I'll Come Back To You

Chapter 9: Hello Old Friend

"Dean, I'm pretty sure we've gone through every lore book in existence," Mary proclaimed. "And the only things storm related have to deal with a sign of the Apocalypse, a warning of demons, or the Darkness."

"Well it has to mean something," Dean proclaimed.

"Maybe it was just a freak weather incident," She offered. "Those do happen sometimes."

"Not in our world." Dean retorted. He just wanted a theory. An idea. A thought. A completely wrong potential solution- anything that would let him know that Cas was alright.

He had called everyone. Every hunter in the Winchester phone book. Every hunter, witch, good werewolf, psychic, trust-able vampire, and prophet.  He even started calling religious professors at random universities to question about it, but nobody knew a damn thing.

Dean was ready to punch something. How could there be so little information? How could no one know anything?

How could no one be able to tell him if Cas was going to be okay or not?

"I'm sure he's fine." Jack insisted.

"How do you know?" Dean grumbled. Jack shrugged.

"He's Castiel," He aid optimistically. "He can do anything." 

"No one can do anything." Dean offered, plunking down in a chair with a sigh. "I just want to know if he's okay."

"If he weren't okay, wouldn't you know it?" Jack questioned. "In your gut or something?"

"He's already dead, Jack." Dean muttered. "I don't think my gut's instincts can stretch into the afterlife."

"Well, mine can." Jack proclaimed. "And I say Castiel is fine. He's halfway back to us already, you'll see." Dean forced a smile.

"Don't ever lose that optimism, okay Jack?"

"Okay,"

******

Castiel discovered pretty quickly that a tree branch did not make a very good weapon against vengeful monsters. 

He knew he could just smite the monsters that attacked him, but Cas was tired, and he knew he'd need all of his strength to fight off the demons he'd encounter once he reached hell and crawled his way out of it. So using his grace and just blasting all these monsters away was not an option. And that would be like a beacon to every other creature in this awful place. 

That angel was back. Time to destroy him.

And Castiel didn't feel like having a monster army after him again.

So he searched through Purgatory, weaponless seeing as he'd broken his tree branch during a Leviathan fight. There was no sign of a door to hell anywhere, but Castiel wasn't going to give up hope. He'd gotten this far already. He could get a little further.

He only hoped that Sam and Dean hadn't found some way to retrieve him from the Empty. If they went looking for him there, and found out that he was gone...

Well, Castiel could imagine the look on Dean's face, and it was an expression that pulled at his heart.

He tried to focus on Dean. Dean had kept him alive in Purgatory the first time around. Sure, he had avoided the hunter for months, trying to keep him safe, but Dean still managed to find him and refused to let him go.

Somewhere, Cas remembered with a faint smile, there was a tree in this place with their names on it. Dean had carved them during the rare moment when no monsters had been attacking them.

"Why are you doing that?" Cas had asked, confused.

"So that everyone knows we were here," Dean replied, etching their names in the bark with a knife. He grinned. "And so every monster will be forever afraid that we're still here."

"That seems rather cruel to them."

"Well, if you carved our names somewhere in heaven, what do you think the angels would do?"

"Probably accuse me of having an inappropriate relationship with you and promptly smite me." Dean shook his head.

"Well, this isn't heaven," He dusted off the carving. "And it isn't Earth. Nobody's going to smite us for anything here." He smiled at Cas.

That smile lingered in Castiel's mind as he continued trekking across Purgatory. He stopped at the sound of footsteps approaching, searching around for anything he could use as a weapon. Purgatory was not a safe place to be left unarmed.

He grabbed a rock off the ground, figuring it was better than nothing, and whipped around, only to freeze at the sight of the creature before him.

"Long time no see, hot wings." Benny grinned. Castiel dropped the rock.