Day 58: Cafeteria

[gald_digger]

Anise woke up feeling lucky to be alive. She still felt a bit waterlogged, even though her skin, hair, and clothes were completely dry. During last night's adventures, she'd swallowed a lot of water, and it still felt heavy and disgusting in her stomach. Her arms and legs were tired from treading water. Lying still in her bed, she still kind of

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[poorexample]

Michael felt like he was waking from a long, long sleep

[allroadslead]

Guess they were back in military gear.

He still felt like crap when he rolled out of bed this morning, but the sensation of his skull splitting in half had at least subsided. In a way, that wasn't really good news because it meant that instead of having the pain as a distraction, he was back to thinking about how they were no further away from being totally screwed.

So, you know. Life as usual.

The last time Sam had spoken to Castiel, he hadn't managed to get enough out of him. Those answers? They'd just raised more questions. He needed more information. And what about Ruby? Did he want to hedge his way into asking an angel questions about a demon? Why the hell didn't any of this come with an instruction manual. He remembered back when they used to be able to flip through Dad's journal and they'd usually find the answers there, or at least a lead or somethingHe hadn't opened Dad's journal in a really long time. He'd thrown it under Dean's stuff in the trunk and then piled everything on top. It'd been kind of hard to think about Dad

[poorexample]

This was something he'd been hoping to avoid, at least for a little longer

[allroadslead]

He-what. Did Castiel just call him-

"What?"

Even as the word left his mouth, he got the sinking feeling that he knew what was going on. Sam's brow furrowed. Oh yeah, he knew what was going on. It wasn't that long ago the exact same thing had happened to him, and while his memories were a little fuzzy-like it'd happened a long time ago instead of less than a couple weeks-he remembered enough

[poorexample]

It didn't take long for Matt's confusion to fade away into something else, though Michael had a hard time telling what that was. Did he still believe all of it? The guy had been here for a lot longer than Michael, so he would have expected some improvement, and yet he was getting the feeling that he still thought he was Sam Winchester, demon hunter extraordinaire.

Oh, right, and... the blood drinking thing. Was that a shared delusion or just something that "Castiel" had come up with? Trying to keep all of this straight was more or less impossible.

Better to keep this conversation on the simple side of things, then. Michael didn't really know what he could say to the guy that wouldn't come off as either lecturing him or venting his own frustrations for ending up in this place.

"...Yeah, I do." Because that was actually his name. Still, sarcasm wasn't going to get them anywhere, and so Michael did what he could to bite his tongue

[theroadsofar]

"Things are fine, dude," Dean said behind Castiel. "Please tell me you're not gonna go all New Age on us about how we're getting along. It's way too early

[allroadslead]

Sam opened his mouth, then shut it again when he realized he was rescued from answering that question with Dean's arrival. It's way to early for Dean was basically code for, Never in a million years. Which normally drove Sam up the wall, but in this case, he was right there with Dean.

And. Wait. Right about what?

Dean's weird looked aimed at Castiel; Sam's aimed at Dean. What was he talking about? And since when did Dean source information from Castiel? As far as Sam knew, Dean wasn't exactly on board with the angel business, either.

He shook it off. First things first: Castiel.

"Dean, this is...Michael." He gestured at Castiel and gave his brother a pointed look. "He woke up feeling a lot better this morning."

-Okay, seriously, what was Dean talking about, though? What did Castiel tell him?

[poorexample]

Speak of the devil. Michael's gaze flicked over to -- to Eric as he walked up and offered a comment on the situation. He barely knew the man, but from what he remembered of his interaction with him this past week, he was the sort of person who tended to try and add humor to situations that didn't necessarily call for it. Or maybe that was deflection

[theroadsofar]

Feeling a lot better? It took Dean a moment to realize he wasn't just talking about, y'know, the obvious, like Castiel getting injured and waking up healed up like this place had a habit of doing. The whole accelerated healing thing was creepy enough as is. Dean exchanged looks with Sam -- for some reason he kept getting the impression the kid was two seconds away from elbowing him in the ribs -- and then swiveled to Castiel, who was

Skipping Maia by request!

[poorexample]

"Do something about it?" Michael responded, rearing back in his seat and sending Eric a look as if he was crazy -- because, frankly, he was. The worst thing was that part of him knew what the man was getting at. He wanted to bind her into some sort of trap and probably force answers of her because now she was considered the enemy.

More than that, the detective in him -- which was actually a real aspect of him -- was tempted to ask how it was more complicated. He thirsted for facts, but none of these would be real, and the last thing he could do was indulge someone who was still so steeped in his delusions

[allroadslead]

Sam was about to go screw it and ask outright Do something about what?, but Castiel's mini speech answered it all for him. For a moment, his brain was in limbo, between that state where he understood perfectly on one level, but hadn't quite pieced it together on another.

Shit.

Dean pointedly ignoring him only confirmed what he already knew. When had this happened? And why now? Castiel had had nearly a week to say something, but he obviously hadn't until yesterday.

He glanced at Dean, then looked back at Castiel. This was the worst timing. This wouldn't have been good at any time, frankly, but with a third party here-a third party who didn't even know who he was anymore-Sam could feel the tension rapidly mounting as both he and Dean steadfastly refused to blow up in front of an audience.

Dammit. He'd always known this was going to happen. He'd just never thought it would happen right nowYeah. Not one of his best lines of logic

[theroadsofar]

Jesus friggen Christ. Seriously

[poorexample]

It seemed like an odd thing for the two of them to fixate on. Why would he go around speaking of their delusions to the other sick people here? That would only make things worse, wouldn't it? If he was remembering correctly, he'd already told a few people that he was an angel and had actually been believed in some cases.

Michael sighed, pushing his bowl of food away as he realized that he was even less willing to eat now than he had been when he'd thought he was an angel that wasn't even used to eating. No wonder he'd lost it. He'd never been that good at taking care of himself, had he

[allroadslead]

Sam twitched visibly at the phrase suicidal thoughts. His memory wasn't that fuzzed out when it came to being Matthew and the idea of a suicidal Eric hit way too close to home. He thought he'd seen the last of resigned-to-death Dean three years ago in Nebraska

[theroadsofar]

Dean stared at Castiel. What, now he was making digs at the whole expiration date thing too

[allroadslead]

Sam let out a huff and said under his breath, "Yeah, I might just let you."

The atmosphere immediately turned awkward after that, as he realized he couldn't dodge the Ruby discussion forever. He'd pulled Dean aside; it was now or never.

Crap.

The other question was whether Dean knew about the time difference...but he had to have. There was no way Dean wouldn't have put two and two together. If there was time for Sam to have struck up an alliance with a demon for several months, then a good chunk of time had to have passed. No, Dean knew about that, too.

"Look, before you say anything, I meant to...I wanted to tell you, okay, I just. I didn't know how to tell you that you died, Dean. Everything, it happened after you died, and when I saw you again here for the first time..."

He shot a quick glance at the guards, partly to make sure they weren't attracting any unwanted attention by hovering in a corner, and to have an excuse to look away.