Chapter Text
Michael had made it his mission to see the Garrison Private School succeed. He had just began the schools first semester when his and Castiel’s lives were changed indefinitely.
Loosing both parents in a fatal car accident had effectively brought all the Novak siblings together. Michael had been asleep in his apartment when Castiel’s babysitter, Castiel asleep in her arms, and a police officer showed up on his door step. Anna had been traveling abroad, but had quickly returned home when she had heard the news. Gabriel had been blowing his fathers money in retaliation for all the years his father had tried to change and tame him. He was in Dallas, Texas when Anna called him to speak to a sobbing Castiel.
Cas, being only 7 at the time, was confused as to why Annie was home now, when she said she would come back for thanksgiving, and why he needed to get ready to go to a wake. He already was awake. Everything was getting weird. Mommy and dad had been gone for a while, and Mikey had been watching him. Perhaps he was getting ready to go see his mommy and dad. Where they going to go watch mommy and dad wake up? That was good, then, because he had been missing mommy’s hugs.
XxX
When in the chapel, he approached his mother’s coffin slowly. When he peered in he saw his mother laying stiffly, with her skin slightly dis colored. The blush on her cheeks was doing little to make her appear more lively and vibrant. She had never used to wear blush, her cheeks always had a faint rosy glow to them. She was lying in her favorite light pink Sunday dress, the one she often liked to twirl in, because Cas loved watching the bottom flare out, and she knew it from his happy giggling.
Castiel thought it a bit odd for her to be sleeping like this, with rows of people in black behind him, but he couldn’t find himself to care too long. He just wanted to spend time with her, he had missed her warmth, something his Dad, and even more so Mikey had been lacking.
Standing on his tippy-toes, he leaned forward and grabbed her upper arm. Shaking lightly he began whispering near her ear, “Mommy, get up. There are a bunch of weird people watching you sleep.” She stayed motionless. She felt cold. Cas thought that she should have brought a blanket with her if she was going to sleep in this strange wooden bed.
Looking back, he saw Anna approaching him, like she was afraid of him.
Turning back to his mother he shook her with vigor. “Mommy, wake up! Annie’s home, and it’s not even Thanksgiving yet!” Still no response. He was sure that would’ve woken her up. She had been missing Annie since she left after graduating high school.
Frustration, confusion, and a niggling of worry began festering in his tummy.
Feeling a soft hand on his shoulder, he looked up to see Anna next to him. She had a smile on her face that looked pained. “Hey, Cassie, watcha doing?” She asked carefully.
He looked lost. “ I was trying to wake mommy up, but she just won’t. Could you try?” A bit of hope appeared on his face. Maybe if mommy heard Annie’s voice she might get up.
Anna’s face twisted even more. “No, Cassie, I can’t. I’m sorry, but she won’t wake up. She is going to heaven.” Tears began silently sliding down her cheeks.
It took Castiel a moment to understand what she said, and what she meant. When his hamster had escaped, and then been squished by a falling book in his house, he and his mother had buried him, and she explained that he was now going to heaven. After a couple of days he was anxious for his hamster to return, so he asked his father if his hamster said when he would be back from heaven? His dad let out a breathy sigh, and told him that was a way of telling someone that someone else or something else had died. He told him that his hamster would never return, and gave him what he thought was a comforting pat on the shoulder. Cas had been sad for weeks.
That feeling was nothing compared to this one. The hurt of the loss hit him almost instantaneously, making him topple over, and begin crying inconsolably.
Anna picked him up in her arms, and left the chapel while rows of people in sitting in wooden benches watched the scene unfold in front of them. After twenty minutes of trying to calm Castiel, she reached for her phone and dialed a number that should have been called days ago.
Five minutes into the conversation Cas’ wet hiccuping began to subside, so Anna decided that that was enough for today. Knowing that she couldn’t make Cas return and endure the rest of the wake when the wound was so fresh, and too much for a seven year old, she drove herself and him home.
XxX
Gabriel was pissed. He was absolutely seething. How dare Michael not tell him about his parents death?! What was he going to do? Email him after the funeral?!
Sure he and his father had a falling out, but that didn’t mean that he didn’t love him! And that sure as fuck didn’t mean Michael, kiss ass extraordinaire had any fucking right to decide when Gabriel was aloud to know that his parents had died. He loved his mother, and Michael almost made him miss her funeral. It’s not that he was exactly keen on attending, but he knew if he didn’t, if he didn’t get one last goodbye he would have regretted it.
Storming into the Novak mansion, Gabriel began searching for his elder brother. Turning the corner into the kitchen he was attacked by a blur of red hair, and clutching limbs.
Catching his sister in a tight embrace, he began stroking her hair. Her face buried in his shoulder while she weeped.
After a couple of minutes, she pulled back, sniffling. “He’s not here.” She said shakily. “He is at the school getting preparations ready for the upcoming fall semester.” If she had the will to, he was sure that there would’ve been an eye roll at the end of that sentence.
“Of course he fucking is. He’s a robot.” Gabriel let the contempt drip in his voice.
“I’m not concerned about him. It’s Cassie I’m worried about. He is too young for this. Hell! I’m too young for this. We can’t leave him. He needs us. Michael can’t raise him alone, and I need you.”
He ran his fingers through his hair with an aggressive huff. He knew that this was coming, had prepared for it on the eight hour drive here. “I get it, Annie, I really do, but I’m not sure that me staying is the solution. I’m a mess. You know this. And I’m not very keen on sticking around in this house, with the living embodiment of all the worst parts of dad.”
She gave a minuscule nod in agreement before pushing on. “Okay. I understand, but please just think about it. You’re not the only one that’ll be out of your depth. I just graduated from high school and was taking a year to defer, because I wasn’t ready for collage yet. Now I’m going to be raising an orphaned seven year old. Please don’t leave me to do it alone. And don’t you dare say that I have Michael to help. Castiel was having a breakdown in the middle of the church, with at least a hundred people watching him, and Michael just stared at him with a blank look on his face. I was alone. He only calmed down when he spoke to you! I barely got him to sleep a couple of minutes before you arrived!” She appeared a bit crazed at this point. Desperate, even. The stress of everything taking a toll on her.
He hated seeing Anna so lost, but this isn’t for him. He would only end up making things harder.
He placed a quick peck on her forehead, an then left the room. Calling out,“ I’m gonna go check on Cassie,” as he walked away.
When he entered Castiel’s bedroom he could see Cas’ small form turned from him. He had missed Cas’ a great deal, but very rarely was able to visit him, because every time he was here, there would be in inevitable argument between him and his father. It was unavoidable. Stepping over to the other side he could see that Castiel was in fact not sleeping. His blue eyes puffy, and cheeks wet from fresh tears, he stared at Gabriel, but made no effort to move.
Gabe carefully sat on the bed , and smiled a warm smile at Cas. “Hey, Cassie. Annie told me you were sleeping.”
“No, Gabey, I don’t wanna sleep! Please don’t make me!” He was frantic, pulling on Gabriel’s coat sleeve.
“Woah! Woah. Cassie when have you ever known me to make you do anything?”
“Not ever.” Castiel said, a bit reluctantly.
“Exactly,” he agreed, ruffling Cas’ soft black hair with his hand. “So, tell me why you won’t sleep?”
“Cause I don’t wanna die.”
Gabriel’s eyes widened at the admission. “Mommy and Dad died when they were sleeping.” The younger brother continued. Gabe’s heart clenched painfully. “Cassie, they didn’t die while they were sleeping. They died in a car accident.”
Cas’ head shook side to side quickly to disagree. “Nuh uh, Gabey! I was in Annie’s car today, and I didn’t die.”
He choked out an incredulous laugh. The insanity of Castiel's reasoning would have been funny, if not for the tragic circumstances.
“That’s not how accidents work. They don’t happen every time you are in a car. They happen when you least expect it. If you had expected it, you could’ve avoided it, it would’ve never happened. You can’t just stop sleeping because you think someone else died sleeping, just like you can’t be afraid of riding in cars because someone died in one. If you did that then you wouldn’t really be living life, and what is the point of being alive if you aren’t living?”
Cas head tilted to the side, and his eyes scrunched, deep in thought.
“None, I guess… ” he said dubiously. “But I still don’t think I want to ride in one just yet. Is that okay?”
“Absolutely, kiddo.” Cas’ smiled brightly. It then melted into a unpleasantly apprehensive.
“Gabey, you’re not gonna leave again, are you? Cause I don’t wanna loose you too.”
He needed to say yes. He wants to say yes. Cas didn’t deserve to have such a fuck up in his life, trying to teach him how not be one too. That is ridiculous.
But his baby brother looked so lost, and helpless. He might actually need him, fuck up, or not. Annie need him, too. He loves them, and just like they all he has now, he is all they have left, too. And in that moment Gabe possibly made one of the stupidest decisions he had ever made. “Nope. I think you’re stuck with me kiddo.”
Cas smile returned, and his eyes began to droop. “Sleep, Cassie. I’m not going anywhere,” he whispered then kissed Castiel’s cheek and exited his room. He quietly closed the door behind him. Shoulders falling in defeat, and the weight of what he had just agreed to as he marched back to inform Anna.
XxX
He was not hiding. He isn’t afraid of Gabriel, so there is no reason for him to hide. Sure he already went over the school schedule twice, but it never hurts to be thorough. Maybe it could’ve waited until Monday, but it was bothering him. He was not here because he knew Gabriel was returning from Dallas at any moment.
He wanted to invite Gabriel, he really did, he just feared that it might have been in poor taste. He had been witness to the last tiff between his father and brother, and reconciliation was no where in sight. Also, he found Gabriel’s repeated disobedience, disregard, and blatant disrespect for his father to be almost unforgivable. He could never forbid Gabriel from coming to their childhood home, because it was as much Gabriel’s as it was his, but he’d rather not have him there. Even though he was aware that he will have lost this battle, because Anna and Castiel will convince him to stay, and he has never had much resistance against their younger siblings.
Maybe it was for the best. He could barely deal with his emotions, let alone a seven year olds.
What he could do is make his father proud. He could make this school one of the most prestigious schools in the country, and guide Castiel to success, as well. Surely that is what his father would want. Anna and Gabriel could help him through his emotional trauma. This might just work, if he and Gabriel can refrain from tearing each other’s throats out.
XxX 10 YEARS LATER:
Michael was bent over his desk when a sharp prompt knock broke his attention from studying a couple of school finances.
“Enter,” he said.
His personal assistant, peaked his head in. “Sir, there is a Mr. Winchester here. He says he is here to interview for the Athletics teaching position.”
“Okay,” Michael nodded his head in affirmation. “Yes, send him in.”
Michael had a quick read over his application, a hint of a grimace forming on his face. Mr. Winchester wasn’t the type of person he had hired for Garrison Academy, but he was desperate. The last Physical Education teacher had resigned two weeks before the fall semester, leaving Michael stuck with trying to find a quick replacement.
Dean Winchester was hardly his typical choice, but he would just have to make due.
His office door then opened to reveal a broad shouldered man in a leather jacket with a wide grin.
He could feel his school’s reputation dying.
“No need to try to convince me, Mr. Winchester, you are hired.”