To say the least, it's a bit unnerving to wake up in the middle of a strange place.
It's even stranger to wake up in general, when you've never slept before.
Cas woke up in the middle of a parking lot with a pounding headache. He was staring directly towards the sky and saw the sun, suggesting that it was about noon. Cas got up, one hand on his head, one hand on his stomach to try to stop it from grumbling, and looked around him. He noticed that the parking lot belonged to Burger King. He remembered that he liked burgers, that they made him happy, and right now a burger was all he could think about, so he went inside.
There he was, standing in line, staring at the bright menu behind the counter. Pictures of burgers and double burgers and salads and triple burgers overwhelmed Cas, clouding his judgment, and before he could decide what he wanted to order, it was his turn.
"May I take your order?" A scrawny teen with flaming red hair and freckles sprinkling his face stood behind the counter. He worked for minimum wage and did not get paid enough to wait around for customers who took a day and a half to get their order straight. Specifically, one customer in particular, who wore a trenchcoat and wrinkled blue tie and whom was at the front of the line, was profusely ticking him off. The teen waited thirty long seconds for an answer from the confused looking man, who was obviously more interested in the menu than getting the actual food, before he asked his question again with obvious annoyance.
"Uh, excuse me sir?" he said, which seemed to get the man's attention. At least he was looking at him now. "But if you haven't noticed, we have a line," the teenager said, gesturing to the long line of patient people behind Cas.
"Oh um, my apologies," said Cas, blushing a bright crimson. "I'd like a burger please."
The red head couldn't believe this guy. Of course he was going to get a burger. It was Burger King for crying out loud. The real question of the day was what kind of burger the man was going to order.
"If I could make a suggestion," said the teen through gritted teeth, "I would recommend getting a Whooper. They're the best things on the menu, no contest."
"Then I shall take one of those, thank you."
"Okay," said the teen, quite proud of himself for speeding the process along, "that will be $2.16."
Cas simply smiled and nodded, but made no gesture to bring out any money.
The awkward silence that followed was so thick you could cut it with a hot butter knife.
"Uh sir? I need you to pay before we make the food."
Cas tilted his head slightly and flashed the teen his famous quizzical look.
"But I don't have any money."
Great, thought the teen, why do we always get the crazy ones? "Well that sucks for you," spat the ginger, "because no money equals no burger."
Cas gave the teen a look that resembled closely to that of a puppy who had just been kicked. How could he have forgotten this vital piece of information in obtaining a hamburger? He had seen Sam and Dean order food multiple times, but perhaps he never paid close enough attention.
"Hey." Cas could tell that whoever the voice belonged to was most likely a very sweet lady, for she had a sweet sounding voice. "Give the man his burger, it's on me."
Cas turned around to see a young woman with radiant blonde hair and a bubbly face to match. She had big, bright, brown eyes and an edge to her sweet voice that clearly stated that she meant business and usually got things her way.
"And with that burger I'd like to order a salad. Thanks hun."
This time, it was the teenager behind the counter who's cheeks flushed scarlet. "Absolutely M-Ma'am," stammered the kid, "F-for here or to g-go?"
By then he was shaking furiously and sweating bullets, as if the lady was royalty of some sorts. Cas felt bad for the guy, no matter how rude he had been.
The lady told the teen to make their order for here, gave him the correct amount of money, and received their food in record time. She walked over to an empty table and sat the food down. Waving Cas over to come join her, she then sat down herself. Cas, who was unable to believe his luck, obeyed the lady's request and took the seat across from her. She handed Cas his burger and popped open her own salad. After saying grace she fished out a fork from within the bag and began to dig into her salad, her eyes never leaving Castiel all the while.
Cas awkwardly unwrapped his burger and took a healthy bite out of it, momentarily forgetting about the woman, who was watching him like a hawk, and enjoying the wave of meat, pickles, condiments and warm bun as it danced across his tongue. A burst of excitement like electricity ran from his mouth and carried all over his body, reminding him why he loved this particular human food so much.
Not wanting to meet the woman's gaze, Cas' eyes wandered around the room and landed on the plate of the man next to him. The man was eating pie, apple, perhaps, and all of the joy that the burger had brought him was thrown out the window when Cas was reminded of Dean.
Dean.
His friend. The one whom he had abandoned. The one that Naomi had tried to make him kill.
Memories of Dean, good and bad, raced through Cas' head and the headache returned. Where was Dean now? Did he know he was here? Should he find him-
"So what's your name?"
There was that sweet voice again, piercing the veil of his thoughts and dropping him back into reality. Cas looked at the woman and was met by big, brown eyes that were full of questions.
"Castiel."
"Nice name. Can I call ya Cas?"
"No. Castiel is fine." No one but the Winchesters and the Winchesters alone were allowed to call him Cas.
"Ok… My name is Emma, by the way." Cas gave her his best stare in response. "So what's up with the whole 'coming to a food joint with no money' scam? People in the real world aren't as nice as me ya know."
Not wanting to be rude, Cas tried to answer the question.
"I um… forgot my… wallet."
The woman stared at him in disbelief.
"I see…So how's your burger? You looked like you were in heaven while you ate it a few seconds ago, now you've set it down as if it insulted your mother."
What was he to tell the lady? That he was too distraught over Dean's whereabouts to finish his edible masterpiece? He couldn't just let it go to waste, not after all the trouble he had gone through to get it.
"My stomach has become rather, unsettled. I think it would be best if I took the rest of the burger with me."
"Hold your horses there tiger," Emma said as small pieces of salad flew helter-skelter from her mouth, sprinkling the table, "you're not getting away from me that easily. Now, whether you like it or not, we are going to have a proper lunch conversation. I do NOT get many lunch breaks and you can bet your sweet cheeks that I am not gonna waste this one."
The way she talked in that demanding sort of tone, as if she had a big plan laid out in front of them, reminded Cas. The way she sat hunched over her salad, either protecting it from onlookers or implying that their conversation was an important one that needed to be discussed as closely as possible, reminded Cas. The way she did not bother to chew her food thoroughly before beginning a sentence, reminded Cas.
Emma might as well have had Dean's face because that was all that Cas could see as of right then. The faint voice from the back of his mind that had been whispering "Get to Dean!" had multiplied into dozens of little voices, until they had morphed into one gargantuan voice screaming "Get to Dean NOW!"
However, Cas, not wanting to be rude, simply held the eye contact and nodded his head. "As you wish."
For the next half hour or so, Castiel was peppered with questions about his childhood (which he didn't have, and quickly made up) his job (in which he replied 'hunter', which strangely enough, provoked no further questioning) and his love life (which caused him to blush as he said he didn't have this either). Intertwined with these questions were long back stories starring and narrated by Emma. From these stories Cas learned that the babbling blonde had two kids, named Julie and Andrew, and that she had to pick them up from soccer practice in a couple of hours. He learned that she had a husband that always left his dirty dishes in the living room which irritated the crap out of her, and he learned that a certain anonymous little Miss Know-It-All filed a complaint about the supposed sewage in the nearby pond, and it was dubbed her responsibility to do something about it. . Basically, eating that salad was the highlight of her week.
"I'm sorry you are having such an unsatisfactory day," said Cas.
Emma gave a small laugh and looked up from her salad towards Cas, only to see sincerity in his eyes, as if he truly cared about what kind of day she was having. Her lips curled up into a small smile. Cas, elated to see her smile for the first time, smiled back.
"So," Emma started, "have you heard about those suspicious happenings around town? People turning into animals and whatnot…"
"People have been turning into animals? How?" Sounds like something Sam and Dean would look into, Cas thought.
"Yeah," Emma continued, "There have been reports about how so and so's aunt started growing fur and turned into a cat or how what's his face's dad just grew wings and three days later POOF. He was a bird. I don't believe a word of it though. None of it's been in the papers, but you know, people talk. Word travels fast in a small town like this." Salad dressing was beginning to drip down her chin as her eating became more dutiful. Embarrassed, she picked up a napkin and started wiping her face. Her new friend's silence was making her uncomfortable, so she finished cleaning herself and looked at Cas.
" Cas? Are you ok?"
Emma's voice intruded Cas' thoughts and snapped him back to reality. He absently scratched his face and didn't look at her as he replied the automatic "I'm fine," even though he wasn't. He figured that Dean's way of covering up his feelings in order to protect other people was starting to rub off on him. He hung around the Winchester's so much that he was beginning to act like one, which wasn't necessarily a bad thing.
Suddenly, Emma jumped out of her chair as she let out a blood curdling screech. Cas, and everyone else in the restaurant, turned to look at her just in time to see all of the blood drain from her face, leaving it very pale. She backed up into a wall, several feet from Cas and pointed at Cas' face.
"Wh- whi- WHISKERS!?"
Cas felt all around his cheeks for clarification on what exactly was happening. He felt the usual stubble that his vessel grew, so he continued to move his fingers upward slightly until he felt new pieces of hair. Long white pieces of hair that had not been there earlier, or even a minute ago, for that matter.
Emma slowly approached Cas again with a look of pure fear in her eyes. Cas remembered how brave and demanding she had been earlier, and as a reflex he cringed in his chair ever so slightly. Instead of pouncing on him as he had expected, she grabbed her salad and ran out as fast as she could.
Before anyone could see his abnormal hair growth, Cas covered the lower part of his face with his trench coat. He was pretty sure no one else had seen the whiskers yet, but he couldn't be too careful. Having finished his burger ages ago, he hurriedly got up and pushed through the glass doors to escape the dozens of eyes he knew were watching him. Cas had been on enough hunts with the Winchesters to know what people did when they saw things… out of the ordinary.
Once he was outside, he was able to concentrate on his situation. He tried to will his whiskers away, to no avail.
Why aren't my powers working? he thought.
It probably had something to do with the fact that he woke up in a random place with a pounding headache.
He never got headaches.
Angels never get headaches.
Cas, trying to remain calm and wanting to evaluate the situation and see if anything else was wrong with him, did role call on what Dean called his "angel mojo." he tested his ability to hear and communicate with other angels. His "angel radio" as Dean called it. To his surprise and dismay, it didn't work. In the place where he usually heard a million different voices, was nothing but silence. Cas tried to fly to a location he pictured in his mind. He closed his eyes, but when he opened them, he was still in the same place.
Now he was staring to worry.
He came to the realization that he was going to have to find the Winchesters and have them fix him, since he couldn't do it himself. Locating Sam and Dean would also be a bit of a problem, he noted, since he couldn't find them the usual way, with his powers. As he thought, he started walking out of the parking lot and onto the nearest road.
Perhaps I can use the strategy Sam and Dean use, he thought, Finding clues and whatnot. His mind scrambled as it tried to put all of the pieces of information together that the day had brought him so far. So far, based off of his new feline-like circumstances, Cas knew that something strange was going on in the town. Second, he knew that the town was small, or at least, that's what Emma had said.
It was a start.
Where do Sam and Dean rest when they work on cases such as these? Cas thought for a second. Of course they didn't just sleep in their car, right? He continued onward, all the while contemplating where they might be. On his right he passed a gas station. It was a small, rusty one and it looked fairly empty. Cas felt the urge to go inside and ask the person in charge if they had seen a '67 Impala roll through there. However, he resisted this urge as he concluded that a man with cat whiskers sprouting from their cheeks would not be taken very seriously. So he moved on.
After a minute or two, he passed a few acres of farmland and an old, run down motel. The motel caught his attention for it had bright red neon letters blinking the words "Bat Cave."
What a strange name for a motel, Cas thought, but it does remind me of-
Of course! Cas remembered now.
The Winchesters never stayed in the most sanitary of rooms, but rather preferred motels resembling this one. The name of the motel alone was enough for it to be a fair guess, knowing Dean and his obsession with Batman. It was actually very intriguing and slightly adorable when Dean talked for long periods of time about something he was interested in, whether it be his car or him trying to explain to Cas the importance of Batman, Cas loved to hear and see Dean talk about things.
Dean was the kind of person that looked at you directly when he told a story or explained something, forcing hazel green eyes to grab your attention and not let go. He talked about things like they were the most important things in the world. Cas found it very refreshing to see such passion spilling out of someone about something of next to no significance. It just felt good to see that someone cared.
Other than that, it felt terribly satisfying to see the pure joy that came out of Dean Winchester when he talked about such topics. Cas rarely got to see Dean or his brother happy, so he was willing to take whatever little bursts of content he could get.
Cas reasoned that it was worth a shot to check in on this motel, just in case this was the one he was looking for. Knocking on each door, Cas began asking the residents if they had seen a tall man with long wavy hair accompanied by a shorter man with the brightest green eyes in the world. If he didn't get an angry "NO" and a slammed door in the face, he got a frightened "no" from the people who saw his whiskers before answering.
After several knocks and 'No's, he was beginning to lose hope. Nevertheless, he had to get through all of the doors before he could will himself to move on.