Supernatural One-Shots

Haunting Memories

They're still there.

The memories.

The pictures.

All there.

Dean can feel them swirling around in the back of his mind. As he sinks into the end of the motel bed, doubled over with elbows on knees and head in hands, he relives his childhood.

Before all this.

Before hunting.

Before Mom-

Well, things are different now. Everything's so hard and it's wearing down this already broken man. He remembers his mother in this time of pain; remembers when she would comfort him.

***

Dean came running into the kitchen where Mary was humming quietly to herself as she stuck some pie in the oven. When Mary turned to look down at her son, she saw the sticky tears clinging to his cheeks as he struggled to stop crying. She immediately knelt in front of him and wrapped her arms around his small body, enveloping him in an instant comfort that comes with a mother's love. As she quietly shushed him, rocking him back and forth slightly, she gently scratched his back. This soothed him until his body no longer quivered and the tears began to dry on his freckled cheeks. She pulled back to look her young son- her pride and joy- in his sparkling emerald eyes.

"Now, how about we have some pie and you can tell me what's wrong," Mary said in a soft voice with a smile.

Little Dean's eyes lit up at the mention of pie...

***

Dean quickly stands up and paces the small room a few times before standing still in the middle of it.

Sam's gone.

No telling when- or if- he'll be back.

Dean closes his eyes and lets his head fall to his chest, his right hand coming up to pinch the bridge of his nose as he tries to hold everything in. He can't stop thinking about his mom and how she would comfort him. Her gentle touch is just what he needs right now.

He craves it.

Castiel appears a few feet from Dean, remaining unnoticed. The angel just observes his friend for a few moments. Cas begins to understand what it is that the Righteous Man needs to help him get through this moment, and steps closer.

Dean can almost feel his mother's arms around him; feel her scratching his back in slow patterns... And then it's more real than he first thought. Someone's hugging him just the way Mom used to. He begins to hope...

"Mom?" Dean's voice cracks as he whispers this into the fabric of someone's shirt.

Castiel steps back and, as Dean opens his eyes to look, tilts his head to the side.

"I am not your mother, Dean. I am-"

"Oh just shut up, Cas," Dean says, pulling Castiel into another hug.

Cas returns the embrace- finally getting used to the idea of hugging- and slowly, hesitantly, continues scratching Dean's back in an attempt to quiet his fears.

The way his mom did.

Dean buries his face into the shoulder of his angel, letting the tears fall at last. As this broken- shattered- man lets himself melt into the arms of the one angel capable of fixing him, the angel dares to let himself fall... knowing that the two of them are eternally connected by a profound bond that defies words. They simply stand there, embracing.

Castiel lets his face turn inward, sliding his head into the crook of Dean's neck in an attempt to drown out his own fears of the road ahead of them.

"Thank you."