Supernatural: Meeting the Angels

Chapter 9

Castiel just looks at his brother. Is he questioning listening to Michael? Is he wishing he told Michael to stop earlier, so he didn't have to deal with this? Michael waits nervously for an answer. Finally, Castiel says, "Do you think that Sam is in danger?"
"How'd you know it was Sam?" Michael asks, not accusingly, but more confused.
"You said they were 15 or 16, and there was a fire when they were six months old," Castiel repeats. "If one of them fits that pattern, it would have to be Sam."
Michael nods. Wow, Castiel is good. He may not have worked that out himself. "Yes," Michael agrees.
"And what do you propose we do about it?" Castiel asks. "We can't go to the police. You hacked into their... Database." He says that questioningly, as if not sure he should use the term. "That would get us in trouble. Telling Sam and Dean would make us sound like stalkers, and if we're wrong, that would be bad too."
Michael nods, glad Castiel sees his problem. More than that, he now sees it as his problem as well. Michael wasn't sure he'd get on board with this, but with the talk of "we," Michael is sure he's at least thinking of it. He feels sort of bad for it, though. Castiel is a good kid, and this is definitely not the type of thing he should be involved in. Michael just didn't have anywhere else to turn.
"And we can't tell the others, because they might let it slip to Chuck and Amara, and we can't tell Chuck and Amara because they'll be upset I was looking at this at all," Michael adds, though he knows it's less of a problem than the ones Castiel mentioned. After all, what's the wrath of their parents compared to being sent to jail or being told to get away from the people he's trying to protect?
"It seems that all we can do is watch Sam and hope that if someone does come for him, someone is there."
Michael nods. "Yeah, I guess. Still, we can't watch him all the time."
"Then I guess we just do what we can and hope it's enough."

The first thing Dean does when he gets home is check his email. He does that every day when their dad is hunting without them, usually a few times. He never knows if John will need their help with something. To his surprise, there is an email from John. Dean opens it quickly, eager to see if it means his case is over.
There's a picture of weird symbols that Dean has never seen before. The email just tells him to figure out what it means, with no other information about it. No language, no context, nothing. He quickly emails his father back and says he'll get to work. Without any background on it, he doesn't even know where to start, so he heads to Google with the search "ancient languages." After a few minutes of not finding anything, Sam comes over to him, looking over his shoulder.
"Whatcha looking at?"
"Dad wants me to translate something," Dean tells him, not taking his eyes off the computer.
"About what?"
"Not sure."
"From what language?"
Dean returns to the tab that has his email to show Sam the symbols. "That one."
"And how's that going?" Sam asks.
"Horrible," Dean tells him with a frown. "But I'll figure it out eventually. Hey, get me a piece of paper and a pen, would ya?"
Sam nods, eager to help in any way. He runs out and returns a few moments later with the supplies Dean asked for. Dean takes them and copies down the symbols, so he won't have to keep flipping through tabs.
"You want to check any of the books Dad brought with us?" Dean offers, knowing Sam wants to help in any way. It doesn't matter to him how boring his job is as long as he gets to do something.
"Yeah!" Sam agrees enthusiastically, running over to all the books they had brought with them. He searches through them for one that seems like it could help and rejoins Dean at the table, where he can see the symbols they're searching for. They work like that for a while, together but alone, until Sam shuts his book half an hour later.
"There's nothing in there," Sam says, disappointed.
Dean shuts his laptop. "Same here. I'm not even sure what I should be looking for." As much as he hates to admit it, finding anything seems highly unlikely now, after so much searching. If he knew what he was looking at, it would be easier to translate, but not only does he not have a language, he has no context to find a language with. It seems the only thing he can do is email his dad back asking for more information about it, but if he does it so soon, John will assume he wasn't working hard at all. He decides to put it off another hour, so John thinks he was working way longer than he really was. To remind himself, he leaves the paper with the symbols on the table. He'll figure it out soon. He always does. It's why John needs him.

Michael is satisfied with how the conversation went with Castiel. He was hesitant going to his brother, knowing that Castiel is a good kid and might be afraid of getting in trouble if he kept it secret. Although Castiel would never go to Chuck and Amara just to get Michael in trouble like Lucifer might have, he wasn't sure if he would go if he thought Michael was in over his head, just to stop him from doing anything stupid.
There was another reason Michael was hesitant going to Castiel, but may have also been the reason he did. He wasn't sure if Castiel would want to be a part of this with him. He knows it's a ridiculous though, but it was still possible Castiel didn't want anything to do with him.
Fortunately, it seems he was wrong. Castiel seemed to jump on board immediately, which was a good sign. Michael noticed him start talking more towards the end of his visit, too, which was great. Maybe Castiel is finally warming up to him. It's been years since they had an actual conversation, and that was definitely better than their past interactions. Maybe it was just the common goal that got Castiel talking, but Michael isn't complaining. Just having the chance to talk with him seemed like a milestone to him, even if it was over such a grave topic. At least now he knows Castiel doesn't hate him. Maybe now they'll talk more, since they have something in common. Michael can only hope that will work.

As soon as Michael leaves his room, Castiel shuts the door and plops down on his bed. How did this become his problem? He likes the little Winchester, but this seems like a bit too much for him. If nothing happens to the boy, Castiel will be nervous for a long time that it's still coming. If Castiel stops something from happening to Sam, he'll be known as a hero, and Castiel doesn't want that. If someone does get Sam, Castiel will never forgive himself, because he would have known about it and not have been able to stop it. This whole situation is setting him up to lose.
The thing that bugs him right now is why Michael went to him. He and Michael aren't close. He had to have suspected Castiel would tell Chuck and Amara. He won't tell anyone, because he doesn't want to get Michael in trouble, but Michael couldn't have known that. Why take the risk?
Castiel knows Michael is closer with everyone else in the house. Why would he choose Castiel to confide in over his siblings? No one can trust Lucifer for anything, but the other two would make more sense than him. Gabriel sees Sam all the time, and they're pretty good friends. Anna and Michael are close as well, or as close as Michael gets to people. Michael and Castiel are strangers, only seeing each other because they live under the same roof. Why would Michael choose him?
Castiel puts aside his doubts and focuses on the only part of what just happened that matters. What does he do about Sam? He never sees Sam, other than at lunch, and he's not sure that will happen again. Lucifer and Anna have a self made "No acknowledging each other's presence" rule at school, and lunch definitely broke it. Will they be willing to break it again for the boys? Anna is his link to Sam, so if she decides she isn't going to sit with him at lunch, he has no way of watching Sam.
What's he even thinking about? Even if someone did come after Sam, Castiel could do nothing about it. He might as well drop the act now. There was absolutely no gain when Michael told him about this. Castiel can't help, and odds are, neither can Michael. Michael may not have even met Sam, for all Castiel knows. It's not like he's ever at lunch, and Sam wouldn't be in any classes with Michael because he only has one real class. If anything happens to Sam, there's nothing they will be able to do about it. The odds of anyone coming after him at school are small enough, but at a time in school where Castiel or Michael is around? No way. They might as well give up now. Nothing is going to save Sam now.