The One With The Horn

[takadainmate]

Despite what my icon says, I really don't need a drink. What I need is to not drink. For a week, at least. Yes.

Here. Have fic.

Title: This Is Your Death
Rating: PG for language
Word count: 10,500
Warnings/Notes: Dean/Castiel implied, Ellen, Jo, Gabriel. Post 5x22, some h/c. Written for bold_seer for the castielfest fic exchange. I took some amount of inspiration from the prompt asking what happened after 5x22, and a little from the quote, "I'm with you --- [h]owever you treat me." from The Vintner's Luck by Elizabeth Kox, but I was also inspired by meeting Sam Ferris and falling slightly in love with her. I did my very best to include a whole lot of trench coat. That sexy thing.

cienna worked hard on the beta, and encouraged me to finish this fic when I had a good old panic last week due to the fact that two other people had recently used a similar idea to this one.

Summary: Castiel rules heaven alone, but at least he has Ellen and Jo to watch his back.

.This Is Your Death.

Not so long ago Jo Harvelle would have said she'd seen it all.

Monsters, demons, angels, magic, death. Hell, even Dean Winchester. Stranger things than that, she'd thought, just didn't exist.

Until Castiel, Angel of the Lord and current commander-in-chief of the armies of Heaven, starts coming to the Roadhouse for a little R & R and long, meaningful talks with her mother.

He likes beer in a glass instead of a bottle, and hates being interrupted, and is completely oblivious to the staring and the muttering that goes on around him from other customers. Hunters, all of them, who remember the Roadhouse in life, and like to keep coming there in death. Maybe they find it comforting, this memory of home, in the same way that Jo does. Mom's here. She grew up here. Jo can't think of anywhere she'd rather be.

It's kind of tragic, Jo thinks, that she's died and gone to heaven and she's right back at work, mopping up floors and serving cheap beer to grizzly old hunters who pinch her ass and try to look down her top. Worse, that she likes it. Except, maybe, for the groping.

It's life-learned suspicion, Jo knows, when the hunters look at Cas and narrow their eyes and tell her mom, later, when Cas isn't there, that he's not welcome. He's a thing. A supernatural creature and they all know what those are like. How can she talk to him like he's a friend? How can she trust him?

They're afraid of him.

It makes Mom mad. It makes Jo mad. Castiel gave up everything for humanity. He helped when no one else would. He's still helping. And Mom makes sure none of the hunters who bitch about him forget it.

Sometimes, Jo thinks, her mom can be damn scary.

Not to Cas though, who comes in as often as he can and greets them both warmly and brings them letters from long-dead friends and family and every time, tells Mom solemnly, "I am still looking. I will find him."

Mom always gets this look, and Jo knows what she's thinking. Jo knows her mom is wondering if Dad really is in Heaven, or if he's gone somewhere else.

"He's here," Cas always, always assures her, like he knows what she's thinking too.

Sometimes, Jo wonders if Cas does read their minds. They know he can.

She asks him one day, when Cas is sitting at a table by the window, sipping at his beer and looking out at the fake landscape. It changes now, because Mom wants it to change, and they're not trapped here like they were before. It's early in what passes for a day in Heaven, the fake sun in its fake sky still rising. Jo thinks her mom would yell at Cas for drinking in the morning if she didn't know that, for Cas, daytime is arbitrary. If she's honest, if Jo remembers where they are, time is pretty much meaningless to them too.

They both know from experience that it's not like alcohol actually affects Cas anyway.

There's no one else in the bar. Just him and Jo. She thinks Castiel likes the quiet.

He looks content enough, as relaxed as he ever does. Not tired or angry like some days. But he always welcomes Jo, when she comes over to talk to him, and has never ignored her, and never seems to mind her questions even if he doesn't always answer.

"I don't read the minds of humans if I can help it," he tells her. "Dean would be angry if I did."

Jo wonders if Dean Winchester knows just how much influence he has over Cas. If Cas even realises it.

"So?" Jo pushes. "You don't have to listen to him. You could smite him with your little finger, I bet."

Castiel raises an eyebrow, but he looks kind of amused.

"He needs a good smiting sometimes, I think," Jo teases.

And that's when Mom comes in, giving them both a stern look . "You giving Cas ideas again, Jo?" she asks in such a way that Jo thinks her mom must have heard her last comment. To Cas she says, "Hey."

"I was just saying that Dean can be an ass," Jo explains.

Mom throws Jo an unimpressed look. "I think Cas knows that, honey."

It's a good point, but still, Jo insists, "It needs repeating."

Mom just shakes her head, but she's smiling. "How are those boys anyway?" she asks Cas. "Seen them recently?"

"I have been busy of late," Cas tells them. "But when I last saw Sam and Dean they were well."

Jo's noticed, over the time Cas has been coming to the Roadhouse -however long that might be- that they talk about the Winchesters a lot. Almost all Castiel's earthly experience seems to involve them in one way or another. "Dean said that," or "Sam did this," or "The Winchesters are infuriating," Cas would say. It was good to hear about them, about the land of the living, but Jo's starting to think that Cas really needs to get out more.

"Good to hear," Ellen says, then sits herself down on the chair next to Cas's. She reaches out and picks up Cas's beer, takes a drink of it herself before putting it back down in front of him. This is one of those weird bonding things her mom and Cas have going on that Mom seems to have taken on a little too gleefully. When Jo asked what the whole beer-stealing thing was about her mom had told her that she'd heard angels share things, and that was all she'd say. So Mom steals Cas's beer, and Cas lets her, and Jo's pretty sure Cas likes it.

Then Mom asks, "Been busy with anything interesting?" because she's a control freak who likes to know what everyone's doing all the damn time, but also, Jo suspects, because it's rare to see Cas in such a peaceful mood.

Usually, he doesn't hang around this long, taking his time and just watching the world go by. Heaven go by. Whatever. Cas must have been sitting at his table for over an hour before Jo had decided to interrupt him. He's only half way through his drink and it should be warm and flat, but it's still got beads of condensation gathered on the glass and Jo can see the bubbles still rising to the surface. Benefits of being an angel, she guesses.

Most of the time Cas looks tense and strung out, weary in a way that reminds Jo of some of the older hunters, the ones that just kept on fighting, hopeless, believing there to be no end to it but fighting on anyway because what else could they do?

On the days when it's worst, Mom breaks out her best whisky for him and doesn't ask.

Cas is saying, "I managed to make peace, of sorts, with Raphael."

He sounds pleased, really pleased, and Jo is glad to hear it, but she also knows her mom and her mom is not going to like that.

"That asshole?" Mom, unsurprisingly, balks. "He killed you and you think it's cause for celebration that you made peace with him?"

Castiel frowns and takes a sip of his drink before replying. "I bear no grudge against him."

It still amazes Jo sometimes just how clueless Cas can be.

Ellen repeats, slow and disbelieving, "You bear no grudge against him?"

Cas sighs. They've had arguments like this before. They've had them maybe a hundred times. Jo doesn't get involved.

"It was his duty. I would have done the same," Cas says.

"No," Mom snaps fiercely. "You wouldn't."

This time, Mom takes the glass right out of Cas's fingers and downs the rest. She slams the glass down on the table before shoving her chair back to stand up, announcing, "I'll get you another one."

She stomps away and Cas is left, beerless, watching her go with that sad, resigned look he sometimes gets. Jo's pretty sure Cas thinks they don't get that this is how angels do things. That they don't understand that angels don't feel about things like life and death and family and honour the same way humans do. Even worse, that Jo and Ellen -and Dean and Sam and Bobby and every human he's ever met too, she suspects- don't even bother to try and get it. Maybe they're never going to understand, but that's not what this is about. That's not what makes Mom so angry.

"She's just mad because she cares," Jo says in a low voice. "You know that, right?"

Glasses clink loudly and angrily together behind the bar and Ellen curses.

Cas shakes his head. "I realise, every time I come here, that I understand humans as little as you understand angels."

But when Mom comes back with a full glass and a scowl and Cas politely thanks her, takes a sip and smiles, just a little, Jo's pretty certain Cas understands humans better than he thinks.

***

Thousands of years old, with more knowledge than Sam Winchester could shake a stick at, Jo would never have imagined that Castiel would even think to come to a human for advice, let alone show up on a regular basis for just that reason.

"It is useful to gain a different perspective," Cas tells them.

Different was an understatement. Cas might have thought it was a great idea, but they were just hunters who knew very little about angelic business and even less about the hierarchy of Heaven. Mom doesn't like it, when Cas asks, because she thinks she's not qualified and she thinks she'll make a mess of it, and she doesn't want to have so much responsibility. Jo can understand that, but Cas is new to this too, and half the time he's got this look like everything's about to go to shit any minute, so Mom tries to help, every time. Secretly, Jo thinks there isn't a better person Cas could come to.

Tonight it's loud in the Roadhouse, crowded and smoky and smelling of whisky and body odour and Jo could never work out how Heaven could ever smell so bad. It's not right, she thinks. But then, Heaven really isn't what she ever expected it to be.

Castiel's not drinking a drop from the glass of whisky Mom put in front of him as soon as he'd sat down, and if that's not an indication that something is seriously wrong then his drawn, agitated expression definitely is.

His words are careful and sharp, when he says, "I have no authority. I am questioned at every turn. And how can I tell them not to question when that is exactly how I ended up in this position in the first place?"

"They're testing you," Ellen nods.

"They are," Cas agrees.

"Weren't you, you know, put in this position by God?" Jo asks, because that's the impression she's been getting and if that's not enough of a seal of approval for the angels then Jo really doesn't know what would be.

"There is no actual evidence that God was involved, but no other being exists that would have the power to resurrect an angel." Castiel pauses and looks down into his glass. "Twice."

"Look," Mom says in what Jo thinks of as her best parenting voice. "It seems to me that they don't know what they're supposed to be doing anymore than you do. They're looking to you to tell them. To guide them."

Castiel pulls a face that expresses just how he feels about that. Jo has to laugh because it's such a weird thing to see emotion so clearly on Cas's face. Her mom shoots her an annoyed scowl.

Jo apologises, "Sorry, Cas. I've never seen you look so horrified before."

"I don't want this responsibility," Cas says sternly, but he doesn't seem offended by Jo's outburst. A lot of things, Jo thinks, Cas chalks up to weird humanness. He lets it pass when Mom calls him angel-face and feeds him coffee when he's looking tired and tells him he should get more sleep. Rest. Something. He never seems to mind when they swear or call all the other angels assholes. Cas mostly looks bemused when Mom tells him not to come back dead every time he leaves the Roadhouse.

"Probably why you got it, kid," Ellen says. She drinks her whisky in one smooth motion, throwing back her head before slamming the glass down on the table. "Drink up," she orders, waving her hand towards Cas's still mostly full measure. Cas does as he's told and her mom pours them both a new drink.

It's gotta be hard, Jo thinks, to rule something as expansive and insane as Heaven. It's beyond Jo's comprehension and she knows it, and Jo knows her mom thinks the same, so they just treat it like consoling someone after a really bad day at work. Try not to think about the wider implications or of the impact they might have on something they don't even understand. They try very hard to forget exactly what's at stake.

The only thing they never forget is how dangerous this can be for Cas. He's come to them with enough stories of skirmishes with other angels, with messed up hair, pale and angry, to know that he's had to kill, that he's killed his own brothers and sisters, though he never mentions that. He never mentions if he got hurt either. If he was nearly killed. How he feels. Sometimes Jo thinks he's actually worse than the Winchesters about that kind of thing.

Whatever Castiel thinks, or however much he doesn't want the position he has, Jo thinks of everything he's done, and everything he's willing to do. She thinks of how much he cares -for angels and for humans and for Earth and for Heaven- and she refuses to be anything but thankful that Cas is the one in charge.

***

A whole lot of the time Jo thinks that Castiel's allies are as dangerous and fucked up as his enemies.

Gabriel is a case in point.

The more Jo hears about him the more she wants to hurt him.

"Three times I have had to intervene in Gabriel's attempts to destabilise the global banking system," Castiel tells them one afternoon. It is just one in a long line of difficulties Cas has had to deal with relating to the now infamous Gabriel. The archangel seems to cause trouble wherever he is, whether it's in Heaven or on Earth.

"And you made him your second in command?" Ellen asks. She's looking at Cas disapprovingly, which she doesn't do much, and when she does it almost always seems to involve Gabriel.

"He is the only angel who has proved to me he is truly loyal to humanity." Cas leans against the bar, perched awkwardly on a stool. His shoulders are hunched over like he's cold, even though the bar is warm. It's sunny out, and the Roadhouse is busy. Jo wonders if angels even feel temperature.

She thinks Mom notices Cas's posture too because she hums noncommittally and disappears out the back of the bar, heading towards the kitchen.

"Your mother does not approve," Castiel says wearily.

Jo shrugs. "She thinks Gabriel is going to stab you in the back. She worries."

Jo's found she likes to surprise Cas, and his raised eyebrows and confused expression tell her she's managed to catch Cas off-guard. She thinks it's kind of sad that Cas always gets so flustered when anyone says something nice to him, like no one's ever said stuff like that to him before. If she were still alive she would smack the Winchesters for not being a bit nicer to Cas. Then again, they're the most emotionally stunted people Jo's ever met, and that's really saying something coming from someone who grew up with a bunch of hunters.

Cas doesn't seem to know what to say in reply to that so Jo goes on, "We get it though. He was willing to die for humans. That's a hell of a lot more than any of the other angels. He just sounds... kind of insane."

"I'm not entirely convinced it was for humans," Cas admits. "Sometimes I wonder if he wasn't just bored."

"Nobody dies for boredom," Jo says.

Cas smiles ruefully. "You don't know Gabriel."

She smiles back, because it's a good look on him, even if all she can think is that she's pretty sure she doesn't want to get to know Gabriel. "You're not helping, you know," she tells him. If even Castiel has his doubts about the guy, she doesn't know how he expects her and Mom not to worry that the bastard isn't going start a coup behind Cas's back at any second.

Mom comes back with a mug of something that looks and smells like coffee and she shoves it into Castiel's hands. "Drink that," she orders. "And don't give me any crap about not drinking. You get through enough of my tequila to know that's a lie."

"Angels don't lie," Castiel says, but he doesn't sound like he believes it, more like he's just reporting it out of habit, for forms sake. He wraps his hands around the mug and takes a sip. It's got to be burning hot but he doesn't even flinch. Jo guesses that answers her question about angels and temperature.

Ellen watches Cas drink for a few moments as though she thinks he's going to spit it out before saying, "Reprimand him."

Cas stops drinking, drawing the mug slowly away from his mouth, shaking his head. "I can't reprimand Gabriel."

"Why not?" Mom demands.

"Gabriel is an archangel. He can easily destroy me. That he defers to me -on occasion- is one of the few reasons I have any legitimacy to rule in Heaven at all."

Mom looks adamant. "You're scared of him?"

"I know what he can do. He has-" Cas pauses, looking troubled, before going on. "I am afraid of what he could do."

Her mom looks like she wants to say more, but she doesn't get the chance because right then an unfamiliar guy, short with sharp eyes and unmistakable confidence, bursts into the Roadhouse and shouts across the room, looking straight at Cas, "Hey bro!" It's almost freakishly cheerful, and Jo has a terrible suspicion she knows exactly who this is. She'd say, ‘speak of the devil', but no one mentions that name anymore.

If the ‘bro' comment hasn't told them this guy's an angel then the arrogance and the surety in the way he holds himself and the way he's looking around at the bar and the hunters assembled in the room with a sneer of distaste definitely does.

Silence falls in the room, every one of the regulars on edge. Jo thinks she sees some of them reaching for weapons under the tables.

Jo looks at Castiel and he's got that blank face on that means he's gone all absolute angel warrior on them. He's watching the other angel closely, not even blinking.

"Gabriel," Cas greets him, just as she suspected, and Jo sees her mom tense on the other side of the counter. She doesn't go straight for the shotgun though because she, unlike the other hunters, is all too aware that their weapons will do shit all against angels. They know well enough not to get involved with angel business. They trust Cas.

Cas just takes another sip from the coffee, still watching Gabriel.

"I always wondered where you disappeared to. Slumming it with the human souls, eh? Why am I not surprised." He rolls his eyes theatrically and makes his way across the room in slow, long strides -or as long as he can with his short human legs- towards Castiel. He doesn't seem to notice, or just doesn't care about, the tension in the room.

When he gets to the bar counter Gabriel slides himself between where Jo is sitting and where Cas is perched and leans against it, leering at Ellen. Ellen looks back impassively.

"Do I get a drink?" Gabriel asks, sounding innocent enough, but then he looks at Cas, sees what he's drinking and screws his nose up. "Something a bit more interesting than coffee."

Jo can feel the other hunters watching, like a hundred eyes burning into her back. Mom doesn't move. Cas takes another sip from his coffee, eyes following Gabriel over the rim of the mug.

"Great atmosphere this place's got going on. Real warm and friendly." He turns back to look at Cas. "I can see why you come here so much, Castiel."

Cas takes his time, drinking his drink and sitting up straight. Jo wonders if he's trying for casual, but she can see that there's tension in the way he puts his mug down carefully.

"I don't think you're welcome here," Cas says eventually, and Jo is sure she can hear something like regret in his tone.

It makes Gabriel's smile widen, turning vicious. "Neither are you."

Cas's expression doesn't change, and he makes no move to reply, but Mom does. She slaps her hand down and looks livid, glaring at Gabriel like she wants to reach for the shotgun and blow his damn head off. Jo can sympathise.

"He is very welcome here, you arrogant son of a bitch," Mom practically growls. "If I knew how to without hurting him I would banish your ass into the next millennium. Now get the hell out of my bar."

Gabriel looks between Ellen and Cas and back again, his face impassive, before saying, "No drink then?"

Then Mom really is going for the shotgun and, with a sigh, Cas pushes aside his coffee mug and puts a hand on Gabriel's arm.

"Gabriel," he says softly. "Please."

It's less than an order, and more than a question, and Cas and Gabriel stare at each other for a long time, probably having some weird angel telepathic conversation, before Gabriel straightens up. He looks kind of amused.

"You're a big softie," he tells Castiel. "It's embarrassing, you know." He doesn't look embarrassed though, more like exasperated. Or fond.

Jo blinks and Gabriel is gone. Cas is already looking away, back to what's left of his coffee.

"You are welcome here, Cas," Mom says fiercely. She speaks quietly, but the hunters in the bar still haven't said a word and Jo has no doubt they can hear everything she's saying. "Don't let anyone tell you otherwise. Not your brothers and not any of this crowd." Mom gestures to the assembled hunters. They're silent, but they can tell just as well as Jo can that Mom means for them to hear. "This is my bar, and it's always good to see you."

Cas doesn't reply, so Mom says, "Cas."

Castiel nods, once, and Jo can see, even though his head is bowed, that he's smiling.

***

In dealing with the Winchesters, Jo's told Cas a hundred times that no amount of advice is ever going to help.

And the ways in which they manage to be clueless, luckless idiots with no sense of self-preservation are endless.

Mom always ends up saying, "Cas, you shouldn't take those boys as being normal for humans," or, "Whatever you do, don't ever think their idea of a good plan is actually a good plan."

Jo knows Mom loves Dean and Sam, but she also thinks they're dangerous. Trouble. Way too unbalanced. And she really doesn't like the way there are times when Cas goes along with whatever Dean wants, just because he's Dean.

"He's the Righteous Man," Cas says, like that's all there is to it. No arguments.

Mom argues anyway. "That doesn't make him flawless."

It's fake night, and Cas is sitting outside with them on the steps up to the Roadhouse, watching the fake stars and drinking fake whisky out of the bottle. There's a cool breeze, and Jo thinks it means Mom's angry. Cas looks tired and frayed and definitely at the end of his patience.

It's not them he's pissed at though.

Jo likes to think it's never them Cas is pissed at.

"He's human," Mom says. "He makes mistakes. He's selfish. He's an ass. You know that."

Cas admits readily, "I do," because it looks like another one of those times when Cas has just experienced just how much of an ass Dean Winchester can be. Jo wonders if it's night on Earth too.

"Then stop letting him get to you. Stop letting him put you in impossible situations."
Mom takes a long pull from the bottle and passes it to Cas.

Jo doesn't know if her mom thinks she's blind, but Jo's noticed the way she never passes the bottle to her. Kind of hard to miss when it's just the three of them. Jo thinks it's stupid. She's dead. What harm is it going to do now? Anyway, Cas doesn't seem to have noticed, or doesn't get it, because he passes the bottle right along to Jo after he's taken a drink. Jo grins at her mom and takes a large swig. It's good stuff, made even better by her mom's scowl.

"It's not impossible," Cas tells them, and Mom's attention snaps back to the angel, the lines of her scowl deepening.

Mom seems to think Dean is going to get Cas killed, or worse, and Jo hates to admit that she sometimes thinks it too. She knows Dean. She knows how he can be, demanding everything, not thinking about the consequences. Cas doesn't seem to understand that this is a bad thing. That this isn't a normal thing.

Jo's pretty sure she's not going to like the answer when her mom asks, "What is it this time?"

"I asked him not to get involved," Cas says, equal parts resigned and frustrated. "The angels on Earth are my responsibility, not his. He's going after them anyway."

"You think Dean doesn't trust you to get rid of them," Jo guesses.

Cas nods and yeah, that's gotta hurt. For all that Cas has done, and for how hard he works, and then for Dean to turn around still not trust him when he tells the idiot to back off. That's pretty shitty.

With Dean it's always one way or another. Everything in his brain ordered into black and white, right and wrong. You're either on his side or you're not.

You're either human or you're not.

That's not how Castiel can live, because he isn't human, and he doesn't want to be. He has to walk that fine line between maintaining control and anarchy, and both Jo and Ellen know -better than Dean or Sam or anyone living- what that chaos would mean. This Heaven, their Heaven, is only here because Cas has made it possible. Earth is still as it is because Castiel keeps the angels from exacting old hatreds and jealousies on the humans there.

So Jo and Ellen know, Cas can't be what Dean wants him to be. And Dean's just too dense to understand that.

Jo would love to be the one to fill him in.

But Mom says, "Don't take it personally, Cas. He sees something hurting people, he needs to kill it. He can't wait."

"But he doesn't think of his own safety," Cas argues. "If he becomes involved, he might," Cas pauses, looking thoughtful like he's trying to find the right words before he finishes, "Get in the way."

That makes Mom laugh. "I hope you didn't tell him that."

"I did," Cas replies, and Jo can't help grinning at that. She tries to hide it against the mouth of the bottle. It's kind of good to see that no matter how much devotion Cas might show Dean - a devotion that she thinks might not be all that good for Cas- he can still manage to ride right over Dean's sense of pride and masculinity in a heartbeat.

"I bet he loved that," Mom says wryly, and seeing Cas's confused face she pats his shoulder. "He thought you were insulting him," she explains.

"It's the truth." Cas sighs and his shoulders sag like he really is just sick of all this crap. Jo can't blame him. Dean is the pain in the ass to end all pain in the asses.

"He'd never see it that way." Mom looks Cas over then, considering, her hand still on his shoulder. Jo thinks she's taking in the way his hair is looking crazier every time they see him, how his coat looks messier, shabbier, and how he looks older, more weighed down. She spares a glance at Jo before doing on more quietly, "You know, Dean can be a reckless idiot, but I think he might just be worried about you too."

"That makes no sense," Castiel argues.

"The Winchesters usually don't," Mom agrees. "But you've been looking kind of... worn out lately. He's got to have noticed too."

Cas looks down at himself like he doesn't have a clue what she's talking about, and the really sad thing is that he probably doesn't.

It's true that Dean might be selfish and uncompromising, but he's not cruel. And the one night Jo saw them together she was pretty sure there was some real affection between Cas and the brothers. Something definitely like friendship with Dean. Maybe not as one-sided as Jo often thinks.

Cas says, "I'm fine," and it sounds so false Jo wants to shake him until he tells the damn truth.
Instead, Mom calls him an idiot and pulls him close, wrapping her arms around him. It looks kind of funny, because Cas's body is rigid and unbending and completely unresponsive. Cas's face is warm though, like he understands at least what the gesture means and Jo thinks maybe the angel can be taught after all.

The cold breeze from earlier has calmed down to nothing, the night turning to just the right side of cool, too perfect to be anything other than not Earth. Jo drinks again from the bottle, feels the pleasant burn and watches as her mom pulls away from Cas.

Somehow managing to not break eye contact with him, she leans across and snatches the whisky back from Jo, closing both her hands around the bottle neck.

Straightening up, Mom takes a drink before saying, "Just promise me one thing, Cas."

Cas nods, like he'd do anything Mom asked.

"Make sure you don't end up getting yourself killed."

Mom smiles at him, just one side of her lips quirking up, but it's kind and she holds his gaze and offers up the bottle to Cas. "Then who would I share my best whisky with?"

Jo would have said more. She would have told Cas he can rely on them. That he can ask them anything. That he can hang out with them anytime. That they care about him. But what Jo would have said in a whole load of words, her mom's managed to get across with the world's worst hug and an outstretched hand holding a half-full bottle of whiskey that doesn't really exist.
It's kind of a cool thing to see when Cas smiles back at them, with real affection and a whole lot of sincerity. He takes the bottles again, and assures them both, "I will be careful."

***

Jo is just finishing closing up for the night, wiping down the last of the tables and and arranging chairs when Castiel stumbles through the door looking like he's gone ten rounds with a Wendigo. There are rents in his trench coat and shirt and Jo can see blood. One hell of a lot of blood.

She didn't even know angels could bleed.

She's so shocked for a moment she can't even move, just stares at Cas and wonders what the hell could do something like that to something like him. Then he looks up from where he's leaning against the door frame, right into Jo's eyes, and there's pain there, but also warmth. There's weariness and defeat, but also determination. He says, "Hello, Jo," and Jo can't keep still any longer. She rushes over to their angel regular, throwing her cloth down onto the nearest table and shouting for her mom.

"Mom, get in here," Jo shouts, putting her shoulder to Cas's side and pulling his arm around her. She levers them off the door frame and damn but Cas is heavy. She hears the door slamming closed behind them, locking itself, and when she looks up at Castiel's face she can see he's concentrating on something.

Jo knows danger when she sees it.

She's managed to get Cas as far as the bar, heading for the back room and all its arsenal of salt rounds and holy water, when Ellen comes out of the kitchen with a shotgun, her eyes scanning the room for threats. It's kind of disturbing, Jo thinks, just how easily they both slide back into the hunter way of doing things even here, in Heaven, when their lives should be all about rest and eternal peace.

As soon as Mom sees Cas, taking in the mess of his coat, the bruising on his face, and the way he's leaning heavily against Jo, she swears, "Dammit, Cas," and moves towards them quickly. With all the skill of years of hunting Mom's eyes never stop casing the room, concentrating on the doors and the windows.

"Are we in danger?" Mom asks brusquely. To Jo she says, "We're getting him upstairs."

Jo nods and adjusts her grip on Cas, pulling him closer so it'll be easier to help him up the stairs. This close Jo can feel heat coming off Cas that she hopes is normal. She can smell sulphur and dirt and blood and ozone. After all this time, Jo realises she's never been so close to Cas before.

He straightens against her, hissing like he's in pain, and Jo starts to ask if he's okay, but he answers Mom before she can say a word. "I don't know. They might have followed me, but I don't think so."

Mom nods and tips her head to the side, telling Jo to get going, that she'll be covering their backs. It's not easy half-carrying Cas up the stairs, and he stumbles, catches himself on the wall. By the time they make it to the top he's panting hard and when Jo looks up she can see that Cas's face is a really unhealthy looking grey.

Mom hustles them all into her bedroom, leaving the door open and standing guard at the doorway. Jo sits Cas on the bed, but keeps a hand on his shoulder.

"Angels did this to you?" Mom asks from where she's guarding them. She doesn't take her eyes off the hallway outside the room.

It's kind of obvious, because Jo doesn't know of anything else that could hurt Cas like this. Other than his own brothers and sisters, and every time Jo thinks it, it makes her sick with anger. Cas hates to kill them or to hurt them. They've seen it in his eyes so many times when he comes back from some fight, or some disagreement. Jo just can't understand it, why the other angels continue to cause trouble. She doesn't understand who they think they're fighting for.

In that resigned voice Cas replies, "Yes."

He's bleeding all over his trench coat. Jo can see the growing stains of red. Cas starts tipping forward, leaning more heavily against Jo's hand, and Jo is starting to get very worried.

"Mom," Jo calls. "I don't think Cas is doing so well over here."

"I will be fine," he says, even as he sways sideways and Jo has to hold him up with both hands. She really wants to just lay him down and get the damn coat off so she can see what's wrong, but even this weakened Jo can feel the power in Cas's shoulders where she's holding onto him.

"Sure you are."

To make her point, Jo lets go of Cas for just a second and he slumps forward. When she's got a grip on him again, Cas looks up and actually scowls at her. It's kind of cute, and Jo can't help herself from smiling back.

He doesn't argue anymore though. Instead, he tells them, "They would be here by now, if they had followed me."

Mom still doesn't look away from the hallway and the stairs. "You're sure?"

"I am," Cas assures her.

"Then we need to hide you," Mom says, always cautious. "How can we hide you, Cas?" she asks, or more like demands. To Jo she instructs, "First aid kit in the closet. And get him to lie down." She doesn't sound pleased, like Jo should know these things. But he's not human, and this isn't Earth, so how is Jo supposed to know how to deal with this?

Jo knows not to argue with her mom though, so she manages to push the trench coat off of Cas's shoulders even though he seems to really not want to take the damn thing off. She even gets him out of his suit jacket and is surprised to see just how skinny the guy is under all those layers.

Sometimes, when Jo watches the way Cas walks like there's no give in his limbs, or he sits like he's not quite sure how he's supposed to hold himself, she wonders what he really looks like. She wonders what vessels are, up here, in Heaven. They're not bodies, none of them have those anymore, but there's still something solid to Cas's form, and Jo can definitely feel the shifting of muscles under her hands as she pushes him further up onto the bed. She can feel the heat of his skin, and the slickness of his blood on her hands when she pushes aside his shirt and finds long, deep slashes spanning the length of his chest.

Jo knows Cas feels too, at least something like humans do, because he narrows his eyes, his lips drawn into a thin pale line, and he draws in a sharp breath like a gasp when Jo presses her mom's best towels against the wounds.

When Cas can breathe again, he describes an Enochian sigil, tells mom to paint it at the four compass points of the room, and Mom frowns, but makes no comment, when Cas tells her to draw it in his blood. She just does as he asks -because she won't let Cas up to do it himself- and then gives Jo the shotgun and tells her to stand guard.

"You promised me you'd take care of yourself," Mom says to Cas in that soft, furious voice Jo knows Mom only uses when she's really disappointed in you. She looks underneath the towels still pressed against the wounds. "What happened?"

"I was to meet a group of angels who had absconded to Earth. I had hoped to avoid conflict of this kind," Cas explains.

Mom hums in a way that makes Jo think Cas is going to be getting a talking to in the near future. She wonders at what point Mom decided she'd adopted an angel.

It takes maybe an hour before Mom's got Cas wrapped up and resting to her satisfaction. She doesn't seem to care that there's blood all over her white sheets now as well as on her towels. Mom always was like that; deal with what's in front of you and worry about the fall-out later. They don't even know for sure what's going on here, what they've gotten themselves involved in, but Cas is a friend, and some angel dicks hurt him and he needs help and to Mom, Jo knows, that's all there is to it.

Jo watches from where she's leaning against the wall, shotgun at her side and keeping one eye on the stairs, as Cas tries to fend off her mom with, "I just need to rest," and "I will be fine," and the one guaranteed to make Mom mad, "I should not have come here." He could try to leave all he likes, but Mom's seen the damage to his chest and his back and his shoulders and Jo knows better than anyone that Mom will do pretty much anything within her power to keep him where he is.

"I might just be some insignificant little human," Mom chides, and she's got her hands on her hips and she's looking down at Castiel as he lies on the bed, "But I'm not totally useless. You came to us for help and you're getting it."

Cas looks white as the sheets he's lying on, his eyes heavy with exhaustion and pain, but he stares right back at Mom. Jo wonders if he's regretting coming to them because she's pretty sure he never expected the full mothering treatment. He certainly doesn't seem to have any clue how to deal with it.

"I meant no offense," he tries. "I did not want to inconvenience you, but..."

Castiel stops talking and looks away from Mom to the window with its tightly closed curtains, to the sigil painted on the wardrobe door, stark red against the white surface, peeling as it dries. He looks infinitely sad and alone and Jo sees Mom's eyes soften. Mom sits down on the bed next to him and sighs.

"You had nowhere else to go. I get it." She shakes her head and puts a hand lightly on Cas's shoulder. "You've helped us before, Cas. You're always welcome here. I've told you that enough times."

He doesn't say anything, but he looks back at Mom, and Mom looks back at him and it's like they've come to some kind of understanding because then Mom smiles. "Better us than those Winchesters. They can barely take care of themselves."

Castiel fidgets, and oh yeah, Mom's fishing for something. Probably the something Jo had been wondering all night too; why, exactly, Cas had come to them instead of Dean.

"I take it all this has got something to do with those boys," Mom says. She's smoothing down the covers beside Cas menacingly.

When Cas still says nothing, Mom narrows her eyes and puts on her stern face and asks again, "Cas?"

"I meant to draw the angels away from Sam and Dean," Castiel admits. "They were able to catch up with me much more quickly than I had anticipated."

Mom looks like she wants to say more, but Cas looks small and tired half-hidden under her comforter, his dark hair a mess against the pillows. It'd be cute, if there wasn't blood on his neck and his torn up, stained coat laying on the floor.

Jo looks back out into the hallway, realising she hasn't been paying enough attention. It's sloppy and dangerous and if her mom catches her not keeping watch she knows she'll be in more trouble than Cas. There isn't the urgent fear of earlier, that any minute they're going to have to defend Cas from a bunch of angry killer angels, but there's still tension, because none of them know what's going to happen next. If they're safe. If this will turn out okay.

Jo hears her mom say, "Get some rest, Cas," and is glad when Cas doesn't even try to argue.

Her mom comes to join her by the door, but she's watching Cas like she thinks he's going to disappear at any second. Which is possible, Jo remembers. Though maybe not in the state Cas is in.

They let Cas sleep, or rest, or whatever it is he does when he's hurt, and stand silently in the corner of Mom's bedroom, hoping that the worst of it is over. They maybe get a couple of minutes peace before a cell phone starts ringing. It makes Jo jump in surprise.

This is Mom's Heaven, and Mom hates cell phones. Jo thinks she was alive the last time she heard one.

The ringing doesn't stop, and Jo can see that Cas has woken up . He looks groggily to his side before starting to struggle into a sitting position, trying to slide himself out of bed.

"The hell do you think you're doing?" Mom demands, moving quickly towards Cas and looking wrathful.

"It is my phone," Cas says. He doesn't say who it is calling, but they all know anyway. Who else would call an angel on a cell phone?

"You get coverage up here?" Mom says dryly. The phone's still ringing and Jo wonders why it doesn't just go to voicemail.

"I should answer it," Castiel insists, and demonstrates the point by attempting to push himself out from under the covers. It's kind of adorable, the way he looks so determined but is defeated by Mom's embroidered comforter.

Mom puts a hand on Cas's shoulder. "Stay where you are. Jo'll get it."

"I will?" Jo says.

Cas hesitates, looking between them, but then he tells her, "It's in my right coat pocket," so Jo guesses she's answering the call whether she likes it or not.

She's been wanting to talk to Dean Winchester for a while now anyway.

As quickly as she can, Jo scoops up Cas's torn-up trench coat, moving back to the wall beside the door to keep watch. Mom's busy fussing with Cas, telling him to lie the hell down and stop being a pain in the ass.

Cas is watching Jo though, his eyes flicking down to his coat and then back up to meet Jo's eyes, and she wonders if maybe the angel has gotten a little too attached to his human clothes.

She smiles back at him sweetly as she shoves her hands into the right pocket. Somehow, she expected it to be something more, because it's the pocket of an angel and surely that would be something impressive. But it's just a pocket, and Jo can feel lint along the inside edges, an empty candy wrapper at the bottom, and the cell phone. Still ringing.

Taking it out, Jo is unsurprised to see the caller name displayed on the screen reads "Dean".

As soon as she presses the call button Jo can hear Dean on the other end of the line demanding angrily, "Cas, where the fuck are you?"

"Cas isn't here right now," Jo answers lightly. "Can I take a message?"

She's talking to Earth, she realises. She's talking to the living world, and it's weird and kind of exhilarating, but Jo just can't resist the urge to mess with Dean.

There's a long pause before Dean says "Who the hell are you?" then, "Where's Cas?"

It dawns on Jo that Dean probably thinks she's some evil demon who's got his angel friend. She would feel offended Dean didn't recognise her voice, if she didn't know that if there's one thing demons are really fucking good at it's impersonating people.

"Dean, calm down," Jo tries to soothe. "It's me, Jo. Me and Mom are looking after Cas."

There's silence for a long time until Jo remembers, oh yeah, they're dead. This is Heaven, and Dean's probably freaking out right about now.

"In Heaven," she clarifies. "Cas's phone has some impressive coverage, apparently."

There's another long pause before Dean finally says. "Jo. Hey. Put Cas on."

Rude, she thinks. But he probably still doesn't believe her. She wouldn't believe it either.

Jo looks over to see that both Cas and her mom are staring at her with creepily similar looks.

"Yeah, okay. I think Mom'll let him talk to you."

Ellen nods and switches places with Jo, taking the shot gun and stationing herself at the door. Jo hands the phone over and Cas looks almost relieved.

"Dean," he says.

Jo can't make out Dean's reply, but it's loud and angry-sounding.

Cas replies, "I am in Heaven, as Jo said."

Another round of Dean squawking, then Cas says, "I'm fine."

Sneaky lying angel.

Jo steals the phone back.

"He's not," she tells Dean. "He turned up at our door half-dead. What the hell have you been getting him into?"

"What?" Dean says. He sounds genuinely surprised, and not a little bit pissed. "Jo? What the hell do you mean, half-dead?"

"You are exaggerating," Cas insists from the bed and tries to take the phone from her. He hisses in pain when he leans over too far, but he doesn't stop trying so Jo relents, handing the phone back and saying, "Jesus, Cas. Stop hurting yourself. Mom'll kill me."

She gets a brief smile for that, and then Cas is saying, "Yes," then, "No," followed by, "It was angels," and finally, "I am safe, where I am."

Dean speaks for a few seconds before Cas replies, softly, almost sadly, "That is unwise."

He nods at whatever Dean's reply is and Jo doesn't usually think of herself as the prying kind, but she finds it hard not to wonder what Dean's saying to Cas.

She's never seen them interact much, Jo realises. For all the time Cas talks about him, and for all the ways he's such a presence in their lives -or more accurately their deaths- the only time she's seen them together was a literal lifetime ago, before Carthage and her death and Heaven and all that other shit that went down. That was the time they first met Cas, in all his weird, angel glory. Even Mom noticed, back then, that there was something about Cas that Dean trusted, and it definitely wasn't because he was an angel. Cas was his friend and that was the strangest thing of all, because the Dean Winchester they knew couldn't make friends to save his own skin.

Jo doesn't think that Cas has ever told them all of what happened back then, just that it sucked and it hurt and it changed everything.

Listening to Cas now, there's an easiness and an irritated fondness in the way he talks to Dean. It's the most human, the most relaxed and off-guard Jo has ever seen Cas. And that might have something to do with the fact that Cas's been beaten to a pulp and looks like he doesn't have enough strength to fend off a kitten right now, but Jo also thinks it's because it's Dean he's talking to.

Cas says, "I will call you," and cuts the line. He drops the hand holding the phone to the bed and leans his head back against the pillow, closing his eyes. He looks like crap.

"Talking to Dean'll do that to you," Mom says from across the room. She's smiling but Cas doesn't open his eyes.

"He is trying," Cas agrees.

Which he is, but Jo can still hear the way Cas sounds like he likes it that way. It's true that if he isn't being a pain in the ass then he wouldn't be Dean Winchester. That's not the only thing she's noticed.

"Dean didn't know you were hurt," Jo says. She'd gotten that much from the way Dean had gone all angry and demanding-bastard over the phone. That's classic worried Winchester behaviour.

"He didn't," Cas admitted.

Jo can hear Mom's exasperated sigh from all the way across the room and she wonders if they're ever going to get through to Cas that self-sacrifice is not actually a useful character trait to have. She wants to tell Cas it's selfish and it solves nothing and if Cas ever throws himself in front of murderous angels for the sake of anyone ever again, Jo's going to throttle him herself.

There's a sudden shift in the air though, and Jo recognises the feeling -charged and warm and chaotic- as the approach of angels. It's something she quickly learned to identify in Heaven and she can tell her mom feels it too.

Ellen widens her stance and raises her weapon, orders Jo, "Stay close to him," like she needs telling.

It all happens so fast that Jo's not really sure what's happening, but one minute Mom is watching the hallway with a determined look and Cas is saying, "It's-" and then there's someone else in the room.

Mom just reacts, swinging round and firing at the newcomer. The shot hits home and the intruder is knocked back, cursing, "Shit, that hurt," and thumping back against the wall.
It's only then that Jo recognises the guy.

"Gabriel," Mom says. She's got the shotgun still trained on him, but she doesn't fire again.

"Yo. Nice welcome I get, thanks," Gabriel replies dryly, straightening up and brushing himself down. There's not a mark on him. Jo moves closer to Cas's side, and is surprised when she feels Cas's fingers against the back of her hand.

He says, "It's alright, Jo, Ellen."

"I come here to save your ass and I get shot at! That's gratitude for you," Gabriel gripes, coming around to the other side of the bed. He's looking right at Cas in that creepy angel way, and despite the teasing he doesn't look happy. "Bro, you're a mess."

Mom's still got the shotgun aimed at Gabriel's head, but Jo thinks her mom can see it too -the way Gabriel is holding his hands out, palms up, showing himself to be unarmed, and the way he's frowning at Cas. On a human Jo would think it was concern.

"Some of our siblings were displeased with me," Castiel tells Gabriel seriously. "Jo and Ellen have helped me."

Gabriel tisks, but rather than saying anything he just reaches over and pulls at Cas's shoulders, gathering Castiel towards him.

"Cas-" Mom says warningly.

"I will be safe with Gabriel," Cas assures her.

Mom's looking Gabriel up and down like he's a demon who needs wasting. "I don't trust him."

Gabriel doesn't even bother to look at them when he snorts, "You couldn't stop me even if you wanted to."

With a lot more strength than such a small body should have, Gabriel hefts Cas into his arms easily. It's freaky, the way he carries Cas like he weighs nothing. Jo remembers how heavy she'd thought he was leaning against her.

Weirdly, Cas doesn't even protest.

Then Gabriel does look at them, and there's something furious and protective in his eyes that makes Jo think that maybe she believes Gabriel really does care about Cas. "He's my brother," he says simply.

Jo has the impression that it means a whole lot of nothing to most angels, but the way Gabriel says it convinces her it means something to him, at least.

And Jo thinks she hears, just as Gabriel disappears with Cas, his voice telling them, "I owe you one."

***

They wait two days. Two days of being on edge, and Mom shouting at Ash for leaving his crap all over the bar, and shouting at the regulars for drinking all her stock, and burning her best sheets because she doesn't want to find out what you can do with angel blood. She tries scrubbing the blood from the walls, but it's stained the paintwork.

Cas's jacket and tie and trench coat are a ruined mess, but Mom puts them on a hanger and stores them in the closet anyway.

They wait two days and then they can't wait any longer, so Mom digs out her old address book, confiscates Ash's cell phone and barricades them both in the storeroom.

She dials Cas's number, fuming, "Stupid angels, they have no damn idea. If that ass Gabriel has done anything to him I'll skin his damn wings."

Mom doesn't believe anymore than Jo does that Gabriel hurt Cas, but she still seems to hate him on principle.

The phone rings a few times before it's picked up. They hear Dean's voice, saying, "Jesus Christ, Cas," then a whole lot of fumbling and weird static before Cas finally answers, "Hello Ellen, Jo."

Mom raises her eyebrow. How he knew both of them were listening Jo doesn't know, but she's learned by now to not be surprised by things like that. She doesn't think that's why Mom's pulling strange half-amused, half-stern faces. "Cas. You're with Dean."

"I am," Cas replies. Somewhere in the distance, Jo can just about make out the sound of talking and the bustle of people. "You haven't called me before," Cas goes on. "Are you alright?"

"We're fine, you idiot." Trust Cas the Clueless Angel not to get it. Jo can see that her mom is working herself up to being mad at Cas. "We were worried about you," she snaps.

There is quiet for a long moment and then Jo hears Dean saying, "What is it, Cas? What's wrong?" He sounds close, and Jo wonders what they're doing. Where they are.

"I apologise," Cas says, apparently ignoring Dean's questions. "I didn't-" He pauses before going on, "I'm well, thank you. Gabriel healed me."

"Good." Mom doesn't look pleased, and Jo gets that. Two days of hearing nothing, thinking that someone you've come to think of as a good friend, and an awesome drinking partner, might be dead is no fun at all. Mom tells him, "I'm glad. But Cas, you need to let us know this kind of thing."

Another pause, then, "I am sorry. I should have come to you to say thank you."

Jo hears Dean's voice again, sounding amused and smug. "I told you." He must be really damn close to the phone -and to Cas- to come across so clearly.

"Are you trying to be annoying, Dean Winchester?" Mom snaps. "What they hell are you two doing anyway?"

There's a damningly long silence before Dean blurts, "Nothing," and Cas says, "We are shopping."

This is really weird, Jo thinks, and tries not to consider all the possible nothings Dean might be doing with Cas. She tells herself she's jumping to unfounded conclusions.

Mom rubs her forehead like she's getting a headache from all the insanity in her life. Death. "I'm going with shopping," she decides. "Okay. Why?"

And Cas sounds truly regretful when he tells them, "I lost my coat."

"He's been bitching about it all morning." Dean has either moved even closer to Cas's cell or he's shouting because he's kind of loud.

"I have not," they hear Cas retort.

It's really hard not to laugh, and Mom's got her free hand covering her mouth too. She takes a deep breath before saying, "We have your coat, Cas. It's a mess, but-"

"I thought I'd lost it," Cas interrupts.

They can hear Dean saying, "You're creepily attached to that coat, you know that right?"

"It is comfortable," Cas replies, then to Mom he says, "I will come and retrieve it immediately."

There is no way Jo can stop herself from laughing at that. Mom is grinning widely as she turns to Jo. "Glad I didn't burn it."

Jo agrees. She wouldn't have wanted to miss Dean and Cas arguing like this for anything.

On the other end of the line Dean says, in what sounds a lot like disgust, "You're leaving? Now? For your freaking coat?"

"I like it," Cas says defensively. "I will return shortly."

"How shortly?"

Jo wonders if Dean even remembers that they can hear everything he's saying. She kind of wishes she was still alive, so that she could tease Dean about this forever.

"An instant, for you." Cas's voice sounds closer, and a hell of a lot less annoyed, when he says, "Ellen, Jo. I will stay with you a while."

"And drink my liquor?" Mom jokes.

"And drink your liquor," Cas agrees. Jo wonders if he's smiling too.

Mom nods, and Jo finds herself feeling better than she has in days. Two days to be exact. It'll be good to have Cas back with them, in one piece. They can all go back to what passes for normal in Heaven and they'll still worry, and stuff will still piss them off, but Cas will be there. And now maybe they can trust Gabriel -just a little- to watch Cas's back. And Jo definitely has plans to discover exactly what is up with Cas and Dean.

"Before you go," Mom says, "Let me speak to Dean."

Cas has been reluctant before to let the dead and the living speak, but he acquiesces this time. They hear shifting, and Cas saying, "Ellen wishes to speak with you."

Dean greets Ellen with a bright, "Hey! How's heaven?"

"Not bad," Mom replies dismissively. Then, "You'd better be looking after Cas."

"What?" Dean says, like he can't quite believe what he's hearing.

"Dean Winchester, he was messed up when he came to my door and I don't want to see him like that ever again."

Dean is silent for a long pause before he answers, seriously, "I'll take care of him, Ellen."

They all know that Cas is way more powerful than them, and they all know that there are places Cas goes and things he does that they have no hope of ever helping with. But they need to do whatever they can to keep him safe, and keep each other safe. And if there's one thing that Castiel does, it's listen to Dean.

Mom nods approvingly, believing his sincerity. Jo does too. "We don't want to be seeing you here anytime soon," Mom says.

On the other end of the line, Dean says, "Yes, ma'am," and Mom, satisfied, ends the call.

Jo looks at her mom, and Mom is looking right back. "Unexpected," she says.

Jo thinks about that, and all the things Cas has done for Dean, and all the ways she's thought that maybe Dean kind of likes the angel, and decides that no, maybe it's not so weird that the two of them would get... close.

So Jo shakes her head, "We could be imagining it," she suggests. "It might not be what it sounded like."

Mom looks like she doesn't believe that at all. "You think?"

"No," Jo admits, and she's smiling, and Mom is smiling, and it is going to be a whole lot of fun trying to pry out of Cas what is going on. How much he hasn't been telling them. How much Dean never told them. Jo has to wonder what Sam thinks of all this.

It's good to know though, to have some confirmation -however vague and unclear and something Jo's not sure she ever could have guessed at- that Dean will be looking out for Cas in the living world.

Not so long ago Jo Harvelle would have said she'd seen it all.

Now she knows, no matter how long she's dead for, she'll never stop being surprised by the people around her. She'll never be bored with them, she'll never know everything, and she'll never take for granted all that she has.

She wouldn't have death any other way.

.End.

Comments and concrit are like pretty maids all in a row.