Dean stays with Castiel for almost the entire weekend. He's glad; he hates being in the hospital alone. Throughout the weekend, he finds out what he missed. Apparently, Hendrickson was a friend of John Winchester's on the police force. Naturally, John didn't realize it was him that killed Mary Winchester at the time.

He covered his tracks well; the mysterious Sulfur Killer has killed more than thirty people, all spaced out by at least a couple months, likely so that Hendrickson could observe them as he seemed to love to do. It's been documented that Hendrickson showed up in one way or another with most of the victims' families, though some were just quick passing throughs.

Apparently, the Winchesters made it their mission to figure out who killed Mary Winchester. John and Dean took the job pretty seriously, though once John died, Dean stopped searching so rigorously. He had the "help" of Hendrickson for a long time, as did John, but once he moved in with Bobby, he lost a lot of his resources to hunt for the murderer. That, Dean later explained, was what Dean was doing the day before Hendrickson showed up for his final showcase.

Chuck, after apologizing profusely for leaving, explained that he was given a tip from a police officer about the death of his late wife, Becky. The officer happened to be Hendrickson, of course, and the tip was completely false. Still, it tricked him into leaving for long enough for Hendrickson to have his outing.

Of course, no life experience is complete without a bunch of friends freaking out about you. Sure, it's really only four, but it's a bunch to Castiel. Charlie, Kevin, Garth, and Sam come and go throughout the weekend, and Castiel is once again glad he's made friends. They're able to cheer him up every time he needs it.

~~

"Hey, Castiel!" Charlie practically yells as she runs into his hospital room.

Following her is another girl, one Castiel has rarely spoken to but one he knows nonetheless. The girl stands in the doorway, and Castiel can see she feels awkward and out of place.

"Hey, Castiel, this is —" Charlie begins, but Castiel cuts her off.

"Donna," he finishes. "I know."

"You know me?" Donna says in surprise.

"Yeah, you were the only person in the entire school to tell me you felt bad about what the football team did last year," Castiel recalls.

"Really? No one else?"

"Nope. Just you," Castiel tells her. "So, what're you doing here, Donna?" He asks it in a kind way, not snobby like he didn't want her here.

"I was hoping you'd help me out," Donna replies. "I help edit the school newspaper, but we don't have enough people to write articles, and basically no one buys them anymore. We went around to a lot of the classes, but no one wanted to write in or buy them. The school is giving us three weeks before they shut us down. I was hoping you would write an article for us. You don't have to if you don't want to, but if you could, that would be super fantastic!"

This is around the point Castiel would usually be doing his head-tilt squinty thing, but it wouldn't work well lying down like this.

"I'm sorry, what am I doing?" Castiel asks.

"She wants you to write an awesome story about how you killed a guy!" Charlie supplies. "Okay, that sounded weird, but yeah. So will you?"

Castiel hesitates. He doesn't like talking about himself, but maybe he should, just for this. No one reads the paper; Castiel didn't even know they had one. He could help out by supplying an article, if nothing else.

"How long should it be?" Castiel asks finally.

"As long as you can make it," Donna replies. "It's either that or writing about how bad school lunches are again. I think people would rather read your story."

"Alright," Castiel agrees reluctantly. "But I can't guarantee it will be any good, or that it will be school appropriate, so if you're the editor, you might have a lot of work to do on it. But I'll write it anyway."

Donna grins. "Okie dokie! Thanks, Castiel!"

"When do you want it done by?" Castiel asks.

"If you finish it by Friday, it can be in next week's paper, but if not, we can hold off a week on it."

"I'll try to have it done by Friday," Castiel tells her.

"Yay! Thanks a bunch, Castiel!"

There's a light knocking on the wall. Castiel looks over to see Dean standing outside the room. Donna quickly moves out of his way, so Dean walks up to Castiel and gives him a quick kiss.

"Sorry I'm late. Your brother was being slow," Dean tells him.

"I thought you had practice today," Castiel says.

"I do, but I ditched. I think coach is getting sick of this hospital excuse, but you should have seen the look on his face when I said my boyfriend instead of my friend."

Castiel chuckles. "I'm sure that was awesome," he replies. "Oh, Dean, do you know Donna?"

Dean glances at the girl as if just realizing she's here. He nods. "I do. Heya, Donna."

"Hi!"

"Donna and I have to go do... Something," Charlie announces. "Bye!" She pushes Donna out of the room, leaving the two boys in there alone.

Dean chuckles. "Ah, Charlie. Gotta love her. So, what did Donna want?"

"She wants me to write an article for the school paper," Castiel tells him.

"We have a school paper?"

Castiel chuckles. "My thoughts exactly."

"So, are you gonna do it?" Dean asks.
"Yeah," Castiel replies. "No one reads the paper anyway. I'm just trying to help fill up the pages a little bit."

"Well, I'm gonna have to buy a copy of it," Dean tells him. "When does it come out?"
"If I finish it by Friday, it'll be out Monday," Castiel informs him. "But you don't have to buy a paper. I can just show you what I wrote."

"Come on, Castiel. Don't you know that the country is all about ratings now?" Dean replies with a grin. "I'm buying a copy. Am I correct in assuming it's about what happened on Saturday?"

"Yep," Castiel replies. "And it'll probably suck, but whatever."

"You better make me seem like a hero," Dean jokes.

"Honestly, I don't think there really was a hero in that story," Castiel tells him. "But if there was one, it would be either you or Lucifer — or both, I guess. The two selfless ones."

"You tried to choose yourself," Dean reminds him. "That's pretty selfless in my book."

"I just didn't want to have to live without you."

Dean chuckles. "Aww, getting all sappy now, are we?"

"I'm just being honest," Castiel replies. "I don't know what I'd do if I lost you."