“What’s the matter?” Castiel asks and tilts his head, narrowing his eyes in such a way that you know he is reading Dean like a book, “…You don’t think you deserve to be saved.”

You see Dean shrink back. It shocks you. Dean is a pillar of strength, of certainty, and to see him shrink back? It only happens when he is seen. Really seen.

Dean sold his soul. To save Sam. He considered it—passing on the favor. John Winchester sold his soul to save Dean, Dean was paying it forward. That was how he got himself condemned to Hell for an eternity. And despite the torment and the torture some twisted part of him felt he deserved it.

So when Castiel, a general for the army of Heaven gripped him tight and raised him from perdition. It felt wrong.

Dean’s eyes avoid the angel’s accusatory stare. He cannot deny Castiel’s remark.

“Why’d you do it?” He asks

“Because God commanded it.” Castiel says, no longer analyzing and now articulating with absolute clarity

“Because we have work for you.”