Moving On (Destiel)

56: The Search Trials (Yes like the Scorch Trials I just HAD to okay)

Dean returned to the Novak's house the next day. He waited at the door, anxiously. He hoped Cas would open the door. He hoped Cas would not. He hoped Cas would open the door. He also hoped Cas would not. Was Cas gonna open the door or-

The door opened and Dean had barely time to process Becky's face of disgust and disappointment before she slammed it shut again. He blinked and tried again with the knocking, but nobody answered. He sighed and pulled out his phone. To a point he could understand Becky, but this was outright ridiculous. He should at least be allowed to get some stuff of his and Sammy's.

But before he was done dialing Gabe's number, the door opened, hesitant and skeptical. "What do you want?", Becky asked promptly.

Rude. "Just gather some stuff Sammy and I left here." Even to himself, he sounded tired. He always sounded so tired these days.

She eyed him up and down, not believing him.

"Mom? Who is it?" Gabe's voice was a fainted call, also tired, as Dean noticed. That was also when he saw Becky's red eyes, the dark circles. Something was clearly not right. But maybe she had just spent all nights fighting with her sons; that was a plausible explanation, and Dean didn't think much more to it.

At least until Gabriel himself showed up, recognized Dean, shrieked in relief and opened the door wider. "Mom! Let him in; come on! He'll help us!"

"Help you? Me?" The last thing Dean wanted was to help Becky Novak.

"It's about Cas," Gabriel said, breathless, and all plans of Dean were suddenly turned around. "What about Cas?"

Panic rose inside of him, combining Gabriel's tiredness and paleness to Becky's unhealthy appearance, remembering the look of disappointment on Cas' mother a minute earlier, and added two and two together. "Where is Cas?"

Gabriel and Becky, who didn't seem happy at all to drag Dean into this, exchanged a glance, and she finally got out of her ass. "He ran away yesterday shortly after you left. Needed some space, apparently. Only that he hasn't come back ever since."

Dread creeped up in Dean's bones, distracting him enough to miss the part where Becky blamed the whole story on Gabriel, accusing him from holding her back, from not letting her run after her son even though all her mother instincts protested, for assuring her everything was okay and Cas just wanted a little him-time, while nothing was okay in reality.

"Did he leave any messages?", Dean interrupted them unintentionally – he had just snapped out of his thoughts and didn't even notice the fight going on.

"No," Gabriel wiped the sweat from his forehead with one hand. "Like Becky said – he ran without a goal. I'm pretty sure it was a "Heat of the moment" thing. I thought he'd be back after an hour or two. Which, of course, he wasn't. And after four hours we really started to worry."

"I worried way earlier," Becky corrected him, and Gabriel shot her a glare. "I don't care what you did or not did, Mom, I only care about my brother at the moment. And after I got him back we can deal with the actual issue here."

"Exactly." Becky turned towards Dean with a smug smile. "After you tell us what you did to my son that he was upset enough to run away, we'll deal with you."

"I meant you, Mom," Gabriel said quietly. "You are – or more like, what you did and said and made him say and do, that's what scared Cassie away. If Dean had stayed, no way Cas would've gone."

Becky gasped, but Dean didn't let her come to word. "Okay, stop it right there. I don't care about neither of your little fights or issues and in case I'm the issue, I'll piss off once I deem my boyfriend safe. But until that is, I ain't goin' nowhere. Gabe, any places we can exclude?"