We're Making It Up As We Go

Dean woke up back in the Impala. Sam was snoozing in the passenger's seat and Bobby was in the backseat. Dean looked through the windshield to see the abandoned house where they had been attacked by Crowley's demons.

Dean stared at it, thinking of what they had been planning earlier. He came to a decision and started up the car.

Sam and Bobby woke up half way through the drive back. They had been sleeping a lot lately. Both of them slowly woke up, and then jolted awake, looking around in confusion.

"I had the weirdest dream…" Sam said.

"Let me guess," Bobby said, "Gabriel popped up and sent us to the future where I'm dead, Cas is dying, and Dean's a demon."

Sam looked back in shock, his face saying that he had been hoping that it was a bad dream.

"Yeah, that was real." Dean said.

Sam's forehead crinkled as he thought about it. "So, what was the lesson anyway? Last I remember, we were eating in the kitchen." His forehead cleared and he looked at Dean suspiciously. "But you stayed with Cas in the main room."

"Yeah." Dean's grip tightened as he remembered Cas's face while he explained what had happened to him.

"So what now?" Bobby asked, leaning into the backseat. "We still going to summon him."

"No." Dean said firmly.

Sam and Bobby exchanged a look.

"Dean," Sam said in that understanding tone of his. "We've seen how things end up. From what Gabriel said, it started now, so we need to do something about it."

"And sticking Cas in a circle of holy fire is part of what made things end up that way." Dean protested. "So we're going to try something different."

Sam and Bobby glanced at each other again.

"What've you got in mind, boy?" Bobby asked.

"Something I should have done a year ago." Dean's gripped tightened on the steering wheel as the Impala roared down the highway.

The other two made no comment as the Impala rolled into Bobby's driveway. Dean felt a surge of relief at the sight of that familiar house still standing. That Bunker place had been cool, and Dean could see that Bobby was itching to find it and delve into those books, but for Dean, it was this house that was the closest thing that he thought of as home.

By this time, morning was almost breaking, so Sam and Bobby walked into the house. Dean turned them down and instead leaned up against the Impala's hood. He ran a hand down his face and sighed. This wasn't going to be easy.

"Cas, can we talk?" He asked the open air, and he wasn't surprised when he heard the familiar sound of rustling wings. Dean opened his eyes to see Castiel in front of him, his head tilted in confusion.

"What do you need? Is something wrong?" Castiel's eyes immediately darting around as if expecting some of Raphael's goons to pop up or Crowley to break their deal and attack Dean himself.

Dean didn't answer right away taking in the sight of Castiel and comparing him to the new future version that he had in his mind. He could see what Cas had meant in that he wasn't really the picture of perfect health. He looked beyond stressed and tired. Still, he didn't appear as tired as his future counterpart, and there was no shroud of guilt in his eyes. There was no weight of what had happened on his shoulders.

His eyes were still bright, not resigned or thinking that he should die. He might have the weight of the world's fate on his shoulders, but he didn't have the weight of his mistakes.

Still, it was wrong that he just showed up and he immediately thought that Dean needed him to do something.

"Dean?" Castiel stepped closer, still looking confused.

Dean sighed once more. "We know about you've made some kind of deal with Crowley."

Cas immediately stepped back, fear and horror filling his eyes.

Fear that me and the others will abandon him. Dean realized, which is basically what had happened to the other Castiel.

"I see." Cas looked down. "I should – "

"Don't go." Dean said, and he grabbed Cas's wrist. Cas looked up at Dean in surprise. The two of them rarely had touched by this point. "Please."

"Dean?" Cas seemed to be confused by Dean's insistence, and really Dean wanted to punch himself in the face. He knew that things had been bad between him and Cas since the Apocalypse, but Cas shouldn't be confused over Dean wanting him to simply stay.

"I don't know why you did it." Dean said hurriedly, knowing he had to get everything out before he screwed things up. "I do know that we probably haven't been the best examples of dealing with demons. Though," he shook his head, "dammit, Cas, why'd you do it?"

"You're – you're not angry?" Cas's voice was tentative and Dean's heart broke at how Cas almost seemed to expect him to hit the angel. Gabriel's puppy analogy was suddenly making a lot more sense.

"I am, but at the moment, not at you." Crowley was a better person to blame. After all, the manipulative son of a bitch had gotten them before.

"Why?" Cas asked, and Dean's heart broke again at how the angel sounded so scared of Dean being angry yet confused over how Dean could try to understand. "In the past, you have made it clear – "

"Not anymore." Dean promised. He wouldn't turn his back on Cas and his problems again. It seemed that Cas's problem would affect him anyway, so he might as well pay attention.

He wasn't going to be such a shitty friend anymore.

"I don't know why you did it." Dean repeated. "Or what exactly you want to do.

"But I want to try to understand." He continued, looking Cas right in the eye. "So please, tell me."

The sun peeked up over the horizon, and as its light reached out over the land, Dean saw a new emotion enter Castiel's eyes.

Hope.

As the two of them leaned against the Impala, Cas began to explain everything from the beginning. His voice washed over Dean telling of a dive back into Hell, an ultimatum, a look at a content life, and deal that could save everyone while keeping that one precious person out of it.

Then, when the story was over, Castiel looked down, afraid to look Dean in the eye to see anger over what had happened. For once though, Dean knew exactly what to do, especially now that he knew the whole story of what had happened. Cas had been put in an impossible situation, and Dean probably would have done the same. It seemed that his future self had done the same.

Dean took Cas by the arm and pulled him into a hug. At first, the angel was stiff in his grasp, surprised. Then he melted in Dean's arms, his own coming up to wrap around the human.

Cas had been fighting, basically by himself, for almost two years. He needed to know that Dean and the others were here for him, and since words did not seem to have worked, it was time to pull out the big guns. Normally, Dean didn't hug unless someone was back from the dead. He would make an exception for Cas.

Dean couldn't lose Cas, and he didn't want Cas to end up alone. Cas needed this just as much as him.

Dean didn't know how much this would change things, but he knew that things wouldn't turn out like they had in that universe. This might not be the intended story, but…

They would make it up as they went.

AN: I would like to thank everyone for taking the time to read this. This is probably the longest fic I've ever written, even if it doesn't have the most chapters. I'm not really going to delve too much of what happened after this. I think if Dean and the others had been more understanding Cas would have had something to anchor himself on in order to not be controlled by the souls, but afterward? There are some things that would have happened regardless (like Sam's wall would come down eventually, Henry and Abbadon would have time traveled, and Crowley would always be a thorn in their side) but I don't know how things would be really different. I like to hope it would be for the better but I can't be sure. I'll leave that up to you. Also, Cas gets a hug, because he deseves all the hugs in the world. I still get pissed off from when Sam refused Cas's hug in Season 6. Hug an angel today, okay? After all, it's Christmas. On a side note, there are two important references that I would like to point out. The first is the title of the story, which is based off of how Cas started off episode 6x20 "The Man Who Would Be King" and his prayer, which said that they (Team Free Will and Bobby) ripped up the ending for the grand story. In this fic, Dean and the others see the ending that they're heading towards, and Dean decides to change it. Then this chapter is a reference to episode 4x22 "Lucifer Rising" where Chuck says that they aren't meant to be in the story and Castiel replies that they're making it up. Since they ripped out that ending, now the characters are writing a new story (and you can too). So, thank you once more, and I'll see you around. Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!