(Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters, I just made them do what I wanted them to do.)

Castiel came to in a hole in the ground. He had no memory of how he had ended up here. He opened his eyes and attempted to take in his surroundings. The hole was about 4 feet deep and wasn't filled in. He wasn't in a grave, that much he knew for sure, though he wouldn't have put it past a demon to try a new form of torture. But he was an angel, he would have been able to get out of a hole in the ground without a problem. No, this wasn't a demon's doing, nothing supernatural was to blame for this. He looked down and found he was still wearing clothes. That was another good sign right?

He decided that all was fine, apart from his strange loss of memory, and attempted to stand. Every muscle of his vessel screamed at him to stop. It was an odd sensation for Castiel, he had never felt anything like it. He lay back down as the stiffness of his limbs won over his desire to stand and he decided he would just have to leave without finding out where he was. Nothing happened however. Being able to move from one destination to an other in the blink of eye had amazed Dean and even made him uncertain of the angel many times in the past but Castiel was now unsure how he had been able to do it. He squeezed his eyes shut and concentrated hard.

He opened his eyes to see the same expanse of sky above him and the same dirty ground beneathe him. He had no idea what to do now. He was begininng to feel other strange sensations in his stomach and his eyes were starting feel itchy. This was definitely not normal. The only thing he could think of doing was calling Dean and asking for help.

Castiel hated to admit that he needed help in any situation but he was starting to feel anxious. Anxiousness, that was relatively new as well. He reached down to the pocket of his trench coat and felt around for his phone. It was still there. He dialled Dean's number and waited for him to answer.

"Cas?" came Dean's answer a few rings later.

"Hello, Dean." Castiel had no idea where to begin so there was a strange silence on the line.

"Cas, are you okay?" Dean asked, a note of aprehension in his voice. Castiel usually gave blunt statements when delivering news and didn't skirt around the edges. He also didn't call to chat. Dean knew something was up. "Something happen?"

"Uhh, yes. Something has happened." His voice was rough and his throat hurt.

"Well, what is it?" Dean was growing impatient.

"I'm stuck."

"You're stuck?" came the incredulous reply.

"Yes."

"Any chance you'll tell me where?" and Castiel could almost imagine the exasperated look that was on Dean's face.

"I don't know. I can't stand up. It hurts."

"I can't help you if I don't know where you are. You're going to have to find out." Castiel had known this when he had reached for his phone but attempted to delay the inevitable for as long as possible. He steeled himself and brought himself to his feet. There was a strange jerky, stiffness to his movements that he was not fond of.

"I'm in a field. There's a building across from it. Should I go there?"

"Yes, go there and find out where you are. I'll meet you there."

Dean walked into the motel room with a strange look on his face and placed the bags of take out on the table. Sam, following his stomach and not his mind, rushed over to the table and tore into the contents before taking in Dean's face.

"You okay, man?" Sam asked hesitantly. You didn't just go about asking Dean about his feelings. But he hadn't bothered to hide the look on his face so Sam deemed it fair game.

"I just got a call from Cas."

"Oh. Why didn't he just stop by?"

"He said he was stuck. I'm just on my way to him right now. He's only a town over."

"That's weird. If he knew we were here why didn't he just come here? And what did he mean he was stuck?"

"I have no idea, Sammy but I wanna find out. I won't be long." Dean grabbed one of the bags of food and headed back to the Impala.

The drive to the next town took less than an hour and Dean found the place Cas had been talking about easily. He found Cas sitting outside on a bench with his face scrunched up in some sort of discomfort. Dean sat down next to him.

"Hey, Cas." Silence. "What did you mean when you said you were stuck?" Dean looked over to him and took in his appearance properly for the first time. There was dry dirt in his hair and on his face and a hint of some stubble on his chin. He was sitting with his elbows on his knees and his hands clasped in front of him. There was something unsettling about his appearance that Dean couldn't quite place.

"I'm stuck here." he eventually replied and looked at Dean. He spread his arms out gesturing at the place as though to emphasise the situation.

"I have no idea what you're talking about." Dean was utterly perplexed. Had Cas lost his mind?

"I can't go anywhere. And I feel strange."

"You feel strange? How do you feel?"

"I have an empty feeling in my abdomen. My throat feels dry and my eyes itch."

Dean stared ahead for a moment as though to take in what Cas had just said. Then he looked at Castiel and raised an eyebrow.

"Cas, are you hungry?" Castiel took a moment and then he nodded.

"What about my throat and my eyes?"

"That sounds like you're thirsty and you need some sleep. Dude, what happened? I thought angels didn't sleep."

"They don't." was Castiel's simple reply and with that both he and Dean seemed to realise that something had happened to Cas that he wasn't aware of. Whatever had happened in the time that Castiel couldn't remember had caused him to lose the qualities of an angel and gain some humanity along with it. Whatever had happened had caused him to fall. To lose it.

His grace.