Title: Pool Loungers, or How Motel Beds Feel While Suffering Detachment From Reality
Rating: G
Genre: Gen
Pairings or Characters: slight Dean/Cas, and A Special Guest
Warnings: HUGE spoilers for 5x13. huge.
Word Count: 770
Summary: Cas feels lightheaded and blurry, similar to what he imagines being drunk is like for humans.
Author Notes: I am simultaneously ecstatic with this week's episode and somewhat disappointed. I want more Cas screentime. ;_; Also I suck at titles lmao.
Pool Loungers,
or How Motel Beds Feel While Suffering Detachment From Reality
Cas feels lightheaded and blurry, similar to what he imagines being drunk is like for humans. He remembers taking the Winchesters back in time to stop Anna, then two pairs of hands on him, grabbing onto his coat as he coughed up blood and the world went dark. Now he is drifting, in and out of consciousness, without direction, until he hears Dean talking. He focuses on that familiar voice and grabs hold, making it his anchor.
Cas knows when he is, but has no idea where. He is floating upright until Dean mumbles something. He hears, "Upsy daisy," which he doesn't quite understand, but because it's Dean he doesn't question -- not that he could at the moment, but he wouldn't anyway -- and then he's floating on his back. It feels like he's resting on clouds, but he recalls that he's never actually rested on clouds before, so he finds that an inappropriate analogy. He tries again, and finds the sensation much like that time Dean made him try the 'pool' and laid him out on a lounger float.
Cas wonders if he's done the right thing. As he drifts along, held down and connected to wherever and whenever he is only by the various grunts and sighs of Dean somewhere nearby, he hopes he has. He knows he didn't do right by Anna, and he feels sorry and shamed. But he knows his Father saved him to save the Winchesters, and he will do his duty, even if the rest of heaven abandons him for it.
"Hey, Cas, hey," Cas hears Dean say. He can't tell where Dean is, just that he is near, and that gives him great comfort. "You've got this suite all to yourself, okay? No one's gonna bother you, so you just rest up and get to healin' yourself."
Cas doesn't know how much time it will take him to recover, so he prays it is not long. Traveling backwards in time seems to have ruptured something from the strain, but he needs to be able to protect his charges. His friends and their family. Dean.
"We'll be back when this is over, I guess."
Cas hears a familiar nervous chuckle and the sound of bags being shuffled around. Without Dean nearby to anchor him to consciousness, he won't be able to hear anything of the world around him. He is already slipping, but then he feels a slight pressure on his forehead that briefly brings him back. It is warm and it is gentle, and he wants to reach out and return the gesture, but he is so tired and his arms refuse to listen. He soon fades completely and misses if Dean says anything else before leaving to go find his mother and father.
He does feel a quick, strong squeeze of his fingers, though, and he even manages to squeeze back a little before he loses his anchor and leaves it to the last of his essence to try and repair his broken body.
Cas still does not know where he is when something else pulls him into consciousness. He feels less like a drunk and more like his old self, and the bliss is overwhelming. One of his brothers or sisters is nearby, he can tell. This is a feeling not even Dean can give him, though he would never, ever fault him for it.
"Hello, brother," a voice says from all around him.
Cas tries to greet the voice back, but he is not allowed, the grace of his sibling alone enough to force him into reverence. He realizes that this is an older brother, and even in his floaty, barely-conscious state, he can tell the difference between his older brothers.
'Michael,' he thinks, and though his eyes remain shut, he can feel his brother nod.
"You have done your job," Michael says calmly, almost bored. Cas tries to shake his head, demand that he still has the Winchesters to aid, but the archangel has already pressed authoritative fingers to his forehead, and he feels time warp and weave around him.
He joins the Winchesters back in the present, and while he has lost the feeling his brother's presence had bled into him, he still feels calm and reassured. If his job was truly over, Michael would not have bothered returning him here. He knows there is much left to do, and as he topples backwards onto the motel bed, he feels like he is floating on a pool lounger again, and, in words he has adopted from Dean somewhere along the line, that is most certainly awesome.