I Dean of Genie

Author's note:  This chapter contains spoilers for season 10, so beware if you haven't already watched season 10.  As always, thanks for reading!

“Hannah.  That’s just great.”  Rolling his eyes, Dean retreated into the bathroom, leaving Castiel to answer the light knock at the door.   Of course, it made sense that Cas’s mission from Heaven would involve Hannah, but understanding it didn’t mean Dean had to be happy about it.  There was no love lost between Hannah and him.

He looked down at the cuffs encircling his wrists.  The visible symbols of his genie curse hadn’t responded to any magic he’d used to try to remove them, but Hannah finding out he was a genie was the last thing they needed.  Having recently been a demon, and bearing the Mark of Cain, was bad enough.  On a whim, Dean blinked and the cuffs became invisible.   So, he could disguise himself if it benefitted his Master for him to do so.  

He’d have to be careful not to use his magic.  The thought rankled.  This mission of Cas’s involved tracking down rogue angels.   With Cas running out of grace and Dean’s magic curtailed, Hannah would be the only one on the team at full power.    Dean smirked as a devious thought occurred to him.  He could still use magic… He’d just have to be careful Hannah didn’t recognize it.  

When he stepped out of the bathroom, Hannah was standing way too close to Cas, her expression tender as she looked up at him, fingers lingering too long on his chest as she made a completely unnecessary adjustment to his lapels.  Dean had to suppress a flash of jealousy.  Cas was his angel!  His Master, but he kept his face carefully blank, giving Hannah the bare minimum of a nod to acknowledge her.  “Hannah.”  

“Oh.  Hello, Dean,”  she said, equally chilly.  

It seemed to Dean that she was taking her sweet damn time stepping away from Cas.  Just then, though, there was another knock at the door, breaking the awkward tableau as Hannah moved to answer it.  

“Caroline!  My god, Caroline, I thought I’d never find you!”

“Joe,”  Hannah said, sounding pained.  “You shouldn’t be here.”  

“I’ve been looking for you for a year!  You just left, without a word, without a note…”  

Dean realized Caroline was the name of Hannah’s vessel.  And this poor bastard must be Caroline’s husband.  Feeling a sharp pang of emotion through his bond with his Master, he glanced quickly at Cas, but the angel’s stoic face revealed nothing and the bond closed off.  

“What happened to you, Caroline?”  Joe kept up his questioning,  distraught.  “Who are these men?  Why are you here?”  

“You would never understand.”  

Dean could sense Hannah’s conflict.  She could easily erase all memory of the encounter from the human’s mind, but then he’d keep on suffering, worrying and wondering about his missing wife.  Awkward, he thought, the mischievous, malicious genie side of his personality amused by her predicament.  

“I wouldn’t understand?  Try me, Caroline!”  Joe took a belligerent stance, arms folded across his chest, muscles braced to block the exit.  “I’m not going anywhere until you give me answers.”  

“You want answers?  I left you because--”  Hannah turned to Castiel.  “I left you because of him.  I don’t love you any more, Joe.  I love him.”

Dean and the husband, Joe, both scoffed.  Even Cas's stoic mask slipped, leaving him  looking  skeptical.  

“I don’t believe you would do that.  Not without so much as a text to let me know you were okay,”  Joe said.   He glared at Dean and Cas.  “Did these creeps threaten you?  Are you afraid of what they’ll do to you, is that it?”  

Dean snorted.  Sure, he felt sorry for the poor guy, but he couldn’t completely suppress a laugh at the mental image of Cas as a sex trafficker.  Smirking, he gave the angel a sidelong look.  “I blame that pimp-mobile of yours.”   

“Of course not!  I really do love him,”  Hannah blustered.  She strode across the room, grabbed Castiel by the front of his trenchcoat, and pulled him in for a messy, off-center kiss.  Catching on, Cas embraced her and kissed her back with every appearance of passion.  

Dean and Joe both gaped, mouths hanging open.  There was another irrational surge of jealousy, and Dean had to look away.   He walked over to the door and put a hand on Joe’s shoulder, gently but firmly steering the stricken husband out of the room.   Hannah and Castiel hastily followed.  

“I’m sorry,”  she told Joe as they piled into Cas’s Lincoln Continental.  They drove off, leaving him standing in the parking lot, staring after them.  

Hannah had taken shotgun, which annoyed Dean, but maybe it was just as well.  When he glanced in the rearview mirror at Cas, it seemed he’d already dozed off, exhausted.   “So how do you hunt down rogue angels?”  he asked Hannah, determined to get this mission finished so he could take care of Cas’s failing grace.  

“It’s difficult.  They’re using Enochian sigils to conceal themselves, so I’m scanning for an absence  of celestial energy.”  

“I thought most of the angels who fell returned to Heaven voluntarily.   So wouldn’t an absence of celestial whatsit be basically everywhere on earth except here in this car, and wherever Adina and Daniel are hiding out?”  

Hannah shook her head.  “Even without the presence of angels, there are still traces of celestial energy throughout all of Creation.”  

“Except where it’s been hidden by the sigils,”  Dean concluded.  He glanced in the rearview mirror again,  at Cas huddled in his rumpled layers and tattered wings, and shook his head.  Hannah’s method would take too long.  Fortunately, he had an easier way.  With a blink, Dean wished for the whereabouts of the two rogues, and a few miles later, on the pretext of filling the Lincoln’s gas tank, he exited the highway, taking a meandering route.   Hannah should pick up the location any time now, and think it was all her own doing.