West Coast

Chapter Twenty-six

'Why not?'

Cas scowled. 'What do you mean, "why not"? You had two sons to take care of, that's why not.'

'I think you guys had it covered.'

'I don't think we did,' said Cas, remembering Gabriel stopping him from throwing himself off their roof. 'Why did you leave?'

'Look, I wasn't really cut out to be a dad. Gabriel was a little asshole, headed straight for jail, and you - well you were nuts. I couldn't deal with your crazy.'

Cas tilted his head. 'I wasn't - your leaving is what set it off.'

'Oh, no, you were off the deep end way before I ever went anywhere. I had to tell Gabriel the people you were talking to were just your imaginary friends.'

'But - but that's not possible.'

'I'm just telling it how it is.'

'What do you want, Chuck?' Dean interrupted, his arms folding tightly, glaring at Chuck. 'Why are you here?'

'Who are you supposed to be?' Chuck countered.

'Dean's my husband,' Cas said, prickling.

'Is he stupid, or something? Is that how you got him to marry you?'

'You'll treat Dean with respect, or you can leave right now.'

'How about he leaves anyway?'

'You do know that he's insane, right?' Chuck said to Dean. 'Did he trick you into it? Pretend that his head isn't just a bag of cats?'

'You don't know anything about me,' Cas growled. 'You're lying.'

'What, you don't remember?'

Neither Cas or Dean said anything.

'Wait a minute, you really don't?'

'I was in a car accident.'

'You don't need to explain to him,' Dean interrupted again. 'Why are you here?'

Chuck leaned back in his chair. 'I heard you died, so I came to see what was up.'

Dean narrowed his eyes. 'You came to see if there was anything for you in the estate, didn't you?'

Chuck didn't say anything.

'Wow. Dad of the year.'

'I still think I should get something for putting up with your craziness for so long,' Chuck said. 'I mean, come on.'

'Who even told you I died? What took you so long to show up?'

'I heard it down the grapevine.'

Cas shook his head, and smiled, hardly believing what he was hearing. 'You're out of luck. It's not me who decided who gets what.'

'What's that supposed to mean?'

'Dean has power of attorney. It's him you have to convince, and...' Cas leaned forward to look at the stony expression on Dean's face, 'it doesn't look good for you.'

'Huh, so that's what's in it for you. I get it. You take care of the crazy, and you get a nice paycheck out of it.'

Dean jumped to his feet with balled his fists, incensed. 'Get your slimy ass out of our house,' he barked, 'before I throw you out.'

'Fine, I'll go. Just tell me where to find Gabriel, and I'll be on my way.'

Cas blinked.

'Gabriel's dead,' Dean said harshly. 'Sorry, you missed the boat on that one, and he already left everything to us. Not that he had much anyway.'