Work Text:
Cas, Are You God?
Dean sits on the cold ground, Horsemen’s rings in one hand. He just hurts. Everything just hurts. He knows bones are broken in his face, one eye is swollen shut and some ribs, at the very least, cracked. He doesn't care. Can’t.
Sam. Sam is gone, and that loss floods inside him until he thinks he will explode. Like Cas. And that’s another horror. Bobby, gone. Castiel, gone.
His mind is reeling with the sights flipping through it relentlessly. Sam, falling away; Bobby, neck twisted at that impossible angle, crumpling to the ground. And Cas, blasted to bloody bits by a snap of Sam’s – Lucifer’s – fingers. Dean is covered in blood. Most of it is his own, but he knows some of it is the angel’s, remembers the hot feel of it hitting his face when Cas…….
No Sam. No Bobby. No angel. No family.
Dean is too devastated to cry. He just wants to sit here until death takes him as well.
Slowly, distantly, he senses someone else there, and looks up to see Castiel, whole and alive.
His heart leaps in his chest, but he doesn't trust it. Maybe he is dead already and doesn't know it. But the ground beneath his feet feels real. The pain of his broken bones feels real. The blood slowly drying on his face feels real.
“Cas, you’re alive?” He ventures quietly.
“I’m better than that,” Cas replies confidently, reaching out and touching Dean’s forehead.
Warmth suffuses Dean’s whole being and the physical pain drifts away. Dean finally gets to his feet. He is grateful, but ….Sam is still lost.
“Cas, are you God?” he asks hopefully, and in the back of his mind a tiny voice is calling for Sam’s return. If Cas is God……
The angel knows what Dean is thinking and shakes his head minutely.
“That’s a nice compliment, but no.” Cas replies. “Although I do believe he brought me back. New and improved.”
“He’s gone, Cas.” Dean moans. “Sam’s gone. There has to be a way. Is there any way? Anything?” he pleads. “You have to know some way!”
Castiel reaches out and puts a hand on Dean’s shoulder.
“We can never open the cage again, Dean. I’m sorry. Lucifer can’t be freed again. Sam knew this when he came up with this plan. “
“No! No way.” Dean objects. “There has to be some way. I've lost Sam. Lost Bobby.”
“Your brother saved the world, Dean,” Castiel reminds him.
“And I was supposed to save him.” Dean has tears in his eyes and Cas leans in closer, comfortable heat from the angel’s body enveloping him.
“I am truly sorry, Dean.” Cas tries soothingly, and is surprised to find that he really is. Dismayed that he can feel Dean’s pain. Sorry that he will be expected to return to Heaven now and he doesn't want to. Doesn't want to leave Earth. Leave Dean.
Dean meets Castiel’s gaze solidly and puts one hand over the angel’s hand on his shoulder, thinking distractedly that Cas just feels so warm and so safe and Dean doesn't want to be left alone here.
He asks anyway. “Cas, are you staying?” ‘With me,’ he thinks, but doesn't say. Can’t say.
Castiel shakes his head slowly. “The apocalypse has been averted. With Michael in the cage and my Father gone, there is havoc in Heaven. I must return and do what I can. Much of the time, I would rather be here.”
Dean takes his hand away from the angel’s reluctantly. “So, it’s just me now.”
“I can help with that,” Cas tells him, moving over to where Bobby lay, leaning down to gently touch his forehead. Bobby gasps back into life, confused for a few seconds.
“Will you ever be back?” Dean asks hopefully, already feeling an even more overwhelming sense of loss before Castiel has even left. Bad enough there is no Sam now, but no Cas either?
“It’s not beyond the realm of possibility. I will be busy. But, I can still hear prayers.”
Dean looks down at his feet, hearing Bobby’s steps on the grass as he makes his way over to the hunter. “I don’t pray, Cas.” He replies softly.
When he looks up again, the angel is already gone.
“You suck at good-byes,” he mutters sadly.