THE ROAD SO FAR... - Chapt 21

CHAPTER 21
Bitter words under my breath...

"Please be careful." Michelle whispered in his ear as she held him close for a moment.

"You know I will." Dean replied as he pulled away and knelt down to hug his little girl. "Be good, Sammie..."

When Michelle pulled Castiel into a hug, the angel couldn't help but smile; knowing exactly what she was thinking and what she was about to say. "I'll keep an eye on him." He whispered softly.

"Good." She replied, swallowing the lump caught in her throat. "You take care of yourself too..."

Sam leaned back against the Impala as he watched Dean and Castiel say their good-byes. Five years had brought out a side in both of them he could have never imagined. His brother had a family of his own, a daughter that meant the world to him and a kind woman at his side. Castiel, as far as he could tell, was as close to being human as an angel could possibly get. Together, they had forged a friendship, a brotherhood that was more than apparent in the way Castiel was looking out for his older brother... Just like Dean used to do with him. Sam couldn't help but smile at the thought, happy to see that Dean had managed to make a life without him... happy that Dean's entire world hadn't come to a dead stop the night he died, just like it had the first time. The first time, his older brother had traded in his own life to save him, but this time was different and Sam knew he owed it all to Michelle and Castiel. His older brother no longer felt alone in the world. He gave Michelle a wave as the pair made their way over towards the Impala, both doing what they could just to keep themselves together. "She seems nice..." He said as he caught his older brother's eyes.

"She is." Dean replied as he took one last glance towards Michelle and Samantha. "Alright, let's hit the road." He announced as he tossed his car keys over to Castiel. "I call shotgun..."

"You're kidding, right?" Sam asked as he watched the angel flash him a grin before pulling the driver's door open and sliding in behind the wheel. "Dean?"

"Prepare to be amazed, Sammy." Dean replied as he gave his brother a smile and slid into the passenger seat. "Cas, is a great driver... He just can't park the thing."

Sam reluctantly got into the back seat and was surprised to see Castiel take the wheel of the Impala as if it were something he did everyday. "Cas, it's like I don't even know you anymore." He started as they pulled out of the driveway and onto the road. "Everything about you has changed, the way you act, walk, talk, look... If I didn't know any better I'd say you were one of us."

"Five years is a long time, many things can change." Castiel replied, his grip on the wheel tightening as he looked up into the rearview mirror to catch the younger man's eyes. "Sam, I'm sorry I couldn't save you that night..." He quietly started, his thoughts racing back to the raging fire that had devoured the mill. To the day, he could still feel the heat of the flames licking at his back and he could still smell the acrid smoke. Had he been able to understand anguish and guilt that night, he would have drowned in it for sure.

"It's alright." Sam quietly replied, pressing a hand against the bandage Michelle had placed to cover the burn the renegade angel who'd pulled him for Hell, had left. "I'm here now and I owe it all to you."

"I would have pulled you from Hell sooner..." Castiel started, feeling the need to explain why so much time had elapsed since that fateful night at the mill. "But what I did to get to you last night... What I did..."

"Was suicidal." Dean cut in, his voice forcing the angel to look over for only a moment. "You didn't think you'd make it out alive and all odds say that you shouldn't have..." He growled, sucking in a shallow breath. "You were lucky."

Castiel swallowed hard as he gave the man at his side a nod; knowing that even if Dean was truly grateful for what he had done, the hunter was still upset about what could have happened had he not made it back out of Hell alive. "You knew..." He said simply, breaking the uncomfortable silence that had suddenly filled the car.

"Of course I knew." Dean replied, his eyes narrowing on the road ahead of them as he took a deep breath. Though Castiel had come out of Hell with nothing more than some minor cuts, burns and scratches; it could have been worse, much worse and just the thought of loosing another brother tore him apart inside. "When you pulled me from Hell you were a full blown angel and you had an entire army covering your ass..." He started, trying to keep his tone of voice steady. "When you went in after Sam, you weren't half as strong and you went in alone."

"Desperate times, call for desperate measures." Castiel quietly replied, his eyes never leaving the road ahead. "We were running out of time. All I had to do was get him out of Hell, any other angel would have been good enough to take Sam as a vessel and face Lucifer."

"Yeah but they're not you, Cas." Dean was quick to reply, pausing for a moment as the image of Castiel outnumbered by demons plagued his mind. "You're the closest to Heaven that I'll ever be and I don't want to loose you, not now."

"Dean, you have to understand that this is much bigger than you and I." The angel quietly started, swallowing the lump caught in his throat as his grip on the wheel tightened slightly.

"I get that, but if we don't make it out of this alive tonight, I want you to be the one standing there with me... we're in this together, remember?" When the angel behind the wheel gave him a nod, he couldn't help but take a deep breath. After everything they had been through, the though of facing Lucifer without him there at his side was something he couldn't bare. "Good... All right, we need to fill up on gas." He suddenly started, quicklly changing the subject as he leaned over to get a look at the fuel gauge in the dash. "Pull into that service station up ahead." He informed, pointing to the small garage just up the road. "There's nowhere to fill up between Scythe and Bobby's place and my baby's running on empty."

Castiel gave him another nod as he pulled off the road, letting the Impala coast to a stop near the pumps before putting the car in park and shutting the ignition. When Dean stepped out of the passenger seat, Sam couldn't help but watch as his older brother made his way around to the gas pumps. "Dean really has changed in the past few years." He casually remarked, his voice pulling the angel's attention away from the climbing numbers on the pump nearby. "Family and loyalty still come first, but there's something different about him. Emotionally, he's not the same person he was back then."

"He has changed." Castiel simply replied, his eyes catching those of the man sitting behind him in the rear view mirror. "He's become a stronger man, now able to deal with things that would have once crushed him."

"Well, the change is good." Sam quietly replied, taking notice of the old beat-up truck that pulled in on the other side of the pumps. "The last time, he didn't survive my death."

"It took time and he's come a long way." Castiel continued. "But your brother still has a lot of anger over what happened to you that night at the mill."

"Hey Cas... What did happen to me that night at the mill?" Sam quietly asked, swallowing the lump caught in his throat.

The angel took a deep breath as he tried to think of where to start, that night had been one he wished he could forget. "You were hunted by a group of hunters out for revenge." He quietly started. "They tracked you down and they put a round of lead, then silver into your chest. To be sure you were dead, they salted and burned your remains..."

Sam let out a sigh as he passed a hand over his face, just thinking of what both Dean and Castiel had gone through that night made him choke up. "What about those hunters?" He asked. "Knowing Dean, they'd all be dead for what they did to me."

There was a moment of silence as the angel turned in his seat, his attention drifting away from Sam, to Dean who was leaning against the trunk of the Impala, his hard gaze set to the right. The expression on Dean's face as he reached for his gun forced the angel to look over at just what the older Winchester had been staring at with a glare. When Castiel's blue eyes focused on the gruff man that had stepped out of the old truck nearby, he swore under his breath. This would not end well.

That face was one Dean would never forget. It was scorched into his memory just the same as the hand print that had been burned into his shoulder and the seal etched into his chest. When he caught the other man's eyes, his mind raced back through the years to that night at the mill on the outskirts of Scythe, when that same hunter had held a shotgun to his chest. The night that man had killed his younger brother. He took a step forward as he pulled his gun from the back of his belt, holding it at arms length as the man turned to face him. "You son of a bitch." He growled, pausing for only a moment as he let the hunter study him carefully. It was the first he'd seen of him since that night at the mill and Dean was more than determined to make it their last encounter. "You know who I am?" He barked, his tone of voice demanding an answer. "Do you remember me?" He continued, ignoring the sound of the Impala's doors slamming shut behind him. "I said, DO. YOU. REMEMBER ME?" He shouted, feeling an anger that he had harbored deep inside for years suddenly surface.

The hunter swallowed hard as he offered a nervous nod. "Yeah, I remember you." He replied simply, his gaze drifting over to Sam and Castiel as the pair quickly made their way over.

"Do you remember him?" Dean continued, pointing towards his younger brother as his eyes bore down into the hunter standing only a few feet away. "Last time you met, you unloaded your gun into his chest." He growled, loading his pistol as the man took a panicked step back. "How would you like me to return the favor?"

There was a moment of silence as the hunter's eyes shifted between the Winchester brothers he thought for sure were dead. Not only had he shot Sam pointblank in the chest, he'd salted the body and burned the mill to the ground to ensure neither would survive. "How is that possible... How are you both even still..."

"Alive?" Dean cut in, knowing exactly what the other man was going to ask. "Let's just say that we've got friends in high places." He paused as he watched the hunter's eyes drift over his shoulder to Castiel who was standing close by. "And in case you haven't heard, I DID stop the Apocalypse... So now you owe your life to me and I'm ready to collect it."

"Dean." Castiel interrupted, reaching out to grab him by the shoulder. "That's enough." There was a short moment of silence as the angel pulled Dean towards him, forcing him to take a step away from the hunter. "Get in the car, we have more important things to deal with right now."

Dean sucked in a deep breath as he slowly lowered his gun, his eyes never breaking away from the man in front of him. Though his heart was still racing and his blood still boiling, Castiel's stern tone of voice always did seem to disarm him. It was almost a voice of reason to him these days, something to keep him from flying off the handle when hunting hit too close to home and much too close to the heart. "You're lucky I didn't run into five years ago, you son of a bitch." He growled, tucking his gun back into his belt. "You'd be a dead man, you and all your hunting buddies."

"DEAN." Castiel hissed, once again getting the other man's attention away from the hunter standing only a few away. "I said get back in the car." The angel watched as the Winchester brothers reluctantly walked back to the Impala, the doors slamming shut with more force than necessary.

"So the rumors are true then..." The hunter suddenly started, pulling Castiel's attention away from the Impala. "Sam and Dean Winchester really were the only ones able to stop the Apocalypse."

"Well you are still here, aren't you?" Castiel simply replied. "The ones that got it started were the ones that would put an end to it... But you knew that, you just didn't care."

The hunter swore under his breath as his mind drifted back through the years. "We were wrong to hunt them down, I know that now. But all we knew for sure then, was that they were the ones that got it started. They were responsible for the death of us all and they were going to pay the price because we knew we couldn't win the war."

"You couldn't win the war." Castiel replied, his tone of voice low. "But Sam and Dean could." He paused for only a moment as he watched the hunter's eyes hit the ground at his feet. "They were tricked and deceived into breaking those seals and starting the Apocalypse, it's not something they planned. When they realized what they had done, they were determined to stop what they started... That is, until you and your friends showed up and hunted them down because all you wanted was someone to blame... Someone to hold responsible."

"That was my last hunt." The man suddenly confessed, his eyes drifting back up to meet Castiel's. "A week or so after we caught up to them at the mill... My boys and I started tracking down this older guy that had been helping them out." He paused for a moment as he swallowed the lump caught in his throat. "We were hiding out in an old farmhouse near his salvage yard; waiting for nightfall, when one of my boys said he could hear voices... Voices warning him that there'd be Hell to pay if we got any closer to the guy. We all just shrugged it off, but when it got dark enough and we started gathering our things to head out... something happened." He paused again as he tried to find the right words to describe the nightmare he had lived through. "My boys, they just started dropping like flies, there was blood everywhere from stab wounds and gashes that just suddenly started to appear..."

"You didn't listen." Castiel whispered, his eyes narrowing slightly. "You all heard the warning that night at the farmhouse and you all chose to ignore it. You watched your friends die one after another and like a coward you ran, you ran out of there and haven't looked back since."

There was a moment of silence and the man sucked in a ragged breath. "How do you know that?" He asked with shaky voice, the memory of that night still so vivid in his mind.

"Because... I was THERE." Castiel growled, his tone of voice sharp. "I'm the one that warned you to keep your distance and I'm the one that took out your friends when they made it clear that they wouldn't." The angel paused for only a moment as he let his words cut right through the man standing there in front of him. "Dean is playing a critical role in the fate of mankind and ANYTHING done to harm those he holds dear, will have a negative impact on his life... which could prove disastrous on the outcome of yours and the rest of mankind. I didn't want that night to end in bloodshed, but Dean couldn't afford to take another blow like the one you delivered when you killed the brother he lived for."

"I relive the night my friends died every single day..." The man quietly whispered, passing a hand over his face. "That night at the mill, the night that started it all... I wish I would have known."

"Nothing would have changed if you did." Castiel was quick to reply. "You would have still hunted them down because that's the kind of hunters you were; blood thirsty for revenge." When he watched the man's eyes once again wander away from his gaze, he cleared his throat to get his attention. "Now you're going to listen to me this time and you're going to listen very carefully." The renegade angel growled, making sure the hunter caught a glimpse of the large silver blade that was tucked into the belt of his jeans. "I want you to get back in your truck and drive... drive until you run out of road and when you do, I want you to keep going." He paused for only a moment as the man gave him a nod. "Consider yourself lucky that I am NOTHING like you, because if I was, I would have let Dean pull the trigger..."

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Note: This chapter I had originally cut from the story but after reading through it one last time, decided to add it back in to tie off a loose end. Wrapping up the fate of the hunters that killed Sam and left Dean for dead was something I just couldn't skip afterall.