Fallen

Chapter Twenty-Four

Minutes later, Dean comes back into the room. "You okay?" I carefully ask him.

He just nods and returns to his seat. "There's a grief councilor outside if you need her," he emotionlessly says.

I squint at him. "Dean, what did you go do?"

His expression doesn't change. "I told you, I just needed to go to the bathroom."

"Yeah you told me that, but you lied," I counter.

He rests his elbows on his knees and rubs his face. "Look, I don't even know if it's going to work, okay?"

"If what's-"

I'm cut off by a man appearing in the corner of the room behind Dean. I jolt up from my seat, realizing that it has to be an angel. Dean follows my gaze and stands up.

"Where is Castiel?" The angel demands.

Dean's demeanor changes. He almost seems disappointed. "What?"

"You heard me."

I immediately tense up and become defensive. I don't like this guy's tone. "Even if we knew, why would we tell you?"

The angel turns to me and looks at me like I'm a child. "I don't believe I was speaking to you."

Dean shifts back to his stern self. "Don't talk to her like that," he snaps. I'm comforted by his defense.

The angel rolls his eyes. "Why does everyone insist on defending this abomination?"

He looks right at me when he says the word I'm so tired of hearing. Why do they all call me that? It's not like I chose to be fathered by an angel.

"I should just kill you now," he continues. "Then we'll have gotten rid of both nephilim in less than three days. And my brothers and sisters could rest easy knowing that there are no more loose ends to tie up."

"Both nephilim?" I repeat. "There's another?"

He cocks his head to the side. "Was. Her name was Jane. Your father cut her heart out."

His statement hits me like a wrecking ball. "What?" I squeak. I fall back to my chair, my knees unable to hold me steady anymore.

"Of coarse he didn't tell you," the angel says. "He's good at keeping secrets from you isn't he?"

"Celeste, don't listen to him," Dean says, looking at me. I just stare down blankly as I try to comprehend what I was just told. Dean looks back at the angel. "Get out."

"Not until you tell me where Castiel is."

"We don't know!" Dean barks. "Even if we did, we wouldn't tell you! Now get. Out!" With that, the angel disappears. Dean walks around Sam's bed to me. "Hey," he puts his hands on my face and forces my gaze up to his eyes. "Listen to me, don't ever listen to those feathered bastards, you hear me?"

I don't know how to feel. I mean, I'm sure Cas had to've had a good reason, right? But that angel is right. Cas is notorious for keeping things from me. And why would he do something so horrible?

"Cel!" Dean nearly shouts and pulls me back to reality. I flinch at his volume. "Cel, listen, we can't jump to conclusions until we know the whole story, okay? Okay?" I loosely nod. He's right.

He nods too, then he pulls my face up to connect my lips with his. Guilt takes over my body underneath his touch. Again. This time, it's so powerful, that it pushes tears from my eyes. One of my tears rolls down to Dean's hand on my face, and he pulls away. He instinctively starts wiping my tears away with his thumbs.