Chapter 11.

Cas was frying bacon when Dean and Anael came into the kitchen. There was already quite a pile on the plate.

"Where's Jules?" said Dean.

"She wanted a long soak in the bath." Said Cas.

Dean smirked. "It's a big tub. You could've bathed with her."

Cas frowned, certain that the suggestion was nonsensical, even for Dean. "Angels don't need to bathe." he explained.

"It's true. We don't." said Anael.

Dean shook his head. "How did you two ever get laid?"

"The reaper, April." Cas reminded him.

"Rhetorical question." said Dean, quickly turning to Anael and raising a warning finger, "And with you, I know, I was there." He looked at Cas and said, "I just think you could afford to be a little more romantic."

"Do you want bacon?" said Cas.

"And I don't mean with me."

"Bacon is not a romantic gesture." said Cas.

Anael took a piece from the plate and put it into Dean's mouth. "Trust me, Castiel, it can be." She said as he slipped his arm around her waist.

"Sam and Eileen out running?" said Dean.

"Yes, they plan to puree some vegetation later."

Dean opened his mouth to say something, but Jules entered the room, her hair wrapped in a towel and said, "Put her down, Dean."

"Don't wanna. Are you kidding? I found her. I'm keeping her." He kissed Anael's head. "You have your own angel."

"I do." she said. She took a piece of bacon. "Hey, Cas, are you sure you want me in Sioux Falls today?"

"Of course." He said, "Don't you want to go?"

"I thought maybe you'd want some time with Dean,."

She had always understood his need to talk to Dean and spend time with him and her willingness to give them space was one of the many ways she showed her love, but he enjoyed having both of them with him. He loved them both in very different ways.

Dean spoke for both of them. "Cas wants you there. You're prettier than I am."

Cas finished cooking. "There should be enough bacon for everyone there." He said, adding the last pieces to the plate.

"You're not eating?" said Dean.

"Jack wants to see me before I go to Sioux Falls." said Cas.

"What and he can't come here?" Cas was unsure whether Dean was offended or not. "What's the matter? Is Jack too good for us now?"

"Well, he's a god." said Cas.

"If we can overlook that, so can he." said Dean.

Cas was beginning to feel defensive when Jules took his arm and said, "He's teasing you, Cas. He loves Jack as much as you do."

"Yeah. Take the kid a beer if you want." said Dean.

"'m not sure it would travel well." Said Cas. He focused for a moment and then was in Heaven's snug.

Gabriel lay on one of the plaid couches with his feet up. "Yo, Castiel!" he said.

"Should you be doing that?" said Cas.

"Are you my dad?" said Gabriel.

"Thankfully, no." said Cas.

Gabriel seemed unusually serious. "Heard you went to see him, Dad I mean."

"Jack knows that I see him sometimes."

"I wasn't accusing you of conspiring with him. I'm just curious. How is the narcissistic sociopath these days?"

"Not good."

"He was never good. Best you could say is amoral." A little of the Gabriel twinkle returned. "Not that there's anything wrong with that."

"He's living like a child, like a teenager."

"Not much wrong with that, either."

"I mean he's not going to work. I have to clean his place and do his laundry."

"Why would you bother?" said Gabriel.

"Who else is going to do it?"

"Oh, I don't know ... him? If you run around after him, he'll never learn to do it."

"He could get sick." said Cas.

"Great object lesson."

"He could die."

"You care? He was never exactly kind to us."

"You don't understand."

"Do you?"

Cas wished he could say yes. "I don't want him to die."

"Hoping for a redemption arc?"

"Is that bad?" said Cas.

"Wow. You really are."

"I just want to give him a chance to start again."

"And Dean and Sam? They're going along with it?"

"They are."

Gabriel looked at him uncertainly and he felt a fleeting sense of pride that his big brother was wondering whether he were being completely honest. The Trickster appeared to come to the conclusion that it was true. "Good." he said, 'That's good. It's good that they know."

"Of course." said Cas. There was no need to tell him they had only just found out and not from him. It was good that they knew, because they trusted him enough now to let him handle it his way.

"Have they seen him, since ... "

"No. Not a good idea."

"You're afraid Dean would kill him?"

"No, but I don't feel the visit would leave anyone happier."

"Does he ask you to bring them?" said Gabriel.

"All the time."

Gabriel grinned. "Yeah, I bet he does. Never asks about me, I guess?"

"No and I don't encourage him to. We're all better off without him."

"Except you?"

That was an awkward question. He pretended not to have heard it.

"Cas?"

"Where's Jack?"

"Around. Mysterious ways." said Gabriel, "Cas, if you're doing it as some kind of penance ... "

"No, of course not." said Cas. He said it too quickly. Other celestials would have missed it, Gabriel wouldn't.

"Because what you did ... you had no choice. The guy was ending realities. He was murdering universes. He had to be stopped."

"I know."

"Nobody owed him anything, you least of all."

"No." said Cas.

"And look what we have now! Life is safe. Jack's in charge and there's no ego with that kid, no sick games, no, 'Hey, let me tell you about the great plot twist for Russia!'" His voice became gentle, "That's what you did, Castiel, you took Lucifer's kid and made him in the image of the Winchesters."

Cas wasn't sure what he meant by that. "Jack was good, right from the start. He was Kelly's child, not Lucifer's."

"Yeah, maybe, but your guidance reinforced that. I know guilt is kinda your thing, but you have nothing to feel guilty about. You know, he never stops talking about you, about all the things you taught him."

"I taught him very little."

"Just everything that mattered."

"I don't expect you to understand."

"I do understand. That's why I'm worried. Dad messed us all up. He hurt us all and he set us up to fight and hurt each other. It was all him. It wasn't you. Heck, it wasn't even me or Lucifer. You carry stuff you never should have taken on. Even now, he has his claws in you."

"And you shook them off?"

Gabriel nodded, went to speak and then stopped himself. "Ya got me." he said, "I'm probably as bad as you are, but at least I know I shouldn't be."

Cas sank down onto the opposite couch. "So do I." he said quietly.

"Good. I'm not gonna tell you don't go, but just remember what he is."

"I never forget that."