CHAPTER FOUR

After two weeks, Dean commented to Sam one day that he hoped Cas was having some awesome adventures.

After a month, Sam suggested praying to him, just to check in, but Dean said "Why?" and Sam didn't really have a good reason why. So they didn't.

After two months, Dean had almost finished work on the Mustang and Sam had organized all of Bobby's old books by subject matter. Now he just had to put them all back on the shelves, labeled correctly this time. He took his time doing so, sometimes getting caught up in reading for hours.

One night, almost four months after Castiel had left, Dean sat on the edge of his bed and closed his eyes and opened his mouth to speak to the empty room, but then thought better of it and closed his mouth and went to bed.

After six months, Sam met a girl named Laurie who knitted and wore combat boots and sassed Dean back, and evenings when Dean got in from the garage he would often find her sprawled out on the couch declaiming her views on politics and religion while Sam drank a beer and laughed and argued. Sam had told her what they used to do. Dean hadn't been present for that conversation, but apparently Laurie had taken it remarkably well. She hadn't even asked for proof of the existence of angels and demons and so on, which made Dean suspect that she maybe didn't entirely believe in them after all, but he didn't say anything about it to Sam. He was just glad to see his little brother happy.

Sometimes Dean considered getting himself back in the scene too, at least just for a hook-up from time to time, but for some reason he never followed through on that idea. He felt like he had unfinished business. It was probably the house, he decided. They still hadn't come to an agreement about what to do with it. It was an unspoken law that they wouldn't sell it. They couldn't.

It was more than a year since the late September day when Castiel had disappeared out of their lives – fourteen months and twenty-six days ago, actually, though Dean wasn't counting – when he returned, just as suddenly. It was barely five in the afternoon, but the sky was getting dark already, clouds rolling in from the west. Snow blanketed the car lot and Dean had given up shoveling the driveway when Sam had shouted out the front door that the radio was predicting another big snowstorm that night. "Just in time for Christmas!" Sam added cheerily, before ducking back into the warm house.

"Easy for you to say," Dean grumbled, leaning in exhaustion on his snow shovel. "I'm the one out here slaving away while you frolic by the fire with your lady love." But no sooner had he mumbled this complaint than Laurie emerged from the house, waving goodbye to Sam and plodding through the drifts towards her Camry.

"Bye, Dean!"

"You heading out?"

"Yup, gotta pick up my sister and get to the airport. We're going home to Maine for the holidays."

"All right, well, see you." Dean wedged the shovel firmly into some hard-packed snow and lifted a hand as she climbed into the car.

"Merry Christmas!" she called.

"Yeah, you too," he replied grudgingly as she slammed the car door and started the engine. Normally he liked Christmas okay, but this would be the second one in a row with just him and Sam in Bobby's house, and it didn't feel right. Dean sighed as the sound of Laurie's engine faded into the distance, and he stared up at the darkening sky. A few tiny flurries were already spiraling downward, and the smoke from the chimney dissipated rapidly in the rising wind. Dean shivered and turned towards the house. It was really getting cold out here.

He almost didn't hear the fluttering sound behind him, and when he did, there was a part of him that instantly assumed it was just the wind. But another part of him was so conditioned to that sound that it could never be mistaken. Dean was turning around before his brain had even caught up with his body, and his eyes widened at the sight.

Just as if he'd never left, Castiel was standing there, too close, with his disheveled coat and hair, and those unblinking eyes focused on his own. There was a moment of total silence.

"Hello, Dean."

"Cas..." Dean breathed, almost scared to speak aloud in case it was just a mirage.

Castiel's eyes dropped briefly to Dean's mouth before lifting again. "I'm back," he added, unnecessarily, in that rough voice Dean hadn't heard in so long.

"Yeah, I can see that." Dean could feel a smile spreading across his face. There was another pause, and the silence felt warmer than the house could possibly be, no matter how many logs Sam might have put on the fire. Finally Dean cleared his throat. "So, did you, uh, have lots of adventures?"

Castiel tipped his head slightly to one side, considering. "No. But I learned some things. Important things."

"Oh yeah?" Dean wondered, distantly, why his heart seemed to be pounding so fast. "Like what?"

"I'm not sure how to explain most of them," Castiel admitted. "But the most important one is also the simplest."

"And that is...?" For some reason, Dean's voice had become a whisper again.

"I found out what I need," Castiel said solemnly. "And that's why I came back."

It took him a moment, but then Dean got it. "Oh." He took a long breath of crystalline cold air. "Oh, okay."

~ fin ~