The Beginning of the End

Note: This is a different take on 'The End' and, breaking my one-shot rule in style, this will probably be the first of about 3 or 4 parts.

Deb stared at the mass of glistening, writhing flesh on the bed appalled. She had asked Chuck for directions to Cas's hut, not the local brothel. Trying to block the sound of satisfied moaning out she stepped backwards towards the door. Something about one of the faces was familiar though, and she couldn't help but look closer. The face she'd picked out definitely resembled Cas. It was when he opened his eyes and looked straight at her that she knew she was in the right hut. Suddenly she felt very uncomfortable; it was like she'd just walked in on her parents. The women, who were now all staring at her, momentarily distracted her and so she didn't notice that Cas had left the bed and was standing next to her, utterly naked.

Clamping a hand over her eyes, she waved at him, "Jesus, clothes Cas!" She heard him stumbling around for a few seconds and when she looked back he was standing in front of her, clad in jeans. "Better?"

She stared at him, "Yes, Cas, it's better. Now just pull out that nifty little trench coat I know you've still got around here somewhere and I might even start to feel comfortable again".

Chuckling to himself he quickly pulled on a top and turned to the women, "Excuse me, ladies. Today's session is over, I have some business to attend to."

Deb sat down in a wicker chair in the centre of the room, as she watched the women leave. Six women? She thought. The Cas I know can barely work a cell phone, let alone keep six women occupied for that long. She tried to stop her mind going down the path it was sprinting towards, but failed. Hell, I don't even think I could keep six women occupied in bed, let alone make them happy. And he obviously was making them happy, judging by the sounds anyway. He must have mad skills in the sack…

She buried her face in her hands, trying to shake the offending thoughts out of her mind. When she looked up he was sitting across from her, a wide smile on his face. She narrowed her eyes, "Don't look at me like that, Cas. It's perfectly normal for me to be thinking what I'm thinking after seeing that."

He looked confused for a second and then his smile grew even wider. Deb blinked and then sighed, resting her head on her hand again, "You didn't know what I was thinking about, right?"

"Actually, no. But thanks for clarifying." He leaned back in his chair, still grinning. "Truth is, I can't read your thoughts anymore. However much I might want to."

Deb closed her eyes, offering a silent prayer to whichever deity might be listening at the current moment. The absurdity of what she'd just seen hit her like a wave and before she knew it she'd moved across to sit next to the man she had formerly known as Cas and they were both laughing, "What the hell did I just see? What happened to you?"

He stared at her with those unmistakable blue eyes, and shrugged, "Life, I guess. I'm not an angel anymore, Deb. I wasn't for a long time, to be honest. Not really. My powers slowly faded away, until there was just nothing there anymore. I'm mortal."

She shook her head, "How is that even possible?"

"I don't know for sure, " he shrugged again, "maybe it was something to do with the other angels leaving. Maybe it was to do with everything I went through …" he looked at her, and shook his head, "I felt too much to be an angel, Deb, things started to get to me. Like I said, I stopped really being an angel a long time before I lost the last of my powers."

Deb sensed there was so much he wasn't telling her, but kept her mouth shut. She watched as he picked up an open bottle of vodka and took a swig before offering it to her. Gratefully she accepted, and relished the feeling of the liquid burning down her throat. She smiled, "So, if you don't mind me asking, Cas, who was it that introduced you to the more, er, carnal pleasures in life?" She laughed, and raised the bottle to her lips again.

"You."

Deb choked as the liquid poured into her lungs, coughing, bent over on the chair while he just stared at her.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to shock you."

Deb wiped at her mouth with the sleeve of her shirt, "Are you joking? If you knew the Cas I know, you wouldn't be so shocked that I'm so shocked."

"I was the Cas you know. I'm well aware of what he… of how I came across back then." He stared down at his hands, and then reached across for the vodka.

Deb felt instantly embarrassed at her reaction, "I didn't mean anything by it, Cas. It's just I can't imagine that happening. I'm pretty sure Cas, my Cas I mean, thinks I'm really weird and possibly a bit scary."

"Things were very difficult for me back then Deb. The main thing I felt was overwhelming anger. I was angry with Sam and Dean mostly. I fell and they failed and Lucifer was freed anyway." He sighed.

"We did the best we could, Cas. Also, you should remember that you were under Zachariah's thumb up until about 15 minutes before Lucifer rose; maybe if you'd manned up sooner we might've stood more of a chance." She stared at him, grinding her teeth slightly.

"You think I didn't realise that? I was angry with myself as well. Angry at my weakness."

Deb grasped the vodka bottle and raised it resolutely to her lips. She felt drunk already, but she figured that if maybe she kept her mouth busy she wouldn't be able to say anything else massively hurtful or offensive.

Cas stared at her, and for a moment it was like being back in her time, with her Cas, "I know what you're thinking. 'Me and my big mouth', right?" He smiled slightly, "It was your big mouth that kept me going back then."

Deb frowned and raised her eyebrows.

"Ok, that came out wrong. What I mean is, you kept me calm, you made me believe in myself. You were always so, passionate, so …righteous, in a way I never was. You never let me believe for a moment that I'd made the wrong decision."

She laughed, "Thanks, Cas. I've been called a lot of things over the years, but righteous is a new one."

Relaxing slightly and leaning back in the chair he grinned, "Well, I aim to please." She gestured with the vodka bottle, indicating the small amount of liquid remaining, and he reached across for it, "So, which part of my past are you from exactly?"

"Well, a couple of weeks ago, we thought you were going to die; you were going to have a big showdown with some archangel, Raphael. So, Dean, in his wisdom, was adamant that you were not going to die a virgin and he took you to a brothel." She took the bottle back and downed the rest of the vodka, "From what I heard, it didn't work out so well." She grinned, "If I'd have known that you were really just saving yourself for me, I could have saved you a trip."

Cas looked distracted, "So, that means that Sam isn't with you? Dean sent him away, right? Have you heard from him?"

Deb shook her head, "It was Dean's fault, the guy can be a real dick sometimes. You know that though. I haven't spoken to Sam since he left, Dean won't let me. Even friggin' confiscated my cell." She rolled her eyes.

"You need to make him understand, Deb. It's not good for you to be apart." He was leaning forward in his chair again, one hand resting on her knee.

Glancing at his hand, she turned her gaze on him and raised her eyebrows. Seeing that he wasn't going to take the hint, she brushed his hand away and stood up, "Ok, I'll remember that." She walked towards a small bookcase in the corner and ran a hand over some of the battered leather spines, "Hey, Cas, am I around here somewhere?" She turned and tucked her hair behind her ears, "I'd love to know what future me is like."

"No. You're not here. You're in Detroit." He wasn't looking at her, again.

"Oh right. Is there another camp there or something?" Her eyes narrowed as he started to pick at the stitches on a cushion. "Cas, what is it that you're not telling me?"

He sighed, and threw the cushion aside, "You're in Detroit. With Sam."

Deb swallowed hard, "Great. So, I'm dead then. Right? Dean, now Dean, said that Sam died in Detroit. So…"

"That was a lie. Sam's not dead. He's a vessel. He said yes."

Deb stormed through the camp, dimly aware of Cas running behind her, struggling to keep up. She passed Chuck again, who gaped at her, and dived quickly out of her way before she bowled him over. She could hear Cas calling her name, telling her to stop. She almost laughed as she remembered all the times she'd argued with Cas; it was always really difficult to get away from him when she was in a bad mood, he tended to just beam himself down in front of her and block the exit until she'd calmed down. Finally, breaking into a clearing surrounded by trees, she turned on him, "I don't fucking believe you Cas. Why would Sam do that?"

"Because of Dean! Maybe he could understand where Lucifer was coming from. Think about it, Lucifer's brother turned away from him, just like Dean turned away from Sam. He was angry. You were with him when it happened, because you disagreed with what Dean had done to him." Cas had his hands raised in surrender.

"Well, what about me, Cas? You don't even know if I'm dead or alive! Didn't anyone ever try and find me?" She turned away from him, feeling tears of frustration flood down her cheeks, "It's great to know how much people really care about me!"

"We did try to find you, Deb. We just couldn't." He was sitting on a log now, staring at the floor. As she looked at him, shoulders slumped, face downcast, she recognised something of the old Cas in him. Her Cas always looked sad, as if he was puzzled as to how his life had ended up the way it had. Shaking her head she walked towards him and knelt in front of him, "Cas, how do I stop this? When I go back, what do I do to make sure this doesn't happen?" Her ears were ringing, and the noise seemed to be getting louder, until it was like a kettle whistling insider her head. She placed a hand on the side of her face and squeezed her eyes shut.

"I wish I knew, Deb. I really do. But being apart is not the answer." She was dimly aware of his answer, but was distracted by the high-pitched buzzing sound. What is happening to me? She clamped her hands over her ears, but the ringing continued, growing in volume, until suddenly everything went silent. That's it, Deb thought, I've gone deaf. I told Dean that he shouldn't listen to his music so loud in the car, and now I'm deaf. I'm going to kill him.

"You are starting to become a real nuisance, young lady." Deb instantly wished she had gone deaf. Opening her eyes she looked up to see Zachariah standing over her, shaking his head. "You were not supposed to be there, I told you that. It was an administrative error. I told you not to speak to anyone, not to touch anything, and what do you go and do the minute I leave you to your own devices." He stepped away from her, looked up as if considering what he should do next. "I've just about had enough of you. No, in fact, I have had more than enough of you and, I'm afraid, your lesson ends here." He moved a lot faster than he looked like he could, and she could only squeeze her eyes shut again, as he lunged towards her, a vicious looking knife aimed directly at her heart.

When she opened her eyes a few seconds later, she was surprised not to find herself bleeding to death. She was surprised to find herself standing on a grass verge by the side of an empty road, with Castiel, safely back in his trench-coat, standing beside her. Laughing she threw herself at the angel and wrapped her arms round him, totally ignoring his obvious discomfort at the gesture. "Cas, did I ever tell you that you are awesome?" She stared up at him, arms still wrapped around his waist.

"Er, no." His eyes darted wildly from side to side, landing anywhere but on her face.

"Well, you are, totally fucking awesome!" She moved away from him, throwing her hands out to the sides as she gesticulated wildly, "You are not going to believe what just happened. I've been to the future, Cas. I met you. Future you! And you were really fucking…different. You told me that…" Narrowing her eyes, she pointed at him, "Hey, Cas, what do you think of me?"

He stared at her as though she'd gone made, "I find you strange… and loud." Seeing her face fall he rolled his eyes, "But also, oddly …compelling."

Deb blinked and chewed her lip for a second, "Oddly compelling. Well, I guess that's a start."

Cas glared at her, "What are you talking about? Where is Dean?"

"He's still there. It was Zac; he sent Dean to the future to show him what will happen if he doesn't say yes to Michael. I was sent along by accident."

The angel stepped towards her and placed a hand on her arm, "Whatever you saw is not necessarily the truth. Zachariah is perfectly capable of twisting things to get his own way."

She frowned, she hadn't really thought of it that way before, "You're right. But, I need you to help me persuade Dean to call Sam, make him come back. In the future that I saw, Dean and Sam hadn't spoken to each other for years, and Sam said yes to Lucifer because of it."

Castiel nodded, "And what about you?"

Deb opened her mouth to answer, but just shook her head, biting the inside of her cheek to stop herself crying. It was one thing to cry in front of future Cas, but an entirely different thing to do it in front of this Cas. The discomfort alone would probably be enough to kill him.

She sighed and stifled a yawn, "I'm going to find a motel, Cas. I'll ring you when I find somewhere, so you can come get me when Dean turns up. Seeya later." She waved half-heartedly at him, then made her way along the road towards the lights of town in the distance.

(later)

Deb ruffled her hair with a towel, and then began the long task of dragging a comb through the tangles. She had the same battle every morning; life on the road had not been kind to her hair. Sighing she looked up from the mirror as Dean entered the room. "Good to see you alive and well, and, well, you." She muttered.

"Same to you, what the hell happened to you anyway? One minute you were there, the next, no sign." He flopped down next to her on the bed.

"Ah, Zac sent me for an early bath, so to speak." She rolled her eyes and shook her head. "The guy's a total dick."

Dean nodded, "No arguments from me on that one. So…" he looked away, momentarily, and when he looked back he was wearing his usual lopsided grin that meant he was about to mock someone relentlessly, "you and Cas, huh?"

She stared at him, "You met him then?"

Dean laughed and nodded, "Yeah, guy after my own heart. The things he told me about you; they even made me blush."

"That little shit!" Deb glared at Dean.

A rustle of wings that she was barely conscious of in her anger marked Cas's entrance. Dean nudged her with his elbow, "Speaking of little shits." He nodded in the angel's direction and stood up, "Anyway, I'll leave you guys to it. I have a phone call I really have to make."

Watching him leave, Deb sighed again, glancing at Cas, "Hey." Picking the brush up again she began to tear at the stubborn knots at the back of her head. The angel uncomfortably took the spot next to her that Dean had just exited.

"I know what he…I…me in the future said to you. I am sorry that you had to put up with him. Zachariah can be a pain, he will stop at nothing to get what he wants."

She looked at the side of his face, "Yeah, tell me about it. But…do you think any of it might be true? I mean, is that what will happen if Dean says no?"

He shrugged, "It's a possibility. I think Zachariah showed you one of many possible paths we could take. It makes sense to bear it in mind, and remain vigilant." Finishing his sentence he at last turned to look at her.

She nodded, "I guess so. One thing though, Cas; let's never have sex." His eyes widened momentarily. "I don't want to be responsible for turning you into the prick I met."

He nodded once and turned his head away, "Agreed."