BOBBY'S PLACE - MORNING

When Dean woke up the next morning to his stomach cramping. He sat up, waiting for his eyes to adjust to the light. The guest room at Bobby's was kinda crappy - the room was all brown and there was a lot of weird crap on the walls, like you'd see at a mom'n'pop. License plates, old tin signs. One of those singing fish. Dean laughed under his breath when he saw it, being the only person in the world other than Bobby who still thought those were funny.

The room was still decorated for the holidays and there was a string across the wall with Christmas cards hanging from it. One had been taken down and left on the dresser, but it wasn't like that the night before. Dean got up and checked one out. The front had "Blessings of Christmas" by Thomas Kinkade. Inside, the words "Merry Christmas 2012" were printed in red ink. There were little notes written in it, one that said "I promise we'll make it next year! Love, Jody". There was also a toony little sketch of a creepy-staring spider monkey that said "DOOM" under it. It was signed by Annie Hawkins. Son of bitch. Dean looked at the bed Sam had slept in. It was empty. Hell, it was made.

Dean dropped the card and went down stairs. He could hear a news story blaring from the radio: "...Radio City Slasher, who assaulted game-show host Roderick Spode last year, has now been identified as seventeen-year-old Alfred Lake, who went missing from his mother's home in Sinclair, Wyoming just prior to the attack. Previously, Pastor Abin Cooper of the Five Points Trinity Church had claimed responsibility for the stabbing, despite having an ironclad alibi. Police are now conducting a nation-wide manhunt for Lake..."

Dean made a little frowny face to that, but underneath the story, he heard a sound that made him light up like a happy, little elf. Meat was sizzling. Dean rushed into the kitchen just in time to watch Sam moving breakfast sausages onto a plate piled with scrambled eggs and toast. There were groceries on the counter, so real eggs and sausages.

"Saturated fats," Dean said in awe.

Sam turned back. He looked so effing happy. "You didn't eat dinner," he started to say with a shrug.

Dean clapped Sam on the back. "Sometimes I regret tryin' to give you to the mailman," he said, grinning like a jackass. He started snooping through the shopping bags. "Did you see the-." Dean stopped. There was beer in one. And lemon meringue pie in another.

Dean pointed at Sam. "You," he said. He held his arms out and started walking toward Sam. "Bring it in, buddy! Up and Over, come on!"

Sam's eyes widened and he shook his head, taking a step back. He remembered what "Up and Over" meant.

"Too bad," Dean said, "it's happening!"

Sam braced himself, his face all scrunched up. Dean laughed maniacally and lunged toward Sam like he was going to tackle him at the waist, but came back up with Sam hiked over his shoulder.

"Yer a good man, Charlie Brown!" Dean said, and went on laughing. He grabbed his plate, took it to the table. "You see that Christmas card? I figured that's why you were in such a good mood."

"Dean, I'm gonna ralph," Sam said. But he couldn't help smiling.

"You're never making me breakfast again, are you?" Dean asked.

"Nope."

Dean put Sam down on the counter. "You see the card?" he asked again.

"Which one?" Sam said. He hopped off the counter and dusted the toast crumbs off his ass. "There's one with Rufus' name on it, one with Annie's. Hers is from a month ago. So, yeah, big morning." He grinned and started cleaning up.

Dean took a seat, pulled another chair around to put his feet up on and started eating. "There's parts of this Time-Crotch thing that ain't half bad," Dean said. But as he thought about it, he noticed someone peering into the kitchen.

The scene from Castiel's perspective was chaotic. The big mess on the counter, the radio turned up, the feet on chairs, the saturated fats. Castiel wasn't happy. But he didn't say anything, he just went and looked in the fridge. What he found made him breathe heavy. His orange smoothie was gone. He closed his eyes for a moment, got a blue smoothie and closed the door, poker-facing like one could not believe. He went to the table to sit down, but stopped in front of Dean.

"You're sitting in my chair," Castiel said.

Dean smirked and started eating his eggs slower, looking at him pointedly.

Castiel gave him a withering look. "Fine," he said, and sat down on the other side of the table. You would've thought he'd been asked to leave the country for the amount of pouting he was doing over it.

"Bobby wants to talk to you both," Castiel said, opening his smoothie. "You need to know what's happened here."

"Great," Dean said. "Let's start with how you're human now."

Sam turned and looked at them. "Whoa, what?" he said.

"Mortal," Castiel corrected. "You don't remember what happened?"

"While we were dead?" Dean asked. "Nah, we breezed out."

"You're mortal?" Sam asked.

Castiel frowned at them both. "I was mortal the last time we saw each other," he said.

Dean looked completely lost, but Sam seemed to be catching on.

"You mean in Detroit?" Sam asked. "Before we went to say yes to Lucifer?"

Castiel nodded: duh.

Just then, Bobby came in carrying a laptop under his arm. He looked the kitchen over and then looked at Castiel. He seemed nervous.

"Everything okay in here?" Bobby asked.

"What happened to you guys at Stull?" Sam asked.

That confused Bobby. And seemed to hurt him a little. "We didn't make it to Stull, son," he said.

Sam and Dean shared a look. Now they could put a little more together. Bobby and Castiel never went to Stull Cemetery when Lucifer and Michael fought each other. Lucifer didn't kill them, Castiel was never resurrected, he never got his powers back. So, had he been living with Bobby ever since?

"Then how'd we win it?" Dean asked. "If you guys weren't there to distract Michael, how come they didn't nuke the planet?"

"Beats the hell outta me," Bobby said. "I figured we got lucky, somethin' out there went pearshaped."

"We distracted Michael?" Castiel asked.

"You holy-fired the crap outta him," Dean said proudly. "Then Lucifer exploded you. Most badass thing I'd ever seen."

Castiel went back to his smoothie, a little smile creeping onto his face.

Bobby didn't looked too thrilled. "Maybe we should catch you two up on what's been happening here," he said.

"We saw," Sam said. "Annie's card in the guest room? Rufus? And you guys are both good." He smiled, a little breathless with glee. This dimension was awesome. "Sounds like things turned out great."

Bobby and Castiel shared a look of their own.

"I got somethin' you need to see," Bobby said, and put his laptop on the table. This wasn't gonna be good.