Let the Future Be Unspoken 3

[spiceblueeyes]

Title: Let the Future Be Unspoken
Fandom: Supernatural
Artist: dhfreak 
Author: Spiceblueeyes
Rating: R
Word Count: 8,591
Summary: After 5.04, Cas survives the assault on Lucifer. What happens to him now?
Warnings: Major spoilers for 5.04 ‘The End’ and also warnings for character death and themes of suicide. Not happy stuff.
Disclaimer: I don't own Supernatural at all. Not even a little.
Link to Master Art Post: Is Here!
Link to Master Fic Post: Here

               

The next few days were quiet. The camp felt lost without its leader. Chuck was doing his best to keep things together, but while he was great at all the behind the scenes organizing, like managing rations of food and toilet paper, he wasn’t cut out to be the front man.

                Cas could have helped, but he didn’t. Instead he spent his time in women and decadence, getting high every chance he could get and conducting orgies whenever the drugs weren’t cutting it, which was most of the time. He was trying to keep the pain away. Even as an angel he’d felt grief, but this was a whole new level of anguish for Cas. He’d never lost someone so close to him before, mainly because Dean was the only one who’d ever gotten that close. So he did everything he could to dull his senses and forget what he’d lost.

                Five days after they buried Dean, they were attacked. Croats swarmed the front gate, with Demons herding them from behind. Caught by surprise, fifteen people died before anyone even understood what was happening. If Dean had still been alive, they would have been more prepared, maybe even have been able to fight them off, or at least retreat to somewhere safer. But he wasn’t around anymore, and it seemed that it had only taken five days for the strict discipline he’d demanded to grow lax.

               Cas was roused by screams and the familiar sound of gunshots. He hastily dressed in whatever was handy and ran outside. People were gathering, defending themselves with shovels, hammers and anything else they could lay their hands on. A few people had the guns, but not many because a gun would only slow the Croats and demons down, not kill them. To kill a Croat you had to get up close and personal. And as for the demons, well, running was the only real option besides dying.

               Cas grabbed his dagger and went to help. He saw a Croat with its cut its own arm before slashing a woman’s leg as she tried to crawl away. Cas came up behind the Croat and slit it’s throat. It dropped and Cas stepped over it to do the same to the crawling woman. The look in her eyes was one of fear and recognition as he sliced her neck cleanly. There was no time to do for her what he’d done for Risa, too much was going on. He didn’t wait for the light in her eyes to die; he left her gurgling silently as he moved on to find another enemy.

               The battle was short. It only took a few minutes for people to realize they weren’t going to win this one, and they started to run. They scattered throughout the surrounding forest, hoping to elude the attackers in the familiar landscape. Cas went to find Chuck before he followed their example. He ran around to Chuck’s cabin, encountering and killing three Croats along the way. He found Chuck, armed with a shovel, swinging fighting off a man with one a knife. Even as Cas ran towards them, Chuck swung the shovel up high and brought it down on the Croat’s head in a move that had taken Dean three days to teach him last summer. When Chuck turned around he saw Cas and nodded at him. When Cas got close enough for speech Chuck asked, “Time for a strategic retreat?”

               “Definitely.” Cas replied. They headed out, jogging through the camp in a route chosen less for speed and more for cover. As they passed Dean’s old cabin they saw black-eyed demons joyfully set fire to it. They continued, instead of starting a fight they wouldn’t be able to win, and made it to the forest’s edge. Cas took the lead, and took them on a circuitous route to a cave he had discovered a couple years ago. It was well hidden, and a small waterfall next to it would disguise any accidental noise they made. He and Chuck went into the far end of the cave where the light didn’t reach and sat down, breathing heavily.  They were safe, for now.

                “Do you think other people escaped?” Chuck asked.

                 Cas nodded, “Probably.” He didn’t say that even if they survived this they would have limited choices on where to go. Clearly their camp was no longer safe, no one would be returning there. So they would have to choose between joining another camp somewhere, of which Dean’s was the most successful, most refugee camps didn’t last very long. Or they could head toward the remaining military installations where a semblance of order and government was maintained, but where everyone was drafted to fight the Croats, no matter your gender, age, or health. Either option meant a short and miserable existence. Cas didn’t say all that though, because Chuck already knew it.

                After a few more minutes of silence Chuck lifted up the bottom of his shirt, hissing in pain. “You’re hurt.” Cas said, “How bad is it?”

                “It’s just a cut, not too bad.” Chuck said. Blood had soaked into the waist of his pants and the wound was still bleeding sluggishly.

                “We should dress it.” Cas said.

                “With what exactly?” Chuck asked. In their escape there hadn’t been time to stop for supplies, and it was far too soon to risk going back.

                “We should at least put pressure on it.” Cas stood up and helped Chuck take off his jacket. He folded it up and pressed it to the cut. “Hold that there.”

                Chuck took over and Cas sat back down. “What are we going to do now?” Chuck asked. Cas didn’t answer. He had no idea. For as long as this war had been going on they’d both followed Dean’s lead. Without him they were rudderless, just drifting amongst the chaos. Chuck didn’t say anything else, and eventually they both succumbed to the darkness and exhaustion. They slept on the hard ground, uncomfortably and fitfully, but they slept.

                In the morning they woke to the sound of birds chirping in the forest. The sounds were too cheerful and made the day seem so disconnected to what had happened less than twenty-four hours ago. Cas nudged Chuck, “I’m going back to camp, see if I can scrounge up some supplies.” Chuck nodded. He looked tired.

               “Okay, just, be careful.” Chuck’s voice was a little weaker than Cas would have liked, but there was nothing he could do without supplies. So he stood up and walked out into the trees. He was quiet, doing his best to not leave a trail.

               As he approached the camp he could smell smoke. It seemed that Dean’s cabin wasn’t the only thing the demons had torched. In fact, as he surveyed the damage, all of the cabins were gone, some were still burning, and others just smoldering, almost burnt out. There were no Croats or demons left in the camp. They’d done their dirty work and gone away. Cas walked around, looking for anything that might have been missed in the destruction.

                He picked through the debris, finding some energy bars next to a body. The man must have thought ahead and tried to bring them with him in the escape, but didn’t make it. Cas took them, along with some clean-ish clothes that had been hanging on a line to dry before being ripped to the ground. Unfortunately the cabin they used as a hospital had been completely wiped out, nothing left, which meant he didn’t even have aspirin to bring back to Chuck. He put his finds in a bucket, because they would need something to hold water in, and started the trip back to the cave, leaving behind the ruins of the last home they would ever have.

                  Back at the cave Chuck was shivering, but his skin was hot to the touch. Cas gave him an energy bar and filled the bucket with fresh water from the neighboring stream. He brought it back inside the cave and set it down beside Chuck. “How are you feeling?” He asked.

                “Just peachy, thanks for asking,” Chuck smiled. Cas peeled the shirt up from over the wound. It wasn’t a deep cut, but it was obviously infected, bright red and even hotter under Cas’ fingers than the rest of Chuck’s skin. On his stomach was a bad place to get an infection, easier for it to get to the blood stream. Cas pulled the water bucket closer.

                “This isn’t gonna feel great.” He warned, before he carefully poured water over the wound, rinsing it out and hopefully removing any dirt in it.

                “Aaaah, no! No it really doesn’t!” Chuck squirmed and shouted.

                “Sorry.” Cas said. He took the cleanest looking sweatshirt from the pile of clothes he’d retrieved and used the arms to tie it around Chuck’s waste, in lieu of a bandage. It was the best they could do. Then he settled with his back against the cave wall and took an energy bar for himself. He gestured with it vaguely. “So, we should make a plan. Or something.”

                Chuck didn’t say anything, just sat there eating his own bar.  He was carefully not looking at Cas. “What’s wrong?” Cas asked.

                “I, um,” Chuck looked around uncomfortably. “I had a dream last night.” A dream. Cas realized that Chuck was talking about his dreams of the future. Suddenly he wished he hadn’t asked. “I’m, um, not gonna get better.” Chuck took another bite and chewed slowly.

                “What?” Cas said. “What does that mean?”

                “It means that I’m going to die. Soon, actually.” Chuck replied.

                “That’s…no, what about your angel?” Cas grasped at what he knew were straws.

                Chuck laughed darkly. “You and I both know that my guardian angel left with the rest of them a long time ago.”

                Cas shook his head, denying. “We can change it, we just have to do something different.”

                “You know it doesn’t work like that.” Chuck said.

                Cas threw the rest of his energy bar down in anger. “You can’t just sit there and accept it!”

                “Hey! It’s not like I’m thrilled about it you know. But we’ve tried to change things before, and it never works. You know that.”

                Cas crawled toward Chuck and got right up in his face. “You can’t die. If you die, I’ll be alone. I’m not even supposed to be here. And now I’ll be alone.”

                “Way to make it about you.” Chuck snorted and pushed Cas away. “Though I am sorry about that.”

Cas didn’t fight Chuck’s push and sat back hard. He really wished that all of his drugs hadn’t gone up in flames along with everything else.

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