Sorry this is a little late.
To be honest, I had had the entire rest of the story thoroughly outlined and decided that I didn't like how it flowed. It was just really weird to me and I didn't like it. So I did some tweaking and I think I almost have it to where I'll be satisfied. But I'm really not too happy with the way this chapter turned out. I'm sorry it's so short. I don't know if the chapter flows really weird or if it's just me, I'm not sure.
Anyhow,
Let me know what you think.
"Hello Dean."
Green eyes darted around the room once more, taking in the cool gleam of stainless steel and noting the lack of any other body in the vicinity. His gaze settled on the tank in the center of the room.
Wide, blue, blue eyes met his and he could have sworn he felt a physical jolt from the base of his neck to the backs of his heels in that instant.
Awake.
Cas was awake.
Castiel was awake.
Was this supposed to happen?
What was going to happen now?
What should he do?
Before he realized he was moving, he was already right in front of the tank, captivated by how blue the experiment's eyes were.
Maybe it was the water that caused that hue? Surely it wasn't human to have such blue eyes.
The bluest blue to ever blue, a fleeting thought.
Dean swallowed, should he be afraid? This was, after all, some strange experiment in some odd facility that had a bunch of people in giant fish tanks. He probably should be afraid, Dean thinks to himself, but he can't find it in himself to be afraid, not when Cas is awake and staring at him with the oddest expression as if he is struggling to make sense of something. Oh, he even tilted his head to the side. He reminded Dean of a puppy with that movement.
"I am not a canine, Dean."
Dean jumped, that deep, deep rumbly voice that he's been hearing every night running through his head. He had an idle thought in the back of his mind that perhaps he should be angry at that, angry at the lack of much needed sleep and angry at the agony and terror that seized him tight each time, but he was preoccupied with making sense of what was happening right before him.
Castiel's lips did not move, nor did Dean voice any of his thoughts.
Can he freaking hear my thoughts?
"I do not hear them, so much as feel them. Although, they are quite loud so I suppose that yes, I can. We are connected." Again, no movement of his lips. No sounds going in his ears save for the occasional eruption of bubbles. That deep voice was just... in his head.
"Connected? What the fuck?" Dean was beginning to get very, very weirded out. His mind was catching up to current events. And hey, maybe he was in a daze for a few minutes, but that's to be expected when you're in sci-fi central with the fish guy who had, up until that point been sleeping, all of a sudden decided to hop right in to your head and start talking.
"Our minds, we share a profound bond."
Great, now he had some special bond with the fish guy. Even if he did have amazing eyes, that was just weird on some level that he didn't even want to try to understand right now for fear his head would literally implode from overload.
"I am not a fish either, Dean." A slight flicker of annoyance washed through his brain with that sentence.
He can feel emotion through it too?
A slight thrill ran through him, was he the first to experience this?
"I can assure you that I have no such bond with any other being."
Dean pointedly decided to ignore the elation that sang loud throughout his veins at that statement and even more so the answering contentment of his excitement through this new connection.
"This is a lot to take in, man." Dean sighed, running his hand over the lower half of his mouth. And it really was.
He was sure that this could go one of two ways. On one hand, Castiel could turn out to be completely batshit crazy and go on a murder spree (as is expected of a science experiment.) On the other hand, he could turn out to be some puzzle piece with the other experiments for some strange quest for world domination.
He didn't think that either of those things were viable options.
The doors opened behind him and a flicker of alarm rang through his head (that he would later recognize as an emotion that was not his own) as he turned to see Samandriel standing at the top of the stairs. All emotion abruptly ended from Castiel and Dean wondered if the experiment had walled himself off or if Samandriel had done something.
He had seemed perfectly normal when he first walked in but as soon as his eyes landed on Cas, it was as if a switch had flipped and instantly that cold, distant gleam was in his eyes and his face seemed to harden. He noted that he was no longer curled in the fetal position, but was actually stretched out as if standing.
"It is good to see you have awoken, brother."
Brother?
Before Dean could think too much on that last word, the young male reached out an arm to enter a code in the electric box for the door and a loud click sounded throughout the wing. The lights overhead turned off and the room was bathed in a deep red. Only Cas' tank shone blue, like a beacon of light in a dark abyss.
Dean whirled around, feeling intense distress as he looked at Castiel. The experiment did not meet his gaze but instead stared over him to Samandriel by the door. His gaze was cool, eyes a frigid blue that Dean was sure wasn't the color he could remember seeing just a few moments ago.
He opened his mouth to speak only to be cut off by a loud, ear splitting alarm screaming out around them.
No matter how many times Dean tried to think on what had happened that day, he can honestly say he wasn't prepared for what had actually happened. Maybe for some scientists or something, but not for an entire private army.
Seconds after the alarm starting, a swarm of scientists in white and guards in black rushed the room. His arms were taken roughly and he was guided out of the room. He fought, trying to get back over to Cas who looked absolutely stoic. He tried to ask questions, find out what was going on, but all he got were responses of 'it's for your own safety' and 'number five is highly unstable right now' and other loads of bullshit that he could care less about. All he wanted to know was what was going to happen to Cas.
He thought that maybe Chuck would be there and fill him in, but the small male just acted as if he hadn't heard a word he said, the little prick.
He did not see Samandriel anywhere.
That little asshole had called Castiel his brother, and seeing as they both had weird ass names, Dean was beginning to question whether or not he was even human too.
That was one can of worms he didn't want to delve in too deeply because then there was the possibility that anyone else at work could also be one, too.
He waited in the main lobby of the building for hours, waiting and waiting to hear something, anything about what was happening in that wing. Through the entire time, though, he did not once think of Castiel as a threat. He was actually worried for the little guy. Dude was awake for all of five minutes before all hell broke loose.
He tried to find that connection Castiel spoke of, tried to see if he could feel anything or hear anything and even tried napping against the wall, but it was all silent. Not even any fire and ice dreams.
The moment Samandriel appeared, it was like Castiel had switched personalities completely. He had seemed, to Dean at least, to be just a real quirky dude until the other male appeared. Then he seemed like he was something bigger, some higher being in the way his body posture suddenly straightened, formal in the way soldiers hold themselves at attention, and his face hardened like stone.
It rubbed Dean in all the wrong ways. That look was wrong for his experiment, it wasn't who he was.
Well, honestly, did he even know Castiel well enough to decide if that thought was true or not?
No, he supposed, he didn't. He didn't know, and that was the problem. Even if he couldn't fight the nagging sensation that he really did.
That was the moment he decided he'd just go home, no point in staying if he wasn't gonna work. No point in trying to learn what happened with some fish guy who just woke up that he didn't even know at all.
So that's what he did. He went home and he went straight to bed. He ignored the sour feeling in his gut. He ignored the nagging sensation in the back of his head that something bad could have happened and he would have never even known.
He slept without the slightest hint of a nightmare, without even a whisper of his name.
He had never felt more unsettled.
The next day he tried to go to work, he received a phone call from Naomi.
"You sure? It's no problem for me to come in and help out anywhere else."
"I'm quite sure, Mr. Winchester. The next three nights are yours to spend however you please. We have much to learn of experiment Five and he will be under constant watch." Her voice was cold, detached, impersonal. He hated it. He was, for some ungodly and unknown reason, worried about Castiel.
"Yeah, sure. See you in three days."
And Dean shut his phone.