This is an idea that my friend Carys helped with. I just wanted to write about Team Free Will and she suggested windows so I could throw people out them, and I decided on a poltergeist in a window shop or something and she said that Cas should just be drinking coffee so that was decided. It's meant to be a case fic and some humor and mostly awesome Team Free Will; a tad lighter than my last story. Though it's pretty creepy at points too.
Enjoy and please review~

It was dark and cold. Mary shivered as she drew her coat closer around her and quickened her step through the street. She was almost at her house a few feet from the end of the row of shops, when she heard something smash.

She stopped and turned around sharply, scanning the area with developing fear in her eyes. After a second of silence, she turned to continue her way home, when she heard another small crash, and what sounded like a man's laugh.

Considerably freaked - as one should be when experiences something of the unnatural quality - she fixed her eyes on the window shop in front of her where the noise came from, trembling. She should run, and she knew she should, but she couldn't. Fear stuck her to the ground as she watched the door with wide, frightened eyes.

It creaked open. The spell of fear broke and adrenaline kicked in.

Mary tore off down the street towards her house, heels ringing out in the seemingly empty town. She ran up to the front door, and, whimpering and panting, willed her shaking hand to find the keys in her pocket to unlock the door.

She heard another noise and the hair on the back of her neck prickled. Not daring to look behind her, she located the key and attempted to put it in the keyhole, which proved difficult, as her whole body was now trembling in anticipation.

The keys dropped to the floor and she knelt to retrieve them, but they moved - all on their own. Childish laughter began from somewhere behind her, and she froze, terrified. Groping for keys that she could no longer see in the dark, she felt something brush her hand.

Mary lurched to her feet and staggered back a few steps, desperately searching the ground for this thing that seemed to playing with her. A hand ghosted her shoulder and she spun around, finally facing her tormentor.

In horror, she took in a leering face, manic grin, and bloody hands reaching for her. She screamed and screamed until her cries faded away into the unforgiving night and the only trace left of where she had been was blood spotted keys on the pavement.

Sam Winchester sighed and glanced disdainfully at his brother sitting opposite him at their table in the cafe. It was only six in the morning, but Dean had already been awake for an hour and had been whining that they needed to get on the road.

The younger brother sniffed and grimaced. It wasn't really his fault that he had gotten sick from their last hunt, which was why they had been stuck in a motel room for four days straight. Dean had stopped being concerned and had started being bitchy when Sam's temperature had finally come down from his 103 fever and stayed below 100.

A day later Sam could shower by himself and Dean insisted that they get back on track the next day. Sam just didn't think he meant five in the freaking morning.

"Yo, princess. You gonna order, or what?"

Sam jumped slightly and bitchfaced his brother, who was grinning like an idiot, before turning to the motherly waitress at their table. "I'll just have toast and a glass of water, please," he told her politely, and she nodded and made a note on her pad before moving off.

Dean chuckled quietly and Sam glared at him before rolling his eyes and returning to the newspaper he was reading before he got interrupted, effectively ignoring his annoying sibling.

Sam muttered unkind things under his breath about attention seekers as he scanned the articles in the paper. Most were stupid interviews with people who'd sworn they'd seen things like aliens, ghosts, or a set of bloody keys on the floor- wait, what?

His train of thought was cut off when he heard a fluttering of wings and Dean honest-to-God yelp as he jumped bad enough to spill coffee all down his shirt.

Castiel blinked as he watched the elder hunter curse and try to mop up the spill and ruined plaid while the younger one hold the paper up over his face to hide his sniggering. He shook his head slightly, still not understanding humans and why this situation was humorous. He found it quite usual that Dean should pour coffee down himself accidently because Cas had, as Dean always said, 'popped up out of nowhere'.

"For God's sake, Cas," Dean snapped, irritated that the angel was still watching him with that nonplussed look as he tried to clear up the mess that Cas had caused.

Cas tilted his head in confusion. "What do you require under the sake of God, Dean?" he asked without sarcasm.

Sam gave up hiding his laughter and put his head down on the table, giggling weakly like a girl, in Dean's opinion, which annoyed the pissed off hunter even more. He directed his glare at his brother instead and told him sharply, "Sam, quit laughin' like you're four, and either tell me you got something, or tell Cas to go away."

The younger brother forced himself to stop so he could straighten up, rubbing his stomach lightly. The laughing had not helped with the lingering ache there and he was feeling slightly uncomfortable now. He coughed and wrinkled his nose, wondering whether he ought to head to the bathroom as a precaution.

But Dean and Cas were watching him expectantly, so he worked to ignore his upset stomach and cleared his throat, smoothing out the newspaper and looking for the small article that had caught his eye.

"Apparently woman left work for the night and headed home, but never arrived back," he informed the other two. "Daughter said she found her mom's keys covered with blood outside the house."

Dean raised his eyebrows and reached for his mug before remembering why there wasn't any coffee left and giving Cas a dirty look. The angel was about to remark on either the article or Dean's look - Sam guessed the former as Cas wasn't usually sidetracked - when he was interrupted by the waitress returning with Sam and Dean's food.

The motherly woman glanced vacantly at Cas and reached behind her for a chair, pushing it towards the extra member of the party. "There y'are love," she said absently as Cas frowned and then obediently sat. "Do you want anything?" she asked.

Cas opened his mouth to reply when Sam quickly cut in, "no thanks; he's fine," with a quick smile. The woman shrugged and put her pad back in her pocket, telling the customers to call if they needed her, then walking away.

Dean glanced at Cas and shrugged too before digging in to his full English breakfast and looking back up at Sam expectantly, chewing.

Sam made a face at Dean, who pulled his 'what did I do?' look, before briefly glancing at his own toast and, feeling his stomach protest at the thought of food, pushed it away and focused back on the article.

"Anyways, get this - the police analysed the blood and it matches the woman," Sam concluded, putting the paper down and fixing his eyes on Cas instead of the unpleasant image of Dean eating.

"Is this a case?" Cas inquired gravely, meeting Sam's eyes.

Sam shifted uncomfortably at the angel's unwavering gaze, deciding he was never going to stare at Cas instead of Dean again, and replied, "uh, yeah... are we going to check it out, Dean?" He deliberately looked back at his brother, who glanced up, thankfully not with a mouthful of food.

"Uh, yeah, I guess." He speared a hash brown, and pointed it at Sam, probably to make a point, but it was making Sam sick. "You can do the research in the car, geek boy, when I've finished." He ate the piece of food, nodding at Sam.

The younger hunter hastily averted his gaze and scraped the chair back, quickly standing up. "I'm gonna, um..." he gestured helplessly and gave up, hurrying away to the bathroom.

Dean watched him leave with narrowed eyes, wondering briefly whether his little brother was actually up for the case. He wouldn't hesitate to leave it and hole up somewhere for another day or two if Sam wasn't well enough yet.

"Is Sam unwell?" Cas asked suddenly, frowning after said brother. Dean glanced at him and shrugged.

"Well, yeah. We were laid up for a coupla days, but now he's a bit better, we're off again. Ought to take it easy though. Evil doesn't have sick days," he added pointedly. Cas looked up at the sky with a puzzled expression; his 'I don't understand' face, and Dean sighed, ignoring him and returning to his breakfast. The people he hung out with these days.

"So, Cas, you really wanna partner with us on this one?" Dean asked for the tenth time in the last sixty miles.

The angel, sitting looking uncomfortable in the back seat of the Impala, nodded for the eleventh time and replied, "yes, Dean, I am fully capable of assisting you on your cases. I have worked with you on other occasions," he pointed out.

Dean rolled his eyes and glanced at his brother, curled up in the passenger seat with his laptop on his lap, researching the hunt. Dean had taken one look at Sam's pale complexion when he had come back from the bathroom and stood up, ordering them in the car and Sam to rest on the way.

Of course his stubborn brother outright refused to sleep, so Dean had dosed him up with ibuprofen and shoved a bottle of water and his laptop at him to shut him up.

As a result he had one slightly healthier brother and more information the case they were taking, although it came at the cost of also having one confused angel behind them who continually asked children's questions. He was like a toddler going through the 'why' phase.

Finally, he spotted the sign for the small town their case was in, and Dean followed the side road to a gravel filled car park and carefully positioned his baby inbetween a couple of white lines.

Sam snapped shut his laptop and put it under his seat and got out of the car after Dean, followed by Cas. The trio glanced around the quiet town. "Well this is too quiet," Dean remarked, before heading off towards the street.

Sam looked at him and grumbled, "anything quiet is too quiet for you," before rolling his eyes and following his brother and the still confused angel followed the two hunters without comment.

They stopped outside the sectioned off victim's house, that still had a few onlookers as police continued searching the premises. Dean casually wondered over to a girl who was watching with a sympathetic look on her face.

"Hey, I'm Dean," he smiled and held out a hand for her to shake. Sam quickly walked over to intervene before Dean started hitting on her and forgot to do the job.

"So, did you know the vic- uh, woman that got snatched?" he asked as innocently as he could. The girl withdrew her hand from Dean's and glanced at Sam instead, nodding.

"Yeah. I used to go to school with her daughter." She shook her head sadly. "Sally can't bear to be in this house any more after last night. She's gone to stay with her aunt," the girl explained.

Sam nodded sympathetically and absently brought a hand up to rub his forehead against a headache that was brewing. Dean, of course, noticed, and narrowed his eyes at his brother, who quickly dropped his hand and grimaced at being caught out.

"Why are all the windows smashed in this house?" Sam jumped about a foot and turned around so fast he almost tripped up. Dean raised his eyebrows at the overreaction, but switched his gaze to the angel now standing beside them, then glanced at the girl questioningly. She shrugged.

"Well, the only thing I know is that last night, there was apparently screaming, but all I could hear was a big crash, like loads of things smashing at once," she explained. Dean nodded thoughtfully, expressed his thanks, and then the three hunters moved away to a more private spot to talk.

Dean glanced at Sam, who had his 'deep in thought' face on. "Hey, thinker, you gonna let us in on your secret?" Dean prompting. Sam sighed and looked at him.

"Well during my research-" he began, before Dean interrupted, "obviously," and got a bitchface for his trouble, to which he put his hands up in surrender. Sam sighed all dramatically - like a teenager girl, Dean decided - before continuing.

"Anyways, apparently there's a window store in this town." He looked expectantly at his companions and was meant with one vacant and one confused look. "Um, so I think we could go check it out... unless, y'know, you guys have a better plan?" He addressed Dean more, who looking like he was about to argue about something, but the older hunter just shrugged, said that it was fine, and headed up the town.

Sam glanced awkwardly at Cas and hurried to join Dean while the angel followed them.

"So we just gonna look in the mirrors, Snow White?" Dean asked, glancing at his brother. Sam frowned.

"Well, one, they're windows not mirror, and two, it was the godmother that looked in the mirror; not Snow White," Sam explained absently, looking around for the shop and catching Dean's incredulous expression. "What?"

Dean shook his head. "Nothing," he replied, amusement in his voice. Sam huffed in annoyence and pointed wordlessly to an already creepy looking building next to them. Cas caught up with the brothers and tilted his head back, scanning the building.

"I will go and investigate," he stated, and disappeared before Dean could hiss, "Cas!"

The elder hunter rolled his eyes and gestured to the front door. "C'mon; let's talk to the owner while Cas is doing his thing." Sam nodded and followed him.

Inside, it was dusty and dark, light only filtering in through the, ironically, few thin windows situated around the tall building. It only seemed to have one floor, but also had a single ladder leading up to some kind of attic.

"Can I help you?"

Dean jumped and both Winchesters turned around to find the equally creepy and dark looking owner watching them mistrustfully. "We don't get many strangers around here," he croaked, almost accusingly.

Sam gave Dean a warning look not to reply to that, and glanced back at the man in an attempt to converse politely. "Uh, hello. We were looking for, ah..." he quickly looking around the room for inspiration. It was simply just windows. Sam mentally facepalmed himself; if was a window shop; what the hell was he expecting to see?

"We were wondering," Dean smoothly cut in, to Sam's relief, "about the windows here. You see, a friend of ours recently had all her windows smashed. At once," he added for emphasis.

The man narrowed his eyes. "So?" he asked critically.

"Well, so... we wondered if the same thing would happen to all the windows people have brought? We're, um, worried about our friends," Sam offered lamely as an explanation. To his surprise, instead of becoming more suspicious - they weren't exactly being the most subtle people on the planet - the guy sighed and his shoulders slumped.

"Yeah well," he mumbled, "they might well all fall down." The man scanned the two young men. "You two, like everyone else, may think I'm crazy, but I tell ya, there's strange things happenin' here," he told them.

"What strange things?" Sam asked in a hushed voice. The man looked around helplessly.

"Strange smashing at night, but when I come down in the morning, everything's intact. And..." he hesitated before continuing, "I been hearin' laughter. Of kids, y'know, little girls. And deep laughter too, like evil?" The owner's eyes grew wide as he explained his findings to the two Winchesters.

Dean frowned. "Why are you telling us this, sir?" he asked curiously. The man regarded them with heavy lids.

"You two are the only ones who's listened to my ramblin'. The rest just run as soon as I start. They'm think I'm crazy, see?" He gestured around him, at the dusty surfaces and the dark outlook, and leaned forward towards the boys. "The previous owner of this place, me uncle, ya see? He had two little kids, two daughters, and one mornin' he got up and they was dead. Throats slit. Next night, he hung himself. Right up in the attic."

He swallowed nervously and leaned back. "I daren't go up there," he told them, shaking his head, fear in his eyes.

Sam and Dean exchanged looks.

In the Impala, Sam tried to get comfy on the passenger seat without dislodging his laptop too much. This proved to be too difficult, so he sighed and settled back for some more uncomfortable research.

Dean had left him with strict instructions to 'rest up' for the hunt tonight, and research if he wanted. He had bitchfaced his brother and pointed out that without research they would be going in practically blind, which went against every rule they had.

Dean had rolled his eyes in reply and reluctantly given Sam his laptop and then left. Cas had yet to appear back to them, and so Sam was enjoying some peace and quiet by himself.

There was knock at the door and Sam almost threw the computer at the window for shock. Dean grinned and opened the door instead of knocking on it, climbing into the driver's seat, and looking expectantly at Sam.

"So? What do we know about this guy?" he asked. Sam rolled his eyes. Always expecting him to do the work...

Of course, he had.

"Well, previous owner was called Paul who lived alone with, sure enough, two daughters called Paula and Pauline." He glanced at Dean, knowing he'd probably question the use of such names.

Dean sighed. "No wonder they turned into such a weirdo family even after death," he muttered, making a face. Sam smirked and returned to his laptop.

"Yeah, anyways. So apparently police and stuff never found evidence of a murder, and the town started saying that he'd killed his kids for a reason to kill himself," Sam explained, noting Dean's disgusted expression and silently agreeing. Killing yourself was one thing, but your children too? That was a whole different case. The only thing that they had come close to in it was Constance Welch's case, the Woman in White they had faced when they first got back together.

"Freakin' dicks," Dean mumbled, closed rage on his face. This dude really was asking for his ass to be toasted extra crispy. Dean sighed and turned his attention back to Sam. "Anything else?"

Sam scanned the website and shook his head. "Nah; it was quite a while ago, and apparently not many people liked him anyways, so no one was that bothered about the whole thing. It kind of became a ghost story, but that fizzled out too. It's only recently that these disappearances have been happening."

Dean nodded, pleased. "Good. We'll go back tonight and set fire to his dumb ass for his dumb moves when he was freaking alive." Grimacing, Sam nodded. Dean glanced sharply at him. "You sure you're good to do this?" he asked immediately.

Sam sighed and nodded. "Yeah, I'm fine." Dean gave him a look that said exactly what he thought of that statement, but didn't continue on the subject, deciding that if Sam felt well enough then Dean couldn't really stop him hunting, as much as he'd like to.

They sat there waiting for nightfall, so they could go back in the house, and suddenly there was a flutter of wings and Cas was behind them, with three steaming coffee cups.

He handed one to each Sam and Dean, keeping the last one for himself and sipping it. Sam and Dean watched him in amusement. "Um, Cas? Did you literally leave to get coffee?" Dean asked.

The angel shrugged. "Not really. I was walking the town to experiment with the windows, when this lady outside this shop told me I looked cold and would I like some coffee."

Sam tried to keep a straight face. "What did you tell her?" he asked, barely holding in his laughter - and a glance at Dean showed he was doing the same.

"I explained that I do not feel the temperature but she insisted that I drink, so I told her that I must get back to my companions, and she gave me one for you two each as well, and said that they were free because she wanted to get the 'hell' out of this town." Cas sighed and added, "I reminded her that this was not hell and she argued that it was."

Dean sniggered, losing self-control, while Sam managed to hold his laughter in, mainly because he knew his stomach wouldn't agree with that strain. "So, uh, you've been arguing with this lady for the entire time?" he asked casually, sipping his coffee.

Cas shook his head. "Some of the time. She told me to take the coffee back to you after about ten minutes, so I went to find you, but I could not, so I returned here and found that you are here," he concluded.

"You don't say," Dean muttered, rolling his eyes and drinking his coffee. Cas tilted his head in confusion. "But I did just-"

"Ah, so, um, we're going back to the window place tonight to get rid of the poltergeists," Sam hastily interrupted before Dean could get pissed with the angel already.

Cas turned his blue eyes on Sam and the younger hunter silently cursed the intensity of the angel's gaze. It always made him feel like he did something wrong. "Are you certain you would like to do this tonight?" he asked. Sam nodded.

"Yeah; we know all we need to," he replied logically. Cas thought about this for a moment, then nodded thoughtfully and continued slowly drinking the coffee. Sam watched him for a moment before shaking his head slightly at the angel's strange ventures he seemed to have, and sipping his own coffee while they continued to wait for nightfall.

Chapter Two: hopefully tomorrow (though it's midnight right now so I mean hopefully in some hours)

TBC...