dauntperplexity (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
dauntperplexity) wrote2011-08-31 08:13 am
dauntperplexity) wrote2011-08-31 08:13 am
Fic: Return (1/2)
Title: Return (1/2)
Author: DauntPerplexity
Rating: PG 13
Genre: Gen, preslash, AR
Characters and/or Pairing: Balthazar, Castiel, Dean, Sam
Spoilers: Balthazar
Warnings: nudity ?
Word Count: 9950
Summary: The hunt here is finished. You and your brother have this motel for a few more days, so take the opportunity to just sleep. You look like you need it.
Author’s Note: This fic was written for the Everlasting Birthday Challenge at deancastiel. Here is the prompt: Castiel doesn't meet Dean until he's already been turned human. Not-quite-2014!Cas absentmindedly saves Dean's life on a hunt gone wrong, and Dean is determined to return the favor. And they somehow still end up all Team Free Will-y.
Author’s Note #2: So, in this story, Balthazar takes Castiel’s place in season 4 as the Winchester’s ally. Also, this story takes place sometime in season 5.
Dean was always surprised at how much he was able to think about when he was underwater. At this point in his life, he didn’t worry much about if he was going to die or not. He’d done it before. Many times. Yet he was still alive.
He drowned enough times when he was in Hell that it wasn’t a big deal anymore. If he had a choice between drowning in water or his own blood, water was a better choice. Because, you know, that’s what majority of people drowned in.
But not Dean Winchester. In Hell, he drowned mostly from the thick liquid that was supposed to be giving him life, not taking it away.
He wondered what it meant that he was actually glad that he was drowning in water for once.
In the dark, it was hard to make out which way was up and down under water. But he swam until his lungs felt like they were going to burst.
Then he just stopped. He figured that destiny had finally decided it was time for him to die. And it would be by drowning in a lake while hunting something that, in retrospect, could’ve been handled by any other hunter. He wondered why they actually took the hunt anyway especially when they had to deal with the oncoming Apocalypse.
So he just floated. He figured that if Balthazar and the other angel dicks needed him, they’d bring him back. Again.
He felt like his body was being pulled and he thought that was it. He was going to die.
He was surprised that he wasn’t freezing. In Hell, covered in fire and brimstone, he would always get cold when he was about to die. Well, if dying in Hell made much sense.
He felt something wrap around his body and his instincts kicked in. He thrashed, trying to get out of the hold. He wondered for a second where the burst of strength came. Then he wondered how long the burst would last.
The answer was not long. The grasp tightened around him and he could only give a weak kick before he gave in.
He let himself be pulled along. He just hoped that Sam would find his body before the angels did.
This time, dying felt like he was dreaming. He wasn’t in pain. He was even comfortably warm; like he was sitting in front of a fireplace.
He wondered how long he’d be dead before the angels brought him back this time.
Then he felt his chest start to hurt. He started coughing, hoping to make the pain go away. The coughing didn’t do much either way. He wrapped his arms around his chest. He wasn’t breathing.
This death was so weird.
Dean’s eyes shot open and he gasped, like the gasp people do when they’re about to fall asleep and they realize that they aren’t breathing. He shook awake. Or was it alive? He wasn’t sure.
He looked around and saw he was lying on the ground in the woods. A small fire was burning in front of him.
He wanted to get up and find out where he was. He tucked his arms under him and tried to push himself up, but his body wasn’t responding to his brain as quickly as he wanted.
“Whoa, whoa. You’re okay.”
Dean felt a hand push him to lie back down. He knew he wasn’t in the condition to fight the other man. Oddly enough, he didn’t feel threatened. He figured that if the other man wanted him dead, he would be.
Dean did an instant catalogue of his injuries. His wrist hurt. He had a bump on his head. His lungs burned. He was soaked, but he realized that he wasn’t cold, which was strange because the fire wasn’t big enough to provide him with that much warmth. “Sam?” he coughed out when there was nothing pressing that he needed to tend to.
“He’s around. Still alive as far as I know.”
Dean finally looked at the other man who was kneeling over him. “Happened?”
“I’m guessing you forgot how to swim and I had to play lifeguard. That’s assuming you knew how to swim in the first place.”
“Can swim.” Dean didn’t know why he was so defensive. He sighed and closed his eyes. He was exhausted and wanted to go to sleep.
“Of course.” Dean could swear he heard a smile in his tone. The man knelt down and put his hand on Dean’s forehead. “Can you do me a favor, handsome, and open your eyes so I can see if you have a concussion or not?”
Dean shook his head and slowly opened his eyes. The man pulled his hand away. “I’m okay,” Dean mumbled.
“Right. Okay. Well, if you’re okay, I should be on my way.”
Dean groaned. He just needed a few minutes to get himself back together then he could get up and start looking for his brother. “Thanks for—”
“Don’t mention it.”
Dean closed his eyes and relaxed. He knew that he could have easily fallen back asleep. The ground was comfortable enough. He waited for the sound of footsteps going away from him, but they never came. He opened his eyes and saw the man sitting in his eye line. “Thought you were leaving.”
“It seems wasted if I save you and leave you alone to get killed. I’ll wait until Sal or Sam or whatever finds you.”
“Sam,” Dean corrected. He groaned and brought a hand up to his head. It was killing him. He hit his head and there was an actual possibility that he did have a concussion. “Don’t have to stay.”
“I feel like you’re trying to get rid of me now. It’s okay, handsome. The hunt is done. I’m not in a rush to be anywhere.”
“You a hunter?”
“Yeah.” He was going to say something else, when he heard the sound of a cell phone ringing. He went over to a pile of clothes. He dug through the pockets of trench coat and pulled out a cell phone. He put some space between himself and Dean before he answered the phone.
“Castiel here. No. The hunt is finished. Yeah, I’ll get to that as soon as I’m done here. That’s none of your business.” Castiel sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. “It doesn’t matter because I finished the hunt three days ahead of schedule, so I can take the time to do whatever I choose. You don’t have the balls to do that.” He pulled the phone away from his ear and put the phone to his chin for a second. After he collected himself, he put the phone back to his ear. “Okay. When I’m done with what I’m doing, I’ll come and find you. And see, I’m going to be polite and actually say bye. So, bye.”
Castiel hung up the phone and shoved it into his trench coat pocket. He walked back over to Dean and sat down next to him.
“You okay?” Dean asked.
“Fine,” Castiel replied. “Why wouldn’t I be?”
“First of all, you’re not cold at all and you were in the freezing water.”
“I’m from somewhere colder than this.”
“Alaska?”
“Sure,” Castiel replied.
“Okay. And second, that phone call didn’t sound like it ended happy.”
“I don’t usually have pleasant conversations with him.”
“Boss?”
“Something like that,” Castiel sighed. “I—”
Castiel was interrupted by the voice of someone coming up to where they were. “Dean? Dean!”
“Sam?” Dean whispered.
Castiel stood up and dusted himself off. He walked over to the pile of clothes and picked up everything. “I guess that’s my cue to leave.”
“No. Wait,” Dean said. He sat up and saw Castiel walking in the opposite direction of where Sam’s voice was coming from.
Castiel looked back and smiled. “Stay safe, Dean. I won’t be around to save your ass next time.” He then continued walking away, leaving Dean alone near the fire to wait for his brother.
Dean sighed loudly and ran his fingers through his damp hair. “Sa—” he stopped, needing to cough to clear his throat to be able to yell. He coughed a couple of times until he knew his throat could handle him yelling. “Sam, over here!” he yelled once. It was all he could do at the moment. He made his way back into a horizontal position.
That was all Sam needed because a minute later, Sam found him. “Dean? Are you okay?”
“Fine, Sam.”
“What happened?”
“Did we get it?” Dean asked, ignoring Sam’s question.
“Yeah,” Sam replied with a roll of his eyes. “Something got to it before I did.” He grabbed his brother’s arm and pulled him into a sitting position. “You sure you’re okay?”
“I just need a shower and a bed and I’ll be fine.”
“Sounds good. So you want to tell me how you got here?”
“Where exactly is here?” he asked.
“A mile from the house.”
“A mile?”
“Maybe a little more. So you want to tell me how you got out here? Don’t tell me chasing it brought you all the way out here.”
That was exactly what happened. Until it lured him to the lake, knocked him unconscious, and threw him into it. Dean wanted to keep the part about him needing to be saved by a stranger a secret. He didn’t have anything to say that would have mattered. He didn’t get the guy’s name. Only that he was a hunter, and that he saved him from drowning.
“Did you see another hunter at the house?” Dean asked.
“No. Another hunter saved you?” Sam asked. “Do you know who it was?”
Dean shook his head and regretted it. “No.” Then he remembered that he said his name when he answered the phone, but he couldn’t recall it at the moment.
“Do you think Bobby will know who it was?”
“We know all the hunters that Bobby knows.”
“Maybe Balthazar would know,” Sam suggested.
“Yeah, or maybe he’ll just be a dick.”
“Dean, he can help.” Sam wasn’t trying to start anything, he just knew that his brother wanted answers and he wanted to help get them.
“I doubt it.”
“I’m guessing that it isn’t that important then.”
“Not really,” he said with a shrug. He didn’t know why it bothered him so much to say those words. “I mean, what are the chances that we’ll come across him again.”
“You never know.” Sam knew that Dean felt indebted to the person who pulled him out of the water even though he didn’t say it.
“Well, what would I tell Balthie anyway? I don’t know a thing about him.”
“Nothing?”
“He carried around a trench coat. And he had blue eyes.”
“A trench coat?” Sam repeated, ignoring the second detail. “Okay, Constantine.”
“Exactly.”
“And he was real?”
Dean scratched the back of his head, confused. “I’m actually starting to wonder.”
“Yeah. You need to lie down. Maybe sort through if you were really saved by Keanu Reeves or not.”
“That movie was not that bad. Rachel Weisz.”
Sam smiled. That one quip meant that there wasn’t anything wrong with Dean that needed the attention of a real doctor. “Which begs the question.”
“Huh?” Dean asked.
“If you were hallucinating, why were you dreaming of Keanu instead of Rachel? Something you want to tell me, Dean?”
“Yeah,” Dean replied. “It just proves that I wasn’t hallucinating. Columbo was real.”
“Okay, so Columbo was real. What does that mean?”
Dean thought about it for a second. He was full of questions. What did it mean that Columbo was real? “Nothing.”
His brother helped him off the ground. He thanked some higher power that Sam thought to move the car closer to look for him. He fell asleep in the car, dreaming of blue skies and a trench coat.
LRLRLRLRLRLRLR
Dean didn’t think about that night much. At least, he tried not to. He had other things to worry about, like the Apocalypse and the fact that he was going to be worn by Michael to the big event. But since he wasn’t thinking about it so much, he was randomly able to recall that the stranger’s name was Castiel.
As soon as he was well enough, he and his brother went back to hunting. They did small hunts state to state, all the while searching for a way to stop the angels from destroying Earth.
Bobby told them about a hunt that needed their attention in New Mexico. Ghouls were causing trouble in a small town in that state and other hunters didn’t know exactly how to deal with them. Dean and Sam took it upon themselves to help out, even though ghouls had left a bad impression on them ever since they had to deal with the ones that took the face of their brother.
Since they had dealt with ghouls before, they thought that the hunt would have gone smoothly.
They were wrong and they found themselves caught off guard by them again.
The last thing that Dean remembered was trying to pull his hands free of the ropes that hung him from the ceiling.
When he woke up, he was surprised to find himself in a motel room, but not the one that he and Sam rented. He looked to his right and saw Sam sleeping soundly on the other bed. He wondered for a second if they were actually held captive by the ghouls because he was way too comfortable to think anything else.
He tried to sit up to test his theory. He groaned loudly when he realized that he wasn’t strong enough to move.
“You’re awake.”
Dean lifted his head off the pillow as high as he could and saw that there was another person in the room with them. He would have panicked if he didn’t immediately recognize the voice and the face of the person standing at the foot of his bed. He had dreamt about him more times than he would like to admit. “You again?” he said, trying to sound exasperated. It didn’t come off that way. He sounded more relieved and surprised.
“There is so much the same and yet so different from our two encounters.”
“What?”
“At least you’re indoors this time and not sopping wet.”
“I guess we can thank whoever for small favors.”
The blue-eyed, brown-haired man said, leaning against the table behind him. “Well, it’s nice to save you from something other than a body of water. Gives me something to shoot at.”
“What happened?”
“My guess is that the ghouls got the jump on you and your brother. Roughed you up pretty good. And then the whole draining your blood thing.”
“It’s the thing to do.”
“Well, Winchester blood is pretty important. It’s like gold to the other side.”
Dean scooted up with much effort and sat on the bed. “Lucky me.”
“Yes, it is,” Castiel replied. “Well, since you’re conscious, it means my medical prowess is still top-quality. I should’ve become a doctor.”
“Why didn’t you?”
“Why aren’t you a firefighter?” Castiel countered.
Dean’s eyes widened. He had no idea why Castiel knew about him wanting to become a firefighter. The only people who knew that dream were Bobby and Sam. “Wasn’t raised that way,” Dean replied. He didn’t want the stranger to know how easily the statement caught him off guard.
“Same here,” Castiel replied. He bent down to grab something on the floor. When he straightened up, he swayed where he stood.
“You okay?” Dean asked, when he saw Castiel grab onto the back of a chair to steady himself.
He pinched the bridge of his nose. “I… I feel woozy,” he replied.
Dean stood up and grabbed Castiel by the arm. He turned it over and saw it covered in bandages. He then looked at the trashcan close by and saw it filled with tubing and bags that previously had blood in them. “Idiot,” Dean hissed. “What were you thinking?”
“You… you needed blood. Sam was… is unconscious. I thought that it would’ve been invasive.”
“So you gave me yours?” Dean rolled his eyes. He led Castiel to sit on the edge of his bed. “How did you even know that we’d match?”
“I’m… I’m O negative. Universal donor.”
“Lucky me.” Dean sat down next to Castiel.
“Right. Lucky,” Castiel replied. He sighed, and rubbed his hands together. As soon as he recovered from his dizzy spell, he stood up, much steadier than a few seconds before. “Well, the doctor, me, prescribes bed rest and no hunting for a few days.”
“That’s not possible.”
Castiel walked over to the small dining table in room and picked up his bag. He pulled out his trench coat and threw it on. Then he zipped the bag closed. “The hunt here is finished. You and your brother have this motel for a few more days, so take the opportunity to just sleep. You look like you need it.”
“Can’t. There’s an apocalypse on the way. And we still have a bunch of hunts that need to be taken care of.”
“You aren’t really doing much for it because you guys are always one step behind me.”
“Always? It’s happened twice.”
“You’ve seen my face twice. If I do my job correctly, I’m done with the hunt before you guys actually get there.”
“Care to tell me why or how that keeps happening?”
“Not really.” Castiel picked up the duffel bag. “Don’t think about it too much. Just close your pretty eyes and get some sleep.”
Dean groaned. He knew that there wasn’t anything he could do to stop the man. He was still weak from blood loss. He scooted up the bed and lied down. “You going to be here when I wake up?”
Castiel shook his head. “No. I’ll be on the next hunt.”
“Showoff.”
Castiel smirked. “It’s part of my charm.”
“I got that. You know, we could help you out.”
“I think I’m doing fine without you guys getting in my way.”
“Getting in the way?”
“Yeah,” Castiel answered. “Who needed saving in this room? It wasn’t me. But I’m not here to argue or bargain or whatever. I just needed to make sure that you two were okay.”
“And what is your prognosis, doc?”
“You guys could be better. You don’t need an actual hospital, which is good. The only life-threatening thing was the blood loss. Which I took care of.” He pointed to the bandages on his arm.
“Thanks for that.” He looked down his arm and saw a bandage in the crook of his elbow. “I don’t know if I said that earlier.”
“You’re welcome. But since you’re conscious and speaking in complete sentences, I think that I can leave.”
Dean maneuvered himself up to his elbows. He stared at the man who was a few steps away from stepping out of the room. “Can I at least know the name of the person who has saved my ass twice?” he asked.
Castiel’s hand froze an inch away from the doorknob. He spun around. “Why?” he didn’t sound suspicious. He was curious.
“So I can send you a thank you card.”
“Of course. The name’s Castiel. But I have a feeling you knew that already.”
“I remember you saying it when you answered that call in the woods. No last name?”
“No. I’m like Madonna. Or Cher.”
“Huh?”
“Get some sleep, Dean,” Castiel said. He didn’t want to answer the injured man any further. “Your brother should be awake in a few hours. And by then, you’ll be hungry. And you can get some burgers and pie.”
Dean fell into the bed. He yawned. “That sounds like a plan.” He turned to face the door and saw that Castiel still hadn’t moved. “Stay safe, all right?”
“Concern? Huh.” He was genuinely surprised. “Well, thank you for worrying about me.”
“If you need our help, call me.”
“Probably not.” Castiel finally reached for the doorknob again. He opened the door.
“It was just an offer.”
“I know, Dean,” he replied. “I know it’s futile, but stay out of trouble, okay?”
“Probably not.”
Castiel let out a short laugh. Without saying anything else, he left the motel room, but not without shutting off the light.
It didn’t take much for Dean to close his eyes and fall back asleep.
LRLRLRLRLRLRLR
When Dean woke up again, he saw that Sam was already awake. He groaned as he pulled himself into a sitting position. “You okay?” Dean asked. He rubbed his eyes.
“Yeah. You know how we got here?”
“Yeah,” Dean said. He swung his legs off the side of the bed. He reached over and grabbed the clock on the nightstand. He slept for about two hours after Castiel left. “I got a name.”
“What are you talking about?”
“His name is Castiel,” Dean said.
“Who?”
“Columbo Constantine,” he replied. “He brought us here. Apparently we caught up with him.”
“Castiel? Is he an angel?” Sam asked. It was a safe question; his name sounded religious.
“I doubt it,” Dean answered.
“Why?”
“Because he gave me some of his blood. And he felt the effects of it. Whenever Balthazar is injured, it doesn’t affect him at all.”
Sam looked at his brother, unconvinced. “Do you have any other evidence?”
“I’m sorry I couldn’t launch a full scaled investigation and interrogation in my blood loss induced haze.” He climbed off his bed and walked to his bag on the floor. He picked it up and pulled out the supplies that he needed to summon an angel. “We need to call Balthazar.”
“Why?”
“Because he’d know.”
“So would Bobby,” Sam countered. If there were any way that he could avoid having to deal with the angel, he was going to take it. There would be a higher chance that they’d get into a fight instead of finding out some information.
“No. Not good enough. He’d have to make phone calls and I don’t think Castiel wants all that attention brought on him.”
Sam got off his bed and stood next to his brother. “Dean.”
“What?”
“Did something happen?” Sam asked. Dean glared at his brother. “I mean, why do you care so much?”
Dean sighed and ran his fingers through his hair. “I don’t know, Sam.” He wished that he did.
“Dean.” He didn’t think that his brother was hiding anything, but it was always best for him to check.
“If I knew, I’d tell you, Sam.” He wasn’t angry. He knew exactly why his brother asked. “I don’t know what’s going on. I just… there’s something about him.”
“Something bad?”
“No. Definitely not bad.”
“Okay,” Sam agreed. Sam felt he asked enough questions that he was able to trust his brother’s judgment. “I’ll get what you need to summon Balthazar.”
LRLRLRLRLRLRLR
They weren’t able to summon Balthazar until almost two hours after talking about it. First of all, they both wanted to shower. Dean jumped into the water first, figuring that while Sam was in the shower, he could go out and buy some food.
He returned with a few burgers, a salad, and some beers. He knew that he would probably need some alcohol by the end of the night.
When he walked into the room, Sam was almost done with getting ready to summon the angel. “Do you want to eat now or after this is done?”
“We should do this first,” Sam said.
“Yeah,” Dean agreed. He put the food down on the table in the room. He helped his brother put the finishing touches on the summoning ritual. He threw the last ingredient into the bowl and smoke floated out of it.
A second later, Balthazar was in the room, pissed. “What do you want?”
“You busy?”
“Yes.”
“Well, too bad,” Dean said.
“You forget who I am, Dean.”
“Who is Castiel?”
Balthazar rolled his eyes. “A hunter.”
“You aren’t telling us everything.”
“Oh, Dean. You don’t want to know everything.”
“Why not?”
“As your guardian angel—”
“Guardian angel?” Sam mocked. “You haven’t done anything guardian angel-like ever.”
“Well, then right now would be a really good time for me to start. So I should—”
“Balthazar, tell me who he is.”
“No,” the angel replied, adamant, resolute, and nervous.
“Holy crap,” Sam whispered. He realized something. “You know him.”
“Yeah. One of the perks of being an angel.” He smiled and tapped his temple twice with his finger. “I tend to know a lot of hunters.” He knew that he had given something away and was trying his best to cover it up.
“No. Not just that.” Sam searched the angel’s face for a clue. His eyes widened when he realized it. “You know him personally.”
Dean searched the angel’s face, wanting to know what is brother was talking about. He looked into Balthazar’s eyes. It wasn’t hard to see what his brother saw. They were the best at reading faces. “Holy crap, you know him personally,” he whispered.
“That’s enough, Dean,” Balthazar yelled. Dean and Sam were actually surprised that Balthazar was angry with them. “Just leave it alone.”
Dean grabbed Balthazar’s forearm, knowing that if the angel wanted to fly away, he’d be taken with him. “Not even close, Balthie. Why are you protecting him?”
“Dean.”
“Just tell me why.”
Balthazar sighed. He knew that he had no other choice than to tell them what they wanted to know. He shook his arm out of Dean’s grip. “He’s my brother,” he whispered. “He’s an angel who fell. As long as he stays out of the way of the angels, he can live. He…” his voice trailed off. He shook his head to keep himself from talking. “I’ve already said too much. I should go.”
“No,” Dean said when he saw Balthazar closing up. “I still need to know more.”
“Like what?”
“I want to know everything about him.”
Balthazar stared at Dean for a second. He contemplated flying away and not indulging the human’s request. He sighed and clapped his hands together. He snapped and chairs appeared behind the brothers. “Have a seat. This will take some time.”
Dean and Sam sat down. Balthazar then proceeded to tell them everything. Well, almost everything.
Dean knew it was a god idea that he bought the cases of beer when he did.
[Part 2]
Author: DauntPerplexity
Rating: PG 13
Genre: Gen, preslash, AR
Characters and/or Pairing: Balthazar, Castiel, Dean, Sam
Spoilers: Balthazar
Warnings: nudity ?
Word Count: 9950
Summary: The hunt here is finished. You and your brother have this motel for a few more days, so take the opportunity to just sleep. You look like you need it.
Author’s Note: This fic was written for the Everlasting Birthday Challenge at deancastiel. Here is the prompt: Castiel doesn't meet Dean until he's already been turned human. Not-quite-2014!Cas absentmindedly saves Dean's life on a hunt gone wrong, and Dean is determined to return the favor. And they somehow still end up all Team Free Will-y.
Author’s Note #2: So, in this story, Balthazar takes Castiel’s place in season 4 as the Winchester’s ally. Also, this story takes place sometime in season 5.
Dean was always surprised at how much he was able to think about when he was underwater. At this point in his life, he didn’t worry much about if he was going to die or not. He’d done it before. Many times. Yet he was still alive.
He drowned enough times when he was in Hell that it wasn’t a big deal anymore. If he had a choice between drowning in water or his own blood, water was a better choice. Because, you know, that’s what majority of people drowned in.
But not Dean Winchester. In Hell, he drowned mostly from the thick liquid that was supposed to be giving him life, not taking it away.
He wondered what it meant that he was actually glad that he was drowning in water for once.
In the dark, it was hard to make out which way was up and down under water. But he swam until his lungs felt like they were going to burst.
Then he just stopped. He figured that destiny had finally decided it was time for him to die. And it would be by drowning in a lake while hunting something that, in retrospect, could’ve been handled by any other hunter. He wondered why they actually took the hunt anyway especially when they had to deal with the oncoming Apocalypse.
So he just floated. He figured that if Balthazar and the other angel dicks needed him, they’d bring him back. Again.
He felt like his body was being pulled and he thought that was it. He was going to die.
He was surprised that he wasn’t freezing. In Hell, covered in fire and brimstone, he would always get cold when he was about to die. Well, if dying in Hell made much sense.
He felt something wrap around his body and his instincts kicked in. He thrashed, trying to get out of the hold. He wondered for a second where the burst of strength came. Then he wondered how long the burst would last.
The answer was not long. The grasp tightened around him and he could only give a weak kick before he gave in.
He let himself be pulled along. He just hoped that Sam would find his body before the angels did.
This time, dying felt like he was dreaming. He wasn’t in pain. He was even comfortably warm; like he was sitting in front of a fireplace.
He wondered how long he’d be dead before the angels brought him back this time.
Then he felt his chest start to hurt. He started coughing, hoping to make the pain go away. The coughing didn’t do much either way. He wrapped his arms around his chest. He wasn’t breathing.
This death was so weird.
Dean’s eyes shot open and he gasped, like the gasp people do when they’re about to fall asleep and they realize that they aren’t breathing. He shook awake. Or was it alive? He wasn’t sure.
He looked around and saw he was lying on the ground in the woods. A small fire was burning in front of him.
He wanted to get up and find out where he was. He tucked his arms under him and tried to push himself up, but his body wasn’t responding to his brain as quickly as he wanted.
“Whoa, whoa. You’re okay.”
Dean felt a hand push him to lie back down. He knew he wasn’t in the condition to fight the other man. Oddly enough, he didn’t feel threatened. He figured that if the other man wanted him dead, he would be.
Dean did an instant catalogue of his injuries. His wrist hurt. He had a bump on his head. His lungs burned. He was soaked, but he realized that he wasn’t cold, which was strange because the fire wasn’t big enough to provide him with that much warmth. “Sam?” he coughed out when there was nothing pressing that he needed to tend to.
“He’s around. Still alive as far as I know.”
Dean finally looked at the other man who was kneeling over him. “Happened?”
“I’m guessing you forgot how to swim and I had to play lifeguard. That’s assuming you knew how to swim in the first place.”
“Can swim.” Dean didn’t know why he was so defensive. He sighed and closed his eyes. He was exhausted and wanted to go to sleep.
“Of course.” Dean could swear he heard a smile in his tone. The man knelt down and put his hand on Dean’s forehead. “Can you do me a favor, handsome, and open your eyes so I can see if you have a concussion or not?”
Dean shook his head and slowly opened his eyes. The man pulled his hand away. “I’m okay,” Dean mumbled.
“Right. Okay. Well, if you’re okay, I should be on my way.”
Dean groaned. He just needed a few minutes to get himself back together then he could get up and start looking for his brother. “Thanks for—”
“Don’t mention it.”
Dean closed his eyes and relaxed. He knew that he could have easily fallen back asleep. The ground was comfortable enough. He waited for the sound of footsteps going away from him, but they never came. He opened his eyes and saw the man sitting in his eye line. “Thought you were leaving.”
“It seems wasted if I save you and leave you alone to get killed. I’ll wait until Sal or Sam or whatever finds you.”
“Sam,” Dean corrected. He groaned and brought a hand up to his head. It was killing him. He hit his head and there was an actual possibility that he did have a concussion. “Don’t have to stay.”
“I feel like you’re trying to get rid of me now. It’s okay, handsome. The hunt is done. I’m not in a rush to be anywhere.”
“You a hunter?”
“Yeah.” He was going to say something else, when he heard the sound of a cell phone ringing. He went over to a pile of clothes. He dug through the pockets of trench coat and pulled out a cell phone. He put some space between himself and Dean before he answered the phone.
“Castiel here. No. The hunt is finished. Yeah, I’ll get to that as soon as I’m done here. That’s none of your business.” Castiel sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. “It doesn’t matter because I finished the hunt three days ahead of schedule, so I can take the time to do whatever I choose. You don’t have the balls to do that.” He pulled the phone away from his ear and put the phone to his chin for a second. After he collected himself, he put the phone back to his ear. “Okay. When I’m done with what I’m doing, I’ll come and find you. And see, I’m going to be polite and actually say bye. So, bye.”
Castiel hung up the phone and shoved it into his trench coat pocket. He walked back over to Dean and sat down next to him.
“You okay?” Dean asked.
“Fine,” Castiel replied. “Why wouldn’t I be?”
“First of all, you’re not cold at all and you were in the freezing water.”
“I’m from somewhere colder than this.”
“Alaska?”
“Sure,” Castiel replied.
“Okay. And second, that phone call didn’t sound like it ended happy.”
“I don’t usually have pleasant conversations with him.”
“Boss?”
“Something like that,” Castiel sighed. “I—”
Castiel was interrupted by the voice of someone coming up to where they were. “Dean? Dean!”
“Sam?” Dean whispered.
Castiel stood up and dusted himself off. He walked over to the pile of clothes and picked up everything. “I guess that’s my cue to leave.”
“No. Wait,” Dean said. He sat up and saw Castiel walking in the opposite direction of where Sam’s voice was coming from.
Castiel looked back and smiled. “Stay safe, Dean. I won’t be around to save your ass next time.” He then continued walking away, leaving Dean alone near the fire to wait for his brother.
Dean sighed loudly and ran his fingers through his damp hair. “Sa—” he stopped, needing to cough to clear his throat to be able to yell. He coughed a couple of times until he knew his throat could handle him yelling. “Sam, over here!” he yelled once. It was all he could do at the moment. He made his way back into a horizontal position.
That was all Sam needed because a minute later, Sam found him. “Dean? Are you okay?”
“Fine, Sam.”
“What happened?”
“Did we get it?” Dean asked, ignoring Sam’s question.
“Yeah,” Sam replied with a roll of his eyes. “Something got to it before I did.” He grabbed his brother’s arm and pulled him into a sitting position. “You sure you’re okay?”
“I just need a shower and a bed and I’ll be fine.”
“Sounds good. So you want to tell me how you got here?”
“Where exactly is here?” he asked.
“A mile from the house.”
“A mile?”
“Maybe a little more. So you want to tell me how you got out here? Don’t tell me chasing it brought you all the way out here.”
That was exactly what happened. Until it lured him to the lake, knocked him unconscious, and threw him into it. Dean wanted to keep the part about him needing to be saved by a stranger a secret. He didn’t have anything to say that would have mattered. He didn’t get the guy’s name. Only that he was a hunter, and that he saved him from drowning.
“Did you see another hunter at the house?” Dean asked.
“No. Another hunter saved you?” Sam asked. “Do you know who it was?”
Dean shook his head and regretted it. “No.” Then he remembered that he said his name when he answered the phone, but he couldn’t recall it at the moment.
“Do you think Bobby will know who it was?”
“We know all the hunters that Bobby knows.”
“Maybe Balthazar would know,” Sam suggested.
“Yeah, or maybe he’ll just be a dick.”
“Dean, he can help.” Sam wasn’t trying to start anything, he just knew that his brother wanted answers and he wanted to help get them.
“I doubt it.”
“I’m guessing that it isn’t that important then.”
“Not really,” he said with a shrug. He didn’t know why it bothered him so much to say those words. “I mean, what are the chances that we’ll come across him again.”
“You never know.” Sam knew that Dean felt indebted to the person who pulled him out of the water even though he didn’t say it.
“Well, what would I tell Balthie anyway? I don’t know a thing about him.”
“Nothing?”
“He carried around a trench coat. And he had blue eyes.”
“A trench coat?” Sam repeated, ignoring the second detail. “Okay, Constantine.”
“Exactly.”
“And he was real?”
Dean scratched the back of his head, confused. “I’m actually starting to wonder.”
“Yeah. You need to lie down. Maybe sort through if you were really saved by Keanu Reeves or not.”
“That movie was not that bad. Rachel Weisz.”
Sam smiled. That one quip meant that there wasn’t anything wrong with Dean that needed the attention of a real doctor. “Which begs the question.”
“Huh?” Dean asked.
“If you were hallucinating, why were you dreaming of Keanu instead of Rachel? Something you want to tell me, Dean?”
“Yeah,” Dean replied. “It just proves that I wasn’t hallucinating. Columbo was real.”
“Okay, so Columbo was real. What does that mean?”
Dean thought about it for a second. He was full of questions. What did it mean that Columbo was real? “Nothing.”
His brother helped him off the ground. He thanked some higher power that Sam thought to move the car closer to look for him. He fell asleep in the car, dreaming of blue skies and a trench coat.
LRLRLRLRLRLRLR
Dean didn’t think about that night much. At least, he tried not to. He had other things to worry about, like the Apocalypse and the fact that he was going to be worn by Michael to the big event. But since he wasn’t thinking about it so much, he was randomly able to recall that the stranger’s name was Castiel.
As soon as he was well enough, he and his brother went back to hunting. They did small hunts state to state, all the while searching for a way to stop the angels from destroying Earth.
Bobby told them about a hunt that needed their attention in New Mexico. Ghouls were causing trouble in a small town in that state and other hunters didn’t know exactly how to deal with them. Dean and Sam took it upon themselves to help out, even though ghouls had left a bad impression on them ever since they had to deal with the ones that took the face of their brother.
Since they had dealt with ghouls before, they thought that the hunt would have gone smoothly.
They were wrong and they found themselves caught off guard by them again.
The last thing that Dean remembered was trying to pull his hands free of the ropes that hung him from the ceiling.
When he woke up, he was surprised to find himself in a motel room, but not the one that he and Sam rented. He looked to his right and saw Sam sleeping soundly on the other bed. He wondered for a second if they were actually held captive by the ghouls because he was way too comfortable to think anything else.
He tried to sit up to test his theory. He groaned loudly when he realized that he wasn’t strong enough to move.
“You’re awake.”
Dean lifted his head off the pillow as high as he could and saw that there was another person in the room with them. He would have panicked if he didn’t immediately recognize the voice and the face of the person standing at the foot of his bed. He had dreamt about him more times than he would like to admit. “You again?” he said, trying to sound exasperated. It didn’t come off that way. He sounded more relieved and surprised.
“There is so much the same and yet so different from our two encounters.”
“What?”
“At least you’re indoors this time and not sopping wet.”
“I guess we can thank whoever for small favors.”
The blue-eyed, brown-haired man said, leaning against the table behind him. “Well, it’s nice to save you from something other than a body of water. Gives me something to shoot at.”
“What happened?”
“My guess is that the ghouls got the jump on you and your brother. Roughed you up pretty good. And then the whole draining your blood thing.”
“It’s the thing to do.”
“Well, Winchester blood is pretty important. It’s like gold to the other side.”
Dean scooted up with much effort and sat on the bed. “Lucky me.”
“Yes, it is,” Castiel replied. “Well, since you’re conscious, it means my medical prowess is still top-quality. I should’ve become a doctor.”
“Why didn’t you?”
“Why aren’t you a firefighter?” Castiel countered.
Dean’s eyes widened. He had no idea why Castiel knew about him wanting to become a firefighter. The only people who knew that dream were Bobby and Sam. “Wasn’t raised that way,” Dean replied. He didn’t want the stranger to know how easily the statement caught him off guard.
“Same here,” Castiel replied. He bent down to grab something on the floor. When he straightened up, he swayed where he stood.
“You okay?” Dean asked, when he saw Castiel grab onto the back of a chair to steady himself.
He pinched the bridge of his nose. “I… I feel woozy,” he replied.
Dean stood up and grabbed Castiel by the arm. He turned it over and saw it covered in bandages. He then looked at the trashcan close by and saw it filled with tubing and bags that previously had blood in them. “Idiot,” Dean hissed. “What were you thinking?”
“You… you needed blood. Sam was… is unconscious. I thought that it would’ve been invasive.”
“So you gave me yours?” Dean rolled his eyes. He led Castiel to sit on the edge of his bed. “How did you even know that we’d match?”
“I’m… I’m O negative. Universal donor.”
“Lucky me.” Dean sat down next to Castiel.
“Right. Lucky,” Castiel replied. He sighed, and rubbed his hands together. As soon as he recovered from his dizzy spell, he stood up, much steadier than a few seconds before. “Well, the doctor, me, prescribes bed rest and no hunting for a few days.”
“That’s not possible.”
Castiel walked over to the small dining table in room and picked up his bag. He pulled out his trench coat and threw it on. Then he zipped the bag closed. “The hunt here is finished. You and your brother have this motel for a few more days, so take the opportunity to just sleep. You look like you need it.”
“Can’t. There’s an apocalypse on the way. And we still have a bunch of hunts that need to be taken care of.”
“You aren’t really doing much for it because you guys are always one step behind me.”
“Always? It’s happened twice.”
“You’ve seen my face twice. If I do my job correctly, I’m done with the hunt before you guys actually get there.”
“Care to tell me why or how that keeps happening?”
“Not really.” Castiel picked up the duffel bag. “Don’t think about it too much. Just close your pretty eyes and get some sleep.”
Dean groaned. He knew that there wasn’t anything he could do to stop the man. He was still weak from blood loss. He scooted up the bed and lied down. “You going to be here when I wake up?”
Castiel shook his head. “No. I’ll be on the next hunt.”
“Showoff.”
Castiel smirked. “It’s part of my charm.”
“I got that. You know, we could help you out.”
“I think I’m doing fine without you guys getting in my way.”
“Getting in the way?”
“Yeah,” Castiel answered. “Who needed saving in this room? It wasn’t me. But I’m not here to argue or bargain or whatever. I just needed to make sure that you two were okay.”
“And what is your prognosis, doc?”
“You guys could be better. You don’t need an actual hospital, which is good. The only life-threatening thing was the blood loss. Which I took care of.” He pointed to the bandages on his arm.
“Thanks for that.” He looked down his arm and saw a bandage in the crook of his elbow. “I don’t know if I said that earlier.”
“You’re welcome. But since you’re conscious and speaking in complete sentences, I think that I can leave.”
Dean maneuvered himself up to his elbows. He stared at the man who was a few steps away from stepping out of the room. “Can I at least know the name of the person who has saved my ass twice?” he asked.
Castiel’s hand froze an inch away from the doorknob. He spun around. “Why?” he didn’t sound suspicious. He was curious.
“So I can send you a thank you card.”
“Of course. The name’s Castiel. But I have a feeling you knew that already.”
“I remember you saying it when you answered that call in the woods. No last name?”
“No. I’m like Madonna. Or Cher.”
“Huh?”
“Get some sleep, Dean,” Castiel said. He didn’t want to answer the injured man any further. “Your brother should be awake in a few hours. And by then, you’ll be hungry. And you can get some burgers and pie.”
Dean fell into the bed. He yawned. “That sounds like a plan.” He turned to face the door and saw that Castiel still hadn’t moved. “Stay safe, all right?”
“Concern? Huh.” He was genuinely surprised. “Well, thank you for worrying about me.”
“If you need our help, call me.”
“Probably not.” Castiel finally reached for the doorknob again. He opened the door.
“It was just an offer.”
“I know, Dean,” he replied. “I know it’s futile, but stay out of trouble, okay?”
“Probably not.”
Castiel let out a short laugh. Without saying anything else, he left the motel room, but not without shutting off the light.
It didn’t take much for Dean to close his eyes and fall back asleep.
LRLRLRLRLRLRLR
When Dean woke up again, he saw that Sam was already awake. He groaned as he pulled himself into a sitting position. “You okay?” Dean asked. He rubbed his eyes.
“Yeah. You know how we got here?”
“Yeah,” Dean said. He swung his legs off the side of the bed. He reached over and grabbed the clock on the nightstand. He slept for about two hours after Castiel left. “I got a name.”
“What are you talking about?”
“His name is Castiel,” Dean said.
“Who?”
“Columbo Constantine,” he replied. “He brought us here. Apparently we caught up with him.”
“Castiel? Is he an angel?” Sam asked. It was a safe question; his name sounded religious.
“I doubt it,” Dean answered.
“Why?”
“Because he gave me some of his blood. And he felt the effects of it. Whenever Balthazar is injured, it doesn’t affect him at all.”
Sam looked at his brother, unconvinced. “Do you have any other evidence?”
“I’m sorry I couldn’t launch a full scaled investigation and interrogation in my blood loss induced haze.” He climbed off his bed and walked to his bag on the floor. He picked it up and pulled out the supplies that he needed to summon an angel. “We need to call Balthazar.”
“Why?”
“Because he’d know.”
“So would Bobby,” Sam countered. If there were any way that he could avoid having to deal with the angel, he was going to take it. There would be a higher chance that they’d get into a fight instead of finding out some information.
“No. Not good enough. He’d have to make phone calls and I don’t think Castiel wants all that attention brought on him.”
Sam got off his bed and stood next to his brother. “Dean.”
“What?”
“Did something happen?” Sam asked. Dean glared at his brother. “I mean, why do you care so much?”
Dean sighed and ran his fingers through his hair. “I don’t know, Sam.” He wished that he did.
“Dean.” He didn’t think that his brother was hiding anything, but it was always best for him to check.
“If I knew, I’d tell you, Sam.” He wasn’t angry. He knew exactly why his brother asked. “I don’t know what’s going on. I just… there’s something about him.”
“Something bad?”
“No. Definitely not bad.”
“Okay,” Sam agreed. Sam felt he asked enough questions that he was able to trust his brother’s judgment. “I’ll get what you need to summon Balthazar.”
LRLRLRLRLRLRLR
They weren’t able to summon Balthazar until almost two hours after talking about it. First of all, they both wanted to shower. Dean jumped into the water first, figuring that while Sam was in the shower, he could go out and buy some food.
He returned with a few burgers, a salad, and some beers. He knew that he would probably need some alcohol by the end of the night.
When he walked into the room, Sam was almost done with getting ready to summon the angel. “Do you want to eat now or after this is done?”
“We should do this first,” Sam said.
“Yeah,” Dean agreed. He put the food down on the table in the room. He helped his brother put the finishing touches on the summoning ritual. He threw the last ingredient into the bowl and smoke floated out of it.
A second later, Balthazar was in the room, pissed. “What do you want?”
“You busy?”
“Yes.”
“Well, too bad,” Dean said.
“You forget who I am, Dean.”
“Who is Castiel?”
Balthazar rolled his eyes. “A hunter.”
“You aren’t telling us everything.”
“Oh, Dean. You don’t want to know everything.”
“Why not?”
“As your guardian angel—”
“Guardian angel?” Sam mocked. “You haven’t done anything guardian angel-like ever.”
“Well, then right now would be a really good time for me to start. So I should—”
“Balthazar, tell me who he is.”
“No,” the angel replied, adamant, resolute, and nervous.
“Holy crap,” Sam whispered. He realized something. “You know him.”
“Yeah. One of the perks of being an angel.” He smiled and tapped his temple twice with his finger. “I tend to know a lot of hunters.” He knew that he had given something away and was trying his best to cover it up.
“No. Not just that.” Sam searched the angel’s face for a clue. His eyes widened when he realized it. “You know him personally.”
Dean searched the angel’s face, wanting to know what is brother was talking about. He looked into Balthazar’s eyes. It wasn’t hard to see what his brother saw. They were the best at reading faces. “Holy crap, you know him personally,” he whispered.
“That’s enough, Dean,” Balthazar yelled. Dean and Sam were actually surprised that Balthazar was angry with them. “Just leave it alone.”
Dean grabbed Balthazar’s forearm, knowing that if the angel wanted to fly away, he’d be taken with him. “Not even close, Balthie. Why are you protecting him?”
“Dean.”
“Just tell me why.”
Balthazar sighed. He knew that he had no other choice than to tell them what they wanted to know. He shook his arm out of Dean’s grip. “He’s my brother,” he whispered. “He’s an angel who fell. As long as he stays out of the way of the angels, he can live. He…” his voice trailed off. He shook his head to keep himself from talking. “I’ve already said too much. I should go.”
“No,” Dean said when he saw Balthazar closing up. “I still need to know more.”
“Like what?”
“I want to know everything about him.”
Balthazar stared at Dean for a second. He contemplated flying away and not indulging the human’s request. He sighed and clapped his hands together. He snapped and chairs appeared behind the brothers. “Have a seat. This will take some time.”
Dean and Sam sat down. Balthazar then proceeded to tell them everything. Well, almost everything.
Dean knew it was a god idea that he bought the cases of beer when he did.
[Part 2]