I've always liked the 'five times' stories, so I finally decided to do one. I kind of have the headcanon that maybe Cas actually knew Dean before we rescued him from hell, I like to think he watched over him and Sam as kids. Not really canon compliant, I guess, but no one really said anything against the idea either, so I kind of like to think that it was possible. Anyway, that's what this story is. Cas watching over Dean as he grew up. Not my best writing, but I hope you enjoy it all the same. No slash as usual. Please let me know what you think :)

Protector

A Supernatural Fanfic

1.

Ever since Dean Winchester was brought home from the hospital as a baby, Mary Winchester told him that angels were watching over him every night before he went to bed. In later years, he might be surprised to find that this was, in fact, the truth. There was indeed, one angel in particular who was watching over him: his name was Castiel.

Castiel wasn't sure why he had been set to watch over young Dean Winchester, only that he would be important one day, but he did know he was fascinated by the tiny thing who slept in his crib at night after Mary had sung him to sleep. He was so small and vulnerable looking that Castiel couldn't possibly imagine him doing anything of much import. But humans grew, he knew, and one day Dean Winchester would no longer be a tiny infant with a wisp of pale blond hair on top of his mostly bald head.

Sometimes at night, Castiel would stand over the crib and watch the child sleeping soundly. If he started to get restless or cry, he would reach down and gently put him back to sleep with a single touch. John and Mary might wonder at the fact their baby was so well behaved that they could sleep all through the night, and Castiel didn't think they would ever have guessed the real reason for it.

One night, after Castiel had sent Dean to sleep, he stood there, just watching the infant breathe, and a small smile flitted over his lips.

"I will protect you always, Dean Winchester," he whispered softly as the child slept on.

Little did he know then just how much impact this tiny child could have on his life, and the existence of the entire world in general.

2.

Dean Winchester had always looked after his baby brother, but it was harder now that their mother was gone, and John Winchester was too busy tracking down the demon that killed her. That often meant that he would leave five-year-old Dean alone for hours and sometimes a couple days, barricaded into a motel room, having to look after his one-year-old brother all by himself. Castiel didn't know much about what was and wasn't done in human society, but this to him seemed wrong, and almost cruel. How was such a young boy supposed to take care of a baby? It didn't seem natural. It was at times like these that Castiel was very glad he had been given the job of watching over this child. Being his protector.

One of these such times, baby Sammy came down with a fever and cried all day and all night while his older brother tried to soothe him as best he could, walking the bundle around the small room and trying to keep him cool, but he had no medicine to give him and he tried to call his father several times, without there seeming to be any result. At the last time, he finally threw the phone away and sat on the bed and cried with his brother. The sight was so pitiful that Castiel wished he could reveal himself to the child, but he knew he should not, that such actions would be frowned upon. So he waited, watching as Dean cried himself to sleep and Sam finally did the same. It was only then that Castiel entered the room and looked down at the sleeping boys, Sam still cuddled close to his older brother's chest.

Castiel reached down and gently touched Sam's forehead, feeling it instantly cool under his fingertips. The baby visibly relaxed and cooed in his sleep. Dean slept deeply and Castiel stayed and watched them through the rest of the night, though they never knew he was there.

In the morning, Dean woke slowly and finally jerked upright, waking Sam who whimpered a protest.

"Sammy?" Dean called, feeling his forehead. Relief washed over the small boy's features. "You're okay! You're better!" He hugged Sam tightly and went to the kitchen to get them something to eat.

Castiel took to staying with them if possible when John Winchester left them alone. If their father would not watch out for them, he would.

3.

John Winchester always told his sons to be careful in a strange town, and Dean was cautious enough for them both with a five-year-old brother to look after, and he was already able to shoot a rifle almost better than his father, but that didn't mean that he could always protect against every eventuality. Sometimes it wasn't a person or a monster who came to haunt them; sometimes, it was something much more simple.

Often when John went hunting, he would be gone for much longer than he planned, and since he usually only left enough money with Dean for the time he expected to be away, there were, on occasion, complications that Dean could do nothing about. It wasn't like a nine-year-old boy could just go and make money anywhere he wanted, and he didn't want to talk to strangers to do so. They might ask questions, and he couldn't leave Sammy alone to go and do odd jobs for people. So sometimes, they ran out of money, and that meant that they ran out of food.

Castiel watched them one night in their motel room. Dean stood at the table, carefully scraping the last of the peanut butter from the container and spreading it thinly over a single piece of bread. He folded it carefully, and looked at it for a long time with the knife still in his hand before he put it on the plate and brought it over to Sammy who sat on the bed watching the television.

"Here Sammy, eat up."

"But I'm really hungry, Dean," Sam said pitifully. "Can I have a whole sandwich?"

"That's all there is left," Dean told his younger brother gently. "I'll get you more tomorrow, I promise."

"Is there some for you?" Sam questioned.

Dean smiled. "I already ate, that's yours, Sammy. Go on, at least get something into your tummy."

Sam ate the meager meal dutifully. Castiel watched with a feeling of sadness, but was also fascinated by having watched Dean's devotion to his younger brother as he always was. He had seen Dean skip meals for the last three days just to stretch the supplies so Sam could eat. He had only had a half a sandwich and a glass of milk in that time, and at night, he slept with his arms wrapped around his pained stomach, willing the hunger pangs away. Dean was so devoted to the care of his younger brother that he would willingly starve himself to death so that Sam could eat. There was something Castiel found noble in that, even though it also made him sad. A child should not have to think like that, and there was no excuse for John Winchester to treat his sons in such a manner.

So Castiel decided that he was going to do something about it. Dean would not suffer while he was watching over him. That night, while the boys were sleeping, he brought a bag of food, filled with everything he had seen the boys eat on a normal basis, and put it on the doorstep of the room. When Dean woke the next morning and went as a last resort to ask the motel manager whether there was any work he could do, he stumbled over the bag, and stared at it with shock. Castiel watched as he gave it a wide berth, looking around as if the giver were still somewhere nearby. He cautiously looked through the contents and when everything seemed genuine, he reluctantly took it inside. Castiel watched with satisfaction as Dean woke Sam with a real sized portion of food, and the angel saw the boy smile for the first time in a while.

"See, Sammy? I told you I would get you food," he said, his gaze going to the window, his eyes narrowing slightly. Castiel thought for a moment that he was staring right at him, but of course Dean couldn't see him. Comforted that the boys were safe for now, he left to see to his other duties.

4.

As Dean Winchester grew older, Castiel was not always there watching over him as he had been when the boy was younger. He had other duties, and he had also come to realize that he couldn't always avert Dean's problems like he used to; most of them simply were not fixable by a protective eye watching through the night, or an angel blade in the dark, keeping the monsters away. But when he was in trouble, Castiel always came, or he tried to if it was at all possible.

This time, it was a hunt. It was the dead of winter, and the Winchesters had found their way to Washington where something had been attacking people in the woods. John had taken both boys with him on this hunt, but in the process had been separated from them, and a snowstorm picked up without warning, leaving the brothers wondering where their father had gone, and completely lost.

Then Sam had fallen into a hole and broken his ankle. Unable to go on any farther, Dean had carried his brother to a nearby cave where they huddled together and Dean did his best to see to Sam's ankle, tearing strips from his own clothing and using sticks to splint it. They were in quite a tight spot, freezing, lost, and with a hurt Sam who was only barely staying conscious. Somehow, Castiel had felt Dean's desperation and when he flew down and saw the trouble the Winchester brothers had gotten into now, he knew he had to do what he could to help them out of it.

Castiel had been told when he asked once that protecting Sam Winchester was not a priority, though he had never been given a reason why. He had never been given one for protecting Dean either. But he had realized something the other angels didn't seem to see. The fact that protecting Sam meant the same thing as protecting Dean, because the younger brother was the world to Dean Winchester. Castiel had watched them grow up, witnessed their love and devotion to one another, and sometimes, it made him feel something akin to longing, which was not a good thing for an angel to feel. But it was the truth nonetheless. He had never felt such love and devotion toward or from his own brothers and sisters, and the more he watched the Winchester boys, the more he wanted brothers like that. Which was why, despite orders, he looked after Sam Winchester the same as his older brother, and this night he needed help more than Dean. Because if Sam was not okay, Dean was not going to be either.

Castiel wished he could simply heal Sam, but it didn't work like that. They were not to know he existed. But perhaps he could look for John, somehow help him find a way back to the boys.

Then a growl sounded through the forest above the howling wind, and Dean and Sam tensed in the cave.

"Dean," Sam breathed. "What was that?"

Dean pulled his brother closer, drawing a knife from his boot. He realized he had left his gun in his haste to get Sam to shelter. John would tan his hide for that when he found out. He was shivering so hard he could barely hold the knife in his numb hand.

"It's all right, Sammy. We'll be okay," he repeated over and over.

A howl came closer, and Sam whimpered. "Shh!" Dean hissed as a shadow fell across the mouth of the cave. Neither of the boys breathed as it entered the cave slowly, sniffing. It blocked what little light they had and Dean's hand was tight on the knife, shuddering and he squeezed his eyes shut and held Sam close to him.

At that moment, Castiel landed behind the monster and sank his angel blade into its back. The monster screamed, making the boys jump, and it whirled around to face the angel, swatting a clawed hand at him. Castiel ducked and came up to stab the thing in the throat. It fell and thrashed before it finally gave up and died. Castiel stared at it dispassionately, sliding his blade back up his sleeve. He looked in on the boys one last time before he went to see what he could do about John.

The next morning when the storm passed and John miraculously found the boys in a cave, they stared at the dead monster in confusion.

"Maybe it was another hunter," John finally decided.

Dean could never explain why, but he always thought that hadn't been the truth. All he knew was that whatever—whoever—had killed the thing, had saved his and Sam's lives and that was good enough for him.

5.

Castiel's job as protector went past the time he revealed himself to Dean finally for the first time. It had been a long time between when he had watched over Dean as a child and when he went to pull him from hell, but he had never forgotten his first duty, one that he still saw as his most important one, not because Dean was Michael's vessel, but because he was Castiel's friend. And at that moment, Dean didn't have many friends, and he didn't even have his brother who had quit hunting for a while, or forever, thinking that leaving was the only way to keep the peace between him and Dean.

So Dean was hunting alone and more often than not ended up with injuries due to having no one to watch his back. This time it had been a poison bite from the monster he had been tracking in the woods of Oregon and he just barely drug himself back to the Impala and to the motel room before he collapsed with fever and aches on the floor.

Castiel suspected something was wrong when he kept calling Dean and couldn't get him to answer. It took him longer than he would have liked to locate the hunter, as he could no longer find him mentally with the protection he had given him and Sam. But eventually, he tracked him down to a motel in South Carolina and he didn't bother knocking before entering the room.

"Dean?" Castiel called, looking around.

He could hear the labored breathing before he found Dean. He frowned and cautiously went around the end of the first bed to find the hunter collapsed in the space between the two beds, obviously unconscious.

"Oh, Dean," Castiel sighed and bent to grab the hunter under the arms and heave him onto the bed. He fell limply, groaning. He was filthy and covered in blood and other unidentifiable matter, not to mention burning with fever. Castiel efficiently stripped Dean down to his boxers, piling his dirty clothes in the corner. He draped a blanket over him as an afterthought, knowing that humans usually felt embarrassed to be mostly nude. He found the wound on his shoulder, right at the joint of his neck, and saw how angry it looked. Castiel bent to sniff it, recognizing it for what it was and knowing he had to draw the poison if Dean was going to last the night.

He quickly teleported to gather the ingredients he would need for a poultice and mixed them up, spreading a boiling mixture onto Dean's wound. The hunter winced and cried out, jerking away from the burning paste, but Castiel pressed him back and hushed him, bandaging the wound loosely. He then got a bowl and cloth to cool Dean's fever and settled in for the long night.

Many cool cloths and poultice changes later, Dean's fever finally broke, and he woke sometime around midmorning the next day. He was groggy, weak and bleary-eyed, but he registered a familiar trench-coated figure and relaxed a bit.

"Cas," he croaked.

Castiel lifted his head and put a glass of water to his lips. Dean drank gratefully, and felt a little better afterward, even though his shoulder was smarting. He winced as he lay back on the pillows.

"What happened?"

"You foolishly went on a hunt alone," Castiel told him sternly. "You are lucky I came when I did, otherwise I may not have been able to save you."

Dean looked at him for a long moment before he breathed in deeply and let his eyes slide shut again. 'Thanks, Cas."

"You're welcome, Dean," Castiel said, settling in to watch over Dean while he slept. Some things never changed.

(1)

Dean felt terrible about putting Cas out of the bunker. He had just been faced with a decision that had no good outcome he could see at the moment, and had chosen the first that came to mind, but that didn't mean he didn't care about the angel-turned-human. Cas had been a good friend, a brother, to him and Sam and he knew, with disgust, that this was a terrible way to repay him for everything, all the crap he had done and endured for the Winchesters. That wasn't the kind of thing you did to family.

So sometimes Dean went to make sure Cas was okay. He was working at a convenience store—how did that even happen? Dean never let Cas know he was checking up on him; he thought the former angel might take offence of it, think Dean thought he wasn't capable of taking care of himself now he was human. Secretly, Dean did have some misgivings, which is why he made sure he checked in on Cas every couple of weeks at most, if he couldn't get there sooner. So far, he was glad to see the former angel was doing fine, but a lifetime of being a big brother, especially to Sam Winchester, had made him a chronic worrier. Even though Cas had been an angel, now as a human, Dean couldn't help but think of him as another, more naïve, little brother. Someone who needed looking after.

Sometimes he was not proved wrong.

One night he was checking up on Cas on his way back from a job, and watched as the former angel began to walk back to wherever he roosted at night. Dean had realized previously that Cas didn't exactly keep to the best parts of town, and that night, he was crossing through a dark alley and picked up several tails who nodded to each other, motioning to Cas, as if seeing an easy target there. That made Dean's blood boil. Even without his powers, Cas could still give them a run for their money, but Dean also knew he still wasn't used to the idea of being human, mortal, and if they ganged up on him, he would likely go down. Which he wasn't going to let happen.

So Dean came up behind the men just before they followed Cas around a corner. He whistled low and they turned, confused, four of them.

"Hey, asshats, why don't you pick on someone your own size?" he taunted, pulling a knife from his belt.

Three minutes later, the four men lay groaning or unconscious in the alley. Dean wiped blood off the knife onto one of the men's jackets and left them there, stepping on one's hand while he went. He looked around the corner to see Cas far down the road now and safe.

Of all the times the angel had watched over Dean, he was glad he could return the favor.

If you liked this one, check out my other Supernatural stories. There's one I'm co-authoring with AnastaziaDanielle where Sam and Dean come into custody of an unexpected niece. Thanks for reading, hope everyone has a good weekend, and that your Thanksgiving was pleasant and not too hectic :)