Tainted Grace |Castiel

Chapter 17

"What the hell was that?" Dean exclaims before anyone could process the video. It shook them all to the core, seeing the explosion and death on the screen.

Cas, still in shock, shakes his head. "I don't know. I didn't -- I would never ask an Angel to sacrifice himself to kill innocents." His voice got stronger towards the end of his sentence, his face full of shock.

"I'm gonna be sick," he murmured. Natalia stood closer to him, trying to calm him down with her presence. His face was wild, fear and panic evident in his eyes.

"Cas, why would an Angel blow up a colonel scoop's in your name?" Sam questioned.

"That's not what he was doing," Hannah interrupted for the fourth fucking time. "Roll it back."

The guy at the computer did as he was told. She told him to stop when the video showed the image of the child. "That was an Angel -- Esther."

"Well obviously it was an Angel," Natalia stated.

"Care to explain, Nat?" Dean asked.

She shrugged and pointed towards the girl. "You can see her Grace through the video, and her broken wings. It's quite obvious."

"We can't see Grace or wings," Sam stated. The Leviathan shrugged her shoulders again, muttering how dumb humans were.

"Wait," Dean said, holding his had up. "If you can see her wings, can you see Cas'?"

She glanced at Castiel, his eyes were already on her, he of course already knew the answer. "Yes, it's not a big deal, is it?"

"Guys, she's one of Metatron's," Hannah said, gaining everyone's attention and focusing on the topic at hand.

"So, this was some kind of hit?" Sam asked, his eyebrows raised extraordinarily high.

"I don't know," Cas replied back.

"Stop saying you don't know," Dean said harshly.

"You can't think I would allow something like this." The Seraph's face was full of anger, his voice deeper than usual.

"Cas, I know you try to be a good guy, okay? I do. You try. But what you got here, this is a-a freakin' cult."

"Dean," Cas warned.

"And the last time you had this kind of juice, you did kill humans and Angels, and you did nothing but lie to me and Sam about it the whole time damn time!" Dean shouted.

Natalia pushed Cas out of the way and stood in front of Dean, her face full of insanity. She was starting to consider the Winchester as a friend, but she immediately lost her trust in him.

"Back off, Dean. Don't you see how upset Cas is over this? It's not his fucking fault about the God thing, all he wanted to do was help!" She yelled in his face, pushing him back.

Dean's gaze became murderous as he looked at Natalia. Before he could do anything, Sam said, "Can we take this somewhere else, guys?"

So now they were in Castiel's office, still fighting.

"Will you stow the baggage, Dean. Look, we have a case. Let's work it." Sam's voice was stern and right to the point, trying to get ahold of the situation.

"Cas, did you know the Angel in that video?"

With his back facing the wall, Cas replied. "Yes. His name was Oren. He was a new recruit. He worked in community outreach."

"What does that mean?" Talia asked.

"Some of my troops are stationed at a local hospital. They help where they can. Minor miracles -- it's nothing that would draw attention."