Chapter Text
-/-
It is twenty one months, three weeks, and four days after Cas gets taken to the Empty that Jack appears in the bunker and tells them he has a way of getting him back.
“Actually, it’s a lot bigger than that,” he explains. “I could have just gone into the Empty and gotten him out any time, but if I did that, I could have potentially lost him, or gotten trapped as well, and I would only get Cas back, maybe. But with Rowena’s help, I’ve been negotiating with the Empty and not only do I have a chance of getting it to give me Cas, if we succeed, it will give me a lot more of its denizens. I need the angels to finish the work I started in rebuilding Heaven, and Rowena wants her son back, and the Empty will give some of them to us if we can successfully rescue Cas.”
“What do we have to do?” Dean says. He’s ready to do whatever it takes– he may have learned to live without Cas in this time, but barely, and he’d rather have him back if they can wrangle it. Getting Crowley back too is a bonus– he’s missed that guy. The other angels… well, Cas will be happy about that, anyway.
“Not we,” Jack says. “You. The Empty has issued a challenge. If you can find Cas and successfully bring him out of the Empty, it’ll release everyone else I’ve asked for as well.”
“That’s it?”
“It won’t be easy.”
“I don’t care. I’ll do it.”
“Okay. Let’s go, then.”
-/-
It’s not easy. Just being in the Empty is hard for Dean, the way it pushes in on him, the way the utter silence seems to pull the very breath out of his lungs. He’s mere steps from the door and he already feels like he’s being crushed, and he’s sleepy too, but he pushes on, pushes on because this is how they get back Cas and Crowley and the angels. Everyone is counting on him.
So he pushes on.
-/-
Dean doesn’t know how long he’s been walking when he finds Cas just lying there in the Empty. He hurries to his side, tries to shake him awake, but when Cas opens his eyes and looks up at him, something icy grips Dean’s heart. Because that’s not Cas looking up at him (how can he be sure? he just is), and now he knows what the real challenge is. He doesn’t just have to find Cas, he has to find the real Cas.
He does, of course. If the Empty thought that it would weasel out of giving Jack everything he asked for by tricking Dean into taking the wrong Cas, it hasn’t been paying attention. Dean knows Cas. Dean knows Cas like the desert knows sand, he could pick him out of a million Cases, would know the real Cas no matter how the Empty disguised him.
In fact, the Empty hasn’t disguised him at all. When Dean does find Cas, he’s in his true form, or at least as much of it as Dean can perceive with his limited human perception, and he’s beautiful, and Dean’s soul knows him and sings out for him there in the heart of the Empty.
“Hey, Sunshine,” Dean says quietly, clutching one of his smaller wings between his hands, staring down into a cluster of eyes that are rapidly filling with tears at the sight of him. A shudder rips through Dean– this is Cas, there’s no doubt, even though this isn’t the first fake that Dean has found in true angel form. He brushes away a tear pooling in one eye and sheds a few of his own, and says, “Come on, buddy, let’s get you out of here, okay?”
-/-
So Cas is back. Jack even takes the time to restore him to his full pre-fallen state, and lovingly rebuilds his vessel himself. It takes a few days to put him back together, during which time Dean has plenty of time to work himself up into a tizzy over whether things will be the same between them now, whether Cas will feel the same way about him that he did before, whether they’ll be able to have anything.
Whether Cas will even want to stay with him.
“Of course I want to stay with you,” Cas says when he finally gets the chance to ask.
“Doesn’t Jack need your help to rebuild Heaven?”
“He says there are other ways for me to help, ways that allow me to stay on Earth with you, if that’s what I choose. I only need to stay in Heaven long enough to get the Archangels put back together. That shouldn’t take long.”
“Is that what you choose?”
Cas doesn’t answer right away. He moves closer, raising one hand to rest on Dean’s shoulder, the other coming up between them, hesitantly. Dean meets it with his own, twining their fingers together while his eyes beg for an answer. Cas smiles.
“If you welcome me, yes.”
“Of course I fucking welcome you, Cas… I love you.”
“Dean–”
“I love you. And I’m so angry at you for dropping that on me and then leaving like it was nothing. How can you have thought I’d be okay after that?”
“I wanted to keep you safe.”
“You broke my heart, Cas.”
“I’m sorry,” Cas begins, but Dean just silences him by raising his free hand to Cas’ face, tracing light fingertips along his jaw. Cas’ breath hitches and Dean’s touch becomes firmer, steadying Cas in place so Dean can lean in and kiss him.
“I forgive you. I’m sorry. I love you,” he says between kisses, tears slipping free unnoticed. “I don’t care anymore. You’re here, you said you’d stay. We have time to sort out all the rest.”
“Yes,” Cas breathes against his lips. “I’m here. I’m here, Dean. I won’t leave you again.”
-/-
It takes them a little over three and a half months to rebuild the Archangels from the firmament, Jack crafting their grace into shape with love and care, ensuring that each and every molecule is exactly where it ought to be. Michael is first, and no sooner has Jack brought him back into being than he’s demanding Adam be returned to him.
“Of course I’ll bring Adam back,” Jack assures him. “Once we’ve finished putting together the angels I’ll have enough hands on deck to start putting together humans.”
But Michael doesn’t want to wait that long. He promised Adam they’d stay together, and he doesn’t want to be without him. And for the first time Michael finds himself rebelling, ready to tear apart Heaven entirely unless Jack lets him have his beloved back. So Jack goes to get his soul from the Heaven he’s been keeping it in, and Michael cradles it between his many wings and admires it.
“You’re beautiful,” he says, and the song of his true voice fills the words with a thousand notes of longing and affection and adoration and need and Adam’s soul, tiny, delicate, powerful little thing that it is, pulses back with the same yearning and devotion. A song sings back to him from the heart of the little soul, a question, a promise, a longing so strong that it radiates through Heaven.
“Yes,” Michael whispers in answer, and the soul enters his grace and spreads, filling in all of the gaps that Jack had noticed when rebuilding him but been unsure of the reason for their existence. Now, soul and grace, angel and human blending together into one being, he can see why Michael had seemed incomplete.
“Thank you,” Adam says with Michael’s voice, and Jack beams at them.
-/-
While Jack has to take the time to rebuild the Archangels, Crowley is a little bit easier. His soul, or smoke, or demonic essence, whatever it’s called, is still in tact, and Rowena has been keeping his meatsuit ready and waiting for him as soon as she was assured she’d get him back. (How she managed to get it back is anyone's guess.) Crowley is already back up and running even before Cas is, but Rowena whisks him off to hell before they can really get a chance to reunite with him.
The pair of them return the same day Cas is done, Crowley giving everyone his best smug look while they pretend not to notice how fond he looks.
“Why did you run off?” Sam asks Rowena. “We all missed Crowley, not just you. We would have liked to see him too.”
“Bit of a priorities matter, I’m afraid,” Crowley explains. “Mother had been away from her throne long enough, so she decided we could have our little reunion in Hell instead. Got back in the middle of a coup, but that’s taken care of.”
“So will you be staying in Hell permanently now?” is the big question, and Crowley tries not to be touched that they seem hopeful the answer will be no.
It is no, and he smirks to cover up his affection at their obvious pleasure from this.
“Mummy needs someone on Earth to report to her about how things are going up here,” he explains. “I’m going to be her official correspondent and relay to her all of the news she needs to know, and handle any unruly demons who don't want to obey their queen.”
“Are you okay with that?” Dean asks Jack, and Jack just smiles.
“Actually, Rowena got the idea from me! Crowley is doing the same job for Rowena that Cas is doing for me.”
They look to Cas for an explanation. He smiles weakly. “I haven’t had a chance to talk about it, but yes. My role in helping Jack to rebuild is to monitor the goings-on on Earth.”
“You see,” Jack explains, “As much as I’d like to be totally hands off, I don’t think it’s a good idea to just jump to that. I think I need to fix the things that Chuck muddled, and then wean the world off of my interference. Once the world can support itself on its own, then I’ll step back and let it all do its own thing. And I’ll need Castiel on the ground to make sure everything is running smoothly.” He beams. “You see, I knew Castiel would want to stay on Earth with you, Dean, but I also knew he’d feel like he should be in Heaven helping me rebuild. So I thought and thought, and came up with a way that he could help from Earth.”
“And then Mother dearest took the idea and ran with it so I wouldn’t be mucking about underfoot in Hell and causing problems for her.”
“And because she knows how much you hate that place,” Dean says. After everything that’s happened, he’s determined not to let Crowley get away with pretending they don’t care about each other. Crowley wants to be loved? Needs, deserves to be loved? They’re gonna be the ones to do it, then, dammit.
“Besides, I can’t have him getting any ideas about taking my throne,” Rowena adds.
“So!” Crowley says. “Which room is mine? Preferably one far away from the lovebirds over here, now that they’ve resolved all that unresolved sexual tension I think I’d prefer not to share a wall with them.”
“How do you know…?”
“Please. It’s written all over your faces.”
-/-
So Crowley moves into the bunker, and Cas moves into the bunker, and Dean and Sam already live in the Bunker, and the four of them get to work on the first task Jack gives them: preparing a space for the rest of their friends and loved ones that he’s bringing back.
“It’s why I needed the Archangels,” he explains. “They’ll help me rebuild the other angels– and new angels, too– and then the angels can help me rebuild the people who were lost because Chuck meddled.”
“Our friends?” Sam asks, exchanging a look with Dean. “Our family?”
“Bobby?” Dean asks in a small voice, like he’s afraid the answer will be no, and then in an even smaller voice, “Charlie?”
“Everyone,” Jack confirms. “Not just your loved ones, either. The vessels killed when the angels fell, the people Castiel killed when he had the souls from Purgatory inside him, the people the Leviathan stole, even the people killed or turned into monsters just so you could suffer their loss– all of that was Chuck’s meddling. Hunters can’t save everyone, sure, and it’s natural you wouldn’t have had a one hundred percent success rate. But Chuck made sure that you were always barely holding on to any scrap of human connection by taking out everyone you connected with. So I’m going to bring them back and undo the meddling Chuck did on them.”
“Bringing back that many people,” Castiel begins, and Jack nods.
“I know. It’s going to take work, and I’ll need to make sure the world has space for them. It will take time. But I want to get your family started. You've been alone long enough. So while I rebuild the Archangels, I need you to make a place for them, and tell me who you want back first.”
“Our parents and Bobby,” Sam says immediately, and Dean follows with, “Charlie. Kevin. Ellen and Jo?” He trails off, something tight in his throat. “How many people are we talking, Jack? We’ve lost so many.”
“Jimmy and Amelia,” Cas adds quietly.
Jack smiles and nods. “That’s nine,” he says. “That’ll be good for now.” At their pained expressions– he knows there are already more names burning on their tongues– he assures them, “Don’t worry. I’ll bring back everyone else, too, everyone who wants to come back.”
“Wants to?”
“I’m going to give them a choice. I’ll tell them what I’m doing, and let them decide if they want to stay in Heaven or return to Earth. When they come back, they’ll remember only that they chose to return, but not actually talking to me or anything about Heaven.”
“And the ones that want to stay?”
“They’ll be taken care of. They’ll be okay.”
-/-
So Jack gets to work in Heaven, and Sam and Dean and the others get to work in the Bunker, preparing the spare rooms for their friends’ returns. They’re not sure if any of them will want to stay for keeps, but they’ll at least have somewhere waiting for them while they get ready to pick up the pieces of their lives. And, if they do decide to stay, they’ll have a space already prepared.
“We should call Mrs. Tran and let her know what’s going on,” Sam says. “And Claire.”
They do, and within a couple of days the lot of them arrive at the bunker. They fill them all in one what’s going on, what Jack is planning. They get to work getting things ready…
…and then settle in to wait.
-/-
It is four months, two weeks, and six days after Dean saves Cas from the Empty that Jack appears in the bunker and tells them he has their loved ones ready.