Debunked

Chapter 6

"Okay, you win," James says, dropping his cards on the bed in exasperation. "For the millionth time."

"I don't know if beginner's luck can even cover this," Emma adds. "Do you have magic card-playing powers that you neglected to mention?"

Castiel shakes his head. "Just a good memory and some good luck."

"I have neither, so that makes sense," Emma says.

"Okay, as much as I love losing," James says, "I think it's about time to hit the sack."

"But I wanna play Go Fish," Emma whines.

"And then you'll complain tomorrow that you're tired," James says. "And I don't want to deal with that."

"Ugh, fine," Emma groans. "'Night."

Emma and James crawl into bed, and Castiel heads for the door, ready to leave them alone for the night.

"Hey, where are you going?" Emma asks.

"Dean always said it was creepy when I stayed while he slept," Castiel explains.

"Well, Dean can go fuck himself," Emma says. "Unless you actually wanna leave, obviously, 'cause we can't stop you if you're sick of us and wanna go —"

"Of course I'm not sick of you," Castiel says, surprised she would even think of that. If anything, he's expecting them to get tired of him first.

"Then you can hang around," Emma says. "Dean's not here, and the rest of the world knows that it is not creepy for you to stay in the same room as your friends at night."

Castiel smiles slightly to himself. One moment that's really stuck with him for the last few years was back when he still had his wings and he was looking for Dean, and the hunter basically told him to stand outside all night until Dean woke up and they could go. Permission to stay with his new hunting partners is a welcome change.

"Thank you," Castiel says. It's only then that he realizes there's really nowhere for him to wait through the night, so he just takes a seat on the floor. This is good enough. Maybe, if he's still feeling this welcome when they go on thei next case, he'll ask them to choose a motel room with an extra chair.

Cas?

The smile falls from his face at that. He'd recognize that voice in his head anyway. He should have expected this prayer to come eventually, but not now. Not when he's just adjusting to this new family.

Cas, hey, it's me.

"Castiel? You good?" James asks.

Castiel nods. "Uh, yeah, I'm fine." Just confused. What is Sam doing?

I've been trying to call you, but it keeps going straight to voicemail. I don't know if it's 'cause the service here sucks, or the service wherever you are sucks, or maybe your phone's not working, I don't know. But it's been a few weeks, and I'm kind of worried about you.

Dean keeps telling me not to worry about it. He said you probably just needed a break after what happened with Jack. I get that. I kinda did the same after Rowena, so, you know, I'm not, like, judging, or anything. I'm just kinda worried.

You don't have to come back now if you think you still need some time, but give me a call when you can, okay? I just wanna make sure you're okay. And if you need a friend or whatever, we're always here for you.

Castiel snorts at that. Always there? In what universe are they always there for him?

But that sounds a lot like what Dean said. Every time something goes wrong, Castiel is there. He's at the root of everything. He messes it all up. So maybe it makes sense that they're not always there for him — why Dean specifically hasn't been there for him in years.