Archive of Our Own ^beta

            Dean was driving home when he saw it.  At first, he thought it was just an empty box left at the side of the road, likely tossed there by a careless driver.  Then he thought the figure inside of the box was a doll.  But something made him pull over, take a closer look.

            The cardboard box contained a small child, a little boy, maybe six or seven years old.  The boy wore a tan trench coat over a miniature suit, complete with a tie. Both the tie and the little boy’s hair were in disarray.  The little boy was facing away from the road.  He appeared to be sulking, curled up with his knees to his chest and his arms wrapped over them, not looking up as Dean approached.  But what really drew Dean’s attention was the pair of black-feathered wings that protruded from the back of the trench coat.  Some kind of Halloween costume?  Granted, it was the middle of summer, but nothing about this made sense.

            Then Dean’s eyes fell on the sign taped to the front of the box.  “FREE ANGEL” it announced.  “Preferably to broken home.”  Beneath the words, printed in red in block letters, the words “VERY DISOBEDIENT!” had been written.

            Dean stared at the sign and the little boy in the box for a time without moving, trying to process this.  Then he cleared his throat.  “Hey,” he called.  “Hey, kid?”

            The wings twitched.  They actually twitched.  They could move?  The kid turned his head ever so slightly towards the sound of Dean’s voice, but otherwise didn’t respond.

            Dean came closer and tried again.  “Hey kid, what are you doing out here?”

            The little boy’s shoulders rose and fell in a sigh. “Waiting for someone to take me,” he called sulkily.  “Can’t you read?”

            “Um, is this some sort of joke?”

            “No!  And it’s not funny!”  The kid lowered his head to his arms.  Then his shoulders began to shake.

            Dean frowned.  “Hey, what’s wrong?”

            “I don’t want to be here!” he said.  His voice was muffled now by his sleeves, but Dean winced at the sound of tears in his voice.  “Go away and leave me alone!”

            “You don’t have to be there, alright?  No one is forcing you to stay!”  Dean came around to the front of the box and knelt down. “Why don’t you come out of that box?”

            “I can’t.  I can’t get out until someone takes me.”

            “Kid, that’s crazy.  You can’t just wait in a box for some stranger to take you!  Now come on.  Out of the box.  It’s not safe for you to be here by the side of the road!”

            The kid looked up at Dean in irritation.  Big blue eyes swimming with tears glowered at him. “Do you think I want to be here? That I want to just sit here in this box until someone takes me away?  Do you think I want to be like this?  You cannot possibly understand what is happening here.  I can’t fight, I can’t even control my emotions, and I’m trapped here in this box!  Now please! Go away, and leave me alone!”  He suddenly threw himself sideways in the box, lying down in the bottom of it.  The wings moved again, the one on top moving up to help cover the kid’s head.

            “How in the hell are you doing that?”  Dean experimentally poked a wing.

            “Quit it!”  The wing flapped, swatting at Dean’s head.  “Just go away!”

            It was official.  The wings were real.  But that didn’t matter.  Wings or not, this was a child, in a box, at the side of the road.  That wasn’t something Dean could ignore.  “Listen, kid, I can’t just drive off and leave a kid in a box at the side of the road!”

            “I’m not a kid!  I’m an angel, just as the sign says!  I’m sorry for your illiteracy, but there is nothing I can do to change that. Just please go away and leave me alone!”

            “Not gonna happen, kid.” Dean reached into the box.

            The instant he touched the kid, the kid flipped out.  His wings flapped frantically, sending loose black feathers flying.  His feet kicked, and his hands curled into fists that pounded at Dean’s hands.  “No! Stop!  Don’t take me out!  You don’t know what you’re doing!”

            “What I’m doing is getting you out of that box!” Dean felt like Chester the Molester with the way the kid was freaking, but this had gone on long enough.  They were right next to a busy highway.  Cars and trucks had been flying past while they’d been speaking, and the box was dangerously close to the road.  What if someone hit the kid?  No, Dean needed to get the kid safe, call the cops, and get child protective services involved.  His parents needed shot for letting a kid this little play by the side of the road like this!

            “Nooooo!” the kid wailed.  He scrabbled frantically, trying to catch hold of the sides of the box, but it was too late.  Dean stood up with the weird trench coated winged kid in his arms.

            The little boy gasped and suddenly went still. Something weird was happening with the box.  Before it was just a plain cardboard box, but now suddenly it appeared to be covered with weird glowing symbols.  The symbols blazed brightly until Dean had to turn his head away, tucking the kid against his chest and turning away to try to shield him.  Then, as quickly as it had started, it was over.  Dean peeked back at the box, still slightly dazzled, and was stunned to see it was on fire.  He swore and quickly backed away, cradling the little boy to himself.

            “Well, now you’ve done it,” the kid grumbled.  He was looking all around, frequently glancing towards the sky, and appeared very anxious.  “I hope you’re happy.  You just could not listen, could you?”

            Dean was still reeling.  “Holy shit!  The box caught on fire!  What if you’d still been in there?”

             “It caught fire because the symbols activated. That couldn’t happen until I was out.” The kid was certainly grumpy.  He was still trying to get down, pushing against Dean’s chest.  His wings flapped irritably.  “Please put me down!”

            Dean jogged away from the side of the road and the burning box and put the kid down on his feet.  “Ok, just hold still,” he instructed.  “I’m gonna call the cops.  They’ll get the child welfare people, figure out where your parents are.”

            “Do whatever you want.  It appears you will anyway.  None of it will matter in the end.”

            Weird kid, and not just because of the wings or the fact that he was in a box at the side of the road, being advertised as free to a broken home.  He looked like a little boy, cried like a little boy, and in many ways acted like a little boy.  But he talked like someone much older.  He was standing there now, scowling as he stretched out his wings and soothed the feathers back into place with his fingers.  He was still trying to look in every direction at once, seeming to be expecting something.  But when nothing happened, his face morphed into a puzzled frown.  And then he finally wilted, wings drooping and head bowed. The little guy looked completely and utterly dejected.  Tears once again ran down his cheeks.  “They’re not coming,” he mumbled.

            Any moment, the kid would start wailing. That was something to be avoided. “I’m Dean,” he said, kneeling down to talk to him.  “What’s your name?”

            Solemn blue eyes regarded him.  “Castiel.  I’m an angel of the Lord.”

            “I see that.  Who are your parents?”

            “I don’t actually have parents, not the way you think of them,” Castiel explained.  “I’m an angel.  I wasn’t born, I was created.”

            “I see.  And where do you live?”

            “Well, I used to live in Heaven.  But I disagreed with a few decisions that were being made up there and started a revolt.  It obviously did not turn out so well.  I was reduced to this and put in that box where you found me as punishment.”

            “Reduced to this?”  Dean frowned.  “What do you mean, kid?”

            “Would you please stop calling me kid?!” the kid snapped.  “I’m not a kid!  This isn’t me!  In my true form, I’m taller than the Chrysler building!”

            “Of course you are, Cas.”

            The blue eyes narrowed.  “Just because my body has been reduced doesn’t mean you need to shorten my name.”

            Dean ruffed the kid’s hair.  “Sorry, buddy.  But I really do need some real information.  Now, do you know the difference between real and make-believe, Cas?”

            “Yes, Dean.  I am perfectly cognizant of the difference between ‘real’ and ‘make-believe,’ alright?”  Cas made air quotes.  “And what I am telling you is real!”

            After that, Cas largely stopped talking.  Dean called the police, explained his situation, and was told a car would be along shortly.  Then there was nothing to do but wait.  Dean chatted away, trying to find out any real information he could about his new friend. But the little boy simply stood with his wings drooping, staring at the ground.  Dean tried to take his hand, but Cas pulled away, looking irritable, and shoved his hands into the pockets of his trench coat.  Dean backed off.  Alright. The kid needed his space.  Dean hovered, making sure Cas was safe, and kept his hands to himself.

            When the cops finally showed up, Dean felt simultaneously relieved and a bit sad.  He felt curiously drawn to this strange little boy.  Castiel was so alone, and clearly very upset, yet oddly unafraid.  At his age, being abandoned in a box at the side of the road would have terrified Dean. And yet the only emotion Cas seemed to have was a bitter sadness as he waited.  Dean was secretly pleased to see him inch closer when the cops pulled up.  He would miss the little guy.  He wondered if there was some way he could keep track of Cas, make sure he was alright?

            Meanwhile, the first cop had bent down to smile at Cas. “Hello, Castiel.  Can you tell me who your mommy is?”

            “I don’t have one.”

            “Alright, what about your father?”

            That was when Cas dropped a bombshell.  His little hand rose, his finger pointing at Dean. “Him,” he announced.  “He’s my father.”  He reached up and took Dean’s hand.  “Can he please take me home now?”

****

            “I am not his father!” Dean yelled.  “I swear, I never saw the kid before I found him in that box!”

            Dean had been in trouble with the law in his time. He’d even spent the night in jail once with a very scary cellmate who had told Dean he was very pretty and stared at him in a way that made Dean feel dirty.  He hadn’t slept a wink all night.  But even that experience hadn’t been as scary as the one he was facing right now.

            Worse, Sammy was being a complete bitch about the whole thing.  “Dean, you have been with, shall we say, a wide variety of sexual partners in your time. Are you positive that you didn’t...?”

            “Dude, I was always careful, alright?  I am not the father of this kid, and even if I was, who the hell is his mother?”

            “Alright, calm down, Dean.”  Sammy pinched the bridge of his nose.  Then he gave Dean his lawyer face.  “You do realize that you could actually be looking at child abuse charges here?”

            “For what?!”

            “If Castiel continues to insist you’re his father, it’s possible you could be charged with child abandonment.”

            “Well, what am I supposed to do?  Take him home?”

            “Of course not.  If you’re not actually his father, then you have no further involvement. But if there’s any chance...?”

            “There isn’t!”

            “Then he’s going to end up in the foster care system.”

            That stopped Dean in his tracks, just as Sammy had known it would.  After their mother died, their father had drowned himself in a bottle, leaving Dean to care for Sammy.  After the second time Dean was caught stealing food from a grocery store, Children and Youth Services had come to their house and taken both of them. Being separated from Sammy when they were both sent to different foster families had been the worst time of Dean’s life.  If it hadn’t been for Bobby pulling strings, greasing palms, and managing to get himself named legal guardian of both brothers, Dean might have never seen Sammy again.  He narrowed his eyes at his brother.  “The sign on his box said ‘preferably to a broken home.’  I’d say ours qualifies!”  He sighed. “Fine, I’ll take him home.”

            “Um, that wasn’t exactly what I had in mind. No offense, Dean, but you’re not really qualified to take care of a child.  You live in an efficiency apartment above a garage, your fridge mostly contains beer, and you spend all day working at the garage.”

            “Then what were you thinking?  You and Jess?”  He blinked.  “Wait, you are!”

            “We applied to be foster parents last month, after we lost the baby and found out she couldn’t get pregnant again,” Sam admitted.  “Jess and I work out of the office downstairs, so someone’s always home.  We’ve got room and can offer a stable environment.  And we’d love to have him, Dean.  Jess already knows about him, and she’s anxious to meet him.  If you’re ok with it, I’d like to offer to take Castiel in.”

            “Of course I’m ok with it!  Why wouldn’t I be ok with it?”

            “Well, if there’s any chance...?”

            “There isn’t!”

            “Then I’ll talk to the CYS agent.”  Sam’s eyes were bright as he got up.  “You’ll come visit him, of course?”

            “That’s what I’d planned!”

            Sam headed out, and Dean smiled.  Castiel had just hit the jackpot.  Sammy and Jess were both lawyers with their own private law office.  Jess’s miscarriage late in her pregnancy, combined with her resulting infertility, had been hard on them all.  But what luck that they were qualified foster parents right when Cas needed them!  Of course, once Cas’s real parents were found, and hopefully throw in jail for abandoning him the way they had, it could still be a battle for them to keep Cas.  Good thing they were both lawyers.  They’d prove the douchebags who’d left their little boy in a box on the side of the road to be unfit parents, win the right to adopt Cas, and Castiel Winchester would be part of the family.  Castiel Winchester.  That was one hell of a mouthful.  Still, what would you expect a kid with actual black wings to be called? Clarence?

            Dean had just sunk into a daydream where he was the favorite uncle, coaching Cas’s softball team to victory when there was a knock at the door.  “Mr. Winchester?  Castiel wanted to see you.”

            Dean sat up.  “Sure, send him in!”

            The little guy was led in by the hand and then left alone.  He walked up to Dean and looked up at him with solemn blue eyes.  “I just met a couple of people who say they want to take me home to live with them.  The man, Sam Winchester?  They said he’s your brother.  Does he live with you?”

            “Nah, no need to worry about that!”  Dean smiled reassuringly.  “Sam and Jess have a nice place on the edge of town with a big yard to play in.  You’ll have your own room and everything!  You’ll love it there.”

            “But you don’t live there?”  Cas sighed.  “I can’t stay if you don’t live there.”

            “What do you mean?  Sure you can stay!”  He reached down and gathered Cas up, pulling the little winged worrywart into his lap. “Did you tell them who your parents are?”

            “I told them that I don’t know who my mother is and that you are my father, but no one seems to believe me.”

            “Well, Cas, that’s because it’s not true.  Why would you tell anyone I’m your dad?”

            “Because one thing that became painfully obvious during my interactions with you is that no one will believe me when I tell the truth,” Cas grumbled bitterly.  “No one will believe I’m not a human child, even with these!”  He flexed his wings.  “And since I can’t fly and I can’t access any of my powers like this, I have no way to prove my story.  Therefore, as a child, I would naturally have to have caretakers.  Normally that would be parents.  I knew I had to stay with you, so the logical choice was to say that you were my father.”

            “Wait, stay with me?”

            “You took me out of the box, Dean.”  Cas talked to Dean as if Dean were the child instead of the other way around.  “When you did that, I became bound to you.  That was my punishment.  I was put into that box and my brothers called for someone to come and get me, and then left.  You came along just after they left, before the one who was supposed to take me arrived. So now I’m stuck with you!  I can’t stay with your brother because I have to stay with you.”

            “Come on, Cas, don’t be like this.”  Dean snuggled the little guy close, not caring who saw and thought it might be creepy.  “You’ll be alright, and...”

            “Please stop cuddling me?  Your brother’s wife was just doing that and I’d prefer not to deal with it again.  It’s very undignified.”

            “Sorry, you’re right.  You’re a big guy and you don’t need that.”  Dean straightened up, trying to respect Cas’s dignity. “Anyway!  Sam’s a great guy, and I’m not just saying that because he’s my brother.”

            “At the moment, my thoughts on brotherhood are decidedly negative.”

            That’s right.  Cas said his brothers were the ones who had put him in the box.  “Well, my brother’s nothing like that,” Dean insisted. “He and his wife Jess are great people. They’ll take good care of you.”

            Cas sighed.  “Is there any point in arguing this?  I’m not going to convince you, am I?”

            “Well, buddy, the CYS guys out there are going to have to make sure you get somewhere safe,” Dean explained.  “They’re going to give you to either Sam or someone else that I don’t know and I can’t vouch for.  So how about you trust me, and go with Sammy?”

            “So I have to stay with either your brother or a stranger?  I’m not going to be given a choice in this?”

            “Afraid not, buddy.”  Dean winced at the resigned look on Cas’s face.  “Hey.  It’s alright! Let Sam and Jess take you home.  I’ll come visit as soon as I get off work tomorrow, alright?”

            “It’s not alright, but no one cares.  I’m not getting a choice.”  Cas fidgeted, playing a bit with Dean’s fingers.  “I’m tired, Dean.  I would prefer to just let your brother take me to their home so I can rest, but I can’t even have that.  That woman with Children and Youth Services says that she has to take me to a hospital, have a doctor look at me.  They won’t even believe me when I tell them I’m not hurt.”

            “It’s just protocol, buddy.  Don’t take it personally.  I’m sure you’ll be heading home with Sam and Jess soon!”

            “I’m sure.  Let me down.”

            Dean put him back down on his feet.  Then he rubbed at Cas’s head.  “You be good, Cas.  Listen to Sammy and Jess, ok?”

            “Alright.  I’ll see you soon, Dean.”

            “You know it.”

            Dean felt a pang as Cas headed out, his wings drooping.  He’d be fine, Dean told himself.  Sammy and Jess would take good care of him, and Dean could see him right after work. Maybe he’d stop on the way over, pick up a toy or two?  He wondered how Jess would feel about a puppy?  Nope.  Don’t push it, Dean.  And for God’s sake, don’t get so attached.  There was still a chance that Cas’s parents could show up and claim him, that there was a rational explanation for why the little guy was in that box.  That meant there was a chance Cas could go away, that Dean might never see him again.

            Dean’s heart ached just thinking about that.

            Dean was tempted to go with Sam and Jess to the hospital to wait for Cas, but decided against it.  The kid was already a little too attached to Dean.  It was best to let Sammy start bonding with him. Despite his oddly-calm demeanor, the poor little guy had to be scared to death.  He was surrounded by strangers, all kids hated hospitals and doctors, and now he’d be going home with a strange man.  Cas had already had a hell of a day.  It was time for Dean to back off, let Sam and Jess do their thing.

            Sam handed Dean some money and asked Dean to get them a booster seat for their car.  Dean spent half an hour finding one that looked like it wouldn’t bother Cas’s wings too much.  Then he found their car in the hospital parking lot, opened it with the spare key Sam had given him and spent another half an hour cursing car seat manufacturers everywhere until he managed to get the damned thing installed.  Satisfied his little friend-maybe-someday-nephew would be safe in Sam’s stupid foreign car, Dean glanced at the hospital. Somewhere inside, his brother was waiting with his wife.  The thought of how excited the two must be made Dean smile as he got into his Baby and headed home.

            Dean showered and dressed.  He decided to forgo TV tonight and went straight to bed, setting his alarm for work in the morning.  Before he knew it, he was sound asleep.

            His phone woke him up at 1:30 in the morning. Dean grabbed for it, saw Sam’s name, and was immediately awake.  “What’s wrong?”

            “It’s Castiel!  He’s gone!”

            “What do you mean he’s gone?  Those bastards gave him to someone else?!”

            “No!  I mean he vanished from the hospital, Dean!”

            “How the hell could he vanish from a hospital surrounded by doctors, cops, and CYS?”

            “I don’t know, but he did!  They let us sit with him in the waiting area and get to know him.  The CYS agent had us take him to the ER for the ER physician to check out, but it was really busy in there.  He seemed alright, but we waited an hour and a half before they finally called him back, and he didn’t say a word the whole time.  Jess and I figured, you know, the kid’s in shock, so we just kept talking to him, telling him what was happening and who we were and that we’d take care of him. He’s so sweet, Dean!  He wouldn’t talk, but he let us hold him the whole time and he didn’t even cry!”

            “Yeah, he’s a good kid.  But what happened?”

            “Well, they wouldn’t let us come back with him when they examined him because even though we signed the papers to foster him, only the CYS agent could stay with him for the initial physical.  But we waited and waited, and then all these cops showed up and they shut down the ER, and no one would tell us anything. Finally, Jess started throwing a fit, demanding to know where he was, and that was when they told us he’d vanished!”

            “Holy shit, Sammy!”  Dean sat up in bed and switched on the light.  “They checked the hospital?”

            “The hospital, every car in the parking lot, and the surrounding area.  They’ve already called an Amber Alert.  Dean, they’re going to start searching the town and calling in the surrounding towns. What could have happened to him?”

            “Alright, calm down.  I’ll be...”

            Dean’s voice trailed off.  He’d thrown off his blankets in preparation of getting up and was staring in shock at what he’d just uncovered.  There, curled up next to Dean still in his suit, tie, and trench coat, was Castiel.  His wings were tucked over his small body like another set of blankets.  Sleepy blue eyes blinked at him.  “Could you please turn off the light?  And tell your brother to stop yelling into the phone. I find his voice grating.”

****

            “Castiel, you cannot just run away like that!  I was so worried!”

            Cas looked uncomfortable.  “Please let me go?  Or at least stop squeezing me?  You’re hurting my wing!”

            Jess shifted the little boy around in her arms, freeing his pinched wing.  But she didn’t let go of him.  She’d charged up the stairs into Dean’s apartment before Sammy had parked the car and had swept Cas up without even knocking.  Then she’d immediately started screaming at Dean, how could Dean be so irresponsible, what was he thinking, why did he take Castiel, and so on and so forth until she wasn’t even making sense anymore.  Dean simply let her scream until Sammy finally calmed her down. Only then could Cas explain and tell them that no, Dean hadn’t taken him, he’d come to Dean all on his own.

            “Castiel, how did you even know where Dean lived?” Sam wanted to know.

            “I just did.  Please put me down?”

            “It had to have happened when I was in the parking lot, putting the booster seat in your car,” Dean realized.  “He saw my car before when I found him in the box.  Baby kind of stands out, so when he saw her open in the parking lot, he just climbed in the back.  And I didn’t even notice.”  He hung his head.  “Dammit, Sammy, I’m sorry.”

            “Not your fault,” Sam said quickly as he saw Jess take a breath.  “Castiel, is that what happened?”

            “Sure, let’s go with that.”  Cas was pushing against Jess, trying to squirm out of her arms. “I’m fine.  I’m not hurt, and I’m not lost.  But I’m very tired and I just want to go back to sleep.”

            “Alright, sweetheart,” Jess cooed, still cuddling him despite the fact that he was squirming to get down.  “Let’s go home.”

            “No, I need to stay here with Dean!  Please put me down!”

            “Cas?”  Dean got up and moved to put his hand on Cas’s head.  “You’re alright, buddy.  Nothing’s going to hurt you, and you’re not in any trouble.  Sam and Jess are just going to take you back to their place.  Now, I know you’re scared...”

            “I’m not afraid!”  He was struggling wildly now.  “Why won’t anyone ever listen to me?  Let me go!”  Cas twisted in Jess’s arms and snagged Dean’s arm.  “Dean, don’t let them take me away! I have to stay with you!”

            Dean gave his brother a look.  Fortunately, Sammy caught it.  “Castiel, what if Dean came with us, spent the night at our house? Maybe even a couple of nights, until you feel a little safer with us?”

            Hopeful blue eyes turned to Dean.  “You’ll come?  Really?”

            “Yeah, buddy.”  Dean looked at Jess.  “Can I have him, just for a moment?”

            Jess reluctantly handed Cas over.  Dean gathered the little boy and held him close. Despite Cas’s claim that he wasn’t afraid, Dean could feel the way he was trembling.  He clung to Dean, even spreading his wings to wrap them around Dean. Dean’s heart melted a little.  “Hey, Cas, it’s alright.  Nothing’s going to hurt you.”

            “It’s not me I’m worried about, Dean!”

            “Then what’s the matter, buddy?”

            Cas sighed, his head tucked under Dean’s chin. “You won’t believe me.  Please, I’m so tired.  Won’t you just take me wherever we’re going so I can rest?”

            “Ok.  Can I give you back to Jess now?  They gotta put you in your car seat.  But I’ll follow right behind you guys.”

            Cas nodded.  He looked unhappy, but he didn’t struggle as Jess eagerly took him back. But wide blue eyes tracked Dean, their owner peering anxiously over Jess’s shoulder as he was carried out.

            “Thanks, Sam,” Dean said quietly.

            “No, thank you, Dean.”  Sam shook his head.  “He’s really attached to you!  I can’t believe he ran away from the hospital.  He got past all those people, made it clear out into the parking lot, and climbed into your car!  I can’t figure out how he did it!”

            “Me, either, but the fact is, he did it! Little shit!”  Dean shook his head and chuckled.  “You know, that sign was right.  I told him to be good for you, but he really is very disobedient!”

****

            Sam and Jess made a quick stop at a 24 hour store. Dean tagged along, helping pick out some clothes and other necessary items for Cas.  The little boy was beyond tired now, and was fast asleep with his head on Jess’s shoulder by the time they checked out and headed back to the cars. His wings gathered a lot of attention. This late at night there weren’t many customers, but the employees all wanted to touch them.  Dean found himself standing guard, giving not so friendly smiles and politely asking grabby people to please just let him sleep? Fortunately no one pressed it. Dean had no qualms about punching someone in the face if they woke Cas up now.

            Despite everything, Jess was on cloud nine.  She held Cas close, gently rocked him and beamed every time someone told her what an adorable son she had.  But she was also very anxious.  “Sam, how are we going to manage his wings with his clothes?” she whispered as they headed out with their purchases.

            “We’ll manage,” Sam whispered back as he opened the door and helped her place the sleeping little boy in his new booster seat. “We’ll just have to cut slits in the backs of his shirts and coats for him to put his wings through.  Now stop worrying.  He’ll be fine.”

            Cas’s eyes never opened.

            Dean followed them back to their house.  He watched as they carried the still-sleeping little boy inside.  After a short debate, they decided to wake Cas to change into his new pajamas.  Then they nominated Dean the task of carrying that out.

            Cas was decidedly cranky.  He complained loudly about being awakened.  Then he grumped some more as Dean helped him get his trench coat, suit jacket, and shirt over his wings.  “Why do I have to wash up and change?  I was sleeping just fine!”

            “I know, buddy, but you’ll get itchy in places you don’t want to be itchy if you don’t change your undies and clean up your down belows.  Now here.” He picked up Cas and sat him down on the edge of the sink.  Then he handed him a wet soapy cloth.  “Wash your face.”

            Cas dutifully scrubbed.

            “Hey Cas, I meant to ask you what you meant,” Dean began, handing him a towel.  “When you said you weren’t the one you were worried about?”

            Cas sighed and dried his face.  “Dean, there’s a reason I tried to get you not to take me out of that box.  Someone else was supposed to come for me today.  They expected me to be there, and now they’re going to come looking for me.”

            Dean looked hard at him.  “You in trouble, kid?  Something your parents did, or...?”

            Cas irritably threw the towel at him.  “I told you that you wouldn’t believe me! No one will believe anything I say! You all just make decisions without consulting me, drag me off no matter what I say, it’s maddening!  Why won’t you just respect that even though I may look like a child, I’m still capable of making decisions for myself?!”

            “Alright, alright, calm down, buddy!”  Dean sighed.  Cas sure was grumpy when he was tired.  “Fine.  C’mere.” Dean got Cas down on the floor. “Can you reach into the sink here?”

            Cas stood on his toes and stretched.  “Yes, but I can’t reach the faucet.”

            “No problem.”  Dean ran water in the sink.  He put Cas’s new pajamas and underwear on the toilet, considered, and picked up the top.  “I’ll cut some holes in the back of this for your wings.  Why don’t you go ahead and clean yourself up, change?  I’ll shut the door and you call me when you’re ready.”

            That actually earned him a smile.

            After that, Cas was surprisingly good.  He let Jess dress him in the pajama top, carefully feeding his wings through the openings in the back.  He even smiled at her when she hugged him and told him he was safe, he could stay with them as long as he needed a place to stay, they’d take good care of him.  It was nice to see how attached she’d become to Cas already, but Dean had to admit that it was hard not to be.  At least he was calm now.  He was already yawning when Sam and Jess tucked him into his bed.  By the time they switched off his light, his eyes were already closed.

            Dean saw his brother pause at Cas’s door and smiled. “He’ll be fine, Sam.”

            “He’s just so small!”  Sam shook his head.  “How the hell could anyone leave a little kid like him in a box on the side of the road? I want those fuckers, Dean!”

            “Yeah.”  He patted Sam’s arm.  “Me too. Now let’s get some rest.”  He frowned.  “Don’t you dare sleep in this hall!”

            “I wouldn’t dream of it.”  Dean didn’t miss the way Sam’s eyes stayed locked on the sleeping figure in the bed.  He wondered if Sam would get any sleep at all tonight?

            Dean was so exhausted he fell asleep almost as soon as he collapsed into his own bed.  It seemed like his alarm sounded only moments later, getting him up for work. He groaned and rolled out of bed. Then he paused, looking back at the lump on his bed.  He grabbed the covers, threw them back – and discovered the extra pillow.  He must have kicked it down under the covers in his sleep.

            Getting up, he quickly went up to the room where Castiel slept.  He wasn’t surprised to find his brother softly snoring in the hall outside.  Sam was nothing if not predictable.  He stepped over Sam and peeked in the door. There was Cas, messy dark hair sticking up in all directions, black wings tucked and thumb in mouth.  He’d stayed put during the night.

            For some reason, Dean was almost disappointed.

****

            Dean got a shower with his music blasting from his phone while he sang loudly along, as usual.  He got himself cleaned, shaved, and dressed while belting out classic rock every morning.  It was one of the best parts of living alone.  Sammy had complained about it multiple times, but who cared what Sammy thought?  Jess always just seemed entertained.  Clean, shaved, and combed, Dean turned off his music and headed out of the bathroom.

            That was when he heard Cas screaming.

            Dean bolted downstairs and saw Sam and Jess struggling with Cas.  And Cas was pissed.  His face was red and tear streaked, his wings were flapping frantically, and he was kicking at Jess and Sam.  His mouth was open in a wide O as he continued to scream bloody murder, his hands tugging furiously on the brightly colored straps that Sam and Jess were trying to wrap around his small body.  His eyes immediately fixed on Dean.  “Dean!  Get this off of me!  I thought you said they were great people?!  Make them stop!”

            “Dean, we could use some help here,” Sammy called. He and Jess were both flushed and anxious, holding on to Cas as he continued to fight.

            “Ok, give him here.”  Dean scooped Cas up, and the little boy immediately clung to him, panting.  “Hey, calm down, buddy.  What’s wrong?”

            “What’s wrong is that they’re treating me like an animal!” Cas yelled.  “They’re putting me on a leash!  Get it off of me!”

            Dean grimaced.  He’d noticed the child safety harness when Sam had put it in the shopping cart last night.  Dean never had been comfortable with the things.  While he understood perfectly the need to keep a child safe, especially in a large crowd or a dangerous area, the idea of putting a kid in a harness on a leash had never really sat well with Dean.  Sam and Jess had found one that could fit around Cas’s wings and already had it partially buckled, but he’d been struggling so much the long feathers at the base of his wings had become caught in the straps.  No wonder he’d been screaming.  Jess quickly freed them.  Her face was pale.

            “Castiel, we’re not treating you like an animal, we’re just trying to keep you safe,” Sam soothed.  He sounded like he’d been saying this for some time now.  “We’ve got a busy day today, going down to the courthouse to sign paperwork and then getting you registered for school.”

            “There’s going to be a lot of people, and the courthouse is in the middle of town with a lot of traffic!” Jess added.  “We don’t want you to get hurt!”

            “I won’t be hurt!  I’m not going to run away!  You don’t have to put me on a leash!  Please take this off of me?  This isn’t safe, it’s degrading and humiliating!”

            Dean sighed.  “Can we maybe not put this on him?”

            Jess looked upset, and Sam gave him the bitch face. “Dean!  He’s already run off once!  What would have happened if he’d gotten hit in the parking lot at the hospital? Well, downtown is going to be way busier!  You know how people drive down there!”  Sam sighed. “He’s so little, Dean!  He could get knocked down, he could fall into the street, anything could happen to him!  I’m sorry, but we gotta be firm on this.  And we could really use some back-up?”

            Dean got the message loud and clear.  He winced.  “Cas, listen, buddy...”

            Cas clung like a tick, burying his face in Dean’s neck.  “No! Don’t do this to me!  I didn’t run away, I had to come back to you!  I had no choice!  Don’t punish me for that!”

            “Castiel, sweetie, you’re not being punished!” Jess soothed.  “We just need to keep you safe!”

            “You can’t keep me safe!  You can’t keep me at all!  I can’t stay with you!  Put me down!” He squirmed until Dean put him down. Then he was tearing at the harness again.  “Please, don’t do this to me!  Please!”

            Dean knelt down, pulled him into his arms, and braced.  “Just get it on him and let’s get this over with.”

            Cas could scream.  His scream was high and piercing and right in Dean’s ear.  He also squirmed like a little winged worm. Dean held him, pinning his arms and wings while Sam fastened the last buckle on his harness and pulled it snug. Then Cas suddenly went quiet and still. He leaned on Dean, not moving while Sam adjusted the harness around him, working the straps to avoid his wings. And that bothered both brothers more than his screams.  They exchanged a glance as Sam got up and Dean moved back.

            Cas looked completely and utterly crushed. His wings dropped so much they nearly touched the floor.  Big blue eyes stared at Dean, full of betrayal and hurt and tears.  When he covered his face with his hands and started to sob, Dean felt like throwing up.

            Jess scooped the little boy up, looking near tears herself.  “It won’t be long,” she promised.  “As soon as you get back home, we’ll take it off.”

            Cas rested his head on her shoulder and hiccupped. “I want my coat.”

            “Your coat?  Honey, it’s eighty degrees outside!”

            “So I get no choice at all?  There’s not one single thing I can have for myself?  You decide where I go, when I sleep, what I eat, what I wear, you put me on this mortifying leash, and you won’t even let me have my coat?!”

            “Here.”

            Cas looked up and saw his little trench coat in Sammy’s hands.  Jess let him down and he immediately started for it.  He let Sam help him into it, even tolerating the leash being threaded through the openings in the back where his wings protruded.  Then he shoved his hands into his pockets.  His lips curled into a sneer.  “Ready to go, masters!”

            Ouch.  Dean saw Jess start to cry and Sam wince and decided this had gone far enough.  He got down and looked Cas in the eye. “Castiel, that is enough. Whatever hell you’ve been through before you came here, no one is going to hurt you now.  Sam and Jess are only trying to take care of you.  And if you can spit out twenty-five cent words like ‘mortifying,’ then you’re obviously smart enough to understand that!”

            “I do understand that!”

            “Then knock it off!  I get that you don’t like the kid leash and I honestly can’t blame you there, but it’s on you for a damned good reason.  You’re allowed to not like it.  You’re allowed to pout and cry and throw a temper tantrum because that’s what kids do.  But you don’t get to be a little shithead to Sam and Jess about it!”

            “Dean!”

            “Sorry, Jess.  But Cas?  You want to be treated with respect?  Then you earn it!  And you start by respecting the decisions of the two people who are busting their asses to try to keep you safe!”

            “Dean!”

            “Sorry, Jess!  Cas, don’t say those words, alright?  Jess will wash both of our mouths out with soap if you do, and that stuff tastes awful.”

            “That sounds like blackmail material.”

            The little shit was way too smart for his own good. Dean eyed him.  Cas had crossed his arms over his chest and was staring sullenly at the floor, obviously sulking.  When Jess picked him up again, he simply tolerated it, holding on to her shirt and staring pointedly over her shoulder, away from everyone.  Somehow, Dean thought he wasn’t quite ready to give up so easily.  The ‘very disobedient’ little shit was bound to cause trouble.  Sam and Jess would have their hands full today.  Dean nodded, making up his mind.  “I’m calling Bobby, telling him I’ll need the day off.”

            “He’s gonna be mad, Dean.”

            “He’ll get over it, Sam!  I’ll tell him what’s going on.  We should bring Cas around to the garage to meet him anyway.”  Especially if he’s here to stay.  Dean didn’t say the words aloud.  But he saw them echoed in the eyes of his brother and his sister-in-law as they looked fondly down at the cranky little winged boy in the trench coat.

****

            Even Dean had to admit the kid leash had been a really, really smart move.  He’d forgotten just how busy it was around the courthouse.  Had the cars always driven by so quickly?  Had people on the street always charged forward so blindly, with no regard at all for someone small and fragile among them?  Dean ended up walking behind Sam and Jess, who stood protectively on either side of Cas.  Cas was still pissed.  He’d stropped about being buckled into his booster seat, wouldn’t talk to anyone, wouldn’t let them hold his hands and refused to be carried.  But at least he’d stopped fighting.  He just walked along silently with his hands in his pockets and his eyes on the sidewalk. 

            Cas was actually the calmest member of their group. Jess had one hand on his shoulder and the leash wrapped around her other, anxiously walking close to the little boy.  Sam was also walking close, hovering and bristling as they walked.  And Dean was about five seconds from punching someone in the face.  All around them, people were staring, pointing, whispering.  So it was a little boy with wings.  So what?  Dean had originally walked in front of the trio to part the crowd a bit.  But when some little bastard had run up behind Cas and tugged on his feathers, that had changed.  All three adults had screamed at the little fucker’s mother, who blustered about not being able to blame a kid for being curious and had gotten a first-hand demonstration of just how sharp Jess’s refined lawyer’s tongue could really be. After that, Dean had put himself on guard duty, making damned sure everyone else kept their hands to themselves. At least Cas hadn’t gotten upset about the incident.  He’d cried out when his feathers were pulled, but didn’t seem overly impressed by the resulting argument.  He didn’t seem too bothered by all the stares, either.  No problem.  The adults were bothered enough for all of them.

            Inside the courthouse, Cas quickly grew bored with waiting.  He tried again to talk them into taking off the safety harness and scowled when they’d gently refused.  He’d already tried subtly getting it off himself, using his trench coat as cover for his actions, but had quickly realized that the buckles were out of his reach between his wings.  Then he’d announced that if he was going to be treated like a petulant child, he’d act like one and had started banging around in the waiting area, angrily kicking and throwing things.  Dean had been right when he'd guessed Sam and Jess would have their hands full.  Cas settled down a bit after a scolding and Dean made the mistake of thinking he was finally behaving.  Then he noticed the little craft scissors Cas was quietly using to try to cut through his harness and quickly confiscated them.  It did nothing to improve the little boy’s mood. They tried to interest him in the toys or children’s books in the waiting area, but he scoffed and turned his back.  On a whim, Dean got a copy of the Reader’s Digest from the magazine rack and offered it to him.  Cas took it, found a chair his size, climbed in, and immediately began to read.

            “There is no way he’s actually reading that,” Sam confided to him and Jess quietly.  “But to look at him, the way his eyes are traveling over the page?”

            “He’s so smart!” Jess marveled.  “His vocabulary alone proves that.”  Raising her voice, she called to him.  “Castiel?  What are you reading?”

            “It’s an article about bees,” he reported, not looking up.

            “Would you read it to me?”

            He eyed her.  Then he sighed and began to read.  As he read, Dean casually got up and moved to peek over his shoulder. Sure enough, the little boy they’d been about to enroll in kindergarten was reading word for word.  Jess and Sam looked thrilled when Dean nodded to confirm it. All three praised Cas to the skies when he finished the article.  Cas only raised an eyebrow at them, but Dean could see the reduction in the tenseness of his shoulders, and the slight raising of his wings.

            But then Cas grew tense once more, tucking his wings tightly in.  Dean looked up and groaned.  Here came the woman from the street with the grabby hands kid.  “Cas, why don’t you come sit with us?”

            Cas’s face grew sullen.  “No.  I like this chair.”

            The other kid was older than Cas, looking about ten or eleven.  He was also much taller and stocky.  He immediately moved closer to stare at Cas.  “Mommy, it’s the weird kid!”

            Things were off to a great start.

            “Aren’t you going to correct your child?” Jess asked. Her voice was sickeningly sweet. “His manners are still very lacking!”

            “Johnny, be nice.”

            Jess rolled her eyes.

            Cas pointed imperiously at the row of chairs, not looking up from his reading.  “I believe the adult chairs are over there, Dean.  Your hovering over me like you are is making it difficult to focus on this article.”

            Dean moved back to his chair and sat on the edge of it, ready to jump up at a moment’s notice.

            “That’s very cute, how your little boy pretends to read,” the boy’s mother commented.

            “Castiel was actually just reading a very informative article on bees to us a moment ago,” Jess informed her.  “He’s extremely smart!”

            “How’s come you’re on a leash?” Johnny wanted to know.

            “Because they don’t want me to get hurt or lost,” Cas responded.  “They’re trying to keep me safe.”

            Dean blinked in surprise.

            “I’m not on a leash,” Johnny pointed out.

            Cas shrugged.  “Maybe your mother doesn’t feel that your being lost would be that much of a loss?”

            Dean snickered, tried to cover it with a cough, and moved to get a drink of water as Jess frowned at Cas in disapproval.  He saw Sammy trying to hide what was obviously a grin behind his hand.

            “Come and play with me,” Johnny demanded.

            “No.”

            “Why not?”

            “Because you’re an assbutt.”

            Dean choked on his drink.  Sammy was suddenly taken by a fit of coughing and joined him at the water fountain.  Meanwhile, Johnny’s mother had given a dramatic gasp of dismay and Jess was on her feet, moving to scold Cas.  “Castiel! That is not a polite or appropriate thing to call someone!”

            “Was pulling my feathers polite or appropriate?!” Cas complained.

            “I’ll do it again!”

            “Johnny!  You leave his wings alone!  I know he looks strange, but...”

            Jess whirled with fire in her eyes.  “Excuse me?!”

            The woman sputtered.  “Well, you have to admit, those wings are...”

            “There is nothing wrong with his wings!” Sam declared, glowering at the woman.

            She huffed.  “I didn’t say there was anything wrong.  But it certainly is strange.”

            Dean looked at the water in his hand and strongly considered throwing it in the woman’s face.  Would that be assault?  He’d have to ask Sammy or Jess.

            Meanwhile, Cas had gotten up and turned to face his tormentor.  “Please do not pull my feathers again.  It hurts, and I don’t like it.”

            “How about you say that to my face?” Johnny challenged.

            “I believe I just did?”

            The kid balled his fists.  “I’m gonna punch you in the nose!”

            “Jonathan Andrews!”

            “Did you just threaten him?!  Castiel, come away!”

            Cas sighed.  “He’ll follow me.  He’s not going to stop.”

            Johnny pushed Cas, making him stumble.  Cas responded by punching him right in the mouth. Blood flew.  Johnny hit the floor on his rear and started screaming as though he was dying.

            Jess grabbed Castiel as the other woman began shrieking nearly as loud as her son.  “I’ll sue you!”

            “Go ahead!” Jess challenged.  “I’m a lawyer, and Castiel was defending himself against a much larger child.”

            “He’s bleeding!”  The woman was incredibly over-dramatic.  “Your little freak knocked out his tooth!”

            Ho boy.  Dean and Sam, who had been standing, frozen, by the water cooler, managed to get between the women just before Dean was absolutely certain Jess was about to lay the bitch out.  “Two things, lady,” Dean told the woman as Sam drew Jess away.  “One, we all saw what happened and they’re both lawyers, so give it a rest.  Two, we also saw that he was already missing that tooth when he came in.  Nice try.  Oh yeah, and those things up there in the corners?  They’re video cameras.  From the angle that one’s in, I’m willing to bet the whole thing’s on tape. Now take a hike!”

            “We are here on legitimate business!”

            “Do it tomorrow or in an hour, just get lost!”

            The woman left in a huff.

            Sam, meanwhile, was trying to calm Jess with minimal success.  Cas, still in her arms, appeared to be in danger of being squeezed to death.  He was squirming wildly, giving Dean pleading looks.  “Ok, let me take Cas,” Dean called, carefully prying the squirming little boy away. “Sam, maybe take Jess for a little walk, calm her down?  Calm you both down,” he amended, noting his brother’s face.

            Jess left with obvious reluctance.

            Dean set Cas down and looked down at the frowning little face.  “Ok, what you just did?  That was officially not cool.  We don’t solve our problems with violence, Cas.  Yes, he was threatening you, but you need to use your words before you use your fists. Defend yourself only, don’t initiate! Ok?”

            Normally, he would never expect a child Cas’s age to understand.  But sure enough, Cas gave a deep, long-suffering sigh and nodded. “Alright.  I’m sorry I hit him.”

            “And unofficially?”  Dean leaned closer.  “Dude, that was awesome!  You were all like, wham, right in his fat mouth!”

            Cas frowned in confusion and cocked his head to one side.  “You approve?”

            “Of course I approve!  Officially, you’re very naughty and should be ashamed of yourself, but unofficially, you rock, dude!  Let me see that arm.  Wow, look at that!  Next time, hit from back here in your shoulder, ok?  Get the full power of your arm behind it.  Be careful with your wrist, and if you put your thumb like this it helps keep from breaking your hand.  Let’s see it, punch into my hand.  Wooow!  Ok, try the other side.  Nice! Ok, here’s another move.  It’s called an uppercut, ok?  Now, you turn your arm like this, and...”

            “Dean Winchester, I know you are not encouraging that child to start fights!”

            Busted.  Dean immediately got up, looking sheepish.  “Sorry, Jess, just showing him how to defend himself.”

            Jess pinched the bridge of her nose.  “Samuel, deal with your brother and talk to Castiel, would you please?  I need to go powder my nose.”

            Sam came over, looking stern as Jess stormed off. “Castiel?” he began.

            “Use my words?” Cas offered.  He was staring at his feet, his hands folded.

            “That’s right, use your words.”  Sam knelt down.  “I don’t want you starting fights, Castiel.  That’s not how we do things.  Do you understand?”

            “Yes.”

            “Good.  Because that? Was awesome!  That kid was, like, almost twice your size and you were like, pop, right in his mouth and he went right on his rear end!  You’re quite the little slugger, aren’t you?  Now, we don’t start fights, but we sure do finish them! If someone attacks you, you let them have it, or they’ll just hurt you again!  You gotta show bullies that you’re no pushover, alright?  Here, let me show you a move.  Ok, this is called a jab.”

            Dean patted his brother’s back.  “I’ll watch for Jess.”

****

            Hours later, Dean was walking back to the car with two delighted foster parents and one irritated little boy.  “Exceptionally gifted!” Sammy crowed.  “They said they’d never seen scores like his!”

            “He’s reading and writing at an adult level!” Jess laughed.  “Math, comprehension, all skills are high school equivalent!  They’re recommending a special school for gifted children, Dean!”

            Dean had, of course, already heard this.  But Jess and Sam were on cloud nine, bursting with pride over Cas.  They’d taken off his coat and the safety harness while he was in being evaluated, and getting the harness back on had resulted in another fight.  Cas had tried to argue that his test scores proved he was perfectly capable of knowing not to run out in traffic and the leash wasn’t necessary.  They’d countered with the fact that he was still little.  At least this time he hadn’t fought and screamed.  He’d held still and let them put his harness on, but he was obviously pissed off about it.  Now he walked as far away from them as he could get, pulling a little on his leash and bristling with resentment.  Dean let him go.  People were still staring and pointing, but Dean had every confidence now in Cas’s ability to defend himself against any asshole kids.  Dean would deal with any stupid adults.  The truth was that Dean was every bit as proud of Cas as Sam and Jess were.  He’d known that Cas was crazy smart for a little kid.  Now he had proof.  Still, he worried.  If Cas could read and write and everything else, then someone had to have taught him. Someone cared enough about him to do that.  So why had he been left abandoned in a box at the side of the road?  It didn’t make sense.

            Dean was mulling it over when it happened. Someone walking on the sidewalk stepped past him, walking quickly.  Then something flashed metallic in the sun.  The severed end of Cas’s leash fell to the ground.  Dean nearly tripped on it, too surprised to realize that the stranger had just grabbed Cas.  It wasn’t until Jess shrieked and Cas screamed his name that Dean processed what had just happened.  Then he and Sammy were racing after the man, Sammy shouting for Jess to call 911.

            Dean had never run so fast in his life. Ahead, Cas was screaming for him, limbs and wings battering at his kidnapper.  Cas swung his fist in a perfect jab, smacking the man right in the nose at just the right angle.  Dean heard it break from ten feet behind them.  The man cursed and staggered, and that was all the more Dean needed.  He and Sammy were on the bastard, dragging Cas out of his arms.  Sammy held the frightened little boy, rapidly checking him for injuries.  Dean was just focused on beating the everloving shit out of the guy.  He had help. Jess, still on the phone with 911, had caught up and was stomping on the man.  And now Sammy held Cas with one arm and was pounding away with the other.  It took three or four cops and multiple bystanders to save the guy’s life.  Dean Winchester had never been so ready, willing, and able to commit a mortal crime.

****

            Back at the police station for a record-breaking second time in a row.

            Sam couldn’t stop pacing.  Dean couldn’t sit still.  Jess was the only one that seemed calm, but even she was drumming her fingers on the table.  “It’s probably just routine,” she told the brothers.  “We haven’t even had Castiel for 24 hours yet, and already he’s run away once and then was nearly abducted.  Of course they’re going to look into things!  It doesn’t mean they’ll take him away.”

            Dean glanced up at Sammy.  His brother’s face did not appear convinced.  “This is bullshit!” Dean declared.  “Super smart or not, he’s just a little guy.  He’s gotta be scared to death!  Why the hell won’t they tell us anything?”

            No answer to that one.  Of course not.  Time seemed to crawl by.  Dean was just about ready to go pound on the door when the CYS worker finally appeared. “Mr. and Mrs. Winchester?”

            “That’s us!”  Sammy was at the table immediately.  “This is my brother Dean.”

            “Ah, Dean Winchester, you’re the one who found the child?”

            “That’s right.”

            “Are you the child’s father?”

            Dean sighed.  “I wish I was, but as far as I know, no.  I don’t even know who his mom is.”

            “He claims Mrs. Winchester here is his mother.”

            Dean eyed Sammy, who had gone still, and saw his brother’s mouth twitch into a smile.  “I wonder what that makes me?”

            “A cuckold, dear.”  Jess patted his hand.  “Obviously, Castiel isn’t being entirely honest.”

            “And that presents a problem.  The child is unusually intelligent, but his answers only raise more questions.  He claims he doesn’t know his last name, and he gives his address as ‘With Dean.’  We asked him where he used to live and he said ‘Heaven.’  We asked him how old he is and he said he’s been alive since the beginning of time! Are you aware he believes he’s an angel?”

            All three adults nodded.  “The box my brother found him in actually had ‘Free angel’ written on the side of it.  I was wondering if perhaps he didn’t come from some kind of cult or something that took him in because of his wings and then threw him out because he wouldn’t get with whatever sick shit they’re pushing?”

            “The appendages on his back are certainly remarkable.  Your theory could bear out.  But there’s more.  We asked him who put him in the box and he replied it was his brothers.  He lists his brothers as Michael, Raphael, Gabriel, and Lucifer.  He says Lucifer is locked up in Hell and Gabriel abandoned Heaven some time ago, but claims it was actual archangels who put him in that box.”  She glanced at Dean.  “He also said that runes on the box are why he couldn’t get out of the box, and why he’s also bound to you now, Mr. Winchester.”

            Dean nodded.  “He keeps saying he has to stay with me.  When he ran away from you guys before, he snuck into my car and got into my apartment.  I woke up and there he was!”

            “How, exactly, did he get into your apartment? Did he pick the locks?”

            Dean frowned.  “Honestly, it was the middle of the night and my brother had just woke me up freaking out.  I couldn’t tell you if the door was even open or closed.”

            “It was locked when we arrived,” Jess recalled. “I had to use my key.  Did you lock it after he got in, Dean?”

            Dean shrugged.  “See previous answer.  But I don’t think I did, no.  That’s weird.”

            “I see.”  Dean did not like the way the CYS agent said that.  “About this box you found him in.  You said there was a sign on it, and Castiel says there were runes?”

            “There was a sign.  ‘Free angel, preferably to broken home, very disobedient.’  And I don’t know about runes, but there was something there that caught the box on fire.  It glowed, looked like some weird writing.”

            “And that caught the box on fire?”

            “Yeah.  Scared the shit out me!  First the writing glowed real bright, then the box caught on fire.  You guys need to find these assholes!  That was some sick shit.  What if Cas had still been in that box when it caught fire?”

            “And by the time the police officers were on the scene, the box was completely destroyed.”  It wasn’t a question.

            Sam and Jess had straightened.  “Exactly where are you going with this?” Sam wanted to know.

            She looked at Dean.  “Can I ask you to step out into the waiting room?  I need to speak alone to Mr. and Mrs. Winchester.”

            None of them liked that.  Dean looked at his brother, saw Sammy nod.  Then he headed out.

            He’d thought waiting and not knowing what was going on was bad.  Waiting and not going on while people talked about you out of your presence, he discovered, was worse.  When Sam finally came out, Dean knew from the look on his face that something was wrong. “What?”

            “Come on,” Sam said quietly.  “I’ll take you home, Dean.”

            “Dude, I thought I was going to stay at your place for a couple days, help you with Cas!”

            “We’ll swing by my house and pick up your stuff.”

            Dean frowned.  “Sammy, what’s going on?”

            Sammy took his arm.  “I’ll explain on the drive.”

            Dean knew he wasn’t going to like it.  He was right.  “There’s no proof that you found Castiel the way you said you did, and no one saw the box but you.  They actually checked the ashes of that box, looking for accelerants, and didn’t find anything.”

            “That’s bullshit.  The way that shit glowed, it had to be magnesium or something, right?”

            “That’s what I’m telling you, Dean.  There was no trace of anything that could have caused what you described.”

            “So what are they saying?  That I made it up?”

            Sammy drove in silence.

            “Sam?”

            “Dean, Castiel is saying a lot of the same things you are.  And while normally that would be good, the fact is that what Castiel is telling people about who he is and where he came from or even what he was doing in that box cannot be true.  The fact that your account of what you found backs up his story makes you look, well...”

            “Like a nutjob?”

            Sam raised a hand.  “I did not say that.”

            “Fine.  What else is there?  Because it’s starting to feel to me like I’m being quietly yet firmly asked to stay the hell away from the kid.”

            Silence.

            “You gotta be shitting me!”

            “Castiel is unusually attached to you.  He claims that the runes on that box bind him to you, and that’s why he went back to you when he ran away from the hospital.  You claiming you saw those magic runes kind of makes it look like you put that idea into his head, Dean.  Then the fact that he somehow ended up in your apartment behind a locked door...?”

            “Wow, suddenly I’m glad I didn’t mention I actually found him in my bed!”

            “Yeah, Dean, I am very glad of that too.  I do not want to know how that would have gone down.”  Sam sighed, his eyes firmly fixed on the road.  “Bottom line.  They think you have Castiel convinced that he’s an angel and he needs to stay with you because you’ve got some sort of religious delusion reinforced by his wings.  They obviously can’t make you get therapy, but they’re pretty much insisting I make you get it before you can see Castiel again.”

            “Ok, why are they suddenly fixated on me?”

            “Because of what happened today.”  Sam pinched his lips, obviously choosing his words. “They asked Castiel if he knew the man who tried to kidnap him today, and he said no.  But then he went on and said that he was likely hired by the person who was supposed to take him out of that box, the one he’d been left there for. The guy who tried to take him today said he was hired to do it.  And he claims that the guy who hired him was Castiel’s father.”  He paused.  “Dean, Castiel keeps saying that you are his father.”

            “He also said that Jess is his mother!”

            “Yes, and we know that isn’t true either, but here’s the thing.  That all by itself wouldn’t be a problem.  But combined with everything else, it kind of looks like you’re trying to get close to Castiel, maybe get custody of him, because of that religious delusion thing they think you’ve got.  So they’re investigating.  And until their investigation is complete, well, they decided that it’s best for the child if...”

            “If I stay away.”  Dean closed his eyes and leaned his head back against the seat. “I get it.”

            “I’m sorry, Dean.  And this is going to blow over soon enough once they figure out there’s nothing behind any of it.  But Jess and I...  Dean, this is our chance to be parents!  If Castiel really was abandoned in that box, then there’s a chance we could adopt him, and we’ve both already gotten so attached to him, and...”

            “I said I get it.  I’m not going to ruin this for you, Sammy, you or Jess or Cas. I’ll stay away.”

****

            When did a tiny efficiency apartment feel so empty?

            Dean paced restlessly, cleaning things that didn’t need cleaned.  He sat and watched TV without seeing the program.  He considered eating, checked his kitchen, and found nothing he wanted. Finally he gave up and decided to go to bed.

            He found a single black feather in his bed. Dean picked it up and stared at it for a long time.  Then he carefully put the feather on his bedside table before he went to bed.  He lay there for some time before he finally fell asleep.

            The next thing he knew, someone was pounding on his door.

            Dean cursed, turned on his light, and went downstairs dressed only in his underwear.  Anyone rude enough to come pounding on his door in the middle of the night could deal with it.  “Someone better be dead!” he announced as he opened the door.

            A cop stood there.  She did not appear to be amused.  “Are you Dean Winchester?”

            “Um, yeah?”  Suddenly Dean felt very exposed.  His legs broke out in gooseflesh.  He hoped his underwear weren’t stained but was afraid to check.

            “May I come in?”

            Dean blinked.  “Sure?”  He stepped back, let her in.  “Can I ask what this is about?  Wait, did something happen to Sammy?!  To Bobby?! What’s wrong?!”

            “Are you alone in this apartment, sir?”

            “Yeah, why?”

            “Is there a child here with you?”

            “A child?”  Something clicked.  “Don’t tell me he ran away again!”

            The cop was already in his living room, looking around.  “Is there, or is there not, a child here?”

            “What do you want?  Why can’t I ever just sleep?”

            Dean stared.  Castiel was coming out of what was very obviously Dean’s bedroom.  His mouth opened in a wide yawn as he fisted his sleepy eyes.

            Dean cringed, regarding the cop.

            She definitely did not appear amused.

****

            “I don’t understand.  Why is Dean in handcuffs?  Where are you taking me?  Please put me down.  Dean? Dean, please make her let go of me!”

            “It’s gonna be alright, Cas, just calm down!” Dean called, offering what he hoped was a reassuring smile.

            Cas didn’t look reassured.  The little boy was being carried by the same CYS agent they’d met earlier at the police station, and now he was struggling to get down. His alarm only increased when she opened the door to her vehicle and started buckling him into the waiting booster seat.  “What are you doing?  Are you taking me back to Sam and Jess?  I’m not going with you unless you tell me where you’re taking me!”

            “Shh, just relax, sweetheart.  You’re going to be fine.  I’m taking you somewhere safe.”

            “I don’t understand!  Why won’t you tell me where you’re taking me?!”  Cas was definitely freaked now.  He fought, kicking at the agent and trying to squirm out of the booster seat.  “Stop! Let me out!  Dean, where is she taking me?!”

            “Cas, calm down!  You’re gonna be fine!”  Dean couldn’t say the same for himself.  He was being arrested for kidnapping.  They read him his rights, pushed him into the back of a squad car, closed the door. Looking out, he saw a pair of tiny hands balled into fists pounding on the window of the CYS agent’s car.  Cas was looking frantically back at him, his mouth moving to form Dean’s name.  “It’s ok!” he yelled back, knowing Cas couldn’t hear him.  “You’re going to be ok, Cas, just hang on!  Jess and Sammy will come and get you!”

            The other car was leaving, taking Cas away. And now the squad car was moving, too. Alright.  Stay calm.  Sam would fix this, get them to understand Dean hadn’t kidnapped Cas.  Everything would be taken care of soon.

            They arrived at the station in no time at all. Dean was fingerprinted, got his mug shot taken, and was placed into a holding cell with several strange men. The men eyed Dean like he was a piece of meat.  Dean ignored them, resolved to wait.

            Sure enough, after a while Dean was brought into another room where Sammy was waiting.  His brother’s face looked haggard, as if Dean’s little brother had somehow aged.  Dean sat down.  “Where’s Cas? Did they bring him back to you?”

            “No.  They took him away, Dean.  They said it wasn’t safe for him to stay with us, and they took him away.  We didn’t even get to say goodbye!”

            “No!”  Dean groaned, cradled his head in his hands.  “What’s gonna happen to him?”

            “I don’t know.  I don’t understand what happened!  I dropped you off and went back to the station.  They’d given him back to Jess and he was sleeping on her shoulder, like last night?  They warned us that if anything else happened, or if you came near him before they cleared you, they’d take him from us, Dean.  So we were so careful!  We got him in his seat, started driving him home.  Jess kept looking back at him, you know, checking up on him as we drove? And everything was fine!  We pulled into the driveway, and that’s when Jess started screaming.  He was just gone, Dean!”

            “Out of the moving car?!”

            “Yes!  We both panicked, went running down the road looking for him, called the cops.  I just kept picturing him hit by a car or one of those big trucks, lying on the side of the road...”  He shuddered.  “He’s just so damned little, and his wings, he’s hard to see in the dark!  I was terrified!  And I didn’t dare call you, because you weren’t allowed to be near him. But the CYS lady told us that the cops found Castiel at your apartment!  Dean, how in the hell did that tiny little boy get from a moving car into your apartment?!”

            “Door was locked again, too.  I had to unlock it to let the cop in.  He got into a locked apartment and was in my bedroom again. I had no idea he was there.  The look on that cop’s face when she saw him come out of my bedroom?”  Dean grimaced.  “I can only imagine what she thought!”

            “I don’t even know where to begin to defend you, Dean,” Sam admitted.  The lawyer was slumped in his chair, looking more defeated than Dean had ever seen him. “To be honest, I can’t even think right now.  All I can think about is Castiel.  They took my little boy away, and we didn’t even get to say goodbye!  And I know he wasn’t mine, and I only knew him for less than a day, but Dean?”

            “I get it, Sammy.  I felt the same way.  And we’re not beat yet, ok?”  He reached across the table and squeezed his brother’s hands.  “Worry about my defense tomorrow after you’ve had a good night’s sleep.”

            “Like I’m going to sleep!  The little boy I stupidly let myself believe could be my son is lost in the foster care system and my brother’s going to a federal prison. I can’t just get you out this time, Dean.  They arrested you for kidnapping!  That’s a federal offense!”

            “Sammy, don’t worry about me right now, alright? Go home, be with your wife.  I cannot imagine what she’s going through right now, losing Cas so soon after you two lost the baby!”  He squeezed his brother’s hand.  “Go home.  I’ll be fine.”

            “You better be!”  Sammy squeezed Dean’s hand with both of his.  “I’ll get you out of here as soon as I can.”

            “I’ll get a cool prison tattoo.  Tell Jess I love her.”

            “Will do.”

            And then Dean was alone.

****

            “What’s your name?”

            “Dean.”

            “What are you in for?”

            “Murder.”

            “I heard you molested a kid.”

            “You heard wrong.”

            “You look like a fucking pervert.”

            Dean rolled his eyes and didn’t answer.  He’d been taken to a cell that already had an occupant the guard had called Louis.  Louis was slim and scarred and covered with gang tattoos.  His eyes looked hard as he’d eyed Dean.  Until this moment, when the lights were out and Dean had settled in for the night in the top bunk, Louis had done nothing but silently stare at him.  Dean had successfully ignored him until now.

            “You a cocksucker, Dean?”

            “Just your mom’s.”

            “Oh, you think that’s funny?”

            “Sometimes.”  Dean stared into the darkness, tense, wondering how far this was going to go. When the hand touched his shoulder, Dean nearly attacked before he registered that the hand was tiny, far too tiny to belong to Louis or any prisoner here.  Dean sat up, nearly dislodging the tiny winged figure who had appeared out of nowhere in his bed.

            “The hell are you doing up there?”

            In the dim light of the hall, Dean saw Cas open his mouth, about to speak.  Dean immediately clamped a hand over it.  He pulled the squirming little boy down, quickly pulling the covers to conceal him. Despite his efforts, Cas still managed to make a small noise.

            “Dean?  What are you doing?”

            “Masturbating.  Wanna watch?”

            “Maybe?”

            Shit.  The pervert was getting up, apparently suiting actions to words.  And naturally, Cas chose that moment to really start struggling.  Dean strained to hold him, but trying to manage arms, legs, and wings while keeping a hand over the mouth of an extremely squirmy little boy would have taxed anyone.  Dean could hardly be blamed for one of Cas’s wings flaring up just as Louis looked up at the top bunk.

            Still, the result was noteworthy.  Louis went pale and squeaked like a stepped-on mouse. Then he dropped to his knees, where he began loudly chanting in what sounded like French.  What the hell?

            Then Cas took advantage of Dean’s confused distraction to twist free.  “Let me GO!” he yelled, indignantly flapping his wings.

            Louis threw back his head, raised his arms, and looked towards Cas in near rapture.  “Ange!” he howled.  “C’est un ange!”

            Cas frowned down at the man in disapproval. “Soyez silencieux!  Aller au lit!”

            Louis immediately went quiet and crawled into his bed.

            Dean stared at Cas.  “What did you say to him?”

            “I told him to shut up and go back to bed,” Cas grumbled.  “Now move over.  I’m crowded.”

            “It’s a bunk, Cas, I can’t move anywhere! Here.”  He pulled the grumpy little boy onto his chest, wrapped his arms over him, and covered him with the blanket.  “Cas, you speak French?  How many languages do you speak?”

            “All of them,” came the sleepy reply.  “Please let me sleep, Dean?”

            Dean did.  And in the morning, when the guards looked in and saw him with the sleeping winged child on his chest, he simply said, “Good morning!”

****

            “No matter where I go, he shows up,” Dean announced.  “Sooner or later, he always shows up!  Doesn’t matter where he is or what’s going on.  He got into my locked apartment from a hospital, he got into my apartment again while riding in a moving car, and now he just got out of another foster home and showed up in my jail cell.  At least this time, it should be on a security camera somewhere, right?  I’ve got proof I didn’t kidnap him!”

            “How did you get the child into your cell?”

            “Great question!”  Pause. “Wait, you expect me to answer that?”

            “Mr. Winchester...”

            “Did you look at the security cameras?”

            “Yes, we did.”

            “And?!  Yeah, I figured!  I’m sorry I missed the looks on your faces when he popped in out of nowhere.  That was a magic trick that would have stumped Houdini!”

            The detective looked profoundly irritated.  “Mr. Winchester, I have neither the time nor the patience for magic tricks.  At this point, I don’t care how you did it, the fact is that you did it!  And my only concern is that it doesn’t happen again.” A finger pointed in Dean’s face. “I’ve seen too many just like you. You’re a sick fuck!”

            “And you’re an assbutt,” Dean retorted.

            “I’m a what?!”

            “He said you’re an assbutt.  It’s not a polite or appropriate thing to call someone.  But I suspect you earned it.”  A tousled head of dark hair appeared, narrowed blue eyes peering over the top of the table.  “Why is Dean handcuffed to this table?  Please let him go.”

            “Heya, Cas!”

            “Hello, Dean.”  Cas had ducked under Dean’s restrained arm and was busy climbing up into Dean’s lap. He kept his wings tucked tight against his back but his feathers still tickled Dean’s nose as he was getting situated. Dean sneezed.

            “Gesundheit.”

            “Thanks.  You speak German, too, Cas?”

            “Ich sagte dir, ich spreche jede sprache.”

            The detective was pounding on the door.  “We need CYS in here!”

            “Would you just stop?” Dean called as Cas groaned and slumped.  “You just saw him pop in right in front of you, and you’re still going to try to say it’s all just a trick?!  Why the hell can’t you just accept the obvious?”

            The detective eyed him.  “And what would the obvious be?”

            “That he’s been telling the truth this entire time!  He’s an angel!  Oh, for...! Come on!”

            The CYS agent stormed into the room and immediately reached for Cas. “Castiel, come here.”

            “No, not again, leave me alone!”  Cas clung to Dean, who was trying to hold him as well as he could with his elbows.  “Stop taking me away!  Please!”

            “It’s not going to work,” Dean told the woman.  “How many times does he have to vanish from your care and show up with me before you figure that out?  It’s going to keep happening because Cas has been telling us the truth right from the start! He’s not a kid, he’s an angel!”

            “This man is clearly delusional!” the agent snapped, still trying to drag the struggling angel away from Dean.  “Detective, how could you be so irresponsible as to let him have this child?!”

            The detective startled.  “Me? Lady, you are out of your mind!  I never let him have the kid!”

            “I’m not a kid!  Let go of me! Stop!”

            “All I know is that he was supposed to be waiting in our office for his foster parents to come and collect him!  I was here finishing the paperwork, and suddenly I’m getting called to come in here and get him!”

            “Don’t give me back to those people!” Cas yelled as he was pulled out of Dean’s arms.  “I do not care for them!  They locked me in a room and were talking about finding out if they could get money by displaying me.  What does that mean?”

            “Don’t you dare give him back to those motherfuckers!” Dean roared, forgetting for a moment he was handcuffed to the table as he tried to reach for Cas.

            “Hey, you sure those people are ok to give him back to?” the detective asked, frowning.

            The agent scoffed.  “Worry about your own job, and I’ll do mine.  I’ve been doing this job, protecting children, for over ten years. Children will say anything to avoid being taken from the caregiver they’re accustomed to, even in an abusive environment.”

            “Abusive environment?  What the hell about my brother’s place was an abusive environment?!” Dean could not believe this woman.  “He just told you they locked him in a room and were going to turn him into a freak show! Come on, lady, stop, you’re gonna hurt his wings!”

            The little angel had spread his wings to keep from being pulled through the door.  “I don’t understand!  If your job is to protect children, then why are you giving me back to those people when I told you what they were doing to me?  Why won’t you listen to me?  Dean is right!  I’m not a child, I just look like one!  This is intolerable!  Stop taking me away!  I’m sick of it!”

            “Would you listen to him?” Dean exclaimed, exasperated.  “What kind of little kid throws around words like ‘intolerable?’  Can’t you at least look into those people before you just hand him back to them!”

            The agent ignored him.  “Detective, I will be filing a formal report,” she announced.  “What you have done here is completely unacceptable!”

            “Lady, I haven’t left this room!  It’s on camera!”

            “Now why the hell does that sound so familiar?” Dean called.

            “You’ll be hearing from my office!  Castiel, enough!  Your foster family is waiting to take you back.  Now let’s go!”

            Cas yelped as the agent turned sideways and managed to fit his wings through the door.  He strained desperately towards Dean.  “Dean, please!  Don’t let her take me away again!  Dean!”

            “Cas!”  Dean fought against the cuffs, watching helplessly as the door closed.  “Son of a bitch!  Alright, motherfucker, how does it feel now you’re the one on the wrong end of the magic trick?!”

            The detective had sunk into his chair.  He looked a little dazed.  “I don’t understand this.”

            “Welcome to the party, pal!”  Dean lowered his head and thumped it twice on the table.  “I am finally starting to understand just how frustrating this whole thing has got to be for Cas.  This whole time, he’s been telling us exactly what was going on, and absolutely no one believed him.  Right from the start he was telling me, you know?  He told me he was an angel, he told me he’d be bound to me if I took him out of the box, he even told me he couldn’t stay with Sam and Jess if I wasn’t with them!  He told me all of it!”

            The detective looked at Dean.  Then he leaned forward, putting his elbows on the table.  “Tell me the story again.  From the beginning.”

            Dean did.  The detective listened without a word.  When Dean finished, he leaned back, thinking.  “So he’s actually a full-grown man?”

            Dean nodded.  “Full-grown angel.  He said he’s actually taller than the Chrysler building, but his archangel brothers got pissed off at him for starting a rebellion in Heaven. Basically, they cursed him or something, locked him in a child’s body and dumped him in that box.  I still haven’t figured out who it is that was supposed to take him out of it, but it wasn’t me.  And that’s what scares me, detective!  Because Cas is helpless by design.  He doesn’t have any powers, but he still has his wings so he sticks out like a sore thumb.  That’s how that bastard yesterday knew to grab him.  Someone else is going to grab him, take him to whoever he was left for. And whoever that person is, they know about this magic box shit!”  Dean shook his head.  “I don’t know what to do, alright?  I’m just a mechanic who happened to pick up a little boy left in a box at the side of the road.  Cas is an angel who was turned into a helpless little boy and put into that box as punishment.  This asshole taking him was intended as part of that punishment, which tells me that taking good care of a little boy was never part of the plan!  And this spell or whatever it is that box did to him that makes him keep coming back to me?  That was intended to keep Cas from escaping!  Any time he managed to get away, that magic bungee cord that the box put on him would just drag him back.  Cas is the way he is so he can’t get away or protect himself.  And if this guy he was intended for gets his hands on him?” Dean shuddered.  “I don’t know what will happen to him.  I don’t want to find out!  Detective, please help me save him!”

            The detective stared at Dean.  Then he got up and took off the cuffs.  “Go.”

            Dean jumped up, but paused.  “Um, what’s going to happen to you if I go after Cas?”

            “I don’t care.”  The detective gave him a weak smile.  “There was a time that I wanted to be a priest.  But I lost my faith.  I believed that God didn’t exist, because of how much evil I’d seen in the world.  But now?  Now, I think I believe again.”

            “Yeah, I guess meeting an actual angel can have that effect on you.”

            “Not the angel.  You.”

            Dean looked at him in surprise.

            “You didn’t have to stop when you saw him in that box,” the detective explained. “But you did.  You didn’t have to get involved or stay involved, but you did. You’ve been arrested, they’re finishing up the paperwork right now to have you involuntarily committed to a psychiatric hospital, and they’re looking at charging you with unlawful sexual contact with a minor after they found him in your bedroom.  You’ve got every reason in the world to want to stay as far away from Castiel as you can possibly get.  But you’re not.  You’re fighting, risking more charges, throwing away the rest of your life to save him.  You, sir? Are a righteous man.”  He shrugged.  “It’s time I started being the same.”

            Dean reached over, took the detective’s shoulder.  “Thank you.”

            “You’re welcome.  Now go save your angel.”  He tossed a set of keys at Dean.  “Red VW bug in the employee parking lot.  If you go to the CYS office, you’re just going to make things worse, so I’d advise you to rely on the magic bungee cord one more time.  But once he comes back to you, take him and run.  Run as far and as fast as you possibly can.”  He eyed Dean.  “Do you have any idea what makes that bungee snap him back?”

            “It’s not time,” Dean mused.  “When we were in the same house, he stayed put.  Distance, maybe?”

            “So if that’s the case, the farther away you get from him, the faster you get him back, right?”

            Dean straightened.  “I need to get to my car.”

****

            “Where are we going?”

            “No idea.”  Dean was in his car, the Impala’s engine purring smoothly as Baby ate up the miles. He glanced over at the small figure in the trench coat that had suddenly appeared next to him and smiled.  “Why don’t you close your eyes for a bit, Cas? You look exhausted!”

            “I am.”  The little angel fisted his eyes.  “I have no access to my powers, but the returning spell uses my Grace to bring me back to you.  That’s why I’m always tired when I return to you.”

            Dean frowned.  “You ok?”

            Cas nodded.  “I think I’ll take your advice, though.  I would very much like to sleep.  The rest will restore my Grace.”  He looked around, assessing his options in the front seat.  Then he scooted closer to Dean.  He stretched out on the seat so that his head was just touching Dean’s hip as he drove.  Then he tucked his wings around himself and closed his eyes.  He hummed when Dean took a hand off of the wheel to rub at his hair.  Then he sighed deeply when the hand moved to gently stroke his wing.  “Dean?” he mumbled.

            “Yeah, buddy?”

            “Please don’t let anyone take me away again?  I know I’ll be returned to you, but...”

            “But it drains you.”

            “Not just that.”  He shifted, snuggling into the seat cushion.  “I was a garrison captain in Heaven, Dean.  I commanded other angels, fought battles.  I was respected and admired.  That’s why I thought I could change things, why I led that revolt.  But when it failed and they dragged me in chains before Michael and Raphael, I believed they’d kill me or imprison me.”  A little hand clutched at Dean’s leg.  “My brothers had other plans.  They stripped me of everything, all of my power and respect.  They brought me down, forced me into this form, to humiliate me. When they put me in that box, they did it in front of all the other angels.  The soldiers I’d fought wing to wing with, were laughing at me, mocking me.  And all I could do was curl up in that box.  They made me helpless, Dean!  Then they declared that they were giving me away to clear Heaven’s debt.  And that’s why they left me where you found me.”  The hand gripped the fabric of Dean’s jeans.  “When you took me out, I thought at first that my brothers would come after you, punish you for interfering.  But when nothing happened, I realized the truth.  They didn’t come for you because they weren’t watching.  Because they didn’t care.  It doesn’t matter to my brothers what happens to me now because they already gave me away.  The fact that the one I was meant for never collected me doesn’t matter.  They gave me up, delivered one of Heaven’s angels, so as far as they’re concerned, the debt is paid.”

            “But that bastard will still come after you.”

            “Yes.”  The hand moved to Dean’s arm.  “Dean, there is a part of me that wishes that the person I was sold to would just find me, take me away and do whatever it is that’s been planned for me.  Because this continued humiliation?  It’s worse than torture!  My body is tiny, weak.  Anyone can take me, force their will on me, and there’s nothing I can do to stop it! And worse, most of what I’ve been through has happened because people, yourself included, have been trying to care for me!  They think I’m a human child, and they treat me like one.  I was a garrison captain, and you dressed me in blue Thomas the Tank Engine pajamas.  I defeated foes that destroyed more powerful angels, and I was walked through a crowded town center on a leash.  And were you paying attention when we ate lunch at that courthouse?  No?  Let me tell you what that was like for me, Dean.  The morning wasn’t so bad.  Jess gave me some oatmeal that she’d watered down with milk and stuck her finger in to make sure it wasn’t too hot.  And I ate it because I was very hungry.  But then came lunch at the courthouse cafeteria.  The three of you got trays, and you got whatever you wanted.  None of you thought to ask me what I wanted to eat, but I wouldn’t have known anyway because I never ate before.  I probably would have been fine with anything, but it wasn’t about the food.  It was about the way I had to eat it!”

            “What do you mean?”

            “I mean Jess sat me at the table on a booster seat and cut up a piece of meat into little pieces.  I was still upset about the leash thing, and when I wouldn’t eat, she fed it to me.  She actually made airplane noises, coaxed me to ‘open the hangar’ until I was finally so mortified that I cleaned my plate!”  He snorted.  “She was so happy, Dean!  She carried me over to you and Sam and told you what a good boy I was for cleaning my plate, and everyone was just so proud!  But the only reason I ate so much was because every time I tried to stop, she’d ask if I needed the airplane again.  I ate until my stomach hurt just so I wouldn’t have to go through that again! It happened right there, right in front of you, Dean.  And you never even noticed!”

            “I’m sorry,” Dean said softly.  “And you’re right, I didn’t even notice that.  I wouldn’t remember it if I had, because the only thing I would have seen was Jess being a good mother.  But I can kind of see what you’re saying, buddy.”

            “I don’t know what to do!” Cas continued bitterly.  “I’d thought that if I did well on those tests they gave me, proved my intelligence, that it would be different.  But it wasn’t, Dean.  I’m still treated like a child!”  His fists were clenched, his jaw tight.  “I’m given no choices, no autonomy.  I could learn to live with it if it was just you and your family, Dean.  But it’s not!  I’m constantly being taken away!  I’m dragged out of the arms of people I want to stay with, strapped into booster seats in cars, given to people who see me as a freak they can profit from, pointed at in the streets, bullied by other children because I’m different... I can’t even be a normal human child! And over and over again, just when things might start to get better, someone comes and takes me away.  I can’t stop them!  And every time I’m taken away, I have to start all over again!” He suddenly sobbed.  “Look at me!  I was a soldier of God, and now I can’t even control my emotions!  I hate that I’m small!  I hate that I’m helpless!  I can’t stand this, Dean!  Please don’t let anyone take me away again!”

            Until now, Dean hadn’t realized the full truth about Castiel.  He’d accepted that the grumpy, overly-serious little boy was an angel, but the scope of that, what it really meant, had eluded him.  Or maybe he simply didn’t want to think about it. He didn’t want to consider what it must be like for the immensely powerful being trapped in the body of a tiny child.  Now Dean’s heart ached.  “I’ll protect you,” he vowed.  “And we’re going to find a way to help you, alright?  This is some kind of magic spell?  Well, there’s always a way to break a spell, right?”

            Cas sniffed.  “I guess? But I can’t do it, Dean!  I’m powerless, and I can’t break a spell I’m trapped inside of!”

            “Fine.  I’ll do it.”

            Hopeful blue eyes snapped open.  “Really? You’ll help me?”

            “Sure!  Why wouldn’t I?”

            “Because if you do, then I can’t ever belong to your brother and his wife.”

            Oh shit.  Dean groaned. How could he forget about Sam and Jess, left alone and grieving for the baby they’d lost?  That Cas had filled that void had been obvious to anyone with eyes. But if Cas was restored to what he really was, it meant they were losing a child all over again.

            Cas had grown quiet and still.  “I understand, Dean,” he said, not looking up.  “Sam and Jess are in a lot of pain, and having me helped.  They did care very much for me.”  He sighed.  “Alright. They can keep me.  If we can get through this initial part, and if you move in with them, I can stay.  Then I think we can come to an understanding.  They can respect me a little more, and I can give a bit, let them care for me.”

            “Cas?  You serious?”

            “Really, what options do I have?”  The angel looked up, giving Dean a watery smile.  “A human lifetime isn’t really that long.  They can have the experience of raising me, watching me grow up. And then, if you’ll still help me, we can try to restore me to what I really am.  If I let them raise me to adulthood, say early twenties?  That would give your brother and his wife at least fifteen years to keep me.  Would that be acceptable?”

            It was tempting.  It was so incredibly tempting.  Cas was offering, after all.  And Dean couldn’t deny his own attachment.  Sleeping last night with Cas cradled on his chest had filled a need in Dean he hadn’t realized he’d had.  How much worse must it be for Sam and Jess?  Fifteen years, to a being that was literally as old as time, was like no time at all.  And Dean would give almost anything to take the pain out of his brother’s eyes. Having Cas, being a father, had done that.

            But when Dean looked down at those blue, blue eyes, he saw the sadness there. Cas didn’t want to be trapped as a human child.  He was making an incredible offer to continue like this, despite just telling Dean how much it hurt him.  But the angel had been sent out of Heaven, sold to some douchebag to cover a debt!  It wasn’t like Cas could just go back. Maybe this wasn’t so bad?  But could Cas really be happy living as a human, even if it was for only for fifteen years?

            “That’s not a decision I can make right now, buddy,” Dean said at last. “And I don’t think you can make it either.  How about we play it by ear, see where things go?”

            “Alright.”  Cas closed his eyes and snuggled in again.

            Dean kept driving in silence.

            They went through a drive-through, where Dean made a point of asking Cas what he wanted to eat.  Ironically, he chose a kid’s meal, chicken nuggets and fries. He was so serious and solemn as he went about the business of carefully dipping his nuggets into honey, trying to avoid getting the gooey sauce on his coat, that Dean couldn’t help but laugh and muss his hair.  Suspicious blue eyes immediately turned in his direction.  “What’s so funny?”

            “Nothing, buddy.”  Dean mussed his hair again.  “I’m just really glad you’re here.”

            The smile he got in return made him feel very warm inside.  Seeing Cas smile had just become a permanent part of Dean’s List Of Best Things In Life. He vowed to see it more often.

            Dean called Sammy from a pay phone, let him know what was happening.  Sam advised him to turn around and come back home.  He told Dean that the detective who’d helped him was willing to testify on Dean’s behalf.  Surprisingly, so was the CYS agent who’d taken Cas the last time.  Apparently, having a winged child vanish literally right in front of your eyes was strangely convincing.  Now she was willing to go on record saying that Castiel would be best served by returning him to Sam and Jess.  With the detective testifying that Dean hadn’t kidnapped Cas at all, that Cas had instead repeatedly run away to be with the only adult he trusted, Sam felt confident that the charges would be dropped. Dean’s flight could be attributed to fear for himself for being falsely accused, and for Castiel being sent back to a potentially abusive environment.  Jess planned to milk the latter for all it was worth.

            But then Sammy paused.  “Dean, be straight with me now,” Sam had said.  “Is Castiel really an angel?”

            “He really is, Sammy,” Dean confirmed.  “And that’s something we gotta talk about, ok?”

            “Alright.”  The defeated tone in his brother’s voice had made Dean’s heart ache.  Dean looked back at Cas, sitting in the Impala carefully licking the last of the honey out of the little plastic container, and the ache only grew.  They had a difficult decision ahead of them.

            An hour later, Dean was pulling the Impala into Sammy’s driveway.  Both he and Cas sat in the car for a moment longer, staring at the patrol cars parked along the side of the lawn.  “Are they going to arrest you and take me away again?” Cas asked quietly.  He seemed to shrink into his trench coat.

            “I don’t know, Cas.  Not if Sammy and Jess have their way, but something’s up.”  He indicated his brother, who was standing solemnly next to Jess.  “The fact that they’re just standing there just doesn’t make me feel good right now.”

            The police officers were walking over, waving for Dean to come out.  They had a woman with them carrying a blanket.  Dean assumed it was Cas’s new CYS agent.  For a moment, he strongly considered just taking off.  But no.  If he did that, he really would be kidnapping Cas, and then they’d never get him back. Best to face the music.  Dean got out and, rather than coming around to open Cas’s door, he reached for the angel from the driver’s side instead.  “Why don’t you stay with me, huh, buddy?”

            Cas nodded and climbed into Dean’s arms. Dean could feel the small body trembling in anxiety as he stood up and smiled at the officers.  “Hey, guys!  No hard feelings, huh?  I mean, you arrested me for doing absolutely nothing wrong!”

            “No, you did the right thing, saving him from that box!”  The agent had come forward, holding out her blanket.  She quickly draped it over Cas.

            Cas gasped.  Dean glanced down at him and for a moment, thought he saw the angel’s eyes flare with a blue-white light.  But then it was gone.  Dean couldn’t be sure he hadn’t imagined it.

            But he wasn’t imagining the lady trying to pull Cas from his arms.  “Hands off, lady!” he warned.  “Sam?!”

            “Dean?”  It was Cas. He looked defeated and wouldn’t meet Dean’s eyes.  “Let her have me.”

            “Let her have him, Dean,” Jess called.  The blonde looked near tears as she clung to Sam’s arm.  Sam only nodded, not looking up.

            Confused, Dean let Cas go.  The woman cooed, wrapping the little angel in the blanket and holding him close.  She looked up at Dean gratefully.  “Thank you, Mr. Winchester!”  She had an accent that sounded English.  “I simply cannot thank you enough for what you’ve done.  You’ve brought my baby back!”

            “Um, what?”

            “Let me introduce you.”  Sam had come forward, taken Dean’s arm.  “Dean, this is Bela Talbot.  Castiel’s mother.

            That hit like a blow.

            With Cas safe in his mother’s arms and no cause to arrest Dean after Bela refused to press charges, the cops left.  And Bela remained to explain.  Dean felt numb as he heard the story, a religious cult kidnapping Castiel because of his unusual genetic mutation, then cruelly throwing him aside when the intellectually gifted little boy wouldn’t go along with their plans.  It was exactly as Dean had once suspected.  But nothing made sense now.  “He kept vanishing from wherever he was and coming back to me!” he hissed, glancing frequently at Cas, who still wouldn’t meet his eyes.  “Unless you can explain that...?”

            Cas didn’t respond, but Bela nodded.  “It was a spell.”  Seeing the look on Dean’s face, she explained.  “I’m a witch, Mr. Winchester.  Castiel’s wings are the result of a fertility spell, the only means I had of becoming pregnant.  Because of that, he’s been the target of any number of groups or entities.  This was just one more.  I shudder to think of what might have happened if you hadn’t been there to get him out of that box!  But don’t worry.  I’ve already taken care of the spell that was on the two of you.  See?”

            She pulled the blanket off of Cas and tossed it into the air.  Immediately the familiar runes glowed brightly on the cloth before it burst into flames.  Dean stared at it, feeling as though he’d somehow just lost something.

            “You’re free, Mr. Winchester,” she was saying. “And once again, I wanted to thank you, all three of you, for helping my baby boy.  But as you can see, he’s knackered.  He’s been through quite an ordeal.  I really just want to take him home now.”

            There was nothing more to say.  Dean hovered, watching as she carefully fastened Cas into a booster seat in the back of her car.  Cas made no move to fight her, didn’t say a word.  And he wouldn’t meet Dean’s eyes.  Finally Dean cleared his throat.  “Cas?  You alright, buddy?”

            “I’m fine.”  The angel looked up at last, giving Dean a smile that never touched his eyes.  “Thank you, Dean.  For everything.  And don’t worry.  I’ll be fine now.  I’m where I belong.”

            And that was that.  Bela thanked them all again, hugged Jess, and got in her car. All three of them watched as it drove away until it turned a corner and was gone.

            Then they simply went back into the house.

            Reminders of Cas were everywhere in the house. Dean found Cas’s little necktie hanging on the bathroom doorknob where he’d left it and picked it up, carrying it idly with him as he paced about.  He could hear Jess sobbing from her room down the hall.  A shadow passed the window where Sam puttered around outside the house.  Dean’s heart felt hollowed out.  He imagined Sam and Jess felt the same.

            They unanimously decided to skip dinner and sat listlessly in front of the TV instead.  Castiel Talbot wasn’t mentioned on the news.  Apparently, Bela was discrete.  Jess seemed colder than Dean had ever known her, waspish and snapping at everyone. Sam and Dean kept their distance. When her phone rang they all jumped.

            Jess rolled her eyes.  “It’s Ash,” she announced, turning on the speakers. “Hello, Ash.  Sorry I had you waste your time.”

            “You didn’t waste my time.”  Ash was the research assistant Jess and Sam used for their firm.  “This Bela Talbot isn’t a client, is she?”

            “No, she’s not a client,” Sam called. Lowering his voice, he asked, “Did you ask Ash to check up on Bela?”

            Jess shrugged.  “I needed to know Castiel would be alright.”

            “I heard all that, by the way, and Jess, you were right to be concerned.  Talbot’s got a record a mile long.  She’s a con artist!  Looks like she’s been at it damned near all her life!  Why, what did she con someone out of this time?”

****

            Castiel squirmed in the booster seat.  Bela had pulled the straps uncomfortably tight around him when she’d fastened him into it.  His wings were being pinched.  He considered trying to unbuckle the straps, but that wasn’t really an option.  The booster seat she’d buckled him into had a built-in tray table.  The straps all came together at the buckle fastened at the front of the seat between his legs, under the table.  Getting to it would be difficult, at best.  Even if he managed it, Bela would likely only buckle him back in, possibly tighter, or do something to confine him even more.  No, best to remain as he was.  Besides, it wasn’t like he had any chance of getting away from her.  The same spell that had once bound him to Dean now bound him to Bela.  He’d already accepted from the moment she’d put the blanket on him and he’d felt the spell activate that he wasn’t going to be able to get away from her.  Whatever happened now, he’d simply have to bear it. If only he could get more comfortable.

            “You’re quite the squirmy little git, aren’t you?  Do you have to go wee?”

            Castiel clenched his fists.  “No, thank you.  I’m just very uncomfortable.  Could you loosen these straps a little?  My wings...”

            “Oh do relax, little one.  We’ll arrive at our destination soon enough.”

            Castiel looked out the window at the passing scenery.  “Do I get to know where you’re taking me?”

            “Why, are you planning to help navigate?”

            He strained to be patient.  “You know I can’t get away from you.  Is it really so much to ask where you’re taking me?”

            “Mmm, perhaps?”

            He glared at her.  “Where are you taking me?  Why won’t you just tell me?!”

            “Children, Castiel, should be seen and not heard,” she announced.  “Now shush.  There’s a good boy!”

            “Why are you doing this to me?!” Castiel exclaimed, pounding his fists on the tray table.  “What do you want with me?!”

            “You’re payment on a debt the hosts of Heaven owed me.  The archangels had some sort of foolish rebellion on their hands. I provided them with a weapon that put an end to it.  And in return, they gave me an angel.  You.”

            Castiel had already figured that out.  He’d heard the name Talbot before, known about her near-mythic ability to con her way into supernatural relics and items she then sold or traded.  He should have known she’d be the one who had supplied the artifact that resulted in the end of his rebellion.  Castiel sighed.  “Yes, I understand that my brothers gave me to you as payment on a debt, but why me?  You know my name, so you must have asked for me.  Why did you specifically want me?”

            She smiled at him.  “I didn’t. I gave Michael a bit of assistance that helped him end a revolt in Heaven.  The assistance I provided came at tremendous personal cost to me, and I demanded something of equal value in return.  I asked for one of his angels, gave him the box and the spells.  It could have been any angel at all.  I had no rank in mind.  I know nothing about you, nor do I care to.  I simply wanted an angel.  Any angel would do, even the lowliest of button pushers.  Michael himself chose you, told me your name and where I could find you.  I assume he had his reasons.  Might I wager a guess that you were part of that little rebellion?”  Her smile turned into a grimace.  “Then that bumbling idiot interfered, took you before I could reach you, and it’s been nothing but bother to try to get you back!  But don’t be alarmed, darling.”  Her smile was back.  “You weren’t singled out, not by me, at any rate.  I was owed an angel, and you’re the one I was given.  That’s all.”

            That was an unexpected blow.  All this time, Castiel had believed he’d been selected for some specific reason to do with his leading the revolt.  He’d believed it had been his tactical or fighting skills, or even the fact that he’d been able to throw aside Heaven’s mandate and embrace free will.  Any of those things marked him as a threat, someone Michael and Raphael would want to neutralize, someone valuable to Heaven’s enemies.  The humiliating way he’d been presented certainly made it seem as though he’d been singled out.  Then hearing her call him by name had confirmed his theory.  But now, to find out that Bela hadn’t actually wanted him, or even known who he was?  That he’d simply been a convenient sacrifice?  That hurt.  But now, everything made sense.  What he’d realized when Dean had taken him from the box with no reaction from Heaven was right.  His brothers had no interest at all in Castiel now.  They didn’t care what happened to him.  They didn’t even consider him enough of a threat to ensure he met his end.  He’d simply been thrown away, and they’d never looked back.

            “Oh now, there there, no need for that!”

            He was crying again.  Castiel angrily rubbed at his eyes.  “I have very little control over my emotions in this form, but you know that.  You’re the one who gave them the spell that locked me into it!”  He paused, looking at her.  “Why did you do this to me?”

            “Just a precaution, love.  Can’t have an angel at full power running amok, can I?”

            “But why did you want an angel in the first place?  What are you going to do with me?”

            “Even trapped in that form, you’re still an angel, pumped full of Grace. I’ve use for that.”

            He stiffened.  “You’re going to drain my Grace?  You’ll kill me!”

            “Not if I do it right.  With sufficient time to recover between harvests, I expect you’ll survive for a good many years to come.  And I’ve already got orders to fill.  With a steady supply of Grace to bargain with, I can be a very, very wealthy and powerful lady!”  She glanced at him appraisingly.  “Who knows? Maybe you’ll even live long enough to grow out of that booster seat!”

            Shame was starting to become his constant companion.  The frequent reminders that he was powerless, trapped in a tiny human body that was currently strapped into a booster seat, were wearing him down more than any torture he’d experienced fighting Heaven’s wars.

            Bela stopped at a diner to eat.  As soon as she let him out of the booster seat she picked him up, carrying him inside. Castiel had come to understand a peculiarity among humans.  Dean, Sam and Jess, when they’d picked him up, usually did it with Castiel facing them. He could hold on if he wished, or even fight to get down, but he’d always felt safe and secure, with plenty of room for his wings to trail over their arms, unconfined.  Everyone else picked him up with Castiel facing away, the ground far beneath him, a heavy arm pressing into his stomach, arms and legs dangling and wings cramped.  Being carried like that always reinforced how helpless he was, and he hated it.  It was how Bela carried him now.  Castiel didn’t bother to protest.  He just braced himself as much as he could against her arm, trying to take some of the pressure off of his stomach as he bounced with each step she took.

            Bela believed in a grand entrance.  She swept in like a queen, proudly holding Castiel on display.  She seemed to delight in the stir the sight of his wings caused, smiling and happily showing him off.  Castiel didn’t say a word.

            A helpful employee got him a booster seat, the whole time talking with Bela about what an adorable little boy her son was.  The employee poked experimentally at his wing and Castiel couldn’t help but jump, wings flaring defensively.  That got a lot of attention.  Now multiple people were pulling and tugging on his wings. Castiel bore it in silence, eyes downcast while Bela explained that her son had a rare genetic mutation.  She even posed for pictures with him.  Just one more bit of humiliation in a long line. But he’d lost the will to fight.  Once, he’d been proud of his wings and had groomed them meticulously.  But by the time he was finally left alone, his feathers were in disarray.  He ignored them.

            Bela had sat with him in a booth, placing him between her and the wall.  He was given no chance to escape.  He didn’t try.  When his food arrived, he ate it silently.  Bela looked over and nodded in approval.  “You know, Castiel, your superiors told me that you were very disobedient,” she said.  “But so far, you’ve done quite well!  Perhaps a reward is in order?”

            “You could let me go, perhaps even release me from this spell?  That would be very rewarding!”

            “Don’t be silly!  I’ll get you something sweet, for being such a sweetie!”  Bela signaled for the waiter and ordered a chocolate pudding.  Castiel stared at it for a moment, sighed, and then silently ate it, too.  When she finished and picked him up again to carry him back out to the car, the pressure on his full stomach nearly made him throw up.  Naturally she didn’t notice.  He didn’t mention it.  She wouldn’t care if she knew.

            Back to the car, pushed back into the booster seat in the back, wincing as his wings tangled for a moment in the straps. Castiel didn’t struggle or protest. What was the point?  He’d lost all hope, head hanging dejectedly as she started the car and was back on the road again.  He was crying again.  He couldn’t seem to stop.  She either didn’t notice or didn’t care, humming along with the radio.

            Their destination was a large house in what looked like a wealthy neighborhood.  Bela inspected his face, took a kleenex, and roughly wiped off his tears.  She took him out of his booster seat and carried him, dangling once more from her arm, around to the trunk to collect her belongings. Once again, Castiel’s wings attracted attention.  Apparently, that had been her intention.  It explained why she’d wiped his face.  No one touched him this time, but people on the street were slowing down, a couple even stopping to take pictures.  She set him down for them, pulling up his wings for the cameras and smiling brightly. Castiel wrapped his arms around himself and bore it silently as she chatted, explaining that Castiel was the son of a relative she was babysitting.  Then she scooped him up and carried him into the house.

            Bela took him in to her bedroom, where she sat him on a dresser and took her time putting her belongings away.  He sat quietly, waiting and watching her.  She put everything away as she listened to the messages on her machine.  Several of them were from people interested in angel Grace.  She listened to them all without even glancing at him as he sat, frozen, on the dresser.  Then she picked him up again and carried him down to the basement.  Castiel could feel his mortal heart pounding as she took him through a door into some kind of workshop.  He’d resolved to bear whatever was coming in silence, but when she pushed him down on the table, once again his emotions betrayed him.  She rolled her eyes in irritation.  “More tears?  Do stop, Castiel, I’m afraid I’m just not the mothering type!”

            “I can’t help it!”  He saw her pick up an empty vial and an angel blade and panicked, struggling wildly.  “No! Don’t do this to me!  Please, just let me go!”

            Her answer was to hold him down and push his head back to expose his throat.  He shrieked.

            The door burst open.  “Bitch, get the hell away from my son!”

            Jess Winchester did not seem to care that Bela was holding an angel blade.  A moment later, the surprised witch wasn’t holding it anymore.  Jess had wrestled it away and the two women were rolling around in a shrieking pile.  Strong hands reached for Castiel, lifted him from the table to hold him almost painfully tight.  Sam. And there with him was Dean.

            Castiel clung to the brothers, sobbing and shaking as they sandwiched him protectively between them.  They were speaking to him like he was a child again, making comforting noises and telling him everything was fine, they were there, no one would hurt him.  Oddly enough, it was helping.

            What was going on behind them was anything but comforting.  Jess Winchester seemed determined to pluck Bela Talbot bald.  An alarming amount of hair was already on the ground.  Both women were scratched and bleeding, but Jess didn’t seem to care.  She attacked Bela viciously.  Bela screamed.

            Castiel eyed them and sniffed.  “That does not appear to be using words that are polite or appropriate,” he noted.

            “That lady kidnapped you, Cas,” Dean declared. “Who gives a shit?”

            “I see.”  Castiel frowned, processing this.  “So if someone kidnaps me, then I should use my fists instead of my words?”

            “Your fists, your feet, a sharp stick, anything you can find!” Sam urged.  “If someone is kidnapping you, you fight!”

            Another clump of hair flew, and Bela wailed.

            “Ripping someone’s hair out in large clumps like that seems to be quite painful,” Castiel noted.

            Dean nodded.  “Yeah, it kind of does.”

            “Should we break them up?” Sam asked.

            Dean eyed them.  “I think they’re doing just fine working things out between them.”

            “I agree.”

            “Is that something a lawyer should say?”

            “I’m not going over there.”

            “Me either.”

            Hair pulling was certainly not nice.  When the fighting finally ceased, Bela’s hair was in ragged clumps, her expensive clothes ruined and mascara tears staining her cheeks.  Jess didn’t look much better, but she clearly was the victor, if the way Bela cowered from her was any indication.  “You?” Jess began, pointing at the other woman.  “Will never come near my boy again!”

            “He’s not your boy, you daft gash!  That angel belongs to me!  He...  Aaah!”

            Jess had just picked up a book and cracked Bela across the face with it.  “Does Castiel have a spell on him that makes him keep coming back to you?  Yes?  Take it off!”

            Bela shuddered.  She got painfully to her feet and went to her shelves, where she produced a jar containing a strip of material identical to the blanket she’d used to trap Castiel.  She set the material on fire and Castiel felt it immediately when the spell dissipated. He sighed in relief, smiling to let the three anxious Winchesters know it had worked.

            “What about the other spell?” Dean asked.  “The one that makes him a kid?  Take it off, too!”

            It seemed Dean had made his decision, but Castiel wasn’t sure that he’d discussed it with Sam and Jess.  Sam was still holding him, and Castiel could feel the way the man’s arms tightened around him.  Jess straightened.

            But Bela was shaking her head.  “That isn’t a spell that can be broken.  Wait!” she cried as Jess moved menacingly forward. “It will wear off in time.  You don’t have to do anything to break it. The spell was only designed to let me get control of him, and after that there wouldn’t be any need to keep him small. It’s not permanent.  In a few weeks, it will just wear off on its own, and he’ll go back to the way he was.”  She narrowed her eyes.  “Mark my words.  That is my angel, and I will have him!  You can take him now, but I swear I’ll make you pay!  I’ll get him back, you wait!”

            Jess punched her in the face.  She went down like a broken doll.

            “She’ll come after me,” Castiel sighed.  “I was given to her by Heaven.  She’s not going to give me up easily!  And she’s got an entire house full of magical artifacts to help her get me back!”

            “Easy to fix.”

            Dean had been snooping around in the workshop. Now he was carrying a gas can.  He put the can on the workbench and reached for Castiel.  “Sammy, think you can drag Miss Witchy out?” he asked, handing Castiel to an eager Jess.

            “Probably.  You’re not seriously going to set her house on fire?”

            “I plead the fifth.”  Dean was opening the can.  The smell of gasoline filled the air.  “Might want to get out now.  The cops are coming already, so give me about ten minutes and then call the fire department, too.  This lady’s going away for kidnapping.  I’m just gonna make sure she doesn’t have any nasty toys here to get herself out of jail. And if burning worked on that other spell, I’m willing to bet it’ll work on almost anything else she’s got here, too! Now scram!”

            Jess quickly carried Castiel up the basement stairs and outside.  Castiel looked back, saw Sam carrying Bela.  Outside, the Impala waited next to Sam’s car.  Castiel frowned.  “How did you find me?”

            “Our computer researcher, Ash,” Sam explained. “He’d already had her picture because Jess asked him to check up on Bela when she came for you.  So he tagged her and did a mass search on social media with those supercomputers of his.  She popped up with you in a restaurant, and we jumped in the cars.  We missed her there, but then she showed up again right outside of this house, with the house number visible.  Nice of her to be so willing to pose!  Gotta love social media.”

            Castiel wasn’t sure what all of that meant, but it didn’t matter.  He finally felt safe.  Jess was humming softly to him, gently stroking his wings, smoothing the feathers back into place.  It felt wonderful.  He closed his eyes, and by the time the police and fire departments arrived, he’d fallen into a peaceful sleep.

****

            Two weeks later, Dean was at work in Bobby’s garage when he got the call he’d been simultaneously anticipating and dreading. He made an excuse to Bobby, received some token verbal abuse, and jumped in Baby, heading to Sam and Jess’s house. Jess met him at the door.  She was smiling despite the tears that streaked her face.  “Come in, Dean,” she called.  “Wait until you see him!”

            Sitting in the living room was an attractive man with messy dark hair and familiar blue eyes.  He wore the adult version of the suit, tie, and trench coat Cas had been wearing when Dean first found him in the box, but his wings were missing.  He smiled, rising to greet Dean.  “Hello, Dean.”  His voice was deep and gravely.  He was almost as tall as Dean.

            “Heya, Cas.”  Dean moved forward and pulled the surprised angel into a hug.  Cas’s arms went around him, gentle but with the hint of unnatural strength just below the surface.  Dean patted him on the back and pulled back.  “Look at you, man!  Where’s your wings?”

            The massive black wings flared up from Cas’s back. He folded them back, and they disappeared.  “I don’t typically keep them out when I’m on Earth,” he explained.  “It was the spell that forced them out before, so that I’d be easy to find.”

            “Man, she really set you up hard, didn’t she?”

            “She did.”  The blue eyes looked troubled.  “And she didn’t even want me.  She didn’t know I was the one who started the rebellion, or anything about me. She just wanted an angel!”

            “This is going to sound bad, but I’m glad she got the best Heaven had to offer.”

            Cas scoffed.  “I’m hardly that.”

            “You are to me.”

            Cas smiled.

            “So what happens now?” Sam wanted to know.

            “I imagine I’ll wander the Earth, try to find a way to negotiate with Heaven.  Now that my powers are back, I don’t think I’ll need to worry about Bela Talbot. Heaven won’t honor her debt because they already gave me away.  I think I can make a case that I’ve been punished enough.  And if not?  Well, the reason I started that rebellion is because the archangels aren’t connecting to the rank and file, the angels on the front lines.  There was a lot of discontent, a lot of support for my rebellion. We were making real headway before Bela provided a weapon that defeated us.  I can try again, using my words this time.  Maybe I can make things better?”

            “Cas, you said that when they put you in that box, all the other angels were cheering,” Dean reminded.

            “Of course they were.  But those were the angels loyal to Michael and Raphael.  I suspect I may still have some allies in Heaven, if I try to look.”

            “But Castiel, until then, you’ll need a place to stay,” Sam urged.  “Why don’t you stay with us?”

            Cas frowned.  “I imagine that would be awkward.”

            “Why?”

            “Because the two of you might want to work on becoming parents to an actual human child of your own,” Cas said.  “My powers are back, so I healed Jess.  You shouldn’t have much difficulty with conception now.”

            Silence.  Then Jess and Sam were pouncing on Cas, crying and thanking the angel, who awkwardly petted them.

            Dean hung back, watching until the couple regained control.  “You know, I don’t have that problem.  I don’t have an extra bed, but we can switch off on the couch?”

            “I’m an angel again, Dean.  I have no need for sleep, or to eat.”

            “Even better!”  He smiled.  “Come stay with me, Cas.”

            Cas smiled.  “I’d like that.”

            “Just remember, Dean, that Castiel is still kind of my boy,” Sam called.  “Hurt him, and I’m pretty much obligated to kick your ass!”

            “You can try, bitch?”

            “Bring it on, jerk!”

            “Wait a minute.”  Dean held up a hand.  “Why would I hurt Cas?”

            Sam gave him a smile.  His eyes moved to Cas, then went back to Dean.  And his smile grew wider.

            Dean scowled at him.  Ok, he had to admit that this grown-up version of Cas was pretty damned hot.  Castiel had been a beautiful child, and now he was a beautiful man.  But the guy was an angel.  It wasn’t like anything could be there.

            ...Right?

            Somehow, when Cas smiled at him, Dean wasn’t so sure.

THE END