“Do you think I’m going to die or do you know I’m going to die?” Dean said and carefully sat up. His head spun and he gagged so hard he thought he would vomit. Castiel wrapped an arm around him and he gasped against Castiel’s shoulder until he felt steady again.

“I’m afraid,” Castiel whispered. “I’m just afraid. I don’t want you to die. I don’t want you to have to kill your brother. I’m afraid one or the other will happen.”

“There’s always another option,” Dean said, clutching Castiel’s coat. “I can save Sam, I know it. I don’t know how right now but I’ll do it, Cas. I’ll do it. I won’t let him die.”

Castiel touched Dean’s cheek, looking at him with his calm, deep eyes, and Dean kissed him. Castiel quietly gasped against his mouth and slid his fingers into Dean’s hair, and when they parted they leaned their foreheads together and quietly breathed.

“You won’t be alone, Dean. I am with you until the end.”

Dean smiled, his eyes still closed. “I know.” He kissed Castiel again, gently, and said, “It looks like you could have used me earlier, too.”

Castiel looked at his bloody knuckles. “It took some persuading to get the information I needed.”

“Yeah? What information was that?”

“Where Lilith intends to use the Grail.” He got to his feet and held his hand out to Dean.

“No shit, really?” Dean said as he grasped Castiel’s hand. He let Castiel pull him upright. A spasm pinched down his back and he hissed, but limped on determinedly to the path. “It’s the next Grail castle, right?”

“Yes,” Castiel said, walking slowly and calmly at Dean’s side.

“If you’ve known this all along I’m so going to kill you.”

Castiel smiled to himself and put an arm around Dean’s waist to support him as they walked. “I have suspected that the two were the same since Lilith send a demon to fetch the Grail. I have not always known where the exact location was. I have been searching since Joseph Temple died.”

“I wondered what you were up to,” Dean said and paused to kiss Castiel. “Of course you were looking out for us. Is it far? Do you know where my baby is? If we have to drive –”

“Your car is safe. I will take you back to it. We will have to drive all night to get there in time, Dean.”

“I can do that,” Dean said confidently. “Done it before, can do it again. Where are we headed?”

“San Francisco,” Castiel said, guiding him into the Fishers’ stone house. “There’s a church with an outdoor labyrinth called Grace Cathedral. That is where Lilith will be.”

“Okay,” Dean said with a nod. “Okay.”

Castiel took him to his little room and he washed up from the wash basin as Dean put on his own clothes, jeans and t-shirt and his leather jacket, which was only a little scarred from the fire. When Dean was dressed there were footsteps in the main hall, and the three Fisher women stood outside his room.

“I, um.” Dean looked at Castiel and Castiel gazed back at him, calm — and he thought it was fair to say affectionate, too. “Thank you,” he said and said it again, his eyes wet. “Thank you.”

Sophie Fisher came to him and kissed his forehead. “Be strong,” she said softly. Dean nodded, solemn.

Celine Fisher came to Dean and kissed him on the forehead. “Be brave,” she told him, and Dean nodded again.

Maya Fisher came to him and held him by the shoulders, and lightly kissed Dean’s mouth. “Be full of love,” she whispered, and smiled at his surprised expression. “What? How often am I going to get to kiss you, Dean? Especially since –” She glanced at Castiel, who was trying very hard not to frown. “Since your heart belongs to someone else.”

Dean smiled reassuringly at Castiel, and then hugged Maya. “One last question. Why were you crying, Maya?”

“Because hope felt small,” she said, “but it has grown large again. Now go, boys, and go quickly. There isn’t much time.”

Dean held out his hand to Castiel, who took it, kissed him — a little possessively, it must be said — and brought him back to Wyoming, back to the everyday world.

***

The Impala had been impounded, according to the motel clerk, who gave them an address while looking at them disapprovingly. Dean supposed arriving with one man and leaving with another could only mean that he was hustling to her, but he had no desire to set her straight. Castiel was his lover, after all. Whatever else people assumed about them, that much was true.

They passed the day drifting between various coffee shops and diners, and at one Dean picked up someone’s abandoned newspaper from the day before and looked at the headlines. He pointed out one article to Castiel, who read it, frowning.