West Coast

Chapter Seventeen

It had been a week since the incident with Hoagie. There had been four teenagers involved, and all four of them charged with assault, thanks to Jody.

Cas hadn't been able to force himself out of the house during that time, and had been letting Hoagie run himself around in the garden. Every so often he caught Dean watching him apprehensively, but still couldn't bring himself to go outside.

He lay floating in the bathtub one night, letting his thoughts wander. Dean had kissed him on the cheek without thinking that day, and left the house in a fluster. These incidents - Dean slipping up and forgetting himself - started to occur more often. Cas's cheek tingled as he thought about it, but everything was tangled up in his head. He was almost certain that he felt something for Dean, but what was it? After living with him for so long, there was no way that Cas wouldn't have started to feel things, he reasoned, but was it a recollection of their past life together, or was it new? He sighed deeply. He would have liked to discuss it with Dean, but he didn't want to get Dean's hopes up. His memories were not exactly reliable. They tended to be fleeting, coming and going as they pleased, and if this was something from before, then...

A knock at the door interrupted his thoughts.

'Hey, you okay in there?' Dean called through the door.

'Yes,' Cas said back. He had been in the bath a while now. 'I'll be out in a minute.' Cas's heart fluttered at Dean's voice, but he pushed the feeling away. He couldn't think about that now, he needed to focus on getting better - or as better as he could be.

At last, he pulled himself out of the bath and dried himself off.

Dean had made them both some hot chocolate, and was waiting for him on the couch with their book. He looked up and smiled.

'You're so patient with me, Dean,' Cas said, sitting beside him and getting in a comfortable position to read.

'Shouldn't I be?' Dean said in amusement.

'I don't know if I could do it.'

'Oh, you definitely could,' Dean laughed. 'Now hurry up, we're getting to the good part.'

'We are?'

Dean pointed at the page they were on.

'Oh, right!' Cas settled with the book open, but hesitated. 'I'm going to go back out tomorrow,' he said firmly, nodding mostly to himself.

'Oh?'

'Yes. I'll just run really fast, so no one can catch me.' Cas felt the chuckle rumble through Dean's chest.

'Can Hoagie keep up?'

'Hoagie runs faster than I do.'

Dean breathed deeply, relieved. 'Good,' he said. 'That's good. I gotta admit, I was a little worried about you there.'

'I know. I'll be all right.' Cas wasn't a certain as he sounded, but he wanted to be okay for Dean, and he only had to check the light switch twice that night.

At first, Cas's eyes raked the road ahead of him as he ran, keeping himself a healthy distance away from anyone he saw, but as the days went by, he relaxed. No one stopped him, and no one so much as glanced at Hoagie, but he still couldn't stop himself from worrying about it.

One overcast day, he was out running, but he couldn't stop imagining eyes staring at him. He stopped and leaned against the wall of the gym to catch his breath, but he soon became aware of someone watching him from the doorway.

A man was standing there, taking a deep drink from his bottle.

'What?' Cas asked a little harshly.