Till the day I die

Where Are We Now?

Castiel was in his car driving down a lonely road in Kansas late at night with Hannah looking for a group of angels that were said to be there. They were planning on finding them and telling them that Heaven was open, and bringing them home. However, when Sam called, Cas had to drop Hannah off at a bus stop. Sam told Castiel that he needed help; Dean was missing.

"How can that have hapened though Sam? I thought....I thought Metatron killed him." his voice cracked when he thought of it happening.

But maybe it wasn't permanent, Dean had died multiple times but always came back. Sam was crying saying that he summoned Crowley and that Crowley must have brought another demon to possess Dean because his whole room wreaked of sulfur.

Sam told Cas to get to the bunker and that he'd leave it unlocked for him, and when Castiel did arrive several days later he went in and found Sam, after calling him many times but with no response, unconsious on the floor of his bedroom. Cas put him back in his bed and went down the hall.

The bunker was unconfortably quiet; he could hear the air travel through the vents. He found Dean's room and walked in to inspect. There were papers scattered on the floor, empty beer bottles knocked over on his bed side table, a half eaten slice of cherry pie on his desk, and an unbearably strong smell of rotten eggs.

Several hours later when Sam woke, Castiel asked him what their plan was and when they should start looking for Dean.

"We could try summoning Crowley, maybe-"

"I'VE DONE THAT ALREADY CAS." Sam managed to slur the words slowly out of his mouth.

"Sam, why don't you go back to bed? You're still affected by the alcohal."

"NO CAS. I- I'M FINE."

"Really Sam.....just quiet down a little." Cas replied.

Sam's loud voice echoed on and on in the empty bunker. "I'M NOT THE ONE WHO'S YELLING CAS."

Castiel looked at his friend in confusion. He had only been drunk once but he was pretty sure he hadn't yelled at anyone. He left the room and went to the kitchen to find those pills that Dean had given Cas when he was under the influence, brought them back to Sam, and gave him three. Sam fell back asleep shortly after.

Sam woke up with an outrageously painful headache. He heard an echoing thump....thump...thump from down the hall. He got up and walked through the bunker looking for the source of the sound. Supporting himself on the wall he stopped and squinted at a blur who was slowly coming into focus sitting at the table in the main room.

"C-Cas, hey, w-what are you doing?" Cas was sitting at the table cleaning and rearanging the books that were there. The thumping that Sam heard had come from Castiel moving and stacking the books.

"Sam, I was just cleaning the table. It was disorganized. How are you feeling? Are you better?"

Sam was surprised by the worry in Cas' eyes. "Uhh yeah, I mean...I guess."

"Here have more medicine." Cas grabbed the pill bottle out of his trench coat pocket, took out two, and handed them to Sam.

"Thanks." Sam said as he sat down on the opposite side of Castiel, then swallowed them.

"So have you heard anything new of the situation? Dean can't have gotten far." Sam's headache was starting to subside now but it wasn't any easier to think. Dean was missing, but Dean was dead. He looked at Cas' confused eyes and started to explain everything that happened to Dean and himself the past few days.

~~~~~

"I woke up on the ground and ran to the homeless group. I found him in the warehouse and saw-... and saw Metatron stab him. And he smiled, Cas. Metatron, he smiled when he pulled the blade out of Dean." Sam's eyes started to water. "So we started walking out because Metatron left, I guess you and Gadreel did something up top? Where is he by the way?" Sam asked, a halt in his emotions.

Cas looked down and said "He sacrificed himself to help us." and nothing more.

"Oh, i-is that a good thing?"

"It's what it is." Castiel replied. "Go on with your story."

Sam never cared too much for Gadreel, he had killed Kevin after all, but he was still upset to hear he was dead.

"So then we stopped, Dean was getting harder to carry. He wanted to- to say goodbye." All the feelings from that night came back and tears were now streaming down Sam's face. "Cas, he, he told me he was proud of us." Sam was gasping for air now, trying to finish his story. Cas got up and grabbed a tissue box and handed it to Sam.

"We can talk about this later Sam. It's okay, calm down."

"No!" Sam gasped out. "I-I'm fine." He took a deep breath, wiped his tears, and started again. "So he said he was proud of us...then just collapsed on my shoulder. He was dead, and I couldn't help him. I was too late. All I could do was bring him back here. I tried summoning Crowley but he never came, or to me at least. He must have gone to Dean. And after I realized Crowley wasn't coming I had a few drinks-"

Cas glared at him.

"Okay I had a lot of drinks, then went into Dean's room to see him and he was gone. So I got a car ready for when we leave to find him then came back in to wait for you, that was a couple days ago, and here we are." 

Cas looked at Sam with a mix of pity and concern. Sam had been through so much and Cas began to wonder if he could handle anymore. Sam had had so many deaths on his hands personally, and to lose his  own brother and not be able to do anything about it, that was worse. And then to have his brothers body possessed, that didn't help at all.

Dean trully was the perfect vessel, dead or alive. But how would they be able to find Crowley? Cas used to be associated with him but he was sure Crowley would have found a new hole to hide in. And if nothing else, Crowley did a good job of staying off the radar so finding him wouldn't be at all easy. But they'd have to try, for Dean.