If Dean's life were a feel good family movie, the reunion Michael witnesses would've been cut for being off key. It's awkward small talk in a diner not unlike the one they'd visited when they'd first been freed from Hell. The conversation picks up once they hear that Adam's back in college—on Sam's side, anyway. He knows the right questions to ask to make things roll along a little more smoothly. Dean is more knowledgeable about his breakfast plate with four choices of meat.
It ends, and Michael pulls back his hand. He holds it in the other for a moment, glances down at it as if it's the memory itself replaying between his fingers.
"Back to his studies, is he? At least you covered the check."
University is expensive.
It was a life plan Adam had put aside or at least on hold, last they'd spoken of it. It's not like I can go back to college, not with an archangel inside of me. But there he was, whole and alive, living the simple human life he'd always enjoyed. Without him. It's bittersweet, like watching a wounded animal he'd cared for return to the wild. There's another emotion attached to it, though, one that cuts when Michael tries to pick it up and examine it.
For a moment, he's not so stony and stoic. Something twists beneath the surface, trying to figure out where it belongs, what he does with this feeling.
(Are the lives of those he cares for always better without him?)
Michael lets his hands fall back to his sides and clears his expression. The point is that Adam is alive and doing well. The rest is unimportant; the rest he deals with on his own. He suspects he's still very much dead back home anyway.
There's another moment of silence as he lifts his head and considers Dean. If he hadn't coughed up what he wanted to know, Michael would have hopped the bar and taken it. There are still priorities within each of them when they're separate like they are now. The fact of the matter is that he did, though. Dean is no longer someone he can dismiss as an obstinate waste of his time. He's too familiar with what's inside the man's soul now: the need to protect, the capacity for caring so deeply he breaks himself over it, the facets of his mind that reflect his own image.
He's worthy of respect, however grudging.
"Thank you."
Don't go telling anyone he said it. This stay between them.
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It ends, and Michael pulls back his hand. He holds it in the other for a moment, glances down at it as if it's the memory itself replaying between his fingers.
"Back to his studies, is he? At least you covered the check."
University is expensive.
It was a life plan Adam had put aside or at least on hold, last they'd spoken of it. It's not like I can go back to college, not with an archangel inside of me. But there he was, whole and alive, living the simple human life he'd always enjoyed. Without him. It's bittersweet, like watching a wounded animal he'd cared for return to the wild. There's another emotion attached to it, though, one that cuts when Michael tries to pick it up and examine it.
For a moment, he's not so stony and stoic. Something twists beneath the surface, trying to figure out where it belongs, what he does with this feeling.
(Are the lives of those he cares for always better without him?)
Michael lets his hands fall back to his sides and clears his expression. The point is that Adam is alive and doing well. The rest is unimportant; the rest he deals with on his own. He suspects he's still very much dead back home anyway.
There's another moment of silence as he lifts his head and considers Dean. If he hadn't coughed up what he wanted to know, Michael would have hopped the bar and taken it. There are still priorities within each of them when they're separate like they are now. The fact of the matter is that he did, though. Dean is no longer someone he can dismiss as an obstinate waste of his time. He's too familiar with what's inside the man's soul now: the need to protect, the capacity for caring so deeply he breaks himself over it, the facets of his mind that reflect his own image.
He's worthy of respect, however grudging.
"Thank you."
Don't go telling anyone he said it. This stay between them.