Hidden under nightmares

Chapter three

The diner isn't the most pleasant environment but at least they're not being overheard.

Dean tells Cas about the camera set up, about what he saw. He tells him about the cupboard he found and shows Cas the footage from their room, stopping it immediately after the figure disappeared back into the bathroom. "Not a ghost" Cas mutters in thought.

"Was there nothing after that?" Cas questions, still trying to piece everything together. "No." Dean says bluntly, closing his laptop a little too defensively.

The rest of their lunch is spent in their own heads, speaking only to give their theories or disprove the others.

They set up camp in a different motel and get to work.

They spend the day in suits questioning staff, guests and the locals. looking for sightings, near misses or local legends that could help them put the pieces of the puzzle together. They follow nearly all leads they could from the photo Dean snapped of the cupboard of belongings, with no joy.

*

Drained from a day of socialising they head back to the motel room and change.

Dean volunteers to go and grab some pizza, refusing Castiel's offer to come with him. He wants a few minutes alone. He's still not had a chance to wrap his head around the video footage he saw this morning and it's been on replay for him all day.

He drives further out than he needs to under the excuse of looking for actually decent pizza.

He drives with the music on as loud as it could go and the windows open. But the noise doesn't drown anything out for him.

He had a nightmare and he woke Cas up.

And Cas helped him.

Deans always had a hunch that when Cas had his powers he'd sometimes disrupt any nightmares that he saw Dean fight. He has memories of horrible dreams going from being in sharp focus to being hazy to being gone, replaced with something lighter.

He had thought that maybe the bad dreams were so loud that Cas muted them for his benefit and helping Dean was just a byproduct. Maybe that wasn't the case. He doesn't know. But he had thought, after the fall, that he would never be helped through a nightmare by Cas again. He certainly didn't think Cas would talk him through one.

It would have been easier for Cas to wake Dean. Yes, it would have been jarring for him for a moment but the whole ordeal would over quicker. Talking him down takes time. But Castiel chose to take time, to look after Dean.

He saw Dean at his most vulnerable and helped as if it was instinct.

But what did he say? What did he whisper? What soothing words did Cas find to calm him? His head was spinning and he decided to pull over.

He was barely looking at the road and he didn't really know where he was. He needed to think this through properly, he wasn't dying in a car crash because he was fixating on Castiel.

Dean focused on his breathing for a moment. He put his head in his hands and felt everything weighing heavily on him.

Why does it feel too much?

They have always been there for each other, through everything. They were close, they were family, they had spent years depending on each other but this time was different. This time was vulnerable, this time was so gentle and so unspoken.

Cas had held his hand, whispered kindness. Cas had done it out of love and then kept it from Dean to not cause him to feel uncomfortable.

Dean wasn't crying because he doesn't cry. But if he did this is probably something he would cry about.