Dean Winchester is genuinely the biggest idiot on the planet.

He visited his brother? As if the feds wouldn't find him there? Like they hadn't thought to look there? Like they hadn't had at least one cop outside for two weeks straight, just waiting for him to show up?

But he made it out fine.

And Castiel is pissed.

"They could have caught him!" Castiel rants. "They knew there was a good chance he'd show up there, and they know he was going to fly under the radar for a while. They should have left a cop there! Two weeks was not long enough! What the hell were they thinking?'

"Don't you think it's a little too late to talk about what they should have done?" Charlie says. To Michael, she asks, "What do we do next?"

"Well, you're not going to California," Michael says. "If he's reuniting from people in his past, I'm not taking that risk."

"I wouldn't want to go, anyway," Castiel says. "I'd like to keep at least a few hundred miles between us if I can."

"I thought so," Michael says. "But, I think given the circumstances, if you'd like to watch Tran and Harvelle question him, we could probably put something together."

"Like a FaceTime call?" Castiel asks. That's a little... unorthodox...

"Something like that, yeah," Michael says. "You can distance yourself from this case as much as you'd one, but Sam Winchester managed to go 12 years without ever seeing his brother and he still couldn't get away. I don't know if I expect you to fare much better."

"And you think I should be prepared for when he inevitably catches up with me," Castiel finishes. "Fine. I'll watch."

"Can I watch, too?" Charlie asks hopefully.

Michael looks at Castiel, which means it's up to him. That's the shitty part about his brother being his boss — Michael has Castiel make the hard decisions. On one hand, he wants Charlie to stay as far away from this case as possible. On the other hand, this is his emotional support lesbian, and he'd kind of like her around.

Castiel sighs. "Fine."

"Yay!" Charlie squeals.

And now, they wait.

~~

Castiel isn't quite sure how this looks on Kevin and Ash's end, but sharing a screen and some earbuds with Charlie to question a witness is very weird, to say the least.

From this angle, Castiel can see about half of Ash and the entirety of the man that must be Sam Winchester. Castiel's never met him before, but, given how much Dean has told him, he almost feels like he knows the guy. Sitting next to Sam on the couch is a blonde woman, and it only takes a moment for him to spot the beautiful diamond ring on her finger. So this is his wife. Dean never mentioned a sister-in-law.

"You're Agent Novak, right?" Sam asks.

Castiel hadn't realized he was going to be speaking during this, but it looks like he doesn't have much choice, so he just says, "I am."

"Your first name doesn't happen to be Cas, does it?" Sam asks.

Castiel sighs. "What did Dean tell you about me?"

"Oh, nothing," Sam assures him. "Just that you caught him last time. He didn't seem to hold a grudge, though."

"Oh, no, he wouldn't," Castiel mutters.

"Mr. and Mrs. Winchester, we just need to ask you a few quick questions about last night," Ash says.

"Of course," Sam says

"About what time did your brother show up?" Kevin asks.

"Ooh..." Sam looks to his wife uncertainly.

"I think I saw you guys a little past 11?" she estimates.

"I think so," Sam agrees.

"You saw them," Kevin repeats. "What exactly do you mean by that?"

"Well, I woke up and Sam wasn't there," she says. "And I thought I heard voices downstairs, so I went down and I saw them. Sam was in the doorway, and Dean was outside."

"So you talked to him?" Ash asks Sam. "For how long?"

"I don't know, five minutes, maybe?" Sam guesses.

"And you didn't tell her?" Ash asks.

"No, I don't tell my wife every time something wakes me up in the middle of the night," Sam deadpans. "I had no way of knowing who was ringing my doorbell. I don't exactly have cameras out there."

"Still, someone ringing your doorbell in the dead of night, just a few weeks after your brother broke out of prison? You had to have guessed," Kevin says.

"That's what I've said about every noise I've heard over the last three weeks," Sam says. "I've slept with a gun under my pillow every night since I heard that he escaped. Trust me, it's not like it hadn't occurred to me that this could happen, but my paranoia had caused us enough problems. I wasn't going to wake Jess up for it to end up being nothing."

"You know," Charlie says, "the longer you treat the guy like a suspect, the less likely it is he'll talk, and I think it's pretty clear he didn't mean any harm."

Ash and Kevin shoot her a glare.

"Thank you, Agent Bradbury," Sam says.

"Okay, moving on," Kevin says. "You said your brother rang your doorbell?"

Sam nods. "Yes, he did."

"And you didn't hear it, Mrs. Winchester?" Ash asks.

"Sam's always been a light sleeper," Jess says. "I can't say the same about myself."

"So what happened when you went downstairs?" Kevin asks the man.

"I opened the door and I threatened to shoot him," Sam replies.

"You threatened to shoot him," Kevin repeats, dumbfounded.

"Well, yeah," Sam says. "He was on my property, and he's a known serial killer. It didn't take four years at Stanford Law to know that I could call it self defense and get away with it."

"But you didn't shoot him," Kevin remarks.

"Are you kidding? I have three kids!" Sam says. "I didn't want to shoot anyone in my doorway where my kids would see the crime scene! That's a surefire way to traumatize a three-year-old!"

"So what did you do, then?" Ash asks.

"The only thing I could do," Sam says. "I let him talk."

"About what?"

"I don't even know; it's all just a blur," Sam says. "He mentioned that he didn't want to kill anyone anymore, that he just kinda wanted to settle down and lay low until you stopped looking for him. Off the top of my head, that's about all I remember."

"What about you, Mrs. Winchester?" Kevin asks. "Did you hear anything?"

"No, not really," she says. "He saw me when I went downstairs, so he tried to flirt with me. Sam told me to go, so I went back upstairs and stood in the hallway to make sure Dean didn't try to come for the kids."

"And that's all you remember?" Ash asks. "You don't remember anything else? Anything at all?"

Jess shakes her head. "No, I don't. I'm sorry."

"I do remember that he asked about the kids," Sam says. "He heard our son, Shep, upstairs. He just wanted to make sure that we'd take care of them."

"What? Why?" Ash asks.

"Dean has always been a psychopath, but we're still family," Sam says. "It doesn't mean much to me, but he doesn't exactly get to pick and choose his friends. I guess he just didn't want anything to happen to his niece and nephews. We had a pretty rough childhood. He wanted better for them."

"What do you mean by that?" Kevin asks.

"If you feel comfortable talking about it, of course," Ash adds.

Well damn, if Castiel had known they were wondering about his childhood, he's got the firsthand accounts from the guy himself. He could answer any of their questions about that.

"Well, our mom died when I was a baby and our dad was kind of a deadbeat," Sam says. "We spent most of our childhood on the streets."

"Where did you live?" Kevin asks. "Do you think he might try to get back there?"

"We hopped between different abandoned buildings," Sam says. "Dean was never particularly attached to them. It was more a battleground than a home, so I don't think you'll find him there."

"Do you know where we would find him?" Kevin asks.

"If I did, I would've led with that," Sam says. "He didn't tell me anything. I'm sorry; I wish I could be more help."

"No, it's okay," Ash assures him.

"Thank you for your time," Kevin adds, getting up to leave.

"I have one more question," Castiel says quickly, before they can cut him off.

"Ask away," Sam says.

"Why did you wait so long to call and tell us he was here?" Castiel asks. "I mean, you threatened to shoot him, didn't you? So why did you hold off so long?"

"I just couldn't believe he was here," Sam says with a shrug. "I had to sleep on it. It didn't really sink in until this morning."

"Right," Castiel says slowly. "I'm sorry to intrude, but can I speak to Mr. Winchester for a minute? Alone?"

"Uh..." Kevin looks at Ash helplessly, but neither of them have any real reason to say no.

"If you'd like to talk, then we can talk," Sam says. "I will answer any and all questions you have. Anything to get my brother off the streets."

"Hmm," Castiel hums. "Great. Let's do that, then."

Castiel doesn't need to see him for this, so he decides to set up a phone call instead, trusting that Ash and Kevin will make sure Sam is alone. Now Castiel just has to take this somewhere he can be alone, too.

"Woah, where are you going?" Charlie asks.

"Somewhere alone," Castiel says.

"But —"

"It wasn't a request."

Charlie crosses her arms, but she lets him leave. Now it's time to confirm what he's decently sure he already knows.