BOBBY'S PLACE - NIGHT

The lights were off in the living room as if no one was there. As if everyone had gone to bed. But Bobby was wide awake, sitting on a kitchen chair he'd pulled up by the front door. Grinding his teeth as he watched headlights scroll across the walls. There was a knock at the door. Almost as soon as he heard it, Bobby was up and threw the door open to curse the darkness.

"Where the hell have you been?!" he yelled.

"I stopped at Chicken in a Hat," Rufus said defensively. "And I think I made damn good time, considering."

Oh, hell. It was just Rufus Turner, responding to the call to action they'd sent him at his own leisurely pace.

Bobby sighed, frustrated. "Not you," he said. "Get inside, I'm waitin' to holler at somebody. And mind your business."

"You know me," Rufus said, as if that the suggestion that he'd pry into Bobby's personal life was puh! Absurd.

"And don't eat at Chicken in a Hat," Bobby went on, shutting the door. And so it was that, before Bobby even knew it was happening, he'd fully switched gears from being pissed at Castiel and Dean to being on Rufus' case. "You heard about what they spend that money on-."

"Free market, Bobby," Rufus said, aggressively not-listening. "They make a good chicken sandwich, that's all I need to know."

"This coming from someone who won't set foot in a Jack in the Box."

"You wanna eat kangaroo meat, that's you're business. It's unclean." Rufus held up a ziplock bag of shrimp. "Where's the sauce? I wanna throw these in."

Bobby snickered at the bag. "Shellfish? What happened to Kosher law?"

"It's the 21st century, we all have refrigerators. You really think God cares if I have a ham sandwich?"

"Your god does."

"Not according to Cas, the actual angel you have livin' in your water heater closet. So ha. Now, where is he? The shrimp goes in the sauce and Cas makes the sauce or I won't eat it. Come on, I came here on an empty stomach."

Bobby started to get pissed again at the mention of Castiel. "You just said you had a chicken sandwich. And anyway, it's Prego, that boy's never peeled a tomato in his life."

"Is this because I won't eat your chili? Nobody ever asks you to make a whole stock pot-."

Suddenly, there was a creaking noise and Bobby put a hand up to shush Rufus. They both turned to the door and listened. More creaking. Whispering. Keys jingling and unlocking the door. The longer it took, the darker Bobby's glaring became. Breath heavy, nostrils flaring. This was the full Angry Dad emerging. Meanwhile, Rufus observed the situation (that he was totally not going to get involved in) with intense interest.

Dean opened the door, right in the middle of whispering something that sounded like, "Let me do the talking." He and Castiel shuffled into the living room and Bobby flipped the lights on. Cas and Dean were wearing new t-shirts and jeans, and their skin had the purplish tinge. Almost like they'd been frolicking around in an icy river and needed to change into dry clothes.

"Where the hell have you two been all day?!" Bobby barked.

"Out for a goddamn walk," Castiel said. He'd clearly had another special coffee. Or two.

Rufus pulled up Bobby's chair up to the argument, started eating his shrimp like it was theater popcorn.

"I said I'd handle this," Dean said, trying to mediate. He turned to Bobby. "Whatever it is you think happened-."

"You took him hunting?" Bobby asked, knowing the answer.

"Yeah, we went hunting," Castiel said, as levelly as he could manage. "And I kicked... an ass!"

"It was, like, one demon," Dean lied. "Unplanned."

"And you know what?!" Castiel shouted. "If felt right. I was myself again. Does anyone have a problem with that?!"

Bobby narrowed his eyes at Castiel. "Is he drunk?"

"He's fine," Dean said, "Just needed to take the edge off so I Irish'ed up his coffee a little.

"You gave him coffee?!" Bobby yelled, as if that was a thousand times worse. "Where the hell do you get off?!"

"Just let the man drink his coffee, Bobby," Rufus said.

"Oh, who pushed your button, you troll?!" Bobby shot back.

"You're a grown-ass man," Rufus said to Castiel. "A heavenly veteran who lost his wings fighting against the Apocolypse. If you want a damn cup of coffee, who is he to tell you that you can't have it?"

"Thank you," Castiel said pointedly to Rufus, who he only just realized was there.

"I thought I told you to mind your business!" Bobby snapped at Rufus, then turned back to Castiel. "We had a deal, remember? You swore you were gonna stop hunting."

"Our deal is off," Castiel said. "I can't live like this anymore. I am an Angel of the Lord."

"Were an angel," Bobby said. "Now you're just a mortal shmuck who ain't got the sense of a flat squirrel on the highway. You expect me to keep up my end of the bargain while you run around acting like a jackass?"

"I don't give a damn what you do," Castiel said in the sassiest of tones.

"Well, you better give a damn, 'cause I'm not about to stand by while you try to kill yourself again. It's not happening."

"You think you can stop me from doing what I want?" Castiel said, his voice getting a little bit threatening. "Old man?"

"You gonna let him talk to you like that?" Rufus asked Bobby, gesturing at Castiel with a shrimp.

"Will you get the hell outta here!" Bobby yelled.

"He's showin' out for a reason," Rufus went on. "You been too soft on him, all talk. He doesn't respect you. It's about time you showed him who's house this is. Whoop his ass, Bobby."

"I'm whoopin' someone's ass-."

"Everybody, just calm down," Dean said. "It's not a big deal, okay? Cas had a bad day. Like, real bad. So we went to the mall, ran into trouble on the way back. That's it. It ain't worth fightin' over. Really."

"Trouble maker," Rufus said to Bobby and Castiel. "He's dead three years, now he thinks he can butt into your lives, tell you both how to live."

"Nobody's puttin' nickels in you!" Dean shouted. "Lay off."

Rufus put his hand up. "I don't say a word."