A/N: Written to fill my SPNpairingbingo square, "Castiel/Xover Character," and my h/c bingo square, "caught in a robbery." Supernatural setting is based on the season 9 episode "Heaven Can't Wait" when Cas is a human.
Human emotions had amazing range, Castiel realized, upon returning to work at the Gas N Sip. He tried very hard to keep a pleasant smile on his face as he relieved his co-worker for the evening shift. Nora, his supervisor, had not spoken to him since the babysitting incident, and Dean had left him here without argument.
It was very strange, not being able to name this feeling, but only able to describe it as...heavy. He felt heavy, a weight upon him, and for the first time since assuming the role of a contributing member of society, he did not look forward to his evening of menial tasks. He didn't want to be here at all, actually.
The store stayed relatively empty throughout the evening, not even a large number of customers to occupy his time, so when the woman entered and walked straight toward the beer case, he watched her with more vigilance than necessary.
Her long dark hair was wild and trailing down her back in messy waves, and her shirt was wrinkled beneath her plum-colored leather jacket, her black jeans faded at the knees and pockets and bunched up where her biker boots ended. She looked through her hair with tired brown eyes that would have been lovely if they weren't so hostile.
"See something you like?" she snapped.
Castiel felt his cheeks flush slightly, but he realized from her tone that he wasn't supposed to pay much attention to the inquiry itself. "I didn't mean to disturb you," he replied. "You remind me of someone I once knew."
She turned to face him, one brow raised as she gave him a long look up and down. Whatever she saw in him must have seemed amusing because she gave a short laugh, shaking her head. "No kidding? Let's hope that someone was a she."
"Yes." Castiel tilted his head slightly, eyes narrowed in thought. "Yes, it was a she. She had sort of thorny beauty...Much like you."
Her mouth opened slightly in surprise. "Thorny, huh? Bold, and only slightly creepy. Here I pegged you for a vanilla kind of guy."
"I do enjoy vanilla ice cream," Castiel offered.
She laughed outright then and moved past the case, nodding at the restroom sign. She gave him another strange look, and Cas felt he was being examined for something. Was this what Dean meant when he said a girl was giving him 'the look'. "Get me a box of red Winston while I go pretty-up, Vanilla," she ordered, and disappeared into the short hallway at the back of the store.
Castiel frowned at the request, hesitating before he turned to the glass case of cigarettes behind him. Perhaps he'd be able to suggest that the young woman make a different purchase. She was attractive and appeared to be healthy, but from the information he'd read on tobacco companies, that would not be the case for long if she continued this habit. He heard the bell to the front of the store ding and glanced over his shoulder at the two men stepping into the store.
"Welcome and thank you for shopping at Gas N Sip," he said, somewhat distracted.
The men seemed to be ignoring him anyhow, so he went back to his task. Chewing his bottom lip, he quickly grabbed the long line of Winstons and dropped the boxes down onto the shelf below the counter, pushing them out of view. Perhaps if they were out of her favorites, the woman would make a different purchase now. He would suggest the bubble gum.
He heard a footstep and turned around, a smile on his face, expecting to see the woman, but instead, he saw a hand gun. Castiel blinked, too surprised to process that a man was now shouting at him, waving the weapon from only a few feet away, the hood pulled over his head doing little to hide his face.
"Open the register! Open it!"
The second man was at the door. He didn't appear armed, but he looked nervous as he stared out the window, muttering for his friend to hurry. That man looked as scared as Castiel felt. He wanted to clear his mind, process this situation, but he couldn't think straight. What would Dean do? His sword wasn't far, but these were only humans. Should he -
"Just give us the cash, dumbshit!"
The words shocked him into movement, and he popped open the register. It dinged, the drawer rattling the countertop. Out of the corner of his eye, Castiel saw the line of cigarettes he'd hidden topple forward, and he reached down to catch them before they fell.
The gunshot was loud, so loud that it made him stumble back into the wall. He didn't comprehend the sensation in his shoulder until the pain came awake all at once, a lance through down his arm, sending agony across his torso. It was the white hot of a stabbing blade, but it wasn't a blade this time. It was a bullet.
He wasn't sure if he'd cried out or not, but one moment he was standing and the next he was on the floor, blood dripping onto the white tile. He tightened his jaw, trying to push up onto the wall, at least into a sitting position, but he was certain he was moving too slowly and that the man with the gun would be hopping over the counter to finish him off any second now.
Someone cried out. The gun fired again. Castiel lifted his head, listening to the sounds of a fight. Three seconds later a body flew over the counter and straight into the cigarette case. It shattered with the impact, raining shards of glass and boxes onto the gun man when his limp body hit the floor at Cas' feet.
When he looked up, she was sitting on the counter, slinging her feet over to his side. The woman. She didn't seem to have a scratch on her, but she was wearing a small, bitter grin that matched her eyes perfectly.
She landed with cat-like grace onto one knee at Cas' other side, already pushing her hand down onto his shoulder. Castiel didn't realize this would awaken the pain even more and he bit his lip holding down his cry. He wanted to ask what she was, because she was no human. Or at least, not a normal human.
"You know what, Vanilla?" she said, in that husky voice of hers. "If something seems too good to be true, it probably is." She reached around her, finding the towel Castiel had been using to wipe down the slushy machine, and held it against the wound. "Prime example, let's say some holier than thou asshole offers to wipe your slate clean, scrub your soul shiny and new, and all he asks is you off one Big Bad. Deal like that, probably too good to be true."
Castiel's eyes widened. He had a hundred responses he wanted to give, but none of them managed to make their way out of his mouth. "Don't. Please."
She stared at him a long minute, another moment of observation. Castiel wasn't sure what she was seeing, or why she was stopping the bleeding.
"Your name's Castiel, isn't it?" she asked.
It wouldn't do him any good to deny that now. "Yes."
She rolled her eyes, as if annoyed. "Figures. Vanilla, I'm going to ask you a question, and you need to answer me truthfully, or I'm going to gut you and leave you on the floor."
Castiel couldn't quite manage to swallow. "Ask."
"Are you a human?"
Castiel nodded slowly. "I am. Now. I wasn't always."
She frowned. "I thought so," she said, quietly. "And a human with really shitty luck, too. Well, Vanilla, be happy I'm reformed. Not too many years ago, I wouldn't have given a crap."
As if to illustrate her point, the man to Castiel's other side moaned into the floor. The woman went into action at the sound, slipping an arm around Castiel's back and lifting him to his feet with surprising ease.
"What are you doing?"
She paused at his question, then gave him a slow, mischievous grin. "Vanilla, this is the part where we run before the guy who hired me realizes how good I am at this job. And how really lousy I am at follow-through. I'm Faith, by the way."
Faith. Castiel smiled stupidly at her name, then blinked when she gave him a pat on the butt to get him moving. She really did remind him of someone he used to know.