Any Friend of Dean's

Note: Thank you thank you thank you for all the reads, votes, and comments. It always makes my day to receive even one vote or comment on a chapter of this fic. Also, please remember that if anybody wants to drop a request any time, feel free. I am more than happy to write them.


So, I'm aware that I've only written Cas into this like two times, but it's not because I don't love him. I just do not want to write him wrong. I decided to write out a little something about when they first met him, back when he was kind of a dick and Dean was all disbelieving and Sam was sneaking around with Ruby. You know, the intensity of season four (which means SPOILERS) but this little fic diverges from the way Dean found out about Sam and Ruby on the show while not tying directly to any particular episodes. This was a means of exploring Cas and Anna's friendship as it would have started back then, when she was a little kid and he had Heaven to worry about. 


In this chapter, Anna is nine.




Any Friend of Dean's


"So, how come you know my brother?"


Castiel turned narrowed blue eyes on the little girl sitting on the bench beside him. "We... work together," he said, curious as to why Dean Winchester's sister didn't know of his role as Heaven's servant.


"You're a hunter," Anna deduced, but she looked skeptical. "You don't act like most hunters." She looked up at him. "Plus Dean don't really leave me with other hunters much. He says most of 'em don't know how to talk to kids. I don't think that's right, though. You think that's right?"


Castiel looked back up at the building across the street that Dean had disappeared into nearly ten minutes ago. "The subject is not of interest to me."


Anna's mouth formed a little 'o' shape, but she didn't verbally react. She just looked down at her feet, stuffed inside a pair of Converse sneakers and swinging back and forth. She watched the laces bounce and tried to think of a way to fill the silence. She didn't like to talk to people, but she didn't like to be silent around them either. It was really best to keep conversation going, as exhausting as that could be.


"What do you like to talk about?" she asked finally, trying to remember her manners. Sam taught her that it was important to ask questions about the other person if they didn't seem to like what you were talking about. People usually find it easy to talk about themselves, at least on a surface level, he'd said. Anna wasn't quite sure what he meant by on a surface level, but she found the basic idea pretty easy to latch onto. "Hunting? Sammy and Dean like to talk about hunting."


"You would do well not to compare me to your human family."


Anna frowned, upper lip curling in confusion as she stared up at him in bewilderment. "Um... Casi-Cas-Castiel?" He didn't correct her, so she assumed she'd gotten it right. "Castiel, do you mean you aren't a person?"


"Not in the sense that you tend to understand people."


"What are you then?"


"If Dean has not informed you of that, I presume there is a reason. Of course, he will have to tell you eventually. But if he has chosen to delay that moment, I am not yet in a place to tell him otherwise."


Anna continued to stare up at Castiel in confusion. "Um, okay," she said. "I think I'm gonna be quiet now, okay?" she asked hesitantly, feeling more timid than ever.


Castiel looked at her. "It does not make a difference to me," he said simply, seemingly completely unaware of the child's discomfort.


Anna pursed her lips and stared at her shoes, making a concerted effort not to look in Castiel's direction. She wished Dean would come back and take her back to the motel so she could just be alone, or maybe with Sam if he was back already, while Dean went out and worked with Castiel. Usually her brothers' hunting friends at least made an effort to make Anna feel comfortable around them. Castiel seemed like kind of a jerk.


Anna started to sigh but caught herself and carefully blew out the breath more slowly and as quietly as possible, not wishing to disrupt the man beside her. He wasn't human. That wasn't terribly hard to believe considering their line of work, but it did seem like kind of an important detail to leave out, especially since Dean had left her alone out here with Castiel.


"You are nine years old?"


"Um, yeah." Anna fidgeted in her seat, still looking anywhere but at Castiel.


"There is a lot I am unfamiliar with... about humans. Your world, it's... complex... and simple in ways that are difficult to fathom. It was not my intention to be... terse."


Anna blinked. She looked directly at Castiel and was startled to see his blue eyes filled more with confusion than coldness. "That's okay," she said agreeably, but not comfortably. She looked back at her shoes, still dangling above the sidewalk, and waited for Dean.


A few minutes passed in silence.


"Casi-Castiel?" Castiel looked down at Anna, but he didn't say anything, just waited for her to continue speaking. Anna took the hint. "Um, since Dean won't tell me what you are... Are- are you really scary? Or strong?"


"I am one of the most powerful people you will meet in your lifetime. Yes. But I do not harm innocent people such as yourself without need."


Anna nodded because she thought that should be comforting. But she grew nervous and looked down at her feet, tried to contain the question that was bursting out of her, failed, and spoke again. "What are you?" she asked without looking at the man beside her. And why did Dean leave me with you?


Castiel opened his mouth to answer, in no mood to continue exerting energy simply to deceive a nine year old. Before he had the time to speak, however, Dean's voice caught both their attention as he stepped from the crosswalk to the sidewalk a few feet from them.


"See?" he said nonchalantly, waving a small pamphlet in one hand as he sat on the bench beside his sister. "My methods may be human 'and therefore flawed' but they're also effective. Where to next?" he asked, absently looking around them at the various people carrying groceries or pulling out car keys or walking dogs.


Castiel stood stiffly but with urgency. "There is a matter in heaven that I must attend to," he said seriously.


"What- Woah." Castiel was gone.


Anna turned wide eyes on her older brother. "Is he a demon?" she asked in surprise. Castiel didn't act like a demon, but Anna knew of very few creatures with the ability to disappear like that, to teleport at will.


"No," Dean said simply and stood. "C'mon let's go back. Sam's probably waiting for us. We can grab lunch on the way."


"But- but what is he?" He'd said heaven.


"Anna, come on," Dean ordered, as if ignoring her question would make it go away.


"Dean-"


"We're wasting time."


Anna glared at him, but she stood up and followed close behind him as they walked down the sidewalk toward where he'd left the Impala. It was upsetting being shut down like that. It was an infrequent occurrence for either one of her brothers to completely avoid her questions, and Anna didn't like the way it made her feel. Did Dean think she was too stupid to understand whatever was going on with Castiel and his quiet friend? Did he not trust her enough to tell her the truth about them?


"So, uh, what did you guys talk about?"


Anna looked sideways and up to give Dean a dirty look. But he was looking purposefully straight ahead. He only asked because he was afraid Castiel had revealed too much, more than he wanted Anna to know. The thought infuriated her. "Nothing. But he's a jerk."


Dean sighed shortly but let it drop. "He is kind of a douchebag," he agreed under his breath.


When Castiel met Sam, his first words were, "Sam Winchester, the boy with the demon blood." When he first met Anna, he didn't bother saying anything. He hardly spared her a glance. When he met Dean, it was to tell him how important he was.


Anna couldn't help but wonder if Dean was keeping Castiel at a careful arm's reach from Anna, and to an extent Sam, to spare his siblings more hurt, or if it was to make friends with the man who'd saved him and promised him he mattered.


()()()


"Come on, Sammy. Dean won't tell me what he is either, and I'm not a little kid anymore. I can handle it." Not a little kid anymore, she insisted, but her age was still only one digit.


Sam sighed. She'd been badgering him for nearly half an hour now, and without Dean to back him up and shut down all her questions, he was wearing down. "Please stop asking," he requested and looked emphatically at her. "The more you know, the deeper involved you get. And we don't want you getting hurt by any of this."


"I'm already implicated, Sam!"


"Did you just correctly use the word implicated?"


"Yes," Anna snapped, uninterested and still furiously stubborn. "Don't change the subject!"


"I'm not changing the subject," Sam said, his impressed expression falling away to reveal a much wearier one. "Look, you've always been put at a certain amount of risk because you're from a family of hunters. I'm familiar with that dilemma, Ladybug, and I'm not arguing with your point. But this is different. It's bigger. We're facing a war unlike anything we've ever seen, unless we can stop the plan Hell is putting into action."


"I thought that's why you were with Ruby. That's what you kept saying."


"But it's bigger than I thought," Sam told her. "I'm still working with Ruby because we're still saving people. But Castiel and- and his partner? They're focusing on some larger scale problems."


"But who are they?"


"Anna-"


"I'm so sick of being left out of everything! I'm not an idiot, and I'm not gonna close my eyes at everything!"


"You mean close your eyes to everything. Anna, Dean doesn't want you to know. And I agree with him. It's bad enough the demons are a threat to you. We don't need the..."


"The what?"


"I'm not telling you, Anna. So please just stop asking."


"Why are you protecting him?! He talks about you like you're a demon. And you don't even say anything to him! I don't get it." When Sam steadfastly kept quiet, adopting that kicked puppy expression he'd worn when he first met Castiel. "And he told me he's one of the most powerful things I'll ever meet. More powerful than demons." Sam still remained quiet, and Anna finally lost her temper and stamped her foot angrily. But she didn't look like a child having a tantrum. She looked like a person too long ignored, making a final demand for attention and answers. "He said he had to go do something important in HEAVEN. Is he, like, God or something?"


Sam snorted a little laugh, but all amusement left his face quickly. "No," he answered a bit sardonically. "Castiel is not God, Anna."


"Then what is he?" Anna begged, her eyes screaming for answers.


Sam pulled a little flask out of his duffel and Anna was reminded just that quickly that Castiel and Dean weren't the only ones with secrets. But she didn't need people to tell her everything anymore. She didn't need explanations left and right, promises that would never be kept, guardians standing in front of her, shielding her from the whole world in its bloody shades of gray. She could uncover all these secrets on her own. First she would find out what Castiel really was. Then she would figure out what Sam was doing with Ruby.


()()()


Back at Bobby's yet again, Anna was, for once, grateful to have been left off at their surrogate Uncle's house. With Bobby and Dean asleep, Sam sneaking out again when he thought nobody was awake to see him go, and Anna effectively the only waking person in the house, the circumstances would have been just right were she not sleeping beside her older brother.


There was only one other guest room, and usually it would be only Anna staying with Bobby, so on the occasions that they were all three spending the night there, one of them would sleep on the floor or in the same bed as her. She was small and they all had always liked to stay close together anyway, a direct result of growing up in one another's back pockets. The feeling was probably amplified for Dean these days anyway. He felt overprotective, and while Sam had grown outside of his control and guardianship while Dean was in hell, Anna had not. She needed him more than ever, in fact.


It was no surprise when she slid out from under his arm and Dean immediately stirred. "Y'kay, kiddo?" he asked sleepily.


"I gotta go to the bathroom," Anna said in a hushed voice. It was quick and sloppy thinking, but the excuse worked fine as Dean just grumbled some expression of understanding and rolled over to his other side as she left the room.


Knowing he would fall asleep again in minutes, Anna went downstairs quietly and started looking at all the book titles on the lower of Bobby's bookshelves. She was looking for words like Heaven and Powerful, as these were the two words she knew could be associated with Dean's new friend. She had no luck looking at the lower shelves, and it seemed just typical that she would be forced to climb on the shelves or stand on a chair to find any information on this Castiel character.


Opting for the slightly less noisy option, Anna started looking around for a chair that didn't have wheels on it but she couldn't find one, so she just pulled the chair away from Bobby's desk, wincing at the squeaking sounds it made. She didn't move it far, though, because before she'd even totally freed it from under the desk, she caught sight of a book titled Heaven's Warriors. Immediately enthralled, Anna climbed onto the chair and flipped open the cover, only to see that several of the books on the desk had similar labels, one of which startled her into wide-eyed stillness. Angels as Guardians. Angels.


It made sense, but it also seemed so unbelievable. Angels were real. And Castiel was an angel? Anna couldn't believe she'd been afraid of him. Suddenly she was ecstatic, with a hundred optimistic ideas floating through her mind. Castiel had said he was more powerful than any demon. If angels were real and more powerful than demons... the world should be safer than it had ever been before, right? And if an angel had saved Dean from Hell, then maybe they could save Sam from Ruby and whatever she was making him do, and maybe they could kill Lilith, and maybe... maybe her family wouldn't be stuck in all these wars with Hell all the time. Maybe they could be happy.


"Anna? What the hell are you doin?"


Anna froze halfway through opening the book entitled Angels as Guardians. She smiled nervously even though her back was to the doorway where the voice had originated. "Um, hi, Uncle Bobby."


"Hi," Bobby said in a tone so impatient and dry that it made Anna wither a little. "You like to tell me what the hell you're doin' at my desk touchin' things you ain't supposed to touch at one o'clock in the friggin morning?"


"Not really," Anna answered in quiet voice after failing to come up with any better replies.


Bobby walked over to the desk, moving more slowly than usual, probably because he was tired because it was after midnight. As soon as he saw the book in her hands, his head tilted back in understanding. "Dammit, kid."


"I just want to know, Uncle Bobby, and they won't tell me nothing anymore."


"You never thought maybe they got a good reason for keepin' secrets from you now and then?"


"But- But if Cass-i- C- Castiel is a angel, then that's good."


Bobby raised an eyebrow at her, then seemed to realize that she hadn't gotten past the covers of any of these books. "Mhm," he murmured thoughtfully. "Well, you can take that up with your brother in the morning."


"You don't have to tell him," Anna tried, quiet as a mouse. She knew it wouldn't work. Bobby never took shit from any of them and he certainly didn't let Anna get away with doing what he considered the wrong thing at any given moment.


"Like I said, you can take it up with him in the morning." She couldn't keep the pout of her face as Bobby pulled the chair away from his desk and helped her off it. "Don't even think about comin' back down here to look at any of these tonight, you understand?"


"Yes, sir."


"Good. Go up to bed then."


()()()


"You know you're not allowed in his study by yourself."


"Well, that's a dumb kid's rule and you wouldn't tell me anything."


"You're gonna blame me because you didn't follow the rules? That's the route you're going with this? The rule is not the problem, and if I refuse to tell you about something then you have to trust that it's for your own good and not go snooping around where you were told not to."


"You never said I couldn't research," Anna said boldly, crossing her arms over her chest and straightening her posture a little where she sat in a wooden kitchen chair.


"She's got a point," Sam admitted and pointed a finger at her loosely.


"Helpful, Sam," Dean growled. "You know that if we're not telling you something then you aren't supposed to go exploring it yourself," he addressed Anna again. "And you know you're supposed to be in bed at friggin one AM. What if something came to the house last night and we didn't know where you were, huh?"


"There wasn't a monster last night," Anna said reasonably. "Anyway, you have a guardian angel now. He can keep us safe."


"Anna, he's not my- Ugh, never mind. You know, you could be more apologetic about this, kid."


"I'm sorry, Dean." It was such a blatant lie, but at least she was trying to tell him what he wanted to hear at this point. "But you didn't listen to me and Cassiel was kinda scary and I really wanted to know what he is. I didn't mean to make you mad."


Bam. Anger turned to guilt as Dean stared at his little sister's puppy dog eyes. "I'm not-" Okay, he was mad.


He was mad in a way that felt a little bit selfish. He was mad because she'd gone behind his back the same as Sam had been lately. He was mad because he'd failed to protect one of his siblings yet one more time. He was mad because she'd disobeyed and, while he had no intention of treating her like Dad had treated them as kids, that never failed to anger him. He was mad for a lot of other reasons that probably had nothing to do with his sister.


With a deep breath and a second's thought, Dean crouched down so he was at eye level with her. "Alright, look. I'm sorry that I ignored you, Munchkin. I am. But you kept asking questions I couldn't answer. So make a deal with me, okay?" He waited for her to nod before continuing. "If you're ever scared again, then just tell me and I'll help. Or if you think I'm ignoring you then tell me and I'll be better. But you still have to listen. You still have to do what I tell you to do and trust that it's the best thing. You trust me, Rugrat?"


"Yeah," Anna said, like it was the easiest question she'd ever had to answer.


Dean's heart swelled a little at her tone. "I want to trust you too, okay? And the way for me to trust you is for you to do what I tell you all the time and not get into trouble behind my back."


Like Sammy, Anna thought but didn't say. She was pretty sure Dean didn't even know that the brown-haired girl that had been with Sam when they met up again was Ruby, because Sam had specifically told her not to share that tidbit with their brother or Bobby. Anna had complied though she wasn't sure whether she should or not. Most of the time, though, there was so much going on that Sam's secret meetups with Ruby, which she was even more certain that Dean didn't know about, didn't even cross her mind.


"Dean, if we know a angel now, does that mean we don't have to fight demons no more?"


Dean frowned. "Can we focus on the conversation we were having? When I told you no and you kept asking, in a way you were kinda ignoring me too, right? And that was exactly what you hated me doin'. So promise me you're gonna do better, Anna."


"Pinky swear," Anna said agreeably and Dean rolled his eyes but hooked pinkies with her. "Is Cassi- uh- Cas-tiel gonna get rid of all the demons?"


"I don't know what he's got in mind," Dean admitted and reached behind him for his cup of coffee after standing and cracking his back.


"But if he says he's more powerful than anything I ever saw before, and that means he can kill all the demons," Anna chattered exuberantly. She got out of her chair to walk around the table to the side where her brothers were both now sitting, cradling cups of coffee. "And he can get rid of Ruby and Lilith and all the bad guys."


"Hold on. He can get rid of who?" Dean asked darkly. He wasn't looking at Anna. He had instead fixed Sam with a dark, dangerous glare. Both boys had their coffee cups halfway to their mouths.


"Ruby and Lilith and..."


"Ruby," Dean repeated tersely. "Tell me about Ruby, Anna," he insisted, still looking at Sam with eyes deadly enough to make his brother squirm.


"Dean, I can explain," Sam started in an unapologetic but non-confrontational tone.


"Let the kid talk."


"Did I say something wrong?"


"Nope," Dean answered with a smile to put her at ease, though he felt nothing close to happiness. Anna was within arm's reach, so he grabbed her arm gently and pulled her a little closer until he could lift her up onto his lap where he gave her a little hug. "How long since Ruby came back, kiddo?"


"Um, awhile. Like, a little after..." Anna swallowed and looked down at her feet, abruptly stopping her own words as painful memories came back, blurry because she willed them to be.


A stab of guilty sadness struck Dean's stomach and he thought maybe he should have this conversation with Sam instead. But there was one more question he wanted an honest answer to before he sent her off to play or watch TV or something while he reamed Sam out.


"You thought I knew that, huh?" he asked cautiously.


Anna shifted in his lap and shook her head. "Um..." she peered up at Sam from under her messy blonde curls. "Sammy was waiting to tell you," she said in a slightly optimistic tone, like she thought she'd done alright coming up with an answer that wouldn't get Sam deeper into trouble.


Of course, trouble looked different for her brother, because he wouldn't get a scolding like she always did. No, Sam and Dean would fight, because Sam wasn't a kid anymore but Dean still wanted to tell him right from wrong, blah blah blah. It would be louder than when she was in trouble, and it would leave both of her brothers angry and probably hurt.


"You mean he told you not to tell me," Dean interpreted.


Anna just shrugged, but it was answer enough. Dean set her on the floor again. "Go upstairs and watch TV, Rugrat," he requested.


Torn, Anna looked longingly between her brothers. "Don't fight," she said softly.


"We're not gonna fight," Sam promised, but it was empty and that much was clear.


()()()


"Dean says you might not get rid of all the demons even though you can," Anna told Cas the following day when she found herself sitting beside him on the same park bench as the day before, waiting for Dean to get more information from the same building as before. "But angels hate demons, right?"


"I act based on the orders I am given in Heaven. If those orders include stopping demons, then I will smite demons."


Anna looked at Castiel baffled. "Don't you want to get rid of the demons, though? They're bad. They hurt people. Angels are s'posed to help people."


"I am an Angel of the Lord. You know me by this name. But, really, I am a soldier of Heaven. I do not enjoy witnessing human suffering, but it is not my job to prevent it. It is my job to follow the orders I am given in Heaven, and that is what I do."


"But you're good, right?" Anna asked again. She was seeking confirmation that angels were good, and she would not stop asking until she received that answer in one form or another.


"I believe in the mission of Heaven."


"I hate that," Anna announced and crossed her arms, letting her feet swing a little faster in frustration.


"I don't understand," Castiel said in a low and puzzled voice. "You hate the mission of-"


"No!" Anna answered in exasperation. She laughed a little at his misunderstanding. "No," she said again more seriously. "I hate when grownups don't answer your question but pretend they do. Are there kid angels? Can I see a kid angel?"


"The youngest angel I know is six billion years old," Castiel answered gravely.


"Great," Anna huffed and threw her hands in the air. She then crossed her arms and sighed less angrily. "You're an angel," she said again. "Did you save my brother, really?"


"I raised him from the depths of Hell, if this is what you're asking."


"Well then thank you, Cast-ti. Thank you, Cas."


Instinct might have previously made the angel respond that Anna need not thank him for following orders. He hadn't done it for her or for her brother or her other brother. He had only done what he was told to do. Instead, Castiel smiled at the sweet expression of genuine gratitude. "You are welcome," he answered.


"What can you do?" Anna asked, fiddling with the cuff of her jacket as she gazed absentmindedly across the street at the building Dean was in. "What can you do that demons can't do?"


Castiel squinted in the sunlight for a moment, then looked down at the child beside him. "Angels and demons perceive the world very differently."


"You mean, you see things prettier?"


It seemed to take the angel a moment to understand what she was trying to say, but then he nodded slowly. "We see things... prettier," he agreed solemnly. "We see things as being whole that aren't whole. It means we know how to fix things that are broken. Demons only know how to damage and break."


"Yeah, I fought demons before," Anna told him with a serious look in her eyes. "They like to hurt people any way they can. What kind of stuff can you fix?" she asked. "Like, broken lamps and stuff? 'Cause I broke a lot of stuff at Bobby's before. Maybe next time I can call you and you can come and fix it for me and so Uncle Bobby will never know."


Castiel would never have time to fly away from Heaven over something so trivial. So he would never be sure why he answered the little girl by saying, "Maybe."


"What else can you fix? All kinds of stuff?"


Gazing across the street once more, Castiel blinked once. "I can fix people."


Anna had never heard a more beautiful set of words in her life. "You mean you can heal people?"


"Yes, my grace allows me that ability."


"Hey, my middle name is Grace. Does that mean I can heal people sometime?"


"No," Castiel answered bluntly.


"Oh," Anna said, downtrodden. Her head popped back up again quickly, though. "But you can heal, so... so if Sam or Dean or Uncle Bobby gets hurt hunting something bad... like the demons or a mean spirit or something... you can help them?"


"Only if I know they have been harmed," Castiel said dully.


"Know what, Cas?" Castiel looked over at her. "I think I like you better now."


"Oh."


"I shoulda known already, though." She was waiting for him to ask why, but he didn't, so she just kept going anyway. "Dean says I have to trust him, and I think before, when I was scared of you, I shoulda trusted him, 'cause Dean wouldn't leave me with a bad guy like a demon or nothin'. So I shoulda known you were good 'cause of that."


"Any friend of Dean's is a friend of yours?"


"Exactly," Anna beamed. She grinned big at the angel beside her. "Dean's friends gotta like me 'cause I'm there all the time."


To himself, Castiel thought that Dean Winchester was not his friend, but the man he was training to save the world. To the little girl looking up with hope and excitement at him, he said, though with a touch of his signature awkwardness, "I am glad to be your friend as well as your brother's then."


Anna grinned bigger and blushed slightly. "Nobody ever said that to me before," she said.


La Fin

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