Supernatural Set in the Middle East

[joya-oscura.livejournal.com]

I'm trying to find a fic that I recently read but foolishly forgot to save. (It doesn't help that I use Firefox private browser, so the fic does not show up in browser history.)

Details: Dean and Sam are in the army and everything that occurred in Supernatural occurred in the Middle East. (Though how they were able to be hunters and still keep up with the military duties, I haven't the slightest clue.) Anyway, the fic takes place Post-Purgatory. Dean and Benny made it out, but Cas is presumed dead. (A flashback reveals that as they were trying to escape Purgatory, the ground opened up beneath Cas and swallowed him. Afterwards, the ground Cas was standing on goes back to normal.) Sam comes to Dean and relays a report from a near-by village; the people of the village report seeing a man with dark hair & blue eyes, wearing a trench coat that suddenly appear there, only to disappear soon after. Dean mobilized the squad to go to Cas' last presumed location.

Once the group arrives at the place Cas was sighted, Dean calls for Cas. Cas shows up and explains what happened when he was pulled into the ground in Purgatory and how he escaped. (Cas was pulled into the ground by the angels he had killed as revenge. Gabriel sacrificed himself to make sure that Cas was able to escape.)

Later on, they come across a group of demons that were looking for Cas. The majority of the demons were killed. With the last demon, the group keeps him alive so that they could learn what the demons wanted. After Cas has finished torturing the demon (and healing said demon so that he would be able to talk) Cas decides that it is best to stay away from Dean to keep him safe.

Months later, when the group are waiting out a storm so that they can move to their next location, Cas appears before Dean again. This time though, Cas is severely injured and it takes him days to recover.

There is probably more that happened after that, but I don't remember. Though I do remember that the Campbell clan were also present in the fic, meaning they were not killed off in the fic's version of S6.

Found (by myself): It's Like A Child by Jackie Ryan.