Purgatory

The Nick of Time

Dean wiped his eyes, shook off the last of his breakdown, got up off the ground, and exhaled deeply. "Okay." Playtime's over, let's find Cas. Clutching his gun tightly, he continued off into the endless forest called Purgatory towards where his gut was leading him.
He stopped again, checking his phone. 3:00. He had 3 minutes to find his angel. He started up walking again, faster this time, to find Castiel. "Dean." He heard that gruff voice he was so often spooked by and cocked his gun at the sound of the noise. Upon seeing him, Dean's gun lowered.
"Cas?" He asked, an incredulous look on his face. Castiel never ceases to amaze and appear in the nick of time.
An injured Castiel got up from behind the tree where he lay. "You made it."
"I made it?" Dean wondered where the hell he'd been this whole time. Cas walked over to wrap Dean in a great big bear hug, his breathing laboured by his wounds. They each held on like their lives depended on it and though Castiel was still an angel, dopamine rushed to his very human brain. "You okay?"
"I'm fine." Cas replied.
"What happened?" After the angel was done explaining to him what went down, Dean remembered his prayer in the woods. "Okay, Cas, I need to say something."
"You don't have to say it. I heard your prayer." He looked at Dean with wistful eyes. Dean sat in a silence for a beat wondering whether he should ever say what he had meant. Nothing would ever change if he kept this bottled up forever. And most of all, Dean would never know if he didn't try. He didn't try with Benny and now he'd never know how different things could have been. He kept things casual between himself and Lee and they didn't see each other for years on end. But Lee still thought about him. Maybe if he kept things quiet things would turn out like that with Cas. Something that could've been and never was.
They locked eyes for a good few seconds before Cas turned away towards their escape, leaving Dean looking at the angel in a trenchcoat as he walked away.