Author's Note:

So I wanted to say again that I really appreciate you guys reading this, even the ones that don't say anything to me. You've all been so awesome and I love writing for you. I hope things are going well on your ends and I'll try to update quickly so we're not waiting too long :)

Dean took Cas downstairs, leading him by the hand and not wanting to let go for even a second. He could hear Cas' voice in his head still even after being awake for nearly two hours. It wouldn't leave him alone; he couldn't forget the sound of it, but worse than that he couldn't get over the feeling. Castiel's emotions bled through him, it felt like mental poison and made him feel so helpless. But he knew those feelings weren't originally his, they belonged to Cas and because of that he couldn't bring himself to let go just yet.

Cas didn't seem to mind the tether, he trotting along behind Dean, catching up to his side every now and then before dropping back again. His curiosity in the surroundings still hadn't died down, he tried to pause and stare at things but Dean didn't slow pace.

The building felt so big, but not in a welcoming or exciting way. Dean stopped in the main entrance and looked up at the landings; he couldn't hear anything resembling life. There weren't any echoes, or clanging, or even groans of the building itself. It was still and almost felt cold. He sighed and looked back at Cas who stared up to where Dean's gaze had been. "I'm having a hard time feeling at home here," he admitted to his winged friend. Castiel looked at him but said nothing, not even a little peep. Instead he smiled, just a gentle little pull of the muscle that made his face brighten in a way Dean couldn't describe. It felt warmer, like the thing that the mansion was missing was just Castiel's smile. Dean felt that maybe that was true, maybe just having Cas with him was enough to make it feel like home.

He led Cas to the sitting room where he found Jet again, propped up on the couch with long legs tucked against his chest. At first Dean was concerned but he heard the soft, rhythmic sound of Jet's breathing and knew he was probably asleep. While Dean would've resigned to let him rest and just go to make breakfast, Cas didn't have the same idea.

Castiel let go of Dean's hand and speedily crossed the floor to Jet's side and hopped onto the couch. Squatting there he pushed lightly at Jet's shoulder, it did nothing to wake their friend. Dean motioned for Cas to come back to him but it didn't work, Cas looked up at Dean with wildly bright eyes and squawked once. He turned back to Jet and shook him harshly by the shoulders.

"Cas!" Dean recoiled at the scene and ran over to stop Castiel before anything dramatic happened. He forced Castiel's grip off of Jet, noting that there still wasn't a sound from his friend at all. He looked at Jet again and found that his eyes were wide open, blankly staring straight ahead. Dean's stomach tightened and he touched Jet's face lightly, "Hey, are you okay?"

Another sharp cry from Cas made Dean jump, he felt nervous and sick and neither feeling helped the other calm down. He hesitated to do anything, he couldn't move and the longer he stayed still the worse he felt. Why wasn't Jet moving? Why were his eyes open like that? Before Dean could gather himself Castiel shoved him aside, right off the couch and sprawling on the floor. Cas grabbed onto Jet again and shook him harder, only stopping every once in a while to smack him in the face.

Dean slowly sat up, unsure of what to do or what was going on. The room was washed in a vibrant blue light, everything was stained with it and started to make Dean's eyes hurt. Castiel paused after several moments passed and placed his hands on either side of Jet's head. He closed Jet's eyes with his thumbs and held still, his face twisted in a terrified determination. Dean didn't imagine his own face looked much different.

And then Jet screamed. He thrashed back to life and threw Castiel off and into the nearest wall.

Cas yipped on impact but recovered quickly, scuttling across the floor and tucking himself behind Dean. "Jet?" Dean gasped with wide eyes and a worried expression.

Jet stood on the couch in the same position after he'd tossed Cas aside, his breathing was rapid and his eyes wild. He lifted his hands to his head and felt around as if looking for something; he didn't say anything for a few seconds.

"What happened?" Dean moved closer, unsure of anything that was going on anymore.

Jet dropped forward onto his knees, he wasn't perfectly aligned with the couch so he fell onto the floor and curled up there. Dean watched him as he clung to his head and became as small as Dean had ever seen him try to be.

"Jet?" Dean put a hand on his shoulder, which only resulted in Jet grabbing onto him tightly and squeezing with a shaky limb. Dean held his position, he didn't take his hand off of Jet and he didn't try to pull away. Whatever it was he needed to wait until it passed before Jet would talk to him.

And that took over an hour. Jet's grip had slowly loosened over the time until it just rested on Dean's arm. His breathing had gone from sharp, almost painful gasps to stuttering sighs; it was a change Dean could deal with. Castiel sat with them as well, perched on the couch with his wings spread defensively and looking around for any further dangers.

"It was horrible," Jet whispered after the lengthy silence, his voice was choppy at best. He slowly lifted his head, his eyes were red and puffy and Dean had no idea if that was from keeping them open for an undisclosed amount of time or from crying.

"Are you okay?" he didn't know what had happened but finding out Jet's health status seemed far more important. "Do you need anything? I can get some water or-"

"No, no, no don't go." Jet's hand tightened on his arm, "I'm alright. I'm okay; I just need to take a second." Jet started to sit up and Dean helped him, carefully they got him upright and leaning against the couch. Jet ran his hand through his hair, his face was drained and sweat had matted his hair into alternate shapes than normal.

Dean sat and waited as long as Jet needed, still afraid of what the hell he'd just seen but unable to put words to it. He ran his hand down his face and attempted to relax himself, "Any idea what that was?"

"I don't know… I mean I know what I saw but I don't know what's happening." Jet looked up at Cas who was situated right above him, the angel-esque boy chittered softly and nuzzled Jet's cheek.

"I thought you were sleeping but your eyes were wide open, Cas shook you but you didn't wake up… I was really freaked out," he wanted to say more but he couldn't find a way to do it. He was terrified he'd lost his best friend, that something had taken him away.

"I was sleeping," Jet spoke up again while Dean's mind was in a whirlwind of thought. "I was in that dream again, except it just wouldn't end. I woke up in a cage, I couldn't move but I know the sedatives wore off." He carefully placed his hand on his head again, "It hurt so fucking bad, man. I was just stuck there on the floor the whole time," tears welled up in his eyes and Dean saw his chest shudder in another gasp.

"You're safe now," he said softly, knowing that it wasn't going to be enough. He could still feel Cas' presence in his head and his dream was hours behind Jet's. He couldn't imagine what kind of trauma Jet experienced through Cas, he didn't want to ever know but part of him knew it'd happen when he went to sleep next.

Jet looked up at him tiredly, "Why am I in the living room? Did you guys bring me here?"

Dean shook his head, "No, we walked in and you were sitting on the couch…" he furrowed his brow a little, "you don't remember coming here?"

Jet shook his head, "No, I was in bed…"

"Sleep walking, probably." Sam spoke up and scared the living daylights out of both of them. Dean looked up and saw his brother looked just as tired as he felt. "I thought I heard him walking this morning, I didn't bother getting up though."

"Aren't you supposed to be at school?" Dean questioned and got a shrug in response.

"Yeah, but after the hellish night I just had I figured it'd be better not to go." Sam approached the couch and climbed over it, slumping next to Cas. Castiel cooed a simple greeting and Sam smiled at him for it before looking down at the two in front of him, "Jet, your nightmares are ahead of ours, aren't they?"

Jet shrugged and glanced back at the younger Winchester, "I guess so; did you guys have them last night too?"

Dean nodded, "Sure did, I was going through the brain surgery part you told me about yesterday, loads of good times." Sam didn't say anything but the little tilt of his head said yes.

"Why are we living this?" Jet asked angrily, mostly frustration fueled though Dean was sure something else upset him. Like having been in a weird state of sleep walking in a nightmare, for example. "It doesn't make any fucking sense!"

"It's definitely got something to do with being around Cas," Sam muttered just before yawning, he dropped his head back against the couch and sighed heavily, "I should go read his file now that I found it…"

"Gave up on high school?" Dean prodded and Sam glared at him for it.

"No, but I'd like to know why I'm having nightmares."

"Touché,"

Jet rubbed his eyes and pulled himself to his feet, "Okay, since we're staying home then would someone mind getting me some eye drops?"

"You got it," Dean pat him on the shoulder, "Take care of Cas 'til I get back, okay?"

"Sure thing," Sam gave a short wave, "He's pretty well behaved most of the time anyway."

"For now," Dean walked over and rubbed Cas on the head, "give 'em hell, Cas."

"We kinda already experienced some of his hell, can we not today?" Jet asked loudly as he wandered out of the room. Dean could already hear his humour returning, it was a relieving sign at the very least. He didn't completely understand what had happened or what Jet experienced, he didn't know when he'd see it for himself, but he felt like it'd gone better than it could have.

He questioned how Castiel could connect his past to their dreams; he didn't get the science that went into making Cas what he was, and he definitely didn't know if Cas understood him or not. To Dean the entire thing felt surreal in new ways every day. Riches he never imagined, a mansion, a creepy basement, and human experiments with unexplained powers? Yeah, he was open to the idea that he'd lost his mind one day and the rest was all in his head.

Sam sat quietly next to Cas on the couch for a few minutes, he was grateful that he hadn't seen whatever happened to Jet. It didn't sound comfortable and Dean looked pretty freaked out, he was curious of course but that didn't mean he was ready for the answer. What Jet experienced in the nightmares was coming for him soon enough, Sam was sure of that.

"Jet?" he called after a while, he knew the last time they'd spoken they were fighting but he was still worried. Jet was his friend too, hearing he'd had some nightmarish torture wasn't a fun thought. "Are you there?"

A few moments passed before Jet walked back into the room, a glass of water in his hand. "Yeah, what's up?"

"Nothing, just wondering if you're okay,"

Jet hummed as he tipped the glass back, he sat down on the couch with Sam and Cas and looked at the cup quietly for a few seconds. "I guess I am, it's kinda hard to say."

"Because the stuff you're experiencing isn't actually happening to you?"

"Yeah, exactly." Jet looked at Castiel who had calmed down since Jet had gotten back to normal, he was picking at feathers in his wings. "Cas went through it, we feel what he felt but we can wake up from it. I feel like shit but I don't know if it's fair to complain or say I'm not okay, you know what I mean?"

"I do, and I think it's fair. Just because someone else has it worse doesn't mean your suffering doesn't matter." Sam folded his arms and leaned back, he glanced at Jet again and looked him over, "I mean, when we were little did you think like that too?"

"Well in our case I had no idea who had it worse, so I didn't have that problem. Did you?"

Sam smiled and shook his head, "No, not really. I felt like we were all on the same page." He thought he'd miss that feeling but it never seemed to go away, he was grateful that the three of them were consistently on the same level to some extent. Sure, Sam was book smart and clever but in their own way, not involving classrooms, so were Dean and Jet. Neither Sam nor Jet could ever fix a car like Dean, and Jet's social skills were far beyond the Winchesters. He felt like they belonged together somehow; a family of their choosing.

Granted it got complicated every now and then, Sam could count the moments that stood out to him; Jet randomly getting rich was a big one.

"So…" Jet started and trailed off, Sam kinda knew where he was going but chose not to bring it up himself. Instead he let Jet change his mind and say something else, "About Cas' file and junk, did you learn anything last night?"

"I went through a lot of files, those computers are kinda complicated. I know there were a bunch of different experiments going on at once, hybrid animals, cloning, putting the brain of one type of animal in the body of another, and so on. There was more but I haven't read it yet."

"Figure Cas was the 'human slash animal hybrid' project?"

Sam shrugged, "I don't really know yet, but I did figure out his full name; Castiel Dimitri Novak."

Jet raised an eyebrow, "And you didn't tell Dean that right away because…?"

"It was 2am and that was all I had, telling Dean that much without anything else wouldn't accomplish anything. I figured I'd show him when we go down there later." Sam looked over to watch Castiel clean his feathers, how quietly peaceful he seemed. Castiel couldn't be peaceful, though, Sam knew better than that. He knew that whatever made Cas the way he was had been violent and horrific. He only caught a glimpse of Cas' mind and what happened, he felt intense emotions and pain he never imagined and knew it wasn't just a dream. That experience was a reality for Cas, and those files would show more than Castiel could have ever been aware of. "I'm not sure how much of this I really want to know…" he admitted quietly.

"I know what you mean," Jet had waited patiently for Sam to sort through his thoughts; it wasn't a common occurrence. "But we can look for him now, I mean, when the internet's hooked up."

"I'm a little scared to see him as a normal person, it makes this whole thing so much more real…"

"Hey," Jet smiled reassuringly, "it might make Cas' situation more real to us, but that's not all bad. Yeah, it's gonna be intense, but I don't think seeing him as a normal guy will change much."

Sam couldn't help but let Jet's smile get to him, he felt a little relieved to see it. "Thanks, sorry I was such a brat yesterday."

"Nah it's fine," Jet waved him off, "don't apologize, I was being an asshole."

"You said it, not me."

"You did say it, but you were right."

"Alright, just as long as we agree on that." Sam said playfully.

Jet chuckled and nudged Sam's leg, "Sure, why not."