„It'll be alright, Sammy", Ann said quietly.

„It's Sam." His tone was annoyed and he didn't even turn his head in her direction.

"Of course it is, Sam", she amended while her girlfriend shot her a dirty look.

She shrugged helplessly. She wasn't trying to aggravate the situation, she was trying to help. But then, she didn't actually know either of the Winchesters or Castiel Novak all that well. But Charlie had wanted to invite them for a "real" Thanksgiving and so here they were.

Only now Charlie had that concentrated look about her that always meant she was holding back tears, Sam was pacing up and down, up and down, only stopping to look out of the window every so often and the fact that Ann had closed the door dampened the raised voices to a dull background noise, but did nothing to make them forget that Dean and Castiel had now been yelling at each other for a good 10 minutes.

"Something's happening." Sam went a step closer to the window and Ann followed suite.

"Shit."

Dean was raising his arms in one final dramatic gesture and even from here she could lip-read his "Fine!", before he turned on his heels and walked of. For a moment, Castiel just stood there, arms hanging, then he shook his head as if waking up from a trance and started walking in the other direction.

"Shit." Ann looked back at Charlie, whose tears now spilled over onto her cheeks while she was hanging on to one of the countless bowls of food she'd prepared as if holding on for dear life.

"I'm sorry, baby", she ran over to her and gave her a quick kiss, "we're going to get them back and it's going to be a fine evening. I promise." Then she let go of her, knowing there was only one way to save the night: "Come on, Sam. You take Dean, I take Cas."

Her mind provided quite a few choice words for her while they were running out of the door and down the few steps into the courtyard of the apartment complex. Why couldn't these two get their shit together? Every time, every single time it came to this. At least as far as she could see. Charlie swore that they actually were good company. She had gone as far as using the word "sweet", which Ann was sure Dean Winchester would take serious offense to if he ever found out. Not that she cared. Her body provided her reaction for her, making her snarl and hiss in the direction of Dean. She was pretty sure that this was all his fault. And she wanted to bash anyone's teeth in who made her baby cry.

She slowed to a jog and tried to reign in her anger. Among the things she had learned about Castiel so far was that he wouldn't listen if she was angry. He'd just keep walking away from her at his own pace. Not necessarily a fast pace that she couldn't match, but fat lot of good that would do her if she didn't get him to change direction.

"Cas! Cas, wait up."

Nope, no reaction.

"Cas, please. Charlie is going to kick my butt if I don't bring you back."

At least he stopped, even if he didn't turn to her. She closed up the last few steps to him. He still didn't turn so she walked around all the way to the other side to stand in front of him.

He looked at her quizzically for a moment and then decided: "No, she wouldn't. Charlie isn't prone to violence."

That made Ann laugh: "Unless Dean is around, you mean." Then she added: "Thanks for waiting for me, Cas."

But Castiel was already back in his own thoughts: "It seems that Dean brings out violent tendencies in humans."

"Yourself included?" she asked with a sly smile that made Cas glare at her.

She shrugged: "Come on, Cas. I don't know you very well, but every idiot can see that you care about Dean." She worded that carefully, not sure how much of his inner feelings Castiel was willing to divulge.

"Yes", he answered softly after a moment's pause, "yes, I do care about him."

His voice was so lost that she automatically put a hand on his arm to comfort him. But she let it sink again, when he went rigid. Cas was not a huggy person. Actually, now that she thought about it, only Dean was ever allowed to hug him. Everyone else he flinched away from. Even Sam.

She held her hands up to show that she got it. Then she let herself plop down on the steps to the apartment house they were currently in front of: "Want to talk about it?"

For a long minute, Castiel just stood there, head angled slightly to the side, then he carefully slid in beside her. She took it as a good sign.

"I like the shirt, by the way", she said when the silence stretched. Cas had exchanged his usual crumpled suit and trench-coat for plaid and jeans.

"It seemed to be fitting the occasion."

Yeah, that was the kind of parties Charlie gave, where people dressed down instead of up. Unless it was a LARP party of course. The royal court was quite fancy.

"So, Lisa, huh? Dean seeing her again?" She ventured into the shark-infested territory. She hadn't actually heard what started the fight, but there had been mentioning of Lisa Braeden and soon after there had been bad words and then there had been Charlie screaming at the guys to take their fight outside because she was going to bring down all Goddesses she knew on them if anyone got punched in her apartment on Thanksgiving.

"Dean can do whatever he wants", came the sullen reply.

It was an effort to keep the edges of her mouth from twitching. However socially awkward Cas was, he was still adorable when he was pouting.

So she kept her voice calm and asked him gently: "Does he even know what you feel?"

It didn't seem too hard to figure it out, how much Castiel liked Dean. How hurt he reacted when Dean talked about his one-night-stands. How much harder he took it when it seemed to be something more serious than a fling. Like the thing with Lisa. That seemed to be something Dean might actually end up getting committed to.

Ann remembered how that felt. She had had plenty of opportunity to get her heart broken before she met Charlie. Plenty of opportunities to be the wrong gender or the wrong person or both.

Castiel kept staring into the distance, where the sunset already faded into the dimmer light of the night city.

"Come on, Cas, talk to me. Are you angry at him for meeting Lisa again? Or for not seeing what's right in front of his eyes?"

Cas of course didn't answer to that, either.

She sighed. "You gotta tell him, hun. He won't notice on his own. He's too caught up in –" she drew a vague gesture of everything and nothing in the air.

That got a reaction at least, Cas leaned forward and fixed her with his trademark stare. She was immediately uncomfortable. His direct stare felt like he had a way to look into her soul. Not that she had anything to hide but jeez: "Personal space, Cas. Personal space."

He took the hint and retreated to a less intruding pose. Finally, he replied: "I do not have the words to talk about it with you. How could I talk about it with him?"

She shrugged: "Find the words."

"Are they just lying on the street where I could find them?" From zero to agitated in one sentence.

She tried to keep her voice calm but determined: "On the streets, over the rainbow, in the heavens, it doesn't matter."

"In the heavens? You believe that I can find the words for an abomination in heaven?"

"Whoa, Cas." She sat back startled. "I didn't take you for the religious type."

His eyebrows knitted together as he fixed her intently: "I am named after an angel. What did you expect? That I was an atheist?"

Instinctively, she moved away from him a little. As gentle as Castiel's normal demeanor was, when he was angry, he commanded a presence that made you want to be someplace else. "I'm sorry", she apologized, "I didn't want to get into a fight, ok?"

It needed a moment for Castiel's anger to simmer down. She just waited quietly until he turned away from her with an abrupt motion and looked back at the sky. The first stars where starting to come out.

He couldn't really let this stand without even inquiring a little further, though. "So, is it God's will then that Dean should be dating Lisa and you should be sitting out here with me moping?" she asked gently.

"Don't be ridiculous."

"Hey, I'm not the religious one here. You tell me, what is God's will then?"

The last remnants of the anger fell in on themselves, leaving a Castiel that sounded more vulnerable than ever. "How should I know? He doesn't talk to me."

A spark of pain made her heart ache, even though she had to admit that she was also a bit relieved. She didn't have good experiences with people who claimed that God talked to them. She resisted the urge to hug Castiel and just asked him: "What do you want then?"

His answer came fast like he either didn't need to think about this at all or had thought about it too much already: "Dean to be safe and happy."

"Yeah." She got that. She wanted the same for Charlie. Speaking of Charlie: "Want to go back?"

"No."

She sighed and rephrased her question: "Will you come back with me?"

This time, he nodded. "He needs to apologize, though."

"Dean?"

Another nod.

"What did he do?"

"He knows."

"Alright." She got up and held out her hand. "Come on then."

Castiel looked at her hand, pointedly ignored it and got up on his own.