Well, I bet some of you probably thought that I forgot about this story. I didn't! Life's just been ridiculous lately. My Master's Thesis is coming due and, well, let me put it into Supernatural terms: two years ago I made a deal with a rather powerful demon (ie: my university) so that I could get into Grad School and now my time's run out, it's 11:59 pm and hellhounds (ie: Graduate Division Studies) are trying to break down my door and 1 second away from dragging my soul to Hell. Yay!

That being said, I apologize immensely for the wait and hope that the end product was at least somewhat worth it. Better late then never? Thanks so much to everyone who reviewed for the last chapter: Wol Lo, supreme dramon, ramen-is-my-goddess, uoduck, egyptian1995, and Afgncaap8!

O

Chapter 10: Epilogue

They finally made it back to Palo Alto, California five days later. "They" meaning Dean, Cas, and Claire. Sam had jumped a plane first thing the morning after they had beat off Raphael, willing to pay the ridiculous price a place ticket within twenty-four hours of the flight. Dean had had enough of flying for one lifetime and had adamantly refused to go along. Cas didn't seem to be eager to be separated from Dean so soon and he and Claire together decided to tag along with Dean as he drove the Impala back across the United States.

Dean probably could've gotten them back to California in two or three days if he had pushed it but it turned out that when he wasn't running for his life he actually really enjoyed road-trips. The only possible issue Dean could see was that when they pulled in for the night he and Cas couldn't get up to any funny business with Claire sleeping less than ten feet away. Then again, he and Cas had kept with the habit of sharing a bed, leaving the second for Claire to have all to herself, and waking up to an armful of angel was a fine second to sex. Not that Dean didn't want sex—he really, really wanted it, but now there was a lot less urgency. It felt like they had all the time in the world.

On their trip back to the West Coast they were still driving during most of their daylight hours but Dean made sure to stop at any roadside attractions that looked worth their time. Sam had left him with a credit card—mostly because after everything they'd been through he didn't want Dean to end up in jail for fraud—so they were able to eat at decent restaurants, stay in hotels, not motels, and buy the occasional souvenir Claire asked for. It was actually really nice.

When they had finally made it back they all had a surprise waiting for them. Sam had only gotten there about a week before them but in a move Dean could only ascribe to psychotic determination had already signed a lease for one of those new townhome apartments he had been going on about and had most of his possessions packed into boxes, ready to go. He had given his requisite two-weeks' notice to his landlord as soon as he had gotten back from New York and was just waiting for the final second week to be up so he could move into his new place.

Dean, Cas, and Claire ended up staying in a hotel in Palo Alto, mostly because Dean didn't want to be anywhere near his brother when he was so stressed out. As if the sudden decision to move wasn't enough, Sam had also been having a rough time getting back into school since he had already missed a handful of classes. From what Dean heard him say, Sam had made up some lie about his grandmother dying of cancer and had even come up with some fake death certificates to prove it to his professors. Dean was actually a little proud of that last part; it seemed that Sammy had inherited the Winchester ability to convincingly lie through your teeth when the situation called for it. His professors bought it but that didn't mean they went easy on him. Sam was in law school after all, so they didn't drop him from the program—as they had threatened to—but he still had to make up all the work he missed. All of that drama combined with the move made for a very cranky Sammy that Dean was all too happy to stay away from, even if it meant that alone time in bed with Cas had to be postponed a little while longer.

Dean didn't quite know what to do with himself, or Castiel and Claire for that matter, for that awkward first week. After traveling around for so long and repeatedly risking his life, it actually took him a while to wrap his mind around the idea that they were actually staying in one town for longer than a day. He kept wanting to climb back into the Impala and just start driving again and each and every time Dean had to remind himself that he was already exactly where he wanted to be. And he was—it was just different than anything he was used to. Now that Cas and Claire were with him, it was even different than how he had lived back in Lawrence. Instead of living lonely in the backroom of his own bar, now he was living with two—and soon to be three—other people. Some days it felt overwhelming, almost stifling, but the more days went by the more Dean realized that he really liked walking back into the hotel only to have Claire jump up into his arms and start babbling about her day. He began to depend on those nights spent with all of them on one of the hotel beds, Cas gently leaning against him and Claire sprawled out in front of them, just watching TV. And waking up to find Cas nestled into him each morning was starting to become as necessary as breathing.

Knowing that soon Sam would be permanently added to the mix cemented it in Dean's mind that yes, this was really happening, and that he was going to be here for the foreseeable future. Which meant that he needed to get a job if he didn't want to be a leech for the rest of his life. Now he had no interest in canvasing the many bars in town for a job; Dean had been there, done that, and didn't know if he could put up with going back to being just a bartender instead of a bar owner.

With that option out of the way Dean fell back on the only other thing he knew how to do: fix up cars. There were only a handful of mechanic shops in town that would've been willing to hire him but Dean managed to sweet-talk the manager of a shop less than five blocks away from the town center into letting him in on a trial period. It only took two days for Dean to get hired on full-time.

He wasn't sure what Cas and Claire did while he was away but he suspected that they just wandered around town and occasionally over to Stanford campus when the mood struck them. Every now and again Claire would share some random fact about the town when Dean got back to the hotel, like how many parks they had or what the city's population was. He was just happy that they were getting out; both of them, but especially Cas, were beginning to relax again as they realized that they didn't have to keep glancing over their shoulder. No one was out to get them now and they were finally starting to enjoy the sensation of simply being able to appreciate the little things in life. By the end of a week the three of them had fallen into a pretty steady rhythm. In fact Dean was almost confused when Sam called early in the morning and told him that it was Moving Day.

Moving Day was hell. Not as hellish as fighting off hordes of demons or enraged archangels but by the end of it Dean would've almost have rather been put in a small room with Raphael rather than move one more box. It took five trips in the Impala and two with the truck Sam had borrowed from a friend to get all of Sam's shit to his new apartment. Cas was a lifesaver, his newly restored angelic strength enabling him to move some of Sam's heaviest furniture single-handedly. Claire was kept busy over at the new place opening up boxes and putting things away and she did a surprisingly good job with it. Mind you she couldn't reach the top cabinets, but everything under four feet was great. When Sam finally got there, he took care of the rest of it, easily handling all the high places.

Between the four of them, the new townhouse was already feeling a bit like home by the time night fell. That was of course after Dean and Sam had spent half an hour wandering from room to room in the two-story apartment bickering over what each space should be used for. There were three bedrooms, one large one downstairs and two slightly smaller ones upstairs. Sam thought that Claire, Dean, and Cas should all bunk upstairs while he got the separate space on the first floor. Dean on the other hand thought that he and Cas should get the big room downstairs; he only got his way once he made the point that the more privacy they got the better.

They had finished off the night with delivery pizza and a movie before crashing on the couch together in the living room. The space was unfamiliar but the company wasn't. He, Sam, and Cas were all crammed onto the couch, Dean in the middle and brushing shoulders with both of them. Claire had passed out two feet from the TV, wiped after such a long day. Sam wasn't far behind her, the younger Winchester's eyelids drooping as he forced himself to stay awake. Finally Dean nudged him and told him to get his ass to bed. He had class in the morning. Sam agreed with a groggy mumble, the Sasquatch gently lifting Claire up into his arms before making his way upstairs.

Castiel watched them climb the stairs with a soft look in his eyes. It was pretty damn adorable but at that moment all Dean could think about was that finally, finally he and Cas were alone. And suddenly all Dean could think about was having sex with the gorgeous creature sitting next to him. As soon as the sound of the bedroom doors closing reached them downstairs, Dean realized that Cas felt the same. He tensed up as Cas shifted closer, his heart picking up in his chest and he had to hold himself back from throwing the angel down and fucking him right there on the couch.

All it took was Cas whispering lightly in his ear and a quick squeeze on his shoulder for Dean to spring up from the couch and chase after him into their bedroom. He had never stripped his clothes off so fast.

OoOoOo

Dean let out a small groan as a shaft of pale morning light hit his eyes then smiled a moment later as it was blocked out with a soft rustle of feathers. If there was anything that felt as amazing as Cas's wings brushing over his bare skin it should probably be illegal.

Rolling over, Dean tucked his arm around his angel's waist. Castiel let out a small murmur of happiness and nestled himself against Dean, his slightly smaller frame fitting just right against Dean's. It wasn't perfect, their knees bumped awkwardly together and Dean was just a little too short to rest his head on top of Cas's but, pressed together naked from shoulder to thigh, it was better than what Dean could've ever imagined for himself.

Dean hummed as he felt open-mouthed kisses being pressed against his neck up to his jawline and tilted his chin up to give Cas better access, a husky chuckle rising up in his throat as Castiel instead pulled his head down and sealed their lips together in a lazy kiss. Nipping at the angel's bottom lip as they pulled away, Dean grinned at his bed-partner. "A guy could get used to waking up this way…"

Cas's own lips quirked up in a smile and rolled over so that he was mostly lying on top of Dean. Dean watched with shamelessly lust-filled eyes as the other's black wings slowly stretched out over them. Last night they had sprung out of his back halfway through when Cas had lost control of himself. Dean had never seen anything so erotic in his life. And he could tell by the look on Cas's face that he knew exactly what he was doing to Dean now with his little his little wing-show. "I agree. We should do this more often."

Smoothing his palms over Castiel's skin, Dean leaned up to steal another quick kiss that quickly turned into something less than chaste. "If you keep this up, neither of us are going to be leaving this room today."

Cas gazed down at Dean then tilted his head to the side, like he was actually considering the option. "At some point we should probably leave. Claire will want to see us and, after last night, you should probably get something to eat."

"I don't know if I should take that as a compliment or not."

"It was meant as one."

Dean ginned up at Cas, trying to stamp down his nerves. "So it was good then?"

"Very."

Neither of them had broached the subject last night but knowing Cas, and remembering how he had acted when they had started to get down to the actual sex, Dean was pretty sure he was his first. Guy that is, not first ever. Castiel had Claire after all, he and his wife had definitely made love at least once before. Dean had been a little hesitant but the angel hadn't needed much coaxing; after a little foreplay he had completely let go. Dean liked to think it was because his skills in bed were just that amazing but he had a suspicion that Castiel was secretly a lot sexier than he let on once you got that rumpled suit off of him.

His opinion wasn't changed as Cas let out a pleased purr and smiled down at him, still perched on top of Dean's waist. Something warm flooded into Dean's chest at the sight. His arms slid up around Cas's back, his fingers digging in just slightly into the downy feathers at the base of the angel's wings as he dragged him down for another kiss. "Jesus…How did I ever live without you in my life?"

A flush spread across Castiel's face as Dean tightened his fingers before his smile returned and he raised a hand to run his fingertips over Dean's cheek. "If it's any consolation, I can longer imagine life without you either. You will never know how grateful I am for you and Sam allowing Claire and I into your family so unconditionally."

It was hard sometimes for Dean to accept just how true that statement was. If anyone had told him a year ago that this was what was going to happen he would've laughed, but Cas and Claire had both wheedled their way so far into both of the Winchester's hearts that there was no going back now. "Well, it wasn't much of a family until you two showed up. I should be thanking you."

"If you insist…" Cas's smile turned coy, "I can think of a few ways in which you can show your gratitude."

"Oh really?"

"Yes."

Dean laughed and was about to reconnect their lips when a voice echoed out from the main part of the house through their bedroom door. There was nothing quite like remembering your little brother was around to ruin your mood. "Oh, gross! Dean! For chrissake, clean up after yourself! A kid lives here!"

"What the hell is he-? Oh." Snorting back a laugh, Dean rolled his eyes. "Did we leave our clothes in the hall?"

Cas sat up with a low sigh. "I believe we did."

"Awesome. I should probably pick those up before Sammy throws an even bigger bitch fit." Besides, he had a point. Dean wasn't ashamed of what he and Cas had going but he didn't know if he was ready to have "the talk" yet with a seven-year-old.

His angel seemed to agree, although reluctantly as he rolled off of Dean's chest and his wings disappeared. It was a shame really. Even without wings, naked Cas wasn't such a bad sight either. Castiel seemed to feel Dean's gaze on him and glanced back over his shoulder as he moved across the room to find his clothes. Quirking a brow, the angel eyed Dean right back before speaking, his voice a low rumble. "You don't seem to be getting up."

"Oh, I'm getting there, trust me."

Cas paused then rolled his eyes, though the small smile on his lips gave him away. "Dean, you aren't making this any easier."

Dean grinned. "Did you expect anything different?"

"No, I suppose not." Glancing around the room once more, Cas seemed to give up on trying to physically find his clothes in their bedroom and in the blink of an eye was fully dressed. Angelic powers; totally cheating.

Straightening his tie, Castiel turned to face Dean. They were going to have to find him a few new outfits before the week was done. "I'll go out a retrieve our clothing while you dress. We did get your wardrobe put away in the closet yesterday, didn't we?"

"Yeah, alright." As he threw his covers off, Dean didn't miss the way Cas's blue eyes sharpened on him. It was obvious he wasn't the only one who wished they had a couple more hours in bed. Smiling, Dean pushed himself up and walked across the room to where Cas was still standing. By the time Dean made it over to him, Cas was ready and tilted his head back to receive the kiss Dean pressed against his lips. Dean was still smiling as he pulled away, "Thanks for cleaning up my mess, Cas."

"Of course."

"See you in a few minutes."

Cas nodded and stepped out of the room, closing the door behind him and leaving Dean to scrounge for an outfit with the clothes he had left in the bedroom. Luckily Castiel was right; last night they had moved the few personal items that Dean could claim as his into the room and that included a small duffle bag filled with clothes he had accumulated over the past few weeks. He still didn't have very much to choose from—he was still building up a decent wardrobe after everything he'd owned except for the clothes on his back had gone up in flames with the Roadhouse almost a month ago. Damn, it hadn't even been a month since he had met Castiel and Claire. It already felt like he had known them for years.

After finding a clean pair of jeans and a t-shirt, Dean pulled them on and did what he could to clean himself up. Eventually a shower would definitely be necessary but it could wait at least until after breakfast.

Dean ran his hands through his hair to get rid of his bed-head as he shouldered his way out the door. His and Cas's room was attached to the main living space of the first floor by a short hall that lead into the living room. Dean assumed that their clothes must've been tossed around the back half of the living room and the hall but in the few minutes it had taken him to get dressed Cas had already come through and picked them all up. In fact, yup, there was a small stack of pants and shirts by the entrance to the hall.

As Dean walked into the kitchen he found that he was the last one to arrive, Sam, Claire, and Cas already there. Sam and Claire were at the small dining table shoved into the corner of the room, Claire sitting with newspaper comics spread out in front of her and Sam with his homework scattered across the rest of the tabletop. Cas was leaning up against the tiled countertop and was the first one to spot Dean coming in, offering him a light smile as Sam glanced up at him. "About time you showed up."

"Good morning to you too." Claire giggled at Dean's sarcastic response as he sauntered all the way into the kitchen. He leaned against the counter close enough to Cas so that their shoulders brushed as he crossed his arms over his chest. "Besides," Dean glanced over at the clock on the microwave, "you can't give me too hard of a time. It's only eight seventeen, it's not like I slept in."

Sam let out a small snort until he finally seemed to absorb what Dean said and his eyes snapped up from his school notes. "Wait, what time is it?"

"Eight seventeen. Make that eight eighteen."

Sam's eyes went wide then popped up out of his chair, "Crap! I totally lost track of time!"

Raising a brow as Sam began to dash around the room like a chicken with his head cut off, Dean watched on in amusement. "What's with you?"

"I have a midterm in two hours, Dean! I have to pass this test, it's forty percent of my final grade!"

Castiel tilted his head as Sam began to dig around in one of the cabinets. "Do you need help studying?"

At the well-meaning offer, Sammy paused enough to at least look at Cas when he answered back. "Thanks, Cas, but I don't think you know enough about the kind of law I'm working on to be too much of a help. This is some pretty advanced stuff."

"You are probably correct."

Dean clapped a hand on the angel's shoulder, "You're a better man than me for asking in the first place, Cas. I learned long ago that it's just best to let Sammy work through these little panics on his own. There's nothing really anyone else can do about it and he usually aces all his tests anyway."

"That's because Uncle Sammy is so smart!"

Claire's chirp brought a smile to all three adults' faces, though it quickly melted off of Sam's with a quick shake of his head. "Only sometimes. And right now, the only thing I am is hungry; Dean, where did all our bowls end up?"

Dean shrugged. "How am I supposed to know? You and Claire put the kitchen away yesterday."

"Well would you help me look? I want to eat breakfast before I leave and I don't have time for this."

"I'll give you a hand, Sammy!"

Dean jumped about a foot as a voice echoed out from behind him, Sam banging his head on the cabinet he had half-crawled into as he tried to pull out. Even Cas started, his blue eyes darting over to the doorway leading out to the living room that had suddenly been filled with a certain diminutive archangel. "Gabriel!"

Claire looked up from her comics in surprise as her father announced their visitor and Dean swore loudly. His heart had lurched up into his throat when a person had suddenly appeared behind him and his pulse was just starting to regularize. "Dammit, Gabriel! You can't just pop in like that!"

The archangel grinned and strolled in. He was looking causal in jeans, a dark red shirt, and a light brown jacket; unlike Cas, he apparently understood how to change his clothes. "Just did."

Grabbing the back of his head, Sam freed himself from the cabinet to scowl at Gabriel. Dean's voice caught in his throat as he realized that his brother's eyes had gone pitch black. It shouldn't have been a surprise but it had been a few weeks since Dean had been reminded of Sammy's demonic side. It was almost eerie now, watching Sam train his black gaze on the archangel as he checked out their kitchen. "Nice digs. Looks like you just moved in."

"Gabriel!" Still massaging the back of his head, Sam pushed himself up to his feet. "Why can't you knock on the front door like everyone else?"

The smirk on Gabriel's lips never wavered. "Sorry, but that's not really my style." Sam wasn't amused by his response. "Someone's having a bad morning."

"Yeah, no thanks to you." Sam motioned towards his eyes as he continued to pout.

Gabriel had the gall to grin even wider. "Whoops! Sorry about that, Sammy. I forget how sensitive you are sometimes."

"Like hell you do…"

The archangel shrugged cheekily but the aura of power emanating from him immediately began to fade and after blinking two or three more times Sam's eyes went back to normal. Dean was pretty sure that Sam was right; Gabriel knew exactly what he was doing when he had popped in. If he had really forgotten he would have come in at full-blast and knocked Sam to the ground. To Dean, it looked like the archangel just like messing with Sam—not enough to hurt him but just enough to annoy him—and Dean couldn't figure out if he thought it was hilarious or unsettling. The unsettling part being that it almost seemed like a kid pulling the pigtails of the girl he liked in class.

Seeing that Sam's attention had shifted back towards the cabinets Gabriel turned his own focus towards Claire who had been watching the confrontation unfold with curious eyes "How's my favorite godchild going?"

Claire tilted her head in a way that looked way too similar to her father's own expression of confusion. "Aren't I your only godchild?"

"Details." Gabriel let her question roll off of him before a more serious glint returned to his eyes and his smile fell away just slightly. "But nothing weird has happened in the week or so I've left you alone? No more demons? No more angels, aside from your dad?"

Claire shook her head happily. "Nope! Just you and Daddy!"

"Good. Hopefully it'll stay that way."

"Where the hell did all the spoons get off to?"

Dean let out a noise of disbelief as Sam went right ahead and interrupted Gabriel's interrogation session. "I dunno, maybe they're still in one of the boxes."

"I'm going to run late to class if I take the time to look for it now."

Gabriel quirked a brow as that small teasing smile reappeared on his lips. "You're looking for some food, Sammy?"

"Don't call me that. But, yeah." Hardly sparing a glance back, Sam nodded, too distracted to bother to respond to the jab now that his eyes were fixed. "We haven't had the chance to restock at the grocery store yet so what we have is pretty pathetic. We have cereal somewhere but apparently we're out of bowls and spoons…"

The mood in the room had lifted a bit now that Sam had stopped snarling at Gabriel and even Claire noticed the change. She perked up in her seat as she turned to look at Sam. "Uncle Sammy, how come your eyes go all black around Gabriel but not around Daddy?"

Sam's response was muffled a bit as he continued to look around. "Uh, I guess I've gotten used to having your dad around, sort of like getting used to a really bad smell." Dean snorted and Sam's head popped back out of the cabinets with a sheepish smile. "No offense, Cas."

Yeah, no way anyone could take that offensively, Sammy. Dean rolled his eyes but to his surprise Cas just nodded in understanding. "None taken, the situation is mutual." Between those two comments Dean had to wonder about just what his housemates were going through on a daily basis. Cas and Sam got along so well these days that he hadn't even considered that they might be having to deal with any lingering effects of mixing angels and demons in the same space.

Sam sent Cas one more apologetic look before turning back to Claire. "Right, well, anyway, Gabe is stronger than your dad, so he affects me more."

It was stated as the truth because that's exactly what it was, the truth. Gabriel was stronger than Castiel, that's what their whole quest to find him had been based around and now that it was over it was hard to refute. Gabriel of course took it with his usual humility. "My awesomeness overwhelms him. But not even the amazing me can do everything. Pass me your phone, Sam."

Sam straightened up and hesitantly reached for his smart phone in the back pocket of his jeans, his whole stance back on the defensive even as he passed the device over to the archangel. "Why do you need it?"

Gabriel quickly pulled a similar phone out of his own jacket pocket and his thumbs began to fly over their keypads. It looked like the archangel not only more in tune with modern fashion than Cas but modern technology as well. Dean had tried to get Cas to make a call on his cell to Sammy once and it had taken Dean longer than he thought possible to explain just exactly how and why he should make that call. The lesser angel was much fonder of just flying to deliver any message that needed sending. "I need to get your phone number and I'm putting mine into yours."

Screwing his face up into an expression of frustration, Sam tried his question again, this time a little more specific. "Why do you need my cell phone number?"

Dean was right there with him. "Sammy's right. It doesn't seem like something a guy like you would need."

With a few more clicks Gabriel finished up and passed Sam his phone back with an annoyed scowl at it having been insinuated that he had a weakness. "Hey don't blame it on me. It's because someone had the brilliant idea to inscribe you and your brother's ribs with an Enochian invisibility cloak." Cas cross his arms over his chest as Gabriel jerked his thumb back at him accusingly. "Now no angel, not even me, can find you without a little help."

Sam checked his phone over carefully as if worried it had been booby trapped before sticking it back in his pocket. "Why do you need my number and not Dean's?"

"Because he's easy to find. All I have to do is figure out where Cassie is and his puppy's never too far away."

And that was enough of that. Scowling, Dean flipped the archangel off as he straightened up then walked around Sam to dig out a frying pan in the cabinet his brother had just been rooting through. Just because Sammy had to leave soon didn't mean that the rest of them couldn't have a nice, eggs and bacon filled breakfast. And cooking would distract him from wanting to punch an angel in the face which a small part of his brain was warning him would not go well.

Gabriel scowled at the gesture but, to Dean's surprise, didn't retaliate. He seemed to have something else in mind instead as he turned back to Sam. "Well, I was planning on just taking the kiddo here out for pancakes so we can have a little chat about her growing abilities, but your pouty face is just a little too adorable for me to ignore. Do you want to tag along?"

Dean turned his head so that he could eavesdrop a little better as Sam floundered for an answer to the out-of-the-blue offer. Castiel had perked up too, undoubtedly at the news that Gabe was taking his daughter out. "Uh, you mean now?"

"Yes, now."

"But I have class soon."

Gabriel waved a hand dismissively. "I'll get you back in time, don't worry."

Knitting his brows together, Sam tried to figure out exactly what was going on. Either that or he was trying to figure out how to get out of it. "If you mean you're going to fly me, this isn't exactly a good day for me to start figuring out whether or not Air Angel would cause me any lasting damage or not." That's right, Sam had never had to fly anywhere with angels yet. All the better for him; if Dean could help it he'd never have to go flying again either.

"Relax, Sammy, I drove here."

Cas tilted his head and eyed Gabriel with a curious skepticism. "You drove here? In a vehicle?"

Scoffing, Gabriel pulled a set of keys from his jacket and jangled them in Cas's face. "Duh. Oh," one of the other keys on the ring caught his attention, "I also bought a house outside of town about an hour ago."

"What?"

Dean, Sam, and Castiel had simultaneously asked the same question, varying expressions of disbelief of each of their faces. Claire blinked up at the adults in the room, not understanding why they were so surprised and apparently Gabriel didn't either, answering back like it was the most obvious thing in the world as he slipped the keys away. "Well, yeah."

Castiel shook his head, "But, what about your property in Los Angeles?"

"Balthazar is watching it for me. I figured he could handle it."

Frowning, Dean moved to stand behind Castiel. "You can just move like that?" Shouldn't an archangel relocating be a pretty big thing? Did that mean Palo Alto was going to be flooded with angels? What would happen to all the demons or part demons, like Sam, living there?

"It's not a permanent move, more like a long-term visit. Besides, I got to stick close if I'm gonna keep an eye on the kid here."

Claire giggled as Gabriel reached over the kitchen table and ruffled her hair and Sam finally found his voice again, "But, you can't just do that. Stanford has an established demon community. I mean, it's small but you can't just force them out and—"

A frown had slipped back onto Gabriel's face, that serious glint returning to his eyes. "Hey, I'm not kicking anyone out. Unless the shit hits the fan, I'll keep a low-profile. Believe me, I don't need the attention." He straightened out his jacket with a subdued flourish, similar to an actor preparing to go on stage. Which actually sounded like it was basically what was happening. "As long as I'm here, the only thing everyone will know me as is 'Gabriel Novak'," Castiel snapped to attention at the use of his late wife's surname, "the very human brother of the very human Castiel, and Claire's uncle." Glancing back, Gabriel noticed Cas's surprised expression and shrugged. "I'll work out the particulars of my cover story later. Now, are you just going to sit there and accuse me of things I don't plan to do or are do you want to eat something this morning?"

Sufficiently cowed, Sam leaned back on the counter with a slight flush on his cheeks. "Um, yeah. Thanks. Sorry."

"That's more like it." Spinning around, Gabriel motioned for Claire to get up. "Come on, kiddo. Get your coat or whatever it is you need to do to get ready. We're going for pancakes."

Claire looked down at her clothes then back up at Gabriel. "But I'm in my pajamas!"

"That's alright. They're adorable. Besides, this is a college town; people way older than you walk around in pajama pants all day and get away with it, you'll have no problem."

A smile lit Claire's face and she bounced up out of her chair. "If you say it's okay! Come on, Uncle Sammy, let's go!" Sam blinked as the little girl grabbed his hand then began to pull him out of the kitchen towards the front door. "Bye Daddy! Bye Dean!"

This was all happening way too early in the morning for Dean to keep up with. He barely managed a wave as Claire tugged his brother out, Gabriel following close on their heels as he sauntered out with a wink. All three of them were gone as quickly as Gabriel had appeared and it took Dean a moment to really figure out just what happened.

"Huh."

"Indeed."

Dean looked up to find Cas looking just as shell-shocked as he felt. The angel was still standing against the counter with his arms crossed over his chest but his eyes were glued firmly on the door his daughter had just vanished through. Now that Dean really thought about it, "You just gonna let Gabriel take Claire out like that?"

There was a long pause before Cas gave a tentative nod. "Yes. I trust him to take care of her. When it comes down to it, there would be little I could do to stop him even if I didn't want him to take her along. Not only is he stronger than me but now that he has agreed to be her guardian it is his right to spend as much time with her as he deems fit."

"That sounds like a shitty deal on your end."

Cas's eyes finally left the front door and met Dean's gaze, blue eyes piercing into green. "Claire is alive because of it. You're alive because of it. That's why I will never regret it."

Hard to refute that one. Especially with the way Cas was looking at him now. "Good point." Realizing that he was still holding the frying pan, Dean frowned then waved it towards Cas. "I know you don't need to eat anymore that you got your full mojo back, but do you want something for breakfast?"

Some tension melted from Cas and he nodded. "Breakfast would be very nice, thank you."

"No problem." Finally setting the frying pan down on the stove, Dean moved to the fridge and pulled out a carton of eggs and a healthy share of bacon. "After this I'll want to take a shower then get ready for work. Do you have something to do today?"

He heard Cas shift and a moment later felt him lean up against him, the angel crowding close. It was a little closer than Dean normally would've liked it, especially since he was cooking, but he didn't mind having Cas in his personal space so much anymore. Actually he kind of preferred it now. "After Claire returns from her own breakfast, I may take her to the aquarium. She expressed some interest in it last week."

Dean shook his head. "She's taking after Sammy, always wanting to go learn something."

He felt Cas smile softly against his shoulder. "I don't know. I think she has been taking after you more and more."

"Oh yeah?" Tilting his head back, Dean smiled right back as their lips almost collided. "That a good thing?"

"Most of the time, yes. It's a very good thing."

OoOoOo

Dean had to leave for work before Claire got back but he wasn't too worried that Gabriel would eventually take her home. If Cas trusted the guy with his daughter the least Dean could do was to trust that he could get her home in one piece. Around noon any lingering doubts he had were settled when he got a text from Sam saying that he thought he had aced his midterm. Figures. But if Sammy had managed to get back in time to take his test than that meant that Claire had probably gotten back to their apartment at a decent hour as well.

Now, about seven hours later, Dean was the only mechanic left in the garage, working late. He actually didn't mind too much. The other guys had been great so far but there was usually something peaceful about the quiet that fell over the shop once everyone else left for the night. That, and he wasn't sure whether or not Gabriel was still hanging around their new place. If the angel was there it meant that Dean was leaving Cas and Sam to deal with him on their own but any guilt was easily outweighed by the relief he felt at not having to try to be civil. This morning Gabe had been decent but, despite everything he had done for them, it was still hard for Dean to forget that when Castiel had first come to him begging for help they had been turned away. Just thinking about it still pissed him off. Luckily working on cars had always been a stress-reliever for him so he threw himself back into finishing up his work, glad for the distraction.

Leaning over the bum engine he was currently trying to repair, Dean scrubbed the sweat and grease from his face with a stained rag before shoving it back into the pocket in his jeans. He always loved working on cars but this one he was working on now was turning out to be a real pain in the ass. From what the client had said, the sedan had been sitting in their estranged uncle's front lawn and had pretty much been left to rust. Then the crazy old man had died, she hadn't given him the details, leaving the car to his niece who decided that it would be neat to actually be able to drive the thing. Dean had already replaced about fifteen individual parts and she was still having trouble starting up.

He was trying to figure out if the garage was going to need to send out for an entirely new engine when a soft sound to his left made him jump. Dean had been feeling a little weird all day; he felt anxious and confined, like someone was watching him. It had made sense when the other guys were still here but he had expected it to fade when they left. It hadn't. At first he had figured that it was just his mind's way of kicking up a fuss at leaving home after they were all just beginning to settle in but even that didn't make too much sense. The creepy sensation had been going on for a good six hours now; just like his theory with his co-workers, if being away from home had caused it, the feeling definitely should've worn off by now.

After everything Dean had gone through on his trip across the U.S. with Cas, Sam, and Claire he had gotten used to acting on his instincts and he didn't like that right now his instincts were screaming that something didn't feel right about the shop. The last time he had felt this way a demon had been chasing after him. He had never experienced these sorts of feelings in the garage before though and he couldn't figure out why anything would've changed today. Nothing was much different, there was no real reason for it and there was no reason for a demon to start chasing him now, especially not when Gabriel had just rolled into town. Maybe he was just going a bit crazy or maybe his nerves had finally caught up with him after their little cross-country adventure. Maybe he was just imagining it.

Dean jerked back from the car's engine as just then a cackle echoed out around the room, reverberating off of the gray walls and sending a shiver down Dean's spine. It was then that he knew two things for sure: he wasn't going crazy and he knew what he was dealing with now. He had been mixed with so many angels and demons that Dean had forgotten about all the smaller things that skulked around in the shadows. That's why he hadn't recognized what he already knew somewhere in the back of his mind before now. The feeling of being watched, the weird noises, and now that he was paying attention, yep, it was even a colder than normal.

It was a ghost, maybe a poltergeist, and Dean had never sensed it before and only one thing had changed between now and yesterday in the entire shop. It must've come in today with their new client's car. Damn it! Their client definitely should have mentioned that in her paperwork! What had she said, that her crazy old uncle had this beauty of a car sitting in his yard, untouched, for years, that he had recently died…There were so many ways that a ghost could've attached itself to this car that it made his head spin a little to think about. The car could've been haunted for years, or the man could've even died in it—it was impossible to say for sure, but the woman had to have known about it, or at least suspected it, when she brought it in. Dean had heard of haunted objects before, of haunted cars, like James Dean's Little Bastard, but he had never actually seen one before. It was probably why his repairs weren't working like they should on the stupid thing.

Dean took another step back from the car and eyed it suspiciously. "Alright…Unless I've really gone over the deep end, I'm pretty sure that laugh came from you." He felt a little ridiculous talking to a car but less so since it felt like it—or something in it—was actually listening. "Now, we can do this the easy way or we can do this the hard way, but I'm warning you, the shit I've dealt with in the past month would make even your blood run cold, if you still had blood, and I've come out on top. Trust me when I say I'm not someone you want to mess with."

His eyes narrowed as across the room there was a high-pitched clatter, like a wrench dropping onto the concrete floor of the shop and the room seemed to get even colder. If he looked closely the shadows in the corners of the room seemed to waver then grow blacker. Seemed like the ghost didn't like being called out and Dean would bet money that it was going to manifest itself soon judging by the drop in light and temperature. Growing up, he hadn't had much experience fighting ghosts but they were some of the more common supernatural creatures that roamed about so he had heard enough stories to know what needed to be done to get rid of them. Besides, compared to beating back a demon kicking one ghost out felt like exterminating a small household pest. He didn't have any holy water, didn't have any salt, but getting a hold of some iron for once wasn't going to be a problem.

Ducking down behind the car, Dean reached back and carefully wrapped his fingers around a tire iron. He was pretty sure that whatever had come in with the car had detached itself and was now sneaking around the rest of the garage. He just had to figure out where it was.

There was another car raised up on a lift next to the one Dean had been working on and he used it like a shield against his invisible opponent as he crept forward, slinking around the pole that was supporting the car over his head as he scanned the rest of the room. Ghosts were notorious for being hard to pin down but, from the stories he'd heard, all you needed was a little patience and eventually you'd be able to pinpoint them. You just had to be quiet and really pay attention to what was going around you, because sometimes the clues were really subtle…

Like feeling a cold burst of air on the back of your neck. Springing away from the lift, Dean swung the tire iron into a cloud of white mist that had materialized less than a foot behind him. A small screech filled the room as for a second the figure of a human, a man, flickered in the mist, before it dissolved and the mist rushed away to the other side of the room.

Dean swore as he brought himself into a defensive position, ready to swing at any hint of paranormal activity. Hopefully that first blow had at least somehow wounded it, or weakened it, because it definitely hadn't killed it and seemed to have made it angry. The tools on the back wall of the shop began to rattle as the room grew colder still to the point where Dean could see his breath as he exhaled. His eyes caught on a black shadow as it separated from its natural breather and skirted across the ground along the back wall of the shop then made a sharp turn and rushed straight at him.

Dean swung with all the force of a major-league baseball player up to bat and seemed to catch the thing on its shoulder but it wasn't quite enough to deter its attack. The air rushed out of Dean's lungs as the thing, immaterial as it was, slammed into him and knocked him back, hard, into the base of the lift. The blow sent the tire iron flying from his grasp, his whole chest feeling like it had been dipped in dry ice as the ghost retreated and he slid to the concrete floor.

Momentarily stunned, Dean tried to stand up but couldn't get off his ass. His legs and arms felt numb, his mind buzzing still from the impact of getting thrown into the steel pole. He couldn't even focus, didn't know how it was going to come at him next—oh, oh shit. Dean's gaze spun when he turned it up as an ominous creak broke the silence that had settled over the shop. The car up on the lift he had slammed into was tilting up. Not like it was falling naturally—no, the entire back side of the car was lifting up, all by itself, and the front end, the end facing Dean, was sliding off of the lift and down towards him. A multi-thousand pound chunk of metal was sliding right towards him and he couldn't even sit up. Disoriented and scared shitless there was only one thing Dean could think of to do.

"Cas!"

He barely had a chance to squeeze his eyes shut when he heard a flap of wings, felt an arm wrap around his waist and a rush of air. His eyes flew back open to find himself in the far corner of the shop, watching from a distance of a good thirty feet as the car he was just underneath came crashing hood-first into the concrete floor right where he had been laying.

He didn't even get the chance to see his angel before a bright white light filled the room. The intensity of the light forced Dean to close his eyes again as he heard the ghost let out one last shriek as it was smote in a flash of holy rage. Dean knew it was gone as the light began to fade, the entire feeling of the garage had gone back to its normal, neutral self.

Dean let out a short breathe of relief and opened his eyes again only to find Cas kneeling beside him, the angel's piercing blue eyes narrowed in concern. "Dean! Are you alright?"

"I'm okay." Dean winced as he pushed himself up so that he was sitting upright, his back resting against the wall behind him. "Thanks for that. The bastard came out of nowhere."

Cas's eyes narrowed further as he tentatively put a hand on Dean's chest, as if to hold him upright. "Are you injured?"

Shaking his head, Dean winced again then watched Cas's hand as it began to emit a soft glow. "Just my pride. And my head a bit, but I don't think anything's bleeding so I'm probably good."

The angel frowned and Dean felt it as a bit of Cas's Grace seeped into his skin. "Dean, you fractured two ribs and your collarbone."

"Oh." That explained why it kind of hurt to breathe. His two recent semi-death experiences had definitely skewed his perception of physical pain.

"'Oh'?" An annoyed huff burst past Castiel's lips. "That is all you have to say?"

"Sorry?"

"You're impossible." Dean was about to apologize again when Cas leaned in closer and pressed his lips to Dean's. Dean couldn't help the pleased murmur that escaped him as he parted his lips to deepen the kiss and felt Cas's Grace rush into him and begin to mend his damaged body.

It didn't take long this time for him to feel completely healed but when Cas moved to pull away, Dean looped an arm around his neck, tugged him back down, and sealed their lips back together. Unlike during their battle with Raphael, now they had the time and Dean took full advantage of it, not stopping for air until he had drawn a low, heated moan from Castiel's throat.

Separating just enough to catch his breath, Dean reluctantly released his hold on Cas. "Thanks for that."

"Always."

Dean grinned at Castiel's graveled reply before testing out his healed bones by slowly rising to his feet. Everything seemed to be back in order; his head felt cleared, his chest normal, and it no longer hurt to breathe. He offered Cas a grateful smile but as the angel straightened up to stand next to him, a question came to mind. "Hey, why didn't Gabriel swoop in when that a-hole showed up?"

Castiel pursed his lips as the ghost was brought back to his attention. "Gabriel isn't obligated to save our lives, only Claire's. He will not respond to any distress you experience unless you pray directly to him and he is in a charitable mood, or if doing so will directly affect Claire's safety. I, however, will always come and would have rather had you contact me sooner to keep you from experiencing the pain."

Frowning, Dean tried to recoup some of his dignity. He wasn't ashamed to have needed Cas to save him, just that he had needed Cas to save him from a stupid, simple haunt. "It was just a ghost. I had it handled."

"Clearly."

"Well, I did until it slammed me into the lift." Castiel still seemed completely unconvinced. Sighing, Dean put his hands on his hips. "Look, I'll call next time, okay? First thing."

"Thank you." That seemed to have been the answer he was waiting for. "Now, I believe you have worked enough hours for today. Let's go home; if I recall correctly Sam is making lasagna for dinner."

Dean's stomach rumbled at the mention of food, much to Cas's amusement, but a look around the garage told Dean that he couldn't leave quite yet. The place was a mess now with tools littering the floor, not to mention the heap of bent metal that used to be a car sitting in the middle of the room. His boss would kill him if he leaved the shop like this, ghost or no ghost. "Listen, Cas, I'd seriously love to but I'd better clean up here first. You go ahead home and eat though, just tell Sammy to wrap up a share for me and leave it in the oven."

"I can think of a better solution." Dean started as Cas's blue gaze turned to the room and within the blink of an eye the entire garage had been restored to the condition it had been in before the ghost had made itself known. Angel powers, totally cheating. And Dean was completely alright with that. "Now can we leave?"

"Uh, yeah," Dean checked the room, once, then twice, and found nothing out of order, "guess so. The Impala's out front, go ahead and wait inside while I lock the place up. I'll be out in a minute."

OoOoOo

Dean got him and Cas home in time for dinner, though both Sam and Claire were surprised at seeing them walk through the door together. Neither of them had even realized that Cas had left the apartment. Sam had saved any questions for later though and the four of them had sat down for dinner together at the kitchen table that had momentarily been cleaned of Sam's schoolwork.

As soon as the meal was over and the plates were cleared however, Sam's papers and textbooks were back on the table and Cas and Claire had moved to the couch in the living room to watch TV while Sam began to pour back over his notes and Dean washed the dishes. Dean joined the two angels soon after, leaving Sam alone to his studies and letting himself relax after his unusually stressful day at work.

After that, the hours passed by quickly, though when Dean walked back into the kitchen to see how Sam was doing, he wasn't sure his brother had even realized just how late it had become. Sammy's nose was still stuck in a book as he diligently scribbled down some arcane piece of legalese that Dean would never even begin to try to understand. It seemed like Sam was always studying and kept to himself too much but Dean wasn't too worried. The kid had become used to living by himself and didn't quite have that balance between time for family and school down yet. He'd get better with time.

Walking over to the fridge, Dean pulled out two bottles of beer then walked back over to the table. Sam only noticed he was there when he was a foot away and looked up from his book in surprise. "Hey, Dean."

"Hey yourself." Dean grinned, "You know it's eleven o' clock, right?"

"What?" Sam leaned back to see around Dean to the clock on the stove. "Huh"

"Time flies when you're having fun, right Sammy?"

"Something like that, but I'm thinking I could use a break." Sam pushed his chair back and stretched his long arms over his head before looking back up at Dean. "So what actually happened to you this afternoon?"

"Nothing big."

Sam gave him a look of utter disbelief and Dean sighed as he sat down at the table next to his brother, setting down a beer in front of each of them. "Relatively anyway. A ghost showed up in the shop today and finally decided to act out once everyone else left."

Sam's brows shot up. "A real ghost?"

"Yup."

Now his brother looked as excited as schoolboy as he leaned forward across the table to grab his beer. "What happened?"

Shrugging, Dean tried to figure out how he could relate that night's events without telling Sam about how badly he got his ass handed to him. "It made some noise, moved some stuff. I tried to get it with a tire iron but it didn't really kill it, just sort of kept it at arm's length."

"But you got rid of it eventually?"

"Yeah. Well, actually, Cas did. It was becoming a bit of a problem so I called him up to help me. Cas of course had the thing blown away within seconds."

"I guess having an angel as a lover has its perks, huh?"

A small blush lit Dean's cheeks at the word "lover" and he tried to cover it up with his beer bottle as he took another drink. It had been so long since Dean had had an honest to God "lover" that it felt awkward in his mind but, at the same time, he couldn't deny that's what he and Cas had become, through whatever series of small miracles. "Yeah, guess so." As his embarrassment ebbed away, Dean lowered his beer to reveal a small grin, "Seems like you're on your way to earning those perks yourself though."

Sam blinked at him before his lips drew down into a scowl as he realized what Dean was referring to and a flush spread across the younger Winchester's face . "Gabriel's an ass. He's just messing with me."

"Whatever helps you sleep at night, Sammy."

Rolling his eyes, Sam took another long sip of his beer before shaking his head, clearly intent on changing the topic. "Speaking of sleeping, I'm surprised you're still up and not in bed with Cas."

Dean shrugged then pointed towards the ceiling. "He and Claire are up on the roof."

Pausing with his bottle half-way to his lips, Sam thought for a moment before setting his beer back down on the table. "I hate to ask but, what are they doing on the roof?"

"They said they were stargazing." Apparently it was something of a tradition between the two of them, had been before Dean had even come into their life. It was kind of cute.

"Stargazing." Sam repeated then shook his head again as his own eyes turned back down to his books, "Sounds nice."

"Yeah, except for the whole being two stories up thing with nothing but a slippery singled roof under your feet." It was safe to say that Dean still hadn't quite recovered from being flown around, and subsequently dropped, by angels. That was probably the main reason he hadn't asked if he could tag along. He had no interest in being any further from the ground than was absolutely necessary for the rest of his life. Also, a little father-daughter private time between Cas and Claire would probably do them some good every now and then.

Sam frowned. "I hope the neighbors don't catch them. That would be an awkward thing to try and explain away to the property manager."

"Yeah." Especially because they would have to first explain that Cas and Claire weren't entirely human. When Dean thought about how they'd even start that conversation he let out a loud sigh. "We live a very weird life."

Sam snorted in amusement before a small smile slipped onto his face and he looked back up to meet his brother's gaze. "All the same, it's not too bad. Even with everything that's happened over the years…I don't think I'd change it, now that I know how it turns out."

Dean let out another sigh as he thought of everything that had gone wrong in his life, everything that he had had to deal with: Mom, Dad, Sam leaving, Ellen and Jo, the Roadhouse burning to the ground, getting chased down by demons, hellhounds, and angels. Even with all that…somehow, somehow things had worked out and for the first time in his life he would even dare to say that he wasn't just content; he was actually, genuinely happy.

"You know what? Neither would I."