"How do we get back topside?"
"I'm not sure."
Dean blinked and stumbled over his words.
"Whoa-whoa-I-you... what?!"
"The mission is to get Sam out of the cage-"
"And safely home, god damn it!"
"Yes," Cas replied immediately, then gave an imperceptible shrug as he tilted his head, "well..."
"Well nothing, Cas! What kind of fucking idiot has no exit strategy for a god damn rescue?!"
"The pacts I've made have only been in exchange for Sam's removal from the cage and away from Lucifer. Sam must not say yes to Lucifer. Not ever again."
Dean pushed closer to Cas, not three inches away from his face, searching the angel's eyes with his own.
"Tell me you care about Sam more than that," Dean said more plaintively than he'd intended.
Castiel steeled himself.
"I do," he replied stonily.
"Then what's... the plan?" Dean whispered.
Cas licked his lips, uncomfortable.
"I can only heal him once he is outside the cage."
Dean's eyes widened and he took a step back.
"...but you can heal him?"
Cas took a breath and nodded.
"Yes. Sam should be mobile if he's not too psychologically traumatized. From there, the three of us must get out the same way we got in."
"What're the odds that he's not too psychologically traumatized?" Dean shot back.
"Very low," Cas responded gravely.
"Very low," Dean repeated, his heart hammering in his chest, "okay."
A/N: Apologies for some of these super short chapters. They're not really chapters as much as strategically-clipped 'scenes' back and forth in time (as you guys have probably figured out by now lol). I was thinking splitting these parts of the story into chapters would be less distracting and/or confusing than italicizing them or using horizontal scene cuts inside the same chapter. Soon the flashbacks will wrap up and the chapters will be longer.
Thank you so much for reading! Please feel free to comment/review - I'd love to hear what you think so far! ~ Alex