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The call came and Cas' entire world came apart.
A few brief words were all he heard, enough to know Dean wasn't.. wasn't coming home. Wouldn't be returning to him.
One simple 'Yes' to the wrong archangel for the right reasons, and everything was gone.
Dean had.. he'd promised to come home!
Cas sat behind Baby's wheel, keys dangle uselessly from his right hand, left occupied by his phone.
They'd taken a picture, to celebrate Lucifer's confinement behind the rift.
They were sat on the war room's steps, only place in the bunker able to accommodate them.
Jack had his arms thrown carelessly over Sam and Dean's shoulders, grin bright enough to power the sun.
Sam, for his part, looked exhausted but happy, shadows lessened with each night that passed.
Dean..Dean was wrapped around Castiel, sat in front of him, one step down. Dean's right hand was entwined with Cas' left, just over the seraph's heart, the other tucked crosswise along his chest.
It has been a great day, full of laughter, beer and pranks. Jack had even learned to drive!
Cas longed to sit there, bask in happier memories, but Jack and Sam we're out there, and he needed to bring his family home, have them back, safe, under his broken wings.
"Broken, but still strong. Never forget that, Cas."
Repeated, Dean's last words made the seraph want to breakdown, lose his shit, as his hunter often put it, but later.
Always later.
Cas went to start Baby, double checking the address Sam had texted, when the grinding noise, almost a whine, made his head snap up in confusion.
Dean had..they'd just taken Baby for a drive yesterday, no issues to speak of!
Cas turned the key once more, listened when the sound dropped into a lower register, similar to a..sob?
Baffled, Cas tried the key one more time, only to give up and dig the Pimpmobile's keys out of of the lock box by the garage door. Later, he'd ask Bobby to give Baby a look over. Right now, Sam and Jack had waited long enough.
Months..
Months with no word on Michael, no clue where to begin a search, when the archangel clearly did not want to be found.
Bobby, Sam, gave Baby a complete overhaul, with no discernable reason why she wouldn't run.
Oh, Baby would start, enough to make you think she'd go, then that grinding that made him think she was in mourning too.
Cas had explained that to Sam once, when the hunter found him cocooned in Baby's front seat, wrapped in Dean's favorite green flannel, amulet hung from the rearview mirror, whispered Enochian as he rubbed a thumb along Baby's wheel.
Sam didn't reply, merely dropped into the passenger seat, fished an old Zeppelin tape out from under his seat and popped it in, curling his body against the window, shared quiet between the pair.
No one bothered Cas after that day.
Jack would stop by to check on him, sit awhile, rest his head on the seraph's shoulder, while Cas regaled the nephilim with a decade's worth of stories.
Fights, hunts, and a relationship, all started in Baby, he explained, right hand carding through Jack's blonde hair, left on Baby's wheel, an endless repetition of touch and comfort, for both seraph and machine.
Rare occasion, Mary came by, to give Baby a pat, hug Cas, but nothing more.
They all felt the loss, void left behind, but no one understood it better than Cas himself.
Long has the seraph chased Dean around the country, often sitting shotgun on a solo hunt, refused the request for solitude. A self-made punishment.
The broken first seal. Sam's blood addiction. John Winchester's deal with Azazel. Even Adam's possession, and inevitable Cage confinement.
Baby had borne witness to all those fights and more, the sole spectator to the very beginning of their life together.
Cas stroked his palm over her dashboard, felt her pain deep in his grace. Dean, one way or the other, was gone, and Baby was lost.
Until they could rescue Dean, she would refuse to work for anyone, even Cas. And he would respect her wishes, keep her company.
It would be selfish to allow a lady to grieve alone. After all, his heart was broken as well.
They could mourn the loss of their world.
Together..