#cherrymish

Not that they could  call it improvement with all that happened down there. His brother was hurt - bleeding out of more than one cut - and had just been locked up in the cage with Lucifer all over again. 

As if they were friends going back to a coffee shop because it was where they’d met. Except that this was the cage and just the thought of Sam going back in the cage was enough to make him want to go home and lock him in his bedroom so he couldn’t go anywhere.

His brother seemed tired, worn but oddly okay. Dean kept glancing back to see how he was doing, if he wasn’t staring off in the distance again or snapping his eyes back to the backseat. He kept making sure that Sam wasn’t seeing Lucifer riding with them. Lucifer had haunted his brother once before, he could do it again. 

No matter how much happened to them, he couldn’t stop worrying about his little brother. Especially when Lucifer had pretty much dropped him straight into memory lane and made everything Dean knew Sam always blamed himself for just a little more vibrant.

It wasn’t just his brother he was worried for however and both of them knew it. Sam too was looking back at where Castiel was still standing at the door to hell, where Dean had previously been greeted by Billie. It seemed like Cas was waiting for them to drive off.

“Do you think he’s okay?” Can a fish survive out of water? Do demons handle salt and holy water well?

“Though day.” Castiel had said he was or at least, that he would be okay. Maybe that was the truth, after all, he wasn’t a porcelain doll, he could withstand quite a lot of torture. He had withstood more than what he’d faced today.

But today was different. Today Castiel had stood there and faced off against Lucifer, his brother. He’d been beat up, was bleeding and that all yet again to protect them, to protect him almost directly. Getting beat up by a demon or human was one thing, but an angel? An angel was ten times worse. “You good?”

He couldn’t start worrying about Cas right now. There was too much going on. Dean needed to be sharp.

“I don’t know.” His brother fell silent for a while, mouth still opened as if he didn’t quite know how to say it. “What if Lucifer was telling the truth?”

Not tonight, please not tonight. He couldn’t deal with any more of this. 

“No, dude. Darkness is bad. Her and the devil? That’s a nightmare.” A grade A Winchester quality nightmare.

Dean hoped that Sam understood the look in his eyes. He didn’t want to have to explain out loud how he didn’t want to hear another word about evil trying to get their hands at the world they were on. They could tackle saving the world tomorrow. It wasn’t that much to ask for, right?

All he wanted tonight was a warm shower, a soft bed and five minutes in which they could all pretend they weren’t walking into their next nightmare. Five minutes to pretend that Castiel was alright and just in heaven, to pretend that the world was actually mature enough to rescue itself.

“Yeah. Okay.” Sam looked away. “We should head back.”

“We should.” In all honestly, they should have taken care of Sam’s cuts first. Some of them were still bleeding quite badly, badly enough for the patch of blood on his shirt to still be growing. “Am I crazy or did something happen back there?” 

He couldn’t get the imagine of Lucifer dissolving in golden light, of how off Castiel had behaved afterwards out of his mind. Something felt off about it. They’d had major troubles with getting Lucifer out of their lives before, it had taken Sam to go down to the cage. It ending like this felt just wrong.

It wasn’t just that however, it also was the way Castiel had answered. It wasn’t his usual way of speaking. Dean ought to be better at explaining it, but he couldn’t get past wrong. “You didn’t hear how he said it dude. He just sounded wrong.”

“Shock?” Sam offered up. His brother was frowning as well however. “It would make sense. He just got beat up by his brother. I don’t think he’s been treated that badly by angels in one day in a while. It woud make...sense.” 

“Yeah, yeah, probably. I’m making a big deal out of this.” He took one hand of the wheel to rub across his face. The headache was starting to pound more and more as time passed. Sleep. It was all he wanted right now. 

They had time. They could figure out how they could stop the world from burning properly after a good night of sleep. “Let’s pull into a motel instead of driving all the way back.” As much as he hated to admit it, he didn’t think they’d make it safely.

At the motel he could...he could pray to Cas. Even if he hadn’t done it in a while, this could be an exception. He owed the guy for pretty much saving him from choking under Lucifers hands. 

Least thing he could do was thank the angel. Dean knew a simple thank you wouldn’t cut it, but it was what he could do.

  Cas, I know you said you’ll be okay but I think we need to check in anyway. He beat you up pretty majorly man. You doing okay?

It’s not every day you face off with your brother. I mean. If there’s anything we can do, if anything happens, you can come to us okay? We’re at a local motel right now but going to the bunker tomorrow. We were beat.

Will you meet us there? Even if it’s just for a minute.

We need to talk about everything that happened. Most of all though. Thank you. You pulled my ass out of the fire there.