Castiel is relieved to find that literally nothing changes at work. The only things Jody discusses with him are directly related to his cases, and neither Dean nor the Hunters come up once. Even Charlie only brings it up once or twice, and only when they're alone.

It's Friday evening, and Castiel and Charlie decide to celebrate the end of a successful work week — and prepare for a hopefully-just-as-successful trial — with a night out. Their idea of a night out is just a trip to Domino's Pizza, but it's a night out nonetheless.

As he's driving her home, she pulls out what is inarguably the most personal question she's asked about his past — and right when he was beginning to think he was done talking about this, too.

"Hey, Cas?" she says. "You don't have to answer if you don't want to, but what finally convinced you to leave the Hunters?"

Castiel lets out a long breath. Well, that's a loaded question. "I guess just that the opportunity presented itself." It's true to a point, though there was much more to it than that.

"What do you mean?" Charlie asks.

CastieI tries to find the most vague way to put it. "I found out that someone else wanted to leave. I figured if someone found out that I'd let him slip away, I wouldn't live to see another day, so we planned a way out together."

Charlie gapes at him. "But you were dating the gang leader guy! No one would've..." She mimes the firing of a gun. After a brief pause, she adds a wary, "Right?"

"If he'd found out, we would not have been dating anymore," Castiel says. "Loyalty is a big thing with the Hunters. I don't know that it would have been a death sentence, but I really cannot overstate how much of a betrayal that would have been to him. I definitely wouldn't have been welcome anywhere near him, at least."

"Just because you didn't stop someone from leaving?" Charlie scoffs. "I knew the guy was fucked in the head, but that..." She lets out a low whistle. "Dude, I am so glad you got out of there while you could. That's some fuckin' cult shit right there."

"It wasn't really like..." He sighs. "No, you're right. It was fucked up. He was fucked up. I'm really glad that I got out and I appreciate that you're so supportive of that, but I don't really want to talk about it. There was a lot more going on than you realize, and I really feel like I'm making things worse by only painting half-pictures like this."

"Oh, shit, I'm sorry," Charlie says. "I guess if you'd wanted to talk about it, you would've done it at literally any point before last Thursday. I'll stop being annoying about it now." She pauses. "Probably."

CastieI forces a smile for that attempt at a joke, but his heart isn't in it. He hates keeping secrets from her, but even if he'd wanted to, he wouldn't be able to explain everything. Even just answering this question would take hours of explanation not just about why he left but about why he'd stayed for so long. It would take so much effort to even give her a glimpse into that life.

And then, of course, there are things he just doesn't want to admit. There are crimes he's committed, people he's hurt; things he's ashamed to say once seemed normal to him. There are also things that would be easy to say, but that would open up a whole new can of worms that he'd rather not touch.

Things like the fact that the person he helped escape the Hunters was none other than Dean Winchester's own brother.

He's not sure he wants to know how Charlie would react to that. It's probably easier to just let her think Dean was incredibly unreasonable.

Fortunately, Charlie comes to the rescue with a not-so-subtle change of the subject. "Have you seen the newest episode of The Walking Dead? Because holy shit do I have feelings about that."

"For once, I actually have," Castiel says. "Rant away."

Admittedly, he doesn't actually listen to most of what Charlie says. He catches a few words here and there, but for the most part, he's lost in his own head. The Walking Dead is the last thing on his mind right now.

He drops Charlie off at her place, then heads back to his own. The silence that fills the car when she's gone is uncomfortable, but the idea of turning in the radio is even worse so he forces himself to suffer through it.

It's fairly late when he gets home, and all he wants to do is put on a tee shirt and some sweatpants and curl up on the couch with a book for a few hours. That plan almost seems like it will work until he walks by his kitchen table and finds a folded-up piece of printer paper lying on it. He knows it's not his, and if it's not his, he has a feeling he knows who it came from.

He picks it up and unfolds it. There's a note written on it, hastily scrawled in capital letters. Castiel knows before he reads the signature that it's from Dean. The fact that it was written in all capital letters is a dead giveaway, but more importantly than that, it's a goddamn note that appeared in his locked house while he was at work. Who else would it be from?

CAS

MONDAY 1:30 PM

THIRD FLOOR OF THE ABANDONED OFFICE ON MAIN STREET

YOU KNOW THE ONE

COME ALONE OR I WON'T SHOW

THERE'S SOMETHING I WANT YOU TO SEE

D. W.

Castiel sits down at the table and buries his head in his hands. This note is just too vague. What the hell does Dean want him to see? Castiel knows exactly what office building he's referring to: they used to squat there before Castiel ran away and Dean moved the whole gang so they wouldn't be found. There's absolutely nothing of interest there. Does Dean have something tangible to show him? Something he wants to bring with him? Why wouldn't he just say it?

Perhaps the more pressing question is is this an offer or an order? If he just ignores this, lights the note on fire and lets the wind carry the ashes, would that be the end of it? Or would Dean come pay him a visit elsewhere, either another home visit for the privacy or a more public outing like the bank robbery just to make him uncomfortable?

Castiel has a hard time believing Dean would just let it go if Castiel completely ignored this, though what he'd do in retaliation (if anything) is a mystery to him. It's a mystery he's going to need an answer to, though, because he's not going. He can't go. He'll be in court trying to get a murderer off the streets; he can't miss that to attend a meeting he knows nothing about with a guy he can't trust.

He has a feeling this is going to bite him in the ass, and not in a kinky way.