The Bodyguard (is the Omega)

13.

Dean was waiting right by the door of his hidden dressing room, Samandriel and Hannah standing close by. Castiel was glad to see he'd stayed put like they talked about for emergencies. He could think clearer now that he knew Dean was fine. "I'm alright Cas, go check on Crowley! Make sure he's okay."

Castiel nodded and ran right past, following the trail of smoke and the sound of accented cursing. Crowley was certainly uninjured but he was standing in the middle of the room sneering at the smoking gift pile.

"The fucking cowboy doll blew right up, I only pulled the string."

"I told you not to touch anything, show me your hands," Castiel inspected the minor burns. "Ketch has ointment."

"Oh no personal attention for my wound?" Crowley said sourly. "Figures, I get Ketch's man paws when Dean gets the deep tissue massage. Oh please, I have ears around the house. We have to get Dean out of here. The Empty, he's here."

Castiel gave Crowley a look. Crowley shrugged like he thought the name was cool.

"The doll talked before it went kaboom," Crowley held Castiel's gaze steady. "It's not adrenalin, I know what I heard. Creepy thing. He said 'You have everything, I have nothing, empty'. It's the same guy who got in the house. Did that number plate you gave the FBI point to any leads?"

"They're still faxing it around to all the stations and departments, the motor registry administration usually takes weeks, not days, to do a plate match. They have to manually pull up the records," Castiel said. "There was something about that car plate too, it was off."

"Great, very helpful!" Crowley gestured in the air. "How do you say it in American? Let's vamoose!"

* * *

"Crowley is announcing the cancellation of tonight's show," Castiel broke the news to Dean.

Dean listened to Castiel's account of what happened to Crowley in the dressing room. Castiel provided every detail, what the explosives were hidden in, what sound recording was played when the doll was triggered. He also relayed the tension he had sensed in the crowd from the omegas and alphas. "You want my assessment Dean, it's a hell pit of anger and fear out there, just waiting for a match to light it all up."

"I gotta go up there, listen to them they're booing Crowley."

"No Dean," Castiel shook his head.

"You know ever since I started talking bout conciliating the alphas and omegas. Ever since I started talking about change. All anyone in power wanted to do was to shut me up. Shut up and sing my tunes cause that's all my mouth is good for, entertainment. I'm not shutting up, Cas. Crowley's right, if I don't have a voice, if I don't use it, I might as well be dead."

Dean placed his hands on Castiel's shoulders, bumping his forehead into Castiel's temple. Castiel hadn't realised he'd been breathing hard until Dean eased his hands over Castiel's shoulder blades over and over.

"Now I know you don't want me to get hurt and I promised to be good," Dean rubbed the corner of his mouth across Castiel's temple. "But this is bigger than you and me."

"You are good, Dean," Castiel took Dean's hand. "Come with me then."

He brought Dean onto the side of the stage and sharp eyed Garth saw them and gasped, turning to tell his friends.

"Is it worth it?" Castiel asked one last time.

"Yeah," Dean nodded and walked onto the stage.

The crowd started screaming and Crowley stopped apologising on Dean's behalf, he twisted his head around, his face turning pale as he saw Dean.

"Fergus Crowley, funniest publicist money can buy!" Dean said into his performance microphone, wired up to dangle before his mouth. "How's everybody doing?"