Title: To A Second Sunrise
Fandom: Supernautral
Author: Apache Firecat
Dedicated To: A friend of mine actually had this happen to her...
Characters: Castiel, Dean, Sam, OFC
Rating: Strong PG-13/T
Summary: Dean wasn't Castiel's only charge, and he wasn't the only one the Angel abhorred failing to protect.
Word Count: 1,619
Written For: Fan FlashWorks 384: Second and 100 Fandom Hell: A new fandom
Warnings: Pedophilia
Disclaimer: All characters within belong to their rightful owners, not the author, and are used without permission.








"CAS! CAS, NO! I KNOW YOU'RE NEW TO THIS, BUT WE DON'T FRY HUMANS!" Dean's fingers dug into Castiel's arm as he tried to tear him off of the old man whom Castiel currently had slammed into the wall. The fallen Angel's hands were tightly clenched around the old man's throat, and the guy's eyes were beginning to roll up into his head. His feet kicked.

Dean could swear he could hear thunder rolling outside somewhere. The atmosphere had dropped and turned heavy. He could not see them, but he could feel Castiel's wings, nearly filling the room. "Cas -- " he urged, pulling at his arm. "SAMMY, DON'T JUST STAND THERE!" Dean jerked his head toward Castiel. "COME HELP ME!"

"Cas?" Sam edged carefully towards them from the other side of the room. "Maybe, hum, maybe he has a reason, Dean?"

"FOR KILLING AN OLD MAN IN FRONT OF HIS GRANDKID?! CAS, LET GO!" Dean barked.

Castiel's voice came out soft and low. "Ask her," he said. At the same time, Dean felt himself forced off of the Angel and across the room though Cas never so much as turned to look at him. It was as though he had been knocked by one of the Angel's invisible, dark wings. He fell against the wall but shoved himself back up.

"CAS, ARE YOU INSANE?!"

"Ask. Her," Castiel repeated, still not looking at either brother.

This was insane! Dean thought. Castiel never acted like this! He wouldn't be surprised if he was turned on by anyone else but Sammy, but Cas?! Cas seemed to think the sun rose and set in him!

"Her?" he heard Sammy squeak. He followed his brother's gaze as it angled onto the little girl in the short dress. Dean watched Sammy's Adam's apple quiver as his little brother gulped, and he found himself gulping as well.

"Who is she, Cas?" Sammy asked.

"She was one of mine."

"Like Dean?"

"Yes. Sort of."

Dean shook his head slowly. Maybe he was going crazy. It was far past time with it, with all the unrelenting stress under which he had always lived.

"I thought you said you were Dean's Guardian Angel?"

"He wasn't my only charge. She prayed to me too, and although I wanted to, I could not directly intervene. Ask her. Samuel, ask her for which she prayed."

Dean's wide, fearful eyes darted between the little girl in the pink dress and her grandfather and Castiel. "I don't understand," the little girl slowly spoke. "If you're my Angel, why are you hurting my Grandpa?"

"LET GO OF THE OLD MAN, CAS!"

"You prayed for him to stop." Castiel's voice was vastly different as he spoke to the child. It was soft and assuring. The feeling in the room changed again as it felt like a breeze was whipping softly in and around the three startled humans.

"Stop what?" Sammy asked, his words barely audible, as Dean's stomach turned.

"What did he do to you?" he asked the girl. "What did your grandfather do?"

"He wasn't that bad," she said. "He was just... It was just... weird." She lifted her little shoulders in a tiny, nonchalant shrug.

Sam walked over and knelt before the child. He reached for her shoulder, but she flinched and pulled away. He tilted his head to one side, allowing her to see his face, including the bruises and blood thereon. "What did he do?" he asked again. "You can tell us. You can tell us anything. Remember? We just stopped the bad guys."

"Yes, you did," she agreed, her bottom lip trembling, "but my Grandpa's not one of the bad guys."

"Yes, he is," Castiel spoke, still without turning to look at any of them or releasing her grandfather. "Dean, take her out of here."

"Come on," Dean said, walking up to Sammy and the child. Sam stood as well, and to his surprise, the girl did not seem to want to stay to stop Castiel from hurting her grandfather or to be around her grandfather. He wasn't sure which. He still wasn't at all certain what was happening, why Cas was so Hellbent on hurting the old timer, but he had a sinking feeling he knew. Something had not been right about this family since the moment they'd arrived, and there had been some kind of unfinished business with which the girl's dead father had wanted resolved. They'd managed to defeat him with relative easy, but his last words had been almost more of a plea. What the Hell had that old man done?!

He watched as Sammy reached again for the child, but she once more flinched and pulled away from what his brother meant to be a reassuring touch. "Please don't touch me," she said softly.

Sam let his hand drop to his side and they walked in silence until they had reached Baby outside. The little girl's gaze swept from the Impala back to her home and then back to the Impala. Her eyes were filling with tears as she asked quietly, her voice tremulous, "Does this mean I don't have to go back? I don't have to go back and be alone with him?"

Sammy again dropped to a knee in front of the little girl, who seemed suddenly, to Dean, to be tinier than most kids her age.

"Sam -- " he started, but the ball of emotion in his throat stopped him.

Sam kept his arms open as he looked at the child, as he met her fearful eyes with a steady, reassuring, and trustworthy gaze. "You don't have to be anywhere," he told her, his voice strong and sincere, "you don't want to be." The tears began to spill, and it was almost as though his brother knew exactly what to say. "You look like I need a hug. May I?" Unable to speak, she nodded instead, and Sam brought her into his strong, reassuring embrace just as the floodgates of her tears opened.

Dean's hands had balled into fists. He turned away, before either could witness the tears filling his own dark eyes, and stormed back into the house. He was just in time to see the grandfather fall to the floor and Castiel step away from his body. He could tell from the way Cas' face jerked when their eyes met that he still expected Dean's anger. "Dean, I can explain. Did she tell me?"

He shook his head, but then chose his words carefully. "She told us enough," he said. His eyes darted to the grandfather. "Is he -- ?"

"He'll pay for his sins."

"Good."

"It all started with naps," Castiel said quietly after they walked together in silence for a peace.

Dean's eyes flicked up at him. "Naps?!"

The former Angel nodded. "Yes. When her parents were alive, he used to take naps with the little girl, and when his or her door was shut, he used to have her lay with her face in his lap... her face down."

Dean felt, rather than saw, the twitch of Castiel's wings. He also noted the twitch in his stubbled cheek and the pain in his eyes. Anger set into Dean as he came to understand Castiel's full implications. "People like that are worse than Demons," he muttered, pulling out his cell phone.

"What are you doing?" Cas asked.

"Calling a friend," he said as he punched in Jody's number. He glanced over at where Sam was beginning to work on cheering up the girl as he showed her some of the neater tricks about his Baby. Then he glanced at Cas and asked in a hushed, choked whisper, "You're sure he's dead, right?"

The Angel nodded only once. Jody answered his call, and Dean turned as he spoke to her. The kid needed a second chance at life, and he knew, between Jody and Donna, they would make certain she got just that. Standing in the fresh, warm sunlight after they had worked through so many dark nights, he raised his eyes to the sun as he considered his own parents. His, and Sammy's, childhoods had been bad enough, but at least they had never been as horrible as this poor child's. He'd rather deal with actual Demons any day than the humans those who didn't know better would call Demons.

"Dean, are you...?" Castiel whispered softly, but Dean just pointedly looked away.

Castiel nodded silent understanding and walked away to join Sam and the child. As Dean spoke to Jody, he mulled over his own childhood, all he had forsaken, all the things he had never had and over which had always complained. But he had always had Sammy. He had always had Uncle Bobby, too, and a mother who loved him and a father who had tried his damn best by both his boys. There were still tears glittering in Dean's eyes as he hung up his phone and headed back to the car.

"Hey, Sammy," he said, grabbing his little brother's shoulder for a moment. Sammy really had grown so much taller and more muscular than, at one time, Dean had ever thought his baby brother would become. "Why don't you let the kid take shotgun?"

"Aw," Sammy and Cas complained in unison, sparking a grin from Dean despite his unshed tears.

Dean quickly embraced his brother, then dove into Baby's plush seats. He waited until the others had settled, and Castiel had directed the girl to put her belt on, and then he spoke to her. "I want to meet a couple of friends of ours, Abby." He cranked up Baby's radio. "And a long the way, I'm going to teach you about some legends." They drove into the sun.



The End