Castiel was ashamed, and he made it very clear that he was in the way he looked away. He had believed it--and why shouldn't he? He was expendable. He wasn't Sam and Dean, and the people around them died fighting for good. Sooner or later that would be his fate too, so shouldn't he get the chance to decide when that would be?

But Dean's words brought it all home how selfish that had been. It hadn't saved anyone, in the end, not when Dean had sold his soul, or when he'd taken the mark, or when Castiel had said yes to Lucifer. None of it had ever made the world better.

"You're not as bad at it as I am."