SPN episode codas (Destiel)

11.04 - Baby

Once Baby's back in one piece, which takes a lot of elbow grease and a series of maxed-out credit cards, Netflix becomes a thing they do together between cases. First things first, Sam makes Cas his own profile and connects the account to the TV in Dean's room.

"Spoilers," Sam says, which Dean suspects is bullshit, but he doesn't call Sam out. He likes his privacy, and it's not exactly bad, having Cas to himself.

Cas exhausts Orange is the New Black and Sense8 within a couple weeks and starts in on Hemlock Grove, only to give up three episodes in because it's actually terrible. Dean doesn't complain about his marathoning, happy to have something to look forward to when he gets home, besides his mattress and the back of his eyelids. Cas is healing but isn't ready, not quite yet, so they crash out on Dean's bed with a six-pack, elbows knocking as the hours pass in forty-five and fifty and fifty-eight minute segments. Cas stops asking if Dean wants to watch another episode after the first week, and Dean becomes accustomed to falling asleep next to him. Cas pauses their progress and covers Dean with a blanket. The significance isn't lost on him.

Once he's up to it, Cas rides along with them on a few cases. The literary canon in his head proves useful more times than Dean can count, but he prefers it when Cas stays behind and Dean doesn't have to worry about keeping him safe, which is ridiculous because Cas is a mojoed-up Angel of the Lord again, but try telling his brain that.

When Cas isn't with them on the road and isn't busy with lore, he watches the movies Netflix recommends and reports his reactions to Dean, who looks forward to the calls more than a night of drinking alone in a roadside bar. The first time he tells Sam he'd rather stay in than play wingman, Sam ribs him for a second and says he'll see him back at the motel. He'll walk back. Dean takes the car and spends the evening channel surfing, phone between his shoulder and ear, beer in hand, Cas droning on about Hot Fuzz. Dean smiles so big it hurts and doesn't think about the Darkness for a while and yeah, maybe Sam is onto something. Maybe there is something more for him.

Cas patches him up when he comes home with a busted shoulder and a couple broken ribs, brushes the hair back from Dean's forehead before telling him to shower. "You smell terrible," Cas says. "And you're covered in blood." They eat takeout with Sam and call it an early night.

The show Between is like watching paint dry, but Dean's fascinated by House of Cards even though politics have never been his thing. Cas watches raptly, and when Frank lip-locks with another guy toward the end of the second season, Dean chokes on his beer, coughing until Cas turns his head and they stare at each other, hold each other's gaze a little too long. Dean rolls his eyes. Throws an arm around Cas's shoulders.

They slump against each other during Grace and Frankie, which Dean vetoed when Cas read him the summary, but the episodes are only a half hour, so he agreed to the pilot and laughed until his stomach hurt. Cas doesn't take his eyes off the screen while they watch, but Dean's mind wanders. He stares at Cas's profile, the way his mouth quirks when he understands a pop-culture reference. The elbow Cas throws into Dean's side for confirmation puts a smile on his face at the oddest times, like just before he ganks a good-old-fashioned wendigo with a flare gun in a swamp ninety minutes outside Baltimore.

There's a week-long spell where Dean and Sam head to the Pacific Northwest on a series of bogus claims that land them a couple parking tickets, but no case. Baby's starter takes a shit in Oregon, so there's a weekend lost waiting for the part. Cas has cleans sheets on the bed when they get home and three plates of spaghetti on the table, with a list of new potential cases he wants them to review. Dean wills himself not to cry over dinner, sore from driving and practically delirious from thirty-plus hours on no sleep. Baby's always been home, but eating a home-cooked meal in the bunker with his family - this feels damn good.

He doesn't argue when Cas suggests they go to bed; it doesn't even sound strange to say that anymore. To think of his bedroom as theirs. Dean puts on The X-Files and kisses Cas ten minutes into the first episode, the next step in something that's been evolving between them for years, maybe since the day they met.