Afraid of The Light

Chapter 24

Season: 7

Episode: Reading is Fundamental

***

"We raced all the way here, and now I don't know. I can't say I'm fired up to see what's left of the guy." Dean says as we walk down the hall. I nod in agreement.

"Yeah, I'm not sure if I want Celeste seeing it before we can figure out if it's something decent."

"I'm going, mom." She insists as if she was an adult. She was only one year old - okay, a week off - and her physical maturity that of a six/seven year old. Then again, with our line of work, she was forced to prematurely grow up.

"You think he remembers at all?" Sam asks.

"That, and I'm guessing whatever kind of hell baggage he lifted off of your plate. It's not gonna be pretty." Dean admits honestly, silently indicating I should stay back with Celeste, let them go in and scope it out. That wasn't going to happen.

"Hey. Excuse me, but it's way past visiting hours." Someone says as they walk up to us. From their clothing, I'm assuming an orderly.

"It's okay, Abel." I hear as a very annoying little demon speak up. "I've been expecting them. Hello, boys. And girls." She adds as an after thought.

She simply turns on her feet, walking us down the hall and into an old tacky hospital room similar to the one Sam was in.

"Dad." Celeste says as she walks up to him. Cas turns around, a sense of recognition on his face. He smiles widely as he hugs her in a very... not Castiel way. He looks up from his crouched hug position to see the three Winchesters staring at him in confusion, fear, disbelief.

"Hello, Dean. Sam... Amelia..." he pulls back from his daughter slightly to smile and play with her forever growing hair. It's long now, down to the small of her back. Much like my old obsession, she doesn't want to cut it. "And my beautiful Celeste." My heart melts in that moment as I see the two. She's so happy to have him, and I'm so happy she's happy.

"Hey, Castiel." Sam says with a small smile.

"Look at you, walkin' and talkin'. That's - that's great, right?" Dean says. Cas pulls away from Celeste, walking over to Dean and holding out a hand - no finger.

"Pull my finger." He says simply with an extremely serious look.

"What?" He asks simply.

"My finger - pull it."

After a very long deliberation period, and thoughts that this was stupid, Dean grabs the angels pointer finger and pulls. The lights blow out, the window near Celeste shatters as do the light fixtures.

The blast causes Celeste to unintentionally fly into my arms as I accidentally set Cas' bed on fire for a moment. It immediately goes out but that's beside the point. I frown. Something was making our powers go haywire. As if we just got them. I hold Celeste tightly.

Cas simply starts laughing at his hilarious joke while meg turns on a lamp that was unaffected by the blast.

"Okay, just hang on, Cas. Wait. Let us catch up to you for a second." Dean says as he tries to wrap his head around it all.

"So, you're saying you remember who you are, what you are." Sam clarifies.

"Yes. Of course." He says before getting distracted much like toddler version of Celeste would - starting one conversation before seemingly finding something random in the room that reminded her of something and started babbling about that instead. Granted, most of her words were incoherent but the sentiment remains the same. "Oh. Outside today, in the garden, I followed a honeybee. I saw the route of flowers. It's all right there, the whole plan. There's nothing to add."