Fic: Unraveling (Part 8)

[dauntperplexity]

[ Masterlist]  [ Part 7]

Cas was miserable. He was awake and aware of every single injury on his body. He woke up in the early hours of the morning to find himself in a hospital room with a shirt he remembered Dean wearing wrapped around the thing that almost killed him in his hand. He wondered how Dean was able to get it to him. And if his identity was blown. He reached up and felt his mask still in place.

He looked up and saw that the television in his room was on. He noticed two things from the muted screen. One, he had been unconscious for longer than a week. And two, it seemed like every reporter in the nation was waiting outside the hospital for news about him.

Without thinking, he turned invisible and flew out of the hospital room.

He stayed invisible as he flew into his house. He collapsed onto his bed when he landed. He knew he wasn’t ready to use his powers just yet, but he needed to get out of the hospital as soon as possible. He quickly threw on a fresh set of clothes. Until that moment, he never let go of the shard of the blade in his hand. He threw on his trench coat, glad that he had the sense to send his clothes home before he went back into his building as Dark Angel, and stuffed the blade into one of the pockets.

He walked out into the living room and saw the television still on. He looked to his couch and saw his sister sleeping on it with a blanket on the floor. He bent down, wincing as he did and laid it over her. He thought about waking her to tell her where he’d be, but it was too early in the morning and he wanted her to sleep. He knew that the almost two weeks he was in the hospital had to be tough on her.

After taking a few deep breaths, he flew to the alley next to his workplace. He leaned against the wall for a second. He was using too much energy too soon. He could feel his stab wound throbbing. He took a few deep breaths, trying to ignore the pain.

Once he pushed the pain down, he stood up and walked to the front door of the building. He was not surprised to see Crowley standing at the front desk of the lobby.

“Lucas,” Crowley said, greeting his worker. “Nice to see you bright and early on your first day back.”

“First day?” Cas asked. He wondered if Crowley had actually noticed that he wasn’t at work for a few days. He thought that Jo would have called him in sick.

“Yes,” Crowley said slowly. “You know, since the cops had our floor marked off and I gave everyone a few days to recover.”

“Right, of course.” He was relieved. It gave him less to have to lie about. He winced when the deep sigh was felt in his side.

“Are you all right there, Lucas?” Crowley asked. He walked toward the elevators and pushed the button for them.

Cas followed behind as quickly as he could. “Just… anxious to get back to work.”

“All right. Well, take it easy today. It’s our first day back.” The elevator doors opened and he stepped in.

Cas did the same and stood against one of the walls. His legs were shaking and he needed something to keep him up. “I will.” He hoped Crowley didn’t notice.

Crowley stared at Cas, knowing that something wasn’t right with him. “I’ll bring you a few articles to read over once I get to my office. Clean them up, please. That’s all I need for you to do today.”

“Thank you.”

“Are you sure you’re all right, Lucas?”

“Fine, sir.”

“If aren’t feeling well, go home.”

Cas sighed and nodded. “If I start to feel worse, I will.” He felt horrible and he knew that if he stayed at work he would only get worse. If he felt bad enough or if he was about to pass out form pain, he’d leave. That was the only excuse he’d be okay with for leaving work early.

“I know you won’t, but all right. Get to your desk, I’ll bring you the articles and something to drink.”

“Thank you, Crowley.”

“Do not ever tell anyone that I’m this nice.”

“Of course.” Cas smiled. Even though everyone on their floor was afraid of Crowley, he wasn’t as scary as everyone believed him to be. There were often moments where Crowley would end up getting something for Cas or making sure he’s all right. All of the moments would end with Crowley making Cas promise to act as afraid of him as everyone else was.

He turned on his computer and waited for it to start up. Before it finished, Crowley had returned with a stack of papers and tall cup of coffee. “Now get to work,” he said sternly after he set the coffee down. He put the papers in front of Cas. “But take it easy, all right?”

“Thank you.”

Crowley retreated to his office. Then Cas did what he always did whenever he had a stack of papers in front of him; he began organizing them by length. But instead of tackling the shorter pieces first, he decided to do read over the longer ones. He needed to take his mind off of the pain in his side.

Once he was done organizing the sheets, he looked up at a clock and saw that people were probably on their way up. He had about fifteen minutes before everyone was back on the pen for the first time since the incident.

He took a sip of the coffee. He was surprised that Crowley had made it just the way he liked. He looked down and saw that he was still wearing his trench coat. He stood up to take it off. Once he was on his feet, his chest heaved as he tried to monitor his breathing to keep the pain at bay.

He started to fold the trench coat when he found one section not agreeing with him. Then he remembered what he stuffed into his pocket. He sat down and put the trench coat in his lap and out of view from anyone who could have walked in.

He pulled out Dean’s shirt. He squeezed it and felt where the piece of the sword was. He opened the bottom drawer in his desk and stuffed it in the back of it. He made a note to grab it and take it home before he left.

He then attempted to fold his trench coat again. When he was done, he put in the same drawer Dean’s shirt was. He used his trench coat to cover it. He closed the drawer and put its contents out of mind until he was about to go home.

After taking a few breaths to gather himself, he grabbed his coffee and took another sip. Then he picked up the first article. He was one paragraph into it when he heard the sound of Dean’s voice in the distance. He looked up and saw him walk in with Ash and a few other workers. He saw that Dean was smiling, but he also knew that it wasn’t his usual, charming smile.

Dean went straight toward Cas’s desk. “Why am I not surprised that you’re the first person here?” The people he walked in with broke away from when they saw he was done talking to them.

“Crowley’s here.”

“Because he has to be. You don’t actually start work for another four minutes.”

“And neither do you. So that makes you early today.”

“Yeah, well,” Dean said, unable to find an argument against that.

“I figured we have a lot of work to do,” Cas said. And they did. They were more than a week behind.

“It’s not like it was our fault,” Dean replied. He looked at Cas’s desk and saw that he already had a load of work that he had to get through. “One day, Cas, you’re going to actually sit back and not worry about work.”

“Not today, though,” Cas replied. “Today we have a lot to get done.”

“That we do.”

Cas thought that was the end of the conversation, but he saw Dean still standing at his desk. He let out a deep breath and stood himself up slowly. He bit his lip to keep from whimpering. He tasted blood and healed his lip before Dean could notice. He made his way around his desk and sat on the edge of it. “How are you feeling, Dean?”

Dean brought a hand up and scratched the back of his head. “What do you mean, Cas?”

“Your face is still bruised. And we saw you almost fall to your death. Being in this building can’t be easy for you.”

“I’m fine, Cas,” he said with as big of a smile as he could give. “I was just buying time until Dark Angel could swoop in and save the day. A few bruises seem like nothing compared to what happened to him.” Dean couldn’t help but remember what it was like visiting the hospital.

“It was very brave what you did.”

“And stupid,” he said with a laugh.

“I don’t think so.”

“You’re probably the only one on the planet who thinks so. I just wanted to make sure everyone got out of the building safe.”

“They did. You’re a hero in your own right.”

Dean shrugged. “I guess. But it’s nothing like what-”

“Did you guys hear?”

Everyone in the pen looked up and saw Sarah running onto the floor. Everyone moved from where they were standing to the center of the

“What?” Ash asked.

She grabbed the controller that worked on all of the televisions and changed it to one of the many news stations. On every screen flashed ‘BREAKING NEWS’ in big bright letters. “The hospital lost Dark Angel,” she said before the words scrolling on the bottom of the screen could fill everyone in.

“What?” It sounded like everyone in the pen said it at the same time.

“The hospital can’t find him. Someone got hold of the hospital footage. Apparently he was there one second, then gone the next.”

They all watched the screen at the footage that was probably on loop the entire day. They saw the superhero open his eyes, touch his mask, look around, look in his hand to see what he was holding, and then disappear. Then the footage started all over again.

“I hope he’s all right,” Ash said.

Once everyone had watched the footage at least three times, the murmuring started.

Dean knew that this would probably be a distraction for everyone. He shook his head. The last thing he wanted was to hear about Castiel disappearing. And he didn’t want to hear all the theories and speculation his coworkers would come up with. “All right, everyone,” he said in a loud voice. Immediately, the floor quieted. “You’ve had a week and a half to do whatever you wanted to do. Now get back to work.”

All of the workers scurried off to their desks. The only sounds in the room were phones ringing and people typing away on their keyboards.

Dean and Cas made their way over to their desks. “Where do you think he went?” Dean asked.

“I have no idea,” Cas whispered. “You know him better than anyone else. Do you know where he could be?” Cas hated lying and leading Dean on a wild goose chase.

“I don’t know,” Dean whispered. “Maybe. I’ll be right back.” Dean headed toward the elevators without saying anything else to his partner.

Cas felt a pang of guilt. He knew exactly where Dean was going. He almost wanted to change his clothes and meet Dean on the roof, but the dull ache from his wound prevented him from moving. He hated disappointing people.

He made the decision that if Dean didn’t return in twenty minutes then he would go and get him. He wasn’t sure if he’d go as Cas or Castiel.

Cas made his way back over to his chair and slowly eased himself into it. He regretted coming to work. Those few minutes of standing were tiring. He was scared that he’d collapse in the middle of the pen from exhaustion or pain. Or both.

He was glad that he made it to his chair without any trouble.

He took a sip of his coffee that had cooled considerably since he took the first sip. He picked up the longest article that he had and a red pen. Then he went to work.

He got to the first page when he felt the atmosphere in the pen change. Something was about to happen.

“Lucas William Singer!”

Cas’s head shot up and he looked toward where his sister’s voice came from. He looked around and saw her charging to his desk. He grabbed the edge of his desk and used it as a brace to push himself up. All of the sitting and standing was tiring him out.

He wanted to meet her halfway, but he was too slow. He was only a few feet away from his desk when Jo met up with him. “Jo, you can’t just drop by my work whenever you want.” He’s told her than a dozen times, but he knew that his sister would never get the message. Especially after the last few days, he’d never be able to stop her from checking up on him whenever she pleased.

She grabbed her brother by his arm and pulled him toward the elevators. She was pissed. “I wake up and flip on the news, and guess what I hear? The hospital lost Dark Angel,” she growled, her voice soft. She was angry, but she didn’t want to give away her brother’s secret. “And apparently my brother is allergic to answering his cell phone.”

“My phone died.” He hadn’t had the time to charge it when he was unconscious.

“Do you know how many calls I have from mom and dad in the last hour alone? The entire world is about to start a search for you.”

Cas sighed, tired and guilty. He didn’t want the world to be worrying about him. The guilt multiplied tenfold when he realized how worried his family probably was. “Jo, I’m sorry. I should have called you.”

“Damn right, you should have, Cas. I had to call the receptionist to find out that you were at work today,” Jo yelled. All of the people in the bullpen turned to stare at them. Jo let out a deep breath and calmed down. She finally was able to look at her brother without a rage-induced haze covering her vision. She saw how terrible he looked. She regretted practically dragging him to where they stood. “What are you doing here, Cas?”

“I had to go to work.”

“Well, you’re taking a sick day.” She held on to her brother’s wrist and pushed the down button for the elevator.

He tried to pull his wrist out of his sister’s grip, but he found that he couldn’t. He didn’t want to use his angelic strength for it because he knew that if he did, the burst of energy would probably knock him out for a couple of days. “I’m not sick, Jo.”

“No. You just almost died two weeks ago saving the city.”

“I’m fine.”

Jo let go of Cas’s wrist to let him think that he’d won. She stepped around Cas. “I’m going to talk to your boss.”

Cas turned as quickly as he could to follow his sister. “No, Joanna Beth, please,” he said, when he was able to put a hand on her shoulder.

Jo spun around and stared at her brother. She wasn’t one to cry often, but there were tears sitting on the brim of her eyes threatening to fall. “You could’ve died, Cas.”

“I didn’t, though,” he whispered.

“I was so scared. And I wanted to see you.”

Cas pulled Jo into his chest and hugged her. He sighed. He was glad that he was able to give her a bit of comfort after giving her weeks of anxiety. “I’m sorry,” he whispered.

“I know,” Jo said, pushing off of her brother. She dried off most her tears on the front of Cas’s shirt. Whatever else was left, she wiped off with her palms. “Just come home, please. You look like you’re about to get sent back to the hospital.”

He felt that way too. “I have to work on an assignment with Dean.” He hadn’t finished what they were working on before the Sinister brothers interrupted them.

“I’ll tell Dean that you’ll help him tomorrow. Or the day after that. Whenever I say you’re okay.”

“I don’t think that Crowley will allow you to write my sick notes, Joanna.”

“Why don’t I call mom and she’ll do it?”

“Don’t bring mom into this, Joanna. That’s unfair.”

“It’s not unfair if I’m taking care of my brother. And it doesn’t matter when mom and dad are flying here within the next few days. They might actually be on a flight right now.”

Cas’s eyes widened. He was terrified at the thought of his parents arriving. He could already begin to imagine the coddling they were going to do. “Why didn’t you stop them?”

Jo crossed her arms over her chest. “Why would I do that? It was hard enough to convince them to stay home when you were unconscious in the hospital. Did you see the breaking news today? You’re mi-”

“You okay, Cas?”

The siblings looked at Dean at the same time. Cas could not thank him more for his good timing. He looked to the nearest clock and saw that he had come back downstairs before the time limit that he set for him. “I’m fine, Dean. It’s just a little family dispute.”

“About?”

Cas was about to say something, but Jo spoke first. “Cas was sick last night, but he still came to work.”

“Cas,” Dean replied with a tone of disproval. He became even more upset when he didn’t see it when they were talking earlier. He noticed it now.

“I’m fine.”

“You don’t look fine,” Dean said. He wanted to reach forward and see if Cas had a fever or not, even though from just looking at him, he could tell that Cas should not have come to work today.

“Just a little cold, nothing else.”

“Cas,” Jo and Dean said simultaneously, not believing him. They even crossed their arms at the same time.

“Dean, we have work to do,” he argued. Or at least he tried. He knew that he was not going to win an argument against the both of them.

“I can do it without you. You look miserable.”

“That’s unfair of me to leave you with all of that work. Especially since it’s your first day back.”

“It’s everyone’s first day back, Cas,” Dean said, easily deflecting the excuse. He knew that Cas would say anything to stay. “It’s fine. Go home, I’ll cover with Crowley.”

“Dean.”

Dean turned to Jo, ignoring his coworker. “Jo, take your brother home.”

“But the articles. It’s a lot of work to do. And we’re behind.”

Dean stood in front of Cas and held him by his arms. He squeezed them, trying to bring him back from his small anxiety attack. “I can do enough so that we still make the next deadline. If you’re so worried, then I’ll send over what I do so that you can check it out.”

“I don’t-”

“Go home, Cas. Eat some soup. Get some sleep. Then buy me a coffee tomorrow or whenever you’re better to pay me back.”

Cas sighed and bowed his head in defeat. The comfort of sleeping in his bed was becoming more inviting by the minute. “Thank you, Dean.”

Dean squeezed Cas’s arms, trying to provide comfort and reassurance, and then let go. “You make sure he gets to bed.”

“I know how to take care of my brother, Dean,” Jo yelled.

“Joanna,” Cas scolded.

Jo shook her head, the anger gone. She was still on edge. “Sorry.”

Dean smiled. He couldn’t blame her for caring about his brother. “I get it,” he replied. “I know what it’s like to be overprotective of your siblings.” He was the same way with Sam. But at least he was the older brother.

“Yeah. I’ll grab your stuff,” she said and left the two of them alone. She quickly returned with Cas’s trench coat and keys.

“Get well soon, Cas, all right?”

“Thank you, Dean. And please, if you need any help, call me.”

“I won’t.”

Jo wrapped her arm around her brother’s and pressed the down button again. When the elevator doors opened, they stepped in. They spun around and saw Dean still in the same spot they left him.

He stayed and waved goodbye before he went back to work.

LRLRLRLRLRLRLR
Maybe Crowley was not as evil as he thought he was. He told his boss that Cas had to leave because he was feeling sick. Crowley nodded and waved Dean off.

Dean couldn’t ignore how nice Crowley was about it. He probably saw Cas earlier and knew he wasn’t one hundred percent. But there was also something else in Crowley’s eyes that he couldn’t pinpoint. Like he knew something Dean didn’t. Dean didn’t think too much about it. He figured he was reading too much into everything.

He went to his desk and took out almost three-dozen prints that he had to go through. He sighed when he realized that there were more on his camera that he needed to print out. He made it his plan to print the rest of the pictures out in the evening when everyone was gone. He wanted to be able to go to the roof and see if Castiel would meet up with him.

Dean flipped through the pile of pictures in his hand. He saw one that he needed to mark. He reached over to grab a Post-it, but he saw he was out. Again. He stood up and walked over to Cas’s desk. “Hey, Cas. Can I borrow…” His voice trailed off when he saw the empty chair. It was so weird to not see him there. Cas was one of the constants at the paper, and to not see him there was unnerving. “Right. He went home. Good thing he has so many vacations and sick days.”

He sat down in Cas’s chair and sighed. He was always in awe of how pristine he kept his desk. It always seemed like Cas had the most papers on it, but was still the most organized. It was the polar opposite of how he kept his own. He pulled open one of the drawers, wanting to find some Post-its. He went through Cas’s desk until he found what he was looking for.

When he finally found it in the bottom drawer, he quietly rejoiced. They were never usually there. He figured that Cas’s cold was messing with his organizing abilities.

He was about to close the drawer when something in the back caught his attention. He knew that he shouldn’t have been snooping through it, but his hand still reached for it.

It was a cloth. The fabric in his hands was so familiar. He pulled at it and saw the pattern. “What the hell?” he whispered.

It was his shirt. The blue and gray plaid shirt that he was wearing when he was thrown out of a window. The shirt that was pressed against Castiel’s stab wound in the alley. The shirt he used to wrap the blade that he pulled out of Castiel. The shirt that he put in Castiel’s hand in the hospital.

“No way,” he whispered, dropping the shirt back into the drawer. “There is no freaking way.”

He grabbed the shirt and stood up. He crossed the distance between Cas’s desk and his own in a few steps and pulled his jacket off the back of his chair, knocking it down. He put the jacket on and stuffed the bloodied shirt into his pocket.

He snatched his keys and wallet and headed toward the elevators.

“Dean, where are you going?”

He turned around and saw Ash jogging toward him. “Somewhere,” he replied.

“You-”

“If anyone asks for me, just cover for me. If Crowley needs me bad enough, tell him to call me.” Dean stood and waited for Ash to reply. When he didn’t, he grabbed Ash by the shoulders and shook him. “Please, Ash.”

“Yeah, sure thing, Dean.”

“Thanks,” Dean said, dropping his hands.

“Will you be coming back?”

“I don’t know. I… I have to go.”

Dean ran out of the building faster than he had ever run his entire life. He got into his car and sped over to Cas’s place.

A million thoughts bombarded Dean all at once. He wondered if he jumped the gun in assuming that Cas was Dark Angel. There could have been a reasonable explanation as to how his shirt ended up in his desk. Maybe Cas was able to get into the hospital and took it. But he knew Cas wasn’t that sneaky.

But he knew that didn’t necessarily mean that Cas was or wasn’t Castiel. He tried to think of more evidence, but his thoughts were so jumbled that he wasn’t coming up with anything compelling.

He was surprised that he got to Cas’s apartment without getting pulled over for speeding. He parked his car and locked it. Then he ran up the however many flights of stairs to get to Cas’s floor.

He stood outside of the apartment for a few minutes trying to catch his breath. He didn’t remember knocking on the door.

The next thing he knew, it opened with Jo standing on the other side staring at him.

“Dean, what are you doing here?”

“Where… where’s Cas?” he asked, still trying to catch his breath.

“He’s sleeping. Like we told him to do.”

Dean immediately felt guilty. He hated wanting to wake him up knowing how bad he must have been feeling. He was just stabbed and fell from the sky. He thought about it and realized that he’d come back later to talk to him. Apparently, his mouth didn’t get the memo. “I need to talk to him.”

“Can it wait?” Jo asked.

“I don’t think so.”

“Dean, he’s sleeping,” Jo said. “He isn’t feeling well.”

Dean wondered if Jo had known Cas’s secret. Maybe she didn’t know that he was a superhero. But then he thought about how upset Jo was back at the office. He knew that she knew. “Right. But I swear, it’ll only take a minute, Jo,” Dean said. He was calm, not wanting to show how desperate he was to talk to the injured man.

“Just come back later. I’ll tell him to call you as soon as he wakes up.”

The response was reasonable enough. He could wait. It’d give him a few minutes to calm down and find a way to approach this without freaking out. But he knew the longer he waited, he’d lose his nerve. “Jo, please,” Dean pleaded.

“What’s it about?”

“I… work,” Dean said. “Crowley wants something done by tonight and Cas is the only one who can finish it.” He had to hide his disgust. Even he couldn’t believe a word coming out of his mouth.

“You’re a really bad liar,” Jo replied.

“Not usually. But it’s really important, Jo. I…” He didn’t know what he did or said, but he saw the moment something clicked in Jo’s eyes. She knew he figured it out.

“Okay,” she whispered. “Hold on. Let me go see if he’s okay enough to talk.”

“Thanks, Jo.”

“Don’t thank me,” Jo snapped.

Dean jumped at the force of her words. “Sorry.” It was the second time she’s snapped at him today. He was not on Jo’s good side at the moment.

“Come inside. You look like a creeper standing in the hallway like that.” She moved out of the way to let Dean in the apartment.

Dean stepped in and watched as Jo disappeared down the hallway. He walked into the living room then paced. He was beginning to regret being so adamant about the situation. He had no idea where he was supposed to start. He thought about leaving the apartment before Jo came back.

He immediately stopped himself from doing that. He needed to know. Even if he was wrong.

He stood at the end of the hallway when he heard whispers coming from it. He couldn’t make out a lot of what he heard. He only heard his name a few times. And maybe Jo threatening to kick his ass.

Dean was nervous. He rubbed his hand up and down his arm when he felt goosebumps on them. He gulped down a breath when he saw Jo walking back down the hallway.

He braced himself for an earful. It never came.

“He’s waking up.”

“He okay?”

“He’s been better.”

Dean was surprised when Jo wouldn’t make eye contact with him. “Is he okay to talk?”

“I guess,” Jo replied.

“I just want to talk to him, Jo. That’s it.”

“About work, right?” Jo asked.

“Yeah,” Dean said, not even trying to hide that he was lying.

‘Dean?” Jo whispered.

“Yeah?”

“Go easy on him, all right?” she replied.

Dean let out a long sigh and headed into Cas’s room.

[ Part 9]