Cas sat alone in the Garden.

For him it was a clearing in the middle of a forest. A fallen log tipped on its side provided a bench in the middle of a circle of pines. Somewhere in the distance a river burbled and above him the birds chattered back and forth. He could smell the dirt rich and earthy and slightly metallic. He missed the real thing, deeply, but he was caught in the depths of Heaven's bureaucracy.

There were meetings to attend, formal proposals to file, vision boards to make of the world to come. All of it was deeply theoretical and none of it applicable to the lives of any human he had known. Still, it moved forwards. There was always hope of something else and yet before long it always went back to the same. It would be a long, long, time before he could ever visit Earth again.

Then again that was partially his doing. He had taken on every project he could in order to ensure he was not alone with his thoughts.

He scuffed at the dirt. It didn't leave a mark. He sighed. More and more everyday there were little changes which ebbed away at the freedom they'd sought when they'd remade Heaven. It seemed unlikely that it would stop anytime soon.

"Castiel." He looked up to find Jack, dressed in the same light blue shirt, washed out jeans, and white jean jacket that he'd grown fond of. He'd taken to calling Cas by his full name. There had been talk amongst the angels he said. A growing sense that they were too familiar. Jack had also been growing more distant in general. He used to talk to Castiel about the problems of Heaven, now he only talked to Castiel when he had a problem with him.

"Jack." Cas replied, knowing the use of his old name would annoy him. Jack's lip twinged but he forced himself to smile.

"It's good to see you." He offered. Cas laughed.

"It's been awhile." He replied dryly. Jack shrugged and forced his smile to grow bigger. It only made Cas more nervous.

"I've had a lot to do." He replied.

"Clearly," Cas replied standing up from the log so that he could meet Jack face to face. Jack made himself a few inches taller a habit he'd quickly slipped into as soon as he realized he could. Cas struggled to not roll his eyes. He wanted to tell Jack that he was still a child, and a petulant one at that. In need of constant attention, angry, and spiteful, whenever things didn't go his way. Lashing out when people didn't act as he wanted only to laugh the next moment as if nothing had happened. He had become impossible to talk to.

"I have made time for you though," he offered. Cas laughed dryly.

"Yes, I hear from you whenever you have a problem." He replied. Jack's smile fell and Cas felt nervous. If he were in his human form he would have felt his stomach dry and his throat drop. Or was it the other way around? He could never quite remember. It had been sometime since he had been to Earth. Jack studied him carefully.

"I'd like to take a walk with you." He announced and started walking off at a brisk pace. Cas trailed reluctantly behind him. The bushes behind him rustled and he watched a small mouse skitter out into the clearing. It's nose titled upwards towards the pines, it stopped and started, casting a wary gaze around the clearing. Cas paused to let it rush in front of him and hide under a log.

"It's not real you know." An amused Jack called back to him. Cas looked up. He was tired. More tired than he had ever been before and he knew that whatever Jack said it was going to make him more tired. He didn't want to start the conversation but who knew when he'd get another chance to see Jack.

Jack stood a few paces ahead waiting for him to catch up. Cas jogged to meet him.

"I heard you were requiring passes for people to see each other now," he began. Jack simply shrugged. He'd started doing that whenever he feared Cas wouldn't like his answer.

"So it's true." He pressed. Jack sighed and stopped, looking up towards what was for Cas a blue sky. He wondered what Jack saw in it.

"It's a preventive measure," Jack began, "we don't think we'll have to use it."

"We?" Cas asked, "Who is we? And I don't remember it being brought up. You need a unanimous vote to pass something like that."

"Except in cases of absence." Jack replied quickly, "And you agreed that day you had more important matters to attend to." Cas stopped in his tracks and stared at Jack.

"You tricked me." He accused. Jack laughed a little too loudly.

"You agreed to be absent." He repeated as if that put an end to the issue. Cas exhaled and stared back up at the sky.

"Fine, but what about this 'preventive measure' you've put in place? Why didn't I know about that?" Jack sighed.

"Conflict of interest." He drawled. His eyes fixed on Cas as if he were a misbehaving child. "Have you visited your pals lately?" He inquired, his smirk revealing he already knew the answer. Of course, he did. He knew everything. Or at least an amount that was dangerously close to everything. Cas feigned indifference.

"I haven't had the time."

"Yes, well," Jack replied tersely, "They've certainly had the time to make a lot of visits. Some of which have not ended well. Hence the no breaking things rule, which I'm sure you've noticed." Jack's eyes locked on Cas' shoes as he absent-mindedly tried scuffing at the dirt. Embarrassed he stopped and looked back at Jack.

"Tell me on your time on Earth did you ever acquaint yourself with a writer by the name of Jean-Paul Sartre?"

"Enlighten me."

"Well, he wrote a lot of things, including many plays. One of them put the problem we are having now very succinctly: 'Hell is Other People.' We've broken down the walls and now everyone can see their loved ones, not just as they remember them, but as they are. Only the problem is, how they are, isn't how they imagined them. Turns out some people don't like each other very much.

"'Well' I hear you say, 'That's all fine and dandy, we can quarantine them. Keep those sets of people apart from each other.' Very sensible of you to say so. Only we tried that. Turns out people aren't that sensible.

"They keep seeking out people who hurt them. Keep wanting some form of resolution that doesn't exist and when they don't get that they start tearing at each others' throats. Now fine, we give them kiddy scissors and padded gloves, make sure they can't hurt each other too bad. Only problem is. They keep finding a way around it.

"So what am I to do? I want to give them free will, but turns out all they want to do is use it to take away other's free will. It's turned Heaven into well…" Jack paused to force himself into a more relaxed position. "Not that."

Cas watched him carefully to ensure he was done speaking.

"This all sounds terribly stressful—" Jack scoffed.

"Don't patronize me!" He exclaimed, his eyes alight with anger. Cas forced himself to remain calm.

"I'm sorry. I am just curious what it is exactly that you would like me to do." Jack grinned his eyes gleaming with something Cas couldn't place but he certainly didn't like.

"I want you to fix it," Jack spat, "Your boyfriend is the one causing these problems. So, you are going to go down to his cabin and talk some sense into him." Cas straightened up. It was impossible for there to be anything physically preventing him from talking, he didn't have a throat, and yet he felt as if it had closed. Even if he could have spoken he wasn't sure what he would have said.

"What about the council meetings?" He inquired shakily. Jack scoffed.

"If you cannot convince one human to not make a mess of Heaven, than I don't see there be a seat for you anymore." He replied coldly. Cas nodded slowly.

"Is that a yes then?" Jack asked.

"Yes." Cas croaked. His mind spinning as he tried to imagine what lay ahead. Before he could say another word though he found himself in a very different set of woods. There were far less pines and far more birch trees. There was no more burbling stream, instead there was a glimpse of blue lake through the tree line. A mist hung above the lake and a loon sounded.

Cas exhaled and stared at the log cabin before him. There was nothing particularly distinctive about it. It could have been anywhere. All the same he knew exactly whose porch he stood in front of.

A very bleary and very shabby looking Dean Winchester pulled open the door staggered out onto the porch.