A/N: Very, very overdue. Wow. Sorry guys. Yes, I posted the chapter to a different story instead of this one. Thank you to wonton-chan for pointing it out for me.

They went back to the hotel, all emotionally drained and went straight to their separate rooms.

Dean woke up to a sound that both scared and confused him.

The fire alarm.

Castiel had managed to sleep through it so when Dean was finally awake enough to hear not only the fire alarm but the sound of Michael banging on the door he jumped up and opened it for the elder Novak.

"This isn't a drill, guys, we need to get out now!" He looked panicked so Dean immediately went over to Castiel's bed and shook his awake.

"Cas? Cas! Come on!"

Castiel groaned before he heard the alarm and shot up, half his hair sticking up everywhere while the other half was pretty flat.

"What's going on?"

Dean didn't answer and just dragged him out of bed instead but Castiel insisted on putting shoes on first. Luckily he didn't bother lacing up his converse or they'd have been there all day.

Michael hurriedly shoved them out of the door and led them outside where the rest of the hotel guests and most of the staff were waiting along with the other Novaks.

They went over to them and they all hugged as the fire trucks started to arrive. Dean looked back at the hotel as Castiel was being smothered by his brothers and saw the fire in the windows at the right side of the building.

He turned back to the others just in time to hear Raphael ask Michael in a serious voice. "Do you think this had anything to do with us?"

Dean was about to laugh but then he noticed everyone else looked just as serious so he waited silently as Michael thought about it. "Maybe…"

They talked in hushed voices and Dean grasped Castiel's hand, making him look at him.

"Cas, why do they think this could be about us?"

Castiel bit his lip and shook his head. "Don't worry about it…"

Dean was about to press further but then he noticed a man with long, greasy blonde hair covering half his face and wearing a black leather jacket staring at them from just around a corner. He tucked his hair behind his ear to reveal a long, ugly scar down the right side of his face, cutting through his eyebrow, over his eye which was a milky color, down his cheek and over the corner of his lips which were currently turned up in a smirk.

Dean locked eyes with him for a second and his smirk grew. He turned to point him out to the others but when he gestured to the corner the man was gone so he shook it off as a random weirdo.

After being given the all clear to go back in they collected their stuff and checked out within the hour. They all sat in the car in silence as they drove down the motorway until Castiel put his music on again to drown out the silence. This time it was Fall Out Boy's song I Don't Care.

They got about three miles from the Hotel when Michael cursed loudly, shocking everyone in the car and he pulled over.

"Out of fuel. I could have sworn I filled it up right before we went to the hospital…"

Uriel sighed dramatically and rolled his eyes. "Where's the closest petrol station?"

"I saw one about a mile back," Sebastian supplied and Dean put his hand up.

"I'll go get the petrol, I need to stretch my legs anyway,"

Michael was about to protest but Dean stopped him. "It's fine, honestly,"

He eventually relented and agreed that Dean would get it, Castiel insisted on going with him too, and Michael gave them his credit card and told him Castiel knew the pin off my heart by now and Castiel smirked and nodded.

Dean chuckled and took the Jerry can from Uriel before throwing an arm over Castiel's shoulders and starting the walk back to the petrol station.

"What do you think the chances are of our teachers letting us get out of doing our homework by claiming it perished in the fire?"

Castiel laughed. "I think we could pull it off. We'll bring a newspaper clipping of the event in to prove it along with a singed piece of paper. Go the whole nine yards."

Dean nodded, grinning and swung the can in his hand. "When do you think we'll get home?" Castiel asked quietly and Dean did a quick calculation in this head. Well, he tried and gave up.

"Before morning. Why?" Dean looked at Castiel as the shorter boy lowered his head a little.

"Just… I don't like being here. Bad feelings…"

Dean stopped and stood in front of Castiel, taking both his hands in his own. "Cas…"

Castiel looked up at him, the worry evident in his eyes.

"No one will hurt you. Not here, not anywhere. I'll always protect you, I promise." He seals the promise with a kiss, which Castiel eagerly returns. When they separate Castiel smiled at him and hugged him tight.

"Not a lot of people would put up with all this crap, learn all this stuff about me and stick around. Thank you, Dean."

Dean smiled and kissed Castiel's temple. "It's my pleasure, Angel."

Castiel pulled back enough to look at Dean's face but so that he still had his arms around his midriff. "Angel?"

Dean blushed and cleared his throat, drumming his fingers lightly on Castiel's waist. "Um, I don't know where that came from… It's just… Because… Um…"

Castiel grinned and pressed his lips to Dean's is a chaste kiss. "I like it."

Dean let out a sigh in relief and pulled the other boy against him for another longer kiss. When they separated this time Castiel's cheeks were tinted a light pink and his lips were a little swollen, Dean took immense pride in this.

"We um… Michael will be waiting for the petrol… Might get worried..."Castiel stuttered and Dean grinned and let go of his waist to thread his arm over his shoulder again and start walking.

While Dean filled up the jerry can Castiel went to pay. There was a short line made up of a young, very tired looking mother with a two year old tugging at her sleeve, an old man with thick jam-jar glasses and two teenage girls. The teenage girls had bleached blond hair which was fluffed up, too much make-up and not enough clothes. Their shorts barely covered the bottom of their butts and their tank tops showed too much cleavage and too much stomach, enough to show that they both had belly button rings. Their skin was also too orange. About a month ago they'd be just Dean's type but now…

He cringed at the sight of them but the cringe turned to a glare when he noticed they were whispering to each other and glancing back at Castiel before giggling to each other. Dean saw Castiel roll his eyes and guessed he knew they were talking about him. One of the girls looked Castiel up and down before turning back to her friend and whispering something that made the slightly shorter girl laugh infuriatingly loud and high pitched. The old man ahead of them turned round to glare at them but they paid him no mind and he gave up and turned round to face the counter again where the woman was tugging her child away after paying.

Dean finished filling up the can and screwed the lid back on still scowling through the window at the blonde bitches in front of Castiel.

They said something else about him and shuffled closer to the old man as if they were going to catch something from Castiel but he didn't seem to notice. He just took out his phone and flipped it sideways; Dean guessed he was playing a game.

The man paid quickly and left, shooting the girls another dirty look – which they did notice this time and looked hurt and confused as to what they'd done but the old man didn't wait around to explain his disgust – and the girls stepped up to buy their Glamour magazines and a can of diet Coke they planned to split. While both girls reached into their respective handbags to get their halves of the cost out and the cashier was looking at his watch Castiel reach past them and switched their can with one he had in his hand then put their original can back on the shelf behind him. Dean looked confused and waited to see if the reason for his actions would be relieved.

As the girls walked away, the taller one opened the can and coke spurted out and soaked her and splashed her friend a little too. Both girls screamed and looked close to tears as they glared down at the can that had clearly been shook up.

Dean doubled over in laughter. He didn't see when Castiel did it but he had to praise him when he comes out.

The two girls walked out of the shop slowly with pouts on their faces and saw Dean laughing.

"What are you laughing at?!" The taller girl yelled and Dean looked up. As soon as they saw his face both their angry expression melted away into one of awe. "I mean, um, hi."

They sauntered over and tried to use their wet tops to their advantage by sticking their cleavage out.

"I'm Becky." The tall girl flashed Dean a flirty smile, twirling her hair in her fingers.

"I'm Stacey." The other girl winked at him. "Can you help us… clean ourselves up?"

Becky nodded and continued for her. "Yeah, I mean, you have such strong, firm looking hands. I bet you'd be able to clean us up real good." She put a breathy moan into 'real' which made Dean snort.

"Nah, not interested. You see, ladies, that boy in there you were just sniggering about and no doubt insulting?" He pointed through the window at Castiel who was putting the credit card into the machine at the counter and fluffing his hair up.

The girls wrinkled their noses at him and turned back to Dean. "Yeah, what about him?"

"That's my boyfriend."

The girls stared at him in surprise. "And, no, I don't mean boyfriend as in how you probably call each other 'girlfriend', I don't mean he's a boy who's my friend. I mean he's my boyfriend. I am in a relationship with the boy you spent ten minutes sniggering about. So, I am the least bit interested in you judgmental little whores."

They both stared at him with a mixture of anger and hurt on their face and Dean had never felt so guilt-free about upsetting girls. They left in a huff and Dean looked up at the window, wondering why Castiel wasn't out yet and froze.

The man with the scar from the hotel parking lot was stood talking to Castiel. Dean was about to run in and help when he saw Castiel throw his arms around the man for a hug, which the man eagerly returned, lifting Castiel off his feet slightly.

They separated and smiled at each other before heading to the door. The man smiled at Dean but it wasn't the same smile from the parking lot, it was a kind smile.

"Dean," Castiel started, drawing Dean's attention to him. "This is my Uncle Jacob, my Father's brother. He's not like my Father, don't worry. Jacob, this is my boyfriend; Dean." Castiel smiled at him and Dean tried his best to smile back.

"Um, hi." Dean waved awkwardly to Jacob, who did a little salute back, before dragging Castiel a few feet away.

"What's wrong?" Castiel asked and Dean let go of his arm.

Dean looked back at Jacob and saw the man looking around absentmindedly, a little bored.

"I've seen him before." Dean whispered.

"Really?" Castiel looked confused. "That's odd, small world."

Dean shook his head. "No, I've seen him recently. As in earlier, in the parking lot of the hotel after the fire. He was stood near the building."

"He must have heard we were in town and come to see us."

"He smiled at me."

"He probably saw us and smiled but didn't get to us before we left or lost us in the confusion."

Dean shook his head. "No, it was a creepy, psycho smile,"

Castiel shrugged. "The scar makes him creepy."

Dean groaned in frustration. "Cas, listen to me. I think he started the fire."

Castiel stared at Dean. "No, he wouldn't-"

Dean interrupted before he could continue. "You said he was your dad's brother, he might be helping him."

"He's always hated my dad, Jacob is a good guy."

"Are you sure? One hundred percent?"

"Yes, I'm sure! Dean, Jacob is the only living adult in my family other than my brothers I can trust! Stop accusing him of horrible things because of one glance from a distance! I saw you looking when those girls in the shop were insulting me, I saw you talking to them. I'm assuming you were telling them what they were doing was bad?"

Dean nodded and Castiel continued before Dean could say a word. "You're doing the exact same thing! They judged me because of how I look, how I dress." He gestured down at his Led Zepplin shirt and black skinny jeans which Dean was ninety nine percent sure were for women. "You're judging Jacob by his smile!"

Dean's mouth opened and closed like a fish for a moment before Castiel shook his head. "Come on, Michael will be getting worried. Jacob is coming with us." That, Dean could tell by Castiel's tone, was not negotiable. Dean followed as Castiel walking back to Jacob.

"Everything okay?" Jacob asked innocently and Castiel nodded.

Dean went to pick up the jerry can but Jacob swooped it up. "I got it." He smiled at him and Dean resisted the urge to punch it off his face.

Castiel and Jacob walked side-by-side as Jacob told Castiel about all the traveling he'd done recently around the world. The dark haired boy was listening intently like a little kid and Dean watched from a few paces behind them with thinly veiled disgust.

He could sense something off about Jacob and he didn't like it, didn't like him being close to Castiel even if he does claim he's a good guy.

When they get back to the car the other Novaks all make a big deal over Jacob, all resorting to children at Christmas seeing their favorite Uncle, asking him for stories as he fills up the car for them.

Jacob explained. "I saw Michael's signature in the book when I went to see my brother and I asked the nurse. She said she remembered seeing a business card for the hotel you were staying at in your wallet and gave me the address. When I got there the fire department were already there and I saw you in the parking lot and smiled but I didn't get to you guys in time before you went back in to get your stuff then I asked the nurse what room you were in but I got lost on the floors and you were already gone by the time I found your room. I was on my way home when I saw Castiel and Dean."

Bull. Shit. Dean thought bitterly but didn't say.

They agreed that Jacob should have stay with them for a few days after Jacob refused at first saying he didn't want to impose – classic technique, pretend you don't want something and people are more likely to give you it – and they'd give him a ride to and from Kansas.

So they all got back into the car, Jacob in between Dean and Castiel in the back, and resumed their drive to Lawrence, Kansas.

Dean tried not to glare at Jacob too obviously.

I will not break my promise to protect Castiel! If he tries to hurt Cas I swear to God I'll not be held accountable for my actions…