West Coast

Chapter Six

'Dean is?'

'My husband.'

'What do you remember about him?'

'Not much,' Cas said sadly. 'A little of when we met. His car. That's about it.'

Penny nodded, writing on her paper. 'All right, we can put that down as our end goal. We can add to it or change it as we go along. For now though, did you have anything smaller in mind?' She looked up and noticed the small notebook clutched in Cas's hands. 'What's that you have there?'

Cas hesitated. 'These are questions,' he said. 'Questions that I wanted to ask Dean.'

'Why haven't you?'

'I don't want to upset him.'

Penny tapped her pen on the clipboard. 'Perhaps that can be one of your smaller goals - asking Dean one of your questions.'

'I think I would like that.'

'I like that you're already writing things down. I think we can use that to help with your short term memory. I would recommend that you begin writing lists of more things than this, such as what chores you need to do for the day, and what medications you've taken, and that will help you be a little more independent. What do you think?'

Cas nodded.

For the rest of the sessions, Penny helped him identify some smaller things he could remember by himself, like walking Hoagie, and insisted he take pride in those things.

'I've seen your file, Cas,' she said, just as they were finishing the session. 'I know what happened to you, and you should be very proud of how far you've come alone. It may not seem like much to you, and I can help you put it into perspective.'

Cas got to his feet, and allowed himself a small moment of pride. 'Thank you,' he said.

'You're very welcome. I'll see you next week.'

When Cas went out to the waiting room, Dean was dozing quietly in a chair, but looked up blearily when he heard Cas coming.

'Hey,' he mumbled. 'How'd it go?'

'I have homework.'

Dean laughed and stood up. 'Let's go.'

'Wait,' Cas said. 'What's your favourite colour?'

Dean's eyebrows rose. 'That part of your homework?'

'Sort of.'

Dean looked Cas in the eye. 'My favourite colour's blue,' he said quietly. 'Come on, I'm hungry, let's get lunch.'