Roads Untraveled ~ Sam Winchester

Chapter Twenty-Nine - Finding Him

The months dragged on and there was still no sign of Castiel. Benny had reminded Dean of the sheer size of Purgatory repeatedly, but the Winchester was still adamant that he wasn't going to leave without him. The latest edition to their group hadn't been so bad. He and Elizabeth got on rather well considering her initial hesitations, though, there was still something in her keeping him at arm's length. She was just happy to have someone else watching their backs whilst Dean slept. It also gave her someone to talk to at night.
The trio had ended up sharing a few things about each other and, between fighting the monsters, found common ground in their histories.
Elizabeth had also taken to teasing Benny after he'd made a few comments about Dean's age and level of life experience compared to his. As it turned out, the female Vampire had over a century on Benny, so was sure to antagonise him whenever he joked at Dean's expense – often referring to the both of them as children; to which Dean was sure to remind her of the fact that she was dating his younger brother and thus, must also be dating a child, by her own logic. She wasn't overly happy about that, so the 'child' comments quickly ceased.

It was coming up to the year anniversary before they found Castiel.
The trio came up to a river and had just found him crouched down by it.
He looked like crap, to say the least. The scruff on his face had grown an inch or so, his trench coat was tattered and filthy, his psych ward garb even more so.
"Cas!" Dean called out to him.
"Dean." He only uttered, standing up to face them.
"Cas..." The Winchester smiled, instantly bringing him in for an unreciprocated hug.
As they shared the exchange, Cas looked over to Elizabeth and Benny with a slight frown.
"Damn, it's good to see you." Dean said, tapping Cas' facial hair. "Nice peach fuzz."
"Thank you." Cas replied, simply. He looked like he'd rather be anywhere else.
"I want you to meet somebody." Dean told him, motioning to the Vamp. "This is Benny. Benny, this is Cas."
Benny looked as about excited to be there as the Angel.
"Hola." Benny mumbled.
"How did you find me?" Cas asked.
"The bloody way." Dean replied with a smile. "You feeling okay?"
"You mean am I still..?" The Angel waved his finger by his temple.
"Yeah, if you wanna be on the nose about it, sure." Dean chuckled.
"No, I'm perfectly sane." Castiel replied. "But then, Ninety-four per cent of psychotics think they're perfectly sane. So, I guess we'd have to ask ourselves 'what is sane?'"
"That's a good question." Dean sighed.
"Where have you been, Pigeon?" Elizabeth asked.
"Yeah, why'd you bail on them?" Benny frowned.
"Dude." Dean interjected.
"The way I hear it, you three hit monster land and hot wings, here, took off. I figure he owes you two some backstory." The Vamp continued.
"Look, we were surrounded, okay? Some freak jumped Cas, obviously he kicked it's ass, right?" Elizabeth could exactly believe that Dean was defending him.
"I didn't see anyone." The Vampire frowned.
"Well, you were kinda freaking out at the time." Dean shrugged. "Right Cas?"
"No." Cas replied.
"What?" Dean's brows knitted together in confusion.
"I ran away." The Angel explained.
"You ran away." Dean repeated.
"I had to." Cas sighed.
"That's your excuse for leaving us with those Gorilla-Wolves?" Dean was clearly growing angry.
"Dean..." Cas started.
Elizabeth gave a breathy chuckle in disbelief, opting to ignore the conversation from here on in. She crouched down by the river and began to wash away the blood and dirt from her arms and face.
"You bailed out and, what, went camping?" Dean raised his voice. Benny looked disgusted. "I prayed to you, Cas. Elizabeth prayed to you and you know how much she damn well hates that. Every damn night."
"I know..." Cas' voice turned small.
"You know?! And you didn't-" Dean shouted, cutting himself off. "What the Hell's wrong with you?"
"I am an Angel in a land of abomination. There have been things hunting me from the moment we arrived."
"Join the club!" Dean growled, glancing over as Elizabeth got up to re-join the conversation.
"You had Elizabeth. She'll go here when she dies. Not many monsters get a trial run. Clearly, she did a good jo-"
Cas was cut off when Elizabeth reared back and punched him square in the nose with every ounce of her Vampiric strength.
"Call me a monster one more bloody time, I dare you." She sneered, arching over him menacingly as he cupped his face on the floor. "I took care of you. Played bloody board games with you – listened to you ramble on about all sorts of crazy crap and that's the thanks I get? Screw you, Castiel."
She stormed off between Dean and Benny.
"Call me when you're done arguing. I'm going to find something to decapitate." She mumbled, disappearing off into the trees.
"These are not just monsters, Dean." Castiel panted as he rose to his feet again, blood dripping down from his nose. "They're Leviathan. I have a price on my head and I've been trying to stay one step ahead of them to... To keep them away from you. That's why I ran. Just... Leave me. Please."
Dean's face softened at the revelation. Hell, even Benny's did a little bit.
"Sounds like a plan. Let's roll." The Vamp said, turning into the trees. "I'll go get 'Liza."
"Hold on, hold on." Dean put out a hand, stopping Benny in his tracks. "Cas, we're getting outta here. We're going home."
"Dean, I can't." Cas grumbled.
"You can. Benny, tell him." Dean instructed.
"Purgatory has an escape hatch." Benny explained. "But I got no idea if it's Angel-friendly."
"Hey, we'll figure it out. Cas, buddy. I need you." Dean sighed. "And if the Leviathan wanna take a shot at us, let them. We ganked those bitches once before, we can do it again."
"It's too dangerous." Cas' voice was small, bordering on submissive.
"Let me bottom-line it for you; I'm not leaving here without you." The Winchester said. "Understand?"
"I understand." The Angel nodded.
"Great. Now go apologise to Elizabeth, because that was a pretty crappy thing to say after everything she's done for us. Then we can get outta here." Dean beckoned over in the general direction the Vampire had gone in.
Cas sighed heavily, knowing he'd gone too far. He nodded and walked to find the Vampire.