The phrasing apparently mattered. Adam didn't fall, he'd been dragged in, and maybe that was significant, because he hadn't asked for any of this. He'd agreed to accept Michael purely because he'd been manipulated. At least Sam and Dean had known what they were getting into when they'd gone to that cemetery.

There was nothing Castiel could say, no words that would justify how things happened, or the reasoning for why Adam had been left behind while the rest of them had continued on. It wasn't as if things had been easy for them topside, but nothing could compare to centuries of torture in Hell, compliments of the two more fearsome archangels.

Castiel shook his head. "No, you didn't."

This conversation was even more clipped than usual, Castiel feeling like each word was sticking in his throat. "If there was anything else you wanted to know, any questions I can answer, I'll do so to the best of my ability."

It wasn't much of a consolation prize, but it was all he could offer.