A stranger on a strange land

Enemy of mine
I'm just a stranger in a strange land
Running out of time...

Is almost 2:00 am on a Thursday morning, when the call wakes him up, or more likely the call wakes his partner up.

"Cas, hey…" He turns around and tries to shake him awake, but mornings are not Cas forte. "Hey Cas, wake up… Your phone is ringing, Cas?" He tries a little more louder and violent. "Castiel wake up!"

"What…" he grunts awake, and pats the night stand looking fro his cellphone. He doesn't recognized the number, he only knows is from out of state but no one calls him from out of state. So he sleepy stares at his phone puts it down, and turns to his partner who is looking at him for an explanation. "Sorry must be a wrong number." His partner looks at him turning back to sleep.

The next time he wakes up, the light is coming through the window, his apartment is in complete silence and his partner is gone, he gets up takes a shower and heads to his small kitchen for coffee, he checks his phone. Three missing calls not counting the one from last night, they are all from his brother.

"Gabe, what happened… What did you call?" He is standing on the middle of his small kitchen waiting for his coffee to brew.

"Hey Cassie, am in Pontiac, ohm," He hears the hesitation on Gabriel's voice, nothing comes to mind as what is he doing on Pontiac besides visiting Jimmy. "I think is best if you come, there is being an accident. Cassie, Jimmy died" He feels his stomach drop to the floor, his brain shuts down, everything seem to become slow motion, he can barely register the sound of his older brother almost yelling at him on the line. "They say they call you last night but you could not be reach, Cassie are you alright, Cassie?"

"How..." Is the only and first word that his brain allows him to say, his coffee is now long forgotten. "how it happen."

"Well they were coming late at night and a truck t-bones them into oncoming traffic, Jimmy died, Amelia is critical. Cassie you have to come..."

"Of course I will get my stuff together and be there as soon as possible." The next hour he spends telling his boss he is in need of time out; how long he guesses at least a week, he doesn't know the situation that is waiting for him, once he arrives to Pontiac, the preparations needed, the state of Amelia, so he guesses. Last thing he knows he is in the middle of an airport in Pontiac. Gabriel is waiting at the bar, he embraces Castiel in a hug. He had missed those hugs he remembers fight with Jimmy over who deserved more. Jimmy with all the commotion he has denied himself to think about his brother, his twin to be exact. Gabriel fills him in on the details of Jimmy passing; the arrangement for the funeral are all paid and planned ahead, but there is still too much to be done.

They are at the hospital, when Gabriel drops the last bomb on him, there is the problem of Jimmy's daughter. She is at the hospital too, no serious injury thank to heaven, save for some bruises and minor cuts. They haven't break the news yet, and Castiel nor Gabe have an idea how is that going to go. They ask for an update on Amelia, before heading to Claire's room.

He had not seen little Claire since she was born, a petty fight and too much awkward phone conversation had lead him to miss some of his niece growing years, Her eyes light up at the sight of Castiel, she look painfully like Jimmy except fro the hair, six years old, big blue eyes like his father, blonde like her mother, she threw her hands up waiting for Castiel to hug her, when the other did not move, she turns to Gabriel in question.

"Ohm, Claire, dear this is Castiel your other uncle, remember your daddy's twin you have talk to him over the phone." She gently nods. "Claire, we have bad news the accident you guys were last night, your daddy did not make it." Gabriel adds letting her cry on his arms, Castiel joins the hug.

By Friday afternoon, they have already released Claire from the hospital while Amelia has turned for the worst, she passes during the night. The funeral is to be held on Sunday morning, and by now they have set camp on Jimmy's house since it seem more convenient. He wakes up to his alarm on Saturday morning and for a second his brain does not register where he is, the house smells like pancakes, Gabriel's famous pancakes to be exact, is like waking up on his childhood home. Then he remembers Jimmy is dead, half of him just died, without him having the opportunity to say good bye. Jimmy died and Castiel never got the apology he waited so long for, and it now it sounds like time wasted. Getting out of the bathroom he finds Claire on the hall staring at him.

"Hello Claire..." She stares at him more intensively, turns around and leaves for the kitchen. He follows, she is not talking to him, but again who is he to her, the uncle that only calls on Christmas, a name written on a card, the guy that looks like her father. They eat in silence, they decide to make a run to the grocery shop since they are practically running on empty.

Sunday morning seems to know they are mourning since is cold and gloomy. It looks like it would rain at any moment, is a small gathering composed by member of Jimmy's and Amelia's church, a few members of her family, and them. Some of the attendees keep confusing him, since Castiel did not play a big roll on his brother social life. The service ends, Gabriel holds Claire almost all the time, the burying part seem to be hardest. Having to say good bye forever, one of Amelia's cousins tells them that they will find comfort on God. Castiel wants to laugh and replied but is stop by Gabriel, they don't need to know. That's exactly how everything went wrong, Jimmy decided to marry Amelia, good girl, christian girl, then pour himself in to church and suddenly all that his brother did was wrong, his lifestyle, his choices, so he kept him an arm's length, a phone call now and then that was all.

"Cassie I think we need to talk about our situation here." The dreaded talk, until this point reality was no more than bad dreaming he was hoping to wake up from. Now he knows is turning into a nightmare. "I have to go back to work, and so do you… I was talking to some of her family and they are in no position to..."

"To what..."

"Castiel she need a stable place..." Gabriel head motions to Claire who is currently watching television. "I would say me, but you know my work I move a lot thanks to the store expansion, am rarely home..."

"And you are implying, that I should...No I cannot, is impossible…." He tries to be as quiet as possible for her not to hear, Gabriel has to be joking there has to be another way, the girl doesn't even talk to him.

"Well, Cassie, Jimmy always said you were her godfather, in case of anything, he had you as the responsible one..." Castiel looks at him in disbelief.

"Yeah but that was long ago, am sure he changed it, he probably put one of the church members, or her family."

"Nope still you, if you cannot do it… Then she would have to go into the system. At least think about it Cassie." Gabriel gets up and pats him on the shoulder, before taking Claire to bed. He leaves Castiel in the living room alone.

Morning finds him sitting in the couch, he would kill for a drink but Jimmy did not kept alcohol on the house, the thought of driving out has occurred to him, but he would only worry Gabriel. So he stays and think, overthinks and panics at his new found situation. What is he going to do with a six year old, how he would even deal. Early morning he calls work and tells them he most probably be back next Monday. If he is taking Claire with him he has to do a bunch of paperwork and preparations, is not like he can take her with him and decided everything is fine. Gabriel finds sitting on the front porch with his third cup of coffee. For once, Gabriel decides to show his responsible side and helps Castiel, first stop is the school which to Gabe disbelief, is not run by nuns like had thought. After talking to the principal about Claire's new situation, he promise to e-mail Castiel a list with good schools around his area, and be ready to send the transfers as soon as he finds a school for her. Second on the list, is the affairs of the Novak's they had to sit down for almost a whole day and go through everything, banks account, insurance, credit card debts and bills. The house stays at least for now, Gabriel propose putting for sale later on, they open a trust fund for Claire, and when they are not dealing with customer service he is dealing with school principals.

His apartment is the last on the list. He loves his apartment it took him a good few months and a lot of research to figured out, to come to an understanding of what he wanted, could afford and needed, and now he is going to have to change it due to being too far for Claire's school commute. He doesn't mind the driving by knows that if he plans on doing it every day it will turn into hell, the school near is not as promising as he would like, so he Thursday afternoon finds him sitting in front of Jimmy's computer looking for apartments. Two hour go by easily when you have to figure out between maps the exact time to get around between home, work and school. Apartments are good but they either are too small, too far from the school he chooses or too shady. Gabriel suggest a house, at least the rent of one. He has never consider a house even knowing that he can afford it, a house always seem too big for him, so he has always settle for apartments. He finds one after long hours and eyes dried, 3 bedrooms two bathrooms, nice neighborhood, not so far from her to be new school, and his work, he decides to pick an appointment with the seller for next Tuesday, he hopes is good. Claire has begun to warm up to him, or at least she does not stare at him like she is about to jump him. Gabriel and him have talk to her about the moving, so far even if there is no exciting on moving at least she is not fighting it.

They arrived to Lawrence Saturday afternoon. Gabriel has insisted on driving them, and staying with them a few days o help with the moving and Claire's new school. His phone has been buzzing nonstop the whole week first a few messages then a few calls that he let go to voicemail, he is not ready to deal with it yet, they were too many things on his plate to add a phone call to it. It's been a week since he has been home and all he wants to do is lay on his bed and die, so he does.

Gabriel wakes up to the sound of a pounding door, during the night he had decided to move from the couch to the floor not that this help at all. He glares at the clock is barely nine, the other are still sleeping, Claire is on Castiel bedroom, Castiel snoring on the couch opposite to him. He closes his eyes and wishes fro the sound to go away, when it only comes back louder he gets up with a groan. The guy at the door looks at him almost open mouthed, I mean Gabriel knows he can be charming in the morning but there is no need to drool.

"Yes..." The guy closes his mouth but still looks at him as if seeing a ghost. "Where is the fire Ken doll?" Green eyes stare at him and measured him up, he turns to leave. "Hey you are not going just walk away after you woke me up." At this point he can hear Castiel waking up.

"Tell Castiel, thank you so much for making me worry." he mumbles his cheeks are turning red what makes the freckles even more noticeable.

"Am sorry."

"I said thank you for making me worry" he yells back heading to the elevator.

"Dean? What are you doing?" Castiel is at the door, next to Gabriel who looks at the two of them and mouths a short "oh".

"What am I doing? You disappear for a week, don't answer my messages or my calls, I come to your apartment and I find you with a guy." He actually shouting on the hall a few neighbors have begin to pop their heads out of their doors, Gabriel feels inclined to make popcorn and watch the telenovela fight. "I am leaving, that's what am doing, shouldn't never come."