I've Come To Be the Stranger That You Keep (by blue_fjords) ~Destiel~ AU

12

It was eight paces down to the next room door. John felt he'd worn a trench in the dirty pavement, back and forth, back and forth, turning over the events of the day in his head. When he went back inside, he'd probably find his eldest son passed out in a bed with an angel. He choked back a hysterical laugh and reached into his coat pocket for his phone. And to top it all off, the demons were forming an army. He placed the call.

"Singer Salvage."

"Bobby." John sighed. "You busy for the next forty-eight hours?"

"Depends on what you ask me."

"Get on the horn to every hunter you know. Tell them demons are making a power play on earth, and they're recruiting - humans, kitsune, whatever creature will have them."

Bobby was silent for a second. "Well, crap."

"Yeah."

"What's your source?"

"Demonic and angelic."

Bobby paused again. "You... want to tell me about it?"

"Hell, no."

"It's not like I really want to hear, but if it's about this demon insurgence... There's something more bothering you."

"It's..." John sighed. "Castiel. He's more than a match for a handful of demons. He doesn't need help."

"And yet he showed up asking for help," Bobby said slowly. "And I take it he didn't know about this recruiting before?"

"Exactly."

"So what the hell does he need help with?"

"Something huge, bigger than anything we've ever faced before. And Dean's going to help him." John looked down at the ground, scuffing his feet through the gravel. Dean had spent his entire life trying to emulate him, but John had known from the first time he'd looked into his infant's eyes that Dean was Mary, through and through, pig-headed and quick-tempered and loyal and so full of love. Sam was the one like him, God help them both.

"And what are you going to do?" Bobby asked at last, cutting through his thoughts.

"Support Dean," came the instantaneous response. "Maybe Castiel can break the cycle," he muttered beneath his breath.

"What was that?"

"Nothing. I just - this is gonna be rough, Bobby. If I fell, you'd-"

"Don't even have to ask."

"Good. That's good." He licked his lips, coming to a decision. Really, it'd been made for him the first time Castiel touched Dean, but now... "I have one more favor to ask you, old friend."

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