The Year of Redemption

Chapter 1: I Know Places

Dean was snoring deeply now, his head still cradled in Castiel's lap. Cas watched Dean's chest rise and fall regularly. The hunter finally seemed relaxed. In all the time that Cas had known Dean, he'd never seem relaxed. Castiel knew it was because Dean was just so physically and emotionally drained that his body was left with no other choice but to collapse onto the angel. Still, it was nice to see the hunter so tranquil, and Cas didn't want to disturb him.

However, Castiel also knew that, pretty soon, this place would be crawling with both angels and demons wondering what had happened. Paradise had not come. The great war between Heaven and Hell had not been waged. Michael and Lucifer would remain locked in an endless battle in the Cage for who knows how long. Dean and Cas had to get out of there before the soldiers of Heaven and Hell alike showed up and started asking questions.

A few weeks ago, Castiel was only a speck of an angel, cut off from heaven. He was almost completely human, and it had terrified him. In one such episode during his stint as a 'human,' Cas was wandering through some forest in one of the northern states when he had started to feel unimaginably tired. Castiel remembered stumbling upon a deserted log cabin that was secluded in the woods of Minnesota. He had stayed there for the night. He remembered experiencing the strange, disconcerting sensation of sleeping for the first time at that cabin.

It was a nice place, though pretty run-down, a few miles from town. The door was coming off its hinges, the walls let in the breeze and needed to be chinked, a lot of the shingles lay scattered on the ground outside, and there were weeds waist-high all around it, not to mention piles of wood and branches from fallen trees. But there was an old, creaky queen-sized bed, and Cas reckoned it might afford some comfort and solitude as Dean slept his emotions and exhaustion away. It would do for the moment at least. Besides, with the limited experience Castiel had with being human and living on Earth, he couldn't think of anything else to do. So he decided to commandeer the abandoned house - for now.

Reinstated back into the ranks of Heaven, Castiel was in full control of his angel abilities now. He touched two fingers to Dean's forehead, and the two of them appeared in front of the cabin, still kneeling on the ground. Cas gingerly lifted Dean's head off of his knees. The angel put his other hand under Dean's legs, easily picking him up off the ground and carrying him into the house. Dean was limp in Castiel's arms, dead asleep.

The bed was still made from the last time Castiel had been there. The angel gently laid Dean right on top of the covers, trying not to wake him. There were no curtains on the rod over the window, and the mid-afternoon sun shone straight through into the room. Cas took an extra blanket that was laying on the ground and hung it over the rod to block out the light.

Cas figured Dean wouldn't be awake for at least several hours, so he made a quick trip to the nearby town, picked up a newspaper and some food for Dean, and then came back to tidy up the cabin a bit. He wanted to return to Heaven and tell his brothers about his newfound knowledge of freedom and choice - and about the miracle of how he had been saved - but he decided that would have to wait until Dean was awake. Castiel couldn't leave the hunter by himself in this state. Plus, Dean's Impala was still at the graveyard. The hunter had nowhere to go without Cas.

Dean slept through the night... and through the next morning... and through much of the next afternoon. He stumbled into the kitchen, rubbing his eyes and slowly looking around, scanning the cabin. He noticed Castiel sitting in a chair at the table. "Hell of a hotel you put us up in," he commented sarcastically.

"Oh yeah," Cas replied, almost embarrassed. "You'll have to instruct me on how to use one of those magic cards which grants you entrance into places like that."

Dean looked incredulous. "Cas, you're an angel. You basically have free reign wherever you want to go on Earth. You're like Bill Gates with wings."