Work Text:
The first day Castiel returns to the Empty, it rings with voices. Castiel uses The Shadow’s preoccupation with Billie to slip away into the sound of a thousand thousand demons and angels discordant. He takes with him three things: his clothing, his blade, and a casette tape labeled Dean’s Top 13 Zepp Traxx.
The seventh day after Castiel returns to the Empty, Chuck comes for Lucifer. He puts the Shadow and everyone else to sleep until there is nothing but quiet again.
Castiel sleeps. These are the things he dreams of: a door opening, a bargain with a demon, a lie to a friend, a wall broken, the release of monsters, deaths and deaths and deaths, a meteor shower, a fist to a face, a love spoken late.
Similar to the first time, it is Jack’s voice which wakes him.
There are still some walls in Heaven, though mostly they are fluid. People who don’t wish to see each other. People who were content with the lives they had and the way they lived and have no curiosity about any other place and time on Earth. People who prefer to still live in their memories, because Jack gave everyone a choice.
There are even two barriers which are not fluid, the one that divides the souls from the angels, and the one that divides Heaven from Earth. The angels are not allowed to cross those barriers. Castiel agrees with the rule. The angels have stolen enough from Dean. He deserves his peace even if it is difficult.
It is difficult.
Castiel hears Dean’s prayers, though Dean would not call it praying. He sings, “to chase a feather in the wind / within the glow that weaves a cloak of delight / there moves a thread that has no end,” and thinks of Castiel and does not stop even when he gets to the chorus. (Sam prays too, but his prayers are a kind of correspondence, “I miss you” and “I hope you are well” and details about his daily activities.)
Castiel has permission to cross the barrier in order to assure that Heaven is working as it should under its new parameters, so long as no one sees or hears him. He spends a lot of time making sure that beloved objects, the ones loved into realness, make it to Heaven. Even if they are made of metal, vinyl and rubber.
Dean is despondent, and angry, and flippant and determined, and always, always thinking of Castiel until one thousand eight hundred forty days after Castiel returned to the Empty, Dean Winchester’s soul enters Heaven. It is too soon, but Castiel does not interfere.
For over nine thousand days, Dean thinks of nothing but the road. In time, Sam Winchester’s soul enters Heaven. Their reunion is joyous.
Castiel expects to hear no more from either of them.
He is proven wrong very quickly.
Castiel is getting ready to leave the barrier when he sees a light, a crack opening up, and a doorway appearing. He hears Sam’s voice. “I can’t believe you talked me into this.” The brothers walk through the doorway.
Dean’s hands are full of magnetic tape, an unspooling trail leading directly to Castiel. His hands go to the pockets he visibly has again, to find them empty, knowing what it is that has lead Dean here. Without breaking eye contact, Castiel receives a hug from Sam and returns it.
Dean takes a step (it only takes a step, they are already standing so close) and catches up Castiel in his arms. He pulls Castiel into a bear hug, hard. He might not let him go. Castiel’s arms come back, returning the embrace. Gentler, but no less desperate. Castiel thinks about not letting go.
It's heaven. Time runs differently. The hug lasts as long as it needs to.
Castiel has imagined this moment a lot, knowing it would never be, wondering which of the things Dean has thought about saying to him over the years Dean would choose, if given a chance. Dean has begged his forgiveness and cursed him, told jokes and tried to honor his memory, soldiering on. He opens his mouth.
For everything that Cas has imagined Dean saying, he doesn’t expect what Dean does say.
“Stay.”
He stays.
(Jack understands.)