He was depressed. He had the same song on repeat and he had been staring out the window of his condo for nearly an hour. He picked up the remote and changed the song from Eric Clapton's Tears in Heaven to Don Henley's Boys of Summer. The changing of the song was enough to make him get up from the couch. He decided to retrieve his laptop. He was more unhappy with his change of plans concerning Dean than he had thought was possible. Not that he had made any real plans, but there was an ache that depressing music was not helping to heal.
He went back to the couch and opened up the laptop. Of course, there was an email from Gabe with the subject line: Dean is a baby hedgehog. The video began with a scene of Dean and Sam sitting at the table with Cas. The camera focused on the background and found Anna dancing with Uriel. They were good. The song was the B-52's Love Shack and Anna was singing at the top of her lungs while Uriel flung her around. The crowd of dancers made room for them. The woman that was singing the song onstage was certainly being upstaged by the dance and particularly by Anna, whose red hair swirled around in wild, whipping abandon. When the singer got to the infamous convoluted line at the end of the song, she practically shouted it down at Anna and Uriel. When the crowd cheered, it was more for the dancers than for the singer.
Sam started talking to Dean, but seemed to include Cas too. "We should totally go to Cas' house after. Everyone will need a ride home."
"Well, I have consumed one beer in the past two hours so it looks like I am your chauffeur," Dean offered.
"I am drunk." Cas offered up pointlessly.
"Yes, buddy. You are most definitely drunk," Dean said with a smile. "So, you want a ride home later?"
"I so want a ride home." Cas was grinning.
"So, Cas, do you think that we can crash at your place?" Sam asked.
Cas turned to Sam now. "That would be fine. I have beds."
"Okay, then," Sam said as he turned to Dean, "We will just go to Cas' place afterwards and then we can sleep there. It is way closer than either of our places.
"And I have beds." Cas kept up his random offerings with a smile. Uriel and Anna came over to the table then.
"We miss anything?" Uriel asked as he looked at Cas' grinning face.
"Just Cas letting everyone know that he has beds. Apparently that is super important. Like way more important than him picking the last song." Gabe's voice could be heard from outside of the scene.
"We are staying at Cas' place tonight. We'll just go home tomorrow." Sam shared with Uriel and Anna.
"WhooHoo, party at Cas' place." Anna hooted and they all laughed. "So who's turn is it to pick Cas' song? Uriel picked Dancing Queen, I picked Satisfaction; thank you very much, Gabe picked Blaze of Glory, and Cas picked Death on Two Legs, so that means that it is Sammy's turn to pick or Dean's."
"I don't think that Cas is sober enough to do much more singing." Sam observed.
"I can totally sing. I am going to sing and it is going to be not horrible." Cas stood up to show his resolve. "Dean, you pick the last song." Cas said while he motioned toward the sign-up book. Then he lowered his voice, leaned over toward Dean, and added, not so quietly, "Make it an easy one. I don't think I can do much more." He turned to the others then and smiled.
"Sure thing. I think that I know just the song." With that Dean walked up to the book, threw back a slight smile, and wrote Cas' last song. The video ended there.
Cas stared down at the screen and closed his eyes. He could remember what happened next. He knew what the next song would be, and he knew why Dean had picked it. This is why he matters. He thought about the man that sat across from him that night and how he had told him about his favorite song earlier that evening. He picked that song for Cas. He gave me his favorite song. He thought about the many reasons why he should stop thinking about him, but then he could counter with so many reasons why he should try to save him from all of that loneliness that Sam described. That isn't how life works. I won't save him. He'll just pull me down with him. It would be Charles all over again. He paused in his thoughts then and let out a sigh. Get a grip, Cas. He isn't even interested anyway. None of this matters.
It was then that he heard the thumping knock that was so distinctively Gabe's. He got up to open the door. "What's up, Gabe?"
"Oh, not much. Glad I caught you. You get any good emails lately?" He smirked as he walked into the condo. Sometimes it was nice having your friend living just down the hall. This was not one of those times. Cas just wanted to wallow in self-pity. Gabe would make that difficult.
"I just finished watching it. I was thinking that I might go to bed now. So…" Cas was interrupted.
"Bah, you don't go to bed this early, and what the hell are you listening to? It sounds like the saddest 90's mix tape." Gabe walked over to the stereo and swiftly twisted the volume dial all the way to quiet.
"Did you just come over to critique my music?" Cas made his way over to the fridge and pulled out a soda for Gabe. He grabbed a water for himself. Resigned already to the fact that he would not be getting rid of Gabe anytime soon.
"No, I view that as just a side benefit for you. After all, how will you ever improve without constant criticism?" Gabe cracked open the soda and chuckled a little as he took a seat on the stool at the kitchen bar.
Cas joined him at the neighboring stool, and asked, "So, what brings you to this neck of the woods?"
"Sadly, work." Gabe seemed to be fidgety this evening. "I may have done something regrettable and I need to talk about it."
Cas felt worry creeping up his spine. Gabe was giving off a different vibe from the typical flippancy that he displayed. "What did you do? I am sure that it can't be that bad."
"So, you know how I said that Kali and I had plans the other day?"
"Uh, huh." Cas nodded in acknowledgement.
"Well, it was kind of a business meeting." Gabe was avoiding eye contact as he shared.
"Are we doing business with her firm now? I would think that Zach would have mentioned that at one of the meetings," Cas questioned.
"Uh, no. We don't, but we might. I didn't realize that it was going to be a business meeting. We were just going to meet up for dinner and one of her clients was going to be there too."
"Hmm, so is that how you are explaining this to Zach? Are you just testing the story out on me?" Cas turned to him fully now.
"Stick with me, Cas. It was an innocent dinner. We mostly talked about non-work related stuff, but then things just sort of shifted. I found myself diving into the deep end of the pool before I knew it."
"What are you going to do? You know how Zach feels about us going outside of the plan. We work the cases that he sends us. We work with the clients that he sends us. We don't go rogue and meet with clients from other firms." Cas paused a second then fell onto another point, "Hey, Anna said that Kali only takes on the capital cases. Who is this client?"
Gabe looked at him then and said, "You don't want to know."
"I do, actually."
Gabe hesitated for a second more before he said, "His name is Crowley." Gabe looked away now.
"What! Do you mean Crowley, like "Lucky" Crowley? The "Lucky" Crowley," Cas repeated the name for emphasis.
"That Crowley. The not guilty of murder, totally cleared of all charges, rich bastard, Crowley." Gabe seemed to take on an air of defensiveness.
"We don't want that. We don't need that. Get out of that bed before it is too late." Cas stated the last bit with emphasis.
"I think that Zach will like this bed." Gabe tossed back his head with a big gulp of the soda, "Besides, Crowley doesn't need much. It is just a little defense in a money laundering case. The pay will be quite good, and the work will be easy peasy."
"It won't be that easy. That case will gain us way more attention than we need. We are not big players, Gabe. Ezra's was the biggest case we have had, and that was a pain."
"Nah, it wasn't that bad. Ezra was a douche, but the case really wasn't that bad."
"The media attention for Crowley will make Ezra look like a walk in the park."
"Well, I don't think that the media attention is such a big deal. Also, we are practically already in bed with Crowley anyway," Gabe added.
"What do you mean?"
"He and Ezra apparently have a working relationship or some such thing. I even hear that he will be at Ezra's party."
Cas had a dawning realization then. He remembered the man in black at the back of the courtroom. He remembered feeling like he was looking at someone familiar, but mostly he remembered the look that the forewoman gave to him. His concern was deepening, but he didn't know what to say. "When will you tell Zach?"
"Tomorrow, before the morning meeting. I am a little worried that this meeting could go badly. I think that the connection will be good, but I don't want Zach to view me as a problem. I realized too late that I should have spoken with him first; It's regrettable that I didn't. I am hoping that you will have my back." Gabe looked at him with hope.
"I can't say that I support this. He is not the kind of man that we want to get mixed up with. I don't know what you want me to say." Cas set down his drink and ran his hands through his hair in frustration.
"I don't need you to like it; I just need you to support me. I would do this for you." Gabe's tone did not sound like begging. It carried to much underlying force for that.
"I don't know." Cas sat silently for a few moments. Oddly enough, so did Gabe. It was possibly the longest he had ever spent in silence. "I'll do what I can for you, but it will come down to Zach. He won't support this."
"Leave that to me. If he feels like you support my decision, then he will accept my efforts. He'll let us work with Crowley."
Gabe looked triumphant as Cas spoke. "You need to think about this. We should not work with him."
"Have a little faith, Cas. He isn't that bad. In fact, he seemed like a nice guy."
"Hmm, sure Gabe, and I bet that Eve thought that the devil seemed like a nice guy too right before she bit the apple.
Gabe had left the condo a couple of hours later, but not before weighing in on Dean. "So, did you like the subject line on the last email? I thought that it was particularly adorable."
"What are you talking about now?" Cas looked at him with exasperation.
"Dean is a baby hedgehog." Gabe stated with a smile.
"I just don't see how it is any different from any of your other subjects. They are all about baby animals. I am starting to think that you have a sick obsession with baby creatures."
"Well, Sam mentioned some stuff about the lunch that you two had, and I thought that the subject line might make sense to you. Clearly, I am too deep." Gabe let out a sigh in mock exasperation.
"Oh, do enlighten me oh wise one." Cas snarked out at him with a grin.
"Have you ever seen a baby hedgehog?" Gabe asked.
"Not in real life, but I have seen them online."
"Well, they are covered in prickly spikes and they use them for defense. They are cute on the surface but they hurt anything that gets too close. They are solitary creatures almost from birth. Their parents don't do much to protect them, especially the males. They usually just kill the little buggers."
"So Dean is like a baby hedgehog?" Cas looked at Gabe like he was a nut.
"Yes, but maybe he can be domesticated."
"Gabe, your mind is a mystery, wrapped in an enigma." Cas walked over to the door to usher him out. "Go home. I need to get a full night's sleep if I am going to be dealing with your mess tomorrow."
"Cas, thanks again. It will be okay. You'll see. Once we get Zach on board it will all be fine." Gabe strolled out the door and tossed back, "Have fun dreaming of your little hedgehog.
"Shut-up. I'll see you tomorrow." Cas closed the door with a sigh and headed for his bed to sleep and maybe dream.
Review, Fav, Follow. Would love to know if this is still engaging. Thanks sidz2891 for the thoughts. The next chapter should have some Dean and Cas texting again, but it'll be different since Cas is trying to move his brain into the friend-zone. Thanks again for reading, and I hope you all enjoyed this.