the island.

i.

Dean sat beside Castiel, staring at the brown liquid in his glass, and contemplating what had happened that day. What had Chuck said to make Sam believe him? What did Chuck say that could possibly change Sam's mind in wanting to kill him? Or at least trap him? Their only hope, the spell that Michael had given them, was gone. The levithan blossom was all used up, and the rift to Purgatory dissipated. Dean's hope was fading with every failed attempt. The only thing that was keeping him going was the angel sitting beside him. His angel. Who had forgiven him and was back in his life. Who had saved the day. Not that Dean ever doubted he couldn't; Cas always saved the day.

As Dean swirled the whiskey in his glass, he heard footsteps in the hall before Sam appeared in the doorway, a forlorn look on his face. Both Dean and Cas looked up at him as Sam turned to look back the way he came.

"Did she leave?" Dean asked, quietly, fearful for the answer. Not for himself, but for his brother's breaking heart.

Sam inhaled, his breath catching. "Yeah," he said, fiddling with the sleeves of his shirt.

"Sorry," Dean said, dropping his head to look back down at his glass to avoid Sam seeing his pitiful expression.

"We saw a chance," Sam stepped down into the room, "to, uh, stop Chuck, but . . ." He paused, trying to find the words to say without the threat of tears spilling over. Dean and Cas looked up at him, Cas with a solemn expression, Dean with serious concentration. "What Chuck showed me, what happened if we trapped him . . . I believed him. I still do." He looked straight into Dean's eyes as he said that, but he couldn't hold them for long, for fear of Dean being angry at him. Dean's expression showed nothing, he couldn't read what Dean was thinking. But from past experiences, from Dean's expression after Chuck destroyed the ball with the spell in it, Sam knew Dean would be angry.

Sam turned his head away, bracing himself for Dean's harsh words.

Dean nodded, the corners of his mouth turning down in the mouth equivalent of a shrug. "Well, that's good enough for me."

Sam's head snapped to Dean; shock, relief, confusion all crossing his face at once. Dean just lifted the glass to his lips and took a sip. A short silence came across the trio as both Sam and Cas processed Dean's off-character reaction.

Purgatory had changed Dean. But not just Purgatory, his whole situation with Cas over the past few weeks. It made Dean realise he shouldn't be angry at the people he loves for their decisions and choices they made in the moment. Dean couldn't control everything, and having his brother and his best friend on his side were more important than his anger.

Realising Dean wasn't going to say more, Sam sighed and spoke up, "Okay, uh, so what now?" He swallowed the lump that was forming in his throat, from a mix of relief that his brother was on his side, and grief that Eileen had left him, as well as the things he saw today.

Castiel spoke for the first time, "Well, Chuck's gone, but -"

"He'll be back," Dean interrupted, glancing at Cas before dragging his eyes to Sam.

Sam nodded. "If we can't kill him, or trap him . . .". He couldn't think of anything else they could do to stop Chuck, to stop the future that he'd just seen from happening.

"Well then we find another way," Dean said determinedly, looking straight into Sam's eyes.

Sam's eyes glossed over as he nodded. He was about to cry and he couldn't let Dean and Cas see him do it. He cleared his throat and sighed.

"Okay, uh, I'm going to, uh, go . . ." he trailed off, thumbing over his shoulder in the direction of his room. Dean just nodded, taking another sip of his whiskey. Cas gave him a sympathetic look, before turning back to Dean. Sam turned and rushed out, but he didn't make it to his room before the tears began to fall.

~

Later that evening, Cas sat at the desk in the library, scrolling through the news on Dean's laptop. He wasn't in search of anything in particular; he thought maybe if he looked, he might find a hunt or anything that could take Sam's and Dean's minds off the problem at hand. As he scrolled, his mind wandered to the words of Dean's prayer. And Dean's face after he found him. And Dean's warm embrace, how he had hugged Cas so tightly, like he never wanted to let go.

Despite being deep in his thoughts, Cas' eye caught the title of a posting. He sat upright and read it again:

A remote island in Ireland is looking for 2 friends to live there for free and run its coffee shop.

Castiel's interest was piqued. This was exactly what they needed. An escape from this, from hunting, from God, from the deaths of their closest friends and family; an escape from their stresses to refresh and recuperate, and possibly find a new solution to their Chuck problems.

Cas clicked on the article, and the more he read, the more he was convinced. He was about to send an email to the address from the article when Dean entered the room, two beers in his hands.

"Hey, how's it going?" Dean asked, reaching the table and sliding one of the bottles over to Cas.

"It's going well," Cas replied, tilting the beer in Dean's direction as a thank you. "I found something."

Dean sighed as he sat down. "Cas, we just got back from Purgatory. Chuck is gone, again, and we don't have a plan for what to do next. I don't think a hunt is the right thing for -"

"It's not a hunt," Cas interrupted.

Dean stopped, his head turning to Cas with a frown. "Well, what is it?"

"It's a job position." Cas turned the laptop towards him, the article open for him to read.

Dean's frown deepened as he took the laptop and read through the article. "A coffee shop?!" he asked, perplexion apparent in his voice and facial expression.

"On a remote island," Cas nodded.

"Cas, I don't have the beginnings of an idea on how to run a coffee shop," Dean said, pushing the laptop away.

"That's okay. It says no experience needed," Castiel assured, taking the laptop back and proceeding to find the email address again.

"Cas, no," Dean said, reaching over and slapping the laptop shut. "I can't. I can't leave Sam like that. He just lost Eileen. He'd be alone if we left. And Chuck? He's gone too, and time is running out. We need to find a way to stop him. We can't just run away."

Although there was no anger in his voice, Cas felt scolded at. "But Dean . . ." he tried.

"No."

"Dean . . . "

"I said no, Cas. I'm not leaving Sam." Dean stood abruptly, his chair crashing to the floor. He stalked out of the room, leaving Cas staring after him in defeat. 

~*~