How (thanks to Gabriel) Dean and Castiel raised each other (and Sam)

Chapter 20- Pity the Beast

With little fanfare, Spring arrived to turn the remaining snow to gray slush and send intrepid blades of grass pushing up through cracks in the sidewalk outside the shop. Inside, Thursday’s Child started to shake off its winter lethargy. The windows, clean for once, let in the sun and the smell of musky incense gave way to something sharper and fresher.

“I’m telling you,” Dean held the book open flat on the counter with the palm of his hand as if it might otherwise try to escape, “the monster got a raw deal.”

“What do you mean?” Castiel asked as he totaled up the day’s sales.

“Well, Frankenstein makes him, right? Then he freaks out when the guy is fugly and abandons the poor bastard. Does he quit? No. Monster heaves himself up and tries to learn how to be a person. But he scares people just by existing and gets run off.” Dean flipped a few pages, coming up with an illustration of the monster cowering away from fire. “In the movies, he’s a dumb beast, but in the book he’s smarter than Frankenstein. I feel for him.”

“I believe that was Shelley’s intention.” The numbers were entered into his ledger with some small satisfaction. “Ultimately it is Frankenstein who is monstrous. The monster becomes so only in the face of the treatment of his creator.”

“I think I’m over relating.” Dean frowned down at the text. “Do you think that’s what she meant? That God left us like an unwanted kid and that’s why everything is so fucked up?”

“Maybe it’s what she meant, but I don’t think that it’s true.” Castiel set aside his pen and ledger to drift to Dean’s side. “Free will is a difficult gift, but it isn’t the curse of abandonment. In God’s absence, we discover who we really are.”

“One way of looking at it.” Dean closed the book and shoved it aside.

“Hey.” Sam came in the front door, carrying a take out bag. “Dinner.”

“Awesome.” Dean rifled under the counter to find the sheet they spread out to spare the glass. “What’d you get?”

“Thai.” Sam pulled fragrant boxes from the depths of the bag. “The place near campus that you like Cas.”

“Thank you.” Opening a container of spring rolls, Castiel made a soft sound of pleasure. “I was thinking of these yesterday.”

“No problem. Anything on the monitors?”

Sam didn’t even glance over at the two small screens that now resided below the store’s security feeds. One came from the downstairs, focused on Lilith’s slumbering face. The command Gabriel had issued still held strong. A little like an evil Snow White, she slumbered on in the confines of an old freezer locked and chained shut. The second feed traveled a substantially farther distance, bringing back the unchanging image of St. Mary’s Convent’s chapel. They had waited a week there before even Sam had to admit defeat, installing the camera on the last vestige of hope.

“No change.” Dean shoveled rice onto his plate. “Did you meet with your adviser?”

“I told you I was going to.” Sam grumbled. “He said if I take summer classes then I’m still on track to graduate next year.”

“Good news.”

“And then I’m going to get my doctorate.” Sam stabbed at his box of noodles as if they had offended him.

“In what?” Castiel dipped the spring roll into sweet sauce, before biting into it. The lovely sour tang of it burst over his tongue.

“Theology. I mean, I could practically do it in my sleep anyway and maybe I could figure out something new.”