“Dean, where are you?” there was a bit of worry in Sam’s voice.

“I’m on my way back to that house, why? Did you find something?”

“Uh no, I’m still looking over through Bobby’s journals…”

“Why did you call then?” Dean asked a little irritated, as he parked the Impala a few blocks away from an old abandoned 4-storey house.

“I was just checking on you,” Sam paused for a while, hesitated if he should mention it, but then decided to just continue “uhm, Cas said you’re not picking up…”

Dean answered with a grunt.

He got out of the car, walked to the back and opened the trunk with one hand, while his other hand was still holding the phone.

“Dean?” Sam said after the silence.

He knew Dean didn’t want to talk about it and that his brother would just be grumpy the whole day, but he had no other choice. He couldn’t concentrate on finding leads about their current case because Castiel wouldn’t stop calling for about 3 days already, asking about Dean. It was utterly stupid and Sam just wanted this drama to be over.

“I’m gonna go check the house, you call me when you get something.”

Sam sighed. Changed the topic again.

“Okay,” he simply replied, giving up on trying to fix whatever is happening between his brother and the angel “just, please answer your phone when Cas calls—“

“I don’t need to—“

“Dean, I can’t work here with him calling after every 10 minutes! Just talk or so help me I’m gonna tie both of you up in the Impala with a holy fire around the whole thing and play Justin Beiber on repeat! I am dead serious Dean!”

“Wha—who the hell—“

Sam hung up.

Dean stood there for a while, a bit surprised at Sam’s sudden burst. What’s with the crap threat anyway? He did sound really pissed off though. Well, he wasn’t the only one feeling that way.

With a frown, Dean placed his phone back in his pocket and picked up his pistol and a flashlight from their stash. He walked up to the house and saw a bulldozer at the front yard. There were a few lights in the area but nobody was around. Dean decided to just go to the backyard first.

He reached the back door and picked it open. There was a cloud of dust the moment he entered, and a stench of old furniture.

“Typical movie horror house,” he mumbled as he searched the place.

Dean cautiously went up the huge staircase, careful not to put too much pressure on some of the weak wooden boards. When he reached the second floor, he smelled a different stench. It smelled as if something burnt. He looked further around and saw that at the other end of the hall, there were black marks around the ceiling, walls and floor. There was definitely fire here a long time ago. He took more cautious steps toward the room that seemed to be the origin of the fire… when his phone suddenly rang.

“Dammit!” he was a bit startled. Good thing nobody was there to see.

Dean looked at his phone and grunted.

“Cas calling…”

He was going to press the reject button, when he remembered Sam’s threat. Surely, if he rejects this call, Cas would just dial up Sam again. And the moose would be very angry. Not that Dean was afraid of Sam, but the point is, his little brother isn’t really little anymore. He knew that Sam would really do it. Also, if Cas would keep on calling Sam, they wouldn’t get anywhere with the case. And Dean wanted to leave this old boring remote town already.

So against all his personal protests, Dean picked up the call.

“Hello Dean?” there was a ton of worry in Castiel’s voice, not even in the slightest attempt of hiding it.

“Yeah?” it took a while for Dean to answer.

“You weren’t answering my calls, I was worried.”

“I answered now, happy?” Dean tried to keep his cool.

“Are you alright? You are not in danger, are you?”

“I’m working a case.”

“Oh, I see. I thought—“

“You know what” and Dean lost his cool “did it ever occur to you that maybe I wasn’t answering my phone because I really don’t want to?”

Couple of seconds of silence.

“W-why didn’t you want to? I understand if you are very busy…”

“I don’t want to talk to you alright!?”

There was another moment of silence where, hopefully, Castiel got the point.

“I feel that this is about what happened in Michigan…”

“Wow, did you really just realize that now?”

“Dean, I really am sorry—“

“Yeah I get it, you’re very busy with other things important, so you can just ignore us friggin calling you for hours!!”

“You and Sam are always my top priority. It just happened that I was caught up in situations—“

“Sam was bleeding to death! We needed you, Cas! You could’ve just popped in and threw me your friggin angel blade that could’ve saved our asses faster!”

“I—I truly apologize, Dean…” was it just bad signal, or there were cracks in Castiel’s voice? Dean couldn’t tell “…Sam told me where you are right now, I will go there and help you—“

“I don’t need your help Cas. And you know what? Don’t worry, we won’t bother you ever again, you holy baby in a trench coat!”

“Dea—“

And Dean hung up.

It was a harsh way to end their conversation. But Dean was just utterly angry. He kept it in for a about two weeks after their previous case, so it was normal for him to burst out that way.

“Friggin angel.” He muttered to himself.

To get his thoughts away from Castiel, he focused again on the case at hand. He approached the room at the end of the hall, checking every now and then if the floorboards can carry his weight. Good thing the hall seemed to be sturdier than the staircase, so he went on easily. Before he could open the door, he heard a familiar flap of wings.

“Dammit Cas, I told you I don’t need—“

Dean barged in the room, only to find it empty. Weird. He was sure he heard Castiel. He knew that sound from the countless times he heard it, followed with that deep “Hello Dean” greeting.

“Cas?” he called out to make sure, while readying his pistol, because it could be something else with wings.

Still standing by the doorframe, Dean ran the light around the huge room. It must’ve been an office before the fire destroyed most of the books and files. There was a huge table at the far end with lots of stuff or what’s left of them. Cabinets and file cases were cramped against the walls. There were few scattered chairs and a whole bunch of mess. But no Castiel. Or anything else for that matter. So there was nothing left to see there.

Dean turned around to leave, when he heard a faint sound. For a second, he swore it sounded like a little cry. So he turned around again, and this time decided to walk around the room to take a better look. What he found behind the huge table left him speechless for a whole 10 minutes.