Dean could not remember the last time he was this terrified. Baby roared down the road, Dean's eyes barely watching enough to keep her on the correct side. Mostly, he was looking up. He'd distinctly heard the sound of wings flapping before he'd reached the door. When he'd opened it, Cass was nowhere to be seen.

Now the Impala was tearing up the pavement, breaking speed laws, blowing through stop signs, and dashing through a red light narrowly ahead of a horn-blaring truck that came within inches of hitting him. He didn't care. His window was down, Dean leaning partway out of it so he could scan for black feathered wings. "Cass!" he bellowed, putting all he had into both the verbal and telepathic call for his dragon. "Come on, buddy, where are you?"

By the time he was passing a sign that marked the end of the town, Dean's throat was raw. His heart pounded in his chest. The morning was bright and cheerful, although the cold had numbed Dean's nose and ears and reddened his cheeks. Cass was out in this naked? Surely the dragon would have gone back to his scaly form, but he was a fire dragon. Could he handle the cold? The worst part was that Dean wasn't altogether sure what had upset Cass so much in the first place. He wanted to beat the everloving shit out of Ketch for confusing his poor, sweet, innocent dragon the way he clearly had. Dean was shocked that Cass actually believed Dean intended to force himself on him. Worse, the dragon was clearly willing to accept it. Cass was so eager to please! It sickened Dean that, had he been a lesser man, he could have easily raped the confused dragon without Cass even understanding that it was rape. Ok, pointing it out to Cass the way he'd done had been wrong of Dean. How Dean ever could have forgotten the reason behind Jimmy's suicide was mind boggling, but it only served to prove the point Dean had been trying to make. Castiel did not and could not understand why it would be wrong of Dean to take advantage of him. The dragon had Jimmy's very attractive body, at least some portion of Jimmy's experiences, and, unfortunately, the memory of the betrayal of his ex-wife. Combined with the dragon's apparent instinct to do whatever it took to please his guiding partner and it was a recipe for the worst sort of sexual assault imaginable. Dean had no idea what, exactly, he'd said or done to make poor Cass think he even wanted sex, especially after Bobby surely explained that he'd been out getting some strange just yesterday. Obviously, they needed to talk. Dean just had to find him, first.

Unfortunately, Dean had just run out of ideas. While theoretically, Castiel could just keep flying until he literally dropped, his experience with the dragon led him to believe that Cass wouldn't stray too far from Dean. That meant he wouldn't leave the town. Right? Dean didn't know. He knew Cass could fly pretty fast and had some decent stamina, although the fight with Raphael likely tampered that a bit. Still, someone would have seen a dragon flying overhead. But that would mean Cass was in his human form and probably still naked, despite the cold. Dean pulled over, leaned back, and closed his eyes. Where would Cass go? He'd never mentioned wanting to visit anywhere in particular. Realizing this line of thought was getting him nowhere, Dean tried another direction. What sort of things did Cass like? He liked burgers, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, bees…

Dean's eyes flew open. Bees!

Dean swerved back out into traffic, did an illegal U-turn, ignoring the blaring horns of the people he'd just cut off and went racing to the city park. While there weren't any flowers out there this time of year, and therefore no bees, it was the closest thing to a natural environment Cass could likely find in the town. Since they couldn't go back out to the lake after the fight with Raphael, Dean knew that the park was his best bet. It had to be. Dean had no idea where else to try looking.

As soon as he was in sight of the park his eyes were scanning the trees. Sure enough, high up in the biggest tree, he could see a pale figure against the bark, high up among the branches. Finally. Relief flooded through Dean. Cass was high up and still buck naked, visible to anyone looking up into the trees from the road. Thankfully, the leaves had long ago fallen or he never would have seen the dragon. Still, it was a matter of time before someone else noticed him. Dean needed to get him down and now. Slamming Baby into park, Dean ran for the tree and jumped, trying hard to get to the lowest branch of the big oak. It was several feet above Dean's head. He couldn't reach it. "Cass!" he yelled.

Cass looked down and frowned. "Assbutt!"

Dean jumped up again, trying unsuccessfully to reach the branch. After two hours of driving around searching, trying to figure out where the dragon had run off to, he was beyond relieved to have finally found Castiel. Unfortunately, he had no idea how he could reach the dragon. Castiel, still stark naked, was about thirty feet up, sitting on a branch with his back against the trunk. His arms were crossed stubbornly over his chest. One leg dangled. His face bore a scowl that he directed down at Dean as Dean tried in vain to reach the branch and climb up after the dragon. "Cass, come on," Dean pleaded. "You need to come down from there, ok? Anyone coming down the road could see you."

This didn't seem to impress the dragon. He continued to scowl down at Dean. "Stupid head!" he yelled.

"Ok, I'm a stupid head!" Dean exclaimed. "I said a really stupid, thoughtless thing. I also said I was sorry, and I'll say it again. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to hurt you. I was only trying to get you to understand…"

"Dumb teeth!"

Dean ground his teeth. "Could you please come down and talk to me?"

"Buttface!"

"Now you're getting personal." Frustrated, Dean slapped a hand on the bark of the tree. "Come on, Cass!"

"Fart sniffer!"

"Damn it to Hell, would you please…?"

"Eat my poop!"

Dean turned around, put his back to the tree, slid down and groaned into his hands. It was almost comical how childlike Cass was in some ways because of the damage to his brain. Brain damage was an interesting thing, affecting people differently depending on the situation or the emotions involved. Castiel angry seemed to be triggering something in his damaged brain. Apparently, where Jimmy might have been cursing like a sailor at Dean, Castiel was more like a kid having a schoolyard argument. Dean could recall Sammy telling him to eat his poop a time or two when he was young. But this was way bigger than screaming match etiquette now. "Could you just answer me one question?" he asked quietly.

"What?"

Dean looked the dragon in the eye. "Did Ketch or anyone else at that base touch you in any sexual way?"

Cass rolled his eyes and sighed dramatically. "Ketch kissed me, but that was all," he grumbled. "It was confusing. I didn't understand why he would kiss me, but it was still better than you." He pointed angrily down at Dean. "You wouldn't even do that. You wouldn't kiss me or even look at me. You just made me angry."

"I know I did and I'm sorry I made you angry." Dean stood up again and looked pleadingly up at the dragon. "I'm a total assbutt and everything else, ok? I deserve every insult you can come up with now to throw at me."

"You son of a dog!" Cass spat.

"I definitely deserve that one." Dean offered a small smile. "If you don't want to come down yet, that's ok, but I'm worried someone will see you. If they do, they might call the police. The police probably have pictures of us, remember? Do you want to go back to the base?"

That made Cass hesitate. "No," he admitted.

Dean extended his arms pleadingly toward the dragon. "Then will you please come down from there and come into the car where it's warm? You've got to be freezing!" He looked around. "Ok, no one's around. Come down, please?"

Castiel harrumphed. He chewed on his lip, squinting down at Dean as he considered his options. Then he jumped down, manifesting and spreading his wings to slow his fall.

Dean was quick to get under the dragon. He got his arms around Cass as soon as he could and just held him close for a moment, breathing a sigh of relief. When the icy cold of the dragon's skin finally seeped through Dean's clothing, Dean startled. "Shit, you're freezing! Come on, let's get into the car."

Cass had seemed surprised to be embraced by Dean. He didn't hug Dean back, although he did rest the side of his head against Dean's. Now he allowed Dean to put his own coat over his chilled shoulders, put an arm around his waist, and lead him quickly to the car.

When Dean got in, he immediately started the engine to activate the heater, but he didn't put the Impala into gear. He sat there, staring blankly out the windshield as he tried to decide how to continue. "I really want to talk to you," he began, "but I don't know if this is the time and place. It's not just because I'm worried you'll get pissed and go up that tree again, either."

"That's probably wise," Cass growled. "I got that idea from you, after all. You do have a penchant for naked climbing in public places."

"I deserve that," Dean admitted. "I deserved pretty much everything you yelled at me. I fucked up." He turned to meet the upset blue eyes that glowered back at him. "I'm sorry."

That seemed to surprise Castiel. "Sorry for what?"

"For everything," Dean replied. "I'm sorry I'm such a fuck-up. I'm sorry I let you hurt yourself in the first place. I'm sorry I turned out to be such a shitty guiding partner that I let someone like Ketch get close enough to you to kiss you and mess with your head…"

"That wasn't your fault," Cass objected, surprised. "He came in to be with me when you were out of the humanoid habitat. I thought it was nice because it meant I wasn't alone. But you're right. He did confuse me when he kissed me. I like Ketch, but I didn't want him to do that to me. I wasn't sure why he did."

Dean's fists were clenched so tightly that his knuckles were white and his nails dug into his palms. He breathed deeply through his nose. Cool it, Winchester, he ordered himself. Do not lose your shit in front of Cass.

"Why would you lose your shit?"

Dean grimaced. Damned dragon telepathy. "I'm just really upset at Ketch is all, buddy. That's nothing against you. I should have done a much better job of protecting you."

"Ketch didn't hurt me," Cass said quietly. His eyes were on his hands, which were clutching Dean's coat around himself. "You're the one who did that."

That was like a knife to Dean's heart. He closed his eyes and lowered his head. "I wish there was something, anything, that I could do to take that back, make it better. I wish you'd never hurt yourself, I wish Ketch's friend hadn't died… I really, really wish that I would have gotten my head out of my ass just long enough to reach out to you as Jimmy. Just once, so you knew how much I really did care about you. Maybe, if I'd done that? Not only would you have not done what you did, but we'd both be in our rightful places right now."

"Rightful places?" Cass echoed. "What do you mean?"

"Come on, Cass, you know," Dean insisted. "I'm the one who should have been lobotomized and swallowed. You never would have fucked everything up the way I did."

"Dean, stop it," Cass insisted, frowning again. "Can we just go back to Bobby's?"

That snapped Dean out of his depression. He nodded, put Baby into gear, and headed back to Bobby's.

The veteran was pacing around in front of his porch when he saw Dean and Cass pull up. Bobby quickly went back inside and returned with a robe. He held it for Cass when the dragon got out of the car. Cass seemed reluctant to give up Dean's coat, but eventually did, climbing into the robe. Then he went inside with the other two.

Dean fussed over his dragon, bundling him up in a warm set of sweat pants and sweater. He even found some fuzzy bunny slippers that made Bobby blush and mutter something about not knowing where they came from. He wrapped two thick quilts around Cass and pushed him down on the couch close to the radiator. Then he brought a steaming cup of coffee and put it it into Cass's hands. Finally, he stood behind Cass and rubbed at his shoulders. "Just relax and get warm," Dean urged, trying to knead any residual chill out of the dragon's muscles. "We can talk once you're feeling better."

"I feel fine," Cass sighed. "I'm a dragon, Dean. You weren't worried about me being cold when we first ran and I was outside all night in my true form, were you? I was fine and kept you warm, too."

Dean rubbed at the back of his neck. "Yeah, I guess I'm being silly," he admitted. "I just feel so guilty about hurting you."

"You did hurt me," Cass said, staring into his coffee. "You hurt me far more than Dr. Tapping or Raphael ever did."

"Sounds like you boys need to talk," Bobby announced, straightening his hat and pulling on his jacket. "I'll be puttering around outside."

Dean waited until Bobby went out and then focused on Castiel. "I don't want to hurt you. Not now and not ever."

Cass looked sadly at him. "Don't you love me, Dean?"

Dean grimaced and focused on Cass's hand in his own. "Listen. I do love you, Castiel, but not in a sexual way," he explained quietly. "Sexual love, romantic love? That isn't something I can give you." He looked up, finally meeting the dragon's gaze. "But don't ever think that I don't love you. I do. And I promise you, I will do everything in my power to keep you safe."

Castiel smiled and squeezed Dean's hand. It seemed to help Dean relax because his bondmate smiled, the tension bleeding out of his posture. That was good. It wouldn't do to let Dean know that he'd just broken Castiel's heart.