a/n: Oh, this is just for fun...and because you are probably just here to read for fun. Set in season 5 around events that didn't actually happen or we can call them imagined off screen things. I usually write multi-chapter stories so this is different for me.

"I'm Fine."

"Come on, I know they have to be pretty bent out of shape." Gabriel pressed. "Let me help."

"I do not need help."

"They aren't meant to be bullet shields Castiel." Gabriel frowned, "Look, I can feel the ebb of your grace. It's stupid to let it drip like that when you are currently cut off from Heaven."

"Who's leaking?" Dean asked catching a bit of the conversation as he and Sam finished packing some equipment in the back of the Impala. They had just finished a particular nasty hunt where Castiel's help had not been unappreciated, Gabriel's either if he was honest. Though he still wasn't clear on why he had shown up in the middle of the fight. It left an uneasy sensation in the pit of his stomach. Everything about Gabriel left him uneasy.

The pair looked up from their argument. They hadn't noticed the hunters stop to listen. Castiel looked away awkwardly.

Gabriel's eyes sparked. "Would you talk some sense to him please?"

Castiel, aggravated, tried to dismiss the conversation but Gabriel stopped him, "Look, I'm not going to tell you can't use your wings as kevlar for these guys if that's what you want to do, but do the basic up keep. I'll bet they are disgusting by now." Castiel glared at him silently.

"Sense about what? What's wrong with his wings?" Sam frowned.

"Nothing." Castiel said firmly.

"Not nothing. They are a mess." Gabriel turned, "He has taken to using them to shield you from whatever current form of harm is hurtled your general direction. Which, with the two of you, is a lot of dangerous crap. Most of it I don't think either of you even perceive."

"What's he talking about Cas?" Dean closed the trunk and looked hard at Castiel. Nothing looked wrong with him. Maybe a little rumpled, possibly tired, but then angels weren't suppose to sleep.

"You know my power has been somewhat reduced, so I make due with what I have in some cases. Wings can work as well as other energy fields for protection, so if it's needed I use them."

"If it's needed," Gabriel rolled his eyes, "You practically umbrella them anytime you are around."

"I do not."

"Oh yeah? I'd bet you'd be doing it now if I wasn't here."

"Shut up Gabriel." Dean waved a hand, "Cas. You hurt?"

"Yes."

"No."

"Then what is he bitching at you for?" Dean ignored the other angel's response.

"I don't know." Castiel narrowed his eyes at Gabriel who lifted his hands slightly and appeared genuinely exasperated.

"I can heal it faster, quit it with the tough guy act. For all you know this pair will be in trouble again before you can recover and then what are you going to do? Just keep throwing yourself in front of it? You're going to end up plucked bald and bloody."

"Complete exaggeration."

"They are a becoming more than an eyesore!"

Dean rubbed his forehead and walked towards the front of the car.

"Just, slow down a minute" Sam tried, "Is he injured or are you basically telling him to comb his hair?"

"In an over simplistic way, both. Seriously, enough is enough." There was a ruffling noise and Cas was gone.

"Apparently he's had enough too," Sam noted. Gabriel huffed and he vanished as well.

"Angels." Dean muttered, "C'mon Sammy." he slammed the car door.

It wasn't until they were between jobs some weeks later that Gabriel found them again.

They sat out on Bobby's porch in the pleasantly mild spring afternoon. Bobby had gone out fishing with some buddies for the day leaving the boys to their own devices. Sam flipped through an old book. Dean sharpened a knife from a set nestled in a well-oiled cloth beside him.

"Dean," Sam said quietly.

Dean looked up from the knife. Just off the porch stood Gabriel. He looked more serious than usual.

"Great, just what we need." Dean set down the whetstone and rose.

"It's nice to see you too," Gabriel smiled.

"What do you want?"

"I need your help,"

"Yeah? With what?" he took a few steps Gabriel's direction.

"Castiel."

"Your problems with Cas are not my problems."

"Of course they are. Honestly, who benefits the most from him when he's a functional being? Oh right, that would be the Winchesters! Come on, you're friends with him. Kinda?" Gabriel hopped up onto the porch, "Even if you're not, he generally appears suicidal enough to concern himself in your affairs whenever you call. And you're smarter then to let your weapons fall into disrepair." he flicked his head towards the knives on the table.

Dean folded his arms over his chest, "Are you talking about his wings again? Didn't manage to get that settled, huh?"

Gabriel's eyes narrowed. "He's stubborn, and prideful, and has a problem of trying to 'help' even at great cost to himself. It's...worrisome."

"You. You're worried about Cas?" Dean snorted.

"He's my brother," Gabriel frowned, "I've been at this longer than he has, and even as an archangel it's not easy being cut off from upstairs."

"I'm not getting how you want us to help with that." Sam interjected.

"Yeah, maybe tell us what the exactly is the problem." Dean leaned against the porch railing.

"How do I put this simply for you," Gabriel thought for a moment. "As a sort of celestial soldier he's use to operating in a unit with a mission, orders, objectives, and all that. The problem is right now his AWOL status has him low on power, which should, in theory, force him to rein in his activities. But he's an idiot and chose instead to expand them and assign himself the insane mission of 'finding God'.

Insane because, I think we both agree it's an exercise in futility," he looked at Dean, "but also because he will end up running toward things that maybe latently powerful, but are definitely not God. Most of the time those things don't like to be found. I'm doing my best to keep an eye on him, but he's fairly good at avoiding who doesn't want to see."

Dean smirked, "Are you saying he's good at hiding from you?"

Gabriel shrugged. "Me, you, heaven, hell, take your pick, but it makes it really hard for anyone to put the breaks on him once he starts going. This is where you come in. Recently, he's had a run in with one of these behemoths and I know he's holed up somewhere. Needlessly putting himself at further risk waiting to recover when he ought to just find me."

"Maybe he doesn't want to run to his older brother for every scratch." Sam pointed out. "You said he has a sense of pride."

"Exactly my thoughts," Gabriel smiled at Sam, " And normally, it wouldn't matter. He would just return to his garrison to catch his breath. No judgment for wear and tear while on assignment. However, this unapproved 'sabbatical' makes things less...friendly. So does he look at his options? No, of course not that would be intelligent. He barrels on recklessly, jumping from one thing to the next without any sense of self preservation, and, forgive me, but I'm not that anxious to see him die."

"No?" Dean lifted his brow.

"No." Gabriel shifted,

"So what do you want us to do?" Sam asked.

"Have him come here so I can help. He's only taking Winchester calls right now or I'd do it myself. It would be good if I showed you how to help him too since he's not keen on me currently."

"I dunno, like you said, Cas pretty much does what he wants." Dean shook his head skeptically.

"He drops everything to help you at anytime. Whenever you ask he's there. He tries anyway. I thought maybe because he's at least useful to you, you might not mind being..."

"His earthbound garrison." Sam finished for him.

Gabriel nodded. "There should be someone he knows it's alright to retreat to."

"I'm not coddling an angel." Dean said firmly.

Gabriel looked appalled, "That is not what I'm asking. Are you even listening?"

"Oh I'm listening, and I don't like that you are talking for him. If he wants help, sanctuary, or whatever from us, then he should be here doing the asking. Since when do you even like him?" Dean demanded.

"I'm going to ignore that question. The only reason I'm asking is because he'd gnaw off his own foot then burden you with anything. Especially himself."

"So?"

"Dean," Sam sighed.

"No, I stand by that. So?"

"Excuse me? He uses his wings like bulletproof shields for two you! Do you even understand that?" Gabriel's voice rose with explosive anger. A faint roll of thunder echoed down from the completely blue sky. "He would never let anything happen to a Winchester that he could stop. Never. Damned if I understand why." He glared at them.

A meadowlark sang in the distance and the smell of new spring grass drifted through the yard. Dean's face remained impassive and stony. The angel's shoulder slumped in relent. "I know, believe me, I know he can be a little shit, but he's one of the good ones. I was hoping you saw him that way too."

"We do Gabriel." Sam said softly.

Dean made a face and walked back over to his knives. "So you think he's skulking around some place now all banged up?"

"Yeah, I saw part of it before he took off."

"Bad?"

"Eh. Bit more then scratched up but probably not life and death. He'll get over it, provided nothing else happens while he waits, and he'll be spent when he's done."

"Fine, come on. Let see if he'll pick up." Dean motioned for Gabriel to follow him into the house.

Cas appeared in the middle of what was once Bobby's dinning room shortly after Dean called.

"Dean," he began, then caught sight of the other angel. "Gabriel," he stiffened. "What are you doing here? How did you find this place?"

"Relax, they're still warded, but that doesn't mean I couldn't have followed them in a more earthly way. But forget all that, this is about you."

Castiel's eyes slid over to Dean for clarification, "You," he started but he swayed, unconsciously putting a hand to his chest. He took a step to the side and reached out for the wall to catch himself, but wasn't close enough.

"Yeah, okay, I'm beginning to think Gabriel might have a point." Dean said catching his arm. Sam took his other.

"I'm fine," Castiel insisted as he was pulled over to a chair at the nearby table buried in books. "What point?"

"Sit Cas." Sam pushed him down into the seat. He looked up at the three of them in bewilderment. There was swollen cut with mottled bruising under one eye and a still bloody slit on his lip. He had not moved his hand.

"You look a little rough,"

Castiel tipped his head. "I do not understand."

"Castiel," Gabriel moved to stand directly in front of him.

"What?" Castiel growled.

"You know what. You're such a stubborn ass sometimes. Just let me this once,"

"Why? You ought to let me adjust to it." He muttered eyes flashing briefly from his brother's face to the Winchesters and back again.

"I've already talked to them about this. Why do you think I came here?" Castiel bristled at the reminder, and Gabriel quickly added, "Come on. I haven't touched a hair on their heads, look, they're fine!"

"Dean?" Castiel looked over for confirmation.

"He hasn't done anything, yet. He says he wants to heal you Cas, the grace part of you that's running low."

"That's why you called me?" Castiel's eyebrows shot up. "I know what he wants, but I thought I explained this to you."

"Yeah well, he explained more."

"What more? It is not complicated,"

"Nah, it's not. What's up with your chest? You've been holding it for awhile now." The hand dropped immediately, and his jaw set almost imperceptibly. Dean ignored him and pulled up a chair. "So you were off chasing something big?"

Castiel eyed him carefully before answering. "Yes. I thought I was close this time."

"Where were you at?" Sam asked while he cleared a few books from the table. He put them away on a nearby bookshelf.

"The south Andes, I'm more aware of what you typically will find around the northern area as they populated at a faster rate."

"You mean with the Incas and the Aztecs?" Sam asked. Dean leaned forward and undid the tie around Castiel's neck.

"Yes, as well as a few lesser known Amazonian tribes," he hesitated, distracted by Dean who had pulled the tie from his collar and unfastened the buttons of his shirt.

"So, what, some an ancient populous you were unaware of knew about this thing? How far south are you talking?" Sam continued.

Castiel's head swiveled back towards him "No. No populous, too far south. I was near the Magellanic Straits, I'm not sure what I was following had a name. It certainly pre-dates humanity. I never found any history regarding it."

"This looks painful Cas," Dean said matter-of-factly, "Broken ribs Sammy," he said pressing on Castiel's sides.

Sam nodded, "I'll get the bandages." and left the room.

"I do not need to be bandaged, they are healing,"

"I know, you'll probably be able to tear them off in a few hours, but it will make it easier on your vessel until then." Dean pushed in with a thumb and Castiel winced involuntarily. "So what, this monster slammed you into a wall?"

"No, it was," he paused.

"Was?"

"Uhmm, I guess the closest thing would be its' tongue?"

Dean snorted. "It licked you?"

"Wrapped around me when we were between dimensions."

Sam came back with a box.

"An ancient inter-dimensional creature did this with its tongue." Dean informed him.

"One of them. Maybe it was more like a tentacle with teeth."

"Gross." Sam tossed him a roll of bandages. "So, not God then."

Castiel shook his head, "Not God."

"How'd you get away?"

"Well, I managed to stun it," he sucked in his breath as Dean yanked on the bandages. "And lock the dimension momentarily. Long enough to get out of its immediate vicinity."

"That would have taken most of your power." Gabriel broke his silence.

Castiel turned his head, but didn't say anything. Dean continued wrapping.

"I doubt this will do anything either, but it will make it sting less for now." Sam carefully dabbed a small amount of ointment over the cut on Castiel's cheek.

Dean finished with the bandage. "Now, about the wings." He put a hand on his shoulder when it looked like he was going to stand up and zap away. "I know this is a sore point between you and him, but practically speaking he wants to show us how to straiten them out when you get roughed up. It's not a bad thing for us to know Cas. It sounds like something basic that will keep you running longer."

"It isn't the 'grace' kind of healing but, hey, if it helps even a little." Sam added.

Castiel was silent. His face was expressionless as he looked from one to the other in a particularly inhuman manner. Sam wondered if he was about to smite them.

Gabriel leaned over the table toward Castiel. "This first, then the wings." he said in an uncharacteristically serious voice. They stared at each other in unspoken conversation that crackled and sparked between them. Dean did not breath, any noise would have been too loud. He vaguely wondered what Bobby would do if he came back to find angels had exploded his house.

Very slowly Castiel leaned a bit further over the table. Gabriel reached out his hand. Castiel lightly pressed his forehead against the other angel's fingertips. To Dean and Sam it didn't look like anything happened but after a moment they broke contact. "Good." Gabriel said, "Now the wings."

"I'll blind them." he said with what sounded a little like petulance.

"So mute them you dolt."

"Dean, Sam, cover your eyes and keep them closed for a moment, until I have full control." Castiel said instructed. They turned and did as instructed. The room was momentarily flashed with bright white-hot light. It flared and flickered.

"Dimmer," Gabriel said.

"I don't..."

"Like this..." the light faded. "Yes, good perfect. Okay, you two are safe."

It was confusing at first. Neither was sure what they were looking at. Silvery, dark, bright, light surrounded them. Sam took a stumbling step backward, Dean jumped out of his chair realizing they were all but inside a pair of towering wings. Or it would have been towering if stretched out to their full height. Instead the ends pool on the floor around Castiel's feet. They bent out and downward just about at the crown of his head.

"Those are feathers?" Sam asked tipping his head and squinting.

"Does it hurt your eyes?" Castiel asked. There was a note of exhaustion in his voice that made Sam look down at him.

"No Cas," he said softly.

"You, like this," Gabriel pushed down between Castiel's shoulder blades so that his head rested on the table, pillowed in the crook of one elbow. "I know that took effort." Gabriel reached out for the closest wing. It jerked back, and folded very tightly against Castiel.

"What now?"

"Sensitive."

"I didn't even touch it, stop being a crank." He flicked his hand towards himself. The wing slowly unfolded his direction. Shimmer was not the right word for it. It was like light that flicker from behind a heavy, substantial shadow. Luminosity shone from somewhere in them.

"Sam, Dean," Gabriel had them move in. Castiel turned his head away. Gabriel ran his hand across a section of wing. The light separated around his fingers forming what did look like individual feathers, but...weren't. Feather was just the closest thing either of them could think to compare them to. They weren't anything earthy. There might have been a color, there might not have, it was difficult to see. Maybe it was a color they didn't know. "Just like that, you'll be able to feel an imperfection." he explained. They hesitated. Dean looked over at the back of Castiel's head.

"Cas?"

"Go ahead," the slightly muffled answer came after a heavy pause.

He mimicked Gabriel's motion, surprised at the fine, fibrous texture. Not quite as soft as he'd imaged they'd be, but smooth and strong.

"Here," Gabriel moved his hand, "Do you feel that?"

"Yeah uh, it's kind of ragged,"

"That's a twisted feather. You are looking for anything that feels like that. When you come across it you press up into the wing and twist towards his back in line with the others. Think of them like pieces of shielding. Go on, put it in place."

Dean pressed in. To his horror the feather slipped from his fingers and floated down onto the floor. Its eerie light vanished the moment it touched the floorboards and left a singed outline where it had landed.

Sam's eyes widened. Both stood frozen in place.

Gabriel shook his head, "It's alright, it's fine, sometimes they are too badly mangled to be turned back and just have to come off. Or someone just felt like letting it shed. Castiel, they are crapping their pants over here, grow up."

Castiel responded in some guttural language that made Dean's hair stand on end.

Gabriel's face darkened.

"It's alright," Sam said quickly, "We get it, this is all sort of touchy stuff and he's got the short end of it right now."

Gabriel nodded, "Dean try again, Sam, start here, on the other one."

Things went better the second time around. Moving the twisted feathers back into place wasn't terribly difficult, but they were beginning to see how it would have been almost impossible for Castiel to reach all of them himself. It became evident that, when done correctly, the action was soothing to an angel. The wings, which both Sam and Dean still sort of viewed as entities not necessarily associated with Castiel, leaned into their motions and sometimes even spread apart a little to reveal more troublesome patches to be worked through. The occasional feather fell but it did not cause any distress.

They had been working for a little while in relative quite, with a short correction here or there from Gabriel, when in a very slow, but steady motion the wings slumped haphazardly downward. Sam and Dean shot Gabriel quizzical looks. Sam leaned over to try and see Castiel's face where it was buried in his arms on the table. "Cas?" he tried quietly.

Gabriel put his hand between Castiel's shoulder blades again, then laughed. "That's too perfect. You guy's put an angel to sleep! Don't see everyday."

"I thought you didn't sleep." Dean reminded.

"We don't, at least not sleep like humans do. We rest from time to time. He's not 'asleep' he's drifting, still aware to some degree, but not listening to us anymore."

"He must be exhausted then," Sam said sympathetically.

"He better have been. I've dealt with more well mannered demons." Gabriel groused. Then paused over an upper section of wing, "Okay, feel this," he put his thumb over a small area.

"Like a scale, or something," Sam squinted, "It's over the bone...flesh? Where the quills emerge?"

"It's a wound, in what you might compare to the 'flesh' of the wing. This one is practically healed but it was deep. If you were to find a fresh one it would seem like a hole. The best you could probably do would be to is force some grace from the feathers into it." He pulled a group of feathers downward over the area repeatedly.

"Like circulation?" Dean asked.

"Not in physiology but concept, sure." Gabriel paused to survey the whole. "Not bad. Much improved, and should last him awhile." He waved his hand and the wings vanished. "I owe you."

"Like you said, you don't let weapons go rusty." Dean muttered.

"And you don't talk to weapons like they are part of your garrison either. I appreciate you easing him into it."

"Is he alright otherwise?" Sam looked over at the form at the table.

"I'd say he's good. I don't think I've ever seen him ever do this before, but you are the Winchesters. The emphatic trust is a little enviable and I hope never undeserved. Have him drink some water or something when decides he's finished resting"

"So not only do you sleep you drink too?"

"Eh, mostly I want you to do that to irritate him, but the more he does for his vessel the less grace it takes to run. Maybe give him juice. See what he does with it." Gabriel's eyes sparked and he vanished.

A few hours later Dean wandered back into the living room where they had left Castiel. He wasn't surprised to find the blanket Sam had thrown over him neatly folded on an empty chair. He scuffed his boot over the scattered burn marks of feathers around the table. Bobby wouldn't like that.

Out the front window he noticed a familiar form in a trench coat lingering on the porch.

"Hey Cas, you're still with us." He let the screen door slam behind him.

Castiel continued to look up at the sky. "Yes, for the moment."

A warm breeze blew across the yard. The sky faded from gold to dark blue and pink.

"So you're not angry?"

"No," he said very quietly, "but I fear I'm indebted."

"Nah man,"

"You don't need more burdens Dean."

"It isn't like you don't have your share, I don't even want to know what you're caring around after eons of this stuff."

"I am designed to bear more." he said gently.

"I get that, but sometimes I think even you take on more than you were designed for."

The stars began to appear in the sky.

"Protection is part of the work."

"I know, but it has to go both ways. If you are allowed to protect me, then I'm allowed to protect you. Even if all that means is making sure your armors in place for the next round."

They were silent. The sky blackened into a wide expanse.

"You have them over me right now don't you."

Castiel didn't answer but Dean caught the slight momentary upturn in the corners of his mouth.