle pieces that she'd collected over the years of being Castiel's sister and friend finally clicking together.
"Oh," She said before shrugging, "Then are there any boys you're interested in?"
"Did you not hear me?" He demanded, despair and bitterness in his escalating voice, "I'm gay, Anna. Do you not know what that means? I'm an abomination; I'm going to Hell when I die..."
"Hey, don't talk like that," Anna said firmly, cutting him off as she gently wiped away a stray tear that spilled from his cheek, "Cas, you are not going to Hell. That's only what homophobic, overzealous Christians proclaim because they paraphrase the bible. God loves all his children, Cas; even the gay ones."
"But Anna, you can't tell anyone," Castiel declared, clutching onto Anna's wrist with a fearful expression, "Not even Gabriel. I-I can't let them find out."
"It's okay," She whispered, enveloping him in a warm hug, "I won't tell anyone, Cas. I promise."
"Dean, you have to believe me," Anna said, actual tears welling up in her hazel eyes, "I-I didn't mean to hurt him. I was fighting with Naomi, and it just slipped out..."
"...You owe me everything, you filthy whore! Don't you dare forget that." Naomi snapped, venom dripping from her voice as she seized Anna by the hair before she could run away, "Every single one of you bastards would be nothing without me."
Anna laughed at her words, earning a hard slap. Her cheek burned, but she could hardly feel it over the fury boiling in her veins. Anna knew she should just apologize now since her abuse would only escalate if she continued to provoke her, but hysteria drowned out any sense of logic.
"You think we're this perfect fucking family, don't you?" She said, barely able to control the harsh words that spewed from her mouth, "Well, guess what? We're not perfect, Naomi. Despite your best efforts, we're still the fucked up kids we used to be before we were sent to this hellhole. I mean, Michael is an abusive control freak, Raphael is a pompous asshole, Gabriel's an alcoholic, I'm known throughout the town as a bitchy slut, Cas is ga—" She cut herself off, common sense immediately seeping back into her brain as anger flushed out of her body and terror took its place.
Naomi's grip on her hair loosened in shock as she stared at Anna with wide, critical blue eyes, "What about Castiel?"
"Nothing," She said, the word coming out quiet and breathless, "H-He's, uh—He's perfect. I-I don't know what I was g-going to s-say." Naomi gave her a hard, cold stare for a long time before she abruptly released her hold on Anna.
"You're dismissed." She said, and Anna had never ran that fast in her entire life. In the safety of her room, she slid to the floor and put her face in her hands, trying to even out her labored breathing as she tried to convince herself that she didn't just blurt out the one secret Cas entrusted her to keep.
"For the next few weeks, I wouldn't leave Castiel's side," Anna told Dean hoarsely, "I knew she figured it out and was going to do something, Dean; I knew it. But as the days ticked by and not a peep was uttered about it, I-I let myself believe that she didn't put it together.
"So one day, I went to this swim party at my friend's house. It was the first time I left Castiel alone at the house," Her voice cracked as tears began streaking down her cheeks, "And when I came home, the floor was covered in Castiel's blood."
"What are you doing?!" She demanded in a scream as she caught sight of Michael beating a bloody, barely conscious Castiel.
Before she could reach him, Anna felt a cold hand grab her by the hair, jerking her head back as Naomi whispered to her, "If you think you're going to interfere, you can have your turn right after he's done with that abomination." She released her, but Anna remained rooted to the ground, overcome with horror at the sight in front of her but with filled with enough terror to stay back. She stared numbly as Michael beat Cas over and over again, screaming about God wanting to cleanse him of the evil that plagued his body. He punctuated each bible verse with a bone-shattering kick or punch, and Anna couldn't tear her eyes off of the horrific scene; the scene she could have prevented if only she kept her fucking mouth shut.
Anna took in a shuddering breath in an effort to calm her ragged sobs before she continued, "Michael would have beaten him to death if Gabriel hadn't come home and thrown him off."
"Gabriel?"
Anna chuckled at his obvious surprise, "He's not the asshole he pretends to be, Dean. It's just an act; in this family, we all have our facades to cling to. Castiel did too, before I ripped it away from him."
"Anna..." Dean began tentatively, not being able to hold the question in any longer, "Why are you telling me this?"
She laughed bitterly, "Why?" Dean nodded in response.
"Because by being in this relationship, you are going to destroy him in every way, but you don't care," The angst and anger in her words made him flinch, "You've never cared."
"What are you talking about?" He demanded, "I've always cared about Cas—"
"I'm talking about me. We dated, remember?" The memories were few and hazy, but he nodded anyway, prompting her to continue.
Anna sighed, "Cas isn't the only one Michael and Naomi slap around, alright? All of us have gotten the brunt of the abuse one time or the other. Dean, we'd slept together many times, and not once had you asked about the bruises and welts that decorated my body."
"What..." He began but trailed off, the buried memories suddenly jumping to the surface. All those wounds on her pale flesh, the way she flinched every time he touched her a little too roughly—
"Anna, I didn't know," Dean told her, ashamed at himself for not ever putting it together, "I just thought they were from softball—"
"Michael knows how to make the bruises look like that." Anna told him, "But if you would've asked me, Dean, I would've told you. God, I wanted so badly for you to ask because I thought you loved me, that you would save me. Just like Cas does..." Her voice cracked, "Of course, I know now that I didn't love you. I was so young and naive back then, Dean; we both were." At the regret and misery on his face, she laid a hand on Dean's shoulder, saying gently, "I'd forgiven you a long time ago. But if you think I'm going to sit here and allow you to toy with Cas like you toyed with me...well, I love my little brother just as much as you love Sam, and I'm not letting him get hurt again without a good fight."
Dean tried to swallow the lump in his throat as he thought over her words. Was Cas really better off if he wasn't with him? It was no question that Dean cared for him a whole lot more than he cared for Anna, but what if that wasn't enough? What if he still somehow manages to unintentionally hurt him like he did Anna? And even if all that was true, was he strong enough to let go?
"Anna," Dean said, looking up at her, "I care about him. More than I care about myself..."
"Then maybe you should think about letting him go," She said, "I know you care about him a lot, but...if Naomi and Michael finds out about you two, Cas won't be alive to try to commit suicide again."
"They couldn't do that," Dean growled, "People would know—"
"Nobody knew what really happened to Nick." She said flatly, void of emotion.
He furrowed his brow, "He went to prison."
A corner of Anna's mouth twisted into a sour, bitter smile, "And what is death if not the most eternal prison?"
A chill ran down his spine, but before he could open his mouth to respond, Castiel's voice shattered the tranquil surroundings.
"Dean?" Castiel said as he finally trek up the hill and reached him, confusion in his gaze.
Dean rubbed the back of his neck, sliding his gaze downward, "Uh, hey, Cas..."
"What did she tell you?" He demanded hurriedly, panic threading through his voice, "What did she—"
"I think I should go," Anna said suddenly as she stood up, giving Dean a significant look, "Do whatever you think is necessary."
When she passed Castiel, she leaned in to kiss him on the cheek, but he jerked away, staring at her with murderous blue eyes, "Don't you dare touch me." Anna shot him a look of sadness before she walked away, heading for her car.
After she left, the two were silent for a moment—the tension practically dripping in the windy air. Finally Dean cleared his throat, looking over at Cas with unreadable green eyes, "We should go for a ride, so we can, uh...talk."
This is it, Castiel thought with nausea as he felt himself nod numbly and follow Dean out of the cemetery, the beginning of the end...
When Dean turned onto a dirt road and parked in the middle of a secluded forest, Castiel was almost positive that he was going to dump him and desert him in the middle of nowhere. That, or kill him, but he was trying to think on the bright side here.
After cutting the engine, Dean raked a hand through his hair, letting out a long sigh that was not comforting in the least. Every silent moment was another needle in Castiel's skin, and he just wished he would get it over with—that he would just break his heart or break his skull or whatever he planned to do in this very terrifying situation because Cas could not handle this amount of tension and stress. He swung the car door open and got out of the Impala, the biting wind filling his lungs with air and heart with despair. This was it; the inevitable termination of their relationship. He would be a damn fool if he said he didn't see this coming.
"Cas?" Dean said, getting out of the car and walking over to him, "What are you doing?"
"Just dump me already, okay?" Castiel snapped, stubbornly staring down at the ground, "If you're going to do it, then—"
"Dump you?" Dean repeated, "I would never dump you, Cas. I'm..." He sighed, almost looking guilty as he continued softly, "I'm way too selfish to do that."
Castiel furrowed his brow as he demanded, "What are you talking about?"
"Anna told me, Cas," Dean's arms wrapped around Castiel's waist, "About the abuse."
Castiel felt bile rising in his throat as he laughed hollowly, looking away from him, "Then you know? I'm not your definition of perfection, Dean. I'm nothing but a broken toy."
"That's not what I think," Dean assured him, "This isn't your fault, Cas; you didn't ask for it."
"I deserve it," Castiel confessed, "Dean, I would be nothing without Naomi. I would be like my father, a deranged, spineless urchin of humanity—"
"That's what she wants you to think, Cas," Dean told him sternly, "She wants you to depend on her, to not recognize her as the poison she is. You are a great person, but she had nothing to do with that. That's just who you are. You're someone I..." He cleared his throat and glanced away, "...really really like."
And you're someone I really really love.
Castiel leaned in so their foreheads were resting together, love and utter adoration in his blue eyes as he stared at this wonderful, beautiful man.
"I just..." Dean sighed and gently caressed Castiel's cheek, whispering against his lips, "I just want to steal away your pain." He was just so perfect in his raw sense of honesty and heroism; so idealistic and optimistic. Dean actually thought everything could be saved with a few intimate words and delicate caresses. But Castiel didn't want to be saved; he wanted Dean to unravel him at the seams, to tear him apart by the atoms and then rebuild him into something newer, better. Castiel wanted Dean to devour him. He wanted to get lost in the passion and strength of Dean Winchester.
"You can," Castiel responded softly, his hands threading from Dean's hair, "By doing this." He pulled Dean down into a hard, passionate kiss. At first, Dean tried to pull away, recognizing this as just Castiel's unique way of distracting him from talking about the issue. But then Cas threw him against a solid oak tree and nipped at his bottom lip, and all protest died into a throaty moan.
"Well, that pretty much satisfied every erotic fantasy I didn't know I had." Dean said with a grin, ignoring Castiel's eye roll.
"Come on, we have to get to school before the first bell rings." Castiel declared as he stood up and walked over to him, smiling slightly as he reached up and picked the leaves out of Dean's hair.
"Okay," He claimed Castiel's hands with his own, his voice softening, "Hey, Cas...don't be mad at Anna, okay? She means well."
"She tried to get you to break up with me." Cas reminded him irritably.
Dean sighed and shrugged, "Nobody's perfect." He paused, "Well…except Dr. Sexy, but let's not get into that right now..."
Cas smiled and wondered if this was what it was like to be in love.
"...He hates me, Garth," Anna said later that day in her bedroom, her head on Garth's shoulder, "At school today, he barely even looked at me."
"Look, if it makes you feel any better," He replied with a shrug, "I really think Dean likes him. He gets that look in his eye every time he sees him—I've never seen him look at anyone like that." Garth smiled and nudged her side, "C'mon now, let's turn that frown upside down."
Anna smiled thinly, "You're so sweet."
A sudden knock at her bedroom door made both stiffen.
"Shit," She cursed, rising from her bed, "That's probably Naomi. You need to—"
"Anna?" Castiel's timid voice filtered through the door, followed by another insistent knock.
Garth smiled as he walked towards her window. Anna arched an eyebrow, "It's just Cas, you know. You don't have to leave."
"I'm a fan of dramatic exits," Garth told her with a charming smile, giving her a salute, "Over and out, Red." As he dropped out of sight, Anna felt something deep and foreign coil in her stomach. She wondered if this was what it was like to be in love.
"Come in, Cas." She said, and the door clicked open, revealing Castiel standing shyly at her door.
"Hey." He said softly with a weak smile.
"Hey." She returned, her voice steady but hands trembling.
Without another word, he crossed the room and pulled her into a warm hug, letting Anna bury her head into his shoulder and mutter, "I'm so sorry, Cas. I-I thought Dean was leading you on, and I didn't want to see you hurt."
"I've thought a lot about it," Castiel informed her, causing her stomach to do somersaults for a split second before he added, "And it's okay. I forgive you." With a gentle hand, he caught her chin and lifted her head up to look at him, to see the forgiveness and sincerity in his open expression, "I love you, Anna. Nothing will ever change that." She smiled and finally allowed herself believe that Dean would not break Castiel's heart.
Four months later, standing beside Castiel's hospital bed, she came to regret her decision.
Author's Note: I know...that last sentence killed you, didn't it? If you're screaming at your computer screen at me right now, I understand and apologize. It seems this universe (aka my sick, twisted mind) just won't give Dean and Cas a break!
Remember, reviews are like cookies to my imagination. The more you feed my mind, the faster the update (yes, I've stooped as low as to bribe you; I'm despicable).