A/N: And we've reached the end of yet another tale :) Thanks laureleaf for your review on the last chapter! Thank you so much to all those who've reviewed, favorited, shared, and enjoyed from the wings. Your feedback has meant everything to me! One more round of applause for Aini Nufire for being such an amazing beta reader! ^_^

I probably won't have any more chapter fics for a while. There are too many writing and art projects I have going on at the moment, including some I've promised myself I would finish before starting any more longer fanfics. I'll still be posting oneshots and drabbles though, so I'm not going anywhere! Feel free to come have a chat on Tumblr (29-pieces)! And if you enjoy any little ficlets, please PLEASE take a moment to let me know there's still interest there. You guys are all wonderful :)

"Gabriel!" Dean bellowed again, slamming his fist against the main door of the Bunker. It would have been bleeding by now, had he still been alive. "I mean it! Open this door, now! Son of a bitch!"

"Dean, calm down-"

"Calm down?" Whirling to lean over the banister and glare at his brother, Dean shook his head. "Cas just spent over a week being tortured by that demon, and you don't wanna make sure he's okay? Really, Sam?"

"Of course I wanna make sure he's okay!" Sam snapped back. "But beating up the door isn't going to solve anything! Do you really think after everything, Gabriel won't take care of him?"

Dean stormed down the stairs and advanced on Sam, still thunderous. "With all those reapers to patch up, not to mention Terry, who says there's gonna be enough healing to go around? You telling me Cas isn't going to pretend he's not hurt as bad, knowing they might be worse off? You think Gabriel would be able to tell-"

"Yeah, Dean, I do. Look, I'm pissed, too, after everything we went through to get Cas back and now we're stuck in here instead of out there with him, you'd better believe I'm pissed. But this place is too big and too full of crap for me to find something that doesn't belong, to find an exit. And you want to talk about pretending you're not hurt that bad? We need to rest and heal, too. Cas will know we want to see him. He'll be here."

Dean turned his back, running a hand through his hair. He was in no mood to be logical about this. Now that everything had calmed down, he was left with nothing to do but remember Cas strung up and collared and bleeding. And that spike, that emptiness in his eyes…

With a sharp exhale, Dean yelled again, "GABRIEL!"

Up above, the door finally opened. Both Winchesters hurried to the bottom of the stairs as overhead Gabriel's voice filtered down:

"I heard you the first time, Dean, will you shut up?"

"Listen here, you winged dick," Dean retorted, crossing his arms. "I want to see Cas!"

"Uh, yeah, I gathered that."

Gabriel stepped out of the way, allowing another angel to come into view. Cas peered around the archangel with a wry smile.

"I'm alright, Dean."

"Cas!"

The two angels headed down the stairs to join the hunters. Dean took the chance to eye his friend carefully, watching for any sign of lingering pain. There was no outward physical trauma, all the bruises and cuts completely erased by now. But Dean had seen the stalwart angel take the most awful beatings and still want to jump back into the fight; that wasn't what he was worried about.

Though Cas seemed more haggard than they'd seen him in a long time, he at least greeted them with another tired smile.

"How's your grace?" Sam asked as the angels reached the bottom of the stairs.

Cas lifted one shoulder noncommittally, which wasn't the enthusiastic reassurance Dean had been hoping for.

"It'll recover with time," he explained. "We managed to extract a large amount from the reapers, but there's still much that's unaccounted for. I can only assume Laz burned a lot of it up while fighting us."

"Bit of bed rest and he'll be good as new," Gabriel chipped in. He clapped Cas on the shoulder with a carefree smirk.

Or, one that seemed carefree on its surface. Dean eyed the archangel, starting to understand a little better that—whatever else Gabriel might be—he was also a big brother with younger siblings who couldn't stay out of trouble. And while he hadn't always done the greatest job about it, he clearly cared about them.

Dean could relate.

A little mollified but not enough to say anything nice, Dean just harrumphed his doubt that a bit of bed rest was going to fix everything.

"And how-" Sam went on with a wince. "How are the reapers?"

Cas and Gabriel traded a quick glance, even the archangel sobering a little.

"Well, uh… put it this way, the lights may be flickering here for a while, because it took a lot of power to put them back together again," Gabriel replied. "We sorted all the grace out and I fixed their mouths… the eyes will have to wait until I've regenerated a bit. But I'll have 'em right as rain eventually." The archangel puffed out his cheeks and shrugged, though the lackadaisical air was harder to buy this time.

"The other reapers are requesting an angelic escort into Hell for the time being," Cas went on to explain. "At least until this has died down."

"Wait, not you," Sam gasped, looking between Cas and Gabriel with horror blossoming across his face. "We just got you back!"

"You can't seriously-" Dean began angrily, though Gabriel rolled his eyes and held up a hand.

"No, not Cas. And not Terry either, he's still grounded. One of the warriors will go. Cas is on leave of absence until further notice."

Oh. Well, alright then, but Dean was still annoyed with the archangel. Gabriel gave him a smirk as though hearing the thought, which for all Dean knew, he could. At any rate, Gabriel only said,

"Which means he'll be crashing with you guys for a while. Try not to break anything, you three." He paused, then glanced quickly between Sam and Dean. Gabriel cleared his throat. "And, uh… you know... thanks."

And then he was gone, leaving the three alone at last. Team Free Will. Dean shook his head, but turned his attention to Cas.

"Beer?" he asked, already backing up towards the kitchen. "The fridge always has the good stuff in it."

Cas took a breath, then nodded. "Please."

Dean hurried from the room. Now that he'd seen Cas with his own eyes, it was a little easier to relax. Now it was time to do some damage control. For all of them. If Sam thought Dean hadn't noticed the haunted look he'd carried ever since being put on the rack, he'd better think again. And Dean himself… well, the important thing was making sure Sam and Cas were okay.

Grabbing three bottles from the fridge that never seemed to empty, Dean headed back toward the library. Sam was talking quietly with Cas, but Dean caught the tail end of the question.

"-can really save Heaven?"

"I believe so," Cas replied, looking up at Dean as he approached and accepting the beer with a grateful nod. "Terriel's working on refining the sigil right now, but he's confident. Gabriel's thrilled, of course, not that you would ever know it." He snorted and shook his head. "Who would have guessed that while Laz was trying so hard to destroy Heaven, he ended up helping us save it?"

"Don't expect me to cheer," Dean snapped as he twisted the lid off his bottle and collapsed into a chair at last. He kicked back, boots settling on the table. "Terry's okay though?"

Cas nodded again. "His wounds are almost fully healed. And speaking of wounds… how are you two doing?"

"Oh, you know me," Dean said with a light shrug.

The piercing look Cas gave him reminded Dean of the old Cas, the one he'd first met in that barn another lifetime ago. It was enough to assure Dean that the angel wasn't fooled.

"I do know you," Cas agreed. "Hence my concern." He looked between the brothers, shaking his head. "I want you to know, it was incredibly brave of you both to come after me and I will never forget it. Even most angels wouldn't tread in Hell, even with their power and without your… history."

Dean stared down at the bottle he held, avoiding Cas's eye. Yeah… his history of torture and corruption. He wondered suddenly what Cas had thought, being back in that place. That same place where he'd found Dean carving into some unfortunate, screaming soul…

"You came for us," Sam pointed out quietly. "Both of us. And there was no way we were gonna leave you there, once Gabriel explained what was going on. No matter what the risk."

Still watching his bottle, Dean couldn't see Cas's reaction to the statement, though he himself whole-heartedly agreed. The difference was, Cas had only been in Hell because he was trying to help the reapers, because he was always trying to help someone. Sam had only been in Hell because he had sacrificed himself to save the world, and his reward was to be Lucifer's prey for eternity.

But himself? He might have gotten there by making a sacrifice, but the things he'd done after that were unforgivable. Dean closed his eyes. When he did, he continued to hear the screams, and Iris's voice taunting him about the things he'd done, things he'd thought had finally been laid to rest.

"Dean?" Cas asked, the tone in his voice suggesting that—once again—he saw right through him.

"Come on, Cas," Dean muttered, opening his eyes but looking away. "We both know you recognized the place."

From his periphery, he saw Sam glance between the two without speaking up. Then, after a second, Cas's chair squeaked on the floor as the angel leaned in closer.

"Yes," Cas said softly. "It's where I once rescued a righteous man's soul after it had been tortured within an inch of sanity. Used and manipulated by the strongest forces of evil imaginable, things no one could have withstood forever. Dean, the things that happened in Hell were not your fault."

"What difference does it make, Cas?" the hunter asked, finally meeting his friend's blue gaze. "It still happened. You think I never did anything like Laz did? That I didn't do worse, for no reason other than that I wanted to?"

"You didn't want to," the angel replied. "Dean. I remember the first thing you ever said to me, you know. The moment you realized exactly what I was, you looked me straight in the eye, and you said… you said, 'Stop me.' Not as a challenge. Not as a taunt. The desperation in your voice… I will never forget it, as long as I live. You knew I was strong enough to destroy you, and that's what you would have preferred, rather than continue on as you were doing. Yes, Dean, you did things in Hell, things any one of us would have succumbed to, but not even all of that was enough to turn your soul evil, because you, at your heart and core, were always among the righteous. That's who you are, Dean. Not what they made you into."

Dean felt his eyes burn, but at this point there was no one to hide it from. Clearing his throat loudly, he sniffed and ran a hand down his face, surreptitiously swiping away some of the tears that were beading in the corners of his eyes. "Anyway," he said, gruff with suppressed feeling and no small amount of gratitude. "I'm not the only one who's had a bad time in Hell. Spill, Sam. How bad is it?"

Sam twitched slightly in his seat, eyes flicking from Dean to Cas as the attention settled on him. "Oh, um…" He coughed. "I mean…"

"She had you on the rack, man."

"What?" Cas demanded, straightening with clear alarm. "Sam, you didn't say- are you alright?"

"I'm fine," Sam insisted. He shot Dean a look, who ignored it.

"I know you, Sam. Tell me Lucifer isn't in there somewhere."

"I told you… I'm fine. Just run down from Gabriel's sigil, is all. Besides, she never touched me. Not like Lu-" He cut off and clenched his jaw. Neither Dean nor Cas broke the silence, waiting until Sam took another breath and finished, "Yeah, alright, he was in my head a bit, but it was nothing but memories. And honestly, at least with Lucifer I know it ends with me escaping him. Cas, finding you like that… not knowing if you'd pull through… I'd rather deal with Lucifer."

That went for Dean as well. He knew Cas had faced similar tortures before—always on his own. More than anything, Dean hated that his friend had been alone against this demon. That he had been cut into while alone. That he'd been collared and chained up and left in the darkness, alone. That he'd had no reason to believe anyone was coming for him, as the angels were too few to make the journey, and the Winchesters weren't supposed to be able to leave Heaven.

Dean had never once regretted giving up their lives to close Hell and retire in Heaven, but looking at Cas's face slowly fall into a haunted mien, he suddenly wished they could un-retire. To make sure Cas didn't have to fight these battles on his own, Dean would give it all up.

"Yes, well," Cas murmured. "I'm alright."

But when nervous fingers pulled at the shirt collar and tie, Dean saw the lie for what it was. As well as Cas could see right through him, the hunter knew just how to read his angel friend. And damn, sometimes Cas made it easy to do. He didn't need to note the faint remainders of reddened skin circling Cas's neck to know why the fabric was hemming him in just a little too tightly.

Likewise, the puncture wound from the pin was completely gone, yet when Cas reached up without thinking, Dean knew it wasn't to fix his hair.

Trading a look with Sam, Dean sighed and twisted his chair around to face Cas more fully.

"Cas?"

The angel shook his head. "It's just… Naomi's brainwashing. Heaven's 're-education'. The Leviathan. Rowena's attack dog spell. Lucifer. I fought so hard for the angels to have free will, and it seems fate finds ironic pleasure in taking mine away. At every turn, I become someone else's puppet. Something to be cut open and ripped out so that something more useful can be shoved back in. If not for you two… I might have been the key ingredient to the end of everything." Cas snorted. "Again."

"Laz knew what he was doing," Sam pointed out. "The only reason it was you and not some other angel is that you were the one with the guts to go in. It doesn't mean anything about you."

"Sam, I haven't felt so helpless since…" Cas trailed off, leaning forward to rest his face in his hands. "The reapers have no memory of anything that happened between being spiked and being rescued. I don't believe he did anything more than put me back in the chains, but I'll never know. The reaper- he told her to hold me down and she didn't resist… he could have forced me to kill one of them. To kill one of you. He could have told me to go back to Heaven and put a blade through Gabriel's heart, and I would have done it, and not even know."

He looked back up, eyes dark with nightmare. "Do you know what a terrifying thought that is?"

"Yes," both Winchesters replied in unison.

Dean shrugged and gestured to Sam. "You have any idea how many times I've almost killed him? Demon possession, monster curse, Mark of Cain, you name it. Of course it's a terrifying thought. So yeah, I know how it is."

"But don't do that," Sam urged as he leaned in to squeeze Cas's arm. "Don't think about what could have happened. It didn't. Laz is dead, and you're fine. Gabriel's fine. We're fine. Everyone made it out alive, Cas, and that's all that matters."

"Yeah, plus you get to hang out here for a while," Dean put in. "You know, watch some flicks, tinker around on the cars, or just… enjoy nothing trying to kill us all. This is your heaven as much as ours, you know."

"Well… that does sound good."

Cas's weary face smoothed into a small smile, though his eyes were still as distant as Dean knew his own probably were. It was nothing that time wouldn't fix, though. Time, and closeness with his friends. His family. Not that Dean relished returning to Hell in the near… ever… but he would definitely be talking to Gabriel about coming out of retirement. At least whenever Cas was being sent on mission, at least until Heaven was stable enough that the angel would have backup—though Dean didn't trust any of the others to have Cas's back the way he and Sam could.

But for now, they were all drained and dealing with demons of their own. For now, the only mission was to rest and recover and look after each other.

Dean's hand brushed over the sigils still burned into his skin, skimming across the signs without pressing them into activation. Somehow, he didn't think it was an accident that Gabriel hadn't had the signs removed.

After all, the peace was wonderful. But he, Sam, and Cas, they were warriors.

So when the next trouble arose? They would be ready.