DISCLAIMER: I do not own Supernatural or any of its characters. If I did, this would be a scene in the show.
The Intervention
"Hey, guys!" Sam called out as he entered the Bunker. "I got Chinese." He held the bags up as he walked up the stairs into the library to show the bulk of them. After all, they always got a lot of Chinese anyway, but Dean had been hoping to try to entice Cas into trying some. And when the angel ate, he tended to eat a lot more than them.
"Dean?" Sam glanced around for his brother, slightly confused at the lack of response, but he finally caught sight of him at the far end of the library.
Dean was seated at the table, leaning over it with his head in his hands. For some reason, he looked completely defeated.
"Hey," Sam greeted once more, a bit subdued this time. Obviously something was wrong, but Dean probably wouldn't talk about it even if the younger Winchester asked. And Sam couldn't even begin to guess what was bothering him as there were really too many possibilities at the moment. He put the food down and looked around, trying to find a way to lighten the mood or at least gain his brother's attention. "Where's Cas?" He asked, upon not seeing the angel anywhere.
Dean let out a frustrated growl, and Sam's stomach dropped to his knees as he realized he must have stumbled directly into what was bugging his brother.
Jeez, did the two of them have some sort of fight?
"He's in my room." Sam jumped a bit as Dean replied. "On my bed, on my computer, watching Netflix." He said the last part with such derision that Sam almost would have called the tone jealous.
Then the words fully registered. "Still?" He asked incredulously. "I thought he was almost done with Lost so he'd be able to join us for supper."
"He was. He finished it and was as unsatisfied with the ending as the rest of us." Dean looked up and sent his brother a heated glare. "And then he discovered Doctor Who."
Sam sighed. He was pretty sure they only had the new stuff starting from the Ninth Doctor's appearance, but, man, talk about the show that never ends. "And you didn't tell him it could wait until after supper?" He couldn't help but ask, though he had a feeling why Dean hadn't been able to tell him no.
"Cas said Charlie had mentioned and recommended it, but he hadn't had a chance to watch it yet." The glare disappeared for a moment as sadness and guilt crossed his face. Sam hadn't expected that, and he again felt that punch to his gut over her loss. "And then he gave me those eyes, Sam. What was I supposed to do?" Dean eventually continued, defensive now with the sadness of mere moments before wiped away.
Ah, yes, Cas's Puppy Dog Eyes of Doom. That's what Sam had been waiting for. The younger Winchester knew that he himself was a champion of the puppy eyes, but he really had no defense against Cas's. What was worse was that while Sam sometimes purposefully used his puppy eyes, Cas's were always sincere and unintentional.
That just made it harder to resist.
Sam knew that he should just consider himself lucky that Cas hadn't tried to use those eyes when he had gone to reclaim his laptop from the angel. He'd managed to spirit it away, and Dean had had to offer up his own laptop in the face of those eyes. Cas still hadn't really given it back except for research purposes.
Of course, in addition to that, those eyes hadn't boded well on Cas's interactions with the brothers. Neither Sam nor even Dean had been able to draw the angel away from Netflix. That meant that at the end of the day when all three of them (for Cas would help with this part) decided to stop the research and shut down their latest attempts to find Metatron, the angel would grab Dean's laptop and head for the hunter's room to lay down and watch the latest show or movie he was on.
"Seriously, Sam," the younger brother came back to the conversation to find Dean glaring at him again, but this time with the added feature of having his arms crossed, "what possessed you to introduce Cas to Netflix?"
"You know how he hates sitting around doing nothing. Even if we told him to rest, he wouldn't do it." Sam lifted his hands in surrender as he defended himself. "You know he would've found something else to do, recovering or not, and I thought he'd at least relax a bit if he was just watching Netflix."
Dean's jaw clenched a bit at the mention of Cas's recovery, and yeah, there was that, too. It had taken Cas quite a bit of time to recover from Rowena's spell, and in a way, the angel still wasn't at 100%. The only other time, that Sam could remember, it had taken Cas so long to recover from something was when he had blasted himself back to Heaven and apparently ended up in a coma when he fell back to Earth. It made Sam wonder if there was something truly wrong with his Grace. After getting beaten by Dean and Sam found him lying there bleeding all over, Cas had mentioned it being damaged, but how far did that extend?"
"Yeah, well, you should have thought it through more." Dean was saying. "Doesn't need to eat, sleep, or use the bathroom – it's like angels were made for binge-watching. Why didn't you have any nerd books lying around for him? I'm pretty sure that'd be better than this."
Sam sent him a bitch face, and finally began to fully set out the food. He wasn't too sure Dean was right. After all, once Cas was into something, he never seemed to do things halfway.
Instead, they'd probably be trying to wrench the Harry Potter or Hunger Games books from the angel's hands.
"Well, too late now." Sam said as Dean came over to break into the sweet and sour chicken while he dug into the spring rolls. "So what do you want to do about it?"
His brother swallowed his mouthful of food and gave him a serious look.
"Sam, this has become a serious problem." His eyes were solemn as he stared over at him. "There's only one thing we can do."
Castiel sat contently on Dean's bed, leaning against the headboard as he gazed at the laptop on his lap. On the screen, the Doctor (who was apparently the Tenth Doctor, despite it being the second Doctor shown on the episodes available) and Rose were getting cut off from escape by the Cybermen.
He had been dubious at first when Sam had told him to watch Netflix in his room. He was sure that it was just some tactic to keep him out of the way because the Winchesters doubted his ability to help them, due to recovering from Rowena's spell. He had thought he had managed to hide it, but Dean especially had seemed extra cautious in letting him get back into the field. Therefore, he'd been put on research duty.
However, Cas found himself enjoying the Netflix. More and more, he was getting the references he had heard people say, and it wasn't like the jumbled mash of information Metatron had downloaded into his brain; as he was watching it at the speed it was supposed to go, he could actually take time tofully understand it. With what Metatron had given him, he could quote things, but he didn't fully understand the context or what it was supposed to mean.
It made him want to go and read or watch most of the things Metatron had left him with, though he wished the angel hadn't cheated and given him the knowledge as now he had several spoilers on his hands.
In any case, Netflix was almost supernatural in how far reaching and wonderful it was. He had watched many shows so far; Orange is the New Black, Arrested Development, 30 Rock, New Girl, The Wire, Sherlock, The X-Files, one of the Star Trek, Daredevil, The Flash, Arrow, Bill Nye the Science Guy, Mr. Roger's Neighborhood, Reading Rainbow, Magic School Bus, and Lost were all shows that he had found and enjoyed, though Dean had teased him about the "kid" shows.
And now he was watching Doctor Who and enjoying it. Charlie had seemed so excited about it that he couldn't deny the urge to watch it when it had popped up on the screen yesterday. Dean had seemed a bit disappointed, but the hunter had luckily understood.
Actually, Cas thought as he looked up while the credits rolled, I haven't seen Dean since this morning.
The angel had found himself using Dean's laptop and spending most of his time in the hunter's room in his spare time. The only time he wasn't in there was when he was researching in the library, or when he moved to his own room to watch more Netflix once Dean was ready to get his four hours. Still, today Dean had declared they all took a break. In the recent past when they did this, Dean would check up on Cas every now and then. He hadn't showed up though.
Castiel hesitated, the cursor hovering over the "Play Next Episode" button. He threw a frown towards the door. Maybe he should go check on what the Winchesters were doing. After all, what if they had only said they were taking a break so he'd relax, even though he was basically recovered?
The angel set his concerns aside though. The Doctor and Rose were in trouble after all, and even Mickey was in a difficult situation.
A noise immediately grabbed his attention and wrenched it away. He knew that sound and he didn't like it.
It was the sound of Dean crying out in pain.
With a quick gesture, the laptop was shut and on Dean's bed while the angel bolted out of the room, moving towards where the noise had originated from: the library. As he ran, Cas went over all the things that could have happened.
Did someone once again manage to break into the Bunker? Had Dean been messing with the various weapons around the stronghold? Had something, a cursed object or sealed being that was squirreled away in the archives, been released to cause harm to the Bunker's inhabitants?
Needless to say, Cas was not expecting the sight that greeted him as he rounded the final corner and slid into the room.
There was no blood, no signs of injuries or attack. Instead, stretching across the main exit towards the Bunker's entrance was a large banner reading, "Intervention." He could only stare at it, and therefore didn't notice the handcuffs until after they had been put on.
He heard the click and looked over to see Dean with his hands still on the encircling metal, with the other end being attached to the nearby chair. "Dean?" Castiel asked, though he did give the hunter a quick look over. He appeared to be fine, but the angel couldn't help but be confused over the presence of the cuffs.
The hunter let out a quick huff of breath. "Sit down; we need to talk."
For a moment, Cas felt a flash of fear. After all, the last time Dean had said they needed to talk it had resulted in him being cast from the Bunker. Then there were the handcuffs. Did the Winchesters believe he was lying to them, working against them, or under a spell? Those were the only reasons he could think of that would required him to be restrained. He had been in the Bunker the entire time though, so he didn't think that could be the case.
Still, Cas sat down in one of the library chairs. Sam walked out from the shadows into his view and he too raised an eyebrow at the cuffs. Cas was the one who put the question into words though. "Why exactly am I handcuffed?"
"Yeah, why's Cas in cuffs? Care to explain, Dean?" Sam looked over at his brother, his tone teasing. Something in Cas relaxed at that. If the brothers were joking with each other, then it couldn't be too bad.
"Shut up." Dean growled. "You can't have a Winchester Intervention without handcuffs."
Those words really didn't help clear things up and Castiel looked up at the banner once more. He had seen something similar in an episode of How I Met Your Mother that he had watched with Dean ages ago when he had stopped by their motel room and the hunter was flipping through the channels. "Why are you holding an intervention?" He asked.
Both Winchesters turned to him, and they looked fairly serious. "Cas, we think you have a problem." Sam said.
Cas blinked. "Could you be more specific?" He countered. All of them had plenty of problems.
"More like, you've made a bad habit recently, and we're kind of worried." Sam was making that face that always seemed to get people to do what he wanted. The angel believed it was known as puppy dog eyes.
"Such as?" He glanced between them, still unsure at where this was going.
"Oh, for crying out loud, Sam, stop dancing around the topic." Dean rolled his eyes at his brother as he stepped forward. He looked Cas right in the eyes. "Cas, we care for you and all, but we can't have Netflix become like the bees."
Castiel stared at him. "This is about Netflix?" He wasn't quite sure if he was incredulous or just plain confused.
The Winchesters both shifted a bit awkwardly. "Yeah, it's become a serious problem." Dean said.
"Out of everything that's going on, you consider my watching Netflix to be a serious problem." Cas tried to clarify, squinting at the two of them. After all, they were choosing to focus time and energy on this?
"Well, we can't have this be like the bees where it's taking all of your attention away from what's going on." The older Winchester was looking away a bit awkwardly.
"I am quite sane, Dean." Castiel replied, a bit harshly. He didn't like thinking much about taking on Sam's insanity, though he would admit that he sometimes missed the freedom and worldview he had gained during it. He had liked the bees.
Actually, he still liked the bees, but there was too much going on for him to go visit any.
"And I have been contributing." He pointed out. "You two have been the ones insisting that I don't leave the Bunker and rest."
"Yeah, but watching so much TV and movies in such a short amount of time…" Sam tried to pacify him by being rational. "It's just not healthy."
Cas turned his stare at him. "You were the one who told me to watch it."
"Yeah, and he admits that might have been a mistake." Dean roughly said. "But seriously, Cas, you can't be watching Netflix all the time."
The angel frowned at him. He had thought that the hunter would be happy about him watching Netflix. "You have always been insistent that I watch and participate in what you call 'pop culture.'" He tilted his head a bit as he thought it through further. "As I am now learning about the various things you reference, I thought you would be happy."
"Well, I'm not." Dean snapped. "You're always in there watching stuff, you don't join in on dinners, and despite being here in the Bunker, you're never around!" He cut himself off abruptly, like he had said too much.
Cas thought over his words, and there was something about his tone… "Dean, are you – " He paused before continuing. "Are you jealous of the Netflix?" He finally asked.
"What?" The hunter practically flinched, and even Sam was giving him a look now. "No! Why would you say that?" He looked between the two, obviously on the defensive.
"You seem upset that I've been choosing to watch Netflix over being in your company." Castiel explained, watching the older Winchester closely.
"Yeah, because it's not healthy." Dean crossed his arms and glared at both of them, as Sam seemed to have come to the same conclusion as him.
"I'm an angel of the Lord. I have no need to eat or sleep. Therefore, I am not bound to the same needs as humans that them ignoring truly would be unhealthy."
"Well…" Dean struggled to find an answer. He spluttered for a few moments, before Cas decided to interrupt him.
"Dean, if you truly wanted to spend time in my company…" Castiel asked. "Then why didn't you just join me in watching it?"
The entire room froze.
"I can understand how you can't join me when you need to sleep." Cas continued to explain, his brow furrowing. "But I would've welcomed you in joining me to watch the Netflix. You could explain all of the references they make to things I haven't watched yet. I do enjoy your company, Dean."
The brothers blinked at his words. They glanced at each other before looking back towards him. It occurred to Cas that they had not truly considered that at all, which seemed strange.
"Did you just ask Dean to Netflix and chill with you?" Sam asked, and he seemed to be trying hide a grin though the angel had no clue why.
He blinked back at them. "Yes." After all, chill meant to hang out with other people, and Cas would love doing that with Dean.
The younger Winchester began to snicker, and Castiel didn't understand why Dean's face was turning red.
"Shut up, Sam." Dean hissed at his younger brother, before letting out a sigh. He turned to Cas. "I don't think you understood what he was asking about." He told Cas.
Castiel tilted his head a bit at that as it made no sense. "But I would enjoy hanging out and watching Netflix with you."
Dean sighed again as Sam broke into full blown laughter. "Just forget it." He said, rubbing a hand wearily over his face.
"Will you remove the handcuffs now?" Cas asked, holding up his bound hands.
"Sure." Dean reached into his back pocket and brought out the key. With a swift turn of the wrist, the cuffs fell. "But you understand why we did this though, right?" The hunter gazed right into his eyes as the angel stood to fully face him.
Cas returned his look with a small smile. "Yes." He basked in the warm feeling that rested in his chest. The Winchesters had only done this because they were worried and they cared. It was nice to feel cared about as it was not something he had gotten from his angelic siblings much.
The angel and Dean stood there staring at each other as Sam eventually calmed down. Despite feeling their care and warmth though, there was something niggling at the back of Cas's mind.
"Actually…" He started slowly, glancing between the two now to check their reactions. "I was just about to begin the second episode of a two-parter; so may I go watch it?"
Both brothers facepalmed and sighed, but Castiel noted with delight that he wasn't hearing a no.
AN: So this is the result of a conversation I had on Twitter last week about how Cas was now addicted to Netflix and what if the Winchesters had to do something about it. I came up with the line, "Cas we care for you and all, but we can't have Netflix become like the bees." I said I might write about it when I had time and the others insisted I do so. So I wrote it and tried to finish it up before tonight's episode. I'm really excited about it as Dean and Cas are supposed to talk about 10x22, Castiel gets to punch Metatron some more (which I love), and just looking at the preview clip, it shows Dean caring about Cas. So I hope you enjoyed this. I tried to do it real quick between several school projects and work, so please forgive any mistakes.
P.S. Also, I'm not joking about the handcuffs thing. Whenever they need to hold an intervention, formal or not, handcuffs are always used.