What if Castiel had done everything differently?

Castiel looked down. He was confused as to how he could look down or anywhere for that matter. Lucifer had exploded him. He had died twice. And both times he had been blown to smithereens. He wondered what the odds were of that. The only thing he knew for sure was that the only one who could bring back a dead angel was God. He had to have been saved for a purpose.

Because of that, he decided he needed to stop focusing on himself. He could see Dean a few feet in front of him. He was kneeling in the middle of the field. Castiel could only assume that there used to be a hole there. One that Sam had jumped into with Lucifer.

"Dean," he said when he had walked up behind Dean and stood there for a few seconds with no acknowledgement.

"Cas? Are you God?" Dean asked.

Castiel smiled. "That's a nice compliment, but no. He did bring me back though. Better than ever." Castiel knew there was nothing he could do for Dean's main source of pain, but he touched him, healing all his broken bones and erasing every bruise. He even cleaned up all the blood.

Dean just looked at him. Castiel could tell that he didn't even care how bad he felt. All he cared about was missing his brother. Once again, Castiel lamented the fact that he couldn't heal that greatest of all pains. There was something he could do, though. He walked back to the spot where he saw Bobby lying dead on the grass.

He touched him and Bobby got up and looked around in as much confusion as Castiel had felt a few minutes ago.

"What happened?" Bobby asked.

"Sam did it," Dean choked out. "He managed to take over from Lucifer and jumped in the hole. Michael tried to stop him and Sam pulled him in, too."

"Michael's in the cage, too?" Castiel asked.

"Yeah, Dean said. He didn't want to talk about it any longer. He was glad that Bobby was alive. He really was. But he just couldn't feel glad about it right now. He had a bigger loss to feel. He nodded across the field at Bobby and Cas and hopped into the Impala. It was hard to see out the window because of where Lucifer had thrown him on it, but he was going to drive as well as he could. He was going to go to Bobby's. When Sam had died the first time, he had totally shut Bobby out. When he had died, Sam had ditched Bobby. It wasn't fair. Bobby had been mourning both of those times, too. They were all the family they had. They should help each other get through this. But, right now, for a few hours, he needed to be alone.

He had been driving for about ten minutes when Cas popped in beside him. "So, what are you going to do now?" Dean asked.

Castiel had come to check on Dean. He had been around for millennia and he had never seen two closer brothers. He wasn't sure how Dean was going to go on. But apparently Dean didn't want to talk about that. "I guess I'll go up to Heaven."

He stayed and talked with Dean for a few more minutes. Dean was angry and Castiel understood, but he couldn't do anything to make him not angry. He headed up to Heaven. He went to his favorite Heaven and watched its inhabitant flying the kite. It was so peaceful. A bunch of his friends entered.

"Castiel? How are you here? We saw Lucifer kill you," Rachel said.

"God brought me back," Castiel said.

"He must want you to lead us," Rachel concluded.

"No, He wants you to lead yourselves," Castiel said.

SSS

Castiel had received a summons from Raphael. He went to find him.

"You came. That took guts. I can appreciate that," Raphael said.

"What do you want?" Castiel asked.

"Pledge allegiance to me or die," Raphael threatened.

"What are you going to do?" Castiel asked.

"The first order of business will be to free Lucifer and Michael and get the Apocalypse going again."

"No, we can't do that," Castiel protested.

"Why not? It's God's will."

"How can you say that? God brought me back—twice. It can't be his will."

"Be here tomorrow and pledge your allegiance to me or die," Raphael said, ending their meeting.

Castiel couldn't do that, but at least he had a 24 hour head start. That wasn't going to be a lot when angels were involved.

He went down to Earth. He did the only thing he could think of and went to Dean's new home. He stayed invisible and just watched Dean raking leaves. Dean hadn't given up so much. Sacrificed pretty much everything. It didn't seem right to bring his problem to him. He wasn't sure what Dean could do anyway. Of course, he wouldn't have thought the Winchesters would have been able to have done half of what they had done.

While he was still trying to make up his mind, Crowley joined him on the lawn. "What are you doing here?" Castiel asked.

"I want to help you to help me to help us."

Castiel hated all demons. He hated crossroads demons most of all. They were the worst because they got otherwise good people to damn themselves to Hell and they did it all with charm and making you feel that you were doing the right thing. "Speak plainly," Castiel said.

"You have a problem upstairs."

"How do you know about that?" What happens in Heaven stays in Heaven.

"I have my ways," Crowley said enigmatically. "The point is, I can help you."

"How?"

"It's all about the souls. We can find Purgatory and tap millions of unused souls."

"I'm not going to use souls," Castiel said after only a moment's hesitation. He was glad they were having this conversation here, because otherwise, he would have been tempted. He couldn't contemplate such an atrocious course of action in Dean's presence. Didn't matter that he couldn't see or hear them.

"Fine. It's your funeral," Crowley said and vanished.

Castiel took one last look at Dean and left him alone.