The Year of Redemption

Chapter 30: Almost Lover

Castiel came back that night. He stood in the doorway of the kitchen. Dean was at the table, ravenously scarfing down some sort of casserole – if you could even call it that. It looked more like a pile of random leftovers that he must have whipped together from anything he could find in the fridge.

Cas sighed heavily. He was surprisingly relieved to find that Dean was still alive. Hearing the angel, the hunter looked up, bits of food dropping from his face back onto the plate. He tried to say something, but any sort of intelligible language was hopelessly muffled by his mouthful of "casserole."

Castiel smirked and shook his head. "At least you're back to your own slob self," he remarked.

Dean glared at him and swallowed. "We need to talk," he stated, pushing his chair out and standing up. "I have some questions, and then you're leaving." Dean brushed past Cas, walking straight out the doorway and into the living room. He stood in the middle of the room with his back to Cas, gathering his thoughts.

Castiel was a bit confused by the statement. He turned in the doorway, following Dean into the room. "Cas, you said you knew what those wendigos were," Dean said, turning around and getting straight to business.

"Yes," Cas replied slowly, eyeing Dean and trying to figure out where this conversation was going. "They were commissioned by Raphael. I don't know how, but apparently he can control some types monsters – at least wendigos – temporarily." Cas noticed a confused look coming over Dean's face. "Raphael is the angel we are fighting against in Heaven," he explained. "Naturally, he wants me dead. The wound on your hand – that must have been how he got to you."

"Then if angels were the ones who wanted you dead, what the hell were demons doing making deals for your ass?" Dean asked, trying to connect the dots.

"I don't know. That's what I'm trying to figure out." This question was plaguing Castiel as well. He had no idea how Raphael had gotten tied up with demons.

"Ok, well if this angel's in bed with demons, and he's hiring out monsters to be his bitches, and he succeeded in killing you once..." Dean paused, letting the words hang in the air, almost daring Castiel to deny them. "Then who's to say he's not going to make a move on you again?" he finished.

"He probably will," Cas admitted. "But I've been avoiding him for weeks now. I'll be fine."

"Well what about those wendigos, are they still around? And what other monsters have the angels been banging that I should worry about?" Dean was getting a bit worked up thinking about all of this. Heaven sure had a mess on its hands, and it seemed like Cas had his fair share of shit to deal with up there.

"The night those wendigos attacked us, I tracked them down and took care of them. I don't sense any more of Raphael's monsters in the area."

Dean hadn't known this bit of information. He didn't even know Cas could "sense" monsters. "But what about Raphael?" he continued. "He knows we're here, right? Won't he come looking for you, looking for me?" The hunter was desperately trying to wrap his head around all of this nonsense.

Castiel kept patiently answering Dean's questions. In the back of his mind, though, he was still distracted by what Dean had said earlier about him leaving. "The wendigos never had a chance to report back to Raphael," Cas explained. "He doesn't know you're here. He doesn't even know how I died in the first place. It was honestly just a convenience that the wendigos got to you. Their target was me. I doubt Raphael cares about you at all."

Dean rolled his eyes. "Oh. Well, I haven't gotten any 'Thinking of You' greeting cards with Heaven as the return address, so at least it's good to know that," he commented sarcastically.