new story alert! woot woot!

so yeah, recently got obsessed with Supernatural - therefore falling in love with the lovable angel of the Lord, Castiel. couldn't resist inserting an OC!

aand this story is just the first of a whole series (haven't thought of a name yet, any ideas?). this whole first story takes place during season 5, episode 8, AKA "Changing Channels".

anyway, i should stop ranting and let you onto the story ;)

I DO NOT OWN SUPERNATURAL OR ANY OF ITS CHARACTERS! ONLY MY OC, AUBREY MILLIGAN.

AUBREY

It had been a long time since she'd seen the Winchesters. Her mother had been good friends with John. That was how she had met Sam and Dean. Of course, all this was before everything else happened.

When Aubrey got the message from Dean, after ten years, telling her he could use her help on a job, she was out speeding through the highway in less than ten minutes, her bags fully packed and her duffel bag full of guns ready.

Hearing about the sudden spike in demonic omens from the news could really stress a hunter out, but finding out that the apocalypse had already begun? Jump started by Sam and Dean Winchester, no less? Aubrey knew that a talk had been very long delayed between them.

Dean had texted her where they were and the address of the motel they were going to stay in, but when she really had the chance to read the name herself, she couldn't suppress a smile. A very sad, rueful, smile.

She read the words on the neon sign one more time, before finally turning her back on it and taking out her bags from her car. She rode a black pick-up truck, her father's. It wasn't as glamorous as Dean's was but it was comforting to even just sit on it.

The motel was a tiny little thing; as poorly structured and unpleasant to the eye as a century-old building. Aubrey walked inside. She was eyeing the foul-smelling, discoloured walls when she heard a guy clear his throat.

The desk clerk was a short pudgy man with brown stubble and almost no hair at all. He wore glasses and they slipped from his nose more times than few. His clerk uniform was far too small for him, making his belly bulge even more, but he didn't seem to care.

"Room for the night, miss?" he said, his voice bored. He looked at Aubrey with bored eyes. His shoulders slumped like he was in the most boring convention in the world.

Aubrey smiled pleasantly, ignoring the scowl on his face. "I'm with the two gents in Room 34, actually."

"Room 34?" His bored eyes widened the slightest bit, as if the idea of a sisterly figure sharing a room with her two brotherly figures was the most sinful thing in the world. "They only paid for two beds."

"How much does a room cost?"

"Hundred bucks a night."

With a loud sigh, she brought out her wallet and gave the man a hundred bucks. "Fine. Room 35."

He snatched the money roughly from her hands and replaced the dollar bills with a small key, his grubby hands sweaty and sticky at the same time as it scraped against her fingers. Aubrey almost gagged. The clerk smiled, and Aubrey snatched her bags off the floor and walked away. "Nice doing business with ya!" he called.

After plopping her bags onto the hard bed in her stuffy, hundred-dollar-for-a-night room, Aubrey immediately came knocking on the door just across from hers. "Sam, Dean! It's me!" She could barely contain her excitement to see the brothers again. Her knocks were hard and fast and loud. There was no reason for them not to hear her. And from the shuffling inside the room Aubrey guessed they hadn't been very clean with their environment as of late.

The door finally opened. A tall man stood before her, probably in his early-twenties. He had dark brown hair that curled at the nape of his neck, warm brown eyes, and that cute goofy smile that Aubrey could pick out from a crowd.

"SAM!" She crushed him in a bear hug, laughing over his shoulder.

To her relief, Sam laughed with her. "Hey, Aubrey."

When she finally let go of him, she grabbed him by the arms, still on her tippy-toes. "How long has it been?" she asked, still grinning from cheek to cheek. "Last time I saw you, you were worrying about school!"

Sam laughed again. That same carefree laugh she'd barely been able to hear during her teenage years with him. "It's definitely been a while."

"And jeez luiz, you got TALL!"

He shrugged, making Aubrey drop her hands back to her sides. "Growth spurt came pretty late."

Then a new voice came, one Aubrey knew all too well.

"Aubrey, I thought we told you to slow it down with the coffee!" Dean came strolling in from the bathroom, wiping his hands with a white towel the same way he did ten years ago.

She tackled him with a hug, gentler than the way she'd handled Sam. Dean had always been the oldest out of the three. Aubrey was just a year older than Sam. He was her big brother… sort of.

Dean shook against her, chuckling. "Missed you too, Aubrey."

"You have no idea."

They all decided that the night would have to be spent catching up, not talking about the problem they'd have to face during the next few days, or months, or years.

They talked about recent events, past events, shared some good news, and shared some bad. When Sam told her about what happened to his girlfriend, Jess, all Aubrey could say was "I'm sorry", which made her feel kind of bad. But when they told her about what happened to their father, John, Aubrey couldn't quite believe it.

She knew that John Winchester was one of the best hunters in the country. Her whole family had known it. And she just couldn't bring herself to believe that he had been killed by some demons.

Aubrey knew that there was more to the story. There always was. Sam and Dean just didn't want to tell her. She could respect that, but a tinge of hurt still stung her chest.

When they had no more stories left to tell, an uncomfortable silence passed over them, one that Aubrey broke. "So… how'd you guys end up raising Lucifer from hell?"

Dean smiled grimly. "Long story."

She made a show of looking at her wristwatch. 2 am. "I have time for long stories." Which she didn't.

Dean raised an eyebrow but otherwise didn't question.

They told her everything; starting from the opening of the Devil's Gate, to the demon Azazel, to Sam dying, to Dean's time in hell—one Aubrey paid specific attention to—, to the demon Ruby, to Lillith—to Sam's powers, even. She didn't judge. She wasn't like that. But she couldn't help but look at Sam for a long moment and ponder if he really was going to go dark side.

"You could be the Anakin Skywalker of the hunters or something!" she said, trying to lighten the mood by suggesting that he would eventually turn good again, but it didn't seem to help. Sam just smiled before continuing with the story.

When they were done, it was 3 in the morning and the brothers weren't even tired yet.

"Aren't we gonna start looking for… whatever you're looking for tomorrow?" Aubrey asked, rubbing her eyes.

Dean scoffed. "Not getting tired already, are you?"

"Dean, I drove all night. I think I deserve to be sleepy. What's your excuse?"

"Oh, we're not sleepy." Dean spread his arms sideways, trying to prove his point. "We are actually gonna go grab some dinner."

"In the middle of the night?"

"Hey, food down there is 24/7."

Aubrey leaned back against the chair, closing her eyes, sleep already washing over her. "Okay, fine," she groaned, not having the energy to throw something back. "Could you at least grab me a cheeseburger and a coke? I need some caffeine."

"Got it," Sam said.

"And you mind if I take a little nap here for a while? My room's a piece of crap."

"Okay, fine," Dean said, mimicking Aubrey's voice—'mimicking' meaning raising the tone of his voice just an octave of two higher. He sounded pretty stupid. "Just, don't leave such a mess, okay?"

And with that, they walked out the door and left.

She sat on the dinner table, her food untouched as she watched her father talking on the phone. She could see his hands visibly shaking as he held the headset to his ear. When he turned around to give his only daughter an assuring smile, she saw his eyes were brimmed with tears.

With the food long forgotten, she sat up from the table and walked to her father. Aubrey was old enough to know and understand what was happening, and she was getting scared. "Dad?" Her father didn't reply, instead mumbling incoherent things to the phone.

Aubrey frowned, tugging at her father's sleeve. "Dad? Who is that?" No reply again. "Dad, come on, dinner's getting cold." Her heart was pounding in her chest. She tried to hear the other end of the line but there was nothing. There was really nothing. Just static.

Just when she was about to give up and go back to the table, her father grabbed her hand and gave it a squeeze. Aubrey smiled half-heartedly, remembering that he always did that when he was on the phone and he was trying to tell her something. In this case, he was telling her to wait. "Alright," she mouthed, squeezing her father's hand in reply.

She waited next to her father, waited for him to hang up. During the last seconds of the phone call, her father's last words to the other end of the line scared her. He said, "I love you… I'm sorry."

He hung up and immediately crushed Aubrey into him, hugging her tight. Aubrey, uncertain, hugged him back. "Dad?" He shook against her, and she felt the dampness of his chin against her neck. "You're scaring me."

"You know I love you, right?"

The question startled Aubrey, but she answered immediately. "Of course I do." Silence. "Dad, what's wrong? Who was that on the phone?"

"Your mother."

"Dad… mom's dead."

"I know, honey."

That night, she fell asleep to the sound of her father's pacing footsteps outside her bedroom door, and in the morning she woke up to absolute silence, a feeling of dread in her stomach. She threw off her sheets and ran downstairs and was greeted with the unmoving body of her father, lying on the floor in a puddle of his own blood.

Aubrey shot up from the bed. Her heart pounded against her chest, reverberating in her skull. Her arms were sticky with sweat, both from the long ride and the nightmare. Aubrey sighed, running her hands over her face. She hadn't had those nightmares for so long she was starting to believe she'd finally gotten past it.

Apparently not.

Looking around the room, Aubrey saw no trace of Sam and Dean yet. From the window, she could see the faintest hints of sunlight fighting against the darkness of the night. She got up, stretching her arms over her head as she looked at the clock and saw the reason the brothers weren't back yet. She'd only been sleeping for half an hour. She groaned. Why couldn't she just get at least one hour of sleep? She'd been sleep-deprived for days, partly because of the apocalypse and partly because she didn't want to have those kinds of dreams anymore.

She wandered to the bathroom—which was so much more luxurious than the one in her room. Planning to take a quick shower, she had started taking off her clothes when she heard a door open, then close.

Aubrey stilled.

"Sam?" she called hesitantly, peeking out the bathroom door. "Dean?" There was no response, only footsteps. Slow, and steady footsteps. She quickly slipped her shirt back over her head and took out her pocket knife. It wasn't the best defence but it was something. And there was sure to be a gun outside, possibly on the bed, but Aubrey could just hope that the burglar wouldn't get to it before she did.

What did she have to worry about anyway? As far as she knew, she could overpower any regular burglar.

She pushed the door open as quietly as she could, thanking God that it wasn't creaky. Aubrey walked into the room, making her footsteps light. The burglar had a trench coat on. He wasn't facing her. Perfect. She advanced quickly, putting away her pocket knife because she wasn't planning on killing the guy anyway.

Before she could do anything else, the man spoke. "I wouldn't do that if I were you," he said.

Aubrey stilled, but didn't let her guard down. "Who are you?" she asked.

"Castiel," he said, turning around. He definitely didn't look like any robber Aubrey had ever seen. He had grey-blue eyes, smooth features, light stubble and close-cropped hair.

She hesitated for a moment. "What are you doing here?"

"I was looking for Sam and Dean. Have you seen them?"

Aubrey didn't answer. Instead, she frowned, asking, "Why are you looking for Sam and Dean?"

The stranger shrugged. "I have been… acquainted with them."

She scoffed, though unsure. "Yeah, and I have a pet unicorn."

That was when the door opened, revealing Sam and Dean with paper bags of food cradled in their arms. Dean had a donut wedged between his teeth, and Sam was sipping on a cup of soda. Their eyes found Aubrey's, and she shuffled on her feet. She nodded at the stranger. "He a friend if yours?"

"Yeah…" The donut fell from Dean's mouth, plopping onto the ground. Aubrey watched impatiently as he put down the paper bags and stared. "Cas?"

"Hello, Dean," the man said.

"Uh, yeah, hi," Dean replied. "Aubrey, Cas… he calls himself Castiel." He picked his donut up off the floor. "Cas, Aubrey." He still hadn't stopped staring at the man in the trench coat. "She's… an old friend."

She slowly backed away from the man her friends called Cas. "Sure…" Aubrey forced a smile, before turning her gaze to the Winchesters, glaring. "I think you guys forgot to mention anything about your friend here."

Dean ran his thumb over his donut. "Well…"

He couldn't seem to find the right words. Sam saved him. "This is awkward."

"Yep."

Aubrey glared at them for another full minute before turning around and looking at the man in the trench coat. Castiel. The name sounded familiar, like something she'd heard before. It was just at the back of her head. She smiled, holding her hand out to Castiel. "Hi, I'm Aubrey."

Castiel took her hand, barely even touching it. "Hello," he said simply.

"Hi," Aubrey said yet again. Their hands hovered in the air for a moment before she made the first move and shook it. Castiel was the first to let go, bringing his hand back to his side immediately. Aubrey turned around and looked at the boys, mouthing wow. Dean mouthed back I know right. Sam cracked a smile.

"So!" Aubrey said, clapping her hands, eager to let the awkwardness of the night be forgotten. "I think some introductions are in order, hm?" Her eyes flitted from the brothers to Castiel, from Castiel to the brothers.

When her gaze finally settled on Castiel once more, he looked confused. "I already told you who I am."

"I know your name," Aubrey prompted gently. "I don't know who you are." Understanding flashed across his face.

"Well, can we do it while we're eating?" Dean said. "I'm starving."

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