“You’re Family.”

“You’re family.”

This is a phrase we see mentioned on the show only constantly and always.  Family family family, we love us a family on SPN. But I was watching Stuck In the Middle With You, the scene where Cas is seconds away from death. He’s literally using his last breaths ever maybe to tell Dean, Sam and Mary that he loves them, that what they’ve been through together has changed him (such a guilty look from Dean, here - he thinks he corrupted Cas, and Cas is actually dying right in front of him as he’s saying that, so yeah, it’s changed him alright), but that they have to run and save themselves.  Something else to note, here - is how Cas looks right at Dean as he’s saying those words, and next, we see Mary (who’s kneeling beside Cas) look up at Dean, who lowers his eyes. “I love you.  I love all of you,” he says, making sure to look at each of them in turn when he says the second part (though he says the first without looking at any of them).  But Sam and Dean’s reactions are so interesting… just look at their faces when they hear Cas say he loves them:

Dean looks like he’s seconds away from breaking, but meanwhile, Sam looks especially touched, here - almost in awe, like, wow - an angel just told me that he loves me. Cas tries to insist that they leave, that he’ll hold Ramiel off so they can escape, because they have to keep fighting - but nope, say Sam and Dean, we’re staying.  “Like you said: you’re family,” Dean chokes out, “and we don’t leave family behind.” And, again, it cuts to Mary - who’s processing that information.  Which I thought was interesting and made me think about that.  What she sees when she looks at her son making a declaration like that, to someone he’d told her was a ‘friend’. And then it made my brain jump to that line again - “We don’t leave family behind.” All I could think was - Dean sure as hell didn’t learn that from John.  He couldn’t possibly have.  John made it his mission, practically, to make sure he left his sons behind whenever he could (including making a deal with Azazel and leaving them stuck holding the bag with all the consequences inside it).  He also didn’t learn it from Mary, either (Ms. I Just Got Resurrected After 33 Years and I’m Leaving After 3 Episodes are you fucking kidding me with that? Not to mention, she is perfectly fine with putting Dean’s friend at risk for the fucking British Men of Letters - he could have DIED, and she didn’t lift a finger to help.) It’s a large part of the reason Dean’s so fucked up, now.  No, this is something Dean decided for himself.  “We don’t leave family behind,” isn’t a Winchester family motto because of John, but because of Dean.  That’s their new, chosen way, that’s their path - they go together, go through it all together.  Because going off on a loner revenge quest?  That’s John Winchester’s bullshit and we don’t do that in this house. Not anymore.

(Also don’t think about how Cas started out his speech by saying ‘thank you’ to them, and in 13x01, the first thing Sam tells Jack he can say is ‘thank you’. HURK! My heart!)