Pretending to be Married (destiel)

chapter 38

Pounding is what woke up Castiel, not pounding, banging. His head was banging. Wait, he had had hangover headaches before, this wasn't it. The banging... wait, the banging was on his door. The more Castiel came to, the more he concentrated and listened. It wasn't just banging, there was shouting. It took him a second longer to realise it was not angry shouting, it was panicked. In the half second that then followed Cas was up and flying for the door.

He opened it to Gabe. Not happy, take the piss out of anything Gabe, worried Gabe. It was a look Cas had not seen on his brother's face in a long time. Whatever was wrong, it was bad. "Cas, it's Dean-" and at that Cas was running towards the meeting room, his brother close behind. He knew that is where everyone would be, where Sam would be. 

He must of flown because he reached the building within seconds. The door flew open and he scanned the room for Sam. The hunter was not hard to find in the group (he did stand at least a head above everyone else), and, ignoring everyone else, Cas headed directly for him. "Bobby said he's injured. Alive but he, he won't wake up. They have tried but they are bringing him back here, there's more spells and books here. I want to help look, but they won't let me and -" Cas hugged Sam. He knew when he got into a panic a ramble would start that is almost impossible to stop. As scared as Cas was, he knew Sam was feeling it twice as hard.

The hunters were 2 hours out, all they could do was wait.

 Everyone was there, Meg and Charlie were reading through books, Ellen was preparing a liquid that was unrecognisable to Cas. After a while, he left the building with Gabe to get a coffee run. He knew full well the drinks would go untouched but he needed to be doing something to help. They barely spoke on the way to the canteen and on the way back the only words from Gabriel were, "No matter what, I've got you brother." 

They got back to the building and Cas sat with Sam in the corner. They watched the bustle of others, feeling useless. Feeling helpless. Neither wanting to speak, because words would solidify this moment, make it real. They needed it not to be real. 

Sam didn't notice the coffee turn from hot to cold in his hands. He didn't notice the angel sat next time him pick his nails in frustration. As soon as he had heard Dean was injured he had wanted to drive out to them. He had been told this was ridiculous, who would that help? They were right, he wouldn't be able to do anything. It would take more time meeting to come back together than it would for them to do a straight run. But the driving would of stopped him thinking. If he was driving he wouldn't be sat in a nervous trance with a cold coffee clutched in his hands.

"They're 10 minutes out!" Someone shouted.

Castiel put his hand on Sam's shoulder and the two of them rose and headed towards the door. They had been stuck unable to do anything for what felt like an eternity, so it went without saying that would be the first to meet the hunters. They would carry Dean in, they would be right at his side to tell him off, to make him promise he would be fine.

The last thing that seemed to be in focus was the car pulling in. From there it all became a blur. Within seconds Dean was inside, Ellen was hugging Bobby, the family pulling together. Bobby had never seen the monster they had come across before. If he didn't know any better he would of said it was new. Right before it's head was chopped off it scratched Dean and whatever venom it had took effect almost immediately. Everyone was working in sync to help Dean, muttering spells, testing the venom, trying to piece together the puzzle. Everyone did as they were supposed to. The plans made were followed down to the very last detail. So why, 4 hours later, was Dean still not waking up?

It was early hours when the group finally took a break. Dean was not dying, he was not shutting down, he just wasn't awake. As far as they could tell he was still in there, they just couldn't get him out. 

He was made comfortable and a half organised rota was made so that he was not alone for a second. Sam had tried to take first shift, so had Castiel, but both had been refused. So after much complaint the two left with Gabe as Charlie settled next to Dean a book, hoping to find an answer and promising the two the second anything happened they would know.

The three walked back to Sam's place and sat down on the sofa, all feeling too wired to fall asleep. They barely spoke, every so often mentioning ideas that might not have been tried and ones that should be tried again. They had not been sat for more than 20 minutes when the adrenaline seemed to wear off and they began to drift into sleep.

Sam and Gabe drifted off first but Castiel remained awake a little longer, the same though circling in his head until he eventually slept. 

3 missed calls. What if they had been his last chance to talk to Dean?