//Trigger warning for homophobic slurs and depiction of mild violence. Slurs are censored, but tread lightly//

The month of November soared by particularly quickly that year. Dean had become consumed with schoolwork and visiting his younger brother that he barely had time to spend a full day with Cas. Of course, now that it was the week of Thanksgiving break, Dean had been doing nothing but spending time with Cas. The two had taken to lounging around in their dorm room, lying lazily on their beds, talking about shows they liked and watching random Marvel movies. Dean had been exercising control over his feelings, trying not to show them and yet trying to drop subtle hunts about his feelings to Cas. However, Anna's words were proving true; Cas was extremely oblivious when it came to feelings.

The morning of November 21st started out normal for Dean, at least until he saw Cas, still asleep, trembling underneath his covers. Dean tore the sheets off of Cas and shook him awake.
"Cas?" Dean cried as Cas's eyes shot open, wide and full of panic. As soon as the light hit him, he blinked a bit, then fell into Dean's arms. He seemed to deflate, his body becoming almost weightless in Dean's arms, as Dean ran a hand over Cas's back.

"Nightmare." Cas murmured, sighing as Dean ran a hand through his raven black hair. Dean wound his fingers through locks of Cas's soft, silky hair, rubbing softly at Cas's scalp as Cas leaned into the touch.

Dean sighed, murmuring softly against Cas's head. "You're safe now, mkay?" Dean murmured, and Cas nodded, digging his head into Dean's shoulder.

Dean soon pulled away to fix breakfast, and Cas laid back down, not bothering to close his eyes. He hadn't had a nightmare in almost a year. He used to get lots of them during high school, but he had been doing so well. As the smell of food began to fill the small dorm room, Cas closed his eyes and let his mind drift off to the memories he usually kept locked away.

(Two years prior, eleventh grade)

"Look boys, it's the f*g!" A voice cried, causing Cas to momentarily halt. He knew that voice. It was the voice of his tormentor, some kid named Alistair who had been fucking with Cas since ninth grade. Cas and his siblings had complained multiple times about Alistair to the staff of their school, and yet nothing was ever done to stop him.

Cas decided to ignore the remark and continued walking, hoping Alistair would just walk away or leave him alone. However, things never seemed to work out as he hoped.
"Where do you think you're going, f*g?"

Alistair jeered, his light eyes narrowing as he glanced at Cas, who was currently speed walking down the sidewalk. When Cas didn't answer, Alistair's expression changed from entertained to menacing. "I said," Alistair growled, "where do you think you're going, f*g?!?"

Cas sped up and tried to escape Alistair and his gang of accomplices, but he soon felt a hand grab at his hair and he fell to the ground, his head falling onto the concrete. Cas winced, trying to stop himself from exclaiming out loud in pain. Then, Alistair put his foot onto Cas's head and leaned down.

"As I said before, where do you think you're going, f*g?" Alistair murmured in a deadly calm voice.

"N-nowhere." Cas rasped, hoping that his submission would give Alistair a reason to leave him alone. Instead, Alistair used it as a form of entertainment.

"Have at him." Alistair muttered, glancing at his accomplices. The three accomplices, by the names of Abaddon, Azazel and Lilith, grinned and began shoving their feet at Cas. Blows landed on his back and side, and he groaned in pain.

As more and more kicks landed, Cas began to cry out in pain. Suddenly, the kicks stopped. Cas heard a voice, screaming at the four bullies to "GET THE HELL AWAY FROM MY BROTHER", and he then heard rapid footsteps.

Cas looked over to see Gabriel, a worried expression written all over his face. Before he had a chance to say anything, another voice spoke up.

"For the younger brother of Lucifer Novak, you seem to be quite a pacifist." Crowley drawled, walking towards Cas with a mild expression. He had just chased Alistair and his accomplices off, threatening to sic Lucifer on them. While Crowley and Lucifer were anything but friends, they both hated Alistair and Lucifer would love a reason to tear Alistair to shreds.

"Oh fuck off Crowley, will you? He's hurt." Gabriel exclaimed exasperatedly, his golden eyes focusing back on Cas, who grunted in pain.

"Come on, we need to get you to the nurse."
Gabriel, while lean, lithe and not particularly muscly, picked Cas up and managed to carry him all the way to the nurse, while Crowley walked ahead and scared off anyone who dared look in their direction. When Gabriel walked in carrying a bloodied, bruised Castiel, the nurse stopped dead in her tracks.

"Hospital." Was the first thing that slipped from her lips upon the sight of Castiel. "He needs a hospital."

Gabriel sat Cas down onto the bed in the nurse's office, as the nursed tapped buttons on the phone. She picked it up, uttered a few words and slammed the phone back into the receiver. All at once, her expression changed from panic to worry, and her brown eyes scanned Castiel's face. She took Castiel's face in her hand, holding his chin up gently with one hand as she lightly touched his bloody face with the other.

"Boy, what happened to you?" Were the first words out of her mouth after she got a good look at Castiel. Cas was about to try and lie away, but the nurse seemed to catch on. "And don't you lie to me or say you tripped down some damn stairs. Who did this to you?"

"Alistair." Gabriel piped up, as the nurse's eyes drifted to Gabriel.

"And Abaddon, Lilith and Azazel." Crowley added dryly, shifting slightly.

"Those four again, hm?" The nurse muttered, walking over to her desk. "Well, I will escort the three of you outside to wait for the ambulance. You," she spoke, pointing at Gabriel, "will carry Castiel outside until the ambulance arrives."

Gabriel grabbed his brother and held him in his arms, carrying him outside, following behind the nurse. She hurried outside, and soon, the wail of ambulance sirens flooded their ears.

The ambulance pulled up, and the door was immediately swung open. A stretcher was loaded out and placed on the grass, and Gabriel laid his brother on it and hopped into the ambulance with the paramedics. Before they could say anything, Gabriel hurriedly said "I'm his brother", and the paramedics nodded and loaded the stretcher (and Cas) into the ambulance. The ambulance then rushed off towards the hospital, the sirens wailing the entire way there. A call was made by Gabriel to his father, Chuck, informing him that Cas was on his way to the hospital after getting beat up.

They arrived to the hospital by the time that Gabriel hung up with Chuck. They rushed the stretcher out of the ambulance and ran Cas into a hospital room, Gabriel tailing behind. He sat outside the hospital room and tapped his foot, then decided to call up Lucifer, not caring whether he was in a lecture right then or not.

Gabriel had to dial Lucifer's number twice before he finally picked up pm the third try. "Gabriel, this better be important. The professor I hate just yelled at me for getting a phone call. I had to run out of class to pick up."

"Cas in in the hospital."

"WHAT?!?"

"Azazel, Abaddon, Lilith and Alistair beat him up."

Gabriel could practically hear the venom in Lucifer's voice as he spoke. "Those assholes have crossed the last goddamn line." Lucifer growled. "Make sure to bail me out of jail if it comes to it."

"I can make no promises." Gabriel replied, and Lucifer hung up. Gabriel turned and attempted to glance inside of Cas's hospital room, but the curtains were drawn. With a huff, Gabriel pulled up his dad's number and checked his dad's location. Chuck was out in the parking lot.

"How's Castiel?" Chuck cried as soon as he spotted Gabriel. Becky was right behind him, her eyes wide and red from crying.

"I don't know, they haven't opened the door since he was admitted." Gabriel admitted, glancing at the curtains. "He didn't look too too bad, but he has a couple bruises. Those kids, they kicked him at least four times each."

"I'm gonna press charges." Chuck hissed, glancing anxiously at the curtains. "They put my son in the hospital. I won't let them get away with that."

Gabriel clicked his tongue but said nothing, and instead waited anxiously along with his parents. After ten minutes passed, all of their other siblings were standing in the hall, having been signed out of school.

Lucifer stood seething against the wall, digging his nails into his jacket. His boyfriend of five years, Michael Milton, was rubbing his arm gently to try and calm him down.

Raphael stood solemn against the wall opposite of Lucifer, his face a neutral, stone-cold expression. Anna stood next to him, holding the hand of 14 year old Samandriel. Balthazar was standing with his arms around Hannah and Anael, trying to calm the both of them down. Chuck stood next to Gabriel, trying to comfort Becky.

A grudging thirty minutes passed before the doctor finally opened the curtains and walked out to face the Novak family. "He'll be alright." She spoke, her voice light and tender. "He did suffer blunt-force trauma, and he has some minor internal bleeding as a result. We'll have to hook him up to an IV, and he'll have to stay here for at least a week, preferably two. He's lucky." Her eyes drifted to the unconscious Castiel, who laid in the room beyond the glass window. Castiel's family looked at each other with somber eyes, and they all nodded. "Oh, he can have visitors now, but only for ten minutes. We'll need to reexamine him after that." The nurse then nodded and walked off, and the entire Novak family piled into the hospital room. They surrounded Cas's hospital bed, where he laid half awake, painkillers already flowing through his veins. Cas blinked a little, glancing at Chuck and Gabriel through his lashes with half-lidded eyes.

"Hey, you're okay." Gabriel murmured, placing his hand on Castiel's cheek. "Just bleeding some, but they'll fix you up, okay?" Cas glanced up at Gabriel, and nodded weakly. Cas then laid his head to the side and closed his eyes, and he was asleep in seconds.

(Present day)

Cas woke to the smell of delicious food. When he rose out of bed, Dean cocked his head and smiled. "I was wondering when you'd wake back up." Dean murmured, standing next to the oven. Cas smiled as well, a sort of adoration filling his eyes as he stared at Dean. He even felt his heart flutter as Dean gave him a smile. Cas didn't know why, but as Dean called him over to eat, Cas shrugged it off.

Here's chapter 7! And happy 40th birthday to our beloved hunter, Dean Winchester!
~ Liz