“This is your heaven, isn’t it?” Amy smiled as she walked towards Castiel, who just hummed, obviously content in this calm environment.

“Not really,” he answered a few seconds later. “I’m just borrowing it.” He breathed in deeply, savoring the fresh air of an afternoon in spring.

“It’s beautiful, Cas.” She took his hand, giving it a light squeeze. “I could spend a lifetime here.”

“Yes.” He turned around so that he was facing her, smiling lightly, like he was truly happy. “I’ve been running for a long time now, but this seems like a nice place to stay.”

“It might get a bit lonely,” Amy said, still holding his hand tightly in hers. “Time to go back home to the boys, don’t you think?”

Castiel gave her a sad nod, taking in another deep breath and then they were gone. The world was quiet there, an eternal spring, but that wasn’t what he needed. At least not yet.

“You’re scared that you’re going to become just like this, aren’t you, Doctor?” The voice barely resembled Dean, all the warmth of it gone, only roughness and anger left. “That your dark side is going to win and that your eyes are going to be black when you catch your reflection on accident?”

“I am not afraid,” the Doctor replied, trying to remain calm. “Not as afraid as you are, Dean. This is just a dream. This isn’t you.”

But Dean just laughed at the Doctor’s words. “It may just be a dream right now, but it will become reality sooner or later. I will go to hell and this, this is what I’m going to become and you can’t stop it.”

“Oh, I will.” The Doctor walked towards him, grabbing his jacket, pulling him closer. “I will keep you away from hell, even if I die trying. You watch me. You watch us run.”

“What happened to you?” The Doctor’s question hovered between them, Dean just staring at the time lord and his two companions. “Dean. Please. What happened?”

“You didn’t come in time,” he answered, his voice rough from too many nights without sleep and too many nightmares during those few hours he actually was able to close his eyes.

“But I’m here now. I can still fix this. Where is Sam?” When Dean didn’t reply, the Doctor turned around, eyes searching and finally finding Castiel standing among the small group that had gathered around them. “Where is he?”

Castiel just smiled at him, too far gone into his own personal oblivion to register anything that was happening around him.

“Sam is gone, Doctor,” Dean said, rejection in his voice. “And you should leave, too. We don’t need you here. You wanted to save us and lost your chance, just like you lost my trust. I am going to save myself now.”

He turned around, walking back to his car. “Get back into your blue box and explore the universe, but don’t come back here or I swear, I will kill you. You gave me a promise and you broke it. You failed to save me, you failed to save Cas. You failed to save my brother. I’d rather die than accept your help.”

“Dean.” Castiel’s annoyance with the hunter was clear in his voice. “I don’t know where I am. Well, I am in a hospital. But my nurse sounds like he’s from Britain and I haven’t seen anyone else since I’ve woken up.”

“Great. He doesn’t know me yet,” Rory murmured. “The Doctor messed up the timing. Again.” He stood outside the angel’s room, listening to his conversation with Dean.

Castiel didn’t say anything for a while, only listening intently to the voice on the other end of the phone, nodding every now and then.

“Yes,” he said. “I suppose I could talk to him. But he seems a bit weird. When he entered the room he just stared at me like I wasn’t from this world.” He rolled his eyes when Dean responded, quickly said goodbye and hung up.

Rory entered the room a few seconds later, trying not to stare too intently at the disheveled man in the bed. “Hello. I’m Rory Williams. I don’t believe we’ve met before,” he said, extending his hand. “But I know you. You’re Castiel, an angel of the Lord, and I am here to help you.”

This time it was Castiel who couldn’t do anything but to stare at this peculiar human being.

“This isn’t our Doctor, Sammy! I know him and this isn’t him!” Dean shouted, even though both Sam and Doctor were right there, in front of him. A wave of anger was rushing through his veins, quickly followed by fear and disappointment.

“Not your Doctor? When have I ever been yours,” the Doctor growled as he turned around to face the brothers. “I am not your possession. I can do however I please.”

“Doctor, please. Just calm down. Please. We can fix this,” Sam tried to reason with him, but it was evident in the Doctor’s eyes that he wouldn’t listen to a word he said. He would hear it, but he wouldn’t even try to understand.

“This is senseless, Sam. This isn’t the man we thought we knew,” Dean hissed. “The Doctor would never go to war if there was another way.”

The time lord just smirked at those words. “Doesn’t that answer your question then, Dean? There was no other way. And nobody human gets to say anything to me today! I am the last of my kind and I can do what I think is right. Understood?”

Sam and Dean just stood there, paralyzed by his words. A few seconds later, they nodded, scared of what the Doctor might do if they wouldn’t.

“Good,” he said, that gruesome smirk still etched into his face. “Because you don’t want me to start a war with you, do you?”

“You’re just going to let her die out there?” Dean looked at the Doctor, not understanding what he was doing, why he wasn’t saving his best friend, why he was just turning his back. “This is Amy, Doctor. Our Amy.”

“No,” the Doctor replied. “She’s not real. She will never have existed.” He began to walk away, trying to get some time away from his companions so that he could try to forget what he had just done.

“Of course she’s real,” Dean yelled. “How can you say that she’s not real? Didn’t you see her? Her eyes? Those were Amy’s eyes. So don’t you tell me that she’s not real.”

“No!” The Doctor turned around, anger pulsing through his veins. “You don’t tell me that she was! How else am I supposed to live with the guilt? I already ruined her life in so many ways possible. She lost so much because of me. And I feel her loss, too. That’s something you’ve got to remember, Dean. You don’t have the market cornered on heartbreak.”