Hopelessly Human

55. Who'll Stop the Rain

Dean and Natalia looked pointedly at Castiel and Azrael, Dylan gave Castiel and Azrael a small smile, and Sam smiled in barely concealed pleasure and slapped Castiel on the arm and touched Azrael's shoulder.

In a faux FBI-colleague voice, Sam said, "Agents."

"Agent," Castiel and Azrael replied, clearly pleased to be in with them.

"Cas. Rae," Dean scolded. "What the hell are you two doing?"

"Um," Castiel's voice dropped. "I still have the badge you gave me. I had one made for Azrael."

Natalia frowned. "Yeah. Um, what the hell are you two doing?"

"The murders were all over the news. I, we thought we might be of help."

Sam turned to the angels. "Yeah, but Cas, Rae, you two know that this is an angel situation, right? I mean, you two left that night because angels were on both your asses."

Dean, uncomfortable, interjected. "Yeah, and you two were living the life, you know? Early retirement, working your way up the Gas-n-Sip ladder."

Castiel said, "If angels are slaughtering one another, Azrael and I have to do what we can to help. It is a risk we should be willing to take, don't you think?" Sam and Dylan shrugged in agreement, seeing the point. "Hey. Cas and Rae are back in town."

Natalia's lip curled and Dean said, "Seriously, did you-" he said to Sam, Natalia and Dylan, "did he just say that?"

Castiel showed them photos. "These angels, uh, they were butchered. Much more violence than was required."

Dylan looked over the photos. "Definitely took more than one or two killers to pull off something like this."

"Hit squad?" Natalia guessed. "Bartholomew's people?"

Sam glanced at her. "Well, Bartholomew has a faction we know about, but this could be somebody else entirely we don't know."

Castiel pat them each on the shoulder. "Well, whoever it is... We'll find them."

""We'll" find them," Dean and Natalia repeated. "That's great."

Dean noticed a disapproving look from what he guessed to be Ezekiel and slunk off, Dylan and Natalia following.

They made their way to a bar, sat down after making sure there were six chairs, and had a beer.

"It is so good being together again," Castiel stated. "You know, this is my first beer as a human. The same for Azrael. I hope it's okay, us joining you?"

"Why wouldn't it be okay?" Sam asked.

Dean and Dylan looked alarmed as Dean said, "You know, Cas, Rae, are you two sure you're both ready to jump back into all this? I mean, it seemed to me like you'd both actually found some peace."

Castiel met Dean's eyes. "Hey, you and your sister once told me that you don't choose what you do. It chooses you."

"Huh?" Dean and Natalia questioned.

"I'm a part of this." Castiel clinked beer bottles with Dean and Natalia. "Like it or not."

Azrael nodded. "Yes. I've been part of this for far longer, but this human thing is new. And rather enjoyable... For the most part."

Dylan clapped his hands. "All right, well, in that case, we need to figure out, uh, who we're up against, what they want, and how we stop them."

"Well, Bartholomew wants to reverse Metatron's spell. Presumably to -- to retake Heaven once his following is large enough. That's according to April," Castiel informed.