>> By trauma bond, I mean the way experiences (like a firefight and a lifesaving maneuver or three) can bring people together, not an actual traumatic soulbond. <<

If it were new, it'd be a trauma bond.

>> Cas and Ned linking up the way they now have feels like a natural extension of the more familiar emotional version of being brought closer together by surviving harrowing experiences, saving each other's lives, and similar. <<

Yep. The fact that they already knew each other and had a connection created a base for expansion. Cas might have managed to save a stranger that way, but saving a friend is much easier.

>> The fact that it's mutually desired makes all the difference in the world, to me. <<

That makes sense.

>> I wonder, would it help Ned to view his growing connections to the Broken Angels (not to Cas specifically, because he's a friend and that's quite different, but the gang) as efforts toward citywide harm reduction, seeing as the Broken Angels are actively working to lower violent crime/queerbashing/malicious destruction and improve healthcare in the area? <<

Likely so. I think he'll go for gang outreach.

>> Not that Ned is *using* his contacts to force the issue - that's not his style - but he's in tune with the city improvement aspects, if not with a few of the methods *cough*, of what the Broken Angels are doing anyway.<<

He can interface between the groups, which is to everyone's advantage. And while he doesn't know this part yet, the Italians are good to have on hand in that regard, because their police force is more integrated, both in terms of including soups and in touching base with the Mob enough that they rarely collide head-on.