Prison Break (Sequel to "Wanted")

Chapter 13

Castiel takes this call outside. He's not entirely sure he's allowed to talk to a witness while outside, but who's gonna fire him? Michael? The guy practically begged him to get involved in this case in the first place.

"Hi, Sam," Castiel says.

"What can I help you with, Agent Novak?" Sam asks.

"You can call me Castiel," he says.

"Well, what can I help you with, Castiel?" Sam asks. "I'm afraid I've already told you everything about last night, but if you have any questions about, say, growing up with him or something, I can help with that one."

"Actually, I think I already know everything I would need to know about that," Castiel tells him. "I mean, I'm sure it was a little biased, given that it came from Dean himself, but he'd long since decided he didn't need to impress me anymore."

"'Anymore'?" Sam repeats. "What, were you guys friends? I thought you were the one that arrested him."

"I was," Castiel says. "But there's a little more to it than that."

"Oh?"

"I don't know how much Dean told you," Castiel says. "I know he has a tendency to run his mouth about things he shouldn't, that he craves some type of connection and he will keep talking and he will keep fighting until he gets it."

"Oh, I don't know about that," Sam says uncomfortably. "I mean, maybe he'd changed in the last 12 years, but at least growing up, he wasn't the most social person."

"That's not entirely what I meant," Castiel says. "Dean and I go way back — 12 years back, to be precise. Those first five years, I wanted to find him and I wanted him off the streets, and I may have been secretly hoping I'd get the chance to pull my weapon to do so. Then he decided that he wanted to be my friend, and he would leave a phone number in blood at every single crime scene just to get my attention."

"Well, that is certainly very... creepy..." Sam says. "He didn't tell me that, if that's where you're going with. He just mentioned your name. He said he'd hoped we met. I didn't quite get it at the time, but this would explain it."

"Yes, it would, but that's not the point I'm making," Castiel says. "I have always and I will always hate Dean. I would expect you feel the same."

"Of course," Sam says without hesitation. "He's a serial killer. The sooner he's off the streets, the better. That's why I called. That's why I'm talking to you right now."

"Right, right, but you called this morning," Castiel says. "You called hours after he'd left — long enough for him to leave the state, and we'd never know where to look for him."

"I told you, I was —"

"You were processing it, I know," Castiel says. "That's the official story. That's the one going on the record. This conversation, as soon as it ends, it never happened. So you can tell me, or I can tell you, either one works, that you processed it the minute you saw him standing in the doorway. You knew you could shoot him. You're a lawyer; you know you had the grounds. You knew you could send him away and call the cops right after you closed the door, and he'd never know. But you waited, what, eight hours?"

"I was in shock," Sam says. "A serial killer was standing in my doorway. My wife and my kids were upstairs —"

"And he wouldn't have hurt them," Castiel says. "He has no concept of the value of human life, but he wouldn't have hurt them because he knew you wouldn't want him too. I think you knew that they were never in danger — that as uncomfortable as it made you that he was here, he was never going to hurt you or your family."