Dean/Cas Big Bang 2016: Sky's the Limit Part 4

[felicia_angel]

The strange place is still bathed in a blue-white light, but now only the man sat, looking nervous as he writes in the book.
“Hm? Oh, she’s not here at the moment. Still, we can’t be rude. I’m Chuck. Welcome to the Velvet Room. I know you’re rushing things, trying to save everyone, but you have to know also how to manage time. Your card is special, after all - it’s the zero card, empty but full of potential. All you need to do is connect to others, and you’ll see something...well, you’ll see.” The nervous man gives him a smile, opening up his book as what appeared to be a card with the symbols of the ones his friends had gained fall into it with a soft, blue glow. Inside, with each card, is what appears to be a small area that shows his memories with each of them.
“You noticed a bit of a change, right? You’re connected to the Magician, the one you first saved, and now you can change your Persona. That’s the beauty of it. With more links, your Persona will grow stronger and stronger, as will the Personas of the others with you. So...use your time wisely.”
-Sam frowns when he sees the dark-haired guy from Yasoinaba walking up to them again, something that has occurred more and more since Sam first met the guy. Dean waves and smiles stupidly when he sees him, saying happily, “Yo, Cas! You ok? You look down.”
“The midterms were a few days ago. It was...not pleasant,” the other teen says with a tired shrug.
Dean chuckles a bit as they walk. “Sucks, man. But besides that, you’re good, right?”
“I’m good,” the other teen gives Dean a warm smile, “I’m happy that break is coming up soon. It’ll give me time to relax. I’m also supposed to start working soon at a center. Apparently I’m good with children.”
“You make it sound like you didn’t know that already. Why take the job if you weren’t sure?”
“It paid well enough and I was qualified. As for never knowing, my parents believed in including children in raising others, but as my own…beliefs…became known fairly early on, I found myself with…other duties.”
That got Sam to narrow his eyes as Dean looked upset. “Still, at least you know now.”
“Yes,” the other teen says with a nod before Sam finally speaks up.
“So, what, your family is full of religious nuts?”
“Sammy, that’s not-.”
“It’s SAM, and he said it, why can’t I ask?”
The other teen answers instead, sounding annoyed, “Considering how rude you were in asking the question, I don’t think I should answer it, Sam.”
Sam glares at him as they came up to the fork in the road. He hadn’t liked this guy since Dean introduced them, and he likes him even less now for not answering a straightforward question. What was wrong with answering something with a simple ‘yes’ or ‘no’? It’s like they just don’t want him to know anything, or think that just because he’s younger, he couldn’t handle something.
Dean’s like that too, always making excuses for why he was tired and couldn’t do his own damned chores. Dad didn’t take those excuses, and Sam wasn’t going to take this one from some idiot transfer student. “It’s a simple question. You don’t have to be an ass about answering it.”
“You are allowed to ask questions, but if you ask them in such a way, or if it’s not something easily answered, you are not automatically allowed an answer,” the other teen tells him sternly, in a voice that makes Sam feel like a child. It only upsets Sam more because he’s been dealing with Jess’ death and now this guy is trying to turn this into a lecture because he doesn’t want to answer a question?
“So, what, I can’t ask a question about your family when you brought them up first?”
The other teen crosses his arms, not answering and looking even more annoyed, which only gets Sam even more upset. He was allowed to ask questions, and he didn’t need a lecture for his troubles.
Dean doesn’t need such a critical friend, especially not one who won’t answer simple damned questions.
“Whatever,” Sam turns and races off towards school, expecting Dean to follow. Dean always follows Sam’s lead, only this time, when Sam looks back, Dean was talking to the other kid. He wasn’t coming after Sam, wasn’t apologizing for allowing that jerk to embarrass Sam like that. He wasn’t even trying to look and see if Sam was ok, he was talking to that...that asshole he called a friend.
That asshole that he stayed with over his own brother.
Sam turns away and races to school, wishing Dean would stop acting like Sam didn’t mean anything to him anymore. First with Meg, now with that guy. Dad’s right...Dean’s an idiot.
-“I’m sorry about that, he-.”
“Sam should be the one apologizing Dean, not you.”
“Look, it’s just he-.”
“I understand he’s upset because of what happened to the girl he liked, and I also understand that such events don’t give him the right to act like a willful child when he wants to be treated as an adult. I’m not going to accept your apology about this when it’s not on you. If Sam wants to act like an adult, he will be treated as such, but he cannot fall back on acting like a child whenever he doesn’t get his way.”
Dean opens his mouth to reply, then closes it and looks away, as if uncertain he can face Castiel. “I know. I know that. I just... I want him to realize so much, I want him to...realize what’s going on, but it’s like he’s got blinders on. And I can’t help but feel like I’m the one that put them on.”
Castiel is quiet as the first bell at his school rings clearly, before reaching over to grip Dean’s right forearm, squeezing it gently, reassuringly. “Even if you did, Dean, he’s old enough now to take them off himself. He doesn’t need you to do that for him.”
Dean winces before he shifts away, looking back up at Castiel, their eyes locking for a long moment before Dean asks, “Are you gonna skip today or something?”
“If you need me to. You seem upset.”
Dean swallows before shifting quickly to break it, looking a bit pained, either from the break or whatever had pained him. “I...I can’t...not now.”
“Maybe later, than,” Castiel says with a small smile that Dean returns, almost on instinct. Whatever it is about Castiel, he makes him feel...whole. Happy, almost, in a way that Dean hadn’t felt since he was four.
The two part ways, Dean hoping that Sam won’t take his inability to talk Cas into understanding as badly as he’d taken Meg’s, and that the weather would remain clear for a while longer. He hates the rain now, hates the fog, and despite the dire warnings of the weather service, he has to believe they’ll be wrong.
-Castiel considers the dream and what had been said in the mysterious Velvet Room, about the Links like the one he’s created with Meg. He felt that with the others, even with Gabriel still recovering. Now he had that same type of Link with the music club he’s in, as well as one starting to get that from Jody Mills, her friend Donna, and now from Alex as well. The little he knew of Alex’s past was enough to know she’d been badly hurt, and that Jody had saved her. But whatever had happened, Alex was far more comfortable with Jody over anyone else, men included, and Jody was trusted to care for Castiel while Uncle Michael dealt with his own things. Jody gets more time off from work, and therefore has a better household if anything comes up, as compared to Uncle Michael’s work schedule and his attention to the murders. Not to mention that she is very open to just about anything that Castiel or Alex can bring to her, over Michael’s awkwardness when dealing with teenagers or ‘ones like Castiel’.
Castiel considers asking Michael or Jody about Dean and Sam, after what he’d witnessed and how worried he is about Dean. It’s not a new development, but the moment to breathe easy and not worry about the murders means that his focus is now squarely on Dean and what he knows about him, not to mention what little he knows about Sam from Charlie, who defended her tutoring student when asked about him.
Meg is sipping noisily on a soda as Castiel finally asks, “Why is Dean’s family so...” he waves his hand, attempting to figure out a nice word but failing. He supposes Sam is that way due to his age - he is four years younger than them, but is smart enough to take various advanced classes, hence him getting tutoring from Charlie. Still, the immaturity he shows whenever Castiel runs into him and Dean on the walk to school worries Castiel, as did Dean’s continue shrugging off or apologies for his younger brother’s attitudes. It felt oddly like Dean had raised Sam and was now attempting to make him happy for...some reason. Charlie had no defense for Sam in that case, but still felt that the whole thing was something hurting both Dean and Sam.
“Dean’s dad is just an asshole,” Meg mutters around the straw, sitting back before adding, “and Sam takes after their Dad. Not to mention the obvious favoritism towards Sam, which I’m sure only adds to their issues.”
“Is that why Dean acts like he does with Sam? Because their father favors Sam?”
“Not just their Dad, but everyone - teachers, other adults, everyone. Even Adler, and he hates them both,” Meg tells him with even more annoyance, “Sam’s been acting up more and more for a while now, though, even before this whole murder case. Ever since he figured out that he just had to tell on Dean to their dad, it’s like open season for whenever Sam feels like he’s been wronged. The worst one was where Sam tried to get answers from their Dad, and then drags them out of Dean instead, and gets him in trouble. Sam acts up then too, like his actions didn’t result in anything bad happening to Dean.” She looks contemplative and worried, “I know more is going on that Dean just getting yelled at. Their dad works, but he makes Dean do a lot too. I once heard Sam complain about having to do laundry or that something, and acted like it was Dean’s job, not something to share.”
Castiel feels his worry for Dean rise, though some of it also goes towards Sam as well. No matter what, this seems like something his uncle or Jody should be able to help with, though he also knows that they’re busy with not just the murder case, but also with dealing with the issues of the last small town sheriff not caring for those around him because of various bribes. Jody had explained that Michael was basically coming in and burning the whole setup for the police down in order to root out the corruption, but said corruption and dealings were very deep. That had meant a new partner for her - the overly bubbly Sheriff Donna Hascum - and the equally energetic and puppy-like Garth Fitzgerald III working reception. Both took their duties seriously, and neither were people you wanted to cross. They were bubbly in the same way most dogs were bubbly, until their family was threatened. Garth in particular was probably far more dangerous than anyone thought, him looking skinny and goofy. But he also was the only other person besides Jody to get Alex to smile, and that had instantly made him a fan-favorite for Mills and Alex.
He has to head home and do some of the jobs he picked up for the summer, as well as fill out the required paperwork for the jobs that wanted to ‘test’ him out first before they officially put him on the staff. While Meg had tried to get him to work at Biggersons, Castiel’s current study load wouldn’t allow him to keep a good schedule, so the few part-time jobs that he could do at home, or that weren’t strict about his attendance, would have to work for now. He did sometimes work at Biggersons if the load was heavy enough, being paid in cash for his day’s work, but he did want to have more on his resume besides the schools he went to and the grades he’d received.
As he walks by the auto shop, he hears a clang and yell, getting him to stop and look over. Dean stood near a half-destroyed car, holding his right arm as blood slowly trickled down and one of the other workers, a large burly man in a cap, raced over to try to help out. Another, similar cut paralleled the new one, and it sparked a memory in Castiel.
Dean had flinched when he touched his arm earlier…and Tramp had the same cut on his right arm, but it hadn’t been deep enough to cut into the skin…
“Lafitte, get back to work!” the harsh voice yelled, making Castiel shift away, hiding as he watches the rest unfold. “Winchester, what did you do now?” The man who is yelling is tall and has dark hair cut short, with a gray beard and looks dangerous. He towers over Dean as the teen mutters a quiet response. Castiel hates how unnervingly out of it Dean sounds, not to mention how quiet. Dean had been full of life each time Castiel had seen him before, happy or at least starting to look more like someone who didn’t have a care in the world. Dean sounds defeated, beaten down, and Castiel hates it.
“Stop it,” the man says, looking down at the cut, “It’s just a scratch. Go wrap it and get back to work.”
More silence before a new, accented voice catches Castiel’s attention. “I can take care of these, if you need to-.”
“I got it, Benny. Dad’s right, it’s just a scratch anyway.”
Another brief silence, the other man looking worried. “You should go to the hospital for it.”
“Benny, please...please drop it.”
More silence, then the sound of work resuming in the garage, though slower and with only one person working. Castiel shifts, looking over and only seeing the larger man from before. His mind racing as he leaves the area, hoping that Dean is alright and it’s not something that requires the hospital. His father was the man who let Dean get hurt like that? He didn’t even show the least bit of concern for Dean’s health. It made Castiel nearly shake with rage, his fear coming up as he recalls the last few times he’d seen such family interactions, the most recent one ending with him being transferred here, and afraid of helping until the adventure into the other world.
It wasn’t just his fear, though. Castiel likes Dean a great deal. He’s nice, and his eyes were always bright, even with his brother. Without his father calling him or demanding his time, Dean is a wonderful person, even around his demanding younger brother. He shouldn’t be shutting down, becoming this quiet, defeated thing that Castiel had watched him become all of a sudden, or the way that he acts whenever Sam demands his attention, or when he is called away.
Some part of Castiel wants to take Dean with him to Jody’s, to hold him until he’s better, to love him like he should be loved. Some of him worries that he won’t allow that, because that would mean his brother would have to face the fact that he’s not mature enough to help Dean out. Other parts wonder if Dean is really like Castiel, if he’d simply give in because Castiel helped him, and feel used later.
Castiel needs answers, and he knows where he can go for that. He needs to make sure that his understanding of the situation was right. He knows it is, but after what happened last time, with Samandiriel….
Castiel goes to Uncle Michael’s, and hopes it’s not the same thing.
-Michael Aquinas knows that Castiel has had issues before when it came to being protective of those he cared for, but overall his heart and intentions are always in a good place. Despite Castiel’s parents blatant homophobia, they care enough about him in all other things, so while they’ll avoid him, they aren’t about to throw him onto the street. It’s why Castiel is now living in this town, instead of back in the city or elsewhere. Castiel had already been moved a few times, and each time, it seemed harder for him to make friends and fit in, especially as he often became protective of anyone he befriended.
Here, though, he’s gotten a group of friends that should worry Michael: Meg Masters, with her spotted history, and Gabriel, with his issues. The only one who should be a ‘good’ influence was Hannah and Charlie, but even then, they did their own thing - Charlie was working with Sam Winchester mostly, and Hannah seemed to be one of the ones who helped Gabriel on his new road to realizing the work he had to do in order to fix some of the issues he created.
Gabriel had also been talking to Jody and Donna, apparently admitting to a long list of things that Michael was not privy too. That he’d stayed around to actually take the long, stern, motherly lecture that followed was a nice change, and long overdo for Gabriel, if Michael’s guess at what he confessed to was true. He had seen Gabriel’s internet and cell phone history when he’d disappeared and they’d been searching for him, so it was easy to guess what he believed he’d done wrong. He’d also not been able to find any decent links between Gabriel and the two victims, beyond the fact that Gabriel had found the second body. It meant he had to accept that Gabriel didn’t remember where he’d been or why he’d been held, and whatever had occurred there, it obvious had shaken him up. The doctors had declared him clear of any issues, save for exhaustion, and his father had been too happy to have him back to allow Michael to try to push the one connecting point, as slim as it was.
Michael looked down at the report on his desk, added to the stack to one side. Exhaustion...Gabriel had to have been in the same place that had killed Frank and Moore, but he’d managed to come out alive. It was a very small link, one he couldn’t really connect to Gabriel or wherever he’d been kept with the murders, but it was the only link they had.
Michael needed to figure out what was going on, what had happened, and who would be able to pull off these murders in such a short time, not to mention how they were doing it. He hoped that something would come up, but beyond the cause of death, let alone the lack of any real link between the two who had died and the one who’d been kidnapped, there was nothing to give them a lead. Nothing to indicate who might be doing this…
“Uncle Michael,” Castiel’s voice makes him close the report, glancing up to see his nephew standing in the doorway, looking worried, “is this a bad time?”
“No, of course not,” Michael says as he motions him in, curious about Castiel’s appearance here. It was something else that worried him, Castiel’s possible link to the murders. After all, he’d arrived on the same day as the murder, but…
“What can I help you with, Castiel? You don’t normally come to visit me.”
Castiel shifts in his seat, looking around at the small piles of work before speaking. “I...want to ask you about someone.”
That gets Michael to frown, shifting back to relax a bit more in his seat. “Oh? Who?”
“Dean Winchester.” Castiel shifts again, still upset, “I...don’t like what seems to be happening to him. I saw him get hurt today at work, but his boss…his father…wouldn’t let him leave to get it seen to.”
Michael’s frown deepens at the admission and at Castiel’s obvious worry over the young man that Michael hadn’t realized he was friends with. The eldest Winchester was well known to the community as a troublemaker, someone who hadn’t had the decency to drop out of high school completely and was failing the few classes he had. His younger brother, Sam, was a star pupil, mathlete, and part of the drama club, on his way to great things when he graduated early with the good grades and a great deal of promise. Their father, though, was a mixed bag, both the town drunk but also working for the news station as well as in the garage he owned. Michael had heard that Dean was working there, but hadn’t gotten any other information about it. He knew that another man, Bobby Singer, was helping to run things, but he was also probably a reason for Dean’s lack of involvement in school.
It still irked not only him, but Jody and others. Hearing that something had happened, though, gets Michael to frown as he looks over at Castiel. While Castiel had been known to be, according to Michael’s younger brother, “nosy”, he’d also been the one who noticed when others were being hurt. The last time no one had listened to him, a young man named Alfie had died. It wasn’t something that Michael wanted to happen here, not when all of that ‘nosiness’ often resulted in Castiel being right.
“When did this happen?”
“About ten minutes ago. I came here as soon as I could.” Castiel watches as Michael stands, going over to look through the file they did have. There had been some disturbances regarding the Winchesters, but John had always made them go away before. Now he was trying to be careful, but-
Jody popped her head in, pausing as Michael and Castiel looked over at her. “Is this a bad time?”
“No, Castiel was reporting something to me and I wanted to see if you or Donna could check on it. At the garage, the one that--.”
Jody looked upset, paling, before she said, “I just got a call from there. Bobby Singer called to say he was ‘done covering up this mess’. Said Dean was hurt, badly.”
Castiel paled considerably as Michael looks over at him, apparently realizing what was going on. Castiel likes Dean, in a more than friendly way, and some part of Michael wanted to keep them from each other, but the other part, the part that accepted Castiel as who he was, realized the importance of this. Castiel was protective of even his family, but if there was abuse going on…
Michael nods to Jody, moving to stop Castiel from following her as he got up. There was no reason for him to get involved in this situation, and while Michael understands that Castiel is worried about Dean, there was no reason for Michael to allow Castiel to follow. That protectiveness also brought the fact that Castiel would do his best to attack, verbally or physically, anyone who he saw as a threat to those he cared about.
Castiel looks less than pleased about getting stopped, but at Michael’s serious glare, he finally nods before getting up to leave peacefully. Castiel pauses at the doorway before saying, “Dean is a good man, uncle.”
“I trust your judgment on that, Castiel,” Michael told him, “but I also know that if it comes down to it, you will hurt someone you feel were not helpful. I need to find out what happened, fully. It’s better for Dean if you go and make sure he’s alright at the hospital.”
Castiel gives him a happy look before heading out, leaving Michael to look at the file on the Winchesters. Dean was the main focus of the abuse, it seemed, and as much as Bobby Singer might thing he’s absolving his sins by ‘telling’ on his friend now, the police agent they had working there had given them far more information. Benny Lafiette would give a better, less biased view of things when they finally nailed not only Winchester, but Walker and the Campbells to the wall for all the wrongs they’d done.
-Dean doesn’t know what happened or how it went by him so quickly, but it had to be because of what had been going on, because he’d failed the last time and because the rain was coming again. A few minutes ago, he’d gone in to clean up the long, deep cut next to the other mark he’d gotten but had no clue why he had it - it’d happened during the last foggy morning, and he barely remembered those nights. He remembers that he’d somehow woken, once, and that had been why…why it was all going bad now. It was his fault, and he had to make amends for that.
The cut was too deep, and he guesses it’s from how tired he is. Dad had been angry at the cut before, and so he’d made sure that Dean knew about it. It resulted in him getting too tired, and now he had a cut to match the other one. He wants to get angry at them, but he…no, he can’t. Dad’s doing what he can to make sure Dean’s good, to make sure that he doesn’t hurt others like he’d hurt…
Then, there had been police, and he’d been taken into an ambulance while Dad’s assistant was taken to a police car, and despite Dean’s protests, he’d been taken away. Benny and Bobby had been talking to one of the cops as the EMT worked on his still-bleeding arm, and soon after that, Jody Mills had arrived and glared down Bobby anytime he tried to get closer. She gave Dean a cool, no-nonsense look that got him to take the wrapped bandage and muttering from the EMT as she looked at him.
“Your friends were worried about you.” At Dean’s confused look, she motioned to Benny, who was still talking to a cop, and then said, “Him and Cas. They called in the moment they saw this. Bobby called too, but I’m guessin’ that his wife had something to do with that.” She shifted and knelt before him, looking at him curiously. “Dean? Is this the first time this has happened?”
Dean wants to argue that he doesn’t have friends, but he remembers Benny cool jokes and help in the long hours, remembers Castiel’s warm smile and help, his continued safe presence and understanding. Why hadn’t they left this alone? Didn’t they realize how dangerous Dean was?
Dean remembers that he’d been friends with Meg, and had been told to stop being friends because Sam said to, not because of him being ‘dangerous’. He remembers that Dad had started to force him to work longer hours, despite the calls from the school, not because he was ‘dangerous’ but because he was ‘stupid’. And now, the slow push to keep him from Cas, that wasn’t to keep him ‘safe’, that was because Dad couldn’t have some homo as a son.
Dean finally snorts, feeling suddenly free of shackles even as fear pierces him at what he’s doing. “No...it’s not.” He shifts after a moment before saying quietly, “It’s just selfish of me to try to…to help myself. I’ll just hurt someone, or I’ll hurt Sammy because you’ll separate us. I don’t want him hurt because I can’t be there for him if he needs it.” Dean suddenly feels very tired and very, very sad, as if admitting to it, saying that, was physically painful. “Who am I to be selfish and deny them a chance at happiness? I can’t be selfish like that. Not when they need me to help out. Please, Jody. Please, it’s nothing. Just leave it.”
Jody is quiet, looking at him without any emotion visible, and Dean is almost hopeful that despite that earlier admission, she’d do as he asked. He just needed them to look the other way, like they always do, and everything will be fine again. “Dean,” Jody’s voice was low, but it stops Dean’s thoughts and hopes in their tracks. “It’s not selfish to have friends and to be upset with how things are going. It’s not selfish to be yourself and not simply the person that your family demands.” She looks at Dean, careful as she reaches over and touches his shoulder, in the same place Cas normally touches. “You have friends, and they’re worried for you. So many people are worried about you, and none of that is selfishness. You need to be cared for. Go to the hospital to get checked out. I’ll make sure Sam knows what’s going on and is cared for.”
Dean swallows, finally saying, “Could…could you get Cas instead? Castiel…I don’t…”
“I know him,” Jody tells him, smiling at his selfishness. But if it wasn’t selfish to have friends, to have someone besides Sam, then he wants Cas there, not Sam. He wants Sam to not see him now, not demand something out of him. Cas won’t. Cas will let him rest.
“Go to the hospital. I’ll get Castiel to come and visit with you.”
-Castiel had picked up late-night hours at the hospital because he’d needed the work, and he was a bit more of a night owl, with staying up to make sure the Midnight Channel had no one on it. Gabriel had not been able to remember anything, and had instead dragged Castiel into the night work as a way to get extra money and for them to talk. Hannah hadn’t been able to help, caught up at the Inn with Charlie as the summer season brought in more people, but she and Castiel still took lunches together to talk.
It was at the hospital he’d met the two nurses, Josie Sands and Rowena MacLeod, who were perfectly happy with teasing the two young men and talking to them when things were quiet. Gabriel trusted Rowena because she’d given him some sort of herbal remedy that had gotten him back on his feet after what happened in the Other World. Castiel was wary of both, because they were, frankly, scary.
The call from Jody has Castiel racing to the hospital as quickly as he can, worry and hope beating in his chest. He’s worried that if he gets there after Dean’s family does, the request to visit will be denied, or Sam Winchester will somehow bar him simply because Sam doesn’t like Castiel. He can’t even think what Dean’s father would do if he caught Castiel there, visiting Dean.
More than that, though, Castiel knew he would not be able to keep himself composed if he ran into either of them. He wouldn’t be able to keep himself calm if Sam demanded anything, and he certainly doubted he’d be able to deal with John Winchester, especially after what he’d seen earlier that day.
Josie is at the front desk, and doesn’t even bother to ask why he’s there, hardly exhausted from his run but still sweaty and unhappy in his work clothing. She simply points, saying, “Room 201. He’s asleep. It was a bad infection. Rowena is doing a combo.”
A combo for Rowena meant she was using her herbal knowledge and modern medicine. It was one of the things that had scared Castiel - he may not have all of his family’s beliefs, but some of them stuck despite his attempts to understand things, but Rowena is fine that he’s attempting to understand, at least. It’s only because he knows Dean is in the same room that gets Castiel to slowly move in, looking over as Rowena checks on an IV drip and makes some marks on the chart.
“You aren’t still scared of my work, are you boyo?” she asked in her Scottish accent, a smile on her face as she looks up at him. “He’s resting for now. Poor wee boy had a lot happen to him in so short a time.”
“Thank you,” he says, letting out a sigh as he slowly moves in, taking the vacant seat near Dean. “I’m sorry if I…I’m…”
She put the chart down, offering him a smile before saying, “I’ll trust you’ll watch over him. I’m going to go and talk to a few people about his condition.” She pauses at the doorway before saying, “We’re very strict on our rules, Castiel. One visitor per patient, especially if they need rest, and he needs the rest. I trust that, even if you’re not at work now, you’ll keep up that rule.”
“I will do my best.”
She looked at him, dark eyes serious. “I do mean what I say, Castiel. One visitor per patient, and I trust you to keep that rule in place.”
He looks at her, surprised by her sudden seriousness, and finally nods. “I’ll keep it in place.”
She nods, still serious. “Good. I’ve work, then. You care for him.”
Castiel manages a smile before looking back over to Dean, his worry finally catching up to him as he gets a good look at the other teen. Dean is pale, the dark circles under his eyes even more pronounced than they normally were, and it makes Castiel wish he’d been able to help him before all this, make him wish he understood what was going on. He needs to speak to Tramp, to see if a similar cut is there, but he also wants to know.
If Shadows come from humans, was Tramp Dean’s Shadow…and if so, what did that mean?
“For what it’s worth,” Castiel finally says, holding Dean’s hand as he sleeps, “I would give anything not to have you suffer like this.”
Dean cracks his eyes a little, the bright green the same as the ones Tramp had, and he manages a small smile when he sees Castiel, his hand tightens around Castiel’s, weak but still enough to show his care, and a bit of his fear. “Don’t leave.”
“I won’t. I promise that I’ll watch over you, and I can’t break such a promise.”
Dean’s eyes go from their somewhat bright and warm care to far more fearful and sad, full of pain and the same fear that Castiel had seen before, “it’s too much, Cas...I can’t...it’s too much…”
Castiel doesn’t ask what Dean means, not wanting to take advantage of his upset state. Instead, he holds Dean’s hand and says, “You’re not alone. We’ll help you through this, Dean. No matter what.”