Castiel is between cases at the moment. He'd just stopped a group of men from blowing up half of New England a couple days ago, and Michael's yet to give him a new assignment. He says it's because he doesn't want to waste his best detective on something small, but Castiel thinks he's just trying to give him and his partner a chance to rest. One day, Michael is going to realize that he not only doesn't need to rest, but that he doesn't like to. He's here to work, and that's what he wants to do.

Castiel and his partner of two years, Charlie Bradbury, spend the day working on paperwork. Typically, Charlie does the bare minimum of her work and leaves the rest for Castiel, because she is a fantastic friend. He doesn't mind. He tends to do it at home so he can make the most out of his time in the office, but, given that there's nothing else to do right now, he opts to work on it now. Charlie's even doing her fair share for once, which means she must really be bored.

"So, I've been wondering," Charlie says, which is never a good sign, "what you've been up to these last couple nights if you're not staring at whiteboards or writing case summaries or whatever."

Castiel rolls his eyes. She makes fun of him for his work ethic all the time. As much as Charlie likes her job, she likes her free time more, so she doesn't quite understand why Castiel would choose to spend all his time on work. He's fully aware that "I enjoy working" is not a suitable answer for her, because it didn't satisfy her curiosity the first hundred times, so he eventually decided to let her keep up the teasing.

"I started a new book," Castiel tells her. He rarely finds time to read, so this is a big feat for him.

"Ooh, fun!" Charlie says with a grin. "Maybe you'll finish it by the end of the year!"

For context, it's currently March.

Castiel chuckles. "Well, not all of us want to spend every waking moment of our lives pretending to be fairy princesses or whatever it is you do."

"It's called LARPing, and I'm not a fairy princess!" Charlie says for the millionth time. "I'm a —"

"Castiel."

The sound of Michael's voice shuts Charlie up immediately. They both look up from the desk they'd been sharing — technically Castiel's, though Charlie rarely uses her own — to see Michael looking at his brother solemnly.

"What's up?" Castiel asks. "Everything okay?"

"I need to see you in my office." Michael glances at Charlie, then adds a firm, "Alone."

"Okay?" Castiel gets up and starts to follow his brother, but, behind Michael's back, he glances over his shoulder and mouths, "What the fuck?" to his partner, who shrugs.

Michael leads Castiel to his office and shuts the door behind him. All the blinds have been closed already, as if he'd prepared for this in advance. When Michael sits down, Castiel stands warily by the door. Whatever this is, it looks serious, and Castiel doesn't like it. He doesn't want to get comfortable if this is going to shake his world up in some huge way, and it looks like it will.

"You can take a seat," Michael says, gesturing to the chair on the other side of his desk.

"I think I'll stand," Castiel says.

"I know it sounded like an offer, but it wasn't," Michael says.

Castiel raises an eyebrow but sits down as he was told. "What's this about, Michael? Am I in trouble for something?" He can't think of anything he's done wrong lately. Sure, he's been goofing off with Charlie lately, but that's because Michael won't give him a case yet. There's nothing to do but tell stupid jokes. That's not a punishable offense, is it?

"I just got a call from Pelican Bay," Michael says.

Castiel cocks his head to the side. "Pelican Bay? The prison?"

Michael just nods.

"What did they want with you?" Castiel asks. "Is everything okay?" It's a pretty dumb question, and he knows that. No prison would contact the FBI if everything was okay. Still, it's one he definitely wants an answer to, though he's sure Michael was getting there.

"One of their inmates escaped," Michael says.

"Shit, seriously?" Castiel gapes at him. "Is everyone okay?" Pelican Bay isn't just a maximum security prison; it's a supermax prison, dedicated to watching the worst of the worst with an eagle eye. With the staff-to-inmate ratio, everyone practically has their own babysitter. How the hell did someone get out of there?

"A couple guards were knocked out," Michael says, "but no serious injuries. Everyone's fine now, but the prisoner is still out there."

"Is this my new case?" Castiel asks. "To track him down? Shouldn't Charlie be here, too?"

"All of that is up to you," Michael tells him.

"What do you mean?" Castiel asks cautiously.

"The inmate that escaped is Dean Winchester."

Castiel freezes, all the blood draining from his face. The Bloody Valentine killer escaped? He made it out of a supermax prison, and he's back on the streets after only seven years? How is that even possible? Did he manage to sweet-talk the guards the same way he did with Castiel, trick them into trusting him so he could get out? That could be why he didn't kill them — he tends to get sentimental over people of authority whose jobs it is to watch over him. Castiel knows that one from experience.

Even when Castiel was visiting Dean every month, the thought of him escaping was constantly plaguing his thoughts. Castiel had always found him fascinating. He'd even felt sympathetic for him, especially listening to him talk about his childhood. But the guy was the personificatin of trouble, and he knew they needed to keep him off the streets at all costs if they wanted to avoid another murder spree.

Michael sighs. "I'm sorry, Castiel. I know you thought this was behind you."

Castiel takes a deep breath, pulling himself together before he asks, "Is this going to be public knowledge soon?"

Michael nods solemnly. "We're going to be sending his picture out to every airport in the country. It's going to be plastered all over the news. If the public can't help locate him, maybe it'll at least convince him to lie low."

Castiel doesn't respond.

"Unless that's not the plan of action you'd take," Michael says slowly.

"No, that's... it sounds great," Castiel says.

"It doesn't look like you think it's great," Michael remarks.

"It's just... Anna's not going to be happy," Castiel says.

Michael sighs. "I know, but she needs to know. She's the only living victim. Even if she hadn't been our sister and we hadn't been making this public, I would still want her to know."

"You remember what happened last time, don't you?" Castiel asks. "I know it's been a year, but..."

"We can leave a police detail outside her house," Michael says.

"You mean my house," Castiel reminds him. "You want to leave a police detail outside an FBI agent's house. That just sounds like a waste of government spending. There's no way you're gonna get the okay for that."

"Winchester took a special interest in you, too," Michael reminds him. "You put him in prison yourself. We could make the case that he could want revenge."

"Not when I've visited him in prison so many times," Castiel says. He;s still not sure why he did that. Yes, the Bloody Valentine killer had fascinated him for years, and yes, he'd devoted most of his adult life at that point to catching him, but the guy's a serial killer, for god's sake.

"You haven't gone since the incident," Michael reminds him. "That's —"

"Immaterial," Castiel interrupts. "That's immaterial. It would be a hassle to even try to get the police detail, and we'd need someone inside if we really wanted to keep her safe. Plus, if he decides to come back for either of us, which he could, I don't have much faith that the cops could hold him off, so leaving them out front is just gonna draw attention to us."

"Then what do you want to do, Castiel?" Michael asks, exasperated. "It's your case. You make the final decision here."

Castiel hesitates. After losing Hannah in a counterterrorism operation a couple years back, he became the one living person to know the ins and outs of the Bloody Valentine case. Even after all these years, every detail is burned into his brain. He could be a very powerful asset to this case.

But he can't go through that again.

"I have some vacation days stacked up, right?" he asks finally.

Michael stares at him. "You're going on vacation? Now?"

"I just need a week or two to unwind," Castiel says. "And I want to keep an eye on Anna, too."

Michael doesn't immediately give him a response.

"Please," Castiel says. "You can call me whenever you want. You can tell me to meet you somewhere, and I'll be there. I will answer any questions you have. But I can't pick this case back up."

Michael lets out a long breath. "Okay. I won't force you to take any case you don't think you can handle. Go put in a request for time off, and I'll approve it for you."

Castiel smiles gratefully. "Good luck on this one."

"Thanks," Michael says. "If it's anything like last time, we're gonna need it."