The Truth

Chapter 5

Sam and Eileen walked in on a slightly confusing scene when they returned to the bunker, and Sam contemplated the situation for a minute before announcing their presence with a question, since neither Dean or Cas acknowledged their entrance.

"Are you...playing Scrabble?" He finally asked.

Dean looked up at him through slightly blurry eyes and studied Sam for a minute. He and Cas were sitting cross legged on the floor in the living room across from each other, Scrabble board in the middle. The only words on the board were "hello" and "Castiel."

"I'm doing normal people things", he said, and gave Sam a tight lipped smile before going back to studying the board.

"Friends", Cas said from across the board.

"What, Cas?" Sam asked.

"This song. It's called Friends. But I think one of the people in the song wants to be more than just friends." He stopped talking abruptly after that and took a drink of whisky out of the almost empty bottle.

Sam recognized the bottle as the expensive selection that he had left on the table for them. He rolled his eyes and proceeded to pick his way over to Cas and took the bottle away. His actions were met with no resistance from Cas, who was still staring at the board intently, swaying to the sounds of Led Zeppelin...or maybe from his whiskey buzz. Sam wasn't actually sure.

"You're supposed to enjoy this, not drink the whole thing at once", Sam said with annoyance.

"Oh, we're enjoying it", Dean retorted.

"How long have you been playing this?" Sam asked, the annoyance still rampant in his voice.

"I don't know, like a half hour?" Dean said, wrinkling his eyebrows in an annoyed, brotherly way and looking up at Sam from across the Scrabble board.

Sam looked at Eileen and shook his head, his eyes widening in defeat. He was relieved to see that Eileen was considering the scene with amusement.

"Did you know that you can't use proper nouns in Scrabble?" She asked, directing her gaze at Dean.

"Proper what?" He asked.

"Proper nouns. Like names", she said.

"Let's not confuse Cas here", Dean said. He looked across the board adoringly at Cas, who was preparing to make his second word.

As he put his letters down, all three of the other occupants in the room watched; it was strange to watch Cas engage in human activities and there was something slightly comical about watching a fallen angel of the Lord playing Scrabble, cross legged on the floor, wearing Dean's clothes. The appreciation for the moment was felt deeply by all.

"Heaven. Double word score." Cas looked up proudly and glanced around the room, waiting for affirmation that this was a good move.

Dean counted the points silently and recorded them on his scorecard, which happened to be the back of the pad of notes that Sam had been keeping for a vamp case that he was planning on taking this week. And when Sam saw it, a slow realization drifted like poison through his mind: that was it. That was the case...their last case. He held his breath and tried not to let his mind go back down the "what if" rabbit hole again. Not yet. He took Eileen's arm gently and guided her out of the room as he remained lost in thought.

Sam Grabbed Eileen gently by the arms once they were alone in the kitchen and turned her so she was facing him. He kissed her softly and said "we need to make this dinner special for Dean and Cas." She nodded knowingly and went to work prepping the counters for cooking. Sam unloaded the grocery bags and simultaneously put the bottle of whiskey to his lips, finishing it off with a shrug.