Tick. Tick. Tick. Tick.

Hazel eyes looked up at the clock for the thousandth time that night, Dean wasn't sure if he'd been sitting there for that long or if he was just impatient as hell and continuously looked at the time. He glanced over at Sam and saw that his brother, too, was glancing up to see how long it had been. Dean sighed heavily and leaned back in his chair, crossing his arms behind his head.

"So," he started in a calm tone, "Cas is late."

Sam scoffed, looking over at his brother in astonishment, "You kidding me? Cas is more than late, I think he's a no-show."

Dean shook his head, "He promised he'd come back with that artifact, I'm sure he'll be here any minute."

Sam sighed and opened his laptop, "Dean," he glanced over to the other hunter, who seemed dead set that the angel was on his way back, "Maybe something happened, he has been pretty busy."

"Happened? Like what?" Dean sounded skeptical, throwing his hands in the air as if to prove it, "Even if something happened he would have come back here saying some shit like 'I am sorry, I cannot retrieve the artifact' or something." He'd put on his best gravelly-formal voice for that impersonation, though it hadn't been entirely convincing.

Sam shrugged, "Yeah, maybe. But again, what if something happened to him?"

Dean straightened up, a concerned expression creeping onto his features, "Like something might not have been totally legit with that artifact?"

"Exactly."

Dean leaned forward in his chair, running his hand through his hair and down the back of his neck, "Cas' an angel, he'll be fine."

Hours earlier...

Castiel had been contacted by the Winchesters about an ancient artifact, it was rumoured that the thing had been used somewhere in Western Europe, Sam had said in Greece. They weren't one hundred percent on what the thing did, exactly, though Dean was fairly certain that it was a cursed object of some kind. Cas agreed to go there and retrieve it for them, much easier said than done. He stood before a pedestal holding up a beautiful emerald gem with several engravings upon it.

Cas was a little more than confused at the sight, the hunters had said this thing was rumoured to have been used, so why was it sitting alone in the ruins it was originally placed in? He glanced around, there were several deadly traps set up, many were already set off with a skeleton or two mangled into them. Cas figured that must have been the reason no one had previously gotten inside, though he was still confused about the rumours. None the less, he'd promised an ancient artifact to the Winchesters and he intended to deliver.

He didn't recognize a pattern in the engravings when he looked at them, even though they looked like a mixture of Enochian and several other scratching, the combination of them wouldn't do anything, he knew that much for sure.

After discerning that it was safe to do so, Castiel took firm hold of the gem. Almost immediately he felt a tingling sensation throughout his body. Concern rushed through him; he dropped the item though it was much too late. In moments his body felt like it was on fire, every limb felt as if it were pulling into itself, once that was almost done he was hit with the worst dizzy spell as he felt like he were flying to the ground at unbelievable speeds. He stumbled and hit his knees, the air had been almost entirely knocked out of his lungs and the dizzy feeling was only getting worse.

And then it was dark.

Panic briefly overtook him as he reached forward, his hands hit a cloth-like barrier and he realized he was inside something. Quickly he fumbled around, falling left and right, before finally climbing out of his imprisonment. His eyes widened in shock when he took in the new sights, it was the very same room except now he was approximately 15 centimetres tall.

He turned his gaze at what he thought was a prison to see the suit he had just been wearing. Cas sighed heavily and walked over to the emerald gem laying on the floor, it was half his size right now, making it very heavy. At the same time, he was still an angel, why couldn't he just pick it up and carry it off as usual? Sure, he was smaller so he was a lot slower but he was still much faster than anything else on this planet. Plus touching it the first time did this to him, why not try it again? Maybe he'd go back to his original size. With that in mind, he walked up to it and grabbed it again, nothing happened except he noticed some 'fine print,' as it were.

"Are you serious?" He said plainly, the extra tiny engravings connected the rest in a combination that would curse the one who touched it. The angel rolled his eyes at the last part, everything about the one that touched it would be shrunk to a certain percentage of what they normally were, and that meant everything, including strength and abilities. Well he was in luck, at least the curse could only affect one being at a time, anyone else that touched it wouldn't be affected as long as Castiel was still living.

"I'd better get this back to them." He walked up to the thing and hefted it up, it was fairly heavy but he could definitely fly with it. Tiny angel wings sprouted from his back and started flapping vigorously, he was able to fly, just like he thought, however it would be very slow going.

Present time...

Dean had gone to the bed to relax, stressing out about Cas right now wouldn't get them anywhere. He decided to run through the case again, just to get his mind around it, "Okay, so this guy in Greece claims he found some sketchy item in some ruins and-"

"He never said that he found it," Sam interrupted, "He said that his friend had gone looking for an item that was said to hold amazing powers," He looked back at his laptop, "Says here that his friend never returned, though this guy swears they talked on the phone right before he attempted to grab the thing." He shrugged, "Sounds like our kind of thing,"

"Never said it didn't, Sammy," Dean sighed again and pulled himself up to a sitting position, "I just wish we had a little more, or if we could have gone over there ourselves, you know?"

"We could have," Sam's voice sounded slightly annoyed as he spoke, "Remember? I said 'Let's fly there,' you said 'No freakin' way.' Then we decided to call Cas, I said 'Cas, send us there,' and you said 'I'm not doing that teleportation thing again.' Ringing any bells?"

Dean rolled his eyes, stopping to glare at his brother, "Yeah, I get it." He growled.

An audible clunking sound in the ceiling caught the Winchesters' attention; Dean was ready to grab a weapon while Sam gave a short shrug, "Rats, maybe?"

"Nah," Dean whispered, "Rats scurry, this thing landed."

Before Sam could respond they saw a small flash before an emerald gem slowly phased through the ceiling. Closely following the gem was a small, winged figure, though the wings were really hard on the eyes. The item dropped down into Dean's lap, again followed by the figure, though it didn't float down. Cas crash landed into Dean's lap just as the gem had, he was exhausted. He'd just dragged that damned thing half way across the world, that wasn't the hard part. Phasing in and out of walls and ceilings was the hard part. His wings vanished as easily as they'd come out, they were so tired he could hardly flap them again.

Dean's face was drenched in shock and awe as he stared down; Sam's expression wasn't too far off. "Cas?" Dean managed to croak out upon recognizing the pen-sized being.

Castiel stood up and nodded, "Yes," He pointed at the gem without looking at it, "This thing..." He growled, "Is a cursed pain in the ass."