Were I a cloud I'd gather

My skirts up in the air, and fly well know whither,

And rest I well know where.

~Robert Seymour Bridges

Castiel focused the monotonous scenes of the night pass by, trying to keep his mind from drifting and his vision from blurring.

Like everything else, he was failing that as well.

Capturing demons and draining them of their blood had been exhausting work, especially since he, Dean, Sam and Bobby had went at that for half the week with virtually to none periods of respite. Almost immediately after they had gathered enough blood, they set out on the road straight for Detroit, where Lucifer was waiting.

Castiel was so tired he had no idea where they presently were or how long they had been traveling. The silence inside the Impala that he knew was supposed to be tense was actually turning out to be an invitation for him to sleep, and the smooth flow asphalt and dark surroundings were beginning to lull him.

He snapped his head up and sat a little straighter. No, he cannot let himself fall asleep; they had a task to do and he did not want to be any more pathetic than he already was. He may have lost his powers and he may not know how to effectively fight as a mortal, but he could at least stay awake for the duration of the car ride. What if there was something near the road that posed as a threat and the Winchesters did not notice it in time? What if the Winchesters decided to change the plan slightly and he was not there to voice out his opinion? What if they think that him falling asleep would only further assert his weakness?

Turning his head, Castiel stared at the seemingly endless stretch road ahead of them. Wherever they were, they obviously still had a very long way to go. Bobby had taken his truck to another route in order to not draw suspicion from any demons who might be lurking around and acting like sentinels; Castiel did not know where he was right now either, and this obliviousness to something as simple as location was truly, mockingly eating away at him.

Thanks to the recent rain it must be cold outside, he figured, but the Impala offered a comforting warmth that reminded him of better days, days when he had felt safe and certain and he knew that he rightfully belonged somewhere. And the leather underneath him felt soft, almost acting like a balm to his aching body.

Castiel felt his eyes flicker shut and he strenuously pulled them open again. He kept them trained on the road ahead even though everything was smudging at the edges of his vision. For a time, he believed he could make it throughout the trip, in spite of the fact that the seconds seemed to slow down. He thought he could show the Winchesters that, after all he had been through, he can still push past the limits of the human body and prove that there was still indeed a speck of angel left in him. He was sure that he can convince himself that he could still be of use, notwithstanding the fact that he felt his mind numbing from the outside-in, as if a foreign entity was seeping into it.

His eyelids flickered again.

The road melted away into nothing.

His awareness soon followed after.

O_x

"Aww, ain't he a little angel?" Dean commented when he noticed the faint snores coming from the back.

TBC

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