#everyone live

Life was finally normal again - as far as normal goes for the Winchesters: no more God meddling with their life, no more Apocalypse, no more all powerful entities fighting over who would rule the Earth without any regards for the human living there.

And humans were finally all back! Jack brought everyone and in a few days the boys made sure every hunter they knew and their family were back and safe. Everyone they love was where they were supposed to be, even Eileen! Like a miracle, she appeared at the door of the bunker, a week after Jack defeated Chuck. Dean had never seen Sam so relieved. He held her tight, interrupting the embrace only to sign "I love you" before hugging her again. She did not remember what happened during the days everyone was gone - no one did - but she was here to stay and nothing could make Sam happier.

Dean sighed deeply, putting his toothbrush down. Who would have known he would be jealous of Sam and Eileen? Yeah, everyone was back, except Cas. It had been two months but keeping a straight face had not become easier. He could pretend in front of Sam that life was just going on, but little did his brother know that when he was going out for a run or on a date with Eileen, Dean was browsing once again through the bunker's library, searching for a plan, a spell, a miracle, anything. Anything to bring back the angel, his angel. 

Dean tried splashing cold water on his face to distract himself from this thought but it was no use: Cas's last words were always hovering somewhere in his mind. He finally understood what Cas meant by true happiness: he wasn't miserable or constantly sad. They went to this pie festival earlier this week and he could say he was happy this day! But it wasn't true happiness. And his was gone. He had to bite his tongue not to punch the mirror in front of him. He folded the towel and closed the bathroom door with a conscious struggle not to slam it shut. He would find him, one way or another. The Winchesters never give up on family.

A welcome distraction came the same morning as Sam knocked on the door with his laptop balancing on one arm.

"I think I've got something!"

Dean immediately put down his issue of Busty Asian Beauty - and the scroll he was hiding underneath. It was a long time since they had some action! A classic hunt: vampire kidnapping children, they have done it about a million times. What could go wrong?

 But it went so terribly wrong. Sam was reliving the fight in his mind as he tried to keep Dean up, tried not to hurt him more than the metal bar stabbing him in the back. The inspection of the house, the research about the masks the vampires were wearing, the ride to the nest, the two young boys - didn't they look strangely like them at the same age? And the last five minutes of the fight that seemed to last for ages until Dean was pinned to the wall and couldn't move anymore. How? How could something so stupid happened? They defeated God and Death themselves and Dean was going to die because of a rusty nail? It couldn't end like this, it wasn't fair!

Focusing back on Dean's face was the hardest thing Sam has ever done. The tears rolling down his cheek. The pain in his eyes at every slight shift of the metal in his body. His words, reassuring and loving as he said goodbye. Sam's vision was blurred by tears but in the silence of the barn everything his brother said hit as sharp a knife.

"Please Sam, tell me it's okay"

The pleading was too much for him, but he forced a shaky, miserable smile on his lips.

"It's okay, Dean. You can go to rest."

He was ready to give his brother a last hug, to hold him tight in his last moments, when something dark and moving appeared on the wall behind Dean. Sam's eyes widened. The gooey substance was spreading fast, engulfing Dean's dying body, sinking him into the wall. He tried to grip him, to pull him off of there, too panicked to remember the bar holding him to the wall but everytime he tugged he felt Deanslipping deeper and deeper and deeper until the only thing visible was his hand, pale and cold and getting desperately lifeless.

"Dean? Dean! DEAN!"

 "Sammy?"

Dean's voice met no answer, not even an echo. He tried to steady himself but stumbled and found nothing to keep him from falling. He was feeling weird, but not in pain. Was he… dead? This place was too quiet to be Hell and to dark to be Heaven. He put a hand on his back, unsure of what he would found. His jacket and shirt were torn were the nail had stabbed him but he felt no wound. What happened? Where was he? Everything was so dark and…

empty.

He turned around. Meg was looking at him so intensely that he could physically feel it. Dean wanted to ask what he was doing here: he was human, human souls go either to Hell or to Heaven, but the Empty was quicker than him, asking with a voice colder than the void around them:

"Is it true?"

"What?"

Meg snapped her finger and two figures appeared, curled up on the floor as if they had been hit. A tall black woman in a black leather coat and a man with brown hair and a trench coat.

"Cas!" Dean screamed with a broken voice.

He tried to reach for the angel but couldn't move. Helpless, he could only watch Castiel painfully get up on his knees, and give him a weak smile. He seemed to shaken to even talk, and this enraged Dean even more than seeing Billie still alive.

"What have you done to him?" He spat to the Empty

"I've only asked a few questions." It replied, casually inspecting its nails.

"You've tortured us to get answers I would have given you freely." Cas corrected, panting, anger leaking through his voice broken by fatigue and pain "I chose to summon you, there was no need for this"

"You can never be too careful" Meg snapped before turning to Dean "Now Winchester, I want your version of this story. What happened with God Amara and Death?"

"The story is a very simple one: Billie tricked Jack into sacrificing himself to kill Chuck so that she could take his place as the new God. She was never going to keep her part of the deal with you and put you to sleep. When Cas and Sam discovered that, we stopped the plan and she sent Jack to explode in the Empty in the hope it would hurt you. Now that you know all the truth let Cas and I go!"

But Meg didn't seem to hear him. She was slowly moving towards Billie who just had managed to rise from her knees, darting her eyes on the Empty as if it could make it spontaneously combust. Dean felt the air vibrate with power. Death, God, the Empty, Dean knew how powerful they were, but he didn't realise how much they restrained themselves when they were on Earth. Now they were not restraining at all and the smallest movement could turn him into a bloody pile of human skin scattered across the Empty. He was so overwhelmed by the tension that he didn't see that he was free to move again.

"Dean…"

Cas's voice calling him broke Dean free of his terror. In an instant he was on the floor holding Cas tight, patting the trench coat to make sure he was real, there and alive. He wanted to say something but couldn't think straight enough to put words together. Instead he cupped Cas's face in his hands, drowning himself into those blue eyes, bluer than the summer sky, deeper than the ocean, larger than the universe. Oh god, he missed those eyes so much! How come it took him ten years to realise he didn't want to look at anything else ever again?

"Dean are you alright?" Cas asked with a soft voice, swiping tears from Dean's cheek

He hadn't even realised he was crying, neither that Cas was crying too. He nodded and Cas's smile widened. The angel gently put one hand behind Dean's neck, finger reaching through his hair, the other hand slowly drifting towards Dean's lips.

 "Sorry to interrupt your pizza-man-and-babysitter thing but I am not through with you two." The Empty said with a mocking smile.

Castiel froze and repressed a sigh. When would he finally get to be happy with Dean without someone trying to separate them? He parted away slowly, every inch further felt worst than The Empty's torture. He didn't take his eyes from Dean's confused and lost expression until he realised they were alone with Meg.

"Where is Billie?"

"I'll deal with her later. Slower. For the moment I am wondering what to do with you."

"You let us go!" Groaned Dean "I am not saying it again!"

"First, you don't decide anything in my realm Winchester, and second, why would I do that when I had a deal with Clarence? He would get what he wanted and I wouldn't? You spent enough time with crossroad demons to know that's not how it works."

"You got your answers, what else do you want from me?" Cas sounded desperate: he had just been reunited with Dean. He died once happy even knowing he was seeing him for the last time, but he could not do it again.

"But it wasn't what we agreed with. Anyway it doesn't matter: angels, demons, they all end up here in the end. No use resisting me, Castiel. You're mine."

The angel shivered. He didn't wanted this. He has to do something, but what? He could not fight his own nature except if he… the ideas storming his head stopped all at once. It was the only way.

He had to become human.

His body worked faster than his mind. He reached for Dean's knife inside his right boot, put it to his neck and started to carefully open his throat. Dean and Meg seemed stunned, watching the intense blue light of his grace leaked through the cut. Dean finally snapped out of his confusion. He caught Cas's wrist, repeating his name as if his life depended on it. Cas felt his resolution weaken with every whisper.

"I'm begging you Dean, don't stop me."

"I'm not stopping you."

 Dean shook his head, breathing deeply before continuing

"Come on you're doing a mess here. Let me help."

He took Cas's hand into his and strengthened the path of the blade through the skin. Angel grace escaped swiftly from the cut, fading into the darkness of the Empty until there was nothing but a fine line of blood dripping from Cas's neck. Even with this wound he was more alive than ever. He was human, and it meant they could both go back to Earth. Dean rose his head with a smirk toward Meg. The fury beaming from the entity didn't scare him anymore.

"You get the angel juice, I get the human body. I think we are square."

"Don't you think you're going to escape so easily…"

She raised a hand and the sudden pain put Dean on the floor. In the corner of his eyes he could see that Cas wasn't feeling better. All he could do was to crawl to him. Inch by inch, closing the mere two feet separating them. But Meg was walking faster.

At this exact moment, a red hole appeared, floating just above the floor behind them, illuminating the void. Cas and him looked at each other. Dean the same thought: it couldn't be worse than what the Empty would do to them. He put Cas's arm around his shoulder and threw them both into the rip.

The floor under them hit hard, but at least it wasn't as cold as the void. Their eyes needed a few seconds to adjust to the sudden light, there was a table, and chairs, and two pairs of legs inches away from their faces. He slowly followed them up to two familiar faces.

"I… I can't believe it worked."

"Dean, Cas, are you okay?"

 Sam was bewildered. So, so happy but bewildered. He helped Eileen get Dean and Cas on one of the bunker's sofa and cover them with all the blankets they could find. Cas was looking at everything as if he was seeing it for the first time - he probably thought he would never see it again, Sam thought. He barely reacted when Eileen washed the blood from his throat. He just reassured her that it wasn't a serious injury when he noticed her concern. Sam was also having trouble getting any answer from Dean.

"Just tell me none of you took another deal with anyone!" Sam begged, shaking Dean's shoulder

"No more deal, Sammy, that's over." Dean replied as if he had just woken up "But I don't know who helped us out and what it wants in return."

"I… I think I did..." Sam said, not believing his own answer

He told them what happened after Dean was take by the Empty: He was alone in the barn, pacing, searching for a solution. He grabbed the weapons and drove back to the bunker as fast as the Impala could go. He just took the time to explain the situation to Eileen and they both searched the library and bunker's archive room for everything that could be used in a spell. Sam's mind was racing through everything Rowena taught him: he never created an entire spell by himself, let alone something so powerful, but that was the only chance Dean had. They spent the night combining things, writing charms, drawing sigils, calling hunters for rare ingredients. Sam didn't even think it would do anything: he worked like someone else would have gotten drunk. He still didn't believe it when the red portal materialised in front of him, and even less when Dean and Cas crossed it... But they were here and safe at last and nothing else mattered. Dean could tell him what happened on his side later.

Sam didn't say a word but he had seen under the blanket Dean's and Cas's hand reaching for one another without the two men even noticing. He repressed a smile, patted his brother on the shoulder and signed to Eileen to leave them alone. They probably had to talk, just the two of them.

 A few minutes stretched when neither Cas or Dean said anything. Dean pushed aside some of the blankets - Sam was always too much when he worried - and just stared at Cas, not knowing what to say or do. His thumb absentmindedly rubbed the cuff of the trench coast's sleeve but he didn't want to withdraw his hand. It felt good, comfortable to have some silence after the few hours - how long had it actually been? - they spend in the Empty. Cas's breathing was slowly getting calmer and so was his. He honestly could have fallen asleep right here and now if it wasn't for the spring of the sofa against his right tight…

Cas finally broke the silence with hesitation.

"Thank you, for trusting me earlier"

"Well" Dean replied with a half-smile "you rarely inform me of your plans ahead of time, I had to jump on the running train."

"I know Dean I'm sorry about the deal with the Empty but I had to save Jack and I would have done anything to…" Cas defended himself in a breath, on the verge of tears. He was taking back his hand and closing it around his knees as if to protect himself.

No no no no no, that's not what he meant or how he meant it! Dean's thoughts raced wildly: he didn't want to make Cas feel like this!

"Please Cas, just… let me do the talking this time, okay?" Dean interrupted in a rush, catching back his hand. He continued with a calm, soft tone "I am not mad. I was shocked and scared and sad and angry at the Empty, not at you! I'm sorry I didn't say anything before you… before…" Dean felt his voice crack, but he had to say it, to say what he desperately wanted to tell Cas that day in the trap room "I love you too Cas. Man, I love you I never want to lose you again!"

A dam broke into Dean and he threw himself into Cas's embrace, burying his face in the former angel's neck and sobbing like a child after a nightmare. He didn't know how long he cried like this in Cas's arms but they both fell asleep on the couch, still holding one another.

 "Good morning, sleepy head."

Watching Dean emerged from sleep was the most endearing thing Cas had seen in a long time. He hadn't slept much, not yet used to being human, and woke up hours ago. It was 2PM but Dean was still deeply asleep on him lap and he didn't dare to move and wake him up. The hunter groaned and shifted to face Cas. His hair was messy and he had the mark of the trench coat's fabric on his cheek, Cas couldn't help but smile.

"How do you feel?" Dean mumble while rubbing his eyes.

"My back hurt and I can't feel my leg..."

Dean smiled.

"Yeah me neither..."

They both moved to sit more comfortably, stretching, folding the blankets and stopped when their eyes met, face just a breath away from the other's.

"Can… can I kiss you?" Cas risked in a short breath "For good morning?"

Dean dropped the pillow he was holding, with an indecipherable expression. Cas tried to turn away, afraid to face a no,but dean stoped him. He put his hands on Cas's back and neck and Cas's hands found their place around Dean's face. The former angel almost thought he was dreaming once again when Dean's lips touched his. It was warm and full of love, 10 years worth of hidden feelings. After all this time it felt like the most obvious thing on Earth, kissing Dean Winchester. He held him a little tighter, kissed him even deeper. Nothing in any Heaven of any religion could compare with this bliss: True Happiness at last.

They parted only once they were both out of air, hearts beating wildly, keeping their eyes locked into one another. Dean's hand was resting on his shoulder and he reached to take it. He was beaming with joy, the most loving smile lightened his face. Cas smiled back but before he could say anything Sam cleared his throat loudly from the threshold.

"Breakfast - slash lunch - is ready."

If Dean's eyes could kill, Sam would have been dead right this second.

"Son of a bitch, you watched us?"

"I spent 10 years watching you turn around each over, I deserved this! Anyway you can't get mad at me: I made you bacon, real bacon!"