I am SO sorry for the long wait! I hope everyone enjoys this chapter!

Castiel rapped his knuckles lightly against the closed door.

He stood stiffly in the hallway outside of the room Shaggy was sharing with Fred. Holding the plate of sandwiches up in his hand like a butler, he stared blankly ahead at the wooden barrier before him as he listened for signs of a response from the other side. It wasn't until he noticed Scooby in his peripheral vision behind him that Castiel realized he was standing a little too close to the door. "Oh."

Shaggy was known for being easily spooked. If Dean was startled by Castiel's sudden appearances that were too close to his so-called 'personal bubble', then Castiel suspected Shaggy wouldn't react well to the sight of him standing as close to the door as he currently was when the teenager finally opened it.

Since frightening Shaggy was the last thing he wanted to do, he quickly took a step back.

Scooby watched him with a tilted head, radiating amusement, which prompted a small smile to sneak onto Castiel's face. He reached a hand out to give the dog an affectionate pat on the head. Then he gently tossed him a sandwich, which Scooby eagerly caught between his teeth and gobbled up in seconds.

It was only when Scooby drew his attention back to the door that the worried mood settled down on the pair again. Deciding that an appropriate enough amount of time had passed since he first knocked, Castiel rapped his knuckles against the door again, a little louder than he had the first time.

It had the desired effect. Faintly through the wood came a muffled groan of exhaustion in response. "…yeah?"

"Your friends were concerned, so I brought you some food."

Scooby scratched impatiently at the door with a low whine to emphasize this point, expressing his own concern the best way he knew how to in this world.

The rustle of sheets being lazily flung aside on the bed was heard. Followed by a soft padding on the carpeted floor until the door finally opened up. The messy-haired, baggy-eyed teenager blinked tiredly at them. He yawned out a hello, swaying a little on his feet.

Castiel wordlessly held the plate forward, staring at Shaggy expectantly.

Shaggy, in turn, just stared blankly back at him for a moment. Then his sleepy eyes floated down to scan his options, and with another yawn he finally picked a sandwich. Stepping back into the dark room, he plopped himself heavily down onto Fred's side of the bed. He took a small bite, almost reluctantly, and began chewing slowly as he stared off into space, seemingly forgetting for a moment that he wasn't alone in the room anymore.

Scooby whimpered, disturbed by the uncharacteristic quiet and distant behavior from his long-time companion. He rushed into the room, hopped up on the bed beside Shaggy, and lay his head down in his friend's lap. His expressive brown eyes went back to the doorway where Castiel was still standing, and they seemed to beg the angel to do something to remedy the situation.

Castiel felt he had developed better social skills over the years, but he knew he was still awkward when it came to offering comfort. Flickering his eyes between the pair, he hesitated before crossing the threshold into the room. Closing the door slightly behind him.

"You didn't sleep at all, did you?" He knew it was a stupid question to ask. One look at the teenager made that fact painfully clear to him. But it was the only thing he could think of to say to start a conversation.

Shaggy continued chewed silently for a moment. He looked like he was wavering between lying or not saying anything at all, but then seemed to think the better of it. With a small shrug, he swallowed his mouthful of mozzarella, tomato, and rye and met the angel's eyes. "Like, not a wink."

Castiel frowned. He knew how important sleep was to humans. He remembered how badly lack of sleep had impacted him when he had been completely human a few years ago, and even now with his depleted grace he still needed it from time to time. Although, thankfully, not on a daily basis like he needed to back then.

He hesitated again, and then walked over to the bed. Placing the plate onto the night stand, he sat at Shaggy's other side and helped himself to a sandwich too. His teenage companion didn't seem to mind the crowded company, and continued eating silently. Reaching across Castiel to snatch up another sandwich, which he offered to Scooby.

It didn't go unnoticed to either Castiel or Scooby that Shaggy was only barely halfway through his own sandwich, nor the fact that on a normal day he'd likely be starting his third one by now.

"I know it can be…therapeutic for humans to talk about what's on their mind." Said Castiel after a moment, reflecting on how it would probably benefit him too if he expressed himself more often. "Do you want to talk about what's bothering you?"

Shaggy glanced at Scooby, his face darkening a little as he shook his head. "I can't, man." He took another small bite as his eyes danced back to Castiel, his shoulder slumping a little in a defeated manner. "Besides...you wouldn't understand."

With thoughts of his humanity still lingering on his mind, the angel's brows furrowed slightly as he followed the memories. He remembered how the experience had made him feel. How it still made him feel. "I wouldn't be so sure of that."

The quiet remark snagged Shaggy's attention, and he wondered if mind-reading was an ability his new friend possessed. He glanced down at Scooby again, and a wave of protectiveness washed over him. A touch of anger mingled in along with it. He wasn't having a conversation about his existential crisis with his blissfully ignorant best friend sitting right there in the room with them to overhear it. "I don't want to talk about it, okay?"

Used to being snapped at, Castiel took the bite in Shaggy's tone with stride. After letting a couple of moments pass, finishing his sandwich in the process and brushing the crumbs on his hand into the little trashcan next to the table, he softly broached the subject again. "A few years ago, after one of many well-intentioned mistakes of mine…I fell from Heaven."

Both Scooby and Shaggy perked up at this announcement, he had gained their undivided attention.

"I did have a taste of being almost human once a few years before that, when we were fighting to stop the Apocalypse, but that was nothing compared to the fall. At least then, during the apocalypse, I still had a small amount of grace left in me. I was still an angel. But when I fell, my grace had been stolen from me and I had been cast out to die on Earth as a human. It was…quite a profound experience."

One of many he had painstakingly gone through over the years. Although, in hindsight, he found that some of them had been worth the anguish they had caused him to suffer.

"Being on Earth as a human was completely different from my time spent here as an angel. Everything looked and felt so staggeringly different to me than it had been before. It was as if I was in a different dimension altogether from the world I knew and loved. And I had to learn to navigate in it on my own for weeks. The experience was frightening."

He had never told Dean or Sam how he felt about that period of time in his life.

Shaggy seemed to sense that this was the first time Castiel had ever confessed his feelings over the experience out loud, and he stared back at him with a mixed look of awe, sympathy, and guilt. "Okay, so…maybe you do get it."

Castiel locked eyes with him again. Reaching over slowly, he clamped a hand down on Shaggy's shoulder in a reassuring gesture. "I understand if you don't want to talk about it right now," he said with a quick yet subtle glance at Scooby. Silently signifying to the teenager that he understood that Shaggy didn't want to voice his worries with the dog present. "But, when you're ready to, I'm always here to listen."

Shaggy nodded with a small smile of gratitude. "…thanks for the offer."

Castiel smiled back, standing up purposefully. "In the meantime, you really do need to get some sleep, Shaggy." He lifted a hand. "Will you let me help you?"

With a tired, grateful nod, Shaggy chuckled. "I feel like a zombie. So, like, whatever you can do to help me get some good quality shut eye would be totally welcome, man!"

Relieved to hear that answer, Castiel nodded and extended his hand. Pressing his outstretched fingers gently against the boy's forehead, he tapped into his limited power and used it to lull Shaggy's restless mind into a deep sleep laced with pleasant dreams. He was quick to catch him when the young man slumped forward, and gently lay him back down onto the bed. Making sure that he was comfortable, and tucking him in with care. "Sleep well…"

Scooby crawled across the top of the bed and settled down beside his friend. Looking at Castiel gratefully, he uttered a small woof in thanks before lowering his head to take a nap himself.

The angel lingered for a few watchful minutes, and then stepped out of the room to leave the pair to sleep in peace.

He was surprised to find Dean hovering outside the door when he entered the hallway.

"You finally got him to sleep, huh?"

Castiel looked back at the now-closed door. "I did what I could…the rest is up to him."

Dean frowned, matching the angel's pace as they walked down the hall. "You think there's more to it than him just being a little rattled by being thrown head-first into our craziness?"

"Yes."

"Maybe he just really misses his connection to Scooby?"

His failure to fix that problem still weighed heavily on Castiel's mind.

"I'm sure that's part of the problem too," he acknowledged with frustration, "but I think whatever's eating at him is more significant than that. Possibly even more than his sense of displacement here in our world."

"Well, what could be worse than going from Pleasantville to our little hellhole of a dimension?"

Castiel was sure his friend had just made some kind of pop culture reference, but didn't understand what the joke being made was so he didn't acknowledge it. Instead, he mulled over the question. While he was relieved to know that he had been able to offer Shaggy some small form of comfort, it bothered him that he hadn't been able to pinpoint to exact problem.

Once again, he found himself in the middle of a situation in which someone he cared about was suffering. Where his help was needed, and he was stuck standing on the sidelines unable to do anything about it. Watching on like a useless spectator. "I wish I knew…"

Dean studied his friend, hearing the weight in those words, and fumbled over what to say. "Yeah, well…I think your little chat with him will go a long way easing his thoughts until he's ready to open up about whatever the other thing is." He gave Castiel a couple of pats on the back. "You did good with him."

That would have to be enough, for now at least.

They turned the corner, with Dean taking the lead, and Castiel realized they were headed for the main room. "Research or road trip?" He asked, noticing a hint of excitement on his friend's face. "Dean, do you have a lead on how to get them home?"

"Well, no." Dean's smirk faltered a little, but quickly regained its ground. "But I've got something almost as good!"

"What?"

"You'll see! We just have to do a little bit of shopping first."

Reaching the end of the hallway, Dean pushed open the door that entered into the main room. Noticing Fred and Daphne reading at one of the tables, he nodded over at them. "Cas and I are doing a quick run to Wal-Mart. You kids want us to pick up anything? Snacks, soda?" He glanced at Daphne and coughed awkwardly. "Uh…lady things?"

Daphne smiled, while Fred pointedly ignored the pair as they passed by. "Some chocolate would be nice!"

"You like M&Ms?"

"Doesn't everybody?"

"M&M's it is! Come on, Cas."

Roughly fifteen minutes later they were at the Wal-Mart in question. Castiel was perplexed when Dean unexpectedly led him over to the toy section of the store and started tossing all the Scrabble board games on the shelf into their cart.

"Why do you-?"

Dean simply smirked at Castiel as he tossed the last game in with the others. "I told ya, man, you'll see!" His eyes flickered over to the action figures. "I used to love browsing through the toy aisle when I was a kid. Although, it kinda sucked too because Dad never let us get anything."

He steered the cart further into the aisle, and let his eyes wander over the various figures on display. "They've gotten so much better looking than the ones from when I was a kid. I mean, look at the paint job on some of these! For a bunch of cheap toys, they really did a great job with the details."

Castiel glanced at the figures until he spotted ones from a franchise he was familiar with. He had to admit, their likeness to the actors they were portraying was relatively impressive.

"Oh, man," exclaimed Dean from behind him, "is that what I think it is?"

Craning his neck to look over his shoulder as the other man maneuvered their cart around him, Castiel watched his friend crouch down to study one of the toys that had caught his eye.

Dean grabbed the box and flipped it over to read the back, grinning widely all the while as he stood back up. "Oh, this is sweet!" He flipped it back around to show it to Castiel, not caring that the angel wouldn't have the foggiest idea what it was. "We used to have an Atari when I was a kid. It was one of the few fun possessions Sammy and I were allowed to have growing up that Dad was willing to cart around with us."

Inside the box was a gaming controller, presumably designed to look like the one from the classic console, programmed with ten games from that system built into it.

"I used to play half of the games on this thing! I am totally buying this!" Dean tossed it into the cart, and looked at the other plug-and-play gaming device on display. "Heh, that one looks like Pac-Man. Gee, I wonder what could possibly be on it?"

With a chuckle at his own joke, he snatched it up to take a look and was pleased to see that it had multiple games on it as well. "Man, were there really this many Pac-Man games? Like, really?! At least it's got Galaxian and Galaga on it too. Sammy used to have those on his old Gameboy before it crapped out on us." He tossed it into the cart and then proceeded forward. "Alright, let's move on before I see something else I want to buy!"

The trip to the snack aisle after that was a short one. And before Castiel knew it, they were on the road again. It wasn't until they were ten minutes away from home that either of them said anything again.

"So," Dean started a little awkwardly, "I, uh…I heard a lot of what you said back there to Shaggy. About your experience being human after the big fall from heaven…"

Castiel nodded self-consciously, but didn't return the glance. He shifted his gaze forward, away from the passenger window, to watch the cars ahead of them instead. "It wasn't that bad, Dean. I adjusted."

"Yeah, but I didn't really do much to help make that adjustment easier for you, did I?"

"You had Sam to worry about," Castiel pointed out. Although, there was no hurt or resentment in his voice as he said it. Everyone, ally and enemy alike, knew that nothing came before Sam in Dean's book. "You had to make sure he was going to be okay."

"Except Sammy's not my only brother," grumbled Dean guiltily. He stole a look away from the road for a few seconds to catch Castiel's eye. "You're family too, Cas, and once I knew Sammy was in the clear I should have gone looking for you when you didn't show up at the bunker. After all the crap you've gone through for us, for me…I should have had your back for a change. I mean, let's be real, man, I never really have."

"Dean…"

"I've got your back now, okay?" Dean said earnestly, bringing his eyes back onto the road before them. "I'll be here to help you when you need it, whether you want it or not…and, well, like you said to Shaggy back home…If you've got something weighing on your chest and need to talk stuff out…I'm here to listen, too."

They had both made a lot of mistakes in their relationship with each other over the years, and they had both strived to do everything in their power to fix their issues. As a result, their bond had strengthened. But despite the solemn vow of brotherhood being uttered by the hunter in the past, this was the first time the angel felt the honest guilt sewn into the words. There was a promise there, and he knew that this time it would be kept.

"Thank you, Dean."

With a relieved sigh, Dean nodded his head in acknowledgement. When they caught sight of the bunker ahead of them, his boyish excitement flared into life again. The moment the car was back in the building's garage he came to a stop, put it in park, and leapt out of the vehicle to snatch his bags from the back seat.

"I'm going to get stuff set up," he told Castiel as the angel got out of the car too. "Go and grab Scooby for me, okay?"

Castiel seemed perplexed, but didn't question the request being made of him. He grabbed the bags of snacks and headed inside. Dean followed on his heels with a bright smile on his face.

"What's with the board games?" Fred asked after catching a glimpse inside one of the bags as the pair passed them by again. "Did you buy those to keep us preoccupied while we stay locked up in here all day?"

Dean ignored the attitude being directed at him. Now that he had gotten his guilt about what had happened years ago with Cas unloaded, he was in too good of a mood over his awesome idea to let Fred get under his skin again. "Nope, but you'll be happy I bought them when you see why I bought them!"

The two teenagers shared a curious look, and then slid out of their chairs to follow him.

Dean started moving the extra furniture in the room around to create more space to work with, which Fred helped with. Once he was satisfied, he opened up one of the games and dumped the letters onto the floor. Quickly separating them into piles in alphabetical order in a line across the top of the area they had just cleared. When he was finally done, he stood back to admire the display with a pleased grin on his face.

If this worked, then he would put the rest of the games in the other frequently used rooms in the bunker. "Alright, now all we need is good ol' Scoob!"

Eager to see what this was all about, Daphne began to leave the room to go look for him when Castiel walked in with Scooby trailing behind him.

The dog trotted over to Dean. He looked down at the piles of black-lettered squares, and then cast an expectant look up at the hunter. Silently waiting for an explanation.

Dean beamed down at him, practically bouncing on his feet with excited anticipation. "Scooby, we're going to do a little experiment, okay?"

The dog stared blankly up at him, tilting his head in question.

"First, I'd like you to answer a couple of questions for me. Bark for yes, and growl for no. Got it?"

Scooby barked.

"Okay so….is your name Scooby?"

He barked again with a mild wag of his tail. Sam and Velma, curious over what was going on, wandered into the room and stood on the sidelines with the others to watch the exchange.

"And are you a cat?"

Scooby's growl, coupled with an 'are you kidding me' expression, made everyone in the room laugh.

"How about…a human?"

Another growl answered the question, although it was slightly more amused-sounding than the previous one had been.

"Are you a dog?"

This time there was a happy bark of confirmation.

"Okay," Dean looked hopeful, "can you read?"

Scooby barked again, and shifted his head to look over at the piles on the floor again. Tail wagging as he, and the rest of the onlookers, put the pieces together.

"Can you spell if we needed to have a meatier conversation with you?" Dean looked like he won the lottery as he watched Scooby purposefully trot forward and immediately begin pushing letters around with his nose.

In just a few seconds, they all got their answer to that question.

DOES ANYBODY HAVE ANY SCOOBY SNACKS

Dean was still brimming with pride hours after his experiment with Scooby proved successful. It made him feel good knowing he had solved one of the problems that had been plaguing their guests since their arrival the night before. Now all they had to do was track down Rowena, and convince her to help them get the kids home.

In the meantime, he had a different problem to conquer.

With a grimace planted firmly on his face, Dean tried, and failed, to get the Pac-Man plug-and-play game out of its tough plastic packaging. "Why are things always so damn hard to get open these days?"

He noticed Sam come into the rec room and tossed the still-packed game over to him. "Here! It's yours anyway, so you should be the one to have to open it!"

Sam made a face at his brother, but after a moment found himself equally frustrated when he, too, struggled to get the game out. "Man, heh…wow, they really seal stuff impossibly good these days, huh?"

"It's nuts, right?" Dean laughed as he snatched up his own game, which he had already opened, and plugged the yellow and white audio and video cables into the TV. "I mean, I had to use scissors once to open a new pair of scissors!"

After freeing his game, grinning fondly down at the large, sharp-edged plastic Pac-Man in his hand, Sam skimmed the back of the package to read the game list. "Were there really this many Pac-Man games?"

"That's what I said." Laughed Dean, "I'm surprised they didn't slap that mouse version on there too."

"I hated that game so much!"

"So did I, I swear it cheated!"

"I used to love these two games though," Sam remarked when he noticed the ones he used to play all the time as a kid.

"I remembered," Dean smirked as he rounded the arm chair and wandered back to the mini-fridge by the bar to grab the two of them some beer. Popping off the tops and leaving them on the counter, he walked back over and handed his brother one of the bottles as he sat down. "I thought you'd appreciate the blast from the past."

Sam smiled, because he really did appreciate it. "Thanks, Dean." He sat down in his own chair and watched his brother play Centipede for a few minutes. After a couple of rounds, he finally decided to unload what had been on his mind since his lunch time conversation with their guests. "I think we should teach the kids the basics of hunting."

Dean's expression hardened a little, but he didn't tear his eyes away from the screen. "So, I take it you were the one that planted the idea in Fred's head to do a little bit of reading?"

"Yeah, I did." Sam said a little defensively. When he noticed the warning signs that his brother was gearing up to chew him out, he quickly spoke up to explain himself. "Look, I get that their world is safe. Well, at least the version that they come from is anyway…but, if something from our world could so easily jump into theirs, like what happened last night, then who's to say it won't happen again? If it does, we might not be there to help again. They need to know what the warning signs are, and how to protect themselves."

"Aw, come on, Sammy!" Dean complained as the spider sprite got too close to his character and killed him before he could move out of the way in time. With another life left, the level restarted, but he wasn't paying any attention to it now. It was merely background noise as he shifted in his chair to spout his argument at his brother.

"You saw how they initially reacted to the news that the shit that goes bump in the night is real! Fred was mad that they didn't know about sooner because they were: 'wasting their time when they could have been fighting Dracula'. It's all about the glory of it with him, as if hunting is just like solving another one of their mysteries! It never ends well for folks with that mindset, you know that! Remember those Ghost Facer guys?"

"It's not like that though, Dean. Fred's scared that something like this will happen again, and that he's going to watch Shaggy or one of the others die." Sam frowned as he thought back on how fast things had gotten out of control the night before. "I mean, if it weren't for Cas…"

Dean remembered Shaggy's horrified scream as he fell from the balcony, and the others equally horrified screams as they ran over, helpless to stop what was happening while Scooby vaulted over the railing after his friend. Sure, no one died. But Shaggy's wrist still got busted up, and Dean knew all too well how much worse that outcome could have been if things had played out differently.

Watching Cas, a few months ago, rush purposefully past him towards Lucifer in the Apocalypse world flashed in his mind after that. The memory of his friend's eyes suddenly bleeding that harsh white light vividly stood out to him. He'd never forget the way Cas swayed lifelessly backward as Dean could do nothing but stare on in helpless horror. He'd never forget those nauseating winged scorch marks on the grass beneath Cas's still body, making it so horribly clear that there would be no coming back this time.

It still made him sick, thinking about seeing Castiel's body under the sheet on that table. Having to place him on that pyre and light the match. Watching him burn. Watching his mother disappear into the Apocalypse world with Lucifer. Finding Charlie in the bathtub. Watching Bobby code in the hospital. Walking away from Jo and Ellen as the hellhounds closed in, and that fiery explosion that followed.

There was a long line of horrible memories filed away in Dean's mind of the people he had loved and lost. Too many memories. And he knew, someday, that his luck would run out and he'd lose Sam, Mary, and Castiel for good too. The very thought of it haunted him like a ghost.

Fred had only gotten a small taste of that kind of fear. Hopefully, he'd never had to experience it at its worst.

"Dean, I know you don't like dragging people into hunting, especially kids. Believe me, I feel that way too, but…"

"Fine."

Sam looked surprised by the harshly spat out word. He had been expecting more of an argument from his brother. "So, we'll teach them?"

Although he still looked annoyed about it, Dean nodded. "Yeah, I guess. If he's not playing around, if he really just wants to protect his friends…"

"It could happen again, Dean." Reminded Sam, quick to prevent him from changing his mind. "You know it could."

"Yeah, Sammy, I know…I know." Dean wasn't in the mood to play video games anymore. "It's getting late, I think I'm going to call it a night." He turned off the game and unplugged it from the TV. "Did you want to plays yours?"

Sam shook his head, "I'm tired too. I'll check it out tomorrow, after lunch."

Nodding, Dean switched the TV setting back to the cable box. He was confused to see Wacky Races on instead of one of the usual programs on the home and garden network. "Huh…"

"What is it?"

"I don't remember leaving it on this channel last night after getting everything set up." He shrugged, not thinking anything of it. "I must have hit a button or something on the remote as I turned it off."

After switching off the TV, Dean went and grabbed another beer from the fridge. Then he trailed out of the room after his brother, flicking off the light along the way.