Well everyone, this is the last chapter! I hope you all enjoyed this one :) It was fun to write some different characters for a change. Thanks to all the readers and reviewers!

Chapter Eight

Castiel's fever kept burning through the night and Meg didn't stray from his side for a second, afraid he would wake up and panic to find her missing. She checked his wound several times, but it didn't look like it was bleeding any more of the Leviathan goo, so she figured the fever was just a side-effect. At least Cas didn't seem like he was getting any worse.

A couple times during the night, Dean left the cabin to scout around and make sure nothing had tracked them down, but they seemed to be off the radar, at least for the moment. Though Meg wasn't sure how long that would last, and Dean was already making plans to leave the next day for a safer location if at all possible.

It was early morning, the sun just peeking over the horizon, when Cas stirred and finally opened his eyes again. His fever had broken an hour earlier to Meg's relief and she had been waiting for him to come around again.

He blinked up at her with some confusion and she smiled, reaching up to run a hand through his hair. "Hey, Clarence, how are you feeling?"

"Meg?" he whispered, licking his lips. "Thirsty."

Meg turned to Dean who had moved to stand in the doorway, hanging back a bit awkwardly. "Can you get him some water?"

The hunter instantly went to rummage in their cooler for a water bottle and brought it over to the cot. Meg took it and raised Cas' head into the crook of her elbow so he could drink. He gulped eagerly and some of it dripped down his chin before she took it away, worried he would overdo it.

"Easy, Cas. It will still be here later," she told him.

Cas' eyes wandered around the room, glazed with exhaustion. "Where are we?"

Dean cleared his throat and crouched beside the cot. "We're in a cabin in the woods. You were pretty messed up after the Levis took you and Meg. We had to find someplace safe to take care of your wounds."

Cas studied Dean for a long moment and Meg saw the hunter getting more and more uncomfortable. "I think I remember," he said slowly. "My leg hurts." He then turned to Meg, eyes searching. "Meg, did they hurt you?"

"Nothing I can't handle," she assured him. Her wounds were mostly healed by now anyway, even if it would have probably been more convincing if she had changed out of her bloody shirt.

Dean watched them for a second before he stood again. "If you're awake and on the mend, Cas, we need to get going. I'll start packing the car." He walked over to Sam who was still asleep on the floor and nudged him gently with his foot.

"Humn," Sam grunted, swiping at his face with a hand before sitting up and looking over at Cas. "Hey, Cas, how are you feeling?"

Cas smiled slightly at Sam. "I am a bit better than I was before, it seems," he said, then his eyes narrowed. "How are you, Sam?"

Sam got up and came over to the cot. "I'm okay." He was silent for a while, biting his lip, before he said. "Cas, I…I never really got a chance to thank you. I never wanted—you know…"

Cas' eyes softened and he smiled sadly. "Oh, Sam, you must not blame yourself for my current condition. It was my choice. Besides I think it has offered me new perspectives that I am most grateful for."

Sam cast a glance at Meg before he smiled back at the angel. "Still, Cas, we're gonna find a way to fix you. You know that, right?"

Cas didn't reply, just continued to give him the same sad smile and Meg cleared her throat, standing up. "If you'll keep him company, I'm going to help pack." She ignored the odd look Sam gave her and headed toward the door of the cabin as the younger Winchester took her vacated seat.

Unsurprisingly, she found Dean sitting against the back bumper of the car, flask in hand. She stopped a few feet away from him, hands on her hips.

"Hey, I thought you were in a hurry to get out of here," she told him. "This isn't exactly happy hour."

He grunted, and Meg bit back a sigh, striding over and snagging the flask from him, taking a long drink as he glared daggers at her. "Look, I get you love that strong and silent crap, but sometimes you just have to let that go."

"What are you getting at, Meg?"

"You know what I'm getting at," she snapped. "You need to talk to Cas. He's been blaming himself for everything since the minute he got his memories back."

"He broke Sam's head," Dean growled.

"And I think he's paid for it enough, don't you?" Meg crossed her arms over her chest. "Sam doesn't seem to hold anything against him, so why can't you get over it? Haven't we all made mistakes?"

Dean gave a humorless chuckle and grabbed his flask back from her. "I don't need a demon to lecture me."

"Well, if I don't, who else is going to?" Meg demanded. "Cas is your friend, you idiot. He's my friend too, and I sure as hell don't have many of those; neither do you, though there's no small wonder why."

Dean bristled. "You don't understand."

"I understand enough." Meg raised an eyebrow. "You're looking for someone to blame for all of this, and Cas just happened to be the best choice."

"It was his fault."

"But he had good intentions," Meg informed him. "He did what he thought he had to. How many times have you and Sam done the same with just as catastrophic results?"

Dean's jaw clenched and he turned away from her, the lines of his shoulders tight and angry.

"Deep down, he did this to protect you and you know it. What would have happened if Raphael had gained control of heaven? Apocalypse Take Two, that's what, and they wouldn't have hesitated to find new and improved ways to get you and Sam to say yes to Michael and Lucifer. I might just be a demon, but even I know that much. Cas saved you from that. He was happy to sacrifice himself for the people he called family, but he was given a second chance and you can't even look at him."

"It's not like that," Dean shook his head, trying to deny it, but Meg could see the truth in his eyes.

"Isn't it?" she demanded. "You know what he told me? He thinks his resurrection was for punishment. That he came back from the dead, alone, and unable to remember who he was until you found him and shook his memories around a little. And then you just abandoned him when he needed you the most without any word of apology." So maybe Cas hadn't said all of that exactly, but Meg could read between the lines.

Dean turned around to face her again. There was still anger on his face, but there was guilt now too, which was stronger. That gave Meg a bit of perverse joy. "He…he actually said his resurrection was a punishment?"

Meg nodded once. "Wouldn't you, if your friends abandoned you when you were mentally insane?"

Dean cursed and ran a hand over his face. "But he has to understand that what he did was wrong. You don't just get to play God and break the world."

"You don't think he knows that? You think he doesn't know what he did wrong? He's not actually a child, Dean, even if he's acting like one right now. He's been abandoned by everyone he ever cared about because of this: the angels first when he rebelled for you, and now his adopted family—you don't think that's punishment enough?"

Dean was silent for a long moment, fighting off some inner turmoil. Then he finally sagged and looked back toward Meg grudgingly. "You know what? You're right. But I ain't saying it's gonna happen all at once."

Meg smirked. "Can I get that in writing?"

"Shut up," Dean grunted as he stood up again. "Let's go load everyone up and get the hell out of here."

Sam was helping Cas drink some more water when they came back into the cabin and Meg saw Dean's jaw twitch at the sight as if he wanted to say something, but wasn't quite brave enough—at least that's the way she saw it. Instead, he cleared his throat and addressed the angel directly. "You think you're ready to head out, Cas?"

The angel cast a quick look at Meg, slight panic in his eyes. "Am—am I going back to the hospital? Meg's coming too, aren't you, Meg? I—I promise not to be any trouble."

Meg would have enjoyed the wave of dismay that washed over Dean's face if she hadn't already been gutted by the tone of her angel's voice. She swiftly went over to Cas and crouched next to his bed.

"We can't go back there, Castiel, it's not safe anymore. We're going to stick with Sam and Dean for a while."

Cas' eyes flicked between the two Winchesters, lingering on Dean the longest. Sam glared at his brother and Dean cleared his throat again.

"It'll be safer if we stick together," the elder brother said. "As long as you're up for traveling."

A bit of relief seemed to wash over Castiel and he nodded. "I think I could manage it, though I fear I will be no use to you in a fight. My grace is still very wobbly, especially now from the poison. If I try to use it, I fear I would shatter into stars."

Sam and Dean shared a look. "We definitely don't want that to happen, Cas," Sam said quickly, patting his knee. "And you won't need to fight either. Hopefully we won't run into any more Leviathans."

"Not if we get going anyway," Dean said, grabbing the bags they had brought.

It only took them a few minutes to get ready. Meg and Sam helped Cas to his feet and to the car where he sat with a blanket wrapped around his shoulders. He looked even more peaked out in the sunlight, but at least he was upright and lucid—or at least as lucid as he ever was these days.

They drove in silence for a while before stopping for coffee and road food at a gas station. Cas was already looking sleepy by midmorning and he eventually slumped sideways in the backseat, resting his head on Meg's lap. Sam glanced back and smiled a little. Meg returned his look with one of warning, and let the slumbering angel stay where he was. She was just glad Castiel was okay. She closed her eyes and exhaled deeply as she tried not to think about how scared she was when she had seen the knife in his thigh.

"It normal for him to sleep a lot now?"

Dean's inquiry brought her back to the present. She shrugged. "Guess it's a side-effect of his 'wobbly' grace. Either way, it can't hurt him now when he's recovering."

Dean nodded and didn't say anything else. He turned on the radio and they drove another few hours in silence apart from the blaring drums and guitars.

Cas slept most of the day and Meg had to nudge him awake as they pulled into an old foreclosed house they would be squatting in that night.

They set up a little camp inside and Cas sat at the table with them after Sam had checked his wound to make sure it was still doing okay.

Cas stayed at the table as Sam checked his laptop, looking for any news stories about the hospital break-in to see if Cas and Meg might be on the radar. The angel had grabbed a notebook from a pile of folders and books and started sketching. Meg looked over his shoulder and saw more flowers and bees.

"I miss the bees, Meg," he told her.

She smiled slightly. "Maybe someday you can have a whole bee farm."

His eyes lit up, but his smile was sad. "I would like that, but I don't think it's possible."

Dean was setting up sleeping areas and he came over to glance at Cas' picture.

"Hey, that's pretty good, buddy," he said, forcing a smile. "So…" He sat down awkwardly, hands clasped across his knees. "Bees are your thing now, I guess?"

Cas kept drawing. "Their plan is perfect. Nothing needs to be added."

Dean nodded slightly, still looking a bit awkward.

Meg caught Sam's eye and nodded to one side of the room, deciding to give the two a little privacy. She was the one who had told Dean to talk, after all. "Hey, Sam, why don't we pull out a map and see if we can pinpoint where the Levi activity is strongest. That way we can find the best roads to take."

Sam frowned but then glanced at his brother and nodded. "Oh, uh, sure. That's a good idea."

They retreated to one side of the room, not too far away that they couldn't hear, but enough so that Dean wouldn't feel so crowded.

"Cas…" Dean started and then stopped. Meg glanced over and saw his eyes closed before he inhaled deeply.

"I'm sorry, Dean," Cas said quietly, beating him to it. "I kept secrets from you and that was not alright."

"Cas, you don't…"

The angel smiled slightly. "I learned about sharing in group therapy. Perhaps we should try that now?"

The look on Dean's face was priceless, but he shrugged. "O-okay, sure."

Cas put his pencil down and looked over at the Winchester. "I did a lot of bad things, I hurt a lot of people, but I feel even worse about betraying you and Sam."

Dean swallowed hard. Castiel motioned to him. "It's your turn to share now, Dean."

"Um, okay," Dean took a deep breath. "I was angry, Cas. Really angry. Part of me still is. But I also understand that you did what you thought you had to at the time. It was a stupid decision, but you were kinda running out of options, weren't you?"

Cas nodded. "It was admittedly stupid. I should have seen the consequences. It was not fun having the Leviathans inside of me. I would have liked to avoid that." His face sobered. "Dean, I am truly sorry for what I did. I never meant to hurt you and Sam."

Dean's face wavered and he looked down at his hands. "I know, Cas. I guess…I guess I was a little harsh on you too."

"Your anger was understandable. Sam could have died from his cage scars."

Dean nodded jerkily. "Point is, Cas, I guess we've all done things we regret. And sure, sometimes we're gonna be at each other's throats because of it. But at the end of the day, we're all we have. It's just us now, and I…" He stopped, glancing over at the flask sitting on the table beside him, trying to tamp down some overwhelming emotion. "I guess I just can't stand the thought of losing anyone else."

"I fear I'm cursed, Dean. Perhaps it is best for me to stay away from you," Castiel said quietly.

Dean shook his head. "That ship has sailed for Sam and me a long time ago. I'd rather have you, cursed or not."

Cas actually smiled now. "You mean that?"

Dean nodded. "Yeah, Cas, I do. And I don't care if you fight or not—I'll respect any decision you make on that account. You're still here and that's what matters."

Cas' grin broadened and he suddenly leaned forward and pulled Dean into a hug. "Thank you, Dean!"

"Um, yeah, you're—uh—welcome, buddy," Dean stuttered, patting Cas' back awkwardly before having to prop the angel back into his chair. Meg hid a smirk.

"Told you he was more touchy-feely now," she told him.

Dean gave her a longsuffering look, but there seemed to have been a weight lifted from his shoulders now.

"Is this like Team Free Will?" Cas asked, looking between the brothers.

"Sure, Cas," Dean smiled.

"Can Meg join?" the angel asked hopefully.

"Uh…" Dean and Sam shared a look.

Meg crossed her arms over her chest. "Yeah, boys, what do you say?"

"Fine," Dean huffed.

Cas beamed and Meg couldn't help but smile back. Maybe being part of this team wouldn't be so bad after all.

The End

I'm not sure when I'll have my next multi-chapter fic done, but in the meantime, I've got a few one shots to share. Next monday I have another Megstiel one for you that sort of ties in with this story and is an AU of Goodbye Stranger :)